Upcoming Demos - Foie Gras (Yountville), Marine Mammals (San Francisco and Berkeley)

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Bay Area - 3 Important Upcoming Demos

Saturday, May 8 - Foie Gras (Yountville)Saturday, May 15 - Marine Mammals (San Francisco, Berkeley)

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Please join In Defense of Animals (IDA), Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL), and Orange County People for Animals (OCPA) for a nationwide protest against the Thomas Keller restaurant group for continuing to serve foie gras. Coordinated protests will be held in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

What: Foie Gras DemonstrationWhen: Saturday, May 8, 6:30 p.m.Where: French Laundry, 6640 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599

Several high profile chefs, including Wolfgang Puck and Charlie Trotter, have stopped serving foie gras due to the cruelty inherent in its production. A California statewide ban will go into effect in 2012, and six city councils have signed resolutions commending restaurants for removing this product of animal torture.

Despite repeated contacts, Thomas Keller continues dishing up cruelty, so help us educate their customers! Banners and flyers will be provided. Visit www.BanFoieGras.org for more information.

For more information including car pools: Hope Bohanec, Grassroots Campaigns Director, hope, 415-448-0058. And scroll down to the bottom of this message for more info about foie gras.

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Help Stop the Public Display of Marine Mammals

As part of an international day of awareness for marine mammals in public display facilities, IDA invites you to take part in two local captive marine mammal outreach events. Please join IDA and activists in over 30 different cities and countries worldwide as we educate and inspire the public to support the phasing out of marine mammals in captivity as well as to campaign for the retirement of Lolita, the oldest captive orca living in the smallest tank in the U.S.

Lolita "lives" at the Miami Seaquarium, alone. She has suffered at Seaquarium for more than 39 years in a tank where she is barely able to turn around. Lolita is approximately 22 feet long and 6,000 lbs. Her tank is 20 feet deep at the deepest point and is 35 feet across. She has spent her life swimming in meaningless circles and has been forced to learn and perform unnatural circus style tricks for food.

 

 

San Francisco demo:

What: Demo opposing holding marine mammals captive, and calling for the retirement of Lolita.When: Saturday, May 15, 2010, 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.Where: San Francisco, Pier 39 (at the entrance, near Embarcadero and Stockton Street)

Berkeley demo:

What: Demo opposing holding marine mammals captive, and calling for the retirement of Lolita.When: Saturday, May 15, 2010, 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.Where: Berkeley Marina to Civic Center Park (Meet between 11:30 – 12 p.m. in the 1st parking lot on the left in the south sailing basin at the Berkeley Marina for peaceful walk down University Avenue to Civic Center Park.)

Also:

Contact Congress and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Call for stricter regulations and oversight for facilities with public display permits and prohibit the display of animals not suitable for captivity. Click here to send a letter. For more information please contact: Melissa. And scroll to the bottom of this message for more info about Lolita.

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Background on Foie Gras:

Foie gras (pronounced “fwah grahâ€), French for “fatty liverâ€, is made from the enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. Birds used for foie gras are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Two or three times every day, up to 4 pounds of grain and fat are pumped into the bird’s stomachs through pipes that are shoved down their throats.

This force-feeding causes the bird’s livers to become diseased and swell to up 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand. The pipes sometimes puncture birds’ throats, and the massive amount of food sometimes ruptures their stomachs and other internal organs.

Female hatchlings, who are useless to foie gras farmers, are often drowned in scalding water, suffocated in plastic bags, or shredded alive in macerators. Foie gras production is so cruel that it has been banned in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. In the U.S., the state of California passed a law that will ban the production and sale of foie gras throughout the state by 2012. For more information: http://www.banfoiegras.com/

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Background on Lolita:

Lolita was captured from the wild as a young calf in Puget Sound on the Washington coast. She is a Resident orca which means that not only does she feed on live fish, she remains with her pod-family for life. This life history trait makes her reality at the Miami Seaquarium, alone, away from her family in an artificial tank, that much more depressing for her. She has suffered at Miami’s Seaquarium for more than 39 years in a tank where she is barely able to turn around. Lolita is approximately 22 feet long and 6,000 lbs. Her tank is 20 feet deep at the deepest point and is 35 feet across. She has spent her life swimming in meaningless circles and has been forced to learn and perform unnatural circus style tricks for food. At one point during her life in captivity,

she had the companionship of another orca named Hugo. His life was cut short after he repeatedly rammed his head into the walls and windows of their small tank and died of a brain aneurism.

Lolita should be retired back to her native waters. As a first step, abusement parks like the Miami Seaquarium must immediately discontinue their demeaning circus-style shows with animals. They also need to stop the captive breeding of marine species like orcas because they cannot be held humanely in captivity. It is paramount that they begin the rehabilitation process of the individual captive animals and prepare for their release to coastal sea pens back to the regions of the world from where they were originally caught.

The U.S. must elevate its marine conservation education standards by phasing out all marine park institutions. In the United Kingdom, there are no remaining marine parks. Public display of marine mammals is not necessary to provide a meaningful education of how to protect marine mammals and their habitats.

 

 

 

 

In Defense of Animals, located in San Rafael, Calif., is an international animal protection organization with more than 85,000 members and supporters dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. IDA's efforts include educational events, cruelty investigations, boycotts, grassroots activism, and hands-on rescue through our sanctuaries in Mississippi, Mumbai, India, and Cameroon, Africa.

In Defense of Animals is a registered 501©3 non-profit organization. We welcome your feedback and appreciate your donations. Please join today! All donations to IDA are tax-deductible.

In Defense of Animals3010 Kerner, San Rafael, CA 94901Tel. (415) 448-0048 Fax (415) 454-1031idainfo

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