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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN//2.0"> <html> <head> <title>AR-NEWS Digest</title> </head> <BODY bgcolor=fbfaea text=#211818 link="#190748" alink="#FFFFEF" vlink="#401C92"> <center> <IMG SRC="IMAGES/HEAD.GIF" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/digest/images/head.gif" USEMAP="#toplinks" BORDER="0"><BR> <img src="IMAGES/YCBAR.GIF" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/digest/images/ycbar.gif"><a href="../INDEX~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/index.html"><img src="IMAGES/HOMEBAR.GIF" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/digest/images/homebar.gif" border=0></a><br></center> <map name="toplinks"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="345,27,393,54" href="../../../tppmsgs/msgs0.htm#14" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/envirohome.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="458,7,512,27" href="../SUPPOR~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/Support.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="401,7,446,26" href="../SEARCH~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/search.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="352,7,386,26" href="../ORGS~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/Orgs.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="298,7,337,25" href="../NEWSPA~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/newspage.html"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" COORDS="211,7,286,27" href="../SUB~1.HTM" tppabs="http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/sub.html"> </map> <center><TABLE cellspacing=15 border=0> <TR> <TD width=50 align=center> </TD> <TD width=400 align=left> <!-- PAGE CONTENT GOES BELOW --> <pre> AR-NEWS Digest 564 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) [UK] Soldiers tricked into chemical tests by David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com> 2) [IN] Dambusters of Ganges declare Hindu holy wa by David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com> 3) (US) Sheriff suspects animal rights activists freed minks by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 4) (US) Defense lawyer calls animal rights activist a "standout freak' by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 5) (US) Skateboards, animal rights, music are his top passions by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 6) (US) Supervisors Unlikely To Stop Animal Sales S.F. board shows little interest in ban by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 7) (US) Group seeks end to pigeon-shooting event by allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> 8) BSE-UK 1980-1985 by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 9) (UK)BSE & CJD (NEW VARIANT), EVIDENCE FOR LINK by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 10) More Mad Cow Disease(Belgium) by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 11) (US) Oklahoma Weekly Hunting News by JanaWilson <JanaWilson@aol.com> 12) (AR) NEWS AT THE ARGENTINE MILITARY HOSPITAL by CAF@caf.mas-info.com.ar 13) RFI: Fur Free Friday Florida by Dawn <dawnmarie@rocketmail.com> 14) HANTAVIRUS, RODENTS - CHILE by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 15) dog as Plaintiff by robanne harrison <rharriso@unm.edu> 16) BSE - BELGIUM: FIRST CASE by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 17) Frankenstein is running scared by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 18) Human chickens released from the cage by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 19) (Aust)Natural plant hormones may protect against breast cancer by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 02:46:48 From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: [UK] Soldiers tricked into chemical tests Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971102024648.219f7378@dowco.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit [Not strictly AR, but if they could do this to humans, what chance for other animals?] >From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, November 2nd, 1997 Soldiers tricked into chemical tests By Andrew Gilligan and Rob Evans DOZENS of servicemen say they were tricked into painful chemical experiments at the Government's Porton Down test centre by being told they were helping with research into the common cold. Documents obtained by The Telegraph show that Porton scientists were instructed to be economical with the truth about the experiments - which, several of the servicemen say, have left them permanently ill. Many of the men still do not know exactly which chemicals were used on them. The papers show that the scientists were told to be evasive about the true nature of the experiments so as not to scare off the volunteers. One, marked "confidential", says: "Experience has shown that detailed description tends to deter the serviceman and so now very little is said. . . The fewer details the better." The Tory MP for Bournemouth East, David Atkinson, described the saga - unrevealed for more than 30 years - as "disgraceful and deceitful". He compared the "lack of openness" in investigating their cases with the efforts now being made for apparent victims of Gulf War illnesses. "I welcome the openness - more than the last Government's - towards Gulf War syndrome," he said. "All we are asking for is the same openness in investigating the cases of the Porton Down volunteers." The veterans, from all three Services, volunteered for the experiments in the 1950s and '60s. "I went to Porton after seeing a notice asking for volunteers for common cold research," said one, Gordon Bell, from Sunderland. "I would never have set foot in Porton if I had known it was for chemical warfare. It was betrayal - the lowest trick in the book." Others contacted by The Telegraph told similar stories. Douglas Shave, from Bournemouth, said: "I can remember that notice as clearly as if it was today. I think it was all very unfair." David Clutterbuck, a serviceman who did not volunteer, said the notice "was definitely only for common cold research. There was nothing else at all" . Although the original misinformation came from unit-level notices, the volunteers say that at no stage after arrival in Porton were their misconceptions corrected - an apparent breach of the Nuremberg Code on human experiments, which prescribes that experiments must not be performed without the subject's "informed consent". Mr Bell, who was experimented on at Porton in 1959, said: "Nobody told us anything." For one experiment, he said, he was ordered to stand in front of a stream of gas so acrid that he could bear it for less than a minute. "My face was stinging, my eyes were running, my throat was red raw, my lungs were burning," he said. A chemical in another experiment made him "weak at the knees and nauseated", and in another test he was told to lie down while an unknown substance was injected into his arm. "I could never find out what I was injected with," he said. Mr Shave was put into a gas chamber for periods of up to 45 minutes with no gas mask or other protection. To this day, he has no idea what gas was in the chamber. Both men now suffer from severe skin problems, including boils on the face, eczema, and blotches. Porton Down's spokesman, Rupert Cazalet, confirmed that the establishment had never conducted research into the common cold. But any misinformation supplied by the volunteers' units was their doing, not Porton's, he said. "We are certain that once they got to Porton they were given sufficient knowledge for informed consent," he said. "But what informed consent meant in the '50s and '60s was less structured and detailed than it is now." The exact details of what was said to the volunteers are still unclear, however. Mr Cazalet said that some of the relevant files were missing. But "when they came to Porton Down, we could not give them the full details because they would react in such a way as to make the studies unviable", he said. "There were also security considerations at the time. But our scientists were scrupulous in their adherence to the Nuremberg Code and gave them enough knowledge so their consent was informed." Anyone who approached Porton would have his case investigated, as far as the incomplete files allowed, he said. To date, eight volunteers have done so. ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997. Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 02:56:05 From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: [IN] Dambusters of Ganges declare Hindu holy wa Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971102025605.219fcd88@dowco.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, November 2nd, 1997 Dambusters of Ganges declare Hindu holy war By Julian West in Hardwar AN army of Indian holy men, brandishing Shiva tridents, is storming up the Ganges in a motorised amphibious temple to wage war on a dam. In what promises to be an epic battle between Hindu traditionalism and progress, the sadhus have sworn to tear apart the dam with their bare hands if construction is not halted. Issuing fearsome cries of "Ganga Mata ki Jai" - "victory to Mother Ganges" - the dreadlocked holy men are currently travelling up the 1,500-mile river on a 70ft motor launch decked out as a temple, complete with a statue of the river goddess Ganga, whipping up agitation against the Tehri dam in the upper reaches of the river. They are drawing massive crowds along their route, which stretches from the mouth of the Ganges in the Bay of Bengal to the river's headwaters in Gangotri. Indians revere the mighty Ganges as the holiest of India's many sacred rivers and thousands of Hindus in holy towns along the river, like Hardwar and Varanasi, sing prayers to the Ganges at dusk. The Tehri dam was first conceived almost 20 years ago. But it has been mired in controversy from the outset: mainly over the million people it will displace, the risk of flooding and the threat of earthquake damage in the seismically active Himalayas. Construction has been halted many times by anti-dam activists, and work on concreting the 260-metre barrage has only just begun. The thousands of holy men camping in the many pilgrimage towns downstream, as well as many residents, fear that if the dam is breached riverside towns such as Rishikesh and Hardwar would be inundated in minutes. But what incenses the sadhus is what they call a violation of the purity of the goddess Ganga. "Ganges is the holy nectar that flows from the lotus feet of the god Vishnu, the hands of the god Brahma and the hair of the god Shiva," rapsodised holy men on the banks of the river in Hardwar last week. "She is the liquid goddess Mother Ganga." They maintain that the barrage will "enchain the holy goddess" and that the 25-mile reservoir will be a catchment for "all manner of impious things", such as sewage from villages and, in particular, monsoon rain. One holy man explained that during the two-month summer monsoon, when the river swirls with brown silt, the millions of sadhus who worship the Ganges stop their prayers, believing that the river goddess is having her period. "We don't worship that water," said Swami Shyamsunderadas Shavtri. What is not clear is why the holy men have only now decided to act. The Ganges is already one of the world's most polluted rivers, choked with effluent from tanneries and chemical plants along the banks, floating animal carcasses and dead bodies with vultures perched on them. A campaign to launch carnivorous turtles into the river to eat the corpses failed when the turtles themselves were hunted for soup. Nonetheless, at a World Hindu Conference in Hardwar 10 days ago, attended by King Birendra of Nepal, 50,000 holy men vowed to halt the Tehri dam. A second, mammoth gathering of sadhus, in eight days, is planned in Allahabad, where the amphibious temple will temporarily halt. As a next step, Swami Chinmayananda, the campaign's chairman, is threatening to mobilise India's estimated two million holy men - from fearsome naked Naga Babas to trident-wielding Shiva sadhus - at the massive Kumbh Mela religious festival in Allahabad early next year. "I demand the government of India stops this dam," said Swami Chinmayananda. "If they don't listen to me, the holy men will take action." The Swami commands support from a number of powerful Right-wing Hindu MPs from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. And it is unlikely that the government will entirely dismiss his threat. In 1992, fanatical grassroots supporters of the BJP demolished the three domes of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya with their bare hands in 45 minutes. So far, the Tehri dam has withstood one earthquake, in 1991, without apparent damage. But even its seismically proofed foundations may not be able to withstand a horde of angry holy men. ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997. Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 06:21:46 -0500 From: allen schubert <alathome@clark.net> To: ar-news@envirolink.org Subject: (US) Sheriff suspects animal rights activists freed minks Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971102062144.006d42d8@pop3.clark.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 
