Page 4B
200 RABBITS SEIZED AT ARVADA HOME AVAILABLE AGAIN FOR ADOPTION
The nearly 200 rabbits that were seized last month from an Arvada home are back up for adoption. Friday, a Jefferson County Court judge denied a motion filed Wednesday asking the Foothills Animal Shelter to stop spaying and neutering the animals. Adoptions came to a halt while the notion was considered. The motion argued that their owner, Debe Bell, would face financial hardship if the rabbits could no longer breed. Mollie Thompson with the Foothills Animal Shelter said Friday that animals are available for sdoption during the week from 3 to 6PM and weekends from 2 to 5PM. All rabbits the shelter adopts out are spayed or neutered. The adoption fee is $25, and there is a two-for-one special for adopting a pair of rabbits. Bell faces 25 counts of animal cruelty or neglect stemming from the July 21 seizure of her rabbits. An arrest warrant released this week said the animals lived in "deplorable" conditions. There were 75% more rabbits living on Bell's ranch than space provided for, and some of them had fur "so severely matted that they connot urinate or defecate without extreme difficulty," according to the warrant.
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Page 9B (editorial)
THE VEGETARIANS' DILEMMA
by David Sirota, Creators Snydicate
As a new father who (ages ago) did a short stint as a press secretary, I'm already thinking ahead to the questions my son will throw at me. Yes, I know 8-month-old Isaac can't even say "Dad" yet, but these question are coming. So I'm planning for answers -- and, as any press secretary knows, that requires thinking about what evokes the queries in the first place. The toy pistol question, for instance: Isaac will see a cap gun and ask why he can't have one. (Answer: Devices that kill people shouldn't be the basis for playthings.) The tackle-football question: He'll ask me why I don't want him to play. (Answer: because football can cause brain damage.) The existential questions about life and death: Ugh. I have no idea what I'll say. But before any of these inquiries are but a twinkle in Isaac's eye, I know I'm going to face an interrogation about why our family doesn't eat this stuff called "meat." I have my substantive answers ready, so I'm not worried about what I'll tell him. (We're vegetarians because eating meat is unhealthy, environmentally irresponsible, expensive and inhumane.) With this question, I'm more concerned about the prompting. Why is he almost certainly going to ask at such an early age? I think I know the answer -- and it's not the ad campaigns that make meat seem like a rational choice ("Beef: It's What's for Dinner") or a healthy alternative food ("Pork: The Other White Meat"). No, Isaac's going to have questions abecause of the grocery store -- more specifically, because of the vegetarian aisle that subliminally glorifies meat-eating. That sounds like an oxymoron, I realize -- but the next time you go shopping, imagine what a kid gleans from veggie burgers, veggie bacon, veggie sausage patties, veggie dot dogs, Tofurky and all the other similar fare that defines a modern plant-based diet. While none of it contains meat, it is all marketed as emulating meat. Obviously, this isn't some conspiracy whereby powerful meat companies are deliberately trying to bring vegetarians into the mega-church of flesh eaters. If anything, it's the opposite: It's the vegetarian industry selling itself to meat eaters by suggesting that its products aren't actually all that different from meat. The problem is how that message, like so many others in American culture, reinforces the wrongheaded notion that our diet should be fundamentally based on meat. For those like Isaac who are being raised as vegetarians, this message is downright subversive. It teaches them that as tasty as vegetarian food may be, it can never compete with the "real thing." That message will undoubtedly inform Isaac's early curiosity -- and maybe his questions won't be such a bad thing. Maybe they'll motivate me to spend more time in the supermarkets's raw-produce section, and maybe my ensuing discussion with Isaac will help him better understand why our family has made this culinary choice. However, that doesn't mean the subtle propaganda won't ultimately win out, thus adding another carnivore to a destructively meat-centric society.
200 RABBITS SEIZED AT ARVADA HOME AVAILABLE AGAIN FOR ADOPTION
The nearly 200 rabbits that were seized last month from an Arvada home are back up for adoption. Friday, a Jefferson County Court judge denied a motion filed Wednesday asking the Foothills Animal Shelter to stop spaying and neutering the animals. Adoptions came to a halt while the notion was considered. The motion argued that their owner, Debe Bell, would face financial hardship if the rabbits could no longer breed. Mollie Thompson with the Foothills Animal Shelter said Friday that animals are available for sdoption during the week from 3 to 6PM and weekends from 2 to 5PM. All rabbits the shelter adopts out are spayed or neutered. The adoption fee is $25, and there is a two-for-one special for adopting a pair of rabbits. Bell faces 25 counts of animal cruelty or neglect stemming from the July 21 seizure of her rabbits. An arrest warrant released this week said the animals lived in "deplorable" conditions. There were 75% more rabbits living on Bell's ranch than space provided for, and some of them had fur "so severely matted that they connot urinate or defecate without extreme difficulty," according to the warrant.
___________________
Page 9B (editorial)
THE VEGETARIANS' DILEMMA
by David Sirota, Creators Snydicate
As a new father who (ages ago) did a short stint as a press secretary, I'm already thinking ahead to the questions my son will throw at me. Yes, I know 8-month-old Isaac can't even say "Dad" yet, but these question are coming. So I'm planning for answers -- and, as any press secretary knows, that requires thinking about what evokes the queries in the first place. The toy pistol question, for instance: Isaac will see a cap gun and ask why he can't have one. (Answer: Devices that kill people shouldn't be the basis for playthings.) The tackle-football question: He'll ask me why I don't want him to play. (Answer: because football can cause brain damage.) The existential questions about life and death: Ugh. I have no idea what I'll say. But before any of these inquiries are but a twinkle in Isaac's eye, I know I'm going to face an interrogation about why our family doesn't eat this stuff called "meat." I have my substantive answers ready, so I'm not worried about what I'll tell him. (We're vegetarians because eating meat is unhealthy, environmentally irresponsible, expensive and inhumane.) With this question, I'm more concerned about the prompting. Why is he almost certainly going to ask at such an early age? I think I know the answer -- and it's not the ad campaigns that make meat seem like a rational choice ("Beef: It's What's for Dinner") or a healthy alternative food ("Pork: The Other White Meat"). No, Isaac's going to have questions abecause of the grocery store -- more specifically, because of the vegetarian aisle that subliminally glorifies meat-eating. That sounds like an oxymoron, I realize -- but the next time you go shopping, imagine what a kid gleans from veggie burgers, veggie bacon, veggie sausage patties, veggie dot dogs, Tofurky and all the other similar fare that defines a modern plant-based diet. While none of it contains meat, it is all marketed as emulating meat. Obviously, this isn't some conspiracy whereby powerful meat companies are deliberately trying to bring vegetarians into the mega-church of flesh eaters. If anything, it's the opposite: It's the vegetarian industry selling itself to meat eaters by suggesting that its products aren't actually all that different from meat. The problem is how that message, like so many others in American culture, reinforces the wrongheaded notion that our diet should be fundamentally based on meat. For those like Isaac who are being raised as vegetarians, this message is downright subversive. It teaches them that as tasty as vegetarian food may be, it can never compete with the "real thing." That message will undoubtedly inform Isaac's early curiosity -- and maybe his questions won't be such a bad thing. Maybe they'll motivate me to spend more time in the supermarkets's raw-produce section, and maybe my ensuing discussion with Isaac will help him better understand why our family has made this culinary choice. However, that doesn't mean the subtle propaganda won't ultimately win out, thus adding another carnivore to a destructively meat-centric society.
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