Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news65~9.htm/text0002.txt

Text File | 1998-04-02 | 103.1 KB | 2,542 lines

Cockfight raided
By David J Knowles
Animal Voices News

BURNABY, BC - What was a routine call to deal with a nuisance complaint to
a house, turned into something more serious for members of the Burnaby RCMP
detachment Saturday night.

The responding officers stumbled upon a cockfight. 39 people - mostly
Filipino males -  were arrested at the site. It is a criminal offence under
the Criminal Code of Canada to be even present at a cockfight. Those
arrested face fines of up to $2,000 CDN and six months imprisonment.

RCMP officers acknowledge cockfights occur quite often but those
participating in the events are very rarely caught in the act.

73 cockrels were seized after SPCA officials were called in. The birds were
transfered to the Surrey SPCA shelter Sunday, as it is the only shelter in
the Lower Mainland to have a barn.

100's of items designed to force the cockrels fight more agressively were
also seized. These included several sets of metal spurs attached to the
rear of the birds' legs so they cause more damage to each other. The
naturally-occuring spurs on the birds had been removed except for a small
stump. where the metal spurs are attached.

The maximum penalty for the accused humans is relatively severe, but the
birds face an even stiffer one. Under the Criminal Code, they must be
brought before a Justice of the Peace, who must then order their death.




Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 00:05:37
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK] New Forest ponies face cull as sale prices fall
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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>From The Electronic Telegaph - Monday, February 2nd, 1998

New Forest ponies face cull as sale prices fall
By Michael Fleet

New Forest ponies could be culled to increase prices and save the ancient
way of life the breed supports.

Some foals are now selling for less than the price of a packet of
cigarettes because of a collapse in values brought on by over-supply and
the strong pound, which has hit exports.

The Verderers' Court, which organises the commoners' rights to the forest,
is to spend ú250,000 over the next four years to encourage selective
breeding and is looking at suggestions that poor-quality mares should be
weeded out by a cull.

The forest is home to more than 2,500 ponies, which freely roam the 50,000
acres. They are a major draw to a million tourists every year and their
grazing also prevents the landscape from running wild. But there are
growing worries among the 420 commoners that it is becoming economically
unviable to exercise their traditional rights to turn out livestock.

Each year the new colt foals are rounded up and sold at auction. In 1990
they fetched an average of ú46 each but last year the average was ú12 with
many selling for much less. Most go as children's riding ponies but some
are sold for meat in France or pet food.

John Bundy, managing director of Southern Counties Auctioneers, said: "Some
colts have been sold for ú3, which means there is nothing left after
commission, and plenty go for ú5. There is over-supply and the meat trade
has been badly hit because the pound is so strong."

Olly Collins, 52, a commoner from Brockenhurst, Hants, said: "No one has
ever made a lot of money out of it but now it has reached the stage where
it is costing us money."

Mrs Collins, who has a "handful" of ponies, said: "There is no incentive
for people to keep ponies and cattle and sooner or later they will stop. If
the animals stop grazing we will lose a unique habitat and the forest will
become an overgrown wilderness. There is a real feeling of despair among
commoners at the moment."

James Young, 41, a commoner who also lives in Brockenhurst, started keeping
ponies at the age of five. He said: "I have 15 ponies on the forest and I
have never known it this bad. I think there is a significant danger that
people are going to start bailing out and if the grazing goes so does the
character of the area."

Anthony Pasmore, 54, one of 10 verderers who are responsible for regulating
the commoners and preserving the traditional character of the forest, said
he favoured a cull. "The market is grossly over-supplied with small ponies
- it is just economics," he said. "I think there should be some sort of
cull. If you could get everyone to agree you could buy up large numbers of
foals and kill them. It might be an unpopular way of proceeding but it is
the only way to do it."

In the hope of saving the situation, the Court of Verderers is trying
improve the quality of the ponies and find new markets for them. Sue
Westwood, clerk to the Verderers' Court, said: "There is considerable
concern about the future of the commoners. Starting in February we will be
paying a premium of ú50 a year to what we believe are the best 500 mares in
the
New Forest.

"The top four will each get ú100 and the best one will get a cup as well.
The idea is to try to get better quality animals who will hopefully have a
market. We have also commissioned a marketing initiative and will wait to
see what recommendations are made. If they suggest a cull then we would
have to consider it, but if possible we would rather work with incentives."

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1998.

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 16:20:31 +0800
From: bunny <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: RFI Bees and Honey
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi,
Someone posted an item today or yesterday on bees and honey.
I accidentally deleted it but I'm sure this article was posted to AR-news.
Could someone please re-post this article to me ([e-mail])
The article was a response to a previous RFI.

Thanks,
Marguerite
=====================================================================
========
                   /`\   /`\    Rabbit Information Service,
Tom, Tom,         (/\ \-/ /\)   P.O.Box 30,
The piper's son,     )6 6(      Riverton,
Saved a pig        >{= Y =}<    Western Australia 6148
And away he run;    /'-^-'\
So none could eat  (_)   (_)    email: [e-mail]
The pig so sweet    |  .  |
Together they ran   |     |}    http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
Down the street.    \_/^\_/    (Rabbit Information Service website updated
                                frequently)

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
       - Voltaire

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 07:30:33 -0800
From: "Linda J. Howard" <[e-mail]>
To: "AR NEWS" <[e-mail]>
Subject: [US] World Laboratory Animals Week preparation
Message-ID: <01bd2fef$80f0dd00$ac63accf@default>
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       WORLD LABORATORY ANIMALS WEEK
                     APRIL 19-26, 1998

If you would like to have a World Laboratory Animal
Day (WLAD) event in your area, but do not know where
to begin, please see the guidelines below for looking up
information about NIH funded research facilities and
research projects on the internet.  [It's all FREE!]

* To find a facility in your area which does research
  using animals, go to the USDA's Animal Care
  home page at <<www.aphis.usda.gov/ac>>.

  You can download the entire USDA publication
  'Animal Welfare:  List of Registered Research
  Facilities' which has to be opened with an Acrobat
  reader. [Note:  You can download Acrobat Reader from
  the Animal Care home page.]  To simplify the
  process, you can choose to "Search for Facility"
  which allows you to look at animal research
  facilities by state and then by city.

* After you have located an animal research facility
  near you, you can find out more about the type of
  research being done at the facility by doing a
  CRISP search.  [CRISP is an acronym for Computer
  Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects.]

  Go to <<www.ncrr.nih.gov/grants.htm>> and choose
  CRISP under the 'Grants Database' menu item.
  [From the screen which follows, you can go directly to
  the database or you can review a help file explaining
  how to use the CRISP database.]  You can type
  in keywords you are interested in finding -- such as
  the name of the facility near you.  The CRISP reports
  give specific information about the animal research being
  conducted.

For more detailed information:

* Lawrence Carter-Long put together a wonderful
  comprehensive guide "Useful Tools for Investigation
  Animal Experimentation" which is accessed from
  Animal Protection Institute's web address
  <<www.api4animals.org>>.

* Guidelines for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
  requesting can be found in the web pages of
  Animal Emancipation! Online
  <<www.envirolink.org/orgs/ae/index.html>>

* For more information about World Week for Laboratory
  Animals, contact In Defense of Animals at
  131 Camino Alto, Mill  Valley, CA  94941
  or visit IDA's web site at <<www.idausa.org>>.

Let's make 1998
THE YEAR OF LABORATORY ANIMAL LIBERATION!


Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 08:51:52 -0800
From: Barry Kent MacKay <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Is this the greatest threat to animals in trade?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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A surprising number of AR activists seem not to know much about
MAI...the Multinational Agreement on Investment.

As we seek domestic legislation in our respective countries to protect
animals used for commercial purposes, MAI has the potential to undo it
all, as it pertains to animals that provide products that enter trade:
meat, fish, furs, exotic pets, leather, tortoiseshell, eggs, milk...the
list is endless.

For a discussion about MAI, what it is and the threat it posses go to
<http://www.api4animals.org>, which is the home page of the Animal
Protection Institute, and click on the current issue of Opinionatedly
Yours.

Earlier editions can be obtained through the archives.

Barry Kent MacKay
International Program Director
Animal Protection Institute


Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 14:31:20 EST
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Re:  looking for a website
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

The American Anti-Vivisection Society has a complete list of products not
tested on animals, as well as who doesn't contain animal ingredients.  Our
website is <www.aavs.org>
-Stephanie Shain
Executive Coordinator
American Anti-Vivisection Society
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 12:15:06 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Alert: Migratory Birds Under the Gun
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

ACTION ALERT

MIGRATORY BIRDS UNDER THE GUN

The infamous anti-wildlife legislator, Congressman Don Young (R-AK), has
introduced H.R. 2863, the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act.  This bill would
seriously relax the provisions in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that
prohibit the hunting of migratory birds over bait.  Currently, a hunter is
breaking the law if he or she shoots a migratory bird over an area that is
baited with corn, millet, or other food that attracts the birds.

Under the Young bill, the strict liability provision is removed, and the
arresting wildlife officer would have to prove that the hunter had prior
knowledge of the area being baited.  This means that hunters can simply
claim that they were unaware of any bait in the vicinity of their hunting
activities.  We do not allow ignorance of the law to justify the
perpetration of other crimes, and we certainly should not allow it for slob
hunters who lure birds to piles of food and shoot them at point-blank range.
There may be more challenge in shooting caged birds at pet stores.

Call or write to your U.S. Representative and your two U.S. Senators and
tell them to OPPOSE H.R. 2863, which would make it easier for hunters to
gain an unfair advantage over migratory birds.

Please write to your Representative at: The Honorable ____________, U.S.
House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515, or call the House
switchboard at 202-225-3121.

Write to your Senators (in separate letters) at: The Honorable ____________,
U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510, or call the Senate switchboard at
202-224-3121.

You may wish to make the following points when you write or call:

* Re-writing the baiting provisions of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act would
erase decades of case law that have aided in the prosecution of hunters who
shoot birds over bait.

* Liberalizing the anti-baiting regulations would place further burdens on
U.S. Fish and Wildlife officers, when there are already too few of them in
the field enforcing the law.

* Most hunters claim to have an ethic of sportsmanship and fair chase, and
find repugnant the practice of luring birds with food and shooting them at
point-blank range.

For further information, or to find out who your elected officials are,
please call Christine Wolf at The Fund for Animals (301-585-2591 or
[e-mail]). Thank you for your help!

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 13:43:49 -0800
From: Karen Purves <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Chicago Tribune editorials on bison and vegetarianism
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Chicago Tribune 2-2-98 Section 1 page 10

Save the bison
Green Bay, WI--After last season's elimination of nearly 1,200 bison, the
State of Montana has begun to kill Yellowstone bison again.

Montana is concerned that bison pose a disease threat to cattle and that
unless the bison are removed, the state's brucellosis-free status may be
revoked.

But the risk of disease transmission to cattle is virtually nonexistent, and
a sensible risk management strategy could eliminate risk altogether. Most
brucellosis experts agree that bull bison pose zero risk of disease
transmission, but bull bison are the first victims of this year's actions by
the Montana Department of Livestock.

After the number of bison deaths mounted last season, the USDA assured the
state of Montana that it did not need to kill bison to maintain its
brucellosis-free status. Despite this assurance, Montana is continuing to
kill bison. The animals are captured at a facility on the outside of
Yellowstone's west boundary. Animals testing positive are sent to
slaughterhouses, infectious or not.

Please write Gov. Marc Racicot of Montana (State Capitol, Helena, MT 59620)
to express your disappointment over the senseless killing of one of our
nation's great wild animals.
--Gene Schubert
____________________________________________________
Time to veg in

Buffalo Grove, IL--First it was the E.coli and salmonella poisoning, then
came the mad cow disease, and now it's the Hong Kong flu, which has killed
six people and sickened a dozen more. Hong Kong may be thousands of miles
away, but the virus is as close as the the nearest international airport.

What do these growing epidemics have in common? They are all transmitted to
human consumers through chickens and other animals raised in factory farms.
And little wonder. In the filthy, crowded pens, harmless microorganisms
mutate into virulent pathogens. Routine use of antibiotics ensures their
resistance to life-saving drugs. It makes one wax nostalgic about the good
old days when meat-eating was associated only with heart disease, stroke,
cancer, diabetes and atherosclerosis.

What will it take for consumers to get the message? Grains, vegetables and
fresh fruits contain all the nutrients we require. They don't carry disease,
and they don't do drugs. They are touted by every major health advocacy
organization and appear to have been ther recommended fare in the Garden of
Eden.

The beginning of the new year is a great time to turn over a new leaf.
--Alison I. Johnson

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 17:17:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Franklin Wade <[e-mail]>
To: Undisclosed recipients:  ;
Subject: HONG KONG BIRD FLU ONE MORE WARNING TO "CHICKEN OUT"
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


 For Immediate Release           For More Information Contact
 January 1998                    Karen Davis [phone]


      HONG KONG BIRD FLU ONE MORE WARNING TO "CHICKEN OUT"
   "This virus has done something new--it jumped from birds to
humans"--USA TODAY December 23, 1997

     As of January 11, 1998, Hong Kong confirmed at least 17
people sick and four dead from the new form of Avian Influenza
known as H5N1. Scientists say this flu has all the signs of a
highly virulent strain that can pass from bird to bird, from bird
to human, and human to human.

     While avian flu virus can be found in wild birds, Diseases
of Poultry notes the critical difference: "In contrast to
domestic or confined birds, free-flying birds typically do not
experience significant disease problems due to influenza virus."

     The ecological cause of avian influenza and other contagious
diseases is confinement and severe overcrowding of living
creatures. Concentrated confinement of humans, birds, and other
animals leads to contaminated air, build-up of feces and sewage,
immune-system breakdown, bad sanitation, and disease. The poultry
industry in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. is breeding infectious
diseases like salmonella, campylobacter, and avian influenza. As
microbiologist John Avens told a poultry meeting, "[I]nfection of
animals will occur more frequently and affect more individual
animals as concentration of confinement increases."

     As long as people demand billions of birds and other animals
to be warehoused, slaughtered and consumed, infectious diseases
will flourish, mutate and jump species barriers. Disease
organisms now link chickens, turkeys, fish, cattle, sheep, pigs
and humans--"mad cow," salmonella, campylobacter, pfiesteria,
avian influenza--a growing list. Veterinarian Richard Slemons at
Ohio State University stated in 1997, "Avian influenza outbreaks
by viruses of both low and high pathogenicity will undoubtedly
continue to occur in the future."

     An outbreak of avian flu H7N2 in Pennsylvania in 1997 led to
the extermination of over a million chickens within a 75-mile
area of Lancaster County. Mass consumption of chickens has
spawned pfiesteria from poultry manure on the Eastern Shore.
(Pfiesteria eat the fish that are fed to chickens as fishmeal.)
The Potomac River is polluted with poultry feces from West
Virginia. The Center for Science in the Public Interest reported
in 1997 that "Eggs have become the number one contributor to food
poisoning outbreaks with hundreds of thousands of Americans
getting sick or dying each year." Nature is sending the human
species a wake-up call. Are we listening?

_____________________________________________________________________
[e-mail]                                   Franklin D. Wade
    United Poultry Concerns - http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/upc


Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 17:28:24 EST
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Marsha Kelley Out as Fur Trade PR Hack
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Marsha Kelly and Robert Buckler have announced that they are both resigning
from Fur Commission USA.  The two have a company called Issues Strategies
Group which will go to work for international corporate clients.  The animal
rights movement may very well run into Kelly again, but for now, she is out of
the fur industry.

Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade
PO Box 822411
Dallas, TX 75382
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 17:26:07 EST
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Inside the Fur Industry
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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The following article is from our newsletter, Inside the Fur Industry.  IFI is
designed to be a resource for anyone who wants in depth, up to date
information on what is happening in the fur industry, and the campaigns to
stop it.

IFI is quarterly and is $18 for a one year subscription.  We are encouraging
anyone who runs a local fur campaign to subscribe.

You can help IFI by informing us of fur store openings and closings in your
area, as well as any other fur related news.

Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade
PO Box 822411
Dallas, TX 75382


EUROPEAN SELL OUTS AND US BACKED RUBBER STAMP COMMITEES

The European Union has agreed to a watered down compromise which allows US
wild caught furs to continue flowing into EU member nations.

Under the proposal the US has to phase out ôconventional steel jawed leghold
restraining trapsö over a period of 6 years.  Every word in that phrase has
implications.  By implementing the word ôrestrainingö the govt. has ensured
that leghold traps will be allowed to be used in the water where they are set
to drown the animal, as opposed to restrain it until the trapper returns.

By use of the word ôconventionalö the govts. have ensured that a modified
leghold trap could still be used if it met certain standards set by a rubber
stamp commitee made up of fur industry interests.

The term ôsteel jawedö implies that padded leghold traps could still be used,
despite the fact that these traps still cause considerable injury to animals.

Furthermore, this is a non-binding agreement that has to be implemented on a
state by state basis.  Therefore, each state has to phase the trap out on its
own, and is not bound to do so.

The US govt. has granted $350,000 of your federal tax dollars to the National
Trap Testing Program, which is working to develop the traps that will meet the
ôstandardsö which will determine if a trap is ôhumaneö or not.

This is a part of the Best Management Practice (BMP) process.  Trappers are
implementing a BMP process where they will conduct tests to see which traps
they can use to convince the public that trapping is acceptable.  They will be
doing focus group sessions, and surveys, to find out the best way to promote
their pro-trap message to the public.  Thanks to the Congress of the United
States, you are paying for this.

This has led to a call for animal rights groups to become more politically
active, and to campaign against politicians who support fur trapping.  It is
expected that anti fur activists will become more aggressive in their efforts
to get trapping banned.  88 nations have banned the use of the leghold trap,
and only the US, Canada, and Russia are major wild fur producers.

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 14:36:08 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Conrail Spills Oil, Shoots Beavers
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

(This alert was previously posted in November, but please note a new address
to which to send letters.)

ACTION ALERT

CONRAIL SPILLS OIL, SHOOTS BEAVERS

A Conrail train derailed on November 3 near West Danby, NY, spilling 5,000
gallons of oil into the Cayuga Lake inlet. The resulting massive fish kill
also threatens great blue herons and otters. Shortly after the spill, a
neighbor saw a Conrail employee shooting two beavers -- one was reportedly
shot five times and took more than fifteen minutes to die.

A Conrail spokesperson denied the shooting until Syracuse TV Channel 9 aired
the neighbor's video. Conrail blames beaverwork for causing the accident,
but since a wetland runs alongside the tracks, beaver activity should have
been expected. Please ask Conrail to do the right thing and install beaver
bafflers at all such track sites next to streams to prevent future
environmental devastation.

Write to:

David LeVan, CEO.
Conrail
2001 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA  19101-1408

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 18:03:32 -0500
From: "Bina Robinson" <[e-mail]>
To: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
Subject: dolphins dead on Cape Cod
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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AP Report printed in THE SPECTATOR (Hornell NY) Feb. 1, 1998

Wellfleet, Mass. (AP) At least 35 white-sided dolphins have died and more
were in trouble today after becoming stranded on the shores of Cape Cod.

Rescuers who spent "Thursday trying to save dozens of dolphins headed back
to Wellfleet to try to save two more that beached themselves in mud-flats
this morninig.

There were still many dolphins swimming in Wellfeet harbor and rescueres
were watching to make sure they got out safely, said Connie Merigo of the
New England Aquarium.  At least four more were in the nearby Herring River.

The shoreline search resumed after being called off Thursday night because
of darkness.

The dolphins may have been driven ashore by unusually high tides caused by
a new moon and stormy coastal weather, said Sue Knapp, an aquarium
spokeswoman.

By nightfall Thursday, 35 dolphins had either been euthanized or died from
exposure, according to David Wiley a senior scientist with the
International Wildlife Coalition.

"I believe we'll be finding a lot more in the sands tomorrow," Wiley said
as he oversaw a euthanization near Wellfleet Harbor.

Rescue workers were first called to Wellfleet on Thursday morning to assist
four stranded dolphins.  Volunteers eventually herded about 20 animals back
to sea.

Throughout the day, dolphin sightings were reported in neighboring areas,
and  rescuers from the New England Aquarium, the Center for Coastal Studies
and the International Wildlife Coalition rushed to aid the stranded
mammals.  -30-

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 16:55:26 -0600
From: "Alliance for Animals" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: CALLS TONIGHT WILL HELP MONKEYS!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

The Public Works Committee will meet Tues. eve at 5:45pm to discuss
the fate of the Vilas Zoo Monkeys..WE NEED YOUR CALLS to convince
them that the community wants them protected!
Thanks!
The AREA CODE is 608
Monday, February 2nd..

THANKS TO YOUR EFFORTS....
We have crossed one hurdle..that the Zoo Commission met this morning
and voted unanimously to SUPPORT the resolution to protect the
monkeys.  There are still calls to make to the WAYS AND MEANS
Committee and the PUBLIC WORKS Committee to ensure that they too will
vote to support the resolution. Please don't delay.  We can win for
the monkeys and work together on this important issue.
 THEY NEED TO HEAR HOW YOU FEEL
 Please Contact the following committee members who are assigned to
 work on Resolution 241: Directing the Zoo Commission and Zoo Director
 to Develop options to retain the monkey colonies at the Henry Vilas
 Zoo. Ask that they work to keep the Vilas Monkeys here in Madison.
 We know it takes time to make so many calls, but if we fail to
 generate enough phone calls, the monkeys are sure to be sent to
 Tulane Primate Research Facility where they will be used in invasive
 research.
They do NOT deserve such a fate.
We CAN still work to keep them safe!

Public Works & Facilities Management Committee/MEETS TUES EVE!!
Name,District
   David Ripp, Chair,29Hm:849-7643
  James Mohrbacher, Vice-Chair,18Hm:246-9153
   Eugene Craft, Sec.,30Hm:437-5652
   David Blaska,7Hm:271-4882
     Jonathan Becker,11Hm:238-7076Wk:266-4360
    Judith Pederson,1Hm:274-4016

Thank you for your help on this important issue!  Alliance for Animals
608-257-6333
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 17:54:07 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

from CNN http://www.cnn.com
--------------------------------
Horse adoption program overwhelmed with too many animals

A wild horse fights as officials work to brand and vaccinate it

January 30, 1998
 Web posted at: 9:20 p.m. EDT (2120 GMT)

(AP) -- A federal program to round up excess wild horses and burros on
public land and offer them for adoption is overwhelmed with too many
animals and not enough people willing to take them home.

More than 6,000 unadopted animals have accumulated in government corrals
and sanctuaries.

This is the latest problem for a Bureau of Land Management
program exposed a year ago for allowing people to sell adopted horses for
slaughter.

The 26-year-old Wild Horse and Burro Program was intended by Congress to
save the lives of wild horses that compete with
ranchers' cattle grazing on public land in the West. The BLM has decided to
limit the number of horses and burros on public lands to 26,000, but an
estimated 44,000 are roaming free in 10 Western states.

The BLM has tried to get the situation under control by rounding up about
10,000 animals a year and offering them for adoption. However, The
Associated Press reported last year that thousands of adopted animals had
been sold for slaughter and that BLM employees were among those profiting.

AP also found that the BLM lost track of about 32,000
adopted animals and that agency officials gave false information about the
program to Congress.

Finding homes for the horses has been difficult

Pat Shea, a Utah lawyer with a passion for the outdoors, took
charge of the BLM in October and promised to overhaul the program. However,
he said the reform is not coming easily. "When a mistake is made," he said,
"there is a tendency to gather together and avoid recognition of the problem."

In the wake of disclosures, finding homes for the animals has
been more difficult. For one thing, people who adopted large
numbers of horses in the past and then sold them for slaughter are no
longer allowed to participate. Jim Edwards of Columbus, Montana, was the
first to be rejected.

Tim Murphy, manager of the BLM's district office in Miles City, Montana,
rejected Edwards' application.

"This decision is based on the fact that you were involved in the sale of
wild horses for slaughter in the mid-1980's," he wrote in October, "and
that you were the caretaker of more than 20 horses that died from
malnutrition during that period."

Edwards did not return calls. His wife, Sherry, said BLM agents encouraged
the family to adopt the horses in the mid-'80s and sell them for slaughter.

At that time, she said, it seemed the only way to get rid of
excess horses.

"There are good people in the BLM, there are
lunatics in the BLM, and there are some people who have no clue about
horses," she said.

Last year, BLM crews rounded up 10,443 horses and burros and
were unable to find homes for 1,751 of them. They joined thousands more
left unadopted from previous roundups. A January BLM survey counted 6,285
wild horses in BLM corrals and sanctuaries. This year the agency hopes to
round up even more animals.

Animal welfare

In the next three months, some of these animals will find homes during 31
adoptions around the country. But other animals, some of them old, ugly or
mean, are destined to live out their days as federal welfare cases.

Wild horses and burros are not cheap or easy for the government to keep.
Already, the BLM is spending $50,000 a week to maintain them, and their
numbers are growing. They also catch and share viruses, suffocate in
snowdrifts and, if not carefully separated, reproduce.

An internal audit of the program released in August blamed both the BLM and
Congress for the program's problems. It said Congress hamstrings the BLM by
prohibiting the agency from killing healthy animals. And it said the agency
has not "aggressively pursued other options for controlling herd sizes,
such as birthrate controls."

Shea said such options require a bigger budget. He said he needs $19.4
million to care for the animals and reorganize the adoption program, but
Congress has appropriated only $15.8 million. He plans to ask Congress this
month for permission to move money from other BLM programs.

Shea hopes to find more adopters this year through publicity and education.
He is also asking program managers to use better science and pushing for
some kind of birth control.

And he's asking them for straight answers. "The people I have met in the
program are very, very dedicated public servants," he said. "But faced with
an impossible job they have shown a tendency to cover up their mistakes and
problems rather than try to resolve them."


Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 18:04:43 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Agence France-Presse
SYDNEY, January 30, 1998

An Australian biologist plans to use mice as surrogate testicles to
produce human sperm, New Scientist magazine reported Friday.

The concept will help researchers probe the poorly-understood process of
human sperm production and the causes of testicular cancer.

"The first time you say to anyone we want to produce human sperm in
mice, they look at you with frank horror," said Professor Roger Short of
Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital.

"But once people overcome the initial gut reaction, many accept the
proposal."

He has applied to the United States National Institute of Health for
funding and has already won ethical approval from his local animal
research committee.

He said he hopes to begin experiments later this year but has yet to
present his proposal to the equivalent committee covering human
subjects.

Short, one of the world's leading reproductive biologists, said stand-in
testicles could also lead to treatments for some infertile men.

Theoretically, they could nurture genetically-altered sperm cells.

Developments in invitro fertilisation (IVF) mean women with fertility
problems can now conceive but men who produce little or no sperm have
virtually no chance of becoming fathers.

"The cause may be a mutation in one of the genes on the Y chromosone
that control spermatogenesis -- the production of sperm from germ
cells," he said.

"Being able to study human spermatogenesis in a laboratory animal may
help researchers work out why the process fails in many infertile men."

If the genetic fault lies with the cells that nurture developing sperm,
transplanting germ cells into a mouse with healthy cells might allow
mature sperm to form.

The concept has already been successfully carried out between rats and
mice.

Bioethicists have generally given the research their approval, but urged
caution.

New Scientist said there were two main safety concerns if sperm produced
in mice were ever to be used for IVF.

The human sperm could undergo changes that produce congenital defects or
mouse viruses could infect the sperm, raising similar fears of viral
contamination to those that have dogged attempts to use animal organs
for human transplants.

University of Sydney reproductive expert Rob Loblay was similarly
apprehensive but said it should not raise ethical problems.

"It's not like Dolly (the cloned sheep)," he said.

"Providing this research is done according to all the currently
established guidelines, it should not raise any serious ethical
objections."

David Shapiro, former executive secretary of Britain's Nuffield
Hospital, said strict monitoring must take place at every stage of the
research, but fears some fertility researchers may be tempted to rush
ahead.

"There's this gung-ho attitude of let's have a go," he told the
magazine.

By MARTIN PARRY, Agence France-Presse

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 18:07:00 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Copyright =A9 1998 Nando.net
Copyright =A9 1998 The Associated Press=20

NEW ORLEANS (January 30, 1998 10:13 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- A
lawsuit filed by a slain man's mother alleges eyes, bones and other body
parts were removed from corpses at the city morgue and sold by the
coroner without permission from relatives.

Barbara Everett, whose son was shot three years ago, was in court
Friday, seeking to turn her lawsuit against the coroner, Dr. Frank
Minyard, into a class-action.

The judge said he would rule on the request in two to three weeks.

Mrs. Everett said she learned of her son's slaying about five hours
after he was shot. She called the coroner's office and was told it had
an unidentified body, but no Leroy Everett. She went to Charity Hospital
and was told that the body had been given to the coroner's office.

"I went back to the coroner's office. They said I had to wait for the
head coroner," she testified. Finally, she said, she was shown a
videotape of his head and identified her son. By then, the autopsy was
over.

Nine months later, Mrs. Everett learned that her son's hip bone and
corneas had been removed when a woman from Southern Transplant Services
Inc. called to ask about her son's medical history. The Food and Drug
Administration required the transplant agency to make the survey after
finding it had failed to determine whether donor bodies had hepatitis or
AIDS.

Minyard said it was Southern Transplant's job to get the family's
permission if the body and relatives had been identified. However, he
said, if there was no identification on the body and the hospital and
police were unable to trace it, he approves the harvesting.

Under Louisiana law, if relatives cannot be reached for permission, the
coroner can approve the taking of parts from any body.

Minyard said Southern Transplant paid one worker in his office $10 per
corpse to take the bone and corneas, paid clerks to call when bodies
arrived and paid at least one pathologist with the LSU Medical Center,
which has a contract to perform autopsies and testify to grand juries.

Minyard said he had no objection to the payment to the workers in his
office, but told the pathologist that payment to him was inappropriate.

State law requires organs to be donated, not sold.

T.J. Picou Jr., head of Southern Transplant, testified that between
January 1991 and April 1995, his firm took bone from 686 bodies after
autopsies in New Orleans.

He said 117 of those bodies were unidentified at the time of the
autopsy, though nearly all had been identified by the time the autopsy
report was typed up. In 1995, after an investigation by the FDA,
Southern Transplant stopped taking bone from unidentified corpses.

The coroner's office performs about 1,500 to 2,000 autopsies a year,
Minyard said.

Mrs. Everett said Southern Transplant indicated in the telephone call
that it was unable to trace her son's relatives.

"I said, 'Leroy never was unknown,"' Mrs. Everett recalled. "She said,
'Yes, but you were."'

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, The Associated Press

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 18:12:54 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

By David J Knowles
Animal Voices News

VANCOUVER, BC - The Vancouver public Aquarium announced Friday that Bjossa,
the facility's remaining orca, was not pregnant.

Bjossa was believed to have been pregnant for the past 10 months, after
mating with Finna prior to his death last year.

Bjossa has had three previous pregnancies, but none of her calves survived.

Local animal-rights group the Coalition for No Whales in Captivity, has
just one question following today's announcement  - if Bjossa isn't
pregnant, what is wrong with her?

The aquarium noted a change in Bjossa's health over the past 10 months, and
have been monitoring her by taking regular blood tests and ultrasounds.

Aquarium vet Dr David Huff is in charge of Bjossa's medical care - small
comfort for the Coalition, who note that he is the same vet who issued
Finna with a clean bill of health only four hours before he died in his tank.




Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 15:28:06 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Scientists Urge Xenotransplantation Moratorium
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

As published in Marketletter :

Moratorium In Xenotransplantation Urged
February 2, 1998

  Leading scientists have called for a moratorium on clinical
xenotransplantation  "until ethical issues associated with
the transfer of organs from animals to humans are resolved. "

  The call came just as the US National Institutes of Health
began a two-day meeting last month, entitled  Developing US
Public Health Service Policy in Xenotransplantation, to propose
tightening control over animal-to-human transplants. Fritz Bach,
a researcher of xenotransplantation at Harvard University and
a consultant to Novartis Pharma, joined six other public health
experts and bioethicists in urging a moratorium.

  The heightened interest in xenotransplantation stems from
considerable advances in genetic engineering which makes
it conceivable that the technology will become a reality.

  Currently, more than 53,000 Americans are waiting for an
organ transplant, but the shortage of donors means that 10
patients die every day, reports the Associated Press. The
need for donor organs greatly outweighs the resources
available and it is hoped that success in xenotransplantation
will help to alleviate the human donor shortage and save
thousands of lives.

  In a commentary in Nature Medicine (February issue) Dr Bach
and his colleagues stressed that "despite the fact that lives of
patients needing transplants may be lost with delay, we believe
that the risks are sufficient to warrant refraining from human
xenotransplantation until public deliberations on the ethical
issues have occurred." However, he noted that "research in
xenotransplantation should be strongly encouraged."

  At the meeting, a number of points were put forward to help
structure a new policy on xenotransplantation.  Leroy Walters of
Georgetown University said that regular public discussions
should be conducted and xenotransplantation protocols should
be reviewed. He added that all clinical xenotransplantation trials
should be publicly listed and that a register to track all volunteers
in these trials should be established. A review of global literature
concerning public health risks associated with xenotransplantation
should be conducted annually, he noted.

  The US Food and Drug Administration now looks set to monitor
all xenotransplantation clinical trials, according to Louisa Chapman
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who presented
the revised draft guidelines at the meeting. Responsibility for the
trials will come under one sponsor who must submit data to the
regulatory authority at every stage of the investigation, reports Reuters.
Furthermore, the revisions will also allow for a National Advisory
Committee, although this has not been finally authorized and there
is, as yet, no funding available.

Playing Russian Roulette?

After the presentation of the revised guidelines, which will be made
available in the summer following review by the FDA, CDC, NIH and
the Health Research Services Administration, Jonathan Allen of the
Southwest Foundation for Medical Research in Texas confronted the
panel, saying that he was "dumbfounded" that no differentiation had
been made between the species used, adding that "it may leave the
door open for the potential use of non-human primates in
xenotransplantation." He stressed that the panel was "playing
Russian roulette" in seemingly ignoring the fact that a non-human
primate transplant could result in the transmission of viruses.

  Philip Noguchi, the FDA's director of cellular and gene therapies,
said that "as the regulators, we're the ones in the hot seat and the
ones who will get blamed if anything goes wrong." The journal Nature
states in its January 22 issue that Dr Noguchi also said that "the FDA
is neutral on the question of whether a moratorium is needed."

  Non-human primate organ donors are favored by some because
their genetic make- up is similar to humans. However, it is widely
recognized that non-human primates are unsuitable for
xenotransplantation procedures because of the increased risk of
disease transmission. The organisms of the greatest concern are
the retroviruses and the herpes viruses, among others.

  Pigs now appear to be the animal of choice and, in 1995, Imutran
(which was acquired by Novartis the following year) revealed that it
was able to overcome cross-species hyperacute rejection by using
the organs from genetically- engineered pigs. According to Nature,
at least three other companies have also genetically-engineered
pigs, these being Protein Pharmaceuticals, Alexion and Nextran,
a subsidiary of Baxter International.

  Technology Dealt A Blow However, the possibility that disease-
free animals might be bred was dealt a blow last year when studies
demonstrated that the pig genome comprised multiple copies of
endogenous retroviruses, which are not harmful to pigs, but which
were able to infect human cells in vitro. Although this does not predict
in vivo infectivity, patients who have already received pig-to-human
transplants are being tracked to establish whether they are showing
signs of infection.

  In October 1997 all trials involving porcine xenotransplantation
procedures were halted by the FDA pending further research, but
this ban was recently lifted on an ad hoc basis. Concerns about
xenosis (the transfer of infections by transplantation of xenogeneic
tissue) led Dr Bach to stress in his commentary that "not only would
atients receiving animal organs have to be continuously monitored
for xenosis, but so would relatives, colleagues and friends of those
recipients." He added that while xenotransplantation "offers potential
benefit to the individual," it also puts the population at risk.

  Backing this idea, Robert Michler from the Columbia-Presbyterian
Medical Center in New York, in an article posted on the CDC's web
site, said that although "the risk for xenozoonoses is likely to be
restricted to the xenogeneic tissue recipient...one must consider
and anticipate the potential for xenozoonotic transmission through
the human population, constituting a public health concern."

  Meantime, research goes on and pig cells are being implanted
 into the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease or Huntington's
disease, while the FDA has tentatively approved the practice of
using pig livers as ex vivo bridges through which the patients'
blood is perfused whilst they are waiting for a human donor.

Pig Cells In Epilepsy?

One of the latest studies to be made public is being conducted
by Massachusetts-based Diacrin and the Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center. Physicians say they have become the "the first in
the world" to implant fetal pig brain cells into the brain of a patient
with epilepsy. The trial, which has been approved by the FDA, will
enroll up to eight patients with intractable seizures who have failed
on conventional medications and whose only hope of control is the
removal of the part of the brain responsible for the seizures.

  The pig brain cells produce gamma-aminobutyric acid which has
anticonvulsant properties and prevents neurons from firing too
rapidly and triggering a seizure. Some months after the transplant,
the portion of the brain injected with the porcine cells will be removed
and investigated to see whether the cells survived, whether they were
still producing GABA and whether any inflammation occurred as a
result of the xenograft. Patients will be monitored throughout their
lives to safeguard against possible infection or other side effects,
according to a statement.

  Despite being beset with problems, the field of xenotransplantation
looks set to become big business, with Peter Laing, an analyst from
Societe Generale, commenting that the market may be worth $6 billion
by 2010.

  According to Nature, Swiss giant Novartis is prepared to invest up
to $1 billion in xenotransplantation in the next few years. The company
is looking at patients who have received either porcine skin transplants
for severe burns, pancreatic islet cells or who had a pig liver "bridge"
whilst awaiting a human donor, the journal reports.

  Novartis is also investing heavily in the area of immunosuppression.
Research has indicated that the T cell response to xenografts may be
different, which means that even if the problems of hyperacute rejection
can be overcome, new immunosuppressants may be required to
prevent graft rejection.

  However, Dr Bach and Harvey Fineberg, from the Harvard
School of Public Health, said that "overcoming the huge
obstacles to cross-species rejection is much further off than
some biotechnology companies would like their investors
and the public to believe."

Public In Favor?

Meantime, a survey carried out on behalf of the US National
Kidney Foundation, and reported in Nature, discovered that
over 75% of the 1,200 people polled would "consider a
xenotransplant for a loved one if the organ or tissue was not
available from a human." Only 2%-5% would not even consider
it even if it was a matter of life or death. 27% had some concerns
over organ compatibility, while only 13% expressed concerns
over the risk of transmissible diseases.

  Whatever happens, many seem to agree that substantial
preclinical research is required to determine the actual risks
involved. "Politicians would do well to err on the side of caution
and agree on an international moratorium on clinical trials,"
reports Nature, which adds that "what is at stake is not only
risk to public health, but the real promise of xenotransplantation,
which can only be compromised by undue haste."

  So far the UK has taken the strongest stand, last year banning
clinical xenotransplantation trials until the risks are better understood
and it is clear that it will be of real benefit to the patient. It has also
established the Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority to
regulate developments in the field. Similar structures are also in
place in Sweden, France and Germany.

  <<Marketletter -- 02-02-98>>

  [Copyright 1998, The Marketletter Publications]

===========================================
NOTE:
Dr. Bach's commentary is available at:
http://medicine.nature.com/xeno/

For information on the U.S. government  National
Organ and Tissue Donation Initiative go to:
http://www.organdonor.gov
===========================================



Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: [e-mail], phone: [phone] x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"There's so much comedy on television. Does that cause
comedy in the streets?" - Dick Cavett

-----Long, but Important Warning Notice -----

My email address is: [e-mail]

LEGAL NOTICE: Anyone sending unsolicited commercial
email to this address will be charged a $500 proofreading
fee. This is an official notification; failure to abide by this
will result in  legal action, as per the following:

By U.S. Code Title 47, Sec.227(a)(2)(B), a computer/modem/printer
 meets the definition of a telephone fax machine.
By Sec.227(b)(1)(C), it is unlawful to send any unsolicited
 advertisement to such equipment.
By Sec.227(b)(3)(C), a violation of the aforementioned Section
 is punishable by action to recover actual monetary loss, or
 $500, whichever is greater, by each violation.



Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 18:42:47 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Phnom Penh

Three sun bears rescued from certain death and consumption in restaurants
were flown yesterday from the Cambodian capital to new homes in Australia.

Two-year-old Barbara, 18-month-old Sean and 14-month-old Viva will be
housed initially at Perth Zoo before joining captive breeding programmes in
Melbourne and other cities to try to boost numbers of the endangered species.

Their paws, considered a delicacy, would have fetched up to US$700
(HK$5,400) in restaurants.

They were the second group of sun bears to be rescued from restaurants and
sent to Australia in the past year under a programme headed by American
Randy Steed.

Last year Mr Steed and Australian friends sent a group of rescued sun bears
to Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney.

With the help of the Free the Bears Foundation in Perth, he and Australian
businessman John Stephens have bought land along the Mekong River, just
outside Phnom Penh, to house rescued animals.

Barbara, Sean and Viva had been cared for in Cambodia for several months
while arrangements were being made for their departure.

It took more than six months for the Cambodian Government to approve the
paperwork for the three to leave.

Rapid deforestation due to illegal logging is forcing sun bears out of
their natural habitat, making it easier for hunters to catch and sell them.

Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 16:07:34 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Hundreds die as disease jumps species barrier
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday, January 31, 1998

Hundreds die as disease jumps species barrier

By FRED PEARCE in Nairobi

For the second time in six months, the world is
glimpsing the health consequences of escalating
climate change. After triggering the choking havoc
of smoke from Indonesian forest fires late last year,
the worst El Nin~o for 50 years has in the past two
months unleashed plagues of disease across east
Africa in the wake of unprecedented dry-season
rains and floods.

Cholera and malaria have claimed record numbers
of victims across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia.
Pests, such as a toxic insect known as the Nairobi fly,
have proliferated. Locusts may be on the way.

However, most frightening of all is an outbreak of Rift
Valley Fever, a cattle disease that has decimated herds
across eastern Kenya and southern Somalia and
jumped the species barrier to kill hundreds of humans.

Rains in parts of Kenya in the past month have been
20 times normal. El Nin~o, a climatic convulsion in the
Pacific, has warped tropical weather fronts round the
 globe and left a band of intense rain, known as the
inter-tropical convergence zone, over the country for
weeks on end.

The real havoc has been caused in north-eastern Kenya -
a vast, normally arid land of cattle herders which has
effectively been cut off by floods for more than two months
now.

Just before Christmas, news began to filter out of
thousands of cattle deaths and a mysterious "bleeding
disease" among humans. Victims of the disease were
struck down literally overnight.  They became delirious,
began bleeding from ears, nose and mouth and died
within hours. On Christmas Eve, a disease consultant
with the World Health Organisation in Nairobi, Ms Louise
Martin, collected samples of blood, had them analysed
in South Africa and Kenya and discovered both animals
and humans had now contracted deadly Rift Valley Fever.
Last week, the Red Cross said the virus had killed "more
than 450 people" and remained out of control. Things may
be even worse over the border in Somalia, a land without
any form of central government.

The disease invaded a rural population without medical
help and already severely weakened by malnutrition, TB,
malaria and a range of parasitic diseases.

The death rate from the disease appeared to be around
50 per cent in humans and even higher in animals.

Ms Martin said: "One family I met had a herd of 200
goats one week, and only four left the next." The virus
spreads among animals via mosquitoes, rather like
malaria. However, a human disease specialist at the
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
near Nairobi, Mr John Githule, said transmission was
much faster.

With malaria, each succeeding generation of mosquitoes
has to be reinfected with the disease to spread it. By
contrast, female mosquitoes carrying the Rift Valley Fever
virus lay eggs ready infected.

This produces a rapid magnification of the number of
insects carrying the disease, Mr Githule said. The eggs
are laid in wet, marshy areas. They can lie dormant
through drought and hatch with the return of rains,
infecting animals coming to graze.

The disease was first identified in 1931 in the Rift
Valley in Kenya. Until now, the largest known outbreak
in humans was in Egypt during floods in 1977, when
600 people died. Some researchers have suggested
the virus could have been responsible for biblical
plagues in Egypt.

Humans, like animals, can be infected by mosquitoes
but also by eating infected meat. Either way, with humans
and animals huddled together against the floods, animal
carcasses the only available food, and standing water
causing an explosion in mosquito numbers, the people
of north-eastern Kenya are a sitting target.

A human vaccine was developed secretly by the United
States Army 30 years ago, but it has never been licensed
for wider use.

The Guardian

Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: [e-mail], phone: [phone] x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"There's so much comedy on television. Does that cause
comedy in the streets?" - Dick Cavett

-----Long, but Important Warning Notice -----

My email address is: [e-mail]

LEGAL NOTICE: Anyone sending unsolicited commercial
email to this address will be charged a $500 proofreading
fee. This is an official notification; failure to abide by this
will result in  legal action, as per the following:

By U.S. Code Title 47, Sec.227(a)(2)(B), a computer/modem/printer
 meets the definition of a telephone fax machine.
By Sec.227(b)(1)(C), it is unlawful to send any unsolicited
 advertisement to such equipment.
By Sec.227(b)(3)(C), a violation of the aforementioned Section
 is punishable by action to recover actual monetary loss, or
 $500, whichever is greater, by each violation.



Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 19:28:00 -0600
From: Steve Barney <[e-mail]>
To: AR-News <[e-mail]>
Subject: [US] "Monkeys' fate may hinge on Friday parley" (TCT, 1/29/98)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Since this article was published, the zoo commission resoundingly passed
Resolution 241 - a good thing for the monkeys.  To read the resolution,
go to #3.1.15.1 at:

     http://www.uwosh.edu/organizations/alag/#Issues



The Capital Times
Madison, WI, United States
January 29, 1998
Page 1

-- Beginning --

Monkeys' fate may hinge on Friday parley

By Jason Shepard

Correspondent for The Capital Times

A special Friday morning meeting of the Dane County Zoo Commission will
likely be a decisive moment in the continued fight to save some of the
UW-Madison monkeys that live at the Henry Vilas Zoo.

That's because commission members will debate a proposal that calls for
the county to study keeping at least some of the monkeys in Madison,
even though their owner - the University of Wisconsin - plans to get rid
of them.

As a Feb. 1 funding deadline looms over the heads of the 150 macaque
monkeys at the zoo, the Friday morning meeting will be the fist time the
three key players in the monkey controversy - UW officials, county
politicians and animal rights activists - will be in one room together.

"This meeting is going to be very significant and it is about time that
we all get to share our views about the monkeys," said Tina Kaske,
executive director of the Alliance for Animals, a Madison animal rights
group that has been following the monkey situation for months.

Comments from the members of the three key sides seem to indicate that
keeping some of the monkeys at the zoo remains a long shot.

Hopes were raised last week when the county intervened in the matter
with two separate actions, one by County Executive Kathleen Falk and one
by County Supervisor Tom Stoebig.

Falk instructed members of her staff to investigate possibilities of
keeping the monkeys in town.  And Stoebig called for the study on
whether the county should take over control of some of the animals. UW
officials say the monkey house costs about $100,000 a year to run.

As of last week, the university had planned on shipping the 100 rhesus
macaques to the Tulane Regional Primate Research Center in Louisiana
where they would simply serve as a breeding colony.

The stump-tailed macaques, a federally defined threatened species, will
possibly be shipped to a wildlife center in Thailand, the species'
native land.

UW officials insist plans to relocate the monkeys have not changed.  But
three UW officials - Graduate School Associate Dean Tim Mulcahy,
Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center interim director Joe Kemnitz,
and primate center spokeswoman Jordana Lenon - are expected to attend
Friday's meeting.

"We're still planning to send the rhesus to Tulane, and we're still
working on the Thailand possibility," Lenon said Wednesday.

As for the chance of keeping any of the monkeys at the zoo, Lenon said:
"If the money could be found and the zoo wanted to take them, it would
still be an option . . . I don't know how likely it is at this point."

The county interest has come after months of controversy over the zoo
monkeys.

The controversy started in August when The Capital Times reported that
the primate center repeatedly violated an agreement with the zoo not to
use monkeys housed at the facility in invasive research projects. A
later investigation by Graduate School Dean Virginia Hinshaw found that
the UW broke its promises 201 times since 1989.

Then, in November, the National Institutes of Health announced it was
prohibiting the UW from using federal money to fund the Vilas facility.

Ironically, the NIH cited the UW/zoo agreement as one of the reasons the
monkeys are no longer viable, because they will not be available for
research projects involving invasive studies.

So, the very agreement that aimed to protect the monkeys played a role
in the decision that could threaten their future.

The zoo commission's discussion Friday will affect Falk's deliberations
of the matter. And aides say she plans to receive her staff report on
the issue by Friday.

Commission members contacted Wednesday night said they still have many
questions and were noncommittal to any particular view. And ultimately,
they say, their decisions matter very little if the county doesn't have
the money and if the UW won't donate the monkeys.

Obviously no one wants the monkeys, if it is at all avoidable, to be
placed somewhere cruel," said commission chairwoman Karen West.

"But we as a zoo commission do not have the power to levy taxes or
create funds.  We can develop all the options in the world, but if the
county doesn't want to fund them, and if the UW doesn't agree, since
they own the monkeys, then our ideas are worthless."

Commissioner Linda Scheid agreed, saying, "Sure, we all want to see the
monkeys at the zoo.  But there are a lot of other issues that surround
them," including costs of both the daily care, the need to update the
facility, and the potential spread of a herpes B virus that about
one-third of the monkeys are thought to carry.

But West said she isn't ruling anything out.  She hopes Friday's meeting
will open communication among the key players, and that UW officials and
animal rights come with important and relevant information for the
commission.

Meanwhile, other top county officials say it's money that continues to
be the sticking point about any county involvement in the future of the
monkeys.  "Costs continue to be a major concern about any county role,"
said Helene Nelson, Falk's chief of staff.

"You can come up with all the options you want, but if you don't have
the money, it's pretty academic," said zoo director David Hall.  "The
bottom line is where the money is coming from."

-- End --

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 20:32:07 -0500
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Vegetarian Talks in Oprah Cow Trial
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from AP http://wire.ap.org
----------------------------------------------
 02/02/1998 12:02 EST

 Vegetarian Talks in Oprah Cow Trial

 By CHIP BROWN
 Associated Press Writer

 AMARILLO, Texas (AP) -- A vegetarian activist being sued for his
 comments about U.S. beef on the ``Oprah'' show said today that
 he merely gave his opinion about the risk of mad cow disease and
 that ``no one can say a future event has facts associated with
 it.''

 Attorneys for Texas cattlemen continued attempts to show that
 Howard Lyman's comments on the April 1996 show were not based on
 facts.

 The cattleman are suing Lyman, Oprah Winfrey and her production
 company for at least $10.3 million. They say the show, titled ``Dangerous
 Foods,'' pushed already slumping beef prices to 10-year lows.

 Joe Coyne, a cattleman lawyer, asked Lyman this morning what facts he had
 to back up his claim that ground-up cattle parts were being fed to cattle
 herds, a practice linked to the spread of the disease in England.

 Lyman said his comments on the show were based on his experience as a
 former cattle rancher.

 ``I was there to give my opinion on the risk factors of whether mad cow
 disease could happen here. I believe I did that,'' Lyman said.

 Coyne: ``Show me the facts that you based your comments on.''

 Lyman: ``No one can say a future event has facts associated with it.''

 Lyman also appeared to hurt Ms. Winfrey's case when he said that
 reassuring pro-beef comments that were edited out of the show would have
 been relevant to viewers as long as the statements were true.

 Attorneys for the cattlemen want to show that Ms. Winfrey intentionally
 deleted comments from the show that would have soothed concerns among
 viewers about U.S. beef possibly becoming infected with mad cow disease.
 They said she favored the more fear-raising, ratings-grabbing statements
 by Lyman.

 Although Ms. Winfrey has yet to take the witness stand, she has sat in
 court for every minute of testimony over nine days of the trial before
 going to a local theater to tape her talk show. The trial is expected to
 run through mid-February.

 The cattlemen are suing under a state law that protects agricultural
 products from false and defamatory remarks.

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 17:50:53 -0800
From: "Bob Schlesinger" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Feb 14th Rally in OR for Dogs Sentenced to Die
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Hillsboro, OR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 Contact:  Watchdog
               [phone]

A rally will be held at noon on Saturday Feb. 14th at the State Capitol Building in Salem, Oregon
to
protest the death sentences of Nadas and several other dogs in Oregon for chasing
livestock.  No harm came to any of the livestock involved.

Nadas, the most well-known victim of this law,  is to be put to death on Feb 17th.  The Oregon
Supreme Court recently refused to review the case involving the 3 1/2 year old collie-malamute.

The rally will be held on the front steps leading to the State Capitol Building Steps at:

900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon

Speakers will urge that the livestock law be changed in light of the epidemic of dogs being put to
death, as well as issue an immediate appeal that Nadas be spared.  Organizers note that this law
currently can affect any pet owner in Oregon as well as those who visit the state.

An additional rally may be held in Medford, Oregon on the same date.  Medford is where Jackson
County government is headquartered, and is where Nadas was impounded and sentenced to die.
Nadas has been denied visitors for 1 1/2 years, and recently was moved by county officials from
county animal control facilities to an undisclosed location.

According to Medford rally organizer Linda Rowe, plans for a rally in that city will only be
confirmed after
committments are obtained for a sufficient turnout.  An earlier rally originally scheduled for Feb.
6th was postponed after reports were received that the County Commissioners might meet in
secret to
consider alternatives for Nadas.  These reports have not yet been confirmed.

Organizations in particular are urged to contact Watchdog in order to pledge support for the rally
and
provide attendees.  Pledges for attendees are particularly needed for Medford.

Background information on Nadas and the other dogs sentenced to die can be found at
http://www.arkonline.com/nadas.htm

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 20:56:50 -0500
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Ex-employee says Oprah wanted `boring beef guy' edited out
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from Amarillo Globe-News http://www.amarillonet.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Web posted Monday, February 2, 1998 6:53 p.m. CT

Ex-employee says Oprah wanted `boring beef guy' edited out
Cattlemen vs. Oprah Winfrey

By CHIP CHANDLER
Globe-News Staff Writer

Oprah Winfrey told a producer to edit out a "boring beef guy" in a segment
about mad cow disease, a former Harpo Productions Inc. employee testified
via video on Monday.

Former supervising senior producer LaGrande Green said he was told by
producer James Kelley that Winfrey wanted Kelley to edit what she called
rambling comments by Dr. Gary Weber, a beef industry spokesman.

Later Monday, Kelley said Winfrey told him to cut out Weber's redundancies.
Kelley also testified via video deposition.

The testimony came during the 10th day of the cattlemen vs. Winfrey
beef-defamation trial at U.S. District Court in Amarillo.

Green, in a videotaped deposition from December, also said Kelley felt like
Winfrey and other Harpo officials were making him the scapegoat for the
lawsuit, and they wanted him to lie in a deposition for the case.

He said other employees were "laughing about what would happen if Kelley
told the truth."

Winfrey's attorney Charles Babcock tried to discredit Green's testimony by
asking why he was fired from Harpo. Green described himself as a sex addict
and said he often left work during the day.

"As a former sexual-abuse victim, I consider myself a sexual addict and
sometimes felt the need to leave the building and go to an adult bookstore
or walk around," Green said.

He also said he told a Harpo attorney he might be more willing to talk to
Harpo about what he knew about the "Dangerous Foods" show if he still had a
job with the company. Green said he was not involved in the production of
the show - which prompted the lawsuit - but that he had many discussions
with those who were.

Green said Kelley often talked with him about job difficulties even after
Green was fired.

"(Kelley) told me he told Oprah and Diane (Hudson, executive producer) that
he was tired of being blamed for the lawsuit," Green said.

Kelley said in his video deposition from June that he edited the show so
that the most relevant points would remain.

"You listen to the show, and you make sure that you keep the substance in,"
he said.

Kelley said he assigned associate producers to research the show and find
guests, which eventually included Weber, Dr. Will Hueston of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and vegetarian activist Howard Lyman.

Lyman, who is a defendant in the case, concluded his testimony Monday
morning.

He repeatedly was asked by plaintiff attorney Joe Coyne whether the
statements he made on the show were truthful and based on fact.

"I went on the show to present my opinion," he said.

"I believe it represented a way I felt on the issue," Lyman said, but he
never would say whether his opinion was based on fact.

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 21:01:45 -0500
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Lyman says opinion based on research
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from  Amarillo Globe-News http://www.amarillonet.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Web posted Monday, February 2, 1998 1:14 p.m. CT

Lyman says opinion based on research
Cattlemen vs. Oprah Winfrey

By KAY LEDBETTER
Farm and Ranch Editor

Vegetarian activist Howard Lyman doesn't maintain that the statements he
made were based on fact, but rather that he based his opinion on research,
according to testimony in the 10th day of the area cattlemen vs. Oprah
Winfrey Trial.

Court started Monday morning with an admonishment by U.S. District Court
Judge Mary Lou Robinson telling counsel to "move along as fast as we can."
She said repetition had been allowed earlier for the benefit of educating
the jury, but "the court will not allow it anymore."

Lyman, who appeared as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show on April 16, 1996,
and is a defendant in the case, was repeatedly asked by plaintiff attorney
Joe Coyne whether the statements he made on the show were truthful and
based on fact.

Lyman in return said, "I went on the show to present my opinion.

"I believe it represented a way I felt on the issue," Lyman said, but would
never say whether his opinion was based on fact.

When asked by Coyne for the third time, "Can you identify any statements
you made that were fact," attorneys were called to the judge's bench, and
an early recess was taken.

Lyman said he sold his ranch to pay debts. For that reason, he got out of
the cattle business. He also said he was 6-feet 1-inch tall and weighed
more than 300 pounds. The doctor recommended he change his diet, and he
became a vegetarian.

Coyne asked Lyman why those things were not said on the show.

"You just like to tell people things that sound good?" he said.

Lyman said that Coyne's statement was not totally correct.

Lawyers also questioned Lyman about his business card, which reads "Howard
Lyman, J.D." The "J.D." indicates a law degree, however Lyman said he had
no such degree. He said he has an honorary doctorate degree of law.

"Your card misrepresents your education background?" Coyne said.

"That's possible," Lyman said.

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 18:32:11
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [UK] Circus men beat their animals on secret video
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, February 3rd, 1998

Circus men beat their animals on secret video
By David Millward

A VIDEO showing circus elephants, camels and tigers being beaten with iron
bars by their keepers brought calls yesterday for new laws to control the
industry.

The film, in which beasts were seen chained and confined in cages, is to be
shown at Westminster tomorrow by Angela Smith, Labour MP for Basildon.

Mrs Smith believes the footage provides compelling evidence for new
legislation which she hopes will be backed by MPs on all sides.

The film was put together by the campaign group, Animal Defenders. It was
compiled by five volunteers who spent 18 months collecting evidence after
infiltrating five circuses.

Entitled The Ugliest Show on Earth, it also alleges that circus animals
suffered routine neglect and had little chance to exercise naturally. It
also claims that one sick lioness was hidden from an RSPCA inspector.

Animal Defenders, which is calling for a ban on the use of animals in
circuses, has passed the 18-minute video - taken from 400 hours' footage -
to its lawyers as well as Mrs Smith.

The undercover operation visited several circuses including centres used
for wintering animals in several southern counties and showed creatures
being hit, shouted at and abused.

Footage includes:

A chimpanzee being kicked and whipped.
A camel being kicked and beaten with a stick.
An adult elephant being hit around the head and knees with a metal rod.
A monkey having a prolapsed rectum forced back by two keepers.
A heavily pregnant lioness being forced to perform.
Big cats being left in flooded cages.
Elephants being chained for hours.

Jan Creamer, Director of Animal Defenders, said the animals' treatment was
"sickening". He added: "Our people worked in circuses for months."
Volunteers were given basic training before being infiltrated into circuses
by getting jobs such as "beast men", responsible for maintenance of the
animals.

"Circus life for the animals is just deprivation, boredom and physical
abuse. We have video evidence of a tiger urinating after being shouted at.
This video is just the tip of the iceberg of what animals go through.

"It is the first to look at circuses as a whole, including travelling
arrangements, training, breeding and supply. Many of the animals, such as
the big cats and the elephants, have been taken from the wild and put into
this life of slavery."

After seeing the film, Mrs Smith called on the Government to bring circuses
into line with zoos. "I do not see why they should be exempt from the Zoo
Licensing Act.

"I intend to show the film to other MPs. My reaction to the film was that
it made me feel sick inside. Anyone who sees this film will never want to
go to the circus again."

A spokesman for one of the circuses defended the workers filmed pushing
back the monkey's prolapsed rectum saying they were acting on the advice of
a vet. "The animal had this problem before and it was put back by the vet
who told us if it happened again we should do it ourselves and the quicker
it was done the better. If what we did didn't work, he would have been here
within an hour to carry out an operation.

"Our premises are inspected by the local authority. We also have a vet here
once a week. We have a specialist zoo vet come once a month to make sure
that every thing is in the animals' best interest."

An RSPCA spokesman said anyone found guilty of cruelty to animals could be
jailed for six months, fined ú5,000 and banned from keeping animals.

"In general, we could prosecute for causing unnecessary suffering to an
animal and that includes beating. "Prosecutions are brought either by the
police or ourselves and video evidence can be used if the quality is good
enough."

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1998.

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 18:36:25
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [US] Pupils in vampire cult go on trial for ritual murder
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, February 3rd, 1998

Pupils in vampire cult go on trial for ritual murder
By David Sapsted in New York

TEENAGE members of a high school vampire cult, who drank human blood and
sacrificed animals, went on trial in Florida yesterday accused of the
ritual murders of one of their parents.

Rod Ferrell, 17, the alleged leader of the cult which sprang up among a
group of teenagers at Eustis High School, about 35 miles from Orlando,
faces death in the electric chair if convicted.

In a statement to Tavares district court, one of the cult members said
Ferrell had "become possessed with opening the gates of Hell, which meant
he would have to kill a large number of people in order to consume their
souls. By doing this, Ferrell believed that he would obtain super powers".

Ferrell is accused of bludgeoning to death Richard and Naoma Wendorf. They
were the parents of Heather Wendorf, 16, who, on the day of the killings in
November 1996, was inducted into the cult by drinking other members' blood
in a ceremony in a local cemetery. Miss Wendorf has been cleared by a grand
jury of any involvement in her parents' death.

When Ferrell suggested killing them, she told him not to harm them and only
discovered they were dead afterwards. Mr Wendorf's body was found in his
home with a "V" sign surrounded by circular marks burnt into his chest.

Jury selection for the trial began yesterday. Only Ferrell is charged with
the murders. Howard Anderson, 17, also faces the death penalty on a charge
of being a principal accessory to murder. Prosecutors say he was in the
house at the time of the killings and did nothing to stop them.

Dana Cooper, 20, and Charity Keesee, 17, face lesser charges of being
accessories, though police say they were not in the Wendorfs' home. All
four plead not guilty.

Prosecutors say that Ferrell and Miss Wendorf were misfits at school and
kept in touch after he moved to Kentucky.

⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1998.

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 19:31:28 PST
From: "Cari Gehl" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Fwd: MarmamNews for January 1998
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Content-Type: text/plain

This is being forwarded from MARMAM:

---------------------------
>The following articles were uploaded to MarmamNews in January 1998.
>MarmamNews can be found at
>
>http://members.aol.com/marmamnews
>
>01/02/1998
>   1998 Expected to be a Bad Year for the Dolphins
>
>01/06/1998
>   Irish Whaling Compromise Condemned
>   Bathers beat shark to death in South Africa
>   Scientists call for urgent action on oceans
>   Dead dolphins wash up on Caribbean island
>   90 Dolphins Die on Venezuelan Beach
>   Environment-Oceans: Scientists say sea life  "In ...
>   Dolphins Aground and Die In Mass In Venezuela
>   Weldon calls for White House Conference on the Seas
>
>01/07/1998
>   FED: Aust to oppose Irish proposal on Whaling
>
>01/08/1998
>   TAS: Mystery Sea Monster to be DNA-tested
>   Arbitrator rules on Keiko's care
>
>01/09/1998
>   UAE fighting to contain 4,000-tonne Gulf oil spill
>   Environment-Gulf: Oil spill threatens Persian Gulf ...
>
>01/11/1998
>   QLD: Sanctuaries will save endangered dugong
>
>01/12/1998
>   TAS: Scientist confirms that "Monster" is whale blubber
>   Britain-Endangered Seas
>   Nine pilot whales beached on Florida east coast
>   CSIRO: Scientists kill marine 'monster' mystery
>
>01/13/1998
>   Environment: Super Trawler threatens marine food
>
>01/15/1998
>   New Zealand's 'extinct' right whale rediscovered
>   Ecuador Expands No-Fishing Zone
>
>01/16/1998
>   NSW: Three whales stranded on NSW coast
>   VIC: Dolphin survey covers Port Phillip Bay
>   Sea lions in Peru
>   Restriction on Tuna Drift Net Fishing
>   New Zealand Finds Extinct Whales
>
>01/17/1998
>   NSW: Beached whales euthanised after their health worsens
>
>01/18/1998
>   Prince Philip gives boost to whale campaign
>   Concern about boats, jet skis as whales visit Wellington Harbour
>
>01/19/1998
>   Police concerned as motorists try to catch glimpse of Orcas
>   Second dolphin dies at Puponga
>
>01/22/1998
>   Pollution, not hunting, is whale's greatest threat
>   Children 'Adopt' trapped dolphin
>   `Free Willy' Could Go Back to Sea
>
>01/23/1998
>   Last dolphin dies in golden Bay
>   FOCUS-Three whales stranded on north German coast
>   3 Beached Whales Die in Germany
>   Six Whales Stranded off Northern German Coast, 3 Died
>
>01/25/1998
>   Huge pod of dolphins visit Dunedin Beach
>
>01/26/1998
>   PHOTO: Germany - Whales: Sankt Peter Ording, Germany
>
>01/27/1998
>   Project Launched in Zanzibar to Protect Dolphins
>   Seal aphrodisiacs often fake -Canadian researchers
>   PHOTO: Whales: Terranceville, Newfoundland
>   PHOTO: Whales: Terranceville, Newfoundland
>
>01/28/1998
>   Whaling Commission to meet in bid to end impasse
>   Clinton Proclamation of the Year of the Ocean
>   Campaign group fears for future of whales
>
>01/29/1998
>   Hundreds of rare sea lion pups found dead at breeding colony
>   Unknown catastrophe wipes out sea lions
>   Warning against speculation over sea lion deaths
>   Call for halt to fishing until seal investigation completed
>   Whaling Commission to meet in bid to end impasse
>   `Free Willy' Star in Good Health
>   Sea lions shot, decapitated off California coast
>   Sea Lions Found Dead Off Antarctica
>   Hundreds of sea lion deaths baffle NZ experts
>
>01/30/1998
>   More seals die in Subantartic
>   Deaths treated as Biohazard
>   Dolphin death toll mounts on Cape Cod
>   WWF campaigns for Mediterranean whale sanctuary
>   Dolphin death toll mounts on Cape Cod
>   Dead Sea Lions Prompt Investigation
>   Rescuers Try To Save Dolphins
>   Beached Dolphins Die at Cape Cod
>   Center for Marine Conservation Announces Program ...
>


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 19:39:54 PST
From: "Cari Gehl" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Fwd: Summary Report of Keiko Evaluation Panel
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Content-Type: text/plain

Also from MARMAM...

----------------->
>Summary Report of Evaluation Panel
>Convened to Assess the Health of Keiko
>January 28, 1998
>
>
>
>Panel Members:
>
>Dr. James McBain, Sea World, Inc.
>Dr. Al Smith, Oregon State University
>Dr. Jeffery Stott, University of California at Davis
>Dr. Joseph Geraci6 National Aquarium in Baltimore
>Mr. Bud Krames, Dolphin Quest
>Dr. Barbara Kohn, USDA, APHIS, AC - Facilitator
>
>Other Contributors:
>
>Dr. Isis Johnson, USDA, APHIS, AC
>Dr. Randy Ridenour, USDA, APHIS, AC
>
>This independent evaluation was done with the full backing and support
of
>the Free Willy Keiko Foundation. Foundation liaisons were Mr. Joseph
>Gaskins, and Mr. Robert Ratliffe.
>
>The Panel wishes to thank the staff at the Free Willy Keiko Foundation
and
>the Oregon Coast Aquarium for their cooperation with this evaluation.
The
>Panel was welcomed with open arms. We wish to thank Dr. Lanny Cornell
for
>his cooperation.
>
>Keiko, a male killer whale, Orcinus orca, was transported to the United
>States and housed at a newly built facility within the Oregon Coast
Aquarium
>(OCA) in January 1 1996. Since that time the animal has been under the
care
>of the OCA and the Free Willy Keiko Foundation (FWKF). Due to the
history
>and popularity of the whale, his health and well being have been
subjected
>to a high degree of public and media scrutiny. In August 1997, after a
>change in personnel handling the day-to day care of Keiko and after
>conflicting reports of his health status, APHIS was asked to facilitate
the
>formation of an independent panel of marine mammal experts who would
assess
>the current health status of Keiko. This panel was formed in October
1997
>with the cooperation of the FWKF. The panel included veterinary
experts,
>including a virologist and immunologist, as well as two veterinary
>clinicians, a behaviorist, and an APHIS representative as a
facilitator. The
>animal was evaluated by the panel members during December 1997 and
January
>1998.
>
>Keiko is an approximately 18 year old killer whale whose living
condition
>and health concerns came to light when he was chosen to star in the
movie,
>Free Willy. At that time, Keiko resided in a facility in Mexico (Reino
>Aventura), in which the pool was small and water quality was poor
including
>inappropriate temperature. Keiko has had no conspecific companionship
since
>he resided in Canada, but he did have dolphin companionship at Reino
>Aventura. After several years of negotiations and attempts to move
Keiko to
>a more appropriate facility, arrangements were made to move him to the
OCA
>facility, which was leased by the FWKF. Keiko's health has been a
constant
>concern with the most visible problem being a viral (assumed) skin
condition
>which was visible even during the filming of the movie. The skin
condition
>did appear to improve after the transfer to the Oregon facility with
its
>improved water quality.
>
>APHIS has, when deemed necessary, formed and/or overseen ad hoc panels
that
>dealt with specific allegations and concerns raised about regulated
animals.
>This process is not automatic, but is used when the nature and
implications
>of the situation warrants such measures. Due to the media focus and
history
>of this animal. APHIS agreed to help form and facilitate a Blue Ribbon
panel
>to assess the current health status of Keiko. The scope and sole
mandate of
>this panel is to examine Keiko's current health, not to comment on or
infer
>support or opposition to his releasability in The future. The panel was
>formed to look at the current veterinary and behavioral issues, the
current
>facility status with respect to the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and to
provide
>recommendations as appropriate
>
>Methodology:
>
>Keiko was examined by a marine mammal veterinarian and samples were
obtained
>for generally accepted routine medical testing, including a complete
blood
>count and chemistry profile. Additional blood and biopsy samples were
>obtained to run room specialized testing to evaluate the immunological
>status and viral exposure/response of the animal. Medical tests were
carried
>out at the panel member's own facilities utilizing currently accepted
>methodologies for the respective analysis. Medical and training records
were
>reviewed as needed by panel members, and FWKF and OCA personnel were
>interviewed when appropriate. Keiko's behavior was observed by several
panel
>members on two separate occasions during the veterinary examination and
>sample collection in December 1997, and again during the course of 10
>observation sessions in January 1998. Conference calls and one-on-one
>communications were utilized by the panel to discuss and evaluate the
>findings. During the tenure of the panel, APHIS inspectors conducted an
>unannounced compliance inspection.
>
>Results and Evaluation:
>
>To gain the best picture of the health status of any animal, one should
>monitor appropriate parameters over time, using repeated testing. This
panel
>was formed to evaluate a "snapshot" of Keiko's medical and behavioral
>condition. To provide the best evaluation under these circumstances,
the
>panel relied on the medical and behavioral records of the animal, as
well as
>examinations and testing done in November 1997 through January 1998.
>
>Based on clinical pathology results, there is a high probability that
Keiko
>developed a hepatopathy beginning in June 1997. The primary
manifestation of
>this event was a significantly elevated liver enzyme which did not
return to
>normal until December 1997. Keiko was treated with an antifungal drug
for a
>suspected lung infection during the latter period of enzyme elevation.
This
>complicated interpretation of the enzyme values since the antifungal
agent
>used is known to occasionally produce a transient elevation in liver
>enzymes, which may persist over a long period of time. The return of
the
>liver enzymes to normal levels indicated that, in the very least, the
>condition is in remission.
>
>During his residency in Oregon, Keiko experienced a tooth fracture
which
>later required extraction. There have also been multiple episodes of
>hematuria. Recent urinalyses demonstrate that hematuria is no longer
>present. Dr. Lanny Cornell, attending veterinarian for the FWKF,
indicated
>that Keiko has a penile lesion which was the likely source of blood in
the
>urine. The lesion has healed. Observers have reported the occurrence of
>behaviors described as "cramping" and "twitching." The Panel's
veterinary
>clinicians have not seen these behaviors, nor is any video available.
As a
>result their cause and significance cannot be determined. The behaviors
have
>been noted since Keiko's arrival in Oregon, and to date no disease
condition
>has been associated with them.
>
>In late December 1997, a small skin lesion on the leading edge of the
right
>pectoral flipper was observed. It was approximately 1" in diameter and
>visually appeared to be a papilloma. The lesion was biopsied, and
although
>cytopathology was evident on the first but not the second and third
growth
>passages, histology and initial cell culture tend to support the growth
>being the result of a papilloma (wart) virus. This condition is known
to
>occur in wild and captive whales and is not considered a health
challenge to
>Keiko. Other skin lesions which have been observed on Keiko have been
>examined and biopsied when appropriate (fresh lesions). Although such
>lesions resembled possible viral skin lesions, no specific viral
etiology
>has been identified.
>
>Blood (serum and buffy coats) samples were subjected to rigorous viral
>isolation and/or viral antigen testing for 49 antigens, including 33
>serotypes of caliciviruses (oceanic and nonoceanic), marine species
virus
>isolates of herpes virus, rotavirus-like virus, entorvirus-like virus,
>retrovirus-like virus, and three adenoviruses, as well as other
>miscellaneous viruses, including morbillivrius, parvovirus, and human
>hepatitis virus, canine adanovirus, and LDH virus. Antibody testing for
48
>to the 49 viruses is complete at this time. Antibody tests were
negative,
>and there were no viruses isolated.
>
>Samples collected to evaluate the immunological status of Keiko
revealed
>that he has a low circulating B-lymphocyte count and a slightly
elevated
>total immunogloubulin level. Immunealactrophoresis of the serum
proteins
>indicated that there may be a missing isotype of IgG. However, the
>significance of this finding is unknown. T-lymphocyte function appears
to be
>adequate in this animal.
>
>Behavioral observations of Keiko indicate a variation in his behavior
>patterns. In December 1997, he appeared "frustrated" and not content.
In
>January 1998, Keiko appeared calm, if bored. Both observers felt Keiko
might
>be feeling the effects of not having any control over his environment.
>However, no stereotypic or destructive (typical neurotic behaviors such
as
>head butting or staring into the walls) swimming or other behaviors
were
>observed.
>
>Keiko related well to his trainers, but it was felt that the response
>thresholds for the training sessions were low, and Keiko's response to
>stimuli, though not normal, was slow. The primary reinforcement tool
>preferred by Keiko was tactile stimulation after a session. He does not
>appear to be food driven in his interactions. Keiko was provided
enrichment
>devices and interacted with them randomly, especially enjoying the
>high-powered water jets used for environmental enrichment.
>
>Overall, Keiko appeared to have no behavioral problems that adversely
>affected his health. Several panel members expressed concern that
Keiko, may
>not have a great deal of stamina and that even small body movements
created
>visible movement of skin. This apparent flaccidity of Keiko's body
could
>indicate insufficient muscle mass, lack of muscle tone, or recent
changes in
>weight. Keiko continues to gain weight and grown since his move to
Oregon.
>
>APHIS inspections, conducted by a 2-person team, showed the facility in
>compliance with the AWA regulations and standards in July 1997 and
December
>1997.
>
>Summary and Recommendations
>
>There is no current indication that Keiko is ill. He showed no clinical
>pathological evidence of chronic deep-seated infection during his
residence
>in Oregon. Immunological test results are apparently within known
normal
>parameters, and there was no evidence of recent viral challenges to 48
>different viruses. Keiko appeared to be exhibiting no abnormal behavior
>patterns. At the time of the study, Keiko was recovering from an
illness
>(probable hepatopathy) of several months' duration. The only known
chronic
>condition in evidence is probable papillomatosis. This snapshot
analysis
>must be viewed as that   a look at one point in time. Questions and
concerns
>about Keiko's long-term health status and options for his future need
to be
>studied over a much longer period of time. Given Keiko's past health
history
>and ongoing concerns and scrutiny of his health, the panel makes the
>following recommendations:
>
>1. Continue monitoring and follow-up testing to further establish a
baseline
>for Keiko's medical results and to provide reliable scientific
documentation
>of his overall health picture.
>2. Given Keiko's past health history and potential future plans, a
written
>line of authority must be established, which assures that the husbandry
and
>medical programs are integrated in a way which places a single person
in
>ultimate authority. This will required commitment, cooperation, and
>communication between the husbandry staff, water quality engineers and
>operators, and veterinary care personnel.
>
>3. Ancillary to "2" above, complete and useful medical, training, and
>feeding records are necessary for any future evaluation of Keiko's
health.
>These records should be well organized and readable and provide an
accurate
>picture of all tests, treatments and responses.
>
>4. Keiko appears to have flaccidity in his body, evidenced by highly
movable
>skin. This could bean insufficient muscle mass or lack of muscle tone.
Keiko
>should continue a program to improve his body tone and endurance. Such
a
>program should include, at least, a program of regular, increasing
exercise,
>and monitoring of weight and appetite
>
>6 .Although Keiko's dependence on human interaction may facilitate
handling
>by the trainers, killer whales are social creatures and should be
afforded
>interactions with same or other compatible marine species. Section
3.109 of
>the AWA regulations and standards requires such access. A companion
animal
>is recommended and should be a compatible cetacean or, if necessary,
>pinniped species.
>
>6. Any decision on the rehabilitation of Keiko should be made in
concert
>with an ongoing, long-term health study and evaluation. An expert panel
>assembled by the responsible parties is recommended to oversee this
task.
>
>Steve Dickey
>[e-mail]
>Aquarium Webmaster
>


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 21:41:41 -0600
From: "Alliance for Animals" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Ca;;s needed, Meeting 2/3/98 for Vilas Monkeys..
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

Call now to help monkeys!  Area Code is 608..
e-mail addresses for persons on Public works list are:
example..
[e-mail]

They need to hear from people who are concerned..and we CAN protect
the monkeys if we all write and call.  Thanks!


Their meeting is Tues, the 3rd at 5:45pm at the Vilas Zoo Admin Bldg.
Call today.
Monday, February 2nd..
THANKS TO YOUR EFFORTS....
We have crossed one hurdle..that the Zoo Commission met this morning
and voted unanimously to SUPPORT the resolution to protect the
monkeys.  There are still calls to make to the WAYS AND MEANS
Committee and the PUBLIC WORKS Committee to ensure that they too will
vote to support the resolution. Please don't delay.  We can win for
the monkeys and work together on this important issue.
 THEY NEED TO HEAR HOW YOU FEEL
 Please Contact the following committee members who are assigned to
 work on Resolution 241: Directing the Zoo Commission and Zoo Director
 to Develop options to retain the monkey colonies at the Henry Vilas
 Zoo. Ask that they work to keep the Vilas Monkeys here in Madison.
 We know it takes time to make so many calls, but if we fail to
 generate enough phone calls, the monkeys are sure to be sent to
 Tulane Primate Research Facility where they will be used in invasive
 research.
They do NOT deserve such a fate.
We CAN still work to keep them safe!

Public Works & Facilities Management Committee/MEETS TUES EVE!!
Name,District
   David Ripp, Chair,29Hm:849-7643
  James Mohrbacher, Vice-Chair,18Hm:246-9153
   Eugene Craft, Sec.,30Hm:437-5652
    David Blaska,7Hm:271-4882
     Jonathan Becker,11Hm:238-7076Wk:266-4360
    Judith Pederson,1Hm:274-4016

Thank you for your help on this important issue!  Alliance for Animals
608-257-6333


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