HELLO, COW!

Like humans, cows carry their young for twelve months and then breast-feed them for nine-twelve months.

Cows are very protective mothers and if they lose their calves, they become extremely distressed and disoriented for a long time, sometimes never recovering. John Avizienius of the Farm Animals Department of the The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Great Britain describes a mother cow's reaction to losing her calf:

"She appeared to be deeply affected by the separation from her calf for a period of at least six weeks. When the calf was first removed, she was in acute grief. She stood outside the pen where she had last seen her calf and bellowed for her offspring for hours. She would only move when forced to do so. Even after six weeks, the mother would gaze at the pen where she last saw her calf and sometimes wait momentarily outside of the pen."

Cows also become distraught at the death of other adult cows. Here is a description from the book CATTLE by William Youatt:

"I found a large heard of bullocks (cows) collected from the surrounding country; they had encompassed the spot where a bullock had been killed in the morning, and they appeared to be in the greatest state of grief and rage: they roared, they moaned, they tore the ground with their feet, and bellowed the most hideous chorus that can be imagined, and it was with the greatest difficulty that they could be driven away by men and dogs. Since then, I have observed the same scene by daylight, and seen large tears rolling down their cheeks."

WARNING: The next part of this posting is about the extreme cruelty cows experience in factory farms, where most beef in the US originates. This part will be hard to read. Every year in the US, approximately 40 million cows are slaughtered for food.

Beef cattle spend most of their lives in crowded feedlots, where they are fed sawdust, shredded newspaper, and processed sewage to fatten them up as cheaply as possible. They commonly undergo branding, castration and dehorning without anesthesia. The crowded conditions lead to infections and insect infestations, which are treated with massive doses of antibiotics and pesticides, which remain in their flesh.

From the time they are very young, female cows are injected with synthetic growth hormones so that they will produce ten times as much milk as would be natural. As a result, their udders become so enlarged that they have difficulty walking, which leads to lameness and extreme pain in 60% of all milk cows. The extra weight also means that they cannot have natural births and require caesarians, which are done with either local anesthesia or no anesthesia at all. Once they are no longer able to produce high volumes of milk, they are slaughtered, which usually happens when they are 3-4 years old. A cow's natural life span is 25 years.

Since male cows do not produce milk, they are typically taken away from their mothers within 24 hours of birth and delivered to VEAL FACTORIES, where they are kept chained by their necks inside tiny dark sheds in which they cannot take a step in any direction or lie completely down. They are fed iron deficient formula to keep their flesh pale. They frequently suffer from anemia, diarrhea, pneumonia and lameness and see sunlight only once in their short lives, on the way to slaughter, which happens at four months of age.

In Jeffrey Moosaieff's book, THE PIG WHO SANG TO THE MOON, he writes about "the cows lined up in the preslaughter pen from where they could see their companions being killed. They were trembling. They could barely stand because they were shaking so badly. They were absolutely terrified."

LET'S BAN FOIE GRAS IN NYC!

On November 29th City Council Member Alan Gerson (D-Manhattan), was scheduled to introduce an important bill to ban the sale of foie gras in New York City. The production of Foie Gras involves extreme cruelty towards ducks and geese, as described lower down in this posting. 25 million ducks and geese are raised every year for this 'delicacy'.

Foie gras has already been banned in Chicago and San Francisco, as well as Switzerland, Italy, the UK, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Israel, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, and Poland.

Unfortunately, Alan Gerson has postponed the introduction of his bill because of pressure from restaurants and the meat industry. I urge everyone reading this to let both him and Council Speaker Christine Quinn to know asap that we support a ban of foie gras.

The best way to contact Alan Gerson is by mail and phone, not email, by sending a letter to:
The Honorable Alan Gerson, Council Member˜1st District, 51 Chambers Street, Suite 429, New York, NY 10007
and calling his office, 212-788-7722. Ask for Paul Nagle at that number.
When you contact the office, the best approach would be let Paul Nagle know that you thank Gerson for considering the legislation, and that you trust Gerson in his efforts.

It's also extremely important to encourage Speaker of the City Council Christine Quinn by mail and telephone to support a ban of foie gras in New York. Mail letters to:
The Honorable Speaker Quinn, Speaker of the City Council, City Hall, New York, NY 10007
and call her office at 212-788-5615. If you call, say you want to leave Speaker Quinn a message.
When you contact her by phone or email, the tone should be a little different than what you send Gerson. In addition to mentioning that you support a ban of foie gras because of the obvious animal cruelty issues, emphasize the fact that New York State law prohibits production of food from diseased animals, and that foie gras is literally diseased liver. This is the issue at the core of the lawsuit and might help her hear what you want to say.

It would also be great to contact your own local City Council Member, who you can find at www.humanenyc.org

To produce foie gras, a metal pipe is shoved down a goose or duck's throat and into their stomach. 6-7 pounds of grain is pressure-driven down the pipe, rupturing the bird's stomach or esophogus 10% of the time, leading to a very slow and agonizing death. Vomiting is often prevented by tying an elastic band around the bird's throat. This force feeding process takes place 3 to 5 times a day for a month, and transforms the normally 2 to 3 ounce liver into a 1 to 2 pound mass known as foie gras. As a result, ducks and geese at foie gras farms have trouble standing, walking, and breathing. Many of them die before the end of the force-feeding cycle, and the mortality rate for ducks raised on foie gras farms is among the highest in the farming industry.

For lots of details about this timely New York campaign, visit www.nofoiegras.org
To volunteer for this campaign, email wendy.berner@yahoo.com

WE ALL NEED COMPASSION

This morning I rode a crowded New York City bus to work. There were no seats available and many people had to stand up. Each of the front six seats on New York buses has a sign above it saying "Won't you please give this seat to the elderly or disabled?"

A young woman was sitting in one of the front seats with her large bag on the seat beside her. She was reading a book, making a point of not looking up when people entered the bus, most likely to avoid seeing their faces because then she would have had to notice their tired eyes, eager for seats.

It took more energy for that woman to avoid people's eyes than it would have taken to remove her bag from the seat, and she missed out on the possiblity of connecting with another human being.

On a painfully hot day last summer in New York, I noticed a dog tied by his leash to a sign in front of a deli. He was panting like crazy and had a look of desperation in his eyes. I got a large empty fast food container from a nearby Chinese restaurant, filled it with water, and offered it to the dog. He lapped it up right away. As I walked away, I glanced back at him a few times and he was watching me steadily with the most grateful expression in his eyes I've ever seen in any animal, including human beings.

I've known people who were deeply caring towards other people but not towards other animals, and I've know people who were incredibly compassionate towards animals but not towards people.

I think that all living creatures want and need the same basic things;
Love, food, love, shelter, love, safety,
Oh, and did I mention love?

MY BLOG WISHES

Over the past few days I've been thinking a lot about my hopes for this blog.








If you've read the posts leading up to this one, you've found lots of information about animal behavior and cruelty to animals, particularly in connection with factory farms, where most of the meat in the US is produced. I also wrote a little bit about health, how meat isn't as healthy as we've been lead to believe by the meat industry. Some of the animal cruelty information in this blog is very painful to read, so if you were able to get through it, thank you for reading it.

As you can probably guess by now, I would be deliriously happy if everyone on the planet stopped eating meat. I believe that this would result in happier animals and healthier people.

However, I'm realistic and I know that many people will continue to eat meat, so I've decided that my dream is for everyone to choose their food with as much compassion as possible.

If you eat meat, I hope that you will consider buying meat that wasn't raised on factory farms, where the animals are treated horribly, and where the meat is pumped full of antibiotics, pesticides and hormones, which aren't good for people or animals. Just this change would help thousand of animals lead better lives. Organic meat is available is many health food stores and grocery stores.

If you are thinking about going vegetarian, there are zillions of food options, and many great books to help you make the transition. You'll be amazed how easy it is to stop eating meat. I've heard great things about a book called THE NEW BECOMING VEGETARIAN: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO A HEALTHY VEGETARIAN DIET by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis.
You can also go to google and type in "Vegetarianism" to find mountains of information.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ?

Pictured: A baby turkey





45 million turkeys are served for Thanksgiving every year.

What are turkeys like?

Joe Hutto, who closely observed a flock of two dozen turkeys for a year, wrote in his book, ILLUMINATIONS IN THE FLATWOODS:

"I have never kept better company or know of more fulfilling companionship. As I leave the confines of my language and culture, these graceful creatures become in every way my superiors. More alert, sensitive, and aware, they are vastly more conscious than I. Theirs is an intricate aptitude, a clear distillation of purpose and design that is beyond my ability to comprehend. "

Dr. Ian Duncan, poultry expert at the University of Guelph, states:

"Turkeys possess marked intelligence as revealed by such behavioral indices as their complex social relationships, and their many different methods of communicating with each other, both visual and vocal."

Turkeys and other birds (chickens, ducks, geese) are not protected by The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, a federal mandate. As a result, abuse is rampant in factory farms, where most turkeys are raised for food in the US. An undercover animal advocate observed repeated incidents of turkeys at factory farms being punched, jumped on, thrown, shaken, swung around in the air, and slammed into walls. He witnessed turkeys being stomped on until their skulls exploded. Turkeys that accidentally fell underneath delivery trucks were deliberately crushed when the trucks pulled out. A worker was heard saying, "Animal rights activists don't like it when you kick a turkey. Animals have more rights than people nowadays. Don't worry if you hear a popping sound while working. It's just a bird exploding under the tire of a truck."

Turkeys spend their lives tightly squeezed together in dark sheds, standing on layers of excrement. When they are only a few hours old, the tips of their beaks and the first joint of each toe are cut off without anesthesia.

Once it's time for slaughter, they are hung upside down by their legs (which often break in the process) to have their throats slit and then they are dunked into scalding hot tanks to remove their feathers. The kill line moves so fast that many turkeys don't have their throats completely slit and end up being dunked alive into the boiling water. A worker at Butterball admitted that he hears birds screaming constantly as they are scalded to death.

Abuse at Butterball can be seen at www.ButterballCruelty.com

HELLO, CHICKEN!

This photo is of Oreo, the chicken I sponsor at Catskill Animal Sanctuary.



Chickens are very social animals. According to Rex Bowlby, the author of PLANT ROOTS, adult chickens can recognize and remember about 100 other chickens, based mainly on features of the head and neck. Chickens keep themselves very clean by giving themselves dust baths (it's actually clean soil they use, not dust), and it's been found that some chickens enjoy watching television and listening to music. When chickens and roosters flirt, they dance around each other in a way that resembles waltzing.

Here's an excerpt from a sweet book called MY FINE FEATHERED FRIEND by NY Times food critic Williams Grimes, who was surprised one day to find a chicken in his New York City back yard:

" I ran across a funny article by a man who had grown up on a farm in western New York in the 1850s, tending to a flock of a hundred chickens, which he and his brother would observe, hour after hour. Chickens were in a way their television. Every one of those hundred chickens had a name and a distinct character, it seems. They possessed all the human emotions and character traits, in somewhat simplified form. They could be vain, sneaky, and courageous. They could be embarassed. they schemed and plotted, especially about food. A hen that managed to catch a mouse (this talent was news to me) would saunter off to a remote location with her prize. On the way, she would make a point of giving off noises that signaled to the rest of the flock that nothing special was going on. Once out of sight, she would feast greedily."

Here's another excerpt from an amazing book, THE PIG WHO SANG TO THE MOON-THE EMOTIONAL WORLD OF FARM ANIMALS by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson:

"A chicken flew into my arms. I didn't even know that chickens could fly, and suddenly one was landing on me. It happened when I was visiting a farm sanctuary. If I had been younger I would have asked my parents if I could take her home, please! After all, she chose me. Never mind that she chose everybody; she was a particularly friendly chicken. She made soft, strange cooing sounds and nestled into my arms like a happy kitten. I was won over. This was no ordinary chicken, I decided.
In fact, she was an ordinary chicken, but simply one who had no reason to believe that people were after her.
In the wild, both hen and cock elude their enemies, form intense friendships, protect their brood, and greet the golden dawn with a burst of song. This is how chickens and roosters were meant to live."

So, what is life like for a typical US chicken?

90% of American chickens are raised on factory farms, which house up to 80,000 chickens. The chickens we eat ("boilers"), which have natural lifespans of 13-14 years, are killed at 2 months old, and the chickens who lay eggs ("layers") are killed at 2 years old.

The boilers live in groups of 4-5 in tiny metal cages, so small that they can't stand up all the way or turn around, and some of them die of asphyxiation. Their beaks, which are full of nerve endings, are systematically partially removed without anesthesia, since the stress of being in such cramped conditions leads them to peck desperately at each other. Once the beak is half gone, it's harder for chickens to eat, so some of them starve. Decomposing corpses are often found in cages, mixed in with live chickens. The feet of factory farmed chickens get mangled by the wire bottoms of the cages. In fact, because they can't move around in the cages, sometimes their toes grow around the wire bottoms and have to be cut off in order to free them. When chickens are rescued from factory farms, many are crippled for life.

The chickens that lay eggs, called layers, also live in very close quarters, and their beaks are removed, too. Sometimes layers are deprived of food or protein for long periods of time to induce more laying cycles.

Because chickens are squeezed into such close quarters, they often end up eating their own feces, which accumulate and drop down to the cages below. More than 99% of broilers have E.coli and about 30% have salmonella.

Here's what Howard Lyman wrote in his remarkable book, MAD COWBOY-PLAIN TRUTH FROM THE CATTLE RANCHER WHO WON'T EAT MEAT:

"According to the independent Government Accountability Project, up to 25 percent of chickens on the inspection line are covered with feces, bile, and feed, and chickens are often soaked in chlorine baths to remove slime and odor. Contaminated chicken kills at least one thousand Americans a year, and estimates of how many people are sickened range as high as 80 million."

Peter Cheeke, PhD and author of a textbook called CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ANIMAL AGRICULTURE, wrote:

" In my opinion, if most urban meat eaters were to visit an industrial broiler house, to see how the birds are raised, and could see the birds being 'harvested' and then being 'processed' in a poultry processing plant, some, perhaps many of them, would swear off eating chicken."

Here's a website with more information about factory farm cruelty: www.wegmanscruelty.com

FEELINGS

My father, a neurobiologist, sent me an email this morning that included a paragraph about animals and feelings:

"We are all made of the same stuff. The amazing thing is how small the differences are, especially between the higher mammals and us. Even at the tissue level things are the same...same components just arranged a little differently. So when you see a brain, and eyes, and ears it seems to me a silly argument that many basic feelings...pain, sorrow, fear are not shared between animals and us."

VEGETARIANISM=GREAT HEALTH

The meat and dairy industries have worked hard for years to convince Americans that we need large amounts of meat.

Actually, according to numerous doctors and nutritionists, some of the worst health problems that plague our society could be dramatically reduced by adopting a meat-free or low-meat diet. Americans' high meat and dairy consumption has been linked with our high rates of cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes and obesity.

Vegetarians live an average of 6-10 years longer than meat eaters.

Here are some interesting quotes from doctors about vegetarianism and health:

"Vegetarians have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country. They have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40% of our cancer rates."
Dr. William Castelli, MD, Director, Framington Heart Study, the longest-running clinical study in medical history.

"Children who grow up getting their nutrition from plant foods rather than meats have a tremendous health advantage. They are less likely to develop weight problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer."
Dr. Benjamin Spock, MD, Author

"Well-planned vegan diets are appropriate for all stages of the lifecycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence." The American Dietetic Association position paper on vegetarianism

"Humans are the only creatures that drink milk from the mother of another species. It's as unnatural for a child to drink the milk of a cow as it is for a dog to nurse from a giraffe. Human children have no nutritional requirements for cow's milk.
Cow's milk and the products made from it are laced with foreign, frequently allergy-inciting, bovine protein and often contain hydrocarbon pesticides and other chemical contaminants, as well as health endangering saturated fat. Clinical experience suggests that cow's milk is linked to numerous common health problems (runny noses, allergies, ear infections, recurrent bronchitis, asthma, etc.) that often keep people returning to their doctor's offices. Parents should feel good about giving their children the many nutritious, tasty nondairy alternatives instead."
Dr. Michael Klaper,MD, Author

COW OR CAT FOR DINNER?

This morning I'm thinking about the categories we put animals in:





PETS are animals we name, get to know and wouldn't think of eating, such as dogs and cats. Pets are often viewed as family members and most people are profoundly unhappy when their pets die.

ZOO ANIMALS are ones we watch for entertainment but do not interact with, and most of us wouldn't think of eating those types of animals, which include giraffes, elephants, monkeys, reptiles and certain kinds of birds.

And then we have FARM ANIMALS that we eat, such as pigs, cows and chickens. In recent years a few additional animals have joined this category, such as kangaroos, bisons and ostriches.

HUMAN BEINGS are put into their own elevated category, considered out of the question as food, and some people don't even think of us as animals, even though we have 99% of the same genetic makeup as chimpanzees. Cannabals show up in horror films.

What if these categories were scrambled up and we ate dogs and cats, had zoo and farm animals as pets, and observed human beings in cages?

Did you know that pigs are smarter than dogs? Last night on "Nightline" there was story about a pig farmer who makes a great effort to treat his pigs well, as contrasted with their horrific treatment in factory farms, where they are often kept stacked up in metal cages so small they can't turn around, and are castrated and have their tails cut off without anesthesia.
The farmer on "Nightline" gave his pigs plenty of space to roam around in, lots of fresh hay to eat, and the opportunity for the pigs to become friends with each other and form families. He even named each pig and knew their distinct personalities.

EATING FEAR AND WHY I BECAME A VEGETARIAN

This is my rabbit, Vernon Z Shedmeister. Vernon has lived with me for a little over two years, and during that time I've gone from being a meat eater to being a vegetarian and animal advocate, largely because of Vernon. When I brought Vernon home and got to know his incredible and unique personality, I became very aware of the fact that he's a prey animal, eaten by many other animals, including human beings. This bothered me intensely, especially when several people I met made jokes about how they wanted to "cook up" my rabbit. Vernon got me thinking about the individual personalities of all of the animals people eat, and the hell the animals go through both before and during their deaths.

That's why this blog is called "Eating Fear". I have read that animals at factory farms are traumatized and tortured far beyond what most people realize. By the time they are lined up to be slaughtered, a large percentage of them have mangled feet, chopped off beaks, ears, and testicles, and many additional problems from being given excessive antibiotics, hormones and pesticides. As animals witness other animals being slaughtered right in front of them, terror builds up in them, creating high levels of adrenalin in their bodies. When people eat meat, they are literally eating that adrenalin, or eating fear. One of my friends became a vegetarian because she "didn't want to eat fear."

I've always loved animals.
As a child, I used to save bugs when other kids were cruel to them.
When I was about 10, my summer camp took the kids on a fishing trip. I caught a small fish, and as I pulled that fish out of the water and noticed its terrified eyes and mangled mouth from the fishing hook, I burst into tears, threw the fish back into the water, and ran to the school bus, where I cried all afternoon.
In 9th grade, I refused to dissect a frog in my biology class and wrote an impassioned letter to the teacher about how unecessary and cruel it was to use live animals.
When I was 16, my father, a neurobiologist, took me to a lecture called "The Mites in Moths' Ears". The lecturer used a live moth on a clip under a microscope to make some points. All I noticed during the lecture was that poor struggling moth. As soon as the lecture was over, I asked the lecturer if I could free the moth and he let me take the moth outside. He told my Dad later that I showed a rare respect for life.
When I applied for college and had to write the essay about myself, I chose to write about animal cruelty instead, focusing on cattle branding and laboratory experiments.

So... why didn't I become a vegetarian until 2 years ago? I never ate a lot of meat. In fact, I used to joke around that I was a "hypocritical vegetarian" because I only ate meat that didn't look like part of an animal. I could never eat chicken legs or ribs.
I knew inside that something was wrong with this, and that if I ever visited a meat factory, I would never be able to eat meat again, but I always lived in cities and didn't see what went on behind the scenes. I saw meat only on plates in restaurants or homes and in styrofoam trays in supermarkets.

Then two years ago I visited a friend who was working at The Catskill Animal Sanctuary. I met cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, horses, and a ram, and got to know the unique personality of each animal. I stared into the beautiful, huge sweet eyes of cows, the playful eyes of pigs, and the intelligent, alert eyes of chickens. I met a pig who loved to have people lie right on him, and he would snort the whole time, which sounded like laughing. I learned about how each animal had been rescued from unimaginably horrific situations, but had learned to trust again once they were surrounded by loving people, and how only in those loving circumstances were their true personalities able to emerge.

A week after that visit, I volunteered at a Manhattan benefit for the sanctuary. Incredible vegetarian food was served, and they showed a documentary called "Peacable Kingdom" about what goes on in factory farms. It contrasted the happy animals at an animal sanctuary with the miserably treated animals at various factory farms. I was so traumatized by the cruelty shown in this movie that I couldn't speak at all and could barely breath.

As I lay in bed later that night trying to fall asleep, I realized that there had been a terrible disconnection inside myself about animals. I sobbed all night, thinking about all of the animals who had suffered because of my meat eating over the years. The next morning I woke up knowing I would never eat meat again.

This was the beginning of a huge transformation inside myself. Once I stopped eating meat, the wall inside me that had allowed me to love animals while at the same time eating them dissolved. As soon as I stopped eating meat, I could look at any animal and feel complete love and compassion in a way that was blocked before. My heart opened.

Since then I've read countless books about health, the environment and animal welfare. I'm convinced that it would profoundly benefit both human beings' and the planet's health if every person either reduced or eliminated completely animals as food.