The Smoothie Vegetarians

Veganism isn't just about food, which often confounds people first learning about this perspective on life. People who wish to avoid animal products aren't just talking about the stuff they eat, but everything. And though most people understand and get the problem with leather or fur, wool still usually gets weird looks. Why not wool? Since the sheep aren't hurt by shearing, and generally need to be sheared as their fleece gets bulky, some people automatically see this as being harmless. I'm not sure why since taking a chicken's eggs is just as harmless to the bird, yet its not hard to grasp that chickens are abused and mistreated in the egg industry. The same situation applies to sheep and wool. Maybe it's harder to see because it's not food. I don't know. Lambs are super-cute and deserve as much concern as any other animals. Blurry because taking barnyard photos is hard. Sorry. His name is Puddles. Sheep are not treated well in the...

Some time ago, there was a post circulating on Facebook about a dog that was allegedly abused during the making of a film. The dog was thrown into a pool of water and it was evident from the footage that the dog was less than thrilled. There was an outcry. Animal abuse, animal rights, etc. The dominating viewpoint was that they had no right to do this to an innocent dog, and “something” should be done. I watched the video a couple of times. The dog wasn't injured and I'm guessing that when the dog isn't acting he/she probably has a pretty good gig. After all, any animal that makes you money is most likely treated well in its downtime. I commented on this and I also commented that I wondered how and why this was so different than the treatment of non “pet” animals. We're all very concerned about the dog, we don't care much about the pig or the chicken or the cow. It boggles my mind some, why we choose which animals are “worthy” of our love and atten...