Happy Holidays from CAA

Compassionate Action for Animals sends you our warmest holiday wishes! Whether you're spending the time with your family or taking a much-needed vacation, we hope you'll find it relaxing and rejuvenating. For this coming year, CAA is planning many exciting events and effective campaigns that will make a positive difference for animals. As you plan out next year's schedule, think of penciling in some time for CAA. You'll make new friends, have a lot of fun, and make some great memories to reflect on when the next New Year rolls around!

Nothing fishy about personality traits in animals, study finds

By Tom Spears as published in the Vancouver Sun
November 25, 2007

Fish have personalities. Ordinary Canadian brook trout exhibit different traits: some social, others not. Some risk-takers, others scaredy-fish. And so on.

...The idea of personalities is starting to spread across our views of the whole animal kingdom, says Rob McLaughlin, the Guelph biologist who ran the study. This seems obvious in the case of dogs or chimpanzees, but less obvious among fish.

"We've known that out in the field, these young brook trout examine differences in their foraging behaviour - what they're feeding on," he said.

Read the full article.

A meaty subject

Come meal time, institutions like prisons, colleges and ballparks are offering vegetarian entrees as alternatives to animal products

By Meredith Cohn as published in the Baltimore Sun
December 20, 2007

Faux meat has gone mainstream among those who are, alas, no longer in the mainstream.

Most correctional institutions around the nation offer vegetarian entrees at all meals, according to a new survey by the Norfolk, Va.-based animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The group has also looked at colleges (very veggie) and ballparks (not as much) and insists there has been a response to growing demand in the nation's institutions, some of which haven't often been at the forefront of wholesome eating. PETA officials and others say food in places like these is a health issue, in addition to a taste preference for some and a religious conviction for others.