The video is online at http://www.mcdonaldscruelty.com/

The hidden-camera footage was taken at Sparboe Egg Farm facilities in Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado.

In the video you’ll see:

• “Hens crammed into filthy wire cages with less space for each bird than a standard-sized sheet of paper to live her entire miserable life, unable to fully stretch her wings or engage in most other natural behaviors
• Workers burning off the beaks of young chicks without any painkillers and callously throwing them into cages, some missing the cage doors and hitting the floor
• Rotted hens, decomposed beyond recognition as birds, left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption
• A worker tormenting a bird by swinging her around in the air while her legs were caught in a grabbing device – violence described as ‘torture’ by another worker
• Chicks trapped and mangled in cage wire – others suffering from open wounds and torn beaks
• Live chicks thrown into plastic bags to be suffocated”

Most rational people would agree that farmed animals should be given the freedom to walk, stretch their limbs, turn around and engage in natural behaviors… at the very least. Yet, this egg supplier deprives hens of even these most basic freedoms by using barren battery cages.

These types of battery cages are so cruel that the entire European Union and the states of California and Michigan have banned their use. Not only are these battery cages cruel, battery cages also increase the health risks of eggs to consumers. Additionally, leading food retailers, such as Whole Foods, Hellmann’s, and Wolfgang Puck, and hundreds of colleges and universities refuse to use or sell eggs from hens subjected to the inherent abuses of battery cages.

Sadly, not a single federal law currently provides any protection to birds from birth to death - at the hatchery, on the factory farm, or during slaughter. Moreover, there exist a large number of legal exemptions for farmed animals which allow for abuses to run rampant without prosecution.

You hold enormous power in preventing animal abuse by adopting a compassionate vegan diet. Please choose vegan options today!

Happy Easter. On this holiday, let’s remember the rabbits and chicks who will suffer in animal shelters as discarded pets shortly after this holiday. Rabbits are one of the most common animals euthanized in animal shelters, right along with cats and dogs.

Here is part of an article from Best Friends Animal Society about the Easter Bunny:

Every year around Easter, wherever you turn, live baby rabbits start popping up in pet stores, feed stores and even parking lots. Sad to say, there always seems to be enough demand for all the extra rabbits. Until a few months later, that is, when shelters and rescues are bombarded with holiday castaways.

Accordingly, rabbit rescue groups (including Best Friends) often try to push all sorts of alternatives at Easter time — especially to the gift-giving crowd. There are chocolate rabbits, stuffed animal adoptions, and more. The problem with the gift-giving approach for real rabbits is that most of the time these are unplanned decisions that often end badly. And nothing is more unfair to a rabbit than being whisked off to a new home then discarded months or even weeks later.

How you can help:

ADOPT DON’T SHOP
Adopt or foster a homeless bunny from a local shelter or rescue group. Search petfinder.com for rabbits.

SPONSOR A RABBIT OR CHICK
Animal sanctuaries like Farm Sanctuary, Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary, and Animal Acres welcome animal sponsorships. You can choose an animal to sponsor and then visit your sponsored animal when you visit the sanctuary.

SPREAD THE WORD
Please pass it on. Please share this information with your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, and others.

In an undercover investigation, workers at Willmar Poultry Company, the country’s largest turkey hatchery, are shown handling baby turkeys roughly and without care. This is the investigator’s account of what really happens to turkeys once they’re hatched.

Step your mind into a crowded elevator, an elevator so crowded you cannot turn around without bumping into (and aggravating) your neighbor. The elevator is so crowded you are often held aloft. This is a kind of blessing, as the slanted floor is made of wire, which cuts into your feet.

After some time, those in the elevator will lose their ability to work in the interest of the group. Some will become violent; others will go mad. A few, deprived of food and hope, will become cannibalistic.

There is no respite, no relief. No elevator repairman is coming. The doors will open once, at the end of your life, for your journey to the only place worse.

Whose life did you just imagine?

It was the life of an average layer hen in a battery cage.

• 97% Of US Eggs Are From Battery Cages
• Eggs are the #1 outbreak vehicle for Salmonella and Salmonella is the leading cause of food-poisoning related death
• 142,000 Americans suffering Salmonella infections from eggs every year.
• Male Chicks Are Ground-up Alive

Here is her life, in video:



“You can’t walk a mile in the shoes of a battery chicken, because battery chickens can’t walk a foot, much less a mile.”

This spring, to help prevent the suffering of discarded animals and overcrowding at local shelters, Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization, is encouraging parents to resist buying baby animals from pet stores and to help promote a new compassionate holiday tradition instead by sponsoring an animal in need.

Every spring, Farm Sanctuary’s bi-coastal shelters in upstate New York and Northern California experience a dramatic increase in the number of calls they receive about unwanted ducks, chickens and rabbits that were given to children as Easter gifts.

“These are living, feeling animals, not holiday trinkets, yet many people impulsively purchase them without considering whether or not they are fully prepared to take on the responsibility of an animal that will require daily care for many years to come,” said Farm Sanctuary’s National Shelter Director Susie Coston. “When that reality sets in, the animals that aren’t abandoned at shelters usually end up being dumped outdoors where they will most likely starve to death, or they are relegated to cramped backyard hutches and cages, where they will spend the remaining years of their life lonely and neglected. We urge parents to show their children that grown up animals deserve love too by sponsoring an animal in need for their children this Easter instead.”

The animal residents at Farm Sanctuary’s shelters, many of whom were rescued after being given as gifts, depend on adoptive “parents” to provide them with healthy food, a safe habitat, individualized attention and veterinary care. Through the nonprofit organization’s Adopt-A-Farm Animal Project, parents can help give rescued animals a new beginning and inspire compassion in their children by sponsoring an animal in the name of their child (or in their own name). Each unique sponsorship package includes a personalized adoption certificate and beautiful color photo that make the perfect addition to any Easter basket.

The writer says that they are currently vegan for health, environmental and animal issues but that they’re considering eating nonvegan foods: “Ethically I would most likely indulge in cheese and eggs if I could be assured they were produced in a cruelty-free environment.”

My response:

Vegan is a type of vegetarian. If, when you say vegetarian, you mean lacto-ovo vegetarian, then you should say that. Because a strict vegetarian = a dietary vegan. Let’s review some definitions, shall we?

Vegetarian - someone who adopts a plant based diet. There are a variety of vegetarian types ranging from lacto-ovo vegetarian, ovo vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, vegan, raw vegan… Even some people who eat fish call themselves vegetarian, though the proper term for those people is pesca-vegetarian or pescatarian.

Vegan - someone who abstains from using animal products for food, clothing, cosmetics, and other uses as much as possible. A vegan eats a plant-based diet, but they also wear plant-based clothes, and in general live a lifestyle that avoids any unnecessary animal use.

Now, onto your question about eating eggs. In general, calorie for calorie, eggs are the most cruel. As you said, free-range labels cannot be trusted and the humane farmer is rare indeed. Besides that, eggs are full of cholesterol and they pose a risk of salmonella infection.

Since we have no nutritional need for eggs, why bother?

If, for baking, you need egg replacements, here are some suggestions:

• Use a commercial egg substitute product like Ener-G egg replacer.
• Simply omit the egg and forget about replacing it.
• Ground up flax seeds.
• Mashed banana.
• A little soy milk curdled with vinegar.
• Soy yogurt.
• Tofu.
• Applesauce.
• Nutritional yeast.
• Mashed cooked chickpeas.
• Water and baking powder.
• Mashed potatoes.
• Agar powder.
• Canned pumpkin.
• Purreed prunes.
• Cornstarch.
• Arrowroot.

Now, onto dairy. Again, we have no nutritional need for cheese.

Dairies tend to be incredibly cruel…removing baby calves and turning them into veal… overworking lactating mothers and slaughtering them at a quarter of their life spans… and remember that HSUS undercover video of cruel slaughter practices from a Chino slaughterhouse? Those cows were used up dairy cows. Every dairy cow is destined for death . She becomes cheap beef.

And in fact cheese is pretty bad for your health . It’s full of fat and cholesterol .

Better protein sources exist:
beans, quinoa, tofu, seitan, tempeh, edamame, nuts, faux meats, faux cheeses, nut milk, seeds, etc.

As for replicating the taste of cheese, I recommend trying some of the following vegan cheese brands:

• Daiya
• Sunergia
• Follow Your Heart
• Teese
• Bute Island
• Vegan Gourmet

The nonvegan who sent me this link asked “We have to eat these animals to save them???” Of course not! It’s absurd, the lengths to which animal agribusiness will spin the truth. We DON’T have to eat animals in order to prevent their extinction.

Let me give you some examples of how animals bred by humans for one purpose can find a place within our current society without having to fulfill that original purpose. “Herding dogs” such as Border Collies, Pembroke Welsh Corgis, Australian Shepherds, and Shetland Sheepdogs are rarely used for herding farm animals. Herding dogs excel in “dog sports” like agility, flyball, disc, obedience, and even dance:

Herding dogs rarely actually herd. Even the AKC, not even remotely an animal rights organization, says:

“The vast majority of Herding dogs, as household pets, never cross paths with a farm animal. Nevertheless, pure instinct prompts many of these dogs to gently herd their owners, especially the children of the family. In general, these intelligent dogs make excellent companions and respond beautifully to training exercises.” (source)

This shift from farm to family is mostly due to the sad fact that the farm animals have been moved indoors into factories, confined into small stalls and so they aren’t out grazing on a pasture. But the shift of these dog breeds from outdoor herding dog to indoor pet dog (or preferably “family member”) is just one example of how animals who have been bred for one purpose can continue to survive without fear of extinction yet they don’t have to provide humans with the particular service that they were bred for.

Another example: the dog breeds known as “hunting dogs” are rarely used by humans for hunting. Like the herding dogs, dogs who were bred for hunting can do something other than hunt: some become police dogs or service dogs for people with disabilities. Or they become fun family pets. (Sadly, many are also used in animal experiments.)

These examples are facts. I am not suggesting that animals should be bred for any human use, be it for herding, hunting, sport, or pet. However, the reality is that people do “breed” animals for a variety of human “uses.” My point in the examples above is simply to demonstrate that the uses for bred animals can vary. The uses for animals in the past need not determine the uses for animals in the future… in more ways than one.

The people who fear veganism because they think it will result in the extinction of some species or breeds of animals are not thinking creatively. There’s more than one way to peal a mango! And there’s more than one way to appreciate an animal.

“Food animals” do not need to be food. The only “dying breeds” I want to go extinct are the breeds of humans who torture and kill animals.

—
For the record, I share my home with a rescued “herding dog” who now does flyball and disc. We involved her in dog sports in order to help direct her herding drive into something more family-friendly, vegan-friendly, and just plain fun. She also tries to herd the cats in the household, but cats are not cows and they will not easily be herded

And also for the record, anyone interested in “training” their dog should always, always, always use positive, kind methods: reward desired behavior with treats, praise, and play and discourage undesired behavior by withholding rewards.

* Cage-free farms typically buy their hens from the same hatcheries that supply battery-cage farms. These hatcheries kill the male chicks upon hatching—more than 200 million each year in the United States alone.
* Most cage-free hens have part of their beaks burned off, a painful mutilation.
* Hens are typically slaughtered at less than two years old, far less than half their normal lifespan. They are often transported long distances to slaughter plants with no food or water. [...]

So, while cage-free does not mean cruelty-free, cage-free hens generally have better lives than those confined in battery cages. The ability to lay their eggs in nests, walk and spread their wings are tangible benefits that shouldn’t be underestimated.

[emphasis added]

They may not have said it outright in this article, but the message is loud and clear:

If you want to prevent cruelty to animals, GO VEGAN!

They even help get you started by providing vegan recipes >>

Here are a few of the recipes:

Grilled Polenta
Magnificent Mixed Beans and Bulgur
Moroccan Chickpea Patties
Portabella Mushrooms Stuffed with Tofu
Seitan “Jerk” Style
Soy-Mirin Tofu over Rice with Broccoli and Peanut Sauce

“we are asking you to voluntarily require that all eggs sold in your stores bear the label reading ‘Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry’ to ensure that your customers are given truthful and accurate information about how buying eggs means that they are paying companies to grind-up male chicks – while they are still alive and suffering.”

Sincerely,
Mercy For Animals

Read the whole letter here >>

It’s based on this investigation:

What you think? Are you going to take action? Are you going to go vegan?

Mercy for Animals has just released the following video obtained during an undercover investigation at the world’s largest hatchery for egg-laying operations: “Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the shocking reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world’s largest egg-laying breed hatchery.”

Source: Change

Warning: this video is difficult to watch and may not be suitable for children.