Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty!

Jul 9, 2008
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www.shac.net <---- Get involved!

There's a protest going on this Saturday in Peterborough.

Me, a couple of friends and hopefully my boyfriend are going to drive up there and take part.

Yesterday I sent my local MP, Huntingdon's MP and David Cameron a quick(!) email regarding the unnecessary cruelty at this hell hole of a place. I doubt they will do anything, but its nice to try.

I used to think my younger brother was silly to send letters and emails to the government, but now I believe that if you feel so strongly about something, why not help out the cause to the best of your abilities? Who knows, you might just help change something. My brother is my little bit of inspiration, I have him to thank for helping to change my headstrong views.

Converse sneakers

Jul 8, 2008
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are owned by Nike.

I never knew that until I was hunting for some more vegan sneakers.

Shit...Do I throw out my Converse, or just wait until they fall apart then buy new vegan and ethical sneakers? Its a tough call to make.

When I was going through the change over from vegetarian to vegan I used all my non vegan shampoo, conditioner, soaps up, etc, etc as I didn't see the point in throwing them all out.

I feel I should re-assess clothing situation. Sweat shops and Non sweat shop. How the hell do you find out? And then, should it be, throw out the 'bad' clothes (well, give them to a charity), or wait until I have no use for them, or they're falling apart?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Okay...after sleeping on this, i've decided to wait until all the non ethical clothes and shoes are falling apart, might as well get some use out of them really as I did pay for the bloody things!

Watching with interest...

Jul 7, 2008
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I've been listening, watching and talking about the below subject with quite a few people recently. Now, as I understood it, our little bear chumleys (thats the badgers) are an endangered species. So, confusion has hint. How come, if a species is endangered, that a 'cull' can possibley be talked about? Random really. Give it a few months and this will be talked about again. I lack faith in this government...

Benn confirms TB cull rejection

Badgers have been blamed for the spread of TB in cattle

The government will not issue licences to cull badgers to prevent cattle TB in England, Hilary Benn has confirmed.

In a Commons statement, the environment secretary said that while a large-scale cull could improve the situation, it could also make the problem worse.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is taking legal advice on the decision, details of which were obtained by BBC News on Friday.

About 4,000 herds were affected by the disease last year.

These were mainly localised to the south-west of England.

Rather than culling, vaccination will form a cornerstone of bovine TB policy, and the government is to invest £20m into research.

The government based its decision on advice from the Independent Scientific Group which it established to review research on the issue.

The ISG concluded that culling would not be an economic solution to the problem, as did the Environment and Rural Affairs select committee.

A subsequent analysis led by the government's former chief scientific advisor Sir David King came down in favour of culling.

Better or worse

Mr Benn recalled that the UK Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) concluded that proactive culling - attempting to wipe out badgers across large swathes of countryside - reduced disease incidence inside the cull zone, but increased it around the edges of the zone.

"I have decided that while such a cull might work, it might also not work," he said.

"It could end up making the disease worse if it was not sustained over time or delivered effectively."

Some landowners would be reluctant to allow culling on their land, he acknowledged, making effective delivery of the strategy less likely.

The RBCT concluded that reactive culling - killing badgers in the area around an outbreak that had already been identified - made things worse.

"It may not be what people would assume would be the answer to the question, but it is the answer to the question," he said.

Spineless

The environment secretary's decision met with angry reaction from some opposition MPs.

Geoffrey Cox, Conservative MP for Torridge and Devon West, described it as a "spineless abdication of responsibility".

Mr Benn indicated his belief that vaccination - either of badgers or cattle or both - should be an effective strategy as soon as vaccines can be developed.

He also announced the formation of a partnership group to develop strategy, and hoped that industry representatives will join.

Badger Trust spokesman Trevor Lawson suggested that farmers' groups should now work constructively with the partnership.

"This overwhelming body of sound scientific opinion means that the farming industry can move forwards with the government in tackling bovine TB with improved cattle testing and biosecurity," he said.

"We are confident that with proper investment, the government will be able to rapidly reverse the bovine TB problem, bringing relief to farmers and their families."

Today I shall mostly be making....

Jul 5, 2008
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Fresh Houmous!

200g chickpeas ---> although the ones I purchased need to soak in water for at least five hours.

Juice from quarter of a lemon

Half garlic clove

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp tahini paste

Bung everything in a blender until its nice and smooth.

How simple is that?! It keeps for about five days too. Game on.

Oh, and my SSOV stuff came today...I shall be flaunting my fab new bag around town today!

x.

About me...

Jun 30, 2008
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'What do you eat then?' 'Where do you get your calcuim from?' 'You'll lose weight, there wont be enough protein in your diet'.

Got to laugh really. As soon as you decide to do something a tad 'out of the norm' about yourself, certain people always seem to try their hardest to make you feel so stupid about your new image/diet/lifestyle changes.

OR

You can be blessed with a supportive family (with the odd silly remark about the new choice) a fantastic partner who encourages you, and a few very close friends that question you with a real interest, and not want to piss on your parade.

I'm pretty lucky. I get the odd comment about 'Why just not eat meat', or 'Vegetarians okay, but being vegan is a little over the top', or just plain 'Yummy...cheese...go on, try some!' but mainly I have very supportive friends and family.

When I first told my parents that I was going to stop eating meat, they weren't that happy about it. To be fair, they were pretty quick to come round to the idea. I was nervous about telling them both, as it can be taken so many different ways. 'I dont like the food you cook', 'You're not a good cook' etc, but to be honest, i've never really liked the texture of most meats. The fat, the gristle, yuck!

I started to read up alot about vegetarians and after being veggie for over a month and detoxing for 4 weeks, I felt a lot healthier. This also helped me compete in the London Triathlon, running 10K. I then started to read up more regarding animal welfair (farm animals, the pet trade, etc) and was disgusted with what I was reading.

I felt a bit of a hypocrite. I like animals, but i'm wearing them. I like animals but i'm contributing to the awful slaughter of these animals by drinking milk and eating cheese. I'd read 'Fast Food Nation' by Eric Schlosser a while back, it grossed me out, but I needed more. I brought 'Skinny Bitch' by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin as I thought it would ease me into the vegan lifestyle. It did, but it didn't really help with actually dealing with people. It has some fantastic facts, and its really great with regards to food, but how to deal with a friend taking the piss out of you because 'ha, you cant have these sweets and I can' wasn't really mentioned. I searched the web and found 'Vegan Freak' by Bob and Jenna Torres and in a word...wow. How to deal with friends, family, co-workers, what to look out for on labels, websites to go to, books to check out. I then brought a cook book - 'Vegan With A Vengence' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz which has cheap and easy recipies and also The Animal Free Shopper.

With that I gave my non animal friendly make up to my mum, sorted out my shampoo, conditioner, hair dyes, through out a lot of clothes and went to work on finding new places to shop. My fav place to buy (on the web!) is http://www.secretsocietyofvegans.co.uk/ssov/ as they have some real cool ideas clothing wise and I love my new Macbeths that I brought recently. I didnt used to buy a lot of leather shoes anyway, mainly cheap high heels and converse sneakers. Everytime I venture onto a new website, I find out a little bit more, another product that would be neat to purchase. I found a wicked magazine, called Herbivor, which also have a clothing range.

So I read the funniest things today http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2286171,00.html I had to chuckle. As IF being vegan is difficult?! Look at the label...simple! Okay, so restaurants are a little harder, buuut all you need to do is...ask! I went to The Hawk a few days ago for a friends birthday. They had nothing vegan on the menu, so I asked for rice and loads of veggies. Yummy! Not only healthy and filling (lots of baby potatos!) but I enjoyed it. Its nicer than having something smothered in sauce. Plus I only paid about £4.00 for it.

My boyfriend and I made a fab pizza too the other day. I had gone into Sainsburys to get a pizza base (I dont think I can cook all that well so didnt really want to try making a base myself) We get home and I start dicing all the veggies up. I open the bag and a horrible smell appears. Ew. Mouldy pizza base. One was not amused. So I ran a pizza base receipie off a website and decided to start cooking! V.Messy but thoroughly enjoyable and easy to make. On the pizza there was no cheese, but lots of veggies; peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn, artichokes, and some fake meat that I brought from Holland and Barretts, I think the name of it is 'Fry's and they were stir fry pieces. It was so yummy to make that we're making it again this weekend!