APNM’s 30th Anniversary Celebration
Captures Imagination of Supporters

Thanks go to hundreds who took part

Full photo gallery

Animal Protection of New Mexico held its 30th anniversary celebration at the magical Chalk Farm Gallery in Santa Fe on Sunday night, with almost 200 supporters in attendance!

We are grateful to the many, many friends APNM has had over the decades, who remain steadfast allies today. In the early years, many stood by us while the change for animals happened so slowly that our sense of doing the right thing, and persisting, was fueled more by faith than by having the experience of measurable success to our credit.

One of our earliest achievements that helped to motivate the next success, and the one after that, was activating citizens to support a dogfighting ban in 1981. Then we spearheaded making extreme animal cruelty a fourth degree felony in 1999. One major achievement that will likely always remain one of the toughest to our credit was getting cockfighting outlawed in 2007. An Albuquerque Journal editorial included in this mailing (below) is emblematic of the sort of paradigm shift that topics like animal fighting have experienced, and continue to experience, in this state in the last several years.

A critical component of APNM’s work is to keep shifting the paradigm, so that animal issues receive the deep consideration they deserve, and that they matter to more and more people throughout the Land of Enchantment.

For the success of our anniversary event, there are many people who have our most sincere appreciation:

We wish to thank Chalk Farm Gallery owner Suhana Gibson, and manager Jonathan Girard, for so graciously sharing their beautiful gallery for our celebration on a gorgeous fall day in Santa Fe. Aside from spending her own resources to promote the event, Ms. Gibson offered 10% of any sales on Sunday to APNM, netting additional funds for APNM’s important work.

Heartfelt thanks are also extended to our special guest speakers: Actor Ali MacGraw, Attorney General Gary King and former NM Land Commissioner Ray Powell—and to the approximate 200 guests who feasted on donated vegan foods and beverages fit for kings and queens—while Holy Water & Whiskey played some of the best bluegrass we’ve ever heard.

Photographer extraordinaire Tom Sahs captured one happy moment after another—a photo album of the event will be available soon. A few advance shots are included here.

And the party would not have been as resplendent as it was without the generous donations of these sponsors:


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First NM Cockfighting Jail Sentencing
Receives Support in Journal Editorial

Doña Ana County will go down in history as the location of New Mexico’s first jail time sentencing for cockfighting activity. Animal Protection of New Mexico applauds Magistrate Frietze’s sentencing of offender Ramon Torres, as conveyed in the following Albuquerque Journal editorial of Monday, October 19.

This Abuse Isn’t Petty
 
     Animal lovers and decent human beings alike would agree there’s nothing petty about shooting roosters up with drugs, strapping knives to their legs and forcing them to fight to the death. And while the crime of cockfighting is a petty misdemeanor in New Mexico, it’s clear at least one court here agrees the crime is serious enough to warrant jail time. 
      Last week Doña Ana County Magistrate Oscar Frietze sentenced 46-year-old Ramon Torres to eight days in jail for his role in a cockfighting operation. Law enforcement officials seized a total of 618 birds — 60 from Torres’ property — along with cockfighting paraphernalia in an April raid on seven properties in southern Doña Ana County. 
      Eight days of a potential 180-day sentence may not seem like much when compared to the blood and violence inherent in cockfighting, not to mention the illegal gambling, drugs and weapon use that usually accompany it. But this is the first time a defendant has gotten jail time. It shouldn’t be the last. 
      Torres’ sentence is on hold while he considers an appeal. But the real hope — of law enforcement, of the Attorney General’s Animal Cruelty Task Force, of advocacy groups like Animal Protection of New Mexico and of decent New Mexicans — is that more people will reconsider their involvement in cockfighting given the now very real penalties.

Posted with permission from the Albuquerque Publishing Company.

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APNM Co-Sponsors Hyatt Regency Tamaya’s
Howl-O-Ween Parade for Animals on Oct. 31

Animal Protection of New Mexico is proud to be a co-sponsor of the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa’s Howl-O-Ween event that will include a costume parade for animals from 2-5 p.m. on Sat., October 31.

Ann Marie and R ‘n’ B will provide music for the free event. Prizes will be awarded by the resort for costumes, which will be judged by local media celebrities. Animal Humane New Mexico will have adoptable animals on hand, in case anyone is ready to fall in love with a new family member.

The Hyatt Regency Tamaya is located just north of Bernalillo on the Santa Ana Pueblo.

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