About the Photos

1st photo:

This girl and cow photo is from the Heifer International website. Photos of happy children and healthy animals represent standard advertising used by animal-giving organizations.

The misleading ways in which children are used to promote the giving of animals for food should be a top concern for potential donors.

2nd and 3rd photos:

You won’t see emaciated animals or slaughter photos on the Heifer International website. They represent the reality of what many animals in low-income countries actually suffer.

Animals eat far more than they produce. While there are rare exceptions when animals consume grass or other foods not fit for human consumption, all animals require water and many require medical care that is either out of the reach of poor families or strains their limited resources. And for ruminants and other animals that consume grass and insects, it’s important to realize that even grass and insects are a limited resource.

Read more…

The Impact of Animal “Gifts”

Giving animals for food is much more controversial than it first seems. As far back as the 1960s, Paul Erlich and Frances Moore Lappe warned that U.S.-led efforts to promote more animal husbandry in the “under-developed” world were deeply misguided.

In the words of the World Land Trust, giving animals can be ‘environmentally unsound and economically disastrous.’