Students and alumni of California State University at Chico, which has a significant agriculture program, quickly revolted last week at a news release put out by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) that proclaimed the school had signed onto the Meatless Monday scam perpetuated by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) propaganda.
The College of Agriculture ripped HSUS on Facebook: “While we fully support offering students plenty of options on the menu, including vegetarian, we object to the use of a political tactic like ‘Meatless Monday’ used by HSUS to advance its anti-agriculture agenda, which is the opposite of what we teach students every day about land stewardship, humane animal handling and the importance of a healthy, balanced diet.”
The university added that the HSUS news release about Chico State joining the “Meatless Monday” program was inaccurate. The action was taken by the Associated Students’ (AS) Dining Services, not the university. The AS has asked the HSUS to take the news release down and indicated it is currently reevaluating the decision to join the program.
What AS Dining Services has been planning is that one of five food stations offer vegetarian options on Monday.
According to the Center for Consumer Freedom (www.humanewatch.org), that released this information today, Chico’s dining services was apparently always going to still offer meat on Mondays, but simply increase the number of vegetarian options on that day.
HSUS has removed the press release from its Web site.