Protest StorageTek in San Jose Aug. 21

Action Alert
Aug. 16, 2002


StorageTek’s Prairie Dog Poisoning
Spurs Silicon Valley Protest


Silicon Valley animal rights activists will demonstrate outside the San Jose (CA) Convention Center Wednesday, August 21st to protest StorageTek’s poisoning of 8,000 prairie dogs earlier this summer in Colorado. The demonstration will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the front entrance of the convention center.

The Convention Center is the site for the Storage World Conference, which StorageTek is co-sponsoring. The company’s CEO, Pat Martin, will be a keynote speaker at the event and many other StorageTek leaders will be in attendance. (http://www.storageworldconference.com)

The protest is designed to expose and shame StorageTek for its blatant cruelty and environmental irresponsibility. At least one protester will be wearing a prairie dog costume while others carry signs and hand out leaflets urging conference goers to complain to StorageTek and boycott companies that have callous disregard for animals and the environment.

Co-sponsors of the protest are Engineers and Scientists for Animal Rights (ESAR), Animal Protection Institute (API), In Defense of Animals (IDA) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Syed Rizvi, the president of ESAR, said his Silicon Valley-based international organization strongly condemns the poisoning of thousands of prairie dogs by StorageTek.

“There is no excuse for such an atrocity causing pain and suffering to thousands of innocent creatures,” Rizvi said. “ESAR members will expose this cruelty to their co-workers and peers and ask the companies and institutions they work for to boycott all products manufactured by StorageTek.”


On June 22, StorageTek poisoned an estimated 8,000 prairie dogs and other animals on its 440-acre headquarters property in Louisville, CO. The poisoning was a violation of Colorado law, which prohibits the poisoning of rabbits, owls, and other animals that share prairie dog burrows.

The poisoning was also a blow to local activists who had arranged to relocate prairie dogs from Boulder Valley School District property to save them from being poisoned. StorageTek borders the school property and relocators had urged the company to erect a barrier to keep prairie dogs on company land from moving onto school property. StorageTek, a $2 billion multinational corporation that spends $1 million every year on PR, claimed the $30,000 barrier was too expensive to build.

After the prairie dogs were poisoned, StorageTek used lies and misinformation to justify its atrocity. They even claimed that the prairie dogs posed a threat of bubonic plague, when in fact there was no plague in the colony. Even if plague is detected in a prairie dog colony, the Colorado Department of Public Health recommends non-lethal methods of controlling plague and specifically warns against poisoning prairie dogs. The Colorado Department of Public Health reports an average of less than 2 cases of plague each year. An average of 13 plague cases per year are reported by all western states combined.

“To put this in perspective, the CDC reports that e-coli 0157:H7, a meat-borne pathogen, is responsible for 73,000 cases of infection and 61 deaths in the United States each year,” notes API’s Monica Engebretson, “yet we don’t see StorageTek eradicating meat from their workers’ lunches or from the neighboring school’s cafeteria.”

Alfredo Kuba of the South Bay Area chapter of IDA summed up activist sentiment by saying: “StorageTek’s mass gassing of 8,000 innocent native prairie dogs without any regard for their suffering, environmental consequences or any consciousness whatsoever can only come from a callow, ruthless, and evil corporation.”

For more information about the protest against StorageTek, please contact: Syed Rizvi, 408-971-6657; Monica Engebretson, 916-447- 3085; or Alfredo Kuba, 650-965-8705.