Game On: Get Active

As a watchdog group, East Bay Animal Advocates critically analyzes the impact of California agriculture on animals. EBAA encourages consumers to make caring, informed food choices. There are a variety of ways to get involved with EBAA, such as:

- Helping ban the sale of battery-cage eggs at Lunardi's grocery stores in the San Francisco Bay Area by leafleting at one of their stores. It's simple. Join EBAA's consumer campaign by adopting a store near you. Learn more about the campaign at www.LunardisAbuse.com.

- By writing letters-to-the-editor, EBAA's Advocacy Author Group is designed to increase public visibility of humane issues and create opportunities for individuals to develop advocacy skills right from your computer.

- Getting your hands dirty at our monthly Farm Days at Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary in the San Joaquin Valley.

- By subscribing to EBAA's free email newsletter, you are supplied with a helpful dose of breaking news, campaign reports, upcoming events and action alerts. Join the e-news list.

Please contact Shani Campbell, our new Outreach Director, at Shani@EastBayAnimalAdvocates.org to get active.

A Must Read: "The Truth Behind Humane Slaughter Law"

The Animal Welfare Institute released an illuminating 150-page report concerning the reality of humane slaughter in United States. Read a sample of the cited inspection notes:

“At approximately 1:00 p.m. [a Holstein cow] had a 1 cm hole in its forehead from a captive bolt stunner. At 1:10 p.m. the cow had not been moved and was breathing regularly. An establishment employee tried to re-stun the animal twice but the hand held captive bolt stunner did not fire.”

“The hog was lying in the cradle and all four feet had been removed. The hog was observed to be kicking and shaking its head. It exhibited skin twitching and irregular but rhythmic breathing with deep abdominal and thoracic movement. It appeared to be gasping for breath.”

Click here to read the full report online.

New PSA: Why Won't Lunardi's Give An Inch?

Another Reason to Contact Mr. Ed at the USDA

With Easter 2008 upon us, it's the perfect time to examine the hidden truth of rabbit meat production. Today, metropolitan grocery stores and high-end restaurants are the chief retailers of commercial rabbit meat. Rabbit meat is also sold via the Internet. Each year over two million rabbits are raised and slaughtered for their meat across the country. Known primarily as a cottage industry, American rabbit-meat production is largely unregulated by the federal authorities and removed from the public eye. Watch our mini-film about this topic now:

American rabbit meat production is largely unregulated. Federal agencies deny meat rabbits legal protection from even the worst slaughter abuses. Urge the USDA to create a mandatory inspection program of meat rabbit processing facilities:

Secretary Edward Schafer
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Room 200-A
Washington, DC 20250

Phone: (202) 720-3631
Fax: (202) 720-2166
Email: Edward.W.Schafer@usda.gov

Protection Denied: Humane Slaughter Not Applicable to Birds

It's not a surprise. But, it's unfortunate to hear. Judge Marilyn Hall Patel dismissed a joint lawsuit filed in 2005 by EBAA and The HSUS against the USDA - challenging the exclusion of poultry from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act of 1958. Read about the dismissal in today's report from World Poultry:

"According to a US judge, chickens are not 'livestock' and are therefore not subject to the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. A lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) against the Agriculture Department has argued that the USDA had misinterpreted the 50-year-old Act, reports Cattle Network. 'The court finds the legislative history strongly demonstrates unambiguous congressional intent that livestock, as used in the HMSA, does not include poultry,' US District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel reportedly wrote in her opinion. Judge Patel granted summary judgment in USDA's favour and dismissed the lawsuit.

HSUS's argument was based on a 1958 dictionary definition of livestock that said that the word encompassed 'useful' animals on a farm, while USDA said that the term has always internally meant to exclude poultry.

'The plain language of these bills indicates that Congress intended to exclude poultry from the definition of livestock when it enacted H.R. 8308, the bill that eventually became the HMSA,' Patel wrote."

Lucky Number 790,486

As one of the key grassroots endorsers of the Humane California Campaign, EBAA is pleased to announce the ballot initiative drive reached its six-month signature gathering goal. Not only did the California-based consortium of progressive organizations and concerned individuals meet the monstrous goal, the campaign exceeded it. The total number of signatures captured for the November-bound ballot initiative was 790,486. Approximately 2 percent of Californians signed on to de-intensify animal agriculture.

As campaign officials were busy delivering the signatures to county election offices, ag industry officials pulled out their calculators for a math problem: How much will it cost California egg farmers to go cage-free?

Feedstuffs FoodLink answers: "For California producers to maintain egg production at current levels, they would need to convert all existing cage-production houses to cage free and construct 515 new cage-free houses to accommodate larger space requirements for cage-free production systems at a cost of $500 million, not counting land costs, according to the analysis."

Industry officials are making a good move by calculating costs now. November is right around the corner. Soon, livestock and poultry farmers will need to start writing checks for the costs mentioned above.

Ah, democracy is a sweet thing.

Creative Giving: Adopt-An-Advocate

A practical approach to sustaining our organization's work is to "Adopt-An-Advocate". With a $400 donation, you can make it possible for EBAA to expand its vegetarian outreach campaigns and California factory farming research through the hiring of our first part-time coordinator. All donations are tax-deductible. Make a donation today.