Back Against. Alone in his cage, Ben is one of many animals in deplorable conditions at Jambbas Ranch

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1 FALL Lawsuit ALDF Fights Back Against Ag Gag 4 Follows Massive Hen Rescue 8 Honoring Our Attorney All-Stars! A NEWSLETTER FOR SUPPORTERS OF THE ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND Alone in his cage, Ben is one of many animals in deplorable conditions at Jambbas Ranch Captive Cruelty Jambbas Ranch granted license to exhibit animals despite repeated violations No animal belongs in a zoo, but when that zoo is a pathetic roadside menagerie that has garnered dozens of welfare violations, the animals suffer all the more. In April, the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, challenging its decision to renew a federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) license for Jambbas Ranch Tours in Cumberland County, North Carolina. Jambbas Ranch is home to more than 100 animals, many of whom live in deplorable conditions with little resemblance to their natural habitats. A bear named Ben, for example, passes his days and nights on concrete, often pacing his barren 12-by- 22-foot enclosure and pressing his head into the chain-link fence heartbreaking, obvious signs of psychological distress. Over the past six years, Jambbas has amassed dozens of AWA violations; in fact, nearly every USDA inspection of the roadside zoo between October 2006 and January 2012 resulted in citations for AWA violations, such as unsanitary conditions, hazardous enclosures, failure to provide adequate veterinary care, and failure to supply sufficient quantities of food and potable water. The AWA allows an animal exhibitor or dealer to have his or her license renewed only if the person s business operates in accordance with AWA regulations. The USDA has repeatedly renewed Jambbas license despite finding dead animals lying near live ones, continued on page 6 PETA

2 LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 2 Small State Takes Big Step for Animals For the Record This new rule is good news for animal lovers. It will help ensure that all animals can be transported safely and will enable consumers to more accurately compare airlines when it comes to the care provided to their pets in the air. Ray LaHood, U.S. Transportation Secretary, regarding a proposed Department of Transportation rule prompted by an ALDF petition requiring reporting on deaths and injuries of dogs and cats shipped as cargo on commercial airlines. America s most diminutive state, Rhode Island, has taken a bold step forward in advancing the laws that protect animals one we hope will be a model for other states. On June 11, Governor Lincoln Chafee signed into law a bill that allows state authorities to designate a veterinarian or a representative from the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to act as an advocate for the animal involved in a legal proceedings to make recommendations to any court before which the custody or well-being of an animal is at issue. As a member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, you know how hard we fight every day to advocate for the rights and interests of animals in courtrooms across the country. The fundamental problem for animals is that the law considers them to be property things, like the computer I m typing on or the desk it s sitting on. Things don t have legally recognized rights or interests of their own. Even while ALDF fights and wins court battles to protect animals, we also strive to advance the law to recognize the obvious animals are not just property but living beings with inherent rights and interests of their own. The impetus for Rhode Island s landmark law was a cruelty case involving a dog starved for three months by her owner. The result was an infuriating, heartbreaking, and all-toocommon slap-on-the-wrist $50 fine. In this case, the judge had simply not been presented with critical evidence about the case. Rhode Island Senator John Tassoni decided to do something to make sure the animals have their own advocate in court, ensuring the judge has the facts necessary to bring justice. Tassoni s bill, now law in Rhode Island, recognizes that animals, while they can t speak for themselves, need legal advocates who can. That, in itself, is a recognition that they have interests to speak for an important leap forward for protecting Rhode Island s animals. ALDF will continue to build on this breakthrough and fight to make recognition of the rights of animals the law of the land in every state. Stephen Wells Executive Director NEWSLETTER STAFF Lisa Franzetta Editor Mark Hawthorne Contributing Writer Stephen Farley Design Newsletter Design BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sarah Luick Chair Joshua Marquis Vice Chair Marilyn Forbes Secretary Jim Rockenbach Treasurer Directors David Cassuto Tracy Miller Michelle Ullrich-Kownacki Nicole Roth Susann Sunny MacLachlan For the animals, Stephen Wells Executive Director The Animal Legal Defense Fund is a nonprofit organization funded almost entirely by individual, taxdeductible contributions. For donation, membership, and change of address inquiries, please us at membership@aldf.org, or call For information about our work and programs, us at info@aldf.org. Please see copyright link on aldf.org for trademark information.

3 Fighting Ag Gag Laws ALDF s Protect Your Food Act would help ensure food safety Dirty facilities. Food contamination issues. Industrialized animal cruelty. Factory farmers have plenty to hide, which is why they keep their practices hidden from view. They know that when consumers get wind of the unsanitary conditions and routine abuse that have become the hallmarks of raising and killing animals for food, Big Ag has a lot to answer for. For years, animal advocates and whistleblowing farm employees have shined a spotlight on these facilities by documenting animal abuse, unsafe working conditions, and environmental problems on video. Even if images of horrific cruelty don t persuade authorities to press charges against a factory farm, the scenes quickly find their way online and to media outlets, followed by a storm of public outrage and bad publicity. Appalling and dangerous conditions videotaped during a recent investigation at a California factory farm, for example, prompted the recall of 143 million pounds of beef the largest beef recall in US history. Rather than clean up their act, corporate agriculture made a bold move last year: they openly backed legislation in several states that would make it illegal to photograph or videotape on a factory farm. These so-called ag gag bills target undercover investigators of factory farms and have been introduced in 10 states in the last year. Most of the bills went nowhere, but in two states Iowa and Utah the bills were signed into law. In an effort to prevent the mega-corporations that control most of our food production from funding the passage of similar ag gag laws, the Animal Legal Defense Fund is proposing the Protect Your Food Act. Designed to minimize the risk to citizens of contracting food-borne illnesses, the Protect Your Food Act would prohibit state or local governments from purchasing or distributing food products from any jurisdiction that passes an ag gag law. The intent of ag gag laws is simple: shield animal agribusiness from public scrutiny by punishing whistleblowers and protecting animal abusers. Such legislation allows environmental violations and food contamination issues to flourish undetected, while also preventing isolated and often vulnerable workers from documenting and protecting themselves against dangerous conditions, including unsafe work conditions, exposure to toxic substances, and intimidation against labor organizing. Agricultural workers often use mobile phone cameras to document abuse, and then use that evidence to defend their rights. If your state adopts ALDF s Protect Your Food Act (a.k.a. The Safeguarding the Public from Food-Borne Illnesses Act ), your state government and counties would be required to stop purchasing potentially unsafe food products from any jurisdiction with an ag gag law. The Act will not only help protect your family and the residents of your state from increased risk of exposure to contaminated food, it will also serve as a legislative strike back against the corporate agriculture lobby in states that choose to keep consumers in the dark by passing ag gag laws. Register your suppor t at ALDF s ProtectYourFood.org, and in just a few clicks, you can directly contact your own state representatives, urging them to sponsor this important legislation in your state. A fox on fur farm, confined to a tiny cage 3 What s in the fridge? Help support ALDF s campaign to keep mega-companies from hiding the truth at ProtectYourFood.org

4 Justice for 50,000 Hens 4 Three months after farmed animal sanctuaries rescued thousands of abandoned hens this past winter, the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a complaint in the Stanislaus County Superior Court against the company that left the birds inside an egg farm to die. This case of extreme neglect drew national headlines after the owner of Turlock, California-based A&L Poultry closed the doors in early February and never came back, leaving 50,000 hens without food or water. By the time authorities discovered the animals on February 22, 20,000 hens had starved to death. About 30 hens had escaped their cages and struggled to avoid drowning in the giant manure pits below the buildings before finally succumbing, while authorities had to euthanize another 25,000 birds at the scene because of their deteriorating health. Stepping in to rescue and rehabilitate the remaining hens were the animal sanctuaries Animal Place, Farm Sanctuary, and Harvest Home, who also shouldered the financial burden of treating the nearly 4,500 extremely sick birds. Emaciated, dehydrated, and weak, many of the hens needed fluids and tube feedings, and most were treated for upper-respiratory infection, mites, and coccidiosis, a common parasitic disease found in chickens. Fortunately, the majority of the hens responded well to the treatment and began recovering within a week, while others needed a little more TLC. One of thousands of victims who did not survive her abandonment at A&L Poultry s factory farm Standard Practice While held inside the cages at A&L s factory farm, the hens were denied the ability to engage in most of their natural behaviors, such as scratching, foraging, perching, nesting, and dust bathing a chicken s natural defense against mites. Sadly, this treatment is endured by most of the 300 million hens used in the U.S. egg industry, where birds live in wire battery cages so small they cannot even spread their wings. They share these cramped quarters with five or six other hens, and each of them has had the tip of her beak seared off so she cannot peck at and harm other birds under these stressful conditions. And while A&L s treatment of hens was particularly cruel, it is legal in many parts of this country to withhold food from hens on egg farms for up to 10 days. It is called forced molting, and it is used to shock the animals bodies into a new egg-laying cycle. After that time, the egg industry considers the hens worthless, and they are killed generally at about two years of age. But as a visit to Animal Place, Farm Sanctuary, or Harvest Home will show you, these so-called spent hens are curious, social animals who love nothing more than enjoying food, friends, and freedom.

5 ALDF s lawsuit is an effort to place responsibility on the guilty parties who caused pain and distress to tens of thousands of helpless animals. Factory farmers are rarely held accountable for the immense suffering they inflict on animals, says ALDF staff attorney Matthew Liebman. Our lawsuit takes a stand against this impunity, seeking to hold the defendants responsible for the agony they caused the hens and the financial toll they took on the sanctuaries that stepped in to clean up this catastrophe. 5 Two of the lucky hens rescued from A&L Poultry, on the first day of their new lives Pro Bono Honors continued from page 8 abusive puppy mills large-scale commercial dog breeding facilities. Joyce Wang of Latham & Watkins LLP is responsible for putting together ALDF s case against the company, while Mark Neubauer of Steptoe & Johnson LLP has been the lead litigation counsel. Here is a complete list of the individual award recipients: Julie Badel, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., Chicago, IL Lawrence M. Reuben, Law Offices of Lawrence M. Reuben, Indianapolis, IN Anthony T. Eliseuson, SNR Denton US LLP, Chicago, IL Mandy Pezzano, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Dallas, TX Juli Gilliam, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, Chicago, IL Jane Kim, Vinson & Elkins LLP, Dallas, TX Following are the law firm honorees: Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz P.C., New Orleans, LA Frost Brown Todd, Louisville, KY Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Irvine, CA Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, San Francisco, CA Holland & Knight LLP, Chicago, IL Latham & Watkins LLP, Menlo Park, CA Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, Atlanta, GA Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, Los Angeles, CA Proskauer Rose LLP, New York, NY Public Justice, Oakland, CA Schiff Hardin LLP, San Francisco, CA Shadley Battista, Montréal, Quebec Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Washington, DC Troutman Sanders LLP, Atlanta, GA Winston & Strawn LLP, Chicago, IL We are tremendously grateful to these hard-working attorneys and law firms. For information about ALDF s Animal Law Pro Bono Program, please contact Tom Linney at tlinney@aldf.org. Want to join the ranks of ALDF s pro bono attorney all-stars? Attorney applications for Animal Law Program membership are at aldf.org/ animallawmembership

6 6 goats The law is clear in this case. The USDA is not allowed to issue licenses to facilities that it knows are violating the Animal Welfare Act. Captive Cruelty continued from page 1 and pigs living amid layers of feces, and buffalo suffering oozing wounds that appeared untreated and were infested with flies and maggots. The law is clear in this case, says ALDF staff attorney Matthew Liebman. The USDA is not allowed to issue licenses to facilities that it knows are violating the Animal Welfare Act; otherwise, there wouldn t be any purpose to having regulations. Joining ALDF in our suit is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), as well as two Cumberland County residents, Hosea Ray and Rikki Harrison, who have devoted considerable time and resources to speaking up for the rabbits, deer, elk, antelope, bison, dogs, fox, and other animals living amid inhumane conditions at Jambbas Ranch. Ray and Harrison have visited the facility on numerous occasions and have noted in particular the deplorable conditions in which Ben the bear is kept. Ben lives in a fenced cage with virtually no bedding or enrichment. Video footage taken by PETA shows a desperately bored Ben pacing back and forth, pushing against the cage with his head, and trying to reach under the fencing with his declawed paw. TV legend and animal advocate Bob Barker has called on the Cumberland County board of supervisors to let Ben retire to a sanctuary. After spending several hours observing Ben, bear expert Else Poulsen said that Ben is suffering greatly and intervention is critical at this time. Ben exhibits the typical aberrant behaviors of a sensory deprived bear in a substandard enclosure with substandard husbandry practices, she says. His day consists of pacing, begging for bread from visitors, and sleeping nothing else. At the time of her assessment, Poulsen noted that all Ben had in his cage were a metal water bowl and a ball. She is one of numerous ursine specialists who have submitted statements to the USDA in opposition to renewing Jambbas Ranch s license. Without a USDA license, Jambbas Ranch would not be allowed under local law to even possess Ben and the other exotic animals. A Cumberland County ordinance classifies the facility as a zoo, which exempts Jambbas from the local prohibition provided it has that federal license issued by the USDA. Though Jambbas clearly profits off the animals they keep confined, on its web site, they are described as a working ranch that sells animals and raises animals for meat. These animals should not live like this, says ALDF executive director Stephen Wells, and through its repeated citations of Jambbas for violating basic animal welfare standards, the USDA has admitted as much. ALDF Staff Attorney Matthew Liebman A raccoon at Jambbas Ranch in a sad, unnatural concrete enclosure

7 ALDF offers $1,000 reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of anyone illegally killing sled dogs in the U.S. or Canada, after a dog tour company manager admits to culling 100 sled dogs. After the massive earthquake and tsunami, ALDF demands clarification on pet evacuation policies for U.S. military families living in Japan. True Blood star Kristin Bauer van Straten teams with ALDF to record a video appeal to free Tony, a Siberian- Bengal tiger displayed at Louisiana s Tiger Truck Stop. ALDF wins its lawsuit against the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, preventing them from renewing the annual permit that allowed the Tiger Truck Stop to display Tony. As this goes to press, the case is on appeal. ALDF sues Indiana Department of Natural Resources over penning facility, in which foxes and coyotes are trapped so that packs of hunting dogs can be set loose on them. Following high-profile coverage of cruel training sessions on movie sets, ALDF offers $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Hollywood elephant abusers. Nevada Voters for Animals gets assistance from CURRENT ASSETS Cash and cash equivalents $716,411 Investments 2,973,072 Accounts and pledges receivable, net 1,044,434 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 11,669 Total Current Assets $4,745,586 NONCURRENT ASSETS Property and Equipment, net $875,213 Grants and pledges receivable, long-term portion 932,827 Total Noncurrent Assets $1,808,040 LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS $6,553,626 Current liabilities: Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $83,020 Accrued payroll liabilities 83,917 Mortgage payable current portion 11,467 Total Current Liabilities $178,404 Long-Term Liabilities: Mortgage payable noncurrent portion 603,239 Total Liabilities $781,643 Net assets: Unrestricted 3,875,431 Temporarily restricted 1,896,552 Total Net Assets $5,771,983 $6,553, Highlights ALDF on the passage of Cooney s Law, making the most heinous acts of cruelty against companion animals a felony on the first offense. The West Hollywood city council votes unanimously to prohibit the sale of fur apparel products in the city limits. The law was based on model law language provided by ALDF. ALDF sues pet store chain Barkworks for engaging in false advertising and fraud to conceal that they source their dogs from abusive puppy mills. Consumer advocacy and food safety groups join ALDF s lawsuit to get Texas to take action against a giant egg producer confining birds in unsanitary conditions in violation of state law. ALDF combats socalled ag gag laws, which would c r i m i n a l i z e documenting abuse on factory farms, by spearheading a coalition of animal protection, public health, environmental, farm worker protection, law enforcement, and civil liberties organizations. Financial report 2011 A copy of ALDF s full audited financial statement may be obtained by writing to ALDF or visiting aldf.org. REVENUE AND SUPPORT 7 11 Donations (individuals/foundations/corporations) $2,939,295 Donations from estates 650,913 In-kind contributions Conferences -- Interest and dividends 104,277 Net assets released from restriction 847,726 Other 98,304 Total Revenue and Support $5,750,600 EXPENSES Programs: Legal $3,679,416 Public Education 859,151 Administration 270,693 Membership development 582,143 Total Expenses $5,391,403 Increase in net assets from operating activities 359,197 (Decrease) in temporarily restricted net assets (31,725) Unrealized (losses) on investments, net (96,765) Increase in net assets 230,707 Net assets at beginning of year 5,541,276 Net assets at end of year $5,771,983 report

8 Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Tucson, AZ Permit No E. COTATI AVE. COTATI, CA INSIDE 2 Big 7 ALDF s printed on recycled paper Step for Little Rhody 2011 Annual Report report 11 We Couldn t Have Done It Without You! ALDF honors pro bono attorneys The Animal Legal Defense Fund relies on a growing network of more than 1200 pro bono attorneys and law firms to assist with a wide variety of projects, including in-depth research, writing legal information guides, filing friend of the court (amicus) briefs, litigating cases, and assisting prosecutors with animal cruelty cases. This work is critical to helping ALDF in our mission to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. This year, ALDF is honoring select attorneys and law firms with our Advancement in Animal Law Pro Bono Achievement Award for their invaluable time and efforts. Indianapolis-based Lawrence M. Reuben, for example, has been instrumental in bringing and litigating ALDF s case against the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to fight coyote penning in the state, while in New Orleans, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz P.C. has been representing ALDF in its ongoing battle to liberate Tony the tiger from his cage at a Louisiana truck stop, tirelessly appearing in court again and again. We ve also had tremendous support in our lawsuit against Barkworks, a Southern California pet store chain, which we sued for repeatedly engaging in fraud and false advertising in an effort to conceal from customers that they source their puppies from continued on page 5