tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-276602912024-03-07T10:21:03.741-08:00AnimalRighterAnimal Rights News, Commentary & Action AlertsMat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-82738275406443417732017-09-04T13:58:00.001-07:002017-09-04T14:34:42.054-07:00Check Out My New Blog - Really Fictional<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dear subscribers:</span><br />
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<a href="https://reallyfictional.com/" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="785" data-original-width="1046" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZuQ69s40EZytzUU2KsUZM9uj_SFj2faJo43WXk7EDPHF9686llbQBcIa4A5m9Tz8Tf2gmIJm62H3gDkSc_NWYLagNAtl9ND5f9SxrbO2FxxQCLEDLFykSgWnE7m1ER5eID4n/s320/Really+Fictional+header.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's been over five years since I posted to AnimalRighter. In the meantime, I've continued writing: just </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">not</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">much about animal rights. So, just in case you're interested, I'm writing to let you know that I recently started a new blog called:</span><br />
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<a href="https://reallyfictional.com/" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Really Fictional</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This was inspired by two key events. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">30 years ago, I had a visionary dream experience that I have never forgotten in which a </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">mysterious,</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">powerful, otherworldly voice clearly told me to write fiction under the pen name Benjamin Edison. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You can read that story </span><a href="https://reallyfictional.com/about/" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, which will also help you understand what Really Fictional is about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, Donald Trump's election to the Presidency seems to have ruptured the space-time continuum, making it much harder to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Truth is under assault in ways that it has never been before in United States history. It's a psychologically dangerous and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">psychically</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">damaging time. I have returned to fiction in an attempt to explore the boundaries between </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">reality </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">and</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">imagination, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">stay sane</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">free </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">my mind from the background noise of deception, lies and hate. And to have fun. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I used to write fiction in my teens and twenties, but regretfully didn't keep it up. Really Fictional is my late restart. If you do read it, and find my parodic psy-fi parables entertaining, I encourage you to subscribe. Then you will get email notifications when I publish new posts, which so far has been about once a week. And I'm always interested in readers' feedback. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Thanks, and happy reading,</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">M</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">at Thomas</span></i>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-74919583543349749392012-12-01T12:45:00.000-08:002012-12-04T12:18:21.363-08:00UNICORNS ARE REAL! (say North Korean scientists: seriously)<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Citizens of People's Republic and gullible prepubescent girls everywhere overjoyed</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On November 14, humor newspaper The Onion ("America's Finest News Source") officially named North Korean supreme leader <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/kim-jongun-named-the-onions-sexiest-man-alive-for,30379/" target="_blank">Kim Jong-un their "Sexiest Man Alive" for 2012</a>. The clearly</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> satirical article made international headlines when </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The People's Daily</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, the Chinese Communist government's official newspaper, </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20518929" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">reported the story as 100% true</a>. T<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he article in their online edition was even accompanied by a 55-page photo spread of the 29-year-old super-stud in all his majestic glory.*</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjw4XY1NhL6TOqLjEII49fv8C6XduaaQXy4jbl6ouzBORnsoroIEXNdavWagc89kFCNwNNW_UK_L4hVkbIYfYOqzR1ddPmSMQMdlOfeDhjQfmlZCmOxEyLt3R6lrCK2ySe1GlX/s1600/unicorn.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjw4XY1NhL6TOqLjEII49fv8C6XduaaQXy4jbl6ouzBORnsoroIEXNdavWagc89kFCNwNNW_UK_L4hVkbIYfYOqzR1ddPmSMQMdlOfeDhjQfmlZCmOxEyLt3R6lrCK2ySe1GlX/s200/unicorn.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But when it comes to breaking hilarious "news" stories, The Onion's<i> </i>got nothing on the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Here's just one small example of their journalistic superiority. On November 29, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">state-owned media outlet reported that the country's</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> scientists have confirmed <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/11/30/north-korea-says-its-found-a-unicorn-lair" target="_blank"><b><i>the discovery of </i></b><i><b>an actual unicorn lair</b></i></a> in Pyongyang, one of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ancient Korea's </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">capital cities. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">According to the Academy of Social Sciences, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the phrase "Unicorn Lair" is engraved on a rectangular rock just outside the temple where they made their unbelievable discovery. However, this august scientific body has so far kept any physical evidence substantiating their fantastic find pretty close to the vest...in that they haven't publicly released any.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">KCNA continually competes with the <a href="http://weeklyworldnews.com/" target="_blank">Weekly World News</a> (WWN) to break stories that are simply too hot for the lamestream media to touch. Over the decades, WWN has gotten the inside scoop on many shocking exclusives exposing the secret lives of famous mythological creatures and famously ridiculous celebrities. For instance, they most recently reported on <a href="http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/52940/bigfoot-has-three-wives/" target="_blank">Bigfoot's three wives</a> and the <a href="http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/19194/kim-kardashians-butt-explodes/" target="_blank">tragic explosion of Kim Kardashian's left butt cheek</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But KCNA has unparalleled access to incredible, often surreal developments within North Korea's heavily guarded borders:</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> especially when it comes to the country's leaders. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For instance, KCNA has previously reported that </span><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/20-ridiculous-things-you-never-knew-about-kim-jong" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Kim Jong-Il</a>, <span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the former supreme leader</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span>(and <span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Kim Jong-un's father) accomplished many superhuman feats. Just for starters: he </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">walked at three weeks of age,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">invented the hamburger, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">controlled the weather, and got eleven holes-in-one playing his first game of golf. Most impressively, he never, <i>ever </i>urinated or defecated. Seriously </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">– no shit!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just a few days from now, North Korea will <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/01/world/asia/north-korea-launch/index.html" target="_blank">launch a rocket</a> that they say is intended to put their first space satellite into orbit around Earth. However, international observers insist that </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">North Korea is</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> actually</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">conducting</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a long-range ballistic missile test to determine whether they can nuke the USA. That would violate several United Nations Security Council resolutions </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">– and probably trigger a major geopolitical crisis</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">North Korea made a similar attempt back in April, but the rocket crashed and burned. Here's hoping that this time, their scientists prove themselves just as adept at rocket science as they are at archaeology.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">* <span style="font-size: x-small;">The People's Daily has since removed the "Sexiest Man Alive" story from their website. However, s</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">omewhat inexplicably, Kim Jong-un leads <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2128881_2129111,00.html" target="_blank">TIME magazine's online poll for Person of the Year 2012 </a>by an extremely wide margin. As of this writing, he has </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">2,124,767 "yes" votes: which is 1,763,677 more than the number two contender. </span>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-82221516535694728712012-07-02T16:12:00.002-07:002012-12-02T16:40:53.026-08:00My "Rebranding Veganism" Article is Online<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">My article "Rebranding Veganism," which appeared in the June 2012 issue of <i><a href="http://vegnews.com/" target="_blank">VegNews</a></i> magazine, is <a href="http://www.ultrawriting.com/uploads/1/0/5/5/10550341/rebrandingveganism.pdf" target="_blank">now available online</a> for your reading pleasure. </span><span style="background-color: white;">This four-page feature profiles six cutting-edge companies using modern marketing to help vegan businesses succeed and gain maximum exposure. Read all about:</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3OA4eivUXts4e7mrqGgcwRLkGZ8I8OHWiYTTWoaS0iqVtvihUq0IpF88a8kACTrxMQ0Y0PHnqmbRbjrce-jnlh1Yl2yiQ6cUIIVU_1du0OHJq-RnnjgKZbKXwVDLHeLW0e9JU/s1600/VegNews+may_june+2012+cover_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3OA4eivUXts4e7mrqGgcwRLkGZ8I8OHWiYTTWoaS0iqVtvihUq0IpF88a8kACTrxMQ0Y0PHnqmbRbjrce-jnlh1Yl2yiQ6cUIIVU_1du0OHJq-RnnjgKZbKXwVDLHeLW0e9JU/s320/VegNews+may_june+2012+cover_large.jpg" width="255" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- Vegan public relations firm <a href="http://www.evolotuspr.com/" target="_blank">Evolotus PR</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- Vegan marketing agency <a href="http://www.veganmainstream.com/" target="_blank">Vegan Mainstream</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- Vegan e-coupon site <a href="http://www.vegancuts.com/" target="_blank">Vegan Cuts</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- Product promotion company <a href="http://www.allthingsvegan.com/" target="_blank">All Things Vegan</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- Social change “publicity experiment” <a href="http://www.sparrowmedia.net/" target="_blank">The Sparrow <br />Project</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- Vegan brand consultants <a href="http://www.vertebrae.us/" target="_blank">Vertebrae, Inc.</a></span><br />
<b><a href="http://www.ultrawriting.com/uploads/1/0/5/5/10550341/rebrandingveganism.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">READ THE ARTICLE</span></a></b><br />
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Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-40417920035806382592012-04-26T14:01:00.001-07:002012-04-26T14:08:07.322-07:00My Business "Self-Portrait" in VStream E-Zine<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh62B0JcGzFUrRcO-Kj6ZL05Y2jlGJx3iJdY4e7YhFZD-szlgdpfEiyR1XgJwszr4Mi8d3bhwd5UfkjaMiTApbsQluoS-wUdmtaMYjgE5-bGd3Esu7BnoZguLdlcuH-HPEZ7LUx/s1600/VStream+Spring-Summer+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh62B0JcGzFUrRcO-Kj6ZL05Y2jlGJx3iJdY4e7YhFZD-szlgdpfEiyR1XgJwszr4Mi8d3bhwd5UfkjaMiTApbsQluoS-wUdmtaMYjgE5-bGd3Esu7BnoZguLdlcuH-HPEZ7LUx/s200/VStream+Spring-Summer+2012.jpg" width="154" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">My one-page business "self-portrait" is in the brand-new Spring/Summer 2012 issue of VStream, </span><a href="http://www.veganmainstream.com/" style="background-color: white; color: rgb(153, 153, 255) !important; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;" target="_blank" title="">Vegan Mainstream</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">'s e-zine. This 69-page online magazine is chock full of articles, recipes and more to feed both your mind and your appetite.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">My profile focuses on the intersection of personal and professional passions – in this case, writing and kindness to animals. It also explores the experiential similarities between starting a business and going vegan, and how each of them changed me. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">- </span><a href="http://weebly-file/1/0/5/5/10550341/vstream_-_mat_thomas_profile.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: rgb(153, 153, 255) !important; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;" title="">Read my profile</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;"> to get a taste for what's in the e-zine, then </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">- </span><a href="http://www.veganmainstream.com/vstream-magazine-ebook-book-guide-zine-vegans" style="background-color: white; color: rgb(153, 153, 255) !important; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;" target="_blank" title="">Download the full issue</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;"> for just $2.99 </span>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-32507832689243188362012-04-21T11:51:00.003-07:002012-07-02T15:27:24.024-07:00Rebranding Veganism<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My new feature article in the latest issue of VegNews magazine</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />My new feature article appears in the latest issue of </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.vegnews.com/" target="_blank">VegNews</a></i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> magazine, which is on newsstands now. Entitled “Rebranding Veganism,” it profiles six cutting-edge companies using modern marketing to help vegan businesses succeed and gain maximum exposure. Read all about:</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3OA4eivUXts4e7mrqGgcwRLkGZ8I8OHWiYTTWoaS0iqVtvihUq0IpF88a8kACTrxMQ0Y0PHnqmbRbjrce-jnlh1Yl2yiQ6cUIIVU_1du0OHJq-RnnjgKZbKXwVDLHeLW0e9JU/s1600/VegNews+may_june+2012+cover_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3OA4eivUXts4e7mrqGgcwRLkGZ8I8OHWiYTTWoaS0iqVtvihUq0IpF88a8kACTrxMQ0Y0PHnqmbRbjrce-jnlh1Yl2yiQ6cUIIVU_1du0OHJq-RnnjgKZbKXwVDLHeLW0e9JU/s400/VegNews+may_june+2012+cover_large.jpg" width="318" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />- Vegan public relations firm <a href="http://www.evolotuspr.com/" target="_blank">Evolotus PR</a><br /><br />- Vegan marketing agency </span><a href="http://www.veganmainstream.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Vegan Mainstream</a><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />- Vegan e-coupon site </span><a href="http://www.vegancuts.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Vegan Cuts</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />- Product promotion company </span><a href="http://www.allthingsvegan.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">All Things Vegan</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />- Social change “publicity experiment” </span><a href="http://www.sparrowmedia.net/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">The Sparrow Project</a><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />- Vegan brand consultants </span><a href="http://www.vertebrae.us/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Vertebrae, Inc.</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you’re not yet a </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">VegNews</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> subscriber, get a copy now by:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />- </span><a href="http://vegnews.myshopify.com/collections/back-issues/products/may-june-2012-85" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">ordering online</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> or</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />- </span><a href="http://vegnews.com/pages/page.do?pageId=7" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">picking one up</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> wherever fine vegan lifestyle publications are sold </span><br />
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<br /></div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-72184482011273654822012-03-24T13:47:00.061-07:002012-12-02T16:55:32.608-08:00Et Tu, Clif Bar?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Company’s chocolate may support child slavery – </b><b><a href="http://www.foodispower.org/takeaction.htm">tell them to come clean now</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Oompa loompa doompa dee do</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Oompa loompa doompa da dee</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>No choc'late for child slavery</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">No, the Oompa Loompas didn’t sing <i>those </i>lyrics after any of the snotty, bratty little Golden Ticket winners got their just desserts on their tour of Willy Wonka’s famous fictional chocolate factory. But </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the melodically/morally-inclined OLs</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">might change their tune if </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">they w</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">orked for Clif Bar and Company, which refuses to tell their customers what country the cocoa for their chocolate comes from. This information is important because 75% of the world’s cocoa is supplied by two West African countries, Ghana and the Ivory Coast — where the use of child labor, and even child slavery, is widespread on cocoa plantations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now, by child slavery, I mean <i>actual</i> slavery: children from 12 to 16 years old (and some as young as 7) sold by their parents to cocoa growers, never seeing their families again, held against their will and forced to work on cocoa plantations. I mean overseers savagely beating and whipping kids who don’t work fast enough or get caught trying to escape. By child labor, I mean children deprived of education (in violation of International Labor Organization laws) using sharp, heavy machetes to cut cocoa pods from treetops. I mean kids being sprayed with toxic agricultural chemicals sans protective gear. <a href="http://foodispower.org/slavery_chocolate.htm">Learn more here</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Over the past year, the <a href="http://www.foodispower.org/">Food Empowerment Project (FEP)</a> has asked dozens of companies to disclose what countries they get their cocoa from to determine whether they subsidize child slavery. FEP doesn’t ask these companies to reveal any sensitive information that could potentially jeopardize their</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> market share (like details about their supply chain or growers’ names). They just want to know what country they get their raw cocoa from. But rather than answer this very simple question, Clif Bar is pulling a Wonka. They say they must keep this information secret to protect their business against </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">espionage by the protein bar industry’s equivalent of Slugworth Chocolates, Inc. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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When I emailed Clif Bar about my concerns and asked why they refused to grant FEP’s simple request, a guy named Bobby responded. He seems like a perfectly nice fellow whose job entails placating pesky pain-in-the-ass meddlers like myself with soothing platitudes that tow the company line. I say this because he absolutely refused, after multiple emails, to answer a very simple, straightforward, crystal-clear question: </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">what country does Clif Bar’s cocoa come from?</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Corresponding with him was like listening to a skipping CD. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That is, no matter how earnestly I expressed my concerns, he just kept evasively stating that his employer “is committed to socially responsible sourcing practices,” “creating a sustainable supply chain,” and sourcing 100% of their cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified (RAC) farms by 2013. It quickly became painfully obvious that he was just pasting in a standard company-approved response over and over, no matter what I wrote. Poor guy: he must've been hearing from a lot of other disgruntled customers besides me recently. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But on the surface at least, Clif Bar's explanation sounds reasonable, right? </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well, not according to FEP: they claim that RAC’s human rights standards are very weak, and that it’s the very same certification Hershey plans to begin using soon for their ironically-branded “Bliss” chocolate line.</span><br />
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I expect dissembling and denials from chocolate industry giants like Hershey, Nestlé and Mars, who clearly don’t give a crap that their products support child slavery, and only care about getting the cheapest possible ingredients so they can make the most profit. But I naïvely thought Clif Bar was different. It’s one of those rare companies I felt a personal connection with because: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) I’ve been buying and enjoying their products for years, especially the chocolate peanut butter Builder’s Bar, and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2) I was inspired by </span><a href="http://www.clifbar.com/uploads/press_downloads/CBCO-Gary-and-Kit-Bios.pdf" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">founder Greg Erickson’s personal story</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and self-proclaimed commitment to socially responsible business practices. </span><br />
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But now, with Clif Bar disingenuously refusing to disclose what country they get their cocoa from, I can’t help but feel that Mr. Erickson and company have thrown their own values under the bus. I mean, making specious excuses that insult their customers' intelligence and trying to hide their horrific business practices from us is <i>not cool</i>. To say Clif Bar has personally disappointed me is an understatement: I feel betrayed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I call <a href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/150844/south-park-calls-shenanigans" target="_blank">shenanigans</a> on Clif Bar. I don’t buy their “proprietary” explanation, and won’t buy their products anymore because I strongly suspect they are tied to child slavery. Just because a food is vegan doesn’t mean it's humane: the way it’s made may </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">still </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">harm others and violate our ethics</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. And you don</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">’</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">t need to be vegan to know that child slavery is wrong: you just need a heart. That’s why we must hold Clif Bar accountable to our principles </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and their own.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik3wtWXrWFXI9g8DLFMliUZUKKaLGqqy05UOWTG9XJf-mnPx2iUGdP4qaO5B1T1GvZn1ORkhyphenhyphen0DNOMkSk_i35Alo6hIjHK0CHQmuvIpbpnWoRSVkg4eDgSbRq0TNi7EggAdBgW/s1600/what_you_can_do_icon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik3wtWXrWFXI9g8DLFMliUZUKKaLGqqy05UOWTG9XJf-mnPx2iUGdP4qaO5B1T1GvZn1ORkhyphenhyphen0DNOMkSk_i35Alo6hIjHK0CHQmuvIpbpnWoRSVkg4eDgSbRq0TNi7EggAdBgW/s1600/what_you_can_do_icon.gif" /></a><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- <b>Use <a href="http://www.foodispower.org/takeaction.htm">FEP’s Action Alert</a></b> to let Clif Bar know that actively opposing child slavery is more important to you than any food will ever be, and that you won’t buy their products until they disclose what country their cocoa comes from<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">- <b>See <a href="http://www.foodispower.org/chocolatelist.htm">FEP’s Chocolate List</a></b> for companies that source their cocoa ethically and therefore deserve your business</span></span></div>
Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-61248080347598247572011-10-29T13:36:00.000-07:002011-10-29T13:38:45.990-07:00"Restaurant: (Im)Possible" VegNews Article Now Online<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFewYkkH5lkGDOj207xoLbzlX4rke9jnsmoAXkgxFFRSPuN_BCY-_ncUniiMmWBt-Qqjg6TtyTvrrgctnBXpzcGcmo4Us4mg41HEZldvATNlcizwSXlUO1QL-WEhby9HhJNlX/s1600/VegNews+Sept-Oct+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFewYkkH5lkGDOj207xoLbzlX4rke9jnsmoAXkgxFFRSPuN_BCY-_ncUniiMmWBt-Qqjg6TtyTvrrgctnBXpzcGcmo4Us4mg41HEZldvATNlcizwSXlUO1QL-WEhby9HhJNlX/s200/VegNews+Sept-Oct+11.jpg" width="159" /></a></div>Last month I <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/">wrote in this blog</a> about my four-page article on how to open a vegan restaurant being in the latest issue of <i><a href="http://www.vegnews.com/home.do">VegNews</a></i>. Well, now that the magazine's November/December issue is out, I've posted the article as a .pdf on my Web site. If you never got around to reading "Restaurant: (Im)Possible" in print form, now's your chance to<b><a href="http://animalrighter.org/uploads/RestaurantImPossible.pdf"> read it online</a></b>.Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-24484040097478825792011-09-02T21:58:00.000-07:002011-09-02T21:58:52.894-07:00So You Wanna Open a Vegan Restaurant?<b>Get an insiders’ view of the biz in my latest article for <i>VegNews</i> magazine!</b><br />
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Do you dream of opening a vegan restaurant? If so, then you’ll want to devour my delicious new four-page feature “Restaurant (Im)Possible” in the September/October 2011 issue of <a href="http://www.vegnews.com/"><i>VegNews</i> magazine</a>—on newsstands now!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCckEg7xVdSY4PrEsl5mfausy1SNNqmJf8qVec9zGu74ZVZCJt6cwvnIE-N8_yxTxCke5xVivf3UOw85RoRPlyrbomeN_8r6lde3n8v9EPnFNGxzmsoMYgVNxWCGQ1YX7-rDwP/s1600/VegNews+Sept-Oct+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCckEg7xVdSY4PrEsl5mfausy1SNNqmJf8qVec9zGu74ZVZCJt6cwvnIE-N8_yxTxCke5xVivf3UOw85RoRPlyrbomeN_8r6lde3n8v9EPnFNGxzmsoMYgVNxWCGQ1YX7-rDwP/s320/VegNews+Sept-Oct+11.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
This article not only provides an overview of the essential steps on the road to restaurant success, but terrific tips & tricks of the trade served up by seasoned restaurateurs. From raising money and choosing a food concept to getting experience and knowing what to expect, you’ll get expert advice based on my interviews with some of the industry’s preeminent players, including:</span><br />
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- Greg Dollarhyde, CEO of Southern California vegan fast-casual chain <a href="http://www.veggiegrill.com/index.html">Veggie Grill</a></span><br />
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- Amy McNutt, co-founder of the vegan Texas-based <a href="http://www.spiraldiner.com/">Spiral Diner & Bakery</a></span><br />
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- Eric Prescott, co-founding venture capitalist behind Boston’s <a href="http://peaceopie.com/">Piece ‘O Pie gourmet vegan pizzeria</a></span><br />
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- Richard Landau, co-founder of upscale vegan eateries <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Horizons-Vegan-Restaurant/101365359908401">Horizons</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vedge-Restaurant/233351833356847">Vedge</a> in Philadelphia</span><br />
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Whether you’re an established entrepreneur on the prowl for new investment opportunities, a visionary neophyte with a hunger to found your own restaurant empire, or just someone looking for a tasty read, my new article will give you some yummy and nourishing food for thought. If you’re not yet a <i>VegNews</i> subscriber, get your copy now by <a href="http://vegnews.myshopify.com/collections/back-issues/products/september-october-2011-81">ordering online</a> or <a href="http://vegnews.com/web/pages/page.do?pageId=7">picking one up</a> wherever fine vegan lifestyle publications are sold! </span><br />
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</div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-16242838546790171412011-08-29T11:51:00.000-07:002013-08-12T20:01:39.231-07:00To the Murderer(s) of My Friend Matt Coleman<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8lF1_4xujXuQXSpjiTo98Srq-4ahtgzAHAGWzsefl2KiMkh2dbM-G3RnCrJ3qW47yXHaXi2dIHJDrjG3CjDgqYiz8ih6n56Ulu7HPbT2TbK9S0ModsEz1iopPD5ZvreqvK_KK/s1600/Matt+Coleman+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8lF1_4xujXuQXSpjiTo98Srq-4ahtgzAHAGWzsefl2KiMkh2dbM-G3RnCrJ3qW47yXHaXi2dIHJDrjG3CjDgqYiz8ih6n56Ulu7HPbT2TbK9S0ModsEz1iopPD5ZvreqvK_KK/s320/Matt+Coleman+1.jpg" width="256" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
Dear Killer(s):</span><br />
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My name is Mat Thomas, and <a href="http://www.mendocinobeacon.com/obituaries/ci_18755147">Matt Coleman</a> was my good friend. A professional environmentalist and <a href="http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110816/articles/110819588">passionate protector of the natural world</a>, Matt Coleman worked as a conservation steward, volunteer coordinator and wildlife population surveyor for the Mendocino Land Trust during the past six years. You probably only knew Matt Coleman as the tall, bulky stranger <a href="http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_18707058?source=most_viewed">you shot to death in a barrage of bullets</a> on Thursday, August 11th while he was doing restoration work at Cape Vizcaino, a remote 400-acre coastal forest reserve near Westport, California owned by the Save the Redwoods League. I, on the other hand, knew Matt Coleman personally as a close friend, confidant and housemate for several years, as well as a fellow literature lover, activist, outdoor enthusiast and creative collaborator on the <a href="http://animalrighter.org/MGP_Audio_Theater.html">Magnificent Glass Pelican</a> radio program. We met when I was a freshman at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and remained friends for more than two decades. A fortunate few knew and loved him as son, brother or life partner; still others knew and respected him as colleague, community member, role model or mentor. All of us miss him terribly. </span><br />
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Unlike you, <i>we</i> all know what kind of man Matt Coleman was: a strong, caring, compassionate, generous, funny, intelligent, energetic, noble one who’d found meaning and purpose in <a href="http://kymkemp.com/2011/08/15/mendocino-land-trusts-matt-coleman-murdered/">working to make Earth a better planetary home</a> for people and wildlife alike. Inspired by his heroes <a href="http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/">Henry David Thoreau</a>, <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/muir_biography.aspx">John Muir</a>, <a href="http://www.abbeyweb.net/">Edward Abbey</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hayduke_(character)">George Washington Hayduke</a>, Matt Coleman followed their giant footsteps into the wilderness. He was only 45 years old, and probably had several good decades of life left in him. Yet <i>you</i> selfishly <i>robbed </i>Matt Coleman of his life and stole him away from us. What we want to know now is <i>why</i>. </span><br />
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Seriously: you owe all those who knew and cared about Matt Coleman an explanation, because you had <i>no right</i> to kill him, and you inflicted severe emotional, existential and spiritual trauma on us when you did. We are stricken with shock, struggling to make some semblance of sense out of his apparently pointless murder. Yet we find this far more difficult to do than we would if we knew <i>why </i>someone decided to brutally eradicate this unique, irreplaceable individual from existence. In the depths of our psyches, we wonder: what <i>possible </i>scenario could there be to morally justify murdering Matt Coleman? What non-self-serving motive could you conceivably offer in your own defense? </span><br />
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<strong>And Just Who the Hell <i>Are </i>You?</strong>*</span><br />
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Are you part of an armed mercenary militia force employed by a marijuana cartel, and <a href="http://potappetit.com/mendocin-environmentalist-matthew-coleman-killed-by-pot-growers-guns/">did Matt Coleman discover your illegally-grown pot plantation</a> (as the most plausible hypothesis maintains)? If so, how does it feel knowing that you permanently obliterated a singular human being’s consciousness for something so crass as <i>money</i>, and to protect yourself/selves and your fellow felons from detection? </span><br />
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Or are you some unknown enemy who nursed a grudge against Matt Coleman and decided to take your petty revenge for some perceived slight? If so, how do you feel now that the deed is done? Does your vengeance taste as sticky-sweet as you’d imagined, or has it already turned to bitter ashes in your mouth? </span><br />
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Or are you just some random crazyperson who stalked a lone defenseless caretaker into the woods as an easy victim? If so, I pity your chemically-distorted dementia </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(which is no doubt mentally agonizing). Yet, despite your disability, I cannot forgive your mortal trespass. </span><br />
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Whoever you are, did you get a <i>thrill </i>when you pulled the trigger? Did killing a man make you feel powerful, invincible, Godlike? Among the most troubling questions about Matt Coleman’s death for those of us who knew him is whether his last moments were filled with the terror of knowing that his life was about to end. The police have not publicly released such details as how many bullets you blasted into his torso, whether you shot him from the front or back, or any incriminating evidence they may have discovered at the crime scene or on your victim’s corpse. I assume the cops have kept this information classified to maintain the upper hand against you in their investigation. In this unfortunate situation, the best we can hope for is that our dearly departed companion died quickly, and that you, his killer(s), at least had the basic human decency not to taunt your prey or ridicule his sudden infirmity and helplessness as his precious lifeforce drained away in a pool of warm blood on the ground. </span><br />
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Regardless of the exact circumstances of Matt Coleman’s murder, and whatever your reasons or reactions might have been, I cannot forgive you for killing him: not yet, anyway. Because, to even <i>begin </i>healing the wounds afflicting our grieving souls, you owe us—Matt Coleman’s surviving kith and kin—more than a mere explanation: you owe us <i>justice</i>. For our sake, as well as the sake of your own deliverance from evil, I urge you to turn yourself/selves over to the authorities <i>now </i>so that you can be held accountable for your abominable actions and spare yourself/selves the Hell of your own personal torment.</span><br />
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<b>Exorcise Your Demons</b></span><br />
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I figure there is a good chance that you, Matt Coleman’s killer(s), may read this open letter at some point. I say this because you are probably doing what most felons do: scouring the Internet for information about your crime—whether it’s to determine if the police have uncovered any damning forensic evidence, or to satiate a narcissistic hunger for media attention (anonymous as it is). Furthermore, based on what I recently learned about <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291">search engine optimization</a>, I’ve strategically used the term “Matt Coleman” 32 times betting that Google will prominently feature this letter near the top of its browser results. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
You probably don’t want to give yourself/selves up because you’re afraid of going to prison. But you know what? You’re already <i>in </i>prison, whether you realize it or not. You took a human life, and somewhere deep down you <i>know </i>that this was wrong—religiously speaking, a <i>mortal sin</i> even. No matter how tough you think you are or how hardened your black heart(s) may be, guilt and shame are festering inside your guts, eating away at the calluses that have calcified around your conscience(s). You may presently be too emotionally crippled and desensitized to be fully conscious of the disgraceful state of your soul(s), but understand that you will remain trapped in cages of your own remorse until you acknowledge and pay the price for the grave damage you’ve done to others.</span><br />
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Has someone <i>you </i>loved ever died? Was that person <i>murdered </i>by another human being? If so, then perhaps you know the pain that we, Matt Coleman’s survivors, feel burning inside us. Maybe you’ve buried that anguish, that suffering, beneath layers of denial and self-deception, but at least <i>some </i>part of you <i>knows </i>it’s still there, controlling your life/lives, and ultimately can’t be avoided. And it’s going to drive you to kill <i>again </i>unless you deliberately disrupt your destructive pattern—especially if Matt Coleman was not your first murder victim. Nevertheless, whether he was or wasn’t, I’m fairly certain that he won’t be your last. </span><br />
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You think you can quit killing anytime you want? I seriously doubt it. Don’t take my word for it: listen to someone who knows. In 1997, Matt Coleman turned me on to Ani DiFranco & Utah Phillips’ album <i><a href="http://www.righteousbabe.com/artists/utahphillips/pastDidnt/index.asp">The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere</a></i>. On the track <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t6nzLX9gF4&feature=youtu.be">“Anarchy,”</a> Phillips had this to say about violence (quoting the wisdom of Ammon Hennacy, Phillips’ halfway-house manager in the 1950s after he’d returned home from the Korean war):</span><br />
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“You know, alcoholism will kill somebody, until they finally get the courage to sit in a circle of people like that and put their hand up in the air and say, 'Hi, my name’s Utah, I’m an alcoholic.' And then you can begin to deal with the behavior, you see, and have the people define it for you whose lives you’ve destroyed.” (Hennacy) said, “It’s the same with violence. You know, an alcoholic, they can be dry for twenty years; they’re never gonna sit in that circle and put their hand up and say, 'Well, I’m not alcoholic anymore' – no: they’re <i>still </i>gonna put their hand up and say, 'Hi, my name’s Utah, I’m an alcoholic.' It’s the same with violence. You gotta be able to put your hand in the air and acknowledge your capacity for violence, and then <i>deal </i>with the behavior, and have the people whose lives you’ve messed with <i>define </i>that behavior for you, you see. And it’s not gonna go away: you’re gonna be dealing with it every moment in every situation for the rest of your life.</span>”<br />
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So you see, dear murderer(s), you’re <i>addicted </i>to violence, and you’re not gonna be able to <i>stop </i>killing on your own…especially if you continue down the cruel path that led you to murder Matt Coleman in the first place. Your humanity—the very core of one’s Self—has <i>already </i>been corrupted and corroded by murdering Matt Coleman and perhaps others. Do you really want to make it <i>worse </i>by committing even <i>more </i>murders?</span><br />
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Your only chance for salvation from your current malady, and an even <i>more </i>horrifying fate than you’re already burdened with, is to surrender yourself/selves to the police. Taking responsibility for your crime will definitely be difficult, but at least you will have finally broken out of your vicious cycle and begun to purify your poisoned soul(s). However, if you refuse to confront your demons by honestly answering for the murder of Matt Coleman, your inner torture will <i>never </i>cease, but rather magnify exponentially until it has completely consumed whatever shriveling remnants of your humanity still remain. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Coleman Lives! </b></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaP0Q58AlabvGtwQcDg8ymLz9RYwiqTuimEuYQQb17EdlHtHmDMFIk7S78Eb3oyZ_ugmu-AgA1LU_KpTj1860LworVY1zDgC7AOZj6Pt00UqIPxhSClb7kg2_zXRmvBvYidAhS/s1600/Matt+Coleman+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaP0Q58AlabvGtwQcDg8ymLz9RYwiqTuimEuYQQb17EdlHtHmDMFIk7S78Eb3oyZ_ugmu-AgA1LU_KpTj1860LworVY1zDgC7AOZj6Pt00UqIPxhSClb7kg2_zXRmvBvYidAhS/s1600/Matt+Coleman+3.jpg" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By murdering Matt Coleman, you may have decimated his body, terminated his brain functions, ceased his sentience and extinguished his essence, but there is still one vital part of him that you could <i>not </i>kill: <i>his spirit</i>, which will live on forever inside the hearts of all those who knew him. Matt</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">s family, friends and colleagues will therefore always remember him as a martyr to the critical cause of protecting Earth from human greed and exploitation. Inspired by his courage and resolve, others will continue </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Matt</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">s </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">environmental protection work where he left off with renewed effort, and carry the torch of progress for him now that he has departed this world. </span><br />
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Matt Coleman not only lived and died doing what he loved—he lived and died <i>for </i>what he loved. That is, if you are in fact a member of Mendocino’s marijuana mafia, you most likely killed him <i>because </i>he tried to defend the forest’s fragile ecosystem against your illicit invasion. Do you even know (or care) how badly <a href="http://www.cannabisnews.org/united-states-cannabis-news/environmental-impacts-of-pot-growth/">illegal pot grows damage the environment</a>? The toxic fertilizers and pesticides used to grow pot plants pollute the ecosystem for miles around, and the tons of trash left behind (from hoses to empty propane canisters) blight otherwise pristine landscapes. Illegal marijuana farmers deprive wildlife of the natural habitat they need to survive by cutting down trees to build shelters, fencing off large swaths of land, and diverting water sources to grow cash crops. The <a href="http://www.examiner.com/backpacking-in-fresno/52-million-marijuana-plants-eradicated-sequoia-national-park">booby traps they set with live explosives</a> to deter nosy visitors often kill animals, and those who squat on public lands to grow or guard crops illegally poach animals for food. </span><br />
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If you are an outlaw pot farm guard, then you know that your kind do not fit the mellow hippy stereotype most people associate with marijuana cultivation. The criminal cannabis underground is instead populated by vile, abhorrent thugs who ravage lands that rightfully belong to the American people and ruthlessly execute anyone who threatens their profits. To them, killing is just a cost of doing business. In fact, just today Fort Bragg City Councilman <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/29/3869687/city-councilman-killed-after-finding.html">Jere Melo was shot and killed after finding an illegal pot operation</a> on a parcel of land he was managing. </span><br />
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Though it is of limited consolation to those of us who mourn Matt Coleman, at least we know that his final moments were spent in the place that he most loved: the wild, cradled under the canopy of ancient, native trees that he dedicated himself to safeguarding. Matt Coleman was a peaceful warrior, and it is significant and symbolic that when you spilled his blood, it poured into, blended with and nourished the living soil where he fell on the environmental battlefield. We who remain can take some small comfort that, even though you took Matt Coleman’s life, you could not crush his convictions. </span><br />
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I will always fondly remember my friend Matt Coleman in my own personal way. I will hear his gruff Brooklyn-accented, California-surfer-dude-inflected voice whenever I listen to <a href="http://www.pogues.com/">The Pogues</a>, <a href="http://www.theclashonline.com/">The Clash</a> or <a href="http://www.bobmarley.com/">Bob Marley</a>. I will think of his voracious intellect and sharp sense of humor whenever I read <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gary-snyder">Gary Snyder</a>, <a href="http://www.ursulakleguin.com/UKL_info.html">Ursula K. LeGuin</a> or <a href="http://www.zippythepinhead.com/">Zippy the Pinhead</a>. I will see Matt</span>’<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">s smiling face—punctuated by his untamed lion’s mane of gray-blonde hair, grizzled beard and silver-rimmed glasses—every time I watch the sun set in radiant golden-azure glory, or the incandescent cobalt waves roll and tumble over the Pacific shoreline, or the luminous sea of distant suns impossibly floating in the infinite night sky. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
Matt, you are one with the Earth, with Creation now. Tom Waits expressed it better and more simply in his song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dixxse4dpQ4">“Take It With Me”</a> than I could ever hope to in mere written words: “It’s got to be more than flesh and bone / All that you’ve loved is all you own.” With this parting poetic sentiment, my friend, I bid you a gloomy goodbye and wish you blissful eternity in the Heaven of your choosing. Peace out, brother.<br />
</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1) In the wake of Matt Coleman’s passing, family and friends have set up two funds that you can donate to:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
- <b>Memorial Fund</b>: An endowment has been established in Matt Coleman's memory that reflects his lifelong passions and interests. Please send donations to: The Community Foundation of Mendocino County; Matthew Coleman Fund for Environmental Education & Conservation; 290 S. State Street; Ukiah, CA 95482.</span><br />
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- <b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MendocinoLandTrust">Reward Fund</a></b>: The Mendocino Land Trust founded a reward fund (now over $30,000 as of 9/23/11) in hopes of encouraging those with information about Matt Coleman’s murder to come forward. Please make checks out to "Mendocino Land Trust" and send donations to: REWARD; c/o MLT; Box 1094; Mendocino, CA 95460. Contact Jez at 707-962-0470 or <a href="mailto:janderson@mendocinolandtrust.org">janderson@mendocinolandtrust.org</a> for more information. Receipts will be provided for all donations, and monies will be returned to donors if no reward is paid out.</span><br />
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2) If you have any information potentially pertaining to Matt Coleman’s murder, please call the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office at 707-467-9159 or 707-463-4086. Callers can choose to remain anonymous. </span><br />
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3) <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=572894344">Visit my Facebook page</a> for updates on the police investigation.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">* Police killed </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/7994486-418/huge-california-manhunt-ends-with-suspects-death.html">Aaron Bassler</a></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">, suspect in the murders of both Matt Coleman and Councilman Melo, on Saturday, October 1st. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<br />
<b>Related AnimalRightings:</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
- <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2011/05/james-mccaffry-1954-2011.html">James McCaffry: 1954-2011</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
- <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2010/02/eyewitness-to-suicide-at-powell-and.html">Witness to Suicide at Powell and Market</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
- <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2007/01/leaked-nra-pamphlet-targets-animal.html">Leaked NRA Pamphlet Targets “Animal Rights Terrorists”</a></span>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-43401509059757840362011-08-06T13:15:00.000-07:002011-10-10T01:37:12.752-07:00LIVE NUDE ACTIVISTS!!!<b>Sexy Strategies for Beating the Meat (Industry)</b><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKcK7gE0Bh4je6Mcomy4hewHcjhLhHnIl93dogBDb18KVvqmCPHYsn6ZPAs5a_B2Z1ucZQhEYVx4TzasnvYMNWSkOStTM55xnFMZvATb2xtQ-jKt_6X8tXH0HlEyl2b1kz0V7/s1600/LNA+-+KFC+Protest+Reno+NV.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKcK7gE0Bh4je6Mcomy4hewHcjhLhHnIl93dogBDb18KVvqmCPHYsn6ZPAs5a_B2Z1ucZQhEYVx4TzasnvYMNWSkOStTM55xnFMZvATb2xtQ-jKt_6X8tXH0HlEyl2b1kz0V7/s320/LNA+-+KFC+Protest+Reno+NV.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A PETA protester attracts attention to<br />
KFC's inhumane treatment of chickens<br />
by dressing down in winter weather</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Perhaps you’ve seen them on the streets. Bikini-clad hotties handing veggie burgers out to passerby. Circus protesters in cramped cages body-painted orange-and-black like crouching tigers. Naked cellophane-wrapped demonstrators swathed in fake blood playing dead as cuts of meat in giant Styrofoam packaging. The people performing such provocative public displays can be identified, by their very lack of clothing, as a relatively new breed of animal advocate: one that uses varying shades of nudity to save other species from suffering and death.<br />
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Of course, the nude protest itself is not a recent invention. Legend has it that nearly a millennium ago, <a href="http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/lady-godiva-the-naked-tr.html">Lady Godiva</a> rode a horse—au natural—through the streets of Coventry, England to successfully protest an oppressive tax issued by her husband, the Earl of Mercia. Yet, despite the passage of centuries, public displays of undress still arouse passionate arguments both for and against their ethicality and propriety.<br />
<br />
The most conspicuous contemporary champion of nude protest is probably <a href="http://www.peta.com/">People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)</a>. I recently spoke with the Manager of PETA’s Campaigns Division, Lindsay Rajt, about this contentious but seductive subject.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpeYyFTlLOsPj4q3WZ5dU867r13Ezqi_d6mMW70sRe-HiUas2vK3qnoIlXdSHBKsiEaRK2jFYaZYttNf6BAM5UtpvloWHxs5_FfvzqNphFr310uJyohQtPARhEiDG2IM6ZClpg/s1600/LNA+-+Lindsay+Rajt+cropped2.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpeYyFTlLOsPj4q3WZ5dU867r13Ezqi_d6mMW70sRe-HiUas2vK3qnoIlXdSHBKsiEaRK2jFYaZYttNf6BAM5UtpvloWHxs5_FfvzqNphFr310uJyohQtPARhEiDG2IM6ZClpg/s320/LNA+-+Lindsay+Rajt+cropped2.jpg" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lindsay Rajt, Manager of PETA's<br />
Campaigs Division, dons a lettuce bikini</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<i><b>AR:</b> Why does PETA use nudity as an advocacy tactic?</i><br />
<br />
<b>LR:</b> It’s a utilitarian decision. For all of PETA’s buzz and brand recognition, we’re a non-profit organization that goes up against extremely wealthy industries that invest vast amounts of money in advertising and public relations. On our comparatively tiny budget, we have to rely on getting free publicity through media coverage of our campaigns and demonstrations, and doing audacious and controversial things achieves that aim. <br />
<br />
<i>How nude do PETA activists actually get?</i><br />
<br />
It depends on where the demonstration is being held, because each city has its own ordinances describing, often in explicit detail, what body parts you can and cannot legally expose, and we’re careful to comply with local laws. While we can get away with thongs and pasties in most places, some do allow women to go topless. There’s also this new product we’ve just started using called a <a href="http://la.racked.com/archives/2008/06/13/nearly_commando_shibue_strapless_gstrings.php">shibue</a> that’s basically a thong without straps: it just sort of adheres to the skin. Topless with a shibue is probably about as naked as we’re going to get in public. Regarding media campaigns, our “nudest” one is our online <a href="http://features.peta.org/StateOfTheUnion2010/">“State of the Union <i>Un</i>dress” video</a>, in which a female model does a strip-tease act that culminates in full frontal nudity.<br />
<br />
<i>How do you measure the effectiveness of nude protests and campaigns?</i><br />
<br />
Our top priority is reaching as many people as possible. For street demos, that probably amounts to several hundred people in the course of an hour, and thousands more if the event is covered by the media. We systematically analyze which demos get the most attention in the full spectrum of print and broadcast media, and how our message is conveyed. With online initiatives, we’re able to track how many people watched a video or clicked a page and whether they stayed to explore other parts of our site. What we’ve found is that people really do stick around after the eye-catching video just as people on the street will linger and have a conversation once they’ve come over to check out our colorful protests. <br />
<br />
<i>When did PETA first start doing nude activism?</i><br />
<br />
PETA was founded in 1980, but we only did our first “naked” campaign in 1989 when we produced a benefit poster with <a href="http://www.gogos.com/">the Go-Go’s</a> that they sold at concerts. It was a <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?q=go-go%27s+fur&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=vvQFiW9tIFP1QM:&imgrefurl=http://lipstickeater.blogspot.com/2008/05/prt-poll.html&docid=13kPNqcdExVtRM&w=320&h=259&ei=oJE9TpTqAuLYiAKt9Y3DBg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=389&page=17&tbnh=150&tbnw=185&start=201&ndsp=13&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:201&tx=108&ty=110">photo</a> of the band members standing nude behind a banner reading “We’d rather go naked than wear fur.” These sold so well that we thought, “We really need to do more of this,” and organized our first naked demo in 1991. It was at an Oscar de la Renta fashion show, and included a mostly-nude man and woman handcuffed to a “We’d rather go naked than wear fur” banner strung across the runway. When <i>The New York Times</i> published a photo of the protest on their front page, we knew we’d found a powerful way to make headlines for animals.<br />
<br />
<i>Two decades later, does nudity still have the same kind of impact in today’s oversaturated multimedia marketplace?</i><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiot2WPaOrxrxFKdH_HpHR0U6dKmwxPGVMSjpzaJ9PKiE7U2j-A2dffZp5hA8jYbe9hn_OPCfkH73xrRLzu8H-0d5pAHo4QnfnmKSS45S6TAeYyFlq-wUFSgZZxhnuVZHhTwnTW/s1600/LNA+-+Animal+Prints+Not+Animal+Skins+Toronto+ON.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiot2WPaOrxrxFKdH_HpHR0U6dKmwxPGVMSjpzaJ9PKiE7U2j-A2dffZp5hA8jYbe9hn_OPCfkH73xrRLzu8H-0d5pAHo4QnfnmKSS45S6TAeYyFlq-wUFSgZZxhnuVZHhTwnTW/s320/LNA+-+Animal+Prints+Not+Animal+Skins+Toronto+ON.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PETA activists protest fur at Toronto Fashion Week, 2010</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Considering the vast amounts of information and stimulation thrown at us every day, nudity is still an effective way to break through the noise. While nude demos and campaigns might not be front-page news anymore, the mainstream press still regularly reports on them. But the most exciting development nowadays for these types of actions is that they can go viral. I can see though how nudity might someday become less captivating as it becomes more culturally acceptable. I think that a lot of nudity’s power is derived from its “forbidden” status, and that’s going to diminish with its increasing normalization. Also, nudity tactics seem to be catching on in different social change movements, so overexposure may dilute their efficacy, as well.<br />
<br />
<i>Do nude demos and campaigns effectively influence people’s attitudes about animals?</i><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJACIZRnt1zdv3ILx0C-pw7X4sPrKiiR83SyhnBn6p-2Cx2CipNO5r4e-7Z7GTY8zeUpvkvxENitII5ma1CFf6vftR7pNQ4Jgx2YWNOf7BqYnIGwEmUsuhrJGipkhfOsxDIZaS/s1600/LNA+-+David+Cross+Fur.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJACIZRnt1zdv3ILx0C-pw7X4sPrKiiR83SyhnBn6p-2Cx2CipNO5r4e-7Z7GTY8zeUpvkvxENitII5ma1CFf6vftR7pNQ4Jgx2YWNOf7BqYnIGwEmUsuhrJGipkhfOsxDIZaS/s320/LNA+-+David+Cross+Fur.jpg" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Actor/comedian <a href="http://comedians.jokes.com/david-cross">David Cross</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">shows his</span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">“</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">funny bone<i>”</i> in a humorous PETA ad</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Yes, because nudity is a fun way for many people to engage about difficult subjects. Showing people a photo of an animal who’s been skinned alive for her fur scares and saddens them, and most people don’t want to deal with the emotions that conjures up. But if you put, say, a man and woman in their underwear lying in bed together on the street underneath a poster that says “Fur Out, Love In,” then people are attracted rather than repelled by your message. By the way, that’s a <a href="http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2010/02/12/Hotties-Put-the-Vegan-in-VDay.aspx">real demo</a> we did around Valentine’s Day this year, inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed-In">“Bed-In”</a> against the Vietnam War.<br />
<br />
<i>The John-and-Yoko connection is interesting because they were friends with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman at that time, and many of PETA’s tactics seem to bear <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_International_Party">the Yippies</a>’ distinctive “street theater” influence. </i><br />
<br />
Like the Yippies, PETA recognizes the power of engaging people with humor. Nudity and comedy are a potent combination because while nudity has an initial attention-grabbing advantage, amusement can sustain that attention. Plus, people feel more comfortable approaching and talking with activists when they can share in the joke.<br />
<br />
<i>PETA also uses nudity to shock people into awareness, as in the “meat tray” demos. What’s the typical reaction to such “horror” protests?</i><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJsmal88vhlTO406Hu3YMqIPb-IOzSpf9PcFd3SoAyB7nkua2sOi0_PVEns_5pXbefQtM0-QppHpYWYpc-IDVXXL90ub-OtWIcWgruDnzw0Uiw3j8lxPl9ATCx1I0C9gKKXoyi/s1600/LNA+-+PETA+Meat+Tray+Demo.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJsmal88vhlTO406Hu3YMqIPb-IOzSpf9PcFd3SoAyB7nkua2sOi0_PVEns_5pXbefQtM0-QppHpYWYpc-IDVXXL90ub-OtWIcWgruDnzw0Uiw3j8lxPl9ATCx1I0C9gKKXoyi/s320/LNA+-+PETA+Meat+Tray+Demo.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">One of PETA's macabre “meat tray” demos</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>While some people might be affected by our humorous demos, others might need to see pictures of how animals suffer on fur farms or in slaughterhouses or one of our “darker” protests before they are compelled to help animals. PETA’s “meat tray” demos and others like that really impact people on a visceral level. For instance, in one of our demos, an activist lays naked on a giant barbeque grill with char marks on her body, while a “butcher” in a fake-blood-spattered apron stands nearby sharpening a large plastic prop knife looking very cross. This makes people’s jaws drop because it’s often the first time they’ve consciously considered their connection with animals who they eat. <br />
<br />
<i>Does PETA also use nudity to show people that vegans are fit, healthy and sexy?</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbk5srziVB1Fmw2tQ7m5H-sbwh0reTFHM9ln9jfOg08lUSbOWS5BMZ94AZIrOJ0ZpAMA-UM3ajCkOaO0_h89f7XRiIo7pDc0PHesKlY2wiB5YLl3sm-QUMonMIVuKcswBhzzL6/s1600/LNA+-+Owain+Yoeman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbk5srziVB1Fmw2tQ7m5H-sbwh0reTFHM9ln9jfOg08lUSbOWS5BMZ94AZIrOJ0ZpAMA-UM3ajCkOaO0_h89f7XRiIo7pDc0PHesKlY2wiB5YLl3sm-QUMonMIVuKcswBhzzL6/s320/LNA+-+Owain+Yoeman.jpg" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Yeoman">Owain Yeoman</a>, co-star of <i>The Mentalist</i>,<br />
strikes a pose for PETA's veg campaign</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Yes, especially because people really want to achieve their optimal weight and be attractive, and we’re always eager to prove, by “modeling” the results of a plant-based diet, that being vegan will help them do that. Plus, going vegan will likely lower your cholesterol and blood pressure while reducing your chances of suffering heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and various cancers. We even have a sexual health campaign called <a href="http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/impotence.aspx">“Vegans Make Better Lovers”</a> emphasizing that cholesterol and animal fat slow the flow of blood to <i>all</i> the body’s vital organs—not just the heart.<br />
<br />
<i>PETA persuades many celebrities to strip, mostly for media campaigns. How much does celebrity involvement enhance the message’s impact? </i><br />
<br />
People who admire particular celebrities want to learn everything about them, and when famous people speak out about a cause, their fans listen. So many people have told me over the years, “I went vegetarian because I heard that so-and-so is veg.”<br />
<br />
<i>Switching gears, how do you respond to charges that PETA’s use of nudity for animal advocacy exploits women?</i><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFqTgpH_uR36v1am53o9H5rOn55nWfq1_uu7b8H5FF__m2YYqxtFG5LV3MH_MdP2cfOojonIfM-aTQ_-t5iNggvyk0PT7_3NuQEEd70nBJY_2g3N28zxy8Hj3hFtPrv6B_MXQt/s1600/LNA+-+Body+Parts.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFqTgpH_uR36v1am53o9H5rOn55nWfq1_uu7b8H5FF__m2YYqxtFG5LV3MH_MdP2cfOojonIfM-aTQ_-t5iNggvyk0PT7_3NuQEEd70nBJY_2g3N28zxy8Hj3hFtPrv6B_MXQt/s400/LNA+-+Body+Parts.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PETA appropriates the misogynistic image made iconic<br />
by the cover of Carol J. Adams' landmark feminist<br />
critique of carnivorism, <i><a href="http://www.caroljadams.com/spom.html">The Sexual Politics of Meat</a></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Using one’s own body of one’s own free will as an instrument for social and political change is freedom of speech and expression. Speaking as a woman and a feminist, I think it’s sexist to tell women they need to put their clothes back <i>on</i>. I’ve passed out veggie dogs in a lettuce bikini, been painted like a tiger and put in a cage, and stood naked on a bridge painted like a snake. Rather than making me feel exploited, these experiences were among the most personally empowering, liberating and transformative of my life. They gave me a new perspective on the hang-ups that almost all women have about their physical appearance. Exposing my body to make a statement about something important made me realize, for instance, just how silly it was to worry about whether my butt looked big in those tiger stripes. PETA also features just as many men in our nude protests and campaigns as women. <br />
<br />
<i>Critics might counter that men still have power over women in most societies, and objectifying females therefore perpetuates sexual victimization of women and girls. </i><br />
<br />
I know from personal experience that such concerns are well-intentioned. I used to volunteer at a battered women’s shelter and have family members who’ve been in domestic violence situations, so I take this issue very seriously. So does PETA, and we would never do anything that we thought could degrade or endanger women or girls. <br />
<br />
<i>What about those who say nude protests are simply lewd?</i><br />
<br />
In this day and age, that just seems prudish. I mean, go to any beach and you’ll see people revealing more skin than most PETA activists. These types of criticisms just take different forms in different time periods, whether they’re directed at PETA or society at large. Only a few decades ago, women were told it was disgraceful to show their knees in public or wear their hair down to their shoulders because it was too suggestive. Priggish complaints about nude social justice campaigns will soon seem just as laughable as admonitions about bare knees and flowing hairstyles do today.<br />
<br />
<b>Related AnimalRightings:</b><br />
<br />
- <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2009/07/pranking-monkey.html">Pranking the Monkey: What The Yes Men can teach animal activists</a><br />
<br />
- <a href="http://animalrighter.org/uploads/TooSexyforyourMeat.pdf">Too Sexy For Your Meat: One man's view on the politics of vegan sexuality</a>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-20122599771069879372011-05-31T11:01:00.000-07:002011-06-08T12:18:25.557-07:00Putting Factory Farm Investigations on the Map<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>New AnimalVisuals infographic geographically displays video exposés by species and state for easy access & panoramic analysis</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXqI8wPingj4DtkiXAzrejbt43ApWVX-GbUUlli62B8MANMm39bGG9nbwlmepIhymOi1-WtPZt0CFNf7Db7PjjxNdZ4dWQbCQEi6bYOoF5hShU_8SuiRgJp2IM-pvYt0bSibM3/s1600/Battery+Cage+Hens+-+COK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXqI8wPingj4DtkiXAzrejbt43ApWVX-GbUUlli62B8MANMm39bGG9nbwlmepIhymOi1-WtPZt0CFNf7Db7PjjxNdZ4dWQbCQEi6bYOoF5hShU_8SuiRgJp2IM-pvYt0bSibM3/s200/Battery+Cage+Hens+-+COK.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Egg-laying hens in a battery cage<br />
from an investigation by <br />
<a href="http://www.cok.net/camp/inv/mdefi/photo_sub1_2.php">Compassion Over Killing</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Undercover video investigations are inarguably among the most effective means of exposing the legal and illegal animal cruelty being committed in laboratories, fur and puppy mills, circuses, and rodeos. Recent technological advances in video surveillance devices have made them both smaller (and therefore easier to hide) and able to capture higher-resolution images—facilitating the proliferation of such muckraking exposés. In the last decade, clandestine activists have increasingly turned their cameras toward factory farms and slaughterhouses, revealing a hidden world where many “food” animals raised for meat, milk and eggs are sadistically beaten, confined in cages so small that they can barely move, and slaughtered while still visibly conscious. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The impact of these shocking images on public opinion and the animal agriculture industry has been profound. They’ve led to criminal animal cruelty convictions against farm workers and agribusiness companies, plant closures, major food recalls, significant corporate policy changes, public demands for stricter animal welfare laws as well as increased enforcement, and passage of landmark legislation in numerous states. It’s therefore no wonder that animal enterprises see video exposés as a threat to their profits, and have enlisted some state legislators in a cynical bid to criminalize the very act of documenting the animal cruelty being routinely perpetrated on factory farms.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I recently wrote extensively about these proposed “Ag Gag” laws in a series of interviews with representatives of the “Big Four” animal protection groups that have conducted most of the undercover factory farm investigations: namely <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/states-to-outlaw-factory-farm.html">HSUS’s Paul Shapiro</a>, <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/states-to-outlaw-factory-farm_22.html">COK’s Erica Meier</a>, <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/states-to-outlaw-factory-farm_25.html">MFA’s Nathan Runkle</a> and <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2011/05/states-to-outlaw-factory-farm.html">PETA’s Jeff Kerr</a>. Of the four bills proposed so far, those in Minnesota and Florida have been defeated, but political pawns of the animal agribusiness industry in <a href="http://coolice.legis.state.ia.us/Cool-ICE/default.asp?Category=BillInfo&Service=DspMultVers&GA=84&key=2093:HF:589">Iowa</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S5172-2011">New York</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">are still trying to pass these misguided attempts at censorship. Ironically, their efforts to ban undercover video investigations have backfired in that they have drawn more attention to the abuses these exposés reveal, further educating people about where their food comes from and emphasizing the importance of this information to society at large.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>The Factory Farm Investigations Map</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClJKVQ13udhaSEWxGhXeL-NZQILHah3wm-slqodqVkykW87G7gn5b2gIE7sFimtGVpPM8STchQ7nIu42ioWzo5V4PxzyLKP2AXCdhjdVHBl1X5dOGkszltBBguFxxuxMPbfhV/s1600/factory+farm+investigations+map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClJKVQ13udhaSEWxGhXeL-NZQILHah3wm-slqodqVkykW87G7gn5b2gIE7sFimtGVpPM8STchQ7nIu42ioWzo5V4PxzyLKP2AXCdhjdVHBl1X5dOGkszltBBguFxxuxMPbfhV/s1600/factory+farm+investigations+map.jpg" /></a>Here</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">’</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">s a prime example of such unwanted publicity. In response to the recent legislative attempts at outlawing undercover investigations, graphic designer, illustrator and computer whiz Mark Middleton created a new map on his <a href="http://www.animalvisuals.org/">AnimalVisuals website</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">that gathers together in one place the 48 undercover factory farm exposés conducted by the Big Four animal advocacy groups in the US since 1998. <a href="http://animalvisuals.org/projects/data/investigations">Take a look at the map for yourself</a>, then come back here to learn how animal activists can use it to both inform the public about factory farm cruelty, and why the movement should strategically strike out into virgin territory with new investigations. </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As you can see, the map is very easy to navigate: colored pins represent the Big Four organizations, and cartoon animal icons indicate the type of investigation by species (or animal use, in the cases of broiler chickens vs. egg-laying hens and beef cattle vs. dairy cows). Switch to “satellite view” (in the upper right-hand corner of the map) and zoom in to see a photo image taken from outer space pinpointing a factory farm’s precise location—something that only government spies would have been able to do just a few short pre-Internet 2.0 years ago. You can also scroll down past the map for a chronological list of investigations that specifies the state, date and species associated with each one. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Benefits of Mapping</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">AnimalVisuals’ factory farm investigations map can be an incredibly useful tool for raising awareness of agribusiness’ systemic animal abuse and the informational value of undercover exposés:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>- The Public</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">: Putting all the key investigations on one website gives people easy access to videos and information about factory farming’s abuse of animals. The fact that there are so many exposés also highlights the breadth of animal cruelty taking place on factory farms. As Middleton writes on the AnimalVisuals site, “Viewed individually, the actions shown might be dismissed as isolated incidents. Taken together, however, they reveal a pattern of disregard for animal welfare and routine cruelty-to-animals throughout animal agriculture.” People who view the map and videos cannot deny that cruelty is horrific and endemic throughout the animal agribusiness industry, making them more likely to question their dietary habits and consider more compassionate alternatives (such as eating fewer animal products or becoming vegetarian or vegan).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<b>- Activists</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">: Watching videos of animals being tortured and slaughtered may not be your idea of a good time, but it is eye-opening. Many vegetarians and vegans have told me that they already know what happens on factory farms, so they don’t need to watch any more videos documenting the horrors hidden behind their walls, and don’t want to because it upsets them. Of course, meat eaters are the ones who </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> need to see these videos because they probably don’t know what happens on factory farms—but how can we animal advocates expect them to watch if even </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> won’t? So view a video (or two or three), then click the link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to share the map on Facebook, Twitter or email with a note encouraging your friends and followers to watch a specific video exposé that personally affected you. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>- Investigators</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">: The map highlights the country’s informational “black holes”—especially the 29 states where none of the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Big Four </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">animal protection organizations</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">has yet conducted an </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">undercover investigation. Some states may be “blank” right now for various reasons. For instance, investigations tend to cluster around the areas where the Big Four are based, and there are </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.rcfp.org/handbook/?pg=3-1">ten states</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> where trespassing on private property to conduct surveillance is illegal. However, in states without such laws, there would be considerable advantages to putting more factory farms “on the map” with undercover exposés. For one thing, it would make people living in those areas more aware of what is being done to animals on farms in their states. For another, it would put factory farmers throughout the nation on notice that they are not invulnerable to exposure just because they operate in a state that hasn’t yet been mapped by pioneering undercover investigators.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>-</b><b> Iowa Residents</b>: Use this convenient <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4933">HSUS Action Alert</a></span> to encourage your state senator to oppose S.F. 431. Also <a href="http://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx" style="color: #0073e6; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">contact your state senator directly</span></a>, and ask him or her to oppose this bill.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"><b>- New York Residents</b>: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">Use this convenient </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=5073">HSUS Action Alert</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;"> to encourage your state senator to oppose S 5172. Also </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.nysenate.gov/">contact your state senator directly</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">, and ask him or her to oppose this bill.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">- <b>Check out other resources on </b></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><b><a href="http://www.animalvisuals.org/">AnimalVisuals</a> </b>such as </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">data visualization tools, the 3-D battery cage, and the “Farm Rescue” Facebook game. Also read my 2009 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">VegNews</i> magazine article </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://animalrighter.org/uploads/Vegotopia_Final.pdf">“The Road to Vegetopia: (Re)Imagining the Future of Food”</a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> featuring Middleton’s fantastic sci-fi illustrations.</span></span><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-5054582952267845762011-05-28T10:02:00.000-07:002011-07-25T17:48:38.715-07:00James McCaffry: 1954-2011<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0tA7jDLu9_v-ixWqoV0QpJaBeO7LeLiVUbm-TPu3UPE4vd22vqkAnP_IA8wz2TOYBEIZ9TKdr9Z8OKj7vgcZAwecmuiySZc4Q_H2yESksWH-4Em8KWMyun5mhRzJT6lI5wpc3/s1600/James1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0tA7jDLu9_v-ixWqoV0QpJaBeO7LeLiVUbm-TPu3UPE4vd22vqkAnP_IA8wz2TOYBEIZ9TKdr9Z8OKj7vgcZAwecmuiySZc4Q_H2yESksWH-4Em8KWMyun5mhRzJT6lI5wpc3/s320/James1.jpg" width="263" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><b>A fond farewell, my dear friend</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">May the road rise up to meet you.<br />
May the wind be always at your back.<br />
May the sun shine warm upon your face,<br />
the rains fall soft upon your fields.<br />
And, until we meet again,<br />
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> – Traditional Gaelic blessing <br />
</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“James is dead.” That’s what the voice in my head has been repeating periodically since the afternoon of Saturday, May 21<sup>st</sup>, when I first heard the devastating news—and every time those ethereally-inaudible words eviscerate my consciousness, my heart cries out and my eyes bleed tears, instantly turning my face into a flesh-and-bone Greek tragedy mask. How do you say goodbye to someone you love who’s already gone? In the face of that haunting question/koan, I </span><span style="font-size: small;">feel </span><span style="font-size: small;">not only heartbroken but utterly soulbroken.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James was my friend for almost five years. We met when we both worked at <a href="http://www.idausa.org/">In Defense of Animals (IDA)</a> (he as a photographer/graphic designer/art director, me as a writer/editor) and we remained friends and creative collaborators even after we’d both left the organization in 2008. In some measure that was because we live(d) in basically the same San Francisco neighborhood, so it was a quick-and-easy 10-minute bike ride to his place. Yet our friendship was based on more than just geographical proximity: it blossomed and flourished because we shared so many common interests, values and passions—and, perhaps most importantly, a mysterious connection that can’t be described or defined (except perhaps by a poet, which is something I am not), but only known and felt. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That emotional and spiritual connection I shared with James resonates like an electrical pulse throughout my very being now even though he, the man, has departed this world. While mere words cannot convey who James really was when he was alive, I can share the memories and impressions of him that remain with me still. I will certainly always remember James for the rest of my days, and hopefully my experiences of him will stay with me just as long. Yet I feel compelled to express them in some form now while my feelings are still so raw and images of James flash like sunbeams through my grief-clouded mind. I will therefore tell here of the different sides of James that I knew best: the friend, the artist, and the animal lover.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>James, My Friend</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James and I generally hung out together about once every week or two, mostly either in his Lake Street apartment (with a stunning picture-window view of the Golden Gate Bridge), or at one of the local beaches (usually Baker—his “power spot” where we are holding <a href="http://jamesmccaffry.blogspot.com/2011/05/for-those-of-you-who-have-not-already.html">his memorial on Saturday, May 28<sup>th</sup> at 6:00pm</a>). We often watched the sunset as the waves of the Bay lapped the shoreline, with the verdant Marin Headlands and dazzling span of the Golden Gate Bridge as backdrop. It was a perfect spot for escaping the hyperwired urban grid, appreciating nature’s mystical beauty, and (for James) photography. He’d drink cheap canned beer (Bud or Tecate 24-ouncers) and I’d sip at least equally-cheap red wine from my stainless-steel thermos with the screw-off cup-cap. James was a good drinking-and-cigarette-smoking buddy: an emotional rock and a good listener who was always ready with support, encouragement, wise counsel, or a spontaneous joke to lift my mood. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In retrospect, perhaps I should have set a better, healthier example—it might’ve helped save James’ life. On the other hand, in fairness to my conscience, it probably wouldn’t have made any difference in his lifestyle choices. James was stubborn to the core about doing whatever he pleased. In my defense, I did often bring him hearty homemade vegan vittles prepared in my own kitchen: mason jars filled with lentil soup, minestrone and chili that he raved about. He liked my cooking so much that he said I should start my own vegan food line, and that he would design the labels. More of this food would have improved James</span><span style="font-size: small;">’</span><span style="font-size: small;"> health: he was really skinny, and several </span>weeks before his death <span style="font-size: small;">some of our mutual friends who hadn</span><span style="font-size: small;">’t seen him for awhile remarked that they</span><span style="font-size: small;">’d noticed significant weight loss and were worried about him. I suppose I didn</span><span style="font-size: small;">’t notice because I saw him on such a regular basis, and the physical changes took place gradually.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Nevertheless, I was still essentially an enabler, especially given the fact that James had been hospitalized in 2007 for heart problems. When </span><span style="font-size: small;">I visited him at SF General with </span><span style="font-size: small;">our friend Mark, James was haggard and unshaven,</span><span style="font-size: small;"> wearing one of those flimsy aquamarine medical gowns</span><span style="font-size: small;">, </span><span style="font-size: small;">bedridden</span> <span style="font-size: small;">with a clear plastic tube feeding drugs into his arm. He looked so small, so frail, and I remember seeing him then, for at least a moment and for the first time, as a transient entity. But even though his body was depleted, James was mentally energetic and excited to see us</span><span style="font-size: small;">, so my awareness</span><span style="font-size: small;"> that</span><span style="font-size: small;"> he could </span><span style="font-size: small;">actually </span><span style="font-size: small;">die quickly faded</span><span style="font-size: small;">. Anyway,</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">I would certainly choose to do things differently if given the chance, but I’m not feeling guilty <i>per se</i>: James is gone, and there</span><span style="font-size: small;">’</span><span style="font-size: small;">s nothing I can do now to bring him back.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> Besides, James was an adult, a free agent as it were, and he had a perfect right to make his own choices about how to live. We had a traditional “guy” relationship: I tried to respect his boundaries and not interfere with his free will as a human being, and he treated me the same. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Born in 1954, James was also about 15 years older than me, so he was essentially from a different generation, and that might have influenced the interpersonal borderlines we staked out with one another. Yet our age difference didn’t prevent us from forging a close brotherly bond: if anything, it added a profound cultural/historical dimension to our relationship that intensified my interest in his storied past. A native Canadian, James arrived in San Francisco in 1977 at the tender age of 22, so I was enthralled by his animated anecdotes recounting the exhilarating days of early SF punk and other watershed events that I am far too young to have experienced myself. It might sound cliché, but James’ life experience was etched into his face like the crags of a mountain range are worn by millennia of glacial drift and shifting seasonal cycles. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James was a passionate music lover with wide-ranging, genre-defying tastes and a particular love for jazz, American roots, 60s psychedelic rock, modern-classical, and world music. In fact, he earned a degree in Music from Grant MaCewan University in Edmonton right before moving to the states. We went to many concerts, festivals, street fairs, and other events together to groove on live music. We saw <a href="http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-04-21/entertainment/17241000_1_stooges-fun-house-iggy-pop">Iggy Pop’s 60<sup>th</sup> birthday concert</a> at the Warfield with his good friend Louise, <a href="http://steveearle.com/">Steve Earle</a> at the Palace of Fine Arts, and a host of major stars and legendary performers at the <a href="http://www.strictlybluegrass.com/">Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival</a> in Golden Gate Park over the years. “Ears wide open,” he once told me. James turned me on to <i>so</i> much sublime music—<a href="http://michaelfranti.com/">Spearhead</a>, <a href="http://www.earbox.com/">John Adams</a>, <a href="http://decemberists.com/">the Decemberists</a> (and the list goes on). His musical knowledge was so vast that I was delighted when <i>I</i> could blow <i>him</i> away with some great album he hadn’t heard before—like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_%28album%29">Johnny Cash’s “Unchained,”</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_City_%28album%29">John Zorn’s “Naked City,”</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_%28album%29">Lou Reed’s “New York.”</a></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Speaking of which, James was fascinated with New York City. The Big Apple’s a bit too maddeningly frenetic for my fragile constitution, but I think my being originally from New York (well, Long Island, anyway) earned me some street cred with him. Even though </span><span style="font-size: small;">James </span><span style="font-size: small;">was a Canook, </span><span style="font-size: small;">he </span><span style="font-size: small;">had a distinct “Noo Yawka” air about him, which might be one of the reasons we got along so well. He was a no-nonsense kind of guy: honest and direct, stoic but secretly thin-skinned, yet also exceedingly kind, generous and empathetic. It’s a rare combination, and perhaps why he was able to make so many friends in diverse social circles. I mainly knew James as an animal advocate, visual-creative force, and nature lover: but he was also immersed in the worlds of avant-garde art, jazz and blues music, Irish-Americanism, and more. Though I know some of James’ friends personally, I only heard tell of the many others he knew (and who knew him) in different contexts: people I am sure are amazing in their own rights, and could illuminate other facets of his unique personality and essence.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>James the Artist</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James had over three decades worth of experience as a photographer, graphic designer, and art director. In the late 70s and early 80s, he created posters and programs for the San Francisco Ballet, and worked as the art director for a newspaper called <i>City Arts Monthly</i>. He also <a href="http://jmcworld.net/50albumcovers.html">designed dozens of covers for blues and jazz albums</a> by the likes of John Lee Hooker, Holly Near and Billie Holiday. By sheer chance, he was the last person to take <a href="http://jmcworld.net/colophon.html">professional photos of Jerry Garcia</a> </span><span style="font-size: small;">at the legendary Greatful Dead guitarist</span>’s Marin County home before he died in 1995. Although he was highly respected as a visual artist by those he worked for and with, James never made the kind of money a talent such as his should have brought him. In the last two years of his life especially, after he resigned his position at IDA and the Great Recession hit, he struggled financially to make ends meet.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgitjmhB8De5LBAC6oWpOKpGl2DA1XirYfnZCY_XhpVUs-1fMmW5Adu7OboD9tDJ2afbw_k6U7d6sb7XJoSuITMGQk1tSnQiqbcHOj9AWns5KGK6Q3QKSJ2cI4jG95_ZHfOoop6/s1600/sfft+cover_thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgitjmhB8De5LBAC6oWpOKpGl2DA1XirYfnZCY_XhpVUs-1fMmW5Adu7OboD9tDJ2afbw_k6U7d6sb7XJoSuITMGQk1tSnQiqbcHOj9AWns5KGK6Q3QKSJ2cI4jG95_ZHfOoop6/s320/sfft+cover_thumb.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Soul Food-For-Thought" <a href="http://animalrighter.org/uploads/e-SoulFoodForThought.pdf">promotional brochure</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was privileged to be one of James’ most constant creative collaborators over the past few years. We worked on projects together at IDA, and then later for others such as <a href="http://animalrighter.org/uploads/KennethMedia_web-1.pdf">vegan bodybuilder Kenneth Williams</a> and <a href="http://animalrighter.org/uploads/e-SoulFoodForThought.pdf">the International Fund for Africa</a>. The most thrilling aspect of teaming up with James was </span><span style="font-size: small;">seeing his powerful images and professional design </span><span style="font-size: small;">exponentially enhance the </span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;">impact of my mere words. We strove to develop an integrated holistic style that blurred the distinction between textual and visual content, and highlighted the substance of what we wanted to express. This was only possible because we were essentially on the same creative wavelength; a state of mutual congruity that has unfortunately been the exception rather than the rule in my professional career. Perhaps this resulted from us both drawing creative inspiration from similar and often shared sources—music, literature, art, film, nature, and life itself. We talked a lot of shop, incessantly expounding on the </span><span style="font-size: small;">mechanics </span><span style="font-size: small;">and </span><span style="font-size: small;">metaphysics of our respective crafts, which is sadly something I rarely get to do with anyone else. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I’m extremely gratified that James often expressed his respect and admiration for my writing, especially since I valued his intelligence and insights so highly. His assessment of my work was all the more meaningful for the fact that he would honestly tell me his opinion. There were times when I’d ask him what he thought of something I’d written, and he’d say something like “It’s OK, but it’s not your best work.” I took his feedback seriously because it helped me grow as a writer, and I prefer people who don’t pull punches to those who say what they think you want to hear. Truthfulness is the mark of a </span><span style="font-size: small;">trustworthy </span><span style="font-size: small;">friend and </span><span style="font-size: small;">true </span><span style="font-size: small;">creative peer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qgXxcwTDMvu3zk4Epa9n0BO48FHk4Rohe0uAjuTSDSoNRryulAPqXlIf_Trj3yQ6wTtfltTrCZNwpYIyZsf0ZvaVCKqkgI7i0P3g6I38i9q0Gi54m6zs-Xd4zud7EDSlZbPd/s1600/AAG_Pigs1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qgXxcwTDMvu3zk4Epa9n0BO48FHk4Rohe0uAjuTSDSoNRryulAPqXlIf_Trj3yQ6wTtfltTrCZNwpYIyZsf0ZvaVCKqkgI7i0P3g6I38i9q0Gi54m6zs-Xd4zud7EDSlZbPd/s200/AAG_Pigs1.jpg" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ark </i>magazine cover</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I believe that James’ dream was to be the art director of his own magazine. He therefore produced a beta issue of <i><a href="http://animalrighter.org/uploads/ark_brochure_lores.pdf">Ark</a></i>, an animal rights imprint, but it never gained any traction. After that, we drew up a prospectus and financial plan for another proposed publication called <i>The Vegan Age</i>, with him as art director and me as editor-in-chief, but that too failed to attract investors. We’d also tried somewhat half-assedly to start a small two-man communications business together for more than a year, but it never got off the ground because neither of us had any pragmatic entrepreneurial skills whatsoever. Nevertheless, </span><span style="font-size: small;"> James came up with </span><span style="font-size: small;">the name “Propeller, Ink.” and I had a whole convoluted explanation for why I thought it was cool. Ultimately, we completed numerous projects together, many of them on spec, and I’m rightfully proud of what we accomplished together.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>James the Animal Lover</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On their website, IDA posted <a href="http://www.idanews.org/ida-breaking-news/james-mccaffry-in-loving-memory/">an obituary about James that I wrote</a> focusing on his history with the organization and some of the influential work he did for the animal rights movement. We had many spirited discussions about animal issues, with James expressing righteous outrage over ongoing atrocities like the annual <a href="http://www.savejapandolphins.org/">Japanese dolphin slaughter</a>, the barbarity of <a href="http://www.save-the-primates.org.au/facts-animal-experimentation.htm">primate experimentation</a>, and his own Canadian countrymen’s <a href="http://www.harpseals.org/index.php">clubbing of baby harp seals</a> for their fur. But James’ affinity for animals was most evident in his love for cats, especially his beloved feline companions Luna and Bobcat. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Luna was truly James’ cat. When I (or anyone else I think) would visit his apartment, Luna would usually hide away, or at best let me pet her head at arm’s length. But she would meow for James’ attention and affection, scratching the fabric of his dilapidated tan armchair and hopping up into his lap. Luna is a tiny cat, 12-years-old, with swirly black-and-silver marble patterns adorning her luscious coat. One day, a co-worker from IDA named Max came over James’ apartment with his mellow old shaggy dog. Luna seemed a bit freaked out, but also curious about the copasetic canine guest. Max was clearly taken with Luna’s delicate beauty and princessesque bearing, dubbing her “The Elizabeth Taylor of Cats”—a moniker that James thereafter took up. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James also fed a colony of feral cats in his apartment building’s courtyard for several years. Last year, when only one feral remained, James took “Bobcat” into his home. A large, muscular tabby with bright-orange striped fur, Bobcat earned a special place in James’ heart through her sweet and gentle nature. However, even living indoors, she still spent at least half her day outside, and was, sadly, not exactly gentle with the rodents and other small prey she hunted (according to the tales of tiny horror James recounted to me). She was always kind and accommodating towards Luna, though, and freely affectionate with any human visitors. James therefore theorized that, rather than being born feral, Bobcat must have once had human guardians who perhaps abandoned her when they moved away. Yet he couldn’t conceive of how anyone with a functioning heart could ever leave such a loving cat behind. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgitjmhB8De5LBAC6oWpOKpGl2DA1XirYfnZCY_XhpVUs-1fMmW5Adu7OboD9tDJ2afbw_k6U7d6sb7XJoSuITMGQk1tSnQiqbcHOj9AWns5KGK6Q3QKSJ2cI4jG95_ZHfOoop6/s1600/sfft+cover_thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqeRUQg9EJEmsLZJn87e9ipBTcmEv8PGr7tGtlaR-jlgP9xYmWdsr1OjCCjKygZTSS-qThg5L-FQHuA96-ROKQYqASZxL37ocZ-T1j4C2Zlc-_FzP5FCdlkE8b1XK0nb9TLo5/s1600/luna+and+bobcat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqeRUQg9EJEmsLZJn87e9ipBTcmEv8PGr7tGtlaR-jlgP9xYmWdsr1OjCCjKygZTSS-qThg5L-FQHuA96-ROKQYqASZxL37ocZ-T1j4C2Zlc-_FzP5FCdlkE8b1XK0nb9TLo5/s320/luna+and+bobcat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James expressed his love for his cats creatively every New Year with cards featuring fabulous photos of his feline friends. While Luna was slow to warm to Bobcat, who she perhaps felt had encroached upon her territory and usurped some of her guardian’s affections, the two are now close companions. James’ good friend Colleen is currently seeking a permanent home for both cats so they can continue to be together—which is especially important now that they no longer have James. (Editor’s Note: Soon after this writing, </span><span style="font-size: small;">James</span>’ cousin in Oregon adopted <span style="font-size: small;">Luna and Bobcat</span>.)<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Colleen told me that Bobcat went missing after </span>James’ death, but unexpectedly returned to the apartment a few days later. As Colleen and members of the McCaffry family stood in the living room, Bobcat elocuted a plaintive, heartrending cry while staring at the chair where James often sat. Shy Luna had hidden from human visitors since James’ death, but came into the living room when she heard her feline friend wailing, and the two kissed noses, comforting one another. Clearly, both Bobcat and Luna miss James just as much as his human family and friends do. He loved them dearly, and they continue to love him, mourning his absence and perhaps even understanding that he is gone. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Last Time I Saw James…</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">…was on Thursday, May 12<sup>th</sup>, just nine days before he so suddenly passed away. He was tasked with walking his friend’s dog, Francis, and called me to ask if I wanted to meet him at the Rose Garden in Golden Gate Park around 4:30 that afternoon. The garden being close to my apartment, I arrived on time, but James wasn’t there. I walked around for about 45 minutes, and just as I was heading back home James showed up with Francis in tow. He apologized for being late: some unexpected delays, as happens with everyone sometimes. James was eccentric in his refusal to own a cell phone, so he couldn’t get in touch with me when he wasn</span><span style="font-size: small;">’</span><span style="font-size: small;">t at home. I said no problem. I recall just being really glad to see him. It was cloudy when I’d first gotten to the garden, but sunny by the time James and Francis arrived. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James and I sat down on a bench amongst the brilliantly-colored flowers that were already in bloom, as Francis immediately tumbled onto his back and writhed with canine pleasure in the grass. After his roll in the blades, Francis begged for some biscuits by placing his paw on James’ knee, first whimpering while tilting his head, then barking his demands loudly. James gave him some treats and explained to Francis that there weren’t that many, so he should savor them. Yet Francis seemed to swallow the bone-shaped goodies whole without so much as chewing. We then gave him a tennis ball that lay on the ground nearby, and that vice-jawed dog literally tore it </span><span style="font-size: small;">with gleeful abandon </span><span style="font-size: small;">to fuzzy rubber shreds (which we gathered up so he wouldn</span><span style="font-size: small;">’</span><span style="font-size: small;">t swallow them).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As we sat, James drinking beer and me sipping wine, we talked about a project that we were planning. James had recently done a photo essay as a volunteer for the <a href="http://www.maritime.org/index.htm">San Francisco Maritime National Park Association</a> documenting the city’s historic fireboats. He’d ridden on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_%28fireboat%29">Phoenix</a> just weeks before, and had tentatively arranged a fireboat ride for both of us so that I could interview the seafaring firemen and he could shoot more photos. We planned to turn the results into an article for one of SF’s lifestyle or travel magazines, or a promotional booklet for the fire department. He was very excited about all this, and promised to set a date for our nautical voyage in the very near future. Fittingly, Francis was the dog of a woman named Kaki who worked at the Maritime Association and had befriended James. Francis even wore a bandana around his neck decorated with little flags from all the nations’ oceangoing vessels. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After a couple of hours, we started home through the Redwood grove that borders the Rose Garden and stretches three city blocks eastward. It just so happens that this is my most customary outdoor spot for reading, writing and relaxing (and where I am right now as I write this on my laptop). As we walked, Francis frequently stopped to sniff the ground and mark selected territory as his. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Francis is an older dog, a Golden Lab with hip dysplasia (an ailment that is somewhat endemic to dogs of that breed as they age), so he walks slowly with a bit of a limp. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Sensitive to animals’ nature and individual needs as he was, James patiently waited while Francis explored the woods along the footpath, never dragging him away before his canine curiosity was quelled. “Dogs’ sense of smell is so much stronger than ours,” James observed. “They experience the world through scent, and know things about it that we can’t even imagine.”</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the corner of Cabrillo Street and 10<sup>th</sup> Avenue, James and I said our final goodbye. James always had a flair for goodbyes…or at least farewells. Whenever we’d part ways after hanging out, his voice would turn noticeably warmer, softer, and he would say something like “We’ll talk again real soon,” or “We’ll get together again real soon.” It always made me feel good about myself, that a person of James’ character and caliber wanted to talk to me, spend time with me. He always meant what he said, too—he wasn’t one to fake feelings or exchange false sentiments—so I know that his words were genuine. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVD-8gYWglOcYIRkxeMrhQ_f38JjqTtteDvPOuGY_1xnsYtmCHypWl7KXUN_Nr7b6QExuz-Gs2-hI5PpaOmi6ursEI529eOwpupZcaU8keNZvjSrpFnvIuikNjc4rsLxF5CUtp/s1600/james%2526smokey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVD-8gYWglOcYIRkxeMrhQ_f38JjqTtteDvPOuGY_1xnsYtmCHypWl7KXUN_Nr7b6QExuz-Gs2-hI5PpaOmi6ursEI529eOwpupZcaU8keNZvjSrpFnvIuikNjc4rsLxF5CUtp/s200/james%2526smokey.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James & Smokey at <a href="http://www.jerryday.org/about.html">"Jerry Day"</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The last time I spoke with James was around noon on Thursday, May 19<sup>th</sup>—less than two days before he died. I phoned him asking if he wanted to hit the beach later that day, the weather being fairly nice, even if a bit chilly. He said he’d like to, but he was too busy with work, or trying to hustle up some jobs, but would call me if he could get enough done to spare a couple of hours for fun. Otherwise, he said he’d spoken with the fire department, and was close to finalizing a date for our fireboat trip: it would be in the next week or two. There were no discernible traces of sickness or encroaching mortality in his voice: he just sounded like the same old familiar James to me. </span><span style="font-size: small;">After making tentative plans to hang out over the weekend,</span><span style="font-size: small;"> we said goodbye, he with his trademark farewell phrase: “We’ll get together real soon.”</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">This, James, is my final goodbye to you. As an agnostic, I neither believe nor disbelieve in a God or an afterlife. It therefore doesn’t seem altogether unreasonable to at least hope that someday, some way, my friend, we’ll meet up once again.</span></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br />
If you too knew James, I encourage you to click on the "comments" link directly below and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">write your memories of and tributes to him. </span></b>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-81270191333644351462011-05-13T22:04:00.000-07:002011-06-20T00:51:51.817-07:00States to Outlaw Factory Farm Investigations? (Part 4 of 4)<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><b>An interview with General Counsel to PETA, Jeff Kerr</b></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As I wrote in my <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/states-to-outlaw-factory-farm.html"><span style="color: blue;">first post of this series</span></a>, three state legislatures (Florida, Iowa and Minnesota*) have introduced bills to criminalize taking photos and videos of animals being mistreated on factory farms—while doing absolutely nothing to stop the widespread animal abuse that these undercover investigators document. The good news is that the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_823521361"><span style="color: blue;">Florida bill officially died</span></a><a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/news/news/2011/05/florida_ag_gag_050911.html"><span style="color: blue;"> on May 9, 2011</span></a> because state lawmakers failed to vote on it before the legislative session ended. Good job, Floridians! However, the Iowa and Minnesota bills remain active and could still pass. On that note, here’s the fourth (and final) installment in this sequence: my interview with General Counsel to <a href="http://www.peta.org/"><span style="color: blue;">People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)</span></a>, Jeff Kerr.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVE1TaZiBIld1pQCyjSM8xHhYFE1cPcxY2aZJdH74QXapk7JGyylSPn1wi1AKAAIPqf_O6MCAU_R-UJQN2js-fZK4JEX-sIdXpbRMojfbfgTwWspxDhZYv7lxAe7BKlKvFX4G_/s1600/Jeff+Kerr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVE1TaZiBIld1pQCyjSM8xHhYFE1cPcxY2aZJdH74QXapk7JGyylSPn1wi1AKAAIPqf_O6MCAU_R-UJQN2js-fZK4JEX-sIdXpbRMojfbfgTwWspxDhZYv7lxAe7BKlKvFX4G_/s1600/Jeff+Kerr.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of PETA</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kerr earned his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 1987, and worked as a civil litigator for six years. At the age of 30, while employed as corporate counsel for a national health care charity, he went to attend a lecture that he found had been cancelled and replaced by one entitled “Did Your Food Have a Face?” being presented by an animal rights activist. The talk opened his eyes for the first time to the suffering of other species, and he quickly adopted a vegan diet—and nine months later signed on as PETA’s general counsel, a post that he has held for fifteen years. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kerr leads a team of six in-house attorneys who handle issues ranging from contracts, intellectual property and litigation to property acquisitions, non-profit tax-exemption and corporate governance. His main responsibility is overseeing all legal activities relating to PETA’s nine international affiliates around the world. Kerr has successfully defended PETA’s undercover investigators in numerous trials, most famously when the group documented and exposed extreme animal cruelty at a <a href="http://www.lawcrossing.com/article/2378/Jeff-Kerr-Battles-Animal-Abuse-as-General-Counsel-of-People-for-the-Ethical-Treatment-of-Animals-PETA/"><span style="color: blue;">Covance testing laboratory in 2005</span></a>. He insists that undercover investigations are essential to democratic society—and perfectly legal. “Investigation gathers proof,” <a href="http://www.thelawyer.com/jeffrey-kerr-peta/128641.article"><span style="color: blue;">he has said</span></a>, “and the whole point of undercover work is to expose illegal conduct.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here is Kerr’s analysis of the bills proposing to ban undercover farm investigations:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>AR</i></b><i>: From a Constitutional Law perspective, do these bills violate activists’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>JK</b>: The bills are unconstitutional on several grounds under the First Amendment. They violate free speech, and arguably freedom of the press, because they preclude the publishing or even possession of photos and videos. They also violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause because they single out animal protection advocates, who are specifically targeted by this proposed legislation. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Essentially, these bills seek to criminalize being the eyewitness to a crime—which is absurd. Society should be encouraging citizens to come forward with information about crimes, and criminalizing people for taking photos and videos of criminal animal abuse thwarts their ability to come forward to law enforcement with that proof. These bills actually obstruct justice. What are people supposed to do when they see cruelty to animals in these facilities: draw a picture of it? It’s ridiculous! To prosecute somebody for cruelty to animals you need proof, and the videos and photos taken by undercover investigators are that proof. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>In addition to making it illegal for activists, journalists and employees to document animal abuse taking place in agricultural facilities, would these bills also make it illegal to document other crimes? </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yes, these bills could have seriously deleterious effects in other ways, and that’s an aspect of this issue that deserves more attention. For example, what if employees witness criminal behavior such as drug use, theft, anti-union activities, or workplace safety violations? Under these bills, it would be a criminal act to photograph or videotape these crimes and show the evidence to appropriate law enforcement authorities or regulators. The consequences could be devastating to food safety and workers’ health, so it’s no wonder that the proponents of these bills are unwilling to even talk about this. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>So I take it then that legislators are not writing exemptions into the language of the bills to address these ancillary effects?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The way these bills are written, they would prohibit people from exposing illegal activity of any kind. Legislators can’t add such exemptions because that would draw attention to the fact that they’re specifically targeting animal activists, which is blatantly unconstitutional. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Those proposing and supporting these bills argue that they are necessary to prevent what they allege are destructive acts committed by animal advocates. One of the most common accusations is that animal protection groups wait several weeks or months before reporting animal abuse to law enforcement. What’s your response to that?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">First, looking at this from a legal/law enforcement perspective, we have to get proof that the animal abuses taking place in factory farms, slaughterhouses and other agribusiness facilities are standard practices for the businesses we investigate. If we can’t prove that through documentation, the prosecutors aren’t going to prosecute, and the facilities themselves hide behind the age-old ruse of claiming that “these are rogue employees, it’s just a one-time thing, this isn’t how we do business.” Yet over 30 years of investigative work by PETA has shown that cruelty is not an aberration: this is how business is conducted in these facilities on a daily basis, and the perpetrators cannot run from that fact. In <i>every single </i>undercover investigation PETA has conducted, we’ve found evidence of illegal animal abuse. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Second, when we did an undercover investigation of a Hormel food supplier in Iowa in 2008, one of our investigators did report illegal animal abuse to management—and was immediately fired on the spot. So we actually do report abuse, and that’s what happens. The people making these accusations about delays in reporting just don’t know what they’re talking about. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>One of the most common accusations made against undercover investigators is that they literally “stage” acts of animal cruelty themselves and then claim they were committed by farm workers. However, all of the footage I know of shows farm employees, managers and owners abusing animals. So this makes me wonder, how could investigators possibly “stage” these abuses? Do these critics ever explain how investigators allegedly </i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>“</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>stage</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>”</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i> them—like by using CGI special effects or something?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There is literally <i>no way</i> our undercover investigators could possibly stage the video footage they capture, and here’s why. After every investigation PETA conducts, we create a detailed complaint, with all of the supporting evidence—including all of the unedited videotape, all of the investigator’s log notes, and a comprehensive legal analysis—and we turn it over to the prosecutors and regulators. We have gotten landmark felony and other animal cruelty convictions, the first of their kind, against factory farms in North Carolina, Iowa, and other states because of the strength and power of the proof we’ve presented to prosecutors. If there was <i>any</i> possibility whatsoever that our evidence was not authentic, prosecutors never would have used it to prosecute. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The legislators and others who make these unfounded accusations are defaming <i>per se</i> because they’re falsely accusing animal protectionists of providing fake evidence, which is a felony. Meanwhile, not one person making these accusations has ever identified a single instance in which <i>any</i> undercover investigation video has been staged. PETA regularly takes action to make people cease and desist from making such false claims. For example, I recently sent a <a href="http://app4.websitetonight.com/projects/1/5/0/1/150140/uploads/PETA__Defamatory_Statements_Made_in_Relation_to_HF589.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">letter to State Representative Annette Sweeney</span></a>, the main sponsor of the Iowa House bill, calling her out on her defamatory statements suggesting that these videos are staged. She made those statements publicly, outside of the legislative framework, and has no immunity for making those allegations. People who make these ludicrous claims back down when we threaten them with legal action, and we have every expectation that Sweeney will do the same. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>When people claim that videos have been staged by activists, aren’t they basically insinuating that prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officials are stupid because they can’t tell the difference between real and faked footage? </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(Laughs) I think implicitly, sure. The other thing factory farmers try to hide behind is the false notion that they’re heavily regulated and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Well, </span><span style="font-size: small;">in 2004 and 2005, </span><span style="font-size: small;">we did two separate investigations of Agriprocessors, a kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa, in which we caught workers on video shocking cows in their faces with electric prods, ripping their windpipes out while they were still conscious, and dumping the animals onto the floor as they struggled and blood gushed from their throats. These violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act were taking place while federal inspectors looked on and did absolutely nothing. The USDA’s own report stated that one of their inspectors accepted gifts of meat from Agriprocessors, failed to report violations by them, and committed, in their phrase, “other acts of misconduct.” So even the regulators aren’t doing their jobs. In this kind of environment, the only way to bring about meaningful reform and an end to this abuse is by doing undercover investigations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Are there laws in some states that already restrict or prohibit undercover investigations?</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Before conducting any investigation, we look at that state’s laws so we can comply with them. Certainly there are differences in the laws across various states, but there are no laws that even come close to what the bills being proposed would do. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Factory farmers constantly proclaim how much they “care” about animals—especially, it seems, when confronted with overwhelming evidence to the contrary from undercover investigations. If they really cared about animals, why are they and the legislators behind these bills so dead-set against showing the public how they treat animals? </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here’s an example from a historical perspective that makes a sadly ironic comment on contemporary politics. <a href="http://www.capitalcentury.com/1906.html"><span style="color: blue;">Upton Sinclair</span></a> basically invented the field of investigative reporting in the early 1900s when he went undercover as a worker in the Chicago stockyards and wrote <i>The Jungle</i>. This novel led to the first regulations of animal agriculture in U.S. history. So back then, over a century ago, the government did the right thing when egregious abuses were exposed: they regulated the industry to try to halt the abuses. But today we’ve got legislators doing the exact opposite: instead of implementing additional, stronger penalties and regulations to protect not only animals but the safety of the country’s food supply, they are trying to slam the shutters closed so that no one can see what goes on inside these facilities. They are aiding and abetting the abusers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">What elected officials really need to be doing is introducing legislation requiring that cameras be placed in animal agriculture facilities so we all can see, all the time, what goes on in there. In fact, PETA’s position is that this footage should be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. Facilities should be required to turn the footage over to inspectors, and it should be part of the state and federal regulatory file so that people can see it. No one has the right of privacy to commit acts of criminal animal abuse. I’m originally from Missouri, the “show me” state. As we say there, if farmers are <i>really</i> doing everything right, as they always claim, then they should show us! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Generally speaking, what do you think these bills might mean for the animal advocacy movement? </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">These bills are clearly having an effect that their proponents didn’t expect, in that they’re generating opposition and shining a light on the animal abuse and criminal behavior uncovered in these investigations. Consumers, including those who eat meat, want animals to be treated decently and not abused. So in a way, these bills have helped the animals’ cause because they’ve put the issue back into public debate in the same way that our undercover investigations do all of the time—and I believe this is a debate that factory farmers are ultimately going to lose.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>- Watch PETA’s <a href="http://www.peta.org/tv/videos/investigations/default.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">undercover factory farm investigation videos</span></a></b>.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>-</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b> Iowa Residents</b>: Use this convenient <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4933">HSUS Action Alert</a></span> to encourage your state senator to oppose S.F. 431. Also <a href="http://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">contact your state senator directly</span></a>, and ask him or her to oppose this bill.<br />
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* The Minnesota bill has also been defeated since I posted this interview. However, <a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=5073">New York legislators proposed an Ag Gag bill</a> afterwards. </span></span></div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-67750157741120411032011-04-25T10:51:00.000-07:002011-06-08T20:58:19.832-07:00States to Outlaw Factory Farm Investigations? (Part 3 of 4)<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>An interview with founder & Executive Director of Mercy For Animals, Nathan Runkle </b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As I wrote in my <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/states-to-outlaw-factory-farm.html">first post of this series</a>, three state legislatures (Iowa, Florida and Minnesota*) have introduced bills to criminalize taking photos and videos of animals being mistreated on factory farms—while doing absolutely nothing to stop the widespread animal abuse that these undercover investigators document. Today's installment: my interview with founder and Executive Director of <a href="http://www.mercyforanimals.org/">Mercy For Animals (MFA)</a>, Nathan Runkle.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of MFA</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Runkle grew up on a farm in rural Ohio, and founded MFA there as a high school student in 1999 in response to a local pig farm cruelty case he got involved in. He has led teams of undercover MFA investigators in exposing animal cruelty at factory farms and other agriculture operations, including the state's four largest egg producers. In the course of his investigative work, Runkle has also rescued and helped rehabilitate dozens of abused and neglected farm animals. In addition, he coordinates MFA's outreach, advocacy and media campaigns, and is a nationally-recognized speaker on farm animal advocacy who has given hundreds of interviews to major newspapers, radio shows and television programs. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Anyway, here's Runkle's take on the proposed bans of undercover factory farming investigations:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><i>AR</i></b><i>: Why do you think agribusiness and some politicians are pushing so hard to pass these bills?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>NR</b>: Because undercover investigations have been so effective at exposing the inhumane treatment of animals inside factory farms and slaughterhouses. They have led to civil and criminal animal cruelty convictions against employees and companies, major corporate policy changes, and passage of landmark legislation banning <a href="http://www.farmsanctuary.org/get_involved/alert_cruel_confinement.html">veal and gestation crates, battery cages</a>, and some forms of <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2009/10/california_enacts_tail_docking_ban_101209.html">painful mutilation</a>. They've also elevated the level of awareness and discussion among consumers about the plight of farm animals. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Agribusiness knows that their practices are out of step with most American's values, so they're desperately scrambling to conceal factory farming cruelties from public view with these bills. Obviously, rather than blinding consumers to what they're doing, it would make a lot more sense for the industry to be proactive about improving conditions for animals. Instead, they're resorting to censorship because it's essentially cheaper and easier than improving animal welfare.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>One of the most common claims made in defense of these bills is that investigators “selectively edit” them to make it seem like there's more cruelty going on than there actually is. </i><i>Some people even accuse investigators of “staging” the acts of animal cruelty they capture on video. Personally, I don’t see how that’s possible, especially given that the footage basically depicts other employees abusing animals. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">We get many hours of footage from each investigation, which we then have to edit down to hold viewers' attention. People are used to watching short YouTube videos that are a few minutes long, and that's generally the amount of time we have to present the evidence. Plus the footage is so shocking and painful to watch that most people can only take it in small doses. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Whether it's raw footage or the YouTube version, however, our undercover videos accurately depict what actually happens to animals on factory farms—and law enforcement officials can testify to that. That is, whenever we document what we believe are violations of animal cruelty laws during our investigations, we hand over all of our unedited footage to law enforcement, who then review it for applicable violations. We have a history of successfully criminally and civilly charging companies and individuals for animal cruelty based on our undercover videos. So, if the footage is so strong that law enforcement is willing to take action, and it's used as evidence in a court of law to convict factory farmers of animal cruelty, then of course our videos are true-to-life representations of the abuse being perpetrated in these facilities. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>So why then do some people insist that investigators manipulate video footage for their own ends?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think they're habitual liars who know that the public will not, under any circumstances, find animal abuse acceptable. They therefore have to claim that we've staged acts of animal cruelty. What it boils down to is that we've caught them red-handed—literally, with blood on their hands—and they cannot defend what's going on, so they're trying to shoot the messenger. What they really need to do is look at these investigations, admit that they have real problems, and address the endemic cruelty taking place in their facilities. Instead, the industry is showing how little regard they have for animal welfare and public opinion, and that they are willing to tell outrageous lies to maintain the status quo and their profit margin.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For example, State Representative Annette Sweeney, who introduced the bill in the Iowa House, is a cattle rancher, and she's just been spewing outright lies to the media about how undercover footage is staged by animal activists. MFA has directly contacted Sweeney's office asking for any proof or evidence of a single instance in which undercover farm investigation footage has been staged. They've refused to respond, so I think it's safe to assume she doesn't actually have any facts to support her accusation. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>These bills seem to especially emphasize how tight the relationship is between agribusiness and some politicians. What are your impressions?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Iowa is the largest egg producing state in the nation and one of the largest pork-producing states. Agribusiness therefore has tremendous economic pull, which translates into political power in the legislature. The organizations lobbying in support of this bill, companies like Monsanto, for instance (along with all the major meat, dairy and egg production companies and trade organizations), have a lot of money and financial clout. However, we hope that legislators will have the backbone to stand up to these special interests by rejecting these bills. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">We also hope lawmakers realize that, aside from preventing the documentation of animal abuse, these bills would essentially shield farming operations from public scrutiny in terms of environmental regulations, workers' rights violations, tax fraud—a whole host of issues. If employees witness any type of laws being broken, they would be legally prevented from documenting them, which makes it much more difficult for regulators to hold these companies accountable. Take the Hallmark/Westland case in California, for example, which resulted in the largest beef recall in U.S. history and animal cruelty convictions as a direct result of an undercover exposé. If someone was there saying “Sick and injured cows are going into the human food supply” but they weren't able to document their claims, that recall and those convictions would have never happened. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And that's essentially what agribusiness wants: to operate in secrecy without any public scrutiny or regulation. Factory farmers want to create a one-way communication system in which they can promote their sanitized, glamorized, propagandized view of farming without any alternative views contradicting it. The problem is that lack of transparency leads to abuse of power, and makes it impossible for consumers to make informed decisions about what they buy and eat.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Critics also accuse animal protection groups of not really caring about animals because investigators who witness animal cruelty may wait several weeks before reporting it to law enforcement. How would you respond to that charge? </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Each case is different, and there are instances in which there are technically no legal violations: that is, the cruelty is just standard industry procedure and therefore exempt from animal welfare laws, so there's no one to report it to. Often the owners and managers are engaged in the abuse, so there's no one in the workplace to report animal welfare violations to. When we document violations, we do bring our evidence to law enforcement as quickly as possible. But the industry's abuse is long-standing: it goes on year after year in these places, and it would continue unchallenged if our investigators didn't expose it. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's really the obligation of these companies to monitor their operations, but our investigations show they're not doing that. For example, at <a href="http://www.mfablog.org/2011/03/mfa-willet-dairy-investigation-leads-to-criminal-animal-cruelty-conviction.html">Willet Dairy</a> we filmed an employee bragging about abusing animals, and management acknowledged that they knew about this ongoing abuse. This employee worked there for 19 years, but it was only after our exposé that they fired him and he was charged with animal cruelty. So who was actually turning a blind eye to criminal behavior: the investigator who'd been there a few weeks, or the company that employed this guy for almost two decades? </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When we wrap up these investigations, we have experts and veterinarians analyze the footage to determine whether laws have been broken. We try to present the strongest possible evidence so that we can have the company held criminally accountable for what's going on there. Making a case for prosecution requires a long-term investigation that establishes an ongoing pattern of abuse rather than just a single instance of cruelty. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>It seems like most of the </i><i>animal advocacy </i><i>groups doing undercover investigations would be strategically categorized as reformists or pragmatists rather than strict abolitionists. Is there a connection?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think so, because whenever we do an investigation, we look at how we can help the greatest number of animals possible. On the other hand, we also strongly encourage people to completely remove their financial support from the animal agriculture industry by going vegan. But there are enormous opportunities with these exposés to make real-world changes through the introduction of legislation, criminal prosecution, and removing the worst abusers from these facilities. All of these tactics reduce animal suffering to some degree, and we have an obligation to push for these outcomes in every single investigation we do. They also generate discussion and focus attention on the cruelty and exploitation that farm animals are subjected to, which elevates people's awareness of this issue and motivates more consumers to explore veganism as a compassionate alternative. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Economically speaking, is one motivation behind these bills to attract agribusiness to these states? That is, wouldn't factory farms be enticed to move their operations there because they'd be legally protected from unwanted exposure? </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Iowa is already an attractive state for factory farmers because it doesn't have a ballot initiative process, and if they can shield producers from public scrutiny by banning undercover exposés of animal cruelty, obviously that's going to elevate agribusiness' interest in doing business there. Yet all of these factory farmers using cruel methods are out of step with how most Americans want animals to be treated, and I think this disdainful attitude is going to hurt producers financially in the long run. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Another claim is that investigators get these jobs under false pretenses, and that this is somehow illicit and dangerous. What's your response to that?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">We have certainly never been prosecuted or pursued for that. Our investigators provide their real names and social security numbers, and apply for jobs at these facilities just the same way anyone else would. There are also existing laws to prevent fraudulently applying for employment. Agribusiness is trying to sell these bills under a larger umbrella of issues that are already covered by other laws for the sole purpose of trying to make them seem legitimate. I mean, they can't just come right out and say they want to prohibit people from taking and distributing undercover videos of farm animals because they're bad for business: they have to invent false claims to make these bills appear reasonable and necessary. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>The <a href="http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/aeta-analysis-109th/">Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act</a> was the first, and remains the only, federal law that protects a particular industry, specifically agribusiness, and provides harsher penalties for people who hold particular beliefs, specifically in animal rights. Are these proposed bans an extension of this type of discriminatory law?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, on the state level, at least. Outlawing investigations could easily be applied to, say, someone who works in a nursing home, daycare center or hospital secretly videotaping incidents of abuse. If these bans on undercover exposés are legitimate, then why do they apply only to animal enterprises? Obviously, we don't want anyone to be restricted from exposing abuse, whether the victims are humans or animals. But the fact that these bans would apply only to animal enterprises makes them discriminatory and unconstitutional. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GQ6gCE-GhuNuJpgVZx8a_qAL2Rm0w1XukW8ZUhBuUvNL4sD6JMgr4pCpEwBQ7lmKKiYEWnSZODaW9bwN4xOWuVACuWVoaKSuUS7AT-1B8sx5oyo-1YVQvzXGs39WOJGfGqx-/s1600/Nathan+Runkle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7L0hyD7h11-BIPIq6UDaNg2goI3ESG3xrei9dFBYZ0LkVnoS9rYyVw-Yn8NudW_7Yb4hj1IGoux1iQsqe7BZqsyXGIZ4lHXkvUFkHw9onC4sNInYlsaHrgiOt_JN5wCp0PEJ/s1600/what_you_can_do_icon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7L0hyD7h11-BIPIq6UDaNg2goI3ESG3xrei9dFBYZ0LkVnoS9rYyVw-Yn8NudW_7Yb4hj1IGoux1iQsqe7BZqsyXGIZ4lHXkvUFkHw9onC4sNInYlsaHrgiOt_JN5wCp0PEJ/s1600/what_you_can_do_icon.gif" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><b>Watch MFA's <a href="http://www.mercyforanimals.org/investigations.aspx">undercover factory farm investigation videos</a></b>.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><b>Iowa Residents</b>: Use this convenient <a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4933">HSUS Action Alert</a> to encourage your state senator to oppose S.F. 431. Also <a href="http://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx">contact your state senator directly</a>, and ask him or her to oppose this bill.<br />
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</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Tune in again on <strike>Thursday, April 28</strike> Friday, May 13<br />
for my interview with Jeff Kerr,</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">General Counsel for <a href="http://www.peta.org/">People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">* The Minnesota and Florida bills have been defeated since I posted this interview. However, <a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=5073">New York legislators proposed an Ag Gag bill</a> afterwards. </span></div></div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-91295808750521658162011-04-22T09:46:00.000-07:002011-06-08T20:59:11.704-07:00States to Outlaw Factory Farm Investigations? (Part 2 of 4)<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>An interview with Executive Director of Compassion Over Killing, Erica Meier </b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As I wrote in <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2011/04/states-to-outlaw-factory-farm.html">my first post of this series</a>, legislatures in three states (Iowa, Florida and Minnesota*) have recently introduced bills to criminalize taking photos and videos of animals being mistreated on factory farms—while doing absolutely nothing to stop the widespread animal abuse that these undercover investigators document. Today's installment: my interview with Executive Director of <a href="http://www.cok.net/">Compassion Over Killing (COK)</a>, Erica Meier.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of COK</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Before Meier took over the helm at COK in 2005, she spent four years working as an Animal Control Officer in Washington, D.C. Her experience enforcing the city's animal welfare laws while rescuing sick, injured, homeless, and sometimes abused companion animals continues to inform her work in the farm animal protection movement today. In addition to overseeing COK's undercover factory farm investigations—which have garnered national media attention and influenced legislative efforts to ban <a href="http://www.farmsanctuary.org/get_involved/alert_cruel_confinement.html">cruel confinement systems</a>—Meier is also intricately involved in the organization's outreach, advocacy and media campaigns.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here's her personal take on the proposed bills to outlaw undercover factory farm investigations:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><i>AR</i></b><i>: Why do you think agribusiness and some politicians are pushing so hard to pass these bills?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>EM</b>: They're specifically targeting undercover video investigations because these are perhaps the animal protection movement's most powerful tool for exposing the cruelty inherent in factory farm systems. Farm animal welfare laws are few and far between, but over the last decade, farm animal advocates have focused on passing ballot initiatives and legislation that prevent cruelty by banning some of <a href="http://www.farmsanctuary.org/get_involved/alert_cruel_confinement.html">the worst forms of intensive confinement</a>. The industry is responding by trying to prevent us from getting and broadcasting this footage because it causes public outrage and persuades people to support animal welfare measures. Agribusiness is also trying to establish industry norms as legal regulations in different state codes, as well. They're coming at this from many different angles to ensure that the cruelty to animals taking place on factory farms and in slaughterhouses remains above the law and hidden from public view. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>If undercover investigations are effectively criminalized, at least in some states, how will the public know how farm animals are treated?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I believe that where there's a will, there's a way, but farm animal advocates would have to get even more creative. The truth can only be hidden for so long, and the industry knows that they're vulnerable to exposure, so they're taking every extreme step they can to keep these cruelties hidden behind closed doors. I think, however, that our movement, and many individual investigators, are so committed to exposing these cruelties that we will find a way to document animal abuse even in states where such bills pass. Ultimately, passage of these bans would be a big blow to COK and the movement, but they would not shut us down the way the industry hopes they will. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Is there any precedent for these proposed bans on undercover farm investigations in existing state laws?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There are some states that are riskier for investigators because they already have <a href="http://noaeta.org/LegalResources/RelatedTopics.htm">laws that prohibit certain types of activities</a> done by animal advocates on animal enterprises. So these attempts at shutting down whistle-blowing activities (and other advocacy tactics) aren't exactly new, but the ones being proposed now cast a wider net, specifically targeting the entirely legal activity of taking a photograph or recording of a farm, and may carry more severe penalties.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Proponents of these bills have accused undercover investigators of “selectively editing” videos and even “staging” animal abuse to make it seem like cruelty is happening when it's not. How do you respond to that claim?</i> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Of course we have to edit video footage down before posting it online because we record dozens or hundreds of hours per investigation. Therefore, in publicly-released videos, we highlight the instances in which animals are clearly being abused. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">No matter how we edit the videos, however, what's been documented on camera is what investigators observed, and they clearly aren't staging acts of cruelty but rather witnessing firsthand the abuse of animals by other employees. In virtually every courtroom where factory farming footage has been presented as trial evidence, the farmers argue that the footage has been staged—but no one has ever submitted any proof or evidence of any kind to substantiate this claim. So I'd seriously like these critics to explain exactly how we could possibly stage the cruelty we've captured on camera being committed by other employees. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Diverting attention away from video evidence clearly showing animal abuse is factory farmers' first-ditch effort to claim they've been victimized by ideologically-motivated investigators who faked footage to frame them. They know they are guilty, and when they are caught, they try every trick in the book to deflect attention away from the concrete proof of their crimes caught on camera. One way they do this is by accusing us of lying and abusing animals. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>A related charge is, if undercover investigators really cared about animals, they wouldn</i>'<i>t spend several weeks documenting animal abuse before reporting it to law enforcement. What's your response to these accusations? </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That's another one of agribusiness' classic deflection tactics. Even if the video shows managers or supervisors perpetrating the cruelty while training the investigator as a new employee, their argument is always, why didn't the investigator stop the cruelty if he or she thought it was so wrong? According to them, it's the responsibility of the trainee—rather than the facility's manager, supervisor or owner—to stop animal abuse. Ironically, it's the corporation's policies that allow the cruelty to happen in the first place, and yet they try to pin the blame on people who've dedicated their lives to stopping animal abuse. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Also, when our investigators capture video footage of animal cruelty at a factory farm, we usually bring it to a prosecutor immediately with a legal argument as to why he or she should take the case. However, a lot of what we document is commonly exempt from state animal cruelty laws simply because a lot of farms are doing it. The logic is that if something is done routinely on multiple farms, then it must be standard industry practice, and therefore legal. Even though this exemption clause is rarely defined and many of these practices are actually very cruel, they are effectively immune from the law. The point is that, in many cases, telling law enforcement about the cruelty we witness won't lead to prosecution, but we can increase our chances of success by compiling as much proof as possible over an extended period of time. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Critics also charge that investigators only target the industry's few “bad apples” that allegedly don't represent the majority of agriculture producers, just so animal protection groups can damage the entire industry's reputation. What's your response to that claim?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's another attempt by the industry to defend itself when investigators actually document clear violations of anti-cruelty laws. They're basically admitting that what's shown on video is cruel, but claiming that it's just the exception rather than the rule. But what we've found by doing factory farm investigations is that cruelty is standard practice throughout the industry. In every single facility our investigators have gone into, they’ve documented both run-of-the-mill suffering and criminal acts of cruelty. Almost all of our targets have been chosen at random, too. So when agribusiness claims that there are just a few bad apples and that the vast majority of farmers take good care of animals, they're either lying or in denial. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Critics also charge that undercover investigators threaten food safety: that they could intentionally or accidentally transmit communicable diseases to whole herds or flocks of animals, making people who eat them sick. What's your response to that?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Investigators who gain employment at these facilities follow the exact same biohazard procedures that every other employee follows, so if they’re claiming that investigators are potentially bringing in diseases, every other employee poses the same exact risk. In many cases, we've found that facilities don't even follow the basic biosecurity measures they claim to, so these companies are actually the ones endangering public health, not investigators. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Also, factory farms have given rise to <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2010/03/zoonotic-diseases-next-global-plague.html">bird flu, swine flu and mad cow disease</a>, which pose far greater public health risks than investigators ever possibly could. This argument therefore seems like just another attempt by the industry to divert attention away from their own faults by accusing animal activists of what they themselves are guilty of. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Do you think the agribusiness representatives and politicians making these unfounded claims sincerely believe them, or are they just cynically spreading disinformation to prevent animal advocates from exposing the cruelty taking place on factory farms? </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's probably different for different people. Some people grow up around cruelty to animals, so it becomes acceptable and normal to them. It can also be a defense mechanism that kicks in when someone is accused of wrongdoing, and they convince themselves they're not guilty, so there must be something wrong with their accusers. For example, in Nick Cooney's book <i><a href="http://vegan.com/blog/2011/01/11/book-review-nick-cooneys-change-of-heart/">Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change</a></i>, he writes about how, when you present people with evidence that counters their beliefs, many will cling even more tightly to those beliefs and try to come up with any and every reason they can to dismiss facts that contradict their beliefs. So instead of using logic and reason to question their assumptions, they push back the other way and cling even more tightly to their beliefs. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>When animal protection groups expose farm animal abuse, do they not only make agribusiness look bad, but also the government for not doing its job of enforcing animal welfare laws?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That may be another reason that some states are trying to pass these bills. The problem is that there's rampant animal abuse going on throughout the industry, with producers and the government turning their backs on it. The solution, from their perspective, is to stop people from documenting the cruelty so they don't have to spend time, money and effort on improving conditions for animals. It's similar to other factory farming “solutions” such as overcrowding pigs in pens where they get so bored, frustrated and aggressive that they bite each others' tails off. But instead of giving pigs more room so they won't get so stressed, farmers just amputate their tails, usually without painkillers. Basically, they try to solve problems by creating more problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>If the government was really concerned about cruelty to farm animals, wouldn</i>'<i>t they just do what COK does: send undercover investigators in with hidden cameras to document conditions in factory farms? </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for enforcing what meager <a href="http://www.aldf.org/article.php?id=1027">federal farm animal welfare laws</a> are in place, but this is the same government body whose main function is promoting agribusiness' economic interests, so they have an incentive to avoid shutting facilities down for violations. There's a huge conflict of interest there, and both industry and government look at it from a cost-benefit perspective. That is, taking measures to improve the treatment of farm animals would cost agribusiness money, and require the government to invest more resources in enforcement. That's basically why agribusiness and some politicians are trying to pass these misguided bills.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi87YWw70J6pQKJUzaTXGmWbGJ0JzI-zbET1ZYFF0C_ubwIchRaZzxqD1shKPYxEQEuFD0in2F8-nbvIre9J4FnHfzgNzL8UgkfU5VVbi6oNre7zZcz1YQDsAtGffyA4ZOxgYbb/s1600/what_you_can_do_icon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi87YWw70J6pQKJUzaTXGmWbGJ0JzI-zbET1ZYFF0C_ubwIchRaZzxqD1shKPYxEQEuFD0in2F8-nbvIre9J4FnHfzgNzL8UgkfU5VVbi6oNre7zZcz1YQDsAtGffyA4ZOxgYbb/s1600/what_you_can_do_icon.gif" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Watch <a href="http://www.cok.net/investigations/">COK's undercover factory farm investigation videos</a></b>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Iowa Residents</b>: Use this convenient <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=ohhl4rw8mbn4">HSUS Action Alert</a> to encourage your state senator to oppose S.F. 431. Also <a href="http://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx">contact your state senator directly</a>, and ask him or her to oppose this bill.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<div style="color: red; text-align: center;">Tune in again on Monday, April 25 for my interview with Nathan Runkle,<br />
founder and Executive Director of <a href="http://www.mercyforanimals.org/calves/">Mercy for Animals (MFA)</a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">* The Minnesota and Florida bills have been defeated since I posted this interview. However, <a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=5073">New York legislators proposed an Ag Gag bill</a> afterwards. </span></div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-61325800157135722502011-04-19T10:08:00.000-07:002011-06-08T21:01:49.903-07:00States to Outlaw Factory Farm Investigations? (Part 1 of 4)<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>An interview with HSUS</b><b>'s</b><b> End Factory Farming campaign Senior Director, Paul Shapiro </b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEGUj5l4YoyLLMPulpdvNjAelh-mV1PyTXHdargc0xMSsji9sAsWVw_4OW755gBwdXS2fe-oMI9rZ33oElx8ouwg0ks6K8hkAJ4dW3v4UZpvYX3J5mHBQlUnJxKmQdQ2z_E7n/s1600/calves+-+bushway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEGUj5l4YoyLLMPulpdvNjAelh-mV1PyTXHdargc0xMSsji9sAsWVw_4OW755gBwdXS2fe-oMI9rZ33oElx8ouwg0ks6K8hkAJ4dW3v4UZpvYX3J5mHBQlUnJxKmQdQ2z_E7n/s1600/calves+-+bushway.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of HSUS</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you've seen disturbing videos and photos of animals being beaten, tortured and otherwise abused in factory farms, slaughterhouses and other food production facilities, chances are those horrific images were brought to you by undercover investigators working for animal protection groups. If not for these courageous muckrakers, the public would probably never know about the hidden cruelty that billions of animals are subjected to every year behind agribusiness' fortified walls of secrecy and denial. That's why politicians in some states are now trying to protect their campaign contributors in the meat, dairy and egg industries from damningly negative publicity by outlawing this powerful form of animal advocacy. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Legislators in three states—Iowa, Florida and Minnesota—have recently proposed bills that would criminalize taking videos or photos of farm animals without their so-called owners' consent, and gaining employment at agribusiness facilities with intent to document conditions there. That is, rather than address the systemic animal cruelty that undercover investigations have exposed time and time again, some lawmakers want to put those who reveal these abusive practices to the American people behind bars. The proposed penalties for these “crimes” by state are as follows:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Iowa</b>: A felony punishable by fines of up to $7,500 and up to five years imprisonment</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Florida</b>*: A felony punishable by a $1,000 fine and one year in prison</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Minnesota*</b>: First offense would be considered a gross misdemeanor, with felony prosecutions for any subsequent offenses </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The first of these bills was introduced several weeks ago, so I'm admittedly somewhat late on the draw in writing about them. Since author Mark Hawthorne already persuasively articulated the animal rights perspective on this issue in his <a href="http://strikingattheroots.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/big-ag-and-lawmakers-push-ban-on-undercover-cameras/">Striking at the Roots blog</a> last month, I decided to approach it from a different angle than I've seen taken so far. Basically, I asked official representatives from the “Big Four” animal protection groups most known for doing undercover factory farm investigations to tell their side of the story in their own words. Thus begins a four-part series of interviews with these individuals that I will post as follows:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Today</b>: Paul Shapiro, Senior Director of The Humane Society of the United States' (HSUS) <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/campaigns/factory_farming/">End Factory Farming campaign</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Friday, April 22</b>: Erica Meier, Executive Director of <a href="http://www.cok.net/">Compassion Over Killing (COK)</a> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Monday, April 25</b>: Nathan Runkle, founder and Executive Director of <a href="http://www.mercyforanimals.org/">Mercy for Animals (MFA)</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- <strike>Thursday, April 28</strike></b> <b>Friday, May 13</b>: Jeff Kerr, General Counsel for <a href="http://www.peta.org/">People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)</a> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0sHj-jqVpnry2ZWnyTRRkLZlRE217uLzBAuNp09-oiZChHGnvLC7PC0lO2Im6ZiwFjdfK9EIneunlJBbxrBvN5QdxRWeJfakkB_vzrTebEhxQGUvIoZsNwTHoUS1PvA-v-_yB/s1600/Paul+Shapiro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0sHj-jqVpnry2ZWnyTRRkLZlRE217uLzBAuNp09-oiZChHGnvLC7PC0lO2Im6ZiwFjdfK9EIneunlJBbxrBvN5QdxRWeJfakkB_vzrTebEhxQGUvIoZsNwTHoUS1PvA-v-_yB/s1600/Paul+Shapiro.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of HSUS</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My first guest is Paul Shapiro, Senior Director of <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/campaigns/factory_farming/">HSUS' End Factory Farming campaign</a>. Shapiro was something of an animal protection prodigy, founding the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization <a href="http://www.cok.net/">Compassion Over Killing</a> in 1995 while still in high school. He served as the group's Campaigns Director for a decade, during which time he went undercover on factory farms with camera in hand to document animal cruelty. Shapiro transitioned to a leadership role at HSUS in 2005, and has since been a major force behind the successful passage of landmark farm animal welfare legislation in states from Maine to California.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here's what Shapiro had to say about the proposed bans on undercover factory farm investigations: </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><i>AR</i></b><i>: Strategically speaking, why does HSUS conduct undercover factory farm investigations?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>PS</b>: Undercover investigations are an effective way to blow the whistle on agribusiness' mistreatment of farm animals, and these exposés play an important role in our society by shining a very bright light on the dark world of factory farming. They reveal not only animal welfare violations committed by individual workers and the industry as a whole, but other types of illegal activities, as well. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For example, when we <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/news/news/2008/01/undercover_investigation_013008.html">investigated California's Hallmark/Westland Slaughter Plant</a> in 2008, we uncovered criminal activity as far as animal cruelty is concerned, as well as serious food safety violations that resulted in the largest recall of meat in U.S. history—over 143 million pounds of beef. Our investigation also led to closure of the plant, which was a large supplier to the National School Lunch Program. Much of that meat would have otherwise been eaten by children, and, unfortunately, some of it was because it could not be reclaimed quickly enough. At the Bushway Slaughter Plant in Vermont in 2009, we not only uncovered criminal activity that resulted in an animal cruelty conviction for the plant's owner, but disciplinary action was also taken against the on-site U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector for not doing his job. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">These examples illustrate that exposés play a vital whistle-blowing role that is very important to society as a whole. Yet they wouldn't have been possible if the draconian laws now being proposed had been in place in the states where we conducted them. The factory farming industry should be improving its animal welfare policies and food safety procedures, but instead it's trying to prevent Americans from learning about what actually happens to farm animals. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>A common accusation the bills' supporters make against animal advocacy groups is that they “selectively edit” their investigative footage somehow to make it seem as though animal cruelty is taking place when it's actually not, and that undercover investigators even “stage” acts of cruelty themselves to further their animal rights agenda. How do you respond to such allegations?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">First and foremost, no one has ever presented any evidence that any animal protection group has staged acts of animal cruelty at a factory farm or slaughter plant. Of course, if it had happened, the guilty parties would be charged with violating the law, because it's illegal to fabricate footage and then use it to malign the reputation of a company. That's defamation and libel, and companies would have already sued someone over this if it had been done. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The fact that the industry has never pursued such legal action speaks volumes about their claims. Anyway, these bills don't aim to crack down on people who would stage videos. Their purpose is to criminalize <i>all</i> undercover videos because they accurately depict the mistreatment and abuse of animals on factory farms, which is an unpleasant reality that agribusiness desperately wants to keep hidden from Americans. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Agribusiness proponents also routinely accuse animal advocacy groups, especially HSUS, of waiting several weeks before reporting animal abuse uncovered during investigations to authorities. They say that if HSUS really cared about animals, you'd report the abuse right away. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Unfortunately, the abuse that we document often happens right out in the open where everybody at the facility already knows about it: it's just that nobody does anything to stop it. Many times the managers and owners themselves are perpetrating the abuse. In fact, both our Hallmark and Bushway investigations resulted in criminal convictions of the managers or owners of those plants for personally breaking animal welfare laws. More importantly though, the fact remains that, if we were to uncover one act of abuse during an investigation and release that information to authorities, it would probably be dismissed as merely an isolated case. To prosecute people who violate animal cruelty laws, we often need to demonstrate a clear pattern of abuse. That is exactly what we've been able to show through many of our investigations, but only by gathering evidence over a few weeks. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>I also understand that a lot of the cruelty you document isn't even illegal: it's just standard operating procedure throughout the industry. In these cases, there would be no one to report the abuse to, right?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, and while some exposés result in criminal convictions, we deliberately conduct other investigations to document the industry's standard operating procedures. Though these practices may be legal, most people would agree that they are still inhumane and cruel to animals. So sometimes our main goal in conducting an investigation is to expose common industry practices that are abusive rather than blow the whistle on criminal acts. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>You mentioned before that HSUS has documented USDA inspectors not doing what they're paid to do. This makes me think that undercover investigations not only make agribusiness look bad, but the government as well. So, do you think that the government is actively working with the industry to pass these bills because they don't want people to know how complicit regulatory agencies are in the animal cruelty being perpetrated on factory farms?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Our investigations have often shown that government inspectors, while they are witnessing animal abuse, do nothing about it. At Hallmark, there were six USDA inspectors there, and the abuse was going on right out in the open: none of the inspectors or managers ever stopped it. At Bushway, one of the USDA inspectors told our investigator, on hidden camera, not to let him know when he found live calves in piles of dead calves because then he'd have to shut the plant down. Also on hidden camera, he told workers who were skinning a live calf, while the animal was fully conscious and kicking, that if another inspector saw them do that he could shut the plant down. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">However, the government isn't a monolith: it's made up of different kinds of people with different values. Some USDA inspectors really do want to prevent egregious cruelty and try to stop it. There are people who hold positions of power in state or federal government who would like to see these types of laws passed, and there are others who wouldn't. But it wouldn't be accurate or fair to generalize about everyone who is part of the regulatory system, because some of them do want to help animals. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>These proposed bills, however, really seem to highlight the close relationship between agribusiness and some elected officials. Can you comment on that?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Agribusiness is a very influential lobby in most states, and certainly at the federal level. The response to that from the animal protection movement needs to be to become an even more influential political force than the animal agriculture industry, and the way we do that is by getting more politically involved. There are a lot more animal advocates out there than people in animal agribusiness, and we need to be as vocal as possible about animal issues in terms of talking to our legislators if we are to make real, lasting progress for animals. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Agribusiness' response in the states trying to pass these bills is to basically shoot the messenger. But I'm sure you've read in trade journals in recent years that some industry experts are acknowledging, mainly because of the results of undercover investigations, that agribusiness' treatment of animals is out of step with current societal values. These individuals openly call on the industry to initiate farm animal welfare reforms that reflect consumers' expectations. Does HSUS ally itself with those in the industry who desire change? </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, absolutely. We work with anybody who wants to raise the bar on farm animal welfare. Sometimes people within the industry want to do that, whether for business reasons or ethical concerns or both, and we're always happy to join forces with them. One example among many of this type of partnership is when HSUS jointly drafted legislation with the California Cattleman's Association to <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2009/10/california_enacts_tail_docking_ban_101209.html">ban the tail-docking of dairy cows</a> throughout the state last year. Tail-docking without anesthesia is not only intensely painful for cows, but it leaves them more vulnerable to fly bites because they can no longer swat insects away. The cattlemen wanted to get rid of the practice, so we worked with them to draft language for a bill that the legislature passed, and then-Governor Schwarzenegger signed it into law. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>If the bans were to pass, how would it affect HSUS's ability to conduct undercover investigations in those states?</i> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It really depends on what gets enacted, if anything. These bills are still in process and have many variations, so it would depend on how they were worded as actual statutes on the books. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>If undercover investigations do become illegal in some places, how will the animal protection movement let the public know what's actually happening inside factory farms in those states?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There will be a black hole: it will be very difficult for anyone to know what's really happening. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6LHQXNGn_9vB67lbY1kThTKT9xc6A3wy7jQaURVSJvTeq5911SVSaQAH3bzVnSn2UY4aySBIyVonmvCGUwe8UClAHzjHX1DDXa-syGu4qyfrRacgv-Zj5OKLetsvyasunSqIS/s1600/what_you_can_do_icon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6LHQXNGn_9vB67lbY1kThTKT9xc6A3wy7jQaURVSJvTeq5911SVSaQAH3bzVnSn2UY4aySBIyVonmvCGUwe8UClAHzjHX1DDXa-syGu4qyfrRacgv-Zj5OKLetsvyasunSqIS/s1600/what_you_can_do_icon.gif" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: red;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Watch HSUS's <a href="http://hsus.feedroom.com/?fr_chl=37ede4c4e1d8824d1d379091d35a2a4b92f1139b&rf=sitemap">undercover factory farm investigation videos</a></b>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>- Iowa Residents</b>: Use this convenient <a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4933">HSUS Action Alert</a> to encourage your state senator to oppose S.F. 431. Also <a href="http://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx">contact your state senator directly</a>, and ask him or her to oppose this bill.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">* The Florida and Minnesota bills have both been defeated since I posted this interview. However, <a href="https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=5073">New York legislators proposed an Ag Gag bill</a> afterwards. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-87836314691972070502011-04-15T11:13:00.000-07:002011-04-15T13:02:47.901-07:00My "Food Recalls" Article in VegNews Magazine<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiajS8xUQ_AaIKjBjKEBu3ZahtIfJkOC9mS5SKyqtDHosavzwDD9LDjQMCiqhztPUcFDkRJbYbojwcuueI6nfmgC6ofGRkSaq1DUkXtNKbZ8rnNQZuO-0jvo5dKK3RE8-XCYMWU/s1600/VegNews+cover+-+MayJune+2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiajS8xUQ_AaIKjBjKEBu3ZahtIfJkOC9mS5SKyqtDHosavzwDD9LDjQMCiqhztPUcFDkRJbYbojwcuueI6nfmgC6ofGRkSaq1DUkXtNKbZ8rnNQZuO-0jvo5dKK3RE8-XCYMWU/s200/VegNews+cover+-+MayJune+2011.jpg" width="159" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
From beef and eggs to peanuts and greens, there's been a measurable increase in food recalls recently. Some of the biggest food recalls in U.S. history have occurred in the last several years, and more food products were recalled in 2010 than in any previous year. So, does this rise in recalls mean our food is becoming more hazardous to our health, or that the U.S.'s food safety system is getting better at identifying and neutralizing threats?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I attempt to answer this and other burning questions about food-borne diseases in my new six-page feature "Fear Factor" in the <a href="http://vegnews.myshopify.com/products/may-june-2011-79">May/June issue of <i>VegNews </i>magazine</a>. About </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">1 in 6 (or 48 million) Americans will get ill and 3,000 will die from e</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">ating tainted food this year. Don't become just another statistic — protect yourself by getting the facts about food recalls in my latest article!</span><br />
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</span>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-8078497311881703972011-03-21T16:45:00.000-07:002011-04-02T21:30:12.342-07:00The Brain From Planet Anus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUm9No1g2JA8g5wbn-54VWavsLV72fYr97k0397Jycma7GMwbmEGjakF078FNKorFiDte4PaN5hoMGRFlkJBA00iQJvBWuwM48plq2WANSOhuSobiKTA4_ZxN-nhhmhWnZnltj/s1600/pelican+-+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUm9No1g2JA8g5wbn-54VWavsLV72fYr97k0397Jycma7GMwbmEGjakF078FNKorFiDte4PaN5hoMGRFlkJBA00iQJvBWuwM48plq2WANSOhuSobiKTA4_ZxN-nhhmhWnZnltj/s200/pelican+-+small.jpg" width="141" /></a><b>A Radio Comedy Skit I Wrote in College</b><br />
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When I was an undergrad at the State University of New York, New Paltz, I performed with an audio theater troupe called <a href="http://users.bestweb.net/%7Ekali93/jan2000/pelican.htm">The Magnificent Glass Pelican</a>. We did live broadcasts just about every week from our college radio station, mainly of sketch comedy. Even now, 20 years later, the Pelican is still on the air every Wednesday night at WFNP, 88.5 FM.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">While having nothing really to do with animals (aside from the "Pelican" part), I thought some readers might find this 3-minute, 27-second <a href="http://animalrighter.org/MGP_Audio_Theater.html">comedy skit</a> I wrote for the show (circa 1993) mildly entertaining. Enjoy!</div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-83099484081966181382011-03-10T12:32:00.000-08:002011-09-06T10:50:51.062-07:00Arabian Knights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg41nQpQv-XSpt4C6-Hh7J9kIwvziUp74JVcDxbQI0mzlHFh-_IURltBVMOdJEHzFDpUSQfh8O_8o9JKRQW7wMkxYEpu5Uekjxo6NcgGkEJh1wRUi3GG7mOIpY6Vwry7l7Hlka/s1600/flag-of-tunisia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Could the Jasmine Revolution offer clues to catalyzing change for animals? </b><br />
<br />
They say revolution's in the air, <br />
I'm dancin' in my underwear<br />
'cause I don't care.<br />
<br />
– The Rutles, from <a href="http://youtu.be/FKezWLZqRik">“Piggy in the Middle”</a>* <br />
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By now you probably know the story of how a formerly unknown fruit and vegetable vendor's self-immolation swiftly brought down a dictator who'd been ruling Tunisia with an iron fist for 23 years, but I'll quickly recap it here for the sake of context. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi">Mohamed </a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi">Bouazizi</a>, a 26-year-old unemployed college graduate, was just barely scraping out a living on the streets of Sidi Bouzid hawking fresh produce from a pushcart when he was harassed by a local policewoman for lacking a vendor's permit (even though he apparently wasn't required to have one). She allegedly insulted Bouazizi's dead father, slapped the young man's face, spat on him, and confiscated his cart containing the equivalent of $200 worth in goods—outraging Bouazizi so severely that he quickly sought an audience with the district's governor. After being refused a hearing, Bouazizi publicly lit himself on fire in protest, igniting a firestorm of revolt that toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's administration in a matter of mere weeks, then spread like wildfire to Egypt and Libya while inspiring major protest movements throughout the Middle East. <br />
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Not even the world's most astute political analysts had predicted that a popular insurrection would sweep through the region with such lightning-quick speed. Sure, Tunisia is a country whose population is overwhelmingly young, educated, social-media-savvy, and frustrated by high unemployment and escalating food prices, but the Old Guard had been firmly ensconced for so long that it seemed their regime would be holding the reins of power for the foreseeable future. Yet Bouazizi's bold (and ultimately suicidal**) statement turned out to be one of those historically rarified events that utterly upends and transcends conventional theories of how change actually happens in the world. <br />
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I mean, if you think about it, could Bouazizi have even dared to dream that by setting his body alight, he would so sensationally affect the trajectory of world geopolitics? Probably not. And what about Faida Hamdi, the municipal official who so antagonistically dropped the final straw that broke Bouazizi's existential back? In the course of her workaday job, in her wildest imagination, could she ever have conceived that upsetting this young man's proverbial and actual apple cart would end up toppling the corrupt autocracy that employed her? Definitely not. (I also wonder what she could have possibly said when called before her superiors to answer for this monumental screw-up: maybe something eminently pedestrian like “Whoops, my bad!”) <br />
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In retrospect at least, Bouazizi's self-inflicted combustion appears to have been perfectly timed to dovetail with the powderkeg social conditions that happened to exist within his surroundings at that precise moment. (Of course, discontent had been festering for decades before finally reaching an exasperated crescendo.) Activists for different causes have resorted to self-immolation many times before (perhaps most famously, Zen Buddhist monks opposing the bloody Vietnam War)—but few have succeeded in changing the world to the extent that Bouazizi has in this instance. So what exactly made this single act by one solitary individual the flashpoint for such a massive and seemingly spontaneous freedom uprising?<br />
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We'll most likely never know the answer to that question, but it still seems worth asking because this mystery may well hold the key to accelerating the end of other oppressive systems—such as (for the purposes of this discussion) humanity's violent enslavement of animals. Like most animal advocates, I consider myself a pragmatist who tends to take a long view of the struggle, generally assuming (based on theory, historical precedent and personal experience) that progress takes place incrementally, one small step forward at a time. But what if radical change could be instigated in one fell swoop by engaging in <i>just </i>the right action at exactly the right moment? Wouldn't that serve animals and the world at large better than endlessly negotiating relatively minor concessions while billions of our fellow Terrans continue to be viciously tortured and killed?<br />
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Here's the trillion dollar question: <i>If </i>such an exceedingly effective action could be taken to stop the massacre of innocents, <i>what would it look like</i>? And how do we go about figuring out whether such a strategy is even possible?<br />
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Lest anyone reading this thinks for even a second that I'm suggesting animal activists should start setting themselves on fire, allow me to categorically state here and now that I endorse no such thing. Let's make this nice and sparkling clear: <i><b>do not</b> immolate yourself</i>, or incite anyone else to do so in protest of society's exploitation of animals. Granted, if I truly, absolutely believed that by sacrificing my own life I could fundamentally alter the way humans treat other species for generations to come, I'd probably be in line at Walgreens buying a basket full of lighter fluid right now. I mean, at the risk of implying that I have some sort of death wish, exchanging one life to save billions seems like more than a fair trade in the universal scheme of things. <br />
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There is no real reason to suppose, however, that such an act of principled self-annihilation would significantly alter most people's attitudes towards animals (aside from perhaps reinforcing the stereotype that animal rights activists are crazy). In fact, Bouazizi's auto-destruction may well have been at least as much an act of sheer desperation as a deliberately-planned political statement, and its incredible impact a relatively random by-product. Besides, my comparison between the Arab and animal rights revolutions is admittedly tenuous, at best. Which is to say, there are major differences between human and animal liberation movements that may well render my entire hypothesis a moot fantasy. <br />
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My point, however, is that there <i>may</i>, perhaps, be some <i>other </i>equally dramatic action one could take that would achieve for exploited animals what Bouazizi's sacrifice accomplished for oppressed Arab peoples—<i>without </i>doing bodily harm to oneself or others. I'm just saying, it can't hurt to think outside the box by at least considering the possibility that animal advocates may be able to effect change for other species much more quickly than we had previously thought realistic. That is, <i>if </i>we can finely attune our minds to the zeitgeist that defines our present, thereby making the most of specific opportunities when they present themselves. In terms of our modern collective consciousness, perhaps it would help to think of such a potential occurrence as our movement's <a href="http://www.grandtimes.com/rosa.html">Rosa Parks</a> moment.<br />
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I know, it seems like a really long shot, and I completely acknowledge the pressing need to patiently persist in laying the groundwork for a more compassionate paradigm brick by concrete brick. And we must continue to do this the old-fashioned way: by spreading the word (through personal interactions, public protests/demonstrations, social and traditional media, etc.), financially supporting vegan businesses, passing pro-animal legislation, and other proven methods. But still, with revolution now so thick in the Arabian air, I can't help but wonder whether there are lessons we animal advocates could learn from current events taking place on the other side of the globe.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">* If you're wondering why I began with this lyric (since it seems to contradict both the tone and point of this piece), it's simply because this song always makes me laugh, and I couldn't resist referencing a classic Beatles parody group fronted by Monty Python alum Eric Idle. Then again, perhaps I'm also satirically commenting on mainstream society's apathetic attitude about creating a more enlightened civilization. Rest assured, anyone who's read far enough to reach this footnote is categorically excluded from such smug judgments on my part. <br />
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** Notably, Mohamed Bouazizi officially achieved martyrdom when he died in a hospital bed from third-degree burns over most of his body 18 days after he set himself on fire.</span><br />
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</span></div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-91751980797763270032011-02-05T18:11:00.000-08:002012-08-15T00:42:10.225-07:00Parallel Vegan Universe(s)<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>Theoretical physics is catching up with science fiction—making the possibility of more ethically-advanced extra-dimensional worlds plausible</b></div>
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Have you ever wondered whether there might be another <i>you</i> wandering around somewhere, perhaps on a planet much like our own but subtly or even drastically different? If so, then you may have actually <i>created</i> such a person in another reality simply by <i>thinking </i>about it!</div>
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Sound farfetched? Well, <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics/fac-bios/Greene/faculty.html">Dr. Brian Greene</a> doesn't think so. As a bestselling author and physics professor at Columbia University, he's done the math, and says it suggests that our universe may be merely one of a potentially infinite number that exists within an ever-expanding <i>multiverse. </i>Of course, we can't actually see or visit these alternate domains (just yet, anyway) because, according to <a href="http://superstringtheory.com/">string theory</a>, reality vibrates on at least ten or eleven mathematically-identifiable dimensions, and we Earthlings only experience three spatial dimensions (plus one of time). Nevertheless, Professor Greene believes scientists could perhaps prove the existence of parallel universes by formulating a unifying <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/everything.html">Theory of Everything</a> that resolves basic inconsistencies between Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics (thereby solving the great mystery of why matter behaves so differently on the macro and microcosmic levels). </div>
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If parallel universes were discovered, it would radically revolutionize how we understand the very nature of reality. Readers wanting a comprehensive but accessible explanation of these heady ideas should check out Dr. Greene's new book, <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780307265630.html"><i>The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos</i></a><i>. </i>However, what interests me most at the moment is not the nitty-gritty numbers behind string theory, but rather <i>imagining</i> what kinds of worlds may exist out there beyond our current ken. And, especially because Professor Greene is a vegan who stopped eating meat as a nine year old to avoid eradicating animals' existence, I'm considering a grand possibility: that somewhere, on some other plane of reality, there are worlds where people<i> don't</i> kill animals for food or any other unnecessary reason. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEB4KI5I_mp5zy7wUFNxROV0UIwUYp91svGcBqD3ADL-9xPg2mM-0kLJdFNtRJpzVgROfNqQtNkHFESduYl_LB3fq1fRg6YN0u-uBdk6V0lEAJB9jm124HLLdMG9og5pK3nFqs/s1600/Spock+pic_FINAL.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEB4KI5I_mp5zy7wUFNxROV0UIwUYp91svGcBqD3ADL-9xPg2mM-0kLJdFNtRJpzVgROfNqQtNkHFESduYl_LB3fq1fRg6YN0u-uBdk6V0lEAJB9jm124HLLdMG9og5pK3nFqs/s200/Spock+pic_FINAL.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by <a href="http://www.animalvisuals.org/">Mark Middleton</a></td></tr>
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Need context? Take an example of a parallel universe from pop culture—specifically the classic 1967 <i>Star Trek</i> episode “Mirror, Mirror”* in which a malfunctioning transporter beams Captain Kirk and three Federation starship officers into an alternate world (with their doubles simultaneously materializing on the Enterprise). In this strange reality, the intrepid interstellar space explorers boldly encounter their crewmates' evil counterparts—including a stylishly goateed Mr. Spock who is still eminently logical but trapped in an irrationally cruel and ruthless reality of imperial intrigue, genocide and assassinations. Like all Vulcans, Spock (the original at least) is a pointy-eared alien who <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2009/05/vegan-vulcan-live-long-and-prosper-go.html">espouses non-violence and practices ethical veganism</a>. Meanwhile, in <i>our</i> reality, Leonard Nimoy, the actor who personifies the hyper-intelligent and super-strong Science Officer, is vegetarian—probably because he was convinced by the philosophy of the fictional character he portrayed to stop eating meat, showing how even “parallel” <i>made-up people</i> can have tangible effects on our world. </div>
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If Spock's malevolent doppelganger is any indication of the potential differences between our universe and others populating the multiverse, then it is quite conceivable that perhaps, somewhere among the infinite possible realms, <a href="http://ingridnewkirk.com/">PETA president Ingrid Newkirk</a> is CEO of McDonalds, for example, or there’s a world where sentient plant beings breed humans on factory farms for meat. Conversely, there may also be worlds where <a href="http://outsideonline.com/magazine/0398/9803nugent.html">avid hunting enthusiast Ted Nugent</a> runs a sanctuary for injured wildlife, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1124.Anthony_Bourdain">carnivorous chef Anthony Bourdain</a> copacetically hosts a popular vegan cooking show called <i>Kitchen </i><i>Compassion</i>, or there’s a smartphone app that translates most known species’ languages into human speech and vice versa. Statistically and probabilistically speaking, the variegated details between alternate worlds are essentially limitless. </div>
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While we are all stuck living in just <i>one</i> reality (for the time being, anyway), in another sense animal rights advocates <i>already</i> live in a parallel universe ruled by a paradigm of brute force domination over other species. That is, we exist, individually and collectively, as a universe <i>within</i> a universe—right alongside a vast majority of people who either don't know, don't care, or <a href="http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2010/07/death-by-denial.html">deny</a> that the meat they eat is actually the dead flesh of animals who were <a href="http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/animalwelfare/">tortured on factory farms</a> before being painfully slaughtered on mechanized assembly lines. We see the cruelty that others remain blind to, the horror hidden in plain sight, and feel empathy for the conscious creatures who so clearly share our inherent will to live and love. And as we strive to create a kinder, gentler world, one in which innocent animals aren't victimized for pleasure and profit, perchance our thoughts and actions in <i>this</i> reality are not only making a difference for animals here on our planet, but also creating divergent worlds throughout the multiverse where animal exploitation is universally condemned or utterly unthinkable.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">* <a href="http://www.fancast.com/tv/Star-Trek/96413/620597117/Star-Trek%3A-The-Original-Series---Mirror%2C-Mirror/videos">Watch the full <i>Star Trek</i> episode "Mirror, Mirror" online for free at fancast.com</a>.</span></div>
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Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-86541089951819708032011-02-03T00:06:00.000-08:002011-02-03T02:24:09.137-08:00Water Usage & Privatization<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Animal agriculture's abuse of our most precious natural resource</b></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEham2cUMLvHWrdUtzMB0p_Huk_lfX-JTsXYUa0Exz7GN6yrQFzuXYNPb1C-u6yXkxPJUo8E6MmHavwTyF3GN295f7lHZrgYxnoegYI9t2kchE3ZdB8SHZj49vFgSDxuw4-giLF5/s1600/water_small1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEham2cUMLvHWrdUtzMB0p_Huk_lfX-JTsXYUa0Exz7GN6yrQFzuXYNPb1C-u6yXkxPJUo8E6MmHavwTyF3GN295f7lHZrgYxnoegYI9t2kchE3ZdB8SHZj49vFgSDxuw4-giLF5/s1600/water_small1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As the basis for life on Earth, water is truly "the elixir of life"—and agriculture uses far more freshwater worldwide (approximately 60 percent of the global total) than any other human activity. Much of this water goes to crop irrigation, but a significant proportion (about 8 percent of the total) is used to raise animals for meat, dairy and eggs. Meanwhile, with the human population projected to hit nine billion by 2050—and animal product consumption expected to double in that time—political analysts speculate that the wars of the future will be fought over dwindling water resources.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Read all about this pressing issue in my new article entitled <a href="http://foodispower.org/water_usage.htm">“Water Usage & Privatization”</a> for the Food Empowerment Project.</div>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-30182104983460254212011-01-01T16:12:00.000-08:002011-09-06T10:51:35.121-07:00Environmentalists, Fashion Designers Re-brand Fur as “Guilt-Free”<b>The hypocrisy of protecting wetlands by promoting clothes made from invasive </b> <b>“swamp-rats”</b><br />
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In the late 1800s, some Louisiana fur farmers started bringing cat-sized brown rodents called <i>nutria </i>over from Argentina to be bred, killed and skinned for posh women’s clothing. Of course, some eventually escaped their cages and found freedom in the wild, where they exponentially procreated and devoured the roots of plants that keep coastal marshes from disintegrating into open water. Now, decades later, there are about 20 million of these semi-aquatic, web-footed, rat-tailed, buck-toothed, beaveresque mammals inhabiting the state shredding thousands of acres of wetlands.*<br />
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But who ultimately gets <i>blamed </i>for this unnatural disaster? Certainly not the fur industry, which actually <i>caused it</i> by recklessly importing exotic animals for economic exploitation. No, of <i>course </i>not…because it’s obviously all the<i> nutria’s</i> fault for daring to evade their tormentors! Well, according to environmentalists, that is, who have teamed up with the unrepentant fur industry on a campaign to convince people that buying nutria-fur clothes is “green” and “eco-friendly.” It is literally and seriously being marketed as “guilt-free fur”—despite the fact that Louisiana uses federal tax dollars to <a href="http://m.npr.org/news/Business/132214288?singlePage=true">pay hunters and trappers $5 a tail for killing nutria dead</a> in typically violent and painful fashion. <br />
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The “guilt-free” justification, best expressed by the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/fashion/18nutria.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1293826148-LtC5ZiIVJpRHpyS5S4A4lw">founder of fashion design collective Righteous Fur, Cree McCree</a>, is “If (animals are) being killed anyway, then why not make something beautiful out of them?” True, Louisiana does already exterminate more than 450,000 nutria annually, and <a href="http://www.righteousfur.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=55">nearly 90% of the carcasses are simply left to rot in the bayou</a>. But nutria fur <i>is still made from murdered animals</i> and presumably processed using the same <a href="http://fundforanimals.org/pdf/Old_Urban_Wildlife_Page/fs_wild3_fur.pdf">carcinogenic chemicals</a> as other animal furs—none of which seems particularly “green” or “guilt-free” to me. <br />
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Some animal advocates apparently disagree, as a few vegan/vegetarian fashion designers have reportedly jumped on the bandwagon** (perhaps rationalizing that at least these animals don’t <a href="http://www.idausa.org/essays/animals_pay_price.html">spend their whole lives locked in tiny cages</a>, like captive-bred fur-bearers do, freezing in winter and boiling in summer, mutilating themselves and cannibalizing their companions in response to intense stress). In November 2010, some of these veg fashion designers allegedly participated in a fashion show called (wait for it) <i>Nutria-Palooza</i> at New York City’s House of Yes sponsored by Righteous Fur***. This exclusive event featured models sashaying down the runway donning nutria-fur coats, gloves, hats, leg warmers, and even g-strings created by more than 20 professional designers. <br />
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You may be thinking at this point, “Well, Mr. AnimalRighter, at least they’ve proposed a solution to this sticky situation—what’s <i>your </i>suggestion? You want the nutria should just be left to wreck the ecosystem, driving your supposed friend the native muskrat into extinction while they’re at it?” And I reply, Uh, <i>no</i>. Granted, I’m not an expert on the environment or invasive species, and I don’t have some magically humane answer that will neatly solve this zoological dilemma…but I do want to make a few observations: <br />
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1) It was the fur industry’s commodification of a non-native species that <i>started </i>this whole mess in the first place: if they hadn’t brought nutria over here to be commercially exploited, these feral rodents wouldn’t be destroying coastal wetlands today. <br />
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2) Ironically, the fur industry’s solution to this problem that <i>they created</i> is to pursue the very same objective they originally brought nutria over here for—that is, <i>to make killing these creatures profitable</i>.**** <br />
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3) Yet, instead of holding the fur industry accountable for destroying wetlands, environmentalists are financially and philosophically rewarding it by giving fur’s ethical image makeover a sheen of scientific legitimacy. <br />
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4) The next time alien animals endanger a native habitat as a consequence of corporate negligence and exploitation, environmentalists will <i>yet again</i> enthusiastically endorse the species’ merciless obliteration for expediency’s sake while conveniently ignoring the human culprits’ culpability. <br />
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5) And finally, to reiterate, <b><i>there is no such thing as “guilt-free fur</i></b><b><i>”</i></b>—unless it’s worn by the animal to who it rightfully belongs!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">* Of southern Louisiana’s <i>4.2 million acres of wetlands</i>, nutria presently impact approximately 8,475—</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">or about 0.002% of the total (according to the state</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">’</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">s official <a href="http://www.nutria.com/site9.php">Coastwide Nutria Control Program</a>). For perspective, this represents just a <i>minute fraction</i> of the damage done to Gulf Coast wetlands by, say, <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0510/Gulf-oil-spill-s-environmental-impact-How-long-to-recover">the BP oil spill</a> and other anthropocentric pollutants. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">** According to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alden-wicker/invasive-rodent-offers-ch_b_787720.html#s190575&title=The%20Nutria">Huffington Post</a> (although the blogger neglected to identify any veg fashion designers affiliated with Righteous Fur, and I was unable to find examples via a google search). Otherwise, trendy brands like Oscar de la Renta, Marc Jacobs and (the mostly pro-vegan) Etsy use nutria fur in their designs.<br />
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*** Righteous Fur was founded with a grant from the nonprofit <a href="http://www.btnep.org/home.asp">Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTENP)</a>; Righteous Fur, in turn, gives BTENP an unspecified portion of its proceeds. So basically, purchasing nutria fur financially supports scientists’ efforts to eradicate nutria from Louisiana.<br />
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**** Nutria fur was quite popular in the first half of the 20th century, when Hollywood starlets posed for publicity photos with stoles made from this exotic species draped around their shoulders. It fell out of fashion sometime in the late 1980s after intrepid animal activists caused a fur market crash by splattering blood-red paint on fur-wearing humans. </span>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-29055459276734527242010-12-03T23:46:00.000-08:002011-03-26T00:12:01.505-07:00I Ate My Father-Pig! Where Are My Calming Meat Goggles?!<b>Topical TV shows coax humor out of horror</b><br />
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Just wanted to clue you into a couple of random animal-related comedy snippets from this week’s television programming. First, check out this bizarre and disturbing <i>30 Rock</i> clip:<br />
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I found this scene both funny <i>and </i>devastatingly poignant at the same time. Poor Kenneth—and poor Harold! Here this paternalistic pig essentially raises a fatherless boy, but the Parcell family betrays his loyalty and love by selling him for slaughter. And then, Kenneth himself backstabs his porcine pop by eating Harold’s cooked corpse for prize money, <i>including </i>his <i>face </i>(i.e., his identity). Truly, this is a killing joke, which is why it is so painfully amusing.<br />
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Sadly, the way Kenneth feels about his “Father-Pig” is how I feel, deep-down, about <i>every </i>animal killed for food. That’s because each one was some<i>one</i>, the subject of a life, and our evolutionary kin—and eating them is a form of incestuous cannibalism. I think the main reason that people are able to continue consuming meat is that they either don’t accept or can’t admit that animals actually experience emotions, including heartache and loss. <br />
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Perhaps only those of us who’ve had the privilege of knowing animals personally can fully appreciate the multifaceted pathos of Kenneth’s trauma. I assume that most readers of this blog already know that <a href="http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/hidden-lives-pigs.aspx">pigs are at least as sensitive and responsive as the dogs, cats and other companion animals</a> with who we commonly share our homes and lives. It is this connective understanding that makes the eating of pigs or any other animals unthinkable to us. Of course, acclaimed actor Alec Baldwin (aka <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Donaghy">Jack Donaghy</a>) already understands this, because he narrated <a href="http://www.chooseveg.com/meet-your-meat.asp">PETA's <i>Meet Your Meet</i> video</a>.<br />
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And now, this crazy clip from <i>The Colbert Report</i>:<br />
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<tr style="background-color: #e5e5e5;" valign="middle"><td style="padding: 2px 1px 0px 5px;"><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Colbert Report</a></td><td style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 5px 0px; text-align: right;">Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14px;" valign="middle"><td colspan="2" style="padding: 2px 1px 0px 5px;"><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/366993/december-01-2010/colbert-report--cheating-death---calming-meat-goggles---the-ithrone-pt--3" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Cheating Death - Calming Meat Goggles & the iThrone<a></a></td></tr>
<tr style="background-color: #353535; height: 14px;" valign="middle"><td colspan="2" style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 5px 0px; text-align: right; width: 360px;"><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/" style="color: #96deff; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.colbertnation.com</a></td></tr>
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<tr valign="middle"><td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/" style="color: #333333; font: 10px arial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Colbert Report Full Episodes</a></td><td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a href="http://www.indecisionforever.com/" style="color: #333333; font: 10px arial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">2010 Election</a></td><td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/video/tag/March%20to%20Keep%20Fear%20Alive" style="color: #333333; font: 10px arial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">March to Keep Fear Alive</a></td></tr>
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One of the things I love about watching <i>TCR </i>is that I can laugh while learning about science, politics and other current events. <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1327703/Steaks-lamb-chops-calm-stressed-men-bringing-caveman-instincts.html">This red meat study, for example, is absolutely factual</a>, with the results being completely contrary to the researchers’ expectations. That is, they hypothesized that test subjects would become <i>more </i>aggressive after looking at pictures of meat, but the exact opposite occurred. They subsequently theorized that the reason for this is that, just like our primitive ancestors, we associate food with the pleasurable security of eating with our accepted social group.<br />
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Speaking as a vegan, however, the sight of meat doesn’t calm me—actually, it makes me extremely anxious. That’s because, as a vegan, I see meat clearly for what it is: the putrefying flesh of animals who were tortured and murdered. When I see meat, I automatically visualize animals being executed <i>en masse</i>, and empathize with the lifelong suffering they endured on factory farms and the abject terror they felt as they were herded to slaughter. In fact, it’s such a reflexive response that I have to consciously switch it off just to function in “normal” society. <br />
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Seeing meat also raises my anxiety alarm because I identify so personally with animals. I figure, if humans are willing to kill tens of billions of sentient beings a year just to please their palates, what’s the life of a measly little person like me worth? Not much, apparently, in a world where most everyone’s wearing Calming Meat Goggles.Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-75616307966243927682010-11-30T23:45:00.000-08:002011-09-06T10:52:19.795-07:00Exporting Factory Farms<b>The global expansion of industrialized "meat" production </b><br />
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More than <i>50 billion</i> land animals are killed for food worldwide every year<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">—</span>and that number is expected to <i>double</i> by 2050 as consumers in rapidly-developing societies strive to emulate Western-style eating habits. Blatantly disregarding ethics, environmentalism and farming communities, agribusiness has already hatched a plan to profit from this rising demand for more animal products. That is, multinational corporations like Tyson and Smithfield Foods are actively establishing large-scale factory farm operations in India, China, South America, and other economically-emerging countries.<br />
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You can read more about this issue in a <a href="http://www.foodispower.org/exporting_factory_farms.htm">website article</a> I recently wrote for the <a href="http://www.foodispower.org/">Food Empowerment Project</a>, a non-profit organization that "seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices (and) encourag(ing) healthy food choices that reflect a more compassionate society by spotlighting the abuse of animals on farms, the depletion of natural resources, unfair working conditions for produce workers, and the unavailability of healthy foods in low-income areas."<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.foodispower.org/exporting_factory_farms.htm"><b>READ THE ARTICLE</b></a></span>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27660291.post-80362485927490507962010-10-04T15:48:00.000-07:002010-10-04T15:55:45.943-07:00Meat-Free Politicians<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3yg-jaV_peRw3qfxLEcat44e1bLjBcdPVPV5D6QWCBRZEYmaKqt6SyAdualVahpRXN6Cewjdvvd8angtPaOZPsLADnDKz3ZI7-uPtLti-Yb_-iXeh7nzb-N_YkChMZ5TrGCD/s1600/VOTE+VEG+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3yg-jaV_peRw3qfxLEcat44e1bLjBcdPVPV5D6QWCBRZEYmaKqt6SyAdualVahpRXN6Cewjdvvd8angtPaOZPsLADnDKz3ZI7-uPtLti-Yb_-iXeh7nzb-N_YkChMZ5TrGCD/s200/VOTE+VEG+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a><em><strong><br />
Vote Veg!</strong></em> That's the message of "Meat-Free Politicians," my new article which <em>VegNews</em> magazine published on their website today. The piece includes short profiles of five vegetarian leaders at the national, state and local levels:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- US Congressman Dennis Kucinich </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- US Congresswoman Betty Sutton </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- Maryland State Senator Jamie Raskin </div>- California Assemblyman Jim Beall, Jr. <br />
- San Francisco Supervisor Sophie Maxwell <br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">My aim was to highlight the work that each of these elected officials has done to help move the veg cause forward. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><strong><u><a href="http://www.vegnews.com/web/articles/page.do?pageId=2568&catId=1"><span style="color: red;">READ THE ARTICLE</span></a></u></strong>Mat Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12162399434918547569noreply@blogger.com1