top
East Bay
East Bay
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Confined Humans Speak Out Against Lunardi’s Rotten Egg Policy

by East Bay Animal Advocates
640_egg3.jpg
Danville, Calif.-- A life-size chicken cage--confining humans instead of birds--will be on display at Lunardi's Supermarket as East Bay Animal Advocates (EBAA) asks the Bay Area-based grocery chain to stop selling eggs from chickens raised in overcrowded, wire cages (known as battery cages):

Date: Saturday, August 4, 2007
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Location: Lunardi's Supermarket, 345 Railroad Avenue, Danville

As a high-end grocery chain, Lunardi's proclaims its purported commitment to excellence: "We can explain our prices, but we don't ever want to have to justify our quality." However, EBAA documented shocking conditions at Lunardi's egg suppliers. Citing concerns over animal care, EBAA revealed its findings of intensive animal confinement to President Paul Lunardi in September 2006. Despite continual public outcry over animal welfare and product quality, Lunardi's refuses to enact an exclusive cage-free egg policy.

Lunardi's Supermarket is the lead competitor of Andronico's Market, which stopped selling eggs from caged chickens in October 2006. In May, Rainbow Grocery became the first San Francisco-based retailer to oppose battery cage egg production. Both Rainbow Grocery and Andronico's Market have joined a growing national network of cities, educational institutions, farmers, and retailers that oppose the intensive confinement of laying hens -- a notoriously cruel yet common egg industry practice.

Each year over 19 million egg-laying hens in California are raised in concentrated confinement to produce eggs for consumers. According to the California Poultry Workgroup, the vast majority of egg-layers in California are confined to tiny cages. Each bird is limited to less than 67 square inches of space for her entire life.

East Bay Animal Advocates (EBAA) is an animal protection non-profit organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. California is home to one of the most industrious and concentrated animal agriculture areas in the world. Through consumer education, corporate outreach, direct aid and legal research, EBAA analyzes the impact of the California agricultural industry on animals, humans and the environment.
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by me
I raise chickens and they like being together in a flock. They also like to be in confined spaces. They probably feel safer. You are talking about an animal with such a small brain that it will continue to run when its head is chopped off. They probably cannot feel sad as you suggest.
by EBAA
cctimesaugust72007lunardiscagesit.pdf_600_.jpg
The Contra Costa Times covered Saturday's human battery cage demonstration at the Lunardi's Supermarket in Danville. This is the perfect time for letters to the editor about battery cage cruelty. Email the Contra Costa Times at letters [at] cctimes.com.
by Russ Benson
_1crime-vmichaelick-col.jpg
- Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick agreed on Monday to plead guilty in a dog-fighting case that could wreck the U.S. star's football career.
His attorney, Thomas Shuttleworth, told Reuters that Vick, 27, reached a deal with prosecutors and will plead guilty in the case that has attracted worldwide attention.

Vick could go to jail. Had he not cut a deal, the multimillionaire player was likely to face a new indictment with more charges, legal sources have said.

The National Football League Web site said Vick, one of the league's highest-paid players, would appear in court on August 27.

His indictment by a federal grand jury on July 17 badly damaged the reputation of one of the NFL's best-known players. The NFL, whose season begins next month, suspended the three-time Pro Bowl selection after the indictment.

Vick, the top pick in the 2001 NFL draft out of Virginia Tech, faced up to six years in prison and $350,000 in fines if convicted on all of the initial charges.

A strong-armed quarterback and breakaway runner who is one of the NFL's most dynamic players, Vick is accused of helping run an interstate dog-fighting enterprise known as "Bad Newz Kennels" from 2001 through April 2007.

Dogfighting, in which two dogs bred to fight are placed in a pit to attack each other for spectators' entertainment and gambling, is illegal in the United States.

Vick had initially denied direct involvement in the pit bull fights that the indictment said took place on his property in Virginia.

UNDERPERFORMING DOGS

Prosecutors charged that dogs sometimes fought to the death and some losing or underperforming dogs had been shot, drowned, hanged, electrocuted or killed by being slammed to the ground.

Vick accepted the plea deal after two of his associates agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of their plea deals, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia, where the case is pending.

Purnell Peace, 35, and Quanis Phillips, 28, pleaded guilty last week before U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson to one count involving the dog-fighting ring, which prosecutors say was run from Vick's property in Virginia.

The judge set sentencing for the two men on November 30.

The only other defendant in the case, Tony Taylor, 34, pleaded guilty late last month and also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against Vick.

Vick, a rare talent who threw for 20 touchdowns and ran for more than 1,000 yards last season for the Falcons, lost major endorsements following his indictment. Nike suspended the release of a new Michael Vick shoe that had been set to hit stores this month and Reebok stopped selling his jerseys.

Heavily criticized in the media and by animal rights groups, Vick was told by the NFL not to attend preseason training with the Falcons.



for more information on this topic go to;

http://www.sfimc.org


by Jared Yallop
What you're saying is supporting the cause. At this point these animals have been so stripped of their natural instincts that its sickening. The fact that another living being is being trapped and bred to die to serve people is another sickening thought. Not saying don't eat meat, but everything whether born to die deserves a good life, even if that life may be brief. Also to this article the free-cage act only requires that they place the chicken in a roughly cardboard box sized container within the last week of its life. Thats a bit better but not even. Give something with completely atrophied muscles a chance to sit alone in its own excrement. Oh-joy!
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$190.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network