Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news58~5.htm/text0000.txt

Text File | 1998-04-02 | 40.1 KB | 821 lines

VANCOUVER, BC - Shoppers at upmarket retail store Holt Renfrew's downtown
store got a lesson in how their fur coats were obtained Friday.

Protestors from PETA paid a visit to the store, and handed out leaflets
depicting the horrors of the fur trade.

Activist Dawn Carr tossed a bucket of animal guts at the window of the
store, whilst shouting: "It takes real guts to wear a real fur coat."

Carr also asked how they wanted their fur coats. "Would they like their
animals to be stamped on, or would they prefer electrocution. Do they like
the anal electrocution, vaginal electrocution? This is the fur industry.
It's vile and it's bloody. These people are responsible for the deaths of
millions of animals," Carr said.

David Knowles
Animal Voices News

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 23:07:09 +0800
From: bunny <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (Aust)Ross River Virus
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Ross River Virus
A cautionary tale

West Australian Newspaper (lift-out Magazine) 22nd November 1997

Chronic joint pain, exhaustion, wild mood swings, panic attacks...
and thats on a good day. Frank Robson looks at the dire effects of Ross
River fever-and why some doctors keep
insisting you haven't got it.

MIKE LARDNER is describing a particularly   odd  symptom  of Ross River
fever when a hen
without tail  feathers  emerges from  the  undergrowth.  He  halts
mid-sentence, staring at the family pet as though seeing it for the first
time. "Poor old chook," he muses. "A dog bit her on the bum . . .  I wait
for him to return to the subject - a harrowing story of how his testicles
grow hot and "crawl" in the night, but Larder seems to have lost the thread
on that one. He begins an animated  account  of other symptoms -
excruciating joint pain, panic attacks, wild mood swings, depression,
burning rashes and crushing fatigue. Almost every sentence he starts is
ambushed by a digression. "Where were we?" he says, or "Turn the tape off,
my brain needs a rest:' The moment it's off, he starts talking again. "Are
you getting this?"
he  frets,  eyeing  the  recorder.  "This  is important . . "  After a
couple of hours with Larder, it's easy to understand why chronic Ross River
sufferers sometimes fear they're losing their minds. In fact, impaired
memory and concentration are common side effects of the mosquito-borne virus.
 Last year, before he had to give up work as a freelance photographer for
magazines and draw  sickness  benefits,  Larder's  "brain fevers" were such
that he'd arrive some-where to take a picture and forget why he was there.
 Today Larder wrestles his  198cm frame from a seat by the swimming pool and
limps inside to get the insect repellent. It's sundown on a winter's day,
yet here in Brisbane - like  the rest of northern Australia - mozzies bite
all year round. In warmer months, the risk extends  south  to  NSW,
Victoria,  South Australia  and even Tasmania.  Earlier this year, small
outbreaks of Ross River virus (RRV) appeared for the first time on the
fringes of Sydney's and Melbourne's metropolitan sprawls.
 An old acquaintance, Larder has been at me for weeks to do a story.
"Last year, 7700  infections  were  [confirmed by blood tests]  around
Australia; there's about 30 different species of mozzie that can zap you
with this nightmare . . . "  Larder's RRV, or epidemic polyarthritis, wasn't
diagnosed until more than two years after he became ill. By then, says his
wife Lou, he'd changed from an easygoing bloke who enjoyed his work to a
pain-racked, muddle-headed grouch who shouted at the children and needed
four days in bed to recover from a day's work.
At night he "caught fire", soaking the bedclothes with sweat. His rashes
were so severe they bled, and he experienced terrible anxieties over
imagined dangers to their two children. "At one stage I was sure they were
going to get run over by a train "
 Larder began to notice just how many people were RRV victims. "You'd ring
some [creditor] to put off paying a bill and  they'd say: `Oh, you poor
thing, my father or aunt or, whatever has had Ross River for years'Yet the
official advice was that it was supposed to last only a few weeks or, at
most, " a few months."
 When a newspaper ran a story about his illness, more than 40  sufferers
contacted him. "It was astonishing. Some of them were crying with relief
because my symptoms matched theirs. Some had been diagnosed with RRV years
ago, but doctors had told them they couldn't still have it. They'd been told
it was psychosomatic, or that they were malingerers. One guy has had the
symptoms for 10 years "  Ross River virus was frst identified in 1958 from
mosquitoes collected at Ross River,  Townsville,  by  the  Queensland
Institute of Medical Research, which was set up to  probe  tropical  fevers.
Many other insect-borne infections or arboviruses have been found here, but
RRV, which attacks the cells of joint tissue, remains the most common and
widespread.  Humans are infected when mosquitoes feed on an infected
vertebrate host, typically
kangaroos or wallabies, then transfer the virus to humans. Researchers
believe an upsurge in urban infections suggests some mosquitoes may have cut
out the "middle-man", transferring the virus directly from one human to
another. About one in 20 people infected actually gets sick. Of those who
develop symptoms, most recover - in theory - within a few months.
 Yet studies in Western and South Australia suggest long-term disability is
more common than doctors have allowed. A trial of 821 subjects infected
during a 1992-93 RRV outbreak in South Australia showed 51 per cent still
had joint pain after 15 months; at 30 months, pain and other symptoms,
including headaches, depression and loss of libido, remained common.
Although it's part of our landscape, scientists admit little is known about
RRV, or how to treat it. In do-it-your- self rural Australia, one theory
suggests the way to "drive out" the virus is to grab an electric fence and
hang on.
 Boyd Honor, a Brisbane lawyer, has his symptoms meticulously listed in a
notebook.
During his three-year battle with the virus he got used to keeping notes.
"I'd be told something and 10 minutes later I wouldn't even recall being
told. Given my work, it was the biggest obstacle I had to overcome "
 Honor, 30, believes he was infected when badly bitten in his garden in
1994. He developed flu-like symptoms about a week later.
When they persisted, he was tested for a range of viruses but not Ross
River. His mother suggested it sounded like RRV, which had afflicted his
older brother years earlier, so Honor returned to the same doctor.
 "He said I definitely didn't have RRV because I didn't have knee pains. I
insisted on the test, which confirmed Ross River."
 Another brother got the disease a year later, which seems amazing until you
understand RRV's prevalence. Earlier this year, for example, the teenage son
of the only scientist in Australia working  on  a  RRV  vaccine incurred a
mild infection; a media adviser to Federal  Immigration  Minister  Philip
Ruddock, fielding a query about this story, says he had it once; so did the
technician who just repaired my computer.
 After diagnosis, Boyd Honor spent two months in bed. "Tiny grievances are
multiplied many times; the muscles in your neck
tighten and you just boil over, or burst out crying. It was two years before
I could lie on my left side at night - my heart would beat so hard I felt it
lifting me off the bed."  Back at work, he lacked the strength to walk up a
flight of stairs and spent lunch-breaks asleep in his office chair. He
developed a craving for sugar and fats, piling on 35kg in six months. One GP
with a substantial number of RRV patients said he should enter hospital for
intensive vitamin therapy, then go home and stay in bed for a year. If he
didn't, he might get attention deficit disorder and be "ruined" for life.
 "In fact," Honor says, "I'd have been ruined if I took that advice. It
would have meant giving up my hard-won career."
 His recovery was aided by mild doses of anti-depressants, light exercise
and good nutrition.
 Early this year, Honor and Mike Larder joined a support group called the
Rozzie Mozzie Blues Club. The group planned to
raise money for research, but disappeared when its funding sources were cut.
Honor believes Australian authorities are
reluctant to acknowledge the extent and long term effects of RRV, or fund a
comprehensive study of it, through fear of damaging the tourism industry. "I
don't want to damage Australia's  standing  among  international tourists,"
he says, "but that will happen anyway unless some sort of warning is given "
 With 3.5 million visitors arriving each year  - a11 "cleanskins" without
acquired  immunity - some  obviously  take
home RRV Their own doctors are likely to be baffled by the symptoms, as was
the case with Sussex farmer Dorothy Hollamby
and her daughter Nova Flitter. Friends of Boyd Honor, the pair visited
Australia Iast year, both falling ill on their return.
 Hollamby says her doctor finally diagnosed  a  sudden  onset  of rheumatoid
arthritis. "I was horrified. I was so sore I couldn't hold a book " A few
days later, Nova Flitter hobbled home with identical symptoms and got the
same diagnosis.
"We knew then it had to be something else," says Hollamby. "A relative in
Darwin sent us Iiterature on RRV
We took it to our doctor and he said, `Great, that's what you've got' He'd
never heard of it before. Since then there's been another  person in the
area, just back  from Australia,  with the same symptoms "
A year later both women are on the mend. "I really think there should be a
warning," says Hollamby. "We knew we were being bitten [in Queensland]but we
thought they were just bites. If we'd known the implications, we'd have
taken a lot more care "
 Australia's  official  position  is  that  the "logistics" of issuing a
warning are too complex, and the problem isn't serious enough to warrant it.
As for the Sydney Olympics, a spokesperson for SOCOG says the organising
committee won't be advising visiting nations of the risk of RRV infections,
notifiable disease or not.
 Not even those using training camps in Queensland? "No, that's not our
responsibility. If an  [overseas athlete]  is training in
Queensland, and they contract whatever disease, I think it's highly unlikely
that they would blame SOCOG."
 RRV is among a number of viral infections that can cause a breakdown of the
immune system, leading - by a process researchers are  yet  to  understand
-  to  myalgic encephalomyelitis, commonly referred to as chronic fatigue
syndrome (CFS), the symptoms of which mirror those of long-term RRV The
difference is that CFS can't be medically verified. Despite increasing
acceptance  of the condition among doctors, Australia's CFS sufferers -
around 20,000 - remain in diagnostic limbo.
 The link between RRV and CFS is part of a new NSW study where the health of
300 people with viral infections will be monitored over three years.
Associate Professor Andrew Lloyd, a Sydney infectious diseases specialist,
says the study will try to determine whether interferon - proteins made by
human cells to fight viruses - may continue to be manufactured in the body
after an acute infection, causing CFS type symptoms.
    Australia has at least 65 arboviruses, with minutely-varied strains
attacking  specific  functions of different animals.
One affects the performance of stud bulls; another causes abortions in
sheep; another makes kangaroos blind. Ross River's speciality is to cause
illness only among humans and horses. No one knows why.
 With almost no public funding, Dr John Aaskov spent four years developing
an  RRV  vaccine  at  the
Queensland  University  of  Technology. Financed by a Sydney businessman and
philanthropist, and still 18 months away from human trials, the project was
recently taken over by an Austrian drug company. The horse racing industry
is interested, but Aaskov believes the RRV problem will go "on and on"
before health authorities meet the cost of making his preventative part of
the recommended vaccine schedule.
 One victim had to be carried from her own wedding reception because of the
infection she'd picked up four days earlier.
On the honeymoon, her husband hand fed her and even brushed her teeth. The
doctor said it would all be over in six weeks and she could return to work.
Seven years later, she is still waiting to be free of the disease.
 "The doctors began to treat me as a psycho case," Robyn Carton says. "They
told me I couldn't still have RRV; that it must have `gone over' into
chronic fatigue syndrome. I felt the same effects, yet they insisted it must
be something else.
      For  a  while  there,  I  really thought I was going crazy."   Now on
large doses of vitamins  to bolster energy and a diet without foods that
might aggravate a  weakened immune system,  Carton feels a lot better: "I
still have bad days, but increased energy helps me cope with the pain "  The
test results confirming her infection hadn't arrived when the couple left
for their Fijian honeymoon in  1990.  Had  confirmation  come  earlier
Carton, although unaware of it then, would have breached quarantine
restrictions by  going overseas with a notifiable disease.
Similar circumstances in 1979 led to a huge  outbreak  in  which  RRV  was
tagged  "Australia's gift to the Pacific."
One  or more  tourists, probably from Queensland, travelled to Fiji and
infected   mosquitoes there with RRV," says Professor Richard  Russell  of
Sydney's  Westmead  Hospital. "Being non-immune, the locals were completely
susceptible. The disease went  through the islands like a bushfire,
infecting  30,000 people. As immunity built, it died out  and that immunity
might last 20 years. If the virus was reintroduced now, it would find a new
generation susceptible to infection "
  It was the only known RRV epidemic outside Australia, although there was
concern in  the US when seven American soldiers were found to have RRV
infections after returning  from Queensland earlier this year.
In Australia  infections  have  increased steadily over the past decade. In
1995, NSW had 242 confrmed RRV cases; last year,
1023. This year,1000 infections were recorded by June. Victoria, with just
170 cases in 1996, had 1100 infections by June this year -  100 within
Melbourne's  metropolitan area. There's plenty of theories to explain the
increases: varying rainfall; development of coastal and rural environments;
improved blood testing procedures; more species of infectious mosquitoes . .
. but the real cause isn't known.
  John Schofield provides a stark illustration of the long-term effects. A
fit-looking 50- year-old, he was a TNT division manager before the virus
laid him low 10 years ago. He fought it "with great anger", trying all known
treatments, working part-time despite the pain and lethargy and cycling in
the 1994 World Masters Games, having trained on pain killers.
  "For years, you wake up hoping normality will return . . . Then, an hour
later, it's like something hits you in the head and your energy is gone." In
the end, he decided to give up. "They put me on a disability pension. My
wife and I have our little house with three dogs, the fish tank. I cleared
my mind of all [external] anxieties "

   People  swirl  around  our  cafe  table. Schofield seems not to see them,
as though he really has moved to another  dimension. "There are some things
you just can't beat. Once you admit that, you have a degree of peace " ╖

End


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

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

Email>  [e-mail]

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

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









Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 08:28:51 -1000 (HST)
From: Animal Rights Hawaii <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: goose killer fined in Hawai'i
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from the Honolulu Advertiser- 11.22.97
by Edwin Tanji

WAILUKU, Maui- A state judge yesterday fined a Kihei man $4,000 for
clubbling a Nene to death. Distict Judge Yoshio Shigezawa also sentence
Terry Purpus, 53, to 300 hours of community service for the July 23 incident
at the Sandalwood Golf Course.

The Nene, Hawaii's state bird, is an endangered species..

Although Purpus said he did not intend to kill the goose, Shigezawa said the
evidence showed the act to be one of "extreme cruelty" and "anger." The
$4,000 fine was the maximum allowed.

Purpus pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals
and harming a protected species. Purpus said he did not know the bird was a
Nene and said he was trying to scare it from approaching him after he teed
off on the 16th hole. He said he killed the bird to "put it out of its
misery" after he struck it accidentally at first.

"I am not a criminal," Purpus said during a Wailuku District Court hearing.
"I don't think I should be sent to jail."

But Darryl Develey, another golfer on the course at the time, said he felt
Purpus went out of his way to hit the bird, one of three Nene near the tee.
After hitting the bird, Purpus broke its neck and repeatedly clubbed it.

"It was a callous act," said Develey, a California resident who returned to
testify against Purpus out of a sense of what he called civic duty. "I don't
know why he did what he did."

At the sentencing, Shigezawa gave Purpus a suspended six month jail term.
This means Purpus will be excused from prison if he pays his fine, completes
his community service punishment and is not involved in an other offenses
over the next year.

Meanwhile, of the four Nene that were around the 15th and 16th green at the
Sandlewood at the time, only one remains- a single female, accoring to golf
course operations manager Alan Alamida.

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 15:55:43 -0800
From: Hillary <[e-mail]>
To: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Fiona Apple Vegan
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

.c The Associated Press

      NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Vegetarian rock singer Fiona Apple is
talking turkey to try to prevent the birds from being the main
course on Thanksgiving Day.
      She's getting the word out via a 30-second message she recorded
for a telephone hot line set up by People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals.
      In the recording, Ms. Apple urges people to dial up one of the
biggest sellers of the birds - the Butterball Turkey Co. - and
``let them know that there is no proper way to kill and cook these
beautiful birds.''
      Ms. Apple, whose debut album ``Tidal'' hit No. 15 on the
Billboard charts, does not eat any animal products, including eggs
and milk, said her publicist, Luke Burland.
      Butterball officials did not return calls for comment Friday.
The company annually offers a popular toll-free hot line with
turkey-cooking tips at holiday time.
      AP-NY-11-22-97 0808EST
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 12:33:06
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK] Slaughter-house style
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, November 22, 1997

Slaughter-house style

[External links from this page were: Animal Rights Resources Site; RSPCA
Official Home
Page; Unofficial RSPCA Page; Animal Aid; The National Animal Trust; and
Vegetarian    Pages]


He was slaughtering animals for art's sake before Damien Hirst was born.
Oliver Bennett meets an artist who's found his 'Nitsch' in flesh and blood

HERMANN Nitsch walks into his favourite restaurant in his home town of
Vienna and is greeted by spontaneous, standing applause. He sits in his
seat, wraps a napkin around his bearded jowls and orders his regular dish:
lung soup. Clearly someone of substance and repute - an eccentric local
opera-singer, perhaps?

But while this portly gentleman is a household name in Austria, it is for
more bizarre reasons. For Nitsch is a artist of the most excessive variety,
known primarily for his gruesome "actions" of the 1960s, in which animals
were slaughtered, hung as if crucified, then slit open in ritualistic show.
Naked men and women would then disport - sometimes sexually - in the spilt
blood and guts, to the soundtrack of a "scream choir", as hellish a
noise as you could imagine.

Nitsch is also known for his paintings in blood. He composes music, has
written gory "texts" that are almost too horrible to read, let alone
repeat, and has been imprisoned three times in Austria for blasphemy and
obscenity. Now, at the age of 59, when one might have expected him to hang
up his abbatoir apron for something more sedate, he's still splashing away
in the gore.

Another chapter in the history of shock, we might conclude, our palates
blunted by Damien Hirst and the Chapman brothers. But Hermann Nitsch
belongs to an earlier generation. His paintings and drawings have slipped
into many major public collections, including the Tate Gallery.

The last time he performed over here was in 1966 when he contributed to the
Destruction in Art symposium in London in the presence of avant-gardists
such as Yoko Ono. Two journalists tipped off the police, indecency charges
were levelled and the organisers fined. Then, in 1988 an Actionist
retrospective scheduled for Edinburgh was abruptly cancelled. Nitsch blames
"a conservative Austrian attachΘ and an anxious British administration".

None of this notoriety has exactly damaged his status as the grand master
of atrocity. Lately he has attracted a new generation of admiring students,
many of whom queue to join in his "actions" - even though they may end up
naked, blindfold and strapped to the back of a horse. "I never have
problems getting volunteers," beams Nitsch. "In fact, they mostly say that
being involved was the greatest experience of their lives: like waking up."
 He adds that the photographs of the actions - the all-important,
marketable "documentation" - seem more shocking than the real experience.

It is hardly surprising to learn that Nitsch lives in a 13th-century castle
in Prinzendorf, deep in the wine region north of Vienna - a fitting,
Bluebeard-type dwelling for a blood painter. Visitors have been treated to
the sight of nuns massed outside, praying for his soul. Indeed, he divides
Austria, where he is reviled by the religious Right, which last year ran an
election poster with the words: "Culture - Or Nitsch?", but is held in
affectionate esteem by the art world.

"He is one of the most important Austrian artists of his generation:
someone who is able to turn the emotional and irrational into form," says
Gerald Matt, director of the Kunsthalle in Vienna. "But he still irritates
plenty of people." All the fuss, of course, does Nitsch no harm at all.

In the 1960s he was involved with a group of artists called the Vienna
Actionists, who included Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Gunter Brus and Otto Muehl.
Schwarzkogler, often held to be the wildest Actionist of them all, perished
in 1969, leaving the legend that he died lopping his penis off in performance.

"An American journalist made it up and it was repeated," says Nitsch. "Not
true at all." In fact, the manic-depressive Schwarzkogler threw himself out
of a window.

Muehl has an equally bleak story. "Very sad," nods Nitsch. "He is 72, sick
and in prison." He was convicted of paedophilia, or as Nitsch puts it: "He
had a problem with young people in his commune." Only Nitsch, it seems, has
thrived. Now on his second marriage - his first wife, a German
psychologist, died in a car crash - he claims to "live a normal life". As
normal as anyone who celebrates "the beauty of catastrophe" and "the joy of
the terrible" ever can.

But why dwell on pain, blood and cruelty? Nitsch replies that it is "part
of the history of art: Jesus Christ, the Passion Plays, Greek tragedy,
Bosch, Bruegel, de Sade". Terrible, splendid grandeur turns him on. Gerald
Matt says he is part of "the Austrian traditions of Catholicism, the
Gesamtkunstwerk, and the expressive moment".

"When you look at TV," says Nitsch, "every day you see 100 people killed.
If there is an accident people turn around to look. These energies are
neither good nor bad. There is a need for cruelty. Violence is in nature,
and I want my work to bring it into our consciousness. It is necessary to
show violence. Anyway, I'm not able to paint only flowers. An artist should
not close his eyes."

But he is defensive about his animal participants, which come from his own
smallholding. "They are slaughtered properly. I am a farmer in Prinzendorf
and so am allowed to slaughter," he insists. "I like animals and protect
them. And I want people to understand the tragedy of killing them."

Less controversial is his homegrown organic wine, and Nitsch is never
without a bottle. "In my country, we drink wine like milk," he says, "and
when I perform I'm always a little bit drunk. Not like an alcoholic; like
being drunk on the self." Drunk or sober, bloodstained or freshly scrubbed,
Nitsch can do no wrong as far as his supporters are concerned - they've
learned to expect his bloody, blasphemous worst. "They are usually well
prepared," he says. But now he thinks it might be time to gain new ground.
"In the last few years my work has been more accepted by a wider group,
which is exciting."

Just how accepted should become clear next August, when the crowning
achievement of Nitsch's career - a six-day "action", like a sort of
alternative Oberammergau - will run at Prinzendorf with about 2,000
"international artist friends and other good people" taking part.

Yet Nitsch is worried that "some stupid people will try to stop it. I am
having a little bit of difficulty," he confesses gloomily. "There is a
special group against me." These antis send him nasty letters and write
tirades against him to newspapers.

But then he brightens. "Maybe a little bit of danger will help bring the
performance to its peak".

Hermann Nitsch opened at the Underwood Gallery, Underwood Street, N1,
[London] yesterday

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 12:45:16
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK] Why an elephant in love always grumbles
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, November 22, 1997

Why an elephant in love always grumbles

Scientists are translating the secret language of pachyderms - and learning
more about them in the process. Roger Highfield reports

WHEN it comes to finding romance, cow elephants leave nothing to chance.
They have found a way to summon males from miles around by making a sound
that, for anyone standing nearby, is more like grumbling indigestion than
an invitation for a passionate encounter.

These long-distance calls were once dismissed as "tummy rumbles". Now they
are offering an unprecedented glimpse of elephant society, one that will
provide an important insight into their love life to help underpin
conservation efforts. Next year, in southern Africa, Dr Bill Langbauer of
Pittsburgh Zoo plans to put radio collars on a number of elephants to help
decipher more details of Elephantese in the first systematic study of this
pachyderm language. "We want to know what the elephants are saying," he said.

The trumpeting sounds typical of Tarzan films signal elephant excitement
but form only a small part of their linguistic repertoire, a collection of
at least 25 rumbles, growls and grumbles. In all, around three-quarters of
the communication between these highly social animals is infrasonic. That
means elephant language is too deep for us to understand. The sounds are
produced by their vocal cords at such low pitch that humans a few tens of
metres away would find them difficult to hear.

They range from 15 to 35 Hertz (cycles per second), while the normal range
of human hearing cuts off at around 20 Hertz. Though mostly inaudible, an
expert observer can tell when they are making the calls by noting how the
skin on the elephant's forehead flutters, or by hearing the faint upper
overtones of the calls. The rumbles of this secret language were first
recognised by Dr Langbauer and his colleagues about a decade ago, when
recordings of the sounds were speeded up. In the light of subsequent
research, they "explain a lot of behaviour that was a mystery before", he
said.

These infrasonic calls can at last explain how they can coordinate their
behaviour over great distances, for instance how a herd of 20 or so
elephants dispersed around the long-grassed savannah can, with no audible
sound, suddenly gather together, as if by a magic signal. The calls are
also crucial for elephant romance. Cows use the distinctive call when they
come into heat, an event which occurs for a period of only four days every
four years - a result of their lengthy reproductive cycle that includes a
two-year pregnancy and another two years of nursing their offspring.

The infrasonic invitations for sex, which last a few seconds, are able to
travel for great distances through air, around two and a half miles, so
that a cow elephant can attract males from a wide region on the savannah.
The females repeat the distinctive sound over and over again for up to 45
minutes. "It is a signal that is really well designed for not only long
distance transmission but also for other elephants to be able to estimate
how far away the animal is."

Grasses and shrubs soak up the higher frequency components of the sound,
leaving the rumble relatively unaffected. "It's really well-designed for
letting other elephants know where she is, because the higher-pitched
harmonics are attenuated with distance. The more harmonics the male
elephant hears, the nearer he knows she is."

Studies in Namibia and Zimbabwe show that when males hear this special
"oestrus call" they drop everything and silently plod off in the direction
of the sound. "To some calls, elephants will respond and call back. But to
an oestrus call males are perfectly silent," said Dr Langbauer. This
taciturn behaviour makes perfect sense. "If there is this female that is
only sexually receptive four days in every four years, you don't want to
advertise to anyone else that she is out there. You want to get there
before anyone else does."

Dr Langbauer and his colleagues, notably Russ Charif and Katy Payne, have
decoded a number of other calls. "There is a 'let's go' rumble, when
elephants around a water hole start rumbling back and forth to each other
before they head off." There are contact calls, the equivalent of a cry of:
 "Where are you?" These are made when an elephant is separated from the
group and wants to locate its fellow elephants. There is also the call made
when bull elephants "get drunk on testosterone", a phenomenon known as
musth, when they are at a peak of sexual excitement.

This affects elephant society by altering hierarchy: a bull in musth is
dominant to a bull that is not in musth. But there is a lot of work that
must  be done to understand the details of this "musth rumble" and how it
affects changes in the pecking order. Each mumble, rumble and grumble is
individual, but the scientists remain unsure of how elephants use them to
tell each other apart. This is going to be unravelled by the new study,
which for the first time will allow the scientists to link each infrasonic
voice to an individual elephant.

Working with colleagues from Cornell University, Dr Langbauer has designed
radio collars that contain both an elephant voice-activated walkie talkie
and a GPS receiver (which uses satellites to determine locations within a
few metres). "Using these collars we can simultaneously record an animal's
vocalisation and location, even over distances of several miles.

And if all the mature members of a group are collared, we can tell which
animal made which call by using a computer to determine very accurately
which collar first transmits the call."

This technology, which has recently been tried out in Zimbabwe, is crucial
for the efforts to interpret the meaning of the language, he said. "If I
hear my name called by someone in the hall, for example, I respond
differently if it is my wife or if it is a bill collector. It is the same
for the elephants."

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 19:46:59 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Fwd:  Man Sentenced in Hawaii Goose Death
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Subj:     Man Sentenced in Hawaii Goose Death
Date:     97-11-22 11:53:04 EST
From:     AOL News
BCC: LMANHEIM

c The Associated Press

      WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) - A man who used a golf club to kill a
flightless nene goose is the first person convicted and sentenced
for a crime against Hawaii's state bird.
      Terry Purpus, 53, was fined $4,000 Friday and ordered to
perform
300 hours of community service for killing the bird, a member of an
endangered species. A six-month jail term was suspended.
      ``This is not only a crime against one bird. This is a crime
against the future of the species,'' state Department of Land and
Natural Resources chairman Michael Wilson said.
      Only 30 nene were known to exist in 1950. With the help of
wildlife biology programs, there are now 800 to 1,000 living in the
wild in Hawaii.
      Purpus initially pleaded innocent, saying the male bird had
attacked him on July 23 at a golf course on the island of Maui. He
later pleaded no contest to both charges of cruelty to animals and
prohibited activities against indigenous or endangered wildlife.
      AP-NY-11-22-97 1147EST

Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 15:29:03 +1100
From: Lynette Shanley <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (Au) Furs in Australia
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Australia's Fur Industry figures.

European Red Fox Fur.
Russia largest producer of Red Fox Furs but most used in the domestic
market. Three largest exporters of European Red Fox Furs are Australia, USA
and Canada.
Australia provides approx 40% of these furs used by these three countries.
Australia is the world's largest exporter of wild European red fox fur. 60%
supplied by NSW, 30 by Victoria and approx 10% from South Aussie. The major
importers Germany, Hong Kong and UK. The majority end up on the german
market for middle income earners. The quality is not considered to be of a
very high standard so it is used to produce products for middle income
earners.

Rabbit Fur.
Huge industry but most ends up in the felt trade and not fur trade. The fur
is used in linings of jackets and gloves. If fur is exported it is usually
to Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Germany. Most felt used in hats and
production of Australian Akubra Hats.

Brushtail Possum.
Another large export income earner. Most furs are from Tasmania. 50% used
as cut fur and not for fashion industry. Republic of Korea recently began
importing the fur for resale to the garment industry in Europe. New Zealand
also buys the furs for dressing and re-export.
While it still brings in the export dollar this figure has dropped
dramatically in the last 10 years.

Crocodile Skins.
Australia still one of the smallest producers on the world market but
industry is in the process of building itself up and is now actively
promoting crocodile skins. Expected to be a large income earner in years to
come.

Emu Skins.
Only small amounts produced but industry is under going changes to increase
production. Produces skins for exotic leather manufactures. Japan major
importer.


Horse Hair.
One company in NSW still exports horse hair. Hair from the tail is mainly
used for brushes and industrial brushes, false tails for show horses and
manufacture of traditional dartboards.
Good quality pale white hair from the tail is used for violin bows and
black hair for Bass bows. Most of this is exported to the USA.

Hair from the mane is used mostly for upholstery in the automobile trade
mixed with latex. Most of this is exported to Europe for use in the luxury
car market.


We also export large amounts of horse hearts and spleens to the
Netherlands. The heart is used to extract a compound Cytochrome C used in
the pharmaceutical industry.

Cane Toads.
Cane toad skins sold overseas for approx $4.00 each. Industry growing
steadily since 1988. Most used for wallets and handbags.

Kangaroos and Wallabies.
Large export dollar earner. Japan imports a lot of these furs. Some animals
are shot for their skin and fur and the rest is a by product of the meat
industry. Leather products are produced from these skins in Australia which
are also sold overseas.

When it comes to buying fur coats etc Australians prefer imported furs.
However, we use very little fur in the fashion industry compared to other
countries. The furs produced from minks etc and fur farming are a minor fur
problem in Australia as so few are sold. The Fur Council of Australia
closed several years ago as import of furs were not enough to keep them
going. Even when furs made from minks, cats etc were fashionable they were
not big sellers here in Australia. But we do have a thriving fur industry
with one fur house holding 12 sales a year to sell Australian produced fur
to the overseas and local markets. Australian Animal Welfare activists
protest over the small amount of imported furs but do not protest the local
fur market.

Lynette Shanley
International Primate Protection League - Australia
PO Box 60
PORTLAND  NSW  2847
AUSTRALIA
Phone/Fax [phone] 554026
EMAIL [e-mail]



</pre>

     <!-- END OF PAGE CONTENT -->



                            <!-- END OF PAGE CONTENT -->

    </TD>


    <TD width=50 align=center>

    </TD>
</TR>

                            <!-- THE BOTTOM TOOLBAR -->

<TR>

    <TD colspan=3 align=center fontsize=2>
    <a href="../SUB~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/sub.html">ARRS Tools</a>  |
<a href="../NEWSPA~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/newspage.html">News</a>  |
<a href="../ORGS~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/Orgs.html">Orgs</a>  |
<a href="../SEARCH~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/search.html">Search</a>  |
<a href="../SUPPOR~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/Support.html">Support</a>  |
<a href="../ABOUT/INDEX.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/about">About the ARRS</a>  |
<a href="mailto:[e-mail]">Contact ARRS</a>
    </TD>
</TR>


                                <!-- END OF MAIN -->

</TABLE></center>




        <!-- THE UNDERWRITERS -->

<table border=0 width=100%>
    <tr><td>

<center>    <hr width=285>
<Font Size=1>THIS SITE UNDERWRITTEN IN PART BY:</FONT>
<BR>


<a href="../../../tppmsgs/msgs4.htm#476" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/cgi-bin/show_support.pl?id=t889237296&sec=sbn_bottom&url=http%3a//www.go-organic.com/greenmarket/gorilla/" target=_top><img src="../../SUPPORT/BANNERS/CROSS-~1/MICHAE~1.GIF" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/support/banners/cross-promotion/michael_wide.gif" border=1 alt="Gorilla Foundation"></a>


<hr width=285>

    <br><font size=2>
    <b>The views and opinions expressed within this page are not
necessarily those of the <br>EnviroLink Network nor the Underwriters.  The views
are those of the authors of the work.</b></font>
    </center>
    </td></tr>

</table>

</BODY>

</HTML>




</BODY>



</HTML>