Bullfighting banned in Barcelona

Wether it's because they want to be separate and different from the "Fatherland" or because they care about animal welfare or both... it seems like a victory for the bulls in Cataluña as they vote 68-55 to ban the ancient (and truly barbaric and backwards) tradition of bullfighting.

I can't tell you how happy I was to hear this and so glad that I've lived to see it. I hope I live to see it banned in all of Spain and anywhere else in the world were this painful, dangerous and senseless event takes place.

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House wins Victory for Animals... now we need the Senate

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted nearly unanimously to pass H.R. 5566, the Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010. Congress will soon recess for the remainder of the summer, but we are hopeful that a Senate companion bill will be introduced when the session resumes in September.

(Read more...)

Spiritual Ecstasy...? sounds good!

Bernini's St Theresa

"Spiritual ecstasy is not a feeling or an idea but a shift of perception in which direct contact with spirit is made..." (Read more...)

Support this better alternative until fully vegetarian or fishetarian!

Certified Humane® in the News

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VALLEY FORD CHEESE COMPANY NOW CERTIFIED HUMANE®

(Herndon, VA) July 19, 2010 - Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) announces today that Valley Ford Cheese Company of Valley Ford, California has been awarded the Certified Humane® label for its cheese.

Valley Ford Cheese Company is located at Mountain View Jerseys, a 640 acre dairy farm in Western Sonoma County, California. Owned by Paul Bianchi and his children Karen Bianchi-Moreda and Steve Bianchi, the farm has been operated by Bianchi/Grossi families, since 1918.

Valley Ford cheeses originate from a closed herd of over 400 Jersey cows. The closed herd concept means no outside breeding stock is ever introduced to the existing animals. Using this type of process has been shown to cut down on disease and generally produces a healthier and stronger animal.

The farm is well known for its Estero Gold Italian farmstead cheese and a new cheese Highway 1which recently won a medal at the California State Fair. The Estero Gold is an aged artisan cheese that is made in the tradition of the Swiss-Italian canton of Ticino where the Bianchi/Grossi great grandmothers were from. Highway 1 is made in a fontina style.

“We have a lot of pride in our product and our farm, it shows the minute you enter the gates,” said owner Karen Bianchi-Moreda. “We took the certification process and inspection very seriously, and believe me the dairy and our cheese making processes were looked over with a fine tooth comb by the HFAC inspectors. We had nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain by becoming Certified Humane®,” she added.

HFAC is the leading non-profit certification organization improving the lives of farm animals in food production. The Certified Humane® designation assures consumers that meat, poultry, egg, or dairy products they purchase have been produced according to HFAC's precise standards for humane farm animal treatment. Animals must receive a nutritious diet without antibiotics or hormones and must be raised with shelter, resting areas and space sufficient to support natural behavior. Since the HFAC program was unveiled in May 2003, more than 60 companies, representing hundreds of farms and millions of farm animals, have been certified.

Endorsed by more than 36 humane organizations, the Certified Humane Raised and Handled® program is nationally recognized as the Gold Standard for certifying animal welfare from birth through slaughter. HFAC’s Animal Care Standards were developed by a veritable “Who¹s Who” of national and international animal scientists and farm-animal welfare experts. Producer compliance with the HFAC standards is verified through annual on-site visits by HFAC’s third-party inspectors.

Valley Ford Cheese Company products can be found in markets in Sonoma, Napa and Marin Counties, California as well as several other states and the Washington, DC area. To find out where to purchase these products visit our website www.certifiedhumane.org. For more information on the farm: www.valleyfordcheeseco.com.

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You Can Help Farm Animals Right Now

Send an online donation by credit card. You may make a one-time donation, or set up a recurring donation for monthly, quarterly, or annual gifts. Recurring donations are a wonderful way to support our work while helping us reduce the administrative costs associated with processing gifts.

You may also send your donation directly to Certified Humane by mailing a check or money order payable to: Humane Farm Animal Care, P.O. Box 727, Herndon, VA 20172

Together, we will make a difference.

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Humane Farm Animal Care is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of farm animals through the Certified Humane Raised and Handled® program, which sets rigorous standards, conducts annual inspections and certifies humane treatment of farm animals. For more information, please visit our website.

ANIMAL ABUSE AND CRUELTY WORLDWIDE

I debated wether to post this graphic and heartbreaking video. But then I thought, that if I... we, keep turning our heads and choosing not to really see the reality of what is, we will never really understand, and it will forever remain something " we heard on the news...". Whenever you eat your next yummy lamb meal, or beef shawarma, or your ropa vieja... think what you see in this video is what happened prior to this food showing up in your plate. This is not only something we must not support but something we should not eat as well. I guess it would be a perfect world if we could all be vegetarian, but at the very least, the amount of animal flesh we consume should be so low, that the demand should drop tremendously. If you are a meat eater, please support HUMANE TREATMENT OF FARM ANIMALS so that they are feed well and live a good life until it's time for them TO GIVE UP THEIR LIVES IN ORDER TO PRESERVE YOURS. There is no reason why these animals should live tortured lives to end up in the slaughter house and then you EAT THAT TORTURED FLESH, and God knows how much ANTIBIOTICS they were filled with or what kind of DISEASE it has, and now you are consuming. So think about this as you go through life feeding yourself and your families. As far as products made from animals, IT SHOULD NOT EVEN BE AN ISSUE, IT SIMPLY SHOULD NOT BE. We are living in 2010, there are plenty of other sources that we can make coast and soaps from. If you choose not to look at this videO, it's ok. But think that YOU CHOSE NOT TO WATCH IT BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT IS HORRIFYING AND HEARTBREAKING AND THAT IT'S SOMETHING YOU CHOSE NOT TO CONFRONT!

To all my foreign followers... Thank yo for following my blog. Please try to write in english if you can. I tend not to post things in other languages only because I can't read them and can't moderate the comments. Some people don't write constructive comments, and without an understanding of the language on my part it's difficult for me to weed them out. Especially languages of Asian countries which I unfortunately have no knowledge of. Perhaps there is an application that can convert what you write before you post it. I LOVE YOUR COMMENTS AND WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO READ THEM AND POST THEM ON MY BLOG!

THANK YOU FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE MADE THE EFFORT OF WRITING TO ME IN ENGLISH. :0)

Animals affected by Oil Spill

Bureaucracy not letting enough bird experts come to the rescue, especially those birds who are covered in oil but are still in flight. Louisiana Wildlife Dept says it has all the tools and resources to take care of the problem and that those resources need to be ready when the "calling" comes and the time is right. WHEN THE F*CK IS THAT IF NOT NOW??!!!

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2010/06/16/ac.gulf.wildlife.in.danger.cnn

The Way of the World

Service is the way of the coming years. Community is they key. It is the way to the Christ light and the way to God is through the Christ light. And I don't mean Christ in the the way it is portrayed in the dogmatic religions. It is actually dogma that gets in the way of the Christ light. Dogma is mostly as set of rules designed by those who seek power and control and the other aspect of it is their concealment of universal mysteries and their manipulation of universal truths which are then fed to the masses without teaching them their profound meaning and purpose. Like the doctor who prescribes his patient a medication and counts on him taking it at face value without any genuine understanding of it's purpose and consequences. We need to be grateful and serve in any way we find pleasure in. It is what's asked of us as lightworkers and beings that come to preserve this planet and it's sentient beings. It is the way to survive the coming era of trials and challenges. People's pain bodies will be very intense and we need of each other's comfort and service which is why community is they key!

Tough on Oil...

Have you ever seen those Dawn commercials where people are washing these cute little animals...duck, seals, birds... after a few seconds of watching the commercial you realize they are not grooming these precious ones, they are washing some Texas Gold from their little bodies. How cool would it be if we could really do that? What's more, how cool would it be if people really CARED to do that? What's cheaper... buying a trillion bottles of Dawn and wash away ocean life or embark on SOLAR energy? How about this.... trying to clean our oceans from a massive oil spill that seems to have no remedy or fixing your faulty pipes and drilling platforms? I guess we know the answer to that but I mean...really...? Does it make more business sense to waste millions of dollars in trying to solve a problem that seems to have no solution rather than spending the money in maintenance to avoid a more catastrophic situation?

We're facing the possibility of loosing all marine life and confront deadly diseases just from the smell and fumes the oceans bring in these days thanks to BP and their little faulty machinery. And they still want to drill in the Gulf of Mexico... and Alaska! Fuck Off Shore Drilling!

Some say accidents happen... well, this was an accident due to negligence. Furthermore, there are safer alternatives that would put us amongst the pioneers of the Solar age. Yet we don't because of the same old tired topic of special interests and money. Money than owns people, because I do you a favor and now I own you. Kind'a like how BP owns BO (Barack Obama).

I think the coorporate bastars at BP should spend their money in some scuba outfits and a trillion bottles of Dawn and dive into the mess and pluck each and every one of those members of the Ocean Kingdom and wash them away... not with money but with their own two hands, so they can see, smell and taste their mistake, their gross negligence... their GREED!

Feet on the ground..

Well..it's been a while since I've last blogged..mostly becasue I've spent all this time planning a move to California...and I did it.!!!I now feel like a I finally have my feet on the ground yet have taken flight.

This is usually what being in the right place at the right time feels like.