Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news52~9.htm/text0003.txt

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From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Some cattle are fed chicken manure; it's legal
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National News : Wednesday, Aug. 27, 1997

Some cattle are fed chicken manure; it's legal

by Michael Mansur
Knight-Ridder Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - E. coli was bad enough. Now, Deven Scott has to worry
about chicken manure hurting the beef business.

Yes, chicken manure.

Scott is executive vice president of the North America Meat Processors
Association in Reston, Va. The group's 365 members sell much of the steak
and other beef eaten at the nation's fine restaurants and hotels.

And yesterday, Scott was reeling from yet another black eye for beef
following the Hudson Foods recall of meat. This one, though, was more
disgusting than sickening.

"I can't imagine the thought of eating anything that's fed chicken wastes,"
Scott said.

News reports this week said chicken wastes had been fed to some cattle for
years. The practice is absolutely legal, but the beef industry said
yesterday it would seek federal assistance to ensure that the practice is
safe.

"Because there have been concerns raised, we're going to ask the FDA (Food
and Drug Administration) to review the science and recommend what actions
need to be taken," said Rick McCarty, a spokesman for the National
Cattlemen's Beef Association in Denver.

"We believe it's scientifically sound," McCarty said. "It's been used for
35 years, and all that time there's been no evidence of it threatening
animal health or the safety of the product."

But the cattlemen's association wants to be sure, so it will request the
FDA's help.

Until recently, the feeding of poultry wastes to cattle has been largely
unknown to the public. Beef-industry experts say it's unclear how much of
the nation's cattle are raised on the wastes.

The practice is largely confined to Southern states, but feeding poultry
wastes to cattle is a trend that may be increasing, federal regulators say.
As poultry has become more common on dinner tables, there's more chicken
waste. In turn, more of the wastes are being sold to feed cattle.

Wastes have nutritive value



The wastes have some nutritive value, such as protein and calcium. But they
also can contain pathogens such as salmonella and campylobacter bacteria,
which can cause illness in humans.

"Some people may find this unappetizing," McCarty acknowledged, "But what
we're really talking about is providing nutrients to an organism. It's like
putting chicken manure on your tomatoes. . . . No one finds that
unacceptable."

A paper to be published next month in the journal Preventive Medicine will
raise questions about the practice of feeding animal wastes to cattle,
contending that there has been too little research to determine whether
it's actually safe.

`Asking for trouble'



One of the study's authors, Neal Barnard, head of the Washington-based
health lobby Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said yesterday
that federal regulators should focus new attention on the trend.

"This creates the potential for serious foodborne illness," said Barnard, a
physician who campaigns against meat consumption.

If the wastes are composted so that high temperatures kill the bacteria
before the wastes are fed to cattle, then they might be safe, he said. But
Barnard worries that too few regulatory checks are in place.

"There's no law that says it has to be processed properly," Barnard said.
"And there are farmers who probably don't bother to process it properly. .
. . If you're feeding chicken (manure) to cattle, then you're asking for
trouble."

Daniel McChesney, head of animal-feed safety in the FDA, said there was
little chance that the practice posed any significant problem. The agency,
however, is considering whether it should do more.

"We'd like to see the practice (of improper composting) stopped," said
McChesney.

State officials monitor feed



State officials do monitor large feed distributors who sell to cattle
ranchers, McChesney said.

"We're controlling 95 percent or better (of the cattle feed), and that's a
good step," he said.

One of the state officials who oversees the distribution of animal wastes
for cattle feed doesn't see much reason to be concerned. Wastes have been
used to supplement cattle feed for decades, said Roger Hoestenbach, former
president of the Association of American Feed Control Officials, which sets
standards for animal feed.

"Consumers have a right to say what they want," said McCarty, of the
cattlemen's association. "And if they want certain things fed or not fed to
the cattle, I'm sure the cattle industry will listen."


Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 07:39:30 GMT
From: Chris Wright <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (UK) Mink escape from fur farm
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Birmingham Post, September 18th:

"Police have warned the public not to approach 500 wild mink which
escaped from a farm in West Yorkshire following an attack by vandals.
The RSPCA and staff at the mink farm are attempting to recapture the
animals."

Chris Wright
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 16:30:16
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [EU] INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR OZONE FRIENDLY FRIDGES
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>From The Greenbase (Greenpeace Press Server)

Press Release: 15 Sep 97

INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR OZONE FRIENDLY FRIDGES SHOWS UP UK
INACTION

As Greenpeace receives a prestigious award from the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) for its 'solutions' work in promoting ozone
and climate friendly refrigeration ("Greenfreeze"), the environmental group
has criticised the rate with which the technology is being taken up by some
UK companies.


The UNEP award is being presented on September 16, during the 10th
Anniversary meeting of the Montreal Protocol, the international agreement
that has controlled and phased out ozone depleting chemicals.


Greenpeace International is being recognised for promoting the use of
refrigeration using hydrocarbons and ammonia. These substances do not
damage the ozone layer or cause
climate change and were promoted by Greenpeace as a positive alternative.
This was Greenpeace's first solution campaign, designed not only to
highlight an environmental problem but also to provide its solution.


Greenpeace pioneered the use of these substances in Germany, and through
its campaigning has allowed "Greenfreeze" technologies to be taken up not
just in Europe but throughout the world. Of those on the market only
"Greenfreeze" technology qualifies for the EU Ecolabel for domestic
refrigerators. Factories using Greenfreeze are open or scheduled to be
opened in many European countries, Australia, Argentina, Turkey and Russia.
The largest manufacturer in China, Kelon, is now producing 700,000
"Greenfreeze" fridges per year and plans to convert more to this technology.


Progress in the UK has been much slower. Manufacturers Hotpoint has not yet
produced a commercial version of the "Greenfreeze" domestic refrigerator.
Electrolux produce Greenfreeze models in the UK but models on sale use
potent global warming gas HFC-134a. This is to be contrasted with other UK
companies like Elstar, who lead the world in this technology by providing
commercial display cabinets using "Greenfreeze". And German manufacturers
Bosch, AEG and Liebherr are selling domestic Greenfreeze models in the UK.


"Why is some of UK industry stuck in a time warp?, " asked Greenpeace
campaigner, Dr Douglas Parr. " Developing countries are equipped and
producing environment friendly technology - we should be too. Chemicals
that destroy the ozone layer or the climate are a dead end and should be
banned immediately. Hotpoint are failing to take their environmental
responsibilities seriously."


Notes for correspondents

1. The Montreal Protocol Agreement meeting is taking place between
September 15 to 17.
         .
2. Greenpeace has been campaigning for the wider use of "Greenfreeze"
technology, in refrigeration generally but especially for domestic uses.
"Greenfreeze" uses a mixture of propane and isobutane for the refrigerant
gas and cyclopentane for producing the
insulation foam.

3. Before the ban on CFCs as a result of the Montreal Protocol, these
chemicals were commonly used for refrigeration and insulation in domestic
fridges. CFCs are powerful ozone depleters.

4. The chemical industry would like the replacements for CFCs to be its own
products; HCFCs and HFCs, which also have powerful ozone depleting and
global warming impacts.

5. By contrast "Greenfreeze" technology is environmentally the most
sustainable technology that is currently available in the world in domestic
refrigeration. It is cost effective and commercially accepted.

But there are still markets that could be opened up to this technology.

6. "Greenfreeze" technology has become dominant in Northern and Western
Europe, with an expected share of the domestic refrigeration market of 80%
in 1997, up from just 40% in
1995.











7. "Greenfreeze" is the only current technology that qualifies
for the European Union's coveted Ecolabel 8. Almost all
major European companies including Bosch/Siemens and Electrolux
are marketing "Greenfreeze" fridges.


9. The technology has spread to other parts of the world
including Australia, Argentina, Cuba and Russia. The largest
producing company in China, Kelon, will also be producing
Greenfreeze fridges.


....International award for ozone friendly fridges shows
up UK inaction/3 10. For developing countries Greenfreeze
offers advantages - low operating costs, easier maintenance
and servicing, and avoiding two-step conversion which would
occur if these countries were to adopt HFC-134a as its
preferred refrigerant.


11. HFC-134a, the chemical industry replacement for CFCs
in domestic refrigeration, could form a substantial part
of global warming emissions worldwide if its growth goes
unchecked and meets industry projections.


There are also concerns about the breakdown products in
the atmosphere of HFC-134a.


  12. Greenpeace believes it is vital that the Montreal Protocol
institutions signal that Greenfreeze is the way to go,
and that the world does not get stuck with a new environmental
problem in eliminating an old one.


Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 16:40:29
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [US] Greenpeace, Farmers, Scientists File Legal Action Over GE
  Plants
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GREENPEACE,  FARMERS AND SCIENTISTS FILE  LEGAL ACTION AGAINST USA
EPA
OVER ITS APPROVAL OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PLANTS

Washington D.C., September 16, 1997 - The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) was charged with gross negligence over its approval of
genetically engineered plants in a petition filed today by a coalition of
environmental, farming and scientific organisations.

Greenpeace International, the International Federation of Organic
Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), the Sierra Club, the Centre for
International Technology Assessment in Washington, DC, the  Institute for
Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis, the National
Coalition for Mis-use of Pesticide were among the 31 groups which filed a
formal legal petition to the EPA.

This is the first step according to US law in filing litigation against a
US government agency in the Federal Court.   Petitioners demand that the
EPA withdraw the approval of transgenic plants carrying the genetic code
from a soil bacterium called Bacillus Thuringiensis and abstain from any
new registration of such plants.

The petitioners will take the EPA to the US Federal District Court if the
agency does not react to their legal petition within 90 days. "EPA's
approvals are in clear violation of Federal environmental and agricultural
and procedural laws," said International Center of Technology Assessment
attorney Andrew Kimbrell, "and no court in this country will let them get
away with that".

Petitioners allege that, in approving  transgenic plants carrying the
Bacillus Thuringiensis (B.t.) toxin, the EPA is seriously threatening the
future of organic agriculture and jeopardizing the genetic variety of major
food crops, such as corn, potatoes and tomatoes.

Petitioners also charge that EPA's actions violate numerous federal laws
and regulations and will cause significant human health and environmental
problems (1).

Natural strains of B.t. have been used as a biological pesticide for nearly
forty years to protect crops, vegetables and forests without any known
detrimental effects on the environment or human health. B.t. sprays today
are the single most important bio-pesticide on the market
with an annual overturn of over 60 million dollars in the US alone. They
are  especially important to organic farmers and integrated pest management
programs (IPM).

Genetic engineers have transferred parts of the B.t. gene into a variety of
plants such as corn, potato, rice, rapeseed, eggplant, grape, tomato,
cranberry, cotton, apple, poplar, walnut and tobacco. As these plants
permanently produce high doses of the B.t. toxin in all their cells, the
manipulation makes them highly pest-resistant. Major multinational chemical
and genetic engineering companies including Monsanto, Novartis, AgrEvo and
Pioneer have now started to commercialize such transgenic B.t.-plants.
Transgenic B.t.-cotton, -corn and -potatoes have been planted in the range
of 3 million acres (1,2 million hectares) in the US this year.

Large scale use of these transgenic B.t. plants is likely to create
resistance within the populations of the targetted insects and  thus create
the need for new chemical or biotechnological pesticides - a well known
effect with many chemical insecticides. This short term strategy of the
agrochemical industry will also render the biological B.t. sprays useless
within a short time and leave organic farmers with no biological alternative.

"Chemical companies commercializing transgenic B.t. plants are waging an
undeclared war against sustainable farming practices," stated Benedikt
Haerlin, Greenpeace International's Coordinator on Genetic Engineering.
"Regulators around the world are well aware of this
problem, but have not dared to draw the necessary conclusions. Instead they
have agreed to the thoroughly inadequate voluntary "resistance management"
presented by the chemical industry."

In addition, scientific research on the environmental effects of transgenic
B.t. plants indicate that it may also make the plants toxic to non-target
organisms and to predators of the target-insects. This results from the
fact that the genetically engineered, truncated version of the B.t. toxins
will be less specific and the toxins will persist in the soil for longer
and in higher doses.

Finally the transfer of the engineered B.t. genes to wild relatives of the
transgenic plants through cross pollination can have unpredictable and
potentially environmentally-disastrous consequences, especially in the
countries where these species originate. It could result in the
irreversible reduction and genetic pollution of the environment.and of
someof the world's most important food crops.



Notes
1. The petition alleges breaches of the National Environmental Policy Act
where the EPA failed to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement which it
is required to do so ; the Administrative Proceedure Act where other
federal agencies and scientists should have been consulted but the EPA
failed to do so; and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act
(FIFRA) where it must be proved that plant pesticides will only be approved
if it can be determined they will not cause harm.  The EPA's and Novartis's
own data admits to herbicide resistance becoming an issue.












Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 00:53:28
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK/US] Boyfriend of rich widow cashes in on virgin forest
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Thursday, September 18th, 1997

Boyfriend of rich widow cashes in on virgin forest
By David Sapsted in New York

A FORMER tennis professional who became engaged this summer to one of
America's wealthiest widows is at the centre of a bitter battle over the
future of a "priceless" piece of virgin forest, part of his fiancΘe's
inheritance.

John Hendrickson, 32, stunned New York socialites this year when he
announced his engagement to the flamboyant Marylou Whitney, 71, who
inherited a $100 million fortune when her husband, the founder of Pan Am,
died five years ago.

But reaction to the romance is nothing compared to the anguish Mr
Hendrickson has caused with his plans to develop 15,000 acres of wilderness
in the Adirondacks forest in upstate New York. The area is part of a vast
landholding that Mrs Whitney inherited.

Mr Hendrickson, who met Mrs Whitney in 1994 when he was working as an aide
to the governor of Alaska, wants to subdivide the land into 40 lots and
sell them off for development. The land, home to bear, deer, moose and
bobcat, is regarded as a unique wilderness area.

"This is the jewel of the Adirondacks," said Mike McKeon, spokesman for
George Pataki, the governor of New York state. "We want to take this
opportunity of preserving a pristine piece of land and incorporating it in
the 'wild zone' of the state park."

Chris Ballantyne, regional director of the Sierra Club, an environmental
group, believes that Mr Hendrickson is the prime mover behind the
development plan. He said it would never have happened had "Sonny" Whitney,
Marylou's late husband, still been alive.

Mrs Whitney has been surprisingly mute on the subject. A remarkably spry
septuagenarian, she has assets that also include a Manhattan penthouse, a
mansion and 534-acre horse farm in Kentucky, a Florida apartment and five
houses in the Adirondacks.

Every August, she stages a ball in Saratoga Springs in New York, the
redoubt of the horse-racing set, and traditionally arrives in style. Once
her transport was a hot-air balloon, and another time she arrived by
horse-drawn pumpkin.

This year, Mrs Whitney appeared in a horse-drawn carriage, accompanied by
her fiancΘ, to be greeted by a fanfare of trumpets.

Nobody thought that Mrs Whitney would ever marry after her late husband, a
key investor in Gone With The Wind, died in 1992 at the age of 93. The
widow still rises at 4.30am and has habits such as flying to the North Pole
to ensure that her husky dog-sled team is not missing her.

Her engagement to Mr Hendrickson took the horse set by surprise. In an
interview with People magazine, Mr Hendrickson, now vice-president of
Whitney Industries, said he was determined to make it on his own. He had
turned down Mrs Whitney's gift of a new BMW.

With marriage on the cards, he said he intended to sign a pre-nuptial
agreement separating their assets. "Her things are hers," he said.

The proposed Adirondacks scheme was immediately denounced by the Audubon
Society as the "greatest threat to the integrity of the Adirondack Park's
ecosystem" since the inception of the state park. "This marks a sharp
change from the way the Whitney family has managed the park for more than a
hundred years," said David Miller, the society's executive director.

The Nature Conservancy, an environmental charity, is trying to buy the land
on behalf of the state but, so far, has been unable to agree a price with
Mr Hendrickson.

An offer of $14 million (ú8.75 million) was reportedly turned down. Mr
Hendrickson wants at least twice that and has set an end-of-year deadline
for Nature Conservancy to come up with an acceptable offer.

"We at Whitney Industries love wilderness, too. But  we're practical
environmentalists," said Mr Hendrickson. "We have to make a return on an
investment."

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997

Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 00:58:53
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK/IN] Rat holds up aeroplane flight
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Thursday, September 18th, 1997

Rat holds up aeroplane flight

A RAT held up an Air India flight from New Delhi to Hong Kong, forcing
passengers to spend the night in a hotel. It was spotted when the flight
from Bombay landed for refuelling in the Indian capital with 87 passengers
aboard. The crew refused to continue until the plane was fumigated. An
official said yesterday that the rat could have chewed through wire and
endangered the aircraft.

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997

Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 07:39:29 GMT
From: Chris Wright <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (UK) Huntingdon puppy cruelty pair "sentenced"
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Birmingham Post, September 18th:

"Two staff at an animal testing company were yesterday given community
service orders after admitting cruelty to dogs.

Robert Waters and Andrew Mash, who work(?) at Huntingdon Life Sciences
in Cambridgeshire, were also ordered to pay 250 pounds costs by
magistrates in Peterborough. Waters (30) of Peterborough and Mash (40)
of Godmanchester were secretly filmed by Channel 4."

Chris Wright
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 08:36:25 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Doctors: Microbe Linked to Chronic Memory Loss
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Now...linking Pfiesteria and human problems (all caused by chicken factory
farming).
from WashingtonPost.com:
-----------------------------------------------

                         Doctors: Microbe Linked to Chronic Memory Loss

                         By Todd Shields and Paul W. Valentine
                         Washington Post Staff Writers
                         Thursday, September 18, 1997; Page D01

                         People exposed to waters containing a toxic
                         microbe blamed for sickening and killing
                         Maryland fish on Eastern Shore waterways can
                         develop chronic memory and learning problems
                         that increase with higher exposure, a team of
                         doctors reported yesterday.

                         The team appointed by Maryland Gov. Parris N.
                         Glendening (D) to investigate whether
                         Pfiesteria piscicida affects humans also said
                         symptoms could develop without exposure to
                         massive fish kills. The presence of fish with
                         lesions such as those inflicted by the microbe
                         suggest its toxin is in the water and could
                         pose a health risk to people, the doctors said
                         at a news conference in Baltimore.

                         "Today's report sadly confirms the
                         appropriateness of the actions we took" in
                         closing three Eastern Shore rivers where fish
                         with lesions have been found, Glendening said.
                         "We must continue to do whatever is necessary
                         to ensure that anyone who lives, works or plays
                         on any of these affected waterways is protected
                         from any potential pfiesteria-related
                         exposure."

                         Glendening said the state was working to
                         identify causes of pfiesteria outbreaks and
                         emphasized that seafood from waterways other
                         than the Pocomoke and Chicamacomico rivers and
                         a branch of the Manokin River are safe to eat.

                         The team of doctors from Johns Hopkins
                         University and University of Maryland released
                         a summary of findings they reached after
                         examining 22 people who had contact with rivers
                         on the lower Eastern Shore, including the
                         Pocomoke, where up to 30,000 fish were killed
                         last month by the toxin-emitting organism.

                         Earlier in the day, a woman from a first group
                         of people examined last month by the team of
                         physicians described enduring bouts of
                         forgetfulness. Yvonne Lawson, 55, of Crisfield,
                         said that for weeks she was unable to remember
                         short grocery lists or the content of newspaper
                         stories after she spent several days on the
                         Pocomoke River collecting samples of fish
                         bearing lesions caused by pfiesteria.

                         "You don't have any central point of
                         concentration," Lawson said. "You could be
                         doing something and if something else came into
                         your mind, you go off on that tangent."

                         Lawson also recalled how a patch of her skin
                         sloughed off and her lungs filled with fluid
                         after she was splashed with river water during
                         a fish kill last month.

                         At the same time, some other people who worked
                         on the river during fish kills said they had
                         not suffered any noticeable symptoms.

                         "We've had off days and not felt so hot," said
                         Sheila Tanata, a graduate student in marine and
                         environmental sciences at University of
                         Maryland Eastern Shore, who also helped take
                         fish and water samples on the Pocomoke. "But I
                         can't say it was from working on the water."

                         Maryland officials have blamed pfiesteria for
                         two large fish kills on the Pocomoke last month
                         and suspect it has bloomed in its toxic form on
                         two other Eastern Shore waterways where fish
                         with lesions have been found -- the
                         Chicamacomico and Kings Creek off the Manokin
                         River. All or parts of the waterways remain
                         closed.

                         In Virginia, where officials found lesions on
                         up to 75 percent of menhaden caught in the
                         Rappahannock River, Gov. George Allen (R)
                         announced yesterday a $2.3 million plan to
                         combat pfiesteria in state waters.

                         Virginia authorities are keeping the
                         Rappahannock open, saying there is no evidence
                         the stricken fish -- which are not eaten by
                         people -- pose a public health hazard. Tests
                         have not proven that pfiesteria is responsible
                         for the stricken fish in Virginia. But state
                         officials there have expressed skepticism about
                         Maryland's contentions that pfiesteria has
                         harmed people in a natural setting.

                         The new funding "very much falls in line with
                         our approach that we need to rely on scientific
                         answers and have available the best possible
                         scientific information to make the best public
                         health decisions we can," said Allen spokesman
                         Julie Overy.

                         Allen's funding will include $600,000 to set up
                         an epidemiology research unit in the state
                         health department to evaluate the effects of
                         pfiesteria on human health and the environment
                         and $200,000 for enhanced lab technology.

                         Virginia Institute of Marine Science
                         scientists, trawling the Rappahannock on
                         Wednesday, found lesions on only 44 of 11,188
                         fish, indicating that healthy-looking fish
                         found on the river generally are safe for human
                         consumption. Virginia scientists have said that
                         fish with lesions have been found in the river,
                         particularly in September and October, since
                         1984.

                         In Maryland, Glendening has said that brain
                         scans showing mental impairment among a group
                         of people who had contact with pfiesteria on
                         the Pocomoke in early August persuaded him to
                         close the river and declare it a public health
                         hazard. Glendening's pronouncement marked the
                         first time a government had declared that
                         pfiesteria could pose a health risk to humans
                         in its natural habitat.

                         Staff writers Peter S. Goodman, in Shelltown,
                         Md., and Eric Lipton contributed to this
                         report.

Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 09:04:20 -0400
From: Jeanie Stone <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Cc: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: the They Are Not Our Property pledge
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I would like to sign the They Are Not Our Property pledge.

Jeanie Stone
8122 Quill Point Drive
Bowie, MD 20720
[e-mail]
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 09:31:20 -0400
From: Jeanie Stone <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: the They Are Not Our Property pledge
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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<blush>

Sorry everyone, I obviously didn't mean that to go to the list.

-Jeanie
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 16:33:44 +0200
From: erez ganor <[e-mail]>
To: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Urgent- Fax letters needed - lab investigation - ISRAEL
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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Lab tests on cats at the Belinson Medical Center - ISRAEL.

On the 14.9.97 an article was published in Yediot-Achronot newspaper
uncovering the nightmare of cruelty towards animal in the hospital.
"every few weeks another training session for doctors and paramedics is
being held in the hospital on the subject of children resuscitation. on
of the peaks on this course : every 10 practicians get one cat, and each
of them has to insert a tube and resuscitate the cat.
by the end of this practice the cat is dead and the bodey get thrown
into the nearest trash can.    practicians who attend the course addmit
it contributes nothing, although the co-ordinators pof this course claim
the course gives some additional values."

"8:00 a.m. two cats are brought into the institute in a canvas bags.
there are marks of urin on the bags that shows the cats are being kept
in the bags for a very long time. the bags are transfared to the room.
for another 3 hours the cats are still in the bags yelling and
screaming.
11:00 a.m. workers of the institute start to prepare the site. there is
no vet in the place.
the cats are taken out of the bags and get injection of a tranquilizer
and later they are tyed to a table. they are kept like that for another
houre, later the trainees will come and after a short lecture they start
practice..."

A demand for police investigation and an official complain were brought
to the police station,  suspecting a serious violation of the Animal
cruelty prevention law.
During that time a Ramat-Gan citizen name Davisd Shasha report to the
Ramat-Gan police station about a municipal officer who took his privat
cats to the quarenteen in Ramat-gan.

Since The Hospital has powerful connections we are concerned that under
the pressure the police will close the investigation.
We demand an immidiat stop of the medical practice done on cats and
investigation in regarding to the violation of the law.

Fax letters are needed to:
The Minister of Interior Defence Mr. A. Kahalani.
Fax No; [phone]
or to fax: [phone].
Minister of Health Mr. Matza
Fax No; [phone]

Please send copies of your fax to the  Israeli Embassy  in your country.

Thanks for your support,

Erez Ganor
The Israeli Cetacean Freedom Group
[e-mail]

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Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 11:14:57 -0400
From: Patrick Nolan <[e-mail]>
To: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
Subject: re: NYC Actions This Weekend!! (COMPLETE CALENDAR) (US)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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     Hello all, in the last ar-news digest there was a report about "a
Massive demonstration" against NASA's Cassini probe, which could
"blanket the Earth in radiation, killing AT LEAST 5/6 of all life on
Earth!!"

     I thought you should be aware that this claim seems to be like
reports of Mark Twain's death: greatly exaggerated.  Such a
demonstration, massive or not, could make at least 5/6 of us look
gullible and alarmist.  Here is a recent exchange from ar-views and a
bit from NASA on Cassini:

********

Subject: AR and Cassini
From:  Joshua Bessom <[e-mail]>
To:  [e-mail]

Anyone heard of the Cassini space probe?
It will be launched in October with the goal of exploring Saturn.
BUT....it's launch could result in the loss of all life on earth!!!!
It seems that, instead of opting for solar power, NASA has
chosen 72lbs of plutonium as the fuel source.  1 microgram will cause
cancer
if inhaled.  Please, review this site and do what you can to stop this
potential disaster.
 STOP CASSINI HOME PAGE

******

From: mushfake <[e-mail]>
To: ar-views <[e-mail]>
Subject: cassini probe

At one, point, I was convinced that the Cassini probe was going to kill
all life onthe earth.  In the process of gathering more information on
it,
it became obvious that it won't, and most of the rumors floating around
are exaggerated or unfounded.  Yes, I am trusting NASA's view on this,
but
on thir web page, they respond to many of the accusations of the
petitioners in a convincing way.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/MoreInfo/rtginfo/true.htm

*******
>From the above link:

FALSE:

     When RTGs are exposed to environments similar to the Challenger
accident they could fall to ground and
     release all of their plutonium dioxide which would then be taken up
into the air and then "rain down" on
     people in populated areas.

TRUE:

     Since 1965, RTGs were designed, built, and tested under accident
conditions to ensure the public will be
     safe under normal and accident situations.
     Even if an accident were to occur that somehow released plutonium
dioxide from the RTGs, the potential
     hazard to people would still be very low.
     The potential hazard would arise from inhaling very fine particles
of the plutonium dioxide. The chance of
     these events happening would be small because the plutonium is in a
ceramic form, similar to a coffee cup
     or dinner plate. This safety feature minimizes the amount of
plutonium that could potentially be inhaled by
     people and helps to keep most of the plutonium dioxide close to an
accident site so that it can be safely
     cleaned up.

FALSE:

     Many people would die if there were a plutonium release from
Cassini RTGs involved in a launch accident.

TRUE:

     Based on current analysis, if an accident released plutonium, and
if people inhaled some of the fine particles
     from such a release, the radiation dose an individual would receive
over a 50 year period would be on the
     order of 1 millirem. This 1 millirem is indistinguishable when
compared to the dose an average person will
     receive (over that same 50 year period) from natural radiation
sources.
     People are naturally exposed to radiation on a daily basis from our
natural environment. This radiation
     exposure is measured in units of dose called millirem; it can be
calculated for a 50 year period, to be about
     15,000 millirem from natural sources such as radon, cosmic rays,
the Earth, and even from naturally
     occurring radioactive elements in a person's body.



Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 23:39:22 +0800
From: bunny <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (Eur)no link - measles vaccine & inflammatory bowel disease
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Anyone interested in where this article came from,
it was from http://www.eurosurv.org/main.htm

(Eurosurveillance)


>From the Editors: Benefits and risks

One of the objectives of Health for all in the year 2000, a World Health
Organization (WHO)
European Region programme that all 15 member states of the European Union
have ratified, is
that "by the year 2000, there should be no indigenous cases of
poliomyelitis, diphtheria,
neonatal tetanus, measles, mumps, and congenital rubella in the region"(1).
The prevention of
indigenous cases depends upon reaching such high levels of immunity within a
population that,
even if a case enters the country, there is no one susceptible to whom
infection can be
transmitted. A target of 95% coverage for each of the primary vaccines by
the age of 2 years
has been set to achieve the objective. Forty years ago, in 1957, over 3000
cases of paralytic
poliomyelitis were notified in England and Wales alone. Inactivated
poliomyelitis vaccine (Salk
vaccine) had recently been introduced and the numbers of cases notified
subsequently fell
swiftly to only a handful each year. Today, WHO says that its European
Region is poised to
become free of polio. In a few years it may be possible to tell a similar
story for measles.

High uptake rates of primary immunisation are being recorded for most
vaccines in most
European countries (1). There is, however, a very vocal minority who seize
upon possible
associations of particular vaccines with adverse effects. Pertussis vaccine
suffered very bad
publicity in the United Kingdom during the 1970s as a result of anecdotal
reports of children
who suffered problems after receiving it. The counterargument that many
children might have
died or suffered brain damage had they not received it was much harder to
convey. Detailed
investigation showed that any risks associated with the vaccine were remote
and that the risks
of the infection were significantly greater. While the investigation was
underway and before
confidence in pertussis vaccine was restored many children suffered whooping
cough because
they were not vaccinated (figure).

Figure: Notified cases of whooping cough and pertussis vaccine uptake in
England and Wales 1970-1996

Reproduced by kind permission of the PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance
Centre




Current anxiety about a possible link between measles vaccine and
inflammatory bowel disease
should be reduced by the publication in the Lancet of the results of a case
control study that
showed that people with inflammatory bowel disease were no more likely than
healthy controls
to have received measles vaccine. Whether this good news will receive as
much coverage as
did the bad news last month remains to be seen. One problem, I believe, is
that vaccinating a
child is an active process. Parents have to submit their child to be
vaccinated. Taking an active
step that carries a risk, however small, and however great the benefit of
taking that step may be,
will for some people be more traumatic than avoiding that step and doing
nothing, even though
doing nothing may carry a greater risk of harm. The idea may also exist that
since most people
are vaccinating their children the likelihood of my child becoming infected
must be remote. Here
we touch on individual and collective responsibilities. Do I choose to
protect my child (and the
children of other people) and consent to an act that may hold a small risk,
or do I withhold
consent in order to protect my own child from that small risk, relying on
the public spiritedness
of others? The levels of vaccine coverage in Europe suggests that these are
minority views, but
they are sincerely held, and health care workers concerned with immunisation
need not only to
be able to demonstrate convincingly the value of immunisation so far and the
importance of
continued high uptake but also to be able to understand parents' real
concerns for their children.

References:

   1.Guerin N, Roure C. Immunisation coverage in the European Union.
Eurosurveillance 1997; 2: 2-4

Stuart Handysides, Editor ([e-mail])

Back to news contents



Case control study finds no link between measles vaccine and inflammatory bowel
disease

Eurosurveillance Weekly last month (1) reported on the refutation of the
hypothesis that
measles or indeed vaccination against measles might be a cause of
inflammatory bowel disease
and autism. A case control study carried out in the south of England, and
reported in the Lancet
last week, provided no support for the idea that measles vaccination might
be associated with
the development of inflammatory bowel disease (2). One hundred and forty
patients with
inflammatory bowel disease (83 with Crohn's disease) and 280 controls
matched for age (all
born in or after 1968, when measles vaccination was introduced in the United
Kingdom) had
measles vaccination rates of 56.4% and 57.1% respectively.

Matched odds ratios for measles vaccination were 1.08 (95% confidence
interval [CI]
0.62-1.88) in patients with Crohn's disease, 0.84 (CI 0.44-1.58) in patients
with ulcerative
colitis, and 0.97 (CI 0.64-1.47) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease
overall.

References:

   1.O'Brien S, Christie P. Reassurance given about MMR vaccine.
Eurosurveillance Weekly (140897)
   2.Feeney M, Clegg A, Winwood P, Snook J, for the East Dorset
Gastroenterology Group. A
     case-control study of measles vaccination and inflammatory bowel
disease. Lancet 1997; 350: 764-6

Reported by Norman Begg ([e-mail]) PHLS Communicable Disease
Surveillance
Centre, England


===========================================

Rabbit Information Service,
P.O.Box 30,
Riverton,
Western Australia 6148

Email>  [e-mail]

http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
(Rabbit Information Service website updated frequently)

     /`\   /`\
    (/\ \-/ /\)
       )6 6(
     >{= Y =}<
      /'-^-'\
     (_)   (_)
      |  .  |
      |     |}
 jgs  \_/^\_/













Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 08:31:56 -0400
From: Greg Thomisee <[e-mail]>
To: BlindCopyReceiver:;@compuserve.com
Subject: DALLAS - Action Alert
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Disposition: inline

T.E.A.R.
Texas Establishment for Animal Rights
660 Preston Forest Center, Suite 354
Dallas, Texas  75230-2718

╖ For Immediate Release


ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS PROTEST CARRIAGE HORSE RIDES


Dallas, TX  --  Texas Establishment for Animal Rights (TEAR) will be
demonstrating against carriage horse rides in Dallas.

When:           Friday, September 19, 7:00 pm
Where:          Dallas West End
        Market & Munger
        Dallas, TX   76196
Contact:        Greg Thomisee   [phone]  or  [phone]

TEAR members will be passing out information identifying the cruelty of
this miserable business.  Activists will circulate a "Ban Carriage Horses"
petition and present it to the Honorable Mayor Ron Kirk and the city
council members.  Collection of signatures will cease when this terrible
form of cruelty is removed from the streets of Dallas.

Horses and heavy city traffic can be a deadly mix.  Despite carriage horse
operators' claims, most horses are not comfortable working among cars and
trucks, and many accidents, injuries, and even deaths -- to horses and
humans -- have been caused by horses becoming "spooked" in traffic.  A
survey of national carriage horse accidents revealed that 85 percent of all
accidents were the result of an animal spooking.  Seventy percent of the
time there was a human injury, and 22 percent of the time there was a human
death.  The survey also found that in New York City, which has the highest
carriage horse accident rate in the country, 98 percent of the horses who
"spooked" became injured.  Injuries and fatalities resulting from
collisions between cars and carriage horses have occurred in almost every
city that allows carriage rides, including Dallas.

The smoke and exhaust fumes from urban traffic are also dangerous for
horses. In a study by veterinarian Jeffie Roszel, "tracheal washes and
samples from respiratory secretions of these horses showed enormous lung
damage, the same kind of damage you would expect from a heavy smoker."
Horses' nostrils are usually only 3 to 3 1/2 feet above street level, so
these animals are "truly ... living a nose-to-tailpipe existence."

People around the world agree and are recognizing more and more that it's
the carriage horse industry -- not just the horses -- who are taking them
for a ride.  Pressure from concerned residents has resulted in bans on
carriage horses in a growing number of cities, including Palm Beach,
Florida; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Las Vegas, Nevada; London; Paris; and
Toronto.

-End-
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 14:46:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail] (garypatronek), [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Re: (US) Shelters Seek Homes for 40 Beagles Saved from Laboratory Experiments
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

rom CNN web page:
-----------------------------------
Shelters Seek Homes for 40 Beagles Saved from Laboratory Experiments

AP
17-SEP-97

EATONTOWN, N.J. (AP) No room for 101 Dalmatians? How about 40 beagles or
maybe just one?

Nine shelters are looking for homes for the dogs, handed over for adoption
by a laboratory that was targeted by animal-rights activists, including
actress Kim Basinger, who claimed the dogs' legs were to be broken for
osteoporosis research.

"We want them to have a good life, to be a family member, to be loved,"
said Ursula Goetz, executive director of the Monmouth County SPCA in
Eatontown, where eight beagles were brought Tuesday.

The 40 beagles, all in good health and 2 years old or younger, were given
to the American Humane Association. It is distributing them to the
shelters, which promised to spay and care for the dogs until homes are
found for them.

The dogs were given to the AHA by Huntingdon Life Sciences Inc., where an
animal rights worker secretly videotaped alleged mistreatment of research
animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals complained to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, and Basinger tried unsuccessfully to adopt the
dogs.

The lab filed suit against PETA, claiming its investigator illegally taped
co-workers and disseminated trade secrets, and a hearing is set for Friday
in federal court in Norfolk, Va.

Alan Staple, president of the laboratory in East Millstone, said Tuesday
the dogs had been given an experimental compound intended to strengthen
osteoporosis patients' bones.

The drug maker, Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. of Japan, canceled the safety
trial, which is the last step before testing in humans.

"They had a lot of threatening phone calls to their offices around the
world," he said.

The laboratory has denied killing beagles or selling them to other
researchers, but it never directly responded to allegations the dogs' legs
would have been broken if the research project had continued.


Date: Thu, 18 Sep 97 13:33:23 -0400
From: Karin Zupko <ma.neavs.com![e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US - RFI - How can we transport these animals?)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

The following six animals need to be transported from the Southwest
of the U.S. to the Northeast:  2 large dogs (one is a greyhound who
is about 28 inches at the shoulders) and four cats.  It is currently
too hot to ship the animals by air from the Southwest, and by the
time it is cool enough in the Southwest, it will be too cold to ship
them to the Northeast.  A trip by car in a small car or truck will
take days and may not be in the best interests of the animals.

These animals need to be transported as soon as possible.  If anyone
has any ideas or suggestions, please contact me by private e-mail at
[e-mail].  Thank you very much for your assistance.
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 23:31:35 +0200
From: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Another anti-bullfighting town in Spain
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit

This is Nuria from Barcelona.

The town of Calonge has been oficially declared by the Town Hall as
anti-bullfighting village. That means that no bullfighting material is
allowed in the town, what is more...it is FORBIDDEN! :) Also the Mayor
expresses the aim of the town of achieving the abolition of cruelty to
animals.
There are now 4 anti-bullfighting towns is Spain. But I hope more are
yet to come...For the animals,

Nuria

Nuria 's Homepage (of animal rights and scientific anti-vivisectionism)
http://www.geocities.com/heartland/hills/3787
******************************************************************************
*
"Llegara un dia en que los hombres,como yo , vean el asesinato de un
animal como ahora ven el de un hombre"
"A day will come in which men, as I do, will look upon animal murder the
same way they look today upon a man's murder"
Leonardo da Vinci
--
PO`!1 a
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 23:39:33 +0200
From: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Council for the Defense and Protection of Animals in Barcelona
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit

-- This is Nuria from Barcelona.
Yesterday took place the inaugural act of the new Council for the
Defense and Protection of Animals of the city of Barcelona. This Council
is composed by politicians, representants of AR groups(ADDA and Fedan),
Police, Journalists, Biologists, Veterinarians,etc.
The main objectives are to declare Barcelona as anti-bullfighting City,
to forbid hunting in the chain of mountains that surrounds Barcelona,
and transform the killing and cruel "shelter" in a modern and
cruelty-free one. For the animals,

Nuria

Nuria 's Homepage (of animal rights and scientific anti-vivisectionism)
http://www.geocities.com/heartland/hills/3787
******************************************************************************
*
"Llegara un dia en que los hombres,como yo , vean el asesinato de un
animal como ahora ven el de un hombre"
"A day will come in which men, as I do, will look upon animal murder the
same way they look today upon a man's murder"
Leonardo da Vinci
PO`!1 a
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 18:45:39 -0300
From: Ty Savoy <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Foals Lives Saved
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

GROUP STEPS IN TO SAVE FOALS

KELOWNA, B.C., Canada (CP) -- The responsible Animal Care Society has saved
44 foals from the slaughterhouse.

The foals are the offspring of pregnant mares whose urine is used to produce
the hormonal drug Premarin for menopausal women.

"We bought the horses at auction on the Prairies and brought them out here,"
said society spokeswoman Sinikka Crossland.

"The meat buyers were all there, and if we hadn't bid higher than them these
foals would have gone to the slaughterhouse."

The mare urine industry keeps some of the foals for future production, but
most go into pet food and for human consumption in Japan and parts of Europe.

"We want people to know that there are alternatives to Premarin," said
Crossland. "There are other drugs that come from vegetables such as yams
that also do the job."

The foals cost the society $70 to $100 each. Of all the 44,, 19 will be sent
to a horse rescue group in California. Most of the others will be sold
locally. Those interested in the sale can contact Crossland at 250-768-4803.

Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 14:56:49 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Sacramento Bee: Ariticle on Animal Place (Excellent!)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Bravo, Kim and Ned!


My best to all -

Lawrence

=======================================

Where animals are friends, not food:
Couple rescues barnyard castoffs

By Carlos Alcal
Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
(Published Sept. 18, 1997)

When Joe was found, he was no more than a few days
old.

A male Jersey calf, he had no value as a milk cow and
had been left to die, stacked with dead animals in an
auction yard, where cattle are sold.

Now, however, Joe has a 64-acre home near Vacaville.
The young steer will live a full life at Animal Place, an
unusual refuge for animals from the barnyard set.

It's unusual because many Americans think of the pigs,
chickens and cattle that Animal Place rescues as food
sources, not as feeling animals like dogs and cats.

They also don't draw the same kind of attention as wild
cats or elephants, which have refuges of their own.

"It's not as sexy as exotic animals. It's not as compelling
or heart-rending as if we were rescuing dogs," Kim
Sturla said.

Sturla, a former humane society director, runs Animal
Place with her husband, a UC Davis veterinary
ophthalmologist, Dr. Ned Buyukmihci.

To them, these animals are compelling.

There's Diabla, a black goat that was one of hundreds of
diseased goats living in mud and feces when they were
rescued in the Bay Area last year.

There's Emma Jean: "(She) was a backyard slaughter
pig," Sturla said. "She was supposed to be Thanksgiving
dinner. She escaped when she was no bigger than a
peanut."

There's Thelma, the chicken who outgrew a school
egg-hatching project, and a number of other chickens
who were freed from a laboratory research project after
four years of living in cages.

And there are about 70 more animals -- peacocks,
sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, potbelly pigs, cows and more.
Most have been referred from humane societies and
animal shelters around California.

While most live outside or in the barn at Animal Place,
potbelly pigs and dogs also have the run of the house --
which is nevertheless very clean.

Actually, animals seem to occupy every niche of the
house, in the form of chicken-shaped planters, pig trivets,
cow wall art, and animal refrigerator magnets.

Sturla and Buyukmihci are just animal-oriented people,
to the extent that Sturla sometimes refers to the rescued
animals as "the kids."

The pair had informally rescued animals for years before
outgrowing a one-acre plot in Yolo County.

They moved to Animal Place in 1989 and formally
incorporated the effort as a nonprofit agency. Their
project runs on a budget of about $50,000 a year, none
of it for salaries.

In part, they do it cheaply because they get 400 to 600
pounds of donated produce to feed the animals every
day. Routine veterinary care can be provided by
Buyukmihci.

Even so, he sees his work at UC Davis as entirely
separate from Animal Place.

Though both deal with animals, the outlook is completely
different, he said. "Most of veterinary medicine looks at
animals as a means to human ends," Buyukmihci said.

By contrast, Animal Place aids animals for the animals'
own sake. With animals bred for production, it ends up
having unintended consequences.

A pig bred to be slaughtered in a matter of months may
grow excessively big if allowed to live longer, leading to
joint and foot problems. Chickens, intended to live only
seven or eight weeks, have other problems.

"We do the best we can to make their quality of life really
good," Buyukmihci said. "It's a constant battle, because
they just weren't intended to live that long."

Animal Place is more than a refuge, Sturla said. "I don't
want this just to be a sanctuary. Let's educate people
about these animals."

Sturla, a former teacher, likes to bring children to their
spread to try to pass along the compassion she and her
husband feel.

"Animals we don't know personally, we take less
responsibility for their health and well-being," she said.

Education also takes the form of a children's book and a
teen-oriented comic book Sturla wrote to teach children
about the inhumane ways animals are treated in the
production of human food.

 "I'm coming from a perspective of ethical vegetarianism,"
Sturla said. Buyukmihci is also vegetarian.

To raise funds for the sanctuary and education, Animal
Place plans a vegetarian cook-off contest Saturday from
noon to 3 p.m. at Scratch Bar and Pool Hall, 120 I St. in
Old Sacramento.

They will also hold an open house at Animal Place on
Nov. 9. For directions and more information, call
707-449-4814.

Posted by:

Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: [e-mail]
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"The person using the Internet has the choice. Whether the
Internet  becomes material for happiness or for suffering
depends on your mind. The mind goes before the external
object." -- The Buddhist monks of Namgyal Monastery





Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 21:39:13 -0700
From: Ilene Rachford <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Pork Fest Protest
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Saturday, Sept. 20, P/AN (People/Animals Network) will hold a
demonstration at the Preble County Pork Festival, Preble County
Fairgrounds, Eaton, Ohio.

This annual event features the killing and butchering of a pig in an
open arena four times during the weekend. We will hold a silent
demonstration at 10:00 AM at the arena, then leaflet and hold signs at
the two main entrances.

We intend to maintain a dignified demeanor appropriate to the
seriousness of the event. We ask that you not respond to hecklers or
engage in shouting contests.

For those in the Dayton, Oh area: we will meet at the downtown Dayton
McDonald's at 8:30 AM and carpool to the Fairgrounds. If you want to
meet us there, Eaton is 7 miles south of I-70 on Rt. 127 and 25 miles
west of Dayton on Rt. 35. The Fairgrounds entrances are on Rt. 35 and on
Rt. 122.
Please meet at 9:30 at Brunner Arena. We will have signs and black
armbands. Give yourself some extra time, as there is usually a lot of
congestion at the entrances.

If you need more info, please call the P/AN Information Line at (937)
454-9667 and leave a message after the beep.


Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 22:04:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: [e-mail]
To: <[e-mail]>
Cc: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], dawnmarie@rocket
Subject: Festival in Sarasota, Florida
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

You are cordially invited to Sarasota In Defense of Animals' Vegetarian
Festival to observe World Vegetarian Day and World Farm Animals Day will be
held on Sunday, September 28, 1997, 12 noon until 4:00 p.m., in the new
gazebo at Phillippi Estate Park, 5500 Tamiami Trail South, Sarasota, Florida.
 Local restaurants are providing vegetarian food tasting from 12:00 noon
until 2:30 p.m.; Live music by pianist Russell Kennedy and vocalist Melonie
Smicklas.  Free recipes, magazines, brochures, and helpful hints.  Door
prizes!!  (Only a $1 donation is suggested)

Come out and enjoy this fun-filled festival.




Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 22:27:43 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Chelsea Assumes New Identity College Student
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

NOTE--ref to vegetarianism and subdued ref to animal welfare/rights.
from CNN web page:
---------------------------------
Chelsea Assumes New Identity College Student
Reuters
18-SEP-97
By Laurence McQuillan

WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuter) - Chelsea Clinton came to Washington as a shy
girl with braces on her teeth, quietly blossomed into a young woman who
likes mini-skirts and ballet, and now starts a new life in college without
mom and dad.

The 17-year-old -- who most agree is an undeniable credit to President Bill
Clinton and his wife, Hillary -- on Friday starts her freshman year at
Stanford University, an elite private institution about 40 miles (64 km)
south of San Francisco.

In sharp contrast to the public growing pains of previous presidential
daughters and sons who found themselves living in the goldfish bowl
atmosphere of the White House, Chelsea remained in the background during
most of the five years her parents have called 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue home.

Seemingly in the blink of an eye, she went from the youngster who sadly
released her pet turtle into an Arkansas river before heading to Washington
in 1993 to the proud young woman who raised some eyebrows as she wore a
mini-skirt for the march down Pennsylvania Avenue after her father's second
inauguration.

Chelsea enjoyed a relatively sheltered life because of an unusual unwritten
agreement between her parents, who went out of their way to shield her from
publicity, and the news media, which opted not to intrude in her growing up.

Fiercely protective of Chelsea's privacy, Mrs. Clinton almost never talks
about her daughter in public in any detail. But she shared her thoughts
about Chelsea going to college in her weekly syndicated column published on
Thursday.

She praised the press for so far letting Chelsea grow up in peace and
essentially appealed for the paparazzi to leave her daughter alone, linking
her current situation to that of Princess Diana's sons.

``Neither my daughter nor the young princes chose their parents'
circumstances. Like all young people they are entitled to space and
privacy. They deserve to be able to pursue their educations and navigate
toward adulthood without the extra pressure of press and public scrutiny,''
she said.

Chelsea Clinton has become a person with a widely recognized name but not
someone whose personal life is well known.

According to friends, Chelsea is smart, polite, considerate and not
demanding. In a town that thrives on negative whispers, she has been spared.

On overseas trips with her mom, she has been a poised companion who
appreciates the subtleties of the foreign cultures she invariably has read
up on in advance. On a visit to Tanzania last March she peppered an
anthropology professor with far more questions than reporters had for him.

``She's a very serious student and in high school was involved in a lot of
activities, so I assume she'll be ... very busy in college,'' said Ann
Stock, who recently stepped down as White House social secretary.

Chelsea fell in love with ballet, and performed annually in Christmas-time
performances of the ``Nutcracker,'' but her interest in science drove her
choice of a career goal.

At this point, Chelsea wants to become a physician and plans to major in
pre-medical studies at Stanford.

A vegetarian, Chelsea has said the only thing she will eat with eyes is a
potato. She stays in shape by practicing ballet 20 hours a week.

A National Merit Scholarship finalist, Chelsea chose Stanford because of
the quality of its academic program and the beauty of its Spanish
mission-style campus, with sprawling beige stucco buildings topped by
red-tiled roofs.

``She fell in love with the place,'' said someone close to the young Miss
Clinton.

She clearly is the daughter of both her parents, with her mother's poise
and compassion for the needy and her father's love of data and
hyperactivity. Her Secret Service code name is ``Energy.''

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry acknowledged that only limited
information has emerged about the first daughter.

``The Clintons have had good luck keeping their ... roles as parents and
the life of their daughter reasonably private,'' he said. ``I think that
one of the reasons that she's turned out to be a remarkably fine young lady
is that we haven't pried too much.''
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 22:37:24 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Scottsdale Vet May Keep License
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Tucked away on CNN web page...
------------------------------------------------
Scottsdale Vet May Keep License

(SCOTTSDALE) -- A Scottsdale veterinarian who angered animal control
officials will be able to keep her license. Doctor Carla Smith took a sick
Great Dane named Destiny from a pound without permission because she said
it was going to be put to death. Animal Control filed a complaint, but the
state veterinarian board has ruled that Smith may keep her license.
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 22:50:55 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Wildlife groups say grazing increase not enough
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from Mercury Center web page:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted at 4:32 p.m. PDT Thursday, September 18, 1997


Wildlife groups say grazing increase not enough

CARSON CITY (AP) -- Environmental and wildlife
groups say a grazing bill touted as trading higher
fees for stability in the livestock industry gives
away access to public lands for an insignificant
fee hike.

But the Nevada Cattlemen's Association backs the
congressional proposal, saying it fixes some
serious problems with existing rules.

The proposal, unveiled by House Republicans on
Wednesday, would boost grazing fees paid by
ranchers throughout the West from $1.35 per animal
per month to $1.84.

``Whoopee,'' said Charles Watson of the Nevada
Outdoor Recreation Association. ``That's totally
outrageous.''

Watson said with Forest Service and Bureau of Land
Management officials spending $5.81 per animal per
month, ``I could only describe that as welfare
ranching. It's a massive subsidy.''

``It's an attempt to grant ranchers a right to
graze instead of what is now a privilege,'' he
said.

He was joined by Elsie Dupree of the Nevada
Wildlife Federation who said legally ranchers are
``renting the land. They hate that word, but
they're renters. It's not their land.''

They reserved their strongest criticisms for the
plan's provisions giving ranchers tenure -- the
right to renew permits and leases every 10 years if
they have followed environmental rules -- and the
power to restrict some public access.

Betsy Macfarlan of the Nevada Cattlemen's
Association disagreed, saying the shoe belongs on
the other foot.

``Their main objective is to get everybody off the
public lands,'' she said, adding that Watson and
Dupree misinterpreted the access provisions in the
law.

``We're required, if the road through my ranch is
the only access to that public land, to provide
access through there. If there's another road, this
just prevents us from having to let people go
through our front yard,'' she said.

Dupree said the fee isn't even the issue as much as
the deterioration of the lands caused by
overgrazing and abuse.

But Macfarlan said the range is actually in much
better shape than 50 to 70 years ago because of
better management practices.

Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:25:53 +0800
From: bunny <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (Aust)Hinchinbrook Island/Dugongs and wildlife threatened
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


Australia - 16th September 1997

Disputes and some violence has broken out in far Northern Queensland,
Australia at Port Hinchinbrook between conservationist protesters
and some locals who want the development of Port Hinchinbrook
(which lies in a pristine world heritage area) to go ahead.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Please write to Prime Minister of Australia, The Hon. John Howard,
and voice your concerns over the development that is starting at
Port Hinchinbrook in far North Queensland , Australia.
This is pristine world heritage area and should have been left as such.
The dugongs in the area will be threatened with habitat destruction
and may be killed by motor boats.I have attached some fact sheets below
from the Australian Conservation Foundation web site.

The address is

Prime Minister John Howard,
Parliament House,
Canberra,
ACT,
Australia, 2600

-------------------------------------------------

Fact Sheet: Port Hinchinbrook Resort

Developer Keith Williams, the man behind the Hamilton Island tourist resort
and Sea World at the Gold Cost, now has
permission to build the Port Hinchinbrook resort in Far North Queensland. He
was given permission by the Federal
Environment Minister Senator Robert Hill. No environmental impact statement
was prepared.

The Port Hinchinbrook resort is a 1960s-style tourist resort with rooms for
1500 guests and 750 staff. It also includes a
marina for 250 boats and a dredged channel and breakwater.

A large part of the site has been cleared of its natural cover and trucks
rumble over the dusty ground. Mangroves along the
foreshore have been felled, piled up and set alight. A floating dredge is
currently excavating the basin and access channel for
the marina. The site is a great brown scar on the Hinchinbrook area. This is
no way to treat a World Heritage area.

Why is Hinchinbrook so important?

The Hinchinbrook Channel is a natural waterway of great beauty, but it is
much more than that. A range of endangered
species have been recorded in the waters of the Channel, including the
dugong, the Irrawaddy dolphin, the humpback
dolphin, and loggerhead, flatback and green turtles.

For all of these species, the sea-grasses and mangroves of the Channel are
an important habitat. Hinchinbrook Channel and
Island has the most extensive stand of mangroves in a national park anywhere
in Australia. These diverse mangrove
communities are in a relatively undisturbed state, and there is a low level
of human influence on some of the surrounding
catchments.

Offshore from the mangroves, the Hinchinbrook Channel has the third highest
seagrass biomass along the coast between
Cairns and Bowen. These seagrass beds are particularly important to local
dugong populations, as the number of feeding trails
left by grazing dugongs shows. The area is also of special significance as
the seagrass species Halophila tricostata, usually
only associated with shallow inshore waters, has been identified here.

On the site and the lands that surround it, other endangered species have
been seen: Torresian Pigeon, Mahogany Glider and
Beachstone Curlew.

Being so close to the rainforests of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area,
these marine and shoreline communities provide a
rare opportunity for conserving a complete series of ecosystems from below
sea level to mountain ranges. It is this extensive
set of ecosystems, still very much intact, which earned the region a place
on the World Heritage list.

What are World Heritage areas?

The Hinchinbrook Channel lies at the junction of the Wet Tropics and the
Great Barrier Reef World Heritage areas. World
Heritage areas are the best of the best - places of world-wide importance
for preserving the earth's nature and culture.

The World Heritage List includes the Pyramids of Egypt, the Grand Canyon,
the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China. As
well as the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics, Australia's World
Heritage properties are Kakadu, Willandra Lakes,
Lord Howe Island, Tasmania's Wilderness, Uluru-Kata Tjuta, the Central
Eastern Rainforests, Shark Bay, Fraser Island and
the Fossil Mammal Sites at Riversleigh and Naracoorte.

What will be the impact of the development?

     The impacts from the development start on the construction site, where
the threatened Beachstone Curlew nests. This
     threatened bird has defied the bulldozers for some time, but is
unlikely to stay forever.
     The shoreline next to the site was once lined with mangroves, however
many have been cleared, and the shoreline is
     already beginning to erode. There are further proposals to clear
mangroves and to trim their tops to improve the view
     for guests at the resort.
     The greatest threat from this development comes from the 250-berth
marina. Constructing the access channel will
     create a plume of muddy water which will shroud the sea-grass beds in
silt.
     The marina channel will need annual dredging to keep it open. This is
because the Hinchinbrook Channel receives
     heavy inflows of silt from the surrounding catchments. The financial
cost of this dredging will fall on the rate-payers of
     Cardwell however, not Keith Williams.
     Once the resort is established, 250 boats will be moored in the marina.
Their noise will drive dugongs from their
     feeding grounds, while others will be killed by boat strike. At the
moment there is only a small amount of boating traffic
     in the area.

What about developments elsewhere in the region?

The project proposal raises many unanswered questions about the
infrastructure needed to support this resort.

An upgrade of the dirt airstrip into an international airport at nearby
Dallachy is mentioned. This would require the partial
clearing of the Edmund Kennedy National Park, part of the Wet Tropics World
Heritage Area.

Further away, and less clearly articulated is the issue of a water supply
for the resort. Cardwell Shire Council has agreed to
supply one megalitre per day to the site, but it is barely able to meet the
existing needs of the region. If a new dam is to be built
there are many potential sites nearby, but all lie within the Wet Tropics
World Heritage Area.

What does the Federal Court case mean for World
Heritage areas?

The Friends of Hinchinbrook, a local conservation group, are challenging
Senator Robert Hill's approval of the resort. The
case is testing whether Senator Hill did all he should have to protect the
World Heritage properties in his care.

For that reason, this case could be important for the future of all World
Heritage areas. Already other areas with World
Heritage values are under threat:

     Uranium mining proposed within the boundaries of the Kakadu World
Heritage Area,
     Logging adjacent to Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area,
     Logging in the catchment of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves
World Heritage Area,
     Intensive fishing within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area,
     Heavy tourist use of most World Heritage Areas.

Help us to support this legal action by donating to the
Hinchinbrook Fighting Fund

For more information:

Australian Conservation Foundation, 33 George St, Sydney NSW 2000. Ph: 02
9247 4285; Fax: [phone].

What you can do

     Donate to the Hinchinbrook Legal Fighting Fund (Ph: 02 9247 4285 for
info).
     Write a letter to your local Federal MP.
     Call talk-back radio and express your concern about inappropriate
development in World Heritage Areas.
     Write to Prime Minister John Howard calling on him to oppose a marina
at the Port Hinchinbrook resort.
     Visit your Federal MP and let them know of your concern for
Hinchinbrook and other World Heritage areas.
     Tell all your friends about Hinchinbrook.
     Join the Sydney Hinchinbrook Campaign Team (Ph: 02 9247 4285).
     Help raise money for the Hinchinbrook Fighting Fund.
     Help organise letter writing stalls.



When you write a letterà



When you write to your local Federal MP or the Prime Minister (c/-
Parliament House, Canberra 2600), write from the heart.
Tell them of your concern for the rainforests, reef and marine environment
of the Hinchinbrook area. You may like to mention
some of the following points:



     The Federal Government should do all it can to prevent inappropriate
developments in World Heritage areas.




     A resort development that includes a marina should not be permitted at
Oyster Point.




     The Hinchinbrook area is of international importance and deserve the
highest level of protection.

Hinchinbrook Fact Sheet: Seagrasses

Seagrass beds are underwater flowering meadows. The seagrass plants have
roots, stamens and pollen just like land-based
plants except they spend their entire life and reproduce completely immersed
in seawater.

Seagrass communities are important nursery grounds for many species of fish,
prawns, crabs and molluscs in their juvenile
stages. They provide both food and protection from tidal currents and larger
predatory fish. Seagrasses are also the primary
food source for the dugong Dugong dugon, several marine turtles, sea urchins
and other invertebrates.

Australia has the highest biodiversity of seagrasses in the world, the
largest area of temperate seagrass and one of the largest
areas of tropical seagrass. Unfortunately, once lost, seagrasses do not
readily recover.

Only in the last twenty years have scientists undertaken serious research on
these dynamic and productive ecosystems. Their
work has revealed the immense ecological value of seagrasses and their
importance to both commercial and recreational
fishing:

     They constitute an important link in the food chain, providing leaf
detritus as food for invertebrates and graze for turtles
     and dugongs.
     They provide shelter for juvenile crabs and prawns - brown tiger prawns
can live nowhere else but in seagrass beds and
     as adults make up 40% of the total prawn catch in Queensland alone.
     Seagrass beds stabilise the bottom sediment by shedding leaves and
through their root and rhizome systems. These hold
     the sea floor together and help maintain the productivity of coastal
waters.
     Their leaves provide energy to both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
     They convert nutrients into forms more easily used by other organisms.

Hinchinbrook Channel has the third highest seagrass biomass along the coast
between Cairns and Bowen. These seagrass
beds are particularly important to local dugong populations, as the number
of feeding trails left by grazing dugongs shows.
These herbivorous mammals graze on the seagrasses Halodule uninervis,
Halodule pinifola and Halophila ovalis. This
particular area is also of special significance as the seagrass species
Halophila tricostata, usually only associated with shallow
inshore waters, has been identified here.

The primary threat to the Hinchinbrook Channel seagrass beds is turbidity
caused by dredging the access channel for the
proposed Port Hinchinbrook resort development. However, the possibility of
erosion from the clearing of shoreline mangroves
could also increase the turbidity of the Channel's waters. This would result
in less sunlight filtering through the water and so less
seagrass growth.

Seagrasses absorb traces of metals and other pollutants from water and
sediments. Although the seagrasses themselves
appear to be relatively resistant to high concentrations of these
pollutants, animals which eat these plants as food may be
adversely affected. Developments in coastal catchments and on nearby lands,
like Port Hinchinbrook, could have serious
impacts on seagrass-dependant creatures living hundreds of kilometres away.
On this basis, it is important that management
and conservation strategies consider the overall functioning of these
ecosystems if they wish to fully protect and maintain them.

Fact sheet prepared by Christine Soul for ACF.

                Hinchinbrook Fact Sheet: Mangroves

Mangroves are tree and shrub species adapted to salty, intertidal conditions
in the mouths of rivers and creeks along the coast.
The term mangrove can refer to any of the 69 species of tree from over 20
different families. Australia has the third largest
area of mangroves in the world, and possesses some of the most diverse
communities.

Similar to seagrass communities, mangrove forests are very productive
ecosystems and are of major ecological and economic
importance. They provide habitats and nurseries for many fish, buffer
estuaries from sediments, protect the coast from storms
and waves, act as natural nutrient filters and provide critical habitats for
birds and other wildlife.

Each family of mangroves have special adaptations to take advantage of their
specialised environment. These include
pneumatophores, the breathing roots that grow into the air, and mechanisms
to remove salt, often by concentrating it in the
leaves and either expelling it or dropping the leaf.

In tropical areas, nearly two hundred species of fish rely on mangrove
estuaries for survival, mostly during their juvenile stage
of development. This is because mangroves not only provide shelter, but
together form highly productive communities. The
whole system is powered by the mangrove's leaves which convert the sun's
energy into carbohydrates and growth. As leaves
fall from the trees they are broken down by sediment bacteria. They in turn
feed the micro-organisms that feed the plankton
and other invertebrates. Further up the chain, these provide food for young
fish and prawns.

Mangroves also serve as a filter for excess nutrients in runoff water from
over-fertilised farm land. The limiting factor for the
growth of mangrove forests is the supply of nitrogen and phosphorus, both
deadly to fringing coral reefs. Mangrove forests
efficiently remove these chemicals, keeping the marine system functioning
and healthy.

Mangroves around Hinchinbrook Island and the Channel are said to be the
longest area of mangrove habitat in Australia fully
protected in a national park. However, recent clearing activity for the
proposed Port Hinchinbrook development may have
unfortunately altered this impressive claim. These mangrove forests have
also been described as the richest and most diverse in
Australia containing the most extensive and complex development of tall
mangroves found on this continent.

On this basis, the Hinchinbrook Island and Channel area is an important
resource for research. It has extensive and diverse
mangrove communities in a relatively undisturbed condition, a low level of
human influence on some of the surrounding
catchments and a generally low level of human activity in the area. These
mangroves, by forming part of a much larger
ecosystem, could provide a rare opportunity for the conservation of a
complete series of ecosystems from below sea level to
mountain ranges. It is this extensive set of ecosystems, still very much
intact, which initially qualified the region for protection
under the World Heritage criterion (ii) and its associated integrity and
which is now under threat from the encroaching Port
Hinchinbrook development.

Fact sheet prepared by Christine Soul for ACF.


                  Hinchinbrook Fact Sheet: Dugongs

Distribution

Since 1974 aerial surveys have been carried out in northern Australia to
determine the distribution and abundance of Dugong
dugon in Australian waters. These surveys have found dugongs across the
northern coastline between Shark Bay in Western
Australia and Moreton Bay in Queensland. The total dugong population is
estimated at 80,000, with around 12,000 of these in
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park waters. Some scientists believe that
Australia is the 'last bastion of the dugong'. In Australia,
dugongs are listed as a nationally threatened species.

Habitat

Dugongs are usually found in calm, sheltered, nutrient-rich water less than
five metres deep, generally in bays, shallow island
and reef areas which are protected against strong winds and heavy seas and
which contain extensive seagrass beds. However,
they are not confined to only inshore waters. There have been sightings near
reefs up to 80 kilometres offshore in waters up to
37 metres deep.

Reproduction and Behaviour

Dugongs can form herds of up to several hundred individuals, however, much
smaller groups of only a few animals are
common. Studies have suggested that there is a correlation between dugong
abundance and the location of seagrass beds.
They suggest that population fluctuations may occur in response to the
altered availability of food resources, such as seagrass.
Thus, in regions where seagrass is abundant dugong populations tend to
remain steady, whereas in areas where seagrass cover
is sparse, dugong numbers will fluctuate.

When herds are formed, large, strong old males tend to act as headmasters by
occupying the outer edges of the herd and use
whistling sounds to keep their herds together. As these herds tend to be
temporary groups the only true long-term social unit
exists between a cow and her calf. The calf will stay with its mother and
suckle until it is around 18 months old.

The oldest dugong recorded to date was estimated to be around 73 years of
age. Reproductive maturity tends to be reached
when individuals reach a length of about 2.4 metres and weigh around 250
kilograms, generally around 14 to 17 years of age.
Gestation usually takes about 13 to 14 months after which time only one
offspring is born. Most births occur between
September and April.

Diet

The dugong is the only marine mammal that is strictly herbivorous, feeding
on a wide variety of tropical and sub-tropical
seagrass species. Digestion occurs in the large intestine where the seagrass
is broken down by bacteria. Algae can comprise
an important part of the diet when seagrasses are in short supply.

Dugongs are bottom feeders and surface to breathe at frequent intervals.
When eating smaller seagrasses they tend to dig up
the entire plant including the rhizomes. This action creates feeding trails,
tracts of muddy water stirred up by the feeding
dugongs, which can be used to detect dugongs in an area. When eating taller
species of seagrass, only the canopy of the plant
is eaten.

Studies have identified that major feeding places exist in the Hinchinbrook
Channel, with two prominent areas in the northern
end of the channel being Hectare Point and offshore from Cardwell.

Predators

Natural predators of the dugong, apart from human beings, are relatively few
and include Killer Whales, large sharks and
saltwater crocodiles.

Human Impacts and Threats

Whilst Australia can still boast the largest remaining dugong population in
the world, this is being threatened by such human
activities as habitat destruction through coastal developments, pollution,
accidental capture in fish nets and overhunting by
poachers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders using non-traditional
methods. Shark nets and gill netting are known to be
responsible for the drowning of hundreds of dugongs, however, reliable data
on this has proven extremely difficult to obtain. A
less direct but major long-term problem is the disturbance of dugong from
their feeding areas by noisy boat traffic.

Dugongs are particularly prone to over-exploitation due to their low
reproduction rate (a single calf every three to seven years)
and their association with shallow inshore habitats which brings them in
close contact with humans. Even with extremely low
mortality rates, which are not realistic, a dugong population is unlikely to
increase more than five per cent per year. Therefore,
slight reductions in adult survivorship will result in chronic declines in
dugong populations.

Traditional Hunting

Dugongs provide meat, oil, leather and ivory for native peoples. Some
Aboriginal groups attribute valuable medicinal and
cosmetic properties to dugong oil.

In Australia, dugongs are protected by state and federal legislation which
permits only indigenous peoples to legally hunt them.
However, due to the remote locality of most dugong populations, it is
virtually impossible to adequately police illegal hunting
activity. The Queensland Local Government (Aboriginal Lands) Act (1978)
provides for 'an Aboriginal who lawfully abides in
their traditional area to capture, have in possession and kill within their
shire, specimens of native fauna and consume the same
to the extent necessary for the sustenance of himself and members of his
family or household'. This law was initiated when
traditional hunting of dugong was carried out by netting or spearing from a
raft, however, now equipment includes harpoons
with detachable heads and dinghies with outboard motors. These modern
methods have allowed traditional hunting techniques
to increase the number of animals taken and have the potential to
substantially impact on local populations.

Some Aboriginal communities now recognise the problem of declining
populations and are looking at managing the impacts of
their hunting practices.

Conservation

To adequately conserve our current dugong populations a high level of
protection must be given to both dugongs themselves
and their vital seagrass habitats. Strict regulations and control over
coastal developments and boating activities, the banning of
gill netting, removal of shark nets, cessation of inshore trawling in
seagrass communities and modified Aboriginal hunting laws
should all be incorporated in to a management concept to ensure that future
populations of Dugong dugon in our Australian
waters can be maintained.

Fact sheet prepared by Christine Soul for ACF.


===========================================

Rabbit Information Service,
P.O.Box 30,
Riverton,
Western Australia 6148

Email>  [e-mail]

http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
(Rabbit Information Service website updated frequently)

     /`\   /`\
    (/\ \-/ /\)
       )6 6(
     >{= Y =}<
      /'-^-'\
     (_)   (_)
      |  .  |
      |     |}
 jgs  \_/^\_/













Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 22:46:04 -0400
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: EU Scientists: No Guarantee US is BSE-Free
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from Yahoo news page:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday September 18 10:39 AM EDT

EU Scientists: No Guarantee US is BSE-Free

BRUSSELS (Reuter) - European Union scientists said Thursday the United
States had probably been free of madcow disease in the past but there was
no guarantee it would escape it in the future.

The independent but influential Scientific Veterinary Committee issued a
statement saying a U.S. BSE monitoring program "has probably been effective
in detecting BSE should it have occurred...it is not an absolute guarantee
for the present situation."

"At present the committee cannot guarantee that cattle from the United
States have not been exposed to and thus do not carry BSE infectivity,
though there is no positive evidence that they do so," it added.

The committee met for a two-day session ending Wednesday.

The ruling is significant because it comes at a time when the United States
is seeking an exemption from planned Brussels legislation banning certain
imported beef products, including tallow -- a substance widely used in the
cosmetics industry.

The U.S. has said it is very concerned by the ban, due to take effect in
January, which it says has no scientific basis and could affect billions of
dollars' worth of exports to Europe.

Winning "BSE-free" status from the committee would have been a powerful
weapon in their argument.

The EU has imposed the restriction over fears that the products could carry
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and could transmit a similar fatal
disease, Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD), to humans.

The veterinary committee also considered the situation in Australia, where
it said there was no evidence for the occurrence of BSE and the risk of
future occurrence was low.



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