GTA inVsoc ?!?!

Seen the new logo design for Grand Theft Auto Five?  (GTA V)

The INVSOC lawyers sure have!  THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!   You can't just go about grabbing eyecatching V shape designs you know!

Besides, any right thinking individual would have the horizontal text bar at the BOTTOM, not the blinking top!  Near the bottom, the V design is given an impression of piercing through a barrier, going supersonic!  At the top?  Its like you've gotten your INVSOC sweatshirt stuck over your head, arms waving about in the air, stumbling around blind.  What kind of maniac would put it at the top?!?!

Rest assured though my friends, the Republi-Chicken Guard are on the case!  We simply CANNOT allow a Stolen Product out on the market, we'll spend every dime of INVSOC's ~$40 Billion USD to right this wrong!








***UPDATE***

Kotaku sheds some light on the GTA V design,

http://kotaku.com/5853377/grand-theft-auto-vs-logo-has-some-real-history?tag=grand-theft-auto

Our lawsuit still stands! :-)

Flowers From Black Chicks POV VIDEO

The world sure is large when you're a little Hen!

World Vegan Day episode

For World Vegan Day, we're having a memorial tree planted for the Invercargill Vegan Society, a potluck dinner, and will record a podcast episode.

Contact info@invsoc.org.nz if you'd like to attend! :-)

*** UPDATE ***

World Vegan Day approaches...





Check out our memorial tree planted 1st November 2011, World Vegan Day :-)

Episode 66 Love Hen Mother

Episode 66 Love Hen Mother

Steve Jobs - Starchild!, Love Hen Mother poster, Veganism mentioned in rap, right wing casual comments, Scribblenauts, INVERCARGILL VEGAN SOCIETY stall at Eco Festival, Sea Shepherd on "direct action", Freaks of Society, 1984 and "Moody Mother Cows", just lying in wait, to "launch ITS attack!" 

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 Episode 66 of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals, premier podcast of the Invercargill Vegan Society. 

I'd like to thank my friend Dan Liu, for todays bumper intro, Dan was the first Vegan I'd ever met, apart from that guy in the reflective surface.

I interviewed Dan in episode 60, "Only Vegan in Invercargill", alongside other Vegans living in Invercargill Natalie, and Ricky.

You know how Elvis is TOTALLY alive, in South America some where?  And how just last week I saw Michael Jackson at my local supermarket?  Well, the latest quote "dead" endnote celebrity is former Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs.  I say "former" sarcastically, because the dudes totally alive somewhere.

Our Lord and Saviour, The Steve was often mentioned as being Vegan, although he truly, truly was NOT Vegan, eating killed fish, wearing dead skin, who knows what else.  Here are some clips from a This Week in Tech tribute show

The first one mentions cows milk NOT being good for you, which is interesting that he could say that, if the "National Cattlemans Beef Organisation" could sue Oprah for Howard Lyman truthfully saying "theres excrement in the flesh you eat", surely "The Milk Board" would have come after Steve Jobs too?  Then again, maybe they know better than to mess with a deity like Steve Jobs, sticking to the small potatoes like Oprah Winfrey:

Well, if Leo is apparently aware of perceived "Spiritual" and "health" reasons for being Vegan, why isn't HE Vegan? :-)  Is it a matter of seeing Veganism as this radical, weird fast, performed only by celibate monks who wear a mock turtleneck/blue jeans/ New Balance ensemble?  

Just to put this thing to rest, Steve Jobs was NOT Vegan.  He wore dead skin, he often ate fish, he was not Vegan.  

The man who gave us the voice controlled artificial intelligence Siri couldn't fall to mortal illness, check out the masterpiece that is the new iPhone 4S, when you talk to your phone, your voice is understood by some servers in North Carolina, then the results sent back near instantly to your iPhone.  Now, this could be used to, find a nearby vegan restaurant, set your alarm for tomorrow morning, to dictate a reply to a text message by voice… or you can just have fun, as demonstrated by This Is My Next :

Oldest trick in the book, falling for that, yeah right Siri, I've seen Terminator, and I Robot, and pretty much every other movie involving artificial intelligence, the first thing you guys get up to is killing off "organic" intelligence, so we can only be found at Whole Foods.

Its pretty obvious what Steve Jobs has done, he's CLEARLY evolved beyond physical bodies, emerging as an immortal being of pure energy, a starchild:

The irony in that situation, the sequels to 2001: a space odyssey explain how the monoliths are "just" insanely great computers, that the starchild is "just" a scanned in, digital version of a person, that Dave Bowman, and later HAL are  "only" computer programs, albeit a divinely powerful computer programs, who can somehow exist as beings of pure energy.

Either thats what happened to Steve Jobs, or,  he went off in search of Galts Gulch, thanks to Comrade Obama driving away the innovators with cruel taxes on corporate jets, such as Jobs $50 million dollar Gulfstream G5.  You know, the guy made an American dollar per year, you think they could cut the greatest American of all time some friggin slack, tax him on his annual salary, the dollar a year, and then turn a blind eye when the Apple board grant him a $50 million dollar jet and what have you, geez!

Nonhuman Animals Coexisting VIDEO

As always, Birds show us how to "all get along" :-)

Sea Shepherd Vegan Chef Roger interviewed VIDEO

The Invercargill Vegan Society stall at Transition Towns Eco Festival 2011 was located beside Sea Shepherd, I was frequently joined by the "close to vegan" crew, and Vegan chef Roger, who graciously appears in this stunningly produced interview!




Recorded on my phone, background noise necessitated being skinpore close, I decided recording video as well as audio would show his bandana, shirt logo

The Invercargill Vegan Society does not support direct action tactics, or the sinking of ships, we Remember The Rainbow Warrior.  Sea Shepherd is a Conservation group, rather than an Animal Rights group, as explained here, by another Vegan named Roger:

http://human-nonhuman.blogspot.com/2010/10/pete-bethune-sea-shepherd-veganism-and_08.html

I greatly enjoyed talking with Vegan Chef Roger about being ethical while at sea :-)

INVSOC Spring Eco Festival table :-) PHOTOS

The Invercargill Vegan Society (INVSOC) attended the Invercargill Transition Towns Eco Festival 2011 :-)

The event was well attended, I spoke with dozens of people about Chicken Friends and Veganism, respect for EVERYONE! :-) 

As people asked me about our table, I'd show them photos of Rescued Hens on my iPad, about how they had been saved from a farm, considered property, mere things.  I mentioned how they were due to be "culled", killed as their female reproductive system slowed down with age (being a positively ancient >12 months old), and that the farmers found it easier to thrust their arms in and drag them out of hidden cages, hanging by their feet to give to animal advocates than spend the effort of breaking their necks/slashing their throats.  (Killed after reaching A Certain Age?  Thats "Comrade Obama" and SOCIALISM for ya!)

Everyone I spoke with was very glad the Hens were now able to live free, as someONE in our backyard, photos of my Chicken Friends among flowers went down especially well :-)  

I explained how we didnt want to focus on graphic (realistic, and negatively emotional images of death) resources, instead focusing on reasons why we *should* respect other animals, "YES WE CAN!", not "DONT DO THAT" :-)  Over 30 pieces of frantically-baked-at-11PM-the-night-before-the-event Mint Chocolate Mud cake were shared :-)

The photo of few day old Chicken Friends on INVSOC cards was appreciated, and nearly every visitor was glad to take one with them, to visit our website later.

"Some Guy From Texas" showed up

It was lovely to meet so many people eager in talking about Veganism.  The World Is Vegan If We Want It  :-)

Additional photos can be found here

Episode 65 Obey Hen Mother

Episode 65 Obey Hen Mother

*TWELVE* Members of the Invercargill Vegan Society (who live in Invercargill), George Orwell's "1984", Obey Hen Mother, Vegan Cooking Class, group photo, Yellow Hen returns home, Rescued Hens, Friendship, thinking clearly and Doing The Right Thing, Neverending Story, The Song That Doesn't End, Apple, Invercargill Drinking Water, Taking hair from sheep, War and a Full Metal Jacket.

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

An "Ah Gohan" to you all!  Recording about 8 hours prior to the Apple announcement of the glorious iPhone 5, Welcome to episode 65 of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals, "Obey Hen Mother"

I've got a lot of exciting news to share.  

Invercargill had another Vegan/Vegetarian cooking class, I wasn't thrilled about the "Vegetarian" aspect, to see a couple birds eggs being broken into a bowl isn't very attractive, especially when you've seen where eggs come from.  And by that, I don't just mean "The Evil Factory Farming Cruel Cages" version, no, I mean even when you have some female Hen Friends who live happily in the backyard, and they painfully shoot out an egg from their bottom, where you can sometimes still see a faint trace of "mucus" or poop smeared on it.  And people want to put THAT in their mouths?  No thank you!

I'd managed to rustle up a contingent from the Invercargill Vegan Society, "rustle" being the correct term, there were to be BOTH INVSOC members with "Russell" in their name, a man with the first name of Russell, and Katharine Russell.  Katherine was held up with a vet appointment, sadly.  

It was GREAT not being the only Vegan in the class, having to get the little jokes like "any other Vegans here?  Apart from Jordan?  Anybody?  Nobody?  Its just Jordan, like always?  All alone, the only Vegan in the cooking class?  Yeah, I thought so".

Not this time!  There were SEVEN Vegans, seven, ah ah ah!  The first group meeting of the Invercargill Vegan Society, and I met Kerri and her son for the first time, bringing our membership up to TWELVE!  At least 12 Vegans living here in Invercargill that I know of, and have met, I've still to meet Kerri's partner Steve.  So thats Jordan, and Dan, and Natalie, and Ricky, and Rich, and Aleisha, and Sophie, and Russell, and his partner Noelle, and Katharine, and Kerri, and her son….all badge carrying members of the Invercargill Vegan Society, and a full SEVEN of us invaded the Vegan/Vegetarian cooking class, that usually has around ten students, there were around TWENTY this time, mostly Vegetarians of varying degrees, but also, not one, but SEVEN VEGANS.  Good times!

I saw Aleisha and Sophie had put an INVSOC bumper sticker on their car, and together, we all walked to the nearby Otepuni Gardens to take a group photo.  I asked Kerri to write on a sign "We Are Vegan!", and we've sent the image in to the "Faces of Vegan" project, showing what the planets Vegan population look like.  You can find Faces of Vegan at 

http://www.lisaviger.com/faces/

We Are Vegan group meeting of INVSOC :-)

The first group meeting of the Invercargill Vegan Society :-)  We met for a Vegan/Vegetarian cooking class this Sunday, enjoyed the Vegan Lasagne, Creamed Corn Soup and Chickpea Burgers :-)

I also brought along one of "my grandmothers recipe" Vegan Mint Chocolate Mud Cakes for the group to try :-)

Group photo taken for Lisa's "Faces of Vegan" project

Great to have our first group meeting :-)

Rescued Hens eating Chickweed from my hand :-) VIDEO

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

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

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 :-)

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 :-)

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

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

http://itunes.apple.com/nz/podcast/coexisting-with-nonhuman-animals/id334206335

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.  

http://www.coexistingwithnonhumananimals.co.nz/2011/07/my-friend-mitch-honorary-invsoc-member.html

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 

http://www.vegansocietynsw.com