Plastic grocery bags are hugely wasteful, and when they get discarded, they often end up in the ocean where they harm marine life. In my “Oprah’s Earth Day Advice" post last April, I talked about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a giant patch of garbage that is twice the size of Texas, and is estimated to be made up of 90% plastic waste. California Assembly Member Julie Brownley (D - Santa Monica) has written a bill that would outlaw plastic bags in California grocery stores and require that all grocery stores sell reusable bags and charge five cents per paper bag. Brownley’s bill would help to reduce the amount of plastic waste in our oceans, benefiting both marine life and our environment.
 
If a California State Senate fiscal committee does not approve this bill by this Friday, August 13 (only a few days away!), it will die and we’ll be back to square one! So, Californians: it’s absolutely urgent that you contact your representative to encourage him or her to vote for this bill! You can see who voted for or against this bill, or abstained, in a May 6th assembly vote here. Californians Against Waste has provided a quick and easy way to look up your representative and email a letter encouraging a YES vote on this bill here.
 
Please take the time to email a letter to help pass this important legislation. Hopefully it will pass, and our governor will sign it into law so that California can be the first state to enact this important policy. The city of San Francisco banned plastic grocery bags in 2008, the same year that China banned them and instated a fine of up to $1,464 for violators. The U.N. Environmental Chief has called for a total ban on plastic grocery bags – 90 billion of which go un-recycled each year. Let’s make it happen in California!

Olivia Wilde, who is so great (and is in the film Butter with me that we worked on this past spring), reminded me of this wonderful organization - Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerties, New York. It is such a great place! If you live in the area, or are visiting New York, check it out!  Bring your friends and bring your kids!

Animal sanctuaries are so special. I had my 25th birthday party at one... That was about a hundred years ago!!! Anywho, they are great places to turn people on to the souls of animals, and help them connect with their little child inside. They also open your hearts. If you’ve never been to one before, I suggest you go and bring someone with you who likes animals, even if they just like cats and dogs. They will love it, and so will you!

Kind Lifer M.J. recently sent me a message telling me about some horrible things going on at Conklin Dairy Farms. This farm is based out of Ohio and they were caught on video by Mercy for Animals beating and abusing cows.

It makes me so sad. PLEASE read about this issue further on The Huffington Post. Also please watch this video that shows what went on... But be warned, this might be very hard to watch:

One of the men shown in the video was fired from Conklin Dairy Farms and arrested and charged with 12 counts of animal cruelty. However, the owner of the farm himself, Gary Conklin, is apparently one of the other men in the video, and his dairy farm is still actively run and managed by him! Olivia Wilde also told me about this case while we were in Shreveport shooting the movie "Butter" recently. The sad thing is this is not an isolated case - this is the norm with dairy farms. All the more reason to boycott dairy! You can read more of my thoughts on dairy and how it relates to your health and the environment in The Kind Diet.

What you can do to try and make this stop!

- Write directly to Gary Conklin, owner of Conklin Dairy Farms, and tell him how much it disturbs you to hear and see things like this and that it needs to stop immediately.

    Gary Conklin: 800-336-8024/614-873-8024
    FAX: 614-873-3383
    ConklinDairyFarm@AOL.com

- Spread the word via Facebook and Twitter and get all your friends on board as well. 

- Sign this petition online at Change.org, which is going strong with over 42,000 signatures and will be sent to local and state representatives in Ohio.

Please help!!!!!

Kind Lifer Kristen Magno recently sent me a message asking me if my dogs are vegan too, and if they are what I feed them. Well, I feed my three dogs, Sweety, Lacy, and Butterfly (we also call Butterfly, “The Pig”) a 100% plant-based diet. They are all between 13 and 15 years old and weigh around 70 lbs (they are big guys!). I feed them Dr. Harvey's brand dog food, their Canine Health line, and always give them all of our leftovers so there is no waste of food or money. Dr. Harvey's is a mix of oats, grains, dried veggies and seaweed. It's a little bit of a process to make the food for them, but it's sooooo worth it. And if you set a timer and walk away it’s not difficult at all.

You cook it on your stovetop. You combine the Dr. Harvey's with a protein source (we use lentils, mung beans, split peas, kidney beans, pinto beans, tofu, tempeh, etc.) and oil. It’s super important to rotate the type of beans so your dogs get different sources of vitamins and minerals. When we use beans, we soak them overnight in water with a piece of kombu (use a 1-inch by 1-inch square of kombu per cup of beans) and use the soaking water to water plants in the morning. Do not cook the beans in the same water that they soaked in. This will make for gassy dogs. Cook the beans along with the kombu. If you forget to soak the beans with the kombu, add it when you start cooking. This helps the beans cook more quickly and helps dogs (and you!) with gas issues.

We cook the beans until they are soft and mash them with a potato masher. If we don’t mash them, they come out of the dogs whole in their poo. After mashing, we add the Dr. Harvey’s mix along with any leftovers we have, when that is done, we plate up the food, wait for it to cool and add oil. We make a big batch once a day and that’s enough for 2 meals for all 3 dogs. If you want, you can make a big batch and keep it in the fridge for a couple days at a time. We just do it daily since we have 3 big dogs and have to make a big pot of food for them.

We also add the supplements, L-Carnatine and Taurine. These are 2 amino acids that are essential to some dogs. They might be added to some commercial dog foods, but in this case with Dr. Harvey’s they are not. When dogs are deficient in these nutrients, it can cause diomyopathy, a serious illness where the heart becomes large and flabby and can no longer function properly. This usually happens to middle-aged dogs that have an L-Carnatine or Taurine deficiency due to their breed, size, genetics, or diet. You can buy these supplements at your local health food store, places like Whole Foods or online. Look for supplements with veg-friendly capsules and not the ones that have gelatin in them! And make sure you always check with your dog’s vet before starting them on any sort of supplement regimen.

Since our dogs have been eating this way, they have stopped getting fleas, hot spots, and their coats look so nice. They are all super healthy with perfect blood work. People always think they are younger than they really are. Feed your animals grains, beans, and veggies like you would eat and you will absolutely see a difference in their health. Sometimes when we are in between Dr. Harvey's orders, I'll just give them rice, beans, and whatever leftover veggies we have around, and they love it!

And I have to say, their poo is amazing. I'm so proud of them! I see other dogs' poo and it just doesn't compare. It's super healthy, easy to pick-up, and they don't struggle to get it out.

You can order Dr. Harvey's dog food from their website, or you can ask your local store to carry it. Sometimes, if we are in a hurry, we give the dogs Evolution brand, Vegan Kibble. You can get it from www.vegancats.com, or again, ask your local stores to carry it or order it for you. I try to always give them Dr. Harvey’s though because it just feels more pure to me and I’d rather them not have dry food, as I feel like it dries them out. But this dry food is great when the Dr. Harvey’s can’t happen. Natural Balance makes a dry vegetarian dog food too.

Remember that conventional pet food is pretty much junk food for your animals. It's full of animal byproducts (intestines, bones, brains, etc.), preservatives, chemicals, and fillers. Personally I can't justify killing one animal to save or feed another. If you feed meat to your dogs, that's what we are doing...deciding that one life is more worthy than the other. They don't need it and they do better without it, as long as you feed them a healthy, balanced food source like Dr. Harvey's.

A vegan diet works really well because our dogs don’t live in the wild. They take a walk every day, maybe follow their humans around a little, and not a lot more, so a plant-based diet is just fine for most dogs’ energy requirements.

And for doggie treats, here are a few we love:

Boston Baked Bonz
- their cookies look amazing. My assistant actually ate half of one of their ginger snap cookies and said it was really good...

Sweet Potate'r Chews from Dr. Harvey's

Mr. Barky's Vegetarian Dog Biscuits
- we grab these from Whole Foods - these are our staple treats


What are your thoughts on a veggie diet for your pets? Do you have brands of food that you love? Or treats?

Hi everyone!  Just a short while back, I told you all about NASA’s future plans to irradiate Squirrel Monkeys for experimental purposes.  In an attempt to understand the dangers facing astronauts during their potential missions to Mars, NASA essentially wants to poison Squirrel Monkeys with radiation.

NASA is completely aware of the harmful and damaging affects from past irradiation experiments on primates, yet they continue to push for more tests. These experiments are obviously cruel, and outside experts say blasting two-pound monkeys with radiation that’s actually quite different from that found in deep space won’t help NASA understand the potential dangers faced by a much-larger human astronaut. While no irradiation of monkeys has occurred, the space agency has yet to put the brakes on the idea of moving forward with the experiment.  

Now that I have you caught up to speed on the situation, let’s get you updated on some positive efforts members of Congress are making to help put a stop to NASA’s misguided plans to experiment on these monkeys. A letter signed by 8 members of Congress was sent to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, requesting them to cancel any future plans to use Squirrel Monkeys for radiation experiments.  The letter calls attention to the fact that these experiments are, 
“…unlikely to yield results that will be applicable to humans […] Thus the current proposal may provide minimal if any incremental information compared to what is already known….there is simply no ethical justification for putting these monkeys through these inhumane and possibly fatal experiments at this time.” Yay rockstars in congress!!

While these members of Congress are making a conscious effort to protect these innocent monkeys, NASA is doing the opposite.  They are pushing forward with these animal-based radiation tests as well as rejecting any meetings with organizations opposing irradiation of Squirrel Monkeys.

While we may be taking one step forward and one step back, we do have a chance to make a giant leap forward to help protect these animals.  Tomorrow, Thursday June 10th, PCRM will be having a peaceful demonstration at the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. McLean Hospital is where the experimentations would occur if NASA were to follow through with its plans.

PCRM is hoping to educate those in attendance on the potential harm that would be caused to the animals if radiation tests occur.  Not only will the monkeys be exposed to harmful and dangerous radiation and injections, but they will also be confined alone in small cages for at least four years and subjected to daily restraint in primate chairs.

If you live in the area, please show your support by attending the demonstration at McLean Hospital... or if you can't be there, write to McLean Hospital President Scott Rauch, M.D., to let him know you support efforts to stop the use of monkeys in space radiation studies. You can also write your local members of Congress asking for their help in stopping NASA from going forward with these cruel and misguided experiments.

For those interested in attending June 10th, here is the meet-up information:

Date:              Thursday, June 10
Time:             12:00 noon
 

Location:        Public sidewalk across from entrance to McLean Hospital , 115 Mill St.
, Belmont, MA 

Parking:          Street parking on side streets near McLean

*Signs and leaflets will be provided.

If you can, please go!!  And tell everyone you know about this!  Let's help make this a huge event!!!

As most of you know, there has been a horrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by BP Oil. What's so scary about the spill is that they haven't really been able to contain it.  They are trying, but it's just taking a really long time. And the more time they take, the more oil that spills into the ocean killing sea life and polluting the water.  Not only is it killing wildlife in the Gulf, but it is going to start spreading even further up to the East coast and it will kill all of that wildlife as well.