COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 3 - On April 8-9, United Poultry Concerns (UPC) will hold a forum at the University Plaza Hotel and Conference Center on “Using the Media Effectively to Promote Farmed Animal and Vegetarian Issues.” The forum joins people who want to be better communicators for farmed animals with prominent speakers from Ohio, British Columbia, California, Virginia, and Washington, DC.

Speakers include Karen Davis, PhD, president of United Poultry Concerns, Paul Shapiro, director of the Factory Farming Campaign of The Humane Society of the United States, Bruce Friedrich, director of Farmed Animal and Vegan Campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Nathan Runkle, executive director of Columbus-based Mercy for Animals, and Dr. Sherri J. Tenpenny, CEO of OsteoMed II, a clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Tenpenny will present startling revelations from her new book Fowl! Bird Flu: It’s Not What You Think.

Ohio was chosen for UPC’s forum because agriculture is Ohio’s biggest industry and Ohio is a landmark for agribusiness-related problems around the world, including the flow of viral and bacterial pathogens from mega-dairy-and-egg farms into streams, rivers and lakes. Surveys in 2002 and 2004 showed that, in addition to environmental concerns, Ohioans care how farmed animals are treated. Jeff Sharp, professor of Rural Sociology at Ohio State University, will present data from the Ohio Survey of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Issues describing Ohioans’ views about livestock production and aspects of animal welfare. In one survey, 81 percent of Ohioans agreed “the well-being of farm animals is just as important as the well-being of pets,” Sharp’s team reported.

“The purpose of the forum is to combine substantive information about bird flu, farmed animal concerns and public attitudes with a ‘how-to’ approach to improving activists’ communication skills on behalf of farmed animals and vegetarian alternatives to animal products,” said UPC president Karen Davis.

The Forum includes a showing of the film The Emotional World of Farm Animals, which has been prominently aired on PBS Primetime over the past year. The forum will be taped to provide opportunities for publicity via public access television.

United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. http://www.upc-online.org