Letters to the Animal Industry on Stopping the Practice of Cruelty
To help create an organic, vegan world and a peaceful future in which all sentient beings enjoy happy, healthy lives, in Golden Year 8 (2011) Supreme Master Ching Hai sent letters to animal-based garment and food companies around the world, imploring them to move away from their current products and practices so as to end animal abuse and curb human-caused global warming. We pray that the people in these industries reflect deeply on Master's message and make the appropriate changes.
Letter to animal-based garment companies
The Supreme Master Ching Hai International
Association
Ref: With Utmost Respect and Urgency
First, my heartfelt gratitude for your creative efforts to brighten our world with beautiful artistic designs bringing much colour to our world. Your work is much appreciated by society as by Heaven. When wearing new attire we feel so good, but for clothing that uses animal skin or products there is another side to the beauty – that is the ugliness and cruelty of its production. Wrapped in fur or refined leather, the buyer cannot fathom the true cost that the innocent animal had to pay. Nowadays, so many alternatives exist such as premium quality Faux Furs which look and feel similar and even the ethically accepted vegan leather and no-kill silk. We no longer have to harm another being to have luxury and to feel special. The issue is the needless abuse of animals in the name of fashion. Millions of animals are killed for the clothing industry each year. Fur farm animals spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages. Farmers use the cheapest methods available to kill them, including suffocation, electrocution, gassing, and poisoning. In the U.S., over half come from countries where millions of dogs and cats are bludgeoned, hanged, bled to death, and sometimes even skinned alive for their fur. These are often deliberately mislabeled so people who want to make a difference, don't know what they're wearing. Developing countries are the largest suppliers of leather, where animals routinely have their throats cut and their skin ripped off while alive. Reptiles are skinned alive because of the belief that live flaying makes leather more supple. Kid goats are boiled alive to make gloves, and the skins of unborn calves and lambs — some purposely aborted, others taken from slaughtered pregnant cows and ewes — are considered especially "luxurious." Buyers mostly choose what is available on the rack, so if designers could produce stylish cruelty-free clothing, then retailers will provide customers a real choice to make a difference in the lives of countless beings. We cannot stop farmers treating animals in an inhumane way unless we reduce demand. Laws against cruelty are a great beginning, yet enforcing them all over the world would be almost impossible. No animal wants to be eaten. No animal wants to be killed or abused. They just want to be loved, like we all do. They would gladly die for us if we were in trouble. We implore you, for the animals and for humanity's sake. Use your God given talent to help put an end to the abuse of animals. Please help give people a choice by designing, fabricating and retailing garments that have no animal skins or products. Once educated, your customers will reward you for caring and for making a positive difference towards the betterment of our planet. For your reference, we have also included some literature about the plant-based diet and the effect of animal agriculture on climate change. Please find enclosed the following: • Book entitled From Crisis to Peace: The Organic Vegan Way is the Answer. This book is a compilation of climate change conferences held all over the world. It gives a current snapshot of the state of the planet, what is causing global warming and what government and individuals can do to mitigate climate change. • Climate Kit, which includes a press release, climate change facts and the impact of livestock on our planet • Supreme Master Ching Hai Press Kit • Various flyers on the harms of meat/drugs/alcohol and tobacco and the benefits of the vegan diet.
Thank you for your attention and noble spirit. 
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Renowned [title],
Letter to animal-based food companies
The Supreme Master Ching Hai International
Association
Ref: With Utmost Respect and Urgency
Firstly, we wish to praise farmers and food factories for feeding the nation. From sunrise to sunset, our hard working producers toil under harsh conditions, often fighting the elements in order to nourish us, so that we may live. All life on Earth needs food to survive. People living in the city especially, are very dependent on their country counterparts, with most needing to purchase all their food while having little knowledge of how it was produced or what it contains. As humans; with the ability to discern right from wrong; we need to keep our dignity by ensuring that what we put into our mouths has not come from an act of cruelty. A staggering 55 billion land animals, eight times the entire global human population, are killed for human consumption every year. This translates to an estimated 150 million beings massacred every day, or 1,744 beings slain each second! Billions more fish perish at our hands. Animal agriculture is no longer to be ignored as the most serious cause of human-induced global warming, exceeding even fossil fuel emissions. A study published by World Watch Magazine, authored by former and current environmental research advisors for the World Bank Group, found: "Our analysis shows that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32,564 million tons of CO2-equivalent per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions." Livestock production is also the primary human-caused source of global methane emissions, with methane being at least 72 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, while dissipating from the atmosphere many times faster. [World Watch Magazine 2009] In fact, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization stated that animal agriculture is "one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global" including biodiversity loss, deforestation, land degradation and desertification, air pollution, and water pollution. Animal factory farms are also a known origin of human disease, including deadly flu pandemics. [US CDC 2009] A single factory farm can produce more waste than a large city; and its bacteria, hormones, and antibiotics infiltrate families' soil and water supplies, untreated. In addition, fishing practices have put life-sustaining oceans on a path to collapse; over 70% of the world's fish species are fully depleted, and the rest will also be gone within 40 years. [UN FAO, UNEP 2010] Restoring the balance of the oceans, which provide half of the world's oxygen and regulate the climate, is vital to overall planetary health. Thus, we must move away from fisheries, animal products and animal factory farms towards a more sustainable solution. What we propose is for governments to help farmers transition to Organic Vegan farming practices through subsidies, and thus ensure continued national and world food security while mitigating global warming. The benefits of Organic Vegan farming include: • 40% of atmospheric CO2 absorbed if the world's tillable soil is organically farmed For your reference, we have also included some literature about the plant-based diet and the effect of animal agriculture on climate change. Please find enclosed the following: • Book entitled From Crisis to Peace: The Organic Vegan Way is the Answer. This book is a compilation of climate change conferences held all over the world. It gives a current snapshot of the state of the planet, what is causing global warming and what government and individuals can do to mitigate climate change • Climate Kit, which includes a press release, climate change facts and the impact of livestock on our planet • Supreme Master Ching Hai Press Kit • Various flyers on the harms of meat/drugs/alcohol and tobacco and the benefits of the vegan diet.
Thank you for your attention and noble spirit.
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Dear [title],