Compassion Over Killing is suing United Egg Producers for consumer fraud over the labeling of egg cartons. For years they were giving the cartons a self-congratulatory and disingenuous “Animal Care Certified” stamp of approval, when really it was just their stamp of approval. Think Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” sign. And now, despite the fact that it is illegal for them to do so, UEP is still using the logo.

We shouldn’t be eating eggs at all, but while a large majority of Americans are eating eggs, I’m happy that groups like COK are fighting for the chickens with any legal avenue they’ve got. This brings attention to the issues a little bit better than a fake tanned woman in a bikini does and maybe consumers (or, people buying stuff as it were) will wise up to the fact that they are being lied to. Of course, most still won’t really care, but it would be a step in the right direction.

For instance, every single egg producer (and when I say egg producer, I don’t mean the chickens, I mean the people “keeping” the chickens) kills the male chicks either by gas or suffocation or grinding them up, because the boy chicks are mostly useless. Yes, even those nice people at the farmers market practice this. Not to mention that the laying hens are killed at 8 to 18 months because they are “spent”. So where are your humane eggs now? Huh? Huh? I am shoulder shoving you and asking. Even in the best situations these are the bare minimum facts, and that is not even mentioning what a bunch of malarchy free range is.

Anyway, please don’t argue with me in the comments about how you have a chicken sent by god in your backyard that begs for you to eat her eggs. Just bite the bullet, go vegan and leave me alone. It isn’t that hard and it’s really fun! See how much fun I’m having?!

This is Loca, but I call her Bowie because of her mismatched eyes. And her trend setting ways.

I’m at Eastern Shore Sanctuary for the week, watching Pattrice Jones completely demolish oppression while I cruise the internet and take photographs, with the occasional cooking and dish washing thrown in. I can’t imagine what kind of world we would live in if everyone worked as hard as Pattrice does. Probably a world with lots of happy chickens.

It’s amazing to watch these birds interact, and to hear Pattrice tell their stories. Michael and Christopher drove up to Brooklyn to pick me up along with four hens and a rooster. The hens are already acclimating to sanctuary life. Here they are on their first day. Well, one of them, and the feet of the others.

It’s a myth that you can’t have more than one rooster around hens. There are maybe 40 or so here. And they all have their own personalities, you’d have to be working really hard not see it.

The fighting roosters learn to get along with one another. The “broiler” hens learn to trust. Dogs lick cat’s faces. Ducks talk to humans. When they say that they’re just stupid animals they are lying. Unless they’re talking about humans.

Just up the street 40,000 chickens are crammed into a shed. Watching one chicken here at the sanctuary living her life, pecking at her food and nuzzling her friend or even having a little tiff, it is mind boggling to imagine the cruelty that humans are capable of. I could never hurt these little guys and of course I can’t see killing one. I guess most people just don’t know, or don’t want to know. Of course some don’t even care.

The thing is, if you open yourself up to it there is suddenly beauty everywhere. And if beauty isn’t your thing, how about freedom?

Olivia and Jessica selling raffle tickets for setting yourself on fire. Feds lurk in the background, dressed as farm animals. Like, duh, we’re on to you.

Okay, guys. We need some serious self-reflection as a movement. What happened at the Farm Sanctuary Walk For Animals can never happen again! This is how stuff always goes down and we are making little to no progress. Below are my suggestions for things that can be done differently next time.

1) Did we really need to flip over that hot dog cart? Yes, it was a daring daylight action, I’ll give you that. But what did it really accomplish? Those hot dogs are just going to be replaced with other hot dogs and now the hot dog vendor hates vegans and will probably never go vegan. And I had actually been outreaching him for a few weeks now, I think he was about to go at least pesco.

2) The walking on all fours thing. That was sort of…creepy? I don’t know, I understand wanting to be in solidarity with our non-human brothers and sisters, but it still came off as speciesist. Some animals walk on 2 legs, you know. Some don’t even walk. I think the point was lost on everyone.

3) When was the last time slapping milk bottles out of baby’s hands ever changed anything? Besides, we don’t know for sure that it was cow’s milk in those bottles and we…wait, one sec. BRB.

Oh, okay, the lab tests just came back and it was confirmed to be cow’s milk. But my original point still stands.

4) We are against the horse carriage rides. Why were people “liberating” the pedicab cyclists?

5) Nice to say that we were all going to set ourselves on fire afterwards and then look around to see who else was setting themselves on fire and when you see that no one else was because they were looking around to see who else was doing it and so you don’t set yourself on fire. So, fine, no one set themselves on fire. But you can not then go around setting everyone else on fire except for yourself!

I don’t know, the examples just go on and on. I am really dismayed and just feeling a general lack of unity, support and respect. See the carnage for yourself then tell me if you think I am overreacting.

Pattrice Jones, author of Aftershock and founder of the Eastern Shore Sanctuary, has posted a number of talks by her and others from the AR conferences over the years. So instead of searching for 80s glam metal videos on youtube today, why not give these a listen? Pattrice is not only insightful and informative about animal and human liberation, she’s also funny and engaging.