It’s Fashion week in NYC! Here is my interview with Victoria Bartlett about her show at the Chelsea Piers for Spring/Summer 2010.
In regard to her sponsorship by the Humane Society of the United States, she had this to say:
“I’ve always been anti-fur – I love my pets…and I could never see them being worn. It’s a very human time right now, and what’s the sense in more carnage? There are other things in life to celebrate and design doesn’t have to be draped with dead animals.” - Voctoria Bartlett
• Buy A Cool Organic Shirt from PARTYBOTS, Help Mercy For Animals!
$2 from every online apparel sale and 5% from all wholesale order get donated to Mercy For Animals to help assist in their efforts for animal compassion, education, investigations, grassroots activism and more.
• Check out these new books from some of our favorite animal advocates:
• Just for Kicks. Check these new, striking cruelty-free shoes.
• Check out some of the amazing recipes at G LIVING. The recipes are delectable, and photographed beautifully. We re drooling over here!
veterinarians, including many in PetSmart stores, announced it will stop performing cosmetic tail docking, ear cropping, or devocalization (de-barking) of dogs. Read The Article.
"Guilty" illustration by Ian Kim
• Michael Vick will now fight with Eagles instead of dogs. After doing jail-time and anti-dogfighting campaigns with the HSUS and PETA, Vick has returned to the NFL and joins the Philadelphia Eagles. Will the Eagles be able to dodge the press about this, and furthermore, was it a wise decision when they already have an amazing QB Donovan McNabb, and considering Vick won’t be allowed to play for another seven months? What do you think?
• Speaking of Fighting Eagles, get this organic Loomstate tee at 25% off! For Kaight’s third anniversary, enjoy 25% off all purchases through Aug. 31. Online customers use coupon code “three” to redeem at www.kaightshop.com.
• Raise your hand if you think Crayola supports “terrorism”. Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) and civil rights attorneys will make oral arguments before the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) is unconstitutional. The AETA is being used for the first time since its passage by Congress in 2006 to do exactly what civil rights advocates feared it would do – criminalize activities protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution – activities like writing slogans in chalk on the sidewalk.
How can you help? Join CCR in protecting our basic constitutional rights by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper about the AETA.
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• SolarRolls are not eco-friendly sushi. Meet the first flexible solar panel. Waterproof and durable, this gadget gives you portable electricity anywhere there’s sun. You can charge your car battery, run a video camera, or use it to power cell phones. The possibilities are endless. Starting at $295
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• An elephant known as Jewel, who IDA has been working to rescue for over two years, was attempted to be confiscated from her abuser by the USDA. Her abusive handler, Will Davenport – who has a history of abusing animals and violating the endangered species act in the illegal purchase of elephants Tina and Jewel from the Cole Brothers Circus. Read the whole article.
My lil’ rescued chihuahua, Enzo, loves Max & Ruffy’s nutritious, organic, and vegan dog treats. With flavors like Molasses Explosion, Wolf Peach and Herb, and Mother Quinoa’s Pumpkin Patch – I couldn’t resist trying them myself. They’re actually really good! They have a thorough FAQ section that counters common myths about canine nutrition, and you can buy their treats online!
This is Enzo, the super, vegan Chihuahua! Goofy, astute, sleepy, and meditating!
Wiener Roast: If you’ve ever wondered why men identify with charring meat, check out the article I wrote about dude-culture and barbecuing!
Rag & Bone’s organic knits. You know we think wool is ‘effed up. Rag & Bone, whose aesthetic we love, has some really great knits in organic cotton for Spring ’09. Did you know that 25% of ALL PESTICIDES used globally is for cotton?
Knock Out Dog Fighting: Tito Ortiz, Cung Lee, and other bad-asses take a stand against dog fighting. Check it out!
Gardein …tastes…. like… chicken. I picked up some It’s All Good brand veggie-chick’n in tomato tuscan marinade because it’s made with this really great faux meat called Gardein, and I hadn’t tried it yet. It was really convincing (scarily so, for this more-than-a-decade-vegan), and has 26 grams if protein per serving! Wow. I prepared it over quinoa with some steamed greens:
There is actually a type of heroin called 'cheese', but I couldn't resist!
Having trouble kicking the cheese habit? Maybe you’re addicted to NARCOTICS like casomorphins - naturally occurring opiates found in dairy products. And since it takes 10 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of cheese, concentrated products like cheeses have especially high levels of opiates. Soon you may need a prescription for “medical gorgonzola”. Research has also strongly connected dairy to autism, finding high levels of casomorphins in children with Autism.
While the idea of fermented cow tit secretions made from forced pregnancies (resulting in the veal industry) tainted with pus, blood, poop, and cholesterol is enough for me to steer clear – those of you who can’t seem to stop gorging on brie may understand your cravings better!
Think you must go to Goodwill for your recycled-clothing needs? Now you can shop online at NIFTYthreads.com and scour the collections or search using a key-word. So much easier then fingering through racks and racks of random crap. I could be wrong, but I think every single thing costs $10!
In honor of the Humane Society of the United States’ Spay Day 2009, enter your little furball in the photo contest and win great prizes! There are two ways to win prizes in the contest: The Judged category and the Fundraisers category.
Two caps, one pup. Photo © Matt Lara
I enjoyed two caps the other day, a soy cappuccino from Gimme! Coffee – probably the best espresso ever, and a naturally dyed cotton knit cap made by the elusive Filipino designer, Eairth from Kaight. Enzo my lil’ rescued pup (thanks to sugarmutts.org) is sporting his “Have a Heart” anti-fur pin. Believe me, it’s much more effective on him. Especially when we’re walking and I offer him up to the fur-clad : “would you like to anally electrocute him and add a few extra inches to your coat?”
Easy Cookie Pies! © Discerning Brute 2008
These cookies are perfect for the holidays. Add anything you want to the center! Chocolate, marzipan, jam, pumpkin pie mix, peanut butter, or even leave the sugar out and go for a savory mini pastry with mashed potato, tampenade, or a chunk of marinated seitan in the center!
What you’ll need (makes 2 dozen):
• 2/3 cup non-hydrogenated,vegan margerine or shortening (Earthbalance or Spectrum is great!)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 tblsp sunflower seed butter
• 1/3 cup organic brown sugar
• 2/3 cup unrefined, organic sugar
• 1 tblsp vanilla extract (you can also use almond or coconut)
• 1/4 cup egg replacer (Energie is great!)
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2-3 cups all purpose organic, unbleached flour
Directions:
1. In a mixer, or with a fork, combine chilled margarine/shortening, coconut oil, sugar, vanilla, egg replacer, and sunflower seed butter.
2. Once it is creamy, add the baking powder and vinegar. It should start fizzing a bit.
3. Slowly mix in the flower until it is like play-dough, dry enough so it doesn’t stick to your fingers too much, but moist enough to roll out. Usually it’s 2.5 cups. For chewier cookies, add more flour. For crispier, add less.
4. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick on a floured pastry sheet or wax paper.
5. Using a circular cookie cutter, and a smaller circle (you can even use a bottle cap for the hole) make a solid base, and doughnut shaped top.
6. Place your base on an ungreased cookie sheet, add your filling, then place the top on!
7. bake on 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until golden.
1. If you thought they couldn’t possibly be any more disgusting, the parting Bush Administration has denied dwindling, drowning and starving Polar Bears protection under the Endangered Species Act. Human generated global-warming, mostly caused by meat & dairy production, is the #1 culprit. Read the full article here.
“This rule makes a mockery of the Endangered Species Act, our nation’s most important wildlife protection law,” said Defenders of Wildlife executive vice president, Jamie Rappaport Clark. “The polar bear doesn’t have time for political maneuvers. Its habitat is melting away, its food is becoming scarce and the science is clear that the cause is global warming – yet the rule this administration released today affirms that little will be done to save the species from sure extinction.
2. If you wear glasses or sunglasses, and you don’t know about Fabulous Fanny’s, you are missing out! Get the most amazing selection of thrift & vintage frames and shades. Buying thrift is the greenest way to shop! It’s one of the East Village’s best kept secrets, and one of my personal favs.
3. Farm Sanctuary strikes again!
Daniela Sea, Joshua Katcher, Alison Becker photo© Ecorazzi
With an awesome party, of course! With Miss Guy on the turn table, more amazing vegan food than your eyes and tummy can handle, and the most inspiring crowd of activists and celebs from Danilea Sea and Alison Becker to Jennifer Coolidge, Corey Feldman & Inder Bedhi of Matt&Nat – this Winter Wonderland fundraiser was not to be missed – but if you did miss it, make sure to make it to next one! Farmsanctuary.org
4. Our friend Karl at PARTYBOTS has designed some awesome, 100% post-consumer recycled, originally designed notebooks! These are sweet and under $6 each! Cheap gifts for everyone this holiday!
5. This holiday, you may be feeling philanthropic. However, be very aware of organizations 
like Heifer International – whose promises of alleviating malnutrition and poverty through providing animals, actually has disasterous results. Like the little fact that over 90% of the Africans who are given dairy cows are lactose intolerant. Our friends at WFAS school us on this, and tell us how we can really help:
“While this might sound good on paper, the water and land needs of livestock in areas that are often short on both quickly outweigh the benefits — instead it increases human dependence on an unsustainable food-system that depletes the environment and does not fulfill all of a community’s real nutritional or long-term survival needs” Read the full article.
6. Organic Cotton from Alternative Apparel is so much better than conventional cotton from the notoriously homophobic Urban Outfitters.
7. December 20th is National “Adopt, Don’t Shop” day. 
The Saturday before Christmas is the biggest puppy-buying day of the year. This year, In Defense of Animals is teaming up with activists in dozens of cities around the country to educate the public about the horrors of pet factories (puppy mills) and encourage people to adopt a homeless animal from a shelter or rescue group instead of buying one from a pet store. Enzo and I say you should adopt!
8. In case you missed it on Ecorazzi, Chloé Jo Berman, and yours truly were interviewed about ethical fashion. Read the interview!
9. Elephants should not be in zoos. For example, the Los Angeles zoo has killed 13 elephants. Help close down this horrible slave-trade, and save Billy from the same fate that his previous 13 fellow elephants experienced. These intelligent, emotionally complex and gorgeous beings belong in their native habitat, not in captivity.
You can view video of Billy and the Los Angeles Zoo here.
You can donate to IDA’s campaign to Free Billy here.
10. The sleek Pool Collection from Matt&Nat has arrived! Get it while it’s hot, then take a dip in the pool. 100% vegan, recycled lining, and cool as hell.
The results are in! This year, the chic and controversial Joshua Katcher and Chloe Jo Berman who spent the year redefining cool and calling on everything from organic cotton to haute vegan shoes – while calling out greenwashers and animal abusers, were named “VegNews 2008 Ethical Style Icons“. Chloe and Joshua have their fingers on the pulse of the emerging takeover of everything green, eco, and completely fabulous. Their manifesto? The new cool is being ethically gorgeous, conscientiously hedonistic, and unapologetically fierce in your passion for mother nature and animals.
Joshua & Chloe featured in Veg News, November 2008
Chloe Jo’s ‘Girlie Girl Army – our Glamazon Guide to Living‘, is a weekly newsletter with 20,000 uber devoted subscribers chock-full of tips on everything from eco fashion, to healthy, earth-lite recipes that rock 
your kitchen – not your wallet, to the best spots to get Organic and chic clothes on the cheap. She’s also Star of the upcoming TV show “Hot Green Girl.” Beyond being a writer, green expert, animal rescue gal, radio host, model, online personality, yenta, and ethical fashion expert; she has a built-in audience of readers and fans from years of being a NYC local celebrity; from named NYC’s hottest party promoter in her early twenties to being named one of 2008 hottest Jews in the world! What she knows about; pop culture, eco living, cupcake baking, fund-raising, scouring vintage stores, crafting, animal care, and greening just about everything. You are as likely to see her front row at a fashion show air kissing her fabulous friends, as you leading a demonstration for a cause she’s passionate about.
Joshua Katcher, whose internet mag ‘The Discerning Brute – fashion food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man‘ after only a year is snowballing across the web, most recently graced the pages twice as the centerfold of Time Out New York’s Horny Issue, and was featured in Veg News magazines‘ “What’s In Your Fridge?” From publicist to activist, his mouthwatering earth-lite recipes have entered many a star-studded mouth, and his trend-setting fashion and lifestyle advice geared toward men is breaking down the walls of a largely female-oriented movement. If he’s not busy veganizing his bubbie’s rugelach recipe, being gossiped about on New York Magazine’s Grub Street or voted on as “stripster dude you’d most like to hit it with” on Gawker, he’s probably at the farmers market scoping the best organic ingredients, helping Olsen Haus to design a line of men’s vegan classic boots & shoes, interviewing the fashion industry’s eco visionaries, attending a black-tie benefit gala, or hanging out with some rescued farm animals in upstate New York.
Yes, it’s that time of year again! When the stores roll out the fur racks and the egos swell into furry puffs of animals’ skins to showcase big wealth, uber-luxury, and so-called ‘high-class’. What are fabulous, anti-fur peeps to do? Duh… Get loud and get organized… and get on it NOW.
celebs in fur promote cruelty
More and more men wear fur
Last year there was almost no anti-fur presence on the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the thousands of Cruella DeVilles too often went unchallenged on the public sidewalks. Obnoxious hipsters are wearing those flappy fur hats by the thousands, and gals are dragging corpses uptown and downtown.
That’s why this year I am putting a call out to get sophisticated, and get started early. We need classy fashionistos and fashionistas to gather materials, strategies, ideas, and events so there is a strong anti-fur presence coming from a place that is intimidating. We want people to know Fur is not welcome in our cities and towns. I’m not talking about picketing…
We need to come at this problem from two places, the web and the street.
WEB:
1. Use social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace to send out your personalized call to action, or to expose the fur industry. This is the one I typically send out (make sure to attach images of animals typically used for fur in their uncaged/untrapped cuteness and then link to a video or image of a fur farm):
Hello Friends!
The seasons to bundle up are quickly approaching. Unfortunately there are many people who try to stay warm in the most horrible way – that’s right, fur season is back.
I can’t imagine that people in the fashion industry continue to use fur. Designers are often bullied into including fur in their collections with threats from magazine editors who are paid off by the fur industry to exclude their lines unless they comply. Many other people simply have no idea how fur garments are made – or don’t want to know.
By ignoring the ways in which the things we purchase and support are made, we silence the cries of those who are tortured. The truth is often too horrible for us to believe, so many of us lie to ourselves. We deny that their cries even exist, because if their cries did exist, they would be impossible to ignore and it would mean we would have to change.
The cries of the fox, chinchilla, or rabbit who are vaginally and anally electrocuted to death – the raccoon who is bludgeoned to death, the mink or chinchilla whose neck is snapped, the beaver whose ribcage is crushed, and whose miserable life is spent caged, malnourished, and unloved in a death-camp, are silenced. The wild Lynx who chews her own arm off to escape, or slowly bleeds to death in a steel trap is no better off.
While a huge amount of fur imported from Asia is in fact dog and cat fur, we wouldn’t be wearing fur if the animal were our own dog or cat. So what’s the difference?
This winter, please speak for the silenced. Let people know that their fur and fur-trim is the product of a tortured, murdered, and silenced animal – and it is anything but sexy, chic, and classy.
Please join fashion icons Stella McCartney, Calvin Klein and Kenneth Cole, supermodel Christy Turlington, Actress Charlize Theron, Pink, Ellen, Martha Stewart, Danity Kane and others on http://furisdead.com/ and http://www.hsus.org/furfree/ to learn more about fur and what you can do to help.
Feel free to pass this letter along.
Joshua
2. Send a letter to an editor, a magazine, or a company that is selling or promoting fur – and make it print-worthy. Unfortunately this is almost every magazine, newspaper, and department store.
Here’s how: http://www.hsus.org/furfree/resources/letters_to_the_editor_about_fur.html
STREET:
1. Fur Walks: Simple! Gather 4 or 5 of your friends, and get decked out in awesome outfits, and appear as if you’re stylish luminaries on your way to a dinner or an event, and who just so happen to continually come across people in fur, so you just have to say something. No pins, posters, or picket lines! This is stealth-mode! Come up with a few clever/interesting things to start a conversation like, “Where did you get that coat?”.
2. Video / Leaflet / Interview presence: Lets gather our resources on literature, portable video capabilities, and media skills to turn the tables on how people see activism. Everyone wants to be a star, so if we approach people in fur as if we are reporters, asking their opinions and starting conversation that way, it is much easier to give them literature and get through. Plus we can direct them back to our blogs/websites because they’ll love to see themselves! One of my favorite ideas is to use a camera and host method where you make video interviews of people in fur where our stylish/funny host interviews them on camera and starts the dialogue that way.
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Get involved, spread the word and plan a meeting/action ASAP!
