Oakland Ca Newspaper

Online extra: Wedding Bell Blues: New EQCA director seeks 2 for top posts

Today (Tuesday, July 5) is the first day on the job for Roland Palencia, the new executive director of the statewide lobbying group Equality California.

It seems one of his first orders of business will be replacing two top staffers. Jim Carroll, who had most recently served as interim executive director, just quit, and Vaishalee Raja, EQCA's spokeswoman, is leaving next week.

Carroll, who had filled the group's top post after former Executive Director Geoff Kors resigned in March, had been a candidate for the permanent position. Carroll's last day at the organization was Tuesday, June 28. He didn't respond to interview requests.

Raja, 32, will be an account director at Fenton, a public interest public relations firm.

"I'm sad about leaving EQCA because the work and our staff have been incredible, but it's a great opportunity for me to work on several different social justice issues," she said in an email. Her last day at EQCA will be Wednesday, July 13. She declined to say what her EQCA salary had been.

In other EQCA news, the group is inviting wine lovers to its Wine Country Weekend for Equality.

The festivities start with a concert Saturday, July 23, in Calistoga. More fun will be offered at the second annual Get Wet! Wine Country event Sunday, July 24, in Yountville.

For more information, visit www.eqca.org .

Lara holds LGBT Latino health hearing

Palencia will have a busy first week. On Wednesday he will address an informational legislative hearing called by out gay Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) to discuss the state of Latino LGBT health.

The LGBT Latino Select Committee of the Latino Legislative Caucus is a new committee Lara created. The hearing will include two panels on systemic barriers to health access and care for LGBT Latinos and the role of families in fostering mental health. The hearing is set for Room 444 in the state Capitol building and starts at 2 p.m.

In addition to Palencia, presenters will include Caitlin Ryan, Ph.D., director of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University; Daniel Zingale of the California Endowment; Dr. Octavio Vallejo of AIDS Projects Los Angeles; and Carolina Ramos of the San Diego LGBT Community Center.

State legislators, activists, health care providers, and community members are invited to attend.

From 3:45 to 5 p.m. there will be a reception on the second floor rotunda of the Capitol. To RSVP for either the hearing or the reception contact Jacqueline Serna at mailto:Jacqueline.Serna@asm.ca.gov .

21 malnourished rabbits confiscated in Oakland CA — City Farmer News

June 30, 2011

Excerpt:

Oakland animal officials were scrambling Wednesday to find homes for 21 malnourished, deformed rabbits seized from a Lake Merritt area backyard, where they were being raised for food.

The bunny bust comes just as Oakland enters into the debate over urban agriculture regulations, deciding how to monitor livestock – its treatment and slaughter – in one of the country’s hotbeds of urban homesteading.

These poor rabbits. Unfortunately, they are a poster picture of what can go wrong in rabbit raising.

All animals raised for food need to have good lives–not necessarily extravagant or spoiled, but there should be no suffering or malnutrition involved.

And when the time comes….they deserve a respectful, swift, and humane death using proven humane methods. In the original article, a supposedly knowledgeable person said that rabbits should be slaughtered by slitting the throat.

We strongly disagree. Unless done with an EXTREMELY sharp instrument, knowledge of anatomy, and absolutely impeccable technique, this method is highly susceptible to error, leading to inhumane suffering and fear for the animal.

Animals raised for food are still cared for by their owners; it is not at all an emotionless enterprise. Anyone who actively enjoys killing a domestic animal really needs therapy, posthaste.

There are certainly better and worse ways both to care for and to euthanize, and this is where education is sorely needed for all concerned, from the animal owner all the way up to the judges who may be presiding over abuse cases.

The information is out there–and the Rabbit Industry Council is happy to put people in contact with others who are learning and doing these things well. There are many mailing lists out there, notably Meatrabbits on Yahoogroups ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Meatrabbits/ ) and many more; there is also the 4H extension office, which has available sound elementary information on the raising of rabbits for meat. And don’t forget your libraries! The book Rabbit Production (8th ed), by Cheeke, Patton, Lukefahr and McNitt is absolutely tops in the category of rabbit knowledge.

There is also the possibility of having publicly-available seminars on how to raise and process rabbits for food, something the RIC would be delighted to assist with. The Rabbit Industry Council produced a video on humane rabbit slaughter for home use which addresses many of the concerns involved in home food production, such as humane euthanasia, food handling tips, disease and more. (Available at http://www.battats.

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