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The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Tasmania, Australia, has triggered anger and confusion by serving sausages at a fundraiser and defending its decision to do so.

On its website, the RSPCA describes itself as “the voice for the animals of Australia” that “defends their dignity, fights to stop cruelty, and prosecutes those who would harm them.”

The photo, posted by the RSCPA itself, has triggered backlash from supporters and activists around the world who argue that serving abused animals is inconsistent the organization’s stated mission. In response to the criticism, the RSPCA defended itself:

“The RSPCA believes you can eat meat or eggs and still care about the welfare of the animals that provide it. These animals are living, feeling creatures, capable of experiencing fear, pain and distress. The RSPCA believes all animals should be treated humanely, whether they’re animals we farm for food or live with as companions.”

To make matters worse, the RSPCA acknowledged that it didn’t know the source of the animals who they served, which means that they most likely originated from a factory farm:

If the RSPCA, whose mission is protect animals, can’t connect the dots between the cruelty it opposes and the cruelty it supports, then how can the organization expect the general public to shift toward a cruelty-free lifestyle? Their decision to serve and condone the consumption of meat makes the RSPCA part of the problem, not the solution.

Post a comment on the RSPCA’s Facebook wall to encourage them to stop serving the animals who they claim to protect. The BBQ photos were posted on October 4th.

Wearing t-shirts with slogans like “Climate Justice Starts Here,” hundreds, if not thousands, of Climate March participants in NYC lined up at food trucks at the street fair after the parade to buy meat, fish and dairy products, demonstrating either a lack of awareness or disregard for what the United Nations says is, by far, the number one contributor of climate change and the planet’s biggest polluter — animal agriculture.

How can the nation’s leading environmental groups expect the general public to make eco-friendly choices if their own members engage in the most environmentally destructive activity — and if they themselves don’t promote a plant-based diet? Can we really expect world leaders at this week’s United Nations’ Climate Summit to take drastic measures to reverse climate change if “environmentalists” can’t take the most basic one?

At Climate Change marches around the world, plant-based/vegan participants displayed compelling posters and distributed information about the impact of animal agriculture on the environment, and their efforts will assuredly effect some change. However, as evidenced in the groundbreaking documentary film Cowspiracy, animal agriculture must be eliminated altogether in order to reverse climate change and save the planet.

1. It’s unhealthy – Dairy milk is designed for the digestive systems of baby cows, not humans. It’s filled with fat and nutrients that help a baby cow gain almost 2 pounds per day.

2. It’s unnatural – Humans are the only species that drinks the milk of another species. Why do we drink the milk of a cow when we create our own? It’s no wonder so many people are lactose intolerant.

Photo: Viva!

3. It’s illogical – Humans are the only species that drinks milk beyond infancy. If our bodies were designed to consume milk for a lifetime, then wouldn’t women produce it long after their babies stop nursing?

4. It’s cruel – When female cows give birth, they lactate for their babies, not for us. Yet, in order to maximize the amount of milk they have to sell, dairy farmers forcibly separate newborns from their mothers. Female babies are raised to become milk machines, like their mothers, and male babies are often moved into veal crates, one of the cruelest and most intensive forms of confinement. Dairy cows and their babies know nothing but physical pain, deprivation and misery. Here is video of a mother chasing after her baby as he or she is being kidnapped. Don’t be fooled by the green pasture; this footage is taken on a small family farm, not on a factory farm where 99% of dairy cows are raised.

5. It’s outdated – Milk is addictive because it creates opiate effects during digestion. That is why babies want to nurse and why people say, “I could never give up cheese.” But consuming dairy is unnatural, unhealthy, environmentally destructive and inhumane. Why not kick the habit by consuming plant-based milk products which are so similar to dairy that you might not know the difference?

Mom looking for her baby

The NY Times reports that Nestlé will no longer buy products derived from pigs and chickens held in the most intensive forms of confinement (gestation crates & battery cages) and from cattle who have been dehorned or had their tails docked without anesthesia. The new policy, which will affect at least 7,300 of its suppliers and will likely trigger other companies to follow suit, represents “one of the broadest-reaching commitments to improving the quality of life for animals in the food system.”

Intensive confinement and body mutilation are among the cruelest aspects of factory farming. So, for the billions of pigs, chickens and cows who are born into this system, a slightly less awful existence is better than nothing. But these reforms should not give caring consumers the impression that they are eating happy animals. On the contrary, pigs, chickens and cows raised on factory farms will still live wretched lives in windowless sheds, unable to do anything that comes naturally to them. And then they are slaughtered. Please, go veg.

According to the makers of the new documentary film Cowspiracy, one industry is destroying the planet more than any other. It is the leading cause of global warming, water depletion, deforestation, species extinction and ocean dead zones. If you haven’t figured it out already, it is factory farming. So why do the world’s leading environmental groups — the very organizations who should be fighting factory farming — refuse to acknowledge it? I don’t know the answer, and I won’t find out on Thursday at the NYC premiere of Cowspiracy because it is sold out. Those bastards!  At least we have the trailer and the Cowspiracy website to keep us apprised of screenings.

Even though I haven’t seen Cowspiracy, I am already praying to the plant-based gods that it is nominated for best documentary film, a virtual assurance that it will hit mainstream theaters and knock some sense into the American public. Share the trailer on social media. Let’s help make this ground-breaking film blow the lid off of factory farming and the organizations who should be using our donations to fight it.