UPC Projects Manager Hope Bohanec on Yesterday’s Vigil at the Urban Adamah Community Center in Berkeley, California; Request for Action & Memorial Slideshow Follow

We had about 20 activists come and I’m really glad that we were there during the community center’s volunteer time because we were able to have good conversations with about 5 volunteers as they were walking and driving in. Two were very sympathetic, and one said she would voice her opinion that she feels the community center should not slaughter animals anymore. Quite the opposite of what executive director Adam Berman said – that no one from “inside” Urban Adamah was opposed to the slaughter.

A child shows kindness to the hens, now dead, at Urban Adamah. Photo by Urban Adamah

Adam drove in and saw us outside, including the sign that said, “Adam Lied and the Hens Died.” This statement referred to the fact that while Adam Berman had assured me on May 20 that the hens were still alive, and had suggested they might yet be permitted to go to a sanctuary, he knew as he spoke that eight of the hens had already been killed on May 14 and that the seven survivors were slaughtered on May 20. For the story of this cruelty and betrayal, see Urban Adamah Kills Fifteen Hens: Animal Advocates Offered to Transport the Hens to Sanctuaries.

During the Vigil, three of us walked up to the front door and asked if we could talk to Adam. A young man told us to get off the property, and when we didn’t and continued to try to talk to him and ask him to get Adam, he called the police. We stood there for a few minutes more and tried to get Adam to come out, but he didn’t, so we just walked back out to the street. The police never came.

After about an hour, we noticed that all the community center volunteers were now in the garden/farm around the side. So we walked around to the side close to them at the fence and started chanting, “Compassion, Love, Justice!” which are the core values listed on Urban Adamah’s website, and we also chanted, “Their Bodies, Not Ours…Their Lives, Not Ours.” The volunteers started gathering on the other side of the farm, and then they all walked inside the building together, so it certainly disrupted their “volunteer time.”

What Can I Do?

Please contact Adam Berman and urge Urban Adamah not to get any more hens and not to slaughter their goats. Urge him to set an example for truly compassionate living.

Adam Berman, Executive Director, Urban Adamah
adam@urbanadamah.org
(510) 649-1595 ex. 301

We post this loving tribute today in memory of the 15 Berkeley Hens. Here they are (were), and here are their mourners at yesterday’s Vigil: