"Cash for Cluckers" Might Get You a Buck

Why bother with collecting cash for your clunker? Sure, a rebate for up to $4,500 might be nice, but wouldn’t you rather be guaranteed of a dollar right now? You can get that dollar if you go to your grocery store and purchase a vegan faux chicken product and send PETA the receipt. In return you’ll get a $1.00 rebate and a vegetarian starter kit.

One of the motivations for the Cash for Clunkers programs is to reduce emissions, but chickens have a fairly deep carbon footprint as well. From PETA’s blog:

According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the equivalent of taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.

Here are the details of the rebate:

· No tardiness! Receipt for your (repeat) vegan chicken product must be dated between August 6 and September 30, 2009 and received by PETA by October 5, 2009.
· No foreigners! You must be a U.S. resident.
· No liars! You must include a written statement affirming you have never tried faux chicken before.
· No seconds! Sorry, only one per household.
· No swarming! Offer is limited to the first 5,000 entries.

If you fit the above requirements, send your receipt and declaration of fake meat virginity to:

Cash for Cluckers
PETA
501 Front Street
Norfolk, VA 23510

All joking aside, this is admittedly another one of PETA’s creative ways to utilize current events and a catchy tagline to provide more awareness of animal rights. (Maybe next year we’ll see Cents for Salmonella. No?)

Visit PETA’s blog for more info.

Heifer.org - Do You Want to Give a Pig?

I was flipping around the T.V. yesterday and came across the Bonnie Hunt show. Her guest was a sheep and – as I love sheep, stopped to see what the topic was. The other guest was Jane Kaczmarek, who is probably best known for her role as the mother on Malcolm in the Middle. Anyway, she was promoting an organization called Heifer International.

Heifer International is a non-profit organization that provides assistance to communities in the United States and around the world. Their website, heifer.org, boasts that they have aided 8.5 million people in over 125 countries. They are of the “teach a man to fish” school of thought, though they have created the phrase “not a cup, but a cow” instead.

When encountering a disadvantaged area, they first provide the “immediate” necessities required for survival (food and shelter), and then grant residents with livestock and other goods to help sustain their community. Heifer distinguishes itself by focusing on ensuring they are trained to utilize these contributions to the best of their ability. They also encourage recipients to “pass on the gift”, which means: if a family receives two rabbits that in turn produce 20 offspring, they should give away some of the baby rabbits to another family in need.

Heifer International also addresses other big issues such as the HIV crisis, special needs of young people, and the distribution of small loans to new enterprises.

The point that Jane Kaczmarek was making is that instead of donating cash (though I’m sure you can do that as well), you can “give” a cow, a trio of rabbits, a flock of chicks, a pig or other animals. Being a vegetarian, I am very conflicted about that. I will say that this organization seems as though it really focuses on proper treatment of the animals under the care of these communities. Considering the deplorable way this country’s corporations treat their livestock, they would probably have better lives on Heifer’s areas than here in the States.

The good part is if you’re not interested in giving away livestock that will inevitably be slaughtered, you can give a basket, bees or some trees.

I was just curious as to what other vegetarians thought about this. I feel quite torn between my wish for all people to be adequately fed and their communities to be prosperous, but can’t quite bring myself to send livestock for a gift.

Let me know what you vegetarians think! Should I be more open minded about this? How do you feel about it?