New Book on Ethics of Meat-Eating

Sounds pretty powerful. I'm trying to come up with a book for my book club about animal rights. What do I choose? All of them are meat eaters, two because their "doctors" told them they had to eat meat. One is a huge supporter of animal research. I don't want anything too radical and was thinking about Dominion by Matthew Scully. But now we have "Eating Animals,"by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Farm Animal Welfare Fight Heats Up in Ohio

Issue 2 in Ohio would create 13-member state board to oversee the care of farm animals in the State. The Humane Society and other groups oppose it as a power grab by big agriculture to prevent another Proposition 2 (the initiative passed last year in California to improve standards for farm animal care.) And, of course, this board would be dominated by big ag's people, so I think they're right. There may also be unintended consequences. Would such a bill lead to jurisdiction over puppy mill breeders as well?

It's an issue to follow though. If it passes, it will encourage other states' ag industries to go on the offensive to protect their "raw materials."

Groups Urge FDA Ban on Feeding Chicken Feces to Cows....Wait, WHAT???

Well, you learn something new every day...

A coalition of food and consumer groups that includes Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice. McDonald's Corp., the nation's largest restaurant user of beef, also wants the FDA to prohibit the feeding of so-called poultry litter to cattle.

Yeesh. Happy Halloween!

Elizabeth Kucinich and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Cool! She's the new Director of Public Affairs and she's already started lobbying for the Great Ape Protection Act, which would phase out invasive medical research on chimpanzees. (For you international readers, she's Dennis Kucinich's wife. He's a US Congressman who has run for President twice.)

Tiger Dies from Poaching Injuries in Malaysia

Sad. Another tiger lost.

Animal Researchers Use Billboards to Promote Themselves

The "brave" animal researchers are taking their argument to the public and bypassing animal right activists.

Here's an example...a billboard funded by the Foundation for Biomedical Research.

"Ever had leprosy. Thanks to animal research, you won't."

I for one welcome them coming out of the woodwork and forcing animal research into the public forum. Let's discuss the research. Let's talk about what they do, and why, and how. Let's talk about the redundancy, the waste, the pain. Let's see the pictures. If we can't outlaw the practice, perhaps researchers will become more transparent. Then we can finally stop the horrific abuses that they perpetrate within their windowless ivory towers.

Quote of the Week

OUCH!

Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

---Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

Tigers To Go Extinct in 15 Years? Thanks China!

It's not only China, but all Asian countries that are playing a major role in reducing this beautiful animal's number. As this article points out, tigers are worth more dead than alive if you use humanity's flawed accounting system.

Mean Lady Hates Pet Bereavement Groups

Here's a random story.

I was standing near the information desk at the library for no particular reason when a pear-shaped woman in her fifties with frizzy perm-damaged hair stopped by. Apparently there was an announcement at the desk for a pet bereavement group.

She shook her head and said to the librarian at the desk, "Well, is there anything they won't do? A pet bereavement group. What a waste. Now I've seen everything."

I was pretty shocked and just stared at her.

The librarian responded "Well, some people really need it. I just lost my five-year-old dog and it was very hard."

The woman responded (I think a little embarrassed by now by what the librarian said and the fact that I was kind of staring at her), "Well, we had a cat once and it was so sick and the best thing we could do was put her down. It really was for the best."

The librarian said, "Uh huh."

The woman walked right past me and I just stared at her. I was THIS CLOSE to saying something really nasty. But instead, I went to the librarian and said, "I just want to counter what that woman said. I think pet bereavement groups are really important and I think that's a horrible thing to say. I don't want you to think that everyone feels that way."

The librarian was totally cool and talked about how devastated she was when her dog died, who was only five years old and her baby.

That incident has stuck with me because I thought it was so mean-spirited and I really regret not saying something. No one has any right to criticize a person's grief. People grieve for all kinds of things that mean something to them. I also suspect that this woman would not have the same criticism of people who grieve for an inanimate object like a lost wedding ring or other keepsake. She seemed to have an issue with animals.

Nasty woman.

Bugs!

Here are some seriously cool up close pictures of bugs. H/t to Andrew Sullivan.

New Pocast Up

You can listen in the sidebar there, or better yet look for Critter World News on Itunes.

UC Davis Named in Criminal Complaint for Mistreatment of Lab Animals

From the Los Angeles Chronicle...

The University of California, Davis is the focus of a major federal complaint charging it and two other nationally known university research centers have killed dozens of primates through traumatic injuries, veterinary negligence and other violations. The others are the University of Michigan and University of Louisiana/New Iberia.

A protest will be held today at the UCD Quad (1 Shields Ave.), sponsored by SAEN {Stop Animal Exploitation Now}, an Ohio-based animal research watchdog group.

SAEN said UC Davis is responsible for the deaths of at least 14 monkeys over an 11-month period from June of 2008 to April of this year, and that the deaths violated federal law. The primate center at UC Davis has been cited several times after monkeys were killed in preventable lab mishaps.

Farmed Fish Are No Easy Solution

Many believe that the solution to our wild fish problems is to promote farmed alternatives. But, as with any kind of mass production, this is filled with all kinds of risks.

Here's an article spotlighting farmed fishing in Chile.

It's really damned if you do and damned if you don't. Eat wild runs and cause their extinction. Eat farmed fish and create other environmental perils.

Best not to eat either.

Bo Celebrated Birthday with Veal

Ugh. Bo Obama celebrated his birthday with a doghouse cake made out of veal. When I was still a meat-eater, the two foods I would not touch were veal and lamb. Veal is especially cruel, even for factory farming, although now I think foie gras is a strong competitor.

Certainly disappointed in the Obamas for such a poor choice of "cake."

Boo!

Two Examples of Mice Experiments - Valid or Not?

I came across these stories about two different medical experiments using mice.

In this experiment, scientists tested whether lighting can cause depression. They used different lighting situations to see how they affect mice moods. One of the conclusions? That children who watch television late at night could be “more likely to develop depression."

I'm not convinced that I as a taxpayer would approve funding of this project. Aren't there better things to research? You would need to be watching television late at night regularly in order for the lighting to have an impact. Children shouldn't be regularly watching television late at night for many reasons other than depression. Like they should be sleeping! Are parents who are not paying attention to their kids suddenly going to send them to bed because they might get depressed? Plus, are mice comparable to kids (although I would prefer mice subjects to primates who are so much more sensitive)?

Whether intentionally or not, the title of the article catches the frivolity of the research...."Don't let your mouse watch TV."

Please.

Here's another experiment using mice to determine whether stress and chemicals in plastic is leading to messed up male genitals and, therefore, infertility. The mice are exposed to certain chemicals to see the impacts. But see the qualifications in the article....

....The animal research has offered one explanation for the rising number of babies born with these conditions. However, it involved exposing rats to chemicals at levels that humans are usually not exposed to. This means the conclusions should be treated with caution.

....As this study was mainly about the effect of high doses of a chemical called phthalates on the number of rats born with undescended testicles, it is premature to report that stress has a part to play in reducing fertility in men.

So, why put the animals through this if it's not even a reflective experiment. Sounds like they did it because they could and who cares if you destroy a few carcasses for the hell of it.