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

 
Publisher   ~ EnglandGal@aol.com                                     Issue # 10/31/01
      Editor    ~ JJswans@aol.com
  Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
                   ~ MichelleRivera1@aol.com
                   ~
sbest1@elp.rr.com


  THE NINE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:

  1  ~ Rough Times  by JJswans@aol.com
  2  ~
Fur Free Friday
  3  ~
Job Opportunity
  4  ~
Anthrax & Dogs
  5  ~
50 Million Animals in Mass Test Plan
  6  ~
More Environmental Rollbacks
  7  ~
Animalaware.org
  8  ~
I Wish....
  9  ~ Memorable Quote

     *´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`
~1~
Rough Times
by JJswans@aol.com

Since September 11th, the outpouring of charitable aid from Americans for the victims of the attack on New York and Washington has been amazing and wonderful to see.  However, what has been forgotten is the victims that Americans have helped in the past, and need continuing support.

Lately, we've been hearing of more and more reports that privately funded animal shelters and sanctuaries have been either forced to close their doors or are in danger of having to do so.  This jeopardizes the animals in their care once again, and even no-kill shelters may be forced to euthanize if they can't remain open.

As we approach the season of giving, please remember our animal friends who have no other source of funding but those of us who love and respect them.  There will be no government agencies to step in to bail out non-profit shelters.  We are the only hope they have.

Check with your local shelter to see how they are managing.  Even in good times they usually have a wish list that can be filled by caring animal advocates.  And while you're there, spend a little time with a warm fuzzy and leave your other cares behind, even if just for a little while.

*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`
~2~
Fur Free Friday

Fur Free Friday is quickly approaching (Nov 23) and IDA is asking activists to send us information on your event so we can post it on our website <<www.furkills.org>>. You can also order free anti-fur materials from our website.  Please make sure to visit our website often in the coming weeks, as new updates will be added daily.  www. furkills.org will be an invaluable resource for education and activism as FFF approaches.

Despite our gains in the struggle against fur, we are now at a critical juncture.  Young celebrities and designers are flaunting animal skins once again, and the public seems to be swayed. More than ever before, we need to join together to speak out against the 40 million animals who are trapped, imprisoned, gassed, strangled and anally electrocuted by the fur trade.

Take action on this international day of protest and help spread compassion by joining in the struggle to end the fur trade.

Although the WTC tragedy and the current state the world is in has led to huge unrest in our society, we feel that this is a great time to spread the message of compassion. We anticipate that Fur Free Friday events can be most effective this year if the message of peace and compassion is highly emphasized. We would love to hear your feedback on this.

For further questions or concerns, please call
Joyce Friedman at 212-462-3068.
And visit www.furkills.org to inform us of your event or to learn of an event in your area.


In Defense of Animals
www.idausa.org


*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`
~3~
Job Opportunity
from Snugglezzz@aol.com

Contact info below. Animal Haven, a no-kill, animal shelter in New York City, is embarking on a new project. We're opening an animal sanctuary/rehabilitation center in Upstate NY. The sanctuary will start w/dogs & eventually expand to cats. We're looking for a dynamic person to run/live there. We want to create a homelike setting so this person would live in this house w/these dogs. The dogs vary. Some have behavioral issues & some are medically fragile. Some would be for lifetime care while others will be coming for training & going back to the shelter for adoption. Strong dog behavior skills are essential to the position. Other preferred skills include program development, being able to manage a growing staff, dealing w/medical needs & a deep love for animals. All applicants must have a valid driver's
license & be willing to relocate to the beautiful Catskill Mountains. Please send resumes to  Info@animalhavenshelter.org or fax them to 212 568 6101. Jo Anne Rando-Moon; Network Coordinator; Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Kanab, UT 84741; 435-644-2001 Ext. 254; www.bfnetwork3@bestfriends.org; www.bestfriends.org

*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`
~4~
Anthrax & Dogs
from Snugglezzz@aol.com

I've spoken with some people @ CDC and the AVMA regarding anthrax and K9s. Unfortunately, there is very little information out there, but here is some info:

Dogs are 500 - 1000 times more resistant to Anthrax than people.  The most common form in dogs is the gastrointestinal form since most dogs get anthrax by eating contaminated meat. I've told everyone that for working dogs, the most common route would be inhalation (dogs searching mail, etc). There is some evidence that it is less likely for dogs to get inhalation since most of the bacteria get stopped in their nose since it is so long. The thought is that if the dogs get inhalation form, the signs would be respiratory distress (breathing hard, acting very sick, bleeding from the nose/mouth). If the dog gets to this level, death is very likely.

Antibiotics that work on anthrax in the dog include: Penicillins, oxytetracyclines, and ciproflaxacin. Bottom line, if you think your dog was exposed, I'd DEFINITELY start treatment while the item is being tested.

As with a lot of poisonings, the success rate is very high if you intervene early, there is low risk treating even if its not anthrax and the prognosis is VERY POOR if it is anthrax and you didn't treat BEFORE signs occur.

Paul S. McNamara, DVM, DACVS
Veterinary Specialties Referral Center
1641 Main Street, Route 5S
Pattersonville, NY 12137
Ph: 518-887-2260
Fax: 518-887-2265
Website: www.veterinaryspecialties.com

*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`
~5~
50 Million Animals in Mass Test Plan
Andrew Osborn in Brussels
Saturday, October 27, 2001
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,581783,00.html  

A European commission plan to test thousands of chemicals for toxicity will initiate the biggest animal testing programme Europe has ever seen and require the death of at least 50m animals, official estimates seen by the Guardian show. The plan - which involves testing a minimum of 30,0000 chemicals found in everyday products to make sure they are safe for human health and the environment - has been condemned by animal rights groups. It has also been criticised by environmentalists who think it doesn't go far enough and the chemical industry itself.

The sheer scale of the programme, which is being considered by the European parliament, is only now beginning to emerge.

"This would be the biggest ever mass animal poisoning programme in Europe's history," said Wendy Higgins, campaigns director for the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV). "In all likelihood the majority of the testing will go to the UK and these tests are about as cruel as you can get and will involve a horrific amount of suffering for a huge amount of animals."

A report commissioned by the environment department earlier this year and seen by the Guardian estimates that up to 50.2m animals would be required, including 4.4m fish.

The BUAV goes even further. It says a bare minimum of 63.6m animals would be required, claiming that at least 2,123 animals are needed to test every chemical.

The tests would involve monkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, dogs, rats, hamsters, birds and fish and require scientists to administer bigger and bigger doses of the suspect chemicals in order to observe the side-effects. Force-feeding in this way can cause bleeding from the eyes and nose, convulsions, vomiting and ultimately a slow death.

The rationale behind the EU programme is to protect the public. At least 30,000 chemicals are routinely released untested into the environment in everyday products such as plastic and car upholstery.

Many of the 30,000 substances are suspected of causing birth defects, allergies and learning problems. There are also fears that they may be doing untold damage to the environment and wildlife.

Such a large programme would provide a much-needed boost to Britain's contract animal testing industry, which is by far the biggest in Europe, and provide years and possibly even decades of work for the likes of Huntingdon Life Sciences, Quintiles and Covance.

But the BUAV, which admits there is a genuine need to test the chemicals, rejects the use of animals and has drawn up an alternative non-animal testing programme.

"Politicians can't keep using the line that animals need to suffer because there are no alternatives, because there are," said Ms Higgins. "If you put the necessary funding into alternative methods now, a non-animal strategy would be possible in five years' time."

The BUAV has commissioned research to show that in vitro and other alternatives exist but it admits that some of these testing methods have yet to be scientifically validated.

The European commission argues there is no other choice.

"Our main consideration is to protect the environment and human health," spokesman Per Haugaard said. "It's a trade-off. Do you want safe chemicals or not?"

"To the extent that alternative methods are available and reliable they will be used. We are sensitive to and aware of these arguments."

A spokesman for the UK-based Research Defence Society warned last night that animal rights groups were trying to kill off the testing strategy at an early stage but admitted the idea of using animals to test chemicals which were already in use might be "a bit wrong-headed and unnecessary".

*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`
~6~
More Environmental Rollbacks
New York Times Editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/29/opinion/29MON2.html?searchpv=nytToday
from judyreedco@earthlink.net    

While the nation's attention is focused on the war against terrorism, the Bush administration is moving, both overtly and covertly, to dismantle major elements of Bill Clinton's environmental legacy. It is difficult at a moment of crisis to devote much thought to things like mining rules or snowmobile bans. But if the president's top officials have time to undermine environmental regulations, the public needs to pay attention as well.

The war against the Clinton rules goes back to Inauguration Day, when the new administration suspended a half-dozen directives approved in Mr. Clinton's final weeks. Among these was a rule reducing the arsenic content in drinking water. The arsenic blunder came to symbolize the administration's fecklessness on environmental issues generally, and only when Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, promised to review the matter did the issue recede. But as Interior Secretary Gale Norton now reminds us, the demolition effort proceeds.

On Thursday, Ms. Norton wheeled out her subordinates at the Bureau of Land
Management to announce the reversal of Clinton-era regulations involving hard-rock mining for minerals like gold, copper and lead. The Clinton rules would have imposed stricter environmental standards on mining operations and, for the first time, would have given federal officials the power to block mines likely to cause "substantial irreparable harm" to water quality and other natural resources. The department claimed that the rules had been concocted at the "eleventh hour" and were unduly onerous. They had in fact been in the works for years, and did little more than impose on the hard-rock mining industry some of the same standards that apply to other extractive industries.

At least Ms. Norton was up front about it. Much of the assault on the Clinton rules is occurring under the radar, in obscure courtrooms where industry is challenging them, and in closed-door negotiations that shield the administration from public accountability. Industry lawsuits against government rules are hardly unusual. What is unusual is the administration's decision to use this litigation as an excuse to weaken, through settlement talks, popular rules that it would prefer not to attack directly.

A small but telling case in point is the administration's sneaky effort to reverse a Clinton rule phasing out snowmobiles from Yellowstone National Park - a rule buttressed by overwhelming public approval and years of conscientious science. Under pressure from various industry lawsuits, however, the administration has agreed to review the matter and issue what is widely expected to be a more industry-friendly proposal next year.

In like fashion, the administration has signaled a retreat from Mr. Clinton's most ambitious land conservation measure - a Forest Service rule protecting 60 million largely untouched acres of national forest from new road building, new oil and gas leasing and most new logging. Nine separate lawsuits have been filed against the plan, by private companies and state governments. In each case, the Justice Department has failed to defend the conservation rule in court. Nor, from the look of things, does it intend to.  The sad truth is that the Bush administration would like nothing better than a court-ordered excuse to rewrite the plan so as to accommodate the very commercial activity Mr. Clinton had hoped to prevent.

Another possible rollback that has received virtually no public attention involves the nation's diminishing wetlands. After a decade of struggle, environmentalists finally persuaded the Clinton administration to close a loophole in the clean water laws that had exposed many thousands of acres of valuable wetlands to commercial development. In the week before Earth Day last April, when Mr. Bush was trying to atone for the arsenic fiasco, Mrs. Whitman promised to keep the loophole closed. Within days, however, the Justice Department began talks with the home builders and other industry groups - talks from which the environmentalists say they have been excluded.  Mrs. Whitman's resolve may again be tested.

*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`
~7~
Animalaware.org

I would like to announce the brand new site for the AWARE Shelter in Guatemala.  We are online as for the 1st. of October 2001.

The AWARE shelter at Hound Heights (Sumpango, Sacatepequez) is a No-Kill shelter for the rescue and rehabilitation of abused and abandoned domestic animals in Guatemala. The mistreatment and abandonment of domestic animals is a chronic problem in Guatemala. At the Shelter, the animals are cured of any illness from which they may be suffering (most commonly mange and malnutrition), given all necessary vaccinations, socialized with others of their kind and with humans, and put up for adoption. It is AWARE’s policy to spay/neuter all the animals that come to us.

AWARE is funded through donations, membership subscriptions, and fund-raising events. As well as the Shelter, we run free or low-cost spay/neuter and rabies vaccination clinics throughout Guatemala. We also run school visits to help raise the level of animal welfare, pet care, and environmental awareness amongst young people in this country.

Please visit us at:  http://www.animalaware.org/

If you need more information or plan a trip to Guatemala please don't hesitate to contact us and pay us a visit!!
Tel:  Xenii (+502) 519 3669, Gina (+502) 479516
E-mail:  contact@animalaware.org
            desiree@tofuface.com

*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`
~8~
     I Wish.................
by Guila Manchester

I wish I knew it wasn't real
That little calves turn into veal.
I wish that bulls could find relief
From always ending up as beef.
I wish that cows could eat and moo
And not be pieces in a stew.
I wish that goats could play and bleat
And not turn into hunks of meat.
I wish that chickens just laid eggs
Instead of being thighs and legs.
I wish that ducks could simply quack
And not be used to make a snack.

I wish that geese could honk and hiss
And butcher's blocks forever miss.
I wish that turkeys, fat or thinner,
Did not end up as someone's dinner.
I wish that sheep could just make wool
And not make someone's tummy full.
I wish that lambs could run and play
And not end on a grocer's tray.
I wish that horses never knew
The things they use in making glue.
I wish that pigs could live and mate
And not be pork chops on a plate.

But since all people have to eat
And some, at least, require meat,
I'll try to make one wish come true
And ask for help from each of you.
That while they live, their lives be free
From every form of cruelty.
And death be quick and clean and sure
And pain the least that they endure.
For every creature born to live
Deserves the joy that life can give.
And when the time for death draws near
Deserves to die with little fear.

*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`*´`³¤³´`*:»«:*´`³¤³´`*:»³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`´`*:»«:*³¤³´`³¤³´`
~9~
Memorable Quote

"No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds it's life by the same tenure that he does."

~ Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
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
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
(Permission Granted To Quote/Forward/Reprint/Repost This Newsletter In
Whole Or In Part with credit given to EnglandGal@aol.com)

*   Please forward this to a friend who you think
might be interested in subscribing to our newsletter.

* ARO gratefully accepts and considers articles for publication
from subscribers on veg*anism and animal issues. 
Send submissions to JJswans@aol.com

 

 

Return to the ARO Newsletter Archives


Return to the ARO Homepage

 

1