Farm Animals
Real Animal Lovers Don't Support Murder of Animals
Published September 16, 2009 @ 06:36AM PT
A site for online vet-tech schools Monday released a list of the "top 50 blogs for animal lovers."
As one might expect, the list featured two blogs from The Humane Society of the United States and one from the ASPCA.
Surprisingly, though, the compilation also consisted of animal-rights blogs, including this one -- Congratulations, Stephanie! -- and a category devoted to vegan blogs.
But curiously sites that support the murder of animals also made the list of "blogs for animal lovers." One is a blog devoted to agricultural law. The others are listed in the "Farm Animals" category.
Another Undercover Look at Eggs: How Much Cruelty in Your Dunkin' Donut?
Published September 15, 2009 @ 01:54PM PT
Last month, I wrote about Compassion Over Killing's "Dunkin' Cruelty" campaign (link best opened in a browser other than IE) aimed at getting the popular chain to remove egg and dairy from its doughnuts, in addition to providing vegan menu options. But despite COK's concerted efforts and the many e-mails, calls, and letters from customers and potential customers of Dunkin' Donuts, the company has all but ignored the campaign and the information provided on the cruelties of dairy and eggs.
They'll have a hard time ignoring this latest aspect of the campaign.
Thinking Critically About Happy Cows
Published September 12, 2009 @ 08:59PM PT
Editor's note: Thanks and apologies both go to Mary for this contribution -- thanks for the thoughtful piece and apologies because she submitted it a month ago, and I forgot that I was sitting on it. -SE
Part of what I do as vegan education is deconstruct articles that address animals, animal rights, animal welfare, vegetarianism and/or veganism. The idea is to examine the language and the assumptions and stories behind the language and to distill the articles down to their essence. Now, what the essence ends up being once the article is unpacked is often different from what the author is likely to have intended. But that’s largely the point. Every written communication has at least one message, and I consider it my job to uncover the one under all of the layers of diction, syntax and culture.
I recently landed in a dream position for someone like me (i.e., interested in the intersection of language, culture and animals): Two people sent the same article to me. One person thought it was a great step in the right direction, and the other wasn’t as impressed.
Let’s deconstruct “This Farm Is Dedicated to Happy Cows, Not Happy Meals,” about the International Society for Cow Protection in West Virginia:
When Some Species Are Special
Published September 10, 2009 @ 02:36PM PT
I was in a pretty sour mood this morning. (What, you noticed?) So I figure it's only appropriate that I also now direct you to this more optimistic response to the ruling on the wolf hunts out west, which focuses more on the hope that the wolves will be returned to the endangered species list.
But I suppose the reason I can't get too excited about this is the same reason my reaction to the news out of Japan didn't carry much relief either. Sure, it's great that people can't indiscriminately kill individual members of endangered species. And it's great that so far the Japanese village spotlighted in The Cove hasn't killed any dolphins this year. But when the only reason not to kill an animal is because of the "endangered" or popular status of his or her species -- when the focus is on the numbers and the species, rather than on the unnecessary killing of animals in general -- we're pretty well stating that it's OK to kill animals in general, as long as they're not special animals.
I don't know how to celebrate that some of those dolphins in Japan weren't killed this week when so many of them were still ripped out of their homes and away from their families to serve as captive entertainment and when so many pilot whales were still casually slaughtered. And I don't know how to get too excited about the possibility of wolves being relisted if being on a list is the best reason we can come up with for not killing them, when we still as a society see nothing morally wrong with gunning down animals in forests, orphaning the young, slitting throats in slaughterhouses, traumatizing and separating families, etc. until or unless those animals are on a special list. An animal whose species isn't endangered doesn't want to die any more than an animal whose species is.
Updates on Wolves, Whales, and Dolphins: The Hunts Go On
Published September 10, 2009 @ 06:31AM PT
In Japan's village of Taiji, the rounding up of dolphins and shipping them to aquariums, to live the rest of their lives in unnatural, miserable captivity, has begun. The killing of pilot whales has begun. Whether and when the killing of dolphins right there in the cove will resume is yet to be seen. Read more here. (See last related post on this blog here.)
The district judge out in Montana who had the power to stop the wolf hunts underway in Idaho and set to begin next week in Montana passed up the chance: He acknowledged that environmental/wildlife groups may be right that the wolves shouldn't have been delisted, but has ruled that the hunts can go on while the painfully slow process of enviro/wildlife groups suing the government over the delisting continues. Read more here. (See last related posts on this blog here and here.)
Oh--and tens of millions of land animals will be killed for food today, 20,000 every minute, just in U.S. slaughterhouses alone, along with the killing of a mind-boggling number of aquatic animals. There's no failed injunction or grand-scale outrage or media frenzy to report on in relation to those equally tragic deaths because people aren't as horrified by the killing of pigs and cows as they are by the killing of dolphins or as disgusted by the terrorizing of chickens as they are by the hunting of wolves, so this isn't exactly news. But while we're noting the day's bad news for animals, it seems wrong to leave out the ones being killed so casually en masse, who are the same as dolphins and wolves in all the ways that matter.
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Photo of dolphin in Texas aquarium by Flickr user See1,Do1,Teach1
1 of Only 3 Wolf Pairs Killed in Oregon -- For Ranchers, For Us
Published September 08, 2009 @ 07:10AM PT
Some may remember a short post from May titled "Worst Case for Wolves -- And How You May Be Playing a Part." It concluded,
But while we're expressing our outrage at the citizens itching to pull the triggers and the politicians who are allowing it, let's not forget, friends--why is everyone so eager to shoot and kill wolves? For the benefit of ranchers -- and by extension, the benefit of those who eat and wear animals and what comes from them. The killing of wildlife, the further endangerment of endangered species, the destruction and pollution of habitat, the eating and wearing of animals (from the flesh of a cow to the wool of a sheep): it is all connected.
It's worth repeating now that the hunting of wolves is happening in Idaho, now that the hunting of wolves in Montana is just days away, and now that we have this news from the Center for Biological Diversity about the killing of a wolf pair in Oregon, courtesy of the USDA's Wildlife Services -- in a state where there were only three wolf pairs to begin with. The crime committed by these two wolves? Trying to survive, by killing the animals we wanted (but don't need) to kill for ourselves. They killed "livestock" three months ago. So they had to be gunned down. Not because they were doing something unnatural or evil, but because we set up shop in their habitat and because we want to kill and eat and wear sheep and lambs and cows.
All. Connected.
Further reading (off-site): The USDA's War on Wildlife
See also "Gov't Employees Kill Mountain Lions for Sport, Gov't Fires Whistleblower," related to the mass killing of wildlife by the government for animal agribusiness.
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Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
When Sweet Is Sad and Adorable Is Ironic
Published September 06, 2009 @ 07:44AM PT
At the Sustainable Food blog last week, substitute blogger Mike posted a photo that instantly made me sad. I assume, of course, that it was intended to be--and that most see it as--adorable. And there are photos out there of cute, chubby-cheeked kids and sweet-faced, beautiful cows that would bring out my "aww" reflex. But this isn't one of them.
