Farmyard friends get recognition

THEY say every dog has its day -- and, as it turns out, so do pigs, goats, sheep and other farm animals.In Hobart that day was yesterday as Parliament Lawns were transformed into a farmyard to commemorate World Farm Animals Day.Observed each October 2 since 1983, World Farm Animals Day marks the birthday of Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi, a champion of humane, sustainable farming methods.The public yesterday had the chance to interact with a range of animals rescued from factory farms, slaughterhouses and saleyards, including hens saved from a battery farm, Lochie the three-legged sheep dog and Willie the porky star of Charlotte's Web.The formerly unwanted animals now live at Brightside Farm Sanctuary near Cygnet, and Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania spokeswoman Emma Haswell said they were "ambassadors for their kind"."Fifty billion animals are slaughtered for meat every year, and I figure these ones are the lucky ones," she said."Most people's interaction with farm animals happens three times a day when they sit down to eat them."If people hung out with animals like these for a while, they'd realise that they're no different to their family pets."Ms Haswell said that in Australia 10 million hens and five million pigs were slaughtered each year."As Gandhi said, `The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals'. When it comes to Australia and the way we treat our farm animals, we have a long way to go," Ms Haswell said.

We are what we eat - and now so are our pets

More people are feeding their animals in their own image, writesWilliam Birnbauer.IT SOUNDS silly, Sandy Anderson admits, but she believes her unique brand of vegan cat food — yes, meat-free food for carnivorous animals — creates softer and nicer pets."It makes them more gentle in their personality and their outlook," she says with a Cheshire cat grin. This is good news for mice because Mrs Anderson's customers have told her that their vegan-food-eating cats have stopped killing rodents, preferring simply to play with them.Mrs Anderson, founder of Veganpet dog and cat food, hopes to capitalise on an increasing trend in which pet owners are shaping their animals' diets according to what they themselves eat or believe. In the US, for instance, Jewish pet owners can buy Evanger's Super Premium Gold Dinners, certified kosher by the Chicago Rabbinical Council. Then there's socially responsible Righteous Dog Food."Gourmet pet foods are increasingly being bought by households where the pet is treated more as a child than animal," says the Australian Companion Animal Council.Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world, even though dog and cat populations have declined recently. About 38 million dogs, cats, fish, birds and other pets live domesticated lives. Birds and fish make up 29 million of these, and there are 3.7 million dogs and 2.4 million cats.The pet food industry, worth more than $2 billion a year, is dominated by multinational companies. The key pet food makers include giants such as Mars Petcare and Nestle Purina.Mrs Anderson's efforts are minuscule in comparison. Her company sells a limited number of products by word of mouth but she hopes vegetarian and vegan pet owners will take to her "cruelty-free" extruded soy and corn dishes which she says are human-quality, comply with high American nutritional standards and have passed scientific testing. However, Fat Cat, her rescued moggy, refused despite desperate exhortations during a lengthy photo session to eat the stuff. He didn't look all that hungry, anyway.Mrs Anderson, a vegetarian whose business venture was motivated by a love of animals, does not dispute the obvious: cats are meat-eating animals. But she asks: "What is the harm if I can provide absolutely every other nutritional requirement from a vegan source and the cat grows and thrives and is very happy." Her customers' cats have eaten vegan food for five years, landing on their feet in recent blood tests.Dogs, she says, can adapt to a vegan diet more easily than cats. Ned, a rescued stray dog owned by Mrs Anderson, similarly did not eat vegan food put before him. Oh well.Mrs Anderson says we are living in the era of the boutique dog. Consider pugs, Pekingese and the basset hound. "These animals are dependent on us. You can't say to a poor old basset hound 'go out and hunt and live on a raw carcass diet'. How cruel is that? We have made boutique dogs to fit in with our lifestyle. I think raw meat is cruel."Which brings us to Tom Lonsdale, founder of Raw Meaty Bones — a movement dedicated to feeding dogs and cats, you guessed it, raw, meaty bones.Dr Lonsdale refers to pet dogs as "modified wolves" and to cats as "modified desert predators". He advocates a raw meat and bone diet and says "junk pet food" is the cause of most pet animal ill-health. His book, Raw Meaty Bones begins: "If you own a dog or cat which you feed with processed food from the supermarket or corner store, you will probably find this book deeply disturbing."Raw bones, he says, act as both food and medicine for domestic pets. Veganpet products are "shockers" and commercial canned and dry pet foods are behind periodontal disease, gastric problems, diarrhoea and allergies.He came to this view — it resulted in his being forced out of the profession, he says — from his work as a vet. "The stench of stale blood, dung and pus emanating from the mouths of so many of my patients … finally provoked this eruption of dissent."Dr Lonsdale, who at one stage during the interview wondered if I was a spy for the pet-food industry, believes multinational pet food conglomerates are pulling the strings behind veterinary associations, vet schools and pet advisory services.He buttresses his views on the beneficial qualities of a bone diet with a Gaia-like theory which takes anyone listening on a journey to the very beginnings of time and the role of anaerobic bacteria in regulating a world dominated by mammals. Carnivores live by the tooth and die by the tooth, he maintains. It's an evangelical rave, he concedes. It is perhaps no wonder that he fell out so badly with mainstream veterinary bodies.With the right meaty bone diet "there is virtually no need for any vet services", he says. "If it doesn't clean its teeth, it's a sick, sorry carnivore. The way it cleans its teeth is by doing its job eating its food."Dr Lonsdale, who stopped practising as a vet almost 10 years ago when facing charges before a disciplinary board, feeds Jed, his mixed breed dog, kangaroo tails, chicken carcasses, whole fish and whole rabbits. His website carries photos of dogs ripping into bloodied carcasses and ferrets with blood-speckled snouts: not recommended viewing for vegan food types.Mrs Anderson, who has read his book, says rather politely: "I don't believe in what he says." She does concede that the downside of a vegan diet is dental problems in cats and dogs. To try to remedy this she is researching an oral spray that removes tartar from teeth.The Pet Food Industry Association insists that products labelled as complete pet foods are all that animals need to meet their nutritional requirements. Executive manager John Aird quickly dismissed the claims made by his non-mainstream colleagues Dr Lonsdale and Mrs Anderson."The guy makes a lot of noise," he says of Dr Lonsdale, and "dogs and cats are carnivores … they're built to eat meat" he says of Mrs Anderson.Of course, the last word should go the grand poobah of all things pet, Dr Hugh Wirth. The RSPCA president says the "compromise attitude" of veterinary associations in Britain and Australia is that raw meaty bones should be fed to pets a minimum of three times a week for dental health.

Vegetarian is a Life Style

For years vegetarians have promoted the health benefits of their lifestyle over those of persons who eat meat. A strict vegan diet is purportedly cholesterol-free and generally low in saturated fat. However, is it really a better choice than eating meat?Vegetarian is a lifestyleYvonne Hope, owner of Ashanti Oasis Vegetarian Restaurant at Hope Botanic Gardens, has been a vegetarian for over 33 years. For her, being vegetarian is a lifestyle. She notes, "The body is the temple of the father, being vegetarian is a way of living and keeping the body clean."She, however, explains that not all her clientele are vegetarians. "Some of them just want to eat one healthy meal per day and they do that here."She notes that when her first child was born, doctors warned her that her child would be malnourished and may develop learning disabilities if she was kept on a strict vegetarian diet.Her daughter, now in her 30s, has never had dairy or meat and has been very successful academically straight up to university. She has also been extremely healthy.She said if one decides to be a vegetarian, one needs to do one's own research, as some persons may be allergic to wheat or mushroom or other foods that constitute a vegetarian diet. However, she highlights that there are some persons who are vegetarians but they do not eat properly. She also notes that vegetarians are at very low risk of getting a stroke. "It's best to read and find out where you want to go. Where to get the things you need and you have to prepare yourself mentally. It's a way of life. The key is that your meal is balanced with enough protein and vitamin B," she added.She outlines that a well balanced meal for a vegetarian is one that contains protein in the form of beans or peas or whatever form, carbohydrates from yam or sweet potatoes and your green leafy vegetables (callaloo, broccoli) and fruits.

Animal Welfare / Animal Rights

Animal Welfare / Animal RightsOver 50 billion animals are slaughtered every year throughout the world for food alone (this does not even include seafood). Factory farming is the only way to produce this huge amount of meat, this is a method which does not even allow for animals’ most basic needs. Life long restriction of movement, darkness, mutilation without anaesthesia and problems resulting from selective breeding are the price that creatures capable of feeling pain and fear have to pay in order to provide this amount of meat. Unspeakable brutality towards animals has been documented countless times during their transportation and, of course, in the slaughterhouse. The recognition that animals are sentient beings has brought about a change in attitude towards the way in which animals are kept over recent years. It is highly likely that the next generation will simply not accept practices such as battery cages, sow stalls or live animal transport. Maybe the next generation will even turn their back on the slaughtering of animals altogether. Studies in ethology (animal behaviour research) show us that, in respect of consciousness, intelligence and the ability to feel pain, many animals are more developed than new born human babies.Some of the cruellest methods of factory farming are those which use the most intelligent and social of domestic animals, for example, pigs. Breeding sows are female pigs that have to “produce” piglets for pork production, they are restrained in individual metal sow stalls which are practically the same size as their body. They are unable to turn around, have no bedding on the bare concrete floor and can only stand or try to lie down. A slatted trench directly behind the sow makes the removal of her waste easier. This confinement and isolation of these highly social animals is animal torture. Injuries often include infected and swollen trotters and joints and skin is made raw through rubbing against the bars and the sow’s own excrement. The sows can only rest on their hind legs - with sunken head and half or totally closed eyes they “mourn” as animal behaviour researches have called it. The vast majority of laying hens are kept in tiny battery cages with other hens. The cages are stacked on top of each other. In some countries a hen will have the space of approximately one piece of A4 paper, she will stand on a bare wire floor. In other countries she will have even less space. Behaviour normal and necessary for chickens, such as wing stretching, scratching, being able to find a quiet place where they can lay their eggs undisturbed and moving out of the way of aggression from other hens is forcefully suppressed for the whole of the hen’s life under this form of farming.Live animal transport, sometimes involving journeys halfway around the world, carelessness and brutality in slaughterhouses, secretly filmed sadism towards animals: All this and more shows us that the way we use animals today to feed ourselves causes an enormous amount of misery and suffering for countless creatures.

USA: Slaughter - A new undercover investigation from Mercy for Animals

Largely hidden from view, every year over 9 billion chickens and 250 million turkeys are raised on factory farms and killed in our nation's slaughterhousesTheir suffering often goes unseen and their cries unheard - until now A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation takes you behind the closed doors of one of the country's largest poultry slaughterhouses –House of Raeford Farms, Inc. in Raeford, North Carolina. In January and February of 2007 an MFA investigator worked in the "live-hang" area of the plant (where live birds are snapped into shackles on the slaughter line), secretly filming egregious acts of animal cruelty with a hidden camera. Shocking abuses he witnessed include: --Turkeys with broken wings and legs, bloody open wounds, tumors and other untreated injures being slaughtered for human consumption --A worker violently punching live, shackled turkeys for "fun" --Employees forcefully shoving their hands into the cloacae (vaginal cavities) of live chickens --Turkeys and chickens being thrown across the facility and up into the air --Workers ripping the heads off live turkeys --Birds being crushed to death under the wheels of trucks --Conscious turkeys having their throats slit After viewing the footage, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and meat-industry advisor Dr. Temple Grandin—who is generally recognized as the world's leading scientific authority on animal welfare—said, "This is a sloppy poorly managed plant where employees are allowed to abuse animals...There are some management people that need to get fired.” The workers responsible for the abuse cannot be charged under federal law because the USDA refuses to protect turkeys and chickens in its enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act...

God Wants Factory Farms And Slaughterhouses To Close

Until Americans stop torturing and murdering God's creatures by the millions every day using any number of methods of hideous cruelty, society and the earth's environment will continue to suffer the unfortunate consequences that go with supporting or committing these sick crimes, says author Arthur Poletti.(PRWeb) December 20, 2006 -- The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization issued a stunning report about global warming on November 29th that a large number of people throughout the world need to know about, says Arthur Poletti, author of "God Does Not Eat Meat."Some of the highlights of that report are as follows:Livestock production is at the heart of almost every environmental catastrophe: rain forest destruction, spreading deserts, loss of fresh water, air and water pollution, acid rain and soil erosion and is also responsible for:- More climate change gases than all the motor vehicles in the world - 70 percent of the Amazon deforestation - 64 percent of all the acid rain-producing ammonia - 15 out of the 24 vast global ecosystems that are in decline can be attributed to livestockFor the full United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization report, click on -http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html"Those who believe in God and believe in the words that were written in the old testament of the first Hebrew Bible posted at (http://www.allcreatures.org/sermons97/s6jun93.html), which reveals God's first commission on the sixth day of creation, when God had created everything including land animals and humans, and those who read and consider the merits of the following information, will understand why God -- who is the supreme symbol of kindness, life and love -- unequivocally wants factory farms and slaughterhouses to close," Poletti says."It is doubtful that any civilization in history has ever been nearly as cruel as America is now to its animals. Completely unnecessary massacres that would probably not happen on the Planet of the Apes are running rampant in our so-called modern, cultured, compassionate society. What does this say about the greatness and moral progress in America?" Poletti asks.Poletti's short story "God Does Not Eat Meat" can be read for free online at: http://www.all-creatures.org/book/gdnem.html"When reviewing the following information revealing the cruelty to animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses, readers might begin to think there are a large number of people in the United States that have completely lost their minds." Is there no limit to the cruelty, asks Poletti.Poletti continues, "The relentless cruelty and huge massacres occurring to animals every working hour in factory farms and slaughterhouses as vividly described next must absolutely end." Please click on.Turkeys: http://www.goveg.com/photos_turkey01.asp Cows: http://www.goveg.com/photos_cow02.asp Ducks: http://www.goveg.com/photos_ducksgeese05.asp Pigs: http://www.goveg.com/photos_pig02.asp Chickens: http://www.goveg.com/photos_chicken01.asp"In my opinion, the following quotation proves that if the United States Congress was made up of people like Dr. Neal D. Barnard, there would be no factory farms or slaughterhouses in America," says Poletti."The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of real food for real people, you'd better live real close to a real good hospital." Neal D. Barnard M.D. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington D.C. http://www.nealbarnard.org/

Meat production today is not just inhumane, it's inefficient

Beaks seared off with hot blades; pregnant sows with barely room to take a step. And the scale of suffering is set to soar

Peter SingerWednesday July 12, 2006The Guardian

Global meat consumption is predicted to double by 2020. Yet in Europe and North America there is growing concern about the ethics of the way meat and eggs are produced. The consumption of veal has fallen sharply since it became widely known that, to produce so-called "white" - actually pale pink - veal, newborn calves are separated from their mothers, deliberately made anaemic, denied roughage and kept in stalls so narrow that they cannot walk or turn around.In Europe mad cow disease shocked many people, not only because it shattered beef's image as a safe and healthy food, but also because they learned that the disease was caused by feeding cattle the brains and nerve tissue of sheep. People who naively believed that cows ate grass discovered that beef cattle may be fed anything from corn to fish meal, chicken litter (complete with chicken droppings) and slaughterhouse waste.Concern about how we treat farm animals is far from being limited to the small percentage of people who are vegetarians or even vegans - eating no animal products at all. Despite strong ethical arguments for vegetarianism, it is not yet a mainstream position. More common is the view that we are justified in eating meat, as long as the animals have a decent life before they are killed.The problem, as Jim Mason and I describe in our recent book, is that industrial agriculture denies animals even a minimally decent life. Tens of billions of chickens produced today never go outdoors. They are bred to have voracious appetites and gain weight as fast as possible, then reared in sheds that can hold more than 20,000 birds. The level of ammonia in the air from their accumulated droppings stings the eyes and hurts the lungs. Slaughtered at only 45 days old, their immature bones can hardly bear the weight of their bodies. Some collapse and, unable to reach food or water, soon die, their fate irrelevant to the economics of the enterprise as a whole.Conditions are, if anything, even worse for laying hens crammed into wire cages so small that even if there were just one per cage she would be unable to stretch her wings. But there are usually at least four hens per cage, and often more. Under such crowded conditions, the more dominant, aggressive birds are likely to peck to death the weaker hens in the cage. To prevent this, producers sear off all birds' beaks with a hot blade. A hen's beak is full of nerve tissue - it is, after all, her principal means of relating to her environment - but no anaesthetic or analgesic is used to relieve the pain.Pigs may be the most intelligent and sensitive of the animals that we commonly eat. When foraging in a rural village they can exercise that intelligence and explore their varied environment. Before they give birth, sows use straw or leaves and twigs to build a comfortable, safe nest in which to nurse their litter.But in today's factory farms pregnant sows are kept in crates so narrow that they cannot turn around, or even walk more than a step forward or backward. They lie on bare concrete without straw or any other form of bedding. The piglets are taken from the sow as soon as possible, so that she can be made pregnant again, but they never leave the shed until they are taken to slaughter.Defenders of these production methods argue that they are a regrettable but necessary response to a growing population's demand for food. On the contrary, when we confine animals in factory farms we have to grow food for them. The animals burn up most of that food's energy just to breathe and keep their bodies warm, so we end up with a small fraction - usually no more than one-third and sometimes as little as one-tenth - of the food value that we feed them. By contrast, cows grazing on pasture eat food that we cannot digest, which means that they add to the amount of food available to us.It is tragic that countries such as China and India, as they become more prosperous, are copying western methods and putting animals in huge industrial farms. If this continues, the result will be animal suffering on an even greater scale than now exists in the west, as well as more environmental damage and a rise in heart disease and cancers of the digestive system. It will also be grossly inefficient. As consumers, we have the power - and the moral obligation - to refuse to support farming methods that are cruel to animals and bad for us.· Peter Singer is professor of bioethics at Princeton University and the author, with Jim Mason, of The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter © Project Syndicate 2006 project-syndicate.org