“If You Care”: Unsustainable Violence in a Compostable Bag

I’m speechless.

If you have a comment for If You Care, you can leave it at their web site.  Maybe you have a thought for Sierra Magazine, which ran this ad in their Nov/Dec 2015 issue.

I cried in the supermarket today…

The woman in line in front of me was buying a baby chick.

He was dead of course.

And his little mutilated body was displayed in a clear plastic casket.

I could have turned away.

But I felt that to do so would have been one more insult to the short life of this creature.

I had a chance to be the only one to meet him who had ever had a kind thought for him.

And so I stayed with him as he rode the conveyor belt.

And I thought about what his life must have been like.

Only six weeks old, he still had the peeps of a chick when he was sent to slaughter along with everyone he had ever known.

I’m so sorry, I said to him, and I cried.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. – Jiddu Krishnamurti

Chickens are handled violently in transport. It’s common for their legs to become trapped and be ripped off when they’re pulled out.  (c) United Poultry Concerns

I’m grateful to the person whose car I was behind on the way home.  Her hatchback plastered with defiant vegan stickers, I bet “CHICKIDEE” would have understood.

Survey on using animal products

Prof. Scott Plous

Wesleyan U. Social Psychology Professor Scott Plous studies people’s attitudes towards using animal products.  I’m taking his intro to social psych online course and we had to participate in this interesting survey.  I plan to read his research, but this survey shows you what the front end looks like (at least part of it – your answers determine what further questions you get, like a “Write your own adventure.”  It’s open to the public, so give it a try, help Prof Plous figure out what’s going on.

Revived AR website with local bloggers

I’m in the local AR group Animal Rights Advocates of Upstate N.Y.  We just re-launched our website, arauny.org, with a schedule of local writers contributing to our blog a few times a week.

Check it out and subscribe by email or social media for updates.

I was an Omnitarian

Gary Francione with his rescued pound puppies

I’ve been listening to old podcasts by Gary Francione while I clean, and while I don’t agree with everything I’ve read of his, I’ve found an awful lot of sense in these audio commentaries.  One of the points he makes is to stop telling people that vegetarianism is morally better than omnivorism.

This has sunk in, and a concrete effect is that when people ask how long I’ve been vegan, I have made a personal choice to stop mentioning when I went vegetarian, which was 15 years earlier.  I’ve also removed it from any social website bios.  I had been taking credit for that 15 years, but the dairy cows and egg-laying hens are unimpressed, and I no longer want to trumpet it.

I’m vegan.  I’ve been vegan since Easter 2008, full stop.  Before that I was an omnivore.

The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of our Food

I just read half of The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of our Food by Ted Genoways.  It seems well-researched, and though I personally found the history of slaughterhouse labor unions tedious, that does explain how we got the system we have.  Having read Fast Food Nation years ago, much of the material was not new to me.

I expected this book would explore the social justice issues around Big Meat, and I was hoping that would include justice for non-human animals. Halfway through, I seemed to have already passed the chapters dealing with inhumane treatment, and it became pretty clear that this author is only appalled by a factory killing 13,000 pigs a day in that it is unsafe for workers and consumers; as long as we can stop workers from beating or sodomizing the pigs (doubtful), he seems more-or-less OK with the pigs lives and deaths.  I have all compassion for the workers, both American-born and immigrant, and am grateful that their story is being told, and I greatly appreciated the paragraph that found compassion even for abusers, caught up in the system themselves. From other reviews, however, it seems as though I am justified in putting down the book, that I would read in vain for even a passing thought given to asking: Is this system not working because it’s big and fast, or because it’s inherently, *inescapably* violent.

For example, the author indicates understanding that, when you have to move a mother that has been immobilized in a cage no larger than herself for months, and she finds it difficult or painful to walk and doesn’t want to, you have to make her, and that probably means hurting her. He seems satisfied that as a result of being caught abusing pigs while moving them, the business decided to move pigs less.  So… the solution to crippling animals by not allowing them to move is: to keep them from moving even more. What he doesn’t mention is that, on top of the obvious cruelty of immobilizing an animal even longer, the pigs do have to move at least once, to the truck and off the truck to slaughter, and that is where a lot of abuse happens, for exactly the same reason: crippled, terrified pigs. But he never makes the connection that we have another choice.

I didn’t expect this to be an animal rights book, but there was no acknowledgement of this choice, and the omission was glaring. This author is subtle, and often seems to let the facts speak for themselves rather than editorializing, but while you can often infer his discomfort with certain things, there is no hint given that he is not 100% comfortable with the killing.

Violence is arguably never useful, and in this case, it’s so unnecessary, so transparently frivolous: Spam. I was hoping that a compassionate author would make this connection, and my disappointment is why I didn’t like the book.  Would you want to finish a book about injustice written by a racist?  Perhaps an investigation on how difficult life in the southern slave states was for the poor whites, a book which only seems to be bothered by slavery if there’s beating involved?  Being a non-speciesist, that’s how I felt about this book.

Hunter Accidentally Shot in the Face

A local hunter was accidentally shot in the face on opening day here; I guess he’s going to be OK.  Some in our AR community struggled with their feelings following this news; how does it make you feel?  After about a week of online comments, I offered the following:

With understanding that it is normal and natural to have many different reactions to this news story, but that we can choose which paths to follow, I wonder if anyone would be interested in my understanding of karma, which others here have been mentioning?  If not, click delete.  Nothing here is new, just hopefully clarity on a concept that is often muddled with several meanings, and how karma can work for us.

By my understanding: Karma was originally Hindu, and that is the idea most modern people have of karma: divine justice, something (“the universe”) or someone who keeps track and evens the score.  The Buddha, who lived in Hindu India, found this unhelpful because it didn’t allow room for change.  He understood that even good people may have to suffer for their past harmful actions, but that they would be better off because of the good they were doing now (example: Angulimala) – pertinent to any of us who ever screwed up!  Anyway, Buddhist karma can be seen in two lights: One is the ripple effect, that the kind acts or speech or even “vibe/energy” we put out, affects others and has a chance of coming back to us – we are making the world a better place, and that’s the place we live, so it’s better for us.  Even if the effect is small, we are not making things worse.  I think this is pretty evidently true.  The second way Buddhist karma can be understood is that no matter what effect our acts have “out there,” they have done something to us on the way out.  For example, loving someone who hates us is better than hating them, because we will be happier filled with love than with hate.  I have found this “instant karma” to be true as well, and the effect will probably be huge, life-changing.  So you see, Buddhist karma is more like a law of nature than a faith in justice.

Celebrating accidental violence may fill us with a much-needed sense of satisfaction that the scorekeeper is on duty, but how does it impact us under the Buddhist understanding?  What do we set into the world when we express gladness at others’ misfortunes (what kind of world are we creating), and what does this Schadenfreude (harm-joy) do to us on the way out?

None of this is to say that a person struggling with feelings of joy is a bad person, just that an understanding of the harm it does to ourselves and others may be useful in letting it go.  And we can choose to be glad that the man is not hunting right now, without being glad that it’s because he was hurt.

Namaste.

Your newspaper may print the truth about circuses

Educational or Entertaining? You decide. You can view videos of Ringling’s backstage beatings at RinglingBeatsAnimals.com.

With Ringling Circus coming to our city, a group of us were inspired to take some actions against this barbaric industry (and other animal entertainments).  To support these efforts, I wrote a letter to the editor which was published in our city newspaper last month:

Ban Barbaric Businesses

Ringling Brothers Circus is coming to Rochester at the end of the month. Both dog fighting and animal circuses abuse animals for profit and entertainment. Why condemn and outlaw one and buy tickets to the other? Patronize the wonderful non-animal circuses that come here instead, such as Circus Orange and Cirque du Soleil. Tell your friends, and ask the City Council to ban these barbaric businesses from our community.

Ringling’s PR person got right on that and fired off a response:

Once again, animal rights activists are using our return to Rochester to distort Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s excellent record of animal care.

Everyone with Ringling Bros. takes great pride in presenting quality family entertainment to audiences across the country, but animal rights activists continue to level spurious charges against Ringling Bros.’ dedicated team of animal care professionals.

Ringling Bros. is proud of its human and animal partnerships and the needs of our animals are a top priority. Ringling Bros. meets or exceeds all federal, state and local animal standards, is subject to regular unannounced inspections, and has never been found in violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Rather than take what animal rights groups say at face value, we invite Rochester families to come see for themselves how the animals are thriving at The Greatest Show On Earth.

STEPHEN PAYNE
FELD ENTERTAINMENT (PARENT COMPANY OF RINGLING BROS.), VIENNA, VA

His distortion of the truth and silly logic made it easy for us.  Someone I don’t know but would like to meet responded in a letter printed October 15th:

Circus should allow access behind the scenes

In response to Stephen Payne, Feld Entertainment, parent company of Ringling Bros., who invites Rochester families to see for themselves how their animals are thriving in their circus, I wonder why he doesn’t invite these families behind the scenes to see how well the animals are housed and treated or install live Web cameras on a website for the public to view.

Each city Ringling Bros. comes to, including Rochester, should install video cameras in the animal quarters to personally view Ringling Bros.’ supposedly humane treatment and hold it accountable for any mistreatment.

This is great, but League of Humane Voters of Rochester felt that the claim that they’d never been found in violation of the AWA had to be answered, and our letter was printed a few days ago:

Ringling Fine Wasn’t Mentioned

In a recent letter, a Ringling Brothers’ representative claims Ringling “has never been found in violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act.” But in 2011, Ringling was slapped with a $270,000 fine (the maximum allowed by law) for 27 violations.

In addition, the writer suggests people come to watch the show to see how the animals are thriving. Behind-the-scene abuse, however, is there for all to see online by Googling “Ringling abuse.”

Join the families who have said “no” to this sort of animal cruelty. Support non-animal entertainment as an act of compassion and support a proposed ordinance recently presented to the Rochester City Council that would ban animal circuses.

This was printed in the paper days before the circus came.  It was better before they edited it*, but see how easy it is to reach thousands of people with the truth?  It took me less than ten minutes to write those two letters, some time over the course of a day for our group to revise the second one, and probably forty seconds to submit it to the newspaper.

You can support our efforts here by starting or intensifying your own action in your city.  The more we can show that this is not a handful of local nuts but a worldwide movement of compassion and justice, the sooner we can end this nightmare.

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* For the record, here is what we actually wrote to the newspaper, which was well within their LTE word count:

A representative of Ringling Brothers, Stephen Payne, recently wrote a letter to this newspaper defending the treatment of the animals under their care, saying Ringling “has never been found in violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act” and suggesting people come watch the show to see how the animals are thriving.

Mr. Payne failed to mention that in 2011 the USDA slapped Ringling Brothers with a $270,000 fine, the largest in the history of the Animal Welfare Act and the maximum allowed by law for what the USDA said was 27 violations.

And while it’s ridiculous to think that anyone could confirm what Ringling calls their “excellent record of animal care” by attending a public performance, the behind-the-scenes evidence of abuse is there for all to see online by Googling “Ringling abuse.”

If any of this makes you too uncomfortable to enjoy the circus, you’re not alone – Ringling continues to cancel performances (73 fewer than 2013 – a reduction of 12%) due to declining attendance.

Join the families who have said “no” to supporting this sort of animal cruelty and abuse. Support non-animal entertainment instead as an act of compassion – and support an ordinance banning animal circuses which was recently presented to the Rochester City Council.

Gandhi Earth Keepers

I had the privilege of spending a little over an hour today talking to George Payne, the founder of the new organization Gandhi Earth Keepers International.  If you look at their web site, you will see something unusual – it’s an organization that isn’t focused solely on justice for animals, but which includes this concept as a matter of course.  An environmental organization which happens to fully support animal rights!

I can’t recommend this organization highly enough.  George has taken a personal leap of faith to follow his dream and values to fill a gaping hole in our society: how to solve our problems nonviolently, including nonviolence towards animals.

I hope you will visit the site and support this act of courage.

 

Cowspiracy

The movie Cowspiracy has come out.  I was so excited to learn that someone was finally asking these questions – why aren’t environmental organizations talking about livestock’s impact on the environment?  It’s such a glaring omission.  I supported the filmmakers on Indiegogo, so I received my promised DVD a few days ago.  You can look up local screenings at their web site.

The film is very well done, and I think it could have a big impact if it is put before local environmental leaders.  Two local vegan/AR organizations I’m in are going to co-host a showing.  Don’t miss it, and be sure to recommend it to your “environmentalist meat-eater” friends.