Last May, I led a team of investigators inside Iowa’s largest “pork” producer, Iowa Select Farms.
We documented — and ended — the company’s gruesome mass killing of thousands of pigs through “ventilation shutdown.”
Yesterday, my trespass charges were dropped!
Apparently Iowa Select Farms is too scared to face us in court. We just broke this news in a new video, which you can share on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.
But the fight isn’t over. My friend Linda and I are still facing felony burglary charges for the rescue of a piglet named Gilly. Linda has a family at home and she doesn’t want to go to jail. We take risks like this because we know we have a community of people who support us. So will you help?
Call the County Attorney, Eric Simonson, at 641-444-3240 and politely ask him to drop the burglary charges against us because helping animals is the right thing to do.
Thank you for your support through this whole journey — and through everything that is still to come. Together we can expose animal cruelty around the world and achieve revolutionary change for animals. Matt
PS: My birthday also happens to be coming up, and if you’d like to gift me anything, all I’m asking for is donations to DxE. You can donate here.
‘The evidence that switching to plant-based foods can manage or reverse this condition is hugely valuable, particularly as we navigate the peak of this pandemic’
Plant-based diets can slash the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, according to a huge UK study.
Health check service Medichecks surveyed 10,000 Brits to explore the effects of a plant-based diet versus eating meat.
The study’s findings
It found that vegan had a lower blood sugar (HbA1c) count, meaning a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Vegans also showed reduced non-HDL (unhealthy) cholesterol and lower overall cholesterol than meat-eaters – meaning a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke.
Moreover, the study showed vegans had around a 30 percent higher blood level of folate compared to those following a non-vegan diet. Folate is one of the B-vitamins needed to make red and white blood cells and it converts carbohydrates into energy.
The marker for liver health (GGT) was 25-30 percent lower for vegans compared to omnivores.
Plant-based diet
Dr. Natasha Fernando is a GP and Head of Clinical Excellence at Medichecks. In a statement sent to PBN, she said: “An important finding from this 2020 study is the effect of a plant-based diet in supporting the body’s ability to control blood glucose levels, because this is a determinant for type 2 diabetes.
“As published recently in The Lancet, diabetics are 40 percent more likely to have fatal or critical-care COVID. The evidence that switching to plant-based foods can manage or reverse this condition is hugely valuable, particularly as we navigate the peak of this pandemic.”
‘Balanced and nutritious’
Dr. Fernando added: “At this stage in our fight against COVID, everyone can continue to do their bit not just by following the government guidance, but also by taking personal responsibility to safeguard their health. “That means making a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet a priority – that goes both for vegans and meat-eaters. Almost all of the underlying conditions that increase risk factors for coronavirus are preventable and, in many cases, reversible.”
The report below is well worth reading – short and factual;
Germany will become the latest country to ban the mass slaughter of male chicks in the egg industry, with the government announcing a new decree that it hopes will end this cruel practice in 2022.
THE DETAILS: Every year, billions of male chicks—including 45 million in Germany—are killed by industrial agricultural farmers as they are considered useless by both egg and poultry producers since they do not lay eggs and aren’t the breed used for meat production.
ALTERNATIVES TO REDUCE SUFFERING:“In-Ovo sexing” technology has been developed which detects the sex of chicks in their embryonic state, which allows producers to prevent the development and subsequent death of male chicks.
“In-Ovo sexing” systems use intelligent trays or laser systems to recognize the sex of the egg’s embryo, allowing male or unfertilized eggs can be discarded. After many years of development, this technology is now available and ready to be implemented on a large scale.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:“This measure represents an important step forward for animal welfare. We have invested millions of euros in alternatives, combining the welfare of animals and economic efficiency on German soil,” says Julia Klöckner, Minister of Agriculture of Germany, noting that she wants the country to be a role model for others.
WHAT WE’RE SAYING:“Germany’s decision to end male chick culling is a monumental step forward in creating a world where all animals are protected and respected. With the help of groundbreaking In-Ovo sexing technology, we are hopeful more governments will follow suit and similarly ban this horrific practice.” Sharon Núñez, President of Animal Equality.
WHAT WE’RE DOING: Animal Equality is working across the globe to ensure that chick culling within the egg industry is banned and that “In-Ovo sexing” systems are implemented by egg producers.
Over the past few months, our efforts in Spain and Italy have gathered tens of thousands of signatures opposing the brutal practice of male chick culling, and soon we will be launching similar campaigns in other countries.
We are also engaging with major producers to develop policies that would spare continued pain and suffering to male chicks. In the meantime, please leave animals off your plate and share this life-changing news with your networks.
And I mean…“The routine killing of newly hatched male chicks is to be banned in Germany from January 2022. The sex of the animals must then be determined in the egg so that the male chicks are no longer incubated and do not even hatch. “
Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner: “The killing of so-called day-old chicks is not ethically justifiable. Germany is a global pioneer with the law. This is a “milestone” for animal welfare. “
To be clear: The fact that the federal government has finally agreed on an exit plan from decades of chick killing is definitely to be seen as a positive trend – and we hope that this “milestone for animal welfare” will actually get rolling so that the millionfold killing of animals in the name of maximum profitability – at least in this sector – finally comes to an end.
But this has long been recognized as an ethical problem – even by the German poultry industry itself, and from a legal point of view, the practice was no longer legal because German animal protection has been part of the Basic Law since 2002.
The fact that Agriculture Minister Klöckner is now boasting that … “the draft is a” milestone “for animal welfare,” is therefore simply outrageous.
In fact, she’s been playing a dirty game in favor of the poultry and meat industries for years.
The ban on the castration of piglets without anesthesia was passed in 2013, and she postponed it for 7 years, finally going into effect on January 1, 2021.
She is considered the cold-blooded agricultural lobbyist in German politics.
45 million beings are only killed in Germany every year because they are of no use to humans.
They are more or less the collateral damage for the other tortured, battered, but still “useful” creatures – the chicken that you can get in the supermarket for only 2.50 € and the eggs almost free
Because we can’t get our already fat throats full.
Some of the e mails given appear to be currently closed, and the administrator gets back to you about this if this is the situation. But some are still valid and we strongly suggest that e mails are sent to all regardless.
To make things easier for you, I have taken each province in turn and:
Supplied all the e mail contacts in block form – you only need to copy and paste (the block listing) into a ‘new mail’ on your computer.
Supplied a copy of the letter for you to enclose with your mail. Note these are different for each province, and so you must only use the specific one given for each area.
Over time, we are publishing the e mail block contacts and the covering letter for each of the 10 regions.
Probably 5 posts of which this is the first.
If you feel that this is a lot of work; do it in sections each day; finally, take a look at the videos below and then tell us this issue is not worth fighting for !
We ask you to take immediate action to crack down on the illegal dog farms, slaughterhouses, markets and restaurants that serve dog meat in your city. We request that an official document be issued, mandating that the following existing Korean laws be enforced by its government officials, police and judges:
Unauthorized processing of food waste fed to dogs in the meat trade is a violation of the Wastes Control Act, Article 15-2, Article 25, Section 3. Suppliers of food waste and transporters of food waste to dog meat farms are violating this regulation.
Food waste fed to dogs in the dog meat trade is a violation of the Control of Livestock and Fish Feed Act, Article 14, Section 1 & 2. Unauthorized collection of food waste and the act of feeding it to dogs in the meat trade is in violation of this regulation.
Excrement and resulting environmental damage produced as a by-product of the illegal dog meat farm is a violation of the Act on the Management and Use of Livestock Excreta Article 11. The excrement produced at dog meat farms causes environmental damage to the immediate and surrounding area.
The act of the slaughtering of dogs for human consumption is a violation of the Animal Protection Act Article 8, Section 1, Clause 4. The act of the slaughtering of a dog, without justifiable ground – such as out of necessity for veterinary treatment, or in circumstances of immediate threat, harm or damage to human life or property, is a violation.
The slaughter of dogs by electrocution is a violation of the Animal Protection Act, Article 8, Section 1, Clause 1. Inflicting injury or death to any animal by the following means: battery by tools, exposure to drugs, exposure to extreme heat or fire, electrocution and drowning is subject to legal punishment. Therefore, the routine slaughter of dogs by butchers and farmers by these methods is in violation of the Act. Further, electrocution as a method of slaughter is internationally recognized as an inherently cruel method of slaughter and banned globally.
The slaughter of dogs from an unauthorized slaughterhouse is a violation of Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, Article 7 Section 1. The Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, states that dogs are officially recognized and classified as “animals” that are “prohibited from being slaughtered and distributed as food for human consumption”. Therefore, those vendors operating dog slaughterhouses are operating outside of the parameters of the law and in violation of the law.
The slaughter of dogs for his/her own consumption is a violation of the Animal Protection Act, Article 10. The intent of the Act is to ensure that no animal is slaughtered in a cruel or revolting manner, and shall be free from unnecessary pain, fear, or stress during the process of slaughter. Therefore, the only humane way of slaughtering dogs would be by euthanasia (lethal injection). All currently practiced methods of slaughter by butchers, farmers and traders excludes euthanasia as a method of slaughter, therefore they are all in breach of this Act. This is also a violation of the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act Article 7 Section 1 Clause 2. According to the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, the slaughter of animals for his/her own consumption is allowed only for the livestock animals that are publicly announced as classification of livestock in the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act and dogs are not classified here.
The display and sale of dog carcasses in traditional outdoor markets is a violation of the Food Sanitation Act, Article 4, 5. Violation of laws banning the sale of harmful food due to the contamination from unsanitary and illegal slaughter of the animal and display of the dog carcass. For example, dog carcasses are routinely contaminated by microorganisms that cause human diseases and food poisoning; this can lead to serious and life threatening health complications. There are also strict laws that ban the sale of meat from sick animals, due to the fact that there is no quality control or formal monitoring of slaughter practices in the dog meat trade it is very likely that violation of these laws is happening routinely.
Dog meat restaurants’ sale of dog meat soup made with dog carcasses from an unknown source is a violation of Food Sanitation Act Article 44 Section 1 Clause 1. Uninspected livestock products must not be transported, stored, displayed, sold or used for manufacturing or processing of food for human consumption.
International coverage of the brutal dog and cat meat trade in South Korea has stained your city’s image. The time to end this tragedy is now. The favor of your reply is requested.
We ask you to take immediate action to crack down on the illegal dog farms, slaughterhouses, markets and restaurants that serve dog meat in your city. We request that an official document be issued, mandating that the following existing Korean laws be enforced by its government officials, police and judges:
Unauthorized processing of food waste fed to dogs in the meat trade is a violation of the Wastes Control Act, Article 15-2, Article 25, Section 3. Suppliers of food waste and transporters of food waste to dog meat farms are violating this regulation.
Food waste fed to dogs in the dog meat trade is a violation of the Control of Livestock and Fish Feed Act, Article 14, Section 1 & 2. Unauthorized collection of food waste and the act of feeding it to dogs in the meat trade is in violation of this regulation.
Excrement and resulting environmental damage produced as a by-product of the illegal dog meat farm is a violation of the Act on the Management and Use of Livestock Excreta Article 11. The excrement produced at dog meat farms causes environmental damage to the immediate and surrounding area.
The act of the slaughtering of dogs for human consumption is a violation of the Animal Protection Act Article 8, Section 1, Clause 4. The act of the slaughtering of a dog, without justifiable ground – such as out of necessity for veterinary treatment, or in circumstances of immediate threat, harm or damage to human life or property, is a violation.
The slaughter of dogs by electrocution is a violation of the Animal Protection Act, Article 8, Section 1, Clause 1. Inflicting injury or death to any animal by the following means: battery by tools, exposure to drugs, exposure to extreme heat or fire, electrocution and drowning is subject to legal punishment. Therefore, the routine slaughter of dogs by butchers and farmers by these methods is in violation of the Act. Further, electrocution as a method of slaughter is internationally recognized as an inherently cruel method of slaughter and banned globally.
The slaughter of dogs from an unauthorized slaughterhouse is a violation of Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, Article 7 Section 1. The Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, states that dogs are officially recognized and classified as “animals” that are “prohibited from being slaughtered and distributed as food for human consumption”. Therefore, those vendors operating dog slaughterhouses are operating outside of the parameters of the law and in violation of the law.
The slaughter of dogs for his/her own consumption is a violation of the Animal Protection Act, Article 10. The intent of the Act is to ensure that no animal is slaughtered in a cruel or revolting manner, and shall be free from unnecessary pain, fear, or stress during the process of slaughter. Therefore, the only humane way of slaughtering dogs would be by euthanasia (lethal injection). All currently practiced methods of slaughter by butchers, farmers and traders excludes euthanasia as a method of slaughter, therefore they are all in breach of this Act. This is also a violation of the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act Article 7 Section 1 Clause 2. According to the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, the slaughter of animals for his/her own consumption is allowed only for the livestock animals that are publicly announced as classification of livestock in the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act and dogs are not classified here.
The display and sale of dog carcasses in traditional outdoor markets is a violation of the Food Sanitation Act, Article 4, 5. Violation of laws banning the sale of harmful food due to the contamination from unsanitary and illegal slaughter of the animal and display of the dog carcass. For example, dog carcasses are routinely contaminated by microorganisms that cause human diseases and food poisoning; this can lead to serious and life threatening health complications. There are also strict laws that ban the sale of meat from sick animals, due to the fact that there is no quality control or formal monitoring of slaughter practices in the dog meat trade it is very likely that violation of these laws is happening routinely.
Dog meat restaurants’ sale of dog meat soup made with dog carcasses from an unknown source is a violation of Food Sanitation Act Article 44 Section 1 Clause 1. Uninspected livestock products must not be transported, stored, displayed, sold or used for manufacturing or processing of food for human consumption.
International coverage of the brutal dog and cat meat trade in South Korea has stained your city’s image. The time to end this tragedy is now. The favor of your reply is requested.
lant Based News has remade a TV advert that claims meat and dairy are ‘essential’.
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) launched its We Eat Balanced campaign earlier this month to highlight the alleged ‘nutritional benefits of enjoying red meat and dairy’.
The campaign, which costs £1.5 million, consists of an advert currently running on UK TV. It aims to showcase the UK’s world-class standards in food production and sustainability. There are three different endings featuring dishes using beef, lamb, and pork. All of which include a dairy accompaniment.
‘Meat and dairy naturally provide nutrients’
“An ideal diet is one that offers variety, nourishment, and enjoyment whilst remaining in harmony with the environment,” We Eat Balanced said. “To keep you and your family healthy it’s best to follow a balanced diet. Meat and dairy naturally provide nutrients, including the essential vitamin B12 not naturally present in a vegan diet.”
Speaking about the campaign, AHDB’s Head of Marketing Liam Byrne said: “The nation needs a bit of a lift as it’s been a tough time for everyone. So, now more than ever we wanted to create a campaign that feels uplifting and reassuring for consumers who are increasingly being told by the media to reduce their meat and dairy consumption.
“As such this is also a very important campaign for our levy payers as it tells the real story of food and farming from Britain.”However, PBN has decided to remake the advert – showing the harrowing reality of animal agriculture. “We’ve all got a lot on our plates right now but here’s something you’ll want to make room for,” the new ad states.
“The story of a food so brutal it steals calves from their mothers and the flesh of creatures we humans incarcerate. Then, markets it as something edible.
“The nutrients our bodies need to stay healthy exists in plants. Quit meat and dairy. Enjoy food without victims. Eat plant-based.”
Plant Based News’ ad
PBN’s co-founder Robbie Lockie, who produced the new ad, says he was ‘absolutely outraged’ by the claims AHDB made.“We’re in the midst of a climate crisis,” Lockie said. “It is absolutely essential we cut our consumption of meat and dairy.
“However, the makers of the original ad claim they wanted to help people feel good. Because the media is ‘always trying to get people to eat less meat and dairy’. This is not only incredibly irresponsible, it denies the fact that animal agriculture is a leading driver for climate change.”
Are vegan diets healthy?
Despite AHDB’s claims, the American Dietetic Association says ‘appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases’.
It adds: “Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.”
The alarms have been activated again in the Netherlands due to the appearance of a new respiratory disease that could have mutated and is being transmitted from goats to humans.
Researchers are studying the significant increase in human cases of pneumonia that are occurring in populations near the country’s goat farms.
According to studies carried out so far, the risk of contracting pneumonia increases between 20% and 55% in people who live near these farms.
Q fever killed 95 people 10 years ago
This is not the first time that a respiratory disease associated with goat farms has been transmitted to humans in the Netherlands. In 2007, an outbreak of Q fever killed 95 people and took three years to control, infecting thousands of people.
50,000 goats used to produce milk were slaughtered by the government to try to control the disease.
Q fever is a respiratory infection that particularly affects goats and sheep, and is found in the placenta, amniotic fluid, urine, feces, and milk of these animals.
About half of the 4,000 human cases recorded between 2007 and 2010, ended up developing complications, such as heart failure. A total of 50,000 people are believed to have been infected.
2010, Holland: More than 40,000 goats and sheep were killed with lethal injection.
The effects in humans vary, some people do not develop symptoms and yet others suffer from fever, chills, fatigue, and muscle pain.
The threat of zoonotic diseases and livestock
Experts from the UN and the European Food Safety Agency accuse factory farming of being behind most of the new infectious diseases in humans in the last decade. They also ensure that there is a risk that they are the origin of new pandemics.
The terrible conditions that animals endure on factory farms; overcrowding, the overuse of antibiotics, and low genetic diversity make factory farming the perfect breeding ground for pathogens to spread according to recent studies.
And I mean…First of all, we lock up everything that is useful to us and torture that which cannot defend itself!
We create animal quality industries (meat/meat products, milk/dairy products, eggs, fish, animal skin …) stuffed full of antibiotics and hormones, are raped, tortured, tortured, and their babies are robbed and/or murdered over and over again, and when Ebola, SARS, SPAIN FLU, SWINE FLU, BIRD FLU, FLU, HANTA, MALARIA, HIV, SARS-COV-2, SARD-COV (new) arise and threaten us with contagion, we operate the well-known method of mass destruction.
Obviously, we haven’t learned anything from any of these signals.
Even worse is the fact that we have not yet overcome fascism.
Because the crimes against billions upon billions of non-human animals in the animal torture industry continue.
Berlin: A case of avian influenza has now been detected in the Prignitz district, Berlin.
As the Potsdam Ministry of Health announced on Sunday evening, 16,000 turkeys had to be emergency slaughtered and “disposed of” (!!!) – as it is called in technical terms.
This means that the carcasses of the killed animals are disposed of, mostly incinerated, so that no other animals or people can become infected with the disease.
The disease, which is deadly for animals, is also known as bird flu and made headlines around the world a few years ago.
The epidemic is being dealt with in a more relaxed manner.
In this case, it is the avian influenza pathogen with the code H5N8.
It is already the second case of this disease that has been detected in the state of Brandenburg since autumn.
The first case was confirmed at the end of December 2020 in Lausitzon a small farm in the Spree-Neisse district (Germany).
Now a larger fattening farm is affected.
In addition, the virus has so far been detected in six wild birds in Brandenburg.
The virus is said to have spread wild birds, according to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.
Transferable to humans
According to the Robert Koch Institute, animal disease can also be transmitted to humans. “Influenza A viruses that occur in birds can also cause illness in humans and are then also referred to as bird flu,” it says. “The transmission of avian influenza viruses from animals to humans is not very effective, which means that they are not very infectious for humans. However, if such an infection occurs, it can also lead to serious illnesses.”
WAV Comment – Viva is based in Bristol, England; but has now also set up a major facility in Poland – see the Viva! Poland link below to enter the site; there should also be a ‘translate’ link for you to use if you wish.
Viva! Have now set up a brand new website, and we have provided some links to areas below.
Take a trip and investigate further one of the UK’s leading Vegan animal organisations:
From Viva !:
2021 – the perfect opportunity to clear away the cobwebs and make way for new beginnings. And that’s exactly what we’ve done with our new website.
We have been busy working away behind the scenes on a brand new website, and we really do mean brand new!
We have developed four stylish and vibrant sections of the new site, which represent the four key tenets of our work; Viva! Animals, Viva! Health, Viva! Planet and Viva! Lifestyle. Each section is beautifully designed and colour coded, with current, fully-referenced content.
When it comes to web, first impressions are everything. It takes web users just 50 milliseconds to form an opinion about a website. So your opinion matters to us!
From WAV – we have supplied the following short cut links for you:
What happens to the cute little calves in the meat industry?
That decides the lot.
If it is a little calf girl, then it is allowed to “live” first. His fate is the dairy industry.
After a few months of “rest”, the little calf becomes pregnant. This usually happens when the little girl gets a metal rod rammed into her vagina and is thus fertilized. This then happens once a year.
Up to 5 times. After the last long-term pregnancy, the little girl is a young woman with an emaciated body. The pregnancies, as well as the enormous milk yield, wrench their bodies completely.
As a thank for her services, she is allowed to go to the slaughterhouse at the age of 5 and is killed. The “normal” life expectancy of a cow is up to 20 years. It dies as a child.
If the calf is a little boy, then the following happens: Extract from an interview with a slaughterhouse worker:
“To make things go faster, 8-9 calves are put into the killing box. We’ll fire straight away with the nail gun. Some we hit right, some not. It is also difficult to get every one right as the calves go mad with fear and jump over each other in panic.
At some point you will no longer know which animal is now anesthetized and which is not … at some point, they’ll all be hooked.
Many of them wriggle and scream as the tape continues and they are stabbed and dismembered with full consciousness. “
It is so dreadful to read these lines. It’s so horrible to think of something like that.
It’s so horrible to know that this happens EVERY DAY. Presumably right now.
Please tell me how you can continue to eat meat or animal products with lines like this? Tell me!
I would like to know how one can still be able to do so after such facts.
Emotional brutality to the highest degree. I find it deeply shocking to support something like that.
Nobody asks you to be vegan overnight.
But show the willingness to find solutions so that innocent and defenseless living beings do not find such a painful death.
THANKS!
From the blog V changemakers.de
And I mean…How far can animals be devalued?
The devaluation of animals is really so bizarre that it goes beyond imagination.
Wherever we look meat is practically everywhere.
We have reified animals, the meat producers see them as a product, the meat-eaters as food.
It has been taken for granted that meat is part of our lives.
The meat industry takes care of this with every dirty means.
One of them is that the animals that suffer and die in modern concentration camps are invisible.
We don’t see them.
Why is the meat industry going to such great lengths to keep the victims of our consumption invisible?
So that this fascist system can continue to exist without its function being called into question.
Because access to animal farms is not permitted for the public (including the media), the real facts about factory farming come from undercover research, which is therefore classified as illegal and unlawful!
But although these investigations have increased and become very professional in the last few years, the meat industry is mobilizing against it, with “bio” meat, “organic-keeping” chickens, “humane” slaughtering in farms … so that the consumer can calm his conscience as best as possible can.
Thousands of undercover videos and insider stories can still turn up; this is simply further rationalized as a “blatant exception” and “individual misconduct”.
Life has the highest value, and those who hate really animal suffering and death are not looking for excuses but for solutions.
Actually one is enough …! Don’t eat them!
World Animals Voice 