AR-NEWS Digest 579

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) [UK] Eight held in clashes at animal rally
     by David J Knowles 
  2) (SE) Astrid Lindgren
     by "Carsten Scholvien" 
  3) (US) Civil disobedience, to save animals' lives, is just her
  style
     by allen schubert 
  4) (MX) Bullet-proof animal skin coats
     by Vadivu Govind 
  5) Snake meat a big hit in Hongkong
     by Vadivu Govind 
  6) Portugal censured on Macau bullfights 
     by jwed 
  7) (CN) Centre safe haven for endangered animals 
     by jwed 
  8) Pigeon Shoot Protestor Released
     by Michael Markarian 
  9) ACTION ALERT
     by SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US
 10) (US) Shoot foe freed, vows to keep up Hegins protest
     by allen schubert 
 11) Fwd: (US) Wildlife refuge needs your help -- NJ
     by MagMcCool@aol.com
 12) Alert: Wyoming Bison Under the Gun
     by Michael Markarian 
 13) Alert: Letters Needed for Snowmobile Trail Closure
     by Michael Markarian 
 14) Fw: info request
     by "Leslie Lindemann" 
 15) NJARA PR- Lewis Morris Park 1997 deer slaughter
     by veganman@idt.net (Stuart Chaifetz)
 16) (UK) Animal Fats, Not Just Meat, Key to Heart Disease
     by allen schubert 
 17) (US) Pet Food Tax Considered
     by allen schubert 
 18) (US) Frog Findings Reported
     by allen schubert 
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 22:40:18
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Eight held in clashes at animal rally
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971116224018.0fb7b7c6@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Monday, November 17th, 1997

Eight held in clashes at animal rally
By Barbie Dutter 

AN animal rights protest at a farm that breeds cats for scientific research
erupted in angry clashes between demonstrators and police yesterday.

Eight people were arrested and several suffered minor injuries as 300
protesters gathered outside Hillgrove Farm near Witney, Oxon. Activists
pelted the police with stones and other missiles. Officers, some mounted
and many with protective gear and shields, tried to push back the crowd and
disperse the demonstrators.

About 150 police, backed by a helicopter and dogs, tried to prevent the
demonstrators breaking down the farm's perimeter fence but were later
accused of using "heavy-handed" tactics. One woman campaigner, who suffered
an ankle injury when she fell as the crowd was being pushed back, was taken
to hospital. A woman police officer suffered a wrist injury and other
demonstrators, including children, sustained cuts as they fell into barbed
wire fences.

Hillgrove Farm has been a focal point for animal rights demonstrations
following revelations that cats are bred there for medical experiments.
Earlier this year, activists broke in and released 14 cats. The owner,
Christopher Brown, said: "The police are having a difficult time with the
protesters but I am standing my ground. I will not let them put me out of
business. The protesters have been into the fields and have tried to get
into some of the farm buildings, but the police managed to keep them out."

One witness said he was thrown into the air by a riot shield and then into
barbed wire. "When they hit me it was really very heavy-handed and totally
unnecessary," said the man, who asked not to be named. "During eight years
of working around Oxfordshire I have never seen
the police get stuck in like that before. They were just pushing everyone.
The whole incident was shocking."

He said it had been a "fairly peaceful" demonstration until protesters
attempted to take down a section of the fence. I then saw the riot squad
come marching down the road and into the protesters."

Thames Valley Police described the incident as "serious" but rejected the
suggestion that officers had been heavy-handed and said that every effort
had been made to facilitate the protest. A spokesman said: "We fully
support people's right to peaceful protest but we cannot
stand by and allow people to commit criminal acts."

The eight held during the protest were arrested for public order offences
and were in custody at a police station in Oxford last night. One man had
earlier been cautioned for possessing drugs and released. 

A spokesman for the protesters said: "The point of the campaign is that
Hillgrove breeds cats for vivisection in laboratories and we feel that both
lawful campaigning, regular demonstrations and direct action can help close
them down."

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 13:31:00 +0000
From: "Carsten Scholvien" 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (SE) Astrid Lindgren
Message-ID: <199711171230.NAA17349@ipgate1.folz.de>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

Astrid Lingren, famous swedish author, and animal protection

http://www.astridlindgren.com/
http://www.astridlindgren.com/english.htm
(english language)

Email: AnimalTribunal@astridlindgren.com

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 08:55:47 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Civil disobedience, to save animals' lives, is just her
  style
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971117085545.006e0658@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dawn Ratcliffe
from News & Observer http://www.news-observer.com/ , via Newsworks
http://www.newsworks.com
---------------------------------------
Civil disobedience, to save animals' lives, is just her style

By PAIGE WILLIAMS, Knight-Ridder News Service

CHARLOTTE -- It isn't a mainstream life but it's the right life, the
compassionate life. Animals are worth going to prison for, worth risking
death for. A life for a life. All lives are equal, Dawn Ratcliffe says. 

A roach on the kitchen counter? Go, be free. Huge spider in the bathroom?
Live long and prosper. A gnat, even a gnat feels pain. Oysters, clams, they
can't scream, but that doesn't mean they can't feel. Who knows whether
clams feel pain? You'd have to be a clam. 

Ratcliffe sighs. She is a young woman, 24. When she's not working in the
recycling center at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, she travels
all over to demonstrate for animal rights. In Atlanta, she went to prison
for monkeys. In Charlotte, she went to jail for fur. Now, in Pennsylvania,
she's in prison for pigeons, and this time she's on a hunger strike,
nothing but water and apple juice, for 31 days now and counting. In the
animal rights movement, she is the talk of the moment. Some support her.
Some can't stand her or her ideals. A few are even afraid of her. 

She is a slight woman, a long-distance runner, with narrow bones and pale,
serious eyes and a well-scrubbed, earth-girl face. She is not earnest. That
implies naivete. She is impatient. Impatient for her message to be heard
and spread, to eradicate from this world all the terrible waste of animal
life: 

Billions of murders are committed each year in the U.S. alone -- chickens,
minks, cows, pigs, sheep, lobster, shrimp -- innocent lives taken in the
name of beauty and fashion and a well-balanced meal. A furrier: murderer. A
fisherman: murderer. A researcher who experiments with animals: the worst
kind of murderer. They must stop. Zero tolerance. No compromise. 
                                       
Tactics justified?

Violence isn't the answer, but if it happens to take one more killer out of
the picture, well then, so be it. 

Extreme, yes, but it's time for extreme. Chain yourself to the department
store door. Free the test subjects. Research kills, so kill the research.
Forget vegetarianism -- go vegan: no animal products or byproducts. Bake
vegan bread in a regular bread pan and it's not vegan. Raw honey: not
vegan. Gelatin: nope, that's not even vegetarian. All these vegetarians who
drink milk, they're wrong. All these people who call themselves animal
rights activists and wear leather, they're hypocrites. 

Shout from the sidewalks and the jails. Go to prison if you have to. If you
do, make it matter: refuse to eat. Supporters will demonstrate. The media
will come. Posters and marching make good TV. Ready, and ... action! Put it
in the news and maybe somebody will care. Or maybe not. Some girl from
North Carolina is sitting in some prison in the middle of nowhere, big
deal. So she's on a hunger strike, so what? Let her starve. 

You hear that a lot now. People are sick of protesters -- abortion, school
prayer, animal rights -- sick of being told what to eat, what to buy, how
to live, who to be. 

But this, this is the right way to live. Really, Ratcliffe says, it's so
simple. 

They're the people chanting, carrying signs, joining arms, chaining
themselves together, going limp during arrest. You may pass by and wonder
how they arrived at this moment, this place, how they came to believe so
deeply in something that they'd stand for hours in public and be called
lunatic, douche bag, loser. Who are they? Where did they come from? 
                                       
Growing up

Bob and Jackie Ratcliffe, a real estate agent and a homemaker, raised their
only child, Dawn Marie, as normally as you please: bedtime stories, pet
hamsters, the works. She was born in the burg of Silver Spring, Md.; her
family moved to Myrtle Beach, S.C., when she was 5 and to Charlotte when
she was 15. She played soccer and ran long distance, first for North
Mecklenburg High and then for UNC Charlotte, where she got a degree in
English. 

She ate meat for 19 years of her life. 

Her daddy used to have a roach coach, one of those meal trucks that goes
around to construction sites, flips open a side panel and sells food to
guys on the job. Her mom helped work the kitchen. They served sausage dogs,
ham sandwiches. They took Dawn along. She was 4, maybe 5, and she liked to
play. One day, a construction worker saw her lining up some little frogs
that always hopped around in the puddles. "What are you doing?" he asked her. 

"I'm teaching them how to hop." 

It wasn't in her to sit back and watch. She arrived on this earth with the
temperament of an activist. She wanted to play soccer on the boys' team, so
she did. She wanted to be a lector at Mass, so they let her. If another kid
squished a granddaddy longlegs, she would cry. If Wal-Mart had dirty
hamster cages, she complained to the manager. In kindergarten, she wasn't
satisfied with being in the class -- she wanted to teach the class. 

She had a cat, Charlie Cat, who was waiting for her at home from the day
she was born. Later there were hamsters and gerbils, but mostly there were
cats. 

Her favorite foods were hamburgers, french fries, green beans and ice cream. 

When she started running track, everybody told her: Protein, eat lots of
protein. Chicken, fish, they'll give you energy. "I didn't question that,"
she says. 

One day at Wendy's, her boyfriend said, "Dawn, you won't kill anything, you
love animals, that's all you talk about -- but you eat them." She was,
like: Wow, he has a point. She gave up red meat. 
                                       
Dawn of a radical

To condense a life story, it went on like that: one thought leading to
another, one newsletter leading to another, revelation by revelation, fact
by fact: 80 million animals die in U.S. testing labs each year, most during
the testing of drugs, pesticides, household products. Every day in this
country, 16 million animals are slaughtered. Roughly two-thirds of exported
grains go toward fattening animals when they could be feeding humans. 

She learned to defend her rationale. Yes, animal testing helps cure human
disease, but a healthier lifestyle leads to less need for drugs. Yes,
animals feed people, but so can grains and protein-rich legumes. For almost
everything, there's a substitute, an alternative. 

She gave up seafood, then dairy and eggs, and then, in the spring of '95,
decided she'd be a hypocrite if she didn't become a vegan (pronounced
VEE-gan), eschewing all animal products and byproducts. She joined one
animal rights group, and when it disbanded she co-founded another. She
began to understand that the animal rights movement, with all its various
organizations, consists of many shades of the same thought; that even
people who care passionately about exactly the same thing often have very
different philosophies and agendas. 

The more she discovered, the stricter her beliefs became. Ratcliffe took
the extreme position that all living creatures, Homo sapiens to insects,
possess defensible rights to protection and freedom. She's the kind of
activist who won't let a misdemeanor charge get in the way of a good message. 
                                       
The pigeon shoot outrage

Her criminal record consists of trespassing, conspiracy, disorderly conduct
and resisting arrest. Last year in Charlotte, she was arrested at Eastland
Mall after using a U-shaped bicycle lock to pin her neck to a door handle;
she was calling attention to the selling of fur. This past spring in
Atlanta, she was teargassed and arrested at Emory University's Yerkes
Primate Research Center, a protest considered the most militant in the
history of the United States' increasingly active animal rights movement.
And on Oct. 3, she began serving a 45-day sentence in Pottsville, Pa., for
protesting at the annual Labor Day pigeon shoot in the nearby mining
village of Hegins. 

Most of the other pigeon-shoot protesters accepted plea bargains, leaving
them free to continue their work, but Ratcliffe chose to stand trial. Once
convicted, she decided to use the month and a half in prison for hunger
striking, a radical measure meant to draw attention to a bill in the state
legislature that could essentially end the 64-year-old shoot, which has
become infamous among animal rights activists. 

Each Labor Day, the people of Hegins pack picnics and lawn chairs and
gather in the town park, a swath of fields that face a picturesque sweep of
the coal-country mountains. There are bleachers, sometimes a live band.
Someone sings the national anthem. 

Organizers bring cages of pigeons, thousands of pigeons. Men, and they are
mostly men, line up with their shotguns. 

They yell, "Pull!" The cages are opened, the pigeons fly and the shooters
aim and fire. They shoot flying pigeons and pigeons that refuse to fly.
When the gunfire ends, children known as "trapper boys" run out to collect
the dead and wounded, and kill survivors by breaking their necks or
stomping their heads. 

Whoever shoots the most pigeons gets money and a trophy. Proceeds go to
town causes. 

Activists consider this one a no-brainer: The contest is cruel, period. It
started as a way to feed the town, but today the birds simply go in the
garbage. For the past 12 years, protesters have worked to stop the shoot,
or at least rescue wounded pigeons. They've suggested using clay pigeons,
and even offered to pay for them. Ratcliffe is starving herself in the
unlikely hope that legislators will finally pass a bill that would
essentially end the event altogether. 
                                       

The home life

Ratcliffe, for one, lives what she screams. At restaurants -- the few
she'll visit -- she relentlessly quizzes the servers. What's in the veggie
burger? Can I see the box? "Going out to eat with her is not a joyous
occasion," her father says. 

She has all but stopped eating out in Charlotte. She cooks rice, potatoes
and beans. She makes her own soy cheese. She shops at natural groceries
like the Home Economist, Berrybrook Farm and Talley's. What is the point,
she wonders, in preaching the importance of a life you don't live? 

When the circus recently came to town, Ratcliffe asked her mother to join
the protest, and she did. When she asked her parents to go up North to
volunteer at a farm for rescued animals, they went. They are trying to
understand. They are listening. 

They know about soy milk and rain forest decimation. They make meatless
loaf and chili with textured vegetable protein. "Do you know we are the
only species that drinks another animal's milk?" says her mother. "It's not
normal." 

Her mother eats chicken but tries not to eat beef. Her father is a
vegetarian. 

Bob and Jackie Ratcliffe are proud of the depth of their daughter's
commitment but are rather concerned she'll go too far. They do not want her
breaking laws, jeopardizing the businesses of people who work hard for a
living. "Get a law degree," they tell her. "Work within the law." 

Anything but starving in prison. 

Her ribs are showing. She sits for five minutes before standing up in the
morning. 

The prison allows her two phone calls per day, 10 minutes each time. Her
parents ask, Are you sure you can make it? Do you know what you're doing?  

Yes, I am. Yes, I do.  

Be careful, they tell her. Please, be careful. 
                                       
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 22:28:51 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (MX) Bullet-proof animal skin coats
Message-ID: <199711171428.WAA22838@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


>The Straits Times
17 Nov 97

Bullet-proof mink coats made in Mexico,
     anyone? 

     MEXICO CITY -- An enterprising clothes shop in Mexico's wild frontier
is setting     new standards in bullet-proof fashion. 

     According to Saturday's Financial Times of London, the shop will line
anyone's     favourite mink coat or leather jacket with state-of-the-art
material designed to deflect     bullets from large-calibre handguns for
less than US$2,000 (S$3,120). 

     Security Passions is based in Ciudad Juarez, a northern border city
which is home to Mexico's most notorious drug cartel. 

     The newspaper said that tailor Jesus Lopez Rosales, who has seen the
town become a     battlefield for warring drug lords, began marketing the
bullet-proof garments two     weeks ago. 

     "They are selling like hot tamales," he said. 

     Mr Lopez said that he designed his collection for fashion-conscious
clients who did not     wish to be encumbered with bulky flak jackets. 

     He imports his bullet-proof material of the Kevlar trademark from New
York. It adds     1.5 cm to the lining and only 3.6 kg more to the weight of
a normal leather jacket. 

     Mr Lopez, a former trader in exotic animal skins, said: "We are now
testing our collection against the impact of Uzi submachine guns, a
favourite weapon of the drug     community here." 

     Drug-related murders have escalated since Amado Carrillo Fuentes, head
of the     infamous Juarez cartel, died in July after undergoing plastic
surgery. 

     The decomposing bodies of the three doctors who carried out the
ill-fated operation     were discovered earlier this month in abandoned oil
drums on a highway. 

     Lawyers, security guards, money launderers, petty thieves and drug
smugglers linked to     the Juarez cartel have met a similar fate. 

     For law-abiding citizens, the violence unleashed by the battle for
Carrillo's turf is     frightening. 
Mr Lopez said: "There are drug shoot-outs in town every day. The police are
overwhelmed by the situation and we fear to venture outdoors." 

     The Financial Times said that Mr Lopez, unlike many famous couturiers,
was coy     about revealing the names of his clients. 

     "They are high-ranking government officials, politicians and
businessmen who would     obviously like to preserve their anonymity," he said. 


Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 22:29:01 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Snake meat a big hit in Hongkong
Message-ID: <199711171429.WAA19033@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


>The Straits Times
17 Nov 97

Snake meat a big hit in Hongkong 

     HONGKONG -- Many recoil at the mere sight of snakes, but in Hongkong
they are     simply normal dining fare. 

     With the greater spending power of Hongkong citizens, what used to be
an exotic food     has become affordable and business thrives for hundreds
of shops in the territory selling     just about every part of the snake. 

     "Ahh," one woman exclaimed as she slurped over a bowl of snake soup.
Then she     pointed to an overhead cupboard. 
"When it gets colder I'll buy this for my husband to keep warm," she told a
friend. 

     Neatly lined up on the shelf were about a dozen small bottles, each
containing a small     black snake preserved in precious herbs, or Chinese
wine. 

     The tiny snake shop in a back lane off Hongkong's wheeling-and-dealing
Temple     Street is full of such bottles and jars, containing dried snake
skin, snake bile, even     lizards preserved in herbs and wine. 

     "Business is especially good now, with the winter months. Eating snake
keeps you     warm because it improves your blood circulation," said
snake-shop owner and butcher     Yip Kwok Leung. 

"People now can afford it. They don't see it so much as a tonic anymore, but
take it     like ordinary food, like porridge," said Mr Yip, 40, who has
been in the business for 14     years. 

     Business is brisk at his shop in a bustling district north of Hongkong
Island. He sells     some 100 snakes -- whole or cooked in soup or gruel --
each day during the winter     months. 

     A bowl of soup comes cheap at HK$16 (S$3.30) but the most precious item
-- the     tiny gall bladder of the king cobra -- can sell for up to HK$10,000. 

     Hongkong's demand for the slimy creature has increased snake imports
from China,     particularly from the southern province of Guangxi. 

Hongkong imported 48,269 snakes last year, and 26,859 in the first nine
months of this     year. 

     Snake eating has long been a part of the diet of southern Chinese,
particularly in     Guangdong, the province bordering Hongkong. 

     Liu An, a sage from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25), extolled
the benefits     of snake eating. 

     "Whatever good southerners can do with a snake, it is useless in the
rest of China," he     mused while sampling the delights of one. 

     Snake meat, however, rose to become a delicacy in the north and later
figured as one     of the dishes in a famous banquet of Qing Dynasty
(1644-1911) emperors -- an indulgent 196-course marathon which could last up
to two days. 

     Back in the present day, Mr Yip says he does not intend to have his
children carry on     his trade, although he admits the money is good. 

     "It's much too tough, such long hours," he said with a laugh. -- Reuters. 


Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 23:20:33 +0000
From: jwed 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Portugal censured on Macau bullfights 
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19971117232033.007ea6f0@pop.hkstar.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

South China Morning Post - Monday  November 17  1997

by OLIVER POOLE 

The Macau bullfighting fiesta will lead to Portugal being rebuked by the
European Parliament.

A letter condemning the five-day spectacle will be sent to the Portuguese
Prime Minister and its Permanent Representative in Brussels.

Anti-bullfighting lobbyist Vicki Moore told MEPs the bulls imported to the
enclave for the fights in September appeared to be drugged.

The founder of the Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe said some of the
animals stumbled and rapidly showed signs of exhaustion, behaviour she
claimed was typical of drugging.

She said all the bulls had their horns partially removed and the remaining
part sheathed in leather padding to reduce the risk of injury to the
bullfighter.

Eighteen MEPs from six countries decided to send the protest letter after
attending a meeting of the EU's Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation
of Animals.

David Wilkins, director of the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, said they
objected to bullfighting being exported to areas where it had no previous
history.

"Clearly, in Portugal or Spain you can claim there is a cultural or
historical significance, but there is no reason to let it go on in Macau,"
he said.

However, Macau government spokesman Alex Che Weng-peng said: "For Macau
this is a tourist activity organised by a private entity.

"It would not be reasonable for us to have restrictions on what private
entities do and we let demonstrators protest against the event."

Bullfight organisers Taurus, who said they were too busy to comment, have
announced they plan to stage another fiesta next year.


Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 23:13:59 +0000
From: jwed 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (CN) Centre safe haven for endangered animals 
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19971117231359.007ecb90@pop.hkstar.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
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Date: 11/17/97
Copyright© by China Daily 
EDITOR'S note: Staff reporter Hong Xia concluded a one-week visit to
Northwest China's Gansu Province late last month. The following is the
third of a four-part report on the province's social development. 

IT is like a zoo -- there are rare animals everywhere: mischievous golden
monkeys, leisurely wild horses and even high-nosed antelopes wander the
grassland. 

But it is not a zoo, since it does not open to the public. It is the Gansu
Endangered Animal Research Centre under the Ministry of Forestry, which is
located in the city of Wuwei. 

Since the centre was founded in 1987, it has introduced and bred 123
endangered animals in 10 species such as wild donkeys, takins and white
mouth deer, said Bai Qin'an, deputy director of the centre. Now it has
become the country's largest endangered animal research centre in a desert
area. 

The wild horse and high-nosed antelope originated in Gansu but then
disappeared from China. The centre introduced the two species from the
United States in 1988 and bred them successfully the next year. 

Now the centre has 32 high-nosed antelopes, the largest group in the world. 

Most animals in the centre live in the feeding areas, which range from 1 to
30 hectares. To give the animals a better living environment, Bai said, the
centre plans to return them to 6,700 hectares of grassland three years later. 

Now the 2-metre-high surrounding wall is under construction for protection.
And more grassland and water supply facilities will be planted and
established. More than 7 million yuan ($840,000) is needed for the project. 

Besides the centre, Gansu has another 32 forest and wildlife nature
reserves, said Ma Chongyu, secretary-general of the Gansu Wildlife
Conservation Association. The reserves cover 3.8 million hectares, 8.4 per
cent of the total land area in the province. 

The establishment of the nature reserves has effectively protected the
natural environment and resources, Ma said. It also enables the
preservation and development of some typical ecological systems. 

Although Gansu has financial difficulties, it has still spent about 1
million yuan ($120,000) to protect wild animals annually in recent years. 

Since the living environment of the wildlife has been well protected, the
number of some rare and endangered animals has greatly increased. 

Since April this year, 11 giant pandas have been witnessed by people and
the traces of the pandas found many times in Diebu County in the southern
part of the province. 

The province promptly organized special teams to investigate within an area
of 132 square kilometres, Ma said. It is expected that there are about 30
giant pandas and more than 20 species of wild animals under key protection
of the State such as spotted deer, takin, musk deer and bear. 

Gansu is prepared for further investigation to find out the amount of the
wild animals and will establish protection bases for pandas and other
wildlife. 

In June this year, a farmer in a village of the county saw a panda going
round his cattle pen. He was very friendly to the panda and said "take
care" when the panda left. 

Gansu has more than 4,000 species of wild plants, 36 of which are under key
protection of the State. It also has 723 species of wild animals, 112 of
which are under State protection. 


Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 10:01:00 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org, en.alerts@conf.igc.apc.org
Subject: Pigeon Shoot Protestor Released
Message-ID: <2.2.16.19971117153845.527f815c@pop.igc.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, November 17, 1997

CONTACT: Heidi Prescott, 301-585-2591
     

PIGEON SHOOT PROTESTOR RELEASED


POTTSVILLE, Pa. -- Dawn Ratcliffe, the 24-year-old animal rights activist
sentenced to 45 days in Schuylkill County Prison for protesting a live
pigeon shooting contest in Hegins, completed her sentence and was released
early Sunday morning. The first two-thirds of Dawn's sentence was spent on a
hunger strike, one of the longest known hunger strikes in U.S. history.

Dawn was found guilty of disorderly conduct for her participation in a
peaceful act of civil disobedience against the Hegins Labor Day Pigeon Shoot
in 1996. The judge dismissed a charge of resisting arrest, and the jury was
deadlocked on the charges of defiant trespassing and criminal conspiracy.
Dawn wrote to all of the Pennsylvania legislators from jail, and now that
she is free she will continue to work to pass legislation to ban live pigeon
shoots in Pennsylvania.

Rep. Sara Steelman (D-Indiana County) has introduced House Bill 1909 to ban
pigeon shoots, and the bill has 46 co-sponsors. House leaders have
repeatedly stalled attempts to vote on similar legislation over the past few
years. Activists are leafleting homes in the districts of House Majority
Leader John Perzel (R-Philadelphia) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Thomas Gannon (R-Delaware County), asking constituents to demand a vote on
House Bill 1909.

Says Dawn Ratcliffe, "I am pleased to be out of the big house so I can focus
my attention on the other big House. The leaders of the Pennsylvania House
of Representatives can no longer turn a blind eye to the unjust suffering of
hundreds of thousands of birds."


# # #


http://www.fund.org

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 97 12:50:54 UTC
From: SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US
To: ar-news@Envirolink.org
Subject: ACTION ALERT
Message-ID: <199711171908.OAA26259@envirolink.org>

(AR) PROCEDURES AGAINST ANIMALS KEEP ON
Senators in the Argentine Republic let the Law For the Protection of
Animals Die!

Help Us To Avoid That!
(This was emailed to me, and I didn't know if it's already appeared
on AR-NEWS or not. If it has, please forgive me!!)
______________________________
THE HISTORY:
In 1995 and after 5 years, the Argentine Republic Lower House approved
the CRIMINAL LAW for the PROTECTION OF ANIMALS. At that time (and with
150,000 signatures enclosed which we collected within two months,
sponsored by TV) the bill was sent to the Senate to be treated.

The Senate regulations provide that criminal issues can only be
treated in the Commission of Criminal Affairs. However, due to a
"clerk's mistake," the bill was sent to the wrong commission.

Obviously, that commission hasn't treated the bill and now, on 30
November, 1997, it will lapse.  We will have lost 7 years of
parliamentary work, but the animals in Argentina will have lost an
updated law to protect them. To avoid this, we'll resort to Justice,
but we'll also.......

LAUNCH AN INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN AND WE ASK YOU FOR:

Your immediate participation so that Senators responsible of this
serious irregularity learn that they cannot behave freewheelingly
and still be unpunished, because the world is watching them.

WHAT ARE WE ASKING YOU TO DO?

We need your immediate cooperation sending notes (letter, fax, or mail)
such as this (or in your own words):

Senador Carlos Ruckauf, Sen. Ricardo Branda and Sen. Bernardo
Quinzio:
Honorable Camara de Senadores de la Nacion
Hipolito Yrigoyen 1849
(1089) Buenos Aires - Argentina

or FAX:  (+54 1) 953-5746 or (+54 1) 953-1228
or email: quinzio@senado.gov.ar

We urge you that in compliance with the Senate Regulations (Articles
64, 65 Ed. 97) the Criminal Law Bill for the Protection of Animals
(reach Senate 127/95 -21/XII/95-) is drawn to the Commission of
Criminal Affairs for its treatment and that the time lost in the
wrong commission is not computed.
The caducity of this bill stagnant in an incompetent commission not
only will affect those who are deprived of the benefits of this law,
but also deeply impairs the proper functioning of the democratic
instititions.

-- Please, enclose your Name and Address, Name of the Entity, City,
and Country

-- Please, send us copies by mail to: caf@caf.mas-info.com.ar or by
fax:  (+54 1) 383-3332

-- Attention: Please, make sure to send us copy of what you are sending
to the Senators, because then we'll be able to guarantee that your
messages reach their addressees, even if Senators use any "trick"
not to receive them - like disconnecting or changing their email address.

Thanks to everyone!

-- If you need further information:
about the bill mail to:  caf-002@mas-info.com.ar
about Club de Animales Felices mail to: caf-info@mas-info.com.ar


Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 14:50:58 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Shoot foe freed, vows to keep up Hegins protest
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971117145055.00734fd4@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

(article ends just the way it ends at the end of the post)
(article includes picture:  "Dawn Ratcliffe leaves Schuylkill County Prison
carrying bags of letters she received while in jail." --bag is quite large.)
from Pottsville Republican http://www.pottsville.com/
--------------------------------------------
 Shoot foe freed, vows to keep up Hegins protest

 Tobash calls it a `publicity stunt'

 BY PAULA REED WARD
 Staff Writer
 prward@pottsville.infi.net

 An estimated 30 pounds lighter from a hunger strike, a
 Hegins pigeon shoot protester who spent 45 days in               
 Schuylkill County Prison is back in North Carolina after       
 being freed Sunday morning.                               
                                                                    
 Having served her sentence on a disorderly conduct       
 conviction from the 1996 shoot, Dawn M. Ratcliffe, 24,   
 of Charlotte, left the prison carrying two bags of       
 letters she said came from supporters throughout the     
 world.                                                   
                                                          
 Ratcliffe entered the prison in Pottsville on Oct. 3,    
 vowing not to eat until state legislation was passed to  
 ban live pigeon shoots, including the annual Labor Day   
 event in Schuylkill County.

 Her hunger strike ended Oct. 31 without such a ban.

 During her imprisonment, state Rep. Sara G. Steelman, D-62, Indiana and
 Cambria counties, did introduce a bill to ban the shoots and now has 46
 co-sponsors for it. ``We definitely had support from the Legislature even
 though the bill never came up for a vote,'' Ratcliffe said. J. Robert
 Tobash, chairman of the Labor Day Pigeon Shoot Committee, Hegins, said he
 didn't think Ratcliffe was ever in any danger. ``I don't think she put
 her health on the line as much as they wanted people to believe,'' he
 said this morning. Tobash said the entire hunger strike was only a
 ``publicity stunt.'' ``I believe they got out of it just what they
 wanted. This was her plan all along to get the publicity,'' he said.
 Ratcliffe said her weight loss, attributed to 29 days of drinking only
 water and apple juice, will probably not pay a toll on her recovery. ``It
 comes to a point where it's not going to do any good not to eat,'' she
 said. ``As of now, there are no long-term effects.'' Greeted by her
 parents, Jackie C. and Robert J. Ratcliffe, her boyfriend, Jamie A.
 Duncan, and Heidi A. Prescott, the Fund For Animals executive director,
 Dawn Ratcliffe left through a side door of the prison. Among the letters
 she carried were notes of support from as far away as Italy and South
 Africa and from as close by as Schuylkill County, she said. ``We raised
 the general awareness of animal rights and gained more activists,''
 Ratcliffe said. Prescott presented Ratcliffe with a 6-year-old T-shirt
 she had received during her two-week Schuylkill County Prison stay back
 in both 1990 and 1991, also stemming from the Hegins pigeon shoot. With a
 drawing of hands releasing a bird, it read, ``Proud to be a jailbird in
 Hegins, P.A.'' In addition, Prescott, who visited Ratcliffe weekly during
 her incarceration, brought her organic mashed potatoes, organic fruit
 salad and non-dairy yogurt to eat on the way home to North Carolina.
 ``You've reinspired me,'' Prescott told Ratcliffe after several hugs in
 the middle of Sanderson Street. Ratcliffe's attorney also came to see her
 release. ``More than anything, I'm glad she got through it safely and
 without losing her health,'' said Guy H. Brooks, Harrisburg. On Oct. 31,
 after an emergency trip to the hospital earlier in the week, and with a
 three-week recess called in the state Legislature, Ratcliffe decided to
 start eating again. Ratcliffe started out with soups and more liquids,
 eventually building up to potatoes. ``I'm going to go home. I'm going to
 eat, and I'm going to go back to work,'' Ratcliffe said. Ratcliffe said
 she still plans to protest for animal rights. Only now, she said, ``They
 will be legal, peaceful protests.'' Ratcliffe was arrested at the 1996
 Fred Coleman Memorial Pigeon Shoot in Hegins, after she, along with nine
 other protesters locked titanium bicycle U-locks around their necks.
 Charged with disorderly conduct, defiant trespass and criminal
 conspiracy, Ratcliffe was found guilty of only disorderly conduct. The
 charges of defiant trespass and criminal conspiracy resulted in a hung
 jury. A co-defendant in the case, Brett A. Wyker, Levittown, was found
 guilty of disorderly conduct. However, he was sentenced to pay a $250
 fine, serve 50 hours of community service and 12 months probation.
 Ratcliffe's sentence of 45 days in jail came because she failed to
 cooperate with the adult probation office. Seven days into her 45-day
 imprisonment, a mental health evaluation hearing was held to determine if
 she should be institutionalized and forced to eat. The hearing officer
 determined she was
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 15:35:56 -0500 (EST)
From: MagMcCool@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Fwd: (US) Wildlife refuge needs your help -- NJ
Message-ID: <971117153555_1436172230@mrin39>

Thanks for dealing with my confused attempt at posting.  Care to help me out
again?  I'd love to have the same message posted again.
Thanks.
-mag.
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From:ar-admin@envirolink.org (allen schubert)
 Sender:owner-ar-news@envirolink.org
 Reply-to:ar-admin@envirolink.org
  To:ar-news@envirolink.org
  CC:MagMcCool@aol.com
Date: 97-11-07 17:55:25 EST

posted for (and send inquiries to) MagMcCool@aol.com
---------------------------------------------
Greetings all!
     Shotgun deer season is fast approaching--that's when Hope Buyukmihci of
the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge patrols tirelessly to keep hunters out and
animals safe.  Anyone who can show up (Dec. 8-13) should get in touch with me
via e-mail or call 609-358-0958.  Hope is in her eighties and has a broken
leg.  Since patrolling must largely be done on foot, your contribution is
essential.  In past years, activists have come from as far as NYC, DC, and
Western PA.  (We are in the heart of South Jersey's pinelands.)
Spread the word!  Thanks!
-mag.




Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 13:27:39 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org, en.alerts@conf.igc.apc.org,
        wild-rockies-alerts@wildrockies.org
Subject: Alert: Wyoming Bison Under the Gun
Message-ID: <2.2.16.19971117190531.556fbea8@pop.igc.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

ACTION ALERT

WYOMING BISON UNDER THE GUN:
LETTERS NEEDED TO OPPOSE BISON HUNTING IN WYOMING

The State of Wyoming has recently amended its bison hunting regulations to
increase bison slaughter opportunities for hunters in the state.  Now, in
addition to the controversial hunting of Yellowstone bison on the Shoshone
National Forest, the new regulations permit the hunting of Grand Teton
National Park (GTNP) bison who spend their winters primarily on the National
Elk Refuge (NER) near Jackson, Wyoming.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(FWS), which manages the NER, has proposed to allow, and will likely permit,
the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) to conduct bison hunts on the
Refuge.  Hunts will also be permitted on surrounding public lands, including
U.S. Forest Service land, and private lands.  

While hunting should be prohibited on any wildlife refuge, in this case, the
bison have been supplementally fed on the NER at taxpayer expense since the
mid 1970s.  In addition, these animals after years of protection on the Park
and Refuge are completely acclimated to people and show little fear of a
camera-toting tourist, much less a rifle-toting nimrod.  The idea of killing
bison who have little fear of humans and who eat breakfast served up by the
federal government is unsporting, unethical, illegal, a waste of taxpayer
dollars, and WRONG!

The proposed hunt is part of a management package recently approved by the
FWS, GTNP, and the WGFD.  The plan calls for the bison herd to be maintained
at an arbitrary size between 350-400 animals to reduce the chance of bison
transmitting brucellosis to domestic cattle.  Ten to 30 bison may be
slaughtered as early as December unless we act now.

PLEASE IMMEDIATELY VOICE YOUR OUTRAGE OVER WYOMING'S OPEN SEASON
ON
AMERICA'S BISON BY WRITING AND CALLING THE INDIVIDUALS LISTED BELOW.

Mr. John Baughman
Wyoming Game & Fish Department
5400 Bishop Blvd.
Cheyenne, WY  82006
(307) 777-4501

Mr. Barry Reiswig
National Elk Refuge
675 E. Broadway/P.O. Box C
Jackson, WY  83001
(307) 733-9212 

Ms. Jamie Clark, Director
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240
(202) 208-4717

Mike Dombeck, Chief
U.S. Forest Service 
P.O. Box 96090
Washington, D.C.  20090-0690
(202) 205-0957
                               
Tell them that:

*  All bison should be protected, not hunted.

*  There is no scientific justification for maintaining the bison herd
between 350-400 animals.  According  to geneticists this population size
will retain not retain all of the herd's genetic variability.

*  There has never been a confirmed case of bison transmitting brucellosis
to cattle under natural conditions.

*  Hunting National Park bison is like hunting parked cars.  It is
unethical, unsporting, unnecessary, and in violation of Refuge hunting rules
which require refuge hunts to promote hunting values and hunter ethics such
as fair chase and sportsmanship.

*  If they must control bison population size, immunocontraception is a
feasible and humane alternative to hunting.

* They are entrusted with protecting our bison.  We expect them to do so. 

Thank you for responding to this alert and for sharing it with your family,
friends, and members. For more information please contact The Fund for
Animals' Rocky Mountain Office in Jackson, Wyoming at (307) 859-8840 or
.

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 14:00:02 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Markarian 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org, en.alerts@conf.igc.apc.org,
        wild-rockies-alerts@wildrockies.org
Subject: Alert: Letters Needed for Snowmobile Trail Closure
Message-ID: <2.2.16.19971117193748.528776d8@pop.igc.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

ACTION ALERT

SNOWMOBILE TRAIL CLOSURE IN YELLOWSTONE NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT -- FIRST
STEP
TOWARD ENDING BISON SLAUGHTER

The National Park Service (NPS) has recently published a draft environmental
assessment (EA) analyzing the impacts of closing at least one snowmobile
trail in Yellowstone Park to all winter use. 

Since the late 1960s, the NPS has permitted snowmobiles in Yellowstone and
has facilitated their use by packing down or grooming the snow on all Park
roads.  Park Service scientists and The Fund for Animals have argued that
bison use of the groomed trail system not only facilitates bison emigration
from the Park into Montana where they are slaughtered, but has completely
and artificially altered bison population size, distribution, movements, and
the natural ecology of the Park.  

This EA is a product of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by The Fund for
Animals and other organizations against the NPS over its management of
winter recreation in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  The EA
proposes to close at least one trail segment in Yellowstone to all winter
use in oredr to study the impact of groomed trails on Yellowstone bison.
This is the first time that a trail may be closed in Yellowstone since it
was opened to snowmobiles.

The information gained from this study will be used in an Environmental
Impact Statement that the NPS will prepare on the impacts of winter
recreation on Park wildlife and Park ecology.  The Fund believes that the
EIS must conclude, based on the scientific and legal evidence, that trail
grooming and snowmobile use in Yellowstone must end.  This would be
enormously beneficial to Yellowstone's bison because without the groomed
trails far fewer bison are likely to migrate into Montana.  Over the last 10
years, over 3,000 bison have been killed due to the unsubstantiated fear of
disease transmission to domestic livestock.

THE NPS WILL ACCEPT PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ITS EA THROUGH DECEMBER 15,
1997.
YOUR LETTERS IN SUPPORT OF CLOSING SNOWMOBILE TRAILS TO PROTECT
BISON ARE
NEEDED BY THAT DATE.  THE FUTURE OF YELLOWSTONE'S BISON, OTHER
WILDLIFE, AND
OF YELLOWSTONE PARK IS IN YOUR HANDS.

In your letter tell the NPS that:

*    You support Alternative 1 but that you believe more snowmobile trails
must be closed this winter in order to engage in a proper study of the
impact of groomed trails on bison and to prevent bison from wandering into
Montana where they are unnecessarily killed.

*    Trail grooming and snowmobiling in Yellowstone causes significant
adverse impacts on bison and other Park wildlife, including grizzly bears
and wolves, pollute Yellowstone's air, and destroy the serenity of the Park
experience and, therefore, must be banned.

Send your comments to Yellowstone National Park, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone
National Park, WY  82190.

In addition, please send a letter to Yellowstone National Park
Superintendent Mike Finley at the same address thanking him for agreeing to
prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on winter use and its impact to
the wildlife and natural resources within the Park despite harsh criticism
he has received for so doing from numerous public officials and interest
groups.    

For more information about this issue please contact D.J. Schubert at
202-588-5206 or  or visit The Fund for Animals' home
page at .  A copy of the EA is available at
.

Thank you for participating in this critically important issue.

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 18:22:49 -0500
From: "Leslie Lindemann" 
To: "AR-news postings" 
Subject: Fw: info request
Message-ID: <19971117232211.AAA7527@oemcomputer>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit



----------
> From: Leslie Lindemann 
> To: AR-news postings
> Subject: info request
> Date: Monday, November 17, 1997 6:20 PM
> 
> Is there any news on the protesters who had pepper spray rubbed into
their
> eyes by the cops while they were locked down?  I saw a brief story about
it
> on the "Today" show a while back.  I think it was some sort of logging
> protest out west.
> 
> 
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 22:57:28 -0500 (EST)
From: veganman@idt.net (Stuart Chaifetz)
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: NJARA PR- Lewis Morris Park 1997 deer slaughter
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



NEW JERSEY ANIMAL RIGHTS ALLIANCE
PO Box 174 Englishtown, NJ  07726  732-446-6808

NEWS RELEASE
November 17, 1997
Contacts: Stuart Chaifetz 732-899-4202
Marilyn Johnson 908-876-4336

COMPASSION WITH CANDLELIGHT
IN MEMORY OF 138 DEER
Candlelight Vigil, Protests to be Held At Lewis Morris County Park

Morris Township - The war to stop the killing of deer at the Lewis Morris
County park continues as local residents, concerned citizens, and animal
rights activists join forces at the gates of the park, Rt. 24 in Morris
Township:

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL
November 18
5:00 PM - 9:00 PM

PROTESTS:
November 19, 20 & 21
December 3, 4 & 5
January 7, 8 & 9
5:30 AM - 11:30 PM

The political maneuverings of the Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife and
county park officials resulted in 138 deer deaths [98 females and 40 males]
in the Lewis Morris County park last year. Although the hunt was immoral,
brutal, and wholly unfounded, it was not enough for county officials and
will never be enough for Fish and Game.

More days of killing added to public hunt:
Upset the death toll was not at their stated goal of 266, the Morris County
Park Commission expanded the public portion of the hunt by 50 percent.
Along with hunting taking place on November 19-21 and December 3-5, three
additional days in January [7,8 & 9] have been added. The park commission
is also looking into opening up the Mahlon Dickerson Reservation and the
Pyramid Mountain National Historic Area to hunting.

>From the onset, opponents of the hunt said deer were not over-running the
>Lewis Morris county park. The police baiting and luring deer from the
>surrounding areas for three straight months was the reason they managed to
>kill 138 deer. Most agree that Fish and Game is motivated by revenues
>brought in by hunting fees and licenses, but what is the purpose behind
>the park commission's unholy alliance with this agency when hunting cannot
>address their stated objectives? Suspicion surrounds this and many other
>hunts in New Jersey.

"One hundred thirty-eight candles will burn in memory of the 138 gentle
creatures who lost their lives last year. We will be joined by people
throughout the state in solidarity with us, as we hold vigil at a park that
has lost its tranquil atmosphere forever," said Marilyn Johnson, Long
Valley resident fighting against the carnage.

NJARA is a community based, non-profit, educational organization working
toward a more peaceful, nonviolent coexistence with our earthly companions,
both human and nonhuman.  Through our programs of promoting responsible
science, ethical consumerism and environmentalism, NJARA advocates change
that greatly enhances the quality of life for animals and people and
protects the earth.
#


Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 23:08:20 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (UK) Animal Fats, Not Just Meat, Key to Heart Disease
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971117230818.0072ec7c@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from CNN custom news http://www.cnn.com/
-----------------------------------
Animal Fats, Not Just Meat, Key to Heart Disease

Reuters
17-NOV-97

LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - People who eat large amounts of animal fats, not
just meat, have the highest risk of developing heart disease, scientists
said on Tuesday. 

A study of 11,000 health-conscious vegetarians and meat-eaters in Britain
showed their risk of coronary heart disease was less than half of the
general population, but consuming lots of cheese, eggs, meat and milk
raised the odds of getting a heart attack. 

The research also highlighted the benefits of eating nuts five or more
times of week. 

``The highest intake of nuts was associated with a 23 percent reduction in
all cause mortality,'' the doctors said in the report in the medical
journal Heart. 

People with a total intake of animal fat and cholesterol at around 70 grams
a day had three times the death rate from coronary artery disease than
those consuming 25 grams daily. 

``Dietary saturated animal fat and cholesterol, rather than simply meat,
were the factors most strongly linked to coronary heart disease. This
implies that replacing meat in the diet with other foods rich in animal fat
and cholesterol, such as cheese and eggs, will not reduce risk,'' said Dr
Tim Key, one of the authors of the report. 

The research also indicated that heart disease risk was higher among
overweight people and heavier people in the normal weight range. 

Scientists from the University of Otago in New Zealand, the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in
London took part in the 13-year study. 
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 23:10:56 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Pet Food Tax Considered
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971117231053.007271f0@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

(animal shelters)
from CNN custom news http://www.cnn.com/
--------------------------------------
Kentucky State News
Reuters
17-NOV-97

Pet Food Tax Considered

(FRANKFORT) -- Kentucky lawmakers will be asked next year to approve a tax
on pet food that would be used to fund construction of animal shelters
across the state. Alene Summe (SUM-me), president of the Kentucky Animal
Control Association, hopes lawmakers will approve a bill that would include
a one-percent tax on retail sales of dog and cat food in Kentucky. Summe
says the tax, on average, will cost pet owners about six-dollars a year.
Richmond Senator Barry Metcalf has agreed to sponsor the bill. 
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 23:15:01 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Frog Findings Reported
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971117231459.00726afc@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Environment
from CNN custom news http://www.cnn.com/
--------------------------------------
Minnesota State News
Reuters
17-NOV-97

Frog Findings Reported

(DULUTH) -- Lab research suggests sunlight may have something to do with
the thousands of deformed frogs found in Minnesota over the past three
years. scientists at the U- S Environmental Protection Agency in Duluth say
they have created deformities in frogs by using ultraviolet radiation in
lab experiments. Preliminary research by the Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency indicated that something in the water caused the frogs to grow extra
or abnormal limbs. The new findings are expected to be released Thursday in
San Francisco at a scientific symposium on deformed frogs. 

Some are calling the Duluth findings a significant step forward in finding
out what's causing the deformities. But other researchers say they have
been unable to duplicate the findings through similar experiments. 




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