oxVeg Online News 7/2/2009
Dear Member, I do not read the local newspapers, so I'm always grateful when some one points out an interesting article to me. So thank you to OxVeg member Mary Puffett for drawing my attention to an article in the Oxford Mail of 14 January about Hen Rehomers - a national charity which aims to give former battery hens a new home (battery hens are usually slaughtered and their meat used for chicken pies and pet food at about one year of age when their egg laying declines). The Oxfordshire branch of Hen Rehomers are currently compiling a database of persons willing to rehome hens. Chickens live for 8-10 years on average and normally lay one egg every 25 hours or so. They need a warm, dry and secure place to sleep, such as a converted shed or Wendy house, with perches for roosting. For further details go to www.henrehomers.net . ====================================================== FORTHCOMING EVENTS (* denotes events organised by OxVeg) * Saturday 14 February, 11am-3pm. Valentine's Day free food tasting in Cornmarket Street. Organised by OxVeg. Sunday 22 February, 10am-2pm. Gluten-free, vegan & raw Kitchen Buddy Culinary Workshop. St Ethelwold House, Abingdon, Oxon. Individuals £35, couples £60 (includes lunch). Further details at www.kitchenbuddy.eu or email Theresa Webb at Protected email address * Tuesday 24 February. Shrove Tuesday event in Cornmarket Street to encourage people to go vegetarian for Lent. Organised by OxVeg. Thursday 5 March, 7pm. Replacing Animals in Research: What's Happening in Europe? Public meeting chaired by Sir David Madden with Caroline Lucas MEP, Mike Baker (President - Eurogroup for Animals) and Emily McIvor (Policy Director - Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research), Friends Meeting House, 43 St Giles, Oxford. Organised by Voice for Ethical Research at Oxford (www.vero.org.uk). (There will be elections to the European Parliament in June 2009. Here is an opportunity to hear one of the foremost advocates of animal welfare in the European Parliament.) Thursday 12 March, 5pm. "The Great British cat and dog massacre of World War 2" - a talk by Dr Hilda Kean, History tutor at Ruskin College and author of "Animal Rights", Seminar Room East, Mansfield College, Mansfield Road, Oxford. Organised by Voice for Ethical Research at Oxford (www.vero.org.uk). Monday 16 to Friday 20 March. Animal Rights: past and present, Ruskin College, Walton Street, Oxford. A course taught by Dr Hilda Kean and Kim Stallwood (see below for details). For further information and registration please contact Beryl Stewart on 01865 517807 or email Protected email address. Saturday 18 April, 10am - 4pm. Witney Green Fair, Langdale Hall, Witney, Oxon. Admission 25p, children and senior citizens free. As in previous years OxVeg will be running a stall at this event. Please contact us if you would like to help. Saturday 18 April, 10am - 6pm. The Incredible Veggie Show, Royal Horticultural Halls, Greycoat Street, London, SW1. 100 stalls, talks, cookery demos, food samples, nutritional advice, vegan cafe, etc. Admission £4, £3 in advance (under 18s free). Organised by Viva! Further details, location map & ticket bookings at www.viva.org.uk/london . Sunday 19 April, 10am-2pm. Gluten-free, vegan & raw Kitchen Buddy Culinary Workshop. St Ethelwold House, Abingdon, Oxon. Individuals £35, couples £60 (includes lunch). Further details at www.kitchenbuddy.eu or email Theresa Webb at Protected email address ====================================================== Animal Rights course, 16 -20 March, Ruskin College, Oxford Want to learn more about animal rights than what you read in the news? Want to deepen your understanding of our complex relationship with animals? Always wanted to go to college to learn about animal rights? Now you can! Historian and author Hilda Kean and animal advocate Kim Stallwood will teach the course, Animal Rights: past and present, at Ruskin College, Oxford from 16 - 20 March . Dr Hilda Kean is a tutor in History at Ruskin College and is the author of Animal Rights and many articles on the history of animal rights. She runs Ruskin's pioneering MA in Public History and organizes public history conferences and the Ruskin public history discussion group. She researches and publishes in public and cultural history and the cultural position of animals. Her latest book is People and Their Pasts: Public History Today (with Paul Ashton). Kim Stallwood is a veteran animal advocate who has held leadership positions for some of the world's foremost animal-welfare organizations in the United Kingdom and United States (e.g. CIWF, BUAV, PETA). He is an independent author, scholar and adviser on animal welfare and related matters. He became a vegetarian in 1974 when as a student he worked in a chicken slaughterhouse. He has been a vegan since 1976. He is European Director of the Animals and Society Institute. Ruskin College is an independent college based in Oxford which specializes in providing educational opportunities for adults with few or no qualifications. Interested persons, including animal activists, students and scholars from a variety of backgrounds, are welcomed at Ruskin. Eligible students may qualify for free tuition. The standard registration fee is £86, which includes basic accommodation and vegan meals. Please direct all inquires about registration to the college (Protected email address) or contact Beryl Stewart on [+44] (0)1865 517807 or (Protected email address). For information about the course, please contact Hilda Kean (Protected email address) or Kim Stallwood (Protected email address). ====================================================== The Cook Menu OxVeg member Patricia Perry kindly drew my attention to The Cook Menu (www.cookfood.net) - a company producing ready-made meals for home entertaining. They are based in Tonbridge (tel. 01732 759000) and have around 30 shops in South East England, including branches in Witney (4 Mill Walk, tel. 01993 835001) and Henley-on-Thames (Friday Street, tel. 01491 411410) and a home delivery service. Their brochure includes a range of vegetarian dishes (marked with their own "V" symbol), including Roasted Vegetable and Chickpea Curry, Red Lentil and Mixed Bean Casserole, and Mushroom Stroganoff. Unfortunately, the brochure does not indicate which dishes are suitable for vegans, although it should be possible to ascertain this by telephone. ====================================================== Another good reason not to shop at Tesco A recent investigation into Tesco stores in Hungary has revealed that the supermarket giant is stocking foie-gras. The so-called delicacy is not sold in major supermarkets in the UK due to its inherent cruelty. Animal group Four Paws obtained footage from Hungarian foie-gras farms, which demonstrates the suffering endured by the geese and ducks who are force fed so that their livers grow to be ten times their natural size, as well as the filthy and cramped conditions in which this takes place. Viva! are calling on the public to complain to Tesco to voice their opposition to its support of cruelty for profit. Telephone Tesco Customer Services on 0845 6004411 or email Protected email address or write to Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, CEO, Tesco House, PO Box 44, Delamare Road, Cheshunt, Herts, EN8 9SL. (You will, of course, receive a standard response from Tesco claiming, among other things, that "Tesco has a track-record of improving welfare standards in the countries in which we operate", although they don't say how good or bad their 'track-record' is. Nevertheless, it's important to show you care.) ====================================================== Review of Elephant by Dan Wylie, Reaktion Books, 208pp, pbk, 99 illustrations, 33 in colour; ISBN 978 1 86189 397 0, £9-99 "Elephants populate the global consciousness more deeply and emotively than perhaps any other species, bar dogs and cats" claims author Dan Wylie in Elephant, and it is clear that elephants provide enduring fascination to many people, whilst cartoon characters such as Walt Disney's Dumbo and Babar the Elephant bear witness to their popularity. Therefore, it is something of a surprise that we have had to wait until now for the elephant to feature in Reaktion Books' Animal series. However, it was certainly worth the wait for this excellent book. What strikes the reader immediately is the author's obvious affinity with his subject. Dan Wylie is Associate Professor in English at Rhodes University, South Africa, but Elephant is no dry, academic tome. Addo Elephant Park, where the author "can calmly observe, almost at arm's length, the 400-plus descendants of the only surviving elephants native to (Eastern Cape) province", is only an hour's drive from Professor Wylie's home, and it is clear that he is a regular visitor. He is fortunate indeed to be able to see elephants in their natural habitat. The rest of us must make do with wildlife documentaries such as The Secret Life of Elephants, a three-part documentary series shown on BBC TV in January 2009, the latest in a long line of natural history programmes dedicated to these (mostly) gentle giants. A visit to the circus, rightly condemned by the author as a place where elephants "live a pretty miserable life compared to those in the wild", or even the zoo, which can hardly provide a natural environment for captive elephants, makes a very poor substitute. Like other titles in the Animal series, Elephant follows the familiar pattern of first describing the species' physiology and natural history, then discussing their place in human society and culture, and finally considering their future. Sadly, as the author writes at the beginning of the book's final chapter on conservation, "The present-day situation for the wild elephant . is generally dire. The reasons are simple: people have killed too many elephants for their ivory; and too many people have robbed the elephants of their historical habitat." Although both the Asian and African elephant have been placed on Appendix I of the Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), theoretically affording them the highest level of protection, poaching remains a serious problem, a situation not helped by the decision in July 2008 to allow several southern African countries to release large stockpiles of ivory onto the open market. Perhaps a greater threat to elephant survival comes from habitat loss and the inevitable conflict over resources with human populations (a 5 ton elephant will consume up to 300 kg of vegetable matter every day). This has led to a series of highly controversial culls of elephant populations, not least in game reserves perceived to be suffering from an overpopulation of elephants. Range expansion, translocation and contraception offer more humane alternatives, and like the author we must hope that "simple compassion for the fate of an extraordinary creature" will ensure the survival of these majestic, beguiling animals. Paul Appleby, January 2009 ====================================================== Information sheets The Vegetarian Society has been updating the statistics on some of their information sheets - cattle, pigs and sheep. You can download the sheets in pdf format from the website - go to www.vegsoc.org/info and follow the links. There's a lot about pigs in the news at the moment so The Vegetarian Society have created a special web page to provide more background information. Go to http://www.vegsoc.org/news/2009/pigs09.html . Meanwhile, the Vegan Society booklet 'Plant Based Nutrition', based on the book "Plant Based Nutrition and Health" by Stephen Walsh is available for download at http://www.vegansociety.com/images/PBN.pdf ====================================================== EU petition against the long distance transport of animals for slaughter Of course we all wish that animals were not slaughtered for food at all, but transporting across Europe first adds insult (and a lot of unnecessary suffering) to injury. Now a cross-party group of MEPs have launched an internet petition calling for journey times for animals going for slaughter to be restricted to 8 hours maximum (as farm animal welfare organisations such as Compassion in World Farming have been demanding for many years). Such a restriction would effectively end live exports of farm animals for slaughter from the UK. To sign the petition go to http://www.8hours.eu/ ====================================================== Vacancies at The Vegan Society The Vegan Society currently has four paid vacancies at its office in Birmingham: 1) Head of Business Development Salary £18,000 to £20,000 depending on experience Closing date for applications 27 February 2009 For an application form please contact Nigel Winter, Chief Executive, at The Vegan Society, 21 Hylton Street, Birmingham, B18 6HJ; telephone 0121 523 1741; e-mail Protected email address 2) Finance Officer and Office Manager 1-year contract to provide maternity cover Salary £15,500 to £17,500 dependent on experience and qualifications Closing date for applications 27 February 2009 For an application form please contact Nigel Winter (details above) 3) Information Officer Salary £14,000 to £16,000 depending on experience Closing date for applications 27 February 2009 Please contact Rosamund Raha, Head of Information, for an application form: telephone 0121 523 1739; e-mail Rosamund.raha@vegansocietycom; The Vegan Society, Donald Watson House, 21 Hylton Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6HJ 4) Sales and Membership Assistant Salary £13,000 to £14,000 depending on experience Closing date for applications 27 February 2009 Please contact Dave Palmer, Head of Sales, for an application form: telephone 0121 523 1740; e-mail Protected email address; The Vegan Society, Donald Watson House, 21 Hylton Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6HJ ====================================================== And finally ... If you are one of the many OxVeg members whose membership expired at the end of December 2008 and you have renewed your membership thank you for your continuing support. If you have not yet renewed your membership please do so now otherwise this will be the last issue of OxVeg Online News that you receive from us. Best wishes, Paul Appleby OxVeg Online News editor
Author: Paul Appleby
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Story posted by on 2009-03-04 19:37:24.
