Upcoming Events

Niagara Action for Animals’ Vegan Potluck

Friday, June 6, 2008, 7:00 pm at the Unitarian Congregation of Niagara, 223 Church Street, St. Catharines (beside Delta Bingo).

Vegan potlucks are a great way of socializing, trying new and delicious foods and participating in a free exchange of ideas while saving the lives of countless animals. The events are free and everyone is welcome.

*This will be the last potluck before our summer hiatus. The potlucks will resume in September.

What to Bring: If you bring a dish of food, make enough to serve 8-10 people. If you’re not sure what to bring, a fruit tray or veggie platter is an easy alternative to cooking or baking. Non-alcoholic beverages are also needed. If you bring a beverage, a large carton or jug of juice or flavoured soymilk will do just fine*. Also, bring a small piece of paper or index card with a list of ingredients and potential allergens (nuts, wheat, etc.) to place beside your dish. A stove and microwave are available if your food needs to be warmed. Non-disposable plates, bowls, glasses, cutlery, and cloth napkins will be provided.

*Out of respect for the church’s ban on bottled water, please refrain from bringing any to the potlucks.

A Word about Vegan Meals: In consideration of all animals, meals should be free of meat (including fish and chicken), and products that come from animals, such as eggs, honey and dairy. Also avoid using soy cheeses with ‘casein’ (a milk protein) listed as an ingredient. Providing a vegan meal will allow everyone to enjoy your food. To help you with meal ideas, there are plenty of great vegan recipe books available or you can go online to any number of vegan websites (keywords: vegan recipes).

Clean Up: Your participation in cleaning up after each event (doing dishes, sweeping, rearranging chairs, etc) would be greatly appreciated. It can take a few people several hours to clean up, or it can take all of us only 30 minutes!

See you there!

For more information, or if you need a ride, please contact Dan at: dkw1@sympatico.ca

"Animals are my friends…and I don’t eat my friends." - George Bernard Shaw

Horse racing is cruel; don't support it

Editorial & Opinion - The Niagara Falls Review - Thursday, May 8, 2008

To read The Review's coverage of the opening of the Fort Erie Race Track, one would assume that winning money, hanging out with friends and drinking beer is what the track is all about. Sounds like a lot of fun - I might consider going myself, if it weren't for all the animal exploitation.

The truth is, horses at racetracks are worked hard - sometimes beaten - to win the race.

If I were to do to a dog what jockeys do to horses, I'd be charged with animal cruelty. But for some reason, this kind of abuse is allowed, even encouraged, by our society.

Some say the horses don't feel the whips. Then why use them? The answer is obvious: To make them go faster. The animals run faster to avoid the pain of the whip. It's not rocket science.

Racing horses can be deadly, too. The fact that you have large, muscular animals running very fast and on very thin legs means there will be injuries. Too often, these injuries are fatal. If an injured animal cannot be rehabilitated, or if the veterinary costs are too high, it is put down.

Supporters have argued that every precaution is taken to ensure the animals' safety but in the end, deaths are inevitable.

These animals don't volunteer. Their bodies are pushed beyond their limits and if injured, their lives are taken from them.

So maybe it's time to stop racing horses. Surely, we can find some other form of entertainment that doesn't exploit or endanger these beautiful and noble animals.

Daniel K. Wilson,
Niagara Center for Animal Rights Awareness,
St. Davids

Don't sugarcoat it: the annual seal hunt is barbaric

Editorial - The St. Catharines Standard - Friday, May 2, 2008

Re: Seal hunt protest lives on propaganda, The Standard, April 25.

It's ironic to read an editorial so full of half-truths accusing others of spreading propaganda. Since when are 12-day-old seals (the age their fur begins to moult) considered adults? For it is at this age that it is legal to shoot and/or club seals.

And while eight out of 10 seals killed for their skins are babies, the sealers that kill the adults leave behind orphans too young to take care of themselves.

It's worth noting that killing seals is not a full-time job, it merely supplements the incomes of those in the fishing industry - a little extra cash if you will.

A little more knowledge on the subject and the author would know that activists also oppose other forms of animal exploitation, including the unnecessary and cruel slaughter of animals for human consumption. That's why a growing number of activists, as well as other people, have become vegetarians.

The author also mentions that harp seals are not endangered. So what? Neither are Homo Sapiens, but no one would endorse the killing of them.

And to call the killing of seals, cows, chickens and other sentient beings a "harvest" is just as misleading as the rest of the article. Apples are harvested, corn is harvested, animals are killed, butchered and slaughtered.

A number of animal welfare groups, including the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies and the Humane Society of the United States, have called the seal slaughter inhumane. I wonder why the author failed to mention this?

Some may consider slaughtering helpless babies an honest living. Our government, which cares more about revenue than anything else, certainly sees nothing wrong with it.

But please don't sugarcoat the truth - the seal slaughter is barbaric and a civilized society would have ended it long ago.

Daniel Wilson
Four Mile Creek,
St. David's