MFA explains:

Upon reviewing the undercover footage, world-renowned animal behaviorist Dr. Jonathan Balcombe denounced the facility, stating that “this video depicts scenes of unbearable suffering and inexcusable neglect. … This farm should be closed down at once.”

Share the information by going here http://www.mercyforanimals.org/pigabuse/ and choosing “share on facebook.”

Just as how Smokey the Bear reminds us that “Only you can prevent forest fires” MFA reminds consumers that they can “prevent needless suffering of farmed animals by adopting a healthy and humane vegan diet.” Learn more about transitioning to a plant-based diet at http://chooseveg.com/

“Where do you get your protein? The Smart Answer: Lots of places! Whole grains, legumes, nuts, tofu, soy milk, hummus, falafels, veggie burgers, bean burritos, pad thai – just to name a few.” Keep reading >>

Check out some awesome photos of tasty vegan food  at Finding Vegan >>

A new film about eating a plant-based diet as preventative medicine has recently hit the theaters. The film is called Forks Over Knives and the showtimes are listed online here >>

“Government cheese is making us sick” says PCRM. Read more about Dr. Neal Barnard’s proposal to remove animal products from the food stamp program here >>

Rescued farm animals provide stories of hope and healing for abused children >>

PETA has a facebook post up about 15 Reasons Not To Eat Bacon. Check it out >>

Summer, the goat, gets new wheels! Read the story here >>

“Empathy, long thought to be a defining human trait, causes one individual to be affected by the emotional state of another. [...] The research demonstrated that hens possess a fundamental capacity to empathise” read more >>

Got more news and links? Please share them below in the comments!

Take a close look at the fine print >>

Born on a farm in upstate New York, Petunia was the runt of her litter. For most piglets bred for production, this is a death sentence, as hardly any farmer wants or is able to take the time to bottle-feed a piglet who isn’t thriving day and night. As a result, many are left to languish or are often killed in brutal ways. But in Petunia’s case, she was donated to a veterinary teaching hospital so that students there could perform a practice surgery on the umbilical hernia with which she was born.

Fortunately, a call for help came for Petunia too.

Petunia needed surgery and then came to the Farm Sanctuary where she will be safe from the cruel industries that neglect and abuse animals like her. 

While she is not out of the woods yet, and has since had a repeat trip back to the hospital for further treatments and assessment for more surgery, we are hopeful that she will fully recover soon. [...]

There is nothing quite like the unconditional and carefree love that little Petunia, and all babies like her, have to share with anyone who is receptive to receiving it. To think that this sweet girl who takes such pleasure in all the simple joys of life almost didn’t have the chance to shine so brightly is heartbreaking … but by saving each one we can, and telling their stories, we are showing the world, little by little, that there is another way [...]

Speaking of unconditional and carefree love, HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

The article is online at NPR and offers some questionable evolutionary science to suggest that a bacon-related relapse among a few ex-omnivores constitutes a trend. It says, “Because bacon is one- to two-thirds fat and also has lots of protein, it speaks to our evolutionary quest for calories”. That makes sense if evolution looks like this:

Before I list some reasons to avoid bacon, I’ll quote one of the article’s commenters, Toodloo, with added emphasis:

“To answer the question of why people fetishize bacon, the answer is twofold:
1.) Eating bacon makes consumers feel rebellious in this age of compassionate and healthful eating – after all, pig is the most intelligent and sensitive of farmed animals.
2.) Bacon is the ‘gateway meat’ because it is prepared in a way to mask its animal source: its crispy, not ‘fleshy’; salt covers the taste of pig; and its cut into tidy strips that don’t resemeble the body parts from which it is derived.”

No matter how good bacon tastes, there’s no good justification for eating it.

10 Reasons Why Eating Bacon Is Wrong:

1. Animal neglect and abuse are common in the pork industry, not the exception.
2. Pigs are usually slaughtered at about 6 months old. For perspective, a pig’s natural lifespan is about 15 years.
3. Castration, early slaughter, and selective breeding are the pork industry’s solution to “boar taint,” the offensive odor of post-pubescent male pig flesh.
4. The US legal agricultural definition of “euthanasia” includes hanging or beating sows and piglets without anesthesia.
5. Swine Flu (H1N1).
6. MRSA.
7. Cholesterol.
8. Hog waste lagoons.
9. Pigs are cute.
10. We can choose to eat something else. There’s no need to eat bacon or any other animal product.  

Here’s what the HSUS says:

The investigator—who spent a month working inside a Smithfield-owned facility in Waverly, Va.— documented numerous abuses including the following:

Female breeding pigs were crammed inside “gestation crates” so small the animals could barely move for virtually their entire lives. The animals engaged in stereotypic behaviors such as biting the bars of crates, indicating poor well-being in the extreme confinement conditions. Some had bitten their bars so incessantly that blood from their mouths coated the fronts of their crates. The breeding pigs also suffered injuries from sharp crate protrusions and open pressure sores that developed from their unyielding confinement.

The investigator never saw a veterinarian at the operation. A barn manager told the investigator to ignore a pig with a basketball-sized abscess on her neck, and then cut the abscess open with an unsterilized razor.

Employees jabbed a lame pig’s neck and back with gate rods to force her to move.
Three times, the investigator informed employees that a pig was thrown into a dumpster alive. The animal had been shot in the forehead with a captive bolt gun, which is designed to render an animal unconscious, and was thrown in the dumpster still alive and breathing.

Employees mishandled piglets and tossed them into carts.

Some piglets prematurely born in gestation crates fell through the slats into the manure pits.
Watch the video and learn more here >>

I was having lunch with a friend/colleague. He said that the thing that bothered him about vegans is the hypocrisy. After all, he said, how could you buy a product with the name of “Fakin’” (a product that is more a less a vegan substitute for bacon).

[...] the ethical situation he’d laid out was more or less the same as arguing that violent video games are bad for you because playing them is hypocritical.

After all, if you really feel like blowing somebody away with a 57 Magnum, isn’t it cheating to buy “Grand Theft Auto” and merely pretend to walk down the street shooting people?

I like how that blogger thinks. There’s nothing wrong with liking the taste of meat; it’s how it becomes meat that’s the problem. Eating faux meats is simply rejecting the cruelty of eating animals, not the taste.

If you’re like me and you like the fake stuff, check out the website Meat Alternatives for a nice long list of options.

Tracy pointed me to an article in the Chicago Tribune that ran back in August about bringing children to witness animal slaughter.

Here are some pieces from the article:

My 7-year-old loves bacon.
She loves it almost as much she loves pigs who are still alive.
And so our recent farm visit to witness a slaughter was not easy.

…

“You can’t do that to city kids,” my brother admonished. “They’re not used to it. It could really disturb them.” Numerous city friends echoed his views.
But when I mentioned those concerns to farmers at the event, they just shook their heads. “Where do city kids think their meat comes from?” one asked.

…

“But if it’s that horrible to you, should you eat meat and cause it to happen?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you see and decide?”

…

11-year-old Gabby spoke for many of us when she stared at the designated black pig and announced, “I wish bacon didn’t taste so good.”

Another child said the pig “didn’t do anything to anyone” and a different child wept during the slaughter.

But after killing the pig, the “kids ran off to resume their play, especially with the piglets.”

What exactly does that teach children? That it’s OK to cause unnecessary suffering to animals? That blood and guts are cool? That taste justifies cruelty? That pigs are mere tools for humans? That some kinds of killing is all right? That the world is unfair and injustice is common? That people could be nice to pigs but only if pigs tasted terrible? That having conflicted feelings about important ethical issues is a-OK; that we shouldn’t try to resolve our feelings so that we can live our values?

If you want to teach your children something kind and peaceful, try teaching them veganism.

Dispensing antibiotics to healthy animals is routine on the large, concentrated farms [aka "factory farms"] that now dominate American agriculture. But the practice is increasingly condemned by medical experts who say it contributes to a growing scourge of modern medicine: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including dangerous E. coli strains that account for millions of bladder infections each year, as well as resistant types of salmonella and other microbes. [...]

Scores of scientific groups, including the American Medical Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, are calling for even stronger action that would bar most uses of key antibiotics in healthy animals [...]

“Is producing the cheapest food in the world our only goal?” asked Dr. Gail R. Hansen, a veterinarian and senior officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which has campaigned for new limits on farm antibiotics.

And the pictures! Look at how crowded these poor animals are. You can clearly see how disease spreads so quickly that these “farmers” think they have to use antibiotics to curb disease:

A man driving along an Illinois interstate watched in horror as a tiny piglet fell from a transport truck driving in front of him and hit the pavement. He immediately stopped his car and retrieved the frightened animal, who was covered in road rash. He took the piglet home and cared for him until the realization set in that his apartment would not be an adequate home for an animal who could grow as large as 500 pounds. He then turned to Chicago Animal Care and Control for help, but not being able to find an appropriate home for the piglet in the city, they contacted Monica Frenden, executive director of Illinois Valley Cat Taxi, a cat shelter and low-cost spay/neuter program for cats in rural Illinois. Frenden’s weekly trips to Chicago to transport cats to a low-cost spay/neuter clinic in the city had led to her working with the Chicago ACC, which has since come to rely on her for finding homes for the city’s most difficult-to-place animals.

“While working with the Chicago Animal Care and Control to find homes for cats, I began noticing that somehow, all manner of barnyard animals were also finding their way to the Chicago pound,” said Frenden. “Sadly, due to the difficulty of finding suitable homes, most were being destroyed.” Frenden knew they had to extend their compassion to these animals, too, and before long, they were finding homes for chickens, turkeys, goats, pigs and all other farm animals who were found wandering the streets of Chicago. “These animals are just as friendly and intelligent as cats and dogs, and when provided with a safe, appropriate, caring forever home, they make excellent companions. Over the past year, I’m happy to say that no farm animals have been euthanized at the Chicago ACC because we’ve been able to place them all.”

Most farm animals found in major metropolitan areas are either slaughterhouse or live market escapees or transport rescues, like Bob Harper.

“There are a shocking number of farm animals who die during transport every year,” said Farm Sanctuary National Shelter Director Susie Coston.

“Some are overcome by the heat and stress of the overcrowded conditions, others are victims in truck accidents and some of the smallest animals fall off these trucks on their way to finishing facilities.  What most people don’t realize is that farm animals endure months of suffering and abuse long before they ever reach the slaughterhouse. Having cared for so many pigs over the years, and knowing how intelligent and sensitive they are, it is so hard to imagine them packed inside hot, overcrowded transport trucks on their way to finishing facilities and slaughterhouses across the country. Pigs are incredible animals with distinct personalities who love and enjoy life when given the opportunity. We wanted to name this piglet after Bob Harper because, as our national 2010 Walk for Farm Animals spokesperson, Bob is using his voice to bring much needed awareness to the hidden suffering of farm animals.”

Bob Harper piglet will not be the only piglet with a bold-faced name wallowing around in the mud at Farm Sanctuary’s New York Shelter. He joins Kim Gordon piglet, another piglet who fell off a transport truck in July and was rescued by a rock band on a cross-country tour who found her wandering along a backcountry road in the middle of prairieland South Dakota. Jay the bull was the third transport rescue this summer. He survived a fiery truck crash in Indiana to make his home at the New York Shelter.

Bob Harper, the celebrity trainer, was so honored to have the little piglet named after him, he immediately posted a photo to his Facebook page to show off his adorable namesake. And if the number of comments declaring “I can never eat bacon again!” are any indication, this little guy, just like his namesake, has a way of motivating people.

To learn more about the 2010 Walk for Farm Animals and find the Walk nearest you, please visit walkforfarmanimals.org.

More information about the pork industry and rampant problems in transport can be found at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming/pork/.