IDA eNews: 2/28/07

IDA ACTION ALERTS
1. Help the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
2. Oppose Importation of Dolphins Captured in Japanese Drive Fishery
3. Help Get Ruby the Elephant to a Sanctuary

NEWS & CAMPAIGN UPDATES
1. Plant Power! IDA Launches "Green Food Bank" Campaign
2. IDA-Africa Says Goodbye to Beloved Becky
3. Victory: Fireworks Display Moved Away from Animal Shelter


IDA ACTION ALERTS

1. Help the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Sign IDA's petition in support of legislation to protect the parrots' habitat

In December 2005 and January 2006, IDA took up the cause of the world-famous birds who are the fascinating subjects of the acclaimed documentary "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" ( http://www.markbittner.net/parrots_central.html ). At that time, an absentee landowner of a North Beach property had cut down three of five cypress trees that comprise a key part of the parrots' San Francisco habitat. These were the same trees where the birds were seen in the movie feeding their young and hiding from predatory hawks circling overhead.

The film also documents the special friendship the parrots share with adoring caretaker Mark Bittner, who lives on the Greenwich Steps of Telegraph Hill and has spent the last decade studying, feeding, caring for and protecting the flock of over 200 birds. Without the cypresses, the parrots would no longer have a secure perch from which to watch for hawks in the Greenwich Steps garden, because they are the tallest trees in the area. Mark managed to save the remaining two trees by running out of his cottage and standing between the cypresses and chainsaws, refusing to move until the engines were silenced and negotiations for their protection resumed.

Now, well over a year later, San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty ( http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=12723 ) has proposed legislation that would provide for the pruning and maintenance of the two surviving Monterey cypress trees, mandate the planting of up to six new parrot-friendly trees, and protect the property owner from legal liability should the dying trees happen to fall before being replaced. The Northeast San Francisco Conservancy has raised around $5,000 from donations, which is enough to pay an arborist to prune and preserve the trees until the new ones are established....provided Dufty's legislation passes.

IDA supporters played a major role in convincing San Francisco officials to protect the parrots' habitat in the first place. More than 2,700 caring people around the world signed IDA's original petition in support of preserving the parrots' habitat, and Supervisor Dufty said he received more emails in favor of helping the parrots than on any other issue since taking office in 2003. In a recent article published in the San Francisco Chronicle ( http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/14/MNGEVO4DQJ1.DTL&hw=wild+parrots&sn=001&sc=1000 ), Dufty is quoted as saying, "We heard loud and clear from around the world that this is a special habitat. It's an example to other cities that they can work creatively to protect their animal wonders."

According to Judy Irving, producer/director of "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" (who is now married to Bittner), "It's the great work of In Defense of Animals that Dufty is talking about: Your on-line petition and the IDA-inspired flood of emails supporting the protection of wild parrot habitat (and especially these two cypress trees) provided the rationale, motivation, and support for the pending legislation." Seeing the parrots flying freely in the wilds of San Francisco warms the hearts of residents and visitors alike. IDA is proud to have been able to help the parrots, and we will continue doing so until their habitat is secure.

What You Can Do:

1) Please sign IDA's new petition to urge the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to protect the wild parrots' habitat on Telegraph Hill ( http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/557131157 ). IDA will present the petition during the Land Use Committee hearing at San Francisco City Hall on Monday, March 5th, so we need to gather as many signatures as possible before then. Once you sign the petition, be sure to ask your friends and family members to sign as well so we can let San Francisco's elected officials know that the whole world is watching. If the Land Use Committee approves Supervisor Dufty's proposal, it will then go to the full San Francisco Board of Supervisors for a vote.

2) If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, please attend the Land Use Committee hearing: if parrot advocates pack the house, the committee members will be even more impressed by how seriously people take this issue.

What: San Francisco Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee hearing
When: Monday, March 5th starting at 1:00 p.m.
Where: San Francisco City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 263, San Francisco (directions - http://www.sfgov.org/site/cityhall_index.asp?id=5244 )

3) Purchase a copy of "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" on DVD or VHS ( http://www.pelicanmedia.org/store.htm ), as well as Mark Bittner's best-selling book "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: A Love Story...With Wings" ( http://www.pelicanmedia.org/wildparrots.html ).


2. Oppose Importation of Dolphins Captured in Japanese Drive Fishery
Urge President of Dominican Republic to reject marine park's import permit

About a month ago in our eNews, we reported that an amusement park in the Dominican Republic called Ocean World Adventure Park was trying to import a dozen bottlenose dolphins captured in the Japanese drive fishery ( http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/marine/japan_dolphin_day.html ). Every year, between October and March, a relatively small number of Japanese fishermen brutally round up over 20,000 dolphins, porpoises and whales, slaughtering most of them and selling their meat but sparing a few choice victims for sale to marine parks where they are forced to perform tricks for visitors. In this case, fishermen worked side by side with dolphin trainers to capture "the Taiji Twelve," who will fetch a hefty ransom: aquariums and amusement parks pay upwards of US$45,000 for prime live specimens, while dolphins killed for meat only bring in about US$600 apiece.

The international effort to end the Japanese drive fisheries is led by the Save Japan Dolphins coalition ( http://www.savejapandolphins.org ), which is comprised of IDA, the Animal Protection Institute, Earth Island Institute, the Elsa Nature Conservatory and One Voice. Together, we are determined to stop the trade in live dolphins captured in the drive fisheries. Not only is it cruel to force animals to perform for people's amusement, but this practice is what actually makes the dolphin meat industry economically profitable. We have a chance now to strike a great blow against this bloody trade by stopping the Dominican Republic from importing the Taiji Twelve.

What You Can Do:

- Last month, we asked readers to urge President Reyna to block the importation of dolphins captured in the Japanese drive fishery, and we now ask you again to please "Take Action" ( %takeaction-taijitwelve% ) to help the Taiji Twelve. Feel free to edit the sample letter to your liking and print it out for mailing (letters to the Dominican Republic cost $.84 to mail). You can also ask the President to protect marine mammals by phone, postal mail or email.

President Leonel Fernandez
National Palace
Avenida Mexico corner of Doctor Delgado
Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic

Tel: (809) 695-8000 (select "9" for English)
Fax: (809) 682-0827
Email: carolinadeleon [at] presidencia.gov.do

- Watch the capture of the "Taiji Twelve" on video at YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCx0ORuDZFE) (be forewarned that the footage is graphic ).


3. Help Get Ruby the Elephant to a Sanctuary
Tell the L.A. Zoo it's time to do right by long-suffering pachyderm

Ruby the elephant continues to languish in solitary confinement at the Los Angeles Zoo, despite a choir of opposition calling for her release to a sanctuary. After 40 years in zoos and circuses, Ruby's has become a 9,000-pound cause celebre, with a story capturing national media attention and the hearts of many. A campaign is under way to convince the director of the L.A. Zoo to move Ruby from her small enclosure to an animal sanctuary, bringing her relief from the cramped and unnatural environment she has endured for decades.

The L.A. Zoo's poor track record with elephant care fuels the ongoing concern for Ruby's welfare. For example, they fail to meet national zoo guidelines, which call for elephants to live in groups no less than three. Yet Ruby has lived in solitude since her previous companion Gita died on June 10th from captivity-induced ailments, and has spent over two years isolated in a small concrete enclosure out of public view. Although the zoo has no plans to bring Ruby back into public display, they have so far resisted requests by the public to move her to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) ( http://www.pawsweb.org/site/homepage.htm ) sanctuary in San Andreas, Calif. This move would provide Ruby more than 500 times the living space of her current enclosure.

Due to a fundraising campaign on Ruby's behalf, the move to a sanctuary would come at no cost to taxpayers. Owing to matching donations from TV personality Bob Barker ( http://www.cbs.com/daytime/price/about/bios/cast_bios_bbarker.shtml ), over $600,000 has been raised to pay for Ruby's transport to, and care at, the PAWS sanctuary. Currently the stubbornness of L.A. Zoo officials is all that stands between Ruby and the life she deserves.

Ruby's fate currently rests with the director of the L.A. Zoo. The proposed release of Ruby to the PAWS sanctuary has the endorsement of the Los Angeles Zoo Commission and former zoo professionals, yet Ruby remains in isolation and in unnatural captivity. A campaign is underway to get the mayor of Los Angeles to fulfill his campaign promise to help Ruby. Your voice can deliver her from a life of painful servitude to one of peaceful comfort.

What You Can Do:

1) Call, write, and email Los Angeles Zoo Director John Lewis, politely urging him to request the L.A. Zoo to turn over Ruby to the PAWS sanctuary:

John Lewis, Director
Los Angeles Zoo
5333 Zoo Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90027-1498
Tel: (323) 644-4200
Fax: (323) 662-9786
jlewis [at] zoo.lacity.org

2) Fax, write, and email Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and politely ask that he convince zoo officials to release Ruby:

The Honorable Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Mayor
200 N. Spring St., Rm. 303
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Fax: (213) 978-0750
mayor [at] lacity.org


NEWS & CAMPAIGN UPDATES

1. Plant Power! IDA Launches "Green Food Bank" Campaign
Get involved by organizing a vegan food drive for the homeless in your community

IDA is launching a new campaign -- the Green Food Bank -- during March, the month during which the fewest donations are made to food banks and pantries. During this time of year, many food banks even run out of food completely. IDA's Green Food Bank campaign asks animal advocates to "adopt" a food bank or food pantry in their local community by contacting them to assess their receptivity, current needs and donation procedures, then to collect and donate complete vegan meals. Beans are no longer the poor man's meal!

On the Bill Maher talk show, hunting spokesman Ted Nugent said to an animal activist guest, "My hunting association donated over 100,000 pounds of food to the homeless this year. What did your animal organization donate?" Many animal advocates have heard the response, "What about people? Don't you care about them?" Donating vegan food to a food bank or food pantry in your community is a great way to take action that shows you care about people, animals and the health of the planet.

Plant-based diets are the better choice for people, animals and the environment:

- Scientific studies prove that meat-heavy diets contribute to disease in humans and that plant-based diets can prevent and even reverse disease.

- When people eat vegan meals, animals get to live.

- Meat production is a significant contributor to Global Warming. The United Nations recently produced a report warning that raising cattle for meat and dairy generates more greenhouse gases than all the automobiles in the world ( http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm ).

What You Can Do:

Follow these five easy steps to feed people, help animals and preserve the natural environment:

Step 1: Select and contact a food bank or food pantry
Let food banks and food pantries know that you plan to collect and donate vegan food. To find these resources in your community, check your local phone book, ask at local houses of worship or search the Internet.

Step 2: Get the word out
If you belong to an animal protection organization, house of worship, community club or gym, see if they will let you base your food collection drive there and publicize your efforts by hanging flyers on bulletin boards, sending a group email or mentioning your plans at the next meeting. Local media may be interested in covering your food drive, which offers you the opportunity to educate the public about the vegan lifestyle.

Step 3: Collect or purchase food
Local merchants may be willing to donate food as well. Be sure all the food you donate is vegan (i.e., without meat, dairy, eggs, or other animal byproducts).

Step 4: Document your efforts
IDA plans to track the total amount of food donated in pounds and ounces every year, so please email us your name, the amount of food you donated in pounds and ounces (there are 16 ounces in a pound), the name of the organization you donated to, and the city and state they are located in. Please also send any photos you take and any comments or thank you's you receive to valerie [at] idausa.org .

Step 5: Drop off your donation and give yourself a pat on the back!


2. IDA-Africa Says Goodbye to Beloved Becky
Dr. Sheri Speede offers heartfelt tribute to special chimpanzee

On January 21st, 2007, our beloved Becky, one of the first three residents of the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, died from internal bleeding. The following is a tribute by Dr. Sheri Speede, Director and Founder of the Sanaga-Yong Center.

Tribute to Becky
1980 - January 21st, 2007

Already when we met in January 1997, your childhood and your adolescence had been stolen from you. But your penetrating, imploring brown eyes stared at me from behind the bars of your tiny cell, and I saw that you were surviving and curious and hopeful in spite of all you had lost. Confined and bored out of your mind for so many years, somehow you were still vibrant. Becky, your eyes grabbed my heart, and they never let go.

Like it was yesterday I remember you grabbing my long, white dress, pulling it into your cage, leaving me barely enough cloth to cover my behind, me pleading with you, you nonchalantly using the lovely cloth, along with a bottle of water I had given you, to clean your filthy cage floor, finally giving my dress back when you had bored of the game, in exchange for an apple. Then you pointedly turned your back on me, leaving me alone with my guilty freedom.

But we got you out of there Becky…finally. Finally on August 31, 1999, we freed you from that prison. We drove Pepe, Jacky, and you away in a gutted bush taxi, we humans squashed against the sides to make room for the three transport cages, because we had no money for a big truck and the roads were closed to big trucks anyway since the rains had come. Despite all advice, I refused to leave you in that cage at the hotel for three more months until the roads dried up. I knew that every single day counted for you, and that your fortitude deserved mine. And so we got disastrously stuck in the mud somewhere near the middle of our 18 hour journey. We exhausted humans waded knee-deep in muck pushing that taxi with all our might, while you three screamed your heads off from inside that rocking box until it finally bolted forward, leaving some of us sprawling belly-down. It was an illustrious start to your new life.

But dearest Becky -- tough chick, sweet lady, flirt, goofy face-maker, lover of your comfortable "nest" made of an old tire where you slept for seven and a half years, overeater of bananas, surreptitious plotter, cleaner of cobwebs, "sister" of Pepe and Jacky, mourner of Pepe, best friend of Dorothy, frustrator of pubescent boys, adoptive mother of Gabby who was the only one to ever share your food, matriarch and protector of little Luke, Lucy, Future, Emma and others -- during your years with us at Sanaga-Yong Center I know you had a life that you cherished. And oh how we cherished you!

My friend and my inspiration, I will never, ever forget you. Rest in Peace.

More stories about Becky ( http://www.ida-africa.org/index.php?page_id=217 ).

Some folks are interested in making a donation to IDA-Africa in honor of Becky. If you'd like to donate, click here ( http://www.ida-africa.org/index.php?page_id=239 ) and please reference Becky in your submission...thank you.


3. Victory: Fireworks Display Moved Away from Animal Shelter
Homeless dogs & cats in Camarillo, Calif. will no longer suffer on July 4th

Last week, we sent what should be the last alert ( http://ga0.org/indefenseofanimals/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=7029494 ) to IDA members in Ventura County, Calif. about the Fourth of July fireworks display that has been held, for the past several years, at Freedom Park, less than a football field's length away from the Camarillo Animal Shelter. That is because the Camarillo City Council recently voted to allocate money for the event only on the condition that the Lions Club move the celebration to another site! Thank you to all of our supporters who contacted Camarillo's mayor and city council to urge that them to think of the animals.

It is well-documented that because dogs, cats and many other species have much more acute hearing than our own, they suffer from extreme stress and fear when exposed to loud fireworks. Despite this, the Pleasant Valley/Somis chapter of the Lions Club and the City of Camarillo continued to hold a fireworks display every year right next to the animal shelter, denying claims that the thunderous detonations of their pyrotechnic display harms animals despite the fact that none of them had ever visited the shelter during the fireworks.

Last year, dozens of volunteers were on hand trying to calm and soothe the hundreds of animals inside, but they could not stop terrified dogs from trying to escape by gnawing on the wire cages, causing bleeding gums and broken teeth. Other animals clawed and scratched at the metal kennel doors, cutting open their paws and tearing off nails. Some simply suffered in silence, trembling uncontrollably with their eyes wide open in terror.

Many people made this victory possible, which was years in the making. Most recently, a small group of seven protesters held signs and banners out by the highway for passing motorists to see. A major Lions Club donor who is a real estate developer pulled out because he didn't want people picketing in front of his model homes. The petition to move the fireworks away from the shelter garnered over 1,100 signatures, and letters to the editor and newspaper stories ( http://www.poodleclubsocal.com/fireworks ) made Ventura County residents aware of the controversy.

Camarillo city officials are now looking to relocate the festivities to a site farther away from the animal shelter, most likely Camarillo High School, where the celebration used to be held when it started in the 1970s. Because it is close to the highway, they will probably have to put on a ground display, but as Camarillo City Councilmember Mike Morgan told a reporter, "In 1976, we had a fantastic ground display. It was the greatest Fourth of July show ever."

Certainly, any fireworks display held away from the shelter will be better than terrifying helpless animals with deafening explosions. This shelter can now once again be a safe haven for animals.


IDA's "Animal Guardian Literature Grant"

IDA is now offering an exclusive "Animal Guardian Literature Grant" help cover the costs of reprinting materials for organizations that want to replace the term "owner" with "guardian" in their literature. To apply for the grant, please send an email with the type of literature, your website address and the estimated reprinting costs to valerie [at] idausa.org . For more information on IDA's Guardian Campaign, please visit http://www.guardiancampaign.com .

IDA Members: Get Discounted Registration for AR2007 Conference through March 3rd

The $100 discounted registration fee for the Animal Rights 2007 ( http://www.arconference.org ) National Conference has been extended to March 3rd for IDA members.

You can register with your credit card on-line ( http://farmusa.safeshopper.com/29/cat29.htm?238 ), by calling (800) 632-8688, or by sending payment to: AR2007/FARM, 10101 Ashburton Lane, Bethesda, MD 20817.

The Conference will be held from July 19-23 at the Westin LAX Hotel in Los Angeles. We were able to negotiate a room rate of only $90/95/100/105 + tax (14%) for single and multiple occupancies. To make a reservation, visit AR2007 Hotel Online ( http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/StarGroupsWeb/booking/reservation?id=0702026651&key=62FBA ).