Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news35~2.htm/text0003.txt

Text File | 1998-04-03 | 61.0 KB | 1,543 lines

>South China Morning Post, Internet Edition, 22 Mar 97

                Export plan for bear bile under attack
     FIONA HOLLAND

     China is planning the global export of bile farmed from captive bears in a
move condemned by animal welfare campaigners.

 More than 7,600 bears on 481 farms in China are milked for their bile - a
prized ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine used to treat cancer,
burns and liver ailments.

 International trade in wild Asiatic black bears or their parts is banned
under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora.

 But officials at the convention's Geneva headquarters confirmed they were
aware of the Chinese plan and saw nothing wrong in principle with bear farming.

 To register the farms, China would have to prove they could breed animals
in captivity and were not having an impact on wild populations.

 The convention's animals committee chairman, Hank Jenkins, said strategies
to regulate the bear trade had failed.

 EarthCare vice-president Dr John Wedderburn said farming bears was
"unwarranted cruelty" and China would be breaking an agreement it signed
with animal welfare campaigners in 1994 to phase out the practice.





Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 14:10:42 +0800 (SST)
>From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (Taiwan) Meat and feed firms dive after ban on pork exports
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>South China Morning Post, Internet Edition, 22 Mar 97

     Meat and feed firms dive after ban on pork exports
     AGENCIES

     Taiwan stocks posted their biggest fall in more than five months after the
government suspended pork exports due to a foot-and-mouth disease epidemic.
Meat and livestock feed companies led the plunge.

 The export ban follows the discovery of the contagious virus at 20 pig
farms across the island. It is the first foot-and-mouth outbreak in Taiwan
since the early 1940s.

 "That incident triggered the plunges," Eric Chiang, a vice-president at
Peregrine Securities Taiwan, said.

 The Weighted Index closed down 262.6 points at 8,230.07, off a high of
8,555.96 and a low of 8,220.24.

 Fubon Securities analyst Michael Hsu said the market would likely test
support at 8,000 points in the short term.

 "The net sales by foreign investors yesterday, a first in many days, were
seen as a negative sign for the broader market," he said.

 The impact of the foot-and-mouth epidemic might be greater than many people
think, he said, adding, "a hard-hit food industry may undermine others.
Financially troubled companies will hurt the banking community, for instance".

 The market's sub-index of meat and feed shares led the fall by a decline of
5.9 per cent. Eighteen of those 28 shares fell by their 7 per cent daily limit.

 Among them, Yuan Yi Agriculture & Livestock fell to NT$24.40 and Sino-Japan
Feed Industries dropped to $25.70.

 Last year, Taiwan exported pork worth about US$1.8 billion, all of it to
Japan, Wu Chung-hsing, an analyst at Core Pacific Securities, said. In 1996,
pork exports accounted for 0.7 per cent of Taiwan's gross domestic
production of US$241.46 billion, he said.

 Among the 24 shares that rose yesterday, Asustek Computer gained NT$6 to
$591 on optimism it would make $50 per share this year from $32 a year ago,
analysts said.

 Asustek owns 8 per cent of shares in the world's computer motherboards market.






Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 14:10:53 +0800 (SST)
>From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Last chance to save the bear
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>South China Morning Post, Internet Edition, 22 Mar 97

Last chance to save the bear
FIONA HOLLAND

     When Western conservation groups called for a global ban on the trade in
bear gall bladders, in demand worldwide for use in traditional Chinese
medicine, support came from a surprising quarter - China.

 Spiritual home to the millennia-old practice of traditional medicine, China
farms more than 7,600 Asiatic black bears which annually produce 7,000
kilograms of bile contained in the gall bladder, a key ingredient for curing
liver complaints, cancer and burns.

 But supporting a moratorium on the trade in gall bladders does not preclude
China from exporting its lucrative bile to the world. As the Korean delegate
at a gathering last year of animal experts put it: "Excuse me, wouldn't that
give you a monopoly?"

 No doubt the same thought had occurred to authorities which regulate the
lucrative state-controlled industry. China, home to more than 61,000 wild
bears, has expanded production of bile in a big way in recent years - from
500kg a year in 1990 to 7,000kg last year, a figure which exceeds internal
demand.

 China's plans to export bile to the world is just one of the contentious
issues surrounding bear conservation which threaten to erupt at a symposium
on the trade in bear parts that opened in Seattle yesterday.

 The Second International Symposium - organised by the World Wide Fund for
Nature, its wildlife trade monitor TRAFFIC, and the World Conservation
Union's bear specialist group - will for the first time host officials and
other representatives from the traditional Chinese medicine communities of
Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Korea.

 This is not simply a talking shop. The symposium's recommendations will
feature at the biennial meeting of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which convenes in
Zimbabwe in June. Bear conservation will be an issue of special concern at
the conference, where for the first time traditional medicines will be
discussed.

 Since the first symposium three years ago, the odds against their survival
have increased. And with the stakes raised, the politics of bear
conservation will be riven by dissent.

 Just about the only thing most agree upon is the increasingly precarious
state of bears in the wild. The world's eight species of bears have suffered
dramatic declines due to habitat loss, encroachment by humans and, most
devastatingly in recent years, poaching for their meat and body parts.

 At a meeting of the CITES animals committee held last year, the spectre of
extinction of the species was raised.

 Failure to eliminate the illegal trade and poaching of highly endangered
bears "may cause population declines that could lead to the extirpation of
certain bear populations or even species", the committee warned. "The
continued illegal trade in parts and derivatives of bear species undermines
the effectiveness of the convention,".

 Signatories to CITES were asked to submit all available information about
bears and their trade for discussion at Zimbabwe in June.

 At both the Zimbabwe conference and this weekend's Seattle symposium,
conservation organisations will push for a global ban on bear gall bladders
as the only means of stamping out smuggling.

 Local traders in Hong Kong admit they are concerned about the prospects of
a ban but refused to be drawn further.

 In Hong Kong, where a regulatory system keeps tabs on gall bladders,
illegal bear parts are still seized; manufactured medicines containing bile
are legal.

 The irony is that there exists a perfectly legal source of bear gall
bladders - but most traders are not doing so legally.

 In North America, home to 75 per cent of the world's bears, the American
black bear is listed on Appendix II of CITES, which allows trade via a
permit system.

 Unlike the Asiatic black bear - listed on Appendix I which bans it from
international trade - the American species is abundant, numbering more than
half a million, and is only listed because its gall bladder cannot be
distinguished from that of its rarer cousin.

 To add to the confusion, different populations of brown bears are listed on
both appendices. As a result of the threat posed by poaching for Chinese
medicine, a proposal to upgrade Appendix II populations will be discussed in
Zimbabwe.

 The politics of bear conservation is complicated by the fact that because
not all species are highly endangered - unlike the tiger and rhino - the
case for a total trade ban is not scientifically justified.

 The danger of this "grey area" is confusion for the consumer and
exploitation by the trader, says Pete Knights of the Investigative Network.
"It all sounds very nice, this idea of using resources, but it does not take
into account human nature . . . whenever there is a permit system or
legalised trade it is just used as a laundering process," he said.

 Network investigations in North America revealed that there was "virtually
no legal trade going on at the moment".

  "We tried legal trade but no one wants to play ball because that is not
the nature of the traditional Chinese medicine industry," Knights said.

 He says 250 non-governmental organisations worldwide support a ban - one of
the few agencies alarmed by the idea is TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade wing of
the World Wide Fund for Nature.

 Director of TRAFFIC East Asia Judy Mills agrees that illegal trade remains
a big problem. Only a "relative handful" of Hong Kong's traditional medicine
community are trading legally, she admits. But she warned that a global ban
would cut off legitimate sources for all traders, even those who played by
the rules, forcing the trade underground.

 "What we fear is it is all going to go underground and it is going to
undermine the CITES process," Ms Mills said. "What we need more than
anything is a way to keep track of trade and make sure that is legal where
it can be legal, and where it is illegal that it is stopped immediately."

 Banning species that are not endangered, such as the North American black
bear, unravels all the efforts to persuade the Chinese medicine community of
the rationale behind CITES.

 North American hunters shoot 40,000 bears a year in Canada and the United
States, and in some states trading their body parts is legal. "How can you
explain that 40,000 bears are killed every year by a bunch of guys who go
out with a bunch of beer for fun and blow away bears - but yet the gall
bladder cannot be traded for medicine," Ms Mills said.

 "It seems racist and contrary to CITES. It comes down to their [traders']
perception that things are banned for cultural reasons."

 Moves in the US to ban the trade in bear parts would tackle poaching "while
ensuring the rights of American sportsmen". When it comes down to it, says
Ms Mills, "it is a real East versus West thing. We are trying to straddle
two cultures and trying to figure out a way that wildlife does not slip in
the schism between these two cultures."

 In much of the Asian world, bears represent "a walking medicine cabinet".
In the West, they are cuddly creatures of childhood fairy tales.

 The cultural schism is tempered by the fact bear parts are not used as
aphrodisiacs and the key element in bile - ursodeoxycholic acid - has been
scientifically proven to be effective in curing hepatitis, cirrhosis and
gallstones.

 The chairman of the CITES animals committee, Hank Jenkins, is a firm
believer that the problems of conservation and culture require separate
solutions.

 "We have to be careful of the problem we are trying to solve," he says. "Is
it a problem of conservation of tigers or is it an ideological problem that
Western-hemisphere people have about Asian people using tigers as a medicinal."

 Bans will never work against a traditional practice dating back thousands
of years, Mr Jenkins says. "One of the main problems with prohibitions is
that they have never worked. The tiger is a very good example of a species
for whom Appendix I has not worked . . . Populations have continued to decline."

 While searching for alternatives and raising public awareness may help in
the next generation, the only short-term so lution was for China to register
its network of 481 farms with CITES to allow for international trade in
bile, Mr Jenkins said.

 "My personal view is that the sooner China does it and can provide a legal
source that it can trade legally, then you put in place an alternative legal
mechanism to, at present, an illegal mechanism."

 A spokesman for China's Ministry of Forestry told the South China Morning
Post  it had not yet registered its farms. "It is something still in the
future."

 Whatever the symposium resolves, the popularity of Chinese medicine in Hong
Kong and overseas shows no signs of decline. Hong Kong University's Dr Linda
Koo said: "People are flocking in droves as they become disillusioned with
the side-effects of Western medicine and the promises that were offered."














Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 14:11:00 +0800 (SST)
>From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (MY) Projects to protect endangered species
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>The Star (17-Mar-97)  Projects to protect endangered species
Projects to protect endangered species


JOHOR BARU: Breeding projects will be carried out by the state
Wildlife Department to protect endangered species and for eco-tourism
purposes.

Its director Zainuddin Shukor said among the animals which would
come under the project were deer and pheasants.

He said the deer-breeding scheme would be carried out in Segamat
and the pheasant project at Jamaluang in Mersing.

"These animals are becoming extinct and if we leave it to nature,
it may take time for them to breed.

"The next best alternative is to breed them ourselves and release
them into the forest reserves," he told reporters after attending
a dinner organised by the department's sports club here last Saturday
night.

"It will also complement our eco-tourism programmes," he added.

Also present at the dinner were State Environment and Consumer
Affairs Committee chairman Dr Chua Soi Lek and Wildlife director-general
Musa Nordin.

Zainuddin said both projects would be carried out this year at
a cost of about RM2 million each.








Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 14:12:38 +0800 (SST)
>From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (CN) Export plan for bear bile under attack
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Sorry, wrong title in previous post!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>South China Morning Post, Internet Edition, 22 Mar 97

                Export plan for bear bile under attack
     FIONA HOLLAND

     China is planning the global export of bile farmed from captive bears in a
move condemned by animal welfare campaigners.

 More than 7,600 bears on 481 farms in China are milked for their bile - a
prized ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine used to treat cancer,
burns and liver ailments.

 International trade in wild Asiatic black bears or their parts is banned
under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora.

 But officials at the convention's Geneva headquarters confirmed they were
aware of the Chinese plan and saw nothing wrong in principle with bear farming.

 To register the farms, China would have to prove they could breed animals
in captivity and were not having an impact on wild populations.

 The convention's animals committee chairman, Hank Jenkins, said strategies
to regulate the bear trade had failed.

 EarthCare vice-president Dr John Wedderburn said farming bears was
"unwarranted cruelty" and China would be breaking an agreement it signed
with animal welfare campaigners in 1994 to phase out the practice.





Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 01:42:49 -0500
>From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Pork Soars
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


((Comment:  Normally, I don't post this type of news, but this illustrates
connections on a global level between a variety of issues:  Taiwan with
it's current pig ban and the rise in prices of US pork.))
from AP Wire page:
-------------------------------
03/21/1997 17:36 EST

 Soybeans Fall, Pork Soars

 By CLIFF EDWARDS
 AP Business Writer

 Soybean futures prices fell sharply Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade
after an
 industry report indicated prices -- at their highest in more than eight
years -- have
 forced domestic processors to curtail usage. Wheat futures also retreated.

 On other commodity markets, pork futures soared a second day, while coffee
futures
 fell sharply.

 The National Oilseed Processors Association reported a sharp decline for
the first
 time in several months in the amount of soybeans crushed for making soybean
 meal and oil.

 The association reported the crush fell to 28.1 million bushels in the
week ended
 March 19 from 30.1 million bushels a week earlier. That coincides with
 announcements that Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill have curtailed
 processing operations because it has become too expensive to make soybean
oil.

 The news erased the gains made a day earlier, after the Agriculture
Department
 reported continued strong international demand for American soybeans and
related
 products despite stepped-up Brazilian harvesting and exports.

 ``We know at some point in time that we shift export demand from the U.S.
to South
 America as they come on stream with their harvest,'' said analyst Gerald
Zusel at
 E.D. & F. Man International Inc. ``People have been anticipating that
transition for
 three to four weeks now and it hasn't come. But this crush number could be
the first
 sign the transition is starting to take hold.''

 Soybeans also retreated on reports Brazilian soybeans were destined for
the United
 States, which could relieve any tightness that may occur in coming months.
The
 USDA is projecting American reserves will fall to a 20-year low of 140
million
 bushels by Sept. 1.

 Wheat futures retreated amid forecasts calling for moderating weather in key
 growing regions that should lessen chances of flood damage to the winter
crop and
 improve prospects for timely spring plantings.

 Soybeans for May delivery fell 9╜ cents to $8.42╜ a bushel; July wheat
fell 7 cents to
 $3.82╜ a bushel.

 Pork futures prices rose sharply a second day on the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange
 in reaction to Taiwan's voluntary ban on pork exports following the
discovery of
 foot-and-mouth disease on 20 farms. The disease causes blisters on the
animal's
 tongues and feet and leads to weight loss. It cannot be transmitted to
humans.

 Still, Japan on Friday banned imports of Taiwanese pork, which increased
 speculation U.S. pork producers will be asked to fill the gap. Taiwan
accounted for
 41 percent of Japanese pork imports last year, with American imports
accounting for
 22 percent. The ban could last for five years, a Taiwanese agriculture
official said,
 significantly boosting U.S. export prospects.

 Coffee futures fell sharply in nearby contract months on the Coffee, Sugar
& Cocoa
 Exchange in New York after Brazil announced it would sell some of its
reserves to
 relieve tight supplies.

 Brazil on April 2 will auction 326,188 132-pound bags of arabica coffee from
 government stocks, National Coffee Department spokesman Roberto de Abreu
said.
 The amount is nearly 75,000 bags above a recent auction, which saw all of the
 lower-quality stocks purchased.

 The government said the sale is ostensibly to help the local industry
during a period
 of high prices and dwindling stocks, but analysts said some of the coffee
could
 make its way to the United States. That could lead to further increases in
American
 stockpiles, which have grown measurably in the past two weeks.

 Colombia also announced it is cutting the price of coffee paid to local
producers,
 another sign the supply tightness is easing.

 May green, arabica coffee fell 3.40 cents to $1.657 a pound. Contracts
representing
 the summer months continued to advance, reflecting expectations supplies will
 tighten by then as producing countries exhaust their stocks.
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 12:14:02 -0500 (EST)
>From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Fwd: Horses Criminal Case Shut Down
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 11:31:20 -0800
>From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Sea Lion "Culling" in Peru
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Demand for aphrodisiac may push sea lion culling

Reuter Information Service

LIMA (Mar 21, 1997 9:49 p.m. EST) - Peruvian fishermen seeking to cull
net-ravaging sea lions only want to make money by selling the sea
mammals' genitals to Asians who use them as aphrodisiacs, a local
conservation group charged on Friday.

"They have received offers by Koreans to sell their genitals, to which
they attribute aphrodisiacal powers," Rosario Quintanilla, president of
Crusade for Life, said.

Fishermen also aim to sell sea lion meat, canned or in sausages, to
supplement their livelihood fishing for sardines, anchovy and other
species along Peru's rich Pacific coastal waters, she added.

While most Peruvians adore the playful, whiskered sea lions, Lima
fishermen last week asked the government for permission to kill a
limited number. They contend the animals tear nets and cause the
loss of thousands of tons of fish every year.

"They eat the fish and break the nets trying to get them out," fisherman
Carlos Sanchez told local daily El Sol.

The National Archaeological Maritime Institute says 100,000 sea lions
live along Peru's nearly 1,900 miles (3,000 kms) of coastline.

Quintanilla maintains the population is not large enough to warrant a
culling and fishermen should clarify their intentions.
The Fisheries Ministry is considering a pilot programme that would allow
the killing of 60 sea lions.  But a ministry adviser said officials are
mulling all options for resolving the seal problem and that "the
solution will not necessarily be the culling."
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 17:03:09 -0500
>From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: ar-news--bounced
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hillary,

I got error messages for two attempted posts...do you wish for me to post
them for you?

allen
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 14:28:57 -0800 (PST)
>From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: 1918 Flu pandemic originated  in pigs
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From The Vancouver Sun - Friday, March 21st, 1997

WASHINGTON - The 1918 influenza virus that killed more than 20 million
people worldwide originated from  U.S. pigs and is unlike any other known
flu bug, researchers said.

They warn it could strile again.

Using lung tissue taken at autopsy 79 years ago from a U.S. army private
killed by the flu, scientists at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
made a genetic analysis of the virus and concluded it is unique, though
closely related to the "swine" flu.

"This is the first time that anyone has gotten a look at this virus which
killed millions of people in one year, making it the worst infectious
disease episode ever," said Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger, leader of the Armed
Forces Institute team. "It does not match any virus that has been found since."

Although the diease that caused the worldwide epidemic was called "Spnish
flu," the vrus apparently is a mutation that evolved in U.S. pigs and was
spread around the globe by U.S. troops mobilized for the First World War, he
said.

The army private whose tissue was analyzed contracted the flu at Fort
Jackson, S.C. For that resaon, Taubeneberger and his colleagues suggest in
the jounal 'Science' the virus be known as Influenza A/South Carolina.
Science is publishing the study today.

Army doctors in 1918 conducted autopsies on some of the 43,000 servicemen
killed by the flu and preserved some specimens in formaldehyde and wax.

Taubenberger said his team sorted through 30 specimens before finding enough
virus in the private's lung tissue to partially sequence the genes for
hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, two of the kry proteins in flu virus.

"The hemagglutinin gene matches closer to swine influenza viruses, showing
that this virus came into humans from pigs," said Taubenberger.

The finding supports a widespread theory flu viruses from awine are the most
virulent for humans.

Most experts believe flu viruses reside harmlessly in birds, where they are
genetically stable. Occasionally. a virus from birds will infect pigs. The
swine immune system attacks the virus, forcing it to change genetically to
survive.

The result is a new virus. When this new bug is spread to humans, it can be
devastating, said Thaubenberger.

Robert Webster, a virologist and flu specialist at St. Jude's Children's
Research Hospital in Memphis, said the study is important because
"eventually we will have another influenza pandemic." Knowing what the 1918
virus was like may help researchers learn why it was so deadly and virulent,
he said.

"Now we are in a better position tp combat it. If it comes back, we can
design a vaccine based on the that genetic sequence."

Webster said the study supports the idea health authorites should monitor
viruses in pigs worldwide to develop an early-warning system of mutating flu
bugs that could plauge humans.

[If a virus from a pig can do so much damage in humans from just social
contact, what could happen if a virus is transplanted into a human when pigs
are used as involutary organ donors?]

Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 19:39:12 -0500
>From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Sea World rescues beached baby whale
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from AP Wire page:
----------------------------
                     Sea World rescues beached baby whale

                     March 21, 1997
                     Web posted at: 10:00 p.m.
                     EST

                     SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) -- A baby whale
                     who stranded herself in Santa Barbara was rescued
                     Friday by Sea World staff, who brought her back to
                     the San Diego park for treatment.

                     Veterinarians said the prognosis for the
                     16-foot-long, 3,000-pound California gray whale
                     was "very guarded."

                     She is severely dehydrated, and veterinarians were
                     feeding her with a stomach tube, because she was
                     not responding to efforts to feed her normally.
                     The whale's blood sugar is low, and she suffers
                     from an internal infection.

                     The whale is the second to be rescued after
                     beaching itself in three months. The last whale
                     rescued, also a gray whale, was dubbed J.J. by Sea
                     World workers. She was only a few days old when
                     workers caught her.

                     Now living in a tank designed for killer whales,
                     she is 17 feet long, weighs 3,300 pounds and is
                     gaining 30 pounds a day, park spokeswoman Jonna
                     Rae Bartges said. Officials hope to return her to
                     the Pacific Ocean in late December.

                     Sea World and five other centers in California
                     have agreements with the fisheries service to
                     rescue distressed and sick marine mammals.

Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 20:46:35 -0500
>From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Admin Note: ar-news--bounced
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Sorry about the earlier message, subject:  ar-news--bounced.  This was
intended as private e-mail only.

allen
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 18:32:22 -0800
>From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Illegal slaughter of seal pups in Canada
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Group alleges hunters illegally killing seal pups

Agence France-Presse

ST. JOHN'S, Canada (Mar 22, 1997 5:43 p.m. EST) - A controversial animal
rights group said Saturday it had video footage of Canadian hunters
illegally killing seal pups in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) also showed footage of
an alleged seal-hunter armed with a knife and apparently chasing a
photographer accompanying an IFAW group on the ice floes.

The group said the man was eventually restrained by police although no
charges were brought against him.

As far as the alleged illegal killing of seal pups, the Canadian
Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the dead seals filmed by the
IFAW were not in fact pups within internationally agreed rules.

Department spokesman Roger Simon said the young trading harp (whitecoat)
and hooded (blueback) seals had already begun shedding their white fur,
which marks the point after which they may be hunted.

But IFAW spokesman A.J. Cady accused the government of colluding with
the seal hunters.

"You can look to your right and see a mother nursing her pup and on the
left you'll find a guy clubbing a pup," he claimed.

The seal-hunting industry and the Canadian government were embarrassed
last year when the IFAW released video footage of seal-hunters skinning
seals which were obviously still alive.

At first, the government suggested the incidents had been staged but it
eventually brought charges against 100 Newfoundland sealers. The cases
have yet to come to trial.
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 18:46:00 -0800
>From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Horse slaughter hushed up
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Criminal case shut down; Washington 'obstruction' blamed

Copyright ⌐ 1997 The Associated Press

DEL RIO, Texas (Mar 22, 1997 3:25 p.m. EST) -- A federal grand jury has
collected evidence that shows U.S. government officials allowed the
slaughter of hundreds of wild horses taken from federal lands, falsified
records and tried to prevent investigators from uncovering the truth.

The chief prosecutor and grand jury foreman in the investigation wanted
to bring criminal indictments against officials of the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management, but the case was closed down last summer after federal
officials in Washington -- including officials outside the investigation
-- intervened.

"I believe that my investigation was obstructed all along by persons
within the BLM because they did not want to be embarrassed," the
prosecutor, Alia Ludlum, wrote in a memo last summer. "I think there is
a terrible problem with the program and with government agents placing
themselves above the law."

Mrs. Ludlum's memo is among thousands of pages of grand jury documents
in the case obtained by The Associated Press. Those documents also show
that the grand jury foreman was incensed that federal officials were
blocking the investigation, and that his requests to indict them were
ignored.

Mrs. Ludlum, 35, formerly an assistant U.S. attorney, is now a federal
magistrate judge at the courthouse in Del Rio, which serves West Texas.
She refused to be interviewed for this story, but she acknowledged the
authenticity of documents obtained by the AP.

Spokesmen for the Departments of Justice and the Interior denied that
their agencies had done anything wrong, but they refused to answer
questions. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who oversees the BLM and by
law is responsible for protecting wild horses, refused to be
interviewed.

Wild horses and burros, which compete with domestic cattle for forage,
have been protected by federal law for 25 years. The BLM decides how
many animals can survive on public lands, rounds up the excess animals
and lets people adopt them for about $125 apiece. After a year, an
adopter can receive a title to an animal, if the BLM finds the animal is
receiving proper care.

The law says it is a crime to kill a wild horse or burro taken from
public land. It prohibits anyone who adopts one of the animals from
selling it for slaughter.

Mrs. Ludlum wanted to indict BLM officials for allowing horses to be
slaughtered.

Recent AP investigations have found that thousands of the horses are
eventually sold for slaughter, and that the whereabouts of tens of
thousands of adopted but never titled animals are unknown. The BLM has
attacked the AP's reports, saying its investigations show that slaughter
"is occurring to a far, far lesser degree than was alleged."

Although Babbitt refused to speak, the last person to serve as his chief
at BLM said Babbitt has known all about problems in the wild horse
program for a long time.

Jim Baca, who quit as BLM director in 1994 after a falling out with
Babbitt, said in an interview that he discovered the program was in
turmoil and wanted to take steps to correct it.

He said Babbitt told him to back off.

"The orders were: 'Don't make waves, we've got enough problems,"' Baca
said, adding that his efforts to shake up the program went nowhere.

"Babbitt thought it might cause problems and he didn't want any
controversy, he didn't want to make anybody unhappy, and so this program
just festered," Baca said. "When they wanted me to leave BLM, that was
one of the reasons they gave me: 'Why the hell are you raising problems
about horses?"'

At the time, Babbitt attributed Baca's departure to "different
approaches to management style and consensus-building." Meanwhile, the
federal investigation in Texas had begun.

Records show that the grand jury saw evidence and heard testimony that:

-- BLM agents placed 550 horses with dozens of people who were told they
could do as they wished with the animals after a year, including sell
them for slaughter to make money, which is against the law.

-- The BLM ignored its own regulations and gave the Choctaw Indian
Nation 29 newly born, unbranded colts to sell so the tribe could raise
cash to pay the BLM for a mass adoption of 115 wild horses, which is
against the law.

-- A Texas BLM compliance officer, Don Galloway, arranged to keep 36
horses for himself and told two undercover investigators he planned to
sell them for slaughter, which is against the law.

-- BLM managers pressured employees not to talk to investigators. In one
case, a BLM district manager tipped off the subject of a search warrant
that law enforcement agents were about to visit his house, which is
against the law.

-- BLM officials falsified adoption documents and falsified computer
records of brand identification numbers used to track adopted animals,
which is against the law.

"We want these charges filed and we want to be notified of what was
done, regardless of who these people are, please, ma'am," the grand jury
foreman told Mrs. Ludlum, according to transcripts.

When the BLM in Washington realized the case was pointing in its
direction, agency Law Enforcement Chief Walter Johnson wrote a letter to
the Interior Department's internal watchdog, the inspector general, to
register his concern.

"As the investigation continued, the scope and complexity ... increased
to include scores of individuals including allegations against private
citizens, and middle and upper management of the BLM," he wrote.

Johnson also sought assistance from the FBI's public corruption unit.
FBI officials refused to comment.

The Del Rio case was shut down in July 1996.

The whole affair had begun with an affable old cowboy as its central
character: Galloway.

Federal law restricts horse adoptions to four per person, per year. With
his managers' support, Galloway was approving adoptions of more than 100
horses at a time by having one person gather signatures from family,
friends and neighbors.

Using this technique, Galloway had placed more than 5,000 horses with
adopters over about seven years. His work was commended by his
superiors.

"I was doing my job, I was moving horses. I followed the law," Galloway
said in a telephone interview from his home in Colleyville, Texas.

People within the program carefully skirted the issue of what would
eventually happen to the horses, Galloway said. "Intent. That's the big
word. I didn't know anybody's intent."

Galloway figures nearly all the horses he found homes for have been
slaughtered by now. "We'd wear out a new car looking for those horses
and not find but 10," he said.

Bill Sharp, who worked for the BLM with Galloway before retiring in
1994, denies any wrongdoing but acknowledged in an interview: "If I
really was worried about intent then I probably wouldn't have adopted
out any horses, because I believe 90 percent of these horses go to
slaughter."

Sharp said they were working under the direction of Steve Henke, now a
BLM district manager in Taos, N.M. Henke refused to comment.

In 1992, Galloway arranged an unusual adoption -- for himself. He placed
36 horses on a Texas ranch. The ranch owner's daughter said her father
told her Galloway planned to "keep them on our ranch and then sell them
for 60 cents a pound for slaughter."

Galloway denied he planned to kill the horses. However, an investigator
said in a sworn affidavit that Galloway told undercover agents he
intended to "get rid of all of them in a year, probably to the killer
(slaughterhouse buyer)."

This evidence, which surfaced in 1992, later launched Mrs. Ludlum's
case, which quickly broadened when investigators learned Galloway's
supervisor, Henke, had alerted him that agents were en route to his
house.

"You didn't clean out your files?" an investigator later asked Galloway.

"Well, a little bit," he replied, according to a grand jury transcript.
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 21:52:36 -0500
>From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Horses Criminal Case Shut Down
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from AP Wire page:
-------------------------------
 03/22/1997 11:34 EST

 Horses Criminal Case Shut Down

 By MARTHA MENDOZA
 Associated Press Writer

 DEL RIO, Texas (AP) -- A federal grand jury has collected evidence that
shows U.S.
 government officials allowed the slaughter of hundreds of wild horses
taken from
 federal lands, falsified records and tried to prevent investigators from
uncovering the
 truth.

 The chief prosecutor and grand jury foreman in the investigation wanted to
bring
 criminal indictments against officials of the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management, but
 the case was closed down last summer after federal officials in Washington --
 including officials outside the investigation -- intervened.

 ``I believe that my investigation was obstructed all along by persons
within the BLM
 because they did not want to be embarrassed,'' the prosecutor, Mrs. Alia
Ludlum,
 wrote in a memo last summer. ``I think there is a terrible problem with
the program
 and with government agents placing themselves above the law.''

 Mrs. Ludlum's memo is among thousands of pages of grand jury documents in the
 case obtained by The Associated Press. Those documents also show that the
grand
 jury foreman was incensed that federal officials were blocking the
investigation, and
 that his requests to indict them were ignored.

 Mrs. Ludlum, 35, formerly an assistant U.S. attorney, is now a federal
magistrate
 judge at the courthouse in Del Rio, which serves West Texas. She refused
to be
 interviewed for this story, but she acknowledged the authenticity of
documents
 obtained by the AP.

 Spokesmen for the Departments of Justice and the Interior denied that their
 agencies had done anything wrong, but they refused to answer questions.
Interior
 Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who oversees the BLM and by law is responsible for
 protecting wild horses, refused to be interviewed.

 Wild horses and burros, which compete with domestic cattle for forage,
have been
 protected by federal law for 25 years. The BLM decides how many animals can
 survive on public lands, rounds up the excess animals and lets people
adopt them
 for about $125 apiece. After a year, an adopter can receive a title to an
animal, if the
 BLM finds the animal is receiving proper care.

 The law says it is a crime to kill a wild horse or burro taken from public
land. It
 prohibits anyone who adopts one of the animals from selling it for
slaughter.

 Mrs. Ludlum wanted to indict BLM officials for allowing horses to be
slaughtered.

 Recent AP investigations have found that thousands of the horses are
eventually
 sold for slaughter, and that the whereabouts of tens of thousands of
adopted but
 never titled animals are unknown. The BLM has attacked the AP's reports,
saying its
 investigations show that slaughter ``is occurring to a far, far lesser
degree than was
 alleged.''

 Although Babbitt refused to speak, the last person to serve as his chief
at BLM said
 Babbitt has known all about problems in the wild horse program for a long
time.

 Jim Baca, who quit as BLM director in 1994 after a falling out with
Babbitt, said in an
 interview that he discovered the program was in turmoil and wanted to take
steps to
 correct it.

 He said Babbitt told him to back off.

 ``The orders were: `Don't make waves, we've got enough problems,"' Baca said,
 adding that his efforts to shake up the program went nowhere.

 ``Babbitt thought it might cause problems and he didn't want any
controversy, he
 didn't want to make anybody unhappy, and so this program just festered,''
Baca said.
 ``When they wanted me to leave BLM, that was one of the reasons they gave me:
 `Why the hell are you raising problems about horses?'''

 At the time, Babbitt attributed Baca's departure to ``different approaches to
 management style and consensus-building.'' Meanwhile, the federal
investigation in
 Texas had begun.

 Records show that the grand jury saw evidence and heard testimony that:

 --BLM agents placed 550 horses with dozens of people who were told they
could do
 as they wished with the animals after a year, including sell them for
slaughter to
 make money, which is against the law.

 --The BLM ignored its own regulations and gave the Choctaw Indian Nation
29 newly
 born, unbranded colts to sell so the tribe could raise cash to pay the BLM
for a mass
 adoption of 115 wild horses, which is against the law.

 --A Texas BLM compliance officer, Don Galloway, arranged to keep 36 horses
for
 himself and told two undercover investigators he planned to sell them for
slaughter,
 which is against the law.

 --BLM managers pressured employees not to talk to investigators. In one
case, a
 BLM district manager tipped off the subject of a search warrant that law
enforcement
 agents were about to visit his house, which is against the law.

 --BLM officials falsified adoption documents and falsified computer
records of brand
 identification numbers used to track adopted animals, which is against the
law.

 ``We want these charges filed and we want to be notified of what was done,
 regardless of who these people are, please, ma'am,'' the grand jury
foreman told
 Mrs. Ludlum, according to transcripts.

 When the BLM in Washington realized the case was pointing in its
direction, agency
 Law Enforcement Chief Walter Johnson wrote a letter to the Interior
Department's
 internal watchdog, the inspector general, to register his concern.

 ``As the investigation continued, the scope and complexity ... increased
to include
 scores of individuals including allegations against private citizens, and
middle and
 upper management of the BLM,'' he wrote.

 Johnson also sought assistance from the FBI's public corruption unit. FBI
officials
 refused to comment.

 The Del Rio case was shut down in July 1996.

 The whole affair had begun with an affable old cowboy as its central
character:
 Galloway.

 Federal law restricts horse adoptions to four per person, per year. With his
 managers' support, Galloway was approving adoptions of more than 100
horses at
 a time by having one person gather signatures from family, friends and
neighbors.

 Using this technique, Galloway had placed more than 5,000 horses with
adopters
 over about seven years. His work was commended by his superiors.

 ``I was doing my job, I was moving horses. I followed the law,'' Galloway
said in a
 telephone interview from his home in Colleyville, Texas.

 People within the program carefully skirted the issue of what would
eventually
 happen to the horses, Galloway said. ``Intent. That's the big word. I
didn't know
 anybody's intent.''

 Galloway figures nearly all the horses he found homes for have been
slaughtered by
 now. ``We'd wear out a new car looking for those horses and not find but
10,'' he
 said.

 Bill Sharp, who worked for the BLM with Galloway before retiring in 1994,
denies any
 wrongdoing but acknowledged in an interview: ``If I really was worried
about intent
 then I probably wouldn't have adopted out any horses, because I believe 90
percent
 of these horses go to slaughter.''

 Sharp said they were working under the direction of Steve Henke, now a BLM
district
 manager in Taos, N.M. Henke refused to comment.

 In 1992, Galloway arranged an unusual adoption -- for himself. He placed
36 horses
 on a Texas ranch. The ranch owner's daughter said her father told her
Galloway
 planned to ``keep them on our ranch and then sell them for 60 cents a
pound for
 slaughter.''

 Galloway denied he planned to kill the horses. However, an investigator
said in a
 sworn affidavit that Galloway told undercover agents he intended to ``get
rid of all of
 them in a year, probably to the killer (slaughterhouse buyer).''

 This evidence, which surfaced in 1992, later launched Mrs. Ludlum's case,
which
 quickly broadened when investigators learned Galloway's supervisor, Henke,
had
 alerted him that agents were en route to his house.

 ``You didn't clean out your files?'' an investigator later asked Galloway.

 ``Well, a little bit,'' he replied, according to a grand jury transcript.

 Henke and Sharp pleaded with Galloway to keep quiet or ``a lot of people
would lose
 their jobs,'' according to an agent's summary of the case.

 Evidence emerged that Henke had three stallions killed at a BLM sanctuary
in 1992
 and faked information on a horse adoption form to make it appear the
horses were
 adopted by Choctaw Indians. He then ordered staffers to enter false
information into
 the department's computer database of horse records.

 Henke later said the horses had to be killed because they were breeding, had
 undescended testicles and could not be castrated easily. ``Since my
involvement
 with the program, I may be guilty of poor judgement, but I have never
knowingly done
 or approved any illegal activity for personal gain,'' he said in a memo.

 As investigators probed more deeply, they found hundreds of discrepancies
 between BLM computer records and the brand numbers of horses the BLM had on
 hand. At one point, a top BLM manager tried to obtain investigators'
records to
 update the BLM's computer so it would match the records held by
investigators.

 Mrs. Ludlum began assembling evidence for a grand jury in 1994. Within
months,
 attorneys from the Justice Department became directly involved. They met in
 Washington to discuss the case. They flew to West Texas to interview
people, study
 testimony and talk to Mrs. Ludlum.

 ``The rumor is spreading throughout the BLM that DOJ was called in to shut
the case
 down,'' Mrs. Ludlum wrote in a memo after one meeting.

 Mrs. Ludlum became especially concerned that one attorney in the Justice
 Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, S.
 Jonathan Blackmer, wanted her to limit the scope of her case. She worried
in a
 memo that Blackmer's section chief, James C. Kilbourne, wanted to ``solve
 problems'' with Anne H. Shields, then deputy solicitor at the Department
of the
 Interior.

 Shields had previously worked with Blackmer and Kilbourne in the natural
resources
 division at Justice. She had left Justice to join Babbitt's new
administration at Interior.
 Babbitt promoted her to be his chief of staff in 1995.

 ``Something smells fishy,'' Mrs. Ludlum wrote to her boss. ``I am sure
that `stuff' is
 happening in Washington concerning my case that I surely don't know and
can never
 hope to know.''

 ``I just don't understand how 36 horses could cause such overwhelming
 governmental distress unless there are lots of problems and we are not
supposed
 to find out what the problems are or to solve the problems. I don't like
what is
 happening.''

 Blackmer, Kilbourne and Shields refused to comment.

 In 1995, Mrs. Ludlum's grand jury issued subpoenas intended to inventory more
 than 1,200 horses at a BLM sanctuary in Bartlesville, Okla. They were on
the trail of
 discrepancies between horse brands recorded in the BLM's computer and the
 horses actually on the range.

 Then, an Interior Department lawyer in New Mexico, Grant Vaughn, wrote a
letter
 telling the prosecutor that his agency could not comply with the subpoenas.

 Then, a lawyer from the Interior Department in Washington, who worked for
Shields,
 became directly involved.

 Solicitor Tim Elliott said that while his involvement in such cases is
rare, his
 supervisors wanted him to help establish who was in charge of the Del Rio
probe
 and to clarify the adoption law.

 ``While I was there we did not talk about any of the specifics of the
case, who were
 targets, who was under investigation,'' he said in an interview.

 However, in letters to Justice Department officials obtained by the AP,
Elliott argued
 that subpoenas should be dropped and he declared which BLM law enforcement
 agents would be allowed to assist with the case and which ones would not.

 The investigator chosen by the BLM, Greg Assmus, re-interviewed witnesses and
 violated instructions from the prosecutor. ``I will not deal with agents I
do not trust,''
 the prosecutor protested.

 Assmus refused to comment.

 At one point Galloway, still the main target of the investigation, was
paid by the BLM
 to round up the very horses he'd earlier threatened to have slaughtered.

 In January last year, Mrs. Ludlum's boss, Acting U.S. Attorney Jim
DeAtley, pressed
 Mrs. Ludlum to bring charges within 30 days. Then, in February, he said to
wait while
 a Justice Department lawyer in Washington, Charles Brooks, prepared an
analysis
 of the case. Brooks' memo, calling the case weak, came in April.

 Brooks challenged Mrs. Ludlum.

 He acknowledged that her investigation had uncovered long-standing
problems with
 the horse adoption program and a ``don't ask, don't tell'' approach to
slaughter.

 However, Brooks said, it had already been decided a year earlier -- at a
meeting of
 Justice Department, Interior Department and BLM officials -- that the
Texas criminal
 investigation would be limited to Galloway and not ``other possibly
fraudulent
 adoptions and the widespread irregularities in the management of the horse
 adoption program.''

 The case against Galloway alone should be dropped, Brooks argued. ``While the
 loose procedures here might be typical of what is happening in the adoption
 program everywhere, the particular facts here make this a poor case to
make this
 point.''

 Mrs. Ludlum was angry.

 ``It is obvious that Charles and-or his bosses do not want the case
prosecuted
 period and will come up with any excuses to make it go away,'' Mrs. Ludlum
argued
 in a memo to her boss.

 Brooks refused to comment.

 The U.S. Attorney in San Antonio ordered the case closed in July. Several
U.S.
 Attorneys from around the country said that it is very rare for Washington
officials to
 pressure local prosecutors to close any case.

 Justice Department spokesman Bill Brooks would not discuss the Del Rio
matter,
 saying only: ``Any notion that Justice tried to quash a case is just not
true. When we
 have evidence that supports bringing a case, we bring one.''

 Meanwhile, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility
began a
 review of the way its attorneys behaved in the case after one BLM agent
who worked
 on the investigation, John Brenna, complained there were conflicts of
interest.
 Justice Department officials refused to release records of that inquiry,
saying the
 case is still open.

 ``If you have ineffective enforcement and prosecutions, it's as if there
is no law,'' said
 Steve Sederwall, a retired BLM agent who also worked on the Texas case.

 Earlier news reports about the Del Rio investigation, based on occasional
leaks,
 have understated its size. It also was not unique. Other records obtained
by the AP
 show that criminal investigations involving horse adoptions have been dropped
 across the country:

 --In Nevada, cases were dropped against two defendants suspected of shooting
 some 600 mustangs. Prosecutors said they ``underestimated the difficulty'' of
 prosecuting.

 --In Oklahoma, prosecutors dropped a case against an adopter of 18 horses and
 burros, even though he had told inspectors he planned to ``fatten 'em up,
slaughter
 or sell 'em for rodeo.''

 --In Alabama, a case was shut down even though a family there sold eight
horses for
 slaughter just days after receiving titles on their pledge that they'd be
used for
 pleasure riding. Why no prosecution? In the midst of the probe, officials
say, a BLM
 representative offered them more horses.

 And with the closure of the Del Rio case, the slaughter continues.

 The Choctaw Indian Nation claimed title to its wild horses a few months
ago. Jack
 Ferguson, who handles tribal herds, said he sold about a dozen of them to
be killed.

 ``We honored our part of the bargain,'' he said. ``We didn't dispose of
them until we
 had title.''
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 22:09:56 -0500
>From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Report: Bullfight Strike Over
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from AP Wire page:
------------------------------------
 03/22/1997 11:10 EST

 Report: Bullfight Strike Over

 By CIARAN GILES
 Associated Press Writer

 MADRID, Spain (AP) -- One of Spain's most popular bullfighting festivals,
the April
 Fair in Seville, looks set to go ahead after bullfighters reached an
agreement with
 regional authorities on inspecting bulls' horns, newspapers reported
Saturday.

 A nationwide strike was called last month to protest regulations aimed at
ending the
 practice of shaving bull horns.

 Two days into the strike, the Confederation of Bullfighting Professionals
reached a
 deal with authorities in the eastern region of Valencia, allowing two
important
 festivals there to go ahead.

 However, the strike threatened to affect the bullfight festival that forms
part of Seville's
 April Fair and runs from April 8-21.

 But an accord was reached late Friday between the confederation and the
regional
 government of southern Andalucia, whose capital is Seville.

 The confederation agreed to abide by current laws regarding inspection of
bulls
 before and after fights, the leading Spanish daily El Pais said. In
exchange, two new
 forms of horn inspection demanded by the confederation were accepted.

 Many fans and experts say breeders commonly shave the horns to make bulls
less
 dangerous in the ring, which is illegal.

 Breeders counter that most veterinarians assigned by the bullrings have
little
 experience with bulls and are not qualified to judge whether horns have been
 shaved or whether they are simply shorter or more sharply curved.

 Other regions are studying the pact to see if it can help them avoid the
strike.
 Madrid's San Isidro festival, the most prestigious in the bullfighting
world, is in May.
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 23:37:27 -0500
>From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Tennessee in trouble
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

posted for [e-mail]:
-------------------------------------------------------
If you live in Tennessee, please be aware that a bill has been introduced
which would strip Humane Societies of the power to investigate cruelty and
further, take aware to euthanize animals recieved which are suffering from
unrecoverable injury or illness.  This bill, as originally proposed would
even strip law enforcement from investigating large animal cruelty unless the
animals were first inspected by an agricultural agent or a graduate of an ag
college.  Several amendments have been added, deleted, added again, etc.,
etc.

Although some legislators are saying the bill would not do this, we have in
hand a copy of a legal opinion from a Knoxville attorney (a former Ass't U.S.
Attorney) which very clearly states that indeed, this bill would strip Humane
Societies of the above mentioned powers.

This bill has been scheduled to be heard in the House Monday night and the
Senate Wednesday night.

Please, if you live in Tennessee, get on the phone NOW to your senator and
rep and tell them you want them to oppose HB 1366 and SB 1914.  Please do not
be strident - we (my Humane Society and the Tennessee Humane Association and
some other humane organizations) ARE communicating with the Ag
Committees/bill sponsors and a dialogue has been established.  This bill was
originally proposed by the Cattleman's Assoc.  who are talking about "radical
animal rights activists from Humane Societies interferring with common
farming practices".  It is important the senators and reps hear from
individuals who speak professionally and calmly.  We want to douse the fire,
not add fuel to it.

If you have questions about the bill, or want copies of the legal opinion,
etc., I can be reached at 423-573-9675 or contact me via E-mail to my
personal account, "[e-mail]"    Vicky Crosetti, Executive Director,
Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley, Knoxville, TN.    PS - It is my
understanding that in Arkansas, a bill is being introduced which would allow
Humane Societies to investigate cruelty except on "livestock".





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