Unbearable Loneliness

45 years in prison for no reason...
You should be out there Lolita! Please, forgive us...

The "world's loneliest orca" has lived like this for 45 YEARS.
Posted by The Dodo on Monday, 31 August 2015

Stevie Wonder Went Vegan and He Loves it So Much He Sings About it!

It seems like every day we hear news about a celebrity who has decided to make the compassionate and environmentally choice of switching to a plant-based diet. Recently, we learned that Miley Cyrus has been vegan for over a year, we were over the moon to hearBéyonce sing the praises of eating plant-based and now – drumroll please – the incredible Stevie Wonder has not only decided to tell the world he now eats vegan … but belt it out in a fantastic song on primetime TV.

In this epic clip from The Late Late Show with James Corden, Stevie explains how he is lovin’ “not eating animals” and is very honest about how he misses chicken but is finding new options every day!

We love this clip for many reasons, one being the fact that hearing Stevie Wonder sing along to his own hits is a mind-blowingly awesome experience (if only that’s how we sounded doing the same on car trips…) and two, this little clip is helping to inspire others to give eating plant-based a try.

Many studies have proven that eating plant-based – even a few times a day – is the best option for people, animals. and the planet, so it’s wonderful to see such an admirable icon touting the benefits of eating vegan.

Afterall, if you’ve got a delicious looking veggie burger sitting in front of you AND Stevie Wonder singing the vegan accolades … why wouldn’t you dive in head first?

There Is Always Someone Looking Back to Me!

When you let it come to you, it will come.  It's out there and in here: the truth that when you look in the eyes of an animal, there is always someone looking back to you, there is concienceness, there, if you let it in...

Keep an eye out for The Last Pig - a film about a pig farmer turned #vegan that should be out later this year.
Posted by Gene Baur on Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Mushy Peas? Not Anymore. Peas Are a Superfood!

By Andrea Hayley, Epoch Times | January 26, 2016
Last Updated: January 27, 2016 3:43 pm

Legumes are a curious food. Some say they are a superfood. They are indeed the only food that gets prominent double billing in the USDA’s new dietary guidelines, which sets out rationale for the optimal American diet. 

Legumes include most beans, peas, and lentils, and these are categorized both as a recommended vegetable, and a protein source, alongside meat and poultry, nuts, seeds, and soy. 

Pulses (as legumes are known by most of the world, but there are differences as you’ll read below) are excellent sources of protein, the USDA states, because they provide nutrients iron and zinc, which are found in seafood, meats, and poultry. At the same time, they are part of the vegetable category because “they are excellent sources of dietary fiber and of nutrients, such as potassium and folate, that also are found in other vegetables.”

more HERE! 

Egyptian writer will spend the next 3 years in JAIL for slamming inhumane sheep sacrifice!

 

 

Started by Eugene Boone 
Petitioning: Ahmed El-Zend – Minister of Justice – Egypt

Egyptian secular writer Fatima Naoot will have to spend the next three years behind bars after being found guilty of insulting Islam. The charges stem from a Facebook post that was published in October 2015 in which Naoot spoke against the inhumane practice of sacrificing sheep on Eid al-Adha, a tradition that has been carried out for thousands of years. She describe the tradition as one of the most inhumane practices carried out by human beings.

During the Eid al-Adha festivities, sheep are sacrificed as a symbol of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Sheep are put down while they are still fully conscious and moving and experience terrible suffering, all in the name of tradition.

‘I’m not sad about the actual sentencing, I don’t care about it. I’m sad that the efforts of reformists have been wasted’ she stated to France Press agency.

The defense attorney, Sherif Adeeb, was baffled by the decision.

‘We did hope for an acquittal. I cannot comment in any way on the court’s decision, but the situation is quite odd, because we have submitted proof that there mas no mischief intention on behalf of my client, a statement that was also supported by prosecution authorities’.

Her sentence comes into force immediately. However, she will be able to appeal the decision.

We, the undersigned, strongly feel that this decision is completely unfair and ask for Fatima Naoot to be acquitted. We believe in the freedom of speech and we believe that if Egypt wants to consolidate its democratic values, the decision to convinct Fatima Naoot has to be rescinded.

News Source: http://bit.ly/1TuKdWj

Imagine a world without factory farming...

http://makeitpossible.com/

Indianapolis Colt ‘Feels Great’ Being Vegan

As a wide receiver for the NFL, Griff Whalen needs to be one of the most agile players on the field. He began looking into nutrition two years ago and found a perfect solution: A vegan lifestyle has made him feel leaner and lighter. And he’s not shy about it, either—his website proudly declares that he’s “plant powered.”

Watch Griff’s exclusive chat with PETA about being a vegan and even helping teammates make the transition along the way.

Join Griff and do your part for your health, the environment, and animals. It’s never too early (or late) to make the kind, smart choice to eat plant-based foods to give your health a boost and spare animals unnecessary suffering. It’s also never been easier to give up meat, eggs, and dairy foods: There are countless compassionate options in grocery stores and restaurants across the country. And PETA has hundreds of free delicious vegan recipes to try!

"Humane" killing?

In matters of life and death we don't usually tease, it's not funny and it's not something we take lightly.  But what happens when we are talking about the life and death of animals?  And how can we kill "humanely" when the result is still the same: death?  How do you kill humanely someone who doesn't want to die and be ok with it?

Πώς θα μπορούσε η ΣΚΛΑΒΙΑ και η ΣΦΑΓΗ ΔΙΣΕΚΑΤΟΜΜΥΡΙΩΝ ΑΘΩΩΝ πλασμάτων να γίνεται με αγάπη, ανθρωπιά και ενσυναίσθηση; Μέ...
Posted by Vegan For Life Greece on Monday, 1 February 2016

TOKYO SAYS NO TO DOLPHIN HUNTS

On January 29, several Japanese activists assembled outside the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Tokyo to protest the killing and capture of dolphins. The demonstration was intentionally timed to coincide with staff getting off work for the day.

Despite plummeting temperatures, for about 90 minutes, people called for an end to the dolphin hunts. Some held up signs, calling for the release of Ric O’Barry.

Demonstrator calling for the release of Ric O’Barry, Tokyo, 1-29-16
Photo credit: Michael Todd

One protester with a megaphone made it clear that while she had no criticism of the Taiji fishermen, their license to kill dolphins should be revoked by the Japanese government due to the cruelty of the drives. Ric’s release was also repeatedly asked for.

Tokyo Demo outside the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries to stop killing dolphins, 1-29-16 (watch the video)

Macro photos of snowflakes show impossibly perfect designs

Jaymi Heimbuch (@JaymiHeimbuch)

CC BY-NC 3.0 Alexey Kljatov

One of the true wonders of the world are snowflakes, tiny designs made of ice that are so individually unique, so detailed, and so spectacular it's hard to comprehend that they happen naturally and aren't pulled from the depths of our own imaginations.

Photographer Alexey Kljatov has a special talent for capturing the brief life of these beautiful ice creations. He features many of his snowflake photos on Flickr. Kljatov says, "I capture snowflakes at open balcony of my house, mostly on glass surface, lighted by LED flashlight from opposite side of glass, and sometimes in natural light, using dark woolen fabrics as background."

Here is some of his impressive work:

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0
Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0more HERE! 

Rescue Ink is a gang but... :) we love them!!!

The Surprising Reasons Humans Need Bats

Bats have long been one of the animal kingdom’s most feared and misunderstood creatures. Most pop culture associations with them are related to a creepy vampire man seducing women to suck their blood or a witch putting a hex on an undeserving individual.

Although, these associations are complete fallacies, bats do have a well-known dark side as a dangerous disease vector. These flying mammals can carry a number of harmful diseases such as rabies and more recently Ebola, which has led many to wonder why we should even care about them.

Sure, there is good reason to be exceptionally cautious if you come into contact with bats, but for the vast majority of us, high bat populations are extremely beneficial. A wide variety of different bat species have been shown to play a significant role in pest control and in pollination all over the world.

Dominating Pest Control

Many organic farmers have learned about the very real benefits of having bats nearby to help manage the bounty of pests that show up without pesticides. One brown bat – about the size of a human thumb – can consume about 600 mosquitoes and other unwanted insects an hour. They make for a fantastic, almost essential, addition to pest management in any garden.

Even large government organizations have realized the economic benefits of bats. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that bat contributions to pest management save the United States at least $3.7 billion dollars per year. Just by flying around eating their dinner – the insects that eat and damage our crops! Without them, we would most likely experience a distinctive drop in food produced, which would eventually make its way into our weekly grocery bills.

Tombako the Jaguar/Flickr

Significant Pollination Contribution

As if this wasn’t already enough of an ecosystem service we receive, bats also play a significant role in the pollination of a variety of different plant species. Many of these are preferential to bat pollination, meaning without bats the plant would decrease its ability to produce offspring by at least 50 percent.

A number of plant products consumed by humans fall into this preferential pollination category. Some popular foods include mangoes, bananas, peaches, and guavas. Additionally, the Saguaro cactus (Arizona’s state plant) and the agave plant, which is used to make tequila, are completely dependent on bat pollinators for reproduction.

Record Declines

Unfortunately, bat populations today are plummeting for a number of reasons.

Some scientists have blamed initial declines to high uses of chemicals in pesticides and habitat loss. Pesticides frequently sprayed on crops to help prevent insect consumption don’t always kill the insects immediately. When they are eaten by bats in the hundreds of thousands, small amounts of the pesticide build up and eventually reach levels that kill these small mammals.

These declines have left the remaining bat population more vulnerable to severe impacts of disease outbreaks. One example of this is the current outbreak plaguing bat populations all over the United States. They are at serious risk of destruction as a result of white-nosed syndrome. Colonies infested with the disease have only an average of a 30 percent survival rate.

YoTuT/Flickr

A Helping Hand

Luckily, there are a few ways in which we can contribute to improving conditions for bat species worldwide. Perhaps the simplest would be to consider donating to organizations such as Bat Conservation International. Programs such as these use funds to promote scientific research on bats and bat conservation, to educate locals about the importance of bats, and to advocate for policies that ensure the health of bat populations.

Within your own home is it also possible to provide space for these creatures. Adding a bat box to your home garden is a great way to attract them. Not only does building one provide a safe place for local bats to live, but it also benefits you by helping with pest control. It really is a win-win situation.

Bats are major contributors to our society through both pollination and pest control. These assets are in the best interest of both the national and international community to protect and even to promote. Amid significant fears housed by the general public, the fact is we need them more than most of us imagine.

Lead image source: Imgur

France makes a change...

France has made supermarkets' throwing out of edible food illegal.  Will supermarket monsters obey the law and will other countries follow this bright example?

France has made it illegal for supermarkets to throw out edible food.
Posted by MSNBC on Tuesday, 26 May 2015

No Bees No Food!

It is common knowledge that bees are in danger and their number is being reduced in unimaginable ways.  But we keep on living our lives in peace and quiet... till the last bee makes life impossible on the planet...

Please share this as much as you can!
Posted by Simon Hague on Friday, 31 July 2015

Stop Big Palm Oil

 Stop Big Palm Oil From Destroying 
the Last Existing Home for 
Orangutans, Elephants, and Tigers

In the last two years, we have witnessed a wave of commitments by some of the biggest snack food companies, traders and growers in the palm oil industry to cut the destruction of rainforest and peatlands, and the exploitation of local communities and workers, from their supply chains. However, one question must be answered: Are companies like snack food giant PepsiCo and palm oil behemoth Wilmar actually translating their commitments into real change on the ground or are they delivering nothing but lip service?

A Time for Change

For Rainforest Action Network (RAN), it is clear that the much-needed transformation of thepalm oil sector can only occur if the linchpins in the supply chains – the biggest users and palm oil traders that buy, ship and trade palm oil around the world – take real action to improve the practices of their suppliers, including those on the frontlines of palm oil plantation expansion in Indonesia.

Given the scale and complexity of the palm oil supply chain, RAN is testing these company commitments by monitoring implementation efforts in the Leuser Ecosystem in the Aceh and North Sumatra provinces on the island of Sumatra. The Leuser Ecosystem is among the most biodiverse and ancient ecosystems ever documented by science, and it is the last place where orangutans, elephants, tigers, rhinos, and sun bears still roam side by side. Despite the Leuser Ecosystem being protected under Indonesian national law, industrial development for palm oil threatens its critical lowland rainforests and peatlands, as well as the continued well-being of the millions of people who depend on it for their food, water, and livelihoods.

In November 2014, RAN exposed the culprits responsible for the destruction of the Leuser Ecosystem in our report titled The Last Place on Earth.  As a result, the “Big Three Buyers” of palm oil from the region — Wilmar International, Musim Mas Group and Golden Agri-Resources — publicly stated that their companies would prioritize taking action to protect the Leuser Ecosystem.

There is hope that these companies can use their buying power to drive real change on the ground in the Leuser Ecosystem. Together, these traders have significant influence as they buy, refine, and export a significant proportion of palm oil produced by growers operating in Aceh and North Sumatra.

So what progress has been made by the Big Three Buyers in their efforts to protect the Leuser Ecosystem?

Recently, Wilmar issued its “Policy Progress Update: 2013 – 2015” which made no mention of any efforts to protect the Leuser Ecosystem. The report clearly shows that the palm oil giant has failed to eliminate rainforest destruction, climate pollution, and human rights violations from its global palm oil operations by its self-imposed deadline of December 31, 2015. It is disappointing that in the two years since Wilmar adopted its “No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation Policy” the company has not yet halted egregious practices in its supply chain, including in the Leuser Ecosystem.

Over the past 12 months, Conflict Palm Oil has continued to expand into the heart of the rainforests and peatlands of the Leuser Ecosystem. Satellite imagery and field investigations have uncovered the ongoing destruction of the region’s most valuable lowland rainforests and the carbon-rich peatlands that are at the frontlines of Conflict Palm Oil expansion. The palm oil companies clearing the Leuser Ecosystem’s lowland rainforests – the home for the last herds of the Sumatran elephants and tigers – were exposed in RAN’s latest report and have links to the Big Three Buyers.

It is clear that Wilmar, Musim Mas and Golden Agri-Resources, and their customers such as major brands like PepsiCo, have not yet broken their links to the destruction of the Leuser Ecosystem.

These traders must take real and immediate action to stop the destruction of rainforests and peatlands and to secure ongoing legal protection for the Leuser Ecosystem. More collective action is needed to effect real change on the ground inside the Leuser Ecosystem. The Big Three Buyers must both scale up incentives provided to their suppliers, to make compliance with a higher standard of responsible palm oil production more appealing, and the Big Three Buyers must support the creation of alternative economic development pathways outside the unsustainable industrial plantation model.

Given the scale of the climate and biodiversity crisis, time is running out for companies to offer only words. We must act now to create real change and protect the Leuser Ecosystem from corporate exploitation.

Join Rainforest Action Network as we stand with our allies and turn these paper promises into real change on the ground in the forests of Indonesia where it matters most.

Image source: Schristia/Flickr

Johnson & Johnson: Their Baby Products Contain Cancer-Causing Chemicals

Johnson & Johnson Finally Admits: Their Baby Products Contain Cancer-Causing Chemicals

"Children are our future" as Whitney Houston sang so passionately in the mid 80s. If this is true (and it most definitely is), why are trusted corporations, headed by mothers and fathers just like you and me, selling potentially cancer-causing baby products? Any kind of carcinogenic material shouldn't come into contact with things we put in and on our bodies, at any age. In infancy, the most vulnerable time in our lives (spare a major illness potentially caused by these products), exposure to some of the chemicals Johnson & Johnson has just admitted to using could spell disaster.

So What's In It?

Formaldehyde has been detected in Johnson & Johnson products. Studies suggest it may cause cancer—and it is in your baby's shampoo. The chemical is commonly used as an embalming agent when preparing a corpse for burial. What is it doing in consumer-use products, you ask? The "why" is unclear but the "how" is quaternium-15. This ingredient releases formaldehyde, which is known to cause skin, eye and respiratory irritation. It has also been tied to leukemia.

But Wait! There's More (Sorry)

Johnson & Johnson has another dangerous chemical in their cocktail of potentially cancer-promoting chemicals. 1,4-dioxane is also part of the mix and it too has carcinogenic properties. This gem is a brain toxin that can cause damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys.

They Are Taking Their Sweet Time Fixing This And To Hell With The Consequences

For some reason, Johnson & Johnson are not putting a hop in their step to fix this problem. Even with millions of helpless babies bathing in their bathwater, the company is moving slowly in removing these chemicals from products sold in the U.S. The company produces products that are free of these chemicals for other countries. Necessity breeds invention. 

http://diply.com/most-amazing/article/cancer-causing-baby-products-formaldehyde

Neglected, shivering and traumatised

Neglected, shivering and traumatised: The moment Japik the orangutan is rescued after being chained up outside on a wooden plank for TWO YEARS 

• Japik is between four and five years old and was bought from a hunter
• International Animal Rescue's orangutan rescue and rehabilitation centre in Ketapang saved her 
• A special appeal has been launched to help her recovery

By HARRIET MALLINSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 17:24 GMT, 29 January 2016 | UPDATED: 19:58 GMT, 29 January 2016

An orangutan in Borneo that was found chained up on a narrow wooden plank surrounded by rubbish has been rescued after two years of misery and neglect. 

Her rescuers found Japik, who is between four and five years old, soaking wet and shivering on the plank, desperately trying to shelter from the rain under an old jacket.

Alan Knight, Chief Executive of International Animal Rescue, said: 'It was pouring with rain when our team arrived on the scene and at first they couldn't see Japik. 

Moment orangutan in Borneo is cut free after being left in rain

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Chained up: An orangutan in Borneo that was found chained up on a narrow wooden plank surrounded by rubbish has been rescued after two years of misery and neglect.

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Abandoned: It was pouring with rain when the International Animal Rescue team arrived on the scene and at first they couldn't see Japik

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Unloved: Her rescuers found Japik, who is between four and five years old, soaking wet and shivering on the plank, desperately trying to shelter from the rain under an old jacket

'They spotted what they thought was a pile of old rags on the plank but then, when they saw it moving, they knew they had found her.

'As our video shows, the poor orangutan couldn't escape from the rain and was cold and drenched by the time we reached her. 

'What a miserable existence for any animal, to be trapped on a wooden plank, unable to display any natural behaviour and completely exposed to the burning sun and the driving rain. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3423073/Orangutan-Borneo-rescued-International-Animal-Rescue-chained-two-years.html#ixzz40kRIv6X5
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