DawnWatch

DawnWatch: 60 Minutes on protecting animals in Mozambique's National Park 6/28/09

2009-06-29T20:41:14Z

Last night, June 28, the CBS news magazine show 60 Minutes included a beautiful piece on one philanthropist's efforts to help rebuild the shattered country of Mozambique by rebuilding and protecting the herds of wild animals in the Gorongosa National Park. He is hiring locals to care for the park and doing what he can to attract tourists to the region.
It is a wonderful story, which you can watch on line at:
http://tinyurl.com/nevkcz

You can read the story at http://tinyurl.com/nborv2, and there is a place for comments at the bottom of that page. Please join the discussion -- it is so important to the animals that we do whatever we can to make sure their plight is always part of public dialogue.

Please also thank 60 Minutes, letting the producers know how much we appreciate stories that are about protecting as opposed to killing animals. The show takes comments at http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml
Just choose "60 Minutes" from the pulldown menu.

My thanks to Sharlene (or Fifi Vixen) for making sure we knew about the story.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

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Date: Mon Jun 29 20:41:14 2009

DawnWatch: AR activism and CMU prisons on Democracy Now 6/25/09

2009-06-25T17:45:07Z

Tonight, June 25, the news will be nothing but Michael Jackson -- perhaps with some Farrah thrown in. What a strange day for those of us who remember the seventies; a reminder that life is fragile and precious. But this morning there was other news, beautifully covered, on Democracy Now. Amy Goodman interviewed Andy Stepanian, one of the SHAC 7 who was just released from a "Communication Management Unit" (CMU) prison, his lawyer Paul Hetznecker, and reporter Will Potter, who runs www.GreenIsTheNewRed.com

Andy was sent to prison for being involved in the campaign to shut down the notorious animal testing laboratory, Huntingdon Life Sciences. While the interview did not focus on what happens to animals, Democracy Now did show us plenty of footage with graphic animal testing posters. And what the interview did beautifully, was to link animal liberation with the other social justice movements that the government comes down on. Plus, we were reminded that animal rights and environmental activism has been labeled by the FBI as the number one domestic terror threat, though nobody has ever been hurt in this country in the name of either movement. We hear about the financial strength of the biomedical and farm lobbies and the power they have had to effect that terrorist status.

It is a half hour interview, well worth watching -- it really gets going in the second half. You'll find it on line at http://tinyurl.com/ox5mro . You can also read a rough transcript on that page.

Check it out, email it to your friends, and please let Amy Goodman know how much we appreciate the inclusion of animal rights activism in the discussion of social justice issues. Positive feedback will encourage similar coverage in the future. You can send your quick note of appreciation at http://www.democracynow.org/contact?to=8

I send thanks to Loren Hart (and others) for making sure we knew about this story.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

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Date: Thu Jun 25 17:45:07 2009

DawnWatch: Parrot crisis beautifully covered on CBS Sunday Morning News 6/21/09

2009-06-23T20:36:06Z

On Sunday, June 21, CBS Sunday Morning News aired a terrific piece spelling out how difficult it is to care for parrots, and the crisis being caused as people continue to buy them. It is informative and well worth watching. Check it out on line at http://tinyurl.com/knd5ef
Then click on "Share" and email it, from that site, to your friends. That's a great way to let a show know that a story is popular; they count clicks and forwards.

Finally, and importantly, please send a quick note to reporter Bill Whitaker and the CBS Sunday Morning news team thanking them for the story. Positive feedback for animal friendly coverage encourages more of it. The show takes feedback at http://tinyurl.com/mjwkub . Select "CBS New Sunday Morning" from the pullback menu.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

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Date: Tue Jun 23 20:36:06 2009

DawnWatch: NY1 fluff piece on Ringling 6/18/09

2009-06-19T12:37:46Z

Those of you who have heard me lecture and tell "my NY1 Story" will know how bad it feels today to report that NY1, New York's 24 hour news station, is running a Ringling Bros. fluff piece.

The web version of the story, posted June 18, is headed, "Protestors Greet Circus Opening." The story printed on that page opens with, "PETA members protested Thursday ahead of the opening performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Coney Island."

But when one clicks on the video that actually aired on the station, one sees and hears nothing of protests. Instead we are treated to the anchor telling us:

"The greatest show on earth lands in Brooklyn! Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus is debuting the Coney Island Boomerang Show today. The animal open house begins this afternoon at 5:30 and the show kicks off at 7. But there are lots of fun things to do before the show begins!"

Then we see a head-dressed elephant being led around and doing tricks in the ring, after which the Ringling production manager tells us about all the fun things that can be done before the show -- like trying on costumes.

After the clip the anchor shares information as to how long the show is running and where we can get more information and a complete schedule.

The "Protestors" heading on the web story might be a cynical attempt to appease complaints rolling in, or expected to roll in, about the coverage. Particularly cynical could be the opening line mentioning PETA, given that PETA is having such massive credibility issues this week in light of their comments on the presidential fly murder. (For the antis who read this and will repost that line trying to suggest I am seriously using that term, I spell out here and now that I am not.)

You can watch the disappointing video on line at:
http://www.ny1.com/Default.aspx?ArID=100953

Please do not go from it to any other stories on the site, which would reward NY1 for the appalling "coverage."

You may wish to go to http://www.awionline.org/ht/d/sp/i/11273/pid/11273 to learn about the law suit that various well-known and reputable animal protection groups, such as the ASPCA, have brought against Ringling Bros.

And please send a note to NY1 questioning their coverage. It is so tempting to vent in situations like this, to release some anger hoping to feel better; I will surely find forums to air my own feelings with less edit. But I urge activists to please be polite when dealing with NY1, for the sake of the animals, who can be helped if we can persuade NY1 to cover the law suit. That outcome is far more likely if we make our points without putting the producers on the defensive.

Please do not copy any phrases from any alerts or other people's letters. NY1 needs to know they are hearing the opinions of people who watched the story (either on air or on line), rather than from activists who just cut and pasted bits of letters from an action alert. Your comments need not be lengthy and eloquent -- one line expressing your disappointment is perfect.

NY1 takes comments at http://www.ny1.com/content/contact_us/
They ask whether or not you'd like a response. Please tell them you would!

I thank Nile Butta for making sure we knew about this story, and for writing a terrific, hard-hitting, yet restrained letter to NY1.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

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Date: Fri Jun 19 12:37:45 2009

DawnWatch: Wild animal "mausoleum" on LA Times front page 6/18/09

2009-06-18T18:00:20Z

Today, Thursday June 18, I share a disturbing article from the front page of the Los Angeles Times. It is, unfortunately, big news about a huge business, and the article is sensitively written.

The piece, by Thomas Curwen, is headed, "Where the Wild Things Disappear;
The victims of illegal trade sit in a national repository as bracelets, pelts and more."

Curwen opens with:
"At the National Wildlife Property Repository, only the imagination runs wild. Everything else is dead and lies on the crowded shelves of this warehouse outside Denver.

"There's a Hartmann's mountain zebra, its hide a rifle case -- the souvenir of a safari to southern Africa.

"There are the alligators whose skins adorn eight pairs of $2,000 Air Force 1s, the scheme of a hip-hop-inspired importer.

"There are the black bears whose gallbladder bile was extracted and crystallized, a futile cure for hangovers and hemorrhoids.

"Some deaths here, however, defy imagining -- like that of the orangutan, whose skull, carved with decorative swirls and lightning bolts, is all that remains; or the caimans, standing on hind legs and holding silver trays like butlers; or the cheetah, with the frozen snarl and teardrop eyes.

"Domestic and international laws protect roughly 5,000 animals against exploitation and extinction, and the National Wildlife Property Repository is the endpoint for all that is caught and confiscated by federal agencies in this country.

"Held for educational purposes, future undercover operations and possible use by the Smithsonian or other museums, the items in this building represent, in the words of one agent, nothing less than 'the evil in mankind.'

"The federal government may give the repository a fancy name, but it is really a mausoleum, a tomb for nearly 1.5 million mammals, insects, reptiles, birds and assorted sea life, testimony to one of the largest illegal, if not creepiest, trades in the world -- third behind drugs and guns -- worth an estimated $20 billion annually."

The piece, while harrowing in parts, is lengthy and wonderfully informative. It is great to see it on the front page of a leading newspaper. You can read it on line, and see some photos (ugh) at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-lost-wildlife18-2009jun18,0,5470726.story
OR at
http://tinyurl.com/mg46su

You can thank the reporter for the story by emailing him at thomas.curwen@latimes.com

Letters to the editor will keep the discussion going in the paper. The story opens the door for comments on any aspect of how we treat the Earth and our fellow Earthlings. Please take the opportunity to write.

Just clicking on the story also lets the paper know it is of interest to readers, and emailing it to all your friends will help it go onto the paper's "most emailed" list. That's is a good way to let mainstream media know that we want these issues covered.

My thanks to Frank Sanford for making sure we saw the piece.

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

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Date: Thu Jun 18 18:00:20 2009

DawnWatch: Slate 5 part series on animal experimentation 6/1 -- 6/5/09

2009-06-08T21:15:29Z

I have just read a lengthy, detailed and worthwhile five part series, published Monday-Friday last week, in the online magazine Slate. The series is by Daniel Engber, a research scientist turned science writer. He takes an even-handed look at animal research, sharing what has been learned to aid human health, and also discussing the cost, with regard to cruelty to animals -- and questioning the practice.

The titles of the five pieces, which I have printed below with a link to each piece, give you a good idea of how the series develops. Engber opens with the story of a dog, Pepper, stolen for research. He shares in two further articles how that incident affected the research world. In the fourth article he takes a wider look at the use of animals other than dogs, and in the fifth discusses his own experience, with a monkey named Clayton. Here are the titles and links:

1) Where's Pepper?
In the summer of 1965, a female Dalmatian was stolen from a farm in Pennsylvania. Her story changed America.
Jun 01, 2009
http://www.slate.com/id/2219224/pagenum/all

2) Man Cuts Dog
Pepper arrives at a laboratory in the Bronx.
Jun 02, 2009
http://www.slate.com/id/2219225/pagenum/all

3) Pepper Goes to Washington
The most important animal-welfare law in America began with a stolen dog.
Jun 03, 2009
http://www.slate.com/id/2219226/pagenum/all

4) Brown Dogs and Red Herrings
Or, why we no longer experiment much on dogs.
Jun 04, 2009
http://www.slate.com/id/2219227/pagenum/all

5) Me and My Monkey
The confessions of a reluctant vivisector.
Jun 05, 2009
http://www.slate.com/id/2219228/pagenum/all

Engber seems to use the articles on dogs to warm up his readers, while in the last two articles the use of all animals is examined. The fourth piece tells us of our movement's inability so far to protect animals -- dogs and others. We learn that attempts to ban the sale of dogs from "Class B dealers," who often acquire the dogs by questionable means, have failed. And we read about the exclusion of rats, mice and birds from the Animal Welfare Act.

Engber writes:

"With Schwindaman's help, the USDA put in place in 1972 a special exemption for rats, mice, and birds, allowing scientists to treat them however they saw fit�in cages of any size, in experiments with any degree of pain and suffering. That exemption remains in force, despite Schwindaman's later attempts to overturn it. To this day, 95 percent of the animals used in research labs receive no federal protection whatsoever under the Animal Welfare Act.

"In the fall of 2001, an undercover animal activist took a job cleaning rat and mouse cages on the Chapel Hill campus of the University of North Carolina. Over the next six months, she would collect more than 40 hours of footage on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals with a camera hidden under her lab coat. The video showed researchers marking newborn mice by amputating their toes and cutting the brains from baby rats without anesthesia. Rodents were trampled to death in overcrowded cages, left to die in garbage bins, or allowed to suffer with swollen tumors and open sores."

Later in the article he writes:

"For 100 years or more, scientists and activists had traded blows over the ethics and practice of research on dogs and cats. Through all that back-and-forth, lab rodents were always left just across the moral frontier of live-animal experimentation�close enough to humans to remain a meaningful source of knowledge but not so close that we couldn't slaughter them in droves. Yet it's not obvious�to those who might consider the question�that the welfare of a rat or mouse is any less important than that of a dog. Recent research suggests that the health of mice improves when they're given cage toys, running wheels, and crawl tubes to play with. Rats can learn to respond to a name and recognize individual people. We might quarrel over the inner lives of honeybees or river trout, but is the suffering of our fellow mammals really in question?"

Then, having acknowledged their suffering, he gives us even more information about their treatment:

"We regularly subject rodents to pain, starvation, solitary confinement, and grotesque disfigurement. Whatever misery they endure is multiplied across the hundreds of millions of rats and mice used in labs every year."

In the fifth piece, on Engber's personal experience working with a monkey, there is no discussion of such outright and obvious abuse. Yet Engber shares his thoughts on his return visit to the laboratory years later:

"In all the time I'd been gone, Clayton had lived in the same room, on the same feeding schedule, and with many of the same neighbors. Since we'd last seen each other, I'd moved across the country twice, quit graduate school, and become a journalist. Scientists had published more than 10,000 research papers using macaque models, and a team at the Baylor College of Medicine sequenced the entire genome of the rhesus monkey. For Clayton, though, nothing has changed. Every day or two, he's carted off to a room painted all in black, and his head is fixed in place by the post that still protrudes from his skull. He sits there as always, staring at targets on a computer screen. When he moves his eyes the way he's supposed to, he gets a droplet of Tang as a reward.

"It occurred to me that Pepper had been lucky. She'd spent her life roaming an 82-acre farm in Slatington, Pa., with a mate, Fred. (They even had a litter of puppies.) Her time at Montefiore Hospital in the summer of 1965 would last all of one day: After a single night spent locked in the rooftop kennel, she was brought downstairs, anesthetized, and killed.

"Clayton was born in a breeding center; he grew up in metal boxes and spent his adolescence with a hole in his head and a coil around his eye. In 10 or 15 years of life, he suffered through multiple surgeries and infections and endless hours of restraint in a plastic chair. And for what? Pepper's death, at least, contributed to the development of the cardiac pacemaker�a revolutionary medical device that would prolong millions of lives. Every hour of Clayton's existence has been spent, and will continue to be spent, in the service of basic science."

The series is well worth checking out. And please, get involved, email it to your friends, comment in the designated spots at the end of the articles -- both to keep the discussion alive and so that Slate knows these stories matter to readers. And please thank Engber. We learn that he left animal research unable to stomach it; please let him know we appreciate his writing about it so comprehensively. His email, danengber@yahoo.com , is provided at the end of the articles above, which again, I urge you to read.

I send thanks to Daria Kerridge for making sure we saw "Me and My Monkey," and therefore the whole series.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

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Date: Mon Jun 8 21:15:29 2009

DawnWatch: Time Magazine on city's weekly veg day -- June 8 edition

2009-05-29T16:51:31Z

The June 8 edition of Time Magazine has a brief piece about a city's weekly veggie day, and the Time website has a much more in-depth story on the same issue.

In "The World" section, on page 14, the magazine tells us:

"What They're NOT Eating in Belgium: A U.N. expert suggested last year that one way to combat climate change is to go vegetarian. The Flemish city of Ghent has responded by calling for schools to serve meat-free meals on Thursdays, which it has designated as noncompulsory 'veggie days.' Activist Tobias Leenaert hopes the campaign will inspire 'a critical mass of enlightened citizens.'"

On the website, the story is a Time Magazine "postcard," a Postcard from Ghent. It is headed, "Where's the Beef? Ghent Goes Vegetarian: The Flemish city of Ghent, which has collectively decided to try vegetarianism one day a week." It is written by Eben Harrell Wednesday, May. 27, 2009

It opens with:

"Last year, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, suggested that the most useful step ordinary citizens could take to help combat climate change would be to stop eating meat. In Belgium, an entire town is taking his advice to heart. The Flemish city of Ghent has designated every Thursday as 'Veggiedag' � Veggie Day � calling for meat-free meals to be served in schools and public buildings, and encouraging vegetarianism among citizens by promoting vegetarian eateries and offering advice on how to follow a herbivorous diet."

The city's vice-mayor says that it isn't compulsory but "If you give people the correct information about meat, it becomes an easy ethical decision."

While the article has fun information about Ghent in particular, it is notable for the superb information it provides about the vegetarian diet in general. We read:

"According to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, meat production accounts for 18% of annual greenhouse-gas emissions � more than transportation, which accounts for roughly 14%. Each year, millions of acres of rain forest are cleared for cattle ranchers and suppliers of animal feed, further accelerating climate change. Then there are the urgent human-health issues: the world feeds much of its grain to cattle and other animals even as millions of people starve. Those wealthy enough to consume fatty animal products are themselves at higher risk of certain health problems, including heart disease and some cancers."

Please check out this terrific story on line. Time Magazine counts hits for each story and we would love to push it into the "most read" category, and also the "most emailed" category, so please send it along to all your friends. You'll find it on line at:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1900958,00.html

The brief piece in the hard copy of the magazine also opens the door for letters to the editor, so why not write about the joys of plant based diets if you are on one, or about the horror of factory farming? Time Magazine takes letters at letters@time.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published.

I send thanks to Karen Caesar for making sure we saw this story.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. )

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

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Date: Fri May 29 16:51:31 2009

Reminder: National Animal Rights conference, July 16-20 in LA!

2009-05-27T18:42:22Z

I am reminding folks that the National Animal Conference is coming up -- July 16-20 in Los Angeles. You can still get $20 off the conference fee for early registration, plus folks on my list can get an additional $20 if you mention "Thanking the Monkey." While there is a place to register on line, you will need to email info@arconference.org or call 800-632-8688 to get the Thanking the Monkey discount.

The conference is organanized by FARM and sponsored by many other organizations including leading groups such as Sea Shepherd, In Defense of Animals and Mercy for Animals. It is always a fantastic opportunity to hear great speakers, to learn, to eat terrific vegan food and to thoroughly enjoy yourself in an atmosphere of camaraderie. I look forward to speaking at the conference, which is always incredibly fun. You'll find the full list of speakers and sponsors and can learn more about the conference at the website www.arconference.com .

I hope to see you all there!

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com.

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php

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Date: Wed May 27 18:42:22 2009

DawnWatch: NY Times covers Vick's release and work with HSUS 5/22/09

2009-05-24T12:54:53Z

The big news in the animal protection world over the last week was that Michael Vick got out of prison and is set to work with the Humane Society of the United States to help combat dogfighting. I will be blogging about that later today, sharing my own thoughts and some fun video. (It's the second post on my brand new blog, at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog). On DawnWatch I wanted to share an article from the Friday, May 22, New York Times, by Sports columnist, William C. Rhoden, known to and appreciated by many of us for his previous sensitive columns on horseracing.

Rhoden's article is headed, "Humane Society Sees Vick As an Ally, Not a Pariah." (Pg B11.) It tells us:

"The Humane Society�s position has nothing to do with endorsing Vick�s return to football but rather with finding a way to use his visibility to fight the scourge of dogfighting, which Pacelle said is gaining popularity with African-American and Hispanic teenagers in urban areas."

You can read the whole article on line at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/sports/football/22rhoden.html

You can thank Rhoden for his continued focus, in his sports columns, on the abuse of animals for sport. His email is wcr@nytimes.com . Or you can share that appreciation with other New York Times readers by sending a letter to the editor at letters@nytimes.com . But Vick's release from prison has been in just about every paper this week, so why not send a letter to your own paper, where you are the most likely to get published? Some of the smaller papers publish close to 100% of letters they receive. You might use Vick's release as a jump-off point for a letter discussing the ways in which animals are constantly but less publicly abused every day, reminding people that if they buy a dog from a pet store, they are supporting the abuse of that dog's mother who spends her whole life in a tiny cage at a puppy mill. You might even note that whenever one purchases rather than adopts a dog, one could be seen as indirectly responsible for the death of an animal in a shelter who coul
d have been taken home. You could even turn your point towards the dogs still suffering in vivisection laboratories, or the millions of animals abused on factory farms. Write whatever you are moved to write, but do take a moment to write and to thereby help make animals part of the public conversation. They need our help.

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any exact comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

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Date: Sun May 24 12:54:53 2009

DawnWatch: Today Show covers Ringling cruelty case 5/20/09

2009-05-20T20:27:05Z

The Court Case brought by various animal protection groups against Ringling Brothers for its treatment of elephants was covered today, Wednesday May 20, on NBC's Today Show. Reporter Natalie Morales did a good job of presenting a balanced view. She interviewed Ringling Brothers' Kenneth Feld and visited the breeding ground that the circus calls a conservation center, but she asked Feld some challenging questions while she was there. She also interviewed animal advocates. Most importantly, the segment showed some footage of animals being whacked with bullhooks and being chained in poor conditions.

Please watch it on line at:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/30843715#30843715

You can also read some of the text on the web site at:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30809719

While the piece isn't the straight out indictment of circus that animal advocates would like to see, it wasn't long ago that the only segments we saw on circuses were fluff promotional pieces, so we are getting somewhere.

At the bottom of the story there is a spot where you can rate it out of five -- please give it five stars. It is so important that mainstream shows learn that their audiences want to hear what is happening to the animals. The same area has a button to email the story. Please send it to all of your friends. They will learn about the current court case and the Today Show, which tracks the number of emails from its site, will be given another indication that animal abuse stories are important to their viewers. Then please click on "Discuss Story" and add a comment. Finally, thank the Today Show for the story. The Today Show takes comments at TODAY@nbcuni.com

You can find out more about the court case on the ASPCA website at:
http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/circus-cruelty.html

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's brand new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog . The first post features video of Star Trek's Bruce Greenwood talking about animal cruelty.

To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php

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Date: Wed May 20 20:27:05 2009

DawnWatch: Rat and mouse protection on Wall Street Journal front page 5/16/09

2009-05-17T21:51:47Z

We know that our movement has come a long way when we see the protection of rats and mice on the front page of the Wall Street Journal -- as it was on Saturday, May 16.

The article, by Dionne Searcey is headed, "Their Calling Is Defending Rats, Yet These Folks Aren't Lawyers."

It tells us:
"Animal advocates say rats and mice make up 90% of animal testing conducted in university laboratories and other research facilities in the U.S. In 2002, the Animal Welfare Act was amended to exclude rodents from protections offered to bigger lab animals including dogs, monkeys and even guinea pigs."

The piece quotes various people who are focused on getting at least some consideration for the mice and rats. For example, Chad Sandusky, who used to experiment on rats but now is the director of toxicology and research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, says, "I used to see rats and think, 'Ew.' Now I see rats and think, 'Those rats have probably got a family somewhere.'"

You'll find the article on line at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124243142041325619.html
Please check it out -- it is truly interesting, and newspapers track which articles get the most hits and forwards. So why not spread the good word by forwarding it to your friends?

Positive feedback encourages further focus on animal issues so you may wish to thank Dionne Searcey for the article. She is at dionne.searcey@wsj.com

And please send an appreciative letter to the editor. The Wall Street Journal takes letters at wsj.ltrs@wsj.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !

To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php

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Date: Sun May 17 21:51:47 2009