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Vigil for the Turlock Hens is this Saturday!  »

Here are the details; see you there!

** Vigil for the Turlock Hens: Saturday, February 23, 7:30 pm, Turlock, Calif.**

PLEASE SHARE: A group of first responders and compassionate citizens will be gathering the evening of Saturday, February 23 along the roadside outside of A&L Poultry in Turlock to honor the lives of the 50,000 hens who were abandoned at this egg factory farm in 2012.

February 23rd is unforgettable. This day marks the beginning of the monumental rescue in 2012.

Let’s remember the lives of each and every bird on this one-year anniversary. To join in, please contact turlockhenvigil@gmail.com. Candles will be provided to all vigil attendees.

Sunday: Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary Barn Bash! Help the Turlock hens!  »

We know how much you love the Turlock hens. That’s how we know you’ll be at Harvest Home on Sunday, June 3, for a barn dedication celebration! The Turlock hens got an entirely new barn to live in following their rescue this spring, where they cohabitate with other rescued birds.

Harvest Home wants to thank you for your support in the construction of the barn, as well as show it off, so they’re throwing a little party from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. You’ll eat and drink (vegan-ly, of course), and meet the birds as well as the amazing Harvest Home workers. All ticket sales directly benefit Harvest Home, and this event marks the beginning of the organization’s fundraising campaign for the future “Sanctuary Avian Medical Barn.” Awesome, right? Right!

Buy tickets here, and go party with the birds in their new, wonderful home on Sunday!

[photo courtesy Harvest Home]

Remembering the Turlock chickens: Watch a video and sign a petition!   »

Remember the Turlock Hens? Silly question, of course you do. How could you forget feeling like your heart was literally being ripped out of your chest after reading the story of the 50,000 chickens left to starve in California’s Central Valley?

Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary has begun an online petition drive through Change.org. The petition is asking for the prosecution of Andy Keung Cheung, by the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s office, for willfully starving 50,000 hens for two weeks. The goal is 10,000 signatures, and as of publication of this post, there are almost 3,800. Read more about it and sign the petition here.

Harvest Home also made a short video of the hens before they were rescued. It’s sad stuff. The hens are hungry, and some are dead, and it is very upsetting to be part of a species that lets this kind of thing happen.

[Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com]

Easy activism: Go shopping to help the thousands of chickens rescued from Cali egg farm!  »

Here’s a simply amazing video documenting the rescue. Incredible. Watch it and then I defy you not to donate. The song is perfect too. Excellent work! PS: Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com

The 4,460 hens rescued from the 50,000 hens left to starve in Stanislaus County—the Turlock Hen Rescue—still need our help. What can you do? Go shopping! Food Fight Grocery and some other fine retailers are going to be donating a portion of their sales on these specific days:

• Food Fight will be donating 10% of all online sales (and in-store for those in Portland) on Saturday, March 3.
• Herbivore Clothing will be donating 10% of all their online sales (and in-store) March 3rd and 4th (someone said they’d be donating sales now as well but I can’t confirm)
• Purrfect Pinapples will be donating 20% of this weekend’s sales too. Cruelty-free lingerie! Handmade! Wow!
• Blue Strawberry Scents will donate 10% of their sales for the next week. Buy you some cool soap!
• And I just saw on the event page that for the next month (to March 24th) Veganville on Etsy will donate 15% of all online sales to Animal Place. 

Check out the event page for more info and updates. Food Fight adds this note:

If you were planning to place an order, please do it on Saturday, and if you don’t need anything, maybe go here and donate directly.
If you can’t spend any money right now, then please spread the word about these fundraisers and about the rescue.

And don’t forget to sign the petition started by Harvest Home to bring the man responsible for this catastrophe to justice. 

Update!: Never Felt Better Vegan Shop in Sacramento is having a bakesale on Saturday from 1pm to 4pm for Harvest Home!

Sign the petition, volunteer, adopt, and donate to help the 50,000 chickens left to starve!  »

The fight to save the rescued hens from Stanislaus County continues. This is the largest ever farmed animal rescue in the United Sates. Conditions were terrible but people were able to help some of the birds!:

“When we arrived on the scene outside the abandoned egg farm, I was horrified at the suffering of the chickens happening in front of me, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the cruelty,” said Anne Martin, Harvest Home board member. “By the next morning, we had partnered with sanctuaries, volunteers from across Northern California, and thousands of supporters following the rescue of these chickens. Together, we were able to save 4,460 hens who will never again suffer the severe confinement of an egg farm, and from this time forward, will know only human kindness.”

The picture at the top is by Marji from Animal Place. This hen has never seen grass or felt the sun, she is about to take her first step outside! Marji says they are still in need of donations but also, they are in desperate need of volunteers. So if you are able, go volunteer with the rescue chickens!

If you want to volunteer, email marji@animalplace.org or call her at 530-798-5114. To donate, click here! 

The hens will be up for adoption within the next two weeks. If you want to adopt one, fill out the application at www.animalplace.org.

Finally—and I know you can all do this!—sign the petition started by Harvest Home, ”calling on the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office to prosecute A&L Poultry’s Andy Keung Cheung for willfully starving 50,000 chickens.” Do it!

Update on the 50,000 chickens left to starve, many rescued need your help!  »

One of the rescued hens. You can see more pictures of the rescue on Flickr.

We got an update from Marji at Animal Place:

We actually took out 4,610 hens total - more than 3,000 are currently at our Rescue Ranch facility. The hens were released into Animal Place and Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary custody. They are slowly recovering…we could really use help w/ this rescue. This is the largest and most expensive rescue we have ever undertaken.

Please donate if you can! So sad! They need our help!

Sponsor a dear chicken this Valentine’s Day! They need love too!  »

Harvest Home Sanctuary is having a sponsor-a-thon RIGHT NOW until Valentine’s Day! For $15, you can sponsor a sweet rescue chicken for one month! Select recurring payments to sponsor your pal every month! I’m partial to Little Wayne above (nickname: Pretty Ricky!) who was rescued from a hoarder last year. I just donated my $15 for Pretty Ricky and you can too!

From Harvest Home:

Among the 200 animals living at Harvest Home, 100 chickens call the sanctuary home. Our goal for this campaign is to find a sponsor for each chicken by Valentine’s Day. 

For just $15 a month, you can sponsor a rescued hen or rooster. Sponsorships make marvelous gifts for your animal-loving family and friends. You can make a meaningful impact in the life of one of our adorable birds this year.

Click here to donate! Show your love and compassion this V-Day. 

Paul Shapiro presents: Animal News You Can Use!  »

It’s Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use! Yay!

First, some good news: A bill (H.R. 3798) was introduced in the Congress this week to ban barren battery cages for laying hens, ban starvation molting, require egg producers to label “eggs from caged hens” on their cartons, and more.  You can see a joint statement from major animal protection organizations on why they support this bill, and a joint statement from nearly all of the agribusiness trade groups on why they oppose it. Who would you side with?

I was on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday talking about the above effort to help laying hens. Check it out.

Some bad news: The U.S. Supreme Court this week struck down portions of a law passed in California shortly after HSUS’s landmark Hallmark/Westland slaughter plant investigation (which led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history). While federal regulations still prohibit the slaughter of adult downer cattle for human consumption, the parts of California’s law prohibiting slaughtering other downer animals are no longer in effect.

Back to good news: Get a coffin, since Florida’s “ag-gag” legislation is now officially dead. However, Iowa is still debating its whistle-blower suppression bill, and similar bills are still pending in other states.

Time has a compelling online video about undercover investigations and these ag-gag bills that you won’t want to miss.

Video of the week: Ever try to teach a pig to sit? Here you go.