Why Vegan?

Read the original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326168/Secret-footage-shows-millions-British-chicks-killed-year.html

This is the reality for millions of chicks in Britain every year.

Fluffy yellow youngsters travel on conveyor belts at hatcheries dotted across the country – half to their death, the other half to egg farms.

The males are immediately discarded – and either gassed or thrown into macerating machines, which kill instantly.

Undercover filming by the campaigning welfare group Viva has captured the reality of the early days of factory farm chickens.

Once hatched, the chicks are placed onto a conveyor belt system to be sexed and sorted.

While the females will survive this initial process, their heads are placed into machines that will automatically clip away the ends of their beaks and inoculate them against disease.

In some hatcheries the tips of the beaks are removed using a hot wire.

This is done to ensure the birds do not peck and injure each other out of the frustration of spending their lives in cramped wire battery cages.

The same machine will inoculate them against various diseases common in the cage systems used on farms in Britain and around the world.

Even chicks going into other systems, such as free range, will have the end of their beaks cut off.

There was nothing illegal in the activities witnessed by Viva’s undercover team, however the images demonstrate the reality behind the idyllic farmyard pictures plastered over supermarket egg boxes.

Viva is a pro-vegetarian organisation and would prefer people to turn their back on eating eggs. The filming took place at two hatcheries in this country in August.

At one, the male chicks are gassed in a machine before the bodies are then packaged to be fed to reptiles.

At the second the male chicks are picked up in handfuls and dropped alive into a mincing machine in a process known as IMD – Instantaneous Mechanical Destruction.

Even chicks going into other systems, such as free range, will have the end of their beaks cut off.

The official line of the UK egg producing industry is that this destruction method is uncommon.

However, the recent footage demonstrates IMD is routinely used by at least one major hatchery.

Both of these slaughter methods are approved by Government’s food and farming department, Defra, and the Humane Slaughter Association.

Viva campaigns manager, Justin Kerswell, said: ‘It is the hidden horror that the egg industry does not want you to see.

‘For the first time ever in the UK, the egg industry’s number one secret has been exposed: what happens to male chicks.

‘In egg production male chicks are surplus to requirements, which means that they are sorted from the females in vast warehouses and then killed in their thousands at just a day or two old.

‘Identical to the chicks you see on Easter greeting cards, these uncomprehending young birds are either sent on a conveyor belt to be gassed or thrown alive into electric mincers.

‘Our undercover investigator has revealed the awful truth that underpins the British egg industry.’

He said: ‘The female chicks don’t get it much better. Roughly sorted from the males, they too are transported on a seemingly never ending conveyor belt.

‘However, they are vaccinated and have the tip of their beaks cut off, which is potentially painful to these young animals.’

Mr Kerswell said the conveyor belt system in the egg hatcheries is not unique to the chicks that go into battery cages.

The same system is used to sort those which move to barn, free range or even most organic egg farms.

‘It is an unimaginable waste of life – and all just to bring an egg to your morning table,’ he said.

The actor Martin Shaw, who starred as Judge John Deed is a vegetarian and supporter of Viva. He described the footage as ‘shocking’.

He said: ‘This exposes the mass murder and mutilation of thousands of baby chicks – at the hands of the British egg industry.

‘Supporting this cruel industry sees the continuation of the slaughter of male baby birds for no reason, other than their sex.’

The British Egg Information Service defended industry practises.

Despite the evidence of the Viva footage, the organisation claimed it was unusual to put live chicks into mascerators in this country – although not illegal.

It said: ‘In the egg industry, on hatching, chicks are immediately segregated into the male and female sexes by feather colour identification. Obviously, only females lay eggs.

‘In the past the male chicks were used for poultry meat but the broiler meat industry has now developed specific strains of chicken which grow quickly. The male chicks from egg-laying breeds are not suitable.

‘It is therefore necessary to dispose of the male chicks using a method approved by DEFRA and monitored by the Government’s Animal Health Agency.

‘Disposal is normally carried out by exposure to carbon dioxide or a mixture of carbon dioxide and argon, which is quick and painless, following a Code of Practice approved by the Humane Slaughter Association.

‘The male chicks then provide a valuable source of food for other species such as reptiles and birds of prey.’

It said hatcheries are required to have mascerators by law, but said these are mainly used to dispose of unhatched eggs.

‘It is not in the industry’s commercial interest to throw chicks alive into mascerators, although this is not illegal,’ it said.

‘Masceration of live chicks is common in other countries including the USA.’

Read original article: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14903137,00.html

Forget beer and bratwurst, Dortmund now houses Europe’s only all-vegan supermarket. Offering chocolates, fake tuna and even dog food, the store is hoping to cash in on a small but rapidly growing market.

Renowned for its mining industry and blue-collar attitude, Dortmund is an unlikely choice for Europe’s first vegan supermarket.

“If someone opens a supermarket that has no animal products in them, that seems crazy,” said animal ethicist and store owner Ralf Kalkowski. “But people are celebrating.”

Vegilicious, which opened on February 26, occupies over 100 square meters in the city-centre, technically making it the only vegan supermarket in Europe.

Using soy, spices, and oils to supplement traditional animal-based ingredients, the shelves are stacked with over 1500 products. Vegilicious offers chocolate bars, cereals, and even meat imitations, like fake chicken wings, which use cane sugar sticks to serve as ‘bones.’

“People say they can’t live without cheese, but we’ve got 30 different cheese alternatives,” said Kalkowski, who co-owns Vegilicious with wife Kim. “You can have anything you think you might be missing, so there’s no need to eat animal products anymore.”

Starting with a café and online shop, the Kalkowski’s and their 16 staff have so far maintained a customer flow of 120-150 people per day. They have even managed to attract non-human clients, selling vegan dog- and cat food.

“It’s ridiculous if you rescue one animal, but feed them with another dead animal,” he said.

Vegans abstain from foods containing any animal products, including egg, honey and milk. This differs from vegetarians, who only renounce meat.

“Vegans believe animals should be left alone, it’s not just about avoiding cruelty”, said Amanda Baker, from the Vegan Society UK. “If animals are farmed, you have to take away their freedom.”

Baker told Deutsche Welle that many male animals are killed at birth because they cannot reproduce, while females are exploited for artificial breeding, which dramatically decreases their life expectancy.

“For example, the dairy industry and the meat industry are the same industry. You can’t separate one from the other,” she said.

Aside from animal ethics, some turn to veganism to stem environmental problems. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector is responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, as well as being a major cause of deforestation and water pollution.

Veganism can also reap health benefits, as high meat consumption has been linked to cardio-vascular diseases, which are responsible for 49% of European deaths annually.

Kalkowski explained that many older customers have shopped at Vegilicious for health reasons as his products are cholesterol free.

Veganism has been stigmatized as expensive and excessive and vegans are often regarded as extremists for going beyond vegetarianism, according to Kalkowski, who laments the reactions of some meat-eaters to the opening of Vegilicious.

He said that when his supermarket was first mentioned in the press, the paper was forced to remove online comments inciting a pro-meat flash mob before his store.

He thinks these prejudices are based on myths, of which the biggest is the assumption that a meatless diet deprives the body of vital nutrients.

“You can get all necessary nutrients from a plant based diet, except for vitamin B12,” Kalkowski explained, “and that’s one thing we supplement with a product from the UK.”

Importing products from the UK, US and even Australia is common, but a significant portion of vegan merchandise is produced locally, according to Germany’s biggest Vegan Wholesaler, AVE.

AVE owner Tobias Graf believes veganism’s popularity is expanding, not least because his business is booming.

“In the last few years a lot of new products were established, produced and discovered,” he said.  “We’ve personally grown year by year, 100% for the past three years.”

It is not only vegans who are catching onto the craze, “No, I’m not vegan,” one Vegilicious shopper explained. “I have never tried real vegan food. I think it’s good so I can now try.”

Ralf Kalkowski hopes his supermarket will entice more people to buy animal-free food, but the question remains – how do vegan products truly taste?

“It even tastes better,” he said, “because you have a good conscience.”

Welcome to WhyVegan, a campaign web site operated by a collective of Leeds vegans. Our aim is to educate the public about the many problems caused by consumption of meat, and to promote a healthy vegan lyfestyle.

Aside from the obvious animal cruelty issues, the habit of eating meat causes human health problems and environmental damage.

We will be posting articles and news of relevance to this topic. All feedback is welcome.