Monday, April 9, 2007

Hayom shiva yamim, shehaym shavua echad baomer

There's a popular misconception that animals can't be treated too badly because their mistreatment would be illegal. But for animals raised for food, just about anything goes. The only federal law concerning animal welfare in the slaughter process does not protect birds, who make up about 95 percent of the animals killed for food in this country each year. No federal law regulates how farmed animals should be treated while they are being raised. More than half the states in the U.S. have anti-cruelty laws that do not apply to farming practices that are "accepted," "common," "customary," or "normal," and birds are often exempt from protection under these state laws as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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heebnvegan said...

I deleted a comment here that was anonymous and misfactual. If the person would like to leave his or her contact information or e-mail me privately, I'd be more than happy to continue this conversation.

The person said that the animal rights movement describes conditions in foreign slaughterhouses and attributes them to U.S. slaughterhouses. This is false.

The person also criticized an effort to draw attention to one injustice (the horrendous treatment of animals in the food industry) while not focusing on the Darfur genocide. I happen to care a great deal about the Darfur genocide, and I led a "Vegan Jews Against Genocide" group in last year's Save Darfur rally in DC. Contrary to what the commenter might have assumed, we're united on this issue. To find out what you can do to help stop the genocide in Darfur, please visit SaveDarfur.org.