For those of you who missed Kelly's talk at SOS

NATIONAL FERAL CAT DAY SPECIAL EVENT

October 16, 2007


“Communities & Cats”
Presentation by: Kelly Bettinger
(“Campus Cats” Program Coordinator and Wildlife Biologist)

Learn how other communities have been successful at humanely reducing their feral cat populations, how a “Campus Cats” program is being implemented on the University of Georgia Campus, and what you can do to help in the efforts to combat feline overpopulation.

Date/Time: 10/16/07, Tuesday, 6:15pm-7:15pm
Location: Athens-Clarke Public Library, Baxter Street, Athens, Georgia
Admission : A donation to our Fall Cat Food Drive* would be appreciated! Suggested donation: 2 cans of wet/soft food or 1 bag of dry food

*For additional drop-off locations or to arrange for the pick-up of donated food, please e-mail Kelly at: feralcatcaregivers@yahoo.com

Event sponsored by the Cat Zip Alliance
www.catzip.org

"Person with Interests"

Interesting news item today out of Austria. It is about a chimpanzee, Matthew Hiasl Pan, who an Austrian group, Association Against Animal Factories, is trying to have declared legally a "person with interests" rather than a "thing without interests" in order to help provide for his future care (the shelter he has been living at has gone bankrupt) and to ensure he isn't sold to someone outside the country where he would no longer be protected by Austrian animal cruelty laws. The article notes that they are not trying to have him declared "human" just legally a person rather than a thing.

Help Stop Dogfighting in Georgia

The federal prosecution of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick on dogfighting charges has brought new attention to efforts by state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) to put some teeth into state laws banning the practice.

Georgia is a dogfighting haven because it lacks tough laws. For example, Georgia is the only state where it's legal both to attend a dogfight and own fighting dogs.

John Goodwin, manager of animal fighting issues for the Humane Society of the United States, recently held a public meeting in Atlanta. "Now that the nation has been awakened to the horrors of dogfighting and its prevalence, states with weak dogfighting laws need to step up to the plate" said Goodwin. "Strong felony penalties for dogfighting, including being a spectator at a fight, are essential to controlling this criminal, multi-million dollar industry. No one who fights dogs or who is complicit in this horribly cruel activity should be able to escape the law."

Senate Bill 16, the dogfighting bill, passed the Georgia Senate by a unanimous vote of 54-0 last Spring. It awaits action in the State House. Please contact your State House member and ask them to support S.B. 16.

The 2008 Georgia General Assembly session will begin January 2008. Your Georgia Representative needs to hear from you now. Please urge your legislator to strengthen laws against this cruel activity!

You can find your state elected officials using the HSUS Legislator Lookup or at the Georgia General Assembly website.

Learn more about this urgent problem at Georgia's Dog Fighting Legislation. And check out the winners of the HSUS "Knock Out Animal Fighting" video contest selected by tens of thousands of voters!

Vegan Lasagna!

I love cooking and eating! And for some reason lately, I've been really into taking pictures of my food. So I want to periodically post some recipes with photos of my favorite foods. Some of them I came up with on my own (like today's lasagna), some are from cookbooks, and some are from vegweb.com--but I'll always give a recipe! So enjoy today's recipe. Who doesn't love lasagna?

Vegan Lasagna

Ingredients
--1 box lasagna
--1 jar marinara/pasta sauce
--a bunch of sauteed veggies (optional, but awesome)

“Ricotta” Filling:
--1 block firm tofu (usu. one pound), crumbled into small ricotta-like pieces
--about ¼ - ½ block Follow Your Heart Vegan Soy Mozzarella Cheese, grated
(Follow Your Heart, available at Daily Groceries Coop, is my favorite because it actually melts

and is vegan—no casein)
--about 2-3 T Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (or other vegan cream cheese)
--about 2-3 T soy milk
--about ¼ C nutritional yeast
(the yellow flaky stuff you get in bulk, not “brewer’s yeast”)
--about ½ t – 1t each of:
garlic
basil
oregano
salt
pepper
dried or fresh parsley
--about ¼ t nutmeg

Crumble the tofu, grate the soy cheese, and mix all ingredients in a bowl. Sautee the veggies if you want veggie lasagna. I usually spice up the veggies, too. In the meantime, bring water to a boil and cook the lasagna. Rinse lasagna in cold water and set aside Lightly cover a baking dish with some pasta sauce, and place one layer of pasta in the dish. Cover pasta with the “ricotta” filling, sauteed veggies, some pasta sauce, and top with more grated Soy Mozzarella. Repeat pasta, filling, veg, sauce, cheese, etc, until you run out of ingredients! I also like to top the completed lasagna with a bunch of sauce and then some soy cheese, too. You can also use the ricotta filling to make stuffed shells, ziti, whatever you like.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes, until sauce is bubbly. The cheese won’t necessarily be totally browned, what with it being soy cheese and all, but it will be melty. And delicious.

AthensPets Needs Your Help

Interested in helping out Athens homeless pets? Do you own a digital camera and have access to email? If so, read on! A network of volunteers updates and maintains AthensPets.net, a site dedicated to saving the lives of dogs at Athens-Clarke County Animal Control. If you are able to volunteer at least once every 4-6 weeks and visit animal control to take pictures and write stories for the dogs at the shelter, then email Allyson at ally99@gmail.com for more information. Thanks!

One Bite at a Time

On her blog, Kathy Freston offers some helpful tips for anyone interested in transitioning to a plant-based diet:

"I heard from a lot of people who wanted help in making the transition to a vegetarian (or mostly vegetarian) diet. Let's face it: If you've been eating meat all your life, this sort of a change can be daunting even just to think about, let alone act on. Happily, it's easier than ever today to make the transition from meat-eater to vegetarian, and the following suggestions should help even the most die-hard carnivores make the switch."

You can read Kathy's "Top 6" tips at One Bite at a Time: A Beginner's Guide to Conscious Eating. This is a great introduction for everyone concerned about improving their own health, protecting our environment, or reducing the suffering of factory-farmed animals.

Threatened Species

As a follow-up to last week's S.O.S/S.E.A. film "Planet Earth: The Future" you may be interested to see the newly released 2007 Red List of Threatened Species maintained by The World Conservation Union. The list is searchable and contains scientific as well as popular names for the listed species - both animals and plants. There is a brief overview of some of the notable animals on the list at Discovery.com newsfeed.

While we are on the topic of endangered animals...there is an interesting article out of the Sacramento Bee about how Sacramento State helped a potential donor get approved hunting licenses for "red listed" species in Tanzania. It is a really interesting article, and like the film "Planet Earth" shows 'conservation' is in the eye of the beholder.

Welcome to the S.O.S blog!

The S.O.S Leadership Council decided to create a blog to share information about S.O.S activities and other animal related news/information. Enjoy!