Animal Writings

There's something weird about the notion that our health is dependent upon the milk of another species.

The horribly misnamed Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is a food and tobacco lobbying group that engages in lies to protect its industries' profits and privileged position.

Here are a few:

CCF claims that it provides a balance to anti-meat groups.

CCF claims that it educates.

CCF claims that we've been fed a steady diet of obesity myths.

CCF claims that lawyers are "cashing in" on obesity.

CCF claims that the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), in their meta-analysis that shatters the "milk builds strong bones" propaganda, ignored hundreds of studies about milk and bone health.

CCF implies that it's virtually impossible for people who don't consume dairy to get enough calcium because it takes eight cups of spinach to provide the calcium in one glass of milk.

CCF says this about itself: "When you give people a little heartburn, they don't like what you're doing."

More about CCF and other pro-animal cruelty groups in future posts.

The following is a response to a travel article in the Washington Post, in which author Jane Black relates the fun she had on a California cheese tour. (full article)

Dear Ms. Black,

Maybe you've been watching too many "Happy Cow" ads. Here are some pictures of how most California dairy cows live. They're in cramped, dusty stalls. Not out in the pasture, getting sprinkler baths. In fact, they may have never even seen grass, much less grazed in it. They're hooked up to milking machines three times a day. Their male calves, when one or two days old and still not quite walking, are carted off to the horrid veal pen, where they sit in their own urine, grow weak from an iron- and fiber-deficient formula, and are slaughtered at 20 weeks old.

When the dairy cows' milk production drops off, at about 5 years old, they're transported to the slaughterhouse to be ground up into hamburger and school lunches. By this time, half of them are lame. After a long, possibly sweltering ride and being denied food and water for 24 hours, many fall down as they're unloaded from the truck. Farm workers commonly beat, kick, prod, or pull the injured cow into the slaughterhouse if she is unable to walk. Supposedly the cow is stunned before being killed, but there are a disconcerting number of reports from slaughterhouse workers and inspectors that up to one in ten cows are improperly stunned, probably a result of unreasonably high line speeds. For these cows, their hard life ends with blood dripping from their throats as they're hanging from shackles, fully conscious and aware.

Happy eating.


Photos: Farm Sanctuary

David Foster Wallace, best-selling and critically acclaimed author, on lobsters' ability to feel pain, from his article "Consider the Lobster" in the August 2004 edition of Gourmet magazine:


It is relatively easy to identify with cows, pigs, and chickens, warm-blooded land-dwellers like us who vocalize, eat out of our hand, and enjoy being petted by humans. It is just as important — perhaps more important — that we empathize with exotic creatures who may look and act much differently than us, but who clearly share with us the capacity for, fear of, and strong desire to avoid suffering.

The lobsters you see in the tank at the store or the restaurant are being starved.

McDonald's wants to pay music artists to rap about Big Macs and fries. The reported rate is one to five dollars for each corporate-approved mention of the company's products on the radio.

In other news, more than 60 percent of Americans are overweight, childhood obesity rates have doubled in the last 30 years, and one in nine African-American women will get diabetes during her lifetime.

I'm loathing it.

Slowly but surely, institutional animal abusers, often funded or subsidized by the government, are hiding behind the iron curtain of "Homeland Security" to perpetrate their dirty deeds and persecute anyone who gets in the way. In other words, we pay the government and its corporate cronies money so they can go after us for protesting, or even exposing their cruelty.

Here's one example from PETA, about abuse of animals and freedom at the University of Nevada at Reno, Nevada's land-grant university:


I want to comment on two of the many troubling aspects of this article.

Dr. Hussein identified inexcusable and undeniable animal welfare violations by the school, and rather than showing gratitude, the school is seeking revenge. Defenders of animal exploitation like to complain about violent tactics of animal rights activists, but it is far more common for the exploiters to use heavy-handed and terrorist-like tactics against the activists who expose their abuse. Rain forest advocates are killed in South America. Critics of ranching receive death threats and their children are beaten up at school. Peaceful protesters are physically intimidated to the point of requiring police help (been there; seen that). Hunters trespass in yards — even at night — that have "No Hunting" signs posted, and become indignant if asked to leave. And just try to intervene when a sealer is battering a helpless seal with a sharp metal hook. One pro-vivisection group, the Foundation for Biomedical Research, tried to lure an animal rights activist into bombing their building — putting their own employees at risk — just so they could reap the PR benefit.

Cruelty to animals is practice for cruelty in general. Criminologists and psychologists use a person's treatment of animals as a predictor for how he will treat people. If someone can cut open the skull of a fully conscious rat because they don't want to bothered with anesthesia, it should be no surprise that they're capable of being callously mean to humans. If someone can totally wreck the life of a monkey by putting him in isolation and restraining almost all movement, they have become inured to causing misery.

You can bet that the vested interests in vivisection or any other type of legalized animal cruelty will do everything they can to focus on the demonstrators, not the evil they're committing. And they will employ every harassment and underhanded tactic they can get away with. They will deceive the public about everything. If they contract out grisly, lethal lab experiments on animals they'll say that they do not conduct any animal experiments. If they beat and kick and whip and shock animals, they'll deny it; in fact they'll say they love their animals. They'll defend the most outrageous, sadistic, unscientific experiments as being useful to understanding humans. If that doesn't work they'll claim to be helping animals. They'll claim that they treat mice, rats, and birds well and fight tooth and nail against any laws that require them to report on how they treat mice, rats, and birds. They'll say all these lies and practice all this deception because they do it already. I've merely skimmed the surface.

The most frightening aspect of the story? The FBI investigated Dr. Hussein, set up cameras, and questioned him under the guise of Homeland Security. What is this country coming to? Dr. Hussein alerted authorities of animal cruelty that has gone on for years, he identified law-breakers, and he is the one treated as the troublemaker? The FBI harrasses the person who has committed no violence, but ignores the persons who have committed unmitigated violence against hundreds of animals. I am supportive of Homeland Security up to a point, but it's getting out of hand; it's turning into an excuse to silence anyone who upsets the status quo, no matter how corrupt that may be. Government of the powerful, by the powerful, and for the powerful. The poor are ignored — they're just props for political speeches. The animals are slaves. The almighty dollar is God. The real God, who said "blessed are the merciful" and "a righteous man has regard for the life of his beast," is too politically correct and destabilizing — possibly a threat to Homeland Security.

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Additional resources:

Animal Rights Groups and Ecology Militants Make Department of Homeland Security Terrorist List, Right-Wing Vigilantes Omitted

Here is the IDA news release that describes how murder and veterinary malpractice is legal in the animal research world. Correction: this is just one of myriad ways that corporate animal abusers evade justice.

Here are some excerpts:


Charles River did not deny the allegations and the judge never denied the merits of the case. Charles River got off for two reasons: exploiting a technicality and a gullible, or very charitable, judge.

Charles River claimed that they took good care of these animals. Like the slaveowner claimed he took good care of the slaves. Like Ringling says they take good care of their elephants. Detailed, undisputed documentation and eyewitness accounts prove that Charles River deliberately ran these animals into the ground. Just like videos show Ringling trainers hitting elephants repeatedly until they scream. Just as with rodeos, puppy mills, chicken plants — all institutions that kill or harm animals for profit — the evidence of abuse couldn't be more obvious. It was obvious years ago, and it continues because the abusers get away with anything — murder, torture, malpractice, habitual animal welfare violations, safety violations, you name it. The law is written to protect professional animal abusers and to indict those who complain too loudly about the abuse.

In addition to the deaths of Ashley and Rex, and the near-death of Topsy, under Charles River's watch, three chimpanzees were electrocuted (not part of a science experiment, although what's the difference...), and 14 were imprisoned for years in isolation chambers, resulting in so much physical injuries and emotional trauma that some had to be killed. The NIH has withheld records pertaining to these incidents; IDA has responded by suing under the Freedom of Information Act.

How long can this go on? The claims of companies like Charles River of their devotion to animal welfare would be a joke if the stakes weren't so high. Like a serial child molester claiming to be a big believer in child welfare. It will go on as long as you let it. It will skid to a halt if you take action. Yes, it takes some time. Progress comes in painful tiny steps. But eventually you reach your destination. One email can help change the world. Click here and follow the links. It will only take a minute. Your email can be one sentence long. You won't even be late for work. I especially like IDA's recommendation to thank New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid for her role in passing an amendment that at least made it possible to press charges against Charles River. No state should allow blanket exclusions from animal cruelty laws. In the world of animal rights, we tend to write a lot of complaints. It's nice to write a note of thanks.

The verdict makes a mockery of justice. It's as if you can utter this magic phrase, "practicing veterinary medicine," and you're absolved of all wrongdoing, all cruelties. No matter that the facts of the case are undeniable, that three chimps were callously left to suffer and die with woefully inadequate attention. No matter that it was obvious that no one in the company cared two cents about the lives or well-being of the chimps. No matter that in the animals' final hours of agony they were ignored. No matter that the chimps died from blatant — I would say hideous — negligence. No, just use this handy, catch-all, get out of jail free phrase: "practicing veterinary medicine," and you can do anything you please. The welfare of the monkeys in these God-awful, unnecessary research labs suffers along with science itself. But the company's bottom line survives.

IDA has requested an appeal.

As a result of Charles River Laboratories' gross negligence and willful misconduct in caring for the chimpanzees at Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF), on September 7, 2004 New Mexico District Attorney Scot Key filed criminal animal cruelty charges against the company.

The criminal complaint cites Charles River with abandoning three chimpanzees (Rex and Ashley, who died, and Topsy, who nearly died) despite their obviously grave conditions, and leaving them "without qualified care and in the in 'care' of untrained night security guards."

Here is the In Defense of Animals (IDA) news release that explains the charges.

Note that it is common for animal labs to be exempt from animal cruelty laws. I find that particularly offensive: institutions with a long history of flagrant animal cruelty are exempt from laws that protect animals from cruelty. As the IDA article states, the New Mexico legislature passed an amendment that removed that exemption. For that alone, I want to vacation in New Mexico and buy New Mexico products.

Commentary: I want to point out, in this series of posts and in many future posts, that it is not a narrow band of animal rights activists who are shocked at the extent or severity of corporate animal abuse, but almost everyone who learns about it. When I show videos of, or sometimes even just describe, what goes on inside the nation's animal labs, factory farms, circuses, and other venues that exploit animals, I nearly always get the same reaction: shock and disgust. All we have to do is get the word out. We don't have to embellish what happens or make up stories. The truth is convincing enough. There will be some who resist; people who for one reason or another will not admit that these abuses take place, or that evidence was doctored, or that the cruelty is defensible or unavoidable. But they are the minority. Besides, it is a natural reaction to want to think that "it's not really that bad," especially when you may be contributing to the cruelties indirectly. But you can only deny the facts, and the eyes of the victims, for so long. Eventually you have to admit the ugly reality. Then the pressure's on you to stop playing a role in perpetuating it.


To be continued...

Let's start with the search warrant. The allegations — backed up by solid evidence — are brutal. Which, unfortunately, is not surprising. Charles River Laboratories, a company that makes its money from people torturing and killing lab animals, is put in charge of the chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility. The foxes guarding the hen house? Worse. No fox is this cruel.

While reading through the sordid list of cruelties, remember that the person who wrote them is no animal rights activist; he's an officer of the law, acting on behalf of the District Attorney.

Here are some excerpts:


In Defense of Animals provides more information on the victims:


Charles River denied the allegations in a written statement.

"Charles River was selected by NIH based on its long record of leadership in the humane care and treatment of laboratory animals," the statement said. The company said it has four "world-class" veterinarians and a behavioral scientist on staff. The company also blamed the chimpanzee deaths on pre-existing conditions, and said that "veterinarians provided the immediate and appropriate medical attention necessary to the animals."

James C. Mahoney, DVM, PhD, a veterinarian with 35 years of experience in providing clinical veterinary care to primates, strongly disagrees. Here is part of his sworn testimony, in which he lays out Charles River's malfeasance in great detail:


Charles River Laboratories is the world's largest supplier of laboratory animals. It was named the Massachusetts "Company of the Year" in 2002 by the Boston Globe. It touts its "Humane Care Initiative," in which it claims that it is a "moral imperative" that animals under its care be "treated with respect and compassion". Perhaps members of the Charles River APF staff were admiring their awards and animal welfare pledges at home as Rex and Ashley died, possibly with great agony and suffering, in their cages.



  To be continued...

In Defense of Animals (IDA) is one of the leading animal rights groups in the country, if not the world. For over 20 years, IDA has been tireless in its efforts to spare animals from suffering needlessly in factory farms, research labs, circuses, puppy mills, and other institutions that thrive on animal cruelty.

IDA doesn't just educate the public about our gross mistreatment of animals; they roll up their sleeves. They rescued hundreds of companion animals after a devastating fire swept through the Oakland/Berkeley hills. They conducted undercover investigations of a horrible puppy-breeding facility and moved thousands of starving and abused animals to safer havens. Working with other animal groups, they helped convince Boeing to relocate rather than exterminate 200 feral cats.

IDA is led by veterinarian Elliot Katz. I wish all veterinarians were like him. On the IDA web site, Dr. Katz asks readers:


Some of IDA's most important work and greatest success is in documenting animal lab cruelty. In one facility after another, IDA has uncovered gross incompetence, neglect, and willful misconduct — all resulting in pain and suffering of the animals. Often the researchers and corporate executives at the labs practically revel in their disdain for animal welfare. They consider it a bother; an intrusion. This callous attitude toward animals is not limited to a few "bad apples;" it's built into the culture. Empathy is discouraged. Sympathy for the animals invites scorn; if you feel bad for the animal lying in a heap on the cage floor, bleeding, you're a sentimentalist who doesn't appreciate the wondrous science being conducted. The labs cultivate group-think: "the animals' welfare is insignificant compared to our great work." Co-workers reinforce each other's denial. Naysayers and "softies" are weeded out. The animals are left in the care of those who don't care.

Next: IDA reports how the biggest company in the animal research business gets away with murder.

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The tapes were made in 1984. They show researchers smashing the heads of conscious, unanesthetized baboons, while making crude jokes and mocking the animals, who were clearly suffering. The brain-damaged baboons could not move normally; the researchers found this funny and could not control their laughter. In the final scene, a jeering voice pretending to speak on behalf of an injured baboon looking up at his human handler, says, "you are going to rescue me from this, aren't you? Aren't you?"

The tapes were not made by animal rights activists. They were made by scientists working at the University of Pennsylvania Head Injury Clinic. They ran for seventy hours. The tapes were stolen from the lab by the Animal Liberation Front. Which is how we know about them today.

In addition to revealing the researchers' total lack of empathy toward animals that had just been through severe trauma and were in great pain, the tapes showed the researchers' careless, rough treatment of the animals. They used screwdrivers and hammers to knock off the recently-injured animals' helmets, in one case tearing off part of the animals' ear.

The tapes contained abundant evidence of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations. They were distributed to authorities; some parts were played on national television.

Scientists and NIH officials rallied to the researchers' defense. None expressed remorse at the undeniable cruelty inflicted on the animals. The University of Pennsylvania researchers acted in the most vile ways, laughing and sneering as they tormented their defenseless victims. This is the type of behavior that lands someone in jail or a mental institution — unless you work for an animal lab. Then it's "science."

Fellow vivisectionists said not one word about the mean-heartedness of the University of Pennsylvania scientists. They focused entirely on the method by which the animal rights activists obtained the footage, not on the deplorable acts themselves. They did not admit to any errors in judgment or sloppiness in the science. In some cases, they offered outrageous lies. The University said, "We treat the baboons like human beings" and "We have nothing to apologize for." How can we trust any claim by these labs when they offer up such blatantly dishonest nonsense? How stupid do they think (or hope) we are?

The NIH praised the work of the lab and renewed their contract for five years. In response, PETA organized a non-violent protest at NIH. After four days, Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler announced that the agency was suspending the grant "until all questions about the use of primates in these head injury experiments could be resolved." Soon after, the University of Pennsylvania announced that it was suspending all primate research.

In the wake of the Head Injury Center tragedy, modest improvements were made to the Animal Welfare Act. The animal experimentation industry, most notably the newly-formed lobbying group Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR), actively opposed the amendments, which provided minimal quality of life allowances for the animals used (and used up) in vivisection labs. The animals — to this day — that are covered by the AWA can be subjected to any imaginable physical or emotional pain, but by law they have to have some meager exercise and enrichment, as relief for their otherwise bleak laboratory lives. And even that requirement can be overridden quite easily. The researcher merely has to claim that it would interfere with the experiment.

Of course, the vast majority of animals used in research have no protections whatsoever, thanks in large part to the efforts of the FBR, which claims — in all seriousness — that it supports animal welfare, yet has vigorously fought all legislation designed to bring a tiny amount of animal welfare into the labs. In 2002, through some shady eleventh-hour lobbying, they helped undo an AWA amendment, passed by both houses of Congress, that would have extended the albeit weak protections of the AWA to rats, mice, and birds. Hence, over 90 percent of all lab research animals have zero legal protections in labs; their fate is entirely in the hands of vivisection industry. The same folks that rallied around sadistic maniacs at the University of Pennsylvania Head Injury Clinic. The same folks that admitted on tape last year that they skip the anesthetizing step when cutting into the skulls of rats because it's too inconvenient.

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Additional resources:

This two-part article, written in 1992 by the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society, discusses cruel animal-based head injury tests by General Motors. Note the comparisons between GM's safety record and the safety records of car manufacturers that rely strictly on dummies. Also note what neurologists had to say about GM's tests.

How General Motors Crash Tests Their Cars

What the experts say about GM animal bashing experiments

Animal research lobbies insist that animal experiments are crucial to medical progress. Here are some examples, compiled by Dr. Vernon Coleman, of the experiments we're forced to fund through our taxes:

There are thousands more animal experiments like this.

How do scientists defend inflicting these horrors on animals? They can't say, "If we study the behavior of tortured monkeys, we might come up with some idea about mistreated children that we wouldn't think of if we studied mistreated children. Besides, it's easier to get NIH grants and publish lots of papers this way." That would be too honest and revealing. The labs would shut down in a week due to public opposition. Instead they have to scare people into continuing the experiments. They bluff the public by insisting that our health — no, our children's health — depends on animal research. They never mention these despicable behavioral and pain experiments, and they certainly never show any pictures of tortured monkeys in restraining devices and with bolts stuck in their eye sockets. Instead they strike fear into a gullible public. What do we fear the most? Cancer gripping our body, a massive stroke, birth defects. That's our weak spot. The animal research lobby plays it to the hilt. They claim that without animal experiments, we risk not finding cures to these dreaded conditions.

The opposite is true. Cancer experiments on mice can't even reliably predict outcomes in rats. Animal data on drug side effects is notoriously unpredictive. There is no good animal model for predicting human birth defects. In vitro tests are more reliable than the archaic LD-50 and Draize animal tests. Stroke research on animals does not accurately model human stroke and finds worthless "cures" year after year. Addiction studies on animals are a fraud: none of the animals are naturally addicted or even attracted to the drugs that we crave. AIDS experiments on chimpanzees have been a complete failure and waste of money; they have set back progress in finding a cure. Psychological experiments on animals take money that could go to counseling services and clinical programs and use it to run animal torture chambers.

In the animal lab, we lose our souls but do not find cures.

Here are some examples of animal experiments that your taxes have financed, as reported by Gary L. Francione in Introduction to Animal Rights. According to animal experimentation lobbying groups, such as the Foundation for Biomedical Research, these experiments are necessary and constitute vital scientific research.

Deranged scientists are running the show. We should be hospitalizing them, interviewing them to gain insight into humans' capacity for meanness. Perhaps treating them for their addiction to cruelty. Not paying them to conduct state-sponsored torture.

Inflicting one cruelty after another on defenseless trapped animals and seeing how they react is sadism, not science. It's the adult version of pulling the wings off a dragonfly, or the legs off a beetle, just to see the how the helpless victim tries to cope.

Don't be fooled by industry propaganda. These experiments are excessively cruel and crude psuedoscience. They are superfluous to understanding actual human problems and are overwhelmingly ignored by health professionals. They perpetuate for the same reason that all institutionalized animal abuse perpetuates: money. The best way to stop this madness is to not give one dime to charities or universities that fund or perform animal experiments.

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Additional Resources:

Charities that help people instead of torture animals

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I will discuss alternatives to animal experiments at length in future posts. But note that many animal experiments are so lacking in scientific value that they don't merit a replacement.

In an experiment, monkeys had to shock the monkey in the next cage in order to receive food. The monkeys showed great restraint and empathy, depriving themselves of food to avoid hurting another monkey. One monkey starved himself for over a week. In a subsequent experiment, rats performed exactly the same.

The obvious question: where's our empathy?

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Additional Resources:

What the Animal Lab Can't Cure

"All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?"

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"When a man has pity on all living creatures, then only is he noble."

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"To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana."

In this resolution, the Bodhisattva foreshadows Jesus' willingness to assume the burden of all the suffering in the world. I would hope that our reaction to such demonstrations of selfless love is not so much "Thank you for making my life easier," but "Thank you for showing me the way." We may not be able to achieve the boundless dedication of the Bodhisattva or Jesus, but we can do our part. Each day, we are faced with choices that affect other living beings. We can make those choices in a spirit of sympathy or in the isolation of selfishness. The former leads to peace and reconciliation; the latter leads to mutual unhappiness and resentment. Perhaps the Bodhisattva's acceptance that he must assist all of Creation in deliverance from its sorrow is an inspirational reminder that each of us has a role and a responsibility in shaping the future.

A man told his biographer about a dream he had in 1969:


The dream ends with the cats finding sanctuary in the home of a woman who had almost nothing, except for one very valuable possession, her heart. The Reverend J. R. Hyland says that the dream is a witnessing of "the Gospel message in which Jesus also gave witness to the need for the solicitous care of all beings: 'I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.'" (Matthew 25:45 TEV)

The man who had the dream was a Cardinal visiting Canada, bound for New York the next day. His name was Karol Wojtyla. Later he became Pope John Paul II.

And now you know...the rest of the story.

(With apologies to Paul Harvey, who has also said some wonderful things about animals.)

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Look at this photo. The pig is not just confined in an area so small she can't turn around. She is strapped to the floor. She cannot interact with her young no matter how desperately she wants to. She is reduced to a milk machine in a metal crate. Every shred of dignity is removed. We are monsters for doing this to her.

We have surpassed Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Mengele in our capacity to mass-produce suffering. In the Chew On This video, there is a scene in which pig farm employees — victims in their own right — laugh after slamming a brick onto the head of an injured pig, a pig whose life up to that point has been one of miserable confinement and denial. My hair stands up on end and my heart breaks — for the pig and for us, for we have failed as a species — whenever I see that scene. It's a moment of vivid evil. It represents how far we've fallen from grace.

Our crimes against nature ruin species after species. We produce genetically altered chickens that are so grossly misshapen and deformed they are freaks of nature — albeit ones that are resilient and that under the most horrid conditions display acts of tenderness that take your breath away. We destroy everything about these birds except their inner beauty.

The never-ending, massively widespread suffering of the animals — all due to us —is almost too much to comprehend. What, in my own life, can I compare it to? I have never been that badly treated. I have never been left in a parking lot, starving and dehydrated, with broken bones, to die. I have never been kidnapped, mercilessly beaten, chained to a post, and forced to do handstands on command. I have never been locked in a small wire cage and fed nothing but tasteless gruel. Almost no one living today has been killed the way we kill nearly a million chickens each hour. Grabbed, hung upside down by our feet, dunked into electrically charged water that paralyzes our muscles, and knifed across the throat — if everything goes according to plan. Perhaps if we could bring survivors of slave ship voyages back to life they could tell us what it's like. And yet I fear we've even gone beyond that. The putrid process starts in university laboratories, where scientists forever concoct new varieties of animals that are fatter and more sedentary than ever. The manufactured animals — some of which have patents pending for their DNA — are born into a sterile misery that descends step by step until it reaches the pure terror of the slaughterhouse.

We have vast industries that are nothing more than nonstop horror movies. They're driven by an intense obsession with profit and apathy for everything else. They treat the animals like things, and the workers as expendable cogs. They receive huge government subsidies and in large part are outside the law. They spend millions on deceptive advertising. Any animals in the ads bear no resemblance to the living dead that fill huge football field-size sheds, that go crazy in cages that don't provide enough room to take two steps or lift one wing. These industries have the gall to claim that the animals — the prisoners stuck in their concentration camps — are well-treated. And most of the public believes them.

If you eat meat, please watch this movie. Turn up the sound. I want you to hear the screams of the pigs as they suffer unbearable, unrelenting pain. I want their wild thrashing and death moans to haunt you. Look into the eyes of these animals — it's because of your decision to eat meat that they're being tortured. You're financing that torturing and the only way to stop it is to stop buying the product.

Not convinced? Here, watch this. Don't turn the volume down. This sow's screams get louder and louder as workers continue to beat her. She's lame and can't walk. To get her to move, they strike her repeatedly in the face and legs. She's obviously in terrible pain, but they don't let up. This is all legal. Farms are exempted from nearly all animal cruelty laws.

Chickens have it no better. This video shows the abuse at a major supplier to KFC. The workers slam chickens against the wall and stomp on them, crushing them with their boots. This is all done to live animals. There is no hint of regret on the workers' faces. The reasons for this mindless violence against defenseless creatures are complex, but the important point is that what you're watching is common, not exceptional, in the chicken industry. KFC, Popeye's, Chick-Fil-A, chicken breasts from Tyson or Perdue in the grocery store — it's all about the same. The supplier in the video won an award from KFC.

There are hours upon hours of videos showing the horrors of animal farms and slaughterhouses. Imagine the tiny portion you watched going on 24 hours a day. Ask yourself: how in God's name can you knowingly do this to any creature — or pay others to do it for you —and live with yourself? What ethical system supports such unrestrained and vicious abuse? Not Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. Each of those religions preaches the same basic lessons: Be humble, be merciful, be loving, be kind, be selfess; be honest to yourself, to others, and to God; do NOT be greedy; do NOT be gluttonous; do NOT become swelled with pride, do NOT be insensitive to others' misfortune. Thou shalt NOT kill. When you buy almost any animal-derived product in a restaurant or store, you contribute to severe animal suffering and violate the basic tenets of all the world's major religions.

If you live in an industrialized country, meat is discretionary. It is no longer a necessary part of your diet. It's a habit you could break by next week. What is holding you back? I can imagine many answers. But the real answer is fear. Will I get enough protein? Yes. What will my friends think? Who cares — get them on board. What will I eat? It's easier than you think, and a hundred sites on the Internet and a million vegetarians will help you. As demand for alternatives to meat rises, watch for a deluge of new products that slowly but surely push meat off the shelves. With your help — WITH YOUR HELP — the grocery store meat department in 20 years will feature a wide spectrum of delicious and healthful plant-based "meats," and off to the side will be the archaic animal-based meats. WITH YOUR HELP, the animals that now suffer in squalor may soon be set free. You have enormous power. Exercise it benevolently — and soon. Ten billion farm animals are waiting on your next move. Change your diet and release these long-suffering creatures from Hell. Liberate them and liberate your own heart.

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To my Catholic friends:

I join you in mourning the loss of Pope John Paul II. People of all faiths and even of no faith recognized the Pope as a person of deep convictions and steadfast mercy. He tirelessly championed the rights of the poor, the powerless, and the oppressed. The world has lost a great man.

[Saint Francis]looked upon Creation with the eyes of one who could recognize in it the marvelous work of the hand of God. His solicitous care, not only towards men, but also towards animals, is a faithful echo of the love with which God in the beginning pronounced his "fiat" which brought them into existence. We too are called to a similar attitude.

—Pope John Paul II

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This post is about the shamelessly opportunistic remarks made by House Majority Leader Tom Delay and President George W. Bush to score cheap political points in the wake of the Terri Schiavo tragedy.

Representative Delay called the withholding of Terri Schiavo's feeding tubes after 15 years "barbaric." Whether right or wrong, allowing a person whose brain has all but stopped functioning to expire under the watchful care of family members and physicians is not barbaric. In fact, if Ms. Schiavo had any sensation, she may have been miserable these last 15 years, and letting her die to be with God may be considered an act of mercy. The vast majority of us would want the same thing done to us if we were in such a state, and probably long before 15 years had elapsed.

Here's what is barbaric. Immersing squealing pigs in scalding hot water. Suffocating newborn chicks in trash bags. Inflicting third-degree burns on cattle and giving them no pain relief. Withholding food and water from hens for several days to get more eggs from the ones that don't die. Creating genetically altered chickens that are so huge, they fall down and can't get up, thus starving to death within inches of food. Dragging one-day old calves from their mothers, putting them in tiny veal pens, and making them weak and anemic to the point that after 16 weeks they can barely walk.

Each of these barbaric acts, and many more, are standard industry practices on factory farms and slaughterhouses, and they are done to fully conscious animals that feel the entire brunt of physical and emotional pain inflicted upon them. Rep Delay, if you're opposed to barbarism, then vote for an amendment to the Humane Slaughter Act, so that birds will be rendered unconscious instead of merely paralyzed when their throats are slit. Animals feel pain much like we do. Our concern for life, justice, and dignity cannot conveniently be cast aside when the victim of our cruelty happens to be another species.

President Bush, you said this week that "the essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak." Yet you intentionally destroy the weak when you hunt, and even derive pleasure from it. You once remarked, on record, that we need more rabbit hunters. The most powerful person in the country called for people to kill one of the weakest and most gentle creatures on earth. Do you abide by "blessed are the merciful" or "might makes right?"

For your inauguration you commissioned a beaver fur hat. Beavers killed for their pelts are trapped under water and struggle to escape for up to 20 minutes before finally drowning. You put your trivial desire to wear a piece of the beaver's skin above the beaver's fundamental, innate desire to avoid suffering and death. You used your power to take cruel advantage of the weak. That's selfish and merciless, not civilized.

If I'm ever in Ms. Schiavo's predicament, please don't use precious resources to perpetuate my near-flatline condition. Use the money to pay for medical treatment for senior citizens who put off going to the doctor because their Medicare coverage was cut. Use the money to educate people about factory farms that barbarically raise and kill the animals that Mr. DeLay eats. Use the money to give protections to creatures that are weak and powerless against the barrel of the President's gun.