|
|
AR-NEWS Digest 621
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) Drugs more lucrative than ever
by Andrew Gach
2) Organ transplantation is not popular in Brazil
by Andrew Gach
3) (US) New Year Brings New Laws
by allen schubert
4) (US) New Test Screens For "Mad Cow" Disease
by allen schubert
5) Monks pray for birds as slaughter ends
by NOVENA ANN
6) (US) Anti-Fur Group Donates Fur Coats
by allen schubert
7) Pet CPR-First Aid Class
by Ilene Rachford
8) Animal-rights group stages a fur giveaway
by Tereiman
9) fuzzy white-tail at my feeder
by Constance Young
10) Buffalo Rescued
by leah wacksman
11) man jailed for 30 days in animal cruelty case
by NOVENA ANN
12) Ostrish sushi, stir-fry on promoters' menu
by NOVENA ANN
13) (Kenya)Hemorrhagic Fever
by bunny
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 20:59:16 -0800
From: Andrew Gach
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Drugs more lucrative than ever
Message-ID: <34AB22A4.472E@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Drug sales likely to top 1996 levels
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (December 31, 1997 5:18 p.m. EST)
Drug sales are rising at a record-setting pace for a second straight
year as Americans take more medicine than ever - despite a scare that
took two diet drugs off the market.
Domestic pharmaceutical sales in the first nine months of 1997 rose 12
percent to $69.4 billion, on a pace to top the $85.4 billion reported
for all of 1996, industry researcher IMS America said Wednesday. Among
the top sellers were ulcer, heart and depression drugs.
In the past, price increases and rising sales volume have driven sales
higher. But this year growth was led by sales of newer drugs, such as
$1,200-a-year cholesterol-lowering medications, which tend to cost more
than older drugs. One-third of the industry's growth has come from
products less than two years old.
Although newer drugs are pricier, they often lower health care costs by
helping patients with heart disease avoid costly operations or by
allowing diabetics to use less insulin, said Steve Lisi, an analyst with
Mehta & Isaly, a New York-based drug industry research firm.
FDA rules on television advertisements were relaxed this year, allowing
drug makers to launch an unprecedented barrage of "ask your doctor"
spots designed to encourage consumers to ask for new drugs by name.
"Patients are learning they need to get an extracurricular degree in
their own condition so that they can learn to be more informed
consumers," said Jamie Court of Consumers For Quality Care, a Santa
Monica, Calif., consumer group.
The Astra-Merck ulcer drug Prilosec is the best-selling prescription
drug in the nation, with $1.7 billion in sales through September. It
usurped the No. 1 spot long held by an older ulcer medication, Glaxo
Wellcome's Zantac, which lost its exclusive patent protection this year.
Ulcer medications were the best-selling class of drugs, making up 6.7
percent of all prescription sales at $4.7 billion. Antipsychotic drug
sales rose 68 percent, oral diabetes treatments jumped 45 percent and
cholesterol-reducers rose 38 percent.
Ulcer drugs brought in more money, but pill for pill more Americans took
estrogen than any other drug.
American women bought 33.6 million prescriptions of Premarin, an
estrogen drug made by American Home Products' Wyeth-Ayerst subsidiary to
treat fragile bones and menopausal symptoms, as well as estrogen
compounds sold by Knoll Pharmaceutical, Apothecon and other companies.
Depression drugs made up three of the 10 best-sellers. Eli Lilly's
Prozac ranked second with sales of $1.4 billion, Pfizer Inc.'s Zoloft
was fifth with sales of $891.3 million and SmithKline Beecham's Paxil
ranked eighth with $692.2 million.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs helped lead sales increases, with Merck &
Co.'s Zocor the third best-seller at $1 billion in sales through
September, a 47 percent increase over the comparable 1996 level.
Sales of Bristol-Myers' rival drug Pravachol bolted 49 percent in the
first three quarters, helping to drive Warner-Lambert's whopping 75
percent increase in prescription drug sales to $1.5 billion through
September.
American Home's stock was battered after it pulled the diet drugs
Pondimin and Redux off the market in September at the FDA's request
after a Mayo Clinic study linked it to heart valve damage. But the
company still sold the most drugs -- 125.8 million prescriptions.
American Home, No. 2 Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and No. 3 Novartis were
the only ones to sell more than 100 million prescriptions each through
September.
Prescription volume approached 2 billion through September, a 5 percent
increase over the 1.9 billion in the same 1996 period, IMS said.
Industry sales should continue rising following recent advances that
allow drug makers to test more drugs, analyst Lisi said.
"Now you're starting to see companies have more and more products in
late-stage testing than ever before," Lisi said. "We'll see more of
this. The FDA will just get busier and busier every year."
By JOHN HENDREN, AP Business Writer
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 21:03:46 -0800
From: Andrew Gach
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Organ transplantation is not popular in Brazil
Message-ID: <34AB23B2.E6F@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Brazilians line up to ensure organs aren't transplanted
Agence France-Presse
BRASILIA (December 31, 1997 11:18 a.m. EST)
At year's end hundreds of thousands of Brazilians were flocking to
police stations to ensure their organs are not transplanted to others
when they die.
Under a new law that takes effect Thursday all Brazilians over 18 will
become universal organ donors unless they sign documents stating they
reject being donors.
And there are ample signs most Brazilians would prefer remaining intact
after they die. In the last six months, three out of every four people
getting drivers' licenses rejected organ donorship.
The new law has created anxiety for some who worry that their documents
will get lost in the shuffle and that as a result they will be losing
their organs or -- even worse -- that their organs will be removed
before they are pronounced dead.
The law allows for donations of all type of organs, including hearts,
livers, eyes and kidneys, to people who are on long waiting lists for
transplants.
********************************************************************
It's unfortunate that pigs and baboons bred for spare organs can't
line up at the police station!
Andy
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 00:23:16 -0500
From: allen schubert
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) New Year Brings New Laws
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980101002313.007076dc@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
NOTE: edited for AR appropriate material only
from CNN Custom News http://www.cnn.com
----------------------------------
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 31) -- Many new federal and state laws go
into effect on Jan. 1. Here is a sampling of laws for the New Year:
California:
Landowners can kill wild pigs without obtaining an advance if the pig is
threatening to damage or destroy property. The killing must be reported the
next day, and the pig's carcass must be put to use.
New York:
A motorist who leaves the scene of an accident which involves a cat
without reporting it to police can be fined. Similar laws already exist for
dogs, horses and cows
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 00:36:22 -0500
From: allen schubert
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) New Test Screens For "Mad Cow" Disease
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980101003559.00734880@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
from Yahoo news http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/health/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday December 31 12:25 PM EST
New Test Screens For "Mad Cow" Disease
By Theresa Tamkins
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- For the first time, researchers have developed a
reliable test that can be used to determine if cattle-derived products or
tissues are infected with the agent that causes "mad cow disease" or bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
The test subject is a genetically altered mouse that develops neurological
symptoms within 250 days after exposure to the infectious material,
according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. The disease is thought to spread by infectious proteins known as
prions, which contaminate neurological, lymphoid and possibly other tissue.
The transgenic mice "make possible for the first time, an accurate
determination of BSE prion titers in brain and other tissues," according to
senior investigator Dr. Stanley Prusiner, of the University of California,
San Francisco and colleagues. Prusiner received a Nobel prize this year for
his work on prions.
At least 20 young adults in the U.K. and France have developed a fatal
neurological disorder, a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which some
experts believe came from eating contaminated beef.
The mice also can be used to test cattle in countries thought to be free of
BSE, including the U.S. and Canada. And the rodents can also be used to
test for BSE in cattle-derived products, according to the report. Such
products include collagen, which is used in plastic and reconstructive
surgery and gelatin, which is used as a stabilizing agent in a variety of
foods and drugs.
Many laboratory animals will develop neurological disease when exposed to
BSE, but it can take years for symptoms to develop and results are
inconsistent from animal to animal. The new strain of mice, known as
Tg(BoPrP), carry the gene for the normal prions found in cattle, and are
more likely to develop the disease once exposed to the agent.
It's thought that the infection is transmitted by abnormal prion proteins
that convert the normal version into a more resistant and brain damaging
molecule. SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(1997;94:14279-14284)
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 07:06:10 EST
From: NOVENA ANN
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Monks pray for birds as slaughter ends
Message-ID:
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
.c The Associated Press
HONG KONG (AP) - Brown-robed Buddhist monks and nuns began seven days of
prayer and meditation for the souls of 1.3 million dead chickens Wednesday,
even as government teams gassed and slashed the stragglers in Hong Kong's
poultry slaughter.
In his first public comments since the unprecedented outbreak of bird flu
among humans, Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa said his government had handled
it resolutely and appropriately.
``Some people said we reacted too fast. Some people said we reacted too
slowly. Actually ... we have all along, until now, been handling it very
carefully,'' Tung told reporters as he toured a newly chicken-free and
sterilized poultry market.
A prominent daily accused Tung of failing to provide leadership and reassure
the community in a time of crisis.
``Chief Executive Tung, what are you so busy doing?'' the editorial in the
Apple Daily asked.
So far, 13 people are known to have contracted A H5N1, or bird flu, and six
others are suspected of having the mysterious disease. Four have died. Doctors
have pinpointed chickens as the likely source.
In a sign of growing public anxiety, a spokeswoman for a major hospital said
emergency room visits were up 20 percent to 687 on Tuesday, the latest day for
which figures were available, as people with coughs and fever sought exams.
However, the number of confirmed and suspected bird flu cases has not risen
since Saturday.
The poultry slaughter, which started Monday, was basically over late
Wednesday, the government said. Hong Kong had pressed its civil servants into
duty for the killing, carried out by slitting the birds' throats when supplies
of carbon dioxide ran out.
Shocked by the carnage, 80 monks and nuns chanted sutras, or Buddhist
scriptures, and prayed to speed the birds' soul toward reincarnation. They
were led in prayer by abbot Yong Sing, resplendent in saffron and gold-
threaded red robes.
The ceremony took place at the Buddhist Western Monastery, an ornate temple
tucked away in the dry, brown hills of Hong Kong's northwestern Tsuen Wan
district.
Fingering the amber beads on his prayer necklace, abbot Yong Sing warned:
``Hong Kong will suffer retribution.''
``People and chickens may look different, but they are both alive, and we
shouldn't kill live things,'' said the abbot, a portly man with a shaved head
and bristling gray eyebrows.
At the market, Tung spoke briefly with several dozen truck drivers who were
demanding government assistance. They said the ban on imports of live
chickens, which began Dec. 23 and is expected to last weeks, had thrown them
out of work.
``We have no income,'' said a worker who identified himself only as Chan. ``I
have a family and it's very difficult.''
Hong Kong has promised to pay farmers and vendors for the loss of their
chickens and to cancel rent at vendors' stalls in public markets for three
months.
Compensation figures will be fixed in coming days, but farmers have already
demanded much more than the $3.85 per bird that the government has suggested.
Hong Kong people face the prospect of eating frozen chicken for weeks to come,
probably through the Lunar New Year on Jan. 28.
The Lunar New Year is the main holiday in the Chinese calendar and is usually
celebrated with family feasts featuring chicken. Few Cantonese chefs would
willingly use frozen chicken.
Restaurants and bars around Hong Kong, lacking other choices, posted notices
advertising their chickens were flown in from the United States, Brazil, or
other safe places. The diseased birds are believed to have come from China. On
Wednesday, South Africa banned import of meat from Chinese poultry.
``For the last few days, our chicken sales have dropped down. But I would like
to tell all our regular customers they don't need to be afraid,'' said Tess
Watson, owner of the Old China Hand pub, which is known for its fried chicken.
Rosa Bartolome, an employee at the Midnight Express, which offers chicken
curry, posted a sign saying ``USA chicken'' in the window.
But she said most customers were regulars who don't seem concerned.
``They say, we are buying here a lot and nothing happens to us,'' she said.
She noted doctors have said cooking chicken kills the virus, but added, ``Of
course, I am not eating chicken.''
For abbot Yong Sing, the solution was simple. Eat vegetarian, as Buddhist
monks always do.
``Don't eat meat. It's not clean,'' he admonished before returning to prayer.
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 07:43:52 -0500
From: allen schubert
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Anti-Fur Group Donates Fur Coats
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980101074349.00683cb8@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
from Associated Press http://wire.ap.org
-------------------------------------------
01/01/1998 02:59 EST
Anti-Fur Group Donates Fur Coats
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
is perhaps the least likely group to be involved in the fur trade.
But PETA, which regularly protests against people who wear, make or sell
furs, gave 40 fur coats to the city's poor Wednesday in its first ``fur
soup kitchen.''
``Homeless people are the only ones left with an excuse for wearing
furs,'' PETA spokeswoman Debbie Chissell said. ``We can't bring the
animals back, but we can bring a little warmth to people in desperate
need.''
PETA said it received thousands of donated coats from people upset by
reports of brutality to animals. The group plans to give away more furs
in January in New York and Pittsburgh.
``We've buried them, burned them, spray-painted them ... and now we're
giving them away,'' PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said.
PETA hopes the publicity from the giveaways and education campaigns will
convince others to shun fur. But on a bitter cold day, with the wind
whipping off the ocean and a wind chill of 15 degrees, the recipients
were giving little thought to cruelty to animals.
``It's wonderful,'' said Aisha Muhammad, 24, who lives at the Atlantic
City Rescue Mission.
``God has truly blessed us all,'' she said, modeling a full-length black
mink coat with a cream-colored beaver collar. ``Pretty, isn't it?''
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 08:38:02 -0800
From: Ilene Rachford
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Cc: chickadee-l@envirolink.org
Subject: Pet CPR-First Aid Class
Message-ID: <34ABC66A.199@erinet.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
To those in the Dayton, Oh area...
Pet CPR and First Aid Class
Do you know how to handle and emergency? You could save your pet's life.
Sponsored by People/Animals Network (P/AN)
Attending vet: Dr. Julie Peterson
Feb. 3, 1997 7:00P-8:30P
Kettering Rec Center
CPR/First Aid books available for sale.
COST of class $20 (proceeds benefit P/AN)
Call to reserve space or for more info (937) 278-8330 (Becky) or E-mail
me (Ilene).
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 08:53:34 EST
From: Tereiman
To: Tereiman@aol.com, ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Animal-rights group stages a fur giveaway
Message-ID:
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Animal-rights group stages a fur giveaway
``We can't bring the animals back, but we can use them to help homeless
people,'' a spokeswoman said.
PHILIDELPHIA INQUIRER
By Jacqueline L. Urgo
ATLANTIC CITY -- They have burned them, buried them, dragged them down
streets, and smeared them with red paint.
Now, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are giving them away.
"Free Fur Coats," read a sign on Pacific Avenue yesterday as piles of
mink, fox and beaver were handed out to homeless people by the same
organization that has long ridiculed fur-coat fans as callous
animal-haters.
And PETA plans more fur-coat giveaways in New York, Pittsburgh and other
"cold cities" later this month. "We have many hundreds to give away, but
Atlantic City is our first . . . fur soup kitchen," said PETA president
Ingrid Newkirk.
As fur-gilded high rollers arrived by limousine to celebrate New Year's
Eve at a casino a block away, PETA officials said they found no irony in
using the furry ostentations to cover the backs of the poor.
"We can't bring the animals back, but we can use them to help homeless
people who need to stay warm this winter," said Tracy Reiman, a
spokeswoman for the Norfolk, Va.-based organization, as about 50 coats
disappeared in minutes from a folding table that had been set up on a
sidewalk between a parking garage for Donald Trump's Taj Mahal Casino
Hotel and a church soup kitchen.
"We picked Atlantic City as our first stop for giving out fur coats
because in this town there is such a contrast among people," Reiman
said. "There are people who have so much and then people who have so
little. Deshawn Dillard, who came for a coat, did not dwell on the
social or ethical issues.
"I don't care one way or the other about fur or animals. I'm neutral on
the issue," said Dillard. "I just know someone who needs a coat real
bad, so this is for her so she can keep warm this winter. This is a
blessing from the Lord."
Dillard rode to the demonstration on his bicycle. He read the sign. He
rubbed his deep brown eyes and read it again to make sure that the three
hand-printed words really said what he thought they said.
Then Dillard grabbed a coat from the high pile and rode off.
"Pretty, isn't it?" said Aisha Muhammad, as she modeled her full-length
black mink coat with a cream-colored beaver collar. Muhammad, 24, is
living at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission.
PETA's giveaway, predictably, drew a critical response from the
fur-inspired.
Carol Wynne, executive director of the Fur Information Council of
America, a Washington, D.C.-based organization representing fur-apparel
manufacturers and dealers, called the giveaway "incredibly
hypocritical."
"Any gesture to help homeless people is a good one, of course, but it
appears here that PETA is trying desperately to improve its own public
image," Wynne said.
Wynne said surveys by her organization indicate that as many as 92
percent of Americans polled "oppose the tactics that have been pulled by
these animal-rights groups."
"The things they have done in the past have created a backlash against
them," Wynne said. "People are tired of being dictated to. If they want
to sit back, smoke a cigar, have a martini and wear fur, they don't want
to have to listen to some group dictating their behavior to them."
And besides, PETA is being a copycat, according to Wynne.
"This is nothing new," Wynne said. "The fur industry has been giving out
coats for years to homeless and indigent people. What PETA has done here
is . . . purely for publicity purposes and does nothing to help
animals."
PETA spokeswoman Debbie Chissell said the giveaway could help animals --
even if homeless people sell the coats.
"Even if they do sell it, the person buying it is getting it
second-hand. That's less animals that have to die," Chissell said.
PETA workers said they were not worried that the fur recipients would be
mugged for the coats.
"Fur is so devalued these days," said Reiman. "I can't imagine someone
would mug a homeless person for one. You can buy one at a thrift shop
for $15."
The Goodwill shop here had three fur coats for sale for $24.99 each.
In addition to the furs, PETA gave away 10 synthetic coats. Most furs
are made for women, Chissell said, and the group wanted to have enough
coats for the men who showed up.
Reiman said PETA has collected thousands of coats over the years from
people -- including actress Mary Tyler Moore and Hugh Hefner's wife,
Kimberley -- who have owned them but "realized that animals should never
be fashion victims."
Usually PETA uses the donated coats in educational displays and anti-fur
fashion shows, Reiman said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 09:47:31 -0500
From: Constance Young
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: fuzzy white-tail at my feeder
Message-ID: <34ABAC83.6BEA@idsi.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
I live upstate New York and have lately been noticing a small (cat or
skunk-sized) fuzzy white tailed critter eating at my outside feeder
where I feed neighborhood stray cats--and whatever. As it flees I have
noticed a white fuzzy twisted tail, something like that of a Peekinese
(only white) or, possibly a skunk. I don't know if skunks have white
tails; I thought they were black.
Does anyone know what this critter could be? I call to it, but when I
walk outside, it is gone.
Thanks. Connie Young
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 10:11:24 -0500
From: leah wacksman
To: "ar-news@envirolink.org"
Subject: Buffalo Rescued
Message-ID: <34ABB21A.1840A5B3@galen.med.virginia.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------DAB5727BC03A2C56D720E362"
Happy New Year to all! Thanks to Allen Schubert
and Bob Schlesinger for pointing out my mistakes in posting articles and
for making helpful suggestions. I'm still learning.
Marty Wacksman
Park Buffalo Rescued by Volunteers
&nbs
p;
Because of Disease Fear, Straying Animals on
&nbs
p;
Private Lands Risk Being Shot
By Joe Byers
&nbs
p;
Special to The Washington Post
&nbs
p;
Thursday, January 1, 1998; Page A03
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont.ùJust before dawn, the
&nbs
p;
party moved out -- three men and one woman on
&nbs
p;
cross-country skis. Skating quietly on virgin snow, they left the
&nbs
p;
confines of the park, crossing the flattened wire fence where
&nbs
p;
the buffalo had crossed before them.
Now they were on private property, a cattle ranch that
&nbs
p;
stretched for hundreds of acres. As daylight arrived they could
&nbs
p;
make out the buffalo, 16 animals in all, easy prey.
Montana's Department of Livestock would slaughter these
&nbs
p;
animals, fearful that they would spread a devastating disease
&nbs
p;
called brucellosis to cattle. The four volunteers who were out
&nbs
p;
last Sunday morning, though, were on a rescue mission. They
&nbs
p;
moved in behind the buffalo, yelling, waving their arms and
&nbs
p;
banging ski poles together. Reluctantly, the animals retreated
&nbs
p;
back into the safety of the park. The volunteers loudly cheered
&nbs
p;
them on.
By 10 a.m., the volunteers had come in from the cold, to the
&nbs
p;
log cabin that serves as headquarters for the fledgling group
&nbs
p;
called Buffalo Nations. Though their clothes were soaked with
&nbs
p;
perspiration, they were ebullient. "Congratulations," founder
&nbs
p;
Michael Mease said, shaking hands with each of the four. "Our
&nbs
p;
first save of the year!"
In fact, it was their first save ever. Mease and Rosalie Little
&nbs
p;
Thunder, a Lakota Sioux elder, founded Buffalo Nations early
&nbs
p;
last year after 1996's unusually harsh winter, which cut the
&nbs
p;
buffalo population in half. Many starved, but just as many were
&nbs
p;
shot or sent to slaughter by state officials, according to
&nbs
p;
Yellowstone officials. The deep snow and bitter temperatures
&nbs
p;
force the buffalo to migrate to lower elevations where food is
&nbs
p;
more accessible.
Little Thunder, outraged, declared an Indian "prayer day" at the
&nbs
p;
slaughter site and was arrested for trespassing. Mease
&nbs
p;
contacted her shortly thereafter, and the two founded Buffalo
&nbs
p;
Nations. The stated mission of the group is to prevent the
&nbs
p;
killing of the buffalo and to strengthen the tribal voice in the
&nbs
p;
management of the Yellowstone herd. Mease contests that
&nbs
p;
buffalo can spread brucellosis to cattle, pointing out that there
&nbs
p;
are no documented cases of this happening in a natural setting.
&nbs
p;
Researchers at Texas A&M University succeeded in
&nbs
p;
transferring the disease when they placed a buffalo and a cow
&nbs
p;
in close quarters, but "contaminated mucus was rubbed on the
&nbs
p;
noses of the animals," Mease said, "something that will not
&nbs
p;
happen in nature."
Buffalo Nation's cabin, which features a makeshift kitchen and
&nbs
p;
a bathroom with a blanket for a door, is furnished with only a
&nbs
p;
couple of chairs, a telephone and a donated computer.
&nbs
p;
Blankets also cover the windows to keep the heat in: The
&nbs
p;
computer won't work until the place warms up.
Between five and 20 volunteers staff the office each day, ready
&nbs
p;
to wade out into deep snow as soon as a scout reports buffalo
&nbs
p;
excursions on the CB radio. "We always stress safety as new
&nbs
p;
members come on board," Mease said. "We try to break them
&nbs
p;
in slowly until they become acclimated. Hypothermia is always
&nbs
p;
a concern, and we never send out new members without
&nbs
p;
experienced ones."
The volunteers run other risks as well. Technically, venturing
&nbs
p;
onto private land to haze the buffalo back into the park
&nbs
p;
constitutes trespassing. In addition, "harassing wildlife" is a
&nbs
p;
violation of national park regulations. So far, no volunteers
&nbs
p;
have been charged with either, but the winter is young.
If their hazing failed to move the animals and state agents tried
&nbs
p;
to shoot the bison in their presence, some volunteers said, they
&nbs
p;
would do everything they could to stop it. "I'd gladly stand in
&nbs
p;
front of the guns," said Dee Pinkney, a math teacher from New
&nbs
p;
Orleans.
"I'm here today out of respect for the buffalo," said Jeremy
&nbs
p;
Lynch, a Native American from Rapid City, S.D. "I look at
&nbs
p;
them as my relatives through our traditional ceremonies, even
&nbs
p;
today. My uncle is the 19th generation carrier of the White
&nbs
p;
Buffalo Calf Pipe and told me of the prophecies. When the
&nbs
p;
buffalo are on their last leg, the Grandmother White Buffalo will
&nbs
p;
return to take what is bad and make it new. She will take care
&nbs
p;
of the environment. I feel I must be here to preserve the buffalo
&nbs
p;
for the generations to come."
Although the buffalo issue has become a political hot potato
&nbs
p;
around Yellowstone, some local residents are supportive of
&nbs
p;
efforts to save the animals. One morning this week, the
&nbs
p;
volunteers found a pie on the roof of their car.
And on Monday, just past noon as the second shift of
&nbs
p;
volunteers was arriving, a call came into headquarters. "I have
&nbs
p;
two buffalo in my back yard, but I don't want you to hurt
&nbs
p;
them," said the caller, Alice Benoise, who had seen one of the
&nbs
p;
group's ads in the local newspaper. The ad offers to safely
&nbs
p;
remove the buffalo and to repair fences for free.
Five minutes later, three volunteers rang the bell, plotted their
&nbs
p;
strategy and went to work. On the first attempt, the buffalo
&nbs
p;
outflanked the hazers and headed in the wrong direction. A
&nbs
p;
volunteer blocked the escape and, yelling and waving, startled
&nbs
p;
the animals. Suddenly the huge beasts burst into flight, galloping
&nbs
p;
through the fluffy powder toward a refuge nearby.
Rescue No. 2 accomplished.
&nb
sp;
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 16:05:36 EST
From: NOVENA ANN
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: man jailed for 30 days in animal cruelty case
Message-ID: <16edc74b.34ac0522@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
c The Associated Press
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) - A man was sentenced to 30 days in jail for breaking the
jaw of his daughter's cat, Boots, because it meowed too much.
William Painter, 38, pleaded no contest to an animal cruelty charge and was
also ordered to undergo counseling, pay $300 to an animal shelter and perform
80 hours of community service.
Painter was arrested Sunday after he struck the male tabby belonging to his
6-year-old daughter. He told police he was watching television when he became
enraged by the cries of Boots, who was locked in the bathroom.
Painter told police he hit the animal twice, but lightly and ``with an open
hand.'' Painter's wife said she heard ``crashing, the cat hissing and
screaming and him yelling.''
Painter apparently did not believe he had done something illegal at the time.
``What was wrong with hitting a cat?'' police said he asked.
Boots was treated for the jaw injury and both a broken and chipped tooth.
AP-NY-12-31-97 0626EST
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 16:10:29 EST
From: NOVENA ANN
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Ostrish sushi, stir-fry on promoters' menu
Message-ID:
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
By Eric Onstad
HENGELO, Netherlands (Reuters) - Move over chicken. Watch out beef. Ostrich
meat wants respect ... and a market share.
Farmers, exporters and breeders of the tall, awkward birds are facing a glut
of meat, low prices and a skeptical public. Increasingly frustrated that
ostrich is dismissed off as an exotic oddity, they banded together at a recent
trade gathering here to promote it as a healthy, everyday staple.
Organizers of the new International Ostrich Association planned mass-market
advertising campaigns to spread the word about juicy steaks with half the fat
of beef. And they cooked up a storm, with a gold-medal chef offering
everything from ostrich pate to sushi and stir-fry.
It will be an uphill battle, though, to win over a wary public, says the
chairman of the new group. ``There is resistance to eating it. Some people
think, how could they eat such a beautiful bird,'' said Peter Strijdom, who
exports ostrich meat from leading producer South Africa.
``It's just a lack of knowledge. A lot of people think of it as just a zoo
animal,'' added vice-chairman Fred van der Horst, a Dutch ostrich farmer.
The drive to promote ostrich meat was spurred by a burgeoning industry faced
with an oversupply of meat, especially in South Africa, where prices have
plummeted. The business is also undergoing a shake-out in countries like the
United States and Britain, where disappointed investors who were promised easy
profits are getting out.
BIG BIRD -- SMALL, BUT GROWING INDUSTRY
Compared to livestock, pork and poultry, the ostrich industry is tiny. ``World
production of ostrich meat is about 4,000 tons (a year). That's around the
same amount of pork slaughtered around the world on one day,'' Strijdom said.
But the ostrich industry has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few
years. This year about 300,000 birds are expected to be slaughtered, more than
triple the 1993 level. That has sent meat prices tumbling by up to 50 percent
in South Africa, which produces the bulk of the world's ostrich meat.
Hence the move to develop new markets. The International Ostrich Association,
launched at the Dutch meeting, has members scattered across the globe.
Ostriches like dry, warm climates such as Israel, the second biggest exporter,
China, an emerging player, and Spain and Portugal.
``We're planning a global marketing campaign,'' van der Horst said. Television
advertisements will extol the low-fat, iron-rich meat, sports stars will be
pictured eating robust ostrich steaks and TV chefs will show how to cook the
meat.
The promotion, still in early planning stages ahead of a push for funds from
members, would bombard two or three markets at first. ``If we can just get one
percent of Germans to eat ostrich meat, it would take up the total world
production,'' Strijdom enthused.
OSTRICH A LA FRANCAISE, OR OSTRICHBURGER?
Part of the drive to gain acceptance involves dreaming up recipes for ostrich
meat, which is red like beef. One bird can be carved up into about 65 pounds
of meat, with drumsticks weighing in at around 10 pounds each.
Most of the cuts are filets or steaks, but German-born chef Hubert Schmieder
has let his imagination run wild in coming up with recipes. Schmieder, who has
won 16 culinary gold medals during his 54 years as a chef, likes to smoke the
meat like Westphalian ham and creates impressive displays of hors d'oeuvres
with ostrich pate.
``Ostrich meat is also very good in sushi and stir-fry,'' said the 69-year-old
chef who now teaches at Purdue University's hotel management institute in
Indiana.
French consultant and amateur ostrich chef Patrick Pincemin could not resist
sharing his cherished recipe with Schmieder. ``It's absolutely gorgeous,'' he
said, describing how he sautes an ostrich steak in shallots, mushrooms and a
cream sauce.
Later, the German chef confided: ``Personally, I prefer it very simple.
Grilled or pan-fried very quickly.''
OSTRICH FARMING SEEN AS AN EXCITING CHALLENGE
The chef's wizardry intrigued conference-goers, many of whom see ostrich
farming as a exciting challenge. Nathalie Ameloot, who left a university in
Belgium four years ago, joined her brother in an ostrich farming business
after a short stint in a conventional job.
``You are young, you look for something that has a future ... the meat is
healthy and the leather makes fashionable products,'' she said.
Her brother switched from raising cattle after the ``mad cow'' crisis hit
Europe and beef prices fell. ``Now we do everything from eggs to skins,''
Ameloot added.
She and other farmers had no sympathy for investors who lost money in get-
rich-quick schemes. ``It was doctors and dentists who threw money into it
instead of stocks or bonds. Some in the U.S. paid $50,000 for a breeder a few
years ago,'' van der Horst said.
They sell for a couple of thousand dollars now, he said, adding: ``We don't
want those types in this industry.''
Raising ostriches is not easy, he said. A New Zealand agricultural newsletter
gave some tips: ``The birds are fast runners and can be flighty, so you are
best not to try herding them. Instead, appeal to their curiosity by leading
them down a lane or by letting them find their own way.''
REUTERS@
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 08:18:27 +0800
From: bunny
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (Kenya)Hemorrhagic Fever
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19980102081132.1ac7ae92@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
HEMORRHAGIC DISEASE - KENYA (06)
********************************
A ProMED-mail post
[The following report is thanks to Dr. Louise Martin, DVM, and Dr. Doug
Klaucke, MD, Acting WHO Representative in Nairobi, who corrected and
updated (Thu, 01 Jan 1998 13:06:02 +0300) my original draft of Dr. Martin's
Monday conversation with me. You cannot get closer to the horse's mouth
than this and we at ProMED-mail greatly appreciate their sharing this
information. We look forward to updates. Dr. Martin is presently on her
way back to Garissa. - Mod.MHJ]
On Monday (12-29-97), I spoke by telephone with my ex-student Dr. Louise
Martin, who is in Garissa. She is the only veterinarian with the
international team there and the only vet in the region known to be working
on this outbreak.
On the animal side, thousands of livestock - cattle but especially sheep
and goats - are dying or dead. Martin estimates the livestock mortality
rate to be 50% to 75% in the area. The animals show a fever, with or
without constipation, passing to diarrhea and snotty noses with or without
blood, and then a terminal diarrhea (also with or without blood). There is
a "viral soup" of conditions there, with a wide variety of conditions, some
very suggestive of FMD (foot lesions but as yet she has seen no mouth
lesions), foot rot, pleuropneumonia, you-name-it. The area has been
without veterinary coverage for some time apparently due to severe
flooding. Many of the dying and dead stock are being butchered and eaten.
She has examined a 14 year-old girl who had just been taught how to butcher
goats and who had fluid and pus-filled vesicular lesions on her hands, and
lymphadenitis of axillary nodes. A frequently volunteered comment by the
meat consumers is that the cooked meat is tasteless and soft like
"over-ripe fruit", this is characteristic of high lactic acid levels.
[Historically, this affected area is close to one of the areas where
Rinderpest was not eradicated in the previous African campaign of the '60s
& '70s. MHJ]
They have confirmed over 300 human deaths to date. Most died within 3-4
days, some within 12 hours, of falling ill. The condition
characteristically starts with a high fever, bad headache, adbominal pain,
passing to vomiting and diarrhea. If they vomit blood it is a lethal
prognosis, passing to epistaxis, shock, and death. Because this area is
affected by undernutrition, unclean drinking water, multiple diseases and
limited health services it is difficult to estimate the number of non-fatal
cases that may be occurring so an accurate estimate of the case fatality
rate is not possible. So far they have only got to some 12-15 villages,
but there has been a stream of people sent from further villages in
attempts to get help. One very ill small boy who had been vomiting blood
was treated with penicillin and is now sitting up in bed. The medical
facilities there are less than minimal, compounded by the two months nurses
strike. Treatment seems to be limited at this time to chloroquine and
penicillin.
While the national government initially claimed that the "bleeding disease"
is due to malaria (and there are plenty of mosquitoes and malaria), of the
22 samples checked in Nairobi for clinical malaria, none were positive.
But this disease along with many others will be present in this area where
there is extensive and widespread malnutrition. There is cholera in the
same general area. Initial results of testing the [21] human serum samples
at the National Institute of Virology in South Africa found no evidence of
Ebola, Marburg, Chikungunya, Sindbis, West Nile Fever, dengue, tick-borne
encephalitis complex, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and
hantaviruses. Sera tested at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in
Nairobi were negative for yellow fever. Testing for anthrax and Rift
Valley fever are not yet complete. There were three sera positive for IgG
to _B. anthracis_ and one possibly positive for [PA] antigen. Four of 22
sera were positive by PCR for Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) RNA. Three of
these four were negative for IgM antibodies to RVFV antigens, so
confirmatory tests are being done.
On the Somali side of the border the disease situation is very similar.
Case finding there has been made harder by the Muslim need to bury corpses
expeditiously.
The single telephone line is in to the International Red Cross compound.
The health team of some 8 individuals is made up of the Provincial medical
health staff, WHO, AMREF, Medicines sans Frontieres, International Red
Cross, and Medicines du Monde. The Kenya army fled. Local transport to
check villages is through the Rural Food Program vehicles. The tracks are
soft, deep mud. Thanks to the rains some villages when reached are found
to have been abandoned. There is one helicopter, and banditry. Thanks to
the national election (29-30 December) and the holiday season (25 December
through 30 December were all national holidays), it has been difficult to
mobilize national government support. All ministers were running for
re-election and the country is between governments.
The investigation is expected to continue to confirm the diagnosis [or
diagnoses], to obtain a better estimate of the magnitude of the problem,
and to determine whether it is spreading. Prevention and treatment measures
are also being planned.
--
ProMED-mail
========================================================
Rabbit Information Service,
P.O.Box 30,
Riverton,
Western Australia 6148
email> rabbit@wantree.com.au
http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
(Rabbit Information Service website updated frequently)
/`\ /`\
(/\ \-/ /\)
)6 6(
>{= Y =}<
/'-^-'\
(_) (_)
| . |
| |}
jgs \_/^\_/
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
- Voltaire
|
|
