CA: Don't tax vet bills

Governor Schwarzenegger wants to define taking your sick, diseased, distressed animal to a vet as a "luxury" item, imposing a 10.5% tax on veterinary medical services.

Since when is being a responsible guardian considered a "luxury"?

There are 15 million dogs and cats in California and dog and cat guardians spend nearly 2.75 billion dollars on veterinary services. Animal Place is no stranger to vet bills - we spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to provide optimal care to all the animals at the sanctuary. This isn't a luxury, these costs are a necessity for us and for the millions of people who choose to welcome animals into their homes.

We appreciate that times are tough, that we need to look at creative ways to stimulate our state's economy. But taxing necessary medical care for the 15 + million animals in the state is not only unfair, it's cruel. With unemployment rising, people should not have to make a difficult choice between what might be an affordable medical procedure for their companion and killing/relinquishing their animal because of the extra taxation.

You can help:

Call the Governor's office:
From HSUS Humane Action Alert:
Please make a brief, polite phone call to Governor Schwarzenegger at 916-445-2841 and urge him to remove the Fido Fine from the budget proposal. When you call, please select your language choice, then press 5 to leave your opinion on a current issue, then press 1 to select the issue of extending the sales tax to veterinary services, and then press 2 to oppose this proposal. After calling, please send a follow-up email to your state legislators and urge them to reject the Governor’s proposal.

Contact your representative:
Tell them to remove the Fido fine from the budget proposal.

You can find out who your legislator is here

Rufus enjoys weather

Rufus the rooster is enjoying the unusually warm weather at the sanctuary (probably not as much as the humans, though).

Here he is basking in the sun, the light glinting off his flame-orange feathers.

Rufus was rescued by Animal Place more than a year ago from a cockfighting bust in northern California. He was just a baby then but his fate would have been violent and tragic either as a fighting rooster or euthanized at a shelter. Rufus lives the good life now, though, with his own flock of hens and two other roosters to keep him company.

Vote for vegan lunches

1 in 200 kids "vegetarian"

This news according to a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study in 2007 that surveyed 9,000 parents on alternative medicine.

Vegetarian kids are so mainly for ethical reasons, the whole "this turkey wing once belonged to
<<---- an actual turkey (except Leland has all his wings) concept. This is great, of course, as we need more compassionate future role models for the next generations.

Leland may fan his feathers in joy over the news but he's waiting for that number to go from 1 in 200 to 1 in 2...then he'll be really impressed.

Coconut Walnut Date Recipe

My grandma loved baking bread; she'd fill her small apartment kitchen with the scents of fresh wheat rolls or sourdough loaves. I do not have crystal clear memories of her, but my nose remembers - I smell bread baking and I see strong wrinkled hands kneading dough, remember the heat of the kitchen and the taste of a hot, fresh roll. Grandma also loved to bake anything that required as little sugar as possible (she also only offered sugar-free hard candies which, to my 9-yr-old sugar-loving self, was quite tragic). Over the holidays, my mom brought out one of my grandma's favorite recipes and we easily veganized it. We hope you'll enjoy it too! -Marji Beach, Education Coordinator

Ingredients:
Enough Ener-g egg replacer for 3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 c chopped walnuts
1 c chopped dates
1 c flaked coconut
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract

Directions:
Add to the egg replacer the sugar, walnuts, dates, coconut, vanilla extract, almond extract. Mix together.

Place mixture into casserole dish and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Let mixture cool. When mixture is cool, form into small balls and roll in powder sugar. Eat.

Photo by yours truly

Netherlands phases out meat from castrated piglets

The Netherlands is phasing out the sale of meat from male pigs who have been castrated. Piglets are castrated without the benefit of anesthesia, causing undue suffering to the animals. No mention of actual time line of the phaseout but possibly within the next two years. We are uncertain if this applies to pigs exported out of the Netherlands, though it will apply to animals or meat imported into the Netherlands. The Dutch export nearly 9 million pigs or pig flesh annually.

Reducing suffering is, of course, a noble goal. The easiest way to truly make a dent in the suffering of the 50 billion farmed animals killed worldwide is to not eat them, drink their breast milk, eat their eggs or wear their skins/fur. Even reducing how much animal product you consume is a step in the right direction.

All hens adopted!

Great news: All the hens rescued from a small factory egg-laying farm have been adopted!

Animal Place took in nearly 400 of the 650 hens and worked furiously to place them as quickly, humanely and safely as possible. In about 3-weeks, dozens of people volunteered to adopt hens. And by December 27th, all the hens had been placed into permanent homes.

A big thank you to the animal care staff, education staff, news media outlets who covered the story, and all the adopters and rescuers who helped make this rescue a possibility!!

In Memory: Tony

1/1993-11/2008

By goat standards, you lived long and well. You were never friendly, preferring to keep your distance from us. Even when we would feed you sweet grain, you would shy away or try to head butt us if we attempted to pet you. Human touch you did not crave and we always tried to respect that.

In your younger years, you were the goats' go-to man, the head honcho. Everyone would follow you to graze upon green hills. Time passed and you aged, you slowed down and spent more time in the barnyard than with the goats. Your organs began to fail you and you struggled with painful bladder stones.

And then one day, you were ready to leave us, to move on. You did not want us to touch you or be with you, dying did not mean you wanted our comfort. You went in peace and with dignity and with that ever present smirk on your face.

We will miss you so much, even if we never hugged you or stroked your angora-soft hair. You had friends and lived and munched on grass and did your goatly things. People often speak of extraordinary animals, those great beings who flit in and out of our lives with their special lessons. You were extraordinarily normal and so incredibly perfect that way.

-Animal Place staff

650 Hens Saved from Slaughter

650 Hens Rescued

Nearly 650 hens from a factory farm are safe and sound, their lives spared because of the dedication and commitment of one individual. Ah, the power of one! For two years, they have known only wire cages, darkness and overcrowding. Their beaks have been "trimmed", an industry euphemism for the painful severing of up to 2/3 of a hen's beak. Their brothers have all been killed, useless individuals to an egg farmer. Each bird's nails have grown two, three inches long. Feathers are missing, a result of forced molting and too much energy wasted on laying eggs. Thanks to Animal Place and several shelters, these hens will have a life all chickens deserve - a free one. They will know how dirt, rocks and sand feel beneath their feet. They will see the sun, scratch in the dirt, lay their eggs in nests instead of on a cage floor. Their food will no longer contain antibiotics; their source of light will no longer be controlled by machines. They will receive names and their adopters will appreciate all their individual quirks. Animal Place wishes you to consider adopting a vegan diet. No matter how nice a farm may be, when the bottom line is money, the individual animal's life is no longer valued. Free-range hens are still slaughtered at a young age; cage-free hens are still debeaked. Their value is not in their wonderful personalities but in how many eggs can be sucked from their slender bodies. Below we offer some alternatives to eggs we hope you will consider. Egg Alternatives There are myriad egg substitutes available for baking, we hope you'll try these out. 1) Ener-G egg replacer is a commercial substitute for eggs used in baking. It acts as an excellent binding agent. 2) 1/4 cup applesauce + 1 tsp baking powder for one egg. 3) 1/3 cup flaxseeds ground up and mixed with 1 cup water. One egg is equal to 3 tbsp. 4) 1/2 banana mashed for one egg. Try Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World or The Joy of Vegan Baking for excellent recipes without eggs. For scrambled eggs, try scrambled tofu mixed with your favorite seasonings.

Emergency Hen Rescue

It was a little over three years ago when Animal Place, along with several other groups, rescued nearly 2,000 hens from a Gilroy egg-laying operation. Now we are faced with another rescue; this time 1,500 hens from a small cage operation.

We need good homes in California to take in these beautiful birds. They have endured so much; nearly two years in cages, debeaked, never knowing what it's like to run in the grass or stretch out for a sun-bath. If you can adopt a hen or two or know someone who can, please contact us at marji @ animalplace.org (minus spaces) or 707 449 4814. Please include the followig information:

Name:
Phone Number:
Full Address:
Number of hens you can adopt:
When you can adopt birds:

We are limited with how many we can take temporarily, so we're trying our best to find homes for all of the birds before they are slaughtered.

Every year, 250-300 million hens are slaughtered at 2 years of age because their egg production no longer matches the bottom line of money and greed. Currently, 95% of all birds raised for their eggs are housed in cages so small they cannot turn around. Even when not housed in cages, cage-free birds are still debeaked and slaughtered long before their natural lifespan. You can do your part by not purchasing eggs and seeking alternatives for your baking needs by using flaxseed, applesauce, or Ener-G egg replacer. Boundless substitutes are readily available.