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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN//2.0"> <html> <head> <title>AR-NEWS Digest</title> </head> <BODY bgcolor=fbfaea text=#211818 link="#190748" alink="#FFFFEF" vlink="#401C92"> <center> <IMG SRC="IMAGES/HEAD.GIF" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/digest/images/head.gif" USEMAP="#toplinks" BORDER="0"><BR> <img src="IMAGES/YCBAR.GIF" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/digest/images/ycbar.gif"><a href="../INDEX~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/index.html"><img src="IMAGES/HOMEBAR.GIF" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/digest/images/homebar.gif" border=0></a><br></center> <map name="toplinks"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="345,27,393,54" href="../../../tppmsgs/msgs0.htm#14" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/envirohome.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="458,7,512,27" href="../SUPPOR~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/Support.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="401,7,446,26" href="../SEARCH~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/search.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="352,7,386,26" href="../ORGS~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/Orgs.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="298,7,337,25" href="../NEWSPA~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/newspage.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="211,7,286,27" href="../SUB~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/sub.html"> </map> <center><TABLE cellspacing=15 border=0> <TR> <TD width=50 align=center> </TD> <TD width=400 align=left> <!-- PAGE CONTENT GOES BELOW --> <hr> <pre> AR-NEWS Digest 453 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) (SG) Cancer-buster by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 2) (US) Share a whale and get a tax break? by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 3) New Zealand says No to Rabbit Haemhorragic Disease(RCD) by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 4) Vegetarian, except for the gelatin by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 5) 96 billion pounds of food wasted annually in U.S. by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 6) Gene therapy as genetic weapon by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 7) "Dolphin safe" tuna by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 8) Death toll from cancer drug reaches 94 by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 9) by aal@magnet.at (Bernhard Anderl) 10) EU opens mad cow disease conference by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 11) (UK) Brit Beef on U.K. Burger King Menu by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 12) EU To Appeal Ruling on U.S. Beef by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 13) URGENT: CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW TO STOP FUNDING OF TROPHY HUNTING PROGRAM by "Christine M. Wolf" <chrisw@fund.org> 14) 1996 Fur Sales Results by MINKLIB@aol.com 15) Wendy's In Trouble with Vegetarians by Hillary <oceana@ibm.net> 16) BizWire: Veg*ns Tell Dave Thomas To 'Stuff' It! by LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long) 17) 12 Arrested At Slaughterhouse Protest (US) by civillib@cwnet.com 18) APHIS Press Release Womack's Out of Business for by "Robert D. Kewan" <rkewan@omnifest.uwm.edu> 19) [WA] PAWS Expands Internet Lost and Found Service for July 4th Weekend by bchorush@paws.org (pawsinfo) 20) Information Request - RE: Circo Suarez (aka Suarez Brothers by fls@wspausa.com (Joanne deMarrais) 21) RE: APHIS Press Release Womack's Out of Business for by "D'Amico, AnnMarie" <DAMICOA@od1em1.od.nih.gov> 22) Animal Rights Activists Rally in Nation's Capital by FARM <farmusa@erols.com> 23) (VA) Milk Billboard Vandalism by NOVENAANN@aol.com 24) Re: (VA) Milk Billboard Vandalism by NOVENAANN@aol.com Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 12:27:22 +0800 (SST) From: Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: (SG) Cancer-buster Message-ID: <199707020427.MAA16826@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Singapore: >The Straits Times 2 July 97 Cancer-buster By Allison Lim MEET Dr Kong Hwai Loong, 32, cancer-buster. By marrying the work of two scientists, Dr Judah Folkman, who is renowned for his work with blood vessels, and Dr Ronald Crystal, a Professor of Medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Centre, Dr Kong has come up with a new way of battling cancer tumours. His method is based on gene therapy, which aims to deal with cancer cells by reprogramming them. A senior registrar with the National University Hospital (NUH), he thought of the idea in May last year while he was at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Centre to further his training in cancer treatments. Working with a team of doctors there, he designed a gene which would slow down the growth of blood vessels in cancer tumours. Tumours have their own tiny blood vessels which absorb nutrients from the body and help the tumour grow. Dr Kong felt that the tumours could be starved to death if they did not have these blood vessels. Genes are like blueprints, responsible for determining specific characteristics or traits in living things, including cancer cells. The information is stored in the DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. Dr Kong "reprogrammed" both the cancer and normal cells by going into the blueprints and introducing new DNA. The cells would then produce a new protein, which would shut off new blood vessel formation, and would act only on the blood vessels in the tumour. In an experiment using mice, his team injected the rodents with cancer cells to infect their lungs and liver. Half the mice were given the gene treatment. The mice which did not receive gene therapy developed massive cancer tumours and died within 30 days. Those which received the gene treatment were alive and healthy five months after the treatment began. Gene therapy has not proven its effectiveness and safety in humans yet, but Dr Kong is hopeful that some day, it will. Human trials are going on all over the world, with 136 in the United States alone. Professor John Wong, chief of the oncology department at NUH, said that gene therapy was not a miracle cure. But he added that it was on the right track, and could offer hope to cancer patients in future. Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 12:30:29 +0800 (SST) From: Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: (US) Share a whale and get a tax break? Message-ID: <199707020430.MAA15157@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >The Straits Times 2 July 97 Share a whale and get a tax break? The Eskimo tradition of sharing may earn some Alaskan whaling-ship captains a sizeable federal tax deduction. An Eskimo captain "gets the whale, he's expected to give it to all members of the village and they eat it ... but they don't pay him", explained US senator for Alaska Frank Murkowski on Monday. The US Senate included the US$7,500 (S$10,500) "charitable contribution" -- which would benefit a total of 40 captains -- among a series of tax cuts totalling US$85 billion it approved on Friday. Mr Murkowski's proposal would cost the federal government some US$3 million over 10 years. Both houses of Congress must confer to approve a common Budget text to be submitted to President Bill Clinton, who on Monday said he opposed the proposal. -- AFP. Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 12:38:44 +0800 From: bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: New Zealand says No to Rabbit Haemhorragic Disease(RCD) Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970702123625.2ddf057c@wantree.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" News Flash from Rabbit Information Service (Australia) (Wednesday 2nd July 1997) ===================================================================== News just received from New Zealand indicates that a news release issued at 3pm today New Zealand time by New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture says that New Zealand will not follow Australia's lead in using Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease as a Biological Control of wild European rabbits. Over 800 submissions were received by New Zealand MAF from within New Zealand and from around the world and over 50% of those submissions were against the proposed import and use of deadly rabbit haemorrhagic disease as a biological control agent. RHD was renamed rabbit calicivirus disease (RCD) by Australian authorities to make the virus seem more innocuous. Farmers in New Zealand thought that RHD would provide a cheap means of rabbit control but scientists argued that no one could guarantee that RHD would not infect other species. Also, in Australia, some rabbit populations are already immune to the RHD virus having been exposed at an early age and having developed antibodies to the disease. Further details will be available tomorrow. =========================================== Rabbit Information Service, P.O.Box 30, Riverton, Western Australia 6148 Email> rabbit@wantree.com.au http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 21:50:59 -0700 From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: Vegetarian, except for the gelatin Message-ID: <33B9DE33.1D9A@worldnet.att.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Wendy's accused of misrepresenting veggie pitas as vegetarian The Associated Press DUBLIN, Ohio (July 1, 1997 8:50 p.m. EDT) -- Wendy's is changing its new garden veggie pita sandwiches after a vegetarian group raised a beef over its ingredients. The Vegetarian Awareness Network said Tuesday the fast-food chain misrepresented its new product in nutritional guides available at its restaurants. The group said the veggie pita is described as "vegetarian" and "all vegetable" even though the dressing contains gelatin, which comes from animal tissue. Wendy's International Inc., which operates 1,500 restaurants worldwide, plans to remove all gelatin from the dressing and should have it in restaurants within two months, spokeswoman Rebecca Lusk said Tuesday. In the meantime, it will continue using the current sauce, she said. Lusk said Wendy's discovered the error last week and recalled thousands of guides from stores. Vegetarian Awareness, based in Washington, said it filed complaints about Wendy's claims in the guide with the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration last week. Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 21:53:53 -0700 From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: 96 billion pounds of food wasted annually in U.S. Message-ID: <33B9DEE1.6FEB@worldnet.att.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 96 billion pounds of food wasted annually in U.S. The Associated Press WASHINGTON (July 1, 1997 12:50 p.m. EDT) -- More than one-fourth of the food produced in the United States spoils, is tossed out unused or goes uneaten on the plate, the government said Tuesday. "By recovering a fraction of this food, we could get food to those in need, instead of tossing it into the Dumpster," said Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. The Agriculture Department study estimated that food lost in retail stores, restaurants and people's homes in 1995 amounted to more than 96 billion pounds -- one quarter of the total U.S. food supply of 356 billion pounds. If the average person consumes 3 pounds of food per day, Glickman said recovery of even 5 percent of the wasted food would provide enough for 4 million people to eat. And in terms of trash, the study estimated that if 5 percent of the annual losses were recovered, taxpayers would save $50 million in solid waste disposal costs. The vast bulk of the food is lost in people's homes, where food spoils in the refrigerator or is tossed uneaten into the garbage can, and in restaurants and other food service industries. Homes and food service sites accounted for 91 billion pounds of lost food. The remaining 5.4 billion pounds was lost in retail groceries through overstocking, discarding of perishable items such as fresh produce and dairy products, and food removed for bypassing its "sell-by" date. Two-thirds of the lost food was fresh fruit, vegetables, milk and grain products such as bread and sweeteners, USDA found. Scraps are inevitable at most restaurants but waste is expensive, said Simon Marsh, assistant manager of Listrani's, an Italian cafe in Washington. At his restaurant, produce and other perishables are used up quickly and any leftover meats are frozen. "While we do have some waste, it's not enough to warrant giving it away to charity," he said. The USDA study examined only losses in homes, stores and food service establishments, leaving out losses on the farm or at the wholesale level. Glickman, who planned to discuss the study at a national food recovery conference in California Tuesday, said its findings were important because the only previous estimates of food loss were 20 years old. "Understanding where and how much food is lost is an important step in reducing that waste and increasing the efficiency of food recovery efforts," Glickman said. The study recommends continued emphasis on programs, many of them run by non-profit charities such as Second Harvest, to collect and distribute unused food from farms, restaurants and stores to needy people. In addition, consumers should learn how to prepare the proper portions of meals and pay close attention to expiration dates on products such as milk to guard against spoilage. Glickman plans a national food recovery summit in Washington in September to further highlight the problem and possible solutions. By CURT ANDERSON, AP Farm Writer Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 22:19:02 -0700 From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: Gene therapy as genetic weapon Message-ID: <33B9E4C6.A6A@worldnet.att.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit British doctors warn against genetic weapons Reuter Information Service LONDON (July 1, 1997 11:56 a.m. EDT) - Gene therapy could be twisted into terrifying genetic weapons that target and destroy ethnic groups, doctors in Britain warned Tuesday. The British Medical Association (BMA) is so worried by the possibility that it has commissioned a team of geneticists, biologists, lawyers and warfare experts to see if the technology is possible, and if so, to ban it. "It is a particularly horrifying thought," said Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics for the BMA, who started the study. "If you were a dictator somewhere in the world and you wanted to get rid of a group of people in your population who were opposing you -- whether you are talking about Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, Bosnian Serbs or 1930s Germany -- you could use this," she added. Gene therapy homes in on genes that certain people have that are different and can cause disease. For example, people with cystic fibrosis have easily identified mutations, as do some sufferers of breast cancer. New genes, or therapeutic proteins, can be delivered using engineered DNA -- the basic genetic building material. Nathanson said this could be twisted. "If we can target people to have a therapeutic effect then maybe you could put something in that is dangerous," she said in a telephone interview. Race war would not be possible -- races are too genetically diverse and what people recognise as "race" has little genetic basis. "You are looking for what in Scotland would be a clan or in Africa a tribe," Nathanson said. "It's a family grouping where one would expect to see a genetic similarity." Genes targeted by such weapons could control a person's appearance -- height or hair color -- or how their bodies process certain drugs. "If that is the case, and it is likely to be the case, then it is possible to say we may have a weapon which was a virus or a chemical compound which has a genetic targeting component," Nathanson said. "We have to recognise that there is a potential for weapons with a fair degree of selectivity and extraordinary awfulness." Such compounds could be delivered as a gas or spray, or put into the water supply. They could kill, make people infertile or cause the birth of deformed children. "It would probably not be 100 percent effective but I've never really come across a dictator who seemed terribly concerned about losing some of their own population," she said. "We are doing the study at the moment using as many lawyers and other experts as we can to find out whether we think it is feasible," said Nathanson, who presented her fears to the BMA's annual meeting in Edinburgh. "If we do think such weapons are feasible, and so far we haven't heard anything that we think means they wouldn't be, a ban that works would be needed," Nathanson said. "It would need international collaboration and cooperation." But Nathanson said she feared that, if such weapons were ever developed, there would be no way to ban them. For example, landmines were proving hard to ban because so many companies and governments earned money from their sale. "One of the things we have to learn is not to wait until the technology has been learned and dispersed around the world before we ban them." Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 22:27:30 -0700 From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: "Dolphin safe" tuna Message-ID: <33B9E6C2.2E0D@worldnet.att.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Congress still debating 'dolphin safe' tuna Congressional Quarterly WASHINGTON (July 2, 1997 00:14 a.m. EDT) - Although the environmental protests of the 1980s that led to protections for dolphins during tuna harvesting have faded into memory, debate about fishing practices and international tuna trade continues unabated in Congress. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee dived into the issue last week, approving a bill by voice vote that supporters say would protect dolphins from deadly tuna nets, even as it would lift an embargo on tuna imports from countries that use such nets. The cuddly image of the mammals in popular culture prompted an outcry from consumers when reports of dolphin carnage by tuna fisherman surfaced in the 1970s and 1980s, and led Congress in 1992 to ban imported tuna caught with methods that killed or harmed dolphins. The new Senate bill, which is similar to legislation passed by the House on May 21, would revise the standard for "dolphin safe" tuna to include fish caught by encircling nets (a practice that, under existing law, would disqualify canned tuna from earning the "dolphin safe" label), so long as an observer on the tuna boat certified that no dolphins had been killed in the catch. Under an amendment offered by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and adopted by the committee by voice vote, a catch that did not immediately kill dolphins but seriously or mortally wounded them also would not be considered "dolphin safe." The legislation has divided environmentalists, and bill supporters are not confident that Snowe's expanded definition of "dolphin safe" would satisfy its opponents. Similar legislation passed the House easily in 1996 but was killed by the threat of a filibuster by Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Joseph Biden Jr. of Delaware. "I don't expect that the changes made will alter Sen. Boxer's position on this bill," said a member of her staff. Biden also expressed his continuing opposition to the amended bill. And aides to bill sponsors were wary of claiming they had yet achieved a compromise that could be enacted. "It's been clear all along it's been boiling toward a floor fight," said William Snape, legal director of the environmentalist group Defenders of Wildlife, which opposes the bill. The pending legislation would change U.S. law to implement a 1995 international agreement, known as the Declaration of Panama, and settle a long-standing dispute between the United States and Mexico, Venezuela and other Latin American nations over access to the U.S. market. At issue is an effort by Latin American fishermen to gain access to the $1.4 billion U.S. consumer market for canned tuna. They are hindered by an embargo that was imposed on their tuna under U.S. law because of fishing practices that endanger dolphins, which often swim above schools of tuna and can be killed in encircling nets. The Clinton administration supports the legislation, arguing that the Panama declaration is a model for reconciling the often-competing pressures of global trade and environmental protection. Not only would the bill settle a closely watched trade dispute, bill supporters say, but it would also create a definition of dolphin-safe tuna that would better protect fisheries in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and bind Latin American nations to an international agreement to safeguard the marine ecosystem. Proponents of the bill warn that if legislation is not enacted, the Panama agreement will collapse and other nations would feel free to return to dolphin-killing practices. Opponents say the agreement is poorly conceived and that Congress should not bow to international pressure to accept it. By their lights, the Panama agreement is an effort to promote trade at the expense of U.S. environmental law. The new legislation would allow a type of purse seine netting that is less dangerous to dolphins than other nets and require the stationing of observers on tuna boats to determine whether dolphins had been killed in the catch. The bill would limit the annual tuna-related dolphin death toll to 5,000 and set a goal of zero dolphin mortality. The bill would limit the number of dolphins killed annually to no more than 0.2 percent of the species' overall estimated population until the year 2000, with that ceiling dropping to 0.1 percent in 2001. By ALAN GREENBLATT, Congressional Quarterly Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 22:30:53 -0700 From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: Death toll from cancer drug reaches 94 Message-ID: <33B9E78D.61DB@worldnet.att.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Japanese death toll from cancer drug reaches 94 The Financial Times TOKYO (July 2, 1997 00:08 a.m. EDT) -- At least 94 Japanese cancer patients have died from the side-effects of a popular cancer drug after the Japanese Health Ministry underplayed the drug's risks. The revelation has sparked fury over unethical practices in Japan's drugs industry. Dr. Masanori Fukushima, head of the Aichi Cancer Center in Nagoya, in western Japan, said Tuesday that Health Ministry data indicated at least 94 patients had died from the side-effects of irinotecan hydrochloride, a treatment for lung and cervical cancer. He said the total was likely to grow. Fukushima's public warnings last week forced an admission from the drug's two makers in Japan, Daiichi Pharmaceutical and Yakult Honsha, that 39 deaths had resulted from its side-effects. On Tuesday the two firms acknowledged that the figure of 94 fatalities was correct. In late 1995, 18 months after the drug's commercial launch, the ministry only admitted that nine people had died from side-effects. At the time, however, the ministry knew at least 55 people had died out of 1,000 given irinotecan in clinical tests, according to Fukushima. The Health Ministry still faces criticism over the hundreds of deaths resulting from HIV-tainted blood products distributed by Green Cross, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, in the 1980s. Bereaved relatives and people infected with HIV from the products have taken legal action against the ministry for its alleged failure to halt distribution of the contaminated products. At least 5,000 cancer patients have been injected with irinotecan, marketed in Japan under the name Topotecin by Daiichi, and as Campto by Yakult, since it came on to the market. The drug is marketed in the U.S. by Pharmacia & Upjohn as Camptosar. In spite of severe side- effects -- which include damage to blood cells -- regulators approved it because trials showed potential benefit outweighing harm. Western drug companies regard the Japanese market as more prone than their own to concerns over side-effects. Irinotecan's use in most overseas markets is strictly limited to the treatment of cancer of the colon and has not been linked to unusually high death rates. The Japanese Health Ministry's decision to extend its use to treat gastric cancer and cancers of the lungs, cervix and ovaries was an "irresponsible move to approve a dangerous drug very loosely, while many other good foreign drugs that doctors want to use here are banned," said Fukushima. The ministry acknowledged that the high number of deaths from irinotecan had not been publicized but said that it had issued warnings about the drug's side-effects since its launch and would soon warn doctors and hospitals "to be more careful about administering the drug." By GWEN ROBINSON and DANIEL GREEN, The Financial Times Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 11:23:48 +0200 From: aal@magnet.at (Bernhard Anderl) To: ar-news@envirolink.org Message-ID: <msg98669.thr-ba948db5.1dcede59@magnet.at> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-ID: <msg98669.thr-ba948db5.1dcede59.part0@magnet.at> unsubscribe aal@magnet.at Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 07:35:20 -0400 From: allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: EU opens mad cow disease conference Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970702073517.006e4c30@clark.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 
