Tofu Temptress

Sheep. Fools or cool?

February 19, 2015 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

We recently celebrated Chinese New Year, with a few simple stir fries and such that even I couldn’t screw up, and welcomed in The Year of the Sheep. It got me thinking of how people view sheep. Would you be proud to be born in a year of the sheep, or a little embarrassed? Because the word sheep has become short form for those who don’t think and simply follow the crowd, we tend to be rather patronising towards our fleecy friends. Yes, sheep can act a bit stupidly when they’re in a crowd, but then, so can humans. Who ever looked at footage of a riot or of an entire stand-full of people chanting offensive songs at a football match and thought ‘Well, there are some obviously highly evolved individuals who cannot only think for themselves but are also clearly very intelligent.’? No-one, that’s who.

Sheep are seen as a bit dim, pretty inoffensive and even quite picturesque when roaming a hillside in the distance. Unfortunately, the cuteness of the gambolling lamb doesn’t stop the sheep from being one of the most abused animals in Britain. Recent secretly filmed footage at a slaughterhouse in Yorkshire reveals horrific cruelty towards sheep that is both shocking and sickening. This is why compulsory CCTV in all UK slaughterhouses must be brought in.

Sheep in truck bound for slaughter. Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Although it’s not just in the slaughterhouse that sheep face appalling treatment. Ironically, because of their cognitive processes they can be used for research into human neurological disorders. They are also used for research into other diseases for which they suffer enormously. One of these is heart disease and the experiments done by the BHF have been widely criticised. As I’ve said elsewhere on this website, experiments on animals are patchy in their results at best, and no substitute for research that studies humans themselves in the forms of genes and cells.

Sheep also suffer to produce woolly jumpers and carpets. Recent undercover filming highlighted horrific abuses in the wool industry in Australia. You see, just like the meat trade, workers are encouraged to ‘process’ as many animals as possible in an hour to maximise profits. As you can imagine, this doesn’t lead to the sheep receiving care and gentle attention – quite the opposite.

Thankfully, there are plenty of wool alternatives for shoppers and knitters alike so there’s no need to put sheep through this grief. There are also many sanctuaries, including this dedicated one in Devon which may change your mind about those idyllic hillside scenes. And just to finish off, here’s some happy footage of a sheep who, having been raise alongside dogs, jumps about and plays and basically behaves like a big, woolly canine. Sheep are intelligent, fun, joyful animals who are sadly mistreated because of their gentle nature. Maybe next time someone calls you a sheep, you’ll say thank you.

Sheep. Definitely cool. Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Animal Testing

February 6, 2015 by Tofu Temptress 1 Comment

When I was a kid in the eighties, the anti-vivisection lobby was quite trendy. Everyone I knew bought their cosmetics and toiletries from The Body Shop as they were against animal testing (unfortunately these days they’re owned by L’Oreal) and those who broke into laboratories to liberate bunnies were heroes. Off colour jokes were made about smoking Beagles as Jason and Kylie blasted out of the radio. Then after that I think everyone, in Britain anyway, thought that animal testing had been given up to make way for kinder, more modern methods of safety testing. I hate to say it, but it was as recently as 2013 when Europe decided to make the testing of cosmetics on animals illegal, but only for new products. That means there’s still plenty of shampoos, eye shadows and hairsprays on the market that have been tested on the aforementioned bunnies. Cruelty Free International (formally BUAV) have a campaign going on at the moment to ban the testing of household products on animals. Even though the current government pledged to dramatically reduce the number of animal experiments, they seem to have forgotten all about it.

A happy bunny – Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

So what’s happening? Well, good question. There are many companies, including the Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer, who have had cruelty free cosmetics for a number of years and cruelty free household products are available from many supermarkets as well as online. Fine. So it’ll just be a matter of time in Europe before all the old, cruel products become obsolete and the companies that produce them will have to think of other methods of testing when they want to wow us with new products. Well, yes and no. There are loopholes in the legislation and also cosmetics companies who want to sell to China have to, under Chinese law, test everything on animals. So, it’s complicated.

Ok, you say, so if I’m a conscientious shopper I can obtain all my beauty products guilt free in the UK. True, but what about medicine? This has always been a sore point, as it is the law in the UK that you have to test any new drug on a non-human animal i.e. someone who has a working respiratory and cardiovascular system who won’t sue you if things go awry. Again, during my youth, as I was known to be an ‘animal rights sympathiser’ against the cruelty of animal research, and even teachers used to challenge me ‘What if the only way to find out if a drug was safe was to test it on an animal? What if that drug were to cure a disease you’re Mum or Dad had?’ Yes, my teachers were delightful.( It’s almost on a par with any question a vegan is asked that begins with ‘If you were on a desert island…’) The truth is that if the horrid business of animal testing were reliable, we’d have a real debate on our hands, but the fact is that it’s not.

Let’s take penicillin for example. Alexander Fleming originally tested the drug on rabbits and found it to be ineffective. (He may have thrown away the idea if he’d tested it on guinea pigs or hamsters, as it’s fatal to them.) However he was forced to try it on a very sick human patient as there were no alternatives. Here’s a direct quote from the co-discoverer and manufacturer of penicillin, who won a Nobel Prize for his efforts, “How fortunate we didn’t have these animal tests in the 1940s, for penicillin would probably never been granted a license, and possibly the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realized.” Now think about that for a while.

There are countless examples of animal experiments either delaying the release of an important drug (eg. muscle relaxants for general anaesthesia, organ rejection inhibitors, beta-blockers, pace-makers and heart valves amongst others) or of a drug testing as hunky-dory in animal toxicity tests and then going on to blind, injure or kill humans (eg. a first polio vaccine, thalidomide, ADHD medication, asbestos, smoking and countless others). So where does that leave us?

Well, happily, there are several charities lobbying against animal experimentation and some that even conduct human relevant research using modern techniques that mean no suffering to any animal, human or non-human. This research includes everything from skin sensitivities to leukaemia and diabetes, and is widely endorsed by patients, even those with very serious illnesses. New discoveries are being made all the time, without the use of rats, mice, rabbits, monkeys or dogs (yes, it is still legal in Britain to subject Beagles to all sorts of horrors). And as for the question as to whether I’d endorse animal experiments to save a relative or indeed myself, well, there are far more effective methods these days and I’d rather they were used. After all, we cured cancer in mice years ago…

Religious slaughter on the rise

January 31, 2015 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

Depressingly, I noticed in the paper today that the incidence of religious slaughter has increased, by as much as half in some cases, in the last couple of years or so. For the uninitiated, religious slaughter generally means killing an animal without stunning them first. As if the sometimes intensively farmed animals had not gone through enough with their cramped cages, many having never seen outside until the day they’re bundled onto a truck to be taken to what amounts to a torture camp and house of death.

And that’s the interesting thing. Both Kosher and Halal meat is guilty of the non-stunning of animals, and the British government, in their ‘wisdom’ have decided that there should be exemptions to basic animal welfare if there are religious ground – something the British Humanist Society, amongst others, takes issue with. But from the Jewish point of view there are many Jews, including holocaust survivors themselves, that see the factory farming of today as little more than a non-human animal version of the holocaust. In fact, Israel has been flagged up recently as one of the most vegan-friendly countries in the world. Life is certainly no picnic for vegetarian or vegan Muslims either, as this article on an Egyptian festival of sacrifice shows. It seems crazy considering the numerous Islamic teachings that promote kindness towards animals. Many chain restaurants including Pizza Express (whose chicken is all halal), Subway and KFC, have halal options as standard. However, before we go blaming religious people for dragging down animal welfare standards, maybe we should take a long hard look at ourselves.

Pig arrives at a slaughterhouse. Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Animal Aid have a campaign going at the moment to try and make it law for there to be properly reviewed CCTV in all slaughterhouses in the UK. This comes from an investigation they did a few years ago, where they randomly chose nine slaughterhouses and filmed secretly inside. They found animal welfare laws being broken, routinely, in eight of them. This included all sorts of horrific behaviour, such as kicking and stamping on animals, grabbing them by their ears and even burning cigarettes out on them. Clearly this is not what the public think they are supporting by ‘buying British’ and so-called high welfare abattoirs seemed to be no better than standard ones. The government doesn’t seem to think we have a problem. They are clearly deluded as to the conditions inside abattoirs, either that, or they don’t care. Either way things need to be cleaned up across the board. Whether slaughter is religious or not (because some halal meat is said to be from stunned animals, but definitions in this area tend to be hazy) we have to sit up and recognise that animals are not things. They are not objects. They feel pain and fear and as Jeremy Bentham the utilitarian philosopher (born in the eighteenth century) said ‘The question is not Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but Can they suffer?’ a sentiment echoed years later by the great Peter Singer in his ground-breaking work ‘Animal Liberation’.

As you will have guessed by now, I have a very simple solution to all of this cruelty, crisis of conscience and confusion. I don’t think we need to point the finger at religious slaughter in particular, or indeed regular slaughterhouses really. We need to point the finger squarely at ourselves. There is no supply where there is no demand. Cut out the middle man and go vegan. Easy.

CCTV for all slaughterhouses. Animal Aid

(If you’d like to help get CCTV into slaughterhouses, sign this petition before 30th March 2015. Thank you.)

The Dairy Crisis

January 20, 2015 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

I’m sure you saw the news in the media recently about the crisis that UK dairy farmers are facing. In a nutshell, too much milk has been produced for not enough demand and farmers are getting a pittance for what they produce from the supermarkets because of this. They’re even getting their payments delayed, which means missing deadlines for bills and so on.

Just before being separated forever – Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Now as you may have guessed, I’m not a big fan of the dairy industry, but it is kind of a complex problem. It seems that small dairy farmers are giving up the business due to lack of profits and it is these smaller businesses that tend to graze their cattle outside in the warmer months. Sadly, some small dairies are trying to solve the problem by merging, and this means having cows in sheds all the time. There’s no daylight, no freedom to roam, no joy whatsoever in their lives as working milk machines. Of course, even farmers who do choose to graze their herd outside still have to sell male calves to the meat industry, forcibly separating them from their mothers. They still have to maximise output, meaning unnecessary strain on udders and calcium deficiency in cows. They still have to administer painful injections to stop infection and sell ‘worn out’ mothers for slaughter at the end of it all. I’m not saying that small dairy farmers are living in an idyll, just that they are a degree better than factory farms, where misery is everywhere, all the time. The fact that decreased demand for cows’ milk has led to this sorry state of affairs is odd. The irony is not lost on me.

The calf is wheeled away like rubbish – Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

And then of course we have the frightening individual that is Liz Truss, our current minister for the environment. She has proposed a raft of measures to combat this dairy crisis, one of which is to reduce the number of dairy inspections by eight thousand a year. It seems lunacy (and if you’ve ever heard her give a speech, this will be of no surprise to you). To reduce inspections, when more farmers feel forced to merge into so-called mega farms, therefore negatively impacting animal welfare significantly at a stroke, seems insane. Viva has a website which is an excellent resource called White Lies which details the fact that when farms attain Soil association, Freedom Foods or Red Tractor accreditation, often all the farmer needs to do is not break the law on the day of the inspection. Standards need to be raised and this means an increase in random, unannounced inspections, not a flippin’ reduction Ms Truss!

The dairy industry doesn’t just impact negatively on the welfare of cows however. The recent badger cull sparked controversy, not just because badgers are cute (well, there may have been a bit of that) but because many scientists felt that badgers were being made the scapegoat by the dairy industry, to explain away the outbreak of bovine TB on their farms. A far more likely explanation seems to be that slurry gets transferred from one dairy farm to another and TB gets transported that way. (Remember foot and mouth.)

Author Patrick Barkham suggests in his novel Badgerlands that perhaps the intensive way cows are reared these days makes their immunity to TB very low. So these mega farms that could become part of the system here in Britain (they’re already the norm in America) could well be creating their own problem (remember mad cow disease, or BSE.) Even in the unlikely event that Badgers are the main cause of this outbreak, catch/vaccinate/release programmes have been found to be far more effective than culls anyway.

Happily, there are some people who have seen the industry for what it is – some very important people: dairy farmers themselves. There are pages devoted to documenting dairy farmers who have ‘seen the light’ and decided to go into a kinder business. These individuals are from all over the world – Ireland, The Netherlands, Iran and beyond. Each one of them has to struggle against a culture (no pun intended) that sees dairy farming as not doing much harm, and so brands them mad for giving it up. They have seen the look in the calf’s eyes as they sell him at market, pleading and scared. They have heard the cries that emanate from both mother and calf when they are forcibly separated, that sometimes go on for days. They have experienced cows going lame from lack of calcium brought on by intensive breeding and mastitis due to excessive milk production.

Cows are friends, not milk machines – Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Cows need grass – Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Perhaps Liz Truss should work on getting those EU subsidies diverted from propping up the meat and dairy industries and have them support kind businesses instead. Due to lack of demand through increasing lactose intolerance and increased awareness of health and welfare issues, dairy is a dying industry. Let’s breathe new life into farms, making them utopias of plant based food and wildflowers. Naive, me?

Ten Alternatives to Animal ‘Entertainment’

January 11, 2015 by Tofu Temptress 1 Comment

If you enjoy being out and about, enjoying nature, then good for you. If you’re interested in animals, then cool. If you like visiting local attractions while on holiday, marvellous. If you think that these things cannot be enjoyed without exploiting, humiliating, hurting, caging or killing animals, then I’m here to tell you that’s a load of rubbish.
Here are ten activities involving the mistreatment of animals, along with ten cruelty free alternatives to do instead.

1. Angling/Fishing

What is fishing really? Hanging around at the side of a river, or in a river in waders, or maybe on a boat, waiting for a fish to be hooked onto your line, line that swans can get caught up in. Hmm. We now know that fish are not only intelligent, but have great memories and cognitive skills and they certainly feel pain. Who are we to disturb them while they’re swimming along by spearing them with a dirty great hook? Who indeed.

So, what to do instead. Well, most fishermen and women enjoy the outdoors, they observe the wildlife around the riverbank and they are patient, observant individuals who are capable of being quiet for long stints at a time. I would recommend bird watching. If you’re quiet and look around, you’d be surprised by the amount of different birds and other wildlife you can see, especially if you take a pair of binoculars with you. You might see an otter or a kingfisher and nobody has to die or get hurt. You can even have a couple of beers while you’re doing it.

2. Aquariums/Sea parks

Why would you go and see captive sea life swimming round and round in an enclosure where you knew they were unhappy and where they live short and unfulfilling lives? Many aquariums and sea parks around the world have been shown time and time again to fall far short of any acceptable welfare standards. The film Blackfish exposed Seaworld for what it is, a cruel business indeed. It’s not the only one though. Why pay over the odds to see a couple of lonely looking fish and a seahorse, only to be conned out of yet more money in the gift shop?

The gift shop... — The gift shop…Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Well, instead of that bleak scenario, I have a few suggestions. If you have children, just taking them swimming can be a magical experience. The sensation of floating, especially if you’re lucky enough to get into the sea when it’s not freezing, is a fantastic activity. On colder days, investigate rock pools when the tide is out and have the fun of discovering star fish and little crabs and limpets. If you’re feeling more adventurous there are places in the UK where you can snorkel and dive for that unforgettable aquatic experience. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to go somewhere abroad the opportunities are endless. I’ll never forget snorkelling off the coast of Australia and meeting a sea turtle who was in no way bothered by my presence and just went about his business, with me observing from a respectful distance. To be part of that world (to quote The Little Mermaid) for just those few minutes was one of the most profound experiences of my life. I’ll remember it forever. All I’ve ever felt when visiting an aquarium is sad.

3. Bullfighting/Bull running

Now, do I really need to go into why this is barbaric? I don’t think so. If you’re unsure of what goes on with Bull Fighting, then have a look, but I warn you, it is a sickening sight. Bull running, as they do in Pamplona in Spain every year, ends up pretty much the same way, with the bulls dying in the ring.

So, onto a happier subject, what to do for thrills and spills instead? Well, if watching a fight is your thing, then I’d say a more fair one was the way to go. Boxing is on all over the place these days, and if two grown men or women punching each other is your idea of a night out, then go for it. As for running through streets being chased Indiana Jones-style, how about the Running of the Balls? Yes, you read that right. An alternative has been suggested that if you’re keen on careering through the cobbled streets of Pamplona, the maybe you’d like to be chased by giant polystyrene balls. Well, you might do.

4. Circus animals

Never give your money to this. Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Thankfully there are only a handful of circuses in the UK that still use wild animals as part of their performance, but that’s still too many. People have petitioned parliament to try and get the practice banned altogether but so far, no dice. Animals such as elephants and tigers have to undergo unbelievably cruel training methods to get them to do silly, pointless things. Even horses and dogs get a poor deal of it, so best avoid them altogether, or best of all make your voice heard.

Instead of going to see an animal circus, go and see one with only humans – easy. I’m not a great one for circuses myself, but I have seen Cirque du Soleil once and the performers were amazing. The trapeze, the high wire, the fire eater, even the sodding clowns are all far more enjoyable a spectacle than watching a miserable, de-clawed lion being poked with a chair.

5. Horse drawn carriage ride

Now, you may think these seem harmless enough, but in reality the horses work for long hours, tethered uncomfortably and in New York for example, there is a campaign to ban the practice, backed by the current mayor, as many horses have been injured or killed in accidents.

So, perhaps you could hire a tandem bike with your loved one instead to explore the park. Or maybe a go cart is more your thing. But if you really want to turn on the romance, hire a boat and row out into the lake. Perfect.

6. Horse racing

Again, many people may not realise the inherent cruelty involved in this ‘sport of kings’ and I’m the first to admit that I didn’t until relatively recently. You’d be shocked if you knew how many horses die as a result of racing.

Instead of all that, how about going to see an athletics event if you want to cheer someone to the finish line. Any live sporting event can have a tremendous atmosphere. I’ll never forget my family edging away from me as I screamed for Scotland to win at the rugby sevens. I went quite purple in the face.

7. Hunting pheasants/Grouse shooting

The conditions that these birds are bred in is quite appalling, never mind that the only reason they are bred is to be released and shot by someone wearing tweed. It’s bad for the birds, the environment, and our pockets as a result of public subsidies.

Far better, if you like getting out and about with your dog, you can do just that and no need for a gun. There are so many beautiful areas of countryside in the UK – that’s the beauty of living in such a small country, greenery is never too far away. If you really must shoot a gun, then shoot it at clay pigeons or targets. You can even wear faux tweed while you do it.

8. Sea lion/parrot shows

These are some of the most degrading forms of ‘entertainment’ I know, other than the X-Factor. The training methods involved are far from nice, and if you think that seals or sea lions really want to honk that horn or that a parrot is just desperate to ride a bicycle, you’re quite mad.

Sea lion show. Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

If you’re lucky enough to see dolphins in the wild, they may chase a ferry you’re on or flip and play with each other of their own accord. If you’re keen on seeing complicated manoeuvres mastered, go to the ballet or any other dance show. If you’re desperate for a laugh go and see stand up. Or a children’s dance show. (I was one of those children once, and totally aware of how hilarious I looked.)

9. Stalking

Do you really want to be the one in the silly hat who shot Bambi’s mother? Do you?

Why don’t you do some paintball instead. There’s strategy, you get to shoot moving objects (people) and you don’t need to look like Sherlock Holmes. An indoor laser shooting game may suit you if it’s raining and you can even wear your deerstalker as they take place in the dark.

10. Zoos

This is a tricky one for me, as I grew up near a zoo and every other primary school trip was there. I remember being fascinated by the animals, but I also remember feeling annoyance at my fellow classmates who banged on the glass and sympathy for the poor creatures forced to tolerate it. What I didn’t realise at that tender age was that the big cats who prowled back and forth weren’t showing off to us, they were displaying signs of severe mental distress. I also didn’t realise that the penguins had to have regular surgery to remove bits of litter thrown at them by their adoring public. Zoos can’t hope to replicate a natural environment for any animal. They simply don’t have the space apart from anything else.

Goat in sanctuary. Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Instead of watching lonely, upset animals pacing or rocking back and forth, perhaps you could visit a sanctuary. Be very careful that it is a sanctuary though and not just some petting zoo in disguise. You could always go on an ethically responsible wildlife trek here or abroad, but again, check their credentials. You’ll find some advertised by animal welfare organisations.

So there you have it. A visit to the beach, botanical gardens, woods or rivers can reveal all sorts of exciting animal encounters and human animals are your best bet for entertainment shows. If you’re ever in doubt if an activity is kind or not, take a look at the animal involved and ask yourself, how would I feel if I were them. Then, you’ll have your answer.

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