AR-NEWS Digest 408

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) (US) Man Tenderizes Meat With Explosives 
     by allen schubert 
  2) Class action suit against drug company
     by Andrew Gach 
  3) FWD: Dog extermination campaign in Taiwan
     by Andrew Gach 
  4) Pollution and Birth Defects
     by Andrew Gach 
  5) (Asia) Letters to Asia Magazine
     by Vadivu Govind 
  6) (Asia) Chinese medicine and seahorses
     by Vadivu Govind 
  7) (SG) Tag whale shark before it disappears
     by Vadivu Govind 
  8) TV ALERT: Ark Trust Genesis Awards (TDC & AP)
     by Pat Fish 
  9) Fund-raiser for animal refuge
     by Andrew Gach 
 10) (US) Traps Work To Kill Animals Humanely
     by allen schubert 
 11) (ES-UK) Briton's Death Linked to Mad Cow 
     by allen schubert 
 12) [Fwd: [PAP-L] Tragic in Iceland - angry dogpeople]
     by animals@cyberstreet.com (Lin Robinson)
 13) [US] 2 arrested in Minneapolis
     by David Rolsky 
 14) [US] URGENT CORRECTION on Mpls arrests
     by David Rolsky 
 15) (US) Wildlife Center To Open in Kansas 
     by allen schubert 
 16) Admin Note--subscription options
     by allen schubert 
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 00:07:59 -0400
>From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Man Tenderizes Meat With Explosives 
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970518000756.006f78f8@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Here's a sick one...according to the article, it's endorsed by the
Cattlemen's Association.
from AP Wire page:
----------------------------------------
 05/17/1997 10:57 EST 

 Man Tenderizes Meat With Explosives 

 By JOHN D. McCLAIN 
 Associated Press Writer 

 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Morse B. Solomon has a shocking way to tenderize meat. The
 Agriculture Department researcher literally uses explosives to generate
supersonic
 shock waves that instantly eliminate toughness. 

 ``If done correctly, you wouldn't know we had done anything to the meat,''
says
 Solomon, research leader at the Agricultural Research Service's meat science
 research lab in suburban Beltsville, Md. 

 ``It doesn't fall apart,'' he said in an interview. ``It doesn't lose its
color. Taste
 panelists have not noticed any difference in flavor or juiciness. All they
know is that
 the overall tenderness has been improved.'' 

 And, he added, the tougher the steak, chop or drumstick, the greater the
amount of
 tenderizing -- evenly and without turning the meat to mush. 

 The process could have a big impact on the industry if several hurdles --
including
 worker safety -- can be overcome, said Dr. Jim Gibb, vice president for
quality for the
 National Cattlemen's Beef Association in Denver. 

 ``It has the opportunity to convert tough meat to tender cuts acceptable
to the general
 public,'' Gibb said. ``It's a technology that probably will have an
impact.'' 

 Solomon said the so-called Hydrodyne process involves vacuum-packing beef,
 lamb, pork or poultry in a plastic bag and putting it into a 280-gallon
tank of water. 

 ``Then we generate a small explosion using a small quantity of high
explosives in
 the water at a precise distance from the meat,'' he explained. ``When it's
detonated,
 you have instant tenderness'' -- without being exposed to chemical
additives now
 used to tenderize tougher meat, or the fatty marbling found in naturally
tender cuts. 

 The tenderizing is the result of shock waves traveling through the water and
 penetrating the meat, rupturing its proteins and bonds, Solomon said. 

 Perhaps not surprisingly, the idea of using an explosive to tenderize meat
came from
 a former U.S. nuclear weapons specialist, John Long, who is now retired
and living
 in Florida. The technique, however, uses ordinary explosives. 

 Solomon has worked on the project for four years and said the technology
could be
 available commercially within a year if the major hurdle -- the
composition of the
 plastic bags -- can be resolved. 

 ``We're working to design a bag that meat can go into and withstand these
kinds of
 processes,'' he said. 

 Since patenting the process 18 months ago, Solomon says he has spent a lot of
 time discussing the technology with meat processors and other industry
officials,
 and giving presentations at scientific meetings. 

 ``There's a tremendous amount of interest in it,'' he said. 

 Gibb of the Cattlemen's Association said the science is sound and agreed
``the
 technology looks like it could have some applications if some of the
hurdles can be
 overcome.'' 

 Halliburton NUS Corp. completed a study last week that found worker safety
not to
 be an insurmountable hurdle. 

 ``The risks are minimal and certainly controllable,'' said Jon Ousley, the
firm's project
 manager in Aiken, S.C. 

 ``When looked at in terms of industrial safety, they are a lot less
dangerous than
 growing the beef, butchering it, packaging it or transporting it,'' he
maintained. ``But
 the (explosive) charges would have to be handled correctly according to
approved
 procedures.'' 
Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 21:17:51 -0700
>From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Cc: healthe@home.ease.lsoft.com
Subject: Class action suit against drug company
Message-ID: <337E82EF.7980@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Patients sue BASF over thyroid study

1997 Reuter Information Service 

SAN FRANCISCO (May 17, 1997 10:31 p.m. EDT) - An $8.5 billion lawsuit
was filed in federal court against Germany's BASF AG and U.S. unit Knoll
Pharmaceutical Co alleging they suppressed a medical study to control
the U.S. market for thyroid drugs, attorneys said Saturday.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, alleged that
BASF, Knoll and Boots Pharmaceutical concealed a seven-year university
study that concluded that their thyroid drug was no better than cheaper,
generic brands to treat people suffering from hypothyroidism.

Attorney Barry Himmelstein, representing the thyroid patients, said he
would seek class action status for the lawsuit and a jury trial in San
Francisco. "This is where the research was done. This is where it was
suppressed," he told Reuters in an interview.

The San Francisco attorney representing the companies was not
immediately available to comment.

An estimated 8 million Americans suffer from hypothyroidism, a condition
caused by an under-active thyroid gland. The gland, located in the neck,
produces a hormone called thyroxine which regulates the body's
metabolism. People with hypothyroidism must receive thyroxine in order
to survive.

The vast majority of people with hypothyroidism take the drug Synthroid
-- a synthetic version of the compound levothyroxine -- manufactured and
sold by Boots and later by Knoll. Knoll now
controls 84 percent of the $600 million a year levothyroxine market in
the United States, the suit said.

A 1990 study by researchers at the University of California at San
Francisco concluded that Synthroid was no more effective than less
expensive generic drugs.

The study, however, was not published for seven years because its
sponsor, Boots Pharmaceutical, objected to the findings, the lawsuit
alleged.

When the researchers told Boots they would publish their article anyway,
the company invoked a clause in its contract with the university to
block them from doing so.

In April 1995, Boots sold its drug division, which manufactured and sold
Synthroid, to BASF. It incorporated the division into its subsidiary
Knoll.

Under increased pressure from researchers and U.S. health officials,
Knoll agreed in November 1996 to no longer prevent the San Francisco
researchers from publishing their results. The study finally appeared in
the Journal of the American Medical Association last month.

After it was published, Knoll said in a statement that it "strongly
disagrees with the validity of the study. The company believes that the
study contains major flaws in design and execution, and fails
to support the authors' conclusions."

The federal lawsuit, filed on April 29, was first reported in the San
Jose Mercury News on Saturday.

Filed by the San Francisco law firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann &
Bernstein, the suit names two plaintiffs from Florida, both long-time
users of Synthroid. If certified as a class action, the suit could
have millions of class members.

The lawsuit alleges that BASF, Knoll and Boots violated federal
antitrust and racketeering laws when they suppressed the university
study, and forced millions of patients to buy their drug instead
of less expensive generic brands.

The lawsuit claims that the companies cost patients $356 million a year
for seven to eight years. Attorney Himmelstein said he would seek three
times that amount, $7.5 billion to $8.5 billion in compensatory damages.
Punitive damages will also be sought, he said.

-- By Adam Entous, Reuters.
Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 21:32:28 -0700
>From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: FWD: Dog extermination campaign in Taiwan
Message-ID: <337E865C.7903@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

>From: Mina Sharpe 
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs.rescue, rec.pets.dogs
Subject: Animal Holocaust
Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 22:53:54 -0700
Organization: Taipei Abandoned Animal Rescue Foundation
         
Animal Holocaust

On May 14, the mayor of Taichung, Taiwan signed a bill, allotting NT$ 2
million for the capture and extermination of Taiwan’s estimated 2
million street dogs. According the to the China Post, a newspaper in
Taiwan, employees will receive money from the government according to
the number of stray dogs they catch. The manner in which the
extermination was to be done is not specified. Officials say city
employees of should kill about half of Taichung’s 100,000 strays within
the first four months.  The city government has decided to recruit more
people to join this move, as current members complained they will not be
able to kill the appropriate number of dogs within this time.  

This bill is apparently a response to both Taiwan’s lack of animal 
protection policy, as well as it’s fear of the islands large stray dog 
population contracting rabies.  According to a vet in Taipei, this 
extermination has already spread to Taipei, and other communities are 
certainly next. Approximately 4000 dogs are being killed daily.  Stray 
dogs who have been spayed and inoculated, which was previously said to 
protect them from being picked up, will not be spared. 

        On behalf of the stray dogs in Taiwan being hunted like rodents,
please copy and send this letter to everyone who might benefit the
movement to stop it. Protests should be sent to Lee Teng-Hui, President
of the Republic Of China.

President Lee Teng-Hui
Office of the President
122 Sec 1 Chungking S. Rd
Taipei, Taiwan
Republic of China

Coordination Council of North American Affairs 
3731 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 
90010-2825
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mina Sharpe
Taipei Abandoned Animal Rescue Foundation 
http://www.geocities.com/heartland/hills/4694
"Better to help the few, than to do nothing at all."
Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 21:41:11 -0700
>From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Pollution and Birth Defects
Message-ID: <337E8867.3A73@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

CNN 9pm eastern (6pm pacific)
Sunday, May 18
Report on U.S. Companies Environmental Practices Along the U.S. Mexico
Border

In a program which will air at 9pm eastern (6pm pacific), Sunday, May
18, CNN IMPACT investigates the connection between pollution from U.S.
owned factories and an epidemic of birth defects and deaths among
children living along the U.S. Mexico border.  The CNN IMPACT program
uncovers corporate memos and depositions detailing how U.S. owned
maquiladoras abused the environment along the Rio Grande River.

Unusually high incidents of birth defects, including anenceaphaly, where
babies are born without brains, have been found along both sides of the
U.S.-Mexico border.  Many scientists believe the border cluster of birth
defects is related to pollution from maquiladora factories. 

Between 1988 and 1992, dozens of babies were born in Brownsville Texas
with anencephaly, many others with a spinal tube birth defect called
spina bifida.Many of the families of the victims filed suit against the
U.S. corporations who own the nearby maquiladoras.  

The CNN program focuses on the Brownsville cases, though abnormally high
rates of birth defects continue to be a major health problem in the
border area.
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 13:16:42 +0800 (SST)
>From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org, veg-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (Asia) Letters to Asia Magazine
Message-ID: <199705180516.NAA22967@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


>Asia Magazine
May 16 - 18 1997
Volume 35 M16

Finally, an article on animal exploitation (Sting, Apr 4 - 6)! And so
wonderfully stingingly written! I felt embarrassed that all this is
happening in Asia - this is explicit cruelty which makes us cringe
automatically, although it is distant from many of us. 
Perhaps we should also think about other animals used as food - battery hens
crammed into cages so small they cannot spread their wings; pigs and cows
whose genitals are given electric shocks to herd them into pens; and a
painful slaughter for all of them. 

We seem to have both a blind spot and a compassionate spot in our hearts.
Some animals we call pets, others dinner. But it is worth remember that they
can all feel pain.

- Ng Wai Yee, Hong Kong

Norma Moss is right to condemn those who endanger the existence of animals
by resorting to alleged aids to male virility. It is difficult to disabuse
the average Asian mind of the superiority of his procreative ability without
the help of animal parts, no matter how small.

- Chan Kwee Sung, Singapore

How can people that take part in such shameless and uncivilised practices
claim to be members of the human race? I find it appalling that such
degenerates still exist.

- Dag Breimo, Malaysia

Killing and torturing creatures is not going to make people healthy. Only
sensible eating habits and regular exercise will. Unless we prevent the
mindless extermination of our remaining wildlife now we will never be able
to look teh future generation in the eye.

- Balakrishnan Matchap, Singapore

While Norma Moss may have her heart in the right place, she clearly relies
on hearsay to further her views on alternative food and health aids.  Show
me verifiable documentation that live monkey brains are being consumed in
Japan.  Ten years ago, there was a neo-folk legend that this was happening
in Hong Kong but no one I met could ever verify that.

Moss is relying on secondhand unsubstantiated lore on the subject.  For
example, anyone who knows about the fugu fish knows that no one simply eats
the fish and dies; it must be cleaned and sliced with precision to obtain
the edible parts.  And why bring up the fugu fish at all?  It is certainly
not endangered.

Wolf Reinhold, Vietnam

Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 13:16:50 +0800 (SST)
>From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (Asia) Chinese medicine and seahorses
Message-ID: <199705180516.NAA01555@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>Asia Magazine
May 16 - 18 1997
Volume 35 M16

Saving the seahorse

Charming, mythical, unique and threatened.  Welcome to the world of the
seahorse, one of the marine world's most enigmatic residents.

The unique qualities of the seahorse - it is the males that become pregnant,
endure labour and give birth - make them a widespread ingredient in
traditional Asian medicine.  It is this demand that worries Dr Amanda
Vincent, assistant professor of conservation bilogy at McGill University in
Montreal, who is back in Asia this month pursuing two ambitious conservation
projects.

She had spent 10 years studying seahorses.

"I walked around Asia, poking my nose into fishing cvillages, meeting
importers and exporters, and drawing together a picture from the sources of
a very large seahorse trade, " she says.

The scale of that trade - estimated at 20 million animals a year for Chinese
medicine alone - led Vincent to direct her efforts towards conservation and
trade issues.

Rather than seeking a ban on the centuries-old use of seahorses in medicine,
Vincent adopted the more pragmatic approach of farming and control.

Two projects resulted - a village-based seahorse management project in
Handumon in the Philippines and a small-scale aqualculture initiative in Nha
Trang, Vietnam.  Both projects are working well in helping the subsistence
fishermen - who rely on declining seahorse populations for their living -
while relieving pressure on the wild populations of the fish.

She is also looking for medicinal alternatives to the seahorse and is
working with the Chinese medicine community.  The public can help, she says,
by thinking hard about whether they need to but the fish - as souvenirs,
aquarium stock or for their more traditional role of easing asthma and
improving virility.

An award-winning BBC documentary, The Secret Life of Seahorses, which
follows Vincent's work, will be shown on Singapore's TV's Premiere 12
channel on June 11.

- Maggie Verrall

Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 13:21:22 +0800 (SST)
>From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (SG) Tag whale shark before it disappears
Message-ID: <199705180521.NAA28409@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>The Sunday Times
     MAY 18 1997                                               
     Tag whale shark before it disappears

     Conservationists have to establish that the gentle giant is
     declining before it can be termed an endangered species. DOMINIC
     NATHAN reports.

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

     SIZE is no guarantee of survival in the wild -- some of the
     world's biggest living creatures such as whales and elephants
     have been hunted down and their numbers fallen dangerously close
     to extinction.

     Ironically, what saved them probably was their being listed as an
     endangered species. Now another biggie is dying to be considered
     endangered -- the whale shark, the world's largest fish, which
     grows to about 12 m in length.

     At present there is insufficient information for the
     international conservation body, the IUCN, to provide the whale
     shark any form of protection by designating it an endangered
     species.

     The fight to save the gentle giant, which feeds mainly on
     plankton, small fish and squid, has already started in South
     Africa, Australia and the Seychelles.

     Singapore will now be the base of a conservation programme in
     South-east Asia. It involves attaching tags to the sharks to get
     a better fix on the numbers and patterns of movement in the
     tropical and warm temperate waters around the world.

     At present, very little is known about their numbers, behaviour
     and migration patterns. At the same time, reports on the
     occasional sightings of the fish indicate that their numbers are
     falling.

     In the Philippines, for example, fishing communities which used
     to see 100 whale sharks each season, now report about 30 instead.

     They are caught in Asia and Africa for their fins, liver oil and
     meat.

     The project director, Singapore-based marine biologist and
     conservationist Helen Newman, hopes to get the South-east Asian
     effort underway this year and is now looking for corporate
     sponsors.

     The international effort was started by the Shark Research
     Institute based in Princeton in the United States. To date, 116
     have been tagged and nine have been resighted.

     This may not seem a lot until you consider that by 1986 there had
     only been 320 sightings of whale sharks in all scientific
     literature.

     The conservation project involves tagging sharks with a 30-cm
     long plastic marker which carries an identification number.

     Different coloured tags will be used in different locations.

     Co-director for the project is Dr David Lane from the National
     University of Singapore's School of Biological Sciences.

     Ms Newman hopes to raise about $300,000 from corporate sponsors
     to run the programme for an initial two years. A matching amount
     would come from the divers themselves who will pay their own way
     in dive tours to the sites to take part in the project.

     Unlike other conservation programmes where the fish are caught
     and measured by marine biologists and scientists before the tag
     is attached, with whale sharks the tagging will be done by sport
     divers swimming alongside the fish.

     There is already a substantial tourist industry in South Africa
     and Seychelles with dive shops organising diving trips where
     divers can swim alongside the whale sharks.

     A microlight -- motorised hang glider -- is used to spot the
     sharks from the air first before a boat ferrying the divers is
     directed to the spot by radio.

     Using a specially modified spear gun, the divers will attach the
     tags on or below its first dorsal fin.

     When they come across sharks that have already been tagged, the
     divers will help to record the details so that records of whale
     shark populations and movement can be compiled.

     At present, most of the tags are plastic IDs, but a small number
     of active electronic IDs, for monitoring of the shark's movement
     by satellite, are also being used in Western Australia.

     The data will help experts draw up proposals for whale shark
     conservation.

     Large congregations are seen in the Seychelles in August and
     November.

     Many whale sharks are also seen off East Africa, but the greatest
     concentration appears to occur off Mozambique and the northern
     coasts of South Africa from October through March.

     In the waters around South-east Asia, they can be spotted off
     Phuket in Thailand, off the north coast of Sabah in Malaysia,
     near Flores in Indonesia and off fishing sites in the Philippines
     -- four countries where Ms Newman plans to start the conservation
     project.

     She will be assisted by Ms Bridget Chapman, an Irish zoologist
     and teacher, now based in Singapore, who is also looking into
     developing educational materials for children in the areas where
     the whale sharks are most at threat from local fishing.

     Said Ms Newman: "Initially, we hope to carry out the tagging for
     two years, but ideally we would like to have the programme going
     for five.

     "Ultimately, we hope to obtain international protection and local
     legislation to help save the whale sharks." For more information
     on the project, contact PR Communications on 227-2135, fax:
     227-3915 or Internet on: prcomm@singnet.com.sg

Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 01:26:57 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Pat Fish 
To: "* You * (and others?)":;@fang.cs.sunyit.edu
Subject: TV ALERT: Ark Trust Genesis Awards (TDC & AP)
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

A million apologies!  I tried to post this on April 14th but didn't noticed
it bounced!

Genesis 11 is scheduled to air as follows: 

The 90-minute special will debut on Animal Planet:

Saturday May-17 at  7 pm west / 10 pm east
                    plus at 10 pm west / 1 am east
and
Friday 5-30 at  9 pm west / midnight east
--------------------
The special will encore on Discovery Channel:

Saturday 5-31 at 3:30 pm west  / 3:30 pm east  ((coast to coast simultaneously)
and
Sunday 6-1 at 6:30 pm west and 6:30 pm east

Pat Fish
Computer Professionals for Earth & Animals

Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 03:10:43 -0700
>From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Fund-raiser for animal refuge
Message-ID: <337ED5A3.33A@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

'Wild' party thrown to help animal conservancy

Los Angeles Daily News 

LOS ANGELES (May 18, 1997 02:37 a.m. EDT) -- Actresses Dyan Cannon,
Betty White and Linda Blair all showed up at Mayor Richard Riordan's
Italian-style home, but the real stars were Ishi the gray fox, Kadari
the Bengal tiger and Tango the orangutan.

Amid gurgling fountains and white parasols, celebrities mingled Saturday
with nearly two dozen exotic animals during a fund-raiser for the
Wildlife Waystation at the mayor's plush Brentwood estate.

Situated on 160 acres in the Angeles National Forest northeast of
downtown Los Angeles, the waystation serves as a sanctuary for exotic
animals, including ones that were neglected by previous
owners or outlived their usefulness in research laboratories.

"I lend my name to few organizations," said Cannon, the Wildlife
Waystation's international spokeswoman. "But I am proud of my
involvement with the waystation."

After shelling out $250 each for tickets, nearly 400 guests got a chance
to cuddle with a chimpanzee, check out a 30-pound reptile called a cape
monitor, and pet Giggles, a black, catlike binturong with a furry,
grasping tail.

"I am nuts about animals," said Jackie Rappaport, a Wildlife Waystation
supporter. "When I was a little girl, I always took home stray cats. My
mother never knew what was coming home next."

Martine Colette, the Wildlife Waystation director, said the money raised
from Saturday's event will help cover the sanctuary's $2.5 million
annual operating costs.

The sanctuary provides free medical care every year for more than 5,000
exotic animals, including more than 1,100 that are permanent residents.

Julie Strain, an actress and 1993 Penthouse Centerfold of the Year, said
she and her husband, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creator Kevin Eastman,
pay for care of an African lion at the Wildlife Waystation.

"We went on the tour of the waystation and I cried about eight times
when I saw all the rescued animals," said Strain.

The day after the tour, Strain said, she and Eastman signed papers
promising to pay for food and care for Kenya the lion.

"With the profits I have made from showing my body to the world, I am
helping to feed the lion," Strain said.

Two 300-pound Bengal tigers napped on a patch of grass on Riordan's
estate while the human guests sipped chardonnay under jacaranda trees
and snacked on yellow squash, filet mignon and blueberry cheesecake.

Animal trainer Neil Egland kept watch over the tigers. "They're staying
nice and cool," he said.

Riordan, whose daughter Cathy is on the Wildlife Waystation board, said
he was glad to open his home and grounds to all the two- and four-legged
guests.

"I think it is a way for Angelenos to show that they care about abused
animals," said Riordan, looking relaxed in a pair of jeans and a
button-down shirt.

"I think it is part of the Angeleno culture to take care of people and
animals in need."

Colette said raising funds is increasingly important for the sanctuary,
which, for the first time in its 21-year history, recently had to turn
away animals in need.

The Wildlife Waystation had to turn away 47 chimpanzees and other
primates, "retired" from research laboratories, because it could not
afford the $600,000 additional yearly cost of caring for them, she said.

"It's a good thing people tend to be charitable and want to help the
animals," said Colette, clad in a dress with a tiger-stripe pattern for
the occasion.

-- BY ERIC WAHLGREN, Los Angeles Daily News.
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 07:30:17 -0400
>From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Traps Work To Kill Animals Humanely
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970518073014.006c4024@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from AP Wire page:
-----------------------------
05/17/1997 11:03 EST 

 Traps Work To Kill Animals Humanely 

 By DAVID CRARY 
 Associated Press Writer 

 VEGREVILLE, Alberta (AP) -- Their mission sounds like an oxymoron:
devising traps
 to kill animals as humanely as possible. 

 Using high-tech methods approved by a national council of veterinarians, a
research
 team in this small prairie town is testing a variety of lethally named
contraptions. For
 example, there's the C-120 Magnum, a ``single-strike rotating jaw trap
with pitchfork
 trigger.'' 

 Animal-rights militants denounce the work as ghastly. They also oppose it
because
 it is a crucial part of the strategy employed by Canada's government and
fur industry
 in the global battle over the fur trade. 

 Canada is playing a pivotal role in a long-running dispute between the
European
 Union and the major trapping nations. The EU has been threatening for
years to ban
 fur imports from Canada, Russia and the United States unless they outlaw all
 leg-hold traps, which many animal-rights groups consider barbaric. 

 Canada has negotiated a compromise it hopes will be ratified by the EU in
June. It
 has agreed to phase out steel leg-hold traps over the next four years, but
would
 allow trappers to continue using padded leg-hold traps while international
standards
 are developed for improved trapping methods. 

 Those standards would be based in large measure on the research being done in
 Vegreville, 65 miles east of Edmonton, at a government complex housing
various
 agricultural, wildlife and environmental programs. 

 Since 1985, the Trap Effectiveness Project has spent more than $8 million on
 developing ``humane trapping systems.'' 

 Larry Roy, the project director, said countering an EU ban is one of the
top priorities
 of his 11-member team. 

 The team tests its traps in a five-acre compound where coyotes, martens
and other
 fur-bearing animals are kept in large pens that try to simulate natural
conditions.
 Human contact is kept to a minimum, and infrared video monitoring is used to
 observe the animals' interaction with the traps. 

 ``There's nothing else like this in the world,'' Roy said. ``We've done
more work than
 anybody.'' 

 The researchers try to minimize the number of live animals killed in
testing. One new
 technique is to use a simulated trap on a computer. Roy showed a visitor a
 computer-generated animation in which a marten's neck is broken when it
nibbles at
 a baited trap attached to a log leaned against a tree. 

 Traps are tested for practicality and effectiveness. Those designed to
kill an animal
 must consistently hit vital spots -- the head, neck or chest -- and should
render 70
 percent of animals insensible to pain in less than five minutes. Current
so-called kill
 traps mostly wound animals, which can linger for hours or days in great
pain before
 dying. 

 A different standard is being worked out for restraining traps, which hold
a live
 animal until the trapper returns. Researchers are seeking to measure the
trauma a
 trapped animal suffers, and develop traps that can keep the trauma below an
 acceptable level. 

 An animal-care council that includes veterinarians monitors the methods
used by
 the trap-testing team, but animal-rights activists still criticize the
Vegreville project. 

 ``These are pretty ghoulish kinds of experiments,'' said Ainslie Willock
of the Animal
 Alliance of Canada. 

 At the center of the dispute is the leg-hold trap, which in the past
clamped tight on an
 animal's leg with toothed metal jaws. Canada has outlawed the toothed
models for
 many years, but animal rights groups still display them at rallies and in
 advertisements. 

 Non-toothed leg-hold traps are still used in Canada for a few larger
species like lynx
 and fox. But a large majority of the 1 million animals trapped annually
for fur in
 Canada are caught in killing traps, said Alison Beal, executive director
of the Fur
 Institute of Canada. 

 ``The animal welfare people have an emotional allergy to leg-hold traps
that's bred
 out of ignorance,'' she said. 

 The tentative agreement between Canada and the EU would set international
 standards for acceptable trapping methods, species by species. 

 The Vegreville team has approved traps for eight species, including an
underwater
 model that catches and drowns beavers. A restraining trap has been
developed for
 red foxes that has neoprene padding on the metal jaws and a shock-absorbing
 spring in the trap's chain to prevent ligament injury once a fox is caught. 

 The research is part of an aggressive, well-financed campaign by Canada's fur
 industry to head off an EU import ban. One of its best weapons has been
lobbying in
 Europe by Inuit and Indian leaders who note that half of Canada's 80,000
trappers
 are indigenous peoples and would be devastated by a ban. 

 Native delegations, including one led by World War II veterans, toured
Europe to
 denounce the ban as a potential violation of a U.N. covenant protecting the
 livelihoods of aboriginal peoples. 

 ``We helped liberate the European countries when they were really in
need,'' said
 Gilbert MacLeod, an Indian from Saskatchewan who fought in Belgium and
France.
 ``Now we are in need, and we're coming to them to ask them to consider our
cause.''

 The Canadian government and fur industry believe they are making headway
in the
 battle for public opinion, depicting trapping as a time-honored way of
managing
 wildlife populations and using a renewable resource. 

 ``Trappers have to get a license,'' said Beal, the trade group director.
``They are not
 people blundering about without a clue of what they're doing, just sort of
killing
 things,'' 

 Beal expressed appreciation for the government's efforts on behalf of
trappers,
 saying lessons had been learned after lobbying by animal rights groups nearly
 crushed the Canadian sealing industry in the 1980s. 

 ``From the prime minister on down, Canadian officials are doing a
masterful job
 keeping our trade open,'' she said. 

 Complicating the dispute is a division within the European Union. EU
environment
 ministers, who deal closely with animal-rights groups, favor barring fur
imports. But
 trade ministers support the compromise that would allow continued use of some
 leg-hold traps. 

 Both Canada and the United States, which hasn't yet endorsed the compromise,
 have threatened to lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization if
a ban is
 imposed. 

 Willock, of the Animal Alliance of Canada, is optimistic the European
Parliament will
 demand that the compromise be scrapped in favor of a tougher line on leg-held
 traps. 

 ``The fur industry is worried sick about Europe,'' she said. ``If the ban
is put into
 place, it sends the message that all fur is cruel.'' 

 Willock said the anti-fur movement is worried the fur market might boom in
Russia
 and China, but believes its heyday in the West is over. 

 ``This is an industry that doesn't have a future,'' she said. ``It has
lost its market
 niche.'' 

 The fur industry says export figures show otherwise. After a bleak period
in the late
 1980s and early '90s, exports have surged back. Canada's exports of fur
garments
 rose 45 percent last year to $90 million, and exports of raw furs were up
36 percent
 to $100 million, the Canadian Fur Council says. 

 Alan Herscovici, the council's director of strategic development,
attributed the
 upsurge to better global economic conditions and innovation by fur
designers. 

 ``A ban would be a serious blow for everybody,'' Herscovici said. ``If
we're going to
 get into arbitrary trade bans based on pseudo-science, then our whole
world trading
 system is in trouble.'' 
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 07:38:39 -0400
>From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (ES-UK) Briton's Death Linked to Mad Cow 
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970518073837.006ca4b0@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from AP Wire page:
-----------------------------
05/17/1997 11:43 EST 

 Briton's Death Linked to Mad Cow 

 MALAGA, Spain (AP) -- Tests have confirmed that a brain ailment linked to
mad cow
 disease killed a British man, hospital officials said Saturday. 

 The 27-year-old victim had been infected with Cruetzfeld-Jakob disease in
Britain,
 and died three months ago while visiting relatives in Spain, said Manuel
Carnero, a
 spokesman for the University Hospital of Malaga, about 250 miles south of
Madrid.
 Carnero refused to identify the man. 

 Cruetzfeld-Jakob disease is the human equivalent of mad cow disease, or
bovine
 spongiform encephalopathy. Humans can be infected by eating the meat of
infected
 animals. 

 The brain disorder has killed 16 people in Britain and one in France.
Since 1996, the
 European Union has banned beef exports from Britain, where hundreds of
 thousands of cases of mad cow disease have been reported. 
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 10:46:22 -0400
>From: animals@cyberstreet.com (Lin Robinson)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [Fwd: [PAP-L] Tragic in Iceland - angry dogpeople]
Message-ID: <337F163E.415D@cyberstreet.com>
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Message-ID:  <1.5.4.32.19970517130724.0095e840@mail.treknet.is>
Date:         Sat, 17 May 1997 14:07:24 +0100
Reply-To:     Agnes Yr 
Sender:       Discussion list for Papillon fanciers 
>From:         Agnes Yr 
Subject:      [PAP-L] Tragic in Iceland - angry dogpeople
To:           PAPILLON-L@MAIL.EWORLD.COM
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001

Last night in the evening news the icelandic population was told a horrific
event.

There has been a battle in a house with many appartments where an invalid
woman kept an Yorkshire terrier to keep her company and her neighbour has
been trying to get the dog removed from the house. This neighbour does not
even live on the same floor as this woman. She had given the dog away,
because she was no longer alowed to let it live in the house, to her niece
who regularly came to visit her with the dog so the dog wasn't even living
in the house anymore.

Yesterday the niece was coming to visit carrying her little dog and this man
waited for her in the corridor. He brutally atacks her, hits her in the
stomach and chest and manages to rip the little dog from her. Then he took
it into his apartment, threw it at the walls in his appartment, hit it,
kicked it and finally hung it on his doorknob until it was dead.

The police came, found the dead animal in his appartment, with blood all
over the walls and floor and arrested the guy who confessed the crime and
was then released so he now is back home in the same house where he brutally
attacked killed a loved familymember of a handicapped woman.

My heart goes out for her to have to see him everyday. He may get convicted
for beating her but chances are that he'll walk away from the slaughter of
the dog.

If you want to write to our minister and put presure on this man getting
getting maximum punishment for the killing (3 years in prison) here is the
address:

Domsmalaraduneyti Islands
(Ministry of justice)
Arnarhvoli
Solvholsgata 4
150 Reykjavik
ICELAND


=========================================
email:
the ministry
afgreidsla@dkm.stjr.is

the minister, Mr Thorsteinn Palsson
thorsteinn.palsson@dkm.stjr.is
thorsteinn.palsson@dkm.stjr.is

=========================================
You may forward this to whoever you like.

Agnes and the angry dogpeople in Iceland
agnesyr@treknet.is

--
Do you have general Pap-L questions?  Send your questions to:
Papillon-L-Request@mail.eworld.com

"Papichat" is a real-time IRC discussion held on Sunday, Tuesday, and
Thursday evenings.  If you are interested, contact Mary Salvail at
msalvail@SOFTDISK.COM

All email sent through Papillon-L is Copyright 1997 by its original author.
Permission must be obtained from the original author for the re-use of any
text (whole or in part).


Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 16:30:01 -0400
>From: David Rolsky 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [US] 2 arrested in Minneapolis
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970518163000.0069dec4@gold.tc.umn.edu>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

May 18, 1997


MINNEAPOLIS - SOAR, the Student Organization for Animal Rights at the
University of Minnesota, organized a walk through of a Dayton's department
store, a large fur seller here in the Midwest.  The activists walked
through the store wearing t-shirts that said "Boycott Dayton's".  Nobody
was planning to risk arrest.

As they were leaving, one activist, Matthew Bullard, was pushed to the
ground and put in a pain hold by a police officer for no apparent reason.
Another activist, Frank Winbigler, was also arrested for no apparent reason.

Please call the jail where they are being booked and demand that they be
released.

The phone # is:


612-690-1503



Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 16:55:10 -0400
>From: David Rolsky 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [US] URGENT CORRECTION on Mpls arrests
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970518165509.006a2d04@gold.tc.umn.edu>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

PLEASE READ THIS:

I posted the wrong phone # for the jail in Mpls.  Please don't call the
number I posted, as that is a private residence of someone unrelated to the
arrests!

The correct number is

612-348-5112
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 20:55:29 -0400
>From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Wildlife Center To Open in Kansas 
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970518205527.00694ed4@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from AP Wire page:
-----------------------------
05/18/1997 12:01 EST 

 Wildlife Center To Open in Kansas 

 By MATT TRUELL 
 Associated Press Writer 

 SALINA, Kan. (AP) -- Uncle Sam was getting a lot of attention. 

 Born on Tax Day, April 15, the baby camel walked on unsteady legs to
explore the
 main barn at the Rolling Hills Refuge and Wildlife Conservation Center.
Half a dozen
 people looked on, along with four giraffes from the barn's distant corner.
A parrot with
 blazing red feathers chattered away. 

 Uncle Sam was the latest addition to the Rolling Hills refuge center,
joining about
 170 animals from 61 species, some of them endangered. 

 The park, still under construction, is scheduled to open next summer as
one of the
 nation's largest private parks. It will have 95 acres of public space, and
another 500
 acres that will be used for mating rare and exotic animals. 

 ``It sounds kind of silly, but our goal is to change the world, to make it
a better place,''
 said Bob Brown, the refuge center's manager. 

 The private, nonprofit center is funded largely by Charles Walker,
president of
 Salina-based Blue Beacon Truck Washes. 

 ``Part of our mission is to prove you don't need government to build a
park,'' Brown
 said. ``We're common people trying to do what we can to educate, preserve and
 protect.'' 

 A short drive from the main barn are two other recent additions to the
center: Milly
 and Wagasa, a pair of female, 7,000-pound white rhinos, a species very much
 endangered. 

 They came to Rolling Hills from the Knoxville Zoo as part of the Species
Survival
 Plan, a program administered by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.
The
 program is intended to create a genetically viable captive population of
endangered
 animals. 

 That fits into the goals that the Rolling Hills Center has staked out for
itself:
 Propagation, education, research and exhibition. 

 An additional male white rhino is expected to arrive at Rolling Hills
refuge center
 some time next year. Brown said the center staff wants to start a breeding
herd for
 the rhinos. The center already has five. 

 ``Rhinos are probably the most people-friendly animals we have here,''
Brown said.
 The animals' horns are valued by some Chinese for their alleged medicinal
 properties, and they are heavily poached on African game preserves. 

 Such a breeding herd is just one example of what the Rolling Hills center
wants to
 do, Brown said. The heart of its philosophy is the connection between
education and
 protecting the environment. 

 In the break room at the main barn, a sign taped to a refrigerator reads:
``Plan for
 one year: plant rice. Plan for 20 years: plant trees. Plan for 100 years:
educate
 children.'' 

 An education center has already been built, with a library and an
auditorium that can
 be converted into two classrooms. Rolling Hills officials are training
teachers from
 14 school districts to use it. 

 ``The kids will have their own entrance to the park,'' Brown said. ``The
school buses
 will have their own place to park.'' 

 The center will focus not only on zoology, but the way animals are
portrayed in art,
 religion and culture. Brown said he believes the center can have a big
impact on
 children's lives. 

 ``You know small groups of people have changed the world before us,'' he
said. ``All
 we have to do is reach into the heart and mind of that one kid who's going
to be a
 Chrysler, a Vanderbilt, a Mahatma Gandhi, all we have to do is find that
one kid.'' 

 The refuge center started out as Walker's Belgian horse farm. It was
basically a
 hobby. Then Walker decided to buy some exotic animals. 

 ``The kids were interested in the horses, but they immediately gravitated
toward the
 exotic animals,'' Brown said. 

 In 1995, Walker donated 95 acres of land for the foundation's park and
another 500
 acres for breeding to get the wildlife center started. 

 It's mushroomed from there. 

 ``We consider ourselves to be active environmentalists, as opposed to
 environmental activists,'' Brown said. 
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 23:31:59 -0400
>From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Admin Note--subscription options
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970518233157.0070cbc4@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Routine, but always need, posting............

Here are some items of general information (found in the "welcome letter"
sent when people subscribe--but often lose!)...included:  how to post and
how to change your subscription status (useful if you are going on
vacation--either by "unsubscribe" or "postpone").
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allen
********
"We are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Walk your talk
and no one will be in doubt of where you stand." 
  -- Howard F. Lyman



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