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Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s time for Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use! With the ever charming, brilliant, and hard-working Mr. Paul Shapiro! Take it away, Paul…

A nice article this week points out that in the US, sales of meat-free meals are increasing as sales of meat continue declining.

In less nice news, a report this week paints a harrowing picture: The headline says it all: “China Now Eats Twice As Much Meat As The U.S.” While American and European meat consumption is falling, Chinese meat consumption is skyrocketing—quadrupling in the last 30 years. Yet in a sign of just how much meat Americans eat, even with this huge growth in Chinese consumption, on a per person basis, they still eat only half the meat we do in the U.S.

Want to know what’s it’s like to live in a gestation crate? Check out the new potent resource, the Virtual Gestation Crate. Fortunately, the Cheesecake Factory is the latest company to announce it will phase out gestation crates from its pork supply chain.

Video of the week: Pig mauls dog. [Ed.: OMG!!!!]

It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

Paul Shapiro is back with all the animal news you need. Let’s go:

Ever wonder what the meat industry’s tired of? Well, Pork Magazine’s editor wrote this week, “I am getting tired of the constant barrage of announcements driven by the Humane Society of the United States against the U.S. pork sector, and I know you are too.”

One thing you may not be tired of is good news like this: industry publication Feedstuffs has a story this week about a formerly pro-gestation crate animal scientist who now concludes that a transition away from the crates will indeed work, and that producers seem to be getting dragged “kicking and screaming into another inevitable change.”

Other good news: HSUS is proud to be named this year as VegNews magazine’s “Nonprofit of the Year!”

A new undercover investigation by Mercy For Animals documented egregious cruelty at a large dairy producer.

Finally, an interesting story about how more and more black men are getting into veganism. One guy in particular is a pretty good example, I’d say!

Video of the week: Rescued ducks hit water for the first time! [Ed.: UGH THIS IS TOO AWESOME]

It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s Animal News You Can Use from Paul Shapiro! Yay, Paul! Yay, animals!

Pork magazine started a column this week off by lamenting, “Sadly, the list of companies announcing they will force their pork suppliers to move away from sow gestation stalls continues to grow longer.” Since last week’s email, both Brinker and Bruegger’s Bagels added themselves to that list. How sad, indeed…

Huffington Post has a great profile this week on HSUS’s litigation efforts, with animal law professor David Wolfson noting of HSUS’s attorneys, “They are generally extremely disciplined, focused and professional. I would also characterize them as extremely pragmatic and realistic.”

On the other end of the spectrum, BEEF magazine has a couple good stories about HSUS this week. One warns factory farmers, “HSUS has made it clear – oppose us and you will pay a price.” Another notes, “HSUS has the motive, the money and the momentum. What are we going to do to defend ourselves?”

P.S. Video of the week: Walter the wild crow adopts a human family. Seriously must-watch.

It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s Animal News You Can Use from Paul Shapiro! Yay, Paul! Yay, animals!

The latest beef in the battle between the pork industry’s leadership and HSUS is a newly filed lawsuit. HSUS charges that the National Pork Board struck an unlawful “ham scam” backroom deal with the National Pork Producers Council to purchase the “Pork: The Other White Meat” slogan. The purchase is bankrolling a third of the NPPC’s annual budget, which includes waging anti-animal lobbying efforts.

Both ConAgra and Dunkin Donuts announced in the past week that they’re eliminating gestation crates from their supply chains. Despite ConAgra being based in Nebraska, true to form, the head of the Nebraska Farm Bureau derided the company’s move and assured the public that “The use of gestation crates is really a better way to care for hogs.” The dude may as well be defending the NFL replacement refs…

In non-NFL news, my esteemed coworker at HSUS, Dr. Michael Greger, has a piece that was on the CNN home page about the public health dangers of factory farming.

Finally, the New York Times had a good feature last week on how mainstream vegan eating is in Southern California. Check it out!

Video of the week: Dog meets trampoline:

It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s Animal News You Can Use from Paul Shapiro! Yay, Paul! Yay, Animals!

We started last week’s email with a good court ruling about California’s Prop 2, and now this week, a federal judge told foie gras producers what time it is in ruling that California’s ban on force-feeding ducks for foie gras will remain intact. In response to the ruling, the LA Times had a nice smack-down of the chefs fighting for force-feeding.

Speaking of smack-downs, the Wall Street Journal had a pro/con debate in the paper this week entitled, “Would We Be Healthier With a Vegan Diet?“ T. Colin Campbell represented the “yes” side.

In case you’ve not yet read your latest issue of Meat & Poultry…there’s a good article about the success of HSUS’s gestation crate campaign. The conclusion: “This is no longer a debate about the viability of gestation crates in hog production, but rather a discussion about how producers will respond to meet expectations.” (And check out this op-ed on the topic in Pennsylvania’s second largest paper.)

Have a nice weekend. If you live near me, I hope to see you at the DC VegFest tomorrow!

P.S. Video of the week: Pig saves goat!.

(Bonus video: HSUS works with Project Empower in teaching kids about Meatless Monday.)

It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s Animal News You Can Use from Paul Shapiro! Yay, Paul! Yay, Animals!

Huge news this week: Big agribusiness lost another round in its continued assault on Prop 2, the ballot measure we waged four years ago in California to ban various factory farming practices. A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled in HSUS’s favor and threw out a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.

Also big news is that meat consumption is in significant decline in the US. Here’s a new piece from me looking at the trend and the reasons behind it. And here’s a nice segment from the ABC San Francisco TV affiliate about HSUS helping a local school district implement Meatless Monday.

Speaking of big, my friend Big Bruce Friedrich has a good new essay about how the pork industry’s leadership is both anti-science and anti-animal.

P.S. Video of the week: Man apologizes to cat by building him an amazing gift.

It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s Animal News You Can Use from Paul Shapiro! Yay, Paul! Yay, Animals!

The Wall Street Journal had an important article about the progress we’re making against the inhumane practice of tail-docking in the dairy industry. And as far as progress is concerned, hot dog giant Wienerschnitzel and Jack in the Box are the latest major pork buyers to announce its plans to phase out gestation crates.

The Toledo Blade had a piece entitled “More black Americans are giving up meat and dairy,” and the San Jose Mercury News ran a good story about HSUS’s work with the Pleasanton school district to implement Meatless Mondays.

Finally, author James McWilliams has an interesting piece about HSUS today on Slate.

Have a great weekend! Hope to survive mine, as I’m part of the depraved Team HSUS crew taking on the Tough Mudder challenge in Maryland tomorrow…

Video of the week: Can’t decide if you like cats or dogs more? This video gives you both. (And bonus photo of the week!)

It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s Animal News You Can Use from Paul Shapiro! Yay, Paul! Yay, Animals! Yay, Everyone! AND HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND TO ALL!! (Except for the terrible, terrible meat industry, who can go to hell.) 

Reuters had a good national story yesterday about HSUS’s new stock purchases of financial firms that invest heavily in the pork industry (as a means of making further progress on the gestation crate issue).

Speaking of gestation crate progress, since last week’s email, Subway, Campbell’s Soup and Harris Teeter all announced that they plan to eliminate gestation crates from their supply chains. (And Sodexo made a similar claim on laying hens.)

And speaking of progress, BBC had an interesting story about the increase in the number of folks reducing their meat consumption.

And finally, speaking of meat consumption, the head of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame (yes, it exists) had a surprising column placing the blame for the cruelty seen in Compassion Over Killing’s latest investigative videosquarely on the dairy industry.  And while on the topic of investigative videos, this week we saw guilty pleas in Mercy For Animals’ cruelty case regarding abuse of Butterball turkeys.

Video of the week: When the lion lays down with the lamb. (Or the cat with the rat…)

Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s Paul Shapiro’s weekly Animal News You Can Use! Yay!

First and foremost, don’t miss last night’s ABC World News feature on the new undercover investigation by Compassion Over Killing that led USDA to shut down a major California slaughter plant this week. Impressive.

Also, this week New Jersey’s largest paper officially endorsed the state’s bill to ban gestation crates for pigs, even citing in its endorsement the op-ed referenced in last week’s email. Boom.

Speaking of pigs, food service giant Aramark announced with HSUS that it will require its pork suppliers to end their use of gestation crates. Bring it.

Finally, five years in a row, VegNews readers have voted HSUS their favorite animal protection group. You can help make it six by voting for us in this year’s Veggie Awards! [Ed.: Vote for Vegansaurus for favorite blog and Ask Laura for favorite column, too, if you want xoxoxoxoxo!]

Video of the week: when cats get caught barking…

Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s that time again, The Humane Society of the United States’ Paul Shapiro brings on the funk with all the animal news you need and more for the week! Get ready to fall in love with with Paul and Stephen Colbert, two animal-loving DREAM BOATS!

Break out the box of tissues…Meat giant Tyson Foods is reporting poor sales due to “very difficult market conditions” resulting from decreased demand for meat.

There’s a new Pork mag editorial on HSUS’s campaign against gestation crate confinement in which they call HSUS “the mastermind behind this and many other challenges against animal agriculture.” They further note that “HSUS [is] methodically chipping away at an animal production sector, and it has the manpower and money to wait it out.” (Pork mag also has an article on a new online HSUS campaign.)

Finally, HSUS has been helping many schools and hospitals implement Meatless Monday programs, including Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Oregon, which The Oregonian reported on this week. And BTW, did you know the founder of “Meatopia” (I’d never even heard of it!) is now backing Meatless Monday? See his TIME piece on it. Crazy.

Video of the week: This week’s video is seriously so funny I literally cried while watching it. It’s Colbert’s segment on the dispute between HSUS and Iowa Rep. Steve King over his pro-cruelty stances. It’ll make your day—guaranteed.