The animal rights movement, like all movements of global scale, is one of incremental steps. Change happens when behavior, attitudes and laws change. We all need to pull together. I would urge those reading this to support the Farm System Reform Act. This legislation from Senators Booker and Khanna places a moratorium on new and expanding factory farms. It provides economic incentives for farmers to move away from this model. It also phases out factory farms over a period of time and moves us to a more humane and sustainable model. Change happens when we become activists and vote. If we allow the Trump party to restrict voting, gerrymander elections, write laws that take the power from the people, we have lost. There are many ways to fight this fight. Support progressives both locally and nationally. Think about what you buy and where you buy it. Think about what you put in your mouth. The Trump party, if allowed to take power, will only make the injustice that Wayne speaks of worse. Vote, vote, vote and urge your elected representative to support the Farm System Reform Act!
My lack of distrust in institutions grows every day but I hang onto hope and remind myself that I am on the right side of history both morally and ethically. Currently in Newfane, NY our local and wonderful farmed animal sanctuary, Asha’s Farm Sanctuary is under attack by the local animal farmers. The local farmers are utilizing death threats, harassment, slander and deformation of character, and cyber bullying and have threatened area feed stores to stop selling feed and straw to the sanctuary. The founder of the sanctuary, Tracy Murphy, is being accused of grand theft larceny for keeping two cows who wandered onto her property safe and fed while demanding that the NYS Trooper who verbally claimed to own them produce proof of ownership, which he was unable to do. The NYS Police then responded to each 911 call placed by Murphy as she was and continues to be terrorized by the animal farming community, sometimes not responding to her calls for 1 hour and 45 minutes. All Court proceedings will be held in Niagara County, home to the animal farmers and I wonder how a non biased court case is possible here. Tracy Murphy is one of the most hard working, moral and compassionate woman that I know and Clearly she is being used as a pawn to silence compassion for animals and to uphold the destructive forces of human supremacy. my trust in the law and in those who take the oath to protect the innocent has been destroyed yet I will continue my fight for animal liberation in a society that is rotting to the core.
Wow I've heard about this case. I'm so sorry for this, Christine. Do you and Tracy have good lawyers? Is there anything I can. do to help? Have any journalists taken up your cause?
Yes the wrong people are in the news for exposing America animal cruelty shame. What will it take to teach the US wrong from right to call the us a civilize country no civilize country would take another species and try to turn it into a machine and call themselves civilize nor would any who would steal the flesh of another species to sink its fangs into can be called civilized. The right word in savage behavior. The best people fit to live are the first people the America Indians. The America Indians lived in harmony with nature they did not try to control nature. Then came the white devils with the forked tongue killed the Buffalo to call the first people savages is another mistake America made. TOUCH THE EARTH a self Portrait of Indian Existence as follows We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills,and the winding streams with tangled growth, as wild. Only to the white man was nature a wilderness and only to him was the land infested with wild animals and savage people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families we loved was it wild for us. When the very animals of the forest began fleeing from his approach, then it was that for us the WILD WEST began. Chief Luther Standing Bear of the Oglala band of Sioux
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. Agree completely that the anti-nature sentiment of Western thought is dangerous. Have you read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn?
The American justice system is a game dominated by manipulative megalomaniacs. Courtrooms seem (to me at least) to be the play space for muscle flexing by the rich and well connected. How can one take their pursuit of truth and justice seriously when time and time again evidence is withheld, witnesses are denied, and certain speech is silenced. It is beyond absurd. The fact that people need to have thousands and thousands of dollars just to have adequate representation makes the whole thing illegitimate to me. And court fees!?..What the hell is that? Is it crazy to think that all costs should be paid by our tax dollars since it is supposed to be the very bedrock of our country?
If voting was the answer then by now we as a society and a country should be sitting pretty right now rather than being in the polluted, hyper-violent, impoverished rot of a democracy in decline. I do vote. I never feel good about it. The kleptocracy that is being maintained by the two party duopoly is the vehicle that will bring us to our collective demise. As poll after poll shows, the American public and our "representatives" might as well be on two different planets. The public desperately wants a new direction but it is nearly impossible to get new perspectives and folks of new approach in the door, and if the stars align and all financial hoops are jumped through "outsider" candidates can't even participate in the debates! Free and open elections my fanny!
Yeah, publicly funded elections would probably be a great help. The overturning of 'Citizens United' and the ' McCutcheon' case would also be a great benefit. Personally I think the disbanding political parties would also be a monumental help. Of course it will lessen (or hopefully dissolve) the stranglehold the parties have on us but, also help erase the hard lines so many Americans have drawn around themselves. It also would probably make it easier for people in the cold halls of government to communicate and work together having been freed of the burden of forced loyalty and the "moral" brain box in which such a relationship spawns.
I really appreciate any sense of optimism that is shared. I find it very hard to see past the muck even though I am aware of the progress that has been made over the past six decades. I will say these new generations of kids do give me hope. In the late 90's while visiting my grandfather in Brooklyn Heights I found myself in what I usually refer to as a "soap box moment" talking about within the next generation or two we will see a great and growing change in regards to civil rights, mainly racism and homosexuality acceptance. This feeling/observation was mostly met with great acceptance and perhaps a slight dose of hope by the people on the street around me. Cut to twenty-something years later we have gay marriage legalized and (for the most part) de-stigmatized, massive movements that have gone global concerning civil rights and the racist practices under which our institutions were formed. Maybe the moral curve of the universe does in fact bend towards justice. Hopefully humankind will allow themselves and the planet's current ecosystems to maintain long enough for us to see it.
Much love. A shout-out to Tracy Murphy & Asha’s Farm Sanctuary (mentioned in a comment in this thread), stay strong! On behalf of the entire world I thank you!!!
Hey, man. No we haven't met personally. I wish I could get to the Salt Lake City VegFest. The debate with the pig farmer would be interesting. I wish I was able to physically be a part of your support convergence for the trial. Thank you for all you do. Your existence is highly appreciated!
Now if the US went to the moon why does it not have a birth control or abortion pill for animals? Underdeveloped countries have it along with humane birth control for rats. Would the US rather use my tax dollars to mass kill animals 1,500 in one year in Alaska. Something is wrong here if the US calls itself the greatest country in the world great in what? Where are America greats Film stars rock a billy stars? Finally after 70 years the US has humane birth control for rats, mice, dear etc Since Tech in AZ has this yet do we still have to wait another 70 years for a birth control abortion pill for dogs?
America went from for the people by the people, too for the people by the people and for sale to the highest bidder. I am ashamed to be a born American and hide this when traveling to civilized countries. As Rome fell so shall America any country without morals or ethics and the worship of the color of green as its god will fall so the best is ahead, Now try telling this to any animal slave example to try to turn an animal into a machine is against nature same as to take an intelligent socialized elephant out of the wild and subject it to live alone behind bars at the Bronx zoo in NY and name it Happy just shows one how STUPID zoos are. And to call a lab animal a lab tool their are no word to describe such ignorance. To top it off America calls it self by mistake the greatest country in the world America is the more mentally retarded country in the world period.
What could be more stone age then the US corrupt government I am working to get a slaughter house out of my neighborhood of birds ducks in the back of a driveway in Queens NY laws broken such as must be 1,500 feet from neighbor house and it is, now where does one inforce this? One must fight to bring stone age America out of political evil and the dark age and no one is doing this better then you. To waken the walking dead even if they are killing themselves is not easy, as the greatest people stand alone but now we are in great numbers and will fight on doing whatever as America is the laughting stock of civilized people still consider cow boys and indians and by paying no tax to such corruption and to enlighten those who are not the walking dead will help.
Huge stuff going on, society-wide - like around the blocking of effective early treatment for the c-virus and mandating of a dangerous injection and the non-enforcement of laws for crime and the voting fraud (see 2000 Mules) as well of course what you are talking about. My sense: we all need to increase awareness as much as possible. In my case, for example, I've seen organic farmers - very aware of the agro-industry - falling for the c-virus "narrative" (meaning, untruths). I've seen people aware of the dangers inherent in Islamic ideology also getting brain-numbed around the c-virus. I see all these aspects as part of a larger anti-human and anti-animal force. For instance, I see it as a sign of massive empathy-damage that people buy meat that has been inhumanely farmed.
You're 100% right, Elsa, in that it'll take a collective effort to increase awareness. THe problem is that we lack the culture and structure to really do that. Instead, we have... Facebook. Part of what we're trying to change with our recnet projects, including this blog!
I see you are doing enormous work. So are many others. In my much smaller way, I have been spreading awareness of the horrors of factory farming for decades, and much more. I also stopped eating meat decades ago. And during that time, I have seen that many people have, by now, at least one meatless day a week. The gains, person by person, are small. They do accumulate.
A researcher performed the following.experiment in a laboratory. He cut off the front leg of a frog and told the frog to jump.The frog jumped. He cut off the other front leg of the frog and told the frog to jump. The frog jumped. He cut off the right rear leg of the frog and told the frog to jump. The frog jumped. He cut off the other rear leg of the frog and told the frog to jump. The frog did not jump. CONCLUSION Frogs become deaf when their legs are cut off.
The judges and prosecutors you describe, don't seem to understand that they're monsters, insulated in the remainders of a once great set of civic institutions rapidly being converted to a "Network State" of Balaji Srinivasan's description, in which the 'winning team' goes forward as bitcoin enthusiasts who'll probably be first in line for skin-implant digital id. Economist Richard Wolff explains their 'concrete' gaze in a dialogue with R.J. Eskow on "The banality of evil economics."
Tell the man wandering about in the park tonight that the money that funded the half way house and the money that keep the mental health clinic doors open is now being used to make rats schizophrenic. Tell the old lady that loss her eyeglasses subsidy that the money is being used to blind pigeons. Then tell me why those who use money to harm not help, can still get an audience in so called American society.
So little animal cruelty laws being broken and so little the ASPCA in NY is doing nothing about turned it over to police also not worth much horse fell over on street yesterday after riding 500 pound people around horse drive beat horse to get up find on line WE HAVE TO THIS TIME FOR SURE GET THE CARRIAGE HORSES OUT OF NYC.
The animal rights movement, like all movements of global scale, is one of incremental steps. Change happens when behavior, attitudes and laws change. We all need to pull together. I would urge those reading this to support the Farm System Reform Act. This legislation from Senators Booker and Khanna places a moratorium on new and expanding factory farms. It provides economic incentives for farmers to move away from this model. It also phases out factory farms over a period of time and moves us to a more humane and sustainable model. Change happens when we become activists and vote. If we allow the Trump party to restrict voting, gerrymander elections, write laws that take the power from the people, we have lost. There are many ways to fight this fight. Support progressives both locally and nationally. Think about what you buy and where you buy it. Think about what you put in your mouth. The Trump party, if allowed to take power, will only make the injustice that Wayne speaks of worse. Vote, vote, vote and urge your elected representative to support the Farm System Reform Act!
My lack of distrust in institutions grows every day but I hang onto hope and remind myself that I am on the right side of history both morally and ethically. Currently in Newfane, NY our local and wonderful farmed animal sanctuary, Asha’s Farm Sanctuary is under attack by the local animal farmers. The local farmers are utilizing death threats, harassment, slander and deformation of character, and cyber bullying and have threatened area feed stores to stop selling feed and straw to the sanctuary. The founder of the sanctuary, Tracy Murphy, is being accused of grand theft larceny for keeping two cows who wandered onto her property safe and fed while demanding that the NYS Trooper who verbally claimed to own them produce proof of ownership, which he was unable to do. The NYS Police then responded to each 911 call placed by Murphy as she was and continues to be terrorized by the animal farming community, sometimes not responding to her calls for 1 hour and 45 minutes. All Court proceedings will be held in Niagara County, home to the animal farmers and I wonder how a non biased court case is possible here. Tracy Murphy is one of the most hard working, moral and compassionate woman that I know and Clearly she is being used as a pawn to silence compassion for animals and to uphold the destructive forces of human supremacy. my trust in the law and in those who take the oath to protect the innocent has been destroyed yet I will continue my fight for animal liberation in a society that is rotting to the core.
Wow I've heard about this case. I'm so sorry for this, Christine. Do you and Tracy have good lawyers? Is there anything I can. do to help? Have any journalists taken up your cause?
Thank you Wayne. As time goes on we can see clearly that is is an attack on veganism and Asha’s Farm Sanctuary is being used as the pawn. She has a great team of local lawyers(she is confident in their handling of the case so this is huge), and is working on fundraising and hiring new employees for animal care. As far as a journalist, I do not believe that she has a specific journalist covering the case. Sentient Media wrote a piece. https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsentientmedia.org%2Fanimal-sanctuary-founder-jailed%2F&h=AT0vkek4V3PB0lxmkIbVqRSnKI6yjFkdkbtkFFrVB5lB3VNx2Pnm4ebjD8LK2CJxVnNfdioZ6SbHy-Zs0nsk2vtyGhVGdevgHLZYiFFFA7pJ_XOroMcL9xV8Rt-K7mheOihWzY2rHU-0&s=1
Yes the wrong people are in the news for exposing America animal cruelty shame. What will it take to teach the US wrong from right to call the us a civilize country no civilize country would take another species and try to turn it into a machine and call themselves civilize nor would any who would steal the flesh of another species to sink its fangs into can be called civilized. The right word in savage behavior. The best people fit to live are the first people the America Indians. The America Indians lived in harmony with nature they did not try to control nature. Then came the white devils with the forked tongue killed the Buffalo to call the first people savages is another mistake America made. TOUCH THE EARTH a self Portrait of Indian Existence as follows We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills,and the winding streams with tangled growth, as wild. Only to the white man was nature a wilderness and only to him was the land infested with wild animals and savage people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families we loved was it wild for us. When the very animals of the forest began fleeing from his approach, then it was that for us the WILD WEST began. Chief Luther Standing Bear of the Oglala band of Sioux
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. Agree completely that the anti-nature sentiment of Western thought is dangerous. Have you read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn?
The American justice system is a game dominated by manipulative megalomaniacs. Courtrooms seem (to me at least) to be the play space for muscle flexing by the rich and well connected. How can one take their pursuit of truth and justice seriously when time and time again evidence is withheld, witnesses are denied, and certain speech is silenced. It is beyond absurd. The fact that people need to have thousands and thousands of dollars just to have adequate representation makes the whole thing illegitimate to me. And court fees!?..What the hell is that? Is it crazy to think that all costs should be paid by our tax dollars since it is supposed to be the very bedrock of our country?
If voting was the answer then by now we as a society and a country should be sitting pretty right now rather than being in the polluted, hyper-violent, impoverished rot of a democracy in decline. I do vote. I never feel good about it. The kleptocracy that is being maintained by the two party duopoly is the vehicle that will bring us to our collective demise. As poll after poll shows, the American public and our "representatives" might as well be on two different planets. The public desperately wants a new direction but it is nearly impossible to get new perspectives and folks of new approach in the door, and if the stars align and all financial hoops are jumped through "outsider" candidates can't even participate in the debates! Free and open elections my fanny!
Yeah, publicly funded elections would probably be a great help. The overturning of 'Citizens United' and the ' McCutcheon' case would also be a great benefit. Personally I think the disbanding political parties would also be a monumental help. Of course it will lessen (or hopefully dissolve) the stranglehold the parties have on us but, also help erase the hard lines so many Americans have drawn around themselves. It also would probably make it easier for people in the cold halls of government to communicate and work together having been freed of the burden of forced loyalty and the "moral" brain box in which such a relationship spawns.
I really appreciate any sense of optimism that is shared. I find it very hard to see past the muck even though I am aware of the progress that has been made over the past six decades. I will say these new generations of kids do give me hope. In the late 90's while visiting my grandfather in Brooklyn Heights I found myself in what I usually refer to as a "soap box moment" talking about within the next generation or two we will see a great and growing change in regards to civil rights, mainly racism and homosexuality acceptance. This feeling/observation was mostly met with great acceptance and perhaps a slight dose of hope by the people on the street around me. Cut to twenty-something years later we have gay marriage legalized and (for the most part) de-stigmatized, massive movements that have gone global concerning civil rights and the racist practices under which our institutions were formed. Maybe the moral curve of the universe does in fact bend towards justice. Hopefully humankind will allow themselves and the planet's current ecosystems to maintain long enough for us to see it.
Much love. A shout-out to Tracy Murphy & Asha’s Farm Sanctuary (mentioned in a comment in this thread), stay strong! On behalf of the entire world I thank you!!!
Very helpful thoughts. Is this Dave Engel by the way? Or another Dave that I personally know?
Hey, man. No we haven't met personally. I wish I could get to the Salt Lake City VegFest. The debate with the pig farmer would be interesting. I wish I was able to physically be a part of your support convergence for the trial. Thank you for all you do. Your existence is highly appreciated!
Now if the US went to the moon why does it not have a birth control or abortion pill for animals? Underdeveloped countries have it along with humane birth control for rats. Would the US rather use my tax dollars to mass kill animals 1,500 in one year in Alaska. Something is wrong here if the US calls itself the greatest country in the world great in what? Where are America greats Film stars rock a billy stars? Finally after 70 years the US has humane birth control for rats, mice, dear etc Since Tech in AZ has this yet do we still have to wait another 70 years for a birth control abortion pill for dogs?
America went from for the people by the people, too for the people by the people and for sale to the highest bidder. I am ashamed to be a born American and hide this when traveling to civilized countries. As Rome fell so shall America any country without morals or ethics and the worship of the color of green as its god will fall so the best is ahead, Now try telling this to any animal slave example to try to turn an animal into a machine is against nature same as to take an intelligent socialized elephant out of the wild and subject it to live alone behind bars at the Bronx zoo in NY and name it Happy just shows one how STUPID zoos are. And to call a lab animal a lab tool their are no word to describe such ignorance. To top it off America calls it self by mistake the greatest country in the world America is the more mentally retarded country in the world period.
What could be more stone age then the US corrupt government I am working to get a slaughter house out of my neighborhood of birds ducks in the back of a driveway in Queens NY laws broken such as must be 1,500 feet from neighbor house and it is, now where does one inforce this? One must fight to bring stone age America out of political evil and the dark age and no one is doing this better then you. To waken the walking dead even if they are killing themselves is not easy, as the greatest people stand alone but now we are in great numbers and will fight on doing whatever as America is the laughting stock of civilized people still consider cow boys and indians and by paying no tax to such corruption and to enlighten those who are not the walking dead will help.
Huge stuff going on, society-wide - like around the blocking of effective early treatment for the c-virus and mandating of a dangerous injection and the non-enforcement of laws for crime and the voting fraud (see 2000 Mules) as well of course what you are talking about. My sense: we all need to increase awareness as much as possible. In my case, for example, I've seen organic farmers - very aware of the agro-industry - falling for the c-virus "narrative" (meaning, untruths). I've seen people aware of the dangers inherent in Islamic ideology also getting brain-numbed around the c-virus. I see all these aspects as part of a larger anti-human and anti-animal force. For instance, I see it as a sign of massive empathy-damage that people buy meat that has been inhumanely farmed.
You're 100% right, Elsa, in that it'll take a collective effort to increase awareness. THe problem is that we lack the culture and structure to really do that. Instead, we have... Facebook. Part of what we're trying to change with our recnet projects, including this blog!
I see you are doing enormous work. So are many others. In my much smaller way, I have been spreading awareness of the horrors of factory farming for decades, and much more. I also stopped eating meat decades ago. And during that time, I have seen that many people have, by now, at least one meatless day a week. The gains, person by person, are small. They do accumulate.
A researcher performed the following.experiment in a laboratory. He cut off the front leg of a frog and told the frog to jump.The frog jumped. He cut off the other front leg of the frog and told the frog to jump. The frog jumped. He cut off the right rear leg of the frog and told the frog to jump. The frog jumped. He cut off the other rear leg of the frog and told the frog to jump. The frog did not jump. CONCLUSION Frogs become deaf when their legs are cut off.
So much horror and deliberate not understanding.
The judges and prosecutors you describe, don't seem to understand that they're monsters, insulated in the remainders of a once great set of civic institutions rapidly being converted to a "Network State" of Balaji Srinivasan's description, in which the 'winning team' goes forward as bitcoin enthusiasts who'll probably be first in line for skin-implant digital id. Economist Richard Wolff explains their 'concrete' gaze in a dialogue with R.J. Eskow on "The banality of evil economics."
Will check some of this stuff out. Thanks for the cites!
Tell the man wandering about in the park tonight that the money that funded the half way house and the money that keep the mental health clinic doors open is now being used to make rats schizophrenic. Tell the old lady that loss her eyeglasses subsidy that the money is being used to blind pigeons. Then tell me why those who use money to harm not help, can still get an audience in so called American society.
So little animal cruelty laws being broken and so little the ASPCA in NY is doing nothing about turned it over to police also not worth much horse fell over on street yesterday after riding 500 pound people around horse drive beat horse to get up find on line WE HAVE TO THIS TIME FOR SURE GET THE CARRIAGE HORSES OUT OF NYC.