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The City Council voted Tuesday to prohibit the sale of live chickens at the Richmond’s Certified Farmer’s Market, igniting an eruption of cheers from animal rights supporters who filled City Hall.

The crowd, which consisted mostly of visitors to Richmond, was there on a larger animal-rights agenda, fueled by a recent victory in banning live chicken sales at the Heart of the City Farmer’s Market in San Francisco. Despite the determination of supporters, the ban will affect only one vendor at Richmond’s Farmer’s Market, and then only for two months.

The ban will take effect October 31, when the Richmond Certified Farmer’s Market contract is due for renewal. The state of California is banning the sale of live animals in parking lots and on sidewalks beginning in 2012. Though there was some confusion over the state’s legislation, Richmond City Attorney Randy Riddle assured the council that the ban will include poultry.

“When we know that in January this will be banned, my position is such that, let us get comfortable with the contract that is inline with what we know will be state law coming up very soon,” Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said.

The live-chicken vendor, Raymond Young, has had repeated public confrontations in San Francisco with two of the groups present Tuesday night: LBGT Compassion Group and In Defense of Animals. In Richmond, the groups said they found the same health code violations and animal cruelty instances that they found at Young’s previous operation in San Francisco.

San Francisco’s ban left Richmond as the sole city in the Bay Area where Young could sell live chickens. He sells about 700 birds a week at the Richmond Certified Farmer’s Market, according to the market’s president, Tom Cloman.

Live animal sales are allowed, but not within 20 feet of produce and eggs, according to the California health code. Violations occur whenever a customer buys a chicken, which Young and his workers put into paper and plastic bags, and the customer then walks around the market shopping for produce.

The health regulation exists to prevent feces, which carries bacterial disease, from spreading through the farmer’s market. The public is directly exposed to feces on the outside of the plastic bags and on the workers, said Andrew Zollman of the LGBT Compassion Group, and the feces is then carried around the market and onto public transit.

According to the code, signs must be posted instructing customers in three languages – English, Spanish, and Chinese – not to walk around the market after they have purchased the chickens.

But it’s a difficult rule to enforce and requires extra resources from city.

“We can’t fix the this problem, it’s impossible,” said Denise Bolbol in the public comment session. “I watched multiple security guards unable to keep these people 20 feet from other vendors with chickens in their bags.”

Though the chicken-vendor Young has received several environmental health code violations at Richmond, he has corrected his violations prior to the next inspection every time, said LaShonda Wilson, the assistant city manager. Cloman, the market manager, confirmed this in his brief objection to the prohibition.

Pathogens and disease were also a common theme in the argument against selling live chickens. A statewide surveillance program that conducts health inspections on chickens “that are spotty” only checks for Avian influenza and Newcastle virus, and does not check for bacterial infections, Wilson said.

Due to lack of resources, the state has given Young kits to test the chickens himself and then requires him to submit the results to the state. Animal rights supporters said they didn’t trust his reporting.

The LGBT Compassion group has questioned Young’s credibility before, arguing that he is not actually involved in raising the chickens, but instead buys them from large producers such as Gemperle Farms. Since these farms are fully automated, Zollman said, Young couldn’t possibly be doing any of his own farming.

One concern, said Councilmember Jeff Ritterman, is that selling factory-farmed chickens at a farmer’s market misleads the consumer into thinking the chicken is organic.

Though he agreed that factory farming was disturbing, Councilmember Tom Butt said that it is important for children to see where their food comes from, which was the primary reason that he didn’t vote to support the ban.

“Most people don’t know where food comes from,” Butt said. “They think it comes from the grocery store. I think it does people good to see where food comes from, to realize that that chicken breast comes from an animal with feathers on it and it doesn’t come from a package.”

The ban is an act of discrimination, Cloman said, which is the same argument brought against the animal rights groups in San Francisco by Young.

“These groups have literally pounded this Asian farmer to run him out of business,” Cloman said.

Cloman barely got through his argument when his public comment time ran out and the crowd loudly interrupted and hurried him off the podium.

Over the yells of the crowd, Cloman turned to the council. “Don’t let this group bully you,” he said, his voice barely audible.

Cloman found his only other support from a dissenter in the crowd who labeled the issue one of meat-eaters versus vegetarians.

The dozens who had come out to speak against Young had already been protesting Richmond’s Certified Farmer’s Market, and had bombarded Mayor McLaughlin with 1,015 emails.

The City Council’s ban will only be effective for two months – starting October 31, when the contract is redrawn, and ending in 2012, when the state laws override the council. McLaughlin said she didn’t want the city to spend valuable resources on this issue, even for two months.

“I certainly believe that our staff will have to continue to monitor this and I do not think this is good use of our staff’s time over the next two months,” McLaughin said.

“I am torn,” Councilmember Jovanka Beckles said. While she said she didn’t necessarily agree with the animal rights’ groups, she agreed that the city needs to allocate its valuable resources to other issues.

The final vote was 4-2. It was hard to hear the announcement of the votes over the roar of excitement from the ban’s supporters, but with Councilmember Nat Bates absent, Butt and Councilmember Corky Booze were the only voters against the prohibition.

By Jessica Ryen Doyle

An animal rights group dedicated to “end animal exploitation, cruelty, and abuse by protecting and advocating for the rights, welfare, and habitats of animals” says the salmonella outbreak that has sparked a massive egg recall is not an isolated incident and demonstrates the danger of consuming animal products.

In Defense of Animals (IDA), which is based in San Rafael, Calif., issued a press release Friday afternoon that warned against eating sick birds or their eggs.

“Hens in intensive agriculture are forced to live in miserable, frustrated existence crammed into tiny battery cages, where they are unable to walk or spread their wings,” the group claimed. “They live covered in feces, often forced to share cages with the bodies of deceased neighbors. These unnatural conditions produce sick birds, which increases the likelihood of infected eggs.”

But animal products are not the only foods to be recalled due to pathogens. Vegetables have been recalled in past years due to E. coli, and in some cases, these illnesses have led to death.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest identified 363 outbreaks linked to iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens, variously contaminated with E. coli, norovirus, or salmonella, which caused 13,568 cases of illness between 1990 and 2006.

In 2006, tainted spinach caused one death and 98 hospitalizations, according to the FDA; in 2007, it led to three deaths and 206 illnesses.

The FDA determined that the spinach originated from an organic spinach field. It was speculated that the spinach was tainted by irrigation water contaminated with wild pig feces.

In 2005 and 2006, tomatoes were implicated in four multistate outbreaks of salmonella, sickening hundreds of people. The CSPI found tomatoes were involved in 31 outbreaks involving 3,292 reported cases of people falling ill.

But Hope Bohanec, grassroots campaign director of IDA, said all of these vegetable outbreaks stemmed from the mistreatment of animals.

“For instance, when the spinach was recalled in California (in 2006), it was the result of a neighboring livestock yard and the manure that had run off into the spinach field,” she said.

Nearly 1,300 people in 10 states have been sickened recently by salmonella in eggs, sparking a nationwide recall of 380 million eggs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it had not yet found clear evidence of contamination, although heavy rainfall near the Galt, Iowa, company that produced the eggs may have raised the risk of salmonella infestation from rodents.

“Yes, in this case, rodents may have defecated in the feeds,” Bohanec told FoxNews.com. “It still comes back to the cruelty of animals, because of the intensive confinement that they keep animals in.

“Egg-laying hens are kept on top of one another, they can’t even spread their wings and the bacteria is going to spread like wildfire – so if they had enough room this wouldn’t be an issue. Imagine living your whole life in a crowded elevator, that’s how these animals live.”

Read the original article here.

LAURA INGRAHAM, GUEST HOST: In the “Back of the Book” segment tonight: The food police are out in force in San Francisco. The board of supervisors, those madcap folks, are unanimously now approving a measure to make Mondays meat-free.

Joining us now from the City by the Bay, Hope Bohanec, who’s the campaign director for the group In Defense of Animals. Hope, are you cheering this? Is this a great day for you?

Click here to watch the debate!

HOPE BOHANEC, CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR, IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS: Absolutely. We’re very excited and very proud of the board of supervisors. We want to thank them for being forward-thinking and choosing to embrace and support a compassionate, environmental and healthy diet.

INGRAHAM: Now, let’s talk about the point of all of this, because a lot of folks are watching across the United States, and they’re kind of thinking, “Well, this is San Francisco. This is the same board of supervisors that actually proposed a measure that would have decriminalized prostitution, that told the Battleship Iowa it couldn’t have a place in its waterfront museum, gave a hassle to the junior ROTC and military recruiters.” So most people across the country are like, “This is typical San Francisco.” What do you actually think is going to be achieved with meatless Monday?

BOHANEC: Well, you know, we really need to start looking to our diet for some of our environmental problems, our health problems. More and more people, there’s an awareness around food issues and our food systems and just how bad it’s gotten. And there’s more awareness growing. People are wanting to eat more local, more organic, more plant-based. And if you look at vegetarian diets, they really are the green superstars.

There was a wonderful study by the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology that found that eating just two meals a week vegetarian would do more ecologically for your environmental impact than buying all locally sourced food. So, you know, and if we look to San Francisco, San Francisco’s impact could be incredible. If everyone adopted a meat-free diet just on Mondays, it would be the equivalent of taking 123,000 cars off the streets of San Francisco for the year. So we could really have some positive change.

INGRAHAM: I have no problem with eating vegetarian. I think whatever you want to do, that’s fine with me. I think it’s kind of loopy for a local government agency to kind of put down this edict about, OK, we’re going to encourage everyone not to eat meat on Mondays when California is facing an incredibly catastrophic budgetary situation where we have state employees being threatened every other week, it would seem, with not getting their paychecks, where contractors are getting IOUs instead of getting their money. And we’re like wrapping ourselves around, well, the — you know, this is sustainable living. I just think it sounds a little bit elitist, and it sound a little bit out-of-sync with the way regular people live. A lot of people like to eat mac and cheese from a box. They like a burger, you know, a couple of times a week. And guess what? They live to 85. I just think it’s all imbalanced, and I think it gets a little — it starts to get a little loopy. And by the way, do you know the new study out about methane gas and cows and that whole thing has been miscalculated? So there’s a — Washington Times had a great piece about that, which you should probably check out.

BOHANEC: Well, to go back to your earlier point, Supervisor Maxwell, who sponsored this wonderful resolution, said, you know, we can do multiple things. We don’t have to only focus on one thing, and this is really going to be beneficial in so many ways. If we look at the health aspects, I mean, just — you know, we always hear eat more fruits and veggies, more fruits and veggies. The American Dietetic Association, the American Cancer Society, they all say eat more fruits and veggies. We have a childhood obesity epidemic in this country.

INGRAHAM: Is that because of a burger every now and then, or is that because — is that because of processed food and super sizing drinks, or is that because of, you know, having some meat? Again, what is the role of government?

BOHANEC: Having meats in the diet…

(CROSSTALK)

BOHANEC: We’re just asking for more…

INGRAHAM: No, no, no. I look forward to the day that the board of supervisors lays down the edict about no leather shoes or leather belts. Then I’ll think they’re really committed to this cause, OK? Everybody has to wear plastic. That would be really cool. No leather seats, belts, shoes, and frankly, you can’t have any of that. And that would be fun.

Hey, we appreciate it. Appreciate your joining us, Ms. Bohanec. Thank you very much. I’m going to go have a cheeseburger after this.

Read the transcript on Fox News’ site here.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today will sign two historic resolutions that encourage vegetarian eating. In Defense of Animals and the San Francisco Vegetarian Society introduced a resolution declaring Mondays as ‘VegDays,’ citing the environmental, heath and ethical benefits of a plant-based diet. The second resolution commends restaurants and stores that use cage-free eggs.

What: Resolution Signing at Board of Supervisors Meeting Where: San Francisco City Hall, Room 250
When: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 2 p.m.

“There is a revolution of ecological eating spanning the globe, and government bodies and community institutions are taking a leadership role,” said Hope Bohanec, Campaigns Director for IDA. “If everyone in San Francisco ate a plant-based diet just one day a week for a year, we would save over 378,600,768 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. That is the equivalent of taking 123,822 cars off the streets of San Francisco!”

With these resolutions, the supervisors are encouraging community members to eat a more plant-based diet to reduce their carbon footprint, increase their health and reduce farm animal suffering.

Information about the environmental impacts of animal agriculture is gaining ground. A 2009 report from World Bank environmental advisors revealed that farmed animals are responsible for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

The report concludes that replacing animal products with soy-based products and other alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change: “This approach would have far more rapid effects on GHG emissions and their atmospheric concentrations – and thus, on the rate the climate is warming – than actions to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.”

Plant-based diets are also good preventative medicine. These diets reduce medical costs for individuals and the health care system. They also aid in the prevention of childhood obesity. The American Dietetic Association recognizes that reduced meat consumption decreases the risk of various chronic degenerative diseases.

For a draft copy of the resolution, please contact Hope Bohanec, 415-448-0058 or hope@idausa.org.

For more information, please visit: www.idausa.org.

World Go Vegan Week for 2009 was an incredible success. We had 42 events in 10 different counties. Grassroots

Ottawa WGVW Bowling Party

volunteer activist organized events to celebrate World Go Vegan Week with activities like tabling, leafleting, film screenings, vegan food samplings, vegan potlucks, Halloween parties and more!

Countries holding events outside the U.S. include Australia, Ireland, Vienna, Netherland, South Africa, Bolivia, Congo, India, and 6 events in Canada.

We sent activist a packet of materials, flyers, and posters as well as coupons for popular vegan products and stickers. In total, for World Go Vegan Week we sent out:

The Reason for Vegan – 8,500
Global Warming Flyer- 9,000
Vegan Starter Kit- 500

Another form of outreach during World Go Vegan Week was our Food Editor’s Pack. We created a letter specifically for food editors and compiled vegan recipes in PDF form with beautiful images of food. We sent the pack from IDA to 45 major papers across the U.S., and then offered the pack for individual members to send to their local papers. We got lots requests for the editor’s pack and dozens of individuals sent out the pack to over 50 more papers in the U.S.

We teamed up with Mercy for Animals to help them distribute their new documentary called Fowl Play exposing the horrors in the egg industry. We have given away numerous copies of the DVD to grassroots activist for film screenings in their area.

World Go Vegan Week Halloween Costume Party

Our World Go Vegan Week Halloween Costume Party in San Francisco rocked! We had 100 people in attendance and everybody LOVED it. Some really creative vegan and animal related costumes. The food was great, lots of sweet treats and the costume contest was great fun. The fog machine and flashing “disco” lights really added to the atmosphere. The speakers, Kenneth Williams, World Champion Vegan Bodybuilder and Lauren Ornelas, Founder of the Food Empowerment Project, were engaging and informative. There were some really nice items in the Silent Auction and Raffle that brought in some funds for IDA.

From other World Go Vegan Week Participants:

Ottawa Activists Bowling Party

Local Ottawa activist spent the week handing out leaflets on many street corners  encouraging them to look at the option of going Vegan. We all had  tremendous responses from the public. We handed out over a thousand leaflets. Spoke with vegetarians and asked them to consider going Vegan, We also held a Bowling fundraiser for Canada’s largest Bonnie refuges who will be looped together under the new name of CANADIAN HEART in the near future. They are now looking for a large piece of land in which they can expand their refuge to include over 800 animals.  Our very first bowling fundraiser was indeed a success. With over 43 compassionate , enthusiastic people bowling, biding and playing 50/50.
We raised  almost $1,700.00 at our very first event.. Famous George Laraque Montreal Canadian Hockey Player who recently turned Vegan after watching the movie Earthlings donated a signed Jersey which helped tremendously for our auction.

I speak for Teja’s Animal Refuge and Refuge RR for horses in thanking IDA for  doing what you do for animals all over the world and by founding WORLD GO VEGAN WEEK.

From San Diego:

We had a great event, talked to several people who are already vegetarian, hopefully gave them enough reason to be vegan…had a lot of different conversations, all positive…talked to two men, an Egyptian and a Pakistani, who already knew about the lab meat from cells..”shmeet”…they voiced concerned about animals and said they could lessen consumption but not stop eating it completely…but would eat shmeat instead if available…so many people were receptive, listened, read literature..

we’re going to regularly go out a couple of hours a week.. possibly starting tomorrow night…Robyn

Lynn Pauly: Good time to try a vegan lifestyle

Free vegan lunch in Pioneer Square today

World Go Vegan Week Means Wine, Too

Vegan week salutes animal-free diet

Meatless Mouthful: Woody Harrelson “World Go Vegan Week”

And blogs:

Kickoff World Go Vegan Week at Blue Nile Cafe with Animal Advocates of Arizona!

Happy World Go Vegan Week!

To celebrate a compassionate vegan lifestyle during World Go Vegan Week, October 25 – 31, IDA is giving away vegan hot dogs and vegan cupcakes at Pioneer Courthouse Square

Portland, Ore.–Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? The 4th annual World Go Vegan Week, October 25 – 31, spotlights the vegan lifestyle as a compassionate, sustainable, and healthy way of eating and living. In Defense of Animals invites the public to celebrate by sampling some delicious vegan fare over the lunch hour, this Thursday, at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Not only is this a free lunch, it’s a cruelty-free lunch!

What:     Vegan food giveaway outreach event

When:    Thursday, October 29th, 11:30 a.m. To 1:30 p.m.

Where:   Pioneer Courthouse Square; corner of SW Yamhill and Broadway.

Generously provided by Lightlife, IDA will be giving away hundreds of Smart Dogs, the world’s first fat free hot dogs. And passersby will be amazed at how decadent vegan can be with scrumptious miniature cupcakes donated by Portland’s own Sweetpea Baking Company .

Actor Woody Harrelson, a supporter of World Go Vegan Week, chose a vegan lifestyle “… as an energetic pursuit, as meat and dairy slowed me down, but have since become convinced that it is not only the most healthy way to live, but also the most compassionate and ecologically responsible way.”

The American Dietetic Association says vegan diets “…may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, as well as for athletes.”

A United Nations study revealed that animal agriculture causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all of the world’s transportation combined. “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems,” says U.N. official Dr. Henning Steinfeld, senior author of the report. “What we put into our bags at the grocery store has more environmental impact than whether we bring our reusable shopping bag or drive a hybrid to the store,” said Hope Bohanec, Grassroots Campaigns Director for IDA.

Animal agriculture contributes to the greenhouse effect from the methane produced by cows, deforestation of the rainforest for grazing land, and the enormous consumption of fossil fuel used to operate factory farms and slaughterhouses. University of Chicago researchers found that switching to a vegan diet has greater impact on greenhouse gas reduction than switching from a standard car to a hybrid. Eight times more fossil fuel is needed to produce animal protein than plant protein.

Eliminating meat from your plate is one of the most powerful and effective things you can do to fight the cruelties inflicted on farm animals, to improve your own health, and to help create a sustainable environment. Visit www.idausa.org for more information and free vegetarian recipes.

Contact: Matt Rossell, (503) 890-5151, matt@idausa.org