A n i m a l   W r i t e s © sm
                                                
The official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
  

   
Publisher   ~ EnglandGal@aol.com                                           Issue # 12/06/00
        Editor    ~ JJswans@aol.com
    Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
                     ~ MicheleARivera@aol.com
                     ~
SavingLife@aol.com

    THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
  
    1  ~ How Do You Spell RESCUE?  Delvosterone 
            by MicheleARivera@aol.com
    2  ~
ARO Columnist Arrested  by ParkStRanger@aol.com
            & An Arresting Protest  by Steve Best - sbest1@elp.rr.com
    3  ~ Friends of Animals Takes Strong Stance Against "Chimp Act"
    4  ~
The CHIMP Bill: A Statement from GAP
    5  ~
Job Opportunity
    6
  ~ Let's All Head To McDonald's  by ParkStRanger@aol.com
    7  ~ Holidays At The Shelter  by Cats2Save@aol.com
    8  ~ Christmas  by Guila Manchester
   
9  ~ Quote To Remember
  

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   How do you spell RESCUE?
Delvosterone
by MicheleARivera@aol.com

As our longtime readers will hopefully remember, I have written several articles on the benefits of early spay/neuter, and, for lack of a better solution, I have been an advocate of early sterilization as a humane means of controlling the overpopulation of unwanted companion animals.

In my travels as an advocate, I come into contact with people who have differing solutions and ideas, opinions and projects that deal with the so-called, "pet-overpopulation" problem.  (I see this as a misnomer since the ones we are killing are no longer, or perhaps never were, anyone's pet.)

My research has turned up several surprising contradictions in that I cannot find a precise number of animals killed annually in the United States.  The numbers, I have found from visiting the websites of various humane societies and animal-rights organizations, is that this number varies from 5 million, to 7.5 million, to 12 million and sometimes even higher than that!  There is no doubt that this is a serious problem that should be addressed aggressively.  I realize that the animal-rights community has, for the most part, left this particular issue to the animal-welfare community.  If this is indeed the case, it seems equitable since the animal-welfare activists have this as practically their sole issue since the other main issue, animal cruelty and neglect, DOES get the attention of animal-rights activists.  So the humane societies and animal-control agencies muddle along, trying to make a difference in the numbers of animals they kill each year, trying to find homes where there are none to be had, working to get the word out about early sterilization, and passing laws and ordinances across the land that amount to leash laws and laws against rescue groups placing intact animals.  And when the leaders of rescue groups come together to talk about this common goal, and this horrific problem, on this they can all agree: THE SLAUGHTER OF HEALTHY ANIMALS MUST STOP.

And veterinarians and scientists and friends of animal-welfare agencies all nod their heads in sympathy and agreement. 

But there is something very wrong. 

In one of my articles I stated that in Europe, dogs and cats are not routinely spayed and neutered, or, as some would have us say, castrated.  Yet, inexplicably, there is a nonexistent pet overpopulation problem, and the Europeans are not killing millions of unwanted animals every year as we are.  True, Americans are much more prone to commodification of animals and are given to waste and buying disposable items, but that is not the entire problem.  In this article, I attributed this lack of mass killing to the concept that the animals are all kept on leads with their guardians, which is true.  Or that animals are allowed to go into stores and restaurants with their guardians, also true.  But, it would appear that these are NOT the reasons their animals are not reproducing at a rate that produces more dogs and cats than there are homes for. 

There is another reason. And when you hear it, you will exclaim, as I did, "You've got to be kidding!"

A mentor of mine who is now the director of our animal control agency here in Palm Beach County is also a veterinarian, and a very smart lady.  She told me that, in Europe, the animals are not surgically rendered unable to reproduce because it is unnecessary: they have Delvosterone, an injectable birth control solution.  Yes, That's right.  This veterinarian also shared with me that she has approached the Doris Day Animal League about taking up the campaign to bring Delvostrone to the US, much like other organizations did with RU486, and creating a media blitz, again, like RU486, to get the word out.  Perhaps a few letters from our readers would help Doris Day make up their mind about getting involved---www.ddal.org.)

"You've got to be kidding!"  I said, "Why don't we have it?"

The answer, of course, is MONEY.  Not that it costs so very much, but because the veterinary community, and all the suppliers of spay/neuter surgery paraphernalia, don't want us to know about it.  They make a lot of money putting those animals through all that surgery, and if it was just a matter of a shot, well.... you know.  We can't have that!

I have been asking around to other people who would know, and they have confirmed this information.  In fact, Delvosterone in some form or another has been used to control the deer population in some states. 

Can you even dare to imagine a nation with no homeless animals? Think of all the people who would be put out of a job, and then think of all the healthy animals who will not have to die.

It's out there.  I'm not kidding.

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ARO Columnist Arrested
by Park StRanger@aol.com

Regular ARO guest columnist, Dr. Steve Best, was arrested on December 2nd during a protest at a fur store in El Paso.  The event was arranged by our local AR group, Voice For All Animals, to draw attention to an annual Christmas fur sale and was intended to be confrontational, but also lawful and peaceful.

But things got a bit out of control, not only because of the actions of one of the more radical protesters, but also because of verbal abuse and ridicule from the store's owners who taunted and laughed at the protesters.

I can hardly say that Dr. Steve Best is a pillar of the community, not in El Paso, Texas, a very animal unfriendly town.  He is, however, a friend of mine, chair of the Philosophy Department at Univ. of Texas at El Paso, Vice President of the Vegetarian Society of El Paso, President of Voice for All Animals, and a long-time fighter for animal rights and welfare.

Last year, Steve's group was instrumental in exposing the beating of Sissy the elephant, on orders from the El Paso Zoo Director, and bringing about Sissy's subsequent retirement to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

Animal Rights Online seldom, practically never, sanctions illegal actions, really, only in the very rarest of circumstances.  Really.

We strongly recommend that activists use legal means to achieve their goals.  But Steve's arrest wasn't planned, it wasn't a calculated act of civil disobedience, it was a risk fulfilled.  While Steve's arrest wasn't planned, it was designed to push the boundaries of legitimacy and to move toward civil disobedience by defying police orders and directly confronting the store owners near their front door.  CD is often needed in the movement, in the right time, in the right place, with the right media coverage, and the right pro-bono lawyer waiting in the wings.

Do protests really do that much good?  This is a question we all ask ourselves often.  Steve thinks that they often don't and he would rather focus on educational programs, but his heart led him to this.  He felt a weekend fur sale at a prominent store couldn't go by uncontested.

If Steve could be arrested for using the phrase "son-of-a-bitch" in public, why did George W. get away with "major league asshole"?

I wasn't surprised when I got the phone call that Steve needed bail money, I was only surprised to learn later that this was his first Animal Rights arrest.  I wasn't surprised to learn that Steve was arrested because he had used a naughty word to describe the store owner, I was only surprised later when I learned that he used a speciesist epitaph and had slandered dogs by calling the fur merchant a son of a bitch.  Shame on you, Steve, you know that phrase isn't nice to dogs.

  <> <> <> <> <>

An Arresting Protest
by Steve Best - sbest1@elp.rr.com

"Ok, that's it," barked the angry cop, in the midst of my confrontation with the owner of a prominent fur store in El Paso. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by four burly officers who grabbed me firmly by the arms, marched me rapidly toward a police car, wrapped cold steel handcuffs tightly around my wrists, and shoved me into the back of a squad car. I was on my way to jail.

Early in the afternoon of Saturday, December 2, a group of 15 people representing Voice For All Animals assembled in front of Tres Mariposas, an upscale clothing store well-known for its proudly self-proclaimed right to sell fur coats.  They were having their annual fur sale. As leader of our group, my plan was to protest their complicity with animal suffering on the public sidewalks outside their store, and, more boldly, to attempt to enter the store at the end of the demonstration to confront the owner and managers about their questionable morals. But the energy and spontaneity of the protest took us in a different direction toward civil disobedience that brought us into face-to-face confrontations with the police. Responding to our fax report, the white hot light of the media was there to cover it all.

Things got heated immediately, when Austin, one of our young members, changed the words on the store's portable sign. Instead of reading "fur sale," it now read "death sale." That seemed appropriate to me, but the rented city cop watching from inside the store disagreed. Storming outside, his bald head gleaming, he warned us not to touch store property again or he would arrest us.  So we stayed on the public sidewalks, waving our anti-fur signs for the passing cars to read as the media began taping. We received a few flying birds, but mainly honks of support.

Austin then brought out a furish-looking coat which to the delight of the cameras he set afire. The burning coat blazed as a symbol of animal suffering and death.  Within ten minutes, in a spectacle of over-reaction the local fire department arrived and doused with their manly hoses the paltry embers still flickering harmlessly on the ground. A few police cars arrived with the firemen and the tension at the scene racheted up quite a few notches.

Despite the flurry of men in uniform, we decided it was time to move to the front of the store. With our way blocked by the cop inside, we asked to be let in as customers. He didn't buy that. So I said, "I want to enter to see if I can find any morals inside this store," and we wondered out loud if they were stocking piles of dead animals in the storeroom. The cop inside the store grabbed one of our signs and placed it against the store window; he wasn't astute enough to realize he had placed it wrong-side out so that it read to all who walked by, "fur is dead!"

But the cops outside had grown weary of our second transgression of the rules and ordered us under the threat of arrest to retreat to the sidewalks.  We did so, satisfied we had made our point. Upon resuming our sign waving, the owner of the store galloped toward us and accosted us with brilliant retorts: "You're all losers! Get a life! Get off my property!" To which we replied: "Quit taking lives! You're on public property!"

At this point, I must confess, I lost my temper, and I called the son-of-a-bitch a son-of-a-bitch. Instantly, the sergeant shouted, "That's it! Arrest him now!" I couldn't get off a complaint before I was grabbed and taken away.

Once at the station, detained in a holding cell and kept in exquisitely tight handcuffs, the sergeant told me I was being charged with disorderly conduct, and that he was talking to the D.A. to inquire about additional charges of inciting a riot. Two hours later, they informed me they would not pursue the more serious offense, then drove me downtown to the county jail, a huge and hellish warehouse. There I was searched, fingerprinted, and photographed. Convinced my mug shot would appear on the evening news (the scandal potential of a professor being led away in handcuffs was great), I smiled broadly since I wanted to look proud, not ashamed. The cop said "No smiling!" "Why?" I asked.  "This is not a glamour shot," he retorted. So I pulled off the best look I could -- a smirk.

For the next six hours, I was detained in a small concrete room with 20 or so other men. We were packed in like sardines, and, in fact, the smell was about as pleasant. I was trapped in a Kafakaesque bureaucracy along with an army of wife-beaters, drug-users, robbers, and disenfranchised men. The evening meal was a carton of milk and a ham sandwich. A long-time vegetarian, I passed as I watched the hungry men devour their toxic food.

I was released in time to see the evening news. Not surprisingly, none of the stations failed to mention the chair of the philosophy department was arrested, and one station used it as its lead-in ("details at ten!) and main story. This was sensationalism, pure and simple, as I always make it a point to protest as a private citizen and not a university professor. But the latter role, of course, would attract more ratings. The coverage was biased and the reporting shoddy.  They seized on the charge that I used profanity (as if the real profanity was not what was done to the animals killed for their fur!) and uncritically allowed the fur store manager to make the ludicrous claim that they only work with a "reputable" dealer who kills their animals "humanely."

While I was in jail, I had plenty of time to reflect on the day's events. Did I do any good, or did I only hurt our cause by being arrested?  Why did I, a seasoned protestor and a philosopher supposedly governed by reason, lose my temper? Was I at fault, or did the cops violate my rights?  Should protests be calm and polite, or is there a time and place for confrontational tactics? Are protests useful at all, or should animal rights groups focus on positive educational work that doesn't play into media-reinforced stereotypes that we are radical and extreme?

As I myself think through these important questions, I submit them to you for what I hope would be a dialogue and discussion. Since my release, I've received mixed responses from friends and acquaintances. The most negative comment was that I crossed the line and discredited my cause. The most positive comment came from a woman I barely know: her whole family watched the news and she said her kids were appalled to learn how fur is made and would never support it, and she thought it was inspiring to see someone with strong moral convictions and right on their side being led off in handcuffs.

While I hope not to be inside a jail for a long while, and I await to see how the university President and administration feels about my actions, I feel more so than ever that Gandhi and Martin Luther King were right when they said that the right place for a just person in an unjust society is in the jails. The question remains, under what conditions should I return?
 

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Friends of Animals
Takes Strong Stand Against "Chimp Act"

from: Bill Dollinger - foa@igc.org

Friends of Animals, a non-profit animal protection group with more than 200,000 members around the world, has taken a strong stand against the Chimp Act, now pending in the U.S. Senate.

The Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance, and Protection Act (HR 3514)  has passed the House and was introduced in the Senate by Bob Smith (R-NH).

Says Priscilla Feral, President of Friends of Animals, "People who support the Chimp Act should do so knowing that 1) as a factual matter, the Act will create a centralized facility that will lower the informational and other opportunity costs of vivisectors who wish to locate chimpanzees with "unique" medical histories to use in further research."

"They should also know," says Feral, "that as a matter of law, the decision of the Department of Health and Human Services to allow experiments on retired chimpanzees will be immune from any legal challenge."

Friends of Animals is opposing the bill because it will establish a federal "research farm" for chimpanzees. Once passed, the bill will be immune from any effective legal challenge.

Friends of Animals is urging its members around the nation to call and write their Senators, urging them NOT to support the Chimp Act.

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The CHIMP Bill
A Statement from GAP

from GAPNews@aol.com

As you know from previous messages, GAP supported the original version of H.R. 3514, known as the CHIMP bill. This proposed U.S. federal legislation would establish a government-funded sanctuary for those chimpanzees which the biomedical establishment designates as "surplus."

GAP's support was based on the fact that the proposed legislation stated unequivocally that no chimpanzee who entered this sanctuary could ever again be subjected to biomedical experimentation.

On October 24, the bill was amended to change this pivotal feature, allowing chimps in the sanctuary to be brought back into experimentation if certain conditions exist. The amended bill then passed the House of Representatives.  The Senate has not yet been presented with an amended version of this legislation.
 
GAP does not support the amended version of the CHIMP bill. The choice here is not an easy one, and people of unassailable principles have come down on both sides. Some major supporters of GAP choose to support the amended bill (Jane Goodall, Marc Bekoff, Steve Wise), arguing that the sanctuary should be created and then we should fight with all our might if someone attempts to remove a "retired" chimpanzee. Other original signatories of the Declaration on Great Apes and authors of articles in the book that launched The Great Ape Project, such as Roger Fouts and Gary Francione, oppose the amended version of the bill, arguing that the amended version is too serious a compromise and the language of the amended version which attempts to limit when a chimpanzee can be put back into experimentation will never be effective.

GAP's decision not to support the amended version of the bill is based on our commitment to achieve three basic rights or protections for chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, and gorillas: protection of their right to life, protection of their liberty, and protection of them from torture.

Admittedly, opposition to the bill has risks, for without the nauseating amendment the entire sanctuary proposal would almost certainly fail. This is a tragic consequence. But we cannot in good conscience support any legislation that allows the possibility of future experiments.

We will continue to work for changes in law and cultural values that will allow all great apes to live in a world where humans protect their lives, do not hold them as captives, and do not use them as experimental tools.

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Job Opportunity
from Michael Markarian - mmarkarian@fund.org

Data Entry Position

Seeking a full-time employee to work in The Fund for Animals' national campaign office in Silver Spring, Maryland. Duties include entering membership information into a computer database (Windows 95 platform), and also performing some web searching and entering information from visitors to The Fund for Animals' web site. Candidates should have careful attention to detail, an interest in the field of animal protection, and most importantly, accuracy and proofing skills.

Candidates will be asked to do a test session (paid) for an hour or two before a final decision is made. Please send cover letter and resume to: Catherine Hess, 301-585-2595 (fax), chess@fund.org (email).

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Let's All Head to McDonald's
by Park StRanger@aol.com

Last week a woman in Newport News, Virginia, was shocked to find a battered and fried chicken head in her order of wings from McDonald's.

I can't imagine why it would be any worse to open my lunch bag and find a chicken's head than it would be to find a wing or a leg or any other animal part.  But ever since the poor woman was shocked into the realization that she was eating an animal with a face and a brain, she has been unable to get a good night's sleep.

Perhaps a large settlement from McDonald's will help her rest easier.  You know, I get nauseated when I am near a McDonald's and smell the air, do you think legal precedence has been set for being grossed out?

In an interesting poll done by the online site of The Virginia Pilot newspaper they asked "If you found the fried chicken head, what would you have done?" 
  And the answers were...
    Given it to the dog- 5.88%
    Vowed to never eat chicken again- 12.69%
    Eaten it- 12.38%
    Accepted a new order- 24.61%
    Sued the restaurant- 44.43%

  To view a video about the head, click here Hampton Roads News
                http://www.pilotonline.com/videoNEWS/nw1201hea.html
  Or to read the full news story.... HAMPTON ROADS, Virginia, News
                http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw1201chi.html

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Holidays At The Shelter
by Cats2Save@aol.com

When you are getting your gifts together can you please send $5.00 to your local animal shelter/rescue? Or send a care package with shelter supplies?  If everyone did this I'm sure the animals (and the volunteers) would have a very happy holiday.

Shelter Wish List:

(Please call your local shelter and make sure that you are donating supplies which they are in need of. One shelter's "wishes" may not be the same as another!)

    * cat & dog food
    * kitten & puppy milk replacer
    * cat litter & litter boxes
    * kitty litter scoopers
    * safe cat and dog toys
    * cat and dog treats such as Nylabones™ for dogs, Pounce for cats
    * blankets and towels
    * sheets
    * flea shampoo
    * grooming supplies for cats & dogs
    * q-tips
    * clipper blades
    * cat scratching posts
    * carrying crates
    * collars and leashes
    * newspaper
    * bleach
    * paper towels
    * toilet paper
    * trash bags
    * dish and laundry soap
    * laundry baskets
    * cleaning supplies
    * office supplies - note paper, copy machine paper, fax machine paper,
        index cards, etc.

Find out if your shelter houses animals other than cats and dogs. Do they need food or supplies for different animals such as rabbits, birds, etc?

Does your shelter have a "Sponsor An Animal" program? If they do and you can afford it, why not sign up? Some shelters will allow you to make a monthly donation which goes towards caring for the animal of your choice.

[Editor's note: Contact your local hair salons for donations of used towels.  It's a great way to recycle towels that are stained or frayed, and the small towels they use are perfect size for shelter use.]

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Christmas
by Guila Manchester

The lighted window shows the room
so warm and softly glowing,
The tree so tall with twinkling lights
And all the presents showing.
While just outside a starving cat
Stands shivering in the cold,
And down the street a stray dog limps,
So tired and sick and old.

The baby monkey in the lab
Lets out a cry of fear.
The thing he thought was mother
Shot out quills when he drew near.
The car speeds by, the puppy cries
And drags her broken leg.
The beaver in the leghold trap
Lifts pain-filled eyes that beg.

How can we speak of peace on earth
And know these things are so,
And say they don't concern us
And we ought to let them go?
How can we think we have the right
To torture needlessly,
When all the time we know so well
It shouldn't have to be.

Come join with us at Christmas time
And pledge ourselves anew.
They need our help so badly,
There's so much that we can do.
Don't turn your back upon their pain
Because it's hard to see.
They have no other place to turn,
They've only you and me.

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Quote To Remember

"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
                                                                                      ~ Hippocrates

 
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
   Animal Rights Online
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