AR2000 conference notes
Animal Rights 2000 Conference in Washington, DC July 1-5, 2000
Over 770 activists and 110 speakers converged on Washington DC to learn more about animal abuse in this country and around the world, network, get new ideas, and educate themselves on how best to fight back. All the major animal rights groups were represented at the exhibit tables, such as the Humane Society of the United States, PETA, Farm Sanctuary, Farm Animal Reform Movement, the Fund for Animals, In Defense of Animals and the American Anti-Vivisection Society. There were also booths manned by Pangea, Vegan Street and other companies and groups representing more specialized areas such as greyhound racing, animals in Israel and Korea and great apes. The attendees were kept busy every day from morning to night, attending sessions, enjoying vegan food at the hotel, viewing videos, talking to exhibitors, gathering literature and networking with likeminded friends.
The following is a summary of what was said in some of the sessions. Every effort has been made to reflect the spirit of the words spoken and to be as accurate as possible. Facts have been checked. This is a long summary but please read every word. This page represents a very small portion of the ideas expressed and only those that the writer thought could be most useful to grassroots groups, the most inspirational, and those ideas that we should be implementing right now for maximum effect. I hope something in here will inspire you to do more than you are currently doing, because we as a movement are not doing enough. Writing letters and doing protests do get results, but we need more action, more investigation, and more involvement.
Saturday, July 1 9 a.m. Newcomer Orientation Dean Smith of the Humane American Anti-Vivisection Society told the audience that he joined animal rights during a Farm Sanctuary protest. He had been a human rights activist until one day a friend pointed out that he couldn't talk about suffering while eating a tuna sandwich. He went on to talk about current lawsuits to win standing to be able to sue on behalf of lab animals.
10 a.m. Getting Attention (Legally) Robert Cohen of the Dairy Education Board (www.notmilk.com) then spoke of his plan to arm thousands of people with whistles. They would go to college campuses where animal research is done and supermarkets where genetically engineered foods are sold and blow the whistles. This Thanksgiving Mr. Cohen is going to be at the White House with a 17-foot turkey, which he and Brandon Leudtke will slaughter so the public can see how turkeys really die. Brandon is a Canadian college student who previously built a 17-foot milk carton which he lived in on campus to publicize the dangers of drinking milk. Bruce Friedrich talked about PETA's Got Beer campaign. He said that it got a great response. The idea they were trying to convey was that even beer is better for you than milk. He said the letters are pouring in and they educated millions of people about milk and veal. He said that despite criticism of the campaign, every time they do a controversial campaign they get LOTS of interest from the public. He said he'd given far more interviews about that than about the turkey farm expose they did where they filmed workers beating turkeys mercilessly. Robert Cohen ended the session by saying that a great way to get attention is to serve food. Everyone loves protest with food.
2 p.m. Coercive Tactics Gary Yourofsky, who was sentenced to 6 months in jail for liberating 1542 mink on Ebert's Fur Farm in Ontario, said that the best thing about being in jail is that then the offers to speak come pouring in. He is often invited to speak at all types of venues, including high schools. He emphasized that although the media called him a terrorist, there is a big difference between being a terrorist and not obeying the law. He pointed out that Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Gandhi were habitual law breakers. Tracy Reiman of PETA said that if we can change public opinion, companies and individuals will change too. That is the way to go about it, not the other way around. Companies do what their customers want. PETA will send anyone cages for demos if requested. Lucy Goodrum of FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement) said that civil litigation is a way to change laws when the conservative system prevents it. Steve Hindi of SHARK (Showing Animals Respect and Kindness) told of how he used an ultralight aircraft to chase deer and geese out of hunting areas. He expressed that we need more videotapes of abuses and that every city should have someone with undercover cameras doing undercover work. We need long-range video cameras and night scopes. He himself has taped many abuses, such as bullfights. Mr. Hindi said that bullfighting will live or die in the USA, not the countries that host it. Bullfighting is sponsored by huge American corporations (Pepsi recently pulled out) and without sponsorship, the "sport" will die. Even Mattel has brought out a "Spanish Barbie" doll. Coca-Cola sponsors dog racing. Hindi reminded us that WE are NOT the victims in animal abuse, we are the answer to the problem if we do not turn away. We must stop averting our eyes from gruesome videos and photos. Any pain we feel when watching those videos is far less than what that animal is feeling. He said hunters now use far more technology than we do - we pick up signs and walk around with them. When asked about how to prioritize targets, the panel recommended choosing projects that suit your own or your group's talents. Information can be found on various Web sites about what to look for when investigating abuse. It is important to line up good media coverage, share information and mail videos to bullfight sponsors, e.g. and ASK FOR RESPONSES. Face-to-face contact is vital. Go see the people who sponsor violent events.
3 p.m. Slaughterhouse Atrocities Robert Cohen urged us to visit slaughterhouses at 2 in the morning and see what's going on (through the lens of a videocamera).
7 - 10 p.m. Plenary Sessions Sudhir Amembal of "Animal's Voice" magazine announced the launch of the online version, which will be translated into Spanish, French, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Tracy Reiman spoke of advances made, including the HVP tests Al Gore promotes, which retest products that have been on the market for years - PETA's intervention will save 800,000 animals and the government has agreed to spend $5 million on researching alternative methods. She told of the first ever felony charges for animal cruelty charges resulting in a conviction and 19 baby elephants liberated in South Africa. A chimpanzee farm in Florida has been shut down. The El Paso zoo released two mistreated elephants. McDonald's has begun auditing its slaughterhouses and stopped using some when they found what was going on. In 1999 20% of college students classified themselves as vegetarian. The Gap stopped buying leather from India and China, two countries where the animals were receiving particularly bad treatment. J. Crew, Liz Claiborne, Florsheim and many others followed suit. Elliot Katz, president of In Defense of Animals, called on us all to stop calling ourselves animal "owners." Calling ourselves owners of animals does them as big a disservice as owning a butcher shop.Sara Amundson of the Doris Day Animal League spoke about the "Year of the Humane Child" campaign to educate children about animals and animal abuse. There is a deal with Marvel Comics for Superman to appear in comics promoting animal rights. Mary Lou Randour of Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals told of a poll conducted of 1,000 adults with five questions about respect for life, dissection, cruelty, vegetarianism, etc. Parents were asked how they would respond when situations arose with their children. 94% said it is important for parents to talk to kids about respect for life (wildlife, spay/neuter). 78% said they would encourage and support a high school child who wanted to be a vegetarian. 81% said they would call a child's parent and animal control if a child was seen throwing rocks at an animal. 40% said they would support a child's decision not to dissect in school and would fail for refusing. Of that 40%, 49% of African-Americans would support the decision and 55% of blue-collar workers. 47% said they would encourage children to do research if the child was concerned about a captive animal's living conditions (orcas, e.g.). Overall, Catholics, Hispanics and African-Americans had higher percentages of support for animal issues than other groups. Zoe Weil of the Center for Compassionate Living said that no child ever says "Don't tell me! I don't want to know!" like adults do. Kim Stallwood of Animal's Agenda spoke on the history of the animal rights movement in the USA. He broke it down into 8 periods.
1. The first national organizations began forming 1886-95. (New England Anti-Vivisection Society in 1895, American Anti-Vivisection Society in 1883, ASPCA in 1866).
2. The American Welfare Institute is founded in 1951 and in 1958 the Humane Slaughter Act was passed. In 1969 the Endangered Species Act followed.
3. Pro-animal exploitation industries began organizing. 1946: Nat'l Association of Medical Researchers.
4. The second wave of founding national organizations - Fund For Animals in 1967, Humane Society of the United States in 1954.
5. The first wave of activism occurred in 1975-1979. Peter Singer wrote the book Animal Liberation. PETA was formed. Animal Liberation Front's first raid was in 1979 on the New York Medical Center. In 1976 Henry Spira led the campaign seeking an end to the American Museum of Natural History's research on the impact of mutilation on cat behavior.
6. PETA was formed in 1980.
7. From 1980 to the present, books are being published. The Case for Animal Rights, Dreaded Comparison
8. The second wave of activism began in 1980 and continues today. In the future, there will be significant achievements.
The British Parliament is currently banning fur farming and hunting. Gene Bauston of Farm Sanctuary spoke on the current state of the movement. There are both good and bad indicators. More animals are being killed than ever before - about 9 billion on farms a year, because people are moving away from beef and eating more smaller animals. Huge multinationals are trying to export factory farming practices. Farming practices are excluded from animal cruelty law in this country. There are more and more vegetarians and people opposed to confining farm animals every day. An egg farmer in New England has been charged with cruelty for starving hens. In New Jersey, there is attention on the issues of inhumane transportation and throwing live birds in the trash (male chicks are unnecessary on egg farms and are routinely thrown in the trash or ground up alive to be fed back to farm animals). Murray Cohen of Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine announced that New Zealand has prohibited the use of great apes in research. Harvard offers courses in animal law. Tufts has stopped fatal animal experiments in medical school. Human corneas are being grown in labs - this means no more need to test on animals. A Swedish researcher has proven that cell tests are better than animal tests. The U.S. is evaluating in-vitro tests instead of LD50 (used to establish "safe" levels for human exposure to chemicals and drugs by determining what level of exposure provided a lethal dose to 50 percent of the animals in the test sample). A new test reduces the animals needed for corrosive chemical experiments from 3 to 1. The Draize test (blinding animals to determine how safe cosmetics are) should be on its way out. There is a ban on testing cosmetics on animals in the UK. 4 more schools have dropped live physiology labs. 60% of U.S. universities no longer have live physiology labs. Of the top 10, only Duke still does. The governor of Illinois, George Ryan, signed the Dissection Alternative Act. No children who refuse to dissect will be discriminated against. Harris County, Texas stopped pound seizure (the practice of selling animals from shelters for research). Mike Markarian of The Fund for Animals reported that the sale of hunting licenses is down from 7% of the population to 5% in 10 years. Hunting and trapping is down. More types of hunting are being banned. Cockfighting has been banned in Arizona. Oklahoma will vote on banning cockfighting this year in November! Sacramento convicted two cockfighters and one dogfighter of cruelty. Oregon and Maine have banned canned hunts of exotic animals. The Arizona Fish & Game Commission banned the contest killing of coyotes but the governor's council, going against popular pinion, didn't approve it. The commission is resubmitting the bill. Cities are banning performing animals. Hasbro stopped manufacturing Iditarod Monopoly. Johnson & Johnson dropped its rodeo sponsorship. The Makah Indians were prevented from hunting whales. Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns explained that birds were not included in the Humane Slaughter Act because if they had been, the law would not have been passed at all. Bird farmers convinced the government that birds were being stunned before being killed already (not true). Steven Wise, author of Rattling the Cage and representing the Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights warned us that the legal status of animals in our country is nonexistent. They are considered things with no rights. He pointed out that at times in history, women, slaves, children and other groups were things and moved in and out of "thinghood." But animals have always been things. Elliot Katz stated that the foundation of changing everything is changing the perception that animals are our property. We need to file cases to create legal standing against ownership. He is now working on ACK docking of tails and welcomes any possible lawsuits. Until we change the paradigm, our cures are just bandages.
Sunday, July 2 10 a.m. Enacting State Legislation Robert Nixon of the Humane Political Action Committee said people won't do things just because it's the right thing to do. To use political power, get an idea for a bill. Then write it. Get copies of other legislation (from HSUS or other big AR groups). Decide what legislation has a good chance of passing in your area. Make a Fact Pack, which includes all the reasons you need to show why the legislation is necessary. If possible, get credible, checkable facts FROM THE OTHER SIDE. PETA has lots of documentation. Use it but take PETA's name off it. It is too in-your-face for state legislators. Talk to all the groups the legislation would impact. Ask for cons. If they have a problem with something, change the wording and ask for at least a neutral stance if they cannot support your bill. Then in following years, keep introducing amendments to fix what you had to give up to get the bill passed. Go to the leadership and committee people of Congress. Get a sponsor. Get leader types that other congressmen will follow. Then get cosponsors. The more the better. Legislators are generally neutral on animal issues. If they're negative, it's because of a lack of education on the topic. Agribusiness lobbyists have been working on them a lot longer than us. The bill will go to a committee. Lobby them and get everyone to lobby them. Lobby BEFORE testifying because by that time their minds are made up. DO THIS AT EACH LEVEL. You have to be alert and stay on top of it, through both chambers of the legistlature. He's polled legislators and says that 10-15 calls can make a difference in how they vote. To a legislator, each call represents about 700-800 people. Then the bill goes to the governor. Don't be afraid of legislators. They know that if you're in their office, you're a bigmouth and are talking about them and the issue OUT of the office too. Nixon will help us write bills and come lobby to show us how it's done at his own expense. For example, we can rezone to keep a factory farm out. This is an election year. Say you're thinking about working on a legislator's campaign. Ask how they feel about certain animal issues and if you like what they say, work on their campaigns. Volunteers are like gold. They'll do favors for their volunteers over someone they don't know. Then keep dropping by when animal issues come up and ask for a favor. If you have trouble getting in to see your legislator, call and say you want to get the facts straight, is your elected official refusing to see you? This always gets you in. Run for office yourself. When you are elected you can call press conferences and the press shows up! You call the radio and identify yourself and all of a sudden you get on the air. He gave the example of someone he helped pass a spay/neuter bill by a legislator who wanted his own dog to have puppies. When showed the facts and the pyramid of babies that would result, the activist won. Michele Rokke (Animal Protection of New Mexico) said her group first educated the law on who should be stopping animal cruelty. Law enforcers, animal control officers, attorneys, activists, etc. Officials have a training requirement per year and are eager for low-cost options. Michele put together an accredited education course for enforcers. Now the law calls HER for advice on animal law enforcement. Make up binders and give the students one. Ask what needs to be taught. Even the definition of "cruelty" has to be taught. Hold it at a hotel, community center, police training center (so police can easily attend), etc. Offer food and coffee. Compile a binder of local ordinances on animal law in EACH community of the state. Call each county and ask for it. This way, you know more than the enforcers do and can identify where the law is lacking - holes that need to be plugged up.
11 a.m. Enacting Federal Legislation Wayne Pacelle of HSUS said that 96% of bills introduced at the federal level are never heard. This makes it even more important to ACT ON THE ONES THAT MAKE IT. Gene Bauston said that few Americans participate in the legislative process, so it's even more important for us to participate. Get to know your legislators' likes and dislikes makes you an effective lobbyist. Just as you are a person, they are too and act as such. There is a Downed Animal Act in the legislature now!! Harold Lyman (EarthSave, author of Mad Cowboy) said that the Golden Rule is that them that got the gold make the rules. There were several organic standards. Animal activists got legislation added to the defense appropriations bill in 1990 so Bush would sign it. They used organized labor reps to influence congress. The opposition tried to add that municipal sludge could be used for fertilizer for organics. With 50 people organized in each district, we can win any vote on Capitol Hill. Brenda Shoss writes letters for us to send in her Kinship Circle. In your letters, SAY THAT YOU ARE A CONSTITUENT. Write letters on a grocery bag in pencil. It will be on the top of the pack.
11 a.m. - Education and Training on Animals Lisa Hepner of the American Anti-Vivisection Society talked about the 3-year campaign at the University of New Mexico to make dissection alternatives available. Afterwards, one of the professors involved said that he admired her energy and persistence, and it was too bad she couldn't apply that to something more worthwhile. 12 a.m. - Manufacturing Animals Murray Cohen spoke about xerotransplantation (transplanting organs from one species to another). Every xenotransplantation so far has resulted in the same results - the deaths of the donor and the recipient. When other species'organs are transplanted, an immune response is triggered. To overcome it, modern medicine administers immunosuppressant drugs, which postpone the body's reaction but the body always ends up rejecting the transplant. When human genes are transplanted into animals (usually pigs) the resulting transgenic species prevents rejection but results in Frankenspecies. This increases the risk of viruses and diseases being passed between species which could infect a person with a transgenic transplant and everyone they meet for the rest of their lives. The ebola virus, swine flu, simian virus 40 and monkey herpes have already passed between species. In 1996 xenotransplants cost a quarter of a million dollars per operation, not including animal care. If everyone needing a transplant got one from an animal, that would cost $20 billion a year, when not everyone even has health insurance or can pay for x-rays right now. Xenotransplantations would only be for the rich or experiment subjects. To prevent xenotransplantation, we have to support preventive health measures and do more research on allotransplantation. Robert Cohen told of the King & Spalding law office in New York. In 1978 Monsanto was experimenting with genetic engineering. Clarence Thomas worked in their law office (K&S). The agency's employees have 40 years experience in total at working in the USDA. Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone was produced by taking genetic information from bovine growth hormone and combining it with e-coli,, then injected into cows so they would give more milk. They spent $500 million in research and sent 55,000 pages of research to the FDA. The same lawyer who represented Monsanto wrote the food labeling laws. Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court) used to work at Monsanto's law office. Monsanto says the freak amino acid they created is the same as natural amino acids but it is not. They have created a new one. Sam Jacobs of PCRM says there are alternatives to Premarin. The best preventive is a vegan diet. There are vegetable-derived estrogens. Pregnant mare urine farms are in the north USA and Canada. The urine sells at $17/gallon. The mares are kept in 8 x 3.5 foot stalls for 11 months with internal catheters to collect urine. The genome map is the beginning of our effort, not the end. We should use the information to prevent and treat disease. Putting that genie back in the bottle may be possible.
2 p.m. - What Price Animal Liberation? Ken Shapiro from Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals mediated a discussion on how far we should go to liberate animals. Per the FBI, animal-rights related incidents in the court numbered only 313 in 1977-93. They were mostly vandalism, personal threats, etc. There have been no injuries or deaths to any humans in these acts. The peak was in 1987-8, when there were 105 cases. The audience was divided between those who thought violence was acceptable, those who thought it was not, and those who though both approaches were valid. Those favoring violence quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., who said that he was only effective as long as there was the shadow of a black man holding a knife behind him. They thought those who do not use violence should be ashamed that we do not, and that we can write letters and enact legislation forever, but the animals will be dying all that time. They pointed out that if it were our families or our pets in those labs and farms, we would do whatever it took to get them out. Those against violence pointed out that if we use it, we are aligning ourselves with those who kill abortion doctors. The point was made that embracing nonviolence is a product of privilige. We are not the oppressed in these situations. The oppressed historically always use violence. And for those who think it is not right to kill to show that killing is wrong, that's the way things were done in WWII. The peace proponents asked where the line would be drawn. Would a child be harmed for stepping on an insect? The statement was made that the movement is about nonviolence. Other views were that it is about consumption or producers. Another opinion was that the movement is a mosaic which needs all actions and reactions. The public will tolerate the destruction of property but not of human life. Why must we use history to determine what we do in the present and future? The proponents of violence said they are not advocating using only violence, they are saying we should boycott Dow and then destroy them. One speaker said we should not be too quick to dismiss someone on the other side, who may truly believe they are doing good. From the other side we got Howard Lyman, Steve Hindi, and Robert Cohen among others. If we don't use violence that means we are willing to sit around while others die. The opinion that it's immoral NOT to do everything possible to save an animal was expressed. The comment, "We're talking about taking life" was answered by "No, we're talking about saving life." Another opined that not everyone can be reached by education and outreach, and then we need to use other methods. Reading material recommended were Declaration of War and Pacifism as Pathology by Churchill. The UK and Canadian movements are more violent than the one in the USA. The level of violence in a society is partly attributable to the violence toward nonhuman animals. There has always been lots of violence against animal rights and environmental activists. Passive resistance involves breaking the law without using violence. People in the animal rights movement are typically women (80%), college educated and middle class.
3 p.m. - Unwanted Companion Animals Holly Hazard said 100,000 were spayed on Spay Day this year. This prevents 2.3 million animals from being born. PetSmart VetSmart is now participating and did 1,000 operations free. In Austin a full-page ad and memorial mentioned the Neuter Scooter. Chris de Rose (Last Chance for Animals) said that about 2 million pets a year are stolen to sell to research. He is currently doing undercover investigation on "Class B" dealers and has put some out of business already. He taped a dealer killing a dog and the "person" lost his license. De Rose employs two full-time private investigators. The USDA maintains that no animals are stolen for this purpose. In LA dogs and cats are stolen for food. When de Rose has put the B dealers out of business, he will go after the A dealers. Barbara Ruggiero was put in state prison for 3 years for dealing in dogs and said she would have been a millionaire in a few years. Now she's back in business with a new boyfriend, a USDA meat inspector. She got her case overturned on a technicality after her term was served. Watch for the Pet Protection and Safety Act soon and work for its passage. Richard Avanzino of Maddie's Fund told how Maddie's Fund began with $200 million and is about to expand to $1 billion. Its objectives are 1) to turn the USA into a no-kill nation, and 2) get an adoption guarantee. 60% of people with pets think of them as family members. He stressed that there are no unwanted pets, their lives are wanted and are not surplus . 4 p.m. How to Tell Friends from Enemies - Chris de Rose Use your opponents. For example, get hunters to rat on puppy mills, etc. When at restaurants, de Rose tells his table mates to go ahead and order meat and he'll eat at another table, because he won't watch his friends undo the work he's trying to do. De Rose encourages us to do things by example. He met the chief of research of Eli Lilly, Lee Thompson, on an airplane and over 8 hours of conversation, was able to convince him that pain is what matters, not whether animals belong to our species or not. His tactic was to turn everything back on Thompson as a question. It forces THEM to defend THEIR beliefs. Then you know where to attack. Ask yourself, "What will make them THINK?" That is what you want/need. Don't lecture. Know your issues. De Rose thinks we shouldn't waste time on politics and rehashing things. We're activists, ACT! Don't get sidetracked and go for your objectives. His favorite line for fur wearers is, "Why would a lady as pretty as you wear something as horrible as that?" De Rose works with the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT - run by our own JP Goodwin). De Rose said that pet theft is organized crime sanctioned by the FDA. 5 p.m. Armchair Activism A representative from PETA said to start letters by saying you're a normal member of a community. PETA has brochures available about chaining dogs that you can slip anonymously to neighbors. Frances Goulart, an animal activist, wears animal-related T-shirts everywhere she goes. She teaches a vegan cooking course and suggests we do the same, or courses on animal rights. She recommends carrying around photos of atrocities that most affect you, for inspiration and to inspire others. She suggests going to farmers' markets to find a booth that will let you pass out literature, do a cooking demonstration with organic food, etc. Put a compassionate quote at the end of your e-mail in the signature file, on your answering machine, etc. Take flyers to health food stores. Adopt animals by sponsoring them at shelters or sanctuaries. Talk to people. Have dinner parties. Eddie Lama, star and subject of "The Witness," an award-winning documentary on one man's journey to animal awareness and his action against the fur and meat industries, suggests taking a writing course to make sure you write good letters. Take good care of yourself and never let anything go by - sieze every opportunity. As a contractor, he listens to salesmen's spiels and then says, now you listen to my propaganda. Then he gives the salesman literature and tells him to come back another day to make the deal AND FOR A QUIZ ON THE LITERATURE.
7 p.m. - 10 p.m. Sunday Night Plenary Session John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party said that the production of animals is 1,000 times LESS efficient a use of land than producing vegetables. Politics are keeping meat in - agribusiness and lobbyists. John Hagelin is the leading Natural Law Party candidate for president. Rich McLellan of the Animal Legislative Action Network advised looking at www.animalpolitics.com and forming our own political action committees. Best line overheard at conference: I saw a dead squirrel at the park with a Twizzlers in its mouth. I guess they shouldn't be eating that stuff.
9 a.m. - Effective Field Investigations Gene Bauston said that field documentation is the basis of any effective campaign, for example his campaign against downed animals (animals too sick or diseased to be sent for slaughter, which are often piled in back of slaughterhouses to die of neglect/starvation/cold, and also often end up in meat for human or animal consumption anyway). Where farm animals are concerned, we need more research on: 1. Production farms, which are usually private property so you are risking trespassing. 2. Stockyards and transportation, which are generally open to the public. A list is available from the USDA. 3. Slaughterhouses - usually have good security and are difficult to enter. We need a video recorder and a still camera. Pictures are much more powerful and persuasive than words. Be careful that your statements and representations are based in reality with no exaggerations. Just tell the facts. Describe objectively and become emotionally removed from the situation. That makes the evidence more credible. People being investigated can become violent. Be careful how you interact with them. Pick your battles. Julie Derby of Defending Farm Animals recommends doing public access programs. Says investigating was painful at first, having to watch horrific videos but you have to build up your desensitization. Steve Hindi has used undercover cameras to stop turkey hunts in Pennsylvania and more. Every state needs someone doing this type of investigation!!! Once you have the goods, then get the protesters out. When the public has seen it on the TV or in the newspaper, set up a video on the streets with a 20 inch screen, battery, converter , in front of the corporations sponsoring cruelty or government agencies who are not doing their jobs. Video is the compassionate bomb. 99% of people who see your video will agree with you, they just haven't seen what we've seen or read what we've read. SHARK members include former vivisectors, hunters, and trappers. Hindi was himself a hunter. Videos need to be close enough to see the animal's eyes. Once you have their eyes, hold on the victim so the public can make a connection with them. You can always edit the video later. In an altercation, leave the video running. If you are told to turn the camera off, say your lawyer told you to keep it on. Hindi encourages us to document Coke's involvement in videos. Coke has said in writing that it won't sponsor anything where animals may be hurt. After Coke, we'll go after Budweiser. SHARK is raising funds for fleets of vans to install screens in major cities in the US - they would be mobile displays. In Hindi's opinion, protests are attempts to shove our ideas down people's throats and people naturally resist. Video compels people to watch. Julie Derby advocates creativity. Dress like men, ride BMX bikes, pretend to smoke or be drunk to get closer to the areas you want to videotape. These tactics avoid suspicion. Dress to fit in. A member of the audience said he pretends to work in an area in which the subject's line of work would be helpful. He makes up business cards for each occasion, then goes to a pig doctor, for example, pretending to be an eye doctor looking for pigs' eyes for experiments to investigate cornea transplantation. Investigate the place beforehand and find their weaknesses. Gene Bauston said when investigating sometimes you don't find what you set out to find, but something else. If possible, make THAT the issue. Steve Hindi said that as an example, he investigated killing teams going after deer in an area when there were no deer present for months. He then made an issue of why the teams were being paid to do nothing. Use music when screening videos in mobile exhibits. Use role playing to get into restricted areas. Pretend to flirt. Go to loading and unloading docks. Dress as cowboys and girls to get into restricted areas at rodeos. There are lenses that are small and easily hidden that can connect to videocameras in your pocket. Bigger operations generally have better security, so go after smaller ones. Steve Hindi says, "TOUGHEN UP!" He has no sympathy for people who avert their eyes from his videos and urges us to become cruelty investigating machines. An attorney asked a question about laws regarding the recording of conversations or videotaping. The panel recommended looking into the law in our own areas. Gene Bauston was being sued for trespassing and planned to use the argument that if you look over your neighbor's fence and see someone drowning, should we not do something?
10 a.m. - Grassroots Meeting A special grassroots meeting was called by grassroots activists. They expressed that we cannot expect to win any campaign unless we focus on a few at a time. Prevent burnout at events by using street theater, etc.
11 a.m. - Accessing Official Records Robert Cohen told how he obtained a copy of Florence Joyner's autopsy report. When she died, she had a brick-size hunk of mozzerella in her stomach. Dairy products produce a lot of mucus in the body and she was an asthmatic. He got the report by calling and asking for it. He gets all kinds of information from the FDA. If you give people an opportunity to talk, they will. Lawrence Carter-Long of the Animal Protection Institute stresses the importance of always being nice to accountants and secretaries. To access public records using the Freedom of Information Act, send what is basically a form letter. Annual reports from a facility include the number and type of animals used, categorize experiments by amount of pain involved. Inspection results from USDA (with Animal Welfare Act violations) give vet's info, including euthanasia procedures, funding agency, whether the US government gives grants (meaning whether the taxpayers are paying for the experiments or not!!) Assume the sale - act like you're going to get the information that you're asking for. If your Freedom of Information Act request is turned down, you can file with the Department of Health and Human Services. Nonprofits should be able to get the price of copies waived. Check out local state sunshine laws. Mr. Cohen reminded us that scientists publish. Look up their articles using Medline and college libraries. There's no telling what information you can find in published articles. The National Osteoporosis Foundation is funded by the dairy industry (see www.notmilk.com for that organization's lies). Find out what other organizations promote what they are paid to promote. Find out what percentage of charity money actually goes to help something. Act like you want to donate and ask for reports. Cohen says that constant pressure and being a pain in the ass can get you the information you're looking for. Go to the PR newswire, do a keyword search and you'll find contact information for people and what they're doing - call them and ask for press releases and the enemy does the research for you! This is also a good way to find out who works with who and who pays who, which is ideal for finding conflicts of interest. Try to work from the inside if possible. Get someone from the university to attend closed meetings. Read Sacred Cows and Golden Geese.
12 p.m. - Agriculture Campaigns The first speaker talked about HB590 in Pennsylvania, a horse slaughter industry bill. California was the first to ban horse slaughter. We don't want to regulate the industry, we want it to disappear. The governor is vulnerable now because he wants to run with Bush. There are two horse slaughterhouses in Texas. Noam Lazurus of Anonymous for Animals (in Israel) talked about the production of foie gras in his country. The amount of food given to each goose per day is equal to 44 pounds for a human. This industry is banned in many European countries. Eating this much causes a diseased, enlarged liver which presses on other organs, making breathing difficult. Tracy Reiman of PETA spoke about Indian leather. Indian citizens requested their investigation. Cows are crammed into trucks and made to walk hundreds of miles, bribing state border guards (cow slaughter is illegal in most Indian states). Most arrive unable to walk. Chile pepper is rubbed in their eyes to keep them moving. Their tails are broken on purpose. Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders protested on each stop of her tour. After only 2 months of activity, major buyers such as The Gap agreed not to buy leather from India or China. Lauren Ornelas-Sullivan of Viva! Spoke about her organization, which is based in the UK. It focuses on animals killed for food. It has formed a network of speakers so if teachers request one, there's someone there to do some humane education. Their Schools Against Factory Farming involved kids in cages at the grocery store to protest battery cages. They got all major supermarkets in the UK to pull exotic meats. 1,500 stores stopped selling kangaroo and ostrich meat! Some ostrich farms in a UK have gone out of business as a result. Their current campaign is the duck industry. Twiggy and Paul McCartney have spoken about it, sotres are already pulling duck meat. Nancy Kivette (International Aid for Korean Animals) says 2.6 million dogs are slaughtered every year in Korea. The World Cup will be there in 2002 and her organization is trying to use that to get the governement to enforce the ban (eating cats and dogs has been illegal in Korea since 1991). Cats are liquefied alive in high-pressure cookers to make a tonic for rheumatoid arthritis. The animals are killed in ways that inflict maximum pain and torture to make the tonic more valuable to its buyers. Dogs are hung and beaten with hammers and pipes, blowtorched to get their hair off. 3 p.m. - Outreach to National Politicians Sara Amundson of the Doris Day Animal League said that legislation is the lowest common denominator and therefore the slowest way of change. Alex Hershaft (Farm Animal Reform Movement and AR Conference organizer) said that animal issues are in the top 3 of letters to politicians, but politicians know we are not single-issue voters. Rich McLellan says to give national politicians something to work with. We are not their constituents (or they don't see us as such). We need a PAC in every state. Wayne Pacelle talked about local activist J.P. Goodwin. J.P. has used a graduated approach. He called Pete Sessions and didn't get an appropriate response. He then went to the media. Then back to Sessions. Sessions' score on the Humane Society scorecard went from voting 0% favorably on animal issues to 70%! That's one person's work, no donations. Issues that rise to the top get attention. Talk to lawmakers' families. A patchwork of influences shape the decisions they make, including their families. KNOW WHO REPRESENTS YOU! Volunteer for candidates. The public supports us on issues that make it to bills, because they are mainstream issues. Thank legislators when they go your way. McLellan said that our legislation problems go back 15-20 years, when current political appointees were working for the companies we're fighting. These are people who have been getting gifts and money for years and now it's too late to try to influence them our way. We have to start now so when our local lawmakers get to Washington, they'll be with us.
4 p.m. - Foreign Campaigns Linda Genteel is a pianist and animal activist who has travelled 3 times to China, giving performances and interviews about animal issues. See www.pianoprincess.com. The Chinese government promotes bear farms, in which bears are kept in cages scarcely bigger than their bodies for up to 20 years with tubes in their gall bladders in order to extract their bile for "medicine," because they think it is a step above killing the bears for the bile. Noam Lazarus spoke about animal smuggling. In 1993 Matthew Block (sp?) was convicted and sentenced to 13 months prison. He reappeared later trying to start a primate breeding farm in Israel. That plan was squashed. Shamrock was a UK primate breeding farm shut down in March 2000. Now the UK buys its primates from abroad. Animal abuse is international. Although we shut down operations in our own countries, law still allows us to finance similar operations in other places. Christine Wolf of the Fund for Animals spoke about bush meat in Africa. Bush meat is meat acquired by hunting wild animals. It happens all over the globe. There has been an escalation in the industry due to logging - roads now go into previously unchartered areas of forests. This is leading to the extermination of species, and primates are among the hardest hit. There are about 620 mountain gorillas left (the gorillas Diane Fosse studied). That is not a viable gene pool. Wolf runs an ecotravel company. She says people sometimes criticize her saying it's unethical to disturb the forest but she says it is worth it when her travel business makes gorillas worth more alive than dead. If there were no ecotourism, those animals would be dead. The U.S. is a signatory of CITI. There are 150 others. The Great Ape Conservation Act is in Congress. It has broad support. This is unusual in the U.S. HR4320 and S1007 establish federal funds from which grants would be made to projects in Great Ape range countries. We need to ask our legislators how they are voting on this issue. Michelle Thew of the British anti-vivisection organization said there is a huge international trade in primates for research. Two big transporters of the primates are Air France and American Airlines. There is a list of airlines available that has committed NOT to transport primates for research. The HPV tests will retest products already on the market. It has just been announced that the UK wants to follow suit and retest products as well! Her organization does undercover work in a place breeding dogs for research. It is related to a company in the U.S. (Harlan - www.harlan.com. Dogs are listed under "Products and Services.") Their brochure says they will mutilate the dogs any way requested. A speaker from Israel talked about fighting the use of strychnine poisoning to control populations. Strychnine causes the animal to convulse for 24 hours before dying. Citizens won an oral rabies vaccine instead of killing for foxes. Municipal vets still poison although it is illegal. Municipal vets cannot lose their jobs. There is now a way to tell female eggs from male eggs. The Israelis hired a scientist to develop a test that would be able to determine this on a mass scale, to prevent male chicks from being left to die. The organization in Israel also rehabilitates horses and donkeys and is making a sanctuary. The vets say they can't take a horse away from someone without a court order. They are working to change that. See www.chai.org.
6:30 - 10 p.m. - Banquet and Plenary Session Alex Pacheco, cofounder of PETA, member of the Sea Shepherd crew during its encounter with the Sierra, an outlaw whaling ship and the activist who got the first police raid and conviction of cruelty for experimenters (Silver Spring monkeys), said that what our movement needs is 1) tenacity - "Never, ever let go." And 2) unity. If we were as united as the NRA, we could do anything. George Cave began his involvement in animal rights in 1981 when he founded Trans-Species United. He said the errors he committed were failing to bear in mind that he too is an animal and deserves his own respect and compassion. His life became uncentered, he became angrier and angrier and a workaholic, which drove people away. He encouraged us to set aside time every day to nurture OURSELVES. James LaVeck, the producer of "The Witness", said in 1996 he saw "Animals to Love or Kill" on HBO. He found it very powerful and truthful and attended Animal Rights 1997. There he met Eddie Lama (future star of the film), who had had a dramatic change of consciousness as a grown adult. Then Eddie Lama spoke about how he was once the subject of an attempted murder. He fooled his attackers by pretending to be dead. When he later saw photos of animals suffering, he knew exactly how they felt. He said that animals don't need to cry, we hear them. He says it's hard for him to speak in front of people because he has no "letters" after his name (he joked that he's had a few numbers!) He also joked that with his NY accent he can't even pronounce Rs. Alex Hershaft announced that 770 people had registered for the conference. There were 110 speakers in 140 sessions, and 75 exhibitors. Mr. Hershaft awarded the Bill Rosenberg prize for achievement from an activist under the age of 18 in the area of farm animals to Patrick Kwan. Past winners include Mike Markarian of the Fund for Animals, and Paul Shapiro of Compassion Over Killing. Then the inductees to the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame were announced: Cleveland Amory (awarded to Mike Markarian, who told the story of Konga at Black Beauty Ranch. She was rescued from a circus and another circus called to ask if they could breed her with an elephant they had at a zoo. Mr. Amory said that he didn't believe in breeding animals and after talking to the caller, he didn't believe in breeding humans either.) Ingrid Newkirk (absent) was also inducted, as was Henry Spira, the only AR activist whose papers are to be collected by the Library of Congress. Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation, and new leader of Animal Rights International (Spira's organization) was next. Finally, Howard Lyman was inducted. The Media Animal Advocate Award was awarded to Bonnie Erbe, TV show host, and columnist with Scripps-Howard news service. Alicia Silverstone, actress, was awarded for her work with the media. She answers fan mail, including animal rights literature. She said she was very excited to be in the same room with so many people who feel the same way as she does. She announced she is in production on a Fox Saturday morning cartoon show about a little vegan girl. Fox has already bought 26 episodes. She reminded us that it's important that people see what we've seen. We need to go into schools with videos. Talk about how good you feel and look, and look good! This appeals to people's vanity. She cautioned against negative campaigns or campaigns that use shock value. "Education, not alienation."
Tuesday, July 4 9 a.m. - Fur Campaigns George Cave said that in 1985 he took a good look at the fur issue. There were isolated demos but not much coordinated action. He said animal rights will only make headway when it adopts the classic model of social justice movements. He spoke about the Great Macy's Shutdown in New York. 120 activists blockedaded all 7 entrances to the store and shut it down for about 3 hours. It was covered by all three major NY newspapers. Over 100 people were arrested. The NY courts have too much to do to worry about animal rights protesters, so each of the 100 arrested exercized their right to have an individual trial, which of course got them all off in a group trial. This tactic was used and worked again and again. The first Fur Free Friday was held in New York, fur caiptal of the world. 1989 was the peak of Fur Free Friday. 5,000 activists marched down 5th Avenue, led by Bob Barker. The city closed down half of 5th Avenue for the march on the biggest shopping day of the year. WE NEED COORDINATED NATIONAL ACTION. Paul Shapiro talked about how his group started with a flawed campaign. They targeted a small fur store. Part of what led them to change the tactic was J.P. Goodwin in Dallas. If we put a small store goes out of business, it won't affect the fur industry. Department stores closing hurts the industry and could cause ripple effects. Furthermore, department stores determine fashion. Small stores can't stop selling their only product. Department stores can stop selling one of the thousands of products they offer. Nieman Marcus has 31 stores, but only about 10 cities are involved in the campaign. Visit www.niemans.org. J.P. Goodwin then spoke about forming the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade. Their Macy's West campaign targeted their corporate offices. Their office was taken over by 25 activists (including Cres Vellucci). There were national days of action. Macy's overreacted, asked for LOTS of cops. The self-inflicted trauma was more than Goodwin had hoped for. In court proceedings, Macy's spoke of absurd precautions they would take. They did the math and realized it would cost them more to keep the fur stores open than close them. In February 1997 they started closing fur departments. In 1996 Goodwin began targeting Macy's East. Anti-fur calls to the store outnumber pro-fur calls 100 to 1! Maintain pressure on Macy's. They have 32 fur departments. Visit www.boycottmacys.org. The effort against Burlington Coat Factory began with the realization that the company probably honestly didn't know that it was selling dog and cat fur. This was exposed on Dateline NBC. CAFT joined with Last Chance for Animals and tried to talk to Burlington Coat Factory. They have 280 stores but only two fur departments. All stores sell items with fur trim. The company refused to respond. CAFT put up www.skinnedpuppy.com. They promoted the campaign and Web site in Burlington, NJ, headquarters and home town of Burlington Coat Factory. He spoke at a shareholder's meeting. J.P. e-mails the text of all news articles about the campaign to BCF. They did reduce their fur inventory for this fall. Nieman Marcus is a difficult campaign due to the uncaring response of the store. When one of its security guards assaulted a protester as she walked back to her car, Compassion Over Killing in Washington, DC was inspired to join the fight. Nordstrom only has two fur departments and the campaign to get those closed is going well. "Sex and the City," a show on HBO, is basically a fur-promotion vehicle. Last Chance for Animals has sent out a press release attacking the show with the main intention of encouraging other shows not to use fur in their costumes. Oregon and Washington now have ballot initiatives to ban fur trapping. See www.bancrueltraps.org. Leghold traps have been banned in Europe. A ban on fur farms is in the works. Holland is 2nd in the world in mink farming. Holland has already banned fox and chinchilla farming, however, and is working on banning mink. The Parliament is in favor of the ban. 6 Australian states have banned fur farming. 3 more have restrictions, so severe that there are no farms in those states either. Sweden will restrict fox farms beginning January 1, 2001. 80% of the fox fur in the world comes from Scandinavia. Northern Ireland and Scotland have no fur farms and are planning on passing laws to prohibit it to prevent fur farmers from Wales and England from relocating when fur farming is banned in those countries. In Denmark fur is very popular. Fur is a good entry issue for the general public, who could then be introduced to other issues. The anti-fur movement is even picking up in Eastern Europe. There are ways to use the EEC to ban fur in all of Europe. The possibilities are being investigated now. When you picket the malls, not only are you reaching the passersby, but at mall meetings, other stores complain about their customers being intimidated to the fur-selling stores. An attorney in the audience advised us not to worry about getting arrested. Police don't have the time to process multiple arrests. She said to insist on your right to a speedy trial.
10 a.m. - New Tactics in Medicine Robert Cohem told us that the FDA breeds animals in a million-square-foot facility in Arkansas. This represents a huge amount of money for Arkansas. Clinton was paid $30,000 as governor. The head of this program in the FDA, Dan Shehan (sp.?) agrees that animal experiments are a sham and that we should be testing on artificial tissues and computer models. This is possible NOW. Michelle Thew told about the British anti-vivisection society. In Britain there are no freedom of information acts, so they rely on undercover investigation. It is even illegal to pass on information about animal experiments. The Huntington Research Center (aka Life Sciences) does tests for pharmaceuticals. Thew's group (BUAV) went undercover and did a program on their channel 4, resulting in the prosecution of a technician filmed punching a beagle because he couldn't get a sample from the dog. The group also went undercover in Shamrock, a primate breeding facility (recently closed down). Shamrock thought it was being filmed for a corporate video and still allowed rough treatments and bad attitudes of employees to be filmed. The UK government expressed its "dismay." In the UK, 21 people are responsible for monitoring 2.7 million animal experiments. Obviously they cannot do a good job. The UK government keeps saying everything is OK despite video evidence to the contrary. Martin Stephens (Humane Society of the United States) said that we need to adopt a long-term vision and be in this for the long haul. The HSUS has adopted a goal of ending suffering in labs by the year 2020. Components of the initiative are tracking animal suffering in labs over time to find out if it is increasing or decreasing and issuing reports on pain and distress for common procedures, freeing up money to figure out how to eliminate pain and distress, and outreach to the scientific community. The USDA seems to be paying attention. The Animal Welfare Act was supposed to keep stress from being inflicted on animals but never defined what "stress" is. With this initiative, the HSUS hopes to revamp the pain and distress scale.
12 p.m. - New Tactics for Amusement J.P. Goodwin talked about how small towns are banning exotic animal acts, such as Corona, CA. The ordinance didn't pass in Seattle but only by a vote of 5-4. It is imperative that we attack bad politicians when they are in close races. Steve Hindi said we've got to walk our talk. 1. Investigate, 2. Expose the facts, and 3. Take the bad guys down. Mr. Hindi is raising money for a fleet of SHARK Tigers - vans with equipment to show videos as they drive. These are needed in every major city. We need to stop crying at videos because they're sad. Cry because we have FAILED TO STOP THE ATROCITIES. We must demand more of ourselves, of the movement, and of the groups we support. Listen to yourself. What made you get involved in animal rights? How can we use whatever it was to get others involved? Dan Elroy of Tennessee Network for Animals said it is imperative to get videotape of atrocities in your local area. Pose as a tourist to get into places that would otherwise be closed to you. "Ask the nice man to get the bear out of the truck for you." Go armed with names of local people involved in zoos, etc., act like you know them and about the animals, act like you're on their side. Mike Markarian spoke about the Fund's direct action against hunting. There are legislative efforts and public outreach going on. The latest national poll showed that 54% of the USA opposes killing wild animals for sport. The purchase of hunting licensese is down 2.5% in the past 10 years. The number of animals being killed is also in decline. Animal rights advocates in New York advertised that they would post no hunting for people who didn't want hunters on their lands. They were very successful with this campaign. They made a point that hunting on private lands is dangerous for children and pets. The hunting community is trying to reach children. They have mentor programs, youth shoots. The mentors help the children through the initial pain of seeing an animal die. They are trying to recruit women too, or at least convince them not to oppose hunting. Women are the majority of voters in this country. The Fund is fighting recruitment efforts. Project Respect is a curriculum unit about hunting. About 3,000 teachers in the USA have it. We want it in state agencies that are doing the recruiting. The average child becomes a hunter at age 12 or 14. If they are not hunters by the age of 16, a hunting association study shows they won't become hunters. An audience member asked how to attack canned fishing events held in public swimming pools. Steve Hindi recommended letters to the editor, challenging local fishermen to take a stand against it (there is no sport in canned events). Look into the disease issue with PCRM's help - is it safe for children to be swimming in that pool? Fish and Wildlife agencies are generally funded by two main things: hunting licenses and excise taxes on guns and ammo. Obviously this is a conflict of interest if they are supposed to be protecting wildlife. Great slogan from car sunshade from AAVS: If you still eat meat, get help! From a T-shirt: Friends don't let friends eat meat!
2 p.m. - 5 p.m. Plenary Session www.hogwatchmanitoba.org is a new Canadian organization against industrial agriculture. Alex Hershaft said that animal rights is an issue for people concerned about all oppression. Animals are the most oppressed group. If we achieve animal rights, we achieve it for all oppressed group and raise the bar on rights everywhere. People are now aware of what is going on and it is time to take issues into the mainstream of public opinion. Always keep in mind how your action will impact the American public opinion and work long-term. Meat eating is more ingrained in people than smoking. The vegetarian movement is only 25 years old and it has taken longer to get action against tobacco companies. The largest slaughtering company in the world, ConAgra, is putting out a line of vegan meals, Advantage 10. ConAgra also makes Peter Pan, Wesson, Hunt's, Healthy Choice, Swiss Miss, La Choy, Orville Redenbacker and Marie Callendar. The way to reduce the consumption of animals for food is to make meat alternatives better tasting, more available, and less expensive. As the economic situation in the world improves, the demand for meat will rise. It could double in the next 20 years Knowing this, the U.S. is trying to introduce factory farming in developing countries. The Animal Welfare Institute invited Polish farmers to visit pig farms in Pennsylvania (see article in July 4, 2000, Washington Post). Once the farmers saw what was going on here, they didn't want any part of American factory farming. We need to concentrate our efforts in this area. Wayne Pacelle says that things have changed a lot in the past 15 years. We are at the high point of discussion, political action, and lifestyle change on animal issues. Evolution and social change are not steady. There are more a punctuated equilibrium. Factors we need to address right now are: 1. Globalization. Current trade agreements (GATT, NAFTA) threaten most laws we have pushed for. We must ally ourselves with human rights, labor, and environmental movements. 2. Factory farming is our biggest threat. 3. The population is currently 270 million in the USA and 6 billion in the world. More people means less natural environments for animals. This could eventually eliminate all wild animals from the earth. The movement must consolidate to address these three issues and concentrate our power on the biggest issues. Holly Hazard says we need to professionalize and be intellectual, not emotional. Use creativity, kindness, and cash, as well as good marketing methods and tolerance. Live a life that makes a difference. We need to find out how others are successful in marketing to better sell compassion. Applaud people who take baby steps. They used to be us. Keep your sense of humor. It's the only way to stick with it. Ms. Hazard recommends starting what she calls "Virtual Sanctuaries." In hers are the animals she adopted at Farm Sanctuary and other places, as well as the 5 cows, 480 chickens, 8 pigs and 320 fish she estimates she has not eaten in her 16 years as a vegetarian. Plus, virtual sanctuaries have no startup costs! Howard Lyman took the stage to tell us that we are winning. Industries are spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year and consumption is still going down. It takes 16 pounds of grain to make one pound of meat. Those 16 pounds could feed 32 people or Rush Limbaugh. Mr. Lyman commended the attendees, saying those present didn't come to learn a pyramid marketing scheme or to enrich ourselves. We came to watch bloody videos. Less than 20% of the people think. The rest follow nose to tail and only see one thing - what's directly in front. We need to reach that 20% because once we do, the herd will follow. He recounted some of his experiences while being sued with Oprah. The prosecutor asked him if he was a vegetarian, and Lyman said he would not apologize for something that saved his life. The prosecutor asked if anyone had ever called him irresponsible. Lyman said yes, his wife. Lyman also stated that the thing he is most proud of today is that no animal has to die for him to live. Besides winning the lawsuit, the cattlemen now have to pay Lyman's "reasonable" attorney fees. After losing, 40 cattlemen filed the same suit with a new judge in Dumas county. As Lyman is from out of state, he has the right to move the case to federal court, which he did, and now the case is back in front of the same judge. The cattlemen are suing under a 1995 Texas law that "holds liable anyone who makes false and disparaging statements about perishable food products." The cattlemen didn't want us to see the millions of pounds of dogs and cats from L.A. being fed to the cattle. EXCERPT FROM www.madcowboy.com, Howard Lyman's Web site: "There is simply no such thing in America as an animal too ravaged by disease, too cancerous, or too putrid to be welcomed by the embracing arms of the renderer. Another staple of the renderer's diet, in addition to farm animals, is euthanized pets-the six or seven million dogs and cats that are killed in animal shelters every year. The city of Los Angeles alone, for example, sends some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a rendering plant every month. Added to the blend are the euthanized catch of animal control agencies, and roadkill. (Roadkill is not collected daily, and in the summer, the better roadkill collection crews can generally smell it before they can see it.) When the gruesome mix is ground and steam-cooked, the lighter, fatty material floating to the top gets refined for use in such products as cosmetics, lubricants, soaps, candles, and waxes. The heavier protein material is dried and pulverized into a brown powder-about a quarter of which consists of fecal material. The powder is used as an additive to almost all pet food as well as to livestock feed. Farmers call it "protein concentrates." In 1995, five million tons of processed slaughterhouse leftovers were sold for animal feed in the United States. I used to feed tons of the stuff to my own livestock. It never concerned me that I was feeding cattle to cattle."
