VegMoms

Friday’s News+Gathering: Largely because of the popularity of $5,000 per pound caviar, the fish species sturgeon (including the highly prized beluga) is now pushed “to the brink of extinction” more than any other group of animals on earth, according to a report Thursday in USA Today.

This is the sort of issue that makes my head spin. As a tried and true, fully certified foodie, I love the different flavors and textures of all sorts of special and sometimes expensive foods (non-animal-based, of course) from around the world. I will pay more than I should for a good mango, it’s true. But what I don’t understand this: Is any flavor worth the extinction of an entire species? Or are caviar enthusiasts so consumed with the status of eating $5,000 fish eggs that they’re willing to contribute to the extinction of a species? What’s the rationale there?  Read the entire article here and visit the International Union for Conservation of Nature to find out how to get involved.

Thursday’s Working for Change: A whistle-blowing veterinarian called USDA officials on the carpet today in testimony before Congress for what he says were covered up or ignored inhumane and unsanitary conditions at slaughterhouses  including ”butchering days-old calves that were too weak or sick to stand. He also describes being threatened with transfer or demotion after citing a plant for butchering conscious pigs, despite rules that they first be stunned and unconscious.” (Source: USA Today. Food Safety Veterinarian to Detail Slaughterhouse Breaches, by Peter Eisler).

Ironically, minutes before I saw that article today I had just finished watching the documentary Earthlings, an epic movie about our use of animals for profit. It took me two sittings to get through the entire film, it was so overwhelming to see the brutal footage of animals being mistreated by the pet, factory farm, slaughterhouse, deep sea fishing, clothing, science and entertainment industries. But from the hidden camera footage I saw in that movie, I can testify here that what this vet is testifying before Congress really happens. I’ve now seen it with my own eyes, and it’s a sad sight to see. (I highly recommend watching this film — which you can do from the website, and many libraries carry it, too — but not with your children. It is far too brutal for children, even young teens, to view, in my opinion). 

Much gratitude to this vet and these filmmakers for speaking truth to power. Keep working for change…