The Easter Bunny’s buddies

Did the Easter Bunny come to your house last night?

He dropped by our place and left us enough chocolate to make sure we have been thoroughly ill for the day.

He’s very kind to people—it’s a pity humans aren’t always so kind to rabbits.

Vegan grog

Unfortunately, only the Cooper’s is on the vegan list . The other 2 aren’t on the list, but I can tell you that the Vasse Felix wine label says it contains traces of milk products. Looks like I’m sticking with Cooper’s for a while.

When I stopped consuming animal products, the last thing I was thinking about was checking which alcoholic drinks I could consume.

I was focused on avoiding eggs, dairy, honey, even gelatine, but the thought that bits of animals’ bodies could be used to manufacture my glass of wine was not even on my radar. I’d heard that that kind of thing had gone on once upon a time, but assumed it would be something that had died out years ago.

But just like so many of the cruel, unnecessary practices we inflict upon animals, this one still goes on.

Dying for education

Did you know that Australia is the 4th highest user of animals in research in the world? (1)

Neither did I, until I found myself watching a movie called Maximum tolerated dose at the Astor last night.

It brought back memories of my year 12 rat dissection class, when I was the only student who was unable to slice into the unfortunate animal who had been sacrificed for our high school education.

Now I realise that I’m not the only person who doesn’t approve of making animals suffer so that we can educate or fascinate or research.

Life-changing day in the biology lab

That’s not me, by the way…but maybe she’s also pondering what the hell she’s going to do about the rats they were cutting up in the classroom that day.

“Next week we’re going to be dissecting rats!” announced my year 12 Biology teacher one Friday afternoon.

That was about 31 years ago, but I still remember my sinking feeling of dread. Biology was my favourite, and best, subject, and I wanted to continue to do well, but I just couldn’t face cutting up an animal.