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AR-NEWS Digest 346
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) [US] Freeman Wickland Update. March 16, 1997
by David Rolsky
2) CHINCHILLA CONVENTION DISRUPTED
by nnetwork@cwnet.com
3) ACTIONS SET FOR JAILED ACTIVISTS
by nnetwork@cwnet.com
4) [UK] Fields without hares trigger wildlife alert
by David J Knowles
5) [UK] Man recovers from smell caused by chicken bone
by David J Knowles
6) [FR] Mad cows haunt French festival of tripe
by David J Knowles
7) [UK] E coli update - a Dinner Party view
by David J Knowles
8) [UK] Key to the meaning of (long) life
by David J Knowles
9) (USA)Leonardo Exhibit at Boston Museum
by WalshMM@aol.com
10) (USA) Lansing, MI Man gets jail in dog's death
by WalshMM@aol.com
11) (US) Oklahoma Weekly Hunting News
by JanaWilson@aol.com
12) Nothing to worry about
by Andrew Gach
13) Duck Season Opening (AU)
by "Karen Bevis"
14) Cockatoo Freedom Fighter (AU)
by "Karen Bevis"
15) harp seal/fishery interactions
by anne doncaster
16) (US) Donor Asks for Fla. Rain Forest
by allen schubert
17) Req. for Info Re Grizzly Bears
by "Karen Bevis"
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 23:27:03 -0600
>From: David Rolsky
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [US] Freeman Wickland Update. March 16, 1997
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19970316052703.0067675c@gold.tc.umn.edu>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MINNEAPOLIS
Freeman Wicklund is on his 11th day of hunger strike.
Freeman is hunger striking both to protest his 90 day sentence and in
solidarity with the other four activists currently on hunger strike around
the country.
He is in good spirits although he had lost 11 pounds as of Tuesday, March
11. When he entered the jail he weighed 135 pounds.
The superintendent of the jail has been very helpful and is allowing the
media full access to Freeman. The judge, however, still seems unwilling to
change her sentence. That can only be changed with your help.
The other four activists on hunger strike are Tong Wong and Stacie of
Indianapolis, and Jeff Watkins and Nicole Rogers of Syracuse.
Little is known about Stacie except that she is a 16 year girl who was
sentenced to girls reform school. She was involved in the same protest that
got Tony Wong his sentence.
Please call and write to the following contacts in support of Freeman.
More information on this story can be found at:
http://www.waste.org/~soar/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judge Joan Lancaster
c/o Juvenile Court
Juvenile Justice Center
626 South 6th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415-1573
Phone #: 612-348-5660
Fax #: 612-348-8340
Plymouth Adult Corrections Facility
1145 Shenandoah Lane
Plymouth, MN 55447
Phone #: 612-475-4246
Fax #: 612-475-4266
Superintendent John Scavnah
Phone #: 612-475-4207
ATTN: Sandra Anderson
City Attorney's Office
300 Metropolitan Center
333 South 7th St.
Minneapolis, MN 55402-2453
Phone #: 612-673-2968
Fax #: 612-673-2189
Write letters to:
Freeman Wicklund c/o
Plymouth Adult Corrections Facility
1145 Shenandoah Lane
Plymouth, MN 55447
E-Mail: freeman@waste.org
Also feel free to contact Minnesota legislators (this goes double for MN
residents). Here is a currently incomplete contact list:
Bruce Vento (4th Congressional District)
E-Mail: vento@hr.house.gov
Martin Sabo (5th Congressional District)
Commerce at the Crossings, #286
250 Second Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Phone #: 612-664-8000
2336 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone #: 202-225-4755
E-Mail: martin.sabo@mail.house.gov
Congressman Bill Luther (6th Congressional District)
1811 Weir Drive Suite 150
Woodbury, Minnesota 55125
Phone #: 612-730-4949
Fax #: 612-730-0507 FAX
1419 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515-2306
Phone #: 202-225-2271
Fax #: 202-225-3368
E-mail: tellbill@hr.house.gov
Collin C. Peterson (7th Congressional District)
714 Lake Avenue
Suite 107
Detroit Lakes, MN 56501
Phone #: 218-847-5056
MN Wheat Growers Building
2603 Wheat Drive
Red Lake Falls, MN 56750
Phone #: 218-253-4356
110 S 2nd Street
Suite 112
Waite Park, MN 56387
Phone #: 320-259-0559
2159 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone #: 202-225-2165
Fax #: 202-225-1593
E-Mail: Tocollin.Peterson@mail.house.gov
James Oberstar (8th Congressional District)
222 West 1st Street
Duluth, MN 55802
Phone #: 218-723-8813
Fax #: 218-723-1549
E-Mail: Oberstar@aol.com
Senator Paul Wellstone
136 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2303
Phone #: 202-224-5641
Fax #: 202-224-8438
2550 University Avenue, W
Court International Building
St. Paul, MN 55114-1025
Phone #: 612-645-0323
Fax #: 612-645-0704
Toll-Free #: 1-800-642-6041
E-Mail: senator@wellstone.senate.gov
(If you want a response send you snail mail address. They don't send
replies through E-mail)
Senator Rod Grams
1029 Second Avenue North
Anoka, MN 55303
Phone #: 612-427-5921
Fax#: 612-427-8872
261 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone #: 202-224-3244
Fax #: 202-228-0956
E-Mail: mail_grams@grams.senate.gov
Governor Arne Carlson
130 State Capitol
St. Paul, MN 55155
Phone #: 612-296-3391
Fax #: 612-297-1198
E-Mail: governor@state.mn.us
David Rolsky, Composer at large
http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/g037/rolsk001/
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 22:07:47 -0800 (PST)
>From: nnetwork@cwnet.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: CHINCHILLA CONVENTION DISRUPTED
Message-ID: <199703160607.WAA08725@main.cwnet.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
March 15, 1997
HOTEL TRASHED, 4 HELD
AS ANTI-FUR ACTIVISTS CLASH
WITH CHINCHILLA FARMERS IN FT WAYNE
FT WAYNE, IN -- At least 4 anti-fur people are being held by police after a
protest by anti-fur activists Saturday at a meeting of the National
Chinchilla Breeders Association Convention here at the Ramada West (Hwy 14,
exit 105a).
The demonstration is ongoing at 11:25 a.m. Many police have been called to
the scene.
Observers reported furriers attacking demonstrators, who had infiltrated
into the convention hall. Chairs, tables, windows and other hotel furniture
were smashed and turned over as the furriers fought the protestors. There
were an estimated 2 dozen activists, and about the same number of fur
breeders at the hotel.
Police initially held only 4 activists after it was learned the hotel had
not formally asked the protestors to leave - a requirement under state
trespassing laws.
The protest comes just days after animal rights activists, working under
the cover of night, firebombed and heavily damaged the second largest fur
feed supply company in the U.S. The Sandy, Utah raid destroyed the offices
and 6 trucks belonging to the Fur Breeders Co-Op Tuesday. Damage was
estimated to be more than $1 million for the bombings
Activists, who will come from Ohio, Indiana and other states, are opposed
to the killing of any animal for its fur and a luxury product. The
association meets to "improve" the "stock" of chinchillas, and not too
coincidentally, to find new and more "efficient" ways to kill the animals
for their fur.
-30-
Contact: JP Goodwin, Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (214) 503-1419
Cres Vellucci, media relations (916) 452-7179
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade
PO Box 822411, Dallas , TX 75382 214/503-1419
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 22:07:51 -0800 (PST)
>From: nnetwork@cwnet.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: ACTIONS SET FOR JAILED ACTIVISTS
Message-ID: <199703160607.WAA08735@main.cwnet.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 1997
International Flag-Burning,
U.S. Store 'Invasions' Honor
Hunger Striking Activists
DALLAS -- Department stores that sell fur will be "invaded" this weekend --
and a U.S. flag will be torched in London Saturday -- as militant activists
in 2 countries mobilize to protest the continued incarceration of animal
rights "political prisoners" slowly starving to death in 3 states.
Major disruptions are scheduled in cities from coast-to-coast, including
Dallas, San Francisco, Syracuse, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Boca Raton,
Atlanta, Philadelphia and Salt Lake City. Jail protests where activists are
being held, and the burning of effigies of judges are also planned.
"We hope we are not too late," said JP Goodwin, director of the Coalition to
Abolish the Fur Trade. "These people are in ill health, and getting worse.
They are ignored, despite their failing health, just because they think
animals should not be murdered for their skins."
One 16-year-old prisoner jailed in Indianapolis will mark his 21st day
behind bars with absolutely nothing to eat Sunday. He's been existing on
only water. Two other activists in Syracuse have gone without food for more
than 2 weeks. All pledge to die before giving in.
In all, 5 activists in 3 states are jailed for up to 7 months for nonviolent
protest activities -- such as peacefully protesting against the sale of fur
at stores -- and all have vowed not to eat anything until released or the
Clinton Administration agrees to certain conditions.
Among those conditions is the passage of federal legislation banning the
leghold trap, and an end to the Clinton Administration's opposition to the
European Union's imposition of a ban on fur caught in the wild by traps. The
prisoners are also asking that a New York state bill that would legalize the
torture killing of beavers be defeated.
Tuesday, an underground animal liberation organization made its own
"political" statement, firebombing 6 trucks and offices of the second
largest fur feed supplier in the U.S. in Sandy, Utah. The fire, which caused
an estimated $1 million damages, was "dedicated" to the hunger-striking
activists and the campaign to end fur sales and trapping in the U.S.
-30-
U.S. Contacts: CAFT 214/503-1419 or 916/452-7179 London: Fur Free London
0171 278 3068
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade
PO Box 822411, Dallas , TX 75382 214/503-1419
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 02:20:13 -0800 (PST)
>From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Fields without hares trigger wildlife alert
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970316022033.26cfa6de@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, March 16th, 1997
Fields without hares trigger wildlife alert
By Andrew Morgan
MAD March hares are disappearing as a springtime spectacle in Britain,
according to new research that shows the decline of the animal is far worse
than has been feared.
Sightings of hares across the country have shown an alarming decrease since
the 1960s, despite measures to boost the population, according to Ruth
Temple, a scientist at Bristol University. She found disturbing evidence of
many places where there have been no sightings. "In these areas, the
March-time ritual of hares boxing during mating and territorial contests is
no longer visible for the first time in centuries," she said.
Miss Temple examined records dating from 1900 gathered by natural
history groups in 42 regions. They confirm the fears of scientists who did a
census of hares six years ago, when it was estimated there were only about
810,000 - a five-fold decrease since the turn of the century. That survey
found the decline was most acute in western areas of Britain, where
conditions have favoured the hare in the past. Once, it was even regarded as
a pest in Devon and Cornwall.
Professor Stephen Harris, of Bristol University, said that the West Country
decline was baffling and was being mirrored across Europe. "A lot of people
recall how they used to see hares all the time, but now they have all gone."
Recent measures, including the introduction of set-aside land, countryside
stewardship and farm woodland schemes, should all have helped the hare. But
Miss Temple found that sightings have plummeted over the past 30 years. For
many years, the main monitoring was carried out by the Game Conservancy,
which catalogued hares shot on the large estates. Miss Temple's findings
suggest that the huge changes in hare numbers were probably missed when
analysing that data.
Increasing numbers of livestock are suggested as one explanation for
the decline of the hare, which prefers fields free of grazing animals.
Another change working against it is frequent hay-cutting: silage is now cut
several times annually instead of once, and the machinery is likely to kill
the leverets.
Prof Harris said it was vital to find reasons for the decline.
Government-backed plans to double the number of hares by 2010 were under
threat, he said. "We don't have any idea on how to double their numbers on
such a large scale, but to have any impact we must increase numbers across
Britain, and quickly."
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 02:20:15 -0800 (PST)
>From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Man recovers from smell caused by chicken bone
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970316022036.26cf5b34@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, March 16th, 1997
Man recovers from smell caused by chicken bone
By Victoria Macdonald, Health Correspondent
THE man whose scratch from a chicken bone left him
smelling so putrid that he could not go out in public for nearly six years
has recovered.
The 35-year-old man, from Cardiff, has begun venturing
into confined spaces for the first time since his body was invaded by an
odour which could be smelled across a large room. But doctors at the
University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, remain as perplexed about the cure
as they were about the smell. Dr Peter Holt, the consultant dermatologist
who made an international appeal for help last November, reported by The
Telegraph, said: "It seems as if he was self-healing." Although he would
have preferred a more scientific explanation, Dr Holt says: "It is miraculous."
The man, who has not been identified, scratched himself on
the bone while working as a dresser in a chicken factory in September 1991.
What was the "tiniest of scratches" became inflamed and sore and his
GP[ General Practitioner. or family doctor] identified cellulitis - a
simple bacterial infection - and prescribed antibiotics. But four types of
antibiotics failed to have any effect on the infection and his finger soon
began to give off an odour.
Over time, the smell travelled up his arm until finally it
encased his entire body. Dr Holt and his colleagues were intrigued and baffled.
The finger had cleared up, the swelling gone down but the smell was so bad
by this stage that people recoiled when he walked into a room. "He became a
social outcast," Dr Holt said. "He was 29 when this first happened, living
at home with his parents. His life was going to work, to the pub and clubs,
but that all stopped. He was so aware of the smell. You cannot imagine what
it must be like for people to leave a room when you walk in."
A skin biopsy finally revealed clostridium, a spore form
of bacteria found in soil and the intestinal tracts of humans and animals.
But it had never been found on the skin before, and although the doctors
were relieved to have an explanation, they were no closer to a cure.
They tried more antibiotics, ultraviolet-light treatment,
chlorophyll, antibiotic withdrawal, oxygen, and wrapping him in giant
odour-eaters. All failed. Further tests revealed the clostridium was
secreting toxins or enzymes causing the smell.
In desperation, Dr Holt and his colleagues wrote to The
Lancet asking for help to find a cure or something to disguise the smell.
"We had
promised we would not give up on him," Dr Holt said. Readers of The
Telegraph wrote in with advice and sympathy. But then, for no apparent
reason, the man began to smell better. Last week the man returned to the
hospital for a check up, odour-free for the first time in six years. Dr Holt
said the man was attempting to readjust to normal life. "He is, for obvious
reasons, reluctant to go back to his old job."
Dr Holt believes the smell has gone for good.
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 02:20:18 -0800 (PST)
>From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [FR] Mad cows haunt French festival of tripe
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970316022038.26cf7ff6@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>From The Electronic Telegraph - Sunday, March 16th, 1997
Mad cows haunt French festival of tripe
By Philip Jacobson in Paris
THE French tripe industry is in crisis - lovers of cows'
intestines and offal are finding their usual mouthwatering anticipation of
the annual
tripe championships in May clouded by Britain's food safety scandals.
The number of highly trained tripiers, tripe butchers, is
plummeting. New findings show that French housewives would rather order a
takeaway than spend 12 hours preparing a dish of tripes à la mode de Caen
for a hungry family. The British are emerging as the villains.
Parisian children, presented with a bowl of tripe, ask
about la vache folle Anglaise. Reports last week of the embarrassments of
Douglas Hogg, Britain's Minister of Agriculture, have not helped.
In the Norman town of Longny-au-Perche, host to an annual
contest for the title of France's champion of tripe, organisers still expect
to attract between 100 and 150 contestants this May. But the mayor's office
confides that the spectres of mad cows haunt the event. Were any entries
from Britain expected? A sharp intake of breath. "Tripe en Angleterre? No,
you'd better come and eat it over here in our Hotel de France."
But riding to the rescue is the President of France
himself. Very soon, the doors of the Pharamond restaurant in Les Halles, the
Paris eating place famous for its tripe, will fly open to admit Jacques
Chirac. A
legendary trencherman, M Chirac loves each and every variation on the theme
of stomach, intestines, sweetbreads and chitterlings. Like François
Mitterrand, his predecessor at the Elysée Palace, he has a particularly soft
spot for the tripes à la mode de Caen that has been dished up at this
beautiful old establishment since the early 19th century.
Never has this presidential patronage been more
appreciated by France's tripiers, a breed which, despite prayers to St
Pierre-des-Tripiers, now numbers only 400 in all of France.
Naturally, the blame for this attrition is squarely
attached to the
British. A recent article in Le Monde on the decline in popularity of
classic ris de veau, a Chirac favourite, observed sharply that scientific
evidence about the risk of transmission to humans applies only to the
products of British abattoirs.
This time last year, that Parisian landmark, Brasserie
Lipp, reluctantly abandoned plans to create an entire menu based around tête
de veau, calf's head. At Pharamond, things had become so bad that ris
de veau had been removed from the menu altogether.
"There was simply no demand for it because of the natural
misgivings among customers," recalls Jocelyne Faget, only the third
proprietor of the restaurant since 1832 (although scandalously denied
membership of the Order of the Triperie d'Or because she is a woman). But
attitudes are changing again, she observes: "People are beginning to request
the dish again and I believe the phobia is now over."
In this temple of tripe, huge vats of gelatinous, brownish
stew full of what resembles chunks of bicycle inner tube bubble away over
slow-burning charcoal. Although a book of recipes for M Chirac's favourite
dishes suggests that seven hours will do for a succulent tripe, Madame Faget
demures. "Nothing less than 12 hours will do to ensure that all the flavours
of the cow's five stomachs are properly brought out. This also makes the
odour of the dish sweeter."
Ah, the smell of tripe - rather awful, according to Madame
Faget's daughter, Anne Revaux. She works in the restaurant and never eats
tripe. "To be honest, younger French people rarely order it here,"
she said. "As for foreigners, the Japanese are our best customers.
Americans will come in and order our cheap tripe à la mode de Caen,
but when it arrives and they catch a smell, they often say 'oh, oh' and
push it away."
Apart from the impact of mad cow disease, the triperie
community is feeling the pinch from a marked change of eating habits among
the French. Outlets for le fast-food - burgers, pizzas, hot dogs - are
inexorably, putting traditional zincs (corner bars) and cafes out of
business. The latest survey shows that the average time spent on lunch
outside home is a barely credible 27 minutes: the order of the day being
rapide et frugale, tripe is clearly a non-starter.
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 02:21:03 -0800 (PST)
>From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] E coli update - a Dinner Party view
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970316022123.26cf8f1e@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>From The Electronic Telelgraph - Saturday, March 15th, 1997
The following is from 'Table Talk' - a weekly column about what is being
discussed at dinner parties in Britain, written by Tim Dowling.
E coli update
DP*-goers select as their favourite oxymoron of the week the
exression "slaughterhouse hygiene", most insisting that a building
cannot be both hygienic and full of dead cows. But while DP-goers never
expected that abattoirs were suitable venues for microsurgery, they were not
quite ready for the news that the average slaughterhouse is to E coli what
Lords is to cricket.
* Dinner Party
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 02:21:11 -0800 (PST)
>From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Key to the meaning of (long) life
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970316022131.26cf5f6a@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, March 15th, 1997
Science section
[Although this deals mainly with human ageing, it does contain reference to
a number of animal experiments as well.]
Key to the meaning of (long) life
Porridge might help some people live to 107,
but others say that it's all in the genes. Now
the race is on to identify them so that they can
be manipulated, reports Laura Spinney
SCOTLAND'S oldest man, David Henderson, celebrated his
107th birthday last month. The key to his longevity, he claimed, is his daily
bowl of porridge and never going to bed on a full stomach.
Evidence that diet, metabolism and longevity are somehow
linked is accumulating, and there is a school of scientific thought that
says life span is determined by a fixed amount of metabolic activity: eat less,
slow your metabolism and you may live longer - perhaps as long as
120 years.
But there is also a consensus among scientists that age at
death is at least partly under genetic control, and the race is on to
identify the genes responsible so that they can be manipulated - if not to
reverse
the ageing process, then at least to allow people to live longer and
healthier lives.
The latest research on those genetic factors was among the
topics discussed by international experts at a recent conference at the Ciba
Foundation in London.
The role of metabolism in ageing is highlighted by the
fact that
smaller animals tend to have faster metabolic rates and shorter life spans.
An American study into the effects of cutting calorie intake by a third in
200 rhesus and squirrel monkeys has produced results suggesting that the
monkeys may indeed live longer.
According to Dr George Roth of the National Institute on
Ageing in Maryland, who is leading the 10-year study, the animals are already
exhibiting fewer markers of old age - for instance, levels of "good"
cholesterol, which is thought to prevent the clogging of arteries, are higher.
One explanation for the metabolism effect is that ageing
occurs with the accumulation of damage in cells due to the build-up of toxic
byproducts such as oxygen radicals, through the cells' energy-making
activities. The more "active" the cell, the faster it deteriorates.
But metabolism is not the whole story, says biologist Prof
Leonard Guarente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Take bats
and mice. They are animals of roughly the same size and metabolic rate, yet
bats live as many as 10 times longer than mice.
Another theory is that a cell's ability to replicate,
which in turn
determines its life span, is controlled by structures called telomeres on
the ends of chromosomes - the gene-carrying structures in a cell nucleus.
In humans, telomeres shorten with repeated cell division.
When the telomeres have dwindled to a certain point, the cell can no longer
divide without causing damage to, or elimination of, DNA - in other words,
without turning cancerous. The only option is for the cell to senesce - to
stop dividing and producing new DNA.
Prof Calvin Harley of the Geron Corporation, a
California-based
biotechnology company devoted to "treating" old age, is investigating ways
of preventing telomeres from shortening. The enzyme telomerase seems to do
just that. But studies have shown that while it is active in most human
cancer cells - perhaps explaining the unhealthy immortality and
proliferation of tumour cells - it is "switched off" in the vast majority of
healthy cells.
Promising new British research into telomerase was
discussed at the Ciba conference. "We have found a gene on chromosome three that
turns off telomerase," said Prof Robert Newbold of Brunel University.
And that gene appears to be deleted in cancer patients.
While this could have serious implications for cancer
research, the role of telomeres in ageing is considered less important than
it was
last year - largely because the shortening is not seen in mammals other than
humans. "There is still no evidence that links the two causally," said Prof
Guarente. "It doesn't happen in mice, and mice get old."
So Prof Guarente's research has focused on finding genes
that seem to control a cell's counteractive response to damage in rodents and
in yeast. His approach is novel because he suggests that, rather than
fuelling the ageing process, the genetic component actually slows the
accumulation of damage.
"What we're looking for is common features in ageing
between mice, yeast and man," he said. By isolating those features, he hopes to
distil the essence of ageing in all animals. While he admits evidence
for this genetic response is sparse, a couple of age-related genes
have recently been identified.
Last month, scientists at McGill University in Montreal
isolated a gene called CLK-1, or "Clock-One". In Science, they reported that
nematode worms with a mutated form of the gene lived for up to 50 per cent
longer than worms in which the gene was normal.
Nematode embryos with the mutated gene develop more
slowly, and the rhythmic function or metabolism of cells in mutated adults
is also
slower.
"It's as though you took the timeline and just stretched
it out," said Prof Guarente. Researchers concluded that CLK-1 somehow
couples metabolism to cell division. A slower metabolism means that cells
sustain damage less rapidly.
And happily, there turns out to be an equivalent version
of the gene in both yeast and humans. "This suggests that accumulation of
damage is what kills you," said Prof Siegfried Hekimi, one of the
researchers.
Prof Guarente has also been investigating the genetic basis of
Werner's syndrome, a disease of premature ageing which can start in
adolescence with grey hair, balding, loss of fat and sagging skin.
The gene which is mutated in Werner's was cloned last
year, and again there is a homologous gene in yeast. According to Prof
Guarente, the product of that mutated gene could lead to an unusually rapid
accumulation of the chromosomal damage that leads to normal ageing.
In his model, treatments for old age could, in future, take a
two-pronged attack: slowing the accumulation of damage by reducing
calorie intake and metabolism, say, and boosting the cellular response to
damage, perhaps by manipulating the relevant genes.
The latter might be preferable, in his opinion, because
the price you pay for consuming less food is to live less energetically.
"This century
we've doubled life span in developed countries," he said. "I doubt we
could do that again, but I think we could keep people really vigorous for a
long time. That is a realistic goal."
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 09:36:37 -0500 (EST)
>From: WalshMM@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (USA)Leonardo Exhibit at Boston Museum
Message-ID: <970316093637_477867042@emout18.mail.aol.com>
Last week in a local Michigan newspaper, there was an Associated Press
article by Robin Estrin "Museum looks at Leonardo's art, science - Visitors
get to know Renaissance man as a thoughtful inventor."
It states: "Leonardo da Vinci: Scientist, Inventor, Artist" at Boston's
Museum of Science, is being billed as the largest and most comprehensive
exhibit ever mounted on the subject."
It goes on to say: "Live animal dissection demonstrations by museum staff
repeat Leronardo's experiments"
Is anything currently being done in Boston to protest this inhumane return to
the dark ages?
More info.:
Boston Museum of Science, Science Park, Boston, MA 02114-1099
Exhibit opened March 3 and continues through Sept. 1
Advance reservations (or complaints) can be called into: 617-523-1441.
Marilyn
Michigan Animal Tracks
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 09:43:00 -0500 (EST)
>From: WalshMM@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (USA) Lansing, MI Man gets jail in dog's death
Message-ID: <970316094259_-1572387672@emout19.mail.aol.com>
Lansing State Journal
March 10, 1997
A Jackson man was sentenced to two weeks in jail and one year of probation
Wednesday for killing his neighbor's dog last summer.
Judge Michael Harrison also sentenced Kenneth Stebelton to six months on
electronic tether and said he must do community service work for shooting a
dog named Sam on August 14.
The female dog was shot in the head and half-burned in a firepit in Onondaga
while its owners, Chad and Paul Gerow, were at work. Their neighbor raised
chickens and claimed the dog was killing his flock.
Stebelton's lawyer, David Merchant, said the dog was vicious and had also
attacked children, Stebelton was convicted by a jury last month.
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 11:58:27 -0500 (EST)
>From: JanaWilson@aol.com
To: Ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Oklahoma Weekly Hunting News
Message-ID: <970316115825_1351154856@emout14.mail.aol.com>
The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is planning to burn
approximately 7,400 acres of native grasslands and associated
woodlands between this coming Tuesday and April 11. The exact
dates of the burnoffs will depend on weather conditions, wind
direction and visitor use. Fire is used to control the red cedar
and to remove brush and debris that might fuel a wild fire.
The Oklahoma County Chapter of the National Wild Turkey
Federation will hold a super fund banguet at 7 pm , March 25,
at the Sportsman's Country Club located in Oklahoma City.
An auction of guns, art and hunting trips along will other
fund-raising activities will follow the banquet.
Upcoming fishing events: the Cold Bassin-Always Bassin
summer schedule will kick off April 19 at Lake Texoma.
Grand Lake will host the Red Man Plains Division for its
first event of the year on April 6. The $475,000 Bass MegaBucks
tournament begins Monday at Lake Richland-Chambers
near Corsicana, Texas and winds up next weekend on
White Rock Lake within sight of Downtown Dallas. In this
event a $70,000 check goes to the winner.
For the Animals,
Jana, OKC
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 11:23:04 -0800
>From: Andrew Gach
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Nothing to worry about
Message-ID: <332C4898.150E@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Experts say human clones could not be exact copies
Copyright © 1997 Reuter Information Service
WASHINGTON (Mar 16, 1997 12:13 p.m. EST) - As society debates the ethics
of cloning, scientists and ethicists say it is important to understand
that cloning a human being could never produce an exact duplicate.
Everything from the cytoplasm of the egg cell where the DNA genetic
blueprint is placed, to whether a cloned person remembered the Beatles
would impose individuality on "borrowed" DNA.
Even identical twins, who are nature's clones, are not totally
identical. Clones made in a laboratory would be twins born years or
decades apart, separated by generational and cultural chasms.
"By far the most mischievous misunderstanding is this idea that you can
Xerox people," said Harold Shapiro, president of Princeton University
and chairman of the National Bioethics Advisory Committee which
President Bill Clinton has asked to evaluate the legal and moral
dimensions of cloning.
"If you lost a child or parent, and wanted to bring a person back -- you
can't do that," Ian Wilmut, the scientist who cloned a sheep in
Scotland, told a U.S. Senate panel last week.
Many experts, including Wilmut, are deeply troubled by the idea of
cloning humans, a technology that could transform reproduction into
replication; that could turn a parent and child into a pair of identical
twins.
"If you take the DNA and, 20 years later, you put it in a different
uterus, you couldn't possibly replicate a person," said Harvard
University medical ethicist Lisa Geller.
"And if that's what you're trying to do, to replicate a person -- you're
going to have a hell of a hard time with a teenager," she added.
Ethicists, geneticists, biologists and psychologists argue endlessly
about the balance of "nature" and "nurture" in human development, about
which traits are inborn and which are shaped from environment and
experience.
But even those experts tilting toward the "nature" end of the spectrum,
like psychologist Thomas Bouchard of the well-known University of
Minnesota Centre for Twin and Adoption Research, say human clones would
look alike, but would not necessarily be alike.
"The difference in temporal experience would magnify the difference in
personality," said Bouchard, who believes about half of psychological
tendencies are inherited.
Environmental factors come into play from the very start. The cytoplasm
of the cell into which the DNA is placed will be different from the
adult cell from which it is derived. Small pieces of genetic material,
known as mitochondrial DNA, will also be distinct.
And once the clone is implanted into a womb, the prenatal environment
will differ as well. The diet of the woman carrying the foetus, whether
she smokes, what chemicals or toxins she encounters in her daily life
all affect the child.
"Identical twins are usually brought up roughly together, and treated in
similar ways. But if the clone and source differ by a generation ... all
kinds of things change over a generation, what's allowed, what's taught,
our diet," said Philip Kitcher, a philosopher at the University of San
Diego and the author of "The Lives to Come: the Genetic Revolution and
Human Possibilities."
A clone of Albert Einstein, taken out of 19th century Germany and
placed, for instance, in late 20th century southern California would
probably still be smart, and may well have the same wild white hair. But
he would not necessarily become a physicist.
A clone of Michael Jordan (America's greatest basketball player) would
probably be tall, agile and have lightning reflexes. But he might not
become a professional basketball player.
And a clone of any ordinary man or woman might look almost
indistinguishable from the genetic parent, but could have a whole
different view of the world, based on experience, luck or what
theologians would call soul.
"Dolly (the cloned sheep) is a snapshot -- not a snapshot of an adult
sheep but one of that sheep's cells," said University of Pennyslvania
bioethicist Glenn McGee.
===================================================================
All this is undoubtedly true, but entirely besides the point as far as
the social consequences of the cloning technique are concerned.
The March 14 issue of the Wall Street Journal reports in its Washington
Wire column that nearly two-thirds of Americans polled thought that the
cloning of sheep is a bad thing and 88% oppose human cloning.
Small wonder that the science establishment is scared to death (God
forbid, public concern may lead to legislative restrictions) so they
flood the media with press releases intended to allay public
apprehension.
Andy
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 09:21:46 +0000
>From: "Karen Bevis"
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Duck Season Opening (AU)
Message-ID: <199703162220.AA08364@lucy.swin.edu.au>
The Sunday Age, Melbourne, Australia, 16/3/96
SHOTGUN MARRIAGE, SORT OF, BY THE LAKE
by Geoff Strong
Yes THERE was still the traditional anger at the annual duck season
opening, but after 11 years of confrontation between shooters and
Laurie Levy's greenies there is a different feeling in the air.
It is too early to call it detente, or even tolerance, but maybe up at
Lake Buloke, near Donald, both sides are just getting to know each
other.
Under new State Government laws aimed at keeping the two sides apart,
police issued 20 infringement notices against protesters who entered
hunting areas without shooters' licences and a valid game licence.
But a police spokesman said a high proportion of the about 80
protesters had licences.
Also, officers from the Department of Natural Resources and
Environment issued on-the-spot fines against about a dozen shooters
who fired before the official opening time of 7.30.
But these days shooters and protesters are more likely to have a quite
debate than yell at each other. Mr George Bonato, a shooter from
Mornington, even admits to a grudging respect for Mr Levy and the
protesters.
"We know they are going to be here", he said. "We just accept they
are part of the sport these days. I think in a way them being here
has cleaned up the sport. Ten years ago there used to be some
shooters who were real yobbos. They'd shoot anything, they'd leave
rubbish all over the place. You don't see that now. Birds other than
game species aren't getting shot."
Mr Levy says he has heard shooter say this before. But he believes
shooters are feeling demoralised by the actions of the Prime Minister,
Mr John Howard, in enforcing a national ban on pump-action and
semi-automatic shotguns and in wearing a bullet-proof vest when he
addressed a shooter's meeting last year.
"I think there are a lot fewer shooters out here this year," he says.
"When we first started our protests Lake Buloke was the cowboy capital
of Australia. There would be 15,000 of them here for the opening.
This year there would be nor more than 2000 to 3000.
"Taking away their pump-actions and automatics has taken the fun out
of it for a lot of them. They were their favourite toys. The ones
that are still shooting now have to be better shots."
This year Mr Levy and his protesters, which included a contingent of
10 from Sydney, used bright shirts and whistles to try to scare the
birds away from hunters. They also tried to protect birds hiding in a
sanctuary the department had declared at the northern part of the
lake.
Mr Levy said he was angry that many shooters appeared to have
congregated around the sanctuary, shooting to frighten the birds into
taking flight.
He said he felt many of the shooters were resigned to the fact that
the sport would ultimately be banned. "They are just prepared to keep
on shooting as long as they are able to."
But Mr Bonato challenged Mr Levy, calling him a hypocrite in claiming
shooting ducks was cruel. "Laurie, you eat chicken don't you? You
eat beef. Don't you think the way chickens are raised and slaughtered
is cruel?"
Mr Levy changed the subject.
(Note that to the best of my knowledge Laurie Levy is a vegetarian.
We also like to call ourselves 'duck rescuers'. As well as
preventing birds from being shot, we take injured birds to vets or
wildlife carers and collect dead protected species that are usually
hidden by shooers in bizarre places, to prove the number of
non-game species also being shot).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Karen Bevis
Animal Liberation (Victoria) Net Site Co-ordinator
Email: kbevis@swin.edu.au
http://www.vicnet.net.au/~animals/alibvic/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Vegetarianism won't cost the earth"
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 09:22:53 +0000
>From: "Karen Bevis"
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Cockatoo Freedom Fighter (AU)
Message-ID: <199703162221.AA08528@lucy.swin.edu.au>
The Sunday Age, Melbourne, Australia, 16/3/96
FREEDOM FIGHTER FOR A COCKY CAUSE
by Suzanne Brown
Every cause must have its champion. And Victorian cockatoos have
Terence O'Keefe. An out-of-work Frankston school teacher, Mr O'Keefe
is prepared to break the law to free pet cockatoos from their cages.
Last month in the Frankston Magistrates Court he pleaded not guilty to
charges of stealing and of entering a building with intent to steal on
24 October last year.
Mr O'Keefe observed George, the cockatoo, in the Mornington Pet
Centre for 12 months. He said the cockatoo was so distressed from
being in captivity that he had picked all the feathers from his chest
until hes was nearly bald. The court heard that George lived in a
cage 1.8 metres by one metre and was let out each morning to walk
around the shop before returning to his cage.
Mr O'Keefe broke into the shop through the roof at night and stole the
bird. George was taken to a wildlife refuge 60 kilometres away where
he was rehabilitated.
Magistrate Heather Spooner convicted and fined Mr O'Keefe $1000 and
ordered him to pay court costs of $712, which included George's
estimated value of $500.
Mr O'Keefe said George has assimilated well into the wild. "He can
fly like a cockatoo out of hell and being a naturally aggressive bird,
he seems to be the leader of the troop of six or so similarly
rehabilitated and rescued cockatoos."
A member of the bird liberation group Free Cockatoos Incorporated, Mr
O'Keefe said he has been setting cockatoos free since he was 15 years
old by simply opening cages in people's backyards. The recent rescue
from a pet shop was his most daring attempt.
He said cockatoos kept in small cages went insane and were the most
ill-treated animal in Australia. "I like cockatoos. I think they are
most entrancing creatures. They are intelligent and affectionate.
They are very like people. They listen, they sing, they have a
language and they use their eyes a lot," Mr O'Keefe said.
Free Cockatoos Incorporated has about 20 members who are against
cockatoos being kept as pets. They claim to have set free more than
30 pet cockatoos.
They would like minimum cage sizes (10 by six by three metres)
established and have suggested young unemployed people be paid to
rescue cockatoos from back yards and take them to a halfway house in
the country. Ideally, they would also like pet shops to be banned.
After they are rescued the cockatoos are put in a retaining cage.
Bird seed is placed on the roof so that wild cockatoos will eat the
seed and make acquaintance with the caged bird, hopefully adopting it
into their flock upon release.
The state director of the RSPCA, Mr Peter Barber, said cockatoos
should not be kept as pets. "All animals that are confined lose their
free spirits and natural behaviour and they go a bit stir crazy...it's
the same as keeping a dog or cat in a cage."
The vital statistics of the cockatoo:
Lives in large flocks
Life expectance of 70-80 years
Nests in hollows of eucalyptus trees and lays two eggs once a year
Very vocal - communicates alarm calls, greeting calls and threat calls
In Australia there are 11 species, the best known being the
sulphur-crested white cockatoo.
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 19:10:53 -0500
>From: anne doncaster
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: harp seal/fishery interactions
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970316191023.006897c0@muskoka.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
The St. John's Evening Telegram, (St. John's
Newfoundland, March 11, 1997)
under the heading Telegram Forum, published a
statement by 3 Memorial University scientists:
Dr. John M. Lawson, Ocean Sciences Centre; Dr.
Edward H. Miller, biology department; and Dr. William
A. Montevecchi, biopsychology program. All were
participants in the recent workshop on harp seal-
fishery interactions sponsored by the Canadian Centre
for Fisheries Innovation.
According to the statement: "The workshop concluded
that seals played no role in causing the collapse of
northern cod. The scientists also concluded that the
1994 seal population was 4.5 million (not 4.8 as
widely quoted, nor 8 million, as some politicians
maintain."
The 3 scientists also stated that the Evening
Telegram's coverage of the workshop's results
was gravely unbalanced particularly in high-
lighting a viewpoint totally out of keeping
with the workshop's clear findings and recommendations.
The viewpoint in question ". . . we definitely know
that now with a small spawning stock biomass, the
lowest ever, it (the consumption of cod by seals) is
having an effect. It has to have an effect" was
attributed to Fred Woodman, chairman
of the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council.
The scientists stated that "to assess seal predation in
isolation from the complex ecosystem of which both seals
and cod are part is both simple-minded and ecologically
ignorant" and went on to say that "they trust that Mr.
Woodman, as chairman of the advisory body charged with
channelling scientific information to the minister of
fisheries, will study the workshop report that was
prepared and agreed to by the 29 scientists from
around the world (including DFO scientists) who met
in St. John's last week, and will transmit its contents
faithfully to the minister."
The full statement is well worth reading for other
details of the workshop's findings as I'm sure
will be the report of the workshop which, I understand,
is expected to be available soon.
Anne Doncaster
International Wildlife Coalition
P.O. Box 461, Port Credit Postal Station
Mississauga, ON L5G 4M1 Canada
Tel: (705) 765-6341
Fax: (705) 765-6435
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 22:02:17 -0500
>From: allen schubert
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Donor Asks for Fla. Rain Forest
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970316220215.006c6a0c@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
from AP Wire page:
------------------------------
03/16/1997 16:39 EST
Donor Asks for Fla. Rain Forest
CORAL GABLES, Florida (AP) -- A tax lawyer who has never been to a rain
forest
says he will give $1 million to a local botanical garden to build a small
version of the
tropical ecosystem.
Robert Kramer calls saving the world's rain forests ``the major
environmental issue
of our time.'' He wants the money used to ``produce a magnificent rain
forest in
South Florida'' as an educational tool.
``A rain forest is a celebration of life, and we cannot let this get
destroyed,'' Kramer
said after the gift was announced Saturday by Fairchild Tropical Garden
President
Bruce Greer at the botanical garden's annual members' meeting.
The $1 million will be donated in $100,000 installments over the next 10
years. The
money is restricted to rain forest preservation research and education.
And although the South Florida climate is not quite wet enough or hot
enough to
support a rain forest naturally, ``this is the only area in the United
States where we
can get close,'' Kramer said.
Although he has never been to a tropical rain forest, Kramer said he has
visited the
temperate rain forests in Olympic National Park in Washington state.
``I was enthralled,'' he said. ``It was so pristine and so green, I
couldn't get over it.''
He became interested in rain forest through a friend who constantly talked
about the
ecosystems and their slow destruction. Rain forests are being decimated
around
the tropics at a rate of 100 acres a minute, twice the rate of a decade
ago, Kramer
said.
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 14:20:20 +0000
>From: "Karen Bevis"
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Req. for Info Re Grizzly Bears
Message-ID: <199703170319.AA32531@lucy.swin.edu.au>
To AR News
I received the following email from someone who is located in Idaho,
USA (I am in Australia). Could someone on the list please provide
Caryl with assistance re a Grizzly Bear in a local zoo.
Please reply directly to Caryl.
> Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 07:49:00 -0700
> From: caryl
> To: kbevis@lucy.swin.edu.au
> Subject: Needing statistics
>
> Hello,
> Your email was refered to me in hopes that you could get me some
> info. Im argueing that our local Zoo is not equiped to handle
> the task of caring for a Grizzly bear they have. I need facts to
> support my arguement. For instance...How much room should a
> captive Bear have? What should he eat? What typr of turf should
> he have available? What temperature should his quarters
> be..Anything like that. If I had an example of a " Bad bear
> experience ( Like keiko the whale) that would be great.i have
> searched till im dizzy. All I can find is stuff about frogs
> ect... Appreciate any help, Thanks again Caryl
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Karen Bevis
Animal Liberation (Victoria) Net Site Co-ordinator
Email: kbevis@swin.edu.au
http://www.vicnet.net.au/~animals/alibvic/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Vegetarianism won't cost the earth"
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