An organic beef producer is recalling more than 34,000 pounds of ground beef after finding E. coli bacteria in its facilities. E. coli can cause dehydration, anemia, kidney failure, and even death.

Many consumers don't realize that animals on organic farms may be forced to endure the same crowded, filthy conditions as animals on typical factory farms. Because of these conditions and the fact that organic farmers avoid using antibiotics, organically raised animals can harbor even more bacteria than animals who are drugged. See PETA's factsheet for more on the myths surrounding organic and free-range farms.

m-j-h/CC by 2.0

Written by Michelle Sherrow

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We all know that Thanksgiving is murder on turkeys,  but it turns out it can be murder on turkey-eaters too. With a little more than a week to go before the biggest turkey-dismembering day of the year, a Texas-based meat company is recalling 2,600 pounds of cooked turkey meat because of fears that it is contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. While listeria may not be as "sexy" as E.coli (bloody diarrhea, kidney failure!), it's still a nasty little bug that can cause fever, headaches, and nausea and can even be fatal to people with compromised immune systems, such as infants, elderly people, and AIDS and cancer patients.

Think you're safe if you buy a raw or frozen turkey? Sorry, turkey carcasses are often contaminated with salmonella (USDA inspection reports reveal that an average of one out of eight turkeys is infected), as well as campylobacter, which is the second-leading cause of reported food-related illnesses.

But wait, there's more! Turkey wings and legs contain even more fat and cholesterol than many cuts of beef. A turkey leg contains more than 700 milligrams of cholesterol and more than 1,600 calories—40 percent of which are derived from fat.

But all is not lost. A Thanksgiving feast without the dead bird is still a feast—just a less potentially lethal one. Need some turkey-friendly ideas? Take a gander at the tempting recipes in the Living section of PETA.org.

Written by Alisa Mullins

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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.

Written by Heather Moore

Jennifer Dickert / CC by 2.0

On Friday, Valley Meat Co. of Modesto, California, recalled approximately 1 million pounds of ground beef because of possible E. coli contamination. Frightening? Yes. Shocking? Not if you take a look at the numbers.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a typical steer will yield about 450 pounds of edible meat. Let's do a little math:

Also according to the USDA, cattle are usually slaughtered when they are around 2 years old. According to a New York Times article from 2008, a cow who is raised for beef can produce about 14.6 tons of manure each year.

Take a minute and process that—64,882 tons of waste! All of it carrying E. coli, a fecal bacteria. It seems inevitable that some of this nastiness would end up in the food supply at some point, doesn't it? Factory farming and the microorganisms it breeds are deadly to humans and animals, so how about reducing the waste by going vegan?

Written by Shawna Flavell

Jairo S. Feris Delgado / CC by 3.0

By now, most of us have pretty much forgotten what mad cow disease is—all we remember is that it's scary and that we don't want to catch it. Well, the recent recall of 25,000 pounds of bison heads because of the risk of mad cow disease just might have people scrambling for their medical dictionaries.

Here's a little refresher course: Mad cow disease essentially eats holes in the brain and is always fatal. In humans, it initially causes memory loss and erratic behavior. Over a period of months, victims gradually lose all ability to care for themselves or communicate, and eventually, they die. The disease has been traced to farmers' cost-cutting practice of mixing bits of dead animals' neural tissue into the feed of cattle, who are naturally herbivorous. If cattle eat the brains of cattle who already have mad cow disease, or of sheep suffering from a similar disease called "scrapie," the cattle can develop the disease. If humans eat flesh (and possibly milk) from infected animals, they can develop the human version of the disease, called "new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease." The disease is caused by misshapen proteins called "prions." Prions are virtually indestructible—they aren't destroyed by cooking, disinfecting, or freezing.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the tonsils must be removed from cows and other ruminants who are slaughtered in order to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, something that a bison slaughterhouse in North Dakota failed to do, which prompted the recall.

It can take eight years for an infected cow to begin showing symptoms of mad cow disease, but most cattle in the U.S. are killed by age 5, before many would be displaying symptoms. Only a very tiny fraction of the cows who are slaughtered are tested, which means that the only way to ensure that you'll never get mad cow disease is to go vegan.

Written by Logan Scherer

Whoever said having just one hamburger can't kill you obviously never considered the danger of microscopic spores—you know, those barely visible foreign pollutants that are all over animal products, even when cooked.

The latest attack of the killer meat has already killed at least six people in Ontario and has been blamed for two more illnesses. The culprit? Listeria bacteria, which apparently originated in meat products from a plant in Toronto … which just happens to be Canada's largest meatpacker.

With the total number of known cases at 29—for now—and investigators looking into another nine deaths possibly caused by contraction of listeriosis, it's understandable that eating meat is scary business. But recalling more than 220 meat products will not protect meat-eaters from contracting illnesses related to animal products.

That's where we come in. Intending to roll out our brand-new "Eat Meat and Die" ad in Toronto, we want Canadians to know that you can go veg and live! The choice is simple—really. It's senseless to put your body at risk over a hamburger or a bite of chicken thigh when you can have a veggie burger or a vegetarian "chicken" sandwich (sold in most KFCs in Canada) and avoid spending the night in the bathroom with stomach cramps—or worse, death. Check out our killer ad:

 

 

Repeat after me: Listeria, E. coli, campylobacter … if you can't pronounce it, it's probably not good for you. If you have meat in your fridge, the safest way to avoid contamination is to throw the whole fridge away with the meat still in it. We deserve a Nobel Prize or something. Really.

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

americanelephant / CC

It's called "adding insult to injury."

A few weeks ago, we told you about an awful thing that happened on a new TV show called Greatest American Dog. It featured a sweet border collie named Leroy who was tormented by his trainer during a photo shoot so that he would look "angry." 'Cuz, you know, that's what quality entertainment is all about, right?

Well, unlike dogs, some people never learn. Wednesday night's episode featured a live elephant. Why elephants on a show called Greatest American Dog, you ask? They used the elephants to try to terrify the dogs. Since, apparently, the only thing more fun than getting dogs angry is to scare the hell out of them. Ugh!

Of course, it's not exactly a party for the elephants either. They're smart and dignified, and they don't like to perform stupid tricks for our amusement. So instead of using treats to train elephants, trainers strike and gouge them with bullhooks—long, heavy rods with a steel point and a sharp hook at one end that resembles a fireplace poker—or shock them with electric prods. To see for yourself how elephants are trained, watch this.

Most elephants who are forced to perform were snatched away from their families and natural habitat in the wild, after which their lives are mostly made up of chains and intimidation. Baby elephants born on breeding farms are torn from their mothers, tied with ropes, and kept in isolation until they learn to fear their trainers.

Clearly the producers of Greatest American Dog know as little about elephants as they do about canines.

If you want to send an e-mail to the show's producer, R.J. Cutler, about this issue, please click here.

Written by Jeff Mackey

Here's what Jeff says about this week's masterpiece: "The strip is based on the sad measures that officials have to take in order to protect rhinos from poachers. And a little depravity thrown in for good measure."

He also let me know that, in honor of Earth Week, he sprayed this strip with 50 percent less pesticides. Which was very noble of him, I thought. Anyway, this one's a zinger—enjoy!

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

There are a few stories making the rounds about two Chinese brands of dog treats being sold at Wal-Mart that have allegedly led to some severe problems for dogs eating them. Wal-Mart quietly stopped selling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading in July, after customers said the products sickened their pets. But as of now, there has been no official recall. If you happen to have either of these products at home, you can return them to Wal-Mart for a refund. Just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up, and remind you that all of our pet food info is here.

Remember the movie Bonfire of the Vanities from, like, twenty years ago? Well, I don't either and this post has nothing to do with it. What this post is about is a new demonstration one of our Skins campaigners Melissa is out on the road doing. She takes some leather pants, a fur coat and a wool hat (all donated of course) and sets them up on a rack and then burns them on the sidewalk in a funeral pyre to focus attention on the fact that these products were once living beings who valued their lives. Pretty wild eh? Here are a couple of shots from Melissa's first demo, in Pittsburgh, and here is a link to a news story about, complete with a cool slideshow on the right.