For the last week or so, the bulk of major media news regarding animals has been about eating them. For those of us who have been in animal advocacy for years, who adore our dogs and cats and see them as muses, but who have despaired at the line often drawn by compassionate folks between animals we pet and animals we eat, the heavy attention currently focused on the latter is heartening. Much of the media continues to center around Jonathan Safran Foer's newly released book, Eating Animals. But I will also share a huge story in yesterday's Los Angeles Times about kids doing well on vegetarian diets. And I will share a horrifying HSUS undercover investigation, covered on CNN's "Issues With Jane Velez Mitchell," showing the abuse of organically bred calves. While few people reading this newsletter are likely to eat veal, there is a popular misconception that organic means cruelty-free, or that while vegetarian makes sense, vegan is just too radical. It is therefore important t
o share what happens to the waste product of the organic milk industry, the newborn male calves.
I'll start with a link to that calf slaughter story, which aired on CNN's Headline News on Friday, November 6:
http://tinyurl.com/y8q9hg7
We see adorable little calves being kicked, electrically prodded, sworn at and laughed at as they struggle to stand to avoid further electric prodding. Velez-Mitchell tells us that we are seeing the least disturbing of the video. On her site she links to the HSUS web page, which has the full video, which includes a worker starting to skin a fully conscious calf who had not yet bled out.
It is not fun to watch, but I hope you will forward it to anybody who drinks cow's milk, and has no idea that they are supporting cruelty, so that they can make informed choices. These are calves from an organic dairy farm. Cows, like all mammals, must have babies before they produce milk. Again: the male calves, who become organic veal, are the waste product of the organic dairy industry. You can see their fate at: http://tinyurl.com/ydnfe8q
Most importantly, please thank Jane Velez-Mitchell and CNN Headline News for the coverage. While Velez-Mitchell is passionate about these issues, and has the ability to focus on them, she is still beholden to the network she works for, so it is vital that she has evidence that her compassionate animal coverage attracts viewers. Every bit of positive feedback makes it easier for her to focus on these issues in future. Please send in an appreciate comment at:
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?106
Jonathan Safran Foer's "Eating Animals" has had way too much coverage this week for me to note all of it. Yay! Particularly worth reading is the lengthy and thoughtful review in November 9 edition of The New Yorker, by Elizabeth Kolbert. It is on line at http://tinyurl.com/yg7nuym
It opens the door for letters to the editor about eating animals. The New Yorker takes letters at
http://www.newyorker.com/contact/letterToEditor
You can also send letters straight to themail@newyorker.com, including your full name, address and phone number. But in these days of massive spam and junk mailboxes, filling out the form is a much surer bet.
The Los Angeles Times also carried a thoughtful review of Eating Animals, penned by Susan Salter Reynolds. You'll find it on line at http://tinyurl.com/ybllo42
Both that review and the Monday, November 9, Health Section cover story (page E1), headed "Vegetarian Kids," provide great jump off points for letters to the editor. Emily Sohn's article on vegetarian kids tells us that after an exhaustive study review, the American Dietetic Association concluded in July, in a new position statement, "that as long as vegetarian diets are planned well, they're safe for people at every stage of life: pregnant and nursing moms, babies, teenagers and just about everyone else." She continues,
"The report was the first to emphasize the benefits of a meatless meal plan as opposed to simply stating that a vegetarian diet was OK. A meat-free meal plan, it stressed, may lower rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers."
You'll find the full article on line at: http://tinyurl.com/y99dnn6
The Los Angeles Times takes letters at letters@latimes.com.
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.
Please keep an eye out for coverage of Eating Animals in your local media. That coverage opens the door for letters to the editor. Some smaller papers cover close to 100 percent of the letters they receive, so why not take a few minutes to put a good word in for the animals? That good word that will be read by thousands. The animals need your voice.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !
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Date: Tue Nov 10 15:38:44 2009
