tough to swallow

"First it was necessary to civilize man in relation to man. Now it is necessary to civilize man in relation to nature and the animals."

-Victor Hugo (poet, novelist, and playwright)

STOP ANIMAL ABUSE!!!!

1. Foie Gras

The production of foie gras is one of the most abusive practices in modern agribusiness. To create the unnaturally fattened liver that defines the product, factory farm producers force-feed birds for two to four weeks, shoving a metal tube down their throats two or three times each day. This can cause painful bruising, lacerations, sores, and even organ rupture. Due to this abnormal diet, the birds' livers become diseased and can enlarge up to ten times the normal size, making it difficult for the birds to move comfortably. Often, the birds are intensively confined in filthy warehouses, crammed in small cages where they cannot even turn around or spread their wings.

- abstract from Foie Gras' Animal Abuse Tough to Swallow

2. Bird's Nest

Perhaps the strangest nests of all are those built by the species of Swiftlet in the genus Collocalia. They nest in caves and build their nests of saliva. To do this they have enlarged salivary glands during the breeding season. To make them even more amazing, these Swiflets often nest in pitch dark caves. They are able to do this by using echolocation, similar to bats. Quite a few species use saliva in their nests to glue various materials together. Three species however, Collocalia fuciphaga, Collocalia esculenta and Collocalia maxima, produce nests made almost entirely, or entirely, out of saliva.

- extracted from EcoBirds, Edible Nests

The nests are made from a saliva-like substance that the females produce, perhaps from their digested food. The main period for making their nests is January through March and each nest takes about one month. It takes 3 weeks for the eggs to hatch and another 3 weeks for the nestlings to grow. The nests can be collected after this without seriously disturbing the birds. If the first nests are removed before the eggs are laid, it takes the mother 20 days to make a second nest. However, this is such a strain on her that the nest is of poorer quality and has a reddish tinge (blood). If these are harvested early, it takes the female only 15 days to make a third nest, which is of even poorer quality, not to mention a serious strain on the female. Obviously, if the collectors are too greedy, they can pressure the birds to make 3 nests per season (year). This will increase the quantity of the nests and decrease their quality. These birds were rare enough to begin with; they are only found in certain parts of Southeast Asia. They are now threatened and nominally protected in Thailand. Although the nests collecting is controlled by law, it still results in a huge and unnecessary death of eggs and young birds.

- extracted from Edible Birds Nests: Local People & Big Business Monopoly

3. Shark's fin

For every human killed by a shark, 2 million sharks are killed by humans each year.

According to wildlife conservationists, much of the sharks' fins in the trade are cut from living sharks; this process is called finning. Because shark meat is worth very little, the finless and often still-living sharks are thrown back into the sea to make room for more of the valuable fins. When returned to the ocean, the finless sharks, unable to move, die from suffocation or are eaten by other sharks or animals. Finning is vigorously opposed by animal welfare groups; both on moral grounds and also because it is purportedly a major cause for the rapid decline of global shark populations, in some cases by 99% over the last 50 years, leading conservation ecologists and fishery experts to predict widespread shark extinction in 10 or 20 years. An estimated 100 million sharks are slaughtered each year for their fins, and the industry is valued at 1.2 billion US dollars; because of the lucrative profits, there are allegations of links to organized crime.

-extracted from Controversy of Shark's fin