meat is murder

An American animal advocacy organization, Mercy For Animals, has been able to gain undercover footage of the practices of commercial chicken hatcheries. Please watch and if you are not yet vegan, think about what your money supports the next time you buy an egg or a product containing egg.
…lovely.

Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the shocking reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world’s largest egg-laying breed hatchery – Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa.

New hidden camera footage obtained at this facility during a Mercy For Animals undercover investigation gives a disturbing glimpse into the cruel and industrialized reality of modern hatcheries.

The warm, comforting, and protective wings of these newly hatched chicks’ mothers have been replaced with massive machines, quickly moving conveyor belts, harsh handling, and distressing noise. These young animals are sorted, discarded, and handled like mere cogs in a machine.

For the nearly 150,000 male chicks who hatch every 24 hours at this Hy-Line facility, their lives begin and end the same day. Grabbed by their fragile wings by workers known as “sexers,” who separate males from females, these young animals are callously thrown into chutes and hauled away to their deaths. They are destined to die on day one because they cannot produce eggs and do not grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat. Their lives are cut short when they are dropped into a grinding machine – tossed around by a spinning auger before being torn to pieces by a high-pressure macerator.

Over 30 million male chicks meet their fate this way each year at this facility.

For the surviving females, this is the beginning of a life of cruelty and confinement at the hands of the egg industry. Before even leaving the hatchery they will be snapped by their heads into a spinning debeaker – a portion of their sensitive beaks removed by a laser. Workers toss and rummage through them before they are placed 100 per crowded box and shipped across the country.

Remainder of article at MFA

The title says it all. Another day, another article, another link between meat and cancer. We don’t know how this article from the BBC (and seemingly every other news outlet in the world) passed by MeatIsMurder Towers. This time parents are being asked to help fight the cancer-meat axis with their kids’ packed lunches.
It’s true the article goes on to talk about substituting the processed meats for chicken, fish or dairy, but a quick scan of this site will tell you the health warnings that we also regularly see about these corpse products.

Parents have been urged not to put ham and other smoked, salted or cured meat into their children’s lunchboxes to help them reduce the risk of cancer.

The World Cancer Research Fund said parents should act now to stop their children developing a taste for processed meat.

Eating too much over decades can raise the risk of bowel cancer, they said.

Link to original article at the BBC

Due to the recent articles focusing on how vegans are treated inside official institutions the admin at meatismurder were passed the below article by an individual that recently spent time inside the UK penal system.

Treatment of Vegans/Animal Rights Activists in Police Custody

In this article I will go through treatment I have received in police custody and the treatment you can expect if you are arrested. When I was first arrested I remember being determined not to show the police I was scared (Inside I had no idea what to expect and when I would see the people I was arrested with again) this soon passed as I realised what was going to happen was going to happen and there was nothing I could do about it. Once I was being transported to the nearest police station the driver seemed to take great pride in telling me he was a hunter and loved meat, the best thing to do with comments like this is just ignore them as arguing with the police is only going to anger them.
Arriving at the police station I had all my details written down (It is up to you whether you choose to give these details; I made sure to let them know I was a strict vegan at every opportunity at this point). Expect to have at least your shoe laces seized, but if your unlucky like me you will have all of your clothes and shoes taken, again at this point they really enjoyed laughing at my boots made by “Vegetarian Shoes” but again try to resist arguing back to things like this. I was then given a cell and told to get some sleep, when I asked for a blanket I was ignored but again hopefully you should get one!
In the morning, (well I think it was the morning a windowless cell meant I had lost track of time) I was offered no breakfast just a cup of warm water to drink, then left again to sit and ponder. Come lunch time I was given some food; a tiny portion of one of the two vegan ready meals police stations should have in stock. It was vegetable chilli, and tasted horrible but at this point I was too hungry to care. Dinner time brought the same horrible vegetable chilli, but I managed to get a blanket before they left!
At this point (24 hours in custody) you should be released either uncharged or charged and given bail, except if the police decide they need more time and ask a high ranking officer for permission for another 12 hours (Which was granted in my case) they can also go to court and ask for even longer (also granted in my case) but both of these are fairly rare and hopefully wont happen to you!

The next day brought around exactly the same horrible lunch and no breakfast, but at this point I asked to see the station nurse and I demanded that my co-accused and I were given food more suited to our needs such as fresh fruit and vegetables. She said fresh fruit was definitely out of the question and all she managed was a baked potato and a few baked beans (Which to be honest although it wasn’t a ready meal was just as vile but at least different!).

So off I went to sleep again. The next morning I was taken to Court, remanded in custody and sent off to a prison which was actually a relief as the food in prison is far nicer, thanks to the Vegan Prisoners Support Group. There wasn’t a ready meal in sight and I had all the fresh fruit I could eat!

I have chosen to write this article anonymously to protect myself and the others involved in my trial, if you have any questions regarding this article, please pass them on to the people running this website who can pass them to me! Although my time in the police station sounds quite grim it was made a lot easier by reminding myself constantly why I was there and how it was nothing compared to what the animals go through every day.

Please note as an additional point to the above report and recent articles; UK prisoners are now allowed after negotiations with HM Prison Service to order vegan toiletries and health supplements from two mail order companies. This is thanks to the campaigning of the VPSG.

The meatismurder admin team have been avoiding writing a post about swine flu. The story is so massive it doesn’t need reporting here - even the man on the moom must now be aware of events. However perhaps it does. The mainstream media have been focusing on the human tragedy whilst straying away from the obvious…the inevitable hand of humans in causing the problem.
Oddly however the job has been done for us. No less than the Times have an online article that talks about mass-production farms, poor animal husbandry, and low genetic variation as the contributing factors of the outbreak.

There is a tendency to see a flu outbreak, like the plagues of old, as an unstoppable natural event, a scourge visited on Man from above. But there is nothing natural about this form of disease: indeed, it stems from an abuse of nature.

Vast modern pig farms, like the huge poultry plants across the globe, are ideal incubators of disease, and many scientists believe that viral mutation can be directly linked to intensive modern agricultural techniques. With enfeebled animals packed into confined spaces, pathogens spread easily, creating new and virulent strains that may be passed on to humans. When dense populations of factory-farmed animals exist alongside crowded human habitations, the potential for disaster is vastly greater.

The stress of such vile living conditions makes mass-produced animals more vulnerable to contagion, while the concentration on a few, high-yield breeds has led to genetic erosion and weakened immunity. We have created an environment in which a mild virus can evolve rapidly into a much more pathogenic and contagious form.

Please read the article.

A big event like the Superbowl usually attracts a lot of attention, that goes without saying - but this year there has been some attention diverted to the meat industry courtesy of Peta and The Cancer Project. The focus hasn’t been on the ethical arguments for vegetarianism but rather on the health benefits of not eating body.

Welcome to the ad which was banned by American TV Network NBC due to concerns over “rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin,” a woman “screwing herself with broccoli” and more. Sounds impossible to resist, don’t you think? But alas, the saucy video was deemed too hot for the bigwigs at the Super Bowl (that’s huge ‘n’ hunky men playing American football to you and me), so we’re bringing it you ourselves! Hold onto your seats, gents…

Other viewing options

If you want to last all night long, you should know that high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancers or inflammations, and hormonal imbalances cause the vast majority of all cases of impotence. So yep, ditching the meat and dairy and going vegetarian can give you better sex. And who wouldn’t want that? I can just hear the stampede to the veggie section of Asda now…

Also in the ‘Superbowl Food Wars’ have been The Cancer Project (..who have interesting articles about for example, dairy and the links to cancer) with their article about the 5 worst Superbowl party foods - all of which are meat or meat & dairy.

Cancer Project dietitians found that most popular items offered for takeout or delivery on Super Bowl Sunday are high in fat, saturated fat, calories, sodium, and cholesterol. Many items also include processed meats or grilled meats, which are linked to increased cancer risk. The five most unhealthful takeout or delivery items are ranked from worst to least bad.

Rank	The Five Worst Super Bowl Party Foods	Fast-Food Restaurant
1	Deep Dish MeatZZa Feast	Domino’s Pizza
2	The Meats Pan Crust Pizza	Papa John’s
3	Creamy Chicken Alfredo Baked Tuscani Pasta	Pizza Hut
4	Tuna Melt	Quiznos
5	Honey BBQ Wings	KFC

In the UK there are many positive things to be got out of state institutions, such as to a lesser or greater degree, care for all on the NHS. Also, UK prisons are forced to respect a vegan diet (not so the NHS). However in the US, prisoners are not afforded the same treatment, as can be seen by one current inmate who is on hunger strike.

Ira Black, the guitarist for glam metal outfit Lizzy Borden, has been on a hunger strike in LA County Jail for the past 10 days because the prison refuses to serve him vegan food. Black, a vegan of 15 years, was arrested on January 3rd on a misdemeanor charge and is now being held on $65k bail.

KNAC reports Black’s fiancée has spoken out, saying the prison “will give inmates with medical problems or religious beliefs a different meal, but there is no concern for the vegetarians/vegans…The situation has been escalating hour by hour.”

Guards also forced Black to take off a sign he was wearing that said, “Hunger Strike.”

Story from TwentyFourBit

However, there does seem some hope for the US. If Ira had been sent to a Federal prison, here they seem to recognise a ‘no-flesh’ diet. Check out a very well researched article at Vegetarians in Paradise.

Federal prisons have been more attuned to veganism after Keith Maydak, a prisoner at the Lewisburg, Pennsylvania facility, sued the Bureau of Prisons in 1997 to demand vegan meals. On May 8, 2000, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said Maydak was likely to win his case, and granted a temporary injunction requiring the prison to serve him soy milk.

Beginning in October 2000, federal prisons began offering a no-flesh diet to inmates. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons denied that the court case influenced the decision. “The intent of the meatless alternatives is to meet the changing dietary habits and the religious dietary needs of the diverse inmate population.”

VIP’s advice to protesters and activists: STAY OUT OF JAIL. Although there is some movement to accommodate vegans, most state and local facilities are not going to offer vegans a wholesome meal. Federal prisons obviously offer diverse vegan options.

If you are a UK reader and wanting more information about being a vegan prisoner please see the Vegan Prisoners Support Group (VPSG).