1) FDA bans animal parts in livestock feed by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 2) Rush is on for cloning animals by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 3) (US) U.S. to Oppose Ivory Trade Renewal by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 4) UK New CJD Case by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 5) Save the Earth: is worth $33 trillion a year by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 6) (UG) Uganda Cattle-Rustlers Kill 76 by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 7) (HK) Pledge on illegal animal trade by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 8) (TH) Elephant needs urgent eye surgery by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 9) (TW-JP) Taiwan hopes to resume pork exports to Japan by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 10) (ID) Rare mammal found in Irian Jaya by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 11) (MY) Girls getting high on pig-breeding pills by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 12) CITES coverage by BKMACKAY@aol.com 13) Not Enough Letters/Phone Calls to Stop Live Bird Drop by SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US 14) Update on Dog Stabbing/Dragging Case by SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US 15) OK Hog Bill by SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US 16) Fur Trade lying: Show Us the Bodies! by MINKLIB@aol.com 17) Humane veterinary schools by "Elaine Kaufmann" <ekaufman@LAWLIB.Law.Pace.Edu> 18) Re: Admin Note: Militant P.E.T.A by ckelly <ckelly@sagelink.net> 19) Re: (US) U.S. to Oppose Ivory Trade Renewal by BKMACKAY@aol.com 20) Re: (ID) Rare mammal found in Irian Jaya....What it is: by BKMACKAY@aol.com 21) Good News in CT!!! by Mike Markarian <MikeM@fund.org> 22) U.S. Opposes Elephant Downlisting by Friends of Animals <foa@igc.apc.org> 23) Humane Vet Schools by ScottVanValkenburg <SCOTT@mathom.xkl.com> 24) Re: UK New CJD Case by BHGazette@aol.com 25) Admin Note...subscription info by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 26) (US) FDA Acts Against Mad Cow Feed by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 27) Re: Humane Vet Schools by ckelly <ckelly@sagelink.net> 28) National Trappers Association Credit Card by MINKLIB@aol.com 29) (US) Congressmen Aim to Save Elephants by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 30) (CA) Canada goose cull threat in Mississauga by Animal Alliance of Canada <aac@inforamp.net> 31) [CA] Bears are a business and won't get protection by David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com> 32) VSCP Endorsements Near 6000,00 Individuals by "H. Morris" <oceana@ibm.net> 33) TALK:Fwd: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Lookout for Wildlife Death Traps by LMANHEIM@aol.com 34) (CN) Frigid pandas find relief by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg>
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 21:00:11 -0700
From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: FDA bans animal parts in livestock feed
Message-ID: <3394E84B.5C7C@worldnet.att.net>
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FDA bans animal parts in livestock feed
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (June 3, 1997 6:43 p.m. EDT) -- The government banned the use
of virtually all slaughtered-animal parts in U.S. livestock feed Tuesday
because of links to "mad cow disease."
That disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, caused public panic when
the British government announced last year that a new version of a fatal
human brain illness might have been caused by eating infected beef. At
least 10 Britons died of this new type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The U.S. government insists it has found no signs of mad cow disease in
American cattle.
But animals can get the brain disease by eating the tissue of other
infected animals -- so the Food and Drug Administration issued the
long-expected ban to ensure that U.S. livestock remain disease-free.
If a BSE case ever were discovered here, the ban would prevent the
disease from spreading through feed, the FDA declared.
But the ban is "totally inadequate to protect the public health" because
it exempts pork, declared Consumers Union's director of consumer policy,
Jean Halloran.
The FDA first proposed in January that no cows, sheep or goats eat feed
made from ground cows, sheep, goats, deer, elk or mink -- species known
to be vulnerable to the diseases that eat holes in the brain.
Putting these "ruminant" products in animal feed not only recycled
otherwise unusable parts of slaughtered animals, it added protein.
But the FDA's final rule extended the ban to using any mammalian protein
except pure pork or horse, which are not known to get the brain
illnesses naturally.
Consumers Union, however, said a laboratory experiment in Britain found
pigs injected with BSE did develop the brain illness, and questioned if
scientists had never seen the illness in farm pigs
because they go to slaughter at a mere 6 months old.
One lone pig out of 10 got sick after British scientists injected BSE
material straight into their brains, something "far beyond what we would
expect to happen in the real world," responded FDA veterinary chief Dr.
Stephen Sundlof. Also, enough breeding pigs have been observed into old
age to look for the brain illnesses, he said.
The U.S. livestock industry announced last year that it was voluntarily
banning ruminant proteins in cattle feed. Still, the National Renderers
Association supported the FDA ban Tuesday as helping calm public fears
and putting "a protective blanket around the cattle industry."
The ban goes into effect in 60 days.
It does not affect pet food or chicken or hog feed. Animal blood,
gelatin and milk also can continue to be used in feed, because there is
no evidence these products can transmit the brain diseases.
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 21:06:56 -0700
From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Rush is on for cloning animals
Message-ID: <3394E9E0.9E2@worldnet.att.net>
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Rush is on for cloning animals
N.Y. Times News Service
(June 3, 1997 11:07 a.m. EDT) -- At a branch of PPL Therapeutics in
Blacksburg, Va., Dr. Willard Eyestone said he had about a half-dozen
cows that were pregnant with clones made from the skin cells of fetal
calves. At the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Neal First has several sheep
pregnant with clones made from adult skin cells. But the two cautioned
that the animals were still early in pregnancy and there was no
guarantee that they would carry the clones to term.
Their rapid attempts to clone animals show how the announcement in
February of the cloning of adult sheep by Dr. Ian Wilmut at the Roslin
Institute in Scotland has changed the research landscape.
First said he never would have dreamed of trying to clone an adult
animal because he had thought it was impossible. Eyestone said he would
not have tried to clone even a fetal cell because such
studies had been doomed to failure in the past. Even the National
Institutes of Health, which had never paid much attention to cloning, is
expecting to support researchers who would try to clone early monkey
embryos. "As soon as this technology improves, we want several identical
monkeys on hand for research purposes," said Dr. Judith Vaitukaitis,
director of the National Institutes of Health's Center for Research
Resources.
But Wilmut's discovery hinged on purely pragmatic interests. Dr. Ronald
James, research director at PPL Therapeutics, which largely paid for
------------------------------------ 06/03/1997 18:32 EST
U.S. to Oppose Ivory Trade Renewal
By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States will strongly oppose any attempt by African nations to resume trade in rare African elephant parts, Clinton administration officials said Tuesday.
Some environmental groups have raised concerns over a call by Zimbabwe and two of its neighbors, Namibia and Botswana, to resume limited commercial trade in elephant ivory.
Protection of the African elephant is expected to be the most contentious issue facing the 136 delegates meeting next week in Zimbabwe at the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species. The group, known as CITES, imposed a trade ban on African elephant parts in 1989.
Deputy Interior Secretary Don Barry, who will head the U.S. delegation, said Tuesday the United States will oppose any changes that would allow even limited resumption of trading in African ivory.
``These proposals would pose unacceptable risks to elephant populations,'' the Interior Department said in a statement.
Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, arguing that their elephant herds are now thriving, have said they will ask the conference to allow a controlled resumption of ivory exports to Japan. Any change in the 1989 ban would require a two-thirds vote by conference delegates.
Environmental groups contend that easing the restrictions would send the wrong signal to poachers and lead to the killing of thousands of elephants throughout Africa. They blame even talk of an ease for the recent slaughter of 200 elephants in the Congo.
While acknowledging that Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana have healthy elephant herds, Barry said in an interview Tuesday ``there still is too much risk ... to other populations elsewhere in Africa.''
The U.S. delegation, he said, will argue that there are inadequate safeguards to prevent illegal shipments of ivory and that any easing of trade restrictions would undermine efforts against poachers throughout Africa.
The American position is expected to influence other nations, especially Europeans and some African countries that have voiced concern about easing of trade restrictions.
``I think it seals the fate of these proposals (to ease sanctions),'' said Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the United States. He noted that it will take on 46 votes to block the three African nations who want to resume trade.
Barry is not as certain. ``They will clearly press the issue,'' he said.
Demand for ivory led to killing hundreds of thousands of African elephants in the 1980s. Their population dropped from 1.3 million in 1979 to about 600,000 in 1989 when the species was put under CITES protection. There are now believed to be between 300,000 and 550,000 elephants, although the health of the populations vary from country to country.
