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From: Farm Sanctuary - info [at] farmsanctuary.org
Date: Jul 3, 2007 10:24 AM
Subject: Behind the Mustache: Farm Sanctuary Investigates the Dairy Industry
Farm Sanctuary Investigation Shows Sad Truth About California’s Happy Cows
A Farm Sanctuary investigation has unearthed the reality of life on California’s industrialized dairy farms. Far from experiencing the happy existence marketers of California’s dairy products would like the public to believe, dairy cows live in filth on industrialized farms, where their basic needs are routinely ignored and their bodies are exploited for profit.
Farm Sanctuary has produced a video culled from footage taken during the investigation. Behind the Mustache: Farm Sanctuary Investigates the Dairy Industry provides documentation of the treatment of both milk-producing cows and their offspring, many of whom are hauled off to slaughter shortly after being born. The heartbreaking separation of one mother from her baby is shown in detail, as she chases the dairy farm worker who grabs her newborn, still wet from birth, by the back legs and drags him through the manure-caked pen.
More than 21 percent of the nation’s dairy supply comes from California, and, according to the the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture 2005 statistics, California is home to nearly 1.8 million milk-producing cows. The vast majority of these animals reside on intensive dairy farms, where, as our investigation shows, living conditions are abysmal.
Please take the time to view this video [1] and send along to your friends, family and colleagues. If you haven’t already, please consider dairy alternatives. After all, a compassionate world begins with you!
I’ve actually gotten this very justification. In person. Like, for real. Cereal.
A certain relative of mine, who shall remain nameless (hey, the saucy FSM knows who s/he is!), actually thinks these legalized orgies of animal abuse are fun for all involved. Last I checked s/he also thought that Rush Limbaugh was totally teh cool, so…yeah.
Yesterday we announced that media celebrity Ira Glass, host of the wildly popular Public Radio International’s This American Life aired on National Public Radio, and now on TV, appeared on Late Night with David Letterman Friday, April 20th where he told Letterman and millions of viewers that his visit to United Poultry Concerns’ chicken sanctuary inspired him to become a vegetarian.
Please thank Ira Glass for bringing this important message to the public. We are So Honored & So Grateful to Ira Glass!
Contact Ira Glass at:
Ira Glass
This American Life
153 West 27th Street, Suite 1104
New York, NY 10001
Email: ira [at] thislife.org, web [at] thislife.org
Website: www.thisamericanlife.org/About_Contact.aspx
After the flip: the original alert, as well as a video (via You Tube) of the appearance.
Ira Glass appeared on Late Night with David Letterman Friday April 20th promoting the television version of his radio show This American Life. Since 1995, Ira Glass has been host of Public Radio International’s This American Life. For 16 years before that, he worked as a producer, editor, and reporter on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition.
At the midpoint of his conversation with Letterman, Glass described his encounter with Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns and the huge letter-writing campaign UPC mobilized several years ago. He commented with amazement on the overwhelming task of advocating for chickens in a world where their death is everywhere you look, an “Armageddon” as he described it.
He described UPC’s sanctuary in the midst of a large poultry production area, where “little escaping chickens” falling off trucks are brought to UPC’s sanctuary for safety, how he was invited to visit and upon meeting the chickens discovered they are indeed little individuals with personalities – “this one’s shy, that one’s outgoing.”
When he asked Letterman if he had ever met a chicken, Letterman quipped about meeting one on the end of his fork. He asked Glass if he had made dietary changes since then and Glass replied that he thought of those chickens every time he took a bite of chicken after that and that he has indeed become a vegetarian.
Thank you for all your hard work over the past several months to save hundreds of wolves in the Greater Yellowstone area and the rest of the Northern Rockies.
All I can say is “wow.”
Last week marked the end of the public comment period on the Bush/Cheney Administration’s plan to eliminate vital Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the greater Yellowstone area and the Northern Rockies — a plan that could spark the worst wolf massacre to occur in the Lower 48 United States in decades.
Defenders asked for your help to save hundreds of wolves in Idaho and Wyoming from certain death, and you answered our call…
* More than 139,000 Defenders activists like you submitted written comments opposing the administration’s plan — generating more than half of all the comments submitted on the proposal.
* Hundreds of wildlife supporters from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Washington state showed up to bravely testify in person on behalf of common sense wolf management, outnumbering anti-wolf groups at almost every hearing.
* More than 69,000 people have viewed our YouTube video, making it one of the most viewed animal clips on that site.
* More than 8,000 dedicated supporters donated more than $386,000 in the last five months to fund our on-the-ground efforts to protect wolves, providing crucial support for public education, activist mobilization and work with local landowners to prevent unnecessary wolf and livestock loss.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will now consider the public comments on the Bush/Cheney Administration’s proposal to eliminate vital Endangered Species Act protections, with a decision on delisting expected within six months.
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UPDATE, 5/1/07, via Defenders of Wildlife:
We have just one week left to prevent the slaughter of hundreds of wolves in the Northern Rockies. Unless we stop them, federal officials could eliminate vital protections for these magnificent animals and spark the biggest wolf massacre in the lower 48 state to occur in decades.
