Monday, April 30, 2007

Upcoming EBAA Service Days at Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary!

Join East Bay Animal Advocates on the second Saturday of every month (10am- 2pm) for service days at Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary in Stockton.

To participate, please send an email to volunteer@eastbayanimaladvocates.org. Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary was formed to aid homeless and abuseddomestic and farmed animals in the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin valley. Learn more at www.HarvestHomeAnimal.org.

*Upcoming Service Dates*

Saturday, May 12, 2007
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007

Please wear comfortable clothes and plan on getting dirty. Snacks willbe provided for good workers!

See you at the farm :)

Friday, April 6, 2007

Foster Fluff!!!!

Foster Farms, with a solid record of animal neglect complaints, now "wants to be America's most trusted food company"! Read the full story: http://www.fosterfarms.com/docs/249979.pdf

Click here to ask Foster Farms to improve conditions for birds and stop misleading consumers.

Interesting Editorial about Olivera's Egg Farm Proposal

This plan lays a big egg
April 04, 2007

We're less concerned about protecting chickens than questioning the scale of a proposed egg-producing operation near the 11,000-home River Islands development in Lathrop.

A 900,000-hen farm simply doesn't seem appropriate in a rapidly growing suburban area.
Agriculture remains San Joaquin County's No. 1 industry, and much of it needs to be protected from encroaching development.

However, a new operation of such magnitude should be located a lot farther from residential neighborhoods.

The Olivera Family Limited Partnership, which already owns a similar operation in nearby French Camp, has made significant adjustments since first proposing the egg ranch a year ago. Initial plans were larger and even closer to River Islands.

The 242,000-square-foot operation is still too big and too close.

The plan again has drawn strong and justifiable opposition from residents, developers and city officials in Lathrop.

Animal-rights activists also have protested. Their opposition is naive, predictable and overheated.

When county planners review this latest proposal, they must consider:

» Environmental impacts, including potential air-quality decline and the dangers should a flood occur.

» Foul odors from chicken waste.

» The agriculture-urban interface. Is this a compatible land use so close to Lathrop?

» The San Jose-based Olivera company's spotty record with codes and regulations in both San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties.

This isn't exactly a "Which came first? The chicken or the egg" proposition. It is, however, a reflection of San Joaquin County in transition.

Agriculture is healthy, but contracting. New housing is healthier, and expanding.

Online at http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070404/A_OPINION01/704040318/-1/A_OPINION06

Write a letter: Letters must be 250 words or less. Include your full name, address and phone number. Email your letter to editor@recordnet.com.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Welcome to EBAA's Blog

For news, campaign reports, upcoming events and action alerts from East Bay Animal Advocates, this is the place to get the information. Check this new story about the Olivera Egg campaign and Lunardi's campaign:

Tri-Valley Herald: "Critics hope egg ranch does not hatch"
By Cheryl Winkelman, Staff Writer
04/02/2007


Though it hasn't yet been given the final go-ahead, a proposed egg ranchnear Lathrop already has ruffled quite a few feathers. Neighbors and animal rights groups have flooded San Joaquin County's Community Development Department with letters of vociferous opposition.

Michael and Roberta Larkin wrote, "Our property lies parallel on theeast side of the proposed site of the egg facility. Therefore, thesmell will be intolerable." The 240,000-square-foot egg ranch is planned for 4000 W. Undine Rd.,which is west of Lathrop and the San Joaquin River. If built, it willbe near Lathrop's River Islands, an 11,000-unit housing development that is under construction. Up to 1 million chickens could inhabit the premises.


Another potential neighbor, William H. Reynolds, worried about themanure disposal. He mentioned four children who are home-schooled nearthe proposed site. "The potential health issues for these youngsters is obvious," he wrote.So far, the project has cleared one environmental hurdle.


The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District determined last week thecancer risk produced by the farm would be less than significant,according to county documents. Other county departments still need to analyze the egg farm, including the Public Health Department for vector control and Asian flu concerns,before it again reaches the county's Planning Commission for a vote, said County Planner Ray Hoo.


Meanwhile, animal rights activists are working with Lunardi's grocerystores, a family-owned chain with stores in Danville and Walnut Creek, to get the company to stop selling eggs from Olivera Family Limited Partnership, the company behind the egg ranch. They run a smaller eggranch in French Camp and previously operated an egg ranch in Gilroy. Company officials did not return telephone calls.


Fifteen animal advocacy groups also have banded together and created http://www.nomoreolivera.com. Christine Morrissey, a spokeswoman for East Bay Animal Advocates said, "our organization visited one of the previously owned facilities.... The conditions were completely unacceptable. The animals were living in filth."


Morrissey said the hens were confined to small wire enclosures. Often, their beaks are removed so they didn't peck each other to death. At the French Camp site, 250 to 300 birds die daily, she said. Though 90percent of egg-laying hens are raised in cages, Olivera Farms' sanitation practices are below par, Morrissey said. The operational practices of the Gilroy facility were deemed a publicnuisance by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 2002. Weekly inspections from the county's Department of Environmental Health tomonitor flies and manure clean-ups followed, according to county documents.


In late 2005, the poultry operation was shut down. Complaints have also been filed with San Joaquin County's Department ofEnvironmental Health about Olivera Farms' French Camp egg ranch about the bad smell.