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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

After Canada's House of Commons passed a budget bill that strikes down several environmental protection laws, PETA's blue-painted supporters hit Ottawa's Parliament Hill to rock the government's world—almost literally—and to urge eco-conscious Canadians not to despair because they can still help save the planet by eating plant-based foods.

According to the United Nations, the meat industry is in large part responsible for some of the most serious environmental problems that we face today, including climate change. So even if you aren't daring enough to strip down to bodypaint (although if you are, let PETA know), don't feel blue—you can still help protect the Earth by choosing healthy, humane vegan meals.

Earlier this week, a federal appeals court ruled to uphold a Texas law that requires doctors to describe ultrasounds and play audio of the fetal heartbeat to women seeking abortions.

No matter where you stand on abortion, we hope you'll appreciate the billboard that we'll be erecting in Austin, Texas.

Pig: © iStockphoto.com/Chris Pethick

After all, the meat industry is responsible for immense suffering—from castration without painkillers to animals who are shackled and have their throat slit, sometimes while fully conscious—and billions of deaths, which is about as anti-life as it gets. In contrast, a vegan saves 100 lives a year in addition to reducing his or her risk of dying prematurely from many of our nation's top killers, including heart disease and cancer. Now that's pro-life by any definition!

Amtrak is conducting test runs of trains fueled with biodiesel made from beef tallow along its Heartland Flyer route, so PETA is urging Amtrak to get its eco-friendly efforts on the right track, asking that the company instead feature our sexy Lettuce Lady ad:

Amtrak officials might mean well, but burning a product made possible by the environmentally destructive and hideously cruel meat industry isn't Earth-friendly—no way, no how. That's why we're urging the company to opt for animal-friendly sources of alternative energy and to promote vegan cuisine.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that Amtrak will take us up on our offer. If not, its Heartland Flyer route might need to be renamed the "Heartless Flyer."

Written by Karin Bennett

Mike Johnson - TheBusyBrain.com / CC by 2.0

Q: If "Happiness Is a Dead Animal," then what does that make a malnourished, exhausted, or mistreated animal?

A: A hot dog, according to the meat industry, which recently admitted that it uses dark, firm, and dry (DFD) meat—which "can be the result of prolonged stress in animals prior to slaughter, either because the animals have been underfed, or they are overly fatigued due to transportation and mishandling, or both"—to make "high-quality" products like hot dogs.

Makes perfect sense, right? If an animal is destined for slaughter, why bother treating him or her humanely when you can use his or her underfed and overly fatigued flesh to make hot dogs? I'm thinking that all the antibiotics, dioxins, and hormones that are loaded into meat have finally gotten to those industry officials' heads.

Instead of chowing down on DFD flesh, maybe they should try some DDF (that's "darn delicious faux") meat instead?

Written by Logan Scherer