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No lab rat (or dog or monkey) ever signed a consent form. In and of itself, this constitutes an ethical problem with the practice of experimenting on non-human animals for the hypothetical benefit of humans.
A complete count of animals used in research is unknown because federal laws do not require research institutions to record the number of rats, mice and cold blooded animals that are used in experimentation. Estimates for total numbers are between 20-70 million. Of the animals who are counted, here is what we know: The number of warm-blooded vertebrate animals used in science each year in the United States is approximately 28 million. Of that total, about 18 million animals are killed for research, compared with 2.51 million in England, 1.66 million in Canada, and 0.73 million in the Netherlands.
The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is the primary law covering laboratory animals in the United States. The AWA was passed in 1966 and amended in 1970, 1976 and 1985. The scope of the AWA is limited, in that, it does not restrict what can be done to an animal during a study - it only applies to the type of care an animal receives before and after experimentation. The following provision grants animal researchers impunity to do as they wish in the course of an experiment: "Nothing in these rules, regulations, or standards shall affect or interfere with the design, outline, or performance of actual research or experimentation by a research facility as determined by such research facility."
The AWA only requires that research facilities count the number of dogs, cats, primates, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, (some) farm animals, and other animals that are used in experiments. Rats, mice, birds, and cold-blooded animals are not protected by the AWA and represent approximately 85 percent of the total number of animals used in experimentation.
The historical value of animal research with regard to human health remains in question.
Researchers from Harvard and Boston Universities concluded that medical measures (drugs and vaccines) accounted for between 1 and 3.5% of the total decline in mortality rates since 1900. Scores of animals were killed in the quest to find cures for tuberculosis, scarlet fever, smallpox and diphtheria, among others, but was their unwilling contribution important to the decline of these diseases? Dr. Edward Kass of Harvard Medical School, asserts that the "primary credit for the virtual eradication of these diseases must go to improvements in public health, sanitation and the general improvement in the standard of living." These benefits have nothing to do with animal studies.
Animal research appropriates money, time, personnel, facilities and other resources that would save more lives if those same resources were placed into, let's say, education or prevention. In the end, it becomes a question of priorities - do we want to focus on supporting what we know works or do we place our faith in serendipity? Over 44 million Americans have either no or inadequate health care coverage, if we really want to "improve human health" we need to provide adequate access to care, not fund more animals experiments, which offer no promise of success (in fact their track record is abysmal) and divert funds, support and attention from more productive areas.
The Journal of the American Medical Association reported in April 1998 that adverse reactions to prescription drugs (all of which must first pass a battery of animal tests) kill more than 100,000 humans each year. Animal tests failed to predict these dangers. This is not surprising since non-human animals are unable to relate the most common side effects that occur with prescription medicines such as headaches, dizziness, malaise, depression or nausea. These symptoms are often the initial warning signs of more severe problems.
It is impossible to take drugs that haven't been tested on animals because currently the Food and Drug Administration requires animal tests for pharmaceuticals. Hence, virtually all drugs have been, at some time, tested on animals. But just because drugs have been tested on animals doesn't make animal tests any more relevant, useful or valid to humans (see above).
There are several likely explanations:
Vivisection is easily published. In the "publish or perish" world of academic science, it requires little originality or insight to take an already well-defined animal model, change a variable (or the species being used), and obtain "new" and "interesting" findings within a short period of time. In contrast, clinical research (while much more useful) is often more difficult and time-consuming. Also, the many species available and the nearly infinite possible manipulations offer researchers the opportunity to "prove" almost any theory that serves their economic, professional, or political needs. For example, researchers have "proven" in animals that cigarettes both do and do not cause cancer - depending on the funding source.
Vivisection is self-perpetuating. Scientists' salaries and professional status are often tied to grants, and a critical element of success in grant applications is proof of prior experience and expertise. Researchers trained in animal research techniques find it difficult or inconvenient to adopt new methods, such as tissue cultures.
Vivisection appears more "scientific" than clinical research. Researchers often assert that laboratory experiments are "controlled," because they can change one variable at a time. The control, however, is illusory. Any animal model differs in myriad ways from human physiology and pathology. In addition, the laboratory setting itself creates confounding variables - for example, stress and undesired or unrecognized pathology in the animals. Such variables can have system-wide effects, skew experimental results, and undermine extrapolation of findings to humans.
Vivisection is lucrative. Its traditionally respected place in modern medicine results in secure financial support, which is often an integral component of a university's budget. Many medical centers receive tens of millions of dollars annually in direct grants for animal research, and tens of millions more for overhead costs that are supposedly related to that research. Since these medical centers depend on this overhead for much of their administrative costs, construction, and building maintenance, they perpetuate vivisection by praising it in the media and to legislators.
Vivisection's morality is rarely questioned by researchers, who generally choose to dogmatically defend the practice rather than confront the obvious moral issues it raises. Animal researchers' language betrays their efforts to avoid morality. For example, they "sacrifice" animals rather than kill them, and they may note animal "distress," but they rarely acknowledge pain or other suffering. Young scientists quickly learn to adopt such a mindset from their superiors, as sociologist Arnold Arluke explains:
One message - almost a warning - that newcomers got was that it was controversial or risky to admit to having ethical concerns, because to do so was tantamount to admitting that there really was something morally wrong with animal experimentation, thereby giving "ammunition to the enemy."
Animal researchers' ethical defense of the practice has been superficial and self-serving. Usually, they simply point to supposed human benefits and argue that the ends justify the means. Often, they add that nonhuman animals are "inferior," lacking certain attributes compared to humans, such as intelligence, family structure, social bonding, communication skills, and altruism. However, numerous nonhuman animals - among them rats, pigs, dogs, monkeys, and great apes - reason and/or display altruism. There is accumulating evidence that many animals experience the same range of emotions as humans. Chimpanzees and gorillas can be taught human sign language, and sign with one another even without humans present.
The general public, which cares about animal welfare, has been led to believe that animals rarely suffer in laboratories. Animal researchers often cite U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics (derived from researchers themselves) that only 6 to 8 percent of animals used in vivisection experience pain unrelieved by anesthesia or analgesia.
Evidence indicates, however, that many animal researchers fail to acknowledge - or even perceive - animal pain and suffering. For example, sociologist Mary Phillips observed animal researchers kill rats in acute toxicity tests, induce cancer in rodents, subject animals to major surgery with no post-operative analgesia, and perform numerous other painful procedures without administering anesthesia or analgesia to the animals. Nevertheless, in their annual reports to the USDA, none of the researchers acknowledged that any animals had experienced unrelieved pain or distress. Phillips reported, "Over and over, researchers assured me that in their laboratories, animals were never hurt...'Pain' meant the acute pain of surgery on conscious animals, and almost nothing else...[When I asked] about psychological or emotional suffering, many researchers were at a loss to answer."
Diabetes: Human studies by Cawley, Bright and Bouchardat in the 18th and 19th centuries first revealed the importance of pancreatic damage in diabetes. This predates the dog studies by Banting and Best by over a century. Human studies by Paul Langerhans in 1869 led to the discovery of insulin-producing islet cells. Although cows and pigs were once the primary sources for insulin to treat people with diabetes we are not bound to the methods of the past. Human insulin can now be duplicated in vitro and is the product of choice for insulin dependant people with diabetes.
Polio: Studies on monkeys led to gross misconceptions that delayed the fight against poliomyelitis, according to a statement made to Congress by Dr. Albert Sabin, the inventor of the oral polio vaccine. The erroneous conclusion that the polio virus infects through the monkey nervous system contradicted previous human studies which demonstrated that the gastrointestinal system was the primary route of infection. This resulted in misdirected preventive measures and delayed the development of a vaccine.
An animal alternative falls into one of three categories: replacement of an animal method; reduction in the number of animals used; or refinement of the experimental design and methods to reduce pain and distress to animals. It is important to understand that a procedure that uses animals can still be considered an alternative by the scientific community.
Eye Irritancy Tests: In these tests, a liquid, flake, granule, or powdered substance is dropped into the eyes of animals, usually rabbits. The animals are often immobilized in stocks from which only their heads protrude. They usually receive no anesthesia during the tests.
After placing the substance in the rabbits' eyes, laboratory technicians record the damage to the eye tissue at specific intervals over an average period of 72 hours, with tests sometimes lasting 7 to 18 days. Reactions to the substances include swollen eyelids, inflamed irises, ulceration, bleeding, massive deterioration, and blindness. During the tests, the rabbits' eyelids are held open with clips. Many animals have broken their necks or backs while struggling to escape.
The results of eye irritancy tests are questionable, as they vary from laboratory to laboratory and even from rabbit to rabbit, as well as between species.
Acute Toxicity Tests: Acute toxicity tests, commonly called lethal dose or poisoning tests, determine the amount of a substance that will kill a percentage, even up to 100 percent, of a group of test animals. In these tests, a substance is forced by tube into the animals' stomachs or through holes cut into their throats. It may also be injected under the skin, into a vein, or into the lining of the abdomen; mixed into lab chow; inhaled through a gas mask; or introduced into the eyes, rectum, or vagina. Experimenters observe the animals' reactions, which can include convulsions, labored breathing, diarrhea, constipation, emaciation, skin eruptions, abnormal posture, and bleeding from the eyes, nose, or mouth.
The widely used lethal dose 50 (LD50) test was developed in 1927. The LD50 testing period continues until at least 50 percent of the animals die, usually in two to four weeks.
Like eye irritancy tests, lethal dose tests are unreliable at best. Says Microbiological Associates' Rodger D. Curren, researchers looking for non-animal alternatives must prove that these in vitro models perform "at least as well as animal tests. But as we conduct these validation exercises, it's become more apparent that the animal tests themselves are highly variable." The European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods' Dr. Michael Ball puts it more bluntly: "The scientific basis" for animal safety tests is "weak."
No. Unlike drugs, there is no law which requires animal testing for cosmetics and household products. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires only that each ingredient in a cosmetics product be "adequately substantiated for safety" prior to marketing or that the product carry a warning label indicating that its safety has not been determined. The FDA does not have the authority to require any particular product test. Likewise, household products, which are regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) the agency that administers the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA) do not have to be tested on animals. A summary of the CPSC's animal-testing policy states, "[I]t is important to keep in mind that neither the FHSA nor the Commission's regulations require any firm to perform animal tests. The statute and its implementing regulations only require that a product be labeled to reflect the hazards associated with that product."
Testing methods are determined by manufacturers. The very unreliability of animal tests may make them appealing to some companies, since these tests allow manufacturers to control the variables and put virtually any product on the market. Companies can also use the fact that their products were tested on animals in attempts to defend themselves against consumer lawsuits.
More than 500 manufacturers of cosmetics and household products that have shunned animal tests. These companies take advantage of the many technologies that are better than antiquated animal tests, including cell cultures, tissue cultures, corneas from eye banks, and sophisticated computer and mathematical models. Companies can also formulate products using ingredients already determined to be safe by the FDA. Most cruelty-free companies use a combination of methods to ensure safety, such as maintaining extensive databases of ingredient and formula information and employing in vitro (test tube) tests and human clinical studies.
For seven years, Tom's of Maine petitioned the American Dental Association (ADA) to grant its seal of approval to Tom's of Maine toothpastes. Other toothpaste companies unquestioningly conducted lethal tests on rats in order to be eligible for the ADA seal (one example: researchers brush rats' teeth for more than a month, then kill the animals and examine their teeth under a microscope). Tom's of Maine worked with researchers to develop fluoride tests that could safely be conducted on human volunteers. The ADA accepted the results of these tests and granted its seal to several of the company's toothpastes in 1995. The groundbreaking effort by Tom's of Maine to find a humane alternative to cruel but accepted testing practices sets a precedent that other manufacturers can follow.
The Associated Press reported in December 1995 that "...two-thirds of 1,004 Americans polled agree with a basic tenet of the animal rights movement: An animal's right to live free of suffering should be just as important as a person's right to live free of suffering."
A survey by the American Medical Association found that 75 percent of Americans are against using animals to test cosmetics.
Furthermore, a national, telephone survey conducted in 2003 of 1,505 non-elderly adults ages 18-64 with permanent physical and/or mental disabilities found that when asked to choose the most important disability-related priority for the government to address, 41% said improving prescription drug coverage; 26% said helping people work and keep their disability benefits; 14% said making it easier for people to apply for benefits; 11% said helping with the cost of home care, personal assistance and equipment; and 5% said improving transportation services. No mention of more animal experimentation was given.
Dissection is the practice of cutting up animals in classroom exercises. It is a common exercise in biology, anatomy, and physiology classes. Three to six million frogs and thousands of mice, rats, rabbits, pigs, cats, dogs, and other animals are dissected annually.
Frogs and other small animals area often bred by animal supply houses. Frogs are also captured in the wild, which causes serious environmental problems. In Bangladesh, the mass exportation of frogs for food and experiments has resulted in an overpopulation of crop-damaging insects that the frogs once controlled. Cats and dogs can be taken from pounds and shelters, rounded up or trapped by dealers and bunchers or stolen from people's yards.
Animals bred or captured for dissection can suffer from the trauma of confinement, inadequate food and care, crude transport, and inhumane killing methods. Live frogs are not always accurately "pithed" (their spinal cords severed), so they are sometimes cut open while still conscious.
Dissection is not only unnecessary, it runs the risk of desensitizing students to the suffering of others and teaches them that animals can be used and discarded without respect for their lives. In Great Britain, dissection is being phased out of school curricula, and the right of students not to dissect is being established and upheld in the United States as well (including California). By using only humane teaching methods, instructors can teach science and ethics simultaneously.
Exciting computer programs (where a student can not only take an animal apart, but also put them back together further enforcing the learning process), realistic or larger-than-life models, films, and diagrams are all effective ways to teach anatomy and physiology without harming animals. "Visifrog," a wonderful computer simulation of a frog dissection, teaches the structure and function of various organs.
Most people believe that experiments on animals are necessary for medicine and science to progress. However, this is not the case. The belief that we must experiment on animals is being challenged by a growing number of physicians and scientists who are utilizing many research methods that do not harm or kill animals. More and more physicians and scientists are also seeing the negative consequences of using one species to provide information about another species; often the results of animal experiments are misleading or even harmful to humans.
The following biomedical research practices reflect true scientific progress, producing, accurate, predictive and applicable results. They offer real, immediate insight into the effective treatment and prevention of human disease.
Rather than hoping that an animal will respond like a human, in vitro research is conducted in an external, controlled environment, such as a test tube or a petri dish. Because most illnesses do their work at a microscopic level, these experiments make ideal test beds for studying the course of human disease. Not only are in vitro tests more humane than killing animals by exposing them to experiments, but they have been shown to produce more accurate results which correlate from the laboratory to real life as well.
Toxicity tests using human cell cultures are two to three times more accurate than tests on rats and mice.
Penicillin and streptomycin are historical examples of in vitro discovery, and there have been thousands since. Today's in vitro technology enables researchers to receive accurate information from as many as 100,000 compounds per day.
Technological advancements in biological science have forged phenomenal frontiers, and we have yet to tap one iota of their potential. The achievements of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, computer engineers and biotechnical engineers have long since outpaced the archaic methods of animal experimentation.
Breakthroughs in physics have allowed imaging techniques such as CAT, MRI and PET scans. Our ability to understand disease processes has been vastly improved through X-ray crystalography, single molecule spectroscopies, and nuclear magnetic resonance. Ultrasound, blood-gas analysis machines, blood chemistry analysis machines, microscopes, monitoring devices, electrocardiograms, and electroencephalograms all provide windows into the human body without using animals.
Chemistry has contributed greatly to DNA sequencing and gene chips, as well as drug delivery devices, biocompatible materials, and separation/purification methods and many more breakthroughs. Mathematics and computer science have given us the Fast Fourier transformers used in spectroscopy and CAT scans, fast sequence alignment and database methods used in genomics, conformational search and optimization methods used in protein folding, and ecological and population models of disease.
Computer and mathematical modeling have recently led to new treatments for breast cancer, AIDS, high blood pressure, and aided development of new prosthetics. By mimicking the shape and structure of molecules known to be therapeutic, scientists can improve their design to be even more effective. Similarly, known toxic chemicals can be analyzed to predict toxicity without resorting to unreliable animal testing.
Epidemiology is the study and control of diseases within a human population. Long-term epidemiological studies have linked diet to heart disease, smoking to lung cancer, and identified all known environmental poisons and occupational diseases. By labeling certain habits or substances as dangerous, we can diminish our chances of illness by consciously avoiding exposure to them. Using computers, researchers can now gather and analyze human population data at an unprecedented rate.
Unfortunately, animal experimentation often impedes the ready acceptance of epidemiological evidence. Cigarette smoke, alcohol, asbestos, arsenic and benzene are just a few of the harmful substances that, according to animal tests, are safe for humans to ingest. However, epidemiological research has conclusively proven all of them to be hazardous to humans.
Genetic research, in conjunction with epidemiological evidence, reveals which genes cause humans to be predisposed to hereditary problems such as birth defects, cancer and heart disease. By altering an individual's DNA composition, scientists may be able to correct abnormal genetic traits. With further exploration, human genetic research has the potential to eliminate cancer and birth defects before birth.
Some scientists now study DNA in animals for the supposed benefit of science, wasting time and money on irrelevant research. This money would be better spent on studying human genetics.
The observation and analysis of a patient's condition has always been an important component of medical research. Examples of tell-tale evidence unfolding at the bedside of afflicted patients are innumerable, including the successful treatment of childhood leukemia and thyroid disease, our present level of HIV and AIDS therapies, the discovery of numerous cardiac drugs, and many more.
Though every drug invariably has different effects on humans and each animal species, hundreds of millions of dollars continue to be poured into irrelevant animal experiments. Clinical research could be greatly expanded if funding for animal studies was redirected to clinical research done by physicians.
Virtually every disease has either been identified or clarified as a result of autopsies, which often indicate the presence of illness missed by physicians. (Studies show that physicians tend to misdiagnose approximately 10 percent of the time.)
Due to higher costs, autopsies are not conducted as frequently as they once were. However, if autopsies were performed on just one out of five deceased patients, volumes of invaluable information could be retrieved. Several European countries have already diverted funds from animal experiments to autopsies with positive results.
Post-marketing drug surveillance is a system that allows consumers to report all effects and side effects of a medication after it has been released to the public. This allows health professionals to detect and prevent the dangers of negative drug reactions. In addition, PMDS could also increase the likelihood of finding new uses for existing drugs.
Unfortunately, PMDS is not mandatory, and physicians infrequently report side effects to monitoring agencies. Therefore, it is impossible to compile comprehensive data on the potential negative reactions to a drug. If PMDS was mandatory, valuable information about drugs could be gathered and processed much more quickly. Getting this information sooner would mean many more people spared from dangerous side effects, some of which have proven fatal.
Did you know that almost every time you eat a piece of cheese you are supporting the cruel practice of raising veal calves in crates?
Did you know that the ham in your sandwich most likely came from a pig who never saw the light of day and couldn't even turn around in her narrow crate?
Did you know that the average egg comes from a de-beaked chicken crammed with 7 others in a cage the size of a microwave oven? WATCH ANIMATION
The Animals
Farmed animals lead a life of misery from the moment they are born to when they are slaughtered. Every day, everywhere across the globe, millions of these animals are mishandled, kept in confinement, mutilated as part of routine husbandry practices, and deprived of basic necessities.
Despite the common belief that drinking milk or eating eggs does not kill animals, commercially-raised dairy cows and egg-laying chickens, whether factory-farmed or "free range," are slaughtered when their production rates decline. The same factory farm methods that are used to produce most meats are also used to produce most milk and eggs -- only worse.
On U.S. farms, an average of 7 egg-laying hens spend their entire lives in a battery cage with a floor area the size of a vinyl record cover. These chickens live on wire floors that deform their feet, in cages so tiny they cannot stretch their wings, and are covered with excrement from cages above them. Lameness, bone disease, and obsessive pecking are common. Pecking is curbed by searing the beaks off young chicks. Although chickens can live up to 15 years, they are usually slaughtered when their egg production rates decline after two years. Hatcheries have no use for male chicks, so they are killed by suffocation, decapitation, gassing, or crushing.
As with any mammal, dairy cows produce milk only when pregnant and stop after their calves have been weaned. When a dairy cow delivers a female calf, the calf becomes a dairy cow herself, born to live in the same conditions as her mother. But when a dairy cow delivers a male calf, the calf is sold to a veal farm within days of birth, where he is tethered to a stall, deprived of food and exercise, and soon slaughtered for meat. Life is only a few years longer for the mother. Because it is unprofitable to keep cows alive once their milk production declines, dairy cows are usually slaughtered at 5 years of age. Thus, a cow's normal life span of 25 years is cut 20 years short just to cut costs and maximize production.
300 million turkeys and 9 billion 'broiler' chickens are slaughtered for human consumption each year in the US. These birds represent over 95% of all land animals slaughtered for food. They are crowded into large, dimly lit sheds that hold as many as 10,000 birds. Because they are bred to gain weight quickly, many birds are crippled by their own weight and unable to walk. They are then unable to get to food and water or to defend themselves from the other birds who trample them on the way to the feeding station. Over time, the building fills with the poisonous stench of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane. After seven weeks, the animals are crammed into wood cages for transport to slaughter.
Beef cattle are typically enclosed in feedlots, which pack tens of thousands of animals per unit. Cows have no protection from rain or snow, freezing wind, or searing heat. They are castrated, dehorned, and branded with no anesthesia or surgical training.
Modern breeding sows are treated like piglet-making machines. Living a continuous cycle of impregnation and birth, each sow has more than 20 piglets per year. After being impregnated, the sows are confined in gestation crates — small metal pens just two feet wide that prevent sows from turning around or even lying down comfortably. At the end of their four-month pregnancies, they are transferred to similarly cramped farrowing crates to give birth. With barely enough room to stand up and lie down and no straw or other type of bedding to speak of, many suffer from sores on their shoulders and knees.
Numerous research studies conducted over the last 25 years have pointed to physical and psychological maladies experienced by sows in confinement. The unnatural flooring and lack of exercise causes obesity and crippling leg disorders, while the deprived environment produces neurotic coping behaviors such as repetitive bar biting and sham chewing (chewing nothing). After the sows give birth and nurse their young for two to three weeks, the piglets are taken away to be fattened, and the sows are re-impregnated. When the sow is no longer deemed a productive breeder, she is sent to slaughter. When the piglets are able to eat solid food, they are transferred to large, crowded pens. Here they are fed for six months until slaughter.
Transport and SlaughterAnimals are hauled to slaughter for many hours without food, water, or rest, while exposed to extreme temperatures. Many die in transit, and those too sick or injured to walk are dragged with chains to the kill floor. Consumers have no clue about the cruelty they subsidize. At the slaughterhouse, some of the animals are skinned, dismembered, or drowned in boiling water while still conscious. They are then cut into smaller pieces, wrapped in cellophane, and presented at the supermarket counter.
WildlifeIn addition to the ten billion animals killed by animal agriculture each year for human consumption, hundreds of thousands of prairie dogs, coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, bears, bison, and other wild animals are shot, maimed, poisoned, and burned alive by farmers and government agents to keep them from interfering with agricultural operations. Tens of millions of starlings and blackbirds are poisoned each year to keep them from eating animal feed. An even greater threat to wildlife is posed by the destruction of their habitats. Animal agriculture turns hundreds of acres of forest, wetlands, and other habitats into grazing and croplands to feed farm animals.
Our Health
The consumption of animal fats and proteins has been linked to heart disease, colon and lung cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and a number of other debilitating conditions. Cows' milk contains ideal amounts of fat and protein for young calves, but far too much for humans. And eggs are higher in cholesterol than any other food, making them a leading contributor to cardiovascular disease. The American Dietetic Association reports that vegetarian/vegan diets are associated with reduced risks for all of these conditions.
The most comprehensive study to date regarding the relationship between diet and human health found that the consumption of animal-derived 'food' products was linked with "diseases of affluence" such as heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and cancer. T. Colin Campbell's landmark research in The China Project found a pure vegetarian (i.e. vegan) diet to be healthiest. Dr. Campbell estimates that "80 to 90% of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other degenerative illness can be prevented, at least until very old age - simply by adopting a plant-based diet." The meat, poultry, dairy and egg industries employ technological short cuts— as drugs, hormones, and other chemicals — to maximize production. Under these conditions, virulent pathogens that are resistant to antibiotics are emerging. These new 'supergerms,' whose evolution is traceable directly to the overuse of antibiotics in factory farming, have the potential to cause yet unknown human suffering and deaths. Peculiar new diseases have been amplified by aberrant agribusiness practices. For example, "Mad Cow Disease" (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE), a fatal dementia affecting cattle, spread throughout Britain when dead cows were fed to living cows. When people ate cows with "Mad Cow Disease," they got Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a fatal dementia that afflicts humans. Another farm animal disease beginning to jeopardize human health is avian influenza. In Hong Kong, where scores of people have died from the so-called "bird- flu," over one million chickens have been destroyed in the panic to stop the spread of the disease. Millions of Americans are infected, and thousands die every year from contaminated animal 'food' products. Despite repeated warnings from consumer advocates, the USDA's meat inspection system remains grossly inadequate, and consumers are now being told to "expect" animal products to be tainted. Meanwhile, the agribusiness industry, rather than advising consumers to curtail their intake of animal products, has devised extreme measures (overcooking, antibiotics, etc.) to help consumers circumvent the hazards of animal products and maintain their gross over-consumption of meat and dairy.
Sadly, these issues are not discussed in our nation's schools or universities, and they are barely discussed by national decision-makers. Nutrition education has been largely relinquished to the very meat and dairy industries that create these problems, and we are left to consume the harmful products of these industries. The responsibility for this tragedy must be shared by individuals, Congress, USDA, and of course, the meat, egg, and dairy industries.
For more on the health benefits of vegan diets, visit the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
The Environment
There is no such thing as a meat-eating environmentalist!
Today's factory farms leave behind an environmental toll that generations to come will be forced to pay. Whether it's excessive water use or contamination, excessive soil use or erosion, excessive resource use or air pollution, America's meat addiction is steadily poisoning and depleting our water, land, and air.
Animal agriculture is an inefficient way of producing food, since feed for farm animals requires land, water, fertilizer, and other resources that could otherwise have been used directly for producing human food. Animal agriculture's dependence on higher yields accelerates topsoil erosion on our farmlands, rendering land less productive for crop cultivation, and forcing the conversion of wilderness to grazing and farm lands. Animal waste from massive feedlots and factory farms is a leading cause of pollution in our groundwater and rivers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has linked animal agriculture to a number of other environmental problems, including: contamination of aquatic ecosystems, soil, and drinking water by manure, pesticides, and fertilizers; acid rain from ammonia emissions; greenhouse gas production; and depletion of aquifers for irrigation. In a time when population pressures have become an increasing stress on the environment, there are additional arguments for a vegan diet. The United Nations has reported that a vegan diet can feed many more people than an animal-based diet. For instance, projections have estimated that the 1992 food supply could have fed about 6.3 billion people on a purely vegetarian diet, 4.2 billion people on a 85% vegetarian diet, or 3.2 billion people on a 75% vegetarian diet.
Caring for the environment means protecting all of our planet's inhabitants, not just the human ones.
World Hunger
Worldwide, nearly a billion people suffer from chronic hunger. 24,000 people per day or 8.8 million per year die from hunger or related causes. Three-fourths are children under five. Chronic hunger causes stunted growth, poor vision, listlessness, and susceptibility to disease. Global malnutrition is largely the consequence of inequitable distribution and waste of food resources. Only 10% of hunger deaths are attributed to catastrophic events like famine or war. Hunger is a complex problem, but huge amounts of waste occur because of non-sustainable practices related to animal agriculture, such as depletion of cultivable land, topsoil, water, energy, and minerals, and the extremely inefficient process of converting plants-based foods into animal-based foods.
A meat-based diet requires 10-20 times as much land as a plant-based diet. Nearly half of the world's grains and soybeans are fed to animals, resulting in a huge waste of food calories. The extent of waste is such that even a 10% drop in US meat consumption would make sufficient food available to feed the world's starving millions. Moreover, animal agriculture has been devastating the world's agricultural land. The process begins with clear-cutting of forests to create cattle pastures. Eventually, the pastures are plowed under and used to grow animal feed crops. Depletion of topsoil and minerals begins soon after the trees are cut down and escalates with tilling. Without the plant growth to hold it in place, topsoil, laden with minerals, fertilizer, and organic debris, is carried by the runoff of rain and melting snow into nearby streams. The insatiable demand for animal feed crops leads to the use of sloping land with greater runoff and arid land requiring irrigation. Irrigation accounts for more than 80% of all water available for human use, leading to widespread water shortages. More information is available from goveg.com.
Conclusion and More Info
Every day, several times a day, we make dietary choices that directly affect our health, the health (hunger) of others, the environment, and of course animal suffering. Individually and combined these issues are overwhelming, but changing our food choices to wholesome and compassionate plant-based foods is the best way to help ourselves while helping others. Information provided by Farm Animal Reform Movement, Veg News and Farm Sanctuary.
"In wildness is the preservation of the world," wrote the 19th-century American author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau. The quotation is a favorite of George Schaller, considered the finest field biologist of our time and the most powerful voice for conservation in more than 100 years. Indeed, Schaller has described himself as "a 19th-century wanderer with a scientific bent…on an intangible and elusive search."
Schaller, who was born in Berlin in 1933 and came to the United States with his mother and brother in 1947, has loved animals and the outdoors for as long as he can remember. He was in graduate school in the mid-1950s when one of his professors asked him, half jokingly, "How would you like to study gorillas?" The 26-year-old was happy to settle deep in the forests of central Africa. There, he wrote rhapsodically and painstakingly about gorillas in the wild, changing public perception of the animal forever. He went on to study tigers in India, jaguars in Brazil, snow leopards in Pakistan, and lions in the Serengeti. His account of the latter, The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations, won a National Book Award in 1973.
In time Schaller came to view his early work as "a careless rapture" compared with another, more pressing concern: saving species from extinction caused by man's aggression. Schaller calls the work of conservation "a gigantic, continuous headache," explaining that "instead of just being a biologist—something for which I was trained—I must also be a fund-raiser, diplomat, politician, sociologist, anthropologist, everything at once."
His results as a conservationist for the Wildlife Conservation Society have been spectacular nevertheless. In 1980 he began working with the Chinese government to save the giant panda from extinction, and since then he has helped establish more than 20 wildlife parks and reserves around the world. Today, at 74, he is pursuing his most ambitious goal yet: building the Pamir International Peace Park at the junction of four countries—Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and Tajikistan—in the process saving the spectacular spiral-horned Marco Polo sheep. In his latest book, A Naturalist and Other Beasts (Sierra Club), Schaller ponders his career of more than 50 years, although the mood is hardly retrospective. "I am not in search of memories," Schaller writes at the outset. "My interests lie in the future."
Do you have an earliest memory of feeling deeply connected to nature and wildlife?I can't remember being interested in anything else. You start as a child: You like to ramble around and watch birds, turn over rocks, pick up snakes. I had a little zoo of salamanders and opossums and other creatures. Basically, I'm still doing what I did as a kid.
When did you first recognize the danger that people pose to the earth and its nonhuman inhabitants?One of my first projects—I was 26—was studying mountain gorillas in central Africa. Humans were overrunning their habitat, and I realized the gorillas wouldn't have a future unless we saved that habitat.
Your field studies of beautiful animals won you recognition, yet your focus shifted to conservation biology. Why?When I began my work, most of the big animals had never been studied, so when I sat with the gorillas, almost anything I observed was new and gave people an idea of what their lives were really like. But how can you watch the few hundred gorillas left in the world and not feel guilty about their precarious existence?
How do you choose a particular place for your next round of conservation efforts?In recent years, I've looked at places where nobody's doing anything and try to see what I can do. For example, there are lots of nongovernmental organizations sitting in Nairobi, worrying about wildlife. But who goes to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iran? There, I think I can have an impact.
What do you do to gain the trust of the local government in countries where Americans are often viewed with suspicion?They don't trust you until they know that you have no other agenda. I go in there, I'm focused on wildlife, and that's it.
How do you begin effective conservation in these countries?I go in and get facts about the wildlife, the people, the condition of the habitat. You give the officials the information you've gathered; you give them suggestions and see what their response is. It's extremely important to have one local person—a chief or some local leader—who really cares and can do something about it.
Given all the strife in places like Iran and Afghanistan, how do you get people to pay attention to protecting wildlife?We choose animals valued by the locals. For example, in 2001 I started a project in Iran. I went there and asked how I could be of assistance. They told me, "The last Asiatic cheetahs are here; only 50 or 60 may be left." Now we have a cheetah project there, and some of the animals are wearing radio collars, and Iran is very supportive in that work. If you choose a conspicuous animal like a cheetah, which Iran considers one of its natural treasures, not only does the government pay attention, but suddenly everybody's aware.
When you are near a mountain gorilla, you recognize it as kin. You feel as though you might put your arm around it and have a chat.
Why do people respond so strongly to certain animals?I suspect it's because they're charismatic, they're beautiful, and you can see them easily. If the panda were all black, like a black bear, nobody would pay much attention to it. People feel they are helping to save one special animal to which they feel an emotional attachment, not realizing perhaps that the only way to do that is to preserve its whole life system, its territory, its food sources, and so on. When the giant panda became famous, the attention also benefited thousands of other plant and animal species that inhabited the same mountain forests.
Has any animal gained a special hold on your affections?When you are near a mountain gorilla, you recognize it as kin. You feel as though you might put your arm around it and have a chat. When I first saw a gorilla, I felt a desire to communicate with him, to let him know that I intended him no harm and only wanted to be near him. And I wondered if he shared this feeling of kinship with me. Never before had I had that feeling meeting an animal. You don't get that feeling when you see a tiger, but your mind almost glows with the sight—they're absolutely gorgeous—and to see a tiger is one of the great wildlife experiences. I can also get enamored of capybaras, which are giant rodents and look like big guinea pigs, and even wild pigs. I have had two kinds of pig, a warthog and a white-lipped peccary, as pets. They are just as intelligent and social as dogs. I have an attachment to all the animals I've studied and keep involved in what's happening with them. Emotionally, they cannot leave me.
You've written that some of your happiest experiences in the wild have come when you felt accepted by another animal.Because we've hunted big animals for so many thousands of years, every single one of them is shy. You'd be able to interact with them close-up if only man's behavior had been different. During this last trip in northern Tibet, a wolf wandered into camp and looked around—he'd probably never seen people before. And that's the way it would be, a sort of Garden of Eden. I used to watch gorillas by climbing low branches of a tree so I could look down on them and they could keep an eye on me. One time a female gorilla climbed up and sat next to me and just looked at me. I remember once in the Serengeti, I was following a cheetah on foot, and she got nervous and moved away from me. Then she went and killed a gazelle fawn, and I lay down near her and moved slowly closer until we were about 10 feet apart, and she simply looked over her shoulder and ignored me because she sensed I wasn't going to harm her.
A lot of the conservation news seems very grim these days. How do you keep going in moments of discouragement?I don't get up each morning and say, "I've got to save the world, starting with the United States government." I have very specific projects, where I can see progress. And that keeps you going because, in a small way, I see that I can have an influence. And especially if you teach others, and have students and assistants to work with, and can find a way they can continue the work—that's satisfying.
You have said that recent decades have seen a revolution in our relationship with animals as humans overcome cross-species barriers, achieving intimacy with humpback whales, chimpanzees, lions, mountain sheep, wolves, and many others. If the problem for wildlife is no longer ignorance of their plight, what is the major obstacle now?People may be aware, but it's still peripheral to their minds. If you ask people here, "Should we save the tigers in India?" 95 percent would say yes. But if you ask them, "Should we have mountain lions here in the neighborhood? There's some chance they might eat your dogs," then the answer is, "Oh no, no, no, we don't want them." So people are not willing to sacrifice anything. But that can be changed with proper education. In the end it's the community that will save the environment. Whether you're talking about an African village or Tibetan nomads, basic human attitudes are not that different. People simply have to be stimulated. In countries like China, you can't own the land, but the Buddhist monasteries are setting up sanctuaries that, in effect, become little reserves. I've been to two festivals in a Tibetan province where nomads have come together of their own accord to celebrate and protect wildlife. They'll say: "Oh, our wild yak are disappearing. We're not going to allow grazing on this mountain range. These flats are for Tibetan antelope." So every community can do this if something stimulates them.
What about steps we can take right here in the United States?We have an overabundance of everything. I've got two cars sitting in the garage. People must understand that everything they do is an ecological act. How much does it cost to bring grapes here from Chile (pdf)? Not just the grapes, but the fuel spent in carbon emission? If you have a cup of coffee, that means some rain forest in Colombia is being cut down to make coffee plantations. Do you have a cell phone? OK, inside it there's a mineral called coltan, mined mostly in the eastern Congo by a lot of the Rwandans who fled after the genocide, and they're living in the forest, and they're killing gorillas and elephants for meat because they don't have much else to eat. I've got two lights on in here. [Gets up and turns off a light.] I don't need two lights on in here! You know, this is endless.
You're currently involved in the creation of a peace park, a wildlife reserve where Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, and Tajikistan meet. How does that work?Well, you have the Pamirs, which are broad valleys flanked by mountains extending southward from Russia to Pakistan's borders. You've got Kirghiz nomads, who are very colorful, you've got Marco Polo sheep, you've got snow leopards. The main problem is that you've also got four countries, each with its own political system, its own language, its own history of strife. We managed to get officials from all four countries together in September 2006 in China, and they agreed to work together. But you can't necessarily get definite boundaries and say, "This is a peace park right now." I don't care what it ends up being designated, as long as wildlife is protected. We use the Marco Polo sheep as a symbol because it's a spectacular animal, all countries relate to it, and it's economically valuable. An American hunter will pay $20,000 to $25,000 to shoot one in Tajikistan or China. So the first question is, where does that money go? At least three-quarters of it ought to go to the local communities so they will see the value of protecting the sheep.
Will poor regions always be disadvantaged in protecting what is theirs?If a poor country spends most of its money on arms, it doesn't have money for anything else. And it's obvious that the developed countries with quite a bit of money don't spend it on the environment. Right now, when the World Bank makes a large loan to a country, that country must repay it. But how? They ship their food overseas, and the local people don't have that food anymore. Even when grants are provided, the figures can be misleading. You have the United Nations Development Programme and the European Union all giving environmental grants. Yet probably two-thirds of that money goes to foreign consultants. Then the countries have to buy American or European equipment as part of the project. Only a small amount actually goes to help the local people. Until developed countries genuinely care about the rest of the world, things are going to be very difficult.
Is that why you have said that wildlife conservation may ultimately depend on spiritual values?Can you put a value on a river? On the cry of an animal? Unless you can convince people of the spiritual value of the environment, the cause is lost. Take the Tibetans, who recently began trimming their cloaks with tiger and leopard skins from India because of their new wealth. The Dalai Lama got up and said, "This is against your religion," and the Tibetans stopped wearing skins. So among the Tibetans at least, there's a strong spiritual responsiveness to the environment.
You express that idea in A Naturalist and Other Beasts: "To preserve a remnant of beauty becomes an ideal, and this ideal possesses one until it is transformed into a faith."Yes, the faith can be almost religious. I have worked very long for this faith. It's difficult, though, because wherever you go, you see the wounds in the environment. You can't ever just relax about it.
Some people say that if we can't conserve a species in the wild, we should let it go extinct instead of keeping it captive in a zoo, because its time has passed.To let a species decline to the brink of extinction is usually based on laziness, negligence, and lack of will. Some zoos have saved species from extinction and later returned them to the wild. Other zoos have supplemented the last of a species in the wild—the California condor, for example—with captives.
Is it ever right to let a species become extinct?It is estimated that species extinction rates are a hundred to a thousand times greater now than in the past because of human actions. Obviously humans are evolution's greatest mistake. To atone in a small way, we need to help maintain all the diversity we can. Who are we to judge what is expendable?
Some scientists are trying to bring back extinct species through reproductive technology. Do you support this?We had best fight hard to maintain existing species so that their future is not dependent on technology.
You recently tracked a new species, the saola, in Laos. How is it possible to discover an unknown species today?Roughly 1.7 million species have been given scientific names, but perhaps 30 to 50 million or more species exist, not including bacteria. So there is ample opportunity to describe new species, especially small and insignificant-looking ones, such as insects. No doubt I could go into my backyard and find new species. But to find new large mammals such as the saola is unusual these days and usually occurs in places that are remote or have been inaccessible due to political unrest.
You've said that there are no final victories in conservation.The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a good example. It's been a continual battle since the 1970s to keep the oil companies out. We claim to be the richest, most educated country in the world, and we can't keep one little fraction undamaged? You think you have something, and the minute you look away, somebody is trying to destroy it. Look at what has happened recently with tigers, which were safe in a number of reserves. Almost overnight, they were completely wiped out of several places, because, suddenly, there was a demand for skins. When something is so beautiful and valuable, you can never turn your back.
To understand the true objectives of animal welfare organisations and the ordinary people who object to the ways some animals in society are treated, one has to undertake the following exercise.
First... rid your mind of all your current views about animal distinctions and class. Free your psyche of the ideas you may have held for many years about there being a difference between farm animals, domestic animals, companion animals, pretty animals, not so pretty animals, animals you may be afraid of or animals you just don't like.
Now.....what do you have left? You only have animals. That is the fundamental idea behind animal welfare. An animal is an animal is an animal; to put it simply - "a mouse is a cat, is a rabbit, is a cow, is a sheep, is a snake, is a pig, is a dog".
All these animals have the same things in common. They all feel hunger, they all feel thirst and they all feel pain.
This is the ethos of animal welfare organisations and they do not distinguish between animals. Cruelty to a dog is cruelty to a sheep is cruelty to a rat - it is all just cruelty.
There can be no exceptions to cruelty. If a companion animal such as a dog is not permitted to have its tailed docked then the same rule applies to a lamb and that line should never be crossed by any group or political party or individual in our society.
Animal welfare to animal people is about the animal perspective not farmer perspective, horse racing perspective, breeder perspective or laboratory perspective etc. Animal welfare is not about what's best financially for the farmer or breeder; it's about what's best for the animals. This entails their treatment, handling, health, transport and ultimately their death.
Those who use animals such as farmers, animal breeders (dog, cat, horse breeders) laboratories etc view animal welfare only in the context of maximising profits and minimising costs and effort to produce these profits. Animals are seen as the commodities which put money in the bank.
Those of us who are involved in animal welfare are under no illusions that humans will ever reconsider and surrender what society feels is an animal's place in the food chain but we do ask and expect that the animals which provide farmers and animal users with a livelihood be treated with humanity and compassion and not denied the basic rights to ensure their welfare and well being.
It is also a fact that laws in Australia protect certain 'farming practices' such as cutting the tails off piglets, cutting their teeth, castration, mulesing of lambs, and debeaking of chickens all without anaesthetic by calling them animal husbandry techniques. If you were to do these things to your dog or cat, you would face prosecution. So why do farmers get away with it?
They get away with it because the Government/s turns a blind eye. What makes money for the farmer is claimed to make money for the country (as is the case with the recent Hassall Report, which ignores the REAL losses in jobs, GDP and household income), the general public is cocooned and do not see the acts of cruelty which farmers tell them are only undertaken in the best interests of their animals.
As an example, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) showed the world convincingly that in fact these cruel acts do not need to be done at all. Their efforts showed the whole world just why mulesing is really done – essentially to save the farmer money and time. You will find further explanation on mulesing, debeaking, live export, castration and other cruelties as you read on
Firstly let us explain what basic rights EVERY animal should have as an absolute minimum.
Animals should not be denied, at the very least, the right to the "Five Freedoms" (as defined by the Brambell Committee in the UK in 1965).
The Five Freedoms are:
We also expect that animals should be treated with respect and protected from painful and terrifying practices and procedures. We think that most of the community agrees with statement.
To farmers, animals are a means of making money, and their "care" should cost as little as possible whilst their productivity is driven to the maximum. "Animal Welfare" is not actually considered. What is important is making money. It is no coincidence that when a farmer practices positive animal welfare it is only because the results will earn extra money.
Practices and procedures on a farm that would attract prosecution if they were carried out on "companion" animals are carried out as a matter of routine on thousands of farm animals every day.
These practices in fact breach Animal Welfare legislation in every state and territory, but are protected by "Codes of Practice", developed by government, the livestock industries and often the RSPCA, all working together, which provide exemptions from prosecution under cruelty provisions. Whilst non-compliance with a Code of Practice can support a cruelty prosecution, compliance can also form the basis of a defence.
The community expects more and the farming-transport-live export industries want you to take them on trust, to believe in what they do, that they are looking after the interests of the animals they use.
Animal welfare is not extreme. It is what good communities do to take care of their animals. We believe Australian society can now see through all the false and misleading statements coming from the farming industry. The simple truth is their greed is what drives the farming industry and animal welfare is not their priority.
Farming practices in Australia permit and endorse numerous animal husbandry techniques (as they prefer to label them) but we shall refer to them by their true name - mutilations.
The Merino sheep was bred to maximize wool production and the wrinkly skin which characterizes it. Australia's climate is not suited to this type of animal (originally stock was imported from Spain) and this makes the animal prone to "flystrike", when maggots lay their eggs in the folds of the skin.
The farmers' easy and less expensive solution is mulesing, a gruesome procedure in which large chunks of flesh are sliced away from lambs' backsides and their tails are stripped of skin without anaesthesia for the process or analgesia after the process. It should be noted that the breech area is not the only area of the sheep prone to flystrike, again because of the unsuitability of the breed to this climate. Farmers clearly prefer this method as it is a 'one off 'expense.
Breech strike
Those who are aware of this practice find mulesing totally abhorrent; animal welfare groups find mulesing completely unacceptable because there are alternatives. If you did this to your dog or cat, you would be prosecuted. Mulesing is performed because it can be done by anyone, it is cheap, and there is no after care. Lambs can die of shock, septicaemia, or starvation if their mothers reject them. The mustering of ewes and their lambs is very stressful and as a result, mothers will abandon their young. Crutching is more frequent shearing of those areas of the sheep which are prone to flystrike is an alternative to mulesing but again the cost factor comes into the profit margin making it an unattractive alternative for most sheep farmers.
Combined with one or some of the other alternatives which include chemical sprays, breeding for wrinkle free sheep, biological control of flies and more intense monitoring of animals at crucial times would totally eliminate mulesing. Mulesing is outlawed in the UK for the barbaric procedure that it most certainly is. Flystrike does occur in the UK.
Animal advocates, along with society oppose mulesing and believe that good animal management practices will prevent flystrike. However, the procedure remains legal. A trial of a new analgesia has been undertaken recently in Western Australia which proved to be successful. Not surprisingly, the farmer involved thought that at 80 cents per lamb it was too cost prohibitive, which is typical of the mentality. This is a clear demonstration of the attitude of farmers in regard to animal welfare versus production and profit margins.
read more on mulesing - http://liveexportshame.com/mulesing/index.htm
A further method of reducing the incidence of flystrike is pizzle dropping. Male sheep may soil their underbelly and therefore the fleece, diminishing its value, so the tissue between the body and the penis is cut to enable the penis to hang down away from the body. Pizzle dropping is not practiced widely.
Tail docking of lambs is undertaken on virtually all lambs in Australia in order to reduce flystrike which would be attracted by urine and faeces staining. The tails may be removed through cutting with a knife or by the application of a tight rubber ring. Neither procedure is carried out with anaesthesia , analgesia or by qualified veterinary professionals.
It is common practice that male lambs will be castrated, usually referred to as marking at the same time they are tail docked. Similarly, either a knife or a rubber ring will be used. If a knife is used the scrotum is cut and the testes removed, or, if a rubber ring is used, the testes will drop off once the rubber ring has cut off the blood supply and the tissue has atrophied. Both methods cause obvious and prolonged suffering.
Australia exports millions of sheep, cattle, goats, deer, camels and horses to the Middle East, North Africa and South East Asia every year, who are subjected to unspeakable treatment in all stages links of the live export chain. Farmers support the industry because they are able to get a few extra dollars, usually for wethers (castrated rams) passed their wool production prime.
Society finds the live export trade totally unacceptable because it deprives every animal of every one of the five basic freedoms. Terrified animals are crammed into trucks, off loaded into feedlots where they are forced to adapt to unnatural food, then they are re-loaded and taken to ships.
These ships are almost all 20 years old or more and over two million animals have died during the shipboard stage of the process.
M/V "Bader III"
M/V "Al Kuwait"
Animals die terrible deaths from "inanition" (starvation), dehydration, heat exhaustion, pneumonia (from breathing ammonia fumes from their own excrement and dust from the pelletized food), disease and trauma from inappropriate or deliberately cruel mishandling. Those who survive the journey are unluckier still.
Swimming in excrement on the M/V "Cormo Express"
Sick cattle on the M/V "Maysora"
They arrive in countries where summer temperatures are often 45 degrees or higher. Many are blind from the dust from the dry feed pellets and salt sea spray or lame due to injuries caused by numerous loading and unloading handling or from standing for weeks in urine and faeces.
They are brutally handled, hog-tied, slammed into boots of cars, and dragged mercilessly to slaughter while they are fully conscious.
Slaughter in Bahrain
Stabbing cattle in the eyes and lashing their leg tendons is common in Egypt
Slaughter in Kuwait
These animals are subjected to inhumane treatment and torture which most decent people would agree is totally unacceptable. Such treatment is not tolerated and is illegal in Australia and most other enlightened societies but because there are a few more dollars to be made by the farmer (and too many politicians are farmers), live exports continue.
No animal should have its life end in a filthy, disease-ridden ship, be thrown down a chute to be macerated (often still alive), or be thrown overboard to drown or be brutalised in a foreign slaughterhouse.
In spite of the arguments of religious and cultural preferences, the Middle East imports more than 50,000 tonnes of frozen Australian meat every year. This makes government and industry claims that these markets will only accept live animals a fraud in the community. As for the "no refrigeration" argument, how does the freshly slaughtered meat get to its customers, or are we to assume that these millions of animals are eaten "on the spot" immediately after slaughter?
Every day, tens of thousands of farm animals are transported from farms to feedlots and saleyards, wharves or abattoirs. They are crammed into pens on multi-tiered trucks. There is little to no enforcement of the numbers of animals these trucks are to carry per pen. They are "curfewed" (This means they are deprived of food and water) for various periods prior to transport.
At saleyards animals often are left without food and water for extended periods. At feedlots, they are crammed together with little or no opportunity for normal exercise (much less normal behaviours such as foraging). Most do not provide shade from heat and cold extremes. Animals are routinely transported from Western Australia to the Eastern states because the price might be a few cents a kilogram more in that market.
The farmer, not wanting to pay any more for transport than is absolutely necessary, is not overly concerned with the animal welfare ramifications of any of this.
The powerful pig farmers' lobby insists that it is for the welfare of these sensitive, intelligent (pigs are known to have the cognitive ability of a three year old child) and clean animals that they spend most of their lives in steel and concrete crates hardly larger than their own bodies. They tell us that living in their own waste, suffering wretched misery, going effectively insane, having their teeth cut, their ears notched and their tails cut off without anaesthetic minimizes "aggression" and is in their (the pigs) best interests.
If pigs lived as intended – outside wallowing in mud, able to forage, able to build nests for the birth of their young, tooth cutting and tail hacking would be unnecessary, since it is this intense confinement which manifests itself in these types of behaviours.
The other major concern is that intensive piggeries are a breeding ground for all manner of diseases; given pigs are prime incubators for human diseases. The feeding of antibiotics to pigs is, we have been told, common place. It should be a concern for all consumers that eating intensively farmed pork and pork products is creating a tolerance in humans to combat super viruses such as "golden staph" as human resistance diminishes with the ingesting of the antibiotics fed to the pigs.
Pigs DO cry …
The "lucky" ones can move one step back or one step forward
Animal advocates find intensive pig farming totally unacceptable because it deprives pigs of all of the five freedoms in the name of economic gain. We are fully aware that these animals live short lifetimes full of suffering and deprivation. Their frustration becomes so extreme that stereotypical behaviours such as bar biting, head swaying and screaming are commonplace, and the only time they experience fresh air and sunshine is when they are loaded on to trucks to be taken to slaughter. During their confinement, which for about 350,000 breeding sows in Australia is most of their lives, they develop heart disease, bone and leg and foot pain and deformities. In addition to this inhumane confinement, surgical mutilations are carried out routinely upon piglets and breeding sows are denied physical interaction with their young. All of this is, of course, unspeakably cruel. Sow stalls are banned in the UK and are being phased out in the EU because of the growing awareness of animal cruelty issues so obvious in type if intense farming.
No chance to interact with her young
Castrating piglets
At any given time, 11 million egg laying hens are so intensively confined that they are unable to walk or stretch their wings, much less exercise normal behaviours such as dust-bathing and foraging.
Scientists world wide condemn this method of egg production for the undoubted cruelty that it is. Caged hens are allowed less than one A4 size sheet of paper, and develop severe foot pain from standing on wire floors as well as other bone, skin and feather deformities. "Spent" hens are loaded and carted off for slaughter with consideration only relative to their also spent monetary value. Stunning, by means of electric bath, is often ineffective, meaning that many are slaughtered while fully conscious. This is appalling cruelty, and it exists because a Code of Practice allows it.
The beak of a normal chicken has complex and sensitive nerve structure/system. Chicks have half of their upper beak and one third of their lower beak sliced off with a hot wire to prevent cannibalism, caused by the intensive conditions under which the birds are kept, and this causes them lifelong pain.
Intensive confinement
The best efforts of animal advocates over many years have not prevailed over the systematic torture of 11 million egg laying hens in Australia.
Horn amputation is a routine practice carried out by cattle farmers on calves but also full grown cattle, to save farmers any cost from bruising, hide damage and other injuries.
Calves endure this painful, cruel and offensive act without any sedation or local anaesthesia. It is unimaginable that these procedures would be undertaken on animals in Australia without pain relief but again farmers maintain that dehorning is essential for the animals' wellbeing. In Europe sedation and local anaesthesia is administered by veterinarians prior to any such procedure.
It is more common to dehorn calves than grown cattle because the buds are small and not yet fully attached to the head whereas with cattle dehorning can result in serious blood loss when large horns are removed.
The horn grows from the skin around its base in much the same way as the wall of the hoof grows down from the skin of the coronet of the foot. In young calves up to about two months of age, the horn bud is free-floating in the skin layer above the skull. As the calf grows older, the horn bud attaches to the skull and a small horn starts to grow. Dehorning is performed before this attachment to the skull occurs.
There are various methods, two of which are the hot iron and knife. The hot iron burns through the full thickness of the skin and tissue surrounding the bud. The bud eventually falls off. Using a knife the cut starts about 2cm away from the bud cutting right through the through the skin and tissue as the cut moves through the bud.
We wish to stress to you, both methods; performed WITHOUT sedation and local anaesthesia are known to be extremely stressful and painful for the young calves.
Female calves in some particularly remote and extensive properties (especially in Queensland and the Northern Territory) may be spayed without analgesia to prevent pregnancies.
Flank spaying involves entering the abdomen through a cut made in the flank of the animal. When performed without anaesthesia there is a level of pain and distress to the animal that is totally unacceptable. In nearly all instances this procedure is performed WITHOUT anaesthesia.
In heifers and undeveloped cows, passage spaying by hand is only possible with the aid of a mechanical device to spread the vaginal passage. This procedure inflicts extreme pain to the animal and causes irreparable damage to the vagina. The greater proportion of spaying is performed on undeveloped cattle where the procedure requires the use of spreaders.
Another method, the Willis Technique, is increasingly being used in the Northern Territory and Queensland. This method involves an operator placing his/her arm into the back passage of the calf and cutting the ovaries out. Again, no analgesia or anaesthesia is used, and the operators must be highly skilled to avoid internal damage and infections.
None of these proceedures is performed using anaesthetic or analgesic follow-up. Rarely are they carried out by veterinary surgeons; most being undertaken by unqualified untrained workers.
Despite advances in technology, many thousands of cattle are still identified by branding using hot irons. A red hot iron is placed on the skin for several seconds to burn the skin sufficiently to leave a permanent identifiable mark. Even capturing and restraining calves/cattle for this procedure is stressful. Freeze branding has been shown to cause less pain and distress, but still requires mustering, yarding and restraint.
More appropriate identification methods must be adopted and will include ear tattoos, electronic receivers in ear tags, and microchips (already being used extensively with companion animals).
Male cattle, unless they are to be used for breeding, will normally be castrated early in life (to become steers). The procedure is to cut open the scrotum and remove the testes, or alternatively to place a strong rubber ring around the top of the scrotum. It will wither from lack of blood supply and fall off. The calves react violently, kicking their legs and stamping – indicating their pain. The relevant Model Code of Practice allows the use of rubber rings up until the age of 2 weeks, but allows castration by knife (or burdizzo, an implement which crushes the testes) until the age of 6 months.
The CSIRO has developed a vaccine (Vaxstrate) which immunizes cattle (male and female), affecting their reproductive hormones and preventing conception. Regrettably this is not widely used, particularly due to the need for two injections and thus the animals must be mustered twice – a task that is not cost-effective and therefore not welcomed by farmers on extensive properties.
Female calves in some particularly remote and extensive properties (especially Queensland and the Northern Territory) may be spayed without analgesia to prevent pregnancies caused by scrub bulls, and which would make survival difficult for pregnant cattle in poor grazing areas. Graziers are also likely to be able to market cows which have therefore gained more weight prior to muster.
(Note: spelling of term varies; e.g. electro-immobilisation, electroimmobilisation, electro-immobilization, electroimmobilization etc)
Electro-immobilisation is the use of pulsed, low frequency electrical current to produce restraint of an animal. It produces tetanic contractions* of skeletal muscles and therefore voluntary movement is not possible. Movement is regained as soon as the current is switched off.(* Fusion of a number of simple spasms into an apparently smooth, continuous effort, is known as tetanic contraction.)
Throughout the electro-immobilisation process, the animal remains completely consious.
Electro-immobilisation should not be confused with electric stunning which, when applied correctly, causes a high amperage current to be passed through the brain, rendering the animal instantly unconscious. When electro-immobilisation is used, a small current is passed through the body, paralysing the muscles but not making the animal unconscious.
Electro-immobilisation equipment consists of a unit that produces the electrical current (this looks a bit like a large torch), and then wires with attachments to be put on to the animal.
There are three main methods of electro-immobilisation that can be used:
The current is then switched on at a low current. The current is then increased, resulting in immobility and rigidity of the animal. Sometimes this paralyses the animal's respiratory muscles and the animal stops breathing. The current must then be reduced and the animal will start to breath again. Breathing is often laboured. Use of excessive current can lead to death.
What animals is electro-immobilisation used on?
Electro-immobilisation can potentially be used on a range of species such as cattle, deer and sheep. In the Republic of Ireland, electro-immobilisation is used mainly on cattle.
Electro-immobilisation is used to make animals that are hard to handle stay still while procedures such as dehorning are carried out. Even though a local anesthetic may be used for some procedures, it is the electro-immobilisation process itself that animals find distressing.
Electro-immobilisation is prohibited in England under "The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2000 (Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 1870)". This says: "No person shall apply an electrical current to any animals for the purposes of immobilisation." (Schedule 1, paragraph 30). It is understood that similar legislation exists for the rest of the UK.
Electro-immobilisers are banned in New South Wales, Australia, except when used by specifically trained veterinarians during procedures where analgesia or anaesthesia is not required. Tasmania has similar restrictions to New South Wales.
The European Union has not banned electro-immobilisation. However, a restriction for its use is provided in Article 3 of Council Directive 98/58/EC on the protection of animals kept for farming purposes: "Member States shall make provision to ensure that the owners or keepers take all responsible steps to ensure the welfare of animals under their care and to ensure that those animals are not caused any unnecessary pain, suffering or injury."
The science shows that animals find electro-immobilisation aversive, physically stressful, psychologically stressful, noxious and unpleasant (see references below).
There is no need for this inhumane form of restraint. Procedures such as dehorning should be carried out when an animal is young so that extreme forms of restraint, such as electro-immobilisation, are not necessary.
With regard to de-horning of cattle, there is no need for electro-immobilisation to be used. Instead, these animals could be disbudded when they are young calves, being easy to handle at this age.
Because electro-immobilisation renders the animal unable to move, there is a risk that unscrupulous people (not vets) could subject animals to painful procedures without the use of a local anasthetic or painkillers.
Above information provided by liveexportshame.com. Please visit their website for more information.
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Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies...
Oppose Delisting of Wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern RockiesCall the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and let them know that you oppose the Bush/Cheney Administration's elimination of vital federal protections for wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.
Outrageous -- Feds Greenlight Northern Rockies Wolf Slaughter Despite the opposition of tens of thousands of Defenders supporters, the Fish & Wildlife Service just made it much easier to kill wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region -- even while they remain protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Airborne Hunting
Support the PAW Act and Help Save WolvesAerial hunting of wolves in Alaska is opposed by hunters, scientists and conservationists. Now Congressman George Miller (D-CA) has introduced the Protect America's Wildlife (PAW) Act -- legislation to end aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska and prevent the practice from spreading to the Lower 48 United States. Please urge your Representative to co-sponsor this important legislation.
Urge Alaska's Governor to End Aerial Wolf Hunting in Alaska Alaska has taken action to reinstate its aerial gunning program. Under the program, marksmen can gun down wolves from the air or run the wolves to exhaustion, then land and shoot them at point blank range. Urge Governor Sara Palin to withdraw her support for aerial hunting and help us put an end to this needless and brutal practice once and for all.
Southwest Wolves
Speak Out For Struggling Southwest Wolves Bad news for wolves in the Southwest: numbers of the struggling canines are plummeting. Fear, misinformation and poor management are leading to their demise. Without an immediate course change, Arizona and New Mexico's "lobos" could once again disappear from the wild.
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Federal: The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act Reintroduced in Congress
Music legend and animal advocate Paul McCartney has said that if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. No one understands this sentiment better than those who profit from animal abuse -- few people can view video footage of animals writhing in pain in vivisection labs, bludgeoned to death for fur or sadistically beaten to perform circus tricks and not be moved to do something about it. For the most part, such footage is obtained secretly, for animal exploiters know that should their abusive practices be exposed, the public will react with understandable horror. Indeed, the recent video footage taken inside the Hallmark/Westland dairy cow slaughterhouse by an investigator for the Humane Society of the United States has disgusted much of the world, and for good reason (see it for yourself at www.hsus.org). Though animal abuse is generally well hidden, make no mistake: Behind every plastic-wrapped chicken breast in the supermarket, beneath every animal-circus Big Top, inside every egg carton and lacing every pharmaceutical there is a world of suffering that animal exploiters work tirelessly to guard.
Music legend and animal advocate Paul McCartney has said that if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. No one understands this sentiment better than those who profit from animal abuse -- few people can view video footage of animals writhing in pain in vivisection labs, bludgeoned to death for fur or sadistically beaten to perform circus tricks and not be moved to do something about it. For the most part, such footage is obtained secretly, for animal exploiters know that should their abusive practices be exposed, the public will react with understandable horror. Indeed, the recent video footage taken inside the Hallmark/Westland dairy cow slaughterhouse by an investigator for the Humane Society of the United States has disgusted much of the world, and for good reason (see it for yourself at www.hsus.org).
Though animal abuse is generally well hidden, make no mistake: Behind every plastic-wrapped chicken breast in the supermarket, beneath every animal-circus Big Top, inside every egg carton and lacing every pharmaceutical there is a world of suffering that animal exploiters work tirelessly to guard.
By exposing the truth of what animal profiteers endeavor to make invisible, we reveal a means to end abuse that is nearly as senseless as it is reprehensible. To that end, following are ten facts animal exploiters hate the public knowing about -- and what you can do about them.
1. Male chicks in the egg industry are killed shortly after hatching. Because male chickens of the egg industry don't lay eggs, and since they have not been genetically manipulated for profitable meat production like "broiler" chickens, they are of no economic value to egg producers, including "free range" farmers. Newly hatched chicks are quickly sexed: females will be used as "layers," most likely trapped in a tiny wire battery cage with five or six other hens, while males are immediately killed. Standard killing methods include maceration (grinding them up alive), gassing them or throwing them into a Dumpster to suffocate or dehydrate. Workers make room for more chicks in the trash by mercilessly stomping down on them, many of whom are still peeping for their mothers. The U.S. egg industry quietly "disposes" of more than 200 million male chicks every year.
Clearly, the "incredible, edible" egg does not have a sunny side. The good news is humans have no need for eggs. Eggless foods like tofu scramble might sound a little strange at first, but they're delicious, healthier than eggs and will help save lives. For the hard-boiled truth about eggs, along with advice for cooking without them, visit www.EggIndustry.com.
2. Cows do not "give" us their milk. Thanks in part to savvy marketing, even many vegetarians regard dairy foods as innocuous. Slick ads tell us milk and cheese come from "happy cows," and the dairy industry claims that milk "does a body good" (conveniently ignoring the fact that cow's milk is the number-one cause of food allergies among infants and children, according to the American Gastroenterological Association). What the dairy industry does not mention is the suffering inherent in producing dairy foods. In today's industrialized farming practices, a cow is strapped into what farmers call a "rape rack," where she is impregnated. Once the calf is born, however, mother and baby are separated -- a heartrending ordeal in its own right -- so that the mother's milk can be taken and sold for human use. Female calves are raised on milk replacers, while male calves are sold for meat. Many of these young males are locked into tiny crates, preventing all exercise, and slaughtered a few months later for veal. After several cycles of giving birth and having each baby torn from her, the dairy cow, her body exhausted, begins producing less milk and she's loaded onto a crowded transport truck for a terrifying journey to the slaughterhouse, having lived only a fraction of her natural lifespan.
Consumers need not be a part of this cruel scenario. Fortunately, cruelty-free foods like soy ice cream and cheese have drastically improved in recent years, and if you've got a jones for latte or breakfast cereal, plant-based milk is delicious and available fortified with calcium and other nutrients. Visit www.MilkSucks.com for more information.
3. Animal agriculture is a major contributor to global warming. Actually, raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. According to a 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, farmed animals and the energy used to feed them account for 18 percent of global greenhouse emissions, while transportation accounts for 13.5 percent. This is not surprising, considering the livestock sector now occupies 30 percent of the world's land, making agribusiness a leading cause of deforestation. Billions of animals raised every year for food generate 37 percent of the world's methane emissions and 65 percent of nitrous oxide -- two powerful greenhouse gases. The methane comes chiefly from cows, who produce it naturally during digestion, but it is also a byproduct of most manures stored for long periods in lagoons or tanks. The USDA estimates that more than 335 million tons of manure are produced annually on farms in the United States alone. That's about 130 times more manure than is produced by the nation's entire human population. The biggest inconvenient truth for anyone who cares about this planet is how animal agribusiness is destroying it.
By consuming animal-based foods, we are ultimately contributing to ecological disaster. The solution here is as clear as it is simple: Adopt a planet-friendly plant-based diet. Check out www.TryVeg.com and www.GoVeg.com to learn how easy it is.
4. Most of the animals slaughtered for food in the U.S. are not legally protected from cruelty. That sounds axiomatic; after all, slaughtering animals for something so unnecessary is inherently cruel. But even animal exploiters can show concern for an animal's welfare, which is what Congress had in mind 50 years ago when it enacted the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, prohibiting methods of handling and slaughter that cause pain to animals. Yet "poultry," which to the UDSA includes chickens, turkeys, ducks and, for some reason, rabbits, are not among the animals protected by the Act. Of the 10 billion animals raised and killed for food in this country, more than nine billion of them are chickens. The HMSA is by no means the gold standard of compassion (it's much kinder not to raise and kill animals at all), but at least it asserts that animals should be rendered insensible to pain before being killed. Because the HMSA does not explicitly include poultry, slaughterers continue to kill billions of birds annually using such inhumane methods as shackling them upside down, electrically stunning them into paralysis (but not unconsciousness) and sometimes drowning them in tanks of scalding water -- all while countless birds are fully conscious.
Urge Congress to amend the law, giving poultry the same basic protection given to cows, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Visit https://community.hsus.org/campaign/petition_for_poultry to learn more.
5. Animals used in circuses are abused to perform tricks. Believe it or not, elephants, bears, chimpanzees and big cats are not natural performers. Indeed, animal "trainers" routinely use extremely cruel devices -- including electric prods, sharpened bullhooks, whips, chains and tight collars -- to induce fear and pain and force wild animals to ride tricycles, balance on balls, jump through fire and execute other stunts for human amusement. Psychological abuse is also key, as elephant "trainers" George Lewis and Byron Fish explain in their book I Loved Rogues: The Life of an Elephant Tramp: "[Training an elephant to lie down is] done by gradually tightening the chain, a few inches at a time, until the elephant is supporting its weight entirely on the front and hind legs that are free. It is very tiring for a bull to hold up its mass in this manner. When the handler sees it weakening, he gives the command, 'Down! Come on down.' The command is repeated until the elephant obeys. Just before it gives in, it will show signs of fear and defeat. Its eyes will bulge and its bowels become loose and watery as they are emptied several times. When the elephant finally surrenders and falls over on its side, it knows it is comparatively helpless and that it has lost a psychological battle."
Fortunately, animal-free circuses are growing in popularity and offer families plenty of excitement and spectacle -- without the misery. For more about cruelty-free circuses, and what you can do to end animal abuse under the Big Top, visit www.Circuses.com.
6. Pet-food makers torture and kill animals. Few people would guess that many of the same companies producing commercial pet food -- and promoting dogs and cats as "members of the family" -- keep animals in small cages as test subjects. In fact, Menu Foods, which initiated last year's massive pet-food recall, confirmed its product caused death by feeding it to animals in laboratories. In another experiment, sponsored by pet-food maker Iams, 18 young Great Danes were killed to study the effect of diet on bone density. PETA's undercover investigation in one pet-food test lab revealed dogs who had their vocal chords severed so they couldn't bark and part of their leg muscles hacked out and animals confined in dungeon-like cells, left to suffer without veterinary care. Moreover, Iams purchases animals specifically bred for experiments, thereby supporting the vivisection industry. Iams told PETA they will continue to conduct laboratory tests on animals, despite the fact that these tests are unnecessary and not required by law.
Although nutrition research for animals is important, this can be accomplished by studying animals who suffer naturally from diseases. It is no more necessary to torture and kill animals to improve pet food than it is to make people suffer while studying the human diet. For more information, including a list of pet-food companies that do not engage in animal testing, visit www.IamsCruelty.com or www.IamsKills.com.
7. The proper care and use of most animals in U.S. laboratories are not covered by law. In another bow to corporate interests, the USDA excludes mice, rats and birds bred for research from the definition of "animal" under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), thus neatly eliminating from government protection approximately 95 percent of all animals used in laboratories. Enacted in 1966, the AWA provides minimal standards of care and use for animals in laboratories, zoos, circuses and the pet industry (though not pet stores). Even those animals covered under the AWA -- such as dogs, cats and rabbits -- can be denied analgesics, anesthetics and tranquilizers if it is deemed "scientifically necessary" to do so. What this means is that researchers can force-feed chemicals to animals, pour caustic substances into their eyes, conduct repeated surgeries on them, implant wires in their brains, crush their spines, burn them, electrocute them, psychologically torment them and much more, often with impunity and without any painkillers.
For more revealing facts and how you can help end this senseless torture, visit www.neavs.org or www.navs.org.
8. Rabbit fur is NOT a byproduct of meat production. Fur stores may try to mollify their critics by arguing that rabbit fur is merely a byproduct of the rabbit-meat industry. In truth, rabbit meat and rabbit fur come from different breeds slaughtered at different ages and for different purposes. While large breeds, such as the New Zealand White and Californian, are raised for their flesh, the Rex rabbit is especially prized for their plush, soft coats. "Meat" rabbits die young -- about 11 weeks old, when their flesh is still tender. At this age, the rabbit's fur has not fully developed and is very light and thin. "Fur" rabbits are kept alive longer -- about six months, though in squalid conditions -- and suffer miserable deaths. Most rabbit fur comes from rabbits raised on fur farms, where they spend their lives in tiny wire cages, thus denied their natural instincts to burrow, play and enjoy social bonds. To kill rabbits, farmers smash their skulls or break their necks and then string them up, cut off their heads and peel the skin from their bodies.
You don't need fur to be fashionable -- just ask Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren, who are among the major designers who have shunned fur. For more insights, check out www.FurIsDead.com and www.RabbitProduction.com.
9. Zoo animals often end up as hunting trophies. Long gone are the days when zoos were the only reasonable place for the public to see exotic animals. The reality now is that zoos are a business, businesses need customers and zoos lure customers by breeding or buying new animals. Older animals must be removed to make room for the new ones; consequently, "retired" or "surplus" animals are frequently sold to brokers, who in turn sell them to breeders, circuses, research facilities, auctions, roadside petting zoos, private parties or hunting ranches. That cuddly lion cub you see today could end up stuffed and mounted a few years from now. According to the Humane Society of the United States, zoos that have sold animals either directly to canned hunts or to dealers who have done business with auctions or hunts include the Kansas City Zoo, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Memphis Zoo, the San Diego Zoo, the San Francisco Zoo and the National Zoo in Washington, DC, to name but a few.
Rather than patronizing zoos, you can support groups that genuinely rescue exotic animals or work to preserve habitats such as the Performing Animal Welfare Society, the Elephant Sanctuary, the International Primate Protection League and the Born Free Foundation. For further details about zoos and canned hunts, visit www.WildlifeProtection.net or www.peta.org/campaigns/ar-zoos.asp
10. Our tax dollars help fund animal abuse. Like it or not, taxpayers subsidize some of the most appalling cruelty to animals, including factory farming practices, vivisection and killing animals on public land. The largest of these subsidies is the Farm Bill, a comprehensive piece of federal legislation that comes up about every five years. The Farm Bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies, much of which goes to agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed to farmed animals. In fact, 74 percent of the Farm Bill goes to the meat and dairy industries, while about one percent goes to help growers of fruits and vegetables (now you know why healthy foods cost more than fast food). Thanks to subsidized grain, factory farmers make more profit packing animals into feedlots than by letting them graze on real farms.
The fiscal irresponsibility continues with vivisection, which is financed through taxpayer-funded agencies. Vivisection includes toxicity tests of drugs and substances (animal testing), studies of human disease (experimental research on animals) and using animals in medical schools (dissection and practice surgery). The U.S. military also subjects animals to horrific cruelties such as irradiation, burnings, bombings, wounds and decompression sickness -- all in the name of national defense. Not only are these military practices funded by our taxes, but vivisectors receive $7 billion in government grants every year, further bankrolled by taxpayers.
Tax dollars also subsidize a little-known federal agency within the USDA ironically called Wildlife Services. Wildlife Services spends much of its time killing "pests" -- in general, animals who prey on livestock grazing on public land that has been leased to ranchers for a pittance -- and the number-one pest of the rancher is the coyote. Methods used to kill these animals include aerial gunning, gassing pups in their dens, traps that eject sodium-cyanide into an animal's mouth, livestock protection collars filled with poison, steel traps and neck, body and leg snares -- all this despite the availability of non-lethal methods and evidence that lethal control is ineffective. Each year, WS kills tens of thousands of coyotes, as well as hundreds or even thousands of wolves, mountain lions, bears, bobcats and other animals, sometimes for eating flowers and pet food, digging in gardens or frightening people.
Sadly, tax dollars are used to underwrite a variety of other animal abuses, including rodeos, foie gras production, trophy hunting of elephants in Africa, battery cages used in egg production, the mink-coat industry and the cruel practice of dog racing, among others. If you object to your taxes being used to subsidize animal abuse, either on a state or federal level, tell your elected officials! They can all be located at www.Congress.org.
These ten spoilers are hardly an inclusive list of what those who profit from animal abuse would love to keep under wraps. Fortunately, we can all do something about these injustices. Your action can be as simple as going vegan, sharing your outrage with others or boycotting a business. Better yet, why not all three? (Note: If you stop patronizing companies that profit from animal cruelty, such as zoos and circuses, please tell them why you are boycotting them.)
Armed with the knowledge of what goes on behind closed doors, we can all help make a difference in the lives of the defenseless.
Mark Hawthorne (www.strikingattheroots.com ) is the author of "Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism" (O Books). Mark adopted a vegetarian lifestyle soon after an encounter with one of India's many cows in 1992 and went vegan a decade later. He is now a committed animal activist who has engaged in nearly every model of activism, from leafleting and tabling to protesting and direct action. Currently, he is working with hundreds of other activists on an historic ballot initiative that will ban the use of battery cages, gestation crates and veal crates in California. Mark was a contributing writer for Satya from 2004 until the magazine ceased publishing in June of 2007, and his articles, book reviews, essays and opinion pieces have also appeared in Herbivore, VegNews, Vegan Voice, Hinduism Today, Utne.com and many daily newspapers across the United States. Mark is a volunteer for Animal Place, a vegan education center and sanctuary for farmed animals in northern California, where he serves on the outreach advisory council. He is also involved in rabbit rescue and lives with five rescued rabbits.