Have you thought about going vegan, but didn’t think you’d be able to do it for the long-term? Here’s an opportunity to “join the world” for 3 days. Click here for more information:

I just found this at http://www.rna.org/paidreleases.php#TheHumane:

9/14/07
The Humane Society of the United States Announces its Animals and Religion Program

(August 30, 2007) The Humane Society of the United States is proud to introduce its new Animals and Religion program. This program will engage religious institutions and individuals on an array of critical animal protection issues based on the universally held principles of mercy, compassion and justice.

Animals and Religionís major initiative, Food, Farming and Faith, recognizes the central role of food in religious traditions and promotes faithful stewardship of animals in agriculture. Through this initiative, we will explore the sacred dimensions of food in various religious traditions and highlight its vital place in community and faith (e.g., Kosher, Halal and the Eucharist).

Food, Farming and Faith also brings into focus the link between industrial animal agriculture and central issues of faith communities such as global hunger and the growing concern of climate change.

ìRelying on bedrock religious principles of compassion and care for all creation, we hope to persuade religious institutions and individuals to make more humane and sustainable food choices,î said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. ìI encourage all people of faith to learn about the treatment of animals raised for food, to square their own consumption habits with religious principles, and to advocate for improved farm animal welfare policies at the local, state and national levels.î

The United Methodist Church and The Episcopal Church are two denominations with official statements addressing farm animal welfare and other current animal protection issues. The HSUS will be calling on these denominations and other religions and faiths to support its animal protection efforts.

The HSUSí Animals and Religion program builds on 15 years of The HSUSí work to foster scholarship and advocacy focused on caring for creation. For more information on the Animals and Religion program, visit humanesociety.org/religion [sic] ….

(The actual URL is http://www.hsus.org/religion.)

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You are cordially invited to a
signing ceremony of a religious proclamation
in support of animal compassion

Presented by
an alliance of religious leaders
representing faith traditions worldwide

Wednesday, November 7, 2007
9:30 ñ 11:30 a.m.
Cannon Caucus Room (Third Floor)
Cannon House Office Building
Independence Avenue and New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, DC 20515

Please join us in this groundbreaking event as
religious leaders issue calls to action for people
of faith to reject animal cruelty in all its forms
and embrace kindness to animals as a core spiritual
value.

Please RSVP to:
krish@bestfriends.org 435.691.0250

Event sponsored by Best Friends Animal Society

www.bestfriends.org

Please visit www.network.bestfriends.org/religion

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Printable version of the invitation (.pdf file)

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Related post with pictures and link to an article about the planning retreat

Click here to watch a news video on the Blessing of the Animals at the National Cathedral

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Click here to read an article posted on Episcopal Cafe:
“Climate Change, Hunger and Industrial Animal Agriculture”.

(There are links to related topics at the end of that article. Please check them out.)

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This is for my non-vegetarian visitors:

My math is bad, and I am estimating based on numbers that are thrown out there about slaughter statistics. Some day I’ll add links to substantiate what I’m saying. For now, these are my thoughts:

It is estimated that over 10 billion land animals are slaughtered for food in the USA every year, and over 9 billion of them are chickens.

If every non-vegetarian living in the US would go one (additional) day per week without meat, and without making up for it another day or switching species, it would spare [reduce the number of "farm" animals needing to be raised and slaughtered] 1,424,657,534 animals each year.

If every non-vegetarian living in the US would cut their total meat consumption in half (without switching species), it would spare 5,000,000,000 land animals per year from being “born to die”.

On one site I found, it is estimated that 9 billion chickens are raised in this country each year either by the the egg industry, or just for meat. (And a similar number of male chicks are killed each year by whatever method is most convenient and economical — suffocation, live burial or by being ground alive to be mixed into feed) Other sites I found estimated that over 300. or 340 million hens are raised by the egg industry each year (I’m surprised it isn’t much higher) — and most spend their lives cramped in battery cages the until sent to slaughter.

If every person living in the US gave up eating eggs, or drastically reduced their egg consumption, (even without giving up meat), it would not only dismantle the cruelest animal agricultural practice (cruelty and numbers-wise), but spare 300-340 million chickens (x 2, including the male chicks that are killed at the hatcheries) each year.

Not that I’m advocating organic meat (because there’s no such thing as “humane slaughter”) but at the very minimum, if non-vegetarians limited their meat consumption to organically-raised animals, not only would it be necessary for the animals to be raised in better and healthier conditions (and not be fed antibiotics, growth hormones, GMO feed or by-products of their own species) and might actually have some freedom of movement, but it would create huge and immediate changes in the way grain and other feed/food is raised. Since it takes 10 times more land to raise crops to feed “food” animals than it does to feed vegans, the demand for organically-raised meat would mean a huge increase in organic farm land in general. That alone would “clean up the environment” quite a bit — the earth and the water supply — and reduce the cancer rates in farmers.

It might even put a huge dent in the profits of the corprations that are responsible for the toxins that are generally used in conventional farming.

Where are you willing to start?
How much are you able to give up?
Would you be willing to tell others what you’re doing, and why?

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Added 10/20/2007:

I just received the following blurb in a JVNA e-newsletter, from FARM-USA:

Latest Report of Annual Farmed Animals Death Toll

Forwarded message from FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement):

[US] Annual Farm Animal Death Toll Drops for First Time
Posted by: “FARM” farm-usa@…<br />
Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:34 pm (PST)
FOR RELEASE ON 10/17/07…
ANNUAL FARM ANIMAL DEATH TOLL DROPS

The total number of land-based animals killed for food in the U.S. this year is projected to reach 10,378 million, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. This represents no significant change from the 2005/2006 mean of 10,381 million, and a 1% drop in the per capita figure, in light of the 1% annual U.S. population growth.

The number of fishes and other aquatic organisms killed for human and animal consumption is not reported by any agency, but is likely to exceed that number.

The 10,357 million land-based animals killed for food in 2006 includes both the 9,432 million animals reported as slaughtered by USDA and an additional 925 million, or 9% of the total, who died lingering deaths from disease, malnutrition, injury, suffocation, stress, or other deadly factory farming practices. The more egregious example are the 266 million laying hens (62% of those hatched), including 213 million males dumped to suffocate slowly in plastic garbage bags upon hatching and 53 million ìspentî females dumped on the waste pile, dead or alive, after a lifetime of laying eggs.

The 2007 total of 10,378 million includes 39 million cattle and calves (about even with the 38.7 million in 2006), 121 million pigs (up 2.6% from 118 million), 4 million sheep and goats, 10 million rabbits, 317 million turkeys (up 5% from 302 million), 28 million ducks (down 7% from 30 million), 9,409 million ìbroilersî (down slightly from 9,428 million) and 450 million laying hens (up 5% from $426 million).

In more personal terms, during a 75-year life span, a typical U.S. resident is responsible for the suffering and death of 10 cows, 34 pigs, and other small mammals, 2,535 turkeys, chickens and ducks, and uncounted numbers of fishes and other aquatic animals.

The 10,357 million animals raised and killed for food in 2006 accounted for 98% of land-based animals abused and killed annually in the U.S. Another 250 million animals were killed for ìsport,î in biomedical laboratories, in pounds, or as ìpests.î

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The report on the number of victims of animal agriculture is compiled each year by FARM, a public interest organization, in connection with the annual observance of World Farm Animals Day, launched in 1983 to expose and memorialize the suffering and deaths of animals in the world’s factory farms and slaughterhouses. This 25th annual observance was co-sponsored by In Defense of Animals and PETA. (www.WFAD.org)

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(Today’s post bumped “Bringing Moos and Oinks to the Food Debate” from the home page.)