Peacefully Coexisting with Coyotes in Claremont, California

In a recent blog post, I reported on my serendipitous encounter in December with Wile E. Coyote while returning home from the grocery store just after dusk. I wrote about how people and coyotes should learn to live together, noting that the Calabasas, California City Council had recently adopted a coyote management plan that bans the use of city funds for trapping and promotes “an aggressive coexistence education campaign.” After all, coyotes were here first and we moved in with them.

So I am happy to report that Wile E. Coyote will also be able to continue on his way in my home city of Claremont, California. In January, the City of Claremont announced that coyotes will be a “New Priority Project” for 2012. Most importantly, it was declared that the City Council had reviewed “the City’s existing policy to leave the coyotes alone unless there is an immediate danger to residents and their animals.” In addition, the “City Council reaffirmed their commitment not to eradicate the coyotes and directed police to use non lethal sponge bullets to scare coyotes away from populated parks where there is the possibility of interactions between the coyotes and children.” I wholeheartedly applaud this step in the direction of peaceful coexistence.

Snickers the Service Dog is Back Home After Running Afoul of Aurelia, Iowa's Ordinance Banning Pit Bulls

Jim Sak, a former Chicago police officer for over 30 years, recently relocated to Aurelia, Iowa, to help care for his wife’s 87-year-old mother. Shortly after arriving, the Saks learned that they had an unwelcome family member, Snickers, who is Jim’s service dog. Because Aurelia had a “breed specific” ordinance singling out pit bulls, the Saks were told Snickers could no longer live with them.

The Saks were summoned to a city council meeting on December 14th, where the council then voted 3 to 2 not to make an exception for the Saks to allow them to keep Snickers. This occurred even though the Saks argued that Snickers “was the sweetest, most good-natured dog you’d ever want to meet.” And that Jim heavily relies upon Snickers after “suffering a debilitating stroke that left him with no feeling on the right side of his body.” The council subsequently ordered the Saks to remove Snickers by the following day.

The Chigago Sun-Times quoted George Wittgraf, an attorney representing the Iowa town, as saying that Aurelia is “simply exercising its authority to protect and preserve the rights and property of its residents — whether or not that’s trumped by” federal law. In addition, City Clerk Barb Messerole said the ordinance was approved in March 2008, after a meter reader was bitten by a pit bull.

But the Saks were not going to take losing Snickers lying down. An animal foundation hired an attorney to help represent the Saks, and it paid to board Snickers at an out-of-town kennel while the Saks filed a legal challenge. In their lawsuit, the Saks have asserted that the Americans with Disabilities Act guarantees disabled persons the right to have service dogs, regardless of their breed. And just before the New Year, the Saks received some good news from a federal judge in Sioux City, who issued a temporary restraining order allowing Snickers to be returned to his family. The case remains pending.

Jim Saks was quoted as stating before the restraining order was issued, “I was a policeman for 32 years. I understand there’s black and white, but there’s also a grey area where you have to use your head. [The council members are] not using their heads.” Well stated, Jim. This is a prime example of the failings of breed-specific legislation. Just because, as City Clerk Barb Messerole said, “…several people c[a]me forward saying they were concerned about the pit bull because of the nature of the breed. They just feel it’s unsafe. They’re aggressive and could hurt somebody. If the service animal was anything but a pit bull, it would have been fine,” Jim Saks should have to lose his trusted and proven caregiver? It just doesn’t make sense. It should be clear that Jim’s obvious need for Snickers should trump any unfounded and hysteric fears about a particular breed. It is sad that it will take a court to say so. 

"Beefing Up" Compassion

“Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind (sic).”
~Albert Schweitzer

I consider myself a compassionate person. Yet, I know that there are situations in which I have let myself and others down, where the limits of my compassion have been reached. With that knowledge, I’m working on enlarging and strengthening my own compassion.

I have friends who are extremely compassionate toward other human beings. I greatly admire these people and the many ways in which they live out their values: they deliver meals to homebound seniors, mentor at-risk youth, reach out to people suffering due to financial hard times, foreclosure, homelessness, physical illness, depression, schizophrenia… The list is a long one.

These friends respect what I do for nonhuman animals and often ask about my work. Many of them live with companion animals, dogs or cats whom they consider to be members of their families. We share stories about our beloved dogs and cats and show photos.

But, in tell-tale moments, my friends will mention a delicious turkey sandwich they ate at a local deli, or the pot roast they had the other day. I wince and wonder: why the disconnect?* Why does compassion for humans and our companion animals not extend to compassion for the animals called “food?” (* I am equally saddened when an animal rights activist shows a lack of compassion for humans.)

I see a commercial on TV: a restaurant is advertising its steak and a photo shows a large pinkish-brownish piece of cooked flesh on a plate. In order to find that appealing, I would have to ignore the fact that the steak used to be a living, breathing steer. How can I? I have stood in slaughterhouses and watched, in horror and sadness, as steer have met their deaths. Slaughterhouses are cold, harsh, windowless cement rooms, with terrified animals, putrid smells, rivers of blood, hanging corpses; they are where violent death happens. I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want to bring about that death. These animals have done nothing to me to warrant such terrible treatment. They are helpless victims and I am powerless to stop the never-ending assembly line that spells their demise. Yet, I cannot, in good conscience, support a system that does something so inherently wrong to other living beings. The only choice I have is to opt out, and to speak out on behalf of the victims.

When I see the steak, I see the cow. When I see the drum stick, I see the chicken. The two are inseparable; that is how I define compassion.

The legal work that we do at Animal Legal Defense Fund can be hard-edged. We see animal suffering on a daily basis and we must turn our pain and anger into rational action as we assist in cruelty prosecutions and file civil lawsuits against animal abusers. But, at the very center of our work is a deep and abiding compassion that embraces both human and non-human animals.

Compassion is the wellspring from which all that we do arises. It is what guides our work to build a more loving world, by extending the limits of our own compassion and encouraging others to do so. Compassion is the duty from which we ought not to shrink. While writing this, I found a wonderful quote that gives me hope for the future. I choose to believe that the hearts of my fellow humans will open to embrace the lives of all creatures, that the current disconnect will not always and forever be the rule.

“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”
~Bell Hooks

P.S. If you are reading this and wondering how to put compassion into action, please consider going meatless for one day per week. It’s a small step, but significant. 

California: Protect Homeless and Lost Animals

In an attempt to reduce California’s deficit, Governor Brown has proposed a substantial weakening of the Hayden Act, including sections that require shelters to care for homeless and lost companion animals for up to six days before euthanizing them. This holding period is crucial to allowing lost dogs and cats to be reunited with their families or adopted when they are unclaimed or abandoned.

Former State Senator Tom Hayden's message to Governor Jerry Brown urges the Governor to leave intact the law he wrote in 1998.



Please take a moment today to contact Governor Brown and your state legislators! Urge them to oppose any legislation that will remove existing protections for homeless and lost companion animals.

Prevent Cruel Mistreatment of Sick and Disabled Farmed Animals

On January 23, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a 2008 California law that required the euthanasia of downed animals at slaughterhouses, ruling that California's law was preempted by federal law. A state may not impose "any additional or different – even if nonconflicting – requirements," wrote the Court.

This expected decision highlights the urgent need for changes in the law at the federal level.

The Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act (H.R. 3704), sponsored by Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), would permanently prohibit all downed livestock animals – animals that cannot walk because they are diseased, injured or ill – from being used for food, and require that these animals be humanely euthanized.

The bipartisan bill would improve upon federal regulations by making the ban on downed animals permanent and apply to all farmed animals – not just cattle as is currently the case with existing regulations.  

The bill is already supported by several members of Congress including Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who is the lead cosponsor of the bill.

“Animals that are ill or injured should be humanely euthanized instead of being dragged through slaughterhouses then sold to restaurants, supermarkets or butchers for human consumption, a sick and disgusting practice,” said Rep. Ackerman.

Contact your federal legislators and ask for their support of the Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act.