Tag: California

Why Activist Alfredo Kubra Gets Butterflies

Knight Ridder recently reported on a protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Action for Animals, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the United States against California Rodeo Salinas.

The story included only one quote from an activist at the event, one Alfredo Kuba who had this to say of participating in an animal rights protest,

I always get butterflies before I do something like this. Any time you express opinions that are different from the status quo, you have a little bit of fear. You can’t help but be concerned how people might react.

Kuba’s “nervous little activist” routine seems a bit thin given the things he’s said over the years. Kuba has been active in the California animal rights scene for more than a decade, and shows up in dozens of articles on Google and Lexis-Nexis.

What sort of things does Kuba believe that are different from the status quo? In a December 31, 2004 letter to the editor of the Mountain View (California) Voice, Kuba offered his views of hunting,

. . . Hunters are animal terrorists. Hunters make absurd claims of why murdering other beings is their “right” as if animals have no right to exist.

Hunting is a human wrong, just like slavery or the concentration camps. In the slavery era, whites felt they had the right to have slaves and slaves had no rights. In Nazi Germany, white supremacists believed they were the superior race under “God” thus rationalizing the extermination of Jews and other races “inferior” to them.

Hunters likewise rationalize to persecute, stalk, terrorize, maim and murder other living beings under the guise of superiority and difference of species. Hunters invade other species’ homes with the sole purpose of ending their existence.

Hunting is cold-blooded murder. Who made hunters God and gave them the power to decide who lives and who dies? The sickening aspect of hunters is that they find pleasure in the destruction of “God’s creation.”

Kuba despises hunting enough that he forces a vegan diet on his feline companion — and Kuba’s own dietary choices might hint at another explanation for those “butterflies.” In a 2004 AlterNet story on vegan pet diets, Kuba was quoted as saying (emphasis added),

You’re saving animals by not feeding your cat meat. It makes you feel good to feed your kitty something this good. Sometimes I even try some myself when I’m cooking.

Kuba’s not so concerned about the possibility of other cats having meat-oriented snacks. In May 2004, a mountain lion was spotted near Palo Alto, California. The lion was sleeping in a tree about 20 feet above a police car. Police initially planned to tranquilize the animal, but it woke up first, and the decision was made to kill the animal. Police said that since the timing of the incident made killing the animal necessary,

Because of the environment that it was in, school is about to be let out, the only safe thing to do to protect the community was to dispatch the animal. One shot was fired, the animal was felled.

Kuba disagreed, telling CBS5,

I think it’s absolutely atrocious the way the police behaved. Obviously the animal was not posing a threat to anyone. It was in a tree.

Kuba is also an expert on circuses. At a 2003 protest against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Kuba told the San Mateo Daily Journal that,

Daily beatings are a part of everyday life for animals in circuses.

Kuba recently started petition to ask KPFA 94.1FM to add an animal rights-themed show to its lineup. The petition reads,

Please sign petition asking KPFA 94.1FM to include an animal rights program on a regular basis. Animal rights is a topic of interest, often demoniced [sic] by the corporate propagandist media and not given a voice. Animals are voiceless and KPFA can provide that much desperately needed voice.

Surely purely by coincidence Kuba would host this new animal rights show on KPFA.

Those must be some strange butterflies.

Sources:

Rodeo draws animal rights protesters. Dennis Taylor, Knight Ridder, July 26, 2005.

Hunters destroy ‘God’s creation’. Alfredo Kuba, Letter to the Editor, Mountain Valley Voice, December 31, 2004.

Mountain lion killed in Palo Alto. Len Ramirez, CBS 5, May 17, 2004.

Circus defends animal treatment. San Mateo Daily Journal, August 28, 2003.

Animal Rights Radio. Petition, 2005.

The Cat That Ate Tofu. Michael Rosen-Molina, Alternet, May 23, 2004.

Activist on Need to Change Impressions, If Not Ideology

When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus visited Orange County, California, in July the Los Angeles Times ran the typical back-and-forth story with competing quotes from circus employees and animal rights activists.

After quotes from animal rights activist Kristal Parks who told the Times that chaining elephants is “almost like putting a human being in a jail cell,” Orange County People for Animals activist Charlotte Gordon concedes to the Times that the animal rights movement might have an image problem,

[Gordon] . . . concedes the public hasn’t been won over. “We need to change [the impression] that we’re trying to take something away from them. That’s what people are thinking, that we’re trying to take away the fun. We’re just trying to take away the animals.”

In other words, people are absolutely correct in thinking that activists want to take away something important in their lives — namely, traditional interactions with animals.

Activists want to take away circuses with animals. They want to take away animal-based foods. They want to take away animal-based medical research. They want to take away aquariums and zoos and hunting, and many of them even want to take away domestic pets.

The problem for Gordon and her ilk is that people understand exactly what animal rights activists want to take away.

Source:

Ringmaster is needed to monitor this debate. Dana Parsons, Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2005.

SAEN Not So Sane

The Davis Enterprise ran an interesting article about a protest organized by Stop Animal Exploitation Now directed at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California at Davis.

According to The Davis Enterprise,

Protesters chanted and held signs reading, “Stop your animal torture,” “Animal research is scientific fraud” and “Better ways exist” in front of the primate center west of the main campus, at Hutchison Drive and County Road 98.

“Animals at this laboratory are sick and suffering needlessly,” said Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN.

But just how accurate are SAEN’s claims about what goes on at the research center? According to the Enterprise (emphasis added),

Aside from ongoing arguments over whether animal research is necessary, SAEN alleges staff negligence leading to stress, suffering and death of test animals at UCD’s center. The group examined necropsy reports for 583 animals that died from May 2002 through April 2003, obtained through freedom of information requests.

Budkie said many of these reports simply list the deceased animal as “found dead in cage” with no clinical history, “which tells me they didn’t even know the animal was sick.”

Capitanio said allegations of staff negligence are “categorically false,” noting that the center has six full-time on-site veterinarians, two veterinary residents, one clinical fellow, 13 animal health technicians, four enrichment coordinators and 85 animal care workers focused on the health and well-being of the animals.

Capitanio said necropsy reports only include a pathologist’s observations during an exam of the deceased animal and SAEN has “drawn a series of inferences based … on a lack of information.”

In one example of alleged neglect, SAEN cited a January 2003 necropsy report of a primate that lost 40 percent of her body weight in 22 days. However, Capitanio said this animal’s quick weight loss can be attributed to giving birth. He said the animal then developed intestinal problems that were unresponsive to treatment, so she was euthanized to end her suffering.

Or consider another complaint that Budkie brought up — apparent discrepancies in the number of primate deaths and total animals reported by the primate center to different agencies. This is a common canard that Budkie recycles regularly,

Capitanio said discrepancies in the number of deaths, as cited by SAEN, is simply a difference between calendar year and fiscal year totals.

“It’s basically a timing window issue,” Capitanio said. “They (animal rights groups) use whatever means they can to try to discredit researchers and in some cases, harass researchers.”

A difference in the number of animals reported to various agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, he explained, is due to those agencies’ requirements. Only the number of animals involved in studies funded by a particular agency are supposed to be reported to that agency, he said.

Its not his fault — that fiscal/calendar year difference is probably too difficult for Budkie to grasp.

Source:

Protesters picket primate provisions. Sharon Stello, Davis Enterprise, July 18, 2005.

Farm Lobby Blocks Proposed California Ban on Killing Chickens Via Wood Chipper

In April, California’s farm lobby successfully blocked a bill that would have banned the killing of chickens in wood chippers.

The law, proposed by Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, was introduced after a 2003 incident in which workers at Ward Poultry Farm in San Diego County threw up to dumped up to 30,000 live chickens into wood chippers.

Ward Poultry Farm co-owner Bill Wilgenburg said the drastic measure was taken only after Newcastle disease broke out among chickens in southern California and the state quarantined the chickens in the area. Wilgenburg said he brought in the wood chippers after a veterinarian advised him to do so.

The San Diego County District Attorney examined the case but declined to prosecute, saying that the farm had not violated California’s animal cruelty laws because it did not act with malicious intent and followed the advice of a veterinarian.

The American Veterinary Medical Association, by the way, is adamantly opposed to the practice, saying in a press release,

“Use of wood chippers has not been endorsed by the AVMA as an acceptable means of euthanasia for poultry.” This statement is a response to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune that reported employees at two area poultry farms used wood chippers to dispose of some 30,000 live hens in February. The article erroneously stated that the AVMA approves of the method.

“It is absolutely absurd and ludicrous to believe that any veterinary medical association, especially an association that has for more than 140 years been the leading voice for humane and proper care of animals, could or would advocate throwing live chickens into a wood chipper as an appropriate method of euthanasia,” said Dr. Bruce W. Little, AVMA executive vice president.

The full text of Assembly Bill 1587 which would make throwing live animals into a wood chipper illegal can be read here.

Source:

State farm lobby blocks bill to stop killing chickens via wood chippers. Michael Gardner, Copley News Service, April 21, 2005.

Wood chippers not to be used to euthanize poultry, AVMA says. Press Release, The American Veterinary Medical Association, June 3, 2003.

FBI Hopes Distinctive Tattoos Will Lead Them to Suspect Animal Rights Bomber

The FBI is hoping that two distinctive tattoos will lead them to suspected animal rights bomber Daniel Andreas San Diego.

San Diego, 27, is the only named suspect in the 2003 bombings of Chiron Corp. and Shaklee Corp.

The FBI obtained an arrest warrant for San Diego in October 2003, but he eluded their surveillance and he has not been heard from since.

In their investigation of San Diego, FBI investigators learned that he has a black-and-white tattoo of a building in ruins with flames in the background on his stomach, and a colored burning pastoral scene in the center of his chest.

In April, the FBI released the following artists rendering of the tattoos:

The FBI is offering a reward of $50,000 for information leading directly to San Diego’s arrest and anyone with information on his whereabouts should contact their local FBI office or American embassy or consulate.

San Diego is believed to be armed and dangerous and is known to possess a 9mm handgun according to the FBI.

Source:

FBI hopes fugitive’s tattoos will lead to tips. Stacy Finz and Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 2005.

California Supreme Court Refuses to Hear PETA’s “Happy Cows” Appeal

In April, the California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals of its lawsuit against the California Milk Producers Advisory Board.

PETA filed that lawsuit in December 2002 arguing that the board’s marketing campaign constituted false advertising under California law.

The board used the slogan, “Great cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California.” PETA’s lawsuit maintained that far from being happy, California dairy cows live a miserable existence.

Both a judge and an appeals court panel rejected the lawsuit on the ground that, as a government agency, the California Milk Producers Advisory Board was immune from this sort of lawsuit.

PETA appealed the appeals court panel ruling to the California Supreme Court, which denied without comment PETA’s request for a review of the case.

The full text of the appellate court panel’s decision in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals vs. California Milk Producers Advisory Board can be read here.

Source:

State justices refuse PETA a hearing on the life of cows. Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 2005.