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@nerdylilpeebs Look at the American Midwest. It used to be hundreds and hundreds of miles of continuous prairie. Now the only prairie that’s left is confined to nature reserves. There are projects to bring back the prairie, but I can’t imagine a herd of bison or the far-wandering prairie chicken can survive on just a few acres. We can’t have little patches of nature in the midst of a sprawl of concrete. By “vast swaths” I mean areas that can support biodiversity in a functioning and balanced ecosystem.

We can consolidate our human communities, building up instead of out. We need to get rid of the idea that each human is entitled to a mowed lawn and a big house--that’s just not sustainable, especially with our growing population. And, hopefully, animal agriculture will become a thing of the past over the next century or so, meaning tons of livestock fields can be returned to natural ecosystems. And the decrease in animal agriculture will mean many crop agriculture plots can be returned to nature as well, since the majority of the world’s crops go to feed livestock.

Ultimately, we’re spending so much time managing other species that we’re overlooking the fact that the only reason they need managing is because of problems created by humans. We need to focus on reducing our impact and letting nature handle itself.

just an idea to bounce around: non-vegans love their “not everyone can go vegan” argument, and I agree–veganism is about causing the least harm, and some people have to be careful with their diet. I had to work on my eating habits before I could successfully go vegan.

But veganism isn’t just about diet. It’s about doing the best you can to cause the least amount of cruelty and suffering.

So maybe “going vegan” isn’t for everyone. But veganism as a movement sure is. You have no excuse to not care.

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Not to be big and whiny but I’ve honestly given up and I’m going to spend this upcoming week deciding whether I want to live my life labelled as a crazy radical vegan outcast or not live at all.

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@nerdylilpeebs No one has stated we’re promoting releasing a bunch of zoo animals into the wild, I’m not quite sure where that assumption came from. Of course it would be bad to suddenly just release the animals into the wild. Many of them don’t know how to survive because they have been raised in captivity, and of course many endangered animals would be targeted by poachers and big game hunters. Zoos, provided they aren’t just for profit and actually focus on education and conservation, are excellent--in the short term. But the bigger problem is that humans are making the natural world permanently unliveable. Conservation is great, but we can’t just conserve a few acres of land and call it a day. We need to return vast swaths of land back to their original state and then leave them alone. Human destruction and exploitation of the natural world are the sole reasons we need to have zoos in the first place, and so we need to work on letting nature heal and regulate itself.

just an idea to bounce around: non-vegans love their “not everyone can go vegan” argument, and I agree–veganism is about causing the least harm, and some people have to be careful with their diet. I had to work on my eating habits before I could successfully go vegan.

But veganism isn’t just about diet. It’s about doing the best you can to cause the least amount of cruelty and suffering.

So maybe “going vegan” isn’t for everyone. But veganism as a movement sure is. You have no excuse to not care.

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Today I met with my wonderful advisor about my animal rights group. It was a great meeting for the most part. I did frown at the fact that she mentioned that the administration asked if our group would be taking “radical” action. I wonder if they asked that about the Young Republicans group, or the Democratic Socialist group? Or any of the human rights, service, awareness, religious, and political groups on campus? Maybe I’m just being paranoid. And then when I posted that someone commented that maybe they were suspicious of me because of the one comment I made on a Biology Department post and a couple of the personal posts I’d made. Like wow do they keep tabs on the Democratic Socialist president as much as they supposedly do on me? Apparently voicing concern over the animal education biology students are receiving is a threat.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. Anyway I thought I was getting better mentally but a couple hours after the meeting I just . . . broke down. I’ve been shoving everything down for the last month or so and trying to pretend I can live a good life and fight for animals.

But I don’t think that’s reality.

What I think my future holds is watching millions of creatures suffer and not be able to even say anything about it. I will spend the rest of my life fighting battles I will never win. I will not see any sort of sweeping change in my lifetime. I will go to see Star Wars Episode IX wondering if the person sitting next to me guillotined rats in a lab an hour ago. I will live my life knowing I am right and knowing deep truths about the value of life and the suffering of animals (I asked my dad, who grew up all around animal agriculture, if he knew that in order to produce milk there has to be a baby, and if there’s a baby needed but there’s no baby drinking the milk, then did he know what happened to the baby? He didn’t know.) and I will be branded a radical, a terrorist, a conspiracy theorist, or simply a privileged white person who cares more about animals than about people. I will expose myself to animal cruelty to know what I must fight against, only to have others turn a blind eye. I will be asked to compromise and give animals welfare instead of freedom. I will always be helpless, powerless, and unable to be the change I want to see in the world. I will be an outcast. I’ve already lost friends and I’m losing patience trying to be kind and gentle and loving and patient and not shoving my views in people’s faces.

I don’t want to go back to college. I know my animal rights group will probably only want to volunteer at shelters and not care that animals are being tortured in the biology building, and even if I try to take action with or without them I will most likely fail. I don’t want to look at the science building every day and wonder what new horrors are being conducted within. I don’t want to walk past another student dragging a box labelled “Live Animals” in the bitter cold snow and wonder if it’s not crickets but mice or rats or any other creature.

But if I leave the college, I can’t just go to another, because I will always wonder what’s happening in the biology department at both the new and old college. And I would be running away from opportunity and the carefully planned two more years I have to get my double major degree. I would be turning a blind eye to the horrors my college is committing.

So I can’t leave but I can’t stay. And either way I’m just going to be trapped for the rest of my life fighting a war I will never be able to win. I will weep over the suffering of the voiceless and I will be ignored or mocked or labelled as crazy.

My mom keeps saying we just need to try new meds, new therapy. But we’ve already done it several times. The underlying issue doesn’t go away. I will always live in the wrong world. And I don’t know what to do.

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hey just an FYI I’m trying to keep from being super triggered by anything directly or tangently related to animal abuse and exploitation, so I’m probably not going to be super active and I definitely will not be checking my notes because I have too many popular animal rights posts that ignorant people love to bash. If you need me, message me and I’ll try to check back every couple of days.

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I love how popular science fiction teaches us to worry about a higher intelligence doing to us the things we already do to animals.

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such profanity Mr. Adélie

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Some real life whales in the style of Dishonored Whales!

 Humpback Whale

 Narwhal

 Bowhead Whale

 Killer Whale

 Sperm Whale

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hey uhhh as a canadian vegan, can y’all stop spreading the false news that canada has banned cosmetic testing on animals? it sill has to go through the House readings. it has only made its way through the Senate.

please fact check before spreading unverified news

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Dogs are the best.

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(via deadliidev)

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okay so I just sent a bunch of messages to people at my college asking about the animal rights group i’m starting. someone straight up replied that they’re pro Big Game Hunting and also had a weird passive aggressive comment about the “blanket” message I sent, so that was unpleasant. but two people have agreed to let me put their names down so far so that’s cool!! one person was afraid they would offend me because they weren’t vegan, bless

fjhajkdfhajkhf this process has been stressful because im so emotionally attached to animal rights and I have to realize that other people . . . aren’t. or just don’t care. or straight up think it’s okay to exploit and abuse animals. trying to keep from having a panic attack but at least the messages are sent

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If you love animals, consider why you’re exempting some from your circle of compassion.

💛 VeganOutreach.org

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Michael Greyeyes on The View

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When you can deny shelter based on credit scores and income requirements, housing becomes a weapon of marginalization and death.