In this week's edition: 

• Nine On Nine Foie Gras Protest a Big Success!
• Coming Up this Saturday: "Humane 101"!
• Animals in the News: Cruelty-free Testing Gains More Ground
• Be an Effective Detective for Animals
• And our weekly news briefs...

As some of you may recall, last week we gathered at Nine on Nine restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh to protest their re-adding of foie gras to their menu. As a refresher, foie gras is the diseased liver of geese and ducks that are force-fed 1/3 their body weight multiple times per day. Several restaurants in the Pittsburgh area have agreed to stop selling the "delicacy". Nine on Nine used to be one of these until we found that they recently added the item back on to their menu. As a result, we organized a demonstration on the busiest restaurant day of the year: Valentine's Day.
 
Our turn out for the event was wonderful. We had over 20 people on the sidewalks in front of, beside, and across the street from Nine on Nine restaurant. We held signs saying "Say Au Revoir to Foie Gras" and "Vive la Compassion". Several passersby took leaflets and we even reached patrons of the restaurant with our information. Channel 11 News showed up to cover the event.
 
When the management of the place was questioned by the reporters, he claimed the item was not on the menu that evening. We are unsure if the restaurant had a special Valentine's Day menu that excluded the item for that day. However, it was and still is on both their restaurant menu and bar menu. Just in case you missed it, here are the links to their menus again:

http://www.nineonnine.com/mainmenu.pdf

http://www.nineonnine.com/bar9%20menu.pdf
 
The Management's comments did not stop there. Not only did he claim that they were not serving the item that night, he claimed that he would continue to serve it because his customers "have the right to eat it"**. Due to Nine on Nine's apparent dishonesty and their tolerance for the cruel practice of foie gras, we will be launching a full campaign against their choice to sell it. They will be reminded that there should be no carte blanche for cruelty. Please stay tuned for more updates on this campaign. 

**Quote taken from Channel 11 News Broadcast

Next Saturday, the Humane Society of the United States brings its "Humane 101" presentation to Pittsburgh! The event is free and lasts about one hour. We urge all members of the local animal protection community to attend this event (more details below). While an RSVP is not obligatory and no one will be turned away, it will really help us with organization if you would RSVP, ASAP!  And please forward this alert to your contacts...

Place: Wightman Community Center, 5604 Solway Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Date & time: Saturday, February 23rd 2008, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm

Description:

These presentations will energize individuals who share a common concern for the wellbeing of animals to actively participate in changing, supporting, or opposing policies in both the private and public sectors that directly affect the care and treatment of animals. The animal community is large, and yet effecting positive change for animals is a difficult process when pursued by a divided animal community. These meetings will equip participants with the skills necessary not only to effect change for animals as an individual but will unite animal advocates with similar goals and concerns.

We will discuss basic techniques to encourage policy changes for citizen activists and provide information regarding some of the priority animal issues in Pennsylvania. Please take time to attend at least one of these meetings to support the ongoing efforts to protect the animals of Pennsylvania and to meet and network with other advocates for animals.
 
As an added bonus, the seminars will equip you with the skills necessary to campaign for animals at the local level. Topics covered will include composing effective materials for local decision-makers and media outlets, organizing your friends and acquaintances behind one goal, and overall campaign strategic planning.
 
Meetings will feature special guest speaker former State Senator Roy Afflerbach.
 
Baked goods provided My Goodies Vegan Bakery.

RSVP at:  

https://community.hsus.org/humane/events/PA_h101_pittsburgh_022308/details.tcl

[Note that this RSVP link apparently has not worked for some people. If you have a problem RSVP'ing that way, or for general information on the event, just email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ]

For our second edition of Animals in the News, we again turn to more advances in alternatives to animal testing. In the article "Government Labs Try Out Non-Animal Testing" the author explains new advances in the movement to end the cruelty towards animals in labs. In our last Lynx, an article was featured explaining a microchip with human cell cultures as an effective alternative to animal tests. The next step has been taken by the director of The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Dr. Francis Collins. He admits that animal tests for chemicals do not predict very well what the chemicals will do to human beings. He calls the animal tests "slow" and "expensive" also saying "we are not rats and we are not even other primates." Collins has begun implementing non-animal testing alternatives due to their greater propensity for accuracy and lesser cost.

View the original article here:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=government-labs-try-out-n
 
In an article published the next day- "Feds Agree to Toxicity Tests that Cut Animal Testing"- even greater news was announced. More federal organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are taking on the animal alternatives for toxicity tests. Since these organizations are responsible for using our tax dollars to test on animals, this is good news for both us and the nonhuman animals. These tests will involve robots and human cell cultures and will be used to test medications without the use of animals. The myth that nonhuman animal testing is a "necessary evil" for the assessment of medication toxicity is finally being dispelled. The director of the National Institute for Computational Toxicology, Robert Kavlock, also explained animal testing as "expensive, inefficient and is not always an accurate indicator of how a substance will affect humans." Both of these articles show great support for new technologies that may some day, eliminate the "need" for animal testing in labs. 

View the original article here:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=feds-agree-to-toxicity-test

Some of our list members contacted us recently concerning events they had witnessed in North Park, and which they were afraid might represent a threat to the geese population there. VFA has contacted both County officials and the USDA and apparently neither had agents out at the Park at that time, although it does look like Environmental Control may have been conducting water testing at the Park. This did raise an issue for us though. Please know that VFA is always willing to follow up on reports of this kind within the realm of possibility. However, in order to be effective we really need you to give us as much input as possible, because if we don't have details, it is hard for us to act. So if you ever witness any potentially "suspicious," animal-related activity, please try and get as many details as possible: date, time, precise location, and note down exactly what you saw as soon as you can.  If you have a camera or cell phone with camera, take pictures. Needless to say however, do not do any of these things if it means risking your safety. 

North Park Goose Kill continues to haunt Dan Onorato 

We would like to make brief mention of a local radio station's nod to a VFA protest! The local radio station is 102.5 WDVE and it recently released the CD 'Reloaded.' On Track 1, "Country Drinking Tax," it's suggested our own Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onoroto may be, "inhaling some of the gas he killed all them geese with," continuing on to say, "We know you killed them, Dan. You killed them and it was so bad you left the country. You didn't even go to church, that's how bad it was!"

The decision to unnecessarily slaughter 272 Canada Geese at North Park last year certainly was a bad decision for Mr. Onoroto, and we're happy to have a local radio station, albeit in humor, reminding Pittsburghers of the fact!

Back with a new look! VFA's first public meeting of the year 

Join Voices for Animals at our first renovated Public Meeting and dinner event on Friday, February 29th. The location will be at The Zenith on Southside, at 7pm. Zenith's menu is updated weekly, you can find it at www.zenithpgh.com. Meals run around 10-15$ total per person. Come out and share a great meal with VFA members, discuss future events and share ideas, and support an awesome local vegan-friendly establishment! 
         
Date:  Friday, 29th February. 7:00 pm
Place: The Zenith
86 S. 26th Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Saturday, February 23rd, 12:30 pm: HSUS "Humane 101" (see above)

Friday, February 29th, 7:00 pm: VFA public meeting at Zenith (see above) 

Sunday, March 2nd:  VFA co-tabling with the Black and Green Distro at Earth Crisis/Path To Misery concert (further details next week)