In an article entitled Veal Farmers Adopt More Humane Methods, the NY Times gives people permission “to try veal again” by profiling a Kentucky veal company, which sells “pasture-raised” calves: “About 25 percent of the country’s veal comes from Strauss Brands, which, like many modern meat producers, has moved away from the methods that prompted outrage from animal-rights groups and diners alike.” It is only further down in the article, after many readers have moved on, that we learn that only 5% of Strauss’ calves are pasture-raised. So this begs the question: how are the other 95% of Strauss’ calves raised?

Photo: Tim Harris, NY Times

Both the text and the photos in this NY Times story paint a picture of happy, free-roaming baby cows who suffer only at the end, when they are slaughtered at 7.5 months old. Of course, slaughter is a terrifying experience and is reason, in and of itself, to abstain from eating animals. But for those who don’t oppose slaughter but do who oppose intensive confinement, this article (inadvertently?) gives the impression that the baby cows who they eat now come from big green pastures. This is not the case! In fact, only 20% of veal calves are pasture-raised, according to the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, which means that majority of calves are probably raised in conditions like this.  In the meantime, these images of lush, green pastures “take away the stigma” of eating veal and “give people permission” to eat it again.

In an article about tick bites triggering allergies to meat and dairy, the Washington Post reports that a flavoring in some raspberry pastries “comes from the anal scent glands of the North American beaver.” Of course, the important news here for animals is that thousands of people can no longer eat them: “Thanks to the Lone Star tick, a tide of involuntary vegetarianism is rolling up the Eastern seaboard, where it is the likely cause of thousands of cases of severe red meat allergies. The allergy can cause hives, breathing problems, a drop in blood pressure or even anaphylactic shock after eating red meat or dairy.”

Lone Star tick. (AP Photo/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, James Gathany)

If dog is man’s best friend, then ticks are cows’ best friend. Thanks to these Lone Star ticks, the lives of tens of thousands of cows will be spared because thousands of people can no longer eat them. Allergies are no fun for humans, but being branded with fire, castrated, de-horned with no painkillers before being slaughtered is no fun for cows. Why wait to be bitten by a tick to stop eating animals when doing so now is so good for your health, the environment and, of course, the animals?

Several years ago, I heard an activist talk about the reaction she received when she was distributing free veggie dogs at a ball park. Some people said, “Eww. What’s in that?” to which she responded, “Grains, soy and vegetables, not to be confused with the lips and rectums in the other hot dogs.” In my 24/7 attempt to get people to eliminate or reduce their consumption of animals, I use that line all the time.  I wish, however, that I could use this video instead; pictures really do speak a thousand words. Not all hot dogs are made this way, but, hopefully, this footage will trigger some people to grill veggie dogs instead of mystery meat during their Labor Day BBQs.  Share it!

In an opinion piece in the NY Times entitled “The Enigma of Animal Suffering,” “former vegan” Rhys Southan gives readers permission to eat animals while simultaneously acknowledging that their treatment is so inhumane that only nonexistent remedies would make their lives tolerable: “Some ideas include breeding genetically modified animals who are insensitive to pain, culturing non-sentient animal products in a lab, and giving chickens virtual reality helmets so that they think they are living in a nice environment even if they’re not.” Based on his own description about how farm animals are tortured (“Even small, high-welfare farms tend to subject their animals to at least some painful procedures like castration without anesthetic, dehorning or the separation of mothers and their newborn children”), his conclusion should be “don’t eat animals.” Instead, he seems to be justifying animal consumption by suggesting that animals are ignorant and that the parallels we make between human and animal suffering are “unsound.” The phrase “former vegan” is,  in and of itself, a detriment to the animal rights movement because it suggests that they “saw the light” and realized that eating animals is a good thing. If you’re going to betray the animals and the movement to protect them, please go away quietly.

Ex-Vegan Rhys Southan

In an effort to prevent the public from seeing the conditions in which farm animals are raised and slaughtered, agribusiness is aggressively pursuing “ag gag” and “farm protection” legislation that make it a crime to document factory farms. In a story published in an agricultural trade publication, a spokesperson for the Animal Ag Alliance claims that these bills “show consumers how well animals are cared for.” She also says that undercover investigators stage abuse for the cameras, bring disease onto the farms and “damage animals and crops.” 

Even though animals on factory farms often live in their own excrement, agribusiness uses “biosecurity” as a rationale to keep out investigators. “Biosecurity” was a scary word even before the recent Ebola outbreaks, so using it to scare the public into supporting “farm protection” legislation is pretty crafty – and, of course, totally duplicitous. Agribusiness knows that the public is horrified by undercover video footage which could impact their sales, so they are going to move mountains to keep the cameras out through legislation. We must therefore continue to support the efforts to kill these bills.