Many PETA members have contacted us to ask whether they should support so-called "humane" meat. It's a question that we all should be asking because this issue is very important—particularly for the billions of animals who are killed for our plates every year.

If you look around, society is at a turning point. Everyone from the NFL's Arian Foster to Bill Clinton to Anne Hathaway is talking about how going vegan boosts one's energy and keeps one looking slim and healthy. Grocery stores are packed with tasty vegan foods, from faux meats such as vegan chicken and ribs to dairy-free products such as rice milk ice cream and vegan cheese! It's no longer a chore to ask for a vegan meal in restaurants, including steakhouses, and there are now vegan options at schools across the country. Some universities even have all-vegan cafeterias. 

Now, more than ever before, it is time to be kind to animals by not paying someone else to slaughter them—something that happens even on so-called "humane" farms.

PETA has pushed hard and will continue to push hard to reduce the sum total of suffering in the meat, dairy, and egg industries—because that makes a huge difference if you are a pig or a chicken on a factory farm. We've stopped PETA protests outside Burger King or McDonald's restaurants when those companies agreed to reforms, but that doesn't mean that we would ever suggest eating meat from Burger King or anywhere else—because we know that massive suffering still goes into every bite. Yes, it's better to pay extra for an egg from a chicken who had a marginally less hideous life than one who suffered more, but we must do better by animals. In fact, we have yet to find a "humane" factory farm where animals don't have their tails cut off and their ears painfully notched, where they aren't debeaked, dehorned, or castrated without anesthesia, where they aren't kept in crowded conditions without sunlight or fresh air, where they don't have their beloved children taken away from them, where they aren't denied the companionship of others, where they aren't sent to a feedlot, or where they are instantly dispatched without the trauma of capture, the horror of transportation, or the terror of seeing other animals killed before suffering the same fate. 

PETA has pushed for vegan living since our inception in 1980. Our motto is: "Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way." With so many vegan cookbooks and meal options available and with programs like the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart and our wildly popular vegan starter kit, we can all help animals—and not miss a thing. Let's live and let live, and tell others to come along with us, reminding them that animals have emotions and needs just as human beings do.

There is no such thing as humane meat. Giving animals a few more inches of living space is simply not enough. Animals deserve more. The momentum is on our side, but it will take every one of us to bring this change about by being active advocates of animal rights. Thank you!

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

President

We've all read the horror stories about people finding fingertips in fast food, bloody bandages in pizza, and a condom in a bag of French fries. But the grossest things in our food rarely make headlines—and chances are good that consumers of meat and dairy products have ingested at least one of them:

1. Arsenic. Farms feed chickens and pigs arsenic to help ward off infections in the filthy living conditions and to turn their flesh the pink shade that is considered appetizing. Because nothing says "appetizing" like poison.
2. Poop. When animals' intestines are torn open during slaughter, feces spill out onto their flesh. So when people buy the meat, they're getting, well, sorry, crappy food.
3. Industrial runoff. Who would head down to the local river, whip out a glass, and gulp down some river water? No one? Well, then people might want to avoid eating fish, who are contaminated with the pollutants that run into waterways from our tanneries, factories, and industrial plants, as well as manure runoff from pastures.
4. Calf stomach lining. Many cheeses are made with rennet, an enzyme taken from calves' stomach lining. Does eating baby stomachs make you sick to yours?
5. DDT. Even though the U.S. banned DDT, it remains in the environment and particularly accumulates in animal fats. Think, "Double-Decker of Toxins."
6. Pus. Cows on dairy farms often suffer from mastitis, a painful inflammation of the udders caused by bacteria. Their bodies try to fight off the infection by producing pus, and guess where the pus goes. Into the milk and into the milk-drinker's mouth.
7. Pink slime. The now famous picture of what looks like the result of a kid smashing all his Play-Doh together is actually mechanically separated meat, a main ingredient in many processed meats such as chicken nuggets and hot dogs. It's made by sending animals' bones through a machine that scrapes off the last bits of flesh and blood, forming the bits into a paste, and then treating the mass with ammonia, dyeing it, and adding flavor to it.

Makes me crave … broccoli.