Happy Birthday to the Vegan:)

Well, the Vegan celebrates her 50th birthday today. The Vixen on the other hand just refuses to acknowledge it so the heck with her! I (the Vegan) would like to say that aside from the daunting turn of the half century mark, that I am so very grateful and so very blessed for so much. It has truly been one hell of a rollercoaster ride! As for me, I will work on being better as one can never be TOO good and work on doing for others more than I ever have before. Isn't this what it is all about? They say 50 is just a number and as that might be true and I certainly do not feel nor do I think I "look" it, I will wait until tomorrow (if given the day) to make that particular assessment. But for now, cheers to me. Cheers to you and here's to a rockin' HUMANE 2010. Remember, we CAN and we WILL make a difference.

Much Love,
Toni~

Ringling Brothers Beats Elephants

This is so incredibly sad that it hurts to even type this. PLEASE take action! This beautiful and gentle creatures deserve to be free. Once again people, wake up! Taking your kids to the circus is not providing entertainment. It is merely teaching them that animal cruelty is okay and is acceptable.


Please go here(copy and paste) and SIGN and pass on..thankyou!
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2783

A federal court recently ruled that a circus trainer and animal protection groups did not have legal standing to challenge Ringling's abuse of elephants



This is a horribly written action alert. It really doesn't go into the judges ruling. I found the above, but no explanation. I don't understand what having "legal standing" means. This ruling sounds stupid. I always thought our judicial system was just. No more. I've seen so many regional judges side with the wildlife agencies and townships over residents filing injunctions to stop the use of lethal weapons in their community that threatens the safety of their family getting thrown out for no good reason, other than Judge bias. Half of these judges are as crooked as the political system that they ran in.



Judge Hands Down Ruling in Ringling Case: Take Action Now














A baby elephant is trained at Ringling’s breeding center.

The ruling by a federal judge in the lawsuit against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was not based on the lengthy record of indisputable cruelty to baby elephants, some of whom died during abusive training, or the cruelty to adult elephants who are beaten with bullhooks—the equivalent of a fireplace poker—time and time again. The judge's decision was based solely on the ruling that the former circus trainer and animal protection organizations do not have legal standing to raise these issues.

Just this year during an undercover investigation, PETA recorded Ringling trainers striking elephants with bullhooks backstage at circus shows. We also released shocking photos of baby elephants who were abused with ropes, chains, bullhooks, and electric prods at Ringling's training center.

During a six-week trial, evidence revealed that Ringling routinely abuses elephants with bullhooks and subjects them to prolonged chaining. Bullhooks have only one purpose—to inflict pain. The sharp metal hook bruises, punctures, and tears elephants' sensitive skin easily and often. Please urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to end the use of bullhooks and chains on elephants.

Thank you for your compassion for animals.

Sincerely,

RaeLeann Smith
Circus & Government Affairs Specialist

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone,

The Vixen and I would like to wish you all a very happy,healthy and peaceful new year ahead. May 2010 bring lots of good changes and hope for all the animals out there needing us.

Keep Rockin' on being Humane.

In peace,

VV~ xo

Forclosure Kitty in Need!

I am cross posting this. If you or anyone else can give this beautiful baby a home before her time is up, it would be a wonderful NEW year for her. Please feel free to pass this on. Thankyou!!

PERMISSION TO CROSS POST WIDELY!! TY

DIRECT CONTACT IS MONICA AT INFO@CROSSEDPAWSRESCUE.COM. (@crossedpawsrescue.com)

PLEASE, THIS SITUATION IS URGENT AS THIS BEAUTIFUL PETITE GIRL NEEDS TO BE ADOPTED BEFORE FORECLOSURE OCCURS ON JANUARY 15th!!! PLEASE HELP ME HELP HER!!!


THIS IS LILY AND SHE IS NOW SPAYED!! LOOK AT THIS FACE(sorry you cannot see her here but she is beautiful)!! HOW CAN YOU SAY NO TO THIS SWEET SOUL!!



This is Lily and she is a 1 year old fun loving Cutie pie who would love to have other kitty friends to play with as she is an active young girl. Lily is very petite only weighing in at 7 pounds. She is as sweet and gentle as they come. Lily loves cuddles and rubs and adores being part of a family. Lily is Up to Date on all her shots and is now spayed. Lily understands too that her family is going through a very rough time and she is very sad for them as she is just as sad for her loss of them. Can you find it in your heart to give Lily a forever home where she can feel safe and loved once again? She will forever be grateful to her new family as she is just that kind of lady!!

Monica Sinforosa
Crossed Paws Rescue, LLC
ACO, NJ
www.crossedpawsrescue.com
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NJ606.html


Her beautiful pictures came embedded in my email and they are not a specified file for me to save so you are missing out on seeing this beauty. If seriously interested, let me know and I can forward you the original email. Thankyou!

Back to the bowhunting in Garret Mountain issue

Good day all,

I always have many collected thoughts and ramblings on just about everything. Animal cruelty (including murder) is a huge disturbance of mine as well to many an ethical HUMAN-E being. (Paragraph just edited by the vegan due to possible riffs with previously mentioned issues)
Back to this horrendous bow hunting issue. Aiming a rifle is bad enough but shooting a bow and having that poor creature suffer is just gut wretching. I "hung out" in West Paterson (pardon me it is now Woodland Park..whatever) and I know Garrett Mountain quite well or at least I did what seems a life time ago. No surprise it as well as everyplace else seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Yep, keep building and taking away all that is natural. I feel sorry for this world someday. Just a stone cold man made word existing of unhumane humans. I shutter at the thought!
My neighbor/friend wrote in regarding this issue and I am (with her permission) highlighting some of her very valid and sound points. Again, comments are welcome but doing so in a crude and hateful manner will just show your ignorance so please think before you type!
Here is some of what she said. She also made note of Deer Collisions and how driving the speed limit and paying attention as well as staying off the CELLPHONE were just a couple of positive factors. Let me say that I COULD NOT AGREE MORE. Get off that friggin' cellphone and drive!! If you are in an animal inhabitated area which most likely you are more than not thanks to man and his building blocks, SLOW DOWN and look at the road!! There are also light reflectors you can have put on your car. Amazing how a deer runs into the road and you hit it and the poor deer gets blamed. Don't get me wrong here. I am sorry for anyone that has suffered in any type of car accident BUT this can be avoided. Did I mention to get the hell off the cellphone??

Anyway back on track to some of her good and quite valid points:


Although deer are a carrier of the adult Lyme disease tick, MANY wildlife species carry the larval and nymph stages of the tick which are most infectious to humans. When deer numbers are reduced, ticks tend to congregate in higher densities on the remaining deer or switch to alternate hosts (pets, humans). Ticks need to be eradicated at the larval and nymph stage when they are on the white-footed mice host. The American Lyme Disease Foundation does not recommend killing deer to prevent Lyme disease, and in some locations where all deer were removed, the incidence of the disease did not diminish. Also Douglas Hotton, leader of the U.S. Department of Natural Resource's deer management program, said deer numbers may have little to do with the spread of Lyme disease. In fact, he suggested that the very name "deer tick" is misleading. "It ought to really be called the 'mouse tick,'" he said, since the white-footed mouse is the main host for the Lyme-causing bacteria. (This is from an article from the Baltimore Sun, dated July 26, 2007.)

It has been suggested that the flesh from “harvested” deer be donated to soup kitchens. These deer habitually feed in areas where heavy pesticides and chemicals are applied, or even roadside vegetation (heavy exhaust/hydrocarbon stuff there too). We have seen articles in hunters' magazines advising hunters NOT TO CONSUME organ meats, especially the livers from deer, on a regular basis. This is because the liver concentrates all toxic wastes and tries to eliminate them from the blood stream. Most importantly – donated deer meat IS NOT INSPECTED. Donating this un-inspected meat to soup kitchens and homeless shelters to be served to those with compromised immune systems is irresponsible. A ploy so hunters can pat themselves on the back, because they wouldn't eat it themselves.
Crossbow hunting is the most inhumane and horrifying method of killing an animal. An accurate ‘kill shot’ is likely less than fifty percent of the time, causing an excruciating, slow and painful death, so residents should be prepared to find deer bleeding and dying on their property with arrows protruding from them. This is what hunters DO NOT WANT YOU TO SEE.
The most cost effective, LONG TERM deer management consists of non-lethal methods utilizing outdoor repellent treatments and plantings in yards, Streitor-Lite Reflectors on roadways, and immunocontraception.

This last paragraph says it all! My many thanks to her for allowing me to post this. Fellow ethical friends, PLEASE take action on this and let your voice be heard!!

Woodland Park aka West Paterson NJ welcomes Bow Hunters!

Both Toni and the Vixen are here today. This is truly sad as well as an outrage. SO close to home too...literally since I am right next to WP and I hung out as a teenager at Garrett Mountain..

Audubon is once again promoting deer slaughter

Submit letters to: letterstotheeditor@northjersey.com

You can also post comments--the killers have

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Garret_Mountains_big_deer_herd_to_be_thinned_by_bowhunters.html

Garret Mountain’s big deer herd to be culled by bow hunters

Monday, December 28, 2009
Last updated: Monday December 28, 2009, 11:03 PM

BY RICHARD COWEN

The Record

STAFF WRITER

North Jersey’s bow hunters will be welcomed into Passaic County’s Garret Mountain Reservation and Rifle Camp Park this winter to reduce a swollen deer herd that has ravaged the eco-system and become a danger to motorists.

RECORD FILE PHOTO

The deer herd on Garret Mountain is estimated by Passaic County to number 400 to 600 animals.

The Passaic County Freeholders last week reached an agreement with the United Bow Hunters of New Jersey to conduct a controlled hunt in both parks on various days in January and February. The county plans to close both Garret Mountain Reservation and Rifle Camp Park on alternate weekdays to allow bow hunters to thin out the whitetail population.

“There’s simply too many deer,” said Freeholder Pat Lepore, who also is the mayor of Woodland Park, where Garret Mountain Reservation and Rifle Camp Park are located. “It’s a dangerous situation and environmentally, it’s a disaster. This is the right thing to do.”

The freeholders last week allocated $20,000 for the culling operation, which will be conducted by the United Bow Hunters of New Jersey. The group has been doing culling operations for 20 years for municipalities, among them Livingston, Milburn, Mountain Lakes, and Denville.

“Not only is this the right thing to do, it’s long overdue,” said Marc Weiss, who is organizing the Passaic County hunt for the United Bow Hunters of New Jersey. “The idea isn’t to eliminate the herd; it’s to reduce the herd.”

The deer herd on Garret Mountain is estimated by Passaic County to number 400 to 600 animals. Weiss estimated that the current deer population was “at least 30 times” higher than the carrying capacity of the land. Many of the deer, he said, are underfed and will likely starve this winter.

The Passaic County Parks Department has yet to set dates for the culling operation. Lepore said that the county was looking to close Garret Mountain Reservation and Rifle Camp Park on alternate days in January and February to allow teams of hunters in.

Fast facts

Parks would be closed on hunting days.

Passaic County would decide how many deer would be hunted.

State law that prohibits hunting within 450 feet of an occupied structure would be waived.

The plan adopted by the freeholders calls for the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department to provide security. Bow hunters would erect tree stands and lay down bait. The county would operate a deer check station, and all the meat would be donated to the Center for United Methodist Aid in the Community (CUMAC), a Paterson-based anti-poverty agency.

To survive, the deer have browsed their way through the under story of both parks, and into the backyards of homes. Along the way, they’ve eaten just about every plant and shrub in sight — and destroyed the habitat for other species, particularly the migrating songbirds that land on Garret Mountain during the Spring and Fall.

Many of the deer that have survived appear weak and underfed — while others wind up dead in the road, struck by vehicles. Recently, two deer carcasses were discovered in the parking lot of Kohl’s department store on Route 46.

Although the population has been growing steadily, Passaic County has never had a deer management plan for Garret Mountain. Woodland Park residents, tired of having their gardens destroyed by roaming deer, have long been pressuring the freeholders to do something. They’ve been joined by environmental groups such as the New Jersey Audubon Society, which this fall sounded the alarm over the destruction of Garret Mountain’s ecological balance.

Troy Ettel, the director of conservation for the New Jersey Audubon Society, said Garret Mountain is one of the most important resting points in New Jersey for migratory birds. And deer are the number one danger to that ecosystem.

“Forests that are impacted by whitetail deer are like critically ill patients,” Ettel said. “The forest could die. You have to drop the deer population and keep it low in order to give that forest a chance to recover.”

E-mail: cowen@northjersey.com

Thanks to Vegan Virago for originally posting this(arriving in my inbox) so that I could post it as well and get my thoughts out to the editor and town officials as well . As always, my blog is public and comments are welcome. People are entitled to their opinions though I may view many as being ignorant or narrowminded and that is okay. I do ask that you comment without vulgarity. Any flaming towards us (me and the vixen) will result in our engaging in true human like behavior and hunting you down. With that said, have a good day. I am going to post more on this very disturbing topic in a bit.

My very first blog here

OK, figured I would say something since I created an account here and normally one cannot shut me up. Well, partially true...at times, not always. I had to think of a name and for whatever reason ( Should I dare say 'only God knows) why, I chose Vegan Vixen. As for me, I am a mild mannered (quite well mannered too) ethical animal lover, vegan,earth conscious person. I am also very analytical,quirky, a tad moody at times and darkly creative when the muse strikes. As for the vixen, that must be my alter ego. I am sure she will pop in here from time to time. Hope you don't mind ;) I figure this will be a place to post collected thoughts, share vegan food ideas, ethical issues and whatever else I feel like talking about. Can you handle that?
Anyway, I am not feeling too hot today. No worries it is a Holiday bug most likely. Plus I turn a half century this Saturday. That is truly freaking me out! Not sure what I will be doing if anything.
So I have not felt too hungry but had a yen (my son argues that 'yen' should only be used when referring to certain currency) for an olive oil dipping sauce and a little bread. I love olive oil and I love garlic (no vampires have dared to mess with me!). So the EVOO (no not a Rachael Ray fan so to speak but she is cute) I have is Via Roma EVOO first press....for the first time ever I can say this much about an olive oil....blech!! Has anyone tried it? Could my taste buds be awry?? I don't think so! I have had lesser priced olive oils that were good. This is so not good. I am going off to find it online somewhere to rate it. Oh and I will do the rating. The vixen is out at the moment :) Thanks for being here...Tone~