Did You Trick Your Meat To Death? Fear Not! Go Vegan Instead!

I'm sorry gentle readers... But as luck would have it there's yet another post that includes the opinions of the meat industry's darling - Ms. Temple Grandin.

The crux of the matter is that consumers are afraid that the animal-targets are afraid! Consumers want to be assured that the deed is done without the animal's knowledge or fear.  Wouldn't want any bad juju in that burger right?



I guess it all comes down to how cunningly you set the stage for the murder... No rattling chains or slippery floors to panic the poor unsuspecting victims. No doubt these folks are masters of trickery and foolery. But you dear meat-eater can trust them, so they say!

You know... A good friend of mine lost his sister in a car accident. It was instant. Guess the drunk driver shouldn't have been held accountable as she never knew what hit her... Literally. ***** Just because you can "sneak up" on an another and snuff them without their knowledge doesn't make the act of killing an innocent being any less violent or offensive.

A final thought to ponder... For every "calm" cow or pig that is sacrificed to the throne of human gluttony there are hundreds of hysterically frightened, out of their minds-scared, petrified birds that often die of heart attacks when they are slated for "humane slaughter". Looks like the meat industry isn't going to utter a word about the issues regarding these panicked "chickens". 

This is the most reprehensible violation of human(e) decency! Eating flesh is NOT NECESSARY! If you are not vegan yet don't comfort yourself with taking life in a "gentle" manner. All life-theft hurts the one who's life is stolen. Whether they fear that loss or not doesn't change the crime! 

Why harm when you don't have to???
Please be courageous in your ethical code. Go Vegan.

Trivial Humor & Serious Inspiration = Animal Ag & UnMuted Advocates

In case you missed the bit of humor around the web last week - It comes to you courtesy of the animal ag industry that went into a tizzy when the Country Music Television channel  sent out a twitter acknowledging World Vegetarian Day, and suggested a "meatfree" Monday as well. It played out like a similar panic that occurred last year, when a "meatfree Monday" was proposed by the U.S.D.A. It's evident that these carnists suffer from extreme vegophobia:




But don't let the farcical antics by the flesh-peddlers gag your voice. These three advocates and others, certainly aren't letting that happen! And they depend on their hands and sign language as a way to get their message heard:
ZimmySpiritual
amandamac3
DeafNutritionist Sandria Graham hosts the 2013 ASL Vegan Documentary Film

No matter how you're talking about justice and kindness... Please don't let the ridiculous, phobic and fearful, life-snuffers silence you. Speaking up for the world's most mistreated inhabitants is seriously needed. Thank you for doing so! ;)

Using My Imagination For a Vegan Chipotle

By now I'm sure every one's seen or heard of Chipotle's Scarecrow video. When it first came online, there was a shout-out from fellow activists and youtubers to keep the dialogue open and to make attempts to keep our thoughtful voices and views heard. 



If you scan the discussions that took place in the last few days, it's evident that ranchers, and those in the industry feel this video is a betrayal to the "responsible" way they "raise food". The GMO issues weren't debated half as passionately as the ones regarding "humane" animal use. This is encouraging.

A lot of viewers also had their hearts shattered at the image of cow #53281. I think these sad few frames in particular made people question not only the harms done in meat consumption... But those very dark ones, hidden by the "happy-cow" dairy industries.

Now there's a lot of people wondering what Chipotle's angle is in this campaign... I don't assume for a moment to know the inner workings and figurings of any large corporation. Of course their end is to drive more business into their doors... But aren't the future customers they're appealing to plant eaters? The beginning is ugly and shows miserable animals being used and the story ends in a meal served that could very well have been vegan. 

For as beautifully arranged as the music is... As picturesque as the fresh pepper on the vine appears... As magical as all these visually artistic scenes are - There's no chance that a vision of a better tomorrow could ever, ever include snuffing the life from our beautiful fellow Earthlings. That's simply beyond any one's imagination of paradise. I'm hoping for the real deal... There's nothing to it! 

Cultivate kindness. Go vegan. ;)

Killing Our Home for Beef and Leather

Have you seen Alma?
The breathtaking images will guide you through the heartbreaking facts about the costs of consuming meat, leather and dairy products. It's an unforgettable film. 

"Greed and consumerism are transforming the Amazon into a sad and deadly place. Not only is the forest being wiped out, in it's place are cows by the millions, destined for slaughter. Ever larger soybean fields are being planted, so that ever more animals around the world can be fed and slaughtered for our consumption."

Have you seen the satellite imagery of U.S. feedlots?
Ninety-seven percent of the flesh from "beef-cows" that are consumed in the U.S. are “finished” on a feedlot.

There are up to 100,000 crowded steers, crammed body to body for the last six months of their short, miserable lives. They gain up to 30 pounds a week on an unnatural diet of corn, protein supplements, and antibiotics. This fattening process also produces a fiendish volume of digested matter.

Feedlot by Sue Coe

One cow creates as much waste as 20 humans... Disposing of the tons of manure has become the unending chore of being a rancher. Cattle poo is saturating our planet. Hasn't anyone heard that you don't sh*t where you eat?

Have you heard carnists say "It's always been this way"?  
No. This isn't so at all. Meat eating has always been viciously wrong for the victims, there's no denying that, but it's never had this devastating impact on the planet and human health:

Plant and animal species are becoming extinct due to the infestation of cattle interests and meat-lust. But as the timeline above shows, this annihilation of other species can be traced to 1627 when the poor wild Aurochs became extinct, a few decades after the invasion of "livestock". 

"The causes of extinction were hunting, a narrowing of habitat due to the development of farming, and diseases transmitted by domestic cattle." And it's no secret that now the Buffalo species is driven to near extinction in order to "protect" cattle.

What I see regarding all of it, is a whole lot of dung-shoveling and a whole lot of dead-planet. 

There's another way to eat and live... It's everyone's planet. No excuses. You can go vegan.

The Irony - Shady U.S. Meat & Foreign Bans

Did you happen to see that Russia has banned Ractopamine the controversial additive used in animal feed to increase weight gain? 

The pork pushers cite that 27 countries (including the U.S., Canada and Mexico) still allow this possibly (probably) harmful chemically-laced-"food" into their countries. 

Ironically they fail to mention that more than 80 countries including the entire European Union as well as China and Taiwan have refused this "product" and don't allow their own "livestock" to be fed this additive.

So it goes once again with the meat industry... With their "selective cuts"...

And shady deals.

You can choose to eat a healthy slice of truth by going Vegan.

   

Hey Butterball! I'm on the turkey's side!

Below are some of the comments left on Meating Place a flesh-peddling industry forum... You have to be a member to read/comment - But trust me - The responses below are accurate.


I get Meating Place daily - Most of the articles are of a technical nature or relate to news that has financial significance for those in the biz.  But when industry practices are exposed - As happened (again) today with the Mercy for Animals Butterball investigation... The forum alights with absurd defensiveness:


In the following you'll find people who are more concerned with the damage done to a trademark, then to the victims:
I wonder how these people can deface the Butterball logo in the video? is that legal? Can Butterball sue for illegal use of logo? How much do you think they can sue for damages? The barn was not owned by Butterball? Butterball, do you have good lawyers?
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by An Old Man

Someone who will blame the turkeys for "roughing" each other up:
This farm was owned by the Smithfield and not Butterball before they split then merged into Butterball. Give the new owners a chance and time, they will make the improvements necessary. Meanwhile, it appears that most of the injuries are caused by the aggressive nature of studs. Watch National Geographic and wild rams beating their heads to the death. This the natural behavior of males in a reproductive mode. So if you take away the pictures of the blood and injury, you are still left with improper culling, rough handling of birds. This may not raise to the height of criminal abuse but certainly not acceptable by Butterball management.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by Former EE

The dolts:
you gots to have a little slap and tickle sometimes....
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by clucker

People, this is a SEMEN COLLECTION facility!!! Just like all turkeys can feel pain, fear, stress, and suffering, there are some psico turkeys that have to have a little "roughing" so they can get excited and "deliver". Get it?
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by JC

Someone who wants to shoot the messenger:
The footage was taken secretly over a three-week period ending in mid-December, AFTER which the group FILED A COMPLAINT with the Hoke County District Attorney. Butterball has a zero tolerance policy for any mistreatment of our birds or the FAILURE TO IMMEDIATELY REPORT MISTREATMENT of our birds by any associates. The MFA should ALSO be prosecuted for participating in the filming of the abuse. They can not be allowed to climb above the law.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by Stewy

The Excuse-itarian:
Now for the record i have nothing against vegans,I have many friends who are. But at the same time i have seen them go to great lengths to stop the processing of meat. I have also seen where they set up people in places to do the dirty deeds and then press charges in the hopes of shutting down the plant. I am not saying all vegans are like this but I have seen and know some who have done this.If the workers truly did this then i agree that they should be fired for there actions.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by RM

The pragmatic worrier:
We as an industry need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. It's hard to defend why I love meat and working in the meat industry when someone gets footage like this. We have got to spot these infrequent incidences and make sure they are taken care of before another vegan tries to take out our industry, our jobs, and our way of life.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by Meatatarian

The skeptic deniers:
if the feds raided must have seen something that would provoke this. i will wait to judge till all the info comes out. i am sure this company will take immediate and swift action if needed. customers and consumers simply do not tolerate abuse and mistreatment of any animals that are being killed for the table.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by making the grade

The 'investigators" are probably the ones performing the cruelty for the cameras.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by Dusty

I have to wonder... HOW did a guy with a video camera just "happen" to be present when a worker was abusing the turkeys? Did he have psychic powers so that he KNEW there was going to be abuse and WHICH barn was going to have an abuser in it? Most curious. It is not as if all these workers are spending time abusing turkeys...they wouldn't get their jobs done. Now, the question remains, and it is a very serious question...HOW did the videographer know WHICH barn to visit and during the exact time the abuse was taking place? Or is this another MFA "Ohio" maneuver, where the abuser has "arranged" to do the abuse for the camera? With the Mercy for Animals people behind it, one has to ask these kinds of questions. Faking abuse in videos about animal issues has been a problem since the 1990s when the animal rights folks decided that the end justified the means.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by Laurella Desborough

The spineless:
I agree that the turkeys should not be mistreated. But - we should all be vegans?? - & unemployed???
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by old meat packing mama

The vindictive:
Surely the cameraman and the MFA will also be brought up on charges for aiding in the cruelty to the birds in question. The way I read it, company policy was not followed by their stooge, which was probably made known to them and more than likely signed off by them in the terms of their employment.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by hoss

(Words fail me here)
while I abhor animal abuse such as described there is absolutely no chance I'd ever adopt a vegan diet. if MFA thinks they can swing people to their side they are wasting their time and money!
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Posted by poutlerer

I think poulterer is wrong though... Had I seen this video years ago (before)... I would have been on the turkey's side in a jif! ;)

But in the end, it really doesn't matter how this video was obtained... What matters is that if you are using living beings for your ends- You are a participant in their demise.  

You are condoning the torture AND killing of guiltless animals --- despite the obvious, easy, rational and kind alternative.  There is no right way to do the wrong thing! There is NO "humane" animal- food folks! Nada!

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."

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

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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. :(

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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.

Agriprocessor - The Under Belly of the Meat Industry

This story will help further expose the under belly of the meat industry -

This is what happened at the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. As usual, it's always the exploitation of the lowliest people hired to do the lowliest of jobs... These people, like the animals - are all "disposable".

From the accounts of one of the employees: "Americans want to go to the supermarket and find their meat neatly packaged. They don't want to hear about the 14-year-old girl from Guatemala who worked 12 hours a day, or the woman who was raped by her supervisor at the meat packing plant. They don't want to hear about the mothers who have "kill" water thrown on them or hear a young girl crying from the pain in her hands from operating power meat cutting shears."

And yes, the management of the slaughterhouse were arrested. Some serving prison time for bank fraud and others on probation for aiding and abetting a pattern of hiring undocumented aliens and violating child labor laws.

So there were human rights violations... as well as animal "abuse" ... But hey, it's a slaughterhouse! Does anyone really think these animals get romanced to the kill floor?

See Courting Dairy Cows - Then Eating Them - Rapacious Husbandry

And so to the consumer of these products... The flesh had from murder and made from the toil of the destitute - Do you understand now what the cost "cheap meat" is?

We each can feed ourselves just as economically - getting all the necessary calories, nourishment and "protein" from a plant based diet. For these reasons... And so many others -

Please, Go Vegan.

Economic Misery for Meat/Dairy Industry - Then and Now

I keep an eye on what happens in US economics. These are volatile times, for sure. And yes, I admit too - that what I pay attention to regarding the animal and "meat" industries, has special meaning for me... I suppose it's the 10 billion animals I'm keeping track of. Erik Marcus of Vegan.com did a comprehensive recap 2009 Year of Meat , citing the spills, trials and woes of the meat industry. Most were by their own demise... Some tweaked along by outside forces. It's a wonderful read that truly illustrates the waste and blunders this enterprise has been bailed out of. Mostly it was the dairy industry that lost 45% of it's profit... Could have been financial ruin... If not for the taxpayer hand outs. Funny thing though... Taxpayers "paid" dairies to stay in the black... Now, taxpayers are paying more for the dairy they oddly still wish to buy. What strange and corrupt symbiotic relationship! Consumers wish to exploit cows for their milk... The government sucks on consumers for money to pay to dairy folks. A fairy-milk godmother --- so to speak. But here's what one analyst has in view for the meat industry in 2010: In addition, American meat consumption is starting to trend downward, he said. Even chicken consumption, which has trended up or stayed consistent for years, is starting to drop. American per capita consumption of meat is 43 pounds. of chicken, 39 pounds. of beef, 27 pounds. of pork and 7 pounds. of turkey. Perhaps it's so, that more and more people are starting to get the message: The meat industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars lying to the public about their product. But no amount of false propaganda can sanitize meat. The facts are absolutely clear: Eating meat is bad for human health, catastrophic for the environment, and a living nightmare for animals. Go Vegan

Being Vegan is a Compassionate Choice

Of course if you do not eat meat or consume animal secretions - you have absolutely no need to watch this video:

However... if you do consume animals - there is absolutely no justification you can give for not watching. This deed is being done in your name... paid for by your donation.... done by your will and consent.

If you find the video offensive please reconsider your part in this barbaric tradition of meat eating and make the compassionate choice to go vegan.

Buddhist Refugees Find Slaughterhouse Jobs

CHEAP LABOR = CHEAP MEAT

As our economic woes seem to worsen... and unemployment rates continue to rise - It's interesting to note that the JBS USA meatpacking plant will be hiring refugees from Myanmar (a small country the size of Texas, on the outskirts of China). These newcomers are scheduled for a meeting that will discuss their language, beliefs and culture. 85% of Myanmar citizens are Buddhist. In 2007 there was a peaceful protests which ballooned over several weeks, and Buddhist monks joined the throngs of protesters when government troops used force and wrongfully imprisoned demonstrators. So doesn't it figure - that these ravaged and disadvantaged people should make their way here to find jobs in slaughterhouses? I know there are those that will say that at least it's better than where they were... but how "fair" is it here anyway... working in a meat packing plant? According to the National Average Wage Index the average person earns $40,405.48/year. Contrast this with the offerings of any slaughterhouse - which is $17,820 per year. I don't know why they just don't call it "minimum wage"... unless of course it's even less than minimum wage after deductions are made for the worker's clothing, equipment and safety supplies. And although the industry claims it prefers to hire high school grads... it's doubtful that these refugees from thousands of miles away will even speak English - but they are hired nonetheless. A meat packer's job would include the use of several kinds of knives, cleavers, and saws... they might be "stunners" or "stickers".... Or they might be further down the bleed rail where they will pressure steam the animal in an attempt to remove e-coli bacteria from the hair before evisceration. Other chemical are also used in this stage including acid washes, sodium chloride, chloride dioxide, potassium lactate... but these are used sparingly as they are damaging to floors... oh yeah, and also to the workers using these chemicals. But this is what it takes to get cheap meat to the plate... Willing desperate workers, fair wages slave labor, and happy animals captive, terrified, murdered beings. Two kinds of people work these jobs... the ones who have no choice because they are impoverished... and those who actually enjoy it. Either way, if you're eating meat, they are in your employment. End the cycle of exploitation... Be mindful... Go Vegan.

Stop the Slaughter - Empty the Cages - Go Vegan

From Stephanie Ernst at Animal Rights Change.Org

"As I'm writing this, and as you are reading this, thousands of animals are dying. In the one minute it takes you to read this paragraph, 19,000 animals will be killed in the United States alone—so that humans can eat them. Thousands more are waiting their turn in line. Some of them are squealing, squawking, or bellowing and straining and fighting for their lives. Others are terrified but too dejected, weak, and injured to fight. But each of them—every single one—is feeling something, something awful. They don't want to die, not now, not like this."

Cross Posted at Vegan Soapbox

Cattle Drug Bust - Meat Industry Transport Corruption

There was a $6 Million drug bust at the Canada/U.S. border which seized 1,746 pounds of high grade marijuana concealed within the floors of a cattle trailer. "Customs officers found hidden under the floor, bundles of "BC Bud", a highly potent form of marijuana cultivated in British Columbia that can sell for $3,500 to $6,000 per pound in the United States." And it's not too surprising that there is this element of corruption within the Animal Ag/Meat Industry... Especially when we know of the human rights and labor law violations. But I think there was yet another wrong committed, slipping silently under the guise of law and justice - that of apathy and (blind) social acceptance. And this is concerns the poor beings within these "livestock" cars and "food animal" transport systems. All who, by the way - get their "humane handling" training from Beef USA. (oh that's comforting isn't it?) As far as the pitiful "welfare" issues these truckers are advised of... according to the USDA's Cattle and Swine Trucking Guide there are all sorts of considerations to make these animals "comfortable" on their journey. Including the amount of time they should be expected to travel without rest/food/water:

" Mature cattle have been delivered in good condition after being carried for as long as 48 hours. However, experienced transporters feel that cattle should not be carried for more than 30 to 40 hours without rest. Generally, feeder calves should not be in transit for more than 34 hours without rest. Swine have been carried for as long as 36 hours without rest."

But what gives here? How does it "depend" on many factors? What happened to the mandates of the generous(1877) 28 Hour Law, which states that the maximum amount of time animals can be hauled without rest is 28 hours?

So, animal ag... meat industry... usda... beef people... livestock vets... pig haulers and cow movers... which is it? Is there a "law" or isn't there? Or could it be that these are the same laws that get flexed, bent and ignored like the other "humane" laws? After all, do we really ever expect to hear a breaking news story reporting that a truck load of pigs or cows was being diverted because they haven't been sufficiently "rested"? Yet... I guarantee you - it happens all the time. Other things that concern me about the blatant lies in livestock transport: There are windchill charts - and warnings that when it's freezing - animals will huddle together... causing the ones at the bottom and middle to be crushed... It also suggests to limit water consumption, so urine does not exacerbate the windchill... All this is meant to be so much more "humane" as they are 18-wheeled to the slaughterhouse...

And in hot weather truckers might sprinkle water on swine during transit, as it "considerably improves performance and slaughter yields." There's more issues concerning ventilation, grouping like animals, grouping pregnant animals, truck sizes, chutes and other technical matters, all revolving around the bottomline of course. And there's the "humane euthanasia" that these truckers are expected to employ. If there is a sick or injured animal - (amongst the 300 or so) the driver is supposed to contact a vet (in the middle of a thousand mile trip) to aid the suffering animal. Or, he's supposed to tend to this animal himself.

R-I-G-H-T... I can just see it now... Joe Truckdriver, delaying the trip by hours to call a vet in an unknown nowhere... OR- stopping his route... risking life/limb to tend to the suffering of number 389-5x cow, or #84q5 pig... That's such crappy-dung! But of course they won't do that - it's not safe and it's not profitable... Just like the bleed rail... nothing shuts it down - Nothing. And here's more about the ins and outs of loading a dying animal on to a truck if it must be transported with the other animals - Fork lifts that could be used... wenches, and so forth - (trying to avoid further injury of course). But doesn't that contradict not proceeding if there's an injured animal? We're not supposed to roll, unless every one's healthy... Right??? Or which is it? Or is it anything that gets your "product" to the market, good enough to be killed. And "alive" enought to be processed into your little greasy sausages and bloody burgers that will do? Animal ag- meat industry... Your driver smuggling in the pot - is rather harmless in comparison to you who openly disregard pitiful "regulations", who offend and openly murder - all under the protection of archaic "law" and public ignorance. Go Vegan

MRSA Tests in Meat - Deadly Bacteria Found in Meat

Antibiotics just are not working like the used to. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in humans. Infection, which can range from a hard-to-heal boil, to pneumonia to a potentially deadly bloodstream infection.

• 94,360 invasive MRSA infections occurred in the United States in 2005
• these infections were associated with death in 18,650 cases.
• A 2007 report from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology estimated that 46 of every 1,000 people hospitalized are infected or colonized with MRSA.
• MRSA kills something close to 20,000 Americans every year - more than AIDS. Caused by:
• Unnecessary antibiotic use. Like other superbugs, MRSA is the result of decades of excessive and unnecessary antibiotic use in food and water. Prescription drugs aren't the only source of antibiotics.
• In the U.S. antibiotics can be found in livestock. These antibiotics find their way into municipal water systems when the runoff from feedlots contaminates streams and groundwater. 70% of pharmacuticals produced in the U.S. are fed to farmed animals.
• Germ mutation.

So, do we have MRSA in American grown pigs? The Food and Drug Administration says it doesn't know. And that's because neither the meat industry, the USDA, the FDA or the EPA tests for it.

I guess this is a don't ask - don't tell kind of situation.

Mike Herndon, an FDA spokesman, said their scientists have been "following the emergence of MRSA from humans and animals in Europe and Canada and are monitoring the situation very closely." And the National Pork Producers Council in Washington is sure there's no problem.... "there is nothing to worry about; MRSA (in pigs) has not been found this side of the border" and "USDA and CDC has given our pigs a clean bill of health." CDC would not verify this statement.

Interestingly, the pork lobbyists have said their industry would oppose any attempt to test all livestock for MRSA, calling the testing "unnecessary to protect public health."

Ignorance is bliss... so eat your bacon and fuggetaboutit. The Bush Administration ignored pleas from Congress and public health advocates who demand to know if highly infectious MRSA has entered the food supply.

Despite the lack of cooperation from both the government and the American Meat Institute researcher, Dr. Tara Smith conductedastudy anyway, documenting 10 swine farms in Iowa and Illinois, finding MRSA to exist in 70% of these barns.Another study focused on 20 workers at one Iowa swine farm and found 45% of the workers carried the same MRSA as the pigs. But, it's just not the pigs or the flesh that may be contaiminated, but the ground water as well. Does the EPA test for MRSA bacteria? NO. In fact, during the last days of the Bush Administration CAFO(concentrated animal feeding operations), or known better as "factory farms" was given a leinient new ruling that relieves these animal growers from reporting on discharges from manure lagoons.

And from the United Kingdom. Scientists reported that three patients in separate hospitals in Scotland were infected with the ST398 strain of MRSA, the same strain that Smith and her researchers found in Midwest farms. And it's the same strain that FDA's Herndon says is of particular concern in the veterinary medicine and food safety arenas. What makes this particularly important is that doctors reported that none of the patients worked on a farm nor had a close association with farm animals, raising the possibility that the superbug has entered the food chain in the U.K., according to an article by Martin Hickman in The Independent, a U.K. publication. So maybe your not particularly moved that billions of pigs are kept in tiny cages, inside of warehouses their entire, short, miserable lives. But you may find the risks associated with hams and chops to be too great... Be forewarned though, MRSA could also be in beef, chicken and lamb, but no one is checking. Go Vegan

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/1/27/63221/5325

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mrsa/DS00735/DSECTION=risk-factors

cost of CAFOs to taxpayers:

http://ucsusa.wsm.ga3.org/news/press_release/cafo-costs-report-0113.html

Animal Agriculture Needs Livestock Veterinarians

There's been a shortage of "food" animal veterinarians... It's a problem that the livestock industries have been trying to combat for years. This growing trend has spurred individual states to dedicate funds meant to encourage more interest in the field of "food"-animal science. And even at the national level, Congress recently passed legislation that will provide $1.5 billion in competitive grants for increasing veterinary school infrastructure.

A young man asked me what I thought about his decision to become a veterinarian - and if I thought "food" animal "science" was a worthy field. Well, you can imagine how pleased I was to help guide his decisions. I had to ask him "why would anyone wish to be a "livestock" vet" anyway? One has to travel to remote places, handle potentially dangerous large animals under questionable conditions... They must risk exposure to an array of deadly zoonotic pathogens, viruses and diseases. Manure lagoons and rotting carcasses would be encountered daily. Livestock vets must frequently enter enclosed buildings saturated with urine/feces/vomit smells... They must witness and inspect caged creatures with little room to even move around. All for the sake of keeping an animal, an animal "unit", a herd, barn, or warehouse full of beings "healthy" enough to make it to be slaughtered in the end. It sounds very disgusting and depressing to me... I told him being a vet for animal agriculture sounded like a nasty job and it pays little in comparison. Much better to be an independent domestic, small animal "pet" vet. You could open your own practice. You get to wear nice clothes, work in comfortable surroundings in close proximity to all the conveniences. It's more sanitary and physically safer. It's much more pleasant to work with other happy people in a luxurious, climate controlled building. Your patients are truly loved and cared for. Your patients aren't "production commodities" destined for the slaughterhouse in the near future. You are actually saving lives to live. Not saving lives to just to kill. Really, being a "livestock" vet sounds like slumming it to me... I think he was grateful for this information and for the Vegan literature he also received. Ain't life grand? http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=271542

PIG BACON LISTERIA RECALL 3500 POUNDS OF ANIMAL BITS

The *meat* industry is very proud of the way it disassembles animals. Throughout the world they invest in billions of dollars worth of machines that take bodies apart.

The carcasses are halved, quartered, sectioned, pulverized, sliced, diced and "chipped".

Finally, what's left are little specks of flesh from millions of animals... jarred up neatly in little bottles sold as "Bacon Bits"...

"Bacon Bits" will also include an array of chemicals which include the following six: Potassium Chloride, Sodium Erythorbate, Dextrose, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Erythorbate and the dreaded Sodium Nitrite.

According to Label Watch the only ingredient of any nutritional value is the mineral supplement "potassium chloride"... But the use of Sodium Nitrite has this warning:Cautionary Ingredient - This ingredient appears to be problematic and to "Avoid". UNSAFE, POORLY TESTED AND NOT WORTH ANY RISK.

But if all this does not ward you off of the use of this questionable "food" - perhaps this should:

The USDA announced the recall of approximately 3,590 pounds of bacon bit products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Consumption of foods with Listeria contamination can be fatal... or include these health issues:

listeriosis can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. Listeriosis can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as serious and sometimes fatal infections in those with weakened immune systems, such as infants, the elderly and persons with HIV infection or undergoing chemotherapy.

Want the great taste of "bacon-bits" without the Listeria? Without the deadly sodium nitrates (flesh preservatives)? Without the needless slicing/dicing and killing of innocent animals?

Here's an easy recipe for Vegan "bacon - bits"...

OR

these alternatives: Bac'Uns and Betty Crocker Bac-o's Bacon Flavor Bits

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_001_2009_Release/index.asp

MEXICO REFUSES U.S. CARGILL TYSON MEAT

USDA spokeswoman Amanda Eamich said Mexico had raised concerns about the general condition of meat products, including "possible pathogen findings." Mexico halts meat imports Or some other reasons perhaps? Maybe the smart citizens in Mexico have come to conclusions that it is not necessary to eat meat... that killing billions of animals is "needless".... that man can and does thrive on a plant based diet... that livestock and animal agriculture greatly compromise the environment... that reducing/eliminating meat consumption, would help end world hunger... and use all resources more efficiently... not to mention avoiding those nasty pathogens... Hooray! To all you good people in Mexico who have made the compassionate and healthy choice to go Vegan.

HAMMING IT UP! Chinese Pig Survives Earthquake - Denmark Pork Chops... not so lucky.

Life's just not fair - we know this... A pig survived 36 days following the 7.9 mag quake in China and has been returned to his original captor, to be named "Zhu Jianqiang" meaning "strong willed pig". Zhu Jianqiang was trapped in the farm shed and held on to his dear life by eating charcoal and drinking rain water. His weight dwindled down to a mere 110 pounds by the time of his rescue. Now there's an insurance policy on his life and he's even been voted an ambassador at a traveling livestock exhibit in China! The Chinese people admire his pluck and will to live.

Contrast this with the pork processing facility in Denmark which boasts it's "animal friendly" treatment of it's pigs. The operation slaughters up to 92,000 pigs weekly.

Too bad not one of these 92,000 animals has a "strong enough will to live" to figure a way out of the "CO2 group stunning machine". I mean, how hard can it be anyway? It's not like your asked to survive an earthquake or anything like that!

Guess that's why people eat the critters... Heck if they don't value their own lives enough to want to save themselves - why should we? Since they don't care enough to want to live, it's only right that they should made into yummy sausages and hams for consumers. People have a sense of fair play you know, and reward the instinct to survive...

The rest... they're all just porkchops!

HOORAY ANIMAL VEGAN ADVOCACY - MEAT CONSUMPTION DECLINE

WASHINGTON - Numbers are in and it looks like consumption of *meat* is at it's lowest in 7 years! And if trends continue, through 2009 - 2010 figures of consumption will decline to levels not seen in about 12 years.

So hooray vegan advocacy and animal persons! We're making progress... They're finally listening that less meat is better - That NO MEAT is Wonderful - That NO MEAT/DAIRY is IDEAL! Now I wonder which of the following reasons tipped who and how?

4 reasons 5 reasons 5 reasons 5 reasons 10 reasons 10 reasons 10 reasons 10 reasons 10 reasons 21 reasons 22 reasons 28 reasons 49 reasons 101 reasons As if you needed another reason

On Slaughterhouses - Meat is Murder on Workers Too

On slaughterhouses - and what the truth really is(n't): Here's where I get confused with the double speak often heard from the meat industry: According to this article: slaughterhouses were not removed to circumvent fair labor practices - they were shifted to more rural areas because that's where the livestock are:

"Janet Riley, a vice president of the American Meat Institute, acknowledged that her industry relies heavily on immigrant labor. She said that's partly because most meatpacking plants are in rural areas, where American-born workers tend to be scarce. "Foreign-born workers are eager for labor, and they're willing to move to rural areas," she said. Decades ago, most meatpackers were in cities. Even then, Riley said, many of their workers were immigrants looking for a place to start. She disputed many labor activists' contention that the plants moved to the countryside to avoid unions. "They moved out because it made more sense to go out to where the livestock are," she said."

Then we have this conflicting information:

"...just about all of Alabama's 577,000 beef cows will someday be trucked to feedlots and processors more than 1,000 miles away. Some 15,000 cows pass through the Robertsdale Livestock Auction each year, most of them headed for feedlots in Georgia and the Carolinas, the others headed to local farms, where they'll be fattened up and later resold, said manager Harry Bryant."

So which is it? My guess might be best explained here because in truth it has everything to do with not only exploiting the animals but the workers as well... And it's not only the beef industry guilty of worker abuses - the poultry/pig industries are vicious jobs too. To sum up: 1. Most slaughterhouse workers are immigrants - The industry uses the lowliest of people to do the lowliest of jobs on the lowliest of animals... 2. Slaughterhouses prefer to be in rural areas where employees may be picked from a large pool of disadvantaged and *undocumented workers*. 3. Slaughterhouses choose such locations because decent paying jobs are rare thus insuring cheap, non-unionized labor. So - even if you don't care about Animal Rights - even if you think *taste* justifies the killing of billions of sentient beings for epicurean pleasure (as unhealthy as consuming flesh may be)... Do you care about human rights violations? Do you care about fair and equal pay - Do you care about corruption within an industry overseen by FSIS and the USDA? Do you care about repeated offenses ignored by the Department of Labor and the Department of Immigration? Next time you indulge in your *cheap* 99cent burger - you might want to ask yourself is it consistent with your values? Does it reflect honestly with what moral ethics you support? Are you trading compassion for man (and animals) for a pound of flesh? And if all this is incongruent - if you realize that your health suffers, that resources are being wasted, that human and nonhumans are suffering - why not go vegan and align your values with your deeds?