go based

International Society for Cow Protection ISCOWP.ORG Radhika and Devaki on front cover. Priya, in the photo above, is the king of the ISCOWP herd. International Society for Cow Protection

ISCOWP Profile Dear Friends, The International Society for Cow Protection, Inc. (ISCOWP) was incorporated in the USA, We believe that rescuing cows from being sold March 1990, as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, tax for meat and then caring for them their entire exempt organization. William and Irene Dove lives (a cow can live for 25 years or more) until (Balabhadra das and Chayadevi dasi) are its their natural death is a humane, compassionate managing directors. They are disciples of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami act and can only help the planet towards a more Prabhupada, the Founder Acharya of the Inter- peaceful existence. national Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Through their spiritual master's Besides having our local sanctuary we teachings, they have imbibed the practices and encourage and educate others how they too can benefits, both spiritual and material, of lifetime care for cows. William E. Dove, ISCOWP cow protection. Cow protection means enabling president, has traveled widely to counsel future cows to live out their natural lives with love and and current cow protection programs. We also affection. The tenets of cow protection are offer assistance through conference calls, universal and nonsectarian, available to all seminars and literature. regardless of race, creed, or nationality. Mailing Address ISCOWP Compared to the numbers of cows bred 7016 SE 92 Terrace worldwide each day, what we are doing, both Gainesville FL, USA, 32641 locally and beyond, is less than a mere drop in Phone the bucket. Therefore we encourage people to 352.792.6777 change their diet to a plant based one. Not only Donations and Financial Reports do we encourage not eating meat but if milk USA tax deductible number: 23-2604082. from lifetime protected cows is not available to A copy of each year’s ISCOWP IRS Form you, decrease or stop altogether your use of 990-EZ is available at guidestar.org To donate online: factory farm milk and its by products. iscowp.org/donations/ To donate by mail: This alone can make a great difference in the Make out check to ISCOWP and send to amount of cows that are bred and tortured each ISCOWP mailing address day to put milk and its byproducts on the E-newsletter Monthly dinner table. Subscribe on our website iscowp.org Store This booklet gives much information on how iscowp.org/store/ Adopt A Cow your diet change will affect your health, your iscowp.org/adopt-a-cow/ environment and the lives of so many animals. Internet Many other organizations like Down to Earth, [email protected] etc. have been quoted. iscowp.org youtube.com/user/ISCOWP108 Your Editor, Irene M. Dove facebook.com/ internationalsocietyforcowprotectioniscowp

Change Your Diet, Go Plant Based 3 1. Plant Based Diet Improves Health

Thanks to an abundance of scientific because vegetarians consume less animal research that demonstrates the health and fat and cholesterol (vegans consume no environmental benefits of a plant-based animal fat or cholesterol) and instead diet, even the federal government recom- consume more fiber and more antioxidant- mends that we consume most of our rich produce—another great reason to calories from products, listen to Mom and eat your veggies! and . You'll Keep Your Weight Down. The And no wonder: An estimated 70 percent standard American diet—high in saturated of all diseases, including one-third of all fats and processed foods and low in plant- cancers, are related to diet. A vegetarian based foods and complex carbohydrates— diet reduces the risk for chronic is making us fat and killing us slowly. degenerative diseases such as obesity, According to the Centers for Disease , high blood Control and Prevention (CDC) and a pressure, diabetes and certain types of division of the CDC, the National Center cancer including colon, breast, prostate, for Health Statistics, 64 percent of adults stomach, lung and esophageal cancer. and 15 percent of children aged 6 to 19 are overweight and are at risk of weight- Why go vegetarian? Chew on these related ailments including heart disease, reasons: stroke and diabetes.

You'll Ward Off Disease. Vegetarian A study conducted from 1986 to 1992 by diets are more healthful than the average , MD, president and director of American diet, particularly in preventing, the Preventive Medicine Research Institute treating or reversing heart disease and in Sausalito, California, found that over- reducing the risk of cancer. A low-fat weight people who followed a low-fat, vegetarian diet is the single most effective vegetarian diet lost an average of 24 pounds way to stop the progression of coronary in the first year and kept off that weight 5 artery disease or prevent it entirely. years later. They lost the weight without Cardiovascular disease kills 1 million counting calories or carbs and without Americans annually and is the leading measuring portions or feeling hungry. cause of death in the . You'll Live Longer. If you switch from But the mortality rate for cardiovascular the standard American diet to a vegetarian disease is lower in vegetarians than in non- diet, you can add about 13 healthy years to vegetarians, says , MD, your life, says Michael F. Roizen, MD, author of : The Revolutionary author of The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss. Younger with What You Eat. "People who A vegetarian diet is inherently healthful consume saturated, four-legged fat have a

4 Change Your Diet, Go Plant Based

Most of the ISCOWP herd resting. shorter life span and more disability at the intended—through foods. Foods also end of their lives. Animal products clog supply other nutrients such as your arteries, zap your energy and slow phosphorus, magnesium and vitamin D down your immune system. Meat eaters that are necessary for the body to absorb also experience accelerated cognitive and and use calcium. sexual dysfunction at a younger age." People who are mildly lactose-intolerant Want more proof of longevity? Residents can often enjoy small amounts of dairy of Okinawa, Japan, have the longest life products such as yogurt, cheese and expectancy of any Japanese and likely the lactose-free milk. But if you avoid dairy longest life expectancy of anyone in the altogether, you can still get a healthful world, according to a 30-year study of dose of calcium from dry beans, , more than 600 Okinawan centenarians. soymilk and dark green vegetables such as Their secret: a low-calorie diet of unrefined broccoli, kale, collards and turnip greens. complex carbohydrates, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, and soy. You'll Reduce Your Risk of Food- Borne Illnesses. The CDC reports that You'll Build Strong Bones. food-borne illnesses of all kinds account When there isn't enough calcium in the for 76 million illnesses a year, resulting in bloodstream, our bodies will leach it from 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths existing bone. The metabolic result is that in the United States. According to the US our skeletons will become porous and lose Food and Drug Administration (FDA), strength over time. Most health care foods rich in protein such as meat, practitioners recommend that we increase poultry, fish and seafood are frequently our intake of calcium the way nature involved in food-borne illness outbreaks.

1. Plant Based Diet Improves Health 5 You'll Ease The Symptoms of You'll Be More 'Regular.' Menopause. Many foods contain nutri- Eating a lot of vegetables necessarily ents beneficial to perimenopausal and means consuming more fiber, which menopausal women. Certain foods are rich pushes waste out of the body. Meat in phytoestrogens, the plant-based chemi- contains no fiber. People who eat lower on cal compounds that mimic the behavior of the food chain tend to have fewer estrogen. Since phytoestrogens can increase instances of constipation, hemorrhoids and decrease estrogen and progesterone and diverticulitis. levels, maintaining a balance of them in your diet helps ensure a more comfortable You'll Avoid Toxic Chemicals. passage through menopause. Soy is by far The EPA estimates that nearly 95 percent of the most abundant natural source of phy- the pesticide residue in the typical toestrogens, but these compounds also can American diet comes from meat, fish and be found in hundreds of other foods such dairy products. Fish, in particular, contain as apples, beets, cherries, dates, garlic, ol- carcinogens (PCBs, DDT) and heavy metals ives, plums, raspberries, squash and yams. (mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium) that can't Because menopause is also associated with be removed through cooking or freezing. weight gain and a slowed metabolism, a low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian diet can help Meat and dairy products can also be laced ward off extra pounds. with steroids and hormones, so be sure to read the labels on the dairy products you You'll Have More Energy. Good purchase. nutrition generates more usable energy to keep pace with the kids, tackle that home It's a breeze. It's almost effortless these improvement project or have better sex days to find great-tasting and good-for- more often, Michael F. Roizen, MD, says in you vegetarian foods, whether you're The RealAge Diet. Too much fat in your strolling the aisles of your local supermar- bloodstream means that arteries won't ket or walking down the street at open properly and that your muscles won't lunchtime. If you need inspiration in the get enough oxygen. kitchen, look no further than the internet, your favorite bookseller or your local veg- The result? You feel zapped. Balanced etarian society's newsletter for culinary vegetarian diets are naturally free of tips and great recipes. And if you're eating cholesterol-laden, artery-clogging animal out, almost any ethnic restaurant will products that physically slow us down and offer vegetarian selections. In a hurry? keep us hitting the snooze button morning Most and fast casual restaurants after morning. And because whole , now include healthful and inventive , fruits and vegetables are so high salads, sandwiches and entrees on their in complex carbohydrates, they supply the menus. So rather than asking yourself body with plenty of energizing fuel. why go vegetarian, the real question is: Why haven't you gone vegetarian? Vegetarian Times article, “Why Go Veg?”

6 Change Your Diet, Go Plant Based

2.Your Diet Can Save the Earth

Balaji greeting Dhruva and Kalyan upon their arrival at the ISCOWP farm after being rescued.

Reduce Global Warming sions from land use and land use change Global warming poses one of the most are included, the sector accounts serious threats to the global environment for 9 per cent of CO2 deriving from human ever faced in human history. Yet by focus- -related activities, but produces a much ing entirely on carbon dioxide emissions, larger share of even more harmful green- major environmental organizations have house gases.3 failed to account for published data show- ing that other gases are the main culprits Reduce Methane/Nitrous Oxide behind the global warming we see today. Production As a result, they are overlooking the fact Cows and sheep are responsible for 37% of that the single most important step an indi- the total methane (23 times as warming as vidual can take to reduce global warming CO2) generated by human activity.4 With [faster than any other means] is to adopt a methane emissions causing nearly half of vegetarian diet.1 the planet’s human-induced warming, methane reduction must be a priority. In its 2006 report, the United Nations said The livestock industry generates 64 per raising animals for food generates more cent of ammonia, which contributes signif- greenhouse gases than all the cars and icantly to acid rain. 5 trucks in the world combined.2 The livestock industry also generates 65 Avoid Excessive CO2 Production per cent of human-related nitrous oxide, According to the UN Report, when emis- which has 300 times the Global Warming

2. Your Diet Can Save the Earth 7 Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this thane emissions. The turnover rate for cars comes from manure.6 and power plants, on the other hand, can be decades. Even if cheap, zero-emission In addition to having the advantage of im- fuel sources were available today, they mediately reducing global warming, shift- would take many years to build and slow- ing away from methane-emitting food ly replace the massive infrastructure our sources is much easier than cutting carbon economy depends upon today. dioxide 7: Similarly, unlike carbon dioxide which First, greenhouse gas reductions through can remain in the air for more than a a vegetarian diet are limitless. In principle, century, methane cycles out of the at- even 100% reduction could be achieved mosphere in just eight years. Therefore, with little negative impact. In contrast, lower methane emissions translate to similar cuts in carbon dioxide are impossi- cooling of the earth quickly. ble without devastating effects on the econ-

The Pandey family visiting Madhava. omy. Even the most ambitious carbon di- Save Large Amounts of Water oxide reduction strategies fall short of cut- Estimates of the water required to pro- ting emissions by half. duce a kilo of beef vary, from 13,000 liters 8 up to 100,000 liters.9 Whichever Second, a shift in diet can lower green- figure you use, the damage is plain house gas emissions much more quickly when you consider that the water re- than shifts away from the fossil fuel burn- quired to produce a kilo of wheat is ing technologies that emit carbon dioxide. somewhere between 1,000-2,000 liters. The turnover rate for most ruminant farm animals is one or two years, which means Avoid Further Pollution of Our that decreases in meat consumption would Streams/Rivers/Oceans result in an almost immediate drop in me- Pollution of our waterways is caused by

8 Change Your Diet, Go Plant Based animal waste, antibiotics and hormones of around 5%, this makes 100 million tons entering the water cycle alongside chemi- of nitrogen 12 finding its way into our wa- cals from tanneries, fertilizers, and the ter system. pesticides used to spray feed crops. Manure, or waste water containing ma- contributes directly to the nure, severely harms river and stream pollution of our waterways: ecosystems. Farmed animals produce Large numbers of fish kept long-term in a single location produces a significant amount of feces concentrated in a small location, which can enter local waterways.

Because of parasite problems, some aqua- culture operators frequently use strong antibiotic drugs to keep the fish alive. Many fish still die prematurely at rates of up to 30%.22 The residual presence of Kalindi and friends. these drugs in human food products has become controversial because the use of about 130 times as much excrement as the antibiotics in food production is thought entire human population of the United to increase the prevalence of antibiotic States. Since factory farms don't have sew- resistance in human diseases. age treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our top- soil, and contaminating our air.10

Once factory farm pollutants—including nitrogen, phosphorus, antibiotics and pes- ticides—reach the waterways they cause a great deal of damage to aquatic and hu- man life. Algal blooms are a particular problem, blocking waterways, using up oxygen as they decompose, and killing the natural populations of fish.11

In large amounts, animal waste can pre- sent major problems to the waterways and their surrounding environment. More than 2 billion tons of animal manure was produced worldwide during the late 1990s. Assuming average nitrogen content Willan Dove feeding Kalyan Tamal.

2. Your Diet Can Save the Earth 9 These drugs enter the food chain through Help Ensure Environmental direct consumption of the farmed fish itself Sustainability and through the highly concentrated feces There were approximately 6.5 billion peo- deposits that contaminate water supplies. ple living on earth in 20052526 , and as the Reports indicate that Scottish salmon world’s population continues to grow, our farms alone have breached pollution limits requirement for food will also increase. more than 400 times in the past 3 years.23 Worldwide food production requires 30% of the total soil available, 20% of fossil fuel Reduce Destruction of Topsoil & energy and a major part of the fresh water Tropical Rainforest flow.27 Raising cattle is one of the most Thirty percent of the earth’s entire land sur- damaging components of agriculture.28 In face—a massive 70% of all agricultural addition to their gaseous emissions and land—is used for rearing farmed animals. manure products, it causes the most envi- Much of this is grazing land that otherwise ronmental damage of any non-human would host natural habitats such as valuable species through over-grazing, soil erosion, rainforests. And, of the entire world’s land desertification and tropical deforestation. suitable for growing crops that would other- Studies on world food security estimate wise directly feed humans, a third of it is that an affluent diet containing meat re- used to produce feed for farmed animals.13 quires up to 3 times as many resources as a vegetarian diet.29 Livestock farming can lead to overgrazing causing soil erosion, desertification and Global production of meat has increased deforestation14. Twenty percent of the dramatically from 130 million tons in the world’s grazing land has already been late 1970s to 230 million tons in the year designated as degraded due to the rearing 2000.30 Meat is now the single largest of animals for their meat.15 source of animal protein in all affluent nations31 and demand for animal flesh is Livestock production is responsible for expected to be more than double by the 70% of deforestation in the Amazon region year 2050.32 In order to meet this growing of Latin America, where rainforests are appetite, animals will no doubt be reared being cleared to create new pastures.16 more intensively and cheaply with factory farming and aquaculture (fish farming) Deforestation increases greenhouse gas causing further pollution, water demand emissions by releasing carbon previously and land usage. If nothing is done, the stored in the trees. It is also a major driver environmental impact of meat production in the loss of biodiversity – a pressing con- can only increase. cern when one considers the fact that just a few species of livestock now account for Adopting a vegetarian diet is an im- about 20% of total terrestrial animal portant tool to achieve environmental biomass.17 sustainability. Down to Earth “Top 10 Rea- sons It’s Green to Go Veggie.” Complete foot- notes on their website: downtoearth.org

10 Change Your Diet, Go Plant Based 3.Your Diet Can Save Lives

Reduce Destruction of Wildlife Antibiotics contain significant amounts of Habitats & Endangered Species the most carcinogenic form of arsenic. The livestock industry is responsible for USDA researchers have found that “… widespread deforestation and cultivation eating two ounces of chicken per day—the of vast tracks of land. Wide-spread equivalent of a third to a half of a boneless cultivation of the land ruins animals’ breast—exposes a consumer to 3 to 5 natural habitat and forces millions of them micrograms of inorganic arsenic, the to be evicted from their homes each year, element’s most toxic form.” Daily causing long-term harm to our wildlife. exposure to low doses of arsenic can cause cancer, dementia, neurological problems, Reduce Use of Antibiotics, Growth and other ailments in humans. 18 Hormones and Chemicals Farmed animals and fish are fed a wide Antibiotics reduce the amount of bacteria variety of drugs to fatten them faster in animals' intestines and preventing and to keep them alive in conditions infection, to which crowded, stressed that would otherwise kill them. These animals are predisposed. Routine drugs enter the human food chain antibiotic use leads to antibiotic-resistant through direct consumption or through bacteria, thereby reducing antibiotics’ pollution of our waterways. effectiveness when treating people suffering from food poisoning or other infectious diseases. 19

Farmers give hormones to animals to increase growth and productivity. Widely used in the United States, these hormones are known to cause several types of cancer and reproductive dysfunction in humans.20 While U.S. farmers claim that using hormones to promote growth is safe, the European Union has prohibited Sri Vasanti is a beautiful, rescued calf. this practice since 1995.21

The effect on humans of consuming low Reduce Ecological Footprint levels of these drugs during a lifetime is By choosing a vegetarian diet instead of unknown but could be serious. Antibiotics one loaded with animal products, given to farmed animals include penicillin, individuals can dramatically reduce the erythromycin, and inorganic arsenic (the amount of land, water, and oil resources most toxic form of arsenic). that they consume and the amount of pollution they otherwise might cause. Of

3. Your Diet Can Save Lives 11 Krishna House guests visiting with Sri Vasanti. course, reducing one’s ecological footprint Thoughts to Ponder: Does Being should also mean causing less harm to the Vegan Really Help Animals? Earth's non-human inhabitants. By switch- More people are moving toward a plant ing to a vegetarian diet, each person can based diet, owning in part to evidence save more than 100 animals each year about human health and environmental from the horrific cruelty of the meat in- sustainability, and in part to the dustry.24 downtoearth.org “Top 10 Reasons emerging scientific consensus on the Why It's Green to Go Veggie.” breadth and depth of and sentience. Reduce Famine You'll help reduce fam- ine. About 70 percent of all grain produced But how might choosing to eat fewer in the United States is fed to animals raised animals than ever before — or no animals for slaughter. The 7 billion livestock at all (vegetarian), or no animals or animals in the United States consume five animal products (vegan) — make a times as much grain as is consumed difference for animals or for the world? directly by the American population. If all the grain currently fed to livestock were This question is on my mind this week, as consumed directly by people, the number I read a book titled Ninety-Five: Meeting of people who could be fed would be America's Farmed Animals in Stories and nearly 800 million, says David Pimentel, Photographs. It suggests that 95 "is the professor of ecology at Cornell University. average number of animals spared each If the grain were exported, it would boost year by one person's vegan diet." There the US trade balance by $80 billion a year. are a variety of sources estimating

12 Change Your Diet, Go Plant Based average individual intakes of meat. A story eat. St. Paul called on the faithful to pray in USA Today Wednesday reported that ceaselessly. I like that every time I sit down each meat-eating individual eats 7,000 to eat, I cast my lot for mercy, and against animals (including fish) over their misery — for compassion, and against lifetimes. This number is based on the cruelty. Every meal becomes a prayer for a Vegetarian Calculator. kinder and more just world.

What does "spared" in this context actually Alka: I don't think so much about the mean? Can — or numbers of animals who are spared as or cutting way back on meat consumption much as I think about the misery and — really make a global impact for animals, suffering that I'm not contributing to as a given the number of hungry people in the result of my choices. It was learning about world who may rely on animal protein? the horrific conditions on factory farms — and thinking about the arbitrary cultural I decided to pose a few questions, by lines that determine which animals are eat- email, earlier this week to three animal en and which are spared — that compelled activists and vegans: of the me to adopt a vegan diet; and I feel some Humane Society of the United States, comfort in knowing that my actions are not of , and contributing to, or paying for those systems Alka Chandna of PETA. Here's the first: to carry out, their business.

Do you find it personally motivating or inspiring to reflect upon the number of animals who live each year, who otherwise would not, because you are vegan?

Paul: Eating fewer or no animals doesn't mean that animals who would've been killed will now live; it means that animals who would've been bred into existence to suffer on factory farms will now not be brought into the world and exploited in the terrible ways that are customary in the . It's a supply and demand issue. Less demand should mean less supply.

Bruce: As Paul notes, by removing our demand, we're sparing animals suffering that is beyond our worst imaginings. I do find it deeply motivating to realize that I can live my values every time I sit down to Anasuya was one of eight rescued calves. At first she was frightened and now she is feisty.

3. Your Diet Can Save Lives 13 Conversely, if I am accidentally served maxim of loving kindness: Do not unto something that isn't vegan at a restaurant others that which you would not have them (and I know the dish is going to be thrown do unto you.” -- Analects 15.23. Buddhism away), I feel like I have contributed to the also teaches, “Hurt not others in ways that torment suffered by the animals whose you yourself would find hurtful.” -- Udana- flesh or bodily products were in the dish. Varga 5.18. And finally, in the world’s earli- For example, if I'm given something that est religious scriptures, the Vedic literature, contains an egg, I think that my miscom- we find, “This is the sum of duty: Do naught munication resulted in a hen suffering in a unto others which would cause you pain if for 34 hours (and all of the an- done unto you.” -- Mahabharata 5.1517. cillary suffering inherent in the discarding of the male chicks, the eventual slaughter, The world of science echoes the world’s reli- and so on). It's [weighing] the time that an gions with its own equivalent of the Golden animal suffered on a factory farm for that Rule. Newton’s Third Law of Motion says item to come into existence, balanced “For every action, there is an equal and op- against the few minutes of enjoyment I posite reaction.” While Newton’s law ap- might derive from eating that item. plies only to material nature, the implica- tions run deeper still, extending to the most This convergence in Paul, Bruce and Alka's subtle levels of existence. In the East, this is answers underscores the view that animal called the law of Karma. rescue is not as much about filling up sanc- tuaries with animals saved from slaughter, In a very fundamental sense, too, this law as it is approaching our entire food system relates to our treatment of animals. The with fresh eyes. (See also Philip Lymbery's violence in society is at least in part the book Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap result of our merciless diet and abuse of the Meat). npr.org; “Does Being Vegan Really natural world around us. In karmic terms, Help Animals.” violence begets violence. In dietary terms, you are what you eat.”-- Food for the Spirit, Reduce Violence in the World Steven Rosen The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do onto you,” Is one of “Srila Prabhupada: [...] But in the western the uniting principles in the world’s major country the cows are specially being killed. religious traditions. In Judaism, it is taught, Now the reaction is war, crime, and they are “What is hateful to you, do not to your now repentant. And they will have to repent fellowmen.” -- Talmud, Shabbat 31a more and more. Christianity teaches, “Whatever ye would Jayatirtha: So the wars and the crime are a that men should do to you, do you even so direct result of the cow slaughter. to them.” -- Matthew 7:12. The followers of Prabhupada: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It is a Islam declare, “No one of you is a believer wholesale reaction. All these crises are until he desires for his brother that which taking place.[...]” -- from talk with writer and he desires for himself.” -- Sunnah, Hadith. editing manager of Playboy Magazine and Srila In Confucianism it is said, “Surely it is the Prabhupada, July 5, 1975, Chicago

14 Change Your Diet, Go Plant Based Keshava strolling. Keshava and his brother Madhava are pictured on the back cover. “The cow stands with tears in her eyes, the ... milkman draws milk from the cow artificially, and when there is no milk the cow is sent to be slaughtered. These greatly sinful acts are responsible for all the troubles in present society.”Srila Prabhupada, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.17.3 ,Purport