Written by PETA
Being shipped over great distances to slaughter with no food or water is agonizing enough, but a reckless driver recently overturned a transport truck carrying 235 pigs, killing 74 of them outright and leaving seven others so severely mangled that police and workers killed them on-site to put them out of their misery. Many pigs suffered terrible injuries and trauma when they were thrown onto an expressway near Toronto. PETA has sent a letter asking Ontario authorities to further investigate and, if the evident warrants, charge the driver—who was allegedly speeding when he lost control of the truck—with cruelty to animals in addition to reckless driving, the existing charge. The pork industry's careless drivers must be held accountable for the suffering and horrific deaths that they cause. Please read about our earlier cases with Smithfield Foods truck accidents.
In the meantime, you can help save other pigs from a horrible fate by urging everyone you know not to eat these sensitive, intelligent animals.
Written by Heather Moore
During our investigations, undercover workers document some seriously sick and disturbing events—including the sexual abuse of animals, from pigs to turkeys. Unfortunately, sexual violence against farmed animals is not an unusual occurrence.
I have to warn you—what you're about to see and read is not for the faint of heart.
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Our undercover investigation at an Iowa pig factory farm revealed that a supervisor rammed a cane into a pig's vagina. That same supervisor said that he thrust gate rods into the anuses of pigs who frustrated him.
At a Butterball slaughterhouse, a PETA investigator saw—in addition to other horrific cruelty—a worker insert his finger into a turkey's cloaca (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 female turkey to the ground and mimicking raping her. When interviewed by police, he reportedly admitted to having done this to dozens of other turkeys.
When writer Jim Mason worked for a day as a turkey breeder, he discovered that since turkeys have been genetically manipulated to grow so large that they can no longer breed naturally, workers must manually extract semen from males and manually inseminate females. On dairy farms, a female cow will often be forcibly restrained so that she can't get away when an insemination instrument is shoved into her vagina. Pig factory farm workers confine boars to tiny "carts" and parade them in front of sows so that other workers can look at and touch sows' genitals in order to determine the best time to insert a tube of pig semen into them.
Cruel, twisted, perverted, and sadistic—and this kind of sexual violence happens every day on factory farms. The meat and dairy industries even consider some of it "standard practice." This is why we're hoping to have this billboard placed very soon, but until then, we're continuing to urge everyone to go vegan. Help end the horrific abuse of animals on factory farms forever!
Written by Shawna Flavell
MTV Denmark host and FHM cover model Anne Lindfjeld stripped down to her trademark tattoos for PETA's first Scandinavian "Ink, Not Mink" ad, which was unveiled just before the start of the Kopenhagen Fur auction in Denmark, the country that produces the most mink furs.
Lindfjeld joins a long list of tattooed celebrities—including Linkin Park's Chester Bennington, the SuicideGirls, and NBA star Dennis Rodman—who've bared their skin to save animals' skins. Go, Anne!
Last night, Lady Gaga tried once again to shock the world, this time by wearing a "meat dress" during her acceptance of the Video of the Year award at MTV's Video Music Awards. Lately, Lady Gaga has been having a hard time keeping her act "over the top." Wearing a dress made out of cuts of dead cows is offensive enough to bring comment, but someone should whisper in her ear that there are more people who are upset by butchery than who are impressed by it—and that means a lot of young people will not be buying her records if she keeps this stuff up. On the other hand, maybe it was fake and she'll talk about that later. If not, what's next: the family cat made into a hat? Meat is the decomposing flesh of a tormented animal who didn't want to die, and after a few hours under the TV lights, it would smell like the rotting flesh it is and likely be crawling in maggots—not too attractive, really. The stunt is bringing lots of people to PETA.org to download a copy of our vegetarian/vegan starter kit, so I guess we should be glad.
A wonderful side note to mention, Ellen DeGeneres (who is vegan herself), presented Gaga with a veggie bikini and suggested she try that next time she wants to make a statement. Thanks, Ellen!
Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk
Kiley Stinson, an intern for an agriculture site, recently blogged about picking up a vegetarian/vegan starter kit from one of PETA's stands in D.C. Here's her confounding attempt to defend factory farms:
"If animal rights activists are so appalled to the idea of young animals being kept in a pen, were they not one of the millions of kids whose parents used playpens when they were growing up? Play pens protect children from wandering off away from their parents, and provides (sic) a safe place to nap, play or snack. Hmm… sounds similar (sic) to how farmers keep their animals safe and happy."
Here's a glimpse of animals in their "playpens."
If that's the best argument factory-farm advocates have, no wonder we're winning!
Written by Joel Bartlett
And, this week's 10% Wool "Tag and Release" winner is ... Beth Ann! Congratulations.
Don't forget to check out the archive of past 10% Wool comic strips here. 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.
OK, maybe that's a trick question. Who in the world would spend one plugged nickel on this gruesome "novelty"?
We realize that giving attention to things like these "piggy banks"—or those strange dead squirrel beer cozies—is like engaging with a radio shock jock, but these promotions are a bit more than we can overlook.
Doesn't it seem to you that it's long past time for taxidermy novelty items to go the way of the Jackalope? We have sent a letter to the folks at TheCheeky.com with some suggestions. If they are striving for "different," they should consider something like bras made from lettuce or in the shape of cow udders instead of products made from the bodies of dead, embalmed animals.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
A: It will adopt the eating habits of Americans—specifically, our pork-eating habits. Already, China (which essayist Charles Lamb credited with being the birthplace of pork barbecue) consumes about half of all pork produced worldwide. According to a 2010 U.S. Department of Agriculture report, Chinese pork consumption jumped from 22 million tons in 1990 to more than 50 million tons in 2009—and it is only expected to grow.
How will this destroy the world? China doesn't have enough land to grow all the corn that's required to feed the increasing number of pigs who will in turn be needed to feed the country's growing mu shu pork habit. This means that China will go from importing no corn in 2008 to 15 million metric tons by 2014, according to one industry estimate. Much of that corn is expected to be grown in South America, where pristine savannahs and grasslands will be converted into cornfields. Not only will the razing of these grasslands release greenhouse gasses, the nitrogen fertilizers that will be used to grow the corn will release even more. And then there's all the energy that's used to raise and harvest the corn and ship it halfway around the world.
Nor does China have enough land to continue to raise pigs on small farms, which means that it will start converting its family farms to hugely polluting factory farms as well as importing more meat from such models of agricultural responsibility as Smithfield and Hormel.
All this adds up to an environmental headache bigger than the Great Wall of, well, you know where.
But all is not lost. PETA Asia and its army of Lettuce Ladies are feverishly trying to turn the tide by persuading Asians to eat green (in more ways than one). Will the leafy lovelies be able to save our planet in time? Stay tuned to this bat channel to find out.
Via Grist
Written by Alisa Mullins
It's so hot in the city, you'd think I'd be making another batch of lemonade—but I've got a hankering for some Internet Soup. It's been a while since the last batch, so dig in!
Oof! I don't know about you, but I'm full after all that soup—and guac. This Special K needs a siesta. Until next time …
Written by Karin Bennett
Note to bigwigs at animal-abusing companies: Don't offer to answer questions unless you're prepared to sit in the hot seat! When PETA learned that McDonald's vice president Bob Langert is taking questions from stakeholders—people who are affected by McDonald's actions—on McDonald's "corporate responsibility" blog, PETA Senior V.P. Dan Mathews sent in this query, which is sure to make Langert squirm:
Chickens who are killed by McDonald's suppliers have their throats cut while they are still conscious, and many suffer broken limbs or are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. As the leading U.S. purchaser of chicken meat, your company has the ability and the market power to end these abuses. When will McDonald's become a leader in animal welfare by requiring your U.S. suppliers to switch to a less cruel slaughter method that's approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is already used by McDonald's suppliers in Europe?
After all, who is more affected by McDonald's actions than the nearly 300 million chickens who are slaughtered for the chain each year? It's unlikely that Langert will respond, even though PETA is not only a stakeholder but also a company shareholder.
You can give McCruelty an earful about its abusive methods by leaving a stakeholder comment of your own or by urging the company to adopt that less cruel slaughter method, which is called "controlled-atmosphere killing."
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
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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