Help save the lobsters and pigs

November 14, 2009 St. Thomas Episcopal Church is sponsoring it's 16th annual Lobsterfest/Pig Roast to raise money for Habitats for Humanity.  Ask them to support a humane fund raising cause by following in the foot steps of St. Fransis of Assisi.  (A photo of his statue is on their webstite.) Note the whimsy of the Ad.

November 14, 2009 St. Thomas Episcopal Church is sponsoring it's 16th annual Lobsterfest/Pig Roast to raise money for Habitats for Humanity.  Ask them to support a humane fund raising cause by following in the foot steps of St. Fransis of Assisi.  (A photo of his statue is on their webstite.) Note the whimsy of the Ad.

Although raising money for a noble cause is a worthy one, adding to
the problem of another is not a fair solution.  40,000 people world
wide already die of starvation daily.  1.2 billion people are
starving.  Sadly, another 1.2 billion are obese, and if everyone ate
like Americans there would only be enough food to feed 2.5 billion
people on the planet.  But if everyone were vegan, there would be
enough food to feed 20 billion people.  Therefore, in the twenty-first century encouraging gluttony is not  politically correct for any cause.  There are other ways to raise money without raising cholesterol, blood
pressure, blood sugar and increasing waist lines in the United States
as other humans and animals suffer due to our hedonism.

The environment suffers also as the livestock industry is the biggest
polluter on the planet.  The more we consume the more demands we put
on the demand for the mass production of these animals for
slaughter...and the more the air, soil and water are polluted.  And
the lobsters, who live in the bottom of the ocean, live off of the
filth we dump into the water.  Lobster populations are already suffering from all the pollution we dump into the water....and they eat practically anything, potentially putting the lobster consumer at risk of any number of diseases from Amebiasis to Cholera to Mercury Poisoning to Cancer.  And for pork consumption...one couldn't do worse from a health perspective.

St Thomas sponsors the St. Francis of Assisi's Blessing of the Animals.  Remember, he included all animals.  As far as compassion (WWJD?), could there be a more cruel death than that of a lobster in boiling water?  And as far as justifying this by believing the lobsters don't feel pain...pain is one of the most elemental senses all animals have in common.  This is the key to the survival; as a species as well as an individual.
Pigs exist in severely crowded situations for the short (typically 5 month) duration of their miserable lives.  They don't have room to turn around or lie down comfortably.  As babies they have their teeth and tails cut off to prevent biting and from being bitten...all with out the aid of anesthesia or pain relief.  They live in their own filth which is also a breeding ground  for deadly diseases like H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu).  Antibiotics are indiscriminately used on pigs to prevent diseases, rendering them as well as us more resistant to antibiotics, and more susceptible  to diseases.  They are pumped full of steroids to fatten them quickly (which in turn fattens us quickly if we consume them).
Please answer to a Higher Authority by abandoning this barbaric method
of fund raising.