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Interview! Rory Freedman on her new book, Beg: A Radical New Way of Regarding Animals  »

New York Times bestselling author Rory Freedman is a living legend in the animal rights/vegan world. After launching a revolution with her Skinny Bitch and Skinny Bastard series, Rory Freedman has continued to work tirelessly to promote animal rights issues in Los Angeles and worldwide. The charismatic animal rights champion and kind-hearted dog mom took time out of her hectic book tour schedule to discuss her wonderful and unique new book, Beg: A Radical New Way of Regarding Animals (Running Press).

Vegansaurus: I loved the book! I read it overnight and was really impressed by the depth and feeling you’ve put into this work. How do you consider Beg to be different for readers who may be familiar with the Skinny Bitch series?

Rory Freedman: I think that the good news for fans of Skinny Bitch is it’s the same heart that drove me to write Skinny Bitch that had me writing Beg. I had a spiritual transformation while writing this book, and I’m no longer swearing. The good news is the book is still funny and deep in the way Skinny Bitch is. This language is a lot gentler, for people who might have been offended. Funny.

What inspired you to write Beg?

In Skinny Bitch, I found thousands of people whose lives had been changed and now went vegan. I thought great—now what? Great, these people now know about the animal issues, but will they understand about rodeos, zoos, circuses, animal testing, and other things that cause deaths and misery and torture of millions of animals per year? I thought that people were primed and would get it, so I think it’s a natural follow up for Skinny Bitch. Skinny Bitch is really a vegan manifesto cloaked in a diet book. I wanted to write this book once and for all to document everything that happens to animals.

What can animal lovers learn from Beg?

Researching and writing this book was an important part of my transition from a regular-human animal lover to more aware animal lover. It is about learning each of the ways we can do better for animals. As much as I knew about things in broad strokes, as an animal lover and vegan, I had to ensure details were correct and accurate. It’s always eye-opening to think about things that go on so easily and are so pervasive.

Even still, a lot of people who are dog and cat lovers don’t understand what happens in order for animals to look a certain way we’ve deemed appropriate for breeds. Tail docking and ear cropping, which I discuss in Beg, are examples of this. I didn’t know about this as a child or as a younger adult. Then one day when I was 30 I met a dog that opened my eyes to this. I grew up with a mini schnauzer, and when I was 30 I met a schnauzer that was strange—it had bigger ears than the childhood dog I knew. I didn’t know some had bigger ears, but it turned out they all have bigger ears naturally, it’s just that some when puppy breeders will have the dogs’ ears chopped off or tails dropped off. I stood there astounded when I found this out. I didn’t know what they were talking about. Doberman pinschers normally have floppy ears, but they covet that mean, agressive look in breeders. That will come as a shock to animal lovers.

What are some animal activism tips that might surprise Vegansaurus readers?

I’ve had a transition that’s been happening lately and gradually over many years as an activist and vegan. It’s evolving so I’m becoming a better activist. I am still as passionate, but I am feeling more diplomatic. I’m allowing this journey for many people to come from where they are now from where we’re hoping they’ll end up. Animals are suffering each day. I’m really getting that everyone is on their path and I have to love and accept everyone while on this work, and allow that people will find their own way. By the grace of God I found vegetarianism, animal activism, and veganism when I did. It doesn’t say anything about me. It just works out the way it did. I have to allow that it will be by the grace of God for others to find their own path. It is important to take action while also being loving. The most attractive thing we can be as activists is loving.

The author with her three dogs

Vegetarians and animal lovers often love seeing animals in films and in cute Internet videos/websites. You discuss animals and entertainment at lengh in your book. Care to elaborate?

We’re always being accused of anthropomorphizing animals, of giving animals human qualities we don’t have. Sometimes they’re wrong. We just understand that animals feel pain, like humans do, but as moviegoers, some might be confused when we see a chimp that seems like he or she is smiling in a movie or TV commercial. Chimps don’t smile in the wild. It was something that was new to me when speaking to primatologist while doing research for the book. Chimps have what’s known as a “fear grimace.” Even though it looks like a smile because it seems like our own, they’re actually scared because in the wild when chimps are frightened, they grimace. They don’t do it when they’re happy. There is also no way to provide for them in entertainment the way mother nature could. We can’t provide for their unique needs. We’ve seen time and time again that movie sets are dangerous for animals.

Some of my friends want to adopt pigs (myself included). You have a pretty intense section about pigs and what happens to them on factory farms. Have you ever considered adopting a rescue pig, and how easy is it to adopt?

I’ve never been asked that. Adopting a pig has crossed my mind, but not in my adult years as someone in the animal rights movement. I’ve had dogs now for 12 years. It’s such a big responsibility, it’s so all-encompassing, I can’t imagine adding to my brood right now. I can see the temptation. They’re darling animals. They are so smart and individualistic. I can imagine having one would be great fun and it’d be beautiful for anyone who is committed to taking care of one.

What is the “Beg for Change” campaign?

The Beg for Change Challenge Campaign is an exciting way to get people involved, for vegans and activists and “normies.” You can hashtag #BegForChange and/or share a picture of your adopted dog. You can brush your dog and share a pic after you’ve bushed him or her, you can tag a photo of their pile of hair. Then, we can notice leather or animal skins, and use social media to document what we notice. If you spend 15 minutes on peta.org, you can tell the world what you see that is shocking. You can watch “What skin are you in?” and share your experience. This starts off easy to get people involved and becomes more interesting, challenging, and eye-opening, and activists can spread the world.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, Rory! Thank you for putting this great book out there.

To learn more about Beg and get involved with the Beg for Change Challenge campaign, check out Rory’s website.

ALDF’s new series “30 Second Animal Law” is interesting and useful!  »

Animal Legal Defense Fund has a great new series on YouTube! “30 Second Animal Law” explains legal issues for and surrounding animals in tiny clips for your attention-deficit-addled brain. Check out the first installment, Legal Problems for Animals:

[Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!]

So far ALDF has got three videos in this series up, which you can either watch on YouTube, or watch in the coming weeks on Vegansaurus.

Have a pressing legal animal question for ALDF? Ask the experts via Twitter or Facebook. The staff will pick “the best—or most frequently asked—questions to answer on YouTube.” So useful.

Protest animal testing at UCSF on Sunday for National Primate Liberation Week  »

Animal experimentation is the fucking grossest. When did you first learn about it? When did you first connect actual animals with that torture? My little brother and I, after we bought up all the Calvin and Hobbes books, began spending our allowance on Berkeley Breathed’s collections, so it must have been sometime in the early ’90s that we read The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos, which featured the story of Opus’ quest to rescue his mother from a Mary Kay animal testing lab. The image of those bunnies in those cages with their eyelids pried open—I couldn’t believe it, except I did, you know? I was 10, he was maybe seven, and we were both very sad. He’s been a vegetarian for eight years now.

This week is National Primate Liberation Week, and across the country groups have held demonstrations all week at labs that misuse animals. San Francisco’s demonstration will happen at noon on Sunday, Oct. 24 at UCSF, at 513 Parnassus Ave.

According to Stop Animal Exploitation Now, UCSF holds over 900 animals in its laboratories, and that “at least three research projects at UCSF deprive primates of water for as much as 22 hours per day, five days per week.” That seems quite necessary, yes. Here’s something grosser: Rats, mice, birds, amphibians and other animals are excluded from coverage by the Animal Welfare Act, so laboratories/research facilities don’t even have to mention their presence on official reports. Rats and mice! The most common “test subjects” treated like office supplies. It’s sickening.

Demonstration organizer Shani Campbell reminds us that animal testing is government-funded as well, meaning that our tax dollars pay for torturing bunnies and rats and monkeys and pigs and guinea pigs and cats and sheep and squirrels and mice and voles. We pay our elected leaders not to pass legislation, and we pay the National Institutes of Health to fund medical testing on chimpanzees. Chimpanzees, for heaven’s sake.

If this bothers you at all, you should come to the protest. You don’t have to say anything, or hold a sign. Just being there shows how you feel about these atrocities, and that can be enough sometimes. Lab animal never have a choice to participate in the tests they undergo; they don’t get any warning, or reward; they don’t get to return to their life and freedom after the experiment is over. No living creature deserves that treatment. Come out to UCSF on Sunday and stand against it.

Please RSVP to Shani by phone at 925/819-6725 or by email. Contact her with further questions as well.

[scan of comic from Sniper’s Love Nest; Bloom County and The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos © Berkeley Breathed]

Colorado Bureau of Animal Protection’s chief investigator is “anti-animal rights”  »

Nope, not even kidding a little bit. Check out Scot Dutcher’s Twitter, which as of this post is still up and functioning, despite the state’s Dept. of Agriculture Deputy Director Jim Miller’s admission that Dutcher’s Twitter was “unauthorized,” and moreover, that “[I]t was something that we spoke with [Dutcher] about. He understood that he wasn’t supposed to be doing that.”

But I guess the guy in charge of animal protection for the entire state of Colorado is too, shall we say Mavericky to be silenced by mere policy. He is anti-animal rights and proud! Never mind the 860,000 pigs, 115,000 dairy cows, 400,000 sheep and lambs, “more than” 2.70 million beef cattle and calves, and approximately 6.25 million layer hens counted among Colorado’s top agricultural commodities*—Scot Dutcher thinks their living conditions are just fine, thank you, and doesn’t need any pesky USDA or FDA inspectors or anyone else telling him how to take care of them; they’re commodities, not precious little puppies. Would you tell a wheat farmer to be kinder to the wheat? A strawberry farmer to harvest the berries more humanely? No—and to Dutcher, animal rights appears to sound just as crazy.

This definitely seems like the right guy to call when you suspect farm animals are being abused. How much would you bet one of his first questions is whether they can still produce milk/eggs/wool/meat.

*Latest figures available were from 2007

Catalonia bans bullfighting! Viva España!  »

Bullfighting is so nasty and I fucking* hate it! So I was very glad when Meave reported that an amendment to the animal protection laws in Catalonia, Spain passed! Bullfighting is so over, jack!

I was totally happy about this animal victory but on Facebook today, one of my Spanish friends criticized the motives behind the ban, claiming it’s a matter of politics and not concern for animals. My friend Santi, who says he hates bullfighting, also had this to say:

They are doing it to say we are not Spanish. Make no mistake, Catalans also like bullfighting considering the number of people turning up to arenas. They have used this to say we  are not like them to the world!

 I do have to point out that the anti-bullfighting side used the fact that bullfighting has been declining in popularity as an indicator of public thought, so I question just how much Catalans like the “sport.” According to the Barcelona Reporter, “Barcelona’s last bullring is so unprofitable that the company managing it intends to give up the business next year.” The Guardian also reported the ban, focusing on the political implications of the issue. Pro-bullfighting peeps are saying Catalonia is using the ban as a big fuck-you to the rest of Spain.

Guess what has two thumbs and couldn’t give a shit about the motives that ban bullfighting?! THIS GUY! Bullfighting is disgusting and anyone who likes it is despicable. I said it! I don’t care why, I’m just glad it’s on its way out. Another thing I’m a fan of: matadors getting totally thrashed by bulls. I’m pro that. Fuck those douchebags.

Many of the bullfighting supporters also say the ban is an attack on Spain’s cultural heritage. An op-ed on cnn.com from last month addressed this cultural heritage argument. See, major news outlets aren’t always big ol’ jerkwads! The author, Jordi Casamitjana, is a consultant for PROU, a super-dope anti-bullfighting organization. Casamitjana says:

Many pro-bullfighting activists have argued that the “sport” is an important part of the Spanish culture and should not be banned. But cultural heritage is no excuse for inflicting pain on a frightened and confused animal. This campaign is not a matter of arbitrary prohibitions or of stomping on people’s individual freedoms. It is a matter of suffering.

Do you love this guy or what? 

If you don’t think bullfighting is fucking repulsive, watch a few youtube videos like this one supplied by SHARKonline. I don’t want to post them on here because they make me cry and I don’t want to make you guys cry because then you’ll all be at work looking like a bunch of nancies.

Bonus! The story of Ferdinand the bull! Of course in real life, they’d totally stab him to death but still, Ferdinand is totally adorbs:

[can’t see the video? watch it on vegansaurus.com!]

*My parents are dedicated Vegansaurus readers and they get upset at the foul language because they are so very old and square. So to them, I must apologize for dropping the f-bomb but bullfighting makes me so mad!

[bull illustration from PROU website]