ELEPHANTS' PROGRESS: SLOW BUT SURE

While American cities drag their heels and cling to the archaic "tradition" of animal exploitation as entertainment, performing elephants are disappearing from more enlightened metropolitan climes:

"Even though there are probably more circuses in Britain than ever before, only eight still tour with animals and Bobby Roberts' Circus is the only one left that has an elephant." Whether that elelphant, 'Anne,' gets "pensioned off" as she deserves or not, it's stunning - and encouraging - that a tradition-steeped country such as England has only one remaining circus elephant. And:

"The state government has banned domesticated elephants from India's largest city, saying that forcing the beasts to walk the city's chaotic, crowded and polluted streets was an act of cruelty." The ban was issued after a campaign charging that elephants "are not properly fed, and suffer skin and foot ailments from being forced to walk on scorching hot, potholed city roads for long hours. When not working, the elephants were chained to posts and unable to move with most living under busy overpasses." A rough life, sure, but at least they didn't have to listen to that annoying calliope music every day.

INCONCEIVABLE! 'RECALLED' MEAT STILL ON SHELVES

In a stunning development that no one could have predicted, "Stores nationwide are continuing to sell recalled canned chili, stew, hash and other foods potentially contaminated with poisonous bacteria even after repeated warnings the products could kill." You may recall that those warnings were "repeated" because of the structure of the recall - first announced on Thursday night with 720,000 pounds involved, then expanded over the weekend to a size so massive it apparently cannot be computed and reported. Truly, a "Friday" recall in spirit if not in letter.

It's big, though: "The recall now covers two years’ production at the company’s Augusta, Ga., plant - a tally that spirals into the tens of millions of cans," the AP article notes, yet a huge portion of those dangerous cans are still being purchased and consumed because, oddly, consumers and retailers both seem to have missed the news. "The FDA alone has found them in roughly 250 of the more than 3,700 stores visited in nationwide checks, according to figures the agency provided to The Associated Press. In states like North Carolina, more than one in three stores checked by state officials in recent days were still offering recalled products for sale. Officials there pulled 5,500 cans and pledged to keep searching." And although "health experts consider botulism a severe health threat but worry that word of the recall has not reached all consumers or retailers, especially mom-and-pop operations. 'It has been a problem getting the message out. We’re having a problem reaching the smaller stores,' said Lynae Granzow, an epidemiologist with the Indiana Department of Health." Hey, let's check and see how many of those smaller stores are still selling tainted spinach and peanut butter!

RELATED, SORT OF: July 25 - Custom Pack, Inc. of Nebraska recalls 5,920 pounds of ground beef and buffalo products for possible E. coli contamination.

HELLO SUMMERFEST

To those of you not at Summerfest: Here I am at Summerfest.

To those of you at Summerfest: Here I am at Meat Facts.

SCORE ONE FOR MSN

I opened Internet Explorer to its default page on this computer (not mine), which is MSN.com, and was immediately greeted with their front-page story, "Is it Cheaper to be a Vegetarian? Meat may be murder ... on your wallet." Fearing the worst, I read through that and a sidebar, "Is a vegetarian diet really healthier?" and I have to say, taking into account the idiom, i.e. mainstream, lowest-common-denominator journalism, this is a pretty fair account. One hint is that when you click through that opening question to the article, the headline on the page is "Go vegetarian to save money," with the subhead, "Staples such as rice, corn and beans can make trips to a grocery store less expensive. But the biggest savings may come in health-care costs years later." And while the piece on the "healthier?" question retains its question mark in the headline, the article is pretty unequivocal.

The second paragraph starts out, "Evidence has been building for two decades that people who eat a mostly vegetarian diet have the upper hand. But ..." ah, yes. The "but" - what is the writer going to counterpose against the supposed evidence? The sentence continues, "even scientific studies may not be enough to convince meat eaters to give up their lust for flesh in exchange for a longer, more disease-free life." Wow. So there really was nothing to contradict the truth - only a separate issue of whether meat-eaters will care about the truth.

And with phrases like "we’re not talking a few percentage point differences, but 25 percent to 35 percent less risk," this piece does get the clear benefits across, well, clearly. And sometimes startlingly: "[W]hile the dairy industry would have you believe that milk is the best source of calcium, research suggests otherwise. 'When we think calcium, we tend to think dairy,' Andrews says. 'But when you take a step back, the main source for all minerals-including calcium—is soil from the ground.' So plants such as bok choy, broccoli, collards, and kale are a good source of calcium. In fact, calcium from these plants is absorbed by the body twice as readily as calcium from cow’s milk." Wow. What's next, an in-depth report on Vegetarian Summerfest?

EXTRA! COLUMNIST ATTEMPTS 'VEGAN' DIET

Although I am too weak-willed so far to go to the extremes of Caldwell Esselstyn's NO OIL plan, I do recognize its health potential. More to the point, I understnad that it's not synonymous with "veganism," a fact you'd think anyone writing yet another "I tried veganism" column would do enough research to nail down, but no:

Animal products: Forget them. Nuts, avocados, oil: Taboo. I gasped, but what about olive oil? Forbidden. In other words, he was asking me to become a vegan.

In other words, your take on Esselstyn's eating plan - or on veganism - is about as valuable as your conception of "vegan" is accurate.

WEEKEND RECALL NEWS

It's now much more than 350 tons of canned meat - it's so much they either aren't sure or aren't willing to say how huge a quantity - that's being recalled. The botulism recall was expanded on Saturday to include a much wider range of chili-type products produced at the same plant.

Speaking of Saturday recalls, it was only because I was looking for info on that one that I heard about this E.Coli recall on Saturday of 13 tons of ground beef. Hope everyone affected by this one was also checking that site, because otherwise they may be eating the E.Coli-smeared meat at this very moment.

WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION

Not enough room for this whole cartoon - you can click here or on the thumbnail to see it.

This is another "wha?" moment like the Jumble cartoon, especially considering one of the butts of jokes in this strip is a "vegan" who's consistently portrayed as knee-jerk, mindless, obsessive or hypocritical. More to the point, though, this one does succeed in making a point I've often put forward: The prime "educational" value of zoos is that it teaches kids that inflicting suffering and death on animals for our entertainment is normative.

ONE MORE TIME: WILD ANIMALS DON'T BELONG IN CITIES

I don't quite get why that should be such a controversial notion. They're wild animals. They come from ecosystems where their kind have adapted to live according to certain conditions, climates, foods, etc. Yet we think we can plop them in the middle of cities worldwide without adverse consequences to them or ourselves.

As regular readers may have noticed, I've stopped citing all the little incidents of animals escaping and/or hurting people at zoos, or of zoo negligence causing distress and/or death to zoo residents (except in particularly egregious cases), but it all goes on, of course. And it's all part of a pattern of paternalistic human arrogance - we're so smart, we know what's best for these animals, so it's fine for them to be housed here as our entertainment.

With the addition of severe weather as a by-product of human-induced climate change, the dissonance grows, even when media outlets help paper it over. Check this slide show from the BBC. Photos 6 and 7 have innocuous captions that allow us to enjoy the funny animals. What's not mentioned, and what is part of the original captions, is that in each of these cases extreme measures are being taken in attempts to keep these animals healthy while the weather where their zoo is located would otherwise be devastating to them. That bear with the fish? Here's the caption as filed:

"One of the polar bears at Budapest Zoo catches a fish in her mouth while diving in the pool, after keepers feed them only in the cold water to protect them from the current extreme heat in Budapest, Hungary Friday, July 20, 2007. During this week, central Europe was hit by an extreme heat wave, with temperatures rising over the 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) mark in many places of Hungary. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)"

and that cute meerkat? Why would it be standing in front of a heat lamp?

"A Meerkat keeps himself warm under a heat lamp in his enclosure at Sydney's Taronga Zoo Friday, July 20, 2007. During a week when Sydney experienced its coldest winter's day in 21 years with temperatures dropping to an arctic negative 0.6 degrees [celsius, I assume - just below 32F] the zoo provided infrared heat lamps for the active little desert dwellers to keep warm. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)"

So far these measures seem to be working - at least we haven't heard the animals complain. But they're symptoms of the big-picture problem.

THURSDAY RECALL: 350 TONS OF CANNED MEAT

This is an outlier, of course, and coincidentally has nothing to do with our War on E. Coli. But it's worth mentioning that 720,000 pounds of meat-based chili sauce are being recalled after four people were sickened - with botulism. That's a rarity, but so is a recall this big being issued on Thursday, so I guess it all evens out.

WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR CLIMATE CHANGE?

Here's yet another study quantifying the toll meat-eating takes on the environment, specifically in terms of greenhouse gases. We really need to round these up into a central database (especially one that will convert these crazy metric numbers) for easy access. But in the meantime...

"A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home," says a New Scientist article headlined 'Meat is murder on the environment.' This is from a study by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan, which found that "producing a kilogram of beef leads to the emission of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 36.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide." Or for the rest of us, producing one pound of beef generates about 18 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Interestingly, "the calculations, which are based on standard industrial methods of meat production in Japan, did not include the impact of managing farm infrastructure and transporting the meat, so the total environmental load is higher than the study suggests," the article informs us (my emphasis). Another clue that this is not standard 'journalistic' writing is that after the usual pointless "remedies" for the problem (in this case delivering yet more suffering on the mothers of calves) and hand-waving from the NCBA, the piece ends with a bang, with a quote from Su Taylor of the Vegetarian Society: Everybody is trying to come up with different ways to reduce carbon footprints. But one of the easiest things you can do is to stop eating meat."

VICK'S FIX

I have no opinion on Michael Vick's personal guilt or innocence in his indictment on dog-fighting charges. But hopefully the high-profile nature of this case will shine a light on a cultural pathology that too few people recognize as a widespread problem on this continent. "The indictment states participants and their dogs came to Virginia from other states, established a purse for the winning side and took side bets. It says the fight would last until the death or surrender of a dog and that the losing dog was sometimes killed by drowning, hanging, gunshot, electrocution or other method."

Vick may not have been home when the drowning, hanging, gunshot, electrocution or other method - not to mention the fighting - was going on. But it seems unlikely that he was completely unaware of it. Could be he was like most Americans, with a vague awareness of it and a simple lack of caring enough to find out more or do anything about it.

UPDATE 7/20: I've said it before and it looks like I'll be saying it for some time to come: Can we please, please retire the hackneyed headline "Animal Wrongs"?

THE LATEST FRIDAY RECALL

This one, as they say, is for Friday Recall completists only. But it is a Friday recall of Beef and Chicken Products, recalled this time not for foodborne pathogens but egg whites. Go figure.

BORN 'FREE'

I'll be the first to admit that 'Sabrina's' kidnappers did not look after her as well as her normal keepers, but still, Gaza lion freed after two years is an odd choice of words. "I'm free! I'm free... to go back in this old cage..."

CRY ME A LAGOON

Well, it was either that heading or "crocodile tears," but I know some people get exercised over the difference between crocs and alligators, the real topic of this post: Florida Gator Shows Declining. Ohhh NOOO! Poor Steve Irwin died just in time! ...oops, sorry. Alligators. Right.

Years ago, one animal-wrestler said, these shows drew more than 400 visitors and he could make about $500 a day in tips. But times have changed, and the article notes that "today's tourists would rather ride on Everglades air boats and view wildlife in its natural habitat." Natural habitat!?!?!? WTF?

"The lessons are being taught in their own home, without harming any animals. So that's the positive side," Peacock said. "The negative side is, did I waste the last 17 years of my life learning how to do this?"

Yes. Yes you did. Too bad it only occurs to you now that your way of life was a complete croc.

...sorry again, I mean, man, that really bites.

NEWS TO THOSE TO WHOM IT'S NEWS

"The sickening side of greyhound racing."

You mean there's a non-sickening side?

BITCH, BITCH, BITCH

Haven't read it, but this looks like an interesting tome, pushing the Vegan Freak and Vegan with a Vengeance envelope. Even Michael Greger's Carbophobia! didn't put it quite this starkly: "You are either a total moron if you think the Atkins diet will make you thin [or] you are a gluttonous pig who wants to believe you can eat cheeseburgers all day long and lose weight."

The frequent incoherence of the columnist covering this ("In context of the authors' earlier shock tactics, such suggestions [to go vegan] still surprise." Huh? How come? "If you're going to eat the junk, it may as well go in your trunk." Say whuzzah? "Tofurkey" Mmm-hmm.) is par for the course, but I tip my hat to her for choosing to cover it at all, and cluing me in to this book.

WOULDA, COULDA, SHOULDA

If only I'd thought ahead and bought the obvious domain name, I'd be a rich man today.

STOP THE PRESSES

By which I mean I hope this will get the press to stop treating this issue as an open question: "Is organic food really better for you?" Yes, it really is, as has already been proven in multiple studies. But now here's yet another: "Organic food really is better for you than conventionally grown crops, according to new research." Yes - according to new research - but also according to old research, which it would've been nice if the author had mentioned.

DEATH BY NON-VEGANISM

Gas From Farm's Manure Pit Kills Five runs the headline on this sad story including the deaths of two children. If I were as venal, cynical and frankly idiotic as Nina Planck I would claim that this single incident is an indictment of the entire practice of meat-eating. As it stands, of course, this is just one out of many ways animal agriculture causes the deaths of children and adult humans in addition to its billions of animal victims. Note that what happened here was an outgrowth of the intrinsic components of animal agriculture - it wasn't some outside force or extraordinary occurrence. The tragic, disgusting details reinforce how "full of it" the industry is, by its very nature:

Authorities say the accident began after Scott tried to transfer manure from one small pit to a larger one, measuring 20 by 20 feet and 8 feet deep. The pipe that was transferring the manure became clogged and Scott climbed in the pit to fix the blockage and immediately succumbed to the gas.

Emergency workers believe Stoltzfus climbed in to the pit to rescue Scott and after hearing all the commotion Phyillis and her two daughters all went it to the pit and succumbed to the deadly methane gas.

Methane gas is odorless and a colorless byproduct of liquefied manure. The Showalters milked 103 cows on their farm west of Harrisonburg. Farley says the Showalter farm was a modern dairy operation.

DOG BITES MAN'S CAMPAIGN

"Romney's treatment of family dog on 1983 vacation becomes issue," blares the Boston Globe, which first publishd the anecdote that is now becoming surgically attached to the Mitt Romney persona: How he put his dog in a carrier with a homemade windshied, strapped it to the roof of his car and set off on a 12-hour trip with one unscheduled stop when the dog's diarrhea ran down the back of the car.

Although PETA is doing its damnedest to blunt the effect by making this into yet another PETA story, the dog issue does seem to be gaining some traction, largely because it plays into discomforts that many already have with the Romney persona. One liberal blogger calls it "classic Romney: It solves a problem efficiently, in a business-like manner, and with no regard whatsoever for the suffering that the solution may cause." Heh. Meanwhile, over on the right side we get: "In Romney’s defense, however, I’d note that the incident took place over twenty-five years ago. Goodness knows, his views on dog travel have certainly changed half a dozen times in the interim." Yowch. Could be some "ruff" riding ahead for Mitt.