Defenders of Wildlife: Protect Utah Prairie Dogs and Other Wildlife Fill out the form below to urge your Representative and Senators to support the Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2007 (H.R. 1422 and S. 700), important legislation that would help private landowners protect Utah prairie dogs and other imperiled wildlife that live on their property.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): TELL CONGRESS: DON’T FAIL FREEDOM Stand with the ACLU and demand that Congress live up to its promise to protect and defend the Constitution, starting with immediate fixes to the outrageous FISA legislation that made warrantless NSA spying on Americans legal.
For at least two years, Amazon.com has been infamously—and incorrectly—touting its “right” to sell materials promoting illegal animal fighting, blatantly peddling dogfighting videos as well as cockfighting magazines like The Gamecock and The Feathered Warrior.
Amazon.com seems so determined to profit from illegal animal fighting that, rather than simply drop its sales of animal fighting materials, it has filed a motion against The HSUS in federal court, essentially asking that federal and state laws to protect animals be gutted to accommodate Amazon.com’s sales of animal fighting paraphernalia.
Amazon.com’s persistence is all the more disturbing because it comes just weeks after Congress passed legislation making it a felony offense to ship publications containing “commercial speech” for the purpose of promoting or “in any other manner furthering” animal fighting, in addition to the mailing of all other materials that promote animal fighting.
Yesterday we announced that media celebrity Ira Glass, host of the wildly popular Public Radio International’s This American Life aired on National Public Radio, and now on TV, appeared on Late Night with David Letterman Friday, April 20th where he told Letterman and millions of viewers that his visit to United Poultry Concerns’ chicken sanctuary inspired him to become a vegetarian.
Please thank Ira Glass for bringing this important message to the public. We are So Honored & So Grateful to Ira Glass!
Contact Ira Glass at:
Ira Glass
This American Life
153 West 27th Street, Suite 1104
New York, NY 10001
Email: ira [at] thislife.org, web [at] thislife.org
Website: www.thisamericanlife.org/About_Contact.aspx
After the flip: the original alert, as well as a video (via You Tube) of the appearance.
Ira Glass appeared on Late Night with David Letterman Friday April 20th promoting the television version of his radio show This American Life. Since 1995, Ira Glass has been host of Public Radio International’s This American Life. For 16 years before that, he worked as a producer, editor, and reporter on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition.
At the midpoint of his conversation with Letterman, Glass described his encounter with Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns and the huge letter-writing campaign UPC mobilized several years ago. He commented with amazement on the overwhelming task of advocating for chickens in a world where their death is everywhere you look, an “Armageddon” as he described it.
He described UPC’s sanctuary in the midst of a large poultry production area, where “little escaping chickens” falling off trucks are brought to UPC’s sanctuary for safety, how he was invited to visit and upon meeting the chickens discovered they are indeed little individuals with personalities – “this one’s shy, that one’s outgoing.”
When he asked Letterman if he had ever met a chicken, Letterman quipped about meeting one on the end of his fork. He asked Glass if he had made dietary changes since then and Glass replied that he thought of those chickens every time he took a bite of chicken after that and that he has indeed become a vegetarian.
We’re pleased to announce that the Kansas State University administrative offices have issued an open letter to KSU fans condemning the mistreatment of chickens at the basketball game on Monday, Feb. 19th.
During our investigation, United Poultry Concerns discovered that a Sports Illustrated website, SIOnCampus.com, encouraged and gave instructions on how to conduct a “chicken toss” as #32 of the “102 More Things You Gotta Do Before Your Graduate.” We are pleased to announce that as a result of our conversation today with the site’s producer, Andy Gray, the “chicken toss” has been deleted. Mr. Gray said he agreed it was not appropriate for the site to encourage college athletes and their fans to mistreat animals.
We thank everyone who contacted President Wefald and the athletic director and coach at KSU on behalf of the hens who were so cruelty mistreated on Feb. 19. Your letters made and are making a difference. We’re continuing to work with the University to strengthen its policy against mistreating chickens and other animals for entertainment. We will you updated.
On Monday, February 19, 2007, three, possibly four, hens were thrown onto the basketball court from the stands at KSU’s Bramlidge Coliseum at a basketball game. They were alive when they were thrown onto the court over a distance of approximately thirty feet. They were wounded, and they could not get up on their legs. One of the hens appeared to have blood on her shoulder. Another photo shows four hens painted red and blue (the school colors) in a plastic tub, apparently before they were thrown.
The images show that these hens came from a battery-caged hen facility. They landed near the cheerleaders. The following two videos show a bit of what happened:
Compassion Over Killing (COK) has more info available at Morningstar-Egg-Facts.com, including a handy-dandy contact form. Also, it’s been a while since I’ve feasted on a Gardenburger - since I made the transition from vegetarian to vegan, actually - but apparently they’ve veganized all but one of their veggie patties. Good stuff.
Morningstar Farms, owned by the Kellogg company, uses eggs from battery-caged hens in its products. Battery-caged hens are jammed into tiny wire cages in filthy buildings. Their lives are totally miserable. For information about battery-caged hens, visit www.upc-online.org/battery_hens.
United Poultry Concerns is joining Compassion Over Killing and Vegan Outreach in urging our members and all compassionate people to ask Morningstar Farms – a leader in providing delicious vegetarian foods – to remove the eggs from its products. Tell them that many vegan consumers – would-be customers – await this positive change!
Whom Do I Contact & How?
Call the Kellogg customer feedback hotline at 1-800-962-1413.
Write to: Morningstar Farms, c/o Kellogg Consumer Affairs, PO Box CAMB, Battle Creek, MI 49016
Go to the Morningstar Farms website at www.seeveggiesdifferently.com and follow the Contact Us instructions. The problem is, you must submit your date-of-birth and name a specific product for your message to be completed and sent. Therefore, United Poultry Concerns will gladly deliver your message to Morningstar Farms via regular mail, if you will please do the following:
Compose an email request to Morningstar Farms asking the company to remove the eggs from all of its products. Include your first & last name and your regular mailing address w/zipcode, as you would in a regular letter. Ask Morningstar Farms for a reply. Be polite. Submit your email, addressed to Morningstar Farms, to Info [at] upc-online.org. We will forward your letter to Morningstar Farms.
KFC has recently petitioned the United States Postal Service (USPS) to create a postage stamp commemorating Colonel Sanders. Since the Colonel’s legacy includes breeding and drugging chickens to grow so large that they suffer painful diseases and broken bones, slitting their throats while they’re still conscious and dropping them into tanks of scalding-hot water, please tell the USPS that to commemorate him is to endorse cruelty to animals - something Americans oppose.
The Honorable John E. Potter
CEO and Postmaster General
United States Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza, SW
Washington, DC 20260
Phone: (800) 275-8777
Fax: (303) 574-9650
Additional talking points are available at KFC Cruelty.
FYI: When I wrote the USPS using the online feedback form, I was advised to address my complaint to the following department:
CITIZENS STAMP ADVISORY COMMITTEE
C/O STAMP DEVELOPMENT
US POSTAL SERVICE
475 L’ENFANT PLAZA SW RM 5670
WASHINGTON DC 20260-2437
No fax/phone number was included. (My cynical side says that this is an obvious attempt for the Postal Service to drum up extra business - why else require printed letters when digital ones would do?)
