Dogs like Cato would prefer not to
have aggressive dogs menacing them!

The following post was originally published by Karen on KP’s Dog Blog, October 22, 2007.

If you ever find yourself in the path of a large hostile dog, conventional wisdom says that you should “make like a tree” (stand still and avoid eye contact), and if that doesn’t work, you should “make like a rock” (curl up on the ground, face down, with your arms covering your neck). However, if you have your dog with you, that’s not going to work because your dog will likely be the target. I’ve found myself in this tricky situation several times lately, and I’d like to share the two methods that I used to save my dogs from being mauled.

The first one was to throw a handful of treats straight at the dog as a decoy and then slowly back away. I always take treats with me to help with training my dogs, but this is another good reason to keep treats handy when out walking.

If that doesn’t work or you forgot your treats, try to “make like a wolf” and scare the dog away: You just puff yourself up, looking as imposing as possible, with a really mean look on your face, and you emit the most primal, deepest guttural sound in the most threatening voice that you can muster (for some reason, this comes easy to me!). Don’t worry about what the neighbors will think—your furry friend’s life could depend on it!

I can’t guarantee that these will always work, but they worked like a charm for me, and they’ll give you a fighting chance if you don’t have any other options.

lunchlady / cc

I remember becoming a vegetarian at the age of 14 and how on the days that I didn’t bring a packed lunch I would wonder what I would find to eat at school that day. Sometimes that meant that I would get a juice, a bag of pretzels, and an apple from the cafeteria. Other days it would mean asking the assembly-line–style cafeteria workers to please leave the heaping mound of ground beef off my taco salad and just load it with veggies and beans instead—which, fortunately, they were willing to do!

I always wished I could have had more veggie options, though. Fortunately, in the new year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be reviewing the Child Nutrition Act, which, among other things, covers the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The USDA is accepting comments on how to revise the program until October 15, so please write soon to ask for more vegetarian options for your child’s school!

To send a message, either use this form, or send an e-mail to CNDProposal@fns.usda.gov.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing your e-mail:

• Be polite. Being negative about the lack of vegetarian options at your child’s school won’t help.

• Explain that you care about your child’s health, the environment, and animals, and vegetarian food supports all those things. Not to mention that everyone deserves to be accommodated regarding their ethical, religious, and dietary preferences.

• List some options of what you’d like to see added. Bean-and-rice burritos, veggie burgers, veggie dogs, veggie chili, and pasta with marinara sauce and veggies are all a good start.

• Ask for soy milk as an alternative to dairy milk. It’s great for vegans, for those who are lactose-intolerant, and for soy enthusiasts!

• Be sure to say thanks for taking your thoughts into consideration.

It is so important to write to USDA officials and ask them to include vegetarian and vegan meals in the National School Lunch Program. Change happens when people speak up (or, in this case, write in)—the Child Nutrition Act is only reviewed every four years, so let’s do something now!

customersrock / cc

This October, in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, do something that will really help save lives—contribute only to health charities that don’t fund inhumane, irrelevant animal experiments.

Many charities, such as the American Cancer Society, the National Foundation for Cancer Research, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, fund useless animal tests that drain money from relevant, effective, life-saving projects.

Humans and animals both feel pain, fear, joy, and love, but there are many physiological differences among rats, rabbits, dogs, cats, pigs, and people, and meaningful scientific conclusions cannot be drawn about one species by studying another.

Former National Cancer Institute director Dr. Richard Klausner has stated that “the history of cancer research has been the history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans.”

Compassionate, modern charities, such as the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, American Breast Cancer Foundation, The Cancer Project, and The Breast Cancer Fund, know that non-animal methods are the best way to combat cancer. If you want to make a donation to help beat breast cancer, please see CaringConsumer.com for a complete list of cruelty-free charities. After all, your contribution should help stop suffering, not cause it.

apartmentherapy / cc

For the past month or so, I have been tackling the daunting task of total home organization. It has been quite a process, and it seems to have turned my house upside-down—piles of things are strewn all over the place with labels such as, “Keep,” “Discard,” and “Donate.”

In addition to the ridiculously gigantic piles of office supplies that have turned up—and look as if they are currently digesting my dining-room table—I have also realized that I am guilty of some serious animal rights–literature hoarding. It seems that the past 16 years of activism have left me with a plethora of leaflet bundles, books, and movies as well as multiple copies of vegetarian cookbooks.

A lot of good these materials are doing cooped up in cardboard boxes, right? If you, too, are looking to get your stagnant, dust-collecting literature back into action, the following are some ideas on how to get it moving (after you’ve wiped off the dust, of course):

• Donate books and magazines that are in good condition to your local library or community literacy programs.

• Make a delicious vegan dish for a friend, and give him or her one of your vegetarian cookbooks as a gift alongside it.

• Next time you go to the doctor, leave a copy of PETA’s Animal Times in the waiting room.

• Host vegan potlucks and screenings of the animal rights films you have lying around.

• Include PETA literature with every bill you pay, and place an animal rights sticker on the outside of the envelope.

• Post PETA literature on bulletin boards (it’s free).

• Stand on a busy street corner and pass out free PETA literature to passersby.

• If you have literature that has become outdated, get extra-creative and incorporate it into arts-and-crafts projects, such as collages and papier-mâché.

Freeing yourself from clutter will also help to free animals from suffering. What are you waiting for? Go get that dusty box out from under the couch!