ELEPHANTS AND ZOOS: THE TIPPING POINT

The current controversy at the Philadelphia Zoo over possibly ending their elephant exhibit may be a tipping point for the national debate on elephants and zoos. What I mean is that when one zoo courageously closes its elephant house out of concern for the animals, that's an anomaly. When a couple zoos do so, it's just mildly interesting. We're now at "mild trend" level with a handful of zoos wrestling with the elephant question, and if one of the nation's most venerable and high-profile zoos throws in with the rest, it could soon get to the point where the story now becomes the diminishing number of zoos that are still stubbornly hanging onto this anachronism of cruelty.

I really can't see this going any direction other than forward, with the only question being whether it will continue to gather momentum or whether there will be fits and starts over the next couple years. But let's face it, the case is incontrovertible. There's no true advantage to elephants in becoming slaves to human entertainment, and talk of "conservation" is an obvious smokescreen: As soon as the issue of "conserving" the elephants out of public view arises, it's clear that profit is the real concern. Note in this story on the Philly situation ("Philadelphia Zoo May End Elephant Exhibit Because of Shortfall"):

Some zoo officials are resolved to keep their elephants. The Birmingham Zoo in Alabama, which has had Mona for more than 50 years, plans a $15 million expansion that will add waterfalls and tree canopies on 20 acres for more elephants. "Hiding them in a sanctuary doesn't do it,'' said William Foster, the zoo's chief executive. "They need to be seen.''

"Need"? In what way do the elephants "need" to be seen? How does being seen benefit them? Do you perhaps mean, "they need to be monetized"?

Similarly, in yet another example of the National Zoo cluelessness as to its animals' health issues, there's an elephant there now, Toni, who is receiving treatment for arthritis in her legs. "The zoo said in September that if the condition worsens, she might have to be euthanized -- a possibility that has prompted two animal rights groups to push to have Toni moved to an elephant sanctuary, where she would have more room to exercise and be on softer ground." Well, OK, sounds good, except a zoo official "said a sanctuary is not the answer for Toni, who needs constant medical care. He does not want to separate her from the only elephants she has known." Well, yeah, except "euthanizing" her is just about by definition separating her from them, as well as from other things. Besides, it's a false dilemma - why separate them? Send all the freakin' elephants to the same sanctuary. Problem solved!

MAD COW IN MILK?

"Cause of mad cow disease may be found in milk," blares this Globe and Mail article from Canada, and although that's a little stripped-down as a summary of a complex study, it gets to the point, especially for vegetarians who aren't vegan. Whether or not there's 'as much suffering in a glass of milk as in a pound of steak,' there just may be a soupcon of Mad Cow in there as well. Worth it?

SOME 'CARBS' REALLY ARE BAD

If by "carbs," of course, you mean carbon monoxide, a known hazard to human health. I was aware this gas was being used to artifially color some types of fish, but now it emerges that this is common practice for meat in general. And one food producer wants it stopped: "A food and spice company wants the FDA to prohibit the use of carbon monoxide in meat packaging, saying the practice, done to keep the meat fresh-looking, can hide spoilage." Note also that the FDA "accepted the practice as safe last year in response to requests from two other food companies. It is outlawed in Europe."

But gosh, why would anyone want to put such a noxious substance - even temporarily - on food we're about to eat? "The use of carbon monoxide in fresh-meat packaging produces an artificially intense, persistent red color in meat that can simulate the look of fresh meat and mask the natural signs of aging and spoilage that consumers depend on in making safe food choices, including browning and telltale odors." Ohhhhhh.

WHY OLIVE OIL IS GOOD FOR YOU

Relatively speaking, of course. I know there's a "no oil for blood" contingent out there, but if you're going to consume oils, it seems like olive oil is the way to go. And now there's science to explain why. A recent study suggests that "virgin olive oil may be better for the heart than seed oils because it is a natural juice that does not go through the processing needed to extract oil from seeds, such as sunflowers and soybeans. Therefore, the oil retains more of its original nutrients."

To put it another way: "'It could be that the beneficial effect of the Mediterranean diet on cardiovascular disease and arteriosclerosis depends on the synergistic effects of the different nutrients that constitute complete foods and, as an example, virgin olive oil is more than fat because it is a real juice with other healthy micronutrients,' says researcher Francisco Pérez Jiménez, MD, PhD, from the Reina Sofia University Hospital in Córdoba, Spain." Well, that makes sense, I guess. Click through to read more about the nitty-gritty of phenolic compounds and how they do that voodoo that they do so well.

PLAYING CATCH-UP ON THE E.COLI RECALLS

Here's a recall I missed when I was busy with other things. If you're just hearing about this and you bought the beef in question, well, sorry I didn't get word to you sooner. But just for the record... Quaker Maid Meats Inc. on Nov. 1st said it would voluntarily recall 47 tons of frozen ground beef patties for possible E. coli contamination. The bad meat went to Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin.

WELCOME VEGETARIAN VOICE READERS

Funny thing - I wrote two pieces for Vegetarian Voice many months ago and got them to add a tagline referring people here. But the issue was delayed and delayed and just came out last week. So if you came here from there, be patient, as Meat Facts will return to hot topics about vegetarianism and animals later this very week. But in the meantime, be sure to check out something that wasn't even conceived back when that issue was planned - VEGCAST, the veggie podcast!

Thank you for your prompt cooperation in this matter.

VEGCAST #6

It's up and ready for downloading (27 MB file). First of two Thanksgiving shows. Gotta run and catch a plane. More later.

UPDATE 11/14: Here's the summary from the feed: "This is the first of two Thanksgiving editions of Vegcast. We start with a soothing song from Maggie Pierce and E.J. then move into our feature interview with Karen Davis, head of United Poultry Concerns and author of More Than a Meal - The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual and Reality. Along with a Science Fact and a promo for Bloodthirsty Vegetarians, there is certainly a full menu on Vegcast, the veggie podcast, bringing you the sound of vegetarianism since July of this year."

IS HEATHER MILLS MCCARTNEY VEGAN?

I only phrase it as a question because this source that has the scoop also casually calls Linda McCartney a vegan, which she wasn't. Um, Mr. Reporter, you do know what "vegan" means, right?

OBLIGATORY MEAT RECALL POST

Here's a recall of nearly six tons of chicken products for listeria, one that I didn't even hear about till today, even though the listeria was discovered on Friday and announced on Saturday, when everyone is riveted to their respective news sources.

VEGCAST #5 IS HERE

A spooky Hallowe'en edition of Vegcast, the Veggie Podcast, includes some truly scary news about avian flu, a whimsical song about a bag of candy, and a feature interview with Neal Barnard, the head of PCRM. While known for his groundbreaking work in vegetarian research and advocacy, Barnard also has a band, Verdun, that has to be heard to be believed. Plus, watch out for those Bloodthirsty Vegetarians. You can listen right away or head over to the VegCast site for more podcast goodness.

I know, I know, it seems like this is only a blog about a podcast. It's crunch time right now, and will be for the next couple weeks. But I'll be sure to get a couple things in here.

MONEY! YEAH, THAT'S THE TICKET

Here's what Newsday says: Rx for avian flu: money - Its spread can be contained by paying farmers whose sick birds are killed. Yeah, that's a good long-term strategy. Keep on raising birds not just to be needlessly killed for food, but to be needlessly killed for nothing. I'm sure that'll stop the flu, as well as whatever the next zoonotic disease is on the horizon...

MOCKING MEAT

The Washington Post has a cute piece about mock meats, which contains this tasty morsel: "There is wizardry afoot in a large number of Washington area restaurants, where the skill for counterfeiting meat has become rather sophisticated. ... Mutton isn't dressing up as lamb, soy is."

Except that other than seafood, almost all mock meats are derived from seitan, not soy. It's not a big deal, it just brought home to me that "soy" is becoming a false generic like "kleenex," in this case meaning "that non-meat, healthy-type food."

But who am I to complain? The book from which this blog takes its address has almost nothing whatsoever to do with soy. No, really.

COMPASSION OVER KILLING WINS ON EGG LABEL

This happened last week, but I missed it: Egg producers across the United States can no longer stamp the "Animal Care Certified" logo on egg cartons, after the deceptive nature of the logo was brought to the attention of the FTC and BBB by Compassion Over Killing. Congrats to them - they worked hard on this. And note that this change, while not a huge step in reducing animal suffering, is one that was brought about by convincing authorities to enforce existing laws, not by targeting the neighbors and relatives of the egg producers themselves.

UPDATE 10/11: ... or by hitting them in the face with a pie. Come on, people.

WARNING LABELS FOR MILK

PCRM has launched a class-action lawsuit over the lack of warning labels on cows' milk. Even if the suit itself gets thrown out of court, the action will succeed in bring press attention to the fact that "everybody should drink milk" is not only a ridiculous, cynical, profit-driven generalization but also has racist overtones - white people are the only ethnic group of whom a majority are not lactose intolerant. "The white stuff is the right stuff," is it?

VEGCAST #4

It's here - shownotes here. For the fourth Vegcast we stop in at the Blessing of the Animals art opening at the Allens Lane Art Center, including some sound clips of interviews and a great song by Tyler Shepherd called "Animal Eyes." We also have part II of our Michael Greger interview, focusing on strategies and tactics in vegan activism, plus a recipe for chocolate tofu pie.

SIDE NOTE: Sorry for the outage again. As I continue working on Vegcast there is inevitably some time siphoned away from Meat Facts. For the foreseeable future I will try to keep up with both, but posting here will probably not occur on a daily basis. Thanks and feel free send any correspondence, tips or flames about this to me.

THE WAR ON VEGANS

I suppose it's no suprise that the Dept. of Homeland Security considers vegans to be such enemies of the state as to require violation of their fourth-amendment rights. After all, the vegan agenda would dismantle one of the largest, and certainly the oldest, institutions of crony-based capitalism in the annals of U.S. history - the beef industry.

WHAT A SHOCKER - TOOTHLESS MAD COW RULES!

Since NYT has gotten even more restrictive about their content, I'll link right to Organic Consumers' version of this (which is where I saw it anyway), but the long and the short is that those new feed rules, promised back in January of 2003 and not even due to go into effect until sometime in 2006, still retain many of the loopholes that keep our country at risk of spreading Mad Cow.

ANOTHER FRIDAY...

Another 92 tons of bad beef recalled - not for the suspicion of E.Coli but for a documented illness linked to these Georgia-based ground beef patties. And yet - show of hands - how many of you had heard about this before coming here? Thought so.

PHILLY ZOO BATTLE HEATS UP

Advocates for elephants are gearing up for a major campaign against the proposed expansion of the Philadelphia Zoo's pachyderm exhibit, and have already started leafletting and protesting at the zoo. This Inquirer story is typical mainstream coverage, essentially ignoring the basic issues the activists are raising and diverting the discussion to how much the zoo loves and cares for the elephants. And classically, it ends with the as-ever-unproven trope that such displays "educate the public and create empathy for wildlife" - sorry, Pete, what was your peer-reviewed source on that again?

WHAT KIND OF WORKPLACE...

... would tolerate this kind of inhuman abuse in the 21st century?

African Americans were routinely abused and a "whites only" sign was pinned to the lavatory door. Tyson Foods is accused by 13 workers of maintaining a segregated system in a break area at one of its plants in Ashland, Alabama, that was "reminiscent of the Jim Crow era". In addition to the posting of the "whites only" sign, the workers allege that the lavatory was padlocked and only white workers were given a key, that workers hung a noose in one of the recreation rooms and annotated a picture of monkeys with the names of black staff. When the workers complained, they say the plant manager told them the facilities had been locked because they were "nasty, dirty [and] behaved like children".

Yes, that's right, the kind of workplace where the work itself is inhuman. Just a coincidence, I guess...