IDA Bay Area Events

Table of Contents
1. Anti-Fur Demo at Chinese Consulate
2. Volunteers Needed for OrganicAthlete Conference
3. Help IDA Shine the Spotlight on UCSF's Massive Animal Welfare Violations
4. Gopher Gardening at Ocean Beach
5. International Day of Protest to Stop Japanese Dolphin Slaughter
6. IDA's World Go Vegan Days
7. Action Alert: Urge Oakland City Officials to Remove Oakland Animal Services From Police Control


IDA EVENTS

1. Anti-Fur Demo at Chinese Consulate

Please join members of IDA for a demonstration to protest the cruel treatment of minks, raccoons and foxes raised on Chinese fur farms and killed for their pelts. A recent investigation of fur farms in China - where 80% of the world's fur comes from - exposed horrific cruelty in a country where there are NO animal welfare laws. Investigators found workers attempting to stun animals by repeatedly slamming them against the ground or bashing their heads with clubs. Such unreliable methods left many animals fully conscious, visibly blinking and breathing for as long as ten minutes after their fur was stripped from their bodies.

What: Anti-Fur Demo
When: Friday, September 23rd from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m.
Where: Consulate General of the People's Republic of China, 1450 Laguna Street (near Geary Blvd.), San Francisco (click http://tinyurl.com/c2cln for directions)

To RSVP or for more information, contact Karen Steele at (415) 388 9641, ext. 217 or karen [at] idausa.org .

Posters and leaflets will be provided. For more information on the investigation of Chinese fur farms, please visit http://www.furkills.org .


2. Volunteers Needed for OrganicAthlete Conference

Attendees of the 2005 OrganicAthlete conference, sponsored in part by IDA, will have the opportunity to meet and train with some of the world's most prominent vegan athletes, including bodybuilder and vegan campaign coordinator Kenneth G. Williams, pro cyclist Christine Vardaros and professional triathlete Brendan Brazier. Doctors and nutritionists such as Dr. Doug Graham, Rozalind Gruben, Dr. Rick Dina, and Dr. Ruth Heidrich will also be on hand to explain how a plant-based diet can help athletes achieve optimal sports performance. Cooking and food demonstration classes will even show participants how to prepare meals to fit a rigorous training regimen.

What: OrganicAthlete Conference
When: Saturday, September 24th from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Where: 610 Mason Street, San Francisco (click http://tinyurl.com/dyl3x for directions)

Click http://www.organicathlete.org/conference/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=30 to learn about the speakers who will be at the conference and http://tinyurl.com/bzd7l to register. Volunteers are also needed to table at this event. For more information, please contact Kenneth Williams at kenneth [at] idausa.org or (415) 388-9641, ext. 224.


3. Help IDA Shine the Spotlight on UCSF's Massive Animal Welfare Violations

The scheduled hearings for the USDA's formal charges against the University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) on 75 counts of animal welfare violations are due to begin on October 4th. Along with this, the Bay Guardian newspaper is planning to run a story within the next few weeks on UCSF and the USDA charges and researcher Stephen Lisberger.

These two upcoming events provide a perfect opportunity to place a spotlight on UCSF's long history of animal welfare violations. UCSF has been in almost continual violation of the Animal Welfare Act since 1998. Given the indifference and arrogance of UCSF's administration and many of its researchers, and the fact that two of them cited in the charges now sit on UCSF's animal research oversight committee, it is unlikely that the chronic deficiencies and animal cruelty taking place in UCSF's labs have been corrected.

What You Can Do

Please join IDA for a week of action at UCSF to help turn public attention to the University's animal welfare violations. Even participating for one hour of one day will make a real difference.

What: Demonstration against UCSF animal welfare violations
When: Monday, September 26th through Friday September 30th, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. daily
Where: Main Entrance of UCSF Parnassus Campus, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco (click http://www.ucsf.edu/maps/parnassus.pdf for a campus map)

Please contact Karen Steele at (415) 388 9641, ext. 217 or karen [at] idausa.org to RSVP with a day and time you will be able to attend. Posters and leaflets will be provided. For more details on UCSF's animal welfare violations, visit http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/ucsf/index.html .


4. Gopher Gardening at Ocean Beach

Join the San Francisco Wildlife Protection Project, a joint effort by IDA and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, to create a wildlife "sanctuary" along the Great Highway. By landscaping the area according to the Parks Department's specifications, volunteers create a habitat for native gophers and prevent them from being trapped and killed. This is an ongoing monthly effort, and usually takes place on the first Saturday of each month.

What: Gopher Gardening
When: Saturday, October 1st from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Where: Corner of the Great Highway and Wawona Street, San Francisco, at the small brick Recreation and Park maintenance building. Click http://tinyurl.com/4hnh2 for directions to this event.

For more information, please contact Kevin Connelly at (415) 388-9641, ext. 226 or kevin [at] idausa.org .


5. International Day of Protest to Stop Japanese Dolphin Slaughter

Every year in small towns along the Japanese coast, fishermen kill about 20,000 marine mammals in the most brutal way imaginable. From October through March, fishermen use loud noises to disorient and herd whole families and pods of dolphins, porpoises and small whales into shallow bays. They often deliberately injure some of them, since dolphins will not abandon a family member in distress, then stretch nets across the mouth of the bay to close off all exits. The next morning, the slaughter begins, as fishermen use sharp spears and hooks to massacre the helpless cetaceans. Most of them are butchered for meat that is sold in restaurants and supermarkets, while some are sold to marine parks.

This annual slaughter is the largest massacre of dolphins anywhere in the world, and it continues because knowledge of the atrocity is deliberately kept hidden from the Japanese people. That is why OneVoice and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are organizing an international day of protest to bring attention to the massacre and put pressure on the Japanese Government to put an end to it once and for all.

What You Can Do

IDA and the Earth Island Institute are co-hosting a demonstration at the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco to coincide with protests taking place around the world. We are looking for activists to join us so that Japanese officials know we mean business.

What: International Day of Protest Against Japanese Dolphin Slaughter
When: Saturday, October 8th from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m.
Where: Japanese Consulate, 50 Fremont Street (between Market and Mission Streets), San Francisco (click http://tinyurl.com/dy29d for directions)

To RSVP or for more information, contact Karen Steele at (415) 388 9641, ext. 217 or karen [at] idausa.org .

To learn more about the annual dolphin massacre in Japan, visit http://www.savetaijidolphins.org .


6. IDA's World Go Vegan Days

This October 30th through November 1st, join animal advocates around the world in celebrating the first annual World Go Vegan Days. As an integral part of IDA's vegan campaign, World Go Vegan Days promotes compassionate lifestyle choices that benefit human health, alleviate animal suffering and preserve our environment. It offers vegans an opportunity to share their most deeply held values with others - whether family, friends, co-workers or the general public - by making connections and taking action.

What You Can Do

- Use World Go Vegan Days as a springboard for showing others why you choose to be vegan. Your activity can be as small as inviting a friend to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant or to a vegan potluck, or as large as organizing a lecture, film screening or festival for everyone in your community to enjoy. For more ideas and information, visit http://www.WorldGoVeganDays.com .

- Volunteers will be needed for World Go Vegan Days events in the San Francisco Bay Area. We will keep readers informed of these opportunities in future alerts. Please contact Kenneth Williams at kenneth [at] idausa.org or (415) 388-9641, ext. 224 if you are interested.


7. Action Alert: Urge Oakland City Officials to Remove Oakland Animal Services From Police Control

Since 1991, charges of mismanagement, neglect and animal cruelty have plagued Oakland Animal Services (OAS), which for decades has been run by the Oakland Police Department (OPD). Recently, these charges have again been leveled against the OPD with renewed force, yet OAS remains under their control.

Police officers are not experts in animal behavior or welfare, nor do they have training in conducting animal cruelty investigations. Rather than running an animal shelter, the OPD should be allowed to focus on what they do best: solving crimes and protecting the public. To ensure the well being of animals at OAS, experienced animal welfare experts should take charge of the shelter.

What You Can Do

Please click http://ga0.org/campaign/OAS2 to send an automatic email urging Oakland city officials to transfer management of OAS from the OPD to those who have expertise in caring for animals. You can also contact these individuals by phone, fax or postal mail.

Deborah Edgerly, City Administrator
One City Hall Plaza, 3rd Floor
Oakland, California 94612
Tel: (510) 238-3301
Fax: (510) 238-2223

Vice Mayor Jane Brunner
One Frank Ogawa Plaza
One City Hall Plaza, 2nd Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Tel: (510) 238-7001
Fax: (510) 238-6910