United Poultry Concerns
Promoting the compassionate and respectful
treatment of domestic fowl

PO Box 150 • Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
(757) 678-7875 • FAX (757) 678-5070
www.UPC-online.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
 13 November 2003 		Contact:

Karen Davis 757-678-7875

United Poultry Concerns Urges the NHSPCA to Serve Compassionate Meals Instead of Dead Chickens and Fish at Its November 15 Fundraiser

Machipongo, VA - For the second year in a row, United Poultry Concerns (UPC), an animal protection organization, has urged the New Hampshire SPCA (NHSPCA) to live up to its name - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - by serving only vegetarian meals at its fundraisers. Animal protectionists around the country, including shelter directors, have begged the NHSPCA to protect all animals by adopting a vegetarian policy. As one shelter director said, "We should not eat whom we shelter."

United Poultry Concerns President Dr. Karen Davis has written to Executive Director Lisa Dennison and to Board of Directors Chairman Richard Ford urging that the use of charitable funds to prevent animal cruelty should not be used to perpetuate cruelty. "For a 'humane' society to serve and advertise slaughtered chickens and fish sends a horrible, morally chaotic message to the community," says Davis. "How can the NHSPCA tell the story of rescuing a flock of suffering chickens, then turn around and order 400 chickens to suffer and die for dollars?"

In writing to Ms. Dennison and Mr. Ford, UPC enclosed our 2003 Report on Poultry Slaughter , which notes that birds are not even covered by the federal Humane Slaughter Act, along with the Animal Place booklet Food for Thought: Adopting an Animal Friendly Menu for Your Shelter's Events . Food for Thought includes sample vegetarian policies and recipes, plus comments from shelter directors who support humane menus for shelter-sponsored events.

United Poultry Concerns learned of the NHSPCA's plan from Larissa Mullen
(Lnmullen@cisunix.unh.edu ), a student Animal Rights Group leader at the University of New Hampshire where the fundraiser is being held. The group plans to protest at the fundraiser. In an email of November 5, Mullen wrote to UPC: "The NHSPCA spent a lot of time this year working on a cruelty case where they rescued neglected animals including thirty starving chickens. Irony."

We call upon the NHSPCA to remove the "irony" from its activity. For an animal shelter to serve dead animals to people is as reprehensible and outdated as dangling the bait of a sealskin coat. The Victorian Age is over.

United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. www.UPC-online.org