Construction Continues for Puerto Rico Primate Facility

Talk about a short-lived victory. Faster than you can say “stop building,” Puerto Rico’s Appeals Court decided in late-January to let construction continue on a primate breeding facility in Guayama while it considers an appeal filed two days earlier by the builder Bioculture Ltd. The appeal challenges that great lower court ruling to stop the construction based on permit and other procedural irregularities allegedly committed by Bioculture, which we heralded in this space two weeks ago.

According to an attorney I contacted in Puerto Rico who is familiar with the case, the appeal itself is still pending, and response briefs by those opposed to the facility are due to the court on February 16th. However, she described the way the Appeals Court handled the process for the recent motion concerning whether the primate lab’s construction should continue or be suspended during the appeal as “absolutely irregular,” noting that opponents were given only 24 hours to oppose Bioculture’s motion to continue building, and that the Court ruled on it the same day that the opponents’ response was filed, presumably without giving it much consideration.

The three-person panel of Appeals Court judges did not explain their decision, and they basically said that building may proceed until they order otherwise. We don’t know when that will be. Here’s a local report on these developments.

Why I Am A Vegan

I resisted becoming a vegan for a long time, mostly because I had a cheese addiction like you wouldn’t believe. The funny thing is, I had several vegans around me at various times who should have been influential. At age nineteen, I had a boyfriend who was a militant environmentalist and was not only vegan, but a good cook. The problem? He criticized me for still eating dairy. His favorite line at breakfast was, “Want some pus with your cereal?” as he passed the milk. His sarcasm might have broken down a more weak-willed person, but being somewhat rebellious by nature, I dug in my heels.

Later, I became friends with a vegan who frequently made scathing comments about non-vegans. It came from a place of concern for the animals and an anger that, even then, I understood. But all she made me want to do was go home, cut up a block of cheddar cheese and gnaw on it like a ravenous little mouse.

So, what finally broke through my rebellion? One day, I chanced upon an in-depth article about the close ties the dairy industry has with veal production. I had always known about veal; my mother had never eaten it and didn’t let us eat it when we were children, not only because of the cruelty perpetrated against the male calves, but because the thought of eating particularly young baby animals had always repulsed her. However, until I read this article, I hadn’t stopped to think of where the male dairy calves go after birth, being of no use to the dairy industry. I didn’t realize that even the female calves are ripped away from their mothers soon after birth. And I didn’t know that the mother cows can cry out for days, frantic to find their babies.

I imagined being newly born, roughly shoved into a dark crate with no warmth or comfort, when every instinct a newborn has, whether human or bovine, is to be hovered over, cared for and comforted. I thought about not being able to move, play or do the normal things a young baby wants, and needs, to do. I considered what that would feel like – the confusion, the frustration, the loneliness.

In other words, instead of reacting to forces outside myself, I looked within, and finally found the empathy and compassion from which I had been hiding all those years, behind self-erected walls of fear – fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of really and truly knowing what these animals live and die through, each and every day.

My reasons for remaining vegan are multifold. Practically speaking, when my husband went vegan overnight, all the cheese, milk and eggs left the house, and all temptation and addictive habits went with them. I am extremely fortunate that this very same husband not only can cook well, but actually enjoys it. For a domestically disabled person such as myself, this is priceless.

And, no matter how I try not to look, the cruelty inherent in big agriculture pops up periodically to stare me in the face, serving as confirmation that I have made the right choice. Living in rural Sonoma County, I see it everywhere. There’s the field of orphaned dairy calves off Highway 116, the “family farm” that houses generation upon generation of babies, all destined to grow up and have their own babies torn away from them. These female calves, bewildered and frightened, will come to the same lonely field as their mothers and grandmothers. They will slowly acclimate, then they will be transported to a large scale dairy, and the next wave of tiny orphans will be shipped here. I drive by this field every day.

And there’s the nearby dairy, where the cows literally wallow in a mud pit, next to a huge pile of manure. One day I made the mistake of glancing over as I drove by. A cow was trying to walk, but her udders were so enormous, and her back legs so stiff, that she stumbled and fell in the mud. I slowed to a stop, horrified. Struggling, she somehow managed to get up and move across the enclosure.

If I were ever again tempted to eat cheese, that memory alone would stop me. 

I am forever in debt to the author of that article, and for the chance to come upon those farmed animals and be a witness to their suffering. Although painful, these reminders keep me on my chosen path. It’s been amazing to realize just how powerful our food choices are. If we channel our anger and sorrow into meaningful change, and live as shining examples of compassion, we truly can change the world for these animals.

Jail Time for Animal Abusers

Two horrific cases involving the abuse and neglect of several dogs have recently come to a close, both ending with jail time for the abusers. Thank you to everyone who sent emails and supported these cases!

Brunette Convicted in Dog Abuse Case
In July 2008, Robert Brunette of Santa Cruz County, Calif. was arrested after approximately 40 starving dogs and puppies were seized from filthy and dangerous conditions on his property. Reportedly found by authorities were the various remains of an unknown number of dogs, including a severed head which hung from a tree branch.

On January 22, 2010, Brunette was sentenced to a year in county jail and five years probation during which time he is to have no dogs. He is required to participate in mental health treatment and must pay over $100,000 in restitution to Santa Cruz County Animal Services. On Friday, December 11, 2009, a jury found Brunette guilty on all 10 counts of animal cruelty – two felonies and eight misdemeanors.

Animal and Child Neglect Go Hand in Hand
Allegedly training dogs for fighting at his home, Lennis Stephens of Daytona Beach, Florida faced felony charges of child neglect as well as animal cruelty. The reported deplorable conditions of his property made it dangerous and uninhabitable. Stephens’ five-year-old daughter moved in with relatives and child protective services conducted an investigation. In August 2009, eight chained and reportedly starving dogs were found outside the house, while a ninth was discovered inside.

On January 15, 2010, Stephens was found guilty by plea on six misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. He was sentenced to 48 days in jail with credit for time served, and one year of probation with orders requiring community service and prohibiting him from owning, possessing or having contact with animals.

Take Action!
Help keep animal abusers away from potential new victims by contacting your state legislators today and ask them to support a "First Strike and You're Out" law for those who are convicted of animal neglect or cruelty.

ALDF’s First Strike and You're Out law provides another tool to help combat animal neglect and cruelty by mandating that those who are convicted of a violation of their state animal protection laws are prohibited from owning or having contact with animals for a set period of time, ranging from five years for a first misdemeanor offense up to the lifetime of the offender following a second felony offense.

A Hopeful Turn-of-Events in Kentucky

Last July, I reported on a new law in Kentucky which had the unintended consequence of prohibiting veterinarians from reporting suspected cases of animal cruelty or fighting - something they had previously been able to do. Despite our repeated efforts to fix the law before it was enacted, the Kentucky Legislature failed to act in time and the law went into effect. Since then, we have continued our efforts to remedy this serious problem and allow veterinarians to once again be able to report suspected cruelty and fighting.

I am happy to report that a new bill (HB238) has just been introduced that will fix the problem and not only restore this vital reporting ability, but give veterinarians important protections from liability for this type of reporting. Hopefully this bill will be the start of a new trend towards better laws protecting animals in the "Bluegrass State" - currently the worst-ranked state in the country for its animal protection laws. 

Jeremy Rifkin and the Call for Empathy

Jeremy Rifkin is a bestselling author, adviser to the European Union, founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School's Executive Education Program. Don’t feel intimidated or anything. If you attended ALDF’s last Future of Animal Law conference, at Harvard Law School in 2007, you got to hear Rifkin deliver a keynote address in which he discussed, among other urgent issues, the link between meat eating and climate change. (You can watch video from that speech, and check out a Q&A that ALDF did with the author of “The Hydrogen Economy,” “Beyond Beef,” and, most recently, “The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis,” on aldf.org.)

Truth be told, I idolize Rifkin and his wife, Carol Grunewald, an animal rights and environmental activist herself, and during many of the panels at the 2007 conference, I found my eyes wandering to where the brainy couple sat in the lecture hall, fantasizing about the fascinating conversations they must have while eating breakfast.

Imagine my delight as I was listening to the radio earlier this week to hear a full-hour interview with Rifkin discussing his newest book, in which he argues that our future rests on our ability to function as an empathic society. About 40 minutes into the interview, he addresses how incorporating animals into our circle of empathy is a critical part of his call, and explains that both he and his wife are animal rights activists and that he is a vegetarian, and says he spends quite a bit of his book discussing that empathy for animals is a critical step toward what he calls “biosphere consciousness.” I’m geeking out here; I can’t wait to read it! (My birthday is in March, just FYI.)

Listen to the excellent one-hour interview with Rifkin online now.