How come I can never *find* this stuff when I go to games?

So, I have some serious problems with PETA I'm not going to get into in this post, but they're occasionally a good source for information about living veg*n¹. My buddy Leanne pointed me to PETA's Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks for 2007. (They also have a list of vegetarian-friendly minor league parks.)

I'm honestly not that surprised that Citizens Bank Park in Philly was on the list, as I was actually able to find a few of the veg*n options there when I saw some games. (Although not all the delicious things they list at PETA's page. I have a feeling a lot of it is at the restaurants at the park and not the concession stands in the walkways.)

Also unsurprising is Pittsburgh's PNC Park not being on the list. Veg*ns are pretty much stuck with soft pretzels and maybe risking some French fries there.

Honestly, I'd find PETA's list a lot more helpful if it would tell me where I can find all these delicious things at the ballpark, as that's the hard part of this. It doesn't help me to know there are veggie dogs at a particular park if they're hidden, not on a menu, and in one out-of-the-way location, y'know?

And PETA's lack of distinction between vegetarian food and vegan food is understandable from a PR perspective--"Look how easy it is to be vegetarian! You can still get fake hotdogs at the ballpark, even!"--but it's not terribly useful from a practical standpoint of figuring out if I can eat the faux meats on their list, as many have eggs and dairy in them.

I really should get on that original plan I had to contact major league stadiums about what veg*n food they had and where it was located in the park.


¹ veg*n is short for vegan or vegetarian. Because veg*ns are lazy typers.

Why the Coverage of the Michael Vick Scandal Ticks Me Off as a Vegan and as a Woman

So, look, obviously The Michael Vick Indictment is some stomach turning stuff, and if any of it is true, I hope he does not play in the NFL again.

That said, it's been about a day since the indictment, and I'm already so tired of this story. (Although, admittedly, it's been in the press for about, what, three months now? So perhaps that's the reason for my fatigue.) I'm pretty sure most of this fatigue is coming from, you know, my being a feminist and my being an animal rights activist on the abolitionist¹ end of the spectrum.


Why I am tired of the Michael Vick indictment story already, a woman's perspective

So I'm organizing my baseball cards, and I have ESPN on in the background, and Jim Rome is Burning is on, and they're talking about the Michael Vick scandal, and one of the guests, whose name I did not catch said something to the effect of, a lot of guys in the various sports leagues get indicted, or even convicted, but they get swept under the rug and we never hear about them again. He went on to say, but this story is different! This isn't just slapping a stripper! This is a country of dog-lovers!

And I thought... Well, huh.

Because, I mean, I love animals and everything, and you definitely shouldn't torture or kill them, but this story is getting a lot more coverage than, say, the Elijah Dukes "threatening to kill his (ex?-)wife" story. And the Benoit murders-suicide has become a PED story, rather than a "hey, guys! If you're going to kill yourself, don't take your wife and child with you, you dink" story.

And I do understand why this Michael Vick story is bigger. He's a bigger name, and in the NFL, which is a bigger sport than baseball or WWE (which may or may not actually be a sport, given the fixed nature of the competition).

But we live in a culture where the lives of animals are considered by most people to be less important than the lives of people ², so why is "you dead, dawg" a joke, and a man killing his wife and child a story about steroids that are covered maybe twice in a month, and this story is covered all day long? Are we to consider violence (or threatened violence) against women less important than violence toward dogs?

There are stories of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking/threatening that do not or barely make the national sporting news. And athletes who are wife-beaters or possible rapists³, are perfectly capable of regaining their former position in regard to the public. (See how we continue to cover Brett Myers and Dmitri Young in the press.)

I'm not saying we shouldn't cover the Michael Vick case; it's a federal investigation of a very big name athlete charged with doing some very nasty things, which makes it news. However, the fact that this story is such news is really driving home to me that, man, we don't seem to consider violence of male athletes towards women much news at all in this country, do we? And that's really upsetting to me.


Why I am tired of the Michael Vick indictment story already, a vegan's perspective

WARNING I am going to be stepping on my high horse on this one, so if you don't want to read about why I have problems with the way we treat animals in this country, pass on by.

"This is a country of dog lovers" is a statement that's been made multiple times in the press today talking about thise case and why it's going to hurt Michael Vick's public image and why Roger Goddell ought to suspend Vick.

I continue not to understand why people who 1) cover horse racing, 2) probably have no problem with rodeos, and 3) most likely eat meat, dairy, and eggs seem to have such a problem with this. Or, rather, I do understand: it's horrific and people like dogs. But it bothers me that people like dogs so much, but animals that aren't fluffy and cute, animals that are designated in our culture as "work animals" or "food animals" are okay to torture and kill. That's different.

Do our sportscasters weep about horses injured during races having to be put down? But, boy, if it's a dog, it's a problem. That sportscaster owns a dog⁴! Shooting a dog to put her down is so sad.

Do people really have no idea what goes on at the average factory farm? The animals people eat every day undergo torture, are driven crazy by their cramped conditions, and are killed with little thought to if it is injurous or painful for the animal.

I'm not troubled by people feeling sorry for the dogs tortured and killed as a part of dog-fighting rings. It's a terrible, horrible thing. But the entire coverage of this story by the national sports media is reminding me of the stories people tell about going to luncheons at animal welfare societies and being fed ham sandwiches or hamburgers. In this culture, some animals are designated as food or work animals, and it's okay to torture and kill them, but if you do any of the things we do to chickens, cows, pigs, and horses to someones cat, dog, or bunny, well, then it's suddenly recognized as a despicable act.


So, I suppose, in neither case am I really angry with the coverage the Michael Vick story is getting. It's that I'm angry about the coverage all those other stories aren't getting. I'm not even sure I'm angry at the Mainstream Sports Media. I think I'm just angry at our culture again.



¹ As opposed to the welfarism end of the spectrum. Animal welfare is concerned with lessening the torture of factory farms, but is not against the use of animals for the purposes of humans as long as the animals are not harmed before they're, you know, killed for food. Abolitionists are against the use of animals for human food, entertainment, etc. I'm not a huge fan of the term abolitionism for the movement because I think it makes too great a tie to the anti-slavery movement in the 19th century, but it's the accepted term, so it will suffice for now.

² I don't think this attitude is necessarily right, but is the mindset of most people in this culture, which is the important thing to note in my argument.

³ Yes, I am talking about Kobe. No, "dropped charges" do not mean that the charges were false. They mean that the plaintiff is sick of being put on trial for her own behavior when that is not what the trial is about. (Example: Imagine you are mugged, but are able to bring the mugger to trial. However, in that trial, the entire case becomes about how the mugger saw you give twenty bucks to your friend before he mugged you, so he didn't really mug you after all. This is why I can't stand the way rape cases are handled in our culture.)

⁴ I hate saying "owns" a dog. Animals should not be seen as property, but as living beings. I use the phrase here to reflect an attitude not my own.