Campaigns and Events: Current
Outreach:
SACA is a group of students from UT, who are concerned for the welfare of animals. Through public outreach, demonstrations, and boycott, SACA hopes to raise awareness about the cruelty involved in using animals for food, clothing, experimentation, and entertainment. To raise general awareness on all animal-related issues, members of SACA table regularly on the West Mall of the UT campus, hold teach-ins, screen films, bring speakers and write letters to the editor and guest columns for local papers.
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Click here to read SACA guest columns, letters to the editor and related stories...
SACA Teach-in on Huntingdon Life Sciences
Foie Gras Campaign
SACA is working with Central Texas Animal Defense
to ban the sale of foie gras in Austin. Foie gras is a delicacy made of fatty duck or goose liver. Foie gras liver is about 10 times the size of normal duck or goose liver and is made that way by force feeding the ducks or geese using metal pipes. This process is unnatural and cruel. Foie gras has been banned in 15 other countries as well as the state of California and in the city of Chicago. Help get foie gras banned in Austin by signing the petition!
KFC boycott
SACA is protesting and boycotting KFC on Riverside monthly until KFC chooses to change their regulations regarding the treatment of their chickens before slaughter. Undercover investigations have shown that at a slaughterhouse in West Virginia, workers were tearing off the heads of live chickens, spitting in their eyes, spray-painting their faces, and stomping them to death. KFC has promised PETA and other animal rights organizations that they take animal welfare seriously, but clearly, they do not. For more information visit Kentucky Fried Cruelty.
The Great American Meatout
is an annual, national event that exposes people to wonderful, healthy,
and free vegan cooking. Groups across the country set up tables with free
food and literature at local grocery stores, shopping malls and government
buildings on March 20. SACA gives away food outside at the west mall. Every year has been a huge
success, and this year SACA was featured on the PETA2 website for this event with the "Only Zombies Eat Flesh" theme!
"Students share vegetarian
food as part of Meatout celebration," The Daily Texan, 3/21/02
FILM SCREENING: "The Witness" In the award-winning documentary "The Witness",
Eddie Lama explains how he feared and avoided animals for most of his life,
until the love of a kitten opened his heart, inspiring him to rescue abandoned
animals, become a vegetarian, and ultimately, to bring his message of compassion
to the streets of New York. With humor and sincerity, Eddie tells the story
of his remarkable change in consciousness, sharing along the way some of the
shocking realities of the meat and fur industries. Featuring the song "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan,
this is a story of beauty and transcendence in the face of tragedy and despair.
For more information, go to the
Tribe of Heart webpage. FILM SCREENING: "Earthlings" EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human providers." The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby. "This is the single most powerful and informative movie about society's treatment of animals. A must see for anyone who cares enough to know." - Woody Harrelson
Source:
I Saw Earthlings webpage.
Meatout:
Press Release 2002: Students urge UT
community to kick the meat habit
"Meatout 2000 Serves Vegan Lunch, Info
on West Mall," The Daily Texan, 3/21/00
Press Release 2000: Students give vegan
food for national "MeatOut"
Film Screenings
How does a construction contractor
from a tough Brooklyn neighborhood become an impassioned animal activist?
Shown in March 2008.
Make the connection...
Shown in February 2008.
Campaigns and Events: SACA's past successes
1. World Week For Animals in Labs, 2005:
April 23-30
Demonstrations:
Tuesday, 3:00pm: Banner March
Meet at the Tower on the West Mall. We'll march to Dean Keeton & Speedway where we'll drop provided banners and pass out flyers.
Wednesday, 8:30-9:30pm: Candlelight Vigil
Meet in front of the ARC, 27th & Speedway. Candles will be provided, please wear black.
Thursday, 8:30-9:30pm: Banner March & Candlelight Vigil
After Veggie Heaven (20th & Guadalupe) dinner at 7:30, march with banners to the ARC for Candlelight vigil from 8:30-9:30pm. Please wear black.
2. Successful campaign to end UT's beagle patent
Teach In about UT's beagle patent
WHEN: Wednesday, April 21st at
7pm
WHERE: Welch 2.256
Rally at the West Mall
Thursday, April 22nd from 11:30-1:30 pm
Come hear why the university is engaging in these practices of animal
suffering and what you can do to combat it. The American Anti-Vivisection
Society “has formally filed a legal action requesting that the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rescind patent no. 6,444,872 which
covers live beagles and the several methods used to infect them with a
fatal fungal infection in their lungs. The request for re-examination
was submitted personally to the Patent office on February 25, 2004. The
intent of this beagle patent to make dogs sick in order to generate a
profit is clear and AAVS aims to end the notion that animals are ‘objects’
that can be patented.”
The atrocities of vivisection are not unfamiliar to this campus and have,
for years, been a source of tension between the UT labs and those students
and faculty who are opposed to such injustice. Recently, however, this
new development has been patented in order to suppress the immune systems
of beagles to an unnatural and perpetual state of sickliness. Not only
does the university engage in unfair animal treatment but it has, as of
yet, taken a further step to patent some of these detestable methods.
Come to the Teach-In and then come the next day to the rally to learn
more about the patented methods and join our efforts in a letter-writing
campaign to show Faulkner that this will not be tolerated on our campus.
For more information visit:
http://www.aavs.org/actionalerts01.html or contact info@utanimalrights.com
Sponsored by: Students Against Cruelty to Animals and American Anti-Vivisection Society
In Solidarity,
SACA
Students Against Cruelty to Animals
If you are not able to attend either of the aforementioned events, here is a letter we have drafted if you wish to express your disgust about the patent to President Faulkner:
Larry R. Faulkner, Ph.D.
President
University of Texas at Austin
Office of the President
Main Building, G3400
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712
Dear President Faulkner,
I am writing to express my concern and outrage that our University has
patented beagles who were purposefully made sick and infected with a respiratory
fungal infection so that they may be used in drug testing studies. In
2002, our Board of Regents was granted U.S. Patent #
6,444,872 (“Large Animal Model of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis
in an
Immunocompromised Host”) that specifically makes claims on sickened beagle dogs. I understand that our University has already licensed the patent rights to a private drug testing company.
I am ethically opposed to patenting animals, who are neither machines nor “compositions of matter,” but rather individual sentient beings who suffer from such exploitation. According to a recent national poll, the
majority of Americans share my opposition to animal patents.
Approximately 70 percent of those surveyed stated that they are ethically
opposed to patenting animals as if they are human inventions.
I support the efforts of the American Anti-Vivisection Society and
PatentWatch Project, which filed a legal challenge regarding the beagle
patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to open this patent for
reexamination.
I respectfully urge you and the Board of Regents to disclaim Patent #
6,444,872. I look forward to receiving your response.
Sincerely,
(your name here)
Friday, 10-2pm: West Mall Rally & Teach-In
3. Animal Resources Center:
SACA launched a major campaign against the UT Animal Resources Center in the Fall 2000. SACA forced a private company to end their contract with the University, and release the last living beagle housed there. More on the victory...
The Animal Resources Center F.A.Q.
Photo gallery of animals inside the ARC
4. Vegan Dorm Campaign:
SACA has successfully fought to increase the number of vegan/vegetarian options available in dorm cafeterias. More info...
5. Koslows Furs:
SACA works with Action for Animals, the Austin animal rights group, to protest the citys remaining fur retailer. Regular demonstrations have forced Koslows from their previous location in North Austin. They have now relocated, and we have followed them. Regular protests at Koslows, SH 360 and Westlake in the Davenport shopping center.
6. Anti-Animal Corporations:
It is increasingly common to find corporations on university campuses. Whenever anti-animal corporations visit UT to attempt to recruit students for job openings, SACA is there. Proctor and Gamble and Neiman Marcus have been met with student protests and disruptions when they recruit at UT. Money has power, and so do our jobs. Your work says a lot about who you are, and what you support. Students should not work for businesses that directly support immoral industries.
"Student protest Neiman
Marcus," The Daily Texan, 2/09/01
Press Release: Students Urge Neiman Marcus Boycott: Fur Retailer Recruits
at UT
7. Texas State Aquarium:
The Texas State Aquarium is trying to build a dolphinarium. In response, a coalition of Texas groups has launched Project TSA, a national campaign. Dolphins suffer health and mental problems when confined to an aquarium, and often commit suicide. Humans are just beginning to understand the magnitude of their intelligence. We can better learn from them if they are left in their natural environment. UT students have helped out HART by assisting in tripod-sits, demonstrations, fasting (a 7-day water fast, and a 30-day water fast), and other actions.
8. ACTIVIST TARGETTED BY FBI TO SPEAK ON THE INCREASINGLY MILITANT ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
AUSTIN- An internationally-known animal rights activist and filmmaker who has been subjected to continued FBI harassment and multiple grand jury investigations will discuss the increasing militancy in the animal rights movement on Monday, April 1, at 8 p.m. in Garrison Hall room 1 on the University of Texas campus.
Josh Harper, independent filmmaker and organizer for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, will present "No Compromise: The Changing Shape of the U.S. Animal Rights Movement." The event will also include the debut of Josh Harper's latest documentary on the Huntingdon Life Sciences campaign, a film that will most likely lead to another grand jury investigation.
Harper has been labeled by individuals like Rush Limbaugh as a "domestic terrorist" because of his support of direct action tactics in the animal rights and environmental movements. He co-produced the "Breaking Free" video series on the underground Animal Liberation Front, and was involved in the first sabotage of a whale hunt in U.S. waters. He has also been targeted for his role in the international campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, the notorious contract animal testing company that is near bankruptcy. The campaign has been so successful that Harper is being sued by HLS for $11 million (under the 1970 Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, a law meant to stop the mafia).
"I made a video about the HLS campaign that earned me my second grand jury subpoena, and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, to continue the fight,"Harper said. "At a protest there I was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, and the LRPD vowed they would run me out of town. I don't care. If I have some hope of preventing more destruction of the earth and the further enslavement of animals, nothing will stop me."
The event is sponsored by UT Students Against Cruelty to Animals to foster discussion of these issues and tactics, but also to generate discussion about the free speech and privacy issues involved. In hopes of cracking down on the militant element of the animal rights movement, corporations are suing above-ground organizations, the FBI is infiltrating and harassing non-profit groups, independent filmmakers are receiving subpoenas, and politicians are eager to label above-ground activists as "domestic terrorists."
For more information on Josh Harper's work on the Huntingdon Life Sciences campaign, visit http://www.shacusa.net.