Once again, it was a gloriously sunny day albeit the wind had a bit of a chill in it.Today, we rented a strimmer (Americans read: weed whacker) and cleared the lower half of our 10-rod allotment. The strimmer worked well and cut the grass more effectively than the two mowers we used earlier in the week. It’s just about possible to see in the top centre of the photograph the compost pile we started with the grass clippings and some vegetable waste we had collected at home. In the foreground is a big pile of grass clippings which is the beginning of a second compost heap that will be in the bottom right-hand corner of the allotment. So, basically, the ground is cleared and we’ve started to compost.
Next, is to mark out where the raised beds will be and install boards to make them. Thus, it will be very clearly indicated where the grass paths are and where we will grow stuff. A raised bed is an area made from a square or rectangle of boards. Once the ground is prepared in a raised bed, it does not need to be repeatedly dug. Raised beds are an ideal way to grow crops of vegetables, fruits, cut flowers and herbs. Anyway, you’ll see what I mean as we progress further with allotment. We continue to meet others who are gardening at Fernbank and I must say everyone is terribly friendly.
The publication of these letters threw the brutal public into an uproar. The Fox had hardly been thought of, and his connections, especially among the fighting beasts, made him a most formidable rival. One passage in his letter dealt a fatal blow to his most dangerous competitor, the Mule. It was the sentence, “a Judge of foreign habits and ideas.” Beasts asked what this meant? And then it came out, when it could no longer be concealed, that the Mule was a native of Spain, and had carried sherry over the mountains of Andalusia.
Uproar is a weak word to describe the scene which followed this astounding discovery. The Buffalo, though, from his position as chairman, he ought to have preserved a neutral attitude, confessed to the Mocking-Bird that he would despair of the success of their movement if so important an office as that of judge were intrusted to a foreigner. The ‘Possum and the Wild Cat concurred. But the most vehement opponent of the foreigner was a Tiger from Hindostan, who declared that if the Mule were elected the country would be ruined in six months. Up and down the camp this Hindoo ran, roaring that destruction was at hand unless the Mule was defeated. The Eagle of the Rocky Mountains persisted that if the Mule were eligible in other respects his Spanish birth should not stand in his way. But he was in the minority; especially when the Booby wrote an article in the Barker and Biter to prove that the Mule had once carried a Jesuit on his back, and had the sign of the cross on his forehead, were the brutes resolved to have none of him.
The Animal Declaration of IndependenceHarper’s January 1857 [edited extract being part 18 in a series of 19]
A formal complaint had been laid before his Majesty by Dog Noble, Esq., protesting against the disturbance of his slumbers by Major-General Cock. It appeared that the worthy Commander-in-Chief was given to vocalizing at undue hours, having visions of operatic distinction; old Mr. Dog, whose conscience troubled him o’ nights, protested that he couldn’t get a wink of sleep.
The Animal Declaration of IndependenceHarper’s January 1857 [edited extract being part 17 in a series of 19]
According to the Daily Torygraph the Prince of Wales banned foie gras from royal menus.
The Prince has instructed chefs at all of his royal residences to stop serving the dish. Andrew Farquharson, the Deputy Master of the Household at Clarence House, said his chefs were ordered not to buy or serve the food. “The Prince of Wales has a policy that his chefs should not buy foie gras,” he said.
It was a disgrace to the age that the wrongs of the Turtle should be allowed to continue without even a single effort to relieve them. At the present time especially, when they were all engaged in a holy movement for the redress of grievances and the assertion of the natural liberty of brutekind, it was disgusting to see the indifference with which many honourable brutes viewed the condition of the Turtle. Was he not a beast and a brother?
The Animal Declaration of IndependenceHarper’s January 1857 [edited extract being part 16 in a series of 19]
Several eloquent speeches had been made in the course of the debates. One dull day, when the business before the house was on the preservation of the Union of the Beasts, and the Parrot had been four hours on his legs, a Crocodile suddenly arrived in the assemblage, and was received with the applause due to his character and the length and hardships of the journey he had performed. The Parrot gracefully yielded the floor, observing, that he would pass to the third of his nine points on the following day.
The Crocodile, with a sob, cried that he would ask their indulgence to plead the cause of suffering brutedom. He believed, as they all did, that all brutes were born equal; and yet it was notorious that his intimate friends the Turtles were kept in a state of degrading inferiority. There were not allowed to fly through the air–merely through prejudice of the rest of creation; they were compelled to adopt a slow, waddling, ungraceful gait, simply because beasts made up their minds that they could not walk otherwise, and would not try to teach them differently. He was satisfied, for his part, that with a proper course of training for several generations, the Turtles would not only learn to fly, but would run with his friend the Ostrich, and even sing like his honourable neighbour the Thrush.
The Animal Declaration of IndependenceHarper’s January 1857 [edited extract being part 15 in a series of 19]
Kim Stallwood is an independent scholar and author on animal rights. His forthcoming book, Animal Dharma, explores what it means to care deeply about animals. Starting in 1976, he has held leadership positions with some of the world’s foremost organisations in the UK and US, including CIWF, BUAV, PETA, The Animals’ Agenda, Animals and Society Institute and Minding Animals International. A vegetarian since 1974 when as a student he worked in a chicken slaughterhouse. A vegan since 1976. His evil twin is the Grumpy Vegan.
New Book!
Kim Stallwood's forthcoming book explores what it means to care deeply about animals and discovers how we can live peacefully with ourselves and others by proposing four key values: truth, compassion, nonviolence and interbeing.
