IDA - Bay Area Events

IDA EVENTS
1. Gopher Gardening at Ocean Beach
2. Protest Canadian Seal Slaughter with IDA in SF
3. Sign Petition to Save the Exotic Deer of Point Reyes National
Seashore
4. IDA/SHARK Starbucks-Rodeo Protest Coming to Bay Area
OTHER BAY AREA EVENTS TO HELP ANIMALS
1. Compassionate Cooks' February Cooking Class: "Demystifying
Tofu and Tempeh"
2. Adopt an Animal from SFACC

IDA EVENTS

1. Gopher Gardening at Ocean Beach

Join the San Francisco Wildlife Protection Project, an effort by
the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department to create a
wildlife "sanctuary" along the Great Highway. By landscaping the
area according to the Parks Department's specifications,
volunteers create a habitat for native gophers and prevent them
from being trapped and killed. This is an ongoing monthly
effort, and usually takes place on the first Saturday of each
month.

What: Gopher Gardening
When: Saturday, March 4th, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Where: Corner of the Great Highway and Wawona Street, San
Francisco, at the small brick Recreation and Park maintenance
building. Click http://tinyurl.com/4hnh2 for directions to this
event.

For more information, please contact Karen Steele at
karen [at] idausa.org .

2. Protest Canadian Seal Slaughter with IDA in SF

In late March this year, the single largest mass slaughter of
mammals anywhere in the world will once again take place off the
East Coast of Canada. Endorsed by the Canadian Government,
fishermen will commence the brutal slaughter of over 300,000
harp seals. Last year, more than 98.5% of the seals killed were
newborn pups less than two months old.

Sealing is an off-season activity conducted by commercial
fishermen from Canada's East Coast. They beat or shoot the
defenseless seal pups with rifles, clubs and hakapiks - long
wooden clubs with sharp hooked spikes at one end. It really
isn't much of a "hunt" because the seals are so young they are
barely able to even move.

On average, fishermen make about one-twentieth of their annual
incomes from sealing (the rest comes from working in commercial
fisheries). Canada exports over three billion dollars worth of
seafood a year to the U.S. alone, but only makes a few million
from the seal slaughter. IDA joins animal protection groups
around the world in calling for people everywhere to boycott
Canadian seafood products until Canada stops their annual
massacre for good.

What You Can Do:

Contact officials at the Embassy of Canada and tell them that
you oppose the Canadian seal slaughter and will boycott Canadian
seafood until their government agrees to end the killing.

The Embassy of Canada
501 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001-2114
Tel: (202) 682-1740
Fax: (202) 682-7619
E-mail: webmaster [at] canadianembassy.org

IDA has long demonstrated against Canada's cruel killing of
seals. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, please join
IDA's first protest this year against the seal slaughter.

What: Protest against Canadian seal slaughter
When: Wednesday, March 15th from 12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.
Where: San Francisco/Silicon Valley Consulate General of Canada,
580 California Street, 14th floor, San Francisco

To RSVP and for directions, please contact IDA Campaign
Coordinator Melissa Gonzalez at Melissa [at] idausa.org or (415)
386-3728, ext. 228. Also contact Melissa if you are interested
in organizing an event in your own community.

If you eat fish or other aquatic animals, please do not buy
Canadian seafood until Canada agrees to end the seal slaughter
for good. Please also inform your friends how buying Canadian
seafood supports the massacre of baby seals.

3. Sign Petition to Save the Exotic Deer of Point Reyes National
Seashore

The National Park Service (NPS) plans to shoot and exterminate
the beautiful fallow and spotted axis deer living at the Point
Reyes National Seashore simply because they are non-native. All
impacts claimed by the park in their Draft Environmental Impact
Statement (DEIS), however, are minor or speculative. As there is
no crisis, the park has the time to implement a humane wildlife
contraception program, which has been used to manage deer
populations nationally and with elk living at the seashore.

A deadly hunt that will needlessly kill these unique animals who
have resided in Point Reyes since 1948, when they were placed
there by humans. Please help IDA remind the NPS of their ethical
obligation to exhaust all non-lethal methods before resorting to
violence.

What You Can Do:

1) Please sign IDA's petition
( http://ga0.org/campaign/pointreyespetition ) to stop the
slaughter of these beautiful deer.

2) Please click http://ga0.org/campaign/ptreyesdeer to urge NPS
Regional Director Jon Jarvis to implement a humane, non-lethal
method of controlling the exotic deer population at Point Reyes
National Seashore. To have a greater impact, also use the
information below to contact Mr. Jarvis by phone, fax, postal
mail and personal email.

Jon Jarvis
Regional Director
Pacific West Region
National Park Service
One Jackson Center
1111 Jackson Street, Suite 700
Oakland, CA 95607
(510) 817-1304
jon_jarvis [at] nps.gov

Please also send a copy of your letter to your member of
Congress. You can get contact information for your elected
officials 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.

California residents only: also contact U.S. Senator Barbara
Boxer:
1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94111
Tel: (415) 403-0100
Fax: (415) 956-6701

For further information on what you can do to help the deer,
please visit http://www.saveptreyesdeer.org .

4. IDA/SHARK Starbucks-Rodeo Protest Coming to Bay Area

IDA has teamed up with national animal protection organization
Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) to target Starbucks
Coffee for sponsoring rodeos. Sadly, many animals are injured
and killed every year in these violent competitions, so it's no
wonder that Starbucks Customer Relations Representatives at
first told concerned consumers that the company did not place an
ad in the 2005 Cheyenne Frontier Days Souvenir Program. Yet
following their denials, SHARK later discovered that Starbucks
has also sponsored the Miss Rodeo Washington, the Belton Rodeo
in Texas and the American Royal Rodeo in Kansas City, Mo.
Hundreds of coffee drinkers have contacted Starbucks to point
out that sponsoring rodeos is the equivalent of endorsing animal
abuse, yet the company refuses to stop subsidizing this "sport"
that epitomizes human domination over animals.

IDA and SHARK will be holding protests outside of Bay Area
Starbucks stores in the coming weeks, so please join us as we
educate their customers about the company's disregard for animal
welfare. SHARK founder and President, Steve Hindi, has been
exposing rodeo cruelty for years, and is one of the key national
figures in the fight to end the use of animals for sport and
entertainment. He will lead the demonstrations and bring his
Tiger Truck, a customized multi-media vehicle with large-screen
televisions in the windows that can be seen from a distance. We
will play footage of rodeo brutality for pedestrians and
motorists to see as they pass by, and hand out leaflets to
people on the sidewalk.

What You Can Do:

Participate in IDA/SHARK's Bay Area demonstrations against
Starbucks:

- Palo Alto: Wednesday, March 1st
- San Francisco (Union Square): Thursday, March 2nd & Friday,
March 3rd
- Sacramento: Saturday, March 4th

We will provide the times and locations to our members when they
are determined. To learn more about participating and to RSVP,
contact Program Coordinator Melissa Gonzalez at (415) 388-9641
ext. 228 or Melissa [at] idausa.org .

Also visit http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/sport/rodeo/alert.html for
other ways you can help us stop Starbucks' support for rodeos.
Action ideas include contacting Starbucks, signing our petition
and distributing leaflets outside of your local Starbucks.

OTHER BAY AREA EVENTS TO HELP ANIMALS

1. Compassionate Cooks' February Cooking Class: "Demystifying
Tofu and Tempeh"

Join Compassionate Cooks for their next vegan cooking class,
"Demystifying Tofu and Tempeh," and learn to make five
delicious, nutritious dishes, including Tempeh Reuben Sandwich,
Tofu Filet with Spicy Cornmeal Crust, Better-Than-Chicken Salad,
Tofu & Vegetable Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce, and Chocolate
Cheesecake. Using local, in-season, mostly organic ingredients,
Compassionate Cooks features easy-to-prepare recipes and debunks
myths about plant-based diets. Join the class in February for
yummy food samples, a soy milk taste test and a lot of fun!

What: Compassionate Cooks' February Cooking Class: "Demystifying
Tofu and Tempeh"
When: Saturday, February 25th, 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Where: The First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th Street
(at Castro), Oakland (click http://www.uuoakland.org/directions.htm for
directions)

Be sure to register in advance by Thursday, February 23rd either
online at http://www.compassionatecooks.com/reg.htm or by calling (510)
531-COOK. You can also mail a check to Colleen Patrick-Goudreau,
P.O. Box 18512, Oakland, CA 94619. The $45 cost of the class
includes instruction, food samples, copies of recipes and much
more.

2. Adopt an Animal from SFACC

The exotic animals room at San Francisco Animal Care and
Control's (SFACC's) shelter is always overflowing with all kinds
of cute little animals who need loving homes. Right now, they a
number of parakeets that are just waiting for someone to come
along and adopt them. The bird sanctuary that would normally
take them in has no more room, so these birds will have to be
killed if homes are not found soon. SFACC also still has plenty
of rabbits and rats to choose from. For more information about
adopting animals, you can visit SFACC's shelter in the Mission
District at 1200 15th Street (at Harrison) or browse their
website at http://www.sfgov.org/site/acc_index.asp .