Guest OpEd by Vicki Tobin ~ VP of Equine Welfare Alliance
“Our predictions are now a reality that can’t be ignored”
Predictions come in many forms. Some from a gut feeling or wishing it were so. For equine advocates, they were based on evidence and scientific fact. We predicted that foreign consumers would realize the US had been allowing toxic meat to enter their food chain. We predicted that horse slaughter would give the meat industry a black eye.
What we didn’t predict was the prediction coming true with hurricane force.
Our predictions are now a reality that can’t be ignored. Slaughter supporters laughed and called us everything from radical vegan wackos to culturally ignorant. The two loudest mouthpieces are silent. The darkside duo, Sue Wallis and Dave Duquette haven’t uttered a peep on the epic scandal rocking the meat industry and horse slaughter business. The silence is deafening from the US meat industry.
For weeks the scandal has been raging and the two that kept the propaganda flowing with lame emails and excuses have suddenly disappeared. The two that claimed horse slaughter was humane, highly regulated, defended kill buyers with arrest records and a livestock plant owner shut down by the USDA for inhumane treatment of slaughter animals, have finally shut up. They probably still don’t get it and are trying to find a way to spin what has happened.
The darkside duo’s Facebook group is now a closed group. While we miss the entertainment value, it is one less site full of propaganda that the public can stumble upon.
Their fight was never about welfare or feeding the hungry. The latter means comprehending food safety and the difference between an animal raised for food vs. one raised for other purposes. It means understanding you don’t send an abandoned horse to slaughter because if you can’t find the owner, you can’t obtain vet records to prove the horse is safe for consumption. I’m sure the consumers of the toxic meat will take comfort in Wallis’ word that the horses probably didn’t have much vet care.
Is that how the US qualifies animals for food production?
Perhaps with foreign countries protesting and calling for a ban on horse meat it will sink it. Perhaps now that consumers don’t want [or are afraid] to buy anything containing beef, it will sink in.
The scandal has not only exposed the lies, deceit and fraud from the global meat industry but has exposed the underbelly of the horse meat trade. The US slaughters millions of cows and yet, much of the beef in our stores have multiple countries on the labels. Why are we importing beef from Canada, Mexico and Uruguay and is it really beef? The world now knows that the horse meat business makes its own rules and doesn’t give a damn about food safety or the humans consuming the meat. All they care about is lining their pockets.
Does anyone really think what is happening in Europe isn’t happening here? We don’t know because our government keeps us in the dark like mushrooms.
Europe has found a way around passports. In the US, kill buyers and auctions are pros at falsifying EIDs for US horses going to Canada and health affidavits for US horses going to Mexico. Mexico also requires chips for all horses entering Mexico. Does anyone wonder how all US horses mysteriously have chips at the border?
We proved through decades of investigations the cruelty inherent with horse slaughter. We proved that US horses containing banned substances are entering the global food chain but our Congress chose to believe the propaganda from the meat industry.
Our organization sent copies from auctions of the falsified paper work to the EU almost two years ago and never received a response. Canadian Horse Defence Coalition did the same in Canada. The EU’s own FVO reports confirmed banned drugs and falsified paperwork and yet they and Congress continued to allow US horses into Canada and Mexico to turn into toxic meat for their consumers.
Let’s not forget to thank legislators Kingston, Blunt and Kohl for making it possible for states like Oklahoma to introduce slaughter bills. It is mind boggling that in the midst of the scandal, Oklahoma is still moving forward with the legislation.
What I find ironic is the cattle industry supporting horse slaughter because of the “slippery slope” nonsense and the darkside duo claiming we are all out to bring down animal agriculture—when in fact—they’re doing it themselves. The cattle industry has had years to distance itself from horse slaughter so now, they can live with the “unintended consequences”.
They can’t blame advocates for mislabeling beef or supporting sending toxic horse meat to consumers.
Maybe no one listened to us but I bet they’re listening now. So all you tireless equine advocates stand up and shout out loud, WE TOLD YOU SO…
Related Articles
- EWA News Update: EU Horse Meat Scandal Spreads to Fourteen Countries (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Suffering, disease lurk behind horse-meat trade, says charity (horsetalk.co.nz)
- Consumers rightly have a major beef over horse meat (horsetalk.co.nz)
- New bill to allow Okla. horses slaughtered for meat (kfor.com)
- Criminal gangs implicated in horse-meat scandal (horsetalk.co.nz)
- Horse-Slaughtering & Horse-“Meat”: Background (schweingehabt.wordpress.com)
- More tainted burgers, first arrests, in horse-meat scandal (horsetalk.co.nz)
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
I love the new battle cry…”I TOLD YOU SO!” Well done Vicki. The Meat Market Mafia is not new. Upton Sinclair changed the laws in our country after publishing “The Jungle” which dealt with working conditions, contamination etc. Here’s a link you might find interesting…
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-1-b-upton-sinclairs-the-jungle-muckraking-the-meat-packing-industry.html
Might I suggest you copy and paste Ms Tobin’s tour de force and email it to every Congressional Representative you can.
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Hi, I`m searching facts, here in Europe. I made two videos about horse-transport and horses in slaughterhouse. Unbearable, what I find out. There are Mafia-strucutres behind the procution of
“Meat” of horses. But we fight very strong now against this brutal behaviour! I didn´t dare to show my videos here, too graphic, too brutal. But I dare to send them to governments and officials and media. Heartbreaking to watch how “they” (the greedy, dirty members of this meat-mafia) are
acting. Annamaria
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Annamaria,
Keep exposing the cruelty of horse slaughter because what you are trying to show your politicians is exactly what was going on in the United States for years before the US plants were shut down. The US agriculture department was well aware of the horrific torture of horses making the long trips across the country with no food,water or rest for over 30 hours. The only thing the inspectors did was document and take a photo or two of the injuries. They were no better than the inspectors in Europe, Canada or Mexico. Maybe with caring people like you on the side of the horses, slaughter may be stopped and the eating of horse meat stopped as well. If it is stopped there it will dry up most of the market and Canada and Mexico will be forced to shut down their slaughter plants.
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Annamaria, please show your horrible video and photos to as many people you can. Government will never show it to the people because the people will insist the horrid cuel practice be stopped. Post your evidence far and wide, for the horses.
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Absolute Truth! Although I didn’t join this fight very long ago, it has indeed been something that you and others have been screaming to High Heaven for years and years. Thank you for being the front runners out there and getting the message out, day in and day out, to those that would listen and do their best to spread the word. I have only been at this for a little over 2 years and I am exhausted, cannot even fathom how you all have been able to hold on for so long. Vindication is a sweet victory, and until every one of our domestic, wild horses and burros are safe, this War is not over by any means. Want to know my prediction? We will be seeing lawsuits flying all over the place from Europeans suffering from the many years of toxic substances that were put in their food without their knowledge.
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Some people don’t care what they eat as long as it is made “tasty” – including horses. The Meat Mafia in this country are the same as they are in Europe. We inculcate our young to eat this addictive substance and rationalize a need for it by telling people that animal is the only way to acquire necessary protein (a straight up lie). Call me a “radical vegan wackco” if you must. It isn’t as radical as a triple heart by-pass from animal cholesterol clogging the arteries, or a child with aplastic anemia (cancer) from eating “food” containing horse meat contaiminated with bute – or 140 other lethal veterinary substances when ingested by humans.
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When the scandal first broke out,I told some of my advocate friends “This is only the tip of the iceberg,just watch and wait”! Wow…I am amazed at how far it is stretching. Even whispers of chain stores here in the USA and big name brands (Nestle) pulling products from store shelves here because they “may” contain horsemeat by-products. The chain stores have beef products with meat in them from Canada and Mexico listed on their labels. Hmmmmm…..It’s here,but if we don’t make our concerns known the USDA or FDA will not test for it. They said it can not happen here. I’m pretty sure that was said in Europe too.
Now that they hear us and are listening about horse slaughter and the ease of forgery and dangers of eating it…we need to step up the pace and keep it going.
I find it funny too that the “Deranged Duo of Death” have not been heard from. Where are they? Why are they not trying to do damage control? Can it be they are seeing the fire in their quest is only a tiny dying flicker now ? Maybe we should plant a little bug in their ear and help them find a new mission. I hear there is a huge growing problem with “feral hogs”! They are taking over…destroying crops,damaging the environment,breed like rabbits and compete with other wildlife endangering wild habitat. Mean little buggers too…they should fit right in with them.
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The Deranged Duo of Death as you call them are celebrating that both houses of the Oklahoma State legislature passed a bill to allow horse slaughter. If the Governor signs this into law, God help the poor horses of OK and the people who love them.
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I just saw that Judy Wendt…makes me sick to think their backwoods mentality is going to do this. I think there is still time to contact the Governor to voice opinions. I have emailed them my feelings on slaughter. Everyone needs to cover them over with calls and emails.
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We’ve been telling ranchers for years that first it was the wild horses being driven off the range then it would be their cattle. They haven’t listened. They should have joined forces with us years ago. We told the beef industry that to align themselves with the despicable trade known as horse slaughter would indeed be their black eye and undoing. Beef consumption is already down in this country without suspicions (other than pink slime) of what it truly contains or what animal was its source of origin. Instead they pass AgGag rules that only make the consumer suspicious of what they are doing that would require hiding in the dark. And they pressed for horse slaughter. Well y’all got what ya want-in spades. WE TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!
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You are absolutely right. Had the ranchers realized that our wild horses and burros kept the eyes of the country and the world on our public lands, they would have voices from around the country opposing the effects of the Sierra Club and other groups working in concert with Secretary Salazar to prevent American citizens personas no gratis on public lands. We would have been their natural partners, but no. They didn’t want to share with the some of those passionate, dedicated voices in the country—people who love horses. We have not a dime of financial interest in this, but our freedom is at stake—in large part because of their greed and duplicity.
Maybe some of the BLM land managers ail start smelling the last whiffs of manure on the range and come to their sense. Theoretically, they could join with ranchers to oppose any further removals and work to actually protect our wild horses—
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You know when someone tells you to go with your gut feeling, well all I can say is we as horse advocates against horse slaughter can now all say,”We told you so.” I’ve lost all faith in the food industry… You know it’s bad when Russia won’t except any more meat from USA, but yet our known government says it’s ok for us as Americans to continue to eat the meat! Wake up America!
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We’re small farmers, and raise beef. I also don’t understand how the cattle “industry” can condone horse slaughter. I would never consider selling contaminated meat, or “mislabeled” meat to our customers, but then, we come face to face with them. They are human beings, they are friends, family and neighbors. The meat “industry” has no such connections with their customers. That is why I believe we cannot leave our food production to corporations. We need to spend as many of our food dollars as we can afford at local farms.
We also need to educate the public about horse slaughter. I saw a pair of news reporters talking about the horsemeat scandal this morning. They were making jokes about it, and making jokes about “what difference does it make, as long as you don’t see the whip marks.” If they had a child with aplastic anemia, they might see the difference, if they had their daughter’s lesson pony or horse stolen from the pasture and butchered, they might see the difference.
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so true Redhorse. I just read that 11,000 farms were shuttered last year. Glad you are still in there. Refreshing to see the respect you have for your clientele and trust that respect extends to the animals that are your reason for existence. I think from your tone it does. Factories have no place in the food supply chain. Our food safety depends on people like you not factories whose main goal is to kill em, skin em, package em and truck em out as fast as possible. I think “food safety” is, in most cases, a contradiction of terms.
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Please get informed about land management, property values, real estate, and agricultural regulations in your county and state. Small farmers are targed for extinction through regulation. Be wary of anything that sounds that it is supposed to be environmentally friendly and read it. Some legislation for small farmers or organic farmers tie money and subsidies to inventories of acreage reporting how many animals and what kind live on x acres of property as well as the type and number of crops. We have to pay attention to what is happening to both public land (which belongs to all of us–not the government) as well as private land.
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Get involved in Community Supported Agriculture, shop at Farmer’s Markets, eat seasonal fruits & veggie, learn to freeze (or can, which is like a foreign country to me). Find sources close to you on Local Harvest. TAKE BACK THE AMERICAN FOOD SUPPLY by supporting your local growers! In the process you may make new friends as well.
http://www.localharvest.org/organic.jsp
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Absolutely, Linda. CSA boxes with fresh, locally grown food without all the unnecessary pesticides. Also, support your local community farmers at the Farmer’s Markets with your $ and keep it circulating in your town. Corporate farming, BigAg, should not be dictating what you eat or feed to your children. When they lie, you (and yours) die.
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I n wake of the economy problems,Monsanto’s grasp on agriculture and meat scandal in Europe I am seeing a huge rise in sustainability here in the Ohio,Kentucky and West Virginia area. Not “prepping” but raising their own animals for food and gardening to avoid so much of the chemicals in our food system that our government seems to think is ok for us to eat. Reports of meat products coming in to the USA from Canada and Mexico being used in our food. Just because it says “beef flavor” doesn’t mean its actually beef. Scary stuff.
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Love you Vicky!!!! You always get it right on the money! “Told you so” all you horse killers! Now read it and weep! Your done!
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I understand the sense of wanting to “gloat” but am more overwhelmed by the sadness I feel for all the horses that went through such a horrible death – and NOW everyone involved with slaughter is scrambling to put a spin on it being someone else’s fault. Another day of shame on corporations, industries, and our goverenment – and ALL the human beings involved!
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One way to handle grief and sadness is to reach out with work and purpose….for humans AND the equines.
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Denise–so right. We can save or improve the lives of equines without good people and sometimes good people need our help and compassion as well.
While I, too, celebrate these victories, we want more people to join our efforts to improve lives of equines, and if there is something that we humans are hardwired to hate it is the words, “We told you so,”
So, maybe we could find some words that would make those who have been uninformed want to join us.
Just saying—we teachers have to deal with hard wired human nature–to get anything done.
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Vicki:
Always fact on, researched, committed and cautious with statements, rebuttals and engagement.
I have no doubt you, EWA, advocates and other ethical committed orgs have got these humans beating up equines and peddling dirty meat with government cooperation have reached a significant milestone, err point of FACT!.
Only wish the advocates would have gotten there sooner for the equines that are now lost. Not all our fault… Congress and the meat industry takes the biggest hit. Oh and the Prez and the Executive Branch.
Thanks, Vicki….sadly, dead on.
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Apparently they can’t or don’t read in OKLA..the slaughter house bill just passed in that state and now goes to the gov. to be signed..your last chance to stop it..contact her..OKLA hosts more horse events and horse sales than any other state and their largest export is beef..go figure..they just blew both feet off..I say pack a lunch if yo are driving thru OKLA..who knows what is under all that grease and BBQ sauce..sue has already sent out e-mails…gloating
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Phone
(405) 521-2342
——————————————————————————–
Email
info@gov.ok.gov
——————————————————————————–
Website
http://www.governor.ok.gov
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Email sent. Than you for the address.
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A couple questions.
When does this governor have to sign this? If they leave it like Red Butcher did will it automatically become law.
Do we have any time at all to write letters? Will they accept them?
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Email addy didn’t work for me but shocking enough I could submit a letter via the website! Thanks for the link!
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I’m sick. How and why did Oklahoma vote to pass horse slaughter? Have they not been reading and hearing the news about horse being found in beef? Mislabel my ass. Someone or someone’s have deliberating been doing this. You don’t just suddenly have horse show up in your beef with no explanation. It had to introduced.
We saw a slight shimmer of this last fall when the EU suddenly shut down the slaughterhouses. It was because of a mislabeled product. The good news is it was caught. The bad news is THE ENTIRE FOOD CHAIN WORLDWIDE HAS BEEN CONTAMINATED with deceptive practices.
Since OK passed this bill and it’s illegal to possess much less buy horsemeat in this country–who the heck are they gonna sale it to? Time to buddy up with the likings of Sirhan Sirhan. Cause we wanna make sure that those behind bars get the message about the dangers of horsemeat. They shouldn’t take the Warden’s word for it. We’ve seen how well that’s been working. And school kids? Oh God help us all. If a school district buys a load of this contaminated meat and ONE child gets ill we’re gonna see a lawsuit like never before. This is what OK has done for us. It’s gonna bankrupt this country worse than 3/4 yrs ago and worse than Black Friday.
Even though I won’t be going to this years Equine Conference we were asked last fall where it should be. The answer at the time was anywhere but NV. At the time I agreed. But now I proposed to include OK in this. No way do I think our money should be spent in a state that cares so little for the human population much less our equine friends.
Not sure it was here but someone was mentioning a recipe for vegan burgers using quinoa. Does anyone recall this? If so please pass on the recipe. I’m so freaking mad right now. I’m actually more steamed than I was when TCF was refused that TRO during the summer roundup a couple years back. I actually went vegetarian for several months as a result. I may just go this route again.
Sorry for ranting…
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Margaret:
Why did they pass this (and that is a whole passel different than done) in Okie?????
Because they have just as many stupids humans as Texas and Illinois without a memory chip….and Feds that facilitate stupid, crazy and cruel.
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I’ll leave the quinoa recipe to someone else, but you can make burgers using portobello mushrooms. Just Google (or GoodSearch) those words.
The best “processed” vegan burgers are by Gardein (found at Kroger, Whole Foods, HEB, and a number of other grocers, I’m sure). That company also makes some wonderful breaded “chicken” tenders in a wide variety of flavors. Try ’em, Margaret — and everyone else here. You’ll like ’em! Hay, you might even learn to love ’em! 🙂
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Hi Margaret – Another vegan “wacko” here… But I do have a link with some very tasty and healthy quinoa recipes: http://www.vegangela.com/tag/quinoa/ Happy eating! 😉
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The President could and should have ended this long ago. He had access to information and ties to people who would inform him, so why didn’t he?
Sorry. Take some time to look at the Executive Orders, Secretarial Orders that have been made during the last few years. Given the absolute terror and torture our equines have suffered, and the potential suffering of human beings who have consumed contaminated horse meat, the failure to act when a stroke of the pen would have prevented this is a sign that there is something amiss here.
And when we have a leader who does not hesitate (if he did hesitate, I would not be making this point) to act unilaterally about a broad range of issues, and he does not protect our belovered wild horses nor the people from other countries from consuming carcinogenic meat, endocrine disruptors, drugs that can cause instant allergic reaction, kidney failure, etc. What beef producers who once used bute on cows do not realize is tha amount given to a horse is enough to kill five cows. Quantity and compounding are important as are the metabolic process of each species.
Still there is no excuse for this. None. Nada. Not one. I am not ready to Jean Valdene this away.
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I sent several emails to some of the politicians in OK that was getting ready to vote on HB 1999 to no avail. I explained to them about Bute but it looks like it was ignored as usual. I know the governor of New Mexico refused to allow a horse slaughter plant to start up there. This was when Chavez wanted to start killing horses at his cow slaughtering operation.
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what baffles me is why the beef industry allowed this to happen..given the feeling around the world at this momment, I cannot imagine worse timing to open a horse slaughter house in beef slaughter country..it is mile upon mile of feedlots from west texas thru OKLA…I am telling you from an economic standpoint-they , get the academy award for stupid..horse slaughter is small dollar, low demand-in relation to the cattle business..maybe they are thinking about putting road kill in with their beef….ad we are going to be on them like stink on poop..every step of the way..I can think of several ways to sabotage g. beef right off the top of my head..the stink eye will be on them every day in every way..we can break them
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”WE TOLD YOU SO!” that felt so good, finally!! I just want to cry now, for all the poor beautiful souls that the corrupt, greedy Devils lined their bloody pockets with, no mercy for them, very happy the horse meat market is exposed, now that it is known that it is poison for humans to consume, now they listen, and this is good for the cows too, people will question the beef forever more now, as they should..yeah for the Cows too, less consumption and much stronger inspections will be demanded.
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And there’s more….WH&B Advocates have been trying to warn the ranchers:
http://ppjg.me/2011/05/09/an-open-letter-to-the-blm/
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BLM
May 9, 2011
by Debbie Coffey Copyright 2011
Investigative Reporter/PPJ
Graphic by Kurt Golgart
“This is about the wild horse roundups. BUT, ranch owners who own cattle and sheep should pay attention to the following, and wonder what water or land will be left for your livestock grazing in the future. Why do you think the DOI is removing all of the wild horses off our public lands? For you?”
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I went on the OK governors website & sent her an email. I sure do hope she has the sense to put the kibosh to this whole thing. Talk about stupid – sorry, but this IS stupid. And a lot of other things, too.
Louie, I went back & read Debbie’s 2011 letter and all of the information Bruce Nock (?) wrote.
Very smart guy. I’m no spring chicken, but I learn so much from all of you!
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Excellent article, Vicki. As far as defending the meat industry anymore, I think this is a lost cause. It is associated with so many evils including desertification and global warming, both big nails in the coffin of Life on Earth. Lets visualize much needed reforms and changes in how we live from all of this exposure. A better day is coming for the horses and, so, for all of us, since they are such great healers when allowed to just be themselves!
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Perfectly put, wildhorseconspiracy.
A slim paperback that explains it all in a nutshell (in case anyone here wants to learn more about the damage being wrought by this “lost cause” of an industry) is “Comfortably Unaware: global depletion and food responsibility … what you eat is killing our planet.” Dr. Richard Oppenlander, the Michigan dentist who wrote it, has been studying this subject intensively for years — and practicing what he preaches, along with his family of two-leggeds and four-leggeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr3Zm3xWSuQ
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Really enjoyed the video of Dr. Oppenlander & his way of life. Certainly makes a lot more sense than what we are being fed – literally. Its the kind of attitude that could save our horses, too.
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Indeed, Maggie. How kind of you to take the time to watch the video and to return here to say so. On behalf of the animals this gentle man loves, respects, and treats accordingly (which would be EVERY CREATURE ON EARTH!), I thank you. 🙂
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Reblogged this on My Blog spiritandanimal.wordpress.com.
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