Thursday, September 28, 2006

Lighting the debate

Artist Julia Lohmann has used spare animal parts to make furniture in an attempt, she says, to bring people face-to-face with the way animals are used to produce everyday products.

She says: "The point was just to show that so much of our classification of animals depends on context: a rabbit is a family pet, vermin or a delicacy. Similarly, people think it's terrible if animals are used in art - by the likes of Damien Hirst, for example. But they accept it if animals are killed to produce consumer goods."

The contradictions in the way we treat animals are rife and pointing it out in such a stark way is, I think, a worthwhile aim. The only problem is that most people already know it. But humans have an incredible capacity to be appalled, and then, a few seconds later, to forget it and carry on as before.

That’s why I tip my hat to all those former meat-eaters out there who managed to stay focused enough on the cruelty caused to animals to change their diets and become vegetarians. Vegans deserve even a bigger doffing of the hat for going the whole hog. I was raised veggie and so I didn’t have to make that choice – and I sometimes wonder if I would have? Who knows.

Anyway, artist Lohmann is doing some good work for vegetarianism with this show, despite the fact it uses dead animal parts and she herself is not a vegetarian. She says she considers it important, in a society in which packaging and even language is used to disguise the origins of animal-based products, that consumers take some responsibility for their role in an animal's death.

"For some, that would make it hard to wear the leather, or eat the meat," she says. "It's hard in a market designed to make us less and less aware of the connection; chicken doesn't look like chicken any more but comes in dinosaur-shaped lumps.

"Whether or not to go vegetarian is a personal choice - but it's a choice everyone should make actively. Our relationship with animals is not a simple yes or no debate. Acknowledging the origins of a product is a first step towards making more ethical choices about what we consume."

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Turning the other cheek

Following up yesterday's fur posting from the other day, here's the anti-fur poster of naked actress Sadie Frost. The picture was taken by no less than that gravel-voiced balladeer Bryan Adams. Now I wonder why he volunteered his services?

Monday, September 18, 2006

Fur christ's sakes

Unfortunately, it looks like fur is making a comeback in the fickle, some might say "sick", world of high (some maight say "low") fashion. In Britain, and I'm sure elsewhere, there is, at least, some mainstream resistance, but it seems to be fighting a losing battle.

What is wrong with these fur-wearering people? I mean, the designer Julien MacDonald (any relation to the golden arched burger chain, I wonder?) has made a coat with a row of foxes' heads dangling from it. Either, a) these people just don't care, b) the thought that it's wrong just doesn't enter their dim heads, c) they rationalise it somehow, saying that foxes are pests and need to be killed, or it was dead anyway - was it? or some other twisted reasoning that they convince themselves with, or, worst of all d) they actually like the fact that animals have been so pointlessly killed (it gives them a sense of power). Can anyone explain it? Does anyone know anyone who wears fur? What do they say?

Anyway, if you're outraged by it all, furisdead.com is a good anti-fur site with lots of links and ways to get involved. Although, I guess if we wear leather shoes and are appalled at fur wearers, we're being hypocritical - so check your feet first.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Gong to the dogs

I think I’ve written about vegetarian dogs, before – I can’t remember. Anyway, I think it’s a bit of a silly idea. Actually, I think there's something unnatural about the way most people treat their dogs. In fact, I think dogs are probably the most unnatural animals on the planet. This is no fault of theirs; their evolution has been manipulated by human behaviour towards them and they’ve lapped it up, to the point that they are now perhaps the only animals incapable of looking after themselves. Of course, this excludes the tiny percentage of dogs that are wild dogs. In fact, wild dogs serve as an illustration of how far domestic dogs have deviated from their natural state – you wouldn’t catch a wild dog whimpering and looking forlornly at a human in the hope of being thrown a scrap of food.

Left to their own devices, domestic dogs become starved and diseased scavengers. It’s a sad state of affairs. They also bark mindlessly at things and poo in parks and on footpaths. Yep, I’m no fan of owning dogs. And now, in yet another example of man’s ability to humiliate and further downtread the canine species, a man in India has taught his pet to perform yoga. And he thinks the fact that he’s a vegetarian and the dog is a vegetarian shows how enlightened he is.

The deluded owner says: "He was weak when he was born. We took special care of him and he gradually became strong after his yoga lessons. He has won many prizes at dog shows and he recently won the medal for best health."

Jesus, don’t get me started on dog shows ...

Meanwhile, talking of deluded people, this anti-vegetarian article is preposterously bad. I particularly liked the author’s four reasons why the world shouldn’t be vegetarian. He writes: “Radical animal rightists and bioethicists would like meat to be phased out of human nutrition altogether and turn the population into vegetarians. Such a policy would be disastrous at least in four respects:

- It would make the fuel crisis and deforestation much worse, as cooking vegetable matter, particularly fibrous plants, requires much more energy than does the preparation of meat;

- It would divert time away from production, for cooking and eating vegetables is more time consuming than the preparation of meat dishes

- It would lead to the disappearance of entire domestic breeds and eventually species;

- It would create a nutritional crisis in many parts of the world, leading to starvation, stunting and interference with brain development.”

Suddenly the yoga-loving dog owner seems sane. Take me to the nearest vegetarian dog show – there must be one somewhere?

Friday, September 01, 2006

Bit of bovver for veggie Bovril fans

I’ve never actually tasted it, but it seems a hot cup of Bovril brings a warm glow of nostalgia to many Brits. Vegetarians have recently been able to drink the substance, which was originally called, delightfully, Liquid Beef (yum!), because in 2004 it ditched the meat content in favour of a yeast mixture due to a ban on exporting British beef. Apart from the fact it was then pretty much the same product as marmite, ex-meat-eating, Bovril-loving vegetarians everywhere rejoiced and supped it dreamily again on football terraces across the land. Until today that is. Yes, Bovril is once again liquid beef. Which is a shame, for some. Especially the cows.