Showing posts with label PETA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PETA. Show all posts

November 23, 2017

Chocolate Turkey Delight

So this is the kind of dessert turkey that will sweeten your Thanksgiving dinner.

Gobs and gobs of white, milk, and dark chocolate.

And they actually shaped it all like a turkey.

Sort of cute, but also sort of sugary disgusting, no?

Generally, I'm not a huge fan of eating turkey either.

Maybe when they boil it in oil, and it's cooked through and through, it actually comes out juicy and not so bad.

But give me a nice piece of beef, and I'll be your pal forever!

A colleague who was a veterinarian and worked inspecting meat plants overseas told me some things about the cleanliness though that made my skin crawl.

"The cleanliness outside of the U.S. is WAY DIFFERENT than here!"--and not in a good way.

Even in places that do maintain clean facilities and healthy animals, the way that "they make the sausage" sounded so unappetizing.

It made me think of all those PETA and other commercials that show the chickens and other caged birds in those crowded and filthy (and diseased) conditions...even aside from the cruelty, it's enough to make you cringe.

He said they mash the meat until it's like just a pink paste that gets shot into the tubes for hot dogs and things like that.

"It looks disgusting!"

Also, they put parts of the animal in that are basically leftover meats from the head and other parts of the animal that did NOT sound desirable at all. 

I'm thinking to myself...FROM THE HEAD.

Uh, no more hot dogs for me, thank you.

I think that I'll stick with a nice steak or burger or something KOSHER and palatable.

You can have your turkey and your sausage and eat it, but not me! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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March 21, 2016

Loving Your Sheep

I guess people love all sorts of things. 

This one lady had a bumper sticker on her truck that said, "I [Heart] Love Sheep."

First, I thought the messaging was about loving "The Shepherd"--either her husband, a paramour, or a reference to the Messiah. 

Then I took a second take, and realized, NO not the shepherd, but the actual sheep--she loves. 

Well, people love their dogs, cats, horses, and so why not their sheep?

I don't know, but as a "city boy," loving your sheep never would really occur to me, then again I was sheltered in Yeshiva. 

Anyway, after I took a quick photo of the professed love sticker, this lady starts yelling after me about why am I looking at her car.  

I responded, "No, not the car--the sticker (about the sheep)."

She's like, "Oh, that's okay then!"--like of course, it's about my love of sheep. 

So here, this post is dedicated to everyone that loves their sheep or shepard or whatever rocks their particular boats. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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April 19, 2015

How You Treat Animals

This little bird is singing pretty with his Coronoa.

But this isn't always how we treat animals. 

Some absolutely revere their animals as integral parts of their family or faith--as pets, they may be loved and cared in nice homes, and as source for milk, dung, and tilling, they may even considered sacred as in Hindu India, or for sacrifices on the Temple alter in Judaism. 

I've seen dogs picked up after and wheeled around in baby strollers, while in the Movies like "Meet The Fockers," Jinx the cat is exalted for doing her deed in the toilet, the same one used by the family.

One colleague told me how she had to run after her dog cleaning up all over her house, when it was sick and had a bleed out of its butt--yeah, ick!

And I remember learning about how in Nazi Germany, dogs would walk on the sidewalk, while Jews were forced into the gutters. 

On the other side of the animal coin...

We have animals sickeningly and inhumanly confined and caged in tiny spaces; starved or fattened; pepped up on antibiotics, and clubbed, electrocuted, given lethal injections, shot and cut up.

Animals are used for food, fur, and even so-called fun from cock fighting to bull runs.

Further, animals are used for research in everything from new medications to abusive studies in mind control and even punishment.

Animals have also been used for horrific torture of POWs where masks were attached to victims faces and a fire would heat the other side and force the rodent locked inside to burrow into the faces of their victims.

Similarly, in Nazi Germany, gruesome studies were conducted on humans by sewing live cats into the stomach of victims.

In more positive ways, animals have been used to locate everything from disease to the implements of war--from dogs being used in identifying human diseases like cancer and tuberculosis to giant rats used to locate land mines

Also, animal products are used in many life-saving medications. 

I found the remorse of an animal experimenter today in the New York Times to be refreshing, and those who choose to become vegan or disavow the use of fur and other animal products to be noble, as long as they accept that others may feel different. 

When the experimenter in his guilt thinks about the tables being turned, he imagines aliens coming to Earth and abducting and conducting experiments on us humans...oh, he seems to go, now I know how it must feel. 

Guess he didn't think to walk in that chicken's shoes before...

While to carnivorous animals, we are just another piece of beef in the food chain, other domesticated animals can be "man's best friend."

Killing an animal for survival is one thing, and where people draw that line can vary quite some--for example, how badly does Kim Kardashian need another fur to keep her warm?

But pure abusive and sick treatment of animals for amusement, profiteering, or psychotic ends is wrong, period. 

Animals are not people, but they are G-d creatures and sentient, and they should not be harmed or pained just because some of us like to act like animals too. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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October 22, 2014

Walk Like A Chicken


So I've been reading about the use of virtual reality for the military veterans as a way to help the healing process of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

But this was something different yesterday in downtown D.C....


Using virtual reality to "See Life Through A Chicken's Eyes"--complements of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). 


So I go up and ask the attendant what this is all about. 


She says, "You can take the virtual reality tour and walk around a field as a chicken!"


She goes on, "Only we're having some trouble with the technology, so can you come back in 20 minutes?"


Uh, okay, but 2 things:


1. Yes, I do believe in ethical treatment for everyone (including animals), and no one should suffer where we can (and should) prevent it. 


2. I did just have some chicken (only Kosher, of course!) to eat just last week (and it was pretty good), and while I am curious to see the virutal reality, I can't make it back here in 20 minutes, but thank you!


Lesson: Treat all life compassionately, but I don't have to walk around as a chicken to see that! ;-)


(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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April 4, 2014

For The Love Of Animals

I read this incredible story in the Jerusalem Post about Denmark prohibiting Shechita (the Jewish kosher way to slaughter animals for food). 

What is amazing about this is:


1) Shechita is known as one of the most humane ways to slaughter animals for food. It involves a single rapid uninterrupted stroke across the throat with a super sharp knife. One of the reasons this method is used is precisely so that the animal does not feel any pain. This is unlike other common practices for slaughtering animals which include clubbing, electrifying, shooting, suffocation, and more. 


2) Denmark while prohibiting Shechita, permits bestiality/Zoophilia (human sex with animals). So bestiality, a very pagan-like practice, is legal in Denmark, even though it is prohibited under the penalty of death (for the person and the animal) in the Bible


So animal rape is okay in Denmark. And Judeo Christian laws and beliefs are not, especially when they actually protect the animals. Uh, something is rotten in the barn here. Or put another way:


Animals in the bedroom--Oh, no, no, no.

Animals ritually slaughtered for dinner--moo, moo, moo.  ;-)


(Source Photo: here with attribution to Ed Schipul)

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