Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk
It happens that the smell of seared pork and cooked chicken doesn't always come from a barbecue grill or oven. Sometimes it's straight out of the barn. That's because every year, hundreds of thousands of chickens, pigs, cows, and other animals are burned alive in barn fires.
In March, hundreds of animals, mostly pigs and cows, were killed in barn fires in Michigan, Ohio, and New York. A couple of months later, as many as half a million hens went up in smoke in a fire at an egg factory farm in Roggen, Colo.
A law that requires mega-farms to install sprinklers or a smoke-control system is being doused with cold water by big business operatives. As predictably as the now-silenced rooster who used to crow in the morning on the old family farm, the farmers reject every attempt to reduce the hardships and torment of the animals Paul McCartney waxed lyrical about in "Glass Walls," his video about modern meat production.
It's a full-fledged fight over fire extinguishers, similar to the recent battle that factory farmers waged to preserve the right to use a mechanical winch to drag collapsed cattle into the slaughterhouse, rather than put them out of their misery where they lay.
The burning-barn issue is this: The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently amended its "NFPA 150: Standard on Fire and Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities" -- which currently requires automatic fire sprinkler and smoke-control systems in facilities that house animals such as lions and tigers -- to include other facilities that house animals as well. The new regulations will cover nearly every single farm in the U.S. -- but a shameless coalition of meat-, egg-, and dairy-industry organizations is now appealing the NFPA's decision.
Since we can't count on the meat, egg, and dairy industries to protect animals from the most egregious forms of cruelty, what can we, as consumers, do? Opting out of paying someone to allow animals to die in a barn fire or at the slaughterhouse seems pretty reasonable. Cheap meat is the problem. The answer is to replace meat recipes with vegan meals.
Via Huffington Post.com.
Written by Michelle Kretzer
Southern Baptists attending a convention in New Orleans probably expected to be communing with God … just not with his son on the street corner. And not with a giant chicken.
Nevertheless, they loved PETA's divine duo, who asked the faithful to remember that Jesus' message was one of compassion, not killing.
While the Southern Baptists scooped up information about going vegan, they chatted with "Jesus" about how God would not approve of the ways that his animals are abused on today's factory farms. Many said that they were eating less meat or had already gone vegan to stop supporting cruelty.
Amen to that!
With all due respect to the Piano Man, I don't really agree that the sinners have more fun than the saints. Most North Dakotans don't either—their state boasts the second-highest percentage of Christians in the nation.
When PETA saw that statistic, we had an epiphany (if you'll pardon the pun) and decided that we should erect this billboard in North Dakota:
Photo: Sarah McColgan/www.sarahmccolgan.com|Hair: Maisha Oliver|Makeup: Marina Gravani for Artists by Timothy Priano
Angela Simmons isn't just paying lip service to the cause. Rev Run's daughter and the cofounder of Pastry shoes is a devout Christian who practices "thou shalt not kill" every time she sits down to eat. She credits the Bible and her uncle, vegan hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, with inspiring her cruelty-free diet.
One glance at Angela's figure might make a person think, "Have mercy!"—and that's exactly how she does it. By following Matthew 5:7, "Blessed are the merciful …," Angela keeps her vegetarian bod lean and also saves animals from abuse on factory farms and the horror of slaughterhouses.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to place our billboard in North Dakota, but you have to admit that it's pretty divine, huh?
Anyone can have a heavenly body and be angelic to animals simply by not eating meat. Of course, darling, only the meat-eaters die young. Well, they're certainly more likely to.
If you always have a sleepless night after watching a horror movie, you might want to think twice before sitting down to a meal of dead bodies. Here's why meat is more dangerous than an ax-wielding maniac:
If you're still eating fish despite the dangers of mercury, might I suggest that you may also enjoy a summer job at Camp Crystal Lake?
As every randy teenage slasher-flick victim can attest, hormones can be deadly. Hormones in meat can cause all sorts of unsexy conditions, such as "moobs." Which leads me to number three …
Eating meat causes impotence. Given their druthers, I think a lot of men would opt instead for the hockey mask–wearing serial killer.
That's another good reason not to ingest all the saturated fat that meat contains.
Find yourself short of breath when you hear that ominous theme music ("Ki-ki-ki-ma-ma-ma")? The toxic gasses and bacteria that wind spreads from factory farms make it even more difficult to inhale.
Do you ever shout, "Why are you running into the woods?!" when some moron is being chased by a psycho? People in real life do dumb things that lead to their untimely demise, too, like eating meat, eggs, and dairy products even though bad diets are to blame for one-third of all cancer deaths.
Have you seen PETA's slasher movie that features video footage from chicken farms? If you're too chicken … don't eat chicken.
Heart disease caused by diets high in artery-clogging animal products will do the trick, too.
In Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Voorhees is finally done in by toxic waste in the sewers. If the kids had only gotten him into one of the waterways polluted with factory-farm runoff, he would've been a goner a lot sooner.
Meat's got its own resilient killer: antibiotic-resistant bacteria caused by the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms.
Between meat and dairy products, trying to choose which is more deadly is like trying to decide which serial killer you want to take a weekend getaway with.
Poo. And lots of it. Yeah, it gets in meat, too.
Maybe the worst thing about how deadly meat is, is that we actually have to pay for it—both at the check-out counter and in the form of government subsidies. I mean, at least when Jason is swinging a machete, he's not simultaneously asking for your wallet—am I right?
Slash your risk of getting killed off early by running from meat as if your life depended on it. (But don't go running through the woods. That's never a good idea.)
Last year, PETA helped successfully defeat a series of "ag gag" bills, which would have made it a crime to film cruelty to animals on factory farms, in Florida, Minnesota, and New York. Now, another round of these unconstitutional bills has begun—in Missouri, New York, and Utah—and it's up to us to squelch these measures again.
Time and time again, PETA's undercover investigations of factory farms have produced video evidence of cruelty to animals that has helped authorities prosecute the offenders. Investigators have documented that workers slammed newborn piglets' heads into concrete floors and left them to die in agony, employees at a foie gras farm drowned female hatchlings, and workers at a turkey farm jumped on turkeys' stomachs to make them "pop."
Don't let factory farms hide animal abuse behind shady laws. Here are three ways that you can help animals on factory farms this week:
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What a rooty-tooty bunch of hooey. IHOP is using the eco-friendly message of The Lorax to lure families in for Dr. Seuss–themed meals that are chock-full of factory-farmed meat, eggs, and dairy products. The restaurant couldn't serve anything less environmentally friendly than if it put centuries-old Amazon trees on a plate.
While the tree seed–encrusted bookmarks the restaurant is handing out to kids are a nice touch, IHOP would be doing a lot more good for the planet if it offered dishes that weren't concocted out of meat and dairy products that obliterate natural resources and are a major cause of climate change.
I'm pretty sure the Lorax would rather take a boot to the back than chomp down on Truffula-Killing Surprise.
For Green 'Eggs' and 'Ham' that are truly green, check out our recipe.
Katherine Heigl loves Utah so much that she chose the state as the site of her 2007 wedding and later purchased a home there. But when Utah lawmakers proposed an "ag gag" bill that would make it a crime to shoot video on factory farms, Heigl wanted to let lawmakers know that kind citizens like her would not support it.
She penned a letter on PETA's behalf to Utah's state senators urging them to squelch House Bill (H.B.) 187 and allow people to continue to obtain video evidence of animal abuse so that authorities can prosecute the offenders.
As animals cannot defend themselves, the public must maintain its right to document illegal cruel practices in order to alert law enforcement to [their] existence. In 2008, my friends at PETA went undercover at a major pig farm in Iowa that supplies Hormel and found that workers were beating pigs with metal rods and jabbing clothespins into their eyes; one employee was even caught sexually abusing a pig with a cane. Because of this investigation, six workers were charged with a total of 22 counts of livestock neglect and abuse, and all of them admitted guilt. PETA worked hand in hand with local law enforcement to achieve these convictions, for which the undercover footage made the sheriff's job much easier. Please don't impede law enforcement by passing this terrible bill.
Cloris Leachman has already asked Utah lawmakers to dump the bill, which is on very shaky constitutional ground. Last year, when similar "ag gag" bills cropped up in Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, and New York, animal advocates defeated them, thanks in part to the work of kind folks like Cloris and Mary Matalin.
Help us defeat H.B. 187 in Utah too.
Google goes gaga for vegan food, learn how to show bunnies some love this Valentine's Day, and help us ask Florida not to change its slogan to "The Hoarder State." Here's everything in PETA's world that you might have missed this week.
Don't miss any breaking animal rights stories. Hop on over to PETA's Tumblr page for the latest:
It's a brave pig who can crash a barbecue hosted by a group of hunters. But that's exactly what two PETA "pigs" did at a campaign stop for Newt Gingrich in South Carolina. The "pigs" were protesting taxpayer subsidies of cruel factory farms.
Although they were quickly shown the door, the precocious "pigs" made the most of it, with a grand exit atop a convertible with flags waving and country music blasting while photographers snapped away.
Animals have voices. They cry out when they are being skinned alive for their fur, being beaten and forced to perform painful tricks, or having their throats cut before being hacked apart for their flesh. Animals express their pain, but often, people don't understand or they choose not to listen.
As animal advocates, we must raise our voices alongside animals' and put into words what they can't. Whether we are calmly explaining to someone at the dog park that his or her dog might be yelping because the animal's prong collar hurts or telling a friend that her mascara was smeared into a bunny's sensitive eyes, we have to speak up. Animals need us to.
If you haven't yet made a New Year's resolution, how about this: Never remain silent when an animal is hurting. Just one small voice can—and often does—save animals from cruelty and abuse. How will you use yours?
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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