We would like to dedicate this page to all the animals that were once loved and then forgotten and to all the animals that were never meant to be a beloved companion and family member. Since animals can't speak for themselves we would like to be their voice and educate people about the things that have been going on and many just don't know about. We used to eat meat for many years but once we found out about how the majority of animals that are meant for human consumption have to suffer we decided to become vegetarians out of love and respect for all animals and to help stop the environmental devastation that goes hand in hand with meat consumption.
Albert Einstein had already realized and wisely quoted:
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet".
By eating meat we are not only guilty of allowing animals to be tortured but also of destroying this planet and the sad thing is that many don't even know this. Every year in the U.S., more than 27 billion animals are slaughtered for food. That's about half of the whole world's yearly slaugthered animals (aquatic animals not included). That bogles the mind doesn't it??? By the way, as of 30 January 2010, the United States has 4.54% of the world's population. ...
Raising animals on factory farms is cruel and ecologically devastating. ...Eating animals is bad for our health, leading directly to many diseases and illnesses, including heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
America's meat addiction is poisoning and depleting our potable water, arable land, and clean air. More than half of the water used in the United States today goes to animal agriculture, and since farmed animals produce 130 times more excrement than the human population, the run-off from their waste is fouling our waterways. Animal excrement emits gases, such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, that poison the air around farms, as well as methane and nitrous oxide, which are major contributors to global warming. Forests are being bulldozed to make more room for factory farms and feed crops to feed farmed animals, and this destruction causes soil erosion and contributes to species extinction and habitat loss. Raising animals for food also requires massive amounts of food and raw materials: Farmed animals consume 70 percent of the corn, wheat, and other grains that we grow, and one-third of all the raw materials and fossil fuels used in the U.S. go to raising animals for food. In short, our country's meat addiction is wrecking the earth. Read more about factory farming and the environment.
Environmental organizations aren't the only ones making the connection. PETA has worked with many celebrities, such as Sir Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde, to help raise awareness about the undeniable link between eating meat and environmental devastation. To read Sir Paul McCartney's interview about the environmental crisis, visit PETA's blog The PETA Files.
http://www.goveg.com/vegetarian101.asp
Cree Indian Prophecy
"Only after the last tree has been cut,
the last fish been caught
the last river has been poisoned
only then you will find that Money cannot be eaten!"
One argument I often hear when people say why they eat meat is that we humans have been doing it for thousands of years. For once, just because something has been done for generations doesn't mean that it has been the right thing to do. People used to think that the world is flat, that burning "witches" would be Ok, that slavery was OK......
Overmore there are over 6 billions of people living today on this planet. We need to change now or the generations that come after us will pay the price; think of your children and grandchildren. Humans don't need to eat meat, on the contrary. These days there are so many good things for vegetarians out there (by the way we don't like Tofu either ;-))). Trust me, you won't miss it. My husband used to love to eat meat, but I remember when he told me that he dosen't miss eating meat anymore.
Horses in the US
It is estimated by market researchers that there are over 9.2 million horses in the US as of the 2008 count. The last horse slaughter plant was closed in 2007. That doesn't mean that conditions for horses have improved. It was necessary that the last slaughterhouse was closed because of catastrophic conditions.
Loaded at auctions all over the country, every year about 100.000 horses are transported thousands of miles without food, water or a chance to rest to slaughterplants in Mexico and Canada. Many of them are still transported on inhumane double deck trailers, designed for short neck species, where they are forced to hold their head low during the entire journey.
By the time the animals cross the border, several of them are already down and trampled by the others.
Their meat is then exported to Japan and Europe (mainly Italy). New Laws need to prohibit the export of horses for slaughter to Mexico or Canada. You can learn more by watching the link below:
Prevent Equine Cruelty - End the Slaughter of American Horses
This is how horses have to endure their many hour transports to Canada and Mexico as well as in Europe. Footage taken by an Animal Angels Unit.
The transport of Ohio Horses to Mexico for Slaughter
Dogs and Cats in the US
If an unspayed female cat, an unneutered male cat, and all of their subsequent unfixed offspring produced 2 litters per year at maturity, and 2.8 kittens from each litter survived and reproduced, this would amount to 11,606,077 cats in 9 years.
Approximately 8 million dogs and cats are euthanized every year in the US.
This story was printed once in a belgian newspaper with the plea to copy and spraed it so that letters like this one will one day hopefully will become a thing of the past.
Letter to my Owner,
One Morning you got up early and packed your suitcase. You took my leash and I was so happy! One more walk before the vacation. Hurray!! We drove with the car and you parked it by the side of the road. The door opened and you threw a stick. I ran until I found the stick and had it between my teeth to bring it back to you. When I came back you were gone! Frantically I walked in every direction to find you but I didn't.
I walked day after day and got weaker. I was very scared und very hungry. A stranger came and put a collar around my neck. Soon I found myself in a cage und waited for you to come back.
But you never came!!
Then the cage was opened.....
No! It wasn't you. It was the man who found me. He brought me into a room where it smelled of death.
My hour had come....
Beloved Owner, I want you to know that despite of the suffering you caused me I've always remembered your picture and if I will ever come back to this earth I will walk towards you.....
..... because I loved you!!!
Your faithful dog!
Horses in Europe
About 84% of slaughter horses that are transported under inhumane conditions throughout Europe end up for human consumption in Italy. Italy holds the sad record of 170.000 horses that are being killed for their consumption every year. Italy's population is only 60 million people (300 million people in the U.S.)
The main providers of slaughterhorses for Italy is Spain, Poland, Romany, Belgium and Russia. A few thousand each year come from Germany, Switzerland and Austria etc. I am part italian as well and have always loved Italy for their people, the culture, art, fashion etc. but finding out about this sad truth had me change my mind.
As if this wasn't sad enough thousands of foals are being raised just for slaughter as well and mainly end up in Italy.
The majority of the breeders come from Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium and Bavaria.
The following documentary (just a few minutes long) is called "Foal Report"(Fohlenreport) and aired via a German television station a few years ago. It is in German, but please watch it until the end. It will show foals at the auction, then you will see exhausted babies laying on the floor and finally their transport to the slaughterhouse where absolutely healthy older horses and foals are waiting in line to be killed. Time is money so none is wasted, each horse has exactly one minute to die. Two foals in one kill chute and nobody makes sure that they are really dead. At the end of this documentary you will see activists demonstrating at one of these auctions.
Fortunately, the majority of Germans don’t like to eat horse meat but a few hundred foals end up there at local butchershops. But it is not all hopeless, among others there is a lady in Germany in the small town of Gemmerich, her name is Elke Rhainbay (bless her heart), she raises Gypsy Horses as well and is the owner of Magic Tinker Ranch. She rescues slaughter foals directly from the stables of butchershops (thankfully some butchers allow that) keeps them at her ranch for as long as it takes until she's found them loving homes. She finances everything out of her own pocket. In 2009 alone she saved the life of 7 foals and several older horses that were meant for slaughter.
Every Life is Valuable, those healthy and beautiful horse babies have their whole lives ahead of them and by doing what this german lady, a few other organizations and some animal lovers do more people find out about what’s been going on. There are many activists who visit these auctions every year to demonstrate and rescue foals from. Of course, those breeders don’t like that kind of attention and hopefully with some more pressure this tragedy will end.
Spain
Spain is in my eyes one of the most beautiful countries in this world. My grandfather used to have a vacation home over there and I loved spending my holidays there as a child.
Unfortunately the animals there don't often enjoy the respect and kindness that they deserve. Due to the current economy it has gotten worse tenfold. Horses are abandoned by their former owners out in the fields or tied up somewhere in the hundreds each month and are left to starve and die of thirst. The organization of CYD Santa Maria (which happens to be one of just a handful of horse rescue centres in Spain) was established by a lady named Concordia Marquez and her husband (he is a lawyer) about 6 years ago and is located in Andalucia (Southern Spain). Please join us and donate to this organization so that they can rescue as many horses that would otherwise die a horrible death. Learn more about them by clicking below link:
The majority of the horses have no future in Spain but I found out that Germany is participating and an adoption project is in the works so that rescued horses from Spain can be transported to Germany and be brought together with new owners there for a better life.
France
Info coming soon
Together, we can make the world a better place, one saved life at a time. God said:"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds ..."
but I am certain he didn’t mean for us to destroy this planet and torture our animals.
We would like you to also inform yourself about the work of "Animal Angels" an organization which was founded by the german theologist Christa Blanke in Germany in 1998 for the prevention of cruelty towards slaughter animals all over the world. It now has branches in the US, Australia and the UK. Their Motto: "We are there with the Animals" Among many other things they follow transporters with slaughteranimals and report cruelty and acts against the law to the local authorities. It sometimes seems like a fight against windmills when you think about the 50 billions of animals (not included the aquatic animals) that are being slaughtered worldwide every year. But for the ones they can help during their nightmarish transport it makes a difference. They may not win the war but have won a few battles and by doing so draw attention to the cruelty that's been going on.
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Slaughter Animals
Paul Mc Cartney: "If Slaugherhouses had glass walls everyone would be Vegetarian"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SioDUyPe1cA
"We are responisible for the things we do but also that we don't do" ~Voltaire
Animals on factory farms are treated like meat, milk, and egg machines. Chickens have their sensitive beaks seared off with a hot blade, and male cattle and pigs are castrated without any painkillers. All farmed chickens, turkeys, and pigs spend their brief lives in dark and crowded warehouses, many of them so cramped that they can't even turn around or spread a single wing. They are mired in their own waste, and the stench of ammonia fills the air. Animals raised for food are bred and drugged to grow as large as possible as quickly as possible—many are so heavy that they become crippled under their own weight and die within inches of their water supply.
Animals on factory farms do not see the sun or get a breath of fresh air until they are prodded and crammed onto trucks for a nightmarish ride to the slaughterhouse, often through weather extremes and always without food or water. Many die during transport, and others are too sick or weak to walk off the truck after they reach the slaughterhouse. The animals who survive this hellish ordeal are hung upside-down and their throats are slit, often while they're completely conscious. Many are still alive while they are skinned, hacked into pieces, or scalded in the defeathering tanks. Learn more about the factory-farming industry. By switching to a vegetarian diet, you can save more than 100 animals a year from this misery.
Each and everyone of us is responsible, we need to change the way we think of animals that have a right to live a good life and be treated with respect and the ones that apparently aren't worthy enough to be treated with kindness and dignity. Those are the animals who were born solely for the intention of slaughter for human consumption.
But every animal feels pain, hunger, thirst, love, fear, they sweat, they bleed the same, they grow and learn like we humans do, are they really sooooo very different from us???
How could they do this??
The time will come when humans will ask themselves how could they do this??? How could they bring on so much suffering to other feeling creatures? And they will say: "That was insane" Why didn't anyone do something about this? Why did they believe all those lies? How could they let it happen that trillions of animals were slaugthered, tortured, put in gas chambers etc. and robbed of all their dignity?? What were they thinking??
Those questions will one day be asked by the ones who will come after us. Will they be able to give an answer to that? Can we do it today?