Let a man get up and say, Behold, this is the truth, and instantly I perceive a sandy cat filching a piece of fish in the background. Look, you have forgotten the cat, I say.

Photo taken by the Grumpy Vegan at Virginia and Leonard Woolf's home, Monks House, in East Sussex.

It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.

Photo taken by the Grumpy Vegan at Virginia and Leonard Woolf's home, Monks House, in East Sussex.

The BBC is reporting that the British Government has decided against badgers culls as part of its policy to address the increasing numbers of cattle with TB.

There's no official statement on DEFRA Web site but, if true, it's surely excellent news.

Of course, the National Farmers Union are sputtering.

This [TB in cattle] is wiping out big chunks of UK farming and is ruining farming families and the rural economy. We need to take tough decisions. It's never popular but the farming industry will be devastated.

Perhaps they should've thought of the tough decisions they made when they crammed chickens into battery cages, forced veal calves into crates, fed ground up dead animals to vegetarian animals, exported live animals to the European mainland for rearing and slaughter and so on.

I read the book of Job last night, I don't think God comes out well in it.

Photo taken by the Grumpy Vegan at Virginia and Leonard Woolf's home, Monks House, in East Sussex.

The Grumpy Vegan is cautiously optimistic about New Scientist's tortuous reasoning in support of eating less factory farmed meat and investing in more research for in vitro meat--it's good to see the scientific mainstream press catch up at last with what the animal rights movement has been saying for decades.

Nevertheless, there's much to quibble over in their editorial, "Growing meat in the lab." For example, emphasizing the blame onto the developing countries need to consume meat and dairy products--an artificial desire inspired by the west's obsession with meat and its promotion as a measure of affluence and success. Also, the editor's can't quite bring themselves to consider veganism as a viable option. Oh well.

Humans evolved to be omnivores. We're poor converters of most vegetable matter, and gained much in the past from using herbivorous animals to convert grass and leaves into high-quality protein. But in a world where food and land are in short supply, livestock production is a hugely inefficient use of grain. To produce the steak we eat, a calf needs nutrients and energy to grow and sustain an entire body, only a part of which we consume.

Most analyses - including New Scientist's - place blame with the changing dietary patterns in developing countries, which are resulting in a greater demand for meat. That's certainly a problem, but so is the fact that the west is not reducing its own meat consumption. In the western world, we typically consume about three times as much animal protein as we need, along with far more animal fat than is good for us.

[...]

However, in terms of people ultimately fed, using land to grow animal feed is still inefficient compared with growing food crops for humans. And efficiency gains with livestock have come at a cost to animal welfare and the environment - problems that current animal science will at best mitigate, not solve. Research will breed animals to be a bit more "efficient" and a bit less diseased, and housing systems may be adapted a little better to animal behaviour. But increasing efficiency still further, while also reducing animal-welfare problems to a negligible level, would require technology beyond anything we see today. It would mean developing animals that thrive in confinement systems and are stripped as far as possible of unnecessary tissues and motivations. And there is no turning back. Free-ranging animals on traditional farms will never produce enough meat to satisfy the increasing world population with its growing demand.

During the Grumpy Vegan's time in the United States I learned about benefactors who established large foundations to mostly fund projects to help animals. This is, of course, possible to do how you want it done when you're alive; however, after you've sprung from this mortal coil, well, it's not so easy. Several foundations come to mind (e.g., the Brach Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Trust) where it would appear the surviving trustees over the years play down the animal commitment and play up everything else.

The news that New York City-based hotelier and real estate magnate Leona Helmsley left instructions that her entire trust ($5-8 billion) be left to help dogs is making alarm bells ring and calculations being made. As HSUS's Wayne Pacelle notes

If her estate is put to use in a way that is consistent with her instructions, a total of $8 billion would result in $400 million flowing to the cause of dog protection per year (if the standard five percent of the corpus is allocated each year).

Surely, it's more than dogs salivating over this news. God bless Leona Helmsley! What's worrying is whether the trustees of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust hold fast to her wishes. And not drown in all the slobber the attorneys are salivating.

This time the redirection away from the benefactor's original wishes for their foundation may not be so easily achieved. Too many lessons have been learnt from similar circumstances to hopefully not let this happen again.

Meanwhile, The Times couldn't resist itself (need to check whether The Graun is sputtering anything) in an editorial Not A Dog's Life

There are many reasons why people might think twice before leaving $8 billion in their will to be lavished on dogs. And the most obvious reason? Because they're dogs, for Pete's sake!

[...]

Helmsley's bequest is around 30 times what Barack Obama spent on his campaign to win the Democratic nomination for the White House. Hell, with $8 billion to spend, even Hillary Clinton might have triumphed. Or else she could have spoilt herself with ten million new pantsuits.

But $8 billion? For dogs? It's the meek who are supposed to inherit the earth, not the mutts.

Puerile piffle of the worst sort.

After this expose there's another one by Animal Aid.

Here's what the RSPCA has got to say about it.

The RSPCA is angry and appalled that anyone would let animals get into this state, and we have immediately suspended the farm and launched a full investigation.

The farmer's employer recognises there has been a serious breakdown of management on the farm. The farmer is currently battling with serious personal difficulties which appear to have overwhelmed him, however this is no excuse for the condition of some of the animals.

In rare cases individual farms or farmers can let us down, but for every animal shown on covertly-filmed video, there are millions more who've had a better life, thanks to the RSPCA's welfare standards.

Freedom Food has more monitoring visits and inspections than any other assurance scheme in this country. It is a mark of a good scheme that immediate action is taken if ever a problem arises, and that's what we have done.

As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.

Photo taken by the Grumpy Vegan at Virginia and Leonard Woolf's home, Monks House, in East Sussex.

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

Photo taken by the Grumpy Vegan at Virginia and Leonard Woolf's home, Monks House, in East Sussex.

A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out.

Photo taken by the Grumpy Vegan at Virginia and Leonard Woolf's home, Monks House, in East Sussex.

Two of the Grumpy Vegan's unsung heroes are Respect for Animals' Mark Glover and Nicki Brooks. They're largely responsible for the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act 2000 which banned fur farming.

What is little known about Mark and Nicki is their local efforts in support of the Nottinghamshire wildlife and converting disused industrial sites into wildlife sanctuaries. Here, Mark describes in his own words the work of the Gedling Conservation Trust.

People are no longer sinful, they are only immature or underprivileged or frightened, or more particularly, sick.

Phyllis McGinley, American essayist

Philosophy … means looking at things which one takes for granted and suddenly seeing that they are very odd indeed.

Iris Murdoch, British writer

But then all women dress like their mothers, that is their tragedy. No man ever does. That is his.

Alan Bennett, British playwright

One reason I don’t drink is that I want to know when I’m having a good time.

Nancy Astor, British politician

Fear is no basis for foreign policy.

Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister

The Grumpy Vegan believes the RSPCA is the first animal welfare group to establish a humane farming certification program. Other groups have followed since. The RSPCA program is called Freedom Foods and regularly receives media attention and celebrity support. Recently, however, British TV's Five News broadcast a two-part expose of an approved Freedom Foods farm with egg-laying chickens that clearly contravened the policies. The day after the broadcast the RSPCA issued this statement.

"The RSPCA is horrified and extremely concerned at any allegations of animals suffering - and has taken immediate action by suspending the farm, and launching our own investigation," said Leigh Grant, chief executive of Freedom Food.

"As soon as we were made aware of the issues by Channel Five News, we took immediate action to suspend the farm, pending further investigation.

"Like any other organisation, the RSPCA cannot monitor farms 24 hours a day - but we are the only one making a concrete effort to help millions of farm animals by setting up an assurance scheme dedicated solely to animal welfare."

The intention of such programs as Freedom Foods isn't doubted; however, what concerns the Grumpy Vegan is that "animal funds" are used for such programs. There's a fine line between Freedom Foods et al and campaigning against factory farming and for legislation as well as asking the public to eat less meat or preferably go vegetarian and vegan.

The RSPCA and others are on the wrong side of the line with programs like Freedom Foods.

Rebels seldom make good revolutionaries, because organized action, even union with other people, is not possible for them.

Lillian Hellman, American playwright

Here's me questioning what is it about veganism and The Guardian at the Animals and Society Diary.

We are what we seem to be, transient mortal creatures subject to necessity and chance … Our destiny can be examined, but it cannot be justified or totally explained. We are simply here.

Iris Murdoch, British writer