World Farm Animals Day -- Oct. 2

Local activists and volunteers are using a variety of methods to raise public awareness. For detailed information of the events in your city, visit the WFAD Events Directory at www.wfad.org/wfad_events.htm .

Want to participant in World Farm Animals Day? It's not too late. Download a leaflet master from www.wfad.org/wfad_download.htm and you have an instant event:

• Bring some fliers to work.
• Leave fliers at a health food store.
• Put fliers in your bills.
• Pass fliers out to friends, coworkers, neighbors.

It's that easy. Just be sure to let us know so we can count you! You can register online at http://www.wfad.org/wfad_download.htm or just emailhttps://www.mailermailer.com/manage/reports/mail%20to:%20dawn@farmusa.org. Of course, there's much more you can do... our website has ideas to inspire and how-to info. Remember, also, that the timing is flexible so do what you can, when you can... but please do something this month in memory and support of farm animals.

This year's 20th anniversary observance is co-sponsored by FARM, PETA and In Defense of Animals. Community events are planned and arranged by local groups and individuals.

CHOICE:
(Consumers for Healthy Options In Children's Education)

The California Healthy School Lunch Initiative is targeting selected school districts in ten counties. A specific action plan will be developed and followed for each district. Likely actions include mailings to school administrators, teachers, and food service personnel, health fairs, cooking demonstrations, distribution of teaching modules and posters, and advocacy training for parents and other local activists.

General information about the CHOICE program is available at www.choiceusa.net. The site contains special sections for parents, teachers, food service personnel, school administrators, students and activists. The Common Concerns section explains the importance of plant-based diets. The News section reports on the latest developments in children's nutrition. Other features include fact sheets, recipes, lesson plans, games, stories, student activities, and resources for additional information.

Dear Editor:

A great debate still rages across America over the conduct of the Bush administration's war on terror. But there can be no debate over the terror inflicted every day on billions of farm animals by the U.S. meat industry.

Each year, more than 10 billion cows, pigs, sheep, and other innocent, feeling animals are caged, crowded, deprived, drugged, mutilated, and manhandled in US factory farms. Veal calves are torn from their mothers at birth, chained by the neck for 16 weeks in tiny, filthy wood crates. Sows are encased for three years in metal "gestation stalls." Laying hens are crammed up to 8 birds into "battery cages" the size of a folded newspaper, with wire mesh floors and walls that cut their feet and tear out their feathers.

These animals are transported in crowded trucks with no protection against weather extremes and many die in transit. Even slaughter doesn't end their agony, as they are frequently skinned, dismembered, gutted, scalded, and drowned by slaughterhouse workers while still conscious.
Studies have demonstrated that animals experience many of the emotions that we do, including joy, affection, sadness, sorrow, and pain. One survey showed that 93% of Americans oppose farm animal suffering. Another found that 85% of Americans oppose raising farm animals in tight confinement.

This is why, on October 2nd (Gandhi's birthday), I will be observing World Farm Animals Day, launched 20 years ago to expose and memorialize the daily suffering inflicted on animals by animal agriculture. I will be asking my friends and neighbors to stop subsidizing this suffering by cutting their consumption of animal products.
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Each month, FARM activists write to their local newspaper editors on topics concerning human health, animal welfare, and environmental issues. Recent topics have included obesity, the need for healthier school lunches, and World Farm Animals Day.

Letters to the editor represent our best opportunity to reach a wide audience. The letters page of a major metropolitan daily is read by 35-75% of the paper's 200,000 - 2 million readers. We estimate that our letter-writers have reached 5-10 million readers in the United States and Canada, most of them more than once. Every one of those readers is better educated about the benefits of vegetarianism and the damages caused by factory farming, thanks to these letters.

Join Meatout Mondays and tell your friends!

Contributing is easy....