A n i m
a l W r i t e s © sm
The
official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue #
12/31/00
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ PrkStRangr@aol.com
~
MRivera008@aol.com
~ SavingLife@aol.com
THE SEVEN ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ On The Hill
2 ~ HSUS Legislative Update
3 ~ Children's Book - Half Price
4 ~ Mad Cowboy
5 ~ Recognize Me
6 ~ Oceanic Night Before Christmas
7 ~ Quote To Remember
H A P P Y N E
W Y E A R
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On The Hill
by Grace Van Vleck
“Reprinted with permission from The Animals’ Agenda, P.O. Box 25881,
Baltimore, MD 21224; (410) 675-4566; www.animalsagenda.org.”
Email: office@animalsagenda.org
As
the 106th Congress drew to a close, many important pieces of animal protection
legislation had been enacted, but many others will return (with new bill
numbers) in January when the 107th Congress convenes. These legislative
victories for animals are due, in no small part, to the continuous efforts of
animal activists. Following is a brief summary of what bills passed and
what bills activists will need to concentrate on next year. For more
details, visit www.ddal.org, and thank you for your action on behalf of
the animals.
WHAT PASSED:
Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection
(CHIMP) Act
Creates a public/private retirement sanctuary system for
chimpanzees who have been used for experimentation.
"Crush" Video Bill (Public Law 106-152)
Bans the production for commercial profit of videos and other materials
that depict illegal acts of animal cruelty.
Dog and Cat Fur bill (part of larger Public Law 106-476)
Bans the importation of products, including fur-trimmed articles, made with
cat or dog fur.
Federal Law Enforcement Animal Protection Act (Public Law 106-254)
Raises the penalties for anyone who "willfully harms" a federal
police dog or horse. If the offense results in the death of the animal,
the perpetrator could be imprisoned for up to ten years.
Great Ape Conservation Act (Public Law 106-411)
Establishes a fund to preserve great apes and the habitats which they
depend.
ICCVAM Authorization Act
Permanently establishes the Interagency Coordinating Committee for the
Validation of Alternative Methods, which reviews non-animal tests and
recommends them to appropriate government agencies.
Military Dog Adoption bill (Public Law 106-446)
Facilitates adoption of former military working dogs by their handlers and
partners.
Safe Air Travel for Animal Act (part of larger Public Law 106-181)
Requires airlines to provide the Department of Transportation with monthly
reports describing any "loss, injury or death" of animals in their
care.
Shark Finning Prohibition Act
Bans the practice of "finning" where the fins of a caught shark
are cut off and the dying animal is then discarded at sea.
WHAT DIDN'T [PASS] (as of press time):
Bear Protection Act
Prohibits the import, export, sale or trade of bear parts (especially the
gall bladder and bile) or products claiming to contain bear parts.
Captive Elephant Accident Prevention Act
Bans the use of elephants in traveling circuses.
Captive Exotic Animal Protection Act
Prohibits the transport of exotic animals for the purpose of a "canned
hunt."
Downed Animal Protection Act
Prevents stockyards from marketing animals who are unable to walk on their
own, unless the animal has been humanely euthanized.
Federal Cockfighting Amendment
Closes a loophole that allows fighting birds bred in a state in which
cockfighting is illegal to be transferred to one of the three remaining
"cockfighting states".
Pet Safety and Protection Act
Prohibits Class B (random-source) animal dealers from supplying dogs and
cats to medical research facilities.
Steel-Jaw Leghold Trap Ban
Bans the use of conventional leghold traps and the furs obtained from these
traps.
Violence Link Resolution
Recognizes the link between violence to animals and violence to humans.
Wildlife Services Amendment
Reduces funding for lethal predator control for the purpose of livestock
protection.
Grace Van Vleck is Legislative Assistant for the Doris Day Animal
League.
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HSUS Legislative Update
rquerry@hsus.org
State and local lawmakers also acted to improve
the lives of animals.
Highlights include:
* Thirty-one states now impose felony penalties for animal cruelty
perpetrators.
* Tennessee lawmakers recognized that the value of a companion animal
exceeds a person’s monetary investment in the animal by passing legislation
that awards non-economic damages to a person whose pet is killed or injured by
an intentional or negligent act.
* Georgia made abandoning a domestic animal a crime.
* New Jersey made it illegal to leave animals unattended in a vehicle under
inhumane conditions.
* Iowa and Michigan narrowly rejected efforts to enact mourning dove seasons.
* Illinois passed a dissection choice bill that allows students to refuse to
participate in or observe dissection without suffering any academic penalty.
* Michigan banned ownership of wolf-hybrid dogs and large carnivores, such
as lions, tigers, cheetahs, panthers and bears.
Voters sided with animal protection in the majority of state ballot measures
related to animal issues, continuing a trend from the 1990s:
* Washington restricted the use of steel-jawed leghold traps and other
body-gripping traps.
* Montana banned so-called “canned hunts.”
* Alaska restored that state’s ban on land-and-shoot wolf hunting.
Other important victories for animal came as a result of action in the U.S.
courts:
* A federal judge overturned a Clinton Administration initiative that would
have allowed dolphin-deadly tuna from Mexico to be labeled “dolphin safe.”
* A federal appeals court put a temporary halt to a whale hunt by the Makah
tribe of Washington State, finding that the necessary environmental impact
assessment had not been completed objectively by the
federal government.
* A settlement of a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Department of Agriculture
to provide minimal protection for mice, rats and birds used in medical research
would have offered protection for millions of animals, but an eleventh hour
maneuver by researchers halted implementation of the settlement for one year.
Reforms in wildlife management have been slow to come, but animal protection
forces scored some victories in 2000:
* New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman refused to allow a bear hunt in
that state, despite strong lobbying by hunters. Instead, the state will
implement a program designed to reduce human-bear conflicts.
* Maryland has formed a Non-Lethal Wildlife Management Task Force to recommend
non-lethal approaches to handling conflicts between humans and wildlife.
Maryland Governor Parris Glendening affirmed his opposition to the hunting of
that state’s population of several hundred black bears.
Major corporations are also increasingly recognizing the public’s concern for
animals, as witnessed by McDonald’s landmark announcement that the fast-food
giant will refuse to purchase eggs from producers who do not meet minimum
standards for animal care.
On the national front....the United Kingdom imposed a nationwide ban on fur
farming, becoming the first nation to take this bold step for the welfare of
animals. The U.K. will soon consider a ban on fox hunting.
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Children's Book - Half Price
For a limited time, and as a special offer to
Animal Rights Online Subscribers, Janet Tubbs, of the Children's Resource
Center, is offering her Animal Rights book for children at half price.
There are only 30 copies available, so act fast, and contact Janet at
The book is The ABC's of Animals -- A Book for Children About Wildlife and the
Environment. The graphics are great, it's easy to read and
educational. The retail price
(including shipping & handling) is $6.95 but hurry, and you can get it for
half price.
Children's Resource
Center
http://crcjct.home.netcom.com/newpageone.html
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Mad Cowboy
Recently, one of the tabloid television news
programs focused on "mad cow disease" and how it effects
people. The prevailing viewpoint was that this is a problem in Europe and
not in America. There certainly was reason for Americans to be aware but
not concerned. This is an excerpt from the book Mad Cowboy -- Plain
Truth From A Cattlerancher Who Won't Eat Meat, by HOWARD LYMAN with Glen
Merzer! For more information on this book and how to purchase it you can
use the following link!
Howard
Lyman: Mad Cowboy
http://www.madcowboy.com/
I
am a fourth-generation dairy farmer and cattle rancher. I grew up on a dairy
farm in Montana, and I ran a feedlot operation there for 20 years. I know
firsthand how cattle are raised and how meat is produced in this country.
Today I am president of the International Vegetarian Union.
Sure, I used to enjoy my steaks as much as the next guy. But if you knew what I
know about what goes into them and what they can do to you, you'd probably be a
vegetarian like me. And believe it or not, as a pure vegetarian now who
consumes no animal products at all, I can tell you that these days I enjoy
eating more than ever.
If you're a meat-eater in America, you have a right to know that you have
something in common with most of the cows you've eaten.
They've eaten meat, too.
When a cow is slaughtered, about half of it by weight is not eaten by humans:
the intestines and their contents, the head, hooves, and horns, as well as
bones and blood. These are dumped into giant grinders at rendering plants, as
are the entire bodies of cows and other farm animals known to be diseased.
Rendering is a $2.4 billion-a-year industry, processing forty-billion pounds of
dead animals a year. There is simply no such thing in America as an animal too
ravaged by disease, too cancerous, or too putrid to be welcomed by the
embracing arms of the renderer.
Another staple of the renderer's diet, in addition to farm animals, is
euthanized pets -- the six or seven million dogs and cats that are killed in
animal shelters every year. The city of Los Angeles alone, for example, sends
some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a rendering plant every
month. Added to the blend are the euthanized catch of animal control agencies,
and roadkill. (Roadkill is not collected daily, and in the summer, the better
roadkill collection crews can generally smell it before they can see it.)
When the gruesome mix is ground and steam-cooked, the lighter, fatty material
floating to the top gets refined for use in such products as cosmetics,
lubricants, soaps, candles, and waxes. The heavier protein material is dried
and pulverized into a brown powder -- about a quarter of which consists of
fecal material. The powder is used as an additive to almost ALL pet food as
well as to livestock feed. Farmers call it "protein
concentrates." In 1995, five million tons of processed
slaughterhouse leftovers were sold for animal feed in the United States. I used
to feed tons of the stuff to my own livestock. It never concerned me that
I was feeding cattle to cattle. In August 1997, in response to growing
concern about the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or Mad Cow
disease), the FDA issued a new regulation that bans the feeding of ruminant protein
(protein from cud-chewing animals) to ruminants; therefore, to the extent that
the regulation is actually enforced, cattle are no longer quite the cannibals
that we had made them into. They are no longer eating solid parts of other
cattle, or sheep, or goats. They still munch, however, on ground-up dead
horses, dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, as well as blood and fecal
matter of their own species and that of chickens. About 75 percent of the
ninety-million beef cattle in America are routinely given feed that has been
"enriched" with rendered animal parts. The use of animal excrement in
feed is common as well, as livestock operators have found it to be an efficient
way of disposing of a portion of the 1.6 million tons of livestock wastes generated
annually by their industry.
In Arkansas, for example, the average farm feeds over fifty tons of chicken
litter to cattle every year. One Arkansas cattle farmer was quoted in U.S. News
& World Report as having recently purchased 745 tons of litter collected from
the floors of local chicken-raising operations. After mixing it with small
amounts of soybean bran, he then feeds it to his eight hundred head of cattle,
making them, in his words, "FAT AS BUTTERBALLS." He explained,
"If I didn't have chicken litter, I'd have to sell half my herd. Other
feeds are too expensive." If you are a meat-eater, understand that
this is the food of your food.
We don't know all there is to know about the extent to which the consumption of
diseased or unhealthy animals causes diseases in humans, but we do know that
some diseases -- rabies, for example -- are transmitted from the host animal to
humans. We know that the common food poisonings brought on by such organisms as
the prevalent E. Coli bacteria, which results from fecal contamination of food,
causes the death of nine thousand Americans a year and that about 80 percent of
food poisonings come from tainted meat.
And now we can also be virtually certain, from the tragedy that has already
afflicted Britain, that Mad Cow disease can "jump species" and give
rise to a new variant of the always fatal, brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease in humans.
For all too many humans, the first decision they consciously make about their
health is the stark one between by-pass surgery and angioplasty, or between
chemotherapy and radiation. In reality, however, we knowingly make
choices every day that can either lead us toward these grim options, or else
toward happier ones. We do so, of course, every time we decide what fuel to put
in our bodies.
To make our choices informed ones, we have to start with the facts.
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Recognize Me
by Cheryl Greear - poet4animals@prodigy.net
copyright 1998
For
I am you -- whether winged or furry or water bound -- I live and die, just as
do you.
I see you because you can look at me as well and see that my blood runs through
my body; a body given by the creator, just as yours was given to you.
You live as you choose and make your rules to suit your existence -- yet your
rules do not protect me, for I can not speak to protect my kind and our
rights. Therefore, I do not live; I merely exist, because unlike you, I
have no choice.
I hear you because you can hear me; yet you choose not to hear my need for
compassion to live as my creator intended; just as do you.
Your home is my home; yet you take mine away because you see my existence as
trivial; however, in as much, you destroy your home as well for pleasures sake.
My legs were made to roam, my wings to soar, my feet however diverse were made
to walk this earth.
Our laws were given by nature which we respect to the fullest for herein lies
our survival. You do not respect the laws of nature -- you punish her with your
own laws which are born from greed and selfishness against your own environment
and your own kind. Stop...for a moment and see our existence -- for in
doing so you would learn the true meaning of being alive -- untainted and
innocent, we survive on instincts alone that you have thrown away. Stop...and listen to the voiceless....Stop
and look at me. Do you not yet recognize me.......for I am you. You
are my voice.
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Oceanic Night Before Christmas
from Dan Spomer - wcca@olypen.com
taken from the 'makahwhaling' discussion list
'Twas a night in December and all through the Strait,
Not a creature was frightened by net or hooked bait.
The harpoons were all hung in the museum with care,
To remind future people not to "go there".
The clams were all snuggled down tight in their beds,
No sewage or lead swirling round in their heads.
The salmon swam by in great silvery surges,
The rivers smelled sweet and awaited their urges.
Baby orcas were nursing - No more PCB's,
For humans had finally cleaned up the seas.
For the kelp and the otters, the urchins, the seals,
We hope that someday this dream will be real.
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Quote To Remember
"We have discovered chickens literally grown fast to the cage...the flesh
of the
toes grew completely around the wire."
-Poultry Tribune
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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/
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&
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not-for-profit publisher of The Animals' Agenda Magazine
http://www.animalsagenda.org/
The Animals' Agenda Magazine: WebEdition
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