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Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society, Inc.
38 East Market Street, Rhinebeck, New York 12572 USA -
845-876-2626
Vegetarian - Vegan - Animal Rights - Health - Nutrition - Environment
The mission of the Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society, Inc. is to promote the vegetarian ethic in the Mid-Hudson (New York) region, educate the community and aid anyone in the pursuit of a totally vegetarian (vegan) cruelty-free and healthful lifestyle.
Newsletters
Fall 2001 Issue
News Briefs: Animals and Politics
In an article published by the Scripps Howard News Service in July 2001, author Lance Gay writes, "The issue of animal rights is getting a more receptive ear in boardrooms and on Capitol Hill." He says the reason for this renewed interest is that leading fast-food companies have vowed to stop buying meat from farms and slaughterhouses that mistreat animals. He adds that lawmakers are threatening to impose new regulations.
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, is disgusted by the cruelty of modern industrial farming practices, Gay reports.
"Our inhumane treatment of livestock is becoming widespread and more and more barbaric," said Byrd, who added $3 million for increased enforcement of federal animal welfare laws in a supplemental spending bill Congress sent to President Bush.
In a floor speech, Byrd deplored farmers who confine pigs in 2-foot-wide "gestation crates" for up to three years, imprison calves in wooden "veal crates" until they are slaughtered, and starve aging chickens for more than a week so they will lay more eggs. "These creatures feel; they know pain. They suffer pain just as we humans suffer pain," Byrd said.
Also according to Gay, Senators Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., are backing proposals to ban the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $27 billion school-lunch program from buying eggs from farms that starve chickens.
Contact Lance Gay at gayl@shns.com or visit SHNS on the Web at http://www.shns.com .
Return to Fall 2001 Newsletter
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