Promote Compassion in your Community:
Write a Letter to the Editor

If you can spare just a few moments to write a Letter to the Editor, you can reach countless individuals with your message of compassion and positively impact the lives of farm animals. You don't have to be a great writer to make a real difference!

See sample letters below.
Important Tips for Writing Letters

Health · Cholesterol · Milk · Factory Farms

Resolve to Adopt a Heart-Healthy Veg Diet in 2006

Dear Editor,

The number one cause of death in the U.S. is cholesterol and saturated fat blocking the arteries and causing heart attacks and strokes. The average American male eating a meat-based diet has a 50 percent chance of dying from heart disease. His risk drops to 15 percent if he cuts out meat; it goes to 4 percent if he cuts out meat, dairy, and eggs. Dr. Dean Ornish, a well-known cardiologist from Harvard, proved that heart disease can be halted and even reversed by prescribing a vegetarian diet, and regular exercise.

Simply adopting a plant-based diet can also prevent the vast majority of all cancers and other forms of degenerative illnesses. Plant foods contain no cholesterol, whereas meat, eggs, and dairy products contain large amounts of cholesterol, saturated fats, and concentrated protein, all harmful substances. In the words of Michael Klaper, MD, "Your body has absolutely no nutritional requirements for the flesh or milk of other animals. All requirements can be obtained through non-animal sources."

It's never too late to change your habits for the better. Changing your diet isn't nearly as inconvenient as enduring a heart bypass operation, suffering paralysis from a stroke, or facing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer! Going vegan is the single best thing you can do for your health. Make a New Year’s Resolution to adopt a heart-healthy vegetarian diet. Check out www.vegforlife.org for tips and recipes.

Sincerely,

Cut the cholesterol and the fat by going veg

Dear Editor,

Heart attacks and strokes are the leading cause of death in the United States, and a major contributing factor is the consumption of excessive saturated fat and cholesterol.

Those switching to a low-fat diet may not experience the cholesterol lowering they expect unless they also remove the low-fat animal products as well. Surprising to most people is that yes, even low-fat dairy and skinless white-meat chicken raise cholesterol. Many individuals do not see the dramatic drop in cholesterol levels unless they go all the way by cutting all animal products from their diet.
Plant foods contain no cholesterol, whereas meat, eggs, and dairy products contain large amounts of cholesterol, saturated fats, and concentrated protein, all harmful substances, which lead to clogged arteries.

It's never too late to change your habits for the better. Going vegan is the single best thing you can do for your health. Check out www.vegforlife.org for tips and recipes.

Sincerely,

Milk: Unnatural for humans, harmful to cows

Dear Editor,

Million cows kept for milk in the United States live on factory farms where they are crowded into concrete-floored milking pens or barns, and milked two or three times a day by machines.

To keep the animals at high levels of productivity, dairy farmers keep them pregnant constantly through artificial insemination. With genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it is common for modern dairy cows to produce 100 pounds of milk a day- ten times more than they would produce in nature.

When a milk producing cow's production wanes, she is sent to slaughter. In nature, cows live 20-25 years, but a typical factory-farmed cow is used up in three or four years. Then she is sent off to the slaughterhouse most likely to be ground up into hamburger. Male calves, the "byproducts" of the dairy industry, endure 20 weeks of torment in veal crates so small they can't even turn around, stretch their legs, or lie down comfortably.

Cow's milk is suited to the nutritional needs of calves, who, unlike human babies, will double their weight in 47 days, grow four stomachs, and weigh 1,100-1,200 pounds within two years. It is not natural for humans to drink cow's milk. No other species drinks milk beyond infancy, and no other species drinks the milk of another species.

Dr. Frank Oski from John Hopkins University says, "There's no reason to drink cow's milk at any time in your life. It was designed for calves, not humans, and we should all stop drinking it today."

Sincerely,

Keep the suffering out of your meals by boycotting factory farming

Dear Editor,

Massive animal factories using intensive confinement have replaced more and more family farms. The factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to produce the most meat, milk, and egg as quickly and cheaply as possible, and in the smallest amount of space possible. To maximize productivity and profits, the largest numbers of animals are raised in the tightest possible quarters where they are fed growth hormones to fatten them faster.

Factory farmed animals are regarded as mere commodities. They are treated like machines with no concern for their pain or suffering. They are deprived of exercise so that all of their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption.

Unfortunately, the Animal Welfare Act does not apply to animals used for food. These animals spend their entire lives in tiny cages and stalls where they are often unable to even turn around or lay down. They live on concrete, slatted metal, or wire mesh floors, and are forced to live in their own and other animal's wastes.

Grocery shoppers and restaurant patrons who buy meat, milk and eggs, may be unaware of the extent to which these animals suffered before arriving on the dinner plate. The reality is that over 95% of farmed animals in the U.S. are raised on factory farms in intensive confinement.

Transitioning from a diet centered on animals to a predominantly plant-based diet is the most powerful way to help the animals, the environment, and our health. For more information, please visit www.vegforlife.org.

Sincerely,