Veganska atletinja Fiona Oakes zmagala na maratonu na Severnem polu

Letošnji UVU Maraton na Severnem polu je bil zaradi najtežjih razmer v zgodovini tega tekmovanja še posebno zahteven. To pa ni bila nepremagljiva ovira za vegansko športnico, ki je 9. aprila 2013 s časom 4 ure 53 minut izboljšala prejšnji rekord proge za 45 minut in zmagala v ženskem maratonu. Od moških tekmovalcev sta bila le dva hitrejša od Fione, drugouvrščena ženska  pa je za njo zaostajala za 55 minut.

Oktobra jo čaka še maraton na Južnem polu.

Kdo je Fiona Oakes?

Fiona se je predstavila tudi v dokumentarnem filmu Povezovanje dejstev, je zelo aktivna ženska, izredno uspešna športnica in veganka že od najstniških let.

Kadar ne tekmuje, dan začne ob 3.30 uri zjutraj - z delom v svojem zatočišču Tower Hill Stables v Essexu v Veliki Britaniji, kjer skrbi za 400 rešenih živali. Ko poskrbi za 22 psov, 53 konjev, 82 pujsov, 50 mačk, 40 ovc, 20 koz, 3 krave in jato kokoši, gosi, rac in pavov, obuje tekaške čevlje in prične s treningom. Je tudi gasilka in ves čas v pripravljenosti, da se hitro odzove, če jo potrebujejo.

Fiona Oakes ni novinka v ekstremnih preizkušnjah. Od njenih mnogih uspehov naj poleg petih rekordov proge ter prvih mest na maratonih Halstead (2007) in Rovaniemi (2010) ter Great North Run (2011) izpostavimo lansko zmago na zelo zahtevni preizkušnji, puščavskem ultramaratonu Marathon des Sables, znanem tudi kot "najzahtevnejša tekma na svetu", na kateri tekmovalci v peklenski vročini pretečejo 154 milj dolgo progo v Sahari.

Čestitajte Fioni in pomagajte njenim živalim

Z dobrimi rezultati na vzdržljivostnih preizkušnjah Fiona neizpodbitno ovrže stereotip o šibkih veganih, vendar pa so pravi razlog, da se udeležuje ekstremnih preizkušenj, živali, za katere skrbi v svojem zatočišču Tower Hill Stables. Mesečni stroški za hrano in zdravila presegajo £10.000, zato Fiona Oakes z vsako preizkušnjo zbira sredstva za zatočišče. Vsak evro pomaga in če kakšnega lahko pogrešate, vam predlagamo, da ga namenite živalim v Tower Hill Stables in plemeniti ženski, ki zatočišču posveča nepredstavljivo veliko energije. Če želite, pa v Fioninem imenu lahko darujete tudi Vegan Society, katerega podpornica je Fiona.

Preberite več

• Fiona Oakes - Queen of the Extreme
• Fionina domača stran: Tower Hill Stables 
• Inspirational Women of the Year: Fiona ran across the desert to save 400 animals 
• Fionina Facebook stran

Tekst: Vegansta iniciativa

Slovenia passes a progressive animal protection law

On 07/03/2013 the new animal protection law was passed in Slovenia (published on 18/03/2013) banning:

• farming and hunting animals for their fur
• farming and hunting animals for their skin
• farming and hunting animals for their down and feathers
• use of wild animals in circuses and similar shows
• religious slaughter without stunning

and introducing other improvements for animal welfare.

The law (The Law on Additions to and Changes of the Law for protection of Animals) was being changed because of the obligatory coordination of the law with European Union’s Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. In the process of changing the law, Slovenian animal protection and rights non-governmental organizations managed to implement significant changes to the law - namely the ban on circus acts involving wild animals and the ban on farming and hunting animals for their fur, feathers or skin. The law was passed in the Slovenian Parliament with a great majority (95% support).

BAN ON FUR FARMING AND HUNTING
Ban on farming and hunting animals for fur, feathers or skins is an important step forward for Slovenia as it is joining many European countries such as Austria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, United Kingdom, Serbia, The Netherlands, which have already passed the ban on fur farming. By passing a stricter law, which also bans hunting for fur and farming or hunting for skins and feathers, Slovenia is making a small but important contribution to the movement, which seeks to ban fur farming in general.

The Law states the ban as follows (article 8 - effecting article 15, paragraph 22):

Prepovedana ravnanja so:

...
- reja in lov na živali zgolj zaradi pridobivanja njihovih kožuhov, kož ali perja.

Translated into English:
Forbidden actions are:

...
- keeping and hunting of animals exclusively for obtaining their pelts, skins or feathers.

Ban on fur farming and hunting will be implemented on 1st January 2015. In less than two years, in Slovenia it won’t be possible to keep or hunt animals for their fur, feathers and skins. Fur farming or hunting in Slovenia is miniscule in size so the ban will not have a significant economic effect. At this moment there is only one registered chinchilla farm in Slovenia, although there is some evidence of illegal small scale fur farming. Hunting for fur is almost nonexistent.
 

The law unfortunatly still allows slaughter of animals for their fur. This would mean, in theory, that a foreign fur farm could bring their animals to Slovenia for slaugther. As this practice is not common in the fur industry, it is belived that this part of the law will not result in actual slaughter of animals for their fur.

BAN ON CIRCUSES WITH WILD ANIMALS
Ban on circus or similar acts involving wild animals is also a substatial advance for animal rights in Slovenia. Although there are no Slovenian circuces, there were tours by foreign circuces with wild animals in Slovenia every summer. It was not unusual to see animals such as tigers, lions, giraffes, camels, lamas and others, in preformances. As this ban comes into effect imediately, there won’t be any circuces with wild animals this coming summer.

The Law states the ban as follows (article 7. - effecting article 14.a):

Uporaba živali prostoživečih živalskih vrst za nastopanje ali prikazovanje v cirkusih in cirkusom podobnih prireditvah je prepovedana.

Translated into English:
The use of animals pertaining to wild animal species for performing or displaying in circuses or shows similar to circuces is forbiden.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS FOR ANIMAL WELFARE

In addition to the above mentioned bans, the new law introduces other improvements in the area of animal rights and welfare in Slovenia: ban on tail docking and ears cropping in dogs, ban on declawing and debarkig, ban on selling dogs with the exclusion of registered breeders, and ban on ceremonial slaughter of animals without stunning, to name a few.

The new Animal protection law brings a better starting point for animal welfare in Slovenia. It also offers a hope for improving animal welfare through new legislature in other countries as well.

- - -

Disclaimer:
This report is issued by Veganska iniciativa (the Vegan initiative). The translations of the sections of the law were not made by government officials and should be regarded as a guide only. For additional information please contact us: veganska.iniciativa@gmail.com

Source (in Slovenian):

http://www.uradni-list.si/1/content?id=112368#!/Zakon-o-spremembah-in-dopolnitvah-Zakona-o-zasciti-zivali-(ZZZiv-C)

Google potrjuje: veganstvo je v porastu

Težko je verjeti, kako močno je veganstvo napredovalo v tako kratkem času. Še ne dolgo nazaj je bila beseda vegan večini ljudi neznana, še več – nekateri je niso znali niti izgovoriti.

Časi se prav zares spreminjajo in dokazi, da je veganstvo doseglo širšo javnost, so vsepovsod. Ali bi si lahko pred desetimi leti predstavljali, da bi osebe, kot so Bill Clinton, Mike Tyson in Michelle Pfeiffer govorile o koristih veganske hrane? In poglejte, kako se širijo podjetja, specializirana za proizvodnjo izdelkov brez mleka in jajc, da ne omenjamo nedavnega (in zelo smešnega) skeča, v katerem Justin Timberlake v oddaji Saturday Night Live nastopa kot plešoča kocka tofuja, ki poje o etiki in radosti veganskega prehranjevanja. Vas še ni prepričalo? Aplikacija Google Trends (z malo piflarske sposobnosti) kaže, da vse več ljudi išče informacije, povezane z izrazom »vegan.«

Popularity of “Vegan” Google Searches, 2008-Present Color density represents quantity relative to present-day maxiumum

Kako vemo? Poglejte si to lično aplikacijo o relativni pogostosti iskalnih zadetkov, ki vključujejo besedo »vegan« v ZDA v zadnjih petih letih in z navdušenjem opazujte, kako karta postaja temnejša, kar dokazuje vse večjo priljubljenost veganstva v širši javnosti.

Vendar pa ne raste le zanimanje za veganstvo – Američani tudi dejansko pojedo vse več brezmesnih obrokov! Povprečen Američan danes poje 12,2 % manj mesa kot leta 2007 in USDA (Ameriško ministrstvo za kmetijstvo), pričakuje, da se bo poraba mesa še naprej zmanjševala.

Zakaj? Osebno verjamem, da so za zavedanje potrošnikov ključne številne nedavne skrivne raziskave rutinskih krutih ravnanj s kravami na farmah za mleko in kokošmi, ki jih izkoriščajo za jajca. Vi pa lahko še naprej razlagate svojim prijateljem in družini, da je razlog v vaših nadvse tajnih receptih za sladice brez mleka in jajc, ki so pricurljali v javnost.

Avtor prispevka (v angleškem originalu Google Confirms: Veganism on the Rise) je Sean Conner.