Humane Meat
“Humane” meat, eggs, and dairy are a myth and a marketing scheme that often dupes well-meaning consumers into feeling better about buying inherently cruelly produced items. Animals used for food have very few protections, and existing “humane” certifications fail to prevent suffering. Read more to learn why the only type of humane meat is plant-based.
What ‘humane’ labels really mean
‘humanely raised’
- Hudson Valley Foie Gras advertised its product as cruelty-free and humane — but lawsuits forced it to drop those claims.
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Whistleblowers and undercover investigators have exposed egregious cruelty on “American Humane Certified” Farms. For example, in February 2022, a whistleblower who worked at American Humane Certified Culver Duck Farms provided PETA with video footage and photographs apparently showing ducks who were injured and dying, others who were suffocated and buried alive, and dozens of live ducklings who were ground up while fully conscious.
- Humane Farm Animal Care certification aka “Certified Humane”, allows producers to cut off young chicks’ beaks and obtain chicks from hatcheries that kill newborn male chicks in devices that resemble meat grinders because they don’t profit the industry, and it doesn’t require that “laying hens” have access to the outdoors at all.
‘Free-range’, ‘Cage-Free’ Chicken & Eggs
- Hens used in the egg industry live in dark, severely crowded warehouses.
- The tips of chicks’ beaks are commonly burned off.
- Up to 86% of hens used in cage-free egg production have broken bones.
- All male chicks are killed—often ground up or thrown into the trash to suffocate—because they’re considered useless by the egg industry.
‘Grass-fed’, ‘pasture-raised’ Cows
- Cows are forcibly raped, and calves are deliberately orphaned to produce milk.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t verify the accuracy of producers’ claims, so it’s nearly impossible to know what the cows really ate.
- “Grass-fed” cows are still subjected to mutilations without painkillers—hot irons are pressed into their skin, and their sensitive horns are burned off.
- Farmers and ranchers may clear vast acres of land filled with natural plant life in order to graze cows, which kills wildlife and causes erosion.
‘Organic’, ‘No antibiotics’
- Producers can use this label as long as they provide “sufficient evidence” that the animals were raised without antibiotics.
- More animals can suffer and die because farmers don’t treat them when they get infections, in order to keep the deceptive label.
- Garden of Eve
‘Local’, ‘Family-owned’ farms
Crescent
‘farm-raised’ fish
- Fish are bred in packed, feces-contaminated, disease-promoting tanks.
- “Aquafarms” can discharge waste, pesticides, and other chemicals into natural ecosystems.
- Many fish raised on these farms are predators, such as salmon and shrimp. This means that for every pound of farmed fish, 5 pounds of fish from the ocean are required as feed.
‘Wild-Caught’ fish
- Along with the trillions of fish caught in the sea, thousands of whales, dolphins, and turtles are caught and killed in fishing gear each year.
- 90% of the populations of large fish species have been decimated because of the fishing industry.
- Trash from fishing vessels makes up a huge amount of plastic in the ocean, killing even more sea animals.
- The gills of fish who make it on deck alive are cut, and the animals either die from blood loss or are tossed onto ice to freeze or suffocate slowly.
- For more information on the impact of fishing on the climate crisis, watch Seaspiracy on Netflix.
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Like the Foie Gras Industry, the Egg Industry grinds up baby birds alive
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Pigs, Cows, and other Land animals raised for Meat
Roosters are excellent husbands and fathers, keeping a watchful eye over their families and defending them against perceived aggressors. Unfortunately, their protective nature is often misunderstood, and this combined with the fact they cannot lay eggs, causes roosters to often be abandoned as soon as their gender is revealed. This issue is compounded by their crowing, which makes them unwelcome in most urban — and even many suburban — environments.
While roosters are doting and fierce protectors of their flock, domestic chickens — like domestic ducks — have been bred to have large bodies and small wings, and most are unable to fly away from predators. In most cases, large spurs have also been bred out of them, taking away their last line of defenses as well.
Sea ANimals
Roosters are excellent husbands and fathers, keeping a watchful eye over their families and defending them against perceived aggressors. Unfortunately, their protective nature is often misunderstood, and this combined with the fact they cannot lay eggs, causes roosters to often be abandoned as soon as their gender is revealed. This issue is compounded by their crowing, which makes them unwelcome in most urban — and even many suburban — environments.
While roosters are doting and fierce protectors of their flock, domestic chickens — like domestic ducks — have been bred to have large bodies and small wings, and most are unable to fly away from predators. In most cases, large spurs have also been bred out of them, taking away their last line of defenses as well.
Leather
Roosters are excellent husbands and fathers, keeping a watchful eye over their families and defending them against perceived aggressors. Unfortunately, their protective nature is often misunderstood, and this combined with the fact they cannot lay eggs, causes roosters to often be abandoned as soon as their gender is revealed. This issue is compounded by their crowing, which makes them unwelcome in most urban — and even many suburban — environments.
While roosters are doting and fierce protectors of their flock, domestic chickens — like domestic ducks — have been bred to have large bodies and small wings, and most are unable to fly away from predators. In most cases, large spurs have also been bred out of them, taking away their last line of defenses as well.
Silk & Honey
Roosters are excellent husbands and fathers, keeping a watchful eye over their families and defending them against perceived aggressors. Unfortunately, their protective nature is often misunderstood, and this combined with the fact they cannot lay eggs, causes roosters to often be abandoned as soon as their gender is revealed. This issue is compounded by their crowing, which makes them unwelcome in most urban — and even many suburban — environments.
While roosters are doting and fierce protectors of their flock, domestic chickens — like domestic ducks — have been bred to have large bodies and small wings, and most are unable to fly away from predators. In most cases, large spurs have also been bred out of them, taking away their last line of defenses as well.
What Humane Long Island is doing to help
Direct Rescue
Humane Long Island regularly coaxes New York City live slaughter markets to surrender live animals during the Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas seasons; and when Toronto activist Regan Russell was killed by the driver of a slaughterhouse-bound truck, Humane Long Island’s executive director persuaded the Vice President of the Iowa Pork Association and CEO of Mogler Farms—a factory farm that kills 150,000 pigs a year—to spare two piglets in her honor.
Making Veganism more accessible
Humane Long Island regularly volunteers with Long Island-based hunger relief organization Community Solidarity and has distributed more than seven tons of plant-based meals and artisan vegan cheeses to low-income communities.
Humane Long Island also supports local vegan businesses and provides free samples of vegan products to affluent communities to stimulate socially responsible investments.
Installing billboards at Busy intersections
Humane Long Island has installed seven billboards across Nassau and Suffolk counties urging passersby to leave animals off their plates and out of their classrooms for an estimated five million impressions.
shutting down slaughterhouses
A live slaughter market was barred from opening in Islip following nearly a year of protests by Humane Long Island and an investigation documenting hundreds of dead and dying chickens left unattended inside crates in freezing and deplorable conditions outside the applicant’s Queens slaughterhouse.
A Humane Long Island investigation led to the New York City DOH shutting down an illegal backyard butcher operation in Forest Hills and prompted the owner to surrender more than a dozen ducks and a domestic goose to our Duck Defenders program.
Headline-grabbing demonstrations
Humane Long Island’s executive director John Di Leonardo made international headlines alongside actor James Cromwell for supergluing their hands to a a Starbucks counter in midtown Manhattan in protest of the coffee titan’s upcharge on vegan milk.
Hosting Long Island’s
First VeganFest
Long Island VeganFest is coming in 2024!
We are looking for a robust team of volunteers to help us in our event planning. If you are passionate about this message and helping us create an amazing event that will attract people from all over the Northeast, please email our Long Island VeganFest Volunteer Coordinator at vegandenise2030@gmail.com. Thanks in advance for your interest in helping us!