[4animals] demo

[Meredith Barrett]

i'm in for attending it.
i have absolutely zero time for planning however, sorry guys!
i'll stay tuned for details...
meredith


Edelweiss D'Andrea wrote:


>i'm in.
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: 4animals-bounces at ottawaveg.com
>[mailto:4animals-bounces at ottawaveg.com]On Behalf Of vaalea
>  Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 11:27 PM
>  To: 4animals
>  Subject: [4animals] DEMO?? and article - Anti-factory farm postcard
>campaign
>
>
>  Animal Alliance Canada is asking if there is a group (6 people 
minimum)
>that would do a demo in Ottawa for laying hens.  They provide the 
costumes.
>Are you guys interested? Email the list or email me directly...... 
(Thanks P
>for the info!)
>
>
>
>    
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/A
>rticle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1162728965849&call_pageid=970599119419
>
>    Activists vs. factory farms
>    Groups want consumers to force changes in egg and pork production
>
>
>    Nov. 6, 2006. 05:26 AM
>
>
>    STUART LAIDLAW, Toronto Star
>    FAITH AND ETHICS REPORTER
>
>    Smelling blood in the food industry, animal welfare activists in 
Canada
>and the U.S. are preparing to step up their campaigns against factory
>farming, with much of their focus on how eggs and pork are produced.
>
>    "Eggs are the new veal," Paul Shapiro, of the Humane Society of the
>United States, told a conference on humane food in Toronto.
>
>    With farm group representatives sitting in the audience, Shapiro 
and his
>Canadian counterparts urged the food industry to stop their costly 
public
>relations campaigns and to spend the money instead on making real 
changes to
>animal welfare. "If you are taking part in brutal, cruel practices, your
>days are numbered," said John Youngman, director of the Canadian 
Coalition
>for Farm Animals, which sponsored the conference.
>
>    Industry spokesperson Jackie Wepruk, who attended the conference 
for the
>National Farm Animal Care Council, an umbrella group for food companies 
and
>farm groups, said the industry is interested in good animal welfare. 
"We are
>looking at renewing the codes of practice" for animal care, she said,
>pointing out that they have not been updated for more than 20 years.
>
>    Youngman's group is an umbrella organization of 27 humane societies 
and
>animal welfare groups across the country that have already held several
>protests outside grocery stores mostly those belonging to the Loblaw 
chain
>with more in the works.
>
>    The coalition has also launched postcard campaigns in which 
consumers
>are asked to mail pre-written cards to the heads of food companies such 
as
>Loblaw or Maple Leaf Foods asking them to require more strict animal 
welfare
>standards from their suppliers.
>
>    Based in Manitoba, where the hog industry has been booming in recent
>years thanks to a Maple Leaf plant in Brandon, Youngman has put much of 
his
>effort into fighting the use of narrow crates to house sows in giant 
barns.
>
>    One of his tactics is to set up one of the crates outside a grocery
>store, with a life-sized sow doll inside. He said most people are 
shocked to
>see the living conditions under which sows live, in crates so small they
>cannot turn around. Many challenge him on whether such conditions really
>exist, he said.
>
>    "Once you convince them, you can get them to sign anything," he 
says,
>referring to the postcards and petitions he always has on hand at such a
>demonstration.
>
>    Stephanie Brown, another director of the coalition and the food 
animal
>co-ordinator of the Toronto-based Animal Alliance of Canada, said 
consumers
>should expect to see more such demonstrations and postcard appeals 
outside
>their grocery stores.
>
>    One postcard, aimed at Loblaw, calls on the company to ensure that 
the
>eggs it sells are not from hens housed in tiny cages known as battery 
cages,
>which restrict their movement and allow farmers to put more hens in one
>barn, increasing efficiency.
>
>    Shapiro said battery cages provide each hen with a space smaller 
than an
>8 1/2 by 11 letter-sized sheet of paper.
>
>    Another postcard, targeting Maple Leaf Foods, Canada's largest hog
>slaughtering company, calls for the phasing out of gestation crates to 
house
>sows. The idea of the postcards is to convince the companies that their
>customers want these changes, Youngman said.
>
>    The coalition has made chicken costumes and human-sized battery 
cages
>that it will be shipping to protests across the country over the next 
few
>months and into the spring. Protests have already been held in Toronto,
>Guelph and Halifax, with more planned for Winnipeg, Montreal, Vancouver 
and
>Courtenay, B.C.
>
>    At the protests, demonstrators wear the costumes and get in the 
cage to
>show how cramped the conditions are. Other protestors then hand out the
>postcards and petitions.
>
>    Wepruk rejected the idea that the industry does not know what 
consumers
>want, saying they are represented in her group in several ways: through 
the
>Canadian Federation of Humane Societies and associations that represent
>grocery and food manufacturing companies such as Loblaw and Maple Leaf.
>
>    Shapiro said consumer-based campaigns can be effective, citing 
companies
>from McDonald's to Ben and Jerry's that have made public commitments to
>getting their food ingredients from more ethical sources.
>
>    "Agriculture has not been at the forefront," he said. "Companies 
that
>are retailers have been at the forefront."
>


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