Via the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS) / Project R&R:

BREAKING STORY: Tune in to ABC-TV Nightline tonight

Please tune in to Nightline tonight (Wed. 03/04 11:30pm EST). This evening’s broadcast* features an expose of the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC). The 9 month undercover investigation of NIRC brings the sad realities of a chimpanzee’s life in a lab to millions of viewers. We ask you to not miss this rare opportunity to see the truth. Please invite your friends and family to watch.

Go to the ABC News website to see a preview and to post a comment.

Please watch your email for a follow up eAlert with timely campaign news.

Thank you for your support and attention.

*News segment schedules are subject to change. Visit Nightline for more information and local listings.

As of this writing, Nightline has several clips of the show available on its website; unfortunately, embedding is disabled, so you’ll have to go to Nightline’s website in order to view the videos.

Even if you don’t tune in, be sure to drop them a quick note of appreciation for covering the story!

UPDATE, 3/4/09: Stephanie, who clearly did more research than I (sorry, I usually can’t bring myself to watch these undercover investigations, *sigh*), has a lengthier writeup here.

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Action Alerts

Brave New Foundation: Tell Congress to put home-owners interests first before the banks.
“On Tuesday, Congress will vote on whether or not to level the playing field between the banks that caused the collapse of the housing market and struggling homeowners. Representative John Conyers has introduced legislation in the House that authorizes judges to require banks to reevaluate overpriced mortgages of bankrupt homeowners. Sign our petition to let Congress know that you support Conyers’ bill, H.R. 1106. Then, call your Congressional Representative and ask him or her to vote for it.”

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR): Prosecutions and Accountability of Bush Administration Officials
“We are excited to announce the launch of the Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) new online campaign calling for accountability and criminal prosecutions of those Bush administration officials responsible for torture and war crimes. [...] A full investigation and consequent prosecutions are necessary to put an end once and for all to dangerous and illegal actions by the government – and for those wronged to see justice served. Join us and make your voice heard in saying that achieving justice and accountability must begin within the first 100 Days of the new administration.”

Change .org: Pet Owners STRUGGLE with Current Economy
“EVERYONE let’s tell Congress, County, City, State Commissioners, Local Humane Societies and shelters, Local Newspapers, churches, ANYONE who might care. Tell community officials of how this concern needs immediate attention. Get the word out across America showing concern for this escalating dilemma of our needs for food and reliable basic medical care for our pets during the current economic crisis. Please help those struggling to accommodate their needs to provide better, and keep these hungry, sick and abandoned “underprivileged” animals off our streets.” (Be sure to edit the sample letter, as it’s not especially generic.)

DawnWatch: Primate lab abuse on ABC’s Nightline! Wednesday, March 2, 2009
“With excitement and delight, as I watch our movement’s acceleration into mainstream media and consciousness, I share the program for ABC’s Nightline, tonight, Wednesday March 4. The headline is “Ex-Employees Claim ‘Horrific’ Treatment of Primates at Lab. Hidden-Camera Investigation Goes Behind Closed Doors at New Iberia Research Center.” The story, by Lisa Fletcher and Arash Ghadishah is posted on the Nightline web site.”

Ecological Internet / Forests .org: Action Alert: Critical Elephant Corridor in India to be Severed
“The largest and potentially most viable population of Asian elephants is found in the mountains of the Western Ghats where the three Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka meet. You may recall that Ecological Internet’s Earth Action Network first worked on Asian elephants in India, with some positive outcomes, in October of 2006.”

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Believe it or not, the Mr. and I still have about a dozen lil’ spaghetti squashes left over from the 2008 gardening season. All lined up on the work table in our garage, there they sit, patiently waiting their turn in an inspired vegan recipe. Alas, having exhausted all of the obvious possibilities, we’re kind of sick of spaghetti squash for the time being. There just aren’t many spaghetti squash recipes out there, yo!

That is, until yesterday, when I recalled this recipe for baked zucchini chips. “Could that possibly work with spaghetti squash strands?” I wondered. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a whirl; after all, even if I didn’t like the result, I have five hungry, indiscriminate dogs who would.

So I baked the spaghetti squash using the usual method, and then scraped the strands from the rind, spread them out on greased cookie sheets, and then baked ‘em a second time.

The dried spaghetti squash strands were delish, but not very filling – with most of the moisture evaporated, there really isn’t much left in spaghetti squash! One smallish medium squash yielded a small, single serving, when all was said and done. It sure makes a yummy side dish or snack – and is a great way to use up any leftover squash you might still have laying around, sitting, staring, accusing, mocking your utter lack of culinary creativity.

Twice-Baked Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash
Pam or similar cooking spray
Salt to taste

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Action Alerts

Defenders of Wildlife: Kids Color to Save Wolves
“I often receive clever drawings and colored pictures from animal-loving children urging me to do everything I can to protect America’s wildlife. These young activists are passionate about saving the lives of imperiled animals… and they’ve led us to launch Kids Care, a brand-new initiative to give children a way to help stop Sarah Palin’s cruel aerial wolf killing in Alaska. We’ve already received illustrated messages from kids all over the country urging Palin to end her brutal wolf killing program. Please visit EyeOnPalin.org and get your children involved.”

Dogs Deserve Better (DDB): Animal Abuser Sought in Freeman Spur Vicinity; Concerned citizens seek assistance in finding violent offender to make the community safer for all
“A reward of $1000 is being offered for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the death of a local dog by animal cruelty. On the morning of February 15, 2009, at 1:45am, a concerned citizen found a Chow mix puppy, about 5 months old, on the side of Freeman Spur Blacktop, in the Freeman Spur vicinity including West Frankfort and Herrin, Williamson County, Illinois. The dog was alive but had been beaten so severely that she was unable to be saved. Upon receiving treatment from a Veterinarian it was determined that the dog had been blinded, her back leg was shattered in several places, front leg had been broken previously and was infected, and her neck was so infested with maggots from lacerations due to a life time chaining.”

Dogs Deserve Better (DDB): Please Help get Justice for Shepp, a German Shepherd left to Starve on the End of a Chain
“March 9, 2009, 9 am, a Corpus Christi, Texas couple, Daniel and Norma Luna will appear in court to answer for the neglect and death of Shepp, a German Shepherd left to starve on the End of a Chain. [...] Daniel and Norma Luna court information: Docket call on 3/5/09, 2PM with jury trial scheduled for 3/9/09 at AM. March 9, 2009. Court Listing: County Court Law 3, Honorable John B. Martinez, Room: 703, Nueces County Courthouse, 901 Leopard Street, Corpus Christi, Texas 78401, Phone Number: 361-888-0466″

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW): End the Seal Hunt: Pass the Harb Seal Bill!
“For the first time in history, a Canadian politician is proposing a law to end the suffering of baby seals. Senator Harb consulted with IFAW on this critical legislation and now he has asked us to help flood Canadian Embassies with messages of support. Please help us reach 200,000 emails and letters in the next few weeks: one for every seal killed this year. This is our chance to end the hunt forever. Please email Canada’s Ambassador urging support of the “Harb” Seal Bill to end the hunt.”

PETA: Tell Macy’s to Lay Off the Animals, Not the Workers
“Department store Macy’s, which sells a lot of fur, has announced 7,000 layoffs. Tell Macy’s to lay off the animals, not the workers! The fur cuffs, collars, and coats at Macy’s come from animals who spend their short, miserable lives in cramped, filthy cages until they are slaughtered, often while they are fully conscious, or are trapped and beaten to death in the wild. Fur farmers and trappers use the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available, including suffocation, electrocution, gassing, bludgeoning, drowning, and poisoning. Many animals are still alive and able to feel pain as workers begin to rip the skin off their bodies. Tell Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren that modern, successful businesses don’t sell fur and that as long as Macy’s supports the violent, bloody fur industry, his books are bound to be in the red.”

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Action Alerts

Audubon: Senate Votes On Rollback of Bad ESA Changes
“In its final few months, the Bush Administration pushed through rules that drastically weakened and damaged the Endangered Species Act. Now, Congress has the opportunity to undo this ill-conceived rule-change and restore the Endangered Species Act so that it continues to protect our most imperiled animals and plants. The U.S. House of Representatives included a provision in the omnibus appropriations bill that would enable the Secretary of the Interior to reverse these changes. Now, it’s in the Senate’s hands — the vote may happen as early as Tuesday, March 3.”

Earthjustice: Tell the President: Mountaintop Removal Mining is Destroying Appalachia!
“Mountaintop removal mining destroys entire forests and threatens nearby communities with floods and poisoned drinking water. It’s been described by locals as “strip mining on steroids.” No one should ever again have to hear the sound of a mountain torn apart by mountaintop removal mining, with coal companies bent on quick profit whatever the cost. [...] But the court says current law does not stop them. So, please, join with us. Ask President Obama to undo rule changes to the Clean Water Act and end the Bush administration’s attack on our mountain communities. Act quickly—because once the mountaintops and headwater streams are gone, they’re gone for good.”

Ecological Internet / Climate Ark: Action Alert: Coal Kills — Time for People Power to Protect the Climate
“The growing and powerful climate movement has, based upon climate science, already shown conclusively that climate change is real and deadly. Now we must urge politicians, industry and individuals to immediately act and transform themselves if we are to survive. Finally, a mass protest against coal — whose plants are “factories of death” — is to occur in America, reflecting the urgency and depth of the one most important, sufficient climate response through non-violent civil disobedience.”

firedoglake: ACTION: Tell Speaker Pelosi To Stand Up to Ellen Tauscher and the Bank Lobbyists She Represents
“President Obama says that allowing bankruptcy judges to write down mortgages is an important part of his plan to arrest the downward spiral of the foreclosure crisis, but corporatist members of Congress and bank lobbyists are trying to stop that. For every foreclosure in a neighborhood, home values drop by an estimated 1%. Credit Suisse says that if judges have the ability to write down mortgages, it will stem the tide of foreclosures by 20% and it won’t cost the taxpayers a single dime.”

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): Urgent: Tell your senators to reverse Bush administration attacks on endangered species
“The Senate has the opportunity to help reverse dangerous changes made to the Endangered Species Act as the Bush administration left office. The vote is scheduled to take place Tuesday, March 3rd, so tell your senators right away to oppose any attempts to remove the Endangered Species provisions from the omnibus spending bill.”

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Caution: Major spoiler warning below the jump!

I’ve been a Joss Whedon fan since his Firefly days, so when I heard that he was working on a new project, Dollhouse, I immediately got all giddy like a schoolgirl. That is, until I hear that Eliza Dushku would be starring. Ugh.

Even before the hunting flap, I disliked Dushku. Perhaps it’s because she came off like an entitled snot in a very early episode of Punk’d; even before she was faux “arrested” for “shoplifting” in a local retail boutique, she copped a huge ‘tude over all the free swag she was obviously owed for being a celebrity. That, and Tru Calling looked absolutely dreadful. Well, and I’m also weird like that; Dushku isn’t the only celebrity I have an irrational, knee-jerk dislike for. Take Ben Affleck, for example: clearly, he’s a funny, charming, altruistic guy, but there’s just something about him that I want to hate. He’s smarmy, but not. Did I also mention that I have a crazy aversion to feet? So maybe it’s just me, after all.

Anyway, the aforementioned hunting flap gave me a reason to dislike her – a good one, actually. In an August appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Show, Dushku discussed her love of hunting – you know, that sadistic leisure activity which involves murdering innocent animals for “fun”:

Here’s the gist of the interview (via ecorazzi), in case you don’t want to sit through the whole video:

A couple night ago on Jimmy Kimmel Live Dushku revealed that she loves to hunt elk and deer. Not only did she brag about it, but she also showed off her bow and arrow skills and boasted about killing a deer in Oklahoma last Christmas. WTF, Eliza? Why are you such a jerk?

Even the studio audience turned on Dushku forcing her to joke, “My mother called me herself and said, ‘You’re a liberal from New England, what the ‘f’ are you doing in Oklahoma shooting things.” Backpeddling later she said, “When you’re in a relationship with somebody you have to, like, experience things that they do. A lot of people eat meat… and I eat what I kill.”

Dushku’s hunting isn’t so much the point, though, as it is a set-up for the rest of this post. Despite my ambivalence, I started watching Dollhouse on my DVR last week. It’s alright, certainly no Firefly, but also not the complete stinker I was afraid it’d be. The second episode, “The Target,” is of particular interest from an animal rights standpoint.

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I was channel surfing last night, and accidentally stumbled upon an infomercial for the Topsy Turvy Tomato Tree. I’m not usually one for infomercials, but I caught the program title (Tomato Tree), mistook the channel code for SciFi instead of SRI, or whatever it was, and thought the show was a cheesy SciFi original about a killer mutant psychic tomato tree…and naturally, I just had to stop. Still, I ended up watching this for a full 15 minutes before changing the channel. I blame it on all the gratuitous food porn closeups.
 

 
Anyway, TOTALLY WANT. I bet this would be great for growing tomatoes indoors, during the winter. Just as long as the mutts don’t knock the stand over. Normally, Shane’s the one cajoling me to buy crap marketed on late-night teevee, but I might have to add this one to my birthday list.

Sigh. Next thing you know, I’ll be wearing a Snuggie. Or a Slanket. Probably a Slanket. For some inexplicable reason, they’re currently donating a portion of their proceeds to NRDC.

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“Each year hundreds of dogs are abandoned because their owners are tired of playing with them. A dog is not a toy.”

(For those who cannot view the two print ads, each one depicts a forlorn dog, lying abandoned amongst piles of old, broken children’s toys: dolls, stuffed animals, buckets, soccer balls. Each dog is Photoshopped to look a little toy-like: one has a slot on her tummy for batteries, while the other has a large plastic hole on his hind leg – perhaps he’s supposed to be a piggy bank? The text reads: “Each year hundreds of dogs are abandoned because their owners are tired of playing with them. A dog is not a toy.”)

It’s sad that an ad campaign actually has to state such an obvious truism but, as the animal welfare organization Fundación Altarriba observes, hundreds of companion animals are tossed out like someone’s garbage every year (presumably, these statistics only encompass Spain, where the organization is based; the numbers run into the millions in the United States). Like unwanted or outgrown toys. But they’re not toys or garbage; they’re living, sentient beings, and bringing a dog into one’s family is a lifetime commitment – or rather, it should be treated as such – similar to adopting or birthing a child. Adoption is for life.

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The husband and I finally (!) tried Follow Your Heart’s Vegan Gourmet soy cheese last week (don’t ask me why it took so long – I’m already kicking myself). We’ve been searching for a suitable vegan soy cheese for some time now, so when Shane spotted Vegan Gourmet during his last Whole Foods run, he picked up a few bricks of the cheddar and mozzarella flavors. We (ok, he) made two homemade pizzas last Saturday, in anticipation of a Lost marathon – one topped with mozzarella, the other, cheddar. As you can probably surmise, it was effin yummay!

Admittedly, I haven’t sampled many of the newer vegan cheeses (Teese, Sheese), but Vegan Gourmet is the best I’ve tried thus far. The mozzarella has a bit of a salty taste; Shane says it tastes very much like “real” (read: cow’s milk) mozzarella (I wouldn’t know; I’m allergic). The cheddar isn’t as salty (though it contains more sodium – go figure), but has a “cheddary” taste. (Again as per Shane; a direct quote: “They’re very reminiscent of real cheese.”) Since I don’t have any experience with dairy cheese, I’m having a bit of trouble putting the taste into words; suffice to say, both the mozzarella and cheddar and very tasty. Though, I do have a slight preference for the cheddar, probably because it isn’t as salty as the mozz. (The cheddar is healthier, too, what with less fat and more protein – yay!)

True to Follow Your Heart’s promise, both cheeses are uber-melty: They Melt! Almost too well, actually: it’s really difficult to slice a large pizza right out of the oven, because the cheese is so melty. It practically liquefies under heat! We had to let the pizzas sit for about ten minutes before we could cut and serve the slices, and even then, it proved messy.

Naturally, we made a second batch of pizzas last night. (I expect it’ll be pizza 24/7 round these parts, now that we’ve found an edible soy cheese!) This time, we tried “pressing” the bricks of cheese like tofu, in order to draw out some of the excess water – the suspected culprit in the greasy/watery/liquid-y consistency of melted Vegan Gourmet. We also spread the shredded cheese on a large baking pan, and let it sit out on the counter for about an hour prior to making the pizza, hoping that any excess water might dissolve into the ether. All this helped a tad – the melted cheese wasn’t quite as watery – but it was still a lil’ messy to work with. Still, it’s a huge improvement over the alternatives, namely, cheese-less/-free pizza, or pizza laden with cruelty (i.e., dairy cheese). 4.9/5 stars!

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