Comparisons with Concentration Camps
Last week, shocked by the latest disturbing video from Mercy for Animals about life and death for pigs at factory farms, Andrew Sullivan wrote a post…
Why a Chicken Isn’t an Animal
A chicken enjoying her life at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary When is a chicken not an animal? Answer: When she’s in a factory farm. If…
What’s in a Chicken Nugget?
“I was floored,” the doctor said when he looked at the sample under a microscope. “I was astounded.”
Chickens Flying High – Literally!
They’ve spent their whole lives in tiny cages, unable even to spread their wings. But now thousands of them are flying high – to sanctuaries all…
The Great Cockroach Escape
They call it “traditional medicine.” The million-and-a-half cockroaches in a backyard greenhouse-like facility were going to be ground up and the cockroach “extract” sold as a…
When It’s a Crime to Expose a Crime
“It has nothing to do with animals,” said Utah state senator David Hinkins. The cattle-ranching, race-horse breeding legislator was defending Utah’s “ag-gag” law, which makes it…
James Gandolfini’s Last Supper: Foie Gras
James Gandolfini’s family quoted his autopsy as saying that the 51-year-old actor had “died of a heart attack, of natural causes.”
But there’s nothing “natural” about dying of a heart attack when you’re 51 years old. Especially when you read what Gandolfini had for dinner the night he died.
Don’t Say ‘Meat’; Say ‘Protein’
Is the very notion of “meat” becoming so icky that food companies are getting worried about saying the very word itself? According to Businessweek, Taco Bell…
Congressional Cave of the Week
All it took was one letter from the meat lobby – and Congress caved. In keeping with a growing number of institutions that promote “Meatless Monday”…
Colbert on Chicken Cages
Stephen Colbert takes the side of (and you know what that means!) Iowa Rep. Steve King, who’s pro-dogfighting, against evacuating pets in natural disasters, and angry…
The Other Death Toll at Chinese Slaughterhouse
“China fire kills 120” … “More than 112 dead at China fire” … “Disaster kills 119 at China slaughterhouse.” There were hundreds more reports of this…
For Pigs, a Match Made in Hell
Smithfield, the world’s biggest producer of factory-farmed pigs, has agreed to be taken over by Shuanghui, China’s biggest pork producer.
Shuanghui has 13 factory farms that produce more than 2.7 million tons of meat each year. For $4.7 billion, it will take possession of Smithfield and its 460 facilities that raise 15.8 million hogs a year.
What does this mean for the pigs?
Tennessee Gov. Vetoes Ag-Gag Bill
It’s a small victory, but a big precedent, for the animals at factory farms: Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has vetoed the ag-gag bill that would effectively…
First ‘Ag-Gag’ Prosecution Collapses
Amy Meyer had heard about the horrible conditions at factory farms and slaughterhouses. So she drove to the Dale Smith Meatpacking Company in Draper City, Utah,…
H7N9 Has Escaped from China
At a briefing in Beijing yesterday, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, an assistant director general at the World Health Organization, called H7N9 “definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses we’ve seen.”
He added that “the potential development of human-to-human spread cannot be ruled out.”
Could Ag-Gag Laws Backfire?
Rather than cleaning up their act in the wake of undercover videos, factory farms are fighting to keep people from seeing what goes on at their operations.
But a new campaign is now emerging: Make webcams mandatory in all factory farms so we can all see what’s going on at all times.
Is This the Real ‘Contagion’?
Children playing along a river bank spot hundreds of bloated pig carcasses bobbing downstream. Hundreds of miles away, people are grossed out by the rising stench…
New Dangers from Factory Farm Bacteria and Antibiotics
Factory farms like to tell us that the increasingly antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the animals there can’t be transmitted to humans. A new study shows this to…
Why Dead Pigs Are Floating Down a Chinese River
First it was 7,500 dead pigs floating down the Huangpu River two weeks ago, as it was winding its way through Shanghai. A few days later, it had risen to 13,000. And right now it’s over 16,000.
No one seems to know where they came from.
Nor how 1,000 dead ducks were floating in the Nanhe river in China’s southwestern Sichuan Province.
Slaughter Horses in U.S.? Or Export them?
We race them, ride them, take them to war, treat them as horsepower. What to do with horses when they grow old or are no longer…