Spin

We’ve already talked about Chicago’s foie gras ban, but as bfischer points out, it’s worth noting that CNN’s filed it under “offbeat news”: Link.

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I don’t get how people can call animal rights activist poor debaters when the other side is generally reduced to name calling and bullying. Take the case of Eric Schlosser’s book Chew on This, which released in May and is basically Fast Food Nation for kids. While his last book was slow to catch on, industry groups have been all over this one from the start, which would be cook if it provoked a frank dialogue between the two perspectives, but that isn’t too likely: “It was very revealing of how the (fast-food) industry operates… rather than engage in discussion of the issues I raised, instead of talking about obesity or the treatment of animals or aggressive marketing to the poor, they attempted to besmirch my reputation. I got called anti-American, a socialist, anti-immigrant, a racist – completely crazy stuff. What I found really objectionable was the use of front groups to attack me. At least it would be honest if they attacked me directly.” I’d use this as an example of how fast food can’t dispute the facts behind their product, but after so many years of this crap, I wonder if anyone’s actually read Eric’s work or if this is just the way things get done in the world these days. Link.

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Remember the stories about foreign marketing blunders, like when Chevrolet’s Nova translated into “doesn’t go” or Coke’s slogan got twisted to “Coke brings your ancestors back from the grave”? Add KFC to the list of silly marketers: as Dave Noisy writes, KFC just ran a campaign in China featuring an aging taoist monk proclaiming a chicken sandwich to be a masterpiece. This might have been more effective if they’d used someone other than Fu Qingzhu, a 17th century monk who helped defend the country from invaders, or Taoists in general, who happen to be largely vegetarian, as was Qingzhu. I will give 5 of my own dollars to anyone who can find a KFC response that defends the campaign by calling chicken a vegetable. Link.

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Chris shared a story about trends regarding non-profits and youth, and guess what? More North Americans between the ages of 13 and 24 would volunteer for PETA than any other non-profit. Granted, the “sit around and play videogames society” probably didn’t make it onto the survey (their public relations director is really really swamped right now), and when I was younger I had barely heard of some of the other groups on the list (I remember learning about the Peace Corps through Family Ties episodes on TV, and that didn’t really tell me much about what the group did – something about building bridges, I think I thought). Of course, kids today have new technologies such as the internet to mislead them, and don’t have to rely on sitcoms. Still, if 29.1% of 13-14 year olds put PETA at the top of their wish list, that’s a positive sign. Link.

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Great news! Authorities have finally noticed the increasing amount of violence occurring in farms, slaughterhouses and research facilities, and have put together a course that will help bring the levels down. All I can say is, it’s about time! I’ve been writing about this stuff for more than five years now – we’ve got ever increasing line speeds at slaughterhouses forcing workers to work faster and faster, increasing the number of missed cuts that fail to quickly kill the animals and increase the number of injuries to the workers, and then you’ve got the plain old violence against humans, such as the time that “Sausage King” Stuart Alexander shot four USDA inspectors, killing three. It’s long past time that people did something to stop this, and I applaud the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and others for coming up with a course to curb the rise in… oh. It’s an anti-terrorism class. I forgot the part about how we as animal lovers are trying to “destroy the American way of life and devastate [the] people.” Right… Link.

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Ange sent me the clear winner in the ongoing internet war to make funny mascots out of the animals killed to make a product. I’m not surprised to see that it came from Japan. The whole site is pretty insane, but I’ll link to the page sent to me. Who knows? Maybe they’ve got a “boil the bird alive to loosen the feathers” game in there somewhere. Link.

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Dagda Samildanc notes that they’ve come up with the latest definitive solution to the ol’ “which came first, the chicken or the egg” debate – the winner of the moment is the egg. Nobody seems to know where the egg came from. We need a vegan alternative to the riddle, and plus, if this is the Big Answer, people need something else to talk about. The best vegan-friendly “which came first” in the comments gets a copy of Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World. Link.

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A textbook aimed at 14 year olds in Western India has raised a few eyebrows for some passages comparing donkeys to housewives. Quotes include “A donkey is like a housewife… It has to toil all day and, like her, may even have to give up food and water.” and “In fact, the donkey is a shade better… for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents’ home, you’ll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master.” I don’t have any commentary for this one, it just seemed wrong not to share it. Link.

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The state of Missouri is under fire from the insidious vegetarian menace! Republican senators John Cauthorn and Bill Stouffer are going after a Connecticut vendor of standardized test preparation supplies. It seems that they have a problem with some of the lessons in the test kit, one of which involves analyzing a passage entitled “why be a vegetarian.” Missouri residents can no doubt rest assured that senators Cauthorn and Stouffer are keeping them safe from independent thought and critical thinking. I’m surprised that they didn’t try to pull some kind of “no religion in schools” routine. Incidentally, both senators are members of a trade group for cattle ranchers. Link.

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