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Our feelings v. Their suffering

What about them? If we are simply acting as a voice for the voiceless, then why must we continually argue with each other?
Think about it. How can we have the audacity to compare human beings taking offense to words versus the constant suffering abuse, torture, pain, fear and terror that nonhuman beings must endure during their entire short lives until they experience their own violent deaths after witnessing the violent deaths of their loved ones?
This question begs two more questions.
 
First, what is the only species that kills for fun and sport?
“Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he’s the one that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.” Mark Twain, American writer, 1835-1910
 
Second, how should humans treat other species?
Most cultures agree with a common theme of Goodness which implies Compassion, Empathy, Gentleness, Kindness, Peace and the Golden Rule…which supports Veganism; not Violence, Torture and Slaughter.
For example, Christians refer to the Bible. In Genesis 1:26, the Bible states that God gave humans “dominion over creatures.” Many Hebrew scholars believe the word “dominion” is a very poor translation of the original Hebrew word “v’yirdu” which actually meant “to rule over” as a wise king rules over his subjects with CARE and RESPECT. It implies a sense of RESPONSIBILITY and ENLIGHTENED STEWARDSHIP.

“Unlike the animal, God has given man the faculty of reason. Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man’s supremacy over lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man. They had also brought out the truth that man eats not for enjoyment but to live.” Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

“We are all God’s creatures—that we pray to God for mercy and justice, while we continue to eat the flesh of animals that are slaughtered on our account, is not consistent.” Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 1902-1991

“Animals, too, are God’s creatures…Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.” Pope Benedict XVI, 1927-2022

“In my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. The more helpless the creature, the more it is entitled to protection by man from the cruelty of man.” Gandhi

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Gandhi

“When I see a cow, it is not an animal to eat, it is a poem of pity for me and I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world.” Gandhi

“If God wants us to breed into existence billions of animals to enslave, torture and slaughter them (mostly as babies) for sensory pleasure, then what in the world could the Devil possibly want? Gary Yourofsky, American Activist

It’s not a Perfect World and It’s Not a Homogeneous World

The ideology of veganism remain analogous to politics and religion because the extremely delicate, sensitive issues continually challenge people’s morals and values.

In addition, factions exist within the Animal Rights Movement, politics and religion. There is nothing wrong with factions; however, it remains imperative for us to meet people where they are in their own journeys. After all, factions exist within both major political parties in the US today, and we acknowledge a third, independent party, Libertarianism. Many factions exist within religion, and people adopt a plant diet for the following four reasons: health, our environment and planet, animals, or some combination thereof.

I have learned that if we (members of the Animal Rights Movement) ever wish to accomplish anything, we need to meet people where they are in their own journeys. If we practice what we preach, ie, peace, love, empathy and compassion, we must make progress.  For example, I followed a strict bodybuilding diet for three decades (and an Italian-American diet for two decades before that) before I adopted a complete plant diet 12 years ago. Now, in hindsight, I remember the signs along the way that foreshadowed my decision to convert to a plant diet.

We must not allow the aforementioned four vegan factions to divide us and hinder progress. We need cohesion and cooperation. We must strive towards unity.

How can we embrace our commonalities? Celebrate your friends’ love of animals, concern for the environment, and choices to prepare and eat plant-based meals.

To my knowledge, the greatest achievement with regard to discussions about animal rights to date remains Earthling Ed’s epiphany and practice of using the Socratic method to converse with people rather than a judgmental, critical approach. He asks questions and allows people to think and reach their own conclusions.

I believe this concept is slowly catching on and the most critical, judgmental folks are the newest members of the movement who speak directly from their hearts out of pure passion, but have not yet developed a mature approach to advocate or discuss their beliefs in a logical, inquisitive way.

Try to understand their genuine intentions. They’ve had a revelation and they remain excited to tell everyone they know. They wish to shout it from the rooftops and scream it from the mountaintops. They desire to advise the world to save the world.  The Animal Rights Movement is a global movement, and the numbers are growing; we just need unity.

Let’s congratulate the folks who participate in Sid Lerner’s and Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future’s Meatless Monday global movement that encourages people to reduce meat in their diet for their health and the preservation of the planet.

Likewise, let’s celebrate Distinguished Professor Gary Francione’s abolitionist theory which advocates the status of legal personhood (which even corporations possess) for animals because they deserve the right to life and the right to liberty, ie, the freedom to spread their wings, walk around on the earth, etc. We have no right to take their secretions or byproducts despite the fact that, in doing so, we do not harm them. In addition, we have no right to “own” pets, although a “pet owner” is, arguably, a legal guardian or custodian.

Finally, political parties are generally domestic or national groups as opposed to the Animal Rights Movement which is global. Think about how much more diverse the Animal Rights Movement remains compared to a political party. Think about the varied factions within one political party. Now, compare one country or nation to the whole world. People of many different cultures bring their unique, sacred morals, values, ideologies, beliefs, experiences, education, etc. to the same issue. For example, consider this true story. Many years ago, in a college International Law course, my class engaged in an open discussion about the law of larceny. A female student from the other side of the world from me, commented, “In my country, if a person steals, we just chop off his hand.” I responded, “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” to which she replied, “He’ll never do it again.” Her comment ended the discussion. What could I say? Although I did not agree with the ideology, I could not argue with the logic or efficacy.

In closing, International Law proves difficult to enforce due to the players’ vast differences. It works only when voluntary cooperation exists. By the same token, the Animal Rights Movement depends on our tolerance of each other and our cooperation. If countries can do it, human beings can do it too.

Esoteric Thought

No one cares what a person does to himself.
If a person wishes to hurt or kill himself, no one cares.
It’s when a human being hurts, tortures or kills other living beings that people take an interest to protect and advocate innocent living beings who do not have voices to defend their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
What are we teaching our children?
Do we deserve to have children if we cannot teach them Right from wrong or Good from evil?
“Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable.  Of the entire brood, he’s the one that possesses malice.  He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain.  The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.”
Mark Twain
“If we kill them, they will kill us because none of us can escape Karma.”
Carol Mosca
Why must most human beings experience the same as other living beings to feel empathy?
Must human beings experience continuous torture to eat a plant diet?
YES! Most humans are not empaths, earth angels and lightworkers.
Most humans must suffer with and die from lifestyle diseases caused by consuming the flesh, byproducts and secretions of nonhuman beings such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, arthritis, digestive disorders, asthma, allergies, acne, obesity, zoonotic origin global pandemics, et al. even if they run to the largest lot of drug dealers in the world (MDs) to get drugs or have procedures.
(Evidence of “If we kill them, they will kill us because none of us can escape Karma.”)

Only one effective health insurance exists in the world:  diet and exercise.  Anything else is sick insurance where you pay an insurance company to stay sick.

Gift of Life = Right to Life

In Memory of the Eloquent and Prolific May 21, 2020 Legal Ruling to Free Kaavan to a Sanctuary (Kaavan is the elephant to whom Cher sang and helped set free.)

“While it may be arguable that a chimpanzee is not a ‘person,’ there is no doubt that it is not merely a thing”…(quoting Judge Fahey from ongoing New York State Court cases for Nonhuman Rights Projects clients/chimpanzees Tommy, Kiko, Hercules and Leo)

“The emphasis and importance of ‘life’ and the protection of living beings cannot be overstated in every religion and faith. Be it Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism or any other religion, there is no dispute that ‘life’ is the most precious and superior creation of the Creator. There is consensus amongst all religions of the world that animals are ‘sentient beings,’ ie, able to perceive and feel.”…

“An object or thing without ‘life’ has no right. A living being on the other hand has rights because of the gift of ‘life’.”…

“It is also a natural right of every animal to be respected because it is a living being, possessing the precious gift of ‘life’.”…

“It is a natural right of an animal not to be tortured or unnecessarily killed because the gift of life it possesses is precious and its disrespect undermines the respect of the Creator.”

JUDGMENT SHEET

IN THE ISLAMABAD HIGH COURT, ISLAMABAD

(JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT)

W.P. No.1155/2019

Islamabad Wildlife Management Board

through its Chairman

Versus

Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad

through its Mayor & 4 others

November 2021 Thanksgiving Thought and Prayer

Is the Italian culture different from the Irish culture? Sure. Is the Native American culture different from the African culture? Of course. Are horses different from pigs? Yes. Are dogs different from turkeys? Yes.

As we celebrate our differences, let us all respect our similarities. All human beings AND nonhuman beings FEEL Joy, Peace and Love as well as Depression, Fear and Pain. Each day, as we give gratitude for our blessings, let us ALL practice Compassion and Empathy.

Turkeys want to spend time with their loved ones too!

2020 Recap

New Hope Now made extraordinary progress in 2020 despite the pandemic.

Last year, I personally contacted every sanctuary and major slaughterhouse in the United States to place innocent, nonhuman victims of Covid, ie, pigs, cows and chickens.  Unfortunately, the sanctuaries did not have room and the slaughterhouses were unwilling to send anyone.  I also had a conference call with USDA Sonny Perdue’s staff about the situation, but that talk proved futile as well.

On a more positive note, after a several year search, I found the perfect location and property for a rescue and sanctuary, and that project is moving forward.  

I also created two beautiful products which will be launched in January 2021 and wrote a book entitled Eat, Live, Love.

Utopia Accessories:  https://www.newhopenow.net/utopia-accessories/

Eye Opening book:  https://www.newhopenow.net/eye-opening-book/  

PLEASE KNOW that I remain extremely grateful and blessed for all of YOUR gracious support.  I love being a part of the most important social justice issue of our time, and most importantly acting as a steward for all nonhuman beings.

2021 is going to be an AMAZING year!  We are on the brink of freeing them all partly because Covid brought the salient issues of animal agriculture to the forefront of the world!

2020 Factory Farm News

On November 19, 2020, in a 144 page opinion, the United States Fourth Circuit affirmed North Carolina state court jury’s verdict of liability for compensatory and punitive damages, and remanded the award of punitive damages for a rehearing on that issue based on federal evidentiary standards in Joyce McKiver, et al. v. Murphy-Brown, LLC d/b/a Smithfield Hog Production Division.

Smithfield challenged a jury verdict against it awarding compensatory and punitive damages to neighbors of its hog production facilities.  The neighbors, residents of rural Bladen County, North Carolina, sought relief under state nuisance law from odors, pests and noises they attributed to farming practices Smithfield implemented at an industrial-scale hog feeding farm which included large pits called lagoons containing millions of gallons of hog waste and approximately eight million gallons of hog feces being sprayed into the air annually in their community.  The state court jury returned a verdict in favor of the neighbors and awarded $75,000 in compensatory damages to each plaintiff, along with a total of $5 million in punitive damages, which was subsequently reduced to $2.5 million due to North Carolina’s punitive damages cap.

Factory farms prove unhealthy, unnatural and unnecessary for both human and nonhuman beings.  They are detrimental to both human and nonhuman health, and destructive to the planet and the environment.  Moreover, when the toxins seep into the soil, water carries toxins and can contaminate nearby fruit, vegetable and grain crops.

2020 Health Victory for Plant Diet

On February 25, 2020, the International Journal of Epidemiology published the conclusion of a study commissioned by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health and the World Cancer Research Fund which found that women who drink cow’s milk could increase their risk of breast cancer by as much as 80 percent in comparison with women who drink soy milk.

This study remains significant because it serves as an example of the Truth unraveling.

In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, doctors smoked cigarettes and advertised healthy benefits of smoking such as relaxation.  (See below 1949 commercial “More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette.”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMzjJjuxQI

Then, in 1969, the Public Health Smoking Act required all cigarette packaging to contain the statement:  “WARNING:  THE SURGEON GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT CIGARETTE SMOKING IS DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH.”  Finally, doctors gradually ceased smoking and began warning patients of health dangers.

Since 1970, we have heard about the healthy benefits of the “new tobacco,” ie, meat, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs from Big Pharma doctors and Big Ag companies, but Preventative Medicine doctors and educators such as Neal Barnard, MD of the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine; Michael Greger, MD who predicted the current global pandemic in 2006; T. Colin Campbell, PhD, biochemist and Professor Emeritus at Cornell University; Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, heart disease expert who treated President Bill Clinton; Michael Klaper, MD, NASA nutrition advisor; Joel Kahn, MD, one of the world’s top cardiologists; Garth Davis, MD, Ironman triathlete; Ellsworth Wareham, MD, centenarian and one of the earliest practitioners of open heart surgery who practiced until age 74 and trained residents until age 95; et al. risked ridicule and contempt from their colleagues and the general public.

Preventative Medicine doctors and educators; Nonhuman Rights advocates, academicians and lawyers; ethical environmentalists and plant based nutritionists deserve Respect and Praise for their Accomplishments, Courage and Passion in the arenas of Education and Awareness, Advocacy and Legislation, and Rescue and Sanctuary to save the planet; solve the human sickness, sick care, financial, pandemic crises; eradicate world hunger; and end unnecessary violence and suffering (and consequential hatred and discrimination) while Big Pharma, Big Ag and cohorts focus on their next profit motivated venture, covid vaccines.

Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Carl Sagan, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison

It remains old news that the elimination of animal agriculture, factory farms and CAFOs can
(1) save the planet;
(2) solve the sickness/sick care/financial/pandemic crises;
(3) eradicate world hunger; and
(4) end unnecessary violence and suffering.

The issue is what to eat.  For this reason, I will be making more videos about tasty, delicious, plant based food and easy recipes soon.  (This year I have been preparing an exciting surprise project and searching for a working farm for the Rescue and Sanctuary…both coming soon!)

“Taken on the whole, I would believe that Gandhi‘s views
were the most enlightened of all the political men of our time.”
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

“In my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.
The more helpless the creature, the more it is entitled to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

“I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human,
but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth.”
Gandhi

“When I see a cow, it is not an animal to eat, it is a poem of pity for me and I worship it
and I shall defend its worship against the whole world.”
Gandhi

“Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man’s supremacy over lower animals meant not that
the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower,
and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man.
They had also brought out the truth that man eats not for enjoyment but to live.”
Gandhi

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Gandhi

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission
can alter the course of history.” 

Gandhi

“I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species.
We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it.
I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage
that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.”
Gandhi

“How smart does a chimp have to be before killing him constitutes murder?”
Carl Sagan, 1934-1996

“Humans–who enslave, castrate, experiment on,
and fillet other animals–have had an understandable penchant
for pretending animals do not feel pain.
A sharp distinction between humans and ‘animals’ is essential if
we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them–
without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret.
It is unseemly of us,
who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals,
to contend that only humans can suffer.
The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious.
They are just too much like us.”
Carl Sagan

“Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable.
Of the entire brood, he’s the one that possesses malice.
He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain.
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures;
but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.”
Mark Twain, 1835-1910

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine,
but will interest his patients in the care of the human body,
in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
Thomas Edison, 1847-1965

Health care v. Sick care

With respect to health, do you have health care or sick care? Think about it.

If you have health care, your doctor educates you. He is a pillar in the community. He is an advocate and an activist. He remains interested in your health and well being. He invites you to free weekly webinars, allows you to schedule time to take a walk with him and ask questions, gives lectures, hosts conferences (to which he invites everyone not only medical professionals) and writes books. He is your mentor and educator. He empowers you to live a long, healthy life by eating properly and exercising. He is a courageous and progressive leader, speaks out, speaks up and states the Truth. He believes in transparency. He respects and practices his Hippocratic Oath, “first do no harm,” and does what is right instead of what is popular. He is concerned about your only body and our only home, planet earth. He practices and prescribes a plant based diet. He has reverence for all life.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Hippocrates, circa 460-370 BC

The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.”
Hippocrates

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine,
but will interest his patients in the care of the human body,
in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
Thomas Edison, 1847-1965

“Nothing will benefit human health
and increase chances for survival of life on Earth
as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
Albert Einstein, 1879–1955
(If Einstein lived between 1970 and today, I trust he would advocate veganism.)

On the other hand, if you have sick care, your doctor lets you eat and do whatever you want. He is not active in the community nor is he an advocate or activist. He remains interested in prescribing drugs and doing procedures. He has no educational activities to offer. He is not your mentor or educator. He leads you to believe that degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and autoimmune diseases; chronic illnesses like arthritis, acne, allergies, digestive disorders, impotence; joint pain, hearing aids, etc. are expected and normal parts of aging. He enables you to stay addicted to drugs, and dependent upon tests and procedures. He remains Silent on global matters. He gets paid based on the number of procedures he does and receives kick backs from Big Pharma to promote drugs. His salary increases with each sick patient.

We are moving towards a health care system for all in which all doctors get paid via Capitation, ie, all doctors get paid salaries that they retain entirely as long as all of their patients remain well. A portion of the salary is deducted for each sick patient. Accordingly, Capitation serves as Incentive for doctors to strive to achieve optimal health for all patients.