Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • July 22, 2002 | ||
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NewsBarbecued Kitten Value Menu"Let's say I were to look out my window right this very moment and see a very unpleasant and probably quite hideous personage kicking his whimpering dog or smashing the head of her mewling kitten with a brick or yanking the wings off a pretty chirping bird. Let's just say. "I would of course want what most anyone with any sense of heart or soul or indignation would want at that moment: for the abusive slug-bait of a person to be immediately gored by God's own rusty butter knife and then strung up by their tonsils and made to listen to Celine Dion techno remixes on infinite loop while slowly being eaten alive by rabid fire ants. And then I'd want them tortured. "But let's say I look out that very same window and witness the neighbors casually slicing the throat of a live chicken for dinner or maybe conking out the family pig for bacon and chops. I would of course cringe and turn away and contemplate the meanings of life and death and vegetarianism, until the smell of the barbecue hit and I'd begin to wish they'd invite me over for chicken kebabs and free-range porkchops and organic salad and wine."
Group seeks improvement of chicken-farm conditions"Stacked rows of metal cages, each crammed with eight hens, extend longer than a football field in the chicken sheds at Westminster's County Fair Farms. The birds peck at one another. They live suspended above pits of their own waste, shut off from sunlight and fresh air. "The conditions, which allow a half-million hens to produce millions of eggs a year, meet all legal and industry standards, say those who run the farm. But their henhouse recently was the site of a covert operation in which a group of animal activists known as Compassion Over Killing shot video and still pictures and abducted several birds for delivery to a veterinarian."
Is Soy Safe?Many rumors surround the safety of soy products. Virginia and Mark Messina have written a concise article for Vegan Spam to clear up any misunderstandings and bring us up to date on the issues surrounding soy.
Does a vegetarian diet have health implications for baby boys?
FeedbackI
would like to let you know that thanx to your literature,
I have gotten 15 people to go vegan in the past
two months, and about 6 more to go veggie –
one of them a military officer in the local recruiting
office. I just love the new Spanish
Why Vegans! We don't give out a lot at our
info booth, but we do get some. Thanks so much for
making these! I am so impressed with you.
Your brochures are great. Peta charges for their
materials, and they cover so many things that I
can't just hand out a general brochure to friends
and acquaintances. Environmental Organizations usually
just ask for money and they don't tell people how
just changing their diet can have a huge impact
for the environment. I'm one of your many admirers – I'd told
you at the AR 2002 conference how much I enjoyed your presentation
of "How Vegan is Enough?" You are the voice of logic
and reason. I'm just another vegan, writing
to thank you for all you've done, and all you do,
and tell you how much I enjoy being vegan. I get
such a wonderful feeling everytime I sit down to
a meal, knowing that I am making a difference. So
please keep up your wonderful work. There is a great
peace that comes with being vegan that no one can
explain. Your writings really inspire
me. I re-read one of your essays recently. It is
so right on! It should be required reading for all
vegans, to make sure we all keep our heads on straight
and stop causing ourselves so much misery. I’ve been pacing myself
towards veganism for the past couple of months.
It’s hard at times, especially in a working-class
community. But everytime I’m tempted, I just
pull out a copy of Why Vegan. This especially
helps me stand my ground when facing adverse attitudes
from my family and friends. This is one of the hardest
things I’ve had to deal with so far, but your
pamphlet has really made a difference in helping
me maintain my choice of lifestyle. I just want
to reiterate that your work makes a huge difference
in peoples’ lives.
Extended!
More on Veganism: A Religion?PETA's Bruce Friedrich defends prisoner's right to vegan food on The O'Reilly Factor Tanya Hadden, an ex-teacher charged with kidnapping a 15-year-old student (for the weekend, with his consent) and having sex with him, is vegan. Her parents have said she is unable to get vegan meals in prison and has lost as much as thirty pounds during her stay. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has taken up her cause. As a result, Bruce Friedrich, PETA's vegan campaign coordinator was invited onto Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," with John Kasich, who was sitting in for Bill O'Reilly. When Kasich suggested that the jail should not cater to Hadden since this is not a religious issue, Friedrich responded: "It absolutely is a religious issue. And we think everybody might want to take a good hard look at the way that animals are treated on factory farms and in slaughterhouses for meat, for dairy products, for eggs. I mean, these are animals who are created with an array of needs and desires and wants, are created with God-given desires. For example, chickens want to spread their wings, they want to dust bathe, they want to preen. They're not allowed to do any of those things. "[I]t's a legitimate desire, a legitimate religious need not to support cruelty to animals. More and more, priests, rabbis, pastors are telling us that it is reasonable to say, 'Look, these industries treat these animals in ways that deny God.' It's a reasonable practice within Judaism, within Christianity, within traditional morals to say, 'I'm not going to support that level of cruelty.' "She has a First Amendment protection not to support animal cruelty, not to do her health a disservice, and not to harm the environment. I, as a Roman Catholic, went vegan 15 years ago because I saw what was happening on the factory farms and in the slaughterhouses and it's a denial of God to treat these animals so indecently." Kasich said PETA needs to choose its battles more carefully and that this time they have picked the wrong horse. Perhaps Kasich thinks that if Friedrich had just called and said "I'd like to come onto your show some time this week and talk about the cruelty of a the standard American diet," The O'Reilly Factor would have been rushing to book him.
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