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Check out this great Savory Vegetarian Burgers Recipe at 123Easyaspie.com!
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Here’s a brand new commercial from Mercy For Animals. It launches today in NY, Chicago, and LA on MTV, VH1, and Bravo, and then also nationwide on HULU.
Say word? MTV, VH1, Bravo and HULU? That’s a big deal! What do you think? Is it good enough to represent us on the mainstream stage? Will it turn-off meat eaters or open some minds? Furthermore, do you think advertising in the mainstream media is a necessity or could it be bad for the veggie and AR movements? Or what? Discuss!
∞ posted at 09:46 by youtalkfunny 
OMG OMG OMG check it out:
Kick off the NY Veg Food Fest weekend in style! Upton’s Naturals will be teaming up with us for a pop-up vegan sandwich shop benefitting Mercy For Animals. Featuring a small sandwich menu that will include the option to slice open the donut of your choice and add a couple slices of hot Bacon Seitan - it is a thing of beauty! All sandwich shop proceeds will be donated to Mercy For Animals, making this an easy way to support a great organization.
Holy cannoli that sounds awesome! Check FB for whatever details you should need to get to this pop-up and freak the eff out on some bacon donut sandwiches.
∞ posted at 07:44 by youtalkfunny
It’s Paul Shapiro’s weekly dose of all things animals! Yes!
It’s almost Thanksgiving…Wondering how most turkeys are treated? Check out the newly-released Mercy For Animals investigation documenting appalling abuse of turkeys raised for Butterball.
(You may also want to take a look at this week’s NY Times’ major feature on vegetarian Thanksgvings.)
On that note, Los Angeles became the biggest city in the country to official start promoting Meatless Mondays. (Even the Today Show covered it!)
Finally, if you’ve got some time and want a fascinating read, here’s Washington Monthly’s new feature, “Obama’s Game of Chicken.” As they bill the story: “The untold story of how the administration tried to stand up to big agricultural companies on behalf of independent farmers, and lost.”
Video of the week: Not quite the lion and lamb laying down, but at least the dog and the fawn…
∞ posted at 13:17 by laurahooperb 
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]
∞ posted at 13:19 by laurahooperb
Mercy for Animals has released another undercover investigation, this time from a dairy farm that supplies Burger King. A DAIRY farm. Not a meat producer.
Warning: This video is pretty brutal.
[Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com]
People consuming dairy and eggs contributes to profound abuse of cows and chickens. If you still drink milk and eat cheese, you should watch this. If you don’t, I advise you avoid it. But next time someone says, “but cheese tastes good,” refer them here.
∞ posted at 11:40 by youtalkfunny
MFA made history last week, when Brian Douglas of Butterball factory farm pleaded guilty to felonly cruelty to animals on August 28th. It was the MFA undercover investigation at the farm in Hoke County, North Carolina that sparked what is believed to be the “first-ever felony cruelty to animals conviction related to birds used for food production in US history.” Douglas will serve 30 days in jail, followed by 42 months of probation, for the horrifying violence towards the butterball turkeys he executed. On August 31, Butterball employee Rueben Mendoza also pleaded guilty to felony identity theft and misdemenor cruelty to animals. He faces a “consolidated sentence of a minimum of 8 months, and a maximum of 19 months, in state prison”.
I can’t watch the undercover video at the Butterball Factory farm. But it’s up on MFA’s site if you can stomach it. To show my advocacy however, I like to sport my MFA “Not Cool” t-shirt around town. If you get one too, we’ll be twins! We can start a club! Maybe wear them to Vegan Drinks so we’ll know to schmooze with each other? If the merch doesn’t appeal to you, you can always donate to the cause as well! Man, I love Mercy for Animals, and the incredibly difficult work they do on the behalf of animal rights.
The little chick in the stomach is saying “Not Cool”. I love, love, love it!
Of course there always needs to be a naysayer, doesn’t there? Examiner.com plays that role well with this article which I think screams, THANKS A LOT CAPTAIN OBVIOUS AND BY THE WAY, MFA IS A VEGAN NON-PROFIT. Rachel touched upon all the same points, about the injustices that the workers must face on on these farms, back in Febuary. I think she covered this issue in a much more compassionate and well-informed (I’m not biased!) way. Thoughts? I noticed there’s nowhere to leave comments, but that might be a good thing considering the comments section usually makes me want to throw myself off a building sick.
ANYWAY. No more turkeys for holiday feasts, or sandwiches OR ANYTHING. Why eat an animal when we can have delicious vegan turkeys???? RAINBOW please order more this season; I did not get one last year and it gave me a case of the sads. Actually no, because I made this delectable tart, but I want both this year!
[Photos via MFA.org]
∞ posted at 07:27 by jennybradley 
This gets the Graphic as Fuck rating. Very hard to watch, I won’t blame you if you don’t (unless you eat pigs, in which case you should be forced to watch it a million times). This video was released by Mercy for Animals last month, documenting cruel conditions for pigs in Walmart pork suppliers’ factories.
Mercy for Animals is encouraging people to contact Walmart and tell them these conditions are horrible and unacceptable. So I drew attention to this campaign on our fb, which I guess means I don’t believe all animals should ultimately be free? That’s at least the conclusion one vegan came up with.
The truth is, I do think all animals should be free to live life undisturbed by humans. I don’t think we should kill them to eat them. But what I do think is that while we work towards that ultimate goal, we should also be doing whatever we can to improve the lives of animals that are currently suffering in extremely horrible conditions.
One fundamental issue may be that I don’t think death is the worse thing to ever happen. I think a life of pain, suffering, and misery is far worse. While I don’t want any animals killed for food, yes—I would rather a pig live the highest quality of life possible before they are killed, rather than suffering their whole lives and then being killed. I know conditions sans gestation crates aren’t anywhere near the highest quality of life, but it’s better, and what I’m really addressing is the underlying philosophy.
I also think it’s very self-important to decide that helping animals that are suffering right now isn’t worth it. They’re immediate comfort does matter and helping to alleviate their pain to any degree doesn’t mean we can’t also work towards complete freedom for all animals. It’s like the people who oppose “welfarism” have decided these animals should be left to suffer as a sacrifice to our cause. Like I’ve said in the past—tell that to a chicken being trampled on the bottom of a battery cage. Did they agree to this martyrdom?
I know the argument that promoting “happy meat” is somehow detrimental to our cause because then that 1% of people who actually eat “happy meat” will think it’s ultimately OK to eat meat. I disagree. When you really get down to it, I would rather have people eat “happy meat” than factory farm meat if it means less suffering for millions of animals. But to the point, I think anytime you make people actually consider maybe animals shouldn’t be tortured for food, you are awakening them to animal rights. You’re also awakening them to the idea that food choices are about more than what tastes good. And as we’ve seen, though many of us remain “welfarists” as they like to call us, meat sales are falling. Promoting improved living conditions for suffering animals hasn’t skyrocketed meat consumption.
∞ posted at 05:33 by youtalkfunny
Mercy For Animals staged a protest against the ag-gag bill in Iowa. From MFA:
On Tuesday, both the Iowa Senate and House passed a bill aimed at preventing farm workers from documenting and exposing acts of cruelty to animals - an effort championed by corporate factory farming interests.
The bill is currently on the desk of Iowa’s governor. MFA is urging him to veto this dangerous and misguided legislation.
Take Action:Call Iowa’s governor Terry Branstad today at (515) 281-5211 and urge him to veto the ag-gag bill.If you are an Iowa resident, please use this form to urge Governor Branstad to veto SF 431/HF 589, a bill designed to shield animal abusers from public scrutiny and prosecute brave whistleblowers who dare to speak out against cruelty to animals, corporate corruption, dangerous working conditions, environmental violations, and food safety concerns.
What are factory farms trying to hide? This (scary video):
Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com
∞ posted at 09:52 by youtalkfunny
Oh-so-lovely songstress Adele is making an effort to go vegetarian! She says that for what’s on the agenda in the year ahead, she has to be “really healthy and stuff like that.” Plus, when she eats meat, she thinks of her dog and sees his little dog eyes. This is incredible news, though of course going vegan would be all the more fantastic. It can be a difficult transition to make, I understand. But, Adele, I’m here to help you. Anything you need, any time of day. Then when you visit San Francisco, I’ll give you the drinking vegan tour of the city! Or you can hire me as your personal chef, whatever works.
1. I understand you don’t like the taste of tofu, that you go so far as to describe it as “rank.” Tofu is not chicken, this much is true. However, when seasoned well, tofu is delicious! I’ll let you borrow my Tofu Xpress and we can marinate blocks of protein together! You must also read Sarah’s guide to making the most out of a tofu scramble: It will change your life.
2. Faux meat and cheese are your friends during this transitional time. Every time I blink, new ones hit the market. Try them all out to find your faves. You don’t have to like them all, it’s OK. I stay as far as I can from Tofurky deli slices and cheddar-flavored Follow Your Heart cheese.
3. Raw chocolate truffles are the BEST. Raw desserts in general, I think, are better than the average vegan treat, except for coconut ice cream, which is delightful.
4. Check out Happy Cow so you know where to eat in every city on your tour. I really should have checked Happy Cow before I went to Reno (as opposed to the drive home), because I subsisted on a salad, a sandwich, and a Lara Bar for two days—not enough food for me. Learn from my mistakes.
5. Barnivore is your new best friend. Use it, download the app, and then go to your nearest pub.
6. Get yourself some vegan cookbooks! Because Vegan with a Vengeance was my first, I am biased in believing it should be every vegan beginner’s guide!
7. I have heard that it is safe and nutritious for doggie companions to go veg as well as humans! You and your pooch can go on this veg journey together, OMG that would be the cutest.
8. Read Vegansaurus! You’ll love us, we are sassy. Like you!
9. I probably will not lose respect for you if you pose for a PETA ad, but personally, I think it’d be amazing if you did work with Farm Sanctuary or Mercy for Animals. Just don’t pull a Ginnifer Goodwin, in which you yell about your veganism only to turn around and bash it on Jimmy Kimmel Live, OK?
Now it’s time for a video, with everyone’s favorite kale-lover, Anderson Cooper! Just kidding; he openly hates kale because like my sister, he has the palate of a six-year-old!
Adele is just stunning in all these clips. Are you getting chills watching her sing? I am!
[photo via Tom and Lorenzo. Who does your makeup, girl? It’s perfection.]
∞ posted at 11:37 by jennybradley
Eggs are going DOWN! According to a study from the egg industry, says Mercy for Animals. It seems to be similar to egg sales in the late nineties though. I’m guessing it’s pre-Atkin’s craze and post-Atkin’s craze? What do you think?
Here’s some more info from the study that’s good to know:
First of all: “Presently, there are 65 egg producing companies with 1 million plus layers and 14 companies with greater than 5 million layers.” And the top five egg producing companies accounts for 50% of egg production. So yeah, hello factory farms!
Second of all: “For 2009-2010, cage-free production is 3.7 percent of the total U.S. flock size of 10.5 million birds. Of this, 1.8% is organic and 1.9% is other.” So basically none of the eggs people are buying are organic or cage-free. Kudos, egg-eaters.
If you need a good reason to celebrate this trend downward, here’s a handy video for you.
∞ posted at 05:21 by youtalkfunny
