A n i m a l W r i t e
s © sm
The
official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Established
1997
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Issue # 06/06/04
Publisher ~ Susan
Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Journalists ~ Greg Lawson -
ParkStRanger@aol.com
~ Michelle Rivera -
MichelleRivera1@aol.com
THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Doth We Protest Too Much? by
Lawrence Carter-Long
2 ~ Free Range Meat and the Factory Farm by Will Peavey
3 ~ Empty Cages Conference
4 ~ Help Save Dogs This Summer
5 ~ Patent On Beagle Dogs Canceled
6 ~ A Terrible Loss For Our
Community
7 ~ Do Or Die by Janet Riddle
6 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Doth We Protest Too Much?
By Lawrence Carter-Long - LCL@idausa.org
www.satyamag.com/apr04/carter-long.html
I couldn’t get away. Email, phone calls and telepathic messages
all seemed to badger me with the same question: “Are we protesting again this
year?”
Attempts to implement new approaches were met with little enthusiasm and almost
by surprise, the startling truth snuck free: “I’d rather have root canal.”
What began as a joke started to haunt me as I examined the subject further.
Where was the enthusiasm that marked my introduction to activism? Where was the
“charge” that once fueled countless hours on the streetsand the occasional
stopover in jail? Had the fire literally ‘burned out?’ What had become of the
angry but inspired young man I used to be?
Well, for starters, he’s not so young anymore. Grey hair and increasingly
creaky joints evidence that fact. But the evolution has been more than
physical.
Somehow, somewhere along the line, I began to feel differently about the kind
of activism I wanted to do. Bearing witness was no longer good enough. Those
perpetrating the damage knew damn well what they were doing and seemingly
didn’t care. Sure I was still angry about what was happening, but oddly enough,
I began to see that my tactics weren’t having their desired effect: no one
seemed to actually change their behavior as a result of my yelling at them.
Surprise, surprise…
I thought about how, despite the use of graphic—and very real—photographs and
very vociferous efforts, tactics employed by groups like Operation Rescue had
done little to change my opinion about abortion rights.
Clearly, my focus had shifted, but the question remained: To what?
Discussions with friends and colleagues didn’t provide much comfort. I was told
when voicing my concerns about the direction of local actions and events, “We
are looking to you for leadership.” Egads! This didn’t help much. Ringling
Bros. circus has had a regular presence in New York City since 1872 and shows
no sign of skipping their annual stint in the Big Apple. Furthermore, I doubt
any definition of “leadership” includes continuing what you’ve been doing for
years without any signs of success.
Following the world premiere of the latest Tribe of Heart film Peaceable
Kingdom in February at New York’s Lincoln Center, I was reminded of their
previous film The Witness which detailed Eddie Lama’s evolution to animal
advocate. (If you haven’t seen these documentaries, you should.) In my
experience, the power of those films does not necessarily lie in the issues
themselves—which are powerful enough—but rather in the stories of regular
folks, real people, who miraculously “woke up” to the abuse that was happening
around them; to the cruelty they had somehow always missed.
This was reinforced last month while watching and interacting with the winners
of this year’s Genesis Awards, which I’ve been honored to help select for the
last three years. The annual awards show honors positive representation of
animal issues in the mainstream media.
What occurred to me is many people, possibly most, have little problem with
animal rights. Of course we need to be more respectful to animals. Duh. Of
course cruelty should not be tolerated. No, where people seem to diverge are on
their views of animal rights activists.
A quick Google search of the phrase “animal rights activist” revealed this
little beaut as the first link (on UrbanDictionary.com):
Hypocritical ass**** who thinks that he/she can stop the killings of “poor,
innocent animals” by harming humans and being a bitch until they get their way.
Ouch.
Moreover, other definitions I discovered were even less flattering. If this is
in any way reflective of how the general public feels about animal rights, and
I suspect it is, we’re in trouble. Shouldn’t a primary goal of any social
justice movement be to bring more people into the fold? If otherwise
sympathetic people reject what we’re trying to promote because of how activists
behave we’ve failed miserably, by any definition.
Protest makes sense when no one is aware of what you’re peeved about—and if
people actually listen—but perhaps by relying too much on protests we’re
missing out on even better ways to facilitate change. Minds and hearts, like
parachutes, work best when open. And minds only open to controversial issues
when people are introduced to them through those they like, or at the very
least, respect. We can ill afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing because
it makes us feel better. Thankfully, we don’t have to. Animal abuse is no
longer a hidden horror. Veggie fare is common in most supermarkets and popular
films like Finding Nemo and Babe are readily available to rent, or own, on home
video.
Is it time we talked less, and listened more? Is it time to move out of our
turbulent adolescence—to be less enraged and more engaged? Is the Animal Rights
movement ready to make the transition from one of protest to one that promotes?
Signs suggest it already is: The Witness shows without a doubt how curbside
screenings of video footage of fur-bearing animals caught in traps can change
minds without a single placard, or voice, being raised. Washington, DC’s
Compassion Over Killing, among others, have been sponsoring veggie outreach
events and making converts one person at a time by distributing local dining
guides. Great American MeatOut events have steadily shifted in recent years to
demonstrate less, and feed more. Viva USA! has wisely taken the mighty soybean
right to the doors of Ben and Jerry’s and Baskin-Robbins stores to let soy ice
cream make the case for dairy-free living through free samples.
Can this be done in other areas?
Moveon.org house parties screened Iraq Uncovered—which detailed the hidden
reasons behind the Iraq war—en masse; thousands (rather than hundreds)
participated across the nation. Imagine screening Peaceable Kingdom or the
independent animal rights documentaries Chattel or Lolita: Slave for
Entertainment for friends and family in our living rooms? Or bringing Matthew
Scully’s Dominion to local book club or church meetings? Not a religious
person—then how about J.M Coetzee or Jefferey Masson? Get creative. Order a
subscription to Satya for your library, or better yet, for your loud-mouth
brother-in-law. Think of the discussions that would follow….
Tired of protesting? That makes two of us, but we needn’t be paralyzed by
fixating on what we used to do—or how we used to do it. Actions can be taken in
ways which honor how we want to behave in the crazy world around us. I once
said I refused to let what “they” do turn me into an ass****. Now, I see I
never had to.
Recently a group of us rallied outside Madison Square Garden during Ringling
Bros. circus and, for the most part, let undercover video do the talking. The
response was, at times, remarkable.
I doubt I will ever forget a young man named Adam who watched, in shock, the
videotape of elephants being beaten. After awhile, he shook his head, sighed,
and said, “I can’t go to the circus now.” He then reached for his cell phone
and made a quick call. Minutes later a young woman joined him before the video
screen. They asked a few questions and then walked down the street into the
subway station and away from Ringling’s cruelty.
Did we stop the circus on that day? Not exactly, but perhaps by allowing people
to make up their own minds we did something even more important.
I’ll tell you this, it sure beats root canal.
Lawrence
Carter-Long is the Northeast
Director for In Defense of Animals and a Satya Consulting Editor.
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~2~
Free Range Meat and the Factory Farm
By Will Peavy - wpeavy@mail.usf.edu
I’ve often come across environmentalists and animal advocates, of varying
degrees, who are thoroughly opposed to the practice of factory farming – and
thus oppose this practice by boycotting industrialized animal production and
instead consuming meat from organic and free range family farms. While I
applaud their decision to become more conscientious consumers; I’d like to ask
– where does making the switch to consuming organic and free range family
farmed meat lead us?
Imagine if all of the factory farms were left in ruins, yet we were still a
society comprised primarily of animal product consumers who obtained our meat
from organic and free range family farms. Intensive animal agriculture, or
factory farming, makes animal flesh so inexpensive to the consumer, that, in
the U.S., we can put “a chicken in every pot” – but without factory farms, we
could only put chicken in the pots of those who could afford it. Imagine our
society raising chickens, by the billions, in organic free-range farms. The
locus of power in the animal agriculture industry would be shifted; and the
former rural production plant managers of corporations like Smithfield and
Tyson would likely become self employed family farmers - with the same
exploited migrant workforce doing the least pleasant labor. Imagine billions
of food animals being raised, now for only those who could afford to eat them –
animal flesh would become an even more desirable commodity than it already is
and its consumption would revert to being a symbol of financial success. People
would say, “that family can really put meat on the table.” Imagine billions of
animals on free range and organic farms, taking up more precious land than they
did under the factory farming system, yet still producing just as much
excrement that ends up getting washed into the water supply. Imagine family
farmers now playing by the rules of organics and the free range, yet still
putting animal welfare on the backburner in order to compete in a market that
demands inexpensive animal flesh. If we were to become a society of animal
flesh consumers who obtained our meat from organic free range family farms –
where would it lead us? Would the Earth, humans, or other animals be any better
off than we were with the system of factory farming? I think not.
It is not our culture’s lack of concern for the health of the Earth or of the
welfare of animals that has created the factory farm - instead it is the desire
to consume animal flesh that makes intensive farming methods the inevitable
outcome. Therefore, if we are opposed to factory farms, then the only way that
we will abolish them is for us to eliminate the culturally constructed desire
to use chickens, pigs, and cows as human food sources - by going vegan!
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~3~
Empty Cages Conference
Join activists of all ages and interests at "Empty
Cages," the 19th annual International Compassionate Living Festival, Oct.
1-3 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Co-sponsored by the Culture and Animals
Foundation and the Institute for Animals and Society, this vibrant three-day
event features 26 speakers from such groups as Farm Sanctuary, The Fund for
Animals, The Humane Society of the United States, Viva!USA, PETA, the Animal
Protection Institute, and the Doris Day Animal League. This newly expanded
conference will bring together movement leaders, grassroots activists,
scholars, artists and others dedicated to animal liberation.
Registration is $95 per person, which includes the conference program, three
vegan meals, and access to the exhibit hall and bookstore. The conference and
accommodations are located at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention
Center, with free transportation from Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Hotel costs are $89 single and $100 double, deadline Sept. 10; call toll-free
at (800) 325-3535 for reservations.
For information and conference registration, visit www.animalsandsociety.org or
call (410) 675-4566. Discounts for early registration; deadline for all
registrations is Sept. 24.
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~4~
Help Save Dogs This Summer
From Animal
Protection Institute - info@api4animals.org
Every year near the start of summer, we begin to hear news stories
about young children dying in hot cars. What we hear about less often, because
they are rarely reported, are the cases in which companion dogs die similar,
terrible deaths.
These animals’ deaths are tragedies that occur with alarming frequency, yet are
entirely preventable. That is why API is launching a national initiative — "My Dog Is Cool ... Is Yours?"
— just in time for the hot weather season. With your help, we can save dogs
from heat-related deaths this summer.
As the summer heats up, it’s important that people be made aware of the dangers
of leaving their companion animals inside hot cars. Every year, dogs die after
being locked inside cars while their guardians work, visit, shop, or run other
errands. These tragic deaths are entirely preventable.
Warm weather can literally be a killer for a dog left inside a car. When it’s
85 degrees out, the temperature inside a car — even with the windows left
slightly open — can soar to 102 degrees in 10 minutes, and reach 120 in just
half an hour. On hotter days, the temperature will climb even higher. Outside
temperatures in the 70s can be dangerous, as well.
As with the tragic deaths of young children locked in hot cars, the deaths of
companion dogs are not usually deliberate acts. You may already be aware of the
risk, but most people simply don’t realize how quickly closed, unattended cars
or trucks can become stifling death traps. Fortunately, this is a problem that
can be prevented — with your help. Your assistance is invaluable in our effort
to spread the word about how dangerous hot cars are for dogs.
How to Help
* Contact API for a supply of our "Don’t
Leave Me in Here — It’s Hot!" flyers. Click here to place an order....
( http://www.api4animals.org/invitem.asp?id=3
) Keep a stack handy when you go out shopping, go to work, run errands, etc.
* When temperatures rise and you see a dog in a parked car, slip a "Don’t Leave Me in Here — It’s
Hot!" flyer under the car’s windshield wiper. When the dog’s guardian
returns to the car, they will find the educational flyer and, we hope, think
twice about leaving their companion in a hot car again.
* If you come across a dog already in heat-related distress, call the local
police department and/or animal control. The dog should be drenched in cool
water immediately, and taken to a veterinarian for emergency treatment. Signs
of heat exhaustion include excessive panting, drooling, a bright red tongue,
weakness, staggering, seizures, and eventual loss of consciousness.
* Ask your local shops, supermarkets, restaurants, libraries, and other public
places to help educate more people about the dangers of leaving a dog in a car
in the summertime by distributing "Don’t
Leave Me in Here — It’s Hot!" flyers to their patrons.
* Write a Letter to the Editor.... ( http://www.mydogiscool.com/LetterToEditor.htm
) of your local newspaper, urging readers to leave their dogs at home on warm
days. Contact API for information about how to pass an ordinance and/or a
policy in your community relating to not leaving animals unattended in a
vehicle on a warm day. Thank you for helping save dogs’ lives this summer! For
more information, please see www.MyDogIsCool.com.
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~5~
Patent On Beagle Dogs Canceled
University of Texas System "Disclaims "Remaining
Term" of Patent on Sickened Dogs
WASHINGTON ‹ In a major victory for patented beagle dogs, the Board of Regents
of the University of Texas System (UT) in Austin, Texas, disclaimed "The
entire remaining term of all the claims" of patent #6,444,872, which
covers live beagle dogs intended for use in experiments. In February 2004, the
nonprofit organizations the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) and the
PatentWatch Project of the Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) filed a legal
challenge urging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel the
beagle patent. Last week, the Patent Office agreed to reexamine the patent.
"This is a tremendous victory not just for the beagle dogs but for the 499
other animals who have been patented in the U.S.," said AAVS President Sue
Leary, "The University took the only morally defensible action it could in
the face of our challenge. It got the message that animals are not machines,
articles of manufacture, or inventor's compositions of matter."
The patent's claims covered, among other things, "a canine model [of
fungal lung infection]," and the various methods used to induce a fatal
lung infection in the beagle dogs. The patent also indicated applying the
methods to pigs, sheep, monkeys, or chimpanzees and, like many other patents on
animals, appeared to be exclusively licensed to a private company.
"This decision, hopefully, is a first step to rescinding all patents on
animals," says Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of CTA. "It is
long past time for our government to recognize that animals are not patentable
machines."
The AAVS/PatentWatch challenge represented the first time public interest
organizations had requested the reexamination of a patent on an animal. New
rules under which this reexamination was granted will permit AAVS and
PatentWatch to appeal other similar cases all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court
if necessary. Since the Patent and Trademark Office first issued a patent on an
animal in 1987, it has issued nearly 500 patent applications on animals.
A nationwide poll of U.S. adults commissioned by AAVS earlier this year found
that two out of three people consider it unethical to issue patents on animals
as if they were human inventions. Eighty-five percent of those surveyed were
not even aware that governments and corporations are getting patents on
animals.
"The swift decision of the University to drop all patent claims on
sickened beagles demonstrates the patent's weakness, both scientifically and
morally," said Tina Nelson, AAVS Executive Director. "This will be
the first of many patents on animals that will crumble under public scrutiny
when the truth is told."
The American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) is a non-profit animal advocacy
and educational organization dedicated to ending experiments on animals in
research, testing, and education. Founded in Philadelphia in 1883, AAVS is the
oldest organization in the United States dedicated to eliminating experiments
on animals. AAVS pursues its objectives through legal and effective advocacy,
education, and support of the development of non-animal alternative methods.
The Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) is a public interest and advocacy
organization that works to address the impacts of technology on human health,
animal welfare, and the environment. The PatentWatch Project of the
International Center for Technology Assessment works to expose and challenge
the inappropriate use of the U.S. patent system.
For more information, including document downloads, visit:
www.StopAnimalPatents.org.
CONTACTS:
Crystal Miller-Spiegel, AAVS
(916)371-9872, (215)887-0816
cspiegel@aavs.org
Craig Culp, PatentWatch/Center for Technology Assessment
(202)547-9359, (301)509-0925 (cell)
cculp@icta.org
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~6~
A Terrible
Loss For Our Community
From Karen Dawn -
KarenDawn@dawnwatch.com
With shock and sadness I write to tell you that Cliff Kaminsky was
killed in a hiking accident last weekend. He was 34.
Cliff was a friend and activist well known to us in Los Angeles,
but also to many throughout the country, due to his significant involvement
with many national animal protection groups. His warm and easy manner,
intelligence, and his attention to detail, made him the perfect person for
event planning; he served on many committees for fundraising events.
He also wrote countless letters on behalf of the animals. When Cliff first
became involved in animal rights, in 2000, he volunteered for some time as a
correspondent for PETA.
And he was "out there," protesting and contributing in various ways.
He took footage of elephants chained and swaying at circuses, footage used by
groups working to end the abuse.
His professional work was in acoustics.
Cliff was a talented musician, who played on Friday nights at Sloopys in
Manhattan Beach. He could listen to a song on the radio and figure out how to
play it immediately. Parties at his house turned into jam sessions.
You'll find a picture of him with his Detroit band, Ape 7, at:
http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/jan/01-28-98/arts/arts1.html
Cliff, the vocalist, is in the foreground of the photo -- the man kind of
giving the thumbs up sign.
The funeral will be in Maryland, where Cliff's mother lives, this Tuesday, June
8. If you would like to be kept abreast of details of the funeral and
information on where the family would like donations to go in Cliff's name, you
can get back to me on email. Anna West, a friend of Cliff's from PETA, will
keep us up to date.
Cliff's legacy is impressive. I share with you, below, one of the last
contributions I know he made -- a letter printed in the Los Angeles Times. It
is hard to understand why he, of all people, was taken so young.
Los Angeles Times
May 12, 2004 Wednesday
Home Edition
FOOD; Features Desk; Part F; Pg. 2
It is troubling that after such a noticeable lack of coverage of the foie gras
issue, the Los Angeles Times would choose to print such a load of drivel as
David Shaw's article (Matters of Taste: "They're Quacking up the Wrong
Tree," May 5). First he says that animal rights activists make "the
anti-abortion movement look positively passive." Rubbish. No animal rights
activist has ever shot and killed a doctor. Most animal rights activists are
against harming any living being. Second, he argues that the suffering of ducks
doesn't matter because the ducks were raised for that purpose. Many slaves were
born in captivity also. That doesn't mean it was any less painful or more
humane.
Cliff Kaminsky
Manhattan Beach
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~7~
Do Or Die
By Janet Riddle - WantNoMeat@aol.com
Born a docile puppy with speed in his genes
he'll learn to kill as soon as he weans
Sold as a racer he becomes a mere object
the fault of spectators for they don't object
The lure he must learn to chase
this is why he'll run the race
He knows not the risk if he isn't the best
he's trained hard and this is the test
His first race, and his only chance for fame
investors won't care how close he came
He enters the chutes blood taught and ready
adrenaline pumps but his legs are steady
Last minute idiots place their bet
with dogs in line, the stage is set
The gates swing open and their on the run
his life is at stake, this race must be won
There is no room for a greyhound to slack
his legs so swift, he flies the track
Though all of them are very fast
one of them must come in last
But for all the dogs it's do or die
human arrogance, dare they defy?
Rounding the course with the finish ahead
come morning the losers may already be dead
He crosses the line, the first of his kind
leaving the poor unlucky behind
There is only room for one winning hound
those losing money-pits can't be kept around
By night some peers are loaded on trucks
sold to a laboratory for a few bucks
The injured are dragged into a dirty shed
where the unsatisfactory are shot in the head
The winner is crammed back into bars
left only to hear the gunshots and cars
Called a sport by money hungry men
do or die, he'll race again
But used and worn he'll soon fall apart
his body abused, leaving only his heart
His joints and bones old at the age of two
he'll be thrown out to bring in the new
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~8~
Memorable Quote
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
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Animal Rights Online
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Rights Online=-
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