Huge news this week: Perdue became the first poultry giant to pledge to start implementing meaningful reforms to reduce the suffering of its birds.
Iowa Rep. Steve King didn’t seem to get the memo that the times they are a changin.’ The state’s largest newspaper just eviscerated King this week for his war on Meatless Mondays. The Des Moines Register’s conclusion of its must-read editorial: “It seems that no one other than meat-eating, straight, white, American-born citizens have a place in Steve King’s America. The fact that this version of America exists only in King’s head, which otherwise appears to be empty, doesn’t seem to concern him.”
As if that wasn’t enough for the week, the Washington Post’sheadline speaks for itself: “Meat Is Horrible.”
Finally, why did Men’s Journal call HSUS the “Death Star opponent of industry abuses” this week? Check out their new profile on Wayne Pacelle.
Paul Shapiro Vice President, Farm Animal Protection The Humane Society of the United States Follow at twitter.com/pshapiro
P.S. Video of the week: What would a healing rescued chicken like to watch?
The big news of the week: Thanks to a surreal effort of hundreds of animal advocates in Massachusetts, we turned in the final signatures to hopefully guarantee placement on this November’s statewide ballot. If we’re on the ballot, the Bay State will become the epicenter of the national debate about factory farming—it’s on like Donkey Kong!
As we work to reduce farm animal suffering in Massachusetts, the fight to reduce the number of animals in factory farms and slaughter plants altogether continues. It was a crazy week in the tale of two nations, with news of China’s ambition to halve its meat consumption, while a US company that merely tweeted about the eco-benefits of meat reduction was bullied into retracting and apologizing.
Finally, you knew that laying hens are locked in physical cages, but did you know chickens raised for meat are locked in physiological cages? I offer thoughts on this in a new op-ed in the Savannah Morning News (in the largest poultry state in the nation).
Paul Shapiro Vice President, Farm Animal Protection The Humane Society of the United States Follow at twitter.com/pshapiro
P.P.S. Humane Society Academy offers cool online courses to help you increase your animal advocacy expertise; get 10{ae720e0b436026f867bfa0c31185c2252a138f27e85f5f152ec5acc1c10a8cc9} off a course with code HSA10 through 12-31-2016!
Is Meatless Monday a threat to national security? Apparently so, according to some members of Congress who represent big meat-producing states.
Maine’s governor wasn’t too pleased by HSUS’s latest undercover investigation of his state’s biggest egg producer. Perhaps the most diplomatic thing I could say about his response is that he’s quite confused.
Finally, just how smart are fishes? The prestigious New York Review of Books this week reviews my coworker Jonathan Balcombe’s new book on fish sentience, along with two others on animal intelligence.
Paul Shapiro Vice President, Farm Animal Protection The Humane Society of the United States Follow at twitter.com/pshapiro
P.S. Video of the week: May Christina Grimmie, gunned down this past week, rest in peace—what a voice she was for animals, in so many ways.
Beyond Sushi, an all-vegan sushi restaurant we love in NYC, invited us to try the new menu they launched in two of their locations (Union Square and Chelsea Market, soon coming to the Midtown West location as well). It’s so yummy, I’ve postmated Beyond Sushi to my office for lunch at least 3 times since we went.
They’ve added a few new rolls, including my new very favorite! Pictured above right, the Sunny Side roll: black rice, braised fennel, sundried tomato and avocado, topped with butternut squash and almond pesto…!!!!! It’s so good and refreshing.
But they really have gone ~beyond sushi~ with this menu, adding several noodle dishes, soups, and dumplings. Above is the dish I’ve been hardcore ordering to the office, Wild Shroom noodle salad: glass noodles, braised shiitake, portabella, enoki mushrooms, cashews, topped with porcini powder and micro arugula, with spincy bean and shiitake truffle sauce. It’s BANGING. I even like the funny mini mushrooms on top!
The dumplings we got, pictured above, were very yummy! Sort of a soft texture inside, not like whole pieces of veggies. There are three different dumplings to choose from but I guess we were in a mushroom mood so we got the Fun-Guy: braised porcini, shiitake, portabella mushrooms, baked tofu, and spinach topped with micro arugula and chili toasted panko, with spicy bean and shiitake truffle sauce.
New items I didn’t try: the rice bed salads! That’s next on my list–I HEART the black rice they use (should be called purple rice though tbh cause it’s purple). It’s like a tad sweet and nutty and just so much better than bland white rice. They also added a curried cauliflower wrap to their rice paper wrap selection. That’s also next on my list! You KNOW cauliflower is my JAM. Oh and there are four noodle soups now and you get to pick your noodles–soba, ramen, green tea (!!!), or glass.
If you can’t make it to one of the Beyond Sushi locations to try the new menu, they do delivery in certain parts of Manhattan, you can order on their site. Otherwise there’s always Postmates!
As many know, Harambe, a silver back gorilla at the Cincinnati zoo was fatally shot over the weekend when a 4-year-old boy got into his enclosure. This comes a few days after the gorilla’s 17th birthday. The articles about it have been making the rounds; I’ve seen dozens of friends post about it in my feed alone, many of them non-vegan. We posted about it on our FB as well.
This is a terrible tragedy, but the public outcry is off the mark. There are plenty of people blaming the zoo, which is totally legitimate. There should be absolutely no way a child could get into a gorilla enclosure. That shouldn’t be possible. But what I’ve also seen a lot of is people blaming the child, and even more often the mother; “Fuck the parents for not watching their kid better. And you know what? Fuck the kid, too” a friend posted; “the mother should be charged with neglect,” a friend of a friend posted.
Can we stop blaming the child for getting into the enclosure? Kids do stupid stuff all the time. If every dangerous thing kids did actually resulted in death, we’d all be six feet under ( six feet under a pear tree, I want to be buried under a pear tree plz*). Kids’ brains are literally not finished forming, they can’t be blamed for doing dumb stuff.
But guess what, I’m not going to blame the parents either. First of all, kids are BANANAS. You cannot watch them EVERY second. Secondly, and more importantly, why would the mother possibly think taking her kid to a zoo was risking his life? Do you sign a waiver when you enter? Nope. We live in a society where zoos are billed as these amazing, enriching, kid-friendly places. In fact they are like THE kid-friendly place. We aren’t taught that these are dangerous places. Why wouldn’t the mother let her kid move over a feet to get a better look? I mean, this is the ZOO. This place is FOR kids.
And while I think the Cincinnati Zoo should have had an enclosure that a 4-year-old could not masterfully penetrate in his mysterious 4-year-old ways, it’s really not the fault of this single zoo. If the world needs someone to blame for Harambe’s death, blame the industry that put his life and this child’s life in danger. Blame an industry built on capitalism masquerading as enrichment and preservation.
We’re told zoos are these educational places but in reality, they are anything but. They aren’t about education, they’re about spectacle. I know there are some zoos that have programs to preserve species, but be honest, that’s not the purpose of a zoo. Zoos are side-shows. Kids can go gawk at a caged gorilla then buy a stuffed animal gorilla on their way out. They aren’t taught that these are dangerous, wild animals. They don’t learn about natural animal behaviors or environments. They learn nothing.
Actually that’s not true, they do learn one thing: animals are here for our entertainment. That’s a tragedy in and of itself.
I’m sad Harambe was killed, but I’m also sad for the way he lived, as a prisoner on display. As I’ve said before: fuck zoos.
