Poppy's blog - Cats, Bats & Witches Hats

For the first time in my life I have truly felt alone. 
I don’t know how to find my way out of this labyrinth. 

Hello Tumblianiaumbiran….ns? 
:)
How is everyone? I know ive been away again for aaages. 
So yeah, an update, hmm

Things are good. The main thing which is going on at the moment is starting music. I’ve started vocal and guitar lessons over the last month and absolutely loving it :) its a wonderful distraction from the stresses of everyday life right now and bringing my closer to people who I haven’t spend time with in a long time. A new way to be creative and feel like im actually achieving something. (wheyy)

I had a bit of a mad moment the other night, sat in front of the mirror and decided i needed a fresh change to help me push myself forwards. So I had scissors in one hand, comb in the other and gave my hair a chop. Ill upload a picture below. I do like it :) I feel different.

Things are slow at the moment in terms of modelling. Im concentrating mostly on relaunching my alternative hairdressing business. So i behind the camera rather than in front of it. Which to be honest I much prefer.

Plans for getting my own place this summer is still happening. and im doing as much as I can to build my clientèle and earn as much as I can. I also work at HMV now at the weekends. Which is what encouraged me to start music. I’ve only done a few shifts so far but its fantastic and the people are great. 

Im also growing my pumpkins again for another year. The sunshine and rain has given them a wonderful boost!

Anyway, that’s all I can really update with right now. Here are some updated pictures :)

any online gothic clothing websites where I can find fitted long sleeved (pref flared sleeved) shirts/blouses? You know, like the gothic lolita ones? 

To those of you who took the time out to read my latest blog entry about the meat industry, I seem to have struck a chord with a few people in a positive way and I wanted to make it clear I wasn’t being a preachy ‘pro-vegan’ but the point of it was to raise awareness on something which matters to all of us. :)

Any questions about any alternative foods please ask, I’m going to be teaching myself alot of the next few weeks so I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated.

A quick update on myself, I’m doing well, I had to make a huge decision in my life recently which has lead to me feeling alot happier. I’m currently aiming towards getting my own apartment as I’m itching to get out of home. Hairdressing is proving itself extremely stressful and difficult to move forwards in so I’m seeking out some part time employed work for the time being. I’m still wondering lost down my path but I’m sure it’ll work out fine.

My distractions are treating me well, this years Pumpkin patch is ready and thriving. ive planted 4 different types of pumpkin this year. I’ve also started learning guitar :) and have lost the feeling in my finger tips.

Hope everyone is keeping well, nice to see some of you are doing really really well compared to last year, very enlightening :)

Cheers and gone x

Let me begin by thanking you for taking the time to read this. Every person who makes the decision to pay attention to this subject is extremely brave, I for one did not find it easy opening my mind to one (of many) practices of cruelty which rule our modern world. 

Every single person on this planet has the right to be educated on this subject, we’ve all heard the horror stories as to what goes on in slaughter houses in this day and age, but many of us turn our backs on it because the idea of inhumanly butchering animals is too hard to bare, many others think of ways it can be justified, we’re only human right? We are born omnivores and its in our nature to eat meat. Many of us eat meat to maintain a healthy diet and large majority of us believe that taking on a vegetarian/vegan diet is disadvantaging to our health, and others, like myself have always eaten meat since a young age and have carried on buying and eating meat products into my adult years, purely out of habit and because everyone around us was doing the same.   

Yesterday evening I was drawn to an advertisement on Facebook with a picture of Jenna Marbles, the header saying “Find out why Jenna leaves meat off her plate” being a big fan of Jenna, I clicked the link redirecting me to a page which had a video in the center page, it automatically started playing and had Steveo (Jackass) documenting it 

As soon as I saw the pig in the first image on the video my first reaction was to switch video off, too many times have I been faced with these extremely disturbing videos and images of animal cruelty and slaughter, leaving me to feel extremely upset and have those disturbing images linger in my mind over the following week. But I decided to brave myself to watch this video and told myself to bare it. 

The next 10 minutes was extremely heart breaking and horrific - worse than any horror film or any fear I have ever witnessed, alot of the scenes I couldn’t bring myself to watch, but I still heard the horrific cries of animals being inhumanly tortured and beaten to death, one of the worse things in the video was to learn that alot of it (not all) was in everyday common practice and perfectly LEGAL within the meat industry. 

Before I go on, if you wish to fully understand the rest of my blog entry then watch the video here: 
http://whosagainstanimalcruelty.org/JennaMarblesGlobal.html

-I would also suggest reading some of the Facebook comments below and taking in both sides of the argument.

Usually when I witness horrific things like this I try and understand what makes people feel that this is justifiable? How can the employee’s working at these slaughter houses desensitise themselves to such a point of not caring to chuck thousands of baby chicks fully alive and concious into a grinding machine? Consider it a norm? Or justify needlessly killing baby cattle so they don’t drink their mothers milk (in dairy farms).

I wonder how much or their humanity was lost during that course of desensitisation. Or are they as ignorant as to many others who believe that animals don’t have personalities, feelings, feel pain and fear.
Please bare in mind that this video highlights the worse of the slaughter house practices and many other farms raise and kill their cattle, pigs and poultry in a humane way. But the truth is, as the population grows the more demand there will be for meat and dairy products and the more people will find ways to increase business and lower costs by cutting corners. Free range/organic meat, eggs and milk is more expensive for a reason.
We live in a struggling world, while the cheaper/easier option is there it is in our human nature to choose it. Many of us not being able to afford to choose that lifestyle or have that option there in the first place.

I spent the rest of my evening reading through the comments on this video, many of the people automatically saying “Thats it, Im becoming vegetarian/vegan! I hate humanity! we are sick!” etc. 

But is becoming vegan/vegetarian really the answer? It makes sense - the less demand there is for the product, the less they will make. But if you imagined if 50% of the worlds population became vegetarian/vegan how crippling it will be the food company’s (being mass or independent let alone the eco system. Remember when fox hunting ban was introduced? How many dogs were put down in result as there was no more use for them. Us humans as a whole have put ourselves into this viscous cycle, paying these huge greedy, money making mass corporations to treat their animals this way so they deliver us our cheap and easily accessible convenience food. We allow ourselves to turn our back to them and letting our ignorance rule over rational thought and knowledge of the practices which goes on - which I believe in itself inhumane. 

But we cant fully blame ourselves for shielding away from this horrific truth. We are fooled by the shiny cellophane packaging, the fancy writing on our milk cartons and meat packaging, on the walls of our supermarkets, The TV advertisements of cows and sheep dancing and singing in their fields, happy as larry.

If slaughter houses or dairy houses (being free range or not) had glass walls, I think we all would honestly admit that we would not eat the meat of the animal we witnessed murdered or pay money towards the practices which go onto consuming the product - for example needlessly disposing of male chicks and baby cattle, docking of tails, castration and branding. I Personally I believe we should be prepared to kill the animal if we can justify eating it, not pay someone else to do it for us, especially in such a horrific and inhumane way.  

Becoming fully vegetarian/Vegan purely for this reason alone, and hating humanity because of this is not the answer and I feel is again a ignorant way of thinking. That is not going to help our eco system in the long term, sure it’ll lower demand of these products but as the population grows these products will still be on the shelves, animals are still going to be raised and killed despite how many of us choose this different lifestyle. I believe the only way we as humans can fully tackle this issue is to EDUCATE ourselves and others. Not hide away from the truth because its easier, from there we can choose and take CONTROL of how we choose to give back to environment and the world we live in. We need to stop others from making that decision for us - being friends or family or the company’s who put the packaging on the shelves.  

The answer is taking control of our own minds and decisions, a quote which has stuck with me from this is from Bob Marley: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds”

Whether or not you decide to become vegan/vegetarian from this experience, it should be your decision and not be fully influenced by videos like these alone, educate yourself by researching the meat and diary products which you decide to buy off the shelf, hard work right? Wrong. its actually very easy. If you feel strongly enough about animal rights and wanting to stop giving your money to these companies. A good start is making a mental note of your favourite meat and and dairy products and reading the packaging, there is so much useful information out there. You just have to start looking.

It is important to remember that there are good people in the world who contribute towards the meat and dairy company’s, let me give you an example.
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/raised-care

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/animal-welfare/5-step-animal-welfare-rating

I for one want to do my part by fully educating myself on these practices and what other options there are available out there. I’m undecided whether I want to become fully vegetarian or to switch to buying meat and diary products from the people who fully care for and kill their animals humanly.
Either way, I am very much looking forward to exploring what other food options are out there and what is available. I tried a falafel burger the other day and it was better than any beef burger I had ever had, seriously it was amazing.

As much as this experience has shocked me and has given me disturbing images imprinted on my mind, it gives me pride to know that I DO have a choice to live in a way which I feel is fair and justified. Also this knowledge helping me unveil how blind we really are to the world around us. 
Thanks for reading x