Milk Drinkers: Try to Stomach This One October 2, 2009
Posted by Rachel-O at October 2, 2009 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 18 ) | TrackBack
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milk Dairy veal Veal Feeds Inc. Wayne Marcho FDA formaldehyde
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The veal industry. Baby cows, because their mom's milk ends up on store shelves, are torn from their mothers hours after they're born and then kept weak and immobile in filthy pens for the entirety of their short lives. And if that fails to register your compassion or your disgust, let's try this: Veal just might be laced with poison.
That's right—federal charges have been issued against Select Veal Foods Inc. for allegedly lacing feed with formaldehyde in order to lessen diarrhea and with potassium permanganate to ensure that the anemic calves' flesh appeared even lighter. Wayne Marcho and Select Veal Feeds are expected to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of misbranding under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The company also faces a felony charge for lying to Food and Drug Administration inspectors.
The moral of this story? Every glass of milk you drink has a little veal in it. Not only do you contribute to the suffering of an infant, you also risk eating toxic chemicals that you'd find in your high school chemistry lab. What can you do? Try veganism today!
Stay loud!
Land O'Lakes Supplier's Owners Charged With Cruelty September 29, 2009
Posted by Marta at September 29, 2009 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 9 ) | TrackBackThe following is a guest blog from PETA's Alisa Mullins. Please take a look and then make the pledge to try veganism.
-Marta
At a news conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, today, PETA unveiled footage from our five-month undercover investigation of a filthy factory dairy farm in Pennsylvania that supplies milk to St. Paul-based Land O'Lakes, the largest seller of branded butter in the U.S.
Undercover Footage Shot Inside a Land O' Lakes Supplier
It's a violation of Pennsylvania law to neglect animals, deprive sick and injured animals of veterinary care, and deny animals clean and sanitary shelter. Charges against the farm's owners have been approved and filed by a local magisterial district judge. The factory farmers are innocent until proven guilty, of course, but they would face up to 90 days in jail and $750 in fines if convicted.
We have also called on Land O'Lakes to buy milk only from farms that meet our 12-point animal welfare plan, which would prevent much of the suffering we documented at this farm.
For those of you who can't stomach the thought of eating butter after watching that video, take a minute to tell Land O'Lakes to implement our 12-point animal welfare plan. Then check out one of the many vegan butter alternatives that are widely available. My personal favorite is Earth Balance margarine. It's 100 percent vegan and free of trans fat, and it tastes even better than butter, at least to my taste buds. Best of all, it's also 100 percent free of cruelty to cows and calves—as well as pus.
-Alisa
More Than Meats the Eye June 23, 2009
Posted by Marta at June 23, 2009 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 20 ) | TrackBack
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milk vegetarian Twinkies hot dogs cheese More than Meets the Eye More than Meats the Eye Transformers Shia Labeouf Megan Fox Jell-O
I'm pretty excited about the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen tomorrow, since word on the street is that the movie has a positive animal rights message in it. There's even a scene set in a butcher shop where Megan Fox's and Shia Labeouf's characters learn that every animal you eat had a story. We hear them on that.
In honor of the release of the movie, we're transforming (hah!) the classic Transformers tagline into "More Than Meats the Eye," for the title of our top-five list that takes a closer look at the meat industry. Most people never take an up-close look at the food they're eating. I mean, seriously, who wants to think about their food actually looking like this (even though it does)?:
Click for larger image
Want seconds of this fatty blob of nastiness? *Shudder!* Anyway, here are the top five foods that I think are "More Than Meats the Eye":
1) Jell-O: How does Jell-O stay firm but wiggly? You can thank gelatin (aka the ground-up skin, intestines, and bones of animals) for that jiggle. Who doesn't like bones in their fruity snacks?Do some of these sound a bit ... unappetizing? Try vegan versions! Grab soy milk the next time you hit up the grocery store or give a homemade snack cake a whirl. You can still enjoy all the flavors you love while cutting out the cruelty and crap!
2) Hot Dogs: These are made from mechanically recovered meat, which Wikipedia describes as, "a paste-like meat product produced by forcing beef, pork, turkey or chicken bones, with attached edible meat, under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue." If you're in the mood for tails, bones, and anuses topped with relish at a ball game, steer clear of the veggie dogs, since they're mostly just made of plain ol' boring soy protein.
3) Milk: Pus doesn't exactly conjure up the most pleasant of images, but if the idea of a tall frosty glass of pus sounds good to you, by all means, feel free to down a glass of milk. That's right, milk can legally contain a somatic cell count (that's pus, people) of up to 200 million per liter.
4) Twinkies: Where does that fatty flavor come from? Beef fat, of course! Sponge cake + creamy filling + cow fat = the classic truck-stop snack. Yum.
5) Cheese: Rennet, found in many cheeses, comes from the stomach lining of slaughtered calves. I personally try to avoid baby cow stomach on my nachos, but maybe that's just me.
Which foods do you think are "More Than Meats the Eye"?
♥ Cancelled: Lessons to Help Keep You Alive March 6, 2009
Posted by Marta at March 6, 2009 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 7 ) | TrackBack
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milk Dairy Cornell University T. Colin Campbell
As some of you may know, T. Colin Campbell is world-renowned author and professor at Cornell University. He wrote the best-selling book called The China Study about the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illnesses like cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, heart disease, and diabetes (did I mention zits?). His work has been highly praised for helping to re-shape how people think about food.
Unfortunately, there are some people who believe that thinking about food (and more specifically where it comes from) is a bad thing—the people who profit from selling us unhealthy products (not surprising), but apparently also, surprisingly, the very people who are meant to be helping students to learn.
You see, Prof. Campbell had become known around the Cornell campus for his "Vegetarian Nutrition" class, which talked about the fact that meat and dairy products are contributing to way worse conditions than just the "Freshman 15". However, many students will never hear about these statistics, because the class was cancelled by the university, with no notification given to the professor. Now why on Earth would they do that?
Well as it turns out, the department head who cancelled the class allegedly has strong ties to the dairy industry, who we can only imagine were none too pleased that all these "obesity" concerns were being discussed in public.
Of course, the university refused to give an official reason for the class being pulled. I'm sure they had their reasons. Just a strange coincidence—right?
Cheese: It's Grosser Than You Thought January 15, 2009
Posted by Ryan at January 15, 2009 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 9 ) | TrackBackIt's been a great couple of days for veganism on MSNBC. First, the frustratingly loveable crew of "Morning Joe" talked this morning about everybody's new favorite peta2 campaign — Sea Kittens! — and now this...
In an article titled "Cheese — it's grosser than you thought", the network documents the truly horrifying levels of "bacteria, stomach lining, pesticides, and pure fat" that comes with every pus-filled slice of cheese (excluding vegan cheese, obviously).
News articles like these are always great to send to friends and relatives though, who will likely be disgusted to see what they've been eating/drinking/spraying out the nose. "Hey Grandma, guess what?!?" :)
Hug a Vegetarian Day > World School Milk Day September 24, 2008
Posted by Ryan at September 24, 2008 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 9 ) | TrackBack
TAGGED:
Vegan milk Dairy world school milk day osteoporosis
As we all know, it's the most wonderful time of the year, with International Hug a Vegetarian Day right around the corner!
Leave it to the milk industry to go and spoil an otherwise perfectly good week, by creating a ridiculous "holiday" called World School Milk Day. Their clear attempt to ride the wave of success from Hug a Veg Day has not gone unnoticed...
Well, in observation of this nonsense holiday, we've created a little list of the Top 5 Reasons Why Milk Sucks (believe me, we could have done a Top 100 if we had enough time):
1) Got Pus? Milk does. Mmm, deliciously revolting.
2) Cows produce milk for their babies—not for humans. Could you imagine if other species did this? Cats drinking from dogs? Pigs from humans? That'd be freakin' weird.
3) Because those who drink milk share responsibility for the suffering of cows and calves outside the dairy industry, there's essentially a hunk of veal in every glass of milk. Every single veal calf in this country is the child of a cow used for dairy. Hard to swallow, yes?
4) Because soy milk is much more fun to splash around in. Just ask Pulin.
5) Because those "Got Milk?" ads are total B.S. Cow's milk actually increases the risk of, rather than prevents, osteoporosis. I don't think that's what they mean when they say "break a leg".
So all in all, today's "holiday" is just as good a day as ever to give milk the boot. In honor of the fine cruelty peddlers in the dairy industry, I present to you our newest anti-milk ad:
- Ryan!
P.S. - If you're looking for a fun activity to pass the time, click on the U.S. map on this page to see how much pus your state allows! Virginia allows 333,000,000 somatic cells (read: pus) in each glass of milk. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.
Milk Gone Wild 2: At the Carwash! March 18, 2008
Posted by Ryan at March 18, 2008 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 ) | TrackBackSummer has to be my favorite season, hands down. Sitting outside on the porch with a giant tub of Soy Delicious ice cream, pretending I can tan. Yes, it's the stuff dreams are made of.
That's why I was so excited to see that a group of peta2 fans decided to get in the summer spirit to create their own DIY sequel to last year's infamous "Milk Gone Wild" video!
Those astute blog readers may even recognize a guest appearence by a peta2 staffer as well. I don't want to blow the surprise, but let's just say his name starts with a "P" and rhymes with "Pulin".
If by the end of this video you can still drink cow's milk, you just might be a weirdo.
Got Pus? Milk Does! December 12, 2007
Posted by Pulin Modi at December 12, 2007 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 16 ) | TrackBackGot Pus? Milk Does!
You must know that in addition to being disgusting to think about or look at, you would never want to drink a cup filled with pus-containing liquid, right?
Well guess what? If you are drinking cow's milk, chances are you are drinking pus cells! Sick! Cows' udders often get so sore and infected that they start leaking pus cells into milk! Imagine how painful that is for each cow? I bet pus swimming around in your belly doesn't sound so appetizing, either.
So why am I bringing this up now, you might be wondering? Well, it's not just so you spare Santa and the cows the suffering which comes from dunking some cookies into glasses of milk that may contain pus.
I'm bringing this up because PETA recently got a really not-so-friendly letter from some lawyers who get paid by the California Milk Producers Board. You can read it here, but basically it says that they don't like us using the Got Pus? campaign. Boo hoo! Apparently our GotPus.com site makes them sad. Again, boo hoo for the big companies who are upset that people will be informed about the cruelty their products support.
Anyway, our response, which you can read here, basically tells them that we're fully within our rights to speak the truth about the gross stuff that is in dairy (like pus) and the terrible things cows' milk does to human beings (Got Zits?, Got Cancer?). Of course, we also want people to learn about what's wrong with dairy in the way it's responsible for cruelty to animals in the form of veal calves, sad mother cows who miss their babies and often live in filthy conditions, and all kinds of terrible things like that.
If you're as excited as I am that this dairy group is pissed off at PETA, you might want to check out the merchandise which has made them especially irritated. Feel free to buy some stuff to spite them. We also have a peta2 Cafe Press store which features lots more fun shirts and other merch.
So while the dairy group tries to think of another way to harass kind-hearted people, I hope you'll all take a minute to laugh at them and read a bit about how you can help cows.
P.S.- Feel free to copy and post this web banner to your page!
Milk Gives You Spots June 21, 2007
Posted by Marta at June 21, 2007 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 10 ) | TrackBackYet another study—this time by dermatologist Bill Danby—has concluded...wait for it...Milk gives you spots (whoa, there's a big surprise!).
It was reported in the Independent that Danby and Dr Walter Willett studied more than 47,000 women to try and demonstrate their theory. The study found no link between food such as chocolate and chips and acne (which are widely blamed for the acne epidemic) but found one between women who had acne and those who had drunk a lot of milk. I'm sorry but duh?!
Dairy is a disaster—what sicko's idea was it to start drinking the stuff!!?? It makes you fat, gives you big puss filled spots, it's contaminated with cow's blood and pus and is linked to allergies, constipation, obesity, cancer, and other diseases. It doesn't take a genius to work out why—we are the only species on earth that think it's appropriate to consume the fluid that comes from another mammal's teat, and we're certainly the only species that drinks milk into adulthood. Milk is for babies, and what's more, cow's milk is for baby cows! It turns a 90 pound baby calf into a 2,000 pound cow in the course of 2 years—you do the math. It's no surprise that this unnatural substance is wreaking havoc in our bodies.
From another point of view, ladies, how would you feel about being forced to be constantly pregnant for your whole life only to have your babies taken away from you repeatedly and shoved into tiny crates or slaughtered for handbags? Not so nice huh?
Speaking from personal experience, I went vegan about 2 ½ years ago and if you'd have seen a picture of me before that then you'd be forgiven for thinking that you were looking at a picture of a cluster of craters—spots, zits, whatever you want to call them, they're gross. As soon as I ditched the dairy, lo and behold—smooth as a baby's bum! Even if I do say so myself (mind you, I have fat knees so it swings and roundabouts, eh?!) Editor's note: I have no idea what Violet means by this either, in case you're wondering.
So the next time you reach for a pint of milk in your Sainsbury's, divert your hand 3 inches to the left and grab the soya—your body, face, taste buds and the animals will thank you!
To sum up:
Bad = 
Good = 
*Violet xxx
PS - If you haven't read "Skinny Bitch" then you ought to—it's practically my bible now!
This is a guest blog from Violet with peta2 UK.
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