I haven't written anything about my new year's resolutions for 2011 yet, but I have two. They are totally unrealted to eachter and I think they both could be very challenging to keep.
1. I am only eating humanely raised and slaughtered meat.
For those who know me, this is big. Huge. I LOVE beef. I could easily buy a club pack of ribeye's and have 4 nights of eating only steak for dinner. I used to do it a couple times a month. But I've driven past Harris Ranch on I-5 one too many times to be eating commerically raised beef anymore. I can no longer ignore the fact that the meat I eat lives a miserable life of overcrowding, mud and methane fumes. Their miserable life must seem like Utopia when they are thown into a semi-truck and it is transformed into a world of anxiety, fear, blood and finaly terror before they are slaughtered for my consumption.
But I'm not willing to give up beef. If there was anyone on this planet who was born to be a carnivoire it was me. However, I can choose to buy beef that was humanely raise and slaughtered. I plan on buying my beef from http://www.pratherranch.com/ in the future. But due to lack of convience (and my preference for fresh over frozen meat) this means I haven't been eating much meat protein lately.
I don't eat as much chicken/turkey/pork as I do beef but the same principal stands (along with milk/eggs/etc). So far I'm still eating fish as I always have, but my friend has threatened to make me read a book that will prevent me from eating fish all together... I'm not sure my body could handle such a huge protein drop.
2. I will only enter agility trials that have rubber contacts.
I think that rubber contacts are the future. But more importantly they are the safest for our dogs. The only way the agility community can ensure that ALL organizations require rubber contacts is if the competitors speak with their wallets. In 2011 I will not enter trials that do not have rubber contacts (I'll make an exception for national and international events, but I have confirmed that 2011 AKC nationals will have rubber contacts. Woohoo!) I've already had a challenge with this because the USDAA trial at NAF last weekend had rubber dogwalks and tables but not rubber a-frames or teeters. I chose the AKC trial with rubber contacts instead. But NAF is one of my all-time favorite venues so it was a very painful decision to make. I have my fingers crossed that they will rubberize their a-frames and teeters soon!
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Very admirable resolutions!
ReplyDeleteWe are pretty lucky up here in that all the local clubs and equipment suppliers have rubber contacts now. I even wrote polite letters to a couple of local clubs to let them know how much I would like to enter their trials with my 4 dogs ($$$$) if they have rubber contacts and 24" weave poles (when USDAA first allowed that pole spacing). Others around here did the same and it did make a difference. The clubs have good people in them and sometimes they just need some support. I heard they passed around a hat at VAST to help pay for rubber for the Aframes.
Now to save up for rubber skins for my contacts at home!
Well done!!!
ReplyDeleteNow I'm wondering about Ken Whatsisname's announcement that there will be 22" weaves at the USDAA Nationals. Can that be true??
That's really cool that people at VAST were donating towards rubber aframes!
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that USDAA will be using 22" poles at nationals, their specs for weave poles are 22" +/- 2"
Great resolutions! Good luck with both. I am totally with you on the contacts!!
ReplyDeleteTara, Hermes & Leda
Nice!
ReplyDeleteI just bought 1/4 of a cow and it's now sitting in the freezer. I, too, want to get meat from a good source, making sure the cow had a good life, on a farm and his last moment wasn't terror filled.
I am hoping that the meat is going to be good. In the very least, we had a lot of it ground up so the dogs will get some of it too.
I know in Oregon, there seem to be more coop farms and it seemed possible to buy less than 1/4 of a cow. You might want to look at those.
And totally agree with you on the contacts. Thankfully, most if not all contacts in the PNW are rubberized.
Barb, I saw your post about the beef you're buying and holy cow (no pun intended) you are paying a lot less than me per pound. But along with humanely raised/slaughtered I would like to decrease the carbon footprint so I would rather stay local and pay more than go too far away for my meat. I guess ultimately the best solution is for me to eat less meat and paying more might help with that ;)
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