The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing on the plan to expand hunting this Thursday, July 17. The meeting begins at 7:30 PM in the Town House (159 Pantigo Road, a section of Rt. 27, about 1/2 mile east of the town). We need to attend and speak up against the plan.
No more deer, birds, rabbits, raccoons, possum, or other animals should have to suffer and die for the sake of sport.
You might remember that the plan emerged last year, but was postponed. Our strong protest through letters and testimony achieved the postponement. Now the hunter-dominated Natural Resources Committee seems to have put the plan back on the table.
The plan would add deer hunting in Fresh Pond Park in Amagansett, shotgun hunting for water fowl on Gerard Drive in Springs, and three other, new hunting areas.
If you cannot make it, please send a letter to:
Mr. Bill McGintee, Town Supervisor,159 Pantigo Rd., East Hampton, NY
11937.
If you can, please send copies to Town Board Members Pat Mansir, Julia Prince, Pete Hammerle,and Brad Loewen. Please tell others to try to testify or write.
We need your help to stop California legislation that would threaten animals and consumers in California.
AB 2427, introduced by Assembly Member Mike Eng (D-49) would prevent local government from passing future animal welfare laws. The bill is targeted toward overturning West Hollywood's ban on de-clawing cats but would have widespread negative effects on local government.
The bill is being supported by the California Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) - they have actively challenged the West Hollywood ordinance in order to permit the painful de-clawing of cats.
AB 2427 is currently on the Senate Floor and will be voted on soon, so time is of the essence. See below for how you can help - thank you so much!
PS: Please share and pass this newsletter along to friends, coworkers, family or others interested in animal advocacy.
What You Can Do:
Write or call your Senator and urge them to vote NO on AB 2427. This is an urgent matter, so please contact your legislator as soon as possible. There are two ways to find your state Senator:
Go to www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html. Enter your zip code and press "search". You will be given the name and contact information of your Senator.
Call the Government Information Hotline at 916-322-9900. Give the operator your address - the operator will tell you the name of your Senator. You can also leave your message for him/her through the operator.
Talking Points
AB 2427 would overturn a West Hollywood ordinance that bans the de-clawing of cats. West Hollywood passed the ordinance using long-established powers that it held.
AB 2427 would eliminate the ability of local governments to regulate any act by other businesses or professions governed by the Department of Consumer Affairs. AB 2427 would gut the ability of local governments to advance interests that are different, but equally important, to those of the state.
AB 2427 would prevent cities and counties from establishing standards of practice within their boundaries. Under existing law, cities and counties can regulate licensed professions and occupations, in a limited manner and in limited circumstances, in order to advance local interests. There is a grave concern that AB 2427 alters the balance of shared state-local power.
While it is clear that the state has long held the authority to establish fundamental statewide regulatory policies over agencies licensed by the Department of Consumer Affairs, local governments also have had the flexibility to fine-tune those restrictions to effectively address local issues. Continuing to allow the state and local jurisdictions their respective roles is vital to effective long-term management as well as to the best interests of consumers.
The creators of the extraordinary film "The Witness" have launched a new web site to counter the meat industry’s efforts to promote “humanely raised meat.” Visit HumaneMyth.org to see the overwhelming evidence that animals suffer when they are raised and killed for food. This is an impressive and comprehensive web site, and it can help us respond wisely to people who claim that they only eat “humanely raised meat.” HumaneMyth.org is dedicated to truth, transparency, and integrity in Animal Advocacy.
An ambitious program announced in February by a coalition of government agencies could lead to the end of animal testing to evaluate the safety of new chemicals and drugs.
Three agencies — the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Toxicology Program and the National Institutes of Health — have signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" to begin developing the new methods. The collaboration is described in a paper in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.
The agreement is a "milestone" says Martin Stephens of the Humane Society of the United States. "We believe this is the beginning of the end for animal testing. We think the (conversion) process will take about 10 years."
The agencies acknowledge that full implementation of the shift in toxicity testing could take years because it will require scientific validation of the new approaches.
Using human cells grown in test tubes and computer-driven testing machines, the scientists will eventually examine potentially toxic compounds in the lab rather than injecting them into mice, rats and rabbits and waiting to see if the animals die.
The EPA has already begun evaluating 300 chemicals using the new methods. The first phase should be finished this year, says Robert Kavlok, director of the National Center for Computational Toxicology.
Thousands of chemicals can be tested at one time in this way, a great advance over slow, expensive animal testing. It's done in a 3-by-5-inch glass tray with 1,536 tiny wells, each a fraction of a millimeter across, says Christopher Austin, director of NIH's Chemical Genomics Center.
A few hundred human cells grown in a test tube go into each well. Then, guided by a computer, the testing machine drips a different chemical into each well. After some time has passed, the machine shines a laser through each well to see how many cells remain. A computer analyzes the toxicity of each compound based on how the cells react.
For comparison, it's taken the EPA 30 years to rigorously test 2,500 potentially toxic compounds, says Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health.
All the data produced will be put into a public database. "We think it is very important for the entire public worldwide to have access to these very precious experimental results," says Kavlock.
It's the fruit of work begun in 2005 by EPA and the National Toxicological Program to speed up toxicological testing. That resulted in a report by the National Research Council last year laying out how it might be done.
To convert from animal to lab testing, the federal agencies will start with compounds previously tested on animals to confirm that the cell-based tests are accurate, says Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
This won't mean that animal testing will disappear overnight, but it signals the beginning of the end, says Zerhouni.
On April 4, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" aired an exposé on puppy mills that no doubt horrified everyone who watched.
Undercover footage showed dogs in filthy, overcrowded conditions, where they are confined for their entire lives, without human companionship or adequate veterinary care. These dogs are often killed once their reproductive capacity wanes.
The HSUS has been investigating and fighting against puppy mills for decades. With your help, we can advance our fight to stop puppy mills and the tragic consequences of pet overpopulation. Join us by signing the Stop Puppy Mills pledge. -- https://community.hsus.org/campaign/stoppuppymills_april_2008/na97bjkx6j?
To learn what else you can do right now, please visit https://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=22214754
The puppy mill industry will thrive as long as consumers are kept in the dark about the “mass production” of purebred and designer dogs. With your help, we'll shed light on the cruelty of puppy mills and put them out of business for good. We can't do it without your help!
The so-called seal "hunt" began today, March 28, for the 2008 season. The quota this year has been set at 275,000 thousand seals, most of whom will be babies.
This is a disgraceful and indefensible assault on everything we as compassionate people stand for. There is an economic imperative driving this, so let’s help Canada see it is in their financial interest to stop the senseless slaughter by getting restaurants to boycott Canadian "seafood" products, not giving Canada our tourist dollars, boycotting goods imported from Canada, etc. It is important we let Prime Minister Stephen Harper know how we feel, too:
http://pm.gc.ca/eng/contact.asp
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
pm@pm.gc.ca
PLEASE do not let this massacre of innocents go unchallenged. Visit these sites for information on how you can help:
Several companies in the UK are currently selling 'cats' made of rabbit fur. Please send complaints to these companies. The majority of rabbit fur and meat comes from animals raised in cruel factory-farming conditions, killed at 8-10 weeks old by neck-breaking or having their throats slit.
Nauticalia is one of the main suppliers of these cats. Send your complaints to:
Mr Lynn Lewis, Managing Director, Nauticalia Ltd, The Ferry Point, Ferry Lane, Shepperton-on-Thames, TW17 9LQ. Tel: 01932 244396 Fax: 01932 241679
e-mail: shop@nauticalia. com
Nauticalia tries to fob off concerns with a standard letter - see our response to that letter and use it to reply to Nauticalia's claims. Gift shop Birthday Boy, with 3 stores in the SW, also need some encouragement to stop selling these cats, so please contact them at bbinfo@birthdayboy.co.uk
We have also come across more internet gift companies selling the Cats (remember, the Gadget Shop and www.iwantoneofthose.com both stopped selling them after your complaints):
Gifts for the Girls, PO Box 16, Banbury, Oxon, OX17 1TF. Tel: 01295 750100 Fax: 01295 750800 e-mail: enquiries@giftsforthegirls.com
We are please to report that many shops selling these cats have refused to stock them again after the cruelty has been pointed out to them. These have included large retailers such as the Gadget Shop and internet gift shop iwantoneofthose.com; however, there are still many shops around the country selling these, so please look out for them and let us know the name and address of any shop selling them. Contact us for an updated list of retailers. We have produced a leaflet about these cats, useful for protests - contact us for details: caft@caft.org.uk
Advocacy group filing formal cruelty complaint with authorities today
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 11, 2006) – East Bay Animal Advocates (EBAA) released details this week of its three-month investigation into conditions at a rabbit-processing plant in Northern California. The investigation sheds light on one of the meat industry’s best-kept secrets and will introduce many consumers to the abuses suffered by what is perhaps the only species Westerners routinely regard as both a companion animal and a meal.
From February to April 2006, EBAA documented conditions at the Cloverdale Rabbit Company, California's second-largest commercial rabbit-meat slaughterhouse. EBAA investigators discovered high stocking densities of cages, unsanitary living conditions and sick rabbits denied veterinary care. This project marks the first time an animal welfare organization has investigated the rabbit-meat industry in the United States.
Today, EBAA is filing a formal cruelty complaint with the San Benito County authorities for further investigation of the Cloverdale Rabbit Company. In addition to denying rabbits proper healthcare while they are kept at their facility, the Cloverdale Rabbit Company is in violation of Section 597t of the California State Penal Code, which requires that confined animals have adequate exercise space.
Each year more than 8 million rabbits are raised and slaughtered for their meat by approximately 200,000 producers across the country. Known primarily as a cottage industry, American rabbit-meat production is largely unregulated by the federal, state and local authorities and removed from the public eye. The United States Department of Agriculture groups rabbits together with poultry for inspection purposes. Like poultry, meat rabbits are denied legal protection by the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
EBAA has set up a special Web site dedicated to its investigation of the rabbit-meat industry and outlining steps the public can take to help improve the lives of these abused animals. Visitors can log onto www.rabbitproduction.com for details.
Video footage available for the media.
East Bay Animal Advocates is a non-profit organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. California is home to one of the most industrious and concentrated animal agriculture areas in the world. Exposing animal cruelty in modern agriculture is of utmost importance to East Bay Animal Advocates. Through direct aid and education outreach, East Bay Animal Advocates is dedicated to fighting and preventing animal abuse in California's agricultural industry. EBAA’s Web site is www.eastbayanimaladvocates.org.
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering legislation, H.R. 4904, the Truth in Fur Labeling Act of 2006, which would close a loophole that allows garments featuring fur valued at less than $150 to be sold without identifying it as animal fur or specifying the species of animal or country of origin. Without proper labeling, consumers can't always tell if an item contains real fur or faux fur -- and today's processing techniques make it nearly impossible for consumers to tell the difference.
That's why a simple, honest label is so important. By requiring a label, H.R. 4904 will allow consumers to make educated choices about whether or not to wear fur.
Please make a quick, polite phone call to your U.S. Representative and urge him or her to support and co-sponsor H.R. 4904. You can reach your Representative by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, or visit https://community.hsus.org/humane/leg-lookup/search.html to find your Representative's office phone number.
Each year, more than nine billion chickens, turkeys, other birds and rabbits are slaughtered without the protection of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, simply because the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't recognize these animals as "livestock."
Recently, The Humane Society of the United States, along with East Bay Animal Advocates and five poultry consumers, filed suit challenging the USDA's exemption of poultry slaughter from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Please join us in urging the USDA to reverse this arbitrary policy. Tell Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to fulfill his responsibility to ensure that all animals, including rabbits and birds, are treated humanely.
The Honorable Michael O. Johanns
Secretary of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Jamie L. Whitten Federal Building
12th Street and Jefferson Drive S.W., Rm. 200-A
Washington, DC 20250
agsec@usda.gov
202-720-3631
202-720-2166 (fax)
Natural Pet Market, which sells all-natural dog and cat food, is now selling raw rabbit meat. They also sell rabbit ears as chew treats. Jan Rebmann of the Chicago HRS is asking people to contact the retailer and express their disgust.
The email contact is: info@naturalpetmarket.com
If you want to mail letters for more impact, their address is:
Natural Pet Market
263 Rice Lake Square
Wheaton, IL 60187
Jan writes:
Also, if you email a letter, please cc: or blind copy me at hrsjan@aol.com so that I can print them out and collect them to take to [Natural Pet Market] when I get enough of them. I just want to show her that it's not worth it.
THANK YOU!!
Jan Rebmann
Educator /Fosterer
Chicago House Rabbit Society
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