Texas Officer's Poor Behavior Contributes To Dog's Death August 19, 2008

I'm usually pretty good at keeping myself from getting really worked up over situations, but I was filled with sadness and anger when I saw this video. A San Marcos, Texas, police officer stopped a man who was driving nearly 100 miles per hour down the interstate with his girlfriend because their teacup poodle, Missy, was choking. Michael Gonzalez was trying to get Missy to the emergency vet, but Officer Paul Stephens detained them for at least 15 minutes, and as this ABC News story states, 3-year-old Missy died as Gonzalez waited for the officer to issue a citation.

The video of the incident is absolutely unbelievable. Stephens seemed to show no sympathy for the situation—he even said, "It's a dog. It's OK. You can get another one. Relax."

A dog is a member of the family. I think anyone would be outraged to see how Stephens acted in this situation. I can't believe someone could be so callous when Gonzalez and his girlfriend were clearly in a state of panic to get Missy to the vet. If I were in Gonzalez's situation, I would have been flipping out, too. Wouldn't you?

Please write to San Marcos Police Chief Howard Williams, asking him to ensure that his officers are trained, and that departmental policies are amended or enacted, so that the community and its animals are afforded the very best quality of consideration in the future.

Seriously—I can't believe some people are this insensitive.

♥ Marta

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Vacation, Bald Eagles, and Vegan Police Officers August 7, 2007

You may have noticed a mysterious lack of blogs from me over the past week (and if you haven't—I see how it is!). Well, I was off on vacation back home in California, and it was oh-so-relaxing. A quick recap of some things I did: Hung out with my family and some of my best friends; ate at the absolutely delicious Tofoo Com Chay; took a ferry to Catalina Island; saw a bunch of cool seals, fish, and even the endangered-no-more Bald Eagle; played with my nieces and nephew; found my autographed photo of Richard Karn (heck yeah I stood in line to get his autograph in elementary school!); played some board games; and generally ate, slept, and relaxed. Good times.

But anyway, now that that's out of my system, check out this sweet article about an Austin police officer, Scott Cary, who went vegan a few years ago and is whipping the police force into shape.

When it was suggested that Cary cut meat out of his diet:

'At first, Cary practically choked. He'd grown up in Nebraska. His grandfather and uncle were butchers. He ate red meat at nearly every meal. "To me, (giving up meat) would be impossible," he says. Still, he aimed for a single meat-free month. It wasn't easy, especially at restaurants and parties. At first, he craved meat. But at the end of a month he'd lost 10 pounds and felt, he says, 100 percent better. In October 2005, he dropped dairy products from his diet and became vegan. His cholesterol has dropped from more than 200 then to 117.

He compares giving up meat to quitting cigarettes, which he did in 1976, or cutting out alcohol, which he did in 1981. "You give it up one meal at a time," he says. "I didn't quit meat for animal rights, I did it for my own health. And I can't ever see going back to my old eating habits."

It doesn't matter to me if people don't give up eating animals for animal rights reasons. If they do it for their health, for the environment, or any of the other countless reasons—the fact of the matter is that by going vegetarian, each person saves more than 100 animals' lives per year. So while I, of course, hope that people who become vegetarian and vegan do eventually start caring about animal rights, it's just great to know that no matter what someone's reason is for going vegetarian, animals' lives are being saved.

And it's pretty rad to think that there are police officers out there showing off just how amazing eating vegan can make you look and feel.

Anyway, I leave you with this cuteness. Feel free to say, "OMG—she's so cute!" I definitely did.

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