IDA Blog

Author Archive

Michael Vick has been named the Eagles’ recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award, a distinction he received in a vote by his teammates.

We are shocked. Courage? Michael Vick? Does it take courage to force a dog to fight for his life in a gambling ring? I would say that is about as cowardice as it gets.

Michael Vick dispose of the dogs who were too gentle for fighting by such ghastly means as electrocution, hanging, and drowning. He served less than two years for actively participating in and bankrolling an interstate dogfighting ring. While Vick does have a right to seek employment, a position in the NFL potentially earning $7 million over the next two years is more than he deserves. We feel that this honor is far from earned for a violent convicted felon, who confessed to killing dogs who refused to fight because of their kind nature.

By employing Michael Vick, the NFL and the Eagles send the message that torturing animals is not a serious matter, and this award emphasizes that message. Impressionable young people see that the public admonishment of his crimes was followed by a multi-million dollar job and now a badge of courage. It will be interpreted as acceptance of his character and actions.

In fact, lets have a look at how Vick is influencing kids. Recently, an 18 year old boy said that he wanted to be the “next Michael Vick”. Did this young man play football? No, but he does have one thing in common with the Eagles quarterback, he is serving time in jail for operating a dog fighting ring!

IDA has asked the NFL to communicate a powerful message of disapproval for animal cruelty by prohibiting the Eagles and any other team from employing convicted animal abusers. We also ask the NFL to include animal fighting among the prohibited conduct listed in the league’s Personal Conduct Policy. The league must put principles before profit and help prevent players from getting involved in this cruel activity.

In Defense of Animals would like to award Michael Vick our distinguished

IDA Cowardice Award!

For spinelessly torturing animals and being the most terrible role model possible for youngsters. We have invited Mr. Vick to our award ceremony, but haven’t heard back yet if he will be joining us for the press conference.

Though California State Flag celebrates their Grizzly bears. . . California's Black bears are in real danger.

A representative from IDA made a statement before the California Fish and Game Commission Thursday in opposition to the expansion of the number of bears who can be hunted in the state of California for the 2010 season. Also in the proposal is an increase in the range of legal hunting territory in the state.

IDA and others opposed to the Commission’s proposal to expand the quota by almost double and the range of legal hunting territory testified that this is unnecessary and inhumane sport hunting. The proposal also allows the use of new technology, such as GPS and “tip switches,” for the hunting of black bears. The approval of such a regulation by the Commission would only compound the current inhumane policy of allowing dog-pack hunting of these bears.

Like millions of compassionate Californians, we at IDA are greatly concerned about the welfare of wild animals that make up this state’s cherished wildlife. We truly can’t imagine the terror these black bears must feel as they are chased up a tree and cornered by a pack of dogs and then — panicked and immobilized — are blasted out of the tree by high-powered rifles.
Managing our wildlife populations should be accomplished in ways that first-and-foremost provide for the humane treatment of the wild animals. We would like to see that the Fish and Game Commission resort to humane ways of dealing with bear overpopulation and resolving human-bear conflict. It should not be accomplished by brutal high tech killing masked as “sport hunting.”  Ultimately, it is not the bears’ fault that we have moved into their space and they should not have to pay the price by being killed with such brutality as by amateur hunters armed with packs of dogs fitted with GPS devices.
IDA will watch this proposal closely, keep our California members up to speed and speak out for the magnificent black bears.

IDA, in collaboration with The Cloud Foundation and other organizations held a rally for wild horses and burros on January 21 in Sacramento, CA. Despite the cold and rainy weather, we had a great turnout of about 35 people. We had local folks from Sacramento and the Placerville area as well as people from the San Francisco Bay Area, a lady all the way from Monterey, and Craig Downer, author and wildlife specialist from Nevada. We gathered on the capitol steps under canopies with signs and large, beautiful pictures of horses running free. Some of the media that came out was Sacramento radio station KFBK 1530 and one from the Sacramento TV station KCRA 3.

We congregated inside the capitol for a press conference at noon and listened to experts express their passionate pleas to stop the round ups. Tawnee Preisner from NorCal Equine Rescue spoke of the reality that many of these magnificent animals will in up in slaughterhouses. Wildlife ecologist, biologist and author Craig Downer, who has been a humane observer of the round ups in Nevada, told the story of Freedom, a beautiful black stallion, and his escape from his captors. Freedom was determined to escape and jumped a six foot fence just to be caught in a second barbed wire fence. He somehow stomped out of the wire and galloped to the mountains. The observers, with tears in their eyes, cheered him on.

Click Here for more information on what you can do for Wild Horses.

Visit our Vegan Campaign Pages and get a FREE Vegan Starter Kit!

1) Animal Agriculture Causes  51% of Global Warming

A new study called Livestock and Climate Change reveals that animal agriculture releases over half of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The co-authors, Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, discuss how past estimations have been vastly underestimated and that their 51% calculation is even on the conservative side. Goodland, who was the lead environmental adviser for the World Bank for 23 years, and Anhang, also an affiliate of the World Bank as a research officer and environmental specialist, conclude that replacing animal products with plant foods would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. They contend that food producers should mount a major campaign to promote the consumption of plant-based foods, including meat substitutes.

2) Al Gore Breaks his Silence on Animal Agriculture

We’ve been disappointed for years as our King of Green has ignored the top cause of greenhouse gas emissions. But, finally, in his new book, Our Choice, Gore acknowledges that animal agriculture is a significant contributor to global warming with a two-page, full-color spread of a livestock yard with hundreds of cows. He also reveals that he has cut back significantly on eating animal products. Perhaps this accounts for his slim and trim new look? 

3) Read All About It!

New best-selling books from best-selling authors, celebrity chefs, and celebrity chicks, have put the plight of farm animals in the spotlight in 2009 on “Oprah,” “Ellen.” and “Larry King.” Eating Animals is the first work of nonfiction from Jonathan Safran Foer, the much-admired author of the novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. In his new book, he explores the dark world of animal farming and exposes the reality of where our food comes from. Chef Tal Ronnen whips up traditional French culinary delights forgoing animal products in The Conscious Cook. And Alicia Silverstone isn’t clueless anymore—she is instead promoting veganism in her book. The Kind Diet.

4) Stanford Biochemist Promotes Veganism

Dr. Patrick O. Brown, a renowned biochemist at Stanford University, has won numerous awards for his scientific works and is one of the first people to pioneer the use of microarray technology. In an article in Forbes , Brown announced that he will take an 18-month hiatus from his research to focus entirely on ending the number one cause of global warming—animal agriculture. Brown, a vegetarian for over 30 years and a vegan for five, explains, “I want to approach this as a solvable problem. Solution: Eliminate animal farming on planet Earth.”

5) Martha Stewart Talks (about saving) Turkey

Martha Stewart, the culinary queen of the mainstream kitchen, dedicated an entire show to a vegetarian Thanksgiving. She whipped up the traditional fare, veggie-style, and said that she would be joining her daughter’s all-vegetarian Thanksgiving.