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ARC Volunteer meetings are held every Wednesday from 7-8pm at our office at 317 W. 48th St. in south Minneapolis. Everyone is welcome - you don't need to be an ARC member to attend.

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Chicken Run Rescue
Cuddle Coats
End Pound Seizure Minnesota
Ethique Nouveau
Forego Foie Gras
HumaneMyth.org
Minneapolis Vegan Meetup
No Pain In My Name
Rhymes With Vegan
Teaching Compassion
Vegan Drinks Twin Cities
Vegan University

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If an animal is in immediate danger, call 911. Read this section for more information.

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If you need to find a new home for your companion animal, read the information in this section.

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Direct Care is Direct Action!
As interest in "urban farming" spreads, many cities are considering letting residents keep chickens. This presents challenges regarding the quality of their care and will likely lead to a huge increase in abandoned birds. Minneapolis currently tolerates wanton breeding, swapping, and backyard slaughter, all of which are being actively promoted by local urban farming enthusiasts. ARC and Chicken Run Rescue encourage you to take an active role in advocating for chickens and other domestic fowl as this trend continues (view CRR's brochure here for more information). Here's what you can do:

• Sign up as a foster or volunteer with CRR to help care for chickens, consider adopting birds who need homes, and apply for chicken permits.
• Become involved in local policy development and standards of care. Lobby for education requirements for permit applicants. Work to ensure that backyard slaughter is prohibited in your city.
• Advocate for roosters - 50% of hatched chicks are roosters and they are killed outright, abandoned, or sold to slaughter. Oppose limits and bans on roosters.

Everyday People Goes Fur-free!
Everyday People Clothing Exchange, the Cities’ hippest stores for vintage and second-hand clothes, has pledged not to buy or sell fur or fur-trimmed items at any of its three locations. Owners and sisters Kitty and Liza didn’t hesitate to make the commitment since they had always been apprehensive about dealing with fur items in the past. As Kitty explains: “We’re both huge animal people, we don’t eat meat, so it made sense for our business.”

ARC Program Director, Dallas Rising (right),
presents Cuddle Coats certificate to
Everyday People co-owner, Liza (left).

Customers coming in to one of their stores with fur items to sell are encouraged to donate the items to ARC's Cuddle Coats program. The fur provides a nurturing and comforting environment for injured and orphaned wild animals while they are rehabilitated and prepared for release back into the wild. “Knowing that we have a place that will find a use for the items helps”, says Kitty. She adds that for the most part, customers have been very understanding about the policy and have been willing to donate their items to Cuddle Coats once they learn about the good their fur items can do.

ARC applauds Everyday People’s commitment to helping animals by taking a stand against fur. Disappointingly, other vintage and second-hand stores in town still buy and sell fur, so we hope they will follow Everyday People’s example of putting ethics ahead of profits.

Everyday People Clothing Exchange has stores in Dinkytown, Uptown and St. Paul near Selby and Snelling. They feature a range of vintage fashions and accessories as well as newer clothing styles for men and women. Stop in for some great bargains and thank them for going fur-free!

What's Your Skin Worth?
Thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the Twin Cities premiere of Skin Trade, the most provocative documentary about fur production to date, at the Ritz Theater such an incredible success. And many thanks to the film's director Shannon Keith, for hosting a fascinating Q&A session after the film.

Thank to our sponsors for their support of this important event with their donations of silent auction items and items for the goodie bags: Everyday People, Fabulous Furs (the world's finest faux fur), LUSH, Vaute Couture, VegNews, Lantern Books, and Perseus Books.

World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week Demonstration at the U of M
Over 20 million animals suffer in U.S. laboratories every year. These innocent victims are subjected to addictive drugs, caustic chemicals, ionizing radiation, chemical and biological weapons, electric shock, deprivation of food and water, psychological torture, and many other horrors. World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week is the time when activists come together to make a difference for these animals.

ARC brought attention to the suffering of thosands of animals in University of Minnesota laboratories by holding a demonstration outside of Moos Tower. Participants carried signs listing the numbers of various species of animals used in one year at the U and wore masks representing each species.

Read about the U of M's violations of federal care standards for animals in their laboratories including failing to properly administer pain-relieving medicine, failing to provide adequate veterinary care, and failing to properly euthanize animals. The improperly euthanized animals remained alive, but were discarded as if they were dead.

Not Every Cat has Nine Lives at AHS
The Animal Humane Society's five area shelters provide impound services for over 20 cities in and around the metro area, including Afton, Minnesota. In September 2009, a group of Afton residents asked their City Council to review the animal control arrangement between Afton and AHS. This request arose from the discovery that in May 2009, seven cats were caught in live traps, taken to the AHS shelter in Woodbury, and euthanized the same day. By doing so, AHS failed to honor the five-day waiting period as required by Minnesota law. After looking into the matter, the Afton City Council voted unanimously to terminate its impound contract with AHS.

The immediate killing of the seven Afton cats was not an isolated incident. A response from AHS to a complaint filed by Animal Ark, the Animal Rights Coalition, and the No Kill Advocacy Center confirmed that AHS regularly kills strays they believe may be "feral" on arrival without holding them for the required period and without giving guardians of those cats an opportunity to find them. In fact, AHS admitted to killing about 500 cats this way in 2009.

Although AHS routinely kills "feral" cats upon arrival at their facilities, they have no established protocol for determining which cats are feral or which ones may simply be terrified companion animals. ARC, Animal Ark, and the No Kill Advocacy Center believe that guardians of shy, fearful, or unsocialized cats have as much right to reclaim their animals if they are impounded as do guardians of friendly cats.

There is no statutory language in the law that provides a basis for killing feral cats without holding them the required five days even in the unlikely event AHS staff could accurately determine which cats are feral. Additionally, there is nothing in state law that prohibits people from keeping outdoor or unsocialized cats.

Animal Ark, the Animal Rights Coalition, and the No Kill Advocacy Center are doing all we can to ensure that AHS follows state law and stops the practice of killing cats immediately upon arrival at their facilities. See these stories with additional detail on this issue:
Animal Humane Society Agrees to Stop Illegally Killing Cats - Sometimes
Chronology of the Stray Cat Dispute
Summary of Legal Arguments in Stray Cat Dispute
Minnesota Cats will be Safer Due to Challenge to Humane Society Policy

School's In!
And So Is Humane Education!
ARC has been busy getting humane education materials into the hands of teachers. In addition to our booth at the Education Minnesota Professional Conference, ARC offered Cruelty Free Circus Action Project packs to K-3 teachers. The kits contained a lesson plan, student worksheets, and stickers, and they were snapped up quickly by educators eager to teach compassion for animals. We also sent middle school science teachers Frog Fact Files which are colorful kits filled with frog fact sheets covering topics ranging from alternatives to dissection to the lifecycle of a frog. Birdwatching Kits (as alternatives to chick hatching projects) were also sent out to teachers.

ARC at Pride
Besides our booth at the Pride Festival, ARC also marched in the Pride parade in Minneapolis. Marchers carried "Go Faux" flags and handed out suckers and stickers that said, "I fake it!" - all to encourage the parade audience to think about swearing off leather and fur. The stickers were a huge success! Here's some pics of the event:

Go Green Go Veg!
A great group of ARC volunteers marched in the May Day Parade. Our theme, echoed in the green flags carried by marchers, was "go green, go veg." Thanks to all the volunteers who staffed our booth at the festival in Powderhorn Park, marched in the parade, and made the day so successful!

These days it seems you can't turn on a television or open a newspaper without seeing a story about the importance of going green. While there are many things you can do to go green, one vitally important action, adopting a plant-based diet, has been ignored by the media and promoters of events such as the Living Green Expo.

According to a 2006 United Nations report "Livestock's Long Shadow," which received little to no media attention, livestock generate more greenhouse gases than automobiles. Here's some other facts about the devastating effects of livestock production:

- 70% of agricultural land, and a total of 30% of the land on this planet, is used for raising livestock.
- The livestock industry is responsible for 18% of all global-warming gases, 9%of carbon dioxide emissions, 37% of methane emissions, and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions; methane and nitrous oxide have 23 to 296 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.
- Animal agriculture accounts for most of the water consumed in this country, emits two-thirds of the world's acid-rain causing ammonia, and is the world's largest source of water pollution.
- The American meat industry produces more than 1.4 billion tons of waste. That's equal to five tons for every U.S. citizen.

Lately, there has been much promotion of "sustainable animal agriculture." The problem with this, however, is that it is not a solution - a cow with access to fresh air and pasture is still a cow who needs plenty of water and food. And that free-range cow still emits methane! The resources consumed by just one person eating the typical American meat-based diet could feed 20 people a healthier plant-based diet. In other words, adopting a plant-based diet is one of the single most important changes a person can make to go green.

When Rescuing Really Means Killing: A Follow-up
We recently posted some questions regarding the killing of about 130 cats that the Animal Humane Society reportedly "rescued" from a mobile home in St. Anthony, Minnesota. In response to ARC's expressed concerns, and concerns expressed by many other animal advocates, the AHS board issued a form letter response on April 6.

In their response, the AHS board failed to address the serious issues raised. Instead, they simply recited their talking points that killing the cats was necessary to keep people and animals safe from disease, points that had already been widely discredited by many knowledgeable authorities.

ARC has learned that nationally recognized veterinarians with expertise in shelter medicine have written AHS and stated that there is "no veterinary basis for such a statement." Veterinarian, bioethicist, and syndicated columnist Dr. Michael Fox and consulting veterinarian, lecturer, and trainer Dr. Linda Wolf are distributing a public letter to the AHS board in which they chastise the organization for the killings, and for the failure of the board to address the issues brought to them. Read the letter from Drs. Wolf and Fox, along with the form letter response from the AHS Board of Directors to complaints about the killing of the cats in St. Anthony, and then contact the AHS Board via email to tell them that the serious questions raised by the community deserve to be fully answered - and not brushed off with a letter that fails to address any of the questions raised.

When Rescuing Really Means Killing:
The Unanswered Questions
On Tuesday, February 10, 130 cats were "rescued" by the Animal Humane Society (AHS) from a hoarding situation in St. Anthony, Minnesota. AHS received multiple offers of help from other shelters and rescue organizations. AHS senior staff told the public and media that the cats would be kept for two to three weeks to complete medical and behavior evaluations. However, for the next few days, AHS executive director, Janelle Dixon was quoted as saying the cats were, "unlikely to be adoptable." On Saturday, February 14, Dixon appeared on WCCO television and announced that the cats had been killed and cited common, treatable, and manageable ailments as the rationale for killing the cats.

Early the following week, KSTP Eyewitness News broke a story in which a shocking timeline was uncovered. In the story Eyewitness News reported that Kathie Johnson, AHS Director of Veterinary Services, had told reporters that it would take weeks to determine the cats' health: " 'We're giving them time to settle down and we're hoping after a few days, we can start fully evaluating them,' Johnson said on February 11. But now, the Humane Society said they were euthanized-not weeks later, not days later-but just hours later that same night."

Most of the media that originally covered the "rescue" gave no coverage to the revelation that AHS had grossly misled them. But even after that revelation, there remain other questions that need to be asked to get to the full truth behind this story:

1) Why has no one interviewed the veterinarian in charge of the case?
2) Has the AHS Board of Directors asked for, or been given, a full briefing by the veterinarian in charge of the case?
3) Have reporters investigated the credentials of the Director of Veterinary Services, Kathie Johnson, who is not a veterinarian? Why is Ms. Johnson allowed to make life or death decisions for animals when she is not a veterinarian?
4) The 2/17 press release issued by AHS said that the cats were euthanized because "Clinical diagnosis and medical testing provided evidence of multiple health issues within the group of cats. The issues included upper respiratory infection (URI), ringworm, the herpes virus, and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)." Why have no reporters questioned whether there is an accurate veterinary basis for this statement? For example, it is not possible to definitively diagnose ringworm within 24 hours. A ringworm culture must be done and it takes at least 10 days to obtain results from this culture. Another example: a positive FIV test result does not indicate that a cat has FIV, only that a cat has been exposed to the virus. How many cats were tested and how many positives were there?
5) If the St. Anthony cats were as unsocialized as AHS claimed, how was it possible to thoroughly examine 130 cats in a matter of a few hours before the cats were killed?

As of yet, there has been no public comment by AHS to the KSTP Eyewitness News discovery that AHS misled both the media and the public. We encourage the AHS Board of Directors, the media, and the public to ask the hard questions listed above so that all the facts in this disturbing case can be brought to light.

Michele Rokke Speaks at ARC
Michele Rokke began working for PETA in 1994 as an undercover investigator. Her first assignment was to investigate allegations of cruelty at a horse ranch in North Dakota. After that she worked undercover at numerous facilities, including Boys Town National Research Hospital, various chicken farms, and, most notably, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), where she spent eight months investigating. HLS has been the target of a global campaign aimed at shutting them down because of the way animals are treated in its facilities. Michele spoke about her experience as an undercover investigator and shared what day-to-day life is like for animals in laboratories. You can watch an excerpt from her talk on YouTube.

Cut Out Dissection!
Over 50 high schools across Minnesota accepted ARC's offer to provide books about conscientious objection to dissection! We included additional information about humane alternatives to dissection along with the books. Thanks to the generous sponsors of this program, thousands of high school students in Minnesota now have the resources they need to opt out of a cruel and outdated classroom practice. As a bonus, media specialists in high schools across Minnesota now know they can contact ARC for help in finding other animal-friendly resources.

High Marks All Around for Rhymes with Vegan
Star Tribune writer Kim Ode had wonderful things to say about Rhymes with Vegan, the online cooking show sponsored by ARC, and its host Meagan Holtgrewe. Ode said: "Good production values, great music and Holtgrewe's engaging manner combine to make this a local asset." Read the article. The Bridge newspaper did a two-page spread on Rhymes with Vegan entitled "Critter-free cooking" and featured it in their "Chow" section.

Rhymes with Vegan host Meagan Holtgrewe was featured on Fox 9 News Live. During this five-minute spot, Meagan made her Grandpa Earl's stuffing and rosemary gravy and talked with the host about vegan cooking. Watch Meagan's "Tasty Vegan Thanksgiving Ideas" spot. The CityPages Twin Cities Eater blog also gave high praise to the pilot episode of Rhymes with Vegan. CityPages said: "The pilot episode holds its own against any programming found on the Food Network, complete with veggie chopping scene cuts, explanations of potentially confusing ingredients artfully written on a brown bag, and the ever–popular party montage at the end." Read the review in full.

ARC Quoted in Animal Sheltering Magazine
ARC's comments on the USDA B dealer system and pound seizure in Minnesota were quoted in Animal Sheltering magazine, an award-winning magazine published by The Humane Society of the United States for shelters, animal services agencies, rescue groups, and anyone else interested in animal protection. Read the article in full.

Pound seizure is the sale of cats and dogs from a pound or shelter to research labs. Only two states --Minnesota and Oklahoma, still have laws requiring that publicly funded pounds and shelters turn over unclaimed animals for experimentation. (On 3/27/10 Utah eliminated mandatory pound seizure.) The ultimate fate of these former companion animals is death. But before they die, they may suffer greatly. Visit End Pound Seizure Minnesota to sign the petition and find out more.

Petting zoos at malls and fairs allow children to feed, ride, or have their pictures taken with the animals. Children who visit petting zoos often bring home much more than their parents bargained for as petting zoos are notorious for infecting children with potentially lethal bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. Click here for a fact sheet with more details on petting zoos.

Hearing a lot about violence in schools? You can do something to help: Cut out dissection! Every year, millions of animals are killed and shipped off to schools, where young people are given scalpels and told to slice up the animals’ bodies. What does dissection teach? Not much, except that it’s OK to chop up animals.

Contact ARC for advice on how to object to dissection at your school. Or call the toll-free Dissection Hotline for information and support for students, parents and teachers who object to dissection.

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