by Jennifer Fearing

Americans could barely believe their eyes when they saw the sickening mistreatment of downer cows at a California slaughter plant earlier this year. An undercover investigator for The Humane Society of the United States documented downed cows being brutalized in order to get them into the kill box. Government inspectors and plant management either missed the abuse or allowed it to persist, sending meat from these animals into our National School Lunch program. After the broadcast of the graphic video, the federal government was finally pressed into stopping the sale of meat from sick and crippled animals to consumers.

This investigation shows us we cannot always wait for the government and the factory farming industry to protect animals from abuse or to guard us from food safety threats. That’s precisely why Proposition 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act - which phases out the cramming of veal calves, breeding pigs, and laying hens into small cages and crates - is so important and timely.

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The videos keep coming! Here is more from Slow Food Nation. You can watch other slow food leaders chatting with TakePart here and here.

Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center For Food Safety

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Three weeks ago, we reported that Spain has recognized the awesomeness of our closest genetic relatives by granting great apes the right to life and freedom.

Today, the New York Times expands on the story and explains:

“If the bill passes the news agency Reuters predicts it will it would become illegal in Spain to kill apes except in self-defense. Torture, including in medical experiments, and arbitrary imprisonment, including for circuses or films, would be forbidden. The 300 apes in Spanish zoos would not be freed, but better conditions would be mandated.”

The article then poses some interesting questions on how we interact with different species and can be empathetic to some but not to others. Even animal cruelty laws have biases:

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The chill in the air still says “winter,” but NYC’s Union Square Greenmarket was ablaze today with the happy harbingers of spring: daffodils, pansies, tulips, ranunculus, all blooming their vibrantly hued little heads off. I couldn’t resist taking out my iPhone to snap some shots of all the flower-filled flats.

My floral euphoria was short-lived; I reflexively checked my e-mails, and my heart  sank when I saw one from our friend Jen with the subject heading “Our Dear Lloyd”" :

It is with a very heavy heart that I’m telling you that our dear Lloyd passed away yesterday.  I am too tearful to talk on the phone, so please accept this e-mail note instead.

Our precious marmalade cat would have been 18 next month.  I know many people feel their pets are special, but Lloyd was truly unique.  He was meant to be with us.  He literally reached out and poked us at the animal shelter in New York City many years ago — “hey, pick me!” “

 

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Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Safeway has adopted new policies to improve its animal welfare standards. This gigantic California-based grocery chain, with 1,743 stores in the U.S. and Canada, is bowing to some firm but gentle arm twisting from those friends to farm animals everywhere, The Humane Society of the United States:

“Safeway’s new policies represent important progress on basic animal welfare issues and will positively affect many thousands of animals,” said Paul Shapiro, senior director of The HSUS’s factory farming campaign. “Safeway’s move also sends a strong message to the agribusiness industry that it must rapidly move away from the worst factory farming abuses, such as intensive confinement systems and the conventional poultry slaughter method.”

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Fifteen government agencies unveiled a five year plan yesterday “to reduce, refine and replace the use of animals in research and regulatory testing,” according to Environment News Service.

Animals have been routinely used to test chemicals, consumer products, medical devices and new drugs for toxicity on humans, but new technological advances offer researchers the option of utilizing alternative test methods “that either reduce the number of animals used in testing, or refine procedures so animals experience less pain and distress, or replace animals with non-animal systems,” as ENS reports.

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Anne Frank famously wrote “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.” Of course, she went on to die of typhus in a concentration camp, which may seem to undermine her benign view of mankind.

I bring all this up because, like Anne Frank, I want to believe that people are essentially good. That’s why I’d like to think that encouraging everyone to watch a new video from the Humane Society, “Overlooked: The Lives of Animals Raised For Food” will make a dent in the rampant animal abuse that’s standard operating procedure in American meat, poultry, dairy and egg production.

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I never could understand the frenzy over Beanie Babies, the crazed collectors snapping up all that mass-produced, made-in-China plush as if it would appreciate in value someday, like a turn-of-the-century Steiff teddy bear.You can have quality, or you can have quantity”they generally don’t go hand in hand. So how could all those millions of pricey purebred puppies frolicking in pet shop windows possibly be coming from reputable dog breeders? Answer: they aren’t.As the Humane Society of the United States has revealed after a five month undercover investigation, factory farms in America’s heartland are churning out Chihuahuas and Yorkies so that folks like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears can flaunt fluffy fashion accessories.The HSUS took undercover footage in Pets of Bel Air, the boutique where Paris and Britney bought their prop pooches, and discovered invoices showing that—contrary to the claims of Tom Demick, the chi-chi pet shop’s owner”some of the puppies on sale did, indeed, come from puppy mills. Oh, and Demick’s shop hasn’t actually had a permit to sell puppies for three years, a minor detail that Demick described as “an oversight.” L.A. Animal Services didn’t see it that way, and shut the place down shortly after the HSUS made its findings public.Many of the massive dog breeding operations that provide places like Pets of Bel Air with their puppies are run by corn and soy farmers as a lucrative second business, according to Wayne Pacelle, president of the HSUS. As Pacelle told the New York Times, “these puppy mills apply an agricultural mind-set to the breeding of dogs.” Sounds like a new kind of corn dog, and not a very appetizing one. When are mutts going to get their due? After all, they’ve got that one-of-a-kind je ne sais quoi.For a list of 10 things you can do to help stop puppy mills click HERE.