PETA in Greenside FTW

For a blog that is supposed to chronicle my exploits, this one looks very empty! Sadly I have found that when my life is most interesting, I don't get to write things down. This week has been quite remarkable, and I just couldn't put off writing about it for another second! 

The PETA Lettuce Ladies demonstration is now well-known. It has been done around the world, by regular people and celebrities alike. We decided that it was about time the PETA Lettuce Ladies came to Johannesburg. And they did. 

Cloris Leachman and Pamela Anderson have both been Lettuce Ladies for PETA.

Yesterday three amazing vegetarian women agreed to wear leafy green vegetables in the middle of the Johannesburg winter to draw attention to the benefits of vegetarianism - for the animals, for the environment, and for your health. The consumption of meat, eggs and dairy are major contributors to climate change, resource depletion, pollution and world hunger. Each day, animal agriculture consumes a shocking 2.5 trillion litres of water – enough for everyone in the world to take eight showers.

Meat production wastes food that could be used to feed people! It takes up to 16 kilograms of grain to produce just 1 kilogram of meat, and animals raised for food consume nearly 1 billion metric tons of human-edible food every year. That's enough to feed almost half the world's population. We could solve the problem of world hunger, just by going vegetarian! 

Animals raised for food are confined to filthy, crowded enclosures and denied everything that is natural and important to them. On factory farms and in slaughterhouses, chickens have their throats cut while they're still conscious, piglets are castrated and have their tails cut off without being given any painkillers and cows are hung upside down and skinned while they're still alive and able to feel pain. This happens all over the world. 

Even if this doesn't concern you, you cannot ignore the fact that meat-eating is linked to heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes and impotence. Vegetarianism is as important for your own health as it is for the animals and the environment. 

PETA Lettuce Ladies ask South Africans to go vegetarian. 

The ladies wore spinach, and distributed literature explaining the links between the modern meat industry and global warming. They were very brave, considering the cold weather! 

The media loved the Lettuce Ladies (or Spinach Sisters, as someone quipped)! Mail & Guardian put footage of the event and interviews on their website. The Beeld Newspaper printed a large picture of the ladies, and three newspapers in India printed the pictures too! Several online publications also featured pictures of the PETA Lettuce Ladies! The Ladies themselves blogged about the event here and here. We received very positive comments from onlookers. I think my favourite was someone who drove past and posted a picture on facebook with the comment, "PETA in Greenside FTW". 

The Lettuce Ladies in Greenside. 

A big thank you to the three Lettuce Ladies, and to Ashley Fruno at PETA for all the help in putting together this demo! If you would like to be on our mailing list for future events, please email me! 

Chicks Love a Vegetarian

Actor Michael Vartan's Dog Care Tips

Meet Scooby!

In March I wrote about the tragedy that unfolded in Bapsfontein when residents were forcibly removed and had to leave their companion animals behind. Scooby was one of the deserted. He was frightened by the bulldozers and ran into some barbed wire. His ear was ripped, but otherwise he's perfect! If you can give Scooby a home, please contact CLAW on on 011 763 1638 or 072 642 0850. 

The Story of Cosmetics (2010)

MY ADOPTION OF THE WEEK

We found this kitty a week ago. She is extremely friendly and loving, but noone has come forward to claim her. We need to home her asap. She is being spayed and getting her shots tonight! She is about 4 months old. 

She was definitely not a stray, and is used to people! We think she was dumped because she needed a hernia operation. She is having her hernia operation at the same time as her spay though! 

She'll be ready to go to her new home in a couple of days! Spayed, inoculated, micro-chipped and hernia-free! 

Strict application process and home check will apply.   

Bapsfontein: Help Needed!

Tragedy has struck Bapsfontein again. Just weeks after people lost their possessions in the floods, they are being forcibly removed by the army. Some people’s homes are even being demolished in their absence. (One family was at a funeral when their shack was torn down.) Once the shacks are bulldozed, people are loaded onto trucks with their possessions and relocated.

To make matters worse, people are not allowed to take their companion animals with them. They are forced to abandon their animals, who flee into the veld when they are frightened by the trucks. CLAW has been working day and night to trap these abandoned animals and get them to safety. There are thousands of terrified, starving animals who need to be rescued!

CLAW has reported that some animals are inside the shacks when they are demolished. One cat was trapped under a pile of rubble, where she had to give birth. CLAW found her, and her litter of newborn kittens, just in time!

There are so many more stories like this. These are the reports from CLAW:

• Mother dogs refusing to leave babies, even though they were terrified of the trucks.
• One mother cat brought us her baby.
• Another one stayed in shack that was being demolished - with her new babies.
• A proud mother hen did her best to keep her ten chicks safe from trucks and bulldozers.
• Another mother cat gave birth in a shack that was demolished around her!
• We heard one kitten crying, and then found four, and the mother too. She was under an old bookcase!

These animals need to go into foster homes, and need to be adopted. CLAW is not a shelter, but a clinic, and does not have space for all these animals. Please consider giving a home to one of these animals who really deserve the best! To find out about fostering and adopting, please call CLAW on 011 763 1638 or 072 642 0850.

You can also make a donation to CLAW for all the work they are doing! Click here for information on how to donate. To keep updated on what is happening in Bapsfontein, please join CLAW's facebook group here. 

LADY GAGA - Born This Way (Cover)

This is so good! ♥ Lady Gaga was brought to tears by this cover of Born This Way!

The Environmental Toothbrush is already for sale!

The amazing Harmless House Environmental Toothbrush which I talked about last week (click here) is already in stores! You can buy the Environmental Toothbrush at the health shops in both Hyde Park Shopping Centre, and Benmore Gardens Shopping Centre! It's just R35! Read more below. 

I've bought mine! It's fantastic!

Shopping for a Happy Planet!

Finally, there is a company that can bring us the products that we really want! Products that are organic, kind to the planet, and not tested on animals! What more could we ask for? 

Harmless House, started by Kate Townshend, offers a wide range of products. Harmless House has everything: scrubs, lotions, skin care, toothbrushes, toothpaste and baby products and stocks four brands: Sanctum, Eco-Dent, BWC and The Environmental Toothbrush. 

I have sampled some of the products myself and they are really quite amazing! Not only is the quality fantastic, but you can use these products with a clear conscious! 

If you really do replace your toothbrush every three months like you're supposed, you have probably wondered about the environmental impacts of all those plastic toothbrushes being thrown in the bin (not to mention what went into making them). The bamboo for a Harmless House Environmental toothbrush grows sustainably in just five hours, and is biodegradable! 

Click here to read more about Harmless House. Please comment on the article when you visit it, too! Click here to email Kate for more information. 

I can't wait to start shopping!