AR-NEWS Digest 603

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) (TW) New cases of foot-and-mouth disease reported
     by Vadivu Govind 
  2) (TW) Council confirms new FMD cases
     by Vadivu Govind 
  3) (TW) FMD-free pigs to be tagged
     by Vadivu Govind 
  4) (TW) Top Agricultural Officials Removed
     by Vadivu Govind 
  5) Pig liver cells and liver patients
     by Vadivu Govind 
  6) Chicken embryo hearts and heart attack victims
     by Vadivu Govind 
  7) From the "Is that so?" department
     by Andrew Gach 
  8) Nine-year-old girl kills black bear (VA)
     by NOVENA ANN 
  9) 
     by "Paul Wiener" 
 10) [CA] Requiem for Tuk
     by David J Knowles 
 11) [CA] From a cat, clues to life's meaning.
     by David J Knowles 
 12) [UK] Health chiefs launch mass screening for CJD
     by David J Knowles 
 13) Animals and biological weapons
     by Josie8888 
 14) Anti-Fur protest in Barcelona
     by 2063511 <2063511@campus.uab.es>
 15) (US) Oklahoma Weekly Hunting News
     by JanaWilson 
 16) TX Puppy Raffle
     by ckelly 
 17) Re: Reminder: Ch. 7 Poll on Deer Hunting
     by MINKLIB 
 18) McCartney Vote: Potential AR Publicity (US-Continental)
     by Pat Fish 
 19) CNN: Baby Whales vs. Mitsubishi
     by Pat Fish 
 20) More On Mitsubishi
     by Pat Fish 
 21) "Project Baltimore"
     by Shirley McGreal 
 22) (CN) Pig slaughtering 
     by jwed 
 23) (HK) Chicken imports slashed by a third 
     by jwed 
 24) (US) re:LA spay/neuter law -- LA TImes: "It's a Dog's Life, and Death"
     by Marisul 
 25) (IE) Irish patients get blood product linked to 'mad cow'
  disease
     by allen schubert 
 26) Subscription Options--Admin Note
     by allen schubert 
 27) Honk Kong residents eat less food because of "bird flu"
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
 28) US beef/pork exports hurt by Asian economies
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
 29) German beef farmers lose money, look to EU
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
 30) Tyson Foods probe altered by Justice Department prosecutor
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
 31) "Mad Cow" row returns to haunt British government
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
 32) US District Judge halts Ohio deer executions (12/10)
     by Vegetarian Resource Center 
 33) Hong Kong chicken market shut down
     by Andrew Gach 
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 14:23:14 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (TW) New cases of foot-and-mouth disease reported
Message-ID: <199712140623.OAA10136@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


>The Straits Times
12 Dec 97

Export of pork hit by new cases of disease 

     TAIPEI -- Taiwan's drive to resume pork exports suffered a blow
yesterday as     officials confirmed scattered new outbreaks of the
foot-and-mouth disease that     ravaged the island's pig population in March. 

     "There are three new cases reported, affecting about 300 to 500 pigs,
which will have     to be destroyed," said an official at the Cabinet's
Council of Agriculture. 

     The China Post, a Taiwan newspaper, reported yesterday that the
infected pigs had     been found in Taichung, Chupei and Kaohsiung. 

     Industry experts said that despite the small number of new cases,
Taiwan's hopes of     resuming pork exports would be put on hold
indefinitely as no countries would want torisk importing the infection. 

     "Countries that are free of the foot-and-mouth disease will only
consider reopening     their markets to Taiwan pork in months or even years
after Taiwan can certify it has     had no new cases of the disease," a
Taipei meat trader said. 

     Taipei had been exploring ways to resume limited pork shipments to
Japan, which was     its biggest market before the epidemic prompted Tokyo
to ban imports of Taiwan     pork. After a team of Japanese inspectors
visited Taiwan early last month, officials had     said that cooked and
processed pork was likely to be permitted for export to Japan. 

     Taiwanese officials said pork, if thoroughly cooked under strict
food-handling     procedures, could be certified as free of foot-and-mouth
contamination. 

     Taiwan's Farm Council on March 20 slapped a temporary ban on all
exports of fresh, frozen and processed pork due to the outbreak of the
foot-and-mouth disease -- a     deadly and highly contagious disease that
affects most livestock. 

     More than 3.5 million of Taiwan's 14 million hogs were destroyed in an
island-wide     drive to halt the epidemic. 

     Japan, as well as South Korea, the main importers of Taiwan pork,
responded by     banning pork imports from Taiwan to protect their herds. 

     Before the epidemic, Japan had been importing more than 200,000 tonnes
of pork a     year from Taiwan, with processed pork comprising about 10 per
cent of the total. 

     Taiwan accounted for about 40 per cent of Japan's total pork imports of
650,000     tonnes last year. 

Taiwan lifted the export ban on April 17, but exporters were required to
obtain permits     from importing countries. 

     Until this week's new cases, officials had said the outbreak was under
control with no     new cases reported since late May. 

     Yesterday, the China Post quoted Mr Cheng Chung-chiang, deputy director
of the     Animal Industry Department, as saying about 21 million doses of
vaccine were given to     hogs after the first outbreak in March. 

     He said most of the pigs still carried the antibodies against the virus
and so the     resurgence of the epidemic was unlikely to be large scale. --
Reuters. 


Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 14:23:20 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (TW) Council confirms new FMD cases
Message-ID: <199712140623.OAA21448@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>>CNA Daily English News Wire

COA CONFIRMS NEW CASES OF FMD 


Taipei, Dec. 10 (CNA) The Council of Agriculture (COA) confirmed on
Wednesday that new cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) have been detected
at three local pig ranches, casting an even darker shadow over Taiwan's
already battered hog industry. 

COA officials said 30 pigs at a ranch in Chupei in the northern county of
Hsinchu, 49 pigs at a farm in Taichung City, and about 60 pigs at a
Kaohsiung ranch in southern Taiwan, had contracted the deadly disease, and
that all of them have been slaughtered. 

"Local health officials have also stepped up sterilization procedures at the
three ranches and the surrounding regions," the officials said, adding that
the disease is not expected to develop into another epidemic because most
local pigs have now been inoculated. 

The officials said the FMD recurrence might be attributable to the failure
of the pig farmers to conduct regular inoculations of their stock, due to a
continuing drop in pork prices. 

An FMD epidemic, the island's first in many decades, broke out in Taiwan in
mid-March this year. 
Agricultural officials said that although the epidemic was brought under
control by mid-May, sporadic cases are very likely to occur again in the
first year following such a large-scale outbreak, pointing out that Taiwan
will not be classed as FMD-free for another three or four years. 

The virus found this week at the Chupei, Taichung and Kaohsiung hog ranches
is same "O1" type that caused the epidemic in March, the officials added. 

As the virus thrives in low temperatures, the officials said, local pig
farmers should maintain a high alert during the winter season to protect
their hogs from contracting the disease again. 

According to COA tallies, more than 21 million shots of FMD vaccine have
been administered here since March, and the island currently has only about
8.5 million pigs. Each shot is effective for aboutsix months, but beyond
that period, the possibility of the pig contracting the disease will
increase again. 

COA officials said they will intensify spot checks at pig farms around the
island to ensure that farmers are having their pigs inoculated every six
months. 

The officials said the supply of FMD vaccine is not a problem at the moment,
as local health authorities currently have a stock of one million doses and
private companies have also imported some three million doses. 

Chen Wu-hsiung, director of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry under
the Taiwan Provincial Government, said hog farmers who have failed to have
their pigs inoculated regularly will be fined from NT$10,000 to NT$50,000
and will not be compensated if their pigs die of the disease. 
Chen said it remains uncertain whether the most recent FMD cases will
discourage Japan from resuming imports of cooked pork products from Taiwan.
In fact, Japan now imports cooked meat products from such FMD-stricken areas
as mainland China and Thailand. 

Japan originally agreed to resume imports of cooked meat products from
Taiwan starting next year if Taiwan could meet Japan's quarantine and
sterilization standards. 

Up until March, when it imposed an across-the-board ban on Taiwan pork
products, Japan was Taiwan's largest market for pork exports, accounting for
more than 90 percent of the island's total outbound shipments. (By Sofia Wu) 

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 14:23:28 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (TW) FMD-free pigs to be tagged
Message-ID: <199712140623.OAA20274@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>>CNA Daily English News Wire

FMD-FREE PIGS TO BE MARKED WITH EAR-TAGS: COA 

Taipei, Dec. 11 (CNA) Starting in mid-December, all healthy pigs raised in
Taiwan will be marked with ear-tags to prove that they have been vaccinated
against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), the Council of Agriculture (COA)
announced on Thursday. 

The cabinet-level council made the announcement after discussing new
anti-FMD measures with major local hog industry associations in the wake of
the discovery of new FMD infections at three local pig ranches earlier this
month. 

Chen Pao-chi, director of the COA's Animal Industry Department, said the
ear-tag measure is aimed at encouraging local pig farmers to properly and
regularly vaccinate their swine in order to fend off the recurrence of an
FMD epidemic on the island. 

"Those who fail to abide by the regulations will be fined from NT$10,000 to
NT$50,000 and will not be compensated if their pigs die of the illness,"
Chen stressed. 

He said all 211 of the swine verified to have contracted the deadly disease
in Chupei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, have already been slaughtered, adding
that the areas surrounding the pig ranches have been thoroughly sterilized
to contain the infection. 

All the infected pigs were discovered either at wholesale markets or
pig-pens, Chen said, which means none of them had been distributed to retail
markets. "Local consumers need not panic over the reports of new FMD cases,"
he noted. 

Chen said his department has directed local animal disease control offices
to intensify monitoring of the 20 wholesale pig markets around the island to
prevent any sick swine from entering retail markets. 

The COA has also banned the movement of any swine raised within three
kilometersof the three affected hog ranches, he added. 

He pointed out that Taiwan has now entered a high-risk period, when an FMD
epidemic is most likely to re-occur, firstly because the FMD virus usually
thrives in low temperatures, and secondly because the FMD vaccine is
effective for only six months. "By now, many pigs which were vaccinated
between March and May need to be inoculated again," he added. 

Under a massive vaccination program, a total of 21 million doses of the
vaccine have been administered to local swine since an FMD epidemic, the
island's first in many decades, broke out in Taiwan in mid-March this year.
To curb the spread of the disease, nearly four million pigs were slaughtered
from March to July. 

Chen said the COA has continued to monitor FMD-control measures since July
15 when the last case of FMD infection was uncovered. Up until Dec. 6, no
new cases had been reported. 

All three farms where FMD-infected swine were found over the past week are
small-sized ranches and usually use spoiled food to feed their pigs, Chen
said, adding that this might be the source of the new infections. 

Taiwan currently has only 8.5 million pigs and some four million doses of
FMD vaccine in stock. Against this background, Chen said, it's unlikely that
an FMD epidemic will sweep the island again. 

Meanwhile, many local governments have stepped up protective measures to
prevent any sick pigs from other cities or counties from entering their
jurisdictions. 

According to health experts, the FMD disease is only contagious among
cattle, sheep, pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals. The symptoms include
necrosis around the animal's mouth, feet and udders. Some afflicted animals
will eventually lose their hooves before finally dying of the illness. (By
Sofia Wu) 

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 14:23:34 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (TW) Top Agricultural Officials Removed
Message-ID: <199712140623.OAA19727@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>>CNA Daily English News Wire

TOP AGRICULTURAL OFFICIALS REMOVED 

Taipei, Dec. 6 (CNA) A group former and currently serving senior-level
agricultural officials havebeen removed from office on charges of negligence
stemming from the disastrous outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that struck
Taiwan hog farms in March this year. 

The Judicial Yuan's Committee on the Discipline of Public Functionaries
handed down the penalties on Friday, marking the harshest punishment meted
out to public officeholders in recent decades. 

Chiu Mau-ying, former chairman of the Council of Agriculture (COA), Taiwan's
top agency in charge of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, husbandry and
related affairs, was dismissed from his current post as board chairman of
the Central Trust of China. He also had his right to hold public
office suspended for one year. 
Chiu is currently in Los Angeles attending the joint conference of the
ROC-USA and USA-ROC Economic Councils. He expressed dismay upon hearing the
news by telephone and said he will cut short his US trip and return to
Taipei in order to learn more details surrounding the surprise development. 

Liu Pei-bo, director of the Taiwan Research Institute for Animal Health, was
also dismissed from his current position and had his public functionary
accreditation suspended for one year. 

Upon being informed of the penalty, Chen Wu-hsiung, agriculture and forestry
commissioner of the Taiwan Provincial Government, who himself was on
reprimand list, said the punishment dealt to Liu was "shocking and
unacceptable." 

Chen said that when confronted with the devastating outbreak of the
foot-and-mouth epidemic, all relevant agencies, none of which had experience
in handling such a crisis, had tried to prevent the spread of the disease as
quickly as possible. If the officials don't deserve commendations, Chen
argued, they should by no means be punished for their efforts. 

Sun Ming-hsien, former COA chairman and Chiu Mau-ying's predecessor, was
also reprimanded. 

Shieh Kuai-lo, former director of the COA Animal Industry Department, was
demoted and had his civil servant accreditation suspended for six months. 

Shieh, who resigned in the wake of the epidemic and returned to his academic
career, asserted that he had done his best during the outbreak which caught
the entire island unprepared. He said the penalty is unfair. (By Deborah Kuo) 

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 14:23:42 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Pig liver cells and liver patients
Message-ID: <199712140623.OAA12565@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>>CNA Daily English News Wire

PIG LIVER CELLS CAN CLEAN BLOOD FOR LIVER PATIENTS 

Singapore, Dec. 6 (CNA) Dialysis may prove to be a viable alternative to
liver transplants for liver patients in the future, a Japanese professor
said in Singapore on Friday. 

Professor Yoshito Ikada from Kyoto University's Research Center for
Biomedical Engineering said that his studies have shown that pig liver cells
can completely clean the blood of toxins and could possibly be used to help
liver patients. 

Speaking at the Ninth International Conference on Biomedical Engineering, he
said that charcoal is currently used to get rid of toxins but is not so
effective because it can only remove very small amounts of toxins. 

It cannot get rid of substances like ammonia, he said, adding that this does
not help patients with acute liver failure. 

The blood of liver patients could be drawn out and cleaned in a machine
using the pig liver cells, he said, adding that the process would be similar
to the haemodialysis system that kidney patients use to clean their blood
while they are awaiting a kidney transplant. 

Ikada said that although the procedure has only been tested on dogs so far,
the University of Kyoto is applying for approval to use the machine on
terminally-ill liver patients next year. 

If successful, liver dialysis could be a real help to liver patients, as
there is a shortage of liver donors worldwide. 

However, he pointed out that cleaning the blood of toxins is only one of the
liver's functions. There is still no way of duplicating the liver's other
functions, such as bile secretion, he added. (By Conrad Lu) 

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 14:23:46 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Chicken embryo hearts and heart attack victims
Message-ID: <199712140623.OAA21282@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


>>CNA Daily English News Wire

CHICKEN EMBRYO HEARTS MAY PROVIDE HOPE FOR HEART ATTACK
                                  VICTIMS 

Canberra, Dec. 5 (CNA) Chicken embryo hearts are likely to prove
instrumental in enabling heart attack victims to avoid the need for
transplants if pioneering Australian research is successful, according to
mass-circulation newspaper The Australian on Friday. 

The daily reported that, following a heart attack, human cells are destroyed
and do not regenerate. But researchers at the Griffith University in
Brisbane say they are hoping their work can eventually trigger a process
whereby heart cells are reproduced. 

They are looking at cell formations in the hearts of chicken embryos and
seeking to isolate a gene which could help produce more cells. 
They said the technique has far-reaching ramifications for heart attack
victims who either require heart transplants, or in less serious cases, have
to carry on with the permanent damage. 

Dr. Wayne Murrell, the head of the research team, was quoted as saying that
the genes in question will be located in the hearts of chicken embryos and
mouse embryos before tests are performed on humans. 

He said once the genes involved in the development of a chicken's heart have
been isolated, they will be tested for their ability to direct other chicken
cells to become heart cells. 

"We have developed a molecular biology technique for identifying genes that
are turned on when cells in the chicken embryo become heart cells," Murrell
said. 

"By developing an understanding of this molecular process, we could then use
genes involved in the original process to manipulate other cells in a
patient to form new heart cells," he added. (By Peter Chen) 

Date: Sat, 13 Dec 1997 22:24:36 -0800
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: From the "Is that so?" department
Message-ID: <34937BA4.3849@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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Sheep show how premature babies can be fed

Reuters 
LONDON (December 14, 1997 00:30 a.m. EST) 

Sheep have helped American scientists find better ways of feeding
premature babies.

Researchers at the University of Colorado found that sheep fetuses in
mid-pregnancy used blood sugar at twice the rate as when they were born.
The brain is the main consumer of the blood sugar, they found.

The fetus also uses around three times the amount of protein at this
time in its development as it needs when it is born, the researchers
said in a statement.

Dr William Hay, presenting his findings to a British Biochemical Society
meeting on Sunday, said: "It is not simply a question of giving these
very tiny babies, some of which weigh as little as two pounds, more
food.

"Their metabolism is not fully developed and if too much food is given
too fast, toxic metabolic reactions can develop."

Now he hopes that his findings can help doctors to feed premature babies
more effectively with greater doses of protein.
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 02:38:10 EST
From: NOVENA ANN 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Nine-year-old girl kills black bear (VA)
Message-ID: 
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

12/3/97 6:57 PM

Nine-year-old girl kills black bear

By DAVID REED
Associated Press Writer 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUCHANAN, Va. (AP) -- Like most 9-year-olds, Victoria Falls enjoys 
cheerleading and playing with dolls. But what really makes her happy is 
tracking bears through rugged mountains behind a pack of howling dogs.

On Monday, the thrill was enhanced as she shot and killed her first 
bear.

''My dad picked me up and hugged me -- I was real excited and so was 
he,'' Victoria said Wednesday. ''I was real proud of my dog Rattler. 
He's the one who treed the bear.''

When Victoria caught up with her dog, who was barking up a pine tree, 
her father gave her the honor of shooting the animal with a .308-caliber 
rifle.

State game department spokesman Rich Jefferson said Wednesday that no 
one at the agency office can recall a person this young killing a bear 
in Virginia before.

Karen Moseley was standing behind the cash register at Hilltop Market, 
where game shot in Buchanan is checked in and weighed, when the Falls' 
family pickup truck pulled up with a dead black bear in the back.

Mason Falls, Victoria's grandfather, walked in proudly and announced, 
''This young lady would like to check in a bear,'' Ms. Moseley said. ''I 
said, 'Say what!' I thought he was kidding. But sure enough, she 
actually shot it.''

The male bear shot in the Jefferson National Forest a few miles from 
Victoria's house weighed 175 pounds, which is about average, Ms. Moseley 
said. There are fewer than 5,000 bear in Virginia's mountains, and about 
600 are killed by hunters during the winter hunting season, Jefferson 
said.

Becky Falls, Victoria's grandmother, said the bear has been skinned and 
the meat is hanging in the family barn, and the hide and head will be 
mounted for the girl.

Mrs. Falls said Victoria learned to shoot a few years ago. ''But she's 
been going hunting with her paw paw since she was able to sit up in the 
truck,'' she said. ''She would stand on the side of the road rolling her 
doll baby buggy, waiting for the dogs to find a bear.''

Victoria is a cheerleader who also plays softball, but her first loves 
are hunting and fishing, Mrs. Falls said.

Michael Falls told WDBJ-TV in Roanoke that he has no sons, but he 
believes his daughter hunts ''probably better than most sons would do.''

But his youngest daughter, 7-year-old Kara, is planning on going one 
step better than her sister.

''I might kill one when I'm 8,'' Kara said.

Mason Falls said when Victoria grows up and starts to date, it will take 
a special man to win her heart.

''I think he'll have to take her up in the mountains, with a pack of 
dogs,'' he said. ''If he don't want to go hunting and fishing, I don't 
believe she'll go with him.''
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 97 00:31:53 -0800
From: "Paul Wiener" 
To: "AR-News (to post)" 
Message-ID: <199712140834.BAA07570@smtp04.primenet.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

If anyone knows the status of L.A.'s attempt to enact a $500 spay/neuter
dog-licensing differential, would you please post it or inform me by
private e-mail?

TIA

___________
Paul Wiener

got_the_T-shirt@been-there.com
paulish@cyberjunkie.com
paulish@thepentagon.com
paulish@usa.net
tinea-pedis@bigfoot.com
KJ6AV@callsign.net
- --------------------------------------------------------
http://www.netforward.com/cyberjunkie/?paulish

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Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 00:27:02
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Requiem for Tuk
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971214002702.0c4736ce@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From The Vancouver Sun - Friday, December 12th, 1997 (Editorial)

A Requiem for Tuk

Wherever Tuk is now is a far, far better place. The poor polar bear,
orphaned as a cub, lived a dreadful 36 years in the Stanley Park Zoo and
was the last animal confined there.

His death can only come as a relief to citizens of Vancouver, who in 1993
voted to shut the zoo down. With Tuk's death, the zoo finally dies, and
that is nothing to mourn.



Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 01:24:44
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] From a cat, clues to life's meaning.
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971214012444.0c4724fc@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From The Vancouver Sun  - Saturday, December 13th, 1997

'The Left Coast' column 

>From a cat, clues to life's meaning.
By John MacLauchlan Gray

When a treasured pet dies, a relationship comes into focus that can almost
be called "human".

Claude 1995 - 1997

We lost our cat suddenly last weekend. He had heart problems, said the vet.

So do we, say I.

Famillies with pets will know the routine all too well: the days of anguish
 to follow, solemn children posing huge questions Dougals Todd [The Sun's
Religion & Ethics Editor] might be able to answer, but I sure can't.

To me, the death of an animal and the hole it leaves in the heart is the
last chapter in an unsolved, wonderful mystery having to do with the bond
that can form between a human being a member of another species.

I have heard many people proclaim their pets to be "almost human" but it
seems to me that the relationship is of another order entirely. Contact
between humans is a function of family, sympathy, attraction and interest;
with animals, we form fundamental, unspoken, one-on-one connections that
exist ffor their own sake, independent of society and work and mutual
interests.

It's the best indication I can find that living things posess a soul --
something unique and indivisible that trancends the bag of bones we live
and die in.

I know, I know: sentimental projection and wishful thinking, handholds to
stay upright in the storm, to keep from being overwhelmed by the fact that
we are nothing but organisms who live and die and that is that.

But if that is so, if that is the necessary and eternal boundary of our
lives, why do we find it so unsatisfactory and depressing? Why do we long
for something else - if that something is not and was never there? What
evolutionary purpose could be served by such wasted mental energy?

Such huge questions, and all because of the family cat.

We spotted Claude at the SPCA - just a small lump of white fur in a wire
cage, but he was the one for us. Something clicked, that's all. We brought
him home in a cardboard carrying case and My Partner To The End came up
with his name because it felt right.

With animals, you operate on instinct; there's no other way.

WIthin a few months, Claude had transformed into a magnificant white coon
cat with startling yellow eyes, tufted paws, long mutton-chops, a tial like
a feather duster and white jodhpur thighs. A very fine fellow indeed, who
settled into the important work of the family cat with verve and gusto -
monitoring, investigating, reflecting, resting up requiring no wage but
some food, some fresh water, a litter box and the occasional spoonful of
Fancy Feast. (Think of that Post Office workers.)

Mornings he was my writing companion, curled up between printer and window
and scanning the outside world (he was an inside cat) for birds, squirrels
and other vaguely familiar creatures.

Upon sighting something of interest he would sit bolt upright and emit
clicking sounds with his mouth, and I would stop typing to see what he saw.

At other times he sat on the printer to watch me work, hunched over the
keyboard, Worry and Regret perched on my shoulders like comorants.

And I confess, I talked to him. I talked to him all the time. "What's it
all about, Claude?" I would ask. "What are we doing here?"

He was never specific, but he would answer with a wholly appropiate chirp.

To me, Claude was not an "animal" in the sense of a lower mammal on the
food chain, but a being who occupied a parallel universe, an alternative
existence as legitimate as any. A fellow traveller with his own parculiar
function and purpose - one he fufilled, I dare say, with greater aplomb
than I do mine.

When the boys came home from school, it became Claude's lot to endure any
number of undignified activities and postures, which he did without
complaint. He never scratched, not once.

In difficult times, Claude acted as family mediator - as a non-judgemental,
non-controversial focus of attention. We might not be on speaking terms
with each other, but could still muster a unison chorus of unalloyed
affection for the big white fellow sharpening his nails on the Persian rug.

Oddly, and with a degree of prescience, last week I heard Son No. 2
wondering aloud about Claude's eventual demise, how he would fell if that
happened. I pooh-poohed the suggestion. The cat hever looked healthier, I
crooned, with foolhardy authority, Claude will be with us for many years to
come.

Then last Friday he became ill, and by Sunday night a sombre veterinarian
told us there was no hope.

Barely able to absorb the terrible news, we filed into the clinic, where he
lay in his cage, just a mound of white fur again, attached to an IV tube;
and for the last time looked into those marvellous yellow eyes, hoping he
would recognize the soaked faces on the other side and that ... he would know.

Unwilling to face our yawning, empty house, we drove to Earl's for dinner,
where we traded Claude stories and Kleenex. Son No.1 raised a glass of pop
to the best cat in the world, and Son No. 2 added it had been "an honour to
know him." Honour - that was the word he used.

Now the boys are planning our next visit to the SPCA.

A final gift from Claude: he taught them how to say goodbye.

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 01:37:43
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Health chiefs launch mass screening for CJD
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971214013743.0b97408e@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

>From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, December 14th, 1997

Health chiefs launch mass screening for CJD
By Victoria Macdonald, Health Correspondent 

A NATIONWIDE screening programme for hospital patients and accident victims
is to be carried out to assess how far the human form of mad cow disease
has spread.

The CJD Surveillance Unit is to test the tonsils of patients who have them
removed, and also the brains of people who die in road accidents. It has
also emerged that doctors in Oxford have started taking samples from the
brains of bodies sent for autopsy, to look for new variant CJD.

The Telegraph has learned that Dr Robert Will, director of the CJD unit,
presented his plans to the directors of the UK haemophilia centres during a
closed meeting on nvCJD. Dr Will was not available for comment, but a
doctor who attended the meeting confirmed that Dr Will laid out a programme
for testing living and deceased patients for the disease, which has been
linked to BSE.

The programme is expected to be disclosed in a letter to the Lancet within
the next few weeks from Dr Will and addressed to doctors and coroners.
Under the plan, brain tissue, lymph system and blood of people killed in
road accidents would be tested for the prion protein associated with nvCJD.

Only the brains of people aged over 16 would be used. Permission would have
to be obtained from relatives, as is also the case in the Oxford research.
There were 3,600 road deaths in Britain last year and if even half the
relatives agreed to a biopsy, doctors would gain a reasonable marker on how
many people are infected.

Dr Will told the meeting that with this study, and that using tonsular
tissue, it would take six to 12 months to determine the extent of the
disease's spread. Testing would almost certainly be anonymous, with any
patient carrying the disease unlikely to be told they are infected.

Ethical precedents have already been set with the anonymous testing of
pregnant women to determine the prevalence of HIV in the population.
Patients attending clinics for sexually transmitted disease are also asked
if they will give blood samples to test for HIV. They are then given the
choice of being informed of the result.

While the tonsil test is in the early stage of development, Dr John
Collinge and his team at St Mary's Hospital medical school in London have
found evidence of the prion protein on tonsular material.

Tests have already been performed on people displaying symptoms of nvCJD,
but final confirmation is still only made once the patient has died and a
sample of the brain can be taken. The British Medical Association and the
Royal College of Pathologists both expressed concerns at the ethical
implications of the testing.

The BMA said that as long as the tonsil testing was performed anonymously
it would be acceptable, but a spokesman said the association had
reservations about the testing of brains of accident victims.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "As far as I know, no proposal has
been sent to the department." However, at Oxford, research using brain
tissue from autopsy cases is being paid for by the Department of Health.
The work is led by Professor Margaret Esiri, a neuropathologist at the
Radcliffe Infirmary. 

"If there is anything going on in the general population, we would expect
to pick it up, but so far there have been no nvCJD cases," she said. "It is
only a tiny sample and we do not know how useful the testing will be."

There had been a mixed response from relatives, "just as there is in organ
donation cases".

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 07:18:09 EST
From: Josie8888 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Animals and biological weapons
Message-ID: <29ef777b.3493ce83@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

I am doing a paper on development of biological weapons and am wondering 
what countries, if any, still ues or test biological weapons on animals, like
dogs,cats, monkeys, rodents etc.

Can anyone shed some light on this area for me.

Thanks-Josie Wang
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 18:08:28 +0100
From: 2063511 <2063511@campus.uab.es>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Anti-Fur protest in Barcelona
Message-ID: <01IR68YDUS7C002LCV@cc.uab.es>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Barcelona, Catalonia: Ten AR activist protest yesterday for the sell of fur 
coats in this city. The activists, members of Asociacion de Defensa de los 
Derechos de los Animales, ADDA, distributes many pampleth with the famous 
sentece " Your Mother have a fur coat?".

The activist didn't has any problem with the people and only three assistence 
of fur shop was angry because the activist protest in their shop.


JORDI NIÑEROLA
BARCELONA   

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 12:27:37 EST
From: JanaWilson 
To: Ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Oklahoma Weekly Hunting News
Message-ID: <5dc45f60.3494170b@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit


A/w Oklahoma Sunday hunting news:

The local Oklahoma Chapter of the Safari Club International is 
seeking student and teacher applicants to attend the American
Wilderness Leadership School near Jackson, Wyo.  The seven
day sessions which are scheduled for 1998 include one student
session on July 15 thru 22 for ages 16 to 18 and six teachers/
students in June, July, and Aug.  As an option, teacher workshops
are available for three hours of graduate credit.
Each eight-day session is designed to provide successful
applicants with "challenging" experiences in the fields of 
wildlife ecology, management and conservation, together with
instructions in firearm safety, fly-flying, wilderness survival,
archery, indoor climbing wall, outdoor interpretive techniques,
Project WLD and outdoor ethics.  The sponsor or parent is
responsible for arranging and paying round-trip transportation
expenses. Applications must be in by April 30.

The Hackberry Flat project in Oklahoma recently was ranked
as the top on-going wetlands conservation project in the nation
by the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA).
Twice a year NAWCA ranks projects according to their biological
merits.  NAWCA is the federal legislation that provides the
funding mechanism for the North American Waterfowl Management
Plan, a plan that outlines goals for managing wetlands and
waterfowl populations across the continent.  The Wildlife
Dept. submitted a grand request for almost $1 million to NAWCA for
a water delivery system for Hackberry Flat.
The grant request was for construction of a 16-mile underground
pipeline from the Mountain Park Conservation District to a shallow-
water lake on Hackberry Flat Wildlife Management Area.
According to Richard Hatcher, Okla. Wildlife Dept. game chief,
"The NAWCA grant-ranking process is one of the major factors
in selecting projects for funding."

The two-hunter team that weighs in the four heaviest geese will win
the top prize in the first Greater Oklahoma Goose Scramble
scheduled Saturday on Jan. 10th, under the sponsorship of
BBC Charities, a non profit organization dedicated to teaching
outdoor skills to young people.  All the proceeds will go toward
the development of the Crystal Lake Outdoor Heritage Complex,
a new project planned by BBC Charities in Okla. City.
Hunters who preregister for the event may hunt statewide on
Jan. 10th.  The weigh-in will be that evening at 8:30 in the
American Legion Hall in Yukon, Okla.  The team with the
heaviest cumulative weight of geese will win a cash prize
determined by a percentage of the entry fees collected.
If necessary, a tie-breaker system will be used to decide
the winning team.  Snacks, door prizes and raffle items
will also be featured during the evening.  Competitors must
be 18 years old and the entry fee is $50 per two-hunter
team.

                                                           For the Animals,

                                                           Jana, OKC
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 13:47:00 -0800
From: ckelly 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Cc: agreen@cnnw.net, peta@bbs.gatecom.com, IDA@IDAUSA.org,
        ar-views@envirolink.org
Subject: TX Puppy Raffle
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19971214214700.00671394@sagelink.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Killeen Daily Herald
Sunday, December 14, 1997
By Kevin Fitchard, Staff Writer
_______________________________
PROPOSED PUPPY RAFFLE LAUNCHES STORM OF PROTEST

The proposed raffle of poodle pups by CenTex Humane Society has struck
chords of controversy among local and national animal welfare groups. The
Killeen-based CenTex Humane Society bought two pure-bred poodle puppies from
a dog breeder. The nonprofit organization intended to raffle the dogs in
Bell County to raise money for its new animal shelter.

But the proposed raffle set off a firestorm of protest from both local and
national animal rights organizations. The groups said such a raffle violated
the basic principles of the humane treatment of animals. The mission of a
humane society, opponents of the raffle said, is to provide homes for
abandoned animals and not to contribute to animal over-population by buying
them from "puppy mills."

CenTex has canceled the raffle and acknowledged the plan was a mistake in
judgment but said the society's intentions were well-placed, even if its
methods were questionable.

"What are all of these people who are sticking their noses into our business
doing to help save animals?" Klein said. "We can't open the shelter with no
money in the bank. Maybe the raffle was a bad idea, but we were trying to
raise some money for a shelter. Is that so horrible?"

To local animal rights activist Chris Kelly "horrible" is exactly the word
she would use to describe the raffle.

"Does the end justify the means?" she said. "Humane organizations should
treat animals as sentient beings, not as property to be given to the holder
of a raffle ticket."

Both the Humane Society of the United States and the American Humane
Association do not condone the raffling of animals as prizes and many
municipal governments, including Killeen, have passed ordinances prohibiting
the practice as a form of cruelty.

CenTex is a separate nonprofit organization that does not answer to either
AHA or HSUS, but both issued statements of protest to CenTex's proposed
raffle. CenTex is a dues-paying member of the AHA and association officials
said CenTex would jeopardize its membership and benefits if it continued
with raffle.

"The American Humane Association reserves the right to cancel the membership
of any organization that violates the basic humane premise of being an
association member," said Nicholas Gilman, AHA director of field services.

"The Association is willing to work with the CenTex Humane Society to help
them with their fund-raising needs; however, we are bitterly opposed to the
raffling off of animals, be it a humane society or another nonprofit
organization," he said.

Klein said she has received many messages along similar lines. While she
understands their objections, she said she is fed up that none of CenTex's
detractors have offered a solution to the society's financial problems.
Klein said CenTex has applied for grants with both AHA andf HSUS, but the
two umbrella organizations offered no financial support. She added that her
local critics like taking shots at her as well but do not help with CenTex's
cause.

The new CenTex shelter is being built south of town and, while the society
has raised the $250,000 needed for the building's construction, CenTex is
still short the $50,000 for operating capital needed to open the shelter.
CenTex has been saving for the shelter since 1991 when the old shelter was
forced to close by the rush of abandoned animals following the Gulf War
deployment from Fort Hood. Since then, the society has adopted a Foster Home
program, in which members and screened volunteers keep the dogs and cats in
their homes until they are adopted. The society holds its adoption days at
Petsmart. According to the society's estimates, it finds homes for about 55
dogs and cats a month, but the number of animals the society must turn away
is many times that number.

The board hatched the raffle plan as a way to raise money for the shelter,
Klein said, and never had any intention of handing the poodles over to an
unfit owner. She said the society would have screened raffle winners, and
anyone with a history of animal abuse or without the proper facilities would
have been denied. "We had no intention of handing them out like a bunch of
popcorn," Klein said. "We were trying to do a legitimate thing to raise
money for the shelter. We cannot open a shelter with no money in the bank."

Opponents said the basic premise of the raffle was at fault.

Kelly asked why not raffle a car or a VCR, instead of a pure-bred poodle.
There are millions of abandoned animals in the United States, Kelly said,
and a humane society's mission is to sterilize and find homes for them, not
encourage more pet sales by buying pure-bred animals from a vendor.

"In my opinion, it's obscene," she said.

Kelly, who works on occasion with People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, said that though her philosophy on animal rights differs from
Klein's she acknowledged that CenTex is a benefit to Killeen's animal
community. "Shirley is a good person who is trying to do good things, but
this raffle is just beyond the pale."

Other local activists have less flattering opinions of the society.

George Fox of Animal Watch said he is a former member of the society, but he
left because he felt the society was poorly managed. "They do get animals
adopted, but they could do so much more," Fox said.

Klein, however, said she is sick of wrangling with the politics. She said
she is resigning as president next year and invites anyone who feels they
can do a better job to take her place.

The society originally intended to raffle three poodles, but only bought two
before the controversy struck. The two cost about $250 each, Klein said, and
the society is returning them.  

--------------end of article-------------

Note from Chris Kelly: I continue to be attacked (privately and publicly)
for my stand by people supporting this group, and I have a feeling I will be
inundated with negative letters to the editor. Would appreciate some
positive support reinforcing the premise that animals are NOT property and
the negative aspects of breeding, especially from AR groups; also a thank
you to the reporter for a well balanced article. Thanks to all who take the
time to write. All letters must be under 300 words and must contain name,
address and phone (not for publication).

Killeen Daily Herald
P.O. Box 1300
Killeen, TX 76541
Editorial FAX # (254) 526-6397





































































Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 16:39:04 EST
From: MINKLIB 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Re: Reminder: Ch. 7 Poll on Deer Hunting
Message-ID: <22fc3d84.34945265@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

The reason for the pro hunt side receiving 80% of the votes is because an
alert went out over the 7,000 member rec.hunting newsgroup, and probably other
pro abuse lists as well.  

JP
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 19:40:58 +0000 (GMT)
From: Pat Fish 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: McCartney Vote: Potential AR Publicity (US-Continental)
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Vote for Paul, Help Him Spread the Cause, Maybe Meet Him

  I was watching VH1, and they're having a free call-in vote for the "VH1
Artist of the Year".  Vocal AR-proponent Paul McCartney is one of the
nominees. When you call, they ask you to touchtone in your phone #, and they
enter you in a contest, in which you can win $5,000, meet Paul (if he gets
enough votes to win), or you can win some other prizes.

  You get to vote for one of 10 "artists".  Don't try creating a script to
make a landslide, as the artist's numbers rotate.  After you vote you hit
the # key.

                                 1-888-VOTE-VH1

If he wins there will be more coverage of him, which means more coverage of
Eco, AR and veg issues.  The list also has another vegetarian besides Paul,
"The Artist" (AKA Prince). 

Talk about Syncronicity...McCartney's Town Hall Meeting just came on VH1 as
I was writing this.

"Someone's gone off fishing,            
 Someone's left high and dry."   -Paul McCartney

Pat

PS Can somebody post this to rec.music.beatles ?
   My newsfeed here is always boogered up.

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 20:11:51 +0000 (GMT)
From: Pat Fish 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: CNN: Baby Whales vs. Mitsubishi
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Sunday Dec. 14 1997, 9PM and Midnight EST

  CNN's "Impact" show will finally have a segment on the last-remaining,
undisturbed birthing lagoons of the Gray Whale.  Mitsubishi and the Mexican
government want to build an enourmous salt-extraction works there, altering
the salinity and thus it's viability for the newborn whales.
 
  Mitsubishi entered the computer market about a year ago, and is a supplier
for parts to many computer manufacturers.  Computer Professionals for Earth
and Animals is boycotting Mitsubishi, and is seeking the list of
OEM's who use Mitsubishi components.  These companies may be the focus of
future lobbying efforts or boycotts.

Pat Fish


Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 20:45:56 +0000 (GMT)
From: Pat Fish 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: More On Mitsubishi
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Related to Mitsubishi's threat to the baby Gray Whales...

Mitsubishi's main home page is at:

   http://www.mitsubishi.com

The English home page is at:

   http://www.mitsubishi.com/ghp_japan/home.html

For products sold in U.S.:

   http://www.mitsubishi.com/ghp_japan/product_info/frame.html
   (Damned frames, you'll not get what I got.  URL's are not so
    repeatable with frames.)

I didn't see any OEM info.  I also didn't see a search option.  Hope this
helps; to find whatever you are looking for, I think you'll probably need a
good browser because of the way the site is set up. 


Pat

PS Thanks Winston!

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 20:26:55 -0500
From: Shirley McGreal 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: "Project Baltimore"
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19971215012655.0073a15c@awod.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

IPPL is studying documents pertaining to shipments of crab-eating macaques
from Indonesia to the United States on Air France. I can't make sense of the
reference to "Project Baltimore" in one Centers for Disease Control
document, can anyone shed any light on this? I'm leaving the message intact
as written. The shipments involve hundreds of monkeys.

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

QD HDQCAAF CDGFOAF CDGFAAF CPYXXXX CDGVTXH HDQFOAF ORDFKAF
ORDFZAF ORDKLAF
UADFWAF ORYFOAF CDGFLAF HDQSCAF ORDFKAF 311022 087582 May97/MD

Ref: Project Baltimore that arrived off AF 6452. AWB 057/94617854 STP.

As per on site US government public health inspector she has the following
to report

///I wish to convey my thanks to Air France CDG and any other department
responsible while Baltimore was in transit at CDG STOP The excellent job of
insuring the integrity of the individual crates is to be commended. Rgds. US
Public Health Department Inspector Sena Rose 

|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| 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: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 09:54:23 +0000
From: jwed 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (CN) Pig slaughtering 
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19971215095423.007a1790@pop.hkstar.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit


CHINA will issue regulations to restore order in pig-slaughtering business.
The regulations on the Management of Slaughtering Pigs were deliberated and
approved in Beijing on Friday at the 64th executive meeting of the State
Council, which was presided over by Premier Li Peng. The purpose of the
regulations is to ensure the quality of pork and protect people's health,
according to the meeting. (CD -- Xinhua)


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Date: 12/15/97
Author: 
Copyright© by China Daily 
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 10:05:43 +0000
From: jwed 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (HK) Chicken imports slashed by a third 
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19971215100543.007a24d0@pop.hkstar.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


South China Morning Post - Monday  December 15  1997
http://www.scmp.com/news/

by NG KANG-CHUNG 

Hong Kong's supply of chickens is likely to be cut by a third after
wholesalers, seeking to stop the spread of the killer bird flu virus,
decided to close one of the SAR's main poultry markets.

Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market closed yesterday and will
not reopen until Thursday after a widespread cleanup and sterilising
operation.

Wholesalers said the move - backed by the Agriculture and Fisheries
Department - was aimed at calming public fears over the virus which has
killed two people.

At least 80,000 chickens are imported from Guangdong each day, with more
than a third sold at the Cheung Sha Wan market.

One wholesaler, Shek Bing-hing, blamed hawkers for bringing non-quarantined
poultry into Hong Kong from the mainland.

"The chickens we sell wholesale here are all properly imported. But I hear
that some hawkers take in chickens illegally from the mainland. Their
chickens might not have been quarantined," Mr Shek said.

Agriculture and Fisheries Department inspectors will today check 160 local
chicken farms and step up tests on imported poultry.

The department's assistant director, Dr Liu Kwei-kin, is expected to return
from Guangdong today after urgent meetings with health officials over the
extent of the disease among poultry in the province.

The Guangdong Department of Agriculture said yesterday that all exported
poultry would be quarantined, while random checks would be conducted on
farms to ensure hygiene standards were being met.

But the department denied it had seen any outbreaks of bird flu in the
province, despite last week's reports by some Guangzhou farmers that a
mystery epidemic killed thousands of chickens several months ago.

The H5N1 virus was identified for the first time in humans eight months ago
when it killed a three-year-old boy.

To date, it has infected seven people and caused one further death.

Three victims are still in hospital - a girl aged 13 and a woman, 24, are
in critical condition and another girl, five, is stable.

A government spokesman said experts from the Centres for Disease Control in
Atlanta might visit the mainland to collect more information if necessary.
They are now in the SAR.

Meanwhile, an inter-departmental taskforce will be set up today to
broadcast updated news about the fight against the virus.

External Links:

Department of Health: http://www.info.gov.hk/dh/new/index.htm

Communicable Disease Prevention & Control: http://www.cdpc.com/suma.htm

World Health Organisation: http://www.who.ch/programmes/emc/news.htm
 
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 21:08:15 EST
From: Marisul 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) re:LA spay/neuter law -- LA TImes: "It's a Dog's Life, and Death"
Message-ID: <3f04f463.34949113@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Copyright 1997 Times Mirror Company  
Los Angeles Times; December  12, 1997, Friday, Home Edition
SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 2; Metro Desk

PATT MORRISON; 
TAKE THREE / THREE VIEWS OF THE SOUTHLAND; 
It's a  Dog's  Life, and Death

BYLINE: PATT MORRISON 

   So where are these fearsome attack-dog  Republicans when you need them?
   If Bill Clinton so much as mixes glass and paper in the recycling bin, the
GOP is slavering to swear in a federal prosecutor. Yet the president goes and
commits the offense of adopting an evidently expensive Lab puppy, and there's
not so much as a yip out of the pack of them.
   In my book, buying a dog is about the same as murdering a dog.  Paying $
500 for a purebred or $ 20 to a backyard breeder condemns another unwanted dog
to a needleful of death in an animal shelter--where, for you trivia-obsessed,
well over 200,000  dogs and cats  are killed across Los Angeles County per
annum. That works out to about a hundred every hour of every workday, which
is, hmmm, about three dead by the time you finish reading this column.
   And here is Bill Clinton, spouse to Hillary, Mr. and Mrs. "Let's Double the
Adoption Rate for Unwanted Children, and Maybe We'll Adopt One,
Too"--accepting  the gift of a presumably pricey purebred from a friend (we'll
find out how pricey when Clinton by law reports all his gifts worth more than
$ 100)--when they could have had the pick of the litter from the nation's
animal shelters, and Set a Good Example thereby. Think of the political
capital: "Anybody can love a puppy. It takes a bold New Democrat to love an
older, homeless dog. "
   Well, that's all dog doo under the bridge now.
   Still, Gini Barrett, a city animal regulation commissioner and western
regional director of the American Humane Assn., says her group would
"certainly hope that, having missed one opportunity to set a good example, he
will take the  next opportunity to set a good example and have his pet
neutered." Let's say Clinton decides to move here at the end of his
presidency. If the Ex-First  Dog 
still isn't fixed, the license could cost $ 500,  and that's not soft money.
   *
   Remember the animal regulation department's October Surprise, the
recommendation that L.A.--with rare exceptions--require a $ 500  fee to
license  non-sterilized  dogs? 
   It costs L.A. about $ 4 million a year to take in and kill those 55,000
dogs and cats.  The staggering proposed $  500  fee is not intended as a cash
racket; it is intended to price people into doing the right thing.
   "We're hoping," says Barrett, "to make it equally outrageous" across almost
all the income spectrum. "The goal is not to have anybody pay it. The goal is
to have people spay and neuter."
   The matter is still in that tinkering-and-hearing stage. In tandem with the
proposal, the city opens next Monday its first permanent low-cost spay and
neuter clinic, this one at the North Central shelter.
   It is people who--no, not people. It is you. You, who treat animals like
Kleenex--blow and throw. You, who prattle about your children seeing the
miracle of a pet's birth but don't give a hang about the death at the other
end of those "miraculous" lives. You, who would rather have your  dog maimed
and eviscerated in the street than be so un-macho as to get him neutered. 
   If I had Barrett's job, I'd make another offer: a two-for-one  spay and
neuter program for you and your dog.  But that's why she is a public
policymaker, and I am not.
   *
   So it's a fair week for dogs:  a new one in the White House, a new spay and
neuter clinic, and word from the LAPD that the Rottweiler who supposedly
bounded through a dog door and chewed the foot of a comatose San Fernando
Valley woman probably didn't exist, leading officials to consider the
possibility of a two-legged offender.
   Now we are coming up fast on bonanza season at animal shelters and pet
shops, the phenom of the Holiday Pet, taken up with enthusiasm for Christmas,
dumped at a shelter or out on the freeway by spring, when the puppy becomes a
dog and the kids realize there's no "off" switch.  But if you must, put this
in the pet starter kit, a poem, unsigned, "The Complaint of an Abandoned  Dog,
" which made its way to me years ago, and which goes in part:

   "For two years I have paid
   For having believed in you. . . .
   Certain that you will come
   Every night I go to sleep
   And you are not there. . . .
   I have no taste for anything
   And I became so ugly
   That no one ever
   Would want to adopt me. . . .
    I see the caretaker
   Then the nurse
   And the vet in the distance
   They are coming . . .
   Their faces show to what they will lead us.
   In a few seconds
   I am going to forget
   everything. . . .
   To all you humans
   I address a prayer
   Kill me when I am little
   Take me from my mother
    It would be much better
    For then you would not
    Have to do it today."

   Well over 200,000  dogs and cats  are killed across Los Angeles County per
annum. That works out to about a hundred every hour of every workday, which
is, hmmm, about three dead by the time you finish reading this column.
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 21:18:14 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (IE) Irish patients get blood product linked to 'mad cow'
  disease
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971214211812.0072dc3c@pop3.clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from CNN http://www.cnn.com
----------------------------------------------------
                     Irish patients get blood product linked to 'mad
                     cow' disease

                     At least 268 people may be affected     

                     December 14, 1997
                     Web posted at: 7:54 p.m. EST (0054 GMT)

                     DUBLIN, Ireland (CNN) -- A blood product from a
                     donor who later died of the human form of "mad
                     cow" disease was given to 268 patients at nine
                     Irish hospitals before the possible contamination
                     was discovered.

                     Ireland's Health Department has confirmed a
                     report, first broadcast by the television network
                     RTE, that the British donor died of Creutzfeldt
                     Jakob Disease, the human form of bovine spongiform
                     encephalopathy, which has been called "mad cow"
                     disease.

                     The patients were given Amerscan Pulmonate Two,
                     which is manufactured with plasma and is used to
                     diagnose lung disease. The Irish Medicines Board
                     notified the health department of the possible
                     contamination on November 26.

                     RTE reported that blood products traced to that
                     donor have since been destroyed. It remains
                     unclear how many people outside of Ireland may
                     have been affected, according to RTE reporter
                     Pascal Sheehy, who broke the story.

                     In a statement Sunday, the health department said
                     it was making arrangements for recipients of the
                     product to be informed "in the most sensitive,
                     prudent and sympathetic way possible." Irish
                     health officials are also seeking advice on how to
                     handle the situation from experts on CJD.

                     Alan Huw Smith, spokesman for the product's
                     British manufacturer, Nycomed Amersham, said the
                     withdrawal of the product was purely precautionary
                     and that nothing had happened to indicate that
                     patients had been afflicted with CJD.

                     CJD, a fatal malady which causes the brain to
                     waste away, has killed at least 20 people in
                     Britain since March 1996. Suspicions that it was
                     transmitted to humans by eating beef from
                     slaughtered cattle that had "mad cow" disease led
                     to a consumer scare and a ban on beef exports from
                     Britain.

                     Whether CJD can be transmitted via blood products
                     remains an open question. A spokesman for the
                     American Red Cross told CNN there is no scientific
                     evidence that CJD can be transmitted in this
                     fashion -- but there is also no evidence that such
                     transmission isn't possible.

Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 22:40:46 -0500
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Subscription Options--Admin Note
Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19971214224046.00698e20@envirolink.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 22:55:00 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: Veg-News@Envirolink.Org
Subject: Honk Kong residents eat less food because of "bird flu"
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

By Carrie Lee 

HONG KONG, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Hong Kong residents are eating less chicken on
growing worries over a mysterious "bird flu" that has killed two people,
official figures showed on Friday. 

Concerns mounted as authorities said doctors suspected three more people might
have contracted the H5N1 strain of influenza, which is normally confined to
birds. 

There have been four confirmed cases of people contracting the H5N1 virus in
Hong Kong and two of them have died. 

The territory's main wholesale markets sold 62,500 live chickens on Friday,
down some 40 percent from Monday's 103,000, the Agricultural and Fisheries
Department's data revealed. 

Chicken hawkers reported sharp falls in wholesale prices as housewives shied
away from poultry stalls. 

"Nobody bought chickens. The chicken stalls were not doing any business at
all," housewife Lee Kam-lan said after a visit to the market. 

"I don't buy them myself. I fear some live chickens may have been infected
with the virus from the dead ones," she said. 

Health officials said that among the three new suspected cases detected on
Friday is a Filipino woman in Hong Kong who was suffering from the flu
symptoms and is in intensive care. 

"She has some flu symptoms and has developed some complications. Therefore we
took her specimen for tests to see whether she was infected," said a Health
Department spokeswoman. 

Some restaurants noted a drop in orders for chicken dishes. 

"Because of the H5N1 scare, Hong Kong people are quite sensitive," said Patsy
Chan, spokeswoman for Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel, one of Hong Kong's top hotels.
"Our restaurant has noticed the demand for chicken has dropped a little bit." 

A manager at an outlet of the Han Po Chinese restaurant chain also saw some
decline in orders for chicken dishes. 

The Association for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said they received at
least seven birds from owners who no longer wanted to keep them. 

Chow Tak-sum, spokeswoman for the animal-protection group, said the birds
might have been abandoned because of concerns over the virus. "We can't rule
out that possibility," she said. 

Hong Kong imports up to three quarter of all the poultry it consumes from
China. Officials said border checks have been stepped up on chicken imports to
the territory. 

Some thirty percent of chickens at a live-poultry stall in the northern New
Territories died last week from "bird flu." 

Several schools and kindergartens have removed much-loved birds, and others
were considering whether to close their "feathered pet corners" on health
grounds. 

The first victim of the mystery flu was a Hong Kong child who attended a
school that kept baby chickens and ducks. The boy died in May, followed by the
second death in November of a 54-year old man. 

Hong Kong's education department has advised schools not to raise animals in
their classroom. 

Local and United States medical experts have confirmed the H5N1 virus
originated in birds, but said they did not know how it was passed on to
humans. 

Hong Kong officials said last week it was possible the virus could spread
worldwide. Japan has said it would consider banning poultry imports. 


06:40 12-12-97

©1997   Maynard S Clark    Vegetarian Resource Center    info@vegetarian.org 
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 22:57:22 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: AR-News@Envirolink.Org
Subject: US beef/pork exports hurt by Asian economies
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) -  Forecast U.S. exports of beef and pork for
1998 were cut by U.S. Agriculture Department Thursday, reflecting the slumping
economies of Asian buyers. 

In its monthly world supply and demand estimate for December, the USDA reduced
projected exports of beef to 2.035 billion lbs for 1998, down from the
department's November forecast of 2.095 billion lbs. 

The forecast for U.S. pork exports was trimmed to 1.100 billion lbs, down from
the previous month's forecast of 1.150 billion lbs. 

"Prospects for U.S. beef and pork exports during 1998 have dimmed," the USDA
said. "Poor economic conditions in Japan and South Korea and the strength of
the dollar against their currencies are hurting U.S. beef and pork exports
into these important markets." 

However, USDA said the Asian economy problems was not affecting U.S. poultry
exports. The agency raised its 1998 forecast for U.S. poultry exports to 4.850
billion lbs, up from the previous month's forecast of 4.750 billion lbs. 

"The strength is coming from other markets, with broiler exports to Russia
remaining strong," USDA said. 

12:23 12-11-97

©1997   Maynard S Clark    Vegetarian Resource Center    info@vegetarian.org 
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 22:57:32 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: AR-News@Envirolink.Org
Subject: German beef farmers lose money, look to EU
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

BONN, Dec 11 (Reuters) - German beef farmers are only slowly improving their
incomes after sharp losses in the 1996/97 season, making beef sector measures
top priority in European union policy reform, German farm union DBV said. 

July/June 1996/97 incomes on beef and dairy farms, which account for two-
thirds of all farm units, were down by 9.5 percent on the year at an average
42,500 marks, annual incomes statistics showed. 

By comparison, pig farmers' earnings jumped 31 percent to 95,500 marks and
arable farms posted average gains of three percent at 75,800 marks. 

"These figures demonstrate why we fight especially hard with the EU Commission
over the future approach to the beef and milk sectors within the farm reform
process," said DBV president Gerd Sonnleitner in a speech manuscript. 

Beef farmers had to step up their borrowing and were not investing, he added. 

Price in the ailing beef market have plummeted as a result of the mad cow
disease crisis, which turned consumers off beef and because EU intervention
stocks weigh on the market. 

Milk prices were now recovering and beef prices and volumes were gradually
moving back into balance, Sonnleitner said. 

This was due to better EU market management, lower milk output and rising
demand from Russia for milk and dairy products. 

Pig and arable farmers were unlikely to repeat their latest income performance
in 1997/98 because pork prices had long peaked and because grains and oilseeds
prices were down markedly from last year, he added. 

The EU seeks to reduce dairy and beef support prices by 10 and 30 percent
under its Agenda 2000 farm reform proposals, but DBV rejects the price cuts
and instead wants restructuring. 

It wants the EU to boost beef consumption and to maintain milk quotas across
EU regions for socioeconomic reasons. 

The DBV figures also showed diverging income trends -- while one-third of
farms was faced with financial difficulties, some 36 percent were profitable,
able to build new capital and make fresh investments. 

05:13 12-11-97

©1997   Maynard S Clark    Vegetarian Resource Center    info@vegetarian.org 
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 23:00:01 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: AR-News@Envirolink.Org
Subject: Tyson Foods probe altered by Justice Department prosecutor
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - An investigation of 
poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc.'s ties to a former 
Clinton Administration official "changed direction somewhat" 
after a meeting with Justice Department officials, 
independent counsel Donald Smaltz said Wednesday. 

Smaltz, testifying before a House panel on campaign fund raising, 
declined to give any details about his probe of the nation's 
largest poultry company. 

"There have been ongoing dialogues between Justice and me 
regarding Tyson Foods. Certainly that was true back in 1995," 
Smaltz told the panel. 

The Republican-led Government Reform Committee hearing 
has criticized Attorney General Janet Reno for failing to 
appoint a special counsel to probe presidential campaign 
fund raising. The panel called Smaltz to testify about whether 
the Justice Department interfered with his work as an 
independent counsel. 

Smaltz was asked about a published report that he was once 
"called on the carpet" by the Justice Department for his 
investigation of former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy's 
links to Tyson Foods. 

"Was I unhappy? The answer is yes," Smaltz said. 
"We changed direction somewhat ... We weren't going 
in the direction I thought it was appropriate to go." 

Tyson Foods said earlier this year that the company 
expected to be eventually charged in the probe of Espy, 
who resigned from office in 1994. A former lobbyist for 
the huge Arkansas-based company has already been 
charged with giving gifts and favors to Espy. 

"The Tyson matter is still part of our ongoing investigation 
and I would respectfully decline to talk about it at this time," 
Smaltz added, when asked to elaborate on the Tyson probe. 

Over the objections of Democratic members of the panel, 
Smaltz also said he wanted to investigate Espy for allegedly 
intervening after a Tyson Foods shipment of poultry 
was delayed in port at Puerto Rico.  

"The purity of the food that is sold to the public is a 
responsibility of the secretary of agriculture," Smaltz said. 
"Whenever you have allegations that the secretary is 
taking things of value from companies he regulates, 
that creates a significant problem." 

Smaltz has been criticized for the length and cost of 
his investigation of Espy, which began in September 1994. 
He has won more than $4.5 million in criminal fines, 
civil penalties and damages in the Espy-related cases. 

Espy, who has maintained he is innocent of any wrongdoing, 
is expected to go on trial early next year for allegedly accepting 
$35,000 worth of gifts, travel and meals from companies he regulated. 

Smaltz also told the House panel the Justice Department 
had delayed by about eight months his investigation of 
several Espy-related cases when the department 
refused to expand the counsel's jurisdiction. Smaltz was 
eventually  granted the jurisdiction when he appealed to 
three federal judges. 

19:05 12-10-97 

©1997   Maynard S Clark    Vegetarian Resource Center    info@vegetarian.org 
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 23:00:19 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: Veg-News@Envirolink.Org
Subject: "Mad Cow" row returns to haunt British government
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

By Gerrard Raven      

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The row over mad cow disease which dealt a bitter
blow to Britain's last Conservative government has returned to haunt its
Labour successor. 

Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet on Thursday discussed mounting protests by
cattle farmers over dwindling incomes and the likely impact of a government
decision to ban sales of in-bone beef such as T-bone steaks and ribs. 

Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham reportedly told his colleagues that
claims the ban he announced on Wednesday would devastate the industry were
wrong since 95 percent of beef sales would be unaffected. 

But newspapers and opposition politicians predicted a crippling blow to
consumer confidence in beef which was just returning after the European Union
banned British beef exports in March, 1996. 

Opposition Conservative agriculture spokesman Michael Jack has rounded on
Cunningham, telling him, "You are out of touch with farming and could not care
less about the beef industry." 

The Conservatives have traditionally been seen as the party of Britain's rural
middle classes, with farmers and landowners having little faith in a Labour
Party that was heavily influenced by industrial trade unionists. 

But the mad cow crisis that hit not only farmers but abattoirs, cattle markets
and small country towns tipped the balance in many rural constituencies in
May's election, handing seats both to a modernized Labour and to the minority
Liberal Democrats. 

Farmers were particularly angry because then-Prime Minister John Major claimed
to have won agreement for a lifting of the ban at a European Union summit in
Florence in June last year, but it remained stubbornly in place. 

They accused then agriculture minister Douglas Hogg of delaying decisions
needed to get Brussels to allow exports again. As the government was seen to
flounder, beef was a key issue that helped oust it from power. 

But farmers' affection for Labour has never been more than skin deep, and
angry demonstrations around the country this week indicated that Blair's
honeymoon with rural Britain is over. 

British farmers have already seen thousands of their cattle slaughtered in an
attempt to eradicate the disease and persuade Brussels to lift the export ban.

The latest protests have been directed at stopping beef imports from Ireland
moving through ports in western Britain, made attractive by a surging British
pound. 

Irish Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh was meeting  Cunningham in London later
on Thursday to protest at the disruption to the trade. 

But Blair's spokesman indicated the government would seek to keep the
Conservatives in the firing line. He said the government had agreed in
principle to hold an inquiry into the history of mad cow disease in Britain. 

"People want to know whether things were handled as they should have been," he
said. "There are families out there who lost people and should know if that
could have been avoided." 

Labour accuses the Conservatives of being responsible because they relaxed
controls over the composition of cattle feed which led to Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (BSE) taking hold in herds. 


It was scientific evidence that people eating infected meat could develop
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human form of BSE, which led to the
export ban. Twenty-three people have now died of a new variant of CJD thought
to be connected to BSE. 

But newspapers that were inclined to give Blair's government the benefit of
the doubt in its early months criticized Cunningham for having rushed out a
statement on the in-bone beef ban after a veterinary committee's report
revealing a slight risk in eating such products was leaked to a BBC television
programme. 

"This is a hopeless way to conduct government," the Daily Telegraph newspaper,
traditionally a favorite read of rural Britons, said in an editorial. 

REUTERS 

12:52 12-04-97

©1997   Maynard S Clark    Vegetarian Resource Center    info@vegetarian.org 
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 23:01:55 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center 
To: AR-News@Envirolink.Org
Cc: Veg-OH@waste.org
Subject: US District Judge halts Ohio deer executions (12/10)
Message-ID: 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

.c The Associated Press  

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of deer got a reprieve Wednesday, a day before
sharpshooters were to start gunning for overpopulated whitetails in an Ohio
preserve. 

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman granted a preliminary injunction blocking
the winter-long hunt, set to begin Thursday in Cuyahoga Valley National
Recreation Area. 

He said local residents and animal rights organizations showed there would be
irreparable harm if the hunt proceeded before their full case was heard. 

The National Park Service had no immediate decision on whether to appeal the
injunction. 

The Humane Society of the United States and others complained that the
National Park Service decided to shoot the animals without producing a full
environmental impact statement. 

The park did an abbreviated environmental assessment on its deer-control plan.

Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania conducted a full
environmental impact statement before staging hunts to thin out its herd the
past two winters. Further hunts at Gettysburg were put on hold by a lawsuit
brought by the same groups pressing the Cuyahoga case. 

John Debo Jr., the recreation area's superintendent, said Park Service
sharpshooters had been scheduled to start hunting deer Thursday at 5 p.m. 

The goal was to kill about 470 of the park's 1,030 deer to protect plants,
prevent overgrazing and reduce accidents caused when deer wander into traffic.

Deer also pose a problem in the nation's capital and its suburbs. On Monday,
Fairfax County, Va., supervisors authorized deer hunts in two parks along the
Potomac River in Great Falls, Va. A school librarian was killed by a deer that
crashed through the window of her car in October. 

AP-NY-12-10-97 1649EST

©1997   Maynard S Clark    Vegetarian Resource Center    info@vegetarian.org 
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 20:54:22 -0800
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Hong Kong chicken market shut down
Message-ID: <3494B7FE.261F@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hong Kong cleans up chicken market in bird flu battle

Reuters 
HONG KONG (December 14, 1997 11:48 p.m. EST) 

Hong Kong shut its biggest chicken market for a special scrubbing Monday
as authorities stepped up measures to prevent the spread of a mysterious
"bird flu" which has killed two people.

The Cheung Sha Wan market on the Kowloon peninsula was shut for three
days for sterilization following widespread worry in the territory that
a killer epidemic might be brewing.

There was a ghostly quiet in the usually bustling poultry market on
Monday. Stacks of cages lay empty and the usual squawking and crowing of
thousands of fowl was replaced by the sound of workers hosing down the
market with disinfectant.

Chickens have been identified as the most likely source of a new strain
of flu that recently killed a three-year-old boy and an adult.

A handful of others had fallen ill and were under observation while
American scientists worked intensively to understand the virus.

The head of a World Health Organization (WHO) influenza program, Doctor
Daniel Lavanchy, was quoted by Hong Kong media as saying the WHO would
send investigators to China's Shenzhen region across the border from
Hong Kong where a large number of chickens were recently reported to
have died from a disease.

Farmers in Shenzhen have denied their poultry died of the "bird flu."
But it is from the Shenzhen area and other parts of Guangdong province
that Hong Kong imports most of its fowl.

If Guangdong were the source of the H5N1 virus, it would be the second
problem in a month with food imports from China.

In recent weeks a food poisoning epidemic was traced to pesticides used
on imported Chinese vegetables.

Some 80,000 fowl are imported from Guangdong daily and more than a third
of the birds are sold at Cheung Sha Wan market.

"It's to give confidence back to the people. We hope sales will revive
after the overhaul," a wholesaler said of the closure. Chicken meat
sales plummeted 40 percent last week.

The Cheung Sha Wan market alone saw a 70 percent plunge in sales and
halved prices at the weekend to clear stock.

Hong Kong newspapers have devoted whole pages to the bird flu drama,
kindergartens have shut down pets' corners and free-flying parrots have
been removed from park aviaries.

The scare has sparked an angry debate between the government and critics
who accuse it of flawed disease controls.

It has also come as another blow to Hong Kong's image as the former
British territory suffers a slump in tourism, its most important source
of foreign currency earnings.

The Chief Secretary Anson Chan said at the weekend the government was to
launch a task force to fight the bug, and a public hotline would be
opened for the public.

But she scotched concerns that the flu might be passing from human to
human. "No evidence showed us there is human to human transmission of
the bird flu. We understand that the public and the media are
extraordinarily concerned about the bird flu," she said.

"We will inform the public at once as soon as we get the latest
information. We have no intention to hide cases."


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