A n i m a l W r i t e s © sm
The official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com Issue # 06/24/01
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~ MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE SEVEN ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1
~ Canned Hunts: Fair Chase or Foul Play?
2
~ 50 Major U.S. Research Labs Hit With Massive USDA Complaint
3
~ Texas Floods Drown 30,000 Caged Animals
4
~ Washington Post Does It Again
5
~ Powerful Book Website Opens
6
~ Mad Human Disease
7
~ Memorable Quote
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Canned Hunts: Fair Chase or Foul
Play?
source
- www.animalunderworld.com
With
so many controversial elements, the definition is often more elusive than the
animals hunted.
What
is a “canned hunt”? It depends who you
ask.
To
say that it’s an operation in which animals are shot in an enclosure doesn’t
really answer the question. For example, if shooting an animal in a small pen
is a canned hunt, what about on a hundred acres? Or a thousand?
Some
claim that there are other considerations: Is the terrain flat grassland, or
are there woods and other cover? Are the animals tame? Are they fed by humans?
Are they healthy? Does the ranch allow baiting or the use of hounds? How are
animals tracked? Do hunting stands oversee the area? Can the animals avoid being killed, or are they nothing more than
target practice?
Hunters
speak of “fair chase.” They say that the defining element in hunting is not the
kill but the chase — tracking an animal for hours, or even days, in hopes of
setting up the perfect shot. But canned hunts, which are condemned by pro- and
anti-hunting groups alike, turn the notion of fair
chase
upside-down: patrons are guaranteed a kill, making a mockery of sport hunting.
For example, the Boone and Crockett Club, a hunting organization founded by
Teddy Roosevelt, has called canned hunts “unfair” and “unsportsmanlike.” Other
pro-hunting organizations label these operations nothing more than “canned
shoots.”
The
most obvious example of a canned hunt is the wanton slaughter of a “trophy”
animal in a small enclosure. But if the enclosure is thousands of square acres,
is that still a canned hunt? Maybe.
Often the animals on hunting ranches are tame, having been hand-raised. Animals that instinctively would flee
humans, instead approach them seemingly without concern. The same truck that
brings the animals’ daily feed also brings the trophy-seekers. Fleeing animals
are chased by trucks. Hounds corner exotic game or tree big cats. Drugged
animals, too disoriented to run, are released on the premises. Animals are
kicked out of cages for waiting patrons. Some refuse to budge and are shot
nonetheless.
In
short, there is no escape.
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50 Major U.S. Research Labs
Hit With Massive USDA Complaint
from
Michael Budkie - SAEN@worldnet.att.net
MADISON,
WI - A national research watchdog organization has filed the largest official
complaint in U.S. history against 50 nationally-known laboratories that perform
animal experimentation - including Harvard, the Salk Institute, University of
California, Johns Hopkins and Princeton.
Details
of the exhaustive complaint were made public Thursday in a series of news
conferences at different laboratories. Photographs of abuse - secreted out of
these labs by workers - were also made public.
Filed
by SAEN, a research watchdog organization based in Cincinnati, the complaint
alleges laboratories deliberately withhold information from government
oversight agencies, and abuse primates during experimentation by denying food
and water and confining them to restraint chairs.
"Fifty
prestigious institutions are systematically violating federal laws and abusing
thousands of animals in sadistic, wasteful testing," said Michael A.
Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN.
Laboratories
at Salk, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UCLA, and dozens of other sites are
torturing animals and lying about the experiments to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture," he added.
"We
believe that these 50 labs may only be the tip of the iceberg," said
Budkie. "60,000 primates suffer and die in U.S. labs every year. These findings are only the beginning of our
investigations."
Copies
of the SAEN report and complaint are available upon request from
Michael Budkie at: SAEN@worldnet.att.net
Phone: (513) 575-5517
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Texas Floods Drown 30,000 Caged
Animals
Source
- In Defense of Animals
From
Artemisd123@hotmail.com
During
the weekend of June 9 and 10, more than 30,000 mice, rats, dogs, and primates
used in research at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas
Medical School at Houston were left to drown in their cages as floodwaters in
the city of Houston, Texas, rose. [When
fully
counted,
78 monkeys, 18 adult dogs, 17 puppies and several hundred rabbits were among
the dead animals in the basement, which housed the center's main animal care
facility, as well as mice, rats, and rabbits.]
Apparently,
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allows research institutions in
flood-prone regions to warehouse animals in basements without providing a plan
for their evacuation in the event of flooding. NIH also consistently promises
to reimburse such institutions for "losses," thereby removing any
incentive for properly caring for the tens of thousands of animals in the
researchers' possession.
Animals
are not dust mops or office supplies, and NIH must not allow them to be stored
in basements. NIH should also require federally funded institutions to have a
plan for the evacuation of animals in the event of emergencies such as fire,
flooding, etc. What's more important, NIH must require these institutions to
have animal care personnel on hand at all times.
No
one can reasonably argue that with an annual budget of $310 million and $60
million, respectively, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas
Medical School at Houston couldn't afford a security guard! Human patients at the Texas Medical Center
were not left to drown in their beds! Animals used in research should Be
afforded the same consideration.
WHAT
YOU CAN DO: Please write NIH's director and demand that the agency require
institutions to file an evacuation plan, house animals above ground, and hire
personnel to monitor animals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Please also write
your senators and representatives and ask that
oversight
hearings be held on this issue.
Dr. Ruth L. Kirschstein, Director
National Institutes of Health
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892
Fax: 301-402-2700
kirschsr@od1tm1.od.nih.gov
<> <> <> <> <>
Let's
also encourage the university to switch to non-animal and more humane research
by sending the following letter, or one similar but in your own words:
Address letters to the following:
Ralph D. Feigin, M.D., President and Chief
Executive Officer
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza
Houston, TX 77030
Fax: 713-798-8811
rfeigin@bcm.tmc.edu
James W. Patrick, Ph.D., Vice President and
Dean for Research
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza
Houston, TX 77030
Fax:
713-798-5902
jpatrick@bcm.tmc.edu
James T. Willerson, President
University of Texas, Health Science Center
P.O. Box 20036
Houston, TX 77225-0036
Fax: 713-500-3026
James.T.Willerson@uth.tmc.edu
*Date*
Dear
*_________* ,
First,
I would like to express my sympathies regarding the great loss of life in the
form of the animals who drowned during the flooding which resulted from
Tropical Storm Allison on 16 June 2001.
At
this time, with animal cages empty and remodeling of laboratories necessary, I
would like to suggest that this is an exceptional time to move your university
in to the 21st century by implementing innovative humane methods of research.
As the book 'The Principles of Humane Experimental Techniques' pointed out in
1959, humane methods of research call for the
reduction, refinement and replacement of animals in scientific research.
Currently,
there are a multitude of valid alternatives to using animals in biomedical
research. Many research techniques
which do not use live animals have proven to be much more reliable and less
costly than their inhumane counterparts - research techniques which do use live
animals.
As
you likely know, the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at John's
Hopkins University has an extensive database on-line at
http://www.altwebsearch.com and expert advisors who would be able to guide you
about current, cutting-edge humane research techniques.
You
are in a unique position at this time to recoup and redirect your university's
research. Instead of replacing the
animals who drowned with other sentient and vulnerable live animals, and
starting over collecting data, I implore you to seek to improve research
overall, and the nature of research techniques by replacing live animals.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration,
Sincerely,
*Your name*
cc: Ruth Kirschstein, Acting Director
National Institutes of Health
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892
Fax: 301-402-2700
kirschsr@od1tm1.od.nih.gov
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Washington Post Does It Again
Last
month, the Washington Post did that story on IBP and other slaughterhouses,
perhaps the issue's first national exposure in the mainstream media, and it did
a live online interview with Gail Eisnitz the same day that story broke - now
this!! Way to go, Washington Post!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12663-2001Jun17.html
In Pig Farming, Growing Concern
By
Marc Kaufman
Washington
Post Staff Writer
Monday,
June 18, 2001; Page A1
YORKVILLE,
Ill. – Inside each of John Kellogg's barns, long rows of grunting, snorting
hogs fill every available space. The rows contain 100 animals – all pregnant or
soon to be. Every animal faces the same direction in a scene of orderliness
seldom associated with pigs.
The
animals are not lining up by choice: Each stands inside a narrow metal crate.
The pigs, which can reach 600 pounds, will spend much of their three or four
years of adult life inside these crates, unable to turn around or even lie down
fully because the stalls are just two feet wide. Only
when
caring for piglets will the sows live outside them for long, and then in
different metal crates only slightly wider so they can recline to nurse.
This
farm outside Chicago is by all accounts a model of pork industry efficiency,
cleanliness and productivity, and the metal "gestation crates" are
nothing unusual in the nation's highly industrialized pork business. In fact,
Kellogg's stalls are the norm for the fast-growing industry, holding most of
the 5 million sows that give birth to 100 million piglets yearly for the ham,
bacon and pork chops on America's plates.
But
critics of this kind of intensive pig farming – people ranging from animal
welfare activists to academic researchers and some big pork buyers – have been
raising increasingly pointed and sometimes emotional objections to the crates.
Some call the practice inherently cruel, some call it offensive because the
confinement produces abnormal behaviors in relatively intelligent animals, and
some worry it could endanger the pork industry if consumers begin to focus on
it. In the name of progress, the critics ask, has the industry created a
callous system that many people will find objectionable?
Those
concerns are being translated into efforts to ban or curtail use of the crates.
The European Union, where animal welfare is a hot political issue, is close to
adopting legislation that would phase out the stalls within 10 years – a
decision that could have international trade implications. In Florida, American
animal welfare groups are collecting signatures to place a similar statewide
ban on the use of sow crates on next year's ballot, as an opening shot in a
national campaign here.
A
ban on gestation crates is also part of a new American Humane Association
certification process for pork (and other farm products) introduced last year.
The voluntary program, which is approved by the Agriculture Department, allows
pig producers willing to avoid controversial farm practices to place the
group's "Free Farmed" label on their meat and poultry.
[snip]
"Farmers
treat their animals well because that's just good business," said Paul
Sundberg, a veterinarian and National Pork Producers Council vice president.
"The key to sow welfare isn't whether they are kept in individual crates
or group housing, but whether the system used is well managed."
Sundberg
contended that "science tells us that she [a sow] doesn't even seem to
know that she can't turn. . . . She wants to eat and feel safe, and she can do
that very well in individual stalls."
But
Sundberg acknowledged there is active scientific dispute over the effects on
sows – although he also complained some of the protest comes from vegetarians
who don't want people to eat meat at all.
[snip]
"If
you look at the wide range of factory farm abuses, you can make a strong case
that this is the worst of all confinement methods because it lasts so
long," said Wayne Pacelle, whose U.S. Humane Association, along with Farm
Sanctuary, are involved in the Florida effort. "That's certainly what the
Europeans have concluded, and we want people to know that."
The
industry and its critics are not proposing larger stalls to resolve the
issue. Instead, some pork producers and
Texas Tech University have experimented with outdoor and group systems for
raising sows that are as effective and productive as the stalls, McGlone said.
On his research farm outside Lubbock, sows and their piglets live on fields
outdoors, with small metal hoop huts for protection.
"The
industry may not think that crates are a problem, but what if consumers
disagree?" McGlone said. "It's time to seriously look at the
alternatives."
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Powerful Book Website Opens
http://www.powerfulbook.com
The
book website for ETERNAL TREBLINKA: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust
is now officially open.
The
website (www.powerfulbook.com ) provides a comprehensive introduction to the
book's examination of disturbing parallels between the way the Nazis treated
their victims and the way our society treats animals, as well as of people on
both sides of the Holocaust who have become animal advocates.
The
site offers excerpts from the book, chapter synopses, a list of supporters,
early reactions to the idea of the book, the book's epigraph by Nobel Laureate
Isaac Bashevis Singer, and the Foreword by Lucy Kaplan, the daughter of
Holocaust survivors.
Dr.
Patterson, a social historian and Holocaust educator, is the author of
ANTI-SEMITISM: The Road to the Holocaust and Beyond, THE OXFORD 50th
ANNIVERSARY BOOK OF THE UNITED NATIONS, and co-author with Marian Filar of the
forthcoming memoir, ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER: From Concentration Camp to Carnegie
Hall.
For
further information about ETERNAL TREBLINKA, visit
http://www.powerfulbook.com
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Mad Human Disease
by
Natasha Canali Wood - futurevet28@hotmail.com
How is it
That we can
make an animal into a machine
And feel no
remorse?
Assign a
number to its face
And line it up
behind the others
And slaughter
it
Without a
trace of guilt . . .
How is it
That we can turn
a loving mother
Into a
baby-producing machine,
Steal her
newborns away
And stifle her
cries of grief
And say she
doesn’t know
Doesn’t care
Doesn’t feel .
. .
How can we
cram them into boxes and cages,
Let them lie
in their own waste
Crippled,
swollen, deformed—
And shovel
them
And drag them
And chain them
Like they’re
nothing more than broken-down cars
or scraps of
garbage . . .
How can we
grind up their remains
And feed it to
the others—
Watch them
take their fill
Of this
make-believe grass
Then stumble
away sick
While we count
our profits
And laugh like
nothing else matters . . .
How is it
That we see
their gentle eyes,
Sense their
gentle souls,
Yet still push
it all out
And close the
iron doors
And let
destiny take its course—
Or at least
the destiny we’ve created for them—
So we can have
stomachs
Full of blood
and fear and pain . . .
The half-dead
body
Swinging from
the hanger
Welcomes them
One by one—
They bow their
heads
And buckle
their knees
While the blue
sky outside beckons
and the free
birds sing.
But all they
see—all they have ever known
Is that one
ray of hazy light
That streams
in through a crack in the rafters.
Do they feel
there must be something more,
Something
outside this cold, iron-rusted hell?
Or do they
simply go on counting the days
Never dreaming
that because of money and greed and gluttony
They were put
on this earth
To die—
How is it
That we can
start a plague
And blame
everything but ourselves
And watch them
fall
And try to get
up
And fall again
And turn on
their cagemates
And turn wild
and fierce
And then
decide they must be "destroyed"
—yes, just
like that, destroyed—
So that a
whole new generation can take their place
And we can be
"safe" . . .
The sea of
bodies goes up in flames . . .
The smoke of
death rises black into the sky . . .
And as the
putrid stench fills our nostrils,
We experience
a fleeting moment
Of what they
endured their entire lives . . .
And the
animal-machines are at one with the grass and the earth
For the first
time.
And then,
maybe then,
When the smoke
has cleared and the ashes have blown into the wind,
We see that
they are not machines,
That they are
not stupid beasts—
But are
victims of our bloody creation
And our savage
design . . .
And then we
watch the iron doors slam shut once again
And return to
feed our sagging stomachs
And go back to
our enviable lives
To complain
about all the things
That don’t
need to be complained about . . .
How is it
That we can
close our eyes—
Maim them—
Taunt them—
Torture them—
Rape them—
And justify it
all by saying
That they were
put on this earth for our use?
How many
billions more must suffer
Before we stop
to ask:
How is it
That we still
haven’t found the cure
For this Mad
Human Disease?
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Quote To Remember
"My refusing to eat meat occasioned an
inconveniency, and I have been
frequently chided for my
singularity. But my light repast allows for greater
progress, for greater clearness of
head and quicker comprehension."
~ Benjamin
Franklin (1706-1790)
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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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