Another New Year's Resolution Post

Hi everyone! So, we're about halfway through January. Did you make any New Year's Resolutions? If so, how are they going? If they're going well, GREAT! Keep up the good work! As you may remember in my last post, Why You Should, and Ways to Drink Green Tea, I have resolved to drink 3 cups of green tea per day. So far, I have been completely successful. So, I wanted to just share how I've managed to be successful so far, and whether you want to keep up a resolution better, or you just want to make a change in your life, hopefully these tips will help.

So, my first tip is: Mark things on a calendar. Everytime you complete a goal, or something that is part of a goal, mark it on a calendar, and keep it where you an see it. For me, it reminds me to finish my goals each day, and is a way of congratulating myself on all the successful days I've already had. I find that this gives me a lot of motivation not to give up. I have a color coded system and I mark a tick mark on each day for each cup of green tea I drink in one day in green, every time I publish a blog post in brown, every time I work out at home in orange, every time I go to the gym in red, and every time I go roller skating in blue. Granted only the green tea was an official resolution. The rest of those things were just things that I've been wanting to do more. But seeing it all right there on my closet door reminds me to keep at it, and shows me how often, or not, I've been doing each thing. If you don't have a calendar that you wouldn't mind marking up, then check out this free printable calendar that you can mark up to your heart's content! You can even decorate it with your favorite animal rights stickers. Again, if you want some ideas for resolutions, especially ones that are directly related to animal activism, check out my blog post from last year about New Year's resolutions.

Next, I have a tip for those of you who want to get in shape, work out more, lose weight, be healthier etc. Guess what? It doesn't involve joining a gym. In my blog post, 5 Ways to be Vegan and a Little Less Poor, the last thing I talked about was an app called Punchcard. This app allows you to earn mPOINTS, which can be traded in for gift cards and things. (Again, FYI, the $1 Amazon card is the best value.) But there are several really helpful mPOINTS apps that allow you to track your fitness activities or help you train more effectively. Runtastic Situps, Runtastic Pushups, Runtastic Squats, and Runtastic Pullups are all free apps that provide a training program for building muscle by doing those activities. They all reward you mPOINTS for each day you use the app, and each day you do 3 activities in one day. This can be any combination of training sessions and / or quick log sessions. These apps can also be synced with myfitnesspal, for those of you who use it for fitness, food, and weight tracking. Nexercise is another app that gives you mPOINTS for working out, and it allows you to log past workouts, so if you use one of the Runtastic apps, and then also log the activity on Nexercise, you're essentially getting paid twice for the same workout. Granted, you won't be making a ton of money off of it, (don't quit your day job,) but a little extra money, or Amazon cards, never hurts. So, I guess that would also be helpful if you've resolved to make more money. Sort of.

Thanks for reading everybody! I hope this has been really helpful. What resolutions did you make, if you made any? How well have you been keeping up with them? If you try out any of my suggestions, I would love to know how well they work out for you! Have a fabulous 2015!

Why Loving Animals Sometimes Means Not Having One

First of all, I'd kind of like to know your reaction to that title alone. If you wouldn't mind, tell me in the comments below along with any other reactions you have to this post. Thanks so much!

Now, moving on to what I'm actually here to say today. . .

As animal lovers, it's often very hard to say no to getting an animal. But you can't always be in the position to take a new animal in.

An obvious example would be if you live somewhere that doesn't allow pets. Taking care of an animal is not worth violating a contract. In that kind of situation, you probably can't keep it a secret for long. When it comes out, you would probably be evicted and / or fined, and you might have to give up the animal, which would be painful for you and the animal involved. This also applies to people who live at a parent's house if said parent(s) won't allow animals. Keeping an animal a secret from your parents won't work. Trust me. They're smarter than you probably give them credit for.

I had a friend who tried to keep animals multiple times when she wasn't allowed to. She had found a stray puppy, and talked her mom into keeping it while they found the owner. No one ever claimed the dog, and her mom told her they'd have to take her to a shelter where someone else could adopt her. So, my friend, who didn't have the best relationship with her mother, decided to leave home. At this point, she was 18, but still in high school, so she moved in with her boyfriend and his parents. (Which I would imagine was really awkward, but that's just me.) she later moved into an apartment that didn't allow animals, tried to sneak the dog in, and eventually had to give the dog away, and if I recall correctly, had to move again. 

Here's another thing, I don't like the term "pets" because it implies that it's something that you can pick up and put down when it's convenient, at least that's how it always seems to me. Maybe that's not the impression that the word gives you, but the impression that I get from it is an irresponsible way to think about animals. Animals require attention and regular interactions like feeding them and cleaning up after them at the minimum. If you can't do that, whether it's because you can't afford the food and supplies, don't have time to care for them, or just realistically recognize that you have too big of a lazy or forgetful streak, it's not fair to the animals to deprive them of a chance to be in a home that can and is willing to care for them properly.

I have a friend who had adopted a puppy who lived at our house until my friend moved out on his own. He could afford the food and supplies, and even paid one of my sisters to walk the dog regularly. On weekends, when he had time, he would take his dog downtown to this really cute doggy cafe and buy him treats. But once he moved out on his own, and had to move for his work, he realized pretty quickly that all by himself, he worked way too many hours to pay enough attention to his dog. So, while he could afford it, he knew his dog was getting lonely. Though it was extremely difficult for him, he gave the dog to a family that could spend more time with him.

Sometimes, you can't take in an animal because you already have several. Now, it's okay to have multiple pets if you can afford it, but sometimes one more is too many. When that happens, the animals might fight with each other because there isn't enough room for them to all have their own space. You might not even be aware that they're fighting, as it could be mainly happening while you're at work or school. It can also make clean-up overwhelming. If you have several cats, you really need multiple litter boxes. If you have fancy self-scooping litter boxes, then it's a whole lot easier. But, if you have normal litter boxes, and you don't clean them often enough, your cats are going to start using the rest of your house as a litter box. They won't want to use a filthy litter box just like you wouldn't want to use an unflushed toilet in a public restroom. With multiple dogs, it can be very difficult to make sure they're being walked enough. Some dogs can be walked together, but larger dogs are often too strong to be walked together.

This is a problem that I had once. My older sister had moved out, and taken in 3 feral kittens. She moved back in and brought them with her. At the time we already had 4 cats. (2 had been feral kittens that my sister talked my mom into adopting. 1 was a cat who we were taking care of temporarily, but the original owner abandoned with us and moving away without notice. 1 was a cat that my sister talked her boyfriend into adopting from a local animal shelter, but his family wouldn't let him keep, so we took him in, and then that particular cat adopted me.) But anyway, that is 7 cats in an average suburban house. At the time none of us kids would admit it, but that is too many cats in one place. After about a year, my sister bought her own house, and soon took her 3 cats with her (3 cats is acceptable depending on their personalities), so the problem was solved. Now, it really was too long to have that many cats at once, but she had never intended to move back in for so long. But that's exactly how things like that tend to happen, right? In a situation where too many animals have been acquired, it can be extremely hard to pick which one(s) to find new homes for. It's a whole lot easier to say no right at the outset so you are less attached to the animals that you can't take care of. You can always adopt more animals in the future when one passes away.

Sort along the lines of having several pets already, sometimes, whether you realize you're doing it or not, you might go from animal-lover to animal-collector. The idea of having exotic or wild animals as pets can be really enticing, but keep in mind that wild animals are just that. They aren't suited for living in your house like a domestic animal would be, and your house isn't suited for them living in it either. Having a rare pet isn't going to make you cooler, and once the novelty wears off, no one is going to pay you extra attention for it, and you may even get bored with the animal, which could lead to you not caring for the animal like you should. You have to keep in mind that animals aren't decorative. People often forget that when it comes to animals like fish. People frequently buy a really fancy bowl or aquarium and put some really pretty fish in them to make a space look fancier. However, people often don't realize just how much space a fish needs to thrive, and their fish die or become bored, or fight because they lack space. Also, fish are often captured from their natural environments (there's some truth to the story of Finding Nemo, afterall. . . ) or they're bred on farms where they are frequently not cared for well, and used to make money for large corporations. (Don't buy into The Man!) Or maybe it's not exotic animals that interest you, but specific fancy breeds of animals, and you just want to have this kind of dog, or this kind of cat, and then, oh there's this other breed or other color that's just so pretty, and you have to get it, and you accidentally reenact the story Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág. Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to own a purebred anything. But if you're treating animals like collector's items, chances are, you're getting them for selfish reasons, and not just because you want to give an animal a home. With so many homeless animals in the world, it's really unfair to the animals that are euthanized in shelters every day because no one will take them in. Purebred animals rarely have trouble finding homes. If you have room in your heart and your home and your budget for an animal, rescue one! But don't just collect animals to show off what cool pets you have.

I know a girl who has several "exotic" animals, as well as several more common animals. She's also a photographer, so she's always posting pictures of them and using them in photoshoots. I'm sure she takes care of them, but it comes across as though she is just using them as props. For a while, it felt like she got a new animal every week. She has several cats, 2 snakes, a chameleon, and at least one tarantula. I'm pretty sure she has some other kind of reptile, but I can't remember. Now, to give her some credit, I don't think she's taken in any new animals recently. (I know because I've seen her posting things about having found animals, and trying to find homes for them. And she instagrams pictures of them enough that I'm sure I'd have noticed if she had gotten another one.) However, I do know that she thinks that she is better than other people who only have "normal" animals. She and some of her friends actually have "reptile parties" where they bring their reptiles over to one another's houses and take pictures and brag about how cool it is that they have such unique pets. 

Finally, not all animals are for everyone. If you ask most kids, they'll probably tell you that they'd love to have a puppy! Kids like the idea of having an animal to play with, and puppies are good at that, and they're really cute! But when the puppies grow up, and the kids grow up, not everyone can handle the responsibility of having a dog, or the energy it requires. I mentioned earlier that my family dog-sat for a while for my friend. Well, that was when I realized that I'm not really a good person to be a dog-owner. I'm definitely a cat person. Cats are pretty low-maintenance. Dogs on the other hand, need way more attention than I am capable of giving. Cats are much more individualistic than dogs are. While it's good to groom your cats every once and a while, dogs can't bathe themselves whatsoever, and dogs get pretty nasty if you don't keep them clean. But anyway, Just because you love animals, doesn't mean you have to have one. There are many ways to express your love for animals by speaking up for them and giving them a voice to ensure their well-being without necessarily living with one. It isn't hypocritical not to have an animal companion if you're an animal lover. As the saying goes, sometimes if you love someone, you have to let them go. Or to reference ABC's Once Upon a Time, you have to give them their best chance, and it isn't always with you. Putting this into practice takes a lot of maturity, because it's probably not what anyone wants to do.

Alright. This has been a really hard topic to talk about, because it is so much easier said than done. But it's a good thing to keep in mind. I hope it has been helpful. If you have any other reasons why loving animals sometimes means not having one, please tell me in the comments! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I'm sure I've missed several good points. Even if it's just a story you have that is a good example of one of the points I made, go ahead and share it! I'd really love to hear what you have to say about this topic.

Expanding Beyond Animal Experimentation

Alright. So, as an introduction, today I will be posting a digital version of a research paper I wrote for my English 102 class last semester. I may or may not re-post it in like, a year. Reason being, this paper was turned in and revised several times, and the final time it is turned in, the teachers do not give it back for a year for some legal reasons. It didn't make sense to me, but whatever. So basically, I can't check to see what updates and revisions my teacher suggested for a while, so I might revise it when I do get the paper back. Of course, I wrote my paper about animal testing, and so I've been dying to share it with the people who care heavily about animal rights. I didn't feel like waiting that long to share it. You may remember that about 2 years ago, when I was first starting this blog, I wrote a research paper showing all the benefits of going vegan. This is a similar format to that, only it's a different side of the animal rights movement. I was honestly surprised how little my friends and classmates, even teachers knew about animal testing. I don't remember ever being that in the dark about the topic. It really opened my eyes as to how much people still have to hear about this to realize it's a big deal. I am fine with people referencing this paper, sharing it, etc. as long as I am attributed for it. Thank you.

Expanding Beyond Animal Experimentation

by

Kerry Marley

December 12, 2013 

Humanity has a long history of experimentation on animals, especially in the medical and cosmetic professions. Many people argue that humanity would not be where it is today if it were not for its reliance on animal experimentation. It is nigh unto impossible to deny that animal testing has ever been useful, although the argument could certainly be made that such a method was not always necessary. However, with advancements in medical and scientific technology, animal testing is no longer a morally defensible practice.

First, animal experimentation is an abusive method. Insufficient regulation about procedures that can be done to animals allows for abusive experiments. Abuse can be defined as excessive cruelty (willfully subjecting others to pain and suffering) or habitual violence. Abuse is allowed in research because “the only U.S. law that governs the use of animals in laboratories—the Animal Welfare Act—allows animals to be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, forcibly restrained, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged” (“Animal Testing is Bad Science” [1]). These methods are undeniably abusive and cruel, because the suffering is intentional. In Practical Ethics, Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher and professor on the ethics faculties of both Princeton University and University of Melbourne, alludes to British philosopher Jeremy Bentham who famously proposed that “‘the question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but Can they suffer?’” (57). Singer follows up on this question by stating that “defenders of experiments on animals do not deny that animals suffer. They cannot deny the animals’ suffering because they need to stress the similarities between humans and other animals in order to claim that their experiments may have some relevance for human purposes” (Singer, Animal Liberation 40). Singer also points out that United States military “experiments were designed so that many animals would suffer and die without any certainty that this suffering and death would save a single human life, or benefit humans in any way at all” (29). The fact that these experiments would have no benefit to humans certainly qualifies them as excessive, therefore abusive. Possibly the ultimate example of the cruelty of animal experimentation methods is that of the decompression chamber. As Singer notes, decompression chambers were researched in Nazi Germany on other humans. Sadly, later, the experiments were repeated in England on pigs. “All suffered decompression sickness, and some died from these attacks’” (Animal Liberation 83-84). This research was abusive because it caused excessive suffering. When the research has already been documented, even unethically, there is absolutely no excuse to repeat it for curiosity’s sake. As the saying goes, two wrongs do not make a right.

Insufficient regulation about treatment of animals in testing allows for abusive handling. According to Matt Rossell, who formerly worked for Eliot Spindel, a medical researcher in the field of the effects of consumption of nicotine, pregnant monkeys were “subjected to multiple surgeries to implant nicotine pumps in their backs. . . and their babies are cut out of their wombs. . . to dissect their lungs (“Help End,” [1]). If that isn’t bad enough, Rossell continued by saying that he “‘witnessed some of the mothers post-surgery with the same signs of clinical depression that women suffer from after going through the emotional tragedy of losing a stillborn baby’" (“Help End,” [1]).  Again, willingly forcing distress and pain on another being who is capable of feeling pain is cruel. The experiments were not even intended to study maternal depression, so forcing the animal mothers to experience excessive suffering is abusive. Spindel’s experiments are just one example of cruel treatment of animals in testing. Even more generally, “no experiment, no matter how painful or trivial, is prohibited [by the US government] – and pain-killers [sic] are not even required (“Animal Testing is Bad Science” [1]). Santa Clara University published an article which states that annually “An estimated eight million [animals] are used in painful experiments. Reports show that at least ten percent of these animals do not receive painkillers” (Andre, Velasquez [2]). Ten percent of eight million is a minimum of eight hundred-thousand animals who are not given painkillers during painful experiments, which is an excessive number.

Second, animal experimentation is an ineffective method. Animal tests are inaccurate because of differences between animals and humans. According to In Defense of Animals, an organization that seeks to protect animal welfare, “in the case of nicotine's effect on infants born to smoking mothers, it is clear that such information could be mined from human clinical studies—and would have direct relevance to humans” (“Help End” [2]). Animal testing was harmful to humans by failing to discourage the active harming of unborn children. The animal tests gave mothers a false sense of security and a wrong belief that their habits were not harmful to their babies, when in fact, the truth is exactly opposite. In fact, “Animal data is so unreliable, that for decades, the tobacco industry used it to ‘prove’ that nicotine is not harmful. It was only through human studies that the link between tobacco consumption and cancer, heart disease, and other pulmonary illnesses was proved” (“Help End” [2]). The use of animal testing in this regard was unhelpful to humans because it failed to show the link between nicotine consumption and disease, thus failing to accurately warn people of potential health dangers. Sadly, these examples are not the only instance of failure of the results of animal tests to accurately translate for human biology. In fact, “The Food & Drug Administration tells us that 92% of drugs tested safe and effective in animals fail in human trials” says John J. Pippin, M.D., who is on the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He continues with the example of Vioxx, a medicine developed for treating arthritis which “killed more Americans than died in the Vietnam War, yet it was deemed safe in eight studies using six animal species. Many drugs have had severe and even lethal effects in people after demonstrating safety in animal tests” ([1]). This lack of direct correlation is not news. According to Peter Singer, it is common knowledge “that extrapolation from one species to another is a highly risky venture. . . . As well as exposing people to harm, testing on animals may lead us to miss out on valuable products that are dangerous to animals, but not to human beings.” Singer continues to mention the examples of insulin, morphine, and penicillin (Animal Liberation 57). Pippin adds aspirin and acetaminophen to the list ([1]). In this lose-lose situation, animal experimentation is an inaccurate predictor of the effectiveness of medications. The evidence seems to suggest that any benefit from animal experimentation in this regard is marginal at best.

Animal tests are inaccurate because the testing environment skews the results. An essential part of conducting a viable experiment is to allow for only one variable. However, the testing environment is in and of itself a variable not accounted for. According to the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, “stress, routinely experienced by animals in labs, negatively influences the reliability of animal research data. Stress influences heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, muscular activity, and hormone levels and can modify the normal values of these variables significantly” (“Limitations” [1]). The research environment is therefore interfering with the animals’ normal body functions. If normality cannot be established, then a change from the normal state cannot be quantified either. Stress is not the only affected factor. “In one study, researchers discovered that not only is stress a common factor for mice in labs—just having a researcher present can alter a mouse’s behavior—but they also experience ‘sympathy pains’ for the mice surrounding them. ‘In other words, seeing another mouse in distress elevates the amount of distress the onlooker displays’” (“Limitations” [1]). The research environment makes the mice actively behave differently than they would whether they are by themselves or with other mice.  

Finally, animal experimentation is an outdated method. Much of the developed world has deemed animal testing unnecessary. For example, “a complete ban on the sale of cosmetics developed through animal testing has taken effect in the European Union. The ban applies to all new cosmetics and their ingredients sold in the EU, regardless of where in the world testing on animals was carried out. The 27 EU countries have had a ban on such tests in place since 2009. But the EU Commission is now asking the EU's trading partners to do the same” (“EU Bans” [1]). Essentially, the vast majority of Europeans deemed animal testing unnecessary and undesirable. As of yet, the ban enacted in 2009 has not hindered the continual development of Europe, and European women can still wear safe, good-quality makeup if they so choose. Transitioning from the cosmetic industry to the medical industry, “Australia, Japan, and the E.U. have already banned or limited experiments on great apes in medical research” (Biba 14). Additionally, because other methods have been deemed better, “the National Institutes of Health announced that it is phasing out experiments on chimpanzees” (Biba 14). These changes, presently limited to great apes, seem to point in the direction that the medical field will go.

Many viable alternatives to animal testing exist. Much of the world is abandoning the use of animal experimentation, but the discontinued use of this method of research and testing will not leave the medical and scientific realm without ways to discover new data or verify data and safety of products. “Effective, affordable, and humane research methods include sophisticated in vitro, genomic, and computer-modeling techniques as well as studies of human populations, volunteers, and patients“ (“Alternatives” [1]). According to Popular Science article “From Chimp to Chip,” by Erin Biba, institutions have created, or are developing, tissue and organ models on chips that effectively model human reactions (14). Additionally, alternative methods of research tend to be cheaper than animal experimentation because they don’t require purchasing, housing, feeding, and maintaining living creatures. The existence of these methods makes any need for animal testing obsolete.

As Bishop Desmond Tutu once famously said, "There's nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep." Although the world is still only beginning to realize the moral indefensibility of animal testing, some simply do not want to know. As has been evidenced, ignorance is certainly not bliss, especially for the animals being researched on. There is however, a brighter, more ethical future in sight for research and discovery. Because animal experimentation is clearly unnecessary, it is no longer morally justified.

Works Cited

Andre, Claire and Manuel Velasquez. “Of Cures and Creatures Great and Small.” Issues in Ethics. V. 1, N. 3 (1988) Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

“Alternatives to Animal Testing.” PETA. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

“Animal Testing Is Bad Science: Point/Counterpoint.” PETA. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Biba, Erin. “From Chimp to Chip.” Popular Science Dec. 2013: 14, Print.

“EU Bans Sale of All Animal-tested Cosmetics.” BBC News. 11 March 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

“Help End Nicotine Experiments on Monkeys at OHSU.” Vivisectioninfo.org. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

“Limitations and Dangers.” NEAVS. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Pippin, John. “Put Animal Testing to Sleep: Pro: Misleading Conclusions, Wasted Money.” Bloomberg Business Week. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation. 1975. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Print.

---. Practical Ethics. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge UP. 1993. Print.

New Year's Resolutions and Contest

So everyone, there aren't necessarily a ton of things that I've resolved to do this year. I don't want to just have an ever-growing list of things that I'll never do just because I've resolved to do them. I don't really have any health resolutions. I mean, I'm already vegan. What else is there? I guess I could theoretically resolve to stop cheating my gluten-free diet, but I don't really have an ethical problem with gluten, and they make magic pills that can help you digest gluten occasionally.

I have resolved to post more on this blog, especially Vegan College Cookbook reviews, which I guess could be food-related, and thus health-related, but that's really a stretch. But I got a seriously nicer camera for Christmas, so the photo quality on this blog should be improving! YAY! I have also resolved to be more active for the causes and charities I care about, especially animal welfare. But I guess because everyone needs one resolution that they don't mind not keeping, I also resolve to keep my room cleaner. Ha ha ha! Oh, that's a good one. So, that's not an exhaustive list of my resolutions, but too many of them would require context explanations that it's not worth bothering to mention them.

I hope you've made some resolutions that you plan on keeping. Though, as a tip, make them realistic. For example, I would not resolve to be the #1 Pop star in America by the end of the year. First of all, pop isn't even my favorite genre. Like, at all. But that's beside the point. However, I also wouldn't make them so boring or non-specific that they're not motivational, such as resolving to be "a better person" or resolving to smell more flowers. Unless of course, that's your thing. And then, by all means, smell away. I hope you're not allergic to pollen. Basically, make sure it's something that can be accomplished to your satisfaction. If you're really not sure what you want to resolve, but you want to resolve SOMETHING, here's a list of suggestions:

• Plant a new tree or shrub by the end of the year.
• You can buy a tree already sprouted (as long as you have permission from the powers that be,) or if you're up for a bigger challenge, try starting out all the way from a seed. Avocados are a good choice if you aren't sure what to go with. First of all, you can make yourself some yummy guacamole to get the pit to start out with. Second, the plants themselves are very pretty.
•  Plant a veggie garden.
• The best part about planting your own garden is picking what veggies you want to grow. Then you get really inexpensive, fresh food once it's grown. If you don't really have a yard to plant a garden in, like if you live in a dorm or apartment, or maybe your parents don't want you to dig up their nicely manicured lawn, you can plant window-box gardens, or potted plants. Those are great for smaller plants or herbs. I'd recommend rosemary and basil if you're not sure what to go with, but you want something small.
• Complete 5 Actions per month at Peta2.
• This one is really easy because the people over at PETA have already dome the hard work for you by making posters, collecting email addresses and researching the details, etc. Plus, you earn points by doing all those things and you can get yourself free stuff with the points. Who doesn't love free stuff?
• Go Cruelty-Free!
• Maybe you already only EAT vegan, but you haven't made the switch with cosmetics, clothes, etc. There are so many great brands of cruelty-free products, and many of them are really affordable. 
• Go Vegan!
• If you haven't already done this one, it really has never been easier. There are so many recipes out there thanks to the internet, and veganizing existing recipes is also super-simple with the amazing options that are out there.
• Go Vegetarian!
• If for some reason, you can't go vegan yet, or would prefer to make the switch more gradually, this is a good baby step. Again, it's never been easier!  
• Go Organic!
• This one can be a bit pricey. But it's certainly more healthful than eating junk food. Though I guess they do make organic "junk" food. Eh. Whatever. Aldis and Costco have a surprising amount of organic options, which are inexpensive.
• Convince your Family / Friends to do Meatless Mondays.
• Maybe they won't go 100% vegan or even vegetarian. But there are a lot of doctors and specialists saying that giving up meat at least 1 day a week has a ton of health benefits. This might mean that you have to cook diner once a week, but I'm sure you've got some ideas that you're dying to try, right?
• Try one new vegan recipe per month.
• This could involve a bit of pre-planning, but trying new things can be a lot of fun, and if you have the Vegan College Cookbook, it can be really affordable too. 
• Stay Positive / Be Thankful.
• The holidays are coming to a close, and it's easy to get out of the habit of being thankful for small things in life, and to take the things you have for granted. One thing that I have found helpful is to get a notebook or journal and write down things that I'm thankful for / happy about. For example, a friend of mine recently had been struggling with depression, and I encouraged him to write down 5 things a day to be thankful for. You can write more or less things, and do it as frequently as you'd like. If 5 things a day is too much, you could do 3 things a day, or 5 things twice a week. The important thing is not to quit when you forget a day. Even if you forget a week. If you're ever feeling down or discouraged, read back through the things you've written, and you're likely to feel a lot better. Everyone I've ever gotten to do this has found it extremely helpful.

If you have any other good ideas for general resolutions you'd like to share, please leave a comment! I'd love to hear what you have to say.

So, whatever you've resolved, here is a motivational picture.

This is my cat, C3PO, who I adopted from my local animal shelter. He had already had one leg amputated when I found him, but he gets along without it pretty well, even if he looks kind of ridiculous when he runs. Anyway, the other day, he climbed on top of our giant old TV that was given away, and was acting like he had achieved the most amazing accomplishment possible. It was pretty much adoreable. This was just an excuse to post a picture of my cat.

Alright. So here's the contest part:

First, you must follow this blog by at least one method if you do not already. Next, using the contact form located in the right sidebar, send me your name and email address, and at least 1 activism-related resolution. The winner will be randomly selected by computer, but if your resolution is just "I resolve to be more active" or something like that, then you won't qualify. And trust me. You want to win. Why? Because here's what the winner gets (approximately $25 value):

•  2 stickers from Sevenly, a company which funds a huge variety of humanitarian organizations by selling super-cool shirts and other apparel
• 3 magnets made from Sevenly stickers that are great for lockers or mini-fridges
• 15 magnets made from PETA stickers that are also great for lockers or mini-fridges. 
• 1 customized bracelet made by me. You choose colors and specify size. The bracelet will appear similar to this one in my web store, only it will say "ACTIVIST" instead of a name. 
• The winner will also be featured on this blog with a photo, short biographical description, and their resolution. (The winner will be contacted for the photo and description, as well as the details of the bracelet after being selected. This will act as a conformation method.)

All entries must be received before February 1st 2014. There also must be more than 10 qualifying entries, or the contest will be canceled. If there are a large number of participants, I may add runner-up places with smaller but still awesome prizes. In the event of cancellation, a consolation prize will be available to any participants. I reserve the right to change the rules and awards at any time. I'm sorry if you don't think the prizes are cool. I'm a poor college student, remember?

Happy New Year, Everyone! Good luck! Feel free to comment and tell me what a great idea this is. Tell all your friends about this contest and encourage them to enter as well! Who knows. Maybe they'll share with you if they win.

*************** UPDATE: CONTEST IS CLOSED.

Cutest Vegan Alive Contest

Hi everyone!

I'm entered in Peta2's Cutest Vegan Alive Contest for 2013! Whoever wins gets a free photo shoot and the chance to be on an ad for peta2. Which I would absolutely LOVE to do. Anyway, please vote for me! I'm kind of losing really badly. You have to enter an email address to confirm that it's not the same person voting over and over again, but if you don't want to receive emails from them, you can unsubscribe right away.

Anyways, this is me begging you to vote for me:

Are my begging eyes good enough? (Sadly I didn't use this picture for the contest. Next year! Next year.)

Thank you all so much for reading, and voting, and being awesome people!
Much Loves,
Kerry Aileen

It is a Question of Suffering

Before anyone jumps on my case about saying that animals are dumb, let me give you a vocabulary lesson. The word 'dumb' technically means mute, or unable to speak. So, Anna Sewell has got this totally right. People insult animals when they're upset. Verbal abuse hurts animals as well because they can tell intuitively when people are angry,which can often leads to physical abuse, such as kicking, swatting, etc. that can leave permanent physical and psychological damage to animals who can't speak up for themselves. We should be ashamed of ourselves for picking on the weaker man, so to speak. Basically, I think this is a brilliant quote, and paired with this photo, it is absolutely heart-melting. I hope you like this image as much as I did!

Rolling Phone

Ah ha ha ha! The title of this post was such a lame joke. Alright now, I'm over it.

Here is a little something-something, mostly because I really haven't run across anything stunning to post recently. A while a ago, I mentioned Sevenly, a group that creates apparel designs, the proceeds of which benefit many different humanitarian charities. When you purchase their products, they give you a sticker for free!

The part of the sticker that peels off basically asks you to put it on your phone, so I did. I actually get comments on it all the time. The sticker back also asks you to take a picture of yourself with your freshly stickered phone, and post it on their Facebook page, which I also did. So I figured I'd share the pictures with you all, and you could tell me which ones you like the best! (Please note, I did not have access to any fancy cameras, so I just used a plain old boring digital camera. My apologies to any photographers out there!) I am, by the way, also wearing a Sevenly shirt. The proceeds of this particular shirt went to providing orphaned Jamaican babies with food, water, and diapers. The last item of note is my phone itself. It's a Nokia phone. You know, the kind that are virtually indestructible? The ones that have whole pages of internet memes dedicated to them because of their amazing capabilities not to break. Yeah. That's because it's my 8th phone. So far, it's outlived almost all of them.

Ok, so before anyone says that I look angry in these pictures, let me inform you that I am in a tree. That means that these photos were taken from the ground. Let me also mention that I have almost complete mono-lids. That means that my eye lids crease in such a way that when my eyes are open, you can hardly see the crease at all, making my eyelids look very small, which has a tendency to make people look more serious, even when they are not. The fact that the pictures were taken from the ground really exaggerated that feature. Now, I hope you all feel a little bit smarter about anatomy.

"Hippie" Freebies

Now, before you start thinking about all the stereotypes associated with hippies, let me tell you that this post is not about hippies. Not really. What I'm actually talking about is a web page full of links that was created by a self-proclaimed "Modern Hippie" for the purpose of connecting young activists with campaign materials that fit into their price range. Everything on the link page is free. Are you interested now? At Hippie Freebies, you can find materials such as Vegan and Vegetarian Starter kits with helpful information and recipes, Animal Rights campaign materials and stickers, Human Rights and Equality stickers, Environmentalism buttons and clings, and much more. Most of these links help connect you to various organizations that send out newsletters, online petitions, forms for letters to congressmen, etc, and give you free items as a token of appreciation. There is also a page that has links to many more organizations. Most of these organizations and freebies only operate in North America or the UK, but several work worldwide. Maybe not all of them will interest you, but chances are, you'll find something you'd like to find out more about.

I'd like to thank the wonderful Salena for creating this list of links. Also, check out her blog, because she has reviews of some pretty awesome products like eco-friendly clothing etc.

Hope you all find everything helpful!

Runway Wednesday: Humanitarian of the Week

Today, my post has absolutely nothing to do with veganism. In fact, it has nothing to do with Animal Rights. I'm not even going to be talking about Environmentalism. This is, however, related to activism.

There are a lot of charities, and non-profit organizations out there, and sometimes it is hard to decide which ones to support. Sometimes it's even hard to know HOW to support the ones you want to. Especially with humanitarian-type charities, the problem is often very far away, or out of the boundaries of our finite eyesight. You can always donate money, but not very many people have the kind of money that they can just throw around to whichever charities they run across. Even when you'd like to donate money, it's often difficult to know which charities need it the most. I mean really, there are hundreds of thousands of cancer support charities, and while that is a noble cause, what about the charities that say, help feed starving orphans? Not many of us run across starving orphans every day, so that sort of things tends to be out of sight, out of mind.

I have recently discovered an organization that is the solution to all of those problems. Sevenly is a group of people who were trying to solve these same problems. They have now made it their mission "to harness the power of art and community to build sustainable awareness and funding movements that support charities in their efforts to change the world." This is a small organization comprised of artists and researchers who find worthy charities that need support, and they create designs for clothing that they turn around and sell to raise support for their charity of the week. Every shirt, tank top, hoodie, tote bag, etc. donates $7 to a specific non-profit. They have both guys and girls designs, and multiple styles and colors of apparel to appeal to as large of a target audience as possible. Every design has a story behind the art to show what inspired it, but each design is only available for 7 days. New designs are available every Monday at noon, but orders for the previous week's shirts are processed exactly up to that point. Once the time is up, the orders are processed so they never run out before the week is up.

Organizations they have worked with in the past include. . .

1Love - Helped put abandoned babies and toddlers into nurseries and provide with them with the necessities they need to survive.
Feed My Starving Children - Each purchase provided the money to feed a child in Thailand for a month.
The Sheepfold - Raised money to put abused women and children in safe-houses.
Somaly Mam - Funded a raid on a brothel in Cambodia to free women and children who had been sold into sex-slavery.

. . . And so many more.

This week, they are raising support for Autism Speaks, a charity that provides tools and therapy for children with severe autism that helps them learn to communicate with their families. The extra cool thing about it is that someone is doubling the money they raise for Autism Speaks, up to $180,000. Sevenly is also selling iPhone cases this week with both guys and girl's designs. Pretty cool, huh? Even if you can't buy something from them, they really appreciate you sharing the page on all your social networks. That way, maybe someone else can hear about it for the first time, and buy something to support the week's charity.

I am really hoping that I can get this week's design featuring the phrase "Live Loud for Autism."



I've bought 3 other shirt in the past few weeks, but since the designs are only available for 7 days, and I can't find an archive anywhere, I can't show you the designs. Maybe I'll just have to take a picture wearing them myself.

Anyway, I think that Sevenly is a great way to become aware of different organizations and charities, and show support for a myriad of organizations with Sevenly's amazing apparel art.

Does this sort of organization seem helpful to you? Are you interested in humanitarian non-profits like this one? Had you heard of Sevenly before? Give your opinion in a comment!

Update: I have added this to my Runway Wednesday series, even though I wrote this post a long time before the Runway Wednesday series started.

Getting out of your Shell

I don't really have much to say today, but I'd like to share some fail pictures from Shell's "Let's Go!" ad campaign. If you are not familiar with it, the company essentially created a meme generator and told the general internet public to make ads for Shell's billboards using provided images and words of the people's own choosing. For a while there was voting, and the winning ad's creator got a prize pack. That, however, is not the important part. The important part is that the general internet public made it clear that people don't like oil companies. Some of the images from the campaign make that very obvious.

Here are some of the more thought provoking environmental images.



These pictures are still have an environmentalism flavor, but they come at it from a more comical approach.

 

Some of the funniest images were the ones that made pop-culture references.



This is probably my all-time favorite.



Well, what did you think of Shell's marketing tactics? I'd say they made a fool out of themselves in a very public way. The general internet public is bringing them down. Which one was your favorite? Did you create your own make-fun-of-Shell meme that you'd like to share a link to? Leave a comment!

Animal Testing Poetry Reading

So, earlier, I posted the poem I had written about animal testing, "For the Sake of Progress." Well, I decided to do a video reading of it for an I Am Peta2 video for street team points. (By the way, if you haven't joined the Peta2 Street Team, you should. Its a great way to get active for animal, and you can earn free stuff!) Anyway, I decided to share my video here. Even if you're not the biggest fan of poetry, it would mean a lot to me if you all watch it anyways! Just think of it as me telling you a story that happens to rhyme and have meter. ;) Give the video a "thumbs up" if you like it, and feel free to share it on whatever social networks you use. (I think you have to go to the video's page on YouTube to share it.) The goal here is to expose people to the negative side of animal testing, and to get some traffic to the Peta2 website where people can learn more about animal rights. Thanks!