We Can (and Should) Care About Both People and Animals

Posted on October 11, 2012 by zoeweil
Image courtesy of AlicePopkorn via Creative Commons.

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent essay I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from “We Can (and Should) Care About Both People and Animals”:

“In a recent interview in The Sun magazine, Joel Salatin, who is the owner of Polyface Farm and was featured in the film Food, Inc., and in Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, makes a number of comments about animals that bear deconstruction, primarily because they’ve become a straw man that undermines the goal of doing the most good and least harm to all people, animals and the environment.

Salatin is a farmer who raises animals for food. When asked whether animals should give up their lives simply for our pleasure, he replies: ‘Why think animals are more special than carrots?’ He goes on to say that he hopes that anyone who cares for animals ‘would not spend more on his or her dog or cat than on making sure hungry children in Africa got fed,’ stating that Americans spend more on vet care than Africans spend on health care. He actually calls this a litmus test of our priorities.

Why this need to disparage caring for pets? After all, there are many other things we spend money on.”

Read the complete essay.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

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Reflections on Sheep, Farm Sanctuary, and a Vegan Diet

Posted on August 12, 2011 by zoeweil

I spoke at the Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down in Watkin’s Glen last weekend. It was such a pleasure learning from other speakers and sharing humane education with such an interested group of people. There were about 300 attendees, mostly vegan, with the rest comprised of mostly vegetarians or near vegetarians. If you’d asked people to notice anything different about this group of 300 (versus a random group of 300 Americans), most would probably comment on this: There were hardly any overweight people. It was the slimmest, fittest, healthiest looking group of people you’re likely to come across in the U.S. (There were also tons of tattoos, but that’s another story.)

For about two hours each day, attendees were invited to visit the animals at the Sanctuary, each one with a gripping story of rescue and rehabilitation. I spent the most time in the sheep barn. When I was a teenager in New York City, there was a sheep at the children’s zoo in Central Park, whom I visited weekly. I considered this sheep a friend, and I named him Wooly Baba. Whenever I arrived and called his name, he came running over to me, placing his hooves on the fence to lean over and get petted. He ignored pretty much everyone else. I loved him, and I believed he loved me. I also loved lamb chops. In fact, lamb chops were my favorite food. A few times a year my mom cooked them, and I was in heaven.

And then one day I realized who I was eating. I didn’t stop eating lamb chops then. I rationalized eating sheep (and cows, turkeys, chickens, fishes, pigs, and so on) by saying that they were already dead. I didn’t understand economics at that point, or the concept of supply and demand, and my mother, eager not to disabuse me of my naiveté did not say a word. She simply agreed when I said out loud that I thought maybe I should be a vegetarian, but I really liked meat and the animals were already dead.

It took another two years before I understood that my choices were causing harm and suffering to beings I purported to love. I was, in essence, simply paying other people to do something I would never do myself. I could no more kill Wooly Baba than my dog, Timmy. Eventually I stopped eating mammals and birds, and later sea animals, and then dairy and eggs, becoming vegan.

And so when I was in the sheep barn, I had a clear conscience petting those sheep, each with his or her distinct personality: some pawing for more pets; others honing in on the petting scene and pushing the others away from my busy hands; still others nuzzling; a few too shy to come near. Like us, they had their likes and dislikes. Some were pushy; others gentle; others a wee bit belligerent; others skittish. They sought out pleasure and avoided pain.

It was a lovely weekend at Farm Sanctuary amidst great people and beautiful, grateful, happy animals. A vegan’s paradise, really.

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Image courtesy of Farm Sanctuary via Creative Commons.

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My Amazing Weekend at the Catskill Animal Sanctuary

Posted on June 27, 2011 by zoeweil

My traveling schedule can sometimes get a little overwhelming. For example, in the past two months I’ve been to San Francisco, Florida, the Bahamas, Seattle, Massachusetts (twice), and New York. Periodically, even seemingly awesome invitations – like speaking at the Sivananda Ashram’s Peace Symposium in the Bahamas – can feel like one more thing on the never-ending to do list. And my most recent invitation, to be the keynote speaker at the Catskill Animal Sanctuary’s (CAS) annual Shindig, was one of those where in the days leading up to the 16-hour round trip drive I wondered if it was all worth the effort, especially with our upcoming Summer Institute (July 27-July 1), first ever alumni reunion, and our 15th Anniversary “Crystal Ball” on July 2.

On the drive home from CAS that night, I called our executive director for the second time in a month to say, “Please remind me when I start complaining about my travel schedule to shut up.” I said this because what I thought was going to be a tiring effort on my part turned out to be (like the visit to the ashram in the Bahamas), so profoundly transformative and such a tremendous gift to me personally.

Let me tell you about the Catskill Animal Sanctuary.

Run by the irrepressible, giant-hearted, super smart, hilariously funny, deeply generous Kathy Stevens, who has all the best qualities of the people I most admire all rolled up in one person, this sanctuary oozes joy and love. The people exude it, and the animals bask in it and give it right back. It’s a place where people’s hearts and minds are opened wide. I met Rambo, a very, very special sheep whom I can’t seem to get out of my mind. You can read about his amazing transformation from killer sheep to fierce protector of his fellow rescuees – from turkey to chicken to pig – in Kathy’s wonderful books. Visit this sanctuary if you can.

The take home message I’m leaving with? Keep saying yes. Despite the busy schedule, which often feels like just too much, when I say yes, great things happen. I’m so glad I said yes to the invitation to speak at the Shindig. I left soaring, full of love, with new friends, and much hope and inspiration.

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Images courtesy of Catskill Animal Sanctuary.

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Building Empathy and Critical Thinking: A Lesson About Animals

Posted on July 21, 2010 by zoeweil

At our Summer Institute for teachers at the Institute for Humane Education, participant Betsy Messenger, who is the humane educator at the Catskill Animal Sanctuary in New York, created a lesson on animal issues that was so effective and powerful, I wanted to share it with you. She gathered our group outside and “borrowed” my dogs, whose only task was to run outside and do whatever they wanted to do. Our job was to simply observe them and record on paper the kinds of activities and emotions they were demonstrating in one column, and in another column write down whether we had ever experienced similar emotions. While the dogs demonstrated some acts that people don’t normally do, like tearing grass with their mouths, the emotions they displayed – curiosity, playfulness, attention-seeking, joy, abandon, and so on – were ones familiar to every person.

After observing the dogs, Betsy had us get into groups of four and stand shoulder-to-shoulder, facing one another. Then she drew a circle with chalk just outside of our feet. As we stood awkwardly in our groups, enduring the close contact that is not the norm for our species unless we are intimately connected with a person, Betsy asked us to imagine how we would feel if we were to have certain things done to us — portions of our bodies mutilated, for example — and had us consider how long some might be required to remain like this (a year). After a few minutes she gave us the reprieve to move out of our circles, and she shared with us the reality for chickens and turkeys raised for food and eggs in modern agricultural facilities: intense confinement, debeaking and toe removal, ill health, and so on. Finally, she shared the story of one turkey who was rescued from such a factory farm and showed us photographs of this particular turkey, a positive note on which to end the 20-minute activity.

What I loved about Betsy’s activity was the sequencing of observing another species and relating their behaviors to our own, the kinesthetic experience of pretending to be poultry in confinement, the information about modern confinement agriculture, and the happy ending for at least one turkey. We went on quite a journey in 20 minutes, and Betsy managed to include several elements of humane education in such a short time, including: providing us with accurate information; fostering our curiosity and critical thinking; instilling our reverence, respect, and sense of responsibility; and raising our awareness of choices we can make. So powerful. It reminds me of how much learning can happen in such a brief time when someone carefully crafts a varied and meaningful activity.

(Betsy will be writing this activity up to include in the free downloadable activities in the resources section at our website.)

Zoe Weil
Author of The Power and Promise of Humane Education

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A Response to the Mercy for Animals Undercover Investigation of Brutality on an Ohio Dairy Farm

Posted on May 26, 2010 by zoeweil

Earlier today, I put a link on my Facebook page to the undercover video, posted by Mercy for Animals, of brutality on a dairy farm in Ohio. My post elicited many comments and questions, and it felt important to immediately address them, which I’m doing here so that everyone can read these thoughts. You can view the undercover footage here, if you can’t view the video below:  (PLEASE DO NOT LET CHILDREN SEE THIS FILM.)

Some have wondered how common such cruelty is. While it may not be ubiquitous for individuals to violently brutalize dairy cows and calves to the degree shown in this video, sadly, the dairy industry has institutionalized cruelty embedded into its very structure.

Dairy cows are annually impregnated so that they will bear a calf and thereby produce milk. Like us, if they don’t have a baby, they don’t produce milk. It is normal practice on dairy farms to take the calf away from her mother at one day old. You can only imagine how the cows feel when their young are, essentially, kidnapped from them. Cows will bellow out for days. Normally, a cow will produce about 7 lbs. of milk to feed her young, but on our dairies we have forced them to produce 40-90 pounds of milk per day. For all you mothers out there, just imagine that instead of nursing a single baby, you were forced to produce enough milk to feel ten times that amount. This is why half of the dairy cows in the U.S. end up getting mastitis, a painful udder infection that necessitates antibiotics.

Meanwhile, the male calves – useless to the dairy industry – are routinely raised for veal. If they are not killed immediately, it is normal practice in the specialty-veal industry to chain the calves at the neck in stalls barely bigger than their bodies. They are unable to take more than a single step forward or backward, and they are fed an iron-deficient diet to keep their flesh pale. The reason they are kept under these horrendous conditions is to prevent them from moving and thereby building muscle, thus keeping their flesh tender, which is prized by those who eat veal. I have visited a typical specialty-fed veal farm and have witnessed these conditions for myself. I know many people who won’t eat veal because of the cruelty inherent in the industry, but who don’t realize that veal and dairy are inextricably linked.

Last year, I was talking with some Stonyfield Farms farmers. Because they have such a good reputation as an organic dairy producer, I wanted to know how they treated their cows and calves. I asked whether they had animal welfare guidelines they had to follow to be a Stonyfield producer and whether the calves were taken away from their mothers shortly after birth. Indeed they were, and they told me that there were no specific guidelines for the treatment of the animals. The only guidelines they told me they had to follow revolved around their milk being produced organically. In other words, organic dairy does not mean cruelty-free dairy.

For those of you who want to consume dairy products, I encourage you to visit the dairies to whom you’re giving your business and ask questions.

Mercy for Animals has done tremendous undercover investigations and time and again these investigations reveal rampant cruelty on our farms.

Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm

Thanks so much for taking the time to learn about this and pursue further information.

Filed under: animal protection, compassion, critical thinking, food and diet, speciesism, systemic change, videos | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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