The cruelty behind the wool industry

Apart from one jacket made from recycled wool, I have no clothes that that are made from any animal products. The only reason I have this jacket is that several years ago, when I made the decision to stop wearing leather, I didn't know that wool also had its dark side. More and more people realize the horrors behind the fur industry, and most vegans (and some vegetarians) realize that leather is, at best, a by-product of the meat industry and, consequently, is also a by-product of animal suffering and death. Still, a lot of people who come to the above realizations do not realize that wool involves a lot of cruelty as well.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

Shearing sheep is big business, and many suppliers try to speed up the process as much as they can in order to sell more wool. This means that shearing sheep becomes a mechanical (and often rushed) process, one that often causes painful lacerations and other damage to a sheep’s skin. While most types of shearing operations treat sheep as mere objects, causing them to suffer, the common process of "mulesing" is particularly cruel, and routinely involves cutting off chunks of a sheep’s skin and flesh along with its wool. To make matters even worse, this is often done without any anesthesia. Apart from the skin damage and the negative consequences thereof, there are other issues that make wool an unethical choice. One of these involves the way that these animals are transported. Many of the same sheep that are used for wool are later transported across continents, often in filthy, cramped conditions, only to be slaughtered for food. This is only one of several negative practices associated with the wool industry. Moreover, the production of other types of wool, such as mohair, cashmere, pashmina, etc. involves as much if not more suffering as the production of "generic" wool.

All of the above things should lead us to reconsider buying wool in the future. While it is important to try to minimize our involvement in the death cycles of the meat and fur industries, we must also be conscious of the needless suffering of animals in other industries (such as the dairy, egg, and wool industries) and do our best to avoid these products as well. Wearing wool is not necessary, as we have progressed to a level where synthetic fibers, such as polar fleece, are, in fact, much warmer than animal products such as wool and fur. This is why clothing made from these synthetic fibers is what you see on polar and mountain climbing expeditions, or any other such trips in extremely cold weather conditions.

Why animals? (revisited, yet again)

Despite having written about this before, I still sometimes get asked why I choose to focus on helping animals when there is so much else wrong with the world. It’s funny that, in most cases, this question is asked by people who do absolutely nothing to help anyone beyond their immediate family, if that. I’m pretty sure that anyone who truly helps to make the world a better place will not ask silly questions about my priorities. This is because they will realize the importance of helping in and of itself, and will most likely be too busy trying to make a positive change to ask these types of questions. Still, here are some things to keep in mind if the “why animals?” question does perplex you:

The first thing is that when it comes to how we mistreat other animals, the scale of the problem is enormous. Millions upon millions of animals suffer and die daily because of us. Anyone who truly respects the life of other animals will realize the magnitude of the problem, and will not need to be convinced. The people who are befuddled by people helping animals are those that simply haven’t yet realized the importance of respecting animals’ right to live and not suffer. To put things in perspective, let’s pretend for a second that it’s human beings that are in the position of these animals. Imagine slaughterhouses full of humans, humans chained up on short chains, forced to perform and be killed for sport and entertainment, hunted, humans abandoned when they are no longer cute. Yes, of course some of these things still do happen to us, but, for the most part they happen a lot less than they do to animals, and there isn’t as much blatant exploitation mixed with a total lack of respect involved.

The second thing is that animals are innocent beings. Animals, much like small children, cannot defend themselves, and even if they could, they would be no match for our technology and our intelligence. Unfortunately, instead of using our intelligence to create a better world for everyone, we’ve been using it to exploit, abuse, and bully other species for our benefit. What about children, one might say, or sweatshop workers? Aren’t they innocent victims as well? Of course they are. This is a serious problem, and every conscious individual should be concerned about it. What is true, however, is that more and more countries are taking steps to remedy the problems of child exploitation and workplace injustices, and there are many more people in the world who at least recognize that these things are a problem. This is often not the case with issues of animal abuse. Most people unfortunately still cling to the idea that we are somehow justified in causing all this suffering and death, and that we have a right, as a higher form of life, to do whatever we want to other animals.

I believe animal rights issues to be pretty important, and I devote a lot of time to trying to improve the way we interact with the other species with whom we share the planet. Having said that, I also recognize the importance of helping in and of itself, and I will not question someone’s choices if they happen to feel passionate about something different from what I’m passionate about. Judging someone on the basis of whom they choose to help is just plain silly. There are many injustices out there, and plenty of room for all of us to chip in and help. I focus on our relationship with other animals because I truly believe that the current one is dragging the world down and causing a lot of negative consequences for us all. Others will choose to get involved in other issues, important issues they are equally passionate about or feel a personal connection to. So let’s not waste our energy on silly questions, but rather do our best to try to improve the world that we live in. This will benefit all of us much more in the long run.

Happy Hands Club - Garden of Eden

My favorite band from Goteborg, Sweden.

COOL PLACES AROUND THE WORLD: Caligari Café (Guadalajara, Mexico)

This hip cafe/restaurant with a bohemian slant, located on the southern edge of the Santa Teresita (Santa Tere) neighborhood in central Guadalajara, is the perfect place to grab breakfast, coffee, or a beer (they have a pretty good selection of microbrews).

Address: Juan Manuel 1406, Guadalajara, MX

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caligaricafe

Vegetarian/Vegan: Quite a few lacto-ovo veggie options, not sure about Vegan options.

Using our love for our pets to learn to empathize with other animals

People all over the world have pets that they love very much. In some countries, pets are treated as family members, while in other countries, less so. Still, in both cases, there is enough respect for these particular animals to make the idea of eating them seem cruel. After all, someone might say, these are pets, and while other types of animals are meant to be eaten, pets are not. This, of course, is not true per se, and depends on your perspective. If you look at eating habits around the world, what is acceptable in one culture is often deemed unacceptable in another. Cows are sacred in India, while they are slaughtered by the million in Texas. Cats and dogs are beloved by people in many parts of the world, but both are eaten in parts of Asia, among other places. The easiest way to break the cycle, to stop eating the meat of an animal, is to have a personal connection to that animal. This is why people who have cats or dogs will, generally, never even think about eating them; or why rat owners are sickened at the thought of animal experimentation; or why bird watchers sometimes get so attached to birds, they would never want to see one harmed.

I believe that every step we take to stop eating animals is a good step. Every instance when a species is taken off the "list of animals to be eaten" constitutes progress. Whenever we start to feel that personal connection to a certain animal, we should be happy. We should be grateful that we are lucky enough to love our cat, dog, guinea pig, turtle, hamster, etc., but should also use this opportunity to expand this love to include other animals. Why? Because a connection to one animal is like a seed that can eventually grow into a beautiful tree of compassion for all animals. We must remember that no animal wants to feel pain or suffering, whether it be our dog or cat, or a pig, cow, or sheep. No animal wants to be hoarded and confined in a small, crowded area. We hate the thought of our pets being in this situation, but chickens, and many other farm animals often live their whole lives in dark, confined spaces, only to be killed at the end. When we see reports of dogs and cats crammed into cages, we feel horrified, and justifiably so. We should try to grow our empathy for other animals, so that we have the same sort of reaction when we see them in such situations. They deserve our sympathy and our help as well. Again, don’t be afraid to make the connection. We should remember that these animals have the same emotions as the animals we call pets, and are often as smart, if not smarter, than our pets are. The only reason that we sometimes feel that there is a difference, is that we have been conditioned to make this distinction.

By spreading some of the love and respect to other animals, we can eventually begin to fully understand the injustices of our current relationship with the rest of the animal world, and to take concrete steps to eradicate these injustices. While we will never eliminate every inconsistency in what we do, we should at least take steps to eliminate obvious double standards such as the one described above.

Pescetarianism

Pescetarians (also spelled "Pescatarians") avoid every type of meat except for fish and seafood. Many people all over the world (especially in many Asian countries) mistakenly believe that people who eat fish and seafood are actually vegetarians, when in fact they are not. Before getting into why I think one should not eat fish, I would like to state that I, too, was a pescetarian for about a year before I switched over to vegetarianism, and later, veganism.

There are two main reasons why people choose to become pescetarians. Some decide on this type of diet because they don’t have the same amount of empathy for fish and other marine animals as they do for cows, pigs, sheep, etc. They feel that fish either don’t have feelings, or somehow don’t deserve as much respect as other animals do. Others feel that fish, unlike other meat, is too healthy for us to give up. In their view, without fish, we would not be providing our body with the nutrients we require. The first reason, the lack of empathy for fish, is a common one. When I gave up other types of meat, I didn’t give up fish because I just didn’t feel as sorry for them as I did for other animals. Now, having developed a deeper empathy, I realize that this way of thinking was wrong. First of all, there is quite a lot of scientific evidence that suggests that fish are, in fact, more intelligent than many of us had previously thought. The fact that they are marine animals and function in a different way than the land animals that we are familiar with should not mislead us. Fish are sentient beings, just like humans, cows, deer, and other animals. This, on an ethical level, should be enough for us to respect them (even if we can’t yet empathize with them) and to stop eating them. Besides, this respect can sometimes eventually give rise to empathy, as was the case with me. When I stopped eating fish, I didn’t really feel much compassion for them, but with time I started to feel this compassion more, especially when I thought about how so many people who are very conscious about the suffering of other animals seem to disregard the suffering of our marine friends. Another ethical paradox is the fact that many of the same people who would never eat the meat of a dolphin, or a whale, would have no problem eating the meat of a trout, or that of a red snapper. I ask myself, is this a question of size or intelligence? Neither argument is satisfactory, in my opinion, as both are trumped by the respect for sentient life in and of itself.

As far as healthy eating is concerned, the case against consuming fish can be argued quite effectively as well. First of all, most of the fish and seafood that is sold in supermarkets is generally not very healthy. Farm raised fish, which accounts for a big percentage of supermarket fish, often has high levels of mercury, and since many fish are given antibiotics (and their environment treated with pesticides) to ensure they don’t get sick, any nutrients that you get from them will most likely be offset by the negative side effects of these practices. The truth of the matter is that you can find all the nutrients that you normally get from fish and seafood in a vegetarian or vegan diet. Let’s take something that most people think they can only get from fish: Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. In fact, flax seeds combined with a couple of other simple ingredients will provide you with a great meat-free source of these important nutrients. Anyone concerned about losing the positive nutrients provided by fish only has to do a simple Google search in order to find non-meat alternatives to each of these.

Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll consider cutting down on fish and seafood, if not eliminating them completely from your diet. While not as cute and cuddly as baby mammals, as sentient beings, they deserve the right to live as much as any other animal.

Melody's Echo Chamber - I follow you

dreamy...