If you’re vegan, chances are you’ve heard someone say “you care more about animals than people”, but that’s simply not true.

As a way to ignore the issue at hand, some people like to spin things around and accuse animal advocates of being the uncaring ones.

The reality is that you care deeply about humans too, and that’s probably one of the main draws that led you to this compassionate lifestyle in the first place. Perhaps you stopped eating animals for health, maybe you were shocked when you learned about the environmental damage that the agricultural industries cause, or it could be because you discovered the injustice of feeding 40% of the world’s grain to livestock when millions of people are starving to death. Whatever your reasons, being vegan comes hand in hand with caring about people.

Most animal advocates are also extremely passionate about humanitarian and social justice causes. In fact, brain scans show that vegans and vegetarians have more of an empathetic response to both human and animal suffering than omnivores.

FMRI brain scans revealed that the areas of the brain associated with empathy were much more active in vegans and vegetarians in comparison to omnivores when all three groups of people were shown pictures of human and animal suffering. Written questionnaires on the subject also demonstrated higher empathy levels in vegans and vegetarians.

TakePart.com
Wed, Dec 23 12:33 PM PST
There has been yet another death at SeaWorld.

On Monday, the company announced that Unna, an 18-year-old killer whale at SeaWorld San Antonio, died from a rare fungal infection.According to the statement, Unna was infected with a resistant strain of a fungus called Candida.

Unna was the daughter of Tilikum, the 12,000-pound orca at SeaWorld Orlando that has been implicated in the deaths of three people, including Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau in February, 2010.
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“SeaWorld implies that Candida is common in the wild, as if that absolves the company of Unna's death,” Rose said in an email. “This is both self-serving and scientifically inaccurate.”

While Candida does affect some whale and dolphin species, it is “not common in orcas,” Rose said, adding that the fungus does not cause serious disease unless stress and immune compromise are also involved. “Unna died because she lived her short life in a concrete tank and SeaWorld's veterinary care couldn't help her,” she said.

Animal-welfare activists said Unna’s premature death is further evidence that captive killer whales do not live as long as wild orcas, which live up to 50 to 100 years.
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/another-death-seaworld-203326522.html

Damn Seaworld!

Charging 5p for plastic bags has cut their use at one of England's largest supermarket chains by 78%.

Tesco said the dramatic drop in the use of single-use bags is 10% more than it had expected when the Government introduced the levy in October.

Rebecca Shelley, Tesco group communications director, said: "We knew the Government's bag charge would encourage our customers to use fewer plastic bags and it has clearly had a huge impact.
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Cutting the number of plastic bags we use is a small but vital step in reducing plastic waste," he said.

"It will not only tidy up our towns and countryside, it will also help protect our precious beaches and sealife."

The Monsanto Company enjoys what can only be described as a cozy relationship with the American mainstream press, in large part because it’s an America-based company that is heavily involved in lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill.

But overseas, the company and its contemporaries in the agrochemical business world are largely shunned and/or banned due to transgressions against both health and the environment.

Monsanto also has a penchant for suing farmers, another item that often goes unreported. But now the multinational company many describe as a legal bully will be placed on trial – this time in international court for Crimes Against Humanity, according to a new report from the website Sustainable Pulse.
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The Monsanto Tribunal, which will be held in The Hague from October 12 to 16, 2016, aims to assess these allegations made against Monsanto, and to evaluate the damages caused by this transnational company. The Tribunal will rely on the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” adopted at the UN in 2011. It will also assess potential criminal liability on the basis of the Rome Statue that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2002, and it will consider whether a reform of international criminal law is warranted to include crimes against the environment, or ecocide, as a prosecutable criminal offense.