Easter Chicks, Bunnies and Hams ~~~ Celebrate With Friends!

Happy Easter to everyone... 
It's true that chicks and rabbits are celebrated on this day ---

But if you don't know what happens to them the rest of the year - don't you think it's time to learn?

The Peeps

The Bunnies
And just by chance should you be curious about where Easter "hams" come from...

I think you'll find that the best way by far to celebrate Easter is to extend that joyful spirit to all our animal friends too!
Hippity, Hoppity... :)

E6 Hammered Dairy Calves - Butchered Cows - Who's Responsible?

By now everyone has seen the gruesome footage of dairy calves being bludgeoned with hammers and pick axes at the E6 Cattle Company in Texas.


Here is the full release from Mercy for Animals for those who haven't...

The "owner" claims that now all employees have been trained in "proper" animal care in accordance with what the dairy industry recommends: Gun Shot, Captive Bolt, Barbituate Overdose, Throat Slitting, or Electrocution.  Yeah... That's "humane dairy" for ya...
 
Now in this interview Trent Loos says that the footage is "tough for anybody, even in agriculture to watch".  Loos also insinuates that the employees were coerced to use blunt force rather than the rifle to kill these calves...  The question was put (at 2:20): "Did you know anyone was using a hammer to perform euthanasia on these animals?"  Owner Kirt Espenson says "I did not. They had a rifle". And then the interview get's kind of splicy sounding... Hummm

And here from Pro News7 in Amarillo "He acknowledges his employees did not have adequate training. He credits that because he had a lot of employees quit and he was accepting basically anyone who was willing to work.
Espenson also told Pronews 7 that all his employees were given a .22 rifle but they, instead, chose to kill the calves in the malicious manners shown in the video.

Additionally, Espenson felt that the undercover worker from Mercy For Animals had some type of influence on the employees."

But doesn't the second video footage above (at l:10) show that Espenson was asked "So the hammer's okay if we don't find the rifle"?  And Epsenson responds that it is.  He just walks away unconcerned and detached from the process about to occur.  Still, he wants to "accept full responsibility" for his employees that were "poorly trained" and who had a lack of knowledge of the proper procedure.  

Doesn't that remind you of the Conklin Dairy owner caught on video shoving a downed cow yet saying the violations were just in hands of one rouge employee and encouraged by the undercover investigator?  Doesn't animal ag usually claim "alleged abuses" and "doctored footage"... It's always the undercover agent or the employees it seems.  Yet these are the favored labor force! Usually (illegal) immigrants that are so desperate they are willing to do the unthinkable just for a greenback and a chance to stay in the U.S.  Dairies depend on these people so much that they even want to give them licenses even if they are here in the U.S. illegally.  That's why dairies, all of animal ag and slaughterhouses hire these individuals.  Because they will do the work that needs to be done if people insist on having  milk/eggs and meat.  That means if you buy these "cheap" products YOU are responsible too!

These calves never got to feel the warmth of their mothers, never got to nurse or be nuzzled... Never got to experience the specialness that all babies deserve - Instead they were assaulted, battered and murdered in the most horrific way imaginable. Killing calves, killing cows, no matter what methods are used is barbaric.

That said, these poor calves are now in peace and released from the clutches of butchering men. What kind of society pays people to do this??? Whether it's throat slitting, electrocution, a gun or a bat - Who needs cow's milk this badly??? Please - whatever empathy you have for these innocent ones - Wean yourself!

Farmers Aren't Practicing Birth Control - Your Husbandry & Proliferation Is Killing Us!

With a cluck-cluck here and a cluck-cluck there I add  285,000 chickens who perished in a fire in Maryland last Tuesday...

With an oink-oink here and an oink-oink there 800 genetically advanced breeding pigs were flown on a 747 to China.

With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there Idaho gets busted with illegal drug residue found in cow's milk and dairy cows at slaughter. But not to worry... They've got a few passed bills to help suppress this kind of news.

With a neigh-neigh here and a neigh-neigh there Idaho also manages to keep horses off the "pet protections" list... This keeps the options open for when/if they build their "humane" horse slaughter facility, most likely on an Indian reservation. Nice huh?

Finally, with a bah-bah here and a bah-bah the lambs born this last winter will be fattened just in time to make it to the festive Easter celebrations only weeks away!   And I guess it's true as one of these farmers admits... You can't keep them all!  

Too bad Old MacDonald never considered birth control as an option... 

It really would be such a better place. :( 


If you have the inclination to consider any of these animals as "food", please know that they are sentient beings.  They love their lives just like you and I do.  There are many better options for nourishment -
Please, go vegan.

April Fool! Animal Use - The Last Laugh Is On Us!

April Fool!  This is just a little day among all marked calendar events.  Meant to be harmless and silly - It's a day dedicated to jokes and pranks...  And I do understand a good laugh.  Laughter is "good for the soul" - Right?  Along with that notion I've also heard that one shouldn't take one's self too seriously.  If you've ever been the brunt of a set-up, and the ha-ha's were at your expense, the perpetrator will say they were just "kidding".  But most often this just kidding "apology" is not meant to be sincere at all.

And I admit as a vegan I am often dismayed and saddened at "jokes" meant to make light of some very grave things.

But here's the peculiar part with the way animal industries (and culture) have "fun" with animals as their subject matter.  

The joke is all backwards! 


The "trick" doesn't happen and then everything's sort of okay again, like with an April Fool's joke.  No harm. No foul. No! It's the exact opposite!  We deceive them and ourselves that their best care and interests are important.  Even paramount.  At the onset we teach kids that these farmed animals are our friends. Friends that deserve kindness and loyalty.  Everything at the start is so even and fair... No mischief or harm could ever be expected!

And then the punchline comes!  The biggest "joke" on them that there ever could ever be!  With false pretenses of "fair play"... We lead them to the kill floor and then we say "Ooops! Just kidding! We didn't really care that much about you at all!"

Sadly the joke is on us.  The effects of this in-side-out, backwards trick we play on our fellow creatures contaminates everything in our "sorry", kidding and kidded culture.  We cannot be happy with such a lie of this magnitude. It is only an illusion that has not been examined in full light of reality.  And those who wish to remain blind to it, ridicule their own wisdom.

Please do not be a fool!  Animals do not wish to die for us. We don't need to kill them.  And we certainly don't need to laugh at how "gullible" they are to trust us.

A kind suggestion: End the contradictions. Go Vegan