New Study Says U.S. Vegan Population Doubled In 2 Years

december 16 , 2011

According to a new Harris Interactive study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group, the number of vegans in the United States has doubled since 2009 to 2.5% of the population. An amazing 7.5 million U.S. citizens now eat vegan diets that do not include any animal products – no meat, poultry, fish, dairy or eggs. Close to 16 million, or 5%, identify as vegetarian, never eating meat, poultry or fish. Click here to read more on our blog, and post your own thoughts.

U.S. Vegan Population Doubles in Only Two Years
December 14th, 2011 | Author: Hope Bohanec
According to a new Harris Interactive study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group, the number of vegans in the United States has doubled since 2009 to 2.5% of the population. An amazing 7.5 million U.S. citizens now eat vegan diets that do not include any animal products – no meat, poultry, fish, dairy or eggs. Close to 16 million, or 5%, identify as vegetarian, never eating meat, poultry or fish.
If this rate continues, vegans will be 10% of the U.S. population in 2015, 40% in 2019, and in 80 % in 2021! This would mean an end to the exploitation and suffering of billions of farmed animals. The study also revealed that 33% of U.S. citizens are eating vegetarian meals a significant amount of the time and ordering vegetarian meals at restaurants, though they are not vegetarians. That is over 100 million people, one third of the country!
Interestingly, the demographic breakdown of the study discovered that it was equal percentages of Democrats and Republicans eating vegetarian. Perhaps these two parties CAN agree on something- the vegan lifestyle is healthy and compassionate. Conscientious eating is going mainstream so if you haven’t already, reduce or eliminate your consumption of animal products- everyone’s doing it!
New to veganism? Click here to order a free Vegan Starter Kit.



U.S. Vegan Population Doubles in Only Two Years
December 14th, 2011 | Author: Hope Bohanec
According to a new Harris Interactive study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group, the number of vegans in the United States has doubled since 2009 to 2.5% of the population. An amazing 7.5 million U.S. citizens now eat vegan diets that do not include any animal products – no meat, poultry, fish, dairy or eggs. Close to 16 million, or 5%, identify as vegetarian, never eating meat, poultry or fish.
If this rate continues, vegans will be 10% of the U.S. population in 2015, 40% in 2019, and in 80 % in 2021! This would mean an end to the exploitation and suffering of billions of farmed animals. The study also revealed that 33% of U.S. citizens are eating vegetarian meals a significant amount of the time and ordering vegetarian meals at restaurants, though they are not vegetarians. That is over 100 million people, one third of the country!
Interestingly, the demographic breakdown of the study discovered that it was equal percentages of Democrats and Republicans eating vegetarian. Perhaps these two parties CAN agree on something- the vegan lifestyle is healthy and compassionate. Conscientious eating is going mainstream so if you haven’t already, reduce or eliminate your consumption of animal products- everyone’s doing it!
New to veganism? Click here to order a free Vegan Starter Kit.

All around us today, the natural world upon which humans and animals depend is under attack. Animals in factory farms suffer terribly, and pollution, deforestation, global warming, and resource depletion are rapidly destroying the planet. But how can one person make any difference?

The answer is as close as your dinner plate. Thousands of people across the country are standing up for animals and the environment by adopting a vegan lifestyle.

Vegans take personal responsibility for making the world a better place by giving up meat, dairy products, eggs, and other animal-derived items.

That simple choice has powerful consequences. Veganism saves animals from the horrors of the slaughterhouse, reduces pollution from factory farms, and preserves soybeans and grain--which would otherwise be fed to animals being raised for food--for the millions of malnourished people in our hungry world.





To learn more about the environmental impact of animal agriculture, click here.

Eco-Eating

Animal agriculture is directly or partially responsible for many of the world's most serious environmental problems- global warming, water use and pollution, massive energy consumption, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and species, as well as the deep impact of fishing on our oceans. Reducing or eliminating the consumption of animal products is one of the most powerful ways an individual reduce his or her carbon footprint.


Prevent Animal Cruelty


Vegans are motivated by compassion for animals' suffering and respect for life. Both modern science and simple common sense tell us that other animals besides humans feel pain and fear death. Vegans empathize with living creatures and understand that humans don’t need to eat meat, wear leather, or drink milk to survive.

Animals on a modern factory farm lead lives of unimaginable suffering and die cruel deaths in order to end up on the dinner table. Intense competition drives farmers to value profits and efficiency over the animals' natural desires or quality of life. Animals are squeezed into ever smaller living quarters, even as new biotechnology is used to make animals grow bigger and produce more meat, milk or eggs. Lowering the cost per unit is the overriding goal.

Pumped up with hormones and drugs, dairy cows spend years in a concrete stall or filthy feed lot before they dry up and are sent to slaughter. Most calves born to dairy cows are quickly separated from their mothers, confined in tiny pens, and then killed for veal after only a few months of life. Chickens raised for eggs are crammed together in tiny cages and have their beaks clipped to prevent them from hurting one another due to stress from confinement. Death is merciless and inevitable: a bolt gun or a knife ends a life spent in hell.

Vegans do not wear products derived from animals. Fur and leather are the result of suffering and exploitation. So is wool: lambs are castrated and have their tails cut off without anesthetic, and many sheep die of exposure due to premature shearing. Some cosmetics and personal care items contain animal by-products such as honey, lanolin and lard. Vegans use the widely available alternatives that are animal-free.

Experiments on animals are another source of suffering. Rabbits, dogs, rats and many other beings die to test soap and make-up or in medical research that many doctors have condemned as irrelevant to human health. The agony suffered by animals in research facilities is all the more outrageous because cruelty-free non-animal-based alternatives exist.

A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.
—Leo Tolstoy

Preserve Your Health

Plant-based diets ― including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes ― offer an abundant, diverse selection of nutrient-rich foods to choose from, are high in fiber, phytochemicals, and antioxidants, and have no saturated fat (with the exception of coconuts and palm oil). According to numerous studies, plant-based diets have been shown to lower the risk of many diseases including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

The American Dietetic Association states, “…appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, as well as for athletes.”

But going vegan won't just save your life and animals' lives. A plant-based diet is also an important step towards solving the terrible problem of world hunger. Animal agriculture is a grossly inefficient way of growing food: Experts estimate that at least seven pounds of grain or soybeans are needed to generate one pound of meat. Food that could be going directly to hungry people is instead being inefficiently funneled into producing steaks and hamburgers. Animal agriculture also wastes staggering amounts of water and energy. One thing is clear: if all the people of Earth are going to be fed, we must eat more wisely, responsibly, and compassionately.

Protect the Earth

How we eat also affects the air, the water, the forests and the oceans. The production of meat has a devastating impact on the subtle web of connections that sustains life on our planet. Rainforests are leveled to raise cattle, factory farms pollute rivers and lakes, over-grazing erodes fertile land into arid desert, and vast quantities of energy and water are wasted to raise animals for food. At sea, huge fishing drift nets turn acres of ocean into graveyards. All this damage to the earth can be stopped. Taking meat, dairy, and eggs off your plate will make a difference.

On Global Warming-

What we put into our bags at the grocery store actually has more environmental impact than whether we bring our reusable shopping bag or drive a hybrid to the store. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released a study in 2006 revealing that animal agriculture causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation combined.


“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems,” says U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Dr. Henning Steinfeld, senior author of the report.


Animal agriculture contributes to the global greenhouse effect from the methane produced by cows, deforestation of the rainforest to create land suitable for grazing and the enormous consumption of fossil fuel used to operate the factory farms and slaughterhouses. It takes 8 times as much fossil fuel to produce animal protein as it does to produce plant protein.

Better Than Local-

When we think of eating green, we often think of locally produced food as being the most ecological choice. However, a 2008 study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found that shifting just two meals a week from meat and dairy products to a vegetarian diet reduces more greenhouse gasses than buying all locally-sourced food.


Water-

Over half the total amount of fresh water consumed in the U.S. goes to irrigate land to grow feed for livestock. It takes less water to produce one year's worth of food for a completely plant-based diet, than to produce one month’s worth of food for a diet with animal products. Additionally, the millions of tons of waste produced by these massive farm animal populations pollutes our lakes, rivers, and groundwater.

De-forestation-

Animal agriculture destroys thousands of acres of forests that help purify the air, reduce carbon dioxide, and are home to many species of insects, animals, birds, and plants. It is estimated that one acre of trees is preserved each year by every individual who switches to a completely plant-based diet.

COMPASSIONATE CHOICES-

As you are making your compassionate transition, IDA is here to help and support you. From easy, delicious recipes to a vegan starter kit, IDA offers a variety of free materials to help you start enjoying a plant-based diet. By going vegan you join hundreds of thousands of people across the globe who have decided that they can and will improve the world by simply altering what they eat.


Veganism is about celebrating life by taking care of your heath and the health of our planet, and protecting of the animals that share our world.





Kenneth Williams, World Champion Body Builder and Vegan Advocate




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Wear your heart on your sleeve with IDA’s vegan t-shirts

At Our Mercy: The Eating of Animals
by Diane DeLonzor-Dan, IDA

"There is little that separates humans from other sentient beings – we all feel joy, we all deeply crave to be alive and to live freely, and we all share this planet together." –Mohandas Gandhi

I’d always dreamed of having a horse - the wind in my hair, long summer weekends riding bareback through lush fields, a soft nose nuzzling my face. So one day about fifteen years ago, I impulsively adopted a little chestnut colored Morgan mare named Lucky. Not having had the foresight to first arrange food and housing for my new friend, I spent the next few days searching for pasture space. When finally I managed to cajole a local farmer into temporarily lending me some land, there was a caveat -- Lucky would have two roommates, a huge friendly bull named George and a smaller, quite shy one named Glenn -- named, naturally, after the local vet and his assistant. Over the next few months, George and Glenn proved surprisingly amiable pasture mates for Lucky. George, in particular, seemed quite smitten with my little mare. Many a day I’d drive up in my pickup truck to see them standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the soft summer twilight or trailing each other in their meanderings around the pasture.

One early spring evening, a friend and I decided to take Lucky out for a trail ride through the vineyards. Carefully closing the pasture gate behind us, we set off, me riding Lucky, Cara walking along beside us. We’d been on the trail just 10 minutes when Lucky abruptly stopped dead and whinnied nervously. We peered around to see what might have frightened her, but saw only row after row of still grapevines. Suddenly, we spotted the source of Lucky’s anxiety -- George. The huge bull was galloping and crashing through the vineyards towards us, bellowing wildly. Had the gate come unlatched? How in the world were we going to get him back into the pasture? As George came charging closer, we braced ourselves for disaster. But as we watched, he gradually began to slow down, eventually breaking to a slow trot and finally coming to a stop at our feet. We stared at him, he gazed calmly back at us, and to tell you the truth, he looked, well, pleased, as though his determination not to be left behind had paid off. As we turned back toward the pasture, George followed closely behind, nuzzling Lucky and making soft mooing sounds deep in his throat. Approaching the pasture fence, we could clearly see the gate -- fastened tightly shut. The only logical conclusion was that George had broken through the four-foot high wire fence. Of course, no one believed us, but that’s the truth.

That summer, I found a permanent pasture for Lucky and arrived in my truck and trailer to make the move to her new home. As I loaded her up, George rushed to the fence and began to bellow and wail. He paced and cried ceaselessly while I packed Lucky’s belongings and checked the fence one last time. I can still remember driving away on the dusty road from the farm that day with George’s sad eyes in my mind and his cries in my ears.

"The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo." – Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Dr. Albert Schweitzer

By winter, George and Glenn were dead, slaughtered by the farmer and his wife for food. I had always believed in the concept of the "food chain" and all that it implies, but around that time I began to question what it is that separates the animals we love as pets from those we consider appropriate for food. I am convinced that George felt happiness and affection, that he suffered sadness and pain. Anyone who’s had a dog or a cat has seen firsthand evidence of animal emotions. They cringe at harsh words and get beside themselves with joy when we come home at night. We’d object with outrage at the suggestion of killing our dog or cat for food. Yet many of us put our qualms aside when it comes to eating cows and other "farm animals." Why? Several reasons come to mind:

•Since it’s not usual practice to keep cows, pigs or chickens as pets, we don’t relate to them. And perhaps our unfamiliarity with farm animals allows us to believe that the emotions and pain they feel are somehow not as deeply felt as those a dog or cat might feel.
•Most of us have never been to a factory farm.
Familiarity Breeds Compassion
I haven’t always been a vegetarian. I used to rationalize my non-vegetarian status by telling myself that cows, pigs and chickens don’t feel pain the in same way dogs and cats do. Their intellect is less, I reasoned, so therefore, their awareness must be inferior as well. Sure, I’d feel a twinge of guilt when I passed a turkey-laden truck on the highway, open cages full of gobblers stacked one on top of another exposed to freezing winter temperatures. Yet, I was able to defend callous farming practices by diminishing in my mind any feelings those turkeys might have. I knew my dog had feelings and emotions. I knew my cat felt love and fear. But a cow or a pig? Come on...

Do farm animals have the same awareness and intelligence as domestic animals like dogs or cats? Do they feel emotions such as loneliness, fear and pain? Experts say yes, that the intellect and the emotions farm animals feel are as real and as intense as anything Fluffy or Fido might experience. Noted animal researcher and author, Jeffrey Mason says, "I have no doubt that pigs and other animals are capable of the same complex emotions as the animals with whom we share our lives. It seems undeniable that the only difference between pigs and dogs is the way we treat them."

Anyone who's cared for a chicken will attest to their surprising levels of sensitivity and intelligence. Lorri and Gene Bauston of Farm Sanctuary, a haven for abandoned and abused farm animals with locations in Orland, California and Watkins Glen, New York, once saved an injured and frightened broiler chicken named Bueford from a slaughterhouse, only to find him curled up asleep with their dog the following morning. When Lorri tried to acquaint Bueford with members of his own species, he merely squawked and ran back to her. Studies confirm experiences like this are not flukes. Dr. Lesley J. Rogers, Professor of Physiology and author of the scientific study, The Development of Brain and Behavior in the Chicken, 1995, notes, "With increased knowledge of the behavior and cognitive abilities of the chicken, has come the realization that the chicken is not an inferior species to be treated merely as a food source."

Other scientists studying farm animals have also found clear signs of emotions. In one 1991 study of sows in a typical factory farm, researchers found clinical signs of chronic stress, depression and frustration. Among other things, the animals had chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and developed neurotic habits, such as compulsive head waving and repeated licking and chewing of stall bars, as a way of coping with their confinement and inability to move freely.1

"I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on Babe that by the end of the film, I was a vegetarian." – actor James Cromwell, star of Babe

Certainly, farm animals don’t share human levels of intelligence or powers of advanced reasoning, but then should intellect be the defining criteria as to whom we kill and whom we don’t? When it comes down to it, we all, humans and animals alike, want to live and be free from pain. As eminent Philosopher Jeremy Bentham, suggested, "The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But can they suffer?" To which philosopher Peter Singer adds, "All the arguments to prove human superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals."

The Factory Farm
Now let’s look at the second reason we, as a society, embrace the tradition of using animals for food – few of us have ever visited a factory farm. It’s something most of us would rather not think about. Yet do we have the right not to consider the goings-on in slaughterhouses? When we buy meat, we are in essence, making a request to kill an animal. It’s important to understand what events are triggered by that request.

Traditional family farming has always been a tough business to make a living in, and with many family farms barely squeaking by, large corporate agribusinesses have, for the most part, taken over the industry. One of the problems with factory farming, unfortunately, is the tendency to treat animals as machinery. To maximize profits, animals are raised in the least space possible, with little consideration for their status as living, feeling beings. Perhaps the attitude can be summed up in the following quote from the magazine, Hog Farmer Management: "Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory."

"Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test, consists of its attitude toward those who are at its mercy: Animals. And in this respect, humankind has suffered a fundamental debacle." – Milan Kundera

In the 1980’s there was a great deal of publicity surrounding "factory farms." Some of those pictures from the 80’s may still haunt you – baby calves locked in tiny dark crates, with diets that caused diarrhea and malnutrition. But in the 90’s, the hoopla surrounding factory farming died down somewhat, and many of us assumed that laws had been passed, new regulations enforced, and that we in the United States no longer treated farm animals abusively. The fact is, nearly all animal cruelty laws in the U.S. effectively exempt what’s known as "standard agricultural practices," and sadly, over 90% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised in intensive confinement.2

While abuses are common in many areas of factory farming, some of the most striking instances occur in the farming of sows, dairy cows and their offspring, and egg-producing hens.

Babe in the Factory
Every year in the United States, more than 95 million pigs are killed for food. Of those, approximately 70% are kept in "confinement."3 What exactly does this mean? To understand confinement, it’s helpful to start by looking at pigs in their natural environment. Pigs are generally regarded by animal experts as intelligent, affectionate animals, who are naturally very active, spending half their time rooting and who, in the wild, are known to travel up to 30 miles a day. They are sensitive creatures that thrive in close-knit groups with well-established social structures. Under natural conditions, you’ll find group members working together to build communal nests, sows protectively hovering over their piglets, and babies forming close bonds with their mothers.4

In contrast, pigs raised on a factory farm see no sun in their lives, have no hay to lie on, no pasture to explore or to root in. Sows, or mother pigs, spend their entire lives in metal or cement-floored "gestation" or "farrowing" crates that are so small they can’t walk or turn around. On some factory farms, the sow is literally tied to the floor by a short chain or strap around her neck.5 She is deprived of all exercise and any opportunity to fill her naturally inquisitive nature, and lives in a state of constant agitation.6 Meat industry spokespeople justify this type of intensive confinement by insisting that sows need to be immobilized to prevent them from crushing their young, but long-term university studies and farm records demonstrate otherwise – piglet survival rates are no better with intensive confinement than with more spacious housing.7

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." – Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

On the factory farm, piglets are prematurely removed from their mothers and put into stacked crates or crowded pens with floors of bare wire, metal, or concrete. Without anesthesia, they are castrated and their tails cut off. Confinement results in boredom and frustration, which in turn gives rise to aberrant behaviors such as self-mutilation, cannibalism, and fighting. Although many die, intensive confinement generates higher profits as a whole. As National Hog Farmer, an industry magazine says, "Overcrowding pigs pays."8

While many European countries have outlawed these extreme types of animal confinement, the economical interests of the agricultural industry in the United States has wielded enough political power to continue the practice on a widespread basis.

But Drinking Milk is Harmless, Isn’t It?
Dairy cows don’t automatically produce milk; they must first be impregnated and give birth. Like humans, dairy cows normally "breastfeed" their young, but according to the USDA, nearly 90 percent of farms separate mothers and babies within twenty-four hours of birth. In this way, none of her valuable milk will be squandered on her baby, and the mother can be quickly put back into the production line.

What happens to the calves? The females are raised to replace older dairy cows in the milking line, and the males are typically sold for veal. Veal calves live for up to sixteen weeks in small wooden crates, often chained to prevent movement, and fed iron and fiber deficient diets to produce the white flesh consumers prefer. The Journal of Animal Science reports that up to 25 percent of veal calves suffer from diarrhea and anemia due to these diets. At the end of 16 weeks they are transported for slaughtering. Unfortunately, treatment of veal calves has not changed since the ’80’s. Consumer demand has lessened somewhat, but more than one million veal calves still suffer this fate every year.

"Interestingly, veal calves accept their imprisonment without protest. While caged or crowded chickens may exhibit hysteria and pigs will fight viciously when confined to too-tight quarters, the reaction of the veal calf to lifetime confinement is quite different. When you walk by a row of veal crates and look inside one, the impression you get is that the calf is not afraid or angry, merely despondent. The veal calf stands in his crate, his unexercised body growing more anemic each day, appearing to bear his condition with confusion and a tangible sadness." – Eric Marcus – Vegan, The New Ethics of Eating

Noted physician and author, Michael Klaper, quoted in The Vegan Sourcebook, tells, by way of an anecdote, of the link between veal production and dairy farming: "The very saddest sound in all my memory was burned into my awareness at age five on my uncle’s dairy farm in Wisconsin. A cow had given birth to a beautiful male calf. The mother was allowed to nurse her calf but for a single night. On the second day after birth, my uncle took the calf from the mother and placed him in the veal pen in the barn - only ten yards away, in plain view of the mother. The mother cow could see her infant, smell him, hear him, but could not touch him, comfort him, or nurse him. The heartrending bellows that she poured fourth, minute after minute, hour after hour, for five long days - were excruciating to listen to. Since that age, whenever I hear anyone postulate that animals cannot really feel emotions, I need only to replay that tortuous sound in my memory of that mother cow crying her bovine heart out to her infant."

Under humane conditions, dairy cows live up to twenty-five years. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association however, over half of the dairy cows raised on a factory farm will die before the age of four. Why? For a number of reasons. First, more than 50% of dairy cows are confined to indoor stalls – narrow, concrete boxes that allow no access to exercise.9 Second, the practice of feeding extremely rich feeds in an forces milk production to unnaturally high levels. Finally, the use of a synthetic hormone called Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) further increases milk production. In 1960 the average dairy cow produced 20 pounds of milk per day. Today, according to the USDA, the average yield is around 45 pounds.10 Inducing the body to produce this much milk has side affects for the cow: mastitis, a painful and sometimes fatal bacterial infection of the udders, and laminitis, a painful inflammation of the hoof. So common and severe are these problems that more than 60% of all dairy cows are given antibiotics regularly. Ironically, with all these taxes on her body, the cow looses the ability to produce milk at a young age.

After only a few years, she loses her value as a live animal, and sent to slaughter. The USDA reports that roughly two-thirds of all cattle slaughtered are from dairy stock."11

The Life of a Chicken
The life of a chicken typically starts in an egg hatchery, where fertilized eggs are incubated and hatched. Once they’ve hatched, baby chicks are divided up into two groups: the females are sold as egg-producing hens, the one-day old males are either gassed, suffocated or ground up alive. Male chicks serve little purpose at the hatchery – they can’t produce eggs and because of their breed, they’ll never grow large enough to be sold profitably for meat. So they are disposed of in the fastest, cheapest manner possible. All egg hatcheries participate in this practice, even those who sell their chickens to free-range farms. More than 280 million chicks are killed in this way every year.12

Once the female chicks are sold to egg-producers, they are housed in what are called "battery cages," small wire cages stacked on top of each other. Over 95% of egg-producing hens in the U.S. live five to a cage only 18 inches square, not enough room to spread their wings, and barely enough space to stand. Like a cat, hens naturally like to keep clean, but dropping excrement from chickens in top cages burns their eyes and thwarts any attempt at cleanliness. Their efforts to dust-bathe and to build nests in these conditions have been described as heart-rending.

Another custom in the egg industry is the wide-spread use of a process called "force molting," where food is withheld from hens for seven to ten days. Chickens naturally stop producing eggs in the winter, when they concentrate their energies on staying warm and growing new feathers. Egg producers have found a way to produce one more cycle of eggs from hens during this time. By starving them, they are able to induce a kind of physiological shock to the system that produces another round of eggs. The hens that survive this process typically lose up to 30% of their body weight. Great Britain banned forced molting in 1987. Unfortunately, factory farms are a powerful force in the United States, and as of this writing, the practice continues.

The lives of non-egg producing chickens (broilers) are somewhat better than their egg-producing counterparts – they’re raised in open buildings that house up to nine birds per square foot. Yet, according to experts, broilers are fed such rich food and grow so rapidly, that their hearts and lungs cannot develop well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses.13

A final sad note to the chicken industry is a practice called "debeaking." Chickens naturally love to explore their environment by pecking, but because of the crowded conditions, these urges are turned toward pecking each other. To circumvent this, all chicks are "debeaked," a painful procedure in which their beaks are seared off with a hot blade. Anesthesia is never used and some birds cannot eat after debeaking and starve.

Is It Wrong?
"It is interesting what still reaches a slaughterman’s calloused heart – calloused, that is, by the job of work he’s commissioned to do by the consumer. For one man it is goats. ‘They cry just like babies.’ For a veteran blood and guts disposal man, it is carrying three-day-old calves to the shooting box and destroying them with a captive bold. ‘I reckon it’s wrong.’" – Andrew Tyler, Getting Away With Murder

Here in the United States, we pride ourselves on our altruism, on our penchant for stepping up to undo wrongs, and on defending the under-dog. Yet, every year we turn our backs on millions of animals confined to factory farms.

How is this possible? If farm animals have similar levels of intellect, awareness and emotions as dogs and cats, if they experience the same joy and love, and suffer from the same pain and loneliness, how is it they ended up on the wrong side of the pet/food dividing line? Have we perhaps drawn that line arbitrarily, giving the short side of the stick to the animals we’re not familiar with, that we don’t love? And is an animal only deserving of compassion if it’s loved by a human being?

"Humans – who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals – have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and "animals" is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them – without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us." – Dr. Carl Sagan & Dr. Ann Druyan

Using animals for food is such a common practice and so deeply ingrained in our culture that many of us have become immune to the cruelty and immorality of it. And perhaps morality has taken a back seat to tradition and long held beliefs. We do what we’ve always done and fail to make conscious choices.

What Can You Do?
The first and most obvious step is to become a vegetarian or a vegan. What’s the difference between the two? For the most part, vegetarians are those who’ve sworn off animal products, such as meat and cheese, in their diets. Vegans, on the other hand, are those who have gone a step further by excluding animal products in clothing, cosmetics and other products as well.

Whether you decide to become a vegetarian or vegan, remember that for most people it’s a gradual process – rarely does anyone make the transition overnight. Many people, for instance, start by limiting meat consumption to once a week. When you’re comfortable with that, you might go a step further by eliminating eggs or milk from your diet. As you cut back, be careful however, not to substitute one animal for another. In other words, don’t give up steak and order cheese ravioli instead. Remember that when you consume milk and cheese, you are supporting the veal industry.

We’ll be covering nutrition in another segment, but for now, do take a look a good vegan nutrition book to ensure you get all the nutrients you need. It is absolutely possible, even easy, to be a healthy vegan, it just takes some awareness. Sound overwhelming? Take heart and bear in mind the words of our resident vegan gourmet, Jennye Laws-Woolfe: "The good news about being vegan is that even though many things seem to leave your diet, many new and wonderful things arrive to replace the disappearing ones. For instance, just when you think that you have eaten your very last box of mac and cheese, you find a new vegan Mac and Chreese. When you’re missing the yummy creamy chocolate peanut butter ice cream you once couldn’t get enough of, you come across Organic Chocolate Peanut Butter Soy Delicious. Far from the ascetic lifestyle I had long dreaded, veganism was a joyful expression of how my choices do make a difference. They matter for the animals, they matter for the world, and they matter for me."

While every person who loves animals must make their own decisions on vegetarianism or veganism, In Defense of Animals, like other animal rights organizations, promotes veganism on the basis that most living beings have feelings, emotions and the drive to live. There are many environmental and health reasons to go vegetarian or vegan, but perhaps this, the philosophical reason, is the most compelling. Some of the greatest thinkers in history, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, embraced the vegetarian ethic. They saw the sacredness of all life and lived according to that belief. We welcome you to hold that doctrine too.

Sources and Additional Reading
All Heaven in a Rage, Edited by Laura A. Moretti
When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy
"Why Vegan," Vegan Outreach
The Vegan Sourcebook, Joanne Stephaniak, M.D., ed.
The Animal Rights Handbook, Living Planet Press
Humane Farming Association
Farm Sanctuary
Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, Eric Marcus

Footnotes:
1 Barnett JL, Hemsworth GM, Cronin EA, et al. Effects of design of individual cage-stalls on the behavioural and physiological responses related to the welfare of pregnant pigs. Appl Anim Behav Sci 1991;32:23-33; 2 Vegan Outreach; 3 ibid; 4 PETA; 5 Humane Farming Assoc.; 6 Rollin 1995; 7 HFA; 8 National Hog Farmer 11/15/93, 9 HFA; 10 The Vegan Sourcebook, Joanne Stepaniak; 11 ibid; 12 ibid; 13 Reuters 4/2/98

IDA Files Defense Department Complaint Over Sheep Beating

In Defense of Animals has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Defense, requesting an investigation into the brutal beating of a helpless sheep by a U.S. soldier armed with a baseball bat. The incident was caught on video in Afghanistan and circulated around the internet, tarnishing the reputation of the U.S. military. The video shows a child looking on and several other soldiers laughing and cheering the beating. It took 12 blows, with the sheep in convulsions and attempting escape, before the helpless animal finally died. IDA demands that an investigation is conducted into this incident and appropriate action taken for all those involved. Click here to read more and to send a fax to Defense Secretary Leon