Shadow came into our lives in the spring of ‘97.

It was June 2nd - late spring, early summer. I was just finishing up my freshman year of college. Busy with school, busy with work, busy with friends. Busy, busy, busy.

Rochester springs are rainy, and the spring of 1997 was no exception. The last days of May saw a week-long rainstorm. Consequently, we spent little time outside that week. When the rain finally let up, my mom went out behind the garage - to do some yardwork, or maybe some spring cleaning. There, under our tree house on stilts, she found a shivering, emaciated little dog. The pup didn’t appear to have any identification - no collar or such - but she clearly wasn’t feral, either. She seemed scared of us, yet she didn’t bolt. My mother brought the skeletal dog a bowl of food and water. Gradually, the rest of the family arrived home from school and work, and we took turns trying to coax the little scrapper out from her cramped hiding place.

By now, it was apparent that the dog was injured. Her skin was raw and marked with gravel, and she didn’t seem able to stand. After what felt like forever, my father was able to get a good enough grip on her. He hoisted her up and into the back of his car, and off to the vet they went.

The veterinarian’s assessment, delivered the next day, was grim: the dog’s right rear leg was “shattered,” and she also had some minor cuts and bruises. Most likely she had been hit by a car: the point of impact, her broken, battered rear leg. Scraped skin and embedded gravel suggested a hard, skidding landing on pavement. She was in rough shape - and at the point of starvation, to boot.

Due to the severity of her injuries - and, even more so, the potential cost of repairing and rehabilitating her damaged leg - the vet recommended we euthanize her. “It’s too much trouble,” he said. “Too much money to spend on some stray.”

Luckily, my parents didn’t agree. I remember receiving a call from them that day at work: Well, Kelly, what do you think we should do? Even though they solicited our advice, I suspect that they’d already made their decision, and just needed an extra nudge from us kids. I think they wanted some reassurance that they weren’t crazy for spending a few grand to patch up a dog they didn’t even know. We were a solidly middle-class family, but two grand isn’t exactly peanuts for six people living on one income.

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OK, so these ads for The Coup Vegetarian Restaurant aren’t technically public service announcements, but I get a kick out of ‘em nonetheless. Plus, even though they’re meant to market a business, they do so by promoting vegetarianism and a compassionate diet. “Let Meat Live!,” indeed.

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A “real” feminist wouldn’t employ such a silly argument in defense of PETA’s campaigns, whether sexist or not:

MJ: One question I did have. I really do appreciate the work PETA has done but it has gotten a lot of criticism for using women in some of its ads. A lot of times in bikinis, or scantily clad, I think there was a striptease campaign that came online recently. What do you say to people who criticize PETA and say that it’s not women-friendly, that it denigrates women?

IN: Well, it’s rubbish because the organization is run by a woman, who is me. I marched in the earliest of rallies, I am an adamant feminist, but I’m not a prude and I think you can go to the beach and see people who are in less than you can in a PETA ad.

Let me guess: you also have a Black Friend ™, such that none of PETA’s campaigns could possibly be racist, either?

Seriously, this is such a ridiculous argument that I need only two words to refute it: Ann Coulter. Women are not immune from misogyny, you see. Sometimes, they’re even more vicious in their hatred of other women than are their male peers; because of the common (mis)perception that “women cannot be sexist,” women are oftentimes granted license to act in an even more misogynistic manner than their male counterparts. It’s not often that you hear a man argue that women’s suffrage was a mistake - yet Ann Coulter has posited as much, and she still manages to get speaking gigs.

You go on to say:

Our people are all volunteers, no one has asked a woman to take off her clothes. I’ve done it myself, we’ve all marched naked if we want to, and I think that it’s very restrictive and in fact wrong. I would expect someone in, say, Iran to tell us that we should cover up, but I don’t expect women or men in this country to criticize women who wish to use their bodies in a form of political statement, to tell them, you need to cover yourself up. There’s this idea of ‘naughty bits’ and I just think it’s funny more than anything else. It’s not sexist, it may be sexual, but no. No woman has ever been paid to strip. She has decided to use her body as a political instrument. That’s her prerogative and I think it is anti-feminist to dare to tell her that she needs to put her clothes back on.

Certainly, I agree that it’s “anti-feminist to dare to tell [a woman] that she needs to put her clothes back on”; however, there’s a difference between allowing your supporters to use their naked bodies as “political instrument[s]” and taking advantage of your [female] supporters’ willingness to get naked for the animals by playing into cultural stereotypes regarding gender roles, beauty, sex, class, race, etc. As I noted in my defense of your “Breast is Best” campaign, PETA does have a despicable habit of pornifying women in their photo/print campaigns while simultaneously portraying men as full human beings, complete with agency and personalities.

In PETA’s world, women are more likely to pose in the nude than men; and, if you were to objectively compare the PETA print campaigns which feature nude men and women, you’d see that the portrayals are drastically different. Strip away PETA’s logo and slogans, and the women’s photos look like they were pulled straight out of a recent edition of Playboy. Young, white, thin, feminine, (conventionally) attractive women are displayed on all fours, backs arched, gazes vacant, faces and torsos turned away from the camera, submissive in posture, ready for a good fuckin’. In contrast, the men’s shots are fun, funny, inspiring, humorous, and full of personality.

Yes, you can be sexual without being sexist; just look at these campaigns featuring naked men as proof:

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I’m not sure whether you remember us, but two years ago this September 30th, my husband and I adopted two dogs from Friends of the Friendless. Gracie and Penelope were found abandoned with a third dog, Paige, in a home that was about to be sold. While you were able to place Paige with a new family, Gracie and Penelope were still with you six months later, when we came to visit after seeing them on Petfinder. (I included their adoption listings to jog your memory. Last I checked, they were still available on Petfinder, in the “happy tales” section!)

Since their two-year anniversary is fast approaching, we thought you might like to know what your girls are up to!

Back then, we already had three dogs – Ralphie the dachshund and Peedee and O-Ren the rat terriers – and lived south of the city, in a rental home in Stilwell. We’ve since bought our own place up north of the city, in Plattsburg, with concrete floors (impermeable to dog pee!) and a huge fenced backyard for the dogs. The dogs are all doing well together; while they’ve formed their own little cliques, they all seem to enjoy one another’s company.

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The Surfrider Foundation, who describes themselves as “a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches,” engaged in a fun guerrilla campaign to bring attention to the problem of litter and pollution, particularly as it affects the world’s oceans and waterways:

To put beach pollution into perspective, trash was collected from various beaches, packaged it to look like seafood and displayed it at local farmers’ markets. This is the print extension for those who couldn’t actually make it to the market.

(Description and photos via Ads of the World.)

I actually kind of dig the idea and print campaign; they filled Styrofoam food packages with trash such as cigarette butts, plastic doohickeys, rusted cans and (ew!) “used” condoms:

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I’m been a bad, busy blogger lately, and for that I apologize. Between the DNC, the RNC, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the hovering hurricane Gustav (and Hannah and Ike and Josephine), and the seemingly neverending rise in police repression and brutality, I am burnt. out. So I went on a bit of a staycation last week, and took in some local sights that I’ve been wanting to for awhile (staycation photos galore!).

Anyway, I thought I’d share this awesome ad campaign from Animals Australia. The series depicts photos of “mouth-watering” (*gag*) meat dishes along with their recipes. Instead of twelve ounces of pork and a cup of red wine vinegar, however, AA’s recipes call for gestation crates and animal cruelty.

I love the juxtaposition of beautiful gourmet food photography and graphic descriptions of factory farming practices. At first glance, the layout looks as though it might be straight out of a meat-worshipping cookbook a la Anthony Bourdain. But once the reader leans in closer, wham! Truth in advertising, baby. Genius.

As an added bonus, the ads are perfect for some stealth activism. Simply print out a few (hundred?) copies and insert them in the animal-unfriendly cookbooks in your local Barnes & Noble store. Or, heck, a friend or relative’s own cookbook collection, if you want to be doubly snarky.

The rest of the series is after the jump. (Click through to each pic’s Flickr page to read the full text.)

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You know you want more doggehs!

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As promised, more veg*n food p0rn!

Here’s our Thanksgivingliving day menu, along with the obligatory food p0rn pics. Obviously, it’s too late to try any of these dishes this t-day (unless you’re a hardcore procrastinator), but you’ve got plenty of time to prepare for Christmas x-mas FSMas, assuming that one or more of the following dishes strikesyer fancy, of course.

Recipes and photos after the flip.

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Growing up in New York and all, summer has always been my favorite season: winter? too cold and icy; spring? cold and rainy; fall? wtf, that’s back to school time. Summer? Just right - especially since it never got much about 90 degrees, and even that was a rarity.

Now that I’m a Midwest transplant, though, I’m starting to warm up to the fall and winter months. Winter here is like fall in the Northeast. Doubly so with teh global warming. Plus, the hot-hot-hot veggie soup recipes don’t hurt, either.

I made my first hot soup of the season last night. “Spicy” Three Bean Soup* - your featherhead’s favorite! I finally remembered to take a few pics - been meaning to for years - so I decided to blog the recipe, too.

An added bonus: it makes a great Save-a-Turkey Day meal. There isn’t much work involved (especially in comparison to a “roast”, be it a Tofurky or a bird corpse), so you can spend more of the day, you know, celebrating. Shane and I went this route two t-days ago, and got to watch Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2 - straight through. Now that’s what I call a sacred holiday ritual!

Enjoy, veg*ns! (Offer valid for you meat-n-potatoes types, too.)

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That’s right: the Ralphster turns the Big One-O today. My little man, all grown up.

*Sniffles*

I don’t want to get all melancholy on what should be a day of joy, happiness and celebration, so I’ll try to overlook the bittersweetness that is the double-digit canine birthday milestone and instead reflect on the six wonderful years (and hopefully six+ more!) I’ve spent with My Other Boyfriend ™. Ralphie truly is the best wiener dog a girl could ask for.

*Sighs*

K, enough of that. Let’s break out the pictures!

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