Hi, I'm Jane, and I've just joined the team, so this is my first ever blog!
So I have one exam to go before I receive my degree in Animal Science. While I'd normally be dreading any kind of exam, biting my nails, and overdosing on coffee while I'm cramming as much as I can get in the night before, I'm actually kind of looking forward to this one. I just heard your jaw drop on the keyboard, but hear me out!
This exam won't just be symbolic of me finally completing my studies. It's also the very last step in proving once and for all that it is entirely possible to attain not only a science degree, but an animal science degree, without having harmed any animals.
For three long years, I steadfastly refused to inject, kill or dissect any animal. Once I was even threatened with a fail, but I stayed true to my beliefs and said defiantly "Fail me then".
No one failed me. In fact, I have a Distinction grade point average and an Outstanding Academic Achievement Award, which further goes to show that I was actually better off not using animals.
A lot of people, students and teachers, think that it's impossible to study biology, physiology, genetics or medicine without using animals. This is really concerning, because the alternatives, text books, artificial models and computer simulations that are readily available make using actual animals in education completely redundant.
That's why this exam means a lot to me, and that's why I'm gonna blitz it!
Hopefully this can be a reference point whenever someone tells you that you have to use animals in science or at uni. Besides, the teachers HAVE to offer you an alternative if you ask for one, did you know that?
All too often, I was the only one to say anything, while my fellow students stayed quiet, did the practicals, and cried on the bus on the way home. We all know it's wrong to use animals this way, so if you're in school and don't want to hurt animals when the teacher tells you to, Speak Up! And encourage your friends to do the same.
On a lovely sunny Saturday a couple of weeks ago a friend and I decided we would do one of Port Phillip Bay's most popular shore dives at St Leonards Pier. This is a great dive because of the many sea creatures that call the pier home. There are normally heaps of Seadragons, Leatherjackets, Stingray's, Nudibranchs and even the occasional Stargazer.
With all our gear on and ready to shoot some photos we swam in under the pier. There are usually quite a few people fishing from the pier, so we were very aware of fishing lines and the possibility of getting tangled up.
We made the decision to head out from under the pier and as we headed out I made a mental note of several discarded fishing lines that I would cut free on my way back. These are very hard to spot and seriously threaten wildlife by entangling them. Then suddenly I felt a very sharp pain in my left index finger! OUCH!
I looked down to realise I'd been hooked by a large hook through the skin on the top of my finger from one knuckle to the other. My skin was now being stretched to the point of tearing and was starting to bleed. But then I realised it could get much worse. Surfacing too quickly puts both humans and fish alike at risk of an internal embolism or overexpansion injury. This is something every wild caught fish would go through when they are netted and dragged up from depth. Their flotation bladders explode internally and their eyes bulge due to the change in pressure.
My finger felt like it was going to be torn open. With my free hand I caught the fishing line to relieve the tension on my finger and just held on for the ride to the surface. The first thing I saw when I got to the surface was a guy with a scary grimace like smile on his face doing his best to 'land his catch'. Needless to say he was pretty shocked when he realised he'd hooked a diver. I spat my regulators out and I think unfortunately a pile of expletives followed! I grabbed my knife and with the pressure now off my finger I was able to cut the line. The next job was to pull the barbed hook out of my finger. Once done the pain really set in. I hadn't realised the hook had also caught my tendon and now my finger was swelling quickly. To this day the finger still hurts. But actually, I'm thankful I had the experience. 'Cause now I know first hand how cruel fishing is.
I've always disagreed with recreational fishing. It seems barbaric to me to find joy in hooking a living feeling being through the mouth and let her fight to exhaustion on the end of a line; then drag her out to suffocate to death. Most fish are not killed quickly and they suffer a painful drawn out death. Those that are thrown back are often injured beyond recovery or are killed by predators because they are too exhausted to escape. All this in the name of entertainment!?!
Sadly most victims of fishing don't live to tell the tale. But the next time someone tries to tell you fishing doesn't hurt, point them in my direction and I'll set the record straight!
Have you heard about Nadya Suleman? Last year she grabbed worldwide attention when she gave birth to octuplets, bringing her total number of children to 14!!! Gosh, I have enough trouble keeping my own affairs in order, let alone looking after a football team's worth of kids! While Ms Suleman's situation might seem highly unusual, sadly in Australia there are many other mums giving birth to litters of children who may never have a proper home. Yup, I'm talking about dog and cat overpopulation.
The harsh reality is that every year over 200,000 cats and dogs in shelters across Australia will be deemed 'unwanted' and be euthanized. Now if that's not a big enough number for you to sit up straight, remember that there are also at this very second an estimated 10 million stray cats around the country. So it's easy to see that we're in a bit of a pickle!
But there is a solution (hoorah!)... The catch is that to make it work, everyone with companion animals has got to do their bit. A simple snip & sew (ie. desexing) by a vet will be a huge help to prevent even more cats and dogs suffering a life on the streets.
So if you haven't already, book your little guy/girl in for an overnight trip at the local vet. It isn't all too expensive, and it'll spare you the grief of having to deal with your own litter of octuplets!
This is my own little ambassador: Charlie, whom, due to being incredibly gorgeous and irresistibly handsome, is definitely a ladies' man dog. Although I'm sure he knows he won't father children... it still doesn't stop him from trying ;)
I was never a huge fan of science in school. The lab always smelled funny and those goggles and aprons were never as flattering as our science teacher made them out to be. But as torturous as that all was, I actually had it pretty easy...
Can you imagine having to spend your entire life in a science laboratory?
That's the reality for millions of rabbits, mice, cats, dogs and other animals. But there's no safety equipment for these little guys.To test consumer products such as hairspray, toilet cleaner and cosmetics, lab animals have nasty chemicals dripped directly into their eyes, and are given chemical burns to their skin. Others are forced to ingest harmful substances that cause painful poisoning and worse - death.
Sadly this isn't science fiction - it's a real-life horror story. But with your help we can give the animals a happy ending...
Not many people know that some of the most well-known companies like Colgate/Palmolive, Procter & Gamble (who own Braun, CoverGirl, Gillette, Pantene,Wella, Herbal Essences, Vidal Sassoon, Duracell and more) and Unilever (who own Dove, Rexona, Lynx, SunSilk, Impulse, Lux, Vaseline, Domestos and more) still fund deadly tests on animals overseas before sending their products down under for us to buy. If you have any of their products at home, you have a great opportunity to help end animal testing by calling their customer feedback number (usually on the pack), and politely letting them know that you won't buy their products again after learning that their company funds animal tests.
Now, we know that your lips might get a little chapped if you have to make a few calls, so to show our thanks, and to celebrate how amazing cruelty-free cosmetics are, we're giving away FREE Vanilla Bean Lip Balm from Perfect Potion to five courageous callers!
To be in the draw simply comment below and tell us who you called, and how it went :-)
UPDATE: Thank you so much to everyone who phoned, emailed or sent letters to companies telling them to leave the animals alone! Unleashed certainly has some outspoken members who should be very proud of themselves! In the end the lip-smacking winners of the Vanilla Bean Lip-Balm are brookeb, angelaartsstudent, AlanaRama, Tracy and Katie2. Thanks again and well done to all of you who entered, and don't forget to always speak up for animals!
That might sound like a tall order, but every year Animals Australia finds a new way to spoil your Mum, whilst also helping out the thousands of mother animals who are locked up inside factory farms.
This year Animals Australia has hooked up with 'Growing Gifts' to create what I think is simply the most awesome Mother's Day gift anyone could buy ... a bundle of goodies that includes a real live lemon-scented tea tree! I just wish I was a Mum so someone would buy this for me! :-)
Looks preeeeetty swish, huh? The real value in this gift however is the bit you don't see in the picture. Each 'Growing Gift' helps to fund important campaigns to end factory farming, like this one, this one and this one.
Pigs are one of the smartest animals on the planet -- as smart as dogs and 3 year old children! Yet in factory farms mother pigs are locked up in tiny crates so small they can't even turn around. Pretty shocking, right? Well someone needs to stand up for these amazing animals. And that someone is us. So if you haven't worked out what to give Mum for Mother's Day yet, then maybe this is it!
You can order the small tree gift for $40, but if you don't have enough dough saved up for that then here are some other gorgeous gift ideas that aren't so expensive, but will also help out the animals:
If you don't have a credit card, and can't borrow one, then don't panic -- just call our office pixies on a weekday on (03) 9329 6333 and they'll help you out. And while you're planning the perfect day-off for Mum, here are a few winning breakfast-in-bed recipes that are sure to get you out of cleaning your room for at least a week:
Every once in a while, I come across something online that just seems too ridiculous to be true (I'm sure you're no stranger to such discoveries either.). Sometimes I think "Whoa! That's awesome!" But today it wasn't one of those days. Today, all I could do was cringe...
And that's when I decided to start an un-wishlist. Just like many people keep a wish list for what they want for their birthday, Christmas, etc this will be the perfect guide for what not to get me! And "Why?" you might ask, would I want to start such a list? The answer is simple, because of a cow-hide covered bath!
I'm sorry, but who in their right mind would ever want to clean themselves in a bath covered by the skin of a slaughtered animal? To me that just seems like a sure-fire way to ensure you step out feeling dirtier than when you got in!
The last thing I want to be thinking about when I climb into the bath is the image of cows being forced to climb into trucks to be shipped off to slaughter. And as I rub in the shampoo, I definitely don't want to be thinking about cows in India having chilli rubbed into their eyes to stop them from collapsing during the long, gruelling walk to slaughter.
Don't get me wrong, I think cow patterns look great (when they're not taken from a skinned corpse). I just don't think that we need to kill cows to decorate bath tubs!
Now on the otherhand, I definitely wouldn't say 'No' to a Cowch! *hint* ;-) This one's just hilariously cool:
But Helga's Cowches win extra points for the fact that not only do proceeds go towards her cow sanctuary, but every one of the Cowches is modeled after a real cow in the sanctuary. Here's Beatrice Cowch and Beatrice cow:
Got any cool or cringe-worthy web-discoveries to share?
This week the 7:30 Reportran a story on the dangers of milk. According to the program, regular milk may be linked to a long list of diseases including: heart disease, diabetes, autism and even schizophrenia!
Should we really be surprised that a drink intended for baby calves isn't ideal for adult humans? As Dr. Michael Klapper said: "The human body has no more need for cows' milk than it does for dogs' milk, horses' milk or giraffes' milk."
So milk might make you sick. But what the report didn't mention is that it's also making the environment sick. It takes about 200 litres of water to produce just one glass of milk. That's almost as much water as many people use for all their household activities in a day!
But perhaps the darkest side of the dairy industry is what happens to the animals. Cows do not automatically produce milk. Just like humans, first they need to have a baby. So what happens to the calf? Every year in Australia, 1 million baby calves are slaughtered as 'waste-products' of the dairy industry. Their flesh may be sold as pink veal, their bones may be crushed-up and made into designer dog biscuits, and the lining of their stomachs may be used in the process of making cheese.
Now that's enough to make anybody sick!
Fortunately, enjoying milk without such sickening side effects is a breeze! Next time you're at the shops, why not try one of these fantastic cruelty free milks?
Soy milk: My personal favourite. It's high in protein and fibre. My recommendation? Try out Sanitarium's So Good Lite if you like that milky taste. But then if you asked Karen, she'd tell you that Vitasoy's Soy Milky Lite is the way to go.
Rice milk: A favourite for some in cooking. If you've got a sweet tooth, this may be the option for you as it's known for its sweeter taste compared to other milks. Vic Unleashed Street Team Co-ordinator Rochelle's recommendation: go get yourself a carton of Vitasoy.
Almond milk, Oat milk, and the list goes on... If you're feeling really adventurous you can even make your own, for example this recipe for cashew milk.
The neat thing with all of these is that not all soy/rice/almond/oat milks taste alike. So there's one to suit everyone's taste. On the flip side, it might take you a little exploring to find the one that suits you. So if at first you don't succed, try another brand ;)
And don't forget to comment below and share which one's your fave?
I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but another 2 horses were killed in a jumps race over the Easter break - this time in SA. And what was the Racing Minister's response? "Although it's extremely disappointing that we've had the loss that we've had, it doesn't mean that jumps racing should be banned as a result of one incident."
Gah! I don't even know where to begin...
But wait, I suppose he's got a point. We shouldn't just take this one incident into consideration when deciding the fate of jumps racing. We should probably also consider the fact that 11 horses died in jumps races across Victoria and South Australia last year.
Surely they should have worked it out by now: horse + jumps racing = bad idea. Is this so hard to get? You'd think the body count on the track would give it away. They've tried raising the jumps, lowering the jumps, hardening the jumps, softening the jumps. And still horses fall and die. So why not try banning the jumps? Something tells me that might work!
If you're as sick of seeing horses die for the sake of entertainment as I am, thenplease click here to send the Ministers for Racing in Vic and SA a letter to tell them to ban this cruel sport.
I'm seriously happy about the new Earth Choice ad that's currently airing on prime time telly. It seems to be the first ad that brings to light the plight of our marine animals. It scares me that the world has largely forgotten them.
I wanted to cry when the stingray was being used as a cleaning rag and the octopus as a mop. I'm a diver and I've had interactions underwater with octopuses that lasted for minutes. These highly intelligent creatures can communicate by changing their colours, the tentacles can express emotions such as anger and affection. They express curiosity through touch and they will look you in the eye to check you out. I've even seen them open jars to get something inside.
And it's not just our ocean life that gets poisoned by many of our household products. Supermarket shelves are lined with products from companies like Procter & Gamble, Colgate/Pamolive, Johnson & Johnson, and Glade who still test on animals! As if it weren't bad enough that we're flushing chemical cocktails into the oceans, first they're dripping them into the eyes of rabbits, feeding them to mice and giving dogs chemical burns just to find out how toxic they really are!
Fortunately, Earth Choice is just one of many great brands that are looking out for animals. There are plenty of others that you can find in pretty much any supermarket, for example: Blast, Planet Ark, and Seventh Generation.
Every time we go to the supermarket we can make a powerful choice not to support animal cruelty. And let's face it, the animals need us (octopuses and bunnies alike). There's just no need for us to torture animals in labs or destroy our oceans just to wash the dishes! So take the pledge to say 'No!' to animal tests and make sure to support brands that look out for our oceans.
So, you may have seen in the news that Australia is lifting its ban on beef imports from mad-cow countries. Let me tell you why this makes me mad:
Mad-cow disease is an illness affecting cattle - caused by feeding cows to cows. Nasty stuff!
But it gets even nastier! If humans eat this infected meat, it can cause the fatal disease, called Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (you know with a name that long it's gotta be bad!). Sure, these countries claim to have the all clear from mad-cow disease now, but any country that used to feed cows to cows doesn't sound like a smart place to import beef from (not that killing cows sounds like a good idea to begin with). Anyway, while turning cows into cannibals before eating them sounds pretty mad, we've got some home-grown nastiness to worry about - a not-so-little thing called factory farming.
Packing animals into overcrowded sheds, where they may have to live in their own filth without fresh air, natural light or exercise is bound to make them sick. So animals in factory farms are often fed a diet of antibiotics just to keep them alive long enough to be killed. The problem with this? Viruses evolve and antibiotics don't. Factory farms are the perfect breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant super bugs. That's right; diseases not even modern medicine can cure - *cough* Bird Flu *cough* Swine Flu *cough*
And while it's gross - what goes in must come out. The major problem: The huge amount of waste produced by factory farms is not treated, like human waste is. In the case of pigs, it is channelled into massive, open-air cesspits. These "lagoons" (as the industry calls them) can pollute the soil and underground water supplies, and run-off can wreak havock on local waterways - not to mention the health risks to the local community!
But, no need to worry! Like a wizard, I have the perfect solution for you! And while you're at it, you'll be helping heaps of others in a big way. What is it, I hear you chanting? What do I have to do? What must I eat? No, no, no! It's much simpler than that! It's what you don't have to eat - animals!
Not eating animals reduces your risk of getting heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. Don't eat animals - get a longer life expectancy - it's that easy! Your Mum's been telling you to eat your vegetables forever, so what better way to make her happy?
Sound good? Great! Then click here to take the pledge to be veg and give the cows one less reason to be mad ;)
Disclaimer:
We’re supposed to let you know that the ideas expressed here are the views of the individual authors, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Animals Australia or Animals Australia Unleashed. So now you know.
I'm sorry, but who in their right mind would ever want to clean themselves in a bath covered by the skin of a slaughtered animal? To me that just seems like a sure-fire way to ensure you step out feeling dirtier than when you got in!
Something tells me that might work!
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