MATTHEWGOODONLINE

Gandhi once said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

A statement of wisdom from a wise man with whom I could not agree more…

And with that sentiment, I am going to ask that you join me in donating to and supporting California’s Prop 2 this November 4th… Prop 2 is a modest measure that stops cruel and inhumane treatment of animals, ending the practice of cramming farm animals into cages so small the animals can’t even turn around, lie down or extend their limbs. As far as I am concerned Prop 2 doesn’t do enough, but it is a start in the right direction…

Support Prop 2

Now I realize that most of you aren’t Californians… many of you aren’t even Americans… so why should you help me in supporting this bill?

California is essentially the cultural capital of the world… and yes, I know… there is much bad that can be said about that… but also much good… I dare anyone to argue that film, music and television haven’t had a positive effect in terms of shifting progressive and tolerant cultural ideas on race, gender, sexuality, and politics… so let’s make it culturally UNACCEPTABLE to support factory farming…

I eat meat.

Every day.

I enjoy grilling steaks, brats, ribs… I love bacon… and burgers… and a good beef stew… and fried chicken too… I am a foodie and I have the sumptuous waistline to prove it… based upon my impressive corpulence, in Victorian times I would have been considered a very wealthy man… (burp… rubbing belly…)

But lately the enjoyment of my culinary pleasures has been associated with much guilt… Yeah, I get the graphic e-mails from PETA and the Humane Society… you know the ones… I try to ignore them… to pretend they aren’t there… I’d even argue with myself that the horrible factory farms, the shit caked cages, the slaughterhouses thick with gore and terror were all just a few extreme cases of animal abuse…

I was dead wrong.

This is the NORM.

If you don’t believe me go visit a typical turkey farm, where the birds are cramped in dark hangars by the thousands… or a stinking abattoir staffed by illegals because no legal worker will put up with the rank and fetid conditions… or pig farms, with the lakes of toxic sewage fouling the ground water and neighboring rivers..

I spent my teenage years in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (think of it as Canada without the social safety net) living and working among family farms and farmers… I was a 4H kid… the chickens ran free, the piggies played in the mud, and the cows munched in fields of alfalfa… and yes… we ended up eating all of them, but at least they had full happy lives… and at least to my knowledge, they were slaughtered humanely as well…

I’ve gone deer hunting… I love to fish… I believe that we humans are natural carnivores… Hunters and gatherers… But I also believe that we have a moral duty to be humane and that we shouldn’t be putting food on our table that has been tortured to death.

I’ll pay more for meat and eat less of it if that is what it takes… We North Americans eat way too much meat as it is… It is bad for the environment and takes up far too much land and resources which could be put to better use…

The horrible conditions in which we raise the food we put on our table is endemic to our society… a society in which there is little regard for anything other than how to turn a fast buck… we don’t seem to care about the fact that much of what we eat has been pumped full of steroids and antibiotics and raised in conditions so bad that Guantanamo Prison looks like the French Riviera in comparison… then in a final black celebration of our blatant disregard to the life we are about to vanquish, we slaughter the terrified animal it in the most callous manner feasible…

We eat the insane, the crippled, the sick… and what does that in turn make us? What do you think happens when you repeatedly ingest tormented flesh? We essentially become what we eat…

Just because we were given dominion doesn’t mean we should be dominionists… But seeing as we may be getting a vice president who considers shooting wolves from helicopters a pleasant sporting activity, I see this as a long uphill battle…

If you can, please donate… or at least help get the word out…

Support Prop 2

How does one react to the fact that, according to the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, 25% of mammals on this planet are at risk of extinction?

That’s one quarter of all mammals on earth.

How in the hell did we allow it to come to this? That there would be a time in our history in which a quarter of all mammals on this planet would be facing the possibility of extinction. I realize that I’m repeating myself, but I am simply stunned.

And the foremost cause? Loss of habitat primarily due to deforestation.

As the population of the planet increases, and room and resources are required to facilitate such growth, animals are paying the price for it. In fact, according to the authors of the report, 25% could be an underestimate.

It is a good thing that animals do not possess the ability to take up arms and coordinate some sort of counter offensive, because put into human terms they would be fighting for their very survival, something that, given our own rationales throughout history, we would be unable to condemn them for.

And rightly so.

Hello everyone, what a day!!!

I got adopted today!!!

You see, I had a pretty rough start… I was born on June 8th and my sister Myrtle and I were dumped off at the pound as newborns… we never really got to know our mommy… we were hand nursed and some really nice people at the doggy rescue took care of us until we were big enough to go off into the big world on our own… (my sister Myrtle also found a nice family to live with…)

So Roy came by the shelter and picked me up today and took me to his house…

This place is FUN!!!

Roy has another doggy named Sofie and she really likes me…

I don’t know about these kitties though… I keep running up to them, inviting them to play but they aren’t having any of it… (Never mind the fact that I’ve never seen kitties before) There are seven of them here and they aren’t all that friendly, they make archy backs and hiss… and one even hit me on the nose, but not that hard… I imagine once they get to know me they’ll like me just fine…

The reason I am writing this post is that I find myself in quite a conundrum… (aren’t you impressed that I can post a blog at eight weeks of age? I’ll bet you hadn’t even learned to poop outside when you were eight weeks old… well actually… to be honest, neither have I…)

You see, I don’t have a name yet… and Roy said that he will donate $100 to Benji, Casey, Pete and Bella’s Paws for a Cause fund drive in the name of anyone out there who can give me a name that he likes… of course, if no one thinks of a name and he thinks of one, he’ll still donate $100… (if you ask me this is just a shameless plug to get more people to donate to Paws for a Cause, but I digress…) While I don’t personally know Benji, Casey, Pete and Bella, I’ll bet they are good fun and maybe I’ll get to meet them some day… as well as that Matt Good person… he seems ok as well…

Let me tell you a little about myself… I’m chubby, a little clumsy, very sweet, occasionally drowsy… I have stinky puppy breath and very sharp teeth which are best used to destroy the legs of fine furniture…

Hope that helps…

I go sleepy time now…

There used to be a time when my grandparents grew beets, potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, rhubarb, grapes, cucumbers, and beans in their backyard. They passed when I was in my teens, but I’ve never forgotten how superior it was to eat vegetables freshly picked and cooked.

Being that he came from another era altogether, my grandfather’s reliance on heavy fertilizers was non-existent. In fact, for the most part, he used compost and other common additives to enrich and protect the soil. He also weeded by hand and rotated plots in his backyard every year so as to allow the soil to replenish.

When my mother was a girl, my grandparents also kept chickens, which is something considering that she grew up on Canada Way on the Burnaby-New West border. They produced eggs and the family ate them. They lived in an old fashioned chicken coup and, as was normal, also ran around as chickens once did before being confined to cages in the tens of thousands on modern chicken farms.

The point that I’m making is that there was a time, and it wasn’t that long ago, that we had a hand in what we consumed, even in the suburbs of cities. People grew vegetables, herbs, and fruits, consuming them when in season and turning to stores that they had built up in the winter months, commonly pickling what could not be stored long-term.

Today, of course, we find ourselves living in a very different world, one in which we are all guilty of helping sustain the abuse of animals in the pursuit of testing foods – even health foods.

According to The Sunday Times in the UK, health food trends have led to a 300% increase in the use of animals for testing purposes in Britain. The animals used range from rats, mice, and guinea pigs to rabbits and dogs - all of them disposed of after the fact.

To ensure the safety of Teavigo (“green tea in its purest form”), the lives of dogs are sacrificed. I look at Benji and Casey and think of health food nuts taking Teavigo supplements, most of whom are probably entirely oblivious to the fact that animals were sacrificed in the testing process.

There are, of course, those that will argue until they’re blue in the face that testing on animals in necessary. In truth, it’s an empty argument, because the last time I checked animals weren’t used to test the effects of foods that have sustained humans, and animals, for millennia. A carrot is a carrot and a beet is a beet. Animals will eat them just as readily as human beings will, and that’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Nor should the fact that even in the testing of dog foods, some dog food companies do unconscionable things to dogs themselves to ensure that, if you can believe it, the product is ‘good’ for them.

The testing of cosmetics, animal foods, health foods, and a laundry list of other commercial products all lead to one end – the death of animals. You might find rats and mice repulsive, but who is anyone to say that we have the right to sacrifice them in an effort to produce better ‘health drinks’?

The use of animals in medical research is one thing, and in certain cases with regards to devastating diseases, a very unfortunate necessity at times. But even then, the utmost care should be taken with just how far we are prepared to go to sanction the use of living things for our benefit. It is a precedent that creates a very slippery moral slope, one that has led to the belief that the use of animals for a variety of testing purposes is completely acceptable.

My dogs can’t talk, and therefore are unable to convey their emotions in a fashion that, were they harmed or afraid, would reduce most individuals with a conscience to tears. All they are capable of doing is producing sounds of pain, and as a dog owner and lover, even those are utterly unbearable to my ears. To think that anyone could willingly ignore such cries of distress, even if limited to canine wails, is entirely beyond me.

Mahatma Gandhi once said – “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Given the variety of ways that we abuse animals in the attempt to secure fortunes, to cash in on health food trends, or whatever else, what does that say about us?

We recently received an e-mail from a fan, Sean Gadoury, with whom we’ve arranged a small auction for a Matthew Good inspired painting by his close friend Caitlin Eady.

We asked Caitlin to select a charity for which all auction proceeds will go to, and she chose a local charity, the Hamilton-Burlington Society For The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). We at matthewgood.org are more than happy to facilitate an auction for a more than worthy cause.

In Burlington, ON, there’s no SPCA location. The SPCA closest to this growing city is Hamilton, and its SPCA serves both cities, a population nearing 1 million people. As you can imagine, it struggles to both rescue lost or unwanted pets, treat them if sick, and find them new homes.

The Hamilton-Burlington SPCA is a not-for-profit, zero-euthanasia facility. They do not receive government funding nor do they receive any funds from the Ontario SPCA, United Way or other similar organizations. they are totally dependent on the Communities they serve for their existence.

Entitled ‘And The Monkey Flips The Switch’, this painting’s medium is encaustic on wood-backed canvas, and is 4×4 feet in size. This was Caitlin’s first work on the medium, a technique of mixing melted wax with oil pigment.

As this is is an amateur auction, we don’t expect millions to roll in, but would appreciate anyone seriously interested in having this painting to post a bid in the comments below.

The money will be collected by our staff, and donated on behalf of Sean & Caitlin directly to the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA. The cheque will be made out to the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA (not the painting’s author), and the SPCA will be notified of both the auction and the final bid.

The auction will run until the end of September 15th. The winning bidder will have the painting shipped to them at a reasonable additional cost (likely around $20), or if local, a pick-up can be arranged.

Bids should be placed in the comments below. The minimum opening bid is $50.00.

On behalf of Sean, Caitlin and everyone at matthewgood.org, your support is appreciated.

Good luck bidders!

Last week, NFL star Michael Vick publicly admitted to being involved in a dog fighting operation and faces up to five years in prison for his role in it. He has also been indefinitely suspended by the NFL.

Human beings have been watching animals kill one another for sport for thousands of years. Then again, we also used to believe that the earth was flat, and, in some cases, that entire races of people were actually not humans at all, but subspecies that could be bought and sold.

Civility is not measured by the tangible accomplishments of man, nor is it represented by man’s achievements in various fields. It is measured in our ability to place compassion and reason before base instinct. Watching two animals rip each other apart for sport, having been bred and trained for no other purpose, is something that is devoid of both compassion and reason.

While Michael Vick is a talented athlete, he is, unfortunately, not civilized, and no amount of adoration for his skills on the field, or the size of his bank account, can alter that fact. Perhaps, in the years to come, he will realize what he has done and will make amends for it in some way, and by that I am not suggesting that going to prison entails making amends. Ultimately, Vick has to come to terms with why there is a difference between the exhilaration felt by some when they watch two animals rip each other apart and the disgust that it causes a civilized person.

While not commonly mentioned on this website, one thing that I am incredibly dedicated to is animal welfare. Being that I have four dogs myself, I’m obviously affected when I hear stories of animal abuse, no matter the species, and infuriated that it is still prevalent in our society.

Yesterday, I was sent a link to an article by a reader about the rise in popularity in dog fighting in the United States. The indictment of pro NFL player Michael Vick with regards to this disgusting ‘sport’ has brought attention to the fact that dog fighting is something that is not uncommon, and the article provides some very valuable information about not only the abuses that the animals used suffer, but the fact that their entire lives are basically destroyed because they have had aggression taught and lured out of them, commonly in the cruelest of ways.

There are those that dislike breeds that are commonly equated with canine violence, the most prevalent among them being pit bull’s, but is vastly important to remember that while such breeds are often easier to train to be violent, they primarily become so because of the inclinations of their owners.

My own dogs, three of which are very small, played with a pit bull at a local park when they were all puppies – the pit bull included. And while she was obviously much stronger and overpowering than them, her attitude was simply that of a happy puppy playing with other dogs. And while her size sometimes intimidated my dogs, it did not stop them from running about with her from time to time.

The largest of my four dogs, a German Shepherd cross of some kind – she was either born in the wild or dumped in the woods as a puppy – is also considerably larger than my three small ones. She is also the youngest of the four dogs, and since her rescue and integration with Pete, Casey, and Benji, has never acted aggressively towards them. In fact, she acts entirely in the opposite. Of course, the main reason behind that is that she lives in an environment in which she is adored, never, ever touched in an aggressive fashion, and not even spoken to in tones that are aggressive. Like all dogs, when she does something inappropriate, she is reprimanded, but it’s done in such a way that her trust and sense of security is not threatened.

So someone explain to me the purpose of putting two dogs in a pit or cage and having them attempt to kill each other for the sake of sport? What sort of sick fuck not only engages in such an undertaking, but finds it entertaining to watch?

I’m not an advocate of violence, but in this case I’d say the best remedy is to throw those assholes in one of those pits with the dogs that they have beaten and bred to be aggressive, and let the dog sort them out.

We’ll see just what sort of ‘man’ Michael Vick is then.

I apologize, this issue gets me very upset.