The two high points in my life over the past 13 months were participating (remotely) with the Multi-Faith religious leaders who put together “A Religious Proclamation for Animal Compassion” and presented it in Washington DC last November, and being asked to speak at this year’s Animal Rights National Conference, which felt a little bit like deja vu. Who knew I’d ever go back there so soon, and for something that is so important to me? This could become a tradition.

This brief, and positive video was featured during the first night’s plenary session. Please watch it.

I want to mention two more reasons that environmentalists might want to be at the forefront of veganism (besides the fact that animal agriculture contributes more to global warming than the use of all fossil fuel, or the deforestation, water use issues). This is the first time I heard about some of these things. One guy gave a really excellent talk on wildlife. He mentioned the wolves, wild horses, wild burros, prairie dogs, bison and others who are killed under pressure from the cattle ranchers. He mentioned that the endangered species list is under-reported, because Big Ag is in bed with the government. And another speaker talked about how more fish are fed to livestock than, what? Companion animals, and I think people, too. Someone mentioned in their talk about planckton, etc. that they are developing for chicken feed, and mentioned that the puffins are in danger of starving, so the chickens in another part of the world can eat their food. We are killing wildlife to protect the ranchers interests, and depleting the oceans for the livestock industry, too. When will anyone begin to care about that, in the face of so many potential extinctions, besides the animal people? (Well, who would know? But now you do. So go vegan if you care about biodiversity, the dying oceans, etc.)

I felt like a bug today (Sunday, 8/17/08). Today was the day a panel of us talked in a session called “Engaging Religion”. It turned out to be a high. And then I had to leave, just like bugs who die after they lay their eggs.

I was worried about what I should or would say, because, as I told a few people, my thoughts are like junk mail that piles up on the dining room table until I have to clean up the house and through everything in a box, where I have to pick through it. I didn’t know what the audience would be like. My guess is that some people are anti-religion or non-religious.

But as it turned out, we had a large crowd who seemed genuinely interested. Even though we only had 10 minutes each, I was glad that each of the others covered things I might have wanted to include, but didn’t. So I felt like we covered a lot of ground, but invited people to visit this blog.
And I was happy that the Q&A was very positive. A few recommended books we didn’t know about and didn’t mention, along other useful information. One, who is a Southern Baptist, wanted to know what we would say to someone who says “God gave us animals to eat”. I didn’t really have an answer, but Kris referred her to Not One Sparrow, and I referred her to Matt Halteman’s podcasts, whose link was also on my information sheet. If I were to answer that question now, my advise would be to stick to the secular facts and not even try to argue biblical texts. (If it were me — but I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone else — I would be inclined to think and/or say that I’m not interested in a religion that uses the Bible to justify animal cruelty. It isn’t a good method of “winning souls”, and in my opinion, it is bad theology. I might also ask the person how they feel about human slavery which was taken for granted in the Bible. But basically, I tend to avoid discussion of the Bible with people who have a different way of understanding it. Nevertheless, books like J.R. Hyland’s God’s Covenant with Animals offer a refreshing view of the animal-exploitive passages.)

I’m going to post a few pictures. First some of our “Engaging Religion” panel, and then some posters which are available from Mercy For Animals, and then some random of my new T-shirts and car magnet.

I bought two CD’s — one from our panel, and one from Saturday night’s plenary session, particularly to be able to listen to Heather Mills and Paul Watson again. I was sorry I couldn’t stay long enough to hear Howard Lyman’s address on Sunday night.

Click on the pictures below, to see enlarged versions:

Here are pictures of my new T-shirts, and car magnet:
(I’ll take another picture of this one sometime, so my hair isn’t all over the camera lens.)

(Isn’t this one too much?! I had to buy it, because it reminded me of my veganic garden. It puts me in a cheery mood.)

There is a shirt I saw a lot of people with, that I want to order on-line. It wasn’t sold by anyone at the conference. Here’s what it looks like, and one place where it can be ordered. (Google for others, since it may be carried by places like Vegan Essentials, where you might be able to save on shipping & handling if you’re ordering other things.)

Here is a picture of an incredibly large car magnet, that I thought I could put on my hatch, or on the flat spot inside my back window:

(I remember how our church rented one of the apartments on our property to a family who kept their Akita tethered year round with no shelter and little, if any, personal attention. I finally made a stink, and they gave the owner a copy of my email, and finally decided they needed more space for Sunday school classes. So the people are gone, and who knows whatever happened to their dog that I called NIMBY?)

Now for something serious: Can you empathize the immense suffering and degradation that tens of billions of animals are subjected to each year?….

(Please excuse the nudity. It has socially-redeeming value. Click on the pictures to enlarge. It might help make the text easier to read.)

(The Holy Innocents of the 21st Century)

On a warm, fuzzy note, people were allowed to bring their dogs and cats to the conference, which is good for a few reasons, like not having to worry about pet sitters, allowing us to see some really friendly and well-behaved pit bulls, and having someone therapeutic to pet after a week of unmitigated exposure to generally underexposed violence against animals for corporate profit and consumer demand. Here’s a picture I took of one dog: