Many vegans are afraid to speak up. They worry that doing so will threaten the friendship. But if you keep it civil and focus on the animal cruelty then the discussion doesn’t have to put friendships in jeopardy. Remember that all relationships involve some conflict. The problem isn’t the disagreement. The problem is the resolution. If there isn’t any resolution (where both parties feel respected and heard; where apologies are given and accepted; where there’s mutual agreement to move forward rather than linger in past hurt) that’s where the problems lie. But if you converse with respect and care, you won’t jeopardize the friendship. If you just make sure to try to understand their perspective then these conversations will be more productive. To do that, ask questions and try to remember how you thought before you went vegan.

Another technique for creating positive change in others is to acknowledge that any reduction in animal product consumption is a win for animals, the planet, and human health. Of course we want people to go all the way and go vegan. But we shouldn’t let our long-term goals cloud our interpretation of short-term successes. Many people are more receptive to learning about animal cruelty and adopting vegan eating if they don’t feel like it has to be “all or nothing.”

Lastly, choose your battles. You may not want to take every single opportunity to advocate for farmed animals. So sometimes you may want to limit the discussions to a one-on-one basis rather than with a group of nonvegans; this way the playing field is more even and you can have more of an impact. Or you may want to have the discussions in private email rather than publically on Facebook. Sometimes you’ll want to just sit back and let others do all the talking so you can better understand their perspectives and so they feel respected. Moreover, you don’t want to interfere with any actual progress they’re making on behalf of companion animal cruelty. You do want to support them in that!

Now, with the above said, here are some ideas for how to respond. When a nonvegan makes a commitment to help end cruelty to companion animals, you can take that opportunity to say…

• “Aww that makes me so sick when people are cruel to animals. Did you know that the same kind of suffering happens everyday on factory farms?” Then you can show them the short film, Farm to Fridge and ask them what they think.
• “Bravo to you for standing up for companion animals! Now are you ready to take the next step and stand up for farmed animals too?” You can follow up by asking them to boycott factory farmed meat or go vegetarian a few days a week. Give them a goal that feels realistic to them. Don’t ask them to change everything all at once if that’s going to feel too overwhelming to them. Instead, give them a target within their reach.
• “All kinds of animal cruelty are wrong. I’m really glad that we have some laws that protect pets. Did you know that farmed animals like pigs and chickens don’t have any significant legal protections?” You can follow up by offering information about how to join an organization like MFA, HSUS, or ALDF so they can participate in legal campaigns to increase protections for all animals.
• “It’s our moral obligation to prevent needless animal cruelty. That’s why I support what you’re doing to raise awareness about animal cruelty. That’s also why I’m vegan.” Here you can offer a veg starter guide or offer to loan them a vegan cookbook. This would be a good place to tell your story about how you made your transition to veg*nism.

Got other ideas for good responses? Feel free to share them in the comments below!

2011 saw major changes for all kinds of animals.

Take a look below…

Humane Society of the United States:

Mercy For Animals:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:

And for my own small organization, Vegas Veg, here’s what we did in 2011:
1. Helped bring compassionate billboards back to Las Vegas.
2. Raised over $400 for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake with a vegan bake sale.
3. Raised another $400 for Mercy For Animals by celebrating World Vegan Day at a local vegan restaurant.
4. Handed out over 12,258 educational leaflets from Vegan Outreach.
5. Sent out dozens of free vegan kits through the mail to anyone who requested one.
6. Held regular social events to build the veg community in the Vegas valley.
And much much more…

Just imagine what vegans will do in 2012!

Breaking news:

“The HSUS and The UEP reached an historic agreement whereby both organizations will support—and work together toward enactment of—federal legislation to afford certain protections to all U.S. egg laying hens. If passed, the federal legislation would:

• Eliminate new construction of barren battery cages, and replace the existing cages, through a phase-in, with new “enriched colony cage” housing systems that provide each hen nearly double the amount of space they’re currently allotted.
• Require that these new cages provide environmental enrichments that will allow hens to engage in important natural behaviors, such as perches, nesting boxes, and scratching areas.
• Mandate labeling on all egg cartons to inform consumers of the method used to produce the eggs, such as “eggs from caged hens,” “eggs from cage-free hens” or “eggs from free-range hens.”
• Prohibit forced molting through starvation, which involves withholding all food from birds for up to two weeks in order to manipulate the laying cycle.
• Mandate euthanasia standards for spent hens.
• Prohibit excessive ammonia levels in henhouses.
• Prohibit the sale of eggs and egg products nationwide that don’t meet these requirements.”

Read more here >>

Clearly, this is significant change that will improve the lives of many egg-laying hens. The new labels alone are an improvement because it gives consumers more accurate information and it allows them to make better-informed choices. As HSUS says:

 “This law, if enacted, would represent the first time that any species of animal is provided with federal protection from abuse while on factory farms, the first federal farm animal protection law in more than 30 years, and the first time that chickens used in food production are provided any federal protections at all.”

I will support the law and encourage others to support it. However, there are still plenty of good reasons to abstain from eating eggs:

• The new system is being “phased in” which means that currently, eggs are still coming from battery cages. We don’t know how long this phase-in will take or if it will even actually happen so if you care about animal welfare but you want to eat eggs, then it’s important to boycott all commercial eggs until the new system is in place.
• These improvements are far from ideal. The ideal farm that most nonvegans imagine doesn’t keep hens inside cages at all!
• The proposed laws don’t address many other issues related to egg-production animal cruelty
• Eggs are still full of cholesterol.
• The risk of salmonella will decrease when the improvements in hen welfare take place, but eggs will likely continue to present a high risk of salmonella poisoning to consumers.
• Lastly, eggs are not vegan. If you wouldn’t climb up and steal eggs from a robin’s nest or a crow, then why take them from chickens?

Here are some resources for how to ditch eggs from your diet:

• Baking without eggs flyer here >>
• Recipes for tofu scrambles here >>
• Vegan mayo: Nayonaise or Veganaise
• Eggless egg salad recipe >>
• Video of baking without eggs here >>

This is a video of Mr. Pacelle describing his book.

From my memory, here are a few key insights he made in his speech:

Have you seen Pacelle speak? What did you think of his talk?

Mark Middleton of Animal Visuals has created yet another fantastic web resource. His newest project is a map and list of factory farm investigations.

He describes the project:

“The map [...] locates factory farms that animal protection groups have exposed through undercover investigations. Among the findings of these investigations are animals living in filthy conditions, animals intensively confined for their entire lives, animals mutilated without painkillers, sick and suffering animals left to languish for extended periods, violations of animal welfare and food safety regulations, and egregious criminal acts of animal torture. Viewed individually, the actions shown might be dismissed as isolated incidents. Taken together, however, they reveal a pattern of disregard for animal welfare and routine cruelty-to-animals throughout animal agriculture. They also reveal that many legal, standard agricultural procedures are unconscionably cruel and cause prolonged suffering for animals. Many standard practices in animal agriculture must change, and new laws are needed in order to enforce basic standards of welfare for animals. There are currently no federal laws protecting the welfare of animals on farms.”

Emphasis added.

Take a look at the map and list of videos here: http://www.animalvisuals.org/investigations

Also, a similar list exists at the Vegan Outreach website: http://www.veganoutreach.org/video/. Vegan Outreach introduces the list as follows:

“Text and pictures can’t begin to describe the overcrowding and confinement, the stench, the racket, the extremes of heat and cold, the attacks and even cannibalism, the hunger and starvation, the disease…the horror of every day of their lives. Some of these videos do a somewhat better job, but still fail to convey the reality.”

If ever you need compelling evidence of the animal neglect and abuse that occurs on factory farms, please look to these lists. Share widely!

And for doubters, please go investigate the farms yourself. See it first-hand with your own eyes. You have a right to know the truth.

A recent New York Times article explains:

Rose Acre Farms, an egg producer based in Indiana, did not realize that it had been infiltrated until the Humane Society called a news conference a year ago.

The spy was identified as a young man who had worked 15 days caring for the hens at egg producing facilities in Madison County, Iowa. He had been quiet and diligent and then stopped showing up.

Afterward, the company realized that his application mixed truth and lies. He gave his real name and Social Security number. But he listed false references, which the company had not called. [...]

“My purpose there isn’t to interfere or do anything, my purpose there is to work and record,” [the undercover investigator] said. “My purpose is to be the eyes and ears of the public.”

That video showed rows of crowded wire cages, some containing injured and disfigured hens, as well as rotting, dead birds. Employees were seen throwing the birds into bins and talking about how their wings or legs sometimes fell off in the process.

Curious about the video? Here it is:

The investigator documented the following abuses:

• Broken bones: Workers roughly yank pullets from their cages in growing sheds and load them into cages for transport to battery cages, resulting in a mass of twisted bodies.
• Cruel, extremely rough handling: The HSUS investigator videotaped workers pulling young hens from the mobile cages and stuffing them into battery cages.
• Cruel depopulation methods: The HSUS investigator documented workers grabbing hens by their legs, then cramming them into gassing carts where they’re killed with carbon dioxide.
• Prolapsed uteruses: Hens suffer from “blow-outs” that go unnoticed and untreated.
• Trapped birds unable to reach food and water: Battery cages can trap hens by their wings, necks, legs and feet in the wire, causing other birds to trample the weakened animals, usually resulting in a slow, painful death.
• High mortality in layer and pullet sheds: The HSUS investigator pulled dead young hens, some of them mummified and rotting for weeks, from cages every day.
• Failure to maintain manure pits: According to one worker, the manure pit under a pullet shed had not been cleaned in two years. Workers claimed that some hens are blinded from ammonia.
• Abandoned hens: Some hens manage to escape from their cages and fall into manure pits.

You decide. Do people have a right to know the truth? Or does animal agribusiness have a right to privacy?

From Striking At The Roots blog:

Undercover videos and other images taken inside factory farms are unquestionably among the most powerful tools activists have in the campaign for animals. But if lawmakers and animal ag interests in Iowa and Florida have their way, they could earn investigators prison time in those states.

Mark Hawthorne explains some recent bills that would restrict the ability to obtain undercover video exposés of animal agribusiness and the reactions from some animal advocates:

Not a single federal law protects farmed animals from cruelty during their short lives in factory farms, and Iowa specifically excludes these animals from anti-cruelty protection. “Without undercover investigations, there are no meaningful watchdogs protecting animals from egregious cruelty in these facilities,” says MFA’s executive director Nathan Runkle. “This bill is a blatant violation of free speech and freedom of the press. It keeps consumers in the dark, threatens public health, and hurts animals by shielding animal abusers from public scrutiny.”

Animal law expert Bruce Wagman says these laws will have a chilling effect on the ability of animal advocates to expose abuses. [...]

“I would think that the lobbyists behind this campaign to quell scrutiny of existing industry practices would, if their clients truly had nothing to hide, be pushing for public funding to install streaming web cameras so their clients could show off their state-of-the art operations rather than trying to prevent those who question current practice from exposing them,” says attorney Scott Heiser, director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Criminal Justice Program. “At a time when many have lost faith in government’s regulatory abilities, I can’t help but wonder how much factory farming profits would drop if the average American consumer were confronted with candid and accurate images depicting the conditions endured by the animals used to produce their food.”

Read the entire article here >>

And here’s another link about the issue:

• HSUS: http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2011/03/anti-investigation-bills.html

Remember, if they won’t let you see where your food comes from, DON’T EAT IT!

“Being vegetarian does not mean compromising on traditional foods, like wings and ribs, during special events such as the Super Bowl. Veggie Brothers offers a variety of traditional finger foods that are perfect for game day.” read more >>

“Compassion in World Farming’s colleagues in South Africa have had an amazing success. After intense lobbying of the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO), the organisation’s Chief Executive has agreed to phase out the use of sow stalls – the narrow concrete-floored stalls in which breeding sows spend their 16 week pregnancies, unable even to turn round.” source >>

“In an open letter sent to Greg Creed, President of Taco Bell, Mercy For Animals’ Executive Director, Nathan Runkle, asks: Why not ‘Think Outside the Bun’ and switch to a healthy and delicious vegan meat substitute and cash in on the growing demand for meatless meal options?” more here >>

Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons, “started a charity called The Sam Simon Foundation, which offers to spay and neuter pets for free, and offers pro bono operations on sick dogs. They also feature an “Assistance Dogs Program,” which rescues dogs from shelters and being euthanized to train them as hearing dogs for the blind and deaf, or place them in retirement homes as pets for the elderly.” details >>

Take a look at the vegan recipe for Roasted Yellow Beet Salad with Warm Maple Mustard Dressing here >>

New veg restaurant: “Imagine grabbing a vegetarian take-out lunch that’s, of course, super healthy and tastes amazing. No, it’s not Chinese or a salad at any of the mainstream fast-food franchises. It could be some chilli sin carne, which is red and black beans in a juicy tomato sauce served with crispy garlic bread or roasted vegetable panini, which is flame-roasted sweet red pepper and zucchini topped with red onion, black olives and mushrooms, toasted to perfection on a wholewheat baguette.” learn more >>

“Stein Mart, a nationwide department store with more than 260 retail locations, was selling a mislabeled fur-trimmed sweater that lab testing revealed to be raccoon dog.” But HSUS stepped in and “Within hours, Stein Mart made the decision to go fur-free.” read the story here >>

Got more veg news to share? Please tell us about it in the comments below!

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 >>

“From life on a factory farm to death at a slaughter plant, animals raised for meat, eggs, and milk suffer immensely. And, as shocking as it may be, much of the abuse these animals endure is perfectly legal. There are no federal animal welfare laws regulating the treatment of the billions of animals raised for food. And while all 50 states have cruelty statutes, most explicitly exempt common farming practices, no matter how abusive.”

and

“Vegetarian eating is an effective and positive way to help farm animals. Indeed, any reduction in the amount of animal products we consume makes a difference for animals. As you transition to vegetarian eating, praise yourself for every step you take toward adjusting your food choices and know that with every vegetarian meal you enjoy, you are doing something tangible to protect animals.”

The guide offers reasons to go vegan: animals, health, environment. It offers nutritional information. And it offers recipes. It’s a complete package.

You can download and/or print the guide from this URL: http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/farm/gve.pdf