Murder in a Chicken Slaughter House

As animal advocates we know that thousands upon thousands of "murders" happen each day in slaughter houses across the country. Did you know that footage of video filmed in these slaughter houses has mad it's way to prime time television? In this week's episode of "BONES", staring David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, both of whom have done PETA ads, if you watch closely you will see footage supplied to the producers of the show by Farm Sanctuary and PETA.

While the show originally aired this past Thursday, November 5th, you can catch the complete episode on Hulu until December 18th.

Happy Halloween

With the recent beef recall do you really need a better reason to go vegetarian?

Make A (Local) Call for the Animals

Call-in to the Carousel Mall for hosting Georgio's Furs and L'Adour for their continued sale of foie gras all day Sunday.

Georgio's Furs:
Carousel Mall in Syracuse, NY may be best known for its shopping experience, but harboring a full-scale fur salon is making the mall atmosphere synonymous with cruelty to animals. The Carousel Center continues to host Georgio's Furs despite knowing the suffering that goes into every fur hat and coat. Repeated attempts by shoppers and community groups to communicate their concerns about Carousel Mall hosting Georgio's have been ignored. Help us remove Georgio's from the mall forever.

Carousel Mall customer service: 316-466-7000 315-466-7000

What to say:
"Hello this is [YOUR NAME] calling from [YOUR LOCATION] When Georgio's was first given a lease in the Carousel Center, over 1,200 people signed a petition to the mall management against allowing a fur store. I am calling with my concerns about Georgio's Furs being allowed in the mall this holiday season.
1. a fur salon is contradictory to the environmentally friendly image the mall is seeking to promote
2. the fur industry is horrendously cruel (describe how) and is inappropriate in a family friendly setting.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing that Georgio's Furs will not have a storefront in the mall in the future."



L'Adour - Foie Gras

After being made aware of the inherent cruelty to ducks during foie gras production, L'Adour refuses to take the product off the menu.

Syracuse Animal Rights Organization has spoken with the owners, handed leaflets to hundreds of patrons and held over 50 public outreach demonstrations at this restaurant. Recently, L'Adour has begun to not admit they serve foie gras over the phone but it is still on their menu. L'Adour's foie gras supplier is the well-documented Hudson Valley Foie Gras, notorious for animal, worker and environmental violations. For more information about foie gras, visit www.nofoiegras.org and www.ladourpollutes.com. Let L'Adour know that while the ducks are suffering, they will continue to hear from compassionate people.

Call L'Adour at: 315-475-7653

PETA Dumping Dairy Covered In Post-Standard

PETA's downtown protest focuses on poor treatment of cows

By The Post-Standard

October 22, 2009, 3:06PM

By Lynette Chen / Contributing writer
Syracuse, NY -- Dressed as a cow, a supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals dumped gallons of “milk”— actually floured water — today in front of a downtown Syracuse grocery store.

The action at C.L. Evers & Co. on Water Street was part of a protest against what PETA refers to as factory dairy farms and their poor treatment of cows.

Virginia Fort, assistant campaign coordinator at PETA, wore a body-screen TV showing newly released footage taken by a whistleblower at a farm that supplies the Land O’Lakes company. The video shows sick, exhausted cows struggling to stand and being forced to hobble through a massive build-up of their own waste.

“You may want to stop drinking dairy after seeing this,” Fort said. “We want people who go in there and buy milk to know what’s going on behind the scenes of factory farms.

Dairy cows are kept consistently pregnant and forced to produce up to 10 times more than they actually would, Fort said. After several years of abuse, their bodies are shipped off to slaughters where they are made into ground beef , soup or hamburgers, she said.

The footage was taken during a PETA undercover investigation at a farm in Pennsylvania. PETA regularly sends volunteers wearing hidden cameras to factory farms and warehouses to capture footage of what may be shoddy practices, Fort said. Investigators found cows that were sick and unable to move, denied medical care despite being in pain and abused by the farm’s owners. PETA said it is filing complaints against the farm.

No one at the grocery store agreed to comment on the record about the demonstration.

Source: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/petas_downtown_protest_focuses.html

Gallons of Milk Dumped at Syracuse Grocery Store by Angry PETA Activists

Video Shot at a Land O'Lakes Supplier's Facility Shows How Cows and Calves Are Left to Suffer on Factory Dairy Farms



For Immediate Release:
October 21, 2009
Contact:
Shakira Croce 757-622-7382

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Dressed as a cow, a PETA supporter will dump gallons of "milk" outside a grocery store in Syracuse as part of a protest against cruel factory dairy farms. Another protester will wear a body-screen TV showing newly released video footage taken by a whistleblower at a farm that supplies Land O'Lakes. The video--which shows sick, exhausted cows struggling to stand and being forced to hobble through a massive build-up of their own waste--will reveal to consumers how much filth and suffering goes into the production of milk and other dairy products. The cows suffered from painful infections and severe lameness, and animals were kept in miserable conditions and deprived of even basic care. Some of the animals went untreated and were not put out of their misery when they were in pain and unable to stand.


When:   Thursday, October 22, 1 p.m.


Where:  C.L. Evers & Company, 214 W. Water St., Syracuse



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"This investigation shows that when you don't wean yourself off milk, butter, and cheese, you may be paying someone to cause great suffering to animals on factory farms," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Anyone with a conscience will find this footage disturbing, but people can help stop these abuses by dropping dairy products from their diets."

PETA launched the investigation after a whistleblower working at the farm became concerned about conditions there and contacted PETA for help earlier this year. Investigators discovered cows who were sick and unable to move, were denied medical care despite being in pain, and were abused by the farm's owners. The owners--a man and his son--have now been charged with cruelty to animals.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

A Walk and A Protest in One Day

This past weekend was a a busy one for SARO. Okay really it was Saturday that was super busy for SARO.

Saturday morning, we hit the paved trails of Onondaga Park in Liverpool for the annual Walk For Farm Animals. SARO was joined by more than thirty walkers who walked for about an hour.  We got a little exercise and helped raise money for Farm Sanctuary. Farm Sanctuary in case you hadn't heard is a national farm animal rescue organization based out of Watkins Glen, NY.  In Watkins Glen they have a 175-acre farm where animals come to spend their remaining years after being rescued from abuse or neglect.

This month SARO is planning a carpool-trip to Farm Sanctuary on Saturday, October 17th, just weeks before they close this year's touring season.  The carpool cost $5.00 (gas for the drivers) and the tour is $3.00.  Please email info[AT]syracuseanimalrights.com if you are interested in joining us.

After the Walk For Farm Animals, SARO then participated in a protest against KFC.  SARO has been doing KFC protests off and on for a few years now.  This year we changed locations from the Erie Blvd location to the Butternut St and Park St location.  This protest is in support of PETA, who called for all KFC locations nation wide to protested at until KFC changes their methods.  Please see PETA's Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign for more ways you can help and for more information on why you shouldn't eat at KFC.

PETA Offers Syracuse Zoo $2,000

On Tuesday PETA sent a letter to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo's director offering a donation of two thousand dollars to replace the zoo's penguins with robotic ones, which were developed by Festo, a German engineering company.

PETA's letter to Rosamond Gifford Zoo Director Chuck Doyle follows.
September 15, 2009

Chuck Doyle
Director
Rosamond Gifford Zoo

Dear Mr. Doyle,
I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 2 million members and supporters--including thousands in the Syracuse area--to ask you to replace the zoo's captive penguins with the lifelike robotic penguins that were recently developed by the German engineering company Festo. PETA is even offering to make a donation toward fundraising for the project by pledging the first $2,000.

While zoos claim to be educational, a true understanding and appreciation of wildlife cannot come from looking at bored animals who are confined to cramped enclosures that can never replicate the animals' real home environments. Captive animals are denied any semblance of a natural life, and virtually every facet of their existence is controlled. The only thing that people can learn from a visit to the zoo is how animals behave when held in captivity.

Penguins are avid swimmers and divers, and their need to roam in open water cannot be met in a small enclosure. They are good parents and form monogamous pairs, working together to care for their young. In zoos, their mates are often chosen for them through breeding programs, and in many cases, their chicks are removed. The physical and mental frustrations of captivity commonly lead to abnormal, neurotic, and even self-destructive behavior known as "zoochosis." And while zoos tout species preservation, the fact is that captive-breeding programs do little if anything to protect wild populations. Warehousing penguins in zoos is not the solution to saving their counterparts in the wild.

Festo's robotic penguins move, swim, and even communicate just as real penguins do, and visitors who observe the robots will be able to learn about penguin behavior without inflicting additional stress on captive live birds. This will be particularly true if you also erect a sign that reads, "This zoo does not house real penguins because we recognize that we cannot adequately replicate their natural environment or provide them with a satisfying life." Please see the attached article about these fascinating robots. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals


See robot penguins in action:

Petland: From Birth to Death Animals Suffer

Since November 2008, when The Humane Society of the United States(HSUS) revealed that they had done an eight-month long investigation into Petland and it's puppies for sale, SARO has joined with HSUS to get the only New York location to stop selling puppies that come from puppy mills.

A few weeks ago, PETA discovered a disturbing photograph (pictured right) and comments posted on Facebook by then Petland employee Elizabeth Carlisle, who worked at the store in Akron, Ohio. The photo shows a grinning Carlisle posing for the camera as she scruffs the bodies of two dead, soaking wet rabbits. Carlisle admitted to a Facebook friend that she drowned the rabbits, claiming that her manager took the photograph while Carlisle was "swearing at [the rabbits] to just hurry up and die ... " Currently Carlisle faces a year in jail for animal cruelty.

It appears Petland can't provide the basic supervision and care necessary to keep the animals it sells healthy and safe.

Ask Petland to stop selling rabbits now! (This is a PETA Action Alert)

Action Alert - Last Days For Public Comment

With only three days left to submit public comment now is not the time to remain quite. Please speak out for the deer, raccoons, and other animals by telling New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation officials that hunting has no place in Green Lakes State Park.

Send your (polite) comments to Mark Hohengasser of the Planning Bureau telling what you think of the plan to bring hunting to Green Lakes.

Mark Hohengasser
GreenLakes.Plan@oprhp.state.ny.us

Or if you prefer PETA has started an email for you at https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2383 .

After you submit your comments please visit http://SaveGreenLakesWildlife.com and sign the petition.

Bangging On Ft. Drum

Members of SARO joined PETA to protest the cruel use of animals at Ft. Drum.



From PETA:

Thousands of live animals are shot, stabbed, dismembered, burned, and poisoned every year in Department of Defense (DoD) training exercises, designed to train medics and infantry in how to treat various human battlefield injuries. Fort Drum plans to fatally wound live animals for the sole purpose of treating their traumatic injuries.

Mutilating living animals to teach military medics how to treat injuries in humans is both unethical and ineffective. The physiology and anatomy of non-human animals are drastically different from that of humans, and more sophisticated non-animal simulators are used in most medical schools and at several military trauma centers.

We need your help in urging Fort Drum to end its outdated trauma-training exercises on animals and adopt one of the many non-animal methods - such as rotations in military trauma hospitals and the use of the DoD's own Combat Trauma Patient Simulator.

Please be sure to send PETA's automated letter to your congressional representative and senators asking them to urge President Obama to ban military trauma exercises on animals.

Ringling Bros. Circus Is Caught Abusing Animals Again

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has released a video to the media showing what one man, posing as a stagehand for six months, had to witness. As seen in the video the elephants where beat for no reason at all, making seem as if they can't do anything right.

PETA has filed charges under Animal Welfare Act governed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. PETA also plans to file charges in each of the states where the abuse took place, including New York, when the circus was at Madison Square Garden, in New York City.

From 2005 to 2008 the U.S. Department of Agriculture's own Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service noted 24 violations of animal mishandling out of 52 inspections.

Watch Video

In Wisconson Someone Trys To Put Their Wiener(mobile) Where It Does Not Belong

MOUNT PLEASANT (Wisconsin) - The owner of a southern Wisconsin house might not be in love with the Oscar Mayer wiener right now.

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile crashed into a Mount Pleasant house around noon Friday.
Mount Pleasant Police Chief Tim Zarzecki (zahr-ZEK-ee) says the 22-year-old female driver was turning the giant hot dog on wheels around in a driveway and thought she was reversing but instead went forward and crashed into the deck and garage.

No one was home and no one was injured.

Oscar Mayer spokeswoman Sydney Lindner apologized for any inconvenience to the home owner. Lindner says the company will work with insurance companies to fix the damage to the house and vehicle.

Source: http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/news_wienermobile_mount_pleasant_20090717855_rev1



This happens just days after PETA asks Oscar Mayer to "bury the Wienermobile." ( Story ) I see this as a sign that PETA might have been right on this one.

SARO Goes on Summer Vacation and Back Again

I've heard rumor that some folks think that when summer rolls around SARO disbands and goes away, becoming just a memory. Now I'd like to tell you that contrary to at least one business here in Syracuse's hopes (that would be the restaurant that serves foie gras) we don't go anywhere and we don't disband. A lot of people are used to seeing us on some of the local school campuses when these same campuses close for summer break SARO finds it more useful to move our activities to other places. It's not that we have given up on the campus it's simply that we wish to reach a wider audience than the summer staff and students.

Summer is also a time when SARO members take their families on vacations, just like you do. So yes sometimes a few of us might be out of town, but we promise that we will return – even we like to take a trip to the beach now and then.

As a matter of fact it was a week ago this very morning that I was waking up for the first time in New York City. I had never been to NYC before but have been dying to go, since I moved to New York state a few years ago. Surprisingly I've talked to quite a few people who grew up in Central New York but have never been to the city. Well I got an invite I couldn't pass up.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal, was planing to do a protest demonstration in Times Square on Wednesday, June 24th at noon and asked if I, along with other members of SARO, would be willing to help out. A few of us said yes, and got the chance to bare our backsides for the animals (bulls in this case). I'll give you a hint: In the picture we were wearing black underwear. Sorry, can't be more specific.

Unfortunately, PETA's protest of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain was bumped from most television and print media so that the untimely death of not one but two high profile celebrities could be covered. But just because it wasn't covered on YOUR news doesn't mean it wasn't news.

Within a couple of days of returning from New York City it was time to put on a local demonstration of our own. Our demonstration was for the organization Dogs Deserve Better and their national campaign Chain Off 2009, where we chain ourselves and try to bring awareness to the public that life on a chain is no life for a dog.

I'm happy to say that both events were a complete success, thanks to all those who participated.

As you can see we do stay active even when you don't know what we're up to. Now this was just one week, of one month, of our summer. What will you do with your summer? No clue? How about joining us? Visit our website to find our next event: http://SyracuseAnimalRights.com .