Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news67~3.htm/text0000.txt

Text File | 1998-04-02 | 100.0 KB | 2,404 lines

Genetic engineers conquer the frog

Reuters News Service
WASHINGTON, February 26, 1998

Genetic engineering works in sheep, rabbits and mice, but scientists
have so far been unable to get it to work in frogs -- until now,
California researchers reported Thursday. A team at the University of
California in San Diego said they had found a way to introduce foreign
genes into a frog, at least temporarily.

Reporting in the journal Nature Biotechnology, they said they had
managed to introduce genes into African clawed toads for a fluorescent
protein normally produced by jellyfish.

"This technique is not what we call a stable transgenic. Right now we
don't know that the DNA is actually integrated into the chromosome," Dr.
Sylvia Evans, a specialist in heart development, said in a telephone
interview.

The approach was more like gene therapy, in which a gene is temporarily
introduced into cells but does not become a permanent part of an
animal's genes.

But it will allow scientists to produce transgenic frogs -- frogs that
carry working genes from other species -- for experimental work.

"The frog is the choice system for developmental biology," Evans said.

"The frog has a relatively large embryo that develops outside the body.
You can do all sorts of cut and paste experiments -- you can cut out
bits of the embryo and see what develops," she added.

Also, frogs are cheaper and easier to work with than mice. "Say you
wanted to study a protein's potential for a drug. You could then use
this method as the initial screening," Evans said.

She said no one really knew why frogs, which are relatively simple
animals, defy genetic engineering. Transgenic mice, sheep and cows bred
to carry human genes produce human proteins for companies such as
Scotland's PPL Therapeutics, which has created cloned and transgenic
animals like Dolly the cloned sheep and Polly, a transgenic clone.

Evans thinks the new method might work in other animals as well, such as
zebra fish.

By Maggie Fox, Reuters Health and Science Correspondent
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 22:05:45 -0800
From: Andrew Gach <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Spuds with cholera vaccine tested in mice
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Need a vaccination? Eat some french fries

Reuters News Service

WASHINGTON, February 26, 1998

U.S. researchers said Thursday they had genetically engineered potatoes
to carry a vaccine against cholera.

Unlike earlier attempts to get potatoes to produce vaccines, this one
lasts even if the potato is cooked -- creating the possibility that
people could get their inoculations from a plate of french fries.

William Langridge of Loma Linda University in California and colleagues
genetically engineered their potatoes to produce nontoxic cholera toxin
B (CTB), a protein that sparks an immune response in mice and humans.
The resulting potatoes are transgenic -- containing both potato and
foreign genes.

"Humans, unlike mice, eat only cooked potatoes," they wrote in a report
in the journal Nature Biotechnology. So they boiled their transgenic
potatoes.

"After cooking the transgenic potato tubers in boiling water until the
tissue became soft, we were able to detect approximately 50 percent of
CTB (in the effective form)."

They have only tested mice so far, but the approach worked fairly well.

"Potato tissues were orally administered to mice four times at weekly
intervals for a month with a final booster feeding," they wrote. They
then measured antibodies to cholera in both the blood and the feces from
the mice.

They also checked for evidence of diarrhea. Mice that had been immunized
had less fluid in their guts.

They said a "booster" dose also seemed to work as the effects of the
immunization wore off. "Thus, food plants grown in tropical and
semitropical regions of the world can provide a continuous source of
oral vaccine for the consequent booster dose," they wrote.

This offered a "low-cost, convenient, effective and safe strategy for
prevention of infectious enteric (intestinal) diseases as well as
autoimmune diseases in animals and in man, especially in regions of the
economically emerging world where conventional vaccines are unaffordable
as well as unavailable".

Five million people get cholera every year and 200,000 die from it.
Cholera, which comes from bacteria-infected water, causes severe
diarrhea and dehydration.

By Maggie Fox, Reuters Health and Science Correspondent
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 14:40:09 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Korean zoo tiger shot dead
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


>The Korean Herald
27 Feb 98
Letters to the Editor: Save Bengal Tigers
     To the Editor

     A TV report the other day showed an act of insanity. An innocent Bengal
tiger somehow     found his way out of his pen in Jinju Zoo, South Kyongsang
Province. Nobody would     disagree that in such a crisis situation the
safety of the public is the priority. As it turns out,     however, although
nobody was in real danger of being mauled by the tiger, the tiger was shot
dead by the zookeeper.

     Most rational zookeepers would grab their tranquilizer guns and sedate
the beast and send it     back to his home to recover from the ill effects
of the drug. Tragically, for some inexplicable     reason, the zookeeper
accompanied by trained commandoes took down the tiger with M-16
automatic rifles.

We all know that such a tragic snuffing out of nature's gift of life should
never happen at the     hands of people who know better. As one Korean
reporter candidly remarked on TV, ``It's     just another indiction of the
immaturity of the Korean people with regards to animals. If we     want to
enjoy animals at the zoo then it is incumbent upon us to live with them and
not to     exterminate them when it best suits us. Koreans should be ashamed
of what took place on     television that fateful day.''

     It is a well known fact that Bengal tigers are on the verge of
extinction. It is also well known     that some Asians wrong-headedly
subscribe to the putative medicinal advantages of parts of     the tiger
carcass. Violence against animals is simply another symptom of a much bigger
problem. The problem is the utter arrogance and foolishness of human beings
who think that     life is in the palm of their hands.

     Alden C. Mayfield

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 10:09:49 +0000 (WET)
From: Daniel Paulo Ferreira <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Correcting a posting
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit



Two days ago I sent the following message to AR-News:

> Hi everibody.
>
> I'm preparing an exhibition on Animal rights. The first part will adress
> vivisection and I would like to ask you for information on some subjects.
>
> First, I would like to adress human vivisection. Do you know any sites in
> the internet where I can find photos about that?
>
> Second, I read about the following devices used in animal vivisection
> labs:
>
>  -- Czermak table;
>  -- Pavlov stock;
>  -- Noble-Colip drum;
>  -- Ziegler chair;
>  -- Blalock press;
>  -- Collison cannula;
>  -- Horsley-Clarke stereotaxic device.
>
> I got the description of these devices from the well-known Hans Ruesch's
> article about vivisection in animal's Voice, a few years ago.
>
> However, I would appreciate if you could send me some photos of these
> devices (about Horsley-Clarke stereotaxic device, if it is the one we
> usually see in photos about vivisection, no need for photos on it).
>
> Third, Leonardo Da Vinci is usually pointed as an animal lover, vegetarian
> and defender of animal rights. However, a portuguese publisher translated
> a book about Da Vinci receipts, which have lots and lots of receipts with
> meat. And I read somewhere that he vivisected animals.
>
> So?
>
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Daniel

Where I wrote "... about Da Vinci receipts,..." I should have written "...
about Da Vinci recipes,...".

Sorry for the confusion.

A Portuguese speaker :-)

Daniel


 ______________________________________  ________________________________
|                                      ||                                |
| Daniel Paulo Martins Alves Ferreira  ||  "The vivisector is either a   |
|                                      ||  morally pathologically        |
|                                      ||  disposed individual, or else, |
| [e-mail]            ||  if he is normal, a complete   |
|                                      ||  criminal; in the first case,  |
| Rua de Angola, 5-2║                  ||  his place is in a mental      |
| 3030 Coimbra                         ||  institution; in the second    |
| Portugal                             ||  case, it is in jail."         |
|                                      ||                                |
| 0943 912 602                         ||  Dr. Johannes Ude              |
|______________________________________||________________________________|

"Economics and politics simply intertwine in shaping conventional
medicine's approach to cancer. Very simply put, treating disease is
enormously profitable, preventing disease is not."
-- The British Cancer Control Society, Outrage, Oct/Nov, 1986

"In a deliberate effort to expand the market for their products, drug
companies are literally creating new diseases."
-- Dr. Joel Lexchin, "The Real Pushers"




Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 07:14:06 -0500
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Attack on Veggie Libel Planned
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from CNN custom news http://www.cnn.com
---------------------------------
Texas State News
Reuters
27-FEB-98

Attack on Veggie Libel Planned

(STATEWIDE) -- A consumer group says it will now work to have Texas' veggie
libel law repealed in the coming legislative session. Consumers Union
spokesman Reggie James says the group supports an Amarillo jury's verdict
finding talk show host Oprah Winfrey NOT responsible for a drop in beef
prices following a 1996 program on mad cow disease. Texas cattlemen tried
to use the law forbidding defamation of Texas agricultural products. But
the judge in the case ruled hat law did not apply... and prosecutors then
could not prove Winfrey acted maliciously. James also hopes the Winfrey
verdict discourages similar lawsuits brought under the obscure law.
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 07:15:18 -0500
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Cattlemen To Appeal Verdict
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from CNN custom news http://www.cnn.com
---------------------------------------
Texas State News
Reuters
27-FEB-98

Cattlemen To Appeal Verdict (AMARILLO) -- Texas cattlemen say they plan to
appeal the outcome of their lawsuit against talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
An Amarillo federal court jury rejected the claim that a 1996 program on
Mad Cow Disease caused the beef producers to lose Millions of dollars. An
attorney for the cattlemen says jurors were swayed by Winfrey's star power.
The talk show host hailed the verdict as a victory for free speech.

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 07:25:33 -0500
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Longer Sentences For Pet-Napping?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from CNN custom news http://www.cnn.com
-------------------------------
New Jersey State News
Reuters
27-FEB-98

Longer Sentences For Pet-Napping?

(TRENTON) -- Thieves who steal pets for profit in New Jersey would face
prison terms of up to five years under a measure that has passed the state
Senate. The bill now goes to the state Assembly. It sets a maximum penalty
of 18- months in jail for stealing a house pet... and five years for
stealing and then selling an animal. Backers say that the theft of dogs has
become all too common... with the stolen pets consigned to puppy mills or
used for dog fights or research.
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 07:36:53 -0500
From: allen schubert <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Chronology of Oprah-Cattlemen Case
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from Associated Press http://wire.ap.org
-----------------------------------
 02/26/1998 13:22 EST

 Chronology of Oprah-Cattlemen Case

 By The Associated Press

 April 16, 1996 -- ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' airs discussion of dangerous
 foods, including a segment on mad cow disease.

 May 23 -- A group of Texas cattlemen sue Ms. Winfrey, her production
 company and guest Howard Lyman. The cattlemen contend the show gave the
 false impression that U.S. beef could spread mad cow disease to people
 and caused the cattle market to plummet.

 Jan. 20, 1998 -- Jury seated for trial in Amarillo.

 Jan. 22 -- Ms. Winfrey begins taping her talk show in Amarillo for the
 duration of the trial.

 Feb. 6 -- Ms. Winfrey ends three days of testimony.

 Feb. 18 -- U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson rejects part of the case
 filed under Texas' ``veggie libel'' law, but allows cattlemen to continue
 the trial as a simple disparagement lawsuit.

 Feb. 26 -- Jury decides Ms. Winfrey and the other defendants are not
 liable.
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 07:44:55 -0500
From: Wyandotte Animal Group <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: CNN:  Free Speech Rocks for Oprah.
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 OPRAH: 'FREE SPEECH ROCKS'

"Free speech not only lives, it rocks," a beaming Oprah Winfrey said Thursday
after jurors rejected a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit by Texas
cattlemen. The Amarillo, Texas, jury decided the television talk show host did
not maliciously harm the U.S. beef industry in a 1996 program on mad cow
disease. Plaintiffs, who claimed the show caused a cattle market plunge that
caused them to lose $11 million, said they planned to appeal.

-->Fans cheer: "Oprah, Oprah"
..... http://cnn.com/US/9802/26/oprah.verdict/index.html


Jason Alley
Wyandotte Animal Group
[e-mail]

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 98 07:25:35 UTC
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Animal Victory Anniversary
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

On the 28th of February, 1992: 30 years of mink experiments were ended
at Michigan State University through direct action.

(From PETA's calendar)

-- Sherrill
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 09:28:44 EST
From: MINKLIB <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Fur Trade Wolf Kill
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Here is another great ecological tidbit from the idiots in the fur industry.
This was taken off another list:

Subject: Snowmobile Hunt Claims Hundreds of Wolves

SNOWMOBILE HUNT CLAIMS HUNDREDS OF WOLVES
Feb. 26/98
The Gloge and Mail
A1
Alanna Mitchell
CALGARY -- According to this story, about a dozen native hunters have
killed 460 wolves so far this winter in the Northwest Territories in what
biologists fear may be one of the biggest and most concentrated commercial
wolf hunts in Canadian history.
Many of the wolves, the story says citing conservation officers and
biologists who oversee the subarctic area, were being chased to death by
hunters riding snowmobiles. The hunters track down a pack of wolves,
manoeuvre them onto a frozen expanse of tundra, and then, as the animals
search vainly for somewhere to hide, chase them until they collapse from
exhaustion. Then the hunters shoot them.
The story says that the final tally of wolves killed will be significantly
higher than 460 by the end of the season. Several hunters who are expected
to be making large kills have not yet prepared the skins for export, so
have not been included in the count.
The massive hunt is being driven by an unusually strong appetite for fur
in the fashion industry and by hefty prices for wolf in the international
fur market. As well, the wolves seem to be congregating in the lower
Northwest Territories this winter as they follow caribou herds.
The story cites biologists as calling the kill a "local genocide," and say
a hunt on that scale has far-reaching, dire implications for Canada's wolf
population if it keeps up.
Some biologists are especially worried because the Northwest Territories
government has no count of the number of wolves in the region and no data
on what damage a kill of this magnitude could do to the nation's stock of
wolves.
AnimalNet Summary

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 10:11:14 -0500
From: Greg Thomisee <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Dallas -  EXXON ENDS BIRD BURNINGS
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

 EXXON ENDS BIRD BURNINGS IN TREATER STACKS

PETA Campaign to Save Birds and Bats Succeeds

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

For Immediate Release:
February 26, 1998  á
á

Contact:
Dawn Carr 757-622-7382 á



Dallas -- After almost four years of campaigning that began when PETA
removed hundreds of charred bodies of birds and bats from oil and gas
fields in the western United States, the Exxon Corporation has finally
capped all but a few of its open exhaust treater stacks.
In 1994, PETA investigators toured oil and gas fields in five states and
found that birds and bats fall or fly into the open treater stacks and
cannot escape; they die there of starvation, are overcome by fumes, or are
burned alive when the units ignite. Some units become clogged with animal
corpses and must be blasted out with high-pressure hoses.

Yesterday, Exxon executive Larry Swales wrote in a letter to PETA (see
following): "The process of adding caps to existing stacks is essentially
complete. ... We have committed to finish the few that remain this year."

"This is a very good day for birds and bats," says PETA's president, Ingrid
Newkirk. "Exxon's action will save countless animal lives."

PETA's campaign had included protests at Exxon offices in several
countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada, and burning bird models
outside Exxon shareholder meetings. Just this month, PETA plastered posters
reading, "Exxon Burns Birds Alive," throughout Dallas. Today the group will
deliver flowers to local gas stations. Mobil Oil, Chevron, Texaco, Shell
Oil, Phillips Petroleum, Pennzoil, Koch Industries, and Ashland, Inc., have
already capped their oil-field exhaust stacks in response to PETA's
campaign.
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 10:11:59 -0800
From: Mesia Quartano <[e-mail]>
To: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
Subject: (US) Scientists create genetically engineered frog
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

09:47 AM ET 02/26/98

Scientists create genetically engineered frog
Release at 5 p.m. EST
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Genetic engineering works in sheep, rabbits and
mice but scientists have so far been unable to get it to work in frogs
-- until now, California researchers reported Thursday.

A team at the University of California, San Diego said they had found a
way to introduce foreign genes into a frog, at least temporarily.

Reporting in the journal Nature Biotechnology, they said they had
managed to introduce genes into African clawed toads for a fluorescent
protein normally produced by jellyfish.

"This technique is not what we call a stable transgenic. Right now we
don't know that the DNA is actually integrated into the chromosome,''
Dr. Sylvia Evans, a specialist in heart development, said in a telephone
interview.

The approach was more like gene therapy, in which a gene is temporarily
introduced into cells but does not become a permanent part of an
animal's genes.

But it will allow scientists to produce transgenic frogs -- frogs that
carry working genes from other species -- for experimental work.

"The frog is the choice system for developmental biology,'' Evans said.

"The frog has a relatively large embryo that develops outside the body.
You can do all sorts of cut and paste experiments -- you can cut out
bits of the embryo and see what develops,'' she added.

Also, frogs are cheaper and easier to work with than mice. ''Say you
wanted to study a protein's potential for a drug. You could then use
this method as the initial screening,'' Evans said.

She said no one really knew why frogs, which are relatively simple
animals, defy genetic engineering. Transgenic mice, sheep and cows bred
to carry human genes produce human proteins for companies such as
Scotland's PPL Therapeutics which has created cloned and transgenic
animals like Dolly the cloned sheep and Polly, a transgenic clone.

Evans thinks the new method might work in other animals as well, such as
zebra fish.

Her team used DNA from an adeno-associated virus. Specifically they used
some of the tools that such viruses use to break into the cells they
infect -- in this case the inverted terminal repeats (ITRs).

They attached these ITRs to a green fluorescent protein gene from a
jellyfish and injected it into fertilized toad eggs.

The gene worked right up to the tadpole stage, they said. The toad
tadpole does not glow but the fluorescence can be seen in cells under
the microscope.


Date: Fri, 27 Feb 98 09:11:28 CST
From: "Vicki Sharer" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Iowa legislation
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

     NEWS RELEASE            NEWS RELEASE            NEWS RELEASE=20

     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE         Contact:  Laura or David Sykes
     [phone] or 472-2890
     Fax [phone] Mobile: [phone]
     Tom Colvin [phone]
     February 24, 1998     =09

     HOUSE STUDY BILL ON ANIMAL CRUELTY
     LACKS KEY PROVISIONS-STATE HUMANE SOCIETY LEADERS UNHAPPY WITH
     BILL-ASK FOR CHANGES


     The House of Representatives switchboard was flooded with calls this =
     morning from angry animal lovers across the state who were calling to
     = talk with their representatives about the results of what they call
     "an = unsatisfactory animal cruelty bill".   According to the
     Legislative = Information office at the capital in Des Moines, "Our
     switchboards were = flooded with callers about this issue, and many of
     them were very = angry," said one office staffer.  The results of a
     House Study bill on = this issue were released yesterday afternoon
     late by subcommittee = members Steve Sukup, Keith Kreiman and Sandy
     Greiner, who were = unavailable for comment.  Chairman of the
     Judiciary Committee Jeffrey = Lamberti had said to the television
     crews in Des Moines on Friday that = he wanted this bill to be voted
     on by the committee but that he wanted = to make sure "that it had
     teeth in it." =20

     According to Laura Sykes, Noah's Ark Animal Foundation Director, this
     = rendition of the bill, does not have what she calls "teeth".  "The
     bill = is terribly deficient as it stands now," she said, "They did
     not include = any of the provisions that we (the humane societies of
     the state) = recommended, instead it has been weakened to the point
     that it does not = resemble anything that we wanted originally and we
     are all extremely = disappointed in their actions."  Specifically the
     bill states that = animal and livestock abuse is only a felony if a
     person has been = convicted of the same offense previously.  Grace
     Trifaro from Citizens = for Animals and the  Environment in  Iowa City
     said that "Animal Abuse = typically either isn't prosecuted because
     its not taken seriously or its = settled out of court, to get a second
     conviction would seem almost = impossible, or extremely rare, thus
     making the law largely useless and = ineffectual."  Also the bill
     states that serious abuse like killing, = maiming, or torturing is
     only an aggravated misdemeanor if it is = perpetrated upon someone
     else's pet.  If you kill or cause serious = damage to a stray or your
     own pet, its seems to be OK. =20

     "This seems to excuse just about anything, animals can be abused and =
     killed on the street, or just about anywhere as long as they don't =
     belong to anyone else or there isn't the issue of going onto another =
     person's property and harming their pets.   This bill fails to cover =
     most instances of abuse and cruelty and basically does not address the
     = need for stronger legislation.  If this is what they think the
     people of = Iowa want, they need to think again, we've been swamped
     with calls about = this, people feel very strongly about it. Iowans
     want a real change in = animal abuse laws and they want it now, as a
     result of what happened = here at our shelter, people are just fed up
     with the slap on the wrist = for animal abusers," said Laura Sykes.

     The push for this legislation is coming from a large majority of
     Iowans = who were shocked and outraged over the morbid and violent cat
     killing = incident that occurred last March at the Noah's Ark Animal
     Foundation = shelter in Fairfield, Iowa, where two teens bludgeoned 27
     cats, leaving = 17 killed in the bloody aftermath.  This event known
     as the infamous = Iowa Cat Killers Case, quickly gained nationwide
     publicity and garnered = People Magazine's hall of fame for being the
     #1 story of 1997 which = generated a record number of letters and put
     it in 8th place in the = magazine's entire publishing history. =20

     Humane Society leaders David Sykes of the Noah's Ark Animal Foundation
     = and Tom Colvin of the Des Moines Animal Rescue League were
     dispatched to = Des Moines this morning to meet with House Judiciary
     Committee members, = and discuss possible amendments.  Iowans are
     encouraged to write to = their representatives to express their views.

     Leeza Gibbons recently taped a one-hour program on the Iowa
     cat-killing = incident that will be aired March 4th on NBC.



     =


     NEWS RELEASE            NEWS RELEASE            NEWS RELEASE=20

     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE         Contact:  Laura or David Sykes
     [phone] or 472-2890
     Fax [phone] Mobile: [phone]
     Tom Colvin [phone]

     HOUSE COMMITTEE LEADERS KILL
     ANIMAL CRUELTY LEGISLATION-BILL DIES IN COMMITTEE

     House Republican Judiciary Committee leaders Jeffrey Lamberti and
     Steve =
     Sukop effectively killed the much publicized Animal Cruelty
     Legislation, = HSB 621, by not allowing it to come up in committee for
     a vote.   = Chairman Jeffery Lamberti claims to have told press that
     he did not have = sufficient votes for the bill's passage, and
     therefore did not bring it = up for consideration, however a
     Democratic source at the capital said = that a Democratic caucaus of
     committee members met just before the = meeting and had come up with a
     total of 9 votes in favor of the bill.  = This means that only two
     additional votes were needed for a majority and = passage.

     Sub-committee Chairman Steve Sukup told the press before the Judiciary
     = Committee meeting that they (he and Lamberti) had decided not to
     even = bring the bill up for a vote.  According to Tom Colvin,
     President of the = Iowa Federation of Humane Societies, "Rep. Lamberti
     has betrayed the = public on this issue.  After the tragic cat killing
     incident at Noah's = Ark in Fairfield, where 27 animals were
     bludgeoned leaving 16 killed, = thousands of Iowans demanded stronger
     animal cruelty legislation.  This = was reported on in the news all
     over the country.  We then (the Humane = Societies of the state)
     worked with Lamberti to introduce this = legislation, we provided him
     with provisions which we discussed at = length with committee members,
     and he led us to believe all along that = there was no doubt that this
     bill was extremely important and would = clear committee to be then
     considered on the House Floor.  The fact that = at the last minute
     this bill was not even allowed to come up for a vote, = indicates that
     Lamberti and Sukup basically made the decision that they = did not
     want this issue to even be considered.  I  think Iowans have = good
     reason to be outraged over this. It is a travesty of justice."=20

     Laura Sykes, Director of the Noah's Ark Animal Foundation in
     Fairfield, = Iowa, made the following comments to the press.  "We are
     of course = extremely disallusioned with this news.  We had been led
     to believe = after a number of meetings with these House Committee
     members that this = bill was going to go through.  We had some
     disagreement over provisions, = but that is a part of the legislative
     process.  By not allowing this = bill, which was of great importance
     to many Iowans, not even come up for = a vote, is an indication that
     their intention was to effectively kill = the bill for this year and
     thus obstruct the process of democracy in = this state.  I don't
     believe this represents the desire of most people = in Iowa who were
     outraged over what happened here and all the more = disgusted with the
     way that their state and people were portrayed by the = media.  This
     was our chance to improve our state's image and to pass = better laws
     to protect animals from the type of abuse which is violent = and sick,
     and deserves strict punishment.  It was our chance to show the = rest
     of the nation that we are not backwards and inhumane.  I think we =
     all feel a great loss today, and almost one year following the bloody
     = massacre that occurred at our shelter, this is the message that we
     get = from oru legislature.  It is very disheartening."

     House switchboards have been flooded with calls for the last several =
     days primarily from people calling in support of the animal cruelty =
     legislation.  Legislators on the House Judiciary committee reported
     that = their voice mail boxes were filled and fax numbers were
     actually = disconnected due to the high volume of correspondence
     coming in on this = issue.  Large volumes of mail and e-mail
     correspondence on the issue was = also reported. =20

     The Leeza Show taped a one-hour program with David and Laura  Sykes
     from = Noah's Ark on the cat killing incident which will air next
     week, March = 4th, on NBC.    "I was hoping that we would have some
     positive news to = tell these people who will be calling us in
     response to the show.  We're = expecting thousands of phone calls to
     come in from all over the country = and the only thing we have to say
     to people is that the Iowa legislature = killed the animal cruelty
     bill before it even got out of committee.  = It's just going to
     confirm everything they have heard about Iowa already = and there's
     nothing we can do about it, because its true."  said David  = Sykes.
     ###########

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 08:37:56
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: More on The Grammies
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Further to my posting on Wednesday, I realise I made an error in the award
given to Jamiroqui. It was for "Pop Performance By A Duo or Group With
Vocal."

Additionally, vegetarian and ar-advocate Fiona Apple received an Award for
"Female Rock Performance" for 'Criminal", and vegetarian Sarah McLachlan,
who appeared on IDA's first benfit album, received two awards for "Female
Pop Vocal Performance" ('Building a Mystery) and "Pop Instrumental
Performance" for 'Last Dance'.

Sorry about getting the original award name wrong.

David

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 13:23:08 EST
From: Tereiman <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: VICTORY!  Exxon Stops Burning Birds Alive
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

    EXXON ENDS BIRD BURNINGS IN TREATER STACKS

    PETA Campaign to Save Birds and Bats Succeeds

    For Immediate Release:
    February 26, 1998

    Contact:
    Dawn Carr 757-622-7382

    Dallas -- After almost four years of campaigning that began
    when PETA removed hundreds of charred bodies of birds and
    bats from oil and gas fields in the western United States, the
    Exxon Corporation has finally capped all but a few of its open
    exhaust treater stacks.

    In 1994, PETA investigators toured oil and gas fields in five
    states and found that birds and bats fall or fly into the open
    treater stacks and cannot escape; they die there of starvation, are
    overcome by fumes, or are burned alive when the units ignite.
    Some units become clogged with animal corpses and must be
    blasted out with high-pressure hoses.

    Yesterday, Exxon executive Larry Swales wrote in a letter
    to PETA (see following): "The process of adding caps to existing
    stacks is essentially complete. ... We have committed to finish the
    few that remain this year."

    "This is a very good day for birds and bats," says PETA's
    president, Ingrid Newkirk. "Exxon's action will save countless
    animal lives."

    PETA's campaign had included protests at Exxon offices in
    several countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada,
    and burning bird models outside Exxon shareholder meetings.
    Just this month, PETA plastered posters reading, "Exxon Burns
    Birds Alive," throughout Dallas. Today the group will deliver
    flowers to local gas stations. Mobil Oil, Chevron, Texaco, Shell
    Oil, Phillips Petroleum, Pennzoil, Koch Industries, and Ashland,
    Inc., have already capped their oil-field exhaust stacks in
    response to PETA's campaign.


Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 09:55:27 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Press Release: Wildlife Advocates Protest Government Hit Squad
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, February 27, 1998

CONTACT: Michael Markarian, 301-585-2591
         Bill Dollinger, 202-296-2172


WILDLIFE ADVOCATES PROTEST GOVERNMENT HIT SQUAD


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Monday, March 2, from 12:00 to 1:00 P.M., wildlife
protection advocates will rally at the U.S. Department of Agriculture
headquarters, on the corner of 14th Street and Independence Avenue, S.W., to
protest the agency's continued use of millions of federal tax dollars to
kill predators and other wildlife.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's misnamed "Wildlife Services" program
(formerly known as "Animal Damage Control") annually spends millions of
dollars to kill wolves, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, blackbirds, geese, beavers,
raccoons, rabbits, and other animals at the request of the special interest
ranching industry. The agency spent $37 million in Fiscal Year 1997, on
programs that included the use of steel-jaw leghold traps, wire neck snares,
poisons, and aerial gunning.

Says Michael Markarian, Campaign Director for The Fund for Animals, "The
Wildlife Services program is certainly not a service, and it is certainly
not for wildlife. It is corporate fat at its worst, and it should be
eliminated from the federal budget."

Adds Bill Dollinger, Wildlife Campaign Coordinator for Friends of Animals,
"Ranchers can use humane mitigation measures to reduce depredation on their
livestock, such as fencing, guard dogs, pyrotechnics, and other scare
devices. The Department of Agriculture should educate ranchers about these
available techniques, rather than spend millions of our tax dollars on a
cruel killing spree."

The D.C. protest is sponsored by The Fund for Animals, Friends of Animals,
and Compassion Over Killing, and is part of a nationwide day of protest
against the federal government's war on wildlife. Wildlife protection
activists around the country are also holding protests in Arizona,
California, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and
Texas.

# # #

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 13:49:26 EST
From: JanaWilson <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (US) Oklahoma City Weekend Hunting Show
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit


A/w local OKC news:

Saturday will be a "big day" at the Backwoods Hunting and Fishing
Show at the OKC Fairgrounds.  It opened this Thursday and continues
thru Sunday.  Items of note:

**A possible No. 1 typical whitetail buck killed in November by bowhunter
Larry Luman of Atoka will be scored at the show between noon and
1 pm on Saturday.  Official scorers will be on duty at the popular
Whitetail Wall of Fame (Shame) to measure racks brought in by
Okla. hunters.
**Also for deer hunters, Mr. Mike Shaw, the Okla. Wildlife Dept.'s
whitetail specialist, will present a seminar on deer management,
"Quality vs. Quantity".
**Turkey callers will compete in seven categories.  The contest
is sponsored by Okla. County Chapter of the National Wild Turkey
Federation.
**A duck-calling and goose-calling contest sponsored by Ducks
Unlimited will be held.

On Sunday, archers will compete for a Kawaski all-terrain vehicle,
which is the show's grand prize.
The show will have a no. of "interesting attractions" for fishermen,
including Bass Tank Seminars, a trout tank containing 1000
tagged rainbows, a casting clinic for children and lots of tackle
and equipment for sale. Also, the show features many visiting
hunting guides, but fishing guides will be on hand.
Admission is $5 for adults and $4 for youth 12 to 15.  Children
under 11 will be admitted free.
Note:  In the last big hunting show, undercover local TV showed
teenagers getting free samples of chewing tobacco from exhibitors.
Chewing tobacco is popular in Okla. but is illegal for teenagers.

                                                     For the Animals,

                                                     Jana, OKC


Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 13:58:01 -0500 (EST)
From: Debbie Leahy <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: <US> Land O'Lorin Lives On
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII

                           LAND OLORINS LEGACY OF MISERY LIVES ON

Last summer, Illinois Animal Action posted a series of updates regarding Land
OLorin (LOL), a deplorable roadside zoo located 40 miles west of Chicago.
The facility, operated by felon Lorin Womack, had a shocking history of
extreme neglect and abuse.  LOL claimed to be a sanctuary for rescued animals,
yet was breeding, buying, and selling, and hauling animals around for display
in parades and festivals.  Many animals (lions, tigers, bears, wolves,
primates, etc.) were kept in small, concrete cages.  Primates were kept alone.

The USDA suspended Womacks license for chronic, serious violations of the
Animal Welfare Act (AWA).  But the settlement agreement allowed the facility
to be re-licensed under a new name, Deerpath Animal Haven, with a board of
directors consisting of his friends and supporters. Womack would continue
running the place (he lives there), only now as a "volunteer" of Deerpath
Animal Haven.  Our suspicions were later confirmed by a board member.  The
USDA was flooded with complaints.  We protested the zoo last June and
generated much media coverage in local papers.  After failing two
pre-licensing inspections, Deerpath Animal Haven was licensed in late July.

In the weeks following our protest, there was a significant turnover in the
board of directors.  A local businessman, Mike Foster, and his wife got
involved.  Foster became board president and initiated a dialogue with us.  We
explained what was wrong with the facility and its practices.  We also invited
Vernon Weir, a representative of The Association of Sanctuaries (TAOS) to meet
with the new board.  TAOS accredits sanctuaries that observe a strict code of
ethics (no breeding, buying, selling, off-site exhibitions, etc.) and provide
space, natural habitat, and care that greatly exceeds the minimum standards of
the AWA.

Deerpath Animal Haven passed a resolution to stop breeding, buying, and
selling animals, and began phasing out off-site exhibitions.  Three
knowledgeable, full-time caretakers were hired.  We offered to relocate
animals to acceptable facilities at our expense.  Foster intended to implement
real change and make it a facility that would meet TAOS guidelines, and
possibly relocate to larger property.  A glimmer of hope finally sparkled for
these animals who were in desperate need of responsible care.

At one point we were asked to find suitable homes for as many animals as
possible.  They had few funds, little space, and too many animals.  We
immediately found definite homes for six, potential homes for many others,
and publicly endorsed the changes underway.  Then, the trouble began.  Lorin
Womack started throwing fits that the animals were being moved.  We were only
allowed to rescue three.  A snow monkey went to the Texas Snow Monkey
Sanctuary, a bobcat went to Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation in Texas, and the
Detroit Zoo took in the arctic fox.

Womack began making threats and harassing caretakers, all three quit.  Their
veterinarian quit.  The board members started fighting among themselves, and
one particularly disruptive board member, who be-friended Womack, voted
against our relocating more animals.  It became obvious that Womack was still
very much in control.

In early January, Foster and his wife resigned from the board in frustration.
The USDA was again investigating problems with animal care.  Now we wanted to
see the place closed down and told the few remaining board members that was
the only option.  They rejected our offers to help and cut off communication.
On Wednesday, the USDA confirmed that Deerpath Animal Haven voluntarily
surrendered its license.  It appears some of the animals are going to good
homes, while others are headed to roadside zoos.

Our exuberance that this particular cycle of hell was nearing its demise only
lasted a few hours.  Later Wednesday, we learned that one board member, a
friend of Womack who thwarted efforts of improvement, is pleading with the
USDA to AGAIN re-license the facility with a new USDA license and new board of
directors.  The USDA is actually considering this request!  Animals are being
shuffled around while theres still a looming possibility that Land OLorin
may simply fill up again with more animals living in miserable conditions as
its issued its third license in less than a year.

Contact the USDA and insist that Lorin Womacks roadside zoo in Batavia,
Illinois, be closed down forever.  The Deerpath Animal Haven fiasco is proof
that Womack will not relinquish control and any animal on his property will be
in constant danger of neglect and abuse.  Land OLorin had a decade-old
history of serious AWA violations, which included cruel, lingering deaths.  In
Deerpath Animal Havens short existence, the legacy continuedit failed to
maintain a competent board of directors, it failed to raise adequate funds to
provide proper animal care, it failed to keep qualified caretakers and vet
care, and it failed to comply with the AWA.  The USDA has an obligation to
enforce the AWA, not to endlessly re-issue licenses to habitual violators
under a series of new names, and permit a ceaseless opportunity for animal
abusers to skirt the law.  Send your comments to:

Dr. Elizabeth Goldentyre, Sector Supervisor
USDA, APHIS, AC
2568-A Riva Rd., Suite 302
Annapolis, MD  21401
Tel:  [phone]  Fax:  [phone]

and copies to:

The Honorable Dan Glickman, Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture
200-A Whitten Building, 14th St. & Independence Ave. SW
Washington, D.C.  20250
Tel:  [phone]  Fax:  [phone]

Dr. Ron DeHaven, Acting Deputy Administrator-Animal Care
U.S. Department of Agriculture
4700 River Road  Unit 97
Riverdale, MD. 20737
Tel:  [phone]  Fax:  [phone]

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Illinois Animal Action
P.O. Box 507
Warrenville, IL  60555
Tel: [phone]  Fax: [phone]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 13:56:40 -0500
From: Patrick Nolan <[e-mail]>
To: ar-news <[e-mail]>
Subject: Update on Navy-Humpback Whale Tests
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Animal Welfare Institute, Washington

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 27

CONTACT: Ben White, [phone]

NAVY POSTPONES CONTROVERSIAL TESTS; PROTEST CONTINUES
     The U.S. NavyÆs hotly contested plan to subject endangered whales
off the coast of Hawaii to dangerously loud, low-frequency sounds has
been suspended for at least a few days.  The delay comes amid intense
controversy over the proposed testsùa coalition of environmentalists,
animal advocates, and Hawaiian citizens is bitterly opposed to the Navy
plan.
     A press conference will be held today, February 27, at 10 a.m. at
the Kauai Hai Boat Harbor on the northern Kona Coast of the Big Island
of Hawaii, to protest the NavyÆs plans and to gather public support for
direct intervention against the tests.
     The press conference is being given by noted whale researcher Dr.
Marsha L. Green of the Ocean Mammal Institute, by Ben White of the
Animal Welfare Institute, by the Greenpeace Foundation (Hawaii), and by
other groups and individuals opposed to the testsùpeople who are willing
to put themselves between the Navy and the whales if necessary.  ôThe
people of the Kona Coast are rallying against this unprecedented sonic
warfare on endangered humpback whales right in the middle of the whalesÆ
mating and calving activities,ö said White.  ôIf the Navy persists in
this insanity, theyÆll be surrounded by human swimmers intent on
protecting these cetacean swimmers.ö
     Public opposition to the experiments has intensified as news has
spread.  The Kona CoastÆs tourism industry depends heavily on
whale-watching; boat and plane owners are among the most vociferous
opponents of the Navy tests, and have volunteered their services in
trying to stop them, to protect their livelihood as well as the whales.
     The test protocol calls for finding singing male humpback whales
and targeting them with intense, high-volume sound (fifty times the
volume of a 747 taking off), and continuing to increase the volume until
the whales show ôacute distress.ö  The plan has been condemned by
respected biologists, who say that serious harm could result without a
noticeable outward reaction on the part of the whales.  Further, the
tests are slated for an area just outside a newly-established humpback
whale sanctuaryùat the height of the whalesÆ mating and calving season.
   U.S. District Court Judge Helen Gilmorùwho on Tuesday refused to
grant a temporary restraining order to stop the testsùis holding a
hearing on Wednesday, March 4 to hear further discussion on the issue.

- 30 -

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:40:16 -0800
From: Lionel Friedberg <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: What Next for Meat Industry?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

With Oprah Winfrey's resounding success, it is time to move onto even
bigger and more pertinent issues in an effort to curb the inhumane
treatment of animals by the meat industry.  Read Gail Eisnitz's powerful
indictment of the meat and poultry industries, SLAUGHTERHOUSE.  It is
riveting, disturbing, terrifying, and a potent expose of what goes on in
the multi-billion dollar flesh industry.  Copies are available from the
Humane Farming Association, San Francisco (Tel. [phone]) or
directly from the publishers, Prometheus Books in Amherst, NY (Tel.
716-691-0133).  Lets get copies of this invaluable document under the
nose of every Congressman, politician and decision-maker in the land.
Please..... READ THIS BOOK!
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 15:18:11 -0500
From: Jeanie Freeman <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [MD] Eleven rescued chicks need a home!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Eleven rescued chicks need a home!

The Second Chance Wildlife Center (in Gaithersburg, MD) where
I am a volunteer, has received eleven chicks.  Unfortunately,
only wildlife is cared for at this center, and these chicks may
end up food for the rehabilitating raptors if homes are not
found for them.

I've already called UPC, but I don't yet know if Karen Davis
can take them.

If you can help,  please contact me via private email
or phone [phone]

Or, call Second Chance directly at 301-926-WILD.

-Jeanie

--

  /\_/\
 ( o.o )    Humans aren't the only species on Earth.
  >   <     We just act like it.
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 12:06:41 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Press Release: It's a No-Birthday Party (Houston, TX)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 27, 1998

CONTACT: (Media) Maggi Jones Public Relations, [phone]
         (Public) The Fund for Animals, [phone]


IT'S A NO-BIRTHDAY PARTY!

SNAP and Houston Rockets Celebrate 10,000th Free Spay/Neuter


WHO: The Fund for Animals' Spay-Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) -- the
nation's first "spay and neuter clinic on wheels" -- and Houston Rockets'
owners Leslie and Nanci Alexander.

WHAT: SNAP is celebrating it's 10,000th free spay/neuter surgery -- and
preventing the births of hundreds of thousands of homeless animals in
Houston -- by having a No-Birthday Party.  Leslie and Nanci Alexander will
be drawing winners for an evening with the Houston Rockets, including front
row seats, from entries submitted by SNAP clients.  Photo opportunities of
the world famous SNAP "clinic on wheels" in action!

WHEN: Thursday, March 5, 1998 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM.

WHERE: Magnolia Multi-Service Center, 7037 Capitol.  (Take I-45 South to
South Wayside.  Turn left on South Wayside, going under the freeway.  Turn
right on Capitol Street -- you will see a Subway Sandwhich Store on the left
before Capitol. Magnolia Multi-Service Center will be on your left.)

WHY: The Houston Rockets provided the lead gift for the start of the SNAP
project in 1994.  The SNAP mobile clinic has served as a model for the
entire nation for a humane approach to ending dog and cat overpopulation
through prevention, not destruction.


# # #


http://www.fund.org

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 15:21:06 -0800
From: FARM <[e-mail]>
To: AR-News <[e-mail]>
Subject: [Fwd: HSUS Program Director Howard Lyman NOT GUILTY]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: message/rfc822
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

Received: from mx03.erols.com (mx03.erols.com [207.172.3.243])
     by mail1.erols.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA15250
     for <[e-mail]>; Thu, 26 Feb 1998 21:30:29 -0500 (EST)
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     for <[e-mail]>; Thu, 26 Feb 1998 21:27:26 -0500 (EST)
From: THots8421 <[e-mail]>
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 21:27:26 EST
To: [e-mail]
Mime-Version: 1.0
Subject: HSUS Program Director Howard Lyman NOT GUILTY
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 126

Humane Society of the United States Program Director Howard Lyman Found Not
Liable in Landmark 'Food Disparagement' Case in Amarillo

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, a 12-person jury found Humane
Society of the United States program director Howard Lyman and talk show
celebrity Oprah Winfrey not liable for comments made on a national show about
eating beef. Mr. Lyman, director of the Eating With Conscience program of The
HSUS, spent the last six weeks in Amarillo fighting this case. Mr. Lyman and
The HSUS were barred from speaking about the lawsuit as a result of a court-
imposed gag order.  Mr. Lyman's statement follows:

"Today, a jury of Texans honored the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
and safeguarded the right of consumers to have a free and open debate about
food safety.  Today, The Humane Society of the United States and I breathe
more easily, knowing that a vigorous debate about potential dangers to our
food supply -- ranging from E. coli to Pfiesteria to salmonella to Mad Cow
Disease -- is permissible.

"Lawsuits like this stifle speech about matters that have implications for the
health and welfare of every American consumer.  At a time when threats to food
safety are arguably greater than ever -- threats exacerbated by intensive
confinement conditions that abet the spread of disease and by controversial
feeding practices -- we need a free and open discussion about these matters."

The HSUS is the nation's largest animal protection organization with over 5.8
million members and constituents. Thirteen states, including Texas, have
passed food-disparagement laws that hinder the free flow of information about
the impact that factory farming and other poor animal husbandry practices
could have on the safety of our food supply.

SOURCE  Humane Society of the United States
CO:  Humane Society of the United States
ST:  Texas
IN:  AGR FOD
SU:
02/26/98 14:26 EST http://www.prnewswire.com




Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 12:46:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Friends of Animals <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Cc: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Fur Trade Wolf Kill
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Regarding the wolf slaughter article in the Globe and Mail-
here is a sample letter and some contact information:

The Hon. Don Morin,  Premier
Government of the Northwest Territories
P.O. Box 1320
Yellowknife, NT, X1A 2L9
Telephone [phone]
Fax [phone]
email [e-mail]

The Hon. Stephen Kakfwi
Minister of Wildlife
P.O. Box 1320
Yellowknife, NT, X1A2L9
Telephone [phone]
Fax [phone]
eamil [e-mail]

The Hon. Christine Stewart
Minister of Environment Canada
Centre Blk. Rm. 103-S
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Telephone [phone]
Fax [phone]


>
>
>February 27, 1998
>
>The Hon. Stephen Kakfwi
>Minister of Wildlife
>P.O. Box 1320
>Yellowknife, NT, X1A2L9
>
>Dear Mr. Kakfwi:
>
>On behalf of the 200,000 members and supporters of Friends of Animals, I am
writing in response to a report in the Globe and Mail which detailed the
appalling slaughter of wolves currently being carried out in the Northwest
Territories.
>
>According to the article, a dozen hunters have killed at least 460 wolves
this winter by chasing them to exhaustion and shooting them. To allow this
barbaric activity to continue would be ecologically irresponsible and a
disgrace to the government of the Northwest Territories.
>
>I urge you to immediately ban the practice of using snowmobiles to chase
and hunt wolves.   Now that the brutal nature of this hunt has been exposed,
the government of the Northwest Territories must not delay in taking
appropriate action.
>
>Thank you for your attention.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>
>
>Bill Dollinger
>Wildlife Campaign

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 16:48:17 EST
From: MINKLIB <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: News Briefing to Announce Action Against Trap Company
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

For Immediate Release
February 27, 1998


Activists to Announce Major Anti
Trapping Action in News Briefing
-Statement to be released from a woman whose dog was killed in a trap.-

Nashua--A major animal rights, anti fur organization is planning to hold a
news briefing this Sunday, March 1st at 1:30 PM, to inform the media of a
major protest rally against Ekco Group Inc.  The news briefing is going to be
held outside of EkcoÆs offices at 98 Spit Brook Rd. in Nashua.

Ekco has come under fire from the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT)
because the company manufactures traps used by the fur industry.  Activists
contend that these traps maim animals, and are non-selective, catching
anything that walks into them.

CAFT is a nationally recognized animal rights group known for intense protests
which often include acts of non-violent civil disobedience and arrests.

At the news briefing the group will release a statement from Meg Massaro, a NY
resident whose dog was killed in a body gripping trap, one of the designs
which Ekco makes.

ôSince Ekco manufactures cruel leghold and body gripping traps, it is pretty
clear that they do not care about wildlife.  Will they care that the same
types of traps that they make are killing peoples dogs and cats?ö asked CAFT
executive director J.P. Goodwin.

ôThe traps Ekco makes regularly crush the paws of fur animals that are sought
and killed for their fur.  If Ekco canÆt understand whatÆs wrong with that,
then perhaps theyÆll understand a widespread consumer boycott,ö declared CAFT
regional director Bryan Hall.

-30-


Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 17:15:13 EST
From: LexAnima <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Ye-hhaaaa!  Endangered Species Gets New WISCONSIN Co-Sponsor!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

~~please distribute widely! ~~

Wisconsin should be proud!  Congressman Kletzka has just signed onto the
Miller Bill (H.R. 2351).  Support from this member of Congress was garnered
through old fashioned grassroots activism!  Special thanks need to go to Chris
Zapf who helped the endangered species coalition by organizing a district
meeting and the Wisconsin PIRG who met with Congressman Kletzka on the hill!

As a Wisconsinite, may I ask that you send a brief letter of appreciation to
Rep. Kletzka.  An email message can be sent directly to the member via the
Thomas webpage at:  http://thomas.loc.gov

NEW FOCUS:

Noteably absent from the following list of co-sponsors are new anchorman-
turned-congressman Jay Johnson from Northeast Wisconsin and Representative
Kind.  When lobbied on the hill, Representative Kind's office stated that
"they hadn't heard very much from the western part of Wisconsin" although TWO
meetings with constituents back in Wisconsin had been cancelled by his office.
Please write these two representatives and lets get them to CO-SPONSOR the
Miller Bill (H.R. 2351) immediately!

[The Endangered Species Recovery Act, HR 2351, introduced by Representative
George Miller (D-CA) last July, has 97 bipartisan cosponsors.  Conservation
groups support the Miller bill because it sets the standard for science-based
species recovery and provides incentives for private property owners to
support recovery of endangered species.]

In-district meetings can be scheduled during the members' district work
periods [Next Recess: Easter/Passover - April 2-20.  A recess/holiday calendar
is available from GREEN].  Information on how to set up a district meeting is
available from GREEN [phone].

The Endangered Species Coalition, comprised of over 270 grassroots, regional
and national conservation groups, is coordinating a national grassroots media
education effort, which will debut TV ads opposing S.1180 beginning March 2.
GREEN and the ESC are also coordinating  editorial board meetings.  For
locations in which the ads will run and an editorial board meeting schedule,
contact GREEN.

Rep. Ron Kind (D - 3rd Congressional District)
131 Barstow Street, Suite 301
Eau Claire, WI  54701
[phone]
--OR--
205 5th Avenue South, Suite 221
LaCrosse, WI  54601
[phone]
--OR--
TOLL FREE!  888-442 8040  or Email  [e-mail]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Representative Jay Johnson  (D -- 8th Congressional District)
300 North Woods Edge Drive, Suite 101
Appleton, Wisconsin  54914
[phone]
--OR--
211 North Broadway, Suite 103
Green Bay, Wisconsin  54303
[phone]

Email:  [e-mail]
______

D'Arcy Kemnitz
Midwest Region Coordinator,
Endangered Species Coalition
GREEN (GrassRoots Environmental Effectiveness Network)
1121 University Avenue
Madison, Wisconsin 53715
[e-mail]
[phone]
Green Home Page:  www.defenders.org/grnhome.html

  /\_/\
 ( o.o )    Humans aren't the only species on Earth.
  >   <     We just act like it.
______________________________

Cosponsors of HR 2351 (as of 2/25/98)
TOTAL - 97
** indicates newest cosponsor

Abercrombie (D-HI)
Ackerman (D-NY)
Allen (D-ME)
Andrews (D-NJ)
Barrett (D-WI)
Berman (D-CA)
Blagojevich (D-IL)
Blumenauer (D-OR)
Bonior (D-MI)
Borski (D-PA)
Brown, George (D-CA)
Brown, Sherrod (D-OH)
Cardin (D-MD)
 Carson (D-IN)
Christen-Green (D-VI)
Clay (D-MO)
Conyers (D-MI)
Davis, Danny (D-IL)
DeGette (D-CO)
DeFazio (D-OR)
Delahunt (D-MA)
DeLauro (D-CT)
Dellums (D-CA)
Dicks (D-WA)
Dixon (D-CA)
 Engel(D-NY)
Eshoo (D-CA)
Faleomavaega (D-AS)
Farr (D-CA)
Forbes (R-NY)
Ford (D-TN)
Frank (D-MA)
Furse (D-OR)
Gejedenson (D-CT)
Gonzalez (D-TX)
Gutierrez (D-IL)
Hasting (D-FL)
Hinchey (D-NY)
Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
Johnson, Nancy (R-CT)
Kennelly (D-CT)
Kildee (D-MI)
Kilpatrick (D-MI)
Kleczka (D-WI) **
Kucinich (D-OH)
Lantos (D-CA)
Levin (D-MI)
Lewis (D-GA)
Lowey (D-NY)
Maloney, Carolyn (D-NY)
Maloney, James (D-CT)
Manton (D-NY)
Markey (D-MA)
McCarthy (D-NY)
McDermott (D-WA)
McDonald (D-CA)
McGovern (D-MA)
McNulty (D-NY)
Meehan (D-MA)
 Meek  (D-FL)
Miller (D-CA)
Moran (D-VA)
Morella (R-MD)
Nadler (D-NY)
Neal (D-MA)
Olver (D-MA)
 Pallone(D-NJ)
Payne (D-NJ)
Pascrell (D-NJ)
Pelosi (D-CA)
Rahall (D-WV)
Rivers (D-MI)
Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Rothman (D-NJ)
Rush (D-IL)
Sabo (D-MN)
Sanders (I-VT)
Serrano (D-NY)
Shays (R-CT)
Sherman (D-CA)
Skaggs (D-CO)
Slaughter (D-NY)
Smith, A (D-WA)
Stark (D-CA)
Stokes (D-OH)
Thompson (D-MS)
Tierny (D-MA)
Torres (D-CA)
Towns (D-NY)
Velazquez (D-NY)
Vento (D-MN)
Waters (D-CA)
Watt (D-NC)
Waxman (D-CA)
Wexler (D-FL)
Woolsey (D-CA)
Yates (D-IL)
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 17:21:09 EST
From: Tereiman <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: URGENT Letters needed - Get fur out of hospital fashion show
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

LETTERS NEEDED ASAP!

Help Get Fur Out of Hospital Fundraiser

The John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson, New York,
will be hosting a fundraiser, its 5th Annual Promenade of
Fashion.  Originally, they had intended to use fur during the
fashion show, but after receiving a video and detailed
information about the millions of animals who are trapped,
drowned, and beaten to death in the wild, and strangled, gassed,
and electrocuted on fur farms, they said that they would replace
fur in the event.

However, we have been unable to confirm this.  The event is less
than a week away--Friday, March 6.  Please fax, email, or call
Kenneth Roberts, president of the hospital, and remind him that
he is in the business of saving lives, not destroying them.  Urge
him to replace fur in the hospital's fundraiser and commit to not
using fur in any future fundraisers.

Time is of the essence, so please contact the hospital right
away.

Mr. Kenneth Roberts, President
John T. Mather Memorial Hospital
Ph:  516-473-1320
Fax: [phone]

Also e-mail:
Terry Quinn, Director of Public Affairs
[e-mail]

Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 08:11:35 +0800
From: bunny <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: OCEANS WITHOUT FISH
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> From: Peter Montague <[e-mail]>
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: Rachel #587: Oceans Without Fish
> Date: Friday, 27 February 1998 11:17
>
> =======================Electronic Edition========================
> .                                                               .
> .           RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #587           .
> .                    ---February 26, 1998---                    .
> .                          HEADLINES:                           .
> .                      OCEANS WITHOUT FISH                      .
> .                          ==========                           .
> .               Environmental Research Foundation               .
> .              P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD  21403              .
> .      Fax [phone]; Internet: [e-mail]       .
> .                          ==========                           .
> .  Back issues available by E-mail; to get instructions, send   .
> .   E-mail to [e-mail] with the single word HELP   .
> .    in the message; back issues also available via ftp from    .
> .    ftp.std.com/periodicals/rachel and from gopher.std.com     .
> .            and from http://www.monitor.net/rachel/            .
> . Subscribe: send E-mail to [e-mail] .
> .  with the single word SUBSCRIBE in the message.  It's free.   .
> =================================================================
>
> OCEANS WITHOUT FISH
>
> The destruction of life in the oceans has progressed farther than
> anyone had suspected, according to a new report in SCIENCE
> magazine.[1] The causes are overfishing and pollution,[2] but the
> focus of the new report is overfishing alone.  SCIENCE is the
> voice of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
> (AAAS).
>
> The world's catch of ocean fish peaked in 1989 and has been
> declining since.[3]  In the early 1990s, scientists reported that
> 13 of the world's 17 major fisheries were depleted or in steep
> decline.[2] Typical is the Grand Banks fishery off the shallow
> coast of Newfoundland in the north Atlantic.  There, after 350
> years of commercial exploitation, the haddock, cod and flounder
> have all but disappeared and the fishery was officially closed a
> few years ago.
>
> The depletion of the world's most popular fish species has set
> off three trends, each of which is adding to the oceans'
> troubles: (1) fisherman are adopting new technologies that (2)
> allow them to fish in deeper waters, and (3) they are fishing
> lower on the food chain.
>
> New Technologies
>
> ** Don Tyson, the Arkansas chicken magnate and supporter of Bill
> Clinton, has gone into the fishing business in a big way.
> Commercial fishing can be very profitable if conducted on a grand
> scale.  In 1992, Tyson bought the Arctic-Alaska Fisheries
> Company, and three other fishing companies.  They operate a fleet
> of industrial super-trawlers that each cost $40 million to build
> and reach the length of a football field.  These trawlers pull
> nylon nets thousands of feet long through the water, capturing
> everything in their path --400 tons of fish at a single netting.
> These super-trawlers stay off-shore for months at a time,
> processing and freezing their catch as they go, thus giving them
> a major advantage over smaller land-based boats.
>
> Approximately 40 percent of what these super-trawlers catch is
> considered trash and is ground up and thrown back into the ocean.
> They call it "bycatch" and, according to investigative reporter
> Jeffrey St. Clair, it can include endangered sea lions, and
> seals, as well as unwanted fish.[4]  (In the northeast Atlantic
> alone, the bycatch in a year's time amounts to 3.7 million
> tons.[1])
>
> ** Trawlers are now using technology developed by the military to
> fish waters as deep as a mile, catching species that few would
> have considered edible or useful a decade ago.  Now that the
> shallow fisheries are in serious decline, trawl nets fitted with
> wheels and rollers are dragged across the bottom of the deep
> oceans, removing everything of any size.  Squid, skate, rattails,
> hoki, blue ling, black scabbard, red crabs, black oreos, smooth
> oreos, deep shrimp, chimeras, slackjaw eels, blue hake, southern
> blue whiting, sablefish, spiny dogfish, and orange roughy are now
> being harvested from the deep ocean and sold in seafood stores,
> cooked into "fish sticks" at McDonald's, or processed into fake
> "crab meat" for seafood salads.
>
> Part of the problem is consumer ignorance.  For example, orange
> roughy began to appear in fish stores and on the menus at fancy
> restaurants in the U.S. just a decade ago.  Yet in that short
> time the species has become threatened with extinction.  The
> orange roughy lives up to a mile deep in cold waters off New
> Zealand.  Now scientists have learned that species living in
> deep, cold waters grow and reproduce very slowly.  The orange
> roughy, for example, lives to be 150 years old and only begins to
> reproduce at age 30.  Recently, the principal stocks of orange
> roughy around New Zealand collapsed.  Still, today in Annapolis,
> Maryland, fish stores, orange roughy is available for $8.99 per
> pound, and there's no sign telling consumers that the species is
> threatened. "People wouldn't eat rhinoceros or any other land
> creature that they knew was threatened with extinction.  But
> they're eating fish like orange roughy without a clue to what's
> happening," says Greenpeace fisheries expert Mike Hagler in
> Auckland, New Zealand.[3]
>
> Radar allows ships to operate in the fog and the dark; sonar
> locates the fish precisely; and GPS (geographical positioning
> system) satellites pinpoint locations so that ships can return to
> productive spots.  Formerly-secret military maps reveal hidden
> deep-sea features, such as mountains, which are associated with
> upwelling currents of nutrient-rich water, where fish thrive.
> Combined with larger nets made from new, stronger materials,
> modern fishing vessels guided electronically can sweep the oceans
> clean --and that is precisely what is happening.  As a result,
> the ocean's fish are disappearing, and so are the family-scale
> fishing operations that used to dominate the industry.
>
> ** Because modern fishing equipment is immensely expensive, the
> stakes are high.  With big money on the line, the fishing
> industry has curried political favor.  As a result, modern
> fishing factories like Tyson's are subsidized by federal and
> state governments.  Tyson's company has received more than $65
> million in low-interest loans from the federal government, to
> help build 10 of these super-trawlers.  According to Jeffrey St.
> Clair, the Seattle-based factory-trawler fleet has received $200
> million in federal subsidies.
>
> Furthermore, because so much is at stake, deep-water factory
> trawlers cannot afford to let up.  They must keep fishing until
> the last fish is gone.
>
> But it gets worse.  The new report in SCIENCE shows that humans
> are now fishing not only in deeper waters, but also lower on the
> food chain.[1] This has ominous implications, because as the
> lower levels of the food chain decline, the chances of revival at
> the top of the food chain are diminished even further.
> Scientists are now discussing the "wholesale collapse" of marine
> ecosystems.[5]   "It is likely that continuation of present
> trends will lead to widespread fisheries collapses...," says
> Daniel Pauly, the author of the new study.[1]  "If things go
> unchecked, we might end up with a marine junkyard dominated by
> plankton," he says.[6]
>
> Pauly's new study examined the diets of 220 fish species, then
> gave each species a numerical ranking in the food web, between 1
> and 5. Those assigned a 1 are plankton --tiny floating plants
> that photosynthesize, using the energy of sunlight to convert
> water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates, thus forming the
> bottom of all aquatic food chains.  Level 2 is zooplankton --tiny
> floating animals that eat plankton.  Top predators, such as the
> snappers inhabiting the continental shelf off Yucatan, Mexico,
> receive a ranking of 4.6.
>
> These data were combined with Food and Agriculture Organization
> (FAO) data on fish landings worldwide.  The result is an estimate
> of the average place in the oceanic food web (the average
> "trophic level") where humans are harvesting fish.  The new study
> reveals that the average trophic level has been steadily
> declining for 45 years, meaning that humans are progressively
> taking fish from lower on the food chain. The steady decline has
> been about 0.1 trophic levels per decade. "Present fishing policy
> is unsustainable," says Pauly.  Of the 220 species studied, at
> least 60% are being overfished, or fished to the limit.[6]
>
> Pauly believes that the true situation is somewhat worse than his
> study indicated, principally because many countries under-report
> their fishing harvest.
>
> Even if a fishery does not collapse completely, fishing down the
> food chain can have serious consequences.  In the north sea, the
> cod population has been so depleted that fishermen are now
> concentrating on a second-level species called pout, which the
> cod used to eat.  The pout, in turn, eat tiny organisms called
> copepods and krill.  Krill also eat copepods.  As the pout are
> removed, the krill population expands and then the copepod
> population declines drastically.  Because copepods are the main
> food of young cod, the cod population cannot recover.[5]
>
> Fish farming might seem like a way out of this problem, but it is
> not --at least not as presently practiced --because farmed fish
> are fed fish meal made from unpopular fish such as herring or
> menhaden.[6]  It would seem to be only a matter of time before
> the herring and menhaden too are depleted.
>
> Dr. Pauly believes that in 3 or 4 decades, many oceanic fisheries
> will "collapse in on themselves."  The result will be a loss of
> high-quality protein for humans, even before the fisheries
> collapse completely. Humans eat somewhere between trophic levels
> 2.5 and 4.  Lower then that, there isn't much that people eat.
> "There is a lower limit for what can be caught and marketed, and
> zooplankton [at trophic level 2] is not going to be reaching our
> dinner plates in the foreseeable future," Dr. Pauly wrote in
> SCIENCE.
>
> Solutions?  Government could limit the kinds of fishing
> technology that are allowed --to give the fish a chance --but
> this would put "the public interest" up against the likes of Don
> Tyson.  In today's political climate, with private money
> dominating our elections, Don Tyson would win because he's
> wealthy and he supports all the right politicians. Dr. Pauly
> believes there is an urgent need to create protected areas where
> fishing is simply not allowed.  He sees no-fishing zones as
> easier to implement and enforce than fishing quotas, limiting
> fishing time at sea, restrictions on allowable fishing gear, and
> controls on pollution --though these steps, too, are needed, he
> believes.  No-fishing zones can be created quickly and can be
> enforced.  In Britain, the fishing industry has begun to accept
> no-fishing zones as a way to save the industry in the face of
> declining fish stocks.[7]
>
> The most important idea, proposed in SCIENCE magazine February
> 6th, would be to shift the burden of proof onto the fishing
> industry.[8] Those who profit from public resources such as the
> oceans should have to demonstrate, before they can begin fishing,
> that their activities will not harm the public resource.  At
> present, it is assumed that fishing will not damage life in the
> oceans, and the burden is on the general public to prove
> otherwise.  At this point, abundant evidence has come to light
> indicating damage, so it is definitely time to shift the burden
> of proof onto the fishing industry.  For example, owners of
> super-trawlers should have to show that their yield will be
> sustainable before their ships can put to sea.
>
> Here again, it seems unlikely that the present Congress
> --snuffling around in a trough of filthy lucre, as it is --will
> act to protect the public interest.  Therefore, it is urgent that
> we get private money out of our elections completely.  Elected
> officials need to be answerable to the people who elected them,
> not to wealthy benefactors.
>
> Otherwise our children will inherit oceans without fish.
>
>                                                 --Peter Montague
>                 (National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981/AFL-CIO)
> ===============
> [1] Daniel Pauly and others, "Fishing Down Marine Food Webs,"
> SCIENCE Vol. 279 (February 6, 1998), pgs. 860-863.
>
> [2] Timothy Egan, "U.S. Fishing Fleet Trawling Coastal Water
> Without Fish," NEW YORK TIMES March 7, 1994, pgs. A1, B7.
>
> [3] William J. Broad, "Creatures of the Deep Find Their Way to
> the Table," NEW YORK TIMES December 26, 1995, pgs. C1, C5.
>
> [4] Jeffrey St. Clair, "Fishy Business," IN THESE TIMES May 26,
> 1997, pgs. 14-16, 36.
>
> [5] William K. Stevens, "Man Moves Down the Marine Food Chain,
> Creating Havoc," NEW YORK TIMES February 10, 1998, pg. C3.
>
> [6] Susan Diesenhouse, "In New England, Battle Plans for Survival
> at Sea," NEW YORK TIMES April 24, 1994, pg. F7.
>
> [7] Nigel Williams, "Overfishing Disrupts Entire Ecosystems,"
> SCIENCE Vol. 279 (February 6, 1998), pg. 809.
>
> [8] Paul K. Dayton, "Reversal of the Burden of Proof in Fisheries
> Management," SCIENCE Vol. 279 (February 6, 1998), pgs. 821-822.
>
> Descriptor terms:  fish; fishing industry; fishing technology;
> oceans; grand banks fishery; newfoundland; don tyson; ar; science
> magazine; daniel pauly; burden of proof; precautionary principle;
> atlantic ocean; orange roughy; new zealand; fao; studies;
>
> ################################################################
>                              NOTICE
> Environmental Research Foundation provides this electronic
> version of RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY free of charge
> even though it costs our organization considerable time and money
> to produce it. We would like to continue to provide this service
> free. You could help by making a tax-deductible contribution
> (anything you can afford, whether $5.00 or $500.00). Please send
> your tax-deductible contribution to: Environmental Research
> Foundation, P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403-7036. Please do
> not send credit card information via E-mail. For further
> information about making tax-deductible contributions to E.R.F.
> by credit card please phone us toll free at 1-888-2RACHEL.
>                                         --Peter Montague, Editor
> ################################################################
>
>

=====================================================================
========
                   /`\   /`\    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)

Jesus was most likely a vegetarian... why aren't you? Go to
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4620/essene.htm
for more information.

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

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 98 18:49:02 -0000
From: "Eric Mindel @ LCA" <[e-mail]>
To: "Chickadee" <[e-mail]>,
        "ar-news" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Upcoming Hard Copy animal stories
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Monday March 2... Hard Copy covers that atrocious dog cruelty case in
Kansas City that involves the perpetrators' video tape of themselves
doing it.  FYI for all who heard about the case, all five suspects were
apprehended and the DA's office seems to be taking the case very
seriously, shooting for felony counts on all of them.

Wednesday March 4... Hard Copy covers the final [sixth] Nadas piece.
They're arranging for a reunion between Sean Roach (the guy with whom
Nadas previously lived before the incident) and Nadas at Best Friends.
This is will be a good-bye visit for Sean.


Please take note... Hard Copy feels that they've done too many animal
stories in recent months, and this week have suggested they'd like to
tone it down.  Remember, this is the program that has done the incredible
pieces on rodeo, fur, beef/downers, etc.  Every show they do hits 15
million people!

If you appreciate what they're doing to expose animals issues, PLEASE
write to them at Hard Copy, Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Ave, LA, CA,
90038.  This feedback DOES make a difference-- every time they hit an
industry, the industry reps send plenty of letters.

eric

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 16:30:12 -1000 (HST)
From: Animal Rights Hawaii <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: re SLAUGHTERHOUSE
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Gail Eisnitz' book SLAUGHTERHOUSE is also available from Amazon.com, at
almost $10.00 below the publisher's rate. That's where I got mine.
aloha,
Cathy


Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 20:34:22 -0600
From: Steve Barney <[e-mail]>
To: AR-News <[e-mail]>,
        PRIMATE-TALK <[e-mail]>
Subject: [US] "First Lady Will Make Appeal For Monkey Donations" (TCT-022698)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

"First Lady Will Make Appeal For Monkey Donations"
By Jason Shepard
Correspondent for the Capital Times
The Capital Times
Madison, WI
US
Thursday, February 26, 1998

-- Beginning --

First Lady Will Make Appeal For Monkey Donations
By Jason Shepard
Correspondent for the Capital Times

First lady Sue Ann Thompson will videotape a public service announcement
pleading for people to donate money to save the Henry Vilas Zoo Thompson
monkeys, an animal activist says.

The last-minute effort is aimed at derailing plans by the University of
Wisconsin to ship 150 monkeys from the zoo. The monkeys have been owned
by the UW but have lived at the zoo for three decades. UW officials say
the monkeys are no longer useful to their research program, and federal
funding has been lost, so they need to find new homes for them.

Tina Kaske, executive director of the Alliance for Animals, said
Thompson agreed Wednesday to pitch in to help fund-raising efforts
because of her concern over the monkeys' fate. Sue Ann Thompson could
not be reached for comment this morning.

One hundred rhesus monkeys are scheduled to be shipped to a Louisiana
research center sometime next week, and Kaske admits that it will take
nearly a miracle for the UW to change its plans.

``The best thing that could happen is that some `Monkey God' would shine
down and have a lot of money along with him,'' Kaske said.

The alliance has raised about $8,000 to date, but Kaske says more could
be raised if the public had better information about the monkeys' fate.

``The public hears they're leaving, and then they're staying, and then
they're leaving again. People don't want to commit money to something
like this when everybody is saying different things and no body really
knows what's going on,'' Kaske said.

It appears that university officials won't budge in their Monday
deadline, and county officials say they cannot bear the sole costs of
maintaining the monkeys. Estimates from the university of the cost of
running the monkey house have ranged from $100,000 to more than $200,000
a year. Pinpointing just how much money would be required has been one
of the sticking points.

If the county agrees by Monday to take over the care and management of
the facility, the university has said it would maintain the monkeys and
staff the facility until Jan. 1. Then the county would assume full
responsibility for the facility and the monkeys.

One of the many options being discussed is sending the 100 rhesus
monkeys to sanctuaries rather than the research facility, and keeping
the one colony of stump-tail macaques at the zoo under county control.
The 50 stump-tailed macaques reportedly make up the largest and oldest
breeding colony of the species in the world. The UW has tentative plans
to send them to Thailand, but lack of a proposed site there and funding
problems have caused UW officials to proceed cautiously.

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk had proposed a joint funding
partnership with the university to keep the stump-tails in Madison, but
UW Graduate School Dean Virginia Hinshaw is expected to reject the plan.
She has said the county would not be paying enough money.

Topf Wells, an aide to Falk, said this morning that Hinshaw has not
given Falk a definite answer on whether she would reject the plan.

HOW TO HELP THE MONKEYS

Donations can be made to the Monkey Protection Fund of the Alliance for
Animals at any Firstar Bank branch in Dane County. Donations may also be
sent to the Firstar Bank at 1 S. Pinckney St., Madison, WI 53703. Those
with questions may call Firstar at 252-4000.

Second-graders at Lakeview Elementary School are raising money to help
save the Vilas Zoo monkeys. They are conducting a penny drive, and
Wednesday put on a bake sale. Here Jazz Hubbard and Elizabeth Sanchez
purchase baked goods from (left to right) Baydorf Lee, Darniece
Christian and Megan Fisher. A previous bake sale raised $127.60, and
$150 in pennies has been collected. The students' goal is $500, and they
are accepting pennies from the public.

-- End --

The Alliance for Animals' Monkey Protection Fund:
http://www.uwosh.edu/organizations/alag/AfA_Monkey_Protection_Fund.html

The Alliance for Animals:
http://www.allanimals.org/

More info about the UW-Madison monkey scandal is available at:
http://www.uwosh.edu/organizations/alag/Issues.html


Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 20:35:20 -0600
From: Steve Barney <[e-mail]>
To: AR-News <[e-mail]>,
        PRIMATE-TALK <[e-mail]>
Subject: URGENT: HOW TO HELP THE MONKEYS
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Source:
The Capital Times
Madison, WI
US
Thursday, February 26, 1998


HOW TO HELP THE MONKEYS

Donations can be made to the Monkey Protection Fund of the Alliance for
Animals at any Firstar Bank branch in Dane County. Donations may also be
sent to the Firstar Bank at 1 S. Pinckney St., Madison, WI 53703. Those
with questions may call Firstar at 252-4000.

Second-graders at Lakeview Elementary School are raising money to help
save the Vilas Zoo monkeys. They are conducting a penny drive, and
Wednesday put on a bake sale. Here Jazz Hubbard and Elizabeth Sanchez
purchase baked goods from (left to right) Baydorf Lee, Darniece
Christian and Megan Fisher. A previous bake sale raised $127.60, and
$150 in pennies has been collected. The students' goal is $500, and they
are accepting pennies from the public.

-- End --

The Alliance for Animals' Monkey Protection Fund:
http://www.uwosh.edu/organizations/alag/AfA_Monkey_Protection_Fund.html

Alliance for Animals:
http://www.allanimals.org/

More info about the UW-Madison monkey scandal is available at:
http://www.uwosh.edu/organizations/alag/Issues.html

Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 11:18:08 +0000
From: jwed <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (CN) Snake, worm, marmot: you choose
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Date: 02/28/98
Author: Wu Jun and Zhang Yousen
Copyright⌐ by China Daily

TRAVELING to Kangba Plateau in the spring? Be prepared to be surprised - by
the beautiful scenery and many eerie sights.

Last spring, we joined a group tour to the plateau, which is high above sea
level in the Ganzi Autonomous Prefecture on the eastern edge of the
Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in Sichuan Province. We remember very clearly three
interesting encounters we had there.

Xiangcheng County is known for its hot springs, but few know that one of
them is called the Spring of Snakes.

In a cave near a village named Recaoka, snakes are frequently seen crawling
out from the cracks in the cave. Some of them even slide into the spring to
swim with the local people.

It is said that these snakes will not hurt good people, attacking only
those who are evil.

Whether this belief had any basis in fact could only be proved by actual
experience. Therefore, some of the "brave guys" in our group decided to
bathe in the spring.

Fortunately, peace prevailed, with both men and snakes enjoying a
refreshing swim.

"It's fresh and cool, and washes away the dust and tiredness of the
journey," one of the "brave guys" said. "Besides, it is really exciting."

But those of us sitting uncomfortably on the bank were not about to test
his claim.

Later, while walking across the green grassland dotted with beautiful wild
flowers, we noticed a "ball" that was slowly rolling forward.

It was as large as a basketball, but it definitely was not a basketball.

A closer look revealed that it was a "ball" of worms clinging together so
that they could roll to the river nearby with the help of wind.

"The worms flourish in the spring grass," a local told us; "when they have
eaten the grass in one area, they have to move."

When they come to rivers or creeks, the worms, hundreds of them, cling
together in balls, roll into the water and drift with the wind to the other
side.

Unfortunately, this "interesting" sight aroused the concern of local
authorities. They have taken measures to control these worms, and this
strange "swim meet" is rarely seen today.

Catching "snow pigs" is another unusual experience. The Himalayan marmot,
is much sought after by the local villagers on Kangba Plateau. After making
sure that it was not an endangered, protected species, we decided to try
our hand at catching one.

Cunning though they may be, there is no escape for these "snow pigs" when
the local people decide to smoke them out.

They told us the snow pigs usually crawl out of their caves in the morning
to have a "sun bath."

Unfortunately for them, it reveals their hiding places, making it very easy
for the hunters.

After our pig had gone back into his burrow,, we placed a sack over one
opening and lit fires and directed the smoke down the others.

Then, teary-eyed with smoke ourselves, we wait impatiently. Before too
long, the fat little fellow scampered choking out of his burrow into our
sack and a round of applause from curious locals.

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 23:33:49 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: HSUS Full Page Ad in 2/27/98 NY Times Decries States' Food
  Disparagement Laws
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Humane Society of the United States Program Director Howard Lyman Found Not
Liable in Landmark Case in Amarillo

HSUS Runs Full-Page Ad in Today's New York Times Decrying
States' Food Disparagement' Laws

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- A day after a 12-person jury found Humane
Society of the United States (HSUS) program director Howard Lyman and talk
show celebrity Oprah Winfrey not liable for comments made on a national show
about eating beef, The HSUS ran a full-page advertisement in today's New York
Times about the threat to free speech and food safety posed by so-called "food
disparagement" laws.á Mr. Lyman, director of the Eating with Conscience
program of The HSUS, spent the last six weeks in Amarillo fighting "food
disparagement" and libel charges against him.á Until the jury rendered its
judgment, Mr. Lyman and The HSUS were barred from speaking about the lawsuit
as a result of a court-imposed gag order.

"The 13 states that have adopted 'food disparagement' laws have done a great
disservice to American consumers," states Paul Irwin, president of The HSUS.
"The laws are unmistakably intended to chill discussion about the practices
and products of food-producing industries -- practices and products that may
have cause harm to American consumers.á The HSUS intends to redouble its
efforts to challenge these laws, and to work to block the advance of similar
legislation in 37 other states."

Mr. Lyman, who spent much of his professional life raising cattle and now
works for the HSUS, stated, "Today, The Humane Society of the United States
and I breathe more easily, knowing that a vigorous debate about potential
dangers to our food supply -- ranging from E. coli to Pfiesteria to salmonella
to Mad Cow Disease -- is permissible.á Lawsuits like this stifle speech about
matters that have implications for the health and welfare of every American
consumer.á At a time when threats to food safety are arguably greater than
ever -- threats exacerbated by intensive confinement conditions that abet the
spread of disease and by controversial feeding practices -- we need a free and
open discussion about these matters."

The HSUS is the nation's largest animal protection organization with over 5.8
million members and constituents.

SOURCEá The Humane Society of the United Statesá
CO:á Humane Society of the United States
ST:á District of Columbia, Texas
IN:á ENV
SU:
02/27/98 10:00 EST <http://www.prnewswire.com/>http://www.prnewswire.com

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 20:56:42
From: David J Knowles <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [CA] "Fur-wearers" caged
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

"Fur-wearers" caged
By David J Knowles
Animal Voices News

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Ten protestors, including five clad in fur who were
confined in small wire cages, took part in  an anti-fur action outside the
downtown Holt Renfrew store Friday.

"Holt Renfrew was targeted as it is the largest retailer of fur in Canada,"
said organiser Jason Baker, of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Baker said the protestors in the cages were representative of the millions
of animals confined in cages on fur farms throughout Canada prior to their
death by electrocution, gassing or neck breaking.

The protest was well covered by local media, with three radio stations, all
four local TV stations and both major daily newspapers turning up.

The photographer for the Vancouver Sun told Baker that he would try to be
unbiased, then admitted he was a member of PeTA himself.

Reaction from passers-by was mainly positive, with several bus passengers
waving and giving the thumbs up to the protestors.

Pedestrians walking by were handed leaflets on the cruelty involved in the
fur trade. Several stopped to express their support.

Blake was asked where the fur coats used in the protest came from. He
explained that they were donated by members who had passed them on to PeTA
for use in campaigns.

The Vancouver protest was one of several held in Canada during this month.
Others were held in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and London, Ont.






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