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AR-NEWS Digest 586
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) [CA] APEC and the environment
by David J Knowles
2) [UK] Prove Humphrey is alive, demands Alan Clark
by David J Knowles
3) [UK] More questions over how No 10 handled the kitty
by David J Knowles
4) (UK) Army scientists kill 11,000 animals a year
by Chris Wright
5) MD:deer kill
by Jean Colison
6) Please make your bear call today!
by nancyvp@ix.netcom.com (Nancy Perry )
7) AR/Veg Books for Sale - $1 each
by bchorush@paws.org (pawsinfo)
8) The Giant Holiday Circus
by "Zoocheck Canada Inc."
9) POSTING
by Amy Bricker
10) (Fwd) Thanksgiving Prayer
by "Alliance for Animals"
11) Indian laboratories
by Shirley McGreal
12) (RU) Moscow Intl Airport Biggest Center for Rare Animal
Smuggling
by allen schubert
13) EU Relaxes Ban on Ivory Imports
by allen schubert
14) EXTRA tonight on Black Beauty Ranch
by Michael Markarian
15) Wash. Post Book Review: Next of Kin
by LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
16) FFF- San Francisco
by In Defense of Animals
17) Action Alert - Tule Elk
by Suzanne Roy
18) Goose sterilization study funded by zoo. (CA)
by Barry Kent MacKay
19) more FFF: only pigeons
by Constance Young
20) [EU] Threat to imports of US fur in traps row
by David J Knowles
21) [US] Cities supply the bear necessities
by David J Knowles
22) [UK] No 10 lets the cat out of the bag
by David J Knowles
23) Fwd: EU Relaxes Ban on Ivory Imports
by LMANHEIM@aol.com
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 02:19:32
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] APEC and the environment
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971124021932.3a671dd2@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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APEC and the environment
By David J Knowles
Animal Voices News
BURNABY, BC - Whilst the leaders of the 18-member APEC forum, meeting in
Vancouver this weekend, refuse to discuss anything than their ideas of
"free trade", there are those who are prepared to do so.
One such person is Dr George Atijondro, an ethnic Javanese who is exilled
from Indonesia.
Atijondro, speaking at a meeting at Simon Fraser University last week, told
of the lack of environmental controls in developing nations.
A dam being built in south Sulawesi by Canadian-based mining company Inco,
does not have a single fish ladder or any other means of allowing migrating
eels to travel along the river being dammed. This, as Atijondro points out,
is contrary to what Inco would have to do if they were operating in either
Canada or the USA. "It is why corporations are driven to work in certain
areas. They can mine the same nickle and the workers get paid less, there
are fewer environmental controls, and the indigenous people have less
political power."
Atijondro has spent several years studying the links between global and
regional financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank; and the environmental damage development causes.
Fighting development in most areas is made difficult because of the way the
devolpment is 'sold' to locals. Mutl-national corporations, backed by money
from development agencies or international institutions, negotiate with
national governments. Locals have the right to be "consulted" but no right
to refuse.
Atijondro describes the recent Indonesian forest fires as the "second
biggest environmental disaster to affect the region." The biggest, he said,
was the Vietnam War.
Malyasian companies were involved in starting the fires, but Malyasian
leader Mahathir bin Mohamed, prefered to focus on what he called a "Jewish
conspiracy" to bring down the area's economies. Mahathir then blamed
inaction by the Indonesians for the problem.
Atijondro said the fires' causes are due not only international logging
companies coming in to harvest the trees, but also the clearing of land for
growing palm oil, and western pulp and paper companies entering the area.
The palm oil and pulp and paper companies blame local regulations which
forbid them use the trees they clear.
It is now feared the fires may have gone underground into the peat soil,
and will emerge again in another long dry season.
Wars in the area have contributed to habitat destruction, but is not talked
about openly by local environmentalists because of the sensitive nature of
the issue.
Another "side-effect" of a large military presence in areas such as East
Timor is the use of
miltary aircraft and ground transport for smuggling wildlife out. One
high-ranking Army officer was caught smuggling birds of paradise out of
Irian Jaya. It is suspected he is not alone.
The Indonesian government, including President Suharto, don't want to talk
about the environment. Neither, it would appear, does the mainstream media
- at least not seriously. For although they are fully accredited for the
leaders summit of APEC, and are giving blanket coverage of the CEO's
meeting, the finance ministers' meeting and will give full coverage to the
"economic leaders" summit, not one of them turned up to hear Atijondro. In
fact, I was the only media person there.
[Notes: (1) APEC = Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. APEC language
defines countries particpating as "economies" and their political leaders
as "economic leaders"
(2) Burnaby is a suburb of Vancouver, where I actually live.
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 02:29:56
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Prove Humphrey is alive, demands Alan Clark
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971124022956.21b7f658@dowco.com>
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Monday, November 24th, 1997
Prove Humphrey is alive, demands Alan Clark
By Jon Hibbs, Political Correspondent
THERE was a flurry of concern yesterday over the fate of Humphrey the cat,
late of Downing Street.
Westminster was seized with a rumour that, far from being taken to the
country to be pampered in his dotage, the civil service mascot, who graced
the corridors of Whitehall for eight years, had died.
A fortnight after No 10 announced Humphrey's retirement on grounds of age
and incapacity, his plight was raised by Alan Clark, Tory MP for Kensington
and Chelsea. As a noted campaigner for animal welfare, he does not believe
the official version of events.
Mr Clark said:"Humphrey is now a missing person. Unless I hear from him or
he makes a public appearance, I suspect he has been shot while trying to
escape. What is Amnesty International doing about this?"
Mr Clark remembers Humphrey well from his days as a minister after the cat
was first taken in as a stray in 1989. He suspects that the story of
Humphrey's kidney complaint is a Whitehall cover-up based on the widespread
belief that Cherie Blair is allergic to cats.
Although the Prime Minister's wife was persuaded to be photographed holding
Humphrey to scotch post-election reports that his employment was in doubt,
Mr Clark now fears that Mrs Blair had him put down.
The official line remains that Humphrey was taken home by a woman who
worked in the Cabinet Office and felt sorry for him. A Cabinet Office
spokesman said: "He is alive but he has been poorly. He is elderly and
needs rest. We do not want people tracking him down and harassing whoever
has got him. If there is any change in his condition, we'll let you
know."
⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
SAY NO TO APEC
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 02:34:49
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] More questions over how No 10 handled the kitty
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971124023449.3a674480@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Monday, November 24th, 1997
More questions over how No 10 handled the kitty
By Caroline Davies
HUMPHREY, the stray cat taken in by Cabinet Office staff in 1989, has led
an eventful life. One hopes that life goes on.
Adopted as a family pet by John Major, he took up unofficial residence at
10 Downing Street with the former Prime Minister and his wife Norma. Like
his predecessor, Wilberforce, who was resident for 14 years until he died
in 1988, Humphrey wandered freely between Nos 10 and 11. Such was his
popularity, he even featured on the official Cabinet Office Christmas card
last year.
Named after Sir Humphrey Appleby, the character in the television comedy
Yes, Prime Minister, he made headlines after disappearing for three months
in 1995. It is believed that he was inadvertently posted to the Royal Army
Medical College one mile away as he snoozed contentedly in a government
mail van.
Humphrey, aged about 11, was never far from controversy. In 1994 he was
accused of killing four robin chicks nesting in a windowbox outside the
Cabinet room. The case against him was never proven beyond reasonable
doubt, and he was allowed to resume his position on the floor during
Cabinet meetings.
His future, however, seemed in doubt when Labour won the election and
Cherie Blair moved into No 10. Rumours were rife that she considered that
Humphrey's personal hygiene left a lot to be desired. Tony Blair even
confided to Wim Kok, the Dutch Premier, that the decision to keep Humphrey
had been the "biggest decision" he had taken in the early days of his
premiership.
Conscious that there had been a Treasury or Downing Street cat since the
days of Henry VIII, Mr Blair persuaded his wife to do the decent thing and
pose holding Humphrey. He was even granted the official title Chief Mouser
to the Cabinet Office, although in line with Labour's new
informal-style Cabinet protocol, he was known simply as Humphrey at meetings.
Then, just two months after he settled into the new routine, he found
himself virtually cat-napped by a German travel agent who found him
wandering around St James's Park. Believing him to be a stray, she decided
to take him home to her Lambeth tower block.
He spent a weekend in the seventh-floor flat, after the woman, Hanni
Velden, took him to her vet's for a check-up and he was recognised by a
woman in the street. When Miss Velden rang the Cabinet Office, they
confirmed that Humphrey was missing. Today, his whereabouts remain a mystery.
⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
SAY NO TO APEC
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 11:26:42 GMT
From: Chris Wright
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (UK) Army scientists kill 11,000 animals a year
Message-ID: <348b568c.8201119@post.demon.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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>From the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk)
The Government has made much of its long-awaited ban on the use of
animals in cosmetic testing. But less has been heard about the huge
increase in the number used in military experiments - one which looks
set to grow further. Exclusive by Jojo Moyes
The number of animals used and destroyed during military testing,
including those subjected to nerve gases and "battle injuries" has
more than doubled since 1992, The Independent has discovered.
Last year 11,221 procedures were carried out on animals, including
marmosets, pigs, rabbits, Rhesus monkeys, sheep, goats, guinea pigs,
rats and mice, by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (Dera),
based at Porton Down. This compares with 4,500 procedures in 1992.
Previous experiments have included anaesthetised pigs being strapped
onto trolleys and subjected to blasts at close range to test body
armour. Monkeys were shot above the eye to investigate the effects of
high velocity missiles on brain tissue.
Despite a public outcry, similar experiments may still be continuing.
A programme involving officers from the Defence Medical Services which
conducts "research into the management of battle injury and trauma"
has so far this year used 46 pigs, 14 sheep and eight rabbits.
The growth of the tests was revealed in a written answer to Paul
Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, from John Chisholm, chief executive
of Dera, which states that the animal tests are "aimed at providing
the armed forces with safe and effective protection against specific
operational hazards".
Mr Chisholm declines to list the procedures to which it subjects the
animals but Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, has
established that Dera holds 36 separate project licenses for animal
testing, of which six were classified as "substantial" - MoD-speak for
procedures involving the greatest level of pain that can be inflicted
under the law.
The agency's own figures show that tests on animals have risen
steadily from 4,500 in 1992, to 8,700 in 1995 and 11,221 last year. Mr
Flynn said he was "horrified" by the increase, and was seeking an
urgent debate into the matter.
The use of animals in such projects looks set to surge, with the
Government's announcement in July of "Gulf Veterans' Illnesses: A New
Beginning" - a 2.5m research programme into the effects of vaccines
and tablets given during the Gulf War.
The Government's plans for the programme state: "The research will
require tests to be carried out on animals, initially using rodents,
but ultimately it will also be necessary to use monkeys."
In Labour's pre-election policy statement the party said it would
"forbid the use of animals in the testing of and development of
weapons". But critics, including Mr Baker, say this commitment is not
what it seems.
"What they're basically saying is it's business as normal at Dera," he
said. "The Government are making a distinction between experiments
designed to test bullets, explosives and so on, and those to test
antidotes to biological and chemical weapons," said Andrew Tyler, of
the pressure group Animal Aid, which two years ago launched a campaign
called No Defence. "But there is no difference. They all involve
enormous suffering and death and all claim some sort of 'defensive'
purpose."
In a separate letter obtained by The Independent, Dera explains the
increase by saying: "As a result of the increasing potential
biological warfare threat it has been recognised that the UK's
biological defence capability must be strengthened. This has required
the use of more animal studies."
It adds that such studies are only performed "when careful
consideration of alternative methods to the use of animals has shown
that there is no adequate substitute."
But the efficacy of such tests has been criticised by groups such as
Animal Aid, which says that humans under battle conditions may not
react in the same way as animals. They point to a US Defence
Department statement that recent animal studies cannot explain
symptoms suffered by its troops returning from the Gulf War.
----
Chris Wright
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 08:07:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Jean Colison
To: Ar-news
Subject: MD:deer kill
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Monday, November 24, 1997; Page C03
The Washington Post
In Gaithersburg, a Tug of War Over Deer
Plan to Thin Herd Before Development Is Built, as Required by City,
Angers Animal Lovers
By Amy Klein
Developer Tom Natelli says he never thinks twice about the deer. He
builds houses with flower beds and cul-de-sacs, turning wooded tracts
into neighborhoods, and then moves on. He's gone long before the deer --
usually numbering about 300 per square mile -- return to munch on shrubs
and collide with cars.
He had planned to do the same with his new 1,700-home neighborhood in
Gaithersburg, until he became the first developer to run up against a
City Council regulation that holds developers responsible for the space
crunch put on deer every time another subdivision pops up.
Natelli has submitted a proposal to use sharpshooters this winter to
cull the deer herd on the 383 acres of land across from Muddy Branch
Park where he plans to build Lakelands, his newest community. But that
plan has sparked fury from animal activists who call the hunting
proposal "arrogant and inhumane."
"This is just a total scam," said Amy Beam, a preschool teacher who
lives across the street from where the new community will be built.
"These are the deer that I love and enjoy, that come walking through my
yard. They're sweet and harmless."
The dispute has flared since Gaithersburg became the first city in
Maryland to adopt a preventive measure to deal with the conflict between
deer and human dwellers. It requires developers seeking approval for
projects to submit a natural resources "inventory" to the City Council,
along with a plan for wildlife management.
Gaithersburg wants to avoid problems, such as deer-car collisions, that
have surfaced in other Washington area communities.
In Montgomery County last year, 1,800 car crashes were attributed to
deer that wandered across busy roads. The death of a school librarian
last month, who was killed when a deer leapt in front of her car in
McLean, has intensified debate across the region and prompted Fairfax
County officials to reconsider a deer hunt proposal they had rejected.
"I think we've learned from what's happened in the past, but I think
we've also realized the problem's getting worse," said Clark Wagner,
Gaithersburg's urban design director, who worked with Natelli on the
management plan. "We realized we needed to do something before another
deer flies through someone's windshield and causes more people to die."
City Council approval is required for any hunting within city limits,
and a public hearing will be held in January. If the city decides to go
forward with Natelli's proposal, the Maryland Department of Natural
Resources will have to sign off on permits.
The debate over deer control measures -- including relocating the
animals, treating them with contraceptives or killing them -- is not new
in Maryland, a state that has nearly 300,000 of the long-legged
creatures. But the Department of Natural Resources, which is holding
deer hunts in three Montgomery County state parks this winter, applauds
the city for taking preventive action and hopes other suburbs take their
cue from Gaithersburg.
"This is the first time we've been proactive in addressing a problem
that we know is going to occur," said Josh Sandt, director of the
agency's wildlife division. He said it's easier to deal with deer
overpopulation before development goes up.
"We'll be watching to see what the concerns are and how it goes, but I
think sharpshooters on land that will be developed is one of the tools
that will be used in the future," he said.
Natelli, of Potomac, who has developed properties across the Washington
area, said he is not completely comfortable with the idea of killing
deer but said the city is forcing him to confront the problem before he
builds.
He said he looked at other options, such as providing contraception or
relocating the animals, but came to the conclusion that such means were
insufficient for reducing the 200-odd deer that live on his property.
"I would have been fine doing nothing and just allowing them to go on
the site, but the city has concluded that doing nothing is not an
appropriate action," Natelli said.
Natelli said he is considering using White Buffalo Inc., a
Connecticut-based wildlife management agency that would use
sharpshooters to kill the deer and then donate the venison to food
banks. The job would cost Natelli Communities $30,000 to $40,000.
National activists and local neighbors refer to the plan as a "deer
slaughter," criticizing the move to eliminate the deer before they
become a problem.
"My idea of a preventive measure is instead of calling it `Lakelands,'
call it `Deer Fields,' and let it attract people who will be enchanted
by that," Beam said.
Natelli said the battle in Gaithersburg has changed the way he looks at
undeveloped land. In the future, he said, when he proposes new projects,
he may routinely include plans as needed to control the deer population.
"Once you know what the current scientists think about the deer
problems, then you almost have to take on the responsibility of dealing
with it yourself," Natelli said. "I will remember this."
⌐Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 11:27:09 -0600 (CST)
From: nancyvp@ix.netcom.com (Nancy Perry )
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Please make your bear call today!
Message-ID: <199711241727.LAA04713@dfw-ix12.ix.netcom.com>
TODAY IS THE CALL-IN DAY to Tennessee's Governor! You may recall a
post last week to make your calls to Governor Don Sundquist
today...THIS IS A REMINDER! Thank you to all who've called
already--they say they've been swamped since 7am this morning! Keep
'em coming!!!!!!!!!
Here's the message below again with the phone number--let's overwhelm
them! The secretaries are very nice, they'll log your message and send
it on. So, be firm but polite!
THANK YOU!
(IF YOU GET THIS MESSAGE LATE, CALL ANYWAY!)
***********************************************************
Monday, November 24 is "call the governor to stop the bear hunt" day!
ACTION ALERT!
Please call Governor Sundquist's office at 615-741-2001 and ask that he
cancel the upcoming December season on Tennessee bears!
POINTS TO MAKE IN ARGUING TO PROTECT THE TENNESSEE BEARS:
1. The December hunt is biologically reckless! This year, the hunt
has already resulted in unprecedented numbers of bears killed. In just
one week, 235 bears were killed in Cocke, Blount and Sevier counties.
These counties surround the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which
has an estimated population of some 600 - 700 bears. Therefore, one
third of the bear population has already been removed. Holding a
second season this year, one that will last twice as long as the
already dramatically "successful" first season, may easily decimate
this bear population. A dangerously high percentage of the bears
killed in October were female (60%), further evidence of the biological
harm to the bear population.
2. The hunt has already led to unprecedented numbers of orphaned cubs!
The Appalachian Bear Center (ABC), a rehabilitation facility in
Townsend, took in just one orphaned cub last year, compared to the 9
they have received this year following the first hunt. There are
reports of at least 6 additional cubs that either escaped capture or
were hit by cars. When mother bears are killed, their cubs are found
wandering haplessly, often completely vulnerable. Daryl Ratajczak,
ABC's curator, referred to the October hunt as contributing to this
large number of orphaned bears stating, "The state never expected so
many bears to be taken...they grossly miscalcul
ated."
3. Public safety and the well-being of the community will be
jeopardized by the December hunt! Individuals in local towns have been
outraged at hunters in pursuit of bears in their neighborhood streets,
parking lots, even in their backyards. They have endured the sound of
gun shots, the baying of dogs and the howling of wounded and dying
bears. They are being harassed and threatened by hunters who claim
they have a right, granted by state law, to hunt within city limits,
despite city ordinances prohibiting such action based on concerns for
public safety. One family of four vacationing in Gatlinburg watched in
horror as a hunter shot a bear seven times before it fell from a tree
to its death. The local townspeople and the local tourist industry has
a right to be protected from such threats to their safety and their
livelihood.
Call the governor's office--ON MONDAY! Please pass this information
along to everyone who can make a call for the bears. Your call can
make a huge difference!
For more information, please call Nancy Perry at The HSUS at
301-258-8266.
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 10:28:56 -0800 (PST)
From: bchorush@paws.org (pawsinfo)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: AR/Veg Books for Sale - $1 each
Message-ID: <199711241828.KAA15056@k2.brigadoon.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi,
This is a final clearance of remaining PAWS store books. All titles listed
below are $1.00 each. All books are new, some may be slightly "hurt"
(scuffed, etc.).
Email to reserve books; then mail, fax or phone payment or billing info to
numbers in signature below. $5.00 shipping charge added to all orders.
Orders will be sent when check/cash or visa/mc info is received. All orders
first come, first served. Number in brackets indicates quantity available.
Book titles
The Caring Cook - Vegan cooking by Janet Hunt (1)
Shardik by Richard Adams (1)
Physical Mental and Spiritual Health by Helen Ritchie (1)
Natural Body Care Products - Glossary of terms and ingredients (1)
Second Hand Foods by Herbert Shelton (2)
A Month of Menus by Herbert Shelton (4)
Health Can be Harmless by Jay Dinshah (2)
Of These Ye May Freely Eat Supplement by Joann Rachor (2)
No Cholesterol Passover Recipes by Debra Wasserman (3)
Food for a Future by Jon- Wynne-Tyson
The Brown Rice Cookbook by Craig Sams (1)
The Happy Truth About Protein by Hannah Allen (3)
For the Vegetarian in You by Billy Ray Boyd (9)
Compassion the Ultimate Ethic by Victoria Moran (39)
Vegetarianism and Occultism by C.C. Leadbeater (1)
The Wheatgrass Book by Ann Wigmore (1)
Discovering Natural Foods by Roy Bruder (3)
La Cuisine Vegetalienne by Freya Dinshah (french (1))
The Pritikin Promise (1)
Transition to Vegetarianism by Rudolph Ballentine (1)
The Sprout Garden by Mark Braunstein (2)
How you can live Six Extra Years by Lewis Walton (1)
Starting Over Learning to cook With Natural Foods by Delia Quigley (2)
Recipes for Health by David Phillips (1)
Raising Your Family Naturally by Joy Gross (1)
The Lady and Her Tiger by Pat Derby (1)
Scientific Fraud vs. Scientific Truth by Irwin Bross (12)
Gentle Giant by Tsuneo Nakamura (1)
The Green Cook's Encyclopedia by Janet Hunt (1)
GBS & Company by Aubrey Hampton (1)
L'industrie de la Faim by Frances Moore Lappe (2 in french)
Skinned by Anne Doncaster (1)
Bob Chorush Web Administrator, Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
15305 44th Ave West (P.O. Box 1037)Lynnwood, WA 98046 (425) 787-2500 ext
862, (425) 742-5711 fax
email bchorush@paws.org http://www.paws.org
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 14:19:55 -0500
From: "Zoocheck Canada Inc."
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: The Giant Holiday Circus
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19971124141955.006fb468@idirect.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Dear Colleagues;
Does anyone have information on The Giant Holiday Circus? If so could you
please email theinformation to us at Zoocheck Canada: zoocheck@idirect.com
Thanks in advance for your (collective) help.
Regards,
Andrea
Zoocheck Canada Inc.
3266 Yonge Street, Suite 1729
Toronto, ON M4N 3P6 Canada
Phone: 416-285-1744 Fax: 416-285-4670 or 696-0370
E-mail: zoocheck@idirect.com Web site: http://web.idirect.com/~zoocheck
Registered Charity No. 0828459-54
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 16:11:40 -0500
From: Amy Bricker
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: POSTING
Message-ID: <3479ED8C.529F@icta.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
**CALL FOR PHOTOGRAPHS**
The International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) is currently
taking part in the preparation of a detailed photo/essay book on food
production. The book is geared towards exposing any current inhumane
husbandry practices, as well as describing more ecologically sound
agricultural practices in a series of sections on poultry, livestock,
and crops. If you or anyone you know has pictures relevant to the issue
area (i.e. mistreated animals in factory farm systems, animals grazing
free range, pesticide use, row crops, or organic farms or produce),
please send them to CTA as soon as possible. Although we can not offer
monetary compensation, all photos chosen will receive widespread
attention with the distribution of the book.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Please submit photos, contact information, permission to reprint, and
appropriate credit line to:
Amy Bricker
Project Coordinator
International Center for Technology Assessment
310 D St. NE
Washington, DC 20002
If you need any further information, or a pre-paid self-addressed
stamped envelope, please contact Amy Bricker via e-mail
(office@icta.org), phone (202-547-9359) or fax (202-547-9429).
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 15:29:37 -0600
From: "Alliance for Animals"
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (Fwd) Thanksgiving Prayer
Message-ID: <199711242041.OAA01211@mendota.terracom.net>
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: "Richard Schwartz"
Organization: The College of Staten Island
To: schwartz
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 11:33:40 -0400
Subject: Thanksgiving Prayer
Priority: normal
shalom,
I thought that you would find the message below of interest and
perhaps valuable in efforts to promote vegetarianism.
the conditions described below make me increasingly convinced
that it is essential that we get discussions of the many moral issues
related to animal-based diets on the agenda.
I have made a couple of minor changes to the prayer.
Best wishes,
Richard
--------------------------------------
THANKSGIVING PRAYER
Thank you, God, for another year of tradition. We read somewhere that the
Pilgrims and Indians killed a wild turkey 300 years ago to celebrate the
Pilgrims' new home and bountiful harvest, so we've gotten the
turkey killing business down to a science. In fact, Thanksgiving is
our only holiday centered on a dead animal.
To bring you up to date, Lord, this year, 45 Million turkeys have been
artificially bred to fatten and slaughter for the occasion. They are
crammed 15,000-20,000 per building in warehouses with no windows,
with automated food and air control. Just a few weeks old, these
birds are debeaked with a hot iron, which also cuts their nerves and
muscle tissue; and their back toes are cut off, all without
anesthesia. This mutilation is to prevent their
attacking each other in this man-made hell. Confined to darkness, they are
forced to exist in filth, including their own feces, which gets into their
food.
Those who don't make it are thrown onto a "dead pile".
Others, monsterized by growth hormones, are forced with brooms,
sticks, and kicking to climb steep ramps onto trucks headed for the
slaughterhouse. Those too weak for loading are left to starve to
death. At 4-5 months of age, the turkeys are hung by their legs for
5-6 minutes awaiting the slaughterer's knife. Some are dropped into
vats of boiling water alive as production speed misses them. Other
fall onto the floor or die a slow death in puddles of blood. The
contented gobbles and clucks we once knew are replaced
with pitiful cries and screams.
This onslaught of your creatures also pollutes your water, soil, and air
with carcasses, feces, chemicals, pesticides, and bacteria, while polluting
our bodies with cholesterol, fat, and poisons. But, most of all, it poisons
our spirit, as we desensitize our children to the suffering and killing of
the innocent.
I guess you wonder, Lord, how we could treat these beautiful birds so
obscenely when, in Nature's care, they are able to fly 55 miles an
hour, to run 18 miles an hour, and to live for 15 years! Benjamin
Franklin, statesman and vegetarian, was so enthralled with those
robust, industrious creatures that he had hoped 150 years ago that
the turkey would be chosen our national bird.
Yes, Lord, we know you gave us "every herb-bearing seed and the
fruit of trees yielding seed, that they should be our food"
(Genesis 1:29), but we're so addicted to the taste of flesh and
blood..well, you understand, don't you, God? Besides, after we're
destroyed all your handiwork you can start another Earth somewhere,
can't you?
And now, Lord, before we eat our traditional corpse, we have just one
traditional request: Could you do some kind of magic and bring peace to the
world?
Amen
Nancy Robinson, Founder
Earth's Best Friend is Vegetarian
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 15:43:57 -0500
From: Shirley McGreal
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Indian laboratories
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19971124204357.006f2398@awod.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
This article about Indian laboratories just came to IPPL's attention.
----------------------------------------------
Torture Chambers - with With MNC's joining Indian companies to take
advantage of India's law animal rights laws, laboratories continue to
subject primates and rodents to cruel experiments
By: Saritha Rai
India Today International, June 30, 1997
The monkey is forced erect, its legs tied to restraints. Two plates close
around its neck, twisting its spinal cord. As the pressure increases, the
skull breaks with a soft pop.
A macabre new video game? Actually, it's a true-life experiment that lets
manufacturers test the helmets you wear. It's not an aberration either. In
laboratories all over India, hundreds of animals are tortured, or die
horribly - to test the mascara and eye liner you use, the drugs you take,
and the soap and detergents you wash your clothes with.
Animal-rights activists are now up in arms after a laboratory in Bangalore's
Indian Institute of Science (nsc) said it would hire out its colony of 300
bonnet monkeys to foreign research agencies. Multinational corporations
(MNCS) are already taking advantage of India's lax animal-rights laws to run
tests that they could never do at home. While animal testing is inevitable
for scientific research, Indian laboratories are callous in the way they
inflict pain on animals.
* At Jaipur's Rajasthan University, one of the testicles of an an adult
langur is cut off without anesthesia after a sperm-restricting drug,
cypterone acetate, is administered for 70 days. After 200 days, the other
testicle is also cut off. It's done to check the animal's sperm count.
* To test the levels of shock treatment that humans can withstand, dogs are
administered severe shocks, inducing heart attacks. This procedure forms a
part of tests for drugs to combat cardiac diseases.
* At the usc's Primate Research Laboratory (PRL), bonnet monkeys from
primal rain forests spend their entire lives being test beds for a male
fertility vaccine.
More than Rupees 500 crore is spent every year in India on animal testing,
estimates say. About one crore primates, rodents, canines and felines -50
times the number in 1980- face test of excruciating pain every year, and
uncounted hundreds die. The monkeys at the PRL, showcase the miserable
lives of laboratory animals. They are stunted and bleached an unnatural
white because they haven't been exposed to the sun. They constantly shake
their cages because they have nothing else to do. They're fed with pellets
of wheat flour, vitamins, minerals, and soya. When they were taken off the
diet recently, many died of diarrhoea.
"Keeping bonnet monkeys in isolated cages is against the behavioural and
ecological well-being of these animals," says Anindya Sinha, a behavioural
ecologist at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. "I am
agaist research where results are often not tangible, and the moral price
you pay is totally disproportionate to the returns on these experiments."
PRL's decision to hire out its bonnet monkeys to foreign scientists for
these experiments is reprehensible, says Sanober Bharucha of CUPA
(Compassion Unlimited Plus Action). "The rest of the world is phasing out
animal testing, and in India we have a body of enlightened scientists
offering animals for painful and irrelevant tests of foreign products that
MNC's cannot get tested in their own countries."
Multinationals are increasingly contracting animal-experimentation jobs to
Indian companies and laboratories. For example, Rallis India, Bangalore,
tests insecticides and herbicides for American and European MNC's to study
toxic symptoms in fish, rats, mice, rabbits, and dogs. The Tata owned
Rallis follows "good laboratory practices" governing such studies. But
there are many others who merely wink at globally accepted norms.
"The restriction on animal tests are so strict in the West that these
companies palm them off on developing countries," says Bharucha. Officials
of the Ministry of Environment and Forests aagree that it has become
practically impossible for these foreign companies to test on animals on
their own soil. Besides, such tests come much cheaper in India. "It would
cost 10 times less to conduct the same experiment here than in, say, the
US," points out NRL's N.P. Moudgal.
Monkeys are especially prized by the MNCs over rats, rabbits or dogs because
of their similarity to humans. Monkeys are excellent biological surrogates
for humans. Bonnet monkeys are now available only in India.
Africa was a regular supplier until the deadly Ebola virus killed thousands
of monkeys. Animal-rights activists and former Union environment-minister
Maneka Gandhi says the bonnet monkey population in India has fallen to 1.4
lakh today from around four crore in 1976, an unsubstantiated claim. "Most
have been slaughtered in laboratories," she says. "Animal testing is an
outdated technology," says Iqbal Malik, a primatologist and animal-rights
campaigner. "All the money being spent on animal experiments should be used
to find alternatives."
Scientists argue that experiments on animals are vital to research that
could save human lives. "Animal research done rationally and intelligently
is perfectly justifiable," according to P.B. Deshmukh, head of toxicology at
Rallis India. "we simply cannot take chances with alternatives like tissue
culture or computer-simulated models."
Alternatives will answer some questions, but not all, adds M. Gauri Devi,
director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences
(NIMHANS) in Bangalore. "As for humane treatment of animals, no amount of
guidelines will fully prevent violations. Ultimately, only the scientist's
conscience can do this," she says.
The government is taking its first faltering steps to limit animal testing.
Testing on animals -once mandatory- is now optional for cosmetics and drug
manufacturers. That helps. Cosmetic giant Lakme, which used to test its
lipsticks an other cosmetics on monkeys, stopped animal experiments after
the law was changed.
Manufacturers have also been asked to display a "Not tested on animals" sign
on their products. Most multinationals selling cosmetics display these
words on the products they sell in foreign markets, but not on those they
sell in India. Dissection of animals in school laboratories, too is no
longer mandatory in schools affiliatd to the Central Board of Secondary
Education. In a case filed by a Delhi student, Sarika Sancheti, the Delhi
High Court on May 19 ruled that the dissection of frogs, cockroaches and
earthworms should not be included as a compulsory part of the school syllabi.
The Committee for Supervision and Control of Animal Experimentation set up
by the Ministry of Environment and Forests will formulate rules for animal
testing. In May and June this year, the committee, headed by Maneka Gandhi,
issued specific guidelines to about 500 laboratories and 500 more letters
are on the way. Nearly 30 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been
short-listed in consultation with the Animal Welfare Board, to carry out
surprise checks on colleges, laboratories and research institutions.
* Without guidelines for experiments on animals, scientific establishments
ignore animal rights. Most institutions do not have eithics committees to
keep an eye on the experimental procedures. Even where such committees
exist, their role is often nominal. And so, redundant tests abound, only
sometimes coming to light.
At the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in
Chandigarh, for instance, a project to run experiments on 60 dogs to study
the vascular system was recently blocked because the objectives were not
convincing enough. "We disallow an experiment when we find that the blood
sample being drawn from the animal is too large compared to its body
weight," adds Gauri Devi.
But more often than not, the tests go on. Alternatives are available, but
poorly developed. Cruel tests for cosmetics can be largely avoided using
tissues instead of whole animals. Drug testing on animals can now be
replaced, at least partially, by computer modelling of molecules and their
effects.
While tissue culture and computers are alternatives, they cannot entirely
replace tests on animals. But scientists themselves admit it is time to
monitor animal experimentation. "There has to be a national agency which
licenses labs carrying out experiments on animals. Certification and
licensing should be a definite practice," says PRL's Moudgal.
The outdated Prevention of Cuelty to Animals Act of 1960 -which mainly
specifies physical conditions like cage size and ventilation- is in the
process of being amended. But changing attitudes will require time. With or
without laws, the land where the monkey god Hanuman is venerated has a long
way to go before it accords some respect to the life of his lesser cousins.
|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| Dr. Shirley McGreal | PHONE: 803-871-2280 |
| Int. Primate Protection League | FAX: 803-871-7988 |
| POB 766 | E-MAIL: ippl@awod.com |
| Summerville SC 29484 | Web: http://www.ippl.org |
|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 15:54:00 -0500
From: allen schubert
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (RU) Moscow Intl Airport Biggest Center for Rare Animal
Smuggling
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971124155357.007113dc@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
from CNN custom news http://www.cnn.com/
------------------------------------------
Moscow Intl Airport Biggest Center for Rare Animal Smuggling.
Itar-Tass
24-NOV-97
MOSCOW, November 24 (Itar-Tass) - The Sheremetyevo-2 international airport
of Moscow is the most notorious place in Russia for smuggling out rare
species of animals. This view was aired at today's session of the board of
Russia's State ecology committee.
According to experts' assessment, contraband cargo worth over 1.5 million
U.S. dollars is carried out through the airport. Thoroughly well-worked out
channels of shipping illegal animal cargo from Vietnam, Nigeria, Cameroon,
Chad and Peru are closely watched from here. Russia is becoming a transit
country for suppliers of contraband animals to countries of Western Europe,
Middle East and Japan. These reports are confirmed by data made available
by administrative bodies of the Convention on International Trade in wild
flora and fauna, which are on the brink of extinction of other countries
which are in close contact with Interpol.
Illegal outflow of raw materials produced from wild animals, including rare
and those on the verge of extinction species, is on the rise in recent
years. For example, the wild bear's bile from the Russian Far East and the
Amur tiger's carcass are being smuggled out. These "commodities" are
returned to Russia in the form of various potions, balsams, balms and
medicines. What is worth noting is the fact that they are imported into
Russia quite freely and in violation of the international convention.
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 15:59:40 -0500
From: allen schubert
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: EU Relaxes Ban on Ivory Imports
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971124155935.006f68bc@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
from Associated Press http://wire.ap.org/
-------------------------------------
11/24/1997 13:11 EST
EU Relaxes Ban on Ivory Imports
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Commission has relaxed a ban on
importing live elephants, ivory and other elephant products from three
southern African nations.
Under the new EU regulation Monday, travelers from Zimbabwe can bring
ivory and elephant-skin souvenirs into the EU as long as they don't try
to sell them.
Under similar conditions, hunters will be able to import elephant
trophies from Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.
The rules, which must be formally approved by the 15 EU governments, also
allow live elephants from the three nations to be shipped to zoos and
other ``appropriate'' destinations within the EU.
The three African nations say successful conservation efforts in recent
years have produced more elephants than their land can sustain.
The new EU regulation was welcomed by the World Wildlife Fund, which also
appauded the Commission's decision to tighten rules on the import of
caviar and sturgeons.
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 14:11:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: EXTRA tonight on Black Beauty Ranch
Message-ID: <2.2.16.19971124195816.601fc72a@pop.igc.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
The syndicated television show "EXTRA" will air a segment tonight (Monday,
November 24) on The Fund for Animals' Black Beauty Ranch. Check local
listings for time and channel.
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 15:10:16 -0800
From: LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: primate-talk@primate.wisc.edu
Cc: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Wash. Post Book Review: Next of Kin
Message-ID: <199711242302.SAA20059@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Look Who's Talking
By Vicki Croke
Sunday, November 23, 1997; Page X06
The Washington Post
NEXT OF KIN
What Chimpanzees Have Taught Me
About Who We Are
By Roger Fouts with Stephen Tukel Mills
Morrow. 420 pp. $25
FROM THE EARLIEST anecdotes -- Washoe the chimpanzee as a
toddler, racing for the potty chair, her hands repeatedly forming the
word "Hurry!" in American Sign Language -- to those at the end, like
the image of a mature Washoe smelling the fragrant long-stemmed
roses she has received for her birthday, then eating them petal by petal,
Roger Fouts's Next of Kin is an illuminating, stimulating, challenging
and humane story. Fouts, a pioneer in the studies of apes and language
acquisition, and his co-author, Stephen Tukel Mills, have seamlessly
joined science and natural history with the rather personal journey of a
psychologist whose life was forever changed by chimpanzees.
In 1967, Fouts was accepted into the PhD program at the University of
Nevada at Reno, hoping to become a child psychologist. But the
graduate assistantship he was chosen for changed all that.
Experimental psychologists Allen and Beatrix Gardner were trying to
teach ASL to a young, home-reared chimpanzee named Washoe;
though they were hesitant about Fouts, Washoe announced, by
hugging him, that she was not.
Teaching language to chimps was not a novel idea, but the Gardners'
approach was. They observed that the tongue and larynx of chimps
differ from our own and, more important, that chimps tend to express
more gesturally than vocally. When Fouts began working with
Washoe, she knew about two dozen signs (a list that would grow into
the hundreds) and began to combine them spontaneously to form
phrases such as "you me hide" and "dirty good" for her potty chair.
In 1970, the idyllic Project Washoe changed. The Gardners moved
Washoe to the Institute for Primate Studies in Norman, Okla., and
ordered Fouts to go along. This marked the start of a horrific odyssey.
The conditions for laboratory chimpanzees used in research for
medicine or psychology sickened Fouts. And as many of the chimps
used in language studies grew older and more powerful (an adult chimp
is at least three times stronger than a man), they were dumped into
biomedical labs, where they might spend as long as 40 years in sterile
isolation.
Fouts began to care less about courting the favors of big institutions
with grant-giving power (such as the National Institutes of Health) and
more about improving conditions for the hundreds, perhaps thousands
of chimps in captivity. He became a crusader. One of the stories he
recounts involves Booee, an especially good-natured chimp he worked
with, who was subsequently relegated to biomedical research.
Accompanied by a film crew from ABC's "20/20," Fouts visited him in
his "isolette," 13 years after their separation. "Booee, Booee, me
Booee," the chimp signed excitedly to Fouts. The two embraced. (The
public outcry from the program resulted in Booee's being moved to a
sanctuary.)
But Fouts has never stopped being a scientist. And much of this book
concerns the complicated debate about whether any animal other than man is
capable of true language. It is agreed that animals communicate; the clash
concerns the true definition of language -- language that has syntax and
grammar -- and whether or not humans alone possess the circuitry to acquire
and master it. MIT's Steven Pinker, in his fascinating, bestselling book The
Language Instinct, persuasively
criticizes the movement to teach apes language. Fouts's powerful
counterargument will not end this debate but certainly enriches it.
CHIMPS ARE our closest relatives, similar to us physically,
emotionally, and perhaps even morally, as researcher Frans de Waal has
argued. Fouts believes that in them we find a prototype version of our own
capacity for language. He shows time and again that they can think
abstractly, recombine vocabulary to form new words such as "rock berry" for
Brazil nut or "water bird" for swan, and arguably apply simple rules of
grammar. And he is not afraid to take on the 500-pound gorilla of
linguistics, Noam Chomsky, and his thoughts about the human "language
acquisition device."
Clearly the debate will rage on. No matter the outcome, however,
Fouts's research has given us a window on the world of the apes.
Forget syntax; when Fouts asks the pregnant Washoe what is in her belly, her
one-word response -- "baby" -- is amazing. And later, in sharp contrast to
the desolate scenes inside biomedical labs, when Washoe makes the sign for
"cry" to a human volunteer who has miscarried, we see that Fouts has
reframed another debate: What is the definition of humanity?
Vicki Croke writes the Animal Beat column for the Boston Globe and
the New York Times New Service and is the author of "The Modern
Ark: The Story of Zoos: Past, Present, and Future."
⌐ Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: LCartLng@gvn.net, phone: 800-348-7387 x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/
"We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others
are here for, I don't know." -- W. H. Auden
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 97 15:38:38 -0800
From: In Defense of Animals
To:
Subject: FFF- San Francisco
Message-ID: <199711242337.PAA03445@proxy4.ba.best.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
In Defense of Animals is gearing up for the escalation in the battle
against the fur industry! It is time once again to confront the public
with the message that wearing fur is a symbol of the suffering and death
of thousands of animals and it will not be tolerated. Please join us for
Fur-Free Friday on November 28 (the day after Thanksgiving) 11 a.m. to 3
p.m. in Union Square. We need to let everyone know that the fur
industry's claim of a comeback is in reality a last ditch effort to
survive. On this day, the busiest shopping day of the year, activists
around the country will be focusing on department stores that still make
a profit from animals killed for their fur. Call our office 415-388-9641,
or e-mail us at ida@idausa.org for more information on how you can assist
with this very important date.
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 17:55:39 -0600 (CST)
From: Suzanne Roy
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Action Alert - Tule Elk
Message-ID: <199711242355.RAA09389@dfw-ix3.ix.netcom.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
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IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS
131 Camino Alto, Suite E
Mill Valley, CA 94941
415/388-9641
LETTERS NEEDED TO SUPPORT PARK SERVICE PLAN FOR ELK CONTRACEPTION
AS
ALTERNATIVE TO CULLING
In October, the Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) in Marin County, Calif.
released an Environmental Assessment (EA) detailing its plans to manage a
burgeoning herd of tule elk through non-lethal methods, including
contraception and relocation. The deadline for comments on the EA is
December 12, 1997.
Letters are now needed to support the parkÆs humane approach to the tule elk.
Currently, the elk are confined to a 2600-acre range within the PRNS. Now
numbering nearly 500, the elk herd is quickly approaching the carrying
capacity of the range. Several years ago, the park wanted to shoot 30-40
female elk each year to control the herdÆs numbers. Now under new
management, the PRNS has is pursuing a progressive and humane program that
involves contraception and relocation of some animals to another part of the
park.
Opposition from animal advocacy organizations killed the park service plan
to shoot the elk four years ago. Now, we need a strong showing to once
again counter the sport hunting and ranching interests that want to see
hunting of these once-endangered elk.
This program is a model for cooperation between animal protection advocates
and the national park service. It will also set a precedent for humane,
non-lethal population control of wildlife in our national parks. Please
help us support it by sending a letter, in the form of comments on the "Tule
Elk Management Plan and Environmental Assessment," to:
Point Reyes National Seashore
Point Reyes, CA 94956
415/663-8132 (fax)
A sample letter follows here. Copies of the EA can be obtained by calling
the PRNS at 415/663-8522.
For more information, call Suzanne Roy at In Defense of Animals at
415/388-9641 x 26 or email her at idausa@ix.netcom.com.
=================================================
24 November 1997
Point Reyes National Seashore
Point Reyes, CA 94956
To Whom It May Concern:
On behalf of the 70,000 members of In Defense of Animals (IDA), I am writing
to comment on the "Tule Elk Management Plan and Environmental Assessment,"
which was released in October 1997.
IDA would like to commend the Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) for a
thorough and extremely well-written Environmental Assessment. It is clear
from this document that the PRNS has extensively researched this issue and
has spent a great deal of time and effort to formulate the best plan
possible for the elk and for the park as a whole.
IDA would like to strongly endorse Alternative A, as outlined in the
Environmental Assessment. We believe that the non-lethal approach û
including immunocontraception and relocation -- set forth under this
alternative, is the best, most humane and most publicly acceptable
alternative for the management of the tule elk herd. IDA is encouraged that
the park has chosen this approach as an alternative to lethal culling of the
animals. We believe that this program can serve as a model for cooperation
between humane and conservation organizations, the scientific community and
the National Park Service.
We look forward to the results of the pilot contraception study underway at
Tomales Point, and we are confident that immunocontraception will prove to
be an effective tool for maintaining the population of elk within the park
at acceptable numbers. In addition, we wholeheartedly endorse the
relocation of elk to the Limantour wilderness area with the long-term goal
of establishing a free-ranging elk herd. Finally, we also support the
relocation of elk to areas outside the seashore, provided that those areas
employ humane management policies and do not allow public hunting of the elk.
The tule elk of Point Reyes are a national treasure, and the experience of
visiting the elk range is unique among our national parks. We thank the
Park Service for having the foresight to protect these beautiful animals,
and we offer our support as you move forward with the progressive and
non-lethal management program outlined under Alternative A in the
Environmental Assessment.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Suzanne Roy
Program Director
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 20:16:07 -0800
From: Barry Kent MacKay
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Goose sterilization study funded by zoo. (CA)
Message-ID: <347A5107.3B@sympatico.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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News Release (from Canadian Wildlife Service):
$75,000 PENALTY IMPOSED BY COURT TO SUPPORT A RESEARCH PROJECT
Toronto - November 20, 1997 - The Zoological Society of Metropolitan
Toronto will provide $75,000 to fund an avian research project after
pleading guilty to a charge of unlawful possession of migratory birds
without the authority of a permit under the Migratory Birds Convention
Act (MBCA).
The Ontario Provincial Court, Criminal Division, accepted a plea of
guilty on November 18, 1997, and imposed a suspended sentence. The
Court Order placed by the Provincial Judge had been mutually agreed to
by the prosecutor and defense attorney, under section 18 (b) of the
MBCA.
The research project will be conducted by the Zoological Society of
Metropolitan Toronto and the Ontario Veterinary College of the
University of Guelph. This two year project will explore a vaccine
technique for contraception which has been successfully applied to
mammals but not to birds.
In this case, it is anticipated that the research project will support a
means of controlling the ever increasing number of Canada Geese in urban
areas. This alternative approach to sentencing under a violation of the
MBCA is designed to foser a cooperative means to resolve an
environmental issue.
In December, 1999, the Zoo will publish a report of their findings, a
breakdown of allocated funds and a series of recommendations concerning
the research. This research report is to be provided to Environment
Canada.
The initial charges were laid in September 1997 after an Environment
Canada Investigation indicated that Zoo officials, without a permit,
illegally herded, and held in captivity, approximately 300 wild Canada
Geese. Zoo officials attempted to transport the geese to the Rouge
River for release, resulting in the death of approximately 80 birds.
-30-
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 20:14:39 -0500
From: Constance Young
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: more FFF: only pigeons
Message-ID: <347A267F.7E0A@idsi.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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Another reminder to those who have not committed themselves to Fur Free
Friday and who live outside of NYC.
There will be a demonstration in Pine Plains, New York (Dutchess County,
east of Rhinebeck) outside a hunting preserve called Indian Mountain
Lodge which holds periodic pigeon shoots.
On that day, Friday Nov. 28 they will be holding a "huge" pigeon
shoot--1,000, possibly more pigeons will be released from a "tower"
(actually a slight incline) while 30 or some shooters get their jollies
from blowing their heads off. The pigeons, who are brought from a
distance (many picked up from the City streets), haven't had water or
food, or even a chance to get their "sea legs" before they are released
to be shot at.
These are not your ordinary rednecks though. These shooters are upscale
New Yorkers, Connecticut residents, and people from New Jersey and
Massachusetts. Even former Governor Cuomo's son Andrew was mentioned in
the New York Daily News as going to Indian Mountain Lodge one day to
shoot with Jimmy Breslin for a wonderful day of "male bonding."
We will be protesting beginning at 8:30 AM outside the preserve which is
on Route 199 about one mile east of the center of Pine Plains (exit off
the Taconic Parkway). The shoots usually go on between 9 and 12 noon,
but we have no information this time about how long it will go on.
However, we would hope that anyone who plans to come get there before
ten because we sometimes pack it in at 10:00 AM.
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 18:07:40
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [EU] Threat to imports of US fur in traps row
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971124180740.2cb71c38@dowco.com>
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, November 25th, 1997
Threat to imports of US fur in traps row
By Toby Helm, EU Correspondent, in Brussels
THE European Union issued a warning yesterday that it would ban all fur
imports from the United States from Monday unless Washington agrees to
adopt rules preventing the use of steel-jaw leghold traps.
Calls for America to fall into line with Canada and Russia, which after a
five-year dispute agreed in July to end the use of the traps, were led by
Sir Leon Brittan, EU trade commissioner. Canada and Russia immediately
banned use of the traps for catching seven species - beaver, otter, marten,
fisher, ermine, muskrat and badger. For other species such as the wolf,
bobcat and lynx, the traps are to be banned from March 2000.
Washington argues that a ban would put trappers out of business at a time
when there is no effective alternative to the steel-jaw traps. Sir Leon
said America's time had almost run out and that, unless it changed its
position by the weekend, an embargo would be imposed.
The row threatens to cast a cloud over next week's EU-US summit in
Washington, adding to the list of trade disputes already souring relations
between the two.
British officials said Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, judged the US
response to the EU's demands as "inadequate" and supported the application
of greater pressure to Washington.
⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
SAY NO TO APEC
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 18:07:08
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [US] Cities supply the bear necessities
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, November 25th, 1997
Cities supply the bear necessities
By John Hiscock in Los Angeles
CITIES across the American West are being invaded by black bears foraging
for food.
As urban sprawl pushes further into forests and mountain ranges, the bears
are turning to civilisation for their sustenance and are becoming a common
sight in populated areas. On the outskirts of Los Angeles bears are often
seen foraging in rubbish bins and even cooling off in swimming pools. A
bear named Samson recently became a celebrity after he was
filmed lolling in a hot tub. He has now been put in a zoo.
The California town of Mammoth Lakes, which has a live-and-let-live policy
towards bears, has about 40 living within the city limits. Bears wander the
streets, oblivious to traffic, and hang around restaurant rubbish bins.
Nine have been killed by cars so far this year.
Police Chief Michael Donnelly said: "What we've done is create a huge
wildlife sanctuary with its central food source in the middle of town. This
is a town that wants to get along with nature. It may be naive when it
comes to bears but we have set out to live with them at a safe distance."
The town has appointed a "bear manager" to deal with the problem. Steve
Searles uses pepper spray, exploding flares and rubber bullets to frighten
the bears away from houses and rubbish bins. "They're incredibly determined
creatures," he said. "It's hard to break them of bad habits."
The animals now recognise Searles and run when they see his vehicle
approaching. They thrive on their diet of discarded hamburgers and other
cast-off food and some of them now weigh as much as 600lb. The fat content
and calories has also boosted their fertility and instead of having one
cub, bears in Mammoth regularly produce two and three offspring each year.
Mr Donnelly said: "Some people living here think of the bears as their
pets. One lady refers to them as 'my dogs' and puts out 50lb bags of dog
food for them. We're trying to change attitudes like that."
The problem is becoming acute in nearby Yosemite National Park, a popular
tourist destination where last week four bears, including a mother and two
cubs, were put down because they would not stop breaking into cars and
threatening people. Hungry bears have caused ú300,000 in damage to parked
cars in Yosemite so far this year.
In Colorado 35 bears have been killed in the past two years after
blundering on to busy streets or causing damage to property. Bears are even
invading towns as far east as Pennsylvania, where their number has tripled
since the 1970s.
Gary Alt, a bear biologist said: "At no time in history have we had as many
bears and people living in close quarters. How we work out this awkward
coexistence will probably determine whether we have bears and other big
animals around at the end of the next century."
⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
SAY NO TO APEC
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 18:14:26
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] No 10 lets the cat out of the bag
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, November 25th, 1997
No 10 lets the cat out of the bag
By Jon Hibbs, Political Correspondent
THE Government moved swiftly last night to diffuse a crisis in Downing
Street - over the fate of Humphrey the cat. No 10 was inundated with media
inquiries after The Telegraph highlighted fears that the popular Civil
Service mascot might have been put down on the orders of Cherie Blair
rather than retired to a new home in the suburbs as announced last week.
After repeated denials failed to stem the mounting concern, the order went
out from the highest level that Humphrey be put on show in his new habitat.
While Tony Blair grappled with lesser matters of state, such as the
international crisis in Iraq, his officials escorted a photographer and
television crew to a secret address in south-east London.
There, they were shown a black and white cat posing on a selection of
yesterday's newspapers and pawing at the occupant of his new owner's
goldfish bowl. It was not quite the press conference suggested by Alan
Clark, the Tory MP for Kensington and Chelsea, who originally demanded the
body be produced lest anyone suspect that Mrs Blair had blood on her hands.
However, to the Government's relief, the Press Association photographer
testified that he recognised Humphrey from previous photo-sessions in
Whitehall.
"I have photographed Humphrey many times and I'm convinced he is no fake.
He greeted me like an old friend," said Sean Dempsey.
But was it the same cat or a look-alike procured by New Labour's
spin-doctors? The ageing Humphrey, who was so ill he had to be retired from
front-line politics was displayed on the nation's television screens last
night as a kittenish fellow whose health had miraculously improved.
Apparently, he was no longer troubled by incontinence, and had even put on
weight. Steve Mullender, Humphrey's veterinary surgeon, said: "He is
healthy, lively and quite a good-looking cat."
In the latest attempt to scotch the persistent rumour that Mrs Blair was
allergic to pets, the Prime Minister's office announced that Humphrey would
be replaced. Another cat was already lined up for the job of official
Cabinet mouser, said a spokesman. Mrs Blair, who was photographed cuddling
Humphrey to show she harboured no ill feelings towards him, even put out a
statement to say the family was sorry he had gone.
"The children were only just getting to know him but we are delighted that
he has settled down so well in his new home," she said.
Downing Street still refused to disclose Humphrey's location, insisting
that the civil servant who had taken the sick cat into her home had
appealed for her privacy to be respected. Humphrey's fate dominated both
daily briefings held by the Prime Minister's office yesterday amid
speculation that he had been kicked out either for his tendency to leak in
the corridors
of power or for savaging birds in St James's Park.
A spokesman stuck by the original story that the cat was suffering from a
kidney problem and had left the Cabinet Office for a quieter life on
veterinary advice, adding: "He is in a quiet suburban place."
"Is that acemetery?" asked one suspicious reporter.
Later, displaying the photographic evidence of Humphrey's happy retirement,
the Prime Minister's spokesman again sought to put the record straight.
"One: the Blairs like cats. And two: the suggestion that Cherie got rid of
Humphrey is a vile slur," he said.
Earlier, Lord Lloyd-Webber attempted to ask the Government what steps it
proposed to take to ensure a cat was installed once again in Downing Street
"so that the nation's business can be properly executed".
However, the minutes clerk of the Lords refused to accept his question on
the grounds that it was not "a matter of genuine government responsibility."
⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
SAY NO TO APEC
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 22:14:59 -0500 (EST)
From: LMANHEIM@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Fwd: EU Relaxes Ban on Ivory Imports
Message-ID: <971124221458_632109491@mrin79>
Subj: EU Relaxes Ban on Ivory Imports
Date: 97-11-24 19:26:26 EST
From: AOL News
BCC: LMANHEIM
EU Relaxes Ban on Ivory Imports
.c The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Commission has relaxed a ban
on importing live elephants, ivory and other elephant products from
three southern African nations.
Under the new EU regulation Monday, travelers from Zimbabwe can
bring ivory and elephant-skin souvenirs into the EU as long as they
don't try to sell them.
Under similar conditions, hunters will be able to import elephant
trophies from Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.
The rules, which must be formally approved by the 15 EU
governments, also allow live elephants from the three nations to be
shipped to zoos and other ``appropriate'' destinations within the
EU.
The three African nations say successful conservation efforts in
recent years have produced more elephants than their land can
sustain.
The new EU regulation was welcomed by the World Wildlife Fund,
which also appauded the Commission's decision to tighten rules on
the import of caviar and sturgeons.
AP-NY-11-24-97 1311EST
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