• FARM Spearheads Anti-AETA Campaign
• FARM Urges Gentle Thanksgiving Observance
• World Farm Animals Day Scores New Gains
• Survey Discloses Preferred Activist Tactics
• FARM Supports Artivist Film Festival

FARM Spearheads Anti-AETA Campaign

FARM is spearheading the struggle to stop the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) from becoming law.

• We co-founded the Equal Justice Alliance,a coalition of national animal rights organizations.
• We created a web site listing 130 animal groups and a number of arguments opposing AETA.
• We alerted scores of organizations and listservs to generate Congressional e-mails and faxes.
• We are collecting donations for a full-page color ad opposing AETA in a popular Congressional newspaper.

AETA brands animal activism as terrorism and imposes severe federal penalties for civil disobedience, open rescues, and undercover investigations directed against an animal enterprise or anyone connected withan animal enterprise. The bill was passed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate in a back-room maneuver that surprised most animal activists, who never had a chance to express their opposition.

The Equal Justice Alliance is working to prevent a similar maneuver in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Please contribute to the Congressional advertising fund and contact the FARM Legislative Liaison Office to help us defeat this threat to activism.

FARM Urges Gentle Thanksgiving Observance

Registration of public vegetarian Thanksgiving events is now open at GentleThanksgiving.org. Last year, the website listed 130 events in 35 states, and, with your help, we hope to improve on that record.

Other items on this website include:

• Guidance for event organizers
• Thanksgiving recipes
• Listing of events by state
• News releases

Here's what else we are planning:

• Promotion of public TG events
• Printing of colorful postcards
• Asking President Bush to pardon all White House turkeys
• A media blitz publicizing public events

Please visit our website for guidance and to register an event. Contact Adam or call 800-632-8688 to request free Gentle TG postcards.

World Farm Animals Day Scores New Gains

More than 400 communities in all 50 states and two dozen other countries held World Farm Animals Day events. These included funeral marches, vigils, cage-ins, video screenings, food distribution, leafleting, library exhibits, and the ubiquitous information tables.

The flagship event was a massive "die-in" at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the nation's capital. Kansas activists held a slaughter-house vigil. Maryland students spent two days in a chicken cage.

Thirty cities hosted marches for farmed animals. Fifty KFC outlets were targeted for mistreatment of chickens. Many humane societies did special displays. Two dozen universities hosted information tables, vigils, and street theater. A score of communities staged vegetarian fairs, with speakers, entertainers, exhibits, videos, and food samples.

A dozen governors and mayors issued special proclamations calling for humane treatment of animals. Hundreds of bus display cards and billboards in a dozen major markets and nearly a hundred letters to the editors of major dailies carried the World Farm Animals Day message.

This year's observance marked the one hundreth's anniversary of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," which exposed the miserable conditions of Chicago's slaughterhouses and led to major social reforms. It was co-sponsored by In Defense of Animals and PETA.

Please visit the WFAD Events web site for a detailed listing of events .

Survey Discloses Preferred Activist Tactics

On occasion of World Farm Animals Day, we conducted a web-based survey of activists' preferred tactics for farmed animal liberation. Here are selected results :

1. Most effective tactic

Welfare reforms - 14%, Abolition - 14%, Mix of the two - 72%

2. Effective means of getting favorable attention

Feed-In - 76%, Leafleting - 74%, Information table - 72%, Library exhibit - 61%, Street videos - 51%, March - 47%, Open rescue - 46%, Picketing - 35%, Street theater - 32%, Civil disobedience - 19%, Property damage - 12%, Other - 19%.

3. Effective means of getting message out

TV ads/PSAs - 89%, Billboards - 80%, Magazine ads - 74%, Newspaper ads - 70%, Bus display cards - 63%, Radio ads/PSAs - 62%, Bumper stickers - 54%, Message T-shirts - 54%.

4. Effective means of reducing animal consumption

Vegan options in restaurants/cafeterias - 85%, Vegan options in schools - 81%, Publicize animal suffering - 77%, Publicize health aspects - 77%, Distribute vegan food samples - 71%, Publicize environmental aspects - 70%, Show graphic videos - 64%, Tour farm animal sanctuary - 55%, Other - 10%.

Notes: All but the first question allowed multiple choices. The 800 respondents were self-selected from among FARM and activist listserv subscribers. FARM does not necessarily endorse or employ the tactics favored by respondents.