The opinions expressed in these essays do not necessarily reflect the position of ARAUNY. A few select ARAUNY members have been chosen to write on our blog.
By John Carbonaro (The opinions expressed in these essays do not necessarily reflect the position of ARAUNY). Often when people converse with vegans they attempt to find variations on how to use animals more “nicely”. We often respond that if…
by Linda Brink
An activist friend recently put a question out there, which is this: what inspired so many people to become outraged over Cecil the lion’s death, when daily, countless other innocents are routinely abused and destroyed without causing anywhere near the same reactive ire?
by Linda Brink [The opinions expressed in these essays do not necessarily reflect the position of ARAUNY.] I was thinking about how Cecil’s last hours might have passed. In the first cool breezes of evening, he would have scented the…
by JanineS The opinions expressed in these essays do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ARAUNY. We’re going way back before many of you were born, to the 1970’s. My personal journey to veganism began when a close family member…
By John Carbonaro (The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the position of ARAUNY) Back when i was in high school, we didn’t dissect. That happened at my community college. A lot has changed in H.S. since then, including going…
Words and picture by John Carbonaro
Recently someone was perplexed that at a mindfulness convention, participants were ordering animal products. They assumed that mindful people would naturally register the dynamics and issues that connect and disconnect us. There is little evidence to support a direct causal link between engaging in mindfulness and becoming aware/sensitized to animals and their rights. Yet as one learns about mindfulness there may be exposure to other ‘progressive’ issues such as diet, fair trade, organic, and animal use…
by tinako
I was tabling for our local vegan society and a GMO Labeling Bill a few weeks ago, and I was struck by the despair expressed by a few people who came up to me. “No one cares, even when they know the facts about animals,” one woman (not vegan) expressed. She seemed to believe that the best response to this was to do nothing, even within her own sphere of influence (her plate). An organic farmer said, “Monsanto is so big. People don’t know. Who will tell them?”…
by Tinako
I saw a Word-a-Day Calendar vocabulary, “Hobson’s choice,” defined by the calendar as “an apparently free choice when there is no real alternative.” The example given was Henry Ford’s reported comment that customers can have their car any color they want as long as it’s black. The phrase “Hobson’s choice” apparently originated as a result of a 16th-17th century English stabler, Thomas Hobson, who rented horses out to university students. Students would have their favorite horses, and those horses became overworked, so Hobson offered his customers this choice: take the horse nearest the stable door or none at all. According to the calendar, people were soon using the term to mean no real choice.
by JanineS
Some tactics gleaned from one of the most influential lobbying groups in America…
The leadership, thus their membership, is focused on one encompassing core issue. On the other hand, animal advocacy is comprised of a myriad of issues from raising animals for food, animals in captivity, hunting, trapping, vivisection, and so on. Perhaps if animal rights groups—particularly the national and state—concentrated on a few specialized issues, they may be more effective and avoid frustration & burnout among their members. Just a thought…
By John Carbonaro [The opinions expressed in these essays do not necessarily reflect the position of ARAUNY.] In the 1950’s Dr. Harry Harlow conducted psychological experiments on baby rhesus monkeys to research the effects of maternal deprivation on attachment and…
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