Morning run through Dungarvan, Ireland. Stopped by Blasta Wholefoods for a bit of Nobo Irish Salted Caramel vegan ice cream. Absolutely delicious!

Stopped by the side of the road in Kilmacthomas, Ireland to meet this beautiful horse.

​Teaching my son about showing kindness and compassion to all beings. 

During our time in Ireland we biked 26K on the Waterfood Greenway. We got to enjoy the beautiful countryside views and pick wild blackberries. 

​Be sure to scroll through the photos!

A short film I made as a tribute to my son and his boundless love for life and beautiful spirit. 

Be sure to have the sound on!

"Looking Through James' Eyes"
Dungarvan, Ireland
​August 24th, 2018

Worth a watch! Inspirational video about how each and every person can make a difference.

With Kindness, 
​Abby 

This presentation was created for my environmental ethics capstone project. It follows my journey of how our garden became certified as a national wildlife habitat and what the steps to get certified are.

A little bit about the video:
How can we rethink the idea of what our lawn should be? Instead of pouring harmful fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides onto our lawns just to cut them down, can we change the way we define what a beautiful lawn is?
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How can we all be "ecolutionary renegades" like Ron Finley encourages and take back our yards. Instead of having a monoculture of grass, let's fill it with productive garden beds, wildflowers and native plants that help sequester carbon emissions and help the environment. Let's create a natural habitat for the wildlife around us.
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I believe we can solve big problems with local solutions. All it takes is for each of us to take just one step. This is why I am starting the conversation and retelling the story of what beauty is in a garden.

Hope you enjoy! 
Abby

This presentation was the capstone project for my introduction to humane education course. I was tasked with coming up with a positive vision for a solutionary-focused humane education program or project that I wanted to implement.

I decided to create a presentation that could easily be tailored for people of all ages, from young children to adults.
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When we look at the words that we use, we can begin to think critically about them and determine if they are helpful or harmful. If they are harmful, we can then use it as an opportunity to change the way we speak. During the presentation, I offer alternative phrases that we can use to start the shift to more animal friendly phrases.

Excerpt from the presentation:

Why do we feel the need to change the name from cow to beef, or pig to pork? We say ‘livestock” in reference to the farmed animals that are used for food. If you break down the word live stock, it is essentially stock that is alive. It’s a way of reducing them as a commodity that you can trade. It strips them of their sentience. Most people don’t bat an eye when you say slaughterhouse. But when you step back and think about the word, you start to question why in the world do we need something in the English language that is a house of slaughter?

Author, Carol Adams explains that when we drop the possessive language when talking about animals, such as, instead of saying, the lamb’s leg or the chicken’s wing we say, leg of lamb, chicken wing, it enables us to fall into the cognitive dissonance trap and that animal’s identity gets lost.
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We use words to distance ourselves from the reality so that we can stay blissfully (kind of not aware) of what needs to happen in order to have that burger.

Hope you enjoy and are able to incorporate into your humane education!

​Abby