I am not scared of all the witches, zombies and assorted goblins wandering about on Halloween. What really scares me is the meat industry.

This is the industry that:

• Mutilates, cages, and butchers billions of cows, pigs and other sentient animals

• Feeds carcasses of cats and dogs killed in pounds to chickens

• Exposes undocumented workers to chronic workplace injuries at slave wages

• Exploits farmers and ranchers by dictating wholesale market prices

• Punishes documentation of its abuses through unconstitutional "ag-gag" laws

• Promotes world hunger by feeding nutritious corn and soybeans to animals

• Generates more greenhouse gases than any other human activity

• Generates more water pollution than any other human activity

• Creates a permanent "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico that dwarfs the BP oil spill

• Creates deadly antibiotic-resistant pathogens by feeding antibiotics to animals

• Creates epidemics of Salmonella, Listeria, and other infectious diseases

•  Promotes mortality from diabetes, heart failure, stroke, cancer and other diseases

Now, that’s really scary. And this is why I am dropping animal products from my menu.

Gregory Shirota
Georgetown