ECC CAMPAIGNS

Urgent Action Alert! Stop the Illegal & Unethical Use of Animals As Prizes in Brooklyn, NY!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010


*Urgent Action Alert! Stop the Illegal & Unethical Use of Animals As Prizes in Brooklyn, NY!*

*Help Empty Cages Collective stop animal abuse!*

The Our Lady of Mount Carmel feast (now through July 18), the annual street festival in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is illegally using live animals as prizes in games of chance (hermit crabs, anole lizards and frogs). Besides being illegal, giving these animals away as prizes promotes the idea that animals are merely disposable commodities and puts the animals in the position of inevitably becoming victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment.

While it is not illegal to use fish as prizes, Our Lady of Mount Carmel church should cease this behavior as well. No animal should be treated merely as an object and taken home on a whim. Please contact the ASPCA's Humane Law Enforcement team and request that they immediately dispatch an officer to stop this behavior and confiscate the animal victims. Thus far, Empty Cages Collective's requests to the ASPCA have gone unanswered. Please also contact Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and request that they immediately halt the use of animals as prizes and relinquish custody of the remaining animals to Empty Cages Collective, an animal rescue and advocacy organization, for proper placement or eventual release into their native habitats!

The Our Lady of Mount Carmel feast street festival is taking place on Havemeyer Street (between N. 8th and N. 9th) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 11211.

ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement
(212) 876-7700. Ext. 4450
humanel@aspca.org

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church
275 N. 8th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211-2102
(718) 384-0223
olmcfeast@gmail.com
Web form

The Facts:
New York State Law States:
358-a. Live animals as prizes prohibited

1. For the purposes of this section "livestock" shall mean any domesticated sheep, goat, horse, cattle or swine.

2. No person shall give or offer to give away as a prize, or exchange or offer to exchange for nominal consideration, any live animal other than purebred livestock or fish in any game, drawing, contest, sweepstakes or other promotion, except when any live animal is given away by individuals or organizations operating in conjunction with a cooperative extension education program or agricultural vocational program sanctioned by the state education department.

3. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations which provide guidelines, conditions and requirements when any live animal is given away under the exceptions provided for in subdivision two of this section.

4. Any person who violates the provisions of this section shall be subject to civil penalty of not more than two hundred fifty dollars or in lieu thereof shall be guilty of a violation punishable solely by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty dollars.

The Humane Society of the U.S. Position Against Animals As Prizes: http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/pets_as_prizes.html

Please keep Empty Cages Collective updated on any responses you receive! (800) 880-2684 or adopt@emptycagescollective.org!

- The Empty Cages Collective
ph 800-880-2684
http://emptycagescollective.org

anole