Vegan(R.I.P Heath Ledger)

Transport and Slaughter Cows are shipped to slaughter through all weather extremes, without food or water, often across hundreds of miles. Cattle who survive feedlots, dairy sheds, and veal farms face a hellish trip to the slaughterhouse. The animals are packed onto trucks where they go without food for duration of the journey, which sometimes takes days. In hot weather, many cows collapse in the heat, and in the cold, cows sometimes freeze to the sides of the truck until workers pry them off with crowbars.Cows who are too sick or injured to walk, known as “downers,” may have ropes or chains tied around their legs so that they can be dragged onto and off of the trucks. According to former Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, roughly 400,000 “dead and dying” cattle are forced onto trucks bound for slaughter each year.11Former USDA veterinary inspector Dr. Lester Friedlander explains, “In the summertime, when it’s 90, 95 degrees, they’re transporting cattle from 1,200 to 1,500 miles away on a trailer, 40 to 45 head crammed in there, and some collapse from heat exhaustion. This past winter, we had minus-50 degree weather with the windchill. Can you imagine if you were in the back of a trailer that’s open, and the windchill factor is minus-50 degrees, and that trailer is going 50 to 60 miles an hour? The animals are urinating and defecating right in the trailers, and after a while, it’s going to freeze, and their hooves are right in it. If they go down—well, you can imagine lying in there for 10 hours on a trip.”12“Downer” Cows After a horrific journey, the scared and weak animals are unloaded at a slaughterhouse. Every year, hundreds of thousands of cows are either lame, frozen to the sides of the truck, or all but dead from heat exhaustion when they arrive at the slaughterhouse. According to research published in the Journal of Animal Science, 36 percent of beef bulls and 39 percent of dairy cows show signs of lameness and crippling by the time they arrive at slaughter.13 Those who can’t walk at all are called “downers.” Injured cows are often left to slowly die. Often, frightened animals who don’t want to leave the truck are struck with electric prods or dragged off with chains and forklifts. “Uncooperative animals are beaten, they have prods poked in their faces and up their rectums,” says a former USDA inspector.14 “[D]ragging [downed] cattle with a chain and forklift is standard practice,” according to one inspector quoted in Slaughterhouse.15 A slaughterhouse worker explains how cattle who can’t walk off the truck are handled: “[Employees] just pull them till their hide be ripped, till the blood just drip on the steel and concrete ... the cow be crying with its tongue stuck out.”16Read the true story of one downed cow.Slaughter: "They Die Piece by Piece" Some cows are still conscious when their throats are cut and their limbs are hacked off. After they are unloaded, cows are forced through a chute and shot in the head with a bolt gun meant to stun them. But because the lines move so quickly and workers are often poorly trained, the technique often fails to render them insensible to pain. Some cows are still fully conscious when their throats are cut and their limbs are hacked off.An investigative report by the Washington Post titled “They Die Piece by Piece” details the difficulty of stunning cattle effectively to prevent them from being skinned and dismembered alive: “An effective stunning requires a precision shot, which workers must deliver hundreds of times daily to balky, frightened animals [who] frequently weigh 1,000 pounds or more. Within 12 seconds of entering the chamber, the fallen steer is shackled to a moving chain to be bled and butchered by other workers in a fast-moving production line.”17Ramon Moreno, one of the few who has worked in slaughterhouses for 20 years, explains that for as long as seven minutes after their throats have been slit, many animals are still alive and fully conscious. His job is to cut the legs off the animals, and he frequently has had to cut the legs off fully conscious cows. He told the Washington Post, “They blink. They make noises. ... The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around.”Another worker, Martin Fuentes, told the Post, “The line is never stopped simply because an animal is alive.” Slowing down the line to ensure that animals are properly killed is unheard of, and workers who alert officials to abuses at their slaughterhouse risk losing their jobs. The meat industry preys on a workforce made up of impoverished immigrants who can never complain about poor working conditions or cruelty to animals for fear of being deported.Cows Used for Their Milk The 9 million cows living on dairy farms in the United States spend most of their lives in large sheds or on feces-caked mud lots, where disease is rampant.3 Cows raised for their milk are repeatedly impregnated. Their babies are taken away so that humans can drink the milk intended for the calves. When their exhausted bodies can no longer provide enough milk, they are sent to slaughter and ground up for hamburgers.Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do: to nourish their babies. In order to force the animals to continue giving milk, factory farmers impregnate them using artificial insemination every year. Calves are generally taken from their mothers within a day of being born—males are destined for veal crates, and females are sentenced to the same fate as their mothers.Mother cows on dairy farms can often be seen searching and calling for their calves long after they have been separated. Author Oliver Sacks, M.D., wrote of a visit that he and cattle expert Dr. Temple Grandin made to a dairy farm and of the great tumult of bellowing that they heard when they arrived: “‘They must have separated the calves from the cows this morning,’ Temple said, and, indeed, this was what had happened. We saw one cow outside the stockade, roaming, looking for her calf, and bellowing. ‘That’s not a happy cow,’ Temple said. ‘That’s one sad, unhappy, upset cow. She wants her baby. Bellowing for it, hunting for it. She’ll forget for a while, then start again. It’s like grieving, mourning—not much written about it. People don’t like to allow them thoughts or feelings.’”4 Cows are hooked up to milk machines that often tear their udders. After their calves are taken from them, mother cows are hooked up, several times a day, to machines that take the milk intended for their babies. Using genetic manipulation, powerful hormones, and intensive milking, factory farmers force cows to produce about 10 times as much milk as they naturally would.5 Animals are pumped full of bovine growth hormone (BGH), which contributes to painful inflammation of the udder known as “mastitis.” (BGH is used throughout the U.S., but has been banned in Europe and Canada because of concerns over human health and animal welfare.)6 According to the industry’s own figures, between 30 and 50 percent of dairy cows suffer from mastitis, an extremely painful condition.7A cow’s natural lifespan is 25 years, but cows used by the dairy industry are killed after only four or five years.8 An industry study reports that by the time they are killed, nearly 40 percent of dairy cows are lame because of the filth, intensive confinement, and the strain of constantly being pregnant and giving milk.9 Dairy cows are turned into soup, companion animal food, or low-grade hamburger meat because their bodies too “spent” to be used for anything else.Veal Calves Calves raised for veal are tethered in crates so small that they can’t even turn around. Male calves—“byproducts” of the dairy industry—are generally taken from their mothers when they are less than 1 day old.10 The calves are then put into dark, tiny crates, where they are kept almost completely immobilized so that their flesh stays tender. The calves are fed a liquid diet that is low in iron and has little nutritive value in order to make their flesh white. This heinous treatment makes the calves ill, and they frequently suffer from anemia, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Frightened, sick, and alone, these calves are killed after only a few months of life. “Veal” is the flesh of a tortured, sick baby cow, and a byproduct of the milk industry.All adult and baby cows, whether raised for their flesh or their milk, are eventually shipped to a slaughterhouse and killed...Cows Used for Their Flesh Cattle raised for their flesh spend the first year of their lives grazing. In fact, they are the only farmed animals other than sheep who are ever allowed to do anything natural, like breathe fresh air or feel sun on their backs.However, cattle are still subjected to abuses that would warrant felony cruelty-to-animals charges if they were dogs or cats. To mark cows for identification, ranchers restrain the animals and push hot fire irons into their flesh, causing third degree burns, as they bellow in pain and attempt to escape. Male calves’ testicles are ripped from their scrotums without pain relievers, and the horns of cows raised for beef are cut or burned off. Cows’ horns are cut or burned off at the base, often causing extreme pain. While “on the range,” most cows receive inadequate veterinary care, and as a result, many die from infection and injury. Every winter, cattle freeze to death in states like Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota. And every summer, cows collapse from heat stroke in states like Texas and Arizona. After about a year of facing the elements, cows are shipped to an auction lot and then across hundreds of miles to massive feedlots—feces- and mud-filled holding pens where they are crammed together by the thousands. Many arrive crippled or dead from the journey.Cattle on feedlots are fed a very unnatural diet to fatten them up. This diet causes chronic digestive pain—imagine your worst case of gastritis never going away—and some of their innards actually become ulcerated and eventually rupture (the industry calls this condition “bloat”). According to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science, this diet also causes potentially fatal liver abscesses in as many as 32 percent of cattle raised for beef.2The feedlot air is saturated with ammonia, methane, and other noxious chemicals, which build up from the huge amounts of manure, and the cows are forced to inhale these gasses constantly. These fumes can give the cows chronic respiratory problems, making breathing painful.Cattle raised for food are also pumped full of drugs to make them grow faster and keep them alive in these miserable conditions. Instead of taking sick cattle to see a veterinarian, many feedlot owners simply give the animals even higher doses of human-grade antibiotics in an attempt to keep them alive long enough to make it to the slaughterhouse. ..CowsCows are gentle giants, large in size but sweet in nature. They are curious, clever animals who have been known to go to amazing lengths to escape from slaughterhouses. These very social animals prefer to spend their time together, and they form complex relationships, very much like dogs form packs. Learn more about the intelligence of cattle.Like all animals, cows form strong maternal bonds with their children, and on dairy farms and cattle ranches, mother cows can be heard crying out for their calves for days after they are separated.In the U.S., more than 41 million of these sensitive animals suffer and die for the meat and dairy industries every year.1 When they are still very young, cows are burned with hot irons (branding), their testicles are ripped out of their scrotums (castration), and their horns are cut or burned off—all without painkillers. Once they have grown big enough, they are sent to massive, muddy feedlots to be fattened for slaughter or to dairy farms, where they will be repeatedly impregnated and separated from their calves until their bodies give out and they are sent to die. Calves raised for veal are kept in stalls so small that they can’t even turn around. Cattle raised for beef are usually born in one state, fattened in another, and slaughtered in yet another. They are transported hundreds of miles in all weather extremes to the slaughterhouse. Many cows die on the way to slaughter, and those who survive are shot in the head with a bolt gun, hung up by their legs, and taken onto the killing floor, where their throats are cut and they are skinned. Some cows remain fully conscious throughout the entire process—according to one slaughterhouse worker, in an interview with the Washington Post, “they die piece by piece.” ..Transport and Slaughter Chickens are shipped through all weather extremes to slaughterhouses that are often hundreds of miles away. Chickens who survive the horrific conditions of broiler sheds or battery cages are transported to the slaughterhouse. Workers rush through the sheds, grabbing birds by their legs and slinging them into crates for transport. Tens of millions suffer from broken wings and legs from the rough handling, and some hemorrhage to death. The journey to the slaughterhouse may be hundreds of miles long, but chickens are given no food or water and are shipped through all weather conditions. People who spot chicken-transport trucks on the highway frequently report seeing the heads of dead and dying chickens protruding from the crates. Some birds miss the throat-slitting machine and drown in the scalding-hot water of the defeathering tanks. After this nightmarish journey, the bewildered chickens are dumped out of the crates, and workers violently grab them and snap them—upside-down by their ankles—into shackles, breaking many birds’ legs in the process. The terrified animals struggle to escape, often defecating and vomiting on the workers. An undercover investigator at a Perdue slaughterhouse reported that “the screaming of the birds and the frenzied flapping of their wings was so loud that you had to yell to the worker next to you.”Once in the shackles, the upside-down birds are dragged through an electrified water bath meant to paralyze the animals, not render them unconscious. In her renowned book Slaughterhouse, Gail Eisnitz explains: “Other industrialized nations require that chickens be rendered unconscious or killed prior to bleeding and scalding, so they won’t have to go through those processes conscious. Here in the United States, however, poultry plants—exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act and still clinging to the industry myth that a dead animal won’t bleed properly—keep the stunning current down to about one-tenth that needed to render a chicken unconscious.”27 This means that chickens are still fully conscious when their throats are cut.After the blade cuts their necks, blood slowly drains from the dying birds. But many birds flap about and miss the blade. These birds may have their throats slit by the “backup cutter,” but workers testify that it’s impossible for them to catch all the birds who miss the blade. According to USDA records, millions of chickens every year are still fully conscious when they are dunked into the scalding-hot water of the defeathering tanks.According to Eisnitz, most hens used for their eggs are “neither rendered unconscious nor paralyzed [by the electric bath]. After a year or so of laying eggs, their bones are so brittle that immersion in electrically charged water would cause them to shatter.”28 These birds, who feel pain just like cats and dogs, are scalded to death in the defeathering tanks.You Can Help Chickens are not protected by a single federal law. Chickens are inquisitive, interesting animals who are as intelligent as mammals like cats, dogs, and even primates. When in their natural surroundings, they like to spend their days together scratching for food, caring for their young, cleaning themselves in dust baths, roosting in trees, and lying in the sun. Please don’t support an industry that abuses billions of these fascinating animals.The Egg Industry The 340 million chickens raised for their eggs, called “laying hens” by the industry, endure a nightmare that lasts for two years.22 A large portion of each hen’s beak is cut off with a burning-hot blade, and no painkillers are used. Many birds, unable to eat because of the pain, die from dehydration and weakened immune systems. After enduring these mutilations, hens are shoved into tiny wire “battery” cages, which measure roughly 18 by 20 inches and hold five to 11 hens (McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Safeway allow a maximum of five birds per cage), each of whom have a wingspan of 32 inches. Even in the best scenario (five hens to a cage), each hen will spend the rest of her life crowded in a space about the size of a file drawer with four other hens, unable to lift even a single wing.23 Birds on egg farms don’t have enough space to lift one wing, and the wire grating of their cages constantly cuts into their feet. Battery cages are stacked on top of each other, and excrement constantly falls onto the birds in the lower cages and into huge manure pits that line the sheds. The stench of ammonia and feces hangs heavy in the air, and disease runs rampant in the filthy, cramped sheds. Many birds die, and survivors are often forced to live with their dead and dying cagemates, who are left to rot. The light in the sheds is constantly manipulated in order to maximize egg production. Periodically, for two weeks at a time, the hens are only fed reduced-calorie feed. This process induces an extra laying cycle.Male chicks are worthless to the egg industry, so every year, millions of them are tossed into trash bags to suffocate or are thrown into high-speed grinders called macerators while they are still alive.24After two years in these conditions, the hens’ bodies are exhausted, and their egg production drops. This hen got caught under the feeding belt. She was left to die. These “spent” hens are shipped to slaughterhouses, where their fragile legs are snapped into shackles and their throats are cut. By the time they are sent to slaughter, roughly 29 percent of the hens are suffering from broken bones resulting from neglect and rough treatment.25 Their emaciated bodies are so damaged that their flesh can generally be used only for chicken noodle soup, companion-animal food, or “canned, boned, and diced” meat, much of which goes to the National School Lunch Program (these purchases are in jeopardy, however, as students have been injured by accidentally swallowing bone fragments). Eggs are horrible for your health. A single egg has as much cholesterol as three servings of beef tenderloin. (All vegan foods are cholesterol-free.) Many grocery-store eggs are infected with salmonella, a dangerous type of bacteria that causes diarrhea and fever in humans...The Chicken Flesh Industry: Breeder Chickens Ammonia from the large amount of feces in the shed burned the feathers off this chicken and caused a massive skin lesion. The breeding animals who give birth to the 9 billion broiler chickens killed in the U.S. were referred to as gallus neglectedus, or “neglected chickens,” by Dr. Joy Mench, a poultry scientist at the University of California, because their welfare is completely ignored.20 Like the broiler chickens to whom they give birth, breeder chickens are confined in filthy sheds without access to sunlight, fresh air, or anything else that they would enjoy in nature.When they are young, hot blades are used to cut large chunks off of their sensitive beaks so that they won’t peck each other out of frustration caused by the intense confinement. Sometimes their toes, spurs, and combs are also cut off. The birds are not given any painkillers to ease the agony of this mutilation, and many debeaked chickens starve to death because they are in too much pain to eat. Male broiler breeders have plastic rods stuck through their delicate nasal cavities to prevent them from eating the females' food. Breeder chickens are forced to live on factory farms for more than a year. Because they live so much longer, they face an even higher risk of organ failure and death as they grow larger and larger. In an attempt to fix this problem, the industry drastically limits the feed given to breeding birds, keeping the animals in a constant state of hunger and frustration. When the birds drink more water to try to relieve their hunger, factory farm operators often reduce the available drinking water so that they won’t have to clean up wet manure.21 Some farmers shove thin plastic rods through the delicate nasal cavities of male breeding birds. The rods stick out of both sides of their faces, preventing them from reaching through the wire barrier to eat the females’ food.After more than a year of deprivation and confinement, the bodies of these breeding birds are too worn out to produce enough chicks for the farmer to sell. Frail and exhausted, they are loaded onto trucks and sent to slaughter The Chicken Flesh Industry Chickens are arguably the most abused animal on the planet. Each year in the United States, 9 billion chickens are killed for their flesh, and 245 million hens are raised for their eggs. 7, 8 Ninety-nine percent of these animals spend their lives in total confinement— from the moment they hatch until the day they are killed.9 More chickens are raised and killed for food than every other farmed animal combined, yet not a single federal law protects chickens from abuse—even though two-thirds of Americans say that they would support such a law.10Broiler Chickens Thousands of chickens raised for their flesh are packed into each shed. Chickens raised for their flesh, referred to as “broiler chickens” by the meat industry, spend their lives crammed into massive, windowless sheds that typically hold as many as 40,000 birds.11 Chickens can function well in groups of up to about 90, a number low enough to allow each bird to find his or her spot in the pecking order. In crowded groups of thousands, however, no such social order is possible, and in their frustration, they relentlessly peck at each other, causing injury and death.The intense confinement and overcrowding on factory farms also results in unimaginable filth and disease. A Washington Post writer who visited a chicken shed says that the “dust, feathers and ammonia choke the air in the chicken house and fans turn it into airborne sandpaper, rubbing skin raw.”12 Michael Specter, a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, also visited a chicken shed and wrote, “I was almost knocked to the ground by the overpowering smell of feces and ammonia. My eyes burned and so did my lungs, and I could neither see nor breathe…. There must have been 30,000 chickens sitting silently on the floor in front of me. They didn’t move, didn’t cluck. They were almost like statues of chickens, living in nearly total darkness, and they would spend every minute of their six-week lives that way.”13 Chickens are genetically manipulated and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs often cripple under their own weight. These journalists could leave, but chickens are forced to breathe ammonia and particulate matter from feces and feathers all day long. Many suffer from chronic respiratory diseases, weakened immune systems, bronchitis, and “ammonia burn,” a painful eye condition.14 According to a report from the USDA, 98 percent of chicken carcasses are contaminated with E. coli bacteria by the time they reach the market, largely because of the filthy conditions in the sheds where they are raised.15 On factory farms, they are fed large quantities of powerful antibiotics to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them: Chickens are given nearly four times more antibiotics than human beings or cattle in the United States.16Chickens are also genetically manipulated and pumped full of drugs to make them grow faster and larger—the average breast of an 8-week-old chicken is seven times heavier today than it was 25 years ago.17 Because of this unnaturally accelerated weight gain, these very young birds frequently die from heart attacks and lung collapse, something that would never happen in nature. According to Feedstuffs, a meat industry magazine, “[b]roilers now grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses.”18 In addition, chickens on today’s factory farms almost always become crippled because their legs cannot support the weight of their bodies. In fact, by the age of 6 weeks, 90 percent of broiler chickens are so obese that they can no longer walk.19 Many crippled chickens on factory farms die when they can no longer reach the water nozzles... Chickens are inquisitive, interesting animals who are as intelligent as mammals like cats, dogs, and even primates.1 They are very social and like to spend their days together, scratching for food, cleaning themselves in dust baths, roosting in trees, and lying in the sun. Dr. Chris Evans, administrator of the animal behavior lab at Australia’s Macquarie University, says, “As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list [chickens’] attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m talking about monkeys.”2Chickens are precocious birds. Mother hens actually cluck to their unborn chicks, who chirp back to their mothers and to one another from within their shells!3 The intelligence and adaptability of chickens actually make them particularly vulnerable to factory farming because, unlike most birds, baby chickens can survive without their mothers and without the comfort of a nest—they come out of the shell raring to explore and ready to experience life. Learn more about the intelligence of chickens. But the more than 9 billion chickens raised on factory farms each year in the U.S. never have the chance to do anything that is natural to them.4 They will never even meet their parents, let alone be raised by them. They will never take dust baths, feel the sun on their backs, breathe fresh air, roost in trees, or build nests.Chickens raised for their flesh, called “broilers” by the chicken industry, spend their entire lives in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, where intense crowding and confinement lead to outbreaks of disease. They are bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can’t keep up, making heart attacks, organ failure, and crippling leg deformities common. Many become crippled under their own weight and eventually die because they can’t reach the water nozzles. When they are only 6 or 7 weeks old, they are crammed into cages and trucked to slaughter.Birds exploited for their eggs, called “laying hens” by the industry, are crammed together in wire cages where they don’t even have enough room to spread a single wing. The cages are stacked on top of each other, and the excrement from chickens in the higher cages constantly falls on those below. The birds have part of their sensitive beaks cut off so that they won’t peck each other as a result of the frustration created by the unnatural confinement. After their bodies are exhausted and their production drops, they are shipped to slaughter, generally to be turned into chicken soup or cat or dog food because their flesh is too bruised and battered to be used for much else.Eating Chickens Is Bad for Your Health According to a major 2006 Harvard study of 135,000 people, people who frequently ate grilled skinless chicken had a 52 percent higher chance of developing bladder cancer compared to people who didn’t. Because the male chicks of egg-laying breeder hens are unable to lay eggs and are not bred to produce excessive flesh for the meat industry, they are killed. Every year, more than 100 million of these young birds are ground up alive or tossed into bags to suffocate.Chickens are slammed into small crates and trucked to the slaughterhouse through all weather extremes. Hundreds of millions suffer from broken wings and legs from rough handling, and millions die from the stress of the journey.5At the slaughterhouse, their legs are snapped into shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding hot water to remove their feathers. Because they have no federal legal protection (birds are exempt from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act), most are still conscious when their throats are cut open, and many are literally scalded to death in the feather-removal tanks after missing the throat cutter...ONE OF MY BIRTHDAY PRESENTS,I JUST LOVE THIS BAND TO DEATH,TO BAD I CAN'T SEE THEM IN CONCERT.
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About You...
Age 17
Birthplace YAKIMA
Current Location YAKIMA,WASHINGTON
Hair Color BROWN
Eye Color BROWN
Height 5..'8
Heritage ENGLISH,IRISH,GERMAN
Your fears WATER
Your weakness ANIMALS
Goal for today TO BE LESS ANNOYING
Goal for this year GET A GRANT
Lifetime goal TO MOVE TO LONDON
When do you want to get married? WHEN IM 30
and to whom? AN ENGLISH GUY
Ever been in love? NO
Currently in love? NO
Do you think you are attractive? I DONT KNOW
Your best physical feature EYES
Have you ever...
eaten Sushi... NO ANIMALS YUCK
gone skinny dipping... NO
been beaten up... YES
wanted to kill someone... APSOLUTELY
gone a week without MySpace... OF COURSE
gone a week without TV... SOMETIMES
Who's the last person to...
kiss you... MOM
say hi to you... GRANDPA
talk to you... MOM
What's the last...
Time you cried? WHEN I READ A BOOK
Book you've read? JULIA LONDON A DANGEROUS MAN
Store you've been in? WALMART
Can you...
Dance? NO BUT WHO CARES
Speak a differenty language? A LITTLE GERMAN
Cook? I TRY TO COOK
Write w/ both hands? ONLY RIGHT
Whistle? YEP MY BIRD TAUGHT ME
Finish the line...
If I had a... PASSPORT
I would BE IN LONDON ALREADY
So I can NOT BE DEPRESSED
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