ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter

ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter - Issue # 06/27/01

A n i m a l W r i t e s © sm

The official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter

Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com Issue # 06/27/01

Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com

Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com

~ MichelleRivera1@aol.com

~ sbest1@elp.rr.com

THE EIGHT ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:

1 ~ Pound Seizure by Neal D. Barnard, M.D.

2 ~ What Do Landfills and Dead Fish Have In Common?

3 ~ Legislative Update: Victory In Texas

4 ~ Class Action Suit Filed Against McDonald's For Deceiving Vegetarians

5 ~ Things McDonalds Hasn't Told You

6 ~ Kittens Are Magic, But,,,

7 ~ Where Have They Gone?

8 ~ Memorable Quote

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Pound Seizure

by Neal D. Barnard, M.D.

www.pcrm.org

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine opposes the practice of releasing animals from shelters or pounds for use in experimentation, sometimes referred to as pound seizure. PCRM is a national nonprofit organization that addresses several issues in medicine and research.

Most cities that are homes to leading research centers no longer allow the release of pound animals to research laboratories. Boston, the home of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other universities; Baltimore, the home of Johns Hopkins University; as well as New York City and Washington, D.C., are among the areas that have chosen not to release animals for research.

The National Institutes of Health intramural researchers never use animals from pounds. The National Institute of Mental Health also makes no use of pound animals in its intramural research.

The economic factors are straightforward. Many have shown that the use of pound animals is penny-wise and pound-foolish. While these animals are inexpensive in initial purchase price, they require quarantine and veterinary treatment to rid them of the infections and parasites they have acquired on the streets. Quarantine typically lasts for 30 days. The caging space, personnel costs, feeding, and veterinary care are not free. Replacing the animals who die from infections also escalates costs. So while the initial price may be low, the savings are rapidly eroded. This may show up in budgets other than those of the principal investigators, but such costs are nonetheless real and have been well-known for decades.

A memo to personnel using dogs at the University of California at San Francisco Animal Care Facility dated March 22, 1982 reported:

"[N]ormally 60-70 percent [of random-source] dogs develop clinical

signs of infectious respiratory disease within the first 10-14 days. You

may expect a 10-15 percent mortality rate of assigned animals during

this conditioning period."

A publication of the National Institutes of Health (NIH publication 72-333) reports:

"In addition to altering experiment results, the use of pound dogs may

also increase research costs, in spite of the initial low cost of the dog

....The cost of the dogs is a minor part of the expense, yet the

untimely death of each subject dog escalates the overall cost of

experimentation."

The quality of research is another consideration. Animals from shelters often carry diseases. It is entirely unknown what diseases they may have had and what medications, if any, they may have been given. Their ages are unknown. These factors are important in research. Imagine testing a medicine for heart disease in dogs who, unbeknownst to the researcher, had previously had heartworm or cardiac damage from other infections. These factors can destroy experimental results. There is no way researchers can know the histories of these animals. Just as they would never consider using rats from the streets in research, there is no reason to use dogs from this source.

These problems may cause experimental results to be uninterpretable. As a result, more animals are then used in repeat experiments. So rather than save money or animals’ lives, the use of animals from this source often costs more money and more animals’ lives.

It is true that many animals in pounds who are not adopted will be euthanized. But this is certainly not an argument in favor of pound seizure. First, it is precisely those animals who are most adoptable that experimenters tend to choose. They prefer docile, well-socialized, medium-sized animals, precisely the animals likely to be adopted. Second, there is no comparison between humane euthanasia in a shelter and the experience of an animal in a laboratory experiment before being killed. In 1987, Robert Eckstein studied the fate of mongrel dogs in 52 experimental protocols taken randomly from the published literature. The median length of experiments was about ten days. Thirty-two percent of the experiments lasted longer than one month. The longest in his study lasted five and one-half years. Sixty-six percent of the experiments involved significant pain. Thirteen percent involved severe pain on unanesthetized animals. One in ten dogs died accidentally in the course of experiments. The conclusion is clear: animals used in experiments suffer far more than those who are humanely euthanized in the shelter.

Some institutions have used animals from pounds in medical education, but this is an area where the use of animals is falling out of favor. The September 1988 issue of Journal of Medical Education reported our national survey of medical schools which showed that there are now many schools which do not use animals at all in their medical curriculum. The most common use of animals was in physiology classes, but only 53 percent of medical schools use animals for this purpose. Only 25 percent use animals to teach pharmacology, and only 19 percent use them in surgery. The trend is clearly for medical schools to move away from the use of animals in education. The alternatives used at U.S. medical schools are simple: lectures, readings, and the increased use of clinical experience. Computer models, videotapes, and simulator models are helpful as well.

There are often ethical questions regarding the source of subjects for research. It is our judgment that pounds or shelters can never be ethically used as a source of supply. This is because pound seizure forces experimentation interests to conflict with animal control needs.

Animal control is a difficult job in the best of times. Animal control officers must rely on the good will of the public if sick, injured, or abandoned animals are to be brought into shelters. People bringing animals into a shelter expect that animals will either be adopted or humanely euthanized. If a person bringing an injured or sick animal into a shelter sees an animal dealer loading animals from the back door of the shelter, the person will very likely turn around and choose not to leave the animal at the facility. When people know that pound seizure is routine, they tend to leave animals on the street. There, animals are likely to breed more litters, carry parasites, or contract diseases such as distemper or rabies, which, in turn, can aggravate public health problems. Studies in New Mexico and Washington, D.C., showed that pound release practices measurably erode public confidence in animal control facilities. A tough job gets even tougher.

But it is not only the public that is discouraged by pound seizure. Management and employees of shelters are adversely affected, as well. In consultations with numerous jurisdictions, we have never seen an effective animal control program in any city or county which permitted pound seizure. Medical researchers should never try to save a few dollars at the expense of an already overburdened animal control system.

Inferior animal control, marked by a lack of public confidence and the ever-present threat of rabies and other diseases spread by uncontrolled animal populations, should not be tolerated by progressive states. Banning pound release is the first step in a modern animal control program.

Having seen many jurisdictions deliberate over this issue, I am well aware that those who favor pound release do so because they fear the encroachment of regulation on research. They should be reminded that it has always been necessary to regulate research. The instances of abuse of human and animal subjects are well-known in the medical community. Just as unethical sources of human subjects are shunned, one should turn away from conducting research at the expense of other public institutions.

There is no doubt that researchers will give examples of experiments that used pound animals. And they will assert that these experiments would be impossible if the cost of animals were to be increased. It has to be remembered that animal costs are always small in comparison with staff salaries, facilities costs, computers, and medical equipment.

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What Do Landfills and Dead Fish Have In Common?

by EndCruelty@aol.com

The ocean. We in the animal rights movement cannot for an instant ignore what's happening on the land or in the sea.

Did you know that there are oceanographers who track sea garbage by measuring ocean currents? These and other methods are now used to pinpoint the container ship which may have dumped thousands of items such as running shoes into our precious waters, disturbing the ecosystem including poisoning fish and ocean animals.

Every year millions of items from gumball dispensers to Beanie Babies sail the oceans of the world on container ships which each carry an average of 4,500 containers. But storms and other mishaps cause more than 10,000 containers to fall overboard and spill their cargo into the ocean every year.

Fortunately, shipping companies must keep meticulous records, and a ship's captain is required to state where a container went overboard.

Oceanographers can easily check the serial number on the insole of a Nike shoe for example, found washed up on a beach against a ship captain's record to help trace its route from where it went overboard. With knowledge of ocean currents, oceanographers can then often predict where and when the goods will turn up.

Recently predicted was that Nike shoes which fell into the Pacific in 1999 would turn up on a certain beach. But some items won't wash ashore for 10 years.

The most bountiful and therefore unfortunate beaches are in California, Oregon and Washington. In Puget Sound, oceanographers claim the "1 percent rule" applies - about 1 percent of whatever is spilled or floats into the Strait of Juan de Fuca will reach inland beaches.

"The oil companies don't like me saying this, but if a million gallons of oil spill in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, 1 percent - 10,000 gallons - will show up in Everett and Puget Sound," said oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer of a Seattle firm.

Perhaps someday we will have the technology and funds to avert spills before they happen; and if they happen to be able to accurately predict what will be needed at the site where they will come ashore. Advance planning has the potential to save the lives of millions of fish and mammals, and keep our seas' delicate balance in check for generations to come.

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Legislative Update: Victory In Texas

from ASPCA news-alert - news-alert@list.aspca.org

Thanks to the support of Texas animal lovers, two new humane laws are now in place in the Lone Star state. Earlier this month, the Governor signed the Felony Animal Cruelty bill, which makes five of ten animal cruelty offenses state felonies. The bill also mandates psychological counseling for juveniles convicted of cruelty to animals. And after six years of hard work, the Dangerous Wild Animal bill was also passed into law. Explains Cile Holloway of the Texas Humane Legislation Network, "This bill will regulate the ownership of dangerous wild animals, such as lions, tigers, bears and great apes. Owners will have to maintain insurance, meet specific caging requirements, care for the animals as mandated by the Animal Welfare Act and register their animals locally." Congrats go to Holloway and all News Alert readers who contacted their legislators on these bills.

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Class Action Suit Filed

Against McDonald's For Deceiving Vegetarians

from "NARN c/o Joe Haptas" - narn@jps.net

On Tuesday, May 1, 2001, Seattle based attorney Harish Bharti filed a class-action lawsuit against McDonald's Corporation on behalf of Hindu and non-Hindu vegetarians, charging that McDonald's has been deceiving customers regarding the ingredients of their french fries. Although, McDonald's has been claiming since 1990 that their fries are cooked in 100% vegetable oil, thus recommended for "vegetarians," their list of ingredients includes "natural flavor," which is actually extracted from beef fat. McDonald's has now admitted their use of beef flavoring within an apology statement recently issued by the company. If you are a vegetarian and have purchased McDonald's fries within the last 11 years believing them to contain no animal ingredients based on the deceptive media campaign by McDonald's, you may be eligible to participate in this class-action lawsuit. Please complete, sign and mail your declaration directly to Mr. Bharti. The proposed declaration form can be accessed by going to the PAWS Web site at

www.paws.org/advocacy/mcdonalds/index.htm

For more information about this class action lawsuit, please go to www.hbharti.com

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Things McDonalds Hasn't Told You

The Top 5 List www.topfive.com

Recently it was reported that in the United States, McDonald's has been cooking their French fries in beef fat at their processing plants before freezing them and shipping them to the restaurants, where they're fried again, this time in vegetable oil. As you might imagine, American Hindus and vegetarians are pretty upset about this. Kind of makes you wonder just what *else* McDonald's might be hiding, doesn't it?

The Top 16 Other Things McDonald's Hasn't Told You

16. The shakes? Also fried in beef fat.

15. Tell the vegetarians to brace themselves; we have some bad news about the salads.

14. Want to avoid beef fat altogether? Try our hamburgers.

13. Mayor McCheese has had five coronary bypass surgeries.

12. Burgers that don't sell after two days spend the rest of the month as "Filet-O-Fish."

11. The Hamburglar MUST dress like that because of Megan's Law.

10. McNuggets are shaped to honor the states with lenient meat-handling laws.

9. The reason we wear rubber gloves is for OUR protection, not yours.

8. The real Ronald McDonald died in 1969, trying to wrestle the controls of a small plane from an inebriated Hamburglar.

7. We never asked; we just assumed you'd prefer it lukewarm.

6. The Bible might be a series of allegorically instructive fables, rather than historically factual accounts.

5. You can McNugget almost anything and people still think it's chicken.

4. If our lawsuit succeeds, many Irish people will lose the first two letters of their surname, as did Hammer.

3. We modeled Ronald on a painting by John Wayne Gacy.

2. Actually, seeing you smile kind of creeps us out.

and Topfive.com's Number 1 Other

Thing McDonald's Hasn't Told You...

1. "Okay, you got us; there aren't really any salads back here."

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Kittens are magic but...

written by Violet Winegarden, founder, Happy Cat Haven

www.happycathaven.org

Every Spring the Haven is visited day after day by adults and their children wanting kittens. These people walk by many beautiful needy cats who were kittens last year - some being kittens just 5 or 6 months ago. The visitors do not even glance at these loving creatures, while signing their names on a waiting list for kittens!

Bad enough that so many people allow their pets to breed and breed again thus flooding our communities with a plethora of felines, but it is also wrong to want 'kittens only' when it is a fact that last year's kittens have filled the rooms of animal welfare groups to overload. Many of these innocent tame and loving cats will be killed to make room for the (also) innocent kittens born this year! What an ugly death inducing circle we humans have created by our selfish wants!

Admittedly if you have an adult cat at home and want a friend for them, a kitten is sometimes easier to introduce but when you realize how very important it is to provide a home for an adult cat (so that it has a home and thus a life) your efforts will feel very worthwhile.

Visitors here will often say, "oh my present cat many not even accept a kitten and certainly not another cat." I have no reply - no words at all as I look upon some 40 or more cats, male and female, living together in harmony in our adoption room. Sometimes, by way of reply, I take these visitors into our "forever" room where some 15 once abused cats are snuggled together on the bed or sitting, silent and content on the wide sills...there is a boss cat here and that is accepted by all in that particular room with seldom a challenge issued.

Back in the adoption room, with cats coming and going constantly, one cat or another may decide to "take over" the room. This causes all to feel on edge. In addition, incoming cats who have just been neutered and are upset by their changing hormones - this is when the water spray bottle is kept in full view but never used unless blood may be shed. Instead, we talk gently to the cats in our normal quiet voices, actually telling them about their situations and our expectations - stopping our cleaning routines often to gently hush a cat or pet a cat, always walking between the cats who are wanting to challenge another. On occasion in the morning there will be a fair amount of hair on the floor where a night time encounter has taken place, however when quiet words are spoken, any aggression can be reduced.

In a home situation, sometimes it is wise to keep the incoming adult in a bedroom with its own litter pan, water bowl and food dishes for a week or so. The home cat and the newcomer may then sniff one another under the door and even touch paws in their efforts to satisfy their insatiable curiosity! When the door is opened and the entire house is available for the new cat to explore, a fight is hardly worth the effort. Instead, a few hisses and growls may be heard. Very soon - in a week or so - these two cats will be happy campers and bonding!

We humans have a desire to interfere with a cat's way of dealing with changes in their lives. I feel that a watchful silence is the quickest way to help create friendships between felines. In other words, let us humans just mind our own business for a change thus allowing our cats to go about theirs.

Yes, kittens are magic and have their place in the scheme of things. However, when you adopt an adult cat your are not just giving a cat a home, you are very probably giving it a life as well.

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Where Have They Gone?

Where have all the animals gone?

What have we done?

Where did they go?

Oh, no.

The caribou's are gone,

In the middle of Dawn.

Did they disappear?

Oh, so much I fear!

Did the great ducks fly away or run?

Was it the human gun?

Such beautiful birds,

On the blessed planet that's third.

Where have all the animals gone?

What have we done?

Where did they go?

Oh, no.

May be used in unchanged form by avowed Animal Rightists if

accompanied by this copyright message.

Animal Rights Counterculture

http://www.animalsong.org

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Quote To Remember

"The gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies.. they are the trees and the plants and the seeds."

~ Plato

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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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