DawnWatch Iowa

DawnWatch IA: Op-ed in Press Citizen celebrates kindness to animals! 7/18/07

2007-07-18T22:40:27Z

Iowa folks,
I have to share this extraordinary op-ed run today in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, and urge you to send positive feedback. The Press Citizen takes letters to the editor at opinion@press-citizen.com
Letters to the editor will keep the story alive on the editorial page.

Or you can post a comment at the end of the article on the webpage:
http://tinyurl.com/yq3brm

Here's the article:

Celebrate kindness to animals with National (Veggie) Hot Dog Day

Erica Meier and Will McBride
Guest Opinion

Food defines our holidays, and it's often the centerpiece of our social gatherings. Some industry groups even have dedicated certain days to honoring their specific food categories, such as National Hot Dog Day on July 18. In recent years, however, a growing number of consumers are re-evaluating their dietary choices after discovering where their food comes from. In response to industry-inspired food "holidays," a new type of holiday has emerged, seeking to foster the understanding that what we eat does matter, especially to animals: National (Veggie) Hot Dog Day.

Today marks the second annual National (Veggie) Hot Dog Day. Events are taking place across the country -- including a veggie hot dog giveaway at College Green park in Iowa City -- each one aiming to expose the routine miseries endured by millions of pigs raised and killed for food each year in the United States. These animals, unlike dogs and cats, have virtually no laws protecting them from harm, which enables animal factories to treat them in nearly any manner they see fit, no matter how cruel.

Although many people are likely to envision pigs living outdoors and freely rolling around in the mud, the reality is that most pigs raised for food will never set foot outside. Instead, they are confined inside massive factory farms, mired in filth and unable to escape the lingering stench of ammonia.

Female pigs raised for breeding spend months at a time in crates so narrow they can barely even move. They are confined in what the industry refers to as a "gestation crate" -- a metal enclosure that is just slightly wider than her body. Immobilized inside these crates, mother pigs can't even turn around, let alone comfortably lay down. Such restrictive confinement often leads to injuries, lameness, stress and depression. Reduced to mere piglet-producing machines, they spend their lives in a constant cycle of impregnation and birth while being shuffled from crate to crate until their exhausted bodies can no longer produce a profitable number of piglets. Then they are shipped off to slaughter.

Many experts agree that gestation crates cause tremendous suffering, and welfare concerns have already prompted the European Union to ban their use altogether. Gestation crates continue to dominate the U.S. pig industry, though consumers are voicing their opposition and with growing success. In 2002, voters in Florida approved a ballot initiative prohibiting the use of gestation crates statewide, and residents of Arizona followed suit in 2006. And just last month, Oregon's state legislature passed a bill also banning gestations crates.

Despite these important steps forward, millions of female pigs in the U.S. still remain essentially motionless inside archaic metal enclosures -- and as cruel as these crates are, they are far from the only source of suffering in the pig industry.

Shortly after birth, piglets are taken away from their mothers and have their ears cut, teeth trimmed, tails chopped off and males are castrated -- all without pain relief. They are moved into indoor "fattening" pens often built on top of manure pits where they'll spend the first and only six months of their lives. As the months pass, they become increasingly overcrowded and frustrated from lack of exercise and mental stimulation.

As a former animal control officer in our nation's capital, I am certain that if the dogs and cats we welcome into our homes were subjected to similar abuses -- intensively confined inside tiny crates, unable to even turn around or mutilated without painkillers -- it would likely result in criminal prosecution.

National (Veggie) Hot Dog Day isn't just a celebration of vegetarian food. It's about recognizing that we can each make compassionate choices every time we sit down to eat. Leaving meat off our plates doesn't mean skimping on flavor, of course. Rather, it simply means dining on the cruelty-free versions of our favorite foods, like veggie dogs.

Each of us can help end animal abuse and make the world a kinder place for us all, one meal at a time. Now that's something worth celebrating.
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Erica Meier is the executive director of Compassion Over Killing, a nonprofit animal advocacy organization. The Web site is www.cok.net.
Will McBride is president of the Farm Animal Welfare Network, a student-run organization at the University of Iowa.
(End of Press-Citizen article)
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Date: Wed Jul 18 22:40:27 2007

DawnWatch Iowa: "Pork industry should phase out gestation crates" 1/10/07

2007-01-10T09:50:14Z

Iowa,
This op-ed from the Globe Gazette calls for supportive letters to the editor.

If you go to http://tinyurl.com/uww6g you will see a spot where you can post your comments. Please do.

And send a letter to the editor at news@globegazette.com
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Pork industry should phase out gestation crates (Guest View)
By PAUL SHAPIRO, The Humane Society of the United States

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2007/01/10/opinion/doc45a44853758c8203994884.txt
Posted: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 12:09 AM CST

With nearly 17 million pigs in the state, Iowa leads the nation in pork production. In fact, there are far more pigs in Iowa than people.

If for no other reason than its status as the top pork-producing state in the union, Iowa�s pork industry would be wise to pay attention to nationwide trends.

This past election, Arizona voters passed a ballot initiative by a landslide 24-point margin prohibiting the confinement of breeding sows in gestation crates. Four years ago, Florida voters did the same.

Yet in Iowa, it is still typical for the pork industry to confine sows � social, intelligent animals � in two-foot-wide gestation crates that are so restrictive they can�t even turn around for months on end.

While most pigs used for pork production have lives that are fairly bleak, breeding sows in particular are abused in ways that are so terrible that any caring person would be revolted to see the cruelty first-hand.

Pigs confined in gestation crates suffer immensely, unable to exercise or engage in nearly any of their natural behaviors. The forced immobilization takes a serious physical and psychological toll, leading to both leg and joint problems along with psychosis resulting from extreme boredom and frustration.

Confinement in gestation crates is so abusive that the entire European Union is phasing out the practice, with a total ban taking effect in 2013.

Numerous American animal scientists also oppose these cruel crates. Farm animal expert Dr. Temple Grandin states, �Gestation crates for pigs are a real problem... Basically, you�re asking a sow to live in an airline seat ... I think it�s something that needs to be phased out.�

It�s not only animal scientists who oppose this type of intensive confinement. Prominent figures on both sides of the political aisle agree that the use of gestation crates is deplorable. If you can get former Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., conservative Republican commentator Pat Buchanan and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio � all of whom oppose this specific cruelty � to agree on something, there�s got to be merit to it.

Simply because animals may be raised for food is no reason to abuse them mercilessly. And while most factory farm cruelty is hidden from the public, when Americans find out about routine abuses farm animals endure, they are appalled. As evidenced by the votes in both Florida and Arizona, when given a choice, Americans will ban the intensive confinement of pigs in these abusive crates, and the industry should take note of this rising societal concern.

Any reasonable person can see that confining animals in crates so small they can barely move for months on end is inhumane. Rather than defending a status quo that most Americans consider indefensible, Iowa�s pork industry can assume a leadership role in the movement to end the most egregious factory farming practices by moving away from gestation crate confinement. Both the state and the pigs would be better off for it.

� Paul Shapiro is the director of the Factory Farming Campaign of the Humane Society of the United States, The Humane Society of the United States, 2100 L St. N.W., Washington, DC 20037; phone (301) 721-6446.

(End of Globe Gazette op-ed)
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(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.)

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Date: Wed Jan 10 09:50:14 2007

Iowa DawnWatch: Mutts is coming to the Des Moines Register 2/6/06

2006-02-06T15:49:14Z

Good news for Des Moines! You are getting "Mutts" in your paper. As the article below makes clear, the creator often uses the strip to advocate for homeless animals. He has even done a series on the plight of farm animals and has published various cartoons protesting wild animal hunts, such as the seal and bison slaughters.

You might send an appreciative animal friendly letter to the editor at letters@dmreg.com

Or if you go to http://tinyurl.com/cduqy to send your letter you'll find a great page with "Tips for being published."

Here is the Des Moine Register article about Patrick McDonnell and "Mutts":

Animal lovers wagging over 'Mutts' comic

By Mary Challender
Register Staff Writer

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060206/LIFE/602060306/1039

February 6, 2006

It may be a dog-eat-dog world.

But in "Mutts," a strip that makes its debut on The Des Moines Register's comics page today, creator Patrick McDonnell focuses on the softer side of nature � both animal and human.

The 49-year-old New Jersey resident prides himself on his strip's heart, not its edge.

"I think humor in general nowadays is kind of sarcastic and mean-spirited," McDonnell said. "A big part of the strip is to celebrate the simpler things in life and have a joyful attitude."

"Mutts," which replaces "Judge Parker" seven days a week, stars Earl, a lovable pup who enjoys belly rubs; Mooch, the curious "schmilk"-and-cookies-devouring cat who lives next door, and a stable of other characters, both two- and four-legged.

McDonnell said he wanted to be a cartoonist since he was 3 or 4. He created "Mutts" 11 years ago after a decade as a magazine illustrator.

For inspiration for the strip, he turns to his Jack Russell terrier, Earl, who will turn 17 soon, and MeeMow, a stray adopted by his wife as a kitten.

Although he grew up with cats his entire life, McDonnell's long relationship with Earl means he's unwilling to claim to be either a cat or dog person.

"He's my first dog," he said of Earl. "He's everything you could want a dog to be."

In "Mutts," McDonnell said he strives to keep his animals "animal-like" � or as animal-like as dogs and cats who talk to each other can be. He hopes people will look at the antics of Earl and Mooch and be reminded of their own pets.

"I think people can relate to that special bond we have with our cats and dogs," he said.

A third character in "Mutts" is Shtinky Puddin, an adopted stray kitten whose obsession is saving endangered species. It's a devotion McDonnell, who uses his strip to advocate for homeless animals, shares.

Twice a year, he does a series of strips that focus on shelter animals and the people who work at the shelters. He's also on the board of directors of the Humane Society of the United States.

"It's a tough life for some animals on this planet nowadays," he said. "I try to focus more on what they have to deal with. I try to see the world through their eyes."
(END OF REGISTER ARTICLE)
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(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. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)

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Date: Mon Feb 6 15:49:14 2006