Annual Report for 2000

United Poultry Concerns holds that the treatment of chickens and other domestic fowl in food production, science, education, entertainment, and human companionship situations has a significant effect upon human, nonhuman, and environmental welfare. We seek to make the public aware of the ways poultry are treated and to advance the compassionate and respectful treatment of chickens and other domestic fowl. We are grateful to our supporters for enabling us to fulfill our mission in 2000.

In 2000, United Poultry Concerns:

• Organizationally cosponsored, with the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, California Assembly Bill 2141. This was the first bill in the U.S. that would have banned the egg industry practice of force molting hens by depriving the birds of all food from 5 to 21 days straight. UPC president Karen Davis attended the May 3rd hearing in Sacramento. UPC assisted financially to bring poultry welfare specialist Dr. Ian Duncan from the University of Guelph in Ontario to Sacramento to testify on behalf of the bill.
  
  
• Got Washington Post writer Marc Kaufman to do a cover story on forced molting. “Cracks in the Egg Industry,” Sunday, April 30, was the first major coverage of this cruel disease-causing egg industry practice. United Poultry Concerns ’ Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, cited in the article, produced the documents on which this landmark coverage was based.
  
  
• Attended the Ark Trust 14th Annual Genesis Awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, CA, March 18th, where the Outstanding National Newspaper Feature was awarded to Washington Post writer Tamara Jones for her November 14, 1999 profile of UPC president Karen Davis, “For The Birds.”
  
  
• Was featured in Emmy-winning filmmaker John Kastner ’s documentary “Chickens Are People Too.” This program, which aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation primetime TV show Witness, November 13, contrasted UPC ’s philosophy and sanctuary with the violence and cruelty of the poultry & egg industry.
  
  
• Was featured on the Virginia Public Television show, Virginia Currents, November 17, in an engrossing look at our chicken sanctuary, including footage of rescued battery-caged hens touching the ground for the first time in their lives.
  
  
• President Karen Davis spoke at the presentation of Roscoe the Rooster ’s statue to the community of Takoma, Park, MD on October 8 after serving on the Committee that selected this beautiful memorial to Roscoe, beloved and protected by Takoma Park residents for 10 years until he died. UPC members helped raise funds to enshrine him.
  
  
• NUKED a Perdue Farms “chicken nuggets children ’s art exhibit” set for January 12th at the David Beitzel Gallery in New York City. UPC members successfully blitzed the Gallery and intended co-host, actor Danny Glover, spawning a chic article in The New York Times (Dec. 21, 1999), “They Say Perdue is Bad to the Bone.”
  
  
• STOPPED the distribution and sale of an obscene rubber chicken toy in 22 Virginia-based Rite Aid stores.
  
  
• STOPPED the “2nd annual New Mexico Chicken Roping Competition” scheduled for October 15th, earning positive coverage of our successful campaign by the Associated Press and the Albuquerque Journal (Oct. 7).
  
  
• Secured the release in October of two chickens, Scout and Mabel, from what was to have been a month-long cage exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, earning supportive coverage of our protest in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Pulse of the Twin Cities.
  
  
• Conducted monthly “Slaughter of The Innocent” protests at KFC restaurants in the Washington DC Area organized by UPC member Jamey West and UPC web site administrator Franklin Wade. The Gazette newspapers highlighted our roving demos in a vivid photo & article, Sept. 28, “Animal rights group protests at Hyattsville [MD] KFC restaurant.”
  
  
• Protested for the 10th year at the annual Delmarva Chicken Festival, in Berlin, MD (which has a chicken slaughtering plant) on Saturday, June 10th.
  
  
• Held our 10th Annual Mourning Vigil for Chickens, on the boardwalk at Ocean City, MD, Saturday, June 24th. Our color posters of the chicken slaughter process showed thousands of boardwalk strollers the horror of eating chickens vs. the joy of having chickens as friends, not food.
  
  
• Held a daylong protest at the Carnegie Science Center with Animal Advocates of Pittsburgh on Earth Day, April 22, against the center ’s chick hatching exhibit. UPC ’s vigorous campaign to stop the hatchery from opening and then to close it down received positive news coverage by NBC TV and Reuters.
  
  
• Sponsored the world ’s first Forum on the Role of Farmed Animal Sanctuaries, September 16-17. This historic conference was the first ever to examine how farmed animal sanctuaries fit into the animal advocacy movement, including the place of vegan advocacy and public education in programs designed to provide rescue and refuge for farmed animals.
  
  
• President Karen Davis was a featured speaker at UPC ’s Forum (above); PETA ’s Weekly Staff Lunch, January 9th; the 2000 Summit for the Animals, March 16-18; The Alliance for Animal in Virginia ’s 14th Animal Rights Symposium, March 25; the Animal Rights 2000 Conference in Washington DC, July 1-5; the North American Vegetarian Society Summerfest, July 6-8; and the 2000 Dinner for the Animals sponsored by Animal Activists of Central Florida, December 9th.
  
  
• President Karen Davis exhibited and gave workshops at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conventions in Orlando, FL, April 6-9, and Baltimore, MD November 16-18; and at the Virginia Association of Science Teachers (VAST) Conference, “Science for the New Millennium,” in Roanoke, VA, November 10-11.
  
  
• President Karen Davis published letters in many news outlets including The Montgomery Journal (MD), Feb. 9; The Daily Reflector (Greenville, NC), June 28; the Asheville Citizen-Times NC), July 18; and Time magazine, August 28 (“Getting to Know Chickens”).
  
  
• Sponsored our 3rd Annual Turkey Vigil organized by UPC member Jamey West, November 17th in Bethesda, MD, and our 2nd annual protest against the White House turkey “pardoning” ceremony November 22, generating coverage by Reuters (Nov. 22) and The Washington Post (Nov. 23). Held our 11th Annual Open House Thanksgiving Feast at our headquarters in Machipongo, VA, Saturday, Nov. 25th.
  
  
• Participated in the USDA ’s Farm Animal Well-Being Task Group Meeting in Washington DC, May 3, in the Illinois HumanePAC ’s historic Farmed Animal Legislative Meeting, Aug. 8th, and in the year-long Egg Safety Meetings held by the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington DC, Sacramento CA, Columbus OH, and Atlanta GA. On August 31, UPC president Karen Davis was granted a private meeting with FDA and USDA administrators for the purpose of urging a ban on forced molting as part of the government ’s forthcoming Egg Safety Standards. Throughout the year, United Poultry Concerns submitted detailed Comments in response to the Federal Register ’s requests for Comments regarding the FDA ’s proposed egg safety standards.
  
  
• Exhibited at the 2000 Eastern Shore Birding Festival, October 6-8.
  
  
• Contributed $250 to, and was as a campaign member of, the Summit for the Animal ’s Campaign 2000: Year of the Humane Child, including the Humane Student Expo in New Orleans, LA, Oct. 25, attended by 800 students.
  
  
• President Karen Davis served as an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Summit for the Animals, 1998-2000. The Executive Committee plans the program for the Summit, which is the annual meeting of the heads of animal advocacy organizations in the United States.
  
  
• Adopted 25 hens rescued from the Buckeye Egg Farm Disaster in Croton, Ohio on September 20th and helped find good homes for more Buckeye hens in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and elsewhere. In 2000, United Poultry Concerns adopted 55 rescued birds into our sanctuary: 53 chickens and two turkeys.
  
  
• United Poultry Concerns maintains a permanent chicken sanctuary, education center, and referral service at our headquarters at 12325 Seaside Road, Machipongo, VA 23405. We are an Accredited Sanctuary certified by the American Sanctuary Association and by The Association of Sanctuaries. UPC ’s website administration office, headed by Franklin Wade, is located in Bethesda, Maryland. Our website address is www.UPC-online.org.

From all of us at United Poultry Concerns, thank you for your continuing support.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD
President

United Poultry Concerns takes this opportunity to thank the following foundations for assisting our programs to promote the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl: the Alexander Foundation, the Komie Foundation, The Marino Foundation, the National Anti-Vivisection Society Sanctuary Fund, the NALITH Foundation, The William and Charlotte Parks Foundation, and The Summerlee Foundation.