Free From Harm :: Make Your Food Choices Matter

The Buzz on Animal Rights Artist Sue Coe: A New Book and Video

There is a buzz building on Sue Coe’s new collection of work entitled Cruelty: Bearing Witness to Animal Exploitation. The official release of the book is April 15th. Pre orders are being taken on the OR Books website. Richly illustrated with full-color paintings and drawings throughout, Cruel conveys the terrible beauty, and intense suffering, of both the animals so sacrificed and the workers involved in their violent destruction. … READ ON

New Exposé Shows Why There Is More Suffering in a Pound of Cheese Than a Pound of Meat

Most people I talk to are shocked to learn that there is more suffering in a pound of cheese than a pound of meat. Why? The cruelty inherent in dairy production begins with the fact that dairy farms are simply calf breeding factories where female breeding cows are forcibly and artificially inseminated in what the industry refers to as a “rape rack.” Male calves, representing at least half of all offspring, are of no use to the dairy operation, and are either killed or raised for veal. Females are forced into a cycle of continual pregnancy, often machine milked even during their 9-month pregnancies, until they are considered “spent” and then hauled off on transport trucks to slaughterhouses, the same slaughterhouses where meat animals meet their violent end. … READ ON

Speciesism The Movie: You’ll Never Look at Animals the Same Way Again, Especially the Human Ones

Modern farms have been struggling to keep a secret. Most of the animals used for food in the United States are raised in giant, bizarre factories, hidden deep in remote areas of the countryside. Speciesism: The Movie set out to investigate. … READ ON

Dutch Study: Dairy Cows Have Individual Personalities

While human behavior studies are generally conducted with the intention of improving human health and well being, van Reenan’s study of dairy cow temperament sets out to understand the specific “temperament” traits of individual dairy cows who react dramatically different to the same stimuli and situations. The goal of the study is to determine how we can use selective breeding technology to produce cows in the future that will have there “right” personality traits for optimal dairy production on large scale farms. … READ ON

Waiting for the Birds to Strike: A Unique and Special Animal Rescue Video Short

The timing of my introduction to Jesse was particularly synchronous. The song Jesse sent me, Waiting for the Birds to Strike, arrived just after co-investigator Olivier Berreville and I returned from a Granny’s Poultry turkey barn, where, contrary to company management assurances, we documented the same cruel and abusive loading of baby turkeys that we had two years prior (turkeys reach slaughter-weight at just a few months of age, still blue-eyed and peeping). We trailed the terrified turkeys to Granny’s slaughterhouse in Blumenort, Manitoba feeling absolutely helpless to stop their killing. … READ ON

The Rise of Happy Meat and Compassionate Carnivores: A Talk By Vasile Stanescu

There is a new genre of texts which argue for “local” and “humane” farms in terms of helping both the environment and protecting the animals. Stanescu critically engages with these so-called “compassionate carnivores” and their new arguments for “humane” or “happy” meat and documents that the rise of small scale farms can never serve as a truly effective strategy to improve the lives of animals. Instead, He suggests those concerned with suffering of animals should join with animal rights activists to effect positive change. … READ ON

Shoot Undercover Video on a Farm in Utah, Go to Jail

Utah follows Iowa’s lead in criminalizing animal advocacy and animal watch dog groups by signing into law its state’s new ag-gag law. Similar big ag protection laws have been proposed in other states, like Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York and Tennessee. They have been defeated in Florida and Illinois. … READ ON

From Battery Cages to Colony Cages: Progress for Egg Laying Hens?

Almost all of the animal welfare organizations are praising the move from battery cages to colony cages for egg laying hens both here and in Europe. It’s a victory for hens, these organizations would have us believe. It’s a sign that the animal welfare movement is gaining more influence over the poultry industry and progress is being made on behalf of animals. … READ ON

Sign Petition to Prosecute Owner of A&L Poultry for Willful Neglect and Starvation of 50,000 Hens

In the face of mounting feed costs, Andy Keung Cheung, the owner of A&L Poultry (Stanislaus County, California), abandoned his farm’s 50,000 egg-laying hens in February 2012. … READ ON

The Incredible Edible Egg… Embryo Sack?

This is a photo of the kind of egg you don’t see at the supermarket or even hear about. Why? You’re not supposed to know about them. If you did, the industry knows how turned off you might become. Eggs like this are truly a “freak of nature,” that is, a product of man’s manipulation of nature. A far cry from the images and language of egg marketing huh? Farm fresh, pasture raised, cage free, free range, organic. … READ ON

Harvard Red Meat Study: Over 100,000 Subjects Studied Up to 28 Years

A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers has found that red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of total, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality. The results also showed that substituting other healthy protein sources, such as fish, poultry, nuts, and legumes, was associated with a lower risk of mortality. … READ ON

The Rhythm: a Documentary Short about the Alien, Mechanized World of the Modern Slaughterhouse

In photographer Jo-Ann McCarthur’s own words, The Rhythm “is a film about rabbits, but it is also not a film about rabbits; really, this is a film about the cold, mechanical rationale of the kill line. though it might be tempting to focus on the particular species of animal being killed, or to look for the face of the one doing the killing, try to keep in mind: it doesn’t matter whether the animals are cute or not, or who does the cutting.” … READ ON

Criminalizing Animal Activism and Branding It Terrorism

The Center for Constitutional Rights, representing five animal rights activists filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts challenging the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, saying if you cause an animal enterprise to lose profits you could be committing an act of terror, as unconstitutional and a violation of the first amendment. … READ ON

Author David Coles: Compassion Must Be the New Intelligence to Save Humanity from Itself

“Compassion will be the new intelligence that will guide humanity into an expansive state of existence beyond the illusion of choice that currently pervades human thought… It is no longer a theory or a prediction, it is possible now. The future has arrived,” writes David Coles, author of The Insanity of Humanity. … READ ON

Biggest Animal Rescue Effort in California History – A Must See Video!

Between February 23-24, 2012, Animal Place and Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary coordinated the largest farm animal rescue in California history. More than 4,400 hens were pulled from A&L Poultry in Turlock, California after the owner left the hens without food for more than two weeks. A total of 50,000 were housed here. The others were either dec or beyond rescuable. … READ ON

Moving from the Power of Denial to the Power of Witnessing

We live in a society in which our perceptions of food are shaped largely by fantasy, escapism, deception and immediate gratification. This allows us to see just the juicy steak on the menu and block our awareness of the reality of the animal who suffered for it. Our food choices have become so ingrained, so habitual, so far removed from the scrutiny of critical thinking. But bad habits were meant to be broken. … READ ON

Iowa’s New Ag Gag Law Makes It Criminal to Lie to Record Animal Abuse

Iowa’s new law makes lying on a job application to get access to a farm facility a serious misdemeanor, punishable with up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $1,500. A second conviction carries harsher penalties. It won overwhelming approval in the Iowa Legislature on Tuesday. This makes criminals out of undercover investigators who expose cruelty to animals, corporate corruption, dangerous working conditions, environmental violations, or food safety concerns on farms. … READ ON

When Food Choices Negate Free Choice

On many occasions I have read or listened to defensive reactions from people who claim that no one can force them to change what they eat, as if someone had their mouth pried open and was attempting to shove a russet potato down their throat. They defiantly proclaim their freedom to make the choices they want. But how free are they — really? … READ ON

Carnism: The Psychology of Eating Meat, A Special Video Presentation by Melanie Joy

Author and speaker Dr. Melanie Joy has made numerous live presentations across the country to a general audience on the psychology behind eating meat she calls carnism. For those who have not seen this powerful presentation about the invisible belief system behind our meat eating culture, now you can watch this live recording on your desktop anytime you’d like. … READ ON

Ruby Roth’s New Children’s Book ‘Vegan Is Love: Having Heart and Taking Action’

Author and illustrator Ruby Roth presents her new children’s book, Vegan Is Love, introducing young readers to veganism as a lifestyle of compassion and action. Roth illustrates how our daily choices ripple out locally and globally, conveying what children can do today to protect animals, the environment, and people across the world. … READ ON