Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news58~4.htm/text0000.txt

Text File | 1998-04-02 | 41.8 KB | 994 lines

Can of worms may be key for top notch university

Scripps Howard - Minneapolis, November 22, 1997 00:59 a.m. EST

It's a tiny worm with an elephantine name: Caenorhabditis elegans. No
bigger than the commas on this page, the graceful little nematode is a
giant in the field of cell biology and genetics.

Next year, scientists will finish mapping its genetic makeup, making C.
elegans the most complex organism yet to have its DNA structure
unraveled. By playing with its genes, scientists have produced at least
2,800 variations of the nematode, including worms that are paralyzed,
worms that move strangely and worms that live twice as long as normal.

Eventually such work could lead to treatment for such conditions as
Alzheimer's disease. It's the kind of basic research that University of
Minnesota President Mark Yudof wants to see more of.

That's why the university is asking the state for more than $70 million
to build an Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology on the
Minneapolis campus and to hire additional faculty members in those
areas. Yudof wants the university, which now ranks about 34th nationally
in molecular and cellular biology, to become one of the top five public
research universities in the field within the next decade.

Pitching the idea to the Board of Regents last month, Yudof said the
biology initiative was probably the most expensive proposal he will make
as president. It's needed not only for the university, he said, but for
the economy and for the future of the science-related businesses in
Minnesota known as Medical Alley.

"This is extremely high-stakes for the University of Minnesota; it's
hard to overestimate its importance," Yudof told the board. "Medical
Alley, in my judgment . . . is going to be highly dependent on these
sort of breakthroughs. We want it to happen in Minnesota."

The proposal has support from Gov. Arne Carlson, who endorsed the
biology initiative as part of its budget requests to next year's
Legislature. While university scientists are ecstatic about the plan, it
has gotten mixed reviews from other parts of the university that are
hungry for funding.

Richard Leppert, chairman of the university's Department of Cultural
Studies and Comparative Literature, said Yudof is wise to target
big-ticket items early in his presidency. But liberal arts departments
need money and a rebuilding strategy soon, he said, or the university's
rankings will slip further.

If the university is looking for an area to invest in, it couldn't pick
a better area than molecular and cellular biology, said Ralph Yount,
president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental
Biology.

"This is the area where the greatest advances are being made, because we
have the tools to look at biology in detail now," said Yount, a
professor of biochemistry and chemistry at Washington State University.
"You're going to get genetic coding for all the important model systems
-- bacteria, yeast, the fruit fly -- and the information is just going
to be overwhelming."

Victor Bloomfield, biochemistry professor in the university's College of
Biological Sciences, agrees.

"Modern biology is the science of the latter part of the 20th century
and the first part of the 21st century," he said. "If we want to be a
great university, we've got to be great in biology."

Other universities have targeted biology with success. The University of
Colorado, now ranked fifth among public universities in the National
Research Council's biochemistry and molecular biology rankings,
restructured biology about 20 years ago, Yount said. The University of
California system, which has three of its campuses in the top five
public universities in the field, built powerhouse departments over the
past 30 years.

"They saw where the future lay, and they built it," Bloomfield said.

The University of Minnesota has a distinguished research history, but
many of its most lauded discoveries -- the aircraft flight recorder, the
retractable seat belt, taconite processing, isolation of uranium 235 in
a mass spectrometer, the first heart pacemaker -- occurred years or even
decades ago.

While university researchers are turning out new crop and ornamental
plants, breaking ground in engineering and working on such innovations
as a bioartificial liver, College of Biological Sciences Dean Bob Elde
said the richest source for pioneering work lies in "curiosity-driven"
research, the fundamental work that yields unpredictable discoveries.

It's the sort of thing that's going on in the university's "worm labs,"
where Bob Herman, a professor of genetics and cell biology, has studied
developmental genetics in C. elegans for more than 20 years under
National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.

One of the things Herman and other researchers are investigating is how
the worm's cells pass signals to each other. As they grow and develop,
cells need to know where they are in relation to each other. Researchers
have been trying to figure out how the signals sent from cell to cell
change the cells' behavior.

Each signal, which helps determine whether the cell becomes, for
example, a muscle or a nerve cell, is encoded by a gene. The worm has
just 17,000 genes, compared with an estimated 65,000 to 100,000 in
people. But most human genes bear a similarity to one of the worm's
genes. If researchers can figure out what causes genes to misfire in the
worm, the reason may explain why genes malfunction in people and cause
things like tumors.

Such connections already are being made. After discovering a mutation in
a fruit fly -- Yount called them "little men with wings" -- researchers
removed a similar gene from mice. Those mice developed Gorlin's
Syndrome, a rare condition, named after a University of Minnesota
professor, that is linked to skin cancer and brain tumors.

"It's like one step from the fly to the human," Elde said. "For the
first time, we have a rational way to discover a treatment."

By MARY JANE SMETANKA, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 21:09:47 -0800
From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Embryos made to order
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

New York Times Online - November 23, 1997

With Help of Science, Infertile Couples Can Even Pick Traits

By GINA KOLATA

NEW YORK -- Kathy Butler, a 47-year-old New Jersey woman, is pregnant
with triplets. But the babies bear no relationship to her or to her
husband, Gary. Instead, they are growing from ready-made embryos that
the Butlers selected and paid for at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical
Center in Manhattan.

Doctors at the medical center had mixed human eggs and sperm to make a
variety of embryos with different pedigrees. Then they froze the
embryos. The idea was to allow prospective parents to select embryos
whose parents resemble them physically or have the same ethnic
background and are well educated -- the best possible sperm and egg
donors for those who cannot have babies of their own.

The Butlers are part of a quiet but fast-emerging new world of assisted
reproduction in the United States. Doctors have become skilled at
creating human embryos, and anguished, infertile couples are more than
willing to pay for whatever infertility clinics can offer. The technique
has resulted in an unknown number of births.

Ms. Butler said she and her husband had few options. They had spent all
their money on other infertility treatments, and so when they discovered
that they could select a group of premade frozen embryos for $2,750,
they were overjoyed.

For many who venture into the doors of leading infertility clinics, what
the Butlers have done will be understandable, even enviable. After all,
those few centers with embryos that are up for what the doctors
euphemistically call "adoption" have waiting lists of couples who want
them.

Premade human embryos are rare and largely confined to a handful of
burgeoning centers like the one at Columbia-Presbyterian, where doctors
quietly tell patients about the embryos but do not advertise them. "If
you talk to smaller centers, they'll say they never heard of such a
thing," said Dr. Mark Sauer of Columbia-Presbyterian.

Some embryos are custom made by doctors, while others have been made by
doctors for infertile couples and then not used. These couples paid for
their own egg and sperm donors and then ended up with more embryos than
they needed. The clinics offer these embryos to people who cannot afford
the more than $16,000 it would cost for a single attempt at pregnancy
with sperm and egg donors they select themselves.

Is there something chilling about the idea of making embryos on
speculation and selecting egg and sperm donors according to their looks
and education and ethnicity?

"It does seem like a supermarket approach to embryos," said Lori B.
Andrews, a professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Doctors who treat infertility say the questions are beside the point.
"It's normal human nature" to want to choose donors of eggs and sperm,
Dr. Sauer said. "Behind closed doors, the most liberal-minded people are
about as discriminating as you can get. So don't accuse us of playing
God."

The premade embryos appear to inhabit ambiguous legal territory, Ms.
Andrews said. Laws governing sperm and egg donors vary from state to
state, and many states have no laws. And the law has not addressed such
questions as the status of embryos formed in the laboratory, or who the
guardians of the frozen embryos may be, she added.

So, too, the technique seems to raise a tangle of ethical issues, like
the potential, in theory, for siblings to be raised by separate parents
without any knowledge that they have brothers or sisters.

Freezing eggs is still not a completely reliable art. But once eggs are
fertilized, the embryos can be readily frozen, stored indefinitely and
survive the thawing process for placement in a woman's womb.

It is the distress of frustrated, would-be parents that drives the
recruitment of sperm and egg donors. Infertility clinics and even some
individuals advertise in newspapers at elite colleges and universities,
knowing that a woman who is a student at Princeton or Stanford or the
University of Pennsylvania will seem especially desirable to recipients.


Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, spotted
an advertisement in the school's student newspaper that read: "Loving
infertile couple (Yale '80 grad and husband) wanting to start family
needs a healthy, light-haired, Caucasian woman (ages 21-32) willing to
be an egg donor. Reimbursed $2,000 plus expenses for time and effort.
Comprehensive physical at leading NYC hospital included."

Silver mentioned the advertisement to a class he was teaching on "Sex,
Babies, Genes and Choices." A few women in the class said they had
considered responding to it, explaining that the money was nice but that
they also liked the idea of helping other people and "the idea that they
could seed the world in some way" with their eggs, he said.

Egg donors agree to inject themselves with drugs to stimulate their
ovaries, making the ovaries swell with ripening eggs. It is not a
totally benign experience, said Dr. Mitchell Tucker, who is scientific
director at Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta. On rare
occasions, he said, the woman's ovaries become overstimulated. "Her
estrogen levels go through the roof, and she goes into a
nonphysiological crisis where you get fluid retention," he added. "In
the severest cases, the kidneys shut down," and, very rarely, women have
died.

Sauer of Columbia-Presbyterian says he creates embryos for adoption when
an infertile woman who has selected and contracted for an egg donor
suddenly changes her mind. In a large program like his, with about 150
to 200 egg donations a year, it is not uncommon for the recipient to
back out at the last minute, Sauer said. Sometimes there is a death in
the family. Other times, he said, "there are money issues or squabbles."




Whatever the reason, when the recipient backs out, the egg donor is left
with ovaries that are bursting with eggs, waiting for a final hormone
shot that will allow the eggs to be released. One option is for the
donor to forgo that shot. Her ovaries would then shrink from the size of
grapefruits to their normal walnut size over the next few weeks.

But, Sauer said, "it would be a waste of eggs not to retrieve them." So
he gives the woman the final hormone injection, removes the eggs and
fertilizes what may be 20 to 30 ripe eggs with a variety of sperm from a
commercial sperm bank, looking for a donor with blue eyes and one with
brown eyes, one with dark hair and one who is fair. "Let's have a
heterogeneous group of embryos," Sauer said.

Doctors at other leading infertility centers said that it was rare to
have unused donor eggs. But when they do, they too make embryos.

Tucker of Reproductive Biology Associates said that one woman at his
clinic who paid for an egg donor recently backed out when one of her
parents died. "It seemed totally inappropriate to give the eggs up," he
said, so he created embryos for adoption.

Dr. Joseph Schulman, director of the Genetics and IVF Institute in
Fairfax, Va., never has unused eggs, he said, because he makes the women
who want donor eggs pay in full for egg retrieval and in vitro
fertilization before the egg donor begins the series of injections. "No
one backs out," Schulman said.

But, he said, some who carefully select egg and sperm donors end up with
more embryos than they need, so some of them allow Schulman to offer
their embryos to other couples. As with the embryos that Sauer makes at
Columbia-Presbyterian, these come with full pedigrees of their genetic
parents.

Kathy Butler, a patient of Sauer's, has a 21-year-old son from her first
marriage, but when she married Gary Butler, they wanted a baby of their
own. She ran into fertility problems, though.

Adoptions proved infeasible; they were too old for adoption agencies in
the United States, and they were wary of private and international
adoptions, Ms. Butler said.

They made an attempt at pregnancy with an egg donor they selected,
paying $16,500 to have embryos made with the donor eggs and Butler's
sperm. But the five embryos did not survive.

"It wiped us out financially," Ms. Butler said. Then Sauer mentioned
that there was a small pool of embryos available.

The Butlers, who both have Irish ancestors, wanted the sperm and egg
donors to have Irish backgrounds, "or at least light hair and light
eyes," Ms. Butler said. But all the available embryos had a mother who
was Italian, with brown hair and brown eyes. Five of her eggs were
fertilized with sperm from a man of Russian, Romanian and Hungarian
heritage and two others were fertilized with sperm from a man of Welsh
background.

Ms. Butler, who is half Welsh, said she would have preferred the Welsh
donor, but she and her husband decided it was more important to have
more embryos to give themselves a greater chance that one would survive.
They were told they could not take some embryos from each batch but
instead had to take all from one donor or the other. So they chose the
Russian-Romanian-Hungarian father. Three of the five embryos survived
after thawing, and two survived when they were put in Ms. Butler's
uterus. One of those split into identical twins, leaving Ms. Butler
pregnant with triplets.

"It's an adoption, but we have control," Ms. Butler said. "We don't have
to worry about the birth mother changing her mind. We don't have to
worry that she'll take drugs while she's pregnant." Her due date is June
6.

Sauer was not surprised by the Butlers' reaction. In the few years he
has been creating embryos, he said, "people have been waiting in line to
adopt."
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 10:04:57 -0500 (EST)
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], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Polk City (Florida) Dove Shoot:  Boycott Florida Citrus
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

On November 19th, Sarasota In Defense of Animals received a flyer advertising
the "1997 Florida Citrus Showcase Dove Shoot & BBQ" to be held in Polk City
on Friday, Nov. 21, 1997.  After further investigation of the dove shoot and
"inside information" regarding the baiting of a field off of State Rd 33 less
than 1 mile south of Deen Still Rd just outside Polk City, Florida, SDA sent
fax letters to Dr. Allen Egbert, Executive Director of the Florida Game &
Fresh Water Fish Commission, to Daniel L. Santangelo, Director, Florida Dept.
of Citrus, and to Senator Katherine Harris (family of citrus moguls).
 Although questions were asked to all of these, none of them have seen fit to
 make an official reply in writing.

We received unofficial information from anonymous sources on Thursday, Nov.
20th, that the Friday dove shoot had been either postponed or cancelled;
further requests for verification of this from the Florida Dept. of Citrus
were ignored.

Article in Sunday's (Nov. 23, 1997) Sarasota Herald-Tribune:  POLK
CITY...Corn-seeded field ends dove hunt  "Members of the Florida Citrus
Showcase paid $50 each for an afternoon of dove hunting, but the hunt was
called off when wildlife officers found that the field had been seeded with
cracked corn.  'If a field has been seeded and there is shooting over that
field, we will arrest those people who are shooting because that is baiting,'
said Lt. Rip Stalvey of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.
 Hunters were told Thursday a complaint filed with wildlife officers alleged
that they would be hunting over a seeded field.  It is illegal to put seeds
on a field used for hunting, but it is allowable to seed the land to grow a
crop, such as millet, for ground cover, Stalvey said.  While it wasn't
determined who seeded the field near the AVT Ranch, hunters and animal-rights
activists blamed each other.  Refunds for the 11th annual hunt were issued."

Sarasota In Defense of Animals is calling for a BOYCOTT OF FLORIDA CITRUS.
 Also, the Florida Citrus Quean pageant is sponsored by the Florida Citrus
Showcase.

Please send protests letters for this sordid activity to:

Mr. Daniel L. Santangelo, Director
Florida Department of Citrus
P.O. Box 148
Lakeland, FL 33802
Fax [phone]

Senator Katherine Harris
3131 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 101
Sarasota, FL 34239
Fax [phone]













Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 10:28:32 -0500 (EST)
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], [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: Quarterhorse's Windpipe Slashed in Orlando, Florida
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

For those who thought rustling outlaws no longer existed -- Florida continues
to live up to its cruel, rootin' tootin' image:

The Miami Herald reported on 22 Nov.:  "ORLANDO--(AP)-- A quarterhorse whose
windpipe was slashed, was bled out and butchered by rustlers who wanted its
meat, according to police.  Rustlers apparently lured the horse, named
Peeker, whose remains were found Wednesday, with handfulls of ground corn and
tied by its neck to a scrub oak in a pasture near Orlando International
Airport.  Insulated wire cable lasing yhe horse to the oak "wore into the
tree, it ran around...so much," Officer Mike Sebag said.  "So it died a long,
painful death."

Sarasota In Defense of Animals received the above article from a member who
resides in North Miami.  We intend to further investigate this incident and
anyone having information regarding it, please advise by return e-mail or to
fax: [phone].



Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 12:12:54 -0500
From: Constance Young <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: huge pigeon tower shoot upstate New York
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Most of you activists have probably comitted yourselves already to Fur
Free Friday or other animal rights activities the day after
Thanksgiving.

Well here is another for those of you with nothing meaningful to do the
day after Thanksgiving.  Indian Mountain Lodge in upstate New York will
be having a huge pigeon shoot on the day after Thanksgiving and we will
be out there protesting.

Send me an e-mail note with your phone number if you think you can come
and I will fill you in with more details.  Constance Young
([e-mail])


Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 14:02:38 -0800
From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Mutant rats in Chile
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Large rats alarm Chileans

Reuters - SANTIAGO (November 23, 1997 3:17 p.m. EST)

A Chilean ecological group has voiced concern about two-foot long
"mutant" rats that have attacked barnyard animals in a suburb of
Santiago.

The private Orbe news agency said Mauricio Barraza, president of the
Ecological Council of Maipu, believed that the rodents had grown so
large because they fed on the droppings of hormone-fattened poultry.

According to Barraza, the giant rats burrow in the banks of the Mapocho,
the filthy river that crosses Santiago, and have shocked farmers in
Maipu, a Santiago suburb, with their vicious attacks on chicken and
small goats.
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 14:06:55 -0800
From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Thai villagers protect wild elephants
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Thai villagers move to protect wild elephants

Agence France-Presse

BANGKOK (November 23, 1997 00:53 a.m. EST )

Villagers in southern Thailand are rallying round to protect wild
elephants threatened by poachers and deforestation after several died, a
report said Sunday.

More than 100 villagers in Prachuab Kiri Khan province have set up a
club to keep watch on elephants that roam a local forest reserve after
at least half a dozen died, including two by poisoning.

The Kui Buri Forest and Elephants Club will also educate communities
about the behavior patterns of the estimated 200 elephants that live in
nearby jungle areas.

"Our most urgent task is to keep the elephants away from crops. The
fastest solutions are electric fences and growing wild bananas -- their
favourite wild food," Sun Muakmuang, a village headman and chief of the
new club, told the Bangkok Post.

Because of encroachment on their forest habitat, the elephants are
forced to eat crops to survive. Villagers have resorted to letting off
firecrackers or shooting guns to scare them away.

Earlier this year at least two elephants were killed after drinking
water from a pond contaminated with pesticide. Forestry officials are
still not sure whether it was an accident or deliberate poisoning by
farmers.

That highly publicized case has improved the chances that the the
240,000 acre area will be classified next year as a national park, which
will mean more funding for conservation.

Only about 1,000 wild elephants are left in the whole of Thailand. Rapid
deforestation over recent decades has robbed them of their natural
habitat.

Numbers of domesticated elephants, mostly used as working animals in
forested areas, are also dwindling in the high-tech age with only about
3,500 left nationwide.

The decision to set up the club came after a one-month old elephant calf
died from malnutrition and dehydration after it was found in upland
forests -- probably driven into unsuitable terrain by poachers.

The club was formally started on Friday, with 300 wild banana trees
planted along the elephants' feeding path, in a bid to help monitor
them.

Boonlue Poonil, a local forest chief, said that in the long-term the
club aims to replant more of the Kui Buri jungle, which is the only way
to assure the survival of the remaining elephants.

"We can't afford to lose any more elephants," he was quoted as saying by
the Post.
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 14:09:25 -0800
From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Study warns men against eating too much seafood
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Study warns men against eating too much seafood

Reuters - HONG KONG (November 23, 1997 00:17 a.m. EST)

Despite the oyster's
reputation as an appetiser for a romantic evening, Hong Kong men with
fertility problems are being warned against eating too much seafood due
to high levels of mercury.

Two meals of fish or shellfish per week should be the limit, specialists
said, after tests showed mercury was the dominant toxic metal in seafood
sold in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

Eating too much seafood was unwise for both fertility and general
health, said Dr. Clement Leung of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital,
who is conducting a study on mercury in seafood.

"I believe it is a significant association," Leung told the paper.
"Shark products, tuna and swordfish -- these three fish are very high in
mercury."
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 17:27:52 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Turkey Express?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Does anyone know if Farm Sanctuary is still going on the road with its Turkey
Express caravan, and if they still call it that?  If so, please respond to me
privately and fast!  I want to recycle an old column I wrote and my
deadline's tomorrow (Monday) night.  Thanks.

Lynn Manheim
Letters for Animals
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 07:24:16 +0800
From: bunny <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (Aust)Controls for Pest Animal Problems
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Media Release (Queensland Government,Australia)

For immediate release:

Controls for Pest Animal Problems

Pest animals cost Australian's hundreds of millions of dollars every
year, due to loss of production and the costs of control. It is easy to
see why Queenslanders should be concerned about the control of these
pests.  The Department of Natural Resources is dedicated to finding
solutions to today's pest animal problems.

The Department of Natural Resource's Robert Wicks Research Centre was
established to find some of these solutions. A multi-disciplined team,
consisting of an ecologist/modeller, zoologists and experimentalists
operate out of the two facilities, one at Toowoomba, the other in
Inglewood.

The development of practical solutions for today's pest animal problems,
is the main focus of the two facilities that make up the Robert Wicks
Research Centre. Research just completed into feral goat management
highlights this commitment.

The goat project involved rural industries and a number of government
organisations and  used a variety of control methods.  A lot of effort
went into consulting with the rural community and  the project received
a great deal of cooperation.

Another key role of the research centre is monitoring the size and
density of animal pest populations in Queensland and identifying and
defining preferred habitat areas for specific pests. The research centre
also investigates and evaluates the economic, environmental and social
impacts of pest animals on the rural industries of Queensland.

Principal Scientist at the Robert Wicks Research Centre, Dr. Joe
Scanlan, stated that "a broad range of pest animal research is conducted
at the two facilities, varying from the assessment of the impacts of
dingoes on cattle to monitoring and the impacts of rabbit calicivirus
(RCV)."

"Research under way includes trials to develop an effective rodenticide
for in crop use. Currently trials on zinc phosphide for mouse control
have proven this rodenticide to be very effective and to have little
adverse environmental impact."

"We are also looking into the effects that myxomatosis and RCV are
having on rabbit populations. These control options are just part of a
combination of techniques used to reduce rabbit numbers."

The facilities are also involved in research into other biological
controls for pest animals. Currently, research is being conducted into
the effectiveness of a fungus, Metarhizium, as a control for
Spur-throated Locust.  Early field work has been encouraging and further
testing will be conducted over this summer.

If this testing proves successful and Metarhizium is put into wide
spread use, there will be a significant reduction in the use of
insecticides to control locusts.

The Robert Wicks Research Centre is a vital link in the effort to
control  pest animal species in Queensland. Once again the Department of
Natural Resources is working towards more effective management of
Queensland's natural resources.


End

For Further Information please call Carl Glen on 07 3406 2864, mobile on
0418 734 161, or fax [phone].
===========================================

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)

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Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 19:15:04 -0600
From: "JBeam" <[e-mail]>
To: "AR-News" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Circus Poll??
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

We were successful in getting our community college to not renew a 5-year
agreement allowing the local Shrine organization to use their campus for a
circus.  The Shriner's are asking that the Board reconsider their decision
and claim that most people support circuses.  Does anyone have any poll
data regarding circuses??  Please e-mail ASAP if you are aware of any.
Thanks.

Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 20:16:57 -0500
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Deer Season Empties W.Va. Schools
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from Associated Press http://wire.ap.org/
-------------------------------------
 11/23/1997 17:29 EST

 Deer Season Empties W.Va. Schools

 By DAVID SHARP
 Associated Press Writer

 SHINNSTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Camouflage flu always hits West Virginia schools
 hard the first week of deer hunting season, so much so that school
 officials are accepting the attitude of ``If you can't beat 'em, join
 'em.''

 Rather than face high absenteeism, at least 38 of the state's 55 counties
 cancel classes all week instead of just the usual Thursday-Friday
 Thanksgiving break. This year, that includes schools in Shinnston, where
 the high school had an absenteeism rate of 45 percent when teachers tried
 to hold classes in 1996.

 Chris Feathers said it wouldn't do much good for him to sit in school
 while his father and grandfather were hunting white-tailed deer.

 ``I don't think I could concentrate on classes,'' said Feathers, a senior
 at Shinnston's Lincoln High School with a 4.0 grade-point average. ``You
 can come but your mind is not there.''

 And there is no bigger fan than Lincoln Principal Jerry Toth, who quotes
 Henry David Thoreau in ``Walden'': ``We need the tonic of wildness.''

 ``I've never missed the first day of deer season since I was 14 years old
 and I'm not about to now,'' said Toth, who planned like many of his
 students to be out in the woods Monday.

 West Virginians take deer hunting seriously. So many people plan
 vacations around the two-week, bucks-only rifle season beginning Monday
 that some small businesses will just close.

 ``The first day of rifle season is the equivalent of the Super Bowl to
 football fans,'' said Scott Warner, a wildlife biologist for the Division
 of Natural Resources in Charleston.

 Officials expect more than 350,000 people to hunt during the bucks-only
 season. More than 200,000 deer are expected to be killed over the entire
 hunting season from October into December.

 West Virginia is not alone in closing schools. Some schools in
 southeastern Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania will close Dec. 1, the first
 day of firearm hunting in those states. Nationally, 15.2 million people
 purchased hunting licenses last year, according to the National Fish and
 Wildlife Service.

 ``Even when the schools don't close technically, half the students are
 out there hunting in some locations,'' said Chris Chaffin of the National
 Shooting Sports Foundation in Newtown, Conn.

 While Lincoln stayed open for classes last year, students who had their
 parents' permission and a hunting license were allowed to miss school on
 the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

 One of those was Adam Pratt, who came home empty-handed.

 This year, he's working at improving his luck. He went so far as to mix
 his hunting clothes with leaves from his back yard to mask any scent that
 might frighten away deer. He'll even spray himself with something to mask
 his odor.

 ``It's a challenge. You've got to be lucky,'' said Pratt, a senior.

 Feathers got a head start. He's already bagged an eight-point buck with
 his bow -- archery season runs Oct. 18-Dec. 31 -- and he can kill two
 more deer during bucks-only rifle season.

 Overall, hunters can take up to seven deer annually depending on license
 -- including doe and muzzle-loading permits -- and the county.

 It's more than just an excuse to go out in the woods and get the ``tonic
 of wildness.'' Some families in rural areas of the state still count on
 bagging deer to supplement their groceries and put meat on the table.

 And there are pragmatic reasons for closing school: Little can be
 accomplished with a high absentee rate, Principal Toth said. Some school
 administrators also cite concerns about buses being hit by stray bullets.

 Toth also believes the sanctuary of the woods provides a better
 opportunity for families to spend quality time together than sitting
 around in front of the television.

 Many people, like Warner, can hardly imagine opening day without
 youngsters tagging along. West Virginians of all ages are allowed to
 hunt, but those under 15 must be accompanied by a licensed adult.

 ``We're probably one of the last strongholds. To have 50 or 70 percent of
 the schools to take off for the first day of deer season, I don't think
 would ever fly (elsewhere),'' Warner said.

Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 21:50:06 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Cc: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail],
        [e-mail]
Subject: BIRD ALERT!
Message-ID: <971123215005_2094837949@mrin39>

Posted on behalf of Action for Animals
_____________________________

                                                     ****BIRD ALERT!****

John Ascuaga's Nugget, a new hotel/casino in Sparks, Nevada (near Reno) is
currently running a horrendous ad promoting the new facility.

The ad features a "claymation" (animated) bird crashing into the building and
killing itself.  This is followed by a real-life smirking window cleaner
cleaning the remains of the dead bird off the window with a squeegee.  The
punch-line is something to the effect of "There's a new high-rise in town."

Millions of songbirds, often during migration, are killed in this manner
annually throughout the world; it is a serious environmental problem.  For
the hotel to trivialize the problem thusly is unforgivable, and they must be
called to task.  Please call John Ascuaga and request that he pull this ad
which is both offensive and unethical.

YOUR CALLS AND LETTERS ARE NEEDED NOW!

John Ascuaga's Nugget
1100 Nugget
Sparks, NV  89431
1-800-648-1177

The 800 is convenient- and it's free.

Ask to speak with Mr. Ascuaga himself. He can be reached at the same 800
number (they'll transfer you for free) between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and
5:00 p.m. (PST).






Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 23:03:24 -0500
From: joemiele <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (NJ) Fur Free Friday
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance
P.O. Box 174
Englishtown, NJ  07726

Fur Action Task Force
Contact: Joe Miele 201-342-5119


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 24, 1997


STATEWIDE ACTIONS EXPOSE FUR INDUSTRY
ACTIVISTS FROM ACROSS THE STATE JOIN TOGETHER

New Jersey - On November 28, animal rights activists from all over the
state of New Jersey will be converging on several locations to bring
attention to the plight of over 3 million animals killed each year in the
United States for their fur.

"We refuse to sit by and do nothing while millions of animals are being
gassed, bludgeoned, and anally electrocuted for their skin," said Joe
Miele, chairperson of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance's Fur Action Task
Force. "These animals suffer terribly at the hands of their abusers. This
is not the Stone Age where cave dwellers used animal skins for warmth. If
we are an advanced civilization like we claim, why are some of us still
behaving like we did 10,000 years ago? Those who wear the fur of dead
animals look like savages," added Miele.

Miele said that the Alliance (NJARA) will be conducting fur-awareness
actions at four locations throughout the state on that day.  Activities
will be taking place at 10:00 a.m. at the Macy's Department Stores in Wayne
and Eatontown, at 11:00 a.m. at the Cherry Hill Macy's, and at 3:00 p.m. at
Nathan Levin Furs in Atlantic City.

Actions by NJARA will be coordinated with actions taking place
across the country. "The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally known as
Fur-Free Friday and is the single largest day of action against the fur
trade. There will be actions going on nation wide in our largest  cities.
There are millions of citizens who are outraged at the bloody nature of the
fur trade and we will be heard," Miele added.

In 1996, thousands of Fur-Free Friday actions were undertaken across the
country. Police made 99 arrests of non-violent, peaceful demonstrators.

The demonstrations are being jointly coordinated by Coalition to Abolish the
Fur Trade, a Dallas-based group that sponsors national protests
against furriers and New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance.

NJARA is a community based, non-profit, educational organization working
toward a more peaceful, nonviolent coexistence with our earthly companions,
both human and nonhuman. Through our programs of promoting responsible
science, ethical consumerism and environmentalism, NJARA advocates change
that greatly enhances the quality of life for animals and people and
protects the earth.



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