Good News on Oprah, Ellen, The Simpsons, Good Morning America in May/June!

[Guest guest]

OPRAH:Could there be bigger news for the animals? Oprah takes a vegan plunge. You can read about it on her blog, and even follow her daily journey, athttp://www2.oprah.com/foodhome/food/cleanse/blog/blog_1.jhtmlIt tells us:"In her book Quantum Wellness, best-selling author and spiritual counselor Kathy Freston suggests trying a 21-day cleanse as a way to jump-start an inner makeover. Oprah has decided to give it a try! The plan is to eliminate caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products from your diet for up to 21 days. Read along as Oprah blogs for three weeks about the highs and lows of her experience."And this is from Oprah's first day:"How can you say you're trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose

lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?"Woohoo!Actually, I am going to admit to having a little trepidation about the likely lack of woohoos in Oprah's 21 days of veganism. Those who know me, or who read the Veg News magazine profile (now on line at http://www.thankingthemonkey.com/vegnews.php) from which my repeated quote is "Why can't animal rights be fun? For heaven's sake, gin is vegan!" know that I hate to see veganism associated with puritanism. Nevertheless, Oprah will surely feel physically fabulous, and this is a wonderful thing for the animals. Please send her some encouragement at http://www2.oprah.com/email/tows/email_tows_main.jhtmlI am going to send a note reminding her that after her 21 days she can have that delicious champagne she craves without hurting the animals!Please also check out the terrific op-ed on Oprah's new diet by Susan Levin, a staff dietitian with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

(www.pcrm.org) from the Salt Lake Tribune athttp://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_9385451 . And please take a moment to give it a nice thumbs up rating on that page. ELLEN!On Friday, May 23, Skinny Bitch authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin were on Ellen, showing her some wonderful vegan recipes. At http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2008/05/how_about_some_delicious_skinn.php you can get free copies of their books from Ellen, and also leave a positive comment. Please do! And ask Ellen to keep up the coverage of animal and veggie issues. Send her a comment at http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/respond/?PlugID=10Rory promises she will let us know when the Ellen segment is on line for us to watch. THE SIMPSONSI had the most fun twenty-something minutes of my catch-up days watching the Simpsons episode, Apocalypse Chow, which

originally aired on April 27 and can now be seen on line at:http://www.hulu.com/watch/18243/the-simpsons-apocalypse-cow#s-p1-so-i0Here is the description:"Bart joins the 4-H Club and unexpectedly falls in love with a cow named Lou. When Bart finds out that Lou has been sold to a slaughterhouse, he becomes determined to save him."No, Bart isn't joining his smart sister Lisa and going vegan just yet. But the episode provided, hilariously, a good view into factory farms and slaughterhouses. Prepare to sit back and chuckle.THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALA more serious take on that serious subject came in the form of a May 31 New York Times editorial headed,"The Worst Way of Farming." It discussed reports from the Pew Charitable Trusts and from the Union of Concerned Scientists and commented:"No matter what you call it, it adds up to the same thing. Millions of animals are crowded together in inhumane conditions, causing significant

environmental threats and unacceptable health risks for workers, their neighbors and all the rest of us....In short, animal husbandry has been turned into animal abuse. Manure traditionally a source of fertilizer has been turned into toxic waste that fouls the air and adjacent water bodies. Crowding creates health problems, resulting in the chronic overuse of antibiotics."The Times supported the Pew report's call for "new laws regulating pollution from industrial farms as rigorously as pollution from other industries, a phasing-out of confinement systems that restricts natural movement and normal behavior, a ban on antibiotics used only to promote animal growth and the application of antitrust laws to encourage more competition and less concentration."You'll find the whole wonderful article on line at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/opinion/31sat4.htmlMany of us work to encourage a move away from meat-based diets, which is something not

mentioned in the editorial, but which might be brought up in letters to the editor, sent to lettersBut as this is an editorial in the New York Times, one of the world's leading newspapers, not in the Vegetarian Times, the strong stance by the editors against institutionalized animal abuse should be noted with appreciation as a huge step forward. VEGGIE DOGS IN BALL PARKSJohanna McCloy is longtime friend of mine from the animal movement, and a terrific activist, so I cannot help but share the wonderful article from the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday May 25, on her terrific efforts to get veggie hot dogs into all of the ball parks -- and concession stands everywhere. You can check it out at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/23/CMF5VHBKG.DTLKFC CANADAThe news has been in every Canadian newspaper, and

many others across the world. And you can read the Canada Press article headed, "Vegan 'chicken' on menu as KFC Canada pledges better animal welfare to end protest" here:http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6dNMYmKuBdXJ8BslzPVbuEqpjLAIt tells us:"The Canadian Press has learned that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has agreed to call off its Canadian 'Kentucky Fried Cruelty' campaign..."Among other things, the deal obliges KFC Canada to begin buying from suppliers who use gas to kill their chickens painlessly, considered to be the least cruel method of slaughter."The company is also promising to insist on other 'animal-welfare friendly' measures relating to how the birds are kept, including a maximum on crowding and phasing out non-essential growth-hormones and other drugs."Customers of the popular restaurant chain will also be able to order a vegan 'chicken' item, according to the deal that followed almost seven

months of at-times 'sticky' closed-door negotiations."PETA is hopeful that the writing is now on the wall for KFC in the US. In this country, poultry are entirely exempt from federal humane slaughter laws, and die some of the most gruesome deaths imaginable. While knowing that their chickens will not be so horrendously tortured won't send many of us running to KFC for a fried wing dinner, we can, knowing that people still do eat chicken, gratefully acknowledge the amount of suffering eased by this win -- it's immeasurable. Congratulations to PETA. And when the US KFC branches start stocking vegan chicken sandwiches, I probably will gratefully grab them when I am on the road!PUPPY MILLS ON GOOD MORNING AMERICALast month I sent out news of Oprah's fantastic coverage of the hideous puppy mill industry. Yesterday, Monday June 2, Jana Kohl and her puppy mill rescue dog Baby were on Good

Morning America promoting Jana's new book, "A Rare Breed of Love." You can watch the clip on line at http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4978699And please thank the show for the coverage. Positive feedback for animal friendly coverage encourages more of it. Go to http://tinyurl.com/2bddbjIt's good to be back!Yours and the animals',Karen Dawn(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read reviews of Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the

Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals” and watch the fun celebrity studded promo video.To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php-------