Vegetarian Star

You’ve heard what’s on Gene Baur‘s and Farm Sanctuary’s agenda for this month in the realm of animal rights.

Now, the Los Angeles Times talks to Ingrid Newkirk to see what PETA’s plans are in their May in Animal News feature.

Since you’re already a veggie or at least reducing your meat intake, you won’t have to worry about the dancer rubber stopping you on the street with a vegetarian starter kit.

We don’t think there will be vegan, edible condoms in the kit either. Sorry.

When asked what PETA would be up to in June, Newkirk replied:

“A million projects, from promoting spaying and neutering through demonstrations featuring dancing condoms to distributing our free vegetarian/vegan starter kits. But we’ll also definitely be working hard to curb attendance at SeaWorld and at [Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's] shows. Indeed, we’ll continue to expose Ringling by circulating video footage of elephants being routinely beaten as well as photos of the cruel methods that Ringling uses to train baby elephants.”

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Jack Hanna and animal rights activists aren’t best friends forever.

More recently, he and PETA’s president Ingrid Newkirk shared words over the value of holding dolphins captive in places like SeaWorld.

Another area where he and activists may differ is the area of zoos, where animals are restricted to small spaces versus being free to roam for miles in their natural habitats.

Hanna thinks this is something that’s unavoidable, as some animals cannot be released into the wild.

“I’ve tried working with animal rights groups, and some of those people are just plain nut cases,” Hanna told Northern Express. “You can’t just put all the animals back out into the wild. That’s why we have zoos – good zoos, not bad ones. We have 220 of them in this country. Ninety nine percent of our animals come from other zoos – animals that are born in captivity. Not everyone has the means to travel like I do, and this allows people to see these animals up close. People leave learning something.”

With animal rights activists like PETA, it’s not necessarily the wild they’re recommending, but sanctuaries.

These environments would offer the larger living spaces that more closely mimick an animal’s natural habitat.

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“To truly “go green,” we must start with what’s on our plates. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, 30 percent of the Earth’s ice-free land is now involved – either directly or indirectly – in livestock production. As the world’s appetite for meat increases, countries around the globe are bulldozing huge swaths of land in order to make more room for animals and the crops that feed them.”

“Then there’s the energy required to operate factory farms, feedlots, slaughterhouses and trucks that transport animals and the amount of water that is squandered on animal agriculture (it takes more than 4,000 gallons of water per day to produce food for a single meat-eater compared to 300 gallons needed for a vegan). And don’t forget the edible crops that are used to feed animals instead of hungry, malnourished people. If we are ever to halt climate change and conserve land, water and other resources, not to mention reduce animal suffering, we must celebrate Earth Day every day – at every meal.”

–Ingrid Newkirk, president and co-founder of the animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in an Earth Day article at the Sacramento Bee titled “There’s No Such Thing as a Meat Eating Environmentalist.”

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Jack Hanna On Larry King Live

Larry King hosted Jack Hanna and PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk on Larry King Live, where the two got into a heated debate over whether keeping whales like the one that killed SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, is safe for humans and animals.

Newkirk said the conditions aren’t ideal for the whales and that they are “swimming in their own diluted urine” and she hopes the company is sued.

Hanna said the benefits of learning about whales outweigh the risks and compared the trainers to astronaunts.

“Larry, didn’t our astronauts go up in the space shuttle and we lost them when they came back? It was a terrible thing. They went back up in space, didn’t they? We want to learn from space and help mankind. That’s what SeaWorld does. These are dangerous animals. This young lady sacrificed her life and would be sitting here today saying she’d do it again for the great work she’s done and SeaWorld has done to educate tens of millions of people over the last years.”

Do you agree with Hanna?

Or is there a better way to educate the public than through marine parks like SeaWorld?

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The story of Temple Grandin is depicted in a new HBO movie starring Claire Danes.

Although not a vegetarian, Grandin’s work in animal behavior resulted in her designing more humane methods to apply to the livestock industry.

PETA’s president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk has written a piece in the Sacramento Bee on Grandin’s work.

A few highlights:

“I admire her work in the field of humane animal slaughter. PETA would prefer, of course, that no animals be killed for food, but we won’t ignore the horrors of factory farms and slaughterhouses just because we wish that they didn’t exist.”

“Throughout her career as an animal-science professor at Colorado State University and a consultant to the American Meat Institute, Grandin has worked to improve animal-handling systems at slaughterhouses – markedly decreasing, although never able to stop completely, the amount of fear and pain that animals experience.”

“This may seem like a small victory – the cows are still going to be killed after all – but until the day that we get animals off the dinner plate altogether, is it too much to ask that we do everything we can to reduce the fear and suffering that they experience in the slaughterhouse?”

Read more at the Sacramento Bee.

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Ingrid Newkirk Photo Credit: David Shankbone on Wikimedia Commons

PETA’s co-founder and President Ingrid Newkirk recently addressed an audience on vegetarianism while attending an environmental conference on economic sustainability in Mumbai.

Someone in the audience raised a hand and asked, “If I become a vegan, what can I eat?”

Here’s how Ingrid responded to the individual, from Huffingtonpost.com:

Being a lover of Indian food, I could only say this:

Papad, chapattis,

Dumplings and naan,

Channa and rotis,

Onion uttapam,

Masala dosa,

Green callaloo,

Gourd and samosa,

Corn and aloo.

Shalgam, bryani,

And channa masala,

Tomato soup…

A diet of Indian food is one of the best ways to remain vegetarian, as many of the dishes consist of lentil, grains and vegetables.

And if you’re not a master in the kitchen, there are even microwave versions of the ethic cuisine, such as any of the Amy’s entrees of Mattar Tofu or Vegetable Korma.

Not to mention how impressed your taste buds will be with the use of flavorful spices like curry.

A night with friends and family at the Indian restaurant buffet and you might find yourself unbuttoning your pants from too many samosas.

As Ingrid said in her article, “I think we’ll survive without milk and meat. In fact, it may be the only way to help the planet itself survive.”

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Ingrid Newkirk Photo Credit: David Shankbone on Wikimedia Commons

Al Gore recently agreed he should have spoken more about the effects of meat eating and the environment.

But that hasn’t stopped PETA Queen Ingrid Newkirk from rubbing in his lack of outspokenness and humiliation during the recent debate where he admitted his faults.

From an article at Huffingtonpost.com titled “Come On Al, Steak or the Earth?”:

“That’s why he has only himself to blame for the blows dealt him this week from the BBC’s Mr. Paxman, ABC’s Ms. Sawyer and other commentators. Yes, he’s the son of a Black Angus rancher. My father climbed mountains and went out in to the ocean in small boats during storms, but I’m not following suit. He protests that eating meat is a “personal choice” and tries to excuse his penchant for a daily steak (sometimes two, we hear from a reliable source) because he finds it “too hard” to “give up” meat? Driving a Hummer for the hell of it is a personal choice, and how hard can it be to go vegetarian when this week’s New York Times list of best-selling hardback advice books shows chef Tal Ronnen’s The Conscious Cook sitting pretty at number three and Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet at number five? Both are vegan — not just vegetarian — cookbooks that I dare anyone to open without drooling. Last week, Chipotle at Dupont Circle in Washington test-marketed a Gardein vegan “chicken” burrito. It sold out almost instantly, and an emergency supply of these delicious little medallions of soy protein had to be dispatched to meet demand.”

No one says it quite like Ingrid!

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Michael Vick‘s return to the football field has drew a lot of talk, much of which is from the vegetarian community.

PETA’s president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk was recently interviewed on MSNBC to give her thoughts on the matter.

PETA had considered working with Vick after his prison release, but weren’t convinced Vick was truly a changed man.

During the video, Ingrid reminds everyone of the reasons why PETA couldn’t form a partnership, including the fact that “claw marks” were found on the pools where dogs were drown and Vick put “family pets” in the ring to fight with other dogs.

via Ecorazzi.com

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