We advertise in VegNews Magazine which advocates a vegan lifestyle. Sometimes our association with VegNews is a source of problems for some of their readers. Our guests and potential guests should know that the Inn reflects that we have not been vegan our entire lives.
Last week, spurred by one of their readers, a staff member of VegNews called to ask if we could remove down products for those readers who are vegan. “Of course!” we answered. But this brings us to an essential issue: what to do with existing animal products once we decided to not buy such products.
We believe it is irresponsible to not completely use the products we already have. It is difficult and unethical to just trash clean and still useful down pillows, comforters and feather beds. (We wash and dry them in our equipment.)
Destroying feather beds and down products does not enhance the life of any animal. In fact it denigrates their lives even more. We have chosen to continue to use these products until replacing them due to wear or until we give them to staff to use them in their homes.
Adhering to a philosophy to the extent that it trivializes the gifts of animals to our lives is just wrong.
Comments (1)
After reading the Stanford Inn & Raven’s Restaurant blogs this morning I felt a willingness to connect to a higher plane of conscious eating…
Moral questions about eating animal products came flowing through my mind…Is butter really evil? Was my old friend Ann Jenks right all along about her applesauce piecrust being superior? And what about plants, aren’t they carnivorous? Can we grow vegetarian vegetables, without using animal products such as blood meal, bone meal or even manure? Still, I ponder.
Visiting Raven’s Restaurant last night I had a sense of being in a sacred space for animals and animal lovers. Yet in the flow of the natural world animals do eat other animals, and often animals want to honor each other with a fresh offering. At times this can be horrifying, like when my cat brought a live hummingbird into the house as an offering to me. I’m not sure who was more horrified, myself at the sight of this lovely bird’s iridescent chest pounding between the two front paws of my darling cat, whose head bowed down in prayer (Namaste), over her living food gift to me, or the cat, who was in disbelief over my shock of such a gift. As I gently opened her hold on the bird and watched the grateful creature rest in the palm of my hand for a few moments before it flew back into the wilds of our backyard, I realized, of course, it was the bird that was most horrified! Heartbroken, as she surely was, my cat learned only to leave the remains of gophers and moles at my doorstep (or under the dining room table if she could get away with it). She knew that I, as a gardener, could appreciate her more selective slaughter of animals that created havoc in the garden. She was an awesome hunter who guarded the beds 24/7. Lying motionless on the earth…waiting for the rumble of tunnel building…and exterminating every single gopher or mole disrupting her sacred ground. All but one…a friend of hers, I guess…it tunneled freely through my garden beds…eating a plant now and then. Even when I pointed it out to her…she wasn’t interested. I finally decided she was letting it live. Was it friendship? Was she saving it because it was a good breeder? Or was she connecting to a higher plane of conscious eating… I still ponder. Truly though, the artistically awesome and nutritionally scrumptious offerings on the Raven’s menu appear to be ideal choices for higher consciousness eating. The environment and gardens that the Stanfords and Staff have nurtured is a vision to be admired, supported and enjoyed. I look forward to returning there again in the near future.
Posted by Barbara Connelly | September 12, 2009 6:52 PM
Posted on September 12, 2009 18:52