The Burger King Scandal
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FREE Living Compassionate CThe Mag of MFA. LSummer 2013 RORY FREEDMAN THE SKINNY BITCH IS BACK, AND THIS TIME SHE’S BEGGING ON BEHALF OF ANIMALS THE BURGER KING SCANDAL HOW AN UNDERCOVER MFA EXPOSÉ ROCKED THE FAST-FOOD WORLD BETTY GOES BEYOND MEAT & EGGS + THE FUTURE OF FOOD IS HERE VEGAN dearfriends newswatch Living PUBLIC FIGURES EMBRACE In this issue of CL, you will meet two Compassionate VEGETARIANISM incredible visionaries who are doing just that. Ethan Brown and Josh Tetrick are CL From politicians to pro athletes to Hollywood Times, while New York Knicks standout Amar’e two supersmart, passionate, and creative stars, people in the limelight are singing the Stoudemire told the New York Times that guys who are making the world a kinder praises of vegetarianism. he credited his newfound vegetarianism for improving his performance. place for animals through creativity and Contributors The red carpet was graced by not one, not two, good old-fashioned entrepreneurship. but three Academy Award nominees this year Rising political star and mayor of Newark Cory Vandhana Bala Their products—Beyond Meat and Beyond who proudly proclaim their vegetarianism—the Booker often touts his vegetarianism, and Bill Amy Bradley toasts of Tinseltown Joaquin Phoenix, Jessica Clinton has attributed his plant-based diet to Eggs—live up to their names. They go Eddie Garza Chastain, and Anne Hathaway. aiding his battle against heart disease. Maryland above and beyond their animal-based Brooke Mays state senator Jamie Raskin, who has been veg counterparts and deliver tasty, healthy, and Matt Rice Retired NBA player John Salley lauded his since 2009, also regularly speaks at vegetarian satisfying alternatives that cost less and Michelle Rubin decision to go vegetarian in the Los Angeles festivals and other events. Nathan Runkle are 100 percent cruelty-free. Ethan’s and Ari Solomon Josh’s brilliance has captured the interest Jaime Surenkamp of many, including that of Bill Gates. Yes, Brigid Sweeney the Bill Gates. Anya Todd VEGETARIANISM Sarah Von Alt FOR BETTER HEALTH Business icons like Bill Gates see the potential for plant-based products to feed An eleven-year British study of 45,000 volunteers the expected nine billion people who will CONCERNS RISE found that a vegetarian diet could cut one’s risk of soon inhabit the earth. They recognize that OVER MEat CONtamINatION heart disease by as much as 32 percent. Researchers the environmentally devastating methods theorize that this lowered risk is due to lower Dear Friends, used to mass produce meat, dairy, and Consumer Reports found that the majority of pork products it cholesterol and blood pressure for vegetarians. eggs simply cannot be sustained, and lest investigated in US grocery stores tested positive for the dangerous bacteria yersinia—a food-borne pathogen that can cause fever, Another study, which followed 160,000 men and Animal advocates are true visionaries. we destroy our planet, alternatives are stomach pain, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea. women in Australia, found that lifetime asthma and urgently needed. lifetime hay fever were associated with “greater A year-long investigation, carried out by the Kansas City Star and intakes of meats, poultry, and seafood.” We see the world of tomorrow, today. We Those of us alive today find ourselves at corroborated by The Huffington Post, uncovered serious risks see what can be, rather than what has Mercy For Animals is a national associated with beef production and slaughterhouse conditions, The Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of been. an important historical fork in the road. non-profit organization including fecal contamination and overuse of antibiotics. Medicine found a direct correlation between lung One path is paved with greed and leads to dedicated to preventing cruelty cancer and red meat. Even after adjusting for further exploitation and abuse of animals to farmed animals and promoting The New York Times reported that the FDA recently sent patients’ smoking histories, the university concluded We believe in and champion the that high intake of red meat may increase the risk of through intensive factory farming systems compassionate food choices and warning letters to major egg producers Midwest Poultry and SKS best and brightest of the human policies. Enterprises for failing to comply with regulations to control deadly lung cancer by about 35 percent. spirit: ingenuity, creativity, and overfishing of our oceans to produce salmonella. FDA inspectors wrote that these factory farms were resourcefulness, and most of all, cheaper meat and higher profits. The other Given that over 97 percent of “contaminated with filth.” The Chicago Tribune has also bolstered the case path leads us to an economy and culture animal cruelty occurs in the for vegetarianism, recently citing Karen Collins, kindness. We believe we can, nutrition advisor for the American Institute for that rewards kindness and compassion, production of meat, dairy, and Russia has banned US turkey imports over fears of ractopamine and therefore must, do and be Cancer Research, who promotes a healthy diet of eggs, MFA ’s main function is contamination. The feed additive has been banned in many other fuels eco-commerce, and seeks to improve vegetables, fruits, and whole grains as fundamental better. promoting a vegetarian diet. countries as well, including China, Taiwan, and the entire European the lives of those who are weak and Union, out of concerns that traces remain in meat and could harm for prostate cancer prevention. MFA works to be a voice for human health. You see, being an animal advocate isn’t vulnerable. animals through public education just about being against cruelty; it’s about and advertisement campaigns, being for compassion. It’s not only about A kinder future is not only research and investigations, possible; it’s inevitable, if each of working with news media, and being against exploitation and harm; it’s grassroots activism. FACTORY FARMS about being for empathy and harmony. us acts today. MFA relies on the generous FACE THE LAW Visionaries can see harmful, destructive support of compassionate behaviors or industries and create better, Sincerely, individuals to carry on our House of Raeford, one of the largest poultry processors the company was accused of involvement in a major lifesaving work. To become in the country and the target of a 2007 MFA cruelty price fixing scheme uncovered during a class action kinder, more conscious alternatives. Animal a member, simply send a investigation, was fined by the United States lawsuit against United Egg Producers. advocates understand the power we contribution of $20 to: Department of Labor for illegally employing underage have to shape the future. We understand workers at its chicken slaughter plant in Duplin County, At a Wyoming pig factory farm that supplies pork that with that power comes an ethical Mercy For Animals North Carolina—its second labor violation in the past to Tyson Foods—one of the world’s largest meat 8033 Sunset Blvd, Ste 864 four years. processors—nine employees, including two managers, obligation to take actions that respect have been charged with a total of thirty counts of Nathan Runkle Los Angeles, CA 90046 the lives, welfare, and well-being of all 1-866-632-6446 In another legal wrangle, dozens of federal homeland criminal cruelty to animals. The charges follow the Executive Director creatures. [email protected] security agents raided Minnesota-based Sparboe Farms, release of gruesome undercover video footage that the subject of a 2011 MFA undercover investigation. shows workers punching and kicking mother pigs and Ten people were detained as possible undocumented their piglets, and whipping piglets around by their hind workers. No stranger to trouble with the law, in 2010, legs and smashing them into concrete floors. 2 | COMPASSIONATE LIVING | MERCYFORANIMALS.ORG MERCYFORANIMALS.ORG | COMPASSIONATE LIVING | 3 meetmfa actionreport WAILING ON WALMART MFA is turning up the heat on Walmart to follow the lead of its major competitors and adopt a new policy prohibiting its pork suppliers from confining pigs in cruel gestation crates. Since its inception, the almartW Cruelty campaign has implemented myriad strategies to get its message across. The national campaign commenced with animal advocates circling Walmart’s headquarters in trucks bearing provocative billboards. With heartbreaking images of mother pigs locked in tiny gestation crates, along with the declaration “Stop Torturing Pigs,” the mobile billboards drove home the message to Walmart executives that it was time to change their cruel ways. COMPASSIONATE As a friendly follow-up and birthday gift, MFA sent Walmart CEO Mike Duke an adoption certificate for a beautiful pig named Julia, and asked him to be true to Walmart’s slogan and let pigs “Live Better.” And readers of the local paper in Bentonville, Arkansas, Walmart’s CAMPAIGNER hometown, were confronted twice this year with different, yet equally powerful, full-page ads decrying Walmart’s support of animal cruelty and urging the company to end its use of gestation crates. The most spectacular feature of the campaign has been the Walmart Activist Spotlight: Eddie Garza Cruelty Tour. The first and second legs consisted of traffic-stopping protests in 117 cities. With the help of a ten-foot-tall inflatable pig in Position with MFA: Campaigns Manager a gestation crate, the protests have generated overwhelming public support and a frenzy of media attention, enlightening millions