PETA is Black and White in a Rainbow World (Hatchery Law Reform and Continued Awareness for the Ethical Treatment of Animals According to Omnivores)

                                                                             

“Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.”The world is not black and white. Many situations are not black and white. I am not comfortable with the mantra either you are with us or against us, circa President Bush; otherwise known as a very traumatic eight years for me. It is an age old argument whether or not to eat meat in response to the abuse happening inside the factory farms, being we are reasonable and morally conscious; and have options for other food sources through our advancement. One of my favorite quotes on the subject is that of Benjamin Franklin, he states “I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food... But I had formerly been a great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanced sometime between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then thought I, 'If you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you.' So I dined upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.” PETA is for the ethical treatment of animals as we’ve apprehended it to be. Though it’s often harsh tactics criminalizes people for not choosing the lifestyle of that of a vegan while correlating them to a terrorist, as you’ll read below. Humans are omnivores by nature. There are a number of popular myths about vegetarianism that have no scientific basis. One of these myths is that man is naturally a vegetarian because our bodies resemble herbivores, not carnivores. In fact we are omnivores. Much of the misinformation on the issue of man being a natural vegetarian arises from confusion between taxonomic (in biology, the procedure of classifying organisms in established categories) and dietary characteristics. All the available evidence indicates that the natural human diet is omnivorous and would include meat. We are not, however, required to consume animal protein. We have a choice. I choose to eat meat; understanding the natural ways of the biological world and the natural order of the food chain. Plus, I like hot dogs. By not choosing to persist as a vegan, it is a futile attempt to become a component of PETA. What this post is about, as an omnivore, is not whether to make a determination to espouse a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle for ethical reasons; this is about the sustained abuse and torture of animals by workers and factories and stricter regulations of existing laws and laws that should be proposed, that condemn and criminalize the factories and corporations that perpetuate the behavior, as well as alternative methods of handling the chicks and ducklings in hatcheries. Throughout our agriculture history the first animals to be factory farmed were chickens. The discovery of vitamins and their role in animal nutrition, in the first two decades of the twentieth won't make much of a difference. The changes proposed include telling employees to be more efficient in sending culled chicks to their death via high-speed vacuum, grinding, or gassing — all legal, industry-approved methods.” It’s also stated that 0.1 percent of the 100,000 chicks hatched every day get caught in the machinery. That's 1,100 chicks, just at this one hatchery, being thrown out likecentury, led to vitamin supplements, which allowed chickens to be raised indoors. The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines facilitated raising livestock in larger numbers by reducing disease. Development of hormones allowed for chickens to be produced with bigger breasts to meet the growing demand. Chemicals developed for use in World War II gave rise to synthetic pesticides and all of the above stated advancements and arguments of contention are controversial in themselves, and rightly so.

The videos that caused me to become cognizant of the hatchery horrors, is of Hy-Line hatchery HERE and Cal-Cruz hatchery HERE. It’s disconcerting, disheartening and daunting the imagery that has been compiled and released, having been amassed by undercover documentarians on how major corporations and companies handle the production of animals in the food industry. Evidence of workers who sex chicks-weeding out the males and females-take the chicks, slam them onto the ground, while some are allowed to get stuck in the machinery and others are hosed out and just left for dead on the ground. A definite biological waste and disposal concern in conjunction with the moral aspects of abuse. The machinery the chicks are getting stuck in is a gigantic meat grinder and a machine that identifies the gender of the birds with the use of lasers. The workers phlegmatically carry the newly hatched chicks in baskets to a conveyor belt and dump the chicks for a leisurely ride to get ground up for meat. 150,000 male chicks per day are sorted out by operators known as "sexers" and ground alive because they cannot produce eggs and will not grow fast enough for meat. I was foolishly oblivious of what was done with the male chicks; naïve to believe that they were given to farms or sold at auctions. According to Change.org, “When they turned over the video footage to Santa Cruz County Animal Services Authority and the District Attorney's Office, the follow-up investigation corroborated their evidence and led to the confiscation of 88 ducklings, over half of which had to be euthanized. A year later, the District Attorney's Office said they were not going to prosecute. California is one of the few states where the law doesn't distinguish between pets and food animals. Although the District Attorney's office says the evidence isn't sufficient, it's hard to believe that they wouldn't be pursuing this case if it had happened to puppies or kittens.” The company, Cal Cruz, has been in the industry for 50 years; the owner an upstanding enough citizen, goes on to make some suggestions. “Unless that involves dismantling the machinery or closing the business, it  trash every single day, many of them mutilated and suffering. Brian Collins said (the president of Cal-Cruz),

"If there is some industry standard I'm missing, educate me, or design something better." …That we can, if this is the industry standard. There are other alternatives to what could be done with these newborn animals, regardless if it’s more cost effective to turn them into feed. Hy-Line alleges that its hatchery procedures are supported and approved by the animal veterinary and scientific community, adding “Instantaneous euthanasia by maceration is specifically supported by the American Veterinary Medical Association, Federation of Animal Science Societies, Agriculture Canada, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and European Union (EU)”. Not hitting the mark enough, for those who want to enjoy their omelets in good conscience.

 It’s unacceptable and quite traumatizing to watch images of pigs being molested and abused, watch the video of Smithfield Food Products Farm’s HERE and an Iowa pig farm HERE. Both companies were appropriately persecuted. Staying on top of the issue, becoming aware, and not being reduced to complacency is part of the solution. There are right and wrong ways of doing things. It does not make you a hypocrite to support animal rights, be against abuse of animals and the ethical treatment of, and yet still consume meat. It’s understood by most, the capabilities and ranges of emotions and physical sensations and mental abilities animals feel and posses. More than 16 billion animals that are killed for food every year in the U.S. have little legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on companion dogs or cats. They are neglected, mutilated, genetically manipulated, put on drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transported through all weather extremes, and killed in gruesome and violent ways.  Even so-called "free-range" animals are often mutilated without the benefit of painkillers; kept in filthy, disease-ridden sheds; forced to endure long trips to the slaughterhouse without food or water; and killed in the same ways as animals from factory farms” Says PETA. Milk production is being increased from the utilization of bovine growth hormone, first harnessed by Monsanto, and the result of this on the cows is contemptible, highly abusive and not as widely recognized. Clearly it is a whole other argument on the dangers this has to humans. Though this IGF-1 occurs naturally in mothers' milk to be fed to their infants it produces adverse effects in non-infants, behaving as a cancer accelerator in adults and non-infants; this biologically active hormone is associated with breast cancer (correlation shown in premenopausal women), prostate cancer, lung cancer and colon cancers. The choice could be yours, whether or not to consume rBST enhanced milk. However, since we have no way of knowing which products we buy have used these companies’ methods, the decision on whether to consume the milk is arduous, because there are no regulations and no consumer labels put on the products. A fact worthy of note is the FDA, EPA, and USDA is overseen by former heads of Monsanto. Monsanto is a multinational agriculture biotechnology corporation. The cost already involved and what the cost would be projected to be, to provide more humane ways of managing and operating the food production industries and hatcheries, is extensive. Understandably, there is a careful balance of cost and profit. Such choices to be more humane tend to be pricier for consumers. One study suggested that humane improvements instituted by the United Egg Producers cooperative would raise the price of eggs by 8 to 10 cents per dozen -- and animal rights advocates criticize even those improvements as minimal. Prices for free-range chickens run more than 50 percent higher than standard brands.

 The conduct of the workers has to be more efficiently monitored, preferably by an outside party, and not tolerated to any degree, regardless of some arguments that the workers are underpaid. Human Rights Watch has said that slaughterhouse workers have "the most dangerous factory job in America." The industry has refused to do what's necessary to create safe working conditions for its employees, such as slowing down slaughter lines and supplying workers with appropriate safety gear, because these changes could cut into companies' bottom lines. Many workers endure crippling injuries and many have even lost their limbs—or their lives—from working with dangerous meat-processing machines. What it does for the environment is definitely reason enough to have more laws and regulation, in and of itself. Factory farms, and agriculture giants like Monsanto, pollute the air and water for miles in every direction, often spreading contamination and illness to the people who live and work nearby. Chronic sickness, brain damage, poisoned waterways, elevated cancer rates, and even death plague these communities, while the government does nothing to protect citizens or regulate the industry. It's up to Americans to help stop them.  Between 2000 and 2005, agribusinesses funneled more than $140 million to politicians, who helped to ensure that laws that might protect consumers, animals, and the environment did not pass. The federal government does little to protect human health, animal welfare, and our environment from the factory-farming industry's negligence and excess, However PETA has to, and rightly so, from their extremist position, that the only true answer is becoming vegan. Analogous of the way conservatives say abstinence is the solution; to underage pregnancy, disease, etc., and the morally righteous way. The answer is not extremist attitudes and ultimatums. I opt not to eat veal and fois gras, I’ve made the choice to never wear fur due to the fact, most of the fur industries have zero regulation, as seen in the videos of fur farms in China, HERE, where the animals are skinned alive, slammed in to the ground, bludgeoned in the head and thrown into a bin…some still breathing. When I see such things it feels as if pieces of my soul die. I am certainly aware of the films that exist of the abuse against cattle and other animals and you can check them out at the PETA websites or through searches.  A lot of the pharmaceutical companies are required by law to test on animals. Some testing is unreasonable and not necessary in my opinion. I cannot comprehend why Always and Carefree feminine products need to be tested on animals; or 3M and Hugo boss.




 I would be a supportive, active member of PETA to help facilitate an end to torture and abuse of animals, but PETA doesn’t support me. The animal rights group is certainly known for its shocking ads, aggressive tactics and bountiful photos of naked ladies touting vegetarianism, pet adoption and animal birth control. One of the latest posts on its blog still manages to push the envelope, with the aforementioned correlation between a meat eater and a terrorist. Blogger Logan Scherer writes a post about how Ghulam Rasool Khan, who was arrested in India with suspected links to al Qaeda and the Taliban, insists on eating large quantities of meat rather than the vegetarian food served in prison. Behold: a visit from Captain Obvious; As if the world needed another example of the proven link between violence against animals and violence against humans, Ghulam Rasool Khan--a suspected al-Qaida member jailed in India--refuses to eat the vegetarian food served to him, instead demanding "two kg of mutton and one kg of chicken daily." Khan has threatened to go on a hunger strike if he doesn't get his carcasses. But if PETA India's recent request that all jails serve only vegetarian meals is honored, then the bloodthirsty terrorist will be starving himself indefinitely. PETA also posted about how serial killers often torture animals before "graduating" to humans, suggesting that simply eating meat is the same sociopathic behavior as torturing small animals. Ironically, PETA itself was recently classified as a terrorist threat by the USDAR. There was another case in the news of vegan parents allowing their 11 month old child to die of malnutrition. HERE are five known cases of instances of vegan related child deaths. In essence and irony, in the name of not killing any animals, they killed their children. PETA actually suggests higher insurance rates for meat eaters, as if there aren’t enough attacks and singling out of people’s behaviors and on people’s lifestyles. The search for such "humanely raised" food is opening up new ground in what was previously a no-man's land between carnivores and vegetarians. An increasing number of consumers are acting as "ethical omnivores," saying that they'll only eat meat and dairy products that have been raised in a cruelty-free way. Industrial farms have been stung by high-profile campaigns and such books like "Dominion" where a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush details the economics of factory farming – having personally investigated several major animal industries, including those of hunting and whaling.  He traces the history of the animal rights movement and its philosophical underpinnings and argues for a balance between the cruel and cavalier treatment of animals and the more radical notions of the animal rights movement. This abuse cannot continue in the farms, slaughterhouses, industries and the horrors at the hatcheries. 

Some possible solutions I’ve seen offered up to assist those omnivores in this plight is the (triple R) RRR acronym-Refinement: minimize suffering and distress, Reduction: minimize number of animals used and Replacement: avoid the use of living animals. There are countless other materials and methods to use. Synthetic skin called Corrositex, Computer modeling, Improved Statistical Design and The Murine Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA); all are available and contribute to decrease the dependence on animal testing. Better standards and regulations are essential and perpetrators not in compliance of the decrees, persecuted. The answer is in awareness and support of bills that protect and regulate and sentence the criminality. It’s understandable that it is a difficult issue to talk and think about, however I hope more people become aware of what goes on so we can offer alternatives, law creation and stricter regulations. I am a firm believer in allowing people to live any lifestyle they choose. That’s the beauty of America…there are all the colors of our, hopefully more aware and compassionate, rainbow.