IDA - Bay Area Events

IDA EVENTS
1. Gopher Gardening at Ocean Beach
2. IDA Rodeo Protest in San Francisco
3. IDA Canadian Seal Slaughter Protest Recap
OTHER BAY AREA EVENTS TO HELP ANIMALS
1. Help Ban Open Field Coursing in California
2. Compassionate Cooks' April Cooking Class: "Healthful Mediterranean Menu"


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, April 1st, 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 Melissa Gonzalez at melissa [at] idausa.org or 415-388-9641, ext. 228.


2. IDA Rodeo Protest in San Francisco

Rodeo is a cruel "sport" that injures, maims and kills animals in the name of entertainment. Few rodeo spectators realize that horses, cows, calves and bulls are normally docile animals who are forced to appear wild and dangerous through abusive means. Handlers agitate these otherwise gentle creatures with electric prods, flank straps, ropes and spurs for the "entertainment" of the crowd. Regular rodeo events include chasing baby calves on horseback and lassoing them around the neck, jumping from horses on top of steers and twisting their heads to force them into the dirt, and riding "bucking broncos" who are actually domesticated horses leaping frantically in the air only because of the flank straps cinched tightly around their sensitive abdomens.

Sadly, some people believe that rodeos are wholesome family entertainment, and ignore the harm they do to animals and the message rodeos send to young people: that abusing animals for fun is tolerable. Watching cowboys hurt gentle creatures for the crowd's amusement can have a strong impression on children and dull their natural sensitivity to animals. Children who are told that it is acceptable and even fun to hurt animals are more likely to become abusive adults, perpetuating the cycle of violence against both humans and animals.

What You Can Do:

Please attend a demonstration hosted by Silicon Valley IDA to protest the callous mistreatment of animals that is part and parcel of the rodeo. Teachers and students are especially encouraged to participate and speak out on the animals' behalf.

What: IDA rodeo protest
When: Friday, April 7th, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Where: Cow Palace, Geneva Avenue (at Santos Street), San Francisco (click http://www.cowpalace.com/cpinfo.html for directions)

Signs and leaflets will be provided. For more information about this event, please contact Alfredo Kuba at bkind2animals [at] comcast.net or (650) 965-8705.


3. IDA Canadian Seal Slaughter Protest Recap

Following up on Paul and Heather McCartney's recent landmark peace mission to Canada, activists held a global day of action against the annual seal slaughter last week in countries around the world, and IDA was an integral part of it. We held a lively protest in front of the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco that was attended by over 30 people. Enthusiastic activists gathered to hold signs and banners, chant, and pass out information to passerby about the hunt's inherent cruelty. Most spectators supported the demonstrators and expressed great interest in helping to end the hunt. Many said they were surprised the slaughter was still happening, and thanked activists for informing them of the current situation facing the seals. The San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner newspapers, the Associated Press wire service, television station Newsroom Access San Francisco, and radio stations KPFA and KTVU all came to cover the event. Thank you to everyone who attended to make this event a success!

Other successful events were simultaneously held in cities around the world. Over 100 activists protested the seal slaughter in Los Angeles, along with actors Martin Sheen and Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams) and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder and President Captain Paul Watson. Additional protests were held in at least 10 other American cities, as well as in Spain, South Africa, Croatia and three Canadian cities, putting opposition to the Canadian seal hunt on the world map.

What You Can Do:

1. Contact officials at the U.S. 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

2. 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. Organize a demonstration. Request IDA's banner ( http://www.furkills.org/lit.shtml ) and contact IDA Campaign Coordinator Melissa Gonzalez at Melissa [at] idausa.org or (415) 388-9641, ext. 228 for help with organizing an event in your own community.


OTHER BAY AREA EVENTS TO HELP ANIMALS

1. Help Ban Open Field Coursing in California

The effort to ban open field coursing in California is moving forward. As we have reported in previous alerts, open field coursing is a blood sport in which packs of specially-trained dogs are set loose in a field to chase and kill wild jackrabbits flushed out by spectators. The dogs (mostly greyhounds dressed in colored racing jackets) are scored by the agility and speed with which they chase down their prey, and rewarded for tearing the rabbits apart. Sometimes the rabbits escape through a hole in the fence or a drainage pipe, but most of the time the exhausted animals are caught and torn apart in the dogs' jaws.

California is one of the few states in the U.S. where the "sport" remains legal, but AB 2110, a bill introduced by Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D - Berkeley), may soon change that. AB 2110 would make participating in open field coursing a misdemeanor punishable by six months in jail, a $1,000 fine or both.

What You Can Do:

1) The Assembly Public Safety Committee is scheduled to hear AB 2110 on Tuesday, April 4th. Please click http://ga0.org/campaign/BanOpenFieldCoursing2 to urge members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee to support this bill to ban open field coursing. To have greater influence on these decision makers, also call and write letters of support.

Committee Chairman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco)
Tel: (916) 319-2013
E-mail: assemblymember.leno [at] asm.ca.gov
Fax: (916) 319-3745

Assemblymember Rebecca Cohn (D-Campbell)
Tel: (916) 319- 2024
E-mail: assemblymember.cohn [at] assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton)
Tel: (916) 319-2052
E-mail: assemblymember.dymally [at] asm.ca.gov

Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles)
Tel: (916) 319-2045
E-mail: assemblymember.goldberg [at] asm.ca.gov

Assemblymember Jay La Suer (R-La Mesa)
Tel: (916) 319-2077
E-mail: assemblymember.lasuer [at] asm.ca.gov

Assemblymember Todd Spitzer (R-Orange)
Tel: (916) 319-2071
E-mail: assemblymember.spitzer [at] asm.ca.gov

Mailing Address:
(ASSEMBLYMEMBER'S NAME)
Public Safety Committee
1020 N Street
Room 111
Sacramento, CA 95814

2) Click http://ga0.org/campaign/BanOpenFieldCoursing to ask your Assemblymember to support AB 2110. You can also contact your Assemblymember personally. Click http://ga0.org/indefenseofanimals/home.html and enter your zip code to get his or her mailing address and phone number.

3) Solano County residents: Solano County is also considering a local ban. Supervisors discussed a report on open field coursing and the bill to ban the activity statewide at their February 28th meeting, and directed staff to craft an ordinance prohibiting open field coursing in the county. Please urge your Supervisor to support the ban. Click http://www.co.solano.ca.us/Contact/Contact.asp?NavID=468 to find your Supervisor's contact information.


2. Compassionate Cooks' April Cooking Class: "Healthful Mediterranean Menu"

Join Compassionate Cooks for their next vegan cooking class, "Healthful Mediterranean Menu," and learn to make five delicious, nutritious dishes, including Basic Basil Pesto with Polenta Squares, Muhammara (Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Spread), Elegantly Simple Stuffed Bell Peppers, Asparagus Soup with Fresh Herbs, and Delicious Date Squares. 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 April for yummy food samples and a lot of fun!

What: Compassionate Cooks' April Cooking Class: "Healthful Mediterranean Menu"
When: Saturday, April 15th, 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Where: The First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th Street (at Castro), Oakland (click http://uuoakland.org/directions.htm for directions)

Be sure to register in advance 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.