Former baseball star from Radnor now at bat against animal cruelty

By Dave Loos

Delaware County Times
News-Post Staff

Published March 25, 2004

While at Radnor High School, Josh Balk could list the vital statistics of virtually every baseball player in the major leagues. From batting averages to home run records, Balk, who is still the all-time leader in strikeouts and wins at Radnor High, lived baseball.

Today however, Balk, has memorized some other statistics. Rather than giving predictions for the Cubs' chances next year, he can detail the cruelties endured by animals on factory farms.

"Egg-laying hens are caged so tightly they can't even flap their wings," Balk says. He continues, "It would be illegal to castrate a dog without painkiller in the U.S., yet this is exactly what happens to tens of millions of cattle and pigs each year with no legal repercussions whatsoever."

Balk, 24, the son of Jim and Wendy Balk of Radnor, works for Compassion Over Killing (COK), a non-profit animal advocacy organization based in Takoma Park, Md.

His father, by the way, was the baseball coach at Radnor High for years before retiring last year. His brother, Adam, also played baseball and is a student at California State University.

How did a local baseball star like Balk, who in his senior year was included by Adidas in its top 100 future baseball prospects, turn from jock to vegetarian activist?

While in high school, Balk watched a video of how animals are killed in modern slaughter plants, which turned him vegetarian almost immediately.

"I've always thought cruelty to animals was repulsive. I just never knew I was supporting it every time I sat down to eat," Balk explains.

But don't let his compassion for animals mislead you into thinking he's no longer a jock. Balk ended his baseball career at Keystone College with a shoulder injury in 1999, but is still an avid weightlifter and self-described "sports fanatic."

He graduated from the two-year college as valedictorian, and went on to obtain his bachelor's degree in political science from George Washington University in 2002.

While at GWU, Balk met up with other animal advocates and began reading about the treatment of animals at factory farms, livestock auctions and slaughter plants. He read books like Princeton philosopher Peter Singer's "Animal Liberation," which convinced him that the greatest amount of animal abuse occurs to "food animals."

After attending a talk by Miyun Park, the president of Compassion Over Killing, Balk decided to become vegan, a vegetarian who does not eat eggs or dairy products.

Park hired Balk a year ago to head the organization's vegetarian outreach efforts, and he now works to let as many people as possible know their message: "We can help stop animal cruelty with every bite we take," Balk says. "We have no nutritional need for meat, eggs, or dairy, yet we cause immense amounts of suffering when we buy these products."

He is quick to cite the position of the American Dietetic Association, the nation's leading authority on nutrition, which states: "Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer."

As part of his job with Compassion Over Killing, Balk gives talks on vegetarianism at high schools and colleges. As well, he routinely meets with local restaurant managers about expanding and promoting their vegetarian options.

Campaigns conducted by Compassion Over Killing include an exhibit at the National Mall on "Factory Farming in America," a free "Vegetarian Starter Guide" program, a restaurant outreach program, a campaign against the use of animals in the circus, vegetarian leafleting and investigations into cruelty.

Balk said COK works to end animal abuse, primarily focusing on cruelty to animals in agriculture. COK helps make vegetarian eating as easy as possible with free vegetarian starter guides, recipe booklets, restaurant guides, and web sites like TryVeg.com.

For information about COK people can visit the Web site at www.cok.net or calling (301) 891-2458.

©The Daily Times 2004