D.C. VegFest 2010

Vegan and Raw Food Cuisine Expert Lauren Von Der Pool is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Los Angeles and Paris and is a DC native.

Today I attended this year’s D.C. VegFest. It just started back up last year, and from the looks of it there were more people than last year. Just like the 2010 Animal Rights Conference, I found it really energizing and am so glad I went. I got there at 2:50pm, so almost halfway through (6-hour event). Last year I was only there for the first hour and a half volunteering to sell food donated from Java Green and sadly did not get to listen to any of the speakers. So I decided that this year I was going to just go for myself instead of volunteering.

On Killing “Pest” Species: Where do you draw the line?

In India and Nepal, rats are less associated with dirtiness and disease than in the U.S. and are in this case allowed to roam freely in a temple. They are, on the other hand, more likely to be eaten.

When does it become justifiable to kill individuals merely because the species they belong to is associated with disease or property damage and the entire species (unless kept by humans) may thus be marked “dangerous (to humans)”? I think that wild animals in general are associated with disease and illness, and understandably so, but why is it that when we talk about wild dogs, cats, squirrels, and various others, the visceral response is “stay away,” while for mice and especially rats it is “kill it!”?

Conference and Benefit for Liberation Prisoners

Today I attended a benefit for animal and earth liberation prisoners, which was sort of a mini conference. That makes it my second conference ever, after the Animal Rights Conference. Since I have never looked much into the issues surrounding the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) and the like, I saw this and thought it would be great to try something new. I got a bit better of an idea of what the AETA is about and had a more fruitful time networking than at the previous conference.

Animal Rights Conference 2010

people standing in front of flier/pamphlet table

Three weeks ago I attended the 2010 Animal Rights Conference near my city (D.C.); it was essentially vegan. I was worried that the conference would be too mainstream and thus not very self-critical, and it seemed only perhaps slightly less mainstream than I expected. Nevertheless, it improved my appreciation for mainstream AR. People are doing a lot of good work, and it was good to hear from people out there working in shelters and working to stop unnecessary hunting, as opposed to merely facts recited by those who’ve heard from others who’ve recited about someone else’s reports, etc.

Book Review: Making a Killing

In the past month, I have read 3.25 animal/vegan-related books – that’s a new record for me. Here is my first animal book review.

I just finished reading Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights by Bob Torres (2007). It’s not terribly long (153 pages) and not very difficult to read. Overall, Torres’ ideas are interesting, but they aren’t on the whole particularly original, as you might expect, nor very complex. This isn’t all bad per se, but I do want to explain what the book is.

Havahart Animal Traps & Repellents

Havahart Mouse Trap

Fitting into the Animal Geographies focus on urban wildlife, I just discovered a company called Havahart that sells animal traps and repellents which are virtually harmless to the animals. The traps look great, and I am considering buying one for rats (it’s only $20). Eventually, wildlife (including rodents) is something vegans are going to have to address much more, if we are to reconcile our philosophy with environmental and other issues (what do we do about rats, let alone cougars and deer overpopulation). As I feel this issue is relatively infrequently addressed, I want to give a brief pre-purchase analysis of this interesting company to promote awareness, and also discuss my own experience with rodents and why I am so excited about Havahart traps.

July Book Discussion: Resolved

After deliberating about which book to read for the book discussion I am organizing for this month, I have chosen Animal Geographies: Place, Politics and Identity in the Nature-Culture Borderlands. Thank you, Adam, for the idea. I looked into this book to see if it would be good, and there’s a lot in there that would make for interesting discussion.

Book Discussion?

Update: The book has been chosen.

My favorite vegan blogger asked some friends if they were interested in reading and discussing with him. I signed up, and we discussed an excellent book for four days in a row on Skype. It was a lot of fun, I got to know someone on a new level, and I learned a lot. This has got me wanting more, so I am inviting anyone interested to read/discuss a book with me at the end of July. If interested, please take a look at the books on my to-read list. I was thinking David Nibert’s book would be good, but that might be a bit dry (I’ve read a few pages before). Let me know what you would be interested in reading together, including possibilities not on my list, as long as it’s not something I’ve already read.

“Vegan” is Two Words

I’d like to clear up some confusion about the words “vegan.” The person who coined the term “vegan,” Donald Watson, explained that he saw vegan as “the beginning and end of vegetarian,” taking the beginning and end of the word veg-etari-an. It was thus not merely an extension of the vegetarian diet, but something more, something bigger which encompassed vegetarian – a political ethic, from which the diet and lifestyle naturally flows.  This is why many vegans object to the notion that someone who is “vegan” merely for the environment is actually vegan. Ida at The Vegan Ideal points out that the term has been unjustly appropriated by the dominant culture.

Listening is Anti-Oppression

Listen attentively. You will come out ahead.

Listening is an extremely important form of anti-oppression. Vegans listen to nonhuman animals. But we should, moreover, listen to people we disagree with, including non-vegans. We should not tell people that “meat is murder,” for it is not. We should not assume that we know more than people simply because we disagree with them, though in many cases we do know more. Sometimes we just disagree and will do better to agree to disagree if we want to continue respecting one another.