AR-NEWS Digest 600

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) medical advice needed, please
     by "Stephen Wells" 
  2) Another genetic mouse "breakthrough"
     by Andrew Gach 
  3) Cancer prevention
     by Andrew Gach 
  4) [JP] Global warming deal struck after all-night talks
     by David J Knowles 
  5) [UK/EU] New danger is lamb on bone, say scientists
     by David J Knowles 
  6) [HK] Hong Kong 'bird flu' sparks fear of pandemic
     by David J Knowles 
  7) [CA] Gibsons visitor billed as Canada's rarest bird
     by David J Knowles 
  8) [CA] Hunger gets best of fugitive flamingo
     by David J Knowles 
  9) Hard Copy - Rodeo
     by Hillary 
 10) 
     by Michael Markarian 
 11) (UK) Shop Stops Selling Fur
     by MINKLIB 
 12) New Census For Uganda's Mountain Gorillas 
     by LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
 13) Infant Abuse Observed In Primates
     by LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
 14) More On Gardenburger Boycott & Labor Dispute
     by LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
 15) CA--TV show on AR
     by Stephanie Brown 
 16) IDA job opening in main office
     by In Defense of Animals 
 17) Help Monkey in Dentist's Office [Seattle]
     by bchorush@paws.org (pawsinfo)
 18) Hard Copy anti-fur story to air Friday night
     by "Eric Mindel @ LCA" 
 19) (Aust)National Launch of rabbit control hand book
     by bunny 
 20) [UK] WHO calls for ban on antibiotic use in animal feed
     by David J Knowles 
 21) Newswire: NASA Blamed In Monkey Death 
     by LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
 22) Goodall Says, "Human Needs Must Also Be Met" 
     by LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
 23) Goodall: Chimpanzees threatened by illegal hunting
     by LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
 24) Re: Reminder: Ch. 7 Poll on Deer Hunting
     by Liz Grayson 
 25) killing bears at Yosemite
     by Jean Colison 
 26) (US) Freedom of Information Act Requests
     by Dena Jones 
 27) King Royal Decision
     by PAWS 
 28) (USA)AR and GE news
     by bunny 
 29) Yerkes employee dies of herpes B
     by Shirley McGreal 
 30) Researcher dies of monkey virus
     by Andrew Gach 
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 97 03:33:21 UT
From: "Stephen Wells" 
To: "ar news" 
Subject: medical advice needed, please
Message-ID: 


Hello,
     Can anyone help our dear friend Lisa, in Scotland?  I think I've heard of a 
plant that (homeopathically) helps allergies such as these, but I can't think 
of it.  Thanks.
Alex Bury and Stephen Wells
By the way, this is the same Lisa who many of you helped at thanksgiving with 
easy vegan recipes.  her thanksgiving meal, for four flat-mates new to animal 
rights, was a smashing success.  
----------

Here's her message:

     I am itching to death from an allergic reaction (source as yet 
unknown), but refuse to use regular antihistamines that have been 
tested on animals.  Does anyone know any antihistamines that I can 
take that are cruelty free?  Please reply as quickly as possible to 
Lisa at 9706695k@student.gla.ac.uk
     I greatly appreciate any itch-relief advise anyone can offer.
     Lisa 







Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 21:23:14 -0800
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Another genetic mouse "breakthrough"
Message-ID: <348F78C2.61F4@worldnet.att.net>
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The New York Times, December 9, 1997

Science Watch: Of Mice and Memory

By KAREN FREEMAN

>From research comes a mouse that cannot remember its history -- even
particularly unpleasant history -- and is doomed to repeat it. 

By knocking out a gene, scientists have knocked a big hole in the
mouse's ability to remember frightening things that it has encountered.
And that could mean that mice, and other mammals, have a gene for
remembering fear. It may not be quite that simple, but the gene mutation
undoubtedly wipes out much of the healthy fear that underlies the
instinct for self-preservation. 

Normal mice are not afraid of the dark -- in fact, they head for the
shadows every chance they get. So to test the mutant mice's ability to
learn to be afraid, they were put in a lighted compartment and given a
choice of moving to a compartment that was appealingly dark but held an
unpleasant surprise: electric shocks. 

The mutant mice, who lacked a gene called Ras-GRF, learned just as
quickly as normal animals to be wary of the treacherous dark, an
international team of researchers reported in a recent issue of the
journal Nature. But by the next day, the mutant mice had largely thrown
caution to the winds and were ready to chance the dark again. 

Based on this and other behavioral tests, the researchers speculated
that the missing gene might change the way neurons involved in long-term
memory communicate with one other or might affect the alertness of
certain kinds of neurons. It seems certain that such a gene would be
crucial for survival: mice without one in good working order would have
a hard time remembering -- or caring about -- just where the
neighborhood cats hung out.
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 21:30:04 -0800
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Cancer prevention
Message-ID: <348F7A5C.74C6@worldnet.att.net>
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Experts say half of all cancers are preventable with lifestyle changes

Agence France-Presse 
BOSTON (December 10, 1997 9:07 p.m. EST) 

Half of all cancers can be prevented by simple lifestyle changes,
experts reported Wednesday at the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention.

The authors of the center's annual report put particular emphasis on
preventing colon cancer, which is frequently linked to inadequate
exercise.

Just a half-hour of daily exercise could ward off many cases of colon
cancer, the study's authors assert. They also recommended a high-fiber,
low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

"This newest report actually details practical steps we can take to make
those lifestyle changes," said Graham Colditz, the center's director for
education.

The Harvard Center reported that 60 percent of U.S. adults do not follow
those health guidelines and estimated that 50 percent of American
children are not getting daily exercise.

Researchers said colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer
fatalities, resulting in 54,900 deaths in 1997. Some 95,000 new cases of
colon cancer are diagnosed each year, experts reported.

*************************************************************

It took the experts a while to find out what most vegetarians have known
for ages.

Better late than never.

Andy
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 20:57:14
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [JP] Global warming deal struck after all-night talks
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971210205714.22ef04de@dowco.com>
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Thursday, December 1997

Global warming deal struck after all-night talks
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor, in Kyoto 

A GLOBAL treaty to reduce emissions of gases which may be changing the
Earth's climate was agreed in Kyoto today following all-night talks which
twice came within sight of foundering.

The Kyoto protocol commits developed countries to making legally-binding
reductions in their emissions of carbon dioxide by 2010, the EU by eight
per cent, the United States by seven per cent and Japan by six per cent.
Other nations were expected to offer six per cent. Demonstrable progress
will have to be shown by 2005.

The treaty will not produce the 60 per cent reductions in greenhouse gases
which scientists claim is necessary to stabilise concentrations of
pollutants in the atmosphere at a level which will prevent damage to
natural systems. But it is a start.

It promises to usher in a new age in which a price will be attached to the
emission of carbon dioxide and the other gases, making it for the first
time cheaper for many companies to save energy than to use more of it. John
Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, said: "We have every reason to be
pleased. We have increased the figures by a tremendous amount. We're very,
very happy about that."

America came to Kyoto committed only to stabilising its emissions at 1990
levels by 2010. Japan - which moved only after the United States - had been
committed only to reducing by around 2 per cent. In a night of drama India
and China nearly destroyed the treaty by objecting to an international
trade in pollution permits on the grounds that emissions trading was not
fair to poor countries.

Then the main US condition for accepting the protocol - the participation
of developing countries - was deleted from the text by the Argentinian
chairman, Raul Estrada, because the G7 countries and China would not agree
it. At that point, just before dawn, the US delegation had to seek
clearance from President Clinton to proceed. Talks on the involvement of
developing countries and the fairness of the global emissions trading
regime to poorer countries will now be settled at the next conference in
Buenos Aires next year.

Mr Prescott said the deal would not affect Britain's ambitious target of
reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2010 but it would
require further meetings to share the burden of five other gases now within
the agreement. He said Britain's plan for cutting its own emissions would
be published next April or May.

Within a decade, under the treaty, industries are likely to have to buy
permits to pollute, if they wish to allow their emissions to grow.
Alternatively they will have to fit energy-saving equipment.

These permits will be tradeable allowing each country to meet some of their
targets by buying up rights to pollute in other countries. The final deal
was brokered behind the scenes as the talks dragged into this morning, and
the chairman took the conference through the final text line by line with
the proceedings descending at times into farce.

Matthew Spencer, of Greenpeace, said: "This deal falls tragically short of
providing us with any climate protection and will, because of loopholes,
lead to increased emissions in the industrialise world. A ray of hope is
that it may start sending out signals that we're on the way."

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997. 

Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 21:02:44
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK/EU] New danger is lamb on bone, say scientists
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971210210244.2a870718@dowco.com>
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Thursday, December 1997

New danger is lamb on bone, say scientists
By David Brown, Agriculture Editor and Toby Helm 

A BAN on the sale of lamb on the bone from animals more than a year old was
recommended by EU scientists yesterday, to avoid the remote risk that sheep
might be infected with mad cow disease.

Only a week after the Government decided to outlaw beef on the bone, the
European Commission's scientific steering committee recommended that most
meat on the bone from cattle, sheep and goats over 12 months should be
taken off the market in countries with a history of BSE.

They also said countries with high levels of BSE - Britain has suffered
most cases - should ban lamb on the bone from animals more than six months
old.

But the move, which further angered butchers and farmers, was dismissed by
Jack Cunningham, the Agriculture Minister, who said enough safeguards had
been taken for now. Marks & Spencer and Safeway both said they would not
remove lamb on the bone from their shelves until they had received firm
advice from the Government.

Safeway said: "The definite recommendation so far is not to eat lamb on the
bone which is over 12 months old, which we do not sell anyway.

"Until we have read the report and had instructions from the Government, we
will not be taking any action to remove any of our lamb, which is under 12
months." 

Marks & Spencer added that they also did not sell meat from lambs over 12
months and would wait for government direction about the possibility of
removing lamb over six months old.

The Government had already decided that the brain and spinal cord from UK
and imported sheep more than 12 months old would be banned from sale from
Jan 1.

Mr Cunningham dismissed the EU committee as "a purely advisory body with no
legislative powers" and added: "The UK Government takes its advice on BSE
from the independent Seac committee."

Seac - the Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee - had recommended
on Dec 2, he said, that there was "no reason to take further action over
sheep or goats at this time".

But it emerged that British scientists - including two members of Seac -
are also worried that consumers may be at risk from BSE in sheep .

Prof John Collinge and Prof Jeffrey Almond, members of the team whose
recent report persuaded Mr Cunningham to implement the new beef ban, will
say in Channel 4's Dispatches tonight that they believe that BSE has spread
to sheep. 

Scientists already believe that BSE was caused when cattle were fed rations
contaminated with the remains of sheep infected with a similar fatal brain
disease called scrapie.

BSE, in turn, is suspected of causing a new form of the fatal
Creutzfedt-Jakob disease in young people. Prof Collinge said: "It is likely
that some BSE will have transmitted to sheep. Given the amount of
contaminated feed that was fed to sheep and given that we know that
sheep are susceptible to BSE by the oral route, it will be surprising if
some cases haven't happened."

A senior EC official said that if a ban was applied to animals of six
months upwards it would have "very substantial knock-on effects". 

Britain, as the EU's largest sheep producer, would be hardest hit. About
1.9 million sheep a year - roughly 12 per cent of the total number
slaughtered for meat - fall into the over-12-month category. Many of these
animals are in fact younger, due to a quirk in the traditional method of
categorising sheep.

But 15 million lambs are sent for slaughter each year and thousands of UK
farmers - mainly on the hills and moors - rely heavily on exports to
survive. These exports are worth £343 million a year, of which £40 million
is from live lambs sent mainly to France.

The Meat and Livestock Commission said last night that it was "inundated"
with calls from worried butchers. 

Farmers' leaders appealed for calm as a new wave of alarm swept through an
industry already reeling from the beef on the bone curbs and a 47 per cent
collapse in incomes. 

Just as cattle prices have fallen to their lowest levels for many years,
lamb prices at market have also slumped to about £12 an animal less than 12
months ago. Farmers say they would be ruined by a further plunge.

Sir David Naish, president of the National Farmers' Union, appealed for
people to keep "a sense of proportion" and said: "I am exasperated by yet
another recommendation which would appear to go well beyond what is
necessary, taking into account the fact that scientists themselves say the
risk involved to human life is so remote."

Sir David is to hold emergency talks with Emma Bonino, EU commissioner for
consumer affairs in Brussels today. 

The EU scientists were also accused by the Country Landowners'  Association
of causing "further consumer confusion over the consumption of meat". 

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997. 

Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 21:12:39
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [HK] Hong Kong 'bird flu' sparks fear of pandemic
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971210211239.2a870d62@dowco.com>
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Thursday, December 1997

Hong Kong 'bird flu' sparks fear of pandemic
By Graham Hutchings in Hong Kong 

THE mysterious "bird flu" in Hong Kong, which has already killed two
people, could develop into a pandemic and warrants close attention, experts
in the territory said yesterday. 

Schools and kindergartens in the former colony were warned that pupils
should wash their hands after playing with pets, especially chickens, ducks
and rabbits, brought on to the premises. Nine hospital staff who had
contact with the two most recent victims of the disease have contracted
influenza and are being tested and treated with a vaccine known as
Amantadine, officials said.

Hospitals have stepped up hygiene routines, and are advising those believed
to have come into contact with infected patients. These developments,
coupled with calls by a local doctor for mass screening of all those with
influenza, demonstrated a growing sense of anxiety in the territory over a
deadly virus that has so far defied analysis.

"Everybody is wondering whether this is the beginning of another pandemic,"
said Dr Keiji Fukuda, one of several experts from the Centres for Disease
Control in Atlanta brought into help with the investigations. That's why
surveillance is being stepped up and attention is being given to the
problem." He said the centre was still testing samples from victims, and it
would be some time before the results were known. "It is enormously
difficult to find out how viruses are transmitted. There could be no answer
for several weeks."

Four people are known to have contracted avian flu. Two have died and one,
a teenage girl, is critically ill in hospital. The fourth, a young boy,
recovered. Experts say the virus crossed from the bird population to
humans, but they do not know why, particularly as three of the four
victims are believed to have had no contact with poultry.

So far, tests have failed to show any signs of human genus, suggesting that
the disease was not contracted through human contact. But it is too early
to regard this as conclusive. Three-quarters of all poultry in Hong Kong is
supplied by mainland China, and attention is focusing on the province of
Guangdong, just across the border, as a possible source of the
disease.

Dr K K Liu, of the department of agriculture and fisheries, said: "We are
arranging to find out what they are doing about this in Guangdong, and
exploring ways in which exports of chicken to Hong Kong can be guaranteed
free of the disease."

Southern China is believed to have been the source of two inluenza
pandemics in 1957 and 1958.

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997. 

Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 01:24:34
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Gibsons visitor billed as Canada's rarest bird
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971211012434.0c8788a6@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>From The Vancouver Sun website - Wednesday, December 10th, 1997

Gibsons visitor billed as Canada's rarest bird
Larry Pynn Vancouver Sun 

A lone hummingbird blown 4,000 kilometres north of its native habitat in
Mexico continues to gain international attention on the Sunshine Coast* and
is being billed as Canada's rarest bird ever. 

Since the Xantus hummingbird arrived Nov. 16 in the backyard of Gibsons
residents Lloyd and Gerrie Patterson, more than 500 birders from around
North America have flocked to see it first hand. 

"We've personally saved the B.C. Ferry Corp**.," Lloyd Patterson, a retired
B.C. Tel lineman, quipped in an interview Tuesday. "People are spending
thousands of dollars to get here." 

The juvenile male Xantus -- pronounced ZAN-toose -- hummingbird is a
non-migratory
resident of southern Baja California, a dry peninsula on Mexico's west coast. 

Birders speculate the hummingbird was swept northward in the hurricane that
rocked Mexico's Pacific coast in October. Confused in the wake of the
storm, it continued northward instead of going home. 

The hummingbird has only been spotted twice outside of its native Baja
home, both times in southern California. 

"I think it's the rarest bird we've ever had in Canada," said Tom
Greenfield, president of both the B.C. Field Ornithologists and the
Sunshine Coast Natural History Society. 

News of the rare hummingbird has travelled rapidly on bird-alert hot lines,
e-mails, faxes and the Internet. All the attention has left the Pattersons
a little flushed: They even had to rent a portable toilet for all those
coffee-guzzling birders getting off the B.C. ferry from Horseshoe Bay to
Gibsons. 

Although the vast majority of visitors are from B.C. and Washington, some
have travelled specifically to see the hummingbird from as far away as Nova
Scotia, California, Michigan and Ohio. 

When they learned a week ago that news of the hummingbird had made the
newspapers as far afield as Florida, they asked that it be taken off the
Vancouver bird hotline. 

The hummingbird shows up in the Pattersons' backyard every 15 minutes or so
to drink from one of three feeders filled with a sugar-water solution. 

The bird has gained weight since its arrival and is expected to survive the
winter. 

In the spring, however, the bird is expected to develop full breeding
plumage and move on. No one expects the bird to get back home to Mexico but
it is hard to feel sorry for it. 

"He's very territorial," Lloyd concludes. "He chases the other birds out --
song sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, rufous-sided towhee birds. He's taken over."

Copyright Vancouver Sun / Southham News 1997

Notes:

* The Sunshine Coast,  also known as the Sechelt Peninsula, is situated
north of the North Shore of the Lower Mainland

** Access to the Sunshine Coast is only via the B.C. Ferry Corp.'s service.
B.C. Ferries, which is a provincialy-owned crown corporation, has recently
increased its fares to make up for a multi-million dollar debt passed onto
it by some creative accounting by the B.C. government.

Ferry users are outraged by this - especially on the smaller routes - and
have been protesting. holding up ferries and charging up ferry rides to
their local representative. Hence the in-joke about B.C. Ferries.

David

Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 01:24:57
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Hunger gets best of fugitive flamingo
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971211012457.0c87943e@dowco.com>
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>From The Vancouver Sun website - Thursday, December 11th, 1997

Hunger gets best of fugitive flamingo

OTTAWA (CP) – In the end, it was hunger that betrayed a runaway flamingo
hunted for weeks by animal lovers. Her would-be rescuers had all but given
up on the rare Chilean flamingo, nicknamed Elisha, after trying to trap her
for almost a month since she first appeared on the Ottawa River. 

But on Wednesday, hunger finally drove the elusive tropical bird into a
trap, her rescuers' last hope of saving the bird before winter closed in. 

Kathy Nihei, director of the Wild Bird Care Centre, and the centre's avian
care supervisor, Steve Hamlyn, had gone to check the net trap they had set
up near the river. 

To their surprise, they found the long-legged bird standing on the frozen
creek, apparently searching for a meal. During her sojourn in Ottawa,
Elisha had snacked on micro-organisms in silt under the water, which she
strained with her beak. 

Once they broke the ice under the trap, the usually cautious bird dove
under the net and started to feed in the open water. 

The rescuers crept toward the trap, then swooped in when the bird poked her
head under water for a beakful of silt. About 30 onlookers cheered as her
rescuers untangled Elisha from the net. 

"Finally. Closure," said Hamlyn, who gripped the flamingo in a football
hold and quickly planted a kiss on her. 

Elisha was wrapped in a blanket and had her photo snapped by flamingo fans
who crowded around. 

"Today was the day we gave up. The net was coming down. We were close to
washing our hands of it," said Hamlyn. "It's been exhausting, mentally and
physically. I've barely seen my family. The thrill was pretty much gone." 

If all the paperwork necessary for the bird's return to the United States
is completed today and Elisha gets a clean bill of health from her
veterinarian, she could be on a plane back to her Connecticut home as early
as Friday, Nihei said. 

The bird had escaped a private bird sanctuary in Litchfield, Conn., about
10 weeks ago. Elisha abandoned her mate and flew 450 kilometres to Ottawa,
attracting attention all the way. 

Chilean flamingos migrate north to high altitudes such as the Andes
mountains. Ornithologists believe the 20-year-old Elisha was simply
following her instincts by flying north as the weather got colder. 

The odd tale of a flamingo wintering in Canada has grabbed attention from
as far away as Egypt, where a class of Grade 4 students has sent in regular
e-mail asking for updates. 

A flamingo in Ottawa is like a beached whale, said Nihei. "It's like a
child that's lost." 

Copyright Vancouver Sun / Southham News 1997


Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 11:53:18 -0800
From: Hillary 
To: veg-nyc@waste.org
Cc: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Hard Copy - Rodeo
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971211115008.00708598@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL ANIMAL LISTS!


>Hard Copy will be reairing the Rodeo expose on Monday and Tuesday
>December 15 & 16.
>
>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 10:18:41 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Cc: djones@gvn.net, jrlovvorn@aol.com, kathmeyer@aol.com
Message-ID: <2.2.16.19971211142716.214f6c52@pop.igc.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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from Cleveland Live (http://www.cleveland.com):

Federal judge blocks plan to kill deer in rec area 

                  Thursday, December 11, 1997

                  By BRETT LIBERMAN 

                  WASHINGTON - Opponents of the controversial plan to shoot
                  470 deer at the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area won a
                  major victory yesterday when a federal judge blocked the
proposal
                  at least until next winter.

                  U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman issued a preliminary
injunction
                  because park officials would not agree on a further
voluntary delay of
                  the program. The National Park Service, which runs the
recreation
                  area, had agreed to hold off the hunts by park workers
until tonight.

                  Attorneys for the Animal Protection Institute and other
national and
                  local groups suing the park service successfully argued
the federal
                  government did not have sufficient data to justify
shooting half the
                  white-tailed deer population and it did not fully consider
other
                  options.

                  "We're very happy that he recognized a lot of the
fundamental flaws
                  in what the park service is doing and in their overall
policy," said
                  Jonathan R. Lovvorn, an attorney for the Animal Protection
Institute.

                  "This whole plan was ill-conceived from the start. The
government's
                  lack of analysis in their environmental documentation
really points
                  that out."

                  In addition to ruling that the park service had failed to
prove it had
                  explored every option for controlling the burgeoning deer
population,
                  Friedman ruled that the agency had not established how the
                  reduction in deer population would affect visitors to the
park, the
                  remaining deer and other wildlife.

                  Park officials say the shoots are needed to control the deer
                  population, which threatens the ecological balance in the
Cuyahoga
                  Valley and at parks nationally. The issue has been a
growing concern
                  as more people move to rural areas and suburban sprawl
continues
                  to diminish natural habitats.

                  Opponents claim an environmental impact statement should
be done
                  to determine how thinning the deer population would affect
the park.
                  The animal-rights groups also want a review of the
National Park
                  Service's overall deer management policy because the
service is
                  trying to expand the deer kill program to other parks.

                  Sue Gundich of Cleveland, president of the North Coast Humane
                  Society, said she was thrilled by yesterday's decision. "I
really
                  believe the judge is looking at the whole picture rather
than a quick
                  fix."

                  But Park Superintendent John Debo Jr. said he was
disappointed. "I
                  thought we did a good job preparing our case," Debo said. "The
                  issue seems to hinge on our not having a more full-blown
                  environmental impact statement."

                  Gregory Janik, co-chairman of the Hudson Deer Committee,
                  supported Friedman's decision and said, "The Cuyahoga
Valley does
                  not know exactly how many deer they have."

                  He said state and federal officials needed to step up
scientific
                  methods to obtain an accurate deer count.

                  "There is an infrared camera service available to wildlife
divisions
                  around the U.S., but for some reason our division of
wildlife doesn't
                  want to do that," Janik said.

                  Debo said he would have to meet with National Park Service
                  officials and Justice Department attorneys before deciding
whether to
                  appeal Friedman's decision.

                  The deer management program was initially set to begin
early last
                  month and run through March. The 33,000-acre park in southern
                  Cuyahoga and northern Summit counties would have been closed
                  weekdays from 5 p.m. until 6 a.m. so park service
employees could
                  use high-powered rifles to shoot the deer, which
recreation area
                  officials say threaten park resources.

                  The plan is modeled after an effort at Gettysburg National
Military
                  Park in Pennsylvania, where park service sharpshooters
killed 858
                  deer in 1995 and 1996. The Gettysburg shoots have been on hold
                  since last summer when many of the same groups opposed to the
                  Cuyahoga Valley shoots filed a federal lawsuit. The two
cases may
                  eventually be combined.

                  Plain Dealer reporter Lou Mio contributed to this article.

                  ©1997 PLAIN DEALER PUBLISHING


Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 13:17:04 EST
From: MINKLIB 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (UK) Shop Stops Selling Fur
Message-ID: <4c8e2ef5.34902e28@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

I got this from private email:

A clothes shop on Kings Rd in Chelsea, London called "Steinberg &
Tolkein" was selling a lot of second hand furs. THere have been a few
demos there recently, and last Saturday (6/12/97) the owner came out and
said he would stop selling fur, they put a large notice up saying "We do
not sell fur any more" and even better he offered to give us all their
fur coats for nothing to use in our campaigns!
-- 
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 11:11:32 -0800
From: LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: primate-talk@primate.wisc.edu, ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: New Census For Uganda's Mountain Gorillas 
Message-ID: <199712111903.OAA28841@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Research News Release: 8 December 1997 

Contact: Stephen Sautner
ssautner@wcs.org
718-220-5197
Wildlife Conservation Society

In Uganda's Impenetrable Forest, A New Census For Mountain Gorillas 

A team of scientists has counted nearly 300 mountain gorillas living in
Uganda's Bwindi
Impenetrable Forest National Park, bringing the total to around 600 for this
most endangered gorilla sub-species. 

The census, conducted in October and November by the Bronx Zoo-based
Wildlife Conservation
Society, International Gorilla Conservation Programme, the Institute of
Tropical Forest
Conservation and the Uganda Wildlife Authority resulted in a tally of 292
individual gorillas from 
28 groups, along with seven lone silverbacks (adult males). 

Using survey techniques developed in the Virunga Conservation Area, where
the other, much
better-known population of mountain gorillas live, researchers followed
trails and counted nests.
To lessen the possibility of missing groups or counting them twice, more
survey teams were used
than in the past, counting over a shorter period of time. 

Each night, gorillas build a new nest, and researchers can tell the age of
the animal that slept there by the size of dung piles left behind, and if it
is a female by the presence of infant dung. In addition, silvery hairs found
in the nest can reveal the presence of adult males. Researchers collected
hairs from every nest for DNA fingerprinting, to confirm that no groups were
counted twice, and to understand the genetic differences between the Bwindi
and Virunga populations. Bwindi gorillas differ from Virunga gorillas by
their shorter hair and slightly longer limbs. Further research will be
needed to confirm whether the Bwindi gorillas are themselves a sub-species
distinct from the Virunga population. 

The steep mountains and thick, thorny brush that give the Impenetrable
Forest its name provided a significant challenge for the census teams that
scoured all areas of the park in search of gorilla
trails. Teams consisted of national park staff from Uganda, Rwanda, and
Congo as well as visiting scientists from conservation organizations working
in the region, marking another positive
milestone to protect gorillas. 

The future of these rare gorillas remains uncertain, however. "Given that
the Virunga Volcanos is
currently a war zone and that park staff cannot even enter this region to
monitor the gorillas, there
is strong concern in the conservation community that there may be even fewer
than 600 animals,"
said Dr. Andrew Plumptre, assistant director for Africa programs of the
Wildlife Conservation
Society.. 

The results of the Bwindi census will be critical to a strategic analysis to
be conducted at the
upcoming Mountain Gorilla Population and Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA)
Workshop,
organized by the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the Conservation and Breeding
Specialist Group
of IUCN. The workshop will be held in Uganda from Dec. 8-12, and will bring
together, for the first
time, representatives from national parks of the three mountain gorilla
range countries and
conservation agencies working on gorillas. 

The workshop participants will work together to design a regional plan of
action that will best
ensure the conservation of these endangered gorilla populations. "Team
members from the recent census will attend the PHVA workshop and it is hoped
that these census results, in conjunction with the exciting spirit of
collaboration between the organizations and field personnel involved in the
census, will inspire the further cooperation necessary to ensure the
conservation of these rare gorilla populations," said Dr. Liz Macfie,
programme manager for the International Gorilla Conservation Programme in
Uganda. 

                                          ### 



Photographs and b-roll available visit our website: www.wcs.org

Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: LCartLng@gvn.net, phone: 800-348-7387 x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current 
conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by 
challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting 
existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress 
is the removal of censorships."  - George Bernard Shaw





Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 11:18:30 -0800
From: LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Infant Abuse Observed In Primates
Message-ID: <199712111909.OAA00004@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

As published in the NEW SCIENTIST
6 December 1997
http://www.newscientist.com

Baby bashers
By Alison Motluk
               
Infant abuse in monkeys is concentrated in certain
families and passes from generation to generation just as in
humans, says a scientist in the US. 

The results follow a study of three species of monkey by Dario
Maestripieri of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He says
abuse usually takes the form of "infant dragging", where the
mothers drag their infants along by the tail or leg while walking or
running. Abusive mothers sometimes push, throw or even step on
their infants. "This behaviour is never shown by good mothers,"
says Maestripieri. 

He constructed maternal family trees for the monkeys from
extensive records of pigtail macaques, rhesus macaques and
mangabeys held at the university. The records stretched back
some 35 years--six or seven monkey generations--and detailed all
births, deaths and injuries in the group. Autopsies had been carried
out following the infant deaths, and sometimes vets had noted the
violent behaviour of a mother. 

Using the observations, and the records of injury and death,
Maestripieri classified certain monkeys as abused. In all species,
but especially in pigtail and rhesus macaques, infant abuse
clustered in certain families. The overall rate of abuse was roughly
similar to that for humans. Of 700 rhesus mothers, 20 were
abusive. But the abusers came from just eight families. In one
family of pigtail macaques, five sisters all abused their young. 

This could be evidence either that abusive behaviour is transmitted
genetically or that it is learnt, Maestripieri says. Next year, he will
start swapping monkeys born to abusive mothers with those of
other mothers, to help clarify how such behaviour is passed on. 

Some researchers have speculated that infant abuse occurs
because it benefits the mother, perhaps because she then has
more resources to herself. But in a forthcoming issue of Animal
Behaviour, Maestripieri disputes that view. He has found that
abusive monkeys tend to be very controlling and protective. Often
they spend more time than other mothers grooming their offspring
and restricting their movements. 

"These mothers are actually putting more effort into their young,"
Maestripieri says. He suspects there is no beneficial reason why
the abuse occurs.

>From New Scientist, 6 December 1997

© Copyright New Scientist, IPC Magazines Limited 1997 

=======================



Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: LCartLng@gvn.net, phone: 800-348-7387 x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current 
conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by 
challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting 
existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress 
is the removal of censorships."  - George Bernard Shaw





Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 12:15:32 -0800
From: LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: LCartLng@gvns1.gvn.net
Subject: More On Gardenburger Boycott & Labor Dispute
Message-ID: <199712112007.PAA10392@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Recap:

In response to a notice I received about a boycott of Gardenburger and
NORPAC, I wrote the orgainizers (at the suggestion of someone here, 
thanks again, I'm sorry that I've spaced who it was - it's been a while) to 
ask them if they had been in contact with the National Labor Relations 
Board which is supposed to protect organizing workers and unions from 
harassment and retaliation.  

Their response and the initial post follow below.

Thanks to all who have taken action on this. 

Yours, for the liberation of all beings, 


Lawrence

====================================================

Dear Lawrence,

Thanks for your e-mail of Nov. 6th, and sorry it has taken so long to
respond. The National Labor Relations Board is indeed supposed to protect
workers who organize from harassment and retaliation. However, even workers
who are covered under the National Labor Relations Act are often not
adequately protected. Often, workers who go on strike at certain factories
(or wherever) are permanently replaced, or the leaders are targetted for
harassment and firings. The company then later tells the NLRB that the
fired workers were fired for some other reason, not for organizing. By the
time the union wins the legal case--if indeed they win it--years may well
have passed and the workers are often either long gone or totally
disillusioned with the whole thing.

That is the case for workers who are covered by the NLRA. For agricultural
laborers (farm workers), who are not covered by the NLRA, the level of
intimidation and repression is even greater. Farmworkers have been left out
of the NLRA since its inception in 1935. For that reason, of course, we
have not been in touch with them. In any case, learning from the United
Farm Workers' experience with the California Labor Relations Board (which
does cover farm workers), which has not been particularly positive, we do
not feel that our best use of time and energy is to push for farmworkers in
Oregon to have special coverage under the NLRA. If it happens, that may not
be too bad, but we have very little money and power, and our last attempt
to pass such a law in 1989 was unsuccessful, and that was with a
majority-Democrat state legislature--now it is majority Republican...

While the boycott is not an easy tactic, it is, in our analysis, the best
tactic we have to put concrete pressure on the NORPAC growers who refuse to
allow farmworkers their basic human and worker rights. It is a tactic that
the growers cannot defeat, if we can reach enough consumers and convince
them that our cause is just. Thanks for your interest, and please stay in
touch.

Sincerely,

Leone José Bicchieri
PCUN Boycott Coordinator

=============================

From: EcoNet Environmental Justice Desk 

Written  1:02 AM  Nov  5, 1997 
 ---------- "Support PCUN Boycott" ---------- 

PCUN Letter: Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noreste (Northwest 
Treeplanters and Farm Workers United)

PLEASE BOYCOTT GARDENBURGER AND FLAV-R-PAC
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO AS MANY PEOPLE
 AS POSSIBLE

[If you are concerned about human and labor rights, please 
take a minute to read through this message. No, we're not
trying to sell you anything, we just want to help educate you 
and ask you to support our boycott.]

WHAT IS GOING ON IN OREGON'S WILLAMETTE VALLEY?
===============================================
When you hear stories about workers being forced to work 
12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week with few or no breaks, no 
overtime pay and for less than minimum wage, you probably
imagine an Asian sweatshop or a Central American plantation. 
Stories about workers being fired for trying to form a union, or 
forced to live in squalid company housing sound like historic 
relics out of the 19th century.

Few of us realize that these things are taking place in the 
richest country on earth, in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Over 
100,000 in all -- mostly from Mexico and Central America -- 
Oregon's farmworkers face  firings, evictions from grower 
owned housing, and even physical violence in retaliation 
for efforts to improve living and working conditions.

WHAT IS PCUN?
==============
In 1985, eighty farmworkers met and formed Pineros y 
Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (or Northwest Treeplanters 
and Farmworkers United, known by its spanish acronym 
PCUN.) PCUN has registered over 4,300 members, runs 
a Service Center for farmworkers to assist and advocate in 
immigration cases, workers compensation, wage claims
and many other matters. Growers have refused every effort 
to arrive at a mediated settlement of this dispute.

Instead, they have instead turned to repression and 
violence to suppress farmworker efforts to unionize.

WHY BOYCOTT GARDENBURGER AND FLAV-R-PAC?
===========================================
The boycott of FLAV-R-PAC and Gardenburgers was 
called precisely because growers are refusing to even 
talk about recognizing the farmworkers' union. As long 
as growers continue to profit from the continued 
mistreatment of Oregon farmworkers, they have no 
incentive to negotiate.

Many of the growers fighting efforts to farmworker efforts 
to change their living and working conditions are members 
of NORPAC.  NORPAC is one of the largest food-processing 
cooperative west of the Mississippi, owned by 300 growers 
in the Willamette Valley.  In 1992, PCUN called for a national 
boycott of NORPAC products (FlavRPac and  West Pac 
brand frozen fruits, vegetables, and juice concentrates.) The 
boycott was later extended to cover Gardenburger,  who is
breaking our boycott of NORPAC by contracting with the 
sales and  distribution arm of NORPAC to move their 
product line.

So far, the boycott has been endorsed by 60 organizations, 
including the United Farm Workers of America, the National 
Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides,  the National 
Farm Worker Ministry and over 16 labor unions.

Yet much more remains to be done.

Only an economically effective boycott can force NORPAC 
to the negotiating table.

WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?
=======================

1-Boycott Gardenburger and Flav-R-Pac. Urge your 
friends, family, church group, school, workplace or 
favorite restaurant to do the same. This is the most
direct and effective strategy at your disposal.

2-Send an e-mail to Gardenburger urging them to 
stop underwriting the exploitation of Oregon's Farmworkers 
by using NORPAC's distribution system.     Please cc. 
PCUN a copy of your letter.     Gardenburger's 
e-mail address is: whfi5@mail.easystreet.com

3-Forward this message to as many people as possible.
The internet can be a powerful tool to help us get the word 
out about the boycott, but only if you give us a hand.

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE?
==========================
You can visit our website at:
    www.pcun.org

Or you can send us e-mail at:
    FarmworkerUnion@pcun.org

With your support, Oregon's farmworkers can obtain the 
dignity and justice they desserve.

Leone Bicchieri
Boycott Coordinator
Leonebicchieri@pcun.org

This message was originally sent on November 3, 1997.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: LCartLng@gvn.net, phone: 800-348-7387 x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"Civil liberties are always safe as long as their exercise doesn't 
bother anyone."   New York Times editorial, 1-3-41






Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 03:11:39 -0500
From: Stephanie Brown 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: CA--TV show on AR
Message-ID: <3.0.2.16.19971211031139.2dc7d63a@idirect.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Canada's Discovery Channel is airing a one-hour debate titled "Should
Animals Have Rights?" at the following times:

Saturday, December l3 at 8 pm ET
Sunday, December l4 at midnight ET
Saturday, December 20 at 2 pm ET

Topics discussed include AR in general, food animals and laboratory animals.

Stephanie
*************************************************************************
                Stephanie Brown         Toronto, Canada 
                      e-mail:  brown@idirect.com      
************************************************************************* 
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 97 13:45:00 -0800
From: In Defense of Animals 
To: 
Subject: IDA job opening in main office
Message-ID: <199712112143.NAA09467@proxy4.ba.best.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"




In Defense of Animals

*OPEN POSITION*

OFFICE ASSISTANT

     In Defense of Animals, a national animal rights organization with over 
70,000 members, is looking for a full-time office assistant. Vegan or 
vegetarian who believes in the animal rights philosophy preferred.

     You must be very flexible, organized and able to handle many tasks under 
pressure. You must be able to manage your workload efficiently. You must 
be computer competent and be able to type 45 wpm. You must have good 
communication skills, both written and verbal. 

     If you are interested in this exciting position, please send your resume 
and cover letter to Emma Clifford, Assistant to the President, In Defense 
of Animals, 131 Camino Alto, Suite E, Mill Valley, CA 94941, or fax at 
415-388-0388, or email us at ida@idausa.org.

Please respond before Dec. 31, 1997.
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 14:26:34 -0800 (PST)
From: bchorush@paws.org (pawsinfo)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Help Monkey in Dentist's Office [Seattle]
Message-ID: <199712112226.OAA22203@k2.brigadoon.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

see: http://www/paws/org/activists/pj

Hate Visiting the Dentist?  Imagine LIVING There   ... for 20 years  

PJ is a 23 year-old capuchin monkey. She has lived in a dental office in
downtown Seattle since she was 2 1/2 years old. PJ's "home" is a barren
Plexiglas box mounted on the wall of one of the office exam rooms. She
spends her days watching patients having their teeth cleaned and listening
to the whine of the dentist's drill. She spends nights and weekends in
another barren cage inside a storage closet across the hall from the office.
PJ never feels the sunshine on her face. She never takes a breath of fresh
air. She can't play, groom or interact with others of her own species.  

Capuchin monkeys are intelligent and highly social animals who naturally
live in groups of up to 20 individuals in the forests of South America.
Individuals are virtually never alone. They are arboreal, spending the vast
majority of their time in trees. Foraging for their varied diet of fruits,
nuts, nectars, insects and small vertebrates keeps them active, busy and
stimulated.  

There Ought To Be A Law 

 Unbelievably, PJ seems to fall through the cracks of the few laws that
should protect her. For various absurd and arbitrary reasons, PJ's situation
is not covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act, the state or city Health
Department, or Seattle Animal Control. But the fact that existing laws are
lax does not qualify, justify or lessen PJ's misery.   

What Are The Options?  Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation (WRR), an accredited
sanctuary in San Antonio, Texas has offered to integrate PJ into their
capuchin colony. WRR has extensive experience resocializing once-solitary
primates. Most recently, WRR accepted five monkeys whose only home had been
small, solitary cages in five separate hardware stores in Chicago's western
suburbs. Three of those monkeys were capuchins and had been in isolation for
as long as 21 years. WRR comments: 

 "Chico ventured .... towards the bowl of fruits, vegetables and seeds and
marveled at the grass beneath his feet. Ritzy was initially reluctant to
come out .... He had never seen the natural sunlight before. .... he
cautiously emerged to explore .... Mikey ran lap after lap around the
perimeter of the enclosure, zipped up and down the poles and finally climbed
the stairs leading to his food. An hour later Ritzy and Mikey lay next to
each other hugging the ground, Ritzy's arm wrapped around Mikey's tail."  

PJ deserves the same opportunity to live the rest of her life as a monkey.
The warm climate of South Texas would allow her to spend much of her time
outdoors, climbing and swinging in trees and on other specialized structures
in her enclosure. She would meet other monkeys and eventually be able to
live in an enclosure with them. Her safety and happiness would be WRR's
primary considerations. 

 What the Experts Say  "Capuchins housed singly develop emotional problems
because, like humans, they require the presence of others of their kind."
Virginia Landau, Ph.D. The Jane Goodall Institute 

 "She will benefit greatly from a gradual introduction to the company of
other capuchins, allowing her to engage in normal physical and social
activities crucial to her long- term health." Wendy Jensen, DVM  

"The worst thing about this monkey's situation is the lack of companionship
of her own species. We hope this animal will not be doomed by her owner's
doubts as to her ability to adjust." Dr. Shirley McGreal, Chair Intl.
Primate Protection League  

"We are very concerned about PJ's living conditions. These conditions have
little semblance to her natural environment and are not in PJ's best
interest." Roger Caras, President American Society For the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)  

"Study after study ... has documented the importance of the social group in
these animals. Neither her age nor her previous history can justify keeping
her in the impoverished environment she endures now." Richard H. Farinato
The Humane Society of the U.S. 

"Her hair loss is probably an indication of her state of mind. Pulling hair
out is a common manifestation of anguish in caged primates. It is associated
with boredom, loneliness and other stresses." Sheri Speede, DVM In Defense
of Animals 

 "I appreciate the dentist's concerns. But as a primatologist who
specializes in resocialization .... I never fail to be in awe of the
resiliency of these ex-pets. When given the opportunity, they recover."
Carole Noon, Ph.D.  

"For monkeys and humans it is our social nature that truly defines us.
Monkeys, just like humans, need to be surrounded by their own kind." Roger
Fouts, Ph.D. Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute  

"Confinement in isolation runs contrary to the natural state of all primates
.... Undoubtedly, PJ will live out a much happier existence in a more
natural setting." Kenneth J. Shapiro, Exec. Director Psychologists For the
Ethical Treatment of Animals  

"I am appalled. This poor creature is showing obvious signs of distress. The
bald areas on her shoulder, thighs, and belly are due to hypergrooming." Mel
Richardson, DVM    

YOU CAN HELP  

Primatologists, veterinarians and animal protection organizations recommend
that PJ be transferred to Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation (WRR) where she
can lead a more natural and active life and be resocialized with other
monkeys. But Dr. Patrick Fleege, PJ's owner, claims that PJ is happy and
healthy where she is and refuses to let her go to Texas.  

Please contact Dr. Fleege. Let him know that monkeys prefer a natural
environment and the company of their own kind to a dentist office.  

Dr. Patrick Fleege 
Medical Dental Bldg. 
509 Olive Way,  #1024 
Seattle, WA  98101 
Tel: 206/622-6696 
Fax: 206/292-8090  

Send a copy of your letter to: 
Washington State Dental Association 
2033 Sixth Avenue,  Suite 333 
Seattle, WA  98121-2514 
Tel: 206/448-1914 
Fax: 206/443-9266  

Robert Watt, President 
Seattle Chamber of Commerce 
1301 Fifth,  Suite 2400 
Seattle, WA  98101 
Tel: 206/389-7200 
Fax: 206/389-7288  

For further information contact:  PAWS PO Box 1037 Lynnwood, WA 98046
425/787-2500, ext. 811  
Bob Chorush  Web Administrator, Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
15305 44th Ave West (P.O. Box 1037)Lynnwood, WA 98046 (425) 787-2500 ext
862, (425) 742-5711 fax
email bchorush@paws.org      http://www.paws.org

Date: Thu, 11 Dec 97 16:02:26 -0000
From: "Eric Mindel @ LCA" 
To: "ar-news" 
Subject: Hard Copy anti-fur story to air Friday night
Message-ID: <199712112250.RAA22146@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hi all,

FYI...

Hard Copy is in final editing now for an anti-fur story which tentatively 
airs tomorrow night (unless bumped by a more flambouyant story-- e.g., 
about President Clinton giving birth to a chocolate labrador).  Prelim 
reports suggest this will be a hard anti-fur piece, including 
confrontation of a mink rancher.

eric

Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 06:58:25 +0800
From: bunny 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (Aust)National Launch of rabbit control hand book
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19971212065146.2d8f5dd0@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


Yesterday I was lucky enough to be interviewed on the radio about the inherent
dangers in the proposed use of RCD/RHD coated baits in Australia.
Then, unfortunately,last night someone sent me this news(see below) and I
was shocked.
Frank Fenner is a scientist of the old school (white hair and aging) who
is known for his early involvement in Myxomatosis and its validation as a
bio-control many years ago in Australia. He is famous for injecting himself
with 
Myxomatosis to allay public concerns about people catching Myxo.
(What a shame the scientists involved in the RCD issue here don't inject
themselves with a great whopping dose of RVHD so we can can have their blood
samples taken for testing over time).
BJ Coman was involved in writing the draft Environmental Impact Statement on
RCD (A full EIS was never completed) and he has been involved in developing the
RCD coated baits. I believe he owns a rabbit pest control company and he
wrote an article last year which ranged from speaking derisively of Beatrix
Potters
portrayal of rabbits to speaking of the need to remove every last rabbit from
this land.

As I mentioned on the radio yesterday, there are so many dangers with using
RHD as a bio-control to verify that the disease should not be spread. 
Also, you cannot remove a whole species from the web of life here and expect
no problems. We have 11 birds of prey including Wedge-tailed Eagle who rely
heavily on rabbits (sometimes up to 95%)for food and for example in one
area, where rabbit numbers had declined drastically, dingoes were seen
canibalising each other for food (because of the lack of rabbits), foxes
were seen eating baby wonbats (because of the lack of rabbits) and
Wedge-tailed Eagles had not been seen in the area for 6 months and smaller
birds too had disappeared.


Anyway, read the abominable news (below) for yourself. I read this news with
disbelief and am incredulous of the whole idea of producing a booklet of how
to best spread a deadly virus of mammals for which there is no cure and no
vaccines to protect any other species except rabbits.

RCD/VHD baits have not yet been approved by the NRA and I am urging people
to write and voice their concerns about the baits and the fact that we need
a full and open public discussion to be allowed by the NRA
(National Registration Authority for Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals).

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


NATIONAL LAUNCH OF RABBIT CONTROL HANDBOOK

        A Field Handbook on Rabbit Control and Rabbit Calicivirus
Disease
will be launched at
                                  11.30 am
                          Tuesday, 16 December, 1997.
                   at Barwon Park near Geelong, Victoria

Barwon Park is the site where Thomas Austin first released rabbits into
Australia on Christmas Day, 1859.

The handbook has been produced jointly by the Anti-Rabbit Research
Foundation of Australia (ARRFA) and the RCD management Group, another
national body.

100 000 copies of the booklet will be distributed free of charge
throughout
Australia by Pest Control agencies in each state and territory.

 "Rabbits are Australia's greatest vertebrate feral pest'" said Dr Rob
Morrison, ARRFA's Chairman. "Calicivirus has given us the best chance in
fifty years of reducing rabbit numbers, but without continued
conventional
rabbit control, such as ripping warrens and laying poison, Calicivirus
can
not complete the job on its own."

 "Myxomatosis was very effective when it was first used," said Dr
Morrison,
"but rabbits developed immunity and their numbers increased again. This
handbook shows land managers and landowners how they can best work with
Calicivirus to reduce rabbit numbers on their properties to ensure that
we
don't make the same mistake again."

The handbook will be launched by Professor Frank Fenner, who pioneered
the
introduction of myxomatosis some fifty years ago. The Handbook will also
be
placed on the internet to ensure widespread access to the information in
it.

---------------------------------- ENDS
------------------------------------

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON LAUNCH OF RCD HANDBOOK


             NATIONAL HANDBOOK GIVES NEW LEAD ON RABBIT CONTROL

The release of Rabbit Calicivirus (RCD) around Australia in September
1996
dealt a major blow against the rabbit, Australia's greatest vertebrate
feral pest. As RCD spread, rabbit populations in arid parts of Australia
fell almost overnight by as much as 95%.

RCD has been hailed as the most important control agent to appear since
the
introduction of myxomatosis fifty years ago, but scientists have
cautioned
that no biological agent can do the job on its own. Some rabbits develop
immunity and survive, allowing populations to climb again as they did
following the use of myxomatosis.

Rabbits cost Australia over one billion dollars every year; $600 000 of
that being agricultural costs alone. Landowners have been urged to
redouble
their efforts at rabbit control by traditional means, ripping warrens
and
using baits to clean up rabbits that survive the initial impact of RCD,
but
many landowners are unsure of the best techniques to use, how to apply
them, and how to ensure that their efforts will be effective.

The Anti-Rabbit Research Foundation of Australia (ARRFA) and the RCD
Management Group (a national agency) have  combined  to produce a field
handbook which contains up-to-date information on RCD, how landowners
can
make the most effective use of it and follow-up techniques that they can
use to maximise its impact.

The handbook was written by Dr Brian Coman, an active RCD researcher,
and
its  full title is :

RABBIT CONTROL AND RABBIT CALICIVIRUS DISEASE:
A Field Handbook for Land Managers in Australia.

The handbook includes:

        *  data and information on the need for rabbit control
        *  background on RCD, how it works, its history and introduction
        *  how to identify rabbits killed by RCD
        *  how to obtain RCD
        *  how to maximise the effect of RCD with appropriate follow-up
action
        *  ongoing research on RCD
        *  how to obtain further information.

The handbook will be launched at 11:30 am,  December 16 at Barwon Park
in
Gelong, Victoria, where Thomas Austin first released European rabbits
into
Australia in 1859.  it will be launched by Prof Frank Fenner, who
performed
the initial research on myxomatosis and was instrumental in its
introduction  to Australia.

The handbook has been jointly produced by ARRFA and the RCD Management
Group, and was made possible by sponsorship from a number of other
organisations, including Rotary's ACRE project, The Adelaide Zoo,
Monarto
Zoological Park, The National Parks Foundation of SA, The SA National
Parks
and Wildlife Service, WMC and some individual benefactors.

While RCD has only been released for about one year, monitoring shows
that
it is most effective in arid and semi-arid areas; less effective in cool
temperate zones. As the handbook explains, new techniques of spreading
the
virus by means of baits are being trialled. promising a cheaper and
perhaps
more effective method of rabbit control in cooler areas. In the
meantime,
conventional rabbit control procedures are essential to prevent rabbit
populations from recovering following the initial impact of RCD.

An initial print run of 100 000 copies of the handbook has been
produced,
and copies will  be distributed free of charge by Pest Control Agencies
in
each state and territory and by the various organisations who have
contributed funds for its publication. The handbook will also be placed
on
the internet to allow the greatest access to its important information.

Organisers hope that the simultaneous widespread release of the
information in the handbook, both online and in booklet form, will help
ensure that conventional controls are equally widespread, co-ordinated 
and
effective.


===========================================

Rabbit Information Service,
P.O.Box 30,
Riverton,
Western Australia 6148

Email>  rabbit@wantree.com.au

http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm
(Rabbit Information Service website updated frequently)

     /`\   /`\
    (/\ \-/ /\)
       )6 6(
     >{= Y =}<
      /'-^-'\
     (_)   (_)
      |  .  |
      |     |}
 jgs  \_/^\_/









Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 15:27:39
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] WHO calls for ban on antibiotic use in animal feed
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971211152739.0a2fc552@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

According to a report on the BBC World Service TV news, the World Health
Organisation has issued a report which raises health concerns about the use
of antibiotics in animal feeds for growth promotion & disease prevention as
well as actual disease treatment.

The WHO report recommends that:

(a) The use of antibiotics in farm animals be restricted to the treatment
of actual diseases

(b) There be more research into antibiotic resistance and the emergment of
new cases of food poisoning.



Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 15:58:56 -0800
From: LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Newswire: NASA Blamed In Monkey Death 
Message-ID: <199712112350.SAA08272@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Russian Space Official Blames NASA in Space Monkey 
Death

AP
11-DEC-97

MOSCOW (AP) A senior Russian space official 
said NASA helped kill a space monkey by urging 
that surgery be performed on the animal too soon
after it returned to Earth, a newspaper reported 
Thursday. 

Russia was also at fault for yielding to NASA's 
urgings to collect samples of bone and muscle 
cells during the operation two days after the 
rhesus monkey completed its space mission, 
Inesa Kozlovskaya was quoted as saying by the 
daily Obshchaya Gazeta.

"We knew full well that during the first two days 
after return from space, astronauts whether humans 
or animals must be treated very gently," Kozlovskaya
 was quoted by the daily as saying. 

NASA pulled out of the U.S.-Russian-French project
earlier this year, after the monkey died in January. The 
U.S. space agency said the risk to the animals was 
unacceptable. 

Kozlovskaya said the loss of NASA's participation will 
hurt the research project, which studies bone loss 
and the effects of space travel on astronauts' muscles, 
according to the newspaper. 

The United States had allocated $15.5 million for the 
project to send the monkeys into space aboard two 
Russian space flights. It was not known how much 
money Russia lost when NASA pulled out before 
the second flight. 

Kozlovskaya said the next flight, planned for next year, 
will go without monkeys. Tentative plans call for sending 
rats instead. 

Multik, the monkey that died, was one of two monkeys 
on the two-week space flight. The other monkey survived 
the post-flight operation. 

The space monkey research project had drawn 
strong protests from animal rights activists.
One of the most prominent, French actress Brigitte 
Bardot, had lobbied the U.S. Congress to cut funding 
for the flights. 

Copyright 1997 & The Associated Press. All rights 
reserved.

Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: LCartLng@gvn.net, phone: 800-348-7387 x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"Civil liberties are always safe as long as their exercise doesn't
bother anyone."   New York Times editorial, 1-3-41






Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 16:12:28 -0800
From: LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Cc: primate-talk@primate.wisc.edu
Subject: Goodall Says, "Human Needs Must Also Be Met" 
Message-ID: <199712120003.TAA10054@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Goodall: To Protect Animals, Human Needs Must Be Met

AP
09-DEC-97

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) Jane Goodall, renowned for her study of chimpanzees, said
Tuesday human needs must be considered too when protecting wild animals and
their
habitats. 

"If you want to protect an area, you've got to pay attention to the needs of
the people
living around it," Goodall said at a dinner sponsored by the East African
Wildlife Society. 

The chimps she made familiar around the world in the 1960s are now cramped
into a
30-square mile "little piece of paradise" in Gombe National Park on the
shore of Lake
Tanganyika, she said. 

As the human population in the region has soared, people have chopped down
trees for
firewood, clearing forest right up to the park's borders. 

The loss of rain and canopy forests has helped reduce the chimpanzee
population in 21
African countries to 250,000 from 2 million at the turn of the century,
Goodall said. 

But she urged conservationists to remember that "we don't just care about the
chimpanzees. If all the chimpanzees and all the forests go, then people are
suffering too." 

"These are the kind of scenes we are familiar with across Africa. We find
this terrible
degradation of the habitat. We find what was once lush and green turning into an
ever-creeping desert," she said. 

The Jane Goodall Institute has started projects in 27 Tanzanian villages on Lake
Tanganyika to encourage conservation and reforestation, as well as provide
jobs and
loans to women to start small businesses. 

The project also includes primary health care, AIDS education and family
planning. 

Goodall's career began in Nairobi, where she met anthropologist Louis
Leakey. He sent her
to study chimps in Tanzania in 1960. 

She said she still remembers in those days, "waking up and finding I was in
my dream." 

Copyright 1997 & The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

===================

Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: LCartLng@gvn.net, phone: 800-348-7387 x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"Civil liberties are always safe as long as their exercise doesn't
bother anyone."   New York Times editorial, 1-3-41






Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 16:24:30 -0800
From: LCartLng@gvn.net (Lawrence Carter-Long)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Cc: primate-talk@primate.wisc.edu
Subject: Goodall: Chimpanzees threatened by illegal hunting
Message-ID: <199712120015.TAA11486@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Goodall: Chimpanzees most threatened by illegal hunting

December 11, 1997
Web posted at: 12:05 a.m. EST (0505 GMT) 

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) --Chimpanzees already endangered by
human-carried diseases and the loss of their habitat now face 
an even greater threat -- poachers who have traded spears for 
automatic rifles. 

Jane Goodall, the British scientist renowned for her study of
chimpanzees, said logging roads winding deep into African forests
have left chimpanzees vulnerable to the poachers, who find ready 
markets for the meat at home but also as far away as Europe. 

While in the past the hunters relied on nets, spears and other traditional
weapons, they now are using shotguns and automatic rifles, enabling them
to kill more quickly, she told a news conference Wednesday. 

"I think the bush meat trade is probably the greatest danger in many central
and west African countries," Goodall said. "What was subsistence hunting
is now business." Together with the destruction of forests for firewood and
lumber, the hunting of chimpanzees has reduced their population to 250,000
in 21 African countries from 2 million at the turn of the century, Goodall
said. 

Although chimpanzees and gorillas are protected species in the countries
where they are hunted, she said the laws are poorly enforced and demand
for the meat is wide. 

Chimpanzee and gorilla are on menus
in cities from Cameroon to Congo, and
as far away as Paris and Brussels,
according to the World Wide Fund for
Nature. The meat is served dried,
smoked and as steak or stew. 

Goodall, who has studied Tanzania's
chimpanzees for 38 years, said she is a
vegetarian because "I don't want to
eat anything that represents fear, pain
and death." 

Lumber companies owned by Germans, Britons, Japanese and Americans
are punching great networks of roads into forests, she said. Human traffic
on the roads expose chimps and gorillas to deadly diseases, including
measles and polio. 

Employees of timber companies often rely on bush meat as a source of
protein, and logging trucks are known to ferry large quantities of bush meat
out to cities and towns. 

A recent survey by the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Republic of
Congo found meat from 19 gorillas in a market in northern Ouesso over 11
weeks. A similar study by the International Primate Protection League
estimated 400 to 600 gorillas are killed each year in the northern Republic of
Congo. 

Chimps also are maimed by hunters. In three separate study areas in the
Ivory Coast and Uganda, up to 50 percent of adults chimps had lost a hand
or a foot to snares, Goodall said. 

The Jane Goodall Institute, with U.S. headquarters in Silver Springs,
Maryland, is making plans to help young people in Africa breed cane rats
to replace bush meat, Goodall said. 

Goodall, who lives in England and Tanzania, was in Kenya to raise money
for conservation efforts. 

Copyright 1997   The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

Lawrence Carter-Long
Science and Research Issues, Animal Protection Institute
email: LCartLng@gvn.net, phone: 800-348-7387 x. 215
world wide web: http://www.api4animals.org/

"Civil liberties are always safe as long as their exercise doesn't
bother anyone."   New York Times editorial, 1-3-41






Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 20:27:42 -0500
From: Liz Grayson 
To: mmarkarian@fund.org
Cc: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Re: Reminder: Ch. 7 Poll on Deer Hunting
Message-ID: <3490930D.4789@earthlink.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

as of today:  pro hunting is 75%
                     we are 20%  (approx)

Liz


Michael Markarian wrote:
> 
> The Ch. 7 web site poll on whether deer should be hunted is running neck and
> neck about 50/50. Please visit the site and vote "NO" if you have not done
> so already:
> 
> http://www.abc7dc.com
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 21:00:12 -0500 (EST)
From: Jean Colison 
To: Ar-news 
Subject: killing bears at Yosemite
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

                         3 Bears Too Clever to Live
                         At Yosemite, Sharing Human Tastes Can Be Deadly

                         By William Booth
                         Washington Post Staff Writer
                         Thursday, December 11, 1997; Page A01

                         YOSEMITE VALLEY, Calif.—Bear Number 2061, a
                         beautiful sweet-smelling blonde with a white
                         blaze on her chest, had become a problem
                         animal, a repeat offender with a rap sheet four
                         pages long -- a dumpster diver, a mauler of
                         cars, and worse. Her death was foretold.

                         The biologists nicknamed her Miney, and with
                         her two cubs by her side, she worked the
                         parking lots of Yosemite Valley, sniffing and
                         searching, until she found the locked vehicles
                         that smelled -- if ever so faintly -- of human
                         food.

                         And then Miney placed her long, stout
                         pencil-thick claws on the automobile door frame
                         and heaved, until the window popped, the glass
                         shattered, the metal frame twisted, and the car
                         opened like a can of beans, available for
                         consumption. She sent the cubs in first and
                         they often tore their way through the back
                         seat, en route to the trunk, as if they were
                         ripping a log apart on a hunt for termites.

                         Kate McCurdy had her eye on Miney for several
                         years. Though the bear had never hurt a
                         visitor, her behavior had become increasingly
                         brazen. She was observed on at least 20
                         occasions breaking into vehicles -- sometimes
                         early in the evening as a crowd looked on,
                         appalled yet mesmerized.

                         To those so inclined, McCurdy's work might seem
                         like a dream come true, working as a wildlife
                         biologist in the glacier-carved cathedral of
                         America's most glorious national park. Except
                         that McCurdy now hates her job. Or more
                         specifically, this part of it.

                         "I didn't get into this to kill animals," she
                         said quietly in the apple orchard that serves
                         as a parking lot for Curry Village in the
                         commercial heart of Yosemite Valley. Those were
                         about the only words spoken during the early
                         morning hours, when she and three other
                         wildlife specialists performed their duty with
                         a grim efficiency -- and a quiet respect for
                         the condemned.

                         Though many visitors do not realize it, the
                         wild places and wild creatures Americans
                         treasure have become increasingly managed by
                         man -- down to the smallest details.

                         Today, the endangered panthers of the Florida
                         Everglades are kept extant with the
                         introduction of new gene lines from Texas
                         cougars. The Colorado River that roars through
                         the Grand Canyon is released by the twist of a
                         knob from engineers at a dam upstream. And the
                         black bear population of Yosemite, a delight
                         for sightseers, has become divided into good
                         bears and bad bears.

                         A good bear eats acorns and elderberries, is
                         wary of humans, and is rarely seen. A bad bear
                         likes chili-cheese nachos and car
                         air-fresheners. These bears are bold, are
                         viewed all the time, and display little fear,
                         even after being repeatedly assailed -- as
                         Miney and her cubs were -- with pepper spray,
                         slingshots, firecrackers and bear dogs. They
                         have developed behaviors that put them on a
                         collision course with humans, or more
                         accurately, with human possessions.

                         Bear attacks in Yosemite are exceedingly rare,
                         fatalities nonexistent, but property damage
                         this year alone is estimated to have reached
                         $500,000 -- a record -- with more than 600
                         documented car break-ins from the spring until
                         now, as the bears begin to disappear for their
                         winter hibernation.

                         There is a reason bears perform in the circus.
                         They are extremely clever, and very dexterous.
                         "I'm always amazed at how smart they are," said
                         Steve Thompson, McCurdy's boss and the other
                         wildlife biologist at Yosemite. "It makes
                         situations like this all the more tragic when
                         you recognize that you're dealing with an
                         almost conscious animal."

                         McCurdy has seen bears unscrew peanut butter
                         jars with their paws. She has watched them open
                         food lockers, using one paw and their snout to
                         trip the latch.

                         When the park introduced dumpsters whose mouths
                         shut like a mailbox, the bears learned to climb
                         up, open the slot, and drop down into the
                         dumpsters, head first, to disappear into the
                         garbage, with only their back legs clinging to
                         the open door. Hundreds of bears have slipped
                         during this delicate maneuver to become trapped
                         inside. If the garbage collectors, on their
                         morning rounds, do not find them first, they
                         can be emptied into the truck's compactors and
                         crushed. A handful of bears have died this way
                         in the last few years.

                         In the back country, bears are now found at
                         higher elevations that held little food for
                         them until the arrival of backpackers. Hikers
                         were once instructed to hang their supplies
                         over tree limbs with a rope, until the bears
                         learned to chew through the cords. Now,
                         backpackers are supposed to cache their food in
                         a complex counterbalance method, but bear sows
                         are -- somehow, it is a mystery --
                         communicating with their cubs, who climb the
                         tree and bounce up and down on the tree
                         branches until the food sacks fall, or failing
                         that, climb above the caches and dive down onto
                         the bundles.

                         The two full-time wildlife biologists at
                         Yosemite are quick to point out that the real
                         problem animal is, of course, not the black
                         bear but the visitor -- and the concessionaires
                         and park managers who, citing tight budgets,
                         have delayed too long employing anti-bear
                         strategies such as food lockers and secure
                         dumpsters.

                         Bear management in places like Yosemite,
                         however, has evolved over the years and shows
                         clearly how human perceptions of nature and its
                         denizens have changed.

                         Beginning in the 1920s, as park managers worked
                         to build a constituency of visitors, the bears
                         were baited to "feeding pits" in the valley and
                         fed restaurant scraps, for the enjoyment of
                         guests. But the pits encouraged bears to rely
                         on human food and so the animals became ever
                         more intrusive and the pits were phased out by
                         the mid-1950s. Visitors, however, simply
                         shifted their viewing to the smoldering open
                         garbage dumps, where the bears feasted on
                         refuse until the dumps were closed in the early
                         1970s -- in part to control the bears and to
                         restore the valley to a more pleasing
                         aesthetic.

                         Yet as they had now adapted to high-fat fast
                         foods, the bears had become serious "pests."
                         Until 1975, it was park policy to routinely
                         kill problem animals in the valley. Accurate
                         records were not kept, but Thompson said that
                         as many as 60 bears may have been shot each
                         year. It was not until hikers discovered a bear
                         burial mound on a cliffside that a public
                         outcry led to new management practices.

                         The park, with the support of the private
                         Yosemite Fund, has been slowly installing
                         anti-bear food lockers at campsites and rigging
                         dumpsters with snap-locks. But opportunities
                         still abound. In Yosemite Valley alone, there
                         are 325 trash cans, 227 dumpsters and 300
                         recycling bins -- most outfitted now with
                         devices to foil the bears, but not all. There
                         is still a dearth of lockers at the popular
                         tent cabins and at trailheads, leaving little
                         alternative but for visitors to hide extra food
                         in car trunks. This is still, indeed, allowed.
                         But it is a big mistake.

                         While no bear is born "bad," Miney may have
                         learned her bad habits from her mother. The
                         biologists nicknamed the mother "Swatter" and
                         Thompson, sitting in his truck on a recent
                         hunt, while on stakeout for Miney, explained
                         why.

                         "I've never encountered a bear as aggressive as
                         she was," Thompson said. "She swatted this
                         British tourist across the face and lacerated
                         him. This was after we had relocated her once
                         by helicopter, she and her three cubs,
                         including Miney, which is really complex and
                         expensive, and two weeks later they were back
                         and she went after the British tourist.

                         "He'd improperly stored his food nearby, sat up
                         and she jumped on him, whacked him once and ran
                         away. So, we went up there to catch her and all
                         of a sudden, we heard this screaming and
                         hollering, these people with their flashlights
                         running around and there she was . . . like a
                         scene out of Dante's Inferno."

                         Thompson found Swatter in the spotlights. "She
                         was staring at us, sizing us up, talk about
                         aggressive. I darted her right in the chest. It
                         was pandemonium."

                         Swatter was euthanized in 1993, but her three
                         cubs -- tagged and identified -- were allowed
                         to live. McCurdy feared they might starve, but
                         early this summer, Miney reappeared in Yosemite
                         Valley with two cubs of her own. They quickly
                         got into trouble. The Bear Activity Log tells
                         the story, in 26 separate entries:

                         "Cubs in vehicle, sow eating food out in woods.
                         Window pulled out."

                         "Camper shell popped open."

                         "Bears (all three) in van with lots of eats in
                         and out. Extremely difficult to scare away.
                         Bluff charge."

                         "Door frame pulled down and seat torn. Both
                         cubs seen on top of vehicle. Cubs scared away
                         by horn, sow by using sling shot. Estimated
                         damage $1,000. This break-in occurred 15
                         minutes after chasing all three into rocks
                         behind tent cabins."

                         Miney, like her mother before her, had been
                         relocated away from the populous valley several
                         times. But researchers now believe that
                         relocations do not work.

                         "We recognize that it is a tragedy to have to
                         destroy any black bear in the park," McCurdy
                         wrote in her official memorandum asking
                         permission to destroy Miney, "let alone one
                         with two cubs. It has been especially difficult
                         for us to give up on these bears, as the
                         presence of human foods in Curry Village has
                         clearly led to their demise. Almost half the
                         cars these bears break into have had copious
                         amounts of food inside, a situation easily
                         remedied by provision of food storage
                         facilities in the Curry area and strengthening
                         of food storage regulations."

                         The order was signed.

                         And so on a night late last month cold enough
                         to freeze standing water, McCurdy and Thompson,
                         along with seasonal workers Dan Walsh and Tori
                         Seher, met in the parking lot at Curry Village.
                         With still warm leftover prime rib donated from
                         the valley's Ahwahnee Hotel kitchen, the
                         biologists rigged some bait in an apple tree
                         and waited for bears. Over the next four hours,
                         six bears were sighted. But no Miney. The
                         biologists dispersed after midnight and went
                         home for a few hours' sleep.

                         At dawn, when they returned, the parking lot at
                         Curry Village looked like the aftermath of a
                         looter's rampage. Seven cars had been hit,
                         their doors pried open as if by crowbars. But
                         this was the work of bears.

                         Tufts of fur clung to one window of a maroon
                         Saab. Smeared paw prints, measuring four inches
                         -- Miney's size -- covered a Toyota Celica's
                         doors and roof. The car's interior looked like
                         it had fielded a rugby match.

                         As McCurdy made her rounds, early-rising
                         visitors gawked at the damage. Tourists came
                         out to see their cars trashed, their vacations
                         ruined. One gruff guest told McCurdy, "You
                         ought to kill them bears." Then, over his
                         shoulder: "I'll get my gun and help you."

                         That night, McCurdy and her companions began
                         their stakeout after midnight. An hour later,
                         the bear and her two cubs were spotted. "Oh,
                         boy," McCurdy sighed.

                         Miney's last crime scene was a rented silver
                         Geo Metro and her last meal -- rooted out of
                         the trunk, as the cubs tore their way through
                         the back seat -- was a jar of salsa, a brick of
                         tofu and a grapefruit.

                         It was completely quiet in the apple orchard
                         parking lot as McCurdy and Thompson loaded
                         their guns with barbed darts filled with
                         ketamine and xylazine. They slowly approached
                         the car. Miney turned and watched them. The
                         cubs, chowing down in the back seat, emerged.
                         And then: Pop. Pop. Pop.

                         Miney, hit, ambled away, circling the car until
                         she began to weave like a drunk. Then she
                         stopped, sat on her haunches and crumbled in a
                         heap. Both cubs climbed an apple tree after
                         being darted. One eventually fell like a sack
                         of potatoes. The other passed out in the
                         branches and had to be chased and darted again.

                         Miney, who weighed about 220 pounds, was rolled
                         onto a gurney. She flopped over on her back.
                         Her light brown fur was soft to the touch and
                         she smelled woodsy.

                         In the chill night air, McCurdy pulled on a
                         pair of surgical gloves and drew 10 cc of
                         succinylcholine chloride into a big syringe.
                         She felt for the thick vein on the inside of
                         the bear's right hind leg. Miney lay there, her
                         tongue lolling, eyes glazed but open. McCurdy
                         found the vein, slid the needle home, depressed
                         the plunger and waited for death to come.

                         It did not come quickly.

                         McCurdy squatted beside the bear and placed her
                         hand on the animal's chest, feeling her heart.

                         At first, it beat strong and measured, but as
                         the poison moved through Miney's system, the
                         rhythm quickened, became irregular, faster,
                         then slowed, grew faint and finally could not
                         be felt. And then the bear began to jerk and
                         twitch. This took another few minutes. In a
                         gesture old and unconscious, McCurdy held the
                         bear's paw for a moment. She stood up, exhaled
                         deeply and said, "Okay, let's do the cub."

                         After a few hours, all three were dead and
                         loaded into the bed of one of the trucks. The
                         biologists drove the bears to a hidden place
                         and rolled them onto the ground, where they
                         will become food for other bears, ravens,
                         coyotes and bugs, problem animals no more.

                        © Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company


Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 18:37:10 -0800
From: Dena Jones 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Freedom of Information Act Requests
Message-ID: <3490A356.73F0@gvn.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION:

The Animal Protection Institute (API) would like to hear from anyone who 
has requested information from the United States Department of 
Agriculture / Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA/APHIS) 
pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. Section 552.

API would like to hear from organizations and individuals who have filed 
such requests within the last year.  We are particularly interested in 
hearing from groups that publish newsletters.

If you have filed a FOIA request with USDA/APHIS, please contact Sheila 
Hughes Rodriguez, API Counsel, at onlineapi@aol.com or 800-348-7387.

Thank you.
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 23:27:03 -0500 (EST)
From: PAWS 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: King Royal Decision
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

     PAWS learned today that the decision of the USDA administrative 
hearing on the King Royal Circus has been handed down.  King Royal's 
permits have been permanently revoked and a $200,000 fine has also been 
imposed on the circus. 

PAWS will post continuing details as we receive them as well as the 
official press release from the USDA when it is available. 

Thanks to all of you who wrote, called, and faxed the USDA, demanding 
tough action against King Royal. 

We'll keep you informed of all further developments.
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 12:35:11 +0800
From: bunny 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (USA)AR and GE news
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19971212122833.2e8729a8@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I received this information and am forwarding it on for the information
of anyone who is interested

Kind regards,

Marguerite

FOOD BYTES
News & Analysis on Genetic Engineering & Factory Farming
Issue #4 (December 11, 1997)
by: Ronnie Cummins, Pure Food Campaign USA
email: alliance@mr.net
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1527
____________________________________________________________________
Recent Developments of Note:

* USDA Will Finally Publish Proposed National Organic Standards Dec. 15
* Oprah Winfrey and Howard Lyman's Mad Cow "Food Slander" Trial Scheduled
to  Begin in Texas on Jan. 5, 1998
* FDA Reform & Food Irradiation Bill Signed by Clinton on Nov. 21
* Monsanto's Biotech Blunders and Disasters Continue
____________________________________________________________________
USDA Propaganda Event Will Accompany Release of the Controversial National
Organic Food Standards Dec. 15

After months of delay the U.S. Department of Agriculture will unveil its
long-awaited and highly controversial proposed federal regulations on
organic foods Dec. 15. In a blatant attempt to manipulate news coverage and
blunt anticipated criticism, the USDA has scheduled a tightly-scripted "by
invitation only" 9 a.m. Washington, D.C. press conference on Dec. 15, a
full hour, if not a full day, before the 600-page standards are made public
over the internet and published in the Federal Register. At the 45-minute
Dec. 15  "press conference," which will be closed to the general public,
USDA bureaucrats--joined by a token member of the natural food industry,
Organic Trade Association President Mark Retzloff--plan to spin their
propaganda message to what they anticipate will be a docile audience of
government bureaucrats and industry insiders. The USDA will deliberately
not make copies of the organic rules available to their invited guests at
the 9 a.m. gathering, nor to the Washington, D.C. press corps who will be
herded together for their own Dog and Pony show at 10 a.m.

Both of these USDA public relations events are designed to be vague and
non-specific, avoiding, if at all possible, a discussion of the
controversial issues. Following these so-called press conferences the USDA
and the Clinton administration will apparently refuse to discuss the
proposed organic standards for the next 90-120 days.

Supporters of strict organic standards and a ban on genetic engineering
warn that yet another "press briefing" complementing the USDA show,
sponsored by the Organic Trade Association, whose spokesperson Catherine
DiMatteo supports the inclusion of biotech inputs under the organic label,
may deliberately or inadvertently become part of the USDA whitewash by
creating the illusion that supporters of "strict" organic standards are
being allowed to "have their say" as well. At its fall meeting at the
Baltimore Natural Products Expo, dissident members of the OTA expressed
strong opposition to several current OTA leaders' attempts to weaken their
organization's strict ban on genetically engineered foods.

In spite of Monday's propaganda show, beginning at least by Tuesday, Dec.
16, it will become more difficult for the Clinton administration to hide
their dirty deeds. On Dec. 16 (and perhaps as early as 10 a.m. on Dec. 15)
the proposed national organic standards, as required by law, will be
published in the Federal Register, as well as on the internet at
 or .
Unfortunately by the time anyone has a chance to digest the voluminous
document, the U.S. mainstream press will very likely have already filed
their fluff stories from the day before, and consequently may no longer be
that interested in "old news." In any case as soon as the rules are posted
on the internet and thousands of natural food consumers and producers
across the country learn that the USDA plans to significantly weaken and
degrade organic standards, there is likely to be a grassroots rebellion. A
sizeable national coalition, rallying under the slogan SOS (Save Organic
Standards) is already starting to develop. The coalition plans to organize
a letter-writing campaign to the USDA during the official 90-120 day
comment period, organize educational forums, leaflet supermarkets, stage
demonstrations at USDA offices, and, if necessary, sue the government in
federal court.

Under the new proposed federal regulations, the USDA alone will decide what
can and what cannot be legally certified and labeled as "organic." This
means that it will likely soon be illegal for producers and retailers to
uphold and promote standards stricter than the USDA allows. Conversely, if
the USDA does not explicitly prohibit a questionable agricultural
production method, then it will be allowed. Currently when consumers shop
for foods labeled organic, they can be reasonably certain of what they're
getting. But under the proposed December 15 USDA laws, although there may
be vague promises and ambiguous language, there will most likely be no
explicit prohibitions against:

 Genetic Engineering--Using genetic engineering to produce foods

 Factory Farming--Using inhumane, intensive confinement factory farm-style
production methods on farm animals

 Toxic Sludge--Spreading toxic sewage sludge and industrial wastes, often
disguised as fertilizer, on farm lands and pastures

 Animal Cannibalism--Feeding back diseased and waste animal body parts,
organs, manure, and blood to farm animals and pets

 Nuclear Irradiation--Using radioactive nuclear wastes to "kill bacteria"
and prolong the shelf life of food products

Stay tuned to the next issue of Food Bytes #5 on December 16 for an SOS
Action Alert.
____________________________________________________________________
Oprah Winfrey and Howard Lyman's Mad Cow "Food Slander" Trial Scheduled to
Begin in Amarillo, Texas on Jan. 5, 1998

Criticizing agribusiness has now been made a crime in the United States, at
least in 13  states. On Jan. 5 African-American talk show host Oprah
Winfrey and cattle rancher turned vegetarian food activist Howard Lyman of
the Humane Society of the U.S. will become the first Americans to face
charges under the infamous "food slander" statutes. Two wealthy Texas
cattlemen have sued Winfrey and Lyman because of a nationally broadcast TV
program on April 16, 1996 in which shocked viewers learned that U.S.
agricultural practices, namely animal cannibalism--the feeding of diseased
and waste animal parts back to farm animals and pets on an industrial
scale--are likely to lead to a domestic Mad Cow crisis in the USA. (See
Food Bytes #2 for a review of the new book by Sheldon Rampton and John
Stauber Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?)

A spokesman for Oprah Winfrey, David Margulies, says Oprah plans to attend
the trial, which attorneys say could last three to six weeks. Unconfirmed
reports are that Winfrey will move her hugely popular TV show to Amarillo
for the duration of the trial. In a recent statement, Winfrey maintains
that America's food slander laws pose a threat to First Amendment rights of
free speech and freedom of the press. Winfrey says, "I maintain my right to
ask questions and to hold a public debate on issues that impact the general
public and my audience." A recent poll found that Oprah Winfrey was the
most admired and popular celebrity in the United States.

In a recent article in Nov.-Dec. 1997 issue of The Ecologist (U.K), Ben
Lilliston and I attempted to put the Oprah Winfrey-Howard Lyman food
slander trial in historical perspective:

"In recent years, with the globalization and industrialization of food
production and the emergence of the Mad Cow and e-coli crises, the public
has become even more concerned about food safety and other health-related
agricultural issues. Recent polls in the U.S. have found 80% of all
consumers expressing concern about issues such as pesticide and antibiotic
residues, genetic engineering, animal feeding practices, and bacterial
contamination. Hardly a month goes by without the media publicizing the
latest food scare."

"Concern over food safety has now begun to affect the purchasing habits of
American consumers, creating a demand for healthier food and a
multi-billion dollar market for organic products. Consumer backlash to
tainted meat and produce have cost American agribusiness billions of
dollars in lost sales and have hampered the introduction of new industrial
food production technologies such as genetic engineering and food
irradiation. Dissent and political activism have steadily increased over
the last five years. Eating and purchasing food has now become a political
act for millions of Americans--and American agribusiness is alarmed."

Food Bytes looks forward to covering the Oprah Winfrey-Howard Lyman food
slander trial over the next couple of months. Stay tuned. Our prediction is
that this unprecedented trial will turn out to be a public relations
disaster for factory farming and America's beef cartels.
____________________________________________________________________
FDA Reform & Food Irradiation Bill Signed by Clinton on Nov. 21

On November 21, President Clinton signed into law Senate Bill 830, the
so-called Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997. The Bill
was designed primarily to speed up approval of drugs and medical devices,
especially cancer and AIDS drugs. Despite the original intent of S. 830,
factory farm and biotech lobbyists managed to insert provisions into the
bill which would have preempted and basically outlawed labeling by states
on genetically engineered foods such as recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone
(rBGH or rBST)) and "cruelty-free" cosmetics. A number of U.S. states now
have laws on the books permitting dairies to label their products as
"rBGH-free," as well as laws on cruelty-free cosmetics. After considerable
pressure from public interest and animal protection organizations, these
provisions in S. 830 were eventually dropped. The final version of the bill
also eliminated an earlier amendment which would have classified dietary
supplements as drugs, rather than food products.

Factory farm and multinational food interests did manage to insert a
"Trojan Horse" labeling provision into S. 830, however. The bill calls on
the FDA to approve the irradiation of beef with nuclear wastes to kill
bacteria and prolong the shelf life of foods. However, given the fact that
77% of the American public recently declared their opposition to irradiated
foods in a September poll by CBS News, Congressional supporters of food
irradiation cleverly decided to weaken current U.S. laws which require
relatively clear labeling of foods (but not spices or the ingredients in
processed foods) which have been irradiated. Under the new law, after food
manufacturers have nuked a food product, they will be required only to
divulge this fact in tiny letters on the back of the food package. And of
course restaurants and institutional food providers (schools, hospitals,
company employee cafeterias) are not required to notify consumers at all.
Even this was not enough for some industry lobbyists, who stressed that the
word "nuclear irradiation" should not appear at all on irradiated
foods--but rather should be replaced by more reassuring terms such as "cold
pasteurization" or "pico waved."

Following the formal FDA approval of nuking beef products on December 2,
(it's already legal, though uncommon for U.S. food manufacturers to
irradiate other meats and poultry, as well as spices, grains and
vegetables), the industry PR machinery went into high gear. The basic
pre-packaged message was the same in nearly every newspaper, TV news
report, and talk show across the country: irradiation is absolutely safe,
irradiation is the only way to solve America's food safety crisis,
irradiation does not damage the nutritional value of foods, nor create
carcinogenic by-products. Opponents of food irradiation such as Food and
Water, the Cancer Prevention Coalition, and the Pure Food Campaign thereby
become by definition scare-mongers, Luddites, and technophobes. A few
mainstream media outlets did allow us to say a few words from our
perspective, however. Here's an op-ed piece from us which was printed in
the Chicago Sun-Times Dec. 5:

"It's a shame to see the Sun-Times and other U.S. media swallow the
propaganda from the nuclear industry about food irradiation. The Sun-Times
would have us believe that our only chance against E. coli is irradiation.
Unfortunately, irradiation creates as many problems as it solves.

Irradiating meat exposes it to the equivalent of millions of medical
X-rays--a level lethal to humans. While the irradiated food itself is not
radioactive, it does cause chemical changes in food. Studies have shown
that irradiation destroys many essential vitamins and nutrients and that it
produces carcinogenic by-products.

It also should be noted that the long-term effects of eating irradiated
foods are not known. Results from some previous animal and human tests are
worrisome. Animals fed irradiated foods have developed testicular tumors,
kidney disease, shorter life-spans and reproductive difficulties.

Irradiation is not the proper option for protecting our meat. Healthy
animals and humane, sanitary packing houses--with zero tolerance for fecal
contamination and dangerous pathogens--are the real solution. In addition,
new steam-cleaning technologies have proven effective against E-coli.

The millions of deaths and illnesses associated with bacterial
contamination of meat must be addressed. But we shouldn't jump to embrace a
technology promoted by the nuclear industry, which is looking to unload its
nuclear weapons by-products."
____________________________________________________________________
Monsanto and Friends' Biotech Blunders and Disasters Continue

Monsanto and the other gene engineers have suffered a number of
technological and public relations "glitches" over the past few years, as
Food Bytes readers are not doubt aware. These biotech blunders and
disasters include:

* The massive marketplace failure of Monsanto's billion dollar flagship
product, rBGH. After three years on the marketplace, only 4% of America's
dairy cows are being shot up with the drug. Wall Street analysts told
Business Week magazine in 1996 that due to farmer and consumer opposition
(and the fact that rBGH damages the health of cows) the drug was a total
failure, and that in economic terms it should be taken off the market. In
scientific and public health terms data continues to pile up that
significantly increased levels of the human growth hormone factor, IGF-1,
in genetically engineered milk and dairy products constitute a serious
human health risk for increased breast and colon cancer. In addition
scientific studies have recently been brought to the attention of the World
Health Organization that injecting mammals with genetically engineered
growth hormones very likely increases their susceptibility to deadly,
incurable brain-wasting diseases such as BSE, commonly known as Mad Cow
Disease, or its human variant, CJD. Consequently the WHO, the European
Union, and the Codex Alimentarius are unlikely to ever approve rBGH as a
safe drug, leaving the U.S. as the only industrialized nation in the world
to have approved rBGH.

* In mid-1996 Monsanto/Calgene's highly-touted "Flavr Savr" tomato was
taken off the market, ostensibly because of production failures and genetic
glitches. Earlier the DNAP corporation's gene-altered "Endless Summer"
tomato didn't even make it through its test marketing phase.

* Initial seed crops of Monsanto's Bt-spliced "NatureGuard" potatoes in
1996 suffered from severe plant virus damage.

* Monsanto's entire Canadian genetically engineered rapeseed or canola crop
had to be recalled earlier this year because of unexplained "technical
difficulties."

* Up to a million acres or 50% of Monsanto's Bt Cotton crop in the U.S.
were attacked by bollworms in 1996, prompting lawsuits by outraged cotton
growers who claim they were defrauded by Monsanto.

* Mississippi cotton farmers are preparing to sue Monsanto for damages
arising from cotton boll damage or deformities in the 1997 "Roundup Ready"
cotton harvest.

* Field tests in Europe have shown that genetically engineered rapeseed
plants are causing "biological pollution" and spreading their mutant DNA
characteristics to neighboring plants. Other tests have shown that
gene-spliced crops are harming or killing beneficial insects and
pollinators such as Ladybugs (Ladybirds) and honey bees, and that pests are
rapidly developing resistance to gene-altered Bt crops.

* In October Greenpeace and other NGOs revealed that soybean plants sprayed
with Roundup are more estrogenic and are therefore possibly hormone or
endocrine system disruptors. Dairy cows eating "Roundup Ready" soybeans are
producing milk with different chemical characteristics (higher fat levels)
than cows who are eating regular soybeans.

* Most recently Irish authorities made public U.S. EPA documents that
revealed that Monsanto's supposedly Roundup-resistant sugar beets were
dying in alarming numbers after having been sprayed with Roundup.

In the future we can expect more, not less, of these biotech blunders and
gene glitches.
Food Bytes will look closer at this recipe for disaster in upcoming issues.

End of Food Bytes #4 (December 11, 1997)
____________________________________________________________________












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Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 23:42:14 -0500
From: Shirley McGreal 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Yerkes employee dies of herpes B
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19971212044214.0072198c@awod.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From CNN, December 11, 1997, Web posted at: 8:46 p.m. EST (0146 GMT) 

ATLANTA (CNN) -- A researcher at Emory University's primate center has died
after contracting herpes B from a monkey, the center announced Thursday. 

The researcher was a young woman employed at Emory's Yerkes Primate Center,
a facility known for AIDS research. The woman, whose name was not released,
died Wednesday, about six weeks after she contracted the virus. 

"This is the most profoundly sad moment of an entire career for me," said
Dr. Tom Gordon, who has worked at Yerkes since 1970. 

The woman was hit in the eye by an as-yet-unidentified fluid as she was
moving a caged rhesus monkey, Gordon said. The woman didn't think the
incident was significant until she developed symptoms about 10 days later. 

The herpes B virus is common in monkeys but can be deadly in humans. About
70 percent of the humans who contract the disease die. 

Only about 40 cases of humans contracting herpes B have been reported since
1933, when the first case of a person catching the virus was identified,
said a Yerkes spokeswoman. 

"There is no risk to the general public in what has happened here," the
spokeswoman added. 

The most common mode of infection is through animal bites and scratches.
Exposure can also occur if a human comes in contact with monkey saliva,
secretions or tissue. 

In 1991, a veterinarian died after contracting herpes B from a monkey at HRP
Inc., an Alice, Texas, facility that supplies monkeys to research centers... 

Yerkes' Gordon said that during his three decades at the Atlanta facility,
"we've never so much as had a serious injury beyond a couple of bite wounds
with a day or two of medical care." 

"To have to face you to report a tragic death is absolutely an awful
experience," he said. 

==================================================

IPPL cannot agree with the statement that there is no risk to the general
public as macaques are bred for the pet trade and sold to people who have
never heard of herpes. There is no requirement that the colonies or the
infant monkeys they sell be herpes-free. Must a child die before something
is done? 

|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| Dr. Shirley McGreal             |   PHONE: 803-871-2280                  | 
| Int. Primate Protection League  |   FAX: 803-871-7988                    |
| POB 766                         |   E-MAIL: ippl@awod.com                |
| Summerville SC 29484            |   Web: http://www.ippl.org             | 
|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------|


Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 20:57:49 -0800
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Researcher dies of monkey virus
Message-ID: <3490C44D.189E@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Research worker dies after contracting herpes B virus from monkey

The Associated Press 
ATLANTA (December 11, 1997 9:48 p.m. EST) 

A primate researcher has died after contracting the herpes B virus from
a rhesus monkey in the first known case of the virus being transmitted
through an eye.

The woman, whose name was not released, contracted the virus about six
weeks ago and died Wednesday, said Dr. Tom Gordon, associate director of
scientific programs at the Yerkes Regional Primate Center at Emory
University.

Gordon, who insisted the infection poses no risk to the public, said the
woman was struck in the eye by fluid when she was moving a monkey in a
cage. It has not been determine what the fluid was. The woman was not
wearing eye protection.

"During this transfer, as she tried to look into the cage to check the
status of the monkey, something came out," Gordon told reporters at a
news conference.

"Because it was so minor an event, it was not even viewed by the
individual as serious. She didn't see it as an accident or an injury,"
he said. "It was only when some symptoms developed 10 days or so later
that we began to look at it from that point of view."

Yerkes spokeswoman Kate Egan said it is the first known case of the
virus being transmitted through an eye.

Yerkes officials would only say that the woman was a member of a
research team and would not specify what she did at the center.

Herpes B virus is common among macaque monkeys, which includes rhesus
monkeys, but is fatal in 70 percent of humans who contract the disease.
Gordon said only 40 cases of monkey-to-human transmission have been
recorded since the 1920s, and most of those came
from bites and scratches.

The Yerkes center performs tests on 15 different primate species to find
cures for AIDS, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer.

Gordon said Yerkes employees use masks and gloves, and he said the cage
in this case had a fine mesh to further limit contact.

"This was an extraordinary low-risk kind of activity by any measure we
have," Gordon said.  "There's no way you can get bitten or scratched
doing what she was doing."

The woman was admitted to Emory University Hospital about four weeks
ago. Dr. Carl Perlino said she responded well to anti-viral medication
at first.

"She did do well for perhaps eight to 10 days and then actually went
home," Perlino said. "The day after she was sent home, I got a call
saying she was developing weakness in her legs."

The woman's condition worsened, and she returned to the hospital where
she died.

By STEVE VISSER, Associated Press Writer



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