Pork Is Safe For Who? Cages Won't Fix Cruelty - But You CAN!

It's always interesting to observe the fall-out, backlash, misconceptions, denials, and damage control after an undercover investigation.


This newest one conducted by Mercy For Animals, exposing the horrific abuses done to pigs before their throats are slit is no exception.


I read a post on facebook: I got un-friended by a few people because they didn't like the graphic images on the pig farm video. Screw them! If they aren't brave enough to see where their meat comes from - I don't want them as friends!


Boy, I couldn't click the "like" button fast enough!


Someone on this news feed commented that it's the consumers who are "TERRORIZED" by "how our livestock are being treated inhumanely."  


Livestock are always destined for slaughter. Always seen as a commodity; Always having value in their production or after their murder - Are never, ever treated "humanely".  Ever.


From the news at an industry forum: "The group claims that the video shows piglets castrated and their tails docked without painkillers; intestinal ruptures seemingly the result of botched castrations; and workers throwing piglets across the room."


But they always say this... That the infractions are "alleged", staged or an isolated incident.  They say that they have nothing but the best interest in the care and welfare of these animals. Even as they reach the head-dropper's station.

And a statement from the National Pork Producers Council wants the public to know that when castrations go wrong, the piglets are "humanely euthanized ".  


What they strategically fail to say is that this placebo term defines a common practice known as thumping... Where the poor piglet's head is slammed on to a concrete floor.  I can hardly write the words in such a cut/dry manner... But this is the blunt reality. 


As vile as all these practices are...  No amount of fall-out, backlash, misconception, denial, or damage control OR bigger cages will end these brutalities more than elevating your consumer choices to a vegan diet.


Congrats to all the clear thinking, compassionate people who've done so already...
For the rest... What in the world is it going to take to guide you to this choice?  What???  

My Very First (and probably last) Freaky Friday Post...

This post is a compilation of some strange, bizarre stuff within the foolish world of animal use.

I don't yet have a "Freaky-Friday" post so here it is!

How would you like to decline an event with this excuse... "So sorry, but I'm attending a Boar Semen Conference that day."

Or what about the next time someone says that cows, chickens and pigs offer the best source of "essential" nutriments for the body?  Here's a great argument for them:

Hamburger, for example, is roughly 18 percent protein and 18 percent fat. Cooked grasshopper, meanwhile, contains up to 60 percent protein with just 6 percent fat. Moreover, like fish, insect fatty acids are unsaturated and thus healthier.

DeFoliart, the Wisconsin entomologist, says that not only are insects nutritious and delicious, they could be an environmentally friendly source of human protein requirements.

"In our preoccupation with cattle, we have denuded the planet of vegetation," DeFoliart said. "Insects are much more efficient in converting biomass to protein."

Insect farming is arguably much more efficient than cattle production. One hundred pounds (45 kilograms) of feed produces 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of beef, while the same amount of feed yields 45 pounds (20 kilograms) of cricket.

No bug eating? Good! 

How about some yummy human breast milk - That scientists in China have now convinced cows to make and to NOT feed to their own calves?

I know... Isn't it silly for any adult to drink any mammary secretions?

OKAY - What about steak made from poo - Whet anyone's appetite yet?

Ahhh... But what to feed a pig?  I found this on an animal ag site:

Odd to worry about the "ethics" of feeding a pig a pig - But completely fail to monitor our own ethics.
(We are a strange species!)

And speaking of not eating pigs... Seems there's a rash of fake photo-copied Halal certificates that are misleading the Muslim community seeking "lawful" meats.  And we've all seen how genuinely "clean" and "humane" the real deal is - Haven't we?

Here's a bit more bizarre news... Seems it's become more profitable to grow oats as livestock feed than for human consumption.  It really is frustrating competing with "meat animals" for food isn't it?

Pathetic stoopidity a UL "Research" Lab caused the death of 3 Rhesus monkeys. No... It wasn't the death by usual torture - These guys went the special way of neglect through dehydration and starvation.   

And here's one wacky nonsensical title for a sorry article "Horse welfare declines after closing of U.S. slaughter plants".   The piece includes the pitiful sentiments about some horse trainer saying his sad goodbyes to his horse Rocky who he rode for 27 years.  The guy really hated to do it - (ship his friend to the slaughterhouse in Canada or Mexico) - But hey - bullets cost money you know!

Finally, what about fish-hunting in a public pool?  Yep it's all for "community fun", "education" and the reinforcement of "ethnic traditions".  And more bothersome than the story was the unending defenses once the event was criticized.  I know many readers here and friends on Facebook diligently tried to present truthful and reasonable arguments against this event (and all animal killing).  I found myself cheering as I read each of your posts!  Thanks be to living tuna for your clarity!!!  And as I left it... We can only hope that some seeds were planted! ;)

So I guess this de-virginizes my lack of a Freaky Friday post... But then again - In this crazy animal-killing world it could be Freaky Friday, Freaky Wednesday, Monday or Tuesday.  All of it lacks sanity. All of it is primitive, barbaric, deadly and wrong!

Glad to be vegan! Hope you are too!

Slaughterhouse Crime & Violence - Vicious Treatment To Man & Nonhumans

Oh say it isn't so!  Murders and terrorists inside of slaughterhouses?


A Canadian who ran an immigration business and a slaughterhouse in Chicago was found guilty of aiding terrorists who killed more than 160 people in India.  "Prosecutors said Rana used income from the slaughterhouse to fund terrorist activities."

****************************

And a 30 year old Tyson meat worker is dead after being stabbed in the neck.  

***************************************

Such nice folks work around a slaughterhouse - Right?  I just don't understand why all these slaughterhouse employees aren't whistling while they work:

Skinner/butcher: Rabbit/Poultry kill floor
Specific Skills: Slaughter livestock and remove viscera and other inedible parts from carcasses, De-bone meat, Slaughter poultry and remove inedible parts.

Blood Collector
This position is responsible for the collection and shipment of fetal bovine blood from an assigned slaughter facility. Set-up bleeding station to receive unborn calves (slunks) for bleeding.
Extract blood from unborn calves in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures.

1st Shift Kill Supervisor
This position is responsible for day-to-day management of operations in assigned production area. (emphasis mine)

Rendering Supervisor

Over see the meat cooking, hair hydrolyzing operations, loading and hauling of inedible product. Monitor raw material, informing Director of Operations of any abnormal situations.

Odd how these positions all require "communication skills" and "no violent backgrounds".  Maybe it's so workers can start on a clean slate destined to make them disgusted and enraged with what they and their fellow man do for a dollar? Just think how a few weeks of boot camp can adjust nice kids to kill up close and personal. 

It's no secret the industry from factory farm to the bleed rails, preys on the desperate poor - Most are immigrants... Many illegal. 

“If you visit the killing floor of a slaughterhouse, it will brand your soul for life.” 

-Howard Lyman 

And Gail Eisnitz thoroughly documented the horrors in her book Slaughterhouse - The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect and Inhumane Treatment Inside Th U.S. Meat Industry with excepts here:

When the pregnant sows are ready to give birth, they are moved from gestation crates into farrowing crates. "They beat the shit out of the sows to get them inside the crates because they don't want to go," said a female worker. "One guy smashed a sow's nose in so bad that she ended up dying of starvation." "We had one too with his nose smashed in," said another. "A 600 pound boar. Smashed him in there. He finally died."

---

"On the farm where I work," said a worker, "they drag live pigs who can't stand up any more out of the crate. They put a metal snare around her ear or front foot and they drag her the full length of the building. And these animals are just screaming in pain. They're dragging them across the concrete. It's ripping their skin. These metal snares are tearing up their ears...."

---

"When sows can't stand up anymore and we have to kill 'em to perform C-sections, we wait until within a week of farrowing and we kill her and cut her open, then we drag her outside to the Dumpster. We use a stun gun or we get a hammer and start beating the head. Until they die."

---

"After a while you become desensitized. And as far as animals go, they're a lower life-form. They're maybe one step above a maggot. When you got a live, conscious hog, you not only kill it, you want to make it hurt. You go in hard, blow the windpipe, make it drown in its own blood. Take out an eyeball, split its nose. A live hog would be running around the pit with me. It would be looking up at me and I would just take my knife and--eerk--take its eye out while it was just sitting there. And this hog would just scream.

---

"When a cow arrives at the first hind-legger [who removes the legs], usually the legger tries to make a cut to start skinning out the leg. But it's hard to do that when the cow is kicking violently. A lot of times the leggers'll take their clippers and cut off the cow's leg right below the knee--the skinny part. The cow'll continue to kick, but it don't have that long of a reach."

---

"Outside of the weak ones, just about every cow I stunned had to be hit between three and five times just to get it to go down. There were plenty of times you'd have to make a big hole in their head, shooting them eight or nine times. And they'd still be alive. I remember one time I saw the other knocker at the plant shoot a bull twelve times, and still it wouldn't go down. "

---

"Sometimes a steer would get its head stuck in the restrainer [the conveyance that cattle ride up to the stun operator in]. You couldn't stun it at that point, so you'd end up cutting its head off while the steer was still alive. Or, there've been a lot of cases where the beef almost falls through the restrainer, and it struggles and twists so bad that the restrainer wouldn't move. A lot of times what happens is we just chop the leg off. We do it with a saw."

And these are the animals "protected" under the Humane Slaughter Act... Imagine the unhappy things that happen to chickens. :(

*******************************************

Now I'm not writing this to educate or inform regular readers... Everyone is very aware of the atrocities that animals go through in the name of "food, clothing, entertainment and science".  So aware and concerned that they've actually done something tangible and meaningful to remove themselves from such harming acts!

No, I'm hoping to catch the curious lurker who happens to land here... I want them to understand what they pay for every time they buy a burger, a "chop", an egg, or a pair of leather sneakers.  I want them to own the fact that they are the ones supporting crimes against man and crimes against nonhuman animals.  I'm hoping they read Mercy for Animals 25 Reasons to Try Vegetarian and pay special attention to reason #22:

"Flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling: killing. By killing, man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity, that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields." -Leo Tolstoy 

Please... If you are not already vegan - Give it your very best effort to make it so.

USDA Provides Funds For Dairy Propaganda

There really is no nice way to put this... The corruption is blatantly obvious.  The USDA just gave the dairy industry $1.1 million dollars so that they may explore more effective ways of communicating to customers how great cow's milk is. :/


That's not exactly how the grant reads... But it's the gist of it.  And you can draw your own conclusions here.


Now... Wanna see something FREE that shows how wonderful some people think cows are?


Today's Happy Veggie Kids post on vegansaurus highlights 6 year old Ruby Bird as she embraces the gentle giant beside her:

I don't think there's enough money in the world that could buy the honesty this photo displays.  


Want a real life without excuses that rationalize killing innocent animals?  Go Vegan. ;)

It's The Cucumbers. It's the Tomatoes. It's the Lettuce. It's The Sprouts.

21 Dead in Germany:

The bacterium in question, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, or STEC, can cause severe enteric and systemic disease in humans, including hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, which can lead to kidney failure or death.

World Health Organization

E-coli is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms.


Let us be clear about one thing. This and every other E. Coli outbreak has at its source bacteria produced by livestock, and spread by the excrement that has entered the water supply used in fruit and vegetable production and/or preparation.

We are poisoning our food at the expense of "growing" meat.

It's no coincidence that the most ethical way to eat is also the most practical.

For the sake of our food system. For the sake of our environment. For the sake of compassion to others... Won't you please explore Vegan options? 

Farm & Dairy, Silver Spurs - These Are The Free Speech Saboteurs

Up until a few days ago I was actively engaged in a discussion at the Farm and Dairy site.  Now, I'm no stranger to censorship on these animal ag sites... On too many occasions to count, I've been cut off in mid thought - Coincidentally, the "last word" is always had by one of their gang.  So be it.  But this is the beauty of the internet - I can post my responses here instead.  I think they are worthy of consideration.

We were debating if vegetation could be grown without the use of industrial animal agriculture.  And without laboring over the background conversation the final points I wanted to make to "TY" are in bold.
Warning - For some it might be a gruesome subject:
Ty said: The only way to capture the nitrogen potential would be to macerate, sterilize,and reconstitute...

My reply:
I am not a chemist or biologist but I know that the sooner a cadaver returns to the soil the quicker the worms eat... And the sooner the "cycle" begins.
  
Now if this more natural mode is riddled with hazards why are green burials becoming so popular? 

There are environmentally friendly ways of disposing of human remains that would benefit the permaculture.

Bio-cremations or "resomations" are certainly fertilizing the lawns in a Florida facility!  

And in the U.K. there's Promessa: "The primary principles are preservation after death in organic form and shallow burial in living soil that quickly converts us to mulch."

So I disagree - I do think we are culturally ready to think of more renewable things to do with our dead bodies.  And given enough funding and study it just might replace animal waste after all.

I wish you well Ty. I hold no bitterness towards you... I think you are bright and that you have a mind strong enough to inquire ideologies further. 

************************* 

I think it's easy to see why I became frustrated by not being given the space to reply.  I think I had some valid points... But this is how the animal users work on the web... Now let's see how they act in the real world:

I attended the protest at Silver Spurs Rodeo last night... To the right of the photo below is The Florida Cattlemen's building.  

This demonstration was just a small group, holding signs in a peaceful, orderly, LEGAL way.  I smiled and waved... We all did. It was an effort to just get people to THINK about the possibility that cows, calves, bulls and horses were being needlessly "used" for harmful and frivolous amusement.  It was an attempt to get people to WAKE UP from their thoughtless ignorance.  That's it.

There were cars and trucks that passed by us... Some with horses being sent possibly to their doom should an "unfortunate" "accident" happen.  Still, our small group stood in quiet calm.

But many of these trucks with tires taller than my vehicle - spit and threw used chewing tobacco at us.  They shouted obscenities.  They cussed and gave us the finger... They spun their wheels so as to kick up pebbles and rocks in our faces... The gunned their engines and left clouds of black smoke as they sped off towards the parking lot.  Many had children in the cars as well.  They were brutish.  Angry.  Aggressive and hostile. 

It wouldn't be a stretch that if possible, they would have stomped and slammed on us physically so that our message would be silenced.  I am sure in the same way that they think nothing of harming innocent "rodeo" animals, they'd think nothing of tyrannizing us too.  You see that's the way it goes when you run roughshod over those "smaller" than you - When you're a bully - Everyone's is game and nothing's too petty.

And let it be no surprise to anyone that these thugs are also the first to call activists "communists", "liberals", "radicals", troublemakers, terrorists and un-American.  But look how they represent themselves! On line or not... It is the voice of reason and compassion they suppress...  It is the very first order of Free Speech which they deny and attack.  

I'm sure their mothers didn't raise them that way... And I'd bet anything even the Florida Crackers who actually did drive the cattle through the swamps way back when would be aghast at the uncivil display of rude childishness.  As for me, I've paid my taxes to the "Sunshine State" for almost 40 years - and I hang my head in embarrassment for I've truly seen the underbelly of it all at the Silver Spurs sham.  Just pitiful.

*********************

I hope the information about the possibility of growing REAL food without the need of killing animals is useful knowledge... As for anyone else even considering spending their valuable time or money in Florida, as you can see we're not the progressive, civilized state you think we are. We're knee-deep in hillbillies that abuse animals as "things" just 20 minutes from the zipitee-do-da "magical" kingdom where they eat them all day. 

La-la-land for sure. :/