all creatures great and small campaign

A few weeks ago I mentioned in a post on animals and christian stewardship that the Humane Society of the United States' Animals & Religion program was launching a special campaign in October. Called All Creatures Great and Small, it hopes to encourage faith communities to look more closey at their relationship with animals raised for consumption. Karen Allanach of Animals & Religion writes:

Autumn is filled with significant dates on the religious calendar recognized by Christians, Jews, Muslims and others with The Feast of St. Francis, Yom Kippur and the end of Ramadan. ...

Launched over the summer, the (All Creatures Great and Small) campaign increases awareness about our moral responsibilities to all animals, including those raised for food. In the last 30 to 40 years, agriculture has taken a harsh turn away from animal husbandry on family farms to unacceptable mistreatment of animals on industrialized, factory farms.

Animals on factory farms are cruelly denied the ability to manifest even their most basic God-given instincts: to fly, care for their young ... even to walk. In truth, they are denied the freedom to be animals as God created them to be.

Through this campaign, we are encouraging people of all faiths not only to promote the compassionate treatment of all of God’s creatures but to align their principles with their daily choices. ...  

What is especially helpful, for those who may be reluctant to overhaul their consumption habits related to animal products, is that the ACGS campaign starts by focusing on just one product: eggs.  And the pledge they call for only asks:

I pledge to make more humane food choices by committing to one or more of the following: switching to cage-free or free-range egss, eating fewer eggs, (or) replacing eggs with any of the widely available substitutes.

Most of us have seen cage-free or free-range eggs in the grocery store, and I'll be posting some throughout the rest of the week to help explain why they're very much worth the extra change, even at a time when most of us are counting every penny.  I'll be looking at a couple of different aspects of the poultry industry, both animal- and human-related.  But in the meantime please do check out the All Creatures Great and Small site, and some of the information and resources they make available.  I was honored to endorse the campaign on behalf of not one sparrow, and I'd also like to thank HSUS Animals & Religion for featuring not one sparrow recently in their Francis Files.