LAS VEGAS -- Food experts have announced that a new and deadly strain of E. coli that has infected consumers in Europe would probably not be prevented here since food producers are not required to test for it.
Critics say outbreaks of contaminated food are all too common because so much meat and poultry is produced in gigantic factory farms. Animals raised in such farms live in dark, confined spaces.
While Nevada doesn't have many factory farms, the state is on the front lines of several animal welfare battles.
"Nevada has become a big state for private ownership, people keeping bears, constricting snakes, and tigers as pets. This is lunacy," said Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States president.
Although Pacelle is president of the 11 million member Humane Society, the most influential animal welfare organization in the country, he increasingly finds his attention focused on Nevada. Whether it's protests against using exotics in entertainment, or keeping such animals as pets, howls of protest over the mismanagement of Nevada's wild horse herds, thriving puppy mills, or a moment within Strip restaurants to ban shark fin soup and the horrible practice that produces it, Nevada is a hotbed of animal activism and issues.
"We profess to so much love and appreciation for animals, yet there is still so much cruelty," said Pacelle.
He is in Las Vegas to promote his new book "The Bond," which describes the interconnections between people and critters. The issues today are far more complicated than merely spaying your dog or cat. The Humane Society fights its battles in the halls of government because that, Pacelle says, is where the defenders of animal cruelty are most powerful.
Agri biz conglomerates earn billions by raising food animals in gigantic factory farms, warehouses of squalor, pain, and profit. And taxpayers subsidize much of it.
"There are more animals slaughtered in the U.S. each year -- more than 10 billion -- than there are people on the planet. This is an enormous industry. I don't care if you are an animal advocate or not. This is an abuse of the taxpayer. We are spending billions of dollars per year subsidizing this industry. These industries aren't surviving because of free market principles. They are living on the dole," said Pacelle.
He contends that what is bad for animals is usually bad for people. Raising chickens or cows in squalor and fear produces sickly animals that make us sick, along with rivers of waste which pollute the planet. Subsidies go to the biggest and worst offenders, not to innovative or organic farmers. The public is aghast whenever undercover investigation reveal to consumers exactly what they've been eating.
The agri biz industry is fighting back by putting limits on First Amendment freedoms. Making it illegal to take pictures of cows or chickens.
"What they have tried to do in Iowa, Minnesota, Florida, New York is to pass a law, not to criminalize the underlying mistreatment of animals on the factory floors, but to make it a crime to take a picture or video of animals on these factory farms."
A consumer does not need to join a picket line or become a vegan to make a difference, Pacelle argues in his book. It is as easy as what we buy in a supermarket or order in a restaurant. The food we choose can make an enormous difference. It mostly boils down to paying closer attention.
"You can reduce your consumption of meat by eliminating meat one day a week or by cutting the percentage you are consuming. Or you can buy products that don't come from these factory farms. This is the food we eat. This is not some abstraction, some far off issue. This is something in every one of our lives. Most of us are sitting down three times a day and are making a moral choice," said Pacelle.
He is signing copies of his book Friday at 7 p.m. at the Summerlin Barnes and Noble.
