NEWSBYSTEPHANIE ERNST

Well, friends, as I'm sure you can figure out from the title, I'm leaving Change.org today, and this will be my last contribution to this space, though as I'll explain in the latter part of this post, I'll be continuing elsewhere and hope you'll visit me there. But first, of course, a look back and some thank-yous:

When I managed to snag this gig a year and a half ago, I'd been aching for a long time to feel like I was contributing something to the world. I truly love running a freelance editing business from home, for many reasons, but I am an activist at heart, and despite loving my work, I additionally wanted to be doing something more meaningful on the side, something that I believed in -- animal rights, in particular. But as an editor and writer living in St. Louis, I wasn't sure how to parlay my particular skill set and location into impactful animal rights activism.

Then this incredible opportunity arose. And suddenly, I had the chance to write about animal rights every day from right where I already was, to daily get information and a message of compassion, respect, and nonviolence out to a mainstream audience -- and even be paid a modest stipend to do it, to boot. I could keep doing the editing I love while also using the written word to advocate for and educate about the most oppressed victims on this planet and for what I know to be the most important movement of our time. I knew this platform could be a life-changing opportunity, not just for me, but for the potential readers and for our fellow animals as well.

Something that always excites me is seeing awesome, thriving vegan businesses that appeal not only to the vegan community but also to the general not-yet(!)-vegan public, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that vegan food is as delicious as it is compassionate. And I want to give a quick shout-out to two that have launched this year, with much yummy success.

First, we'll head to Boston. Regular readers may recall from this summer's Great Whole Foods Cheese-and-Apple-Pie Adventure that I had my first Daiya pizza in the company of some friends at the AR conference, including my pal Eric, who referred to his gobbling up of the good stuff as "research" -- for what a few months later became the best thing to hit Boston's food scene in a long time: Peace o' Pie, an all-vegan, all-awesome pizza joint about which I've heard nothing but praise since it opened up. But though hearing vegans rave about it -- about everything from the quality of the pizza to the welcoming atmosphere to the eager, friendly staff -- was great, what I really loved was seeing the Boston Globe tell the world that there is "no sacrifice needed" to have amazing, delicious, cruelty-free vegan food. Indeed, when there are even vegan pizza places as good as -- if not better than -- any joints offering pies full of suffering, people quickly start running out of excuses not to ditch the cow's-milk cheese. Move over, vegan cupcakes. It may be time for vegan pizza to take over the world.

But pizza joints aren't the only vegan food businesses rapidly popping up. Vegan bakeries full of comforting smells and sugary goodness are spreading too -- wherever you live. Cities such as San Francisco and New York and D.C. are the usual suspects, of course, but one of the newest vegan bakeries is far from these locales: in Saudi Arabia. If you're among those who regularly drool over the Friday Food roundups, you've seen the Voracious Vegan's recipes and photos appear there regularly. And I was uber-excited for her a couple months ago when I learned that she was moving beyond cooking & baking just for herself and her husband (and sharing yummy recipes with us) to opening up her own bakery, Voracious, in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. I don't have any plans to visit Saudi, but oh, do her scrumptious photos (including the one above) make me wish I could.

Took, harvested, bagged, downed, secured, dispatched. A whole lot of euphemisms for one very basic concept: brutal killing.

In this horrifying blog post for "sportsmen" on a Pennsylvania news site, about the joyful "successes" of area bear hunters, the above euphemisms for killing were used 20 times. And animal advocates, I'll warn you now: you may not want to put yourself through reading the story and seeing the bloody photos. The animals' final, frightened, fleeing moments are recounted gleefully, with not a single thought given to what their experience of this "sport" was like.

The callousness and disregard, from both the blogger and the hunters, are disturbing. Take this, for example, which happened minutes after a human dad gunned down a two-year-old female bear, with the help of a "driving gang of 20-25 hunters":

I don't always agree with Nathan Winograd, well-known No Kill advocate and author of Redemption; that is, I don't universally agree with every conclusion he comes to or with his assessments of people's motives. But I often do agree with his observations, and his arguments are as worthy of considerations as anyone else's. That said, Winograd's messages don't receive circulation as widespread as the messages of his detractors and those he challenges, in no small part because his powerful counterparts in these conversations have larger platforms, greater resources, and the ability to just refuse to directly answer his (and others') most challenging arguments.

So this is my small contribution toward (and only "toward" because this platform doesn't have nearly the reach of those over whom Winograd is competing to be heard either) leveling the playing field. I will not say much. I will let Winograd's posts speak for themselves. What I will say is this: We don't bestow sainthood on corporations, and putting blind faith in large nonprofits that more or less function as corporations, complete with some of the tactics and self-interest that make us so wary of corporations and their "truths" and intentions, is dangerous. Assuming that those in positions of power and influence are always honest and open and selfless in their intentions is unwise -- and a disservice to our fellow animals.

When we realize that situations, organizations, and people aren't entirely what we thought, that can be not only troubling but even devastating -- I've been there -- but hearing and considering all sides of the argument, even those that challenge what we support, is vital if our loyalty is to our fellow animals. And our loyalty should be to our fellow animals, not to organizations or prominent figures or what-we-want-to-believe. Seeing the good in organizations does not mean (or excuse) ignoring or burying the bad.

Finally, to Winograd, who in these posts covers some issues that deserve to be covered and that have angered me and many others as much as they have infuriated Winograd, even if most people are hesitant to speak out and say that. Winograd is not hesitant to say it.

Betrayal & Deceit at the Humane Society of the United States

Going Rogue

First, we had the oh-so-funny remarks from Chris Rock and Jay Leno dismissing the torture and killing of pit bulls as not so bad because they're not, according to Rock, "real dogs." And now we have "killer pit bull" obnoxiousness from David Letterman.

Actress Kyra Sedgwick was on Letterman's program Friday night and brought up the pit bull puppy she and husband Kevin Bacon have adopted -- "She was left outside Yankee Stadium - really, she was left for dead," Sedgwick said. And Letterman used the opportunity to perpetuate the hurtful and totally incorrect notion of pit bulls as bloodthirsty timebombs. While Sedgwick kept good-naturedly interjecting that this is a myth, and they're actually very sweet dogs who've gotten an undeserved bad rap, Letterman continued, in seemingly only half-joking fashion, with his insistence that they're inherently dangerous creatures who daily chew people's faces off.

No, really. This is what some dairy farmers want you to believe -- and seem to sincerely believe themselves. Recently, a calf on a Connecticut dairy farm was born with a marking on his forehead resembling a cross, so instead of sending him to the slaughterhouse to become veal, which is what happens on all dairy farms to all other male calves and some female calves (i.e., when the latter aren't needed to be new baby/milk-producing machines, replacements for their worn out, destined-to-be-hamburger mothers), the dairy farm owners are sparing this one, at least temporarily.

From L.A. Unleashed:

Continued from part 1, "Breaking Unjust Laws: Clarence Darrow and Inherit the Wind."

In his essay "Theory of Non-Resistance," Clarence Darrow wrote, "In modern society the controlling forces arrange things as they want them, and provide that certain things are criminal." And in our society, where the majority do not object to oppression of and violence toward our fellow animals -- and indeed, where many even profit from, and much of society is based on, that oppression and violence -- that translates into unjust laws protecting violence and criminalizing, of all things, acts of compassion. Exploitation, abuse, and killing are accepted; rescue, investigation, and free speech opposing the oppression can be prosecuted.

One of my favorite quotations from Darrow fits well with his "controlling forces" statement and is oh-so-relevant for the animal rights movement (and much else) in today's climate:

You want to get an audible gasp from a crowd of vegan animal rights advocates? Try unfurling a giant photo of potentially the world's coolest ship at an animal rights conference, announcing that it's going to be manned by animal advocates and used to protect whales and take on Japanese whalers. Yes, among Paul Watson's skills is his knowledge of how to get a crowd's attention.

The photo at left does not do the beauty justice, which Sea Shepherd first introduced under the name given to it by its creators, Earthrace, but has since renamed the Ady Gil. Calling it "a fast, futuristic looking trimaran that recently set the world record for global circumnavigation," Sea Shepherd plans to use the sleek, high-tech vessel to intercept harpoon ships in this year's whale-defense campaign, lovingly named Operation Waltzing Matilda with all the organization's Aussie supporters in mind. Among the ship's many special features is even Kevlar armor. Ady Gil may as well have "Give me whatever you've got! I can take it!" written across the side.

So with roadbumps from a couple months ago overcome, the Sea Shepherd crew left its Australian port two days ago on the Steve Irwin; the Ady Gil followed one day later. Send them -- and the whales -- your positive, protective vibes.

---
Photo retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

Note: This is the first part of a two-part post.

Several years ago, on some random television-surfing weekend, I happened upon an old black-and-white movie I'd never seen. I don't remember why I stopped to watch, but I do clearly remember how it blew me away, how I found myself wanting to clap and cheer for attorney Henry Drummond as his portrayer Spencer Tracy delivered a brilliant performance, full of powerful oratory.

This new favorite -- Inherit the Wind (1960), based on a stage play, based loosely on the Scopes monkey trial (the parallels are impossible to miss, but the drama is nevertheless heavily fictionalized at times) -- was a simply remarkable film; I couldn't get enough of it. And Spencer Tracy's superb portrayal of Drummond, the film's fictionalized Clarence Darrow, from whom the playwrights borrowed some of the lines given to Drummond, renewed my interest in the real-life late 19th- to early 20th-century lawyer. So what, you ask, do Inherit the Wind and Clarence Darrow have to do with animal rights? Plenty.

If you were paying attention last Thursday, you saw a post about, in part, vegan winter wear, including non-wool pea coats, and that topic leads to another.

When it comes to wool, leather, and down, one question tends to come up over and over again among vegans and aspiring vegans: Can I keep wearing my old wool coat (or leather shoes or down jacket) until they wear out, or until I can afford new? Different people give different answers to this, but here's mine: Yes. There are some things that I personally wouldn't be at all comfortable wearing or having anymore -- for example, a leather jacket (or a leather couch) -- both because of the emotions I would experience while feeling them against my own skin and because of the obvious animal nature of them and the statement I would feel like I was making with them. But it's absolutely true that although some people may be able to quickly and easily replace their animal-based clothing, not everyone has that luxury. And that's OK.