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Posts Tagged ‘Animal Rights Conference’

The IDA Team & Table!

The Animal Rights 2011 National Conference, the world’s largest and oldest animal rights gathering, was held July 21 – 25 in Los Angeles, California at the Westin LAX Hotel. This annual conference sponsored by Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) and co-sponsored by In Defense of Animals (IDA) offered sessions on combating animal abuse, organizing, tactics, animal protection issues, and key campaigns. IDA enlightened newcomers and seasoned activists about our programs through extensive participation on panels. Our table in the main hall was brimming with information on IDA campaigns, plus fun t-shirts, buttons, travel mugs, and other animal-related merchandise.

Catherine Doyle, IDA’s Elephant Campaign Director, spoke on three panels, including Animals in Entertainment. She gave an overview of IDA’s work for elephants in zoos and circuses and described the welfare problems associations with each, and showed footage of abuse in circuses and a video about elephants in zoos. Catherine also spoke on the panel Animal Rescues about the unique nature of the elephant rescues IDA has facilitated.

At the Saturday night banquet, Catherine introduced the winner of the Young Animal Rights Activist Award, Juliette West, a “youth ambassador” for elephants in captivity and in the wild. She is featured in the documentary How I Became An Elephant, which tells the story of her efforts to rescue an elephant from the streets of Thailand. She uses the film to reach young audiences around the country and teach them about elephants in captivity.

Hope Animal Sanctuary's Doll Stanley

Our Hope Animal Sanctuary’s Director Doll Stanley introduced IDA at the opening plenary session. Doll also spoke on four panels: Vivisection, Companion Animal Campaigns, Running a Sanctuary, and Enforcing Protective Laws.

Hope Bohanec, IDA’s Grassroots Campaigns Director, offered her power point presentation Eco-Eating: A Cool Diet for a Hot Planet about environmental impacts of animal agriculture. She also spoke on the panel International Activism about IDA Africa, our chimpanzee sanctuary in Cameroon; IDA India, where we spay, neuter and offer emergency medical care for street animals in Mumbai; and our South Korean Dog and Cat campaign, exposing the horrors of dogs tortured and slaughtered for their meat and cats boiled for “medicinal elixirs” in South Korea. Hope also spoke on Language and Labels, introducing people to IDA’s unique Guardian Campaign, which encourages the use of non-objectifying and more accurate words when we discuss animals, such as “guardian” instead of “owner” and “he” or “she” instead of “it.”

We were even able to participate in the world’s biggest circus demo ever with 500 hundred protesters educating Ringling Bros. circus goers about the cruel and sad life of circus animals. We had a great time and I hope you can join us in Washington DC next July for the AR 2012 National Conference!

Doll Stanley, Scotlund Haisley, Renee Lazzareschi and Hope Bohanec

In Defense of Animals was a co-sponsor of the 2010 Animal Rights Conference in Washington DC, July 16, 17 & 18. This year’s conference, presented by Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) was a grand affair at the Hilton Alexandria with dozens of animal organizations and product vendors in every corner of a huge hall in the hotel.  Scotlund Haisley, IDA’s new president, attended and spoke several times, as well as myself and a few IDA staff from all over the country. Our table was brimming with information and fun merchandise including a new, very popular t-shirt and new buttons.

The three day affair included panels of speakers on a wide variety of topics from developing leadership, enacting and enforcing protective animal laws, advertising and media, fundraising, to effective strategies and tactics and so much more. A video room offered PowerPoint presentations and compelling films throughout the conference.

Along with the three catered vegan meals available at the conference, the vegan sweet treats sent me over the edge on a sugar high! After the vegan twinkies, cupcakes, hazelnut chocolate cups, and ice cream sandwiches, you realize that we can now make anything vegan – and it’s all obtainable at this conference!

IDA’s new president, Scotlund Haisley, offered an evocative speech at the Sunday Evening Plenary Session delving into his past work with the Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL). He single handedly transformed WARL from a scary place for animals behind bars into a homey sanctuary with no cages, running water features, and new age music piped in, creating a “home awaiting a home” for the luckiest animals in the DC area. We are very excited about the prospects Scotlund brings to IDA and look forward to his leadership and the potential he brings to make IDA even more effective in the future for animals.

I highly recommend the Animal Rights Conference as a great place to network, meet other animal loving people, learn about the movement and eat decedent vegan treats. It’s a really awesome feeling to have a thousand people gathered in one place who all feel the same compassion for animals that I do. I came home with vegan gifts for friends, lots of people to contact, and a renewed sense of hope, that we are out there, effecting change for animals in every corner of the globe. I can’t wait till next year’s conference in LA, and hope you will join us!