Vegan is Fashionable in LA

This is vegan chic and vegan exotic.

The New York Times has an article headlined "Making Vegan a New Normal", saying that vegan food is now mainstream in Southern California, which is experiencing a surge in popularity of plant-based diets.

The article reports that in Southern California omnivore’s restaurants court vegans and vegetarians, and particularly the high-profile advocates for veganism, glamorous, famous and powerful ones who fuel the dining economy there. And whatever happens in Los Angeles now will become the national trend later.

All this is replacing the public image of lentil-eating vegans in sandals with that of quinoa burger eaters in high heels.

That shift is under way in various cities around the world, but it’s happening in an explosive way in and around Los Angeles: at the elite gastronome magnets, at casual gathering spots and everywhere in between.

Save Dogs from Cops

Apparently in the USA police officers are too ready to kill innocent dogs.

A new Facebook group, K9 Partners of Monroe County, is "petitioning the White House to make it mandatory for police officers to undergo special training for handling dogs non-lethally".

Here is an interview with the founder and administrator of the group, Eddie Cintron.

With beloved family dogs killed impulsively by trigger-happy cops, a canine-friendly group feels it’s time for the Obama Administration to prevent this outrage by federal legislation.

Loose dogs may scare some people but loose cops can tear families apart with fear and grief. More often than not police officers raiding a house, sometimes the wrong one, don’t hesitate in shooting down family dogs outside or even inside the owner’s house, killing them in cold blood with the clichéd excuse of shooting the canine in self-defense. Then there also have been reports of police K9s dying while their officers left them in a hot patrol car. Such cases of cps killing dogs, in action or by neglect, led to the creation of the Facebook group K9 Partners of Monroe County, which is petitioning the White House to make it mandatory for police officers to undergo special training for handling dogs non-lethally. Founder and administrator of the group Eddie Cintron tells more about this initiative.

Ernest: Eddie, we frequently hear of cops shooting dogs not only outside but in their homes. How serious is this problem?

Eddie: Yes, this is a common occurrence that happens every day and many go unreported where there is a no-knock warrant or an officer simply has come to the address where there is a dog and come to find out they were at a wrong address to begin with and the dog ends up being shot inside the house. In Wayne County in Upstate New York, just recently, the Drug Task force forced a 75-year-old grandmother to the floor after executing a no-knock warrant, which is illegal and the woman having serious health issues was told to close her eye and they shot her dog where the dog bled all over the house dying in his doggie bed. This is how bad it's gotten. A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme. The mayor indicated that police are not to re-write the constitution and they found out that the judge did not sign the warrant.

Ernest: Why do you think the cops pull the triggers on dogs this way?

Eddie: Simple answer: because with all the professional training police officers get, they do not get trained in how to approach or handle an unfamiliar dog and many respond out of fear or fright; and there are some out of pure spite wanting to cause harm to the dog. I just received an email from the Chief of Police of Coconino, AZ, assuring me that appropriate actions would be taken on his Corporal Tewes that beat a dog to death with his baton and then crushed his head with his foot; the Chief was disturbed by these actions and gave him an administrative leave without pay until investigations were done.

Read it all.

Here you can sign the petition to the Obama Administration to institute mandatory training for police officers of non-lethal force in handling our canines family members.

Anti-Halal-Meat on Facebook

I have posted on my other blog Enza Ferreri Anti-Halal-Meat Campaigns on Facebook:

There is a new flurry of activity of mostly British anti-halal-meat campaigns on Facebook. I have liked, joined, friended, subscribed to all I found, signed petitions, encouraged them and posted on their walls.

I invite you to do the same if you like them. Here they are.

Continue reading

Man Faces Animal Cruelty Charge for Abandoning Dog on Colorado Mountain

We are on the right track. Charges like this should be levelled more often, followed by just punishments.

A man left on the mountains his dog Missy, who was then found moribund by a couple who intend to adopt her although the man would like her back.

Upon their return, the hikers entrusted the dog to a local vet, who told Washburn that it was “the miracle dog of the century, and although she was severely dehydrated she has, miraculously, no long-term or permanent damage.”

... The sheriff’s department also has a rescue team, and other hikers told them about Missy being stranded on Mount Bierstadt during the weekend. However, the rescue team was unable to respond because it is solely reserved for human rescues.

It shouldn't be. That is obviously not right.

What is particularly shocking in this story is that Missy would probably, like so many other dogs, have given her life for her human companion who abandoned her to what he knew was a probable death.

Source: ABC