BOSTON - Beef. It's what's NOT for dinner at a growing number of restaurants in Massachusetts and around the country, as more establishments work to offer vegetarian options to consumers. A countrywide campaign called "Meatless Mondays" encourages diners to explore plant-based menu options once a week, with the goal of having people reduce their meat consumption by 15 percent.

Even a rapidly-growing franchise called UBurger, which got its start on the Boston University campus, offers meatless menu options, although co-owner Spiro Kouvlis says he's not quite ready to formally endorse Meatless Mondays.

"For health reasons I think it's a great idea. Business-wise? I don't think it'll be our best business day, but it is definitely good for, you know, for health and for the animals."

Started in 2003, the Meatless Monday movement is making inroads. The program's director says a recent research poll they commissioned showed 50 percent of the American public were aware of Meatless Monday and of those, 27 percent said it had influenced their decision to cut back on meat.

Spiro Kouvlis says when the first UBurger opened in Kenmore Square in 2006, the plan was to sell only hamburgers. He says they soon wised up.

"You know, a lot of students here either for religious reasons can't eat beef or just are vegetarians. They can always have that option of getting that veggie patty instead of any meat patties."

Chris Elam, program director of Meatless Mondays, says restaurants, chains and celebrity chefs are embracing the idea, or at the very least adding veggie options.

"We want to be very simple for a restaurant. We encourage restaurants not to take meat off the proverbial table, but just to add veggie options, or even highlight them on Monday to encourage people to think about this idea of cutting back just one day a week."

Erica Meier is executive director of the Washington-based group, Compassion Over Killing, which works to shed light on what it considers cruelty to animals raised for food, while promoting healthy eating.

"It's exposing people to these options, letting them know they're available. They want to make the right choice when they realize that vegetarian foods are better for their health, it's better for animals, and it's better for the environment."

Meier and her group regularly work with restaurant chains to help them build more vegetarian options into their menus. Currently, they're lobbying the Subway chain to offer a meatless deli slice.




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Government labels on meat products that say "humane" or "raised in a stress-free environment" are meaningless, according to some animal-rights groups, because the feds don't verify the companies' practices on the ground.

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has just submitted a petition calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service to stop approving labels that PETA calls "grossly misleading."

Jared Goodman is the general counsel for animal law at the PETA Foundation.

"The government is enabling companies to exploit consumers' willingness to pay more for products that are made from animals who are supposedly raised humanely," said Goodman, "but in reality, suffer in many of the exact same ways as those who are raised pursuant to regular industry standards."

The USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PETA says its investigations show some companies with the "humane" label - even some that advertise themselves as "cage free" - still mutilate the beaks of poultry, crush male chicks while they are still conscious, and keep animals in crowded sheds with little light or room to roam.

The nonprofit Humane Farm Animal Care has created a "Certified Humane Program" that evaluates producers on standards of care in raising and slaughtering animals. But Goodman pointed out that third-party programs are merely voluntary.

He said he thinks the feds should not approve "humane" labels, since companies have a strong financial incentive to misrepresent the ways they treat animals.

"They don't consider animal welfare a priority," said Goodman, "and are not going to invest the resources that are needed to provide these animals with adequate care before they're ultimately sent to the same slaughterhouses that kill animals from factory farms."

There are no federal anti-animal cruelty laws, but states will investigate when complaints are filed.

PETA claims that adopting a vegan diet is the only way to be sure your meals are cruelty-free.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it is considering a ban on lead ammunition on several national wildlife refuges, a move some wildlife advocates want to see replicated at the state level in Wisconsin.

Mark Naniot, director of wildlife rehabilitation for Rhinelander-based Wild Instincts, explained lead ammunition fractures into small particles when fired into an animal, which means lead-contaminated meat can then be consumed by hunters and scavengers.

"They ingest these tiny little lead particles, and all it takes is one or two almost microscopic particles to cause lead poisoning," Naniot noted.

Naniot explained Wisconsin's Conservation Congress, which acts as an advisory committee to the Department of Natural Resources, has voted on lead ammunition regulations in the past, although it has never approved such policies.

While there's no current ban, the Department of Natural Resources recommends against using lead-based ammunition and angling gear, citing concerns over lead poisoning.

Many hunters have embraced lead-free ammunition, but some counter it is more expensive than lead-based ammunition and less widely available. Naniot acknowledged the cost for a box of lead-free ammunition can be $10-$20 more, but argued it can take hunters years to go through a single box of ammunition.

"There's 20 shells in a box," Naniot pointed out. "And most people will shoot maybe one or two at a deer, maybe shoot a couple to make sure their gun is sighted in. So, you're shooting two or three [shells] a year. Well, that box is maybe going to last you maybe four or five years."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting public comment on the proposed lead-ammunition ban until August 8. The rule would open up 19 federally-managed refuges to hunting, with the trade-off being lead ammunition would be banned on those lands. None of the refuges are located in Wisconsin.

A new study aims to reduce wildlife collisions in one of the biggest hotspots for them - Highway 395 from Reno, Nevada, through Tahoe up to Susanville.

The nonprofit Wildlands Network worked with specialists at Pathways for Wildlife to place about 40 cameras on the route - to see where animals are trying to cross and where specialized fencing is needed to direct them to culverts or a wildlife overpass.

Mari Galloway, California program manager with Wildlands Network, said the road cuts off the migration pattern for many different species.

"The mule deer, coyotes, pronghorn, elk, black bears, mountain lions," said Galloway. "American badgers, grey fox and long-tailed weasels occupy the area as well."

Many species overwinter in the lower elevations near Reno and migrate to the Sierra Nevadas in the summer in search of food, mates and new territory for the juveniles.

According to the University of California, Davis Roadkill Ecology Center, from 2016 to 2021 there were almost 350 large wildlife collisions - mostly mule deer - on a 60-mile stretch of Highway 395, doing more than $6 million in damage.

Tanya Diamond, co-owner and wildlife ecologist at Pathways for Wildlife, said the year-long study will identify existing passageways and fencing that could be improved or repaired, and the best place for a new wildlife overpass.

"In 15 years of study, I don't think I've ever encountered a highway that needed this much extensive help," said Diamond. "This is such an important area with the deer migrating like that."

The work builds on efforts from CalTrans and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and their counterparts in Nevada. Actual construction of new culverts or overpasses is a few years off, once environmental studies are complete.