In Defense of Animals
Encyclopedia
In Defense of Animals is an animal rights
organization founded in 1983 in San Rafael, California
, USA
. It has 60,000 members and an annual budget of $650,000. The group's slogan is "working to protect the rights, welfare, and habitats of animals".
IDA has become known, in particular, for its campaigns against animal experiments conducted by the U.S. military, and experiments in which baby monkeys are separated from their mothers. Journalist and author Deborah Blum
has described its strategy as "pure pit bull. It picks a target carefully and refuses to let go".
, has presided over IDA since founding the organization in 1983. Katz is a graduate of Cornell University
's School of Veterinary Medicine. He became involved in animal rights issues when his help was sought by activists wanting to end animal experimentation at the allegedly overcrowded laboratories of the University of California, Berkeley
. In response, Katz helped set up Californians for Responsible Research, which campaigned for the university to provide better care for the animals.
Since then, IDA has become an international animal advocacy organization. Headquartered in Northern California, it has offices throughout the United States and branches in India and Africa.
actions including sit-ins, lock downs and banner hangings.
Ongoing programs include a campaign aimed at improving conditions for elephants in zoos and circuses. IDA was one of many animal protection organizations that helped shut down the Coulston Foundation, once the largest chimpanzee research center in the world.
The organisation's other achievements include:
s and that "urban zoos simply don’t have enough space for these magnificent, intelligent animals". IDA's campaign against elephants in zoos is also supported by animal rights group PETA
and the Humane Society of the United States
. IDA publishes an annual list of the "10 worst zoos for elephants".
IDA claimed it pressured the San Francisco Zoo
to transfer its elephants to a sanctuary in 2004. However, the zoo claimed IDA had "little to do" with the decision to transfer the elephants.
This is part of a wider campaign in which the IDA has claimed a number of American zoos such as the National Zoo in Washington DC have violated the Animal Welfare Act. IDA claims that the US Department of Agriculture has acknowledged "the gravity of concern over the poor conditions for elephants in our nation's zoos" However, Woodland Park Zoo
have said in response to IDA that "the limited-space argument is simplistic and ... that elephants in accredited zoos receive the best possible care."
Following the death of Gita the elephant
at the Los Angeles Zoo
in June 2006, IDA led a public protest against the keeping of elephants in small enclosures, resulting in the zoo's decision to move one of its two remaining pachyderms to a Northern California animal sanctuary in May 2007. IDA continues to protest the construction of a 3.5 acres (1.4 ha), $40 million elephant exhibit at the zoo, claiming that it does not provide enough room or natural conditions for elephants to survive.
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
organization founded in 1983 in San Rafael, California
San Rafael, California
San Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It has 60,000 members and an annual budget of $650,000. The group's slogan is "working to protect the rights, welfare, and habitats of animals".
IDA has become known, in particular, for its campaigns against animal experiments conducted by the U.S. military, and experiments in which baby monkeys are separated from their mothers. Journalist and author Deborah Blum
Deborah Blum
Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York....
has described its strategy as "pure pit bull. It picks a target carefully and refuses to let go".
History
Dr. Elliot M. Katz, a veterinarianVeterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
, has presided over IDA since founding the organization in 1983. Katz is a graduate of Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
's School of Veterinary Medicine. He became involved in animal rights issues when his help was sought by activists wanting to end animal experimentation at the allegedly overcrowded laboratories of the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. In response, Katz helped set up Californians for Responsible Research, which campaigned for the university to provide better care for the animals.
Since then, IDA has become an international animal advocacy organization. Headquartered in Northern California, it has offices throughout the United States and branches in India and Africa.
Programs and campaigns
IDA works for the protection of animals used in scientific research, food and clothing production, entertainment and sport, and other areas. Its methods include coordinating protests and nonviolent civil disobedienceCivil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
actions including sit-ins, lock downs and banner hangings.
Ongoing programs include a campaign aimed at improving conditions for elephants in zoos and circuses. IDA was one of many animal protection organizations that helped shut down the Coulston Foundation, once the largest chimpanzee research center in the world.
The organisation's other achievements include:
- IDA investigator Ben White setting free dolphinDolphinDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
s off the coast of JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by swimming underwater to cut the nets that imprisoned them.
- Campaigining against the hunting of goats and buffalo in Santa Catalina Island, CaliforniaSanta Catalina Island, CaliforniaSanta Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
- Creating a chimpanzee sanctuary and education center in Cameroon in 1999 and a sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals in rural MississippiMississippiMississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
.
- Spearheading the rescue of hundreds of dogs and cats after a devastating "firestorm" swept through the OaklandOakland, CaliforniaOakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
/BerkeleyBerkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
hills in California, destroying more than 3,500 homes.
- Preventing the bow hunting of Tule elkElkThe Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
at the Point Reyes National SeashorePoint Reyes National SeashorePoint Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California, USA. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US National Park Service as a nationally important nature preserve within which existing agricultural uses are allowed to continue...
.
- Ending New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
's crack cocaineCrack cocaineCrack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
experiments on monkeys as part of the Coulston Foundation. In 1995, the US Department of Agriculture backed IDA's claims by accusing the foundation of "keeping several dozen chimpanzees in undersize cages and causing the avoidable deaths of at least five chimpanzees".
- Campaigning against Rockefeller UniversityRockefeller UniversityThe Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. It has a strong concentration in the biological sciences. It is also known for producing numerous Nobel laureates...
’s neurophysiologyNeurophysiologyNeurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function...
experiments on cats. This campaign was supported by PETAPetaPeta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
. IDA claimed that cats were fully conscious during experiments. The university has denied this. After 18 months of protests by IDA, the university ended the experiments in 1998. - Ending brain cancer experiments on beagle puppies in 2001 in Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix, ArizonaPhoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
by launching a lawsuit against a scientist. - Campaigned and eventually convinced the city of San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
to have meat-free Mondays. - Guardian Campaign: a campaign to replace the term "animal owner" with "animal guardian", with the goal to change the character and perception of relationships between humans and animals.
Action against elephants in zoos
IDA believes that zoos lead to the premature deaths of elephantElephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
s and that "urban zoos simply don’t have enough space for these magnificent, intelligent animals". IDA's campaign against elephants in zoos is also supported by animal rights group PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
and the Humane Society of the United States
Humane Society of the United States
The Humane Society of the United States , based in Washington, D.C., is the largest animal advocacy organization in the world. In 2009, HSUS reported assets of over US$160 million....
. IDA publishes an annual list of the "10 worst zoos for elephants".
IDA claimed it pressured the San Francisco Zoo
San Francisco Zoo
The San Francisco Zoo, housing more than 260 animal species, is a zoo located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco, California, between Lake Merced and the Pacific Ocean along the Great Highway...
to transfer its elephants to a sanctuary in 2004. However, the zoo claimed IDA had "little to do" with the decision to transfer the elephants.
This is part of a wider campaign in which the IDA has claimed a number of American zoos such as the National Zoo in Washington DC have violated the Animal Welfare Act. IDA claims that the US Department of Agriculture has acknowledged "the gravity of concern over the poor conditions for elephants in our nation's zoos" However, Woodland Park Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo is a zoological garden around the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Occupying the western half of Woodland Park, the zoo began as a small menagerie on the estate of Guy C. Phinney, a Canadian-born lumber mill owner and real estate developer...
have said in response to IDA that "the limited-space argument is simplistic and ... that elephants in accredited zoos receive the best possible care."
Following the death of Gita the elephant
Gita (elephant)
Gita was a 48-year-old Asian Elephant who died at the Los Angeles Zoo on 10 June 2006. Gita's death prompted dozens of animal rights activists, including In Defense of Animals, to accuse the zoo of neglecting and endangering its animals by placing them in unsatisfactory living conditions, and...
at the Los Angeles Zoo
Los Angeles Zoo
The Los Angeles Zoo , is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California. The City of Los Angeles owns the entire zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals...
in June 2006, IDA led a public protest against the keeping of elephants in small enclosures, resulting in the zoo's decision to move one of its two remaining pachyderms to a Northern California animal sanctuary in May 2007. IDA continues to protest the construction of a 3.5 acres (1.4 ha), $40 million elephant exhibit at the zoo, claiming that it does not provide enough room or natural conditions for elephants to survive.