Dairy farmers slaughtered 30 percent more cows in January than in September and are sending the cows' remains to the meat market to cut losses, the Associated Press reports.

The cost of producing milk is now double the price to consumers and the industry is having trouble keeping up. "This could destroy our dairy infrastructure," Mike Marsh, CEO of the United Western Dairymen trade association, told the AP.

For a moment, imagine if the burden of Wall Street executives (and, hey, even that of dairy farmers) were alleviated using the same strategy farmers are using to lighten the self-imposed burden of their dairy cows. Those who proved to be worth much less than their paychecks could be sent off to slaughter and made into meat patties, or better, veal--us desk-tethered humans don't get much exercise--and sold to feed all the people who are furiously digging through their purses for a few more cents to afford a can of chicken noodle soup at Gristedes.

And dairy cows aren't the only bovines the farming industry is killing prematurely (by their standards). Bull calves shipped off to feedlots to reach a weight deemed appropriate for slaughter are also a liability to the cattle livestock industry; the costs of rearing the young cows are gaining on the returns. Farm Sanctuary is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of the party who dumped 30 bull calves on roads in San Joaquin County, Calif. Nearly 50 calves have been dumped on roads in that county since January.

Meanwhile, in Dabhel, India, where killing cows is illegal, five people were arrested on Tuesday, February 10 for cow slaughter.

• I'm in Portland, Oregon for a while. It really is the clean, quiet, inexpensive, leafy, bicycle-and-vegan-friendly town they say it is, dammit. Anyways, if you're at the Let Live Conference this weekend, say hi! They've finally posted the conference schedule (PDF), so check that out.
• One highlight of the conference is Isa Chandra Moskowitz's "How To: Culinary Activism" on Sunday afternoon. Isa was just profiled in the Portland Mercury. "America's Favorite Vegan Cookbook Writer Now Calls Portland Home." Sob.
• The vegan minimall (home to Food Fight!, Herbivore, Sweetpea Bakery, Scapegoat Tattoo) is even nicer than any pictures I've seen led me to believe. And certain amongst our readers will be pleased to know that Herbivore's got almost nothing brown for sale these days.
• Elsewhere, apes got legal rights in Spain, a country with no wild apes or apes in laboratories. But hey, it may be a start towards rights for apes elsewhere, or for other species in Spain.
• Ram Singh Munda, a single dad in Orissa, India, was arrested for adopting an orphan wild bear cub. Now he's's in jail, his six-year-old daughter Dulki was sent to a state-run boarding school, and Rani the bear is in an isolation cell at the zoo, refusing to eat. People for Animals is campaigning for Munda's release and has promised him a job at a wildlife rehabilitation center.
• Tennis fans: Wimbeldon keeps some hawks around who keep most of the pigeons away, but got in trouble recently for shooting some pigeons who were "creating a health risk around the players' lawn and a restaurant". Awful of course, but any worse than killing rats and mice and ants and roaches like nearly every institution does?
• What else ... oh yeah, Oprah Winfrey's not vegan anymore. She pledges "I will forever be a more cautious and conscious eater. That's my commitment for now. To stay awakened." I wonder how long it will be before she's enlightened enough to eat that grilled sea bass she's been missing.

Reader Hannah sent us this in-depth article about the house cat holocaust going on China in preparation of the Beijing Olympics. The article and accompanying images are very disturbing, though there are some heartwarming tales of individual rescuers. Unlike Athens's genocide against dogs before the 2004 Olympics, this horrible initiative isn't even limited to strays. The government seems to be running a successful propaganda campaign claiming that cats are inherently dangerous and cause all sorts of diseases; many people are turning in their own pets "for safety's sake."

In slightly better news, the Indian state of Kashmir has canceled plans to poison thousands of stray dogs (the numbers vary widely from 2,000 to 100,000) in an attempt to stop rabies. After killing the first 500, authorities have decided to try sterilization instead.

More locally, have you read about the rescues of Phyllis the Bed Stuy Chicken or Denny the Bronx goat? Both happy endings for individuals, but reminders that there are still plenty of active slaughterhouses in New York City.

• Mumbai has banned elephants, citing cruelty and unhealthy conditions. Now if only we could do something similar for the horses in New York...
• Jason at Taste Better recently posted the final part of his interview with Ryan Wilson from Vegan Essentials. It's pretty long and reasonably dry, but if you care about vegan business, well worth a read: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
• David Beckham apparently now wears synthetic soccer cleats, in deference to his wife's support of animal rights. Thanks, Posh!

• Following up on previous reports, vegetarian Mumbai gentry continue to oppress meat eaters, kicking them out of housing and shopping malls, etc. It's kind of hard to imagine this happening anywhere else!
• There's a new kid on the vegan shoe block. NOHARM shoes are handmade in Italy, and are aiming for the Stella McCartney end of the market with prices starting at $275 a pair. They make a lot of nice-looking men's dress shoes, which is great, cause almost no one else does. But for all their talk of ethics and eco-friendly packaging, NOHARMS still seem to be made of evil PVC, just like your kicks from Payless
• A new scientific study reveals that multiple stab wounds may be harmful to monkeys. As with everything tested on animals, the same thing is certainly true for humans, so be careful with the kitchen knife when prepping that Puppy Beef or Kitty Beef for dinner. (Hat tip to The PETA Files.)
• Today's NY Times "Dining & Wine" section has a big "happy meat" article that gives a nice bit of ink to Gene Baur and the good folks at the Farm Sanctuary but also indulges crap like this:

  "From the chef's perspective it comes down to, 'Yeah, the steak looks good but why is it not performing?' " Mr. Perry Lang said. "It's because of how the animal was raised and handled. That's not animal rights, but it is animal welfare."

• Doctor Spock recommended a mostly vegan diet for babies, children and adults. And he sold way more books than Nina Planck ever will.
• At the prodding of one legislator's 16-year-old daughter, Israel has outlawed animal testing for cosmetics.
• Posh Victoria Beckham carries vegan diet book Skinny Bitch around. Sales explode--hey, it's selling better than Isa on Amazon!
• An Indian vegetarian won his civil suit for "aggravated damages" against Malaysian Airlines after they served him a meaty on-board meal in 2003. He received 200,000 rupees (about $4,124) in damages, twice as much as this Indian family did for "mental torture."
• And I've always had mixed feelings about raw food, but this Chinese man is giving "live" a whole new (terrible, punny) meaning: he claims eating live frogs and mice for the last forty years has cured his stomach ails.

Airlines may not be segregated for vegetarians as Sri N. Sugalchand proposed earlier this year, but vegetarians in India will soon be able to fly more comfortably. MDLR Airlines is marketing itself as India's first pure vegetarian airline. They plan to begin operating this month with two 70-seater aircraft flying between Chandigarh, New Delhi, Ranchi and Kolkata, and then expand to other cities such as Mumbai, Goa, Surat and Bhavnagar. MDLR Chairman Gopal Kumar Goyal said the airline promises to "provide a wide variety of multi-cuisine vegetarian specialties."

This is a great step for India - and I can't even express how glad I am that vegetarians won't have to be subjected to "special, picky-eaters" seating. But for all of us not living in or traveling around India, we'll still be stuck researching veg meals for a while.

A vegetarian family from Surat, India was awarded a 118,000 rupee (about $2,680) settlement from Denmark's SAS Scandinavian Airlines for "racial remarks, misbehavior and mental torture" inflicted on them when they requested veg airline food.

When I recently traveled to Europe, I requested vegan meals with United Airlines upon booking my flight; but both there and back, my meals "were [mysteriously] not boarded." After some minor finagling, a flight attendant brought me one of the first-class "snack baskets" stuffed with three pounds of crazy Euro fruit; about a half hour later, a different flight attendant brought me a tomato and smoked tofu sandwich! It wasn't a 'sNice club or anything, but it tasted incredible in context. So I say risk the torture and demand to be served like other customers--the guy next to me got a "low fat/low sodium" meal with no problems. And if they're jerks to you, file a complaint and win thousands of dollars. (And read the labels on those snack mixes because a lot of them are cheesy.)

Do you know that hotels and restaurants in India are required to post red or green stickers on all food, to indicate if it's vegetarian or not? Neither do many restaurants and hotels in India (or at least Lucknow), according to the Hindustan Times. But still, what a wonderful idea!

I had trouble finding much background on the stickering scheme. Please comment if you know any more about this.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine came under fire recently for suing fast food chains like McDonald’s and Burger King for serving grilled chicken containing carcinogens. The slam came from the Center for Consumer Freedom, which calls PCRM a “phony ‘physicians’ group” who would “rather save lab rats than cure cancer and AIDS.”

In its pursuit of “truth,” the CCF has created websites like PhysicianScam.com, as well as FishScam.com and Trans-fat Facts.com, where it refutes information about the dangers of eating fish and trans-fats-containing foods—information it says has been fabricated by the “food police”—and promotes their consumption instead.

The group calls PCRM “animal rights zealots” and “radical animal rights activists.” And CCF’s director of research, David Martosko, used the lawsuits as an opportunity to scare people away from a plant-based diet: “The federal government and the American Cancer Society agree that there’s nothing dangerous about eating a chicken sandwich. But letting animal rights activists slowly force us into vegetarianism could be hazardous to everyone’s health. The last time I checked, Americans were getting sick from spinach, not grilled chicken.”