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Lockyer Valley, Queensland, Australia
Animals are often perceived as second class citizens, it is a common thought that they lack the intelligence and emotion of a human being. My mission is to help to create a better understanding of animals in the hope that humans will be more considerate toward the animals’ welfare.

18 May, 2011

Why Go Veg?

So you’re taking steps to improve your pet’s life… What about yours?
You’ve probably heard it all before but take a few minutes to read the facts, our appetites are harming more than just our own health.

Save the planet, reduce animal suffering, and improve health in one simple and empowering step!

Going Vegetarian is beneficial to:

You

‘Eating animals is bad for our health, leading directly to many diseases and illnesses, including heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.’ – GoVeg.com

Vegetarians are 50% less likely to develop heart disease, can have a life span 6 – 10 years longer than those that eat meat, have a body weight 3%-20% less than meat eaters, are 9 times less likely to become obese therefore less likely to develop diabetes or have a stroke, and are 40% LESS likely to develop Cancer.

The Environment

Switching to a plant based diet is the single most effective choice that an individual can make to combat the effects of climate change. – Animals Australia.

Livestock, farming and production are responsible for 18% of Global Greenhouse Gas emissions, livestock production is responsible for more greenhouse gases than every single source of transportation put together. Livestock alone are the largest producers of Methane gas which is 21 times more harmful than carbon emissions. A single dairy cow produces 500-700 litres of methane a day.
Livestock production requires more land, water, fossil fuels and other resources than the production of edible crops and is also one of the biggest contributing factors to global warming, loss of fresh water, rainforest destruction, spreading deserts, air and water pollution, acid rain, soil erosion, loss of habitat, 70% of the deforestation in the once mighty Amazon; 64% of all the acid rain-producing ammonia; and 15 out of the 24 global ecosystems that are in decline can be attributed to the effects of livestock production.

In Australia, 58% of the land is used for agriculture, World-wide, livestock now use 30% of the earth’s entire land surface. To create grazing land, trees and vegetation must be cleared, and habitats must be destroyed. Livestock trample or eat any remaining native vegetation. 75% of soya bean crops in Brazil are exported to feed sheep, cattle, pigs and chickens in the Western world. It takes 7kg of soya bean crops to produce just 1kg of meat! To produce animal products, approximately ten times the amount of land is needed than to produce the same amount of vegetable product.

Globally, livestock now produce 130 times the amount of waste that humans do! For example, a farm with 5,000 pigs produces as much waste as a town of 20,000 people and yet this waste remains untreated. This in turn pollutes the soil, surface water, runs off into oceans and pollutes underground drinking water.
One in three people are affected by malnutrition—a factor in at least half of the 10.4 million child deaths each year. Yet, one third to one half the world’s edible harvests are fed to livestock. Conservative estimates predict that a 50% reduction in meat consumption in developed countries could save 3.6 million children from malnutrition. When these estimates are projected to all people in extreme poverty it is estimated that 33.6 million people could be saved from malnutrition.
If Australians alone reduced their meat intake by 1 day per week the savings in greenhouse gas emissions would be the equivalent to the greenhouse gases emitted from seven million plane trips between Brisbane and Perth! replacing every single household appliance (fridges, freezers, microwaves, dishwashers, dryers, washing machines etc) with energy efficient ones. saving 21 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than would be saved if every single car was replaced with a Prius. halving the nationwide domestic use of electricity, gas, oil, petroleum and kerosene combined.taking every single car off the road.

The Animals

The range of abuses that are inflicted on famed animals could warrant animal cruelty charges if they were to happen to cats or dogs. Pigs’ ears and tails are mutilated, Chickens’ and Turkeys’ beaks are cut off and animals are castrated without pain killers. Animals also suffer from being kept in appalling conditions and cages that are too small. Federal laws regarding animals on factory farms aren’t adequate.
On factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds. They will not feel the sun on their backs until the day they are loaded into trucks bound for slaughter. More chickens are raised and killed for food than all other farmed animals combined, yet not a single federal law exists to protect the chickens from abuse.
Millions of cows go through the slaughter process kicking and screaming, they are often skinned and dismembered while still completely conscious!
Piglets on factory farms are castrated, have their tails chopped off and have chunks of flesh torn from them all without pain killers.
Fish are dragged from the ocean depths and undergo excruciating decompression, which often ruptures their swim bladders, makes their eyes pop out, and pushes their stomachs through their mouths.

By living on a vegetarian diet you will be saving around 100 innocent lives per year.

Give it a try, to get a FREE Vegetarian/Vegan Starter Kit Or
Try the 30 Day Go Veg Pledge

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