IDA Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Los Angeles’

Actress and Animal Activist Elaine Hendrix being presented with the 2009 Guardian Award by IDA President Dr. Elliot Katz

February 1 was an historic day in West Hollywood. Very apropos that it landed on the 1^st of the month, for this is the very first day, in the very first city, for the very first time, that the very first law was put into motion, banning the sale of animals from puppy mills and kitten mills within the limits of West Hollywood, California. It is the very first time in history that a community and its leaders said, “ENOUGH!”, prohibiting pet shops from profiting from the sale of  sick and abused dogs and cats bred in puppy mills and, yes, even kitten mills. This is a day the tides shifted.  Not only for the animals, but for humankind as a compassionate and humane kind.
I was there with In Defense of Animals for this monumental moment..Dozens of dedicated pro-animal activists, and other organizations from all over the nation, had dedicated weeks to protesting pet stores that sold dogs and cats. The spirits of every single person standing up in the name of injustice were there. And the silent voices of every single animal who have suffered at the hands of abusers were there. It was powerful and humbling in one full, glorious moment.
Hundreds of people wrote letters, dozens of people showed up in support, a handful of key leaders spoke, but it was five city council members that truly made the difference.  It was their uncontested, UNANIMOUS vote that has changed the game for thousands of tortured and millions of homeless animals.
This isn’t the first time West Hollywood has shown true leadership. Among numerous human rights laws that have been overwhelmingly passed, West Hollywood has been animal-friendly on several other issues like the banning of de-clawing cats and officially changing their government language to include the term “Guardian” in place of “pets.”  No city is perfect, but this one sure does come giddily close in my opinion.
There are so many people who have worked tirelessly on making this law a reality.  Of the few I personally know, I’d like to mention Ed Buck, a rescuer of golden retrievers and activist, who was instrumental in bringing this item to the attention of the West Hollywood City Council.  Carole Davis and Carol Sax with Social Compassion in Legislation who have diligently worked in West Hollywood specifically on this issue, IDA’s own Bill Dyer, Elle Wittelsbach, Pam Holt, Elizabeth Oreck, Jennifer Krause, Gavin Polone, Ben Harding, Kim Sill, Lori Golden, Bill Crowe, Judie Mancuso, Gary Kaskel, Wayne Pacelle and so many others.
Please forgive me if I left you off this list, and notify me for the future. Certainly there are many more issues we’re facing, and I want to applaud your efforts. In the meantime, take a deep breath and cross this one off the list.  We did it!  Congratulations and keep up the amazing work!

This blog was contributed by Elaine Hendrix, Actress, Animal Activist & IDA Board Member.

Watoto at the Woodland Park Zoo waiting to get out.

IDA just released its 2009 list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants, which exposes the hidden suffering of elephants in zoos. In its sixth year, the list highlights how confinement of these giants to tiny enclosures wreaks havoc on their physical and psychological health and leads to premature death for many. For the first time, the list includes a Canadian entry, the Toronto Zoo.

We’ve already been inundated with calls from the media from cities across North America including Honolulu, Toledo, Houston, Chicago (Brookfield Zoo) and Toronto, helping to bring attention to the plight of elephants suffering in zoos.

See the full list of zoos, plus two new inductees into the Worst Zoos for Elephants Hall of Shame, by clicking here.

A wild horse in Utah saved . . . for now

This just in: The BLM has postponed the roundup of 200 horses living in the Confusion Mountains in Utah, after the agency and the Obama Administration received thousands of emails from IDA supporters yesterday. Here’s the scoop, from IDA’s Director of Research, Eric Kleiman:

This afternoon, I spoke with Eric Reid, the Wild Horse and Burro specialist at the BLM’s Filmore, Utah field office. He confirmed that the Confusions roundup had been postponed; said he had just received an email today from the Washington office that handles the gather schedule, saying it is being removed from the schedule.

The BLM had planned to conduct this roundup without public comment and no documentation to document the capture. Further, BLM failed to do any current environmental assessment of the impacts of the action, which would have left behind only 70-100 horses in the 235,000-acres public land complex.

Eric continues:

Reid said that the BLM would now be doing an Environmental Assessment and would now be giving the public the opportunity to comment.  He expects the EA to be posted around May 2010. The May EA will include updated census information and other unspecified new data.

He said that once he receives clearance, there will be a brief blurb on the Utah BLM site regarding reasons why the roundup was postponed.  He said the postponement should be reflected in an updated national roundup schedule but he didn’t know where on the BLM site that was.

Clearly our letters, calls and emails are having a difference! The Utah horses have been spared . . . at least for now, giving us more time to organize. The more we shine the public spotlight on the BLM’s actions, the less this agency can get away with business as usual.
Let’s keep it up!

Other updates:

Wendy Mallick joins protesters in L.A.

Protesters line street in Los Angeles

An estimated 120 people took to the streets of Los Angeles yesterday to defend America’s wild horses and call on Senator Diane Feinstein for help in saving these icons of the West. The colorful rally featuring actor Wendy Malick, IDA, The Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom and other members of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign coalition, helped draw attention to the plight of the wild horses of the Calico Mountain Complex in Nevada, who are currently under siege by the BLM.

The event is just one of many being organized across the country, demonstrating the growing outrage of American citizens over the Obama Administration’s assault on wild horses.  We must keep up the pressure and not waste a moment in our fight to help the wild horses.

Calico update

As of yesterday, the BLM has captured 424 Calico horses, well on their way to the goal of permanently removing 2,500 of these beautiful animals from their homes in the Calico Mountains Complex.
For more info on the Calico horses see this new video by Humanity through Education :

Over 50 separate Fur Free Friday educational events occurred in 25 U.S. states as well as actions in Canada, Germany, and Spain on the day after Thanksgiving, November 27 the world’s largest day of outreach for animal rights. Be sure and check out the slide show of events from all over the world!

Fur Free Friday in San Francisco’s Union Square was a huge success! We had over 50 activists on a drizzly morning educating San Francisco shoppers about the terrible cruelty of fur. We had a “bunny” and a “doggy” (activists in costume) in cages with images of the horrors of the Chinese fur trade surrounding the cages depicting the anguish in which animals on fur farms suffer before they are brutally killed. Many people stopped to look at the gruesome photos.

Read the rest of this entry »