Vegetarian Star

As a vegetarian, can you ever agree that some meat is ethical?

John Mackey made the decision to go vegetarian after discovering how some animals farmed for meat were treated.

“I became more conscious of what we were doing to livestock animals and how much those animals were being abused,” he said during a video interview posted on the Whole Foods blog.  “The summer of 2003, I read a dozen books or so on the way animals were being treated and I decided in good conscious I didn’t want to eat animals anymore.”

But Whole Foods still sells meat. Does this make Mackey a hypocrite?

“I find the death argument to not be a particularly good one because everything that’s alive dies. At the end of the day it’s the quality of life that you have prior from birth to death that really matters. Not whether you die in the end. Animals are going to die in the end and what matters to them whether the life they have from birth to death is a life that allows them to fulfill their animal potential.”

Mackey says the company has been developing an Animal Welfare 5 Step rating program, which will rate producers based on how they treat their livestock. Ideally, the producers with the highest rating will be the only ones to sell their product at Whole Foods.

Certainly a life full of free movement and fresh air beats being crammed in cages and being forced to reproduce or produce products like milk unnaturally.

Do you agree with Mackey?

Or should Whole Foods aim to stop selling meat entirely?

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Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, has blogged on what he feels were the biggest stories of the decade relating to animal welfare.

Sadly, some of the most newsworthy stories aren’t necessarily good ones, like the Michael Vick dog fighting incidents uncovered in 2007.

However, there were plenty of celebrities looking out for the animals in the past decade and Oprah Winfrey‘s been awarded her set of wings for featuring an episode of her show that criticized puppy mills.

“Since the broadcasts, we’ve rescued thousands of animals from puppy mills,” writes Pacelle. “Just this year, 10 states have approved legislation to impose tougher standards on large scale dog breeding operations, and the new standards have prompted a number of deficient puppy mills to shut down. And a raft of protests has cause pet stores to close or at least to stop selling puppies from mills.”

And O even featured some four legged stars on the cover of her magazine after visiting PAWS, Chicago’s largest no-kill animal shelter.

Let’s hope the next decade is filled with more trendsetters like Oprah and less of the history one would rather forget.

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Bollywood star John Abraham is set to produce a film on tiger preservation, according to One India Entertainment.

The movie, The Return of the Tiger, will be directed by Mike Pandey.

“I decided to produce the film because I truly believe tigers are one of the most magnificent creatures on this planet,” Abraham said. “And if we don’t take quick and immediate action to preserve them there will be no tigers left.”

Some experts estimate there are only about 4,000 tigers remaining in the wild, compared to 100,000 existing a century ago.

It’s no surprise that Abraham is so interested in wildlife preservation, given his history of commitment to animals.

A noted vegetarian, he’s was nominated for PETA’s Sexiest male vegetarian last year.

The Return of the Tiger is expected to be screened at film festivals and wildlife preservation summits.

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Paul Watson Poster by Shepherd Fairey

If you hang the shirtless picture of Robert Pattinson or the bikini clad Pamela Anderson on your wall, you’ll need to make room for one eco dreamboat-Whale Wars star and Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson.

Brought to you by the same artist who drew the Obama portraits, Shepherd Fairey, the posters can be purchased online from obeygiant.com.

For $55, fans can get the 18 x24 inch creation signed by Watson himself.

Hang it across from the bed and go to sleep with sweet visions of saving whales by bombing the enemy with rancid butter bombs.

via supervegan.com

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Animal activist Brigitte Bardot recently wrote to Agriculture Minister Gerda Verburg, condemning the Dutch goat and sheep cull that started last week and is expected to continue over the next month.

Bardot said the cull is a, “scandalously disproportionate slaughter which is deeply shocking because of its systematic character.”

Some 40,000 pregnant goat and sheep are expected to be killed.

The animals spread Q fever bacteria when they miscarriage and authorities estimate 2,300 people have become infected with Coxiella burnetii this year, while six people died from the infection.

Bardot states that Q fever in humans can be treated with antibiotics.

Q fever is no ordinary cold–it can give those infected with two weeks of shiver, headaches and a slow pulse rate.

Vaccinating animals can prevent Q fever.

Should the Dutch government have invested in an ounce of prevention versus using this cull as a cure?

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The Humane Society of the United States gave the Barack Obama‘s administration a B- for its various steps toward animal protection, either from upholding current laws or passing new measures.

Some points of interest to animal welfare advocates:

The Postal Service may ban shipment of publications that will appeal to animal fighters, regardless of rain, sleet or snow, thanks to a proposed rule to comply more with the Animal Protection Act.

The Department of Justice defended the Cruelty Depictions Law before the Supreme Court. This law bans the commercial sale of videos depicting cruelty to animals.

And the Environmental Protection Agency revised safety requirements under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). This saved dogs from being the subjects of a study on the effects of feeding pesticides to determine the effects on human health.

Of course, the administration didn’t earn a 4.0, so obviously there were disappointments.

The USDA purchased meat for schools in the U.S. that had lower safety standards and underwent less rigorous testing than meat served in restaurants.

Making vegetarian food a standard option in schools is needed now more than ever.

Take a complete look at the HSUS report card to see how the administration scored in other areas.

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After the victory of preventing downer cattle from entering the food supply, the Humane Society of the United States would like to extend this rule to pigs as well.

Nicole Lapin, CNN anchor reports: “Not only cruel, but the Humane Society says it’s also dangerous to our health to have so-called downers enter into our food supply.”

Perhaps everyone should follow Lapin’s lead and go veg, excluding pigs and all animals from their diets.

The National Pork Producers Association insists proper precautions are already being made to ensure diseased pig product isn’t delivered to the consumer, but Dr. Michael Greger of the HSUS has a different opinion.

Watch to find out.

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Has 10 years of incredible vegetarian progress passed already?

VegNews has compiled their list of top veg stories of the decade and some incredible gains have been made.

Remember when you found out McDonald’s had beef oil in its french fries?

Yeah, they paid for that.

What’s even more exciting is that one of television’s most popular and hilarious hosts, Ellen DeGeneres, along with her partner Portia de Rossi went vegan.

From VegNews:

“After hinting at her new cruelty-free lifestyle at a Prop. 2 fundraiser, comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres officially announced her commitment to veganism at the 2009 Genesis Awards. In the months to follow, DeGeneres hasn’t wasted any time sharing her cruelty-free lifestyle with viewers—around 3 million of them—with vegan guest chefs, factory farming coverage, a veg lunchtime blog, and an entire section of her website dedicated to living the veg life.”

Let’s not forget that sexy Wayne Pacelle was also named CEO of the Humane Society. His efforts to protect animals and his good looks won him a spot on the Most Eligible Bachelor of D.C. list.

Find out what other strides were made at vegnews.com.

via Ecorazzi.com

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