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NOTE: Please attribute published photos to Mark Peters.

Thanks for reading this! My lovely wife, three dogs, and I live in Baltimore, MD. My interests include photography, cooking, taking long walks in the city or in the country, and we've started to grow vegetables in a little garden.

But more important is what I've learned about how we treat animals raised for food, clothing, entertainment, or testing. Most of these animals live miserable lives, characterized by pain, confinement, and a denial of their every natural behavior. Animals have the same five senses as humans. Their brains and nervous systems allow them to feel pain to the same degree that we do. Study after study has revealed their intelligence, their sensitivity, and their emotional lives. And yet we treat them in ways that would warrant felony-level charges if they were dogs or cats. There are few laws to protect non-companion animals.

Would you do yourself a favor? Spend a few minutes watching "Glass Walls," a short movie narrated by Paul McCartney. It's available at www.meat.org/. The movie shows the life faced by animals raised on modern factory-style farms (where nearly all of the meat sold in grocery stores comes from).

We humans have so many food choices available to us. We are free to make compassionate choices in how we eat. The U.S.D.A. provides a food pyramid for vegetarian diets.

Countless cookbooks describe tasty vegetarian meals. We can choose to live and eat compassionately.

Thank you.