The Ultimate Whistle Blower: EARTHLINGS

Do not protect from your eyes what they endure with their bodies.

Reviews of Earthlings

Watch Earthlings here.

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Yes Luiz! You did do something beautiful!

When I was first introduced to this video it had about 300 views... It now has over a million hits. This video has made the circuit on countless blogs, websites and internet news media. I'm certain you've seen it - But I just can't help but include it here as well. Why would I ever pass on the opportunity to share such pure joy?


Of course, I'm referring to Luiz Antonio, whose wisdom and sincerity is infectious!

Mom: Now eat your octopus gnocchi
Luiz: Ok mom. alright... This Octopus isn't real, right?
Mom: No.
Luiz: Then alright... He doesn't speak and he doesn't have a head, right?

I'm enamored by the way he sing-songs his case through the naming of other species:

Luiz: Octopus are animals...All of them are animals... Fish are animals... Octopus are animals... Chicken are animals... Cows are animals... Pigs are animals.
So...! When we eat animals they die!
I don't like that they die...
I like that they stay standing up.
These animals... you gotta take care of them... and not eat them!

We are all touched by you! Yes Luiz! You did do something beautiful!

Coincidentally I watched this video right behind a second listen to this Animal Rights Zone podcast that features an interview with Australian advocate and student/graduate of the World Peace Diet facilitator's course Gypsy Wulff. At about 8:30 minutes into the podcast Gypsy is speaking of her upcoming book Turning Points in Compassion. It's to be a collection of more than 50 personal experiences of fellow advocates. Gypsy Wulff also has a website by the same name. She truly is a remarkable woman.

As I listened to the podcast I was particularly tuned in when the question of how and why people eventually become awakened was asked.  After acknowledging that every one's story is different Gypsy also states that "Many of the people talk about their childhood experiences, and how there were things that made them very uncomfortable. But because as children we are powerless to make our food choices, they gradually became unconscious about it and in their adult years they come back to it." Gypsy goes on to further endorse the idea that teaching compassion must begin in childhood. She also discusses how society (especially regarding the slaughter of animals) represses these early notions of justice and kindness by creating lies and myths. And so it goes that our instincts of fairness become swallowed, silenced and suppressed by these societal secrets. 

One doesn't have to go far to see these myths in story books where cows "give" milk, sheep "give" wool and pigs "give" bacon. Further on it's evident that adults still cling to the dissonance by the perpetuation of "happy meat" and even the twisted portrayal of Suicide Food. Clearly we know what problems telling lies to children creates... How can we ever expect to raise a whole and healthy culture if we don't deal with children and our food issues honestly?

I hope every parent heeds Luiz's advice... We really shouldn't harm anyone. And with potatoes and rice and so very many more options we don't have to!

I also hope parents and other adults guide children to the books available at Turning Points in Compassion and to the sister-site Kindness is Kool. The mind awakening and life affirming materials there ought to set any child on a road to a healthy heart, mind and body. We all want a future with emotionally and ethically strong fellow humans like Luiz. Let's give them every chance to become such by the example of respecting our fellow creatures as well.

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Eating Dead Flesh - It's Okay 2B Grossed Out!

Some recent stories about dog penises found in a Taiwan slaughterhouse, Pork labelled as beef in Sweden, and horse flesh mixed with cow flesh in Ireland got me thinking about a few things... The first being how odd it is that anyone would be upset with eating one type of matter from a dead being over another. I know none of it is pretty and so does Lisa Simpson:



But it's not like it's not all the same thing anyway... Carnists are so strange! As if there really is a quantifiable difference between consuming one bird called a chicken and another named a pelican! The "ick" factor comes from custom and ingrained habit - Not from any significant reasoning.

Odd how even die-hard omnivores want to spew when they consider the following "foods" misplaced in the category of human nutrition:

Like the pink-slime scandal that makes us recall incidents in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair:

Sinclair told of old, lame, diseased cattle still sent to slaughter. He told of “potted chicken” made from tripe, pork fat and the waste from veal; of rancid butter, rechurned and sold to market; of meat that had fallen into the filth, spittle and sawdust of the packing-house floor, only to be retrieved and packaged; of rats and rat dung, poisoned bread and spoiled meat, mixed together in sausage hoppers.
All processed meat, Sinclair reported, contained what was euphemistically called “filler”: “There would come back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was mouldy and white -- it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped in the hoppers, and made over again for human consumption.” There were “butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste” of the manufacturing plants, which was added to fresh meat and churned into breakfast sausage. To use parts of meat that couldn’t be sold whole, the packers applied what Sinclair called “the miracles of chemistry” to make the result appear palatable.

Or PCRM reports that: Nearly Half of Supermarket Chicken Tainted by Feces, Testing Finds

And everyone should know about the pus in cows milk... But what about the mites and maggots in cheese? 

Or maggots used to process meat:


What about worms in fish? You don't even have to consume the fishes - Just have intercourse with someone who did!

Is it okay to be grossed out by the idea of consuming these guys the Taenia saginata or Taenia solium aka tapeworms? Of course cooking the flesh at high temperatures kills these worms - But they're still in the meat...

Hitchhikers in meat

So people eating cows, pigs and fishes are already eating these worms... Then why should they get  nauseated at the idea of  having flies on their plate or maggots on a sandwich? Why are people repulsed by squirrel, opossum or rat eating but aren't equally disgusted at eating rabbits? What about pig rectums? A lamb's head? Or eyeballs or intestines? It's all animal protein anyway you slice it! And if you're grossed out by one you should be grossed out by all!

As a vegan... Can you possibly imagine being revolted if you discovered a forth kind of bean in your three-bean salad? Or carrots cleverly disguised in a sweet potato pie? Or nuts tucked and folded inside a veggie patty? No. Eating kale would no more gross you out than eating bok choy, or arugula ... Red cabbage wouldn't turn your stomach any more than white. And one beautiful mushroom would be as appreciated as all the rest... All simply good food!

So as the rest of the world wrings its hands and shuts its eyes as to how insanely ridiculous it is to fret over horse's bodies mixed in with cow's bodies or eating chicken's brains along with chicken's ovaries, or the confusion of species they think is "food"... I have discovered that it's okay to be grossed out by their grub. Even they among themselves "yuck" and dry-heave over equally nasty choices... I may even be able to say I have a predisposition to be offended and repelled by all animal eating... It May Be Genetic!

I'm comforted in knowing that it’s normal to feel grossed out by people eating meat.  As every thoughtful vegan will agree there are countless good reasons for thriving on plants instead. The dear creatures trapped in a "food chain" that's fashioned to serve the inconsistent, fickle and frivolous wants of man thank you for your very palatable choice!

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Going Five Animals More by Philip Wollen

This is an extract from Philip Wollen's recent conversation with World Peace Diet author Will Tuttle as part of the Veganpalooza celebration.

Going Five Animals More

Many years ago, as I traveled around the world I noticed the vast number of animal species that other people ate. 

And it dawned on me that here were literally thousands of animals I didn't eat. . . . . . dogs or cats, bears or bats, tigers or turtles, horses or hamsters, rosellas or rats.

Nor did I drink the milk of goats, yaks or donkeys, giraffes, or cats.

I decided to go only five animals more. . . . I simply added cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and fish to the list.

It was a breeze.

I didn't crave lamb any more than I craved lion; I didn't miss beef any more than I missed bandicoot. I didn't miss chicken any more than I missed chimpanzee. I didn't miss pork any more than I missed porcupine.

I replaced dead animals with an astounding variety of colorful, delicious and healthy plant foods.

The consequences for me were astonishing. I immediately felt better. It was instantaneous.

Today, I sleep peacefully and deeply. I now have boundless energy, more than people half my age.

My memory has improved rapidly. I remember what an unexamined life I had lived.

And I care more deeply:
For my family, my friends, my colleagues and associates.
For strangers I have never met.
For causes I have only heard about. 

For ideas. For the arts – music, poetry, theatre, literature, painting, the ballet. 

Everything of beauty seems to come alive. More vividly. More subtly. More completely.

I didn't know what I had been missing.

My greatest regret in life was that I did not do this earlier. 

What madness could infect us so profoundly that we justify the murder of weaker innocent living beings? 

Adding only five animals to an already huge list was the easiest (and wisest) thing I ever did.

Try it. You won't regret it. Not for a second.

The animals will thank you for it. 

The planet will thank you for it.

And the farmers, the taxpayers and your family will thank you too.

Good things will come to you. You can’t miss. You can’t fail.

You will have a rich life. It is inevitable.

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Hey Brutes And Bullies - You Will NOT Stop Our Innate Compassion! Ever!

Taking a break from the flexing (and vexing) of my personal bubble - - - Thought I'd switch gears to higher ground on what we all universally know --- Or should know: We are all connected...


The compassion we have for other animals is sacred...

 
Embracing this bond completes us...



And if you don't know these things... If you refuse to recognize the betrayal that culture has made you unwittingly a part of... If you are still using these precious beings for wants and whims... Ask yourself - When did you stop loving them?  And why?

Why would you let a bunch of fossilized non-thinkers indoctrinate you and deny you the most special friends you ever had?

Please return to your innate sense of justice and loving compassion...

Live Vegan

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