According to their web site, the American Humane Association is "the oldest national humane organization with divisions for protecting both children and animals from neglect, abuse, cruelty, and exploitation." Further, this organization places a special emphasis on "the links between all forms of family violence: child abuse and neglect; animal cruelty, abuse, and neglect; elder abuse; and domestic violence. We are not singling out any one at-risk population; rather, our view is that, in a civilized society, no form of violence should be tolerated."

Given this organization's point of view on both violence and exploitation, it is interesting to consider how their development of a program that certifies certain animal products as "humane" is justified. Is there any way to breed beings into existence, and then take their lives for the sake of profit that is not exploitative by definition?

If this organization's position is that "no form of violence should be tolerated," yet they choose to certify the use and killing of animals as humane, it seems to stand to reason that they must not consider the butchery of healthy young animals an act of violence.

By the same token, it would appear that when they apply the word "humane" to the treatment of human animals, it means one thing, and that when applied to all other animals, it means something entirely different. What is the rationale for this dual meaning?

And, then, there is also the troubling issue of the role consumption of animal products plays in the degradation of the health of human children, and the catastrophic role the production of these products is playing in the great extinction now occurring on our planet. For any organization aiming to protect both children and animals, as this organization says it does, these are pressing, and unavoidable questions.

To learn about the hidden truth of the egg industry, see the slide show Cage Free Eggs: Behind the Myth."

"The life of the individual has meaning only insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate."

--Albert Einstein