AR-NEWS Digest 697

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) [UK] Store to stop selling gene-altered  foods
     by David J Knowles 
  2) [US] Alligators snapped up by drug dealers 
     by David J Knowles 
  3) (TH) Stump-tailed macaques not endangered: ex-zoo chief
     by Vadivu Govind 
  4) >24 Stars to Attend 12th Annual Genesis Awards
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
  5) Sealers Launch Education Campaign To Fight 'Myths'
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
  6) Letters needed
     by BHGazette 
  7) (US) PETA Site Against Meat
     by allen schubert 
  8) CNN: PETA Site Against Meat
     by Tereiman 
  9) RFI:  Cougar dragged on catwalk during Australian fashion show
     by Tereiman 
 10) (US) PrimeTime Live Rodeo Story
     by Mesia Quartano 
 11) (US) PrimeTime Live Rodeo Story (pt. 2)
     by Mesia Quartano 
 12) Here's an update on Hawaii and Vermont ESA issues involving wildlife
     by LexAnima 
 13) UPC Alert: Peter Jennings on Poultry Industry
     by Franklin Wade 
 14) Definite airtime for Hard Copy Scruffy story
     by "Eric Mindel @ LCA" 
 15) Past Victory for Animals
     by SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US
 16) Animal Rights Article in UC Berkeley paper
     by Hillary 
 17) BLM Changes Position Due To AR Pressure!
     by Hillary 
 18) Mich State Univ ALF attack
     by Hillary 
 19) UK-Drop the Humbug about hunting
     by Hillary 
 20) US-Florida considers banning Mule Diving
     by Hillary 
 21) URGENT!! Trappers seek import/export inspection fee exemption
     by hsuswild@ix.netcom.com
 22) Gobal Day Against P&G
     by In Defense of Animals 
 23) ACTIVISTS WIN AT UC DAVIS (USA)
     by civillib@cwnet.com
 24) Chihuahuas say, "NO quiero" in Los Angeles
     by "Eric Mindel @ LCA" 
 25) Felony cruelty
     by p.a.wood@juno.com (Pinckney Alonzo Wood)
 26) Lethal Medicine
     by molgoveggie@juno.com (Molly G Hamilton)
 27) meatout article in newspaper
     by "sharon cahr" 
 28) meatout article in newspaper continued
     by "sharon cahr" 
 29) Nadas? was Re: Felony cruelty
     by "nhadine" 
 30) Nadas/Scruffy/Abused animal resources
     by bunny 
 31) (NZ)Virus Importers Clam Up
     by bunny 
 32) National MEATOUT Events
     by FARM 
 33) (FR) Angry Chimps Attack Work Crew
     by Marisul 
 34) (US) TimeOutNY: "Goin' on a Bear Hunt"
     by Marisul 
 35) (US) Drug Makers Lobby Against Cloning Laws
     by Marisul 
 36) (Aust)Rabbit disease immunity theory rejected
     by bunny 
 37) (IN) Rescue plan for performing bears 
     by jwed 
 38) (Australia)Call for more rabbit virus
     by bunny 
 39) Fox Photo Introduces Pet Photo I.D. For All American Pets
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
 40) (US) Technique Reduces Chicken Bacteria
     by allen schubert 
 41) (Australia)Gutless claim on pest birds(Killing wild parrots)
     by bunny 
 42) boywonderx@juno.com (Sebastian Bach): URGENT!!!ANIMAL 
     LIBERATION NOW!!!
     by totallib@juno.com (Jason A LaGreca)
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 20:59:36
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Store to stop selling gene-altered  foods
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19980318205936.2ff714da@dowco.com>
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Thursday, March 19th, 1998
 
Store to stop selling gene-altered  foods

 A SUPERMARKET is to withdraw genetically-modified foods from its shelves
after its chairman said they were probably the most  "potentially
dangerous" development in food production this century.

Malcolm Walker, chairman and chief executive of Iceland, said consumers
were being conned. He said: "The British public is likely to be eating
genetically-modified foods already without their knowledge." 

>From May 1 the supermarket will be the first to claim that its own-label
products contain no genetically-modified ingredients. The Consumers
Association has welcomed the move. The action is likely to renew
controversy about the importing of soya beans, genetically engineered to
resist weed-killers, from America.

Genetically-altered soya protein is already likely to be present in nearly
two thirds of processed food on supermarket shelves because American
growers have refused to segregate genetically engineered and
non-genetically engineered crops.

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1998.

Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 21:08:11
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [US] Alligators snapped up by drug dealers 
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19980318210811.2ff72a2c@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Thursday, March 19th, 1998
 
Alligators snapped up by drug dealers 
By David Sapsted in New York 

INSTEAD of pitbulls, alligators are becoming the new "guard dogs" of choice
for an increasing number of Americans, particularly members of drug gangs
anxious to protect their cash and narcotics.

In recent months, police in Massachusetts, where keeping large reptiles has
been illegal for more than 20 years, have encountered four alligators and
caymans used to protect                  property.

The most recent incident involved an alligator guarding drugs kept at the
home of a dealer in New Bedford. "It's the new status thing," said Victor
Mendes, a drug squad detective."They've graduated from pitbulls to
alligators. They use the things to intimidate."

Caymans, in fact, are more useful for their bark than their bite: vets say
that, although the ferocious-looking members of the crocodile family can
reach up to six feet, they normally would not attack anyone unless starving.

There is a big demand for the animals; one renowned for its  "ferocious
leaping attacks" was stolen recently from a San Francisco zoo. In Lakewood,
Colorado, officers had to wrestle
with a four-foot specimen while they were evicting a tenant and, in
Connecticut, a temporary animal shelter had to be established to house
seized reptiles.

For years, Americans have bought reptiles as pets, a trend accentuated when
Don Johnson kept Elvis the alligator as a companion on his boat in the
television crime series Miami Vice.
Rumours abound of owners getting tired of them when they grow too large and
flushing them down the lavatory, sparking  wholly unsubstantiated stories
in New York of monster alligators residing in the sewers.

However, the trend to use exotic animals for protection is something new:
police in New York recently found a 12-ft snake in a cupboard guarding a
drug dealers' cocaine supply.

Sgt Robert Mercon, of Massachusetts environmental police department, said
there are obvious drawbacks to owning alligators and caymans. He said:
"They grow too quickly, they
get too big and they get too vicious. And they have very sharp teeth." The
only upside, he reckons, is that "you don't have to take them for walks and
they don't get fleas".

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1998.

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 13:41:54 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (TH) Stump-tailed macaques not endangered: ex-zoo chief
Message-ID: <199803190541.NAA05372@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>Bangkok Post
19 Mar 98

Stump-tailed              macaques not               endangered:
ex-zoo chief

              Stump-tailed macaques are not endangered species in Thailand
              and can easily be found in the wild in the western forests of
              Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi, said former Dusit Zoo director
              Alongkorn Mahannop yesterday.

              Animal activists recently called on the Forestry Department to
              allow 51 macaques, raised for research in a US laboratory, to
              return to Thailand reasoning that the animals are an endangered
              species and would be killed if not returned.

              Most of the laboratory macaques will either be sold or put to
              sleep to stop them from reproducing in the wild because of
              genetic defects resulting from inbreeding, the veterinarian said.


Article copyright Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd 1998
Reprinted for non-commercial use only.
Website: http://www.bangkokpost.net


Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 01:15:39 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: AR-News@Envirolink.Org
Subject: >24 Stars to Attend 12th Annual Genesis Awards
Message-ID: 
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More Than Two Dozen Stars to Come Out for the Animals 
at Twelfth Annual Genesis Awards

     LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--March 18, 1998--

     Joely Fisher, Bill Maher, Pierce Brosnan, Keely Shaye Smith, Alicia
Silverstone, Lyle Lovett, Martin Sheen, Leeza Gibbons, Ally Walker, Frances
Fisher, Montel Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kevin Nealon, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen,
Joe Mantegna, David James Elliot, Harry Hamlin, Ed Begley Jr., Sid Caesar,
Shari Belafonte, Joe Campanella, Tippi Hedren, Linda Blair, Peter Scolari,
Alex D. Linz, Andy Kindler and Verdell, the dog from "As Good as It Gets,"

     Scheduled to Attend

     "Shiloh," "Charlotte's Web," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Millennium,"
"Primetime Live," "Leeza," "Hard Copy," and New York Times Magazine are among
21 winners of Twelfth Annual Genesis Awards, a national distinction which
recognizes members of the major news and entertainment media for spotlighting
animal issues with courage, creativity and integrity.

     Co-hosted by Joely Fisher and Bill Maher, the awards ceremony will take
place at a taped-for-television star-studded gala at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday,
March 28, before an audience of 1,000 attendees in the International Ballroom
of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, Calif.

     The Genesis Awards are presented by The Ark Trust, Inc., a national
nonprofit animal protection organization which works proactively with the
major media to raise public consciousness about the vast spectrum of animal
issues. Broadway and television actress and animal rights advocate, Gretchen
Wyler, is founder/president of The Ark Trust and event chairperson.

     She and the event's co-hosts, Fisher and Maher, will be joined be
presenters Pierce Brosnan, Keely Shaye Smith, Alicia Silverstone, Lyle Lovett,
Martin Sheen, Leeza Gibbons, Montel Williams, Harry Hamlin, Ed Begley Jr., Sid
Caesar, Shari Belafonte, Tippi Hedren, Linda Blair, Ally Walker ("Profiler"),
Frances Fisher ("Titanic"), Joe Mantegna

("Up Close and Personal"), Kevin Nealon ("Hiller and Diller"), Bonnie Hunt
("Jerry McGuire"), Tiffani-Amber Thiessen ("Beverly Hills 90210"), David James
Elliot ("JAG"), Joe Campanella ("The Bold and the Beautiful"), Peter Scolari
("Disney's Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show"), Alex D. Linz ("Home Alone
3"), Andy Kindler ("The Pet Shop") and `Verdell,' the dog ("As Good As It
Gets").

     1997 Genesis Award recipients will go to 21 winners including, among
others, Utopia Pictures' "Shiloh" (Feature Film) for an intelligent and
endearing tale of a boy's ethical dilemma when forced to return a hunting dog
to an abusive owner; Hanna-Barbera's "Charlotte's Web" (Film Classic; 1972)
for this charming precursor to "Babe" in which a spider spins messages into
her web to save a pig from slaughter; CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond"
(Television Comedy Series) for an amusing and warm episode about a show dog
stud who, as a result of being lost, is neutered and consequently deemed
"worthless" by its owner, only to be gleefully adopted by Ray's brother; Fox's
"Millennium" (Television Dramatic Series) for a disturbing episode on horse
slaughter as a "byproduct" of the making of the female estrogen replacement
therapy drug, Premarin; ABC's "Primetime Live" (Network Newsmagazine) for a
segment on the relentless, devastating and irreplaceable loss of animal and
plant life occurring in one of the world's last remaining jungles, the Ndoki
Rain Forest; "Hard Copy" (Syndicated Newsmagazine) for multiple segments
including a gutsy and graphic expose on the horrors of the fur trade; NBC's
"Leeza" (Television Talk Show) for an informative and heartwarming episode
promoting the adoption of dogs from animal shelters; and New York Times
Magazine (Newspaper Feature Article) for a heartbreaking investigation of the
insidious underground trade in endangered species.

     The 1997 Doris Day Music Award -- honoring musical achievement -- will be
a Tribute to the late John Denver by honoring the song he made famous, "You
Say The Battle is Over" about the slaughter of earth's majestic wildlife,
composed by David Mallett.

     For the first time in the history of the Genesis Awards, the judges have
voted a tie in the 1997 Brigitte Bardot International Genesis Award category,
honoring international achievement. The award goes to London's "The Cook
Report" for "Making a Killing" (rebroadcast on South Africa's "Carte Blanche")
exposing the  repugnant practice of luring protected animals from Africa's
Kruger  National Park for "canned hunts" -- guaranteed trophy kills by
wealthy American hunters.

     It also goes to England's "Countryside Undercover" for "It's A Dog's
Life," a sorrowful undercover expose on horrendous and needless experiments
conducted on beagle puppies by London's Huntingdon Research Center.

     "In our twelfth year, we are thrilled with the caliber of work being
produced by these courageous members of the news and entertainment media,"
said Wyler. "Thanks to their efforts, critical issues of animal abuse and
exploitation are being thrust into the spotlight like never before."

     All 1997 Genesis Awards are selected from material released in 1997.
Entries are submitted by those in the industry or by "people's choice," with
finalists voted on by the 17-member Genesis Awards Committee.

     Since its inception in 1986, the Genesis Awards has become the nation's
premier animal issues "consciousness-raiser," and the award is the only major
news and entertainment media distinction concerning animal issues.

     The awards ceremony will be taped-for-television before a live audience
of 1,000 attendees to world premier as a 90-minute TV special on Tuesday, May
5, at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on "Animal Planet," with four encore presentations.
Sponsored in part by Hallmark Entertainment Inc., the Twelfth Annual Genesis
Awards Television Special is produced by Paul Flattery and directed by Stanley
Dorfman. To purchase tickets, call 818/501-2ARK. -0-      NOTE TO EDITORS:
Complete list of 1997 Genesis Award winners available by request. Call for
interviews.

CONTACT: 
The Ark Trust, Inc., Los Angeles
Lisa Agabian, 310/372-7951 or 818/501-2275

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 01:19:28 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: AR-News@Envirolink.Org
Subject: Sealers Launch Education Campaign To Fight 'Myths'
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Sealers Launch Education Campaign To Fight 'Myths'

OTTAWA (AP) - Canadian sealers are launching a public education campaign aimed
at dispelling what they call myths propagated by animal rights groups.

Tina Fagan, of the Canadian Sealers Association, said the sealing industry is
vital to coastal and aboriginal communities and should not be treated any
differently than other industry.

``For the past 20, almost 30 years, this industry has been under attack by the
animal rights activists,'' she said Wednesday.

``We have had to be, over the last number of years, very reactive. This is a
very sensitive industry that we're in ... We decided to become proactive to
promote an industry that has very significant economic benefits.''

Fagan criticized television and newspaper advertisements sponsored by animal
welfare groups showing seals being inhumanely killed and left on the ice to
rot.

``If you want drama, red blood on white ice is certainly a lot of drama ...
How often do you see the hog industry showing a picture of a pig with its
throat slit?''

Fagan said her association is currently reviewing harvesting practices and
updating a professional program that trains sealers on everything from quality
control to ethical treatment of the animals.

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 01:29:16 EST
From: BHGazette 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Letters needed
Message-ID: <62d15f46.3510bb3e@aol.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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[NOTE:  Please respond to Denise Porter directly at  and be
aware she shares her e- mail address with another person at work.]


                                 PLEASE  HELP

If anyone out there has any media contacts, please help. I am willing to go on
radio or television.   And if anyone can get this story on web sites of big
organizations that would be great.  


     My name is Denise Porter, and I am a psychotherapist, licensed in the
state of Texas, and President of the Brownsville Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals.  The BSPCA is an animal welfare group, recently formed to
improve the lives of animals in the Rio Grande Valley.  (Not all our members
agree with pure animal rights philosophy.)   However, I myself am a long-time
animal rights activist and a vegetarian.   

     We have been following a brutal case of animal cruelty down here, and we
need your help. On September 12, 1997, two juveniles and three adults, Adrian
Adame, Juan Garcia, and Gerardo Zamora allegedly stoned a dog to death in the
Las Palmas housing project outside of Harlingen, Texas. A witness identified
the perpetrators of this crime and stated that a crowd gathered around them to
watch and to cheer.   Investigators put together a case against the suspects,
and they were arrested and charged with animal cruelty on October 9, 1997.
The adults have pled "not guilty" and will have a hearing on March 25, 1998 to
set a date for the trial.  

     Unfortunately, the adolescents have received "deferred prosecution,"
meaning that if they follow the terms of a six-month contract, they will not
be prosecuted.   The contract says that they must commit no other crime,
follow a curfew, and attend school.   They will not have to receive therapy,
nor do they have any community service hours to do.

     The BSPCA is circulating a petition demanding that those involved be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, that the court impose the maximum
sentence allowed under Texas law against those found guilty, and that none of
the parties involved ever be allowed to have any kind of animal in the future.
Finally, we want those found guilty of this crime to receive court-ordered
psychological therapy and to do community service hours.

     It is important to note that those involved in this atrocity are all gang
members and that the three adults have prior criminal records.  Here as
elsewhere the torture and death 
of animals is part of gang initiation rites.   An informant who used to live
in this area has told us that the murder of helpless animals is a daily
activity of the gang that controls the neighborhood.    
 
     People here in the Rio Grande Valley treat animals very badly, in
general.   Animal cruelty is not taken seriously and, quite frankly, not that
many people care about the dog that got stoned.   Knowing this, the BSPCA is
trying to raise public awareness about the link between violence toward
animals, violence towards humans, and criminality.  This makes it a human
issue too, not only an animal issue.   

     We want this story to go national. If anyone out there has any media
contacts, please help. I am willing to go on radio or television.   And if
anyone can get this story on web sites of big organizations that would be
great.  Also, activists can write editorials to the three newspapers here.
The D.A. Yolanda de Leon and the Assistant D.A. Jeff Henley need to know that
the country is watching how they handle this case.    The Director of the
juvenile probation office, Amador Rodriguez, needs to hear your views on these
kids essentially getting away with a slap on the wrist.  We believe juvenile
perpetrators of cruelty need to be held accountable and punished for crimes
against animals.  This must not happen in the future!

Please contact:

Mr. Amador Rodriguez, Director
Juvenile Probation Office
P.O. Box 1573
San Benito, Texas 78586
Phone: 956-399-3075
Fax:  956-399-3705
E-Mail: none

The Honorable Yolanda de Leon, District Attorney
Cameron County District Attorney' s Office
974 East Harrison
Brownsville, Texas 78520
Phone: 956-544-0849
Fax: 956-544-0869
E-Mail: none

Jeff  Henley, Assistant District Attorney
Same address, phone number and fax number as above

It would be helpful if activists could write letters or guest editorials to
the region's three major newspapers:

The Brownsville Herald                                
32 Cent Forum 
1135 East Van Buren
Brownsville, TX 78520
Phone: (956) 542-4301
Fax: (956) 542-0840 

The Valley Morning Star                  
Editorial Dept.    
1310 South Commerce      
Harlingen, TX 78550 
Phone: (956) 430-6239 
Fax: (956) 430-6204   

The Monitor
Editorial Dept.
1101 Ash Ave.
McAllen, TX  78501
Phone: (956) 686-4343 
Fax: (956) 618-0520

     We would welcome any ideas on how to proceed with this "campaign."  We
are a small, struggling organization and need guidance.  Thank you.  


Denise Porter 
President 
Brownsville Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals  
4777 Paseo del Rey
Brownsville, TX. 78521
Phone: (956) 541-9322 home; (956) 548-0028 work
Fax: (956) 541-4996
E-mail:  ruben@ies.net
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 07:35:21 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) PETA Site Against Meat
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980319073518.0070830c@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

To see this site, go to:  http://www.jesus-online.com/
from CNN custom news (search:  animal rights) http://www.cnn.com
----------------------------------------------
New York State News
Reuters
19-MAR-98

PETA Site Against Meat

(NEW YORK) -- A New York-based animal rights group... ... is hoping its new
Internet site will convince Christians to become vegetarians. A spokesman
for PETA... or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals... says the site
explains the group's belief that Jesus Christ was a herbivore. The site
also features essays on Judaism and vegetarianism, and a copy of a letter
PETA sent to all 449 U-S Catholic bishops, archbishops and cardinals,
asking them to encourage people to stop eating meat. 
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 07:36:12 EST
From: Tereiman 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: CNN: PETA Site Against Meat
Message-ID: <980ff155.3511113e@aol.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
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New York State News

Reuters
19-MAR-98
via CNN

PETA Site Against Meat

(NEW YORK) -- A New York-based animal rights group... ... is hoping its 
new Internet site will convince Christians to become vegetarians. A 
spokesman for PETA... or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals... 
says the site explains the group's belief that Jesus Christ was a 
herbivore. The site also features essays on Judaism and vegetarianism, 
and a copy of a letter PETA sent to all 449 U-S Catholic bishops, 
archbishops and cardinals, asking them to encourage people to stop 
eating meat. 
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 09:47:48 EST
From: Tereiman 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: RFI:  Cougar dragged on catwalk during Australian fashion show
Message-ID: <67875660.35113016@aol.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
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I am trying to find more detailed information regarding the Sydney, Australia
fashion show in which a cougar was dragged down the catwalk, urinated, swiped
at someone, and walked off stage.  

I anyone knows who the designer was and any other information, or if anyone is
working on this particular issue or campaigning against this designer.  Please
email me privately at tereiman@aol.com.

Thank you.
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:56:39 -0800
From: Mesia Quartano 
To: "ar-news@envirolink.org" 
Subject: (US) PrimeTime Live Rodeo Story
Message-ID: <35117877.2C29A9A5@usa.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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The TV show Primetime Live aired a story on the Angola Prison Rodeo last
night (3/18/98). For those of you who didn't get to see it, here's my
best attempt at an overview:

This was a very positive story about the annual rodeo at the Louisiana
State Penitentiary at Angola.

------------------------
"Bucking the System"
Reporter: Cynthia McFadden 


Over the loudspeaker, Angola's warden, Burl Kane (sp?), welcomes the
crowds to "the 33rd Annual Angola Prison Rodeo -- the wildest rodeo in
the south!"

The warden says that, in order to keep morale high, "you better have a
rodeo -- you better have everything you can."

The story follows three of the inmates competing in the rodeo.

Inmate Donald Cook says that he is afraid of getting stepped on or
paralyzed by a horse, but he "wants to be a winner... for once." Cook
was knocked unconscious and suffered a fractured foot during the rodeo.

Clifford Bowman (a.k.a. "Smurf") is "a year-round cowboy, part of the
trustee range crew that roams the prison caring for the livestock."

The rodeo events include:
* 6 bullriders busting out into the ring at once
* "guts and glory," where inmates try to grab a poker chip
attached       between the horns of a bull
* Bareback Bronco Ride
* The Buddy Pickup on Horeseback
* Bullriding 

Warden Kane: "Just one day can make the other 364 be a little bit better
for us and for him [the inmate] so that he can do his time."

The warden also stated that all of the prisoners taking place in the
event are volunteers, but: "It'd bother me if they were hurt, because I
don't want to be entertained at their expense."

The piece concluded with the following voiceover:
"Beyond the excitement and the pain of these four Sundays are a series
of lessons learned. Lessons of persistence and courage and believing in
yourself. Lessons, had they been learned on the outside, might have
meant never being here on the inside."

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

I think the ridiculousness of this story and the rodeo speaks for
itself. But I especially noticed the following points:

* The warden doesn't want any *humans* to get hurt and he doesn't want  
to be entertained at their expense. No mention was made in this story  
about the rodeo animals.
* If they have the time and money to keep livestock for this rodeo,
why   don't they do something constructive? There are prisons who raise
dogs   for the deaf and blind...    
  
-----------------------------------

http://www.memphisflyer.com/issue453/trvl453.htm
Ride 'Em Convict (Memphis Flyer)


Angola Prison Rodeo, Angola. Inmate rodeo, music, arts and crafts, food.
(504) 655-4411.
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:02:01 -0800
From: Mesia Quartano 
To: "ar-news@envirolink.org" 
Subject: (US) PrimeTime Live Rodeo Story (pt. 2)
Message-ID: <351179B9.AB2BA673@usa.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Sorry --

PrimeTime Live can be contacted here: 
http://www.abcnews.com/onair/email.html
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 13:21:49 EST
From: LexAnima 
To: AR-News@envirolink.org
Subject: Here's an update on Hawaii and Vermont ESA issues involving wildlife
Message-ID: <76f31450.3511623f@aol.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
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Subj: GREENLines Issue #585
Date:98-03-17 22:22:38 EST
From:rfeather@defenders.org (Roger Featherstone)
 Sender:owner-actgreen@envirolink.org
 Reply-to:rfeather@defenders.org
  To:actgreen@envirolink.org, greenlines@envirolink.org

GREENLines, Wednesday, March 18, 1998 from GREEN, 
the GrassRoots Environmental Effectiveness Network, 
A project of Defenders of Wildlife 
(505) 277-8302 or email rfeather@defenders.org

HAWAIIAN VICTORY:  The 3/15 Hawai'i Star Bulletin reported a US 
district judge says the US Fish and Wildlife Service violated the 
federal ESA by not determining "critical habitat" for 245 species of 
Hawaiian plants.  "You cannot conserve endangered plants without first 
identifying the habitat they need to survive and recover," said William 
Sager of the Conservation Council for Hawaii.  David Henkin of 
Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund who represented the Council and other 
groups in the lawsuit, said the court sent a strong warning to the FWS 
that designation of critical habitat must be the rule, not the 
exception.

SIREN SONG:  A 3/15 editorial in the Casper Star Tribune (WY) says 
"When the Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Senator Dirk 
Kempthorne work together on a piece of environmental legislation, 
warning sirens should pierce the air.  Kempthorne is one of the 
Senate's top recipients of donations from the timber industry."  The 
editorial questions motives of the Senate endangered species bill 
author and its cosponsors: "In the years from 1991 to 1995, 
[Kempthorne] received $341,216 in campaign funds from forestry and 
forest products, oil, gas, and mining industries.  He votes logging."

ENDANGERED IDEA:  The 3/13 New York Times reported on Canada's lack of 
endangered species legislation.  The Canadian government has listed 291 
species as endangered, but has no law to protect them.  "It's like a 
hospital that registers it patients but doesn't treat them," said 
Stewart Elgie of the Sierra Legal Defense Fund in Toronto.  "We 
identify the species at risk, diagnose what's wrong, but then we don't 
treat them.  It's absurd."  Environmental groups in the US and Mexico 
filed a complaint in January with the environmental commission of NAFTA 
charging Canada with failure to protect its endangered species.  

CONFIRMATION:  The Congressional Research Service recently released an 
analysis of pending endangered species legislation, in particular, S. 
1180, introduced by Senator Kempthorne (R-ID). CRS is the non-partisan 
research arm of the Library of Congress. "This report confirms what we 
have been saying for months about the Kempthorne bill - namely that it 
reduces public participation in endangered species listing decisions, 
insulates government agencies from scientific and public review, and 
opens new loopholes for habitat destruction by industry," said Heather 
Weiner of the Endangered Species Coalition.

VERMONT LISTINGS:  Greenwire reported 3/17 Vermont officials proposed 
adding eight species, including the wild lupine, Sedge wren, spotted 
turtle, channel darter fish and several species of freshwater mussel to 
the state's endangered species list.  Steven Parren of the state's 
Nongame and Natural Heritage Program said the proposed listings 
indicate "things aren't turning around" in the protection of many of 
the state's rare species.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Featherstone, GREEN Director
PO Box 40046, Albuquerque, NM 87196-0046
(505) 277-8302  fax, (505) 277-5483 rfeather@defenders.org
http://www.defenders.org/grnhome.html

GREEN DC Office
1101 14th St., NW, Ste. 1400, Washington,  DC 20005 (202) 682-9400
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 13:23:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Franklin Wade 
To: Undisclosed recipients:  ;
Subject: UPC Alert: Peter Jennings on Poultry Industry
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

                          Action Alert

              Please Write Or Call "Peter Jennings"

     On Tuesday and Wednesday, March 10th & 11th, ABC World News
Tonight With Peter Jennings did a two-part series on illegal
immigrant workers in the U.S. poultry industry. The poultry
industry knowingly hires many illegal immigrants to work in
slaughterhouses and do the dirty work of chicken catching. Every
night in this country over 30 million chickens are rounded up for
transport to slaughterhouses. Many birds die of heart failure,
suffocation, and hemorrhaging during catching. Their legs, wings,
hips, and necks are broken. Birds are terrorized and traumatized
to the point of "tonic immobility" in which their muscles become
paralyzed, as indicated in the heaps of "frozen" living birds
glimpsed in the footage.

     While we commend "Peter Jennings" for airing these scenes,
we condemn the fact that the show completely ignored the brutal
bashing of the birds by the workers. Some comment about this
cruelty to the birds and their suffering should have been made. 

     "Peter Jennings" showed human beings at our worst and said
Nothing. It showed 7-week old baby birds treated like footballs
and said Nothing. Please complain LOUD AND CLEAR.

                            Contact:

                          Paul Friedman
                       Executive Producer
           ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings
                   47 West 66th St, 2nd Floor
                       New York, NY 10023
         1-800-221-7386, ext. 4040 (inside line: use it)
                         1-212-456-4040

_____________________________________________________________________
franklin@smart.net                                   Franklin D. Wade 
    United Poultry Concerns - http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/upc


Date: Thu, 19 Mar 98 11:44:15 -0000
From: "Eric Mindel @ LCA" 
To: "ar-news" ,
        "Chickadee" 
Subject: Definite airtime for Hard Copy Scruffy story
Message-ID: <199803191824.NAA19111@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Scruffy story is definitely airing today, March 19, on TV's Hard Copy.

This according to a HC producer.

eric





Eric Mindel
Last Chance for Animals (LCA)
eric@LCAnimal.org
http://www.lcanimal.org
8033 Sunset Blvd, Suite 35
Los Angeles, CA  90046
310/271-6096 office 
310/271-1890 fax


Date: Thu, 19 Mar 98 13:01:25 UTC
From: SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US
To: ar-news@Envirolink.org
Subject: Past Victory for Animals
Message-ID: <199803191854.NAA25637@envirolink.org>

(From PETA's calendar): The Army called off plans to kill rabbits and
chickens in "survival training," 1993.

-- Sherrill
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:27:52 -0800
From: Hillary 
To: "ar-news@envirolink.org" 
Subject: Animal Rights Article in UC Berkeley paper
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980319142749.00739b40@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

                                Animal Rights Debate Rages on Berkeley Campus 


                  (Daily Californian) (U-WIRE) BERKELEY, Calif. -- Tucked
underneath a staircase by Barker Hall is the
                  entrance to the Northwest Animal Facility. The ground
floor looks like any campus office building.

                  The building's obscurity is strategic.

                  "They keep all the animal labs downstairs," says a
facility worker. "They're worried about fanatics
                  bombing the place."

                  Through three locked doors and a security station lies a
dimly lit laboratory. The walls of the cramped
                  room are lined with cages stacked up on one another.

                  The cages hold rats which are part of an experiment on
the neural functions of mammals. The animals
                  have staples in their heads from recent brain surgery.

                  "The cages I'm leaving empty are rats that didn't make it
through the surgery," says the worker, who
                  declined to give his name.

                  Animal research of the type conducted in this lab has
ignited heated debate between animal rights
                  activist and campus researchers, pitting those who label
animal research unethical against those who call it
                  necessary.

                  Some scientists who use animals in their studies say they
are caught in a bind, trying to advance science in
                  the face of impassioned criticism.

                  "I think animal rights groups have exerted fruitful
pressures in improving care and maintenance," says
                  molecular and cell biology Professor Walter Freeman, who
surgically places electrodes into the brains of
                  anesthetized rats and rabbits to monitor their brain
waves. "But some groups are halting research
                  altogether."

                  The campus group Berkeley in Defense of Animals typically
puts Freeman' s name on its fliers
                  denouncing the use of animals in research.

                  "Animal testing is neither effective nor humane," says
Meredith Walters, a BIDA member. "We would like
                  to see the university allocate its resources to
alternatives rather than continue to support old, inhumane
                  methods."

                  The alternatives, according to Walters, include skin
cultures, habitat observation and computer models.

                  But scientists themselves are more skeptical.

                  "In my field, animal research has been essential," says
Freeman. " When you are dealing with issues of
                  brain organization, you cannot learn anything from
cultures of bacteria and computer models are simply not
                  sophisticated enough yet."

                  Josh Trenter, the coordinator for the Berkeley chapter of
In Defense of Animals, a national animal
                  rights group, says that researchers simply do not want
invest effort in changing their ways.

                  "There are definitely alternatives, but they will never
be sophisticated enough if we don't try to make them
                  work," he says. 

                  The motivation for ignoring alternatives, he says, is one
of simple inertia.

                  "Most researchers have animal testing ingrained in them,"
he says. "It's what they know, what keeps the
                  grant money rolling in. It's just more expensive for them
to look into more ethical alternatives." 

                  Adding to the frustration for animal rights groups,
scientists have obscured their work with animals from
                  public attention. Statistics and other data on animal
research are hard to come by.

                  But the secrecy, researchers say, does not translate into
animal abuse and is essential to the sensitive
                  work they do.

                  "The use of animals in research is highly regulated,"
explains Richard Van Sluyters, an optometry
                  professor and voting member of the Animal Care and Use
Committee, which oversees all animal
                  experimentation on campus. "All research on this campus
abides strictly by federal law, USDA regulations
                  and Public Health Service regulations."

                  Any teaching or research that involves the use of animals
must be submitted in the form of a protocol, or
                  proposal, to the committee, he says. If the committee
finds that there is a possibility of pain or unintentional
                  death, the protocol is rejected.

                  After the protocol is approved, all the animal facilities
on campus are inspected periodically by
                  committee-hired veterinarians to ensure the humanity of
the conditions, Van Sluyters says.

                  Van Sluyters says he has seen the regulations up close in
his own lab. In accordance with
                  ACUC-enforced rules, he anesthetizes rat fetuses before
surgically removing one of their eyes. He is
                  studying the effect of losing an eye before neural
pathways develop.

                  "It's a big bureaucracy," Van Sluyters says. "I don't
think the average person realizes just how regulated it
                  is."

                  'I think it's good that they're trying to regulate animal
testing, but they can never make it humane," says
                  Walters.

                  Furthermore, Trenter says that there is a conflict of
interest within the ACUC that undermines its reliability.

                  "Most of the people who sit on the committee are the
researchers themselves -- usually the most notorious
                  offenders," he says. "Anyone who doesn' t agree with them
is often times railroaded into agreement."

                  His suspicions are confirmed, he says, by the secrecy of
the meetings which are closed to the public.

                  Van Sluyters explains that outside observers are barred
from meetings to prevent theft of original faculty
                  ideas, such as ideas for experiments or techniques of
research. Criticism and threats from people who
                  want to end the sorts of studies he does are unfair, he
says.

                  "I liken a lot of this to the Catholic Church locking up
Copernicus. What science does is find out how
                  things work, to aspire to total knowledge."

                  At a fundamental level, both scientists and critics
disagree on a philosophy of animal research.

                  "It's a question of priorities," says Freeman. "In my
belief, humans take precedence over animals."

                  But Walters says she thinks that ethically, researchers
are creating artificial distinctions.

                  "There doesn't seem to be a logical cutoff in the minds
of a lot of these researchers," says Walters. "Is it a
                  question of sentience? If you don't mind testing on
animals, would you be comfortable testing on human
                  vegetables or retarded people?"

                  Van Sluyters says he feels that after all the talk of
ethics, most people support a pragmatic approach
                  toward studies involving animals.

                  "Unfortunately for these splinter groups, they are still
in the vast minority," he says. "If you survey the
                  general public, people feel morally justified in using
animals in research."
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:29:03 -0800
From: Hillary 
To: "ar-news@envirolink.org" 
Subject: BLM Changes Position Due To AR Pressure!
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980319142900.00739b40@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Bureau of Land Management Changes Position on Spring
                   Wild Horse Roundups After Public Outcry 

                  ( Business Wire ) 


                  ( BW)(DORIS-DAY-ANIMAL-LEAGUE) Bureau of Land Management
Changes 
                  Position on Spring Wild Horse Roundups After Public Outcry

                  News Editors     
                  WASHINGTON, D.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1998--The
Doris Day 
                  Animal League applauded the decision Tuesday of the
Bureau of Land 
                  Management (BLM) to place a moratorium on the roundup of
wild horses 
                  in Wyoming until after the spring foaling season.  
                  The Doris Day Animal League (DDAL), The Fund for Animals
and the 
                  newly formed Wild Horses Freedom Alliance had strongly
protested the 
                  proposed roundup as exceedingly cruel, inhumane and
unnecessary.  
                  "This is another important step in what is turning out to
be a 
                  great year for the millions of Americans who lobby to
help animals," 
                  said Holly Hazard, executive director of the DDAL.  Last
week, the 
                  Doris Day Animal League received word from the White
House that 
                  "Buddy," President and Mrs. Clinton's dog, will be
neutered for 
                  health and humanitarian reasons.
                  That follows the fourth annual "Spay Day U.S.A." in late 
                  February, when close to 100,000 cats and dogs were spayed
and 
                  neutered as part of the national effort to solve the pet 
                  overpopulation crisis, which results in the deaths of
millions of 
                  pets in the United States each year because there are not
enough 
                  good homes.
                  Al Peirson of the Bureau of Land Management office in
Wyoming 
                  stated that the Bureau has decided to postpone all
roundups of 
                  horses in Wyoming until after June when the foaling
season is over.  
                  This is the first time the BLM has not conducted a spring
gather in 
                  recent history, according to Pierson's news statement.
                  The animal protection organizations had been concerned that 
                  mares would either be in foal at the time of roundup and
would be 
                  much more prone to abortions during the stressful gathering 
                  procedure or would have newborn foals who, because of
their unstable 
                  condition and tender hooves, could not keep up with their
mothers during 
                  a roundup and would be lost or killed during this BLM
activity.
                  In late February, Hazard stated in testimony before the
Bureau 
                  of Land Management at a hearing in Rock Springs, Wyo.,
that "The 
                  decision for the roundup of the horses in the spring was
the most 
                  invasive and expensive option for horse removal, and the
March 1, 
                  start date is inhumane and contravenes the agency's own
statement 
                  that roundups will not occur during the foaling season."
                  Hazard added that the Bureau's change in position was a 
                  refreshing decision on the part of government leaders who 
                  listened to the argument set forth by concerned citizens
and had the 
                  courage to take the responsible action.  
                  The League is delighted that the wild mares of Wyoming
will have 
                  an opportunity during the spring foaling season to give
birth and 
                  care for their young without the intrusion of the federal 
                  government's roundup program.  
                  The Bureau of Land Management has come under increasing 
                  criticism from animal rights organizations for continuing
to round 
                  up wild horses and burros while it has more than 5,000
horses 
                  languishing, unadopted, in federal corrals.  This
inventory costs 
                  the taxpayers an estimated $50,000 per week.
                  The Doris Day Animal League is a nonprofit organization
based in 
                  Washington, D.C.  Founded in 1987, the DDAL has more than
370,000 
                  members and supporters throughout the United States.
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:30:35 -0800
From: Hillary 
To: "ar-news@envirolink.org" 
Subject: Mich State Univ ALF attack
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980319143032.00739b40@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

visit publisher 
                                Vandals break into MSU buildings 


                  (State News) (U-WIRE) EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Vandals
broke into several Natural Science
                  Building offices during spring break, destroying numerous
computers, door windows and office equipment,
                  police said.

                  Offices used by the departments of entomology, geography,
geological sciences and zoology were broken
                  into between 8 a.m. March 8 and 7:15 a.m. March 9, MSU
police Sgt. Dan Beachnau said.

                  Police have no suspects in custody, but believe the crime
was revenge- motivated, Beachnau said. He
                  declined to say more about the nature of the motive.

                  "Things were damaged rather than stolen," he said.
"Typically, if someone breaks into an office, one of the
                  first things that are stolen are computers."

                  The vandals entered the building through an open
first-floor window, Beachnau said. Once inside, they
                  used an object to break door windows to the department's
offices, he said.

                  About seven computers and monitors were damaged or
destroyed when the vandals poured liquids into
                  them and threw the equipment onto the floor, Beachnau
said. A copy machine had glue poured onto it.
                  Two camera lenses also were broken.

                  The vandals also removed keys from three typewriters and
stole two walkie-talkies and two computer
                  printers, Beachnau said.

                  Damages have not yet been determined, but the stolen
property was valued at $1,400, he said. If found,
                  those responsible face felony charges of breaking and
entering and destroying more than $100 worth of
                  property.

                  The breaking and entering charge is punishable by up to
10 years in prison and the property destruction
                  charge is punishable by up to four years in prison.

                  Beachnau said MSU police don't regularly check buildings
for security problems during breaks. He said
                  it's unusual to see such "considerable damage."

                  "This particular incident was fairly rare," he said. "As
far as the damage, it's not rare to have one computer
                  stolen from an office. (But) the number of locations that
were broken into and the type of activity in the
                  offices (was rare)."

                  Ed Grafius, Department of Entomology chairperson, said he
can't think of why someone would want to
                  take revenge against anyone in his department.

                  In February 1992, members of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals set an MSU professor's
                  office on fire and damaged a laboratory for minks because
the group was upset with alleged experiments
                  being performed on the animals.

                  But Grafius said he doubts animal rights activists are
responsible.

                  "Most people aren't real unhappy if insects are killed or
injured, " Grafius said. "They're obviously
                  animals, but not of a concern to animal rights activists."

                  Grafius said his department, which suffered the worst
damage, is putting up security screens in door
                  windows to keep out any future vandals.

                  "If somebody really wants to get in they could probably
do it, but the screens will make it a lot more
                  difficult," he said.

                  Thomas Vogel, Department of Geological Sciences
chairperson, said his department's offices received
                  relatively light damage. He said the vandals broke a
computer monitor with a hammer and door windows
                  to the office.

                  "I don't think it was anybody getting even," he said. "If
it's a revenge- type motive, I don't know what the
                  four departments have in common." 

                  Thomas Burton, Department of Zoology chairperson, also
said he can' t explain why anyone would want
                  to take revenge on his department. He said one department
office was broken into and a computer
                  keyboard had liquid poured into it.

                  "It does seem like it would be revenge, but I don't know
of any case that would cause a (person) to do
                  that," he said. "It's hard for me to understand why
someone would do this -- it's just destroying property.
                  You could understand someone stealing property ... at
least there' s a motive."
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:32:14 -0800
From: Hillary 
To: "ar-news@envirolink.org" 
Subject: UK-Drop the Humbug about hunting
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980319143211.00739b40@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

                  
                   Leading Article: Drop the humbug about hunting 

                  ( Independent ) 

                  "DADDY, do most people think fox-hunting should be
banned?" Yes, dear, according to a Gallup poll
                  this month two-thirds of grown-ups in Britain think it
should be. "And do most Members of Parliament
                  think hunting should be banned?" Yes, dear, lastNovember
they voted by 411 to 151 to ban it. "Oh,
                  good, so it is against the law now, then." Well, not
exactly; you see, there are some even more important
                  people, called the Cabinet... "And they don't think
hunting should be banned?" Er, it's a bitmore
                  complicated than that: 18 of them say it should be banned
and two say it shouldn't. "Oh, don't they say
                  what they mean, then?" Not all the time.

                  "Daddy, is Tony Blair in the Cabinet?" Yes, he is the
most important one. "And what does he think?"
                  Well, a girl of about your age wrote a letter to ask him,
and he wrote back saying, "I do think hunting is
                  wrong and I will vote in favour of a ban inthe House of
Commons." "But that doesn't mean what I think it
                  means, does it?" No, I'm afraid not, dear.

                  Let us translate the Prime Minister's words into plain
English for his 11-year-old correspondent,
                  Roseanne Mills: "I do think hunting is wrong, but not so
wrong that I want to pass a law against it, and I
                  will vote in favour of a ban in the House ofCommons, so
long as it is a purely symbolic gesture." Thus
                  amplified, Mr Blair's position suddenly becomes a
perfectly reasonable one. So what is going on here? At
                  one level, he is making a cold political analysis about
the sorts of issues which cansway floating voters in
                  all the rural and semi- rural seats which Labour won for
the first time last May.

                  One reason for the double-talk is that he does not want
to admit that he and the Cabinet care more about
                  the strong views of Barbour-jacketed Middle England than
the weak views of the majority, with the
                  rights of foxes coming a rather distant third.

                  Another reason why the Prime Minister is reluctant to
level with Ms Mills and the rest of us is that he does
                  not want to undermine the charade of representative
democracy which assumes that we send our MPs to
                  Westminster to exercise their judgement onour behalf. The
issue of fox-hunting has been presented as a
                  "free vote", a matter of tender consciences and open
government, but the truth is that a free vote of the
                  legislature stands only by permission of the executive.
This is a tricky one for aLabour Party which
                  inveighed against the dictatorship of the executive over
the legislature in the Thatcher era, when all manner
                  of measures were railroaded through that would not have
been supported in, say, a secret ballot.

                  It turns out, then, that all the fine talk about free
votes is cover for hard-nosed calculation of party political
                  advantage. But where Mr Blair has lost the plot is in
thinking that the voters would object if he spelt out
                  what is really going on. TheGovernment's position has now
become so double-dealing and demeaning
                  that it is doing more damage than if the Prime Minister
simply told the animal rights movement he
                  disagreed with them. Having raised expectations among the
pro-fox legions andthoroughly confused his
                  own backbenchers, the Home Secretary this week declared:
"I do not see a role for Government. We do
                  not have a mandate for it." These are, to stay with the
world of wild mammals for a moment, weasel
                  words.

                  Jack Straw is pedantically right: the Labour Party has no
formal mandate in the sense that its manifesto
                  promised only a free vote. But that just takes us back to
the previous layer of double-talk. How much
                  more of a mandate does the Government reallyneed than
public opinion, a vote of the Commons and the
                  publicly-expressed personal views of its own members?

                  Because the Government has not been straight with people,
yesterday' s fizzling-out of Michael Foster's
                  Bill is not and cannot be the end of the matter. The
pro-hunters still feel threatened, and the pro- fox
                  lobby still have their righteous tails up.

                  It is time for Mr Blair to make some tough choices, say
what he means and mean what he says, and trade
                  some short-term popularity for long- term credibility. He
should say that he does not like fox-hunting. It is
                  objectionable that people should takepleasure from the
tearing apart of one animal by another, and some
                  of the subsidiary practices such as the "blooding" of
children are little short of barbaric.

                  But he - or whoever drafted that letter to Ms Mills -
should avoid describing fox-hunting as "wrong": as
                  one with a strong ethical basis to his politics, such
language gets him into difficult territory. Why will he
                  vote (albeit ineffectively) to outlawhunting? If adultery
is wrong, should it be legislated against? If abortion
                  is wrong, should it be illegal? On the next countryside
march, expect to see placards proclaiming "A
                  huntsman's right to choose". And if hunting is "wrong" ,
how much more orless wrong is the greater daily
                  brutality of abattoirs and intensive farming?

                  The important point is that it should be possible to
disapprove of things without trying to have them
                  banned. If our first response to things we do not like is
to seek to ban them, we will soon find ourselves
                  living in an illiberal society, and we willhave failed to
reach a mature understanding of representative
                  democracy.

                  So the House of Commons came to the right conclusion
yesterday, by in effect declining to criminalise
                  one particular method of the necessary culling of foxes.
But it would have been better if the Government
                  had been prepared to talk about the need tobalance
conflicting priorities and to protect minority views in
                  a democracy.

                  Instead of hiding behind pious sentiments, while
justifying their contrary actions to themselves as cold
                  political necessity, it would help if politicians were
prepared to give us the real reasons why Mr Foster's
                  Bill died yesterday. They should not beafraid to make the
argument in public about the need to balance
                  conflicting imperatives and to protect minority views
from the tyranny of democracy. Even an 11-year-old
                  could understand it.




                  ©1998 Newspaper Publishing P.L.C.

                  Leading Article: Drop the humbug about hunting.,
Independent, 03-14-1998, pp 18. 
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:33:26 -0800
From: Hillary 
To: "ar-news@envirolink.org" 
Subject: US-Florida considers banning Mule Diving
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980319143324.00739b40@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

                                    Florida considers ban on mule diving 


                  TALLAHASSEE, Fla.(Reuters) - Florida lawmakers took a
step Thursday to outlaw mule diving, an
                  equine tourist attraction condemned by critics as
barbaric in which donkeys and mules jump off platforms
                  into pools of water. 
                  By a 7-1 margin, members of the House Agriculture
Committee voted to outlaw mule diving after
                  testimony from two animal rights advocates who called the
attraction cruel. 
                  The law was aimed at Tim and Patty Rivers, a central
Florida couple who operate what they bill as the
                  country's only traveling stable of high diving horses and
mules. 
                  The bill, sponsored by Rep. Suzanne Jacobs, a Delray
Beach Democrat, is intended to close a loophole in
                  Florida's animal cruelty law that prevented Manatee
County officials from banning the attraction in 1995. 
                  Tim and Patty Rivers' World's Only High Diving Mules, a
traveling attraction started by Tim's father more
                  than 40 years ago, would be put to pasture under the
bill, which would make it illegal to conduct
                  exhibitions involving riderless mules, donkeys or horses
that fall 10 feet or more. 
                  A state attorney general's ruling agreed that the present
law does not allow the state to stop the show. 
                  "I'm a breeder and if there was any conscionable use of
this activity I'd be here on the other side of this,"
                  said Greg Sefton, past president of the North American
Saddle Mule Association. "Because it is so
                  devastating to these animals, we owe it to them to help." 
                  The Rivers could not be reached for comment following the
vote, but have said previously that the
                  animals are not harmed and no undue force is used to get
them to jump. 
                  During a typical performance, critics say, horses and
mules ascend a ramp to a diving board-like structure.
                  After a number of hesitant starts, the animals will
plunge into a pool of water six feet deep. 
                  During a show, the animals exhibit common signs of stress
including hesitation and swishing of their tails,
                  and after completing the jump, the animals appear dazed
and disoriented, said Taksel, who has watched
                  the performances several times. 
                  Committee members approved the measure after amendments
were added to ensure that steeplechase
                  and other equestrian events would not be affected by the
proposed bill. A companion Senate bill has yet
                  to be heard in committee. 

                  REUTER
                  S@ 


                  Copyright 1998 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The
above news report may not be republished or
                  redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior
written consent of Reuters Ltd.

                  Michael Peltier, Florida considers ban on mule diving.,
Reuters, 03-12-1998. 

   Back to Top 
                  

                                                                         


Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 13:41:58 -0600 (CST)
From: hsuswild@ix.netcom.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: URGENT!! Trappers seek import/export inspection fee exemption
Message-ID: <1998319143817541@ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

- ACTION ALERT - 
Commercial Fur Importers and Exporters  
Requesting Exemption from Inspection Fees!

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is prepared to exempt certain fur impoerters and 
exporters from having to pay the $55.00 inspection fee required for 
wildlife shipments imported and exported from the United States 
(announced in 63 FR, 3298).   This exemption would apply to all 
shipments imported or exported between the United States and Canada 
or Mexico, which do not exceed 100 raw furs, raw, salted or crusted, 
hides or skins of species for which a permit is not required under the 
U.S. Endangered Species Act, CITES, U.S. Marine Mammal Protection 
Act or U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  Please submit a letter to the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service opposing this proposal for the following 
 reasons: 

     Fur exporters and importers should not be "singled out" from other wildlife 
 trading industries for an exemption from inspection fees.  Trapping interests are 
 moving agressively to boost their already small profits, jeopardizing the nation's only 
program to stem the smuggling of wildlife across U.S. borders.


     Granting small businesses exemptions from paying this fee would contribute to 
a decline in already limited funds for wildlife law enforcement activities.  The 
Division of Law Enforcement's  (DLE) Wildlife Inspection Program is largely funded 
through fees collected from the inspection of wildlife imports and exports.  This 
program, and the DLE in general, is already underfunded and understaffed and thus, 
notably ill-equipped to handle current levels of wildlife imports at the thirteen designated 
U.S. ports of entry.  Despite the best intentions, Wildlife Inspectors are capable of 
physically inspecting on average only 23 percent of wildlife shipments presented for 
import or export.  


     The proposed licensing and fee scheme would be exceedingly difficult to 
implement and enforce.  The proposed exemptions are intended to apply only to 
certain individuals or small businesses.  The Service would distinguish these 
businesses from commercial wildlife dealers by classifying all shipments not exceeding 
100 raw furs, raw, salted or crusted, hides or skins, or separate parts thereof as 
subject to the exemption.  However, large-scale commercial wildlife dealers could 
simply package shipments of furs, skins or hides in quantities less than 100 in order to 
avoid having to pay the inspection fee.  


     If this exemption is granted, it is logical to assume that other small businesses 
which import or export wildlife would request similar exemptions--further 
eroding the funding base for the Wildlife Inspection Program.  Consistent and 
thorough inspection of wildlife shipments entering and leaving the United States is 
essential to reducing problems inherent in the international commercial trade in wildlife, 
such as illegal trade, depletion of wild populations, inhumane treatment, and risks of 
disease.  Adequate funding is essential to a strong Wildlife Inspection Program. 


Please submit a brief letter to the Service opposing the 
proposed exemption by March 23, 1998.  Letters should be sent 
to:

Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 3247
Arlington, VA  22203-3247 
Fax:  703/358-2271














Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:51:10 -0800 (PST)
From: In Defense of Animals 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Gobal Day Against P&G
Message-ID: <199803191951.LAA27757@proxy3.ba.best.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS
131 Camino Alto, Suite E
Mill Valley, CA
415/388-9641
ida@idausa.org

   For Immediate Release:Contact: 
    March 17, 1998lauren Sullivan (415) 388-9641, ext. 29

International Protests Against Procter & Gamble Set for March 28
"Global Day of Action" to take place in more than a dozen 
countries worldwide

Mill Valley, CA . . .  Animal tests conducted by consumer products giant
Procter & Gamble (P&G), makers of Tide, Crest, Pantene, and scores of other
name brand items, will be the focus of international protests on March
28,1998.  During this Global Day of Action Against P&G, activists from 90
cities in 13 countries will demonstrate against P&G's policy of testing
cosmetics and household products on animals even though such tests are not
required by law.

"Growing numbers of consumers worldwide are demanding non-animal tested
products," said lauren Sullivan, International Campaign Director for In
Defense of Animals (IDA), the organization spearheading the event.  "It is
our hope that P&G will listen to the international outrage against its
cruel and unnecessary animal testing policy." 

The Global Day of Action Against P&G was launched in 1997 as a joint
project of In Defense of Animals and Uncaged, a British animal rights
organization.  This year, organizations in Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Canada, England, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand,
Scotland, the United States and Wales will participate in the event.  Some
of the many events in the U.S. will take place in Anaheim, Denver, Tampa,
Atlanta, Bethesda, Biloxi, Albuquerque, New York, Cincinnati, Portland,
Pittsburgh, Dallas and Green Bay.  

P&G needlessly continues to use rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, hamsters,
rats and mice in tests of consumer and household products.  The tests
involve pouring caustic chemicals into the eyes of animals and applying
them to their shaved, raw skin.  Animal product testing is not required by
law, and alternative safety tests are available.  More than 550 other
companies, including many P&G competitors, manufacture safe and effective
products without animal testing.

In Defense of Animals (IDA) is a national non-profit organization based out
of Mill Valley, CA.  IDA launched its campaign against P&G's unnecessary
use of animals for consumer and household testing in 1989 and organized
over 120 demonstrations against P&G in 1997.

-end-

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:32:51 -0800 (PST)
From: civillib@cwnet.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: ACTIVISTS WIN AT UC DAVIS (USA)
Message-ID: <199803192032.MAA05411@smtp.cwnet.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19, 1998




ACTIVISTS SCORE MAJOR WIN
IN UCD ANIMAL RIGHTS CASE

     WOODLAND, CA – Animal rights activists have recorded their second major
victory in as many weeks on the eve of a series of costly and time-consuming
trials for 29 activists arrested during a demonstration at the University of
California, Davis in April, 1997.

     Yolo County Court Judge Thomas Warriner – who crafted much of the deal over
the objections of the Yolo County District Attorney's Office and University
of California, Davis – accepted pleas from 12 defendants and made the same
offer to 17 others late Wednesday that involved no mandatory jail time, no
probation and no fines.

     As part of the bargain, activists admitted no guilt – by submitting no
contest pleas to trespassing and related misdemeanor charges – and agreeing
to do community service with some of the very groups that helped sponsor
last year's protest at UC Davis.

     In return the judge refused often heated demands by the District Attorney
to place defendants on 1-3 years probation, dismissed all felony conspiracy
charges, and as many as five other serious misdemeanor charges. Some
activists faced up to 7 years in jail and thousands of dollars in fines if
convicted of the charges leveled against them..

     Activists accepted 15 days of community service, and the judge suspended 15
additional days of jail if activists don't return to the campus in a year or
2 years, depending on the defendant.

     "Our primary concern was that our civil rights would be abused, as they
were when UC Davis police hit defenseless activists last year. But, the
judge, by proposing this bargain – similar to one we suggested months ago
but rejected by the District Attorney – resolved that concern," said
Crescenzo Vellucci, director of a civil liberties group and a defendant.

     "The prosecutor – who has worked with UC Davis to deny free speech at the
campus – is without a single victory. The first five charges were thrown out
by the judge last week, and this week we received a fair plea bargain
without admitting guilt. We have five wins, no defeats and, for now, 29
ties," said Vellucci, adding that some activists may yet decide to go to
trial at a hearing set for April 14.

     He said that the 12 activists Wednesday accepted the bargain – even though
many wanted to go to trial – because the estimated $100,000 cost of four
scheduled jury trials would be borne by taxpayers "who have no say in how
the District Attorney wastes tax dollars." The 12 activists believe they now
can put something back into the community.
-30-
Contact: For more information, contact Cres Vellucci (916) 452-7179

________________________
Legal Aide Offices Of
Activist Civil Liberties Committee
PO Box 19515   Sacramento, CA 95819   Telephone: (916) 452-7179   Fax: (916)
454-6150 

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 98 14:05:18 -0000
From: "Eric Mindel @ LCA" 
To: "ar-news" 
Subject: Chihuahuas say, "NO quiero" in Los Angeles
Message-ID: <199803192045.PAA16140@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

For Release
March 19, 1998

Contact: Karri Holley
Director of Campaigns
(310) 271-6096 x26

CHIHUAHUA DOGS GATHER IN L.A. TO
OBSERVE THE GREAT AMERICAN MEAT-OUT

"NOT ALL OF US LIKE FAST FOOD MEAT,"
DECLARES SPOKESDOG (THROUGH TRANSLATOR)

Los Angeles-- Commemorating the fourteenth annual Great American Meat-Out,
dozens of chihuahua dogs will gather on March 21, Saturday, in front of several
fast food restaurants to encourage people to consider the benefits of
vegetarian lifestyles.  Sponsored in Los Angeles by the national
organization, Last Chance For Animals (LCA), the chihuahuas event is just
one of hundreds planned across the U.S. for the annual day to promote
vegetarianism, healthy lifestyles, and awareness about the cruel conditions
in which 'food animals’' are raised and slaughtered.
     The event will be held Saturday, March 21, from 11am to 1pm (press
encouraged to arrive at 11am), centering at the Taco Bell restaurant on
2718 South Figueroa Street near USC.  Nearby fast food restaurants will be
included in the activity.
     Chihuahuas, widely depicted in past months' advertising as willing to
go to extreme lengths for the taste of a taco, are speaking out on behalf
of the nine million animals slaughtered annually in the United States for
food consumption. In addition, they will be encouraging the public to
explore and examine vegetarian diets, which have been recognized such
groups as the FDA and the American Medical Association as a significant
step toward a healthy lifestyle.
     Says Geezer, a Chihuahua-mix who agreed to be filmed in a
LCA-sponsored video clip to mark the Great American Meat-Out, "There is
little difference between the dogs people love and the cows they eat.  It's
time for people to realize the benefits of vegetarianism for their bodies,
the animals, and our planet." (as interpreted by translator)
     The 1998 Great American Meat-Out is dedicated to talk show host Oprah
Winfrey for her outstanding courage in protecting the health interests of
her viewing public in the face of the meat industry's relentless pressure
to cover up the facts.
     The Great American Meat-Out draws massive support from consumer,
environmental, and animal protection groups as well as from public
officials and the media.
     The growth of Meat-Out has reflected major US dietary trends. Over
thirty million Americans have explored a meatless diet this year. Teens are
kicking the meat habit at a record rate, and health officials are
recognizing the broad benefits of a sound vegetarian diet.
     Geezer, along with his Chihuahua friends, will be joined by their
human companions as they demonstrate the vitality and variety of a
vegetarian diet and the inhumane nature of factory farming.
 
    LCA also reminds press and public about the suffering eventually
caused by "impulse adoptions" of dogs that are popular in media.  Dog
adoptions should be viewed as a life commitment to avoid contributing to
pet overpopulation, overcrowded shelters, and irresponsible breeding.

For more information and graphics, go to http://www.LCAnimal.org/press.htm

#   #   #

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 18:46:30 EST
From: p.a.wood@juno.com (Pinckney Alonzo Wood)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org, chickadee-l@envirolink.org
Subject: Felony cruelty
Message-ID: <19980319.174513.7679.5.p.a.wood@juno.com>

The following article appeared in the Times-Picayune, Wednesday, March
18, 1998, New Orleans, Louisiana

Boyfriend guilty of killing dog

by Joe Darby, West Bank bureau

A man who tried to strangle his girlfriend's dog and then kicked it to
death was convicted Tuesday of aggravated cruelty to an animal.

No one saw Muneer "Monty" Elazab kill the dog, but prosecutors Cameron
Mary and Hans Sinha told jurors that no other person could have caused
the injuries to 5-year-old Jo-Jo, a 22-pound mixed terrier.

Judge Melvin Zeno will sentence Elazab, 41, on April 22. He faces one to
10 years in prison.

The dog's owner, Terry Buck of Jefferson, testified that she and Elazab
had been at a nightclub the evening of July 31 and Elazab became angry
when she talked to a male friend.

Elazab spent the night at her house and the next morning, when she went
to work, Jo-Jo and another dog, Gabby, were fine she testified. Elazab
was still at her home when she left, she said.

She testified that she came home for lunch to find her dog dead, blood in
the bathroom and wet towels in her washing machine.

Dr. Martin St. Germain, a veterinarian, told jurors that Jo-Jo was
covered with bruises and had strangulation marks on his neck. The dog's
liver was severely damaged, possibly from a kick, and that he had
bleeding in his lungs, a condition that would have caused him to lose a
lot of blood through his mouth and nose.

Buck said Jo-Jo's body was wet, as if he had been cleaned off.

Defense attorney Frank DeSalvo said the dog could have gotten out and
been hit by a car, then returned home, or an intruder could have gotten
into the back yard and kicked the animal after  Elazab left.

St. Germain said Jo-Jo's condition was not consistent with being hit by a
car. And prosecutor Mary said an intruder would not have taken time to
clean up.

DeSalvo said no one but Buck saw the blood or wet towels, arguing that
Buck wanted to be Elazab's prosecutor, judge and jury.

Several defense witnesses testified to Elazab's good character. Sinha
told jurors that friends and relatives don't want to believe someone dear
to them could kill a dog, but that kind of crime usually happens behind
closed doors, without friends knowing about it.
__________________________________________________________________

Note: The Louisiana aggravated cruelty law used to prosecute this case
was established in 1995. I generated the original draft. It was passed
primarily through the efforts of Hilton Cole, director, East Baton Rouge
Parish Animal Control, Holly Reynolds, founder, Coalition of Louisiana
Animal Advocates, Louisiana State Representative Garey Forster, and me.
The penalty for the malicious killing, torture, maiming or mutilating of
an animal is imprisonment for one to ten years with or without hard labor
and/or a fine of $1,000 to $25,000. (The "with or without hard labor"
phrase indicates a felony crime in Louisiana.) The House Committee on the
Administration of Criminal Justice immediately reported the bill
favorably without discussion after giving the proponents the courtesy of
presenting it. Ironically, the chairman of the House committee, Raymond
"La La" Lalonde, who moved to report the bill favorably, is a man who on
the one hand says he loves animals, and deplored in a newspaper article
the malicious mutilation and killing of birds, but on the other hand, is
a principal and long-time proponent of cockfighting, a particularly
brutal and cruel institutionalized abuse of animals. (Incidentally, in
Louisiana, fowl are specifically designated as not being animals in a law
where animals are not otherwise defined. This was done to insulate
cockfighters from the law, but it also has prevented other cases of
aggravated cruelty upon birds from being prosecuted.)

An important factor in getting this legislation passed was coverage in
the Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper of an incident where a dog was killed
in a particularly heinous way. It was hanged and had a hot or caustic
substance poured on it. Activists should note that news of such horrible
abuse of animals can be a catalyst to felony cruelty legislation, as is
now the case in Kansas in reaction to the torture of poor little Scruffy.
When we are working to get tougher anti-cruelty laws, we need to inform
legislators of such incidents, and use the argument that perpetrators of
these crimes can be generally violent individuals who may also commit
violent crimes upon people. In many cases, they do  "graduate" to human
victims after having a history of animal abuse.

Pinckney Wood
Coordinator, New Orleans Animal Humane Group (NOAH)
President, Coalition of Louisiana Animal Advocates (COLAA)

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 18:39:51 -0500
From: molgoveggie@juno.com (Molly G Hamilton)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Lethal Medicine
Message-ID: <19980319.183953.3230.1.molgoveggie@juno.com>


Today my local station aired "Lethal Medicine" on my local cable station
here in Middletown, N.Y.  

I recieved a phone call from the producer tonight, Javier Burgos.  He
wanted to thank me for getting Lethal Medicine aired and to say that they
had an over whelming response with tons of phone calls!!!!!!  This was
during the day at 12:00 noon eastern time.

I will call the station tomorrow to see if they will air it one more time
in the evening since there was such a good response from the daytime.

All of you on this list can have it aired at your local television
station to.  It is so easy, you just call up the station and ask to speak
to the person in charge of public access department.

By law, cable companies are required to air--freee of charge--programs
submitted by local residents of the community they serve.  And being
Public Access, legally they cannot refuse to air a program because of its
content (exceptions are gambling, pornography, etc., but none of the
exceptions apply to Lethal Medicine).  in other words, so long as a local
resident requests that it be aired, the public access channe MUST air it.

The  station will send you papers to fill out.  You will contact the
producer by fax and fax the papers to him to sign and he will fax it
back.  His fax number is: (818) 790-9660

You will need to contact him personally so that he can send you the video
tape with the 800 number on it for public viewing.  Contact: Javier
Burgos at 818-790-3307.

You can E mail Javier also at supress@earthlink.net
Websight Address:  www.globaldirectory.com?natureofwellness/

Love, Peace & Liberation,
Molly


_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:37:12 -0500
From: "sharon cahr" 
To: 
Cc: 
Subject: meatout article in newspaper
Message-ID: <19980320003854.AAA19756@default>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hi, I'm pretty new to the list.  When I saw the posting of Richard
Schwartz's meatout article I immediately printed it, made very few changes
and sent it in to my local newspaper that reaches all of Westchester County
and Rockland (the Gannett newspapers).  I was hoping they would print it in
a section called "My View" so I wouldn't have to leave anything out.  I
asked them to please print it before March 20th and they actually printed
it today (3/19).  I want to thank C. Patterson for posting it and Richard
Schwartz for writing it.  We (my Animal Rights group) alrea

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:59:32 -0500
From: "sharon cahr" 
To: 
Cc: 
Subject: meatout article in newspaper continued
Message-ID: <19980320005925.AAA9163@default>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hi again, my posting got cut off so I'm sending it again.  I 'm pretty new
to the list.  When I saw the posting of Richard Schwartz's meatout article
I immediately printed it , made very few changes and sent it in to my local
newspsper that reaches all of Westchester County and Rockland (the Gannett
newspapers.)  I was hoping they would print it in a sction called "My View"
so I wouldn't have to leave anything out.  I asked them to please print it
before March 20th and they printed it today (3.19).  I want to thank C.
Patterson for posting it and Richard Schwartz for writing it.  We (my
Animal Rights group) already received calls from people who are interested
in finding out more about a veggie diet.  Once again--Thank you.  This is
the best way to reach people.
     For the Animals-Sharon



Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 00:58:34 -0000
From: "nhadine" 
To: 
Subject: Nadas? was Re: Felony cruelty
Message-ID: <01bd539b$4f3bd740$LocalHost@oemcomputer>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
     charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit




>The following article appeared in the Times-Picayune, Wednesday, March
>18, 1998, New Orleans, Louisiana
>
>Boyfriend guilty of killing dog
>


On a similar topic.....does anyone know what happened to Nadas.....the
innocent dog on death row?

apologies if your not familiar with the case. I just wandered what the
outcome was.


nhadine (new to list....intro later)

Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 09:35:35 +0800
From: bunny 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Nadas/Scruffy/Abused animal resources
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19980320092722.12b79d6a@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Nadas now resides at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah

To read Nadas Story 
(A dog condemned to die after an unproven claim that he
chased a horse)

Visit the Ark On-line (This website has Scruffy's story and some others)

http://www.arkonline.com

For More of the detailed story of Nadas (including pictures) see

The Eternal Pet archive at:

http://www.ridgeview.org/~vcr1187/pet/nadas20.htm

The Eternal Pet Home Page is:

http://www.ridgeview.org/~vcr1187/pet/content.htm
=====================================================================
========
                   /`\   /`\    The Balance:
Tom, Tom,         (/\ \-/ /\)   NATURE's balance is so fine-
The piper's son,     )6 6(      Take care when altering her design!
Saved a pig        >{= Y =}<    A species introduced could grow
And away he run;    /'-^-'\     To be a source of endless woe;
So none could eat  (_)   (_)    While culling another could unfold
The pig so sweet    |  .  |     A horde of pests it once controlled.
Together they ran   |     |}    from "The Judgement of the Animals"
Down the street.    \_/^\_/     by Willow Macky (published by the RNZSPCA)
***************************************************************************    
Rabbit Information Service      http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
P.O. Box 30,                    email rabbit@wantree.com.au
Riverton,                       Was Jesus a vegetarian? Vegan and AR info;
Western Australia 6148          http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4620

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

Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 09:37:31 +0800
From: bunny 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (NZ)Virus Importers Clam Up
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19980320092918.12b7f0fa@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dominion 20/3/98

New Zealand

Virus Importers Clam Up

People involved in the initial import and spread
of the rabbit-killing calicivirus disease have closed 
ranks and are keeping their mouths shut, the
Agricultural Ministry said.
The man leading the investigation, the ministry's
enforcement unit national manager, Jockey jemsen,
said this was possibly because they wanted to use
the same networks for another illegal importation.
the virus was smuggled into New Zealand last year and
was spread at first on Central Otago farms.
Though spreading the virus is now legal, the ministry could
prosecute those who initially smuggled and spread it.
Mr Jensen said the investigation was still open, but not a
lot of information had come to hand this year.
"I guess everyone in the fraternity down there [in central
Otago] have closed up shop on us and are reluctant to
bother talking to us.
One of the reasons, I suspect, is because we got reasonably
close and they were reluctant to expose their setup or syndicate
in case they want to use it again".



=====================================================================
========
                   /`\   /`\    The Balance:
Tom, Tom,         (/\ \-/ /\)   NATURE's balance is so fine-
The piper's son,     )6 6(      Take care when altering her design!
Saved a pig        >{= Y =}<    A species introduced could grow
And away he run;    /'-^-'\     To be a source of endless woe;
So none could eat  (_)   (_)    While culling another could unfold
The pig so sweet    |  .  |     A horde of pests it once controlled.
Together they ran   |     |}    from "The Judgement of the Animals"
Down the street.    \_/^\_/     by Willow Macky (published by the RNZSPCA)
***************************************************************************    
Rabbit Information Service      http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
P.O. Box 30,                    email rabbit@wantree.com.au
Riverton,                       Was Jesus a vegetarian? Vegan and AR info;
Western Australia 6148          http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4620

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

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 20:58:12 -0800
From: FARM 
To: AR-News 
Subject: National MEATOUT Events
Message-ID: <3511F764.36E8@farmusa.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Here are some of the major Meatout events taking place around the US. A
geographic listing was just posted on our website
<>.
                     -------------------------------
NEARLY 2000 EVENTS MARK 14th OBSERVANCE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN
MEATOUT
   The advent of Spring this Friday marks the 14th annual observance of
the Great American Meatout, the world’s largest and most colorful
grassroots diet education campaign.  Consumer, environment, and animal
protection advocates in nearly 2,000 communities in all 50 states and
several Canadian provinces are arranging a wide variety of educational
events. They are asking their friends, neighbors, students, and
coworkers to “kick the meat habit, at least for a day, and explore a
more wholesome, less violent diet of grains, vegetables, legumes, and
fruits.” 
   Most participants are doing the traditional ‘steakouts,’ or
information tables, including a week-long effort in New York’s famed
Grand Central Station.  Some are arranging ‘lifestivals’ that feature
speakers, music, food samples, displays, and videos.  A ski resort in
western Massachusetts is holding a ‘Snowfest for the Animals’ with a
live band and food samples. University of Florida students are putting
on a parade featuring floats and free veggie burgers.
   Many events revolve around food, with manufacturers and restaurants
donating product samples. The nation’s capital is hosting a
Congressional Reception for 300 Members of Congress and staffers.
Several other communities are treating their public officials to a
meatless lunch. A number of health food stores are displaying Meatout
literature and offering food samples. 
   A former homeless person is serving a vegetarian lunch to Chicago’s
homeless folks, high-lighting the role of meat production in promoting
world hunger.  Similar events are planned in Alexandria (VA), Durham
(NC), Rockville (CT), and Springfield (MA).
   Meatout has definitely arrived at the work place.  Seattle’s
Microsoft and a New York City company are serving vegetarian lunch to
their employees. Hospitals in California and Florida are providing
meatless meals. One hundred members of the American Dietetic
Association’s Vegetarian Practice Group are offering free consultations.
Dozens of individuals are treating coworkers to lunch and Meatout
literature.
   Some groups are opting for more dramatic expressions.  PETA activists
in animal costumes are giving away free veggie burgers in front of a
Norfolk (VA) McDonald’s.  Similar demonstrations are planned in the
nation’s capital and at meat markets in Boston and Kalamazoo.
   A major innovation in this year’s observance is the introduction of
Meatout school materials for grades K-12 in 1,000 classrooms around the
country. Other scholarly events include lectures at a dozen
universities, and an east coast lecture tour by fourth generation cattle
rancher and ‘Veggie Libel’ trial codefendant Howard Lyman. The Borders
and Barnes & Noble bookstore chains are scheduling presentations by
vegetarian authors and displays of their books.
   Hundreds of buses in Washington, San Diego, Dallas, and San Francisco
are carrying the Meatout message to commuters. National media are
sending out advisories and interviewing Meatout leaders, and local media
will be covering community events. Special proclamations are expected
from a dozen governors and mayors. 
   The purpose of the Great American Meatout is to inform American
consumers about the health, environmental, economic, and ethical
benefits of meatless eating.  Most supporters are moved by their concern
for planetary survival.  Some simply feel that consumers deserve an
alternative to the relentless barrage of meat industry propaganda. This
year’s National Council is led by entertainers Casey Kasem, Rue
McClanahan, James Cromwell, and Cassandra ‘Elvira’ Peterson; by consumer
advocates Michael Jacobson, Frances Moore Lappe, John McDougall, and
Jeremy Rifkin; and by sport figures Tony LaRussa and Marv Levy.
   The timing of this year’s observance could not have been more
propitious. A recent survey found that 75 percent of American consumers
would eat more vegetarian meals if they were widely available, and kids
are flocking to meatless eating.  Supermarkets and fast food chains are
scrambling to meet the demand, and manufacturers are marketing foods
with kid appeal from veggie hot-dogs, burgers, and burritos to
dairy-free ice cream. Oprah Winfrey’s victory in the infamous ‘veggie
libel’ trial frees consumer protection organizations to tell the truth
about the health hazards of consuming animal fat and meat without fear
of costly retribution.
   The Great American Meatout is coordinated nationally by FARM (Farm
Animal Reform Movement) a national nonprofit public interest
organization based in the nation’s capital.  Individual events are
planned and conducted by local consumer and animal protection groups.

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 21:01:51 EST
From: Marisul 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (FR) Angry Chimps Attack Work Crew
Message-ID: <92fb4d0f.3511ce11@aol.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
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Angry Chimps Attack Work Crew

     NARBONNE, France (AP) -- Chimpanzees at a wild animal park in southern
France attacked a noisy construction crew that woke them up, ripping the cheek
and neck of one worker and scratching another. 
     Five other workers escaped by hiding in a walk-in freezer until Tuesday's
attack was over. 
     The two injured workers had been fixing the ceiling of an empty animal
shelter early Tuesday morning when they inadvertently woke up the chimpanzees,
who are kept in a nearby shelter during off-hours, park officials said. 
     One of the chimps broke through a window, and the seven other animals
followed behind, falling upon the workers, ripping the face and neck of one so
badly he required 30 stitches, police said. 
     The other worker jumped into a pond to escape his attackers. 
     The chimps then charged the park's office building, breaking some
windows. Five employees in the building hid in the walk-in freezer for an hour
until firefighters arrived, police said. 
     Authorities used a tranquilizer gun to subdue the chimps, who were to
remain quarantined, the park officials said. 
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 21:01:58 EST
From: Marisul 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) TimeOutNY: "Goin' on a Bear Hunt"
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

>From TIME OUT NEW YORK, March 12-19, 1998

BYTE ME: Goin' on a Bear Hunt (If you fantasize about tracking wild animals
for sport, instructions are just a click away)

by Chris Haines

     Even during an unusually temperate winter like this one, New Yorkers
suffer the same inevitable seasonal afflictions: colds, leaking radiator pipes
and -- worst of all -- cabin fever.
     There are the standard cures: A vacation in the tropics. Staring at a
fluoresecent lamp to chase away that nagging gloomy Seasonal Affective
Disorder.  Booze.  This year, I have a different solution in mind: a shotgun.
     Now, keep your shirt on.  'Tis sport that I seek: hunting, bagging,
trapping, shooting, skinning, barbecuing and stuffing a big ol' game animal.
Maybe I'll even get me a bear.  So what if I've never held a gun in my hands
before? What does it matter that I spend the bulk of my days tied to a
computer hundreds of miles from any wildlife larger than a squirrel.  I've got
the World Wide Web at my fingertips; I can trail Gentle Ben without ever
leaving the comfort of my desk.  The hunt is on.
     I pick up the scent at my most likely source for a firearm, the website
of the National Rifle Association {www.nra.org).  These are bad times for gun
owners in these United States, it appears. "Gun Confiscation Begins!" a
blinking headline warns, decrying the actions of "rabidly anti-gun"
Representative Charles Schumer (D-NY), who has asked the Secretary of the Army
to keep the Civilian Marksmanship Program from selling M1 carbines.  I looks
as though I won't be taking down Mr. Grizzly with an M1 -- at least not in the
Empire State.
     The NRA's site does stoke my nascent blood lust, though.  "With a broad
arsenal of tips and tactics at your fingertips," the Hunter Education
Materials (www.nra.org/hunter-svcs/huntedma.html) section assures me, "you can
increase the thrill of the hunt and maximize the chances of bagging your
game!" The NRA's virtual library shelves attack edifying subjects such as
"Wild Turkey Hunting," "Muzzleloader Hunting" and "Western Big Game Hunting."
(If I were a hound dog, this kind of thing would make my tail hard.)
     Hunting Fishing & Outdoors Online Magazine
(www.wildgoose.com/hunting.htm) steers my focus away from firearms to likely
hunting locales.  Seems that things are no different in the great outdoors
than they are in downtown Manhattan; it's all about real estate.  On this
page, visitors are given the opportunity to rent one of "several tracts of
deer, squirrel, quail, dove and hog hunting leases on a year-round basis."
Thanks, but I already have a lease; I just want to point, shoot and bag.
Under "Hunting Guides, Lodges, and Outfitters" (www.wildgoose.com/outfit.htm),
I find what I seek: the city-slicker novice section, a list of lodges that
offer guided hunting trips at a daily rate.
     Next stop on the trail? The Hunter's Mall
(www.huntersmall.com/index.html) where boutique links offer the virtual hunter
"Wild Game Field Dressing" advice, a "Custom Varmint Call Maker" and
"Concealed Weapon Rigs." "The Ultimate Body Concealment Band," a holster for
concealing a handgun (www.huntersmall.com/hidden/rigs/htm), "will not shift
during a normal work day.  Very comfortable and always easy to get to your
weapon." Sounds like the perfect gift for my mailman.
     The Big Game Meats site (www.biggamemeats.com/) offers a tasty and
convenient alternative to a muddy trek in the woods: ordering big-game jerky
online.  With the click of a mouse, customers can receive alligator, buffalo,
elk, kangaroo, ostrich, wild boar and venison meat.  Unfortunately, these
folks don't sell bear jerky.
     The Big Game Meats site may make me salivate, but the Hunting Information
Systems site (www.huntinfo.com/) really whets my appetite.  The "Success
Photos" section (www.huntinfo.com/photos.3.htm) features snapshots of real-
life hunters posing next to their kill -- Jim Bobs and their babes stand in
front of their 4 x 4s with recently deceased deer, elk and even a couple of
Osceola turkeys.  But no bears.
     Hunters.com doesn't bring me any closer to my target, but its guest book
(www.hunters.com/huntbin/guestbook.pl) offers a glimpse into the minds of
experienced trackers.  A gentleman from Sweden writes that he'd "like to hunt
deer and mouse but the absolut [sic] best is to hunt sea birds (ducks)."  I
wonder if one of those Army-issue M1 carbines would be the right gun for a
mouse ....
     The "What's Cooking?" section of Outdoors Online (www.ool.com/cooking/)
supplies recipes for every kind of fish and game.  Except bear.  I settle on a
recipe for a more appropriate New York target. "Rub the squirrels with salt
and pepper," it begins.
     Field and Stream Online's Game Finder (www.fieldandstream.com/hunting/)
provides a good rundown on my quarry's personal characteristics -- weight, fur
color, habitat -- and even a place in New York state to bag one, but it takes
the State of Maine's Hunting and Trapping Home Page (www.state.me.us/ifw/h-
home.htm), to squelch my little hunting fantasy with ice water.  Inscribed in
indelible HTML are the dates for bear season: August 25 to November 29.
     I guess I'll just follow Gentle Ben's lead for the rest of the season and
hibernate.
----------------
"Write in.  We want to know if you have something to say about what you've
read in our pages.  Write to us at Time Out New York, 627 Broadway, seventh
floor, New York, NY  10012.  fax us at 212 460-8744; or e-mail us at
letters@timeoutny.com.  All letters become the property of Time Out New York
and may be edited for length and clarity."
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 21:01:54 EST
From: Marisul 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Drug Makers Lobby Against Cloning Laws
Message-ID: <74d75190.3511ce14@aol.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
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Drug Makers Lobby Against Cloning Laws

     NEW YORK (AP) -- Drug makers, having blocked anti-cloning legislation in
Congress, are now scrambling to do the same with bills that would make human
cloning illegal in 24 states. 
     Two trade groups have launched a state-by-state campaign to combat 50
anti-cloning bills being taken up this year in legislatures from California to
Connecticut. 
     The state bills, which emerged after Chicago physicist Richard Seed
pledged in January to clone a human, ended drug makers' celebration over the
decision by U.S. Senate leaders to put an anti-cloning bill on hold
indefinitely. 
     Pharmaceutical companies say they agree with lawmakers who want to bar
fringe scientists from creating human guinea pigs. But they argue the anti-
cloning bills are so broadly worded they could also stop researchers from
using routine techniques to develop new drugs. 
     Scientists now use cloning to test how identical cells react to different
substances. Researchers hope one day to grow new skin for burn victims and
overcome the need for liver and kidney donors by cloning whole organs.
Cloning-related research has already led to heart attack, cystic fibrosis and
stroke drugs. 
     A patchwork of state laws would be "an absolute disaster for medical
research," said Jeff Trewhitt, a spokesman for Pharmaceutical Research &
Manufacturers of America, which is campaigning with state legislators. 
     "This is not the movie `Gattaca.' This is not `Star Wars,"' he said.
"This is well-accepted biomedical research." 
     He'll have plenty of practice honing his message. 
     Since he started his three-month tour of state capitols last week,
Trewhitt has visited Illinois, New York and New Jersey. Next week he'll join a
living "clone" -- PhRMA genetics expert Gillian Woollett, who shares her genes
with her identical twin, Brenda Armstrong -- in Pennsylvania. The sisters met
with Washington policy makers in January to point out to that naturally
occurring clones have long walked among us. 
     Another Washington, D.C.-based trade group, The Biotechnology Industry
Organization, has been visiting state legislators since a Scottish scientist
said he cloned a sheep named Dolly last February. 
     It's unlikely either group will hit all the states that have taken up
anti-cloning bills this year: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida,
Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota,
Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
     "I've got my walking boots on," Trewhitt said. 
     The stakes are high. Drug makers are expected to spend an estimated $20.6
billion on research in the United States and Europe this year. 
     President Clinton has called for a federal ban, but drug researchers
point out that the Food and Drug Administration already requires anyone
performing human cloning research to file with the agency -- permission it's
unlikely to give. If there has to be a law, industry groups prefer a federal
ban forbidding only the cloning of a whole human being. 
     Some question the need for restrictions. 
     "I don't think anyone has really explained why cloning is bad," said
Prof. Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton University health economist. "What is the
advantage of playing a lottery where the baby you have may be severely
deformed? ... What if you had only perfect babies? Why would such a world be
bad?" 
     Opponents include anti-abortion activists who fear cloned fetuses would
be used as lab animals. 
     "Don't be mistaken. They're going to abort ... until they find a workable
form" of clone, said Delaware state Sen. Donna Reed, a Republican who concedes
her bill has little chance in a state controlled by Democrats. "I don't want
that done with humans." 
     Drug makers were too late to block the nation's first state anti-cloning
law. On Oct. 4 California Gov. Pete Wilson signed a bill making it a crime to
clone a human being or buy fetal cells to do so. Fines range up to $1 million.
     "The bill is not the worst one we've seen," said Carl Feldbaum, president
of the biotech group. "But it creates a precedent that is hard if not
impossible to contend with." 
     Worse, he said, is a Florida bill that would forbid even the DNA
fingerprinting prosecutors used in the O.J. Simpson trial. 
     In New Jersey -- home of half a dozen major drug companies -- opponents
of the legislation acted in time. Charlotte Vandervalk, chairwoman of the
committee that reviews cloning bills, shelved a measure that would have
carried a maximum 20-year prison term for anyone guilty of cloning. 
     "There's a lot of medical research that can benefit humanity down the
road" using cloning, she said. "I don't think we can take the simplistic view
and say we're going to ban it." 
     Senate GOP leaders could end the debate with a carefully worded federal
ban, said Arthur Caplan, director of the Bioethics Institute at the University
of Pennsylvania. But first lawmakers will have to agree on what they're
arguing about, he said. 
     "So far the federal efforts seem to get bogged down in a battle between
right-to-lifers and free inquiry types" he said. 
  
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 10:08:19 +0800
From: bunny 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (Aust)Rabbit disease immunity theory rejected
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19980320100005.2e07a6f0@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Immunity Theory Rejected

Weekly Times (Victoria, Australia)
11/3/98

By XAVIER DUFF
CLAIMS that rabbits are developing
natural  immunity  to  the  deadly
calicivirus have been rejected by a
leading wildlife scientist.
  Immunity to calicivirus was not a
factor in the poor spread of the rabbit
[disease] that some farmers had complained
about, said Dr Brian Cooke of the
CSIRO  Division  of  Wildlife  and
Ecology.
  "There is no evidence rabbits have
developed  genetic  resistance   to
calicivirus," he said.
  The poor spread of the disease in
some areas, such as the North-East of
Victoria, was due to environmental
conditions at the time of the virus's
release.
  Dr Cooke  said there  was some
confusion  about  how  the  disease
worked.
 The presence of calicivirus anti-
bodies in the small number of rabbits
surviving the disease did not mean
they were genetically immune.
 This was acquired immunity and
was normal.
 `If you  test a  human  that  has
suffered  measles,  they  will  have
antibodies to measles but that is not
to say that measles is no longer a
problem in humans," he said. 
 The offspring of any rabbit 
survivors would be just as 
susceptible to calicivirus.
Dr Cooke said genetic immunity to
calicivirus would take years to 
develop.
  National calicivirus  management
committee   chairman   Graeme
Eggleston said farmers should not
expect  calicivirus  to  be  the  total
answer to the rabbit problem.
 Follow up control, work such as
ripping burrows and poisoning were
essential to ensure the kill was as
high as possible.
 Research had shown where all
control methods were used including
the  virus.  the  results had been
excellent.
Few  survivors  meant  a  much
slower rebuilding of numbers and the
less likelihood of genetic resistance
developing, Mr Eggleston said.
  Dr Cooke said farmers in north
east Victoria could expect a major
outbreak   of  calicivirus  once  the
autumn  break  arrived,  improving
conditions for spread of the disease.
 
=====================================================================
========
                   /`\   /`\    The Balance:
Tom, Tom,         (/\ \-/ /\)   NATURE's balance is so fine-
The piper's son,     )6 6(      Take care when altering her design!
Saved a pig        >{= Y =}<    A species introduced could grow
And away he run;    /'-^-'\     To be a source of endless woe;
So none could eat  (_)   (_)    While culling another could unfold
The pig so sweet    |  .  |     A horde of pests it once controlled.
Together they ran   |     |}    from "The Judgement of the Animals"
Down the street.    \_/^\_/     by Willow Macky (published by the RNZSPCA)
***************************************************************************    
Rabbit Information Service      http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
P.O. Box 30,                    email rabbit@wantree.com.au
Riverton,                       Was Jesus a vegetarian? Vegan and AR info;
Western Australia 6148          http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4620

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

Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 10:34:21 +0000
From: jwed 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (IN) Rescue plan for performing bears 
Message-ID: <199803200235.KAA04255@smtp.hkstar.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


South China Morning Post - Friday March 20 1998 -  by John Zubrzycki in New
Delhi 

The estimated 1,000 dancing bears who perform outside the Taj Mahal and other
tourist centres may soon find themselves back in the woods thanks to animal
rights activist Maneka Gandhi. 
A proposal to establish a sloth bear rehabilitation centre in a forest on the
outskirts of the capital was finally cleared by the New Delhi Government this
week. 
It could save the animal from extinction - there are only an estimated 8,000
sloth bears left in the country. 
Dancing bears are traditionally owned by nomadic gypsies who travel around
India making their charges perform for tourists and at weddings and village
fairs. 
During the peak season, a dancing bear can earn up to 3,000 rupees (HK$580) a
month for its owner. Fully grown bears sell for about 25,000 rupees. 
Although keeping endangered species in captivity is banned under India's 1972
Wildlife Protection Act, the law is widely ignored. 
The plan for a refuge was first put forward two years ago by Ms Gandhi, the
estranged sister-in-law of Congress (I) leader Sonia Gandhi. 
Ms Maneka Gandhi was sworn in as a junior minister in the Hindu
nationalist-led
coalition Government yesterday, and is widely tipped to take the environment
portfolio for a second time. 
During her previous stint, she led a nationwide crackdown on the keepers and
sellers of endangered wildlife including snake charmers and circus owners. 
Her campaign against keeping sloth bears in captivity has attracted
international attention from animal rights activists. 
In January, the London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals
released a report stating that up to 100 sloth bear cubs were captured each
year to dance for money. 
The training involved a regime of pain and starvation, and the bears usually
died young of disease or malnutrition, the report found. 
But the solution to the problem has not been fully resolved. 
Some campaigners question the choice of Asola forest, claiming it can not
sustain the number of bears that would be released there. 
Giving alternative employment to the gypsies is another headache for the
Government, which has promised them a salary if they help the bears adapt to
their new surroundings.

Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 10:50:44 +0800
From: bunny 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (Australia)Call for more rabbit virus
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19980320104231.31871198@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Call for more rabbit virus

Weekly Times 
(Victoria, Australia)
11/3/98


By KIM WOODS
Albury
NORTH-EAST  Victorian
farmers are pushing for the
re-release   of   calicivirus
after its  failure  to  knock
rabbit  populations  in  the
region.
  Population counts every
six weeks since the official
release  in  spring,  1996,
have  shown  rabbits  are
back  at  pre-release  num-
bers.
  Drought  across  the  re-
gion has meant rabbits are
more  visible  than  normal
and they are readily taking
1080 baits.
  Springhurst     farmer
Harvey Benton is the 
Rabbit Buster co-ordinator for
the  Chiltern  and  Spring-
hurst Landcare groups, and
believes  now  is  an  ideal
opportunity to reduce rabbit
numbers.
   But he said farmers had
been left cash-strapped by
the drought and were find-
ing it hard to even buy rolls
of rabbit-proof wire netting.
  Rabbit Buster is a 
Victorian Governrnent initiative
designed as a mop-up to
the calicivirus release.

  In  the  North-East,  the
Springhurst-Byawatha Hills
Iandcare  Group  has  re-
ceived $23,300 in  Rabbit
Buster  funding  while  the
Chiltern landcare group has
received $11,000 for rabbit
harbor destruction.
 Mr Benton said calici-
virus  had  not  been  the
answer to rabbit control.
  "The official spring re-
lease wiped out all the adult
rabbits but didn't touch the
kittens," he said.
  "1 have done nearly 4km
of fencing and it is a battle
to keep the netting up at
about $200 per 100 metre
roll.
  "Most farmers  want to
do something about rabbits
   Some    rely   on
myxomatosis or do a little
ripping - but  time  and
labor are the factors."
  Chiltern Landcare Group
co-ordinator Geoff McKer-
nan  believes  low  com-
modity returns mean little
incentive  for  farmers  to
clean  up  rabbits  in  their
rougher country. Both men
would like to see the re-
release of calicivirus, pro-
viding the timing is right.
"A 1080 program  in
early January to early
March knocked the rabbits
and also had a secondary
effect   on     foxes,"   Mr
Benton said. "This needs to
be followed with calicivirus
in April.
  "In a wet autumn, the
kittens will drown in the
burrows but we never had
that last year and they have
done well in the drought."
  DNRE  programn  leader
for pests in the North-East
Murray Chapman said de-
partmental staff would be
blood  testing  rabbits  be-
tween   Corryong     and
Kilmore to determine the
effects of calicivirus.
  Mr  Chapman  said  the
level of positive or negative
antibodies in rabbits would reveal
if rabbit populations
had been challenged by the
disease or not.
This would then determine if
a re-release
was feasible.
  "We  need  to  take  a
scientific approach to en-
sure we are not inoculating
a population against it when
it  is not  required,"  Mr
Chapman said.
 

 
=====================================================================
========
                   /`\   /`\    The Balance:
Tom, Tom,         (/\ \-/ /\)   NATURE's balance is so fine-
The piper's son,     )6 6(      Take care when altering her design!
Saved a pig        >{= Y =}<    A species introduced could grow
And away he run;    /'-^-'\     To be a source of endless woe;
So none could eat  (_)   (_)    While culling another could unfold
The pig so sweet    |  .  |     A horde of pests it once controlled.
Together they ran   |     |}    from "The Judgement of the Animals"
Down the street.    \_/^\_/     by Willow Macky (published by the RNZSPCA)
***************************************************************************    
Rabbit Information Service      http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
P.O. Box 30,                    email rabbit@wantree.com.au
Riverton,                       Was Jesus a vegetarian? Vegan and AR info;
Western Australia 6148          http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4620

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

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 21:54:10 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: AR-News@Envirolink.Org
Subject: Fox Photo Introduces Pet Photo I.D. For All American Pets
Message-ID: <199803200258.VAA13529@mail-out-1.tiac.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

FEATURE/Fox Photo Introduces Pet Photo I.D. For All American Pets

    ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--March 19, 1998--Since lost  or stolen
pets can be easier to find and identify when there is a  current photo and up-
to-date identification information, The Humane  Society of the United States
(HSUS) and Fox Photo, Inc., have  developed the first "official" Personal Pet
Photo ID.

    The form includes space for a recent photo and fill-in  information
regarding the pet's current height, weight, age, color,  collar description,
distinguishing characteristics, ID tags, rabies  ID, etc.  The All American
Pet Photo ID was developed in conjunction  with the fourth annual Fox Photo
All American Pet Photo Contest to  promote responsible pet ownership.

    The program is sponsored by Fox Photo, Inc., which operates more  than 400
Fox Photo and CPI Photo photofinishing and photo  merchandising stores, in
cooperation with The Humane Society of the  United States (HSUS), the largest
animal-protection organization in  the nation.

    Free Pet Photo ID forms and contest information are available at  all Fox
Photo and CPI Photo stores, on the Internet at 
www.foxphoto.com, or by
sending a self-addressed, standard business-size, stamped envelope to:  Fox
Photo All American Pets, c/o 8026  Venetian Drive, St.  Louis, MO 63105.

    "You may have taken lots of photos when your pet first joined  your
family, but it can be even more important to have recent photos  and
information,"  says Martha Armstrong, vice president for  companion animals of
The HSUS.  "This is a reminder to update  information annually, and if you
have a good photo, enter it to win  the All American Pet Photo Contest."

    In addition to one $1,000 cash prize for "Best of Show", the  Contest
features cash prizes of $500, $250, and $100, for First,  Second and Third
Place, respectively, as well as five honorable  mentions in each category:  1)
Dogs, 2) Cats, and 3) Pets and People  Look-Alikes and Other.

    Limited to amateur photographers, contestants may enter as often  as they
wish, but each entry must be different, and be a 5x7 or 8x10  unmatted color
photo.  Each photo should have an entry form or 3x5  card with photographer's
name, address, and day/evening telephone.   Photos become the property of Fox
Photo and will NOT be returned.

    Entries postmarked by April 30 should be sent to:  Fox Photo,  Inc.,
Marketing Dept., Pet Contest, 1706 Washington Ave., St. Louis, MO 63103.

    Fox Photo, Inc., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastman Kodak  Company.

CONTACT: 
Frankel Public Relations
Robyn Frankel, 314/863-3373
frankel@websitepr.com

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 22:06:39 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Technique Reduces Chicken Bacteria
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980319220637.006ef6c4@pop3.clark.net>
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from Associated Press http://wire.ap.org
------------------------------------
MARCH 19, 16:42 EST

Technique Reduces Chicken Bacteria

By CURT ANDERSON
AP Farm Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a breakthrough for improved food safety, 
researchers unveiled a method Thursday for preventing        
salmonella bacteria in chickens by growing benign microbes    
inside newly hatched chicks.                             
                                                               
``This is a major milestone for food safety,'' Agriculture      
Secretary Dan Glickman said in a National Press Club speech.    
                                                               
The Food and Drug Administration last week quietly approved use
of Preempt, as the product from MS BioSciences Inc. of Dundee,  
Ill., is known. The company jointly developed the product with
the Agriculture Department and is licensed to market it beginning in May.

Glickman said tests on 80,000 chicks had reduced the presence of
salmonella to zero with only one application. He said the department is
now focusing research on whether it can prevent salmonella from getting
into eggs and other work is examining whether similar techniques can be
used to control E. coli and other organisms in cattle and hogs.

The product, Glickman added, ``may prove just the tip of the iceberg in a
new food safety revolution.''

Salmonella, one of the leading causes of foodborne illnesses and a
particular problem in poultry, is carried primarily in an animal's
digestive track and is transmitted through feces. It and other pathogens
cause some 9,000 deaths from food poisoning every year in the United
States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Processing plants use chlorine washers and chilly temperatures to control
the bacteria, but it still winds up on about 20 percent of the chicken in
the grocery case, said National Broiler Council spokesman Richard Lobb.
Some 32 million chickens are processed every working day in America.

John DeLoach, who led development of the technique at the Agriculture
Department and is now a top officer of MS BioSciences, said Preempt is a
culture of 29 benign, naturally-occuring bacteria discovered in 1993 by
USDA researchers in College Station, Texas.

The technique involves spraying newly hatched chickens with a solution
containing the 29 ``good'' bacteria. The chicks instinctively peck at
their wet feathers and ingest the solution that way. The culture then
grows inside the chicken when it is most vulnerable to infection and shuts
out other microbes including salmonella.

``There is no space for it. It's a competition for food. There isn't
enough food for all of them,'' DeLoach explained.

The method is the first time the FDA has ever approved a mix of bacteria
as an animal drug, but it mimics what was once a natural process. Chicks
can get benign bacteria through the droppings of mother hens, but in
modern agriculture the two are separated long before eggs hatch.

``The next frontier is having these farm-level interventions,'' said the
Broiler Council's Lobb. ``It's a tool that will improve the
microbiological profile of the birds.''

Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in
the Public Interest, agreed that the technique is an important advance.

``Delivering a cleaner bird to the plant will improve the safety of the
food at the supermarket,'' she said.

Although the FDA approval is only for control of salmonella in chicken,
DeLoach said tests have indicated success against other illness-causing
bacteria such as campylobacter, E. coli and listeria. In addition, he said
it is effective in preventing salmonella on turkeys.

Farmers who use Preempt must take care not to feed their birds
preventative antibiotics -- a majority of growers do today -- because they
could kill the ``good'' microbes. The poultry industry wants to move away
from antibiotics anyway because harmful bacteria are developing resistance
to them.

For consumers, DeLoach estimated the cost of Preempt at about 2 cents per
pound of chicken, which would cost the average consumer about $1.50 a year
if passed along by companies.
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 11:23:15 +0800
From: bunny 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (Australia)Gutless claim on pest birds(Killing wild parrots)
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19980320111502.18bf1264@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

"Gutless claim on pest birds"

Weekly Times

Victoria, Australia 18/3/98

By KAREN GUNTHER

FARMERS have branded
State Government plans to
sedate    and   euthanase
hords  of  corellas  and
cockatoos   a   "gutless"
waste of time and money.
  A group of farmers in
the  state's  mid-west  had
been threatening to sue the
government  for  income
losses of up to $5 million in
the  wake  of  crop  losses
caused  by  swelling  hird
populations.
  They say they will con-
tinue  with  their  planned
action if the sedation trials,
announced    by   Conser-
vation and Land Management 
Minister Marie Tehan
last week, fail.
  Mrs Tehan said the trials
would  involve  using  the
sedative  alpha-chloralose
to  enable  corellas  and
cockatoos to be captured
and  then  euthanased  by
carbon dioxide.
  She said that while dam-
age  to  crops  and  public
infrastructure was causing
significant  financial  loss,
the environrnent had to he
taken into account.
  "Poison for instance not
only affects the cockatoos,
but then proceeds to work
through  the  food  chain,
poisoning the river and the
soil systems."
  Victorian Cockatoo and
Corella   Action   Group
Chairman Laurie   Cossar
said  farmers  would  co-
operate with the sedation
trials  but  believed they were
a waste of time.
 "Its just a gutless bloody effort
and its going to waste our time and
taxpayers' money. It's not going to
solve the problem" Mr Cossar said.
  "It's  just a delaying tactic. 
But if (Mrs Tehan) thinks   she's  
going   to quieten us, we've got some
news for her."
  Mr  Cossar  said  most
farmers still believed controlled 
poisoning would be the only effective 
solution to a problem which had already 
devastated the livelihoods of a number
of cereal growers.
  At  present,  poisoning
native  bird  sspecies  is 
illegal but Mr Cossar said
he knew of several farmers
who were prepared to risk
hefty fines by continuing to
set baits for the birds.
  "They  do  it  out  of
frustration.  If the  govern-
ment's not doing anything
and if the farmers don't,
they'll end up losing' an-
other  crop  and  another
year's income," he said.
 
=====================================================================
========
                   /`\   /`\    The Balance:
Tom, Tom,         (/\ \-/ /\)   NATURE's balance is so fine-
The piper's son,     )6 6(      Take care when altering her design!
Saved a pig        >{= Y =}<    A species introduced could grow
And away he run;    /'-^-'\     To be a source of endless woe;
So none could eat  (_)   (_)    While culling another could unfold
The pig so sweet    |  .  |     A horde of pests it once controlled.
Together they ran   |     |}    from "The Judgement of the Animals"
Down the street.    \_/^\_/     by Willow Macky (published by the RNZSPCA)
***************************************************************************    
Rabbit Information Service      http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
P.O. Box 30,                    email rabbit@wantree.com.au
Riverton,                       Was Jesus a vegetarian? Vegan and AR info;
Western Australia 6148          http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4620

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

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 23:11:06 -0800
From: totallib@juno.com (Jason A LaGreca)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: boywonderx@juno.com (Sebastian Bach): URGENT!!!ANIMAL 
     LIBERATION NOW!!!
Message-ID: <19980319.232228.12270.0.totallib@juno.com>

Hi everybody-

THE FOLLOWING IS CRUCIAL TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIVES DEPEND ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: boywonderx@juno.com (Sebastian Bach)
To: totallib@juno.com
Cc: adl-nj@envirolink.org, adl-nyc-li@envirolink.org
Subject: URGENT!!!ANIMAL LIBERATION NOW!!!
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 21:53:49 +0000
Message-ID: <19980319.215507.14054.0.boywonderx@juno.com>
References: <19980319.181752.11654.2.totallib@juno.com>

a lot of us talk about animal liberation and what that means....well we
now have a chance of achieve that goal(well to a few). VRL received a
call from some lady that told us about 300 baby chicks that needed homes
asap. they have been hatched as some sort of school project and are going
to be auctioned off to a FACTORY FARMER if we don't intervene by saturday
of this week(yes TWO days away) so far she has found homes for 160 and
only needs homes for 140 or people to foster them until permanent homes
can be found. which would be us more time to find homes for them....SO
PLEASE IF YOU CAN HELP IN ANY WAY,PLEASE DO!!!!

to contact me(joe) email- boywonderx@juno.com
            OR
609-627-1657-anytime

or to contact the lady directly call... susan at 610-793-2818

love and liberation,
joe
_____________________________________________________________________ You
don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get
completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at
(800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]   
--------- End forwarded message ----------

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]


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