Feature Archives

Despite the upcoming ban that goes into effect in California in 2012, foie gras is still being served at Aqua and other restaurants in the Bay Area. Foie Gras is produced through the forced feeding of ducks with high fat foods until their livers expand to up to ten times the normal size, sometimes even exploding. This is considered quite the tasty treat for upscale restaurant goers. Outside of the restaurant, In Defense of Animals (IDA) members show video of a chef who claims in a TV interview that the feeding tubes used to produce foie gras only broach the tips of the birds’ mouths. In the same video the chef is then shown graphic footage by the interviewer of what really happens when ducks have massive amounts of food being blasted down their throats. Read more

Animal experimentation is a multibillion-dollar industry involving a complex web of corporate, government, and university laboratories, animal breeders, and their suppliers. Animal rights supporters and proponents of more-applicable, human-based research held Day of the Dog protests December 1st and 3rd, and a vigil December 6th, against experiments at the University of California San Francisco that will exploit up to 750 dogs over a period of 3 years. Most of the dogs will be surgically implanted with pacemakers and will either die from the ordeal in less than 6 months or be "euthanized" and have their hearts removed for further study. Unweaned puppies as young as one day old are also being used. Animals used in experiments for taxpayer-financed grant money at UCSF include rodents, rabbits, dogs, cats, sheep, pigs, ferrets, squirrels and nonhuman primates. Read More · Photos: 1 | 2

Additionally, a vigil was held the evening of December 1st to honor the 40,000 animals harmed in research across the Bay at UC Berkeley.

Vivesection fact sheets: Wasteful and Unreliable | Alternatives Do Exist

Along with Buy Nothing Day on the "busiest shopping day of the year", activists also targeted stores that sell fur and fur trim last Friday. In San Jose, activists paid a visit to Macy's Department Store at Valley Fair Mall, despite the resistance from managers and mall cops. Hundreds of flyers were passed out, and many people were educated on the barbaric industry of the fur trade. In Santa Rosa, activists converged outside Santa Rosa Mall, alerting shoppers with street theater and signs about the brutal slaughter of seals for their fur and how this ugly trade relates to all fur-bearing animals. In Walnut Creek, BeBe shoppers learned that fur garments come at a huge cost to the animals. In San Francisco, 50 activists converged on Neiman Marcus in Union Square to denounce the fur trade and educate the public.
Reports: San Jose | Portland
Photos: Santa Rosa | San Francisco · Video: Santa Rosa
For information on the fur trade, visit www.FurIsDead.com.

The group East Bay Animal Advocates performed an open rescue, liberating birds after sneaking onto a Central Valley turkey farm. A semiclandestine group, whose primary mission is to liberate farm animals, has performed three rescues since last year, willfully trespassing for what it perceives as a higher moral calling — to save animals from abuse and apply medical support to those in need. The group, which also is known as the Animal Advocates' Animal Bureau of Investigations Team, published photos from two raids on its Web site recently. The group has also worked to document abuses by the farm, dairy, and egg industry. The group faxed a letter to Merced County Animal Control citing animal cruelty laws and posted the farm's name on its Web site beneath photos of alleged abuse.
Read More | Personal Account | EBAA website for more info and pictures

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors last year wisely voted to ban elephant rides from the annual Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, for reasons of animal welfare and public safety. California State Fair officials, though, are currently negotiating to have elephant rides at the 2005 State Fair. When not giving rides, these Asian elephants (an endangered species) are kept in chains. The travel from Southern California is highly stressful on the animals, and potentially dangerous. Elephant rides serve only to reinforce the idea that animals are here merely for our entertainment, and the animals' welfare is secondary. There's also a public health risk: elephants can carry and transmit tuberculosis to humans and if they manage to escape, can be a serious risk to people.
Read More | Update Feb 1 | Update Feb 15.

In a Presidential tradition, Bush pardoned two turkeys this year but certainly he has no qualms about eating many others.

Vegetarians and vegans, on the other hand — rebelling against meat culture conformity — ate absolutely no turkey this Thanksgiving day, but that doesn't mean they went hungry. Many cooked traditional, although turkey-free, meals for themselves and invited others over to share in their bounty. Some vegetarians went out to eat at one of the numerous high-quality, vegetarian-only restaurants in the Bay Area. And others simply passed on putting turkey on their plate, but ate all the other offerings, as they spent the day at the houses of family and friends. There are a wealth of options for those who want to enjoy the holidays without contributing to animal suffering or environmental degredation. Read More

In Bakersfield and other cities, Animal Rights advocates rallied in support of a turkey-free Thankgiving.

Some events: Bay Area Vegetarians and the Upaya Center present a vegan/raw food Turkey Liberation Day potluck as an alternative to the traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving Day at 2pm. Details East Bay Food Not Bombs will hold a Vegetarian Potluck/Give Thanks Feast at 6pm at Ashkenaz.

After decades of highly charged efforts to end fox hunting throughout Europe, from sabatoging hunts to building public opposition to the sport, Animal Welfare and Animal Rights groups won a major victory in Britain. The elected House of Commons invoked a rarely used 1949 Parliament Act to force a ban on fox hunting into law despite the delaying tactics and opposition of the unelected House of Lords. Hunters vowed legal fights, huge marches like the one in September 2002 with 400,000 supporters of fox hunting, and outright defiance of the law. Without a big rout of the Labour Party in the next elections, though, the law will likely remain in effect on the up-to-now popular country sport that is despised by many urbanites. Read More