The Issues:
1) Cruelty To Animals-
Chickens killed for their flesh in the United States are bred and drugged to grow so quickly that their hearts, lungs, and limbs often can’t keep up.
More Information On Chickens
Hens used for eggs live six or seven to a battery cage the size of a file drawer, thousands of which are stacked tier upon tier in huge, filthy warehouses.
More Information On Egg Laying Hens
Cattle are castrated, their horns are ripped out of their heads, and third-degree burns (branding) are inflicted on them, all without any pain relief.
More Information On Cows Raised For Their Flesh
Cows used for their milk are drugged and bred to produce unnatural amounts of milk; they have their babies stolen from them shortly after birth and sent to notoriously cruel veal farms so that humans can drink the calves’ milk.
More Information On Dairy Cows
Mother pigs on factory farms are confined to crates so small that they are unable to turn around or even lie down comfortably.
More Information On Pigs
Fish on aquafarms spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy enclosures, and many suffer from parasitic infections, diseases, and debilitating injuries. Conditions on some farms are so horrendous that 40 percent of the fish may die before farmers can kill and package them for food.
More Information On Fish
Turkeys’ beaks and toes are burned off with a hot blade. Many suffer heart failure or debilitating leg pain, often becoming crippled under the weight of their genetically manipulated and drugged bodies.
More Information On Turkeys
Take a stand against cruelty to animals by going vegetarian. Request A Vegetarian Starter Kit Today!
2) Heath Issues-
Leading health experts agree that going vegetarian is the single best that thing we can do for ourselves and our families. A meat-free diet rich in complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals provides optimal nutrition for both children and adults, forming the foundation for dietary habits that support a lifetime of good health. Leading medical organizations agree that balanced plant-based diets are healthy and provide protection against numerous diseases, including our country’s three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer and strokes. The American Dietetic Association states that vegetarians have “lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; … lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer” and that vegetarians also tend to be slimmer. Vegetarian foods provide us with all the nutrients that we need, minus the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in meat and dairy products.
A plant-based diet has long-term benefits, too. It protects us against some of the leading killers in America today. Research has shown that vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease, and they have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters. Plus, meat-eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than vegans are.
The consumption of meat and dairy products has been conclusively linked with heart disease, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, asthma, and impotence. Scientists have also found that vegetarians have stronger immune systems; this means that they are less susceptible to everyday illnesses like the flu. Vegetarians and vegans live, on average, six to 10 years longer than omnivores.
A plant-based diet is the best diet for kids, too: Studies have shown that vegetarian kids grow taller and have higher IQs than their classmates, and they are at a reduced risk for heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases in the long run. Studies have shown that even older people who switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet can prevent and even reverse many chronic ailments.
It's never too late to turn over a new leaf.
3) The Environment-
Animals raised for food expend the vast majority of the calories that they are fed simply existing, just as we do. We feed more than 70 percent of the grains and cereals we grow to farmed animals, and almost all of those calories go into simply keeping the animals alive, not making them grow. Only a small fraction of the calories consumed by farmed animals are actually converted into the meat that people eat.
Growing all the crops to feed farmed animals requires massive amounts of water and land—in fact, nearly half of the water and 80 percent of the agricultural land in the United States are used to raise animals for food. The taste for meat is also taking a toll on our supply of fuel and other nonrenewable resources—about one-third of the raw materials used in America each year is consumed by the farmed animal industry.
Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States, and since factory farms don't have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air. And meat-eaters are responsible for the production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per second!
Many leading environmental organizations, including the National Audubon Society, the WorldWatch Institute, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, have recognized that raising animals for food damages the environment more than just about anything else that we do. Whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water or air pollution, or soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking havoc on the Earth. The most important step you can take to save the planet is to go vegetarian.
Chew On This!
Meet Your Meat!
A Portion Of Meet Your Meat:
Watch them.
I have been feeling very animal rights-y today.
They need your help.
So please stop eating them.
Please!
Quote:
People who say that veganism is a matter of personal choice... need to visit a battery shed for themselves. When you walk inside, and you nearly collapse from the smell of collected waste and thousands of dead and dying birds, you'll find it a lot harder to make bullshit claims about why veganism is ok for you, but you don't want to push it on anybody else. The "to each his own" adage is irrelevant when it comes to systematic suffering; supporting an industry which tortures and kills 27 billion animals each year is morally reprehensible to say the least. There is no justification for anyone to eat flesh in our society, and it's speciesist to think that their suffering is a matter of opinion or taste preference. You would never dare to say "Well, I don't rape women, but if you want to ..." and in the same respect, compassionate people have a moral obligation to speak up about the suffering of animals whose lives are shittier than any other living being on the face of the planet.
Seriously. If you can walk through a shed filled with 10,000 birds who will never know anything but mesh wire and darkness, if you can hold one of them in your hands as their head slumps over from exhaustion ... if you can do all that and still think that anyone has some justification for eating chickens or their eggs, you need to seriously evaluate some things. To pay for the suffering of another living being is always wrong, period.
Seriously. If you can walk through a shed filled with 10,000 birds who will never know anything but mesh wire and darkness, if you can hold one of them in your hands as their head slumps over from exhaustion ... if you can do all that and still think that anyone has some justification for eating chickens or their eggs, you need to seriously evaluate some things. To pay for the suffering of another living being is always wrong, period.
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