———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle – kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Date: Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 10:39 PM
Subject: ACT/ Demand Retrial For Vicious Cat Killer

KINSHIP CIRCLE DISASTER AID NETWORK – PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST

Apologies to dual-list subscribers who receive this alert twice. Kinship Circle Primary alerts are occasionally posted to this disaster aid list too.

COMPANION ANIMAL CAMPAIGNS
10/7/08: Demand Retrial For Vicious Cat Killer
FOR A FORMATTED VERSION OF THIS LETTER (WORD DOC): kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Easily modify letter. Copy/paste it into an email or print letter to fax or mail.

Norman, an 8-pound declawed tabby, and his killer, Joseph Petcka.

(More below the fold…)

So you’re all excited about trying a new vegan recipe; something involving baked tofu, or perhaps a brick of stir-fried soy goodness. But…lurking among the familiar ingredients is a weird variation of an otherwise ho-hum staple, that old friend we all call “tofu”: “pressed tofu.” WTF is that!?, you wonder in a panic.

Relax! “Pressed tofu” is simply regular tofu – soft, firm or extra-firm – pressed or squeezed, in order to remove some of the excess water from the tofu brick. Though it’s not always necessary to press your tofu before cooking with it, pressed tofu is able to absorb more liquid than off-the-shelf tofu, which is already fully saturated. Thus, if you’re making a dish with a liquid base or sauce, pressing your tofu prior to adding it to the mix will allow it to soak up more flavor.

About.com offers the following instructions for pressing tofu:

1. Layer your cutting board or bowl with two layers of towels and place tofu on towels as shown in picture.
2. Place tofu on board or in bowl.
3. Lay a fresh towel on top of tofu.
4. Gently press down on towel to remove any initial water.
5. Remove damp towel and place two layers of fresh towels on top of tofu.
6. Carefully place a bowl or other weight on top of towels to press down on tofu.
7. Let sit for at least fifteen minutes.

Given that I usually cook with two to three (or more) bricks of tofu at once, my method is a little more hard core:

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Writer-slash-environmentalist Nick Jans gives us an Alaskan’s view of Sarah Palin and her run for the White House.

It’s a great piece – really, I could excerpt the whole damn thing – but this piece in particular is worth noting:

Palin pushed hard, along with sport hunting and guiding interests, to help defeat a ballot initiative that would have stopped the state’s current aerial wolf control program, which had been criticized by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council for flawed science. Now her administration has pointedly refused to respond to repeated public information requests (I’m one of the petitioners, and a potential litigant), regarding the apparently illegal killing of 14 wolf pups at their dens on the Alaska Peninsula this spring by state personnel, including two high-level Department of Fish and Game administrators. A biologist at the scene admitted to an independent wolf scientist that the 6-week-old pups were held down and shot in the head, one by one. This inhumane practice, known as “denning,” has been illegal for 40 years. But a simple request for information on the details of this operation, including to what extent the governor was involved in the decision, has resulted in a typical Palinesque roadblock and a string of untruths.

Sarah Palin, “my friends,” is a “pro-life,” God-fearing evangelical. And yet (according to her and hers), it’s atheists like moi who lack morals.

Anyway, Jans explains how Palin can claim to be a genuine Alaskan while simultaneously working to destroy the land she calls home, vis-à-vis her policy of pillaging the environment, to hell with the consequences:

In the broadest sense, Palin is a poseur. Alaska is too large and culturally diverse (it’s only a bit smaller than the entire lower 48 east of the Mississippi, and once was divided into four time zones) to be summed up by some abstract, romanticized notion. And even if it could be, it sure wouldn’t be symbolized by Palin. “The typical Alaskan? She couldn’t be farther from it,” says Alaska House Minority Leader Beth Kertulla.

Still, Palin is a genuine Alaskan — of a kind. The kind that flowed north in the wake of the ’70s oil boom, Bible Belt politics and attitudes under arm, and transformed this state from a free-thinking, independent bastion of genuine libertarianism and individuality into a reactionary fundamentalist enclave with dollar signs in its eyes and an all-for-me mentality.

Palin’s Alaska is embodied in Wasilla, a blue-collar, sharp-elbowed town of burgeoning big box stores, suburban subdivisions, evangelical pocket churches and car dealerships morphing across the landscape, outward from Anchorage, the state’s urban epicenter. She has lived in Wasilla practically all her life, and even now resides there, the first Alaska executive to eschew the white-pillared mansion in Juneau, down on the Southeast Panhandle.

Go read the whole thing.

Note to the rest of the Salon staff: this is a perfect example of how to criticize a female politician without resorting to misogyny and sexist slurs. It’s the policies, stupid! (As opposed to, you know, the vag-n-mams.)

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare 2008 elections sarah palin wolves aerial hutnign hunting aerial gunning denning pups wolf pups environment alaska nick jans

As you can most likely infer from the post title, today is the Ralphster’s birthday. My little man, my first-born and -adopted, turns a gray old 11 today. He’s like the Wilford Brimley of the doggeh world, minus the dia-beddies.

I have plenty of Ralphie pix after the jump, of course, but first a recipe for Peanut Butter ‘Nilla Biscuits from Yummy for Dogs. If you like what you see, check out the website and/or order a copy of webmistress Veronica Noechel’s Yummy for Dogs: A Cook Book for Canines. Hey, it’s on my wishlist. I mean, Ralphie’s wishlist. Yeah, Ralphie. (Hint, hint, wink, wink!)

Peanut Butter ‘Nilla Biscuits

These smell incredible!

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup oil
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup oats

* In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, and oats.

* Stir in oil, peanut butter, vanilla, and water.

* Knead till smooth, adding more flour or water as needed.

* Roll out on a lightly floured surface.

* Cut with cookie cutters.

* Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I stuck to the directions, but added some extra flour and rolled oats, as the dough was initially a little oily. I think I also used more like 5 tablespoons of peanut butter, since my “tablespoons” were heaped to overflowing. The dogs love the pb, though!

I have this cute little bone-shaped cookie cutter that the doggies’ grandmother bought for them/me, so I used that to cut the dough. I rolled the leftover scraps into a faux long rawhide bone with the cute little tied ends (for the birthday boy, natch!), as you can see in the photo. All in all, the recipe produced 53 cookies (40 long bones, 12 short bones and one “rawhide”), which fit on two sheets, no problem.

The dogs loved the treats, but don’t place too much trust in their critique; four out of the five of them eat their own poo! (And the fifth eats the cat’s poo – Rennie, I’m looking at you.) I did try the dough before rolling it into cookies, and it was on a little the bland side (for humans), but edible; and yet, definitely yummy for dogs!

(More below the fold…)

Action Alerts

Earthjustice: Tell EPA to Protect People from Pesticide Poisoning!
Endosulfan is a dangerous pesticide in the same family of chemicals as DDT, the notorious pesticide that was banned in 1972 because it poisoned people, wildlife, and the environment. Like DDT, endosulfan is a serious threat to people — especially farmworkers and children. The European Union and many other countries have already recognized this danger and have banned endosulfan’s use.

In Defense of Animals (IDA): Did You Know That Your Tax Dollars Still Fund Nicotine Experiments On Animals?
We taxpayers, with today’s economic crisis, are still funding ridiculous nicotine experiments on animals. Tell NIH we (and the animals) can’t afford this anymore.

In Defense of Animals (IDA): Urge Zappos.com To Stop Selling Fur
Zappos, an online retailer, knows about the suffering that goes into every fur-trimmed garment or accessory, but the company continues to contribute to that suffering by using fur. With so many fashionable, comfortable alternatives available today, there is no excuse for Zappos.com to continue using the fur of tortured animals in its designs.

Oxfam: Ask the Presidential Candidates to lead on Climate Change
Global warming poses a great threat to the international community, and disproportionately hurts those affected by poverty. Developing countries lack the resources they need to adapt to climate change. We need to ensure that the U.S. is ready to lead the international community in committing to fight climate change. Ask the presidential candidates to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland and commit to helping developing countries adapt to climate change.

The Sierra Club: Protect the Endangered Species Act
On August 15, the Department of the Interior proposed sweeping changes to this landmark environmental law. Under the new regulations, federal agencies would no longer have to consult with experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Instead, the agency proposing the project would have the power to decide how it would affect wildlife. These proposed changes are being bulldozed through and the DOI is only accepting comments from the public until October 14, 2008. In addition, they are not accepting email comments. Please use our talking points below to draft and submit your personalized comments. The Sierra Club will compile and deliver them before the October 14th deadline.

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Given that my fridge is overflowing, methinks I’ll have to lay off the new recipes for at least a few days. Instead, I thought I might make a list of my top five must-have kitchen gadgets. The roundup is applicable to omnis as well as veg*ns, but it’s probably doubly helpful to those of us who have to make some of our own vegetarian and vegan foods, including (cue collective sigh) the elusive perfect vegan cheese.

Of course, this excludes the obvious appliances such as the fridge/freezer, oven/cooktop/range combo, microwave, blender and toaster oven. These things are more or less a given for a given for all but the biggest of city dwellers. And even then…I can’t imagine anyone in NYC going without at least a small fridge.

1. Bread Machine

Maybe it’s the Italian in me, but I’m a carb fiend – especially when it comes to bread and pasta. Since I live way out in the sticks – and the only bakery in town closed weeks before we moved here – store-bought fresh bread is a near impossibility for us. Unless we want to drive an hour and a half, round trip, every time we have a hankering for cinnamon oatmeal or sundried tomato loaves…which clearly we don’t. Plus, the store selection would never whet my appetite for new and unusual flavors of the yummy floury stuff.

Luckily, bread machines make it relatively simple to enjoy fresh-baked bread without leaving the house. The Sunbeam bread machine pictured above is a hand-me-down from my mother. Or at least I think it is; we’ve had it for so long that it’s hard to remember. Despite its old age, it shows no signs of giving out. Occasionally we’ve had to replace to bread pan, but that’s a relatively inexpensive accessory.

In the past, I’ve posted a recipe for Dutch sugar loaf bread, which is a personal bread machine fave (it’s almost pastry-like, especially if you time the addition of the sugar cubes just right, so that they congeal in the loaf’s center, making a sticky sweet mess); as soon as all those zucchinis and apples are gone (and I can move away from the oven-baked breads), I’ll blog some of my other specialties, including one bread recipe featuring tomato paste and sundried tomatoes, and another that uses Kalamata olives.

The beauty of the bread machine, of course, isn’t just the endless supply of fresh breads; rather, it’s the freedom to experiment with different tastes, ingredients and textures. The variety found in a bakery can never rival the variety found in your own imagination!

Plus, bread machines are way easier to use than you’d think. Shane and I are largely lazy cooks and culinary dum-dums, yet even we’ve mastered the bread machine.

(More below the fold…)

I’ll be on drugs and/or in the dentist’s chair for most of the day today (thank the Saucy FSM for oral-conscious sedation, yay!), so I don’t have any VeganMoFo recipes or ruminations to post. Instead, I thought I might share some photos of the Liberty Corn Maze I took a few weekends ago.

Shane loves the veggie mazes, and I usually just tag along to keep him company. I decided to try my brain at the shortest maze this time around, and actually managed to get us through it with minimum FAIL. We ended up solving 3 out of the 4 – all cooperative stylie – before the heat got to us. This is the earliest in the season that we’ve ever attended; normally, we procrastinate until the last weekend it’s open, which we’ve now realized is a really dumb idea. If you go earlier in the fall, you miss most of the crowds – and since you hit the maze before everyone else, it’s actually intact: no self-made shortcuts, trampled stalks or other cheating to be found. Imagine that.

Now, I know that the Liberty Corn Maze isn’t directly relevant to vegan food, except that corn is a veggie that might otherwise be food, if we weren’t playing with it and all.

But I ask you this: would you dare wander through a maze constructed of slabs of meat and dangling corpses? I think not. So why put that shit in your body, hmmm?

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OK, so I’d wanted to blog a recipe involving watermelon today, since I have 14 or so sitting out in the garage. (That’s one frustrating thing about gardening – some produce seems to come all at once.) But all I could find on the internets were watermelon juice recipes, or recipes that required use of a food mill (don’t have *sigh*), so after a half hour of searching I gave up and changed course.

Instead I decided to look for a bread recipe calling for applesauce and strawberries, so I could use up some of that yummy strawberry applesauce I made yesterday. This recipe for strawberry bread popped up all over the place, so I figured it muse be a sign from the Fruit Fairy. Or something.

With some slight modifications, here’s my recipe for Sweet Strawberry Applesauce Bread.

Sweet Strawberry Applesauce Bread

Ingredients

- Dry -
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar (reduce to 3/4 cup if you’d like a less sugary bread)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice

- Wet –
Egg replacer for two eggs
1/2 to 3/4 cups Sweet Strawberry Applesauce (Or 1/2 cup commercial applesauce)
2 cups strawberries, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(More below the fold…)

Action Alerts

Campaign for America’s Wilderness: Support wilderness in the Colville National Forest
The management plan for the Colville National Forest is currently undergoing revision, with 21 inventoried roadless areas at stake. The forest planners are deciding which of the 21 areas to recommend that Congress protect as wilderness, and your input can help influence them to recommend the 19 areas that conservationists agree exhibit strong wilderness characteristics. Send the forest planners your message of support for wilderness today!

Ecological Internet / Climate Ark: Tell World Leaders Urgent Climate Change Action Cannot Wait for a Return to Economic Hyper-Growth
Climate change and the bad economy are both symptoms of the same growth-based “ecological bubble”. Tell governments to urgently address climate change despite the economic downturn, as both Wall Street and Main Street must realize that without ecosystems there can be no economy

Irreplaceable: At-Risk Wildlife Need More Help, Not Less
As you well know, global warming is already affecting species across the globe—from polar bears in the far north to the tiny piping plover of our Atlantic coasts. The Endangered Species Act is our nation’s most powerful safety net to protect imperiled wildlife like these from climate change and many other threats. But the Bush administration has recently proposed drastic changes that would prevent this critical safeguard from doing its job.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Tell the USDA That Children Deserve Vegetarian Options
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be reauthorizing the Child Nutrition Act next year, and until October 15, the agency will be accepting comments on how to revise the current lunch program. Currently, there are few options in the National School Lunch Program for children who do not consume animal products. Assuming that all children have the same ethical, religious, and health beliefs and not providing them with a vegetarian meal option is harmful to children’s mental and physical well-being. Including meat and dairy alternatives helps accommodate all children.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Dogs Returned to Florida Animal ‘Rescuer’ Accused of Starving and Neglecting Animals
According to news sources, self-proclaimed animal “rescuer” Annette Knight of Manatee County, Florida, might soon face charges as a result of officials’ discovery of 15 apparently abandoned dogs and cats on Knight’s property. The animals were reportedly left without food or water, and three dogs were apparently found dead, one cannibalized by survivors. Other survivors were allegedly trapped inside a house with “feces-covered floors.” Media reports also state that one dog removed from the site had to be euthanized because of severe malnutrition, and a number of horses and birds were also removed from the property. This isn’t Knight’s first run-in with the law regarding the care of her animals: News sources report that Knight has been issued six animal control violations in Sarasota County, Florida, since 2005.

(More below the fold…)

Now that the season of the zucchini is winding down, I’m slowly turning my attention to using those 120+ bags of apples I picked in September. (OK, so I gave most of them away; we only have about 20 bags left, not counting the 20 or so that are still on the trees. But I digress.) While hunting around the internets for an apple-heavy recipe this afternoon, I stumbled upon a super-yummy strawberry applesauce recipe from www.recipezaar.com:

Applesauce With Strawberries

Ingredients

3 lbs macintosh apples or apples (about 9 apples)
10 large frozen strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 lemon, juice of
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon allspice

Directions

Peel, core and slice apples 1/4-inch thick. Place apple slices in a large saucepan. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until a sauce consistency, about 45 minutes. Use a potato masher, if necessary, to break up any lumps, but leave slightly chunky.

I more or less stuck to the recipe (I have a difficult time following directions – canyatell?); it’s both easy and insanely delicious. The sauce comes out on the sweet side, so if you prefer your applesauce tasting more like apples and less like candy, you may want to go a little easy on the sugar. If you love strawberries like moi, throw in a few extra berries. Don’t worry, I won’t tell.

This snack is best served warm, but I’m sure it’s quite good cold or at room temp, too.

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Being a lazy, tofu-averse vegan, I love me a good, big salad. No cooking, baking, measuring, instructions, books, directions or fuss involved. With a salad, nearly anything goes (as long as it’s veg*n, of course!). Prep time is nil; ditto for clean up.

Plus, I just love the phrase: Big Salad. Yes, I’m a Seinfeld fan to the nth degree! I loved my greens well before The Big Salad hit the air, but somehow Elaine just made salads seem that much cooler.

Here’s the Big (Vegan) Salad I feasted on last night:

There are some greens on the bottom, of course; I started out with some Dole bagged salad, American style, with iceberg, romaine, red cabbage, carrots and radishes. Then I added some baby carrots, black olives, croutons, Bacos and cherry and grape tomatoes (freshly plucked from the garden, natch!). To top it off, I cooked six slices of Lightlife Smart Bacon in the toaster oven and tossed them on top of the veggie pile. (I broke them up into smaller chunks before eating.) I finished my Big (Vegan) Salad off with some Wishbone Italian dressing to taste.

(More below the fold…)

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle – kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Date: Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 11:18 AM
Subject: Call/Write To End Horse Slaughter For Good

KINSHIP CIRCLE PRIMARY – PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST AS WRITTEN

**H.R. 6598 passed the House Judiciary Committee and is now up for a vote by the full House…any day now. Please contact your U.S. Representative in Congress ASAP. See sample letter and phone call below.

10/2/08: Call/Write To End Horse Slaughter For Good
FOR A FORMATTED LETTER (WORD DOC), EMAIL: kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Easily modify letter. Copy/paste it into an email or print letter to fax or mail.

(More below the fold…)

The following action alert was featured in SHARK’s October 1st newsletter:

Pennsylvania – Last State to Allow Pigeon Shoots

It has been a dozen years since SHARK attended a pigeon shoot. After knocking this most cowardly of killing contests out of Illinois, we worked for a while in Pennsylvania, where we were initially introduced to the issue. SHARK figured that pigeon shoots would soon be made illegal, as other groups closer to PA continued to work on the issue.

Unfortunately, the immoral disease of pigeon shoots persists in Pennsylvania, and SHARK can no longer ignore these killing orgies. Especially now that the internet is as pervasive as it is, we believe that SHARK’s approach of graphically documenting abuse, and of often publicly identifying the abusers will have a major impact on these killing orgies. We already have two videos up on YouTube exposing pigeon shoots, see videos below:

NRA, Ku Klux Klan Support Pigeon Shoots

GRAPHIC – Live Pigeon Shoots in PA

Many of those involved in pigeon shoots are well-to-do professionals from cities. These depraved, insecure little men (and some women) have an insatiable thirst for blood, and since they are too cowardly to take on anyone their own size, they go after the most unthreatening, inoffensive animals they can find — pigeons — which come from the family of doves, birds of peace.

The battle against pigeon shoots involves much more than a relatively small number of cowardly, genetic and moral rejects who gun down half pound birds tossed out of boxes. The real “Sugar Daddy” of Pennsylvania’s pigeon shoots is the National Rifle Association (NRA). It is the NRA that is successfully persuading some of PA lawmakers to allow these killing contests to continue.

Legislation is pending in the Pennsylvania House (H.B. 2130) to ban this atrocity with 50 co-sponsors. Unfortunately, House Majority Leader William DeWeese is refusing to bring the bill up for a vote. The Pennsylvania legislative session is almost over and action is needed now to pass this legislation.

What You Can Do:

Please contact (even if you don’t live in Pennsylvania) Representative William DeWeese and ask that he allow H.B. 2130 to be voted on:

Representative William DeWeese
Capitol Office: 717-783-3797
wdeweese [at] pahouse.net

You can find out more (and sign up for SHARK’s email list) at www.sharkonline.org and www.pigeonshoots.com

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts shark showing animals respect and kindness pigeons pigeon shoots hunting pa Pennsylvania William DeWeese video youtube

Shane and I spent the day outside, regrading the yard so that the rain water drains away from the house instead of towards it. Novel concept, right?

Anyway, that means I’m phoning it in today with some frivolous veg*n weirdness.

Remember Hufu, that faux human flesh product from 2005?

Hufu was a spoof product, supposedly a soy-based food product designed to resemble human flesh in taste and texture. The Hufu website was in existence from May 2005 to June 2006. The creators claimed that Milla Jovovich coined the term after hearing about the product’s development while on the Eurostar from London to Paris.

Hufu was touted as “the healthy human flesh alternative” for “cannibals who want to quit”, as well as a product for anthropology students studying cannibalism. According to its website, hufu is also “a great convenience food for cannibals. No more Friday night hunting raids! Stay home and enjoy the good healthy taste of hufu.”

Mark Nuckols (founder and CEO of Hufu, LLC)—then a student at Tuck School of Business—claimed that the concept of Hufu occurred to him when he ate a tofurkey sandwich while reading “Good To Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture”, a book on cannibalism by anthropologist Marvin Harris.

Samantha Bee of The Daily Show has interviewed Nuckols. In the interview, he said “I think that a lot of the pleasure of eating the Hufu product, is imagining you’re eating human flesh. For that moment, you can join the fraternity of cannibals… If you really want to come as close as possible to the experience of cannibalism, Hufu is your best option.” Nuckols was also interviewed by a variety of radio and print media, including The Harvard Crimson and The Stanford Daily.

I so totally would have tried Hufu, but alas, ’twas a spoof. I think I accidentally recreated it in my dehydrator last week, though.

(More below the fold…)

Action Alerts

1Sky: Tell Obama & McCain: We Need Clean Energy, Not ‘Clean Coal’
During the Vice Presidential debate, both Senator Biden and Governor Palin touting their support for “clean coal”. But both presidential campaigns and Congress are missing the point: Conventional coal-burning power plants are the leading cause of global warming pollution in the United States. “Clean Coal” is a myth–a contradiction in terms. Coal companies claim they can develop coal plants at some point in the distant future that will capture and sequester carbon pollution. But carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is unproven and exorbitantly expensive.

Alaska Wilderness League: Expose the 2,000 Acre Hoax
Rep. Boehlert said it best in 2003: “The proponents of drilling add insult to injury with their spurious arguments in favor of drilling. It is only a few thousand acres, they say. That is like saying, do not worry, the tumor is only in your lungs. The drilling will have impacts that will affect wildlife throughout the area.” Big Oil says it only wants to drill in 2,000 acres, but their operations will sprawl across the entire Arctic Refuge just like 1,800 acres of Turnpike slices all across New Jersey. A network of drill sites, pipelines, roads, airstrips, and other infrastructure will effectively destroy one of the most important wildlife sites in North America. We can’t let the media perpetuate this myth. Help us fight spin with facts by writing a short letter to the editors of your local newspapers.

American Freedom Campaign: Bush Illegally Turns Army Inwards – Urge Moderators to Raise Issue During Presidential Debates
[W]e should all be deeply disturbed by the news that President Bush has assigned the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army component of Northern Command (NorthCom). According to an article in Army Times, the soldiers could be called upon for a variety of tasks, including quelling “civil unrest.” They are apparently engaged in training with shields and batons, beanbag bullets, and Tasers. We need to raise awareness about this threat to our liberty immediately. The American Freedom Campaign believes the best method available at the moment is to send an email to the hosts of the next two presidential debates, urging them to ask the candidates whether they would fully enforce the Posse Comitatus Act.

Audubon: Protect Sage Grouse Habitat from Reckless Oil & Gas Development
The Greater Sage-grouse needs your help! Its population has declined as much as 93% from presumed historic levels due to habitat loss, the invasion of exotic species in the sagebrush steppe ecosystem, the pressure of drought, and the upswing of West Nile virus. Now, a new threat—accelerated oil and gas development in the bird’s shrinking habitat—has stressed the Greater Sage-grouse population almost to the point of no return.

Forest Ethics: Keep the promise: Protect the Great Bear Rainforest
Back in April, nearly 5,000 ForestEthics supporters wrote the government of British Columbia asking them to legislate all the parks in the Great Bear Rainforest, as they had announced they would in 2006. Thanks to your continued support, the provincial government acted, putting forward legislation that completes the protection of two million hectares (five million acres) in the Great Bear Rainforest! 

 This puts us a big step closer to the conservation goal. There are 4.4 million hectares of rainforest outside of the protected areas. Now, we must continue to encourage the province to follow through with the rest of the promise to achieve full ecosystem-based management for the entire area. With your help again, we can secure a green future for the whole Great Bear Rainforest.

(More below the fold…)

Seriously. He’s one of those high-falutin’ talking Hollywood Chihuahuas. And he’s a rescue dog, to boot. Kind of blows that “shelter dogs are broken dogs” myth of of the water, no?

Via Best Friends, who notes:

We all know what happens when a new “dog movie” comes out—lots of people decide they must have a dog just like the one in the movie. But what people might not realize is that shelters and groups across the country have plenty of Chihuahuas, for ADOPTION. In fact, Chihuahuas are the 5th most-posted breed of dog for adoption on Petfinder (after Labs, Shepherds, Pit bulls and mixes of those breeds).

Check out our star-studded PSA video (with actors from the movie) that encourages adoption instead of buying.

Watch on the Best Friends website (higher quality)

Watch on YouTube

We wanted to share a poster made by Best Friends that can be easily printed and hung up around your town to let people know that they can rescue a Chihuahua on Petfinder instead of buying one from a pet store, newspaper ad or the Internet. In fact, the star Chihuahua of the movie was rescued from a Moreno Valley shelter, outside of L.A. just days before his “time was up.”

Download poster by clicking this link.

For more information visit our web page: www.dontbuypuppies.com

Feel free to use link to the video on your own websites.

On behalf of the ‘Puppies Aren’t Products’ Campaign Team, thank you for helping us spread word!

(More below the fold…)

This recipe – if you can call it a recipe, it’s really almost too simple to be a “recipe” – is a fun, yummy way to use up some of that extra zucchini that’s sitting in the back of your fridge. (And if you’re like me, all over your garage workbench, too!)

Baked Zucchini Chips

Ingredients

One large zucchini
Cooking spray (Pam or similar)
Salt to taste

(More below the fold…)

When I first stumbled upon PETA’s “I Can’t Believe It’s Vegan” list of “accidentally vegan” products, I was suitable impressed. All these wonderful staples of American foodie culture! All vegan! And accidentally so!

And people think being vegan equals “deprivation.” Sniff.

After years and years and years of label-reading and aisle-surfing (I’ve been vegetarian for 12 years, vegan for roughly three, and allergic to milk my entire life – scrutinizing ingredient lists is a habit, yo!), I’ve slowly built my own pantry of must-have veg*n staples, of both the accidental and intentional variety. Some of my favorites are new additions (see #5), while others are long-time comfort foods (#2). Some are even old friends, long since forsaken, which were once non-veg*n, but have received veg*n makeovers (#1). (Mmmmm, #1. The tummy is rumbling just thinking about #1!)

In no particular order, my ten most favorite happy vegan “accidents.” Leave your own in the comments – please!

1. Mrs. T’s Potato and Onion Pierogies (food service size)

Back when I was vegetarian, I used to scarf Mrs. T’s Potato & Onion Pierogies like there was no tomorrow. Then I went vegan, and had to give them up. (Damn eggs!) After several years of pining, I was finally able to track down a vegan brand of pierogies. The catch? They’re Mrs. T’s Potato & Onion Pierogies…but in the food service size!

That’s right. For some inexplicable reason, Mrs. T’s “baker’s dozen” packages of pierogies are made with eggs. Yet, the massive 72-count food service bags are vegan. Go figure.

To make matters worse, Mrs. T’s only sells their food service items directly to restaurants, schools and such, with one exception: they’re available in some Wegmans stores. Wegmans of, ahem, Wegmans [egg] Cruelty fame. Coincidentally, Wegmans is located in my hometown of Rochester, NY, and both of my parents work there. So I had Mrs. G. send me some Mrs. T’s ‘rogies last month. She didn’t even have to travel far to find them – just down to the frozen section in her store.

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Action Alerts

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): Protect Yellowstone and the Greater Rockies
If the Bush administration gets its way, Wyoming’s spectacular Fortification Creek Area will soon be sacrificed to a massive drilling scheme. We need your immediate action to halt this destructive plan in its tracks. The deadline for submitting comments on the plan is October 7!

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): City of Kelowna, British Columbia, Shooting Rabbits After Promising to Use Humane Control Methods!
The City of Kelowna, British Columbia, announced earlier this year that measures would be taken to control the city’s burgeoning feral rabbit population. These feral rabbits—domestic animals who are likely the descendants of abandoned pet-store bunnies—are reportedly reproducing in large numbers and pose a problem for the local ecosystem and resident homeowners. Kelowna Urban Forestry Supervisor Ian Wilson assured PETA’s caseworkers that the rabbit-control measures would be humane. Unfortunately, it appears that Kelowna’s first move was not to attempt to trap the animals and relocate them to capable sanctuaries or even to trap and humanely euthanize them. Instead, Kelowna reportedly hired an individual to canvas the city at night and kill feral rabbits using an air rifle.

Carnivals

Carnival of the Green #147! @ Confessions of a Closet Environmentalist

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As I mentioned in yesterday’s link roundup, the Vegan Month of Food is upon us!:

Join us for VeganMofo – the Vegan Month Of Food. The idea is to write as much as you can for the month of October about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related – your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu – you get the idea.

Last year we didn’t come up with strict guidelines for how often we wrote, but I think the idea is to shoot for every weekday, or about 20 times in the month. Don’t forget to tag your stuff “veganmofo” and you can use the VeganMoFo banner (^up there) on your mofo posts. If you’d like inspiration or would just like to whine about how hard it is, check out the MoFo forum on the PPK message boards.

As the world catches on that vegan food really is the best choice for animals (suck it, humane meat!), the planet (bite me, melting ice caps!) and people (piss off, heart disease!) let’s show them what vegan eating is all about.

One last thing – you may remember that VeganMoFo was in November last year, well, this year it’s in October because there’s more produce and stuff. Also, I’ll be in NYC this November and not really near a computer.

To be included here, just leave a comment on this blog entry with a link to your URL. I will then include you in the RSS feed, once I remember how to update it. You can also join the VeganMoFo Flicker group. Happy writing everyone! If you’re feeling at a loss for how to start this off, why don’t you make your first entry about that?

If you want to participate, it’s not too late. Head on over to the Post Punk Kitchen to register your blog, join the Flickr group, and grab a banner.

There’s been quite a bit of talk on the internets lately about the (dis)advantages of eating locally, eating organic, “voting” with your dollars and “happy” meat. All of which has gotten me thinking about where I shop, how I shop, how much I spend and whether I’m using my “vote” wisely.

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