I read this a couple days ago and was so moved I had to share. A few years ago, Sue Coe, the celebrated artist, went to sketch slaughterhouses. Below is an account of what she saw first hand. I urge you all to have the balls to read this:
As she walked onto the kill floor to position herself with her sketchbook in the doorway between where the cows are lined up for slaughter and the kill floor, a loud horn suddenly sounds and the workers disperse for lunch. “So I am left alone with six dripping, decapitated corpses. Blood is splashed up walls and is already on my sketchbook. I am getting used to being covered in flies, just like the corpses.”
Coe sees something move to her right, so she edges closer to the knocking pen to get a better look — “Inside is a cow. She has not been stunned and has slipped and fallen in the blood. The men have gone to lunch and left her. Times passes. Occasionally she struggles, banging the sides of the steel enclosure with her hooves. As this is a metal box, it becomes a loud hammering, then silence, then hammering. Once she raises her head enough to look outside the box, but seeing the hanging corpses, she falls back again. The sounds are blood dripping and FM radio playing over a loudspeaker. It’s the Doors, a complete album side.”
Coe starts drawing, but when she looks back at the box, she notices that the weight of the cow’s body has forced milk from her udders. As the milk flows in a small stream toward the drainage area, it mixes with blood so they go down the drain together. One of the injured cow’s legs is sticking out of the bottom of the steel enclosure. “I could weep for this animal, but remove that empathy from my mind, just like the workers do.” Later when she tells Martha that the cows seem very young to be going to slaughter, not milked out at all, Martha explains that when the price of milk drops, farmers can’t afford to keep their cows, so they dump them on the market.
I’m a huge fan of your work, especially enjoying the Oscar’s this year. You were very charming and brought such a great energy to the show! Also, a sincere congratulations on your star on the Walk of Fame, it is well deserved.
If you have a second, I’d like to discuss a comment you made to a reporter recently regarding getting in shape for you role as Wolverine, “Let me tell you, I’m not vegan. I ate so many chickens to make this body. If there is a place in hell for people who eat chickens, I have booked a suite bigger than anybody.”
While it’s uncertain whether or not a hell exists for people that eat chickens, I’d like to express that it’s crystal clear a hell exists for chickens themselves. It’s called modern day factory farms.
In the United States, there is no law protecting the treatment of chickens. The Humane Slaughter Act unfortunately does not pertain to birds at all. Chickens, easily the most victimized animals in the world, are killed at the rate of nearly 10 billion a year – and that’s just in the US. Think for a second of the sheer enormity of that number. Since a chicken’s suffering is given absolutely no consideration and because thousands are killed per minute, they are treated as mere objects. They are brutally tossed, kicked, punched, hung upside down by their legs, and have their throats slit while still conscious. Many are boiled alive in defeathering baths.
Modern science tells us that the dismissal of birds as being not as intelligent as mammals is absolutely false. In fact, many chickens display the same level of smarts as a dog. It is undeniable that these animals feel pain and fear. In fact, the constant sound one hears on chicken factory farms is the sound of hens crying out in distress, calling for a rooster to come save them.
While I’m sure your comment was made for levity, please understand that glorifying eating chickens is no laughing matter. Millions of people look up to you and would love to be as in shape but they can certainly do so while still being compassionate to animals. There are many amazing professional athletes who are vegan or vegetarian. In fact, Stan Price, the world record holder for the bench press, just happens to be a vegetarian. I’m sure he could even out lift Wolverine!
Thank you for taking time to consider the horrific suffering and violence experienced by birds on factory farms and in slaughterhouses. Please know that you can still be gorgeous and buff and choose not to eat them. For more information, please visit goveg.com or check out the myriad of books written specifically for men regarding plant-based diets. Some of my faves are Skinny Bastard and The Engine 2 Diet.
Maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised. The Miss USA pageant is certainly not known for its display of unparalleled intellect. Nor is an IQ test part of the selection process. But when we heard that Miss California had used her one minute of fame to stumble through a grammar-free insult to gay couples everywhere, stating that in her “country and family,” marriage is “between a man and a woman,” we were more than a little appalled. And even more disturbing, this frozen-faced nincompoop made it to the seat of first runner-up.
Time to retire the crown, start looking at women as more than bodies, or at least require that contestants can form coherent sentences? We think so.
A new study is the first overall analysis of long term health and meat consumption. It found, “Eating red meat [and pork] increases the chances of dying prematurely.” It discusses the link between meat and cancer (especially colorectal cancer) as well as meat and heart disease. Here’s more from the piece:
“There are many explanations for how red meat might be unhealthy: Cooking red meat generates cancer-causing compounds; red meat is also high in saturated fat, which has been associated with breast and colorectal cancer; and meat is high in iron, also believed to promote cancer. People who eat red meat are more likely to have high blood pressure and cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. Processed meats contain substances known as nitrosamines, which have been linked to cancer. Although pork is often promoted as “white meat,” it is believed to increase the risk of cancer because of its iron content, Sinha said.”
I’d like to add that meat has also been linked to diabetes and stroke. These diseases are the top causes of death in the United States. Imagine if people shifted to a plant-centered diet how much healthier we’d be and how much less of a burden our medical facilities would have on them. Health insurance might all of a sudden become affordable!
PS – the pic is a veggie burger — doesn’t that look goooood!
Scientific American features this wee slideshow in the current on-line addition. Most of you Ari On The Daily readers are probably pretty green already. You’re probably also aware that where one product exists, there’s undoubtedly a greener version available. So, if you’re looking to up your personal green ante, there’s some neat stuff here. I like the looks of that Wilson recycled rubber basketball!
Amidst worldwide protest and controversy, Canada’s shameful annual massacre of 300,000 baby harp seals began today. Mass killings are underway in the Saint Lawrence Gulf and will soon expand to Newfoundland. Canada’s seal hunt (if you can call bludgeoning defenseless baby animals to death “hunting”) is the largest massacre of marine mammals in the world, and has sparked outrage and a pending ban on imports of all seal products in the Europe Union. Last week, Russia announced it was banning its annual baby seal hunt– one tenth of the size of Canada’s– as inhumane and cruel. Want to take action for the seals? Start here and here.
America’s top dietary expert and the nation’s most renowned heart doctor got together and wrote this editorial for the San Francisco Chronicle. Anyone who cares about their health should read this and take note. Did you know, for example, that of the 27 centers and institutes at the National Institute of Health that NOT ONE OF THEM is dedicated to nutrition? How fucked is that? Also, that medical schools spend the equivalent of a few hours teaching nutrition while the focus of disease treatment and prevention is on drugs and surgery. Crazy. The risk of getting the top killer diseases in this country: heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes can be greatly reduced by what we eat and how we live. It’s true. Please read this editorial for your health and then check out these two books: The China Study and Healthy at 100. Eat well, eat compassionately, thrive!
Here’s some harrowing news for milk drinkers. Science News Magazine printed this piece detailing the link between cancer and human consumption of cow’s milk. I know most of us grew up drinking it, but when you actually think about it, there is nothing more unnatural than adult humans drinking the mammary secretions of another animal. According to the article, milk consumption has been specifically linked to prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer. The good news is there is absolutely NO dietary requirement for humans to consume cow’s milk. And with all the amazing products out there: almond milk, hemp milk, hazelnut milk, rice milk, etc…. you never have to miss the taste of a frothy hot chocolate or your favorite breakfast cereal.
I read this a couple days ago and was so moved I had to share. A few years ago, Sue Coe, the celebrated artist, went to sketch slaughterhouses. Below is an account of what she saw first hand. I urge you all to have the balls to read this:
Posted by Ari 
I’d like to express that it’s crystal clear a hell exists for chickens themselves. It’s called modern day factory farms.
In the United States, there is no law protecting the treatment of chickens. The Humane Slaughter Act unfortunately does not pertain to birds at all. Chickens, easily the most victimized animals in the world, are killed at the rate of nearly 10 billion a year – and that’s just in the US. Think for a second of the sheer enormity of that number. Since a chicken’s suffering is given absolutely no consideration and because thousands are killed per minute, they are treated as mere objects. They are brutally tossed, kicked, punched, hung upside down by their legs, and have their throats slit while still conscious. Many are boiled alive in defeathering baths.
While I’m sure your comment was made for levity, please understand that glorifying eating chickens is no laughing matter. Millions of people look up to you and would love to be as in shape but they can certainly do so while still being compassionate to animals. There are many amazing professional athletes who are vegan or vegetarian. In fact, Stan Price, the world record holder for the bench press, just happens to be a vegetarian. I’m sure he could even out lift Wolverine!
A new study is the first overall analysis of long term health and meat consumption. It found, “Eating red meat [and pork] increases the chances of dying prematurely.” It discusses the link between meat and cancer (especially colorectal cancer) as well as meat and heart disease. Here’s more 
Scientific American features this wee slideshow in the current on-line addition. Most of you Ari On The Daily readers are probably pretty green already. You’re probably also aware that where one product exists, there’s undoubtedly a greener version available. So, if you’re looking to up your personal green ante, there’s some neat stuff here. I like the looks of that Wilson recycled rubber basketball!
Amidst worldwide protest and controversy, Canada’s shameful annual massacre of 300,000 baby harp seals began today. Mass killings are underway in the Saint Lawrence Gulf and will soon expand to Newfoundland. Canada’s seal hunt (if you can call bludgeoning defenseless baby animals to death “hunting”) is the largest massacre of marine mammals in the world, and has sparked outrage and a pending ban on imports of all seal products in the Europe Union. Last week, Russia announced it was banning its annual baby seal hunt– one tenth of the size of Canada’s– as inhumane and cruel. Want to take action for the seals? Start 
LOVE this!! Spanish animal rights activists know how to protest. All the this was to bring attention to the horrific seal hunt that takes place in Canada this time of year. 
Here’s some harrowing news for milk drinkers. Science News Magazine 