When I visited Hong Kong in November 2013, I remember seeing exotic birds and fish being sold in (awful) markets, but I don’t remember seeing dogs anywhere. I didn’t give it any thought at the time because I was so distracted by the 7 million people crammed onto a tiny island – like one big Times Square. But now it makes sense: With its large population and a scarcity of green space (in the developed areas), Hong Kong doesn’t seem dog-friendly at all. So I am surprised and disappointed to read that Hong Kong’s newest status symbol is not just dogs – but large dogs.

Hong Kong has about 10 very upscale shopping malls with the same luxury brands – Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and the like. Some of these malls are situated within a few blocks of each other. Given how prevalent these fancy stores are, people who like to display their wealth but can no longer distinguish themselves in the crowd by wearing a Rolex have resorted to purchasing large dogs, according to China Topix: “Having a large dog is meant to signal that the owner can afford equally spacious homes in a city where luxury apartments cost twice as much as in New York.”

As would be expected from people who buy companion animals for the wrong reason, “Some give up their dogs after these are fully grown, and much larger than the cute puppies they signed up for.” This reminds me of the chihuaha craze triggered by Hollywood socialite Paris Hilton and the movies Legally Blond and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Animal shelters were overrun with chihuahas when people were bored with their dog accessory or were unequipped to care for them. In the U.S., puppy mills flooded the market with chihuahuas to the demand, and the same thing is happening in Hong Kong with large dogs (who, of course, are being raised in poor conditions.)

Sheila McClelland, the founder of the Lifelong Animal Protection Charity, says it best: “Having dogs must be for life, and not just for status.”  To that I would add, please adopt. Buying an animal from a pet store or breeder kills a shelter dog’s chance of finding a home.

Photo: CNN Money

With shares of SeaWorld crashing as a result of the documentary film Blackfish, will the movie’s producer, CNN, be charged with terrorism? Under the 2006 Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), anyone who causes the loss of property or profits to institutions that use or sell animals can be prosecuted and face up to 20 years in prison, depending on the amount of profit loss.  This overly broad law has not only compromised our constitutional right to free speech and free assembly but has also changed the public discourse, giving people permission to describe animal advocates as “terrorists.”  The irony is that the real terrorists here are the companies (or institutions) that the activists are targeting.  These companies employ terror when they kidnap, deprive, mutilate, confine, neglect, torture, slaughter and skin animals alive in factory and fur farms, behind circus tents, in laboratories and, of course, in the tanks of Sea World. Of course, the federal government would never file terrorism charges against CNN because it would be a PR disaster, but I wish they would because a spotlight on AETA would force Congress to change or eliminate the law. In early August, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review AETA, claiming it violates the First Amendment.

Photo: NBC News

Several years ago, I heard an activist talk about the reaction she received when she was distributing free veggie dogs at a ball park. Some people said, “Eww. What’s in that?” to which she responded, “Grains, soy and vegetables, not to be confused with the lips and rectums in the other hot dogs.” In my 24/7 attempt to get people to eliminate or reduce their consumption of animals, I use that line all the time.  I wish, however, that I could use this video instead; pictures really do speak a thousand words. Not all hot dogs are made this way, but, hopefully, this footage will trigger some people to grill veggie dogs instead of mystery meat during their Labor Day BBQs.  Share it!

In an opinion piece in the NY Times entitled “The Enigma of Animal Suffering,” “former vegan” Rhys Southan gives readers permission to eat animals while simultaneously acknowledging that their treatment is so inhumane that only nonexistent remedies would make their lives tolerable: “Some ideas include breeding genetically modified animals who are insensitive to pain, culturing non-sentient animal products in a lab, and giving chickens virtual reality helmets so that they think they are living in a nice environment even if they’re not.” Based on his own description about how farm animals are tortured (“Even small, high-welfare farms tend to subject their animals to at least some painful procedures like castration without anesthetic, dehorning or the separation of mothers and their newborn children”), his conclusion should be “don’t eat animals.” Instead, he seems to be justifying animal consumption by suggesting that animals are ignorant and that the parallels we make between human and animal suffering are “unsound.” The phrase “former vegan” is,  in and of itself, a detriment to the animal rights movement because it suggests that they “saw the light” and realized that eating animals is a good thing. If you’re going to betray the animals and the movement to protect them, please go away quietly.

Ex-Vegan Rhys Southan

Experts on CNN have attributed Ebola outbreaks to our destruction of the rain forests.  If that is true, then we are killing ourselves, really. But our abuse of the planet triggering our own demise is nothing new.  Environmentally destructive factory farming has given us Bird Flu, Mad Cow and Swine Flu, and man-made climate change has caused catastrophic weather, killing hundreds of thousands of people.  The way I see it, the planet has two choices: It can give up by allowing us to finish destroying the air, the forests, the oceans and those who inhabit them, or it can protect itself by taking the corrective measure of eliminating all or many of us.  I think Ebola, diseases transmitted by factory farmed animals and weather-related fatalities are a sign that the Earth trying to preserve itself by removing us.

Source: www.foodasmedicine.ca