Grrr! Fall/Winter 2000 >> Stars In Our Eyes

If you’re an X-Files fan, you’ve probably memorized the words to singer/songwriter Bree Sharp’s hit single “David Duchovny, Why Don’t You Love Me?”

But there’s an even better reason to pick up Bree Sharp’s poppy, rocky album, A Cheap and Evil Girl. Well, yeah, the songs are great, but we’re talking about these two little words in Bree’s liner notes: “Go vegetarian.”

Bree’s a huge animal lover and has been a vegetarian since she was 15. “I haven’t eaten at a McDonald’s in eight years,” she says. “They’re heinous.”

Hot off her MTV Campus Invasion tour, Bree took a break to chat with Grrr! about animals.

GRRR! How did you first get involved in animal rights?
BREE When I was 15, I went to a summer camp, and there was a seminar on vegetarianism. I started becoming a vegetarian right then and there. It was easy because I was at camp—no McDonald’s or KFC nearby. I was also surrounded by other people who were already vegetarians. I did chicken and poultry "cold turkey." Meat and fish came later.

GRRR! What changed your mind about fish?
BREE Walking on the beach one day, I picked up a clam shell that was closed. Not thinking, I threw it in my bag. When I got to the hotel, I was cleaning out my bag and came upon the shell. It started opening and closing. I realized the clam was dying. I decided right there that I didn’t want anything to die at my hands again.

GRRR! What issues really touch you?
BREE I don’t understand why cosmetics testing is still being done on animals. There’s gotta be enough information out there by now without testing on animals.
It also baffles me that people are animal lovers and still eat meat. My friend has a dog she adores, but she eats at McDonald’s. She tells me that my being a vegetarian isn’t going to make a difference. But it does. I save an animal’s life three times a day, 365 days a year. Besides, you just have to do what’s right.

GRRR! How do you like to get active for animals?
BREE Whenever I do photo shoots, I make sure I’m not wearing any animal clothing. I love to wear fake leather so I can show off the alternatives. I was just on the Oxygen Network wearing pleather pants. They ran a pop-up fact on the screen that I’m a vegetarian and my pants weren’t real leather!

GRRR! So you like to be a positive example.
BREE Yeah, just by being a vegetarian, I know it gets lots of people thinking. One person I met asked me questions about vegetarianism. Several months later, I found out he was veg! And one of my band members has gone veg after being on my most recent tour.

GRRR! What would you urge kids to do to get active?
BREE Make the connection between the cow you read about in a book and the hamburger on your plate. Let your parents know you’re interested in being a vegetarian.

If you’re an aspiring veg, don’t feel like you have to do everything at once. It’s OK to do it in steps. It’s better in the long run to make a change that’s going to last a long time.

To order her CD or just find out what Bree’s been up to lately, go to www.BreeSharp.com.

Catnip & Hairballs

Catnip combat boots
to Sarah Michelle Gellar, TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for kickboxing a little furrier butt. After she wore a fox shrug in a W magazine fashion spread, animal activists sent Sarah Michelle info about the horrors of the fur trade. Sarah Michelle quickly turned fur foe, saying, “Thank you for raising my awareness. From now on, I will make a conscious effort for this to never happen again.” Thank-yous go to Sarah Michelle Gellar c/o BWR, 9100 Wilshire Blvd., 6th Fl., West Tower, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

A big ol’ hairball
to rapper Lil’ Kim. Quipped one photographer, Lil’ Kim’s varicolored furs make her “look like she killed the Care Bears.” Several models also dissed Kim’s “killer” coats. Write Lil’ Kim c/o Chrissy Murray, Atlantic Records, 1290 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10104.

A doggy bag full of catnip
to Brad Pitt for rescuing a stray from the streets of Argentina. While filming a movie, Brad befriended Blanco, a wary stray dog, and arranged to bring him back to the states. Lucky Blanco now lives in the lap of luxury with Brad and his other canine companions. Send thank-yous to Brad Pitt c/o Cindy Guagenti, BWR, 9100 Wilshire Blvd., 6th Fl., West Tower, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

A catnip bouquet
to singer Christina Aguilera for being a purr-fect pal to her kitty. When asked on MTV’s FANatic what she would save if her house were burning, Christina purred, “My kitty cat.” Send thank-yous to Christina Aguilera c/o Normand Kurtz, Dartmouth Management, 228 W. 71st St., Ste. 1E, New York, NY 10023.

A catnip crown
to Miss Czech Republic, Helena Houdova, for declaring, “I campaign for animal rights, against real fur, and against cosmetics testing.”

In her terrific novel, Claudia Mills writes about a girl named Maggie and her battle against a science teacher bent on forcing her to dissect. In the excerpt below, Maggie talks to her friend Matt about dissecting a worm.

by Claudia Mills (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998)

“You wouldn’t step on a worm?” Maggie felt as if she were on the brink of some kind of victory. She felt as if she were moving in for the kill, if vegetarians were entitled to use that metaphor.

“Just to step on one? No. Because there’s no point to it. But did it bother me to dissect Squirmy? No. Because it was for the sake of science.”

“You really think it advanced science for you to kill Squirmy?”

Matt held his ground. “I do. Maybe none of us made any discoveries about worms that are going to win us the Nobel Prize in biology, but I learned something about worms I couldn’t have learned in any other way.”

“Like what?” Maggie honestly couldn’t imagine what you could learn from cutting up a worm that you couldn’t learn from seeing a picture of the inside of a worm.

“Matt! Maggie!” Mrs. Bealer called to them. Matt rolled his eyes at Maggie. Maggie found that her pulse was racing and her cheeks were flushed from the intensity of their debate. Who had won—she or Matt? No one’s mind had changed, but at least Matt had admitted that people shouldn’t cause pain to animals or kill them for no good reason.

Maggie still felt there was something important she hadn’t said, something that would have convinced Matt that thinking wasn’t what mattered. So what if Squirmy couldn’t read or write or do advanced physics? There were people who couldn’t do those things either. There were people who didn’t know they were people, the way pigs didn’t know they were pigs. Like little babies, or people who were in comas, or senile, or really handicapped. It would still be wrong to kill them. Even if they couldn’t think, they were alive. What mattered—for people, for dogs, for pigs, for worms—was living.