IDA e-news: 10/12/05

1. IDA's Guardians of the Month for October
2. IDA's Project Hope Team Continues Animal Relief Work in Mississippi
3. Action Alert: Urge Your Elected Officials to Support the Downed Animal Protection Act
4. Try the World GO VEGAN Days Menu Special
5. Activists Worldwide Protest Japanese Dolphin Slaughter
6. New PETA Investigation Exposes Chinese Fur Farm Horror
7. Additional Tickets Available for National Feral Cat Summit This Weekend


1. IDA's Guardians of the Month for October
Honoring the Heroes Who Helped Animals After Hurricane Devastation

Each month, IDA recognizes a special individual who has made a real difference for animals by naming them our "Guardian of the Month." For October, we decided to honor a group of "Guardians of the Month" comprised of all the people who helped rescue animals from the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. To all those who volunteered in the devastated areas, fostered animals left homeless by the devastation, donated desperately-needed funds or urged elected officials to include provisions for the animals in disaster preparedness legislation, IDA offers sincere thanks. Your dedication to the animals affected by this national tragedy has saved thousands of lives and is a testament to the spirit of the animal protection movement.

What You Can Do

- Be a hero to animals in the hurricane zone. Dog and cat food are desperately needed for the hurricane relief efforts in Harrison County, Mississippi to feed animals who have been rescued and are now being cared for in temporary shelters. Please send donated food to:

Mike McMillian
Harrison County Fairgrounds
15321 County Farm Road
Gulfport, MS 39503

- Lawmakers are considering a bill that would require state and local disaster preparedness plans to include provisions for evacuating animals. This could save the lives of tens of thousands of animal companions in the next large-scale disaster. Please click http://ga0.org/campaign/AnimalRescueBill to send an automatic email urging your federal Representative to support this important bill. You can also contact your Representative by phone, fax or postal mail using the information below.

Representative Nancy Pelosi
U.S. House of Representatives
2371 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0001
(202) 225-4965

- If you would like to foster or adopt animals rescued from the hurricane zone, contact your local shelter to see if they have any available.


2. IDA's Project Hope Team Continues Animal Relief Work in Mississippi
Homeless Animals Continue to Flow into Waveland from Search and Rescue Missions in New Orleans

IDA's Project Hope animal relief team had another eventful week looking after animals rescued from the wreckage of New Orleans and other areas hit hard by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It started off when a dog who was rescued from New Orleans was brought to the Waveland shelter and appeared as if she might be pregnant. As members of the team drove from New Orleans back to Jackson in the early morning hours, these suspicions were confirmed when the dog started to produce milk. Team member Lisa Martin and her husband Mike sprang into action, volunteering to take the mama dog back to New Orleans, hoping that she would lead them straight to her puppies. The fact that it was late at night didn't deter them, but they did have to convince some National Guards on security duty to escort them into the restricted area. The Guardsmen kindly agreed to assist with the search, and sure enough, the mama dog knew exactly where to find her puppies. Mike bravely climbed under a house that had been immersed in toxic flood water just a couple of weeks earlier and handed the puppies out to their mother, who lovingly licked and inspected each one as they were laid by her side.

Back in Waveland, a steady flow of dogs and cats arrived at the shelter. Randy Grim of Stray Rescue of St. Louis asked if 15 pit bulls could be housed at the Project Hope Sanctuary until transportation to his shelter in Missouri was arranged. Of course the answer was Yes, but to everyone's surprise, a total of 44 rescues arrived on Sunday afternoon. This caused some confusion at the sanctuary, but all of these animals should soon be moved to new locations. Tragically, two of the rescued dogs (not pit bulls) escaped from their pen and attacked three of the sanctuary's pot bellied pigs, two of whom had to be euthanized. Thankfully, the surviving pig seems to be making a steady recovery.

IDA's Project Hope team has been fortunate to have had some amazing and dedicated volunteers, three of whom - Carin Dombroski and Fiona Halbritter from Virginia and Janelle Davidson from Oregon - departed this week. Fortunately, other volunteers continue to arrive, including Sherry Dugan of Oregon, as well as IDA's Northwest Coordinator Matt Rossell and his partner Leslie Hemstreet. IDA volunteer Eric Phelps returned home to Virginia recently after a week at the Waveland shelter cleaning the facility and caring for homeless animals. On his drive back home, he brought eight dogs and eight cats to shelters in Virginia and North Carolina. After a thirty-day waiting period to allow the animals a chance to be reunited with their guardians, the animals who endured so much will be adopted out. Because the entire city of Waveland was destroyed and residents who stayed in the area are now homeless (many are living in tent cities, vans, and trailers), the animals at the Waveland shelter don't stand a chance of being adopted out in their native city. IDA volunteers continue to relocate animals brought to the Waveland shelter to other facilities so they can find new homes. The steady influx of influx of strays and the burgeoning stream of puppies and kittens being born as a result of unaltered animals left roaming the streets makes freeing up room for new arrivals at the Waveland shelter a top priority.

What You Can Do

IDA's Project Hope animal relief team is looking for volunteers to help with search and rescue in New Orleans. If you have experience with trapping stray animals and you have your own car (or can rent one), please write to hurricanekatrinainquiries [at] idausa.org .



3. Action Alert: Urge Your Elected Officials to Support the Downed Animal Protection Act
Bill Introduced to Ban Meat from Downed Animals and Require their Humane Euthanization

Last week, Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Steven LaTourette (R-OH) introduced the Downed Animal Protection Act (S. 1779/H.R. 3931), a bill that would ban the sale of meat from downed animals for human consumption. "Downed" animals are those that are too sick or injured to walk to slaughter on their own. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has already enacted a temporary ban on the sale of downed cattle for human consumption because all six confirmed cases of mad cow disease in North America originated from downed cows. However, it is still currently legal to sell downed sheep, pigs, goats, horses, mules and other animals for human consumption. The Downed Animal Protection Act would ban the sale of all downed animals for meat, and require immediate euthanization of downed animals, many of whom now lie for days without food, water or veterinary care until they are dragged by chains or pushed by bulldozers to slaughter.

Permanently banning meat from downed animals will help protect public health and end the suffering of sick and injured animals. It will also help improve conditions for farmed animals by providing a financial incentive for producers to treat animals better to prevent them from becoming sick or injured in the first place.

What You Can Do

Click http://ga0.org/campaign/DownedAnimalAct to urge your elected officials to support the Downed Animal Protection Act or use the information below to contact them.

Representative Nancy Pelosi
U.S. House of Representatives
2371 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0001
(202) 225-4965

Senator Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-0001
(202) 224-3841

Senator Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senate
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-0001
(202) 224-3553


4. Try the World GO VEGAN Days Menu Special
Ask Your Favorite Restaurant to Offer Half-Price Vegan Meals from October 30th - November 1st

IDA's World GO VEGAN Days is almost here, and so is your chance to take your meat-eating friends out for a discounted vegan meal. Participating restaurants are offering a special World GO VEGAN Days deal: one half-price vegan meal for every full-price vegan meal purchased between October 30th and November 1st. This is an excellent opportunity to give those who still eat animal products a taste of how delicious a more nutritious, animal-loving, earth-friendly way of life can be!

What You Can Do

Click http://www.idausa.org/vegandays/restaurant_specials.html for a list of participating restaurants. If there aren't any in your area, ask your local vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants to offer the World GO VEGAN Days Special. If they sign on, let us know by contacting IDA's Vegan Campaign Coordinator Kenneth Williams at (415) 388-9641, ext. 224 or Kenneth [at] idausa.org . We'll send participating restaurants a free World GO VEGAN Days poster, plus they'll get free publicity on IDA's World GO VEGAN Days website (http://www.WorldGoVeganDays.com) and on the syndicated radio program "Go Vegan With Bob Linden" ( http://www.goveganradio.com ). We'll also give you a press release that you can send to your local media to raise vegan awareness about World GO VEGAN Days, and we have speakers who are available for interviews.


5. Activists Worldwide Protest Japanese Dolphin Slaughter
IDA's Demonstration at Japanese Consulate in San Francisco a Rousing Success

On Saturday, October 8th, hundreds of animal advocates the world over took part in an international protest against the annual massacre of dolphins, porpoises and small whales in towns along the coast of Japan. Every year from October through March, Japanese fishermen round up and brutally slaughter over 20,000 marine mammals, then sell their meat to supermarkets and restaurants. A few choice animals are captured and sold to marine parks, where they spend the remainder of their lives in small aqua-enclosures forced to perform demeaning tricks for visitors.

The international protest, coordinated by OneVoice and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, galvanized activists in nearly two-dozen cities around the world to speak out on the dolphins' behalf. IDA co-sponsored a demonstration with the International Marine Mammal Project of the Earth Island Institute in front of the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco. More than 70 demonstrators, led by a group of elementary school children who have started their own endangered species preservation group, came out in strong support for dolphin protection. A giant inflatable dolphin was paraded around the four corners of a busy intersection as protestors chanted "We Love Dolphins," "Stop Killing Dolphins" and "Mammals to Mammals." San Francisco was especially crowded this weekend with fans of Fleet Week, an air show that features the world-famous Blue Angels, and many people shouted out their support for the protestors or sounded their horns in solidarity while driving by.

America's Whale Alliance also drove their 35-foot "Whale Bus" all the way down from Oregon to participate in the protest. The Whale Alliance parked the bus, painted with a colorful mural of whales and dolphins swimming peacefully, across from the Consulate and welcomed people aboard to learn more about the drive fisheries' cruelty toward marine mammals. Nearby, protestors strung a huge painted banner that said "Japan: Stop the Bloody Dolphin Slaughter" between street posts. A memorial to Ben White - a tireless and courageous animal and environmental activist who passed away this summer - was displayed on the sidewalk, and many demonstrators sported Ben's famous dolphin hats while holding signs in both English and Japanese urging an end to the drive fisheries. Activists also handed out flyers letting people know what they could do to help stop the dolphin slaughter and collected hundreds of petition signatures, which in the coming weeks will be presented to the Japanese government.

IDA would like to thank everyone who took part in this demonstration, which helped raise awareness of the slaughter's brutality along with protests held simultaneously around the world. The public's enthusiastic response to these events sends a clear message to the Japanese government that people throughout the world oppose the greed-driven massacre of intelligent creatures.

What You Can Do

- Click http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/marine/japan_dolphin_day.html to learn more about the annual dolphin massacre in Japan and to urge Japanese officials to end the slaughter.

- Click http://ga0.org/campaign/DolphinSlaughter to let Japanese officials know that the blood that continues to spill from dolphins slaughtered in Japan stains our humanity and taints Japan's international image. You can also contact them by postal mail, phone, fax or personal email using the information below:

Ryozo Kato
Japanese Ambassador to the U.S.
2520 Mass. Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel.: (202) 238-6700
Fax: (202) 328-2187
E-mail: jcc [at] embjapan.org

Yoshiyuki Kamei
Minister of Fisheries
1-2-1 Ksumigaseki 1 Chome
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
100-8907 JAPAN
Fax: 81-3-3502-8220
E-mail: whaling-section [at] nm.maff.go.jp


6. New PETA Investigation Exposes Chinese Cat and Dog Fur Horror
Call for National Boycott of J. Crew for Supporting Unmitigated Cruelty to Animals

In their latest investigation of the Chinese fur industry, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) managed to shoot undercover video of dogs and cats packed into wire cages and stacked by the thousands on trucks. The shocking footage documents fur farm workers throwing cages from the tops of trucks to the ground, a ten-foot drop that shatters the legs of many animals inside, then poking animals through the wire mesh with wooden poles. Many of the dogs and cats still wear collars, an indication that they were stolen from their guardians to be turned into fur trim and trinkets, some of which are then sold in America by J. Crew.

Dog and cat fur exported to the U.S. is often deliberately mislabeled as the fur of another species, so consumers who purchase may unknowingly be wearing the fur of a dog or cat. J. Crew imports all of its fur from China, a country where animal welfare regulations are nonexistent and animals suffer the worst kinds of abuses, including death by hanging, strangulation or electrocution. Investigators even witnessed some animals literally being skinned alive.

J. Crew has so far ignored pleas to stop supporting the cruel Chinese fur industry and their atrocious cruelty to dogs and cats. The company's silence shows that money means more to them than what is being done to dogs and cats on the Chinese fur farms they bankroll. This doesn't quite square with the smiling faces of clean-cut models that J. Crew typically features in its ads, so the company is being targeted for a radical image makeover courtesy of the good folks at PETA.

What You Can Do

- Boycott J. Crew. Don't shop there until they agree to stop selling fur.

- Tell J. Crew to stop selling fur by calling their customer service department at (800) 562-0258. You can also click http://ga0.org/campaign/JCruel to send an automatic email message to J. Crew decision-makers urging them to drop fur from their clothing line. You can also contact them by postal mail, phone, fax or personal email using the information below:

Millard S. Drexler, Chair & CEO
J. Crew Group, Inc.
770 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Tel: (212) 209-2500
Fax: (212) 209-2666
mdrexler [at] jcrew.com

Jeff Pfeifle, President
J. Crew Group, Inc.
770 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Tel: (212) 209-8100
Fax: (212) 209-2666
jpfeifle [at] jcrew.com

- Help expose the cruelty to dogs and cats that J. Crew supports by starting a J. Cruel campaign in your area. Visit http://www.jcruel.com/catdogfur.asp to learn more about the Chinese fur trade, sign PETA's petition, participate in demos at a J. Crew store near you and more.

- Contact IDA for free anti-fur cards, stickers, flyers, and posters. Email antifur [at] idausa.org to request materials.


7. Additional Tickets Available for National Feral Cat Summit This Weekend
IDA Co-Sponsored Event Draws Attendees and Experts from Across the U.S.

This weekend, IDA and Neighborhood Cats will present the 2nd Annual National Feral Cat Summit in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 15th. This unique one-day conference, which drew rave reviews last year, will feature presentations and workshops by feral cat experts and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) leaders from around the country.

We are pleased to announce that 30 more tickets have recently been made available because the Summit has been moved to a larger space in the Wyndham Philadelphia Hotel. If you would like to learn the latest TNR techniques and get great advice about caring for feral cat colonies, you won't want to miss this one-of-a-kind event.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit http://idausa.org/feral_cats.html .


Your Checks Can Do More than Pay the Bills!

Make a statement that you care about animals while paying your bills: use IDA checks and checkbook covers from Message!Products.

Choose IDA's "Classic Conscience," a single design with the IDA logo in the center of the check, or select our "Cutest Critters" design, a set of six adorable animal photos with different animal-friendly slogans appearing at the top.

Order your checks today!
Wallet Single: 150 checks for just $14.95
Wallet Duplicate: 150 checks for just $16.95

10% of every IDA-related product purchased from Message!Products goes directly to IDA.

To order, visit http://www.idausa.org/supportf.html .


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. This week's Meatout Mondays celebrates the peanut with delicious recipes, product recommendations and health information. Click http://www.meatoutmondays.org/05-10-10.htm to read the latest 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.