Please tell the Ohio Livestock Board to implement standards that allow calves raised for veal enough room to turn around at all stages of their lives by clicking here and filling out the email form. This is a modest, but meaningful and important step to help reduce the needless suffering of tens of thousands of animals.

Thank you for getting active to help baby calves in Ohio!

Finally, the single most effective method to stopping the suffering of all farmed animals is to reject the use of sentient beings as food.

Veal Crate Display at Farm Sanctuary, Watkins Glen, NY

We have received word that the ironically named Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, has voted 6 to 5 to approve the continued use of veal crates in the state.

Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society, says that this vote jeopardizes an agreement made last year by the Humane Society and agricultural trade organizations, where a ballot initiative would be halted if agribusiness agreed to certain animal welfare recommendations.

Ohio Agriculture Director Jim Zehringer said the vote can be changed after a comment period in April.

As of now, the standards for keeping baby calves in crates, so that people can profit from and eat veal, are:

(courtesy of farmanddairy.com)

Farm Sanctuary’s Gene Baur has released a statement in response to Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board.  Here’s a snippet:

Monday’s vote by the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board (OLCSB) to allow veal calves to be confined in crates so tightly that they can’t even turn around for most of their lives violates the widely publicized agreement that was reached last June between agribusiness interests, including the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, and the humane community to avoid a ballot initiative that would ban the inhumane confinement of animals in veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages across the state. By endorsing veal crates, the OLCSB has demonstrated an interest in upholding the status quo at the expense of improving animal welfare. We urge the OLCSB to reverse its vote and to act in accordance with June’s compromise agreement. Otherwise, the humane community will have no option other than to move forward with the initiative.

The initiative being a statewide ballot measure banning veal crates, gestation crates, and battery cages.  Perhaps the initiative was the better idea?  Certainly better than the creation of the ironically named Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board.

Do your part to end the heinousness of the veal business:  decrease demand, (go vegan) reject the use of sentient beings as food- then get to getting vocal about it.

via dispatchpolitics.com
farmanddairy.com
farmsanctuary.org

If you missed the First Take of Ohio’s negligence at regulating agribusiness using the ironically named Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, be sure to check it out to find out what you can do to help.

Charleen Angle writes for Your Daily Vegan as the Resident Vegan Contributor.  An unapologetic vegan, her writing refects her strong and passionate voice for the billions of animals that die needlessly each year. 

Love. Vegan. Reggae.

Wanna know more?  Charleen’s bio. Want to email her?  Charleen’s email. Want to tweet her? Charleen’s twitter.

New Jersey’s Fish and Game Council voted to allow the state’s first black bear hunt in five years.

The Sierra Club believes the bears are attracted to human garbage.  Gee, you think?

In 2007, the state Department of Environmental Protection implemented sweeps of counties with the most black bear complaints, issuing warnings or fines to people suspected of feeding bears, which officials believe explained the rise in complaints.

And, I suppose, the Fish and Game Council believes there are just too many bears running around.  Bear numbers around the state are rising, based on complaints.  It couldn’t be that every square inch of New Jersey is either developed human living area or farmland protected by farmers with “special permits to kill black bears that destroy crops and threaten livestock?”

Where are the bears supposed to go and hunt, reproduce, and live?

How typical : kill the problem.

Public hearings will eventually be held on the subject, then a final decision will be made by acting Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin.

via: charlotteobserver.com & nj.com

A belief need not include faith or worship of a god or gods, but must affect how a person lives their life or perceives the world.

Makes sense.  You shouldn’t get fired for being vegan.  How hard is it, really, to provide a vegan option at a business luncheon?  If you have Jewish employees, do you schedule the weekly sales meeting at “Porky’s Rib House?”  When you order the pizza for an overtime push to meet the deadline, do you think ordering a “plain cheese pizza” is good enough, because it has “no meat on it?”  Many employers and employees see nothing wrong with only satisfying the majority, and outright ridiculing the minority- “Why should I make special concessions for her?” or ” We shouldn’t have to eat some place else just because he’s vegan.”

Now, I’m not saying that businesses should be required to provide vegan options.  I’m just bitching about those who are ignorant and selfish and don’t.  Besides, why would any self respecting vegan want to work at a place that doesn’t respect them back?  But laws that protect people from discrimination based on their beliefs, should extend to all beliefs- not just those that were born thousands of years ago.

Strange how rights are doled out so slowly over time.  Maybe someday there will be some left over for the other animals in this world.

via telegraph.co.uk

Please, get informed.  Then vote NO on Ohio State Issue 2!

• Ohio Supreme Court Justice, Maureen O’Connor, calls State Issue 2 a “inappropriate use” of the Ohio Constitution.

• An Ohio woman speaks up and wants people to “Stand Up for Democracy in Ohio – Vote NO on Issue 2!” So do we, so do we.

• Farm Aid talks about why you should vote NO on Ohio State Issue 2!

• “If Issue 2 is written into the Ohio Constitution next week, it’ll be that much more difficult for Americans to remain healthy, with or without reforming the health care system.” ~ Bob Cesca from the article, “We can’t reform healthcare without reforming food.”

• “CAFOs to Seize Ohio thru Issue 2″ talks about why Ohio State Issue 2 is so dangerous saying, “Voters should reject any scheme to control our food supply that takes the public and lawmakers out of the discussion.”

• The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association opposes Ohio State Issue 2 saying, “Issue 2 would create a Livestock Care Standards Board, stacked with Big Ag and factory farm supporters, which would have sweeping authority to make decisions related to farms and food in Ohio that would have the force of law. The Board would have largely unchecked power to override any act by the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Assembly.”  They provide a lot of good information and ways you can help defeat Issue 2 on the “OEFFA Action Alert” page.

• Gee, I wonder where the money to support Ohio State Issue 2 is coming from.  I’m sure it’s just concerned citizens and not large corporate livestock entities.  Oh, wait, that’s right….it is.  So not only do they want a constitutional amendment that gives them unbridled power, and they are funding the advertising themselves.  Now ask yourself why.  Are they doing it to “save Ohio’s farms and local food” like they claim, or are they in it for the money?  If you think they are in it to help Ohio farms or the animals, ask yourself why a large corporation in the business of killing animals would use a large portion of money (hundreds upon hundreds upon thousands of dollars) to support “welfare” legislation in the first place.  I can guarantee you it’s because they are getting something out of it.  Such as the ability to regulate their own industry.  You think they are really going to care about anything more than making a profit?

• Rob Swindell, writing for the Amherst News-Times, wrote a great article about why Ohio State Issue 2 is not about animal rights. He talks about the problems Issue 2 faces and the amount of money the supporters of Issue 2 are spending for advertising, “It is interesting that the factory farmers and the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation have $5 million sitting around to ensure that they can continue to abuse animals for corporate profits.”  Doesn’t that seem strange to you?  It does to me!

• PeaceChicken brings us an update on Ohio State Issue 2 with TONS of information about who is funding the supporters of Ohio State Issue 2, as well as groups that oppose Ohio State Issue 2.  It’s a must read!

• The Ohio Environmental Council announced its opposition to Ohio State Issue 2, a wide-ranging proposal to amend the Ohio Constitution in the name of “safe and affordable” food to establish livestock and poultry confinement standards.

• The Dayton Daily News says that, “Big Agribusiness wants to change Ohio’s Constitution and prevent us, the voters, from having any future input. Issue 2 is downright un-American.“

There are even several Facebook pages dedicated to telling Ohioans to vote NO on Ohio State Issue 2:

Ohio Act – Vote NO on Issue 2

Ohioans Against Issue 2

And these are just a few, there are a ton more articles out there on this issue to read through.  Take some time and get informed my fellow Ohioans.  Get informed then vote NO on Ohio State Issue 2.