Ever wonder what it would be like to intern with Mercy For Animals? We interviewed Daniela Castillo, who recently completed an internship at MFA's Dallas office, and asked her to give us the scoop.
A veterinarian with a master's degree in wildlife conservation, Daniela has devoted her life to helping animals. Daniela grew up in southern Mexico, but now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, where her husband is a graduate student at Florida State University. While she is passionate about many animal issues, helping to raise awareness about the plights of animals on factory farms is where she has chosen to focus her efforts.
What motivated you to intern for MFA?
While I was studying for my master's, I decided that I wanted to work for animals rights, and many of my class papers were about animal rights. I learned about Mercy For Animals during this research. I feel the best way to help the most animals is to help people learn about becoming vegetarian, and so I wanted to learn from MFA how to be an activist and how to do outreach. Before my internship, I had no idea where to start. I also wanted to do an internship as a way to hopefully get a job in the future with an organization like MFA.
What inspired you to go vegetarian?
I became pesco-vegetarian when I was 15. As a child, I felt very close to animals and I knew I wanted to do something to help them. During my studies in veterinary school in Mexico, I saw very closely the cruelty to farmed animals, including the use of hormones and antibiotics and mutilations, and I felt more strongly about my vegetarianism and tried to influence my classmates.
A few years ago, when I was getting my master's degree in wildlife conservation, a classmate shared a story about how turtles, dolphins and sharks were killed as by-catch in the tuna industry. I went online and looked it up and saw it was true. By that time I was also reading about pain in sea animals, so I stopped eating all seafood after that. And about a year ago, I became vegan so that I could be 100% consistent with what I'm saying and doing for animals.
How do you feel your internship has helped you as an activist?
It helped me a lot, and now I really feel like an activist! Before the internship, I didn't know other activists in my area and had never leafleted before, and I was nervous to go leafleting by myself. I really feel like an activist now after this internship. I appreciated that I was trusted with a lot of responsibility. Before MFA, I was vegan and was just trying to talk to people in my life, but it was really hard for me to talk to people I didn't know. Now it's a lot easier. I don't feel alone anymore.
What did you think of Dallas?
I loved my whole month in Dallas so much I cannot describe it. I loved that Nora (MFA's Dallas campaign coordinator) introduced me to so many local activists, who are such great people. They made me feel like I was in a new home. I made very good friends and activist soul mates. I never imagined having a community like that. I really enjoyed the housing. I did not imagine it was going to be so nice. It was nice to wake up in a really nice place each day.
When I was doing establishment outreach and leafleting, the people there were very open and nice. And there are great vegan restaurants there. Spiral Diner and Veggie Garden are the best restaurants I've ever gone to. I found it very easy and fun to eat vegan in Dallas.
Do you have any advice for animal advocates?
This MFA internship is a really, really good opportunity if you want to make a change for animal rights. It really fulfilled my expectations. My only suggestion is to go for a longer time than the minimum of a month. I wish I had stayed longer, as I know I could have learned a lot more. Dallas is the perfect place to intern because the weather is better, the people are nice, the MFA volunteers in Dallas are amazing, and the Texas coordinator rocks! I really loved my time there. And strongly recommend it.
Inspired? Click here to learn more about MFA's Internship Program and apply today for an exciting internship in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, or Columbus, OH.
Striking a major blow to animal welfare and food safety, the Supreme Court recently overruled a California law requiring the humane euthanasia of downed livestock - animals who are too sick or injured to walk to the slaughterhouse kill floor. The decision effectively strips the state of its authority to prevent the needless suffering of sick animals or to ensure the safety of the human food supply.
The California state law went into effect in 2009, after an undercover investigation showed cows who were unable to walk off of the transport truck being prodded, bulldozed, and dragged to the slaughterhouse floor.
See the undercover investigation that led to the California law here:
This is a deeply troubling decision, preventing a wide range of actions by the states to protect animals and consumers from reckless practices by the meat industry, including the mishandling and slaughter of animals too sick or injured to walk.
The decision highlights the need for increased legal protections for farmed animals on a federal level. It is certain that the powerful factory farming lobby is hard at work undermining laws intended to prevent cruelty to animals - making it even more vital that animal advocates continue to pressure their elected officials, distribute undercover videos of factory farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses, and expose consumers to the cruelty inherent in animal agriculture.
Now is the time to speak out! Visit MeatVideo.com and show your friends and family what the meat, dairy and egg industries desperately don't want to change.
A slaughterhouse in Dallas, Texas, recently made headlines around the world for dumping blood from the pigs it slaughters directly into a river in a residential area. Search warrants executed at the Columbia Packing Company confirmed that the plant had been releasing the pigs' blood into the stream through an underground pipe.
In addition to potentially violating environmental protection laws, reports indicate that this slaughterhouse has also been cited by the United States Department of Agriculture for multiple animal welfare violations. This incident is just another reminder that the meat industry is incapable of self-regulation and that as long as there is profit in raising and killing animals for food there will be people willing to threaten human health, the environment and animal welfare to make a buck.
We can all take a powerful stand against the corruption of the meat, dairy and egg industries by choosing to transition to a healthy and humane vegetarian diet.
If you're swayed by the notion that part of being "macho" is ferociously devouring the flesh and fluids of animals, you may want to take a step back and reconsider. According to a new video by the makers of Forks Over Knives, the revolutionary documentary film empowering consumers to take control of their lives by changing the way they eat, consumption of meat, milk and eggs has a direct correlation to decreased libido.
In this video, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Terry Mason and Kathy Freston discuss how the animal food products at the cornerstone of a typical Western diet trigger cardiovascular diseases that lead to impotence and lower sex drive. Heart disease and high blood pressure not only reduce blood flow to the heart and brain, which can result in heart attacks and strokes, they decrease blood flow throughout the body, including to the penis and clitoris. Without blood flow to these areas, erection and arousal are stunted.
Dr. Mason explains, "If you have vascular disease anywhere, you have it everywhere ... Erectile dysfunction is actually the first clinical indicator of generalized cardiovascular disease." So enhance your sex life and prevent impotence by ditching that artery-clogging burger and switching to a compassionate vegan diet.
Visit ChooseVeg.com for an array of mouthwatering, cruelty-free recipes and meal ideas.
As Americans become aware of the inherent violence and cruelty of the egg industry, many are losing their taste for eggs. In fact, according to a recent report released by the egg industry itself, per capita egg consumption in the United States has been plummeting for the last 6 years. Egg factory farms are now even losing money around Easter, which is typically the third-busiest time of the year for the industry.
While no one factor can explain the rotten taste the egg industry seems to be leaving in Americans' mouths, undercover investigations into egg factory farms and hatcheries across the country have certainly helped to expose millions of people to the routine horrors egg-laying hens and baby chicks are forced to endure.
Most recently, MFA's undercover investigation into McDonald's' primary Egg McMuffin supplier revealed shocking cruelty to animals, including birds crammed into filthy wire cages with less space for each bird than a standard-sized sheet of paper to live her entire miserable life, and rotted hens - decomposed beyond recognition - left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption.
See for yourself how the majority of egg-laying hens are treated in this country:
There has never been a better time to replace the eggs in our diets with healthy and humane vegan alternatives. Visit ChooseVeg.com for hundreds of mouthwatering, egg-free recipes, and a helpful video about baking without eggs.
The popular Dallas-Fort Worth area website and weekly magazine DFW.com recently featured MFA's Texas Campaign Coordinator Nora Kramer as a local "Mover and Shaker," saying, "one talk with Kramer could change your life."
"Her broad smile and sweet demeanor are what first disarm you," Heather Svokos writes. "Then, with a one-two punch, she lays you flat with an arsenal of alarming facts and a stream of gentle persuasion. Before you know it - as you betray what your taste buds have told you your whole life - you're considering ... never eating a cheeseburger again."
Nora has been involved in farmed animal advocacy for over 10 years, was instrumental in efforts to pass landmark animal protection standards in Ohio and California, and moved to Texas last year to run MFA's Dallas office, which distributed more than 150,000 pro-vegetarian brochures throughout the Lone Star state in 2011.
Within an hour of the article's posting online, Nora received a message from a Dallas resident who had read the piece, saying, "I am ready to volunteer! ... I want to get to work."
If you'd like to join the MFA team in Texas too, we currently offer free housing in Dallas through our exciting internship program, as well as opportunities to volunteer to help animals throughout the state.
According to Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D., a world-renowned animal behaviorist and acclaimed author of Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good, animals experience life in much the same way as we do. They feel fear and pain of course, but more central to the lives of animals is the capacity to experience joy and pleasure.
In a recent article published in Positive News, based on his latest book The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure, Dr. Balcombe shares the latest science on the inner world of animals and explains why some researchers now believe that other animals may experience certain emotions more intensely than humans and how, when the lives of animals are deprived of purpose or pleasure, they suffer more intensely than humans do.
He notes that chickens are intelligent creatures who communicate through at least thirty different calls and sheep can recognize emotions on the faces of other sheep. In fact, chickens and sheep, like all farmed animals, have complex emotional lives and are equally capable of experiencing joy, pleasure and love, as they are fear, loneliness and pain. Unfortunately, when crammed into tiny cages or crates on factory farms and deprived of nearly everything that is natural and important to them, farmed animals are forced to endure lives that few of us can even imagine.
Perhaps worse than the physical torments farmed animals are made to suffer, is the loss of freedom, companionship and other joyful experiences that wild animals are afforded. As Dr. Balcombe explains, "Pleasure adds intrinsic value to life - that is, value to the individual who feels it regardless of any perceived worth to anyone else. Pleasure seekers have wants, needs, desires, and lives worth living. They can have a good quality of life. If we let them."
Interested in helping to create a more pleasurable world for farmed animals? Visit ChooseVeg.com to find out how you can start by adopting a healthy and humane vegan lifestyle.
Cruelty-free eating is catching on at college campuses across the country as more and more students learn of the devastating consequences that raising animals for food has on the environment, human health and animal welfare. In fact, vegetarianism has gone up 50 percent and veganism has doubled on college campuses in the last several years. According to a recent report, 1 in 5 college students is ditching meat in favor of healthier and more humane plant-based alternatives.
Noticing the growing veggie trend, campus dining services are increasingly stepping up to the plate and adding vegan and vegetarian options that all students can enjoy. Last year, the University of North Texas made headlines after responding to student demand by making its Mean Greens dining hall menu 100 percent vegan. And now, San Diego's veg-friendly campus dining scene is getting a boost thanks to Roots!
Roots is a completely vegetarian and primarily vegan eatery and lounge that just opened on the University of California, San Diego campus. Diners can select delicious plant-based dishes ranging from colorful salads to a hearty grilled vegan "chiken" sandwich with all the fixings. Given the venue's sustainable and cruelty-free fare, it comes as no surprise that Roots is located in Muir College - home to the university's Environmental Studies program.
If you're a student and your cafeteria could improve upon its plant-based meal offerings, why not nudge your school in the right direction? High schools and colleges across the country are expanding meat-free meal options, adopting Meatless Monday programs, and, in some cases, even welcoming totally meat-free eateries.
Helping animals, protecting the planet and improving personal health are all good reasons to pledge to go vegetarian in 2012, but if you could use a little extra motivation, MFA is sweetening the pot with vegan marshmallows, cupcakes, chocolates, cosmetics, books, and more.
In addition to receiving great tips, delicious recipes and friendly encouragement, everyone who takes MFA's 2012 Vegetarian Resolution will be entered to win cool prizes every month they stick with their pledge.
Along with a year's subscription to VegNews magazine, monthly winners will receive:
January: A gift package from best-selling vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz, including a signed copy of Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, along with a handmade apron and t-shirt.
February: 100% vegan marshmallows from Sweet & Sara. These tempting morsels of edible bliss are rich, creamy, and incredibly divine - makes you wonder how you've gone this long without them.
March: Stylish and cruelty-free Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics gift pack - a popular brand of vegan cosmetics that, until recently, was only available for professional makeup artists.
April: Decadent, animal-friendly makeup from Urban Decay Cosmetics - beauty with an edge... feminine, a little dangerous, and a lot of fun.
May:Ethically Engineered vegan soaps, moisturizers, or hair products - pure products for a pure planet.
June: $50 gift certificate to Herbivore Clothing Company for hip shirts, bags, wallets, and more. What more is there to say? Herbivore is one of the coolest clothing companies in the world.
July: A free dvd copy of Forks Over Knives - the powerful new documentary film that examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods.
August: A stylish and practical MFA logo messenger bag and t-shirt. Now you can promote mercy and compassion for animals everywhere you go.
September: A designer wristlet purse from ellu. ellu handbags are vibrant, brave, original... as is the ellu woman.
October: A free copy of Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - a step-by-step practical guide for "leaning into veganism" by New York Times best-selling author and renowned wellness expert Kathy Freston.
November: An Obsessive Confection Disorder gift basket - kinder, gentler sweets born out of the desire to share a lifelong passion for satisfying the proverbial sweet tooth, with uncompromising commitment to doing so cruelty free.
December: $75 gift certificate for Allison's Gourmet -- award-winning vegan baked goods with organic ingredients for the environment and your taste buds.
In a case of the fox guarding the henhouse, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture is under fire for compromising a criminal animal cruelty investigation at a Butterball turkey factory farm after an official for the agency admitted to warning the company days prior to a raid by state law enforcement officials.
According to a warrant issued for the phone records between Butterball and government officials, Dr. Sarah Mason, the director of Animal Health Programs with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, improperly leaked information about the criminal investigation and the impending raid to Butterball.
The Department of Agriculture is responsible for ensuring the health of farmed animals in North Carolina, but in this case, according to law enforcement authorities, the agency interfered with a criminal investigation after Mercy For Animals documented routine animal abuse and neglect at Butterball, including:
Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, with some unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss
Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA's investigator.
Watch the undercover investigation into Butterball here:
MFA praises law enforcement for taking swift and decisive action in this important matter. While it is troubling that the government agency charged with overseeing the health of animals has allegedly helped protect a company that was caught abusing and neglecting animals, the good news is that each of us has the power to help prevent animal abuse by transitioning to a healthy and humane vegan lifestyle. Visit ChooseVeg.com to learn more.
Ever wonder what it would be like to intern with Mercy For Animals? We interviewed Daniela Castillo, who recently completed an internship at MFA's Dallas office, and asked her to give us the scoop.
