Weekly Roundup: 10 Vegan Stories You Shouldn’t Miss

Random Goat Cuteness

Have you been busy this week? Haven’t had time to sit down let alone catch up on all things awesomely vegan?  No worries, we’ve got you covered.  Here’s the 10 vegan stories from this week you don’t want to miss.

From the Daily Vegan Spin:

Jesus, Christianity, and Animal Rights

Let’s talk about violence towards animals. Was Jesus a vegetarian? First of all, I don’t think whether or not he was vegetarian bears any weight on whether you or I are. We’re talking about a man who lived 2,000 years ago. Times were different. “Jesus ate meat, so I can, too” is not a good argument to make.

Misleading the Masses: How to Have an Eco-Friendly Easter

Eco-friendly Easter eggs, eco-friendly Easter basket grass, eco-friendly Easter baskets, eco-friendly milk chocolate bunnies- wait, what?  Yes, nestled between the worlds largest displays of eco-things, was prettily packaged milk chocolate confections of every cute design and color.  Sigh.  Milk.  Sigh.  Eco-friendly.  Everyone loves being “eco,” don’t they?  It’s everywhere.Here’s the bottom line.  We can’t be “Eco-Friendly” without first taking a look at the animals we are consuming.  It doesn’t matter how many light bulbs we replace, whether we buy “green” cleaners for our houses, carry an eco-friendly water bottle or have organic cotton sheets for our beds.  If we consume animals, in any way, then we are not being “Eco-Friendly.”

What You Should Know Before Bringing Home an Easter Bunny

Did you know that thousands of domestic rabbits are purchased for Easter? After cats and dogs, rabbits are the most prevalent animal you’ll find at a shelter. But some statistics say that 95% of “Easter bunnies” given as gifts don’t make it to age one.  Many bunny buyers have no idea that caring for a rabbit is a ten-year commitment, including house-training (rabbits can be kitty litter trained), bunny-proofing your house (rabbits like to chew on wires, among other things), several hours of daily playtime, and spaying or neutering.  Learn more about these cute commitments before bringing one home.

Easter Lamb: An Unsettling Tradition

From my understanding, the spring religious holidays are a celebration of life and often include the “sacrificial lamb” on the dinner table.  Regardless of the religious significance, killing a baby animal to celebrate life is an awful contradiction to me.  Our world is full of suffering and death.  Commemorating life should not include either of those things.  If springtime holidays are for new hope and life, then lambs should be a symbol in our hearts not on our forks.  They certainly represent life and should be kept where we cherish them most, in our culture alongside our own children.

Vegan Silliness:

Cats In My Food

Inevitably there is cat hair in everything I eat because there is always a cat investigating my food.  How about you?  Got cats in your food?  I got cats in my food.  Show me yours, I’ll show you mine.

Vegan Detritus:

Number 4889

Garlic, lime, and cilantro lying spent on a cutting board next to a gleaming knife.  A brief glance at a moment in time, subliminal tastes sneaking into your consciousness.  Is it detritus, or is it more?

Vegan Stories from around the globe:

With demand rising, companies offer vegan vacations. ”‘The idea struck me when I went on a holiday and got fed up trying to find my kind of food,’ says Nandini Gulati, health coach with The Sanctuary for Health and Reconnection to Animals and Nature (Sharan). This NGO, which works to promote an ecologically sustainable, compassionate lifestyle, recently launched vegan wellness weekends in association with Mystic Asia. The Indian Vegan Society also offers vegan vacations. ‘We have a vegan centre that acts as a home for tourists. We have a cottage that people can book for vacations,’ says Shankar Narayan, who founded the society in 2004 to bring together like-minded people. ‘It is situated in a three-acre hillside plot near Udupi.’”

Are agriculture’s most popular insecticides killing our bees? “The pesticides, called neonicotinoids, became popular among farmers during the 1990s. They’re used to coat the seeds of many agricultural crops, including the biggest crop of all: corn. Neonics, as they’re called, protect those crops from insect pests. Last week, a coalition of environmental groups and beekeepers sued the EPA, demanding that the courts force the agency to revoke its earlier approval of two of the most prominent neonicotinoids — clothianidin and thiamethoxam.”

Trafficking wildlife pays as well as drugs or guns.  “Wildlife trafficking is a murky, lucrative, violent trade; ongoing, increasingly organized and sophisticated, but one that still remains largely unnoticed. And it is out of control. Interpol rates it on a par with drugs and arms when it comes to scale and the overall market value of the ‘products’ killed, bought, traded and smuggled.”

Not just bees: Bayer’s pesticide may harm birds, too. “Once again this spring, farmers will begin planting at least 140 million acres—a land mass roughly equal to the combined footprints of California and Washington state—with seeds (mainly corn and soy) treated with a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Commercial landscapers and home gardeners will get into the act, too—neonics are common in lawn and garden products. Neonics are highly mobile and persistent once they’re unleashed into ecosystems, and they pose a serious threat to birds and the insects they feed on. The EPA…. has in some cases severely underestimated the danger and in other cases simply ignored it.”

Photo credit: OnceAndFutureLaura via Flickr