2010   •  2009  •  2008  •  2007  •  2006



•  12/22/08: Donna Karan Announces Fur-Free 2009 Lines
•  12/15/08: Netherlands Ban Items Made Of Cape Fur Seals
•  11/5/08: Prop 2 Passes For Calif. Farmed Animals
•  10/19/08: Iraqi Pup Ratchet Heads Home To US!
•  10/18/08: Alaska Whales Gain Protection As Palin Protests
•  10/6/08: Bush Admin Objects, But Polar Bears Get Habitat
•  9/2/08: Freedom For Unlawfully Jailed Austrian Activists
•  8/28/08: 8 Little Lambs Leave A Lab - To Live At A Sanctuary
•  7/30/08: Landmark Legal Victory For NJ Farm Animals
•  2/27/08: Spay-Neuter Proposal Becomes Law In Los Angeles
•  2/18/08: Three U.S. Agencies Aim To End Animal Testing

12/22/08: Donna Karan Announces Fur-Free 2009 Lines

In a global campaign, Kinship Circle subscribers postal-mail, email, phone and fax Donna Karan International, asking the company to abandon its reintroduction of rabbit skins and initiate a permanent fur-free policy. Within days of Kinship Circle's campaign — along with efforts from other groups, namely PETA — Donna Karan announces furfree lines for 2009, with "no plans" to use fur in future collections.

Rabbits factory-farmed for their fur are squeezed in tiny wire cages that cut into their non-padded paws. Before slaughter many perish from dehydration, starvation or self-mutilation. Killers break necks and bludgeon skulls (smashing live rabbits against walls) before stringing rabbits by their legs to behead them. Fur is stripped from their bodies in full view of other living rabbits...

PHOTO: Rabbits transported, factory-farmed, killed for fur.

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  12/18/08: Bunnies Hate Donna Karan's Killer Couture
•  FACT SHEET: The Fur Trade
•  FACT SHEET: FUR - America's Pacifier?

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12/15/08: Netherlands Ban Products Made From Cape Fur Seals

Kinship Circle members speak out against Namibia's annual slaughter of nursing pups and bull seals. Comments sent over two years to Namibian officials and embassies illuminate the world's second largest massacre (Canadian seal hunt is number one) of seals, some so young their mother's milk gushes from knife wounds. Dying pups collapse in white puddles as seal cows grieve nearby...

The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries announces a July 1, 2009 ban on import and trade of fur and other products of Cape Fur Seals. About 80,000 seals are killed for their furs each year.

PHOTO: During the 2008 hunt (July 1 to Nov. 15) seal hunters may kill 6,000 adult males and 80,000 pups. But in another victory, March 30, 2008 — South Africa finally enacts new, more progressive legislation to protect Cape Fur Seals. Save The Seals Of South Africa

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  JULY 2008 KC DIGEST: Help End The Namibian Seal Slaughter
•  7/11/07: Namibia's Shame - Massacre Of Nursing Seal Pups & Bulls

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11/5/08: Prop 2 Passes For Calif. Farmed Animals

650,000 signatures (from California voters) due by the end of February 2008 — for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act to qualify for the November 2008 ballot.

The California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act passes in the largest agricultural state in the U.S. A ban on the most egregious cruelty — battery cages, veal crates, gestation crates — will be phased in. "How animals become meals" has entered mainstream consciousness. Despite the millions spent by agribusiness lobbyists, the initiative passes. The grassroots ballot initiative system works!

PHOTO: Egg-laying hens crammed into battery cages no bigger than a file drawer, stacked in rows atop rows, at a factory farm. Farm Sanctuary

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  JULY 2008 DIGEST: Help Proposition 2 Win Relief For Animals In Calif.
•  12/27/07: Don't Blow This Landmark Chance For Farmed Animals
•  FACT SHEET: Poultry & Egg Farms
•  FACT SHEET: The Pig Industry
•  FACT SHEET: Dairy & Veal Factories

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10/19/08: Iraqi Pup Ratchet Heads Home To US!

When Kinship Circle learns about Ratchet — the puppy Sgt. Gwen Beberg of Minnesota rescued from a burning trash heap while on duty in Iraq — we rally members to fright for the dog's safe transport back to the U.S. Ratchet faced death at the hands of U.S. Army officers who'd seized the dog while en route to the Baghdad airport. International press releases claimed: "Soldiers can face immediate court-marshal [for befriending animals] and some even see their animals brutally murdered by a gunshot to the head from commanding officers who will not bend the rules."

Kinship Circle's plea for Minnesota Senators and Representatives to intervene brings a rush of letters from California to Canada and Japan...and helps lead to clearance for Operation Baghdad Pups to fly Ratchet to Minnesota.

PHOTO: Gwen with 'lifeline' Ratchet in Iraq

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  10/10/08: Don't Let Soldiers Kill Beloved Dog In Iraq

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10/18/08: Alaska Whales Gain Protection As Palin Protests

Local protests and Kinship Circle letters to legislators bring former Vice President candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's "pro death platform" into the spotlight.

Although Palin fights to keep the beluga whale in Alaska's Cook Inlet off the Endangered Species List — the Bush administration names the beluga whale an endangered species. Protection under the Endangered Species Act allows the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to research why the species is on the decline...



KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  9/27/08: Palin's Pro-Death Platform On Animals

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10/6/08: Bush Admin Objects, But Polar Bears Get Habitat

In a series of letter-writing campaigns, Kinship Circle members advocate passage of the Polar Bear Protection Act and ask federal legislators to be proactive about the polar bear's uncertain fate, due to melting Arctic ice and loss of habitat.

In October 2008 environmental groups and the Bush administration reach a partial court settlement that orders the Department of Interior to designate critical habitat for polar bears by June 30, 2010. In May 2008, the Department of Interior ranked the polar bear as threatened by global warming, but didn't allocate any critical habitat protection...

PHOTO: A polar bear and her cubs walked near Churchill, Canada, last November. (Associated Press/file)


KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  2008 UPDATES / APRIL - JUNE: Polar Bears Get Endangered Status
•  8/27/07: Polar Bears Are Not Trophies
•  6/1/07: Uncertain Fate For Polar Bears

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9/2/08: Freedom For Unlawfully Jailed Austrian Activists

Kinship Circle joins the worldwide outcry against the May 21, 2008 Austrian police invasion of 23 homes/offices of animal rights advocates. Fourteen citizens are arrested and jailed on a hunch, with no solid evidence. One prisoner, Dr. Martin Balluch, president of the Austrian Association Against Animal Factories, grows weak on a hunger strike... Kinship Circle members contact Austrian officials, asking them to terminate proceedings that threaten constitutional rights within a free society and blacklist law-abiding activists as "conspirators in criminal organizations." The mass letter campaigns directly impact a legal decision to free all 10 activists.

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  6/11/08: Austria - Animal Activists Unlawfully Jailed

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8/28/08: 8 Little Lambs Leave A Lab - To Live At A Sanctuary

When Kindness Ranch in Wyoming asks Kinship Circle to network for funds and transport to ferry eight sheep from a California research lab to their 1,000-acre refuge for animals saved from experimentation, we quickly help coordinate donations for the animals' relocation and care.

Laboratories rarely relinquish animals to rescue groups, yet this particular lab reaches out in trust to Kindness Ranch. Kinship Circle considers this a precedent to haven for more lab animals in the future... Within a week of the campaign a transporter and funding are secured, and eight lambs arrive at the ranch for rehabilitation and freedom. Karen Straight, Director of Outreach, The Kindness Ranch, writes: "We greatly appreciate the assistance of Kinship Circle for spreading the word about this project."

PHOTO: Meet The Miracle Sheep Babies At The Kindness Ranch.

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  8/3/08: From Research To Ranch Ð Help A Miracle!

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7/30/08: Landmark Legal Victory For NJ Farm Animals

From 2001 to 2004, Kinship Circle issues letter/phone/fax/email campaigns urging the New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA) to fulfill legal requirements for the humane handling of farmed animals and to deem systems such as gestation stalls for breeding sows, veal crates, and forced molting (starvation) of egg-laying hens "inhumane." The campaign finally ends in a precedent-setting decision from the New Jersey Supreme Court: Factory farming procedures are not "humane" simply because they're "routine husbandry." The Court also rejects tail-docking cattle (mutilation without anesthesia) and directs NJDA to reexamine state-mandated criterion for animal treatment.

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  7/7/04: Comments - NJ "Humane" Policies For Farmed Animals
•  12/11/03: Last Chance For Humane Bill in New Jersey
•  7/5/03: Cruelty As Usual On NJ Factory Farms
•  5/21/03: NJ Humane Standards Waived For Economic Gain
•  1/18/03: NJ Humane Veal Bill Reaches Assembly Floor
•  7/7/02: New Jersey Humane Veal Bill
•  1/24/01: New Jersey Initiative To Ban Intensive Confinement Systems

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2/27/08: Los Angeles: Spay-Neuter Proposal Becomes Law

Kinship Circle supports this landmark legislation, by circulating alerts and information about a Spay/Neuter Ordinance that requires animal caretakers to spay or neuter cats and dogs. The goal of AB 1634 California Healthy Pets Act (initiated and sponsored by Judie Mancuso) is a statewide law to decrease euthanasia of unwanted animals via mandatory sterilization. The law's passage in Los Angeles offers a promising start!

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  Make Model Mandatory Spay/Neuter Law Reality
•  Support Landmark CA Law For Mandatory Spay/Neuter

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2/18/08: Three U.S. Agencies Aim To End Animal Testing

In innumerable campaigns and presentations, Kinship Circle urges government agencies to implement in vitro research techniques that utilize cells, cell lines or cellular components of human derivation — models more relevant to human health and safety. In particular, we've pushed the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) — an agency Congress formed to validate non-animal research — to do its job. We welcome a "Memorandum of Understanding," signed by the Environmental Protection Agency, National Toxicology Program and National Institutes of Health, to expand non-animal tests and phase out non-predictive animal toxicity tests to analyze new chemicals and drugs.

PHOTO: Professor Jonathan Dordick holds a biochip designed to mimic human reactions to potentially toxic compounds. Scientists hope the chips can do away with the need to use animals... Photo by Mike Groll, AP

KINSHIP CIRCLE ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
•  8/16/07: Animal Tests Lie. Urge ICCVAM To Do Its Job
•  ACTIONS CAMPAIGNS: Animal Experimentation
•  FACT SHEET: ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION
•  FACT SHEET: Sacrificing One Won't Save The Other
•  FACT SHEET: Vivisection: You Paid For It
•  COLUMNS & ARTICLES: Animal Experimentation
•  FACT SHEET: Who Is Huntingdon Life Sciences?
•  FACT SHEET: Bear Witness: Inside Huntingdon Life Sciences, 2005
•  BOOKLET: Inside/Out: Diary Of Madness
•  FACT SHEET: Vivisection Hall Of Shame


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