If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls...

...everyone would be vegetarian.

Or at least that's what people who take the time to put text on images of cows and post them on the Internet would have you believe. And if you walked around Taiji during the dolphin drive hunt season, you'd probably think they believe it too. That would be a pretty logical explanation for all the secrecy, right? All the tarps and barricades and "No Trespassing" signs are there because seeing how the animals they eat are killed makes people uncomfortable and less likely to eat it, right?

Wrong.

One town over, in Kii Katsuura, the fish market is practically a tourist attraction. The slaughterhouse goes a step further than having glass walls: it has no walls. So another Cove Guardian and I went over to see if they'd object to our presence as much as the killers of Taiji do.

WARNING: At the risk of stating the obvious, the photos in this post with the word "slaughterhouse" in the title are going to be quite graphic.

Read more »

Petitions

I'm not usually into petitions, but when it comes to this, I'm willing to grasp at straws.

Sea Shepherd has filed two petitions on the White House  “We The People” page which seek the U.S. Government’s support in upholding conservation law regarding protecting at-risk whales in the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and with ensuring safe haven for the organization’s respected founder, Captain Paul Watson. It'd be rad if anyone reading this could sign and share them. It just takes a couple of minutes.

Petition the First: “Take strong action to stop the Japanese from killing whales in the Southern Ocean Antarctic Whale Sanctuary”

“The President must take swift and decisive action against Japan's illegal whaling.

Under the Pelly Amendment and the Packwood-Magnuson Amendment, the President has the power to apply economic sanctions against Japan for its continued whale slaughter in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. The United States asserts that it resolutely opposes whale hunting by Japan, but does little to actually bring a halt to the practice.

The U.S. State Dept. has declared: “We remain resolute in our opposition to commercial whaling, including so-called ‘scientific’ whaling, in particular in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary established by the International Whaling Commission. In this context we wish to emphasize that lethal techniques are not required in modern whale conservation and management.”

Petition the Second:  “Provide Safe Haven to Captain Paul Watson, Founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society”

"We request the U.S. not extradite U.S citizen Paul F. Watson.

There are two active Interpol Red Notices issued against Captain Watson at the request of Costa Rica and Japan. Underlying these notices are non-lethal acts in defense of marine life suffering from illegal shark fishing and whaling operations. The warrants are politically motivated

Captain Watson is a world-renowned and highly respected leader in environmental issues. In 1999, he was awarded President George H.W. Bush’s "Daily Points of Light" Award and in 2000, he was named one of Time Magazine’s “Top 20 Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century.” In 2012, he became only the second person ever to be honored with the Jules Verne Award for environmentalists and adventurers. Captain Watson is a national treasure."

If the US government won't grant the first (which would be insane), they should at least grant the second, so Captain Watson and the Sea Shepherd crew can take care of what they won't.

You do not have to be a US resident or citizen to sign these petitions. Just be 13 years of age or older. You can read more about them here.

Please take a moment to sign the petitions. These guys sure will appreciate it:

 

Upcoming Events

There are so many events coming up in NYC over the next few months it's a little overwhelming. Here's a selction:

Monday, January 28: Dinner with Sea Shepherd at Blossom Chelsea

Eat, drink and be merry because Blossom is donating 10% of their receipts to Sea Shepherd on Monday! Blossom is located at 187 9th Avenue, NYC. They seat for dinner 5:15 PM to 9:30 PM and reservations are recommended. Make one at blossomnyc.com or by calling 212.627.1144 ext. 5.

Thursday, January 31 - Saturday, February 2: The 3rd Annual New York Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
The festival will be full of great films and speakers, including a local Sea Shepherd Cove Guardian. His presentation about Operation Infinite Patience will be part of Thursday night's program. Tickets and more information here. Use the code "sea shepherd" for $1 off.

Sunday, February 10: The Vegan Bake-Off Dessert Competition*
Seriously. I think it's the first event of it's kind in NYC, which is really exciting. Also, I entered, which is kind of terrifying. Get more info, tickets or enter here: http://www.veganbakeoff.com/

Sunday, February 17: Sea Shepherd's Second Annual Whalentine's Day Bake Sale
Yes, it's the best thing about the winter season: bake sale time! At the always wonderful MooShoes, of course. Get all the info here and sign up to bake here.

Tuesday, February 19: At the Edge of the World Screening + Q&A w/film director and crew
The film is kind of like a prequel to Whale Wars. We'll be showing it at NYU, for a suggested donation of $10 per person (but everything is appreciated and no one will be turned away, as long as there's room. Get all the details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/243281942471065/

After that, we'll be screening The Cove and Galapagos with Q&A sessions with volunteers from each of those campaigns and we have some other plans up our sleeves, so be sure to add Sea Shepherd NYC on Facebook or Twitter or join our mailing list (email nyc at seashepherd dot org) to stay up to date.


*Not a Sea Shepherd event, just awesome.

Here We Go Again

As you may have gathered from my last post*, I find the current situation in Taiji, Japan very upsetting. So I'm going back. Next month, I will rejoin Sea Shepherd at the Cove for Operation Infinite Patience, where I will help stop Japan's dolphin slaughter. I hope to update this blog regularly from Japan. In addition, I'll be tweeting and the Cove Guardians have a Facebook page and Twitter account and post updates on Sea Shepherd's website.

Travel to Japan is expensive, so I'm doing a bit of fundraising to help me on my way. There are four ways you can help, if you'd like:

1. Buy some of the knitwear I have for sale. I hope to put more things up over time, but here's what I have so far:

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Semi-Annual Update

Hello, the Internet! What's been happening lately? I hope you're well. What have I been up to? Glad you asked!

1. Terry Hope Romero's latest book, Vegan Eats World has hit the shelves and it's everything I hoped it would be and more. Hard cover! Beautiful photos! Delicious recipes (obviously)! If you have an ice cream maker, please make the mochi and let me know how it is so I can be jealous (or share!).

2. Isa Chandra Moskowitz's next book, Isa Does It, is nearing the end of the recipe testing stage (I think) and it's amazing. DIY gnocchi on a week night? Done. Burgers from scratch in 30 minutes? Yes. The best chocolate chip cookies in the world (HINT: rosemary)? Sorted. Vegan meatballs and spaghetti that don't disappoint? Victory! Seriously, this may be my favorite cookbook. I may say that about every cookbook, but this time I mean it even more: the recipes are delicious and most are timed so you can start them when you're already hungry without losing your mind and personally, I can't ask for more than that.

3. This bit's a lot less happy, sorry: I'd like to talk about what's been happening at the Cove lately.

If you're reading this (all three of you), you've probably seen the film The Cove, about the dolphin drive hunt in Taiji, Japan. As an onshore volunteer with Sea Shepherd,  I discuss that movie with people quite a bit and appreciate having a mainstream film to refer to, even though Sea Shepherd was on the ground in Japan and cut the nets years before Ric O'Barry and his crew showed up. Unfortunately, for most people, the take home message of the film seems to be "Eating dolphin is bad, don't do that", which absolves them of all responsibility, since they don't. But that's missing half the point.

Ric O'Barry stated that he made the film as a tool against the captive dolphin industry. He realized how horrific it is and felt responsible for it because he had worked as a trainer on the TV show "Flipper", which he believes made people want to get all cozy with dolphins. Somehow this part of the message has been lost on most people.

This past week was the most horrific time at the Cove most of us have ever known. The dolphin killers drove an enormous pod of dolphins into the Cove Tuesday night (NYC time; Wednesday morning Taiji time) and didn't finish with them until Sunday night. These were bottlenose dolphins (the most sought after by dolphinaria) and they were driven for one purpose: captivity.

Read more »

S'more Protection for the Oceans 3.0

 National S'mores Day is coming up, so Sea Shepherd NYC is holding our third annual S'more Protection for the Oceans fundraiser! Sweet & Sara is providing the vegan marshmallows and graham crackers, local vegan bakeries will be providing even more sweets and we'll be bringing raffle prizes from:

Verameat
Compassion Couture
Christy Robinson
Gristle Tattoo
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics
Brooklyn Grooming
Candle 79
Rescue Chocolate
Pacific Northwest Kale Chips
Cyberoptix Tie Lab
Sue Coe
Lazy Dog Designs
Sacha Vida
TofuXPress
Sustainable NYC
Primal Strips
Pangea Vegan Products
Vegan Essentials
Olia Designs
Cri de Coeur
Jaan J.
Dun-Well Doughnuts
Klean Kanteen

and more. Also, everyone who walks through the door will receive a free five-piece lunch set from reuseit.com.

Crew and campaign volunteers will be on hand to chat and answer questions and all the usual Sea Shepherd merchandise (and some new items) will be available for sale.

When: Monday, August 13, 7 PM
Where: V-Spot, 156 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets: seashepherd.org/nyc

Hope to see you there!

Sharkwater

So Paul Watson is still under house arrest in Germany. The bad part of that is that he may miss out on some upcoming projects. For example, Sea Shepherd's shark campaign in the South Pacific is due to start next month, and Costa Rica has until mid-August to file their extradition claim.

The good news is that Sea Shepherd has the infrastructure to carry on without him, so all the campaigns will continue, regardless of whether or not Captain Watson is released (which isn't to say that we shouldn't be writing and calling whenever we can to get him the hell out of there). Also, Paul has been making the most of his time in Germany: he was invited on stage at Rock am Ring with Gojira and at Mötley Crüe's German show to raise awareness of Sea Shepherd's work. He also checked out some vessels with one of The Simpsons' creators, and when SSCS returns to the Southern Ocean this winter, the M/V Sam Simon will have joined the fleet!

If you haven't been following Sea Shepherd news for the past month or so and all this extradition and house arrest talk has you a little confused, fear not!

This Saturday, some other local Sea Shepherd volunteers and I will be at Jivamukti Yoga School to explain the situation and what you can do to help and show the film Sharwater which documents the interaction between a Sea Shepherd vessel and shark poaching boat that Captain Watson was arrested for.

For more information and to RSVP, CLICKITY. Hope to see you there!

In Our Own Back Yard

When I returned home from Taiji and told people what I witnessed and experienced, their immediate response was the expected horror and revulsion, often followed by a bizarre sense of relief and superiority. The dolphin slaugher happened there. That could never happen here. We are civilized. We would never invest government funds to indiscriminately kill wildlife, intelligent animals with families and relationships, and feed their potentially hazardous flesh to people who have no choice but to eat it.

Ahahaha.

Ahem.

Under the pretense of aviation safety and charitable acts, the USDA has been killing Canada geese in NYC parks and saying they will feed the goose meat to homeless and other needy people. Really.

Back in 2009, migrating Canada geese were blamed for taking down the "Miracle on the Hudson" (from which everyone escaped safely), despite the craft's history of engine trouble. Mayor Bloomberg's response was to arrange a contract between the DEP and USDA to slaughter local, non-migrating, Canada geese on city property.

I could go on and on about why this makes no damn sense, but thankfully, someone else has done it for me:

Check out their website here: http://www.goosewatchnyc.com/

Then sign up to help. The wonderful people of GooseWatch are looking for people who live near NYC's parks and are willing to keep an eye on them and let us know when the USDA is there so we can document what they do, bear witness and hopefully discourage it from ever happening again.

If you would like to get involved, or just keep up on what's going on, please contact GooseWatch at

Phone: (567) NY-GOOSE
Email: goosewatching@gmail.com
'Like' GooseWatch NYC on Facebook

Follow on Twitter

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

No, not Christmas. Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale time!

Yes, the absolutely amazingly lovely people at MooShoes are opening their doors to us once again. This time, we're raising money for the courageous and dedicated Darwin Animal Doctors. Not only is DAD the only vet-staffed, full-time, year round clinic serving all animals in the Galapagos UN World Heritage Site, but they've been pitching in to help the animals down at Occupy Wall Street and are generally rad individuals.

What: Bake sale!Bring your appetite and a container to take your treats home in!
Where: MooShoes, 78 Orchard Street, New York, NY
When: Sunday, April 22, 12:30-5:30 PM
 RSVP: Here!
Sign up to bake: Here!

Hope to see you there!

Kind of a Big Deal

The rest of the Sea Shepherd NYC crew and I have been working hard on this for a while, so I'm pretty excited it's finally happening:

Yup, Friday, May 4, Paul Watson's going to be in town for a swanky Sea Shepherd birthday party!

It's going to be rad. We've got some amazing auction items and gift baggy type things lined up, and in addition to Paul, several other crew members and Cove Guardians (like me!) will be there, shmoozing about all things related to shepherding the sea.

There will be food! Drinks! Music! Door prizes! Auctions! Action! Adventure! *Romance!

Point your mouse clicker here to get your tickets while the getting's good: https://my.seashepherd.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=541




*Romance not guaranteed.