IDA's e-news: 5/18/05

Table of Contents:
1. New L.A. Mayor is a Friend to Elephants
2. IDA's May 2005 Auction for the Animals
3. URGENT - Tell Congress to Stop Funding Wild Horse Slaughter
4. Korea Plans to Build a Whale Meat Factory
5. Live Dog Dissected in Utah High School
6. Elephants at El Paso Zoo Need Your Help
7. Tell Anheuser-Busch that Chimpanzees Don't Belong In Commercials


1. New L.A. Mayor is a Friend to Elephants

In a historic landslide victory, Antonio Villaraigosa was elected Mayor of Los Angeles over incumbent James Hahn. This is great news for Ruby, Gita and Billy, the three African elephants currently living at the Los Angeles Zoo, because it means that they may well be on their way to a new sanctuary home.

During his campaign, candidate Villaraigosa took a very strong pro-elephant stance, making it clear that he would work for their transfer to a sanctuary and the permanent closure of the L.A. Zoo's elephant exhibit. "I have believed for some time that a zoo is not an appropriate place for an animal as large as an elephant," Villaraigosa told a reporter for NBC. "I think we need to move the elephants out." Displaying his understanding of the issue, Villaraigosa added, "Many of the problems that you see with elephants here at the Los Angeles Zoo - but also at zoos across the country - have something to do with the confined space."

In the last year alone, zoos in both San Francisco and Detroit have admitted their inability to provide for elephants' complex physical and psychological needs and closed their elephant exhibits. When Mayor Villaraigosa assumes office, Los Angeles may follow.

What You Can Do

Click http://ga0.org/campaign/LAmayor to congratulate Mayor-Elect Villaraigosa on his victory and thank him for speaking out and taking action of behalf of the elephants at the L.A. Zoo.


2. IDA's May 2005 Auction for the Animals

Support IDA's mission to defend the rights, welfare and habitats of animals during IDA's Auction for the Animals on eBay for the month of May. The auction gives you the opportunity to help IDA help animals while having fun bidding on a wide selection of over 250 elegant, exciting and unique items. The items, valued at more than $45,000, have been donated to IDA for this very special online fundraising event.
While the auction started on May 1st, the third wave is going on right now with new items that were added on May 15th. There are many fabulous items to bid on, including fantastic travel and accommodation packages, special celebrity memorabilia, and tickets for great entertainment and sporting events. Visit http://www.ebay.com/ida to see what's available. Once you find an item that you like, click on the link to view its description, the current bid price, and how much time is left until the bidding ends. Place your bid and keep an eye on it to make sure that, by the time the bidding ends, it's YOURS.

We are still accepting donated items to sell during the auction, so if you have an item that you would like to contribute, please contact Nicole Otoupalik at (800) 338-4451. All donations are tax deductible. If you already sell on eBay, now is a great time to designate 10-100% of your own auction proceeds to IDA by registering at http://www.missionfish.org the partner of eBay Giving Works.


3. URGENT - Tell Congress to Stop Funding Wild Horse Slaughter

Few Senators and Representatives who voted for the Omnibus Appropriations Bill in December 2004 noticed that Republican Senator Conrad Burns had secretly slipped in a rider to remove protections for wild horses that have been in place since 1971. Buried in the 4,000 page document was an Amendment to the Wild Horses and Burros Act that would allow all wild horses and burros over the age of ten and those not adopted out within three attempts to be sold for slaughter.

The Burns Amendment is intended to serve the interests of ranchers raising beef cattle on public lands, who don't want wild horses interfering with their stock's grazing, even though there is no proof that wild horses overgraze the areas in which they live. Yet it is the cattle ranchers themselves who buy most of the older mustangs and sell them directly to foreign-owned slaughter plants that ship horsemeat overseas.

Fortunately, a pair of bills has been introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives known as the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act that would ban horse slaughter and the international transport of live horses or horseflesh for human consumption. While these bills are still being debated, on Thursday, May 19 Congress is expected to vote on a related issue called the Rahall-Whitfield amendment, which will prevent tax dollars from being used to sell wild horses for slaughter.

It is crucial that animal advocates speak out loudly in favor of this amendment's passage. The lives of thousands of wild horses hang in the balance.

What You Can Do

Click http://ga0.org/campaign/WildHorseSlaughter now to send an automatic message urging your Congressional representative to support the Rahall-Whitfield amendment. Also please call your Congressperson's office, as phone calls have a greater impact than form emails. You can get your Congressperson's phone number by clicking http://ga0.org/indefenseofanimals/home.html and entering your zip code, or by calling the Government Information Hotline at (916) 322-9900 and giving the operator your address.


4. Korea Plans to Build a Whale Meat Factory

Before the international ban on commercial whaling went into effect in 1985, the city of Ulsan was at the center of Korea's lucrative whaling industry. These days, Ulsan is trying to remake their image as a "whale-friendly" city by opening a whale museum and playing host to events ranging from public whale festivals to the 57th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a prestigious symposium attended by hundreds of policymakers, scientists and conservationists from around the world. While the Korean Government is only too happy to tout these gestures as evidence of their concern for whales, they have been less forthcoming about their plans to open a factory in Ulsan to process whale meat.

After Greenpeace uncovered and exposed their secret plans, the Korean Government claimed that the factory was intended to process only those whales killed "accidentally" or as a result of a possible "scientific whaling" program. The fact is that Korea and Japan (where whale meat is also consumed) "accidentally" kill many more whales annually than the rest of the world's fishing fleet combined, and Korea allows their meat to be sold commercially. Meat from each whale fetches tens of thousands of dollars on the market, so there are obviously powerful financial reasons behind Korea's plan to build a whale meat factory. If it is built, the number of whales killed "accidentally" will increase exponentially. With worldwide whale populations rapidly declining, the international community can't afford to let Korea proceed with its plans.

What You Can Do

Click http://ga0.org/campaign/WhalemeatFactory to tell the Mayor or Ulsan, Park Maeng-woo, that you are strongly against the city's plans to build a whale meat factory.

To learn more about the Greenpeace campaign to stop Korea from building a whale meat factory in Ulsan, visit http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/whale-embassy-threatened-with .


5. Live Dog Dissected in Utah High School

When word got out that a live dog had been dissected as part of a biology lesson for students at Gunnison Valley High School in Utah, students, teachers, school administrators and parents expressed disgust and outrage that such a horrific procedure had been performed in the name of education. Substitute biology teacher Doug Bjerregaard made his class watch a veterinarian cut open and remove the digestive tract of an anaesthetized dog brought in from an animal shelter and subsequently euthanized. In attempting to explain his rationale for the lesson, Bjerregaard said "I thought that it would be just really a good experience if they could see the digestive system in the living animal." But what did students really learn from the experience? Gunnison Valley High student Sierra Sears told a television reporter, "It just makes me sick and I don't think this should go on anywhere and nobody's learning from it."

IDA completely agrees with Sears' insightful assessment. In a letter to South Sanpete School District Superintendent Jim Peterson, IDA President Elliot M. Katz, DVM wrote, "The result of this teaching experiment was to teach exploitation of other beings - not a very positive message to send to students, and not a message that will encourage them to grow up to be caring and compassionate adults. It's ridiculous to think that anything could be learned by such an exercise. All it showed was the insensitivity and arrogance of the teacher."

In response to the many complaints received from around the country, Superintendent Petersen released a public statement in which he apologized for the incident and went on record that "such procedures...will not be allowed in the future."

What You Can Do

Click http://ga0.org/campaign/DissectionBan to send an automatic email thanking Superintendent Petersen for banning such procedures and asking him to adopt a district-wide policy prohibiting the use of all animals as educational tools.


6. Elephants at El Paso Zoo Need Your Help

El Paso Zoo has a dark history with elephants, one filled with abuse and pain. Most notable was the vicious beating of Sissy, caught on videotape in 1999. Tragically, some of those involved in her abuse continue to work in management positions at the El Paso Zoo today.

Like all zoos, the El Paso Zoo cannot provide the vast acreage necessary to maintain elephants' physical and psychological health. Savannah, 52, and Juno, 37, spend their days confined to a yard of less than one acre, and don't have enough shade to protect them from the blazing Texas sun. They are forced to stand on concrete and hard, compacted dirt, causing joint and foot problems and severe arthritis. All of these disorders rank among the top reasons that elephants in zoos are euthanized decades before they have lived out their natural lifespan.

El Paso Zoo medical records indicate that, in addition to a myriad of other health problems, Savannah suffers from arthritis and Juno's foot is seriously infected. The much-loved Mona, who died in 2001, also suffered from terrible foot problems such as nail cracks and abscesses, as well as severe arthritis that included extremely painful bone-on-bone contact.

Elephants at the El Paso Zoo have suffered for long enough: it's time for the Zoo to close its elephant exhibit and permanently end its terrible legacy of elephant torment. Savannah and Juno must be transferred to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, where they can move freely on hundreds of acres in a naturalistic environment, socialize with other Asian elephants, and enjoy relative freedom for the first time in their lives.

What You Can Do

Click http://ga0.org/campaign/ElPasoZooElephants to urge the Mayor and the City Manager of El Paso to send Savannah and Juno to a sanctuary and permanently close the El Paso Zoo's elephant exhibit.

Visit http://www.savesfzooelephants.com to learn more about IDA's campaign to help elephants held captive in zoos across the U.S.


7. Tell Anheuser-Busch that Chimpanzees Don't Belong In Commercials

A recent commercial for Budweiser beer features a captive chimpanzee taunting a zoo visitor with a bottle of Bud Light. While this may seem amusing to some viewers on the surface, the producers of this commercial have been careful to keep the very real suffering of chimpanzees used in entertainment well out of focus.

Behind the scenes, chimpanzees are not nearly as happy as they appear on camera. In the wild, chimpanzees stay with their mothers until they are eight years old, but infant chimpanzees are routinely taken from their mothers before they are even weaned in order to be trained for the entertainment industry. Trainers use beatings, intimidation and fear to force chimpanzee "actors" to perform. When they grow too big and strong to physically dominate, some trainers pull chimpanzees' teeth or control them with electric shock collars. Eventually they become all but unmanageable, and are "retired" from the business. A lucky few are placed in sanctuaries, but the vast majority are sold to laboratories where they are experimented on and killed.

What You Can Do

Please click http://ga0.org/campaign/TVchimpanzees to urge Bud Light's Senior Director of Marketing to stop airing the current Bud Light commercial and to create a policy against using these highly intelligent, sensitive animals in future commercials. You can also call Anheuser-Busch toll-free at (800) 342-5283 to educate a Customer Service Representative about why chimpanzees don't belong in commercials. He or she will pass your comments on to the Marketing Department. Please note that you must be over 21 years of age to contact Anheuser-Busch.


Socially Responsible Shopping in Support of IDA

The Vegetarian Site promotes veganism and animal rights by supporting a different non-profit each month. As The Vegetarian Site's charitable beneficiary in May, IDA will receive 10% of all of their sales for the entire month.

All of the products offered by The Vegetarian Site are vegan and made by socially responsible brands. They offer a wide variety of men and women's vegan shoes, books, videos/DVDs, personal care products, clothing, belts and accessories. They sell their wares at comparably low prices, and feature a great number of sale items as well. Please visit their online store at http://www.thevegetariansite.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv to shop in support of IDA during the month of May.


Help Someone Kick the Meat Habit with FARM's Meatout Monday Newsletter

If you know someone who says they'd like to cut meat out of their diet but thinks it's too hard, then tell them about Meatout Mondays, a free weekly e-newsletter designed to help those who don't want to quit "cold turkey" kick the meat habit one day at a time - starting with Mondays! Easy and fun to read, Meatout Mondays encourages individuals to make changes at a pace that is comfortable for them, and is an excellent tool for introducing vegetarianism to anyone.

Every week, Meatout Mondays includes tasty vegan recipes, new product and book reviews, important health information, and inspirational stories of people who have changed their lives for the better by cutting animal products from their diets. The latest Meatout Mondays promotes Eating For Peace, a non-profit organization that encourages people to raise money for children in war-torn countries by giving up meat for a few weeks. Click http://www.meatoutmondays.org/05-05-16.htm to read the most recent issue.

Please visit http://www.meatoutmondays.org to review past issues and to subscribe your friends and family members. Meatout Mondays is a free e-newsletter, and individuals can easily unsubscribe at any time.


The Cat Therapist Shares Her Wisdom

Got cats? Then you could probably use some advice from the Cat Therapist. Click http://www.idausa.org/cat_therapist/index.html to read her latest column and learn about her new contest, "Men and Their Cats." More and more men are becoming smitten with cats, finding that felines make great companions. Guys: the Cat Therapist wants to find out why you decided to live with a cat and how your cat inspires you and makes you feel good. Click here http://www.idausa.org/cat_therapist/men_cats.html to enter.