Healthy, Humane and Sustainable: Feeding Our Animals and Ourselves in the 21st Century

Richard H. Pitcairn, DVM, PhD and Susan H. Pitcairn, MS

Time for an Update: Toxin-laden, nutrient-weak processed food diets are clearly a major cause of chronic disease and an important obstacle to cure — both for ourselves and for the animals we feed.Since 1981 our recommendations to feed fresh organic grains and meats with supplements (Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats) have been shown to improve the health of countless companion animals, as reported by clients, readers and colleagues. But we feel that it is time for a major update for current times, for our animals, as well as for human animals! In a nutshell, here’s why:

1. Increased global consumption of animal products is causing unsustainable environmental and health problems.2. Meat, fish, dairy, seafood and eggs concentrate high levels of toxins due to animal husbandry practices, and concentration up the food chain of general pollution of land, air, water and food. 3. We violate our values of compassion when we consume any products from the 99% of food animals inhumanely raised in factory farms. Yet traditional methods (pasture, small scale, low-density, mixed, local farms) are arguably incapable of meeting current demands. Furthermore, these kinds of seemingly better approaches almost inevitably create suffering for animals as well.4. Large scale studies and clinical evidence indicate that plant-based diets are optimal for human beings. 5. Reports and research suggest that dogs, and most cats, can also thrive on well planned, supplemented vegan diets.

Given all these concerns and findings, we encourage veterinarians to explore recommending well planned vegan or vegetarian diets for dogs and cats, natural forage for herbivorous animals, and to consider vegan or near-vegan diets for themselves and their families. We also believe that the veterinary profession is called to leadership on these issues, particularly as they involve massive and preventable animal suffering. And it so happens that the welfare of domestic animals clearly intersects with the welfare of the Earth and current and future generations of our own kind.

Background. What led us here? In fall 2014, friends recommended we watch, “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Solution.” Overnight this groundbreaking documentary nudged us from 45 complacent years of a vegetarian diet (eggs, dairy, a bit of fish) to a healthy whole food vegan diet. It is truly compelling to learn what a huge impact our food choices have on the environment. In addition, we have watched many online videos on the considerable health benefits of a plant based diet, on farm animal abuse (in both large and small operations) and on the ethics of treating some animals well (pets) vs. treating others horribly, which is much easier when the abuse is kept out of our awareness. Friends in our monthly potluck group are also sharing this journey and we have come to feel part of a global awakening, prompted by ecological, health and spiritual necessity.

Sustainable, healthy and humane ways of eating are rightful concerns and responsibilities for all human beings, but veterinarians are particularly called to leadership in becoming informed and in educating others about these issues. As professionals, DVMs appropriately serve the health and welfare of all animals, and are also called to advise clients on diets to prevent and reverse disease.

1. The Ecological Imperative

Sustainability: The Ultimate Health and Ethical Issue. Let’s start this discussion with sustainability. That’s because, in the end, sustainability trumps every health, ethical, economic, convenience, taste and cultural concern about diet (in fact, about most of our lifestyle choices). If the way we choose to live now simply cannot continue much longer, we will soon reach a point that all other issues are meaningless. And that is, indeed, the case today. We, especially in the developed world, are have used up and are increasingly using up far more of the Earth’s resources than she can regenerate. In our lifetimes, on our watch, the Earth’s ecosystems have become impoverished.

Experts warn that, on our current trajectory, by 2040, just 25 years from now (like 1990 was in the past, within the lifetime of many of us):

• We will lose the Amazon rainforests, resulting in large scale drought.• There will be no more fish to harvest from the ocean.• Half the world’s species of plants, animals and microorganisms will go extinct.• Fossil fuel production may go down to 20% of today, while demand could double.• Climate change will reach a tipping point, drowning coastlines, ruining agriculture.

Already, we in the midst of Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction, losing 137 species a day from rain forests alone, complex beings that we will never get to know. Some of this owes is due to our high-tech, fossil fuel-guzzling way of life and to industrial pollution. Much of it is due to paving over natural places and growing necessary food. And all that is, of course, worse with population growth.

But, given the need to feed all who are here, nothing impacts our environment like animal agriculture. It takes far more land, water, fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions to produce the same amount of calories and protein as animal food as to get it directly from plants. Animals are the “middle man.” These are the impacts we create when we buy meat, fish, dairy and eggs for us and our pets, as cited in “The World Peace Diet,” “Cowspiracy,” and various sources referenced at the end:

• Due to their methane release, our cattle contribute more to global warming than all transportation sectors combined. • Over 90% of the destruction of the Amazon is to raise (GMO) corn and soy for animal feed or to graze cattle. • Overgrazing is causing desertification of much of the world’s grasslands. • Our government wildlife “service” routinely slaughters millions of wild predators at the bequest of ranchers.• We are sucking fresh water reserves dry to grow crops to feed animals, (it takes100 x more water to produce animal protein as grain protein). • Our fishermen strip-mine the oceans with trawlers, destroying 4-5x as much sealife by weigh as “by-kill” than the species we target. Half the catch goes to food animals. • All of the world’s 17 major fisheries are depleted or in serious decline; 75% are in collapse. • Large ocean dead zones surround drainage basins carrying off nitrogenous waste from factory farms.• Whereas once humans and “our” animals were just 2% of total animal biomass, with the rest free-living wildlife, now we and our animals are 98% of it (mostly our food animals, 27 billion land animals killed/year in the US).

According to marine experts, there is no such thing as sustainable seafood. Nor does aquaculture does not solve the problem: it takes 3-5 lb. of wild ocean fish to produce 1 lb. of farmed fish (not to mention parasitic lice, coral reef destruction, GM salmon escape and other impacts of fish farms on sea life.)

Earth Appropriate Diets. It just cannot continue as it has. Feeding all humanity the amount of meat and dairy in the Standard American Diet (S.A.D) would take 2.5 to 3 Earths. A meat-heavy “Paleo” diet could take ten planets! (This news needs to be posted in America’s gyms!)

Now, add on the impact of our pets. Feeding the world’s 1 billion dogs and cats our leftovers and slaughterhouse waste is one thing, but feeding them an all-meat and bones “Species-Appropriate” diet just compounds the planetary devastation; the time has now arrived that we need to shift the conversation to what is the best “Earth Appropriate Diet,” both for us and for those animals we feed.

Now for some good news: we each make a huge difference! According to polls, most Americans are for environmental protection and 97% say they are against animal cruelty. Our vote today has little or no impact on public policies with our political dysfunction, but we vote on our food three times a day, as Will Tuttle, PhD, author of the “World Peace Diet” points out. And that vote really matters. As filmmaker Kip Andersen concludes in “Cowspiracy,” for every day that each of us eliminates meat, seafood, dairy and eggs from our diet, we each save, on average:

• 1100 gallons or more of fresh water (That’s about 11 x U.S. household use, per person.)• 30 square feet of forest • 45 pounds of grain • 20 pounds of CO2 release • and one animal’s life

Over 25 years, that’s: 10 million gallons of water, 205 tons of grain (didn’t know you ate that much, huh?), 54,750 sf of forest (about 27 suburban house lots we each cleared from the jungle), 450 tons of C02 and 9,125 animals. Whoa. Now that is making a difference! Now just imagine. If lots of us ate vegan (a.s.a.p.) we can still prevent and reverse enormous destruction, and create a paradise of beauty and harmony on Earth. We could feed all humans a healthy diet, avoiding the extremes of unhealthy obesity and starvation, and return a lot of farmland to nature. Just a 10% reduction in American meat consumption would feed 100 million hungry humans. (As it is, 20 million a year die from malnutrition.)

On top of that, it will benefit our health and our culture, as we shall see. For decades, vegetarian and vegan-friendly physicians and researchers have stressed the health benefits of eating vegetarian or vegan, so we can help our own health in the process. As for our carnivorous animals, Marion Nestle, PhD, a public health and nutrition expert, says that research clearly shows that dogs and cats can get all the nutrients they need from a complete and balanced vegan commercial food. And the more that each of us shares this information with others, the greater our impact. So let’s look now, at the health problems with meat, and then, what a vegan diet can do for our health, and that of our dogs and cats.

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2. The Health Imperative

As per capita consumption of animal products has risen globally in our lifetimes, so has increased obesity and chronic disease. In spite of this link, advocates of “species appropriate” diets for dogs and cats (Prey Model, BARF etc.) advise high levels of meat, far above AAFCO minimum protein standards, and often to the exclusion of grains.  Likewise, the Paleo/Atkins/Low Carb/Grain Free/Zone fads for human diets drum it into us everywhere we turn: we MUST eat meat to be healthy! 

Diet Fads: From Atkins, to Zone, to Blood Type, to Paleo to Low Carb: most recent diet fads have one thing in common: lots of animal foods, especially meat. And this is also despite the common experience that many can’t even stick to such diets, gaining back any pounds they lost, whereas healthy vegan diets tend to produce lasting, gradual weight loss until a trim, fit weight is reached. Plus, for those who look, there are mountains of evidence that millions of humans have thrived on vegetarian and vegan diets, which are even endorsed as adequate and possibly superior by such conservative groups as the American Dietetics Association and encouraged by many health authorities for decades.

Could it be we want to believe that animal products are good for us? Certainly, they taste good, they are convenient and they are familiar. Equally important, they are heavily promoted by a handful of large and powerful companies. Hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers subsidies go to US meat and dairy industries whose influence on government guidelines and mass media especially since the mid 20th century. Without these subsidies, meat, dairy and egg prices would skyrocket out of most people’s reach. Even such seemingly wholesome, organic (and anti-vegetarian) groups as the Weston Price Foundation are supported by meat and dairy producers. All this both enables and encourages high meat fads in the US, along with the rise in meat and dairy consumption in developing countries (accompanied by obesity and chronic disease).

The great protein myth: Despite our collective rush to meat and our implicit fear of dying of protein deficiency (something seen only in those who don’t get enough total calories, the truly malnourished), there is a huge elephant in this room. Nutritional research giants such as T.Colin Campbell, PhD, author of the best selling "China Study," "Whole" and other books advocating a whole food plant based diet, state that:

• The minimum protein humans need is actually just 6-7% of total calories.• Over 10% protein means animal foods and that means increased risk of various cancers, heart disease, hormonal imbalances, MS, Alzheimers, kidney stones, rheumatoid arthritis, E.D., joint pain, osteoporosis, lupus, and acne.• Casein (the main protein in milk) is one of the biggest carcinogens ever tested.• The SAD (Standard American Diet) is 17-18% protein.• Popular "Paleo" type diets can be up to 60% protein. Excess protein cannot be stored. If short of carbohydrates or fat, the body will convert protein to energy, but this is inefficient compared to carbohydrates (as many athletes know). And eliminating excess waste products of protein taxes both the liver and kidneys. Animal fats have also long been associated with clogged arteries and heart disease.

Not designed for meat. A number of long-time plant-based physicians such as Drs. John McDougall, Neal Barnard, Michael Klaper, Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn, have successfully cured and reversed thousands of case of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, MS, kidney disease, fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, arthritis, obesity, macular degeneration and more, simply with whole food low fat, plant based diets.

Contrary to contemporary “Cave Man” thinking, they and others argue that plant diets are demonstrably best for our health because humans were never designed to eat animal flesh and secretions. Our side-to-side jaws, grinding molars, limited canine teeth (the dullest among primates), lack of claws, long intestines, color vision (to find fruit) and more all indicate that we originally were frugivorous herbivores. This is supported by some anthropological findings as well. Bones survive long past the remains of plants, biasing original ideas about human diets, but more recent digs have found evidence of plant foods as a primary staple.

The origins of hunting. Let’s face it; without our clever and scary array of tools and weapons, we are a rather vulnerable primate incapable of killing much but a few insects and maybe a rodent now and then. Hunting is thought by some to have originated soon after the important discovery that we could fashion tools that could help us defend ourselves from dangerous predators. This led to hunting and allowed us to extend our range to colder, dryer areas lacking fruit and vegetation year-round. During the ice ages and in extreme climates hunting (which led to domesticating livestock) surely helped us survive. Ironically, in today’s world, as we have seen, returning to our plant-based origins is an equal necessity.

Starches: the key to civilization, and to health. Plants have always been key to our survival and thriving, especially starchy ones. As Dr. John McDougall emphasizes in “The Starch Solution,” When humans discovered agriculture some 10,000 years ago in the fertile valleys of the Middle East, cultivating and storing high-caloric grains and other starchy plants like potatoes and squash was the key revolution that allowed all great human civilizations to develop. Starches are very productive per acre, are a great fuel, get us through winter and crop failures and are what allows many members of a society to engage in other creative and inventive activities besides food gathering or production.

Healthwise, he assures us that historically all large successful populations of healthy, fit humans have centered their diets (and even their spirituality) around a primary starch, such as potatoes, rice, wheat, barley, squash, corn, beans or rye. We have developed high levels of amylase in our saliva, relative to other primates, enabling their proper digestion.

In fact, he stresses, returning to diets of complex carbohydrates —away from animal foods for which we were not designed, and away from processed foods with their excess sugars, oils and salts — is the key to restoring our society’s health, which has seriously declined since increasing animal products and processed foods in recent generations. He developed this idea originally from the simple observation in a Hawaii hospital that first generation Asian immigrants living primarily on rice and vegetables were far more fit and healthy than their children or grandchildren who increasingly adopted the American diet.

Such a diet is also likely the most affordable and ecologically sustainable human diet today, and, given today’s use of GMOs, pesticides and the like, should be as organic as possible, especially soy and corn. (See his informative online videos.) Drs. Barnard, Esselstyn, Campbell and the Forks Over Knives people advocate similar low fat whole food approaches with minimal or no added salt, sugar or oil. Others, such as Joel Fuhrman, MD, place more emphasis on nutrient-dense greens, fruits and legumes, and other vegan contingents strongly advocate raw foods, sprouts, superfoods, etc. (e.g., Gabriel Cousins, MD or David Wolfe). See dietary recommendations in the last section.

A word on health issues with dairy. All of these physicians, scientists and dieticians agree that meat, and especially dairy, are harmful to our health. Milk does not “do a body good,” and acid-forming animal goods actually draw calcium out of your bones balance your blood Ph. There is plenty of calcium in a vegan diet, especially in dark green leafies kale (also, easily assimilated iron). Cows, after all, get calcium from grass.

Consuming the milk of other species is new for humans, going back some 10,000 years to the first herding and domination of cattle in the Middle East. If you think about it, no other animal consumes milk past weaning, especially not that of other species.

So it is little surprise that 75% of adults are lactose intolerant, a natural post-weaning process (90% of Africans, 10% of Northern Europeans, indicating some adaptation). As Dr. Klaper says, “Milk is baby calf growth food.” Not only does it create more suffering for dairy cows and their calves (more later) than for beef cattle, milk is designed to grow bovines very quickly into large animals. Full of growth

hormones, lipids, casein and lactose and addictive opiates which all create havoc for us, milk and cheese are also very high in fat. And animal fat, as we know, stores toxins.

And that brings us to toxins in today’s diet, and why animal products are so full of them.

Environmental toxins concentrate up the food chain, by hundreds or even thousands of times. When John Robbins wrote “Diet for a New America” he wrote that meat contained 14 x the pesticide levels as the same amount of commercially raised plant foods. Dairy had 4.5 x as much. Today is it surely even worse, as pollution steadily increases.

Some of the toxins in their tissues, and ours, arise from the ubiquitous chemicals that are part of general industrial pollution, which we will detail below. But a major factor is also that even herbivores like cows and goats are now higher on the food chain as well. Ever since the discovery that meat and fish wastes boost their growth rate and thus profits, animal feeds are routinely “enhanced” with slaughterhouse wastes, including feces, blood, and the discarded and rejected parts of dead, dying, diseased and disabled animals (4D), sometimes even of their own species (the cause of “Mad Cow” disease).

Confined with little or no exercise, they are fattened quickly on GMO, pesticide-drenched, Omega 6-heavy feeds of soy and corn (including Bt corn with its own built-in insecticides). In addition, they are bred to grow fast and fed growth hormones and antibiotics,  which taint the neatly-packaged meat, dairy and egg products we buy with little thought.

Unwanted male chicks of layer chickens may be callously ground up live and added to the mix. Commercial pet food can even include euthanized pets, proven by traces of pentobarbitol and pet collars, plus expired meat, still in its packaging.

Through eating these animal’s flesh, milk and eggs, we and our pets concentrate all this still further. And consider this: who is really at the very top of the toxin-concentrating food chain today? The vulnerable breast-fed infants of people, cats and dogs . To that we might add, fish eaters, due to ocean pollution and because most fish are carnivorous.

Reports on Environmental Toxins. Just what are these chemicals that concentrate in animal foods? Besides the usual suspects, such as heavy metals, which test high in many people (a simple lab test), there are also over 80,000 man-made chemicals in our world today, mostly untested. ey are widespread, found in such remote places as the North Pole, and they wash into soil and water.

e 2005 CDC Study. On July 21, 2005, based on the largest study of chemical exposure ever conducted on human beings, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that most the bodies of Americans, especially children carry dozens of pesticides and toxic compounds, many linked to potential health threats.

“e discovery that pyrethroids were in most people is especially important, as no one had looked for them in humans before. Synthetic versions of natural compounds, they have been considered safer than older persistent pesticides, such as DDT and chlordane, that have been banned in the United States.

“Pyrethroids are used in large volumes in farm and household pesticides and are sprayed by public agencies to kill mosquitoes. In high doses, they are toxic to the nervous system and are the second most common cause of pesticides poisoning. At low doses, they might alter hormones.

" ‘We are really at the beginning of a very complicated journey to understand the thousands of substances we are exposed to,’ said omas Burke, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “

“Studies of animals, and in some cases people, suggest that most of the compounds can affect the brain, hormones, reproductive system or the immune system, or that they are linked to cancer. "ese are some bad actors," Burke said.

“In the CDC study, one of every 18 women of childbearing age, or 5.7%, had mercury that exceeded the level that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deemed safe to a developing fetus. Tests on schoolchildren show that mercury exposure in the womb can lower IQs, with memory and vocabulary particularly impaired.” [Dozens of Chemicals Found in Most Americans' Bodies, By Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2005]

A new documentary, “Unacceptable Levels,” shows how the industrial revolution led to these 80,000+ toxic chemicals. Most, unfortunately, are unregulated and untested, yet given the rubber stamp of approval by agencies like the EPA.Companies are free to put these untested, carcinogenic, toxic chemicals in any product they wish without government oversight. Jennifer Sass, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council says: “Different chemicals, in different levels are getting into us in every conceivable way.”

Andy Igrejas, a senior chemist, added that this onslaught of chemicals causes reproductive problems, interferes with our immune systems, induces cancer, interferes with child development, and causes serious cognitive disorders. Just one of the many, Bisphenol A, causes severe developmental and DNA changes in fetuses. Over 232 chemicals were recently found in newborns. (ough less studied, we can assume that such chemicals are widespread in animals as well, especially those eating the most meat.)

Flame-retardant chemicals are one of the worst, accumulating widely in humans, pets, and wildlife, since they are particularly slow to break down. Found in the tissues of 97% of Americans, they are added to a wide range of consumer products, including furniture, nap mats, baby products and dozens of other everyday items. ey continually migrate out of products and into dust, where they are frequently inhaled or ingested. “Many are linked with serious health problems including cancer, reduced IQ, developmental delays, obesity, and reproductive difficulties.” [Flame Retardants, Center For Environmental Health, http://www.ceh.org/]

No “need to know.” For over 50 years, many in the food industry have not had to disclose information about chemical safety in their products to consumers and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Not only do most of the ingredients listed in packaged food have mysterious names and purposes, but we also don’t know what chemicals may leach from the packaging into the food; very little has been tested.

“But it gets worse: Companies can add chemicals into our food without ever telling the FDA about their identity, their uses and (wait for it) their safety! As long as they designate a chemical as being ‘generally recognized as safe,’ (GRAS) they need not inform the government. us, the FDA doesn’t know about the safety of an estimated 1,000 chemicals, because they aren’t disclosed. e great majority of the chemicals were active ingredients in dietary supplements.” [Generally Recognized as Secret: Chemicals Added to Food in the United States, Tom Neltner, J.D., Maricel Maffini, Ph.D., Natural Resources Defense Council, April 2014]

If You Eat Meat, You Take Drugs. “In a 2010 report issued to the public, the USDA admitted to finding antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), anti-parasitic drugs, and heavy metals in meat headed to the US food supply. It wasn’t stopped and wasn’t recalled.”[FSIS National Residue Program for Cattle, USDA Audit Report 24601-08-KC March 2010.]

“Individual implant products for growth promotion are approved for specific types of cattle, such as nursing calves, breeding replacement heifers, weaned calves, or finishing cattle. e majority of stocker and feeder calves are implanted at the beginning of the grazing or feeding period. To optimize growth and feed efficiency, they are commonly re-implanted with the same or another product aer the proper time interval.

“If heifers are implanted with a product containing an estrogenic hormone shortly before weaning, and are then re-implanted with an estrogenic implant shortly aer weaning, “estrogen stacking” may occur. Such heifers may have increased vaginal and uterine prolapses, and the incidence of “bullers” may rise. “Bullers” are calves which are continually ridden by their pen or pasture mates, resulting in injury and even death.

“Implanting a nursing calf increases its weaning weight 15 to 20 pounds, thereby adding $8.25 to $11.00 revenue to a calf sold for $0.55 per pound. e cost: just $1.25, including labor. Re-implanting market calves before weaning adds an additional 6 to 10 pounds to the 15 to 20 pounds from the first implant.

“ere are 14 hormone formulations approved for use in ‘feeder cattle,’ usually combinations of estradiol, testosterone, progesterone, or other substances. A study in seven feedlots of 14 groups of cattle representing 2,573 head showed that many (33.7 percent) of the implants were improperly placed.”[Alabama Cooperative Extension System,ANR-1020, May 10, 1997]

Chicken: poisoning by arsenic? “ Until recently, chicken producers routinely supplemented poultry feed with a growth-promoting arsenical drug called Roxarsone, which also treats intestinal parasites in the birds and gives their meat an appealing pink color. A study in EHP (below) shows that inorganic arsenic (iAs) accumulates in the breast meat of broiler chickens, potentially as a result of this.

“In 2011 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that the livers of Roxarsone-treated chickens had elevated levels of iAs,2 a known human carcinogen. In response, Roxarsone’s manufacturer, Pfizer, voluntarily pulled the drug off the U.S. market, although it is still sold overseas, and a similar arsenical drug is still available in the United States.” [Arsenical Association: Inorganic Arsenic May Accumulate in the Meat of Treated Chickens, Environmental Health Perspectives, volume 121, number 7, July 2013]

We Don’t Need Any Nasty Inspections! Compounding all this, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is transfering “ a majority of poultry inspections from government inspectors to self-policing by the companies themselves. e new rules were first proposed in January 2012 but delayed aer strong opposition from animal welfare groups, consumer organizations and worker safety advocates. In 2013 the Government Accountability Office released a scathing analysis, questioning whether USDA had sufficient data to make such radical changes. USDA received more than 175,000 public comments, mostly opposed to the proposal.

“While Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack argues that the new system ‘places our trained inspectors where they can better ensure food is being processed safely,’ Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter counters that ‘the one USDA inspector le on the slaughter line under this new rule will still have to inspect 2.33 birds every second–an impossible task that leaves consumers at risk.’”

Synthetic Hormones. “Many U.S. ranchers implant cattle with the synthetic androgen trenbolone acetate to beef them up, but concerns have been raised that its metabolites leach into streams and ponds, disrupting endocrine systems of aquatic life. Sunlight was though to permanently degrade such metabolites but a study shows that the degradation products can revert at night, zombielike, back into the endocrine-disrupting metabolites. e same could be true of metabolites of other hormones that make their way into the environment.”[Zombie Endocrine Disruptors May reaten Aquatic Life, Erik Stokstad, Science, 27 September 2013, Vol. 341 no. 6153 p. 1441]

Drug Residue Violations. “Many Animal Pharma drugs do not require a prescription or a veterinarian and the hormones, growth promoters, feed additives and antiparasite and antifungal drugs are loosely regulated and monitored. Among the drugs found in beef released to the public in a USDA Inspector General report were penicillin, the antibiotics florfenicol, sulfamethazine and sulfadimethoxine, the antiparasite drug ivermectin, the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug flunixin and heavy metals. Some drug-contaminated meat was released into the human food supply and there was no attempt at a recall, says the report.

“ere were an astounding 211 drug residue violations from just four plants, says the report, because ‘individuals who have a history of picking up dairy cows with drugs in their system and dropping them off at the plant’ are widely tolerated.”[FSIS National Residue Program for Cattle, U.S. Department of Agriculture,Office of Inspector General, Audit Report 24601-08-KC March 2010]

Testing Before Use Has No Significance. “A report from the Natural Resources Defense Council has revealed that 26 of 30 antibiotics approved for use in livestock feed failed the FDA's own safety tests, yet are still in use. ‘e FDA continues to knowingly allow the use of drugs in animal feed that likely pose a 'high risk' to human health," said Carmen Cordova, a microbiologist and lead author of the report. "at's a breach of their responsibility and the public trust.’

“Report extract:

“Between 2001 and 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly reviewed the safety of 30 penicillin and tetracycline antibiotic feed additives approved for ‘nontherapeutic use.’ Nontherapeutic use refers to using antibiotics for growth promotion or to prevent disease in typically crowded, oen unsanitary conditions in livestock and poultry. NRDC obtained the previously undisclosed review documents from the FDA as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the agency and subsequent litigation made necessary by FDA's failure to provide any of the requested documents.

“FDA's scientific reviewers' findings show that none of these products would likely be approvable as new additives for nontherapeutic livestock use if submitted today, under current FDA guidelines. Eighteen of the 30 reviewed feed additives were deemed to pose a "high risk" of exposing humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the food supply, based on the information available. e remainder lacked adequate data for the reviewers to make any determination and their safety remains unproven. In addition, FDA concluded in their review that at least 26 of the reviewed feed additives do not satisfy even the safety standards set by FDA in 1973.”[Playing Chicken with Antibiotics, ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, Natural Resources Defense Council, http://www.nrdc.org/food/saving-antibiotics/antibiotic-feed-FDA-documents.asp]

Drug Residues? What’s e Beef ? “Drug residues in the US meat supply are overseen by the USDA's Food Inspection and Safety Service (FSIS), the FDA, and to some extent, the EPA. But according to a scathing 2010 report from the USDA Office of Inspector General on drug residues in cattle, pesticide monitoring is disturbingly lax. Of 23 pesticides known to be “high risk,” FSIS tests for only one, accuses the OIG report, and some dangerous compounds like the pesticides dioxin, lindane and fire retardants called PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) have no “established action levels” to test for.

“Today aquaculture operations are so festooned with environment and animal-harming chemicals, they actually make factory farming look green. Shrimp ponds are treated with "heavy doses of chemicals such as

urea, superphosphate, and diesel. en the shrimp receive pesticides, antibiotics (some that are banned in the U.S., but used overseas), piscicides (fish-killing chemicals like chlorine), sodium tripolyphosphate, borax, and caustic soda.”

Furthermore, “e EU wants nothing to do with US beef because it is produced with so many hormones... Melengestrol acetate, a synthetic progestin put in feed, is 30 times as active as natural progesterone, says the European Commission (EC) and trenbolone acetate, a synthetic androgen, is several times more active than testosterone.”

“e European Commission's Scientific Committee on Veterinary has noted ‘an association between steroid hormones and certain cancers and an indication that meat consumption is possibly associated with increased risks of breast cancer and prostate cancer,” adding that the highest rates of breast and prostate cancer "are observed in North America, where hormone-treated meat consumption is highest.’”[6 Nasty Drugs Your Meat Is On, By Martha Rosenberg , Feb. 7, 2014, http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/6-nasty-drugs-your-meat?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark]

Sweet, huh?

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3. The Ethical Imperative

If the environmental and health case against eating animals for food are not convincing enough, we come to what is the real clincher about eating animal foods for many people: the ethics.Some 97% of us say we are against cruelty to animals, and we would surely be upset to witness a dog or a baby seal being beaten and would intervene if at all possible.

Yet with food animals we look the other way. It’s easy to do. Even though there are about ten times more food animals than humans in the US, where are they? We see a few cows grazing, and that’s about it. (Beef cows have it best. Many are grass fed and with their moms for at least their first six months, before going to feedlots.)

Once we ask this question, we can begin to get answers. The internet is just exploding with videos and articles today detailing the cruel treatment of farm animals, 99% of which spend their lives in CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations, a.k.a Factory Farms.

These are the long windowless metal sheds you may sometimes notice in the landscape as you drive down the highway. It’s easy to ignore them, or to speculate that they must be for storing hay or equipment. And that’s exactly what today’s meat and dairy producers would prefer that we think. And we ourselves would really prefer not to know, especially if we are determined to eat animal products.

In fact, it’s almost impossible to see inside these operations, which routinely deny access to reporters, filmmakers or the curious public. Undercover animal rights activists occasionally break in for footage, or the occasional slaughterhouse worker is accidentally hired who may sneak a few photos. But all in all, we are not meant to “meet our meat,” No doubt, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarians,” as Sir Paul McCartney has famously said. Instead, animal rights activists are #1 on the government domestic terrorist watchlist.

Inside CAFOs and slaugherhouses, the stench is usually horrible. Whether stuffed together in tiny cages (typical for layer hens) or crowded “cage-free” by the thousands into dark barns, chickens, pigs and turkeys typically live miserable lives. Pigs are forced into farrowing crates, unable to turn around their

whole life, and sometimes prevented even from standing up. So called humane facilities can be as bad or worse, with pigs found knee deep in feces and mud, down animals, with some being cannibalized. Regardless of whether the operation is large or small, it is simply routine that young animals are painfully castrated, dehorned, branded, ear-tagger and/or tail docked, always without anesthesia. Unwanted male chicks of layers are sorted out on an assembly line (having hatched in crowded drawers) and thrown live into grinders (sometimes just getting mangled) or stuffed to suffocate in plastic bags or dumpsters. Some are plowed live into soil.

Richard worked one summer in his youth at a California chicken ranch and he can testify firsthand to the callous treatment of layer chickens. Many veterinarians have similar experiences. Stuffed four to a small cage originally meant for one, they were unable to even stretch their wings. Sometimes there would be a dead chicken in the cage, flattened like a pancake. Painfully debeaked at an early age, they would scream like the insane, trying to peck him as he put food and water in their hoppers.

Did this stop him from eating eggs? No. Like all of us, we learn not to question the way things are. Not until we do, anyway.

Dairy cows are artificially inseminated on the “rape rack,” as it is called, annually, so that she will produce milk. Bred for high production and pumped up on hormones and rich feed, she produces far more than your grandmother’s dairy cow. Dairy calves are dragged shortly after birth from their mothers (who bellow in anguish for days after). The males are raised in small crates, chained and unable to turn around, either fed a low iron diet (veal) or other milk replacer. We have stolen their milk, and we have stolen them from their mothers.

Soon they will be dragged away, along with half their sisters and all animals raised for meat, trucked to to far-off slaughterhouses. Many animals do not survive the journey, dying of heat, cold, thirst, injury or stress.

Inside slaughterhouses, livestock are first typically forced with electric prods to the killing process, where they are first stunned (not always effectively, and not true for poultry), hung upside down, then stabbed and bled, hearts still pumping. Next comes the scalding tank, where there are worker reports, for example, of still-alive pigs thrashing for up to two minutes in near-boiling water before going limp.

Again, stunning is not always effective. After all, the speed of slaughter is intense, one after the next. But we must realize that during the last three hours, for example (the length of this presentation), some 3.3 million US animals have been killed for food, nearly all of whom spent their entire life in a factory farm. That’s about 20,000 land animals a minute, or, each day (today) some 30 million birds and mammals and some 45 million fish. From the animals’ perspective, it’s a true Holocaust.

Because of these numbers and our demand for affordable products, workers must work very fast and often become calloused and even sadistic. Some later confess to stabbing a pig’s eyes or slashing its snout if it resists. They suffer from high levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, alcoholism and spousal abuse, as well as high levels of job injuries. Typically they are immigrants.

Could slaughter be humane? What it I do it myself, with reverence, or buy from someone who does? Certainly, there are ways to make it easier on the animals and that’s appropriate, if they are to be killed at all. Yet, in the words of former rancher Howard Lyman,

“What a mistake it is to believe there is anything called "humane" slaughter. Animals have families and feelings, and to think that kindness before killing them is an answer is totally wrong. Humans have no need for animal

products. And when we consume animal products, we're not just killing the animals. In the long run, we're killing the planet, and ourselves.”

The psychology of eating meat. The dilemma for most who eat meat or other animal foods is indeed, that most of us do want to be kind towards animals and disapprove of their mistreatment, even as we pull out our wallets and pay for it. Why? Dr. Melanie Joy, a social psychologist, writes in “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism” that because of our kindness values, most of us don’t really want to know what goes on for animals raised and abused for consumption. It would be too disturbing and put us in conflict with our own values. We prefer to think of meat as just meat, neatly packaged, and not as an animal that was once living, with a face, with a personality, much like our dog.

She suggests that the only way we can make this “disconnect,” is that we all buy into a widespread belief system she calls “carnism,” which justifies what we do to animals for food. There are three major components to this widespread but unacknowledged ideation. We believe that eating meat, dairy and eggs is:

1. Normal (“Everyone does it and they’re good people... My parents, friends, family, co-workers...” )2. Natural (We are natural predators, at the top of food chain. God gave us dominion etc.”)3. Necessary. (“We need it. Without it, we will have serious protein and other deficiencies.”)

In this paper we have begun to challenge each three of these assumptions. Each point can be argued, and the references and details are vast, but we have found that once we begin to really look at most of the objections people raise, they just don’t hold water. (See Colleen Patrick Goudreau’s brief “Point of View” or POV talks online, addressing the many objections people raise).

And at that point we are likely to feel real discomfort as we fully realize the immense cruelty we inflict on animals raised for food, as well as for fur, research, entertainment and more. After all, this could be us. Each animal,like us, is a sentient being, much like ourselves, capable of feeling pain, of loving their family, of loneliness, happiness, joy, sorrow, and all the feelings common to animals. All we can do is to apologize in our hearts for our own contributions, and do our best to stop supporting their abuse.

Apparent as it is to most of us today, in the past many people considered that animals were more like machines and did not feel pain, despite appearances. It was just a reflex. Or we think in a paternalistic manner that they want to serve us, like to be managed by us, much as people once thought about slaves.

Slavery, in fact, a long and horrid part of human history that still goes on in places, is now thought to have followed the first enslavement of wild animals about 10,000 years ago in what is now Iraq. (One great idea follows another!)

Will Tuttle, PhD offers a compelling historical analysis of our relationship livestock in his groundbreaking “World Peace Diet: Eating for Social and Spiritual Harmony.” Full of references as well as insights, the book links much of what has gone wrong with the human race that pivotal ethical shift in our relationship with other species. With domestication of animals came the idea of owning others as property. From that came going to war to get another’s cattle. The original Sanskrit word for war meant “the desire for more cattle” and “Capitalism” derives from “capita,” Latin referring to how many head of cattle you owned. Winners became rich and powerful and the rest is history, as they say.

In Tuttle’s view, seeing through and ending this attitude of superiority to and separation from other species is an essential step in the transformation of humanity to a higher consciousness and greater harmony with each other and nature.

Although vegans are 2 to 3 % of the population right now, the movement is growing fast, includes many celebrities and historical greats, and seems to be a moral idea whose time is coming, joining other movements for social justice that have emerged in the last few centuries. Studies indicate that when 10% of a population holds a moral ideal strongly, it begins to get widespread attention. Today, as compared to even ten years ago, the word “vegan” is becoming widely known and vegan items are offered more and more in restaurants and stores, which in turn makes it easier to adopt the diet.

In the end, the ethical argument for abstaining from killing others for food when we do not need to is the strongest of all. It has a staying power that sees us through temptations and “exceptions,” in a way that the health argument often lacks (“one bite won’t hurt”). Just as we would not dream of eating our dog, and certainly not another person, one can pretty readily reach the point that we would not dream of killing and eating a beautiful cow, a playful intelligent pig, a cavorting lamb, or a colorful chicken.

Especially not when we have wonderful access today to a rich array of beautiful, sustainable, health promoting and tasty foods from the bountiful kingdom of plants. The choice is ours.

Dietary Recommendations for the 21st Century: Humans

Millions of people, including “type O’s,” thrive on 100% plant based diets, which are easy and fun to fix and will likely save you money, provided you eat whole, healthful foods and not “junk food vegan” (faux meats, white bread, fries and cookies!). You are likely to look and feel better. If you avoid added oils are likely to lose excess weight effortlessly. Your stools will be regular and well formed. Your energy level will improve. Blood values for diabetics and heart patients oen improve within days. You will safely and gradually detox, though a few may go through passing “don’t feel so good” stages initially as their body unloads its burdens.

For most, it’s a true pleasure, provided they take a little time and care to eat healthfully and to learn a few new tricks, including substitutes for favorite foods (see Reference section) and how to handle travel, eating out and social occasions in our meat-eating culture (See “e 30 Day Vegan Challenge,” Goudreau). Taking a plant-based retreat or finding vegan support groups and watching online videos helps a lot.

e diet: Research and experience support a daily balance of organic whole foods, drawn about equally from a rich variety of these four food groups:

• whole grains and starchy vegetables• legumes, fruits • vegetables (especially dark green leafies) • fruits

Plus, a handful of nuts or seeds (useful for dressings and sauces). Regardless of the meat issue, everyone should avoid sugar, salt, white rice and white flour and GMO products (non-organic soy, corn, canola and wheat, which are also subject to high levels of gut and probiotic destroying glyphosate.

Also take the following daily supplements, which are a good idea for most people:

• 1000 i.u. vitamin D2 (or ample sun exposure)• 1-2 T. ground flax, chia or hemp, or 2 T. walnuts or 500 mg. algae-sourced DHA*•150 mg. or so iodine perhaps as kelp, or iodized salt (advised by Brenda Davis, R.D.)• 1000 mcg. B12 twice a week (formerly obtained from soil and water bacteria, animals’ source)

Otherwise, most do NOT recommend supplements, based on research and concern for harmful imbalances and contaminants. These guidelines, as recommended by Davis, are summarized in the Reference section below, available to print out as a handout or postcard.)

* e signficance of the Omega 6:3 ratio is important to clarify. It matters because both of these short chain fatty fatty acids compete for nutrients which Omega 3’s (in greens, flax seed, chia, hemp, etc.) need to form long chain DHA. DHA is essential; it’s 1/3 of our brain by weight. Fish or fish oil are rich in DHA, which they get from algae, but they are pretty contaminated and depleted.

Luckily, we can go straight to algae based DHA supplement. But, do you really need to take it?

Probably not, if you eat lots of Omega 3-rich raw greens, ground flax, hemp, walnuts, etc., and little or no added Omega 6 oils (most oils). People who eat this way can test exceptionally high for DHA and that’s great,

Probably yes, if you have health problems, are aging, pregnant, or you are consuming a lot of grains and oils high in Omega 6 and not consuming a ton of raw greens or other Omega 3 powerhouses (or fish). Also, according to David Wolfe, some people's bodies do not convert the Omega 3 to DHA very well. If in doubt (or you aren't sharp enough to grasp the above!), be safe and take an algae-sourced DHA. We like the product Ovega 3 (500 mg., 60 count)on Amazon.

Cravings for animal products are easily addressed by (1) watching a factory farm video, and (2) identifying what you really want: something creamy, fatty, salty, crunchy? Find a healthy vegan “go to” version of that, perhaps guacamole, tofu sour cream, nuts, etc. Neal Barnard, MD has advice for this in “Breaking the Food Seduction,” saying that changing your tastes takes about three weeks. Then you prefer new foods naturally.

Strapped for time? A daily meal plan can be as simple as a green smoothie or steel cut oats with fruit for breakfast, a big salad or salad bar for lunch, and whole rice or quinoa with beans and salsa for dinner (or a wrap or a tofu burger). One man we know has lost 45 lb. and improved his health on just that.

Support: Non-vegan family and friends can be a challenge, but surmountable. It’s helpful to find support either in a local vegan “Meetup” group, online or in books. Note that most diet “experts,” whether friends or doctors, are conditioned as we all were by our dominant culture’s belief that animal products are necessary. A healthy whole food vegan diet has plenty of protein and all amino acids. Though lower in protein than an omnivore diet, it has higher levels of most macro and micronutrients than an equivalent omnivore diet, plus beneficial phytonutrients. It is also nutritionally closer to current findings on the true paleolithic diet (google Brenda Davis on You Tube).

Vegan Diets for Dogs and Cats? Worth a Trye arguments for vegan diets for humans are convincing to many. But for our pets? ere is no question that they are truly natural meat eaters, especially cats, considered obligate carnivores. And yet.....

And yet... many people, including some veterinarians, have experimented in the last few decades with carefully planned vegan diets for dogs and cats and they say that for the most part, they work. Expert nutritionist Marion Nestle PhD concurs and says there is research to support it. e information appears reliable that pretty much all dogs and about 2/3 of cats (males can get urinary blockage from crystals from an alkaline diet) do fine on a balanced, supplement diet.

So, given the ecological, toxic contamination and ethic concerns of today, we suggest that veterinarians and their clients who care about these issues begin to test different commercial foods and see how they do. And visit the various websites and Facebook page of those working in this way. See References.

We have prepared a reproducible handout of our current recommendations for feeding dogs and cats plant based diets with important supplements. It can be downloaded and will be kept updated at:http://files.faso.us/13231/4193.pdf “Vegetarian Cats and Dogs” by James Peden also has a number of home prepared recipes.

Another option is to at least cut down on the amount of meat fed, especially if an animal is having health problems. It is not uncommon that some animals become allergic to various meats, and this is not surprising considering all the contaminants, toxins, and poor nutritional quality they involve.

For those who are more emotionally committed to a raw meat and bones diet, who think their animal would suffer on less than that, it’s worth asking the question, “What about the suffering of the animals we feed to our pet?”

All in all, we appreciate that it’s a dilemma for many. Our own way of resolving this issue has been not to keep pets for some years; as longtime vegetarians, we never liked feeding meat to our cat Ming. Instead we now prefer to enjoy wildlife and to know, as former rancher Howard Lyman says,

“Living as a total vegan gives me great joy in knowing that no animal has to die for me to live.”If after all this, you choose to eat some animal products (or feed them to your pet), 100% grass fed beef or backyard chicken eggs are probably the best ecologically, toxin-wise and in terms of animal welfare. Also note that food writer Michael Pollan suggests that an ecologically sustainable amount of meat is in the order of 2 ounces a week (half a small burger).

Diets for Other SpeciesMost other species kept by people are basically plant eaters. We are not expert on their husbandry, but it’s safe to say they should be fed as closely as possible to what their wild counterparts eat. The more organic, non-GMO, natural, outdoor forage and pasture you can provide them, the better they will do. Be particularly wary of commercial feeds and pellets which may well contain meat by products and other toxins as discussed above. Read labels! And check out the many great books on these topics.

Additional Resources: The Issues

• Slide Show. Additional details, facts and charts from this presentation are available in our accompanying slide show, which you may download from Dropbox: ________________________• Recommended videos and books (printable): http://files.faso.us/13231/3967.pdf. The World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle PhD is the “bible” of why to go vegan. Many books are great for how (recipes). For live links see: http://susanpitcairn.com/blog/86542/why-and-how-to-go-vegan-best-videos-and-books• On Facebook see: VeganVets, Amy May ( = Armaiti May, DVM), International Veterinary Professionals for Animal Rights, Vegan Veterinarians, The Vegan Veterinarians Group,World Peace Diet

Resources: Humans

• Postcard summary of a balanced vegan diet for humans, Susan Pitcairn. Great for outreach and education. http://files.faso.us/13231/3794.pdf• Plant-based substitutes for meat and dairy products (3 pp): http://files.faso.us/13231/4015.pdf Color postcard version (share on FB or print): http://files.faso.us/13231/4156.pdf, http://files.faso.us/13231/4157.pdf • Dr. John McDougall’s Starch Based Diet, summary by Susan Pitcairn,with Dr. Michael Klapper’s gut healing protcol (2 pp.): http://files.faso.us/13231/3962.pdf Based on decades of successful clinical treatment of many patients. See “The Starch Solution” for excellent recipes, or:• Dr. John McDougall recipes and 3 day meal plan: https://www.drmcdougall.com/pdf/Advanced_Study_Weekend_Recipes_9-14.pdf

Resources: Diets and Recipes for Animals

• Pitcairn Recommended Plant-Based Diets for Dogs and Cats: http://files.faso.us/13231/4193.pdf

• Check out Facebook pages such as The Vegan Veterinarians Group, Vegan Dogs Thriving, Vegan Cats, Vegan Vets, The Vegan Vets Page and more. There’s a lot of support online.

• For commercial foods check out Amazon and other reviews on Evolution, VegeCat, Ami, PetGuard, Halo and other Vegan or vegetarian cat or dog food. Try a variety.

• “Vegetarian Cats & Dogs,” by James Peden, Foreword by Michael Lemmon, DVM (1995), has a number of recipes for fresh homemade, more affordable vegan foods for both species. Seems to be the best book on the topic and there are others as well. Be mindful of using all recommended supplements to provide nutrients that are missing or too low in plant based foods to meet dog and cat needs.

• Google 100 Vegan-Eating Dogs for inspiring accounts of dogs who have thrived and often improved on 100% vegan diets.

• Google Easy Vegan Cat Food on YouTube for a nice video on making it at home with a TVP mix and other dry supplements.