NATHAN RUNKLE: So my name is Nathan Runkle.
I'm the founder and executive director of Mercy For Animals.
And we are a national, nonprofit animal protection
organization.
And our mission is to prevent cruelty to farmed animals, and
promote compassionate food choices and policies.
So I want to talk for a few minutes about how I got
involved in animal protection issues.
This is me in St. Paris, Ohio, a town of about 2,000 people.
I was born on a farm, come from a long heritage of
farmers, four generations.
In this photo, my father is, I think, breaking all sorts of
state and federal laws, potentially--
child endangerment.
But growing up in this environment, I always had a
natural affinity and connection for animals.
I spent much of my childhood exploring the nearby creeks
and streams and looking at wildlife.
And it was our dogs and cats that were the first to teach
me that other creatures share our needs and our desires,
that they have curiosities, senses of humor.
And it wasn't something that I had to study in school.
But from a young age, I witnessed the contradictory
view that we hold for animals.
I saw that our family cared very much about the dogs and
cats that we had, but we did not have the same level of
compassion or empathy or respect for other animals.
So both of my uncles were hunters and
trappers and fishermen.
So from a young age, I witnessed animals being
skinned while they were still alive, having their heads
ripped off while they were still alive.
And most people in my social circle did not afford those
animals much consideration.
And that always felt wrong to me.
I thought that we could and should do much better.
There was a local animal abuse case when I
was 15, so in 1999.
That is what ultimately led to me founding Mercy For Animals.
And it was at a local high school, and there was a
teacher there who had an agricultural class.
And this teacher also ran a pig farm.
Now, one day he brought to school a bucket of day-old
piglets to be used in a dissection project.
Now, these were piglets that he had tried to kill that
morning on his farm.
But when he arrived to the school, one of the piglets was
still alive.
A student in the class who also did part-time work on the
teacher's pig farm took the piglet by her hind legs and
slammed her head-first into the ground to try
to kill this piglet.
Now, the piglet didn't die.
Her skull was broken.
She was bleeding out of her mouth.
She's in horrible distress.
A few of the students who were appalled by this act of abuse
took the dying piglet, left the classroom, and took her to
a teacher who was known as being a vegetarian and
sympathetic to animal cruelty.
That teacher left the school, went to a local vet office,
and had the piglet euthanized.
Now, following that case, there were two counts of
animal cruelty that were filed, one against the student
and one against the teacher.
Now, the case generated a lot of media attention and
controversy in this small farm community.
And the pig farming community rallied behind
the student and teacher.
And they said, we don't want animal advocates coming into
our town, telling us how to do our jobs.
The very first day of the trial, the cruelty charges
were dismissed, because it's considered standard
agricultural practice to kill piglets by slamming them
head-first into the ground.
And in Ohio, like at least 30 other states in this country,
if something is considered standard agricultural
practice, no matter how cruel it is, it's exempt from
cruelty prosecution.
So that case illustrated to me that there needed to be a
voice for farm animals in this community in Ohio.
So since then, Mercy For Animals has grown to having
over 100,000 members and supporters.
We have five offices across the country.
And we work to give a voice to farmed animals in four main
areas-- through public education campaigns, through
undercover cruelty investigations, through
corporate outreach, and legal advocacy efforts.
All right, so there you have it.
Now, I want to start out by talking a bit about animals
and our relationship to animals and
why we should care.
Now, Dr. Jane Goodall once said, "we have to understand
we are not the only beings on this planet with personalities
and minds." Now as I'm sure many of you are aware, Dr.
Goodall spent about 45 years in Africa living with and
studying chimpanzees.
She was one of the first researchers to give her
subjects names as opposed to numbers.
And she started to observe them and find out that many of
the traits that we once held so closely as being unique to
people are in fact not unique and are very widespread in the
animal community--
things like culture and empathy and compassion, things
like not only using tools, but creating tools.
So Dr. Goodall started to tear down these various boundaries.
And I think looking at this image really
illustrates it so perfectly.
We know that other animals feel cold, the cold of this
metal, the heat of the sun, that they form relationships
and bonds, and that they, too, deserve our consideration.
Now, anyone who has shared their homes with dogs or cats
knows this.
We know how excited they are when we come home, how eager
they are for their walks, how playful they are.
And this is, again, not something that we had to study
animal behavior to know.
And the scientific community is finally starting to catch
up to what so many of us have known all along.
Just this year, the University of Cambridge published the
Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness.
And essentially, this is the first time that an
international group of prominent scientists supported
the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the
same degree that humans are.
Now, this was really earth-shattering for this to
come out, because they found that not only do mammals have
consciousness and dogs and cats, but birds have the same
level of consciousness, and not only birds, but fish, and
not only fish, but octopus.
So this whole notion, I think, should give all of us pause to
really think about our treatment of animals and our
obligation to them, and how we can include them in our circle
of consideration and ethics.
So what we do at Mercy For Animals is help people step
back and think about farm animals as individuals with
needs, and how we can respect them and do due diligence in
protecting their interests.
So I want to talk a little bit about who
farmed animals are first.
This is an image of the wild ancestors of
the modern-day chicken.
Now, most people just think of chickens and
they think of barnyards.
And Of course, these birds once lived wild in the jungles
of Southeast Asia.
And they lived in a world that was very rich
with sound and color.
And they lived in social groups of about a dozen birds.
And they were very active.
Now, we manipulated these animals to becoming almost
genetic Frankensteins of what they once were.
And I'll talk about that a little bit later.
But we see that, even through hundreds or thousands of years
of domestication, these animals still have the same
behaviors, the same desires.
These are egg-laying hens that live their entire lives in
tiny cages.
And this is a photograph of them about a month after they
were rescued.
And we see that these birds still want to perch, roost,
dust-bathe.
They spend the night in trees.
Now, the more that we know about birds, the more respect
we should have for them.
We all know the term "the watchful mother hen," and this
is a term that these birds really have earned.
They will give their lives to protect their young.
They have a very close bond with their young.
They actually start to chirp and communicate with them
while they're still in the eggs in the last few days
before hatching.
We know that birds can recognize 100 other birds
based on their distinct facial features.
I think if most of us saw a group of 100 chickens, we'd
think that they all looked pretty similar.
But to them, they look as unique and different as each
of us do in this room to us.
We know that they have a language that
is unique to them.
We know at least 30 different calls that they have that are
unique for overhead predators versus ground predators.
They have a more intimate tone and inflection that they use
with birds that they consider to be their friends.
We know that chickens understand that recently
hidden objects still exist.
They're not rocket science, but this is beyond the ability
of small human children.
That has led Dr. Bernard Rollin to state, "contrary to
what one may hear from the industry, chickens are complex
behaviorally, do quite well in learning, show a rich social
organization, and have a diverse repertoire of calls.
Anyone who has kept barnyard chickens recognizes their
distinct differences in personality." And of course,
anyone who has spent any time with chickens knows that there
are some who like the attention of people, who will
follow you around and peck at your toes, wanting treats, and
others who would prefer to be on their own.
Now, the scientific community is starting to catch up to
this notion.
This is an illustration that appeared in "The Washington
Post" in 2005, where the scientific community called
for a remapping of the bird brain, saying that about 90%
of the over-2,000 terms that we use in referring to the
structure of a bird brain is outdated.
It needs to be reevaluated.
So what we see on the right-hand side of this
illustration is the traditional
view of a bird's brain.
And we see that most of it we thought was just used for
instinctive behaviors, that birds were going around and
just acting by instincts, with a very small amount being used
for cognitive behavior or learning.
But our new view, which we see in the middle here, is that
over 75% of the bird's brain is used for complex cognitive
behavior or learning.
Now, pigs are also
intelligent, sensitive creatures.
Some people say that they're the fourth-most intelligent
creatures on the face of the planet.
We know that these animals have strong bonds that they
also form with their young.
We know that they have a unique language.
We know of at least 20 different grunts or oinks that
they make that mean very distinct things.
And we know that they have long-term memories.
There was a study done at Penn State University.
They took a group of pigs and they presented
them with three objects.
One was a dumbbell, one was a Frisbee, and one was a ball.
And they taught the pigs to pick up the Frisbee, to sit
next to the dumbbell, and to jump over the ball.
And they took those pigs away for three years, without ever
seeing those objects.
Three years later, they brought them back, presented
them with the objects, and 100% of the pigs, without any
retraining or prompting, remembered those behaviors
that they were taught three years before.
Now, Dr. Donald Broom said, "pigs have the cognitive
ability to be sophisticated.
Even more so than dogs and certainly three-year-olds."
He's talking about three-year-old humans.
Anyone who has children or nieces or nephews knows just
how intelligent three-year-olds are, how they
have a sense of humor and curiosity.
To think that that same level of thinking is going on in the
mind of a pig should give us all pause to
how we treat them.
Now, researchers have taught pigs how to play video games
using remote-controlled joysticks, showing that they
understand cause and effect.
Now, I have mixed feelings about bringing an entire other
species into the video game revolution.
I think it's causing problems for our own species.
But nevertheless, there it is.
And then, of course, we have cows, I think some of the most
benevolent, peaceful creatures on the planet.
These are animals that, again, form strong
bonds with their young.
We hear story after story of mother cows who have been
separated from their young, not only bellowing out in
distress for days on end, but jumping over fences and
traveling miles on end to be relocated with their young.
We know that cows have best friends that they spend most
of their time with, and that they show excitement when they
solve problems.
And finally, I want to talk for just a second about fish.
Now, most people don't give much thought to fish.
And it's easy to really disregard them, because they
inhabit a world that is so different
from us, under water.
They don't have the same ability to express their
feelings through facial features.
They can't scream.
But fish are not swimming vegetables.
And we know that these animals suffer pain and fear and
distress in much the same way that we do.
They did a study where they took fish and they injected
bee venom under their scales.
And what they found is that the fish's heart rate
elevated, that they started swimming frantically back and
forth in the enclosure, and rubbing that area of their
body against the enclosure.
Their brains also release natural painkillers.
And they release oxytocin, our natural feel-good drug.
This is an illustration of the structure of a fish brain
versus a human brain.
What we see is that, though they may be structured
differently, they still have the same functions.
So here we see that, on the surface of the fish's
[INAUDIBLE] brain, there are structures that serve
functions similar to the limbic system of mammals.
In mammals, these cerebellar receptors are responsible,
among other things, for the emotional evaluation of
information, and they play a role in creating memories and
the learning processes.
And we know, too, that fish can use tools, that some of
them form life-long monogamous relationships with other fish.
And I say all this because I think we've become so
disconnected from these animals.
Few of us will ever spend much time with a cow or a pig or a
chicken, so it's good to know this.
But I really don't think it matters all that much if these
animals can solve mathematical equations, because these are
arbitrary tests that we've created for other animals
based on our own intelligence.
Jeremy Bentham said, "the question is not can they
reason nor can they talk, but can they suffer?" And I think
that we are at a time where there's really no legitimate
debate now whether animals can suffer.
They have brains, central nervous
systems, nerve endings.
Pain to them is used in the same way as it is for us, as a
way to move away from negative stimuli to protect them.
So I think the test that we have as ethical, conscious,
moral creatures is, how can we live on this planet and do the
most good and the least harm?
And knowing that farm animals suffer pain, how can we in
good conscience ignore their plight?
So what is the plight for these animals?
Well, about 60, 70, 80 years ago, most farm animals lived
relatively decent lives, outside in small flocks.
And this is an illustration showing that.
Many of them were even slaughtered on the farm.
But unfortunately, much has changed.
In fact, so few people are involved in agriculture now,
less than 2%, that they're removing it from the Census
Bureau occupational section.
So with this change, and the amount of meat that people are
consuming in this country, we've seen a huge increase in
the number of animals being killed for food.
Now over eight billion, with a B, farmed animals are killed
every year in this country.
This is a graph showing the slaughter rate of animals.
Nearly 300 chickens are killed every single second in this
country, over three pigs killed every second, and a cow
every single second.
Now, these numbers, none of us can really grasp.
As the saying goes, one death is a tragedy, but a million
deaths, or in this case eight billion, is just a statistic.
It's really difficult for us to relate to these numbers,
they're so mind-boggling.
But it's one, and then one, and then one, all the way up
to eight billion.
So gone are the days of the idyllic barnyard scenes that
we grew up with in movies and our children's books.
And this is what a modern-day farm looks like.
This is a factory egg farm.
And on this small piece of property, you can find
millions of animals intensively confined.
This is what most people know about our current agricultural
system, nothing.
They're kept completely in the dark on how
these animals are treated.
And that's because the meat, dairy, and egg industry spend
millions and millions of dollars every year
spoon-feeding us ads about happy cows and happy chickens
to mask the reality of this institutional and
industrialized farming system.
So what we aim to do at Mercy For Animals with our
undercover investigations is to pull back the curtains of
these facilities, and to shine a bright spotlight on these
animals' plights.
So now in industrial farming, we see that animals are being
treated as commodities, resources, machines, and
production units.
This is a quote that appeared in "National Hog Farmer"
magazine that said, "the breeding sow should be thought
of and treated as a valuable piece of machinery whose
function is to pump out baby pigs like a sausage machine."
And we see that these intelligent, sensitive
creatures have been reduced to just that, machines.
They live their lives in tiny crates where they can't even
turn around or lie down comfortably for nearly their
entire lives.
They resort to bar-biting, banging their heads against
the wire and steel structures of their cages, because
they've literally gone insane.
We've created genetic Frankensteins chickens.
On the right here, we have the modern broiler chicken, named
literally after the cooking method.
These are meat-type birds.
On the left, we have the modern-day egg-laying chicken.
So what we've done is we've taken these meat-type birds
and we've bred them to grow so large so fast that many of
them can't even withstand their own body
weight on their legs.
Now, back in the 1950s, it took almost 70 days for a
chicken to reach market weight.
Today, it takes about 47, in some cases 35.
They're continuing to chip time off of these animals'
lives, and they're reaching a much larger weight.
So we essentially have our baby animals
in obese adult bodies.
And what we see is that they suffer from leg disorders,
heart and lung failures, and they're in chronic pain.
Now, a study found that 90% of these broiler chickens will
eat feed that's laced with painkillers to self-medicate
themselves, they're in such chronic pain.
And the same is true for turkeys.
This is a photograph taken at a Butterball
facility in North Carolina.
And this is where the tom turkeys, or the male turkeys,
are used for breeding.
Some of these turkeys reach 90 pounds.
They can hardly walk by the time that they're slaughtered.
Now, egg-laying chickens have bred to be smaller birds, but
to produce an unnaturally high amount of eggs.
Now, before we domesticated these animals, they laid about
24 eggs a year.
In the 1950s, they would lay about 120 eggs a year.
Today they lay over 200 eggs per year.
This takes an extreme toll on their bodies.
Their calcium is being used to produce the eggs, so they
suffer from broken bones and osteoporosis.
And this is how 95% of the hens in
this country are confined.
They're kept in cages the size of a file drawer cabinet, with
anywhere from five to seven birds.
They can't even spread their wings.
They can't walk, perch, roost, dust-bathe.
They can't do anything that comes natural to them.
And then we have cows that are used for milk production.
These animals are artificially inseminated time and time
again, because cows, like all other mammals, have to give
birth in order to lactate.
So what happens to these baby cows?
They're taken away.
Many of them go into the veal industry.
The mothers live like this for about five years, and then
they're slaughtered.
I think this ad poses the question rather bluntly.
Do we need to be drinking cow's milk at all?
We hear the term that milk is nature's perfect food.
And cow's milk is nature's perfect food, if you're a baby
calf who's doubling in size every few weeks.
But when we think about it, we're the only species to
drink milk past infancy.
We're the only species to drink the
milk of another species.
And this has led to a system of just absolute horror and
cruelty for these animals.
Now, Ruth Harrison, in her book "Animal Machines," said,
"if one person is unkind to an animal, it's considered to be
cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals,
especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is
condoned and, once sums of money are at stake, we defend
it to the last by otherwise intelligent people."
And I think that this really puts into perspective our
current view and treatment of animals in this country.
Polls have been done by Zogby and Gallup, Ohio State
University, universities across the country, that find
that Americans oppose animal abuse.
93% of Americans say animals deserve protection from
cruelty, neglect, and abuse.
93%.
I challenge you to find any other issue in this country
where you can get 93% of people to agree.
But when it comes to animals, we stand
united in that belief.
But that belief does not reflect our actual treatment
of the majority of animals.
So I'm going to show a short four-minute video, and it
shows what happens on factory farms and slaughter houses.
Some of you may find it a bit disturbing, but I think to be
ethical consumers, it really is our obligation to take a
look at these systems.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-In the next few minutes, you will be given an eye-opening
look behind the closed doors of modern farms, hatcheries,
and slaughter plants, revealing the journey that
animals make from farm to fridge.
Crowded by the thousands into filthy sheds, chickens and
turkeys are denied many of their most basic natural
behaviors and needs, such as fresh air and exercise.
Sick or injured birds often have their necks broken.
Others are clubbed to death.
At the slaughter plant, the birds are dumped from their
crates, then roughly snapped upside down into moving
shackles by their fragile legs.
From there, the birds are dragged through an electrified
vat of water which renders them paralyzed, but not
necessarily unconscious.
They are then pulled across a blade which slices their
throats, causing blood to pour from their necks.
The egg industry subjects chicks to horrors few of us
can even imagine.
Because male chicks don't lay eggs and do not grow quickly
enough to be raised profitably for meat, they are killed
within hours after hatching.
Male chicks are typically thrown into giant grinding
machines while still alive.
Another killing method is to drop male chicks into trash
bags to be smothered or suffocated.
The females have it even worse, destined for a life of
prolonged cruelty.
To reduce packing induced by overcrowded living conditions,
workers use a hot blade or laser to remove part of the
chick's beaks.
This mutilation can cause both acute and chronic pain.
After debeaking, the birds are moved to cages where they will
spend the rest of their lives.
Nearly 95% of egg-laying hens spend their lives confined in
tiny wire cages like this.
The majority of today's dairy cows are
confined on factory farms.
Workers subject young cows to painful mutilations and
amputations.
Here, a worker cuts off a cow's tail, slicing through
her sensitive skin, nerves, and bone without any
painkillers.
Injuries and illness often run rampant in filthy,
disease-ridden factory farm environments.
Cows too sick or injured to stand are called downers, and
are often left to slowly suffer and
die from their injuries.
Calves on dairy farms are dragged away from their
mothers and violently killed, all so that humans can have
the milk instead.
At a fraction of their natural lifespan, the so-called spent
dairy cows are prodded onto transport trucks and shipped
to slaughter houses.
-Come on!
-Unreliable stunning practices at the slaughterhouse condemn
many cattle to having their throats cut and their limbs
hacked off while still alive and conscious.
For nearly their entire four-month pregnancies, mother
sows are locked in narrow metal stalls barely larger
than their own bodies.
Soon after birth, piglets are castrated by workers who cut
into their skin and rip out their testicles.
Next, the workers chop off their tails.
Both of these painful procedures are nearly always
done without anesthesia.
The piglets who become sick or injured people or who are not
growing quickly enough are killed.
Common killing methods including being slammed
head-first into the ground.
Once pigs have reached market weight,
they are sent to slaughter.
At the slaughterhouse, pigs are knocked in the head with a
steel rod, hung upside down, and have their throats slit.
Improper stunning condemns many pigs to having their
throats slit while they are fully conscious and suffering.
If you are at all moved by this film,
please do your part.
Make a commitment today to explore a vegan diet.
For delicious vegan recipes, nutritional information and
tips on making the transition to a plant-based diet, please
visit chooseveg.com.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
NATHAN RUNKLE: Now, in his book "Eating Animals,"
Jonathan Safran Foer spoke to a number of factory farmers
about these issues.
And many of them wanted to remain anonymous.
This is a quote from one of them.
"What I hate is when consumers act as if farmers want these
things, when it's consumers who tell farmers what to grow.
They've wanted cheap food.
We've grown it." And I think when a lot of people see this
video, they're angry.
And a lot of times, they direct that anger towards the
individual employees in these facilities instead of stepping
back and looking at the system in a broader, larger view.
What w found is that, in many of these factory farm and
slaughterhouse environments, the workers are victims of
this system in much the same way as the animals are.
Many of them are undocumented workers.
They take this work because it's the only
work they can find.
They work long hours.
And what we see is that many of them are very troubled
initially by what they see there.
And in fact, there have been studies done that find that
many slaughterhouse and factory farm workers suffer
from what's called perpetration-induced traumatic
stress disorder, which is essentially a form of
post-traumatic stress disorder that comes about when people
are put in situations to do things that they find morally
unacceptable.
We saw this in some situations with Nazis and executioners,
people that are in war environments.
We're seeing the same thing in factory farm workers and
slaughterhouse workers.
And as a result, we see increased levels of alcohol
and drug abuse.
We see increased numbers of domestic violence disputes.
So I think we have to ask ourselves, if this system is
so unpleasant and violent and cruel that it causes
psychological distress and damage to the people that have
to work in them, what does that say about the practice?
And is that something that we should be supporting in a
civilized society?
The other thing that people say is, this footage must be
old, this must be out of the United States, this couldn't
possibly be happening in the 21st century.
We have laws and regulations for everything, right?
Well, unfortunately pretty much all of this footage that
you saw was taken in the last five years alone
in the United States.
This is just a snapshot of the treatment
these animals endure.
So what do the laws look like in this country?
Well, unfortunately they don't look very
promising for farmed animals.
We have a system where agribusiness is so large and
powerful that they've been able to lobby so that state
and federal laws are written in a way that
exempt farmed animals.
So on a federal level, we see that there's not a single
federal law that provides protection to farmed animals
during their lives on factory farms.
There is a federal law for transport and slaughter for
mammals, but it totally exempts birds, which make up
over 95% of the animals used for food production.
So for the majority of these animals' lives, no protection
on the federal level.
The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act exempt birds,
which means that many of them have their throats slit and go
into the scalding tanks while they're still alive.
Now, all 50 states have anti-cruelty laws, varying in
scope and definition.
But most of them completely exempt or largely exempt farm
animals from their protection.
So similar to the case that I described earlier about the
piglet being slammed into the ground, we see that other
routine practices that cause extreme suffering for animals
are allowed to happen on a state level as well.
Things like inflicting third-degree burns on animals
that are conscious without painkillers is deemed legal
because of exemptions.
Castrating piglets, legal without painkillers because of
exemptions.
Now, to put this into context, if you had a puppy that you
took to your local vet and said, I'm here to have my
puppy neutered, and your vet took your puppy by his hind
legs, held him up, took out a scalpel, cut him open, ripped
out his testicles and hand the puppy back to you, you
probably wouldn't be very thrilled or excited with your
vet visit, and you'd probably call law enforcement, and that
vet would probably be shut down for malpractice and
charged with animal cruelty.
But we do this to piglets every single day.
And these aren't even vets that are doing this.
These are untrained, unskilled workers working
at an alarming rate.
And then we have things like cutting the beaks off of
chickens without any painkillers
also allowed to happen.
So we've handed the power to decide what is cruelty and
what is acceptable to the very industries that profit off of
using these animals themselves.
And it hasn't worked.
Now, the good news is that we're starting to see some
change on this issue as consumers
wake up to these practices.
In 2008, California passed Proposition 2.
And Proposition 2 was a modest yet meaningful initiative that
said that calves raised for veal, pregnant pigs, and
egg-laying hens had to be given enough space to stand
up, turn around, lie down, and extend their limbs.
Now, that ballot initiative passed by an
overwhelming majority.
63% of California voters passed Proposition 2.
More people voted for Prop 2 in 2008 than voted for Obama
in California.
And this law really helped set a precedent.
Since then, we've had nine states pass laws banning these
tiny gestation crates for breeding pigs, a number of
states banning battery cages for egg-laying hens and veal
crates, also being outlawed.
But there's still much work to be done.
Now, I want to tell you a quick story
about this man here.
His name is Virgil Butler.
Virgil Butler worked for almost 10 years in a Tyson
slaughterhouse in Arkansas.
And Virgil's job was to take birds as they arrived in
crates and snap them into those moving conveyor belts
that you just saw.
Now, Virgil witnessed a lot of abuse, not only the standard
mistreatment of these animals, but he witnessed his
co-workers stomping on birds, ripping their heads off,
putting ice bombs in them and watching them explode on the
slaughter line.
And over time, Virgil started to become very disturbed by
what he saw.
He started having nightmares.
And he said, I can't be involved in
this system any longer.
So Virgil quit his job.
He had no real financial backing.
This is his trailer that he lived in behind him, in this
photograph.
And he went vegan, and he became an
animal rights activists.
And he started blogging about what he saw, not only to
expose the abuse, but as self-therapy as well.
And he started traveling the country, sharing his firsthand
experiences with others.
So I think that Virgil is one of many examples of someone
who can be so invested and involved in this system, but
can still be in touch with that greater good that he has,
that spark of humanity.
And he has made changes.
And I think that if Virgil can do this, any of us, no matter
where we are in our current lives, can make changes, can
take steps to become more compassionate.
Now, we live in an era where our forks and knives have
become, really, weapons of mass destruction.
We can use them for compassion and kindness for animals, or
cruelty and exploitation.
Now, I think if these were eight billion dogs or cats
that were being subjected to these conditions, there would
be such a public outcry.
And we should have that same level of outcry for farmed
animals as well.
Now, "The Economist" put it well, I think, when they said,
"few people would keep a hen in a shoe box for her entire
egg-laying life; but practically everyone will eat
smartly packaged, 'farm fresh' eggs from battery hens." Few
of us in good conscience would treat these animals in the way
that you've seen this afternoon.
But when we go to the supermarket and we buy these
products, we're essentially hiring someone to do this
dirty work on our behalf.
So we have to ask ourselves, do we feel comfortable
supporting this abuse financially?
Because that's what we're doing, is we're financing it.
Now, our food choices have a huge impact.
The average American eats about 2,700 land animals in
their lifetime.
So by making some dietary changes, by eliminating meat
on Mondays, or reducing our meat consumption, becoming a
flexitarian, or becoming a full-blown vegan, we can help
spare animals this suffering.
And this is an illustration showing
those number of animals.
And we really are at a critical juncture.
We're at a time when not only is animal abuse rampant in
this industry, but the environmental impact of animal
agriculture is very extreme and severe.
The United Nations published a report, "Livestock's Long
Shadow," that found that animal agriculture is
responsible for the release of more greenhouse gases than the
entire transportation sector combined.
18% of greenhouse gases are associated with the livestock
sector, so more so than cars, trains, automobiles combined.
So not only are we wreaking havoc on animals and the
environment, but also to our own health as well.
And that's what's led the UN to say that we should be
eating less meat to curb global warming.
And we see that it's not just global warming, but it's a
waste of resources.
We have to use so much water, which is a scarce commodity,
and growing scarcer now across the globe.
We see that we're funneling so much grain into animals to get
a relatively small amount of meat in return.
Now, this is an article that appeared all over the country
recently, but this particular screenshot is from Drovers
CattleNetwork.
It's America's best business source for beef producers.
This is on the homepage of their website.
It says we will all be vegetarian by
2050, scientists say.
And this is not because everyone chooses to be
vegetarian by 2050, but because we simply will not be
able to sustain meat production for a growing
population by then.
So we're at a juncture where we can either choose to be
innovative in solving this issue, or we can be dragged
there by necessity, by the collapse of our environment
and ecosystems and animal cruelty just
being out of control.
Now, thankfully there are some real pioneers that are jumping
on the plant-based diet bandwagon.
We have Biz Stone, who I'm sure all of you have heard of
before, who is a proud vegan, an ethical vegan.
We have Russell Simmons founder of Def Jam Records,
who has adopted a plant-based diet, former President Bill
Clinton, who is an outspoken advocate for plant-based
eating, and then we have billionaire Steve Wynn, from
Las Vegas, who is also jumping on the veggie bandwagon.
It's not just some of the brightest minds and
entrepreneurs, but we have sports athletes.
The Houston Texan Arian Foster, who is a proud vegan
now as well, showing that we sacrifice nothing, not our
strength, not our health, by eliminating meat.
We gain everything.
And we're starting to see the new generation of college
students embracing this idea and the need as well.
A recent study found that in the last three years, the
number of vegans on college campuses has doubled.
The number of vegetarians increased by 50%.
And there are now all-vegan dining halls in this country,
including one right here in Texas at Denton University.
And this is an image of the Denton vegan dining hall.
Now, "Washington Post" did a survey that said, what will
future generations condemn us for?
And they found that second only to our treatment of the
environment is our treatment of animals in food production.
So I think that this is a generational issue, like so
many social issues are.
And this is one of our time.
We have billions of animals that are being subjected to
horrors beyond belief.
And I think that future generations will ask us, what
did we do to right this wrong?
I think that animal protection is a social justice movement.
Based on the number of individuals that are suffering
and the degree of their suffering, I think it's one of
the most pressing of our time.
Unlike other social justice movements, where those that
are being oppressed had a voice in society to some
degree-- they could protest, they could lobby, they could
ask for boycotts--
these animals can't do that.
Now, you saw in this video of factory farms and
slaughterhouses that these animals kick and scream.
They struggle and fight against their oppressors to
the best of their ability.
But they do rely on each and every one of us to speak out
on their behalf within our society and culture.
We are in a situation where we hold all of the power.
And these animals are completely at our mercy.
Now, what we do with that power is totally up to us.
And with power comes responsibility.
And as Harriet Beecher Stowe said, "it's a matter of taking
the side of the weak against the strong, something the best
people have always done." And I think it's hard to imagine a
group of individuals that are weaker and more vulnerable
than farmed animals.
So I encourage you to take the side of the weak against the
strong, and make decisions and take actions that will help
bring compassion and justice to them.
Thank you so much.
[APPLAUSE]
NATHAN RUNKLE: I think we have time for some questions if
anyone has any.
Yeah, so Europe, I would say, is about 10 years ahead of the
US in terms of addressing farm animal protection issues.
They, in some cases about 10 years ago, started banning
veal crates, battery cages, gestation crates.
And some of those are now taking effect, some of them
last year, some of them next year.
So yes, they're starting to address those issues.
Now, we have other countries, unfortunately, more developing
countries like India, that for the longest time sort of held
as its root belief that animals deserved compassion.
Now we're seeing factory farm interests, McDonald's, Burger
King, Wendy's, coming into these countries.
And meat consumption is dramatically rising.
And with that, we see factory farming
coming into those countries.
So for example, in India, there's as many hens in
battery cages in India as there are in the
United States now.
So we see some countries that are leading the way and ahead
of us, and then we have others that are actually just sort of
catching up with factory farming.
So it's an issue that needs to be addressed globally.
Yeah, I don't know all the specifics of their other
economics there.
But one issue is, you can look at grids and you can see just
how meat consumption has dramatically increased in the
United States.
Now, the good news is, since 2007, meat consumption in the
US has started to decline, really for the first time.
We're now killing about 400 million fewer farm animals
than we were in 2007.
That's about a 12% decline.
In Latin America, my guess would be that they're probably
eating more cows than they are chickens.
And those are animals that you can have out in a grazing area
more, which costs less than these intensive factory farm
systems would.
It's a great question.
Sort of like the quote from the anonymous factory farmer,
it's not that farmers are run by a bunch of sadistic people.
These are people that respond to the marketplace and supply
and demand.
So we see the plant-based food market just dramatically
exploding as people become more aware of it.
Bill Gates actually--
this is not a joke--
recently said that, really, the future of food is in
plant-based proteins and things-- again, looking at the
environmental impact, the cruelty issues.
So I think we're going to see more of that grow.
In terms of these cage-free, free-range, so-called humane
meat products, it's a business decision.
But ultimately I think it's a business decision that is
helping animals to some extent.
They're getting them out of these really intensive
confinement systems.
But I don't think that the typical cage-free or
free-range egg facility looks like what most people think it
should look like, because you're absolutely right--
they're the same big-interest, the big factory farms that are
producing these eggs.
And we've done investigations at these places.
They'll have one shed on the same property that are battery
cages, and the next shed will be the cage-free eggs.
And they'll have literally tens of thousands of birds in
windowless sheds.
They're not in cages, which is an improvement.
Some of them have perches.
They can walk around, but they're not frolicking out in
the field like most people would imagine.
So I think it's progress, but it's certainly not perfection.
And I think, overall, we need to at least be decreasing the
amount of animal products that we're using.
It's about efficiency.
These are factory farms.
They're the model of efficiency.
And if they can mechanize everything and have animals in
a smaller area, it takes less labor to get the job done.
It takes less heating and electricity to
operate those units .
So it's all about efficiency.
I mean, certainly there's land available
to give these animals.
I don't think that the world or life is ever in
black-and-white terms, and we understand that.
Now, we certainly think that a vegan diet is, in most
situations, the most ethical, compassionate, environmentally
friendly choice that we can make.
So of course we hold that as the gold standard.
But we understand that there are gradations along the lines
of agriculture.
We have intensive factory farm systems, which is
unfortunately how the vast majority of food is produced.
It's like I said, 95% of egg-laying hens.
We've got pretty much all the broiler chickens.
About 80% of pigs are intensively confined.
This is the gold standard.
These other situations are such, really, the monopoly
that you have to go out of your way to find.
So we think people need to know what the choices are.
But is a cow that's lived out her entire life in pasture and
then was killed on the farm better than a factory farm?
Absolutely, it's better.
Do I think that we should be killing the cow rather than
eating carrots?
Probably the carrots is a better
choice for me, ethically.
If I don't have to take a life and be
violent, probably wouldn't.
But there are people that just don't share that belief.
And I think for them, doing, again, as little harm and as
much good as possible is really what we should be
looking at.
And certainly, whether you're a die-hard meat-eater or a
vegan, we can all probably agree that this factory farm
system just doesn't fall into line with what
is ethical for us.
Yeah, it's true.
A lot of these animals still go to the same slaughterhouse.
Some of them are killed on the farm.
But again, that's such a small percentage.
So yes, a lot of them go to the same slaughterhouses.
For egg-laying hens, most of the chicks still come from the
same hatcheries.
So all the male chicks are still ground up alive.
They still have their beaks cut off.
So there are built-in, I think, moral issues that we
have to look at with animal agriculture to begin with.
And those are things that we have to sort of come to terms
with what we're comfortable with.
There is an amount of domination and exploitation
that's involved in any
agricultural system, of course.
So you're absolutely right.
I think it does boil down to, are we OK with some amount of
violence to animals for food, or do we just want to remove
ourselves completely from that system?
I've chosen to remove myself from that system.
But to say that all farms are exactly the same I think
probably oversimplifies the issue a bit.
But those are things that we should all just be aware of as
conscious consumers, yeah.
Yeah, it's a great question.
And a big part of why meat, dairy, and egg products are so
cheap is because they're subsidized by the government.
If we were actually paying the true cost, those products
would be much higher.
So I think that's a whole issue that we really need to
take a critical look at.
But there's obviously a vegan diet that can be very
expensive, that you're eating a lot of niche
meat-alternative products that are made.
And then you can have one that is based more on beans and
nuts and legumes and vegetables and things that
can, in some situations, actually be
cheaper to eat that way.
But in terms of addressing this, there are a number of
companies now-- one is Beyond Meat--
that is looking to make meat-alternative products that
are cheaper than meat products are.
They have no fat, no cholesterol, high protein,
really being innovative in addressing these issues.
And then some of it is supply and demand.
And the more it's a niche market, the more it's going to
cost to create each unit.
So I think that there's sort of a number
of answers to that.
But again, I think that Americans, and just our whole
humanity, really, have proven time and again that we can be
creative in solving a lot of problems.
I think Google is a great example of doing things that
people once thought were unheard of.
This is an issue where I think if we put the time and
attention and resources, it can be solved rather quickly.
And I think we're starting to see, in some ways, capitalism
and these inventive companies starting to jump in and
address it as well.
So we have a multi-prong approach.
Again, these are complicated, deeply rooted issues.
So to say that there is a one-size-fit-all answer that's
going to address this in any sort of timely manner I think
is probably oversimplifying it a bit.
So that's why we have the four areas that we work in,
education being a large component of that.
Getting people to see what's really going on and
encouraging them to reduce or, ideally, eliminating their
meat, dairy, egg consumption, that's really the root cause
of all of this, obviously.
But we understand that the world is not going to go
vegetarian or vegan, certainly not overnight.
And we think that these animals that are here right
now, suffering as individuals with needs and interests,
deserve to be treated with as much care as we can give them.
That being said, changes happen slowly over time.
So we view banning some of the worst factory farm practices,
like these battery cages for egg-laying hens, where they
can't spread their wings, or gestation crates for sows,
where they can't turn around, or tail-docking, cutting the
tails off these animals without painkillers, as being
really unethical practices that we should be moving to
end right now, and that we can start to reduce the amount of
suffering that these animals are subjected to, because
these are real animals, real lives, the stakes
are real for them.
And though giving them a few more inches of space might not
solve all the problems-- and we certainly don't think that
that is the case--
we do think that it reduces the sum total of suffering
that they're subjected to, as we move towards a reduction in
animal products, and hopefully more people starting to
eliminate these products.
So multi-prong approach.
And within that, we have legislative initiatives.
We have corporate outreach initiatives, looking at
different power-holders and stakeholders in this, and how
we can affect change within that.
It's a great question.
A lot of the success that we've seen, like Proposition
2, which I mentioned before, are citizen-driven ballot
initiatives.
A lot of the states where there is a large farming
community, the legislature is not voluntarily going to push
through any sort of restrictive measure that would
challenge such a big industry there.
So they require ballot initiatives to come in,
because again, consumers are really on the side of change,
even when big business isn't.
But the problem is is that only about half the states in
this country allow ballot initiatives.
And some of the states, like Iowa, that has the largest egg
production and the largest pork production in this
country, do not have ballot initiative processes.
And their legislature is very much controlled by big ag.
So the pathway to affect legislative change there
becomes very challenging.
There is a federal bill right now.
It's regarding egg-laying hens.
It's not a perfect bill by any means, but it would set the
first federal standards for animals on factory farms.
It would increase the amount of space that hens have in
these cages.
That is really the first federal bill that has found
its way to Congress for farm animals in over 30 years.
And the pork and the beef industries are fighting
desperately against that bill, because they don't want to see
any sort of precedent set on it.
So it's challenging, as we know legislation can be.
There are a number of states right now--
I think New Jersey is one of them-- that are considering a
gestation crate ban in their legislature.
So that's the main one that comes to mind.
I don't think, unfortunately, that Texas has anything
currently that's pending for farm animals.
So that's sort of the situation with
legislation right now.
Yeah, it's a good question.
We're not against food production.
Everyone has to eat.
And there are such thing as tofu
factories that create jobs.
There are things, soy milk factories that create jobs,
carrot factories that create jobs.
So this isn't getting rid of a bunch of jobs.
It's a shift in the economy, in where those jobs go.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
NATHAN RUNKLE: Exactly.
That's exactly right.
By one industry shrinking or doing away, a lot of times
other industries take their place that are more
environmentally sound, are more
progressive, are more ethical.
So that's really what we're looking at.
So we're just looking at a shift and a humane economy.
Yeah, I think we do the best that we can.
This isn't a competition or a purity test.
So we can eliminate meat, great.
If we can reduce it on Mondays, Tuesdays, and/or
Wednesdays, great, because we don't want anyone to feel
overwhelmed.
We don't want people to feel like either I'm part of the
vegan team or I'm part of the I'm gonna eat factory farm
products every meal and not care about the issue team,
because that doesn't solve anything either.
So I think that's really the take-home message--
do the best that you can.
Yeah, well, our Texas offices is in Dallas, so we do a lot
of work in Dallas.
But there are organizations here that are doing events,
meet-ups, all sorts of things.
I think Compassion Over Killing has
a coordinator here.
Last year, there was an Austin vegetarian festival.
I'm not sure if it's happening again this year.
But Google it.
Yeah, there's certainly stuff going on.
And Mercy For Animals hopefully will be doing a lot
more grassroots work in Austin in the very near future.
Thank you so much for your time.
I really appreciate it, guys.