vegansaurus!

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

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

Well, some good news: The Wyoming anti-whistleblower bill (seeking to criminalize investigations at factory farms) has now been tabled in the state senate. The Casper Star-Tribune editorialized just yesterday about how HSUS uncovered a “culture of cruelty” at a Wyoming pig factory and that introducing the bill showed “an egregious lapse in judgment” on the part of the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Sue Wallis.

More good news: HSUS prevailed in a dispute over misleading animal care marketing used by major pork producer Seaboard Foods. Following an FTC complaint filed by HSUS, the agribusiness giant ceased making certain claims about its animal care practices. Alas, while it’s changed its words, it’s still not changed its practices.

And even more good news: Farmers in California were just charged with felony animal cruelty after starving 50,000 chickens.

Video of the week: Did you have a single Valentine’s Day? So did these cats…

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

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

Hear about the meat industry’s effort to silence whistleblowers on factory farms? I’m honored to be on CNN Headline News tonight with the always-fantastic Jane Velez-Mitchell discussing how badly the industry wants to keep Americans in the dark. Watch the short segment, and please share the link!

Fortunately, the word is still getting out about how abusive practices are the norm, not the exception, in animal agribusiness.

For example, in just the past week: The president of the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association has a good op-ed on why gestation crate confinement of pigs should be ended. Similarly, there’s a compelling op-ed in New Jersey’s largest paper advocating for the state’s pending bill to ban gestation crates, and a great op-ed in another NJ paper supporting the same bill. And there’s a very good blog about all the food retail companies making moves to get gestation crates out of their supply chains.

Video of the week: Did you see the Super Bowl “God Made a Farmer” commercial? If so, you may enjoy this parody!

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

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

A lot of new opinion pieces this week!

My friend Bruce Friedrich has a great feature on how much the meat industry has to hide and its desire to pass anti-whistleblower laws. I have a new short piece on chickens, their mental lives, and our treatment of them. The Yale Daily News published a potent op-ed about Connecticut’s new bill to ban gestation crates, and the Syracuse Post-Standard has a great op-ed by a veterinarian on why gestation crates are so terrible for pigs.

Want to protect yourself against the #1 killer in the US? Scientists are finding that a vegetarian diet can reduce heart disease risk by a third.

BTW, did you know that dung beetles use the Milky Way for GPS? Just think how cool you’ll seem at your party this weekend when you bring this up. (And if your friends don’t think that’s cool, you may need some new friends.)

Video of the week: Last week we learned that mice can play fetch. This week, we learn that dogs love to Skype!

Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

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

Want to see the future of food? BusinessWeek had a great feature yesterday on the amazing Hampton Creek Foods.

Mom-to-be Hollywood star Kristen Bell cares about other moms-to-be, including pregnant pigs! That’s why she sent a letter this week to the National Pork Producers Council asking that they stop supporting gestation crate confinement. And just this past week alone, Marriott, General Mills, Au Bon Pain, and IHOP/Appleby’s all announced that they’re shifting their pork supply chains away from gestation crate confinement.

In response to the introduction of an anti-whistleblower bill that was just introduced in Wyoming, the opinion page editor of the Casper Star-Tribune blasted the sponsor, saying the “shameful bill is a new low for Wyoming.”

Video of the week: If you think mice can’t play fetch, basketball, or track and field, this stunning video is for you.

Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

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

Hear the one about the chicken in the burning house? No, seriously. This hero chicken saved her family from a burning house. Check it out.

A Purdue University survey reported on this week by National Hog Farmer has some very interesting findings about Americans. Two include: HSUS is the #1 most frequented source of information for Americans about animal welfare; and 14% of consumers say they’ve reduced pork consumption (by an average of 56%) over the past three years due to animal welfare concerns they’ve heard about.

Mark Bittman had an important column in the NYT this week arguing that Americans need to treat farm animals better and eat fewer of them. Here’s a recent DC NPR (WAMU) on-air commentary from me on the topic.

Finally, pig giant Smithfield announced this week that it’s continuing its US conversion away from gestation crates, has already converted all of its European operations, and will begin converting its Mexican operations, too.

P.S. Video of the week! Need some belated new year’s resolutions? These cats have some ideas for you!

Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

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

You may be interested in HSUS’s new fully wrapped bus ads rolling around DC and Des Moines with a message that gestation crate defenders are sure not to like, and while you’re at it, here’s the Des Moines Register’s coverage of it.

National Hog Farmer this week lamented the progress we made in 2012 against gestation crates, noting our early successes getting large food companies on “the anti-stall bandwagon [set] in motion for others to hop on, much to the glee of the pork industry’s nemesis — the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)….Even more disturbing is it has empowered HSUS and their ilk to target other common pig management procedures.” (Note: Einstein Bagels and Arby’s this week became the latest companies to announce plans to phase out gestation crates…)

Meat industry analysts (and owner of the Dow Jones Index) CME Group report this week that demand for meat in the US fell again this year, and conclude: “But it is obvious that there have been no banner years for at least the three largest species since 2004.” Perhaps more people are seeing pieces like this one from this week about the benefits of Meatless Monday.

Happy holidays!

P.S. Video of the week: Want to be inspired by some cool things that happened for animals this past year? Check this one out. (Bonus blog of the week: Some cool things specifically for farm animals that happened.)

Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

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

To all my Arizona peeps out there who worked so hard on Prop 204 six years ago (the ballot measure banning veal and gestation crates), the historic law you helped enact takes effect in a couple weeks. The state’s largest paper editorialized this week telling you how awesome you are for ushering in this important law—check it out.

The Wall Street Journal had a large feature this week about the fact that US milk consumption has declined nearly 30% since 1975, and how the industry is responding.

I’ve got a couple new online pieces this week, one for a sustainable ag site about the need to reduce per capita meat consumption and another on the Civil Eats site about the pork industry’s Onion-like defense of indefensible animal abuse.

P.S. Video of the week: If you’ve ever wondered what your party would be like with a cat DJing it, wonder no more. (Related: Yes, it exists, and yes, we sell it.)

Animal News You Can Use!  »

Paul Shapiro weekly dose of all things animals! Yes!

Especially the week after Thanksgiving, it’s good to remind ourselves of the undeniable fact: demand for meat continues to fall in the US. Check out my friend Harish’s latest post on the topic.

In that vein, here’s a cool piece about the Hunts Point Alliance for Children (in NYC) working with HSUS to implement Meatless Mondays.

In last week’s post, I mentioned an interview in Forbes about our work in China. This week, check out this hopeful article in China Daily about the very nascent farm animal protection movement there.

And in that vein, Temple Grandin has some advice for US pork producers still defending their immobilization of pigs in tiny cages. She argues in this interview: “For example, look at sow-gestation stalls. So many companies have stopped using them, and others are moving away from it, but you have those people out there who are still defending it. It’s going away, it needs to go away, let it go away.”

Video of the week: Caught on tape—breaking undercover video clandestinely shot just yesterday of my felines.

Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use!  »

Paul Shapiro is back for his weekly dose of all the animal news that’s fit to print! Take it away, Paul!

Seriously, not a joke: Here’s a pork industry column this week on why they’re opposing HSUS’s effort to make it a felony in North Dakota to set dogs, cats, and horses on fire. (It’s currently a felony in 48 other states.)

You already know that the factory farming industry vigorously attacks HSUS daily. But today there’s an important new exposé by Bloomberg on one of the industry’s top PR hit men, who often leads the attack against HSUS. Check it out.

I doubt he’s pleased with the piece, and I also doubt that he’s pleased with the fact that Carnival Cruises is the latest major pork buyer to announce it will eliminate gestation crate pork from its supply chain.

Finally. I also doubt he was too pleased to read the recent LA Times story on how demand for meat is declining globally. Or the big AP story yesterday on how meat-free Thanksgivings are gaining in popularity…

Video of the week:  I’m usually against animal fighting, but this may be okay…

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.