by Robert Hii for the Huffington Post
In case you missed Jane Velez-Mitchell’s interview with model Katie Cleary, here it is. Katie made an impassioned plea to the viewers to stop buying products that use palm oil.
So what is it about orangutans that gets animal lovers like Katie Cleary so worked up against palm oil? A big part of it has to be their human-like characteristics which create an instant bond between us and them, and the fact that the baby orangutan is just so darned adorable!
It’s not only orangutans that are being affected by palm oil. Equally adorable apes like chimpanzees are being threatened with extinction as well as the palm oil industry moves into Africa. Scientists are calling great apes like the orangutan and chimpanzee “canaries in the coal mine” as many other species of animals will go extinct if nothing is said or done today.
So what can an animal lover do to avoid buying products that may have caused suffering to animals? You can take up Jane Velez-Mitchell’s suggestion to eat fresh as palm oil is used mostly in processed foods. Her other great suggestion was to send a message to all companies to “do this sustainably” but what does this mean to the average consumer who wants to remove any possibility of causing suffering in their daily purchases?
This excerpt from a news article appeared in and is courtesy of Huff Post Green and can be read in its entirety here.
