A young chimpanzee

Lucy’s Story – Dr. Maurice Temerlin and his wife Jane adopt a newborn chimpanzee and raise her as their own.  The results are documented in Dr. Temerlin’s memoir, Lucy: Growing Up Human.

Lucy’s story highlights the tragedy that occurs when humans use nonhuman animals for their own purpose rather than allowing them to be their natural selves.  This occurs daily to millions of animals; they are misunderstood and exploited.  The tragedy that was Lucy happened not because she was so close to humans, but because the humans who exploited her missed knowing who she was meant to be — a chimpanzee, not a human child. Please see below for more information about Lucy, to see the photograph of Lucy with Janis Carter, or to hear the full Radio Lab program on other primates in the world of humans.

• Slideshow of Lucy, including parting hug with Janis
• WNYC RadioLab – audio about Lucy and two other primate stories
• Recent post by Janis Carter on Friends of Animals website
• Smithsonian article on Janis Carter
• Animal People Online – go to the November 2006 edition for Stella Brewer’s article about the Lucy incident

Last month was the fourth birthday for Hannah Kaminsky’s beautiful blog, Bittersweet.  Hannah is the accomplished author of My Sweet Vegan, an excellent vegan cookbook. Her blog is a food and crafts blog with gorgeous photos.  Not only does she offer wonderful recipes, but she also creates delightful crocheted creations, including a recent hug monster that is cuddly and beguiling. Congratulations on four years, Hannah, and thank you for all of your delicious contributions to the vegan community.

A  recent Veganacious post was the recipe for Orange Chocolate Chip Scones.  One morning, my four -year old grandson was busy playing on the computer when hunger struck. I had to develop something quickly and luckily, it was a big hit. After refining the recipe and getting a thumbs up from my principal taster, I published it. I hope you will enjoy it, too.  The most recent food post was for Vegan Fortune Cookies.  After receiving a personal gift of a homemade fortune cookie with a fortune just for me, I wanted to create a vegan version so others could enjoy the cookie part, too!

An important vegan I would like to mention is Jordan Wyatt of the Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals podcast.  Jordan is an innovative podcaster whose series is always informative and filled with animal rights issues from the New Zealand area, as well as other areas of the globe.  Jordan has been a terrific teacher and encourager to me and is the principal reason I was finally able to get this podcast on the air.

• BitterSweet - a beautiful blog by Hannah Kaminski of My Sweet Vegan fame
• Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals by Jordan Wyatt
• Lucy: Growing Up Human by Dr. Maurice Temerlin -  on Amazon
• Wauchula Woods Accord by Charles Siebert - on Amazon
• Podcast available on iTunes