The National Hot Dog and Sausage
Council has declared July as National Hot Dog Month, but we prefer to celebrate with a compassionate twist, turning this food holiday into National
Veggie Hot Dog Month!

This July, while our nation
celebrates its independence, we need you to help us speak out for animals by exposing the cruelty forced
upon millions of pigs on U.S. factory farms—from mother pigs intensively confined in tiny crates where they can’t even turn around to their
piglets who endure painful mutilations without any relief.

Earlier this week, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed two bills into
law that put his state on a growing list of states banning some of the cruelest
factory farming practices. 

According to the Humane Society of the United States, the passage of these
bills makes Rhode Island the “ninth state to ban gestation crates for
breeding pigs, the seventh to ban veal crates for calves, and the third to ban
cattle tail docking.”

A recent undercover investigation at a livestock auction in California has revealed a system of unchecked cruelty, extreme violence, and severe neglect. The footage, obtained by a Mercy For Animals (MFA) undercover investigator at Ontario Livestock Sales outside of Los Angeles, shows baby goats being picked up by their necks and heads, dragged by their legs, and thrown ruthlessly about. Sheep and pigs are kicked, prodded, dragged, and stomped on by workers to force them to move. Live birds can be seen being stuffed into plastic bags, left to suffocate. Animals are overcrowded into narrow pathways and small spaces to the point where they’re forced to trample on top of each other one another. 

Teams of Compassion Over Killing staff and volunteers spent the past two weekends participating in Pride celebrations in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Baltimore—and handing out over 15,000 pieces of pro-veg literature and sharing more than 7,000 vegan food samples!