A n i m a l
W r i t e s © sm
The official ANIMAL
RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue # 05/12/02
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~
MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE SIX ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Mother's Day Tribute
2 ~ Journalist's Note - The Word is Querencia
3 ~ Calling All Rain Forest Heroes
4 ~ Pain & Distress Report
5 ~ Break The Chain
6 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Mother's Day Tribute
Remember the Premarin Mares on Mother's Day
From United Animal Nations - info@uan.org
National
Animal Group Asks Women to Remember Tens of Thousands of Pregnant Horses Used
and Abused by Drug Industry
SACRAMENTO, California (May 10) -- As we celebrate Mother's Day this Sunday,
May 12, United Animal Nations, a national animal advocacy and rescue group, is
calling on women nationwide to remember the tens of thousands of Premarin mares
for whom motherhood is little cause for celebration.
An estimated 35,000 to 40,000 mares are impregnated annually to fuel the
production of Premarin, a hormone replacement drug made with estrogens derived
from pregnant mares' urine. These mares spend six months or more out of the
year tied up to urine collection devices in barns in Canada and the U.S.
Midwest. Then, turned out to foal in the spring, the Premarin mares lose their
babies late each summer when the three-to-four-month old foals are shipped to
auction, most to be fattened for slaughter and shipment to European and
Japanese meat markets.
UAN works to educate the public, and women in particular, about the source of
Premarin (which is taken by an estimated 11 million women throughout the United
States) and the availability of plant-based and synthetic alternatives. UAN's
"I've Switched" campaign has hundreds of recruits who have made the
compassionate choice to switch off Premarin for a cruelty-free alternative. UAN
also conducts an annual Premarin mare and foal rescue adoption program.
"We urge every woman to share the truth about Premarin with at least one
other woman on this Mother's Day," said UAN President Jeane Westin, who
has a special reason for celebrating Mother's Day because an ancestor, Anna
Jarvis, was the founder of this longstanding maternal holiday. "What
better way to celebrate the special relationship between mothers and their
children than by taking a stand on behalf of the Premarin mares and their baby
foals who are so badly used by the pharmaceutical industry."
To help women share the message with a friend, UAN has a free E-postcard
available via its website at www.uan.org. Just click on the link for the
E-postcard and you'll be able to send a simple message about the Premarin issue
and a beautiful photo of two Premarin horses to a friend. More information
about the Premarin issue and UAN's Anti-Premarin Campaign also is available at
www.uan.org/premarin/index.html.
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~2~
Journalist's Note
By MichelleRivera1@aol.com
With
the Animal Rights 2002 Conference right over the horizon, activists are
thinking once again about converging on Washington D.C. for the purpose of
recharging our batteries and restoring our faith in each other. Two years ago,
I wrote about my experience at an animal rights conference where I made lots of
new friends, learned lots of new techniques to help the animals, and joined
several major national campaigns that were underway. As the time approaches for
the Animal Rights 2002 Conference, the editor of Animal Writes thought
that this would be an excellent opportunity to rerun this article. The
reason: we want to encourage all of the readers of Animal Writes to make
every effort to attend this very important event. As a humane educator for a
very conservative humane society in South Florida, I am privileged to be in a
position to attend many professional conferences and workshops, seminars, and
conventions. At each one, I broaden my horizons, expand my goals, and stretch
the limits of my own personal expectations. However, at each of these
conferences, I am always amazed that (since these are technically animal
welfare events) although I have much in common with my animal welfare
colleagues on a professional level, there is still a chasm between those in the
animal rights arena and those who work in animal welfare. I was pleased to see
that PETA was represented at the HSUS Conference in Miami this past April; and
I am always pleased to see that the Humane Society of the United States is
clearly represented at the Animal Rights Conferences as well. Someday, I hope that
the collective mission of animal welfare/animal rights organizations will be
unified. Until that day, however, I still find solace in the company of
new activists, mentors and passionate advocates. And so once a year, I make the
pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to be with the dedicated people of the animal
rights movement, if only to remind myself that I am not alone; that the work
that we are doing is making important strides; and that as long as we continue
to work together in service to animals, be it in an animal welfare or an animal
rights capacity, none of us will be truly alone. After the first publication of
the article entitled “The Word Is Querencia,” I received e-mails from
people who understood the point that I was making and shared my feelings that
being among the people of the animal rights movement is truly a spiritual
event, and a much needed one, if we are to keep up the good fight. I hope that
you enjoy this article again if you are reading it for the second time. If you
are reading it for the first time, I hope that it conveys to you the importance
of joining with fellow activists from around the world so that we can best
learn how to serve the animals who are depending on our energy, our dedication
and our resolve.
The Word Is Querencia!
By Michelle Rivera - MichelleRivera1@aol.com
There
is a word in Spanish that is used to describe the affection one feels for being
in their own place. The word is querencia. What a beautiful word!
It is the feeling of satisfaction one gets for being truly at home. There
are many ways to experience querencia. But it is much more than
that. I will try to explain.
How many of us have felt this sense when returning from a long road trip?
As our journey comes to an end, the landmarks become somewhat familiar, and
then more familiar, and so on until we reach our own street.
Or how about when you go to work in the morning and see that nothing has
changed. The feeling of querencia at work is much more acute when a new
employee is present and we can sense and understand their lack of querencia in
this new place and that makes our sense of the familiar so much more acute by
comparison. We are settled in, we know the routine. We know we are
where we should be at the time.
And the feeling we get when we come home from an entire day away from
home. We aren’t quite completely settled, don’t quite have that sense of
“querencia” until after the dog has finished leaping in excitement, has been
let out and let back in again, and the cats have been greeted and their food
bowls full. Even though we may be home, there are still these small
familiar routines that must be followed before we can feel secure that all is
right with the world.
Animals have a sense of querencia too. Witness a pride of felines, be
they lions or housecats, who are content to groom each other, dozing
peacefully, limbs intertwined. Or chimpanzees within the safety of their
families, being together, being where they belong. Contrast this sense
with the look on a stray dog’s face while he races through traffic, or a kitten
up a tree who cannot come down. The panic, the sense of not being where
they feel safe, where they feel understood,
where they feel at home.
Sometimes we see birds in migration winging their way south for the
winter. We can see them as they situate themselves on telephone poles and
wires, and they seem content. They are not home, but they’re with their
frequent flying friends! Together, they experience querencia.
Late at night people gather to play basketball at a park near my home. I
can see people of all ages and shapes and colors playing together. They
know that they are expected on these nights, they know they will be missed if
they don’t come to play. This, too is querencia. Hanging with the homeboys
late at night playing basketball, it just doesn’t get more familiar than that.
The most profound sense of querencia that I have ever experienced was during
the 1997 Animal Rights Convention in Washington D.C. The first night at the
hotel, I joined some other activists poolside. We introduced ourselves
and talked about what brought us to the movement. One activist described
a physical pain she felt upon seeing or hearing a case of animal abuse.
She indicated an area just below her sternum. “Right here,” she said, “I
feel a deep, physical pain, right here.” Yes! Yes! I knew exactly
what she meant! I thought I was the only one who felt that exact pain,
exactly “there,” and here was a complete stranger describing for me the acute
pain that I myself had felt so many times.
During the next five days I was to learn just how many others there were who
felt that pain, and thought that, they too, were the “only ones.”
The hotel restaurants had gone cruelty free for the convention! We could
order whatever we wanted from a specialized bill of fare and knew that it was a
vegan meal!
And on one cold, rainy, bitter D.C. morning, PeTA sent three chartered buses to
the hotel to transport us to the United States Capital where we held a
demonstration to protest the U.S. subsidy of fur farmers. There,
surrounded by three-hundred activists standing in the pouring rain, I felt a
sense of querencia.
There were workshops too. There was such a variety of workshops that it
was hard to choose from the many topics and learned speakers. After the
workshops, we would get together and chat about what we learned. I attended a
workshop sponsored by the Jains, a religion that doesn’t believe in killing
even the smallest of insects, and I felt that I was in a nurturing place.
I learned about Alley Cat Allies, and the Farm Animal Reform Movement,
Performing Animal Welfare Society and United Poultry Concerns. All wide
and varied agendas...... all making me feel completely at home, at peace,
querencia!
During a dinner reception, we had the privilege of hearing firsthand Alex
Pacheco’s account of rescuing doomed horses in Texas, Howard Lyman’s story of
rebirth, Naomi Rose’s unfailing efforts to save the dolphins, and the
ever-humble “father of the animal rights movement” himself, Peter Singer,
discussing his thoughts on “How Are We To Live.” The late Cleveland Amory
was there too, sharing his memories of his famous white cat, Snowball and of
the activities at the Black Beauty Ranch.
The true bragging rights came at the Celebrity Gala where I got to meet James
Cromwell, Rue McClanahan, Elaine Boosler, Linda Blair and, oh my stars, the
inimitable Jane Goodall! But did I feel inadequate in the company of
these wonderful and exciting icons of our movement? No, I felt a sense of
belonging, I felt a sense of the familiar. Querencia.
Our very last day brought us to the streets of Washington D.C. for an
animal-rights march that began at the White House lawn and proceeded down
Pennsylvania Avenue to the steps of the U. S. Capitol. Two thousand or more
strong, we marched defiantly shouting animal-rights slogans and experiencing
the sheer and boundless joy of being a part of something historical, something
big, something important. (I often think of the million-man march and
wonder what a “million animal march” would be like!)
When the convention was over and my traveling companions and I had to make our
way home, we had layovers in two airports, and I distinctly remember when my
sense of querencia came to an abrupt and discourteous halt.
We had gone to Starbucks coffee shop in the Atlanta airport. There,
sitting at the counter, I watched as the server poured whole milk from a gallon
jug to make a fancy coffee drink. At that moment, my warm, fuzzy sense of
insulation and isolation from the cruel truths of the outside world ceased to
exist. Querencia had left me cold and alone.
In the years since that moment, I have thought many times about the warm,
wonderful feeling I had while with the people who make up the animal rights
movement. And whether they were celebrated people or ordinary, everyday
people just like me, I was secure in the presence of kindred spirits. I
have come to liken it to the Alcoholics Anonymous slogan of “learning to live
life on life’s terms” because, like us, alcoholics must live in a society where
they are surrounded by that which breaks their hearts, spirits and
bodies.
I write this in the hopes that you, dear reader, will make every effort to
attend this year’s Animal Rights 2000 conference. Your resolve will be
set in stone from the moment you set foot in the hotel, your senses surrounded
by acceptance, understanding and love, you will make new best-friends, and meet
old, online friends. You may learn how to argue your points, you may
share a thing or two with someone new to the movement. But I promise you this,
you will really, truly know, once and for all, what the Spanish mean when they
say Querencia.
<><><><><>
Animal Rights 2002 National Conference
http://www.animalrights2002.org/
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~3~
Calling All Rainforest Heroes!!
From Martin Stephan - mstephan@ran.org
Help
tell Kinko’s “thank you” for helping to protect old growth forests!
In an exciting recent announcement Kinko’s, the huge copy-center chain,
announced that it would no longer do business with Boise (formerly Boise
Cascade). Boise is one of the largest companies in the United States that
logs and sells old growth wood and is hurting the rainforests of the
world. Boise also sells wood products that come from the tropical
rainforests of the Amazon and Southeast Asia.
We want Kinko’s to know that they are doing the right thing and helping to protect
the world’s rainforests. By not doing business with Boise, Kinko’s has
shown they really do believe in protecting all the animals and people that live
in the rainforests of the world. Often we have to write letters to
companies like Boise that are doing bad things. This time we get to
congratulate a job well done.
Thanks Kinko’s!
You have the power to make a positive difference!
Kinko’s is one of the largest copy-centers in the United States and uses a lot
of paper. By not buying paper from Boise they are helping to protect the
rainforests of the world. Creatures like the beautiful Spirit Bear in
Canada now will have more protection in their forest home.
Here is what you can do to help say "thanks Kinko's":
Take a used sheet of paper and on the other side make a drawing of your
favorite rainforest animal and write a short letter at the bottom. Tell
Kinko’s how proud you are of them for not buying paper from Boise.
Here’s a sample letter for you to follow:
Dear Mr. Kusin,
I love the rainforests and all the animals that live there. I am excited to
hear that your company is helping to protect the forests by not buying paper
from Boise. Boise is a company that is hurting the world’s rainforests by
logging and selling them. Thank you for helping to protect the world’s
rainforests and all the creatures and people that live in them.
Thank you.
Mail the letters to:
Kinko’s
Att: Gary Kusin, Chief Executive Officer
Three Galleria Tower
13155 Noel Road
Suite 1600
Dallas, TX 75240
Please let Rainforest Action Network know if you helped and sent Kinko's a
thank you letter. You can email me at mstephan@ran.org or call
800-989-7246 x335.
Thanks for all your help in protecting the world's forests!
Sincerely,
Martin Stephan
Rainforest Action Network
Old Growth Campaigner
415-398-4404 x 335 / 800-989-7246
www.ran.org
mstephan@ran.org
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~4~
Pain & Distress Report
From Kathleen Conlee - KConlee@hsus.org
The
Pain & Distress Report, published by The Humane Society of the United
States, is a newsletter that provides IACUCs and others in the field of
laboratory animal science with up-to-date information on issues regarding pain
and distress in laboratory animals. Each Pain and Distress Report
includes information on policies and perspectives, resources and services,
recent publications, summaries of articles from the technical literature,
upcoming conferences, pain and distress statistics, attitudes and public
opinion, and helpful websites.
Current and previous issues of the newsletters can be viewed at
<http://www.hsus.org/ace/11401> . To begin receiving electronic copies of
the newsletter via email, please write to ari@hsus.org or call 301-258-3041.
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~5~
Break
The Chain
By WantNoMeat@aol.com
New life enters upon the earth
but greed fouls the precious birth
He takes his first baby breath
unknowing of his destined death.
Mother protects him all she can
but she's powerless against man
As soon as he was able to stand
he met the harsh human hand.
To the dairy farm he is waste
mother's milk he'll never taste
All of her milk we humans take
he's denied mother for dairy's sake.
He arrives at the farm for veal
from innocent birth to someone's meal
In his lonely, barren crate he cries
hopelessness and terror in his eyes.
His would-be loving mother
has frantically lost another
Her relentless bellows easily heard
and her anguish clear without word.
Dairy kills - that's the deal
but the solution is to boycott veal?
Break the chain at it's start
don't have dairy - have a heart.
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~6~
Memorable Quote
"I
ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say
because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my
mother is attractive, but I only have photographs of her."
~~ Ellen Degenerous
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online
P O Box 7053
Tampa, Fl 33673-7053
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal Rights Online=-
&
Advisory Board Member, Animal Rights Network Inc.,
not-for-profit publisher of The Animals' Agenda Magazine
http://www.animalsagenda.org/
The Animals' Agenda Magazine: WebEdition
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
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