DawnWatch San Francisco-Oakland

Thanking the Monkey San Francisco launch -- Tuesday, July 1, 7pm

2008-06-30T14:03:19Z

Hi Bay Area Folks,
We have arranged, totally last minute, a San Francisco Thanking the Monkey reading/signing and book launch party on Tuesday, July 1, following my appearance on View from the Bay on ABC, Tuesday afternoon.
I will send out a little more information later, but for now, just wanted to make sure local animal advocates had something to go on, and could make a plan to join us if you don't already have cemented plans for this Tuesday evening. It is going to be a fun night! We are doing it
Tuesday, July 1, 7pm at
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
450 Broadway (Montgomery St), San Francisco 94133
which is a wonderful new vegetarian restaurant in North Beach. They have a fabulous performance space and bar upstairs for the reading, at 7pm sharp. (I'll provide wine or champagne!). Then we can mosie on downstairs for dinner afterwards (at about 8pm). If you are an early diner, come at 6! And I do recommend making a reservation.
At the Los Angeles and New York parties I was joined in reading by some of the wonderful animal friendly actors. (See www.ThankingtheMonkey.com and www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/media_previews.php) for more on that.) San Francisco isn't so full of them, but I am lining up a few "special guests." (Please let me know if you have ideas.) And I know a lot of fun folks are coming, so we'll have a good time --- and hear some segments of a book the critics have said nice things about, and have some good organic wine and great veggie food.
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com and click "Readings" to RSVP if you can make it. Seating will be limited, with preference going to those on the RSVP list.
As this is so last minute, we could really use some help spreading the word, so please invite your Bay Area friends.
See you Tuesday!
Yours and the animals,
Karen Dawn

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Date: Mon Jun 30 14:03:19 2008

San Francisco: FSFACC benefit Sunday, July 15, 2007

2007-07-15T08:24:24Z

From Friends of San Francisco Animal Care and Control (FSFACC) -- benefit tonight:
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Dear Friends:

Just a reminder that Animal Care & Control's biggest benefit of the year,
their 18th Anniversary Party and Silent Auction, is tomorrow, Sunday, July
15 at 6 p.m. at ACC, 1200 15th St. (at Harrison). The party is produced by
the Friends of San Francisco Animal Care and Control (FSFACC).

There will be delicious vegan Mexican food from Flacos, wines and beverages,
desserts, live jazz from Walter Earl, and fantastic prizes in the auction --
all included in the admission price of only $25.

Staff and volunteers of animal welfare agencies and nonprofits pay what you
can. And a special VIP admission of $50 includes a copy of the beautiful
book "Tails of Devotion." Pay admission and winning auction bids by check,
cash or credit card (Visa, MC or AmEx). See
http://fsfacc.org/18thAnniversary.htm for more details.

See you there!

Bill Hamilton

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Date: Sun Jul 15 08:24:24 2007

DawnWatch SF last minute tip -- cosmetic testing on 5pm news CBS news -- 4/5/06

2006-04-05T18:14:26Z

Tonight's 5pm news (you may still be able to catch it) has a piece by consumer reporter Jeanette Pavini on animal testing. I will paste the web summary below. Please send a quick note of thanks for this coverage.

Go to http://cbs5.com/contact and choose 5pm news from the pulldown menu.

Here's the story:

http://cbs5.com/consumer/local_story_095194154.html

Karli Kuehnish loves her beauty products.

"I am a cosmetic junkie," she says. "I actually work in cosmetics."

She also is a big animal lover, and makes sure the products she buys aren�t tested on animals. But like many consumers, what Karli might not know is that, though a product my say that it is cruelty free or not tested on animals, that may not be entirely true.

Animal Testing Information Links
http://www.leapingbunny.org
http://www.eco-label.org
http://www.fda.org

"I'd say it's misleading," says Consumer Attorney Mark Chavez. "There's a definite economic advantage in the marketplace to being able to promote the product as being cruelty free or not having been tested on animals."

Michelle Thew of the Animal Protection Institute says that it�s an economic advantage that depends on the goodwill of the consumers. Her organization is trying to drive animal testing out of the cosmetic industry.

"It may mean that only the finished product is not tested, or it may mean that the company did not test it but paid someone else to," says Thew.

According to the FDA, �Cosmetic companies have unrestricted use of the phrases �cruelty-free� or �Not tested on animals,� because there are no legal definitions for these terms.�

So Chavez says that the burden of proof is on the shoulders of the consumer.

"The reality is that you may have to look beyond the label for any product and question the company about what that particular label means for that particular company," Chavez says.

That�s where organizations like leaping bunny and Eco-Labels come to into play. You can go to the sites to see if the products you use really are tested on animals.

Thew also says that if companies say they don�t test on animals, they should have no problem putting their name on the list.

"If a company won't sign a simple pledge to say they aren't testing on animals then we will let the consumer make the choice."

Karli has already made her choice.

�I've seen what it does to the animals and I really wouldn't want it to happen to any of my animals," Karli says.
(END OF STORY)
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(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. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)

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Date: Wed Apr 5 18:14:26 2006

Bay area DawnWatch tip: Hens and battery cages on ABC 7, 11pm Friday 11/4/05

2005-11-04T11:08:15Z

Tonight, Friday November 4, ABC 7 in the Bay area will air a piece, on the 11pm news, about egg-laying hens in battery cages.

Watch tonight's story if you can, and please thank the station. ABC 7 takes comments at
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=stationinfo&id=3288796

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. To unsubscribe, go to www.DawnWatch.com/unsubscribe.php. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)

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Date: Fri Nov 4 11:08:15 2005

San Francisco DawnWatch alert: SF Chronicle on squirrel rehab -- 9/17/05

2005-09-18T20:08:46Z

The following lovely article about squirrel rescue, which ran in the Saturday, September 17 San Francisco Chronicle (pg F3), noted, at the bottom:
"Sierra Wildlife Rescue and the Performing Animal Welfare Society are hosting a fundraiser on Oct. 22 at Ark 2000, a 2,300-acre sanctuary in San Andreas. Proceeds benefit both groups. For information, call Cindy or Ed Minghelli at (916) 939-8950 by Oct. 1."

The article is available on line at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/17/HOG6CENHR11.DTL and I will paste it below.
Enjoy the article, and please express appreciation for it with a letter to the editor. The Chronicle takes letters at letters@sfchronicle.com

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Paris Tilton's not-so-simple life
Things became complex for the squirrel with what animal rescuers suspect was a near-fatal dose of pesticide
- Alison Rood, Special to The Chronicle
Saturday, September 17, 2005

Cindy and Ed Minghelli were heading out to dinner when a woman, distraught to the point of hysteria, called and said there was a squirrel in her backyard dangling from a tree limb, screaming. Cindy Minghelli instructed her to place a box under the squirrel so that it could drop down from the branch. Once the squirrel was contained, Minghelli -- who had scrapped her dinner plans by then -- drove to the woman's home and retrieved the squirrel.

It turned out that a neighbor's son had shot the animal, a fox squirrel, with a BB gun, and the BB had lodged in the squirrel's spine, paralyzing it from the waist down.

"This squirrel was minding its own business, looking for food, trying to eke out a living, and a kid comes along and shoots him -- for fun, for sport, because he's bored -- who knows why," Minghelli said angrily. "He just decides that inflicting pain on a defenseless creature and destroying its life forever is a good thing to do at that moment."

Minghelli, a tireless ambassador for animal rights, nicknamed the squirrel B.B. King and admitted him to the "squirrel clinic" on the Minghellis' acreage in the El Dorado Hills. El Dorado Hills is a community at the base of the Sierra foothills, where rural homes are sandwiched among explosive suburban sprawl, much of it coming directly from the Bay Area. The Minghellis are members of Sierra Wildlife Rescue, an organization licensed by the Department of Fish and Game to rehabilitate and release injured and orphaned wildlife and teach the public how to live with wild animals and respect their habitat. The Minghelli home brims with the evidence of their work, from the hanging bird feeders to rescued feral cats to big lovable dogs.

I met the Minghellis about a year ago, when a part-Bengal cat I'd rescued kept finding and bringing home juvenile squirrels. After my third distress call to Sierra Wildlife Rescue and the Minghellis' prompt response, I recognized how selfless animal rehabbers are, and felt guilty. Here was a group of people who work for free, drop whatever they're doing to help injured wildlife and who depend on volunteers and donations to exist. How could I proclaim my devotion to nature if I didn't contribute to the cause?

On a rainy morning last spring, I stood in Cindy Minghelli's squirrel shed and watched her rehydrate 3-week-old babies left motherless and homeless when homeowners cleared out some trees from their yard. She told me that most squirrel babies need rescuing because people prune or cut down trees during the nesting season, which runs from February through October. "If people would wait until late fall or early winter to prune trees or take them out, it would save squirrels a lot of grief," she says.

Other squirrels require medical attention when they ingest poisons such as Decon that are not environmentally friendly. Minghelli recently cared for a squirrel that she suspects came into contact with that toxin, because the homeowner who found the sick animal admitted using it. The squirrel had been running around in circles with its head tilted at a severe angle when Minghelli rescued her. Dubbed Paris Tilton, she gradually recovered with homeopathic treatment. Homeopathy often works wonders with injured squirrels.

"People need to realize that the poisons they use in their yards not only have an adverse effect on the environment, but also on the wild animals living in that environment," Minghelli says. "Decon is an anti-coagulant that causes an animal to slowly bleed to death over several days. It's horribly cruel."

I got off to a shaky start with my own attempt at rehabbing. My two babies were rescued from yet another tree removal and had a bad case of diarrhea. At one point, they became dehydrated, which can be deadly. My kitchen turned into a hospice filled with homeopathic medicines, hydrating fluids and a special formula that's close to mother squirrel milk. Slowly the babies improved, and three weeks after arriving, they were healthy and rambunctious.

As difficult as my job was, it was nothing compared with the challenges the Minghellis and other veteran rehabbers routinely face. Cindy Minghelli and Nan Powers worked together for months to nurse Squirrel Girl back to health when she was hit by a car and suffered head trauma and a broken jaw. As for B.B. King, there's no telling if homeopathic treatment and physical therapy will heal his damaged body. If Minghelli had her wish, parents would never give their children BB guns.

"It's one thing when a nest falls out of a tree, but it's another thing when an animal is specifically targeted, like the kid with the gun. As a rehabber, your morale plummets." She keeps doing it, she says, because "we have to give back, no matter what."

As a novice rehabber, I can't begin to describe how it feels to care for a wild animal, knowing that if all goes well, it will be returned to its natural environment. It's a privilege, but a privilege that's bittersweet. Most wild animals wouldn't need human intervention in the first place if we didn't harm them and the wild places where they thrive.

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Animal benefit
Sierra Wildlife Rescue and the Performing Animal Welfare Society are hosting a fundraiser on Oct. 22 at Ark 2000, a 2,300-acre sanctuary in San Andreas. Proceeds benefit both groups. For information, call Cindy or Ed Minghelli at (916) 939-8950 by Oct. 1.

E-mail freelance writer Alison Rood at home@sfchronicle.com.

(END OF CHRONICLE PIECE)
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(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. To unsubscribe, go to www.DawnWatch.com/unsubscribe.php. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)

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Date: Sun Sep 18 20:08:46 2005