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Pasado Newsletter
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Vegetarian Awareness Month
Promoted by Barack O'Llama, left, Pasado's front-runner in
popularity!
(By the way, Barack is one of many Pasado's
rescued animals available for gift sponsorships for this holiday
gift-giving! Read more about that here!) |
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Contrary to the belief
of many folks from my parents’ generation that vegetarianism is some
kooky idea introduced by drug-addled hippies in the sixties, history
tells us that a vegetarian ideology was practiced by religious groups in
Egypt as far back as 3,200 BC. Many ancient Greek philosophers and
thinkers also promoted vegetarianism, including Pythagoras, Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle. The Pythagoreans were regarded as rebels, and most
kept their vegetarianism a secret for fear of persecution. This was
ancient Rome, after all, where animals were routinely murdered at the
hands of gladiators in the name of sport. The vegetarian Bogamils were
also persecuted and burned at the stake for heresy in the Tenth Century |
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The influential Greek philosopher and author, Plutarch (46-127 AD) had
no trouble expressing his distaste for meat-eating, as is evidenced in
the following quote: “I am astonished to think what appetite first
induced man to taste of a dead carcass or what motive could suggest the
notion of nourishing himself with the flesh of animals which he saw,
just before, bleating, bellowing, walking, and looking about them.”
If Plutarch could only have known...
Or DaVinci, Abraham Lincoln or a host of historical geniuses who
espoused vegetarianism
There are now millions of vegetarians worldwide. There is the National
Center for Animal Law established in 2001 in Portland, Oregon, which
provides support for students pursuing careers in animal law. There was
no such thing as a career in animal law until the seventies. There is
the Animal Legal Defense Fund which has been leading the fight to
protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal
system since 1979. |
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And the Bible says...
There is even the
Hallelujah Diet, a primarily raw foods vegan diet created by Rev. George
Malkmus, which evolved from the reverend’s belief in Genesis 1:29,
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which
is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the
fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat [food].”
Did you know...
As our Pasado hens happily can attest, every animal, whether it be a
dog, cat, chicken, pig, cow, turkey...or you or me - enjoys a "sweet"?
All vegetarians, they still have a sweet tooth. If we pick them an
apple, sweet corn, or even get left-over, day-old pies or cakes from a
bakery, no one animal turns up their noses to something yummy.
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The
Pasado's Garden
Pasado's Safe Haven's staff came up with the ingenious idea to grow a
community garden for all to enjoy - animal and human alike. All organic
(of course, we have a lot of PasaDOO here to nourish any plant!) we
planted loads of veggies and harvested bumper crops to share with
volunteers, and with every animal on the farm.
Left,
Jenny grabs a tomato. The chicken barn, seen behind her in the distance,
no doubt had a line-up of hens and roosters waiting to see what she was
picking - and hopefully bringing to them. |
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October 1 was chosen for World Vegetarian Day in honor of the late, great peace hero, Mahatma Ghandi, whose birthday is October 2. Gandhi believed that non-violence has great spiritual power. He was influenced in his philosophy of non-violence by the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and, in turn, influenced the late, great Martin Luther King, Jr. Earlier this week, India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, welcomed October 2 as the first International Day of Non-Violence, coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi's 138th birthday. |
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Please help
us celebrate Vegetarian Awareness Month by doing one small thing each
day to help an animal. Whether it’s forfeiting that slice of cheese,
buying a cloth bag instead of a leather bag, planting a Fall vegetable
garden (like our volunteers dig in to do, left), volunteering or
donating to your favorite animal charity, or enlightening your friends about the horrors of slaughterhouses, together we can make life better for our fellow creatures! |
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