Welcome to Chihuahuas Against Hummers!
Welcome to Chihuahuas Against Hummers!
Chihuahuas
Against Hummers is an organization of small dogs and their owners opposed to
these militaristic inefficient vehicles.
Chihuahuas have a big message for General Motors (um, even though Hummer is pretty much defunct).
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News Update! Chihuahuas Against Hummers were victorious in vanquishing the huge vehicles from the American auto market. Photos of the empty dealership where we had been protesting coming soon! Special thanks go to the gasoline price spike of 2008. Although the brand was almost purchased by a Chinese company (and Hummer would have moved from the former highest GHG emitting country (the USA) to the new highest emitting country (China), the deal fell through and now Hummer is dead! |
If the Chihuahuas chased Hummer out of the U.S., who broke up the Chinese deal?
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Check out these photos from previous Protests at the Hummer Dealership (before they went bankrupt :-)
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"What? These vehicles get bad gas mileage? Let's go! Don't mess with me, I'm a huge Chihuahua!" |
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Jalapena says: "The Hummer gets about 8 mpg. Compare that to the Toyota Prius, which gets about 50 mpg. Chihuahuas don't let other Chihuahuas drive Hummers." |
The
Hummers H1 and H2 get only 8 miles per gallon.
Their design is based on the military vehicles used in the Iraq war to, ironically,
obtain Middle East oil so that vain Americans can drive wasteful militaristic
vehicles.
The story behind Chihuahuas Against Hummers:
In
late 2003, a dozen concerned citizens participated in the National Day of Protest
Against the Hummer.
Two of them brought their dogs which happened to be Chihuahuas.
The local news media made a "big" deal out
of the contrast between the "big" Hummers and the small but feisty
Chihuahuas.
So now, each year, Chihuahuas Against Hummers hosts a protest at Hummer dealerships
and promote
Hybrid and Alt Fuel Vehicles as a reasonable and economical vehicle choice.
Photos
from Fossil Fools Protest April
1st, 2006
at the Hummer dealership in San Rafael, California
This event was part of Rainforest Action Network and the Jumpstart Ford Coalition's Fossil Fools Day.
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It was raining on Fossil Fools Day, and the Chiahuahuas stayed home. But the humans walked into the Hummer dealership and spoke with the manager about fuel efficiency. |
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The manager didn't make any commitments to sell cars with better mileage. So, we'll be back...and next time, we'll bring the Chihuahuas. |
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The hybrid and electric vehicle parade of 2 all-electric Toyota RAV 4's,a Honda Insight, and Toyota Prius. |
Protest photos from October 22nd, 2005
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The Hybrid and Alt vehicle parade arrives at the Hummer dealership. pictured here are an ethanol truck and two Toyota Priuses. |
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OK, the Chihuahuas are here, the protest can start. |
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"More
Hummers = More Hurricanes" "Hybrids not Hummers" (nice hot pink sign) "Bummer" |
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This dude from the dealership kept taking pictures of us. We know we're really photogenic, but in the post-Ashcroft police state, we were flattered in a paranoid sort of way. Also the dude kicked our hydrogen fuel cell demo car, so he won't be invited back. |
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Protest photos from November 20th, 2004 at California Ford and Hummer dealerships:
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Outside Marin Ford. The dealer said they would send a letter to Ford headquarters demanding better fuel efficiency. |
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Hundreds of cars on Highway 101 passed us. |
Ford's overall
average fuel efficiency of Ford's fleet today is 18.8 mpg, dead last
among the top six automakers for the fifth straight year, according to the EPA.
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| The morning began at Sebastopol Ford. The dealer said they would send a letter to Ford headquarters demanding better fuel efficiency. | The parade of hybrid cars and alt fuel vehicles lines up to drive to San Rafael. We had a Prius, and electric truck, a Honda Insight, and a Mercedes which runs on veggie/vegetable oil. |
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| Elizabeth had Prius Envy. | The Chihuahuas were pretty rowdy at the protests. |
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5 Chihuahuas and 10 protesters. Last year there were 2 Chihuahuas and 10 humans. At this rate, Chihuahuas should overtake humans in 2 years. |
| Meet the protesters: | |
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Andy: A 2 year alumnus. |
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Durrell: Check out Green Energy Network. |
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A Saudi sheik crashed the protest. |
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I almost forgot. We got egged. We believe that the Hummer dealership sent their friends out to egg us. Where was the press when we needed them? That's OK, bring it on. Our signs are more effective than your eggs. Their reliance on foreign oil, and military interventions shows Hummer's insecurity, as fragile as an egg shell. |
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The Govuhnuh. This photo was taken at 2003's Hummer/ Ford protest. And the prediction came true. |
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Being the
devil is a "lifestyle choice." |
Note: Sometimes Chihuahuas Against Hummers protest at the Ford dealership, both to mix it up for variety, and to support the Jump Start Ford Campaign run by Rainforest Action Network, Global Exchange, Ruckus Society and other groups with related goals. Chihuahuas Against Hummers also supports writing letters to GM and Ford executives to let them know that small is beautiful.
Also note: If you are the owner of an activist Chihuahua, you can organize a Chihuahuas Against Hummers event.
Special thanks to Yvonne, Jalapena, Andy, Wildflower, Ann, Betsy, Ed, Durrell, Damon, and everyone who showed up to the protests.
Toben, we're counting on you for the next one. If your name is Ashcroft, Gonzalez, Guantanamo, NSA, or other interested parties, these are all fake names.
Poetry for macho men:
Hummers guzzle oil
Students ask why climate change
Get mad then drive home
—MikeGlobal warming sucks
You drive SUVs and trucks
Time to stop you schmucks.
—Arun Rao, 6/19/04And now, Elizabeth's infamous: Prius Envy poem. Required reading for every Hummer owner and gun-owning "tough guy."
Let's see how tough you are when you are faced with real power:Prius Envy
Those girly guys with their girly sighs
I'm not one of them,
That's no surprise.
I can flex and tower
With my power -
They can't see
My secret
Prius envy.
No No No No!
They can't see
my secret
Prius envy.I never cry
(I'm not a girly guy).
I'd rather die
Than shed a tear.
I'm not a girly guy -
No No No,
But I've got Prius envy.
They can't see
My secret
Prius envy.Down at the bottom
Of my dreams
There's a woman in the dark.
She hums a tuneless tune
That's like an arrow to my heart.
When she turns to look at me
I can see she holds the key.
And when she presses
The remote
I suddenly know --
No No No No!
She drives a Prius!I'm not a girly guy,
But my oh my -
I've got a secret
Prious envy.
No No No No -
A secret
Prius envy.
No No No No - a secret
PRIUS ENVY!
- - - - - - - - - -Marin Indepedent Journal, November 2003
Tilting at Hummers
By Rick Polito, IJ reporter
AT 11 A.M., THE raindrops are drying on the wide-screen windshields in the San Rafael Team Hummer lot. The chest-high bumpers are merely damp. A phalanx of 13 Hummer H2s face the sidewalk, with a platoon of blue, yellow and anthracite reinforcements close behind.
And M (name changed to protect the identity of the protester) is outnumbered by the media.
With his leather jacket and his "Terminator" sunglasses offering a thin imitation of then not-quite-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the lone protester is facing an IJ reporter, an IJ photographer and a two-person video crew from San Bruno.
Local action in the National Day of Protest Against the Hummer is not yet an imposing show of popular will.
"There's more media than myself," laughs Sandler, who is coordinating the protest for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
But he brought a visual aid.
Posed before the gleaming three-ton uber vehicles, he unveils the plastic wheeled fuel cell contraption he ordered online. It's small. There might be room for Stuart Little.
If he packed light.
"It's actually a solar fuel cell hybrid," he explains.
While he's standing there, a Nissan Pathfinder speeds by, followed closely by three additional generic SUVs. In Marin, where a Ford Expedition might sport a Greenpeace sticker, the environmentally minded aren't immune to the conservation message.
They just can't hear it behind all the glass, the leather and the chrome combat bumper.
Nearby, a pedestrian approaches, a rarity in this Home Depot/auto row enclave of southern San Rafael. Sandler looks up. The number of protesters may soon be doubling.
The pedestrian, a middle aged man in a beige overcoat, turns and gets on the bus.
M continues his vigil.
At 11:07, a gray hybrid-power, 60 mpg Honda Insight slows. "Where do you park for the protest?" a middle-aged woman shouts.
M is officially not alone.
But he didn't exactly carpool in an electric van with a squad of Earth-loving activists either. He drove alone, in a Saturn. "It gets 30 mpg," he says, almost defensively.
At 11:15, the hybrid drivers are still parking. M is rooting in a bag of protest signs. He pulls out one. "Oil Addiction Causes War" it reads. "I actually got this last week from the people at the Ford protest," M says.
He has more signs - "Support Saudi Sheiks, Buy a Hummer," "Hummers = Childhood Asthma" - more signs than protesters.
At 11:16, another hybrid pulls up. This one has a large "Kucinich for President" sticker on the door. It's followed two minutes later by a bio-diesel powered Mercedes wagon, packed with more sympathetic minds.
By 11:23, there are seven protesters and two Chihuahuas. At 11:24 Betsy Rosenberg arrives in her Toyota Prius hybrid. The Mill Valley mother has an armload of poster board. "Anybody need a sign?" she shouts.
Rosenberg is the founder of Don't Be Fueled, an advocacy group demanding greater fuel efficiency in automobiles. She proclaims herself a "recovering SUV driver" and recalls what a friend told her. "If you want to start a trend, get a Marin mother to start it."
At 11:28, the protest is as large as it is going to get: 10 protesters, two Chihuahuas and a poodle.
Andy Bunnell of Graton rejoins the group. He has been inside enlightening auto shoppers about the Hummers.
"I was told to leave or I'd be arrested," he proclaims proudly.
He did come back with some brochures. One page shows a Hummer "parked" on two boulders. The passenger door is a good eight feet off the ground. "You've got to be kidding," Bunnell sighs.
At 11:33, M is on the cell phone, checking his media contacts. He wants TV. He wants a camera crew. An SUV driver slows, honks and gives the thumbs-up sign to the protesters.
The rain has clearly passed, but the sales staff, in the short-sleeved dress shirts and ties that are the uniform of the industry, are staying on the porch, 50 yards from the sidewalk.
Nobody from the dealership approaches the small band of protesters.
At 11:38, M pulls out his bullhorn. There is no crowd. But it seems like the dramatic thing to do.
"What weighs three tons more than a regular car?" he asks. "What gets 8 mpg?"
"They are not cars. They are not trucks. They are urban assault vehicles!" he exclaims.
It is not a large bullhorn. The dealership's public address system is finding more ears.
At 11:42, a pickup driver offers the internationally recognized one-fingered sentiment.
"It probably had a bumper sticker that said God bless America," Rosenberg observes. "I say God help America."
Two possible shoppers are peering into the second row of Hummers, one row back from the sidewalk and the protesters. Cheryl Ross of Mill Valley snatches up the bullhorn. "Would you like some statistics on that Hummer?" she asks them.
M reminds the group that the goal is not to bother car shoppers. "The goal is to get the manufacturers to build cars that get better gas mileage," he tells them.
The General Motors board of directors is nowhere in sight.
He picks up the bullhorn. "So much gas per mile, it should be in the recycle pile," he exclaims. The chant fades quickly.
Ten people is not a good size for chanting.
Finally, at 11:51, the National Day of Protest Against the Hummer is starting to look like a real protest.
The police have arrived. Two squad cars. Allan Castaneda climbs out of the second car.
He approaches the group. Bunnell's interaction with the auto shoppers was not taken kindly by the sales staff, he explains. "We don't mind the protest but when you guys start going into the business and start harassing the customers," Castaneda says, raising his eyebrows in rhetorical admonition.
"Notice how they use the word 'harassing,'" mutters one of the protesters, under her breath.
But Castaneda didn't bring a water cannon. His only riot gear is a smile. "I drive a little Honda," he explains.
Castaneda and the other officer coax Sandler aside for a private conference. M explains that "the whole deal is out here on the sidewalk."
"One person took it on his own," he says of Bunnell's interaction with the Hummer shopping public.
The officers nod. "We'll go and talk to the manager and tell him we're not going to have a problems here," Castaneda says.
As the clock nears noon, M is back on the bullhorn. He quickly surrenders it to Rosenberg. If her Prius hybrid runs on gas and electricity, Rosenberg is running on righteous indignation.
"If were so busy liberating Iraq, why don't we liberate ourselves from oil?," she shouts in earnest electronic amplification.
Nine protesters nod in agreement.
The two Chihuahuas and the poodle offer no clear response. More SUVs drive by.
The Hummers are completely dry now.
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For more information on Hummers and Ford check
www.thedetroitproject.com
www.JumpStartFord.com
For more information on fuel efficiency and hybrid and alt fuel vehicles check
www.fueleconomy.gov
www.hybridcenter.org
For more fun check
Hybrids versus Hummers
