United States Presidential Contender Cory Booker has a plan to ditch factory farms.
If implemented, this would be a leap forward towards the end of all animal agriculture.
Read the Live Kindly article here.
“Fish in aquaculture farms are forced to live in crowded tanks and endure unwanted interactions with other fish, handling by humans, struggles to get food, and sudden changes in lighting, water depth and currents. Just like pigs and chickens, fish in intensive farms live a life of suffering”.
They would like to be able to fly, forage, choose a mate and live for 15 years or more, but the life they are forced to endure couldn’t be more different. They live inside dark, filthy sheds with up to 10,000 other birds, and never feel the warmth of the sun or enjoy swimming. Except for drinking, animals that have evolved to eat, swim, dive, clean and play in rivers, lakes and ponds, have no access to water at all. Without water they cannot preen, their feathers deteriorate, and they can lose body heat. They need water to cleanse their eyes, and many develop eye itchiness and other eye diseases, and some even become blind.
Blind duck in a UK duck farm. Source: VIVA
Mother Ducks cannot even sit on their own eggs, as the moment they are laid they are taken from under them and placed in incubation chambers. Because they are bred to produce as much meat as possible in the shortest time, the ducklings grow quickly, and reach slaughter weight at around just 7 weeks old. Even before then some become lame with painful leg deformities their weight gain causes, and standing all day on litter-strewn floors can lead to painful ammonia burns on their skin. Many fall onto their backs and are not able to right themselves, there is no one to right them, no one cares, there is virtually no one to care: in one UK based company, the most intensive enterprise of its kind there are as many as 85,000 birds tended by only one person. Consequently these poor creatures die a frightening and protracted death as they struggle in vain to right themselves.
Ducks in despair. Source upc-online
In the wild ducks are swimming most of the time, eating plankton, seeds, plants, insects and worms, instead of the dry pellets they are fed in the sheds. On top of all this suffering, they are also neglected and sometimes deliberately abused by sadistic workers. In 2014 and 2016 employees at two US farms, Reichardt Duck Farm and Culver Dark Farms, were videotaped tormenting ducks to death by bashing them against walls, and ripping off their heads. They were videoed callously throwing, dropping and roughly handling ducks and ducklings by their heads and wings. The undercover cameras also showed animals with ripped-off body parts stuck in wire mesh flooring, and birds were seen trapped in manure pits below the floor.
The extract below is from a recent Viva campaign.
“Modern farming techniques have turned the fluffy Easter duckling image into a sick joke. 19 million ducks were slaughtered in the UK in 2005 (in the mid 1970’s the UK duck population was barely a million). We know what these birds lives are really like because we have investigated several duck units. Twice we visited Manor Farm Ducklings, who then supplied Marks & Spencer. On our first visit, we saw thousands of fluffy, yellow ducklings in stinking, windowless sheds. Some could barely walk and dragged themselves across on their wings. Others had fallen on their backs and were unable to right themselves and this is how they would die – a horrible, stressful death. Many had already lost the battle to live and their little corpses were scattered amongst the straw. One duckling had fallen behind machinery and was hopelessly trapped – calling desperately for a mother who would never come.”
Duck is a traditional French food, and is especially popular in Chinese cuisine where it is considered a rich delicacy, and most commercial dark farms supply restaurants directly. When we eat duck, and the flesh of other factory farmed animals, we are causing them continuous suffering. There is only one way to prevent cruelty to sentient creatures raised for food, and that is to make the commitment to go Vegan.
Today standing at the entrance to Land Meats in Whanganui I found myself thinking of Mrs Gallagher. Mrs Gallagher and the Gallagher family lived a few doors down from us when I was growing up in suburban Auckland in the 1940s and 50s. Mrs Gallagher was short and compact, well-groomed and she always walked with her right forearm in front of her chest, her purse dangling from her elbow. She worked part time somewhere in the city, and every day when she got off the bus she would bustle past our house on her bandy legs to go off home to cook the evening meal of meat and three vegs we all ate in those days, and I would marvel at the aura of certainty that emanated from her. Mrs Gallagher would give you a cheery wave when she saw you, unless she didn’t like you of course, when she would ignore you, or scowl at you, or even give you a tongue lashing. Unlike my own mother, who was weighed down with care and anxiety (but who still put a brave face on it) Mrs Gallagher for me represented the widespread feeling at the time that we lived in the best of all possible worlds. ‘Things are as they are for a purpose, and if they are as they are, then they must be right as they are. God is in Heaven and all is well.’
Even as a child I knew that this was bollocks. Things were not at all right as they were. They were a real mess, just as they are now, and the reason for this, I figured out, is because the humans who create our world are full of selfishness, ignorance, greed, superstition and fear.
In a very real sense we live in better times now than in the 1950s. We are more informed and better educated, our minds are not so narrow and parochial. But Albert Einstein said it truly: ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’ and the only way to step out of the mess we have created is for us to evolve.
Albert Einstein said it truly: ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’ and the only way to step out of the mess we have created is for us to evolve.
To evolve our consciousness is a very tall order, and what’s the notion even doing in a facebook blog anyway? Well, because we need to get our act together as a matter of urgency – look at the state our planet is in! A lot needs to happen. but we can be pragmatic and concentrate our efforts on a couple of fundamental things. One is for individuals and organisations and governments to practice honest self-reflection, and the other is to demonstrate more compassion and empathy in our day to day lives One of the best ways we can do this is to put ourselves in the place of others, in order to feel as they do. In particular, we should try to feel for the other sentient beings we share the planet with, those very same ones we treat so appallingly badly.
Until we cry for the skinny little sparrows hopping over hot asphalt in search of crumbs; until our heart hurts to see sweaty animals locked inside a death truck on a summer’s day, we have not evolved. But we can certainly get there from here, and something we can do immediately to fast-track our evolution, is to make the decision to go vegan.
Parcels of animal skins at Land Meats Slaughterhouse, Whanganui, NZ.
Take a look at the sea of white mounds I photographed today at the slaughterhouse. Each mound contains the skins of sentient beings who were killed recently at Land Meats. These poor animals were victims of heartless, profit-driven industries, and as animals raised for food, they were denied the same legal protection given to most other animals. Selfishness. Inconsistency. Indifference to suffering and rights. The capitalist machine reduced sentient beings to commodities; meat, bones and skin to be eaten, fed to our pets, used as fertiliser and worn on our backs and feet. The only life they will ever have was stolen from them because we as a species haven’t stopped to reflect what we are doing, and to ask ourselves ‘Is there not a better way?’
It didn’t occur to Mrs Gallagher back in the 1950s, but there IS a better way, and now we have no excuse for ignorance. We have the measure of the manner of the world we live in, and it’s up to us to clean it up.
PS A friend just messaged me to say that she had just eaten an unbelievably delicious vegan trumpet. What Tarnz didn’t know is that I had just eaten not one, but two yummy vegan cornettos! Snap! Vegan cuisine has come into its own, so by adopting a vegan diet your taste buds are not losing out on anything at all. Vegan is the future of food, this is the plain Truth. Soon I won’t need to make my lonely stand outside slaughterhouses here in Whanganui, and my other Save Movement friends need not do their vigils either, because all slaughterhouses will be shut down.
Mrs Gallagher would never have believed it – but I certainly hope that you do.
The recent Melbourne Cup event, where yet another horse was injured, has highlighted animal welfare concerns. The race, held in November every year, corresponds with a national holiday in Australia. It is a 158-year-old institution, and the cause of rowdy celebration. Yet this year while about 81,000 spectators partied in hats and high-heels, knocking back alcohol, the horses weren’t having so much fun.
Racehorses are valued primarily for the money they can bring in on race day. And the money is big. The total prize pool for the Melbourne Cup 2019 was A$8,000,000. Horse racing is a 9 billion dollar industry in Australia, and given high status. It is said to be the ‘Sport of Kings’.
One horse named Rostropovich sustained a stress fracture to his pelvis at the 2019 Melbourne Cup and is now lame. He is said to be stable, but I would imagine his future in racing is uncertain. In fact, his entire future on the planet is uncertain. Many ex-racehorses are killed in slaughterhouses in Australia. Behind the partying of major race days is a legacy of animal cruelty.
Five-year-old gelding Rostropovich, who fractured his pelvis at the 2019 Melbourne Cup. He is responding to treatment, and now bearing weight on all four of his legs.
During this year’s Melbourne Cup runner up jockey New Zealander Michael Walker, was fined $10,000 and banned from seven races for excessive whipping of his horse. His response? “I could bend over right now and let you hit me as hard as you want with those sticks and they don’t hurt.” Right. Well according to RSPCA, they do hurt: “There is no evidence to suggest that whipping does not hurt. Whips can cause bruising and inflammation”.
New Zealand jockey Michael Walker, who was fined $10,000 and banned from seven races for over-whipping his horse Prince of Arran in the 2019 Melbourne Cup.
From the cradle to the grave, horse racing is animal abuse. What many people may not know is that there is a high breeding rate and turnover of race horses in Australia. According to the Racing Australia Annual Report, over 14.000 foals are born in the racing industry each year. Another 8 and a half thousand are ‘retired’ from the track. More horses are being bred than are needed so that they have a larger pool of animals to draw from in the hopes of getting a winner. Bidda Jones, RSPCA’s Chief Scientist, calls this ‘searching for a diamond in the straw’. In fact, only 300 of every 1000 foals born in the racing industry in Australia will ever end up racing.
This means that there is a lot of what is referred to as ‘horse wastage’. It was revealed in October this year through Australia’s ABC’s 7.30 program that thousands of registered racehorses are killed in slaughterhouses (for consumption) or knackeries (for pet food) each year. This is after they may have earned hundreds of thousands in prize money. A 2008 report commissioned by the RSPCA to examine ”wastage” of Australian thoroughbred horses found 60 per cent of the animals processed at one abattoir originated from the racing industry. The report also indicated that 80 per cent of these horses had suffered neglect before being slaughtered.
The racehorse industry over-breeds to increase the likelihood of producing winners. Foals who aren’t viable or otherwise don’t make the cut, can be sent at days old to the slaughterhouse.
Professor Paul McGreevy , a veterinarian who spoke on the ABC 7.30 program, said that what happens to many of these ‘wastage’ horses is a grey area and that they often meet a grisly death. These horses are sold at sales yards, and brought by the slaughter industry for as little as $70. They are often discarded yearlings who did not make the mark, or older horses with injuries. Their meat is then shipped to overseas markets in Europe, Russia and Japan. It is marketed for human consumption.
Sakuraniku, (raw horse meat), a Japanese delicacy.
During the ABC investigation footage was shown of Meramist Abattoir. The treatment of these beautiful animals is disturbing to watch, as they are kicked and whipped, sworn at and taunted. One horse was dragged out of the transport truck by a rope tied to a tractor. He then collapsed.
Meramist Abattoir, Queensland, where the ABC documentary revealed footage of workers abusing and torturing horses.
The disdain that the slaughterhouse workers hold for the horses is deeply distressing. These sensitive animals, full of intelligence and poise, are treated as – in the words of one worker – ‘f****n maggots’. The workers repeatedly tell the animals they are going to die, indicating pleasure that they have ultimate control over their fate. They are subject to electrocution (anus and genitals included). These traumatized horses must face the end of their lives tortured by sadistic humans.
The extensive ABC investigation claimed that during a 22-day period a total of three hundred thoroughbred racing horses were killed at this slaughter house. These horses were forensically traced to their studs and collectively represent $4.670,770 in prize money. In one year alone over 4000 race horses are killed at Meramist.
The footage from inside the slaughter house was even more deeply disturbing. One horse was recorded being bolted five times before he lost consciousness. One worker was filmed whooping in enjoyment, stomping and kicking a dying horse in the head. These horses are dying in pain and terror, watching other horses die, while cheerful music echoes from the radio. Just another day at work. It’s haunting.
Footage taken at knackeries also reveal horrific deaths of ex racehorses. They are loaded into a killing pen and shot in the head in front of each other. The videos of horses shaking in fear was particularly hard to watch. They stood there, unable to move, knowing what was going to happen to them, the fear chorusing through their veins.
These harrowing scenes stand in stark and brutal contrast with the party goers’ antics at this year’s Melbourne Cup. Excessive drinking and drunken escapades highlight the utter shallowness of a culture that has its blinkers on (excuse the pun).
Drunken antics at the 2019 Melbourne Cup
Australia also ships race horses to Korea, and many are killed there. Footage recently emerged of this slaughter at one of the main horse abattoirs at Nonghyup on Jeju Island in South Korea. In this footage horses were beaten over the head with plastic pipes and chased into the slaughter house.
A third of the racehorses exported from Australia to Korea in the six years between 2013-2019 have since died. Most of them were slaughtered. In Korea, horses are killed for their meat and eaten. Too bad if you have a fancy name like ‘Road to Warrior’ – if you don’t meet the mark , you’re dead meat. Road to Warrior was a four year old gelding from Australia who had been in South Korea for fifteen months. He had only won one race and was sent to slaughter at Nonghyup at just four years of age. Horses can live for up to thirty years.
Australian horse next in line at a Korean slaughterhouse.
Winx’s brother was also killed in Nonghyup. Winx, the mighty mare with a 33-race winning streak dating over four years, was retired this year after winning the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The Guardian recorded that “It’s the third time Winx has won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, netting a cool $2,320,000 in prize money, to end a remarkable career in which the mighty mare went 1,463 days without losing a race. She was the nation’s darling. Yet her brother Bareul Jeong was not so lucky. His lineage mattered not. He was killed at Nonghyup after developing a strained ligament.
Race horses also suffer during training and racing. Some horses will die as a result of injuries on the track. Statistics collated by the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses demonstrate that one horse is killed on an Australian racetrack every three days. With over 30,000 horses in training in Australia, the scale of suffering from training is unimaginable. Earlier this year Melbourne Cup-winning horse trainer Darren Weir was charged with a total of nine offences including three counts of “engaging in the torturing, abusing, overworking and terrifying” of a racehorse and three counts of “causing unreasonable pain or suffering” to a racehorse.
Disgraced horse trainer Darryn Weir, who was charged with animal abuse in February
During racing many horses suffer. They may experience bleeding in the windpipe and lungs (exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhage). It is common enough to affect up to 50% of all racehorses and is a main cause of horse fatalities.
It is fairly common to see horses with nose bleeds after a race. Pulmonary haemorrhage occurs after bursts of intense, strenuous exercise.
All horses are thrashed by a whip – despite the fact that it does not make them run faster according to a 2011 study by the University of Sydney. Tongue ties are used by many trainers, where the horse’s tongue is secured to the base of his jaw with a tie. This is said to prevent choking or the tongue getting in the way of the bit during training. The RSPCA says it can cause stress, bruising, pain, anxiety and lacerations.
Many racehorses have their tongues tied to give the jockeys more control.
RSPCA’s Bidda Jones has also highlighted other issues with horse racing including single house stabling which disrupts normal feeding patterns and socialization. These horses are treated as nothing more than commodities – to be bought and sold; pushed beyond reasonable limits; injured; hurt and destroyed.
We don’t have our tongues tied and we need to speak out against this suffering. If we don’t speak up against horse racing we are effectively sanctioning this suffering by default. Don’t support the racing industry. Don’t go to races. Don’t bet on horses.
Dr Lynley Tulloch has a PhD in sustainability education and is an animal rights advocate.
The results of this study did not offer any support for the retention of whipping in horse racing, and the way it is used is contrary to the International Agreement on Breeding, Racing and Wagering to which the Racing Australia Board is a signatory.
What do the results of the 2012 study mean for the ongoing use of the whip in racing?
The outcome of this study shows that the improper use of whips is commonplace and that it is impossible for stewards, using the technology currently available to them, to effectively police the rules surrounding whip use in Thoroughbred racing. Only through high quality, high speed vision is it possible to see exactly what is happening and unfortunately stewards don’t currently have access to this footage.
What is the issue with backhand whip use?
This study reveals that backhand whip use is far more common than anticipated by Australian whip rules. It is possible that jockeys have been encouraged to use backhand rather than a forehand action to avoid penalisation. There is no evidence that backhand whippings are less painful. It is important to note that there are no restrictions in whip use with either forehand or backhand actions in the final 100m of races.
What is the issue with striking the abdomen with a whip?
Striking the horse in the abdomen, also referred to as the flank, is likely to be more painful to the horse than a strike on the hindquarters because there is little muscle in this area to absorb the impact of the whip. The flank also extends to the stifle joint and is extremely sensitive and vulnerable to injury. For this reason, strikes to the flank are prohibited under international racing rules.
Australia is signatory to the International Agreement on Breeding and Racing which lists specific prohibitions for whip use, including using the whip on the flank. The results of the current study indicate that Australian racing authorities are not meeting their obligations under this International Agreement.
The British Horseracing Authority does not allow whips to hit the abdomen, which means that less than 25% of whip strikes observed in this study would have been acceptable in the UK.
Surely jockeys wouldn’t be using whips if they don’t make horses run faster?
Perception is a powerful thing on the part of jockeys who may feel a change in the horse’s stride when it’s whipped and on the part of owners and punters who correlate whipping with getting the most out of a horse. There is no agreed line within the industry as to why whips are used at all – it’s cultural.
What is a padded whip?
So-called padded whips have a shock-absorbent layer between the inner spine and outer sleeve. This is intended to provide a cushioning layer between the horse’s body and the hard inner spine of the whip. The padding does not extend along the full shaft of the whip – only for about one-third of the whip’s length. The claim is that such a whip “will cause less pain and less damage to the body being struck” compared to a conventional whip, however there is no evidence to support this argument.
Padded whips don’t cause pain, so what’s the problem with using them?
So-called padded whips do cause pain – they may be less painful than traditional contact whips when applied in exactly the same manner. But jockeys wouldn’t use them if they didn’t inflict some pain on the horse. In fact, this study found that in 64% of impacts, the unpadded part of the whip came in contact with the horse. It may be that jockeys are using the so-called padded whip in a different way to overcome the possibility that it has less impact on the horse.
What does a horse feel when it is struck with a whip?
There is no evidence to suggest that whipping does not hurt. Whips can cause bruising and inflammation, however, horses do have resilient skin. That is not to say that their skin is insensitive. Indeed, a horse can easily feel a fly landing on its skin. Repeated striking with a whip (of any type) in the same area of the body has the potential to cause localised trauma and tissue damage, the extent of which will increase with the force of the strike and the number of repetitions.
Whips are essential for jockey safety, or to make the horse ‘pay attention’, aren’t they?
Jockeys aren’t whipping their horses in the last 100m of a race to increase safety or to remind their horse to pay attention. If jockeys didn’t need to use the whip before that point for safety reasons then why suddenly pull it out at the end?
Bringing safety into the argument is just an attempt to distract people from the real problem – that last 100m where whips can be used indiscriminately.
What are the Australian Racing Board whip rules?
At the time of this study there were no restrictions on backhand whip strikes at any stage of a race. Following changes made on 1 December 2015, the ARB whip rules now state that jockeys can use the whip in either a forehand or backhand manner only five times before the final 100m of a race, however these are not to be used in consecutive strides. During the last 100m of a race, whips can be used at a jockey’s discretion, which essentially means horses can be whipped most when they are at their most fatigued and least able to respond.
What does RSPCA want next?
The RSPCA wants reform of the whip rules and an end of the use of the whip as a performance aid altogether. The study also confirms that there is unacceptable use of the whip in Thoroughbred racing and that stewards are not properly resourced to police Australian whip rules.
The beautiful beings in my photos were among 150 or so cows waiting at a slaughterhouse to be killed. I photographed them at one of my twice weekly vigils in Whanganui, New Zealand.
The animals stood on concrete in their own urine and feces, their flesh pressed against iron bars. While some cows were tightly packed, there was room in other pens for the animals to take a few steps forward and back. As they jostled around nervously, some of them slipped in the muck. When the innocent and vulnerable find themselves in dire straits it just kills me.
Every face shows their sadness, their fear. They also reveal their innocence. Animals, unlike people, are free from defilements.
They had been hours without eating, with hours more of hunger to endure before they would be delivered of the misery visited on them by us. Slaughterhouses do not feed animals, even when they have many hours to wait. It’s a ‘waste of money’ and also ‘it makes too much of a mess when they’re being processed.’ The last thing they want is intestinal contents and feces everywhere, adding to the risk of contamination. So the girls and boys go hungry.
As usual, I spoke to the gentle earthlings, and sang to them. I hoped that, momentarily at least, their spirits might be lifted. But of course, I couldn’t save them.
I hoped the night would not be too long for them, and that they could get some sleep. I hoped that tomorrow when the men with the electric prods and stun guns and knives began their wicked work that society has normalised, that the slaying would be carried out with the minimum of pain and fear.
Please look at their beautiful faces, and bear witness to their lives. If you want to learn more about Animal Save movement go to thesavemovement.org