A n i m a l W r i t e s © sm
The official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue #
08/01/01
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~
MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE EIGHT ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Voices From Another World by
Andrew Linzey
2 ~ Activists Rally Against 'Meat Colonialism'
3 ~ NIH Pulls Plug On Chimpanzee Lab Bailout
4 ~ Abused, Abandoned Dolphins Rescued
5 ~ Home On The Range?
6 ~ They Are Not Our Property
7 ~ Shared Thoughts With a Friend by Guila
Manchester
8 ~ Memorable Quote
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Voices From Another World
by Andrew Linzey - Email: Jolinzey@aol.com
from The Animals' Agenda - May/June 2001
A
few days ago when I was working early in the morning, I heard our dog, Coco,
bark. There was nothing strange about that. Whenever she was
lonely, or desired attention, or wanted to go out in the garden, she would
often bark to let us know she was there. Neither was there anything
unusual about her barking at night. I almost always work late into the
early hours, and so she is used to nighttime company.
No, the strange thing was that I heard her bark when in fact she had died two
days earlier.
Now, I know what some of you must be thinking: "He's finally lost it --
hearing animal voices in the night." Well, I might agree with you,
except that night I was working late with my eldest daughter, Clair, on her
college essay. We both heard Coco, and Clair has heard her again since.
I have no explanation for this phenomenon. I know psychologists would
probably attribute it to delayed trauma or shock due to bereavement, even the
result of a suppressed subconscious. Perhaps they're right (though that
doesn't quite explain how we both heard it). Perhaps it was nothing more
than a sudden jolt due to unconscious suppression.
But another thought occurs to me that I would like to share with you. It
is simply that religion and philosophy (and psychology) have yet to grasp the
complex spiritual relationship that we have with animals. Although
Descartes is dead, the idea that animals are just automata has a strong pull on
our minds. But as almost anyone who has had a relationship with an animal
knows, they are not just machines, or even just flesh and blood; somehow
animals have -- for want of a better word -- "spirit."
After my book Animal Rites was published last year, I received scores of
letters from people who had recently lost their companion animals. Many
were deeply moving, even heartbreaking, and they provided ample testimony to a
deep sense of loss and, not least of all, spiritual diminishment. An
animal had not just died; an absence had replaced a presence, a connection to
another world had been severed apparently forever.
Words are inadequate to characterize what I have called the "spirit"
of an animal. Suffice to say this: I hope that in all our activities of
protest, persuasion, and advocacy, we never lose the insight that every creature
has its own mysterious life that graces us with its presence. Those who
grieve for dead animals are often seen as people with a "problem," as
if grieving was somehow unnatural or childish (which of course it isn't).
In fact, such grief testifies to something much deeper: that animals are more
than most people commonly imagine.
Jewish theologian Martin Buber once wrote of how we need to establish
"I/Thou" (rather than "I/It") relationships with other
creatures, and he gave as an example his own "deeply stirring"
encounter with a dapple grey horse in childhood. He wrote, "I must
say that what I experienced in touch with the animal was the Other, the immense
otherness of the Other which....let me draw near and touch it."
It is precisely the "otherness" of animals (rather than their
similarity to humans) that should provoke in us a sense of awe and
wonder. In their very unlikeness, animals offer us an opportunity to
"touch" another world.
One doesn't have to hear voices in the night to realize this, but I can say in
all honesty that when it does happen, "our" world seems vastly
smaller than before.
The Rev. Professor Andrew Linzey is Senior Research Fellow in Theology and
Animals, Blackfriars hall, University of Oxford, England. The American
edition of his book Animal Gospel is published by Westminster/John Knox
Press.
The leader of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most
Rev. Dr. George Carey, has bestowed a Doctor of Divinity (DD) degree upon
animal theologian Professor Andrew Linzey "in recognition of his unique
and massive pioneering contribution at a scholarly level in the area of the
theology of creation, with particular reference to the rights and welfare of
God's sentient creatures." Rarely given, the DD degree is the highest
award that an archbishop can grant a theologian; never before has one been
bestowed in the field of animal rights. Commented Linzey, "I never
supposed for a moment that anyone in the Church would recognize my work for
animals, not least of all because I have been an outspoken critic of the
Church's indifference to animals....I hope the emerging generation of scholars
working in t his area will be as heartened as I am by this recognition.
“Reprinted with permission from The Animals’ Agenda, P.O. Box
25881,
Baltimore, MD 21224; (410) 675-4566; www.animalsagenda.org.”
Email: office@animalsagenda.org
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Activists Rally Against 'Meat
Colonialism'
From: FARM - farm@farmusa.org
Economic
colonialism imposed on developing countries by transnational meat conglomerates
will be the target of the 19th annual observance of World Farm Animals Day on
October 2.
Thousands of activists in all 50 states and a dozen other countries are
arranging marches, vigils, memorial services, leafleting, lectures, exhibits,
and information tables in hundreds of communities including the nation's
capital. Scores of governors and mayors are issuing special
proclamations. In addition, the Global Hunger Action Coalition is
planning massive demonstrations promoting plant-based solutions to world hunger
at the World Food Summit to be held in Rome in November.
Several US meat companies are growing into transnational conglomerates by
acquiring domestic and foreign firms and by pushing policies and trade
agreements that would vastly expand their production capacity and markets in
developing countries. Most of this expansion would involve massive factory
farming operations that would eventually breed, raise, and slaughter as many as
100 billion animals per year. Such operations would devastate the local food
supplies, environmental resources, public health, and economic infrastructures.
The associated vertical integration and contract farming would exploit
indigenous farmers in a form of 'meat colonialism.'
This year's observance comes at a time of growing challenges to the US meat
industry:
* The Foot-and-Mouth and Mad Cow epidemics have devastated the
European meat industry and threaten to have a similar effect in the US.
* Growing awareness of the adverse health consequences of meat
consumption is driving consumers to meat alternatives offered by mainstream
producers in local supermarkets.
* A budget-conscious Congress has reduced some of the massive
subsidies, even as the US market for animal products has become saturated and
less predictable.
* The relentless takeover and vertical integration of the
industry by large conglomerates has displaced independent producers and farm
workers and alienated affected communities.
* Several agricultural states are restricting the size of and
discharges from factory farms, and EPA is starting to enforce discharge
regulations.
* A recent survey indicates that 93 percent of consumers disapprove
of mistreatment of farm animals, and several states have enacted legislation
protecting sick and injured animals.
FARM is a national public interest organization promoting plant-based eating
and humane treatment of farmed animals. FARM operates from the nation's capital
through a world-wide network of local groups and individual activists.
Thank you for making Animal Rights 2001 a truly millennium event!
Now let's start planning for World Farm Animals Day on October 2.
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NIH Pulls Plug On Chimpanzee
Lab Bailout
From In Defense of Animals, Mill Valley, CA 94941
Animal Protection of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87192
http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/Coulston/financial/
Financial
Statements Show Coulston Foundation's Imminent Collapse
Alamogordo, NM (July 31, 2001) - The National Institutes of Health has stopped
funding the embattled Coulston Foundation, years after the lab was first
documented to be in violation of federal animal welfare laws, In Defense of
Animals (IDA) and Animal Protection New Mexico (APNM) announced today.
According to NIH records (see
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/assurance/300index.htm), Coulston no longer
has an Animal Welfare Assurance on file with the NIH, making the lab ineligible
to receive federal research funds. IDA and APNM predicted that the
collapse of the foundation is now imminent.
"For two years, the only thing that stood between Coulston and bankruptcy
was the NIH's illegal $3 million bailout," said IDA Research Director Eric
Kleiman. "Now that the federal subsidy is history, so is
Coulston."
As evidence, the groups released financial statements filed by The Coulston
Foundation with the IRS that reveal that NIH funds comprised 63 per cent of the
lab's income for the fiscal year ending 6/30/00. The statements
(available on the web at http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/Coulston/financial/)
also reveal:
* The lab's $840,364 in the bank on July 1, 1999 had shrunk to $68,414 by June
30, 2000;
* CEO Fred Coulston gave the lab a gift of $733,280 and a loan for an
unspecified amount for "operating capital," while for the fiscal year
ending 6/30/99, Coulston personally gave it over $1.2 million (Coulston told
the USDA in early 1999 he had already given $6.8 million to the lab);
* The lab's private income has dropped 35 per cent since the fiscal year ending
6/30/98.
Current conditions at Coulston appear even worse than in April 1999, when NIH
auditors found that the lab was bringing in only 1/3 of the money necessary for
operation, had $800,000 in unpaid bills, and was on the verge of financial
collapse. Even then, according to the NIH audit (available on the web at
http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/vivcampaigns/NIHtestimony/tcf_financial.pdf),
the lab had steadily been losing private funding. Two months after that
audit and after repeated requests by Coulston for financial aid, the NIH began
its illegal bailout of the lab.
At the time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had filed three formal
complaints against Coulston for multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act
involving negligent chimpanzee deaths. The lab's regulatory troubles
intensified in August 1999 when Food and Drug Administration inspectors
documented hundreds of violations of regulations meant to ensure human safety
and data integrity in an inspection of the lab. The FDA subsequently
issued a rare Warning Letter, prohibiting the lab from beginning any new
studies under agency purview.
As a result of the lab's mounting regulatory violations, Coulston has lost even
more of its private business base. In December 2000, the FDA identified
continuing data integrity violations and found that the lab had also violated
the Warning Letter. And, this month, the USDA filed an unprecedented
fourth set of USDA charges for animal welfare violations, including violations
of a federal consent order and more negligent chimpanzee deaths.
"Coulston's regulatory and financial troubles are insurmountable and the
lab's demise is long overdue," concluded APNM development director
Harriette Roller. "We will not rest until we hold the NIH and other
entities that helped create the Coulston disaster accountable for funding the
long-term care and permanent retirement of the 300 chimpanzees who remain
imprisoned within the lab's walls."
IDA is an international animal advocacy and rescue organization based in Mill
Valley, Calif. APNM is a statewide animal advocacy organization based in
Albuquerque.
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Abused, Abandoned Dolphins
Rescued
By Environmental News Network
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/07/07252001/dolphins_44426.asp?site=email
Dolphin conservationist Richard O'Barry, the former trainer of television's
famous dolphin Flipper, has just completed a real-life dolphin rescue, saving
two abused dolphins in Guatemala.
Working as a rescuer with the World Society for the Protection of Animals
(WSPA), O'Barry supervised the move of bottlenose dolphins Ariel and Turbo to
Guatemala's Manavique Point last week. He and a rehabilitation team now aim to
restore the abused dolphins to the wild ocean, a process expected to take about
two months.
The two dolphins were kept in a filthy makeshift pool on a hillside near
Antigua City, Guatemala, as part of a traveling dolphin spectacle known as
Mundo Marino,
based in Venezuela. They were abandoned by their trainers earlier this month
after questions about possible permit violations at the facility arose.
The WSPA says that the trainers left with most of the water filtration
equipment, making rescue difficult and the death of the starving dolphins
almost inevitable.
The WSPA rescued the animals on July 12 and placed them in a sea pen built by
WSPA's Luis Carlos Sarmiento to start a period of rehabilitation before their
eventual return to the sea. The rescue itself was organized by WSPA's Latin
American team of Gerardo Huertas, Juan Carlos Murillo, and O'Barry.
O'Barry says, "When WSPA first rushed to Guatemala to try and save Ariel
and Turbo, we weren't sure if they were going to make it. They were floating in
their own excrement and hadn't eaten for days. It seemed as if their pen would
become their tomb."
WSPA veterinarian Dr. Juan Carlos Murillo said, "Ariel and Turbo were in
bad shape when we got to them. They had sores all over their bodies and in
their mouths and were suffering from kidney and respiratory infections. And one
of the dolphins had a huge cut on the top of his head where he was hit by his trainer."
Huertas, WSPA regional director for Latin America said just keeping the
dolphins alive was a major challenge. "One of our top priorities was
to change the disgusting water that was making the dolphins so sick. This meant
arranging a caravan of 35 trucks to bring in fresh water and 300 sacks of salt.
We had to repeat this maneuver several times. The dolphins also got
special around-the-clock veterinary care, and their malnourished bodies
required 50 pounds of fish per day."
Guatemala Environmental Ministry officials awarded custody of the two marine
mammals to WSPA, and they were moved to the WSPA-built rehabilitation site at
isolated Manavique Point. The more time the dolphins spent out of the water,
the more dangerous it was for them.
Due to death threats against the rescuers, military and police personnel were
on hand to escort the transport trucks to the airport in Guatemala City. Laughs
Huertas, "We got stuck in the morning rush-hour traffic, and drivers
refused to yield to the convoy. But when people noticed the military
sharpshooter on top of the main truck, they moved out of our way pretty
quickly!"
Safely packed in transport boxes filled with ice and water to keep them cool
and comforted by the WSPA team, Ariel and Turbo were loaded on to a military
transport plane in Guatemala City for the first leg of their trip to Puerto
Barrios on the Caribbean coast. From there, a helicopter waited to take the
dolphins to their final destination at Manavique Point. Forced to make a
pinpoint landing on a small sandbar that is only exposed during low tide, the
helicopter touched down mere feet from the temporary enclosure.
Ariel was the first to arrive. Immediately after she was placed in the sea pen,
a pod of wild dolphins showed up by the other side of the pen's net to greet
the new dolphins. Turbo followed a few minutes later and together they
disappeared into the depths.
O'Barry said, "Now that the dolphins are free from the burden of having to
perform for humans, they've made a remarkable recovery. It won't be long before
they're free to swim the oceans, as dolphins should be."
Based in the United Kingdom and the United States, the WSPA has more than 300
member societies in 80 countries around the world. It has consultative status
to the United Nations and the Council of Europe.
Copyright 2001, Environmental News Network
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Home On The Range?
The next time that someone tells you about the
good life that cattle have as they peacefully graze out on the open range, show
them the following website:
VegSource.com: In Pictures
http://www.vegsource.com/pop_photo/10.htm
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They Are Not Our Property,
We Are NOT Their Owners
The Animals' Agenda ad from In Defense of Animals
"IDA's
'They Are Not Our Property' campaign is vital to the animal rights movement in
that all exploitation of nonhuman animals revolves around the notion that they
are human property. And, as property, nonhuman beings are used in every
conceivable way by human society and often subjected to extreme privation and
suffering as a result."
~ Nedim Buyukmihci ~ Association of Veterinarians for Animals
Rights
"In the legal sense, animals are regarded as 'things,' as mere objects
that can be bought, sold, discarded, or destroyed at an owner's whim.
Only when animals can be regarded as 'persons' in the eyes of the law will it
be possible to give teeth to the often-fuzzy laws protecting animals from
abuse."
~ Jane Goodall ~ Jane Goodall Institute
"People of other genders, races, and even age groups were once treated as
property in this country. Now, it is time for 'people' of other species
to be accorded the same simple dignity of being recognized not as someone
else's property but as beings in their own right."
~Michael Mountain ~ Best Friends Sanctuary
"In 1973, in my book The Lady and Her Tiger I wrote, 'Wild animals
are not meant to be owned, any more than human beings are. No one has the
right to pass a cougar or gorilla from hand to hand, not for the purest of
motives. Now, 27 years later, I feel even more strongly about this
issue."
Pat Derby ~ Performing Animal Welfare Society
"Our language must be altered to accurately reflect the belief that
companion animals are much more than mere commodities to be disposed of at
will. IDA's 'They Are Not Our Property' campaign is an integral part of
the effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate the tragic deaths of millions of
homeless animals in our nation's shelters."
~ Ed Duvin ~ Project Zero
"As long as people treat animals as toys, possessions and commodities,
rather than as individuals with feelings, widespread neglect and abuse is
destined to continue. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA)
strongly supports IDA's 'They Are Not Our Property Campaign."
~ Ingrid Newkirk ~ PeTA
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Shared Thoughts With a Friend
by Guila Manchester
Throughout our lives of nights and days
Our thoughts move out upon the ways
Of space or time - what'er there be
That flows into eternity.
I feel the hurt you can't avoid
Each time a cat must be destroyed
God's suffering creatures hurt me, too;
So very little I can do.
Sometimes I hate this thing called "man"
I'm glad there's you to understand
For all his cruelty and greed;
So great their suffering and their need.
The burden's ours because we care.
It helps a little bit to share.
Like hands that clasp in friendship tight,
My thoughts and yours join in the night.
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Memorable Quote
"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of
man."
~ Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)
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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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&
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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