Written by PETA
With a terse dismissal, the State Fair of Texas denied PETA's application to display our own version of a 4-H booth at the upcoming event. Fair officials must not want visitors to know that the cows, sheep, goats, and chickens 4-H participants have spent countless hours bonding with will ultimately make their way to a blood-soaked killing floor, just as most animals raised for food do.
Our four "H's" stand for "hellish for animals," "hazardous to the environment," "heart attack–inducing," and "hypocritical for teaching kids to care about only certain animals and to disregard others." We planned to screen Glass Walls and hand out free copies of our vegetarian/vegan starter kits.
I suppose that, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson, the State Fair of Texas can't handle the truth. But we think their patrons can—or at least their hearts can.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Mahatma Gandhi said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." What, then, can we surmise about the U.S., where 59 billion animals a year suffer intensive confinement, are deprived of all that is natural to them, have their bodies mutilated by dehorning, castration, ear cropping, and more, all before they are killed for a fleeting taste of flesh? October 2, Gandhi's birthday, marks World Farm Animals Day, a day to honor Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence and vegetarianism and to remember the animals killed for what he called "the satisfaction of our bodily wants."
The plain facts are appalling: Every year in the U.S. alone, more than 7 billion chickens and 275 million turkeys have their legs slammed into shackles and their throats cut before being immersed—often while still conscious—in scalding water to remove their feathers. Many of the 118 million pigs killed annually are improperly stunned and scream in pain as they are scalded to death. More than 39 million cows are hung upside down and left to dangle with all their body weight suspended by one leg before their throats are cut and they are skinned and gutted, some aware of what is happening to them as their bodies are hacked apart.
If humanity is to make real moral progress, we must treat animals as sentient beings whose lives are their own and do not belong to us. This World Farm Animals Day, we're trying to get 10,000 people to visit Meat.org and watch the site's "Glass Walls" video. Please share the page on Facebook, on Twitter, and in any other way you that can imagine to get the word out there!
Written by Michelle Sherrow
With one move, two grocery store chains may have spared thousands of pigs from a good deal of suffering. Foodland Super Market and Times Supermarkets on Oahu have announced that they will no longer sell meat from pigs who were shipped live to Hawaii from the mainland. In addition to the pain of having their throats cut and being scalded during slaughter, pigs who are transported across the ocean alive spend days aboard ships in cramped, filthy conditions and stifling temperatures. Many become sick and die during the arduous voyage.
The grocers' decision could spell the end for Oahu's only slaughterhouse certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and could end all live transport to Oahu. Slaughtering pigs shipped from the mainland is the bulk of business for Hawaii Livestock Cooperative's slaughterhouse. The facility has been struggling financially for a decade and surviving only with help from the government. The president of the slaughterhouse cooperative, Calvin Wong, said he isn't sure that it can sustain the latest loss of business, calling it "another nail in the coffin."
Want to add another nail to that coffin? Stop eating pigs.
Would you get out your grill and start barbecuing a slab of dog ribs? Hope not! That's the point that PETA's "pigs" made at Charlotte's BBQ & Blues Festival—that every slab of meat comes from a thinking, feeling individual who was slaughtered in ways that would be illegal if the victims were dogs.
Pigs and dogs share many personality traits. Like dogs, pigs are highly social, intelligent, and playful, and they like to be surrounded by their "pack"—their family. Pigs dream the way that dogs do, and they also respond to their names. They can learn to sit when asked, and they love playing with a ball.
But pigs raised for food have no life at all. They are confined for their entire lives in crowded, filthy, warehouse-like barns until they are shipped to slaughter, where many are still alive and screaming as they are immersed in scalding-hot water to remove their hair.
Pigs deserve compassion. Take PETA's Pledge to Be Vegan for 30 Days to help end the abuse.
When President Obama held an economic forum in Peosta, Iowa, on Tuesday, PETA supporters were there getting piggy with it.
A staffer was passing out leaflets at the forum when a group of enthusiastic young people ran up to her and offered to help with the demonstration. One donned the pig costume, and the others handed out leaflets explaining the benefits of a tax on meat.
Because meat is a leading cause of climate change and drives up health-care costs by contributing to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, among other illnesses, it only makes sense that meat should be subject to a "sin" tax just like alcohol and tobacco.
Taxing meat would not only help balance the budget, it would also encourage people to cut the pork out of their diets, saving countless lives—both human and animal.
Justice has been served for the victims of Warren Jeffs—the polygamist sect leader who was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two underage girls. This is good news, but for countless other young victims of sexual abuse, there is no justice. To make this point, PETA plans to place this billboard in San Angelo, Texas:
In 30 years of investigating factory farms and slaughterhouses, PETA has repeatedly caught workers taking their issues out on animals by violently beating them, screaming at them, and, yes, sexually assaulting them.
At a Hormel supplier's farm in Iowa, for example, PETA's investigation revealed that a supervisor rammed a cane into a pig's vagina and boasted that he had thrust gate rods into pigs' anuses. A worker urged PETA's investigator to beat a pig as if she had scared away a "voluptuous little f---ing girl." The employee was also caught on video shouting to a supervisor to beat pigs and to expose his genitals to get them to move.
At a Butterball slaughterhouse, a PETA investigator saw—in addition to other horrific cruelty—a worker shove his finger into a turkey's vagina. Another worker mimed raping a bird whose legs and head he'd shackled.
At Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., in West Virginia, the "world's leading poultry breeding company," a worker was indicted for cruelty to animals after being caught on video pinning a turkey to the ground and mimicking raping her. He reportedly later told police that he'd done this to dozens of other turkeys.
We can easily shake our heads in disgust at Warren Jeffs' crimes, but if we eat meat, we may be supporting similar acts of sexual violence. Please take a stand against all sexual abuse and exploitation by ordering a free vegetarian/vegan starter kit today.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
It was unseasonably hot on Capitol Hill when PETA's Lettuce Ladies arrived for the annual Congressional Veggie Dog Giveaway. The leafy lovelies were greeted by a long line of people anxiously awaiting their arrival, ready for food and photo ops.
Joining the Lettuce Ladies in the wearing of the green were Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door winner Kate Veltkamp and runner-up Udara Perera. Kate's costume, made of real lettuce leaves, was a huge hit.
Patriots would have been proud to see so many members of Congress and their staff lining up for healthy veggie dogs and faux-chili dogs. While the crowd was waiting, they chatted with PETA staff, learning about how pigs suffer on factory farms and that flesh-based hot dogs contain noses, toes, anuses, and other "undesirable" body parts, while veggie dogs are made of healthy (and tasty) plant protein.
Everyone agreed that the food was delicious, and some told us that they were ready to go vegetarian or vegan.
Michael Lusk of the National Wildlife Refuge System isn't exactly thinking outside the (ammo) box when it comes to managing populations of wild pigs. Lusk advocates shooting pigs, and some lawmakers agree with him. Pennsylvania and Tennessee are making it easier for hunters to shoot wild pigs, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation allowing hunters to shoot pigs from helicopters. Now, officials at the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina are pushing for pig-hunting restrictions to be lifted there as well.
If you're thinking that a hailstorm of bullets isn't exactly the most humane way of managing wild pig populations, you're not alone. PETA is encouraging wildlife refuges, as well as any other areas where pigs are unwelcome, to make simple adjustments, such as erecting inexpensive fencing and sealing trash containers in areas that the pigs frequent. As long as the environment is attractive for pigs, killing will not solve the problem because more pigs will simply move in from surrounding areas. "This is a problem that humans have created," said Stephanie Bell of PETA's Cruelty Investigations Department. "And unfortunately, the pigs are paying the price."
You can send a polite e-mail to the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge and ask officials to choose humane options for handling pigs. For advice on peacefully coexisting with wildlife, see PETA's "Living in Harmony" page.
And here's our favorite caption for this weeks' "10% Wool" comic contest! We're in the process of contacting the winner, so be sure to check your inbox!
Don't forget to check out past 10% Wool comic strips and get more information on the series and the writer here, and learn how to get Jeff's other comic, DeFlocked, into your local paper here.
Which animals easily master skills such as "sit," "fetch," and "jump"?
Which animals like to relax in the sun, play ball, and come when called by name?
Which animals have saved humans' lives on numerous occasions?
If you answered "dogs" and/or "pigs" to each of these questions, congratulations—they're both correct. Pigs have many personality traits that are similar to dogs' and are said to be smarter than 3-year-old human children. You would never dream of eating your dog, but would you eat a pig? If so, World Week for the Abolition of Meat is a great time to stop.
Mother pigs are confined to cramped gestation crates too small for them even to turn around. They are impregnated again and again until their bodies give out, and then they are sent to slaughter. Piglets are taken away from their mothers after just a few weeks and have their tails chopped off and the ends of their teeth broken off with pliers. The males are also castrated, and it all happens without any pain relief. A typical slaughterhouse may kill hundreds or even thousands of pigs every day, making proper stunning of each animal impossible. Many pigs reach the scalding-hot hair-removal tank conscious and screaming in pain.
If you wouldn't want these atrocities inflicted on a dog, please don't pay someone to inflict them on pigs. Visit our "Vegetarian Living" page for delicious pig-friendly recipes.
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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