ARC In Action meetings are held on the second Saturday of the month
from 10am to 11am at our office at 2615 E. Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis.
Everyone is welcome - you don't have to be a member to attend. Upcoming
topics include:
May 10: Humane Solutions to Urban Wildlife Issues
June 14: An Overview of New ARC Projects Starting Up: How
You Can Get Involved, presented by Dallas Rising, ARC Program Director
July 12: Cruelty Free Products & The Truth About Animal
Testing
August - no meeting
Compassionate Kids Presents: Animals & You
Saturday, May 17, 2pm to 4pm
ARC / fast & furless, 2615 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis
Kids
of all ages are invited to an Animals & You event to discover how
we're really not that different from animals at all. ARC's Compassionate
Kids program and Pet
Haven are teaming up to sponsor this fun workshop, featuring a humane
educator, dog trainer, and several therapy dogs. Your child will learn
how to behave around animals so everyone has fun! Click here
for more info.
ARC and fast & furless Sidewalk Sale
Saturday, May 17, 10am to 3pm, ARC / fast & furless, 2615 E. Franklin
Ave., Minneapolis
We'll be participating in the Seward Neighborhood Garage Sale by holding
a sidewalk sale. Stop by for bargains -- there'll be lots of great deals
to be had on bags, t-shirts, books, bumper stickers, buttons and more.
Gene
Baur, patrice jones, and Hillary Rettig
Panel Discussion, Q&A, and Book Signing
Friday, June 6, 7pm
ARC / fast & furless, 2615 E. Franklin Ave., 
Minneapolis
These nationally known speakers and activists will discuss their new books:
Gene Baur - Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals
and
Food; patrice jones - Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent
World, A Guide for Activists and Their Allies; and Hillary Rettig
- The Lifelong Activist.
Gene Baur is the president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary. patrice jones is the founder of Eastern Shore Sanctuary & Education Center. Hillary Rettig is a career/life coach and workshop leader who specializes in helping activists and other “ambitious dreamers” overcome procrastination, perfectionism, fears, and blocks.
Wildlife Rehabilitation & Release Children's Event
Saturday, June 14, time TBD
ARC / fast & furless, 2615 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis
Make sure your children are able to attend this fun event at which
a wildlife educator from WRR
will give a presentation about animals that's sure to hold your child's
attention.
Animal Rights 2008 National Conference
August 14 - 18, Washington, DC
World’s largest animal rights conference with 100 sessions on activism,
organizing, and outreach, and featuring 90 speakers from 60 animal protection
groups in 9 countries.
Circle
of Compassion (ARC blog)
ARC
on MySpace
Chicken
Run Rescue
fast & furless
vegan boutique
If an animal is in immediate danger, call 911. Read this section for more
information.
If you need to find a new home for your companion animal, read the information
in this section.
Newsletters
Fact Sheets
Recommended Reading
What a Weekend!
This year's May Day parade and festival and Living Green Expo, both
held on the same weekend in early May, were very successful for ARC. We
had a tremendous number of people visit our booths at both events and
people were genuinely interested in our message of compassion. Thanks
to everyone who supported or visited ARC at these events! Here's some
pics from the May Day parade.
Meet Dallas Rising: ARC's New Program Director
Dallas
Rising, pictured with her husband, Brandon, and dog, Max
Chances are, if you’re involved in the Twin Cities’ animal rights and rescue communities, you recognize her dedicated and hard-working face. Dallas is the new Program Director for the Animal Rights Coalition, and we are thrilled to have her with us! “It’s more than a job to me,” Dallas said. “It’s a calling.”
Dallas, 28, went vegetarian in the 4th grade, after she made the connection that eating animals meant they were being killed. By 15, she had dropped the cheese and dairy products too, and become a vegan. In high school, she started an animal rights group that worked to get veggie burgers in the lunchroom and vivisection out of the classroom. Dallas has been active in many local and national animal groups and in addition to ARC, she currently volunteers for the companion animal group, Small Dog Rescue, as well as Friends of Kevin Kjonass.
A big part of her decision to come work for ARC was her belief in animal abolitionism, rather than animal welfarism. As an abolitionist, it was vitally important to work for an abolitionist organization, like ARC, whose values regarding animals, are in line with hers. She explains: “I am of the belief that it is critical that we not compromise our values as animal rights activists in the name of a short term "victory" for the animals. Running campaigns based on getting universities or restaurants to go cage-free, for example, is a hot trend in our movement right now. But in the end, I think it is wrong to give the impression that cage-free eggs or meat labeled "free range," are okay to purchase and eat. Whether directly or indirectly, any promotion or endorsement of this "happy meat" is not only a betrayal to the animals (who are still kept in horrible conditions, transported in the same way that most farmed animals are, and end up being slaughtered in the same brutal, violent ways that all farmed animals are), but also to consumers who are concerned about the way farmed animals are treated. We cheat both parties when we stop short of advocating for anything other than veganism.”
Dallas is also aware of the divide these different philosophies are causing in the animal rights community: “This [abolitionism] is not a very popular attitude to have right now in our movement's history. It took me a while to get over feeling like the bad guy for "raining on a cage-free parade,” but I am unwilling to compromise my values in the name of a short-term gain. I would rather march forward toward total liberation, no matter how slowly, than to perpetuate the myth that any animal products can be produced in a humane way. They cannot. Period.”
Dallas hopes to make it as easy as possible for people to get involved in animal issues, be active, and feel satisfied with their involvement. She intends to focus much of her work with ARC on educating and involving young people. She firmly believes that if young people are given the opportunity and education to make the connection that eating animals means killing them, they will make the choice not to eat them. “I think kids are naturally compassionate.”
Dallas understands the huge challenges in our culture when it comes to educating people about compassion toward animals. But she also has great hope. “We are pulled in to being complacent and unconscious. But, if you think about who you really want to be, most people don’t want to be contributing to cruelty.”
For Dallas, the best way to get the animal rights message across is to ask people if they really want to know. “If they say yes, then they will listen.” She favors a more relaxed approach to animal rights education, and feels it is extremely important to be approachable and available for people.
Welcome to ARC, Dallas!
Grand Opening Draws a Crowd!
We're happy to report that the grand opening on Saturday, 3/29 for the
Animal Rights Coalition and Fast & Furless was such a success that
people were literally pouring out into the street. The place was so jam
packed the whole time, there was barely room to move! There were lots
of new faces and lots of familiar faces--all in all, a great crowd!
Photo by Preston Palmer
prestonpalmer.com
The vegan dessert buffet was beautiful and delicious, Peace Coffee provided their great java, and with live music provided by vegan musician Matt Larson, the event was energetic and lively. The silent auction items inspired lots of friendly competition in the bidding and we're happy to report that we raised $1,100 from the silent auction to benefit Chicken Run Rescue and Red Lake Rosie's Rescue. To view more photos of the event, please visit ARC on myspace.
Let the USDA Know How You Feel About Cruelty in Slaughterhouses
Now!
Video footage released on 1/30 by the Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS) shows workers at a California slaughterhouse delivering repeated
electric shocks to cows too sick or weak to stand on their own and drivers
using forklifts to roll the "downer" cows on the ground in efforts
to get them to stand up for inspection -- all violations of state and
federal laws designed to prevent cruelty to animals.
Two employees of the now closed Hallmark Meat Company, which principally slaughtered "spent" dairy cows, have now been charged with animal cruelty in the aftermath of the video's release. Watch the video and then take action by sending a message to the Secretary of Agriculture.
Despite claims from the National Cattleman's Beef Association that the videotaped incident was not indicative of how most slaughterhouses operate, many of us remember the investigation by local activist Becky Sandstedt into the South St. Paul Stockyard in 1999/2000. Becky's daily video log of routine stockyard abuse led NBC's Expose with Tom Brokaw to produce the Genesis Award-winning segment, "Downers."
Movin' On Up (and Over)!
After 20 years in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, ARC is moving to "veg
central": the Seward neighborhood in southeast Minneapolis. You'll
find us at 2615 E. Franklin Ave. beginning March 8.
The 690-square-foot storefront—which we're sharing with fast & furless—is in a handsome brick building dating from the early 1900's. We're thrilled to be sharing this space with fast & furless, a wonderful vegan boutique whose philosopy is: "We believe respecting animals and the environment by not wearing products harmful to them is the very essence of 'fashionable'."
In addition to all the great cruelty-free products for sale, the storefront will feature a reading area with comfy chairs and current animal rights literature and magazines, and a revolving gallery of work by local animal-friendly artists. ARC meetings will be held in a separate, new meeting room in the building.
For all you foodies, note that a corner of the building houses the award-winning True Thai restaurant and other nearby veg faves include:
— Seward
Cafe
— Seward Co-op
— Pizza Luce
— Birchwood
Cafe
— Triple
Rock Social Club (Order the vegan nacho
cheese sauce... it's out of this world!!)
— Hard
Times Cafe
We're super excited to join the vibrant and diverse Seward neighborhood
and we hope you'll come down and check us out.
Winter ARC Newsletter Now Online
Click here to read the latest
issue of the ARC newsletter. It's the "poultry issue" with articles
ranging from a description of the lives of chickens and turkeys to a recipe
for eggless "egg salad."
(Photo courtesy of Chicken
Run Rescue)
Minnesota's Dirty Little Secret
Did you know that Minnesota is among the top states for mass-produced
puppies and kittens (referred to as puppy mills and catteries)
and the number of dog and cat breeders is increasing annually. Many animals
live out their lives in small, overcrowded wire cages and are bred repeatedly.
Their cages are often stacked, allowing feces and urine to fall onto the
animals below. Animals may be sick from inadequate food, water, and veterinary
care, stress, fleas, and worms. Many have deformed paws, are severely
matted, or are burned from sitting and standing in urine and feces. These
animals are then sold to the public.
There are no specific state laws that regulate dog and cat breeders. While the licensing of certain breeders and dealers falls under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), many breeders are not required to be licensed and aren’t inspected. Loopholes exist and federal enforcement resources are scarce.
Click here to watch a video called "Dirty Little Secret" on YouTube about puppy mills in Minnesota. Go to Animal Ark shelter's web site and click on the "Puppy Mill Fight" bar on the upper right corner of the page to learn more about how you can put a stop to puppy mills.
Pound seizure is the sale of cats and dogs from a pound or shelter to
research labs. Only two states, Minnesota and Utah, still have laws requiring
that publicly funded pounds and shelters turn over unclaimed animals for
research.
The ultimate fate of these former companion animals is death. But before they die, they may suffer greatly. Visit Minnesota's Shame and Ban Pound Seizure to 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.
