Thousands of Chicks Burned Alive in Poultry Warehouse Fire - Who's Responsible?

About 16,500 four-day-old chickens were killed when a Delaware poultry house caught fire.  If this does not bother you please proceed immediately to your spiritual adviser or mental health professional.  News flash: decent, emotionally alive people should care about this!  
For your conveinence I have provided a list of possible excuses one might use to "care" but not alter the buying/eating practices that cause such a holocaust of newborn innocent life:

1. It is necessary to eat eggs and chickens.
2. The chicks probably didn't feel a thing.
3. It was an accident.
4. This is the way "poultry" is grown.
5. These warehouses should have sprinklers.
6. This doesn't happen often.
7. The chickens/eggs I eat are "humanely" raised/killed.
8. I try not to think of it. 
9. I like the taste of chickens/eggs too much live without them. 

Now if one of these "reasons" (or one I haven't listed) is what you use to continue to eat chickens and eggs - Please leave a comment as to what flavor of morale dissonance you've selected.  I shall be more than happy to help guide you in a more enlightened direction.  

10,000 Chickens Burned Alive in Factory Farm Fire
Factory Farm Burns Thousands of Live Chickens
Turkeys Die in Fire - Inhumane Animal Agriculture
800,000 Chicken Inferno - Birds Burned Live - Factory Farm Hell

Mary had a Little Lamb - It Followed Her to the School Cafeteria - And Across an Ocean

Courtesy of the USDA - which has recently bought 180,000 pounds of lamb leg roasts at a cost of approximately $676,000. 

 

These products will be distributed in federal food and nutrition programs.

“We are pleased that USDA is able to send lamb into nine different markets through the federal food program,” comments Glen Fisher (Texas), president of the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI). “This is an excellent opportunity for people to taste a meat that they may not otherwise have tried.”

Now why is it so important to give people a "taste" for a different kind of animal flesh?  Because really, it all tastes "like chickens" - that taste like pigs... that taste just like us!  Think of it... No animal has any particular "flavor".  There's no such thing as "chicken flavor" or "lamb flavor"... It's all done with seasonings and spices - That come from (you got it!) PLANTS!  That's what makes food taste good!  I challenge any meat eater to prepare whatever pound of flesh of their choice totally without plant based seasonings - They will quickly find their food bland and totally unappealing.  This is why "beef flavor" is a total myth!


The U.S. slaughters approximately 42,000 sheep and 39,000 lambs per week.  Year to date exports is roughly 62,000.   About 5,000,000 live sheep are exported world wide. The video below shows their harrowing journey to their final destination:

Both here and abroad... It's so wrong to kill Mary's little lambs.
Please consider a compassionate vegan diet.

MRSA Poisonous Meat vs. Sickening Salmonella in Eggs

MRSA is showing up in random samples of raw pork sold in supermarkets, and to a lesser extent in beef and chicken. Yet these potentially deadly cuts of meat -- unlike the salmonella-tainted eggs -- have never been yanked off the shelves.


There is no inspection for MRSA in the carcasses that are processed into "meat".

MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), or drug-resistant staff infection. In 2005, U.S. hospitals treated more than 278,000 MRSA cases. Nearly 100,000 people faced life threatening illness and 18,650 died: 50 percent more than the number of AIDS death that year.


So why all the fury over salmonella in eggs, but no recalls of meat with MRSA?


Are your food choices making you sick?  They certainly are killing Others!
There's great alternatives in a plant based vegan diet.  

Food Animal Veterinarians - Livestock has Better Healthcare than Humans

In January 09 I wrote about about states appealing for government aid to encourage more students in the "food animal" veterinarian studies.  The grants eventually paid $25,000 tuition per student who entered the field which would accommodate the livestock industries.

And now there's H.R. 3519, the Veterinary Services Investment Act  that is said to be "vital to growing rural communities" and "securing our nation's food supply".   Well... Not everybody's "food supply"... Certainly not mine.

"Food animal veterinarians not only identify, treat, and prevent naturally occurring diseases, but are also on the front lines of agro-terrorism." 

Well gosh, speaking of agro-terrorism where does this story fit regarding the link between antibiotic resistance and the raising/eating of cows, pigs and chickens?  

James Johnson, an infectious-disease physician says biologists and infectious disease doctors generally agree that antibiotic resistant bacteria in food are contributing to resistance problems in humans. The scientific evidence has so far failed to convinced livestock producers that it's time to cut back on antibiotics, he said.

Proposed guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration will call for more restraint in using antibiotics in animal agriculture. Johnson said that's great, but he's disappointed that the guidelines will be voluntary.


Well it seems like that's not such a big concern for the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association, the United States Animal Health Association, the American Horse Council, the United States Animal Health Association, and the American Meat Institute that all support the additional funding of "livestock" vets.

I've come to the conclusion that: many animal "doctors" aren't really friends to their patients.  And that "food animals" get better health care than most U.S. citizens.  Meanwhile:

Genetically Engineered Animals are Set for Approval - Yet, more than 60 percent of the 1,400 pathogens that affect people originate, or are amplified in other animals.  So, it looks like the "solution" is to use taxes from the ones without healthcare... To treat the animals that are making them sick... 

I don't know, is it just me - Or does anyone else see the total asininity of this scenario too?  Somehow my food seems much less complicated and is really relatively "harmless".

IN MY JUDGEMENT: LEATHER IS JUST THE "FASHION" VERSION OF FLESH

These are the shoes that Gaga wore that matched the dress that lead to this conversation on the Ellen DeGeneres's show.  

I really don't know what's so different about those shoes from these.


They are the same in that they originated from the slaughter of an innocent animal... And went through some kind of process that looks like this.


Maybe they are a bit messier to wear - But in essence they are the same thing. Leather is just the "fashion" version of flesh.


Anyway, Ellen asks “What is the purpose of the meat?”   Gaga answers: "Well, it’s certainly no disrespect to anyone that’s vegan or vegetarian….I, as you know, am the most judgment-free human being on Earth."

Really? I hear that a lot about people who wear, eat and use the flesh Others. But honestly you can't get much more "judgemental" than viewing your wants more important than another being's life.  If you want to eat the flesh or wear the skin of some One else - You are condemning them to death.  You are subjugating your wishes before their right to live... You are saying your whim, fetish, hobby, desire and "taste" trumps an Other being's breath.  Now in truth - Isn't this as "judgemental" as one can possible get? 

For some really stylish "non-judgemental" footwear to fit anyone's budget:
Moo Shoes
Alternative Outfitters
Vegan Chic
Planet Shoes
Vegan Shoes
Planet Shoes
Payless

Speaking of Slaughterhouses & Taxes...

I've seen it time and again throughout the years... A community is either fighting to keep a slaughterhouse away from their neighborhood.  Or slaughterhouses are being built (under protest) with the grace of tax dollars: like the 2.3 million dollar tax break given to a JBS slaughterhouse in Michigan.  Or the proposed 16 million for a hog slaughter plant in Illinois.  Or the $600,000 for a Vermont slaughterhouse... Just a quick search will bring up many more.

I remember a hog slaughterhouse close to where I used to work in Secaucus, New Jersey.  Even though the facility was 20 miles away, by 9 a.m. the air was drenched with a most god-awful odor. The stink just hovered around you... Even your food tasted like the smell.  And the closer you got to the place the nastier everything became.  The flies got thicker with each mile.  So did the trash on the road... The houses block by block appeared more like a "dump" than a neighborhood.   The stores were ratty looking and the infer-structure of the roads was in sad need of repair.  Crime rates escalated too... The closer you got to the slaughterhouse the more dangerous it was for both human and nonhumans.

It took me decades to connect the vileness of the slaughterhouse to the food on my plate... But the smell of death never disappears from my memory.  I'd recognize that putrid stink anywhere.  So believe it - If you're a property owner or real estate speculator you'd be wise to invest your money elsewhere.  Because really... No one (even meat eaters) want's to live near a "packing plant".

above: A selection from Sue Coe's Porkopolis Slaughterhouse, Tucson. 
Copyright © 1989 Sue Coe  

Prisoned Hens Harming Humans - Egg Industry is a Big Yolk!

Political cartoonist Matt Davies uses his talent and wit to illustrate the situation for caged birds and humans who eat their eggs: Clucked
Brilliant!

The following exposés document animal abuse by United Egg Producers: 

• Rose Acre Farms (2010)
• Michael Foods (2009)
• Quality Egg of New England (2009)
• Norco Egg Farm (2008)
• Gemperle Egg Farm (2008)
• ISE-America (2007)
• Red Bird Egg Farm (2005)
• ISE-America (2005)
• Ohio Fresh Eggs (2004)
• Country Fair Farms (2002)
• Red Bird Egg Farm (2002)
• ISE-America (2001)

Truly shameful isn't it? To call these conditions a source of "wholesome" food.

Try some delicious egg-free, vegan recipes!

Farm Animal Slaves Need a Job Holiday Too! Labor Day Rest from the Slaughterhouse -

In the past I've heard so often that animals "give" us so much.  And that they work so hard!  From plowing in the fields to giving us the very shirt, I mean "skin" off their backs for us.  I've even seen it in books that tell children what "jobs" animals have:

On the farm, Elsie's "job" is to provide us with milk... Henny's job is to "give" us eggs.  Henry the horse toils pulling the cart of hay to Mr. Wiggles, whose only occupation is seems is to just get fat!  

And there's all the others... The donkeys, ducks, rabbits, goats and lambs who all stay very busy too!

So it seems only fair to give these critters a chance to kick up their heels on Labor Day too! How 'bout it animal ag? One day off a year to celebrate (and honor) all their hard work?

Just one day that Ms.Chicken can have straw and get to keep her own egg!

What about letting our lovely Momma Cow romp in the sun with her calf?
How about Mr. Pig... Wouldn't we truly "thank" him to let him out of his cage just once on Labor Day?

YES! One day of rest and play... One day to not be "workers" or tools... One day to not be carted to the slaughterhouses.  Just one tiny day in all the 365 days to not be killed --- After all they "labor" and "sacrifice" so much for us throughout the year.  What do you say animal ag folks and meat makers?  

Can't the slaughter lines be stopped for just one day? A few hours maybe? How bout a quick minute or two just to say you tried to be fair to your "employees" who help you "bring home the bacon"?

Happy Labor Day to the slaves who work and die for the meat industry.