Beyond Vegan

Animal Welfare Awareness in an Online Enviroment

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Sham Sanctuaries – Exciting or Irresponsible?

As a young person, scrolling through your social media feeds you are almost certain to come across photographs and videos of your friends on their travels, and you potentially have been or are planning your own.  A popular activity for people traveling around Asia, in countries like Thailand, is visiting Elephant sanctuaries. The sanctuaries offer the promise of a once in a lifetime experience. They give tourists the opportunity to feed and bathe the animals, take a ride on one through the jungle, all the while offering plenty of photo opportunities, which are certain to cause a buzz on your social media feed.

This seems like a fairly harmless activity; in fact, it seems that it is in benefit of the animals to be rescued and cared for at these sanctuaries. But it is not as harmless as it may seem, and these ‘elephant camps’ are often unregulated, and encourage the practice of illegal wildlife trafficking.

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Did I tell you I’m vegan?

It’s January – the month of resolutions, and a common choice across the globe is a change of diet. 2016 was the year of clean eating, with Instagram, Twitter and Facebook aflood with food bloggers promoting their healthy lifestyles and healthy food choices. Popular among many of these blogs are the vegans and vegetarians, people cutting out meat and animal products for their health, and for the welfare of animals and the environment. The amount of people identifying with these dietary choices has skyrocketed, with vegetarianism and veganism becoming somewhat of a trend.

?VEGAN 'MEATBALLS'?Chilli, Lemon, Oregano Chickpea 'meat' balls, in a classic sweet Italian Tomato sauce, with @pasta_rummo Spaghetti ? served with fresh Basil, @violife_foods Prosociano 'Parmesan' Cheese. Perfect comfort food this weekend.✌?️ Good news guys I'm back filming for my #YouTube channel in a couple of weeks time, I have some amazing recipes to show you, link in my bio to subscribe now so you don't miss! I'm also off to #Amsterdam for a few days next week, can anyone recommend some nice vegan restaurants there? Comment below! Thank you, Gaz ✌?️ • • • • • #vegan #vegans #vegano #veganfood #whatveganseat #vegansofinstagram #veganlife #veganfoodshare #veganlifestyle #veganism #veganfoodporn #foodporn #foodie #food #cardiffvegans #welshvegans #cardiff #wales #vegetarian #avocado #vegancake #avocado #vegancommunity #bestofvegan #letscookvegan #italy #italian

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Facebook Fad Pets – Can You Look After an Ocelot?

For decades, people have been fascinated by the huge amount of weird and wonderful animals in the world, and are keen to own them for themselves. Although exotic pets were popular before the internet, purchasing them now has never been easier. It is so easy to find and buy exotic pets online, from tiny reptiles like turtles and snakes, to deadly predators like tigers and lions. Sites like Gumtree contain many listings of exotic animals for sale, often seeing animals that people have liked the sound of before realising they do not have the means to care for them.

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Trophy Hunting and The Internet

Undeniably, hunting has always been a part of humans lives. Our ancestors hunted wild animals for their food and to this day a large amount of the population rely on animals as a food source – even if they don’t chase them down with a spear themselves. It could be argued that this is just a part of nature, we are using the earth’s natural resources to survive, but in an age where you can walk into a Waitrose and have a ready meal from the shelf to your plate in a ridiculously short time, and even live without consuming meat at all is it really necessary to kill animals for sport?

I'd say we had a pretty successful morning up in Oklahoma! Ready for tomorrow!

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Think About Mink – Should celebrities accept responsibility for the products they promote?

In the age of the internet, where people have an ever increasing amount of exposure, celebrities and tastemakers are frequently setting the trends of what is ‘in’ and what is not. More often than not, this exposure is used by celebrities for good, to endorse charities and raise awareness of hundreds of causes. From the ‘ice bucket challenge’, where celebrities and the public alike spread an incredible amount of awareness for motor neurone disease, to YouTube star Pewdiepie, who raised $1 million for a variety of charities – including the World Wildlife Fund. The outreach of celebrities online is far, but do they always use their exposure for good?

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