A Global Vegan Diet Will Help Save the World - So says the United Nations

A recent report from the United Nation's International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management is calling for a global change to a vegan diet. Such a shift, if done on a worldwide scale, the report claims, will greatly reduce the disastrous impacts of climate change, world hunger and fuel shortages.

The report estimates that meat and dairy production account for 70 percent of the earth's freshwater consumption, 38 percent of land use and 19 percent of global greenhouse emissions. "A substantial reduction of impacts," says the report, "would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products."

In a world rapidly moving toward a population of 9.1 billion (by 2050), a global vegan diet is one of the major changes that will help make such growth sustainable.

It will also improve life greatly for animals. Imagine what a Kafkaesque nightmare it will be for factory farm animals if the world's population reaches 9.1 billion but the world's inhabitants refuse to change their omnivore diets.

This U.N. report provides a glimmer of hope. Historically, the U.N. has made plenty of mistakes. It does not get everything right.

But on the issue of veganism, this report by the U.N. comes at the perfect time. Veganism is moving from the fringe to the mainstream. And we need all the help we can get to make veganism seem less extreme and more acceptable. This U.N. report can only help a great deal in that regard. (Source.)

Finally... An Uplifting Video!

I know, I know. I post so many depressing videos on this Blog. It's time to shake it up a little and put something fun on here. I absolutely adore this video of a piglet named Bella and her joyous antics. She was rescued from a factory farm in Australia and raised in a loving home. She is fun-loving and full of life, and she's living the way all pigs are meant to live. It's an uplifting video, and it's set to Davy Jones singing "Girl" - which he sang on one of my favorite Brady Bunch episodes. Please watch it, if you get a chance. It will cheer you up... I promise. :)

And while you're at it, please visit Savebabe.com to see the wonderful work our Australian brothers and sisters are doing in trying to save the pigs.

(Thanks to my friend Danny "Peacefulvegan" Nichols for sharing this joyous video with me!)

People Making a Difference: Fighting for Animal Rights - One Victory at a Time...

Great news from the wonderful saints at Mercy For Animals (MFA)! MFA has been fighting battles on numerous fronts to end animal cruelty. One of its most significant struggles has been to stop the cruelty at Quality Egg of New England. MFA conducted extensive undercover investigations of Quality Egg's plant in Maine. The footage shot by MFA investigators is deeply disturbing. I've posted it here. Have a look if you can stomach it. And please, please, please keep in mind that what you see here is Standard Operating Procedure in the egg industry.

I'm pleased to report, Blog Pals, that it seems MFA's efforts are paying off.

As MFA's founder Nathan Runkle writes:

On Monday, June 7, 2010, as part of a landmark civil settlement announced in Lewiston, Maine District Court, Quality Egg of New England (QENE), the largest egg producer in New England, pleaded guilty to 10 civil counts of cruelty to animals, and agreed to pay over $130,000 in fines and restitutions, as well as hand over authority to the state of Maine to conduct announced inspections of the factory farm for the next five years. (Source)

What a great victory! MFA has done so much tremendous work - and it's all so, so important. Please visit their Website to see some of the other wonderful things they're doing to help end animal cruelty. This is another perfect example of great people who are making a difference.

From the "Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself" Department: Please Read Christina Pirello's Wonderful Column at The Huffington Post

It is crucial for vegans to go mainstream. Time to bust out of our little fringe bunkers. Time to abandon the militant rhetoric and angry self-righteousness. Time to reach out to our omnivore friends and family members with compassion and kindness. Being judgmental? Doesn't work. Adopting abrasive rhetoric? Doesn't work. Getting in people's faces? Doesn't work.

What does work? Reaching out, showing people that living vegan is liberating and enjoyable, and - most importantly (are you ready for this?) - listening. An effective vegan has to be a good listener. Listen to omnivores. Listen to other ideas, especially the ideas that you dislike. Take it all in. Process it. Think it over. Reevaluate your ideas. And guess what will happen? You'll come back even stronger in your commitment.

One of the most eloquent and thoughtful arguments for why we need to go mainstream comes from Christina Pirello, a best-selling, well-known vegan chef based in Philadelphia. Christina wrote an extraordinary column on The Huffington Post. It should be mandatory reading for all vegans. The headline? "Let's Break the Vegan Stigma."

A highlight:

The philosophy of catching more bees with honey (vegan pun intended) would draw people to learn more about these lifestyles. If we are peaceful, attractive, inviting and open to all we meet, do we not stand a much better chance of them hearing what we have to say and thereby affecting greater change? Seriously, who wants to be scolded? And who wants to scold? It's exhausting to be so self-righteous -- for the scolder and those who must endure it.

Amen! This is the best argument for getting rid of the Us-Versus-Them Mentality of Some Elements of the Vegan Movement that I have ever read. I definitely couldn't have said it better myself.

Please read it.

Why We Need to Watch Troubling Animal Abuse Videos - Over and Over and Over

I regret to say that it is becoming pretty routine for me to post videos of the shocking treatment of animals on this Blog. This video is not only not an exception, it is deeply disturbing - as bad, if not worse, than the video footage of the abuse at Conklin Dairy Farms.

This video footage is of the horrific treatment of chicks at a hatchery in Santa Cruz, California. The footage was filmed by the group Compassion Over Killing (COK). COK sent an undercover person into the Cal-Cruz Hatcheries plant to film the ghastly treatment of chicks, which is standard operating procedure in the poultry industry.

COK's website outlined some of the abuses their investigator uncovered, including:

• A chick drowning in a bucket of liquid waste
• Birds entangled in machinery, their dead bodies mangled, decapitated, or missing limbs
• Sick or severely injured birds left to suffer for hours
• Unwanted hatchlings dumped down the egg shell disposal chute, then sprayed with a high-pressure hose
• Birds thrown five to six feet across the room into buckets where they often languished for hours

Why post these videos? Why post them day after day, week after week, month after month? I certainly don't need to see them. I've already been converted. I'm firmly in the vegan camp and I have no plans to leave it. Ever.

So why do I watch these videos over and over again?

Because it is not good enough - it is never good enough - to have a general sense of "what is happening." I could say to myself, "Hey, I already know what's going on. I don't need to watch this video to know."

But make no mistake, my friends: As long as animals are being abused, as long they're being scalded and trampled, skinned and gutted, tossed in grinders and hung up by the neck, kicked and beaten, and made to live in dark, cold, cramped conditions without ever seeing the outside world where they were meant to live, IT IS OUR BUSINESS. And we owe it to them to watch every minute of their suffering that we can.

Denial is our worst enemy. The more heavily armed we are as advocates for the animals, the more effective we'll be at tearing down the wall of denial.

Congratulations to Compassion Over Killing for making a difference. At first, the news coming out of Santa Cruz was discouraging. The stark and violent video footage of chicks drowning, quivering on factory floors, getting ground up by machinery, being smashed alive, and just about every other horrible way of dying you can imagine, failed to sway the proper authorities. In late April, the District Attorney's office in Santa Cruz decided not to take action against Cal-Cruz Hatcheries for violating the state's animal animal protection laws.

But somebody else took action, someone with the courage to stand up against this horrendous violence. The Santa Cruz County Animal Services Authority impounded 88 sick and weak ducklings from the production facility and brought them into protective custody. Many were too sick and frail and ended up dying. But more than two dozen of these beautiful creatures, pictured here, were given another chance at life.

Life is sacred and profound. But the food production industry has made a mockery of the sanctity of life by treating animals as mere commodities.

If everybody went vegan, Cal-Cruz Hatcheries would shut down tomorrow and this madness would stop. The best way to curtail supply is to end demand. Switching to a cruelty-free diet is a first step in the right direction. What happened at Cal-Cruz Hatcheries is not an isolated example. It is Standard Operating Procedure in the poultry industry.

From the "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder" File: Remembering a Pooch Named Ellie

She was judged "The World's Ugliest Dog" in Animal Planet's 2009 "World Ugliest Dog Pageant." (Did you know such a thing existed???)

Her name is Ellie. She's pictured above. And she passed away the other day at age 17. (Source)

I don't know about you, but I see nothing ugly about this Chinese Crested Hairless, who hails from the small town of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. In fact, I think she was downright cute! With her bulging eyes, wild wisps and big pink tongue constantly sticking out the corner of her mouth, Ellie was a favorite at dog shows across the country. She also made lots of appearances at Humane Society fundraisers.

Farewell, Ellie. We will miss you! But Ellie's name lives on. I think it's simply wonderful that the mayor of Pigeon Forge has honored Ellie's fundraising abilities (Ellie's appearances have raised more than $100,000 for her hometown over the years) by designating November 12 as Miss Ellie Day. How cool is that??

Another major loss was the death of actress Rue McClanahan (Blanche from TV's Golden Girls) at age 76. Rue was a vegetarian most of her life, a gentle soul who loved all animals, and one of the earliest card-carrying members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She was also a supporter of Farm Sanctuary (so was Golden Girls co-star Bea Arthur; and of course, one of the other Golden Girls, Betty White, is a legendary animal advocate). McClanahan used her Hollywood clout to stick up for the animals.

Rue will be sorely missed.

Not only was she a talented actress, but she was also a person who made a huge difference.

One of the Best Articles I've Ever Read - "Zero Pain Tolerance"

Please, please, please take a few minutes - it really won't last more than a few minutes - out of your busy day to read Keegan K.'s amazing Blog Entry titled "Zero Pain Tolerance." This is exactly the kind of Blog Entry - and the kind of philosophy - I have been trying to articulate ever since I started this Blog. But, alas, I cannot state it as beautifully as he does. Please have a look. He covers a lot of ground in this entry. The insights are profound and flawlessly stated. The conclusion is one I embrace wholeheartedly. There are so many things we have in common with non-human animals, but two of the most significant are captured in this Blog Entry: 1) the mysterious power of mortality - each of us experiences only a short drop from the womb to the tomb; 2) and the experience of pain and suffering. Have a look. Go on. Take in the author's words. Think carefully about what he writes. Wrestle with the implications. The ability of the human mind to absorb new ideas and grapple with them is, after all, one of the most extraordinary qualities of our species.

Tearing Down the Wall of Denial, One Brick at a Time...

Jeez, I hate writing about sad things so often. You probably don't believe this, but I do have a sense of humour. I do laugh at things. I don't just focus on downer issues.

But part of the purpose of this Blog is to tear down, brick by brick, the Wall of Denial that so many people build up around themselves when it comes to the suffering of animals (unfortunately, this Wall of Denial often obscures the suffering of human beings as well).

One of the worst examples of this denial are those people who do not spay and neuter their pets. Granted, there's no way around the fact that there will always be a certain number of feral cats out there whose population is, at best, difficult to control.

But there are also a lot of people who don't spay and neuter. And the Wall of Denial protects them from seeing the results. Some people understand what's at stake and they're doing a great job of spaying and neutering their pets. But we need to change the "throw-away" ethos that pervades our society. We throw away everything. Old magazines. Old computers. Old TVs. Unfortunately, people and animals also get discarded. Time to tear down that Wall of Denial and show what happens - what really happens - when a life, human or animal, is tossed out, like yesterday's trash.

Well, here's a hole I'm punching into that wall. Animal shelters, as I've said on this Blog before, are constantly euthanizing cats and dogs who can't find homes.

I've discussed the Toronto Humane Society at length in the past, so I'll pick a different one. How about one in the States? Yesterday, the Raleigh County Animal Shelter in Beckley, West Virginia, received 35 cats in one day. As the local newspaper, The Register Herald, reported, "Almost all of them - and about 10 more - were euthanized that day. Shelter officials say extremely rampant overbreeding has the cat section at capacity and there is not enough room for the scores of cats coming in every day."

I know I'm sounding repetitive, but the men and women who euthanize these cats are the unsung heroes and heroines of society. They do it because they love the animals. And they only do it when the shelters are out of room and the animals can't find homes.

Jim Kearney, the adoption counselor at the Raleigh County Animal Shelter, mentioned the toll that euthanasia takes on the men and women who have to carry it out:

It’s overwhelming. Some of these are beautiful animals. It’s very sad. It’s very hard. All we end up doing all day long is taking cats back to be euthanized. There’s no alternative. We tell everyone that, if they leave a cat here, it will probably be euthanized today. There is no room for it.

How many pet owners who refuse to spay and neuter ever see the results of their irresponsibility? How many of them understand what happens on a daily basis inside of these shelters? How many know the pain, the suffering, these cats endure in their final moments? Why is the public so afraid to see the bodies of the cats piling up to be sent off and cremated? Because it's distasteful? It's the truth. And more people need to confront the truth rather than denying its very existence.

If more people could see - and feel - the tragedy of abandoned pets, then a lot of lives would probably be saved.

Another Beautiful Photograph...

... of cows the way they were meant to live.

"Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come."

- Albert Schweitzer

A Few Updates on Recent Events

With so much going on in the world today, it is hard to keep up with all of the major developments. Believe it or not, I obsess about human beings as much as I do animals. And sometimes, I wish this Blog also contained posts about humans (well, I should say, posts about humans who aren't a) harming animals; or b) helping animals) and the trials and tribulations they face. At some point, I may convert this Blog to an Animal Rights & Human Rights Blog. But I also don't want to dilute the animal rights and vegan message.

Dilemmas, dilemmas, dilemmas! What to do?

For the time being, I'll keep the focus on animal rights and veganism. But you, my friends out there in the Blogosphere, should know that I care every bit as much about the fate of humanity as I do the fate of animals.

That said, there are two important developments in the North American animal world that I've been following closely. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has actually made me lose lots and lots of sleep. I have congratulated the media - over and over again - for providing such fantastic coverage of this tragedy. Most media outlets - Internet-based, television-based and print-based - have been doing a spectacular job of covering this massive tragedy. Journalists deserve our thanks and respect.

I've read many powerful articles on the oil spill. In particular, a photo essay in the recent Huffington Post this morning moved me very deeply. Have a look if you get a chance.

Another major event going on right now is the controversy surrounding allegations (and film) of abuse at the Conklin Dairy Farm in Union County, Ohio. The video footage of cows and calves being beaten, kicked, stabbed and punched by workers has triggered a nationwide outcry against animal abuse.

Apparently, the owner of this outfit, Gary Conklin, is afraid because of the public backlash this event has caused. And within the protest community, moderate animal welfare proponents have been butting heads with militant activists. The debates on Facebook have been fierce, pitting people who want to tinker with the system to improve it (e.g., passing stronger anti-abuse laws) against people who want to tear the system down completely. Leading the charge among the militants has been Gary Yourofsky, a veteran animal liberationist who recently wrote on his Blog:

I am asking everyone who cares about justice and injustice to bring bolt cutters, bats, crowbars, pitchforks, hammers and wrenches to help destroy every piece of equipment the farm has, and tear down the sheds. (Source)

The police are taking threats from the radicals seriously. Over the past few days, 150 police have been guarding the area around the farm and the roads leading up to it. (Source)

Already, Conklin employee Billy Joe Gregg Jr. - the Lieutenant William Calley of this whole mess - has been in court to face 12 counts of animal cruelty. Conklin himself has sought to distance himself from the cruelty. As he said in a statement:

Our family takes the care of our cows and calves very seriously. The video shows animal care that is clearly inconsistent with the high standards we set for our farm and its workers, and we find the specific mistreatment shown on the video to be reprehensible and unacceptable. (Source)

Strange, then, that Conklin himself is seeing in the video kicking a cow over and over again.

The animal welfare advocates are calling on Conklin to be shut down as a result of the terrible treatment of cows and calves.

Punishing Conklin and his employees for this gratuitous brutality is a step in the right direction. But it is naive to assume that it will solve the problem. As I've said here many times, the factory farm system is, by its very nature, inherently violent. I'd guess - though I have no way of verifying this - that most workers in the dairy industry do not abuse cows and calves in the manner shown in the video. I could be wrong. And obviously I have no hard evidence to prove that guess.

But the dairy workers who refrain from violence do so in spite of the nature of the system. Bear in mind, this is an assembly line that keeps cows in a permanent state of pregnancy, whisks babies away to be turned into veal, and murders the cows when they can no longer serve milk.

Certainly, AT THE VERY LEAST, all of these dreadful sins are on a par with beating, kicking, punching and stabbing cows and calves and snapping their tails. Some people - like me - would even argue that the sins of day-to-day Standard Operating Procedure are even worse than anything we saw in the videos shot at Conklin Dairy Farms.

So punish the abusers. But use this terrible moment as an opportunity to ask the deeper and more troubling questions about the factory farm system.