Gamecocks carrying Newcastle disease to domestic flocks killed millions in 1971 and 2003 LOS ANGELES––The billion-dollar-a-year California poultry industry is betting the farm that state and federal authorities can get a two-year series of outbreaks of Newcastle disease under control before it becomes the biggest threat to profits in decades. An outbreak discovered in […]
Live animal markets in New York City: a cut-throat business at best
Customs change with waves of immigration NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.––Escaping the Iranian Revolution with her parents at age 6, artist Sara Rahbar as an adult has produced an internationally recognized portfolio on themes often involving human and animal suffering. Yet Rahbar found herself wholly unprepared for the misery she met close to hand on […]
Hampton Creek founder Tetrick pledges his “clean meat” will be vegan
Cloned product will not be grown in serum culture, Tetrick says SAN FRANCISCO––Hampton Creek Foods founder Josh Tetrick, amid a mysterious destocking of all 20 Hampton Creek products by Target Corporation, the largest Hampton Creek customer, took a meme of unknown origin attacking cell-cultured meat seriously enough to call at 5:02 p.m. on Friday, […]
Farmed animals & money talks
U.K. farmed animal welfare laws older & weaker than many voters believe Part III of a five-part series. See also Will U.K. leaving E.U. mean leaving animal welfare behind?, Farmed animals & the Brexit “diet plan.”, What Brexit means for “pet passports” & lab animals and Back to the Jungle Book: U.K. wildlife law post-Brexit.) While residents of the […]
What Do Backyard Chickens and Factory Farm Chickens Have in Common?
by Karen Davis, PhD, President of United Poultry Concerns “Dear Animal Shelter, I see you have a rooster right now. I have a placement lined up for him and would like to pick him up Saturday.” Animal Shelter: “Thanks for inquiring about the rooster. It’s great to know there is a potential placement for him. […]
Horsewoman & horseman of the food Apocalypse
Project Animal Farm: An Accidental Journey into the Secret World of Farming & the Truth About Our Food by Sonia Faruqi Pegasus Books (80 Broad Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10004; www.pegasusbooks.com); 390 pages, hardcover. $27.95. Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat by Philip Lymbery, CEO, Compassion In World Farming, with Isabel Oakeshott, political editor, […]
Why did the Animal Legal Defense Fund go undercover?
Were Tyson poultry-slaughtering line speeds really the focal issue? COTATI, California––The “who, what, where, when” and “how” of an Animal Legal Defense Fund undercover video exposé of alleged animal and employee abuse at a Tyson Foods chicken slaughterhouse in Carthage, Texas were all identified in the September 14, 2015 ALDF media release announcing it. “Why,” […]
North Carolina “ag-gag” to take effect; legislature overturns veto
RALEIGH, N.C.––The North Carolina legislature on June 3, 2015 overturned governor Pat McCrory’s May 29, 2015 veto of an “ag-gag” bill, HB 405, passed by the state legislature 10 days earlier. Overturned by votes of 79-36 in the state house of representatives and 33-15 in the state senate, HB 405 will now take effect, making North […]
Living the Farm Sanctuary Life
by Gene Baur & Gene Stone Rodale Press & Raincoast Books (33 East Minor Street, Emmaus, PA 18098), 2015. 320 pages, hardcover. $29.99. Reviewed by Beth Clifton “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” ––VICTOR HUGO (French novelist) Living the Farm Sanctuary Life […]
H5N2 avian flu goes pandemic in U.S. & Canada
HARRIS, Iowa––Workers at Sunrise Farms near Harris in Osceola County, northeastern Iowa, on April 22, 2015 scrambled to kill 3.8 million laying hens to try to quell a fast-spreading pandemic of the highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza that started in British Columbia, Canada, in December 2014. The National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa confirmed […]