Animal Person

AUGUST 5, 2009

Twice in the past 24 hours (once here and once on Stephanie's blog, in the comments )I have come across the following statement: "[insert animal here] are safe from predators, get fed regularly, and are better off on farms than if they were in 'the wild.'" The choice isn't the wild or the farm. They are created to be slaughtered.

Gazelles 100

Gazelles Slaughter Slaughtered Deer 100

Animal Person

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

The voices of Jim Vandersluis and Cheri Ezell-Vandersluis of Maple Farm Sanctuary were especially poignant, and the anguish in their faces--in their eyes--jumps off the screen as they explain how and when it hit them that the business of raising goats for milk requires surrendering the babies to be slaughtered. For all of us.

Farm Sanctuary 100

Farm Sanctuary Slaughter Slaughtered Speciesism 100

Animal Person

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Today's New York Times gives us Adam Shriver's Op-Ed " Not Grass-Fed, But at Least Pain-Free ," which presents its dilemma at the end: If we cannot avoid factory farms altogether, the least we can do is eliminate the unpleasantness of pain in the animals that must live and die on them. Like when they're about to be, say, slaughtered?

Factory Farm 100

Factory Farm Factory Farming Animal Factory 100

Animal Person

AUGUST 10, 2010

The idea of family is currently being used by the dairy industry in a series of commercials with the tag line: "99% of dairy farms are family owned." Ninety-nine percent of dairy farms are family owned. And they certainly wouldn't hurt anybody; that's what those big factory farms do that aren't owned by families.

Family 100

Family Factory Farm Factory Farming Cows 100

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 3, 2009

Meat, however, purchased at the supermarket, externally packaged and internally laced with petrochemicals, fattened in feed lots, slaughtered impersonally, and, in general, mechanically processed from artificial insemination to microwave roaster, is an affront not only to physical metabolism and bodily health but to conscience as well.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Factory Farming 40

Animal Person

OCTOBER 26, 2009

The good news is that if you know someone who needs to be schooled on all of the sordid details of factory farming, and appreciates good writing, this is a great book. And what follows, as you might imagine, is his support of "ethical meat" (for those who insist on eating animals). Ever, in fact. This is very silly.

Factory Farm 100

Factory Farm Factory Farming Animal Vegan 100

Animal Person

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

The discussion about the environment usually originates in the massive problems created by the factory farming of sentient nonhumans. The arguments against factory farming, which most recently were articulated by Jonathan Safran Foer (who has caused quite a stir in the mainstream), are legion. Veganism, to me, is about justice.

Vegan 100

Vegan Factory Farm Factory Farming Slaughter 100