A n i m
a l W r i t e s © sm
The
official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue #
03/18/01
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~
MicheleARivera@aol.com
~ SavingLife@aol.com
THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Buffalo Slaughter Continues by
Park StRanger@aol.com
2 ~ Working Vacation by Kim Stallwood
3 ~ Veterinary School Accepts Award From Animal Rights
Group
4 ~ Journalist Wants Original Quotes
5 ~ Mad Cow Disease Threatens Bull Fighting
6 ~ WWAIL 2001
7 ~ Wall Street Giant Pfizer in the Puppy Mill Business
8 ~ Are We Our Own Gods? by Diana Moreton
9 ~ Quote To Remember
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Buffalo Slaughter Continues
by Park StRanger@aol.com
On
Wednesday, March 15, the state of Montana slaughtered two male bison of the
last wild herd of Yellowstone National Park because they wandered beyond park
boundaries to graze. It was the first such killing in two years because
the state has been keeping a low profile on this issue until after Bush was
elected. In the last decade, the state of Montana has slaughtered
thousands of Yellowstone bison.
Now the slaughter has begun again to protect the interests of a handful of
cattle ranchers in Montana. This issue is especially close to my heart
because I am a National Park Service Ranger who has vowed to protect the
national treasures and resources that our country has deemed to be
special. But my agency can't seem to protect the very animal which is our
adopted symbol, images of which we have on our uniforms, on our stationary, on
our badges.
This was a senseless act. Male bison cannot transmit the disease
brucellosis to cattle even in theory. Only by eating the tissue from an
infected female bison's aborted birth event could a cow contract the bacteria,
and the transmission of this disease from a bison to a cow has never been
documented in the wild.
But this disease is the excuse Montana officials use to justify a program which
is self-perpetuating: Montana gets millions of dollars from the federal
government to support their "bison management" program, to harass and
kill buffalo to protect the profits of cattle ranchers, whose cattle won't even
be brought into the National Forest lands to graze until June.
This is an outrage, and violates the mission and policies of the Forest Service
and the Park Service, but because the Beef Industry is involved, all concerns
for protecting our heritage take second place.
Seven members of the bison protection group, Buffalo Field Campaign, were
arrested after they had saved eight bison from being captured by agents of the
Montana Department of Livestock.
For more information on this story, including who to write to protest, please
go to
News from
theField: March 15th, 2001
http://www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo/update00/031501.html
and
visit the Buffalo Field Campaign homepage, learn how you can help ...
Buffalo Field Campaign
http://www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo/
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Working Vacation
by Kim Stallwood
Email: kim@animalsagenda.org
It will be winter when you read this editorial,
but it was written in mid-August when I stayed at a friend's cabin in the
foothills of the Catskills. I escaped for most of the month from Baltimore's
intense heat and humidity despite it being one of the coolest and wettest on
record. I had long looked forward to this "working vacation," as I
insisted on calling it, because I had recently emerged from one of my busiest travel
schedules. This was in addition to an intense production schedule, a tough
organizational cycle, and other management responsibilities. Although I had to
return to Baltimore once, I was not disappointed because I learned something
important about myself as an advocate for animals.
I invite you to imagine I'm sitting at a rough wooden table on the cabin porch,
working at my rechargeable laptop and listening to National Public Radio on a
solar-powered/wind-up radio. The cabin, which does not have electricity or water
but is insulated, is one large room with a sleeping platform accessible by a
six-foot stepladder. The property -- which was covenanted long ago against
development and hunting -- and its surrounding area sits on rolling, largely
wooded hills. There is a fast-flowing river nearby and many ponds and lakes in
the area. The small town is close, and it is possible to hear the traffic on
the minor road that connects to a state highway.
I came prepared to work but also to relax and enjoy the woods and its inhabitants.
I caught up on my reading, which included a backlog of magazines and
miscellaneous articles as well as Steve Wise's Rattling the Cage, which I
thought was excellent and highly recommend. Long ago I had promised myself to
read The Boundless Circle by Michael W. Fox, which I finally did and regretted
I hadn't read it sooner because it was so unique and informative.
There was also the writing of my Agenda editorials, as well as what has frankly
become what I now think of as my long shadow that follows me around everywhere:
my attempt at writing my first book, a practical, moral, and spiritual action
plan for animals that lies unfinished despite a well-developed outline. It
shouldn't be surprising that the three weeks went quickly and barely a dent was
made. My excuse? Well, in addition to my deadlines, obligations, and backlogs,
there wasn't enough time, but there were also the distractions.
For months my friend had been teasing me with reports of bear spore, and I
thought it would be wonderful (if a little scary) to see a black bear. I wasn't
disappointed late one afternoon when I caught a glimpse of one as I was leaving
my friend's cabin. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted in the
darkening depths of the woods a big, black, furry shape among the lush green
ferns. My mouth must have dropped as I stood there thinking about what I had
just seen. I am, after all, a product of London's outer suburbia who now lives
in the heart of Baltimore. And I was lucky enough to just see a bear. I put my
bags down and walked slowly back to get my friend. We stood on the bed of my
partner's pickup truck, saw the ferns move and briefly heard the bear, but we
never saw him or her again, although we
were probably being watched the whole time.
I thought that this is what it must be like to be Jane Goodall. It was a
magical privilege to see such a beautiful creature whom we knew was protected
from hunters on this property. Although we occasionally heard the bear's voice,
the form did not reappear. But we did see an abundance of other wildlife,
including some amazing caterpillars who looked as if they crawled out of Star
Trek.
As important as it was for me to catch up on my reading, meet my deadlines, and
attempt to write my book, it was my feeling of almost solitariness in the woods
and my direct contact with nature that was the most worthwhile aspect of my
August. I learned it was important for me to stay in touch with nature by
spending time alone in a world where the impact of the human animal is minimal.
I returned home recharged with a renewed appreciation for the natural world,
which strengthened and enlightened my commitment to fulfilling my role as an
advocate for animals -- both seen and unseen.
“Reprinted with permission from The Animals’ Agenda, P.O. Box 25881,
Baltimore, MD 21224; (410) 675-4566; www.animalsagenda.org.”
Email: office@animalsagenda.org
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Veterinary School Accepts Award
From Animal Rights Group
from Weirforanl@aol.com
Curriculum Change Loudly Applauded by All Animal
Protectionists
Davis, Ca AVAR, a national animal rights
organization, is recognizing the University of California, Davis, School of
Veterinary Medicine (UC Davis) for its decision to eliminate terminal
(non-survival) surgeries in its core teaching curriculum. This public
recognition comes in the form of a cash merit reward of $1000 to provide
additional alternative teaching programs. The revised surgical training
program for third-year students expands surgical training in neuter procedures
of dogs and cats and eliminates three terminal surgical exercises.
"The new surgery curriculum is a big step forward for UC Davis," said
Ned Buyukmihci, VMD, president of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal
Rights and a professor of ophthalmology at the veterinary school.
"Terminal surgeries, which involve the killing of healthy animals from
shelters in order to train veterinary students, has been a highly contentious
issue for many years with a growing number of veterinary students and animal
protectionists. UC Davis has now become one of the top few schools in the
country to take progressive steps to improve its curriculum by eliminating
harmful surgical training practices for its required courses. We are also
encouraged by the fact that UC Davis plans to eliminate terminal surgeries in
its elective courses, as well," he added.
The earlier curriculum involved three live animal surgeries after which the
students euthanized the animals. Students would do six more live animal
surgeries involving spays and castrations. These dogs and cats were from five
regional animal shelters and were returned to the shelters for adoption.
Over the past nine years more than 85% of these animals have been adopted. The
revised curriculum will involve only survival surgeries. All animals will be
returned for adoption.
Terminal surgeries have become an ethical dilemma for a growing number of
veterinary students at UC Davis and at other veterinary medical schools. To that end, Tufts University's School of
Veterinary Medicine recently eliminated all terminal surgeries in its required
and elective courses. Veterinary schools at the University of
Pennsylvania, University of Florida, Cornell University, and University of
Wisconsin have also eliminated terminal surgeries in their required surgical
curriculum. UC Davis now joins this list. "These changes reflect a growing
awareness in our society that animals' lives are important and that people care
what happens to them," said Teri Barnato, AVAR's national director.
"The school has offered an alternative to terminal surgery training for a
decade," said John R. Pascoe, Executive Associate Dean at the
School. "Because students already receive some surgical exposure on
cadavers in surgical anatomy, the faculty has decided to eliminate the terminal
surgical exercises and replace them with more survival surgical
experiences. This accomplishes appropriate training in anesthesia and
surgery, increases opportunities for adoption of shelter animals and eliminates
student
concerns," he added. "As academically sound alternatives are being
developed we are also replacing terminal surgical exercises in elective
courses."
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Journalist Wants Original
Quotes
Journalist
for Rediff.com would like short ditties from people who are vegetarians and
very happy about it. Email your VERY short missive about vegetarianism to
sonia.chopra@worldnet.att.net
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Mad Cow Disease Threatens Bull
Fighting
by CIARAN GILES
c The Associated Press
MADRID, Spain (AP) - Tough European measures
against mad cow disease are threatening to bring an end to one of Spain's
oldest traditions: small town festivals featuring bullfights.
"The regulations could be catastrophic,'' said Jaime Sebastian de Erice,
spokesman for the Union of Fighting Bull Breeders. "Up to 80 percent
of the bullfighting festivals in Spain will not be able take on the costs of
the new measures.''
New European Union rules state that cattle over 30 months old must be tested
for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, popularly known as mad cow disease,
before they are slaughtered for human consumption. Otherwise they must be
destroyed, usually by incineration.
But these measures collide head-on with the centuries-old tradition in Spain of
selling carcasses of fighting bulls killed in the ring directly to
butchers. Steaks, stew, tails, ears and
testicles from the slain animals are popular fare in restaurants and meat
markets after each fight.
According to Sebastian de Erice, about 40,000 bulls are slaughtered annually in
an estimated 17,000 bullfight festivals, an industry that generates $4.5
billion a year. He said 14,000 of the festivals are small-town affairs run on a
shoestring.
Maximino Perez, organizer of the four-day Valdemorillo town festival this month
outside Madrid, said the mad cow scare has been an "economic disaster.''
"I lost 6 million pesetas ($34,000), or some 20 percent of the festival
budget, just abiding by the mad cow regulations,'' he said.
Perez, who organizes about 50 such festivals a year, said he's not likely to
see the season through unless authorities change the regulations or subsidize
the festivals.
For the moment, Sebastian de Erice said, neither the central nor regional
governments have offered any help.
Sebastian de Erice said the top-category bullfights in major towns and cities
are not likely to be affected by the measures since their budgets can absorb
the extra costs more easily.
Perez said he lost about $340 for each of the 52 bulls he used at Valdemorillo
and spent about as much incinerating each animal.
He said some bulls and calves used in small-town festivals escape the
regulations because they are less than 2 years old. The average age of bulls
used in the larger festivals is 3 or more.
Some festivals this year have had veterinary facilities available to test the
dead bulls. On testing negative, they were slaughtered and the meat sold to
butchers, Sebastian de Erice said.
Breeders fear that if one of their bulls tests positive after a fight, it could
lead to the mandatory slaughter of every cow and bull on the ranch where the bull
was raised.
A fighting bull from a prestigious breeder can cost up to $17,000 - 30 times
the price of some cows - and a ranch can have up to 40 such bulls, plus some
200 cows.
No cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy - a brain-wasting illness with a
crossover, incurably fatal human equivalent - have been reported among Spain's
fighting bulls, although 23 cases among cows have surfaced since November.
Breeders say that Spain's fighting bulls traditionally graze in pastures,
rather than eat now-banned feeds made from ground-up animal remains - the
practice blamed for the original outbreak of mad cow in Britain in the 1980s.
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WWAIL 2001
from wwail2001@wwail.org
World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL)
April 21 - 29, 2001
Yale University is reason enough for all US citizens to be outraged over the
needless cruelty being funded with our money. Mutant mice lacking a specific
neurochemical receptor for nicotine are being tested to determine whether they
will still become addicted to intravenous injections of nicotine. They are
being tested to see what effect nicotine will have on their pain perception and
anxiety. They are being tested to see whether nicotine will interfere with
their addiction to cocaine, amphetamine, or alcohol.
This is what the government refers to as expenditure on health care.
Now is the time to begin considering what you will do to educate and alert the
public about the plight of the animals being sacrificed at the foot of $cience
in laboratories in your neighborhood and around the world.
Now is the time to begin planning events in your area.
As you consider, plan, and act, In Defense of Animals (IDA) will be there to
help you. IDA can help you promote your events and actions by:
1. Preparing fact sheets to hand out at your events. If you have a
university in your area it is very likely that animals are under attack in
those labs. We can help you find out what is being done to them and who is
doing it. Request this service early; demand is likely to be high.
2. Promoting your events on our WWAIL website. Last year, in the build up
to WWAIL, our site received nearly one million hits a month. The public,
the media, other activists, and the vivisection community can learn that
efforts are growing and our resolve is strengthening.
3. Helping to place ads in campus and community newspapers. IDA will
match up to $250 for placement of ads the week before your events. We can provide ready-made ads of any size.
Place your organization's name next to ours and show that we stand together,
unified and resolute.
4. Assisting you with news releases. IDA has worldwide faxing capability
and literally thousands of media contacts in our database. Request this
service early to assure you are served on time.
Big business and big $cience have consumed compassion.
Fight back.
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Wall Street Giant Pfizer
In the Puppy Mill Business
Courtesy of Victoria King
from In Defense of Animals - ida@idausa.org
PUPPY
MILL RELATED COMPANIES :
Hunte Corp. = Petland parent / supplier of puppies to Petland.
Pfizer gives advice to Hunte at a Missouri convention of puppy millers on how
to increase their production of puppies.
The Hunte Corporation which produces over 35,000 puppies per year, shipping
between 900-1200 dogs per month all over the country and is the corporation
that owns Petland had an open house and seminar type event in MO. A post
was sent by someone who attended that event that it was attended by a wide
variety of "puppymillers" who were there to learn how to produce more
puppies, more effectively etc etc. The breeders that the rescue person
talked to bred over ten breeds of dogs each and many had
kennels with dogs numbering in the hundreds. It is up to your individual
opinion to determine whether any "reputable breeders" would have
attended such an event.
One key point was that Pfizer Corporation had a booth at this event and also
provided a vet, Dr. Peggy Fisher, an employee of Pfizer, to speak to the group
assembled there about how to increase sperm production in dogs, get more
litters etc etc. (there were at least 4 other vets speaking as well, not from
Pfizer). If you look at Pfizer's website for their Animal Health
Division, you will see that they dedicate much information to companion animals
and "education" of the public on related issues.
My thought was, how could such a large company, that was billing itself to be
an educational force that cares about companion animals also be knowingly
supporting an operation such as Hunte AND further than that, providing
education to other unethical for-profit breeders on how to basically increase
their profits (which is what the info disseminated will do).
So, I called Pfizer and eventually spoke with Denise Ulrich, Manager of
Marketing Communications. Following is an abridged version (meaning not
word for word!) of our conversation.
Ms. Ulrich stated that The Hunte Corp. is a long time customer of Pfizer Animal
Health, but then stated that up until today she had never heard of them.
She said they provide booths and speakers for many groups and how are they to
know who they are speaking to or for...how were they to know that Hunte is
probably the largest puppymill in the country and that puppymills don't produce
quality dogs? (Personally, I think that answer is laughable.)
My response was, how can you send speakers somewhere WITHOUT checking at all
who you are talking to? I don't know any individual much less a large
company who would do that.) I asked how they can do education if they
themselves aren't educated. I told her who was in attendance and how they
would utilize the information Pfizer provided them with. She said that
she thought not everyone would agree with me that people who breed over ten
breeds of dogs are puppymillers! (Hey, if anyone reading this disagrees
with that, let me know ok?)
I asked her why with such an elaborate website, there is no way to contact
anyone at Pfizer via email. She said that they don't have the time or
resources to answer thousands of emails a day. (Take a look at other
Fortune 50 companies websites, you will see multiple ways to contact them,
including toll free numbers on their sites.) I asked her if Pfizer views dogs
as livestock. She said absolutely not. I asked if rows of metal
cages in long aisles labeled A-Z with hundreds and hundreds of dogs in them
seemed like a livestock situation. She didn't answer. I told her to
do an Internet search on Hunte and read the sad and shocking stories of dogs
purchased from Petlands, bred by the very breeders Pfizer chooses to support.
She said they would send vets to talk to our organizations as well if we
wanted. We don't mass produce puppies, so that doesn't help us, however,
if they are so committed to helping educate, then why don't they offer grant
applications to rescues and shelters specifically for education of the public
on the matter of where to acquire a dog, what to look for etc etc. She
said that they would have to create a whole separate division to do that!
I said surely Pfizer must have a Community Involvement program already to which
the answer was yes, BUT SHE SAID THAT HOW COULD THEY BE SURE THEY WEREN'T
PROVIDING MONEY TO BOGUS RESCUE GROUPS OR BAD RESCUERS. I found that very
interesting since they hadn't seemed to have been concerned about providing
information / money / resources to bad breeders. She said perhaps someday
in the future they would do "something like that". I commented
that Grant Applications were exactly the tool used to SCREEN out all those
"bad
rescuers". :) She also mentioned that she talked to Dr. Peggy Fisher
this morning who said that the focus was on how to breed healthier puppies, not
just more puppies and who doesn't see any issue with what they did.
Finally we got into a discussion about how they can't do any more to help our
end because of the high cost of pharmaceuticals and cost controls. I had
the perfect answer for that which I won't bother you all with the details of,
but suffice it to say, Pfizer is notorious for being the most unethical and
biggest spender out there in the human health field to sway physicians to write
Pfizer products. This of course, is my opinion, but if you ask anyone in
the industry, even some who work for Pfizer, they will validate that opinion.
So, to net it out, you can't email them. But, I have not changed my mind
that calling and expressing your opinion on their involvement with this type of
organization (Hunte) is not in their best interest as we, the people who have
to clean up the messes that Pfizer is helping to create, are large in numbers,
human as well as canine, that we do have choices in product and that we are
intelligent enough when we go to a human or animal doctor to say we choose not
to be prescribed Pfizer products.
I told her that Hunte may indeed be a large customer of theirs, but we, the
protectors, the rescuers, the animal lovers, the activists and the plain old
everyday folks who care about these animals and who have suffered at the hands
of the puppymillers because we bought a dog we had to euthanize at 4 years old
due to double hip dysplasia, or because it bit a child, or we who as a rescuer
cried as we held a puppymill dog that was euthanized because of behavior
problems, or watched a litter of puppies slowly die due to bad breeding...that
WE CARE, and that WE TOGETHER equal a hundred Hunte Corporations at least. I
leave this up to all of you.
If you choose to, call Denise Ulrich at Pfizer Animal Health at 800-366-5288
and let her know your thoughts. I got involved in this this morning
because no matter how diligent we are as shelters and rescues, we can never do
enough on the back end. It is the front end, education of the public, an
end to unethical breeding and puppymills etc etc that is our only hope of
stemming the tide of all the unwanted companion animals in this country.
When this began, it was simply forwarding on someone else's call for help. But now, I fully agree, we need to act.
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Are We Our Own Gods?
by Diana Moreton - tapster@mindspring.com
I shall cast my spell amongst the masses too,
as I prepare to be my own god
I shall shout the loudest and become dominant
in glorious love and selfishness
I shall perpetuate my superiority in the face
of suffering, death and agony
I shall reap what I sow in eternal defiance
of the One I claim to love by grace
I imagine what they go through and then
denounce any culpability of action
I refuse to partake of the carnage knowledge
of mankind's obsessive selfishness
I go against the tide even though it means
getting swept up and drowned in it
I laugh at the thought of being torn asunder
or crucified upside down, like them
For do we not destroy ourselves as we destroy
them by their consummation?
Where is our just reward for torturing
innocent beings to death for tastebuds?
Do we really think there may be treasures
laid up in Heaven for us when we
unabashedly treat the rest of creation like
we own it? Are we our own Gods?
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Quote
To Remember
"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a
relative."
~ Mordecai Siegal
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online
P O Box 7053
Tampa, Fl 33673-7053
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal Rights Online=-
&
Advisory Board Member, Animal Rights Network Inc.,
not-for-profit publisher of The Animals' Agenda Magazine
http://www.animalsagenda.org/
The Animals' Agenda Magazine: WebEdition
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
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