Dear SAOVA friends,
An interesting article on the Michigan Farm Bureau was posted recently reminding us that we should all be concerned regarding the amount of animal rightist misinformation being circulated in our schools. HSUS has distributed its Kind News propaganda for years, but that pales to the current scope of their student campaigns. See HSUS Resources for Students
http://tinyurl.com/682ycnj. Congrats to the Michigan Farm Bureau for addressing this in their school districts.
Michigan Farm News reports the state Farm Bureau will provide science curriculum for seventh-grade classrooms in 38 Michigan school districts to counter a book used in classrooms teaching false opinions about agriculture. “A hot planet needs cool kids” is a book used as a companion to the science curriculum with sources including Defenders of Wildlife, The Humane Society of the United States , and Wikipedia. Michigan Farm Bureau says those sources are bias and present false information as fact, misleading children as they shape views of agriculture. The book includes a section encouraging children to eat less meat and says many livestock are kept in unnatural environments. The book adds eating less or no meat will reduce energy consumption, methane gas and the potential for disease outbreak. Deb Schmucker, manager of Farm Bureau’s Promotion and Education department, will prepare a packet of information for teachers to use educating students about sustainable, positive farm practices.
"The problem is, when these false statements are repeated over and over, they become engrained and are considered truth," Schmucker said. "If the teachers believe falsehood, and when school book writers use as resources other books and websites that contain falsehoods, where are the kids going to get the truth? If farmers need to write a textbook, we'll do it. But that's not the hard part. The hard part is getting it into the classroom.” Schmucker is working to have the book taken out of circulation. Source: Michigan Farm News
As always, we encourage cross posting of these messages. Thanks for reading.
Susan Wolf
Sportsmen’s & Animal Owners’ Voting Alliance
Issue lobbying and working to identify and elect supportive legislators
JOIN THE FIGHT! BE A SAOVA VOLUNTEER. Contact
saova@earthlink.net PETITIONS FROM UNITED HORSEMEN United Horsemen has two very active Petitions up and available for supporters to sign and send a clear, unequivocal message to Congress, and to the Obama Administration. The horsemen and women of America are Standing up! Speaking out! and Being Heard!
By following the links below, you have an opportunity to take a stand to improve the fates of suffering horses, and to defend our rights and responsibilities as horse owners, and our opportunities to make our livings and raise our families with the joy of horses in our lives.
The petition to Congress, "Restore the Horse Industry," has been up and running since the first of September, and as of this writing, 5,816 letters have been delivered to Congress from literally every state in the Nation. PETITION LINK:
http://tinyurl.com/3ngax3gThe petition to the Obama Administration was initiated yesterday through the brand new "We the People" Petition System. The White House launched their new petition site yesterday and United Horsemen was among the first to take advantage of the opportunity. We have 30 days to get 5,000 signers, in which case President Obama's staff will personally review and respond. PETITION LINK:
http://tinyurl.com/3e5gbk2 BROOMFIELD COLORADO JOINS STUDY ON COYOTESThree children have been bitten by coyotes this summer in the Anthem area.
BROOMFIELD -- In light of a trio of coyote attacks on children in north Broomfield this summer, city officials are taking action to address and better understand aggressive coyote behavior in the city.
Broomfield Open Space and Trails Director Kristan Pritz said Broomfield has been accepted as partner in a recently launched study of urban coyote behavior in the Denver-metro area.
Researchers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are conducting the study with help from about 20 government entities in the metro area, including Broomfield . Researchers began the study's observational phase in Aurora this month. They will observe the behavior of coyotes living in urban and suburban areas, as well as the behavior and attitudes of people toward the animals. The research has just begun, but Pritz said she is happy Broomfield will be participating in the project. The city signed on as an observational partner last year, but this year might actually see research take place in some of its neighborhoods, including possible installation of wildlife cameras and tagging and tracking of coyotes.
Broomfield's Anthem Ranch subdivision has been ground zero for aggressive coyote behavior in Colorado this year, with three reported cases of a coyote biting a small child in the neighborhood since July 18. The most recent attack occurred Monday, when a 3-year-old girl was bitten by a coyote that came into her back yard from an abutting open space area as her parents tried to scare the animal away from their back patio. Continue reading
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_18971775 ANIMAL RIGHTSANIMAL RIGHTS VS. ANIMAL WELFARE: How “humane” is the Humane Society?Hartford Animal Rescue Examiner September 23, 2011
The Humane Society of the United States has theoretically been a long-standing organization symbolic of animal rights, protection, and welfare – a feasible presumption. A donation sent to the Humane Society is sent to provide food for malnourished horses in Texas or to provide shelter for homeless dogs and cats in New York City – right?
An investigation into the Humane Society’s financial history is a quantitative way of determining the organization’s true intentions. In 2008, the Humane Society's net assets reached $162,217,144. Its revenue alone was $85,837,220– the equivalent of almost 4.3 million $20 donations. Humane Society's 2008 grant schedule shows that $452,371, a mere 0.45% of their budget that year, was donated to directly affect animals in need, i.e. animal shelters and HSUS state branches. Connecticut received only $10,000: a donation sent to a spay clinic in Stratford . Not one of Connecticut ’s three Humane Society branches – Westport , Waterford , or Newington – was given a dime from their national counterpart. Continue reading on Examiner.com
http://tinyurl.com/3okfjxm NEW STUDENT CHAPTER TO PROMOTE ANIMAL LAWLaw students have partnered with the Animal Legal Defense Fund to create The University of Western Ontario’s first Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF). The students will host speakers, debates and conferences; write law review articles for journals dedicated to animal law; and volunteer to do legal research and writing for local law firms and advocates for the addition of animal law courses to curriculum.
The first SALDF chapter was established in 1992 at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland , Oregon and there are currently more than 170 chapters at law schools throughout the United States and Canada . In 1999 six schools taught animal law, including Harvard. Today there are 135 law schools in the U.S. and Canada that have offered a course in animal law.
Before the ink was dry on reports of the HSUS/UEP egg regulation announcement Stephen Wells, ALDF Executive Director, commented that the agreement did not go far enough because it lacked “teeth” for enforcement. According to Wells, the ideal way to solve this problem would be the inclusion of a citizen suit provision that would permit enforcement of the law by concerned citizens.
Most recently, ALDF filed a citizen’s petition with USDA urging the Department to require that foie gras product packaging carry a warning label or disclaimer that foie gras livers are derived from diseased birds.
Learn more about ALDF at the SAOVA website.
HSUS AND WHAT’S ‘GOOD FOR THE COUNTRY’September 16, 2011 By Steve Kopperud
Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If we accept this notion, then it’s time for some in the animal rights movement to find a good shrink. Why do urban, vegan, pleather-wearing folks believe that continually insulting agriculture, by condescending to and patronizing this country’s food producers, that one day we’ll shout “hallelujah” as the scales fall from our collective eyes and we’ll beg their forgiveness for our sins?
The evidence this week is word out of Nebraska from state agricultural producer groups that a new organization has been formed – “We Support Agriculture” – announced at press conferences in Omaha , Lincoln and at Corn Husker Days in Grand Island .
Nebraska Farm Bureau, Nebraska Cattlemen, Nebraska Pork, Nebraska Poultry and Nebraska Dairy each ponied up $5,000 to fund a coalition of folks ready to do battle with, among others, “extreme animal rights organizations,” those who seek to outlaw on-farm production practices. Also created is the “ Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska ,” a charitable public education foundation.
Enter Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS), quoted in the Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal Star calling the effort a “charade” and paranoia run amok,” accusing Nebraska agriculture of refusing to address his personal definition of animal welfare “problems.” Ever since Gov. Dave Heineman told HSUS to go pound salt if it thought it could coerce the $15-billion state ag industry to negotiate with HSUS its future – Heineman’s widely quoted statement: “In Nebraska, no deal, no compromise” – Pacelle’s nose has been out of joint with our Corn Husker friends. And he lost his well-connected state lobbyist in the dust up. Full article at Brownfield Ag News
http://tinyurl.com/3ey769v 
