When my parents visited Ohio, we attended service at First UU Church of Columbus.
Now that I am living in Columbus, I have been active with the First Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church of Columbus. The first week I visited them, I was recruited to teach kindergarten Sunday school and have been doing that ever since.
Another First UU member contacted me to ask if I would work with him to start a Unitarian Universalists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (UFETA) chapter. Recently we held two open meetings at the church where we talked about the issues and developed a plan of action so that our chapter can become a positive presence within the church.
One of our outreach efforts will be staffing an informational booth at the church. To engage the congregation I created a survey on animals and faith which we will ask people to complete. I created it so that people who take the survey are both learning and thinking about animals and their faith, values, and behaviors.
The survey seems like both a good tool for engaging the public and educating them on the issues, so I wanted to share it here so that other UFETA chapters and church congregations can adapt it and use it in their own places of worship. Please feel free to download it and change it to best suit your needs.
In February, 143 million pounds of beef was recalled because stockyard workers at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, California dragged, kicked, and prodded sick and dying animals to the slaughterhouse kill floor – only so their flesh could be ground up and served to unsuspecting consumers.
This recall resulted from legitimate concerns that the meat from this “USDA Supplier of the Year” slaughter plant with five federal inspectors and a veterinarian on staff may have been tainted with E. coli, salmonella, and mad cow disease. However, meat’s dangerous levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein can be an even bigger threat to human health than mad cow, E. coli, and salmonella. Meat and other animal products have been linked to America’s top killers: heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.
Given the health threats posed by meat, Mercy For Animals’ “Biohazard Team” distributed Emergency Vegetarian Starter Kits to the attendees of the Ohio Beef Expo today in Columbus. Request your free Emergency Vegetarian Starter Kit online at ChooseVeg.com.
A Mercy For Animals volunteer in a human-sized gestation crate with a splint on her leg and scars on her face to represent the horrors that pregnant pigs suffer.
On February 5th, members of Mercy For Animals protested the Annual Ohio Pork Congress in Columbus. We were protesting the Pork Industry’s use of gestation crates–barren 2-foot wide metal stalls where breeding sows are forced to spend most of their adult lives before being slaughtered.
Sows in gestation crates are unable to walk or turn around and are forced to stand and lie on concrete slated floors covered in their own excrement for the duration of their four-month pregnancies. Barely able to move, the pigs develop crippling joint disorders, bruises, open soars, and lameness.
Pigs in Gestation Crates.
This protest is part of an increasingly successful movement to ban gestation crates in the United States. Florida, Arizona and Oregon have recently passed legislation outlawing the abusive confinement system. Major restaurant chains including Chipotle and Panera Bread won’t use pork from producers who confine pregnant pigs, and producers have been listening. Both the world’s largest and Canada’s largest pig producers — Smithfield Foods and Maple Leaf Foods respectively — are phasing out their use of the cruel crates.
“Each time a [person] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, [she or] he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Mercy For Animals had a banner year in 2007. We held over 220 outreach events, distributed over 200,000 pieces of literature, and had 450,000 visitors check out ChooseVeg.com. Our television and subway car ads reached millions of people with a message of compassion.
(BTW, Mercy For Animals was so hopping during 2007 that I’m still working on getting my Holiday Card together and sent. Hopefully I will get it out before Earth Day. Wish me luck! )
Help Mercy For Animals do more in 2008. Become a member and get active!
Hens suffer miserable lives in filthy, wire and metal “battery cages” to produce cheap eggs for people to eat. View a pictoral tour of a battery cage egg farm.
In 2000, members of Compassionate Action for Animals and I did an open rescue at an egg farm in LeSueur, MN owned by Michael Foods. The eggs from this farm are packaged and sold to consumers under the brand name Crystal Farms.
Confinement, Neglect and Deprivation
Sadly, not much has changed in terms of how chickens are raised for egg production. They are still confined in filthy, barren wire and metal cages where they are unable to freely turn around, move, or stretch even a single wing.
Contagious disease is a real problem in these overcrowded prisons for egg-laying hens. Industry responds by adding antibiotics into the feed, which is producing human health consequences as more bacteria become resistant to antibiotics from their overuse.
When we visited, one million and six-hundred thousand hens were imprisoned in the facility. We found scores of sick and injured hens forced to languish untreated.
A hen, who we named Wren, suffers from an untreated ear infection. What you see is the untreated blood and puss that has been allowed to accumulate. We got her vet care and took her to sanctuary where she recovered and thrived.
They suffered from large bloody growths, ear infections, eye infections, respiratory diseases, broken bones, prolapsed oviducts, beak neuromas, and a host of other ills.
It was no suprise that workers spent nearly four hours a day removing animals who died from neglect and illness from the cages.
Dead and dying hens were dumped in wheelbarrows around the facility.
Despite this, we frequently found live hens in cages with the dead, decomposing, maggot and fly-infested corpses of dead hens.
Deprived of a Mother’s Love and Mutilated
Hens used for eggs originate in a hatchery where–instead of having a mother hen lovingly turn their eggs multiple times a day and chirp to them while they are in their shells, and then protect, love and nurture them once they hatch–they are rotated and hatched by machine. Deprived of their mother’s love, protection, and guidance, they arrive in a cold an alien world.
They are sexed. The baby male chicks, who are deemed worthless by the egg industry because they cannot make eggs, are soffocated to death or ground up alive in giant blenders so they can become fertilizer or food for other animals.
This hen, whom we named Audrey, suffered from a double beak neuroma as a result of the severe debeaking she underwent. Her comb is also floppy and pale; a sign of sickness and poor health. We rescued rehabilitated her before taking her to sanctuary.
The female chicks, however, have part of their beaks seared off with a hot blade in a process known as debeaking. No pain-killers are provided and this proceedure is painful not only at the time of being debeaked, but also for month’s afterwards. Many of them develop painful beak neuromas as their severed nerve endings try to regenerate themselves.
Industry debeaks hens to prevent fatalities from stress-induced fighting in the cages. However, another solution would be to provide hens enough space to socialize normally and the ability to escape dominant hens.
Slaughter
When the hens’ egg production delinces, usually around 18 to 24 months of age, they too will be slaughtered and used for chicken soup or nuggets.
This hen suffers from a prolapsed oviduct. We named her Catherine. This picture was taken of her immediately after her rescue. Follow the jump to see how she looked after being rehabilitated and taken to sanctuary. Read the rest of this entry »
Participants at the Sowing Seeds Workshop in Keene, New Hampshire.
Nov. 10-11 was the Institute for Humane Education’s Keene, New Hampshire Sowing Seeds Workshop. It is always refreshing to be with a group of people who are dedicated to improving the world and willing to improve themselves to make it happen. The participants at this workshop were no exception.
Humane Education Resources
Many of them wanted to know about additional Humane Education resources. We created a huge list at the workshop of humane education resources, but they still wanted more. Here they are.
First, I can’t stress enough how many great resources can be found at the Institute for Humane Education’s Web site, HumaneEducation.org. The site contains:
hundreds of links to the various organizations working on animal, environmental, cultural, human rights, peace and humane education issues
a variety of excellent books on humane issues that are avilable for purchase
job listings for people seeking employment in the field of humane education
and much more, so check it out!
I also have my modest resource list of humane education organizations which you can network with and model your promotional materials after, as well as groups that offer lesson plans which you can peruse.
I’m trying to pay attention to the workshop’s conversation, while one of my favorite participants vies for my attention.
One of Mercy For Animals at OSU’s volunteers helping with the 2007 student involvement fair where over 150 people signed up to get involved.
The Lantern, the Ohio State University’s daily college paper, recently published an excellent article on veganism. It gave great information on why people choose a vegan diet, and gave a lot of good advice and resources to help people make the switch to a vegan diet (including this Web site, and specifically this page).
Unfortunately, the dieticians who were interviewed are espousing information on protein that is about 20 years outdated. They still are talking about protein deficiency and the need to compliment vegetable proteins at every meal, which as most nutritionists know is a bunch of hoo ha. Even when I got my nutrition degree at the University of Minnesota back in 1996, they taught us that if you eat a variety of vegan foods and eat enough calories to maintain a reasonable body weight, you are going to get all of your protein needs met.
Moreover, current research shows that excess protein, especially the consumption of animal protein, is directly linked to an increased risk of several types of cancers. I recommend The China Study by T. Colin Campbell to learn more about this link.
The reality is that if people have health concerns, a whole foods, vegan diet is the best way to prevent and even reverse disease and poor health.
MFA at OSU members and supporters left messages in chalk all over campus Tuesday to create a buzz about vegetarianism on campus.
Resources for Becoming Vegetarian or Vegan
If you want to help animals, the environment, your health, and other people (like the hungry who go without so we can feed our grain to cattle, and the slaughterhouse workers who are completely exploited and used) then adopt a vegetarian diet. Here are some resources to aid you:
One upcoming event that you should definitely check out is our New Member Meeting for OSU students. Learn how to help animals while socializing with vegetarian, vegan, and animal-friendly folk. Attend our new volunteer meeting where we will discuss who we are, what we do, and how you can get more involved.
MFA at OSU organizes a variety of events and activities and there will certainly be something of interest for you. Everyone who wants to help animals is welcome. Join us in helping improve the lives of animals by becoming part of MFA at OSU.
Where:Hagerty Hall (037, HH), Room 071, 1775 College Rd., Columbus When: Wed., Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m.
Many educators attended the Carlsbad Sowing Seeds workshop; including teachers, youth camp coordinators, travelling presenters, and even a puppeteer!
I’m finally back in DC! California was wonderful. The Sowing Seeds Workshop in Carlsbad, California was awesome! We had a fantastic group of enthusiastic, passionate educators who had a lot of collective wisdom which they shared with each other during the workshop (April 28-29).
A “Big Time Thank You” goes to Christopher Greenslate for hosting the conference in his La Costa Canyon High School classroom where he teaches English, Journalism, and Social Justice (follow the link for an excellent video that his students created).
On the first day of the Sowing Seeds Workshops, we explained the theory, pedagogy, and best practices of humane education. Then we practiced good communication skills. The second day was devoted to showing activities and lesson that educators could implement in the classroom.
Alene and Leighann take part in a humorous yet poignant activity that introduces the topic of how farmed animals are raised today.
During the workshop I mentioned several resources that can be found online. Here are the links to those items and a photo gallery of pictures from the weekend. Read the rest of this entry »
Jon Camp from Vegan Outreach makes a hand-off to a University of Maryland student.
During antebellum America, William Lloyd Garrison (my hero) worked to put fellow abolitionists in the field to “scatter tracts like raindrops over the land;” tracts filled with startling facts and melting appeals on the subject of slavery. These days, Vegan Outreach is using this same model to end the enslavement, torture, and death of animals raised for food.
Today, Vegan Outreach’s Outreach Coordinator Jon Camp, volunteer Neva Davis, and I distributed over 1,600 leaflets in three hours at the University of Maryland. The brochures feature pictures, stories, and facts on the savage treatment of animals on modern day farms and slaughterhouses. Download and look at the brochures yourself:
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