October 6, 2006

Hi, Friends.

Please welcome to RMAD, and to the Colorado animal advocacy community, our new Operations Director Kris Candour. For nearly 10 years, Kris Candour, MS, has worked within grassroots and professional animal advocacy organizations to actively oppose animal exploitation and promote a vegetarian diet. Kris helped develop the African American Outreach Campaign at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and she provided fundraising assistance to the Student Animal Rights Alliance (SARA). She has participated in several other organizations, including Action for Animals in Austin, Texas, and Justice for All Species (JAS), a grassroots advocacy group she co-founded to outreach to communities of color about veganism . Kris was interviewed on Black Vegetarians about her role in co-founding JAS and her commitment to animal rights . Kris was also an invited panelist at the 2005 Grassroots Animal Rights Convention in New York, NY, where she spoke about ways to mitigate racism within the animal rights movement. She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from the Milano Graduate School at New School University.Kris can be reached at krisc@rmad.org if you’d like to drop her a hello. Welcome, Kris!

Thanks to everyone who showed up at our Wednesday event opposing the use of animals in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. RMAD has been in existence for over 12 years, and we have protested Ringling each of those years. There will come a day when such protests are no longer necessary. Our opening night demo reached thousands of circus-goers. We thank our experts who gave us quotes for our media release:

Dr. Marc Bekoff, a professor of biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder: Circuses such as Ringling Bros. deprive animals of any chance to have their emotional needs met. They are an insult to animals and to humans and rob us all of our dignity.

Dr. Erica Rambus, Denver-area veterinarian: All animals have a basic nature inherent in their being. Circuses work against this basic nature, making them cruel venues for our perverse enjoyment.

Catherine Zakoian, MA, LPC: I encourage parents to explore other ways to help their children better understand the nature of animals.

We’ve posted some images from the recent Circus Vigil on our Events page, as well as some photos of summer happenings. Please take a gander – and if you have any good photos of RMADers in action that you’d like to share, please send them to Chris .

Have a good weekend!

Dave