HighestWelfare.Humane.Assured.GoodPractices.Vegetarian. Regenerative.Flexitarian.Lies...
What is the difference between No Welfare, High Welfare, and Highest Welfare when they all require animals to die? Only human comfort, NONE protect the actual animals. The most humane, ethical, and honest Webster-defined "welfare" is NOT exploiting animals - not using, not wearing, not eating, not killing - animals. The only meaningful position is vegan, everything else is just how humans euphemize animals' required suffering and violent deaths: no human exploits animals because they honestly believe that NOT exploiting animals is UNethical or INhumane.
Report: Good Turn-out of Wolf Supporters at Poorly Publicized Meeting in Alpine: Send Sample Letter
BACKGROUND | FROM LOBOS OF THE SOUTHWEST
Report: Good Turn-out of Wolf Supporters at Poorly Publicized Meeting in Alpine
Comments Needed to Support New Releases of Captive Wolves! (11/21/11)
In spite of having only a few days notice of an AZ Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) meeting to discuss proposed releases of Mexican wolves from captivity, Mexican wolf supporters managed to outnumber the anti-wolf special interests on November 17 in Alpine Arizona.
At the meeting, which was apparently only publicized to a few local area residents (pro-wolf residents of the area received no notice), the AZGFD representative, Chris Bagnoli, made it clear that the intention was to gather information to pass on to the AZGFD Director as guidance for initial releases of Mexican wolves into Arizona. Bagnoli also announced that comments on the proposed releases are due on November 21, 2011. Like the meeting itself, this comment period was scarcely publicized.
For the past three years, each attempt to release new wolf packs in Arizona has been stopped. The recommendations of AZGFD for the proposed releases will likely include “more assertive management actions,” meaning removing or killing wolves that depredate. Anti-wolf meeting participants advocated removing wolves suspected of depredating on livestock two or three times in a year.
This was done previously under a disastrous policy that ended several years ago under a legal agreement with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and conservation groups, who argued successfully that this policy was obstructive to Mexican wolf recovery. Livestock owners have a responsibility to take action to avoid depredations, including range riders, fladry, and removal of livestock carcasses that can lead to wolves learning to depredate on livestock.
A requirement to remove livestock carcasses or render them inedible was also brought up. Unfortunately, there was no proposal to make this mandatory for livestock growers, even though it has long been recommended by experts as an important step to reducing depredation.
Bagnoli also indicated that AZGFD would advocate for only 100 wolves as the goal for removing Mexican gray wolves from the Endangered Species list. While 100 wolves was an interim goal set for 2006, it was never the goal for delisting and is much too small a population to ensure the continuation of the wolves. The new Recovery Plan currently being developed will set targets for removing Mexican wolves from the Endangered Species list.
PLEASE SEND COMMENTS TODAY!
Although it is highly illegitimate for the AZGFD to set a comment deadline that is not publicized, it will help if your comments in support of releases and management for recovery are submitted by the end of the day. If this is not possible, please make sure your comments are sent before the December 2 AZ Game and Fish Commission meeting (more information here).
WHOM TO CONTACT
Comments should be sent to Chris Bagnoli at: cbagnoli@azgfd.gov
Please send us an email at info@mexicanwolves.org and let us know your comments have been sent.
YOU CAN USE THESE TALKING POINTS | SAMPLE LETTER IN YOUR EMAIL:
To Whom It Concerns,
With only around 55 wolves in the wild, Mexican gray wolves are one of the most endangered mammals on the planet, and more releases are critical to increase population numbers and genetic viability.
There are many wolves in captive facilities that could increase the wild population, but no new wolf packs have been released into the wild since November, 2008. Additional releases are necessary to the goal of recovery.
Since there is no ranching going on in the potential release areas since the Wallow fire and the agency doesn’t expect there to be livestock grazing in the next year, this is a good time for new wolves to be released.
Area livestock producers have a responsibility to care for their livestock by proactively avoiding depredations. With so few Mexican wolves in the wild, every wolf is important. Rather than removing wolves for depredating, livestock should be moved and livestock producers should be required to remove or render inedible livestock carcasses on their allotments, as well as other proactive measures.
It is premature for AZ Game and Fish to make recommendations regarding targets for removing Mexican gray wolves from the Endangered Species list. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has convened a recovery planning team that include AZ Game and Fish and scientifically valid targets for delisting will be developed through that process.
Thank you for taking the time to read this important message.
Please click on and sign:
Ask the University of Virginia to End the Use of Cats in Its Pediatrics Residency
We need your help to stop the abuse of cats by the University of Virginia. Today, PCRM filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, explaining that the school is violating the federal Animal Welfare Act by using live cats in its pediatrics residency program. Please help this effort by asking the school to end the use of animals today.
At the University of Virginia (UVA) breathing tubes are pushed down the throats of live cats to teach endotracheal intubation. This painful procedure is repeated numerous times on each animal and can cause tracheal bruising, bleeding, and severe trauma. Nonanimal training methods exist, making this use of animals not only cruel but unnecessary.
Further, UVA acquires cats for this training from an animal dealer (Liberty Research of Waverly, N.Y.) with a history of repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Between July 2009 and April 2011, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors found 11 violations of the AWA, highlighting Liberty Research’s lack of sanitation and maintenance of housing units for cats and dogs.
So far, the responsible UVA faculty and administrators have ignored pleas to change this practice. Please e-mail UVA School of Medicine dean Steven DeKosky, M.D., and urge him to end this cruel and unnecessary practice. Send an automatic e-mail.
Gaumard’s Premie HAL and PREMIE Blue simulators, designed to mimic the airway of a premature newborn; Laerdal’s SimNewB, which was developed in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics; and METI’s BabySim can all be used for this type of training. UVA’s state-of-the-art simulation center already owns a BabySim so the switch to simulation can be made immediately.
More than 94 percent of pediatrics residency programs in the United States do not use animals. It is time for UVA to join the majority. Please e-mail Dr. DeKosky today and ask him to replace the use of animals in UVA’s pediatrics residency program.
You can read our complaint to the USDA here.
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We have provided text for you, but if you decide to write your own message, please be polite and encouraging.
Here are some talking points:
- Please replace the use of cats in UVA’s pediatrics residency program.
- Anatomical differences between cats and humans render this type of training suboptimal.
- UVA is part of a shrinking minority of pediatrics residencies (6 percent) that still use live animals for training.
- High-fidelity simulators such as Laerdal’s SimNewB, Gaumard’s Premie HAL and PREMIE Blue, and METI’s SimBaby accurately replicate the airway of a premature newborn, optimizing training and feedback.
- UVA already has a state-of-the-art simulation center that can easily provide nonanimal training methods.
Special note: If you are not a U.S. resident, please enter your postal code at the bottom of this form.
Message Text
I am writing to ask that you immediately end the use of cats in the University of Virginia’s (UVA) pediatrics residency program. The use of live animals for this purpose is cruel and outdated. Ninety-four percent of pediatrics residency programs in the United States use human-based methods for this type of training. UVA already has a state-of-the-art medical simulation center that can easily provide nonanimal training methods, so there is no justification for the continued use of live cats. Please end this cruel and unnecessary practice immediately.
Read more…
Urge CBL & Associates to End Sale of Sugar Gliders
BACKGROUND | FROM PETA
Complaints continue to pour in from customers of CBL & Associates malls regarding Pocket Pets, a traveling kiosk that sells tiny exotic marsupials called “sugar gliders.” PETA has reached out to executives, but our pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears. We need your help today!
Sugar gliders are tiny nocturnal marsupials who, in nature, live in groups of 30. They spend their time in trees searching for insects and sap and frolicking with family members. Kiosks and pet shops are now acquiring them from hellish breeding facilities similar to puppy mills. The animals are then peddled as cheap trinkets to customers who buy them on a whim. Confined to small cages, roughly handled, fed improper diets, and forgotten when the novelty wears off, sugar gliders are doomed from the moment they’re born.
Please implore CBL & Associates Properties to do the right thing and adopt a policy that prohibits the Pocket Pets kiosks from selling sugar gliders at its malls. And please forward this alert widely!
Send polite comments to the below.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email block
stephen_lebovitz@cblproperties.com
katie_reinsmidt@cblproperties.com
Individual
Stephen Lebovitz
President and CEO
CBL & Associates
stephen_lebovitz@cblproperties.com
423-855-0001
Katie Reinsmidt
Vice President
CBL & Associates
katie_reinsmidt@cblproperties.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear President Lebovitz and Vice President Reinsmidt,
It has come to my attention that you are selling sugar gliders as toy trinkets called Pocket Pets, and I am respectfully requesting you discontinue with this idea for now and future commerce.
Please allow me to elaborate. These sugar gliders are bred in wretched conditions with high death rates, captive by breeders whose only concern is profit, making ideal food and veterinary care cost-prohibitive. Sugar gliders are naturally nocturnal, live in groups of 30, and spend their time searching for insects and frolicking with family members. Furthermore, sugar gliders indeed experience pain and react negatively towards stressful situations including loud noises, light, enclosures, and disturbed environments, the factors of both breeding and selling capacities.
As such, as long as CBL & Associates Properties continues to unnecessarily and selfishly capitalize on the cruelty and death of animals, I will not financially support you; furthermore, I will promote a boycott by informing family, friends, and members of online communities.
Please make both the ethical and financially-responsible decision to discontinue animal cruelty immediately: join an increasing body of corporations who are listening to a concerned and attentive consumer population who refuse to be complicit in the inherently malicious industries of animal breeding and selling.
Thank you for taking the time to read this important message.
NAME
URGENT: Act Today To Stop Reid Park Zoo In Tucson From Separating Long-time Elephant Friends
Please click on and sign:
Urgent: Act Today To Stop Reid Park Zoo In Tucson From Separating Long-time Elephant Friends
From IDA
Please submit the form at the above link to send your comments immediately! City Council may act any day!
Connie and Shaba have been together at the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson since 1982 when Connie was 15 and Shaba was just 2. They have been deeply bonded since the day they were first brought together. Now, after nearly 30 years, the zoo wants to separate them and send Connie away. Not 
only is this wrong, it contradicts what the public and the City were told by the Zoo about the new elephant exhibit – that it would be a new home for Connie and Shaba.
When an attempt was made in 2005 to send Connie and Shaba to a spacious, natural habitat sanctuary the zoo fought back, saying the two elephants should not be moved or separated. Media sources reported zoo director Susan Basford as saying: “These animals, if at all possible, should stay together.” The City Council later approved funds for construction of a new exhibit meant for Connie and Shaba.
Now that the zoo has nearly completed construction of its multi-million dollar elephant display, Connie and Shaba’s close bond doesn’t seem to matter any longer. The zoo plans to send Asian elephant Connie to the San Diego Zoo. It will bring a group of African elephants (a bull and two females with calves) to the Reid Park Zoo from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and try to integrate Shaba with them. There is absolutely no guarantee that she will integrate with the group; if not, she would be moved to another zoo.
Tuesday November 22, 2011: the Tucson city council will hold an important study session to discuss the issue and may even act on it. Please tell them today that the world is watching and cares deeply about the fate of these long-time elephant companions. Urge them to find a compassionate solution that respects Connie and Shaba’s lifelong bond.
Send a message to Tucson’s mayor and council members. Ask them to have a heart and stop the separation of Connie and Shaba. Please be sure to personalize your message as much as possible to make it more effective.
Submitting this form will e-mail your comments to:
- All Tucson, Arizona City Council members
- Mayor Bob Walkup
- The City Clerk
Greenhouse Gases Hit Record Levels; Concentrations Exceed Scientists’ Worst-Case Scenarios
Image: Paul York | https://our-compass.org/essays/the-worlds-most-important-pie-chart/
GENEVA — Global warming gases have hit record levels in the world’s atmosphere, with concentrations of carbon dioxide up 39 percent since the start of the industrial era in 1750, the U.N. weather agency said Monday.
The new figures for 2010 from the World Meteorological Organization show that CO2 levels are now at 389 parts per million, up from about 280 parts per million a quarter-millenium ago. The levels are significant because the gases trap heat in the atmosphere.
WMO Deputy Secretary-General Jeremiah Lengoasa said CO2 emissions are to blame for about four-fifths of the rise. But he noted the lag between what gets pumped into the atmosphere and its effect on climate.
“With this picture in mind, even if emissions were stopped overnight globally, the atmospheric concentrations would continue for decades because of the long lifetime of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” he said.
Negotiators from virtually all the world’s nations will gather later this month in South Africa to try to agree on steps to head off the worst of the climate disruptions that researchers say will result if concentrations hit around 450 parts per million.
Environmental Warning: Meat’s Not Green
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That could happen within several decades at the current rate, though some climate activists and vulnerable nations say the world has already passed the danger point of 350 parts per million and must somehow undo it.
The WMO said the increase of 2.3 parts per million in CO2 in the atmosphere between 2009 and 2010 shows an acceleration from the average 1.5 parts per million increase during the 1990s.
But there are seasonal fluctuations, too. During the summer growing season, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In winter, the concentration of C02 rises as vegetation and other biomass decompose.
Since 1750, WMO says, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have risen 39 percent, those of nitrous oxide have gone up 20 percent and concentrations of methane jumped 158 percent.
Its report Monday cites fossil fuel-burning, loss of forests that absorb CO2 and use of fertilizer as the main culprits.
Environmental Impact of Vegans Versus Conventional Diets
Livestock’s Long Shadow
Livestock and Climate Change
Read more…
BACKGROUND
A dangerous bill designed to expand hunting is pending in the Wisconsin legislature right now, and has already passed the state assembly. According to the Bear Interest Group of Wisconsin, SB226/AB311 “will in effect turn the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources into a recruitment and training organization for the hunters and trappers.” State wildlife management agencies already tend to be run by hunters, for hunters, but this bill would give Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources more power to expand hunting in several ways:
- Establish a “sporting recruitment and retention council” to figure out ways to increase the number of hunters and trappers in the state;
- Establish an incentive program for hunters to recruit new hunters, including credits towards license fees and a prize drawing;
- Require school boards to give high school credit to students who complete the hunter education, bow hunter education or trapper education programs;
- Offer their trapper education program online;
- Reduce fees for new hunters or anyone who hasn’t hunted in the state within the past ten years; and
- Prohibit the acquisition of new lands under the state’s stewardship program unless hunting, fishing, trapping, hiking, and cross-country skiing will be allowed on that land, or unless the acquisition is unanimously approved by the natural resources board.
What you can do: According to BIG Wisconsin, “This bill passed the Wisconsin Assembly as AB311 on Nov. 1, 2011. 84 representatives voted yes…12 voted no and 12 abstentions. The bill is now being introduced into the Wisconsin Senate as SB226.” Contact your own state senator and members of the Senate Natural Resources Committee and politely ask them to oppose SB226/AB311:
Senator Kedzie (Chair)
Senator Moulton (Vice-Chair)
Senator Wanggaard
Senator Galloway
Senator Wirch
Senator Holperin
Senator Larson
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WHOM TO CONTACT
Email block
Sen.Kedzie@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Moulton@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Wanggaard@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Galloway@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Wirch@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Holperin@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen.Larson@legis.wisconsin.gov
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Senators,
It has come to my attention that SB226/AB311 is being hastened through congress with no public input and I am writing to establish my protest. This statute “would allow hunters and trappers in and opens every state and county park and all publicly funded Stewardship lands to all forms of hunting, fishing, and trapping.” (Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/patricia-randolph-s-madravenspeak-the-end-of-safe-state-parks/article_420b6707-7f53-5114-a8b9-55b69986dad1.html#ixzz1dvXx8VCb )
I suspect that to establish endorsement, pro-killing enthusiasts and supporters exaggerate potentially dangerous situations and exploit community fear, dispelling any measures to protect wildlife. Indeed, the human animal is deceptively clever and duplicitous in gaining support for the vicious killing of a non-human animal who is worth more dead than alive to calculating hunters.
First, this type of mass killing is unethical, the sentient life of these animals taking precedent over the whims and desires of thrill-seeking hunters and trappers. The traps themselves pose remarkable pain, fear, and slow deaths, and can make victims non-target animals, such as dogs who wander off trails.
Second, refusing no public input demands reconciliation. In what capacity gives you right to make deliberate and dangerous decisions banning input from those very people who gave you capacity with assumed consultation?
Third, of utmost concern is the unethical agenda of this decision, and the goal of death by these hunters. Hunting is inherently cruel, these hunts are particularly savage, fundamentally cruel, and based on inequity and accommodating promoters, employing cheap baiting tactics to attract animals, a decidedly unmerited and cruel strategy to lure creatures to their deaths. The trapping causes great pause as at least one non-target animal has been victim yet ignored by you. Do you sleep well knowing you chose to ignore an unethical and brutal death that could have been prevented? The targeted animals themselves endure horrific trauma and slow death, at times chewing their own limbs off in attempts to escape. Is it easy to pass judgement on innocent animals, sentencing them to excruciating pain and position in which they would feel the need to escape via chewing off their limbs and subjecting them to death?
Fourth, there is an inversely proportionate number of hunters who control the legislative budget; while hunting continues to lose popularity, more dollars are allocated by a ridiculously low percentage of supporters as compared to high numbers of those who disapprove.
Therefore, I respectfully request that, based on the established brutality involved as well as cheap political tactics ignoring public input and inversely proportionate support, you please vacate any decision supporting the brutal hunting proposition, SB226/AB311, in the above listed areas, county parks, and as well as Stewardship land. Please leave your reputation free of such brutal, inequitable hunting enterprises, and do not allow economical benefits, hunting sympathizers, and distorted accusations to dominate over ethics and judicious resolutions.
I know your time is limited, and I thank you very much for your attention to this urgent concern.
NAME
US: Save the Internet
Please click on and sign:
From Avaaz
Right now, Congress is debating a law that would give them the power to censor the world’s Internet — creating a blacklist that could target YouTube, WikiLeaks and even groups like Avaaz!
Under the new law, our government could force Internet providers to block any website on suspicion of violating copyright or trademark legislation, or even failing to sufficiently police their users’ activities. And, because so much of the Internet’s hosts and hardware are located here in the US, their blacklist would clamp down on the free web for all of us in America and millions across the world.
We only have days before the vote but we can help stop this — champions in Congress want to preserve free speech and tell us that a global outcry would strengthen their hand. Let’s urgently raise our voices from every corner of America and join Avaaz members across the world to build a massive call urging our decision makers to reject the bill and stop Internet censorship. Sign now and then forward as widely as possible — our message will be delivered directly to key members of Congress ahead of the crucial vote.
Message Text
To All Members of Congress,
As concerned US citizens, we call on you to stand for a free and open Internet and vote both against the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act. The Internet is a crucial tool for people in the US and around the world to exchange ideas and work collectively to build the world we all want. We urge you to show true global leadership and do all you can to protect this basic pillar of our democracy.
Read more…
Political contacts & other resources
US White House
- Telephone number to the White House: 202-456-1414
- Fax number to the White House: 202-456-2461
- Free Internet Faxing HERE | No contracts, credit card, or registering
- Send 5000-character message to the President here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
- Corresponding with the White House http://www.congress.org/bio/id/3181
- Register to e-mail, call, or write the President, your congressional members, or your own state and local government based on your ZIP code. Find groups ‘Take Action’ alerts or create your own. Registering is quick and easy.
- Register to write your federal representatives at one time: congress.org
- Register to write your state representatives at one time: congress.org
Media
- To determine local media and how you can contact up to five with one message, please click HERE.
Letters
- Need a letter? Find one HERE.
Victory: Ukraine calls for dog killing ban
Image: http://www.handelsblatt.com/
Previous:
Stop the killing of dogs and cats for the European Football Championship | Petitions, Sample letter
Stop the Cruel Killing of Street Dogs in Ukraine
From The Independent
Ukraine has called for an end to the killing of stray dogs ahead of the Euro 2012 football championships next summer, bending to pressure from Western critics.
The Environment Ministry has urged all the country’s mayors to stop putting down dogs ahead of the June event and build animal shelters instead.
Thousands of stray dogs have been killed in Ukraine over the past year, often poisoned or injected with illegal substances, in an apparent effort to clean city streets of strays ahead of the tournament.
That has outraged local and international animal protection groups.
The ministry’s statement followed a meeting with representatives of Naturewatch, a British-based group that had actively campaigned against animal cruelty in Ukraine.
“This is a fantastic victory for Ukraine, its citizens and its animals,” said John Ruane, head of Naturewatch.
However, it remained unclear how the killing ban would be enforced. Ukraine has a large stray dog population, often numbering tens of thousands in big cities, and building shelters to house them would take months.
A ministry spokesman said the government would work on adopting legal and other changes to make the moratorium on killing legally binding across the country and said that mayors who disobey would face punishment.
The ministry also intends to help manage and finance construction of shelters.
Read more…
ABC News Investigation: What’s In Your Breakfast?
From ABC News
McDonald’s will be looking for a new source of eggs for many of its hugely popular Egg McMuffins.
The fast food company says it “will no longer accept” eggs from one of the country’s biggest egg companies, Sparboe Farms, that is the subject of an ABC News investigation to be broadcast Friday on “20/20” and “World News with Diane Sawyer” and was cited Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration for “significant…and serious violations” in the production of eggs.
In one of the most forceful enforcement actions since last year’s salmonella egg outbreak, the FDA issued a company-wide warning letter to Sparboe Farms, the country’s fifth largest egg producer.
Citing “serious” and “significant violations” at five different locations, the FDA cited at least 13 violations of the recently enacted federal egg rule meant to prevent dangerous salmonella outbreaks.
“This is a warning that there is a systemic problem, not just at one barn or one location,” said former FDA food safety chief David Acheson, now an industry consultant.
The ABC News broadcast will include undercover video taken over the summer inside Sparboe facilities in three states by an animal rights group, Mercy for Animals, that appears to show unsanitary conditions and repeated acts of animal cruelty.
Until today, the Sparboe facility in Vincent, Iowa, had produced all eggs used by McDonald’s restaurants west of the Mississippi River.
In its statement, McDonald’s said its decision was based on concerns about “the management of Sparboe facilities.”
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“McDonald’s expects all of our suppliers to meet our stringent requirements for delivering high quality food prepared in a humane and responsible manner,” the company said in a statement released to ABC News overnight.
READ: McDonald’s Full Statement
But Mercy for Animals executive director Nathan Runkle said today that McDonald’s action was “too little, too late.”
“This investigation illustrates that McDonald’s lacks the basic policies and oversight to prevent blatant animal abuse at its egg suppliers,” Runkle told ABC News.
The Mercy for Animals activist who went undercover to record the video inside Sparboe told ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, “I saw workers do horrendous things to birds, they were thrown, grabbed by the neck, they’re slammed in and out of cages.”
Runkle said the video shows how health hazards can be linked to large scale, low-cost egg producers, so-called “factory farms.”
“They’re the model of efficiency but they place an emphasis on profit over animal welfare,” said Runkle, who says he and his members eat no animal products because of the animal cruelty they have seen.
Sparboe executives told Ross the employees seen on the tape abusing the chickens were all fired.
“We have a zero tolerance policy,” said Ken Klippen, Sparboe’s director of government relations. “People who violate that policy, we take that very seriously.”
On a one-hour guided tour of the Sparboe facility in Vincent, Iowa, the source of all McDonald’s eggs for restaurants west of the Mississippi, Klippen told Ross the Sparboe’s facilities are “state of the art.
Sparboe has never had a single egg or chicken detected with salmonella, said Klippen, who added “there was no cause for any enforcement action.”.
The 2010 salmonella outbreak affected more than 1,900 people and was traced to a different Iowa egg producer, Wright County Eggs.
Vegetarian (Vegan) Starter Kit: Mercy For Animals
Read more…
Please click on and sign the following two petitions:
1. Background | From IDA
In order to resolve our country’s historic budget crisis, the U.S. Congress has created a 12-member “Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction” that is to create a plan by November 23 to reduce our nation’s debt by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. There are many areas of 
spending on which the 6 Republicans and 6 Democrats will have difficulty agreeing. However, because so much wasteful spending also needlessly harms animals, this gives the animal protection community an enormous and extraordinary opportunity to suggest budget cuts that the committee can easily agree on!
Ending chimpanzee experimentation would save over $300 million. The National Institutes of Health is leading the attempt to try and convince the public, and Congress, that chimpanzee experimentation is necessary. But the concept of ending this morally and scientifically bankrupt practice has become so mainstream, on so many fronts – scientific, ethical, political, financial – that on September 28, Scientific American, perhaps the most prestigious general interest science magazine in the world, called for a ban, explaining “Why it is time to end invasive biomedical research on chimpanzees.”
The emerging scientific, ethical and political consensus is clear: as Scientific American so aptly said, “[T]he time has come to end biomedical experimentation on chimpanzees.” IDA is asking our members to send a fax to the committee to give them the opportunity to make that consensus a reality while saving U.S. taxpayers $300 million. The fax will automatically be sent to your own U.S. Senators and Representative also.
Each member of the Congressional committee has already been provided with the details backing up this proposal. So all you need to do is send a fax indicating your support! Feel free to add your own thoughts. Thank you!
2. Background | From IDA
IDA has sent a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, calling for the removal of Los Angeles Zoo veterinarian Ellen Wiedner. The demand was prompted by Dr. Wiedner’s recent testimony at a public hearing in San Diego County, during which she expressed adamant support for Have Trunk Will Travel, the company whose trainers were caught on video viciously striking several elephants including a calf with bullhooks, and using an electric prod on another. She called these cruel and illegal acts appropriate care and control of elephants.
Not only did Dr. Wiedner condone the violent use of bullhooks on several elephants, even when pressed she would not condemn the use of an electric prod, which is strictly illegal in California. This is not a person who should be caring for elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo!
Dr. Wiedner previously was the director of animal care for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which has been at the center of controversy due to the abuse of elephants with bullhooks. This is well-documented on video and in sworn testimony from a recent federal trial.
What you can do
Send a message to Mayor Villaraigosa that Dr. Wiedner should not be caring for elephants or any other animals at the Los Angeles Zoo. Please follow up with a phone call to the Mayor at (213) 978-0600 or (213) 978-0721.
Personalize and submit the form below to send your message to:
- Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa
- A copy will also be sent to the City Council
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In hope that one day
After a long, sleepless
Night
I open my eyes
To a world, doing right
That cruelty is
Banished
And disappears
That torment
Vanishes
And kindness
Lives here !
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Congress Pushes Back On Healthier School Lunches: Send petition and letter of protest
BACKGROUND | FROM HUFFINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — Who needs leafy greens and carrots when pizza and french fries will do?
In an effort many 9-year-olds will cheer, Congress wants pizza and french fries to stay on school lunch lines and is fighting the Obama administration’s efforts to take unhealthy foods out of schools.
The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.
The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.
Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration’s much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.
School meals that are subsidized by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables, and USDA’s proposal could have pushed pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business.
Piling on to the companies’ opposition, some conservatives argue that the federal government shouldn’t tell children what to eat. In a summary of the bill, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee said the changes would “prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and …provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals.”
School districts have said some of the USDA proposals go too far and cost too much when budgets are extremely tight. Schools have long taken broad instructions from the government on what they can serve in the federally subsidized meals that are given free or at reduced price to low-income children. But some schools have balked at government attempts to tell them exactly what foods they can’t serve.
Reacting to that criticism, House Republicans had urged USDA to rewrite the standards in a bill passed in June. The Senate last month voted to block the potato limits in its version, with opposition to the restrictions led by potato-growing states. Neither version of the bill included the latest provisions on tomato paste, sodium or whole grains; House and Senate negotiators added those in the last two weeks as they put finishing touches on the legislation.
The school lunch proposal is based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said they are necessary to reduce childhood obesity and future health care costs.
USDA spokeswoman Courtney Rowe said Tuesday that the department will continue its efforts to make lunches healthier.
“While it’s unfortunate that some members of Congress continue to put special interests ahead of the health of America’s children, USDA remains committed to practical, science-based standards for school meals,” she said in a statement.
Nutrition advocate Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said Congress’s proposed changes will keep schools from serving a wider array of vegetables. Children already get enough pizza and potatoes, she says. It also would slow efforts to make pizzas – a longtime standby on school lunch lines – healthier, with whole grain crusts and lower sodium levels.
“They are making sure that two of the biggest problems in the school lunch program, pizza and french fries, are untouched,” she said.
A group of retired generals advocating for healthier school lunches also criticized the spending bill. The group, called Mission: Readiness, has called poor nutrition in school lunches a national security issue because obesity is the leading medical disqualifier for military service.
“We are outraged that Congress is seriously considering language that would effectively categorize pizza as a vegetable in the school lunch program,” Amy Dawson Taggart, the director of the group, said in a letter to lawmakers before the final bill was released. “It doesn’t take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this a national disgrace.”
Specifically, the bill would:
- Block the Agriculture Department from limiting starchy vegetables, including corn and peas, to two servings a week. The rule was intended to cut down on french fries, which many schools serve daily.
- Allow USDA to count two tablespoons of tomato paste as a vegetable, as it does now. The department had attempted to require that only a half-cup of tomato paste could be considered a vegetable. Federally subsidized lunches must have a certain number of vegetables to be served.
- Require further study on long-term sodium reduction requirements set forth by the USDA guidelines.
- Require USDA to define “whole grains” before they regulate them. The USDA rules require schools to use more whole grains.
Food companies who have fought the USDA standards say they were too strict and neglected the nutrients that potatoes, other starchy vegetables and tomato paste do offer.
“This agreement ensures that nutrient-rich vegetables such as potatoes, corn and peas will remain part of a balanced, healthy diet in federally funded school meals and recognizes the significant amounts of potassium, fiber and vitamins A and C provided by tomato paste, ensuring that students may continue to enjoy healthy meals such as pizza and pasta,” said Kraig Naasz, president of the American Frozen Food Institute.
The school lunch provisions are part of a final House-Senate compromise on a $182 billion measure that would fund the day-to-day operations of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Both the House and the Senate are expected to vote on the bill this week and send it to President Barack Obama.
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PETITION
Please click on and sign:
Tell Congress that Pizza Is NOT a Vegetable
WHOM TO CONTACT
To register, click HERE
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It May Concern,
It is my understanding that the school lunch program has just suffered a decline as minimal health benefits have failed. In writing regulations of the school lunch program to make it healthier, heavily subsidized and extra portions of potato and Coke replaced fruits and vegetables, undoubtedly contributing to an ever-increasing and shockingly 30% child obesity rate. Pizza lobbyists even killed a regulation classifying pizza as a vegetable due to tomato paste; by incrementally limiting the paste, lobbyists succeeded in removing a minimal health benefit.
Rather than become a principled institution, Congress again challenged decency and decided that over-subsidized groups deserved more attention and benefit than our very own school children, once again denying them healthier school lunches.
The United States slaughters ten billion animals per year; these animals are subjected to malicious conditions and practices, unethically objectified as commodities, and given no comfort, safety, or consideration. A diet that minimizes meat is the moral and just response to refuse this abject speciesism, diminishing the inherently cruel precept of animal “production”, including the proposed Sue Wallis horse slaughter and menu addition, while observing beneficial diet choices. With the plans to reopen slaughter of horses here in the US, do you not fear your children will be served this for lunch? Agriculture controls our children’s lunches via schools. The government will making taxpayers pay $5 million dollars to poison children.
Furthermore, as important as it is to health and physical well-being, fruits and vegetables are additionally environmentally sound; intensive factory farming of animals is the leading cause of harmful environmental impacts including diminishing resources, ecological destruction, and subsequent negative climate ramifications. Your decision to deny these other fruits and vegetables as part of school lunches refuses to address the importance of acknowledging animal exploitation, and the ethical decision to reject such, as well your lack of commitment to environmental protection and healthy ramifications.
I hope in the future the importance of healthy diet choices being taught at such an impressionable age will take precedence over heavily-subsidized special-interest groups.
I understand you time is limited, and I thank you for your attention.
Read more…
Celebrate a Vegan Holiday | Fur-Free Friday
From Peta
Chances are, if you’re hosting a holiday feast this year, you’ll have at least one friend or family member who will be a little flustered by the feathered fowl at the center of the table. For either ethical or health reasons, many people are making the switch to a vegetarian or vegan (vegetarian minus the eggs, dairy products, and other animal products) diet. Although this is all well and good for them (and for turkeys), it can present a definite challenge for their carnivorous hosts.
These delicious recipes will please every palate and make it easier to give up the giblets, giving everyone—including animals—something to be thankful for this holiday season:
- Appetizers and Snacks
- Soups and Salads
- Entrées
- Side Dishes
- Gravies
- Faux Turkeys
- Desserts
- Beverages
- Meals
In order to avoid ruffling any feathers this holiday season, PETA has dished up these handy tips:
- Make the holiday stuffing vegetarian-friendly by using vegetable broth instead of a meat-based broth.
- Great gravy is a cinch with canned Franco-American mushroom gravy or Hain instant vegan gravy, available in traditional brown or “chicken” flavors. Just add water and simmer.
- Serve any one of these tasty vegan turkeys instead of the traditional fowl.
- When baking the holiday bread, be sure to use an egg replacer and soy milk in place of eggs and milk.
- Not sure what to make for hors d’oeuvres? Check out our recipe page and choose from a variety of tasty vegan recipes.
- Swap the milk and butter with soy milk and margarine for vegan mashed potatoes that everyone will love.
- Whip up a vegan dessert using one of our recipes, or if you’re in a pinch, pick up some nondairy ice cream for a quick and delicious dessert.
- Be sure to have a vegan dressing for the salad; our shopping guide has a list of vegan dressings that can be found at most grocery stores.
- Forgo the butter this year and use margarine instead. Try Earth Balance (OC Note: contains palm oil), or check out our shopping guide for more vegan margarines.
- Save time in the kitchen by having each of your guests bring a vegan dish to share. Our holiday recipe guide has loads of tempting dishes that will satisfy even the pickiest of palates.
- Still not sure about how to make a vegan cake or what to use in place of gelatin? Our handy substitution guide will answer all your vegan cooking questions.
Fur-Free Friday 2011: Make This Season Cruelty-Free
It’s time to get into the fur-free spirit! November 25 (the day after Thanksgiving) is Fur-Free Friday—the day on which animal advocates all around the globe will educate holiday shoppers about the cruel fur and leather industries. Every year, the fur industry heartlessly kills 50 million animals—many of whom are skinned alive. The leather industry is no friend to animals either—the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals annually.Last year, we kicked off the season with 250 registered Fur-Free Friday events around the globe! Want to take part in the Fur-Free Friday festivities this year? It’s simple!
Register Your Event
Register here to make sure that your protest gets added to the list of Fur-Free Friday events.
Find an Event
Click on your country and then state below to find out if there is a Fur-Free Friday event in your area, or plan one of your own.
Click here for some tips on organizing your Fur-Free Friday event. Already have an event planned but still need to spread the word? Click here for three simple ways to publicize your event.
Together we can make this Fur-Free Friday bigger than last year!
Other Countries
Image | pandgkills.com
PETITIONS
Stop Proctor & Gamble From Animal Testing!
WHOM TO CONTACT
1. Please click on Proctor & Gamble Webform
2. Enter your information; only your Email Address, Date of Birth, Country, and First Name are required
3. Under Product select Corporate
4. Under Category select General Company Information
5. After entering Sample Letter or your own words click Continue
6. You’ll get a pop-up box that indicates The following answers might help you immediately. (Answers open in a separate window.) Ignore and click Submit, please click only once
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns:
I am shocked that Proctor & Gamble continues to support animal experimentation as there is no legitimate reason for testing products on animals. First, despite P&G claims, product testing is NOT mandated by law. Second, there already are ingredients that have an established, proven safety record for human use. These products, such as those found on the FDA GRAS list, can be utilized and manufactured in the absence of cruel, painful animal experimentation. P&G’s blatant disregard for animals and its decision to not use GRAS ingredients exclusively is irresponsible and negligent.
Furthermore, your company’s attempt to foster an idea that consumers continually support animal experimentation due to some inaccurate notion that it will prevent them from being harmed is unprincipled. Product misuse and abuse can lead to harm regardless of how many animals were wrongfully killed during the product testing phase. In fact, corporate manipulation and exploitation of consumer fear by using deceptive advertising is unethical. As such, as long as Proctor & Gamble continues to unnecessarily and selfishly capitalize on the mutilation, torture, and death of animals, I will not financially support you; furthermore, I will promote a boycott by informing family, friends, and members of online communities.
Please make both the ethical and financially-responsible decision to discontinue animal experimentation immediately: join an increasing body of corporations who are listening to a concerned and attentive consumer population who refuse to be complicit in the inherently malicious industry of animal experimentation.
Thank you for taking the time to read this important message.
PROCTOR & GAMBLE PRODUCTS
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Dolce & Gabbana Dolce & Gabbana Site
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Fekkai Fekkai Site
Fixodent Fixodent Site
Fusion Overview | Fusion Site
Ghost
Gillette Overview | Gillette Site
Gucci Fragrances Gucci Fragrances Site
HUGO BOSS Fragrances Overview | HUGO BOSS Fragrances Site
Head & Shoulders Overview | Head & Shoulders Site
Herbal Essences Herbal Essences Site
Ivory Ivory Site
Lacoste Fragrances Lacoste Fragrances Site
MACH3 Overview | MACH3 Site
Naomi Campbell Naomi Campbell Site
Natural Instincts Natural Instincts Site
Nice ‘n Easy Nice ‘n Easy Site
Rejoice Overview | Rejoice Site
Rouge Rouge Site
SK-II Overview | SK-II Site
Safeguard Safeguard Site
Scope Scope Site
Sebastian Professional Sebastian Professional Site
Secret Secret Site
Tampax Overview | Tampax Site
Venus Venus Site
Vidal Sassoon Vidal Sassoon Site
Wella Overview | Wella Site
Ace Overview
Align Align Site
Ariel Overview | Ariel Site
Bounce Bounce Site
Bounty Overview | Bounty Site
Cascade Overview | Cascade Site
Charmin Overview | Charmin Site
Downy Overview | Downy Site
Dreft Laundry Dreft Laundry Site
Duracell Overview | Duracell Site
Era Era Site
Eukanuba Overview | Eukanuba Site
Febreze Overview | Febreze Site
Pampers Overview | Pampers Site
Pepto-Bismol Pepto-Bismol Site
Prilosec OTC Prilosec OTC Site
Pringles Overview | Pringles Site
Vicks Vicks Site
UPDATED PDF VERSION | COMPANIES THAT DO TEST ON ANIMALS
COMPASSIONATE SHOPPING GUIDE
Read more…
Stop Using Environmental Poisons On Our Food – One Petition
Please click on and sign Stop Using Environmental Poisons On Our Food
Please remember to click “Sign Petition” after entering your name and email address.
From Force Change
BACKGROUND
Target: U.S. Congress, Environmental Protection Agency
Goal: To increase the use of natural and organic weed and insect control strategies and to reduce our unhealthy consumption of chemically based pesticides and herbicides that are contributing to higher cancer rates, birth defects, and increasing risk of widespread human sterility.
The widespread use of toxic pesticides and herbicides is almost certainly leading to increasing cancer rates, ominously low sperm counts in men in developed nations, increasing death rates of fish and marine mammals from chemically contaminated run-off and other environmental problems, many of which are not yet known. Additionally, these pesticides and herbicides are primarily petro-chemically based and therefore increase the nation’s reliance on foreign sources of oil.
Some years back PBS host Bill Moyers volunteered to have his blood tested for toxic chemicals and heavy metals. The findings were shocking, including the presence of dozens of cancer causing chemicals that would not have been found in the blood of his grandparents. Unfortunately chemical industry lobbyists have convinced many, including local, state and national governments, home owners associations, home-owners and farmers that only petrochemically based pest control is effective, despite an increasing body of knowledge that there are effective and cost-competitive organic alternatives.
While organic weed and insect control alternatives have been known for some time, including vinegar as a broad leaf weed control, corn gluten as a pre-emergent weed killer and rhubarb juice as a natural insecticide, the sales efforts of the chemical pesticide and herbicide industry have convinced local, state and national governments that only chemical pesticides and insecticides are effective pest controls. A hardly surprising recent article in the Huffington Post states that Monsanto’s Round-up, the world’s best selling herbicide has been found the likely cause of birth defects.
The below petition demands that Congress give priority to non-petrochemically based, natural, organic weed and insect control alternatives, especially for public schools, parks and areas accessible to the public. It also mandates Home Owners Associations to promote the use organic lawncare methods, to provide educational programs and materials to homeowners regarding the same.
PETITION LETTER
Widespread applications of toxic (usually petrochemically based) pesticides and herbicides can be positively linked to increasing cancer rates, frighteningly lower sperm counts in males of developed nations, pollutions of streams, lakes and oceans, including a die-off of southern pod Orcas to the point that they are now considered an endangered species and many other environmental problems as yet not known.
We are asking Congress to mandate users give priority to natural alternatives when purchasing pesticidal and herbical products, to support education of the public about alternatives to toxic pesticides and to mandate that home-owners associations encourage the use of and provide educational materials concerning natural or organic alternatives to toxic petrochemically based herbicides and pesticides.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Goes Here]
Richard Roy Blake has been a writer, activist and entrepreneur for almost 40 years. He received a Project Censored Award in 2001, has written for the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado Springs Sun, Fairplay Flume, is the author of “A Dolphin’s Tale,” and has been an activist for alternative energy, particularly the Poncha Bonanza geothermal project and other environmental causes.
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