Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation

Endangered Species Watch: Vegetarian Power Hitters

© shgmom56/Creative Commons

Prince Fielder sounds like the name of a baseball player who’s pretty good with the glove. Indeed, the first baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers isn’t too bad at scooping up ground balls or pulling a throw out of the dirt. But he’s best known as a terror at the plate—hitting more than .300 with 22 home runs and knocking in 78 runs in the first half of the Major League Baseball season, earning him a place on the National League All-Star roster.

And last night, the 6-foot, 270-pound first baseman cleaned up at the Home Run Derby that is the warm-up act for tonight’s All-Star Game in St. Louis. He won the competition, besting hometown favorite Albert Pujols of the Cardinals, and hitting the longest drive of the night (estimated at more than 500 feet).

He’s also an ethical vegetarian—converted after his wife shared Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin's bestselling book "Skinny Bitch" with him, and he read about the mistreatment of animals in agriculture.

There was speculation that his conversion to vegetarianism would sap his strength—that his wife’s act of giving him "Skinny Bitch" was like Delilah’s cutting off of Samson’s hair. But the fear proved unfounded, and Fielder has quieted the critics with his towering drives.

A Book to Cleanse Your Life

Here’s a creed at The HSUS: When we treat animals with decency and respect, we create a better, more civil society. And here’s a corollary: When we make conscious food choices, there are a host of good outcomes: for animals, the environment, public health, and our personal health.

Author Kathy Freston touches on that corollary in this follow up to her best-selling "Quantum Wellness." In "The Quantum Wellness Cleanse"—a highly accessible, positive, practical, fast-moving read—she gives us a day-by-day approach to better living to achieve “a higher state of wellness.” In fact, it’s a 21-day dietary regimen that she all but promises will change the way you live and feel.

It sounds austere when you bunch together the proscriptions: a three-week period of abstaining from sugar, caffeine, gluten, alcohol, and animal products. But as she rolls out her plan chapter by chapter, she makes it all seem achievable, and a 100-page glossary of recipes from chefs Tal Ronnen and Lex Townes should help the newly conscious eater. She’s no drill sergeant, and tells us, “my whole approach to health and wellness is that it’s about leaning toward change and taking small steps to support growth: there is no need to force yourself into something that is terribly uncomfortable. Just lean.” And most importantly, by following Kathy's recommendations, you get something in return: a better mind and body.

That’s an approach I like. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Do your best, and do it in increments. The principle behind the 21 days is that it’s not a lifetime commitment, but a commitment that requires some sacrifice and some deprogramming. But in return, you’ll be able to see and feel results.

This is definitely a diet and lifestyle book. But Kathy is passionate about protecting animals, too, and she includes a couple of chapters on the environmental effects of meat-eating and our mistreatment of animals in industrial agriculture. The pull-out quotes from Gail Eisnitz’s "Slaughterhouse" are raw and shocking, and enough to make you explore vegetarian eating for at least 21 days.

In "In Defense of Food," Michael Pollan tells readers, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Kathy Freston provides some different points of emphasis, but leads us in the same direction. The right food choices make for healthier individuals, and a healthier, better, and more humane society.

Eight-State Dogfighting Raid Largest in U.S. History

When The HSUS decided a number of years ago to put major resources into a campaign to eradicate organized animal fighting, I wanted there to be no gaps or loopholes in the law, to encourage law enforcement to treat this conduct as a serious crime, and to establish a zero tolerance policy for the activity. And I also wanted dogfighters and cockfighters to be looking over their shoulders—wondering if they’d be next in line for arrest and prosecution.

© The HSUS/Sisneros
At a dogfighting raid in June.

After the law enforcement interventions that occurred yesterday in eight states throughout the nation, there can be no doubt that the criminals at the center of every organized dogfighting ring are now looking over their shoulders. Four United States Attorneys and a bevy of federal law enforcement agencies, along with The HSUS, The Humane Society of Missouri, and the ASPCA, raided multiple dogfighting operations, and seized at least 450 dogs, in what was the largest single day of actions against dogfighting in American history.

I have two reports below from our people who helped lead the action in the field. Due to confidentiality constraints we can’t include many details, but we’ll share more information as it becomes available.

From Scotlund Haisley, senior director of Emergency Services, who was stationed in Missouri:

When our crew woke up yesterday before day break I knew the task before us was unprecedented, and that the day’s work would change the face of dogfighting forever. Nothing in our 50-year campaign against animal fighting—or in any other organization’s fight against the cruel industry—has ever sent as strong a message as this record-breaking enforcement and rescue operation.

For many of us the operation began months ago, but early this week members of our animal fighting, emergency services, communications, and video and investigations departments gathered to provide support and equipment necessary to undertake this historic rescue. Because of the scope of this unique rescue, confidentiality was crucial to our success, and as recently as yesterday morning many staff and volunteers were still in the dark on the details of our impending mission.

After a morning briefing meeting four teams fanned out across Missouri, while we also acted as the lead animal welfare agency on rescues conducted in Texas and Oklahoma, and similar raids went down in Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas, Mississippi and Nebraska.

After months of coordination and preparation, the sweet release of relief is finally beginning to wash over our exhausted team. This feeling is ushered in by the comforting sight of dogs being settled in at the emergency shelter. Knowing that without our intervention these same animals would have faced a future of untold horrors is my ultimate reward. Tonight I can truly celebrate a belated Independence Day, as I contemplate the 450 lives that have been saved from the clutches of the dogfighting industry.

By shutting down these operations we have saved untold generations of fighting dogs the pain and misery of being bred only to quench the blood lust of those involved in this hideous industry.

From Chris Schindler, deputy manager of our Animal Cruelty & Fighting Campaign, who was stationed in Texas:

You’d never guess that in Texas, amid farm houses and well-kept estates, laid a hidden world of animal suffering. Yet behind the palatial exterior of an alleged dogfighter’s countryside home, my colleagues and I, along with federal agents, found the unmistakable horror of a dogfighting operation.

At every dogfighting raid, there’s always one dog whose face stays with me long after the day is done. Again yesterday, one dog broke my heart. Right now law enforcement authorities have asked us not to talk about details, but when we can I’ll share this story with you.

As we made our way from dog to dog, taking photographs, completing veterinary checks, and documenting scars and wounds—all evidence for the prosecution—it seemed the dogs wanted only a kind hand, freedom from pain, and, most of all, companionship.

It’s one thing to read about the horrors of dogfighting, but it’s another to witness the sheer disdain and antipathy of dogfighters towards man’s best friend, to put individual faces to the suffering. Those tormented faces continue to haunt me daily, reminding me of the worst parts of human nature.

At the same time, these faces urge me to forge ahead against what once felt like a problem with no solution. I know that the goal of eradicating organized dogfighting from the U.S. now lies well within our reach.

Thanks to the immense efforts of so many people, we have devastated the dogfighting network in the Midwest and beyond.

If you'd like to support our campaign against animal fighting with a special gift today, you can do so here.

There Oughta Be Laws Against Exotic Pets

Though it’s still hard to accept any hedging when cruelty is involved, you can understand the reluctance of politicians to take on some issues, such as confinement of animals on factory farms or animal testing.  There are monied interests on the other side, and they work hard to preserve the status quo. It often takes a big lift for us to get that sort of legislation moving, since many politicians want to avoid confronting tough issues.

But there’s no reasonable political explanation for dithering on the issue of keeping dangerous exotic animals as pets. It seems perfectly foolish on its face to keep a lion, a chimpanzee, or a Burmese python as a pet. These wild animals live by the unforgiving code of nature and they are fully capable of killing adults. A woman in Connecticut was severely disfigured earlier this year by a pet chimp. They can make especially quick work of children.

© iStockphoto

Every state and the federal government should establish policies to crack down on keeping dangerous wild animals as pets, but some states continue to be outliers, including Missouri, Ohio, and other centers of the exotic pet trade. Oregon did just pass a tough, comprehensive law in 2009, and Congress did enact a law in 2003 restricting the trade in big cats. But Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) continues to block the Captive Primate Safety Act, which would ban the trade in chimps and other primates as pets. The House passed the bill earlier this year, as introduced by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), and Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and David Vitter (R-La.) are leading the issue in the Senate, but haven’t been able yet to overcome Coburn’s stalling tactics.

Yet, the human toll from wild animals kept as pets continues to mount. Last week, an eight-foot Burmese python escaped from an aquarium, slithered into a bedroom, and asphyxiated a 2-year-old toddler. She was the fourth person to be killed by a pet python in the United States since 2006. It follows an incident earlier this year in Las Vegas, when a 3-year-old boy was squeezed to the point of unconsciousness by an 18-foot reticulated python the father was keeping in their home.

These huge constrictors are not pets. In addition to the serious risks to people, Burmese pythons are upsetting the balance of Florida's ecosystems as they prey on endangered species and even challenge alligators for apex predator status. From a small population of escaped or abandoned pets, Burmese pythons have become established in the Everglades, numbering perhaps 25,000, according to some estimates.

The HSUS applauds Sen. Bill Nelson's proposed legislation (S. 373) and the companion bill introduced by Rep. Kendrick Meek (H.R. 2811) to add pythons to the federal injurious species list, prohibiting their import and interstate commerce for the pet trade. The Congress should not delay in enacting that bill, along with the Captive Primate Safety Act.

State laws are important, and we work aggressively on that front, but the Congress too needs to speak on this subject. These dangerous animals are sold through a national and international network of exotic animal dealers and even over the Internet, and effective policy action must include imports and interstate transport of exotic animals.

"FOOD, Inc.": Cleans Your Plate

Agriculture is a fundamental human enterprise, and civilization could not exist without it. It’s also a noble enterprise, and farmers are among the hardest-working of laborers.

Yet, as Michael Pollan, author of "In Defense of Food" and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” observes, “The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.” Especially when it comes to animal production, it’s become industrialized, environmentally destructive, and needlessly inhumane.

"FOOD, Inc.," a new documentary showing now across the nation, chronicles how far modern industrial agriculture has strayed from its roots. Nicholas Kristof, who grew up on a mixed agriculture farm in rural Oregon, lauds the movie in his Sunday column in The New York Times.

And Jennifer Fearing, who was our manager for the landmark Proposition 2 campaign, has much to say about the documentary. She recently participated in a forum in Sacramento after a screening of the film and I asked her to share her thoughts.

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The fundamental aim of "FOOD, Inc." is to expose the rampant abuse of power that has resulted in an inefficient, polluting, degrading, cruel, and unhealthy food system in America.

About a third of the film’s footage features feedlots, confinement facilities, and slaughterhouses. In an artful and effective way, images flick quickly from living animal to dead animal to carcass to giant vats of flesh. In so doing, the film underscores the cognitive dissonance so many people live with: identifying and empathizing with certain animals while eating others.

One scene sticks out in this regard and generated an interesting discussion at a screening The HSUS co-hosted in Sacramento last month. Joel Salatin, at his Polyface Farms in Virginia, is shown raising many of his animals in what most people would consider the “old-fashioned” way—outdoors, in small herds, with species-appropriate feed. Certainly Salatin’s methods are far preferable to how most farm animals are raised on industrial factory farms. But the film also shows Salatin and crew performing an outdoor slaughter of a number of chickens. They grab flapping birds and cut their throats while they’re fully conscious.

As was the case the two other times when I watched this scene with an audience, I looked around to see that the vast majority of the crowd reacts viscerally: grimacing, covering eyes, wincing, looking away. As Salatin and his workers engage in these acts, the audience becomes uncomfortable.

It’s in this space that "FOOD, Inc." has the biggest opportunity to impact the lives of the 10 billion animals raised for food each year—nearly all of whom live their lives on industrial factory farms and endure far more suffering than Salatin’s chickens. The film opens a window into modern food production, one which most consumers of food never get to see.

At the film’s close, a number of individual actions are proposed for filmgoers who will definitely be hungry for change. We all have the potential to positively affect the ills the film highlights, by reducing our consumption of animal products, supporting farmers who raise animals more humanely and sustainably, or making other lifestyle changes.

It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. Every meal counts. And it’s not just The HSUS on board with this idea: writers such as Pollan and The New York Times’ Mark Bittman advocate reduction as well, with Bittman’s new book describing his “vegan until dinner” strategy.

A new PSA for "FOOD, Inc." featuring NBA star John Salley was unveiled at the Sacramento screening, and appears now on our website. Salley sums it up best: “Skip the meat, eat some veggies. You are the consumer, you have the power. Vote with your fork, three times a day.”

Cutting Back Means Cutting Animal Consumption

At The HSUS, we are engaging in a range of cost-cutting management actions to cope with the downturn in the economy, but we are doing our best not to cut any essential animal protection programs. Especially in tough economic times, the determined actions of The HSUS and other animal protection groups are needed more than ever for animals in crisis.

Consumers are having to make tough cost-saving decisions, too. And as they strike some non-essential items from their shopping lists, they are shrinking demand for certain products that cause harm to animals. For example, the fur industry, which produces a luxury product, is experiencing waning sales. The Federal Trade Commission reported in 2005 that an estimated 3.5 million animal fur garments and accessories were for sale annually in the United States, and in 2009, that number has dropped to just more than 1 million—an astonishing decline of more than 70 percent. In fact, prices for seal pelts from Canada have declined by a record amount, though part of that steep decline is due to our closing markets for the pelts through policy changes in Europe and elsewhere.

Our guide provides the hows and whys
of reducing animal products in your diet.

Gourmet magazine is reporting that people are reducing to some degree their consumption of meat products. Given the inordinately high per capita consumption of animal products in America, this is good news for animals, the environment, and public health. The HSUS is a big tent organization, and we support people who want to switch to more humanely raised animal products, reduce the amount of meat in their diets, or try a vegetarian lifestyle—but the reduction of meat consumption is one of the best things we can do for the planet given how unsustainable the current levels of factory farming are.

Reductions in meat consumption means less support for factory farms—many of which confine animals in small cages or crates, and subject them to other procedures and handling practices that compromise their welfare. In fact, Smithfield Foods, which has pledged but not yet completed the shift toward eliminating gestation crates for sows, reported major financial losses during the last quarter, and it says it needs to shrink its pig population to account for decreasing demand. The dairy industry is also in the throes of reducing its size because of oversupply.

Gourmet notes “the USDA estimates that the production of meat from every major category of farm animal will drop for the first time since 1973.” This is also good news for the environment, since the massive numbers of animals on Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, produce enormous volumes of waste, and pollute watersheds and streams. It also means less in the way of greenhouse gas emissions, since the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has reported that the animal agriculture sector worldwide accounts for 18 percent of all emissions—more than the entire transportation sector.

Unfortunately, some members of Congress don’t want the farm animal industries to do their fair share to combat the problem. Lawmakers aligned with the Farm Bureau and other ambassadors of agribusiness are actively working to exclude agriculture from the impact of any remedial actions to reduce climate change. As a result, you may hear from The HSUS soon to contact your lawmaker to turn this situation around.

As Gourmet’s editor Ruth Reichl noted in a powerful editorial about the detriment of raising so many animals for food on factory farms, “Now it is becoming increasingly clear that we ought to change our ways.”

26 Attorneys General Join Case for Animal Cruelty Law

This fall, for the first time in more than 15 years, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a major case involving animal cruelty. The case concerns infamous dogfighting videographer Robert Stevens, who was convicted by a Pennsylvania jury of violating a 1999 federal law banning the commercial sale of videos depicting extreme and illegal acts of animal cruelty.

The Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act—authored by Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.)—was prompted in part by an HSUS investigation that uncovered an underground subculture of “animal crush” videos, where scantily clad women, often in high-heeled shoes, would impale and crush to death puppies, kittens and other small animals, catering to those with a sexual fetish for this aberrant behavior.

© The HSUS
The law in question bans depictions of
animal fighting and other extreme cruelty.

At the same time The HSUS filed its brief, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and 25 other state Attorneys General filed a brief arguing in support of banning these gruesome depictions, which merit no protection under the First Amendment.

The Attorneys General’s brief—which emphasizes how animal cruelty is often closely associated with other serious crimes such as gang activity, drug dealing, and violent felonies—is a powerful statement in support of The HSUS’s humane mission, and a reminder of how far we have come in a very short time in enlisting broad, mainstream support for the prevention of animal cruelty.

We garnered additional support from Washington Legal Foundation and Allied Educational Foundation, highly conservative public policy organizations, which also filed a brief arguing that Congress rightly banned trafficking in depictions of animal cruelty, and that doing so does not violate the First Amendment. As a frequent litigant challenging laws as violating First Amendment rights, the Washington Legal Foundation’s brief is likely to carry substantial weight with the Court.

At the other end of the political spectrum, New York University’s Center on the Administration of Criminal Law also filed a brief in support of banning depictions of illegal acts of animal cruelty. The Center is a leading academic think tank, which frequently weighs in on important governmental issues before the high court.

As explained in all of the briefs filed Monday, the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act criminalizes depictions of animal cruelty that have no significant redeeming political, social, or artistic value. This is essentially the same test for stopping the production and sale of certain forms of human obscenity. There is no reason that videos depicting cruelty should get more First Amendment protection than pornography does.

Indeed there are strong arguments that such material, like child pornography, should not be entitled to any First Amendment protection at all. The makers and sellers of these videos are not making an argument or expressing a viewpoint—they are simply profiting from extreme cruelty, from predation on the weakest among us. This is a far cry from the values that the First Amendment is supposed to protect. We wouldn’t allow people to sell videos of people actually abusing children or raping women, and the same legal principles are at hand with malicious acts of cruelty, which are a felony in some form in every state.

Florida Attorney General McCollum should be commended for organizing Monday’s strong showing of the nation’s top law enforcement officers. When the Court convenes this fall, it won’t just hear arguments from animal advocates, it will be presented with a diverse cross-section of law enforcement officials, academics, and ideologically diverse public policy groups all saying the same thing: The trafficking in videos of extreme and illegal acts of animal cruelty finds no refuge in the First Amendment, and will not be tolerated by the American people.

Comic Relief

Mostly I like for our staff to appear in The New York Times, but on occasion it’s okay if they appear in the funny pages too. Yesterday's MUTTS strip, by the fabulous Patrick McDonnell, features The HSUS's Scotlund Haisley, who leads our animal rescue operations. Enjoy.

© 2009 Patrick McDonnell. Posted online by special permission of King Features Syndicate.
Click the strip to see it in full size.

Take This Job And ...

The HSUS has long decried the violent force-feeding of ducks and geese for foie gras—a process that induces disease in the livers of these animals for, as "Dominion" author Matthew Scully notes, nothing more than a table treat. We've fought this industry on many fronts, and our lawsuit against Hudson Valley Foie Gras—the largest foie gras factory farm in the United States—resulted in the company paying tens of thousands of dollars in fines for polluting a New York waterway. Hudson Valley is now facing the possibility of even more penalties for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

© Citizen's Initiative for the Abolition of Force-Feeding

And now there’s another side of this industry and this company that’s getting attention this week. Bob Herbert’s riveting column in The New York Times lifts the veil on the abuse of workers at Hudson Valley Foie Gras.

Herbert informs his readers of the unyielding and harsh conditions workers endure at Hudson Valley Foie Gras: no weekends, no paid sick or vacation days, and punishing labor. He quotes factory farm owner Izzy Yanay as saying, “This notion that they need to rest is completely futile. They don’t like to rest. They want to work seven days.”

I’ve written about the connections between the mistreatment of farm animals and farm workers before. This is one reason I was so proud that The HSUS had the support of the United Farm Workers (UFW) during the Proposition 2 campaign in California.

Founded by legendary farm worker advocate Cesar Chavez, the UFW has long stood up for the least among us. While many are familiar with Chavez’s campaigns for workers (for example his historic grape boycott), fewer know about his passion for animal protection.

When I read Herbert’s column, I immediately thought of Chavez and thought that if he were still alive, he’d be campaigning shoulder-to-shoulder with The HSUS against abuses at factory farms.

After all, it was Chavez who said, “Animals are fellow creatures. We must protect them and love them as we love ourselves. The basis for peace is respecting all creatures…We know we cannot defend and be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them.”

Share a Laugh with Carol Leifer

I’ve often thought that the animal movement was not for the faint of heart. You confront painful things if you take a meaningful look into animal cruelty in society, and that can be a little dangerous for your emotional health. One of the best antidotes is a sense of humor, or at least an appreciation of humor. Just like eating well and exercising, we all need to laugh if we are to stay healthy—especially so if you do animal protection work.

© Long Photography
Carol Leifer (right) and partner Lori Wolf
at The HSUS's Genesis Awards in March.

That’s why I was so excited to read Carol Leifer’s "When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win." Her book is a collection of short chapters that amount to part autobiography, life lessons, and just plain funny writing from one of America’s top comedic talents. A former writer for Seinfeld and Saturday Night Live—and a powerful animal advocate—Carol has appeared on David Letterman more than 25 times, among her other television credits.

The book’s primary theme is, as its title suggests, devoted to the task of coming to grips with middle age, and the funny observations and stories that come along the way. Now that she’s hit 50, she’s free to express her life philosophies, like this, about collagen injections, “Your lips are not meant to be flotation devices for your face in case it capsizes.”

But the subtext for the entire book is changes in life that confront us, in one form or another. Carol was a lifelong heterosexual who fell in love with a woman, Lori, and suddenly found herself gay and delivering this bit of news to her Jewish father. Fortunately, he took it in stride. Carol says he had this reaction: “I’ll tell you when I was disappointed. When you married that shagitz! (For you non-Jews, a shagitz is the male version of your species).” And Carol was a person thoroughly indifferent to animals who turned into an animal rescuer (they have seven rescued dogs), a passionate animal advocate, and eventually a vegan—thanks initially to animal-loving insights of Lori.

It’s a fast read, since Carol herself hates hefty fat books with small typeface, and it will make you laugh throughout. And you’ll take away some great life lessons, including about the long and sometimes tortuous path many people travel before they settle in as committed animal advocates.

P.S. Carol will be speaking and signing books at the Taking Action for Animals conference in July, and I hope you will join us at the nation's major training conference on animal advocacy.