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Hens in intensive agriculture are crammed into tiny battery cages where they are unable to walk or spread their wings.

This month’s massive egg recall is stacking up to be the largest in history with a mind-boggling half a BILLION eggs snatched back from our nation’s shelves.  Over 1,000 people across 14 states have fallen ill. What’s so crazy is that all this is the fallout from one single egg factory. That’s right, just one facility. That is how outrageously conglomerated our food system has become. A billion eggs from one hen house? Can you imagine what kind of life those chickens must have?

This is no isolated incident either. Just this week there was another recall of 380,000 pounds of deli meats with Listiria contamination, another potentially deadly bacteria which causes high fever, severe headache, nausea, neck stiffness and potential death.

The egg facility involved in the recall has a rotten history. The salmonella outbreak can be traced to Wright County Egg, in Galt, Iowa. They have been the target of government regulators for environmental violations, unsafe working conditions, and sexual harassment of workers, according to the New York Times. Wright County Egg is owned by Jack DeCoster, who also happens to own an egg facility in Maine which was the recent target of a Mercy for Animals 2009 undercover investigation.

The undercover video revealed shocking animal abuse in Mr. DeCoster’s egg factory. Birds were video taped suffering from untreated open wounds, infections, and broken bones. Hens were producing eggs for human consumption alongside their dead cage mates, standing in feces. Workers were seen breaking the necks of hens, kicking birds and throwing them live in trash bins.

Mr. DeCoster pleaded guilty to 10 counts of cruelty to animals and paid fines and restitution coming to over $130,000.  However, it appears from this historically massive egg recall and resulting salmonella epidemic that Mr. DeCoster has not cleaned up his act.  Similar appalling conditions are sure to be found at this factory.

When you keep chickens crammed 10 to a cage and a million to a warehouse, contamination is going to easily occur. These facilities are disgusting, dirty, rat-infested places you wouldn’t want to spend even a minute inside and these poor birds have to live their entire short lives in them. Hens in intensive agriculture are crammed into tiny battery cages where they are unable to walk or spread their wings. Workers have to enter the windowless warehouses with masks and goggles because the airborne fecal dust is so thick. The birds are painfully debeaked. They never set foot outside or feel the sun on their feathers. All their natural behaviors like nesting, scratching, pecking, and preening are completely denied.

So how do we keep ourselves and our family safe from contaminated eggs? The same way we help end the suffering of these tortured hens; by going vegan. We can enjoy improved health and well-being on a plant-based diet without the cholesterol and saturated fat-filled egg. In Defense of Animals has the solution not only to the safety issue, but to the cruelty issue, to the obesity issue, to the world hunger issue. It’s truly amazing how many of the world’s problems can be eliminated with a vegan diet. So recall cruelty! Recall global warming! Recall heart disease and go vegan!

Doll Stanley, Scotlund Haisley, Renee Lazzareschi and Hope Bohanec

In Defense of Animals was a co-sponsor of the 2010 Animal Rights Conference in Washington DC, July 16, 17 & 18. This year’s conference, presented by Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) was a grand affair at the Hilton Alexandria with dozens of animal organizations and product vendors in every corner of a huge hall in the hotel.  Scotlund Haisley, IDA’s new president, attended and spoke several times, as well as myself and a few IDA staff from all over the country. Our table was brimming with information and fun merchandise including a new, very popular t-shirt and new buttons.

The three day affair included panels of speakers on a wide variety of topics from developing leadership, enacting and enforcing protective animal laws, advertising and media, fundraising, to effective strategies and tactics and so much more. A video room offered PowerPoint presentations and compelling films throughout the conference.

Along with the three catered vegan meals available at the conference, the vegan sweet treats sent me over the edge on a sugar high! After the vegan twinkies, cupcakes, hazelnut chocolate cups, and ice cream sandwiches, you realize that we can now make anything vegan – and it’s all obtainable at this conference!

IDA’s new president, Scotlund Haisley, offered an evocative speech at the Sunday Evening Plenary Session delving into his past work with the Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL). He single handedly transformed WARL from a scary place for animals behind bars into a homey sanctuary with no cages, running water features, and new age music piped in, creating a “home awaiting a home” for the luckiest animals in the DC area. We are very excited about the prospects Scotlund brings to IDA and look forward to his leadership and the potential he brings to make IDA even more effective in the future for animals.

I highly recommend the Animal Rights Conference as a great place to network, meet other animal loving people, learn about the movement and eat decedent vegan treats. It’s a really awesome feeling to have a thousand people gathered in one place who all feel the same compassion for animals that I do. I came home with vegan gifts for friends, lots of people to contact, and a renewed sense of hope, that we are out there, effecting change for animals in every corner of the globe. I can’t wait till next year’s conference in LA, and hope you will join us!

"Sign" for the Virtual Demo - Just Right Click in the image and Choose Save. Then you can repost this image anywhere.

Every year approximately TWO MILLION dogs are inhumanely caged, tortured and used for food in South Korea! The dogs are crammed like vegetables into crates. When a customer makes a selection, the dogs are roughly yanked from the cage and intentionally abused before being slaughtered for the sale.

In Defense of Animal’s partner in South Korea recently shut down a dog meat farm in the Gyeonggi Province. While this is a huge victory for the dogs of South Korea, more must be done.

This practice of killing and eating dogs is not because of some long-standing cultural tradition. In fact, most Koreans find the cruelty and killing appalling. Yet it continues because it is backed by government indifference and because profit-driven industry forces aggressively promote the superstition that the more the dog suffered in his death, the more virility a man will experience when he eats the flesh.

Please join IDA and our Korean colleagues by participating in The International Day of Action! There are demonstrations happening all over the world but don’t worry if there isn’t one in your area. This year we are also having a “virtual demonstration”!

It is very easy to take part in the “virtual demonstration” – just change your profile photo on your Facebook or Twitter pages to our “Sign” (provided in this blog entry) and post this petition to the South Korean Embassy in your status line or tweet it to your friends! By encouraging your friends and followers to sign this petition – you’ll be urging the Korean government to strengthen and enforce animal protection laws so that these cruelties can be brought to an end! So even if you can’t be outside an embassy next Tuesday – you can still let those decision makers inside the embassy know you care about how these dogs are treated and you want them to do something about it!

There are big changes coming to Ohio farm animals. Ohioans for Humane Farms met with Ohio agriculture leaders and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to broker a deal that will bring much needed reforms to Ohio animal agriculture. This comes on the heels of a successful signature gathering campaign that collected 500,000 signatures from Ohioans demanding change for farmed animals. Those signatures were collected for a ballot measure that will no longer be necessary as farming interests felt the ominous fight ahead and came to the negotiation table. Here’s what the animals won:

• A ban on veal crates, to be phased out within six years.
• A ban on new gestation crates in the state after December 31, 2010. Existing facilities are grandfathered, but must cease use of these crates within 15 years.
• A permanent moratorium on permits for new battery cage facilities in place immediately.
• A ban on the transport of downed cows and calves for slaughter.
• A ban on strangulation and other forms of on farm killing that are not included in euthanasia standards as outlined by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
• Enactment of legislation establishing felony-level penalties for cock fighters.

These are huge strides for farmed animals, but there is an underlying disappointment that existing battery cages for egg-laying hens will still be permitted. Battery cages confine a hen to a space the size of a sheet of paper where she can’t even extend her wings for her whole life. Imagine living your entire life in a crowded elevator and you will understand the life if a battery caged hen. These would have been banned by the ballot measure, but this deal does bring historic change to the heavily agricultural state of Ohio without the risk of losing everything at the ballot.

This victory is part of an amazing trend that is shining light on the darkest places in the abusive animal agricultural industry and showing its true colors to the world. Change is happening and the days of cruelty, violence and intensive confinement toward gentle farm animals are numbered.

We gave edible underwear a whole new meaning as In Defense of Animals joined forces with PETA, East Bay Animal Advocates and Bay Area Vegetarians to march in San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade Extravaganza on June 27, 2010. When I arrived the morning of the parade, our huge flatbed truck/float was filled with voluminous fruits and luscious veggies. Ladies were pinning greens on skimpy bikinis. One gal had a watermelon cut in half strung on as a bikini top. I joined in the fun and sprouted kale on my mini-skirt. Most of the gals looked like they jumped in a giant salad and came out just covered in strategic places.

There was something for everyone and the more modest among us had the option of t-shirts made especially for the day that read “Vegan Pride” or a variety of costumes. There was a cow, a chicken and a few pigs that held “Please Don’t Eat Me!” signs and a carrot, stalk of celery and other veggies whose signs read, “Eat ME!”

The best part was the outreach. For a long stretch of 8 blocks on Market St., we furiously passed out an estimated 17,000 pieces of veg literature to the lively crowd while smiling, cheering, waving and dancing to Lady Gaga! A few scantly clad veggie people danced on top of the truck “whipping” each other with chard stalks. This was our opportunity to show the world that vegans are not cloudy, dark, doom and gloom types, but fun, humorous, gorgeous and healthy! You can see all the pictures from our adventure here.

We were warmly received and we all felt that this sympathetic crowd allowed us to offer our message of compassion. I hope this inspires you to want to get out, take advantage of the summer months and do some veg outreach! We can provide you with materials and support. We also have World Go Vegan Week coming up Oct. 24 – 31. Start planning your event now! Contact hope@idausa.org if you would like to participate and do some outreach in your area.

You’re driving to the store and you want to take Duke. The day is lovely, warm, the sun stretched across the sky. You park in the shade, leave the windows open slightly, and you’re back to the car in a mere fifteen minutes.

While you are gone, however, the temperature begins to soar – within a few minutes your car becomes a roasting oven. A Stanford University test found that even if it’s only 72°F outside, a car’s internal temperature rockets to 116°F in a very short time. You’re almost through the check-out line, and Duke is fighting for his life. When it is 80°F outside, a car’s temperature inside rises to 99°F in 10 minutes, and to 109°F in 20 minutes, a San Francisco State University study found. Because dogs, swathed in fur, can only cool down by panting and sweating through their paws, the heat is especially deadly.

Every year, hundreds of beloved canine companions die in parked cars from heatstroke while their guardians leave them, often for “just a few minutes.” This can happen even if you leave the windows cracked – there isn’t enough air circulation to compensate for the rising temperature. It can happen if you park in the shade – a car in the shade on a balmy 78°F day reaches internal temperatures of over 90°F quickly. In the sun, make it over 160°F. Humidity makes it even worse.

Dogs, whose normal body temperature ranges between 100.5°F to 102.5°F, can withstand only minor increases to their body temperature for extremely short period of time before suffering heatstroke, often resulting in brain damage, or even death.

Leaving your dog in a parked car on even a mildly warm day could result in a terribly high price to pay for a quick shopping trip.

Leave Duke safely at home.

HOW YOU CAN RESPOND TO DANGER

Signs of heatstroke to watch for include the following: rapid panting; wide eyes; excessive drooling; trouble breathing; anxious expression; increased heart rate; thick saliva; bright red tongue or dark tongue; refusal to obey commands; staring; warm, dry skin; high fever; vomiting; staggering or lack of coordination; restlessness; excessive thirst; lethargy; lack of appetite; collapse or loss of consciousness; and seizure.

What to do if tragedy does strike: call 911 immediately as well as a veterinarian—heatstroke is a medical emergency. Follow the veterinarian’s specific directions.

While you wait for help, address the situation first:

* Get animal out of an overheated car immediately and in to the shade
* Apply towels soaked in cool water to the hairless areas of the animal’s body to lower the temperature, including the head, neck, and chest area, or hold icepacks to these areas.
* If necessary, immerse the dog in lukewarm (not cold) water.
* Offer water for the dog to drink
* Keep the dog calm while you go to the veterinarian, where medication can be given to prevent or reverse brain damage, further cooling techniques can be undertaken, and intravenous fluids administered.

What can you do to avoid this tragedy?

* Be a true animal guardian—never, ever leave your animal companions in the car. If they can’t come with you, leave them at home where they will have shade, food, water, and air circulation.
* Don’t leave your animals in cages in the sun, chained, or in an outdoor run without sufficient shade, air circulation, or fresh water (*water should always be provided in bowls that cannot be tipped over).
* Ask your veterinarian if your dog could use a summer haircut.
* If you see a dog left alone in a car, get the car’s make, model, color, and license plate, and ask the nearest store to page the animal’s guardian, or call the local humane society, police, or mall security. These authorities can do whatever it takes to get the dog out of the car.
* Help others understand these dangers in any way you can. United Animal Nations’ My Dog is Cool Campaign is designed for this purpose and can supply flyers, posters, and other outreach material with such slogans as “Don’t leave me in here—it’s hot!”
* Go to MyDogisCool.com’s Web site to determine how hot a car gets at various ambient temperatures, and to get an instant current temperature reading for any location.
* Go to In Defense of Animal’s Web site’s Guardian Campaign page, to learn more about ways you can help change people’s thinking about their companion animals by replacing the term “owner” with the term “guardian” when referring to the animals with whom we share our lives.

This blog was contributed by guest blogger and IDA Staffer E.Read Adams.

With Mother’s Day just pasted, it seems an appropriate time to focus on the importance of being a guardian.  But just to mix it up a bit, I am writing this as a father of five…dogs, that is.  My dogs are my children and rather than say I “own” my children, i.e., dogs, I choose to say I am their “guardian.”  So, it’s just a word, right?  Well, yes, it is, of course, a word, but language means a lot.  So, I guess the best place to start is to clarify the distinction between the two words.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the verb, “own” in two ways:  (1) to have or hold as property and (2) to have power or mastery over, whereas the noun, “guardian” is defined in the same dictionary as:  one who has the care or protection of another.  So, in applying this to having dogs, I do not consider myself one who “owns” my dogs, as I don’t have or hold them as property nor do I have or wish to have power or mastery over them.  I am their “guardian,” as I am someone who cares for them in every way I can.

The story of how my dogs came to me is a simple, yet a sad one.  All my dogs were rescues.  Rocky, a three-legged Rottweiller/Ridgeback mix, was living at a home where his previous family thought it was okay to chain him in the backyard with a broken leg after he had been hit by a car.  Luckily, he found me, or I found him, I can never be sure in these situations.  He sleeps with me and because he weighs over 100 pounds, he is a great “spoon” partner, minus his amputated back leg.  Joaquin literally showed up at my doorstep with a very tight chain around his neck attached by a padlock.  I had to take him to a locksmith to get the padlock and chain cut off.  My other three dogs, Baxter, Tootsie, and Celeste, now live with me but at one time were either abandoned or abused…or both.

I am the guardian of my dogs,not their owner.  My main responsibility to them is to protect them from harm’s way.  To make sure they are well-nourished and free from pain and suffering.  I do everything in my power to guard them from danger.  I don’t “own” them like I would a car or a house or a boat.  My dogs are not inanimate objects that one must purchase a title for.  They are feeling, loving companions.  They were never meant to be treated as mere property, objects or things. They were never ment to be chained up or left alone in a backyard, only to be attended to when someone remembered they were there.  Dogs are pack animals, craving a family unit filled with attention and love.  That is the least I can give them, as they have given me so much more in return.

I choose the term “guardian” when I tell people I have dogs.  I don’t say I “own” them.  You might say they are my guardian angels, too, and they will always have a home with me for as long as I live.  And I might add I’m a blessed guardian, for my dogs have opened my heart to love, peace, forgiveness and compassion.  And you can’t put a price tag or purchase a title on that.

This blog was contributed by guest blogger Timothy Verret

Working on the Korean Dog campaign can be more challenging then other issues as South Korea seems at times to be a world away. But then I get word of an amazing development that makes me feel so close to the activists working tirelessly for the dogs of Korea, uplifts me, and makes me proud to collaborate with them. IDA recently learned that in South Korea, IDA’s partner Coexistence for Animal Rights on Earth (CARE) received information about a remote dog meat farm in Gyeonggi Province. CARE activists paid a visit to the facility and what they found was appalling.

Dogs of different breeds were living in miserable conditions in soiled, ramshackle cages. Some of the dogs had injuries and all were filthy and uncared for. The waste in the cages appeared to have never been cleaned and the dogs sat in piles of feces. The conditions were so horrible that these brave activists felt they couldn’t leave without the dogs. At the risk of being arrested and possible personal injury, they rescued the dogs and brought them to CARE’s animal shelter to be treated, cleaned, and most likely, loved for the first time.

CARE has filed a civil complaint against the facility and instead of getting more dogs, the owner has agreed to demolish the buildings; a momentous victory for the dogs of Korea!

With IDA’s assistance, CARE is also gearing up for a series of lawsuits against dog meat shops in the Mo-ran Market in Gyeonggi Province, citing violations of animal cruelty laws. If convicted, the butchers could be fined up to 5 million won (around $5,000), which could be a significant deterrent for selling dog meat. IDA and CARE are fervently committed to seeing a permanent end to dog meat eating in South Korea.

Check out the amazing photos of this dramatic rescue here- http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/korea/korea_lifesaving_rescue.html

Do something powerful for Earth Day – Go VEGAN!

I have some great news for the planet. The food and drink an average person consumes are the single largest determining factor of one’s overall ecological footprint. Why is this good news? Because knowing this, it’s easy and affordable to make important improvements in your own global impact. You don’t need to buy a hybrid or get solar panels to make the biggest impact.

Our food choices have dramatic consequences on the environment. Reducing or eliminating the consumption of animal products is one of the most powerful ways an individual reduce his or her carbon footprint. What we put into our bags at the grocery store actually has more environmental impact than whether we bring reusable shopping bag or drive a hybrid to the store. Animal agriculture is responsible for many of the world’s most serious environmental problems- global warming, water use and pollution, massive energy consumption, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and spices, as well as the deep impact of fishing on our oceans.

When it comes to global warming, farmed animals and their byproducts are responsible for 51 percent of annual worldwide human caused greenhouse gas emissions. This is according to a new report from two prominent World Bank environmental advisers. Based on their research, they conclude that replacing animal products with plant-based foods would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. They advise that this can reduce emissions even more than the actions currently taken to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.

A study by the University of Chicago found that consuming no animal products is 50 percent more effective at fighting global warming than switching from a standard car to a hybrid.

Earth Day is April 22 and events will be taking place all over the world during the month of April. This is a perfect time to educate people who care about the planet about one of the biggest contributors to the most serious environmental problems around the world, animal agriculture. Write a letter to the editor and educate your community. Please check out our Eco-Eating pages to get information on this important issue.

Reducing or eliminating the consumption of animal products is one of the most powerful ways an individual can stop harming the environment. The next time you’re assessing a food’s ecological footprint, be sure to remember: organic is important, local is good, but vegan is best.

A plant-based diet is by far the most ecological dietary choice we can make