And even more appropriate to Thanksgiving: the story of a turkey who evades the slaughter and is rewarded with a new life.
It’s a good reminder that even labels like “free-range” do not at all mean the animal you are intending to eat has been running around in a grassy field.
(Thanks to Emilia Huitron for sharing this story on my Facebook page).
Anyhow, the story above naturally brings me to this photo:
Here’s something to be thankful for. A beautiful whale shark rescue.
Here’s the backstory:
WHALE SHARK RESCUE – November 7, 2012, diving aboard the Solmar V at Roca Partida, near Socorro Island, about 250 miles south of Baja, Mexico.
During the first dive of the morning, we came upon a mature whale shark in some amount of distress due to a large rope cinched around it’s girth. It must have been there for some time, as the rope was encrusted with barnacles, and was cutting deeply into the flesh of the shark.
On the second dive of the morning, we located the same whale shark once again, and with Eddy (dive guest) on the scene with his “Go Pro” camera, we were able to memorialize the rescue. In the video you will see Dave (dive guide) approach the shark from the front, and Dani (dive guide) swim to the shark from above. You will see Dani successfully cut the rope loose, freeing the shark which slowly swims away. At the end, you will see Eddy’s wife, Gina, knuckle-bump Dani, as we all celebrate together.
We brought the rope back to the boat, and found it was about 2 inches in diameter, so perhaps an anchor or mooring line? How it got wrapped around the shark is a mystery.
Since administrative law judge Ken Welsch last May upheld OSHA’s citations against SeaWorld’s killer whale practices (full ruling is here), SeaWorld has been under obligation to “abate” the hazards OSHA identified: namely the danger of working in close proximity to killer whales.
In essence, OSHA’s citations combined and Welsch’s ruling (which applies to shows), mean that SeaWorld cannot have trainers swimming with the killer whales (aka waterwork), and even when the trainers are out on the pool decks they are supposed to maintain a minimum separation or have some sort of barrier between them and the killer whales.
SeaWorld has decided to take its appeal of the OSHA citations to the federal courts, but in the meantime SeaWorld has been negotiating with OSHA over when and how it must come into compliance with the citations. Since Judge Welsch’s order went into effect, SeaWorld has been asking for more time to figure out how it wants to abate the dangers OSHA cited, and has filed a Petition For Modification Of Abatement. OSHA has taken the position that SeaWorld should already be in compliance, so a new hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 15-17 in Judge Welsch’s court to hear testimony on the timing and method of abatement.
I’ve always thought that SeaWorld would like to be able to submit its fast-rising pool floors, and spare air systems (among other possible innovations) as safety modifications that abate the danger OSHA cited. That would allow trainers to get back into the pool during shows, and perform the waterwork that SeaWorld is famous for. I don’t know if this is the venue where SeaWorld will try to make that case, but it will be worth watching to see.
For its part, OSHA believes SeaWorld has been violating the citations during shows by not maintaining minimum separation and continuing to have trainers hug and touch the whales from the slideouts and pool decks without any protective barriers between them and the whales (OSHA also believes SeaWorld did not properly abate another citation regarding a stair railing). If SeaWorld is hit with two new failure to abate citations they could be looking at penalties of up to $7,000 a day for up to 30 days. That won’t break the SeaWorld bank, but it’s not small change, either.
So stand by for another court confrontation in the winter heat of Florida. Depending on what Judge Welsch decides, the federal appeal may be SeaWorld’s last chance to preserve the possibility of waterwork during killer whale shows at its parks.
This is very awesome. Yesterday we had the vegetarian rappers. Today we have the Al Gore going all pop passionate over climate change.
Never has climate talk sounded so good.
This is very well said. From Dr. Lori Marino, of the Kimmela Center For Animal Advocacy, in a compelling deconstruction (via the sad story of two oxen called Bill and Lou) of the belief that meat-eating is in any way sustainable:
The reason the planet and all of its inhabitants are in such a desperate state is because our species has continued to exploit everyone and everything without compassion. Killing other animals reinforces that insensitivity and the very attitudes that have led to global destruction. We are currently facing the sixth mass extinction event, human overpopulation and starvation, and devastating planetary destruction from rampant ecological exploitation and climate change. The same insensitivity that leads to lack of concern for Bill and Lou as individuals has led us to the brink of global devastation. They are intimately related and anyone who claims otherwise is being disingenuous. Every individual currently in factory farms is Bill and Lou and factory farms are not only engines of unspeakable suffering for the luxury wants of our species but are contributing substantially to global warming.
Check out the Kimmela Center’s Facebook page here. And blog here.
It’s sounds like something that should go on a list of George Carlin oxymorons, like “jumbo shrimp” and “military intelligence.”
So we must be approaching some sort of cultural paradigm shift when there are headlines like:
GZA convinces Method Man and Redman to go vegetarian
According to the story, here’s how GZA did it:
“I used to tease Meth all the time about him eating steaks, use to tell him he was ‘Eatin’ a pig p**sy T-bone’. He hated that s**t, but he just recently came up to me and said both he and Redman are vegetarians now.”
And they aren’t the only ones who have taken heed of GZA’s diet advice – his tourmate Killer Mike has also started consuming more greens instead of just gorging on meat.
Killer Mike says, “He convinced me to be eating some veggies (sic), so that’s cool.”
Yes, very cool. And apparently GZA is no one-time apostle of vegetarianism:
In a 2010 interview on Eater, GZA also revealed that he had shared videos about the health impacts of consuming a typical meat-heavy Western diet to band members and family to encourage them to make the switch to a plant-based diet.
Maybe we are in the cusp of some new genres of music, Vegan Rap and Vegan Rock. Oh wait….
And, of course, we gotta work some George Carlin in:
Sometimes you just have to wonder at how sick and twisted the human psyche can get.
Case in point: Dead and mutilated dolphins are turning up on the Gulf coast, some shot and some with parts cut off.
Here’s a report from the Sun-Herald:
Somebody is maiming and killing dolphins.
On Friday, a team from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport found a dolphin on Ship Island with its lower jaw missing.
Last weekend, IMMS responded to a dead dolphin found along the Ocean Springs/Gautier coastline with a 9mm bullet wound. “It went through the abdomen, into the kidneys and killed it,” said Moby Solangi, IMMS executive director.
In Louisiana, a dolphin was found with its tail cut off.
“Animals don’t eat each other’s tails off,” Solangi said.
“We think there’s someone or some group on a rampage,” he said. “They not only kill them but also mutilate them.”
IMMS investigated the first dolphin shooting earlier this year and incidents have increased in the past few months. In Alabama, someone stabbed and killed a dolphin with a screwdriver, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration press release. In September, a dolphin was found on Elmer’s Island, La., with a bullet in its lung. Others have been mutilated with knife-like lesions.
Turns out that this has been going on for a while now, this year. I can’t pretend to understand what motivates anyone to do such things, any more than I can pretend to understand so much of the violence humans inflict on each other and the rest of the world.
But I hope they catch someone and prosecute to the full extent, which could include a fine of up to $100,000 and a year in jail. One important point made by NOAA about this dolphin killing spree is that feeding wild dolphins–which happens all too often–encourages dolphins to approach boats, which either makes them more vulnerable to maniacs with guns, or can led to conflict with fishermen if the dolphins go after their catch.
More pictures, if you can stand it, in this Sun Herald gallery.
We’re not having a turkey (or any meat) at our Thanksgiving table this year. And that was a pretty non-controversial decision in my family.
But if you are trying to talk your family into a vegetarian Thanksgiving, or are taking heat for leaving the turkey out, then I’ve got some useful numbers for you about Thanksgiving turkey consumption:
Amidst groans about being more stuffed than the bird itself, Americans will toss a whopping $282 million worth of uneaten turkey into the trash this Thanksgiving, contributing to the $165 billion in uneaten food Americans waste every year. Along with trashing uneaten turkey, they’ll be wasting the resources necessary for its production — meaning 105 billion gallons of water (enough to supply New York City for over 100 days) and greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 800,000 car trips from New York to San Francisco. That’s enough turkey to provide each American household that is food insecure with more than 11 additional servings (17.9 million American households suffer from food insecurity).
Nationwide, consumers will purchase around 736 million pounds of turkey this Thanksgiving, of which about 581 million pounds will be actual meat. The USDA reports that 35 percent of perfectly good turkey meat in the U.S. does not get eaten after it is purchased by consumers (and that’s not including bones). This compares with only 15 percent for chicken. Why the disparity? “Possibly because turkey is more often eaten during holidays when consumers may tend to discard relatively more uneaten food than on other days,” the USDA writes.
And unless we take action to prove the USDA wrong, we’ll be throwing away about 204 million pounds of that meat and about 1 million tons of CO2 with it. Per pound, the resources needed to produce that turkey are equivalent to driving your car 11 miles and taking a 130-minute shower (at four gallons/minute).* And that’s to say nothing of the vast amounts of antibiotics used to produce turkey meat, leading to antibiotic resistance, which you can read more about here.
And that doesn’t even take into account what the turkeys actually go through to get to a table.
So instead of eating a turkey, how about adopting one?
Is it even possible to take an undercover camera into a meat production facility and NOT find abuse? Apparently not.
Apologies to all of you out there who are starting to lick your lips over the idea of a big, fat, gravy-doused turkey on your table next week. But Mercy For Animals has got another undercover investigation that should give you pause:
In October of 2012, an MFA investigator documented a pattern of shocking abuse and neglect at numerous Butterball turkey operations in North Carolina, including:
- workers kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or on top of other birds;
- birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, and broken bones; and
- workers grabbing birds by their wings or necks and violently slamming them into tiny transport crates with no regard for their welfare.
Worse, these are exactly the same sorts of things that Mercy For Animals found at a Butterball plant last year (an investigation which led to criminal animal abuse charges against plant workers). So I guess humanely producing a Thanksgiving turkey is not really in our culture despite how much we revere Thanksgiving and turkeys.
Here’s what Mercy For Animals says about what it did with its footage, and why the practices shown are so cruel:
Following the investigation, MFA immediately went to law enforcement with extensive video footage and a detailed legal complaint outlining the culture of cruelty at Butterball. Law enforcement is investigating.
Unfortunately, the lives of turkeys in Butterball’s factory farms are short, brutal, and filled with fear, violence, and constant suffering. While wild turkeys are sleek, agile, and able to fly, Butterball’s turkeys have been selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer from painful bone defects, hip joint lesions, crippling foot and leg deformities, and fatal heart attacks.
Even though domestic turkeys have been genetically manipulated for enormous growth, these birds still retain their gentle, inquisitive, and social natures. Oregon State University poultry scientist Dr. Tom Savage says that turkeys are “smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings.”
In fact, animal behaviorists, veterinarians, and scientists agree that turkeys are sensitive and intelligent animals with their own unique personalities, much like the dogs and cats we all know and love.
As the world’s largest producer of turkey meat, Butterball is responsible for 20 percent of the 252 million turkeys raised and killed for food each year in the United States, and 30 percent of the 46 million turkeys who are killed for Thanksgiving.
Even if you want to eat a cruelty-free turkey for Thanksgiving, there are only a handful of farms left in America that raise turkeys which live normal turkey lives and haven’t been genetically modified in painful ways.
Anyhow, for all these reasons, we’re going for a turkey-free Thanksgiving this year, even though there will be some meat-eaters around our table (one of the perks of doing the cooking!). And if you want to give it a shot, here’s a bunch of good recipe ideas.
You can’t know too much about food production, and this film looks as if it goes deep into the the milk business and family farming.
Here’s a description:
A group of Maine dairy farmers—dropped by their national milk company—launch their own milk company in a bid to save their farms. Owned by the farmers and committed to paying a sustainable price for their milk, the company offers hope for the future of small farming. But faced with slow sales and mounting bills, can the farmers hang together long enough for the gamble to pay off?
BETTING THE FARM is a verité documentary that follows three farmers—Aaron Bell, Vaughn Chase, and Richard Lary—and their families through the tumultuous first two years of MOO Milk. With intimate access to their triumphs and disappointments, the film gives audiences a rare glimpse at the real lives of American farmers at a crossroads.
It doesn’t appear to get into the issues of whether we should even be drinking milk or animal welfare. But you’ll learn more about milk production than you know now, and that can only inform the welfare issues.
Here’s the trailer:
The Earthist Chronicles 