our sadistically made food...

caged eggs...

Chickens raised for slaughter are bred to grow three times faster than normal. Many die from heart attacks. Some starve to death because their infant legs can’t carry their adult bodies to feed. Sows spend much of their lives pregnant, giving birth in tight steel cages with concrete floors.

Of the animals we eat, which have the worst lives? It’s hard to tell; we’re not them. But what we do know is that cattle and sheep – red-meat contributors to human diets – in the main graze freely in open paddocks, sun on their backs.

And here’s another certainty – we are increasingly shunning their meat. A consequence of this is more suffering to more animals. What type of suffering and how animals experience it is open to endless debate. Consumption patterns aren’t.

A study published last year by researchers at Griffith Business School, Griffith University, showed that by 2011 mutton consumption had been “almost wiped out”. Chicken and pork had trebled and doubled their market shares over the past 50 years at the expense of beef, lamb and mutton, whose prices had risen quicker than white-meat counterparts. Australians these days consume about 111 kilograms of meat a year, including 33kg of beef, 9kg of lamb, 25kg of pork and 43kg of chicken. This is nearly three times the international average.

While lamb and beef have become luxury foods, chicken and pork are cheap and plentiful. When we eat bigger beasts, fewer animals get hurt. But what happens when chicken and pork dominate our diets?

Animals Australia’s communications director Lisa Chalk says that due to the scale of the industry, “the situation for chickens raised for meat is among the most dire”. Of the more than 500 million chickens raised annually in Australia for food, she says, the industry itself factors in a 4 per cent loss before slaughter. “That’s over 20 million birds a year who die because of their fast growth rate and living conditions,” Ms Chalk says.

Going "organic" eating gives a better chance of getting more humanely grown and slaughtered food. It could be more expensive, though the portion size of "organic" food don't need to be as big as non-organic factory food. The taste of "organic" chicken is far superior to that of intensive chook farms and far more satisfying in smaller quantity.

The industry of consumerism want us to consume more quantity rather than for us to be more aware of quality. This is why the industry of consumerism is pushing things like GM crops, supersized cool drinks and other one-knows-what vat-grown proteins substances that can feed us but the present result from these, in obesity, diseases and other ailments are slowly killing us.

By Gus Leonisky at 31 May 2014 - 9:58pm
Gus Leonisky's blog
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unnecessary cruelty for food...

http://www.rollingstone.com/feature/belly-beast-meat-factory-farms-animal-activists

By Gus Leonisky at 31 May 2014 - 10:05pm
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not surprised .....

Yes Gus, but hardly a surprise really?

When we consider what we are prepared to inflict on our own species in the name of freedom, particularly of the economic, religious & political type, nothing should surprise us.

The human species is indeed the most awful blight on life.

Cheers,

John.

By John Richardson at 1 Jun 2014 - 10:48am
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animal rights before no-land-tax...

The Animal Justice Party has secured the final spot in the NSW upper house, potentially thrusting issues such as puppy farms, battery egg farming and the high rate of animal euthanasia onto the political agenda.

While the government will only need the support of Fred Nile's Christian Democratic Party to pass most legislation through Parliament, it may be forced to negotiate with new Animal Justice MP Mark Pearson on issues the CDP does not support.

Mr Pearson, currently the executive director of Animal Liberation Australia, said he was thrilled by the result. He starts his new job on Monday.

"It's time to go shopping for suits. In the animal rights movement you don't often wear a suit when you're doing investigations and rallying for animals," he told Fairfax Media.

Mr Pearson, 55, lives in Newcastle and formerly worked in mental health. His parents instilled in him the need to "consider animals and consider those who can't advocate for themselves, who don't have a voice we understand".

He will lobby MPs to reject a proposed crackdown on animal rights activists who trespass on farms to gather video evidence of animal cruelty.

Good on you, Mr Mark Pearson... One has to consider that the No-Land-Tax party was somewhat sponsored by Liberal Donors...

Meanwhile the Shooters and Fishers Party has vowed to stop the sell-off of the poles and wires...

By Gus Leonisky at 17 Apr 2015 - 7:58pm
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industrial chicken soup...

from George Monbiot

It’s the insouciance that baffles me. To participate in the killing of an animal: this is a significant decision. It spreads like a fungal mycelium into the heartwood of our lives. Yet many people eat meat sometimes two or three times a day, casually and hurriedly, often without even marking the fact.

I don’t mean to blame. Billions are spent, through advertising and marketing, to distract and mollify, to trivialise the weighty decisions we make, to ensure that we don’t connect. Even as we search for meaning and purpose, we want to be told that our actions are inconsequential. We seek reassurance that we are significant, but that what we do is not.

It’s not blind spots we suffer from. We have vision spots, tiny illuminated patches of perception, around which everything else is blanked out. How often have I seen environmentalists gather to bemoan the state of the world, then repair to a restaurant in which they gorge on beef or salmon? The Guardian and Observer urge us to go green, then publish recipes for fish whose capture rips apart the life of the sea.

The television chefs who bravely sought to break this spell might have been talking to the furniture. Giant chicken factories are springing up throughout the west of England, the Welsh marches and the lowlands of the east. I say factories for this is what they are: you would picture something quite different if I said farm; they are hellish places. You might retch if you entered one – yet you eat what they produce without thinking.

Meanwhile at the beefstock soup:

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey says the Government will not overreact to claims Australian cattle have been slaughtered with sledgehammers in Vietnam.

Australia's live export trade is caught in a fresh controversy, with Animals Australia saying it has "shocking and distressing" footage showing animals having their skulls repeatedly smashed at an abattoir in Vietnam's north.

The animal rights group is yet to release the vision but lodged a complaint with the Agriculture Department earlier this month.

Speaking in Darwin this morning, Mr Hockey said the live trade export industry would not be completely shut down due to animal cruelty complaints in one region.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-19/australian-cattle-killed-with-sledgehammers-in-vietnam/6482106

Read from top

By Gus Leonisky at 20 May 2015 - 9:26am
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chicken run...

A chicken truck has rolled on Adelaide's South Eastern Freeway and all three lanes of the down track are blocked.

Key points:

A semi-trailer carrying chickens rolled over on Adelaide's South Eastern Freeway
All three citybound lanes of the road are closed at Crafers
Trucks and buses are unable to get through to Adelaide

Police said the B-double semi-trailer, which had been carting live chickens, jackknifed past the Crafers turn-off and the road had been blocked since about 3:30am.

All cars from the Adelaide Hills to the city are being diverted down Upper Sturt Road or via Greenhill Road.

Large trucks are not able to use these narrow roads.

Up to 100 trucks are waiting to get through once the road reopens, while others have diverted farther east.

Buses are also facing delays.

"The only thing we can do is wait for people's patience as this is dealt with as soon as possible," Transport Minister Stephan Knoll said.

Senior Constable Mick Abbott said police were trying to clear the road before peak hour.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-02/chicken-truck-crash-blocks-adelai...

Read from top. See also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQf0jUhqJYw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZpSfV3eyAo

By Gus Leonisky at 2 Mar 2020 - 7:52am
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