Heart 4 Animals

Tell Les Amis du Fromage That Lying is Wrong…

…but selling foie gras is worse!

Recently, les Amis du Fromage told us that they had removed all foie gras from their shelves and had no plans to bring it back.  It is back, however, and it’s the same stuff as before–the product of the infamously cruel Elevages Perigord.  Undercover investigations performed by the Montreal-based Global Action Network revealed such gratuitous cruelties as workers tearing the heads of live ducks off, kicking, throwing, and punching the birds, and the suffocation and crushing of live ducklings, among other abuses.  (See the undercover video here on Youtube.)

Please contact les Amis du Fromage and politely let them know that you don’t approve of their selling foie gras!

Les Amis du Fromage, Vancouver
Telephone: 604-732-4218
Fax: 604-736-0460
Toll Free Telephone: 1-877-676-1166
Email: secondavenue@buycheese.com

and

Les Amis du Fromage, West Vancouver
Telephone: 604-925-4218
Fax: 604-736-0460

Source: Liberation BC

How could anyone forget the video footage captured by an undercover HSUS investigator of helpless cows being dragged by chains, jabbed with forklifts, poked in the eyes with electric prods, blasted with high-pressure water hoses to simulate drowning, and otherwise tormented at a slaughter plant?

Not only did it shock the nation, but it also led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history. Tell the USDA to stop the cruelty now — time is running out!

We thank you for all of your support following our investigations and urge you to take action today so that cattle who are too sick or injured even to stand will no longer be subjected to the slaughter process or end up in the food supply.

As a result of our investigations, the USDA is finally considering closing a loophole in federal regulations to stop these practices. The agency needs to hear from as many people as possible in the next week. Please speak up for these crippled animals!

Send your comments to the USDA today (Deadline: September 26, 2008) to let the agency know that the public will not tolerate the cruel treatment of animals who cannot even stand or walk.

Sincerely,

Wayne Pacelle
President  & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States

Dear Friends,

Please email or write a letter to restaurants and caterers that use cruel meats such as veal and foie gras. Feel free to use the following as a draft to customise your letter. (For those living in British Columbia BC, of Canada, you can find a list of restaurants that serve such cruel cuisine here . URL : http://www.liberationbc.com/campaigns/foie_gras )

——-draft letter as follows—-

TO: [Name of Restaurant]

AGAINST CRUEL CUISINE : VEAL & FOIE GRAS

I am writing on behalf of my friends, relatives and fellow volunteers to state our stand against the use of veal and foie gras in restaurants and caterers. We are also requesting that your restaurant stop serving these meats which are seen by many as cruel cuisine. Until then, we, our friends and their friends will not be visiting your restaurant for dining, or to celebrate special occasions.

The following are the reasons why we advocate against serving veal and foie gras :

VEAL

Male calves are taken from their mothers shortly after birth. Some are slaughtered soon after birth for “bob veal.” Others are raised in “open pens,” a kind of minimum security prison, and even then they are sometimes chained. Most are destined for the veal crate.

Solitary Confinement

The veal crate is a wooden restraining device that is the veal calf’s permanent home. It is so small (22″ x 54″) that the calves cannot turn around or even lie down and stretch and is the ultimate in high-profit, confinement animal agriculture.(1) Designed to prevent movement (exercise), the crate does its job of atrophying the calves’ muscles, thus producing tender “gourmet” veal.

“Feeding” Time

The calves are generally fed a milk substitute intentionally lacking in iron and other essential nutrients. This diet keeps the animals anemic and creates the pale pink or white color desired in the finished product. Craving iron, the calves lick urine-saturated slats and any metallic parts of their stalls. Farmers also withhold water from the animals, who, always thirsty, are driven to drink a large quantity of the high-fat liquid feed.

A Fate Worse Than Death

During their brief lives, these claves never see the sun or touch the Earth. They never see or taste the grass. Their anemic bodies crave proper sustenance. Their muscles ache for freedom and exercise. They long for maternal care. They are kept in darkness except to be fed two to three times a day for 20 minutes. The calves have committed no crime, yet have been sentenced to a fate comparable to any Nazi concentration camp.

(Source: www.britishmeat.com)

For videos to see how veal is produced, go to www.youtube.com, type “veal cruel” in the search box to watch any of the videos.

FOIE GRAS

is produced by cruel and inhumane farming practices. At just a few months old, ducks are confined inside dark sheds and force-fed enormous amounts of food several times a day. A farm worker grabs each duck and, one by one, thrusts a metal pipe down their throats so that a mixture of corn can be forced directly into their gullets. In just a matter of weeks, the ducks become grossly overweight and their livers expand up to 10 times their normal size.

(Source : www.nofoiegras.org)

For videos to see how veal is produced, go to www.youtube.com, type “foie gras force feeding” in the search box to watch any of the videos.

CONCLUSION

We applaud and celebrate the few Vancouver restaurants that have removed foie gras from their menus:

Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill, Meinhardt, Pearl Drops Tea House, West.

Even Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, has banned foie gras from his restaurants after learning the immense suffering that ducks, geese, cows and calves go through. We ask for you to have some compassion and kindness. Put yourself in the shoes of these defenceless animals. If you are them, you wouldn’t want your entire life to be such a misery.

Please remove cruel cuisine from your restaurant.

Yours sincerely

[Your full name]

The horror that cows, chickens, and pigs face on factory farms goes on for a long time too. Chickens are violently tossed into cages with dozens of other birds and forced to live amid their own waste. Baby pigs have their testicles ripped out without any painkillers. And male calves are starved and chained inside tiny stalls until their flesh becomes soft and milky white before being slaughtered for someone’s veal dinner.

Extract from The Peta Files .

Meat eaters want their meat.

But what’s your opinion of having farm animals confined in tight small cages, suffocating with 10 other fellow animals breathing in the foul air from their poop, panting in the heat with exhaustion 365 days a year until the time arrives for their trip to the slaughterhouse?

Many easily dismiss any thoughts for the situation these poor animals are in. What if you- sometime in the expanse of time- return to Earth as one of these animals ? Can you even imagine what a living hell this must be for each of these animals to live their entire life on a factory farm ?

If you wish to help these poor animals, please support the new Bill that will make life better for animals in factory farms here .

Wow… the Top 10 Reasons not to eat Chickens …. if you had only known the various facts, you might think before you head down that poultry or meat aisle. In addition to new and harmful chemicals we get exposed to daily, perhaps one of the key contributors to cancer, SARs, mad cow disease and bird flu. Please click on any o the links below to learn more about each types of meat:

> Facts about Chickens

> Facts about Beef / cows

> Facts about Pork / pigs

> Facts about Turkeys

> Facts about Ducks / Geese

I am slowly making the move towards vegan diet, and feel healthier and better. Helping me is a free starter kit which proves to be very informative. You may wish to refer to this website for meat free recipes and improvise to suit your taste.

Source: PETA

Animal lovers Vounteers’ voice and effort produce results

It is with heartfelt gratitude and appreciation, both from the bottom of my heart, and the hundreds of geese and ducks, each with a precious life of its own, that Mistral Bistro, has decided to take Foie Gras off its menu. Mistral Bistro now joins the increasing number of restaurants which have made a compassionate decision to stop cruel cuisine.This is only made possible by dedicated volunteers who have given their valuable time to lobby, protest and write to the restaurant against serving foie gras.

Some may wonder, why the big deal ? Personally for me, foie gras is cruel cuisine. Please visit the websites below to learn more :

1) Facts about Foie Gras at http://www.nofoiegras.org/

2) James Bond Roger Moore sets his sights on Foie Gras Cruelty at http://www.peta.org.uk/feat/RogerMoore.asp

3) Video on Foie Gras from YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IWN8UGDyC0

4) Click here for ideas as to how you can help in your local area/ community: How you can help at http://www.liberationbc.com/campaigns

Meanwhile, please continue to contact the restaurants that still serve foie gras to ask them politely to remove cruel cuisine from their menu (attaching some information for educational materials will also be useful for their understanding), and do let Liberation BC know of any responses which you receive.

Dear readers,

The following is a message from Liberation BC. They need volunteers like you who have a heart for animals.

This past week has been exciting!

First came news that Overwaitea Foods (owners of the Urban Fare stores in Vancouver) would not be selling foie gras at any of their stores.

Then, just a couple of days later, Café de Paris told us that they are no longer serving foie gras and that it has been removed from their menu permanently. Two very exciting victories for the animals!

Neither of these victories would have been possible without your calls and emails. You’ve convinced them that animals matter, and that you are not willing to accept the exploitation of these defenceless animals.

Please consider making a donation to Liberation BC today to help with the continuation of this work. The summer is looking to be very busy with a lot of events and opportunities for outreach and media attention. By helping Liberation BC with a donation, you are joining together to change attitudes towards animals and create a more compassionate world.

We also learned this past weekend that KFC Canada has agreed to meet all of PETA’s demands for welfare improvements for the massive amount of chickens that they slaughter every year. For those of you who participated in Liberation BC’s regular KFC events, pat yourselves on the back. You did it. You helped to close the Broadway KFC and you cost them thousands of dollars each week during the Toonie Tuesday protests. This does go to show that if you are willing to take a stand, you can make a difference.

Keep up the fight!

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Overwaitea Foods agrees to not sell foie gras in any of their stores!

Rick Thompson, Manager of Product Integrity for B.C.-based food chain Overwaitea Foods called Liberation BC last week to tell us that they will no longer be selling foie gras at their Urban Fare stores in Vancouver or any of their other stores. They have decided that chain-wide they do not want to be associated with a product like foie gras.

Please write them a note thanking them for taking this amazingly compassionate step foward:
Contact form

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Café de Paris Drops Foie Gras

We can only assume that times are changing when the oldest French restaurant in Vancouver drops foie gras from its menu! Shortly after Liberation BC activists arrived at Café de Paris for our demonstration last week, the restaurant’s employees came outside to hang up a twenty foot long banner reading “We Do Not Serve Foie Gras” across the front window. They then assured us that foie gras had been removed from their menu. Read about this development here .

This is a great decision on the part of Café de Paris, and we are thrilled to add them to our list of compassionate restaurateurs who no longer sell foie gras!

Please take a minute and write a letter to them thanking them for having the courage to make this change:

Café de Paris
751 Denman
Vancouver, BC V6G 2L6
604-687-1418

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Big Changes for KFC Canada!

Those of you who have been around for a while know that for two years, Liberation BC spent every Tuesday outside local KFCs, educating passersby about the company’s deplorable animal welfare standards and demanding change, in addition to a long span of daily leafleting by passionate and devoted volunteers. Well, KFC Canada finally agreed to listen to you, and as of June 1st, they announced that they will:

…purchase 100 percent of its chickens—through a phase-in program—from suppliers that use “controlled-atmosphere killing” (CAK), the least cruel method of bird slaughter available. CAK works by replacing birds’ oxygen with a mixture of nonpoisonous inert gasses to gently put them “to sleep.” It may sound horrible—because killing animals for a fleeting taste sensation always is—but for animals killed for food, it’s a 180° turnaround. Gone will be the days of broken bones, abuse by workers (because with CAK, workers never handle live birds), electric shocks, and live throat slitting and scalding.

From the PETA Files, 1 June 2008

Elsewhere in the world, the Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign will continue.

“With KFC Canada now doing exactly what we want KFC in the U.S. to do, our members and activists will be even more energetic and invigorated about going after KFC in other countries,” Prescott said.

“All we want is for KFC worldwide to do what KFC Canada has done.”

From The Toronto Star, 1 June 2008

Thank you to all of you who came out to the KFC demonstrations. You’re the best!! Liberation BC’s regular leafleting and protests really made a difference! It couldn’t have happened without your help.

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Volunteers needed!

Liberation BC will be having a table at the West End Car Free Days on June 15th, from noon to 6pm, and volunteers are need to help staff the table and answer questions. This will be a friendly, family-style event, so bring your smiles! If you are interested in helping out, contact Glenn at glenn@liberationbc.com or by phone at 604-761-4497.

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This Week’s Foie Gras Outreach Event

Friday, June 6th
7-9 pm
Location to be announced

The ducks and geese need your help!

The campaign has been really successful so far, many people have stopped to sign the petition, and several businesses have made the compassionate choice and removed foie gras from their menus or shelves. Best of all, more and more people are becoming aware of this issue.

Since this campaign began West, Cru, The Greedy Pig, Lift, Pearl Drops, Oyama Sausage Company, Meinhardt, Overwaitea Foods (Urban Fare), and now Café de Paris have all agreed to stop serving, selling, and using foie gras.

If you haven’t contacted the other restaurants on the list of foie gras offenders, now is the perfect time!. All it takes is a few minutes and an email account or a phone! The list is constantly being updated, so check back often!

If you learn of a restaurant or store that is carrying foie gras, please send an email to info@liberationbc.com so that they can be added to the list. Thanks!

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Pappas Furs Campaign

Every Saturday
1-3pm
Aberdeen Centre (4400 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond)

These protests at Aberdeen Centre are continuing until Pappas Furs is shut down. Pappas Furs is a Canadian furrier that specializes in clothing of the cruelest kind — enormous fur coats, wraps, and muffs made from the skins of suffering animals.

How many animals are there in a standard full-length fur coat? Anywhere from 10 to 20 foxes, 18 to 20 lambs, or 130 to 200 chinchillas!

How can you help?

Come out to one of these Saturday events and join other compassionate people in speaking out against this cruelty. These events are friendly outreach events. All you need to bring is hope and a smile!

If you can’t make it out to Richmond, you can still help by contacting Aberdeen Centre and politely telling them that you don’t want Pappas Furs in the mall!

Telephone: 604.270.1234 or 604.273.1234 ext 12
Email: info@aberdeencentre.com, leasing@aberdeencentre.com, promotion@aberdeencentre.com
Address: Fairchild Developments Ltd., Suite 130,
4400 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond, BC, V6X 3R8

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Guide to recognizing fur - A new Liberation BC publication!

If you or someone you know owns an item with real fur on it, please snap a pic and send it to info@liberationbc.com. We are working on a guide to recognizing fur for the fall shopping season, and your photos can help to provide necessary visuals. If you would like to help in any way with this project, or would just like more information, please send an email. It’s important to get information out there so that people can distinguish real fur from fake fur, before they buy it, and you can help.

If you are willing to part with any fur or fur-trimmed items (either on a permanent or temporary basis) they would be invaluable as visual aids when tabling.

If you have an item that you’re unsure of, contact us and we may be able to help. Tips can also be found here.

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Guide to recognizing fur - A new Liberation BC publication!

If you or someone you know owns an item with real fur on it, please snap a pic and send it to info@liberationbc.com. We are working on a guide to recognizing fur for the fall shopping season, and your photos can help to provide necessary visuals. If you would like to help in any way with this project, or would just like more information, please send an email. It’s important to get information out there so that people can distinguish real fur from fake fur, before they buy it, and you can help.

If you are willing to part with any fur or fur-trimmed items (either on a permanent or temporary basis) they would be invaluable as visual aids when tabling.

If you have an item that you’re unsure of, contact us and we may be able to help. Tips can also be found here.

Pappas Furs Campaign

Every Saturday
1-3pm
Aberdeen Centre (4400 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond, located conveniently on the 98 B-Line bus (Cambie Road stop))

These protests at Aberdeen Centre are continuing until Pappas Furs is shut down.  Pappas Furs is a Canadian furrier that specializes in clothing of the cruelest kind — enormous fur coats, wraps, and muffs made from the skins of suffering animals.

How many animals are there in a standard full-length fur coat? Anywhere from 10 to 20 foxes, 18 to 20 lambs, or 130 to 200 chinchillas!

How can you help?

Come out to one of these Saturday events and join other compassionate people in speaking out against this cruelty. These events are friendly outreach events. All you need to bring is hope and a smile!

If you can’t make it out to Richmond, you can still help by contacting Aberdeen Centre and politely telling them that you don’t want Pappas Furs in the mall!

Telephone: 604.270.1234  or  604.273.1234 ext 12
Email:  info@aberdeencentre.com, leasing@aberdeencentre.com, promotion@aberdeencentre.com
Address:  Fairchild Developments Ltd., Suite 130,
4400 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond, BC, V6X 3R8

Foie Gras Outreach Event

Friday, May 30th,
7-9 pm,
Café de Paris Bistro, 751 Denman St.

The ducks and geese need your help! The campaign has been really successful so far, and many people have stopped to sign the petition. Best of all, more and more people are becoming aware of this issue.

Can’t make it out?  Please give Café de Paris a call at 604-687-1418 and let them know that there’s no excuse for foie gras!

If you haven’t contacted the other restaurants on the list of foie gras offenders, now is the perfect time! All it takes is a few minutes and an email account or a phone! The list is constantly being updated, so check back often!

If you learn of a restaurant or store that is carrying foie gras, please send an email to info@liberationbc.com so that they can be added to the list. Thanks!

Respect for Chickens

International Respect for Chickens Day may have been celebrated a few weeks ago, but we know that any day is a good one when it comes to celebrating chickens.  Did you know that chickens are intelligent birds with cognitive abilities rivaling those of small children? It’s true! Did you know that they are very social birds who recognize each other by their facial features and have 24 distinct cries, including separate alarm calls depending on whether a predator is approaching by land or by sea? They are also good at problem-solving!

“As a trick at conferences I sometimes list  attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m talking about monkeys,” says Dr. Chris Evans, Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University.

Learn more about the remarkable chicken at GoVeg.com and CompassionOverKilling.

Eat Less Meat!

The Vancouver Humane Society has issued a challenge on the newest page of their website:

Stop animal suffering.
Protect the environment.
Stay healthy.
Save vital resources.

Eat less meat.

We couldn’t agree more! Rising meat consumption is the driving force behind the growth in factory farming that’s ruining our environment, harming our health and condemning billions of animals to misery.  Learn what you can do to stop it!

You can help put a stop to the suffering by speaking flickout against it. Please consider joining other activists at any of the friendly outreach events listed below.

If you can’t make it to an event, there are many other ways to help. You can write letters, send emails, or make phone calls. If you would like to start your own leafletting or outreach event, or if there’s some other way that you feel you can help, send an email to info@liberationbc.com.

Also, consider making a donation to Liberation BC. Your donations help to cover the costs of printing leaflets and signs and purchase important equipment like the tent, the television, and the portable battery. Liberation BC is an all-volunteer organization with no funding, except from donations. Your support is vital to continue to spread this message of compassion and concern for the millions of voiceless animals who are suffering right now.

The animals need you.

Please, donate now.

Source: Liberation BC at http://www.liberationbc.com/ .

Fresh off her roles in Live Free or Die Hard and Mission: Impossible III (alongside Tom Cruise), rising star Maggie Q can only be described as hot. So it’s fitting that for her latest “role,” Maggie posed nearly nude in a bed of crimson chili peppers to spread the word that going vegetarian is the best way to “spice up your life” as well as help animals, your health, and the environment.

A vegetarian for many years, Maggie says that giving meat the boot is one of the most rewarding decisions she has ever made. “I feel better, I have more energy on and off the set, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that I’m doing something to help stop animal suffering.” As Maggie knows, factory-farmed animals are confined to dark, filthy warehouses and are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them. They routinely undergo debeaking, tail-docking, and castration—all without any pain relief. In 2006 alone, more than 11 billion cows, pigs, ducks, geese, buffaloes, rabbits, and chickens were slaughtered in China.

Animal suffering definitely isn’t hot, but Maggie is living proof that vegetarians are! Going vegetarian is also better for your health—eating meat and other animal products has been conclusively linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and several types of cancer. But health benefits aside, we don’t know who wouldn’t want to eat their veggies after seeing Maggie’s sexy ads!

Ready to take Maggie’s advice and “spice up your life”? Order your free vegetarian starter kit today.

Maggie also stars in a second ad for PETA Asia-Pacific wearing a sexy bikini made entirely of strategically placed lettuce leaves next to the tagline “Turn Over a New Leaf – Try Vegetarian!”