Horse Slaughterhouse Proposed in New Mexico

This article reaffirms my belief that it's more humane to slaughter horses in the US than to ship them for slaughter to Canada or Mexico. I don't like it either way, but one is better than the other for sure.

Mad Cow Disease Appears in California

Potentially bad news for California Agriculture. Read the full story here at the LA Times.

The reemergence of mad cow disease, discovered in a California dairy cow, could have major implications for the state’s meat industry, even though officials have said that the human food supply is unaffected. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy hasn’t been found in U.S. since 2006 and was discovered in only three instances before then. But the disease has dealt a crippling blow to the industry in the past, especially when foreign countries refused to import American beef when mad cow was first uncovered in 2003. The U.S. Department of Agriculturetests about 40,000 cows a year in its effort to catch the disease. In California, private and public ranching takes up about 38 million acres, according to the California Cattlemen’s Assn. There are about 620,000 beef cows on 11,800 California ranches. The state also hosts 1.84 million dairy cows, according to information compiled by the California Beef Council. The sale of cattle and calves was a $1.82-billion industry in California 2008 and fifth among the state’s top 20 commodities. Beef cattle are raised in nearly every California county. Nationally, California ranks behind Texas, Kansas and Nebraska in total cattle numbers.

Is Meat Now "Pink Slime?"

We actually watched a report about this on Stephen Colbert's show of all places. It was nauseating and I don't even eat meat. Blech.

If you eat meat, read this article from the Huffington Post.

Graphic Photo of Protest in Spain

It's a pretty powerful image.

Halal Slaughter Causing a Furor In Quebec

Quebec is not known for its animal welfare concerns or laws. I think the issue stems from this being an Islamic practice and the fear of contaminated meat, not concern for the animals.

From JTA, the Global News Service of the Jewish People....

Two political parties in Quebec are speaking out about the ritual slaughter of animals, but a Jewish advocacy group is confident that kashrut is not being targeted.

The opposition Parti Québécois and the Coalition For Quebec's Future declared their concerns about halal meat, which comes from animals that are slaughtered according to Islamic law.

A Parti Québécois legislator said Wednesday that slaughter for halal meat is an affront to animal rights and runs counter to the values cherished by Quebecers. The pro-independence party said it was worried that mainstream companies are selling halal meat without labeling to unsuspecting consumers. It wants to know how many companies are involved in producing halal meat and the number of animals are being slaughtered annually under Islamic ritual.

"This type of slaughter slams directly against Québécois values," the Parti Québécois said in a statement.

Amazon Sells Whale Bacon?

Ewwwww......
And it is, of course, on Amazon's Japan website.

Alleged Abuse at Butterball Turkey Farm

Once again, the wonderful Mercy for Animals provides footage of possible abuse of turkeys at a Butterball farm in North Carolina.

The full story is at CNN.

Undercover Video Sparks Calls for Canadian Ban on Horse Meat

Excerpted from CTV.CA....

Animal rights groups are calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat after disturbing video at a slaughterhouse in west Quebec was sent to the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition.

The footage was shot with a hidden camera inside Les Viandes de la Petite Nation near Montebello. It shows a parade of horses being stunned with what's called a captive bolt pistol.

At one point, a worker can be seen stunning a horse and waving goodbye. Under Canadian laws, one shot is supposed to render the horse unconscious but it often doesn't happen. Captured on video, is one horse being stunned 11 times.

"What we do here is legal and supervised by the Canadian government," said the company's general manager.

The video was sent by a source inside the slaughterhouse. For the coalition, it was added evidence there needs to be a ban on horse meat for more than just health reasons. They call the process unethical.

Time.com Article on the Morals of Eating Meat

Gene Bauer from Farm Sanctuary appears in this article. Pretty intense, but I hope people read it. There is a disturbing hedonism to eating. I went to a restaurant for a work lunch and everyone ate meat but me, even the animal lovers. We just don't think about where that flesh came from....and most of us don't care.

More Humane Method of Killing Chickens?

I realize that the most humane method of treating chickens is to not kill them for food...BUT, as long as there is still a demand for their meat, PETA is advocating "Controlled-Atmosphere Killing" as an improvement over current methods of electric immobilization.

Per PETA...

Controlled-atmosphere killing is a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-approved slaughter method that is currently used to kill 75 percent of turkeys and 25 percent of chickens in the United Kingdom and 10 percent of all birds in the European Union. CAK removes oxygen from the birds' atmosphere while they are still in their transport crates. The birds are not "gassed" (i.e., asphyxiated); they die from lack of oxygen, or anoxia, which is a painless process. CAK eliminates the numerous animal welfare, economic, and worker-safety issues associated with electric immobilization:

* With CAK, birds are dead before they are removed from their crates, shackled, bled, and scalded in defeathering tanks. Accordingly, these stages do not hurt the birds, damage or contaminate their carcasses, or pose a risk of injury to workers.
* With CAK, workers never handle live birds, so there are no chances for abuse. Worker ergonomics and safety are vastly improved. Lights can be kept bright, the air stays clean, and workers do not need to struggle with flapping, scratching, defecating, and vomiting birds.

Ezra Klein Discusses Meals Without Meat

I know some people won't read this piece simply because Ezra Klein is not vegan or even vegetarian, but I think he makes some excellent points. A lot of the meat-based meals in restaurants are due to chefs schooled in the French tradition. And, as one chef put it, cooks use meat to "express themselves."

Well, I think this article makes some good points. It's not about cooking "vegetarian," but cooking food you like that doesn't have meat. Other cultures don't have such a problem because meatless dishes are simply more prevalent.

Anyway, I appreciated his views.

New Horse Slaughter Rules to Appear in Canada

The Animal Welfare Institute thinks these new rules could be a blow to the horse slaughter industry, but only if actually implemented.

Eating Cats and Dogs Could Become Illegal in China

The legislation is only being drafted right now and there's a long way to go I suspect before such laws would pass. You can already read the excuses being cited in this article.

Meat Grown in a Petri Dish?

From an opinion piece in the Times of India....

Scientists at Eindhoven University in the Netherlands have grown in-vitro meat, using cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish. They haven't been able to actually taste
the pork they've grown because of lab rules. Nevertheless there's potential here for two giant breakthroughs. It could mean not only an end to killing animals for food, but also significantly aid the fight against climate change.

This would be great. But what is this drive to eat the flesh of a living creature? Why this stubborn disconnect from the fact that we are eating corpses? Why is that my husband won't eat bones with fat on them because they are "gross," but will eat burgers and processed meat? They come from the same source right? Or is it because one is so much cleaner and antiseptic than the other? You can forget who you are eating when it's processed so cleanly.

So many people I know get really guilty when they hear about conditions at factory farms, but then just keep eating the same things. Da da da da! It's like...hello?!

Worst Opinion Piece from Thanksgiving

I was reading this nasty, mean-spirited "opinion piece" in the Detroit News and thinking, "Wow, what asshole is this guy?" Then I found out it's a representative from the Center for Consumer Freedom, a "a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies and consumers to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices."

Enough said.

Pork Industry Tries to Deal with Public Image

Every time I get depressed about animal issues (every other day it seems like), I see an article like this. Now, it may see like it would add to more depression, but it actually makes me feel a little better.

It's an article about the pork industry having to address the increasingly positive media image of pigs as intelligent creatures that could be someone's pet. The fact that this discussion warrants an article in the Des Moines Register means that there is some movement on this front and and it causes the pork industry concern.

On Wednesday, I almost lost my temper with some people in our customer service unit who wondered why anyone would want a turkey to have a good life before death...."it's just a turkey." And, of course, this view of farm animals is the norm. But small cracks like those hinted at in this article give me tiny room for an almost imperceptible pause.

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.

Why Top Chef Makes Me So Mad

I'm just watching the fourth or fifth episode of the latest season of Top Chef. It just irritates the hell out of me.

First of all, it highlights the deficiencies of today's chefs' training. Throughout the entire show, the judges and contestants always refer to their meats as the "protein." It's as though there is no other protein around. That's not true. Vegetarians and vegans know that you get protein from vegetables. Protein is not dependent on meat at all. That is total misinformation. Is that all these people can cook?

I've seen two chefs wear stupid meat-inspired shirts. Last season, one idiot (who actually won the season) wore a stupid shirt saying "Bacon is a vegetable." Another one from this season was wearing a diagram of a cow with all its "cuts" outlined.

Today's vile episode is one featuring French cooking. I have yet to see an episode featuring vegetarian cooking. Vegetarians are far more predominant than people who go to snooty French restaurants. And frankly, I'm not sure these chefs have the training to do anything that doesn't involve a baby animal.

Today, I've seen an elimination challenge involving snails and foie gras. The main challenge involves frog legs, rabbits, live lobsters (still moving) and other animals.

What the eff? I am so unimpressed by this pathetic bunch. And this frigging show. Add cooking schools to the list of animal exploitation promoters, along with medical schools.

UPDATE

On Top Chef Masters Season 1, a show in which famous chefs compete against each other for charity, there was a vegan episode.

Now I'm Really Annoyed

Here's a site for kids to program them to become "the next generation of laboratory animal science professionals." It's sponsored by (surprise!) the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science Foundation. Experimenting on animals is fun and it helps everyone...even animals! Weeeeeeee! Also, it's a great way to get girls interested in science!

And where did I find this lovely site? There was a link from Drovers, America's Beef Business Source. Here's how they describe it.

The AALAS Foundation has teamed up with the Whyville Web site to launch the Community Animal Research Environment (CARE), a series of educational games in a virtual laboratory. This virtual reality public outreach project, is designed to teach teens and pre-teens how animals help scientists in research - and how research, in turn, benefits animals. At CARE, Whyville citizens create habitats for animals, take on the role of an animal caregiver and discover how animal research generated cures and treatments for ailments impacting humans and animals.

Talk about an unholy alliance...beef and medical research.

Update on National Meat Association vs. Brown

Did anyone know this was going on?

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently heard arguments in National Meat Association v. Brown, a case in which the meat industry is attempting to invalidate a California law designed to reduce animal suffering and protect public safety.

At issue is Section 599f of the California Penal Code, which, among other things, prohibits slaughterhouses from purchasing, receiving, selling, dragging, or pushing non-ambulatory animals, also known as “downers,” and requires immediate euthanasia of such animals. The industry sued California, arguing that Section 599f is preempted by the Federal Meat Inspection Act. A coalition of animal protection groups consisting of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Farm Sanctuary, and the Humane Farming Association (HFA), intervened in the case to ensure that the interests of animals and the public were represented.