Media

November 16, 2003

Reilly recognized for supporting animal rights
The Santa Cruz Sentinel
By DAN WHITE

Sometimes the national media makes hay of Santa Cruz proclamations, but Mayor Emily Reilly won’t be cowed.

In a recent proclamation issued by City Council, Reilly joins TV star Mary Tyler Moore in standing up for the rights of farm animals. This month, City Hall filed a letter from Moore, thanking Reilly for her support of animal rights "in a world filled with so much unnecessary cruelty."

Reilly, in a voice mail message, said: "I do support the work of the people who are trying to make sure that animals are treated in a humane way."

This was the gist of the City Council proclamation passed Oct. 14, which states, "animals exploited by agribusiness are sentient beings, capable of awareness, feeling and suffering."

The proclamation, which is symbolic and costs the city nothing, maintains that humans have an ethical obligation to refrain from causing pain and suffering to these creatures, and that agribusiness "commonly subjects cattle, pigs, chickens and other farm animals to overcrowding, intensive confinement and other conditions which cause pain and suffering."

Furthermore, Reilly proclaimed Oct. 24 "Sentient Beings Day" in the city of Santa Cruz.

She could not be reached for further comment.

Reilly is not going it alone. The area’s large vegan and vegetarian activist communities are likely allies.

The county is home to John Robbins, author of the vegan-friendly "Diet For A New America," and to health food stores with an unusual assortment of faux-poultry alternatives for Thanksgiving, such as Zen Unturkey, Tofurkey and nut loaves.

On top of this, author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of "The Pig Who Sang To The Moon: The Emotional World Of Farm Animals," is speaking at The Capitola Book Cafe at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

According to a press release for the event, his book discusses evidence that barnyard animals have "complex feelings, too" including love, loyalty, grief and friendship.

Santa Cruz — which led the nation in condemning the U.S. invasion of Iraq — is now the 8th city in California to have such a farm animal rights proclamation.

Prior to Reilly’s public stance, similar statements were made in Berkeley, Burbank, El Monte, Fresno, Gilroy, Hayward and Lancaster.

Two other communities, Walnut and West Hollywood have since followed suit. All told, leaders in 50 cities in the United States and its territories have made similar proclamations, from the Municipality of Rio Grande, Puerto Rico to Flower Mound, Texas.

At times, stances like these in Santa Cruz have been comedy fodder for national newspapers and TV programs.

The city was recently portrayed in an unflattering light in an episode of Jon Stewart’s "The Daily Show." There, the council’s presidential impeachment proclamation was depicted as silly.

But to Gene Bauston, president and co-founder of the Farm Sanctuary nonprofit group in upstate New York, the barnyard campaign is not funny or symbolic.

Bauston said if enough mayors get on board in California, the collective support will add momentum to California Assembly bill 732, proposed legislation that would prohibit veal crates and gestation crates where pigs are bred.

Bauston says there are 100,000 members of his organization including "thousands" in Santa Cruz alone.

The Farm Sanctuary was officially incorporated in 1986 but gained new publicity two years ago when it launched the Sentient Beings campaign with Mary Tyler Moore — best known as playing a spunky TV news producer working for grouchy Ed Asner — as the chairwoman.

The sanctuary operates farms in Orland and upstate New York, where animals safely live out their lives. The two farms combined have more than 1,000 animals.

Pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, goats, rabbits, turkeys ducks, geese "basically they do whatever they want," Bauston said. "Cows can be cows. They graze in the pastures. Sheep can be sheep. Pigs get a chance to root in the soil."

Bauston said he’s not worried about anyone putting an only-in-Santa-Cruz spin on the proclamation or his project.

"We don’t believe that recognizing animals as sentient beings is all that crazy or out of line with mainstream sentiment," he said. "That is not really a big worry of ours."