———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Farm Sanctuary - info [at] farmsanctuary.org
Date: Jun 1, 2007 12:04 PM
Subject: Farm Sanctuary’s E-News & Action Alert 06/01/07

Tell Congress Not to Subsidize Cruelty

The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry, which is made up of legislators notoriously indebted to the factory farming industry, recently proposed a $12 million subsidy to the veal industry as part of the Farm Bill. This is an outrageous betrayal of animal welfare and humane values, and it must be challenged. Read more.

Farm Animal of the Month: Boris

Left to die in a rendering truck filled with feces and decomposing animal remains, Boris beat the odds and made it out alive. Now, after nearly eight years at our California Shelter, the handsome drake has put the past behind him, fully enjoying all the perks sanctuary life has to offer! Read more.

Activist of the Month: Michael Walsh

From hosting vegan cookie parties and coordinating food booths for Farm Sanctuary events to taking part in community outreach activities and sponsoring rescued animals at the New York Shelter, longtime vegan and animal activist Michael Walsh is a shining example of how small changes in our own lives can inspire huge changes for farm animals. Read Michael’s story, and be inspired to take every opportunity to improve the lot of suffering farm animals!

Leave a Legacy of Compassion for Farm Animals

By including Farm Sanctuary in your estate plans you can ensure that farm animals are protected from cruelty for years to come. Members who have made a bequest to Farm Sanctuary through their will, life insurance policy or other planned gift are recognized as part of the Legacy Society. We hope you will consider making this important commitment and leaving a legacy of compassion. For more information, please click here or call 607-583-2225 ext. 237.

Calling all Poets

Farm Sanctuary is looking to incorporate farm animal poems in new humane education materials for children. Contact Carol. mailto:nyc [at] farmsanctuary.org

In the News

GO FAUX for Low-Cal, Low-Fat Eating
Newsday - May 29, 2007

U.S. on Mad Cow: Don’t Test All Cattle
Centre Daily - May 29, 2007

In the Store

Gandhi Quote T-shirt

About Farm Sanctuary

Photo via texwurld

Farm Sanctuary is the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization. Since incorporating in 1986, we have worked to expose and stop cruel practices of the “food animal” industry through research and investigations, legal and legislative actions, public awareness projects, youth education, and direct rescue and refuge efforts. Our shelters in Watkins Glen, NY and Orland, CA provide lifelong care for hundreds of rescued animals, who have become ambassadors for farm animals everywhere by educating visitors about the realities of factory farming. For more information about Farm Sanctuary or our programs, please visit www.farmsanctuary.org or call 607-583-2225. To become a Farm Sanctuary member or to make a donation today using our secure online form, www.farmsanctuary.org/join/donate2.htm. For updates on previous action alerts, www.farmsanctuary.org/actionalerts/update.htm.

Please forward and distribute widely! Thank you
Farm Sanctuary, P.O. Box 150 Watkins Glen, NY 14891.

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To subscribe: www.farmsanctuary.org/signup.htm

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts farm sanctuary meat veal subsidies House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry House Agriculture Subcommittee Farm Bill Michael Walsh poets poetry volunteer flickr

Here’s the TOC from IDA’s 5-30-07 newsletter.

Click on the links to take action, or read the whole newsletter online.

IDA Action Alerts

Alaska Zoo Report Admits Inability to Care for Maggie the Elephant; “Take Action” to urge Zoo Board to transfer her to a sanctuary

Help Protect Animal Habitats along Caribbean Coastline; Urge Puerto Rico’s Senate to designate area as a nature reserve

New Books About Animals Entertain and Educate; Authors donate proceeds to IDA and other animal protection organizations

Campaign News & Updates

IDA Reissues Call to End Chimpanzee Research; Urges permanent ban on chimpanzee research in honor of Jane Goodall

Animal Rights Champion Gretchen Wyler Passes Away; Broadway, film, and TV actress brought animal issues into the mainstream

Discounted Registration for AR 2007 Ends Soon; Get your tickets now for the movement’s premiere conference

An archive of past IDA eNews newsletters is available here.

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts ida in defense of animals elephants zoos alaska alaska zoo maggie USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist wildlife conservation Caribbean Coastline Puerto Rico books Kay Pfaltz Marie Mead rabbit dog canine pet companion animal animal rescue animal research animal testing animal experimentation vivisection primates chimps chimpanzees jane goodall actress Gretchen Wyler Genesis Awards obituary obit education events conference ar2007

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: May 30, 2007 2:11 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: Gretchen Wyler obituaries 5/28 - 5/30/07

The Wednesday, May 30 New York Times and London Independent both have obituaries honoring the incomparable Gretchen Wyler, founder of the Genesis Awards (see tinyurl.com/2db48s) and beloved mentor to many of us. The Los Angeles Times obit ran on Monday. I will paste the beautiful Independent write-up in full below, and also the Los Angeles Times obituary, which focused the most on her animal protection work. And I will provide a link to the New York Times piece, which includes a delightful photo.

Here is the Independent piece:

The Independent (London)
Wednesday, May 30, 2007

GRETCHEN WYLER; Overnight star on Broadway

Tom Vallance

The musical star Gretchen Wyler achieved overnight success in 1955 when she was promoted from understudy to featured player shortly before the Cole Porter musical Silk Stockings opened on Broadway, going on to stop the show. She subsequently played star parts in other musicals, but generally as a replacement for performers such as Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera, who first created the roles. “I don’t really admit to this,” she said, “but other people say, ‘Poor Gretchen, it never really happened.’”

The daughter of a petroleum engineer, she was born Gretchen Patricia Winneche in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1932, and had her first dancing lesson at the age of three. She made her theatrical début in 1950 as part of the ballet ensemble with the St Louis Municipal Opera company. Later the same year she moved to New York where she was cast in the chorus of Frank Loesser’s Where’s Charley?, a musical version of Charley’s Aunt starring Ray Bolger. “I was the baby in that show,” she said, and I loved Ray Bolger - I used to stand in the wings every night and watch him. He even gave me my name. He said if I was going to stay in the theatre - and I was - I needed to have a name for the marquee. “What do you think about Gretchen Wyler?” I couldn’t believe it. The great Ray Bolger giving me a name.

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Get right with D-O-G!:

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: May 29, 2007 3:09 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: Huge Chicago Tribune spread on animal advocacy, and Newsday on faux meats 5/27/- 5/29/07

Over Memorial Day Weekend, the Chicago Tribune ran a wonderful story on the cover of its magazine section, Sunday May 27, headed, “Ruffling feathers; Once Viewed as Crazies, Animal Rights Activists Say Their Message is Starting to Get Through.”

Proving the point, New York Newsday, one of the countries most widely distributed papers, has a great story on fake meats, on Tuesday, May 29.

The Chicago Tribune magazine cover story, by Mick Dumke, is huge — over 4,000 words long — with loads of great photos.

It opens telling us that PETA protests KFC, using leaflets informing people “the chain’s suppliers abuse chickens–routinely breaking their legs, cutting off their beaks and scalding them alive before they’re slaughtered for food.” We learn that protesters get some snide comments, but mostly support. We read of a protester handing out leaflets to three kids who came running to her:

“Pollock happily set them up–they’re the future of the animal rights movement, she says–and the mother, stuffing the leaflet in her purse, thanked her.”

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: May 14, 2007 9:58 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: USA Today on Bob Barker’s animal rights activism 5/14/07

The front page of the Life Section (1D) of the Monday, May 14 edition of USA Today — the most widely distributed newspaper in the US — has a story about Bob Barker. The piece, by William Keck, is headed, “The time is right for Barker; ‘Price Is Right’ host retiring after 50 years in TV game.”

The tender article tells us tales from Barker’s decades as the host of The Price is Right, and also about his marriage. Then a section headed, “For the love of dogs” discusses his animal rights activism. We read about the rabbits who scamper around the upstairs of his house, and the ducks who live in his swimming pool, “who seem to know this home offers sanctuary.”

We read:

“‘The ducks have been coming for years,’ he says, opening the doors to an immaculate green lawn with the Hollywood Hills in the background. ‘Last year, one went behind the shrubbery, built a nest and had 13 babies. Those babies learned to swim, forage in the yard, and we watched them learn to fly. My housekeeper and I would cut food for them and prepare a little buffet. It was a wonderful experience to watch them grow up and fly away one or two at a time.’”

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: May 9, 2007 3:47 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: “Committed” press and book tour — DC tonight 5/9/07

I am bummed I am not in DC this evening (Wednesday, May 9) because PETA vice president Dan Mathews has a reading there of “Committed: A Rabble-Rouser’s Memoir.” It is at 6:30pm at Borders Books-Downtown (18th & L Sts. NW, 202-466-4999).

If you are a lucky DC person, you can make it over after work. If you already have plans, I recommend you have your friend meet you there. I was at a reading of Dan’s book in Virginia last weekend, and it was a blast. I would happily go to another.

I sent a note out when “Committed” was released a few weeks ago and referred people to the People Magazine and USA Today articles about it. (The USA Today piece is still on line at www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2007-04-11-committed_N.htm.)

I have since read the book while I traveled, and embarrassed myself repeatedly by throwing back my head and cackling loudly on crowded airplanes. I was not only amused, however, I was inspired and reinvigorated by Dan’s raunchy and glamorous tales of his fight for animal rights.

When Matthew Scully published his beautiful book “Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals and The Call to Mercy” a few years ago, I recommended it highly as a gift for any conservative or religious family members. “Committed” is not for that crowd. Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee’s endorsement does a nice job of summing up some of the target market. Lee writes, “If you read only one book this year (like me), this is it.”

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Thus far, 2007 is shaping up to be a fairly melancholic year, at least virtually. First came the passing of Zeke, beloved blog dog of the liberal/progressive corner of the internets. Last week, I was saddened to discover that Heidi, my favorite - and perhaps the most-photographed - dachshund on Flickr had died suddenly in a freak accident. I don’t think I’ve shed so many tears for other people’s companions, ever. Perhaps it’s just because my first-born is starting to get on in age, and I’m dreading the day when…gah, enough.

Anna Nicole Smith’s death…well, normally I wouldn’t pay much mind to the demise of a B-list star. And yet, I find myself mourning her death, albeit in a low-level way. Smith was something of an advocate for animals; she posed in several PETA ads, including two protesting Iams and fur. (Interestingly, the ads featuring Smith were arguably - and ironically - the more tasteful of PETA’s largely exploitative campaigns.) As an animal rights activist, the loss of a fellow activist hits hard. Yet, even my pensive mood and our shared values don’t explain why I feel such sorrow over her death.

Though she’s been (and even in death, continues to be) derided as a dumb, no-talent bimbo by the media, Smith is more deserving of sympathy than spite. Salon explains it eloquently, so rather than offer a half-assed paraphrase, allow me to quote Cintra Wilson:

Vickie Lynn Hogan of Mexia, Texas — the woman Spy magazine once called a “super-duper-model” — was ripe for the taking: She had always been compared to Marilyn Monroe, and she nursed these comparisons, right down to her own sense of victimization by a society that she perceived as having no respect for her, and to her self-fulfilling prophecy that she would die young and tragically.

Naturally, the death of her 20-year-old son didn’t help, and neither did the methadone. It was clear she lacked coping skills. Following the death of Daniel Smith, three days after Anna Nicole gave birth to a baby girl, the tabloids reported that the distraught new mother was so sedated that she needed to be reinformed of his death, again and again, every time she woke up … an excruciating ring of hell.

Even in such times of private agony, prurient interest now follows its victims everywhere. Wherever there’s a cellphone and an Internet connection, the camera can steal a soul. […]

What needs saying — what it seems nobody has yet said — is that when she was able to suppress her demons enough to pull herself together and look her best, she was fabulously gorgeous. Numerous red-carpet moments, the footage of which we now run over and over again like a televised rosary in order to understand her death, reveal this. Anna Nicole was a star because she possessed an unusually large amount of beauty. At her best, she didn’t evoke Marilyn Monroe so much as Anita Ekberg in “La Dolce Vita” — the strapless black dress, mounds of white flesh, piles of blond hair. She was indelicate, but an unstable element nonetheless — not so much a candle in the wind as a bonfire in a hailstorm. But the real similarity between Anna Nicole and Marilyn was their shimmering tension — an unsettlingly powerful physical beauty, collapsing irresistibly in real time beneath the frailties of its hostess. She was entropy porn at its finest.

Our fascinated gaze was her real addiction — and the humiliating media tractor pull between our disgust and our attraction for her was, in all likelihood, both her lover and her murderer. Fame, the only chemotherapy available for the desperate toxicity of narcissism, proves once again that it is deadly enough in its own right to be avoided.

Like all women, Smith tried her damnedest to adhere to society’s mandate that women be teh sexxy, that they be ready and willing to bend to the patriarchy at will. And then she was scorned and derided - abused - for doing so. Just as women like Hillary Clinton are criticized for being too smart, too successful, too manly, Anna Nicole Smith was castigated for her uber-submissiveness, her unabashed sexuality, her exaggerated femininity.

As Twisty opined:

If any doubts linger as to the sinister essence of the feminine directive marketed by the beauty industry, I urge you to consider the painful case of poor Anna Nicole Smith, dead of femininity at age 39.* Blonde bombshells are disturbingly disposable.

* The system that rewards a woman’s acquiescence to pornulation with fawning attention, cash, glamor, and fame can be fickle. Here is what one enlightened genius commenting on Smith’s Miami-Herald obit had to say about yet another icon destroyed by the pornsick culture he jacks off to on his computer every night: “Anna Nicole Smith — Stupid Life, Lived Stupidly, By a Stupid Person. A disaster from beginning to end.”

Too sexy or not sexy enough. Women just can’t win.

The media blitz is sickening, really; not just on accounta it mostly hates on the deceased, but because there are much more important stories out there. Those covering mocking Smith’s life and death reek of hypocrisy: they drone on about how inconsequential Smith’s life was, all the while trivializing the important events that they’re not affording adequate coverage, such as the War on Terra, the crises in Darfur and the Congo, heck, climate change, even. But 300000+ dead Iraqis does not a pornalicious scandal make, I ’spose. Add to that the fact that those who made Smith famous are now decrying her undeserved fame, and you’ve got a pack of patriarchal media pricks.

So let’s help the press out, shall we? Take a moment to write CNN, the NY Times, your local paper, whathaveyou, and tell them how you think Anna Nicole Smith should be remembered. Not as a drugged-out bimbo, or every misogynist’s jagoff material.

Remind them that she was more than her celebrity.

Unlike more educated, esteemed, “respectable” individuals, Anna Nicole Smith worked to improve the plight of the single most disadvantaged group in our country, indeed, the world: animals. She spoke out against Iams’ torturous treatment of dogs and cats and campaigned against seal slaughter. She was more than boobs, booze, and blonde curls - she also had a big heart, in a world sorely lacking big hearts.

And that’s the Anna Nicole Smith that I’ll remember.

After the jump - a selection of Anna’s PSAs.

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Feb 7, 2007 7:44 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: Jane Magazine piece by animal rights activist — February 2007 edition

The February 2007 edition of Jane magazine includes a “true tale” piece by SHAC animal rights activist Lauren Gazzola, headed “I’m in prison for being a terrorist — and I literally wouldn’t hurt a fly.” (p 62)

Lauren writes about the day the FBI arrived at her house and cuffed and arrested her and two roommates. She explains that she was arrested under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (actually at the time it was the Animal Enterprise Protection Act but it has since been upgraded) “which punishes people who ‘physically disrupt’ places like fur farms and animal-testing labs.” She explains, “But we weren’t accused of doing anything violent… the charges… stemmed from our allegedly running a Web site that reported protest activity against one of the world’s largest animal testing labs , Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).”

As background to the campaign Lauren writes, “In 1997, an undercover documentarian got a job at HLS and recorded the staff punching puppies in the face and dissecting a conscious monkey.”

About the SHAC campaign tactics she writes, “There is no denying that some of the things people did in the name of the campaign were illegal. What’s crazy, though, is that when I stood in the courtroom pleading not guilty, neither I nor any of my friends had been charged with participating in window smashing, tire slashing or paint throwing. We were on trial for writing about it.”

She writes, “By the time you read this, I will have served two of the 52 months I am sentenced to in federal prison.”

Her final line is, “They can jail the activist but they cannot jail the activism.”

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle - info [at] kinshipcircle.org
Date: Jan 23, 2007 10:13 AM
Subject: KC DIGEST: Israel Product Testing Ban, Serbia Still Poisoning, Iditarod Torture + MORE

Kinship Circle Primary - PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST AS WRITTEN

1/23/07: Kinship Circle DIGEST / ALERTS FROM MEMBERS
Israel Product Testing Ban, Serbia Still Poisoning, Iditarod Torture + MORE

IN JANUARY DIGEST:

1. Julia Sharp, Well-Known Rescuer, Needs Our Help
2. Israel: Ban Animal Testing For Cosmetic/Cleaning Products
3. Serbia: Mass Poisoning (T-61) Begins Again
4. Serbia: Fire Your Weapons For Those Who Can’t
5. EU: Support Written Declaration, EU Ban On Bullfighting
6. Family Dog Shot By Police Denied Aid; Dies Slowly
7. Who’s Supporting Iditarod Dog Torture In 2007?
8. Spanish Galgo Appeal: Send Email To Save These Dogs
9. Wish SHAC 7’s Josh And Jake Happy Birthdays
10. Argentina: Horse Drops Dead On Street In Entre Rios
11. Atlanta Puppy-Baking Trial Date Set For 1/29/07
12. Romania: Urge Press To Cover Crimes Against Animals
13. Animal Activist’s Home Raided
14. A Stockyard Filled With Sad Brown Eyes
15. PETITIONS TO SIGN

Each DIGEST includes:

* NEWS and CALL-TO-ACTION, submitted by Kinship Circle members.
* CONTACT INFO to reply directly to the activist who supplied the alert.
* Related KINSHIP CIRCLE LINKS for more background information.
* Submissions are from KC members and do NOT originate from Kinship Circle itself.
* If emails for letter recipients fail, contact person who supplied alert — NOT KINSHIP CIRCLE.
* Send submissions for KC DIGEST to kinshipcircle [at] brick.net
* Please “clean-up” submitted alerts, and do not send chain of forwarded messages.

(more…)

Behold - the NRA’s idea of those crazy Animal Rights Terrorists:

Complete with hairy-legged, Birkenstock-wearing feminists, dynamite-toting spotted owls, angry cocks (no doubt wielding The Bird Flu), and attack lobsters, the NRA’s graphic novel “Freedom in Peril” is an exercise in stereotyping. Good for a laugh, though. It’s so absurd, it’s funny. Seriously, how could I get offended in the face of such ridiculousness?

What does irritate me is the conflation of animal rights advocates with other leftists: feminists, socialists, environmentalists, secularists, and - yes - gun-haters. (And, um gang members. Brown ones, of course. Do they come in any other color?)

While I don’t mind the NRA churning out such idiotic caricatures of us, please, don’t imply that we have the support of other radical anti-ism activists. We don’t. Speaking for myself, I do advocate on behalf of other disenfranchised groups: women, minorities, the impoverished, GLBT persons, those with mental disorders. Speaking from experience, many other animal rights activists I’ve encountered support these causes as well. However, it’s a one-way street: there’s very little crossover to our side.

Case in point: the civil liberties of animal rights terrorists activists aren’t even worth the ACLU’s time. Yup, we’re lower down on the food chain than Fred Phelps and NAMBLA. Indeed, I keep up with a number of liberal blogs, and “those animal rights extremists” are one of the few topics on which the bloggers and their trolls can routinely agree (to rag) on.

On the other hand, vegankid calls for animal rightists to integrate other progressive issues with their own activism:

So the point i am getting at is that we need to be careful not to view ourselves, vegans, as standing upon an ethical pedestal. Just because we don’t consume animal products does not give us moral high ground. If we wish veganism as a movement to grow, then veganism must become informed by all movements for justice, compassion, and non-violence. Rather than limiting ourselves to non-humyn animal suffering, we must also critically approach ability, gender, class, race, age, size, sexuality, and other categorizations that have been used to create violent hierarchies. To do this, we must put a great deal of effort on our own persynal growth and awareness.

So perhaps the internets are just giving me a skewed perception of the animal rights movement and its insularity in regards to other causes? Thoughts?

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Tagged: animals animal+rights animal+welfare nra national+rifle+association stereotypes second+amendment activism progressive liberal terrorism war+on+terra