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Dolphins call each other by their name! Because they are the best!  »

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

Dolphins have names for each other! I guess they already knew dolphins named themselves, but this new study discovered that they will call each other by names, especially when they are separated.

“Animals produced copies when they were separated from a close associate and this supports our belief that dolphins copy another animal’s signature whistle when they want to reunite with that specific individual,” lead author Stephanie King of the University of St. Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit told Discovery News.

So of course they totally harassed dolphin mamas and babies to find this out but we can still appreciate the implications of the science even if we disapprove of the methods: dolphins are awesome!

If you want to help dolphins, who are slaughtered by the thousands every year (not to mention help captive in shameful zoos and aquariums), check out Sea Shepherd’s dolphin initiatives. 

NYC: Sea Shepherd’s Whalentine’s Day Bakesale!  »

Hey guys! The cool people from Sea Shepherd, NYC are having a cool bakesale this Sunday! I’ve been meaning to go to Mooshoes anyway, I’m past due for some new shoes. Well, not really. I just want some. Don’t judge me!

Bakesale details:

What: Whalentine’s Day Bake Sale to benefit Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Where: MooShoes, 78 Orchard Street, NYC

When: Sunday, Feb. 17th, 12:30-5:30 PM (volunteers and bakers welcome starting at noon)

Join Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, NYC chapter for our annual winter bake sale to support our vital ocean conservation work. From the Cove Guardians in Taiji, Japan monitoring the dolphin capture and slaughter to the partnership with the park rangers in the Galapagos to campaigns in the Mediterranean to stop poaching of Bluefin tuna and exposing the slaughter of seals in Namibia, Sea Shepherd is on the front line of protecting the world’s oceans and marine wildlife. Come eat some savory or sweet vegan treats, purchase official Sea Shepherd merchandise, and learn how you can get involved in Sea Shepherd’s work.

If baked goods aren’t your thing, come by anyway! MooShoes is donating 10% of the day’s sales to Sea Shepherd so you can support marine conservation without even having to chew.

Please bring a container if you plan to take home any of your treats. 

NYC: The Whalentine’s Day Bake Sale is Feb. 12!  »

I’m sure you can read the above flyer, so I will not repeat the details, but I will ask you: What could be better than Mooshoes, yummy vegan baked goods and saving whales?! Pro tip: nothing!

You can still sign up to bring baked goods, all the info regarding that is on their Facebook page. If you are just coming to shop, they ask that you bring your own containers to take your yums home, so we keep the environmental impact to a minimum! Good thinking.

From what I hear, there will be chocolate lollipops, Rice Krispies treats, carrot cake, croissants—not to mention mini cupcakes, mini donuts, and mini pies! I love a mini treat. You know what else I love? SHOES*. So be there or be, etc.

*UPDATE: I hear Mooshoes will be donating 10% of all in-store sales that day to Sea Shepherd! Go Mooshoes!

Guest post: Japan resumes whaling, I resume crying  »

I’ve been following the updates from Taiji, Japan on Twitter—Taiji is where The Cove was filmed, and where every year dolphins are slaughtered in a cove for low-priced and mercury-laden meat after the ones suitable for “fun” (read: awful) places like SeaWorld are picked out and sold for tens of thousands of dollars. Sad things happen there. Sea Shepherd is in Japan bearing witness to the dolphins killed in Taiji in the hopes that the world will take notice and put pressure on Japan to stop it.

This created chunks of sadness in my Twitter feed—between videos about cute cats and Vegan MoFo blog posts—and now I’ve started seeing tweets about this as well: Japan is going to resume its “scientific” whaling program after stopping it due to pressure from groups like Sea Shepherd. (I put “scientific” in quotes because that’s totally not the case.) Why you gotta do me like this, Japan?!

Officials announced on Tuesday that Japan will resume whale hunting in the Southern Ocean this winter, and stated their intentions to protect their ships.

“The Fisheries Agency will send a patrol boat and take increased measures to strengthen the protection given to the research whaling ships,” Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano said at a news conference Tuesday.

Fortunately, the Sea Shepherd crew are a bunch of badasses and don’t plan to make the hunt easy for Japan.

They will have to kill us to prevent us from intervening once again…. We will undertake whatever risks to our lives will be required to stop this invasion of arrogant greed into what is an established sanctuary for the whales.

That’s from a statement by Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson, who says that more than 100 people will be in the Southern Ocean to block the Japanese whaling fleet. How can you help? For starters, you can support Sea Shepherd so they can continue their work. You can sign a petition against whaling at Whales Revenge. You can write to your government reps to make it clear you don’t support whaling, and you want them to make their lack of support for whaling known as well. Adopt a whale from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. And you could talk to people about why whales are awesome and whaling is not, and encourage them to take action too. Highly recommended: following Sea Shepherd’s updates, online and/or Twitter.

Have any other suggestions on how awesome Vegansaurus readers can fight whaling in the Southern Ocean? Tell us about them in the comments!

photo by John Krzesinski via Flickr

Top 10 links of the week: A bike ride through the forest of veganism!  »

Hummus taste test at Kitchen Daily! Of course Philadelphia’s own Bobbi’s hummus rates high. It’s the best! Have you tried their white bean dip? Holy. Cannoli.

Cows have BFFs! This is important because if you keep them with their pals, they produce more milk. It also may be good for their welfare, but who cares about that!

Grist wants to know if you’d eat mutant meat! We of course wouldn’t, but crazy omnis prob already do.

PCRM wants you to help stop the terrible ferret lab at the University of Washington! Who would hurt a ferret?!

Treehugger discusses what happens when we remove the large animals from our ecosystem. Spoiler: It’s bad! Hey guys, what’s your favorite large animal?! Mine is of course elephants but everyone knows that!

Have you been keeping up with the war on wolves (I just coined that!)? Stay up to date! Defenders of Wildlife will help!

Vegan musicians are more than a trend! Agree/disagree? Who’s your favorite vegan musician?

Animal Planet has 10 animals channeling Harry Potter characters! So. Funny.

National Geographic has the story on wildlife in Afghanistan war zones—they are doing kind of OK!

If you’ve got the cash, look what you can buy from the Sea Shepherd art show:
I’m into it. This jawn is hot.

Japan suspends whale-hunting, Colbert weighs in!  »

That’s right! The awesome powers of Sea Shepherd have totally freaked out the Japanese government and they have suspended this year’s whale hunt. Goddamn that’s awesome! See? Sometimes super great things happen! The suspension is only temporary but still, it rules.

Here’s the Colbert clip (plus some):

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

OMJesus I’m so excited! I love the whales! I love Sea Shepherd! Let’s celebrate! I feel like we need some Sea Shepherd fan-art. Anybody?!

Shark fin soup is bad news! Here’s how you can help!  »

Poor sharks! They are being hunted and killed for their fins to make shark fin soup. SF Appeal had a great piece about the issue last week and I learned so much! The soup is a traditional dish in many Asian countries served at special occasions. It’s supposed to show how much of a baller you are because it costs up to $100 a bowl. LAME! SFAppeal and other sources are blaming the shark’s bad rep for the indifference to the fact that 70 million sharks are killed annually and 30 percent of shark species are threatened with extinction. Seventy million? Goddamn. Many times, because people don’t want shark meat, their fins are cut off while the sharks are still alive and then they are just dropped back into the ocean to die. OUCH! You can see just how awful it is on YouTube but I won’t assault you here.

Sea Shepherd (everyone’s favorite vigilantes) has a campaign against shark-finning, part of which is changing your perspective on sharks:

Myth:  Sharks are bloodthirsty man-eaters and ruthless killing machines.
Reality:  More people are killed each year by falling vending machines than by sharks.

San Francisco has a lot going on with regards to shark-finning. Wild Aid, which seems pretty awesome, has its headquarters in SF. Check out their volunteer opportunities. San Francisco-based journalist Erica Gies is also involved with Wild Aid; read about her efforts on spot.us—a very interesting site on its own I might add. You can also read her interview with shark-activist and Goldman Environmental Prize-winner Randell Arauz. Sea Stewards has an initiative called The Shark Sanctuary that is devoted to better understanding and conservation of sharks in the Bay Area. You can sign their petition to the city to ban shark fins and shark fin products in SF. Hawaii actually became the first place to ban shark fin soup earlier this year; maybe San Francisco could be next?!

On a national level, here’s a list of restaurants to avoid because they serve shark fin soup. New York and San Francisco totally stand out with the most restaurants listed. L.A. and Las Vegas do pretty well, too. Stopsharkfinning.net has a list of other ways you can help. You can also donate money to the Sea Shepherd for their shark conservation work. Read Oceana’s report on the international fin trade here.

[images via Stop Shark Finning and SF Shark Sanctuary]

Lion’s Share Industries: t-shirts by vegan artists  »

Hey everybody! Look what they are doing in Seattle: limited edition t-shirts all designed by vegan artists! Of course, to this I say, “OMG.” Anika Lehde, founder of Lion’s Share Industries, is one of my favorite people on twitter. She has a blog about vegan stuff in Seattle and tweets as @veganscore. I am not in Seattle because I am allergic to rain so unfortunately much of what she reports on is lost on me. But not these t-shirts! I like this one best:

I’ve loved owls ever since I found out Athena, by far the best Greek goddess, loves owls. The artist, Maré Odomo (sometimes Vegansaurus commenter and all around super talented famous person), has this to say about the design:

“Who cooks for you” is how birders and ornithologists interpret the Barred Owl’s call, but I felt that it was relevant for this shirt because we should always be thinking about where our food is coming from. Also, owls are awesome. The imagery for the shirt was partially inspired by the episode of “Pokémon” where Ash sees that Ho-Oh flying into the sun.”

How very interesting! 180 shirts are produced for each design so get them while they’re hot. Also nice to know is that 15 percent of the profits for this series will be donated to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. I love the Sea Shepherds because they are so darn HARDCORE. So with one little t-shirt, you can support the Sea Shepherds AND some super vegan artists. Nicely done!