Written by Vegetarian Star on April 28th, 2010 in Animal Issues.
Comments Off on Jack Hanna On SeaWorld, Safety And Government Intervention
Jack Hanna, who has been vocally supportive of SeaWorld since the incident involving a trainer being killed by a whale at the park, remains positive about the organization.
In an interview with DIS Unplugged, the zookeeper shared his thoughts on the park and animal safety.
On continuing programs at SeaWorld despite trainer deaths:
Does an accident or a death at NASCAR or Indy or even sometimes in certain sports around the world hesitate people in going? The answer’s no. Not just for that, Dawn (Brancheau), whose memorial service is this weekend, gave her life doing something – as her family said, what she loved to do. She loved to educate people. The millions of people this young woman has educated over the years is phenomenal.
On the possibility of future tragedies:
Things happen, yes. Will things happen again? Of course they will. It could be the Columbus Zoo. It could be any zoo throughout the country – the 220 zoos and aquariums. Because we work with safety of our visitor first and safety of our animals – that’s our number one goal, but could something happen? Of course it could happen.
On more government regulations for educational programs at parks like SeaWorld:
Yeah… well, I hope they don’t change anything at SeaWorld. That’s my opinion. I would think people in Washington would have other things to worry about right now. Was Dawn’s death a tragedy? Sure it was. It’s incredible, one death, anybody’s death is a tragedy. But think about other things that are tragedies: the war, the economy, job loss, I could go on and on. You’d think in Washington they’d consider working on things like that that are a little more important than trying to figure out… you know, SeaWorld does it the best there is, period.
The Independent Film Channel’s Dinner With The Band debuted its second season with host and chef Sam Mason inviting singer Rufus Wainwright to cook up schnitzel, spaetzle and sauerkraut.
The schnitzel, a dish traditionally made with meat anyway, was a rabbit rolled in breadcrumbs.
As a sheltered vegetarian who grew up on organic tofu and Amy’s dinners, only being forced to look at the norm animal entrees of chicken and beef, the idea of bunny burgers was unbelievable and required some extra investigation (April Fool’s is over, right?).
Those bunnies only exist to lay chocolate covered, cream filled Cadbury eggs around Easter.
Sure enough, there are even USDA recommendations for cooking Thumper, along with this “how to video” you’ll see below.
If future Dinner with the Band shows are anything like this week’s premiere, you need to run like the wind from this opening act before the main group even takes the stage.
Although McDonald’s in Europe has committed to going cage-free for its eggs by the end of 2012, U.S. McDonald’s show no signs of letting the birds out the wire, citing rising prices for consumers for the more humane and better quality product as the reason.
However, as Wallet Pop points out, with the average cost of a dozen cage-free eggs being only sixty cents more, this would translate to an extra nickel to customers.
According to a poll on WP’s website, over half of people are willing to pay more for cage-free eggs, with 22% willing to pay $0.05, 21% willing to pay $0.25 and 7% willing to pay $1.00.
Of course, we’re not getting into the debate of raising the Canadian bacon pig more ethically (or better yet, doing away with the bacon altogether).
That too should be the next step in making the Egg McMuffin more humane, and keeping up and maybe even getting ahead of our European fast food loving brothers and sisters.
Comments Off on Papa John’s Specialty Pizza Challenge Gets Vegan Suggestion
Papa Johns
Papa John’s is holding a challenge for its fans to create and name the next specialty pizza.
The contest started April 26 and runs through June 14.
Customers can go online to facebook.com/papajohns and create a specialty 14 inch pie with up to 7 ingredients.
According to Pizza Market Place, there are over 250 suggestions and healthier options are being favored.
For example, one customer suggested a Vegan Hawaiian Barbecue.
“With extra barbecue sauce and double pineapple, this specialty pizza becomes a Hawaiian luau in your mouth. No cheese and no meats makes this a delicious, healthy vegan alternative for your family.”
Papa Johns is one of the more vegetarian friendlier pizza companies for several reasons.
In addition, most of their cheeses are made with synthetic or microbial enzymes versus animal.
So a vegetarian cheese pizza can be made more ethical by choosing any crust but pan and any pizza except the Tuscan Six Cheese one, both of which contain animal enzymes.
And for a vegan pizza, leave cheese off completely and follow recommendations for the crust.
Comments Off on Martha Stewart Featuring Gluten Free Granola Bars On Show
Martha Stewart will feature gluten-free, vegan products on her show on Thursday April 29.
Martha will host the founder of NoNuttin, a line of granola bars, snacks and baking ingredients that are dairy free, egg free, nut free and gluten free.
And according to NoNuttin’s website at NoNuttin.com, there are absolutely no animal by-products in the foods, including honey and gelatin.
The Canadian based company sent a sample of their granola bars to the producers of the Martha Stewart show who were impressed with what they tasted and decided a segment about allergy friendly granola bars would work.
Yeah, business deals often go over well when there’s a full stomach of goodness at the table.
It was the attack of the Attack of the Show host on Tuesday when Olivia Munn posed in front of both the billboard and poster displaying her PSA against circuses.
A visitor to the event saw that Munn was wearing a pair of boots that resembled leather and decided to make a fuss about it, according to The Superficial.
“I went to the PETA Protest today (4/27) in Los Angeles against Circus Elephants featuring Olivia Munn. It appears Olivia is wearing leather boots. I yelled out, “Are those boots leather?” but the PETA people got in my face and said, “This isn’t a leather campaign.” Olivia said, “They’re not,” but I was not allowed to examine the boots.”
The Superficial reader who called Munn out obviously lives in the dark ages, cause everyone knows about the availability of boots made from synthetic material, only looking like leather on the “superficial.”
Singer Prince was spotted at San Francisco’s Farmer Brown restaurant eating vegetable jambalaya.
The celebrity stalker, or, uh, the person who spotted him posted a picture of the text that was sent to someone else as the event took place.
“Actually…vegan. He is eatin veggie jambalaya.”
“Wow, that’s so tight. Jealous right now!”
Here’s the picture for the entire conversation.
Prince Farmer Brown restaurant
If Prince got everything according to the menu, the veggie jambalaya comes with portobello mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower and baby carrots.
According to its website, Farmer Brown is a soul food restaurant, with an emphasis in supporting local, African-American farmers that produce organic and sustainable foods.
Apparently, it’s also where all the sexy MFs dine.
