From another-blog-with-the-same-name-as-this-one-but-at-least-he-acknowledges-it-in-his-blogroll.

Up Close & Personal Meet Chicken Plucky Amandah Povilitus

This here’s a good interview with a high school animal rights activist who works for McDonald’s, two things you normally wouldn’t think would peacefully co-exist.

They don’t get mad or make me work in the back. As long as I don’t protest them, it’s fine. I don’t fight customers or anything. I turned a couple co-workers vegetarian, and I helped reduce waste, which they love.

Here’s a cool story that’s slipped under the radar: The Father of Veganism Turns 94.

Donald Watson is the man who in 1944 coined the term “vegan.” Back then, it wasn’t so easy to become a vegan, I’d imagine.

Sixty years. That’s some serious resolve.

AlterNet has a good article titled Vegan, Head to Toe that looks at various online shops targeted toward vegan consumers (think MooShoes).

Did I mention I bought a hemp wallet recently to replace a leather one I had received as a gift? I really like it. Except it has Velcro, which I couldn’t tell from the site when I ordered it. But I’m thinking a little fabric sewn over top of it should do the trick. I can’t stand that r-r-r-r-rip! noise when I open it in a quiet store.

(via Vegan.com)

A man tries to shoot his seven puppies, but one of them shoots him. Nice.

Even though I’m embarrassed to live in a state that doesn’t even recognize civil unions, I’m at least proud that now Virginia requires alternatives to dissection for high school students who wish to “opt out” of the standard slice-and-dice curriculum. It seems pretty silly to me that dissection has been required in high school biology classes even though the majority of people in those classes will never go into anything requiring the knowledge of what a frog spleen looks like. It’s nice to see more states requiring alternatives to students that object for ethical reasons.

In addition to Virginia, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, and Illinois have similar laws and New Jersey is also considering it. Argentina, India, and Israel outright ban dissection in schools.

For more information, visit the Humane Society’s page on dissection laws.