A n i m a l W r i t e s © sm
The official
ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com Issue # 07/11/01
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~ MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE
FIVE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1
~ Man's Arrogance by Robert
Cohen
2
~ Animal Rights
3
~ "Animal Friendly" License Plate Programs
4
~ Your Essence by Mark A. Dye
5
~ Memorable Quote
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Man's Arrogance
by
Robert Cohen - i4crob@idt.net
www.notmilk.com
Dear
Friends,
The
flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Portland Oregon lasted six hours.
On
the plane, I read the rough draft version of “Eternal Treblinka,” an
extraordinary book written by Charles Patterson that equates the real life and
death experiences of ten billion farm animals raised each year for human
consumption to the same Nazi atrocities suffered by six million Jews who became
Hitler’s “Final Solution.”
Eternal
Treblinka is scheduled for a September, 2001 publication date. This is one of the best written, best
researched animal rights books that I’ve ever had the pleasure to examine.
Fresh
from the memory of having read about Jews stuffed into cattle cars as they were
being transported to the slaughterhouses of Aushwitz and Dachau, I myself
became witness to the twenty-first century’s foremost example of man’s
inhumanity to other living creatures. Our tortured kin. The animal holocaust.
Last
Thursday morning, I drove from Portland to Mount St. Helens in Washington
State. I had been attending the Raw Foods Festival in Portland, and found a few
hours in between my talks to visit the scene of America’s greatest natural
volcanic disaster. On this hot summer
day, I drove across a bridge spanning the cascading Columbia River, separating
Portland from Vancouver. There next to my car was a 40-foot long silver van
with holes large enough to see through.
Inside
of the truck were dairy cows. They were
packed tightly together -- with no room to lie down. The cows had served man’s
purpose. Each individual lived her
short lifetime of stress, first birthing a child who would be immediately taken
from her, then injected with hormones that would
painfully
stretch her udder, depleting calcium from her own bones so that she would
generate enough milk to fill 100 half-pint containers for school children to
drink each day. Her ancestors naturally produced enough milk to have filled
just four of those same containers.
The
cow whose eyes I look into for just one moment would be made to suffer through
hours or days of driving hundreds or thousands of miles to what was to become a
dairyman’s final solution.
Yesterday
she died a violent death shared by 10,000 of her sisters.
Today
she will share that same fate with 10,000 other Guernsey and Holstein cows on
Route 80 or Route 66 or I-95, in Kansas, New Jersey, or Florida, on highways
and neighborhoods where your children and mine sleep comfortably unaware of the
predestined doom for living beings who have done nothing to merit such
treatment. Tomorrow the same, and the
day after that. Eternal death. Eternal
slaughter. Eternal Treblinka.
A
holocaust occurs while meat eaters turn the other way, denying that such
horrors could possibly exist. Were the German and Polish people who knew the
fate of those trucked to Buchenwald and Treblinka any less moral or guilty than
those who comprehend the truth about what really happens to farm animals?
I
followed the truck for a bit until it veered off to the left, and I continued
my drive in another direction. I took the high road, and she took the low road,
and her look will forever haunt me. Her body will produce 2,000
quarter-pounders for one of many fast food franchises. Her anus and cheeks, arms and legs, back and
udder will be served so that others can have it their way. Today’s slaughter
will feed 20,000,000 people, and the year’s tally of Elsie and her sisters will
add up to seven billion kids meals served.
I
feel the slaughterhouse. I hear the screams and know their fear. I smell the
sweat and blood and suffer their pain.
I internalize the agony and distress of transported animals. I envision the once green fields in which
these animals grazed and the cold metallic ramp and smell of warm sticky
blood
that flows on the slaughterhouse floor and stains the psyche of us all.
I
imagine the stun gun bolt to the head.
The upside-down hoisting and the sliced neck artery. The animal who
chokes on her blood, and the man who slices off her legs as she kicks in fear
from the ensuing pain of butchery. The last fifteen seconds of a death that no
creature deserves. The arrogance of a
man who eats the flesh and dares not consider the origin of each bite.
Nobel
Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer once wrote about a man’s love for
his departed pet mouse:
“What
do they know -- all these scholars, all these philosophers, all
the leaders of the world -- about
such as you? They have convinced
themselves that man, the worst
transgressor of all the species, is the
crown of creation. All other
creatures were created merely to provide
him with food, pelts, to be
tormented, exterminated. In relation to
them, all people are Nazis; for the
animals it is an eternal Treblinka.”
I
ceased eating meat four years ago. I now look at my pet dog, whom my daughters
rescued from a shelter one day before she was due to be injected with man’s
final solution. I have come to love her.
Her name is Tykee, the goddess of fortune. Is she unlike the baby lamb
or calf who is
separated
from her mother and shipped to the exterminator? I reflect on the Amazon parrot
who recognizes me and sings “hello” when I visit my parents. Does the bird with
green feathers differ significantly from the chicken with white plumage?
Do
they not feel pain and deserve the right to live? I cannot eat them. I can no
longer be the cause for their pain, although I once was a part of their
genocide. I once denied responsibility for the acts of terror that occurred
outside of my vision… outside of my consciousness. Their bodies were cut into
smaller pieces and were broiled, baked, and fried.
Oh,
that same crime of arrogance to which I now plead guilty! My penitence?
Community service. I explain the act to
meat eaters, and some turn their backs on me. Close their eyes. Shut their
ears. Who wishes to deal with the truth and reality of death?
Arriving
at Mount St. Helens, I carefully read one plaque after another, taking note of
performances both heroic and ironic. I consider the day that once silenced the
birds and boiled to death fish in the streams. A blink in the eye of geological
time that stripped the landscape of the color green, divested pine trees of
their needles and scattered whole trees like matchsticks across barren mountain
tops.
I
examined the original seismographs and warnings from hundreds of scientists to
the residents to evacuate their homes and come to terms with an absolute truth.
I
became dumfounded by the arrogance of one man, Harry R. Truman, who lived alone
in a cabin aside the lake below a mountain that would soon explode with the
magnitude and power equivalent to 27,000 Hiroshima-type blasts.
A
man who declined to leave that mountain.
A man who denied a truth shared by others. An arrogant man who looked
death in the face and refused to respect man’s destiny. I try to imagine his
final moment of sensibility. At the same time, in my own mind’s eye I call upon
the face of a cow in a truck on a bridge.
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Animal Rights
Source
Animal Protection Institute
www.api4animals.org
"Animal
rights" is a concept based on the belief that humans have a moral
responsibility to treat animals with respect, and that the interests of humans
and animals should be considered equally. This means that in any decision that
could potentially affect the life of an animal, that particular animal's
interests should not be dismissed simply because it is inconvenient for us to
consider them.
Although
it may not always be easy to determine accurately the best interests of an
animal, we can safely assume that animals generally prefer to live, to be free
from pain, and to express their natural behaviors. The failure of humans to
consider an animal's needs/interests as equal to those of humans is an
expression of prejudice called speciesism.
Defenders
of speciesism often argue that humans are superior to other species because of
their greater intelligence. Taken to its logical extreme, this argument would
imply that humans with higher I.Q. scores should have more rights than humans
with lower I.Q. scores. However, in
western society, we have developed the sensitivity to extend basic human rights
to all humans, whether or not they meet any criteria for intelligence,
capacity, or potential. But animals are commonly experimented on without their
consent, and even killed, for food or for many other reasons, if it suits human
purposes. This gross inequality is what we are trying to address with the
concept of "animal rights."
Another
common assertion is that humans are superior to animals because we possess the
capacity to understand morality, as well as the ability to determine right from
wrong. Since animals appear to lack these same abilities, it is argued that
humans are not obligated to treat them in any particular way. However, if only
those who are capable of making and understanding moral judgments were to be
accorded basic human rights, then infants, young children, and the severely ill
or mentally challenged would be excluded. It is equally logical to affirm that,
since humans are the only ones who can make moral judgments, that it is our
responsibility to do so on behalf of the animals.
All
animals, including humans, have the ability to experience pleasure and pain.
Unfortunately, humans have tended to inflict tremendous amounts of pain and
suffering on animals without any consideration of how this affects the animals
themselves. By making compassionate daily choices, you can help end widespread
animal abuse and exploitation.
WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO EAT
Every
year billions of animals are raised and killed for human consumption. Unlike the family farms of the past, today's
factory farms are high-revenue, high-production entities. On a factory farm, animals are confined to
extremely small spaces, which allows farmers to concentrate on maximizing
production. Because this type of overcrowding breeds disease, animals are
routinely fed antibiotics and sprayed with pesticides. They are also fed growth
hormones to enhance productivity. These chemicals, antibiotics, and hormones
are subsequently passed on to the environment, as well as to consumers of meat
and dairy products.
Beef
- About 41.8 million beef cattle are sslaughtered annually in the United
States. For identification purposes,
cattle are either branded with hot irons or "wattled," a process in
which a hunk of flesh from under the cow's neck is cut out. Raised on the range or in feed lots, cattle
when large enough are crammed into metal trucks and taken to slaughter. On the
way to slaughter, these cattle may travel for hours in sweltering temperatures
with no access to water. Animals unable
to stand due to broken legs or illness are called "downers" by the
meat industry. Downers are electrically
prodded or dragged with chains to the slaughterhouse, or left outside,
without
food or water, to die.
Pork
- In the United States each year more than 115 million pigs are raised on
factory farms and slaughtered for human consumption. Factory-farmed pigs are raised in crowded pens which are enclosed
inside huge barns. The air in these barns is filled with eye- and lung-burning
ammonia created by urine and fecal
waste collected below the floors.
Breeding sows (or "animal production units") spend their lives
in metal crates so small that they cannot turn around. Denied adequate space and freedom of
movement, these sows often develop stereotypical behavior, repetitive movement
such as head bobbing, jaw smacking, and rail biting. At the slaughterhouse, pigs are stunned (often inadequately),
hung upside down before their throats are cut, and then bled to death. If
workers fail to kill a pig with the knife, that pig is carried on the conveyer
belt to the next station, the scalding tank, where he or she may be boiled
alive.
Chicken
- Every year approximately 8.785 billiion chickens are raised and slaughtered
for human consumption in the United States.
Crowded and unable to express natural behavior, chickens begin to peck
excessively at each other. Rather than
solve this problem by providing adequate space for the chickens, farmers
"debeak" them, a painful procedure where the bird's sensitive upper
beak is sliced off with a hot metal blade.
Chickens raised for consumption have been genetically altered to grow
abnormally large. As a result, many broiler chickens' bones are unable to support
the weight of their muscle tissue, which causes them to hobble in pain or
become crippled. At the slaughterhouse,
chickens while still fully conscious are hung upside down by their feet and
attached to a moving rail. Birds missed
by the mechanical neck-slicing blade and boiled alive are called
"redskins" by the industry.
Eggs
- There are more than 459 million egg--laying hens in the United States. Of
these, 97% are confined to "battery" cages -- tiny wire boxes roughly
16 by 18 inches wide. Five or six birds are crammed into each cage. Battery hens are forced to produce 10 times
more eggs than they would naturally.
When egg production slows, farmers use a method called "forced
molting" to shock the hens into losing their feathers, which causes them
to begin a premature laying cycle. "Forced molting" involves starving
the hens and denying them water for several days' time, during which many hens
die. To keep hens from pecking each
other in their crowded cages, farmers "debeak" them. Male chicks, considered by-products of
laying hen production, are either tossed into plastic bags to suffocate slowly,
or ground into animal feed while still alive.
Milk
- About half of the 10 million milkingg cows in the U.S. are kept in
confinement. Dairy cows are forced to
produce 10-20 times the amount of milk they would naturally need for their
calves. This intensive production of milk is extremely stressful, and as a
result many dairy cattle "burn out"
at
a much younger age than their normal life expectancy, and up to 33% suffer
painful udder infections. To continue
milk production, a cow must bear a calf each year. Although calves elsewhere stay with their mothers for a year or
more, on the dairy farm they are immediately removed from their mothers so that
the milk can be sold for human consumption. Calves are sold to the beef or veal industry or become
replacements for "burned out" dairy cows.
WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO WEAR
Leather
- By-products of the beef industry aree defined by the parts of the cow that are
not consumed by humans. These include hooves, some organs, bones, and
skin. Skin (leather) accounts for about
half of the by-product value of the beef industry. Like meat, leather is a
product made from animals that experienced the horrors of factory farming,
transport, and slaughter. Besides the
initial environmental hazards from raising cattle (deforestation, erosion,
water use and pollution, wildlife eradication, etc.), the leather industry uses
some of the most dangerous substances to prepare leather, including
formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, various oils, and some cyanide-based dyes.
Wool
- Sheep raised for wool are subjected to a lifetime of cruel treatment. Lambs' tails are chopped off and males are
castrated without anesthetic. In
Australia, where 80% of all wool comes from, ranchers perform an operation
called "mulesing" where huge strips of skin are carved off the backs
of lambs' legs. This procedure is
performed to produce scarred skin that won't harbor fly larvae, so that the rancher
can spend less time caring for the sheep.
The shearing of sheep at most wool ranches can be a brutal procedure, as
workers are encouraged to shear as quickly as possible. As a result, an
estimated one million Australian sheep die every year from exposure. Sheep
that are no longer useful for their wool are sent to crowded feedlots and then
transported to the slaughterhouse.
Fur
- Each year more than 40 million animaals are senselessly tortured and killed to
satisfy the dictates of fashion.
Wild-caught fur is obtained by setting traps or snares to capture
fur-bearing animals. Once an animal is caught it may remain in the trap or
snare for several days starving or
slowly strangling. Farm-raised
fur comes from animals kept in tiny, filthy cages, deprived of adequate
protection from the elements. As a result, animals develop stereotypical
behavior, including pacing, head bobbing, and self-mutilation. The techniques used to kill animals on fur
farms vary. Small animals such as mink
are killed by neck snapping or "popping." Larger animals such as foxes are electrocuted by placing a metal
clamp on the snout and forcing a rod into the anus, and then connecting the
metal to a power source. Some animals
are forced into bags or boxes and gassed with carbon monoxide or carbon
dioxide.
WHAT HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS YOU CHOOSE
Despite
the modern alternatives to animal testing, millions of animals suffer and die
each year for the "good" of cosmetics and household products. No law in the U.S. requires cosmetic, household
product, or office supply companies to test on animals, but many companies do
so to protect themselves against liability. (More than 550 companies do not
test on animals.) However, animal
testing does not necessarily make a product safe for humans. Most animal tests
were developed over 50 years ago and are significantly flawed and inferior to
modern alternatives.
WHAT YOU CHOOSE FOR ENTERTAINMENT
Circus
- Animals used in the circus spend thee majority of the year imprisoned in small
cages or on chains, traveling from show to show. The training endured by circus animals is almost always based on
intimidation; trainers must break the spirit of the animals in order to control
them. It is not uncommon for an
elephant to be tied down and beaten for several days while being trained to
perform, and tigers are chained to their pedestals with ropes around their
necks to choke them down.
Rodeo
- Horses and cows used in rodeos are aabused with electrical prods, sharp spurs,
and "bucking straps" that pinch their sensitive flank area. During bucking events, horses and bulls may
suffer broken legs or run into the sides of the arena causing serious injury
and even death. During calf-roping events, a calf may reach a
running speed of 27 miles per hour before being jerked by the neck to an abrupt
stop by a lasso. This event has
resulted in animals' punctured lungs, internal hemorrhaging, paralysis, and
broken necks.
Greyhound
and Horse Racing - Once greyhounds begin their racing careers, they are kept in
cages for about 22-1/2 hours a day. The cages are made of wire and are barely
big enough for the dogs to turn around.
Dogs that are considered too slow to race are sold to research
facilities or killed (20,000-25,000
each year) -- very few are adopted.
Racehorses are bred for one purpose -- to make money. Because of this motive, horses are often
forced to run even when injured. More
racehorses are bred than can prove profitable on the racetrack. As a result, hundreds
of racehorses are sent to slaughter every year.
Zoos
and Aquariums - While zoos and aquariums may appear to be educational and
conservation-oriented, most are designed with the needs and desires of the
visitors in mind, not the needs of the animals. Many animals in zoos and aquariums exhibit abnormal behavior as a
result of being deprived of their natural environments and social
structures. Some zoos and aquariums do
rescue some animals and work to save endangered species, but most animals in
zoos were either captured from the wild or bred in captivity for the purpose of
public display, not species protection.
The vast majority of captive-bred animals will never be returned to the
wild. When the facility breeds too many animals they become "surplus"
and often are sold to laboratories, traveling shows, shooting ranches, or to
private individuals who may be unqualified to care for them.
YOU CAN HELP
Volunteer
- Volunteering for local animal groupss or shelters is a great way to help
animals directly. Many organizations are always in need of enthusiastic people
to help with fundraising, petition circulation, animal care, and public
education. Volunteering for your public official's election campaign can also
be very effective, as long as you let the official know why you are volunteering
for his or her campaign and what animal-related issues are important to you.
Educate
Others - By sharing the information in this fact sheet, you can teach others to
choose a compassionate lifestyle, thus making the world a more humane place for
all animals, human and non-human. Talk
to your co-workers, family, and friends about your compassionate living choices.
Our experience has been that the most effective way to increase sensitivity
toward animals is through credible, persuasive arguments presented in a
non-confrontational manner. A variety of fact sheets and brochures on animal
protection issues are available from API to help you do this.
Write
Letters - By writing letters to your state and federal representatives and
senators, and urging them to support legislation that protects animals, you can
help strengthen legal protections for animals. Elected officials work for you,
so it is important that you share your thoughts on issues with them. Companies
and businesses are also concerned with how the public perceives them, so let
them know! Also, by writing letters to the editor of magazines, local
newspapers, etc., you can share personal views and educate others about animal
issues.
You
can send a handwritten or personally typed postcard or letter, simply expressing
how you feel, the reasons you feel the way you do, and what action you would
like to see taken. Be clear and to the point.
You may also call or send email, although a personal letter is considered
more effective. Letters to
representatives and senators should include the bill number when asking them to
vote a certain way, and be sure to address only one issue per letter. It is
also important to send thank-you letters when a legislator, company, business,
or individual acts on the behalf of animals.
Adopt
Responsibly - When choosing a companion animal, always rescue from a shelter,
breed rescue, or from an individual who no longer wishes to provide care for
his or her companion. Make sure that you are prepared to provide a lifetime of
food, veterinary care, and love for your new animal companion.
JOIN API's ACTION ALERT TEAM
API
offers members and other supporters the opportunity to become involved in key
animal protection issues on a national level and in their state and local
community. Activists who join our Action Alert Team are contacted when the need
arises and asked to take actions such as writing and calling public officials
and businesses, circulating petitions, or planning and attending special events
and meetings.
Alerts
cover a variety of animal protection issues and are sent by both U.S. mail and
email. You don't have to be a member of API to join our activist team. To sign
up for API's Action Alert Team, see the API website at www.api4animals.org
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"Animal Friendly"
License Plate Programs
source
- Doris Day Animal League - www.ddal.oorg
Every
year, millions of healthy, adoptable dogs, cats, puppies and kittens are killed
in our nation’s shelters because there are simply not enough good homes. This
tragedy is preventable. By spaying or neutering cats and dogs, we can humanely
end the overpopulation crisis.
The
creation of a special license plate to benefit low-cost spay/neuter or other
humane programs is one innovative way to raise funds for these much-needed
services. Low-cost spay/neuter programs are a crucial element of an effective
cat and dog overpopulation solution.
Fourteen
states (AL, AZ, CT, DE, LA, MD, MS, NC, NJ, NY, TN, TX, UT, and VA) have
already passed laws authorizing the creation of special "animal
friendly" license plates. In 1993, New Jersey became the first state to
enact this innovative system. Proceeds from the sale of the plate go directly
to the State Overpopulation Control Fund. In New York, twenty dollars from each
plate sale is placed directly into a fund to prevent unwanted litters of dogs
and cats. Decisions as to the distribution of funds will be made on a state to
state basis.
Vanity
license plates are a win/win effort. Concerned drivers can choose to help
animals. These license plates educate the public about the importance of
spay/neuter programs and testify to how many people care! If the state does not
have a fund in place, one must be created where proceeds may be directed. In
some states, the Department of Motor Vehicles administers the funds generated
from the sales of "animal friendly" plates, in other states the
plates are sold from and directly benefit specific animal shelters.
What You Can Do:
If
your state does not have an "animal friendly" license plate program, write
a letter or start a petition to your state legislators, voicing your commitment
to a license plate program to benefit spay/neutering programs and shelters in
your state. Cite the states that already have "animal friendly"
plates. If your state does have a program in place, set a good example by purchasing
a plate and encouraging your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Spread
the word by posting flyers or sample license plates in appropriate areas like
City Hall, gas stations, houses of worship, and at special events like fairs
and farmers' markets. You can request flyers and sample license plates from the
Prevent a Litter Coalition (www.palc.org) or by calling (703) 818-8009.
Did You Know?
The
DDAL has sample legislation for an "animal friendly" state law. Please contact the League if you would like
a copy, or go to the "Downloads" area of the DDAL website.
Compiled
with assistance from the Prevent A Litter Coalition.
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Your Essence
by
Mark A. Dye
Sealpoint ears
and paws and tail
A cry much
sharper than a wail
With
cleverness and sky blue eyes
You'd sleep so
sound upon my thighs
Since kitten
small your praises sung
My tears did
fall as bees that stung
I miss you now
my friend of years
And shed for
you my mournful tears
I'll not
forget that you were there
For me when no
one seemed to care
Through all
the times so hard and cold
You always
stayed for me to hold
I held you
close as you did pass
On to the
bridge with tall green grass
I've helped
you go, be on your way
Now you're
healthy, romp and play
I still can't
grasp so it would seem
That I shan't
waken from this dream
You'll not
come back in body whole
Instead just
visit, just your soul
But in my
heart there lies the tool
The one that
still eludes the fool
That tool of
love will make me see
Your essence
when you visit me
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Memorable Quote
"The
highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining
an
understanding of compassion."
~
Socrates
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
Susan Roghair
- EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights
Online
P O Box 7053
Tampa, Fl
33673-7053
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal
Rights Online=-
&
Advisory Board
Member, Animal Rights Network Inc.,
not-for-profit
publisher of The Animals' Agenda Magazine
http://www.animalsagenda.org/
The Animals'
Agenda Magazine: WebEdition
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
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