vegansaurus!

Australia’s National Food Plan may include vegan issues  »

That’s the way to do it, Vegan Australia.

The magical island of Australia (or as we think of it, Evil New Zealand), is right now creating a national food plan. The government wants “to foster a sustainable, globally competitive, resilient food supply that supports access to nutritious and affordable food.” Which is admirable!

The leader of NFP project, Senator the Hon. Joe Ludwig, minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, has been meeting with interested parties nationwide, and taking public comment since releasing his ministry’s first issues papers on the subject in June 2011. This week Vegan Australia submitted its own set of recommendations to the NFP, because vegans care a lot about the direction of food production. As quoted in the International News Magazine, Vegan Australia recommends the NFP should

Ensure all Australians have access to affordable and adequate fresh fruits and vegetables and other plant foods irrespective of income by 2015.

Improve the health of Australians and lower the burden on the health system by reducing the incidence of dietary related diseases.

Use Australia’s land resources more effectively and sustainably.

End the use of animal agriculture systems within the next 20 years by building up and supporting Australia’s fruit, vegetable and grain producers.

“End the use of animal agriculture systems within the next 20 years”! As in, TURN AUSTRALIA VEGAN. I love it. I love that the first tenet is “food justice” and the last is “National veganism.” Those are big goals! Read them all in the official submission [pdf].

Would our Australian readers (or any antipodean readers, if you follow Australian news) please tell us your opinions on this? Is it a tiny issue? Is the country abuzz with cries of “Let us eat steak!”? Are Australian vegans like the ideal-world version of the silent majority? OK that can’t be true—no vegan is silent. But I don’t know anything about anything, so let your favorite pink dinosaur know: What is up with the National Food Plan? Will Australia be vegan within our lifetime?

[Photo of (and recipe for) vegan lamingtons by penguincakes via Flickr]

Should he be killed because of his breed? Help save Rocket  »

I’ve been following this story on Facebook for a while now and it’s long past time I post something about it. The beautiful dog above is named Rocket. He’s from Australia and currently in quite a predicament.

The story is that during a storm, a fence broke, he was spooked and got out of the backyard. Like a good boy, he went to his porch and waited by the door for his mom and dad to come home. At this point, somebody reported him as a loose dog. Because of breed-specific legislation and because he resembles a pit bull-type dog, he is now being held at an undisclosed location while his family fights to save his life and get him back. So sad. 

People have donated to help Rocket and because of this, they were able to get Rocket a lawyer. Here is the latest update from their page:

After appearing in the Supreme Court today, we are pleased to advise that we have been granted with leave to appeal Vcat’s Decision. We are today a little step closer in hopefully getting our beloved boy back.

A Big Thank You to all who are supporting Rocket through this tough time. We would have never had an opportunity to save our boy without your assistance.

Please continue to check in to Rockets Page for future updates on new hearing dates. We hope to have some new news on Rocket Soon. We have still not been made aware of where he is, or how he is. But we are trying our absolute hardest to find out.

We miss him so much.

They are still far from through this, though, and if you can donate, they would be grateful. We can’t all donate yet because they are still working on an international Paypal, but I think we have some readers in Australia. Here is the info for donating:

I encourage you to check out Rocket’s Facebook page and do all you can to support him. 

Adorable baby goats in coats, eating roses!  »

COME ON! You’ve got to be kidding me. This is like Anne Geddes-multiplied-by-baby-unicorns-cute. These little goats in coats come to us from Edgar’s Mission in Australia. Are you totally in love?

OMG how much do I need a purse goat?! I’ll feed him roses all the live long day.

These five little orphans made their way to Edgar’s Mission and now they are struggling to see humans as kind and caring, instead of mommy-stealers.  

You can sponsor these five guys if you are so inclined, just head over to their page!

Hello, friends! It’s Mark’s WTF Wednesday!  »

You guys, this has been an amazing whirlwind of a semester and I am so excited to be done with it and spend a few weeks just sitting at home, listening to audiobooks, and latch-hooking a rug in my muumuu. True story: My parents bought me one at Ross because I liked my mom’s so much when we were on vacation! I have really been enjoying audiobooks lately. I feel that listening to The Wind-up Bird Chronicles is the only way I am ever going to get through the entire thing. This is my current life goal.

Of course, none of this is to be! Soon I will be embarking on a Carnival Cruise Lines adventure with my entire family and returning to summer school, which is four hours per class! I remember how I thought being an adult would be super fun because I would get to do whatever the fuck I wanted and eat cinnamon toast crunch all day. Now, I don’t even get a summer vacation! Being old sucks!

What doesn’t suck is getting submissions from all of my friends (read: you). This week, I am especially grateful to  Kim who sent me a “WTF is this?” submission and saved me from doing hours of internet research! WTF are we WTF-ing about, you ask? Ducks! Ducks in frocks! Ducks in frocks strutting down a runway looking like Lady Gaga on a good mental health day! Kim doesn’t know how she feels about it, but I think we can both agree that the two ducks in pink dresses and hats are f-I-e-r-c-e! The ducks don’t look that upset, but I certainly can’t make any sense of it. What do you think?

What’s more WTF than ducks is Lazarus hamsters rising from the dead. Actually, I don’t know what’s more WTF: the hamster that dug its way out of a boxy grave, or the family he was living with not knowing that hamsters hibernate if they are too cold. That’s why you need to keep the heat up! They’re desert animals! Bunny used to hella like to chill on a heating pad. She used to like to poop on it, too, but I mostly remember the sitting. Get a book on hamsters, there are like five hundred.

That’s it for this week! We’ve been a little slow in true WTF-ness, so please pay it forward and send me links for next week. Paying it forward is probably a bad example, though. Hayley Joel Osment’s career died at the end of that movie!

Have a safe Wednesday!

[photo via Buzzfeed, photographer not cited]

Top 10 links of the week!: A harlem shuffle through the dance floor of veganism!  »

Scary rooster Puff has it in for kitty Blacko! This is kind of sad. 

Grist’s Protein Angst series is still killing it! My new favorite: Never mind the meat—worry about eating enough plants. This is what I’m always thinking! Like, dude, I get enough protein, do you get enough veggies?! There is so much concern over our nutrients but I’d bet meat-mouths are not hitting all the nutritional points!

A whole town in India relocated to make room for tigers! That’s nice. 

McDonald’s thinks trying their food is less risky than petting stray pitbulls. People are not pleased. But I’m glad our standards are now risky and less risky. Obviously they are implying you may get bit by a dog; generally I want my food to be on an entirely different scale than getting bit by a dog—not just less “risky.”

From Ecouterre, fur trapping season ends with record high of non-target animal deaths. That means exactly what you think it means.

Choosing Raw has another great post on PCRM and fat-shaming (though we discourage the use of “overweight” as it maintains there is a specific weight you should be). Gena stresses the need to focus on using “honest language, honest facts, and honest statistics.” Here here!

Australia is up in arms over recent footage documenting inhumane conditions in a Sydney slaughterhouse. You can see the video on the linked page. It’s pretty rugged. The one good thing though is it seems like Australia actually does stuff when footage like this surfaces. The slaughterhouse in question was immediately closed (I don’t know if it was permanently closed but still, swift action).

An NYT editorial calls for humane national standards in egg production!

You know we’ve been discussion palm oil lately, well Grist is here to help you break free of the palm oil grasp!

From HuffPo, you may have already heard about this but if not: Westminster severed ties with Pedigree because they didn’t want to see images of puppies behind bars during commercial breaks. Stay classy, Westminster!

From Ecorazzi, Ian Somerhalder (see below) is getting an award from the Humane Society! I have an award for him too! IN MY PANTS. Sorry guys, I can’t help it, he’s the hotness times god damn.