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Animal Acres
. Animal Acres is a lovely, inspiring farmed animal sanctuary. .-
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Animal Slaughter On Urban Farms a Growing Concern Among Local Activists
Daily Animal News...
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Animal Slaughter On Urban Farms A Growing Concern Among Local Activists
Urban Farms Animal Slaughter
First Posted: 02/15/2012 6:30 pm Updated: 02/15/2012 6:41 pm
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This article comes to us courtesy of SF Weekly's SFoodie.
By Jonathan Kauffman
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If you go to farmers' markets in the East Bay, you may have seen them: A group of activists from Neighbors Opposed to Backyard Slaughter handing out flyers raising concerns about Oakland's new Urban Agriculture Policy. "The last thing I want my daughter to see or hear are the sounds of an animal being killed next door by a DIY slaughter hobbyist," says a cartoon of a ponytailed man.
NO Slaughter's latest action, according to its website, was to appear at the El Cerrito City Council earlier this week, protesting the fact that the city's Animals Ordinance didn't include any provision regarding animal slaughter. "By not addressing slaughter specifically, El Cerrito left the interests of animals to the whims of the farmer, which as we know from observing industrial agriculture is never a good idea," spokesperson Ian Elwood wrote in an email to SFoodie. "We have seen too many instances of cruelty by urban homesteaders to recount, and there is no reason to believe that without regulation, anyone will do anything differently than what is being done already."
San Francisco, like Oakland and El Cerrito, doesn't have strict controls around what residents do with any animals they raise for food. Article 1, section 37, of San Francisco's Health Code states that people can keep up to four small animals such as rabbits, chicken, and ducks on their property. According to SF Health Department spokesperson Colleen Chawla, there are regulations around the slaughter of animals for retail sale, but "there's nothing in the health code that addresses the slaughter of these animals for personal use," she says, adding, "At the Health Department, we primarily get complaints if the animals are too noisy."
Are backyard butchers that much of a problem in the Bay Area? Last week, Mother Jones editor Kiera Butler, who has written about raising and killing her Thanksgiving turkey, wrote a rebuttal to NO Slaughter's flyer, addressing it point by point. For instance, the animal-rights group claimed that local animal shelters would be overwhelmed by backyard chickens and goats that urban farmers had tired of (but couldn't slaughter?), and Butler quotes an Oakland Animal Shelter rep who says there has been an uptick in chickens that the shelter has taken in -- due to a cockfighting ring that police had busted.
When asked about the problem of urban farmers besieging their neighbors with the death screams of dying bunnies, Novella Carpenter, author of the new Essential Urban Farmer, told SFoodie, "If you think you'll be sitting in your kitchen, drinking your coffee, when you hear the blood-curdling call of a chicken being slaughtered, you have never even seen an animal being slaughtered."
"There is no noise," she continued, "and [NO Slaughter] makes it sound like there's blood splattered everywhere and maniacal laughter. You wouldn't even know if it was happening next door. It's not a slaughterhouse, and that's the whole point. One animal has been loved by by the farmer, who kills it humanely and quickly. Why aren't they protesting at Tyson instead?"
.Daily Animal News... . Animal Slaughter On Urban Farms A Growing Concern Among... more-
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Email From MFA: Butterball Employees Arrested for Cruelty to Animals
Dear MFA Supporter,
Animal abusers beware! MFA’s latest undercover investigation into a Butterball turkey factory farm has led to landmark felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges against five Butterball employees by state authorities.
Additionally, Dr. Sarah Jean Mason, the director of Animal Health Programs with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, has pled guilty to obstruction of justice charges after admitting to leaking confidential information to Butterball and potentially compromising the criminal cruelty investigation by state law enforcement officials.
MFA’s undercover investigation shows that Butterball allowed a culture of cruelty and abuse to fester at its company-owned factory farms – graphically illustrating that the secret ingredient in Butterball turkey is criminal animal abuse.
Hidden-camera footage taken during MFA’s undercover investigation at Butterball reveals:
Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss and necrotic (dead) muscles and skin;
Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA's investigator.
While MFA works to expose and end animal abuse at Butterball and other giants of the meat, dairy and egg industries, you can help by contacting Butterball.
Click here (http://www.butterballabuse.com/) to sign MFA’s petition urging Butterball to implement meaningful animal welfare policies to prevent some of the worst abuses at its factory farms.
After sending an email asking Butterball to make these important changes, consider making a few changes of your own. Every time we sit down to eat, we can choose compassion over cruelty. Adopting a diet free of meat, dairy and eggs is perhaps the single most important and powerful action you can take to prevent needless cruelty to animals.
Sincerely,
Nathan Runkle
Executive Director
This email was sent to by info@mercyforanimals.org |
Mercy For Animals | 8033 Sunset Blvd, Ste 864 | Los Angeles | CA | 90046Dear MFA Supporter, Animal abusers beware! MFA’s latest undercover... more-
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Dead Cow Walking: The Case Against Born-Again Carnivorism
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The Atlantic
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Dead Cow Walking: The Case Against Born-Again Carnivorism
By Marc Bekoff
Dec 27 2011, 8:53 AM ET 614
Pigs, chickens, and other animals raised for food are sentient beings with rich emotional lives. They feel everything from joy to grief.
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"Eating Animals," by Nicolette Hahn Niman, a livestock rancher, with help from deer hunter Tovar Cerulli and butcher Joshua Applestone, caught my eye because, at first, I thought this essay was authored by Jonathan Safran Foer, who wrote a best-selling book with the same title. While Niman and her friends do rightly argue against consuming factory-farmed animals -- who live utterly horrible lives from the time that they're born to the time that they're transported to slaughterhouses and barbarically killed -- these three born-again carnivores, all former vegetarians or vegans, now proudly eat animals and think that it's just fine to do so. They gloss over the fact that even if the animals they eat are "humanely" raised and slaughtered, an arguable claim, they're still taking a life. These animals are merely a means to an end: a tasty meal.
The defensive and apologetic tone of this essay also caught my eye, as did the conveniently utilitarian framework of the argument. The animals they eat were raised simply to become meals because Niman and others choose to eat meat. I like to say that whom we choose to eat is a moral question, and just because these three now choose to eat animals doesn't mean that other people should make the same choice. Note that I wrote "whom" we eat, not "what." Cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals raised for food are sentient beings who have rich emotional lives. They can feel everything from sheer joy to deep grief. They can also suffer enduring pain and misery, and they don't deserve to have the good and happy lives provided by Niman and others ended early just so that their flesh can wind up on what really is a platter of death.
Wolves, lions, and cougars are not moral agents and can't be held accountable for their actions. But most humans know what they're doing and are responsible for their choices.
Cows, for example, are very intelligent. They worry over what they don't understand and have been shown to experience "eureka" moments when they solve a puzzle, such as when they figure out how to open a particularly difficult gate. Cows communicate by staring, and it's likely that we don't fully understand their very subtle forms of communication. They also form close and enduring relationships with family members and friends and don't like to have their families and social networks disrupted. Chickens are also emotional beings, and detailed scientific research has shown that they empathize with the pain of other chickens.
Raising happy animals just so that they can be killed is really an egregious double cross. The "raise them, love them, and then kill them" line of reasoning doesn't have a meaningful ring of compassion. And this isn't mercy killing (euthanasia) performed because these animals need to be put out of their pain. No, these healthy and happy animals are slaughtered, and if you dare to look into their eyes, you know that they're suffering. If you wouldn't treat a dog like this, then you shouldn't treat a cow, a pig, or any other animal in this way.
As a field biologist who studies animal behavior, I feel that the authors' appeal to what happens in the natural world -- "life feeds on life" -- is an illogical justification for their food choices. I've seen thousands of predatory encounters. I cringe when I see them, but I would never interfere. Wild predators, unlike us, have no choice about whom or what they eat. They couldn't survive if they didn't eat other animals. And indeed, many animals are vegetarians, including non-human primates, who eat other animals only on very rare occasions.
Jessica Pierce and I wrote about how appeals to nature are misleading and illogical in our book Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals. We argued that wolves, lions, and cougars, for example, are not moral agents and can't be held accountable for their actions. They don't know right from wrong. On the other hand, most humans do know what they're doing and are responsible for their choices. When it comes down to whose flesh winds up in our mouths, we can make choices, and in my view, eating animals is wrong and unnecessary, even when they are "humanely" raised and slaughtered. Let me add a caveat here because, as a world traveler, I do know that many people do not have the luxury of making a choice about their meals and must eat whatever is available to them. However, those who do have that luxury can easily eat an animal-free diet. And we can work to show others that a vegetarian or vegan diet can be very economical and healthy.
Niman and her friends also note that vegetarian and vegan diets have "never really taken hold." So what? This hardly means that we shouldn't try to do the right thing. They write, "The vast majority of Americans who do try vegetarianism or veganism -- about three-quarters of them -- return to eating meat. Rather than urging people to consume only plants, doesn't it make more sense to encourage them to eat an omnivorous diet that is healthy, ethical, and ecologically sound?" No, it doesn't. What it means is that these people should try harder and not give up just because it might seem difficult to change their meal plans. Perhaps they just need more time and encouragement from other vegetarians who can show them how easy it is to stop eating animals.
It's easy to add more compassion to the world and to expand our compassion footprint. Excuses such as "Oh, I know they suffer, but don't tell me because I love my burger" add cruelty to the world, even if the animals people are eating weren't raised on factory farms and killed in slaughterhouses. You're eating a dead animal who really did care about what happened to him or her. When I ask people how they can dismiss the fact that an animal was killed for their pleasure, they usually fumble here and there and offer no meaningful answer. When I ask them if they'd eat a dog, they look at me with incredulity and emphatically say, "No!" When I ask them why they wouldn't eat a dog, they can't really tell me, offering statements laden with dismissive phrases, such as "Oh, you know...." Because I often travel to China to help in the rehabilitation of Asiatic moon bears who have been rescued from the bear-bile industry, people sometimes ask me, "How can you go there? Isn't that where they eat dogs and cats?" I simply say, "Yes, it is, and I'm from America, where they eat cows and pigs, who are no less sentient and emotional beings." Animals really are very much like us.
No matter how humanely raised they are, the lives of animals raised for food can be cashed out simply as "dead cow/pig/chicken walking." Whom we choose to eat is a matter of life and death. I think of the animals' manifesto as "Leave us alone. Don't bring us into the world if you're just going to kill us to satisfy your tastes."
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Image: Kurt De Bruyn
.. The Atlantic . Dead Cow Walking: The Case Against Born-Again Carnivorism... more-
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WHACKO-TV How Close Can you Get to a Wild Turkey?
At the end of every year we evaluate all our relationships. And in this case, our videographer and self-proclaimed folk singer Lumber Jack Bob is asking the question: How close can you get to a wild turkey? It seems to us that this is a story about a family out for a snack in the field. When Jack Bob tries to get close to them, they want nothing of it. We want all our viewers to know that no turkey was harmed in the making of this video. Well, except that one at Christmas dinner.At the end of every year we evaluate all our relationships. And in this case, our... more-
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Butterball Turkey Farm Raided As a Result of Underground Video Filmed by Mercy For Animals (November/December 2011)
ButterballAbuse.com...
Mercy For Animals....
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Butterball has become synonymous with turkey. But how do the millions of turkeys who end up in the grocery store, or served at restaurants, under the Butterball brand, really live and die?
A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation reveals the truth: extreme cruelty and violence is the harsh reality for birds on Butterball's factory farms.
Between November and December of 2011, an MFA undercover investigator documented a pattern of shocking abuse and neglect at a Butterball turkey semen collection facility in Shannon, North Carolina.
Hidden-camera footage taken at Butterball reveals:
Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, with some unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss
Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA's investigator.
After viewing the undercover footage, Dr. Sara Shields, research scientist, poultry specialist and consultant in animal welfare, said, "Turkeys are fully capable of feeling pain, fear, stress and of suffering, and the way they are treated in the video is clearly abusive."
Dr. Debra Teachout, a practicing veterinarian with experience in farmed-animal welfare, agrees, stating, "The birds are not living a life remotely worth living. Their world is full of fear, distress, pain, injury and illness as witnessed by this video. A culture of blatant and severe animal mistreatment has been allowed to flourish unchecked, and for that reason, this facility should be shut down immediately."
Following the investigation, MFA immediately went to law enforcement with extensive video footage and a detailed legal complaint outlining the routine violence and cruelty documented by the investigator at this Butterball facility. On Thursday, December 29, state law enforcement officials obtained a warrant and raided the facility on grounds of cruelty to animals.
Unfortunately, the lives of turkeys in Butterball's factory farms are short, brutal and filled with fear, violence and prolonged suffering. While wild turkeys are sleek, agile and able to fly, Butterball's turkeys have been selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer from painful bone defects, hip joint lesions, crippling foot and leg deformities, and fatal heart attacks.
This genetic manipulation creates birds that are so large they cannot even reproduce naturally, meaning that artificial semen collection and insemination have become the sole means of turkey reproduction at Butterball facilities.
Even though domestic turkeys have been genetically manipulated for enormous growth, these birds still retain their gentle, inquisitive and social natures. Oregon State University poultry scientist Dr. Tom Savage says that turkeys are "smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings." In fact, animal behaviorists, veterinarians, and scientists now agree that turkeys are sensitive and intelligent animals with their own unique personalities, much like the dogs and cats we all know and love.
While MFA works to expose and end animal abuse at Butterball and other giants of the meat, dairy and egg industry, consumers can help prevent the needless suffering of turkeys and other animals by adopting a compassionate vegan diet.
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http://a.abcnews.com/images/Blotter/ht_butterball_abuse_tk_111228_wg.jpg
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Click here to view undercover video:
http://www.butterballabuse.com
.ButterballAbuse.com... Mercy For Animals.... . Butterball has become... more-
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Arkansas Meatpackers Likely to Lose U.S. Contracts
The New York Times...
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November 30, 2011
Arkansas: Meatpacker May Lose U.S. Contracts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Labor officials have moved to cut off federal contracts held by one of the nation’s largest meatpackers, saying it discriminated against women and non-Asians.
The Labor Department says the company, Cargill Meat Solutions, discriminated against more than 4,000 qualified people who applied for entry-level jobs at a Springdale plant, with women less likely to be hired and Asians and Pacific Islanders unfairly favored over other races.
Federal officials said Tuesday that they wanted to cancel Cargill’s contracts and prevent future contracts until the company stopped discriminatory practices.
Cargill Meat Solutions holds contracts worth more than $550 million with the Department of Defense, labor officials said. The company, a subsidiary of Cargill Inc., in Minneapolis, attributed the problem to documentation, saying there was not a satisfactory record of why it did not hire certain candidates. Mike Martin, a spokesman, said that minorities made up 84 percent of the 1,300 people employed at the Springdale plant and that the accusation appeared to be based on a “statistical analysis” of the job market rather than a review of specific applicants.
The plant drew national attention this year when it had to recall 36 million pounds of ground turkey after a salmonella outbreak that sickened 107 people in 31 states. One person died.
.The New York Times... . November 30, 2011 Arkansas: Meatpacker May Lose U.S.... more-
- EthicalVegan
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- 6 months ago
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Turkeys With Attitude
Yeah, a little spoof on NWA, but not nearly as hard hitting as the originals.
http://youtu.be/JCEl8Id_19sYeah, a little spoof on NWA, but not nearly as hard hitting as the originals.... more-
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Orphaned Baby Turkeys Seek Future as Companion Animals, Not As Dinner
Los Angeles Times...
Orphan turkeys seek future as pets, not dinner
November 18, 2011 | 6:00 am
Baby turkeys
Aren't baby turkeys surprisingly photogenic? These birds are also lucky. Twenty-five baby turkeys, or poults, were dumped off at the Farm Sanctuary animal protection facility near Palmdale recently. They were weak and dirty, and the very tips of their beaks had been removed, leaving experts to speculate the birds were rescued from a commercial factory farm.
“This isn't the first time this has happened,” says Susie Coston, national shelter director for the nonprofit Farm Sanctuary, who adds that such drop-offs are common around Thanksgiving. “Sometimes I think it's workers who feel really bad.”
Now needing permanent homes, the birds make good companion animals, sanctuary officials say. Prospective adopters should have large yards and be sure zoning allows turkeys, Coston says, noting that many communities allow chickens but not bigger birds.
Chefs need not apply. “Not wanting to eat them is the No. 1 thing we're looking for,” Coston says.
On Sunday, the public is invited to the farm in Acton, off the 14 Freeway, to meet some of the babies at the shelter's free Celebration for the Turkeys from 2 to 5 p.m.
Details: www.adoptaturkey.org.
.Los Angeles Times... Orphan turkeys seek future as pets, not dinner November 18,... more-
- EthicalVegan
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Veganism In a Nutshell
What is a Vegan?
Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry. Vegans, in addition to being vegetarian, do not use other animal products and by-products such as eggs, dairy products, honey, leather, fur, silk, wool, cosmetics, and soaps derived from animal products.
Why Veganism?
People choose to be vegan for health, environmental, and/or ethical reasons. For example, some vegans feel that one promotes the meat industry by consuming eggs and dairy products. That is, once dairy cows or egg-laying chickens are too old to be productive, they are often sold as meat; and since male calves do not produce milk, they usually are raised for veal or other products. Some people avoid these items because of conditions associated with their production.
Many vegans choose this lifestyle to promote a more humane and caring world. They know they are not perfect, but believe they have a responsibility to try to do their best, while not being judgmental of others.What is a Vegan? Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry. Vegans, in addition... more-
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Report: Underground Footage Reveals Unbelievable Abuse Against Animals | Article Only
Animal Aid (Great Britain)...
Revealed: cigarettes stubbed out on slaughter pigs' faces
Posted 28 July 2011
But Defra refuses to prosecute!
Cigarettes stubbed out on pigs’ faces; one animal punched in the head; another goaded in the face; regular blows and kicks; seriously injured pigs forced to drag themselves to slaughter… All these abuses in one UK slaughterhouse and Defra still won’t prosecute.
Today, Animal Aid has released footage shot secretly at Elmkirk Ltd (Cheale Meats), an Essex-based, family-run slaughterhouse that kills up to 6,000 pigs a week and whose website proclaims: ‘Be proud of higher welfare, buy British pork.’
The film – which was recorded on a number of secretly installed cameras over a period of four days – shows three different workers stubbing their cigarettes out on the faces of pigs, while one of the men landed a violent punch on the face of a pig who was walking by.
In addition, three seriously injured pigs were forced to crawl from the lairage, through the race and into the stun pen. Animal Aid’s cameras followed them as they were pushed, dragged by their ears and kicked along. Such treatment breaches the welfare laws multiple times.*
Animal Aid filmed many examples of incompetence. Pigs are stunned using electrified tongs, which should span their brains and render them immediately insensible. However, three of the four workers filmed stunning pigs showed a callous indifference to the suffering of the animals, many of whom were not stunned correctly. Some were subjected to painful electric shocks from the tongs, and fell to the ground screaming.
It is legal to use electric goads on the muscles of the hindquarters of pigs, but only for brief periods and only when there is space ahead of the animal in which to move. At Cheale Meats, the electric goad was used in the face of one pig and on the anus of another.
An additional worrying episode showed an apparently dead pig being dragged into the stun pen by a pole in her mouth. She was not stunned but she was shackled, hoisted and had her throat cut on the slaughter line. How this animal died, what she had been suffering from and where her meat ended up remain unknown.
Cheale Meats is the ninth UK slaughterhouse to be secretly filmed by Animal Aid in the past two-and-a-half years. The national campaign group has identified legal breaches in seven of the previous eight – some of them so serious that one slaughterhouse was forced to close down. Cases were built for the prosecution of nine men and four slaughterhouse operators before a change of government brought a change of heart, and all the cases were dropped. Defra, under the coalition government, said that, unlike its Labour predecessor, it could not proceed because the evidence was obtained without the permission of the slaughterhouses. Animal Aid believes that this is a politically motivated excuse and cites the recent Panorama programme, which secretly filmed care home workers without the permission of the owners, and whose film is being used to prosecute.
Animal Aid sent the Cheale Meats evidence to the Food Standards Agency (FSA). This is the body that supplies vets to slaughterhouses and investigates breaches of the welfare and hygiene law before passing the cases to Defra, which is the prosecuting body. The FSA replied on 14 June saying: ‘Defra is not prepared to commence prosecution proceedings where the initial allegation is based on CCTV footage gained without the consent of the relevant Food Business Operator.’
Kate Fowler, Head of Campaigns at Animal Aid says:
‘Since we first began investigating English slaughterhouses, we have been pressing everyone involved – regulators, industry bodies and the government – to act decisively to end the cruelty. At first, they appeared contrite and promised action but now their words ring hollow. If Defra won’t prosecute these flagrant breaches of the law; if the vets can’t or won’t act to stop the cruelties; and if the slaughterhouse owners look the other way, who is there to stop animals from being abused at the most vulnerable time of their lives? It seems that all involved are content to keep quiet and to allow these cruelties to continue. So much for the UK having the best welfare standards in the world!’
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Additional information
Animal Aid has secretly filmed inside eight other slaughterhouses from January 2009 until the present. Previous investigations can be seen here: http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/slaughter//2419//
While the government has so far failed to take action to curb the cruelties, the supermarkets have responded to Animal Aid’s campaign for CCTV to be installed in the slaughterhouses that supply them. Ten major supermarkets Morrisons, Waitrose, the Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Tesco, Lidl, Asda, Marks & Spencer and Iceland, along with wholesalers Booker, have now agreed to make CCTV mandatory.
* The treatment of the injured pigs breaches the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations in a number of ways:
The occupier of a slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard and any person engaged in the movement or lairaging of animals shall ensure that pending the slaughter or killing of any sick or disabled animal in the slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard, it is kept apart from any animal which is not sick or disabled. (Schedule 3, Part II 2 (e)) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/731/schedule/3/made
The occupier of a slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard and any person engaged in the movement or lairaging of any animal shall ensure that any animal which has experienced pain or suffering during transport or following its arrival at the slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard is slaughtered or killed immediately. (Schedule 3, Part II, paragraph 4 (a)) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/731/schedule/3/made
The occupier of a slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard and any person engaged in the movement or lairaging of any animal shall ensure that any animal which is unable to walk is not dragged to its place of slaughter or killing but is slaughtered or killed where it lies; or if it is possible and to do so would not cause any unnecessary pain or suffering, is transported on a trolley or movable platform to a place of emergency slaughter or killing where it is then immediately slaughtered or killed. (Schedule 3, Part II, paragraph 5 (a,b)) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/731/schedule/3/made
The occupier of a slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard and any person engaged in the movement of any animals shall ensure that every animal is moved with care and, when necessary, that animals are led individually. (Schedule 3, Part II, paragraph 9) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/731/schedule/3/made
No person shall inflict any blow or kick to any animal. (Schedule 3, Part II, paragraph 12) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/731/schedule/3/made
No person shall lift or drag, or cause or permit to be lifted or dragged, any animal by the head, horns, ears, feet, tail, fleece or any other part of its body in such a way as to cause it unnecessary pain or suffering. (Schedule 3, Part II, paragraph 7) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/731/schedule/3/madeAnimal Aid (Great Britain)... Revealed: cigarettes stubbed out on slaughter... more-
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Farm Animals Could Be Off Limits to Photographers/Videographers
NPR Morning Edition...
Livestock Farms Could Be Off Limits To Photos
Click on Link to Listen to the Story by Kathleen Masterson
April 13, 2011
Animal rights activists have secretly filmed the inner workings of livestock farms, which has led to some bad press for the industry. Bills introduced in Florida and Iowa would make photographing animal operations without the owner's permission a felony. Supporters say that would help prevent activists from fraudulently being hired. Opponents argue the bills would prevent current employees from reporting abuse.
Transcript...
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
In Iowa and in Florida, big livestock operations are supporting bills that would forbid animal rights activists from going undercover to take photos and document conditions at big farms. Activists are asking what the industry has to hide. From Iowa Harvest Public Media's Kathleen Masterson reports.
KATHLEEN MASTERSON: If livestock industry groups get their way what happened at this farm would be considered a crime. Here in central Iowa amid an expanse of cornfields, Rose Acre Farms has six huge hen houses, each the length of a football field.
Last February, an undercover activist from the Human Society got a job here. He wanted to get inside and film the workings of the facility that houses about a million chickens. He stayed here only two weeks.
Then three months later, the Human Society held a news conference and splashed a video on the Web. It shows scenes filmed at Rose Acre Farms and another company's farm. The footage shows chickens living in cramped cages and some dead birds whose carcasses were left so long they'd been mummified.
Unidentified Woman: The crews just shoving them in the cages, sometimes they'll get their legs slammed in the door or their wings.
MASTERSON: The pending Iowa law would make filming this video without the owner's permission and the mere possession of it a criminal offense, punishable by up to five years in jail.
At Rose Acres, farm manager Andrew Kaldenberg says while the video did show some footage of their farm, the abuses didn't occur there. The media were invited out to their barn within hours of the video being released.
Mr. ANDREW KALDENBERG (Manager, Rose Acres): We welcome reporters, you know, what have we got to hide? If we're not treating our animals right, they ain't going to produce. They're not going to produce, we're out of business.
MASTERSON: So I asked him to show me around the hen houses.
Mr. KALDENBERG: In this house we are ten rows wide, five tier high. That means that we have five cages stacked on top of each other.
MASTERSON: Kaldenberg says the activists' motives are to promote an agenda which is vehemently against how the industry produces food, with thousands of birds living in row after row of small cages.
Rose Acre Farms and other large chicken, hog and cattle organizations say the pending Iowa legislation is being mischaracterized. They say it isn't about stopping whistleblowers from reporting abuse, but argue it's about keeping people who misrepresent their true purpose from getting hired.
Kevin Vinchattle is the executive director of the Iowa Egg Council.
Mr. KEVIN VINCHATTLE (Executive Director, Iowa Egg Council): People are trying to characterize the livestock folks as trying to hide things. We're not. We don't want any animal to be abused. And if it's truly a case where a person thinks that abuse is occurring, that needs to be reported immediately, not six weeks done the road or months later in a video released for PR efforts to raise money for an organization.
MASTERSON: But a whole section of the Iowa bill explicitly bans photography.
There's a similar bill under debate in Florida. Kansas and Montana already have laws that ban taking secret photos of an animal facility if the intent is to damage the owner. And other states across the country are also considering similar legislation.
Humane Society's Paul Shapiro says the bills are an attempt to shield America's food production system from public scrutiny. He says their exposes have been done legally and resulted in convictions for animal cruelty, as well as meat recalls over food safety problems. Without undercover videos, activists say their claims wouldn't be taken seriously.
In Iowa, State Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines, said a bill like this would set a dangerous precedent. He argues the multibillion dollar livestock industry wants to operate with less oversight.
State Senator MATT MCCOY (Democrat, Iowa): They view animal welfare groups and individuals that take undercover video and release it to the public as a threat to their livelihood.
MASTERSON: Neither side in this fight appears willing to budge yet on a key sticking point, whether secretly photographing farm animals should be considering a criminal act.
For NPR News, I'm Kathleen Masterson in Ames, Iowa.
(Soundbite of music)NPR Morning Edition... Livestock Farms Could Be Off Limits To Photos Click on... more-
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Whole Foods Market Scam: Why Animal Welfare Isn't Animal RIGHTS
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Please click on the above link, so you can see for yourselves their bullshit ratings charts for what they think of as animal welfare. These poor animals are still killed, and that makes this an issue for animal RIGHTS.
Don't buy into Whole Foods Market's approach. Killing is killing. Exaggeration is exaggeration. Selling is selling. Slaughterhouses are slaughterhouses.
WARNING! There are four graphic photos following WFM's grandiose 5+ steps.
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From their website........
"The more you know about our meat, the better"
At Whole Foods Market, we're dedicated to helping you make informed choices about the food you eat. It's often easy to forget that the burger, steak or drumstick on your plate was once an animal. How was that animal raised? How was it treated? Where did it come from? What about added hormones and antibiotics? Was its growth artificially accelerated to get to market sooner and reduce feed cost? We are committed to answering these questions.
The 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Standards
Global Animal Partnership
We've chosen to partner with Global Animal Partnership to certify our producers' animal welfare practices. We're rolling out their 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Standards in every Whole Foods Market store in the United States.
Global Animal Partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated to continually improving the lives of farm animals. They have developed the 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards that rate how pigs, chickens and cattle are raised for meat. Standards for other species (turkeys, lambs and others) are in development, so stay tuned and be sure to look for Global Animal Partnership 5-Step ratings the next time you stop by our meat department.
It's important to note that getting to Step 1 is a great accomplishment! Step 1 requires more from our farmers and ranchers than we have ever asked before. The Step ratings are assigned by independent third-party certifiers using auditors trained by Global Animal Partnership.
Look for this rating system when you choose our beef, pork or chicken. It's your way of knowing how the animals were raised for the meat you are buying.__________________________________________ Please click on the above link, so you... more-
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6 Things Oprah Viewers Should Know About Veganism
Catskill Animal Sanctuary Director and Huffington Post Blogger Kathy Stevens shares a few practical tips about veganism with Oprah viewers taking the vegan challenge.
Originally posted at: http://casanctuary.org/2011/02/6-things-oprah-viewers-should-know-about-veganism/
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m excited about the attention that Oprah’s Tuesday show is bringing to veganism, a lifestyle to which I’m passionately committed. And I’m equally excited to do my part to support anyone eager to consider making this life-affirming, health-affirming, planet-saving change! So here, in no particular order, are six things you need to know about veganism.
1. Help is everywhere you turn! There’s a whole web-based world eager to THANK YOU and to hold your hand on this exciting journey! If you’re inclined to begin at the beginning and learn what we’re doing to the animals, I heartily recommend these books: Eating Animals, Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy, and The Food Revolution. There are countless others. Do your own google search. Rather watch a film? Try: Death on a Factory Farm, Glass Walls, or Earthlings. Want to bypass the suffering and instead see cows, pigs, and chickens (and a host of other critters) for who they truly are? Check out my books: Where the Blind Horse Sings and the newly-released Animal Camp: Lessons in Love and Hope From Rescued Farm Animals. Don’t think it’s possible to love a pig? You’ve got some surprises coming!
2. You CAN treat your tastebuds! At least once a month for the last dozen years, my dad calls and asks, “Whatcha havin’ for dinner tonight? Sticks and leaves?” Folks: let’s dispel the myth that veggie cuisine is bland!! For general info and advice about nutrition, try the Vegetarian Resource Group, Savvy Vegetarian, VegSource, or The North American Vegetarian Society. To bypass the BS and get right down to cookin’, try these recipe databases: VegWeb, International Vegetarian Union, and VegFamily. Finally, check the Catskill Animal Sanctuary website, for regular updates from Chef Kevin Archer, director of Compassionate Cuisine. Far as we know, Catskill Animal Sanctuary is the only sanctuary in the world to offer a vegan cooking program. Join us, either onsite or via podcast, coming in February!
3. You can date without committing! Not sure you’re ready to strip the fridge bare? There’s nothing wrong with dating before you commit. Try choosing vegetarian restaurants to discover how varied and delicious veggie diets can be! Happy Cow is a database of vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants around the world. Just plug in your city or zip code and the distance radius you wish to search. If you’re a New Yorker, you’ll love SuperVegan’s “The Amazing Instant New York City Vegan Restaurant Finder“.
My advice? Choose the vegetarian and vegan restaurants rather those that have “vegan options.” You’ll find that restaurants truly committed to the lifestyle offer far more inventive, satisfying meals. Go ahead: tantalize your tastebuds!! Check out the menus from my favorite local restaurants: Garden Café in Woodstock, Luna 61 in Tivoli, and Karma Road in New Paltz.
4. A word of caution: Vegan does not equal healthy. There’s a lot of processed vegan CRAP out there filled with ingredients I can’t pronounce (and I ain’t stupid!). If you want to use this opportunity to take charge of your health, focus on simple, whole foods. Want some great advice? Grab a copy of my pal Kris Carr‘s just-released, New York Times-bestselling Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It!
5. A new, better you awaits! I may not know you, but I know this about you: you’re a good person who values kindness, and who likely works hard to ensure that your actions embody this highly-cherished value. Just for a moment, let in the uncomfortable notion that every time you eat an animal, you’re subjecting an innocent sentient being–an animal who, when you get right down to it, is very much like us in ways that count–to a level of suffering you wouldn’t wish upon a child molester or rapist. Acknowledge your role in the suffering, and when you choose to go vegan, celebrate your choice to honor not only the animals, but also, and most importantly, yourself, for in embracing veganism, you’ll be aligning your lifestyle with the values you prize most deeply. And that feels good.
6. It’s okay to stumble. Let’s face it: change is challenging! Even vegan poster girl Alicia Silverstone has stumbled a few times – and that ‘s OK!! As someone who took several years to go vegan, I know what the resistance is about: habit, convenience, concern about family members’ reactions, lack of knowledge about what else to cook. If you decide to take the plunge, or even just to dip your toe in the water, be prepared to encounter resistance, even if it’s just from, well, your own noggin. Be kind to yourself in your heroic effort to be kind to all beings and to the fragile planet we inhabit..
The vegan train’s pullin’ out of the station people! Grab a seat for the ride of your life, and be sure to tell us about your journey.Catskill Animal Sanctuary Director and Huffington Post Blogger Kathy Stevens shares a... more-
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Santa's Secret!
Have you been naughty or nice this year? The answer may surprise you. Santa is watching.
Produced by Ciddy Fonteboa. Directed by Gabriel Sabloff.Have you been naughty or nice this year? The answer may surprise you. Santa is... more-
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At Thanksgiving, Some Folks Adopt a Turkey Instead of Eating One
At Thanksgiving, some adopt a turkey instead of eating one
By Stephanie Chen, CNN
November 25, 2010 9:04 a.m. EST
Mordecai and Fiona, two heritage turkeys, would have been slaughtered if Joan Poster hadn't adopted them.
(CNN) -- Only two weeks into the adoption, Mordecai and Fiona are already exhibiting distinct personalities.
Mordecai, the male heritage turkey, is outgoing and playful, bobbing his head happily as his neck changes color from bright red to blue, depending on his mood. Fiona, the mellower of the two, prefers to sit next to her new parents.
They will not be on the table this Thanksgiving.
"They are wonderful," says Joan Poster, 66, of Westport, Connecticut, who adopted the turkeys last month from Farm Sanctuary's Adopt-A-Turkey Project. "They are just really sweet turkeys."
Come Thanksgiving, turkey is often a quintessential part of the celebration for many American families. The National Turkey Federation estimates that Americans consumed more than 46 million turkeys last Thanksgiving. Nearly 88 percent of Americans surveyed by the organization say they eat turkey during Thanksgiving.
But a few animal lovers and meatless eaters are saving a turkey this Thanksgiving rather than feasting on one.
Gobbling and hobbling at about 15 pounds each, Mordecai and Fiona are organic heritage breed turkeys, cherished for their rich flavor and colorful plumage. Heritage turkeys have become more popular to eat in recent years, Poster said.
The birds would probably have been Thanksgiving dinner if not for Poster, a veterinarian who does not eat meat, and her husband, Dennis, who figured their spacious farm could be a refuge for the desperate birds.
Poster is one of dozens of volunteers this year who have agreed to welcome a turkey into their home. Since 1986, Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit that works on saving farm animals from slaughter, has placed more than 600 turkeys into homes through the Adopt-A-Turkey Project.
Animal activists say they do this because the turkeys are often treated inhumanely, living in cramped and unsanitary holdings.
Most of the spared birds are commercial turkeys, bred for the dinner table. Commercial turkeys tend to be larger than wild or heritage turkeys; many of them are overweight because of hormone injections that take them up to about 30 pounds. As pets, commercial turkeys can be more of a challenge since they often suffer from arthritis in their old age.
Like in any proper adoption, volunteers must pass a screening process. Although it's not a requirement, a majority of them are vegetarians or vegans. The individuals must have an adequate facility to care for the bird, such as a barn or a sizable yard. The organization prefers adoptive "parents" who don't have other domestic animals or children who might chase turkeys.
The nonprofit will deliver the turkey to the adoptive homes.
Adopting a turkey, some volunteers say, is no different from having a dog or a cat.
"Thanksgiving is a difficult holiday for vegetarians and for people who care about animals on farms," explains Gene Baur, co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary. "There is this celebration that revolves around these tortured bird bodies. We wanted to come up with a Thanksgiving tradition that honors animals and that is humane and compassionate."
Baur, a vegan, says there are plenty of alternative dishes to turkey. His Thanksgiving meal will be complete with butternut squash, beet casserole, mashed sweet potatoes and a spread of whole-grain breads.
He says the public is becoming more receptive to his turkey adoption project as a burgeoning food revolution -- thanks to films such as "Food, Inc." and "Super Size Me" and books such as "The Omnivore's Dilemma" -- continues to change the way Americans think about food. He points out that alternatives such as Tofurky, a vegetarian "turkey" made of soy, are being substituted for turkey.
The food awareness is a contrast from when Baur started the Adopt-A-Turkey Project in the 1980s. Back then, people were shocked at the idea of liberating a turkey from the farm.
"People thought we were crazy to rescue these animals," he said. " 'Why are you saving them?' You know, that kind of attitude."
Although not every family can welcome a turkey into their home, people can donate money to sponsor a turkey to live at one of Farm Sanctuary's spacious farms in New York and California. The turkeys are placed in a new home along with other pigs, goats and cows the organization has saved from slaughter.
The official tradition of pardoning turkeys has been going on at the White House since 1989. This week, President Obama pardoned two 45-pound turkeys named Apple and Cider. They will live the rest of their lives in Mount Vernon.
Others have taken up the turkey saving cause on their own.
Karen Dawn, an animal rights activist and author in California, rescues two turkeys each Thanksgiving. She drives to the local slaughterhouse, where she purchases the birds for $1.59 a pound. She named the two female commercial turkeys Portia and Ellen after celebrity vegans Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres.
After a few months, she usually donates them to a larger farm that houses rescued animals.
When the fluffy white birds arrived at her home, she washed them in her bathtub and blow-dried their feathers. She lets them live in her backyard, where the children in the neighborhood can visit them.
"They would have been dead in a day or so if they hadn't come home with me," Dawn said.At Thanksgiving, some adopt a turkey instead of eating one By Stephanie Chen, CNN... more-
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Turkey talk: The social cognition of your Thanksgiving dinner
An interesting read for my friends here at Current, and appropriate given the holiday!! not top 10 news worthy stuff, just an interesting article!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=social-cognition-of-your-thanksgivi-2010-11-24An interesting read for my friends here at Current, and appropriate given the... more-
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Humane Society Accuses Top Turkey Hatchery of Cruel and Inhumane Treatment of Birds
Humane Society accuses top turkey hatchery of abuse
By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN
November 24, 2010 10:40 p.m. EST
The Humane Society says birds at the Willmar Poultry hatchery are subjected to inhumane treatment.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Humane Society investigator shoots undercover video at a turkery hatchery
* Video purports to show live birds tossed in grinder, injured poults left on ground to suffer
* Willmar Poultry head says firm is committed "to meeting or exceeding" industry standards
* Richard VanderSpek says some employees' actions violate company's policies
(CNN) -- Undercover video shot at one of the nation's largest turkey producers shows what an animal rights group calls cruel and inhumane treatment of birds.
The Humane Society of the United States released its findings this week from an 11-day undercover operation in October at the Willmar Poultry Company in Willmar, Minnesota. The hatchery, described on the company's website as the nation's largest, produces more than 30 million poults, or young turkeys, each year and delivers more than 600,000 a week to customers nationwide.
A Humane Society investigator worked at the hatchery and shot video that appears to show employees cutting the toes off poults before tossing them down a chute to a bloody conveyor belt. The video, which is posted on the group's website, also shows an employee scooping up a handful of poults and tossing them into a bin, dropping some on the floor and leaving them there. The video also purports to show an employee pulling a cart of injured animals over to a grinder and throwing them in.
"Our latest investigation exposes a callous disregard for animal welfare in the turkey industry, including practices such as grinding alive sick, injured and even healthy but unwanted turkeys," said Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States president and CEO. "It's unacceptable for workers to leave injured and nonambulatory animals to suffer on the floor for hours on end, only to then send them to their deaths in a grinder."
Willmar Poultry Company President Richard VanderSpek defended the company's animal welfare practices and policies and said in a statement that the video depicted "the actions of some employees that violate the company's animal welfare policies."
"We condemn any mistreatment of the animals in our care and will take swift action to investigate and address these issues. Willmar Poultry will also review its policies, procedures, employee training and site monitoring to help ensure that our employees understand and follow company animal welfare policies and procedures," VanderSpek said in a statement.
VanderSpek said the company was committed "to meeting or exceeding" industry standards for animal welfare practices and policies, including the National Turkey Federation's Animal Care Guidelines.
"The No. 1 priority for our turkey industry is to provide the safest, highest quality products possible. Therefore, it is essential for the industry to ensure the well-being of the turkeys it raises. Whether it is on the farm or in the processing facility, the turkey industry acts responsibly in the raising, breeding, transporting and processing of all turkeys," he said.Humane Society accuses top turkey hatchery of abuse By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN... more-
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Tea Party Protests White House Turkey Pardon
President Barack Obama performed an annual Thanksgiving tradition on Wednesday by pardoning a pair of turkeys named Apple and Cider. However, the festivities were marred by a protest by Tea Party activists.President Barack Obama performed an annual Thanksgiving tradition on Wednesday by... more-
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COK Investigation at a North Carolina Turkey Hatchery | Graphic Video One Day Before Thanksgiving
Video shot by hatchery employee includes scenes of chicks gasping for air as they slowly suffocate in plastic bags. While employed at a North Carolina turkey hatchery that now supplies Butterball, a COK investigator documented the conditions forced upon newly-hatched chicks.
As the investigation video shows, from the moment they're hatched, these turkeys are submerged into a world of misery. Dumped out of metal trays and jostled onto conveyor belts after being mechanically separated from cracked egg shells, the newly-hatched turkeys are tossed around like inanimate objects -- they are sorted, sexed, de-beaked, de-toed, and in some cases de-snooded before they are packed up and shipped off to a "grow out" confinement facility.
The video further reveals that not all chicks survive this harsh process. Countless chicks become mangled from the machinery, suffocated in plastic bags, or deemed "surplus" and dumped (along with injured chicks) into the same disposal system as the discarded egg shells they were separated from hours earlier.Video shot by hatchery employee includes scenes of chicks gasping for air as they... more-
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