Stop Killing Canada Geese Families in Loring Park

In July a company called Canada Goose Management, hired by the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB), captured two beloved Canada goose families who lived in Loring Park in Minneapolis. The company workers herded the terrified geese with fencing, grabbed them, and put them into cages. The adult geese stayed by their flightless goslings in an attempt to protect them. The workers then put the caged geese into the back of a truck and drove them to a poultry processing plant where they were sent to a slaughter line, the adults to become human food supposedly destined for a food shelf and the goslings to be rendered into animal feed.

For this ridiculous and inhumane roundup, Canada Goose Management earned $250 for a park population survey and $1,600 for site-wide removal ($23 per adult and $13 per young). The MRPB allows this company, which profits from the capture and slaughter of animals, to decide how many and what birds to kill.

There was no goose overpopulation problem; only two goose families lived in the park. The MPRB management plan allows one nesting pair per pond, so its own guidelines were not followed. Please sign a petition asking the MRPB to end their contract with Canada Goose Management and adopt the petition's recommendations for humane wildlife management. Many thanks to Kay for pulling this petition together after conversations with ARC about this very sad issue.

End Animal Labs at Hennepin Healthcare

ARC joined the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Minneapolis to urge the Board of Directors of Hennepin Healthcare to end the use of live animals for training emergency medicine residents and department staff. After the demonstration ARC Program Director Ashley Riddle and Outreach Coordinator Kelsey Hambor helped deliver 72,000+ petitions to the Hennepin Healthcare Board of Directors meeting.

At Hennepin, trainees are instructed to cut into live rabbits and sheep to practice invasive procedures. At the end of each session the animals (up to 200 per year) are killed. Currently, 95 percent (216 of 228) of surveyed emergency medicine residency programs in the U.S. and Canada use only nonanimal training methods. Take action and ask the hospital to end this educationally substandard and inhumane practice by making the switch to simulation—because Minnesota deserves better.

Sign Up for Farmers Market and Open Streets Outreach 

ARC will be at many local farmers markets and Open Streets events in late summer and fall where we will give out Guides to Animal Free Eating, sample Primal Strips vegan jerky, and show a 4-minute virtual reality video about the lives of farmed animals.

Email Ashley if you're interested in volunteering. It's a great way to get the message out about how a plant-based diet is good for the animals, the earth, and one's health. We have the following dates and locations coming up:

Bloomington Farmers Market – 8/25
Midtown Farmers Market – 8/11, 8/18, 9/8, 9/22, 10/20, 10/27
Mill City Farmers Market – 10/6
West Broadway Farmers Market – 8/10, 9/7, 10/5
Open Streets Nicollet – 9/23
Open Streets University of Minnesota – 9/30

Meet the Chickens at Volunteer Day at Chicken Run

ARC is again partnering with Chicken Run Rescue for a volunteer work day. CRR is a closed sanctuary that has been rehabilitating and making a home for injured and abandoned chickens since 2001.

Join the chicken chore party as we help make things fun and comfy for the birds. We will be performing any tasks that need doing, including garden work. There will be plenty of variety for all levels of strength and mobility and refreshments afterwards. Event is from noon to 3:00 p.m. Please RSVP as soon as possible as this popular event is limited to 15 people.

Save the Date: Protest Exotic Animal Rides at the Minnesota Ren Fest

Join us on Saturday, September 1 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Highway 169 entrance to the fair at 3525 145th Street West for a peaceful and legal protest of the exotic animal rides at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Help us educate the public about why they should skip these rides and instead enjoy the activities that don’t hurt animals. Many people who jump at the chance to get close to animals by buying exotic animal rides probably would not if they knew about the suffering the animals endure. The violence that goes into training animals used for rides is not seen by the public; elephants have to be made so frightened of the bull hook the handler carries that they will behave in front of spectators.

These animals are trucked around the country from site to site in small trailers or trucks. In the wild, they have extensive social networks and travel miles on foot every day. But when they’re sentenced to being living amusement park rides they plod in monotonous circles day after day with hundreds of pounds on their backs, for hour upon boring uncomfortable hour.

The Minnesota Renaissance Festival continues to feature these rides, despite their parent company having discontinued the elephant rides at its Kansas City Ren Fest. And this year they're adding even more animal exploitation with an "Exotic Petting Zoo," where fairgoers can hug a kangaroo, pet an African porcupine or hand feed a grape to a ring-tailed lemur.