Factory Farms a ‘Petri Dish’ For Pandemics – Report Says ‘Phase Them Out’

Humane Society International’s white paper concludes that we must urgently phase out factory farming to prevent future pandemics.

 

Main points:

  • Confining vast numbers of stressed animals indoors creates novel viral strains because their immune systems are weakened so they succumb to viruses easily

  • Expanding farms into previously wild areas brings wild and domestic species together, allowing diseases to jump

  • Concentrating animal farms in an area increases the risk of pathogens spreading

  • The global live animal trade, in which huge numbers of live animals are transported globally, allows viruses to travel

  • Agricultural fairs and auctions and live animal markets where the public get close to species from different places, let viruses proliferate.

Read The Independent article here

#EndFactoryFarming

Photo Credit We Animals Media

Ban the cruel and worthless ‘Forced Swim’ experiment

The ‘Forced Swim’ or ‘Near Drowning’ test was supposedly designed to gauge the antidepressant qualities of drugs.    It is not only completely inhumane, it is completely hopeless.  Since the 1970s not one antidepressant drug developed as a result of the test is still in use.

And yet it is still being funded and carried out all over the world, including two New Zealand Universities.

 

Read about the test in this NZAVS article, and sign the petition here

 

Read the PETA article here

 

 

 

What is it about ‘Fish are sentient’ that you don’t understand?

Fishes are sentient beings that deserve our respect and protection.  Vegan seafood alternatives are available.  Knowing what we now know about fish intelligence and sentience, it is highly unethical to be torturing and killing trillions of fishes every year. 

 

Read the Stuff NZ article here:- 

 

Excerpts:

”Most of the public and most activists concentrate their attention only on mammals, in spite of scientific evidence that crabs and lobsters feel pain, that octopus and squid show complex behaviour comparable to mammals, and that fish also show evidence of similar complexities.”

“Fish displayed obvious signs of stress, such as breathing faster, hiding and avoiding eating, and the evidence that fish experienced pain is stronger than the evidence for many mammals” –  Professor Calum Brown, Macquarie University

“The perception that fish have a ‘three-second memory’, aren’t intelligent and don’t feel pain is wrong.”- Animal Rights campaigner Dr Michael Morris

 

Watch the Surge Video here:-

 

Most comprehensive website for fish advocacy:- 

‘Ahimsa’ – a moral guide for our coexistence with other animals

In this article, End Animal Slaughter’s Sandra Kyle states that while morality isn’t always clear cut, applying the concept of ‘ahimsa’ to our treatment of other animals shows the extent of our wrongs against them.

 

In a couple of weeks the people of New Zealand will be presented with a referendum on ‘The End of Life Choice Bill’, which will make it legal for a terminally ill person to request assisted dying.

While early polling reflects that the ‘Euthanasia Bill’ may pass into Law, many people, including some members of the medical establishment, have come out against it.   As I was trying to decide how I would vote, I found myself reflecting on the nature of ‘good’ and ‘evil’.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to establish good and bad scientifically, because even scientists must use their judgement, which is based not entirely on pure reasoning, but on applying value principles that involve their own beliefs.  Neither are concepts of good and bad universal.  A traditional vendetta in Armenia, for example, is if your male relative commits a murder then the family of the victim will kill a male relative of the murderer in retaliation.  This has led to many young men forgoing their education and normal life, and going into hiding.  And in many parts of the world, including some US states, it is legal to execute someone who has taken the life of someone else.  So we cannot look to objective answers for good and bad, which is in the domain of morality.  But moral questions are not easy to quantify, as they can differ from culture to culture, and are constantly evolving.

Moral questions are not easy to quantify, as they can differ from culture to culture, and are constantly evolving. 

Not so long ago keeping humans as slaves, subjugating women, and treating homosexuals as criminals were part of the prevalent morality and ethics in western societies. The improvement in potential and well-being of a majority of human beings seems to indicate that the evolution of morality is a good thing.  However, there does not seem to be a real objective, universal, way of deciding whether something is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ .

If you take the viewpoint that it is ‘intention’ and ‘usage’  that makes something good and bad, then this also  poses dilemmas.  While, for example, certain chemical substances can kill a person, or (in  the case of chemotherapy) prolong their lives, this isn’t helpful in the euthanasia debate, for example.  Both sides of the argument are seeking to promote the common good, and both sides believe that theirs is the superior moral action.

Religious scriptures tell us what is right and wrong but there are problems here too.  The Ten Commandments forbids us to take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain, which I have noticed is problematic for a huge number of people on social media!   The concept of Karma tells us that a good action will yield good results and a bad action will product bad results, but the proof in the pudding only shows up later, sometimes lifetimes later, and this is not very helpful in making decisions that have not yet had a chance to yield their fruits.

One moral concept that I have found very useful personally is the principle of ‘ahimsa’, or harmlessness, a spiritual doctrine shared by Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.  It implies the total avoidance of harming of any kind of living creatures not only in deed, but also in word and thought. Yet even the concept of ahimsa did not make it clear cut for me when looking at the reasons put forward on both sides of the euthanasia debate.

‘Ahimsa’ implies the total avoidance of harming any kind of living creatures not only in deed, but also in word and thought.

There is one area where the principle of ahimsa is manifestly clear, however, and that is in our treatment of other animals.  The fate of animals farmed for food is in my opinion the most pressing moral question of our time, both in terms of the numbers involved – into the trillions when you factor in fish – and the extent of the harm carried out to them.  Our food system involves tens of billions of sentient beings, each with complex sensations and emotions, who are treated as commodities to produce flesh, eggs and milk for maximum profit.    All these animals undoubtedly suffer, but the billions of animals who live on factory farms undergo the deepest levels of suffering imaginable for our food.

While it took a while for me to come to my standpoint on Euthanasia – I will be voting ‘Yes’ in the referendum –  and while I still struggle with ahimsa in all its nuances, I have never had a second’s doubt that what we are doing to animals is a stupendous moral injustice.  That it is legally perpetrated against the most helpless and innocent, that it is so widespread in the 21st century,  is a shame and deep disgrace, and it must be brought to a halt.  Fortunately, this particular dilemma has an easy, objective solution.  All it requires is for individuals to become vegan.

 

Get information and support for going vegan here

 

Sandra Kyle started the website End Animal Slaughter in 2018 with the goal of ending animal slaughter by 2025

Watching Wounded Birds Fall From The Sky – Kate Middleton Takes Her Children Grouse Shooting

Honouring a Royal tradition of blood sports the Duchess of Cambridge recently took her young children into the field to shoot birds. 

 

Considered to be an ‘expert’ on child rearing, Kate Middleton evidently sees no conflict with her belief that children should be ‘kind, caring, and nurturing toward animals’.   The Duchess has also been filmed deerstalking.

 

Do you agree or disagree with the Duchess?  Feel free to leave a comment.

 

Read the Guardian article here: 

‘Seeing Ourselves In Others’

Concert pianist, University Professor, accomplished TEDx speaker:  Dr Joanne Kong has also attracted a following as a powerful advocate for other animals.   She writes:-

“The coronavirus is just one symptom that human influence has reached its point of greatest harm, not only to ourselves, but to our fellow creatures and the planet. Having an honest reckoning about the perils of animal exploitation will give humankind the opportunity to elevate and transform its collective identity towards a conscious awareness that all living beings are connected. It’s about seeing ourselves in others, and widening our sphere of love, sensitivity and kindness in order to lessen suffering”. 

Read the full Plant Based World article here

WANTED BY THE FBI: TWO PIGLETS

KEY POINTS

  • Three years ago the FBI search warrant and raid in search of two dying piglets rescued from a factory farm illustrates the lengths the government will employ to protect the animal agriculture industry.

  • Non violent animal rights activists are often designated as “terrorists” and are treated in the court system as such, even when no human beings are hurt and the economic loss is minimal.

  • The factory farm industry and its armies of lobbyists wield great influence in the halls of federal and state power, while animal rights activists wield virtually none.

  • The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is typically dominated by executives from the very factory farm industries that are most in need of regulation.  The politics of the U.S.  means there are massive forces arrayed behind factory farms, and very few in support of animal welfare.

  • Undercover investigations at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company in California filmed workers forcing sick cows, many unable to walk, into the “kill box” by repeatedly shocking them with electric prods, jabbing them in the eye, prodding them with a forklift, and spraying water up their noses.

  • At a Vermont slaughterhouse operated by Bushway Packing,  days-old calves were filmed being kicked, dragged, and skinned alive.

  • An  undercover investigator at E6 Cattle Company in Texas filmed workers beating cows on the head with hammers and pickaxes and leaving them to die.

  • Sparboe Farms in Iowa was exposed when undercover investigators documented hens with gaping, untreated wounds laying eggs in cramped conditions among decaying corpses.

  • Claims by the animal industries of ‘distorting the evidence’ are even more untenable now that activists are using virtual reality technology.

  • But the animal rights movement, despite receiving relatively scant media attention and operating under the threat of federal prosecutions for terrorism, boasts some of the nation’s more effective, shrewd, and tenacious political activists who have forced into the public consciousness the knowledge of how this industry imposes suffering, abuse, and torture on living beings on a mass and systematic scale, all to maximize profits.

  • There are serious health risks posed by the fecal waste produced in factory farms, and the excessive, reckless use of antibiotics breeds treatment-resistant, potentially deadly, bacterial strains.  Industrial farming also exacerbates climate problems.

  • There is a temptation to turn away from and ignore this mass suffering and cruelty because it’s so painful to confront.  We should all feel gratitude to animal activists for their increasing success in making us see what we are enabling when we consume the products of this barbaric and sociopathic industry.

 

Read the full Intercept Article Here

SIX REASONS YOU SHOULD GIVE UP DAIRY

End Animal Slaughter contributor Lynley Tulloch advocates for bobby calves through her group Starfish Bobby Calf Project.     In this blog she outlines six reasons why we should give up eating dairy products. 

 

This is a photo of a bobby calf taken just the other day in New Zealand by animal rights activist Sandra Kyle. It is an animal cruelty issue for the following six reasons:-

 

ONE

This calf will die traumatized. He is legally allowed to be transported for up to 8 hours, before being killed. He will find it difficult to balance on the truck floor, which is hard and caked in calf urine and feces. He may slip and fall over. He may drown in the urine as it puddles on the truck floor – I have heard first hand accounts of this from bobby calf truck drivers.

 

TWO

This calf will die hungry. He can legally go for 24 hours without being fed milk before being killed. He is a neonate – a mammal with a strong desire to suckle. Normally he would suckle from his mother at least 8 times in 24 hours. This natural instinct to suckle is frustrated when he needs it most.

 

THREE

This calf will die alone and frightened. He will die without his mother. He is programmed to stick closely to his mother’s side for safety and food. She is his lifeline. Without her, he will be stressed and anxious.

 

FOUR

This calf will die unloved. He will be regarded in his final hours as nothing more than a waste product that needs to be disposed of. He will not be seen as a unique individual who has a personality. Instead he will join the tens of thousands of bobby calves who end their lives on concrete killing floors every week in New Zealand. Around 2 million bobby calves a year are murdered.

 

FIVE

This calf will die for nothing. He will be mutilated in a disrespectful way when dead. He will be skinned, dismembered, and rendered into a product for human use. Those long eyelashes, the soft coat, the delicate body will become a gruesome pile of bits.

 

SIX

This calf will die because no one cared. He will die because people choose to produce and consume products made from the milk of his mother.   You have the choice. He doesn’t.

This calf has already been killed. He was likely a male calf, and he was killed between 4-10 days of age. He was a jersey, a common breed used for the high production of milk. His mother will be in the milking shed, and the milk her body produces for her calf is being siphoned for human consumption and profit.

Choose compassion and not cruelty.  Ditch Dairy Now.

 

Dr Lynley Tulloch is an animal advocate, and Lecturer in Education.

Bullfighters Want Handouts In Covid Environment! Sign Petition.

A tortured bull collapses, and lies bleeding while spectators cheer, and one of his feet is hacked off as a keepsake.    The barbaric ‘sport’ of bullfighting is asking the Spanish government for money to keep going in the Covid environment.  Take action!

 

Read the article and sign the petition here

 

Fish Are Way Smarter Than We Think

Seventy percent of the planet is covered with water.  Trillions of fish live within our oceans, and many of them display rich and complex behaviours.   Fish are smart.

They are also sentient, according to the broad consensus from the scientific community. ‘Sentient’ means they feel physical and emotional pain.

Given the trillions of intelligent, sentient beings we torture and slaughter annually for human consumption, and the likelihood that overfishing will wipe out ocean life before the end of the century, it is high time that governments display enough courage to put an end to the carnage.  

Listen to the Radio New Zealand interview with Australian fish expert Professor Calum Brown here

 

 

Fishing Is Torture For Sentient Beings

This week three teenage boys reeled in a 700lb Tuna, who they tortured for 7 hours. We can only imagine the pain the fish went through as it bravely fought for its life.

Fish are not vegetables.  They feel pain and distress in analogous ways to other animals.

Fishing is one of the cruellest pastimes there is, and it is unfathomable that we teach it to our children.

All methods of fishing are cruel to fishes, and overfishing harms many other creatures in the marine environment. 

It is time to give up eating fish.  

 

Try the vegan challenge at challenge22.com

 

Read about the tuna catch here

 

Find out more about fishing here

 

 

 

 

 

Future viral outbreaks are inevitable – it’s time to adopt a plant-based diet

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

“The COVID-19 virus has had a huge impact on all of our lives and changed the way we live – perhaps forever. But while it’s important to acknowledge the massive loss of lives and jobs and the impact of the virus on our global society and economy, it’s also vital to examine the root causes of the pandemic – and pandemics in general – if we are to minimise the risk of potentially far more damaging outbreaks in the future.
By exploring the crucial connection between the current crisis and our animal-based food system, the ProVeg Food & Pandemics Report highlights how our food choices help to create a recipe for zoonotic pandemics. By shifting to plant-based and cultured foods, we can help to minimise the risk of future pandemics as well as helping to resolve many of the other key challenges we face, including climate change, biodiversity loss, world hunger, antimicrobial resistance, and the rise of other food-related diseases.
The global response to COVID-19 has shown that we can respond urgently and collectively and that we can do so now. Together, we can change our food systems for a better, healthier, and more resilient world”.

https://proveg.com/food-and-pandemics-report/?fbclid=IwAR05t3eTgOxDISDlKlb4ZvkPh8L871CBS1A8-0h0bXaOv4V9t4ts7QL6dzM