Christmas Without Cruelty

Christmas is a romantic time for couples and an endearing time for children and parents alike. And, the perfect symbol of the true spirit of Christmas is a puppy (when I mention puppy, this goes for kittens too). A puppy represents innocence, exuberance, unconditional love and hope for the future. A puppy peering out of the box from under the Christmas tree. Huge eyes swimming with bewilderment, excitement at it's new surroundings. A gift of this sort is a wonderful thing. But is it?

Unfortunately, it's not so.

Responsible breeders will not sell puppies to be given as Christmas presents. So, if a puppy is from a breeder, then that breeder is not responsible and who knows what other responsibilities have been missed?

It is well-known amongst the canine development study group that puppies, like children, go through development stages. At 8-12 weeks the puppy has developed enough to leave its mother (a stressful time for the puppy, anyway) and this is the time when a young puppy can go home with its adoptive family. The puppy needs to be stress-free since it is very vulnerable at this time. It needs to form bonds with its new family, so a quiet environment is required so as not to unduly frighten him/her.

Christmas morning is certainly not the ideal time to introduce a puppy to its new family. This is, amongst other things, because fears learned during this first fear/avoidance period could be very, very difficult to overcome later. It may have a permanent impact on your puppy's personality as an adult dog. Screeching children, flashing lights, loud noises, phones ringing, company calling and all the other types of Christmas morning hullaballoo, it is probably the worst time to introduce a newly-weaned puppy to its new family.

And that is just Christmas morning. What about after?

Responsible pet ownership is all about loving, caring and responsibility of owning a pet. One of the greatest parts of pet ownership are the splendid values that can be taught to children about care and responsibility, love and loyalty, and, a respect for other living beings. What happens to the rest of the toys and gifts that started out under the Christmas tree? After a few weeks, if that, they are left broken, un-played with, forgotten or discarded.

After a few weeks, the puppy can be thought of as a nuisance. We all know house-training is a must, but what about other training? Not to bark at the postman, chew the furniture, growl at the children, play-bite, jump up, steal the baby's food, not to dig holes in the garden. It must be taught how to walk on a leash without dragging the owner, sit, lay down and stay until they are told to move (essential for the dog's own safety). These are just a few of the basic training needs of a young dog, there are many more.


It is a sad fact that dog shelters and pounds are inundated with dogs that are unwanted Christmas presents. It is also a sad fact that vets or shelters destroy - or euthanase - dogs at the instructions of frustrated owners who claim they are "uncontrollable" or "have behavioural problems".

Be responsible. DO NOT give a puppy as a Christmas Gift. It is kinder in the long run.

A dog is for life.

It is not really worth writing about the fur trade, because the farming of animals for fur, in the UK, has been outlawed since 1st January 2003 after long-term campaigning. But, that doesn't stop many other countries from slaughtering animals for their fur. Many of the big species have declined, or have become extinct, because of fur trading. As the big cats are commercially extinct, or protected, the trade has turned to the smaller cats. Thousands of lynx and bobcat are still being trapped each year in North America. The trappers are using steel leg-hold traps (thankfully now banned in Europe). These cause immeasurable suffering to the trapped animal.



The animals farmed for their fur are kept in small, barren cages averaging 90x30x40 cm and stereotypical behaviour like self-mutilation and cannibalism occur. They are killed by gassing, neck-breaking or anal electrocution.

I could point you to some links where German-shepherd dogs and badgers are being skinned alive, and they are still alive when all the skin has been taken from their bodies, but these are too harrowing and sickening. I cried uncontrollably when I saw these covertly taken videos and was shaken for weeks (I am still very angry when I think about it, not to mention some of the sick comments). I will not put you through this, you need to take my word for it.

For the romantic amongst you, what about a luxury red silk dressing gown, lingerie or sheets? What possible cruelty could there be in that?

The female silk moth deposits 300-400 eggs at a time. The female dies immediately after laying her eggs. When the eggs hatch, in about 10 days time, the larvae will eat huge amounts of mulberry leaves (larvae fed on mulberry leaves produce the very best silk) and shed their skin four times. After 4-6 weeks the larvae then go into their pupating stage where they attach themselves to a twig, tree or shrub.



Over the next four days the silk worm produces a fine thread by making 300,000 figure of eight movements, cocooning itself, where it intends to stay for the next 16 days. It will then dissolve the silk with an alkaline and emerge as a moth.


Before this happens, the cocoon is plucked from the branch or twig and killed by heat, either by immersing in boiling water, steaming or drying in an oven.



Each cocoon will only yield a very, very small amount of silk. For this reason many thousands of cocoons are required to gather enough silk for a garment. For instance, to produce just 40kg of silk, 200kg of cocoons are required and 11.25 tonnes of mulberry leaves. 2500 silkworms are needed just for slightly less than 0.5kg. So, for 40kg, nearly a quarter of a million silkworms have to die.



There Is Always An Alternative

There is always an alternative which doesn't involve cruelty. As an alternative to killing billions of silkworms, a cruelty-free way of making silk is by using the foliage of the pineapple. That's right, the simple pineapple. A high quality silk, which, in my opinion is better than the silk obtained from the silkworm. It feels more lustrous and even looks more expensive.

Designer India de la Cruz makes pineapple silk pillows for Calvin Klein. Pineapple silk is the fabric of choice for the Philippine elite.

To make the nice red colour, cochineal insects (also known as carmine) are killed, dried and pulverised. 100,000-150,000 insects are needed to produce 1.5kg of dye. As well as clothing dyes, cochineal is used in food colouring.

One comment in one of the forums I frequent, said that an alternative is red dye made from oil, and he would rather eat insects than oil. Indigenous tribes have been using plant extract as colouring for centuries. Some people are misguided.

I know that true vegans would take insects into consideration, but surely there must be a limit. Not if you truly want to have a Christmas Without Cruelty.

Surely a woolly jumper isn't cruel? I know it comes from sheep, but aren't the sheep glad to get rid of their smelly fleeces once a year?

A sheep is shorn for the first time when they are about 14-15 months old. They are then shorn annually. Early season shearing in wet, windy and cold conditions mean that the sheep may die from exposure and disease.

It is estimated that 1 million sheep die each year from exposure after shearing (in Australia, the world's largest wool producing country). To make the shearing easier, lambs have their tails docked (cut off), are castrated (male lambs, of course), usually without anaesthetic and are then susceptible to shock, blood poisoning, tetanus, dislocated joints and arthritis. Another barbaric thing that happens is a procedure called museling. This is where strips of flesh (not wool) are cut from the anal and vaginal areas. This should be carried out by qualified professionals, but usually aren't. It is carried out to supposedly stop sheep from becoming fly blown, but I have read that it makes shearing easier too. The easier it is, the quicker it is to shear a sheep.



There are synthetic alternatives which does away with this cruelty.

A Christmas Without Cruelty is possible. It isn't that hard to find alternatives that will cease the suffering of other living beings.

A nut roast instead of a roast turkey. The lists for ingredients and recipes for a truly delicious nut roast are almost endless. Try it, you are sure to like it.

May you have a really, really, really great Christmas Without Cruelty. If you are unfortunate enough to get a headache from over-indulgence, take care not to take headache tablets which have a gelatin covering, usually the tablets in liquid form. These are made from beef gelatin and the bovine that went to make your headache relief tablet has had to die. Really good health shops use an alternative covering instead of an animal product.

A couple of last words, before you go off and eat your nice shiny apple and drink your glass of wine in the true vegan style.

Lac insects live on the lac tree and the female lac secretes a protective resin over herself. This resin is collected (along with the insect) and turned into a glaze called Shellac. Shellac is used as a glaze for those surprisingly nice shiny apples you see in supermarkets. Coffee beans, nuts, confectionery, paint and cosmetics also use shellac glaze, as well as many other products.

It is amazing how many products we eat - or drink - contain animal products. The manufacturers are not always obliged to tell us the ingredients of these. Take for instance emulsifiers. There is one emulsifier, which is used in flour for bread products which contains chicken feathers, animal hair - and in certain parts of the world - human hair. Since these ingredients "disappear" during the cooking process they do not have to tell us what they are.

Another one, I have recently discovered is isinglass. A definition found in an online dictionary -

isinglass
n. form of gelatine made from fishes' air bladders; agar-agar.

Isinglass is used in wine to make it clear (amongst other uses). Surprised? I was.

It's easy to live a healthy lifestyle in the true vegan fashion. Do a Google search for Carl Lewis, a 10 times medal winner in the Olympics, of which, 9 were gold. He says: "My best athletic achievements were when I became a vegan".

Need I say more?

Be sure to check out the soon-to-be "VeganismPlus" website (http://www.veganismplus.com) where I plan to put links to vegan recipes, vegan tips, vegan content, vegan sites and a vegan forum - PLUS - anything else related to veganism.

Until then, take care and have a really great Christmas.