Your Daily Vegan

KD at Farm Sanctuary, NY

I’m pleased to announce that YDV is going to participate in Farm Sanctuary’s 2009 Walk for Farm Animals!  We’re joining thousands of compassionate folks all across the country who will be raising awareness about the realities of factory farming.  It’s our goal to generate much needed funds for Farm Sanctuary’s extremely important rescue, education, and advocacy work.  Wanna join us?

There are tons of Walks already planned all over the country.  You can check to see if there is a walk scheduled in your area by going to walkforfarmanimals.org.  If you don’t see a walk in your area (and you want one, you know you do) coordinate one!  Farm Sanctuary is looking for volunteers to coordinate Walks nationwide.  For more information, contact the national Walk coordinator at walk (at) farmsanctuary.org or 607-583-2225 ext 283.

KD and DiMaggio the Goat = LOVE

Can’t walk or coordinate?  Please consider donating to support the cause.  With your help, the 2009 Walk could be the most successful yet, sending a powerful message of change and hope.  And it’s time for a powerful message, don’t you think?  We do!

That’s why we are asking you to consider sponsoring our Walk for Farm Animals.  Myself (KD) and my partner, C. Angle, will be participating in the Cleveland, Ohio walk on October 3, 2009.  We would be extremely honored and pleased if you would consider a donation.  To make it easy as shelling peas, we’ve set up a donation page at FirstGiving, which you can go to by clicking here.  Please remember, no gift is too small or large.  Any amount would be greatly appreciated not only by YDV (thankyouthankyouthankyou), but by the animals that the funds directly assist.

YDV will be covering the event from start to finish.  We’ll be tweeting our progress during the walk, and after a presentation by Amy Hatkoff, who just published a book about farm animals.  We can’t wait to share our compassionate experience with you.

Iris the cow living at Farm Sanctuary

Whether you walk, donate or coordinate, you’ll make a big difference in the lives of farm animals.  And that, my vegan friends, is super swell.

Thank you for considering a donation to our 2009 Walk for Farm Animals.  We can’t say thank you enough.

For our FirstGiving page (where you can donate/sponsor our Walk), please click here.

For more information about Farm Sanctuary, please click here.

Press Release:

Gene Baur: “Factory farms are…a prescription for disaster”

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – April 28, 2009 – Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization, today issued a statement from Gene Baur, president and co-founder, regarding the current global outbreak of swine flu originating in North America:

“For more than 23 years, Farm Sanctuary has warned that cramming thousands of animals into factory farms is not only bad for the animals. These stressful, filthy, disease-ridden confines are also bad for humans. Animals packed by the thousands in unnatural conditions suffer immensely and these unhealthy, overcrowded operations are a breeding ground for disease. For too long, agribusiness and the USDA have failed to adequately address animal and human health risks – swine flu, avian flu, MRSA, e-coli, salmonella, mad cow disease – the list goes on. Factory farms are nothing less than a prescription for disaster.”

Through its Anti-Confinement Campaign, Farm Sanctuary is urging the introduction and passage of legislation that would eliminate the use of some of the most common confinement systems in place on factory farms – gestation crates for breeding pigs, battery cages for egg laying hens and veal crates for calves. The organization is also urging passage of federal bills H.R. 1549 and S. 619 that would eliminate the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics on factory farms. More information on pending legislation can be found at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/legislation/.

It happens to every animal activist at some point.  You find yourself immersed in research about the horrors of “animal production” and the feeling of hopelessness just overwhelms you and you just want to bury your head.

I believe that I’ve mentioned before, but I work a day job as well as running YDV.  My day job is a 8-5 thing that is, quite frankly, un-fullfilling and has nothing to do with animal activism.  After work I come home and take care of my 9 animals and then sit down to bring you the best in vegan news.  Your Daily Vegan is my passion, it is rewarding and something that I hope continues to grow into a respected source for all things vegan.  That said, it also exposes me to the horrors of the way humans treat the other animals on this planet.  Please don’t get me wrong, I have been vegan for many years, vegetarian for longer.  I know about factory farming, puppy mills and the like.  But to immerse yourself in it daily, and see the eyes of these animals who are suffering is…draining to say the least.

For instance, today I decided to research pet food.  ABC did this snippet on vegan pets, and since I am still struggling with the vegan cat issue, I decided to watch it.  That led me to looking into what we feed our animals.  So then I came across this…

The National Renderers Association.  Have you ever heard of them?  Um, yeah me neither.  Rendering is a process that “converts raw animal tissue into various protein, fat, and mineral products.”  The “finished product’ is used by Agri-businesses in feed ingredients for poultry, pork, beef, dairy producers, aquaculture and pet food.  Oh, I want to mention that they also use “recycled vegetable oil” from restaurants in this rendering process as well.  Yummy!

The United States currently produces, slaughters, and processes approximately 100 million hogs, 35 million cattle, and eight billion chickens annually.   By-products include hides, skins, hair, feathers, hoofs, horns, feet, heads, bones, toe nails, blood, organs, glands, intestines, muscle and fat tissues, shells, and whole carcasses.  (souce: An overview of the rendering industry.  Meeker and Hamilton. pg 2)

This, people is what they render.  The rendering process is not only physical, but it is a chemical one as well.  Heat is used to “cook” this stuff and turn it into “feed ingredients” for farm animals and companion animals, well at least 85% of it anyway.  That’s enough to make me gag, what about you?  If you want some disgusting good reading check out Valley Proteins/Carolina By-Products website.  Their slogan is “What you throw away…we want to conserve.”  To reiterate, they are turning the shit left over from slaughter into feed for the animals that people consume and food for your pet. Hey, I am all for recycling but I don’t want to feed my animal food chock full of chemicals and death.  Maybe that’s just me.  And for all those who have told me how much they love meat well, now you know that with every bite you take you are consuming the by-products of the millions of animals slaughtered before. Mmmm!

To tie this all together, the ABC snippet questions whether we should feed our animals the same thing that we eat.  It appears to me that we already do.  We raise animals for slaughter by feeding them rendered, already slaughtered animal by-products.  Then we slaughter those animals and render their by-products and make more animal feed from it.  And the whole time we use the rendered products to feed our companion animals.  This whole process is cyclical and disturbing.

And so, after researching this (which, the rendering websites I went to showed cute cow, pic and sheep pictures, WTF?!) I feel drained.  I know that my work for the animals is one that is important, just like I know that I won’t stop just because I’m overwhelmed.  It’s times like these that I need to remind myself why I fight and why I encourage everyone else to fight as well.  And so I am going to take a trip down memory lane of my visit to  Farm Sanctuary.   I had the immense pleasure of going there last October and nothing has impacted my journey through veganism more.  On that note, here are some cuties that I met and spent some time with.  They reminded me why I do what I do.  Their affection to this human was astounding.  I am forever grateful.

Some friends….

Chickie Friends

Comin to say hi!

Baby who's missing his hoof

Hello Mr. Goat

Iris - A Farm Sanctuary Friend

I met Iris during my visit to Farm Sanctuary in October.  I was honored that she permitted me to cuddle with her and spend time with her.  I was touched by her quiet grace and unending liquid eyes.  Isn’t she just beautiful?

Please take a moment to visit Farm Sanctuary to learn how you can help abused factory farm animals in need.