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.
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 »
Please never, ever, ever drive drunk. I am so thankful to have walked away from this accident.
Last night, I was driving home to Columbus from Cleveland after watching an excellent presentation by co-author of Why Animals Matter, Erin Williams, when I was rear-ended on Hwy 71 South by a drunk driver. Drunk driving is a horrible problem. According to Alcohol Alert, in 2005, 39 percent of all traffic fatalities involved drunk drivers. That translates into 16,885 alcohol-related driving deaths during that year. I am so lucky to have walked away from this accident, as is the driver whose car crashed into me while she hit her car’s exploding airbags.
Please don’t drink and drive. Even if you are not drunk, drinking impairs one’s judgment and reaction time. If you have been drinking, get a cab, arrange for a designated driver, have a friend pick you up, or walk (stumble?) home if you must, but do not risk killing yourself or others!
Accordian anyone? My car is totalled, and I worry that Mercy For Animals’ $600 projector, which was in the trunk, was also destroyed.
The accident happened at 1:30 a.m. while I was only a few hundred yards from my exit. The police who showed up at the accident site were very helpful, but I did not get home until about 3 a.m. , as I waited for the tow truck to haul away the wreckage and for the police to take the woman away to jail so they could do a blood alcohol test on her.
I am worried that Mercy For Animals’ $600 projector, which we use to give presentations on the benefits of a vegetarian diet, is destroyed. It was in the trunk of the car which will now probably require the jaws of life to get open.
One more close-up for you.
All in all, I am honestly blesssed that this accident was not worse. I am very thakful. But it’s time to play taps for this car. Does anyone know someone getting rid of a used Prius for cheap?
Author Erin Williams giving a presentation on her book Why Animals Matter at Mercy For Animals’ free vegan dinner in Cleveland last night.
The accident happened on the tail of a wonderful evening. Erin Williams was on fire at last night’s Mercy For Animals’ free vegan dinner in Cleveland. She spoke about the problems with factory farming for animals and the environment, gave those of us working for change a lot of reasons for hope, and wowed us with her knowledge and ability to articulate her message.
Erin with her 4H heifer friend, Zelda, and a younger version of herself in the background.
One of the most powerful stories in her presentation was how she became involved in animal protection. She grew up on a dairy farm and was a 4H member. She raised a young heifer named Zelda, who became as much a part of her family as her family dog. Zelda taught her about the intelligent and social nature of cows. Zelda would gallop over to see her every time Erin visited her in the pasture. Then one day Zelda was gone.
Zelda was a barren heifer. Unable to breed, she was also unable to produce milk because, like all mammals, cows only produce milk to feed their offspring. Zelda had been taken to slaughter without anyone telling Erin about it. Erin was devastated, and later when she was at one of her favorite restaurants about to eat a burger, she realized that Zelda could be one of the cows in the burger. She also thought how there was no moral difference between eating Zelda and eating any other cow, and that was it. She became a vegetarian and later a vegan.
Erin speaks about the overcrowding, filthy, disease-ridden conditions of factory farms.
Erin now works for the Humane Society of the United States in their factory farming campaigns department, trying to get the most egregious forms of confinement such as battery cages, veal crates and gestation crates banned. Her experience and knowledge of the issues truly shined through during her presentation, and I am very excited to read her book.
Why Animals Matter was flying out of the boxes and into people’s hands at MFA’s three events.
After the talk, Erin sold and signed copies of her book for people. She sold a total of 52 copies and generously donated the proceeds to Mercy For Animals.
Mercy For Animals and I cannot thank Erin enough for her wonderful contributions. She actually took time off from work, drove from DC to Columbus on her own dime (or more like C-note given the gas prices), donated the proceeds from her book sales to MFA, and would not accept the honorarium MFA offered her. She is committed to moving her message and helping end the needless suffering of farmed animals. For that, she is a true hero, and we at MFA hope that providing her with this forum helps further her worthy aims.
Langhorn, PA — A few weeks back I took a pause in my work at Mercy For Animals to go the Peace Center and teach a weekend Sowing Seeds Workshop — check out the pictures. It was a great group of people with a lot of experience in advocacy and education.
As we do at all Sowing Seeds Workshops, we spoke about how to respectfully talk about difficult issues such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, speciesism, consumerism, environmental destruction, and other issues without making our audience defensive (and without sugar-coating the facts).
During our discussions, New York humane educator Jasmin mentioned an article, White Privilege, that she encouraged us all to read. It is a great article that helps those of us who are white better understand the kinds of privleges that we take for granted that people of color cannot expect to receive. Read the rest of this entry »
Participants of the Sowing Seeds Workshop at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York.
The Farm Sanctuary Sowing Seeds Workshop was a huge success. Over 30 people attended (unfortunately not all were available for the photo above) to learn about how to teach issues such as human rights, animal protection and environmental justice. Read the rest of this entry »
Mom helps me staff TeachKind’s humane education booth at a conference for educators.
Today is the day we celebrate our mothers. They take care of us, protect us, raise us, love us, correct us, guide us, and help us in so many ways. Yay, for moms!
My mom is an especially wonderful mom. So, mom, here is a poem for you!
“Happy Mother’s Day” Means More
“Happy Mother’s Day” means more
Than have a happy day.
Within those words lie lots of things
We never get to say.
It means I love you first of all,
Then thanks for all you do.
It means you mean a lot to me,
And that I honor you.
But most of all, I guess it means
That I am thinking of
Your happiness on this, your day,
With pleasure and with love.
Happy Mother’s Day mom!
With Lots of Love,
Freeman
The poem is by Nicholas Gordon and reprinted here by permission.
Lori was the host of the episode of Personal Profiles in which I was interviewed.
On Friday, May 4, 2007 I walked into Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring. Lori, who is a student there, had called and invited me to be interviewed for a school project called Personal Profiles. She got my number from her mother, who got it from me when I gave her one of my business cards one Sunday at church.
Originally, I was unclear about what this interview was about. Was it an audio or video recording? Would it be shared with her class or just her teacher? Imagine my surprise when Lori took me to a fully functioning studio with three cameras and an editing room!
Behind all of the equipment were other students in her class, operating it. The dozen or so students who were not running cameras, signalling cues or working the editing board, served as the studio audience. Moreover, the video would be played on a local Montgomery County, Maryland cable access station.
Quiet on the set!
One of the students showed me how to put the mike on, and another, from behind the glass of the editing room started the countdown on his fingers. My brow was starting to sweat. Was I nervous, or was it just the hot lights bearing down on us? Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
