The Victoria Vegan
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Dave Shishkoff, Editor

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Animal Rights

Updates to Victoria’s Pet Bylaws

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In two earlier postings we’ve commented on the proposed pet bylaw updates that the City of Victoria has been looking into. Sadly, despite several emails since late July to Councilor Thornton-Joe (who’s heading the project), we hadn’t heard back. Well, until 6pm last night, an hour and a half before I had to be at City Hall to speak on the matter. The Councilor finally got back to me, after six months, and dozens of emails and phone messages. She apologized, but it’s still very disappointing. It turns out that the proposed bylaws have been filtered down significantly since the initial proposal, here’s the latest draft (thank you to Chantelle from the Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders for providing this). At the meeting last night, all were passed, and two additional amendments were added, including mandatory spaying of all cats sold in the Victoria area. Fortunately, the earlier proposed limits to…

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Animal Rights

Cornucopia promotes “really organic” eggs; brushes off animal-rights discussion

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Last Friday I received an email from the Cornucopia Institute advocating organic egg production, and criticizing factory farm eggs for the spread of salmonella and arsenic. You can read it here: http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/09/organic-egg-report-and-scorecard/ The Cornucopia Institute has published some helpful and revealing reports, such as the use of hexane in many soy foods (commonly consumed by vegans), as well as exposing non-organic soy use. They recently did a good job of blasting the “free range” eggs sold by Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, and other pious grocery chains, showing that these and many more “humane” eggs are actually derived from high-volume operations. They showed that some companies, like Silk, had moved away from using organic (to cut costs) and pressed them back onto the organic track. But the group seems unable to admit that consumption of eggs is ecologically unsound and entirely unnecessary. Organic farming emits quite a lot of CO2…

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Letters to the Editor

Monday Letter to the Editor re: Nose to Tail

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A Friends of Animals letter was published this week in Monday Magazine, in response to this rather disturbing-to-read piece: http://mondaymag.com/articles/entry/letters-december-9/ The heart of the matter Re: “From Nose to Tail,” Nov. 25-Dec. 1 This article deserves more discussion. There is talk of honor and ethics, yet an honest discussion on these matters reveal there is no room for either when it comes to supporting the exploitation and killing of a sensitive, sentient being because “we like the taste.” Given this, it is a decidedly unethical act. Honouring an animal (human or non-human), were we to apply meaningful usage to the phrase, would mean not killing them. It would mean not exploiting them. It would mean allowing them to live on their own terms, in their own communities. It’s a perversion to claim that eating the entire corpse of an enslaved creature is “more honourable” than only eating select parts. Further,…

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Activism

World Vegan Month Activity Report

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Being World Vegan Month, Friends of Animals in Victoria organized several activities to celebrate and promote veganism, and we got busy with it! First off was a vegan feed-out, in downtown Victoria in front of Bastion Square. A feed-out is a fun event where you give out vegan food and info, demonstrating on the spot that you can have tasty food, and not hurt animals. From 2010 – World Vegan Day Mary and I gave out dozens of cupcakes, brownies, and pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies (thanks to Diana for the latter!) and had some good conversations with people, who were genuinely interested in finding out more about veganism. Next up was a screening of Peaceable Kingdom at Green Cuisine on Sunday. A dozen people turned up, half of whom I haven’t met before, so nice to get some new faces out. As expected, the film was well received, and during the…

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Activism

World Vegan Month Activities in Victoria

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November 1st was World Vegan Day, happy belated World Vegan Day! =) It’s been 66 years now since the term ‘vegan’ was coined, and the Vegan Society founded, and we’ve progress fairly well! Let’s try and encourage more to go vegan for the rest of 2010, and into 2011. To accomplish this, Friends of Animals has a few events planned in the immediate future. On Sunday, November 7th, we’ll be organizing a Feed-Out (giving out yummy vegan food to prove you can have tasty food and not hurt animals), as well as a screening of Peaceable Kingdom, followed by a Dine-Out at Green Cuisine. On Monday, November 8th, we’ll be up at UVic to have a vegan bakesale fundraiser for Primarily Primates, the FoA sanctuary in Texas. For all the details, visit The Victoria Vegan’s World Vegan Day page. Hope to see you there, and have a wonderful World Vegan…

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Animal Rights

Open, joint letter from Friends of Animals and LIDA re proposed Victoria pet limit rules

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Below is a joint letter from FoA and Lawyers in Defense of Animals, Inc. (LIDA) commenting on pet restrictions in Victoria, which was featured in the Times Colonist a few months ago (see this blog entry.) I’ve sent repeated letters requesting more information on the issue to Mayor Fortin and Councillor Thornton-Joe, with no response, hopefully this gets their attention. To: Mayor Dean Fortin; Charlayne Thornton-Joe (Councillor)Cc: Dave Shishkoff [mailto:dave@friendsofanimals.org]Date: 28 Oct. 2010Re: Proposed pet-limit laws, Victoria, BC. Greetings to Mayor Dean Fortin and Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe, and the Members of the Victoria, BC Council: We wish to inform you that Friends of Animals, Inc. (FoA) and Lawyers in Defense of Animals, Inc. (LIDA) share concerns over a proposed law that would be problematic and difficult to change once its unintended consequences are felt. Each of our organizations has a strong record of advocating for animals raised as pets, and…

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Vegan

Victoria Vegan Buddy Program!

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Friends of Animals is proud to offer a Vegan Buddy program for Victoria. If you’re a new vegan and are looking for advice and tips, be it on nutritional info, where to find vegan foods, cooking replacements (ie, how to replace eggs when baking), what new veggies to try out, questions about environmental or animal rights topics and more, look no further! We’ll pair you up with an experienced vegan mentor who’s keen to help you out and share their experiences. Conversely, if you’re an experienced vegan and interested in helping out a new vegan by email or phone, we’re also looking for vegan mentors. You don’t need to know everything about veganism of course, Friends of Animals is here to help you out in return as well, if faced with any questions you’re unfamiliar with. All we need from you is the desire to help out. To sign up,…

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Events

Save-A-Turkey Trot 2010 Report

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The first annual Save-A-Turkey Trot was a success, and fun had by all! Last Sunday was a bit of a cloudy and overcast day, but regardless OrganicAthlete Victoria and Friends of Animals welcomed 23 people and two dogs to join us for this fun run/jog/walk/whatever. Victoria is infamous for holding 1st-time sporting events with hardly any participants, so this was actually a pleasant surprise. The goal of the event is to encourage a more peaceful Thanksgiving (and every meal!) by promoting veganism. It’s healthy, better for the environment, and certainly eliminates an unimaginable amount of suffering and killing in the world. We welcomed a wide range of people, young and old, sporty and casual. According to the sign-up poll, fully 12 of the participants were vegans, three vegetarians, and the rest selected ‘curious to find out more’ or left it unmarked. Most of the participants were keen on enjoying a…

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Animal Rights

UVic Rabbits: Help Needed – Carriers, Garage or Shed?

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Thankfully, the ordeal with the UVic rabbits has been peacefully resolved, and at this very moment rabbits are being spayed and neutered, and moved to sanctuaries. A little more help is needed. First, if anyone has an unused, small dog or cat carrier, the organizers need more for transporting the rabbits. Also, a shed or garage is needed to temporarily house a number of the rabbits after their operations. This requires no effort on the part of the home-owner, rabbit volunteers will take care of everything, but a spot is needed to keep the rabbits for a few days after their surgery. Do you have such a spot? If you can help with either of these, please email Bill: sedgewick@shaw.ca, who’s been a tremendous help in organizing these aspects. For more info on the UVic rabbit situation, visit UVicBunnies.org Thanks so much! UPDATE, 9/14: Thanks to those who have offered…

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Animal Rights

Recent Noteworthy Letters to the Editor

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Letters to the editor are great way for communicating ideas and messages, here are two recent ones. The first comments on the recent demonstration from PETA here in Victoria: Sexist and sexy are not the same By Laura Filipovic, Times Colonist August 21, 2010 http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/Sexist+sexy+same/3426796/story.html I was dismayed to see the Times Colonist giving credence to the nearly naked female PETA activists on display Monday by publishing their picture. Replicating the same image that Pamela Anderson did with her controversial PETA ad a month or so back, these women once again proved that PETA seems to only stoop to sexist ploys in order to gain attention. By reducing women to animals and body parts, the nudity of these women becomes reductive; meant to titillate as opposed to educate. If the point is that animals should not be thought of as a product to be consumed, then why try to say…

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