Action Alerts

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR): Close Torture Loopholes in the Army Field Manual
“President Obama’s three executive orders of January 22, 2009 call for the closing of Guantanamo within one year, the closing of secret CIA ‘black sites,’ and the limiting of interrogation techniques to those allowed in the Army Field Manual (AFM), eliminating the numerous executive orders and opinions issued during the Bush administration that granted official approval for torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, and abuse. These executive orders certainly represent an extraordinary step forward, but we remain concerned about potentially exploitable loopholes. Please take a moment to ask him to close the loopholes.”

Defenders of Wildlife: Speak Out for Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs
“Black-tailed prairie dogs were once abundant across the Great Plains, from Canada to Mexico. But after decades of habitat loss, poisonings and disease, these furry creatures have declined more than 95% in the last 150 years — and are gone completely in large parts of their range. Now, federal officials are considering protection for the black-tailed prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act as a terrible plague continues to wipe out vast numbers of the remaining prairie dog colonies, and as federal agencies continue to poison prairie dog colonies on our public lands.”

Greenpeace: Ask President Obama to end the whaling and dealing
“Holdouts from the Bush Administration are in closed-door talks with Japanese officials at the International Whaling Commission. According to news reports, the two parties are negotiating a deal that would trade a small reduction in the quota of whales that Japan hunts in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary for increased rights to hunt minke whales off the coast of Japan. Some of the minke populations in this area are already designated as endangered. We need your help to stop this bad deal from going through!”

PETA: Tell Obama: Ban on Torture Should Include Animals!
“Days after President Barack Obama signed an executive order banning torture during military interrogations, PETA wrote to the president calling for the ban of another form of military torture: trauma and chemical-casualty training exercises conducted on animals. Thousands of live animals are shot, stabbed, dismembered, burned, and poisoned every year in Department of Defense (DoD) training exercises designed to train medics and infantry in how to treat various human battlefield injuries. PETA is asking President Obama to issue an executive order requiring the DoD to replace animals with non-animal methods.”

PETA: URGENT: Urge Virginia Public Schools to Halt Their Alleged Use of Cruel Glue Traps
“Distraught parents of children attending Norfolk and Chesapeake, Virginia, schools contacted PETA after learning of the alleged use of glue traps to ensnare and kill mice in the schools’ buildings and campuses. PETA contacted school officials, apprising them of the inherent and extreme cruelty of these devices and asking that they remove the traps immediately and instead explore humane pest-control alternatives. Officials suggested that they would look into the matter, but there has been no indication that the traps have been removed. Our follow-up calls are not being returned.”

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Usually, the makers and marketers of “meat”-based foodstuffs attempt to remove the finished product from its live animal origins as much as possible; by dismembering, reconstructing and altering animal corpses, then, butchers make it easier for consumers to conveniently “forget” that they’re consuming formerly sentient creatures.

Not Royco! Nope, they want you to know that those chicken and “beef” bouillon cubes are the real thing, baby! Whereas most people see an innocuous, flavorful cube of powder when they unwrap a bouillon, Royco makes it clear that there’s really a live (dead) animal buried within those indistinguishable powder particles.

First, their chicken bouillon:

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle – kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Date: Jan 29, 2009 4:48 PM
Subject: ACT/ NIH Fairytale About Animal Testing

KINSHIP CIRCLE PRIMARY / PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST

1/29/09: An NIH Fairytale About Animal Testing Targets Kids
FOR A FORMATTED LETTER (WORD DOC), EMAIL: kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Easily modify letter. Copy/paste it into an email or print letter to fax or mail.

ABOVE: Cover and two pages from “The Lucky Puppy,” a misleading children’s workbook produced by North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research.

kids.niehs.nih.gov/images/coloring/luckycolor.pdf

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle – kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Date: Jan 27, 2009 1:38 PM
Subject: Save Iditarod Dogs [FRIENDS OF KC ALERT]

Kinship Circle does not write/research these alerts. We’re not responsible for their accuracy. Please do NOT hit reply! Contact alert-writers directly.

FRIENDS OF KINSHIP CIRCLE ALERT
1/27/09: Save Iditarod Dogs From Brutality
WRITE To Sponsors & Supporters

SOURCE / REPLY TO:

FOR QUESTIONS, CONTACT: SledDogAC [at] aol.com
Sled Dog Action Coalition, www.helpsleddogs.org

Imagine the cruelties these sled dog pups will experience in the Iditarod…Death, paralysis, frostbite, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and sprains… Please help end the barbaric treatment of dogs by sending protest emails to organizations that support the Iditarod.

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Action Alerts

Alaska Wilderness League: Revoke Bush’s Plan to Drill in ‘Polar Bear Seas’
“The icy waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, north of Alaska, are home to 20 percent of the world’s remaining polar bear population. Thanks to George Bush, these waters might also become home to a massive and dangerous network of oil rigs and pipelines. On his way out of Washington, Bush proposed the largest block yet of Arctic Ocean waters for drilling – right in the heart of threatened polar bear habitat. Oil spills are a certainty in that harsh climate and no technology exists to clean them up. Drilling is simply not worth it.”

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): Tell Your Senators to Support Pay Equality Today
“Over 45 years ago, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act to fix the disparity in wages between men and women, but over time, loopholes and weak remedies have lessened its effectiveness. The Paycheck Fairness Act makes several common sense changes to strengthen the Equal Pay Act — putting in place enforcement tools needed to make real progress on pay equity. The Paycheck Fairness Act is an important and measured approach to eradicating wage discrimination and is another critical weapon in the battle against sex discrimination in the workplace. Take action today to strengthen our tools to combat wage disparities.”

Animal Person: On Breed Discrimination, Bestiality and Pound Seizure
Mary Martin writes about what you can do to stop BSL and ban bestiality in Florida.

Earthjustice: Tell EPA to Control CO2
“Should the EPA force a monster proposed coal-fired power plant to control 12.7 million tons of carbon dioxide it will spew out each year? The Obama-led EPA is asking Americans to tell it what to do. Take action by February 23rd—Tell the EPA to place the strictest-possible controls on the Desert Rock power plant.”

Green for All: Tell Your Senators to Get On Board: Pass Obama’s Green Recovery Plan
“President Obama and Congress are currently crafting an economic stimulus and recovery plan which could jumpstart an inclusive green economy and create hundreds of thousands of green jobs. The House of Representatives just passed a bold and visionary green stimulus plan, including $500 million to train workers for green-collar jobs. But your Senators need a little nudge to get on board. Please write to your Senators today. Tell them to pass President Obama’s green stimulus, including $500 million for the Green Jobs Act. It’s time to build a strong, green economy for America.”

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Via ecorazzi, singer Neko Case of The New Pornographers has persuaded her record label to donate $5 to Best Friends Animal Society every time a blogger links to her new single, ‘People Got a Lotta Nerve.’ So link, people!

Of Best Friends, Neko says:

“Best Friends took the Michael Vick dogs,” Case points out. “That’s a big deal because a lot of supposed animal welfare organizations like PETA — who can blow me — said you should euthanize the dogs immediately. But it’s not the dogs’ fault that they were fighting dogs — they’ve been abused. Pit bulls are muscular and big, but they’re not man-eaters.”

By the by, of the 49 Vick pit bulls, only one was deemed too vicious to save and was killed. Subsequently, 25 were placed in foster homes and/or adopted, and 22 found permanent sanctuary at Best Friends. Those 47 lives might be a drop in the ocean to PETA, but their abuse makes them no less deserving of life than the “food” or “fur-bearing” animals PETA typically focuses on. More so than their “naked ads,” their stance on the Vick dogs, as well as their forays into animal rescue and “adoption,” has been and will likely remain an objection of epic proportions that I have with PETA.

PETA, I might add, is an animal welfare group – not an animal rights group. Yes, there’s a difference – and it’s a biggie.

(At the most fundamental level, they appear to support Peter Singer’s philosophy of utilitarianism, which is a form of “progressive animal welfarism” – not animal rights. See also: PETA’s support of breed-specific legislation; their continued insistence that killing the Vick dogs would have been the right thing to do; and their “humane” killing of shelter animals rather than spend the time, money and effort to rehome them.)

And can I just say that I also f—ing love Neko for correctly identifying PETA as a welfare group? f—ing love her, I do!

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about Zeb Lanham, a “bull rider” who pled guilty to felony domestic violence for beating his pregnant girlfriend last November. Among other injuries, he left her with a broken cheekbone, which was placing pressure on her brain. I also highlighted 16 additional cases of interpersonal violence and/or animal abuse (above and beyond the cruelty-as-entertainment regularly found in rodeos), committed by those involved in the rodeo and associated businesses, which I pulled from SHARK’s website. Criminal acts perpetrated by “cowboys” are so common that SHARK has even devoted a section of their website to detailing these cases: CowboyCriminals.com

SHARK has begun collecting these stories in a series of short video documentaries, “Rodeo Cowboy Criminals”. They expect to produce at least a dozen such installments, linking the cruelty committed in the ring with the violence these career animal abusers carry into their personal lives. Such interpersonal violence includes assault, domestic abuse, child abuse, rape and murder. And animal abuse and environmental injustices, naturally.

Here’s Part 1, along with a description of the video from their latest newsletter. (The video runs 7 1/2 minutes and includes some images of animal cruelty.)

SHARK has posted the first of a long series of videos that will expose a deeper, darker corner of the Rodeo Mafia than ever before. The video is “Rodeo Cowboy Criminals, Part 1.”

Based on the records of rodeo connected criminals already in our possession, the series is likely to run a dozen or more video exposes’. The crimes range from animal abuse to child abuse, to racial crimes to rape and murder. This is a grisly job, but someone has to do it.

Perhaps the most disgusting aspect of these Cowboy Criminals is that many of them are still involved in and embraced by the rodeo industry.

“Rodeo Cowboy Criminals, Part 1″ looks at three dastardly criminals. Zeb Lanham we reported on in our last update. Lanham beat his pregnant girlfriend so badly that she had to be airlifted to adequate medical care. Larry Lancaster is a child sexual predator, which is of course sickening and repulsive all by itself. Worse yet, Lancaster ran a rodeo school and was a sponsor of high school rodeo! Jimmy David Brazile is also a child predator. This sixty year old predator repeatedly had sex with a sixteen year-old girl, and then had the incredible nerve to tell the girl’s father that he had sex with the girl to show her that it wasn’t a big deal!

SHARK’s “Rodeo Cowboy Criminals” series will show the link between those who abuse animals and human abuse. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to look at this important new effort to expose the cruelty of rodeo.

I’m thrilled that SHARK is making the connections – between interpersonal violence and animal abuse, between the oppression of humans and that of non-human animals, and between misogyny, racism and speciesism. These are not isolated incidents of hate and violence; rather, they’re all part of the same fabric of oppression, privilege and othering. We need to keep connecting these dots.

You can follow SHARK’s progress on their You Tube channel, and send them an appreciative email (or support their work with a donation) here.

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Action Alerts

ACORN: “Stop Foreclosures for Real Economic Recovery”
“The foreclosure crisis among American homeowners lies at the very heart of the broader economic collapse from which we are struggling to recover. Because of widespread predatory lending, 2008 saw 2.3 million properties enter foreclosure, the highest rate of foreclosure since the Great Depression. Credit Suisse predicts that there will be between 8 and 9 million foreclosures in the next four years without major changes. A successful economic recovery is impossible without directly addressing the record foreclosure rate that lies at its heart.”

Animal Welfare Institute (AWI): 111th Congress Starts With Important Animal Protection Measures
“The end of the last Congress saw significant movement on two issues of great importance to AWI and its supporters. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) introduced the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, a bill to ban horse slaughter, which passed out of the Chairman’s committee. The House of Representatives also passed a measure to strengthen the Shark Finning Prohibition Act. However, the Senate was unable to take action on either measure before the session ended, necessitating the recent reintroduction of both. The good news is that both have been reintroduced and are clear priorities for their sponsors. Nevertheless, we need your help to ensure their successful passage. Please take a moment to contact your US Representative to ask for support on both issues.”

Color of Change: Another officer attacked Grant before he was killed; The District Attorney says he isn’t prosecuting
“It wasn’t just one cop attacking Oscar Grant on New Year’s Eve. A new video shows that before Grant was killed, officer Tony Pirone punched him in the face without cause. Experts have called it criminal. So why has the District Attorney said he’s not pursuing charges? It took two weeks and thousands of people speaking out before the DA charged Oscar Grant’s killer with murder. Clearly, it will take continued public pressure to see that justice is served throughout this case. Please join us in publicly confronting District Attorney Tom Orloff, as well as calling on California’s Attorney General to keep an eye on Orloff’s handling of the case.”

National Partnership for Women & Families: Expand Access to Family Planning Services
“This week, family planning opponents in Congress used lies and distortions to eliminate an important provision in the economic stimulus package that would have allowed states to expand access to family planning services to low-income families through the Medicaid program. This provision would have enabled many low-income women and families to access vital family planning services — basic health care that includes contraceptives and breast and cervical cancer screening. At the same time, it would have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in much-needed savings to both states and the federal government.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Tell Strathmore to Leave Ringling Bros. Circus Out of Its Festival
“When we discovered that Strathmore, a nonprofit arts center, was planning to host clowns, jugglers, and trapeze artists from the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus at its annual festival, we immediately fired off a letter to the center’s president. We explained that by endorsing Ringling Bros., Strathmore would be supporting an industry that condones cruelty and violence to animals. [...] Following discussions, Strathmore executives decided to move forward with the partnership. We must let them know that promoting Ringling Bros. is unacceptable and supports cruelty to animals.”

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Action Alerts

Consumers Union: Spread the word about Peanut Butter!
“Seven people have died, hundreds have become sick, and millions more are at risk — from peanut butter! Coming on the heels of jalapeno, spinach, and pet food recalls, we need to prevent contamination at the source. [...] Today, we underfund prevention and then spend millions to try and recall food already distributed across the nation. This makes no sense. We must ensure regular and appropriate inspection of production facilities, and efficient tracking once food has been distributed. This means a major overhaul of the FDA’s food safety program. Tell Congress that we need a major overhaul of the Food and Drug Administration!”

DawnWatch: CBS Sunday Morning on a shelter that matchmakes people and pets 1/25/08
“The CBS news show “Sunday Morning,” yesterday, January 25, covered London’s famous Battersea animal shelter. The reporter, Richard Roth, tells us that the shelter promises never to turn away a dog or cat in need of help. He tells us, ‘To get in, all the animal needs to do is show up. To get out though, the staff must be convinced that it is getting into good hands.’”

Environmental Defense Fund: Urgent Alert: Support Transit Funding
“We need your urgent help to support transit funding. The U.S. House of Representatives is about to vote on an amendment to the economic recovery bill that will increase funding for transit projects. We need your Representative to vote yes. By investing in our overburdened mass transit systems, we can provide immediate good-paying jobs in hard-hit communities while helping to reduce congestion, cut our dependence on oil, and help pave the way for a greener future.”

National Women’s Law Center: Support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the House
“The worsening recession is causing pain across the country, especially for the millions of women and families who already were struggling to make ends meet. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will preserve and create jobs for women and men and help women and families through these tough times. A strong vote of support in the House is the first step toward getting our families, communities and nation the help they need in this economic crisis.”

PETA Europe: Help Ban Snares in Scotland
“The Scottish government recently rejected a ban on snares in Scotland. We need your help to urge the government to rethink its decision and enact this important ban. This is a vital time for action, so please take a few minutes to send the letter below to Scottish Minister for Environment Mike Russell and help get snares banned for good. There has been strong public support for a ban on snares in Scotland, but the Scottish government has yet to prohibit them. Let the Scottish government know that people want these cruel contraptions to be relegated to the history books by sending the government a letter in support of the ban.”

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Liam Neeson was on The Daily Show Thursday in order to promote his latest movie, Taken (which – and it pains me to admit this after sitting through his idiocy – doesn’t look half bad). In case you hadn’t heard, Neeson recently penned a letter to the New York City (City?) Council in opposition to recent legislation which would ban the horse carriage “biz” in NYC.*

Host Jon Stewart begins the interview by asking about Neeson’s efforts to “save” New York City’s carriage horses. By “save,” I mean continue to enslave and exploit. It’s tradition, dontchaknow!

Cue the stupid:
 

 
While I’ve enjoyed TDS off and on for years, I’ve always found Stewart’s interview skills to be, shall we say, somewhat lacking. And yet, with only a minimal grasp of the issues – and playing the most amiable Devil’s Advocate ever – Jon p0wns Liam. He offers up the rather commonsense observation that the horses would probably be happier in a more pastoral setting (as opposed to the stables next to his studio), where they’d be able to roam free without worrying about dodging NYC traffic. How about we build a home for the horses in Central Park, where citizens can “enjoy” them in a more natural environment, he suggests? A nice “compromise,” no?

In response, Neeson insists that the horses are treated well, blah blah blah, it would be irresponsible to lay off 400 workers while the economy’s in the toilet, yada yada yada, insert your standard appeals to tradition here, and – here’s the kicker – the horses actually prefer working a 9 to 5 job and spending all their off time confined to tiny little prison cells! They’ve been bred over thousands of years to love the city life! They get holidays off, yo! Hey, those stables are so clean and warm and comfy, I’d even live there, Neeson cries with glee.

Honestly, he comes off as borderline batshit.

Post-interview, Jon works in a nice little stab at Neeson’s expense. It’s not on the Moment of Zen video clip (damn you, Stewart!), but it involves a joke about Monday’s guest, Jimmy Carter, who’ll be coming out in favor of horse meat sandwiches.

* When it’s you vs. Alec Baldwin, and Alec Baldwin looks like the sane, kind, compassionate party in the dispute…well, that’s not a good sign, brother.

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