One, two, many Chilliwacks: What happens when the outrage subsides?

The abuse of cows at Chilliwack Cattle Sales in British Columbia in May 2014.

Once again, an undercover investigator has captured some deeply disturbing footage on video. The public's reaction has been one of shock and outrage, which is good. But one wonders whether the most important lessons here have been overlooked.

The town of Chilliwack in British Columbia is the location of the largest dairy farm in Canada, Chilliwack Cattle Sales, home to some 3,500 animals. In the month of May, an activist with Mercy for Animals - who took a job at the dairy plant for the purpose of surreptitiously shooting videos inside of the facility - captured some unbelievably nightmarish scenes inside of the plant.

Lorie Chortyk of B.C.'s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) described the terrible conditions:

This wasn't pushing cows along. These are animals who are trapped being kicked in the face, being viciously beaten by people laughing. There is nothing in this behaviour that would have been part of a normal farm operation. (source)

Not surprisingly, once the video was released, it went viral, and Chilliwack Cattle Sales is now facing a public relations nightmare. Alas, now the blame game has predictably begun.

The Kooyman family, owners of Chilliwack Cattle Sales, claim they were shocked by the video, that it completely caught them off guard, and that they never suspected - or were ever aware - that such abuse was running rampant in the plant. The company works closely with a massive dairy producer in Canada, Saputo, and to quell the rising tide of anger, eight employees involved in the abuse have been fired. There is now some talk of criminal charges of animal abuse being filed against them.

The company hired a P.R. firm to handle the media exposure. Reporters have been given a tour of a clean facility, told that video cameras (CCTV) will be installed, and that the public will have access to the CCTV footage. The company and the BC Dairy Association have assured the public that there is a zero tolerance policy regarding abuse. Mercy for Animals has called for radically improved treatment for the cows, including an end to the beatings and proper care and transportation for animals that are sick, injured or downed.

For their part, the eight fired employees insisted that the Kooyman family knew of these abuses. "I wouldn't say they should be completely shocked," insisted ex-employee Jamie Visser. "They knew about 80 percent of what was going on." (source)

Who knows what the Kooymans knew and when they knew it? What is clear is that these kinds of abuses are rampant on dairy farms across North America. It is important to remember that Mercy For Animals never targeted this particular company. As MFA's Anna Pippus notes: "Every time we've gone undercover at random facilities we've documented animal cruelty that has shocked and horrified the Canadian public. This isn't a coincidence." (source)

It is encouraging to see how extensively this case has been covered by the media, and I have no doubt that the many dairy producers and promoters who have expressed outrage over this footage have been sincere in their concern.

But what happens when the outrage subsides?  Believe me, in a few days, it will (if it hasn't already). Then what? Well, you can bet they'll be more more careful about monitoring employees at Chilliwack Cattle Sales. Meantime, the wonderful folks at MFA will undoubtedly uncover more abuses at other facilities, because this sort of terrible treatment has become par for the course at so many places that produce animal-based products of any kind.

The ultimate tragedy of it all - and the real takeaway here - is that even if the worst abuses are eliminated (and it's hard to say whether this will happen, as this isn't the first time Chilliwack Cattle Sales has come into scrutiny for questionable practices), fundamentally the story will not change for the poor cows.

The same malevolent and deadly system will continue. Human beings will go right on drinking milk or consuming milk-based products for which they have no nutritional need. Mother cows will still be forced to give birth to keep producing milk and their offspring will meet the same grim fate or be turned into veal or beef. And once the cows cannot produce milk anymore, they will be violently disposed of. The milk that cows produce should feed their offspring, and their offspring only. Instead, they're offspring are being carted off and sliced up, ground up, milked or otherwise somehow exploited until death.

If you think about it, it's a violent, insane and profoundly unhealthy way of existing. But that is how we do things, because that is how things have been done for generations. And as long as profits are being made, and jobs are being provided, people accept the insanity. But ask yourself: What does it do to our humanity to avert our eyes, to ignore the suffering of our fellow sentient beings?

Make no mistake: There will be many, many more Chilliwack Cattle Sales. This isn't the first, it won't be the last. In April, Mercy for Animals captured even worse abuse on film at the huge veal-production complex at Pont-Rouge outside of Quebec City. As CTV reported: "Baby calves, just weeks old, are kicked, punched, slapped and yelled at by barn employees. Some are grabbed by the testicles to force them into narrow wooden stalls. Several lie gasping for air on slats stained with urine and feces."

In another month, Chilliwack will be forgotten by most people, just like Pont-Rouge is now largely forgotten. Cows will continue to suffer. Some will be abused - hit, kicked, punched, knocked by metal rods and wooden clubs. Others may die in farm fires, which are all too common these days. Most will probably live their lives without being abused to the same extent as the poor cows at Chilliwack.

BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE: Whether they are abused or not, they'll all meet the same fate. Maybe that's why this kind of abuse is so rampant, so widespread. At some level, these young men - boys, really - know deep down inside what tragic fate all of these poor beings will ultimately meet. Hitting and punching and abusing the cows creates a disconnect. It hardens these workers. It makes them more callous. Though one can never condone such awful behaviour - in fact, one should always condemn it in no uncertain terms - it does represent a form of alienation that seems to be a predictable and, in some sick sort of way, logical outcome of a system that is ultimately based on the wholesale and wanton destruction of life itself.

I WAS A TEST TUBE HAMBURGER!!!

For the record: I'm thrilled to hear about the new Stem Cell/Petri Dish "Frankenburgers." If there's a chance these uber-costly hamburgers might one day plummet in price and take the place of millions and millions slaughtered cows, then I say hallelujah! Bring it on!

The unveiling of Frankenburger ("It's alive! It's alive!") this past Monday in London, England, proved to be a world event. It got loads of press from around the world.

The lab-grown delicacy turned out to be a moderate hit. You'd think for $400,000 to produce one of these, it would be the best meal in the history of the human race. Unfortunately, Frankenburger seems to suffer from an "image problem."

Meat eaters still seem to be somewhat grossed out by the idea of eating something grown in a lab (sadly, few have any qualms whatsoever with the mass murder of innocent, sentient beings).

Vegetarians who've weighed in are more of a mixed lot. I've read a few online say they'd eat it, if given the chance.

I have no desire to try one of these things, chiefly because I loathe the idea of having flesh in my mouth. Eating meat - whether it's from a lab or a slaughtered animal - now seems completely unfathomable to me. I can honestly that since I gave up chicken, pork, steak, etc. etc, I haven't looked back.

Still, I wish Frankenburger every success. I support it 100%. It beats the hell out of the alternative. I'm sure the poor, terrified cows facing imminent death in slaughterhouses around the world would prefer to live their lives in freedom and bliss while human beings feast on Frankenburgers.

No animal, after all, wants to die to become a meal for hungry humans.

A Gore-Free Video That Says It All

Please show this to your friends and family who are meat eaters. It is a gore-free video. It shows a cow shedding tears over the horrific fate he is about to experience. I quote from the wonderful Facebook page Animal Rights Activist:

This 34 second footage clearly shows a beautiful, sweet cow shedding tears in the seconds before slaughter. There's no blood or guts in this film so if you eat meat, it's something you can watch. Animals have the same feelings and desires we do. They long for life and love their children. They know love and feel pain, suffering, sadness and terror... just like we do. Reconnect your heart to life and respect for everyone we share this planet with. It just makes no sense to savagely destroy an innocent creature for 20 minutes of taste bud pleasure. We hope you will watch and realize that no amount of personal pleasure is worth taking an innocent life over.

There is no reason to continue this brutality and violence. It is time to end the Dark Ages that animals have been subjected to for so long. The only way possible to bring an end to these tragedies is to go vegan. How many millions - ultimately billions - of cows and pigs and chickens have wept as their lives have been violently taken away from them? This is mass murder on a gargantuan scale. The question is: Are we going to allow it to continue? Or are we going to move on to the next phase of our evolution and insist on treating animals with respect and dignity, and not as commodities?

The decision rests with humanity.

Some videos are so powerful, they need no commentary...

... such as this one. Please watch. Please share. And please do your best to stay away from dairy, for the reasons explained here.

Check it Out: Steve-O Speaks Out Against Factory Farming

Wonderful Steve-O, of Jackass fame (one of my guilty pleasures over the years), narrates a Farm Sanctuary video that looks absolutely extraordinary. It is the story of a pig, cow and chicken who manage to escape the horrors of factory farms. While I haven't seen it yet, I've watched plenty of other Farm Sanctuary videos, and I love the work they do.

In this interview with vegan and animal rights supporter Jane Velez-Mitchell, Steve-O discusses his efforts to humanize the three stars of the film. "Whenever you can even give one of these animals a name, I think you're doing something pretty major," he tells the Velez-Mitchell. "People don't want to think of their meal as a living thing that has a name or a personality or anything like that. By talking about just one pig, you really get through to people in a special way."

Check out this brief interview, if you get a chance. It's short and it's exciting to see such a high-profile figure speaking out for the animals. Go Steve-O!!!

Back from Summer Break With a Powerful Passage

I am back from a summer hiatus, and I especially wanted to post this powerful passage by Timothy Pachirat, author of Every Twelve Seconds, a book about slaughterhouses. It's an extraordinary description of slaughter, worth including here in its entirety.

“I wanted to understand how massive processes of violence become normalized in modern society, and I wanted to do so from the perspective of those who work in the slaughterhouse. I worked as an entry level worker on the kill floor of an industrialized slaughterhouse in order to understand, from the perspective of those who participate directly in them, how these zones of confinement operate.      

My first job was as a liver hanger in the cooler. For ten hours each day, I stood in 34 degrees cold and took freshly eviscerated livers off an overhead line and hung them on carts to be chilled for packing. I was then moved to the chutes, where I drove live cattle into the knocking box where they were shot in the head with a captive bolt gun. Finally, I was promoted to a quality-control position, a job that gave me access to every part of the kill floor and made me an intermediary between the USDA federal meat inspectors and the kill floor managers.      

Each job came with its own set of physical, psychological, and emotional challenges. Although it was physically demanding, my main battle hanging livers in the cooler was with the unbearable monotony. Pranks, jokes, and even physical pain became ways of negotiating that monotony. Working in the chutes took me out of the sterilized environment of the cooler and forced a confrontation with the pain and fear of each individual animal as they were driven up the serpentine line into the knocking box. Working as a quality control worker forced me to master a set of technical and bureaucratic requirements even as it made me complicit in surveillance and disciplining my former coworkers on the line. Although it's been over seven years since I left the kill floor, I am still struck by the continued emotional and psychological impacts that come from direct participation in the routinized taking of life.        

The cattle come into the slaughterhouse caked in feces and vomit. From the moment cattle are unloaded from transport trucks into the slaughterhouse's holding pens, managers and kill floor supervisors refer to them as 'beef.' Although they are living, breathing, sentient beings, they have already linguistically been reduced to inanimate flesh, to use-objects.      

The knocker is the worker who stands at the knocking box and shoots each individual animal in the head with a captive bolt steel gun. Only the knocker both sees the cattle while sentient and delivers the blow that is supposed to render them insensible. On an average day, this lone worker shoots 2,500 individual animals at a rate of one every twelve seconds.    After the knocker shoots the cattle, they fall onto a conveyor belt where they are shackled and hoisted onto an overhead line. Hanging upside down by their hind legs, they travel through a series of ninety degree turns that take them out of the knocker's line of sight. There, a presticker and sticker sever the carotid arteries and jugular veins. The animals then bleed out as they travel further down the overhead chain to the tail ripper, who begins the process of removing their body parts and hides. Of over 800 workers on the kill floor, only four are directly involved in the killing of the cattle and less than 20 have a line of sight to the killing.     

There is a kind of collective mythology built up around this particular worker, a mythology that allows for an implicit moral exchange in which the knocker alone performs the work of killing, while the work of the other 800 slaughterhouse workers is morally unrelated to that killing. It is a fiction, but a convincing one: of all the workers in the slaughterhouse, only the knocker delivers the blow that begins the irreversible process of transforming the live creatures into dead ones. If you listen carefully enough to the hundreds of workers performing the 120 other jobs on the kill floor, this might be the refrain you hear: 'Only the knocker.' It is simple moral math: the kill floor operates with 120+1 jobs. And as long as the 1 exists, as long as there is some plausible narrative that concentrates the heaviest weight of the dirtiest work on this 1, then the other 120 kill floor workers can say, and believe it, 'I'm not going to take part in this.'     

Over 8.5 billion animals are killed for food each year in the United States, but this killing is carried out by a small minority of largely immigrant workers who labor behind opaque walls, most often in rural, isolated locations far from urban centers. Furthermore, laws supported by the meat and livestock industries are currently under consideration in six states that criminalize the publicizing of what happens in slaughterhouses and other animal facilities without the consent of the slaughterhouse owners.”   

- Timothy Pachirat, Assistant Professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research and the author of Every Twelve Seconds 

STOP THE MADNESS. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE GO VEGAN!

A Mother's Day Message: The Truth About Dairy

Remembering the Dead

The wonderful folks with Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals (CETFA) are calling for a roadside memorial in Manitoba at a spot where a semi truck crashed and killed 71 cows in January.

CETFA is asking for a sign to be placed at the crash site that reads: "Careless driving costs lives: In memory of 71 cows." The sign would be similar to the memorials created by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) that are placed near places where people died as a result of impaired drivers.

It occurred to me as I read this article that we don't always take time to stop and remember the animals that have died. I'm not talking about our pets, mind you. Most of us have lost a pet that was very near and dear to our hearts, and we take comfort in the idea of a Rainbow Bridge, where our pets play and frolic with other animals.

No, I mean animals like the 71 cows killed in the semi collision. Or the countless animals who've perished in factory farm fires in Canada and the United States during the past decade. Or the millions - ultimately - billions slaughtered by the Animal Murdering Industries (meet, dairy, leather, fur, etc.).

We vegans and animal rights activists stare down into the abyss confront death every single day. Day in, day out. We're surrounded by it. We stare at those animal death counters where the numbers are climbing at an astonishing rate (you know what I mean - "Animals Killed Since You Visited This Website" - those counters). We watch some of the most horrible videos imaginable. We feel sick inside when we see meat wrapped neatly in shrink wrap and styrofoam.

And those of us who love animals, who pray for animals, who want to see the bloodletting and the violence stop, die a little each time when we see these things.

So it's probably asking a lot to think about remembering and memorializing the animals who've died as a result of human violence, especially factory farm animals, fish and other aquatic lives, and fur-bearing beings. How do you mourn thousands? Millions? Billions?

When I grapple with this issue, I think of all the people who toss around numbers of human beings killed when talking about the past. More than 6 million Jews murdered under Hitler. Twenty million Russians killed in World War II. Millions who perished in gulags, famines and purges under Stalin. It all becomes miles to Pluto.

How do we put a human face on the millions? How do we put an animal face on the billions?

I look at the bottom of my blog page: 59 billion land and sea animals, murdered for Americans alone in 2009 (Source).

How do you mourn each one of those animals? Billions. Do you find one animal that is representative of all of them and mourn him or her? Or maybe a few symbolic animals who met such a grim fate?

Should we be mourning the dead? The dead cows? The dead pigs? The dead sheep? There are moments when I'm walking by the meat section in the store and I want to break down and sob. Death is everywhere. It swallows you whole in the meat and fish section of the supermarket.

Is there not a Rainbow Bridge for these animals, where they can frolic and play and have fun in the sun? A place where there are no factory farms, no fishing boats, no canneries and butcher shops? No one to rip away your baby when he or she is only a day old?

I realize I'm only asking questions, and they aren't questions with easy answers. I do know that those of us who have experienced our epiphanies about animals, who have awakened to the horrors, and who have consciously chosen to no longer participate in the mass murder any longer, are haunted far more deeply than those who haven't opened their eyes, who can't feel the suffering and who have no empathy for animals.

We're surrounded by death on all sides of us. Mourning is part of the process of loss. How do you mourn the violent end of so many precious beings?

Maybe Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals has the right idea. It begins with memorializing those 71 cows who met their tragic fate on that highway in the middle of Manitoba.

On the surface, it may not seem like much. But it's a start.

Food For Thought: Reflections on Double Standards

I love this image.

About ten years ago, I was in Vietnam and I was horrified to see dogs and cats squirming in small cages, barely bigger than their own bodies, a thought that still horrifies me.

When I came back to the United States, these images continued to haunt me in my memories. Those poor animals, in that sweltering heat, cramped together, with hardly any room to move around.

The Vietnamese sold these cats and dogs in open-air markets as pets. Eventually, the animals would be freed and sent to live with people. But seeing them in those cages, in triple-digit, equatorial heat and muggy humidity, nearly broke my heart.

It took me a while - another seven years - to put two and two together and realize that what we do in North America to pigs and chickens and cows is really no different.

We have social taboos about cramming dogs and cats into tight, tiny cages like the ones pictured above, where they hardly have any room to move around. Sadly, we don't have any taboos about dropping them off at shelters and letter other people do our dirty work for us. But there should be a taboo against that.

Nor are there any taboos in our society about cramming livestock into cold, dark spaces, where they'll live short lives of being frightened and disoriented. There should be a taboo against that, too.

Images like this one help bring our double standards into perspective. We should feel an instinctive revulsion about the prospect of imprisoning any animal in a tight space, not meant to be inhabited by a sentient being, as much as we feel that revulsion toward doing the same thing to a human being.

The Vietnamese typically set their animals free from those little cages. Can we say the same about our pigs, chickens and cows?

Just When I'm Starting to Miss Milk Chocolate...

This is a painful video to watch, but we have to see these videos. I watch them over and over, because they remind us of why we fight (that, is what we stand for). This video is about the price that is paid for the milk that goes into Cadbury Chocolate. And I'm not talking about the financial price. I'm talking about the moral price - the prince in pain, in suffering, in death. Cadbury is a very popular brand in England and North America (Canadians love it). Cows spend "virtually their entire lives" in cramped spaces, giving birth to babies that will be murdered instantly, and milk to human beings who do not need it to survive. Thanks to the group Viva in England for bringing these horrible atrocities to our attention. Let us work toward the day when sentient beings are no longer treated so horribly.

Of Cows and Justice

Videos Plucked From YouTube: The Mercy For Animals (MFA) videos depicting extreme cruelty at the E6 Cattle Co. in Hart, Texas, were plucked off the website. The folks at YouTube, it seems, didn't like the extremely shocking nature of the videos. They said that "if a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional educational or documentary context and information." In response to YouTube's decision, the following statement came from MFA Executive Director Nathan Runkle:

MFA strongly agrees that videos of cruelty to animals are shocking and disturbing, but in the context of helping to expose and eliminate animal abuse they are extremely important. Consumers have a right to know how their food is being produced, especially when the production methods are shocking or disturbing, so that they can make informed choices. (Source)

What We Should All Know About Milk: The following primer comes from Robert Grillo, editor of freefromharm.org. It appeared on the website Eat Drink Better, where I found it. It ought to be mandatory reading for omnivores. I hope you find it useful. Take it away, Robert Grillo:

Dairy cows only lactate and produce milk when they become pregnant with calves, so to be considered a productive and economically-viable cow, she must be routinely impregnated, causing greater stress, greater likelihood of illness and premature death.

Newborn calves are separated from their mothers quickly, usually within 1-3 days, since the mother/calf bond intensifies over time and delayed separation can cause even worse emotional distress for the calf and mother.

Calves separated from their mothers are denied their mother’s milk, which is perfectly formulated by nature to provide all the essential nutrients and antibodies the calf needs.

Calves are fed “milk-replacement formulas” often in dried powder form and raised without a mother’s care. Under normal circumstances, mother’s teach their young critical survival skills and develop very deep bonds, much like humans.

Cheesemakers need veal processors. Rennet is a complex of enzymes required to coagulate cheese. Traditionally rennet is extracted from the inner mucosa of the fourth stomach chamber (the abomasum) of young, unweaned calves, the “by-products” of veal production. Many large cheese producers today use a bacterial, genetically-engineered rennet of both plant and animal origin.

Male calves are of little or no value to the dairy farmer. Healthy calves are typically sold at auction for a small price to veal farmers or raised as adult bulls for meat. Weak ones are often killed.

While they are productive and making money for dairy farmers, dairy cows can suffer from a variety of illnesses associated with intensive milk production. Hundreds of pharmaceutical products are available and administered to cows which can end up in their milk and cause adverse side effects.

Cows produce an average of 729 days of milk, which corresponds to 2.4 lactations, before they are considered “spent.”

Cows can live up to 20 years or more; however “spent” dairy cows are typically removed from the dairy herd at age 4-5 when their milk production weans and then marketed for slaughter. In their fragile end-of-production state, handling, transport, and slaughter add to their suffering and distress.

Artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization of dairy cows are common practices today. Embryo transfer is yet another, newer reproductive technology that consists of giving cows hormone treatments to produce multiple embryos. These embryos are then removed from the donor cows and transferred into other surrogate cows. This results in 3 to 6 calves instead of just one. These procedures are often invasive, causing physical pain and emotional distress.

Cows are social, complex animals with the ability to nurture friendships, anticipate the future, and experience pain, fear, and anxiety.

Grillo also included the following information in his article under the heading "Some Key Human Health and Milk Facts."

• Humans are the only mammals that drink milk, the secretions of the mammary glands, of another animal, though most of the world’s population does NOT drink milk or consume dairy products. While chronic diseases remain almost nonexistent in populations that consume little or no meat and dairy, affluent populations commonly have rates of chronic diseases to the extent they consume them.
• [The western diet rich in meat, dairy and eggs] “…is associated with a multitude of disease conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arterial hypertension and cancer. Malignancies typical for affluent societies are cancers of the breast, colon/rectum, uterus (endometrial carcinoma), gallbladder, kidney and adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus.” —The World Health Organization
• In the most comprehensive study of human nutrition ever conducted, “What protein consistently and strongly promoted cancer? Casein, which makes up 87% of cow’s milk protein, promoted all stages of the cancer process. What type of protein did not promote cancer, even at high levels of intake? The safe proteins were from plants, including wheat and soy. As this picture came into view, it began to challenge and then to shatter some of my most cherished assumptions.” — Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study
• “The increase in cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and asthmathat has occurred in the Western world over the past century directly correlates with the increase in dairy consumption.” —Dr. Adam Meade
• “…milk products may contain contaminants such as pesticides,which have carcinogenic potential, and growth factors such as insulin-like growth factor I, which have been shown to promote breast cancer cell growth.” —The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
• “Humans now carry dioxin levels in their bodies hundreds of times greater than the “acceptable” cancer risk as defined by the EPA, and 95 percent of that results from eating red meat, fish and dairy products.” —The Diet-Cancer Conncection
• “Any lactating mammal excretes toxins through her milk. This includes antibiotics, pesticides, chemicals and hormones. … the USDA allows milk to contain from one to one and a half million white blood cells per millilitre. … another way to describe white cells where they don’t belong would be to call them pus cells.” — Robert M. Kradjian, MD, Breast Surgery Chief Division of General Surgery, Seton Medical Centre
• 1 lb. of cheese requires 10 lbs. of milk. 1 lb. of ice cream requires 12 lbs. of milk. 1 lb. of butter requires 21 lbs. of milk.¹ So it’s easy to see how the contaminants in milk become highly concentrated in other dairy products. — ¹Dairy MAX, The National Dairy Council

And Finally, While We're Talking About Cows: Please, please, please read Tricia Orr's haunting poem about a beautiful cow named Billie who met a tragic fate. The poem, titled "Good 'Til The Last Drop," appeared on the website On Nonhuman Slavery, and it includes a short introductory statement by Orr that sets the context for the poem. The poem is devastating, absolutely devastating. It makes me ashamed to be part of the human race, a feeling I've felt an awful lot since opening my eyes and awakening from my ignorance about the treatment of animals.

Another Powerful Must-See Video

Actor James Cromwell (The Queen, L.A. Confidential) narrates this powerful Mercy for Animals video on the deplorable treatment of animals in the Factory Farm Gulag. It's so effectively made, and so heartbreaking, that I'm posting it here.

These videos are essential viewing. I've always been of the belief that films - short films, feature films, documentary films - are one of the most effective ways of winning over omnivores and vegetarians to a cruetly-free vegan lifestyle.

Many folks, whatever their political persuasion, are innately kind and hate to see animals treated poorly. Sadly, there are some very kind people who are torn. They hate seeing animals treated harshly, but they want their meat, they want their eggs and milk, they want their fish and all of their animal products. The thought of not ever eating meat or eggs or fish or dairy products seems too stark to them. They hate seeing animals go through pain, but their love of animal products outweighs their desire to see an end to animal suffering.

The key with omnivores is to figure how to tip the scale so that it weighs more in the direction of wanting to see the elimination, once and for all, of the exploitation and mass murder of animals.

How to accomplish this??? Well, as I said in my Blog the other day, the Animal Rights Movement is a Big Tent struggle with lots of people trying their damnedest to end this kind of suffering and bloodletting. Who has the right approach? That is up to you to decide.

But I'll tell you who does not have the right approach: Those who believe that it is OK to consume animals, whether it is done as food or clothing (or for any other purposes). They need to understand the suffering their choices are causing. The best way to get through to them, I think, is to beam the message through audio-visual means, or to write about it or lecture about it in such a powerful way as to hit the message home clearly, and without second guessing.

And that message, as we all know, is that causing suffering - any kind of suffering, whether human or non-human animal suffering - is not acceptable and will not be tolerated by those who want to create a truly civilized society.

Call me a Pollyanna, but I'm optimistic that we're moving in the right direction. More and more people are going vegan. The Internet has been a godsend, helping to beam the message to the remote corners of the world. And it has enabled us to see that good people - in Asia, in Latin America, in the Middle East, in Europe - are mobilizing on behalf of the animals.

The recent events in Egypt have shown us the nobility of the fight for human rights and democracy. That fight must begin to spread so that all sentient beings are included in the equation. It isn't easy. The trick is for the waves to keep battering the cliffs, eroding the earth, changing the landscape. So that when future generations are writing the history of these times, they will note the barbarism of widespread animal consumption, but they will also see videos like this one and realize that good people fought the good fight and made a difference.

The Courage to Stare Truth in the Face

Do you have the courage to stare truth in the face?

If so, watch this video about how our dairy products are made. Even if you're already a vegan, even if you think you know what you're going to see in this video, please take six and a half minutes and watch it anyway.

Truth is not always easy to bear. To watch the suffering that cows and their calves endure is heartbreaking. Many people can't take these videos. They find them too grim. I recall reading a Blog post from one of my favorite vegan cookbook authors, Sarah Kramer, where she said something to the effect that she couldn't watch too many of these videos. She already knew what was in them, and she simply couldn't stand to watch them again and again.

Fair enough. Vegans have already paid their dues. They "get it."

But if you're not a vegan, please have a look at this video. Even if it doesn't stop you from drinking milk or consuming other dairy products, it is important that you think before you eat or drink. Know what you are taking into your body. Know the price that has been paid by living, breathing, sentient beings. Know the violence and suffering that certain choices entail.

Life is short. It's precious. And it means as much to a cow - or any other animal - as it does to us. At this point, I'm going to let the wonderful singer Kate Bush have the last word:

I just could not stand the idea of eating meat - I really do think that it has made me calmer.... People's general awareness is getting much better, even down to buying a pint of milk: the fact that the calves are actually killed so that the milk doesn't go to them but to us cannot really be right, and if you have seen a cow in a state of extreme distress because it cannot understand why its calf isn't by, it can make you think a lot.

Tragedy at the California State Fair in Sacramento

In late July, an incident occurred at the California State Fair in Sacramento that sparked public outrage. A pregnant cow who was supposed to give birth at the fair escaped from a birthing stall and charged through the midway. It was beautiful a Tuesday morning, July 27, and the fair had not yet opened for the day when she got free. The place was still relatively quiet as fair grounds staff were setting up concession booths for the day. The cow charged across the fairgrounds with authorities in hot pursuit. There were several conflicting accounts of the event (go to YouTube and search under "cow shot at California State Fair" to see the many televised news reports). According to some reports, the police and fair authorities tried to tranquilize the cow, but they said the tranquilizers would take a half hour to kick in. Another report said the tranquilizer gun wasn't working.

After pursuing the cow, the police eventually cornered her and opened fire, killing the 1200 pound animal and the baby she was carrying. It is clear from the video above that the cow was terrified and agitated. She was being pursued by a truck blaring some sort of loud horn or noise. I wasn't there, so it's impossible for me to offer an impartial verdict on this matter. At the same time, one wonders why it was necessary to gun down a frightened pregnant cow.

The local television outlets insisted the cow was "angry" and a local TV correspondent referred to her as "ornery" in one television report. (Source)

One can spend weeks nitpicking over the tiny details of this incident. But getting trapped in that game avoids the larger picture. And the larger picture is this: Human beings have no right to keep exploiting animals and treating them like slaves. This tragedy could have been avoided. Not by tightening security. Not by introducing better birthing stalls for cows. Not by doing this or that differently. It could have been avoided by adopting a radically different view of human-animal relations that eliminates the exploitation of non-human creatures by people. Animals aren't ours to exhibit, poke, prod, or kill. They're living beings with feelings. And this cow obviously felt fear and anxiety in the terrifying final moments of her life.

Thank goodness our comrades in the struggle for the decent treatment of animals were out in full force protesting this sad event. I've posted their pictures here (courtesy of Sacramento's ABC News 10). Even in the aftermath of a tragedy like this, good people can be counted on to raise their voices against injustice and violence.

Some Compelling Reasons to Steer Clear of Dairy & Veal

If you can spare two minutes and 17 seconds, watch this terrific Humane Society of the United States video about veal and baby calves.

This is actually a very mild video compared to another video about the slaughter of calves that I watched on YouTube. I am linking to the video, titled "Calves Slaughter," here because the imbedding has been disabled for it, so I can't post it on this Blog. Of the two videos, "Calves Slaughter" is much more difficult to watch. It's more graphic. It doesn't have narration. It relies on the power of the image to convince the viewer. If I could post it on this Blog, I would. But I can't. So you'll have to follow the link. Please. The video is three minutes and fifty seconds of brutality.

These videos are difficult to watch. No two ways about it. But I must confess: There are times I really miss dairy products, particularly cheese, ice cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese and whip cream. The other day, I yearned for something - anything - with melted cheddar cheese on top of it. That's pretty normal for a vegan who has spent most of his life as an omnivore. These are the foods we've loved our entire lives and giving them up isn't easy. It was easy to give up meat. It's flesh. I don't miss it one iota. But the cheese - oh the cheese! - was not easy to cut out of my diet.

Every time I get an itching to go back to eating cheese, I watch these videos. I can't say my craving completely goes away, but these videos remind me - in very emotional, primal, meaningful ways - what, exactly, is at stake here.

We shouldn't go vegan because it's the "politically correct" thing to do. We shouldn't go vegan because it will seem to cool to others. We shouldn't go vegan because loved ones are vegan and we want to be accepted by them. And while a healthier diet is a good reason to go vegan, it is by no means the only reason. For many of us, animals are the main reason we go vegan. There is not much in this world that I'm rigid about, but I am rigid in adhering to a vegan diet. I miss some of the foods I gave up. But these videos remind me that giving those foods up was the right thing to do.

A Beautiful (not grim!) Video about Cows Living Life to the Fullest

If you get a moment, please watch this moving YouTube video about cows and calves. These animals are incredibly affectionate and loving. You can clearly see in this video that they form bonds with each other, take care of one another and they love being on the receiving end of affection just as much as your or me. The film footage in this video is really quite extraordinary. And, unlike so many of the videos I post on this Blog, this one does not contain any scenes of violence or animals in distress.

The kinds of scenes like the ones in this video are so important because they help tear down the wall of denial. Long before I became a vegan, I stopped eating pork. Why? About four years ago, I was at the Royal Winter Fair, a huge farming and agricultural event held in Toronto, with my companion. We were able to spend time with the pigs and see just how human they really were. At that moment, we both swore off pork, bacon and all other products that come from pigs. That one fantastic afternoon of spending time with pigs did more to destroy our denial than anything else we had ever experienced.

For a long time, I convinced myself it was OK to eat fish, chicken, beef, etc., even though I didn't think it was OK to eat pork, ham, bacon, etc. The reason I was able to go on eating other kinds of meat was that my other walls hadn't quite been torn down yet. Now that I watch this video of these precious animals living, loving and enjoying life (and bonding with human beings, too), I see how wrong I was about those other animals. Cows, chickens, sheep, and all other creatures deserve to live happy and healthy lives as much as pigs.

Watch this video, especially if you're wondering about the ethics of eating meat. See how amazing these cows are. And ask yourself, "How can I go on eating them?"

The Brutality of the Dairy Industry Exposed by Farm Sanctuary

If you get a chance, please take a few moments to watch this superb video. It won't take you long. It's called "Behind the Mustache" (meaning milk mustache). It is a tragic video by the wonderful folks at Farm Sanctuary that shows, in an uncompromising way, the brutality of the dairy industry.

The day will come, I am certain, when good people will look back on this time in which we live and they will regard our treatment of animals as utterly barbaric. Generations from now, men and women, young and old, will gasp when they watch films such as this one, that show frightened and bewildered calves being reduced to mere commodities. Brutalized. Squirted down with hoses. Left to suffer in the dirt. And dragged off and turned into veal, without tasting the milk of their mothers. Because we human beings rob that milk from their mothers and drink it when we do not need it for our survival.

I watch films such as this one and regret that I was blind for so long. I regret I did not become a vegan 20 years ago.

But there is a wonderfully hopeful side to this video. Please keep watching it. Six minutes and forty-five seconds into the video, a caption comes on that says, "It Doesn't Have To Be This Way." And it shows calves who were going to be slaughtered and ended up in Farm Sanctuary's California shelter. These calves are happy. They're full of spunk and life and curiosity. They run and play and live the long lives that they were meant to live.

So a hundred years from now, future generations will speak of the barbarism that existed in 2010. But just as we today remember tiny pockets of abolitionists in the 1830s, 40s and 50s who resisted slavery, future generations will remember small groups of people living today who made a difference in the lives of animals. True, our numbers are small. But those who advocate for the rights of animals will be regarded the same way that we today regard abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

There is a lot of violence and malevolence in this world. There is a lot of cynicism and indifference, too. But one need not search hard to find inspiring examples of compassion, kindness, courage and hope. These wonderful qualities are as abundant now as they ever were in the past, and they will one day triumph over violence, indifference and the commodification of living beings.