Farm Animals
"You Don't Know What You're Talking About; You've Never Worked on a Farm"
Published September 04, 2009 @ 06:38AM PT
Photo, taken at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, by Deb Durant of Invisible Voices
In a recent comment thread here at Change.org, site member and animal advocate Gary Loewenthal responded to a version of the sentiment expressed in the title of this post, some varieties of which argue that animal advocates are all urbanites with not a clue about rural farming culture or that animal advocates really know nothing about farmed animals in general or that they have no concept of what really goes on in animal ag. With permission, I share Gary's thoughtful response to some aspects of this argument below.
But before I do, I will also say (as I have before, I know) that this kind of dismissal from proponents and defenders of animal ag also ignores that some of the animal rights movement's most compelling and passionate advocates are and have been former farmers (small- and large-scale alike), former hunters, former slaughterhouse workers; many others of us are originally from farming communities or families. The undercover investigators who see, time and time again, what "really" happens on farms would also disagree that they don't know what they're talking about. And then, finally, there are these excellent points from Gary (who is too humble about his knowledge of animal issues; I am consistently impressed by his knowledge and ability to articulate it thoughtfully):
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Many animal advocates, such as me, volunteer at farmed animal sanctuaries. At those wonderful places (which I recommend everyone visit), I submit that we are able to see animals in ways that farmers virtually never experience.
A) We never look at the animals in terms of what they can produce, or as disposable business assets. I think that way of looking at individuals blocks your ability to truly appreciate their uniqueness, their moods, and their nuances. We see the sanctuary animals as unique individuals, sometimes as friends, and to varying degrees we sense and share in their joy and sadness.
The Undercover Hatchery Investigation--Not Just for "Factory Farms"
Published September 02, 2009 @ 02:25PM PT
Mercy for Animals' undercover investigation into what happens at hatcheries for the egg industry, about which I told you yesterday, has been getting lots of attention, via mainstream news and blogs and animal rights blogs alike. But one terribly frustrating aspect of reading some of the mainstream blog coverage and comments has been these repeated themes: "Well, this is another reason not to buy industrial eggs"; "I buy free-range, so I'm proud to say I'm not a part of this"; "If you buy local, this doesn't happen."
Not true. Many seem to be missing the point that hatcheries supply free-range operations, "local" egg producers, feed stores, and backyard hobbyists with their hens too; hens exploited for eggs, no matter where you're buying the eggs, come almost entirely from hatcheries that do exactly what the video shows.
This is not a factory farming problem. This is an animal agriculture, eating-of-eggs problem, even if you're buying "free-range."
Undercover Egg Industry Investigation Shows Chicks Ground Up Alive
Published September 01, 2009 @ 07:18AM PT
Edit: See also this follow-up post: "The Undercover Hatchery Investigation--Not Just for Factory Farms."
Numerous posts have appeared on this blog in the last year describing and showing the standard cruelties inherent to all egg production (whether battery or free-range), from the gruesome killing of 250 million malechicks each year at U.S. hatcheries to the ultimate slaughter of all egg-laying hens.
Today, you can see clearly for yourself what happens at the hatcheries, how and where large egg farms and backyard operations alike get the female chicks they will use as egg-laying hens -- and what happens to the other half of the hatched chicks, who are unfortunate enough to be male and of no economic value to the industry (because they have not been bred to grow fast enough for the flesh industry). Mercy for Animals has just released the following video obtained during an undercover investigation at the world's largest hatchery for egg-laying operations: "Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the shocking reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world's largest egg-laying breed hatchery."
Please watch. And please remember -- this is not an investigation revealing unusual cruelties. These are the standard, accepted, long-known-about, and defended practices across the egg industry. Read and see more from the undercover investigation on MFA's site dedicated to it. Now is the time to kick the egg habit.
Image and video courtesy of Mercy for Animals
Decompressing Sheep and Starving Monkeys: Animal Labs in Madison
Published September 01, 2009 @ 05:26AM PT
Oh, Madison. Madison, Wisconsin, is a place I very much like, but forever adding to the complexity of my feelings about the small city (which, on a personal level, is also home to long-ago tangled family history) is how often I see un-animal-friendly news coming out of this otherwise progressive section of Wisconsin, largely as a result of one cruel institution: animal research -- specifically, in most cases, the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center.
In July, in "Do They Look Like They're 'Enjoying' Life to You?" for example, I wrote briefly about a horrid decades-long study involving the starvation and isolation of rhesus macaques. (And as Madison's active animal rights organization Alliance for Animals points out, non-animal advocates in the area have reacted with discomfort to the unnecessary study as well, including, briefly, the editorial board of a local news station.)
This time, though, the news of cruelty isn't coming out of the primate labs, but rather arises from the University of Wisconsin's apparent longtime habit of using -- and killing -- sheep in decompression experiments. Alliance for Animals shares these extracts from the university's 2008 report on the experiments:
Whales and Wool: Celebrating Some Animals at the Expense of Others
Published August 27, 2009 @ 06:58AM PT
Whales fall into the category of animals whom almost everyone professes to love--they're beautiful, they're inspiring, they're grand, we say. And we are right to admire, respect, and want to save whales, but when we exploit and harm one set of animals to call attention to our harm to another set, I call irony. The players this time? Whales, sheep, and art.
And a Precious Few Find Sanctuary, Joy, Friendship, and Love
Published August 25, 2009 @ 03:27PM PT
Photo of Hannah the goat by Deb Durant of Invisible Voices
I need some good news. I can't bring myself to write about any of the less-than-pleasant things rumbling around in my head. So I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to ask you to read two stories elsewhere (or actually, multiple stories, but at two different blogs). I'm going to ask you to celebrate with me a few of the oh-so-rare victories--lives saved, second chances given, our fellow animals provided a chance to experience joy, peace, love, and friendship, after pain and suffering they did nothing to deserve, just as they didn't deserve the slaughter for which they were slated, the same suffering and slaughter that the millions who were slaughtered today didn't deserve either.
First, a story about Patty and Susie from "A Lesson on Friendship" from Animal Place Sanctuary (I included this in the last roundup, but I want to make sure you read it):
Will Eating Less Meat Help Stop Climate Change? YES.
Published August 25, 2009 @ 05:50AM PT
Note: Michael submitted this post in response to a recent post and discussion at the Stop Global Warming blog. As I've noted on this blog before, global warming/climate change is an animal rights issue. Animal advocates oppose animal agriculture for ethical reasons, but it is also a major contributor to greenhouse gases, deforestation, habitat loss, pollution, and more--all of which endangers, harms, and kills even more animals. Free-living animals (aka wildlife) are, and will continue, dying off at alarming rates because of climate change and other environmental problems to which animal ag contributes significantly. Killing animals is killing more animals. Finally, I find Michael's arguments (including his numbers) compelling and am glad to present them here. -S. Ernst
Between the deliberate misinformation spread by folks like David Martosko of the Center for Consumer Freedom and the well-intentioned but incorrect claims made by some environmentalists, there is a lot of confusion about something that, frankly, there is no valid debate about.
The worst effects of global warming will not be effectively prevented without a significant reduction in animal product consumption. Period.
I will counter the two most common arguments I hear about this, and I hope the numbers and statistics are not overwhelming. If you are unfamiliar with the concepts of greenhouse gases, climate change, and CO2/CO2 equivalent, please read the Wikipedia article on global warming.
