IDA Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Factory Farms’

Documenting any activity on an animal farming operation my soon be a criminal offense.  Last year, because of pressure from the animal agriculture lobby, four states tried to pass bills that would make it illegal to document farm activity without the owner’s consent. Although this legislative effort was defeated in all states, similar bills have cropped up in Florida, New York, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska so far in 2012, and more are expected. These bills are designed to undermine whistleblowers seeking to keep the public informed and to hold the industry accountable to basic levels of food safety and humane standards. These courageous individuals risk their personal safety to go undercover and document the egregious practices inside the closed doors of livestock facilities. But instead of being heralded as heroes, they could soon face criminal prosecution.

In recent years, undercover investigators have successfully exposed horrific cruelty in the animal agriculture industry, documenting abuse on video and in photos. Mainstream news outlets have aired the footage of graphic violence and miserable conditions farm animals endure daily in commercial animal agriculture. Viewing this appalling treatment of farm animals can make even a strong stomach turn and with each new investigation it becomes clear that the callousness is widespread; misery is the industry standard, not just a few rotten egg facilities. Yet, instead of improving conditions for animals and workers, big agribusiness is trying to draw a curtain to shield their inhumane operations from public accountability.

So-called “ag-gag” or whistleblower suppression bills are a violation of free speech rights and an attack on the freedom of the press. For democracy to function properly, the public must be well informed. Whistleblowers exposing the wrongdoing in this or in any other industry should be protected, not victimized.

“Big Ag” has a reason to be concerned. These videos are instrumental in furthering laws to protect farm animals from cruel and unnecessary suffering. By informing consumers about the wretched conditions of these facilities, the public may choose to reduce the amount of animal products consumed and create consumer demand for alternatives and more humane production. Humane standards may detract from the inflated revenue streams of industry moguls, so the industry has elected to keep the pubic ignorant.

It is imperative that people continue to have access to factory farming operations to witness and expose their abusive activity. The abuse that years of undercover video has revealed should prompt the USDA and other oversight committees– and, frankly, any farming operation that claims to care about welfare– to mount video cameras themselves throughout animal agriculture facilities, to oversee employees and keep a watchful eye for further abuse, rather than keeping the public in the dark.

These so called “ag-gag” bills are being condemned as unconstitutional by civil liberties, public health, food safety, veterinarian, environmental, food justice, and workers’ rights organizations. They are excessive and unnecessary as there are already extensive trespassing and slander laws that protect private property owners. The public has the right to know about illegal and unethical practices on farms such as food safety issues, working conditions and blatant animal abuse.

IDA has joined a coalition of powerful animal organizations including HSUS, ASPCA, Mercy for Animals, Compassion Over Killing, Farm Sanctuary and more to combine our efforts and defeat these bills. IDA will be sending alerts to states where bills are appearing, asking our members in those states to contact their legislators and tell them that lawmakers should be holding animal agribusiness accountable for cruelty, instead of falling under the influence of industry that seeks to censor whistleblowers and keep the public uninformed for their own financial motives. Be on the lookout for those alerts and please take action against these dangerous and unethical bills.

For more information on the ag-gag bills, contact hope@idausa.org

To support our work please click here.

According to a new Harris Interactive study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group, the number of vegans in the United States has doubled since 2009 to 2.5% of the population. An amazing 7.5 million U.S. citizens now eat vegan diets that do not include any animal products – no meat, poultry, fish, dairy or eggs. Close to 16 million, or 5%, identify as vegetarian, never eating meat, poultry or fish.

If this rate continues, vegans will be 10% of the U.S. population in 2015, 40% in 2019, and in 80 % in 2050! This would mean an end to the exploitation and suffering of billions of farmed animals. The study also revealed that 33% of U.S. citizens are eating vegetarian meals a significant amount of the time and ordering vegetarian meals at restaurants, though they are not vegetarians. That is over 100 million people, one third of the country!

Interestingly, the demographic breakdown of the study discovered that it was equal percentages of Democrats and Republicans eating vegetarian. Perhaps these two parties CAN agree on something- the vegan lifestyle is healthy and compassionate. Conscientious eating is going mainstream so if you haven’t already, reduce or eliminate your consumption of animal products- everyone’s doing it!

New to veganism? Click here to order a free Vegan Starter Kit.

To support our work please click here.

Fur Free Friday, November 25th, is a time to raise our voices to educate shoppers and the media about the real cost of fur – the cold, merciless fact that more than 50 MILLION fur-bearing animals are slaughtered for fashion each year. This number doesn’t even reflect the estimated billion rabbits who are killed annually for their skins, because of laws in places like France, where over 70 million rabbits are killed each year, has falsely labeled the much more valuable fur a “by-product” of the meat industry. Whether on fur farms, where these helpless animals go insane from the cramped, filthy conditions, or in the wild where they are trapped and left to suffer, these animals need your help now.

Please make this your profile main picture

This year, everyone can help fur-bearing animals no matter where you live, and you don’t even have to leave your house (or get out of your pajamas!). Simply participate in IDA’s Fur Free Friday Virtual Demonstration on Facebook and Twitter. Help us to blast the Internet with our compassionate message; it’s easy to do and a great way to spread the word that it’s time to stop the animals’ suffering.

TAKE ACTION

Facebook Instructions – Speak up for 50 MILLION fur-bearing animals in 3 easy steps!

1. Make sure you have your protest image up. All you have to do is right click on the “You Don’t Have To Wear Fur To Be Foxy” image and choose “Save Image As” to get the image. Replace your profile photo with it and keep it up all weekend!  (The image will look best if you “Edit Thumbnail”.)

2. Go through the list below and “Like” the promotional pages (links included). This will allow you to post comments on their pages:

• Nordstrom
• Saks Fifth Avenue
• Neiman Marcus
• Kohl’s
• Macy’s
• BCBG (please also send a quick email to BCBG by clicking here)

3. Starting on Friday, November 25th, start posting your POLITE comments! (Choose from our quotes below or write your own.) Remember that your comments will be seen by followers of all ages and comments that include profanity or can be interpreted as “abusive” will probably be removed before the general public gets a chance to read them and may result in your profile being reported and/or deleted by Facebook. IDA is not responsible for any comments you may leave or resulting actions.

Twitter Instructions:

1. Make sure you have your protest image up. All you have to do is right click on the “You Don’t Have To Wear Fur To Be Foxy” image and choose “Save Image As” to get the image. Replace your profile photo with it and keep it up all weekend!  (The image will look best if you “Edit Thumbnail”.)

2. Go through the list below and “Follow” these pages. This will allow you to send them direct messages and Tweets.

3. Encourage your friends to join your Twitter Demo! Tweet to them to also change their profile image to their “sign.”

4. You can run your Twitter Demo all day – Rain or Shine! But remember messages and Tweets that include profanity or can be interpreted as “abusive” may result in your profile being reported and/or deleted by Twitter. IDA is not responsible for any messages or Tweets sent or resulting actions.

• Nordstrom
• Saks Fifth Avenue
• Neiman Marcus
• Kohl’s
• Macy’s
• BCBG (please also send a quick email to BCBG by clicking here)

 

Twitter (Under 140):

 

An incredible amount of suffering is represented in each piece of fur: full coats, lining, or fur trim. Please show compassion and don’t sell fur.

 

Over 50 million animals–including millions of dogs & cats–are killed for their fur worldwide (not including the unknown number of rabbits). Please don’t sell fur.

 

Animals are killed for fur in horrific ways incl. bludgeoning, neck braking, anal & genital electrocution & many are skinned alive. Choose compassion & go fur-free.

 

In the US, there are no federal laws providing protection for the millions of animals who suffer and die on fur farms. Please stop selling fur.

 

Fur trim is not a by-product. Many, perhaps more than half, of all animals killed for their fur are killed specifically for fur trim. Please don’t sell fur.

Facebook Only:

 

Each year, over 50 million animals–including millions of dogs and cats–are killed for their fur worldwide. This number does not include rabbits as that number is unknown. Please don’t sell fur.

 

Animals are killed for fur in horrific ways including bludgeoning, neck braking and anal and genital electrocution and many are skinned alive. Please make the compassionate choice and go fur-free.

 

Over 50 million animals, including raccoon dogs, rabbits, foxes, mink, and chinchillas, spend their short lives in filthy, tiny wire cages until they are killed by ruthless methods on fur farms around the world. Please don’t support this suffering and go fur-free.

 

In the U.S., there are no federal laws providing protection for the millions of animals who suffer and die on fur farms. The fur industry remains completely self-regulated. Please stop selling fur.

 

Fur trim is not a by-product. Many, perhaps more than half, of all animals killed for their fur are killed specifically for fur trim. The number of animals killed for fur trim is expected to exceed the number of animals killed for full-fur garments. Please don’t sell fur.

 

There is no such thing as “green” or “eco-friendly” fur. It takes more than 15 times as much energy to produce a fur coat than it does to produce a fake fur. Furs are loaded with chemicals to keep them from decomposing, and fur production pollutes the environment, wastes precious resources, and poisons our waterways. Please don’t sell fur.

To help fur bearing animals year round please go to our Fur Campaign.

As Thanksgiving approaches, here at IDA, we like to give thanks for the amazing bird, the turkey. Forty-five million “Broad Breasted Whites” as they are known will be eaten by U.S. citizens this coming holiday, but few of those people will ever know the suffering these birds endured to reach their tables.

These beautiful birds have been genetically manipulated over the years to grow rapidly and have enlarged and unnaturally exaggerated breasts. The result is a multitude of health and mobility issues including inability to fly or to breed (they must be artificially inseminated, or the males would crush the females) and, in some cases, to even walk. Turkeys are raised in high-density, indoor confinement containing thousands of birds to a building and often have their toes cut off to prevent injury if there is fighting in the tight overcrowding. These windowless warehouses where the birds must live in day in and day out have poor sanitation and can have an overwhelming stench of ammonia.

As society is becoming more aware of the plight of factory farmed turkeys, some people are buying “humane” or “organic” turkeys. While this is an honorable pursuit, most people don’t realize that these farms are not much better than a factory farm. The turkeys might have access to the outside, but they are still overcrowded and may also be left outside in extremes of weather with no shelter. They still come from the same inhumane industrial hatchery where they never knew their mothers, and go to the same frightening slaughterhouse for a bloody and brutal death as a factory-farmed turkey. Birds are exempt from the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act so there are no regulations to ease their suffering.

If we want to truly give thanks, we should thank the earth for the life, resources, and delicious plant food it provides. It takes approximately 10 pounds of vegetables to make 1 pound of turkey, so we are wasting precious water, land, and fossil fuels and creating greenhouse gasses by eating meat. If we are sincerely grateful for the abundant and excessive amount of food available to us, we should eat a plant-based Thanksgiving meal, as a greater number of people could be fed with the grain that we feed the animals. Of course there are numerous faux meat options such as Tofurky and Field Roast. And any customary Thanksgiving dessert recipe can be easily veganized with a few substitutions.

Please show your gratitude to the earth, your health, and the turkeys this year and start a new tradition of compassion with a vegan Thanksgiving.

New to veganism? Click here to order a free Vegan Starter Kit.

To support our work please click here.

About Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

The award-winning author of five books, including the bestselling The Joy of Vegan Baking, The Vegan Table, Color Me Vegan, Vegan’s Daily Companion, and The 30-Day Vegan Challenge, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has guided people to becoming and staying vegan for over 12 years through sold-out cooking classes, bestselling books, inspiring lectures, engaging videos, and her immensely popular audio podcast, “Vegetarian Food for Thought.” Using her unique blend of passion, humor, and common sense, she empowers and inspires people to live according to their own values of compassion and wellness. She also contributes to National Public Radio and The Christian Science Monitor, and has appeared on The Food Network and PBS.

Visit colleenpatrickgoudreau.com for more.

The chill in the air and the turning of the leaves means it’s almost time to celebrate the autumn harvest à la Thanksgiving! However, when non-vegetarians think of the idea of eating vegan on Thanksgiving, they’re often aghast. They can’t imagine what vegans eat if they don’t eat turkey, as 45 million of these beautiful birds are killed in the U.S. each year for this holiday alone.

I’ve also heard the accusation that vegans are flying in the face of tradition – that it’s culturally blasphemous not to eat turkeys on this day. The truth is we’re ALL breaking tradition if we use the “First Thanksgiving” from 1621 as a barometer for what we should eat today. During that first meal between the puritans and Wampanoag Indians, there were no potatoes or biscuits or apple pie or yams or sweet cranberries. And there weren’t any forks either.

Does that mean we shouldn’t eat those things today? Does it mean we shouldn’t eat with forks. No, of course not. It means we shape our traditions out of our ideals. We all do it – vegans and non-vegans.

Our vegan feast can consist of mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, bread stuffing, cranberry relish, mashed rutabagas, butternut squash soup, sautéed green beans, roasted Brussels sprouts, cornbread or biscuits, and green salad. Dessert includes everything from apple pie, pumpkin bread, German apple cake to fruit cobblers, cranberry muffins, and other traditional, seasonal favorites. Over 150 recipes are in The Joy of Vegan Baking, including this one for Apple Cobbler.

Harvest-Stuffed Acorn Squash

For the main dish, which is really about creating a focal point on the plate, you can enjoy a beautiful stuffed acorn squash filled with a pilaf of wild rice, pecans, apples, celery, onions, and spices. You can also create a butternut squash timbale, stuffed Portobello mushrooms, or little mini-pumpkins stuffed with an array of grains and nuts. The options are endless, and over 200 are in The Vegan Table, including the Harvest-Stuffed Acorn Squash.

Of course there are other options such as Tofurky loaf or Field Roast’s grain-based loaf. And any customary Thanksgiving dessert recipe can be easily veganized with a few substitutions.

The point is we CAN celebrate tradition and honor our values at the same time. In fact, eating a vegan feast for Thanksgiving is more consistent with what this holiday is about at its heart: creating community, connection, gratitude, and compassion. I can’t think of a better way to do that than preparing food that causes as little harm as possible to animals, our health, and the Earth.

My only warning to you is to make more than you think you need, because undoubtedly everyone will covet your beautiful, colorful, compassionate recipes and, of course, you want leftovers!

World Go Vegan Week (Oct. 24 – 31) was a delicious success with dozens of pizza restaurants participating by offering a vegan pizza for the week featuring Daiya cheese, a vegan cheese that melts, stretches and tastes like traditional dairy-based cheese. IDA volunteers worked hard to get restaurants to participate in our campaign Vegan Pizza Takes Over the World! We had 73 volunteers reach out to 142 pizza restaurants in the U.S. and Canada asking them to participate in our week of celebration of the vegan lifestyle.

Offering motivation and to make things even more interesting, we had a contest!  Daiya generously offered a month’s supply of its delicious vegan cheese to a random participant who was successful in getting a pizza place to offer a vegan pizza. We are excited to announce that the winner of our contest is Gina Stuessy of Madison, Wisconsin. Gina got two restaurants in Madison to participate, The Glass Nickel and Ian’s Pizza. Let’s hope they will keep the vegan options on the menu beyond World Go Vegan Week.

Congratulations, Gina! We hope you enjoy your month’s supply of Daiya cheese!

Pizza wasn’t the only thing on our minds this World Go Vegan Week. Other volunteers participated in various creative ways beyond the vegan pizza project. At a church in Burnaby, British Columbia, eight families took on the challenge of eating vegan for the entire week of World Go Vegan Week and, in Sri Lanka, activists held an event with a film on veganism, speakers, and vegan food to sample. These are just a few examples of the wide reach of this important week of education. This was truly an international outreach experience!

Thank you for celebrating World Go Vegan Week with us. The animals, the environment, and your health thank you for your compassionate choices. Click here for more information on the vegan lifestyle.

New to veganism? Click here to order a free Vegan Starter Kit.

The IDA San Rafael office had some fun this Halloween teaming up with the San Francisco Vegetarian Society to hand out vegan Halloween sweet treats and our Reason for Vegan Brochures to passers-by on Haight St. in San Francisco! Volunteers made frightening yummy treats like maple cookies and cinnamon chocolate chip bars to show everyone how delicious vegan sweets can be. We also had lots of donated Halloween dark chocolate peanut and almond butter bites form Shjakk’s chocolate. Yum!

Dressed in costumes, we handed out the treats and leafleted vegan materials, asking San Franciscans to help end the horrors of factory farming and try a vegan treat for Halloween. The responses were wildly enthusiastic—in fact, people were shocked that vegan treats and chocolate were so scary delicious! It was a gratifying day of outreach with lots of people discovering just how satisfying vegan sweet treats really are.

I love Halloween. The coming darkness of autumn, the creepy, smiling jack-o-lanterns, and pumpkin-flavored everything. At what other time of the year do you get to dress up in wacky, sexy, or superhero costumes and eat yourself sick with candy? What a great holiday!

But Halloween can also be a nightmare for vegans—seems like non-vegan sweets are everywhere. Yet the true nightmare is what happens to animals on factory farms.

Vegan treats can be found at the witching hour, and you wouldn’t have guessed that some old favorites are actually vegan. Our friends at VegNews have compiled a deliciously comprehensive list of vegan candy. Can you imagine that Dots, Pez, and Dum-Dum Pops are vegan? You can also indulge in candies that are a bit healthier, support fair trade practices, and encourage sustainable agriculture like Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates  or Let’s Do Organic Gummy Bears.

So when the little monsters come to your door, you don’t necessarily have to contribute to the sugar fest. Stickers are a great surprise for the vampires, Freddy Kruegers, and Lady Gagas. Kids love stickers, and yours will be the coolest house on the block! Colored pencils or erasers can be fun, too.

Let’s make this a safe and compassionate holiday for everyone, including farmed animals.

New to veganism? Click here to order a Vegan Starter Kit.

Do you wear your veganism on your sleeve?   It’s great to lead by quiet example, but consider making an even stronger impact by speaking up about your reasons for going vegan.  Remember, the animals don’t have a voice, so now is the time to amp up your game to the next level.    

Okay, so you’re a 49ers fan?  Add a little dash of vegan to your red and gold.  You’ll be surprised at the impression you’ll make.  Be prepared by having a few of “The Reason For Vegan: Compassion In Action” flyers and “Vegan Starter Kits” with you.  Click here to order them.  While you’re at the game be sure to support the stadium’s vegan menu.  These days virtually all professional level ballparks have a vegan dog or a vegan burger.

If you’re going to a dinner party or pot luck, instead of bringing a bottle of wine, bring a vegan dish or dessert.

Other ways you can make a difference for animals, for the health of people and the environment:

• Wear a vegan t-shirt, hoody, necklace or pin (click here to order IDA vegan merchandise)
• Get a personalized license plate or license plate frame
• Put bumper stickers on your car, laptop and notebooks
• Use an animal rights quote in your email signature and include the link to our vegan campaign (http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/vegan/vegan.html)
• Use Facebook and Twitter to politely promote the benefits of a vegan diet
• Set a goal to speak to at least one person each day about veganism
• Feed your dogs a healthy vegan dog food
• Show someone a video about the horrors of factory farming or about the health and environmental benefits of living a vegan lifestyle
• Cook or buy a non-vegan a vegan meal

It’s up to us to try to enlighten others and do all we can to help animals.

So keep your eye on the tofu and take it one person at a time.  Let’s do this!  Go Team Vegan!

Click here to support IDA’s Vegan Campaign

Work every day of your life to right what is wrong.

On September 27, 2011, the Richmond, California City Council voted to end live bird sales at its farmers’ market, effective November 1, 2011. In Defense of Animals partnered with LGBT Compassion to organize weekly protests, petitions, action alerts and other pressures to convince the city to end the cruel practice of selling live chickens at the Richmond Farmers’ Market.

The Richmond mayor received over 1,000 e-mails from local IDA supporters, and she acknowledged these e-mails at the meeting. Nineteen passionate animal advocates spoke in support of the ban and only two people spoke in opposition. All our efforts paid off with a 4 – 2 vote, with the mayor voting for the ban. Supportive Council Member Jeff Ritterman did a celebratory chair spin and fist pump in the air as the room full of animal advocates gave a standing ovation!

The vendor, Raymond Young, has a history of well-documented and shocking mistreatment of the spent egg-laying hens he sells at market. In 2009, San Francisco’s Animal Care and Control cited Mr. Young for 795 cruelty violations, including overcrowding, injuries, and failure to provide water. This was after he ignored requests for corrections.

At the weekly protests, IDA activists repeatedly witnessed the disturbing procedure of two birds being forcefully yanked from their tiny cage and stuffed upside-down into one paper bag with little ventilation. Most of the birds go immediate into a silent shock, but others loudly squawk and scream in fear and struggle in vain to free themselves. We have video of customers putting the birds in their car trunks and then returning to shop at the market. We witnessed children kicking and violently picking up and dropping the bags on the concrete. If there was a dog or a cat in the bag, these customers could be arrested for animal cruelty – a chicken has the same capacity to suffer as a dog or a cat.

There is no regulation or supervision of what happens when these chickens reach the customer’s house. They could be starved, terrorized by pets or children, and a careless or just unknowledgeable slaughter could cause prolonged and immense suffering. Self-slaughter violates California’s humane poultry slaughter laws, which require poultry to be killed by specific methods at licensed facilities – and for good reasons.

Two years ago, live birds were being sold at four Bay Area farmers’ markets. As of this week, they are sold at none, Richmond was the last to finally ban this practice, thanks to the tireless efforts of many animal advocates.