I’m sure many people recall the infamous veggie libel lawsuit a couple of years ago, when a group of Texas cattlemen sued Oprah Winfrey, her production company, and her guest Howard Lyman for "food disparagement." After hearing what Mr. Lyman had to say about how cattle are raised and how meat is produced in this country, Oprah stated, "It has just stopped me cold from eating another hamburger." The beef industry obviously felt pretty threatened to react the way they did. Ms. Winfrey et al. ultimately prevailed in a Texas court.
So, who is the other defendant, Howard Lyman? He’s a fourth-generation cattle rancher and dairy farmer who today serves as president of EarthSave International. When Howard speaks, people listen! He has done or witnessed every single thing he now speaks against. At the recent animal-rights conference in Washington, D.C., he remarked that he has been responsible for the deaths of more animals than all the hundreds of people at the conference put together. While he is not proud of that, it does give his words the impact that scared the beef industry.
I first heard Howard Lyman speak in 1996, a few weeks after his Oprah Winfrey appearance, and have heard him many times since. He looks every bit the Montana cattle rancher he once was. He now spends over three hundred days a year traveling the country, spreading the vegetarian message in a booming voice. His energy, humor, and love for people is infectious. And he’s a great storyteller. His book, MAD COWBOY: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat, has stopped many readers cold from eating meat. Some have done so overnight, so grim are the facts in his book.
In the first three pages alone, we learn that tons of dogs and cats euthanized in shelters end up in our food chain. A gruesome mix of ground-up dead horses, cats, dogs, pigs, chickens, turkeys, as well as animal excrement, "enriches" the feed of 75% of America’s beef cattle. Often added to this blend may be roadkill or the ground-up remains of diseased farm animals. As Howard points out, "This is the food of your food."
It’s also the food of most pet food. So, in addition to being concerned about what the cattle are eating that you are ultimately eating, you have to worry that your dog or cat may inadvertently be eating remains of its own species. Prior to the Mad Cow Disease scare, which began a few years ago, cattle were also being fed the remains of their own. You can see why Howard is still under threat of legal action for telling these and other truths on national television!
Years earlier, when Howard Lyman was still making a living as a successful cattle rancher and eating his steaks, John Robbins, the would-be heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream fortune, revealed the danger of animal products in his Pulitzer Prize-nominated bestseller, DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA. The fact that his book has been around and widely recognized since 1987 and yet things have worsened in the agribusiness industry is criminal.
As John Robbins points out, you don’t have to be an animal activist, a vegetarian, or even a person who particularly loves animals, to be appalled and horrified at what is being done in factory farms. He writes, "The suffering these animals undergo has become so extreme that to partake of food from these creatures is to partake unknowingly of the abject misery that has been their lives. . . . It’s not the killing of the animals that is the chief issue here, but rather the unspeakable quality of the lives they are forced to live."
The book meticulously examines the link between the consumption of animal products and some of the leading causes of death in our country, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. As early as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association had this to say: "A vegetarian diet can prevent 97% of our coronary occlusions." But, apparently, the combined powers of the meat and dairy industries along with the AMA and the pharmaceutical manufacturers would rather advise you to take medication to reduce your cholesterol or manage your lactose intolerance than advise you to not eat the stuff that may harm or even kill you. To quote Howard Lyman again, "Eight billion animals go to slaughter and into human bodies, and you know what we get out of it? Heart disease, cancer. We are killing animals but the animals are killing us."
Howard Lyman and John Robbins are true heroes of their time. John Robbins gave up a million-dollar fortune and went on to found EarthSave. Howard Lyman broke a long-standing family tradition and radically changed a way of life he had led for more than fifty years. Their combined experience and knowledge are indisputable. Their books should be required reading at every school in America.
Return to Vegetarian: For Your Health, for the
Animals, for the Planet
by Teresa D'Amico