THE VEGETARIAN BLOG

Virgina Messina, a well-known vegan dietician , has given her approval to the USDA’s new fact sheet for vegetarians. Says Ms. Messina:

While the fact sheet lists some nutrients that vegetarians need to focus on, it doesn’t have any of that annoying verbiage about the need to carefully plan meals. (Vegetarians and vegans should, of course, carefully plan their meals; so should everyone else.) More importantly, there isn’t a word about animal products in the whole fact sheet, other than how to replace them.

That is, despite the vegetarian terminology in the title, the fact sheet is vegan in essence. To download the sheet, go here .

Sometimes you wonder what kind of society we live in when courts debate whether making a profit out of videos depicting animal cruelty staged for the purpose of ‘entertainment’ is legal or not.A man called Robert J. Stevens (pictured) produced videos showing gruesome dogfighting scenes. He was sentenced to 37-months in prison under a 1999 federal law that bans trafficking in “depictions of animal cruelty.” Now the Supreme Court is set to hear his case on October 6 and, believe it or not, this man is being defended by ‘free speech’ groups who are invoking the First Amendment for legal protection. The court will decide whether dogfighting videos and other videos showing animal cruelty without a serious purpose is “too vile” to be protected under the First Amendment. This definition of vileness is what removed First Amendment protection from child pornography in 1982.It is the issue of ‘seriousness’ that is bothering the free speech camp and while I support the idea of free speech wholeheartedly, I find it terrifying to see such a confused take on it. Animal cruelty is illegal, therefore staging it simply to make a profit is obviously illegal. It’s a no brainer. I think the free speech camp would put their energy to better use by fighting censorship against positive, stimulating, truthful ideas and justice in general. Wasting time defending sadics is just outrageous.I second a comment made by beemer5 in relation to the San Francisco Chronicle  article on which this blog is based:

There is no question that this man should be prosecuted. If these films weren’t making money for someone, they wouldn’t be made. What kind of society are we that we are even arguing the legality of selling these animal snuff and torture films? If it was up to me, I would go further and put Robert Stevens in with a pack of pissed off fighting dogs, and film what happens to him. I’d then use the film as a warning to anyone else that thinks that this is OK.Those who argue for this man’s ‘rights’ disgust me. Get a set of values and some compassion, for god’s sake.

Walk For Farm Animals is the day when compassionate people take to the streets of tens of American and Canadian cities to raise awareness on the plight of farm animals, whose lives are spent in concentration camp-like conditions before being sent to a gruesome slaughterhouse. Organized by Farm Sanctuary, the walks also help raising funds for the organization’s rescue, education and advocacy work.The walks have attracted an increasing number of people each year, bringing together people who care about what factory farming is doing to animals, people and the environment.If you would like to join the Walk For Farm Animals, which take place between September and October, please check this page  to find out whether there is one taking place near you.

Please support!WORLD PREMIERE WEEKENDPeaceable Kingdom: The Journey Homeat the Moondance International Film FestivalBoulder, Colorado - Sept. 26-27Premiere screening followed by Q&A with filmmakers Jenny Stein and James LaVeckand film subject Harold BrownDirector: Jenny SteinProducer: James LaVeckAssociate Producers: Eric Huang, Kevin SmithFeaturing: Harold Brown, Howard Lyman,Willow Jeane Lyman, Cayce Mell, Jason Tracy,Cheri Ezell-Vandersluis and Jim VandersluisMusical score: Kevin Bartlett, Joy AskewPEACEABLE KINGDOM: THE JOURNEY HOME is a new documentary by the award-winning filmmakers of The Witness. A riveting story of transformation and healing, this groundbreaking film explores the awakening conscience of several people who grew up in traditional farming culture and who have now come to question the basic premises of their inherited way of life.Presented through a woven tapestry of memories, music, and breathtaking accounts of life-altering moments, the film provides insight into the farmers’ sometimes amazing connections with the animals under their care, while also making clear the complex web of social, psychological and economic forces that have led them to their dilemma.Interwoven with the farmers’ stories is the dramatic animal rescue work of a newly-trained humane police officer whose sense of justice puts her at odds with the law she is charged to uphold.With strikingly honest interviews and rare footage demonstrating the emotional lives and intense family bonds of animals most often viewed as living commodities, PEACEABLE KINGDOM: THE JOURNEY HOME shatters stereotypical notions of farmers, farm life, and perhaps most surprisingly, farm animals themselves.

A new investigation by Mercy For Animals gives us an opportunity to discuss the atrocities behind the production of eggs, which besides being completely unnecessary for our diets, are heavy on suffering.The video was shot with a hidden camera and microphone by a Mercy For Animals employee, who worked at Hy-Line North America’s chick hatchery, in Spencer, Iowa, for two weeks in May and June, 2009. Male chicks are dropped alive into a grinding machine. Female chicks are brutally hooked up to a spinning debeaker that mutilates their sensitive beaks with an infrared laser. And all this is true of so-called free range, cage free, natural, certified humane and every other nonsensical label designed to inject a guilt-busting dose into the process of animal exploitation.Male chicks are considered a ‘waste product’ by the hatchery system, therefore they are destroyed by grinding, just like a piece of trash. Now, if a child was caught doing something like that, in a civilized family, they would be punished for that. So how come a whole industry can legally incorporate such a terrifying method into their practice? And it’s the way it’s going to be. As a United Egg Producers representative coldly told AP yesterday: “If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we’re happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need”.As to the female chicks, they are going to spend their lives caged up in tiny spaces, laying egg after egg and when their productivity declines, will be sent to slaughter.The industry is designed this way and it will never change. The only way to put a stop to all this is to go vegan. By doing that, you help decrease demand and the suffering of these animals.