Written by Michelle Sherrow
Gizmodo
What you're looking at is not a newly discovered pink Burmese python or the material used to make lawn flamingos. It's actually something edible (and I use the term "edible" loosely).
This is actually mechanically separated meat, the main ingredient in many commercial chicken nuggets (and the companies use the term "chicken" loosely). The picture has been circulating around the Internet for a while, but it's still creating buzz because it shows something we rarely see.
It's made by sending animals' bones through a machine that scrapes off the last bits of flesh and blood and smashes them together to form a paste more nausea-inducing than the kind you ate in kindergarten. The paste has to be soaked in ammonia to kill the bacteria, the "chicken" flavor has to be added to it, and the whole mess has to be dyed so that it no longer resembles, well, a big bloody log of unidentifiable animal bits.
Written by PETA
Why I don't eat chicken—let me count the reasons: There's cruelty and callousness, blood and pus, pain and suffering, and sickness and death, not to mention feces, vomit, parasites, pollution, plaque build-up, and other disturbing and disgusting things that I just can't stomach. PETA has created a compelling 30-second clip called "Why I Don't Eat Chicken" that features some of the most unappetizing footage from our chicken factory farm investigations. Check it out, and share it with everyone you know. If they can't stomach the video, then they shouldn't stomach chicken flesh.
Written by Heather Moore
Singapore artist Nafe Nanfeng created these moving images and forwarded them to PETA after reading that two slaughterhouses in the U.S. are implementing a slaughter method called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK), which will greatly reduce the suffering of countless birds who are killed to become drumsticks.
The sky's the limit when it comes to ways to get the word out. You can use art, fashion, correspondence, leaflets, or just about anything else you can think of—that list could stretch from Dallas to Denver. No matter what methods you use, please always—and often—create opportunities to inspire people to choose compassion over killing.
Written by Karin Bennett
It seems like only yesterday I was writing about the nationwide salmonella outbreak and massive egg recall. But now it's time to move on to the latest food safety scare: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) just shut down a Tyson Foods meat-processing plant in Buffalo, N.Y., after food safety inspectors found that Tyson hadn't cleaned up its act since August 23, when it recalled 380,000 pounds of deli meat that was potentially contaminated with harmful Listeria bacteria.
Tyson doesn't exactly have a reputation for being hygienic—or humane. PETA investigators have even caught Tyson employees breaking birds' necks and urinating on the slaughter line. Watch the video from PETA's undercover investigation and see for yourself.
Perhaps this latest scandal will convince the USDA to take stronger enforcement action against Tyson. Not only is the company torturing birds, it's also putting the public at risk for food poisoning.
The cruel treatment of chickens raised for food is reason enough for people to stop eating them, but Dr. Mehmet Oz just provided his viewers with yet another reason: On a recent episode of The Dr. Oz Show, he explained exactly what's in chicken flesh—chemicals, antibiotics, arsenic, drugs, and salt—and how it can lead to antibiotic resistance and other health problems.
Gardein vegan chicken anyone?
According to The Smoking Gun Lady Gaga's caught in a new romance, and this one ain't so bad. The website got its hands on Gaga's latest concert rider, and the newest addition to it is a request for Yves vegan hot dogs. Maybe she’s trying to do right by Miss Piggy after wearing her boyfriend as a coat.
Written by Shawna Flavell
Restaurants are already reluctant to post calorie counts; can you imagine how hard it is to get fast-food joints to post a skull and crossbones—or at least a warning sign—letting customers know that their grilled chicken contains a carcinogen? It's pretty dang hard—but the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) just got one step closer to making it a reality. A California appeals court just ruled that PCRM can proceed with its lawsuit against fast-food companies that sell grilled chicken without telling consumers that it contains a chemical that's linked to several types of cancer, including breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Under California law, businesses must post warning signs when they expose people to chemicals that are known to cause cancer. But get this: Some fast-food companies are countering that the signs should be thwarted because they "contradict" federal guidelines ensuring that food be cooked enough to kill food-borne bacteria.
Comforting, isn't it? It seems that any way you cook it, chicken is a health hazard.
If you don't want people to start chanting, "Fatty, fatty two-by-four, can't fit through KFC's door," you might want to put down that drumstick and pick up some Gardein buffalo wings instead. A recent study of hundreds of thousands of Europeans revealed that the more meat people ate, the more weight they gained over time—and chicken is the big culprit.
This is important to tell everyone: Researchers found that the people who were most likely to gain weight were also those who ate the most chicken, followed by processed meats and red meat.
Researchers at Imperial College London in the U.K. found that people who ate more meat gained about a pound a year on average, even if they consumed the same amount of calories as people who ate less meat. And most meat-eaters eat far more calories than do vegetarians or vegans. And predictably, the more meat people ate, the more weight they gained. For every additional 8.8 ounces of meat that people ate daily, they packed on about four and a half extra pounds over five years.
"Our results suggest that a decrease in meat consumption may improve weight management," wrote the study's authors in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Hurry—surf on over to GoVeg.com and order a copy of our vegetarian/vegan starter kit today, before you end up looking like this.
Written by Alisa Mullins
Here's a toxic tidbit from the "Gross Meat Facts" files: Chickens who are raised for their flesh are routinely given feed laced with Roxarsone, an additive that contains—are you ready for this—arsenic. May we suggest a new slogan for the nugget bucket? "Potent poison in every piece!"
The fact is, roughly 70 percent of the chickens who are raised for their flesh in the U.S. are fed arsenic-laced feed. (Like antibiotics, arsenic is believed to speed growth and produce more meat to sell, quicker.) The chicken industry insists that most of the arsenic is eliminated in the chickens' waste (tough luck for fish in nearby waterways), but a recent study conducted by the Utah Department of Health revealed that it is also excreted in chickens' eggs. This was discovered after two children who ate eggs daily from the family's hens (who had been given feed containing Roxarsone) were found to have arsenic levels in their bloodstream that were at least twice the level deemed toxic.
It's also in chickens' flesh, according to a study conducted by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), an organization that is petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban arsenic feed additives. The IATP found that all the fast-food chicken and more than half of the store-bought chicken tested contained elevated levels of arsenic. High arsenic levels have been linked to certain cancers as well as immune system, endocrine, and neurological problems.
I guess now we know why the Colonel is so anxious to keep his recipe a secret.
According to Time magazine, scientists at the University of Missouri have created a soy-based chicken that tastes and feels, well, just like chicken. That should give meat-eaters and vegetarians something to salivate over. The owner of Turtle Island Foods, the maker of Tofurky, is reportedly thinking about purchasing the product, which is not commercially available yet. (In the meantime, Gardein, Boca, and Morningstar Farms make some pretty tasty faux chicken!)
If the University of Missouri's stuff is as good as Time says it is, then more meat-eaters will be swayed to stop eating chicken, which will help curb greenhouse gasses, reduce waistlines, and save billions of birds. The author of the article foresees a bright future. After he plugged PETA's $1 million prize offer for anyone who can bring in vitro chicken meat to market by 2012, he mused, "Maybe one day you'll order a chicken fajita at Chili's that is made with soy.* You almost certainly won't notice the difference, but the planet will."
What do you think? Will this soy in chicken's clothing change the way you eat?
*Rumor has it that Chipotle Mexican Grill is already a step ahead and is set to launch its vegan "Garden Blend" faux-chicken burrito nationwide any minute.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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