July-September, 1998 Vol. 2, No. 3
| January – March | April – June | October – December |
Inside This Issue
Do We Need Milk to Get Enough Calcium?
Vesanto Melina, Brenda Davis, and Victoria Harrison, Registered Dieticians
Authors of “Becoming Vegetarian” — by The Book Publishing Company, 1-800-695-2241
Is it possible to build strong bones without cow’s milk? If you grew up in North America you’d probably think not. After all, dairy products are one of the four “essential” food groups and we all know that it’s hard to plan a well balanced diet when a whole food group is left out.
But wait a minute, if dairy foods are so important for good nutrition and more specifically for strong bones, how can it be that many of the people with the lowest rates of osteoporosis in the world consume little or no dairy at all? It is really quite simple. In addition to positive lifestyle factors such as ample weight bearing exercise, these people eat plant centered diets and therefore need less calcium than people who consume a lot of meat. Animal foods tend to be high in sulfur-containing amino acids, which cause calcium loss in the urine. Thus in countries where the use of animal foods is high, the recommended dairy intake for calcium is often set well above the 400-500 mg intakes typical in these countries.
All that having been said, one may still wonder who people who don’t use dairy get dietary calcium. They often have the same calcium sources as large boned animals such as cows and elephants: plant foods. While it is true that dairy products are high in calcium, they are far from being the only good calcium sources. Calcium powerhouses from the plant world include many dark greens, legumes, nuts, and seeds. So, if you have decided to reduce or eliminate dairy from your diet, rest assured that it is possible to get enough calcium without milk. The chart that follows gives a summary of calcium-rich plant foods. Provided in the chart is the following information;
1. Total Calcium Content per serving. This gives the calcium content in mg of calcium per serving. Source: Pennington’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Used.
2. Fractional Absorption. This tells us how much calcium we can actually absorb from a food. For example, the figure for broccoli is 53% which means that we can absorb about 53% of the calcium we get from broccoli. The figures were derived from Connie Weaver’s work at Purdue University in the U.S.
3. Absorbable Calcium. This figure tells us how much calcium will be absorbed by our bodies. It is obtained by multiplying the total calcium in a serving of food by its fractional absorption.
If you would like to compare your total calcium intake to the RDA, calculate your intake by using the Calcium Content column rather than the Absorbable Calcium column.
How much calcium does an adult need each day? To put things into perspective, here are a variety of recommendations from expert groups in different parts of the globe.
Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) US, 1989 recommends 1200 mg for age 11 to 24 years, and 800 mg for age above 24 years.
US National Institute of Health (NIH) Consensus Development Conference, June 1994 recommended 1200-1500 mg for age 11 to 24 years, 800 mg for age 25 to 50 (1000 for women over 50 with estrogen replacement, and 1500 at menopause without estrogen replacement), and increase toward 1500 for both sexes over 50.
Canada, 1990 recommended 700 mg for women 19 to 49, and 800 mg for men over 19 and women over 49.
United Kingdom, 1991 recommended 700 mg for everyone age 19 and over.
Japan, 1992 recommended 600 mg for everyone age 19 and over.
World Health Organization recommends 400-500 mg for all adults. This “Suitable Group Mean Intake” has not changed for the past 30 years.
Why is there such a great range in the opinions of people who have spent their lives studying calcium status and bone health? The exact level of calcium intake that can be considered adequate is clearly a matter of debate. This is because:
-
There is no easy, routine way to access calcium status.
-
The body has the capacity to adapt to a wide range of calcium intakes.
-
Eating patterns and other habits that affect calcium balance differ from place to place in many ways.
In setting the recommendations set above, experts have taken into account the lifestyle factors which exist for their respective population groups. To quote the World Health Organization Technical Report #797 (1990) “Populations in developing countries appear to be at less risk from fractures than those in developing countries, despite their lower body weights and calcium intakes, possibly because they smoke less, drink less alcohol, do more physical work (which promotes bone formation), and consume less protein and salt (both of which increase obligatory calcium loss from the body).”
1 cup
300
32
96
1 oz
80
21
17
1 Tbsp
43
21
9
1 cup
82-89
17
14-15
1 cup
121-128
17
21-22
1 cup
161
17
27
1 cup
178
53
94
1 cup
56
64
36
1 cup
158
54
85
1 cup
50
65
33
1 cup
34
69
23
1 cup
94
59
55
1 oz
37
21
8
1 oz
281
21
58
1 Tbsp
64
21
13
1 cup
200
31
62
1 cup
95 or 76
31
29 or 24
1 cup
244
5
12
½ cup
258 or 130
31
80 or 40
1 cup
198
52
103
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The Cow and Her Milk
Safe or Risky?
By Richard A. Hansen, M.D. — “Ahimsa,” American Vegan Society, Jan 1998
Dr. Hansen is the Director of the Poland Spring Health Institute at Poland, Maine.
Dr. Virgil Hulse, a physician, veterinarian, and research scientist, has just published a book (Mad Cows and Milk Gate) outlining these dangers. One of the worst one is the feeding of unusable bits of cow and sheep back to the animals in the form of protein supplements. Most farmers did not realize what they were feeding their animals as the pallets are marketed primarily as animal protein supplement. Similar supplements are also given to cattle in the form of ground up chicken feathers, with inevitable contamination as is evident in any slaughterhouse or poultry factory. The American agribusiness is just as guilty of these practices as in England, supported by vehement denials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that there could be any risk to human health. Interestingly, as I write this article a news note comes through the AMA (American Medical Association) weekly physician’s paper that the FDA decided to ban this practice, phasing it out by the end of 1996. But our government may have “closed the barn door after the horse had already escaped.”
Cows and sheep and other ruminants are all by nature vegetarians. Thus it is biologically unnatural to feed a cow any substance derived from dead animals. First, these herbivorous creatures become carnivores, and later they are cannibals. Finally, they end up on the dinner table of the unsuspecting consumer. The meat from a dead cow with its bones, blood meal, and soy bean is mixed up into pellets, advertised in dairy magazines with colorful pictures promoted to increase the cows’ milk production, thus making them “super cows.” Common sense should tell us that this practice is a bad idea.
Last summer it was my privilege to speak on the subject at two camp meetings in Europe. On a flight back from Stockholm to London I met a fascinating couple. Breakfast was being served on the British Airlines plane. The gentleman politely asked the stewardess if the meat on his tray was beef. She replied tactfully, “No, it is not. We do not serve beef.” The gentleman asked, “Is that the policy of your airline?” Replied the stewardess, “No, it is not our policy. We just do not do it!” One more question he asked, “Why?” She replied, “Because no one would eat it; and we don’t like to waste food!”
So I had my bran muffin, fruit, and granola while the gentleman ate his slice of pork. After the trays were collected I turned to this man and engaged him in conversation. Both the business man and his wife were international consultants to the dairy industry, experts from California who had just spent a week on a British farm. The news they shared was interesting and not likely to appear in the London Times.
What I learned from these friends on British Airlines fascinated me. A compromise was reached. Three million cows were slated for cremation. This enormous multitude of cows waiting on “death row” could not be processed in a few weeks. What to do in the meantime? The cows have to be fed. And, to earn their keep the cows would be milked. Into the food chain went the milk of condemned animals who, given enough time, were likely to develop BSE.
Normally cows trust man, but man became their worst nightmare. Cows have become a primary recycling agent in this twisted society. We feed cows orange skins, almond husks, dead sheep and cows, and chicken manure. This unconscious cow cannibalism is supplemented by the feathers from chickens and turkeys, ground up and mixed up to become the final cow food. Fortunately, they don’t know what they are eating or they would really get mad! Sold to the dairy men as dairy supplement that contains special bypass proteins called PNP, protected natural protein; this is used to get more milk from the dairy cow. Traditionally a single cow would produce 20 pounds of milk a day. Today the average is more than three times that much.
We wonder why there is not more BSE-like disease in the United States. But there is in America an epidemic of “downer cow syndrome” which could be a mutated strain of Mad Cow Disease.
The times in which we live call for a return to what I call the original diet: fruits, grains, nuts, and vegetables. I believe it is also time to advise our friends and neighbors to choose alternatives to milk. Avoid, too, the consumption of eggs; and, in short, make the diet completely vegan, without recourse to any animal products at all.
There are some wonderful recipes that can enable an average cook and homemaker to prepare healthful nut and seed based milks. I include a few, and we can offer many more in our recipe books and cards. All one needs is a blender, a little time, and some ingenuity. Commercial products are also available with milks based on the soybean, rice, and other grains. Solait, Eden Soy, and Rice Dream are just a few of the products available. Soy based cheeses are also easy to prepare and constitute excellent substitutes for any recipe that would use dairy based cheese, whose risks are too great. In soy based milks you will obtain more magnesium, an excellent grade of protein, and completely avoid the risk of lactose intolerance with its annoying symptoms of abdominal cramps, gas, and diarrhea. 75% of adults of Afro-American descent and as many as 40 to 50% of whites and orientals lack some or all lactose enzymes. These therefore have an intolerance to milk.
Galactose, another sugar in cow’s milk, is normally transformed into glucose, even by the baby. Some infants, however have lactose intolerance manifested by the failure to thrive, a development of cataracts, and other symptoms. These babies usually do very well on soy milk. Bed wetting in children can be improved when milk is removed from the diet. Constipation is relieved, particularly in the elderly. Colic in babies is relieved when mothers breast feed their infants or use a soy formula.
But most important is the reduced cholesterol intake, the elimination of oxidized cholesterol, and the lowered risk of arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries. Powdered milk, powdered eggs, whey, smoked fish, meat, cheeses all contain oxidized cholesterol, a very toxic substance to the blood vessels. Cholesterol is found [for all practical purposes] exclusively in animal products, and it is best not to eat any cholesterol-containing food at all.
Of immediate concern, however, is the risk of cancer, now common in beef cows, dairies, and other domestic food animals. Pasteurization offers no protection against many viruses including hoof and mouth disease, lymphosarcoma virus, and the prions that cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.
These prions are so resistant that they survive radiation, formaldehyde, and heating to 360 degrees C. (700 F). Disease in animals has increased rapidly. The use of milk is becoming too unsafe for me to use it on my cereal.
I have just begun to discuss some of the reasons for total dietary veganism. The life you save may be your own. May you have health and peace also as you live in these momentous times.
Making Your Own Milks
3/4 cup almonds, blanched 3-1/4 cups water 2 Tbs. sweetener 1/4 tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup soyagen
Blend almonds with small amount of water first, then add remaining water and ingredients. Whiz until smooth. Strain, chill, and serve.
Cashew Milk Blend
1 cup cashew meal 1 cup hot water add 1/4 tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla 3 Tbs. sweetener 3 cups water
Blend all until smooth. Chill and serve.
Rice Milk
2/3 cup hot cooked rice 1/3 cup cashew meal 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 Tbs. sweetener 3 cups hot water
Blend all until smooth. Chill and serve.
Oatmeal Milk
2 cups cooked oatmeal 4 cups water 1/2 tsp. salt 1 ripe banana 1 tsp. vanilla 2 Tbs. sweetener
Blend all until smooth. Chill and serve.
Note: Non-alcohol vanilla is now available, extracted with vegetable glycerin.
Sesame Milk
1 cup sesame seeds, light 1/4 tsp. salt 2 cups water 1/4 cup sweetener
Bring sesame seeds and water to a boil. Simmer ten minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. Chill and serve.
Almond Milk (2nd variation)
1 cup almonds (soaked overnight) 5 cups water 1/4 cup raisins (or 2 Tbs. sweetener) 2 tsp. vanilla
Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. You can either strain out the almonds or can keep in for a thick milk.
See Freya Dinshah’s Vegan Kitchen for a method of water-extracting vanilla at home.
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Are You Unknowingly Purchasing Slaughterhouse By-products?
Keep Your Consumer Dollars from Supporting the Meat Industry
By Hillary Morris and Maribeth Abrams-McHenry — Vegetarian Voice, Winter 1998
Hillary Morris is an animal rights activist who has been closely involved in the vegan movement for several years.
Maribeth Abrams-McHenry is the Managing Editor of Vegetarian Voice magazine.
Scanning labels is a ritual for conscientious consumers. It’s not unlike a yearly physical exam where we’re looking for things we hope not to find. Foods and personal care products may include unwanted additives, allergens, or animal ingredients. What many people may be unaware of, however, is the vast number of animal ingredients hidden in everyday products by being labeled with barely-decipherable chemical names.
To further complicate the matter, some products labeled “no animal ingredients” may contain animal products, as no federal guidelines exist to monitor this claim. Some manufacturers persist in the misinformed belief that ingredients such as honey, silk, whey, casein, bone and gelatin are not derived from animals, and label their products as animal-free, even if they contain such items. Although some companies have traditionally been diligent about correctly labeling their products as to whether they contain animal ingredients, this is not the case with some others.
It is virtually impossible to avoid all animal-derived ingredients. From glycerol in brake fluid to tallow fatty alcohol in paint, animal products are everywhere. However, a growing number of people are trying, to the best of their ability, to avoid as many products as possible that contain animal ingredients. Most of them are already aware of the origins of whey, casein, honey and silk. But how can we learn how to decipher ambiguous ingredients such as arachidonic acid, oleolic acid, propolis, castoreum and cochineal, all of which are animal-derived?
Almost everybody likes to talk about food, so if you want to learn about products that are free of animal ingredients, then just ask someone who’s been following a vegan diet for some time. This is a good place to start because you are likely to get a lengthy list of food items, personal care items, and maybe even information on price and availability. However, limiting yourself to someone else’s food likes could get boring, so the next step is to obtain a reference guide of consumer ingredients and their origins.
If the idea of cross referencing product ingredients during a so-called “quick” trip to the grocery store seems worse than going hungry, then consider the fact that this shopping process gets easier through practice, just like everything else in the life.
If you are looking at a product’s ingredient list and find words that you don’t understand, it may take a minute or two to find out what they mean and where they come from by using a reference guide. (Jiv Daya Digest published a reference guide last year in July-September issue.) Chances are, the next time you come across that ingredient, you will remember its origin. Likewise, once you start using the products that you have identified as being free of animal ingredients, you will remember them for future shopping occasions. Beware, however, that product manufacturers do sometimes make ingredient changes. It is wise to occasionally check the labels of even your tried-and-true favorites.
Many conscientious consumers say that once they become accustomed to reading labels, they are able to do quick scans for certain ingredients, rather than starting with the first ingredient on a list and working their way down. For example, many of us have learned through label-reading that many commercial breads contain whey or milk powder. Scanning for these items takes just seconds, compared with the minute that it might take to review an entire list. If the ingredient in question appears, then the product can be put back on the shelf. Scanning the entire label only becomes necessary if the scanned-for ingredient is not there. Another time-saver is choosing products with few ingredients. This has obvious health advantages, too, as short ingredient lists often mean less processing.
You may occasionally encounter products that contain questionable ingredients, such as biotin, which may or may not be derived from an animal. In such instances, contacting the manufacturer is the only way to determine the ingredient’s source. Whenever you discover a product labeled “no animal ingredients” that does actually contain some animal product, consider contacting the manufacturer to inform that they are mislabeling the product, and explain that the ingredient (such as honey, casein, or milk) is derived from animals.
Does this mean that if “questionable” ingredients are listed on products labeled “no animal ingredients” that this always requires a call to the company? Not necessarily. If you contact the manufacturer to ask what they specifically mean by the statement “no animal ingredients” and find that their product guidelines are specific enough to ensure no animal ingredients are ever used, then it is probably safe to assume that all of their products labeled “animal-free” are, in fact, free of animal ingredients.
We believe that learning about animal ingredients, reading labels, and communicating with product manufacturers is a minor effort compared to the great reward of knowing that we are taking an important step towards living more compassionately. We can go beyond this though, by also educating our friends and family about this lifestyle choice. Who knows? This might open the door for our loved ones to incorporate compassionate consumerism into their own lives.
WHY AVOID HIDDEN ANIMAL INGREDIENTS?
Decades ago, going vegetarian was viewed by many as somewhat weird behavior. Today, as our society is finally starting to recognize the benefits of vegetarianism, proclaiming that one is giving up meat may actually be met with approval. But what if we start scrutinizing the labels of everyday products for hidden animal-derived ingredients? You might be asked, “Why worry about a minuscule amount of lipase? [an enzyme from the stomachs and tongue glands of calves, kids and lambs which is used in cheese-making and in digestive aids] It isn’t going to kill you!”
Well yes, it’s probably true that a tiny bit of animal enzyme won’t cause bodily harm (no harm to the human’s body, that is!). So why would anyone bother to avoid it?
We would probably answer that question with the same words they might use to explain why they do not eat meat: it is cruel to use animals for our consumption when we can easily get by without them. Given the facts about the animal production industry, even the (non-vegan) vegetarians are likely to want to start reducing their consumption of less obvious animal ingredients.
Surprisingly, some people who consider themselves vegetarian continue to consume products that contain remains of slaughtered animals, such as gelatin (made from ground-up skin and bones, found in Jell-O, supplement capsules, and photographic film) and rennet (made from the lining of calves’ stomachs, used to coagulate hard cheese). Some of these people may be unaware that these hidden animal ingredients even exist. Others know about them but feel that they are just minor components of a product, and that their presence is therefore not important.
So, how important are hidden animal ingredients? To the meat industry, they are extremely important! Every ounce of marketable product — from hooves to urine — contributes to the profit margin of the industry as a whole. For example, elastin, a protein found in the neck ligaments and aortas of cows, is purchased by companies that manufacture skin-care products. Hyaluronic acid, a protein found in umbilical cords and in fluids around joints, is used as a cosmetic oil. According to the National Rendering Association, the sale of animal by-products grossed more than two billion dollars last year. Purchasing goods that contain animal ingredients supports the meat industry just as much as buying foods that contain meat, eggs, and milk. Plus, as consumers, each of our purchases is a vote of approval. As experience has proven, if enough of us are willing to purchase veggie burgers (for example), then companies will strive to meet this demand. Likewise, if we buy products free of animal ingredients (especially from companies that intentionally avoid them) we help to ensure their availability and profitability.
Many people who do not eat meat for ethical reasons do continue using animal by-products that are obtained while the animals are still alive. Dairy is a good example, as many vegetarians who consume it rationalize their behavior by pointing out that cows are not killed in order to provide humans with this particular by-product. These vegetarians may not realize that dairy cows spend their entire lives in a cycle of imposed pregnancies to maintain lactation, and that within 24 hours of birth, nearly all of their calves are taken away. Not only are they deprived of their mothers’ milk, but the male calves born out of this process are also forced into the veal industry. Some of them are killed immediately for veal; others are chained by their necks for 16 weeks in tiny wooden crates prior to slaughter. Their mothers (the dairy cows) are killed for fast-food hamburgers and other cheap ground-meat products once their milk flow is no longer economically advantageous. Because of these and other production methods, many people believe that the dairy industry involves more cruelty than that of the meat business.
There are other animals besides dairy cows that are used for by-products while they are still alive. Musk oil, a secretion painfully obtained from musk deer, beavers, muskrats, civet cats and otter genitals is used in perfumes. Also, captive wild cats, caged in horrible conditions, are whipped around the genitals to produce this scent. On farms in North Dakota and Canada, female horses are impregnated and then confined from the fourth month through the end of their 11-month pregnancies so their urine can be gathered for Premarin, a brand of estrogen. After the mares give birth, they are reimpregnated and their foals are usually slaughtered for meat. When the bodies of animals raised for their by-products cease to be productive, they too are slaughtered.
Some vegetarians who purchase items containing animal by-products believe that it is okay to do so because animals are not specifically raised for their by-products. Their rationale is that using items such as pepsin and lard (both originate from pigs’ stomachs) is not unethical, because the animals are going to die anyway for their flesh. But we believe that the ultimate destination of each part of an animals’ body is irrelevant; what matters is that their lives are filled with suffering.
To illustrate this on a human level, consider the wigs manufactured during World War II made with hair cut from the heads of concentration camp prisoners. Although the people were not specifically imprisoned for the output of hair for wigs, their lives were filled with immeasurable suffering, they were eventually killed, and the camps profited by selling their hair. We believe that all beings, human and non-human, feel emotions and sense pain, and refuse to be part of a system that treats animals as means to an end, rather than as ends in themselves who exist for their own reasons.
Don’t be too surprised if you discover animal-derived ingredients in products labeled “no animal ingredients!” Before jumping to conclusions that manufacturer is trying to deceive you, consider the possibility that the company might not even realize that the ingredient in question came from an animal. Or, perhaps its origin is known, but the manufacturer made the unfortunate assumption that consumers won’t even care about such an “innocuous” substance in what might be viewed as a minuscule amount.
Such an instance presents an excellent opportunity to educate. Compassionate consumerism includes explaining to manufacturers that you only purchase products that are free of animal ingredients. Companies do respond to consumer demand, but only after being made aware that a vegetarian/vegan market exists.
Communication with product manufacturers is likely to be much more fruitful if you follow the suggestions below:
• Be specific. When trying to find out if a product is free of animal ingredients, avoid asking whether or not the product or a particular ingredient is vegetarian or vegan, because the person you are speaking with may not understand the true definitions of these words. Much better is to use the term “animal-derived” in your dialogue, and to specify what this means. Explain that it includes milk and eggs or their derivatives, insects and their products, and all ingredients derived or extracted from animal flesh.
• Get it in writing. If you are told by a customer representative that a product is definitely vegan, then ask for it in writing. By doing so, you will be much more likely to get accurate information.
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Until the Tiger Talks…
By Sandy Mickelson — Doris Day Animal League — “Animal Guardian,” April-June, 1997
When the circus comes to your town and it features wild animal acts as part of the entertainment, be a voice.
Many people who otherwise are revolted at instances of animal abuse do not recognize the abusiveness of circuses. Circuses provide an excellent opportunity to start an education process (especially for children) that teaches the responsibility and respect we need to show these beautiful animals and voice the position that we do not find anything the least bit entertaining in this brutal exploitation.
What exactly is wrong?
Cramped cages, extreme boredom, deprivation of food, pain and punishment in the form of electronic shocks, loud noises (guns), whipping, muzzling, and even drugs all combine to hone the animal’s performance skill, thereby creating a thrill for the audience.
After the big top folds, what then? Circus animals suffer most before and after the show. The end result of living in cramped cages and being chained at the foot for 18-20 hours a day may lead to physical problems — foot rot, chain sores, organ failure and in some cases, insanity or death. To circus entrepreneurs, these animals are merely disposable inventory — when they are used-up, they are replaced. There are precious few sanctuaries for these “used-up animals.”
George Adamson, husband of Joy Adamson of Born Free fame, said in his autobiography: “A lion is not a lion if it is only free to eat… it deserves to be free to hunt and to choose its own prey; to look for and find its own mate; to fight for and hold its own territory; and to die where it was born — in the wild. It should have the same rights as we have.”
What does it say about human nature when we degrade these magnificent creatures by making them perform tricks for human amusement? More importantly, what are we saying to our children about acceptable behavior from humans? Is it possible that we are, in fact, sanctioning cruelty to living creatures — even humans?
Consider the case of the caged tiger. There can never be a cage large enough for a tiger. This captive animal has been denied the freedom to roam in an environment that is suitable to its species. It is condemned to a life of hardship, a life without hope. Most of the day is spent isolated in a steel cage — broken and controlled by his or her captor. The fact that a human is able to train these animals to perform tricks such as jumping through flaming hoops and forcing the animal to open its mouth so that the trainer can put his head between its jaws (exhibiting total control), is beyond reprehensible. To witness this loss of dignity and somehow condone it is a profoundly sad observation of human behavior.
Circus animals do not have a choice. But we do. We can make a statement by not attending, by using the local media to express our views and by letting the sponsors of these circuses know how we feel.
Letting our children know exactly why we say “no” enables them to exhibit responsible stewardship and control regarding the respect and the quality of life these animals deserve and their inherent right to be born, to live and to die according to their own nature.
Many well-meaning people go to circuses. To them, circus animals appear to be happy, contented, well-cared-for and not subjected to cruelty. The eyes only “see” what they want to see, so the suffering goes on.
As a self-imposed voice for the plight of these circus animals, we have an opportunity to succeed in a small part in the preservation of these endangered species on our endangered planet. The next time the circus comes to your town, be a translator. Be a voice for the
ones who can not speak the language of humans,
tiger doomed to die in a small cramped cage,
elephant chained by his bleeding foot,
caged lion pacing side to side in a cage longing for something he may not remember — freedom. be a voice…
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It’s an Elephant’s Life
PETA’s “Animal Times” — Winter 1997
After years of abuse, do Lota and Calle have a chance for happiness? Both Lota and Calle were born into free-roaming herds in Asia. For them, life would have been very different without the circus. They would have spent their entire lives at their mothers’ sides in a family of sisters, aunts and cousins, enjoying long childhoods, playing with other youngsters, cooling off in water holes and dozing in the shade under the vast skies of their native lands. Gradually they would have learned how to care for the herd’s newborns. Eventually they would have had the joy of raising their own families.
Lota’s Story
Lota was born in India in 1952. At the age of 6, she was trapped and sold to the Milwaukee County Zoo in Wisconsin. For the next 32 years, Lota was confined to a small, concrete stall, nothing more than a living museum piece. Lota was “trained” to behave by an elephant “consultant,” who has been captured on video repeatedly digging sharp bullhooks into elephants’ tender skin and ignoring the screams of injured, frightened elephants.
In 1990, zoo officials passed Lota on to the Hawthorn Corporation in Illinois because, like many elephants imprisoned for years, she had become “aggressive.” On the day she was forced from the only “home” she had known since infancy, the terrified Lota refused to move and was roped, chained, beaten and dragged from her stall. Witnesses said that blood flowed from the back of the moving truck. Hawthorn, Lota’s new “home,” an animal-leasing business begun by millionaire John Cuneo, was a large, dark shed, in which chained elephants were warehoused until Cuneo could rent them out. In 1994, Lota was sent to perform at the Walker Bros. Circus.
In May 1996, the Hawthorn Corporation was fined for violations of animal welfare laws. That August, Hawthorn elephants Hattie and Joyce collapsed and died of tuberculosis. The exhausted animals had been forced to perform up until their deaths. By October of that year, Lota was also obviously ill but she, too, was still forced to travel and perform. Suspecting that Lota had tuberculosis, Florida officials turned the circus back at the state line.
In February 1997, Walker Bros. Circus was fined by the U.S. government for failing to provide veterinary care, for hiring inexperienced animal handlers and for transporting animals in unsafe vehicles. Hawthorn’s license to exhibit animals was (temporarily) suspended when Cuneo was caught trying to ship a baby elephant with tuberculosis to Puerto Rico.
As we go to print, Lota is still in the hands of a company that will rent her out to circuses, unaware that so many are fighting for her freedom and retirement.
Calle’s Story
Calle was born in Asia in 1966. As a 1-year-old, she was captured, taken from her mother, shipped to the U.S. and sold to a “trainer” named Howard Johnson. For the next 20 years, Calle was rented to circuses all over North America and then used as a “prop” in a Las Vegas show. When the show closed, Calle was kept chained in the hotel basement.
In 1987, Calle was sold to a new “owner” who put her to work giving rides to children. Three years later, Calle was sold again. In 1991, while traveling with a circus in Mexico, the trailer carrying Calle flipped completely over and she was injured.
Two years later, Calle ended up at the Los Angeles Zoo.
After so many years of harsh treatment, Calle may have finally cracked. She injured a zoo handler in October 1996 and the zoo shipped her back to Johnson to house where they decided her fate.
It wasn’t until April 1997 that the Los Angeles Zoo admitted that Calle had been suffering from tuberculosis. Calle was moved again, this time to the San Francisco Zoo and housed alone. Today Calle is 31. She remains all alone there.
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SWAMP CIRCUS !
Laughter and dare devilry without cruelty
Gurglings
Swamp is an animal-free circus-theater born in 1986, with an environmentally flavored artistic direction and a vegan philosophy.
In 1985, after several months of trying to get a vegan menu at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, I was allowed back to menace society with vegetarian morality and launch a new circus. The ‘activities’ to avoid had been squarely marked out but I’d rather be controlled outside than in. Being against all suffering, it is easy to ‘burn out’; it’s often harder to create something fresh — a fragile, emotional process, a gamble with painful upsets. Working closely with human beings can be that test…
I suspect scientific lies That whales are committing suicide A bleeding, beaching, choking fate Struggling to communicate That seas and skies are growing dim As lies and waste are taken in
Threatening future life and kin
Word-less
Circus-theater is an excellent medium for ideas — comic, colorful, spectacular images, live music and audience involvement allow communication without language.
In 1988 we performed and traveled in what was the Soviet Union, where each city has its own purpose-built circus and circus arts are viewed on a level with ballets and opera. Unlike the British mobile zoos, the Soviet and Chinese circuses are based on stunning human performance. At home, new circus was growing with accessible skills in the community. Many began to juggle, fall off stilts and unicycles and dance, BMX and skateboards joined our clowns in youth centers. Our workshops and projects took us from Special Needs Units, hospitals and schools to castles, sports centers, theaters and then eventually, to our own big top.
Our Own Tent!
Since 1992 we have been touring our tent, show and circus school across Britain. A blue and yellow striped tent with 300 tiered seats, ring, two stages and backdrop forming a mobile theater with trapeze and swinging aerial acts in the air above. Our acts are very much a part of the story with live music, characters, jugglers, rope-artists, acrobats, trick-cyclists, stilt-creatures and clowns. The circus calls for multi-talented performers, varied jobs and hard work — we would especially like to hear from vegan acrobats and administrators!
The spirit of joy
Has left the lonely boys
In the heart of the city
Though our shows have an ecological flavor our audiences come from all walks of life and we are always eager to play in new areas rather than the safe, ‘right on’ public. Last summer we enjoyed tremendous appreciation in Germany where green consciousness was in vogue but vegans seemed rare. Maybe it’s easier to be vegan when you are poor! It was refreshing though, to receive appreciation for artistic skill and energy alongside ideological content, even from German circus proprietors. In England promoters occasionally mention that they’d like something a ‘bit more traditional’, but that is paranoid state of things in 1995 — we have to go forward somehow!
But How?
Living next to the canal, one day I met an elephant chained to a steel ring set in concrete. It was part of the dwindling number of English family circuses, and a desperate reminder of the animal freak show and human greed, bleed and speciesism — why pay good acrobats when the elephant will dance for free? Looking into the wise-weary eyes of these down-trodden giants raises a great sadness and anger. How do we fight for a new way, an expression for today? We need to support the alternatives… but where is the support and investment?
It is the struggle to continue and grow that is the thorn wedged firmly in the side of romantic ideal. How to train in human circus skills? How to raise funds and administrate an ‘alternative’ business? How to pay, feed and accommodate artistes in a blue and yellow collection of old trucks and caravans — help — any ideas — it all comes together in the end. A mixture of characters, nationalities, temperaments and beliefs working together daily in close contact for 6 months.
The Swamp-Plan Diet
Though there is no enforced veganism the circus only cooks vegan meals. Most of the performers are vegetarian and vegan is more practical on the road where refrigeration is unreliable. An accompanying catering outfit with an exotic varied menu and tempting food for the public is a beautiful dream. It’s often difficult to be gastronomically creative at the end of a long sweaty day but it’s funny how palates change, and even die-hard German, sausage-eating jugglers can proclaim themselves vegetarian after half a year’s rice, daal and veggie burgers! A typical Swamp menu for 15 is: Big crunchy sesame salad/pakoras/curry and cous-cous followed by flapjack. It would be excellent to introduce vegan food to inquisitive audiences in France and Germany where veganism is still in infancy.
Support the Dream
Back to the present and our church, Looking Glass Spire, set on a hill with weather worn graveyard. At last after years of hiring, borrowing space and training in France we now have a center — Greentop. It’s a circus school, theater, rehearsal space, vegan café and environmental base. It is from here that we have launched ‘Earthcirc’ — a circus and tree planting project in West Africa.
To make and spread our dream needs energy and investment. We appeal for support or exchange — write or call in at any time.
Contact: Swamp Circus Theater, Hall Road, Brightside, Sheffield S4 8AS, United Kingdom.
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Next of Kin
What Chimpanzees Have Taught Me About Who We Are
The Amazing Story of Washoe
Introduction to the book by Roger Fouts — “Animal Guardian,” July-September, 1997
The first chimpanzee I ever knew was Curious George, the mischievous hero of the classic children’s book written by H.A. Rey.
It was the late 1940’s and I was a small boy. One night my mother read me the story about “a good little monkey” who is captured in Africa by “the man with the yellow hat.” The mysterious man pops Curious George into a sack, puts him on a ship and takes him to a big city far away.
Curious George feels sad to leave home. But he is soon having fun. He tries hard to be good, but he can’t seem to help getting into trouble. “The naughty little monkey” winds up in prison. His friend, the man with the yellow hat, rescues him and puts him in a zoo, where the story ends happily: “What a nice place for George to live!”
I loved this story. It never occurred to me to wonder why Curious George has to leave his home in the jungle, or who the man with the yellow hat was, or why he put George in zoo. I was only a child.
Twenty years later, when I entered graduate school, I came across another chimpanzee — a real chimpanzee. Her name was Washoe. She, too, had been brought from the African jungle — in this case to become part of the American space program. She, too, was an irrepressible bundle of mischief.
Washoe the real chimpanzee was more fantastical than Curious George in one important aspect: she learned how to talk with her hands using American Sign Language. Washoe was the first talking nonhuman, and in the wake of her accomplishment the ancient notion that humans are unique in their capacity for language was shaken forever.
In our first years together, Washoe’s origins were a rather romantic mystery to me. I knew she had been “wild collected” in Africa, and I knew that the Gardners had acquired her when she was ten months old from the Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory, in New Mexico, where she was part of the United States space program. Naively, I assumed that Washoe must have been abandoned by her mother, then rescued by some decent person who sent her to America for the best possible care — like Curious George and the man with the yellow hat.
One of the books in H.A. Rey’s Curious George series was eerily prescient about the role of the chimpanzees in the American space program. Published in 1957, Curious George Gets A Medal had the young chimp volunteering to pilot the very first rocket into space because it was too small to hold a human. After flawlessly completing this mission by pulling the correct lever and parachuting to earth, Curious George is given a hero’s welcome, complete with photo opportunities and a big gold medal that reads: “To George, the first space monkey.” The last line of the book says, “It was the happiest day in George’s life.”
Four years later, in early 1961, history unfolded along the lines of the storybook. I was a freshman in college at the time. I listened to President John F. Kennedy boldly declare that the United States would beat the Soviets to moon by the end of the decade. NASA had already developed a one-man space capsule — the Mercury — for carrying a pilot into space and returning him to earth. But nobody knew what would actually happen to a pilot as he hurled through outer space in a small, bell-shaped can, bombarded by lethal levels of radiation, searing heat, and unimaginable G forces. Why put an American astronaut in danger when you could assess the risks with an animal?
Enter the chimponauts — our lovable “partners in space.” The public knew little about the nature of their mission. We imagined the chimponauts as glorified canaries in the coal mine of outer space. If they survived, then human astronauts would be able to follow in their footsteps; if they perished, then NASA would go back to the drawing board.
It was a bit more complex, however. The chimps had to learn a series of astronaut-like actions that would demonstrate whether taxing mental activity could be conducted under the unprecedented strain of launch, weightlessness, and reentry. Meanwhile, the Mercury capsule would be guided remotely from the ground. The chimpanzees and the men of the Mercury program would be more passengers than pilots.
The Air Force trained its sixty-five chimponauts on a simulated flight panel by means of operant conditioning — a system of rewards and punishments. When a chimponaut moved the correct lever in response to a blinking light he was given a tasty banana pellet. When he responded incorrectly he was punished with a mild shock on the foot. This banana protocol worked beyond all expectations. In one training exercise, a chimponaut outperformed a visiting congressman by completing seven thousand moves with only twenty misses.
The sorry fate of the chimponauts was not widely known. My own memories of their role in the space program had the same fairytale quality as Curious George Gets A Medal. I assumed that these chimpanzee heroes, including Washoe, had been brought to America humanely — indeed they had volunteered for their mission — and that they were amply rewarded for their selfless service to our nation.
It was only years later that I learned the truth about how the Air Force had gone about “recruiting” infant chimpanzees from Africa in 1950s and 1960s. The military procured the chimps from African hunters who stalked mother chimpanzees carrying a baby. Usually the mother was shot out of her hiding place high up in a tree. If she fell on her stomach, then her infant, clinging to her chest, would die along with her. But many mother chimps shielded their infants by falling on their backs. The screaming infant would then be bound hand and foot to a carrying pole and transported to the coast, a harrowing journey usually lasting several days. If the infants survived this second ordeal, and many did not, then they were sold for four or five dollars to a European animal dealer who kept then in a small box for days until the American buyer arrived — in this case the Air Force. Those still alive when the buyer came were crated up and sent to the United States, a journey that mirrored the slave trade of earlier centuries. Very few babies emerged from the crates. It is estimated that ten chimpanzees died for every one that made it to this country.
By the mid-1960s the United States was no longer launching chimpanzees into space but was conducting medical experiments on them instead. One chimpanzee infant that survived the journey to America in the spring of 1966 was a ten-pound infant named Kathy. She was shipped to the Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory, but before she could become a subject of disease research, fate intervened. As the largest and healthiest infant at Holloman, Kathy greatly appealed to two scientists who were visiting the Air Force laboratory on a recruiting mission of their own. Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner chose ten-month-old Kathy to learn American Sign Language. But the Gardners thought that a chimpanzee, even one raised by humans, should not have such a human name. So when they brought Kathy home they renamed her after county in Nevada where she would grow up: Washoe.
Top Linda McCartney
ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998
Linda McCartney, 56, died of breast cancer on April 17 in Tucson, Arizona. The daughter of entertainment lawyer Lee Eastman, Linda had already become a noted rock-and-roll photographer, after a failed first marriage, when she met composer Paul McCartney of the Beatles at a London nightclub in 1967. They were married in March 1969. Linda and Yoko Ono, wife of the late John Lennon, were often blamed by fans and writers for the Beatles’ subsequent break-up. Drafted into Paul’s new band, Wings, as a keyboardist and backup singer, Linda endured further criticism for musical mediocrity. Learning to withstand public abuse served her well after they became ethical vegetarians in 1979, 12 years after Paul’s lifelong friend and fellow Beatle George Harrison.
“The moment of revelation came during a Sunday roast meal, when one of their four children commented on the contented way in which some baby lambs were grazing in the fields outside,” Jonathan Ashby of the New York Daily News reported. Said Paul, “We all suddenly felt quite dreadful when we realized that we were probably tucking into one of their relatives’ legs.”
They were joined in vegetarianism a few years later by Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon, who gave up meat at age 12.
By 1984 both Paul and Linda were prominently involved in animal rights activism. After Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, 1989, sold 400,000 copies, Linda introduced a line of frozen dinners, “Linda’s Meatless Meals,” in 1991, and issued a second cookbook, Linda’s Kitchen, in 1996.
“If you go veggie,” Linda explained in the preface, “it means no animal dies for your plate. I’ve met a lot of people who say, ‘I’m almost veggie, but I still eat fish.’ To me that’s like being ‘almost pregnant’ — either you are or you aren’t. I know that for some people cutting out fish is the most difficult obstacle on the road to vegetarianism. But fish have feelings too, and anyone who has ever seen a fish hooked out of the water, jerking and gasping for breath, should realize that.”
Said Paul in his first public statement after her death, “The courage she showed to fight for her causes of vegetarianism and animal welfare was unbelievable. How many women can you think of who would singlehandedly take on opponents like the Meat & Livestock Commission, risk being laughed at, and yet succeed? All animals to her were like Disney characters, worthy of love and respect. The tribute she would have liked best would be for people to “go vegetarian,” as the public schools of Rome, Italy did in her honor on April 30, on request from school supervisor Fiorella Farinelli, 54, against outspoken opposition from both the meat industry and the locally powerful Communist Refounding Party.
Continued Paul, “Linda got into the food business for one reason only, to save animals from cruel treatment. When told a rival firm had copied one of her products, all she could say was, ‘Great. Now I can retire.’
In the end, she went quickly with very little discomfort, surrounded by her loved ones. The kids and I were there when she crossed over. They each were able to tell her how much they loved her. Finally I said to her, ‘You’re up on your Appaloosa stallion. It’s a fine spring day. We’re riding through the woods. The bluebells are out, and the sky is clear blue.’ I had barely gotten to the end of the sentence when she closed her eyes and gently slipped away.”
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NATURE vs. Zoos
| NATURE | ZOOS |
| Chimpanzees form close-knit families. Chimpanzee children stay with their mothers about eight years, usually helping care for younger siblings. | Mothers and relatives are often shot to obtain babies for display. Only one in ten baby chimps survives the journey to the zoo. |
| The Andean condor soars for hours on rising currents of warm air. | Birds’ wings are clipped so they cannot fly. |
| Antelopes, deer and other ungulates naturally live in large herds or family groups. | Animals are often kept alone or in pairs. |
| Elephants travel hundreds of miles, form life-long attachments, and have elaborate courtship and mourning rituals. | Elephants spend more than 20 percent of their time engaging in neurotic, stress-induced behavior, such as repeated head-bobbing or biting cage bars. |
| Bears and other animals hibernate during the winter. | Animals are kept on constant display. Bears spend about 30 percent of their time pacing, a sign of distress. |
| Giraffes run 35 miles an hour, ostriches run 40 miles an hour, and cheetahs can sprint up to 60 miles an hour. | Animals pace about in a small space. |
“Animal Times” — Spring 1997
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals — Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s President
I was watching CNN’s Headline News when the story came on. A 3-year-old boy had fallen into the gorilla pit at the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago. The way amateur video showed one of the adult apes quickly move down into the pit toward the unconscious boy. A gorilla’s arms have the strength of ten men, their incisor’s are three times as big as those of a rottweiler. The gorilla was making a beeline for the boy. Like everyone else in the TV audience, I stopped what I was doing and stared at Binti Jau, for that is the gorilla’s name, bent over the boy and cradled his body in her arms. She was rescuing him! This is not for the first time such a thunderously powerful member of her species has shown what a soft heart lies beneath that mighty King Kong chest. Some years ago, a huge male silverback, the strongest of all primates, ran to protect another child who fell into gorilla exhibit on the island of Jersey, off the coast of France.
At Brookfield, the little boy’s mother watched as Binti, a mother herself, picked the human child up and carried him awkwardly (for her own baby was still clinging to her) to waiting paramedics.
The world applauded, but will we return the favor and save Binti’s own child? The answer is probably “no”! Binti’s baby will be sold, swapped or loaned to another zoo, perhaps even shipped overseas. What will Binti think of us when we steal her child? He will have to spend his whole life in confinement. As social and intelligent and genetically close to us as gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans may be, they are afforded no right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. They are still treated as marketable goods to be displayed for human entertainment and torn from their loved ones at our whim.
Let’s bring zoos into the ’90s by turning them into desperately needed sanctuaries for the poor shackled elephants, bicycle-riding bears and neck-chained chimpanzees who are sold to hunting ranches or put in the back room to die when they are no longer young and pretty.
To be as kind as Binti, to protect her babies, we need to give zoos a very wide berth and a public thumbs-down. Until then, I will hate the zoos…
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