A n i m a l W r i t e s © sm
The official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue #
10/29/00
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~
MicheleARivera@aol.com
~ SavingLife@aol.com
THE NINE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ A Safe Halloween by KMBWolf@aol.com
2 ~ Genetic Engineering by bleu771399@aol.com
3 ~ Plutarch
4 ~ US News and World Report Covers Danger of Too Much
Protein
5 ~ DIAL Stops Testing on Animals
6 ~ The Finish Line: Sacrificed to Science
7 ~ Launch Of humedanz@coollist.com
8 ~ Molly-Rat by KMBWolf@aol.com
9 ~ Quote To Remember
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A Safe Halloween
by KMBWolf@aol.com - staff writer
As
All Hallow's Eve approaches, certain dangers arise for our companion animals.
Animals don't understand why three foot goblins are ringing the doorbell at
night. This causes barking of dogs and
hissing of cats. Turn off your doorbell and greet trick or treaters outside.
Avoid playing loud, scary music. This frightens the already nervous
animals. Instead, focus on decorating
the outside.
Beware of those false spiderwebs. They might look great draped from lamp to
lamp, but if eaten by your animal, they can choke or block intestines. Keep all
webs, if any, outside where your animal does not go.
If you have a black cat, DO NOT let him outside around Halloween. Not only are
there sick teenagers that abuse them for pranks, but Satanic worshipers and the
like make sacrifices using black cats, and most of those are lost cats.
Ordinarily you should never let your cat out, but make extra special care these
next few weeks not to let your beloved escape.
Do not let your animals get a hold of any candy. Keep the candy your trick or
treaters bring home out of reach or in a cookie jar. Put candy (if you are
giving any -- go vegan this year!) in a bowl and keep it with you at all times.
Keep animals away from the pumpkin. Although your companion might want to help
out with the carving, pumpkin can make dogs and cats sick. When scooping out
the gunk, be sure to put it in a bowl or paper bag and discard quickly. Don't
forget to save the seeds! Wash them in a spaghetti strainer and let them dry or
roast them. They make a great treat for wild birds!
Don't let animals get into costumes or make up. The materials that are used to
make masks can block digestive tracks of cats and dogs, and make up and body
paint can make animals sick.
With these safety tips, you'll make your animals' Halloween a safe, happy
one! Don't forget to get him or her a
special "treat"!
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Genetic Engineering
by Amanda Seifert - bleu771399@aol.com - staff writer
Most of you have already heard about what's going
on with genetic engineering and some of you more than likely have been acting
upon it. Unfortunately though, most of us really have no idea what's going
on. I've come across a list of companies that have been using GE products
and first off would like to tell you a little about the facts!
WHAT IS GENETIC ENGINEERING......
Genes are the building blocks of life, they make humans humans, and
plants plants! Genetic engineers cut genes apart from two completely
different species and transfer them together to grow food, or as the GE
industry claims "to provide consumers with higher quality, better tasting
food; and to make less costs and work for farmers"! In the past four
years over 40 varieties of crops have been genetically engineered, including
more than 50% of our soybeans, 50% of our cotton, and 25% of our corn --
impacting over 2/3 of the food in our grocery stores. The biotech industry
intends to genetically engineer all of our food within the next 5 to 10 years.
SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM.......
The food hasn't been proven safe and their claim is that there's no evidence
that anyone has gotten sick, died, or even had any allergic reactions to the GE
foods that are out there, and this is their idea of scientific proof!
This isn't proof. People get sick, die, and have allergies everyday. The
food isn't labeled, so no one can say that these occurrences weren't from
eating a genetically engineered product. In fact many scientists are against
genetic engineering and admit it has not been properly diagnosed before thrown
out into the market.
THERE'S ALREADY SOME PROOF......
In 1994, a GE bacterium developed to aid in the production of ethanol, produced
residues that rendered the land infertile. New crops planted on this soil
grew 3 inches and fell over dead.
In 1996 scientists discovered ladybugs, that had eaten the aphids that had
eaten GE potatoes, died.
In 1999 researchers at Cornell University discovered that Monarch butterflies
died unexpectedly from eating milkweed plants that had been dusted with the
pollen of GE Bt corn.
In 2000, a leading European zoologist found that genes from GE canola jumped
the species barrier and were picked up by the bacteria in the digestive tract
of bees. This indicates that antiobiotic-resistant genes in GE foods can cause
the bacteria in our own intestines to mutate into some superbugs that cannot be
killed by antibiotics.
And what's worse is what's in store! Viral promoters are invasive agents
used by genetic engineers to trick a cell into accepting and integrating an
alien gene into the cell's own DNA. Some scientists predict that releasing
viral promoters into the gene pool could lead to the creation of superviruses
and novel infectious diseases for organisms at every level of life -- from
bacteria to humans.
WHAT CAN BE DONE.....
Demand labeling of GE foods. Press the issue to the president, to congress, and
have everyone you know press the issue. Below is a website that lists
companies that use GE products. Boycott them, telling them that you
refuse to eat their company's products until they stop using GE products.
Write as many companies as you can, even if you don't eat their products to
begin with! The future of genetic engineering lies with us!
Here is a website which will give you a list of over a hundred companies that
use GE products!
You can either go to http://www.foe.org/safefood/companylist.html
or simply click here List of Food Companies
!
To contact the president you can do any of the following
CALL: 202-456-1414 (switchboard) / 202-456-1111 (an operator will
take your
comments on this line).
FAX: 202-456-2461
E-MAIL: president@whitehouse.gov
LETTERS: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC 20500
Remember, the fate of what we eat lies in our hands. The more people that
demand a stop to genetic engineering, or at least the labeling of GE foods, the
closer we are to winning!
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Plutarch
from icon@zip.com.au
Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for
abstaining from flesh?
For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or
mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to
the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and
ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before
bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter
when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his
nose endure the stench?
How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact
with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? … It
is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the
contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings
or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced
for the sake of their beauty and grace. But nothing abashed us, not the
flower-like like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious
voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may
be found in the poor wretches.
No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the
duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being…
--Plutarch
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US News and World Report
Covers Danger of Too Much Protein
from KarenDawn1@aol.com
www.DawnWatch.com
An
article on page 62 of the October 30 US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT asks "Could
diet attack bones? It's a beef about meat."
Reporter Douglas Fox tells us:
"Americans may be washing away their bones in a tide of acid, made as
their bodies metabolize protein-rich foods like meat and cheese."
The article talks of the need for the body to neutralize the sulfuric acid
produced during protein metabolization. Calcium, drawn from the bones, may be
used for that purpose.
Fox covers a study in which women with high acid load diets were shown, in a
seven year period, to have hip fractures 3.7 more often than those in a
low-acid group.
A list of the acid forming potential of various foods is provided. Hard cheese
is at the top, and spinach, which (like most fruits and vegetables) actually
neutralizes acid, is at the bottom.
Fox's article concludes with this quote, from a researcher, about encouraging
the consumption of calcium rich dairy products:
"The question is, are we giving them extra calcium but
potentially also giving
them extra acid? I think it's something we need to look into."
You can read the whole article at:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/001030/nycu/boneloss.htm
Here's a link: Protein and
Bones
At a time when other magazines (such as Better
Homes and Gardens) are regurgitating dairy industry press releases and shoving
dairy down our throats, US News And World Report deserves a big thank you for
this one.
The magazine takes letters at: letters@usnews.com
Here's a link: Write to US News
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DIAL Stops Testing on Animals
from AAVSONLINE@aol.com
The
American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) is happy to announce that the Dial
Corporation has agreed to stop testing its products on animals. The
establishment of this new testing policy would permanently ban the use of
animals in any testing of Dial's finished products. The policy states,
"The Dial Corporation is committed to ensuring that consumers can trust
our products to meet the highest standards of safety, quality and
performance. We are also committed to the ultimate elimination of animal
testing.
We do not and will not conduct animal testing on our finished products
except where such testing is explicitly required by law.
The Dial Corporation maintains its commitment to the ultimate elimination of
animal testing by advocating and funding research and legislative reforms that
will serve to expedite the regulatory approval of valid non-animal tests."
AAVS has been in close communication with Dial since March regarding its
decision to drop the moratorium on animal testing it had established a number
of years ago. AAVS highlighted this issue in its AV Magazine and ActiVate
For Animals, and strongly encouraged its members and supporters to boycott Dial
and bombard the company with letters voicing disapproval of its change in
policy.
Because so many activists took action, Dial not only reversed its animal
testing policy, but also improved its position by promising to not test its
finished products on animals in the future. Many thanks to all who
contacted Dial on behalf of the animals. AAVS also wishes to thank Dial
for its compassionate decision and its implementation of a non-animal product
testing protocol.
Please take a moment to thank Dial for its humane change in policy. The Dial
Corporation, 15101 North Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85254; (800) 528-0849;
(480) 754-DIAL.
If anyone as any questions, please feel free to contact Crystal Schaeffer at
AAVS, 801 Old York Rd., #204, Jenkintown, PA 19046; (800) say-aavs; or
aavsonline@aol.com.
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The Finish Line:
Sacrificed to Science
In search of speed and profits, the greyhound
industry treats dogs who "run short" (don't win) as undesirable
"surplus."
Far from the cheers of the crowd, thousands of greyhounds who don't finish
"in the money" are sold or donated to schools and laboratories for
experimentation, dissection, and surgical training. These unfortunate
victims end up as body parts on dissection slabs or as the "subjects"
of painful experiments.
In the U.S. each year, an estimated 20,000 - 30,000 greyhounds are killed,
including thousands of puppies.
Experimentation
Greyhounds are characteristically gentle and undemanding. They seldom
bite, no matter what pain or indignities are inflicted upon them.
Plentiful, convenient, expendable, and good-natured, they are very desirable to
experimenters.
In addition, greyhounds' popularity on the "grey market" is fueled by
vivisectors' claims that a greyhound's pulse and heart size approximate a
human's and that their low body fat ensures that their organs are readily
accessible.
Dissection
With ample availability, greyhounds have been used in classroom
dissections. Students have been shocked to see the slender animals' body
parts lifeless and dissected in front of them - perhaps so resembling their own
companion animal's.
Countless victims
The actual total figures on the use of greyhounds in experiments and dissection
are not available. This is because the USDA reports include only the
label "dog" without breed specifications. Here, though, are
just a few disturbing examples of the numbers involved:
* 2,652 greyhounds used for terminal labs and dissection at Colorado State
University, 214 of whom were donated by MA-licensed owners and kennel owners.
(1995-1998, Rocky Mountain News)
* 600 greyhounds sold to laboratories for medical research. (1990, Arizona,
Phoenix Gazette)
* 595 greyhounds used for research. (1994-1999, Iowa State University canine
acquisition records)
* 100+ greyhounds - including 57 puppies - euthanized. (January 1996
to May 1998, Kansas State University canine acquisition records)
* 40 greyhounds illegally donated for medical research at Mississippi State
University (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)
And there are countless others. . .
We CAN stop this!
Public opposition forced the University of California at Davis to release
several of the 56 greyhounds purchased for research in 1989. (Woodland
Democrat)
Animal allies pressured the University of Arizona to release 12 greyhounds from
its lab in 1994 on the grounds that they were obtained without their owners'
permission. (The Arizona Republic)
An adoption agency received six greyhounds from Auburn University's College of
Veterinary Medicine in 1998 after it was determined that the dogs were
purchased from local race tracks without the owners' permission.
Unfortunately, this small victory came after 227 greyhounds were already euthanized
in 1997 and 1998. (The Birmingham News)
Investigation of a state-sanctioned "greyhound adoption service" in
Cedar Rapids, WI, revealed that more than 850 racing dogs were sold to a
cardiac research laboratory without permission of many of the dogs' owners.
The lab agreed to return about 100 of the greyhounds this year. (Wisconsin
State Journal)
How YOU can help!
Massachusetts' greyhounds are not safe from horrible fates as research and
learning "tools" or as dissection "specimens." Since
each dog can fetch as much as $400 from a laboratory, selling
"surplus" greyhounds generates a quick and tidy profit. And donating
dogs for such purposes makes for a quick and tidy disposal.
For more information on ending greyhound racing in Massachusetts:
Grey2K
P.O. Box 1606
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
(617) 666-3526
www.Grey2K.org
For more educational flyers to distribute:
NEAVS
(617) 523-6020
info@ma.neavs.com
www.neavs.org
To report "missing" greyhounds who may have been sold or donated to
laboratories or schools without their "owners" consent, or
information on how to recover a "missing" dog:
The Greyhound Protection League
1 (800) 446-8637
P.O. Box 669
Penn Valley, CA 95946
www.greyhounds.org
For adoption information or for links to adoption and assistance sites:
Greyhound Friends, Inc.
167 Saddle Hill Road
Hopkington, MA 10748
(508) 435-5969
www.greyhound.org
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Launch Of humedanz@coollist.com
from Andrew Knight - a.d.knight@student.murdoch.edu.au
Animals Australia
Announcing
the launch of humedanz@coollist.com, the Humane Education email list for
Australia & New Zealand. Launched in Oct. 2000 by the Humane Education
Division of Animals Australia, this list provides a forum for news and
discussion of humane education issues relevant to Australia & New Zealand,
including:
- Alternatives to harmful animal usage in education, such as vivisection and
dissection.
- Conscientious objection by students tto harmful animal usage in their education.
- Educational syllabi and materials thaat promote compassion and respect for all
species and the Earth as a whole.
Subscribe and unsubscribe at: http://www.coollist.com/group.cgi?l=humedanz
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Molly-Rat
by KMBWolf@aol.com - staff writer
I rescued you
My dear small rat
From the store that
Found you
Poisoned you
Thrashed you against the wall
As I looked on
I slipped into the office
Where you lay in the box to die
I placed you in a different box
As I heard workers come
I stood motionlessly shaking
Playing dumb as they searched
Looking for the dying rat
That escaped from her prison box
Little did they know
That despite looking everywhere
You were hidden right by my foot
Somehow that night
I managed to sneak that box to my car
I drove home victorious
Knowing that a life saved rode with me
You were so beautiful
Your dark brown eyes
Your creamy light caramel fur
I couldn't believe that those people
Could harm such a gentle creature
I gave you a home
Warm bedding
Fresh food
And water full of vitamins
My love watched over me
As I watched over you
The poison ran through your body
But you stayed strong and fought
Your wounds healed slowly
Your strength gained more and more
As days turned to weeks and months
You survived the worst
You learned to come by name
To trust a hand
You let us touch you
You knew we wouldn't hurt you
And of all the toys we gave you
You loved that old sock the best
We watched your acrobatics
As you walked upside down on the screen top
Even though you banged your waterbottle
Against the side of your tank
We didn't mind at all
Not even when we tried to sleep
When we brought food to your tank
You always stood on two paws to say "hi"
You were our little one, our adopted one
Our pride and joy
As I went to feed you last night
With a large carrot, your favorite treat
I found you laying there
But you did not come to greet me
You just laid in eternal sleep
I lost you last night
And cried over your small body
You died peacefully and without pain
But still I mourn for you
So sleep now, sleep
My precious Molly-Rat
Your suffering is now over
We miss you so much
And we love you so
Please tell heaven and the angels
That although there is much pain on earth
You found two people who loved you
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Quotes To Remember
"The exhibiting of trained animals I
abhor. What an amount of suffering and cruel punishment the poor
creatures have to endure in order to give a few moments of pleasure to men
devoid of all thought and feeling."
--Albert Schweitzer
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online, President
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal RightsOnline=-
&
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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(Permission Granted To Quote/Forward/Reprint/Repost This Newsletter In
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