Thanksgiving Celebration FOR Turkeys

Wow, the Celebration FOR Turkey event at Farm Sanctuary was such a spiritual experience for me! I loved how we fed the turkeys before we fed ourselves. That is how it should always be. I always feed my animals before I feed myself. Countless animals have sacrificed their lives in order to feed us and we do not treat them with enough respect and compassion. Since we fed the turkeys at 1:00 PM, we didn't eat until 2:00 PM. Normally, I have lunch at 12:00 PM, but I wasn't even that hungry by the 2:00 arrived because I was so enthralled with the turkeys that I actually forgot about my hunger! When we visited the cow barn, most of the cows trotted over to us and lowered their heads so we could pet them (just like a rabbit)! They were the friendliest cows and I felt so touched by that experience. Instead of viewing us as enemies, they treated us as friends. They were completely innocent, open and trusting. We can learn so much from our four-footed friends!

The pigs were very friendly too and I loved how the simplest things gave them the greatest pleasure such as a nice belly rub! Daniel started laughing when the pig he approached flopped over and snorted while he rubbed her belly. My favorite part of the day was kneeling before the turkeys and presenting them with an artfully decorated, beautiful display of fresh acorn squash stuffed with succulent dressing surrounded by cranberries and sliced grapes. I loved how the Farm Sanctuary volunteers took time to slice the grapes into quadrants so the turkeys wouldn't choke on them. There was so much thoughtfulness and love that went into the preparation of the food for the turkeys. I do the same thing when I feed my rabbits and guinea pigs. I like to arrange the food into a pretty display in beautiful food dishes just like what you would see in a restaurant. My husband thinks it's silly for me to go to so much trouble, but if people enjoy beautifully arranged food when they eat out, I'm sure that animals appreciate it too!

After we had our delicious vegan holiday feast, the co-founder of Farm Sanctuary gave a short talk. I was very impressed when I learned that he had a graduate degree in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. He talked about how agricultural students at Cornell are initiated into the cruelties of our animal agricultural industry, how "bad" has become acceptable. When he spoke, his talk reminded me of the atrocities that took place during the Holocaust and the wars that plague other countries around the world. It seems that when enough people commit a heinous act, it becomes acceptable. People are so "blind" to their actions that they automatically accept the status quo (even it's a horrible and cruel status quo) as normal.

Blessed Unrest

I just discovered an amazing book entitled Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken. In 1966, Paul Hawken co-founded Erewhon Trading Company, the first natural-foods business in America (this was long before Whole Foods). Later he launched several successful sustainability-focused companies, including the garden-tool boutique Smith & Hawken, often cited for its environmental awareness. And I thought Smith & Hawken was just another Yuppie gardening store!

In his new book, Hawken provides the historical underpinnings of the environmental movement and lays out its common aims and ideals. This is a movement that has no name, leader, or location, but is in every city, town, and culture and it is organizing from the bottom up and emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people's needs worldwide.

Hawken talks convincingly about the convergence of the environmental/sustainability movement with the social justice and indigenous rights movements (collectively described as “the movement,”) and the significance of the millions of organizations that have arisen world-wide to tackle the many issues that all these movements encompass. According to Hawken, there are 1 - 2 million organizations working toward ecological sustainability and social justice. He asserts that this is the largest social movement in human history. The movement has three basic components: environmental activism, social justice initiatives, and indigenous cultures' resistance to globalization.

The movement for equity and environmental sustainability comes as global conditions are changing dramatically and becoming more demanding. We are the first generation to witness a doubling of population in our lifetime. Nearly 3 billion people will join the current population of 6.6 billion within 50 years. By the middle of this century, resources available per person will drop by at least half. Wow, this statistic makes me feel guilty for having a child!

When I was in high school, I enjoyed reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays. I loved how Emerson wrote about nature as a language. In Emerson's essays, he viewed religion, science, and nature as one field of thought. According to Hawken, Emerson's ideas on how we treat nature and how we treat one another would become the foundations of environmental and social justice. I also enjoyed reading works by Henry David Thoreau, who was influenced by Emerson's essay Nature, built a cabin and retreated to Walden Pond. Thoreau believed in human interdependency and the need to respond to moral imperatives. The connectedness Emerson saw in the natural world, Thoreau saw in the human world, and it led to his writing his classic essay Civil Disobedience. Thoreau's essay heavily influenced Gandhi and Gandhi's commitment to a nonviolent means of objecting to injustice similarly influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. These strands all express Emerson's faith that thought "was sent and meant for participation in the world..." What distinguishes one life from another is the one thing we can control: intention. I believe that by acting from a heart filled with grace and deep intentionality, we can make a difference in the world.

According to Hawken, there were two branches of the environmental movement in North American in the 19th century. Both Emerson and Thoreau can be credited for one branch, the idea of man and nature as one. Opposed to that view was the conviction that man is necessarily superior. George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature ushered in a revolution in the way people conceived their relations with the earth. Its message was that nature thrived without humans and while man's intervention almost always caused permanent damage to the earth, intervene we must.

I believe that saving our planet is just as important as saving our indigenous cultures. According to Hawken, areas of the world that are the most biologically diverse are also the most diverse in language. Yet, half of the world's languages have disappeared. More than 3,000 of the remaining ones are dying. There are 438 critically endangered languages with fewer than 50 speakers. The prevailing Eurocentric view about indigenous cultures tends toward the belief that assimilation of these "marginal" cultures is in their best interests. But consider this. The loss of language is yet another indicator of the worldwide collapse of ecosystems. Indigenous people want the conveniences of modern life-- just not at the expense of losing their birthright. If languages are living things, inextricably intertwined with biological diversity, then the loss of "verbal botanies" is irreparable. Culture is a critical and determining part of our environment. Ecosystems are created by the interaction of living organisms; each species depends on the others to ensure its long-term survival. As we eliminate one culture every two weeks, we court two types of extinction: cultural and biological.

Hawken concedes that globalization does have potentially positive effects: dissolution of exclusionary political borders, connectivity of people worldwide, and a wealth of new opportunities in employment, education, and income. But these benefits obscure the liabilities: resource and worker exploitation, irreversible climate change, pollution (take a look at what's happening in China), destruction of communities, and diminished biological diversity. An inordinate focus on wealth creation also obscures poverty creation, as evidenced by the United States, which has the worst social record of any developed country in the world -- the U.S. is first in teen pregnancies, drug use, poverty, illiteracy, and hazardous waste production.

Like Emerson, I believe that we are nature and any sense of separateness that we hold onto is an illusion. By holding ourselves as separate from nature, we grant ourselves permission to destroy nature and the other living beings that share our planet. Any living system is a combination of harmony and autonomy, predictability and instability. The more resilient a system, whether it be social or biological, the more shocks and impacts it can withstand and still recover from. However, as systems lose diversity and thereby their functional redundancy, they become vulnerable to disruption and collapse.

Ecology is about how living organisms interact with each other and their environment. Sustainability is about stabilizing the disruptive relationship between humans and the living world. All our planet asks from us is rest, nurturance, respect, celebration, collaboration, and engagement. Will we listen?

Spiritual Friendship Circle

"There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come." -- Victor Hugo

Are you tired of the same materialistic and mundane conversations day after day? Are you looking for others who you can connect with and possibly cultivate some meaningful friendships? In this busy and fast-paced world, it can be a challenge to find others who have the same goals, morals and values as ourselves.

I am seeking curious, eclectic, spiritual women who love nature, animals, hiking, adventure, and travel for intellectual and spiritual conversations in the East Bay. We will meet on the 2nd Sunday of every month from 2:30 PM - 5:30 PM in Walnut Creek or Berkeley. Where we meet is not as important as forming a sanctuary for our circle, a place uninvaded by intrusive sounds, or by other people, a "Do Not Disturb" location.

In the sweet territory of silence we touch the mystery.
It's the place of reflection and contemplation, and it's the place
where we can connect with the deep knowing,
to the deep wisdom way.

--From a talk by Angeles Arrien, author of The Four-Fold Way

The name of our spiritual friendship circle is "Sunday Sangha." Sangha is a Sanskrit word which means an enlightened community and that is what I'm trying to create--an enlightened community of women determined to make a positive impact in the world. Our circle will foster the psyche, trust and authenticity. It will be a safe and sacred place for deep psychological depth and growth, as well as a place for collaborative undertakings, but we'll also have fun! Our circle will be an island of free speech and laughter. We will listen, witness, role model, react, deepen, mirror, laugh, cry, share the wisdom of our experience, support each other and discover ourselves, through talk. As Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. states, "When a critical number of people change how they think and behave, the culture does also, and a new era begins. What the world needs now is an infusion of the kind of wisdom women have and the form of the circle itself is an embodiment of that wisdom." The purpose of our spiritual friendship circle is to change the way we think and behave so we can "be the change we wish to see in the world."(Gandhi)

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world;
indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

--Margaret Mead

We will rotate leadership within our circle with each member serving as discussion leader for the month. The discussion leader would come up with a topic or question of the month for the other members to address during that month's meeting. Here are some sample questions:

• How do you lead a spiritual life?
• How can we realize truth in our daily life?
• What is anger and why does one become angry?
• What is happiness in life?
• How can the mind go beyond its hindrances?
• How can we know ourselves?
• What makes us fear death?
• How can one become intelligent?
• What is life, and how can we be happy?
• What is the real way to build up character?

The vision of Sunday Sangha is to "celebrate life and transform it into something that is more sacred, dignified, respectful and equal." If you are interested in new friendships to help you reflect upon your own ideas and insights and enjoy conversations about spirituality, please send an email to gguval@yahoo.com for more information.

Bioneers Conference

On October 21, 2007, I attended the Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA. Bioneers is a forum for connecting the environment, health, social justice, and spirit within a broad progressive framework. Go to www.bioneers.org/ for more information. Just like the Craig's List Boot Camp (http://craigslistfoundation.org/index.php?page=Boot_Camp) I attended in August, the Opening Session began with a drum performance. It's interesting how many nonprofit organizations seek to connect people through music, particularly drumbeats. I think the drumbeats are supposed to symbolize the common heartbeat of every living being on Earth. While I sometimes enjoy the sound of drums (depending on my mood), I prefer softer New Age type of music such as Loreena McKennitt. My favorite song from Loreena McKennit is "The Mummers' Dance." According to wikipedia, Mummers' Plays (also known as mumming) are seasonal folk plays performed by troupes of actors known as mummers or guisers (or by local names such as rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, galoshins and so on), originally in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (see wrenboys), but later in other parts of the world. They are sometimes performed in the street but more usually as house-to-house visits and in public houses.

I was deeply moved by Nina Simon's opening talk on fear. Whenever you're engaged in the work of righting social injustices, saving the environment, or protecting the rights of beings who have no voice, you have to face your fears because there will always be those who oppose your work. Nina said, "the way I know I'm on track with my life and my career is when I smell my fear and head straight for it." It's important to question what you are afraid of. When I was in my 20s, my biggest fear was poverty so I entered the financial services industry and became a Financial Consultant for Merrill Lynch because I wanted to make a lot of money. Well, I never earned the riches I dreamed of as a Financial Consultant, but I made a decent living in financial sales. So I remained in financial services for twelve years because it felt safe and I knew I could make a good living in that industry. In Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Safety is right above Biological and Physiological Needs, but below Belongingness and Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization. Many people go through life guided by the need for security and safety, but for me, that's only half a life. The other side of life is fear and in fear, we can discover things about ourselves that we never knew existed. Even more exciting is the discovery that fear can motivate us to achieve things we never thought possible, things that have the power to transform the world.

Nina also said, "Keep heading for what is broken." I see so many broken "things" in our world--broken relationships, broken people, broken spirits, a broken environment. And those are the things I feel most compelled to "fix." I'm particularly motivated to "fix" broken hearts and broken spirits. There is so much violence in our culture, but rather than turn away from it, I feel inspired to find ways to transform it. I love working with the elderly population in my volunteer work at nursing homes, senior centers, and hospitals. They have so much wisdom and in the "busyness" of our careers, families and outside pursuits, we tend to forget they even exist. I see so much loneliness and yearning for a human connection in the eyes of the elderly I meet. In my opinion, ignoring our elders is a form of violence. I call it the unintentional violence of neglect. As a very young child, I experienced what it felt like to be neglected and whether you're an infant or in your 80s, neglect and abandonment feel the same.

Many of the panels discussed how to save our oceans and the inhabitants of the sea. I also feel a deep commitment to saving our oceans and sea creatures. But at the same time, I feel deep anguish about the millions of farm animals that are mercilessly slaughtered every year all over the world. Unless you attend an Animal Rights Conference (which I did in July), many nature/environmental conferences do not really address the plight of farm animals. Like the elderly, they are the "forgotten" animals on our planet. On Saturday, my family and I attended a tour at Animal Place (http://www.animalplace.org/), a farm animal sanctuary in Vacaville, CA. This was a second visit for my son and me. I felt it was important for my husband to see how farm animals should live--in wide open pastures with plenty of fresh air, food, water, and sunshine. Our guide talked about the living conditions of factory farmed animals and how they are slaughtered. Unfortunately, learning more about the sad plight of farmed animals did not convince my husband to become a vegetarian, but it's not too late for my son. I think that once he becomes an adult, he'll become a vegetarian.

At the Bioneers Conference, Dr. Robyn Benson, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, talked about the Mandala of Being. At the center of the circle is You. Around the circle of You, are six segments -- Family, Work, Play/Travel, Spirituality, Relationships, and Supreme Health. Many of us assign a much larger portion of our pie to Work which is not the way to live a balanced, sustainable life. When I was a Financial Consultant, work certainly took over most aspects of my life. Later, when I started working on my Master's degree in Marketing, school took over my life. But now that I work for a health care consulting firm, my life feels much more balanced. However, my husband would complain that volunteering consumes too much of my life (I volunteer for seven different nonprofit organizations).

Sun-Haters

I’m reading this fascinating book entitled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes by Mark J. Penn. I recognized some of the new microtrends such as the surging population of single people, Cougars (older women dating younger men), Commuter Couples, Internet Marrieds, Working Retired, Extreme Commuters (my facialist on the Big Island of Hawaii commutes 90 minutes each way to work), Stay-at-Home Workers, Interracial Families, etc. The microtrend that really took me by surprise was the Sun-Haters. When we vacationed in Hawaii earlier this month, I wore 50 SPF sunscreen every single day because I’m extremely protective when it comes to my skin. As a result, I came back from Hawaii with nary a tan. Of course, everyone’s skin looks nicer with a little tan, but I don’t want to develop more wrinkles in my skin and I don’t want to run the risk of developing skin cancer. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States today, with more than a million new cases diagnosed each year. The mortality rate from skin cancer has increased 50% since the 1970s. Between 1980 and 1987, the number of melanomas (the really dangerous skin cancer) increased 83%. Skin cancer in teenagers, unheard of a generation ago, is on the rise. At least 25% of skin damage occurs before a person is 18 years old.

As a result, there is a brand new industry to sun-safe clothing, which means long-sleeved shirts and pants that are woven more tightly than regular clothes. A white T-shirt provides an ultraviolet protection factor or UPF of only 5. Some of the clothes are fortified with the products in sunscreen, or chemicals like titanium dioxide, which deflect the sun’s rays. Sun-protective clothing now does about $180 million worth of business per year. Now, there’s a product called Sun-Guard, a laundry aid that washes sun protection right into clothes, boosting their UPF level from about 5 to 30. The majority of foundations and skin creams contain UPF or SPF of at least 15.

Source: Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes by Mark J. Penn with E. Kinney Zalesne

The Meatrix

Here is an interesting link that makes you think about what you’re eating.

http://www.themeatrix1.com/

If you have not read Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully, I highly recommend his book! This book was named by The Atlantic Monthly as one of the ten best non-fiction works of 2002. Matthew Scully served until August 2004 as special assistant to the president and deputy director of presidential speechwriting. He worked for President George W. Bush a total of five years, including 18 months in the 2000 campaign, and was part of the team that drafted the President’s post-September 11th addresses and every major speech of the first term. Scully has also written for vice presidents Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle, presidential candidate Robert Dole, Arizona Governor Fife Symington, and the late Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey. A former literary editor of National Review, his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The National Post of Canada, among other newspapers and magazines. Here is a link to an article Matthew Scully wrote about the seal massacres which take place in Canada:

http://www.matthewscully.com/canada_season_shame.htm

Here is something I found online while surfing. Actress Kate Hudson – nominee for the Academy Award – and hairstylist David Babaii are bringing out a cruelty free line of haircare products that will benefit the WildAid project http://www.wildaid.org/eng.asp?CID=1 The WildAid project works together with governments and communities to restore the wildlife of the earth. They are fighting illegal wildlife trade and are attempting to let threatened species grow in numbers again. No doubt about it that this is a very positive project. And the fact that the environment and wildlife are being helped with cruelty free hairline products makes this all the better. There is no need for animal testing to make cosmetics. Here is the link to the story:

http://openpr.com/news/22328.html

Finally, here is a link to an interesting site on animal rights:

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/animalrights/

Marketing

I found a fun and interesting article by Robert Warren which explains some of the different aspects of marketing. Here it is:

You're a woman and you see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and say, "I’m fantastic in bed.”

That’s Direct Marketing.

You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says, “She’s fantastic in bed.”

That’s Advertising.

You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get his telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m fantastic in bed.”

That’s Telemarketing.

You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. You get up and straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him a drink. You say, “May I,” and reach up to straighten his tie brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say, “By the way, I’m fantastic in bed.”

That’s Public Relations.

You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says, “I hear you’re fantastic in bed.”

That’s Brand Recognition.

You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. You talk him into going home with your friend.

That’s a Sales Rep.

Your friend can’t satisfy him, so he calls you.

That’s Tech Support.

You’re on your way to a party when you realize there could be handsome men in all these houses you’re passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated toward the center and shout at the top of your lungs, “I’m fantastic in bed!”

That’s Junk Mail.

Managing Up: Your Parents

Marshall Goldsmith, best-selling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, was teaching a one-day leadership course for a large health-care company at the Oakland Convention Center. There were about a thousand managers and union leaders in the room. One woman was given a microphone and rose to speak to the entire room. She said, “I have read many of the things that you have written and have been to your course a couple of times before. There is one thing that you have always left out in your teaching that I believe you should add. You always talk about the value of asking direct reports, ‘How can I be a better manager?’ Or asking co-workers, ‘How can I be a better team player?’ Or asking customers, ‘How can I be a better supplier?’ And even asking partners or children, ‘How can I be a better partner or better parent?’ The one thing that you have left out that you should start teaching everyone is to ask their parents, ‘How can I be a better daughter or a better son?’”

She went on with her personal story. “After my last course with you, as you suggested, I asked my daughter, ‘What can I do to be a better mother?’ We had a wonderful discussion. Then I thought, why not call my mother? I called and asked her, ‘What can I do to be a better daughter?’ Her mother replied, “Now that Dad is dead, I live all alone. Every day I walk up that long drive to go to the mailbox. Almost every day there is nothing in the mailbox. This makes me feel very lonely. It would mean so much to me if you could just send me some cards, or pictures, or notes—so that when I walk to the mailbox there will be a little something inside.” So the woman started sending cards, pictures, and notes to her mother. What did that cost her? Nothing. What did it mean to her mother? Everything.

So now Goldsmith includes this woman’s story in almost every class he teaches. He suggests that if you have parents who are still alive, please call them and ask, ‘What can I do to be a better son or daughter?’ Your colleagues at work are very important. Your parents are even more important—and you may not have that much time.” I have a friend who lives in Hawaii. When his parents lived in California, he called them every single day—even when he was on vacation—because as he told me, “he never knew when they were going to pass away, so he wanted to make sure that he had the chance to speak to them as often as possible while they were still alive.” His mother passed away a few years ago and now his father lives with him in Hawaii.

So if your mother or father is still alive, ask them: “What can I do to be a better son or daughter?” This is good advice for three reasons:

1) It is good for them. Even if they say, “There is nothing you can do to be a better son or daughter,” they will be happy that you cared enough to ask.

2) It is good for you. The No. 1 regret that children have when their parents die is: “Why didn’t I let them know how much I appreciated all that they did for me?” Show how much you care before it is too late. Later on, you will be grateful that you did.

3) If you have children, asking your parent(s) how you can be a better child is good for your children too. You know that old person—your parent—whom you are calling on the phone? In an incredibly short period of time, you are going to be that old person. Do you want your children to call you? Remember, their understanding of our values does not come from what we say; it comes from what we do.

Sources: “Managing Up: Your Parents” BusinessWeek Online (July 31, 2007)
http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/

Teach Your Kids to Find Work They Love

There was an interesting article in the August 2, 2007 issue of The Wall Street Journal on “Ways to Teach Your Children To Find the Work They Love.” From the age of six, my parents expected me to become a doctor just like my mother because I enjoyed learning about science. Unfortunately, I received a rude wake-up call when I took my first chemistry course in college. It was the first time I earned a “C+” in my life even though I studied harder for that class than any other class I have ever had. Although I did well in my college biology class, I realized that unless I was able to conquer chemistry, there was no way I could hope to gain admission into medical school.

So I thought about switching my major from biology to psychology, but my parents were dead set against that major because they thought it was frivolous and impractical. That is how I ended up majoring in English instead because I have always loved to read and write.

My parents played a heavy hand in deciding which college I should attend. Even though I gained admission to the University of Michigan (my first choice college), my parents talked me into attending Indiana University instead so I would be closer to home. Now, that I have an 11-year-old son, I will let him make his own decisions on which college to attend and what to major in.

Sue Shellenbarger, the author of the article in today’s Wall Street Journal, described her career path as an Etch-A-Sketch doodle which I could also use to describe my rather circuitous career paths. I moved from financial services to the travel industry to early childhood education, then back to financial services again.

Would I have done things differently knowing what I know now? Definitely! I would have attended the University of Michigan instead of Indiana University (although I received a great education at IU) and I would have probably doubled majored in psychology and English. I also would not have flip flopped as much as I have, but instead settled on one career path and remained there. Having said that, all the flip flops I made have enriched my life and given me valuable learning experiences that I probably would not have gained otherwise.

Dr. Jaye Roseborough, executive director of career services for Middlebury College in Vermont, described the “doctor-lawyer-teacher-banker syndrome” where students try to fit themselves into one of a series of career choices as defined by others, rather than using their interests to guide them in exploring the outside world. Clearly, when I was in college and even after I graduated, I fell into that syndrome.

The advice Dr. Roseborough gives to parents who are advising their children on career choices is to “talk about what’s of interest to them, and how important it is to be happy in what you do. Ask how they envision spending their time. The activities required by a job must be a way you really like to behave. What kind of problems do they like to solve? Explain that many people change careers multiple times. And tell stories about how you fell in love with your own work.”

My son is very good at drawing and announced to me one day that he would like to become an artist. My husband was aghast at the thought, but I don’t want to discourage his dreams. We’ll see what happens!

Grandmas Share Ecological Vision

By Carson Walker ASSOCIATED PRESS
Contra Costa Times Article Launched:07/30/2007 03:01:36 AM PDT

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. -- Several times a day over three days, 13 women from around the world, several in their 80s, gathered around an open fire as each led a prayer ceremony unique to her native tribe. After each outdoor gathering, they moved into a convention center auditorium, where they exchanged ideas and learned about problems that plague the Oglala Lakota who live on the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Among them: high unemployment, suicide, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, diabetes and contaminated water. The women share a common vision and mission to spare future generations problems that now vex much of society. "It's hard to be proud of your cultural heritage and traditions if every day you face extinction," Debra White Plume of Manderson, S.D., told the women. The women, formally called the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com/ come from Africa, Asia and the Americas. Their languages, cultures and traditions are as different as their lands. "They're not women of politics.

They're women of prayer," said Jeneane Prevatt of The Center for Sacred Studies in Sonora, CA http://www.sacredstudies.org/ who goes by the name Jyoti. The indigenous grandmothers hope to ease war, pollution and social ills by teaching traditional ways that served their people long before the birth of modern peace and environmental movements.

Roughly every six months, they visit each other's homelands, most recently in June here in the southern Black Hills, near the Pine Ridge reservation that is home to two of the women, sisters Rita and Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance. During the prayer ceremonies, they spoke very little. Often the only sounds were the crackling fire and traffic on a nearby road. "We're praying for peace, which is not only the wars but in our homes and in the schools. We need that peace amongst children," said Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance, who believes social problems on the reservation are a direct result of people abandoning traditional ways of life.

The group first met in October 2004 in New York. So far their effort has earned them a meeting with the Dalai Lama and a relationship with the Bioneers environmental group http://www.bioneers.org/ The 13 women next plan to meet in October in San Rafael, CA for the annual conference of the Bioneers (October 19 - 21, 2007), who share the indigenous grandmothers' belief that there's a spiritual aspect to life and more to environmentalism than preventing pollution, said Nina Simons, co-executive director. "We will never have environmental sanity and health while there are so many people living in abject poverty," she said. "We can't expect people to care about the environment when they're worried about feeding their children." The grandmothers and Bioneers also believe that natural solutions can fix many modern problems, such as using a type of mushroom to digest petroleum spills, Simons said. "Part of our challenge is to learn to have a relationship with nature that makes it healthier and stronger instead of weaker and depleted," she said.

The Black Hills conference attracted people from the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, France, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Nepal and Brazil. Among the roughly 250 people attending the gathering was Jan Rhine of Newberg, OR, who was raised in Africa by missionary parents. She said the grandmothers movement makes her appreciate a simpler way of life. "As technology has grown, along with the gifts it brings, we've lost our roots to nature, to mother earth and to each other. And what they are doing is bringing back these old ways that they and their tribes have carried throughout the centuries, bringing it back into this new modern technology to help us remember who we really are and what this planet is really about," Rhine said.

As a sidenote, I plan to attend the Bioneers Conference at Marin Center in San Rafael, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.bioneers.org/conference The conference runs from October 19 - 21, 2007, but I can only attend on Sunday, October 21 from 9 AM - 6 PM because I will be attending a Gifted Child class in Sacramento, CA on Saturday, October 20 from 8 AM - 4 PM. I'm particularly interested in the Bioneers session entitled "The Lives and Fates of Earth's Animals" which will take place from 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM. Bokara Legendre, television host and journalist, will interview Mark Bekoff, author of many books including The Emotional Lives of Animals and co-author (with Jane Goodall) of The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for the Animals We Love; animal activist Camilla Fox, author of Culling the Wild; and James Deutsch, head of the African Program of the World Conservation Society, one of the largest animal-saving organizations. Bioneers also has a youth initiative for young people between the ages of 13-30. The Bioneers Youth Initiative http://www.bioneers.org/youth began as a grassroots effort to support and cultivate youth leadership while providing educational resources and opportunities to create positive social and environmental change. In 2009 when my son turns 13, I hope he will become interested in joining the Youth Initiative!

Walnut Creek, CA

Walnut Creek is a medium-sized suburban city located about 17 miles east of Oakland in Contra Costa County. Long ago, the first European settlers in this area planted walnut trees. Some of these trees grew close to a small creek; thus, over time the locals came to call the creek "Walnut Creek," but the town was known as "The Corners." With development, the town realized that the name "The Corners" made them sound square and thus adopted the name of the creek as its own, marking the beginning of its mission to "pave over paradise with a parking lot," which resulted in the creek's current route through a subterranean viaduct deep beneath the concrete floors of the malls above. Little known to most, the tunnels formed part of a secret highway formerly used by the U.S. Navy to transport highly dangerous nuclear weapons from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories to the Naval weapons depot in Concord. Today, Walnut Creek is mostly known for its retail and restaurant offerings.

Walnut Creek is the business hub of Contra Costa County. Although many urban visitors to Walnut Creek may be surprised how few minorities appear on its streets, compared to other towns in the area (such as Danville or Alamo) Walnut Creek is practically a bastion of mutliculturalism and tolerance. Once in downtown Walnut Creek, walking is basically your only choice. This shouldn't pose a problem because most of the downtown area is somewhat concentrated (10-15 minute walk at most). The biggest problem is parking.

What to See:

· Lindsay Wildlife Museum, 1931 First Avenue. http://www.wildlife-museum.org/ A wildlife rehabilitation and educational center that focuses on native California wildlife and natural history. The museum exhibits live, non-releasable native wildlife. Founded in 1955, the museum operates the oldest and one of the largest wildlife rehabilitation hospitals in the United States, treating more than 6,000 injured and orphaned wild animals each year. This is one of my son's favorite museums!

· Old Borges Ranch, 1035 Castle Rock Road. http://home.pacbell.net/mkirwan/Borges_Ranch.htm The former ranch of early Walnut Creek pioneer Frank Borges is the home base for Walnut Creek's Shell Ridge Open Space activities. The ranch complex includes a blacksmith shop, numerous outbuildings, and farm equipment displays. It also features a barn and covered trellis available for group reservations. The Borges family home, built in 1901, houses historical displays of the early 1900’s. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Great place to go if you forgot or always wondered what growing up on a farm was like. Once a month or so, my family and I hike along the many trails here.

· Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive. http://www.dlrca.org/CENTER.html The City's performing and visual arts center, opened in October 1990, houses the 800-seat Hofmann Theatre, the 300-seat Margaret Lesher Theatre, the 130-seat Knight Foundation Stage 3 theatre, the Bedford Gallery, offices and rehearsal space. Pretty impressive for a suburb, but not exactly The Met.

· Ruth Bancroft Garden, 1500 Bancroft Road. http://www.ruthbancroftgarden.org/ Preserving an exceptional example of American garden design, The Ruth Bancroft Garden demonstrates the beauty and excitement possible in a water-conserving landscape. Internationally recognized as one of the finest private gardens in North America, The Garden was the first in the United States to be sponsored by The Garden Conservancy.

· Shadelands Ranch Historical Museum, 2660 Ygnacio Valley Road, (925) 935-7871. Built by early Walnut Creek pioneer Hiram Penniman, this 1903 redwood-framed house is a showcase for numerous historical artifacts, many of which belonged to the Pennimans. It also houses a rich archive of Contra Costa and Walnut Creek history in its collections of old newspapers, photographs and government records. The museum is on the National Register of Historic Places and belongs to the City, but is operated by the Walnut Creek Historical Society.

· Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society, 2751 Buena Vista Ave., Off Geary Road - In Larkey Park (925) 937-1888. http://www.wcmrs.org/ A permanent, 1,800-square-foot model train layout. It includes an HO-scale train set with more than 4,300 feet of track on over 175,000 ties and over 340 turnouts.

· Sugarloaf Open Space, 2161 Youngs Valley Road, off Rudgear Road, (925) 944-5766. This is a 177-acre open space in the southern part of Walnut Creek. Visitors can enjoy amazing ridgeline views, scenic trails and a walnut orchard. There are also picnic areas and restrooms.

What to Do:

· Mount Diablo State Park. http://www.mdia.org/spinfo.htm This huge park dominates the landscape for most of central and eastern Contra Costa County. A small museum and observation post at the summit gives the visitor a background to the stunning views. Mt. Diablo is the geological anomaly of Northern California (the younger rocks are at the bottom and the older at the top). Enjoy the drive to the summit where, on a clear day, you can enjoy the world's supposed second-best panoramic view. In one quick turn you can see San Francisco, the Central Valley, and some claim the Sierra Nevada. Capped with snow in the winter and packed with countless small rivers and waterfalls in the spring, Mt. Diablo is a nature lover's paradise. Remember that Mt. Diablo is largely wild --- there are rattlesnakes, mountain lions, black widow spiders and many other fauna. Notwithstanding the dangers of the wild, many spots along the summit road offer scenic spots for a picnic. Be careful to avoid poison oak. A popular challenge for cyclists, the ride to the summit is about eight miles of twisty, narrow roads. There is a small fee for cars (cyclists riding on bikes are free). Rich girls from Danville and Blackhawk can often be seen riding their horses on the numerous fire trails. The park is closed during high-fire danger days in the late summer. This park offers many great hikings trails that we have enjoyed over the years.

· Iron Horse Trail. http://www.ebparks.org/parks/trails/iron_horse Although this multi-use, whole-access trail runs between Concord and Dublin, the most interesting and scenic part of the trail is found in Walnut Creek. The Walnut Creek part of the trail goes directly into the heart of downtown Walnut Creek. Also, the trail abuts what's left of Walnut Creek's creek known as "Walnut Creek," which is now mostly buried beneath Broadway Plaza. Widely used by dog owners and recreational buffs, the Iron Horse Trail follows the Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way established in 1891 and abandoned in 1977. This is a great place to ride your bike and not have to worry about cars!

Where to Shop:

· Broadway Plaza. http://www.broadwayplaza.com/ As one of the first post-WWII malls, Broadway plaza was designed on an open-air model. In subsequent years the trend in mall design gravitated toward the self-contained monstrosities that have become the signature of the suburban lifestyle. As an open-air mall, Broadway Plaza integrates well with the existing downtown. We enjoy shopping at Nordstrom and Banana Republic!

· Downtown Walnut Creek. More interesting than Broadway Plaza are the many stores comprising downtown Walnut Creek. After your next shopping spree to Baby Gap or Pottery Barn for Kids, make a detour down Locust and Main Streets. Downtown Walnut Creek complements its mall counterpart and preserves Walnut Creek's small town feel. The downtown stores and restaurants offer a variety and unique quality that would be impossible to find in Broadway Plaza, and you may find that you like them more. Occasionally, Walnut Creek will close down one of the downtown streets for an "art festival."

· Diablo Oriental Foods, 2590 N. Main St. (925) 933-2590. To read a review on http://www.yelp.com/, please visit http://www.yelp.com/biz/0SLNi80lWg1cf23HYEjhgA This small market is more than it appears (i.e. dilapidated shack); and although its name contains "oriental," implying an assortment of pan-Asian foodstuffs, in actuality, this is a specialty Japanese market that is jammed with Japanese foodstuffs that are nearly impossible to find this side of the Bay Bridge. From Natto and fresh tuna to sake and santoku knives, this market has more Japanese foodstuffs per square foot than any other place in the Bay Area. Whether you're a Japanese food fanatic or looking for a change from the usual, check it out and you might find something tasty.

Where to Eat:

· Huynh Restaurant, 1512 Locust St., (925) 952-9898. Huynh is architecturally designed and a beautifully lit room featuring colorful earth tones of Vietnamese culture, a full bar, and table linens. The menu is fairly extensive and elaborate, including 20 types of soup along with main courses. They even offer vegetarian entrees! Every meal we’ve had here has been delicious, including our favorite dessert (fried banana with ice cream).

· Havana Restaurant, 1516 Bonanza St., (925) 939-4555. http://www.havanarestaurant.com/ Havana is where Cuba meets Walnut Creek at this hip downtown restaurant and bar. The result is a sumptuous, hearty cuisine, in a fun inviting atmosphere. This restaurant serves Tapas, soup, salad, entrees like garlic studded pork, chicken adobo, cumin crusted tuna and paella, to name a few. They also offer halibut ceviche, grilled shrimp and sauteed scallops. We've enjoyed every meal we’ve had here.

· Va de Vi, 1511 Mt Diablo Blvd., (925) 979-0100. http://vadevi.com/ Walnut Creek's take on small plates done in chef Kelly Degala's California Asian Fusion Style with several wines. Many wines are offered by the glass in addition to flights (tastes of three different wines). Weather permitting, try to eat outside by the oak tree; it's several hundred years old and perhaps one of the oldest remaining wild trees left in all of Walnut Creek. We like to dine here during special occasions because it's very $$$!

· Prima Ristorante, 1522 N. Main St., (925) 935-7780. http://www.primaristorante.com/ An expensive California-Italian restaurant. Probably one of the better restaurants in Walnut Creek, but not on par with chi chi restaurants in San Francisco. Has a very nice wine selection for those so inclined. Waiters can be a little snooty, but are still friendly (to your face) and can help you pick the perfect wine to complement your food. Next door is Prima's wine shop, Prima Vini, where you can buy exclusive and hard-to-find vintages. This is a good place to take your date if you want to impress her!

· Bing Crosby's Restaurant and Piano Lounge, 342 Broadway Plaza (925) 939-2464. http://www.bingcrosbysrestaurant.com/ Reasonably-priced Californian cuisine with Executive Chef Frank Palmer (of the Duck Club in Lafayette fame) that is constantly evolving and among the best in Walnut Creek. Stunning decor, Bing Crosby memorabilia-laden large open dining area, private dining area for parties (Wine Room) and a lounge featuring nightly entertainment make Bing's the newest hotspot in Walnut Creek. "Country club attire strictly enforced". Call ahead for reservations.

· Rocco's Ristorante & Pizzeria, 2909 Ygnacio Valley Rd., (925) 947-6105. http://www.roccospizzeria.com/ Deep, deep, deep in the suburbs is one of the best pizza places around. Rocco's is your typical red-checker table cloth suburban pizzeria, serving pasta along with pizza dishes. The pasta isn't worth the trip, but the pizza is. Go during the special on Sundays and Mondays --- pitchers of beer are half off and large pizzas are around $12. Otherwise go to the website and use the coupon to save money.

· Strictly-to-go Pizza, 2670 N. Main St., (925) 945-6633. http://www.strictlytogopizzeria.com/ One of the best pizza joints this side of the Mississippi. A classic Chicago style pizza that is piled high with premium ingredients makes Strictly-to-go a Walnut Creek institution. As the name states, the place is strictly to go, so don't plan on eating in.

· Tomatina, 1325 North Main St., (925) 930-9999. http://www.tomatina.com/ One of the more popular restaurants in town offering high quality food and a casual atmosphere. One can order pizza there with a variety of interesting toppings, or the specialty, pianini which is flat bread with a "salad" on top of it. The polenta appetizer is also a must try with baked polenta, parmesean cheese, and tomato sauce.

· Cafe Lascala, 1655 N. Main St. (opp. Police Station), (925) 935-7779. Lascala is a casual cafe in Walnut Creek. The coffee is excellent, the ambiance laid back European, the food is simple and excellent. A little wifi enabled sanctuary.

· A Sweet Affair, Ygnacio Valley Plaza, (925)-944-1910. A Sweet Affair Bakery and Cafe is an outstanding, homely bakery with traditional pasteries, such as the cranberry danishes, cinnamon rolls, or blueberry scones. For lunch and dinner, they offer succulent sandwiches on thirteen different freshly-baked breads. They also offer a wide variety of cakes, cookies, muffins, brownies, and coffee/espresso.

Where to Sleep:

· Renaissance ClubSport Walnut Creek Hotel, 2805 Jones Road, (925) 938-8700. http://www.clubsports.com/ Near the Pleasant Hill BART station, this hotel seeks to claim the upscale hotel title of Walnut Creek. Perhaps it is, but it's quite a trek from downtown if you don't have a car. Conveniently located next to the Iron Horse Trail and possessing an extraordinary fitness center, this is the place to stay if you are a total workout freak and can't stand the thought of staying in Walnut Creek over several nights without a vigorous workout washed down with wheatgrass lattes.

· Embassy Suites, 1345 Treat Blvd, Phone: (925) 934-2500. http://www.hilton.com/ Also located near the Pleasant Hill BART station at the northern end of Walnut Creek, conveniently located off the 680 freeway at Treat Boulevard. You know what to expect from an Embassy Suites since this one is like any of the countless others across the country. If you stay here, you will be a couple miles from downtown Walnut Creek. Pay-as-you go WiFi is available in the lobby/atrium, and works in many guest rooms. Rooms have wired for-pay connections also, but these can be flaky.

· Walnut Creek Marriott, 2355 North Main Street, (925) 934-2000. http://www.walnutcreekmarriott.com/ A 338 room hotel that caters to business travelers, located close to the highway and BART. Fitness center, pool, restaurant, and pretty much anything else that every other Marriott in the country has. Rates average nearly $200 per night. My parents, my sister, and my nephew like to stay here when they visit us.

· Diablo Mountain Inn, 2079 Mt Diablo Boulevard, (800) 353-5059. http://www.diablomountaininn.com/ 24 rooms and a swimming pool located in downtown Walnut Creek. This hotel is Walnut Creek's concept of budget accommodation at $70-$110 per night.

Where to Get Out:

· Eugene O'Neill Tao House, by reservation only: (925) 838-0249. http://www.eugeneoneill.org/ After you make the reservation a short bus will pick you up and shuttle you to the Tao House. Nestled in the hills of Danville and overlooking the vast expanse of 680 sits Eugene O'Neill's Tao House. If you never heard of Eugene O'Neill, don't fret. Only actors and drama geeks would have more than a mere familiarity with his works. For the rest of us, O'Neill is the only American playwright ever to receive the Nobel Prize. Perhaps O'Neill does not deserve this distinction because all he did was chronicle his very sad life in the form of a play. His misery, however, became our modern classics of drama. In an attempt to escape from his miserable, depressing life, O'Neill embraced feng shui (decades before it was trendy) and built the Tao House to help shut out some of his inner demons. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for him) he was unsuccessful and wrote some of his greatest plays in this very house before sinking irretrievably into an abyss of self-loathing and darkness.

· Lafayette - One of Walnut Creek's neighbors, Lafayette is a mostly residential town that offers interesting dining opportunities and is home to the Lafayette Reservoir, a great spot for hiking or jogging. If we could afford to buy a house in Lafayette, we would move here because of the excellent schools (even better than Walnut Creek's).

· Concord - Another Walnut Creek neighbor, Concord is one of the largest cities in the East Bay and has a variety of shopping and dining options. We travel up here to visit Costco or REI.

· Pleasant Hill. This neighboring city is primarily a typical family suburb, but it does offer options for food and shopping. If the schools were as good as Walnut Creek's, we would move here.

Source: http://wikitravel.org/en/Walnut_Creek

Animal Planet Sinks to a New Low

On Monday February 14, 2005 at 8:00 pm, Animal Planet's "Pet Star" showed a pair of "singing" guinea pigs. Any cavy lover will recognize the behavior exhibited on this program as animal abuse. These guinea pigs clearly display pain by their sounds and behaviors as a result of their treatment during this clip.

Two girls are called out to perform their trick with their "musical guinea pigs." Mario Lopez asks them what the guinea pigs' names are, and they tell him they're named Ginger and Alice. He asks to hold Ginger for a moment and tells them that he used to own a guinea pig once, and that Ginger is very cute and chubby. He asks them if they make good pets, and the older girl says that they make great pets, and that they are calm and quiet. He asks if the two guinea pigs are the only pets they have at home, and the girls tell him that they only have some fish other than the guinea pigs. He asks them what grades they are in, and they tell him that they are in 9th and 6th grade. Then he asks them what they're going to do with the guinea pigs, and they say that they're going to make them sing.

He directs them over to two chairs where they take a seat and place the guinea pigs on their laps. The guinea pigs are facing out towards the girls' knees. The girls begin to sing "Old McDonald Had a Farm." They get to the point where there's usually an animal sound quoted, and instead of saying "oink oink" they take turns forcefully pushing the guinea pigs' hair forward. They are pushing from their rump to the middle of their back. They do this eight times during the song and once at the very end, nine times in total. Each time the pigs scream quite loud and pull their ears back, in fear. They look very scared.

The camera goes to different judges' faces, and they are all laughing enthusiastically. Then at the very end they focus in on the two guinea pigs and Alice, the darker pig is closer to the camera. The last scream is the loudest, with both pigs screaming together. Alice seems to be extremely upset, she has pulled her ears back and her eyes are bugging out.

Mario Lopez talks to them when they are done, and tells them that it was great, and that the pigs were on rhythm and that they knew their part. He compared their actions to a DJ with a mixing table, rubbing on records, but in their case they used their guinea pigs instead. Deborah, the first judge is laughing hysterically, while Jeff, the second judge is making squeezing motions with his hands in the air. Deborah is laughing so hard that she cannot talk, and holds up nine fingers as her score. The second judge, Jeff, asks how long the girls have had the animals. The older girl says that they've had those particular guinea pigs for two years, but that they've had guinea pigs most of their lives. He responds by saying that he had a guinea pig once, and he was so excited that he got it on Christmas morning that he chased it around the house until it had a heart attack and died. He's apparently saying this as a joke, and the girls are laughing. He said that it was the funniest act of the day, makes the squeezing motion in the air with his hands again, and he gives them a ten. The third judge Bri also gives the girls a ten, and tells them it was really cool. They end up in the finals, they have the second best score in all but end up losing out to a dog act.

If you wish to complain to Discovery Channel about the Animal Planet programing, visit their site: http://www.discovery.com/
Contact them: http://extweb.discovery.com/ViewerRelations
Or contact Animal Planet's nonprofit partners: http://animal.discovery.com/premieres/partners/partners.html

Don't Swim with the Dolphins

If your summer vacation plans include buying tickets to a marine mammal park or a “swim with the dolphins” program, be forewarned: You could be helping to finance the slaughter of dolphins in the wild. This is the captive-animal industry’s dirty little secret. Every year, thousands of dolphins are killed in gruesome “drive fisheries” in Japan. Most end up as meat in local supermarkets. But a few of the dolphins captured during these government-sanctioned oikomi will end up in aquariums and marine parks instead. The sale of a handful of live dolphins funds the death of all the rest.

In October and November 2006, photojournalist Boyd Harnell observed the drive fishery in Taiji, Japan. “It was a repulsive, barbaric event,” Harnell says. During a capture in October, Harnell watched as a dozen “drive boats” chased a pod of dolphins. Crew members aboard the boats clang metal poles together underwater, creating a wall of sound. The clanging metal disorients the dolphins, while the boats, blocking every avenue of escape, force the panicked animals into a small “capture cove.” Some dolphins are pursued for hours. “It was like a military operation,” writes Harnell. “The pursuit was relentless.”

Some of the dolphins were able to escape, “but the others” says Harnell, “including some calves, were trapped and hyperventilating. A few calves were unable to keep up and became separated from their mothers. They were left to die of starvation or be eaten by sharks.” Once the exhausted dolphins are inside the capture cove, their fate is sealed: The mouth of the cove is blocked with nets and the dolphins have no way out.

The morning after the first capture, Harnell saw fishers, armed with long knives, arrive to begin the slaughter. More nets are used to force the dolphins into the “killing cove,” where they are speared or their throats are cut. Video footage of past hunts show dolphins thrashing in their own blood for many agonizing minutes. Their bodies are taken to local slaughterhouses and chainsaws are used to hack them apart.

This bloody spectacle is repeated again and again from September to March. At least 400,000 dolphins have died this way in the past two decades. Local fishers consider dolphins to be their competition for dwindling fish stocks and they describe the violent oikomi as nothing more than “pest control.”

Not all of the dolphins are killed, Every year, an unknown number of young dolphins captured during drive hunts is sold into the captive-animal entertainment industry. Some will be displayed in aquariums. Others will be used in “swim with the dolphins” programs or trained to perform in marine parks. According to a report released in 2006 by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, dolphins captured during drive fisheries have ended up in aquariums all over the world. Even countries that no longer allow the importation of dolphins collected during drive fisheries may be displaying animals purchased before the ban or moved through other countries to disguise their origin. The U.S. stopped importing animals from drive hunts in 1993, but not before at least 20 false killer whales (a type of dolphin) were sold to U.S. facilities.

Activists working to stop the drive fisheries have been told that the huge sums of money offered for “show” dolphins are what fuels the hunt. Dead dolphins sold as meat aren’t worth much—a few hundred dollars. But a healthy young dolphin is worth tens of thousands. Without that incentive, local fishers would find other sources of income, such as conducting dolphin watch tours, as one former fisher in Futo does now. If you don’t want to support these barbaric hunts, please don’t patronize marine parks or “swim with the dolphins” programs.

Source: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals www.PETA.org

Zoo Babies

Zoos know that nothing brings paying customers through their gates faster than newborn animals. But breeding programs, often operating under the guise of species preservation, inevitably result in a surplus of less-crowd-pleasing adult animals. So zoos routinely trade, loan, sell, barter and warehouse adult animals they no longer want. Not a single U.S. zoo has a policy of providing lifetime care for the animals born at its facilities and many zoos breed species knowing in advance that male offspring will be difficult to place when they mature.

Instead of providing lifetime care, zoos shuffle their surplus animals around—even though many species, including elephants and primates, form deep and lasting bonds that are critical to the animals’ long-term health and happiness. Removing them from established social groups and forcing them to adjust repeatedly to new routines, different caretakers and unfamiliar cagemates is disruptive and traumatic.

In May 2003, an elephant named Ruby was transferred from the Los Angeles Zoo to the Knoxville Zoo and then back to Los Angeles. In December 2000, two giraffes from the Cape May County Zoo ended up in a traveling circus. A chimpanzee named Edith was transferred from the Saint Louis Zoo in the late 1960s and has been shuffled through five different facilities since then. She is now imprisoned in a Texas roadside zoo, where she sits alone, depressed and nearly hairless in a barren cage. As nearly every North American zoo has a surplus of animals, some zoos take drastic measures. Unwanted animals may be sold to dealers—who then sell the animals to dilapidated roadside zoos or traveling circuses. Some animals end up at canned hunt facilities, where they become targets for hunters eager to shoot “big game.” The exotic-pet trade has become saturated with tigers and other big cats because of the zoo industry’s reckless disposal of dangerous animals. Other animals are simply sold for slaughter.

Zoos justify their breeding programs as a form of conservation, but many of the species being bred aren’t endangered or threatened. None of the captive-bred species that do face extinction in the wild—including elephants, polar bears, gorillas, tigers, chimpanzees and pandas—will ever be released back into their natural environments to bolster dwindling populations. Nor does keeping animals in cages have a positive effect on species preservation. It doesn’t even foster respect for animals in the wild. They are still hunted, poached, encroached upon, culled and captured for display.

In a disingenuous effort to showcase their “commitment” to animals, many zoos are engaged in renovation projects for their more popular species. Unfortunately, vast sums of money are being spent on new exhibits that do little, if anything, to enrich the often-complex needs of animals. In 2003, Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo debuted its $23 million “African Journey,” a cramped and poorly designed display featuring elephants and other animals. Within two years, all three elephants who had been relocated to the new exhibit died.

While zoos squander limited resources, legitimate conservation efforts struggle for funding. Scientists with the Amboseli Elephant Research Project are trying to raise $100,000 to support the annual budget of a project that will make a difference for the preserve’s 1,500 African elephants—as well as for the Kenyan farmers living near Amboseli who lose their crops to elephants every year. These efforts deserve our support http://www.elephantvoices.org/index.php?topic=how_help The zoo baby exhibits don’t.

Sources: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals http://www.peta.org/

Save the Humble Pig

Charlotte’s Web was one of my favorite books as a child and I also enjoyed the movie version as an adult. It’s the story of a spider who saves Wilbur, a farmyard pig, from slaughter by weaving the words “Some pig,” “Terrific,” “Radiant” and “Humble” into her web. While Wilbur may be a fictional character, real pigs are amazing animals. According to Heather Moore, senior writer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals http://www.goveg.com/ pigs have more than 20 vocalizations for different situations. Newborn piglets learn to run to their mothers’ voices, and mother pigs sing to their young while nursing (just like I did when I was breastfeeding my son!). Pigs snuggle close to one another and prefer to sleep nose to nose. In their natural surroundings, pigs will spend hours playing, sunbathing and exploring just like the pigs I saw at Farm Sanctuary http://www.farmsanctuary.org/ in Orland, CA.

Biologist and Johannesburg Zoo director Lyall Watson writes in his 2004 book The Whole Hog, “I know of no other animals that are consistently curious, more willing to explore new experiences, more ready to meet the world with open mouthed enthusiasm. Pigs, I have discovered, are incurable optimists and get a big kick out of just being.” When my son and I visited Farm Sanctuary, several of the pigs walked over to us and rubbed their snouts against our legs (their way of saying “hello”).

Pigs are thought to have intelligence beyond that of an average 3-year-old child. Professor Stanley Curtis of Pennsylvania State University found that pigs can even play joystick-controlled video games and are “capable of abstract representation.” Dr. Curtis believes that “there is much more going on in terms of thinking and observing by these pigs than we would ever have guessed.”

Pigs who aren’t confined to mind-numbing conditions on factory farms are clever, charismatic, curious, active, playful animals who enjoy life just as we do. James Cromwell, who played Farmer Hogget in the movie Babe, was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals he worked with that by the end of the film he could no more eat a pig than he could eat his neighbor. Unfortunately, most of the 800 or so animals used in Babe, including the series of baby pigs who ‘played’ the title character, were sent to slaughter.

Despite the popularity of Charlotte’s Web and Babe, as well as the evidence of these animals’ intelligence and personality, the public has not yet fully absorbed the message that pigs are individuals, not food. On any given day in the U.S., there are approximately 60 million pigs living in filthy factory farms. A hundred million are killed for food every year.

Off the movie screen, mother pigs spend most of their lives in ‘gestation crates’ 7 feet long by 2 feet wide—so small they cannot turn around and can barely lie down. Pigs live constantly in their own feces, vomit, and urine. Pigs never see sunlight, or feel grass. The rank and nauseating atmosphere inside the sheds, a build up of noxious gasses as the feces, vomit, and urine accumulate, is so powerful that pilots, 3 miles up, can smell it, according to an article in Rolling Stone (Dec. 14, 2006). Imagine what the pigs, whose noses are far more sensitive than ours, suffer. Piglets are taken away from their mothers when they are as young as 10 days old. They’re packed into tiny overcrowded pens to be raised for breeding or for meat. As a result, many pigs display neurotic behavior such as cannibalism and tail-biting, so farmers use pliers to break off the ends of piglets’ teeth and chop off their tails so they will not savage each other—all without painkillers. Once her piglets are gone, each sow is impregnated again, and the vicious cycle continues for three or four years before she is slaughtered.

Each and every one of these pigs is “some pig,” capable of suffering, fear and sadness. If you’ve forgotten the empathy you felt for animals destined for slaughter when you read Charlotte’s Web asn a child, see the movie and ask yourself why you eat “extraordinary” pigs like Wilbur. You don’t need to weave an intricate web to save pigs—just make a few different choices when sitting down to eat.

Sources: New York Times Magazine (Nov. 10, 2002), PETA http://www.goveg.com/, Farm Sanctuary http://www.farmsanctuary.org/, and Suki Falconberg Ph.D.

Service Programs

When I graduated from college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I wish I had considered exploring a service organization such as the Peace Corps or Teach for America. The Peace Corps sends people overseas for about two years to work in areas such as education, health and the environment. I used to work with a man who volunteered for the Peace Corps and was sent to Nepal. Now, he’s a Senior Vice President at Morgan Stanley. Teach for America sends recent college graduates to teach in low-income U.S. schools for two years. For more information about the Peace Corps, please visit http://www.peacecorps.gov/ You can learn more about Teach for America by visiting http://www.teachforamerica.org/

According to an article in the July 24, 2007 issue of The Wall Street Journal, an increasing number of new college graduates are using service programs to explore varied interests. Some of these programs can lead to careers that better tap into your passions. For example, some Peace Corps volunteers discover an interest in public health. This year, U.S. undergraduates ranked the Peace Corps and Teach for America among their top 10 “ideal employers,” ahead of Nike Inc., General Electric Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co., according to an annual survey by Universum Inc. In 2006, applications to Teach for America rose 9.3% to nearly 19,000, and nearly 3,300 were accepted.

Many employers view these programs favorably. Some companies even allow new hires to defer starting their jobs for two years so that they can join Teach for America. For example, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP agreed to grant such deferrals beginning with the class of 2008. According to Marcia Harris, director of career services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, pursuing a spot in these programs shows a graduate is curious, hard-working and comfortable taking risks.

Of course, there is a big downside: money. Service programs tend to pay less than traditional jobs, if they pay at all. Young workers who pursue service programs may have to play salary catch-up with peers later. Still, for some grads, service programs can help identify a career path.
I have a friend who used to work for Eli Lilly as a research scientist. Now, he teaches 7th grade science at an intermediate school in Indiana. Although he earned a lot more money as a scientist, he finds his work as a teacher much more rewarding psychologically. My husband has a friend whose daughter just graduated from Stanford University. When she told her parents she wanted to become a teacher, her mother sighed and said, “If you really wanted to become a teacher, we didn’t have to send you to private schools.”

It’s sad that in today’s world, many people believe that money trumps everything. Of course, it would be wonderful to teach or work for a service organization and earn a lot of money, but for most people, those kinds of opportunities are one in a million. I believe that today’s young people should discover what they love to do first and not worry so much about how much a job pays. My 11-year-old son, Daniel, is very good at drawing and has expressed an interest in becoming an artist, much to my husband’s chagrin. I’m not worried if Daniel decides to become an artist someday. He may not earn as much as an attorney or physician, but at least he’ll be happy. He even told me that if he decides to become an artist, he’ll move to a less expensive state such as Nevada so he can pursue his career interests and adopt a ferret (ferrets are not illegal pets in Nevada). We’ll see what happens!

Friendship Fatness Factor

I read some interesting articles in today’s Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Los Angeles Times which suggests that your friends can make you fat. How is that? According to a study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, social networks have a greater effect on your chances of becoming obese than your genes. These findings could help explain why obesity is rising in America despite widespread dieting and other weight-loss techniques. The findings also suggest that public health initiatives to fight obesity should take social networks into account, and work with overweight people in groups, as Weight Watchers International has done for years.

Dr. Nicolas Christakis of Harvard Medical School said the results indicate that behavioral “norms” shift depending on how people in a social circle look and act, even if they only meet once a year. “People might say, ‘Look, Christakis is getting fat. It’s okay for me to be obese as well. You change your idea of what is an acceptable body type by looking at the people around you.” Surprisingly, social contacts propelled weight gains even among individuals a thousand miles apart, indicating that social proximity overrides geographic proximity.

“It’s become very fashionable to speak of an obesity epidemic,” says Dr. Christakis. “But we wondered, in fact, is obesity really an epidemic, with person to person transmission? Was there a kind of social contagion?”

The study found there was. A person’s chance of becoming obese jumped 57% if s/he also had a friend who became obese. Among siblings, the risk goes up 40%. Between spouses, the odds rise 37%. Mutual friends had the greatest influence. If one became obese, the risk skyrocketed 171%. The phenomenon worked in the opposite direction as well. People who became thinner, increase the chances that their friends and relatives will lose weight too.

The study examined 12,067 people who had been closely followed for 32 years from 1971 to 2003. Over the years, each participant was asked to list close friends and workplace contacts to allow doctors to track them down. From these contacts, researchers examined 38,611 family and social relationships, charting associations between a person’s weight gain and the weight gain among his social circle.

The study is part of a larger trend in science and social science to examine the effect of networks, from the role that interconnected neurons play in cognition, to even networks of terrorism. “Networks are really important for the transmission of ideas and values,” says Katherine Stovel, a University of Washington sociology professor who studies networks. “People come to resemble each other.” But, she cautioned, “I don’t want anybody to read this and think about dropping friends because they’re fat.”

Wow, the findings of this study really blew me away because practically all my friends have gained weight over the past ten years or so (and I have too, unfortunately). It’s definitely hard to lose weight when you witness all your friends gaining weight. I think where you live can also influence whether or not you gain or lose weight. When I lived in Hawaii from 2000 - 2003, I was able to maintain my weight at 110 pounds and I could wear a size 0, but all that changed when I moved back to California. Now, I weigh 115 pounds and I wear a size 2 or 4.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times

Animals and the Law

To the shock of most consumers who mistakenly believe that cows, pigs, and chickens are protected from mistreatment, chilling acts of neglect and abuse are routinely allowed to continue behind the walls of factory farms and slaughterhouses. Every year in the U.S., nearly ten billion farmed animals are subjected to crowded living conditions, painful mutilations, traumatic transports, and inhumane deaths.

Today, not a single federal law exists that provides protection to animals raised for food during their lives on the farm. Shockingly, you can cram a farmed animal in a cage so small that they can't turn around (battery-cages, veal crates, farrowing stalls), you can rip off their body parts without pain killers (castration), you can starve them (forced-molting), and you can deny them access to veterinary care.

Common Farming Exemptions allow states to get away with using battery cages, veal and gestation crates, debeaking, dehorning, tail docking, castration, branding and beak searing without anesthesia, forced molting, force-feeding (foie gras), skinning, dismemberment, suffocation, scalding, gassing, grinding up, and withholding veterinary care.

In food production, animals are turned into mere "food-production units," "crops," "grain-consuming animal units," and "bio-machines." Chickens, pigs, turkeys, cattle, and other animals are subjected to genetic manipulation, severe overcrowding, and intensive confinement in order to produce the most meat, milk, and eggs at the cheapest prices. The animals are denied wholesome foods and instead are given rations that can include garbage, manure, industrial byproducts, and even the ground-up remains of their own species. They suffer routine mutilations, inadequate shelter and veterinary care, and cruelty during handling, transportation, and slaughter.

Since childhood, most Americans have been taught and conditioned to view certain animals as things--a hamburger, a chicken nugget, a fur coat--a means to an end--a something instead of a someone. As long as we regard other creatures as our property to be bought and sold, to be owned or mastered, to be slaughtered for fashion or because we like the taste of their flesh--animals will continue to be exploited and suffer needlessly, and we will continue to distance ourselves from our own humanity.

What Can We Do?

We need to focus on attacking the problem at its roots--rather than merely addressing its symptoms. To be effective in the long term, we must work to create a society that respects all of its members, including the weakest, most vulnerable, and those without a voice--the animals. Adopting a vegan or vegetarian diet is an essential first step toward putting this commitment and vision into practice. The simple act of one person adopting a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle prevents the suffering and death of thousands of animals.

Like all markets, the food industry is driven by consumer demand. As demand for the flesh, skin, milk, and eggs of animals declines, so too will the number of animals subjected to the grim realities discussed in this article. Regardless of what path we choose in fighting the injustices against animals--whether it is writing letters to your representatives, changing your diet, or educating others about these issues--it is essential that we take action now. The system of animal exploitation won't change unless we make it change.

Source: "Compassionate Living" published by Mercy for Animals (Spring/Summer 2007 issue) and "A Primer on Animal Rights" by Kim W. Stallwood, Editor

In Praise of Rats

My son was born in the Year of the Rat and so it's only fitting that I pay tribute to one of the most humble and misunderstood creatures in the world. According to Suki Falconberg Ph.D., in labs, rats are tortured beyond misery and suffering--forced to ingest poisons until they vomit their insides out; forced to run on treadmills in sleep deprivation experiences until they die bleeding from their orifices; starved in 'obesity' experiments; continuously burned and shocked in other worthless experiments, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, to teach them 'learned helplessness'.

Laboratory rats are imprisoned in small barren cages where they go insane from having no place to run in the few inches of space allotted them. The mobile rats--the ones not near death from metal implanted in their brains, or catheters sticking out of their infected stomachs--engage in 'stereotypic behavior': they run back and forth in frantic desperation, shaking with jumpiness, trying to escape from their metal prisons.

Earlier this year, I attended a Rodent Workshop at the San Francisco SPCA http://www.sfspca.org/ and met a couple of charming rats. Rats are extremely self-aware and express a variety of different emotions. Rats laugh when you tickle them and will keep coming back for more. Rats dream as we dream. Their dreams are filled with images of navigation and escape attempts. When scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tracked the neuronal activity of rats in REM sleep, the scientists saw the same firing patterns they had seen in wakeful rats navigating their way through a maze.

Rats love to nestle in blankets and get cozy. When you pet them and speak gently and softly to them, rats sigh and snuggle deeper into their blankets. Rats are sociable, curious and love to be touched. According to James G. Pfaus of Concordia University in Montreal, rats know what good sex is and what bad sex is. When they have reason to anticipate great sex, they give you every indication they're looking forward to it. They wiggle and paw at their ears, hop and dart, stop and flash a come-hither look backward.

Rats have personalities, and they can be glum or cheerful depending on their upbringing and circumstances. One study showed that rats accustomed to good times tend to be optimists, while those reared in unstable conditions become pessimists. Both rats will learn to associate one sound with a good event--a gift of food--and another sound with no food, but when exposed to an ambiguous sound, the optimistic rat will run over expecting to be fed and the pessimistic rat will grumble and skulk away, expecting nothing.

In another recent study, Jonathon D. Crystal, a psychologist at the University of Georgia in Athens, and his colleague Allison Foote discovered that rats display evidence of metacognition: they know what they know and what they don't know. Metacognition, a talent previously detected only in primates, is best exemplified by the experience of students scanning the questions on a final exam and having a pretty good sense of what their grade is likely to be. In the Georgia study, rats were asked to show their ability to distinguish between tones lasting about 2 seconds, and sounds of about 8 seconds, by pressing one or another lever. If the rat guessed correctly, it was rewarded with a huge meal; if it judged incorrectly, it got nothing.

For each trial, the rat could, after hearing the tone, opt to either take the test and press the short or long lever, or poke its nose through a side of the chamber designated the, "I don't know" option, at which point it would receive a tiny snack. During the trials, the rats made clear they knew their audio limits. The closer the tones were to either 2 or 8 seconds, the likelier the rats were to express confidence in their judgment by indicating they wanted to take the lever test and earn their full-course dinner. But as the tones edged into the ambiguous realms of 4 seconds, the rats began opting ever more often for modest but reliable morsels of the clueless option.

Swiss researchers put pairs of female sister rats in a cage, separating them with a wire mesh. In one half of the cage, a rat could pull a lever attached to a baited tray that would deliver food to her sister, but not to herself. Each rat was trained in alternate sessions, first as a recipient of food, then as a provider. The sisters learned to cooperate, and they pulled significantly more often when their littermate was present than when the other half of the cage was empty.

Then the researchers put rats who had recently been assisted by their partners, and rats who had not recently been helped, in with unfamiliar and unrelated rats. Those who had recently been helped were about 21% more likely to pull the lever for the new partner. This was not just ordinary operant conditioning or reinforcement, the researchers maintain, because the rats were never rewarded for their own behavior, only that of others. Because the rats were unfamiliar and unrelated, there was no family interaction involved. The only plausible explanation, they believe, is that the rats had developed what they call generalized reciprocity — that is, they were generous even with an unknown partner because another rat had just been kind to them.

I wonder why so many humans are obsessed with proving, or disproving, that animals have feelings and thoughts. Maybe it is because we are the species with hearts and minds that are "two sizes too small."

Sources: The New York Times and Suki Falconberg Ph.D.

The Hare-Raising Truth

When I was at the Animal Rights 2007 Conference in Los Angeles this past weekend, I picked up a terrifying article on rabbits from Animal Place http://www.animalplace.org/ located in Vacaville, CA and I read an article about rabbits in "Compassionate Living" which is published by Mercy For Animals http://www.mercyforanimals.org/ Here are some excerpts from the articles I read:

The Hidden Market

Twenty million rabbits are bred each year for their fur, meat, or as research tools. Although the rabbit-raising business is small compared with other farmed animals, the industry is rapidly developing.

Breeding At All Costs

To maximize production, breeders use unnatural methods such as artificial insemination and surrogate mothering. The hapless rabbits are thrown into remorseless breeding schedules and are forced to reproduce at five times their normal rate.

Cruel Confinement

Young bunnies are prematurely weaned and forced to spend the rest of their lives confined to small wire battery cages where they are prevented from running, playing or exhibiting nearly all their natural behaviors. Such confinement can cause a host of health problems, yet sick rabbits are routinely denied veterinary care. Investigators have found rabbits living in overstocked, unsanitary conditions. At seven weeks of age, the young rabbits are killed and sold as "fryers."

Health Hazards

Rabbit meat is higher in cholesterol than other meats and is also high in ammonia, a chemical believed to impair human kidney function. Even more critical is the fact that rabbit meat is not currently subject to USDA inspection. Therefore, raisers are free to administer whatever drugs they choose, at whatever quantity.

Beyond the Meat Industry

Rabbits are also commercially bred for their fur. Furriers kill rabbits for their coats at 5 - 8 months of age. To prevent any damage to the pelt, the rabbits are either gassed, electrocuted, or clubbed in the head and then decapitated often while fully conscious.

The largest and most profitable area of rabbit exploitation is research. Hundreds of thousands of rabbits are bred annually for use in drug and cosmetic testing, and biomedical research. Rabbits used for research live in laboratories where they are confined in small cages and subjected to painful, invasive procedures. Once they are served their "purpose," they are readily disposed of.

What You Can Do

• Don't patronize restaurants that serve rabbit; better yet, ask them to stop.
• Refuse to eat rabbit meat and encourage those around you to do likewise.
• Never wear furs or fur trimmed garments and respectfully express your concern to those who do.
• Only buy cruelty free items from companies that do not test on animals. You can obtain a list of such companies from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals at http://www.peta-online.org/
• Ask the USDA to protect rabbits under the Humane Slaughter Act by contacting Secretary Mike Johanns, USDA, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Room 200-A, Washington, DC 20250
• Visit RabbitProduction.com and watch the film "Rabbits: Pets or Poultry?"

Sources: Animal Place, 3448 Laguna Creek Trail, Vacaville, CA 95688 http://www.animalplace.org/ and Mercy for Animals http://www.mercyforanimals.org/

Wow, my rabbit, Radar, is so lucky! Since he's 99.9% litter-box trained, we let him roam around our living room, entry way, hallway, and my son's bedroom which serves as his dining room/bathroom. I wish I could let him roam around our entire house, but unfortunately, our cat, Sally, views him as prey and it's too difficult to rabbit-proof the other rooms in our house with all the wires we have. Nevertheless, compared to most rabbits who are confined to small cages, Radar lives the life of a prince!