Disease or delicacy

Ducks and geese.. who should be out on the lake, swimming and flying, enjoying the wind and the sun.. they are kept in cages indoors, not allowed to fly or breath fresh air. They are raised for 3 months and then killed for their livers. They are force fed by metal pipes that scrape up the inside of their throats, the huge amount of food they are force fed causes them to get liver disease,.. which makes their livers grow 10 times the regular size. It causes them extreme pain, difficulties breathing, and stress, so that they will tear their own feathers out and cause open wounds. Many of the birds are unable to move under the extreme weight of their livers. The disease causes many of them to die before they even reach 3 months of age when they will be slaughtered. Many of them, by the time of slaughtering are barely alive. All so that people can eat these diseased, fatty livers.. "foie gras".. considered a delicacy. I just don't understand it. The California, Israel, Switzerland, and the UK have banned the sale of foi gras. I sure wish Canada would follow suit.


One of the ladies from an organization I volunteer for in the city is currently down in Virginia working for PETA. She sent me this video which I found completely and utterly shocking.. (PETA wasn't the people behind this undercover investigation, but are supporting bringing awareness to it nonetheless, for animal welfare purposes.) I know that animals in factory farms suffer but this degree of cruelty is one of the worst I have yet heard of. At first I didn't even know what foie gras is (fatty duck/goose liver) .. and I had no idea there was a market for it! If you go to Amazon.com and type in foie gras, a lot of results will come up. Apparently the demand is also increasing. I called the agriculture inspector for Elevages Perigord.. the company in Quebec that is guilty of this cruelty, but no one answered so I left a message expressing my utter disgust at their treatment of the animals and asked for a call back with my name and number. So we'll see what happens. I also called the head office of Sobey's and left a polite message that I will no longer be shopping at their store until they stop selling foie gras because it promotes cruelty! I'm also planning on calling Amazon.com's corporate number on Monday to tell them I will not be purchasing anything online from them until they no longer offer foie gras. They sell the products from Elevages Perigord. Personally i find it disgusting that anyone would want to eat DISEASED duck livers in the first place! Anyways no more words.. I think this video will speak louder than ANY amount of words could:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IWN8UGDyC0

Horse Slaughter plant opens in Saskatchewan

Just last Wednesday in my Animal Science lab, the proff stated that Canada is lagging behind many other countries in issues of animal welfare. There are several methods we use here in Canada in animal production that have been banned in other countries because they are inhumane. One does not have to look very far to find really how horribly we treat animals. One of these days I'm going to do a blog on just how these beings suffer so that we can eat them or wear their skin or their fur. It will NOT be happy reading.
However the issue at hand today is this: I have recently found out that our province has opened up a HORSE SLAUGHTERING plant, just outside of Regina. .. for the export of HORSE MEAT.
"A southern Saskatchewan meat processor is bringing its workforce back up to 100 per cent by processing horse meat for sale in the European Union (EU)." (see end of blog for resources)
They are justifying this act of complete cruelty and inhumanity by that fact that it opens up a lot of new jobs. I sure don't want to kill horses for a living.
Now I know some of you may not feel the same way as I do in regards to animal welfare when it comes to chickens, fish, etc.. because some people question how much those animals actually understand or actually suffer because they don't SEEM to be so smart. But I think we can ALL agree that horses are beautiful, amazing, and super intelligent animals. And so I ask you again..
would YOU like to have a job that requires you to murder these awesome creatures in vast numbers every day? I don't think I could look at myself in the mirror knowing that blood is on my hands.
"Currently, horse slaughtering is a controversial issue in the United States, where the country's last horse slaughterhouse, located in Illinois, is challenging a state law that bans the practice. Two Texas-based plants were closed in May due to similar state legislation being enforced."
...
Remember: horses are not raised for slaughter. They are usually bought at auctions, or stolen or brought in by their owners who once loved them and no longer want them. Often people are ignorant to the mass amount of mistreatment their horse is about to suffer in it's last moments alive. At the plant they are mistreated, terrified at the pungent smell of blood and death all around them, electrocuted, hit, or speared into the "kill box", and they are beaten down. They are hoisted up by one leg where they hang there in a line awaiting their throats to be slashed while they are still alive.
(Quote from a horse plant worker,"You move so fast you dont have time to wait till a horse bleeds out, you skin him as he bleeds. Sometimes a horses nose is down in the blood, blowing bubbles, and he suffocates.")

We need to do something. Make calls, send letters.. make people more aware of what is going on.. and we need to speak up . We can't just sit and let this go on..

"It is not alone what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable."
~Moliere (1622-1673)

Please go to www.horsekillers.com to watch real video footage of what really goes on at a horse slaughtering plant.

Resources:
http://www.defendhorsescanada.org/
http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/business/story.html?id=90cd6e3e-f68e-4852-852e-786f27912976