The Emotional Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff - Would you do it to your dog?

The Emotional Lives of Animals - A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow and Empathy - and Why They Matter is a very special book. The author, Marc Bekoff, is one of the leading scientists in the field of cognitive ethology - the study of animals' minds and behaviours observed during field work, as opposed to during laboratory experiments. It is a truly fascinating piece of writing.

It seems that at least in the developed nations, at the beginning of the twenty first century, we have finally managed to accept that animals feel pain. But do they have feelings? Can animals love, can they be happy or sad, can they feel embarrased? To anyone who has ever lived with a cat or a dog the answers to these questions are obvious. Of course they do. Still, many scientists and common people are very unwilling to admit that, especially when it comes to animals other than our companion pets. The reason for that is simple - admitting that the animals that we eat, that we kill for clothing, that we keep for our entertainement in zoos have feelings is very uncomfortable. Once we have accepted this, we should revise the way we treat non-human animals. This seems to be unthinkable for most.

Bekoff presents a lot of evidence to prove that both human and non-human animals share the same emotions. Moreover, he claims that some, if not all, animals act according to a certain moral code, yet another characteristic that used to be considered as possessed by humans only. His evidence comes from biological research, for example from identifying certain areas in animals' brains that are similar to ours and thus responsible for feeling similar emotions (did you know animals can also suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?). But the bulk of his research is field studies - observing animals in their natural environment.

Have you ever wondered if animals can feel empathy, compassion or sadness? Bekoff tells numerous stories that confirm that they do: there's a story of two dogs, one of them gone blind and the other one acting as her guide for the rest of her days; there's the one of a blind donkey, guided around the pasture and to the water tank by her best donkey friend; there are stories of elephants desperately trying to bring back to life a member of the group that has been shot down; or a story of a grieving female fox who at night comes back to the dead body of her mate and spends longs hours trying to burry him; stories of animals who cannot get over the death of the loved ones and so they slowly pass away as well.

But there are also many happy stories. One of Bekoff's greatest interests is animal play: why and how they play. There are also great accounts of the friendship and love between human and non-human animals. He also quotes a study showing the importance of animals in children's life: those who grew up with dogs or cats were more self-confident than thos who didn't. Another study proves that children who lived with dogs were more empathic and socially oriented than those who didn't.

In the final chapter of the book "Ethical Choices: What We Do with What We Know" Bekoff goes on to briefly examine our treatment of animals in laboratories, in the food industry, and in zoos. Being a strong believer in the need to abolish all our actions aimed at using animals for our pleasure, I cannot fully agree with his call for more 'humane' treatment of animals in all these areas. I do understand however, that he is simply realistic here, even if what he really advocates is that at some point we stop abusing animals altogether. I especially appreciated the part about zoos, I think it should be read by everyone who thinks going to the zoo is fun. Most people will admit that it's not very humane to keep animals in bad physical conditions in teh zoos. But how often do we consider the emotional needs of the wild animals kept in captivity?. Bekoff tells stories of elephants who suffer and die in zoos as a result of being separated from their friends or family members.

I will finish by quoting one of the closing paragraphs of the book - it clearly shows why even if we still cannot be a hundred percent sure how close animals' feelings are to ours, we know enough to have to rethink our attitude:

'When we're unsure about how we influence the lives of other animals, we should give them the benefit of the doubt and err on the side of the animals. It's better to be safe than sorry. Many animals suffer in silence, and we don't even realize this until we look into their eyes. Then we know'

Perhaps the best summary of the book is simply the questions Marc Bekoff asks anyone who questions that there's anything wrong with the way we treat animals: Would you do it to your dog?

Sushi

When the sushi madness came to Europe quite a few years ago, I didn't really think much of it. I had tried it many times since then and I had to change my opinion, I genuinely liked it! But still I didn't attempt to make it at home, it just seemed like too much - buying all the necessary stuff and then the rolling.. It was supposed to be so difficult. Well, it's not!

Today I bought one of the sushi meal kits, which basically contains the nori, sushi rice, a bamboo mat, rice vinegar, soy sauce, wasabi paste and the chopsticks. I looked up a few recipes online and decided to go for cucumber, red pepper, avocado, carrots, fresh ginger and sesame seeds for the filling. It was delicious! Next time I'm at our Asian supermarket, I'm definitely going to buy some nori and wasabi and continue the adventure with homemade sushi.

Sunday pizza

I love pizza because it is so simple to make and the choice of toppings is only limited by your imagination. When I turned vegan, I tried various vegan cheeses for my pizzas, with more or less success. In general, I have to say that I am not a big fan of the vegan cheeses available on the market. Fortunately, after a few months, once the cheese addiction wears off, you discover you don't really miss cheese any more (which once seemed impossible;) and so you don't need any substitutes.

The most important factor for a successful pizza is top quality, fresh ingredients. I make the pizza dough in my bread machine. For many years now I have only been using dark flour for baking breads and I have to say it works very well for pizza dough as well. The recipe is very simple, for two pizzas I use: 350 grams of flour, 200 ml of water, 2-3 tbsp of olive oil, a pack of dry yeast, a tsp of salt. As for the tomato sauce, the best is obviously made of chopped fresh tomatoes, with onions, garlic and fresh or dried herbs. However, if you don't have fresh tomatoes, good quality canned ones will do. I mix it with some minced garlic, salt, pepper, fresh or dried herbs (most often basil, rosemary, thyme or oregano) and spices (paprika and chili, for example).

As for the toppings, you can really just choose your favourite veggies. Today I grilled an eggplant, zucchini, some onions, red, yellow and orange peppers. You wash and slice all the veggies and put them for at least half an hour in a marinade made of olive oil and your choice of other oils, vinegars and spices/herbs. I have quite a choice of different oils, vinegars, herbs and spices, I think this is one of the basics of great vegan cooking. So I just mix them freely trying new combinations each time.

After marinating, I grill the vegetables on a grill pan. I have to say they are so delicious that I could just eat them all before actually making the pizza ;) In the meantime I bake the pizza bottoms, so that once all the other ingredients are ready, I top the pizza bottoms with them and put the pizzas back in the oven for just about 5-10 minutes. In addition to the grilled veggies, I also added some cherry tomatoes, artichokes and capers. Today's pizza was really fantastic!

Our resident criminals

We just got back from Poland and the day after tomorrow we're going to St. Petersburg, so we left our two criminals at their cat hotel for the two nights in-between in order to avoid unnecessary confusion. So I just really miss them and that's why I have decided to post a few of their photos. I have found some older ones for now, so no doubt this idea will be continued ;)

New York style dinner in Brussels

One of the best things about New York is the abundance of great vegan restaurants. And not just the cheap, we_don't_serve_any_alcohol places you can find in a lot of European cities, e.g. Warsaw or Brussels. We are talking real, fine dining experience, with fantastic food, excellent organic wine/beer/drinks menu and a cool interior. Our favourite one was Candle 79 at the corner of East 79th Street and Lexington Avenue.

The same owners also have a more casual Candle Café, at the 3rd Avenue, between 74th and 75th Street. Except for being a great choice for a tasty lunch or a relaxed dinner, Candle Café also has an outstanding juice bar, where you can get fantastic juices and smoothies.

As an example of the exquisite cuisine we have tried at the Candle 79, here is the really delicious Seitan Picatta with White Wine and Capers Sauce with baked potatoes, both recipes can be found in the Candle Cafe Cookbook.

Vegan New York, part one: shoes!!!

Even though it's not a good thing to be jealous, I definitely envy the vegans in New York. I will write a separate post about the vegan food options in NYC, which are plenty!

I have to admit that stopping to wear leather or suede shoes wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I knew very well that that's the right thing to do, I wasn’t at all interested in the argument that it's just a by-product of the meat production, so as long as people eat meat, it would be unwise not to use the skin of the animals. Well, I'm not really interested in any by-products of mass murder.

My first non-leather shoes came probably from h&m or deichmann, they seemed to fulfill all the criteria: made of vegan materials, inexpensive, easy to find. Unfortunately I soon discovered that most of them were not comfortable and of really poor quality.. I still shop high-street brands for shoes, you can from time to time find great stuff, you just have to learn to avoid the cheap, terribly-smelling plastic crap ;) Then there's e-bay, where you can always find great deals, if you're willing to take a bit of risk which always comes with online shoe shopping. But none of these options come close to the discovery I made during my visit to New York last month: Moo Shoes!

Moo Shoes is a fantastic vegan shop in the Lower East Side. They have an amazing selection of beautiful (yes!) vegan sandals, heels, wedges, boots, sneakers, you name it. The price range is also quite friendly, the ones I looked at were between 50 and 200$. Yes, that's more than H&M, but the quality is beyond any comparison. I am a person who loves to walk and who walks a lot every day. At the same time I like nice shoes that are not exactly the same kind that everyone in the street is wearing at a given moment. Well, Moo Shoes has it all! In fact it has more than that - they also sell some clothing, vegan books and magazines, bags.. You can see yourself at their homepage:

http://www.mooshoes.com/

Still, they do even more. At the shop's homepage you can find a list of ideas how to get involved in animal rights issues. The projects include for example volunteering at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary or (obviously;) going vegan. Here's the link:

http://www.mooshoes.com/getactive

The only regret you might have after visiting Moo Shoes (if you're from my side of the big water, of course;) is that you really wish we had a store like that in Europe. I don't even necessarily mean Brussels, but London would be nice. It's a bit easier to take a shopping trip from Brussels to London than to New York ;)

Last but not least, I have to mention the extremely friendly staff at the shop. That includes the humans and the resident cats, who definitely give you the impression that in fact it's them running the place. Every once in a while they wake up from their naps at the counter, just to make sure that the business is going as it should.

Cleo by Helen Brown - not only for cat people

After a few months of winter laziness, I've decided the blog deserves a bit of my attention ;)

I've just finished reading an amazing book, Cleo: How a Small Black Cat Helped Heal a Family by Helen Brown. It doesn't have anything to do with veganism or with animal rights as such, still it is probably the most beautiful book about the relationship between people and an animal that I've ever read. The story begins as a very tragic one - the author's older son, Sam, dies in a traffic accident, leaving the rest of the family shattered, struggling to live on. Hope arrives at their doorstep in the form of the little black cat that Sam had chosen a couple of months before his death. At first Helen wants to give the cat back, but when she sees that Cleo has managed something that nobody else has since Sam's death, to bring a smile on her other son's face, she knows the little animal has to stay. Cleo quickly becomes the most important member of the family, patiently tolerating the ever changing circumstances: divorces, marriages, births, relocations..

Helen Brown described herself as not really being a cat person at the beginning of the book. That didn't last long. Cleo quickly proves what all cat owners know - she is not 'just' a cat, she is a very intelligent, sensitive being, who fully participates in the life of the family, who 'knows' more than people suspect, who helps them get through tough times and who brings indescribable joy into their home. Even if, as most of our beloved furry friends, she can in no time bring the house into a state reminding of an aftermath of a natural disaster or drive the normally patient slaves (after all that's what we are to a cat, aren't we?) completely crazy ;) Amid the joys and sorrows of everyday life she teaches them to express their true feelings, to enjoy every single moment of happiness, not to be afraid to grieve, to be good and kind.

Every chapter begins with a few sentences of cat wisdom, let me just quote you my favourite ones: Stress - a waste of nap time.

A truly beautiful book about the special bond, love and mutual respect between humans and animals. Just a word of warning, if you're a bit 'soft' like me, you might need a lot of tissues..