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AR-NEWS Digest 550
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) (US) Beef, Pork Maker IBP Profits Fall
by allen schubert
2) McDonalds
by Lynette Shanley
3) (US) Meat Preparation May Cause Cancer
by allen schubert
4) mink set free!
by NOVENAANN@aol.com
5) Shelter Update (long)
by NOVENAANN@aol.com
6) [CA] Rescued
by David J Knowles
7) [UK] Five months for badger killers
by David J Knowles
8) [UK] Heavy weather [Long]
by David J Knowles
9) [CA/US] Bird brains turn to thoughts of murder
by David J Knowles
10) October 24 Sentencing for Dog Beater - Florida
by SMatthes@aol.com
11) Help needed for the Taiwan stray dogs
by Anne Shih
12) Help needed for the Taiwan stray dogs
by Anne Shih
13) Downed Animals
by Twilight
14) [SP] Cosmetic Law in Spain
by Jordi Ninerola
15) Spanish Legislation in Animal testing
by "sa338@blues.uab.es"
16) Japanese Teenager Convicted of Beheading
by Snugglezzz@aol.com
17) Indonesian fires bad for region's eco-system
by Vadivu Govind
18) (SG) Oil spill here close in scale to exxon slick in Alaska
by Vadivu Govind
19) (SG) Coral reefs in danger if spill hits southern Islands
by Vadivu Govind
20) More on the Indonesian monkey shipments
by Shirley McGreal
21) Re: Downed Animals
by jeanlee
22) Anti McDonalds Day
by Dave Shepherdson
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 00:15:56 -0400
From: allen schubert
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Beef, Pork Maker IBP Profits Fall
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971018001553.006d1638@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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from AP Wire page:
----------------------------------
10/17/1997 18:26 EST
Beef, Pork Maker IBP Profits Fall
DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) -- IBP Inc., the world's largest producer of fresh
beef and pork, said quarterly earnings tumbled nearly 28 percent, partly
due to competition from chicken and other meats.
The company reported Friday earnings of $29.1 million, or 31 cents per
share, for the quarter ended Sept. 27, down from $40.5 million, or 42
cents per share, a year ago.
The results were lower than Wall Street expectations, and the company's
stock slipped 62 1/2 cents to close at $24.12 1/2 per share on the New
York Stock Exchange.
Spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company did not know the impact on
quarterly profits of the summer's E. coli bacteria scare. He said beef
and pork supplies were up throughout the industry, which reduced prices.
Competition from chicken and other meats also hurt earnings as did the
costs of opening a processing plant in Canada and a cooked meats plant in
South Carolina, he said.
Sales were $3.4 billion in the third quarter, compared with $3.2 billion
a year ago.
In late August, the Hudson Foods Inc. plant in Columbus, Neb., shut down
after recalling 25 million pounds of ground beef suspected of being
tainted with the E. coli bacteria. IBP has since purchased the Columbus
plant.
South Korea returned 18 tons of beef it bought from IBP after reporting
in late September that E. coli bacteria was found on the outside of the
meat.
Earlier in September, the company announced plans to install steam
cabinets at each of its 16 plants in North America to reduce the risk of
bacterial contamination, including E. coli.
For the first nine months of the year, IBP's earnings were $95.3 million,
or $1.01 per share, down from $180.5 million, or $1.87 per share a year
earlier. Sales were nearly $10 billion, up from $9.5 billion.
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 14:20:28 +1000
From: Lynette Shanley
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: McDonalds
Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19971018142028.006dae6c@lisp.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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I was just reading the message regarding PETA and McDonalds. This week in
Australia, the government in the state of Victoria, has given high school
children permission to work at McDonalds and have the work experience
credited to their final high school mark. McDonalds will have an active
role in marking the participant and assessing their grade, thereby having
some say as to whether the participant gets into university and having some
say as to the participants future employment prospects.
Lynette Shanley
International Primate Protection League - Australia
PO Box 60
PORTLAND NSW 2847
AUSTRALIA
Phone/Fax 02 63554026/61 2 63 554026
EMAIL ippl@lisp.com.au
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 00:21:01 -0400
From: allen schubert
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Meat Preparation May Cause Cancer
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971018002058.00697af0@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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from Yahoo news page:
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Friday October 17 6:11 PM EDT
Meat Preparation May Cause Cancer
By E.J. Mundell
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- America's fondness for barbecues and grills may be
behind red meat's reputed link to cancer, speculate British researchers.
Experts at the University of Cambridge in England found "no evidence that
frequent consumption of (red) meat is a risk factor for cancer," despite
previous American research that suggested such a link. The British study
authors suspect that "the way in which the meat is cooked" might put U.S.
diners at heightened risk for cancer.
The research appears in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal.
The Cambridge findings are not entirely new. As reported by Reuters in
April, researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda,
Maryland, found that individuals who preferred well-done, barbecued beef
faced triple the risk of stomach and esophageal cancers over those who
favored rare and medium-rare broiled or fried meats.
In their study, the British authors reviewed the diets of 3,660 British men
and women during 1984-1985, then tracked their rate of colorectal cancer
incidence over the next seven years. "There were no indications," the
investigators say, "that... more frequent consumption of meat was
associated with the development of cancer in men or women."
They did find a link between a drop in cancers and diets high in fruits and
salads, however.
Dr. Rashmi Sinha, a co-author of the NCI study, says conflicting study
results from around the world make it difficult to draw clear conclusions
about the health hazards (if any) of red meat consumption. "Right now the
data is very mixed," she said.
Sinha says that "at this point I can't attribute (raised cancer risk) to
the cooking of meat." She believes that co-ordinated, international studies
currently underway may help clarify the issue. SOURCE: British Medical
Journal (1997;315:1018)
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 01:38:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: NOVENAANN@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: mink set free!
Message-ID: <971018013846_947272260@emout09.mail.aol.com>
WATERTOWN, S.D. (AP) - About 3,000 mink escaped from a ranch
early Friday after somebody cut a 20-foot section of fence in an
act of vandalism owners blamed on animal rights activists.
The mink ran from their pen when someone cut a guard fence
around two sheds and opened the gates at the Turbak Mink Ranch near
Kranzburg, said co-owner Larry Turbak.
``We don't know how many will die, maybe as many as 1,000,''
said Kathy Turbak, whose husband, Eric, is also an owner.
``Generally they'll stay pretty close around. They're domesticated
and can't fend for themselves.''
About half of the animals were recaptured by midafternoon,
authorities said. The mink were to have been sold in about a month
to a New York auction house.
Ranch owners are blaming animal rights activists. The North
American Fur Farmers Association is offering a reward of up to
$100,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction, Mrs.
Turbak said.
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 02:22:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: NOVENAANN@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Shelter Update (long)
Message-ID: <971018022224_1465841403@emout14.mail.aol.com>
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Two Save Our Shelter (SOS) members spoke at the city council
meeting on Monday during the public comment time. They simply
asked the city to set regular business hours for the shelter and to
bring a veterinarian back to the shelter. Currently, the shelter does
not hold regular business hours- they are open for an hour one day
sometimes not open on the next day. They also have a new policy of
not doing any business half an hour before closing. This is horrible for
people who try to adopt animals in the hour that they are open. The shelter
also does not have a vet on site and the animals at the shelter meaning that
they do not get regular medical care. The animals are trucked to a local vet
if they are ill but it doesn't appear that they are given their medicine.
City Council members appeared to be unresponsive to this issue yet again.
The mayor didn't pay attention as the SOS members spoke and council member,
Anthony Jones, rolled his eyes and said that he was sick of hearing about the
shelter. His solution to the problem is to tell people that if they have a
problem with the shelter they should go down there and look at it themselves
but city council won't do anything else. He asked someone from the Department
of Health to speak (they operate the shelter) and that person basically said
that the shelter was almost up to code with everything and that the peeling
paint in the shelter is fine because "every shelter is like that".
Here is the more info about the shelter as reported by a local paper:
Animal Shelter Short on Kennel Help
The Richmond Animal Shelter is currently operating without a kennel
master — the staff person who manages the kennels, recognizes illness
for veterinary treatment and medicates animals.
One kennel master, Janet Sherd, has been fired after a year on the job.
She says she believes it was because of her association with Save Our
Shelter, the group that has turned from volunteer corps to watchdog
group during the last two tumultuous years at the shelter.
The other kennel master resigned, says Anthony Romanello, deputy
director of the city’s health department. Both jobs are currently being
advertised. Romanello says staff are filling in for the kennel masters
but says, “I do not know their training” on medicating animals and
recognizing illness.
Sherd, who says she has a degree in zoology from Michigan State
University, says she was fired for “unsubstantiated” reasons.
“I think it has to do with my knowing the people associated with
S.O.S.,” she says.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Romanello says. “[The
dismissal] was based solely on performance issues.”
Meanwhile, the shelter is still searching for outside sources to
euthanize animals, since the revocation of its drug licenses with the
Drug Enforcement Agency and the Virginia Board of Pharmacy. One employee
is being trained to do euthenizations, says Romanello, but until the
training is complete and the licenses regained, euthanasia is being done
by private veterinarians at their offices and by the Henrico County
Animal Shelter.
On one occasion, Romanello says, animals were taken to a facility in
Prince William County for euthanasia.
Please mail or fax this letter or a letter you have written immediately!
Activists in Richmond have tried everything possible to change the
conditions at the shelter but the city and the shelter keep fighting us.
Donations to help out RARN with our fostering program can be sent to
PO Box 4288, Richmond, Va 23220
If you are unaware of the situation at the shelter or if you
would like a copy of the 2 part article about the shelter that appeared in
the paper please e-mail me.
Alanna- Richmond Animal Rights Network
http://members.aol.com/novenaann/organiz2.htm
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I am aware of the deplorable conditions of the Richmond Animal Shelter
located on 3540 N. Hopkins Road. It is shameful to Richmond that this
horrific cruelty and disorganization is allowed to continue at the shelter.
The following needs to be done to improve the shelter:
1.The shelter needs a new administration that is caring and that has had
previous experience running a successful shelter. Current shelter employees
need to be reevaluated as many are lacking the experience in the fields of
animal care and handling, humane euthanasia, adoption screening, and proper
office procedures.
2.The shelter needs to have an on-site veterinarian to provide medical care
and humane euthanasia for the animals.
3. A committee of members of the general public needs to be formed to oversee
the policies and actions of the shelter.
4. The conditions of the volunteer policy (FBI, Police, and DMV background
check) need to be applied to all current and future employees of the shelter
and not just to volunteers.
Please take action immediately to correct the problems at the shelter.
Sincerely,
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send letters to:
City Council
Phone: (804) 780-7955
Fax: (804)780-7736
City Hall
Suite 200
900 E. Broad
Richmond, VA 23219
Mayor Chavis
Phone:(804) 780-7977
Fax:(804) 780-7987
City Hall
Suite 201
900 E. Broad
Richmond, VA 23219
City Manager
Phone:(804) 780-7970
Fax:(804) 780-7987
City Hall
Suite 201
900 E. Broad
Richmond, VA 23219
Commonwealth's Attorney
Phone: (804) 698-3500
Fax: (804) 225-8406
400 N 9th St.
Richmond, VA 23219
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 00:25:09
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Rescued
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971018002509.0ed76488@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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The following appears in the newsletter of the Rainforest Reptile Refuge
Society - Fall '97 edition.
Rescued
Shamelessly, the animals were sent to the auction and sold to the highest
bidder.
The remaining ones would have never had a chance if it wasn’t for the
Rainforest Reptile Refuge Society and the Animal Advocates Society of B.C.
They were the unwanted, the starved and the dying.
Two Lower Mainland pet stores went into receivership with no thought for
the animals. These animals remained locked in the pet stores for the next
two weeks! The animals should have been confiscated, and placed with
organizations that could care for these animals properly.
This did not happen! Instead, these animals were sold to anyone that wanted
‘something exotic’!
The RRRS heard of the auction the night before it was to be held.
Judy Stone from the Animal Advocates Society stepped in and rescued the
animals that no one wanted: rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, fish,
reptiles, and birds.
Ralph Daniels and Rob Potter (volunteers of the RRRS) rushed into Vancouver
as soon as they could. Fourteen reptiles were brought back to the shelter,
in poor shape. Immediately the animals were placed in clean cages and
offered food and water. Even the ones
that weren’t given much hope to survive, started to eat and drink.
The next morning was another emergency call.
This time Ralph, Rob, Justin Matthews, and Sue Manley drove into Vancouver.
Rescued were a Blue and Gold Macaw, 5 cockatiels, a few amphibians, and fish.
The cockatiels were in poor condition and now are recovering at the loving
home of Sue Manley and Edwin Loo.
[I had the good fortune to meet Maxine, the gold and blue macaw this
afternoon, as well as some of the other animals rescued. Maxine is
recovering well, although she is still missing most of her chest feathers.]
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 00:34:30
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Five months for badger killers
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971018003430.0ed786ec@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, October 18th, 1997
Five months for badger killers
FOUR men convicted of killing a badger in the first prosecution to use
animal DNA profiling were jailed for five months yesterday.
Magistrates in Bakewell, Derbyshire, also ordered that the terriers and
lurchers belonging to the men be forfeited. The men were appearing for
sentence after earlier being convicted of jointly killing a badger, digging
for a badger and interfering with a sett in March 1996. The four were
bailed pending an appeal at crown court.
Lawyers acting for Garry Shaw, 28, Michael Holland, 32, David Wragg, 32,
and Russell Pettipierre, 38, whose addresses were not given in court
because of threats to their families, said they would appeal. The four were
given unconditional bail and left court with a police guard.
After the hearing, Insp Darryl Street, of the RSPCA, said he was "elated"
at the outcome of the case - the first of its kind. The sentences sent a
message to anyone thinking of killing badgers because the RSPCA could now
prove its case more easily. "This proves badger diggers no longer have to
be caught in the act," he said. "We do not have to be at the scene
and can tie offenders to the offence hours, weeks and even years afterwards."
The case against the four hinged on bloodstains on clothing and a knife
found when they were stopped more than half an hour after the badger was
killed. DNA profiling proved that the blood came from a specific dead
badger - allowing prosecutors to argue that the men had been present at the
death. Previously the RSPCA was often frustrated by not being able to link
a person with the scene of a dead badger.
Magistrates rejected defence claims that the badger was only killed because
it had attacked a dog belonging to David Wragg. Nigel Edwards, for Holland,
Wragg and Pettipierre, said all four had been threatened by environmental
activists and had panic buttons in their homes. "They are living in fear,"
he said "Their wives and children have been threatened."
DNA profiling used by the prosecution was developed by Prof Terry Burke at
Leicester University, using the same principle as human DNA profiling. "You
take the same kind of sample as in a human case and match that sample with
a corpse," said Prof Burke. The technique is a side-product of work by Prof
Burke's team to track a badger colony. Kate
Parminter, from the Campaign for the Protection of Hunted Animals, welcomed
the sentences.
© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 00:52:54
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Heavy weather [Long]
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971018005254.106fe54c@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, October 18th, 1997
Heavy weather
Since the Great Storm of 1987, the world has been wracked by hurricanes -
most recently in Acapulco. Some scientists blame global warming; others say
there is no such thing. Either way, the Earth's future is at stake, says
Robert Matthews
ON the morning of Friday, October 16 1987, south-east England awoke to find
itself in a John Wyndham novel. Overnight, neat suburban streets had been
turned into a war-zone strewn with glass, bricks and wrecked cars. City
centres were choked with toppled trees and mangled hordings. Shorelines
were littered with ships flung against the coast like plastic toys.
They said that it couldn't happen, the Met Office famously assuring a woman
who had rung the BBC the previous day that, no, there was not a hurricane
on its way.
Technically, they were right: the Great Storm was not a hurricane, but a
devastating gale gusting up to 115 mph that killed 20, flattened 15 million
trees and left Britain's insurers with a bill for upwards of a billion
pounds.
In the decade that has followed, it is a distinction that has come to seem
as relevant as a doctor insisting we have had a bad cold rather than the
flu. Either way, it appears that ours is no longer a well climate.
The evidence seems incontrovertible. At the time, the Great Storm was
dismissed as a freak event of the sort one might expect to see only a few
times every 1,000 years. Indeed, not since the Channel Storm of November 26
1703, which reportedly killed around 8,000, had so
devastating a storm hit Britain.
Yet barely two years after the Great Storm, Britain was blasted again, this
time by the Burns' Night Storm of 1990, which killed twice as many people
and caused twice as much damage as the 1987 disaster, and over a much
larger area.
Three years later, on January 10 1993, orbiting satellites warned of an
Atlantic depression of unprecedented severity heading towards the British
Isles. The term depression hardly does justice to this yawning chasm of a
cyclone. At an estimated 916 millibars of atmospheric pressure, it was as
if someone had stripped 10 per cent of the Earth's atmosphere from over
that part of the ocean.
Like water spiralling out of a basin, the depression came wrapped in winds
that tore into the Orkneys and Shetland, sinking the giant oil tanker Braer
as a party-piece before settling down to blast the area with
hurricane-force winds for a fortnight.
Such symptoms of a sick climate have not been confined to Britain. In
September 1988, the Caribbean was hit by Hurricane Gilbert, the most
powerful ever to tear through the region, leaving more than 100 dead,
500,000 homeless and Jamaica's economy in ruins. It was followed by Hugo
the next year and then Andrew in August 1992, which killed 54, made 250,000
homeless and left insurance companies with a £15 billion insurance bill,
the highest ever.
Hurricane Pauline which struck Mexico recently left at least 120 dead in
Acapulco. Tens of thousands were made homeless, hundreds of cars were swept
away and 60 per cent of the resort's hotels were damaged. But while such
devastating events were once dismissed as freaks of nature, they have now
taken their place among the bizarre floods, droughts and
heat-waves that seem part and parcel of a world that is overheating.
It was an American climatologist, Dr James Hansen of the Goddard Institute
for Space Studies, who triggered the change in public perception in 1988.
With America gripped by its worst drought since the Dust Bowl years of the
1930s, the timing of his warning about the effects of global warming to a
Congressional hearing was impeccable. "We can state with 99 per cent
confidence that current temperatures represent a real warming trend rather
than a chance fluctuation," he declared. "It is time to stop waffling."
Since then, climatologists have unfurled colourful maps of the world
showing which parts would feel the heat first, worked out using
supercomputers capable of 10 billion calculations a second. And one of
their first predictions was that a hotter world would be wracked by ever
more violent storms.
On paper, this seemed to make sense: anyone who has ever let milk boil over
knows about the appalling effects of overheating fluids. Born over tropical
seas pumped to ever higher temperature by global warming, the hurricanes of
an overheated world would pack an awesome punch: 40 per cent more than
today's killer storms, by one account.
These "supercanes" would also become one of the most devastating
manifestations of global warming. They are already the number one cause of
death through natural disaster on our planet, easily outstripping
earthquakes and floods, and have the potential to devastate the world's
insurance markets.
So why isn't everyone battening down the hatches? Because, 10 years after
the Great Storm, climatologists are still bickering over some astonishingly
basic facts about global warming, let alone what its effects might be.
Ultimately, there are two key questions at the heart of the global-warming
debate: is it happening, and if it is, what is causing it ?
If the planet is not getting warmer, then we can all breathe again -
unless, of course, we are heading for an Ice Age, as climatologists once
had us believe. Yet even if global warming is under way, we may still not
have much to worry about: it may be a statistical blip, a spurious "trend"
spotted in essentially random data by scientists who have led us up the
garden path
before.
On the face of it, finding out if the Earth is getting hotter should be
straightforward: just collect together the world's meteorological records
and see how the average annual temperature has changed. And this has been
done, the results suggesting that the surface of the Earth has warmed up by
around 0.5¡C since the 1860s.
So that's sorted, then: global warming is real. Not quite. As researchers
have discovered repeatedly over the past decade, nothing is straightforward
in climatology. Even attempting to find out if the Earth has warmed up has
turned into a problem shot through with complexity and paradoxes.
The raw data from land-based weather stations has to be corrected for the
effects of growing urbanisation, whose warm microclimate can mimic the
effect of global warming. Measurements taken at sea have to be corrected
for the precise location and time of day they were made. Even the type of
bucket used to scoop up water aboard Victorian merchant ships has to be
taken into account.
After a heroic effort by many teams around the world to make all the
necessary estimates and corrections, climatologists now think they have a
reasonably accurate picture of the Earth's average temperature since the
1860s. It has two striking features: two significant jumps in temperature,
one starting around 1910 and ending in 1940, the other beginning around
1976 and continuing pretty much unabated ever since.
It is a broad-brush picture of global warming that climatologists fully
expected would be confirmed by meteorological satellites, which have been
monitoring the Earth's temperature since 1979.
Orbiting high above the atmosphere and equipped with instruments of
exquisite precision, the satellites of the US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were expected to provide the definitive,
fudge-free proof that global warming was happening.
It has not turned out that way. "Unlike the ground-based observations, the
satellite record shows a much smaller warming trend since 1979," says Dr
William Burroughs, a climate expert and former Government scientific
attache, and author of a new book on the impact of climate change. "This
has led to much head-scratching."
That is putting it mildly. The satellite results have become the focus of
an all-out war between those who insist global warming is happening, and
those who say the jury is still out.
The sceptics take the satellite data at face-value, saying that it flatly
contradicts the ground-based measurements by pointing to global cooling of
about half a degree per century. Their pro-warming opponents insist that,
despite initial hopes of a clear-cut answer, the satellite data cannot be
taken at face value. They say that the satellite readings reflect the
temperature in the lower atmosphere, not of the Earth's surface, and so are
not directly comparable.
The trouble is, says Burroughs, that in some parts of the world the
satellite data and ground-based readings do in fact match each other very
well: "This suggests that there is an as-yet unidentified process at work
that must be pinned down if we are to remove doubts about the current
temperature trends."
And that, inevitably, will require a whole series of assumptions and
fudge-factors. While pinning down the existence of global warming has
proved much harder than anyone thought, it is fair to say that most
climatologists now believe that the Earth really is significantly warmer
now than it was a century ago.
Finding the cause of the warming has, however, turned into a scientific
nightmare. Back in 1988, when climatology seemed so much simpler, James
Hansen had few worries, declaring that he was "99 per cent confident" that
the temperature rise was not a natural random fluctuation. By 1994 Dr
Stephen Schneider of the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research in
Colorado - one of the leading proponents of global warming theory - had cut
that probability to "80 to 90 per cent".
By 1996, when the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
issued its influential report on global warming, it declared simply that
"the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global
climate".
This isn't quite the loss of confidence it might seem. In its previous
reports, the IPCC had refused to rule out the possibility that the apparent
warming was anything but a natural fluctuation. It now puts that
probability below 50 per cent - which is progress of a sort.
The IPCC's increasing confidence that human beings are to blame rests on
what was once seen as a flaw in the case for global warming: the patchiness
of the warming.
Climatologists were long puzzled by the fact that industrial regions,
especially in Europe, are curiously immune from the global warming trend.
Now they argue that this is entirely what one would expect: the gunk
churned out by factory chimneys should create a thin haze over the region,
bouncing back the sun's heat into space, and cancelling out some of the
global warming.
It is an ingenious and plausible argument - and serves as a warning against
naive attempts to combat global warming by cleaning up industry: remove
sulphate pollution, and temperatures may soar.
But this argument is also spoiled by an awkward fact. If industry-generated
pollution does counteract global warming, then the Earth's southern
hemisphere - which is relatively free of industry - should be heating up
faster than the northern hemisphere. Yet it isn't: since 1987,
the southern hemisphere has stopped warming up altogether; some claim it is
actually cooling down.
Clearly, there are still some worryingly big gaps in our scientific
understanding of the climate. The biggest of all centres on the most
obvious source of global warming: the Sun.
Until now, attention has focused on the ability of gases such as carbon
dioxide to trap the Sun's heat. But what if the amount of heat pumped out
by the Sun has increased over the past century ?
Last month, Dr Richard Willson of Columbia University published data from
three sun-watching satellites pointing to a brightening of the Sun since
the mid-1980s large enough to affect the Earth's climate. Other researchers
are about to publish similar findings.
While the satellite record is too short to pin the blame for all global
warming on the Sun, Earth-bound studies of the Sun go back much further -
and reveal astonishingly impressive correlations between solar activity and
the temperature of the Earth.
Precisely how the Sun affects the Earth's climate is still unclear:
everything from straightforward brightening to the subtle effects of
sunspots have been put forward. What is clear, however, is that
climatologists need to take the potential effect of the Sun far more
seriously.
As Burroughs says: "Until they succeed in showing that the Sun's influence
really is negligible, no one can feel confident in deciding what - if
anything - should be done to combat global warming."
Yet that is what the world's politicians are being asked to do at an
international meeting on climate change in Kyoto, Japan, in December.
Earlier this month, President Clinton was presented with a declaration
signed by 1,500 of the world's leading scientists - including 104 Nobel
prizewinners - demanding immediate action to prevent the "potentially
devastating consequences of human-induced global warming".
Meanwhile, a clearly self-interested lobby of American oil and coal
companies is bending Clinton's ear, insisting that action to combat global
warming would cost western economies billions, would damage growth, and may
not even be necessary.
And all the while the climatologists themselves seem to be disappearing
into a quagmire of scientific complexity.
Somehow, Clinton and our other world leaders are expected to cut through
all this and make decisions that will affect the future of the entire
planet for the next century and beyond. If they act, they may condemn their
own countries to economic stagnation - and could even speed up global
warming. If they do nothing, they may doom the whole planet.
Can you really blame them if they resort to bluster ?
© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 00:58:26
From: David J Knowles
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA/US] Bird brains turn to thoughts of murder
Message-ID: <3.0.3.16.19971018005826.311f059a@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, October 18th, 1997
Bird brains turn to thoughts of murder
By Paul Sieveking
BIRDS around the world are learning new and often murderous tricks. Gulls
in Toronto have
been deliberately shepherding birds into skyscrapers so they can dine off
their corpses, in
the same way that wreckers used to lure ships onto rocks.
Brightly lit buildings in North America kill millions of birds a year -
10,000 in Toronto's financial district alone. They are attracted to the
lights at night and then get trapped in the maze of buildings, crashing
into them or just dropping dead from exhaustion. In the past, gulls were
content to scavenge on the bodies but as the competition became fiercer,
some learned to drive migrating birds into buildings, according to Michael
Measure of Toronto's
Fatal Light Awareness Programme, a volunteer group that rescues dazed birds.
Giant gulls off southern Argentina, swollen beyond their normal size by a
diet of rubbish and fish dumped by local fleets, have taken to swooping on
whales and pecking pieces of their flesh, causing wounds up to three inches
deep. The whales twist around in obvious pain and dive to escape. The
peninsula is a famous spot for observing Right whales, which swim
close to the shore to give birth.
In the hill country of Navarre in northern Spain, a group of Griffon
vultures have dramatically abandoned their traditional fare of rotting
carrion and started hunting sheep, calves and foals. Vultures are sluggish
on the ground and famous cowards; but a series of pictures by a freelance
photographer convinced sceptical government officials that the birds had
developed a method of surrounding sheep and using their sharp beaks and
powerful neck muscles to peck them to death.
In May, the government in Navarre agreed to pay compensation to farmers who
had lost livestock to vultures - there were 30 recorded instances in the
preceding year. The freak behaviour did not appear to be caused by a lack
of carrion. Scientists hoped to determine whether the attacks marked a
change in the species as a whole or merely an aberrant taste for killing
among a rogue gang of adolescent vultures.
Earlier evidence of vulture depredation came my way from the United States
four years ago. When the first vultures turned up in northern Virginia, in
November 1993, they were a curiosity; but as their numbers multiplied,
curiosity gave way to concern: 200 were counted in Kings Grant, a town 30
miles north of Washington DC.
In January 1994, Lynn O'Hara-Yates lost eight ducks from her pond, all of
them picked clean to the bone. When she tried to rescue one, a vulture
swooped down, whooshing within three feet of her head. Her neighbour's cat
was grabbed by the tail and carried 25 feet in the air for a distance of
100 yards. A vet stitched up the four talon holes in the cat's body. Dogs,
horses, lambs, pigs and newborn calves were also attacked.
Vultures are federally protected and cannot be killed without a permit.
Most of those spotted are black vultures, which weigh about 5lb and have a
wingspan of five or six feet. They are common in the South and are more
aggressive than the red-headed turkey vultures. It was suggested that the
harsh winter of 1993/4 reduced the number of road kills on which the birds
normally dine.
Virginia's vulture problem continues. Earlier this year, the inhabitants of
Leesburg (population: 10,200) near the Maryland border called for federal
help after years of fighting a losing battle against the birds, whose
acidic droppings eat through car paintwork. There are about 1,400 vultures
in the town, drawn by a plentiful supply of deer road-kill. The Department
of Agriculture planned to trap the birds and move them to a remote area of
the Blue Ridge Mountains.
© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 08:53:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: SMatthes@aol.com
To:
Subject: October 24 Sentencing for Dog Beater - Florida
Message-ID: <971018085325_1432321375@emout14.mail.aol.com>
Manatee County, FL--- Rex Parker has pleaded no contest to a felony charge of
animal abuse and has admitted beating to death an 11-year old Rottweiller
with a 2-foot stick. When the nail in the stick punctured the jugular vein
of "Bruiser" the dog bled to death. Parker beat "Bruiser" mercillessly in
view of the owner and her 12-year old daughter who is undergoing therapy fo
the traumatic incident. The dog's litter-mate grieved and died 4 months
after Bruiser's death.
Parker has a history of domestic violence and has battered his wife
repeatedly over the years according to neighbors who are frightened of this
violent abuser who has harassed and threatened the slain dog's owners who are
so fearful of their safety and the safety of their pets that they have put
their home up for sale.
As a condition for pleading "no contest" and avoiding a trial, it appears
that Parker will be sentenced to serve only TWENTY DAYS for this appalling
crime!! He has laughed and shouted to the dead dog's owners over his
anticipated light sentence.
OCTOBER 24th is the date set for Parker's sentencing. A close date but not
too late for letters, faxes or telephone calls to the judge and state's
attorney handling this case to urge that punishment fit the crime. Maximum
sentence allowed under Florida Statutes for felony animal abuse is 5 years
and $10,000. Please write, fax or call IMMEDIATELY -- Not much time left
before Parker "gets away with murder."
Reference Case No. 97-09-2190
The Honorable Janette Dunnigan
Manatee County Courthouse
P.O. Box 1000
Bradenton, FL 34206
Phone: (941) 749-7170
Fax: (941) 749-7134
Jeffrey Quisenberry, Esq.
State's Attorney Office
1112 Manatee Ave West
Bradenton, FL 34205
Phone: (941) 747-3077
Fax: (941) 742-5810
Thank you on behalf of "Bruiser" from Sarasota In Defense of Animals,
Sarasota, Florida
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 07:15:32 -0700
From: Anne Shih
To: AR-news , AR-views
Subject: Help needed for the Taiwan stray dogs
Message-ID: <3448C483.8BD3D979@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
--
My favorite site:
http://www.earth.org.hk/home.html
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 07:15:45 -0700
From: Anne Shih
To: AR-news , AR-views
Subject: Help needed for the Taiwan stray dogs
Message-ID: <3448C490.3FCEBA@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to you on behalf of literally millions of dogs in desperate
need. You have probably heard about their plight already: they are the
homeless, abandoned dogs in Taiwan.
Even months after the WSPA revealed to the world the heiniously inhumane
handling of the stray dogs in Taiwan, our sources in Taiwan still sadly
report the lack of progress in this regard. The dogs are still left to
starve and rot in crowded cages, often next to the ones that have long
been dead, in the most painful and torturous way. Many resort to
cannibalism to stay alive.
We are determined to improve the unbelieveably horrifying and
heart-breaking condition of these helpless animals. But we are
inexperienced. We need your help.
We would appreciate any help you can give us: Organizational support,
vet supplies, pet care products, or funding support. Originally, our
group consists of only three of us: Mina Sharpe, Michelle Lee, and Anne
Shih. Fortunately, after 3 weeks of intense campaigning via the net, we
now
have a mailing list setup to facilitate the communication among
volunteers
for this cause. We are confident that as people are made aware of
these poor animals' unimaginable suffering, more help will come.
Meantime, we must deliver some relief to these helpless dogs in
desperate need. We plan to do so by making sure Taipei Abandon Animal
Rescue Foundation's survival. It is a rescue center born out of an
extra curricular
activity of the American School students in Taiwan. You can read about
their
history by either visiting their web site at
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/4694/,
or subscribing to TAARF mailing list. The instruction and a brief
description of our
mission can be found at http://scritto.com/mt_taiwan.html.
Would you please help us?
Best Regards,
Anne Shih (on behave of TAARF volunteers)
--
My favorite site:
http://www.earth.org.hk/home.html
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 07:24:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Twilight
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Downed Animals
Message-ID: <19971018142402.20934.rocketmail@web2.rocketmail.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
THE DOWNED ANIMAL PROTECTION ACT
(H.R. 453 & S. 850)
Downed animals (animals so diseased or badly injured that they cannot
even walk) suffer horrendous cruelty and neglect at livestock markets
across the country. Downed animals commonly lie in alleyways, without
food, water, or veterinary care, until it's convenient to take them to
slaughter, usually the next day. Thousands die slowly from neglect
before ever reaching the slaughterhouse.
The Downed Animal Protection Act (H.R. 453 and S. 850) has been
introduced in both the House and the Senate. This federal bill
prohibits the sale of downed animals at livestock markets, and will
ban downed animal cruelties at stockyards throughout the United States.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Please write to your Representative and Senators to encourage them to
support The Downed Animal Protection Act. Urge your Representative to
co-sponsor H.R. 453, and your Senators to co-sponsor S. 850. Your
letters do make a difference--please write today.
Representative_______________ Senator__________________
U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Senate
Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20515
For further information contact:
FARM SANCTUARY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EAST - P.O. Box 150 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 607-583-225
WEST - P.O. Box 1065 Orland, CA 95963 916-865-4617
_____________________________________________________________________
Sent by RocketMail. Get your free e-mail at http://www.rocketmail.com
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 17:32:55 +0100
From: Jordi Ninerola
To: AR News
Subject: [SP] Cosmetic Law in Spain
Message-ID: <9710181738.AA15415@blues.uab.es>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
The spanish ministers board decided, yesterday 17th of Octuber, aprove a
law that regule the animal testing in cosmetic products. This law is for
30th of June in 2000 and determine this law to exist in this date many
alternative test. ( I believe that this observation is absurd and typical
of actual governement in Spain).
In 30th of in 2000, all products need a label with explain all products
that was use for make this product.
Jordi Niqerola i Maymm
Barcelona
Catalan Countries.
http://www.geocities.com/rainforest/vines/6506
http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/academy/2855
http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/loge/3128
SA385@blues.uab.es
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 18:09:06 +0100
From: "sa338@blues.uab.es"
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Spanish Legislation in Animal testing
Message-ID: <3448ED29.C9D@blues.uab.es>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit
sa338@blues.uab.es wrote:
>
>This is Nuria from Barcelona.
> >
> > Yesterday the Council of Ministers of the spanish Goverment approved the
> > ban of animal testing in cosmetics of the year 2000. Unfortunately, the
> > deadline depends on the validation of alternative methods, but anyway
> > this is a begining!For the animals,
>
> Nuria
>
> Nuria 's Homepage (of animal rights and scientific anti-vivisectionism)
> http://www.geocities.com/heartland/hills/3787
>
******************************************************************************
*
> "Llegara un dia en que los hombres,como yo , vean el asesinato de un
> animal como ahora ven el de un hombre"
> "A day will come in which men, as I do, will look upon animal murder the
> same way they look today upon a man's murder"
> Leonardo da Vinci
> >
> >
> --
> PO`!1
--
PO`!1 a
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 12:11:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Snugglezzz@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Japanese Teenager Convicted of Beheading
Message-ID: <971018121056_26097029@emout13.mail.aol.com>
Tokyo (AP) - His first victims were frogs and cats. Then the teenager moved
up to the crime that stunned a nation once secure in its safe streets: he
beheaded a younger student, mutilated the body and left the severed head at a
school gate.
The 15-year-old, whose name has been withheld under Japan's laws on
juveniles, was convicted Friday of the beheading, as well as another killing
and three assaults. He was sentenced indefinitely to a juvenile prison, where
he will be treated for mental illness.
Jun Hase's mutilated head was found outside a school gate in the western port
city of Kobe on May 27 with a note stuffed in its mouth calling police
"fools."
In announcing the conviction Friday, Judge Yasuhiro Igaki said the teenager
had severe mental problems and must be treated at a correctional institution
with psychiatric problems.
But the Kobe Family Court said the boy, who had a history of killing frogs
and decapitating cats, fully understood the difference between right and
wrong and should take responsibility for his crimes.
The teenager also bludgeoned a girl to death with a hammer in the months
before the beheading, but claimed it was an "experiment" and he didn't mean
to kill her. He also attacked three other girls, the ruling said.
Under Japanese law, the teenager, who was 14 at the time of the beheading,
was too young to be tried in a regular criminal trial or go to adult jail. He
can be kept in a medical juvenile prison until he turns 26.
After the death of his favorite grandmother, the boy began dismembering frogs
and snails, then cats. He then grew aggressive toward people.
__________________________________________________________________-
This is a perfect example of why animal abuse should be taken seriously!!
-- Sherrill
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 00:44:08 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Indonesian fires bad for region's eco-system
Message-ID: <199710181644.AAA20743@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>The Straits Times
18 Oct 97
Indonesian fires bad for region's eco-system
THE forest fires in Indonesia are damaging the region's eco-system and
will contribute to global warming.
Ecologists and scientists contacted by The Straits Times have warned
that the fires could release up to one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide
if they continue for the next six months and destroy an area of more
than one million hectares of forest.
"This is the worst case scenario, but it is a distinct possibility
because natural fires in peat areas are likely to continue for some time
and this will contribute directly to the greenhouse effect," said
ecologist Susan Page of the University of Leicester in BritainGlobal warming
refers to climate changes and rising temperature brought about by
"greenhouse gas" emissions caused by industrialisation and deforestation.
World surface temperatures have risen an average of 0.5 deg C during
the 20th century largely due to this phenomenon. Studies show that one
billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is the equivalent of 10 to 15 per cent
of total global gas emissions.
Dr Page, who is conducting research on peat fires in Kalimantan and
Sumatra, said that the carbon dioxide released from the recent blazes
was much more than western Europe, which emits 900 million tonnes. The
United States produces 20 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases.
She noted: "Just Indonesia alone is releasing so much pollution into
the atmosphere compared to all of Western Europe combined. It adds to
the damage of the eco-system in a very big way."
Indeed, the fires and the resulting thick haze and smoke are already
having an effect on delaying rainfall in Indonesia and exacerbating the
current dry spell brought on by the drought-inducing El Nino climatic
phenomenon.
Dr Paul Crutzen, the Nobel Prize winning chemist at the US Max Planck
Institute for Chemistry, said that smoke particles would probably
suppress precipitation.
"The soot will create clouds with more, but smaller water droplets, a
type from which rain rarely falls," the latest edition of the New
Scientist magazine quoted him as saying.
He added that the particles might warm the clouds and make them
evaporate.Mr Timothy Jessup of the World Wide Fund for Nature here said that
the fires would cause increasing soil erosion and even make the affected
areas more fire-prone given that they will be covered with shrubbery and
grassland.
"Secondary forest will be more susceptible and vulnerable to fires," he
said, adding that "natural succession to primary forest will require
from 20 to 30 years up to 300 to 500 years".
Mr Jessup, who has been researching forest wildlife and eco-systems in
Indonesia for the last 15 years, said that local habitats had been badly
hit by the fires and haze.
Most affected were rare bird species and animals like the Sumatran
tiger and orang utan.
He also noted that the "atmospheric effects of the fires and haze would
spread beyond the respiratory problems faced by neighbouring countries".
"It is very clear that the fires will affect not just Indonesia, but
the region as well," he said.
Besides global warming, he said that sedimentation from soil erosion
could have an effect on the marine eco-systems in the South China Sea
and Java Sea.
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 00:44:18 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (SG) Oil spill here close in scale to exxon slick in Alaska
Message-ID: <199710181644.AAA20179@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>The Straits Times
18 Oct 97
Oil spill here close in scale to exxon slick in Alaska
AT 25,000 tonnes, Wednesday's oil spill is the worst in Singapore's
history, coming close in scale to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska eight
years ago.
In March 1989, about 35,000 tonnes of crude oil spilled into the
pristine waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound when the tanker Exxon
Valdez ran aground.
Pictures of oil-soaked birds and sea mammals and long stretches of
shorelines covered in thick black crude brought home vividly the
devastating effects of that spill, which took three years and US$3.5
billion (S$5.4 billion) to clean up.
Oil company Exxon is now appealing against another US$5 billion in fines.
In Singapore, oil spills have washed up on its shores about 30 times in
the last six years.
Most of the incidents involved small oil patches which polluted
isolated parts of theshoreline.
The most severe slick was a spill from an oil tanker in June 1995,
which affected 3.5 km of the Marina East shoreline. A total of 3,600
bags of oil-soaked sand and debris had to be cleared from the area.
The largest-ever oil spill to hit Singapore waters came in 1975 when
the Showa Maru ran aground outside the port, releasing some 4,000 tonnes
of oil.
Clean-up claims in that case totalled $8 million.
Only last month, the Maritime and Port Authority said that Singapore
had become a party to the revised international convention on oil spill
claims which raises the limit of compensation from $28 million to $118
million.
However, the ruling will come into force in Singapore only from Sept 18
next year. According to a Reuters report yesterday, which quoted
insurance industry sources, Wednesday's spill could cost up to US$100
million.
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 00:44:26 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (SG) Coral reefs in danger if spill hits southern Islands
Message-ID: <199710181644.AAA00265@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>The Straits Times
18 Oct 97
Coral reefs in danger if spill hits southern Islands
Reports by Domi and William Phuan
SINGAPORE'S coral reefs are in danger if the oil spill spreads to the
Southern Islands.
Toxins from the oil might bleach the corals and make them stop growing,
said Associate Professor Chou Loke Ming, who teaches marine biology at
the National University of Singapore.
"If they remain bleached and do not recover, they may eventually die,"
he said.
Coral reefs are found offshore from the Southern Islands such as Pulau Pawai
and Pulau Senang.
Prof Chou said corals used the zooxanthellae cell to make food and grow.
But the oil toxins would cause them to react and expel this cell from
their systems.
"It is very difficult for them to recover once they come into contact
with these toxic components," he said.
Professor Anthony Knap, director of the Bermuda Biological Station for
Research, who is here for an international conference on The Health of
The Ocean, said invertebrate creatures like crabs and shrimps were also
at risk from the toxins.
They cannot move as fast as fish and will bear the full brunt of the
toxins settling on them. Also, they suffer from more concentrated
toxins because they live nearer the water surface.
As to what effects the dispersants used for breaking down the oil would
have on marine life, Prof Chou said he could not really tell. "I
understand that the dispersants that MPA is using have been tested and
have low toxicity."
He advised that dispersants be used in deeper waters because their
adverse effects would be diluted before they reach the sea floor.
A Primary Production Department spokesman said that floating netcage
fish farms in Singapore were unlikely to be affected by the oil spill.
Most of the 85 fish farms are situated off the Changi coast.
"Chances are remote that the oil spill will spread from the south to
the east," he said. But should the spillage prove extensive, the farmers
would be warned in advance to put their fish in tanks.
The oil spill could also devastate marine life if plankton living on
the sea surface was destroyed.
Prof Chou said plankton organisms form the basis of the food chain for
marine life. Without them, animals higher up the food chain such as
crabs would have problems surviving.
One way to prevent damage to invertebrates like corals and sponges was
to contain the oil spillage in deeper waters, and keep it from
spreading to the coasts.
Prof Knap said good weather, like a sunny day, would help. The sunlight
would oxidise the oil and break it down, and the warm water would make
the oil evaporate faster.
"We would be very lucky if we could get rid of 50 per cent of the oil,"
he said.
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 17:48:53 -0400
From: Shirley McGreal
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: More on the Indonesian monkey shipments
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19971018214853.006d5044@awod.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
IPPL has learned of two primate shipments inspected by the US Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) which were not entered in a timely manner (and as far
as we know, NOT AT ALL) in US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) import
records. We are concerned at how prevalent this non-reporting of wildlife
shipments is. If many shipments aren't entered into the database, it raises
questions about the validity of US annual reports in trade in
CITES-protected wildlife.
Incoming primate shipments are inspected by the Centers for Disease Control,
based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. CDC's inspection relates solely to public
health concerns. Itself a user agency, CDC is not likely to draw potential
violations of wildlife laws to USFWS. In fact IPPL inspection of CDC records
shows that the does not happen. From documents IPPL has reviewed, it apepars
that CDC excludes USFWS from the circulation list of e-mails regarding
future shipments. Advance notification would help supervisors schedule
appropriate USFWS inspections. IPPL does not know whether CDC is negligent
or may be attempting to usurp USFWS jurisdiction over primates entirely.
Shipments are supposed to be inspected by USFWS, but this appears to be in
infrequent occurence. The CDC form has a space to fill in whether any other
federal agencies besides itself looked at shipments. Usually they did not.
In at least one case, CDC allowed the importer to report on a shipment that
NOBODY inspected, the CDC inspector being absent.
CDC inspected a shipment of crab-eating macaques (number deleted by CDC)
that reached Chicago from Indonesia on 1 May 1997. According to CDC records,
they were consigned to LABS of Virginia in South Carolina. This shipment was
not listed on a US Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement read-out for
shipments entered into the LEMIS computer by 17 June 1997. This shipment was
NOT inspected by USFWS, according to CDC.
CDC inspected a shipment of crab-eating macaques (number deleted by CDC)
that reached Miami from Indonesia on 14 March 1997. The importer was Primate
Products, the Indonesian shipper's name was deleted by CDC. This shipment
did not appear in the LEMIS computer report of crab-eating macaques entering
the US in 1997 printed out on 17 June and was not inspected by USFWS,
according to CDC. This shipment arrived at 1.30 p.m. on a Saturday. In
IPPL's opinion, there is no excuse for it not being inspected.
Wildlife inspectors cannot expect to work from 9-5, Mondays through Fridays.
Shipments can arrive at any time, day or night. I believe there are 6
inspectors at Miami and at least one should be on call at all times. People
who want to work 9-5 should get desk jobs! Many people would love to be
wildlife inspectors and would dedicate themselves to their jobs. During
IPPL's 1993 study "A Month in Miami," we found that during July 1992,
despite 5 Miami-based inspectors supposedly inspecting:
* On 16 of the 31 days not even one commercial shipment was inspected,
* On 11 of the 31 days, only one commercial shipment was inspected.
More recent figures are not available (IPPL has done no follow-up study) but
we have been assured by the Supervisory Wildlife Inspector in the Arlington
Law Enforcement office that improvements have been made, and therefore hope
that the 14 March 1997 non-inspection (as reported by CDC) was an aberration.
IPPL has referred in past posts to the huge shipments of purportedly
captive-born animals from Inquatex to the US company LABS. Newly-obtained
documents provide more details:
------------------------------
>From Thomas de Marcus to 4 CDC personel [for an unknown reason de Marcus
never includes USFWS on his circulation list]
Subject: Multiple LABS imports scheduled
Date: Wednesday, January 29, 1997
LABS of Virginia (located in SC) has purcvhased a [CDC deletion about 28
letters] and plan to import some [CDC deletion of 4 number and a space]
animals in the coming months. They're planning their first shipment of [CDC
deletion] ASAP. However, they have not responded fully to items identified
in our last inspection (see attached letter), need to get additional
quarantine rooms approved, and must nodify their plan for the potentially
new itinerary. I sent advised Dr. Ward [LABS employee] of this on the phone
yesterday and followed it up w/a fax today (also attached)
This facility has the potential to become a major importer. We need to plan
on monitoring the arrival of this shipment and the uncrating at the
facility. I'll keep you posted. Tom
--------------------------------
>From Thomas de Marcus to 3 CDC personnel
Subject: Multiple LABS imports being scheduled
Date: Monday, February 03, 1997
LABS has addressed the pending issues and hopes to do the first shipment
[CDC deletion] animals into MIA via the AF cargo flight on 15 Feb. We'll
want to monitor closely, including uncrating, which will likely require
travel on Sunday/Monday of President's Day weekend. I'll keep you posted.
---------------------------------
>From Thomas de Marcus, to 4 CDC employees
RE: Multiple LABS imports being scheduled
Date: Tuesday, February 04, 1997
Woops! Now LABS says their first big one will arrive in AF into Chicago on
Feb. 19. [CDC deletion of name of company, possibly Kritter Krates] is to
truck the animals to Yemassee, SC. Donna Jones is making arrangements for
Dr. Ward who is on his way to Indonesia to sypervise the operation from that
end. I'm sure QS Chicago [Quarantine Services] will assist her with ORDS
[O'Hare Airport, Chicago] contacts and arrangements (more later).
A letter from De Marcus to veterinarian George Ward of LABS dated 29 January
says, "Thank you for the call yesterday regarding your plan to import some
[CDC deletion of 4 numbers and one space] cynomolgus monkeys from Indonesia.
Sounds like you're going to be very busy.
[Obviously the number of monkeys is between 1000 and 9999 from the spacing,
probably at the lower end].
-------------------------------------
On 14 March 1997, CDC contacted LABS about the February shipment. Michael
Marty informed the President of LABS:
"The rental truck used to transport a shipment of primates from the port of
entry to the quarantine facility (21 hours travel time) was of inadequate
size for the crates being transported. The crates were packed too densely to
allow safe access for routine feeding, watering, and monitoring the health
of the animals or the security of the crates."
Marty also complained about stray cats in proximity to the primate
quarantine facility and the refusal of the trucker's employees to perform
"disinfection of the rental truck prior to departure from facility,
indicating it would be done on arrival back in Houston, prior to return to
owner."
-----------------------------------
On 31 May a large shipment (253 crab-eating macaques) reached Chicago on Air
France. The primates were unloaded from the plane at 4.22 a.m. and transfer
to the truck began at 4.35. CDC inspector Sena Blumensaadt commented:
"These crates were a MESS. Many of them had sections as large as 4 inch
circles chewed out by the NHPs. They were made of 1/4 inch plywood with ends
that barely met at the corners. The windows were meshed with 3 layers of
chicken wire. The handles were black heavy metal on each side and were the
only item I can describe as being free of sharp projections! In France,
someone also nailed another layer of chicken wire around the entire cage
(not the top or bottom but around the sides)."
------------------------------------
IPPL finds it hard to believe that the 1,000+ monkeys involved in this
series of shipments are all captive-born, as claimed by the exporter's
veterinarian and on the Indonesian CITES export permit. We are awaiting
further requested information.
|---------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| 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: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 19:41:01 -0400
From: jeanlee
To: twilight13@rocketmail.com
Cc: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Re: Downed Animals
Message-ID: <3449490D.911@concentric.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Twilight wrote:
>
> THE DOWNED ANIMAL PROTECTION ACT
> (H.R. 453 & S. 850)
>
> Downed animals (animals so diseased or badly injured that they cannot
> even walk) suffer horrendous cruelty and neglect at livestock markets
> across the country. Downed animals commonly lie in alleyways, without
> food, water, or veterinary care, until it's convenient to take them to
> slaughter, usually the next day. Thousands die slowly from neglect
> before ever reaching the slaughterhouse.
>
> The Downed Animal Protection Act (H.R. 453 and S. 850) has been
> introduced in both the House and the Senate. This federal bill
> prohibits the sale of downed animals at livestock markets, and will
> ban downed animal cruelties at stockyards throughout the United States.
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO:
> Please write to your Representative and Senators to encourage them to
> support The Downed Animal Protection Act. Urge your Representative to
> co-sponsor H.R. 453, and your Senators to co-sponsor S. 850. Your
> letters do make a difference--please write today.
>
> Representative_______________ Senator__________________
> U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Senate
> Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20515
>
> For further information contact:
>
> FARM SANCTUARY
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> EAST - P.O. Box 150 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 607-583-225
> WEST - P.O. Box 1065 Orland, CA 95963 916-865-4617
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
> Sent by RocketMail. Get your free e-mail at http://www.rocketmail.com
Hi All-
I invite you to copy and send the following letters to your legislators
in Washington regarding Farm Sanctuary's request above. I have printed
out the entire letter both for the letter to your representative and to
your senators with the proper numbers:
Dear Congressman/Woman:
I have been encouraged to read that there is growing Congressional
support for prohibiting cruel treatment of “downers” - those animals
headed for slaughter who are too sick or injured to walk. The Downed
Animal Protection Act, H.R. 453, introduced by Congressman Gary L.
Ackerman (D-NY), will require that these animals be humanely euthanized.
Currently, there are NO LAWS to protect these animals, who despite their
distress are kept alive so they can be sold for food - being transported
to various auctions, stockyards, and on to slaughterhouses. Larger
animals are dragged along the ground or moved with large forklifts;
smaller ones may be picked up and thrown onto trucks or into holding
pens, often left for long periods without food, water, and veterinary
care. They are also often abandoned or dumped alive on stockyard
"deadpiles."
I just learned that the USDA has been informed that it does not have the
authority to require humane treatment of animals at stockyards. Thus,
the passage of this bill is all the more urgent. Please cosponsor
H.R. 453.
Sincerely yours,
Dear Senator:
I have been encouraged to read that there is growing Congressional
support for prohibiting cruel treatment of “downers” - those animals
headed for slaughter who are too sick or injured to walk. The Downed
Animal Protection Act, S. 850, introduced by Senators Akaka (D-HI),
Smith (R-NH), Reid (D-NV), and Torricelli (D-NJ), will require that
these animals be humanely euthanized. Currently, there are NO LAWS to
protect these animals, who despite their distress are kept alive so they
can be sold for food - being transported to various auctions,
stockyards, and on to slaughterhouses. Larger animals are dragged along
the ground or moved with large forklifts; smaller ones may be picked up
and thrown onto trucks or into holding pens, often left for long periods
without food, water, and veterinary care. They are also often
abandoned or dumped alive on stockyard "deadpiles."
I just learned that the USDA has been informed that it does not have the
authority to require humane treatment of animals at stockyards. Thus,
the passage of this bill is all the more urgent. Please cosponsor S.
850.
Sincerely yours,
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 04:07:28 +-100
From: Dave Shepherdson
To: "'AR-News'" ,
"'ArcNews'"
Subject: Anti McDonalds Day
Message-ID: <01BCDC44.AC0002E0@e1c1p50.sol.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Ronald McDonald Arrested
Police in Newcastle upon Tyne have arrested "Ronald McDonald" who was giving away free
veggie-burgers during a peaceful protest to mark National Anit-McDonalds Day.
"Ronald" was arrested outside the Northumberland Street (the main shopping street) restaurant
because police claimed a picture of a slaughtered cow she was displaying was offensive. However
they refused to arrest two other protesters who were displaying the same picture.
The woman who was dressed as "Ronald McDonald" was assaulted by the arresting officer when
she refused to stop displaying the picture. Several other officers, including an inspector, refused to
take any complaints made by the other demonstrators about the assault. Instead they arrested a
photographer who was capturing the event on film.
Newcastle Green Party
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