animals Archives - Page 14 of 14

Links for Lunch

Remember when I wrote about Stephen Wells? Well I finally had lunch with him last week. Vegan, of course – Stephen is the Executive Director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Over the delicious fried offerings of Red Bamboo we agreed that the only way animal abuse is going to get curbed is by passing and enforcing laws against it. Which the ALDF is doing. I’m not vegan* myself, but even carnivores could (and do) support this work. Stephen and I also commiserated about this sort of thing – a man after my own heart.

*I’m generally classified as vegetarian, but I occasionally eat sea creatures. In case you want to take me out to lunch (see below).

Would YOU like to be featured in Links for Lunch? Then buy me lunch. My email address is at the bottom of the middle column, the one with the pictures linking to my movies and cartoons and stuff.

Meet Agni

One of the most frequent questions I hear about Sita Sings the Blues – from desis, no less – is “Who is that red dude on the goat? Is that Satan?”

This is Agni, people. The Vedic god of fire! God of priests and Priest of Gods! I know he’s not worshipped much these days, but he was a big deal back in Valmiki’s time. When Sita enters the fire, Agni carries her right back out, unscathed.

Agni’s vehicle is the ram. I screwed up by putting him on a male goat, rather than a male sheep, which I learned is what a ram is while researching this post. Oops. Although he’s sometimes depicted riding a chariot pulled by goats, so it’s sort of a compromise. But he’s still Agni. He’s got two heads, one for the creative, useful power of fire and one for its out-of-control destructiveness. He’s got multiple arms. He’s red.

He’s Agni.

King Corn

Go see this movie. If you’re in New York, you can catch it at Cinema Village this week. If you’re not in New York, ask your local rep house to get it.

Go! I’m not just saying this because I grew up in corn country.

Virtual Lunch

I recently heard from Stephen Wells, the Executive Director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Being on opposite coasts we can’t have lunch, but I want to endorse the ALDF anyway. Go ALDF!

Although I don’t eat meat, I’m exasperated by the suggestion that vegetarianism is effective action against animal abuse. It isn’t. Just like human abuse, the only way animal abuse is going to get curbed is by passing and enforcing laws against it. That’s what the Animal Legal Defense Fund is working toward. Something else Mike Caprio and I briefly discussed at our Eats for Endorsement, is that carnivores and omnivores can support legal reform against animal abuse too! In fact most carnivores I know are opposed to factory farming; they likes their meat, but they don’t want it to be low-quality crap flooding the markets here and abroad. Veganism is great, but not eating animals doesn’t save an animal’s life; it just means more cheap meat gets exported as domestic “farming” subsidies create “surplus.” That’s not just bad for animals, it’s bad for the humans whose markets our cheap meat floods into. So come on, everyone: carnivores, vegans, omnivores, pescatarians, vegetarians, flexitarians, live-food fruitarians, breatharians, aryans and barbarians: support the Animal Legal Defense Fund!