UPDATE: State Fair Board hearing re animal welfare policies

[Guest guest]

February 26, 2005

 

Thanks to the 10 stalwarts who attended yesterday's hearing at Cal Expo

and spoke in support of the proposed changes in the State Fair's " Animal

Welfare Handbook " (Virginia Handley, Curt Ransom, Nicole Paquette, Karen

Raasch, Nancy Hartwig, Don Knutson, Carol Gage, Cris Kelly, Michael

Christopher, Wendy Namisnik, and myself). We did well in making our

case, methinks. Whether the Fair acts upon it favorably or not remains

to be seen. There was only one speaker in favor of the status quo, PRCA

lobbyist Bob Fox, whose main point was that the " Cowboy Teeter Totter "

was not the cause of the rodeo bull's death at the Fair last August.

Ol' Bob's about two sandwiches short of a picnic sometimes....

 

I sent press releases to TV, radio and print media, but only

Sacramento's Channel 13 showed up. It was on the 5 o'clock news last night.

 

Animal advocates voiced their concerns about elephant rides, wild animal

acts, rodeos, petting zoos, farm animal " birthing " exhibits, and the

whipping of thoroughbred race horses, as well as public health and

safety. The Board listened, asked a few questions, but there was very

little discussion of the issues. One board member, Kirk Breed, commented

rather rudely to us (tongue in cheek, hopefully), " I don't really care

about your opinions; I just want the facts. " Reportedly, the Board's

subcommittee will ponder the testimony, then send their opinion to the

Fair's 25-member Animal Welfare Committee for further consideration; the

AWC will then make its recommendation to the full board for a final

vote. No dates are yet set for any of this.

 

Of great concern is the fact that, without exception, all 25 members of

the AWC are from the animal use community. There's not a single

representative from the animal protection community, though Curt Ransom

(HSUS) has been invited to join. We should have much great

representation on this committee. As now constituted, it's a case of

" the fox guarding the henhouse. " Several of the AWC members own/run

animal acts and contract with the State Fair. These include Cotton

Rosser (Flying U Rodeo) who puts on the Fair's rodeos; Gary Johnson

(husband of Kari Johnson), who run " Have Trunk Will Travel, " the folks

who do the elephant rides; Nancy Kobert (live exotic bird shows); and

Karla Majewski (monkey/reptile/etc. shows). Not to mention Dr. Francine

Bradley from UC Davis, reportedly a fan of cockfighting.... THIS IS A

BLATANT CONFLICT OF INTEREST, AND THESE ARE SOME OF THE VERY PEOPLE WHO

WILL BE DECIDING ON WHETHER OR NOT TO REFORM THE FAIR'S OUTDATED ANIMAL

WELFARE POLICIES. The mind boggles. The Fair needs to hear from us on

this unfair situation.

 

I have copies of the Fair's latest " Animal Welfare Handbook, " should

anyone want a copy. It even includes a couple of pages on " animal

rights organizations, " some of which is laughable, some inflammatory,

lumping in ALF and Earth First! with Humane Farming Association, Farm

Sanctuary, Performing Animal Welfare Society, PETA, and the SPCA. Worth

a read.

 

NOTE: Fair CEO Norbert Bartosik announced that the Fair's computer had

been infected with a virus a few weeks ago, and that they had to delete

as many as " a couple hundred " e-mails on this issue during that time. I

would suggest that anyone who e-mailed the Fair on this issue anytime

since February 1, should re-submit that letter. And send me a copy,

please. MORAL: LETTERS ARE BETTER THAN E-MAILS. (And bodies are

better than letters--we should have had a much better turn-out, people.)

 

I did peruse all the letters the Fair had received as of yesterday: 24

in opposition to our efforts (mostly in response to an alert in Circus

News, many of them form letters), and 132 in support of the proposed

changes, including letters from Senator Don Perata and Assembly Member

Loni Hancock. (Assemblyman Ray Haynes, not surprisingly, wrote a letter

of opposition.) That's a 5:1 ratio in our favor. Many thanks to all

who wrote/called.

 

The meetings of the Animal Welfare Committee are open to the public.

I'll send out an alert when I learn of the date/time of any upcoming

meetings, and hope to see you there.

 

For the animals,

 

Eric Mills, coordinator

ACTION FOR ANIMALS

510/652-5603