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.
Workers at the Hallmark slaughter plant kicked, shocked, jabbed at the eyes, dragged with chains, and rammed dairy cows too sick or injured to walk with a fork lift in an effort to get them to stand to pass USDA inspections. “Downed” animals are by law not supposed to be added to the food supply. This is because in random USDA testing, 12 of the 15 cows who tested positive for mad cow disease, were downer animals, meaning downed animals far more likely to carry this tragic brain-wasting diesase.
The undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States shows that this Chino, California plant — which supplies meat to schools, and has twice won a USDA “Supplier of the Year” award — was slaughtering downed animals, and jeopardizing the health of children and others, for a few extra bucks.
As a result, 143 million pounds of beef have been recalled, making this the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Much of the potentially-contaminated meat has already been consumed. Skeptics point out that we have not suffered any major food poisoning scares lately, and wonder why all the fuss? What they don’t realize is that the incubation period for mad cow disease in humans can be 10 or more years. That’s how long it can take before this disease, which cannot be killed by cooking, starts to riddle your brain with holes.
If contamination of the food supply and animal abuse happens at this award-winning Hallmark plant — a facility with five federal inspectors and a veterinarian on staff who are there to prevent these things — it is hard to believe that it is not happening elsewhere as well.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the best thing anyone can do to prevent animal abuse and protect their health is to go vegan.
Another video featuring the investigator explaining the abuses he witnessed can be found by clicking the second picture near the bottom of this page. showing more of the abuses at this facility. If you want a humorous video with information on the problem with farming, check out Doreen the Downer.
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.
Many people eat pork, bacon, ham or Spam without much thought. But who are these animals whose flesh we eat, and what are their conditions like on the farm? This essay tries to answer these questions.
Pigs are Amazing Animals
Like dogs, pigs are friendly, intelligent, and loyal. Researchers have found that pigs are as intelligent as a three-year-old human child. They are good at video games, have exceptional memories, and complex social relations.
Pigs are actually very clean animals. If given sufficient space, pigs will be careful not to excrete near where they sleep or eat.
Pigs are also very social animal. Researchers have identified the meaning of approximately 20 different grunts, oinks and squeaks that are used in different situations, from wooing their mates to expressing, “I’m hungry!”
Pigs have saved human and nonhuman animals’ lives. Priscilla the pig rescued a boy from drowning. Snort the pig saved her human family from dying of carbon monoxide poisoning in their trailer. Spammy led firefighters to a burning shed to save her calf friend Spot. And Lulu found help for her human companion who had collapsed from a heart attack.
Just like dogs and cats, pig are feeling beings with intelligence, emotional lives, friends and family, and an interests in enjoying life and not being harmed.
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 »
“Eating meat… with mindfulness, we will realize that we are eating the flesh of our own children.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
In a recent letter by Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh (who often goes by Thây) speaks to many pressing social justice issues: human rights and democracy in Burma, global warming, the war in Iraq, and the benefits of a vegetarian diet.
He recounts a poignant story told by the Buddha in the Son’s Flesh Sutra and applies it to our relationship with food. Here it is as told by Thây:
This couple, with their little child, on their way seeking asylum had to cross the desert. Due to a lack of geographical knowledge, they ran out of food, while they were only half way through the desert. They realized that all three of them would die in the desert, and they had no hope to get to the country on the other end of the desert to seek asylum. Finally, they made the decision to kill their little son. Each day they ate a small morsel of his flesh, in order to have enough energy to move on, and they carried the rest of their son’s flesh on their shoulders, so that it could continue to dry in the sun. Each time when they finished eating a morsel of their son’s flesh, the couple looked at each other and asked: “Where is our beloved child now?”
Having told this tragic story, the Buddha looked at the monks and asked: “Do you think that this couple was happy to eat their son’s flesh?”
“No, World Honored One. The couple suffered when they had to eat their son’s flesh,” the monks answered.
The Buddha taught: “Dear friends, we have to practice eating in such a way that we can retain compassion in our hearts. We have to eat in mindfulness. If not, we may be eating the flesh of our own children.”
UNESCO reported that each day about 40,000 children die because of hunger or lack of nutrition. Meanwhile, corn and wheat are largely grown to feed livestock (cows, pigs, chickens, etc.) or to produce alcohol. Over 80 percent of corn and over 95 percent of oats produced in the United States are for feeding livestock. The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equivalent to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, more than the entire human population on earth.
Eating meat and drinking alcohol with mindfulness, we will realize that we are eating the flesh of our own children.
He then goes on to outline the full extent of the environmental problems of consuming animals, advocating that all people become vegan or eat vegan 15 days out of the month. Read Thich Nhat Hanh’s full letter.
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.
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.
