Friday, September 30, 2011

Rescued Hens eating Chickweed from my hand :-) VIDEO

They're all getting along marvelously!  Today Yellow Hen came back from the vet clinic too! :-)

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Rescued Hens Enjoy A Sunny Day VIDEO

Black Chick gets along well with our new, Ex "battery cage" rescued friends :-)




Compare the difference between the rescued Hens feathers (what little they have) compared to Black Chicks

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Rescued Hens, package from Cyndi, Dan's cake! :-) PHOTOS

What a day!

Heres a piece of the cake INVSOC member Dan gave me, well done with this fruitcake Dan! :-)


You may remember my epic saga in meeting Dan, the first other Vegan I met who *also* lived in Invercargill :-)

Also, a package from listener and INVSOC member Cyndi Rook arrived all the way from Texas!  Thank you Cyndi!


Also, before getting Black Chick back from the Vet clinic (Yellow Hen is still very, very ill, they were sick of being together in the recovery cage, Black Chick is fine, went with her sister for company), I asked my friend Sharon if I could borrow two of their rescued, ex battery Hens.  George and Sharon visit a local "Battery farm", asking for older Hens, giving them a place to live out their lives.  The workers bring them out by their legs, they hang upside down in a terrible state, having being wrenched from their cages.  I'm very grateful that Sharon would let two of them stay with me, to enjoy living here, to keep Black Chick company.  I hope Yellow Hen will recover from the cats attack, and also meet our new friends.



Black Chick is honestly HALF as tall as they are!  She was very panicked after coming home from the vet clinic in a box, she seemed quiet and terrified, she'd been in a strange car, with a dog.  I held her up, to introduce her to the new Hens, keeping her a safe distance away, so they could see each other.  I placed her up higher than the new Hens, so she could look down at them, and she boldly walked down a ramp, to eat grain amongst them - WHILE KEEPING HERSELF PUFFED UP!  She wanted to be the Alpha (fe)Male :-)

I'm finding it hard to get used to these new Hens, (having known them for all of a few hours), they are twice the height of the Bantam Chickens I've been caring for these last few years, and much "thinner".  Their bodies have uncomfortable angles, they are still missing many feathers, and appear to have suffered greatly through their horrible, horrible lives being treated as commodities.  To see them really brings home all the awful things we do to other animals.

Sharon suggested they may well grow back their feathers living here, and be close to whole again.

I hope they will love living here as truly free Hens, and that they can be joined by more in the future!

Thank you once again to Dan for her cake, and Cyndi for a T shirt, zine and postcard from the other side of the world, Texas, USA :-)

Sunday, September 25, 2011

INVSOC Badges colour choice narrowed down :-)



Its between these two colours, which should I go with?  The lighter "Vibrant Green", or the darker "Formal Green"?

Current INVSOC membership badges actually use "Vibrant Green" for the large coin, "Formal Green" for the small badge.

The lighter "Vibrant Green" looks better in darker surroundings, but is very florescent-esque in bright light.  "Formal Green" is more classical?  Formal?  Jaguar E Type in British Racing Green-like?

I'm leaning towards both in the darker "Formal Green", while the lighter colour often looks good in dim light, the "Formal Green" will be a better fit, replacing the growling pussycat badge on my future Time Travelling, flying, Love Powered Jaguar E Type :-)


I'll hopefully make a (poor) decision soon, so more can be sent out :-)

Monday, September 19, 2011

From The Bodies Of Babes : What We Do To Other Animals

The things we do to other animals:


"Tailing" lambs, cutting their tails off "to prevent infection"
Click photo to see blogpost about "tailing" and other harm from taking sheeps wool





"For us and our children after us" - I hope as Vegans we can break this cycle of killing Other Animals



At Pak n Save supermarket, "Packed with Iron!" we're told by "Beef + Lamb", the New Zealand "meat board".  They're also so "packed" with blood, its seeping through the plastic wrap.

Featured "Sports Ambassador" olympic medal winning cyclist Sarah Ulmer, "Beef + Lamb" use several all female athletes for their campaigns, apparently going for the "women are more likely to go vegan than men, lets reinforce that women need iron and that they can only get it from buying our product" angle




"We Love To Boogie", by T Rex, lead singer Marc Bolan was Vegetarian - currently spinning in his grave!




My friend Sam Tucker made me this shirt in response :-)








A colouring competition by government owned bank Kiwibank, where we're shown essential New Zealand - the Skytower in Auckland, the Beehive parliamentary building in our capital Wellington and skiing in Queenstown, alongside a prominent sheep.  More accurately for the post 2000's would be a "dairy" cow, monopoly Fonterra is now the countries largest company.


Pasta aimed at children, the speciesism begins at an early age: "hee hee, I'm a duck looking Chicken!  I'm hiding inside too, with the 5 "veges"!  This is fun!"

Looks like an entry for Suicide Food, animals depicted as wanting to be used in Non Vegan ways.



It all makes you want to leave some Vegan information at the supermarkets community noticeboards :-)






See other pamphlets left at local supermarkets :-)




The "Pet Smart" petfood shop here in Invercargill, at the back there are refrigerators displaying different killed and chopped up animals, from "Diced Kidneys" and "Chicken Hearts" in the middle left, to "Venison" (killed Deer), Chickens bodies, "Chicken Frames" (their skeleton, cartilage, all thats left after slaughter really) and "Chickens Necks", which are, you guessed it, the necks of Chickens.

Somehow I doubt the "Kitten Mince" and "Puppy Mince" is made *FROM* Cats and Dogs though - I only wish the same were true for all the other poor animals killed and cut up, necks, hearts, skeletons and muscle all, for this ghoulish refrigerator, and other Non Vegan cat and dog food.






Speciesism in action, a Vet office where they collect for the SPCA, caring for abandoned cats (and dogs), sell magazines "for pet lovers", posed and photoshopped photos of cats and dogs for just 6 NZD (about 5 USD), and in between?  The feet and ears of murdered pigs, sold as "pet treats"


Salvation Army, offering salvation, as long as you're a human animal! (and heterosexual)

"Hello!  I like you!  Would you like to be my friend?"



Presumably skin taken from dead baby lambs, killed from cold, snow, famine, left in slimy, rotting piles, where they are collected.....





What had been a total loss suddenly had a value when the company's subsidiary, Slink Skins (New Zealand) LTD started operations.  The pelts could be treated to become high-fashion garments.  Instead of disposing of the carcasses of new-born lambs, farmers today leave them at their farm gate where they are picked up  ((ed. and apparently thrown)) by Slink Skins vehicles"

You can see more about "Slink Skins" on the Invercargill Vegan Society  "Southlands History" page

Heres to a Vegan World

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Episode 64 The INVSOC Ten and Corporate Propaganda in our primary schools, "courtesy of our friends at the meat council"


Episode 64 The INVSOC Ten and Corporate Propaganda in our primary schools, "courtesy of our friends at the meat council"


The INVSOC Ten, Dirty Dairy, "Beef + Lamb" likes to boogie, product placement in primary schools
Listen now by downloading directly from here or, better yet, subscribe in iTunes to get each episode automagically!
Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals iTunes link





1891 had Dorian Gray, 2011 has Lil Wayne and Bruno Mars.

Welcome to another half decent episode of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals, home of the Chicken Friend.   Episode 64 -  The INVSOC Ten and Corporate Propaganda in our primary schools, "courtesy of our friends at the meat council"


Thank you so very much to my friends Mitch Bennett and Maria Velardo who provided intro bumpers for this episode.


You can find my good friend Mitch at 

http://www.earthlightandcolor.com/ , spelt the American way, C O L OR, thank you so very much for your friendship Mitch.


I'm planning to make a new page on the Invercargill Vegan Society website, www.invsoc.org.nz    The page will be similar to "We Are Weaned", the German site that shows people who have grown PAST drinking mothers milk, who are Vegan, it has hundreds of photos from all around the world, with each Vegans name and location.

I'd like to make "We Are INVSOC", which I'm told has a borg like quality, it would be filled with photos of Invercargill Vegan Society members, from our location, Invercargill at the bottom of New Zealand, and the world.

If you're an honored and treasured member of the Invercargill Vegan Society, please get in touch!  I'd love to include a photo of you with your membership badges :-)

Mitch was kind enough to pose for the first photo, taken of an INVSOC member in Michigan, in the USA, a long way from Invercargill.  You can see that photo of Mitch and my request for more photos on this shows blog, www.coexistingwith nonhumananimals.co.nz , I'll link to it in this episodes show notes, while also plugging the hell out of it on Facebook.  



If you would like to be an honorary member of INVSOC, please contact me at info@invsoc.org.nz , we'd love to include you :-)



Another INVSOC member whose given me permission to share her photo is Maria, who you heard in my second intro bumper for this episode.  Maria is with the Vegan Society of New South Wales, which - misleadingly - is not actually located in Wales, she's not Welsh, it really is false advertising Maria!  New South Wales, Australia, our neighbors "over the ditch" are most welcome in this New Zealand based Vegan Organisation.  

You can find the Vegan Society New South Wales at 


Tuesday, September 13, 2011

INVSOC Sticker


Finally got around to making INVSOC stickers :-)




Thursday, September 8, 2011

INVSOC Badges colour choice needed!

After deputizing many Invercargill Vegan Society members, "full" living in Invercargill, land of the free itself, or "honorary", unfortunately living in inferior cities, we need to order more! 


Three colour choices were made, which should we go with?

The *current* INVSOC small badges, larger "coin" were two different colours, large "coin" in the middle "vibrant green" colour, the small badge in darkest "formal green" (which reminds me of British Racing Green)


"Radioactive puke", "Vibrant Green" (current), "Formal Green"




"Formal Green" (current), "Vibrant Green" "Radioactive Puke"























Please let me know which colour (or colours) you think I should go with!

Personally, I still rather like the "Vibrant Green" larger "coin", with the badge, which is worn all the time, being the more "Formal Green".

Channelling Dr Seuss, I'm not keen on that radioactive green!

Contact me at info@invsoc.org.nz , I'd appreciate hearing your picks :-)

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Episode 63 Plastic Baton Wielding Animal Exploiters Feel Victimised


Episode 63 Plastic Baton Wielding Animal Exploiters Feel Victimised


The Greatest American of All Time, iPhones as activism tools, Vegan Mac users, "Ghetto Universities" with "All of the Lights", Google sees Veganism as mainstream enough to include in a casual help video, sonar sight replacing "guide dogs", Farmers using Plastic Pipes on other animals, one another, New Zealand politics and The Invercargill Vegan Society - now NINE members strong! :-)


Listen now by downloading directly from here or, better yet, subscribe in iTunes to get each episode automagically!
Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals iTunes link
http://itunes.apple.com/nz/podcast/coexisting-with-nonhuman-animals/id334206335






Hello and welcome to another episode of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals, the premier show of the Invercargill Vegan Society, well, by default actually, the ONLY show of the Invercargill Vegan Society :-)


Apple CEO Steve Jobs HASNT died, he stepped down from his position of CEO…to being chairman of the Board, I think he replaced Sinatra, both of them have a reputation for "I did it myyyyyyyyy wayyyyyy", he hasn't died, although things arnt looking good.

As I record this episode, I'm wearing my "Steve Jobs Lives" t shirt, you get them for being a loyal little Apple customer, for the low low price of your mortal soul.  



I agree with Professor Gary Francione on most Animal Rights issues, but I really must disagree strongly on one particular issue.  Here Professor Francione appears on Episode 86 of NZ Vegan Podcast: 




What would we do without the iPhone?  How would we talk to one another?  Record videos of our Chicken Friends?  Scan Twitter for anyone using the term "vegan" during our lunchbreaks, and reply to the ones saying "I'd like to be Vegan….but its hard….." with a genuine offer of friendly help and links to check out.  No sir, a world without the iPhone is not one I'd want to live in.


And Macs are well linked to alternative living you know :



Mac users far more likely to be "Vegetarian", by my impeccable logic, that means All Vegans MUST use all Apple products.