VegBlogger - a vegan / vegetarian blog

Teaching kids about compassion through lizards and other backyard animals

My son recently came home from a play date at a friend's house with an animal carrier of some sorts in
tow. It was a small carrier and upon further review it housed a little lizard. Yes, his friend had given him a lizard in a plastic carrier container to take home as a "pet."

While part of me immediately wanted to grab the container and rush it back outside to free the captured lizard, I didn't. I thought it would make for a good learning experience. The thing is, I wanted my son to want to free the lizard, not feel that he was forced to do so. Forcing him to free the lizard wouldn't teach him nearly as much as raising his awareness about keeping the creature captive and teaching him to have compassion for it. Teaching him to have compassion would go much further in the long run. Besides, just rushing it outside to free it wouldn't be showing my son much compassion, considering he was clearly excited about this new "pet" that he had.

So I took to sounding concerned about the lizard in how it would get enough food, oxygen, sunlight, etc. inside that carrier. How would it survive? How would he feed it? Would he be comfortable feeding it live crickets? Would it be fair to keep it from being out in nature, or possibly being in contact with other lizards throughout its life? I didn't pepper him with those questions, of course, because I wanted to give him things to really think about. 

Over the course of the next couple of hours the lizard sat in that plastic container (which had holes and was made to house critters so I knew it would be okay for a while), as he mulled over every question I asked him about. Never once did I say he had to get rid of it. I was hoping it wouldn't come to that, and luckily it didn't. After a couple of hours went by we were reading together on the couch when he looked up and me and softly said "Let's go release the lizard, mom." 

He was ready. It took a couple of hours, but he got it. He didn't want the lizard to live its life in a plastic container, rather than out in nature, where it would be free. With a smile on his face, he released the lizard outside all on his own. I was proud of him and I know that he learned a lesson that day, one of compassion and respect for other living creatures. One that will hopefully stick with him for a lifetime!

By the way... if he hadn't had a change of heart by bed time, I was planning in my mind that the lizard was going to somehow "escape" during the night. :)
But I'm glad it turned out the way it did... lesson in compassion learned! 

Johnny Rockets Veggie Burger Review - The Streamliner Vegan Burger

When it comes to dining out for a veggie burger one of my favorite places to go is Johnny Rockets. This week we stopped in at Johnny Rockets, the Daytona Beach location, to grab a burger after taking the kids to see "The Lorax."

The Daytona Beach Johnny Rockets location has a wonderful beach location, that provides some diners with an ocean view. We have dined there on quite a few occassions since moving to the Daytona Beach area over five years ago.

We ordered the Streamliner, which is Johnny Rockets' veggie burger. It comes with grilled onions, tomato, pickles, lettuce, and mustard. Honestly I love pickles whole (or spears), but can't stand them on my veggie burger. But I always leave them on when ordering, because I immediately pull them off and my daughter eats them. 

The veggie burger at Johnny Rockets is good, as are the fries that it comes with. They also have a fun atmosphere. During their busy times the wait staff dance to some disco-type music. During their not-so-busy times they tend to ignore this aspect. I've been there more often when they didn't do the dancing than when they did. I think they only tend to do it when they are busy, but it is fun when you get to see it (although clearly some of the people despise every moment of it, as it shows on their face and in their body language). 

Anyway, if you want to dine out and have a veggie burger, check out Johnny Rockets. They used to have a blurb up dedicated to vegetarians, letting you know the burger was vegan and that they cook it on a separate part of the grill. However, it seems as though that page is gone now that they have made changes to their site.

By the way, you can get a veggie burger for the kids as well. It used to be an option on their old menu, but now it is not. But they will let you substitute the burger listed for the veggie burger for the kids. My kids shared a veggie burger and order of fries.

Great American Meatout and Dr. Will Tuttle 2012

(Pictured front row: Terri, Jacqueline (me), Sunshine Carol (of Sunshine Burgers), Madeleine Tuttle. Back row: Dr. Will Tuttle)

Today through the Daytona Beach Vegetarian Society we held an event that was open to the community. The event was a celebration of the Great American Meatout. We had a special guest speaker, Dr. Will Tuttle, who is author of "The World Peace Diet." We also had a lot of food for people to try, prizes to give away, and literature to hand out. We had a great turnout of people!

We have many thanks to give for such a great event. A special thank you goes to Dr. Will Tuttle, who was a fabulous speaker. He certainly planted some seeds of compassion today. You can learn more about him, his book, his speaking tour schedule, and his wife's beautiful paintings here. He was a great speaker and we were thrilled to have him. One downside to having a kindle (which I have and love) is that I couldn't have him sign my book today! But it's a wonderful and insightful book that everyone should read.

Thank you also to those who helped provide the food, literature, and prizes. These companies included VegFund, Edward and Sons, gardein, Sunshine Burger, Sweetsies Bakery, Cinematique of Daytona, Primal, Lightlife, So Delicious, Turtle Island Foods, Field Roast, the Vegetarian Resource Group, and Michael's Health Foods.

You can see all the pictures from this great event here.