What’s the difference between eating plants and animals?

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BY KIM BARTLETT, Animal People

 

A common objection posed by meat-eaters to considering a vegetarian diet is that “plants have feelings” which may be comparable to the feelings of animals, or that the result of a vegetarian diet is for more plants to die than animals and thus the net amount of killing is somehow equal.

While it is essential to realize that these arguments are virtually always made by people as a way to dismiss the idea of not eating animals without having to seriously consider the moral advantage of a vegetarian diet, the vegetarian advocate must be prepared to respond to these objections.  There are three main points to understand. Read more

Australian use of risky drug may drive Indonesian cut in livestock imports

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

JAKARTA,  MELBOURNE–– Australian cattle and sheep exporters barely had time to anticipate ramped up live animal shipments to Islamic nations,  under new protocols announced on October 21,  2011 by agriculture minister Joe Ludwig,  when word came from Jakarta that Indonesia is likely to accept barely half as many live cattle from Australia as were landed in 2011. Read more

Puppy millers move from malls to web sites

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

WASHINGTON D.C.,  NEW YORK,  LOS ANGELES–A concerted effort by humane organizations to discourage mall sales of puppy mill pups appears to be succeeding at possible cost of driving the traffic to web sites and social media. Mobilizing in response through web sites and social media, the Humane Society of the U.S. and the American SPCA on December 29, 2011 jointly announced that the USDA “plans to improve oversight of commercial dog breeders by issuing rules to regulate those breeders who sell over the Internet.” Read more

13 nations miss the European Union deadline for phasing out battery cages

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

BRUSSELS,  DUBLIN–Allowed 13 years to phase out battery caging for laying hens,  egg farmers in 13 European Union nations nonetheless missed the January 1,  2012 deadline for compliance with the 1999 EU battery cage ban.

In Ireland,  where farmers were mostly compliant,  “the Irish Farmers Association reported to the media that up to 100,000 birds would have to be slaughtered ‘early,’ as 10 farmers did not have the required cages to comply with new legislation,”  e-mailed Vegan Education Centre of Ireland diet and lifestyle coach Sandra Higgins to the U.S.-based organization United Poultry Concerns. Read more

NIH to quit funding new chimp studies– but broke past pledges

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 2012

By Merritt Clifton, Animal People

 

WASHINGTON D.C.–Deferring without delay to recommendations from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council,  issued just hours before,  the National Institutes of Health on December 15,  2011 suspended making new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees.  The NIH also agreed,  for the first time,  to apply uniform scientific and ethical criteria to evaluating chimp studies.

Reported the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council,  “Recent advances in alternate research tools have rendered chimpanzees largely unnecessary as research subjects.” Read more

Dutch ritual slaughter ban referred for study

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

DEN HAAG, The Netherlands— A proposed ban on slaughtering
animals without pre-stunning that cleared the Dutch House of
Representatives 116-30 in June 2011 was on December 20,  2011 amended
in the Senate into a pledge that undersecretary for agriculture Henk
Bleker’s office will draft standards to ensure that halal and kosher
slaughter,  practiced by Muslims and Jews,  are done in a manner that
minimizes animal suffering.  Pre-stunning has traditionally been
interpreted by most Judaic and Islamic religious  authorities–though
some differ–as a violation of the requirements of Mosaic and Islamic
religious law that animals be conscious when their throats are
swiftly cut with a sharp blade.

Proposed by the Party for the Animals,  which holds two seats
in the House and one in the Senate,  and is a part of the coalition
government,  the ban on slaughter without pre-stunning gained
momentum after being endorsed by the far right Party for Freedom,
whose focal issue is discouraging Islamic immigration.  About one
million of the Dutch population of 16 million are immigrants from
Islamic nations.

L.A. shelter deal transfers cash crunch to Best Friends

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:


LOS ANGELES–“There is progress in Los Angeles!” exulted City
of Los Angeles Animal Services general manager Brenda Barnette on
January  5,  2012,  anticipating the imminent transition of the idle
Northeast Animal Care Center from a costly liability to an operating
asset,  run by the Best Friends Animal Society.

“The contract between the city and Best Friends for the
operation of an adoption and spay/neuter services center at the
Northeast Animal Care Center in Mission Hills was completed over the holiday break,”  elaborated city spokesperson Jason Killeen.  “Our goal is to have the facility open to the public by the end of
January.” Read more

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