Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news47~7.htm/text0005.txt

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Runways to be removed at wildlife refuge
Associated Press, 07/24/97 15:04

CHARLESTOWN, R.I. (AP) - Despite concerns raised by veterans,
runways at the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge will be removed.

A proposal to tear up the 70 acres of cracked asphalt that run
through the nature preserve was approved Wednesday by Ronald
Lambertson, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

``We are very pleased,'' said Gary Andrews, assistant manager of
the Ninigret refuge.

An Army Reserve unit will begin removing the runways early next
month.

It is the first stage in a roughly five-year plan to tear up the runways.
The project could cost as much as $500,000, depending on what
methods are used, and will be covered with funds from the Fish and
Wildlife Service.

The project's supporters want the native grassland habitat restored
to provide a better environment for threatened species of birds and
plants.

Opponents feel the runways serve as a kind of memorial to
veterans since it is on the site of a former Naval air station. Tearing
up the runways is a waste of money and a sign of disrespect for
veterans who trained there, opponents say.

For the last four years, World War II era planes have flown into the
refuge for ceremonies memorializing the 61 men who died during
training exercises at the base. Such events no longer will be
possible once the runways are gone.

``It destroys a little bit of history,'' said Frederick ``Bud'' Cooney, 64,
who serves on the Charlestown Naval Airfield Memorial
Committee. ``I feel sad that an era has gone by.''

Andrews said the staff is eager to work with veteran's groups to
find other ways to honor the men who died, including leaving a
small section of runway intact and constructing a kiosk that would
 explain the refuge's history.

After the Navy left in the 1970s, New England Power Co. tried to
build a nuclear power plant there, but in 1979, a federal judge ruled
the 604-acre park could be used only for conservation.

The park was divided, with more than half going to the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service to create the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge.
Charlestown received almost 200 acres for recreation, and the
remainder went mostly for wetlands research.
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 01:11:02 -0400
From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Turtle races stopped after animal cruelty complaints
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Turtle races stopped after animal cruelty complaints
Associated Press, 07/24/97 14:34

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The organizers of the city's Market Days
festival said they shut down a turtle-racing booth run by the Jaycees
because they received complaints the animals were being
mistreated.

Rebecca Courser, a board member of Downtown Concord Inc., the
festival's organizer, said she called the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals after seeing the event last week.

``My concern as an individual was that I just felt it was cruel to the
turtles,'' Courser said.

When she called, the organization's executive director, Beverly
Leo, was in the process of writing a letter expressing her concerns.

``I couldn't close this thing down for animal cruelty,'' Leo said
Wednesday.

But, ``these animals were totally out of their element,'' she said. ``I
really object to this kind of display that has nothing to do with
animals' natural behavior. It is anti-educational.''

The Capital Area Jaycees, however, said they were not mistreating
the turtles. The shutdown also meant they raised only $500, instead
of an expected $1,000, for a scholarship fund.

``I was really disappointed,'' said Lisa Coparanis, the turtle race
chairwoman. The 10 turtles were loaned by pet shop owners who
had no problems with the project, she said.

Eight turtles raced for 15 minutes at a time, Coparanis said. Their
breaks were spent in a child's wading pool under the table.

``Everything short of giving them Gatorade was being done to keep
the turtles comfortable,'' said Jaycees member Cary Gladstone.

But Leo said the event gives children the wrong idea about how to
treat animals.

``It is the type of thing that really teaches children to totally ignore
the needs, comfort and stress factors on animals,'' she said.
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 01:15:14 -0400
From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Cloning technique used to produce human protein in lambs
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Cloning technique used to produce human protein in lambs
 Associated Press, 07/24/97 20:25

LONDON (AP) - The laboratory that produced the cloned sheep
Dolly said Thursday that it had for the first time used a similar
technique to produce a lamb carrying a human protein gene.

Animals with human genes, including pigs, have been produced
before. But the use of the ``nuclear transfer'' method represents a
step toward achieving more efficient production of proteins that
could be used to treat human disease and injury, said Chris
Gardner, spokesman for PPL Therapeutics.

Scientists at The Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, announced
in February that they had cloned an adult mammal for the first time,
producing Dolly. The scientists used cells from the udder of a dead
sheep.

The latest development, in which five lambs were produced, is
apparently the first time the cloning technique used to generate
Dolly has been successfully replicated. It also is the first case in
which animals have been cloned from cells taken from living adult
animals.

The five lambs were all born carrying additional genes but only one,
named Polly, was given the human gene.

News of the feat raised concerns about the possible cloning of
humans, and generated widespread ethical debate. The new
research doesn't necessarily affect prospects for human cloning.

In the new experiment, the five lambs were produced by PPL and
the Roslin Institute. Researchers slipped human genetic material
into the nuclei of cells from sheep. These cells were then put into
sheep's eggs from which the DNA genetic coding had been
removed.

The resulting embryos were transplanted into sheep. Blood
samples taken from the resulting lambs confirmed the preqence of
added genes.

Producing a human protein in animals by inserting a human gene is
not new. Such proteins are already produced in the milk of animals
that received human DNA before birth.

But, Gardner explained, DNA is normally introduced into a fertilized
egg. In the new procedure, the DNA was introduced instead into
fibroblast cells - specialized cells like those in organs.

This, says American physiologist Robert H. Foote, is significant
because fertilized eggs are in shorter supply and the use of more
common fibroblast cells would greatly increase efficiency and
likelihood of success.

``Through this procedure, scientists can use a few animals that can
produce proteins useful in human medicine, to treat burns, etc.,''
said Foote, emeritus professor of animal physiology at Cornell
University in Ithaca, N.Y.

``They have taken the next step toward the ultimate goal, which is to
produce genetically engineered sheep producing efficiently high
levels of proteins for pharmaceutical or clinical use,'' said Colin
Stewart, an embryology developmental biologist connected with the
U.S. National Cancer Institute.

In a PPL statement Thursday, the company's research director, Dr.
Alan Colman, said ``These lambs are the realization of our vision to
produce instant flocks or herds which express (produce) high
concentrations of valuable therapeutic proteins very quickly.''

``Until now,'' PPL's statement said, ``techniques such as
microinjection allowed only the introduction of new genetic material
into an animal.''

Using nuclear transfer, it said, ``more subtle modifications can be
performed during cell culture, including the replacement of animal
genes with the equivalent human gene.''
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 01:18:06 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Mad About BSE
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from Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) web page
http://www.cspinet.org/ :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

         "I can still see his expression," says Stephen Churchill's
         father. "It was as if he could see what was happening, but
         couldn't work out how he could stop it."

Churchill watched helplessly as his 19-year-old son lost his ability to
feed and dress himself, as the hallucinations and panic attacks grew worse.
Five months later, in May 1995, Stephen was dead -- the first known victim
of V-CJD, a new form of a rare, incurable brain disease.

More than a dozen others would follow in Great Britain, including two more
teenagers, a 42-year-old businessman, and a pregnant woman who delivered
her baby while in a coma.

In March of 1996 the World Health Organization convened a group of experts
to find out how Stephen Churchill and the other people contracted V-CJD.

The most likely explanation: They ate British beef that had been
contaminated with a rare, abnormal protein.

What the popular press calls "mad cow disease" had apparently spread to
humans. Could the same thing happen in the U.S.? Possibly . . . unless we
change the way we feed and slaughter beef cattle.

Going Mad

To halt the spread of mad cow disease, the British government has destroyed
more than a million animals. Hundreds of thousands of frozen cow carcasses
are piled up in storage facilities. Mountains of cow flakes -- what's left
after grinding and boiling those carcasses -- will take more than a decade
to burn.

But even when the incinerators stop smoking, the mad cow crisis may not be
over. The disease takes time to do its damage. Over the next several
decades, hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of people who have already eaten
infected beef could die.

That's just in Great Britain. What of the thousands of potentially infected
cattle -- and the animal feed that may have made them sick -- that Britain
has exported to dozens of countries, including the United States and
Canada?

"Mad" cows have already been identified in Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, and Switzerland. And
V-CJD, the disease in humans that may have been caused by infected cattle,
has crossed the English Channel to claim a young man in France.

How did mad cow disease spread from herd to herd in Great Britain and make
its way into the human food supply? The story starts with a rare disease.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)

"At least one in every million people gets Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
each year," says Ermias Belay, an epidemiologist and CJD expert with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

CJD belongs to a family of rare disorders in humans and animals called
transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSES: "encephalopathies"
because they're diseases of the brain, "spongiform" because they leave
infected brain tissue looking spongy, and "transmissible" because they can
be spread, though not easily.

The other major TSEs are kuru, found in a brain-eating tribe in New Guinea;
scrapie, found in sheep; and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), found
in cows (see "The ABC's of BSE" below).

"CJD is a devastating disease," says Belay. "Patients become forgetful,
then can't stand up and walk properly. Their legs and arms jerk
uncontrollably, their speech becomes disorganized, and they have difficulty
speaking and remembering what words mean. They don't even recognize their
families."

More than 90 percent are dead within a year. What causes TSEs like
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease?

"Many researchers believe that prions have something to do with it," says
Belay. Prions (PREE-ons) are proteins that are found naturally on the
surface of brain cells.

"In CJD, these prions flip over into an abnormal shape that the body cannot
get rid of," explains Belay. "The abnormal prions accumulate in the brain
cells until they begin to interfere with the cells' normal functioning and
the victim becomes sick."

In about 85 percent of CJD cases, the prions mutate for no apparent reason.
Another 15 percent seem to be hereditary. And less than one percent are
spread from one person to another, but only under very unusual
circumstances.

For example, nearly 100 people with dwarfism came down with CJD between
1975 and 1985 after they were given injections of human growth hormone
(HGH). At that time, the only source of HGH was brains from human cadavers.
Some, it turned out, were infected with CJD.

"The use of this hormone was discontinued as soon as the first cases were
discovered," explains Belay. "Today, all human growth hormone is produced
by genetic engineering, so it carries no disease."

Three other victims contracted CJD from contaminated instruments used to
perform brain surgery on patients with CJD.

"Conventional sterilization doesn't destroy the abnormal prions," says
Belay.

Prions may be difficult to destroy, but at least they tend to keep to their
own species.

"Scrapie has been found in sheep in England for more than 300 years, and in
the United States since 1947," says Joe Gibbs, acting chief of the
Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies at the National Institutes of
Health (NIH). "But there's never, ever, been a shred of evidence that
scrapie in sheep has caused any disease in humans."

It's not easy to spread TSEs between species . . . even in the laboratory.

To transmit BSE from a cow to a mouse, explains Paul Brown of the NIH,
"requires an injection into the brain of a thousand times more infected
tissue than it takes to give BSE to another cow.

"We're counting on this species barrier to help protect us," says Brown,
who chairs the Food and Drug Administration's TSE Advisory Panel.

But the barrier may have been breached.

The Empire Strikes Back

In March of 1996, scientists reported that ten people in Great Britain had
been diagnosed with a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease called V-CJD
("V" for "variant"). Its brain lesions more closely resembled those of cow
BSE than those of human CJD.

"Nobody knows for certain how they got the new disease," says the CDC's
Belay. "But evidence is accumulating every day that it was from eating meat
from cattle that were infected with BSE."

How did the cattle become infected?

"Around 1980, several changes occurred in the way the British produced a
meat-and-bone-meal protein supplement for cattle," says Don Franco,
director of scientific affairs for the U.S. National Renderers Association.
The supplement is made from, among other things, slaughterhouse waste, dead
pets, and road kill -- diseased animals as well as healthy ones.

"Because energy was in short supply and the use of solvents was
discontinued for safety reasons," says Franco, "the animal tissues weren't
rendered to as high a temperature or for as long as they had been in the
past."

Those changes may have allowed enough disease-causing prions to survive.
"They could have come from the brains of either sheep with scrapie or cows
with spontaneous BSE that went into the mix," says Franco. (BSE may occur
naturally, speculate some researchers, in about one out of every million
animals.)

Some of the cows that ate the tainted feed developed BSE. When those cows
were slaughtered, some of their body parts were rendered into animal feed,
which infected more cows.

And while scientists haven't been able to prove it yet, many believe that
Stephen Churchill and the other victims in Great Britain may have gotten
the variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease after they ate meat from the
tainted cows. But they're not sure.

"Everybody's waiting for the completion of a study that's comparing the
'strain' of prion or other agent found in the V-CJD victims with the
'strain' found in cattle with BSE, " explains U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) senior veterinarian Linda Detwiler. Results are expected
later this summer.

Jumping the Firewall                                               THE
ABC'S OF BSE

Scientists and public health officials in
the U.S. are scrambling to keep BSE out            Don't know your BSE from
your
of this country.
TSE? Here's a little help.

In 1989, the USDA banned the import of              * AMR (Advanced Meat
live cattle and most beef products from                Recovery) A process in
Great Britain and other countries where               which steel cylinders
BSE exists.
 remove an additional 1 and

          a half pounds of meat from
But some of the cows were already out of            each cow carcass. Ground
the barn.
    beef and processed meats

           can contain up to ten
Between 1981 and 1989, the U.S. imported         percent AMR meat.
496 cows from Great Britain. "We've
tracked down 464 of them, and not one has        * Mad Cow Disease. A popular
shown signs of BSE," says the USDA's                name for BSE. Cows with
Detwiler. The others have probably died               the disease often
stagger
of old age by now, she adds.                                   around
before they die.

"We've also examined the brains of 5,700            * Prions (PREE-ons).
sick cows from 48 states and Puerto Rico            Proteins that are found
and haven't found a single case of BSE,"              naturally on the surface
says Detwiler.
of nerve cells. If they

           become defective, they can
"I think it's essential for everybody to                      kill the
nerve cells.
know that the USDA is looking, and that               Scientists believe that
we're all ready to jump when it happens .            abnormal prions cause
. . if it happens," says the NIH's Joe                      TSEs. Prions
are nearly
Gibbs.
    impossible to destroy.

           They can survive
So far, it hasn't.
temperatures used to

         sterilize medical
"We have people who have spent their                equipment.
careers trying to find BSE and haven't
succeeded," says Will Hueston, associate         * TSE (transmissible
dean of the Virginia-Maryland College of             spongiform
Veterinary Medicine in College Park,                    encephalopathy). A
group
Maryland. Hueston used to run the USDA's         of incurable diseases in
BSE surveillance program.                                     which brain
tissue slowly

          turns to spongy matter. It
"You can't just hide BSE if a cow's got                  includes:
it," he adds.

          BSE (bovine
What about BSE-like diseases in other              spongiform
animals that could get into the food                     encephalopathy). In
supply?
 Great Britain, BSE

        spread among cow
"None have been found in either poultry             herds when diseased
or pigs," says the NIH's Paul Brown.                   animals were rendered
"Pigs can get BSE, but only by having                 into cow feed.
diseased brain matter injected directly              Sixteen people died
into their brains."
after they apparently

        ate meat from tainted
As for sheep: While they do have scrapie,         cows.
"we have far less of it than the English
do," says the Renderers Association's              CJD
Franco. What's more, says Franco, since          (Creutzfeldt-Jakob
1989 the U.S. rendering industry has                  Disease). The rare
voluntarily banned the use of sheep                    disorder kills about
brains to make animal feed.                                  250 people a
year in

         the U.S.
And in 1996, just nine days after Great
Britain disclosed the possible link                           Kuru. Scientists
between BSE in cows and V-CJD in humans,       discovered in the
the U.S. meat industry said that it would                1960s that the
stop giving cows the same kind of                            disease spread
among
meat-and-bone meal that might have caused        New Guinea
BSE to spread in Great Britain.
tribespeople who ate

               the brains of dead
The FDA has taken things a step further.                  relatives.
It has announced a ban on feeding
rendered mammals to cows, sheep, and              Scrapie (SCRAY-pee).
goats.
       It's found in sheep.

           Scientists believe it
"This will build a firewall around our                       has never caused
meat supply," says Gary Weber of the                   death in humans.
National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
"It will be a gangbusters of a                                     V-CJD
(Variant
protection," seconds the NIH's Brown.                  Creutzfeldt-Jakob

           Disease) A new form
But only if it's enforced. In 1993, the                       of CJD that has
FDA estimated that as many as half of all             killed 16 people in
U.S. renderers were not complying with                Great Britain and
their voluntary ban on including sheep                  France. Although
brains in animal feed.
scientists haven't

           been able to prove it
"Today we have about 90 percent                           yet, the victims may
compliance," estimates the rendering                  have contracted V-CJD
industry's Don Franco. But no one's                      after they ate beef
checking. And 90 percent compliance means        infected with BSE.
ten percent noncompliance.                                     V-JCD has
never been

             detected in the U.S.
"The new regulation definitely needs a
verification process to make certain it's
being followed," says former USDA official Will Hueston.

It may need more than that.

Simply Stunning

"If BSE should occur in the US," says Will Hueston, "then the most sensible
thing we can do is to make sure we don't have a system that can spread it
into the human food supply."

Easier said than done. The animal tissues most likely to transmit BSE are
the brain and the spinal cord. "We should keep these out of the food
chain," says the NIH's Joe Gibbs.

But the way we slaughter and extract meat from cattle may do just the
opposite.

   * Brains. "It's not a good idea to eat brains," says the NIH's Paul
     Brown. "We know that from Great Britain's experience."

Meat processors can add animal brains to foods like hot dogs and luncheon
meats, but "nobody does, to our knowledge, in part because the texture
isn't suitable," says Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute, a trade
association of meat processors. If brains are added, they've got to appear
in the ingredient list.

Brains have other ways of getting into the food supply, though.

According to disturbing new research from Texas A&M University and the
Canadian government, cattle brain tissue can end up scattered throughout
the carcass during slaughtering.

In some plants, the first step in slaughtering a cow is to stun it with a
pneumatic gun. "The force is so explosive that it splatters brain tissue
into the cow's blood vessels," says Graham Clarke, Chief of Red Meat
Inspection for Canada's Food Inspection Agency.

"Our research shows that it's possible that microscopic particles of brain
matter can be circulated to the lungs, liver, and maybe other sites,"
reports Tam Garland, a research veterinarian at Texas A&M. The Canadian
government has found the same.

"That's not surprising," says Garland, "because it has long been known that
the same thing happens in humans who suffer head traumas.

"Brain tissue could, in theory, circulate anywhere," she adds. That
includes the cow's muscles, which are turned into steaks and burgers.

"The implications are frightening," says Garland.

"My gut feeling is that the cattle industry will eventually have to change
the way it slaughters cattle as a result of Garland's research," says Will
Hueston.

   * Spinal Cords. If you're a fan of hamburgers, hot dogs, or luncheon
     meats, odds are you sometimes eat small bits of cow spinal cords. You
     can thank something called Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR) for that.

Human deboners remove all the meat they can as each cow carcass goes
whizzing by on the production line. What they can't easily cut away ends up
at AMR plants, where metal cylinders rub another 1 and a half pounds per
carcass off the bones. Why bother? Because it boosts the yield by as much
as 300 million pounds a year.

Up to ten percent of your next hamburger or slice of bologna could have
come from an AMR plant. And you'll never know. Foods that contain AMR meat
don't have to say so on the label.

The problem is that any tissue that's on or near the bones -- including
parts of the spinal cord -- can end up in the mix.

"Most AMR plants voluntarily remove spinal cords before processing, " says
the American Meat Institute's Janet Riley. But last year, in response to
complaints from consumer groups (including CSPI), the USDA surveyed seven
AMR plants in the U.S. The Feds found bits of spinal cord in two out of 11
meat samples.

The USDA has warned AMR plants not to include any spinal cord tissue in
their meat. Inspectors have been instructed to send any suspect AMR meat to
a USDA lab for testing.

"Let's Do It Properly"

Most scientists and public health experts agree that the U.S. food supply
isn't in imminent danger. BSE hasn't been detected in our cow herds. No
similar diseases occur naturally in poultry or pigs. Scrapie is confined to
sheep. And "we are sitting on a well-documented contingency plan" to
prevent the spread of BSE if it shows up, says the NIH's Joe Gibbs.

But we need to close the loopholes.

"If we've learned anything from the British," says Gibbs, "it's that
rendering is not the way to provide food supplements for cattle and other
species, because rendering was obviously the cause of the BSE outbreak in
England.

"We also learned that the brain and spinal cord are infectious, and that we
should keep them out of the food chain.

"If we're going to do this thing, let's do it properly. Even if there is a
very low risk, let's try to reduce it as much as possible."

                              The Bottom Line

     * Scientists have never detected "mad cow disease" (BSE) in cattle in
       the U.S.
     * To prevent BSE from spreading through the food supply in case
       infected cows turn up here, the FDA has announced a ban on the
       feeding of rendered mammals to cows and sheep.
     * To prevent the spread of brain tissue when cows are slaughtered,
       the USDA should look for alternative, humane approaches to
       stunning.
     * To keep BSE out of ground beef and processed meat, the USDA should
       make sure that meat from advanced meat recovery (AMR) systems is
       free of spinal cord tissue.

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:22:48 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (CN) China's ecosystem in great danger, warn top leaders
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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>The Straits Times
25 July 97
China's ecosystem in great danger, warn top leaders

     BEIJING -- China's top leaders have warned of serious damage to the
country's  environment, a situation brought about by rapid economic and
population growth, the  official Xinhua news agency reported.

     President Jiang Zemin admitted the severity of the problem in remarks
published  yesterday.

     "The environmental situation is rather stern, which means we have a lot
to accomplish,"  he told a March 8 meeting of the Chinese Communist Party
central committee.

With China's economy developing quickly and its population growing even
faster,  demands on natural resources are building up rapidly, he was quoted
as saying.

     "Any relaxation in our efforts to protect the environment would lead to
an increase in  the volume of discharged pollutants and in the scale of
ecosystem damage," he said.

     Premier Li Peng, in an address also published yesterday, warned at the
same meeting  that environmental damage was worsening.

     "Despite efforts and good results in curbing pollution and waste, the
general
environmental quality has continued to deteriorate, for the public's
environmental awareness is still weak," he said.
Urban air pollution has become so serious in some cities that there was now
acid rain, he said, adding that industrial discharges threatened to
contaminate drinking water supplies in other areas.

     He described the goal of bringing a healthy environment into the 21st
century "a heavy task", stressing that pollution should be headed off as
early as possible.

     "China must not follow the old road of pollution control after pollution."

     He said that in the five years to 2000, China would allocate 450
billion yuan (S$80.82  billion) for environmental protection.

     Mr Jiang said that government plans set the goals of containing
pollution and ecological damage by 2000 and bringing about "a fundamental
reverse" by 2010.

     He called for greater supervisory powers for environmental protection
departments and tougher crackdowns by the judiciary on environmental
offenders. No specific measures   were announced, however.

     Environmental feasibility studies should become a routine part of
property and civil-works development projects, he added.

     China had already suffered severe air and water pollution and
deforestation before its industrial "take-off" began in the early 80s.

     Environmental enforcement remains slack at the local level, despite
Beijing's efforts to  shut down thousands of highly polluting small mills
along its most contaminated rivers  last year. -- AFP.


Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:22:58 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (UK)  Dolly scientists clone transgenic lamb Polly
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>South China Morning Post
Friday  July 25  1997

     Dolly scientists clone transgenic lamb Polly
     REUTER in London

     The British scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep yesterday said they
had made a  major advance by cloning Polly the lamb, who carries human genes.

     The development means they can clone flocks of identical sheep that
produce human  proteins or blood products for medical use.

     Polly and four near-identical sisters are transgenic - they are sheep
but they carry a  human gene.
"It was what we told everybody we were going to do, but it's nice to be able
to say we  have done it," Ron James, managing director of PPL Therapeutics,
said.

     "This is a demonstration that we can genetically modify the cells and
then make transgenic animals, which is a world first."

     PPL's scientists have cloned sheep before, and have also created many
transgenic animals - one at a time. But this is the first time they have
been able to combine the two technologies.

     However, the five Poll Dorset lambs were not created using the stunning
technology that produced Dolly.
Dolly was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. Polly and her
virtually identical sisters were created by fusing a cell from a foetus to
an egg cell.

     This time the PPL team genetically modified the foetal cells before
they cloned them.


Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 13:23:11 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Breast is the best, mums told
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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>Hong Kong Standard
25 July 97

Breast is the best, mums told

IN the midst of this year's fifth annual World Breastfeeding Week, which
begins next Friday under the theme of ``nature's way'', advocates of
breastfeeding have found themselves facing an increasingly uphill battle
against manufacturers of breast milk substitutes.

Aggressive advertising by manufacturers that their products are as good as
or even better than breast milk often point to the fact that mothers can
determine exactly how much milk is given to their babies if it is
administered from a bottle rather than from the breast.

``It makes women have less confidence in themselves and this is one of the
failures in breastfeeding. They think that if they see the milk formula in
the bottle, they know how much they are giving their baby,'' Baby Friendly
Hospital Initiative Hong Kong Association project co-ordinator Mrs Chee
Yuet-oi says.

Then, there is also the general impression that breastfeeding is usually
practised only in Third World countries where widespread poverty and a lack
of basic necessities like clean running water and electricity often force
mothers to resort to feeding their babies with breast milk.

In more industrialised countries, such as Hong Kong, many mothers also work,
``so they think that they cannot be breastfeeding and working at the same
time''.

According to Mrs Chee, breast milk's lack of appeal may have stemmed in part
from traditional Chinese beliefs that a healthy baby is a chubby one.

Many people who migrated from China, for example, to seek their fortune
elsewhere in Asia saw their increased wealth as a chance to buy milk formula
for their baby.

There have been reports, however, that some unscrupulous manufacturers have
been repackaging regular milk powder as milk formula for babies and selling
it at vastly reduced prices in Macau.``People are not conscious anymore of
something that is the best natural food for a baby,'' Mrs Chee says.
``People have turned it around by listing all the disadvantages of
breastfeeding, like
having the baby cling to you.

``Even my mother said that if you breastfeed you cannot wear nice clothes.''

One encouraging sign is the establishment of the Mother Friendly Campaign by
New Zealand Milk Products (China) Ltd.

A Mother Friendly Room at its offices is equipped with a breast milk pumping
machine, a refrigerator and other amenities to allow mothers at work to
breastfeed in private.

``To me, formula milk is there if we need it,'' Mrs Chee says. ``I have had
mothers come to me with problems as a result of all these changes.

``On the one hand, they want to breastfeed but they have no confidence that
they have enough milk.''

``Some nurses and doctors, if they have not been trained in breastfeeding,
tell the mother to give the baby a bottle. But if the baby breastfeeds less
then the chances of the mother producing more milk is reduced,'' Mrs Chee says.

Moreover, milk formula, which has been described as a ``heavy metal
cocktail'' because of all the metallic elements in it, is very filling
because the protein molecules are much larger than the ones found in breast
milk.

Allergies are also a common occurence.

Mothers often increase their intake of dairy products like milk during
pregnancy or after childbirth. However, pesticides can pass from the cow to
the baby through the mother, even though milk formula is used.

``Chinese people are not used to drinking a lot of milk, and in China I
don't think there was a high level of allergies. So it must be something in
the diet that has changed,'' Mrs Chee says.

As a result of these changes, mothers are recommended to start breastfeeding
within 30 minutes after giving birth because the baby is most alert in the
first hour.

After two hours, however, successful breastfeeding may not be possible
because drugs and painkillers taken during labour may make the baby a little
dopey and not interested in being breastfed.

``In the first two days, babies usually wake up for feeds very often,'' Mrs
Chee explains``In those few days, babies can feed up to 12 times a day. But
each time the baby goes on the breast it is only for a few minutes. It is
like a learning process for the baby.

``And the milk is very golden yellow and it accounts for 50 per cent of the
antibodies for the baby. These antibodies coat the lining of the intestines
and protect the baby from bacteria and inflammation.

``Cholesterol also acts as a laxative and has 17 calories per fluid ounce.
So if you give a baby glucose water he is not going to get the same
antibodies.''

Many mothers do not realise that the composition and volume of breast milk
will change according to the baby's needs. Breast milk is more diluted in
the summer and thicker in the winter.

But while there is no stipulation as to how long a mother should breastfeed
her baby, a minimum of four to six months is recommended as babies usually
wean themselves after two years, even though some mothers continue for longer.

Julie Chan, for example, has only breastfed her one-year-old, Mitchell David
Gin, for two months because of work commitments.

``If I didn't need to work I would breastfeed my baby for one year and some
of my friends have breastfed their babies for a year because they don't need
to work. But at the moment it is difficult for me,'' she says. Instead, she
has had to change to milk formula. The change was immediately noticeable in
the baby's bowel movement. Whereas the bowels were emptied between three to four
times a day, the baby suffered from constipation after switching to milk
formula.
As a result, some mothers may opt not to breastfeed at all. Drugs are
available to suppress production of breast milk.

However, serious side effects to the mother's health are not uncommon.
Others may wean the baby off the breast too quickly and this often leads to
a condition known as mastitis. A safer alternative is to stop breastfeeding
gradually in order to allow the breast to slowly take away the milk that has not
been used.

It is a painful lesson for some mothers but for Lydia Yung, whose baby is
due at the end of this year, breast milk is still nature's way.

``I was bottle fed but I plan to breastfeed my baby because I now know more
about breastfeeding,'' she says.

FOR HONG KONG READERS:
World Breastfeeding Week will take place from 1 to 7 August. The association
can be contacted daily from 9 am to 9 pm at 1836 222.


Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 15:30:35 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (UK) Drug-test animal lab faces closure
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"




>Electronic Telegraph
25/July/1997
Drug-test animal lab faces closure
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
ONE of Britain's largest animal testing companies, with 1,600 employees,
faces possible closure after a Home Office investigation into allegations of
maltreatment.

 Huntingdon Life Sciences has been given until the end of November to meet
16 stringent conditions if it is to be allowed to continue experiments for
drug companies. Two individuals working at the Cambridgeshire laboratory
have been charged with offences under the Protection of Animals Act and the
personal licence of a third technician is to be withdrawn. Letters of
admonition are to be sent to two other staff members.

 The inquiry began after a Channel 4 team for a documentary broadcast in
March secretly filmed Huntingdon employees kicking and hurling a beagle
against a wall. Staff were shown punching, shaking and laughing at the dogs
and were unable to take blood samples properly.

 Despite two visits from the Home Office Inspectorate while the programme,
It's a Dog's Life, was being made, none of the cruelty was uncovered. In a
parliamentary answer last night, George Howarth, Home Office Minister, said
a detailed investigation had been conducted by the department's animals
inspectorate, which viewed more than 20 hours of unbroadcast material,
studied company records and interviewed past and present staff.

 "Shortcomings relating to the care, treatment and handling of animals and
delegation of health checking to new staff demonstrate that the
establishment was not appropriately staffed and that animals were not at all
times provided with adequate care," Mr Howarth said.

 It was therefore proposed to revoke the company's certificate from Nov 30.
Animal rights groups estimated that the company had 100,000 animals on its
premises, including 1,000 beagles and 700 monkeys. Mr Howarth said
revocation would shut down the company with the loss of jobs but this could
be avoided.

 "While the failures and admissions are extremely serious, this outcome
would not necessarily be warranted," he added. "An application for a
replacement certificate could be considered if we can be assured that
measures have been put in place to prevent any recurrence of the events
shown in the television programme."

 Mr Howarth acknowledged that the inspectors were criticised and said there
would be a review of policy. The Inspectorate has been asked to audit all
commercial dog facilities to advise on the best practice for keeping and
caring for animals.

 Christopher Cliffe, chief executive of Huntingdon Life Sciences, said the
revocation would not necessarily close the company as only one third of the
staff was involved in animal studies. He was also confident that the company
could meet the Home Office's conditions. "It is a very important matter
which we are taking terribly seriously," he said.

 The controversy has hit Huntingdon's business, with the share price falling
from ú1.21 in 1996 to under 60p. Mike Baker, of the British Union for the
Abolition of Vivisection, welcomed the Home Office action. But he added: "It
raises as many questions as it answers, particularly about how they intend
to make sure such scenes will never be witnessed again in a British
laboratory. Huntingdon does not deserve to have its licence renewed."

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 15:30:46 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (UK) Deer-hunts mount legal challenge to NT ban
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>The Electronic Telegraph
25 July 97
Deer-hunts mount legal challenge to NT ban
By Tim King

MEMBERS of the Quantock Staghounds and Devon and Somerset Staghounds are
returning to the High Court in an attempt to get permission to hunt deer on
National Trust land.
Last week
the huntsmen failed to get permission for a judicial review of the trust's
decision not to grant them licences for the coming season. The judge ruled
that their action against the trust should not be brought in the court's
Queen's Bench division.

Instead, the hunts' solicitors are bringing actions in the Chancery
division, which treats the trust as a charity rather than a public body. The
Charity Commission has been asked to decide by today whether it objects to
the actions being brought. A commission spokesman said: "If we do give them
consent it doesn't mean that we are advocating their cause."

 Matthew Knight, representing the huntsmen, said they would be arguing that
the trust's decision had not been arrived at properly.


Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 18:02:02 -0700
From: Coral Hull <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: GOOD NEWS FOR HENS/Not bigger cages, but no cages
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Subject:
            GOOD NEWS FOR HENS/ Not bigger cages, no cages
       Date:
            Fri, 25 Jul 1997 17:58:21 -0700
       From:
            Coral Hull <[e-mail]>
Organization:
            ANIMAL WATCH AUSTRALIA
         To:
            [e-mail]
 References:
            1


Just recieved this mail. Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Orling wrote:
>
> Yes, Coral, it IS true!
>
> I don't live in the U.K. but in Italy. However, I have a copy
> of the (mindboggling for us Italians) election brochure that
> Labour Party published with its platform on animals called
> "new Labour, new Britain, new life for animals." It is signed
> "Tony Blair, MP and Eliot Morley MP, spokesperson for animal
> welfare."
>
> The fourth paragraph of the first statement, which is title
> "Cruelty in our food production," reads:
>
>                         Labour is committed
>                         to the long-term phasing
>                         out of battery-cage egg
>                         production as currently
>                         practised in Europe,
>                         and to the promotion of
>                         alternative systems.
>                         We will outlaw the
>                         de-beaking of poultry,
>                         except for veterinary
>                         reasons.
>
> I'm sure you can get a copy of the full-color brochure from the
> Labour Party in U.K. or from any of the large animal organizations.

snip

> At 10:22 AM 7/25/97 -0700, you wrote:
> >Just got a call from Patty Mark, who has been told that......
> >
> >Prime Minister Tony Blair is going to:
> >
> >!!!!!!!PHASE OUT THE BATTERY CAGE IN GREAT BRITAIN!!!!!! Could it
> >finally be true?!....
> >
> >Are there any from the UK or CWIF who can respond to this. It was heard
> >Friday morning ion 3LO ABC Australian Radio. Please respond ASAP.
> >
> >Coral Hull (AWA)
> >http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/animal_watch/au.html
> >
> >
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 11:40:31 +0000 (GMT)
From: Daniel Paulo Martins Ferreira <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Request for information
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


Greetings.

Can anyone tell me the URL of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary home page?
It's a bit urgent!

Regards.

Daniel

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 08:19:48 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Use of stun guns may spread mad cow disease
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from USA Today web page:
-------------------------------------------
07/24/97 - 10:06 PM ET

Use of stun guns may spread mad cow disease

Two U.S. beef industry trade groups said Thursday they will launch a study
to determine if a common slaughterhouse practice - stunning cattle with an
air gun to cause instant brain death - could allow the spread of mad cow
disease.

Pneumatic stunning prior to slaughter may spread brain tissue throughout
the animal's body, warned the consumer group Center for Science in the
Public Interest (CSPI), in a joint news conference with the American Meat
Institute Foundation and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. If the
animal was infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a
degenerative brain disease, the scattered tissue could infect the animal's
liver and other parts consumed by humans.

No evidence of BSE, or mad cow disease, has ever been found in U.S. cattle,
says CSPI nutritionist David Schardt. In Great Britain, a BSE epidemic
affected at least 160,000 cattle and is believed by scientists to have
caused a similar brain disease in 18 people who ate meat from BSE-infected
cows.

If BSE ever appeared in the USA, Schardt says, pneumatic stunning of cattle
"could become a route for the spread of BSE from cows to humans."

Janet E. Collins, research vice president of the meat institute foundation,
says U.S. law requires stunning of cattle "in order to make them instantly
insensitive to any pain" and to assure the safety of slaughterhouse
workers. She says pneumatic stunning, in which a rod is propelled by a
blast of pressurized air into the animal's brain, is done in about 20%-30%
of slaughtering plants in the USA. It is fast and efficient, she says, and
is the method of choice for large plants.

Most plants in other countries and smaller American plants use stunners
that are not air-driven, she says.

The concern about pneumatic stunners was raised last year by a U.S.
Department of Agriculture inspector at Texas A&M University who reported
that in some cases, brain matter was blown into the cow's circulatory
system. This year, U.S. and Canadian researchers found the brain tissue
could be distributed through the body.

Collins says a research project to determine the effects of various
stunning methods will begin in September in commercial plants under the
direction of scientists at Colorado State University and with the oversight
of U.S. and Canadian health officials.

"If a problem is found, either with stunning in general or with particular
methods of machinery," she says, "we will move swiftly to address it."

By Anita Manning, USA TODAY

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 12:16:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Fwd: Government, Animal Advocates Find Common Ground on the Care of Surplus
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

In a message dated 97-07-25 10:04:05 EDT, AOL News writes:

 << Subj:Government, Animal Advocates Find Common Ground on the Care of
Surplus
  Date:97-07-25 10:04:05 EDT
  From:AOL News
 BCC:LMANHEIM

 Coalition of animal advocacy groups welcomes newly-released report from the
                              National Research Council
           CHICAGO, July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- A National Research Council (NRC)
report,
 released on July 16, 1997, on the ethics, care, management and use of
 chimpanzees in research brought a mixed, but generally favorable response
from
 the National Chimpanzee Research Retirement Task Force, a coalition of
animal
 advocacy groups which is seeking to establish a congressionally-chartered
 sanctuary system that would allow chimpanzees no longer suitable for
research
 to "retire" in a sanctuary setting.
           "Although we do not agree with every point in the report, the Task
Force
 welcomes the NRC's conclusions relating to long-term care requirements as a
 significant step forward in dealing with the moral and practical issues
posed
 by the hundreds of chimpanzees who are no longer considered suitable for
 research, yet remain housed in government facilities at a tremendous cost --
 both to the animals themselves and to the American taxpayer," stated
 Peggy Cunniff, Executive Director of the National Anti-Vivisection Society
 (NAVS) and Task Force member.  Other Task Force members include the American
 Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS), The American Society for the Prevention of
 Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and the Doris Day Animal League (DDAL).
           Of particular importance to animal advocates is the NRC's
conclusion that
 the similarity of chimpanzees to humans "... implies a moral responsibility
 for (their) long-term care."  The report goes on to strongly recommend a
 minimum five-year moratorium on the breeding of chimpanzees destined for
 research, as well as a ban on the use of euthanasia as a form of population
 control.  "We are gratified to know that the scientific community has
finally
 acknowledged their ethical and moral responsibility of providing our closest
 genetic relatives with the highest standard of necessary and appropriate
long-
 term care in their retirement," stated Tina Nelson, Executive Director of
the
 American Anti-Vivisection Society.
           The Task Force is also pleased with the NRC's findings that the
current
 system of managing the surplus of chimpanzees is woefully inadequate.
 Presently, many chimpanzees who are considered no longer suitable for
research
 spend the rest of their lives languishing in 5' x 5' x 7' stainless steel
 cages -- the minimum standard established by the U.S. Department of
 Agriculture.
           Instead, the NRC report proposes that sanctuaries should become an
 integral component of the strategic plan to solve the problem of maintaining
 these chimpanzees in government facilities, which is very costly.  "A
 sanctuary system for 'retired' chimps would benefit the animals by providing
 them with a natural setting where they could live out the remainder of their
 lives," explained Roger Caras, President of The American Society for the
 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  "This system also benefits taxpayers,
since
 chimps no longer needed for research would be placed in a setting where
 maintenance costs would be lower.  To bring a better quality of life to
 these magnificent animals at lower cost is truly a 'win-win' situation for
 everyone."  The sanctuaries, as proposed by the National Chimpanzee Research
 Retirement Task Force, would also serve as centers of excellence, where
 students and scholars from around the world would be able to conduct
 observational studies.
           Renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, who sits on the Task
Force's
 Scientific Advisory Committee, enthusiastically endorses the development of
 research retirement sanctuaries.  "Never before has there been such a
concrete
 opportunity to work in cooperation with the scientific community, government
 officials, and the world's most renowned primate experts to provide
 chimpanzees who have given so much of themselves to science with a safe,
 permanent home to live out the remainder of their lives.  This is a crucial
 time for us in our stewardship to define their future with respect,
compassion
 and justice.  They deserve nothing less."
           The Task Force is pushing for a congressionally-chartered National
 Chimpanzee Research Retirement System, which would be supported by
government
 funds, private donations and endowments for individual animals.  Legislation
 establishing such a sanctuary system will likely be considered by Congress
 this year.
           "The Task Force is pleased with the NRC's acknowledgment that real
change
 is required to solve the problems presented by the surplus chimpanzee
 population.  We are encouraged that both the scientific and humane
communities
 appear to be working in the same direction on this issue, and hope that the
 end result will be a true retirement system designed to benefit the animals
in
 whose name the recommendations were made," commented Holly Hazard, Executive
 Director of the Doris Day Animal League.
           The fact that the NRC encouraged input from animal advocates on
the issue
 of chimpanzee management is especially encouraging to Task Force members.
 "We
 view the NRC report as an example of individuals with opposing viewpoints
 working together to find some common ground and making a real difference in
 the lives of animals," said Cunniff.
       CO:  National Anti-Vivisection Society; Doris Day Animal League;
National
      Research Council
       ST:  Illinois
       IN:
       SU: >>


---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj:    Government, Animal Advocates Find Common Ground on the Care of
Surplus
Date:    97-07-25 10:04:05 EDT
From:    AOL News

Coalition of animal advocacy groups welcomes newly-released report from the
                             National Research Council
          CHICAGO, July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- A National Research Council (NRC)
report,
released on July 16, 1997, on the ethics, care, management and use of
chimpanzees in research brought a mixed, but generally favorable response
from
the National Chimpanzee Research Retirement Task Force, a coalition of animal
advocacy groups which is seeking to establish a congressionally-chartered
sanctuary system that would allow chimpanzees no longer suitable for research
to "retire" in a sanctuary setting.
          "Although we do not agree with every point in the report, the Task
Force
welcomes the NRC's conclusions relating to long-term care requirements as a
significant step forward in dealing with the moral and practical issues posed
by the hundreds of chimpanzees who are no longer considered suitable for
research, yet remain housed in government facilities at a tremendous cost --
both to the animals themselves and to the American taxpayer," stated
Peggy Cunniff, Executive Director of the National Anti-Vivisection Society
(NAVS) and Task Force member.  Other Task Force members include the American
Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS), The American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and the Doris Day Animal League (DDAL).
          Of particular importance to animal advocates is the NRC's
conclusion that
the similarity of chimpanzees to humans "... implies a moral responsibility
for (their) long-term care."  The report goes on to strongly recommend a
minimum five-year moratorium on the breeding of chimpanzees destined for
research, as well as a ban on the use of euthanasia as a form of population
control.  "We are gratified to know that the scientific community has finally
acknowledged their ethical and moral responsibility of providing our closest
genetic relatives with the highest standard of necessary and appropriate
long-
term care in their retirement," stated Tina Nelson, Executive Director of the
American Anti-Vivisection Society.
          The Task Force is also pleased with the NRC's findings that the
current
system of managing the surplus of chimpanzees is woefully inadequate.
Presently, many chimpanzees who are considered no longer suitable for
research
spend the rest of their lives languishing in 5' x 5' x 7' stainless steel
cages -- the minimum standard established by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
          Instead, the NRC report proposes that sanctuaries should become an
integral component of the strategic plan to solve the problem of maintaining
these chimpanzees in government facilities, which is very costly.  "A
sanctuary system for 'retired' chimps would benefit the animals by providing
them with a natural setting where they could live out the remainder of their
lives," explained Roger Caras, President of The American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  "This system also benefits taxpayers,
since
chimps no longer needed for research would be placed in a setting where
maintenance costs would be lower.  To bring a better quality of life to
these magnificent animals at lower cost is truly a 'win-win' situation for
everyone."  The sanctuaries, as proposed by the National Chimpanzee Research
Retirement Task Force, would also serve as centers of excellence, where
students and scholars from around the world would be able to conduct
observational studies.
          Renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, who sits on the Task
Force's
Scientific Advisory Committee, enthusiastically endorses the development of
research retirement sanctuaries.  "Never before has there been such a
concrete
opportunity to work in cooperation with the scientific community, government
officials, and the world's most renowned primate experts to provide
chimpanzees who have given so much of themselves to science with a safe,
permanent home to live out the remainder of their lives.  This is a crucial
time for us in our stewardship to define their future with respect,
compassion
and justice.  They deserve nothing less."
          The Task Force is pushing for a congressionally-chartered National
Chimpanzee Research Retirement System, which would be supported by government
funds, private donations and endowments for individual animals.  Legislation
establishing such a sanctuary system will likely be considered by Congress
this year.
          "The Task Force is pleased with the NRC's acknowledgment that real
change
is required to solve the problems presented by the surplus chimpanzee
population.  We are encouraged that both the scientific and humane
communities
appear to be working in the same direction on this issue, and hope that the
end result will be a true retirement system designed to benefit the animals
in
whose name the recommendations were made," commented Holly Hazard, Executive
Director of the Doris Day Animal League.
          The fact that the NRC encouraged input from animal advocates on the
issue
of chimpanzee management is especially encouraging to Task Force members.
 "We
view the NRC report as an example of individuals with opposing viewpoints
working together to find some common ground and making a real difference in
the lives of animals," said Cunniff.
      CO:  National Anti-Vivisection Society; Doris Day Animal League;
National
     Research Council
      ST:  Illinois
      IN:
      SU:

To edit your profile, go to keyword NewsProfiles.
For all of today's news, go to keyword News.
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 20:06:39 -0400
From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Sheep is cloned to produce human proteins in its milk
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


Sheep is cloned to produce human proteins in its milk
By Richard Saltus, Boston Globe Staff, 07/25/97

The Scottish biotechnology firm that produced Dolly has cloned
several more lambs, it announced yesterday, one of them
genetically altered to produce human proteins in its milk.

``Polly,'' a 2 -week-old lamb cloned by PPL Therapeutics PLC and
the Roslin Institute of Edinburgh, developed from a single cell of a
fetal sheep.

The new lamb carries a human gene that was inserted when it was
a single-celled embryo. The feat is a major step in the effort to
create ``instant herds'' of identical, female farm animals to produce
profitable drugs.

Although it sounds bizarre, combining a human gene with the
sheep cell has nothing to do with the specter of human cloning
debated around the world since Dolly's birth was announced in
February. Single human genes are put in animals routinely in
research. What some have feared is that the technology could be
used to create a copy of an adult human being.

The experiments that yielded Polly and four other female lambs
were intended mainly to prove that a single sheep cell could be
combined with a sheep egg cell and given human genes to
produce identical individuals whose cells carried the added human
gene. The gene is a biological blueprint for a protein that would be
secreted into the animal's milk.

Dolly was the first mammal created from a single cell of an adult
through cloning. According to a PPL statement, Polly was created
from a cell taken from a lamb fetus: That cell was given a human
gene taken from the laboratory, and the cell was placed into a
sheep egg cell that had been stripped of its own DNA.

As with Dolly, the gene-modified fetal cell was ``reprogrammed'' in
the laboratory so that instead of being a specialized cell, it could
develop into a full-fledged infant lamb.

Polly's name refers to the breed of sheep from which the cloned cell
was taken, the Poll Dorset.

What makes this feat a first is using the cloning method to create a
``transgenic'' animal - one carrying a foreign gene. If that gene
carried the blueprint for a scarce medical protein, such as a
clot-busting drug, the transgenic animal would produce the drug in
its milk. And the cloning method could be used to make a number
of genetically identical sheep.

``This is a realization of our vision to produce instant flocks or herds
which express high concentrations of valuable therapeutic proteins
very quickly,'' said Dr. Alan Colman, research director at PPL, in a
statement.

Added Ron James, managing director of PPL, ``This result ...
provides a solid platform from which PPL can now develop
additional medical products using sheep and, hopefully, cows and
pigs.''

Four other cloned lambs have been born, the scientists said, and
two of them are Polly's sisters. The scientists have not yet
determined if the sisters also carry the human gene.

Yann Echelard, a senior scientist at Genzyme Transgenics Corp. in
Framingham, called the newest cloning feat ``completely
predictable'' and ``a logical continuation of what they announced
earlier this year'' in February when the cloning of Dolly was
reported.

Genzyme Transgenics and many other companies and research
labs routinely make transgenic animals by injecting a desired gene
into microscopic embryos of farm animals. PPL says its technology
would speed up the process of creating herds of transgenic,
protein-making animals.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization in Washington issued a
statement hailing the new step.

``Polly's birth, while perhaps not as dramatic as her predecessor
Dolly, is evidence of the progression of this research toward
practical results that will greatly benefit humankind,'' the statement
said.

The announcement comes as legislators are wrestling with the
wording of a bill that would ban the use of federal funds for research
on cloning a human. President Clinton has endorsed the
recommendation of a national advisory panel that such funding be
banned and that private industry voluntarily refrain from work on
cloning human beings.

Alison Taunton-Rigby, chief executive officer of Aquila
Biopharmaceuticals in Worcester, stated emphatically yesterday
that the new Scottish experiments do not pose any ethical problem.

``There's not been any debate about the use of this technology in
animals,'' she said.

Taunton-Rigby said that imprecise wording of a law restricting
cloning could hinder legitimate research.

This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 07/25/97.
⌐ Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 20:36:58 -0400
From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: HSUS says Senate tuna compromise is all wet
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Senate reaches compromise on `dolphin-safe' tuna labels
By Curt Anderson, Associated Press, 07/25/97 16:35

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tuna could once again be caught with huge
encircling nets and still be considered ``dolphin-safe'' under a
compromise reached Friday in the Senate.

The deal calls for a government study to determine by March 1999
if the nets, which now include ways for dolphins to escape without
death or injury, still cause such trauma to dolphins that they cannot
reproduce or suffer in some other way.

If the study found the dolphins were not harmed, imported tuna
caught with encircling nets would be permitted into the United
States and the U.S. fishing fleet could begin using the nets once
again. And cans of all of this tuna could be declared
``dolphin-safe.''

The agreement is expected to be voted on next week.

A House-passed bill would reopen the U.S. market to tuna without
the net restrictions and allow that tuna to be sold under the safe
label.

The Senate compromise follows months of negotiation and
involves free trade issues between the United States and 11 Latin
American countries, including Mexico, which contended the ban
was an unfair barrier to the lucrative U.S. market.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said those 11 countries have agreed to
support the compromise, which also means those nations will have
a new incentive to protect dolphins in their tuna catches.

``I hope now that people recognize that this represents a very
strong step toward the preservation and conservation of the
species,'' said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The United States in 1990 outlawed imports of any tuna caught
using huge encircling purse-seine nets, which were blamed for the
deaths of millions of dolphins that frequently swim with schools of
tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

Critics of the law, however, say it is now out of date because of
improved netting techniques and that dolphin protection efforts
should focus on getting Mexico and other countries to commit to
binding agreements to save dolphins, turtles and other sea life.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., helped force the compromise by
lining up 44 senators to oppose the House measure and block it
from coming to a floor vote.

``I think it's a victory for American consumers,'' Boxer said.

The deal was endorsed by environmental groups including
Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund and the Environmental
Defense Fund, which say an international approach is essential to
protect dolphins from adverse effects of tuna fishing.

``We're very happy with the compromise,'' said Barbara Dudley,
executive director of Greenpeace USA. ``It will keep the
`dolphin-safe' label meaning what consumers think its means,
which is no harm to dolphins.''

But Wayne Pacelli, vice president of the Humane Society of the
United States, said dolphins will suffer mentally from being caught
in the nets and that cans of tuna shouldn't carry the label if this
occurs.

``The word `safe' means free from harm,'' he said. ``It's not safe for
dolphins if you chase them and harass them.''

Under the deal, the Commerce Department will revisit the issue by
the end of 2002 to determine whether the new approach has
depleted dolphin populations. If so, the import ban could go back
into effect.

                                  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 21:42:17 -0400
From: Wyandotte Animal Group <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: RFI:  Copies of pound release letters
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

A reporter asked us today for copies of letters that have been written to
the Mayor, City Council, etc. in regards to our pound seizure campaign.

For those who have written, we would appreciate you sending a copy of your
letter to us.  We should have asked for them in the first place, but didn't.
We hope to bombard reporters with copies of letters the city officials have
received.  Thanks in advance for this help.

Jason Alley
WAG
PO Box 222
Wyandotte MI 48192-0222

[phone]  FAX


Jason Alley
Wyandotte Animal Group
[e-mail]

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 19:23:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Cc: [e-mail]
Subject: [CA] Beluga Vigil
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Today (Friday), it was announced that Nanuq, one of the Vancouver Aquarium's
belugas, will begin his transfer to Sea World, in San Diego, at 2:00 am on
Sunday, July 27th.

To mark this, a candlelight vigil will be held at 1:00 am on Sunday, July
27th outside the north end (back area) of the Vancouver Aquarium.

The vigil is being organized by Coalition For No Whales In Captivity.

Please do your best to attend, and bring along your friends (and some candles).

For those who may be interested, Nanuq is scheduled to arrive at Sea World
in San Diego, some time on Monday morning.

For more information, please contact:

Annelise Sorg
Coalition For No Whales In Captivity
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: <[e-mail]>

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 19:23:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [CA] Howard Lyman in Vancouver
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Howard Lyman will be leading a frank discussion about food production in
North America, concentrating on the hidden costs of factory farming and
chemically intensive agribusiness.

The meeting will take place at the Bonsor Recreation Centre - 2nd Floor
Banquet Room, 6550, Bonsor Ave, Burnaby, BC, on Wednesday, July 30th, 1997,
at 7:00 PM (doors open at 6:30)

Organized by EarthSave Canada (Website: www.earthsave.bc.ca)

Admission by donation - minimum $6/person (Members $5)

Bring a mug for refreshments!!

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 19:23:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [CA] Homeless Animals' Day
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The Vancouver Humane Society will be holding a rally to commerorate Homeless
Animals' Day outside Vancouver City Hall (12th Ave @ Cambie).

Time: 2:00 PM

Speakers include Councilor Nancy A. Chiaario, who will announce what
Vancouver Council will be doing to address the companion animal
overpopulation in the city.

Other speakers: TBA

There will also be a vigil in honour of the 1,000 dogs and 7,000 cats killed
in Greater Vancouver's SPCA shelters in 1996.

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 23:02:28 -0400
From: Wyandotte Animal Group <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Emu killer won't face charges
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Detroit Free Press
Friday, July 25, 1997
P. 4A

EMU KILLER WON'T FACE CHARGES


FT. WORTH, Texas --  A Texas emu breeder who clubbed 22 of his birds to
death with a baseball bat will escape criminal charges because his actions
were not illegal under start law, prosecutors said Thursday.

Frustrated by his financial losses on the birds, Stephen Vinson, a
physician, used a bat to batter the birds to death at his ranch in
Colleyville, near Ft. Worth, last month.

Animal rights groups demanded he be prosecuted, but Richard Alpert, a
Tarrant County prosecutor, said Thursday that Texas law allows owners to
kill their animals as long as they do not torture them.





Jason Alley
Wyandotte Animal Group
[e-mail]

Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 11:59:46 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (MY) Corridors needed for wildlife to roam
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


>The Star Online
Friday, July 25, 1997

                   SAM: Corridors needed for
                   wildlife to roam

PETALING JAYA: Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) wants logging
companies and land management agencies to provide corridors for wildlife
when developing new areas.

Its president S.M. Mohd Idris said yesterday it was crucial to set up such
corridors to give wildlife room to roam.

"Genuine conservation efforts have to take precedence before opening ofany
new land schemes," he said in a statement, adding that SAM viewed
with gravity the situation where three tiger cubs were found in the Lepar
district in Kuantan last week.

He said tigers had been known to cover long distances in search of prey
due to loss of lowland forest as their natural prey declined.

"Thus, there is a need to look a hundred years ahead," he said.


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