News & Stories
Compassion for animals focus of book
Saturday, December 27, 2003
To those who've seen the ubiquitous "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series of inspirational books, Judy Carman, of McLouth, offers an alternative.
Her book is called "Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul" (Lantern Books, 2003).
"I had to name it that because it was a way to shock people to think about the juxtaposition of those words, ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul.' It stops people in their tracks, and they have to think about why I changed the words around. The chicken is no longer in the soup; the chicken has a soul," Carman said.
The title of her book reflects Carman's belief in the need to create a world where humans have expanded their circle of compassion to include all beings -- including, yes, chickens, and the environment as a whole -- not just other human beings.
Her perspective on the kinship between people and animals is attracting lots of attention these days.
Spirituality & Health, an award-winning New York-based magazine and accompanying Web site, recently named "Peace to All Beings" one of the 50 Best Spiritual Books of 2003.
It's a prestigious award. Carman's book was chosen from among more than 350 books that were reviewed and considered, according to the magazine. "Peace to All Beings" also is reviewed on the magazine's Web site, www.spiritualityhealth.com.
Carman, co-founder of the Lawrence-based Animal Outreach of Kansas, an animal rights group, found out about the accolade about two weeks ago.
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"The people at Lantern Books were all really excited about it, especially because Spirituality & Health isn't a magazine that specializes in animal rights," said Carman, who recently moved from Lawrence to McLouth with her husband, Michael Carman.
"There aren't that many books that combine animal rights with spirituality, showing that connection. That was a dream of mine, that a spiritual magazine would see that my book had some value to its readers."
Promoting compassion
"Peace to All Beings" is a 320-page collection of prayers, affirmations, guided meditations and stories that illustrate the spiritual importance of loving -- not exploiting -- animals and the earth.
Carman also shares many concrete steps that her readers can take to bless the lives of animals, find deep meaning in their existence and protect them from being viewed as mere commodities for human consumption and entertainment.
On the dedication page of her book, Carman shares a Universal Peace Prayer for the Animals: "Let us take a moment each day to breathe deeply, close our eyes, visualize and say, ‘Compassion Encircles the Earth for All Beings Everywhere.'"
Carman, who is a vegan -- meaning she doesn't eat, use or wear any animal products or byproducts -- explained why she felt the need to write the book.
"I've been growing in my awareness of the suffering of animals for many years, and it just gets worse and worse. A lot of the faith communities are not responding to it, and a lot of them don't want to discuss it and have it raised in sermons. It's a huge taboo topic -- animal rights," she said.
Yet the core beliefs of many faith traditions -- such as those expressed in the Lord's Prayer -- speak of the need to alleviate suffering and, in a sense, bring heaven to earth.
"I believe that once people become aware of the violence (toward animals in places such as factory farms, zoos, circuses and the fur trade), they'll want to adopt a more fully compassionate and consistent way of life. Most people in faith communities truly want to do their part to make the world a more loving place," Carman said.
In her own life, she tries to live by the ideas that are expressed in "Peace to All Beings."
For example, Carman and Animal Outreach of Kansas are asking Lawrence and Douglas County commissioners to ban "exotic animal acts," a law that would effectively prohibit most circuses from coming to town.
And Carman can be found many nights in downtown Lawrence, along with other Animal Outreach members, screening anti-meat videos and offering animal rights literature.
Consistently loving
Carman actually wrote her book, originally titled "Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul," as a self-published work that came out in January 2001.
Lantern Books subsequently spotted "Veggie Soup" at an animal rights conference in Washington, D.C., where Carman was selling copies of it.
Representatives of the company -- a small, independent publisher that specializes in books about spirituality and awakening reverence for life -- liked it so much that they decided Lantern Books should publish it.
Minor changes were made, such as the addition of "Peace to All Beings" to the title, and the revamped edition of her book came out earlier this year.
"I was thrilled. It's just really validating when someone else thinks it's good, too -- somebody with authority, who knows what the market is and what people are interested in reading. I had done something of value," Carman said.
Carman, 59, said she identified with the core belief of many of the world's religions -- namely, love -- and that she was influenced by the teachings of Jesus.
"I hope that what people will take away from the book is to understand that God's will is for peace for all creatures, all creation, not just for people," she said.
"We're here to evolve to be better than we are, to not be violent creatures, but to learn to be consistently loving creatures in everything that we do."
Judy Carman's book, "Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul" (Lantern Books, 2003), is a 320-page paperback that sells for $14.
It can be purchased through Amazon.com, directly from the publisher by calling (800) 856-8664 or through the company's Web site at www.lanternbooks.com.
To read a review of Carman's book by Spirituality & Health magazine, visit the publication's Web site at www.spiritualityhealth.com and click on "50 Best Spiritual Books of the Year."
Carman is available to visit faith communities to discuss her book and philosophy of reverence for animals. She can be reached by e-mail at peace2allbeings@yahoo.com.Judy Carman's book, "Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul" (Lantern Books, 2003), is a 320-page paperback that sells for $14.
It can be purchased through Amazon.com, directly from the publisher by calling (800) 856-8664 or through the company's Web site at www.lanternbooks.com.
To read a review of Carman's book by Spirituality & Health magazine, visit the publication's Web site at www.spiritualityhealth.com and click on "50 Best Spiritual Books of the Year."
Carman is available to visit faith communities to discuss her book and philosophy of reverence for animals. She can be reached by e-mail at peace2allbeings@yahoo.com.
Sunday, November 30, 2003
To the editor:
The upcoming holidays will bring families and friends together to share meals and to give thanks for our many blessings. It is ironic that while the emotional centerpiece of our holidays is love and togetherness, the centerpiece on our table is most often a dead animal who wanted nothing more than to live his or her own life in peace, surrounded by his or her family. Instead, that animal suffered in a factory farm and died a long and painful death on an assembly line of knives, saws, electrical shocks and other forms of slow torture.
Let us make the connection in our hearts and souls during these upcoming holidays of peace, love and joy. Let us expand our circle of compassion to include the most innocent and helpless of all God's creatures. By granting life to a pig, a cow, chicken or turkey this holiday season, we bring more love and compassion into the world and do our part to end violence and create peace.
Judy Carman,
McLouth
Thursday, November 27, 2003
To the editor:
Some important points need to be made regarding the Nov. 16 article on banning exotic animal acts.
First is public safety. Since 1990, 57 people have been killed and more than 120 seriously injured by captive elephants. Believing these circus handlers have these wild animals under control is a very dangerous illusion. Remember "Tyke," a Ringling Bros. elephant who killed his trainer and hurt several people during a rampage in Hawaii? And just recently the Siegfried and Roy tiger incident? Need I say more?
Second is cruelty. I won't go into a lot of details regarding this issue. The undercover footage and weapons used on these animals speak louder than words, and louder than any claims of love these handlers say they have for their animals. If they train their animals with love and positive reinforcement, why carry a bull hook? Where are the peanuts? Not to worry though, all circuses, even your most well-respected ones, will always carry their weapons of "love" with them.
I too, attended circuses as a child and have fond memories like Commissioner Charles Johnson mentioned. But once I learned of the abuse, I wanted nothing more to do with it. If we want to educate children about wild animals, turn to Animal Planet. There, you will find these animals behaving naturally in their own environment. A circus with exotic animals is not a natural environment for them, and these circuses are not educational. All they are is a glimpse into the sad life of a pathetic, broken-spirited animal.
Ann Wilson,
Lawrence
Lawrence Journal World Saturday, November 22, 2003
To the editor:
With all due respect to Mayor Dunfield, I fail to see the educational value in watching a wild animal dressed up in a human outfit performing acts that are totally unnatural to it in the wild, unless, of course, the lesson is that the human species is easily entertained. Rather, I think Alice Walker said it best when she said, "The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites, or women created for men."
When you add to this sound reasoning the fact that all circus animals are subject to abuse, whether the active abuse mistakenly labeled "training," or the "passive" abuse of enduring lives confined to small traveling cages and chains, forced to perform in ways unnatural to them, it is hard to justify exotic animal acts under any theory.
Animal Outreach of Kansas proposes only to ban exotic animal acts of the kind found in traveling circuses, not truly educational uses of wild animals such as those that might be conducted by 4-H clubs or Operation Wildlife. Moreover, the proposal is not to ban circuses, rather only the exotic animal acts that some circuses contain. There are many truly entertaining circuses that rely on great creativity and feats of human skill to entertain.
I hope Mayor Dunfield, and all the other commissioners of Lawrence and Douglas County, will keep an open mind until they have fully considered the issue.
Mary P.
Lawrence
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Judy Carman went to the circus as a child, but now she sees the big top as a center of fear and cruelty for the performing animals.
"A lot of people don't realize that these animals are being tortured nearly every day," Carman said, "because they're not going to perform these tricks unless they're brutally beaten."
That's why Carman and the organization she co-founded, Animal Outreach of Kansas, are asking Lawrence and Douglas County commissioners to ban "exotic animal acts, a law that would effectively prohibit most circuses from coming to town.
Carman said she hoped to get action on the request within the next three or four months, but elected officials sound skeptical.
"I don't have anything but fond memories of circuses, both as a child and as a parent," Douglas County Commission Chairman Bob Johnson said last week. "I'm not saying I have my mind made up, but you'd have a hard time changing my mind."
George Pages, owner of Circus Pages -- the last circus to perform in Lawrence, in 2002 -- said banning circuses would create a backlash.
"If they pass that law ... based on a few people in town, they're in for a rude awakening," Pages said from his headquarters in Myakka City, Fla. "It's just a few people who don't like circuses."
‘They can dominate'
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That's because most people don't realize the cruelty behind the scenes at many circuses, Carman said.
Circuses are "supposed to be fun," she said. "But most people love animals, and they're very compassionate. Once they learn what goes on behind the scenes, they don't want to go anymore."
While speaking, she brandished a "bull hook" -- essentially a wooden ax handle attached to a sharp metal hook. She said circus trainers used the tool to hit elephants behind the ears, around the eyes and on the legs so the animals would comply with orders.
"They're trying to get the message across to this animal that, even though humans are smaller, they can dominate," she said.
Pages said examples of animal cruelty in circuses existed but were rare.
"You can't judge a whole industry by a few bad apples," he said. "Not every circus out there will mistreat their animals."
And Pages said he spent plenty of money on feed and medical care for the animals in his circus.
"It's an act of love," he said. "You have to love these animals."
‘An opportunity'
Carman said the ban also would protect public health. Animals can carry disease, or escape from their bonds and injure circus patrons.
She has already met with city and county officials to press for the ban, often carrying the bull hook -- mounted to a board to render it benign -- to her presentations. She said rodeos and 4-H exhibitions would not be covered under the ordinance.
"We're getting a positive response so far," Carman said. "We're wanting to build a number of supporters, so this can happen for the sake of the animals and our city, our county."
But Mayor David Dunfield said he wasn't inclined to ban circuses.
"What I've told her in the past is that it seems to me that, yes, there is the possibility of cruelty -- undoubtedly some of these operations don't treat their animals correctly," Dunfield said.
"They also provide people an opportunity to learn about the animals in the shows, have some interaction they don't have, and that can be a good thing," he said. "The educational side is the flip side of the argument."
But Carman, whose group also shows anti-meat videos Friday nights on the streets of downtown Lawrence, believes people will change their minds when they see the bull hook.
"Because people in general love animals," she said, "all we really need to do is let them know what's going on."
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Stray felines find homes Students and Animal Outreach of Kansas use determination, compassion to find homes for stray cats |
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November 3, 2003
Four stray black cats now sit together in the warmth of their new home in a barn. Until recently, the cats roamed the area around the old University of Kansas Powerhouse building; an area that is now fenced off as construction workers demolish the powerhouse to make way for the new Hall Center for the Humanities. No one is positive where the cats came from, but many believe that they were KU students’ pets that found themselves without a home when their owners went home for the summer, said Judy Carman, one of the three founding members of Animal Outreach of Kansas. Left alone, the cats went feral; that is, became too poorly socialized to be handled. Without the powerhouse’s walls for shelter during the winter, the cats’ future looked grim. Julia Franklin, Topeka senior, refused to abandon the cats to their fate. In response to the Sept. 18 University Daily Kansan article “Campus cats to lose home,” Franklin, a member of AOK, decided to rescue the cats. “I saw that and said ‘We’ve got to do something,’” she said. “‘We can’t ignore it.’” AOK started in 2001 with three animal lovers who met at a candlelight vigil for a mother cat that had been tortured to death. Since then, AOK has grown to an organization with 20 active members and more than 100 people on its e-group. Franklin has been in it almost from the beginning, ever since she saw footage of a slaughterhouse. She said that joining AOK changed her life. “It made me realize that I can change the world a little bit,” she said. Franklin said that usually AOK just tried to raise awareness and money to combat animal abuse. While the weather holds, the group shows footage of meat packing plants on a portable television at Eighth and Massachusetts streets every Friday between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Franklin said responses were good, though the group has had the occasional insult — and hamburger — tossed its way. When the group decided to try to relocate the campus cats, it was the first time it had attempted anything of the sort. “This is our first really big project like this,” Franklin said. “We help out when we can.” AOK decided to trap the cats, have them spayed or neutered, then adopted. “Spaying and neutering is really the only answer,” Carman said. “But it’s a bad solution to a really bad problem.” To minimize the rabies risk, AOK members used cage-style traps covered over with blankets to disguise them and baited with strong-smelling sardines. Last Wednesday night Carman led AOK members in their first night of cat trapping. With cool evening air stinking of fish, AOK members watched from 30 feet away as each cat entered one of the three traps. That was their most successful night; they drove to the vet the next morning with Taylor’s four black males and one gray female. Over the next week they returned almost every night and ended up with 13 cats, nine adults and four kittens. “I think we’ve gotten as many as we’re going to catch,” Franklin said on Wednesday, a few hours before finding the fourth kitten. Though trapping the cats proved to be tricky, the harder part was finding people who were willing to take in feral animals. After weeks of searching, AOK received help from two sources. The first was the Lawrence Humane Society, which put them in touch with prospective adopters. The second was Eudora veterinarian Mickey Jenks, who had agreed to spay or neuter the cats and give them their rabies shots. Jenks found homes for four of the cats with her sister Kim Taylor, three others with friends, and finally one of the kittens at her own farm. Ideally, the cats would all be kept together because they lived in a big group at the University. But given the limited resources, the best that could be done was to keep together the four cats at Taylor’s house, who were the same age and were probably littermates. “A lot of people aren’t in favor of taking in feral cats because you’re taking a risk,” Jenks said. Jenks said they were afraid of rabies, which Midge Grinstead, the executive director of the Lawrence Humane Society, said was a problem in this area. Jenks has been taking in cats for years and said that while 99 percent of her cats were feral, she has never had to deal with rabies. Carman said that she wished all of the cats could return to their home in the powerhouse instead of having to be relocated. “What we’re doing isn’t the greatest situation,” she said. “We’d like to bring them back here, but their territory is being demolished and they’d either wind up being killed or disbanded.” Grinstead agreed that they couldn’t stay, but said that spaying and neutering cats and then releasing them offered the cats a poor quality of life. She said that she found five to 10 dead feral cats a week that had been hit by cars or poisoned. “We find some horrible things in dumpsters all the time, and some of them are cats,” she said. Grinstead said that she would support AOK in finding homes for the feral cats, which live in several spots on campus. Grinstead offered $40-per-cat vouchers to help defray the $67-per-cat expense of spaying and neutering. Having already spent about $600 in AOK funds to take care of the 13 cats from the powerhouse, Franklin said that the organization could not afford to help all of the cats on campus by itself. Instead, Franklin and her sister Emily are working to put together a task force that they said they want to bring KU students together to help the cats. If they register with the University, they can receive funds from Student Senate, but first they’d need a professor to sponsor them. For right now, Julia Franklin is just glad to be almost done relocating the powerhouse cats. Her classes have forced her to be on the go during the day, but the cats’ nocturnal habits have kept her and other AOK members up all night. “My sleeping schedule is so out of whack,” she said. The cats, too, seemed glad to be past the relocation. Jenks and Taylor said that the cats they were taking care of had been friendly to them, if still a little cautious. Jenks nor Taylor has named the cats yet. “Once you name them, then you get attached,” she said. “I hope they stay though. They’ll have a nice home if they stay.” — Edited by Abby Sidesinger |
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Local activists use shock to get to the meat of the matter
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
"What you are about to see is beyond your worst nightmares," narrates a voice coming from a small TV outside on a table at Eighth and Massachusetts streets.
Unsuspecting shoppers and diners stroll by as Friday night falls -- dozens of them stop dead in their tracks, arrested by gory images of a still-breathing cow, throat slit, blood gushing from the would. The camera zooms in on the cow's mouth as its lips slowly stop quivering.
It's not a Halloween horror flick. It's "Meet Your Meat," a documentary that follows the meat many ate for dinner from the farm to their plate. And then some.
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With an ominous voice befitting readings of Edgar Allan Poe, Alec Baldwin narrates:
"For animals raised on modern intensive production farms and killed in slaughterhouses, it is cold, inescapable reality. Once you see for yourself the routine cruelty involved in raising animals for food, you'll understand why millions of compassionate people have decided to leave meat off their plates...for good."
Thus goes the reasoning of animal rights groups -- like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and Lawrence's AOK (Animal Outreach of Kansas) -- for showing such gut-churning images in public.
As Baldwin's voice continues, the sequence of horrific video clips does not relent.
On a vast warehouse floor, a sea of chickens parts as a man clubs stragglers with a hammer. They're then lobbed into bins by the handful. Squealing pigs emerge on a conveyor belt from a scalding bath, writhing in pain. Otherwise cute-faced cows have their horns clipped off with bolt-cutters while conscious, spraying blood from the wounds like water guns. A dairy cow's lesions fester with pus and flies. Another diseased, half-dead cow is dragged into a truck on its side as Baldwin tells viewers such animals are routinely processed as Grade A beef.
"The idea is to catch their eye," said Judy Carman, whose group AOK has set up the booth on Mass. Street many Friday evenings for the last two years.
Several volunteers distribute animal rights literature while the videos play.
"Maybe it will plant a seed," Carman said of the video, which is available online at lawrence.com. "Much worse things happen every minute of every day. We believe that most people have good hearts, and if they knew what was going on, they would choose to stop eating meat or get meat from family farms where the animals were not confined and not tortured."
"Basically what we're trying to do is show the truth," she said. "Images have a much bigger impact than words. People don't think of a hamburger as a cow being strung up by their legs, bled while they're still alive. Or having their legs cut off or skinned alive. That what's happening. The truth is being hidden from people. Like Paul McCartney said, if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. That's what we're trying to do is put glass walls on the slaughterhouses."
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Social
Darwinism
Of course many people see the images without ever considering giving up meat.
Some have no problem eating a fat burger with the PETA videos fresh in their
mind.
Lawrence resident Aaron Weatherford said he's indifferent to the videos show by Carman's group.
"I've been around that sort of stuff, and it doesn't really affect me I guess," said Weatherford. "I remember when I was a kid, my dad would come home from hunting trips and cut off the pheasant's feet and we'd pull on the tendons to make the claws close. That was always fun, so I don't think I was ever put off by it."
Weatherford also grew up around one link in the beef industry chain. His dad raises some 150 head of cattle a year on a 320-acre farm west of Clinton Lake. His Hereford/Angus mix steers are raised for five to six months and then sold at auctions houses. Though his family's involvement with the cattle stops short of slaughterhouses, he's well aware of what's going on.
"Slaughterhouses are going to be gross. Obviously," said Weatherford, adding that he doesn't eat veal because producing it involves unnecessary cruelty. "But I'm too much of a social Darwinist to really care. I think there is a difference between humans and animals. We do have canine teeth for a reason. Slaughterhouses are how you feed people. Would it be any different if people had cows in their back yard (for meat)? It's just different because people don't want to see it. People want their meat but they don't want to be confronted with it."
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Beaucoup beef
Indeed beef is in higher demand than it has been in 10 years, in part thanks to
the no-carb high-protein Atkins diet, a much hyped way to lose weight by eating
less breads and pasta and eating more meat instead.
In 2002, the average American spent more than $400 on meat products. A sizable chunk of that goes directly into the pockets of Kansans. More than 20,000 Kansans work in the production and processing of meat, and the state ranks second in the United States for live animal and meat exports, valued at $748 million in 2002.
The industry pocket book is where Carman and the 20 active members of AOK hope to win their fight for stricter animal rights laws. Though a May Gallup poll indicated 62 percent of Americans support passing such laws, only about 4 percent of the population is vegetarian. Carman said several AOK volunteers spend 20 hours a week trying to marshal support for industry reform and get people to buy fewer meat products, if not boycott them altogether.
"We know that the majority of people eat meat, but the majority of people don't know what an animal goes through before they are eaten," Carman said. "We want people to know that so they can vote with their dollars and stop supporting the factory-farm industry."
Ironically, the meat industry is also interested in the "humane handling" of animals, according to the American Meat Institute, including for economic reasons. A report by the instute says that "stressed" animals produce lower-quality meat, which can result in economic loss. "Animals that are calm and well-handled typically will move through the chutes more easily, which enables the process to operate efficiently," reads an AMI fact sheet.
Not all of AOK's work involves shocking people into awareness. The group also travels around the state, passing out leaflets to crowds at circuses or rodeos, documenting events like a rural "Chicken Fly" where the flightless birds are dropped from ladders as a fundraiser, or trapping feral cats on campus at KU. Last year, a couple dozen volunteers held a service outside IBP processing plant in Emporia "in memory of the 3,500 cows killed by IBP daily," as a sign read.
Carman concedes that protesters run the risk of being dismissed or even ridiculed by staging bizarre events. "It's hard to know how much impact you're having," Carman said. "But it's like Ghandi said: It's all an experiment in truth. We're constantly trying to think of new ways to get the truth out in ways that will attract enough attention that people might think about it. You know, people have funerals for their dogs, why not for a cow. It's pushing the envelope out a little bit farther than people are used to thinking."
To that end Carman also wrote a book titled "Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul," published by Lantern Books. (The paperback is available used on Amazon.com for $10 and new at the Community Mercantile) The book attempts to reach people through their religious beliefs by connecting humans' collective spiritual peace with eliminating violence to the environment, to other humans, and to animals.
"The book articulates the vision we share for a peaceful world," Carman said. "It's hard to keep that vision ... we're living in a world-view that human beings have the right to exploit animals -- and other people and the environment, too. We're moving toward another paradigm that we should respect all beings including animals ... but it's going to take a long, long time."
Links ::
animaloutreach-ks.org
peta.org
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Campus cats to
lose home |
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Kansan staff writer |
With the demolition of most of the old Powerhouse, some of Lawrence's furrier residents will find themselves without a home.
The stray cats that live around the abandoned building behind Facilities Operations will soon have to relocate or face capture by the Humane Society, Monte Rogers, a plumber for Facilities Operations, said.
Though Rogers doesn't actually own the cats, he has been taking care of them for 10 years. He's named most of them Tiger, Gray, Silver, Boots, Fluff, among others built a lean-to to give them shade and put cat food out for them.
Just whatever's on sale, he said.
The cats Rogers takes care of are feral cats: animals too poorly socialized to be handled and that cannot be placed into typical pet homes. But with the part of the Powerhouse the Universitys oldest standing building scheduled to be demolished to pave way for the new Hall Center for the Humanities, Rogers wonders what will happen to his furry neighbors.
If I had a great big farm out in the country, I could take them out there and let them go, Rogers said.
The groundbreaking for the new Hall Center was Sept. 4. The construction, funded by a $3.26 million gift from the Hall Family Foundation, with an additional $500,000 in private funds, will leave only the arched facade of the original building to be incorporated into the new Hall Center.
Meanwhile, the cats that used to live in the area, hunting mice and other small wildlife, will have to find a new place to stay and hide from the pound. The Humane Society has already captured several of them and taken them away, Rogers said.
Midge Grinstead, director of the Humane Society of Lawrence, said that while she didn't know about any trappings by the Humane Society at the University, feral cats had been a problem in the area.
They're more prolific than rabbits, she said. And cats have surpassed dogs in cases of rabies in the state of Kansas.
While many groups advocate the spay/neuter and release plan for feral cats, Grinstead said that it was more humane to euthanize adult strays when they came in if they could not be reintroduced to human company when they came in.
How are strays going to get water? And in the winter, where will they stay? she said. Their ears and noses will freeze.
Grinstead said that, depending on the circumstances, younger strays could be adopted and tamed.
Tristan McCafferty, Lawrence junior, did just that with his kitten, Cash.
A year and a half ago, he adopted the tan kitten from a farm in Baldwin, where it had already started to go feral.
If you can get them early enough, its better than letting them get put to sleep, he said.
Grinstead warned against students adopting a cat if they couldn't take care of a pet during the summer.
She said she blamed the current University feral cat problem on students releasing their pets on campus to fend for themselves.
The cats and their kittens will be facing the upcoming winter without the benefit of an empty insulated building to live in, but Rogers didn't plan to leave them entirely out in the cold.
If they keep coming around, Ill keep feeding them, he said.
He said he also hoped to have them tame enough to pet soon.
They're just like anything wild, he said. You just have to earn their trust.
— Edited by Neeley Spellmeier
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There's one good thing about feral cats.
"They'd probably be good mousers," Julia Franklin said.
Franklin, who is involved with Animal Outreach of Kansas, is helping lead a hunt for a new home for seven or eight feral cats who live at Kansas University.
The cats live near the 1887 Powerhouse slated for partial demolition to make way for the new Hall Center for the Humanities. KU officials and animal lovers are concerned that the cats would be harmed during the construction.
If trapped by the Douglas County Humane Society, the cats likely would be euthanized. Humane Society policy doesn't allow feral cats to be adopted.
"They have a right to live, in my opinion," Franklin said.
Judy Carman, president of Animal Outreach of Kansas, said the group needed one or two people living in the country to take the cats. Packs of feral cats do best when adopted out in groups of three or more, she said.
Feral cats must be kept in a cage for a month after they're trapped and moved because they always try to return to the place where they received their food. A maintenance worker at KU feeds the cats.
"They'd probably get killed trying to go back," Carman said.
People for Animal Rights in Kansas City, Mo., has offered to help pay for the cats to be spayed and neutered.
Jeff Weinberg, assistant to Chancellor Robert Hemenway, said KU welcomed the actions.
"If the right group could find homes for them, then absolutely, positively," Weinberg said Thursday.
"That would be wonderful. Sounds perfect."
Anyone interested in adopting the cats can contact the group at aok@animaloutreachofkansas.org.
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Friday, October 10, 2003
To the editor:
I am writing regarding the tiger mauling of Roy Horn of the Siegfried & Roy show. The media has covered this event extensively and focused on support of Roy Horn, but I think the mauling also serves as a salient example of why using animals for our entertainment is unwise. This tiger, after being forced to live unnaturally and perform unnatural acts, while existing in "prison" otherwise, finally showed that he/she had had enough. Wild animals are not meant to perform in such acts; if they were, they would not have to be beaten and tortured into performing for us.
I regret the suffering that Roy Horn is enduring and will continue to endure; I hope that others in the animal entertainment industry (and those who pay to observe such "entertainment") will take note of this incident and consider carefully what they subject animals to in the name of "fun."
Megen Duffy,
Lawrence
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Animal abuse accusations follow Ringling to KC
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AOK's Wichita branch protesting Kentucky Fried Chicken -- July 1, 2003
Lawrence Journal World
Friday, June 27, 2003
To the editor:
I am writing in response to the June 23 article on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and the laboratory in Missouri. First, I just want to say thank you, PETA! All of us that care about animals should be grateful to them for once again blowing the whistle on animal abuse and the abusers.
The undercover footage and information we are supplied with by PETA is usually very disheartening and ugly. I think most of us don't want to believe that such horrible things happen to our animal friends in the meat, entertainment, clothing and animal-testing industry. However, they DO, every second of every day. Most of us turn a blind eye and pretend like it doesn't happen.
Then, when PETA brings these horrible images to our attention, we're angry with them. And why? Because it's information we didn't want to know about? The "ignorance is bliss" way of living? Or better yet, our society labels them as terrorists. Now this one I find very interesting. I think we need to really ask ourselves what the definition of a terrorist is. The person(s) doing the torturing and killing, or the whistle-blower.
PETA has never harmed anyone; nor would they ever. I think some very powerful industries in America are grasping at their last straws in protecting their business practices and profits (which usually means animal suffering), by calling PETA terrorists. They are no more terrorists than my grandmother or me.
The public can dislike the messenger (PETA) all they want. It still doesn't change the message.
Ann W.
Lawrence
Sunday, March 23, 2003
It was a good, old-fashioned barbecue -- without the meat.
Local vegetarians and a few omnivores feasted Saturday on grilled Boca Burgers and soy dogs, potato chips and vegan cheesecake during the Great American Meatout.
A few hundred people gathered in South Park to enjoy the weather and make a statement on the annual day, which is nationally sponsored by the Farm Animal Reform Movement and locally organized by Animal Outreach of Kansas.
Now in its 19th year, the Meatout is the world's largest and oldest annual grassroots diet education campaign.
The hope in Lawrence is to raise awareness about the lifestyle, said Megan Fobes, a local organizer.
She said she believed eating meat led to health problems, cruelty to animals and ecological damage.
Plus, she said, "vegan food is very yummy."
Animal Outreach played host to a smaller Meatout last year at the library, Fobes said, but the group's membership has increased, and it hoped to raise money at the free event through donations.
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The outdoor venue seemed to draw a bigger crowd. A line stretched across the park as a woman in a cow costume beckoned passing cars to stop.
Shanon and Jeff Fouquet drove from Topeka to attend the Meatout.
Vegetarians for three years, Shanon Fouquet said she hoped the event got "some people thinking."
"Just educate yourself," she said. "If you learn all about it and you still want to eat meat, at least you know what's going on."
A lot of people assume vegetarians only eat lettuce and carrots, but that's not the case, her husband said.
Still, the couple who recently moved to Topeka from Hays, said they had never had barbecued tofu, something of a specialty at the Meatout.
But Jeff Fouquet laughed.
"Being out in western Kansas, we're kind of out of the loop," he said.
Birdies make transition to vegetarianism
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Whoever said that being a vegetarian means giving up good taste never had lunch with the Birdie family of Lawrence.
Purviz Birdie is a whiz in the kitchen, and today she has cooked up a feast intended to prove that you don't have to eat meat in order to eat well.
Arranged on the kitchen table is a colorful, aromatic spread of Indian dishes -- scented with ginger, garlic, onion, cayenne pepper and tumeric -- that contain not a bit of meat or animal by-products.
Purviz has prepared bowls of Chick Anarkali with chunks of textured vegetable protein flavored like chicken; Tofu Anarkali; a large platter of potatoes and spicy, shredded mock meat; and bowls of basmati rice, dal (a stew of lentils and cabbage) and a dish made of spinach and mustard greens.
And for dessert: a homemade, vegan chocolate-orange cheesecake topped with slices of mandarin oranges.
Don't be scared off by the mention of ingredients such as soy-based vegetable protein and tofu. They don't detract from a thoroughly delicious meal that only the most committed of carnivores might turn up his or her nose.
"I just replace all my meat dishes with the mock meats, and we're not missing anything," says Purviz, a Raintree Montessori School teacher.
Her eldest daughter, Aryenish, a 17-year-old senior at Lawrence High School, agrees.
"People are beginning to realize that being a vegetarian doesn't mean you can't eat. I actually eat more," she says.
Great American Meatout
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The Birdie family -- its other members are Purviz's husband, Tiraz, a mechanical engineer, and daughter Parendi, 12, a sixth-grader at Raintree Montessori School -- are a good example of people who have decided to make the transition to a vegetarian diet.
It's a lifestyle choice that's celebrated each year with an event called "The Great American Meatout," billed as the world's largest annual grassroots diet-education campaign.
The point of the one-day Meatout -- the 19th annual observance of the event is Thursday -- is to educate people about vegetarianism, urging them to "kick the meat habit on March 20 and explore a wholesome, nonviolent plant-based diet."
Aryenish, bound for Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., in the fall, is the reason the Birdie family decided to go vegetarian.
She gave up eating meat as a sophomore, and eventually became a vegan, giving up all animal by-products, too.
"I've always loved animals. Once I educated myself about what goes on, as far as factory farming and the way animals are killed for food, I just couldn't pretend it wasn't happening," she says.
"My parents have always been so animal friendly. We don't buy products that are tested on animals. We don't kill spiders or anything. Vegetarianism seemed like the next step to me."
Making the dietary change wasn't that difficult for Aryenish, a member of Animal Outreach of Kansas, a Lawrence-based animal welfare group.
She did it gradually, over the course of two months.
"I never really liked fish, so I took out all seafood first. Then red meat, pork and then chicken was last. I was doing it in increments. If I had done it all at once, it would have been hard," she says.
"I always tell people (trying vegetarianism), ‘Take it one step at a time. Don't do it all at once.'"
Dropping meat and animal by-products hasn't reduced her to a diet of lettuce and spring water, though.
"I'm actually eating more. There are all these fake meats (textured vegetable protein flavored to taste like fish, chicken, beef and pork). Instead of meat being the centerpiece of a meal, there are so many other things to eat," Aryenish says.
"It tastes exactly the same to me, but it's cruelty free."
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Following daughter's lead
Purviz -- persuaded by her daughter's ideas and inspired by her example -- became a vegetarian herself about 10 months ago.
"Aryenish and I went to see ‘The Witness' (a film about one man's journey to animal welfare activism) at Liberty Hall, and I couldn't watch the last 10 minutes. I had tears running down my face," she says.
"I understood that I couldn't justify eating animals once I realized they were the same as my dogs, as far as feeling pain and suffering."
Purviz and Tiraz, who emigrated to the United States from Karachi, Pakistan, in 1984, had contemplated adopting a vegetarian diet once before.
But it was Aryenish who eventually led the whole family to take that step.
"I feel healthier," Purviz says. "I've lost weight, and I haven't had to cut down on the amount of food I eat."
All of the meals she prepares for her family are vegetarian. Purviz is a talented cook and she has made the transition away from meat much easier.
"It's going well. My wife really makes excellent food. Without her cooking, it would be more difficult," Tiraz says.
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So good, in fact, that Purviz hopes to soon be marketing five flavors of her own vegan cheesecakes in Lawrence, under the name Happy Cow Desserts.
Though she's still working out the details, Purviz has settled on these flavors: chocolate raspberry, chocolate orange, mocha almond fudge, New York-style with cherries and Hawaiian.
"I love to cook. I learned from my mother. My earliest memories are of opening up my mom's magazines and trying out the recipes," she says.
Purviz, who likes to cook Chinese and Indian dishes, buys soy-based meat substitutes from The Mail Order Catalog for Healthy Eating, which has a Web site online at www.healthy-eating.com.
Aryenish isn't worried about being able to maintain her vegan diet when she leaves Lawrence for school this fall.
That's because the cafeteria at Hampshire College offers vegan selections at every meal.
"But I'll still want my mom to send me food," she says.
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Monday, December 23, 2002
They wore Santa Claus hats and sandwich signs but not much else.
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Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo
Shoppers get an eyeful as Animal Outreach of Kansas members, protest fur at the northeast corner of Eighth and Massachusetts streets. The protesters braved the cold for two hours Sunday as part of a nationwide campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against wearing real animal fur. |
Five Lawrence women drew honks, cheers and criticism downtown Sunday by staging a nearly naked animal-rights protest.
Their message: They'd rather expose their shivering flesh to holiday shoppers than wear fur.
"A couple hours of discomfort is nothing compared to what animals on fur farms endure," 25-year-old software engineer Megan Fobes said as she held a sign against her midsection.
To avoid arrest for public indecency, the women at Eighth and Massachusetts streets wrapped their torsos in peach-colored nylon beforehand. Two of them - Monica Dibben, 28, and Aryenish Birdie, 17 - wore bathrobes with signs underneath and flashed motorists as they passed.
Many drivers honked, whether to show their distaste for fur or their enthusiasm for human skin. One driver asked where he could find a good prime rib, and others shouted that animals exist for humans to eat and wear.
The protest was organized by Animal Outreach of Kansas, a Lawrence-based group with about 65 members. But it was part of a nationwide campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a sometimes controversial group.
Lawrence resident Lorie Foltz, 40, heard about the protest in advance and went downtown to challenge the protesters.
Foltz cited news reports that say PETA gave money to the Earth Liberation Front, a covert group that torches buildings as a way to stop development in environmentally sensitive areas.
"I don't want to see minks and foxes killed. Standing out there to get attention is a fantastic thing, but research," Foltz said. "PETA has been in a lot of trouble."
Fobes said it might have been a public-relations mistake for PETA to give money to the group, but she said she supported the Earth Liberation Front's tactics.
"It might be important to mention that not one drop of blood has been shed in the entire animal rights or environmental rights campaign," she said.
The protesters' message puzzled Jeff Morrison, leader of a group that was singing Christmas carols on the opposite street corner to raise money for charity.
At times, his group's harmonies were drowned out by chants of "Hey, Hey! Ho! Ho! Wearing fur has got to go!," but Morrison was good-natured about it.
"It was distracting. We couldn't really figure out if there were very many people in Lawrence who wear fur," he said. "They can do whatever they think they need to."
Wednesday, December 25, 2002
To the editor:
This holiday season I would like to remind everyone about some issues regarding pets.
First, please don't get someone a dog or cat as a gift for Christmas. Pets are not "gifts." They are living creatures with needs and wants that have to be tended to for their whole lives -- usually at least 12 years. Too many people get family members pets for Christmas, and after a few weeks or months, once the newness wears off, animals end up in shelters or thrown outside and forgotten about. A pet is an important, lifelong decision.
Secondly, please don't buy a puppy from a pet store. When you buy, you are supporting the puppy mill industry, plain and simple. Puppy mills are very substandard, mass-breeding facilities that sell their "livestock" to brokers, who in turn truck them off to stores across the country. More than likely, not only will you pay an outrageous amount of money for the puppy, you will probably end up with high vet bills because many of the mill pups have all kinds of health and genetic problems resulting from inbreeding and horrible housing conditions.
Lastly, if you do decide you want a companion animal, please support local shelters (our Lawrence shelter is wonderful), rescue organizations and small, reputable breeders. With over an estimated 8 million pets euthanized every year in our country, we owe it to these abandoned, lost souls to adopt them, and not support the puppy mill industry whose main concern is profit.
Ann W.
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John L. Sturdy/The South End
Vegetables are a staple in the diets of vegans who oppose eating all animal
products including meat, dairy and eggs.
By Lindsay Hanson
University Daily Kansan
(U-WIRE) LAWRENCE, Kan. - Vegans say they perform better in bed than those who eat meat and dairy products.
"Basically, your arteries don't get clogged up," Julia Franklin, Topeka junior and two-year vegan, said with a chuckle. "Think of all the little blood vessels."
For many vegans, such as Franklin and her sister, Emily, Topeka senior, veganism is more than a commitment to a diet. The Franklin sisters said they converted to veganism to boycott animal cruelty. They watch for labels notorious for animal testing.
"It's a lifestyle in which, for me, you try to reduce the suffering," Julia Franklin said.
Veganism is abstaining from anything that exploits animals. In addition to avoiding meats and dairy products, Julia Franklin said she had to watch for household shampoos, lotions and carpet cleaners she couldn't identify as cruelty-free products, which are often labeled.
But the transition to strict veganism after dabbling in vegetarian practices for about a month wasn't as hard as Julia Franklin had imagined, she said. She joined a local activist group, Animal Outreach of Kansas, which is where she found support because its members shared her ideals.
Julia Franklin said she never had a problem satisfying her hunger while abstaining from meat and dairy products. "Analogue" products - such as chickenless nuggets and soy ice cream - often cost more than their traditional counterparts but can provide comfort with their familiar taste when she went vegan. The many restrictions haven't stopped her from eating at restaurants.
"It's just like having a food allergy," she said, adding that she always asked waiters how the food had been prepared.
Cutting the meat and dairy has cut the fat from Julia Franklin's diet. Before making the switch to veganism, she said she carried a little extra weight. Since then, she has lost 40 pounds almost unconsciously, she said.
"I feel a lot better and don't get sick as often now," she said. "I don't feel as icky, I guess."
Ann Chapman, coordinator of nutrition services at Watkins Memorial Health Center and registered dietitian, said she had coached students trying to keep a balanced vegan diet. Educating oneself is key to succeeding and staying healthy, she said.
"You have to have read about it to know what's going to be lacking in your diet," she said. "It can be an adequate diet if you know what you're doing."
She said vegans should take special care to include essential vitamins and minerals, such as B12, iron and riboflavin, all of which could easily be overlooked.
One student converted to a vegan diet with different goals in mind. Nick Ray, Burlington sophomore, converted this July not to stop animal cruelty but to improve his health.
"I get a lot of bad stigma with it because a lot of vegans are doing it for animal rights," he said. "I still wear leather shoes."
Around mid-September, Ray said he cheated once and ate a slice of American cheese. He said the cheese made him sick.
Ray, who shops for salad ingredients for Stephenson Scholarship Hall, said the biggest challenge was eating in a group living situation.
"It is pretty hard because you have to cook all your own meals and sometimes it's definitely a struggle," he said.
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Health, ethical reasons attract some residents to animal-free diet
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Imagine a diet completely devoid of animal products and byproducts.
No meat of any kind, no dairy and no eggs.
Not even honey - sorry, it's made by bees.
Let's see, what's left over?
Fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds and nuts. The good news is you can have as much of these as you like.
And if that's all you ate, what you'd be is a vegan (pronounced vee-gan).
It might sound pretty extreme, but in Lawrence - home to legions of vegetarians, many of whom do eat dairy products and eggs - it's becoming a lifestyle choice more people are looking into.
Like Ann Wilson, an unlikely vegan if ever there was one.
"I was the biggest carnivore you could imagine. I ate meat like there was no tomorrow," said Wilson, 32. "I grew up in a central Kansas farming community, and we ate meat three to four times a day."
Not any more.
You won't find a scrap of food that came from an animal on Wilson's dinner plate. Or anywhere else in her diet, for that matter. Even Wilson is able to appreciate the irony.
"My dad raises cows now, that's the funny thing. If I could do it (become a vegan), anybody could," she said.
It doesn't take too much effort to find other vegans around town. Like John Momberg, 20. He's been a vegan for four years.
"I started hanging out with some friends who were vegetarian, and I kind of became a vegetarian by default," said Momberg, the frozen-foods buyer at the Community Mercantile Co-op (known as The Merc), 901 Iowa.
"One of the guys was vegan, and he had a lot of books on animal rights and medical studies done about people on diets with or without animal products."
Momberg soon made the transition to veganism for ethical reasons, a common motivation among vegans. He wanted to make certain that the diet he was eating was cruelty free.
Still, there are tastes he misses.
"Macaroni and cheese - Kraft, 49 cents per box. And pizza with cheese. It was easy to stop eating meat, but it was hard to stop eating cheese," he said.
More challenging way to eat
Is it even good for people to be vegans?
Sure, according to Nancy O'Connor, The Merc's longtime nutrition coordinator (and a vegetarian for 27 years).
"A vegan diet can most definitely be a healthy, balanced diet, but it does take more attention, particularly to nutrients like calcium," she said.
"You can get calcium easily, but with some thought. Almost all nonmilk beverages - soy-based, rice-based, nut-based - come in enriched varieties. The enrichment package matches the nutritional profile of milk."
Nutrients like protein that are found in animal products also can be derived from foods like tofu, which is made from soybeans.
"Another one is Vitamin B12. You don't need much of it, and your body stores it. If you're a vegan, you need to pay attention that you're getting enough. A lot of products are fortified; soy milks have B12 added," O'Connor said.
Contrary to what you'd expect, maintaining a vegetarian or even a vegan diet doesn't have to be limiting.
"It's nearly endless, all the dishes you could make in a lifetime. It's just a different way of thinking," O'Connor said.
It's actually liberating, in a sense.
"When people build a meal that includes meat, they build the meal around it. So when you take out meat, and you take out dairy and eggs, you have to rethink the way you approach putting meals together. It's very freeing - you can put them together any way you'd like."
Of course, it is a bit harder for vegans to order at restaurants. They have to scrutinize each dish on the menu, looking to see what's in it and exactly how its p'repared.
"It's more challenging," O'Connor said. "You have to ask more questions. In a lot of Asian cooking, for example, they use fish sauce. If you're a vegetarian or vegan, you care about that."
Vegetable-protein 'meat loaf'
Megen Duffy, who's been a vegan for about a year, is very careful about her diet.
"I'm a strict vegan, with the exception that, if I'm in a restaurant and there's a little honey as an ingredient in something, I'll eat it. But in my home, I'm totally vegan - no honey, nothing," said Duffy, 27.
That means eliminating even any trace of animal byproducts, such as: casein, a protein found in milk and cheese; gelatin, derived from boiled animal tissues; and whey, produced in making cheese.
Why did she decide to take the jump to veganism?
"I couldn't really see any good reason not to become vegan. I read Eric Schlosser's book, 'Fast Food Nation' ('Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal,' Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001). I started thinking it's better for my health and the environment, and I don't want to contribute to today's factory farming system. It seemed like a logical thing to do, and I haven't regretted it ever," she said.
So far, the transition hasn't been that difficult for Duffy.
"I was raised in a mostly vegetarian family, so I never developed much of a taste for meat. Instead of ice cream, I eat Soy Dream (an organic, nondairy frozen dessert). I love the mocha fudge flavor they have at The Merc and Hy-Vee. This is my last vice," she said.
Nor has veganism done much to change her habits in the kitchen.
"I cook a lot," she said. "I'm getting ready to put a 'meat loaf' in the oven. This particular recipe uses stuff called textured vegetable protein (TVP). I think it's really good. Mind you, I've never had a real meat loaf, so I don't know that it tastes like meat loaf."
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Activist urges Lawrence faithful to embrace all of creation
Saturday, October 12, 2002
World peace begins on your dinner plate.
That's the philosophy of Judy Carman, a co-founder of Lawrence-based Animal Outreach of Kansas, an animal-welfare group with about 15 active members and an e-mailing list of approximately 60 people.
"We can't expect to have peace on earth as long as we're killing 10 billion farm animals a year in the United States and 45 billion animals worldwide," Carman said.
She believes the fate of humans and animals are bound together. When you advocate for one, you're advocating for the other.
In other words, taking care of all of God's creations is in the best interest of humankind.
"One person who becomes vegan (consumes no animal products) can save the lives of 100 animals a year. At the same time, when you don't eat an animal, you're reducing the amount of grain that could go to feed hungry people," she said.
It's a mindset that could lead to world peace, she said.
"All life is sacred, and all life is interconnected. When you help animals, you help people, you help save the environment for future generations," Carman said.
On Sept. 28, Carman's group sponsored a vigil outside the IBP meat-processing plant in Emporia to memorialize the farm animals killed in the United States each year, including about 3,500 cattle each day at the IBP plant.
The event, called "Ten Billion Reasons to Care," attracted 27 participants from the Kansas City area, Lawrence, Manhattan and Emporia.
The vigil corresponded with the 20th Annual World Farm Animals Day held Oct. 2 — also the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the foremost champion of humane farming; and Oct. 6, the Feast of St. Francis, a day honoring the patron saint of animals and nature. In addition, October is Vegetarian Awareness Month.
"It was a very emotional and profound experience. We were silent, dressed in black and holding flowers. We were trying to convey that in this violent world, if we add more violence we're not helping people or animals. Love and compassion is the answer," Carman said.
Stewardship, not ownership
It's a message she's hoping to get across to Lawrence's spiritual leaders and their faith communities.
Carman sent an open letter to about 25 members of the clergy in Lawrence and Emporia, urging them to announce the vigil to their congregations and encourage them to attend, as well as to pray for animals of all kinds on Sept. 28 and throughout October.
But the letter does much more than that.
"We believe the time has come for the circle of compassion, which you have helped to expand, to begin to grow beyond humanity to embrace all the animals of the world, as well as the earth and all life forms," it reads.
Carman explained her motives.
"Besides asking them to come to the vigil, I'm asking the churches that haven't thought about the issue of animal suffering in the world to begin to consider this as a valid concern. I call it the 'last taboo' — most spiritual leaders will not discuss animal rights in their sermons," she said.
"I think has a lot to do with not fully understanding how connected these issues are: world peace, world hunger, environmental devastation and animal suffering. We cannot address one without addressing the others."
Though Carman's letter failed to attract much attention from spiritual leaders in Lawrence and Emporia, some local pastors believe she's onto something.
"I think she's absolutely right. The churches have taken on racial relationships and civil rights, but one area that has been terribly neglected is the environment — not just animals and plant life, but also rivers, lakes and the soil — and seeing all of that as God's creation," said the Rev. Peter Luckey, senior pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt.
Like Luckey, the Rev. Jonathon Jensen reacted positively when he was read excerpts of Carman's letter.
"She has an excellent idea. Calling attention to the misuse of animals helps us to see beyond ourselves. I don't think that we've fully embraced this yet. That particular idea is still on the frontier," said Jensen, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vt.
"Part of what we tried to do here on St. Francis Day was to help people understand the connection between human beings and the rest of creation, which is really what I see her trying to do."
Jensen sees attitudes changing on this issue.
"There has been a growing Christian awareness that having dominion over the earth means that we are stewards, or caretakers, of the creation, rather than seeing it as only a resource to fulfill our desires."
Sense of awe, wonder
Carman, who has a master's of clinical psychology from Texas Tech University, has written a book that encourages people to expand their "circle of compassion" — a phrase used by both Dr. Albert Schweitzer and Albert Einstein.
Carman's book, which she self-published in January 2001, is titled "Veggie Soup for the Chicken Soul: Shameless Visions and Prayers for World Peace, Inner Peace, and Animal Liberation."
The trade paperback is available on Amazon.com for $14.95. The book is also sold at the Community Mercantile Co-op, 901 Iowa.
In June, Lantern Books of New York City picked up Carman's book and will publish it in November as "Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken Soul."
Carman has been a vegan for the past four or five years. She doesn't eat any animal products — even honey, which is made by bees — and she doesn't wear leather.
"It's an intrinsic part of my spiritual life. I can look at any animal and know that it's not hurting or dying because of me. There's a lot of joy in that, and I want to share it. It's the same joy we get when we help a homeless person, or we work for peace and justice," she said.
Understanding that the welfare of humans, animals and the environment is inseparable is the next step for faithful people to take.
"It's all connected. That's what the mystics tell us: God is in everything, and everything is sacred. That's where their sense of ecstasy comes from," Carman said.
"How could you willingly hurt anything when you're filled with that sense of awe and wonder?"
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Published Monday, September 30, 2002 (Lawrence Journal World)
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Monday, September 30, 2002
To the editor
Last year, nearly 45 billion animals were killed for food around the world. In honor of World Farm Animals Day (Oct. 2) and Gandhi's birthday, I think it's a good time for us to stop and think about the effects our food choices have on our health, the planet and the animals.
Please consider these facts (according to John Robbins' book, "Food Revolution"): In every Big Mac, there's a piece of tropical rainforest and with every billion burgers sold, another hundred species become extinct. Toxic poisons from factory farms accumulating in the food chain are poisoning our children and our Earth for many generations to come. A low-fat plant-based diet would not only lower the heart-attack rate by about 85 percent, but would also lower the cancer rate by 60 percent.
It takes 25 gallons of water to produce one pound of wheat and 2,500 gallons to produce one pound of meat; and that while millions of people face starvation around the world, 90 percent of agricultural resources produced in the U.S. are fed to livestock. And lastly, the unimaginable amount of pain and suffering that our "food animals" go through to get on our plates. These feeling, sentient animals are caged, confined, deprived, mutilated and many times skinned, dismembered and scalded while fully conscious. What a disgrace to our human spirit.
People don't realize it is easier than ever to go vegetarian. With so many tasty, healthy substitutes for meat and dairy products, there is no reason to continue to consume animal products and all the damage and cruelty that comes with this type of diet.
Ann W.
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Tribe of Heart Newletter (Summer 2002)
LAWRENCE, KS: Liberty Hall Movie Theatre
Members of Animal Outreach of Kansas (AOK) are going all out to prove that a small group of people can make a really big difference. After holding 16 well-attended community screenings of The Witness over the last year, they found a way to bring the film to the Liberty Hall movie theatre in Lawrence. Theatre owner Scott Bliss, who was given the video by an AOK member, was so enthusiastic about showing the film that he graciously provided the venue with only a small admission fee charged to cover his overhead. The film was screened in April on a Thursday night, and for a Saturday and Sunday matinee. The audience response was overwhelmingly positive, and since so many people expressed regret that they weren’t able to send friends and co-workers back to see it before it left the theatre, AOK donated a copy of the video to local libraries and the Lawrence high school.
But AOK didn’t stop there. They went on to build a portable video information kiosk modeled after Eddie Lama’s Faunette (a pedestrian version of the FaunaVision van shown in The Witness). So every Friday night, volunteers of AOK are out on the streets educating the public about the sad reality of animal suffering. Special thanks to the AOK A-Team for inspiring all of us here at TOH with your creative and energetic activism!
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Published Tuesday, July 30, 2002 (Lawrence Journal World)
To the editor:
This is in response to Richard Smith's July 24 letter. He asks the question whether human and animal lives have the same value. All life should be valued, human or nonhuman, period. It's silly to suggest that people have to choose between the two. When compassion is in our hearts (which everyone talks about after Sept. 11), we all should be outraged at any murder, not just that of humans. Compassion should know no boundaries.
Let me also remind everyone that whether or not you care or are outraged when an animal has been tortured and killed, we all had better take it very seriously. It has been proven time and time again that violent acts toward animals is a precursor to violence against humans. Here are a few examples:
Jeffrey Dahmer loved to dissect and kill animals. He went on to murder 17 men. Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler," would starve dogs and cats, then let them loose and watch them kill one another. He went on to rape and kill 13 women. And lastly, in 1998, 15-year old Kip Kinkel of Oregon set a live cat on fire and later opened fired on his high school classmates killing two and injuring 22 others. These are just a few on a long list of killers who started out hurting animals.
I hope one day, we will see a world that realizes all life on this planet is interconnected and that every living creature is deserving of protection and respect. I would like to think that we humans are capable of compassion beyond just our own species. As Charles Darwin quoted: "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man."
Ann W.
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Monday, May 27, 2002
The circus came to town Sunday.
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And a group of animal rights activists was there to meet it.
As Circus Pages, a traveling, family-owned affair from Myakka City, Fla., set up shop inside a Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds building, Animal Outreach took a stand outside.
"They have a lot of entertainment without animals, and that's what we want to promote," said Judy Carman of Lawrence, who helped start Animal Outreach a year ago. "People can say no to walking the tightrope. People have a choice. Animals don't."
Carman and her group handed out fliers detailing Circus Pages' 13 citations for failing to meet different federal standards from September 1992 to September 2001. They also handed out elephant stickers that said "Be an ele-friend: Circuses are no fun for animals."
The group played an undercover tape showing Carson & Barnes Five-Ring Circus training its animals. Animal Outreach protested that circus last week in Topeka.
Circus Pages workers often stood in front of the television, blocking the video from sight. But besides a few people, including a man who also owns a traveling circus, Carman said the response had been positive.
"Most of the people have been friendly," she said. "Some have read our information and left."
Circus manager George Pages said his show generally ran into protesters wherever it stopped.
"I just wish they would protest with the facts," Pages said. "You can't judge a whole industry by a bad apple. We're family-owned and family-operated. Why would we want to hurt our own animals? We'd have to pay for the veterinary care."
Pages said only two of his animals were taken from the wild, and his two elephants were scheduled to be euthanized.
Erin Malone, Lawrence, brought her children to the Sunday-only event. Animal Outreach member Paige Stonerock handed them an elephant sticker, which the children put on their shirts.
"I can understand why they protest," Malone said. "But the kids love it, so that's the reason I'm here."
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Published Tuesday, May 21, 2002 (Lawrence Journal World)
To the editor:
The circus is coming to town! But while you may see what's happening under the big top, they won't show you what goes on behind the scenes.
Animals in circuses lead lives of misery, consisting of domination, confinement and violent training. It is standard practice to beat, shock and whip them to perform ridiculous tricks they cannot comprehend. Circuses have been quoted saying the tricks animals perform are taken from their natural behaviors in the wild. Well, when was the last time you saw a bear riding a bicycle in the wild, or a tiger jumping through rings of fire? You will never see this "natural" behavior because it is not natural.
Circus animals are deprived of their basic need to exercise, roam, socialize, forage and play. Stereotypic behaviors such as swaying back and forth, pacing, bar-biting and self-mutilation are common signs of mental distress. No animal will voluntarily perform the same grueling routines over and over hundreds of times a year on command. The animals must either be kept in pain or in constant fear of pain. Circuses would like you to believe they use positive reinforcement to train their animals. However, if circus trainers used positive reinforcement, they would be armed with a bag of peanuts, not whips and bullhooks.
Lastly, using wild animals in performances jeopardizes public safety. Since 1990, 47 people have been killed and more than 100 seriously injured by captive elephants.
I think sometimes society forgets to question "tradition" even when cruelty is involved. Maybe now is a good time to start.
Ann W.
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