What’s even cooler is if you open the map and use the “Add to Home Screen” option, it essentially functions as an app, but since it’s still just a link to the map, it will automatically be updated whenever new places are added.

In case anyone else is interested in this little trick, here’s the URL for the map: http://g.co/maps/25ntj.

From MercyForAnimals.org:

A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation provides a horrifying look into E6 Cattle Co. in Hart, Texas.

E6 Cattle rears calves for use on dairy farms, confining approximately 10,000 calves and subjecting them to lives of prolonged neglect and misery. For over two weeks in March of 2011, an MFA undercover investigator documented the operation’s deplorable conditions and brutal mistreatment of animals.

MFA’s hidden camera reveals:

• Workers bludgeoning calves in their skulls with pickaxes and hammers – often involving 5 to 6 blows, sometimes more – before rendering the animals unconscious
• Beaten calves, still alive and conscious, thrown onto dead piles
• Workers kicking downed calves in the head, and standing on their necks and ribs
• Calves confined to squalid hutches, thick with manure and urine buildup, and barely large enough for the calves to turn around or fully extend their legs
• Gruesome injuries and afflictions, including open sores, swollen joints and severed hooves
• Ill, injured and dying calves denied medical care
• The budding horns of calves burned out their skulls without painkillers

Upon reviewing the undercover footage, Temple Grandin, PhD, animal welfare advisor to USDA, declared: “It is obvious that both the management and the employees have no regard for animal welfare.”

Colorado State University Professor of Animal Sciences Dr. Bernard Rollin also condemned the operation: “I urge everyone in a position of authority to serve notice to the world that this sort of behavior has no place in a society wishing to consider itself civilized. These people must be corrected with the full force of the legal system.”

Dr. Armaiti May, a practicing veterinarian experienced in the care of farmed animals, echoed Dr. Rollin’s sentiment, recommending that “charges of animal cruelty be brought against the workers involved and that the farm be shut down for cruel treatment of animals and lack of proper oversight of its workers.”

The owner of E6 Cattle required his employees to bash in the calves’ heads with a claw hammer, forcing them to condemn calves to a prolonged and horrific death. As Debra Teachout, DVM, asserts, “They feel every blow until they become unconscious.” The American Veterinary Medical Association condemns the use of blows to the head as a means of killing young calves.

Promptly following the undercover investigation, MFA alerted law enforcement authorities to violations of Texas anti-cruelty law at E6 Cattle, and presented a detailed legal complaint and meticulously compiled evidence of such violations to the Castro County District Attorney and sheriff. The evidence demonstrated an ongoing pattern of torture, unjustifiable infliction of pain and suffering on animals, and a failure to provide necessary medical care.

As MFA continues to expose the unconscionable cruelties of animal agriculture, and to diligently pursue justice by aiding prosecutions of animal abusers, consumers still hold the greatest power of all to end the needless suffering and death of calves – and all farmed animals – by adopting a compassionate, vegan diet.

Another March, another war anniversary post. We’ve now been waging an unconstitutional, immoral, unjustified “war” on Iraq for EIGHT YEARS.

Though it’s not really a war, of course— it’s an invasion and occupation.

So what have we accomplished in all this time?
4,758 dead soldiers, over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND dead Iraqi civilians, and lots more.

There’s plenty I could write about for this latest disgusting anniversary. Hard to choose. The civilian deaths? Soldier suicides? The wounded? Depleted uranium? Obama’s lies and warmongering? The cost of war? The list is endless, and I’ve said it all before. War is nothing new.

Imagine for a moment that you’re an Iraqi civilian. Someone who’s endured this hell for eight years.

Watch this short video:

Now think about listening to those sounds 1,402,528 times and you’ll have an idea of what life has been like for Iraqis since March 19, 2003. If this were happening in America, would the reaction be any different?

Since Obama’s taken office it seems the vast majority of the anti-war crowd has grown completely apathetic, turning a blind eye to this boring, old war. Or worse: adopting and advocating the same justifications once held by Bush-supporting Neo-Cons as to why we are still over there. It’s no fun to protest now that Bush is gone. It seems war is magically more acceptable if there’s a D next to your name instead of an R.

Party affiliation means nothing to the people still being blown up by American bombs. War is war is war. And I’ve had enough.

WAR IS A RACKET.
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW.

The short version: Hi Q’s permits are still pending approval from the Ohio Department of Agriculture and we have until February 22nd to email the ODA and speak out against this. Your voice can make a HUGE difference in the lives of SIX MILLION chickens, not to mention the community that would be left to deal with this horrific facility.

Dead/mangled/diseased chickens are normal occurrences on factory farms like the one Hi-Q wants to build.

If you’re not familiar with battery cages, check out this Virtual Battery Cage for a few minutes to get a glimpse of the hellish lives battery-caged factory-farmed chickens endure.

Another link worth checking out is Your Daily Vegan’s in-depth post on this issue, including a break-down of what exactly Hi-Q’s factory farm will bring to Ohio (hint: LOTS and LOTS of chicken poop, disease, and contaminated water.)

Here’s the full update from Mercy for Animals:

Please take a moment to contact Jim Zehringer, Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, who also serves as the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board Chairman, to ask him to deny the permits Hi-Q Egg Products needs to build a 15 layer-house egg-production facility in York Township, north of Marysville, Ohio that would confine six million hens.

In mid December 2010, dozens of MFA supporters crowded the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s conference room in protest over the proposed permits during a multi-day hearing. The hearing officer is now expected to hand his findings to Zehringer on February 22nd. Chairman Zehringer will ultimately make the final decision on this case.

The millions of hens who could be confined at the proposed Hi-Q Egg Farm would be forced to live crammed together inside battery cages – small, barren wire cages stacked in rows inside filthy windowless sheds. Battery cages are typically the size of a file drawer and confine five to seven hens, giving each bird only 67 square inches of floor space – an area smaller than a notebook-sized piece of paper. Sickness and disease run rampant on factory farms when animals are forced to live in dirty and unsanitary conditions.

In addition to cruelly confining six million hens, Hi-Q Egg Farm would reportedly produce at least 74,000 tons of chicken manure and 23 million gallons of manure-contaminated egg-wash water each year, creating an environmental and public food safety risk.

Hi-Q has been attempting to build its farm for years and has met much resistance from the residents of Ohio. We must continue to speak for the millions of hens that would suffer as a result of this new factory farm, but time is of the essence!

What You Can Do

Please take a moment today to contact Director Zehringer at:
administration@agri.ohio.gov

You can also e-mail your comments to the Board at:
livestockstandardsboard@agri.ohio.gov or send a letter to: Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, 8995 East Main Street, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068.

Politely ask Jim Zehringer and the Ohio Department of Agriculture not to permit Hi-Q Egg Products to build their enormous egg factory farm in our great state. Please send your letter before February 22nd and include in your correspondence your full name and the city in which you live.

Sample Letter:

Dear Director Zehringer,

As a constituent and resident of Ohio, I ask that you deny permits to Hi-Q Egg Products to keep a new battery-cage factory egg farm out of Ohio. This proposed Hi-Q Egg farm would harm the public and violate the values and ideals of Ohioans. Not only are factory farms repositories for unconscionable animal cruelty and neglect, they threaten human health, the environment and local economies. Further, sickness and disease run rampant on factory farms when animals are forced to live in dirty and unsanitary conditions.

Hi-Q is bad for animals, the environment, neighboring communities and the state of Ohio. Please don’t allow this egg factory farm to be built.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Your City, State

We need your help to give a voice to the voiceless – one email today may help save six million hens. Tell Zehringer that animal abuse has no place in Ohio!

Thank you for helping farmed animals in Ohio.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take a couple minutes and speak out against Hi-Q.

After you’re done, spread the word— post this information on Facebook, Twitter, email your friends and family, anything you can think of.

We’re talking about SIX MILLION CHICKENS. The amount of pollution, suffering, and death that would result is unimaginable.

We simply CANNOT let this happen.

The gist of it is this: factory farms are still growing— at an alarming pace. 28 MILLION animals are now confined in these hell holes. It’s incredibly depressing to say the least. But that means there are now 28 million reasons to keep working relentlessly, on behalf of the animals.

From FoodAndWaterWatch.org:

Over the last two decades, small- and medium-scale livestock farms have given way to factory farms that confine thousands of cows, hogs and chickens in tightly packed facilities. Farmers have adopted factory-farming practices largely at the behest of the largest meatpackers, pork processors, poultry companies and dairy processors. The largest of these agribusinesses are practically monopolies, controlling what consumers get to eat, what they pay for groceries and what prices farmers receive for their livestock. This unchecked agribusiness power and misguided farm policies have pressed livestock producers to become significantly larger and adopt more intensive practices. Despite ballooning in size, many livestock producers are just squeezing by because the real price of beef cattle, hogs and milk has been falling for decades.

These intensive methods come with a host of environmental and public health costs that are borne by consumers and communities; none of the costs are paid for by the agribusiness industry.

Factory farms produce millions of gallons of manure that can spill into waterways from leaking manure lagoons or fields where manure is over-applied as fertilizer. Manure contains hazardous air pollutants and contaminants that can endanger human health. Neighbors and workers in these animal factories often suffer intensely from overwhelming odors and related headaches, nausea and other potentially long-term health effects.

Even people thousands of miles away from these facilities are not immune to their impacts. Thousands of animals crowded into unsanitary facilities are vulnerable to disease. Consumers eating the dairy, egg, and meat products produced in factory farms can inadvertently be exposed to foodborne bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella, as well as to the public health consequences of unchecked antibiotics and artificial hormones. And yet, despite all of the well-documented problems and health risks, the number and concentration of factory farms in the U.S. continues to increase.

Read the full report here.

Imagine being locked inside a crowded elevator for your entire life, unable to fully stretch your legs or turn around without rubbing up against someone else. Now, imagine that instead of a crowded elevator, you are barefoot in a wire cage, unable to stand or lie down comfortably, surrounded by tens of thousands of your fellow cage mates inside a giant, ammonia-filled warehouse. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you will never do anything that comes naturally to you.

You will never see the sun, or breathe fresh air, until the day you are sent to slaughter.

For most people it is next to impossible to imagine this type of existence, yet this is the grim reality for millions of egg-laying hens worldwide. But now, thanks to the courageous efforts of Anonymous for Animal Rights, a hidden camera has been installed inside a battery egg facility in Israel, giving the world a rare glimpse of the conditions that millions of egg-laying hens are forced to endure.

The Israeli parliament will soon decide whether or not to ban battery cages under the Israeli Animal Welfare Act and this live broadcast of suffering hens may influence that decision. “This is a first of its kind in Israel, perhaps worldwide. It aims to make the walls of industrial farms transparent, allowing the public a direct view of the suffering 7 million hens have to go through each and every day of their lives,” says Chen Morad, who runs the “Israel Leaves the Cage” campaign for Anonymous.

With growing consumer awareness of the inherent cruelty of battery egg production and mounting concerns over repeated salmonella outbreaks linked to battery cage egg facilities, the days of battery cage egg production may be numbered. In 1992, Switzerland became the first country in the world to ban conventional battery cages. Following a 10 year phase-out period, barren battery cages are due to be banned from the European Union in 2012. After the passage of Proposition 2 in 2008, California became the first U.S. state to ban battery cages effective in 2015, followed by Michigan just last year.

But consumers need not wait for battery cage bans to take a stand against the cruel practices of industrial animal agriculture. Adopting a healthy and humane vegan lifestyle is an easy way that each of us can withdraw our support of needless cruelty to animals. Visit ChooseVeg.com to find out more.

Most recently it was on my way to work when I passed an empty slaughterhouse truck on the highway. I immediately had to hold back tears. I’m not sure what’s more depressing, an empty slaughterhouse truck or a full one. No wait— full is definitely worse. Never do I feel more helpless than when I see a truck packed full of animals, completely exposed to the weather, staring out the tiny holes, probably scared shitless, not knowing they’re about to have their hellish life culminated by a merciless death so some selfish humans can have a cheap meal. I inevitably glare and flip off the truck driver, wondering how he can possibly justify delivering so many animals to their death. I could be homeless and starving on the street and you still couldn’t pay me to drive that truck.

It’s easy to get comfortable in my own little bubble, with my kitchen full of vegan-friendly food, the vegan-friendly restaurants I go to, the fellow vegans I talk with every day. I sometimes forget just how truly horrible it really is out there for the animals. It’s usually a new Mercy for Animals investigation that jolts me back to reality, but sometimes it’s things like that truck on the highway, or another upcoming instance– the holidays.

It’s less than three weeks until Thanksgiving and I’m already depressed about it. I can’t wrap my brain around 45 MILLION animals being killed for one stupid day or that so many people are okay with that.

In the past I’ve set aside the sadness and tried to incorporate vegan options into my family dinner so I could show that meat is not necessary and I have PLENTY to eat besides dry rolls and salad. I’d bring soy butter, veggie gravy, Field Roast, etc. I considered doing that again this year, but was bothered by the fact that no matter how much food I bring, there will still be a dead bird on the table that everyone else will be eating. Not to mention the countless side dishes chock full of tortured animal products. No amount of green bean casserole or mashed potatoes can shield me from that. Plus I can’t handle listening to people pray to their god, giving thanks for all their blessings and asking for compassion, while ignoring the dead animal on the table who had no blessings or compassion whatsoever in its life. I concluded that by trying to adapt to existing traditions, I’m only granting legitimacy to this disgusting event.

So this year I’ve decided to opt out of Thanksgiving.

Perhaps this is selfish and I should try harder to be a good ambassador, but I can’t handle the emotional distress. Even just thinking about how my words and pleas for compassion have no effect on my family at all brings tears to my eyes. It’s too much.

I’m pretty sure most people think I’m crazy for how much this bothers me. For some reason people have compassion for dogs and cats, but not many other animals. The rest are okay to barbecue, hook up to machines, test chemicals on, cage up in zoos, etc. Perhaps they would better understand what Thanksgiving is like for vegans if instead of turkey, tradition called for everyone to eat a fat, juicy cat instead. Or maybe they would just build another mental wall and excuse that practice too.

There are many vegans that are really good at accepting a non-vegan world. Obviously I’m not one of them.

45 million dead turkeys do not evoke a “thankful” feeling. It makes me disgusted and ashamed to be a human. I don’t want to be a part of this revolting holiday any more.

I was so consumed by anger I couldn’t begin to quantify it with words. I had to force myself to just copy and paste the story here, if I attempted to include any commentary it would’ve been pure expletives. Having returned to a slightly more rational frame of mind, I still continue to be haunted by its horrific images.

It helped a little to watch the next day as the story got tons of coverage by the media. Better yet was hearing about the first arrest. But that only brought up new anger about the lack of legal protection afforded to farm animals. The penalty for all of that cruelty inflicted? Only a second-degree misdemeanor in Ohio— a pathetic $750 fine and up to 90 days in jail. Nothing close to justice. Even more, we’re still waiting for Gary Conklin to be arrested. Clearly shown kicking a cow in the video, he has yet to be charged with anything.

The investigation is still in its beginning stages and there is plenty to be depressed and angry about.

Now is the perfect time to remember that 20 miles away from the Conklin Dairy Farm there’s a happy ending to one cruel chapter of the dairy industry. His name is Wesley.

No use to his owner since he’s male and therefore can’t produce milk, he was chained up, starving, and almost too weak to stand when he was rescued by Mindy Mallett, founder of Sunrise Sanctuary.

If you think cows are mindless animals with no personalities, you have to meet this one. Everyone who has will agree: Wesley is a puppy trapped in a cow’s body. Given free reign to roam anywhere on the farm, he often walks onto the back deck and peers into Mindy’s window, whining to come inside. In the winter he likes to fall asleep covered up with a blanket. Oh, and I can hardly leave out this tip— Wesley loves apple juice.

Once you meet him you’ll understand what all the hype is about. Wesley is quite the charmer. A perfect reminder of how incredibly intelligent and loving these animals can be.

Sunrise Sanctuary is home to over 80 other rescued animals, including chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, llamas, cats, dogs, and more. Each have their own story, some more horrific than others, but all have the same happy and compassionate ending.

They’re having a fundraiser on Saturday, June 12th, it’s the perfect opportunity to come out and meet Wesley, along with all the other animals. If you need a break from the heart-wrenching Conklin Dairy story, a visit to Sunrise is sure to lift your spirits.

Wesley is a reminder that groups like Sunrise Sanctuary and Mercy for Animals deserve our energy, not pieces of garbage like Conklin and Gregg. If you’re angry about what happened, I strongly suggest:

1. Stop consuming ALL dairy. Conklin Dairy is not an exception, they are the rule. It does nothing to boycott whatever company may happen to distribute Conklin’s milk, the dairy industry is HUGE, there are countless more operating the same way. Even “humane” dairy farming is cruel. Like humans, cows only produce milk when they’re pregnant, so the cows are kept perpetually pregnant, the resulting baby calves taken away immediately and sold to the veal industry. If you’re opposed to eating veal, you should be opposed to the dairy industry that supplies it.
2. Support compassion. Whether it’s financially or as a volunteer, I highly encourage you to support Mercy for Animals and their important undercover investigations, as well as rescue organizations like Sunrise Sanctuary.
3. Sign the petition for Ohioans for Humane Farms, a citizen-backed ballot initiative to prevent some of the cruelest factory farming practices in Ohio. The measure will require the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board to adopt certain minimum standards that will prevent animal cruelty, improve health and food safety, support family farms and safeguard the environment throughout the state of Ohio.

Of course I’m as anxious as everyone else to see justice prevail in this story. While we wait, it helps to remember Wesley.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Gandhi

Un-fucking-believable. This happened 30 minutes from where I live.

Chilling undercover footage recorded during a new Mercy For Animals investigation exposes dairy farm workers sadistically abusing cows and young calves.

Captured on hidden camera, the shocking scenes of abuse reveal a culture of cruelty at Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City, Ohio.

During a four-week investigation between April and May, MFA’s investigator documented farm workers:

• Violently punching young calves in the face, body slamming them to the ground, and pulling and throwing them by their ears
• Routinely using pitchforks to stab cows in the face, legs and stomach
• Kicking “downed” cows (those too injured to stand) in the face and neck – abuse carried out and encouraged by the farm’s owner
• Maliciously beating restrained cows in the face with crowbars – some attacks involving over 40 blows to the head
• Twisting cows’ tails until the bones snapped
• Punching cows’ udders
• Bragging about stabbing, dragging, shooting, breaking bones, and beating cows and calves to death

After viewing the footage, Dr. Bernard Rollin, distinguished professor of animal science at Colorado State University, stated:

“This is probably the most gratuitous, sustained, sadistic animal abuse I have ever seen. The video depicts calculated, deliberate cruelty, based not on momentary rage but on taking pleasure through causing pain to cows and calves who are defenseless.”

Immediately upon completion of the investigation, Mercy For Animals contacted the City Prosecutor’s Office of Marysville regarding the ongoing pattern of abuse at Conklin Dairy Farms. MFA is pushing for employees of the facility to be criminally prosecuted for violating Ohio’s animal cruelty laws.

The deplorable conditions uncovered at Conklin Dairy Farms highlight the reality that animal agriculture is incapable of self-regulation and that meaningful federal and state laws must be implemented and strengthened to prevent egregious cruelty to farmed animals.

Although many of the abuses documented at Conklin Dairy Farms are sadistic in nature, numerous MFA undercover investigations at dairy farms, pig farms, egg farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses have revealed that violence and abuse to farmed animals – whether malicious or institutionalized – runs rampant nationwide.

Compassionate consumers can end their direct financial support of farmed animal abuse by rejecting dairy, and other animal products, and adopting a vegan diet.