Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news57~7.htm/text0000.txt

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I would like to extend my sincere thanks for your time and effort in calling
your federal senators and congress people about endangered species -- both
the Kempthorne Bill (senate) and the Miller Bill (house).

I need some feedback --  ould you send me a reply mail and let me know if you
called the office in DC or the local office.  I'm curious what your "feeling"
was on your call -- did the office seem receptive?  Was the person you spoke
to in the know?  Would you be willing to call them again the next time we
have an update?

As of Monday, November 17th, the houses are on recess and we're looking for
some good activists such as yourself and perhaps some other people you might
know to meet with some representatives who we think would be winners on the
issue.

If you have met with your rep before or would like to learn how to do it,
please let me know.

The purpose of the meeting with these representatives would be to get them to
co-sponsor the Miller Bill which would re-authorize the endangered species
act in the House or to get a no vote on Kempthorne (coming up in
January/February) in the Senate.

Thanks, D'Arcy

Some key points that could be brought up in meetings with the reps are as
follows:

The Endangered Species Recovery Act (ESRA) is bipartisan legislation to
reauthorize and strengthen the Endangered Species Act. ESRA will ensure that
our nation's threatened and endangered species are conserved for our children
and future generations. Despite the success of the Endangered Species Act in
helping to prevent the extinction of species like the gray wolf, humpback
whale and California Condor, few species have fully recovered. Moreover,
threats such as habitat loss and non-native species continue to drive even
more species toward the brink of extinction. ESRA is designed to promote the
recovery of species already listed as endangered or threatened, prevent the
decline of additional species, and improve the way the Endangered Species Act
works for landowners and communities.

ESRA WILL RECOVER LISTED SPECIES BY:

òImproving recovery plan development and implementation. Currently, just over
half of all listed species have recovery plans and many of those plans are
not scientifically credible. ESRA would establish deadlines for developing
recovery plans and require plans to include objective biological criteria and
specific management strategies for achieving recovery goals. Federal agencies
would be required to implement recovery plans to help ensure that listed
species do not remain endangered or threatened indefinitely.

òEnsuring federal actions do not jeopardize the recovery of listed species.
Currently, federal actions are often evaluated only to address adverse
impacts to a species' survival and not recovery. ESRA would require federal
agencies to avoid adverse impacts that reduce the likelihood of a species'
recovery in the wild.

òImproving Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs). HCPs would have to be
consistent with the recovery of listed species and include objective
biological goals, measures for monitoring the effectiveness of conservation
strategies, and adaptive management provisions for adjusting conservation
strategies based upon reasonably foreseeable changes in circumstances.
Moreover, ESRA would establish a Habitat Conservation Plan Fund to cover the
cost of implementing additional conservation measures to address
unforeseeable events outside of a landowner's control.

ESRA WILL PREVENT SPECIES FROM BECOMING ENDANGERED BY:

òEncouraging federal agencies to conserve candidate species before they
become endangered. Federal agencies will be authorized to complete section 7
consultation on candidate and proposed species, thus streamlining the
consultation process and helping to ensure species are conserved before they
require listing.

òEncouraging ecosystem-level planning to conserve multiple species and their
habitats. State and local governments would be authorized to develop and
implement regional conservation plans that contribute to the recovery of
listed species and maintain the well-being of other declining species.

ESRA WILL HELP LANDOWNERS AND COMMUNITIES BY:

òProviding tax incentives and technical assistance to landowners that
undertake voluntary species conservation efforts. Landowners that voluntarily
agree to implement measures that benefit endangered species would be eligible
for estate and income tax relief. Technical assistance would be available to
help landowners develop conservation plans and to comply with other
provisions of the Act.

òProviding planning assurances to landowners and communities that develop
HCPs consistent with the recovery of listed species. Performance bonds would
be required to cover the costs of addressing reasonably foreseeable changes
in circumstances identified under the plan. The costs of implementing
additional conservation measures would be covered by the Habitat Conservation
Plan Fund.

òEstablishing a streamlined permitting process for small landowners that
develop low-effect HCPs. These plans would only cover activities that have no
more than a negligible impact on the recovery of any endangered or threatened
species. The use of these plans to authorize the "piecemeal" destruction of
endangered or threatened species' habitat would be prohibited.
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 1997 08:35:47
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [CA] 2,000 fight dog eletrocutions
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>From The Province - Friday, November 14th, 1997

DUNCAN - More than 2,000 people have signed a petition against the canine
equivalent of the electric chair to dispose of unwanted animals.

Pound keeper Dan Hughes uses B.C.'s only remaining pet-electrocution
machine to kill unwanted dogs at the Cowichan Valley Animal Shelter.

The shelter serves North Cowichan, Lake Cowichan, Cowichan Valley Regional
District, Ladysmith  and Duncan in southern Vancouver Island.

The petition, asking that the electrocutions be stopped, will go to North
Cowichen Council next week.

Hughes said the system is the most humane method of euthanizing animals.
Critics said the machine often doesn't work properly, leaving dogs
paralysed until they die in great pain.

"Even if it does what it's supposed to do, you can't put a dog inside a
box, put alligator clips on its ears and then throw a switch without great
fear; it's not humane," said Sandi Trent of Shawnigan Lake, a vet assistant
who has spearheaded the campaign.

Lynn West, Victoria SPCA executive director, said the BC SPCA decided in
the ealrly 1980's that there were too many problems with electrocution and
dogs should be put down by injection. "If all things are working properly,
electrocution may be humane but there are too many things that can go
wrong," she said.

Between January and September, 234 dogs were killed - a higher-than-usual
number because of an outbreak of distemper. The average is about 17 a
month, Hughes said.


Date: Sat, 15 Nov 1997 09:48:55
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK] PM's cat retires to country
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>From The Province - Friday, November 14th, 1997

LONDON - Briatain's political life is to lose one of its most familiar
features: Humphrey, the cat who hangs out at the prime minister's Downing
Street residence, is retiring.

A vet advised that Humphrey, who is thought to be 11 years old, was
suffering from a kidney complaint, had gone off his food, and needed a
quiet place in the country, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said
yesterday.

"We are very sorry tha Humphrey is retiring and we wish him all the very
best," said the spokesman, speaking on terms of customary confidentiality.

"We have grown rather fond of him but realize that he will be much better
off being cared for in a quite environment away from the hustle and bustle
of central London."

Humphrey, originally a stray, had a basket and litter tray on the ground
floor of the neighboring Cabinet Office building on the busy Whitehall, but
he spent much of his time in and around 10 Downing Street.

One of Humphrey's favorite perches was above a duct which carried hot air
out of the prime minister"s office.



Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 01:48:14
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [CA] Pork industry trims the fat
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>From The Globe & Mail - Saturday, November 15th, 1997



Pork industry trims the fat

Fierce competition from low-cost U.S. rivals and opportunities
in Asian markets have hog butchers confronting change.

Saturday, November 15, 1997
By Casey Mahood
The Globe and Mail

More than 1,200 meat packers in Ontario and Saskatchewan are expected to
hit the picket line this morning in one of the most visible signs of the
tensions and competitive pressures cutting into Canada's pork industry.

By Monday morning, a more dramatic example may emerge.

The United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents those workers at
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. plants, is set to go on strike at the company's
Edmonton pork plant just after midnight Sunday, and Maple Leaf says those
950 union members can kiss their jobs goodbye if they walk.

"We've consistently said that," says Patrick Jones, executive
vice-president of the Maple Leaf
Meats division and its point man in the confrontation.

"If the workers go on strike in Edmonton, the plant will be closed and it
will not reopen."

Maple Leaf, which is one of Canada's largest food companies, isn't saving
the hard line for just the meat cutters in its 91-year-old Edmonton plant.

This month, the company put the millionaire Schneider family in Kitchener,
Ont., on the spot as well. It went public with an unsolicited $130-million
bid for the Schneider Corp. food empire, saying the combination of the two
hog butchers would serve Maple Leaf's purposes for the moment, but also
warning that its interest wouldn't last forever.

Such frank talk comes at a time when the roughly $5.8-billion-a-year
business of turning piglets into pork chops in Canada is finally grappling
with many old problems. What has fuelled the initiative has been a
combination of new leadership, shifting production bases, fresh export
opportunities and a couple of years of very high hog prices.

"The last two years have been particularly long and unprecedented as a
difficult cycle for the
industry," says Douglas Dodds, chairman and chief executive officer of
Schneider.

The squeeze of higher hog prices is subsiding, but that tough period helped
to sharpen Schneider's assessment of its decades-old plant in Kitchener.
When the company couldn't reach what it felt was a competitive labour
agreement with its employees, it shut down the kill line at the plant at a
cost of 600 jobs. It now processes hogs at a new facility in Winnipeg.

Greg Whalley, a vice-president at Fletcher's Fine Foods Ltd. of Red Deer,
Alta., says the
industry has a backlog of changes that should have occurred by now, but
haven't.

"I mean, how is it that a plant like the plant in Edmonton has been able to
go so long?" he asks. "It essentially was a Swift plant many years back and
plants of its vintage have long since disappeared from the landscape in the
United States."

Keeping up with the Americans is important.

The U.S. industry is Canada's closest and fiercest rival, and the players
there are, on average, bigger and more efficient. For example, U.S. farms
produce about 92 million hogs a year, compared with 16 million in Canada,
and 13 U.S. plants have more than double the capacity of this country's
largest operation, which can process 32,000 hogs a week.

Some U.S. plants also gained an advantage in the early 1980s when they
invoked special U.S. bankruptcy laws that allowed them to rip up their
union contracts to get better deals.

The Canadian pork industry rode out this stiff competition with the help of
a low dollar, a growing domestic supply of pigs and U.S. trade barriers
that kept those hogs at home. But as the U.S. slaughterhouses' appetite for
hogs outstripped its own country's ability to produce them, the barriers to
Canadian pigs began to disappear.

Last year alone, Canadian farmers shipped about three million pigs to the
United States, and the number is expected to grow to 3.3 million this year.
That's enough hogs to keep a plant the size of Maple Leaf's Burlington,
Ont., operation busy for a year on two shifts, creating more than 1,000 jobs.

However, fending off U.S. rivals in the North American market is not
necessarily the main reason that the Canadian industry is pushing for change.

"If there's one thing that's keying it, it's probably the opening of the
Asian market, and the
perception that Canada, . . . especially Western Canada, is really going to
have a competitive
advantage there," says Larry Martin, director of research at the George
Morris Centre, an
agricultural think-tank in Guelph, Ont.

While pork consumption in North America is relatively flat, Asian countries
and other emerging markets are increasing the amount they eat. Trade
barriers in those markets are also dropping, and traditional suppliers such
as Taiwan and the Netherlands are facing various problems that are limiting
their ability to seize the opportunities.

Canada has already had some impressive success in targeting the Asian
market. For example, in just three years, sales of fresh and chilled pork
to Japan increased by more than six times, to $38.7-million last year.

And just as demand and supply levels for pork diverge in Asia, changes in
Canadian agricultural policy have made the Prairie provinces ideal
locations at which to raise such livestock as pigs.

The most important development was the reduction of grain transportation
subsidies that have reduced local feed costs on the Prairies. Combine that
factor with a good climate, local acceptance of livestock operations and
Canadian expertise in swine breeding and you've got hog heaven industry
executives say.

"In fact, perhaps, Manitoba now is the lowest-cost area in the world to
produce pork," says Martin Rice, executive director of the Ottawa-based
Canadian Pork Council, which represents the country's hog farmers.

Big businesses such as Saskatchewan Wheat Pool have already targeted hog
production as a new expansion area for their operations, and hog butchers,
with an eye to serving the Asian market with those hogs, are building or
planning new slaughterhouses.

For example, Fletcher's is spending $18.5-million to expand its Red Deer
plant this year, including building a state-of-the-art kill line that can
handle 1,200 hogs an hour. A Taiwanese company plans to build a $50-million
processing plant in Lethbridge, Alta., and Maple Leaf says it will
eventually replace the Edmonton plant with a modern operation somewhere in
the west at a cost in excess of $100-million.

Toronto-based Maple Leaf, under the leadership of Wallace McCain and his
sons Michael and Scott, is clearly the most aggressive of the industry
players. The family took over the company in 1995, with the financial
backing of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board, and set about
restructuring its operations. Part of the same New Brunswick family that
made a fortune in French fries, the McCains have focused on snatching part
of that growing Asian market for pork.

"The one thing we do know about Maple Leaf is that they are absolutely
determined to become one of the more efficient, if not most efficient, pork
producers in the world," says Michael Palmer, an analyst at Loewen Ondaatje
McCutcheon Ltd. of Toronto.

Last fall, as part of that effort, Maple Leaf bought out the Western
Canadian meat-packing business of Calgary-based Burns Foods Ltd. The two
businesses combined made Maple Leaf an undisputed heavyweight in the
Canadian industry and gave it a firm foothold in Western provinces, from
where it can serve the Asian markets.

In a bid to gain even greater heft, Maple Leaf is expected to send its
formal offer to buy Schneider on Monday. There's no indication that the
Schneiders, who control the company's stock, will accept, but Maple Leaf
may have figured there was no harm for itself in asking.

In a riskier move, Maple Leaf is asking the unionized work force at its
Burlington, Ont., pork plant for big changes.

Maple Leaf's Mr. Jones, an operations man who often repeats himself to
stress a point, says the union leadership has to realize that the old way
of working won't cut it any more.

"It's not an easy message for them to accept," Mr. Jones says. "Things have
changed in their
industry, requiring us to change and requiring them to change. It's not
easy, it's not an easy
message."

Maple Leaf wants the 950 unionized workers at the plant to scrap the old
agreement and accept a new deal that gives the company greater operating
flexibility and a much more varied pay scale in which some workers will
make less money. Few details were released.

In return, the company says it will offer a onetime payment of up to
$20,800 to each worker,
including $10,000 to $20,000 for anyone taking a pay cut under the new
deal. The company also promises to invest $30-million in the plant, and add
a second shift that will create another 600 union jobs.

The message didn't go over well. Union negotiators walked out of talks
Thursday afternoon and no new sessions are scheduled.

Maple Leaf says it can't afford for its operating costs to be so out of
line with those of U.S. meat packers, especially if it's to compete with
them in the export business.

While the Burlington plant has a full wage cost of about $25.08 an hour --
total plant wages and benefits divided by total hours worked -- the average
U.S. operation pays the equivalent of $16.50, Mr. Jones says.

"Burlington is the highest-cost collective agreement that we have in the
company and the most sensitive to North American competition, given the
closeness of those plants in the United States," Mr. Jones says.

"They're for all practical purposes right in our back yard."

There are rival plants that have higher wage costs than those at the
Burlington operation, but Mr. Jones says that plant is losing hogs to such
processors as Thorn Apple Valley Inc. in Southfield, Mich., which pays only
$15 an hour in full wages.

The UFCW union says Maple Leaf's demands for some workers to take pay cuts
of as much as $9 an hour in order to compete with the Americans are hogwash.

It says Canadian processors have been able to make sizable profits without
attacking workers' wages and benefits, but the increased concentration of
ownership in the industry has given such companies as Maple Leaf a greater
opportunity to squeeze the employees.

"Michael McCain is leading the charge, and if he wins, hundreds of millions
of dollars will be taken from the pay cheques of working people and
deposited in the coffers of the pork barons," Kip Connolly, the union's
chief negotiator, says in a recent statement.

Industry executives readily admit that there is more to competitiveness in
the pork industry than the wages of meat packers.

A recent study on the competitiveness of the industry, which was
commissioned by Maple Leaf, found that wages were just one of five costs
that affected a hog butcher's profitability other than the price of the
hogs themselves. The size of a plant, the operational design and technology
in place, the number of shifts and the average size of carcasses fed into
the operation all play a role in determining how competitive it is, the
study found.

Fletcher's Mr. Whalley also says the quality of the end product can also be
a factor, allowing an operation to charge more for a superior product.

However, the fate of the Canadian beef processing industry continues to
haunt meat packers in this country, and Mr. Jones says it causes him to
worry about wages.

In 1989, a unit of Cargill Inc. of Minnesota dropped a large, state-of-art
beef slaughter plant, paying U.S.-style wages, in High River, Alta. The
more efficient plant caused havoc among many of its Canadian competitors,
and within five years Cargill and another U.S. company, IBP Inc. of
Nebraska, had dominant positions in the Canadian industry.

Mr. Jones says there is a lesson to be learned from the beef industry's
experience.

"If you don't get all the elements right," he says, "history is most likely
to repeat itself."

These little piggies went to market

 Canadian pork exports
 Export markets account for approximately 30 per cent of Canadian hog
production,
which totalled 15.5 million hogs in 1995.
 By product, $million       1993      1994      1995      1996
 Fresh, chilled, frozen    623.2     623.7     739.6     844.1
 Processed                      105.1     136.5     169.2     191.1
 Offal                                    20.6      26.3      40.2      48.5
 Fat                                         8.8      12.3      18.6      21.6
 Total                               $757.8    $798.8    $967.5  $1,105.2

 Slaughtered hogs      millions
 Quebec                         5.56
 Ontario                          3.01
 Alberta                           2.00
 Manitoba                       1.82
 Saskatchewan             0.87
 Atlantic prov                  0.46
 British Columbia         0.33

Source: Canada Pork International; Statistics Canada

Copyright ⌐ 1997, The Globe and Mail Company
                   All rights reserved.

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 01:44:06
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [CA] The land of beef overhauls its menu
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The land of beef overhauls its menu

As Calgarians embrace a healthier diet, local suppliers rise to meet the
demand

Friday, November 14, 1997
By Alanna Mitchell in Calgary

Calgary -- WALK into the bustling Community Natural Foods, Calgary's
premier health-food
market and restaurant, and the smell of roasted eggplants bathing in olive
oil is intoxicating.

It's so busy here that a uniformed commissionaire directs traffic outside
in the overworked parking lot, which is packed even at 11 o'clock on a
weekday morning.

Inside, the bank of cashiers is going full tilt, as customers load up on
such healthy delicacies as organic miso, organically grown oranges,
chocolate soya milk and even organic potting soil.

The market's restaurant, which deals exclusively in vegetarian fare, much
of it organically grown, is already filling up, an hour before the real
lunch-hour crush comes at noon and five hours after the chefs have begun to
assemble.

On the menu: freshly pressed carrot juice laced with fresh ginger, pans of
wholesome muffins, mounds of bread loaves and massive bowls of a complex
salad featuring chopped celery and sunflower seeds.

And the clamour for healthier food is not just here, at the store that has
been known affectionately as "The Community" as it has grown and thrived
during the 20 years it has been on the scene in Calgary.

Down at the south end of the city, a new emporium -- Nature's Fresh Market,
Inc. -- opened six months ago. At a sprawling 20,000 square feet, it is the
largest natural-food market in Calgary.

And far from being set up by people who could be accused of holding fringe
points of view,
Nature's Fresh is owned by four Calgary Flames hockey players,
representatives of one of
Canada's most established traditions. The four -- Zarley Zalapski, James
Patrick, Ronnie Stern and Rick Tabaracci -- and their mainstream
occupations form a big part of the attraction for customers, said Kevin
Potter, the store's general manager.

Of course, no one would try to argue that Calgary is the health-food
capital of Canada. Health food here is not the passion it is in, say,
Vancouver. But the signs are clear that the home of big beef is having a
love affair with foods untouched by pesticides, growth hormones and
antibiotics.

For one thing, sales at the established Community Natural Foods are growing
at the rate of 20 to 25 per cent a year, despite competition from Nature's
Fresh and the establishment of other health-food markets in the city.
That's roughly the rate of growth in the health-foods industry across North
America.

For another, a raft of restaurants have begun to serve up organic beef and
other natural foods. The list includes such trendy spots as Mescalero and
the River CafΘ, where chefs have helped set up Earth to Table, a sort of
club for local growers and buyers of organic foodstuffs.

Penny Lane, a chic downtown mall, is now home to Options, a health-food
restaurant, take-out counter and market that also offers nutrition
counselling based on naturopathic medicine.

Even the city's mainstream grocery giants such as the Co-op and Safeway
stores now carry some certified organic produce. Several of the big grocery
and drug chains offer a bewildering array of herbal remedies and a staff
fluent in how they can be used.

Of course, not everyone who shops at the health-food stores is into health
foods whole hog.

"Even meat-and-potato people are concerned about the meat and potatoes
they're putting in their bodies," said Leanne Ward, manager of The
Community's health and body-care products.

Her customers range from young parents to elderly couples to stressed-out
executives, she said, and many are learning about healthy products for the
first time.

Many people start out by focusing on organically grown fresh produce,
explained Ken Klatt, owner of the two-year-old Amaranth Whole Foods Market
in the Crowfoot Centre in Calgary's northwest. Then they may move into
other types of foods. "I wouldn't say most of the customers are committed
to a lifestyle. They like the idea they have choices."

He said a big part of the draw is that his customers know that he and the
producers of the food he sells have firm ethical beliefs.

"What sells here is that people know they're not getting this red dye and
they'll find out in 10 years that it's a carcinogen. We're not interested
in that. We make it a lot easier by doing the label-reading for them."

Demographics has a role to play in Calgary's surprising craze for natural
foods. Calgary has more than its share of high-paying jobs. Many citizens
are not struggling to put meat on the table, so they can afford to worry
about where the meat came from.

The level of education in Calgary is high, too. People who work in the
health-food industry here say they find some customers have done remarkably
intense research into the foods they put into their mouths.

Hugh Scheuerman, project manager of The Community's cafΘ, puts some of the
shift in eating habits down to guilt. "Maybe it's these little voices that
tell us we should be taking better care of ourselves." He added with a
laugh that staff from some of the big steak places come into the cafΘ
regularly for a vegetarian fix.

But to Cheryl Gosson, 36, who was having lunch in the cafΘ one day this
week but still loves the odd (non-organic) steak and bag of chips, it's
really about baby boomers coming to terms with mortality.

"Hopefully," she said, munching on curried chick peas and potatoes and
spicy chow mein salad, "I'm going to live longer."

Alanna Mitchell is a member of The Globe and Mail's Calgary bureau.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Really working at it

The desire for better health has many Calgarians changing their diets, but
Leanne Ward went the extra yard and changed her career as well.

Trained as a chemical technologist, she worked for 10 years in a
hazardous-waste treatment centre, exposed to the worst toxic substances in
the world.

She started to get sick, and so re-examined her lifestyle. The problem went
beyond what she was being exposed to on the job.

"I was your quintessential everything-out-of-a can person. I was the
typical Canadian."

She adjusted her diet, eating more healthily, looking at organics, shopping
at The Community. Finally, she realized she had to get away from the
chemicals at work.

She moved into Calgary and took a job at the health-food market, where she
is now manager of health and body care. That was a year ago, and she says
she has never felt better. In fact, at 33 she looks the picture of health,
with blooming cheeks and a hearty laugh.

"It's too bad people have to get sick before they realize they're poisoning
themselves."

Copyright ⌐ 1997, The Globe and Mail Company
                   All rights reserved.

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 01:57:25
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK] Labour hunt Bill saboteurs go to ground
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, November 16th, 1997

Labour hunt Bill saboteurs go to ground
By James Hardy and Tom Baldwin

THE ministers that sabotaged the Bill to outlaw foxhunting are planning to
go to ground rather than face their critics in a bitter Commons debate next
week.

Four of the Government's most senior figures - and possibly Tony Blair
himself - have been looking for excuses to be absent from the voting
lobbies a week on Friday when the backbench Bill is expected to receive
overwhelming support from MPs.

The group, called the "Gang of Four" by opponents, have already destroyed
the chances of the Bill becoming law by opposing the allocation of the slot
in the parliamentary timetable needed for it to reach the statute books.

Among those certain to be missing when Michael Foster, Labour MP for
Worcester, presents his controversial Bill are Robin Cook, the Foreign
Secretary, and Jack Straw, the Home Secretary.

Mr Cook, a racing buff and keen supporter of point-to-point meetings, has
an engagement in central Europe. Mr Straw, who is understood to have led
the Cabinet opposition to the Bill, has discovered an equally pressing
appointment with immigration officials in Croydon, south London. Jack
Cunningham, the Agriculture Minister, has chosen to spend the day in his
rural Cumbrian constituency.

The whereabouts on Nov 28 of Peter Mandelson, the minister without
portfolio, are not yet known. But he is understood to oppose any further
Government-backed bans after clampdowns on handguns and cigarette smoking.

Although the Prime Minister has pledged his personal support for a ban on
hunting with hounds, it is believed that he privately agreed to the Bill
being scuppered. He is keen to avoid alienating new-found Labour support in
the countryside and did not want to see crucial legislation lost through a
lengthy battle in the Lords over this Bill.

A poll in the New Statesman magazine last month clearly demonstrated the
level of backbench support for a ban. All but nine of the 275 Labour MPs
questioned said they backed the Foster Bill.

The vast majority of the Labour MPs whom Mr Foster can persuade to  remain
in London on a day normally devoted to constituency work will back the
measure and will be unforgiving of the men held responsible for its likely
failure.

Many MPs are angry at being left to explain to constituents why a measure
which appears to enjoy majority support in both Parliament and the country
has been undermined by a determined minority of ministers.

To defuse a damaging row, supporters of the ban have been offered hints
that the Government may be prepared to back a new backbench Bill later.
Ministerial aides say the chances of success would be considerably higher
after planned reforms to the House of Lords, which would remove the voting
rights of hereditary peers.

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 02:02:47
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [EU] BSE ban threat to medicine supplies
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, November 16th, 1997

BSE ban threat to medicine supplies

UP to three-quarters of all medicines will have to be withdrawn from sale
unless the European Commission overturns its decision to ban products which
may carry a risk of transmitting bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

A report by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency points out that most
tablets contain gelatin or tallow derived from cattle and as such would be
covered by the ban, due to come in to force on Jan 1, 1998. The result
would be devastating, with chemist shops having to clear their shelves.

The EMEA was asked by the commission to re-evaluate the effect of  the ban
after an outcry from member states. Its report says: "If the commission
decision were to be implemented in its current form, a large number,
perhaps three-quarters, of human medicinal products might have to be taken
off the market. This would create a major disruption in the supply of
medicines. For many groups of patients, essential medicines would no longer
be available .

The report adds: The implications for vaccination programmes, for example,
would be
catastrophic."

The ban, primarily concerned with food safety, was intended to cover all
products that might be infected with BSE or CJD. The EMEA recommends that
medicine manufacturers be given time to change production processes to
eliminate specified risk materials. Government
officials, however, hope that the commission will overturn the ban at its
Dec 5 meeting.

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 15:03:39 +0100
From: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Tiger escaped from circus Shot by Police
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.

Last Friday in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), a truck from a circus
(Circo America)carrying a female tiger had an accident and the tiger
escaped. The police didn't want to wait until the Animal Protection Team
arrived to shoot the tiger with sleeping arrows and shot the tiger to
death.

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
PO`!1 a
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 11:46:33 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Oklahoma Weekly Hunting News
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>


A/w Oklahoma City Sunday hunting news:

Venison is cheaper than beef steak, but not by much.
Terry's Taxidermy, a processor located in Okla. City, provides
a price list which owner Terry Mayberry says is fairly typical
of what butchers charge in this area.  Although some butchers
charge just a flat fee for any deer, Mayberry's prices are based
on size.  For example, processing a deer that dresses out for
under 60 lbs is $42.  It costs an extra $15, plus the skin, for
skinning.  Turning the whole deer into summer sausage costs
$2.25 a lb. plus a $25 boning fee.  Breakfast sausage with
pork fat added is 75 cents a pound.  Preparing jerky is $7.50
a pound and you can get the meat sliced think for jerky and
make it yourself for $1 per pound.

Successful deer hunters who don't like venison can help the
needy by donating their animals to the Sportsmen Against Hunter
program sponsored by the local Safari Club chapter.  This
group will pay for processing if the deer is taken to a participating
butcher and the meat will be distributed by the local OKC
charity Feed the Children.  Hunters who donate deer will have
a chance to win a combination deer and turkey hunt in South
Texas.  The second place hunter will get a "wild hog hunt" in
the Texas Panhandle.

The Kansas Dept. of Wildlife and Parks has started what sounds
like a good deal for hunters:  the Walk-in Hunting Area (WIHA)
program.   The dept. leases private lands to be used for public
hunting.  From an initial sign-up of 10,000 acres, the program now
provides more than 330,000 acres.
Landowners are obligated only to allow hunting access by foot
traffic and to maintain the habitat.  Vehicles, camping, fires, horses,
dog training and trapping are not allowed.  All activities banned on
public lands also are prohibited on the leased land.  Landowners
may give individuals permission for those activities.  Wildlife
and Parks staff patrol WIHA land thruout the season.

                                           For the animals,

                                           Jana, OKC


Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 11:46:43 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Avoiding Car/Deer Accidents
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>


A/w Oklahoma outdoor news:

More deer are hit by vehicles during the rut that at any other
time of the year.  The rut should be in full swing right now.

Drivers should watch for deer on the roadways during the early
morning, late evening and nighttime hours.  It is a good idea
for drivers to visualize what to do if a deer suddently appears
in the headlights.  Planning can reduce damage and in some
cases, prevent serious injury.

Here's a list of precautions that should be taken while driving
in deer country during November:

1.  Always scan the roadway ahead to the limits of your headlights.

2.  Allow extra distance when following another vehicle.

3.  If a vehicle is following too closely, slow down and let it pass.

4.  If a deer crosses the road ahead of you, assume there will be
     more to follow.

5.  Never swerve to miss a deer, but brake hard and stay in your
     lane.  Most fatal accidents are caused when a car leaves the
     road or collides with an oncoming vehicle.

                                                       For the Animals,

                                                       Jana, OKC
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 14:09:47 -0600
From: [e-mail] (Rick Bogle)
To: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Primate freedom
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

As a sixth grade teacher I have had many discussions with my students
reflecting on the reasons people would allow such things as slavery, child
labor, and the Holocaust to continue.  Eleven year olds, as do many of us,
see themselves as heros. They consistently tell me that they would have
been a part of the underground railway or would have had someone hidden in
their basement or attic.  I like to think I would have too.

However, after educating myself about primate issues I realized that if I
did not stand up for them and speak out loudly that I might be fooling
myself about my willingness  to stand against previous horrors.

The NIH Regional Primate Research Center System is based on the concept
that non-human primates are valuable models precisely because they are so
similar to us.  This is most clearly demonstrated through the centersÆ use
of monkeys in studies of emotion and mental stress.

Beginning on December 7, I will be in front of the Yerkes Regional Primate
Research Center System to discuss the horrific treatment of the apes and
monkeys incarcerated there. I invite you to join me.

For more information see: www.orednet.org/~mnorthcu

For the Ape Army,
Rick Bogle
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 19:04:31 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) LA Times: "Cats Are in the Doghouse"
Message-ID: <971116190431_326969296@mrin47>

                     Copyright 1997 Times Mirror Company
                               Los Angeles Times

                   November 15, 1997, Saturday,  Home Edition

SECTION: Part A; Page 1; National Desk

CATS ARE IN THE DOGHOUSE; FOR THE GOOD OF THE ANIMALS AND
WILDLIFE, MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING THE TIME HAS COME TO REIN IN PETS
AND RID
THE NATION OF STRAYS. THEIR VIEW HAS FELINE PROTECTORS SHARPENING
THEIR
CLAWS.

BYLINE: JOHN BALZAR, TIMES STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: MIAMI BEACH

   Sixty million abandoned cats run loose in America. That's the latest
estimate
of experts--a pure guess, of course, but still makes the point. Susan Fleming
believes that about 10,000 roam the barrier island of Miami Beach. That's a
guess too. Fifty of these cats she calls hers. And even that is a rough
calculation at any given time.
   On this sultry sundown, just as every night, seven days a week, Fleming
ventures out and feeds them. She waits for cover of darkness, because there
is
no guessing about this: Cats are causing big trouble in the land. Nature and
the
nature of cats are in collision. Cats are killing birds. Cats are killing
small
wild creatures of all kinds. Animal lovers find themselves disturbed and
angry,
and a world apart about what to do.
   With so many million cats now roaming backyards, open lots, beaches and
parks, no less of an organization than the Humane Society of the United
States,
a group born of pet owners, has now joined in the call: It's time to bring
all
cats indoors and keep them there. For the good of the cats and wildlife.
   Conservationists say hurry up, it's about time.
   Felines don't get a voice in the matter, but those who would speak for
them
say don't sacrifice cats, it's not their fault.
   As never before, Americans are being asked to alter their ancient bond
with
the domestic cat.
   "OK, kids," Susan Fleming coos down an alleyway, clanging spoon against
bowl.
Cats bound over fences, drop down from trees, squeeze from underneath
buildings,
tails erect, eyes aglow, mouths watering. From a car that smells of sodden
kibble, Fleming makes 13 dinner stops in a territory of just a few square
blocks. Elsewhere in the back streets and parks, along the boardwalk and
around
the dunes, a hundred or more people, mostly women, divide up the city. They
fan
out with bowls and buckets. Some feed twice as many cats as Fleming. Others,
ones and twos.
   Stand back for a bigger view: Untold multitudes in San Diego and New York,
Costa Mesa and Pasadena, are out tonight feeding cats. Extrapolating the
density
of Miami Beach's feeders to the entire nation, there could be 300,000 people
like Fleming, digging into their own pockets to pay for cat food, answering
what
she calls the "curse of compassion." Maybe the numbers are unimaginably
greater.
Estimates come up with as many as 17.5 million cat feeders.

   Animal Lovers Are Divided

   Whatever the real count, it is large enough to split America's animal
lovers.
Because stray cats are predators. As are the millions of house cats allowed
to
roam free. They kill more than a billion small mammals and hundreds of
millions
of birds each year. That's the guess of scientists.
   So after simmering for generations--Hatfield and McCoy neighborhood feuds
between cat and bird fanciers--the whole question of cats in America is
boiling
over. The Humane Society, the largest animal organization in the country,
anguished about the conflict for years. This autumn, it has joined with the
American Bird Conservancy and assumed leadership in redefining the proper
place
for cats in a crowded nation:
   One, the groups declared, cats should be subject to municipal animal
controls, or protections if you prefer, just the same as dogs.
   Two, it's no longer responsible to let your cat roam.
   Such a profound change in thinking will be difficult for many to accept.
Ever
since the first house cats arrived with European settlers, Americans have
told
themselves that cats have a right to freedom, a need for it. Dogs came to be
licensed but not cats. Dogs were fenced and leashed. But people granted cats
the
"nature" to ramble. In 1949, for instance, then-Gov. Adlai Stevenson of
Illinois
vetoed a bill to restrict felines. "All cats should be allowed some
unescorted
roaming," he said.
   Of course, there were many fewer cats then. After lagging dogs for most of
the 20th century, cats have become our most popular and numerous pet, with 53
million of them in 34 million households. The Humane Society estimates 60
million roam the country without owners. Total cats: 113 million and surely
increasing.

   Pet Owners Face 'Radical Notion'

   Never before has such an important humane group asked so much of its
members:
to rein in their house cats and, even more, to rid the nation of free-ranging
felines.
   "It is," said Humane Society Vice President Wayne Pacelle, "one of the
biggest challenges of the humane movement." It is also, he concedes, the most
"radical notion" for pet owners since the campaign for spaying and neutering
began in earnest in the 1950s.
   Even this hardly says enough.
   The people who own cats, and particularly those who accept responsibility
for
unowned cats--cat people, as they sometimes are called, can be righteous
crusaders. Cats, after all, are innocent of everything except their nature.
They
are, like children, blameless. Cat people must protect them.
   Driving through Miami Beach, Susan Fleming is talking about her friends
who
help feed the homeless cats. "She's a nut," Fleming says of one. So is
another
and, later, a third is revealed to be a nut. Good people, but nuts.
   Does Fleming get called a nut?
   "All the time," she laughs. "My boyfriend calls me a real nut. . . . OK,
kids." Clang, clang. "This guy here is Tuxedo. He's 11 years old. I've had
him
since he was a kitten. I've never been able to touch him." Clang, clang. When
Hurricane Andrew lashed the South Florida coast, most people prepared by
boarding up their homes. Fleming, who owns several apartment buildings in
South
Beach, raced around trapping her stray cats. She locked them in empty
upstairs
apartments with tubs of food and water. Otherwise, they would seek shelter
under
buildings where a storm surge would drown them.

   A Friend to Felines

   To venture into these side streets as a stranger is to see only garbage
cans
and backyard fences. But cats are attuned to the vibrations of Fleming's car.
They have dinner reservations. By the time she pulls to a stop, they have
materialized in colonies of three, five, seven. Clang, clang. Some have
names,
others are recognized by color. Here's a newcomer. This tomcat has been
around
from the start. These two are brothers. Oh, and there's a mother with new
kittens.
   Each cat gets a mound of moistened kibble but only fleeting affection.
Fleming believes, as do most pet owners, that cats deserve love and
attention.
For these creatures, though, it's better if they do not become too trusting
of
people. Not everyone is soft on strays.
   Yes, Fleming acknowledges that her cats kill birds, and this makes her
uncomfortable. "I love all animals equally. And there's no doubt that a
well-fed
cat will continue to hunt. Unfortunately, that includes birds. But what's the
alternative? Do you want to kill all these animals too?" She points to the
cats
surrounding her--black and orange and white and gray, spotted and solid, all
eyeing the bowl in her hand. "What's the alternative? These cats didn't do
anything to deserve to be killed."
   Stiffening, she adds: "And let's face it, the real damage to wildlife in
this
world comes from humans."
   Fleming has been feeding here for 12 years, taking over from "two little
old
ladies who died." She is now middle-age, and she hopes that someone "will
take
over for me when I can't go on."
   But she does not just feed cats. Fleming and her 100 friends call
themselves
SoBe Spay-Neuter Inc. In two years, they have sterilized 2,000 of South
Beach's
estimated 10,000 strays, notching each one's ear to prove it. A start.
Fleming
says the result is a shrinking stray cat population in Miami Beach, an
observation shared by city officials.
   Still, Fleming has no illusion about the colonies dying away even if she
controls their reproduction. Others keep coming. People discard cats like
rubbish. People share their houses and yards with cats for years and never
truly
claim them. People move away and leave the cats behind with the unpaid rent.
People tire of cleaning the cat box and lock the door. A house cat produces a
surprise litter in the laundry room--oh, dear, put the kittens in the park
where
the little old ladies will feed them.
   Fleming spends four hours a day on cats--an hour feeding and three hours
trapping them for sterilization, or responding to calls of abandoned kittens,
or
trying to find homes for strays, or nursing the sick. Her concern is widely
known in the neighborhood, and once she had to ransom cats stolen from her
car.
Can you imagine?
   Her apartment is full of sacks of food, traps, cat carriers and, of
course,
her own seven house cats. Her bathtub sometimes squirms with rescued kittens.
She spends about $ 5,000 a year on cat food. She pays the homeless to watch
over
her colonies.
   If not for such people, cats by the long ton would go hungry, get sick,
die.
Or be killed. Los Angeles took in 25,609 cats last year. For lack of adoptive
homes, 80%, or 20,375, were put to death. Nationwide, the toll reaches
millions.

   *

   When it comes to cats and birds, German philosopher Georg Hegel's axiom
seems apt: Tragedy is when two sides are irreconcilably right. Because just a
short
drive away, in Miami's Coconut Grove, Dennis J. Olle is a compassionate
animal
lover too.
   He is conservation chairman of Tropical Audubon, the Dade County Audubon
Society. In 20 years, he watched cats spread through every park in the
region.
He recorded a decline in migratory birds, a decline in water birds, a decline
in
resident songbirds.
   "It's devastating," he said.
   Granted, human regard for wildlife, for birds, is substantively different
than for pets. House cats make people feel good about themselves; wildlife
makes
people feel good about the world.
   A lawyer, Olle vaults from his desk without a backward glance. With a tour
of
local parks, he will demonstrate that birds need help too.
   "See that?" Olle has parked at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. A small
laughing
gull lands nearby for a drink of fresh water. He caught the swift
side-movement
of an advancing cat. The gull has too, and flees. Lounging on the grass of
the
small pocket park are 20 more fat, healthy, yawning cats. A couple of young
ones
bound up, perhaps mistaking Olle for a feeder. The others feign boredom.
   Only a few yards away is a fenced area where Audubon members tried to
protect
the beach for breeding terns. The terns never came, and cats now frolic on
both
sides of the fence. In all the park, only one bird is seen feeding on the
ground, a
mockingbird.

   Birds Are Major Victims

   At another park, a small mainland remnant of Florida's once-mighty
tropical
hardwood forests, the afternoon is eerie quiet. Melodious chirps emanate
randomly from Olle. Bird calls. They are unanswered. No sounds of life. The
only
animals to be seen are a cat lounging in the shade and, overhead, a single
turkey vulture.
   "We don't know what this place should be like, if there were no cats.
Should
it be teeming with birds? It's kind of scary. It's not a cat problem, I'll
grant
that. It's a human problem. But there's no place in Dade County for feral
cats.
The best I can say is to capture them and get them homes or euthanize them,"
Olle said.
   Olle and wildlife scientists across America, and for that matter around
the
world, say cat lovers may not fully realize, or accept, the extent of the
cumulative problem arising from all these cats. As practically any cat owner
knows, and science has documented, a well-fed cat still hunts. On average,
20%
of their prey can be birds.
   Throughout the hemisphere, birds are suffering from loss of wild habitat.
Their nesting grounds, migratory flyways, seasonal ranges are chopped up into
smaller and smaller tracts by human development. Enter cats, "the most
specialized living carnivores," to quote Andrew Kitchener, curator of mammals
and birds at the Royale Museum of Scotland and author of "The Natural History
of
the Wild Cats."
   Because of fragmented habitat, cats typically range free to prey without
being preyed upon. This is not the case in larger swaths of wild country. Few
cat colonies have taken up permanent residence among the alligators and owls
in
the Everglades, for instance. But when allowed to concentrate without
predatory
challenge, cats extract an astounding toll of small wildlife.
   One of the most authoritative studies of the subject was conducted by
scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes Indian
Fish and Wildlife Commission. They measured wildlife damage in rural areas,
estimating that some proficient cats kill up to 1,000 animals a year, 200 of
them birds. Even one cat described by researchers as a klutz killed 28
animals.
Add it up and you arrive at their estimate of a billion-plus animal
casualties
in the U.S.
   Other scientists have attempted to measure the specific consequences of
cats
in suburban areas and parks, where increasing numbers of colonies are being
established. One problem has inhibited this science: Because cats are
everywhere, it is difficult to make comparisons.
   For his doctoral thesis from Texas A&M University, wildlife ecologist Cole
Hawkins almost gave up before finding parks with and without cats in Alameda
County, Calif. His findings: "significant differences" in the numbers of
resident and feeding birds in each. Ground-feeding California quail and
California thrashers were common in the catless area but virtually
nonexistent
in their presence.
   At the California Department of Fish and Game in Sacramento, wildlife
biologist Ron Jurek says free-ranging cat colonies have created localized
concentrations of predators unequaled anywhere in the natural world. Here,
cats
have a "major impact" on wildlife and pose a danger to some threatened
species
like the ground-nesting least tern. One tern nesting site has been fenced off
near Marina del Rey since the 1970s. A couple of years ago, a cat found its
way
in. Jurek says it slaughtered "a large number of chicks per day" until
finally
trapped.
   Findings like these are more than some cat fanciers can endure. Alley Cat
Allies, a Maryland-based advocacy group for feral cat feeders, struck back in
a
recent newsletter. Cats are taking the blame for habitat destruction,
hunting,
pesticides, plate-glass windows and other human misdeeds: "Those who want to
discredit cats are grasping at straws. . . . Cat populations need to be
controlled, but let's not turn the cat into the scapegoat of the century."

   California Is Among Battlegrounds

   Conflicts between cats and wildlife, and the clashes of their human
partisans, are sharpest in states with temperate climates, fast-growing human
populations and vast varieties of native animal species, like California and
Florida. In these places, some cat feeders advance an argument that stray
felines are not intruders in nature, but settlers. Immigrant cats thus are
owed
the same hands-off freedom given coyotes, chipmunks, songbirds and the least
tern.
   Passions run high in the quarrel, and superheated rhetoric is common. For
just this reason, the leaders of the Humane Society debated the question long
and vigorously before speaking out. They take pains to avoid being classed as
anti-cat. Instead, they argue that the best interests of cats are served by
keeping them inside because they live longer and healthier lives. Why not
spare
both cats and birds?
   As for feral cats, the Humane Society says there is no single national
policy
that will solve the threat to wildlife. The group says it will support
responsible local efforts to bring down the free-ranging cat
population--whether
ordinances to bring cats under control, the same as dogs, or carefully
managed
colonies where all cats are spayed or neutered and newcomers are prohibited.
   The Humane Society's Pacelle, one of the most important animal rights
activists in America, believes that the arguments over cats will occupy pet
owners for years to come. "This is a cultural change that's being sought. And
it's a debate worth having."
   Wildlife advocates also dread being branded as heartless scolds. George H.
Fenwick, president of the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy, says, really,
isn't anyone in his line of work, by definition, soft on animals? But birds,
not
cats, are in trouble. "It's real bad now in many places, and it's going to
get
worse in a lot more places."
   Fenwick is one of those responsible for making cat-control a national
conservation priority. Until his organization decided to take on the
challenge
this year, most of the work fell to local Audubon chapters. Other eco-groups
shied away, knowing that cat owners were among their members and not wishing
internal conflict.
   The bird conservancy, Fenwick says, will support the Humane Society's
flexible approach. "But only up to a point." After that, he suggests that
wildlife advocates will have to carry the argument beyond pet owners,
believing
that the concerns of the larger citizenry will favor birds.
   As for strays, Fenwick wants them gone, beginning in parks. He does not
say
how. "We have no policy. I hope they do the most humane thing possible for
these
cats."

   Curbs Run Into Resistance

   Judging from the recent past, those seeking to curb cats will encounter
resistance. In 1994, the California Legislature briefly considered imposing
fines on people who let their unspayed and unneutered cats range freely. Cat
advocacy groups marshaled their forces, calling the proposal a "cat-killer
bill"
and vowing to make life miserable for any politician who crossed them. So
ended
consideration of the law.
   Complicating the discussion is the emergence of a "no kill" animal-control
philosophy. That is, the belief that animal shelters should not destroy
animals.
Municipal authorities and traditional humane societies say this would be
impossible--not enough homes for stray animals, not enough money or space to
provide permanent refuge for all. Still, the sentiment has caught on among
animal advocates and is the subject of popular fancy.
   Meanwhile, tonight on Miami Beach, moist tropical air carries smells of
perfume, cigars, suntan oil, tropical duff and restaurant broilers. Music
drifts
out of Art Deco clubs. In pastel flickers of neon, young faces come alight
with
expectation for another night in fashionable South Beach.
   No one hears the lone woman drive into an alley behind, stop, and emerge
from
her aromatic sedan, spoon and bowl in hand. But the cats hear. Clang, clang.

   Researchers Anna Virtue in Miami and Janet Lundblad in Los Angeles
assisted
with this story.

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 18:50:05 -0800
From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Forward: animal studies on AZT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

The following article is forwarded from the HEALTHE (environmental
health) mailing list:

******************************************
Study Finds AZT Causes Cancer in Animals' Offspring
******************************************

by Peter Barry Chowka

A new study reporting that AZT given to pregnant mice increased the risk
of their offspring developing cancer within one year and that the babies
of monkeys treated with AZT during pregnancy incorporated the toxic drug
into their DNA has potential implications for people with HIV-AIDS,
particularly for the thousands of HIV-positive pregnant women who
currently receive AZT in order to decrease the risk of transmitting the
virus to their newborns. Ofelia Olivero, MD of the National Institutes
of Health in Bethesda, Maryland is the lead author of the study
published earlier this month in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute or JNCI (1997;89:1602-1608).

Despite the conclusions of the study, "the immediate need for treatment
of a potentially fatal disease should outweigh the potential cancer
risk" of administering rhe AZT, Olivero concluded. According to an
account by Reuters, "In 1994, it was discovered that treating pregnant
women with AZT reduced the risk of HIV transmission by 60% to 70%. Since
then, use of the drug has caused the mother-to-infant transmission rate
to drop by 45%, and an estimated 650 HIV infections a year are prevented
by AZT use in pregnancy in the U.S."

Other observers are not quite so sanguine. They note that AZT has
consistently fallen far short of the hype bestowed on it by its
proponents.  AZT was first developed as a cancer chemotherapy drug in
the 1960s but was never used because of its extreme toxicity. In the
1980s, AZT was tested as a single agent against HIV-AIDS. Early reports
suggested, among other things, that it delayed the development of full
blown AIDS in asymptomatic individuals, but later studies concluded that
people with AIDS received little actual benefit from taking it.

Celia Farber, a journalist whose probing series of articles and columns,
"AIDS: Words from the Front," appeared for years in SPIN magazine, wrote
in August 1993 about the "Concorde Study" of AZT which "went on for
three years, examining 1,749 HIV-positive but healthy people at 38
health centers in the U.K., Ireland, and France. Because the research
lasted the longest of all AZT studies to date, and its pedigree was
unassailable (it was conducted by the highly reputable British Medical
Research Council and its French equivalent), Concorde could not be
dismissed. The team concluded that AZT -- a highly toxic and
carcinogenic drug -- neither prolongs life nor staves off symptoms
of AIDS in people who are HIV-antibody positive but still healthy.

"The blueprint for the Concorde 'disappointment' has been in the
literature for many years. As we [SPIN] reported in November 1989, the
first objective study was completed in France in 1988 and was published
with very little fanfare in the Lancet, a British medical journal. The
study found that AZT was too toxic for most people to tolerate, had no
lasting effect on HIV blood levels, and left the patients with fewer CD4
cells than they had started with."

The trials of AZT in pregnant women that were published in 1994 seemed
to give the drug a new lease on life. More recently, AZT has been
combined with protease inhibitors as part of an "AIDS cocktail" drug
approach for people with HIV-AIDS. Much hoopla has surrounded that
combination therapy, including its chief proponent, David Ho, MD, being
selected as Time magazine's 1996 "Man of the Year."

In the JNCI study, mice in the last trimester of gestation were given
AZT at levels approximately five times the dose administered to pregnant
women. The baby mice developed tumors in the lungs, liver, and
reproductive organs at 1 year of age. The cancer risk to the offspring
of monkeys treated with AZT during pregnancy whose DNA came to include
AZT remains unclear.

An editorial in the same issue of JNCI by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) in defense of AZT noted that 5,000 children
a year in the U.S. are exposed to AZT in the womb, and that a three-year
study of 1,000 of these children found no tumors or signs of cancer.
Animal studies of the drug are continuing, as are studies that follow
AZT-exposed children over time.

*****************************************************

When the results of animal studies agree with clinical or
epidemiological studies conducted in human populations, they are
considered supporting evidence.  When they are at odds as in this
instance, however, the results of animal studies are given short shrift,
except for the obligatory "more studies are needed."

It's hard to see the logic behind it, but logic has never been the
strongest point of vivisection.

Andy



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