The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man » animal rights

Weathered Belts, Broken Records & South Korea’s Dog Days

joshuakatcher — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:53:25 +0000

• If you like the look of an old, weathered and beat-up leather belt, you've probably been disappointed with the vegan selections thus far. In comes CLIFF belts to the rescue, made from cork. The cork is lightweight, strong, and the belts are reversable. So put a cork in it and go buy one. Eventually, you can even build your own. According to the CLIFF website:

Cork is environmentally preferable to leather as it comes from a lower carbon impact source (tree bark) and does not use animal products in its manufacture (a vegan product). The environmental concerns associated with leather include the energy and carbon intensity of generating animal products and the chemicals used in the leather tanning process that can be damaging to human health and the environment. Cork is a naturally beautiful and greener alternative to leather.

• I feel like a broken record. A new environmental study urges people to eat far less meat and cheese. This one is interesting, though. Unexpectedly, the biggest offender when it comes to GHG emissions is lamb! Lamb is a whopping 50% worse than beef. Damn! What sicko eats a defenseless, cuddly baby, anyway? Macho men, that's who - guys who are tough enough to stand up to a dangerous creature like a lamb! Take that you puffy, fluffy, gentle threat to my manhood.

The deadly creature in question

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released the Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change and Health, a comprehensive study warning Americans that the extreme amounts of meat and cheese we eat take a huge toll on the environment, animal welfare and human health. Meat and dairy products require more energy and resources to produce, and generate more toxic waste and pollution than equivalent amounts of potatoes, rice, beans and other plant-based foods. According to the EWG, if everyone in the U.S. chose vegetarian foods over meat or cheese for just one day a week, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road per year.

• Every year, two million homeless or captured South Korean dogs are butchered and eaten. They are often electrocuted, strangled, or bludgeoned to death and are then skinned, chopped up, and boiled. The cruelty and suffering endured by these dogs is unimaginable. Even though the country's Animal Protection Law, which was passed in 1991, considers dogs to be "domestic pets, officials often turn a blind eye and allow this to continue . Click here to find out more and help.

A dog rescued in 2010 from South Korea's meat trade - In Defense of Animals

The Opposite of Journalism, Clubbing With Iggy & Supra Duper Shoes

joshuakatcher — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:16:28 +0000

• Heaven forbid that Americans should have a clear understanding of how meat gets to the table. New laws in Iowa and Florida criminalize undercover investigations into livestock production and are a serious threat to challenging how we treat animals on farms. Listen to NPR's four-minute piece on this: . So let me get this straight - the livestock industry is allowed to create completely fictionalized, idealized imagery and storytelling surrounding their industry (this is called advertising) depicting animals happily roaming quaint farms - but if we actually document the truth about what's happening on these farms, it is criminal. Isn't this the opposite of journalism? The animal livestock industry is so powerful and there is so much money at risk if people could see how these animals live and die that they would make it illegal to access the truth? Ridiculous, scary, and worth getting loud about. The only way they should be able to do this is if, as a trade-off, they install live, 24 hr surveillance cameras in every area of their operations and broadcast them for anyone to view on the internet. • These edgy, canvas, rubber and textile high-tops from Supra are on sale at GILT Groupe for about half-off. Gilt is invite only, so click here to join. • Peta is awesome. Iggy Pop talk's about Canada's shitty club scene in this clever poster.

Danish Government & Media Slams Fur Industry, Again

joshuakatcher — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:58:15 +0000

(edited from the original article by Polyglossus )

According to Denmark's fashion forum the grievances that the fur lobby filed, regarding mainstream media coverage of conditions on Danish fur farms, were officially rejected just before the holiday season. Almost exactly one year ago, Minister Eva Kjer Hansen of Denmark stated that "Mink breeders break animal welfare rules. And that is unacceptable," after the Danish newspaper Politiken published this article (Danish): Mink live under bad conditions in two out of three farms. That came after fox farming was outlawed in Denmark following a 2009 undercover investigation from the Danish animal rights organization, Anima. The investigation sent shock-waves through the Danish media, exposing horrible conditions on fur farms, and contradicting the multimillion-dollar marketing efforts of the fur industry and fur lobby groups like Kopenhagen Fur, which are headquartered in Denmark. As the fur industry continues to dispute all claims made by animal advocates in the EU, and has even filed official complaints about the press itself. It's important to point out that, while animal advocates have nothing to gain financially from documenting and exposing these farms, the fur industry stands to lose billions - so it's no surprise when they deny clearly documented facts. This is something of which the Danish government is well aware. The Danish TV station, TV2, recently did a follow-up on 2009's Operation X, and this wasn't to the liking of the Danish fur industry, so they filed a complaint with the Danish media board (Pressenævnet). According to politiken.dk the fur industry claimed that the images in the documentary were used in a misleading way to make matters worse then they are. They didn't get very far with their complaint and the media board rejected it. The animal rights group Anima's documentation is supported by the government. It seems our politicians could learn a lot from the Danish!

Meat Is (Still) Murder

joshuakatcher — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:39:41 +0000

Yesterday, I participated in a bloody spectacle in Times Square. I undressed, lay down in a giant meat tray, got drenched in stage-blood and then wrapped in plastic. Finally, a supermarket-style sticker was placed on my man-parts that read "FLESH: Billions of animals are abused and violently killed because you eat meat. Get Help. Visit www.goveg.com". There was a media frenzy, and a crowd of onlookers stood by, quietly absorbing the visuals. I kept hearing people murmur,"I've lost my appetite", or "Now what are we going to have for lunch?". In addition to the New York Post video above, the event got coverage in New York Magazine, CNN, on Howard Stern, IFP, The Calgary Sun, Toronto Sun, contactmusic.com, and various other places, and made headline news in Norway, the Netherlands, and China. It's no surprise that PETA takes criticism from both sides for their attention-grabbing tactics. Some argue that their spectacles compromise the seriousness of the message, while others complain about not having these ideas "pushed" on them (as if the visual and emotional assault the meat and dairy industry pays billions for each year isn't pushing a specific, and untrue, idea about milk and meat) - but you can't argue with a crowd of hundreds who mostly took pamphlets, pictures, and asked questions. It was an effective and stimulating demonstration. The religious couple at the end of the video who have a "live and let live" philosophy about veganism miss the point; the animals are very much alive. What they are really asking is for activists to" live and let kill". One critic, on the CNN website, wrote that she'll never take PETA seriously (or any animal activists) so long as they throw paint at people and wish cancer upon meat eaters. I love this myth, that animal activists throw paint at people (aside from themselves). I don't think that's happened since 1980, yet everyone who questions animal activists' tactics seems to believe that they've had, or will have, paint thrown at them, or in this case, diseases "wished" upon them - and that justifies "not taking them seriously". Let's reiterate: This CNN writer is unwilling to take the side of the (supposed) paint-throwers, because throwing paint negates what.... facts? Validity? But this same writer is willing to take the side of the throat slitters, the skull crushers, the limb grinders, the life-takers, the mother-child-bond-breakers, the mothers' milk thieves... because that industry does not throw paint at people. And instead of wishing cancer on people, they very physically give cancer to people. This activist-cancer-wisher, paint-thrower is a straw man! Most animal advocates are animal advocates because they are compassionate. Most of the animal advocates I know are the same people who are the environmentalists and human rights activists. I can't imagine any one of my friends wishing cancer upon someone . From the animals' perspective this issue really isn't very gray. Most of us don't need to eat them to thrive, and it hurts them, us, and the planet. What's so difficult?

Ohio Makes History

joshuakatcher — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:59:47 +0000

A deal struck between The Humane Society of the United States, Ohioans for Humane Farms, Ohio agriculture leaders and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland will lead to major animal welfare improvements in Ohio on a raft of issues, reforming industry practices and improving prospects for adoption of critical legislation in other areas. The agreement puts a hold on a planned factory farming initiative on the fall ballot, said the Humane Society of the United States today. Once the animal-farming industries became aware that animal advocates from all over the United States had descended upon Ohio and gathered enough signatures to put an initiative on the ballot, animal agriculture finally agreed to come to the table to discuss meaningful reforms. Just hours before over 500,000 signatures were slated to be filed, a major animal protection agreement was reached - preventing costly and contentious campaigning. Several reforms that outlaw and phase out cruel practices in Ohio, a state known to have some of the weakest anti-cruelty laws in the nation and no meaningful protections for farm animals. The agreement includes the following measures for farm animals:

• A ban on veal crates, to be phased out within six years.
• A ban on new gestation crates in the state after December 31, 2010. Existing facilities are grandfathered, but must cease use of these crates within 15 years.
• A permanent moratorium on permits for new battery cage facilities in place immediately.
• A ban on the transport of downed cows and calves for slaughter.
• A ban on strangulation and other forms of on farm killing that are not included in euthanasia standards as outlined by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
• Enactment of legislation establishing felony-level penalties for cock fighters.

For more info: The best thing you can do to help farms animals, your health, and the environment is to adopt a healthy, plant-based, vegan diet.

Does Finnish Fur Finish Last?

joshuakatcher — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:14:34 +0000

Often we hear about how "well managed" and "humane" regulated fur farms are in Europe. People make statements like, "it's not in our economic interest to mistreat the animals". Personally, I don't believe that unhappy animals make bad fur any more than unhappy chickens make bad eggs. What's worse, fur industry propaganda websites like furisgreen.com claim that the undercover documentation that animals rights activists risk their safety filming is staged in order to reap the millions of dollars in fund-raising profits that animal advocacy organizations "rake in" so that their staffs can lead lives of luxury (as if the fur industry itself weren't money-driven). I tend to believe the motives of compassion-based non-profit organizations over the motives of for-profit businesses. The EFBA (European Fur Breeders Association) recently released a ridiculous video that is borderline comical. "Openness and transparency are our key words!", the website yells with an exclamation-point. Goofy rock music plays as we see cute furry baby animals and people relaxing among the rows and rows of cages. At the end, we see images of young teens hugging some animal, and then suddenly, cut to: fur on the runway. Never once do they address how the fur goes from the back of the animal to the back of the runway model. Is killing even involved? Or does the fur magically and joyfully leap off of the animal and onto a runway after each animal gets hugged by kids? Try not to sway to and fro: Oikeutta Eläimille and Animal Defenders International jointly released a new investigation on Finnish fur farm. The investigators went to 30 different fur farms in the summer and autumn of 2009. They recorded cruel neglect of animals and living conditions with no stimuli where caged animals displayed signs of extreme stress and anxiety. In Finland approximately three million animals are killed annually because of their fur at these farms. Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, Holland, Switzerland and Croatia have either totally or partially banned fur farming by law. What about Finland? It's now time that the largest exporter of fox pelts and one of the largest fur producers in Europe come clean. It's time to shut down the Finnish fur farming industry. Look at the videos and pictures of the investigation and demand for the ban! Take a look also at Animal Defenders International's Fur Stop -site.

Shirts, Books, Kicks, Bites

TheDiscerningBrute — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:30:44 +0000

• 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!

• Banfield, the nation's largest veterinary practice with 730 hospitals and 2,000 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. "After thoughtful consideration and reviewing medical research, we have determined it is in the best interest of the pets we treat, as well as the overall practice, to discontinue performing these unnecessary cosmetic procedures," says Karen Faunt, vice president for medical quality advancement. "It is our hope that this new medical protocol will help reduce, and eventually eliminate, these cosmetic procedures altogether."

My Farming Jacket, Shredding Lessons, Secret Jails & Pop Shops

TheDiscerningBrute — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:51:51 +0000

ONLY 1 DAY LEFT TO ENTER TO WIN THESE BOURGEOIS BOHEME BROGUES! It's so easy, don't kick yourself later for not even trying!

Turk + Taylor, creator of handsome, organic garments, has opened a pop-up store in San Francisco! If you're on the west coast, you must check out their tailored goods for both men and women. And of course they're offering up a batch of striking tees! The Turk+Taylor Pop-Up Shop is located at 1529 Fillmore Street in San Francisco. Their phone number is 415-336-5364. They're open Thursday through Sunday, Noon - 7pm through the end of August. Animal Rights Activist Jailed at Secretive Prison Gives First Account of Life Inside a “CMU” In a Democracy Now exclusive interview, Andrew Stepanian, an animal rights activist who was jailed at a secretive prison known as a Communication Management Unit, or CMU, speaks to Democracy Now. Watch the FULL VIDEO. Jim James of the lionized My Morning Jacket has announced that a portion of the proceeds of an upcoming, limited-edition EP will go to some of our favorite peeps at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary! LEARN TO SHRED! Raw chef Judita (who also happens to star as "Judy Nails" in Guitar Hero) is teaching some raw un-cooking classes in NYC. If you want to learn Raw Foods 101 from a rockstar chef, you must take the class! The Cruelest Show On Earth! Ringling Bros has fastened itself onto Coney Island like a parasite for the summer. Find out what happens during typical behind-the-scenes training for circus elephants: Instead of supporting horrible activities like this, go to Cirque Du Soleil or Fuerza Bruta!

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