Life is horrible because my whisker munchkins got adopted and now I have to go to Hawaii.

In the last few years, Paul has traveled a lot for work… most notably, Hawaii.

I couldn’t go with him because changes to the structure of my daily life are unacceptable… unless it was my idea; then it must happen immediately, with everyone’s enthusiastic participation.

Paul went to Hawaii three separate times before I was begrudgingly compelled by my own bad-wife-shame entitlement to that which I do not deserve, but have somehow GOTTEN ANYWAY.

Essentially:
I do not want anyone else to have this prize I did not win.

I would hate for some other woman, (smarter than me) to walk off with the man who memorializes my deceasedsoulbabycat’s name in produce.

So… JUST INCASE it’s a bad plan– to leave my husband off on tropical islands, to ponder how his wife is a non-functional human and he deserves a refund?

Just incase.
HERE I AM.

fine print:
there will be no refunds.

BUT I HAD FOUR FLUFFMUNCHKINS.
And Paul was already gone.

This meant I had to do heart-ripping-out-day, alone.

Heart-ripping-out-day is when I take my babies and hand them over to total strangers… then I go home and crawl into despair.

Despair marches me through sterilizing the house; so that I CAN GET MORE DRUGS TO FIX THE HORRIBLE HEART-SHATTERING WITHDRAWAL FROM LOVE.

If you can’t foster, there are still SO MANY ways to help! I wrote a post here about ways you can help your local shelter!

Lots of ways don’t even necessitate you interacting with animals, or having them in your home!

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

But if you are going to stupid Hawaii, you have to do heart-ripping-out day, and then NOT GET THE DRUGS TO FIX THE FLUFFLOVE-HEARTGAP.

WHY WOULD A HUSBAND DO SOMETHING SO TERRIBLE TO HIS WIFE?

All of my babies come with 327-pages-of-ocd-instructions-masquerading-as-helpful-tips… I write ALL of it.

But the real reason for the 327 pages, is that I need to tell the new family 87,294 times in bold print: here is my name, phone, email, home address… if you ever need ANYTHING, I am here.

If there is EVER a time when you cannot care for this baby… even if it is 20 years from now, ALL you have to do is contact me AND I WILL COME AND GET THEM ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

I feel like this is the only protection I can give my babies… and it’s so miserably inadequate; to send my tiny precious little souls out into the world with only some pages of words.

Writing these letters is indescribable.

These are my flufflesmooch crazypants wigglemuffins.

My wild animals. My hooligans. My love bugs.
My destroyers of all things precariously balanced.

They are my Little Bear, my best-kept secret, and Crown Prince of the Shoulder Monkeys… my Tiny Minya, Destructriss of Fluffy Toys… my Sir Earl Gray— Chancellor of the Tea Party! And Runtle, short for Runtlestiltskin (thank my brother), the babiest of the babies!

Cry. Is not a word that applies.
This is different.

Tears flow out of my face without stopping… it is a tsunami of sadness.

I cry because I cannot be sure that everysingleday they will be entirely covered with kisses from inside their silky little ears, down to the fluffy spots between their tiny toes.

I cry because my Little Bear loves to get right up into your shoulder AS CLOSE AS HE CAN and eat your hair while purring directly into your ear and kneading his tiny baby claws into your face… and I cannot be sure that someone else will UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE.

Yes, you very well MIGHT lose an eye; THAT IS WHY YOU HAVE TO HOLD STILL.

I soaked the front of my sweatshirt because I cannot fix this.

I cried because it is all so futile… because no matter how many kittens I foster… I CANNOT HELP THEM ALL.

I cried because until we see that ALL beings deserve love; this will never be a good world for any kitten, any animal, any baby who is born without the privilege to be seen as valuable.

There will still be row after row of babies in veal crates: the dairy industry.
There will still be baby boy chicks ground up alive: the egg industry.
There will still be baby piglets “thumped,” smashing them on the ground by their hind legs.

We call it dinner.

During this meditation on the essential futility of loving animals in a world that does not; Minya charged in and out, destroying things and terrorizing imaginary spots on the wall— jumping three feet in the air because WALL.

WHY IS.
WALL.

DEATH TO.
WALL.

And I will tell you this:
The family who got Minya? They got EXTRA… and it wasn’t extra cuddles.

I feel like I have cried all the tears for all the animals.
I feel like I have TRIED SO HARD TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
And it has made no difference at all.

It does not just exhaust me.
It makes me feel done with life.

I realize that is unexpected… and I AM OKAY WITH THAT… something is happening in my brain: I’m done NOT being honest about who I am.

Pretending that everything is fine is too exhausting and also really stupid and I am finished.

This is who I am.
I cannot handle any of this.

I am tired of pretending otherwise.
Being broken, alone, is too hard.

Instead, I am going to be broken as loudly as I can… it’s literally ALL I have to offer this world, so its time I quit shying away from it and just get started.

JOIN ME!!!!!!!!
I TOTALLY KNOW HOW TO PARTY!!!

IF YOU LOVE KITTENS…
WHY NOT LOVE BABY COWS TOO?

They come in different colors!
They love their mama!
They are adorable and hilarious!

They are kind.
And gentle.
And we FORCE them to suffer.

Just like humans, cows must be pregnant to produce breastmilk… and just like humans, cows carry their babies for nine months.

On a dairy farm, newborn babies are taken from their mothers immediately… so that humans can drink their mother’s breastmilk.

If the baby is a girl, she becomes a breastmilk factory.
If the baby is a boy, he becomes veal.

They will never see their mother again.

DAIRY = VEAL

WE CAN CHANGE THIS!

All we have to do is OPEN OUR HEART.

THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN!

Casein, which makes up 87% of the protein in cow’s breastmilk, is the most significant carcinogen we consume… Casein promotes all stages of the cancer process. — Dr. Colin T. Campbell

EVERY SINGLE YEAR, WE LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW EATING ANIMALS = CANCER.

BRAND NEW science now shows us that Bovine Leukemia Virus causes breast cancer… a common virus of cattle globally; for decades it was believed to NOT impact humans… spoiler-alert: whoops!

Bovine Leukemia Virus CAUSES BREAST CANCER.
— National Institutes of Health (OUR GOVERNMENT! not woo-woo treehuggers like myself)

Even dairy operations with small herds of fewer than 100 cows tested positive for BLV 83% of the time… there is no incentive for the cattle industry to set up procedures to contain the spread of the virus.
— UC Berkeley (totes woo-woo treehuggers like myself)

do you know how much we spend treating breast cancer?
do you know how much the meat and dairy industry spends on lobbying?
do these numbers matter?

I say yes.

Here is an outtake of a longer video that gives an overview of how the USDA got into the business of selling us a carcinogen.

Have you ever asked yourself:
Why are humans the only animal to consume breastmilk after infancy?
Why are humans the only species in the entire animal kingdom to drink another species’ breastmilk?
Who decided that breastmilk intended to turn a 70 lb newborn calf into a 1,500 lb cow… is good for humans?

Is the answer to all of those questions: because our government got involved in the dairy industry?

OH… WHO CARES!!
We love cheese!

BUT WHY? WHY DO WE LOVE CHEESE SO MUCH?
There’s actually an answer to this!

Cheese is highly-concentrated breastmilk… and condensing and concentrating that milk also concentrates the hormones that make nursing feel good to a baby.

In the human brain, these hormones stimulate the same receptors as heroin and morphine; regardless of whether that breastmilk comes from a human, a cow, a goat, etc.

“Digesting breastmilk creates casomorphins, which attach to the brain’s opiate receptors; causing a calming effect in much the same way heroin and morphine do.”
— Dr. Neal Barnard, professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Does it matter that the links between dairy consumption and cancer are evidence-based?

Does it matter that science tells us that other species’ breastmilk is bad for us… UNLESS that “science” is conducted by Dannon or funded by the milk-industry?

Rather than try to edit all the science into one paragraph, I’ll send you to read this excellent and thorough article at Mother Jones.

Dr. Willett (Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School) found that men who drank two or more glasses of milk a day were twice as likely to develop advanced prostate cancer as those who drank no milk.

Women who drank two and a half or more glasses of milk a day had a higher fracture risk than their counterparts who drank less than one glass a day.

Studies showed a connection between dairy consumption and breast cancer; researchers theorized that the high levels of hormones in dairy foods—specifically estrogen, progesterone, and an insulin-like compound known as IGF-1—may speed the growth of tumors. — The Scary New Science That Shows Milk Is Bad For You

Hang on! I thought milk = calcium!! Strong bones! HEALTH!!
Right…???

But WHERE did we get that idea?
WHO told us that?

Was it the people who are financially invested in SELLING US MILK?

“The exploitation of animals by humans is a stunning example of progressive deference to the normalcy of oppression… A serious anti-oppression movement can’t have the bodies and byproducts of exploited beings on its plate while claiming moral superiority. If we continue to exploit animals while protesting oppression, then the conservatives are right about us — we’re a movement of hypocrites.” – Chris Sosa … #vegan #vegansofig #animals #animalkingdom #animalrights #animalliberation #resist #justice #socialjustice #antioppression #progress #progressive #itsallconnected #meat #dairy #eggs #undeniablydairy #dairyfree #dairytruth #milktruth #dairyfarm

A post shared by Mothers Against Dairy (@mothersagainstdairy) on Sep 15, 2017 at 3:10pm PDT

Is it possible that politics and capitalism dictate the American food system; creating a market that is completely destructive to public health and the environment; and yet embraced because societal norms tell us that WE LOVE CHEESE! (AND BACON!)

Is it possible… THAT WE ARE NOT COWS??

Is it possible that what we ate to survive winter in Kansas in 1823, is the dietary equivalent of living in a cave without wifi? I mean, survival is awesome! But why are we still making choices to feed ourselves like we are only going to live to be 42?

Is that a biological development? A cultural development? Or a development based on the PROFITABLY OF DAIRY CORPORATIONS?

Lobbying by the $50 billion dairy industry clouds policy on nutrition.
— Food Politics, Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University.

Does it matter that our own wellbeing, the health of our loved ones, and the health of the planet that our children will inherit…  are MOST IMPACTED BY HOW WE FEED OURSELVES.

Does it matter that the intensive farming of animals is the single biggest cause of climate change?
Not cars
Not overpopulation
Not countries with no environmental regulations
WHAT WE EAT.

Does it matter that the way we feed ourselves requires that children in underprivileged countries go hungry?

82% of starving children live in countries where food is fed to animals, and the animals are eaten by western countries. — Dr. Richard Oppenlander

Does it matter that our planet’s resources are finite and that we NEED THEM TO SURVIVE… and yet allow meat and dairy industries to exploit, pollute, and destroy the planet we live on!

Does it matter that animal agriculture is the leading cause of rainforest destruction… 70% of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing. — United Nations, FAO

Does it matter that while California experienced a drought of alarming proportions… the industry that exports CA-grown alfalfa to China’s growing dairy industry was exempt from water regulations?  Video below is from National Geographic.

Does it matter that animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones? (source: our own epa!)
Does it matter that 80% of antibiotics used in the United States are for livestock? (FDA pdf)

Does it matter that a food system that uses SO MUCH ANTIBIOTIC has huge repercussions for human health?

Does it matter that everything is connected?

I think so! I think there is nothing that matters MORE!

I think it is terrifying that our government values profit and lobbyists over human health and the PLANET WE ALL NEED TO LIVE ON… and it makes me MAD.

MAD. MAD. MAD

If it makes you mad too, go forth and make other people mad!

If you haven’t seen Forks Over Knives, start there! Then watch Cowspiracy… (both of these are on Netflix)… Read all of the ALARMING (and well documented) facts page on the Cowspiracy website.

Read The China Study: learn about the factory-farming industry’s attempts to brainwash everyone in America into thinking they will die at any moment from a protein deficiency! Like this pitiful weakling: USA’s Olympian record-holding weightlifter who is vegan… Farris set an American weightlifting record by lifting 800 pounds at the 2016 Olympic Trials… SAD!

Is it possible that our collective insanity surrounding the cultural obsession with PROTEIN… is BAD FOR US? Do any of those guys slamming down shakes, bars, supplements even know that TOO MUCH PROTEIN IS BAD or did Men’s Fitness magazine fail to mention that because their job is to sell magazines and those magazines are funding by the advertising dollars from protein supplement manufacturers?

Some individuals, especially teen boys and adult men, also need to reduce overall intake of protein foods by decreasing intakes of meats, poultry, and eggs.

Overall, our human and animal studies indicate that a low protein diet is likely to be useful for the prevention of cancer, overall mortality, and possibly diabetes. — health.gov/dietaryguidelines

Did you know that one of the mysteries of human breast milk is why the protein content is so low?
Did you know that cows’ milk has 35 grams of protein per liter, while human breast milk has only 9 grams of protein per liter?

Did you know that the ratio of whey and casein proteins in human breast milk range from 80/20 – 60/40 (as breast milk progresses from colostrum to mature milk,) whereas cow milk is completely opposite at a 20/80 ratio.

The dairy industry has long promoted the myth that milk and milk products promote increased bone health—but the opposite is true. The evidence is now abundantly convincing that higher consumption of dairy is associated with higher rates of bone fracture and osteoporosis, according to Yale and Harvard University research groups.

— Dr. Walter C. Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Does it matter that just like humans, dairy cows carry their babies for nine months?
Does it matter that those babies are taken from their mothers immediately?
Does it matter that the dairy industry IS the veal industry?
Does it matter that the mother cow will cry for her baby loudly enough to alarm neighbors enough to call the police?
Does it matter that after her body is worn out, after being forced to have child after child, and never getting to nurse or raise any of them… she will be sent to slaughter?

It matters to me.

I believe that babies belong with their mothers. I believe that forcing an animal to birth baby after baby… only to have those babies taken from her so that the dairy industry can sell us cancer in the form of cheese and ice cream is a grotesque mockery of nature and motherhood and our own humanity.

And I have one more question:

If we can live healthier,
MORE COMPASSIONATE lives
without dairy…
WHY WOULDN’T WE?

THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO THE FORGOTTEN MOTHERS… SPECIFICALLY, THIS ONE.

She arrived at the slaughterhouse, unable to walk off the truck.
Please read her story.

This mother spent her life pregnant, but she never knew any of her children. Her sons became veal. Her daughters suffered her same fate so that humans could harvest her breastmilk.

When her production dwindled with age, she was sent to slaughter. She was injured in transport, and wasn’t able to walk off the truck… the slaughterhouse workers used their electric prods in her ear to try to get her out of the truck, then beat and kicked her in the face, ribs, and back, but still she didn’t move.

They tied a rope around her neck, tied the other end to a post in the ground, and drove the truck away. She was dragged along the floor of the truck and fell to the ground, shattering her legs and pelvis.

She remained like that from 8am until 7:30pm. For the first 3hours, she lay in the hot sun crying. When she urinated or defecated, she used her front legs to drag herself along the gravel roadway to a clean spot. She tried to crawl to a shaded area but couldn’t move far enough.

The employees didn’t allow her any water; the only water she received was given to her by Jess Pierce, a local animal lover who had been contacted by a woman who witnessed the incident. After receiving no cooperation from stockyard workers, she called the Kenton County Police. A police officer arrived but was instructed to do nothing.

In the afternoon, the slaughterhouse manager informed Jess that he had permission from the insurance company to kill the cow but wouldn’t do it until Jessie left. Although doubtful that he would keep his word, Jess left at 3pm. She returned at 4:30pm and found the stockyard deserted. Three dogs were attacking the cow, who was still alive. She had suffered a number of bite wounds, and her water had been removed.

Jess contacted the police again. 4 officers arrived at 5:30pm, and a State trooper wanted to shoot the cow but was told that a vet should kill her. The 2 veterinarians at the facility would not euthanize her, claiming that in order to preserve the value of the meat, she could not be destroyed.

The butcher arrived at 7:30 p.m. and shot the cow. Her body was purchased for $307.50.

Repost from @milkhurts. Stealing babies from their mothers is standard practice on dairy farms all over the world. In all its forms, whether factory farm or small, local, organic, “humane,” dairy farming is based on the exploitation of female reproduction and the destruction of families to facilitate the theft of mother’s milk: baby food for baby animals. The very idea is so violently entitled, so deeply offensive and unfeminist, and profoundly anti-mother. We should cringe at the very thought. Learn more at freefromharm.org/dairyfacts #dairytruth #milktruth #milklife #milkhurts #dairygood no such thing as #humanedairy #vegan

A post shared by Mothers Against Dairy (@mothersagainstdairy) on Mar 24, 2017 at 1:16pm PDT

We can change this.
All we need is love.
❤️🐾💕🌱🐯🐒
VEB