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Are Pets the new era of inter-species Slavery?

- Written by Zade Watson.

For most of us, when we see a fluff dog or cat, we instantly squee with joy and then rub our oily fish finger-like hands all over them. 

While the majority of us will always claim to love these animals, the question has come up often through different vegan welfare and abolition movements, as to whether or not it is actually ethical to “own” a pet. The common rebuttal for any of us who can agree that there are some issues involved with pets - and that we humans certainly do tend to restrict these species natural behaviors and rights as individuals - is that we only adopt rescue animals, so therefore we forgo any guilt or ethical obligation in partaking in the pet trade. 

However, there is good reason for this view! 

We can all understand that a dog or cat is going to be happier with a human caretaker, then they are in a pond or on the street or being euthanized by one of those wonderful RSPCA shelters, and yes in many cases of re-homing pets they may even come to depend upon and “love” their owner. 

Therefore, does this mean that we are correct? 

That humans have developed an ethically and mutually beneficial relationship with our pets? Obviously this will be individually based, however to be honest I have personally come to the conclusion that the majority of the time the answer would be absolutely not.

Here’s why. From the very beginning of human to canine and feline “companionship”, it has started with a barbaric and profoundly exploitative nature. 

From our Ancestors culling wolf pups that showed any sign of aggression until they had altered them through mutation to such an extent that they no longer resembled a free animal, and instead ended up becoming inbred mutants with severe health and psychological issues. To sadly the same for felines. 

As cats descended from the wild mountain and forest cats throughout Persia and Ancient African lands, from human beings trapping them and bringing them to their luxurious palaces within their temples and pyramids. Despite “worshiping” the cat, they still would cull massive numbers of these species who showed any sign of natural wild feline behavior, so to create a mutant cat, domesticated to somewhat tolerate human affection. Perhaps the most depressing part of this history is the fact that we are still doing this today. 

Every year while thousands of dogs and cats are euthanized or left miserable and suffering in shelters, there are wealthy jerks buying from inhuman breeders who both tell themselves that they are kind to animals and “love” them, to which they show this care through confining dogs and cats in tiny areas (essentially torturing them, over breeding them and then taking their much loved babies from them to sell to human beings who then call them “their fur babies”). 

Finally, for those who are not satisfied with this mistreatment and injustice, they then get their tails docked or nails declawed. That of course is the first process of the “pet” industry, then we get to the attitude the majority of people take toward pets, where they tell themselves they are better then them, smarter than them, and that they have to assert dominance to change their behavior toward them, and they call this “training” them and claim that methods such as forcing a pup in a small crate when it expresses emotions of exciting or curiosity are “for their own good”, and that spraying them in the face with water every time they bark or placing zapping collars on them - or just the good old yelling loudly at the dog to stop yelling loudly - is just teaching them to “be a good dog”, and of course then we lock them inside (usually on their own for up to eight or more hours per day), and assuage our feelings that tell us how very immoral this behavior is, by taking our now anxious and depressed dog to a dog park where they will then be surrounded by overly excited or vicious lunatics who all share a variety of serious behavioral issues that more often than not will distress the dog a lot more than it will benefit them, because we have deprived these dogs of their usual canine pack animal behavior and then just expect them to socialise with other dogs they are unfamiliar with. 

Of course these dogs are not the only ones who get human confinement, as cats are perhaps the worst  treated of all pets (except fish, birds, or guinea pigs), as we tell ourselves that keeping an obligate carnivore with profound energy locked up in our boring old house full of commercialized junk that we will later yell at them for climbing on, or scratching, is completely ethical and the best thing for the cat and the native wildlife!

Finally, we get to the last aspect of the profoundly unethical nature of pets and that is the food in which we choose to feed them. 

Because we all know honestly there is simply no ethical answer to this dilemma. We can choose to feed them a natural and more healthy meat based diet by paying to kill equally social, intellectual and emotional species. We can choose to feed them a vegan diet (by usually feeding them grains and other less natural plant based products that have continually proven to not provide optimal health, with exception only to the overly mutated canines who are fed a very well balanced and scientifically formulated diet of plant proteins and amino acids). Finally we can choose a Lab Grown pet food, currently sourced unethically from bovine fetal serum, horse serum, or dead mice/rat cells, so while this is definitely seemingly the better solution it too is one that poses ethical issues to the “owner” as they tend to call themselves. So, what’s the answer? What’s the solution? I have zero idea. However, I do question whether the issue of puppy and kitten farms would be considered significantly more important (and become a pressing political issue) if we all were to no longer play any part in this system and start demanding a full ban on all forms of breeding in this country.

I wonder if we no longer walk past a dog with a funny face or curly tail or fluffy head and pet them, and tell the owner how cute they are, and lavish them with compliments, and friendliness, and instead confront them with the reality of what they are supporting, whether the purchase of designer dogs and cats would no longer be seen as fashionable, just like what happened with campaigns in the 1980′s against the fur trade.

I wonder if we were put a lil more effort in sharing informative videos about this industry more than funny or cute videos of these designer mutant animals if social media would become a lil more well informed? I am not just another angry vegan who wants to ruin poor old human beings overly entitled fun of exploiting animals for their personal benefit - as I get it - I also can understand that you all do genuinely feel you love your pet, and perhaps that dressing them up in human centric T-Shirts is because “they” like the T-Shirts and sitting in doggy prams or slings is what “they” enjoy, instead of playing in mud and sniffing dog crap and barking and digging up old junk. However I just ask you be honest with yourself about animal welfare and rights - as you did when becoming Vegetarian or Vegan - and you begin to consider all of the aspects to this individual being before just automatically going to standard human based “norms” of how to treat a dog or cat and what to feed them, as we have all done a profound disservice to these poor species and I personally believe the only way we can do any good is to provide them with the best life that we can and that would require we think more about what “they” truly would like and whether our choices are to benefit them or us.

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Dominion (2018) from Aussie Farms on Vimeo.

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Message from VVSQ President

Dear VVSQ Members and Supporters, I have tried my absolute best since being elected in November, to improve and continue to fix up VVSQ to continue our work for many more years. 

However without the support financially (from corporations and community donations), or voluntarily (from members and supporters), or from the Vegetarian and Vegan Community, I just cannot keep this organisation going to the best of it’s abilities this year for VVSQ to stay as a membership based organisation.

As such, I have created a plan up until the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in November. Where you will all be able vote on how best to keep VVSQ going. I am emotionally exhausted (as this has been one of the most difficult roles I have ever undertaken with a not for profit organisation) and perhaps what has disenchanted me the most and effected my motivation to volunteer, has been the profound lack of support I have had from the Vegetarian and Vegan Community within QLD. As all I have received since I have volunteered has been a constant high level of criticism, unreasonable expectations, judgement and suggestions on what myself or the rest of the volunteer Committee should be hosting or what events we should be putting on, without any offers to assist with the time or finances needed to put these events on as part of VVSQ. I do not want to sound like I’m complaining, or to blame the community. As there are obviously many amazing and kind and caring people who dedicate hours of every day to helping animals, people, and the environment. 

However, sadly this online trend of holding every vegan not for profit or small local business up to overly high expectations and criticising us for every little thing we do (without ever actually offering to assist us or to try hosting something themselves) is honestly becoming toxic, both to the business and not for profit organisations (who are working so hard with so little income and support), and to the actual vegan community itself. So I feel that it’s necessary to point this out.

I have decided that until we can gain enough Volunteers, Finances, Committee Members (who can commit the necessary time needed) and Sponsors, I will be significantly reducing the activities that The Vegetarian/Vegan Society QLD Inc. is hosting and the amount of posts via Social Media (this will vary depending upon our volunteers commitments).

I will also be nominating for the name of the organisation to be up for voting on whether or not to change it from The Vegetarian/Vegan Society QLD Inc. to The Vegan Society QLD Inc. or Veg Society QLD. Or to leave it as the original name. This will be up for ALL paid members to vote on during the AGM in November.

The new plans for VVSQ until November are here >> 1. Email members Vital E-Magazine this July & Post to VIP members.

2. Arrange final screenings of Dominion and free workshops.

3. Send out ALL NEW Membership Cards & Info Packs to paid members. 4. Contact ALL potential Corporate Sponsors and Apply for Grants. That will be the only tasks being completed by me until November. So unless we can get a lot more volunteers and Committee Members (who can commit time to volunteer to focus on other projects), these are the only other tasks that will be completed this year until Novembers AGM where you all can vote for whether to change myself as the President and what you would like us to focus on for next year as our priorities for VVSQ. 

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We have just hit 4,000 Facebook Likes!!! Thanks to you all for continuing to support our organisation! #KinderHealthierSustainable (via GIPHY)

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The Loss of the Innocence of Eating Meat by Francesco Buscemi

This is a short abstract from my book, “From Body Fuel to Universal Poison: Cultural History of Meat, 1900-the present, edited by Springer”. It started from noticing that people have gradually been changing their perceptions on eating meat, and has ended up involving big issues such as the problem of energy, the role of the humans on the planet, and the complementary characters of academic and creative knowledge. In the end, all of this demonstrates the importance of studying meat if we want to understand who we are. A good point to challenge those who still think that meat is only thing to eat.

The Loss of Innocence of Eating Meat:

“Yes, but only once a month.” “Never ever!” “Yaaa, just to piss my wife off...” “Sometimes, but please don't tell my boyfriend...” These answers are not the results of a survey regarding sexual lifestyles and matrimonial behaviours today, but to questions I posed regarding frequency and approach to eating meat, as part of my long-spanning social research on meat and food in general.

Wherever you position yourself in the complex field of meat-eating, from vegan to reducitarian to proud carnivore, you can't deny that eating animal flesh is today a hot topic. That’s why I decided to write a book about it.

What I immediately realized as I started writing, was that there has been a long historical process that has led us to this point. It has been an articulated cultural development where, gradually, humans have interrogated themselves about the legitimacy, convenience, correctness, and healthiness of eating an animal, giving these issues all the imaginable answers. The fact of posing these questions, however, means that the problem exists. It started under the ancient Greeks and Romans, and continued with the Renaissance, still with only a minority of people being aware of the difference between eating a leaf and eating a liver, but it gradually developed, with more people speculating about the issue.

So, I decided that my book would be the historical account of this process, and that it would focus on the period of 1900 to the present, which has seen the most relevant changes, and the consolidation of issues and instances that have slowly but relentlessly grown in the previous centuries. It has been in these years, in fact, that we can see the loss of innocence of eating meat. Today, whatever the answer you find, it is clear to all that eating broccoli is different from eating a steak. More often than in the past, meat-eating implies second thoughts relating to our health and our moral position in the world. This is also visible in the span of a person's life. I have seen my grandparents hardly touched by the problem; my father and my mother a bit more concerned, with some friends more involved; me writing a book about it; and the youngsters taking more neat positions in relation to this issue.

However, I think that a book should be more than a sequence of chapters. It should have a general idea in the background holding all its parts together. At the beginning, I was not able to identify this idea. Certainly there was the unifying element of the detachment between the idea of the living animal and the steak. We tend to hide the link between the two and the fact that the meat we eat once was a living being. However, I had written about this issue previously, and instead I was looking for a new concept.  It was while reading recipe books on meat from the end of the nineteenth century that the right idea came to my mind. These books highlighted the important role played by meat in human nutrition (and some of them, anticipating today's trends, called it into question).

So, I understood that what I was writing about was energy. In fact, meat has long been considered  the principal source of energy for the human body, and what came to my mind was that it may be compared to the forms of energy we use for industrial machines. They both feed something. Meat feeds our bodies while carbon and oil feed our industry. In both cases, for years we have ignored the effects produced by what we do in order to obtain energy. With an extractive approach, we have taken meat from animals, and oil and carbon from Earth, damaging the planet and forgetting the basic ethical principles that connect us to Nature. The only aim was to take the biggest amount of energy and money from animals and soil. This may be seen, for example, in factory farming, an insensate industrial practice that pollutes, creates illness in many species (the human one included) and destroys the social and economic equilibrium inside a society.

However, more optimistically, what seemed clear to me was also that since the 1980s, we have started obtaining energy for machines in another way. Renewables teach us that we can also take energy from Nature without damaging the environment and ourselves. What about meat, then? Are we starting to take meat in a renewable way? Before the book, I had already done research on cultured meat and veg*ism, and I found that they both may be considered non-damaging ways of giving energy to our bodies. Thus, the book also focuses on them, as a potential and future solution to our problems with today's meat.

The idea of energy, thus, is the idea that permeates the entire book. It is perfectly embodied by some commercials of canned meat of the 1960s and 1970s, which I analyze in the book. In them, eating meat allows people to dance, run and move in an exaggerated way. These representations are key to comprehending how Western society has constructed meat through the media. It has been considered as fuel for our bodies. Related to this, the 'necessity' of meat has also favoured the hiding of the link mentioned above. These commercials, in fact, only rarely show an animal such as those providing the promoted meat. When they do, they cutify it. Animal cutification is a really interesting concept regarding the media habit of showing the animals providing meat as cuter that they actually are, sometimes even anthropomorphized, to further detach the idea of the animal from the idea of meat.  

Thanks to the idea of energy, the book changed rapidly, acquiring a deeper meaning and becoming more coherent and homogeneous. In this light, meat-eating has suddenly become only a part of the bigger and very complex system of the relationships between Nature and Culture. For many years, we have considered Nature and Culture, that is, the environment where we live and the human intervention on it, as separate and often in contrast. It is through these lenses that we have justified what we have done to the Earth. We can pollute, destroy, and kill natural elements because they are not parts of us, but separate from what we are, and often in contrast with us. Labelling this intervention as necessary for our lives has made us feel comfortable in this position, as what we were damaging was external to us and, in some sense, our enemy.

Only in the last few years the opposite perspective on the relationships between Nature and Culture has become more widespread. It sees Culture as a part of Nature, and thus humans not separated from, but involved in the environment. In brief, what we do (even to Nature) is done by Natural elements, that is, human beings. As a result, environmental theories advance that Nature is a huge container that also includes Culture. From this point of view, by damaging Nature, we also damage a part of ourselves. In this light, it is more difficult to justify pollution, destruction, and even animal killing.

Finally, I find each language incomplete. Specifically, I believe that academic language is truly useful to rationalize complex concepts and to categorize and organize knowledge. However, it is very limited when it comes to expressing emotional approaches and irrational beliefs. This was a problem for my book, as very often, meat is linked to elements that are not part of the rational sphere. Meat relates to deep and sometimes unmotivated beliefs, religious faiths, memories, fears, psychological suppression's, etc. How to cope with all of this? I have worked for many years as a TV writer and storyteller, and decided to add a short story at the end of each chapter. What academic writing is not capable of expressing is told via fiction. It was a really interesting experiment, as we have long been told that creativity and rationality are different and must remain separate. My point is that they are certainly different, but just for this they can and should be practiced and applied  together.  

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Compassion is in Fashion!

TOP ETHICAL/VEGAN FRIENDLY PRODUCTS YOU SHOULD HAVE NOW

A lot of people are now switching to a vegan lifestyle and its bringing an awareness to the animal cruelty, the unfair working conditions for people, and the environmental impacts of fashion and consumer goods. People are now starting to ask questions about where their food and clothes come from! Although subconsciously they may already know. The real question is what are they doing about it? Do they know how many animals have died for a fur coat or the horrific ways they were farmed and slaughtered for an unnecessary status symbol? Or that there are over 56 billion farmed animals killed every year for clothes, for food or otherwise. Now these are shocking figures!

People are now considering the alternatives to fast fashion and the real cost of what they buy.

There is no particular reason why we cannot be ethical, conscious and fashionable at the same time. I mean we can still value the aesthetics of beauty, wear our stylish handbags, belts and shoes and personalize our fashion choices without harming animals or the environment. 

You can look good both outside and in the inside! 

Overtime we have met a lot of brands that have the philosophy of being cruelty-free and eco-friendly. The ethos and business ideologies of these companies are quite fascinating. We can now be fashionable and at the same time play our part, by driving social change with the simple purchases we make every day. These brands are so great that they are actually driving social change around the world through consumer choice. Every choice we make to purchase products from them, instead of from an unethical business will make an impact for animal welfare, our environment and for society. 

Here are my top picks:

FEED, created by Lauren Bush Lauren a company that produces handmade bags and accessories. The company shares its profits with organizations that gives free meals to children in the hope of ending global hunger.

Fr33 Earth, a social enterprise in Australia, makers of vegan-friendly and super comfy natural rubber flip flops or thongs. Fr33 Earth gives back 5% of their sales to KIVA program that supports villages to start their own farms to get out of poverty.

Studio 189, founded by actress Rosario Dawson is an ethical fashion lifestyle social enterprise that supports various community led projects in Africa and in the US.

Urban Vegan, has a variety of vegan-friendly items in their website from bath and body products, skin and hair care to vegan household products.

The Dharma Store, a vegan-friendly clothing line that is all about spreading a positive vegan message and giving back to the planet 

VonBlü Cosmetics are Australian owned and guarantees that all of their products are made from natural ingredients, 100% vegan friendly and animal cruelty free.

Dancing Dust Body Shimmer -Australian made vegan-friendly and cruelty free body shimmer with or without grip aid

TwoSix9 - Ethical threads to wrap round your body that is made predominantly from wind & solar energy 100% organic cotton & ink. The 15% portion of their proceeds are donated to animal rescue sanctuaries.

Humankind - they have a beautiful collection of vegan and 100% cruelty free vegan bags, shoes and accessories. The idea behind this shop came from the desire to showcase the amazing range of non-leather, vegan and cruelty-free bags and shoes that is now available and making them more accessible to vegans and anyone who loves animals and fashion in Australia.

Farm To Hangar  - Eco-friendly, sustainable, ethical, low carbon footprint, Australian Grown & Australian Made clothing.

Aulieude Sydney - Provides alternative fashion choices for the youth that makes them aware of the environment and animal cruelty issues and the impacts of their purchases. Their debut capsule collection, Aspire, is made from sustainable linen fabric. Linen from flax requires far less water to produce than cotton, no chemical fertilizers, and it is one of the strongest plant fibers.

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Let's expose the system that allows Flint to be poisoned and Nestlé to bottle clean water hours away. #UnbottleWater thndr.me/qfUye8 http://thndr.me/qfUye8