A n i m
a l W r i t e s © sm
The
official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue # 04/07/02
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~
MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE SIX ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Setting The (Humane) Standard by Gene Bauston
2 ~ Puppymill Protection Act
3 ~ Good News Advisory
4 ~ Animal Experimentation - The Facts You Need To Know
5 ~ A Look From The Other Side
6 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Setting The (Humane) Standard
by Gene Bauston, Gene@farmsanctuary.org - Farm Sanctuary
From The Animals' Agenda - March/April 2002
New
Jersey is the only state in America with a law requiring the development of
standards for the humane treatment of farmed animals, and this provides an unparalleled
opportunity to prohibit inhumane factory-farming practices in the United
States. Specifically, New Jersey's law, passed in 1995, requires the
state Department of Agriculture to produce "standards for humane raising,
keeping, care, treatment, marketing, and sale of domestic
livestock." Certain practices commonly employed on farms are clearly
not humane, and therefore cannot be allowed under meaningful humane
standards. Among the cruel systems being banned across Europe -- and which
should be banned in New Jersey -- are battery cages, gestation crates, and veal
crates.
On industrialized farms, cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals are treated
like inanimate commodities rather than as sentient, feeling animals.
Farmed animals are specifically excluded from the federal Animal Welfare Act
and from most state anti-cruelty laws; as a result, agribusiness systematically
subjects animals to intolerable mistreatment with impunity.
During a Farm Sanctuary investigation in early 2000 of ISE egg factory in
Broadway, New Jersey, two live hens were found dumped in a trash can full of
dead birds. After much effort, ISE was charged with cruelty to animals
and taken to court, but shockingly, the judge ruled that the company was not
guilty of animal cruelty. Even worse, ISE's lawyer asserted that it was
legally acceptable to discard live birds in the garbage and to treat them as if
they were manure. When the judge asked, "Isn't there a big
distinction between manure and live animals?" ISE's lawyer responded,
"No, your honor."
ISE and other egg producers commonly subject egg-laying hens to blatant cruelty
and neglect. Most laying hens are confined in battery cages, barren wire
enclosures that are lined up in rows, stacked in tiers in huge factory
warehouses. The birds are each given just a half square foot of space and
packed so tightly that they cannot even stretch their wings. Constantly
rubbing against the wires, the birds experience severe feather loss, and their
bodies are covered with bruises and abrasions. Every natural chicken
behavior is thwarted, and the frustrated birds are driven to excessive pecking
and fighting. To reduce the injuries caused by this aberrant behavior,
part of the birds' beaks are cut off in a painful procedure called debeaking.
Modern breeding pigs fare not better than egg-laying hens and live a continuous
cycle of impregnation, birth, and re-impregnation. They spend most of
their lives confined in narrow metal gestation crates where they cannot turn
around. These imprisoned animals experience a wide range of physical and
psychological disorders. The hard, slatted floors and lack of exercise
cause crippling foot, leg, and joint disorders, while constantly rubbing
against the bars of t heir crates causes o pen sores. Unable to fulfill
their most basic behavioral needs, the highly intelligent pigs suffer from
depression and frustration, leading to neurotic coping behaviors such as
head-waving, bar-biting, and chewing the air.
Calves raised for veal are confined just as severely, spending their short
lives chained by the neck in crates measuring just two feet wide. They
are unable to stretch their limbs, turn around, or even lie down
comfortably. This confinement prevents exercise and limits muscle
development, which keeps the calves' meat tender. Veal producers also
restrict the animals' diet, feeding them an all-liquid milk substitute that is
purposely deficient in iron and fiber in order to produce borderline anemia and
the pale-colored flesh fancied by "gourmets." Calves fed this
inadequate diet would not survive to adulthood, and they are typically
slaughtered at just 16 to 20 weeks of age.
New Jersey's humane standards were supposed to have been completed in 1996, but
the state Department of Agriculture has yet to fulfill it's statutory
responsibility, thereby severely hindering proper enforcement of the cruelty
laws as they pertain to farmed animals. Indeed, factory farmers as well
as livestock transporters have recently argued that the lack of standards has
made the New Jersey animal cruelty law unenforceable since the agency has
failed to put farmers on notice as to which practices are permissible and which
are not. Furthermore, given the fact that the legislature has directed
the department to promulgate humane standards, judges hearing cases involving
cruelty to farmed animals may be reluctant to substitute their judgment for
that of the Department of Agriculture.
A campaign is now under way to compel the Department of Agriculture to take
action. So far, the state has received tens of thousands of letters,
including several from legislators, urging that it draft meaningful humane
standards that outlaw battery cages, gestation crates, veal crates and other
cruel farming practices. State Assemblyman Christopher "Kip"
Bateman (16th District) summed up the situation well in his letter to the
Department: "New Jersey is in a position to play a key role in improving
farm animal welfare....I believe we have an opportunity to prohibit inhumane
practices that are already outlawed in other countries and should be banned
here in the United States."
Gene Bauston is co-founder and Director of Farm Sanctuary, and has a
master's degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University.
Your Agenda: Pressure the state agriculture department to comply
with the law and draft humane standards that prohibit such cruel farming
practices as veal crates, gestation crates, and battery cages. Certain
farming methods are clearly inhumane, and therefore cannot be allowed.
Contact: Dr. Ernest Zirkle, Director, Division of Animal Health, State of New
Jersey - Department of Agriculture, John Fitch Plaza, P.O. Box 330, Trenton, NJ
08625; fax 609.292.3978; ernest.zirkle@ag.state.nj.us
"Reprinted with permission from The Animals' Agenda, P.O. Box 25881,
Baltimore, MD 21224; 410.675.4566; www.animalsagenda.org."
Email: office@animalsagenda.org
[Editor's Note: Though the author of this article concentrated on New
Jersey, it's important that you contact your own state representatives to
encourage them to work on humane standards for farm animals. For those
outside of the U.S. contact your own officials to find out your country's
policies and encourage more humane treatment for animals.]
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~2~
Puppymill Protection Act
From SMatGMAD@aol.com
Hello
All,
This came from the Humane Society of the United States, if you have time please
help out.
As reported in the New York Times on Sunday (3/24), the American Kennel
Club is waging a fierce campaign against the Puppy Protection amendment to the
Farm Bill. It's ironic that the AKC would strenuously lobby to block
these modest - and long-overdue - improvements to current federal law governing
commercial dog breeders. Even more ironic is the fact that, according to
AKC's own figures, almost 97% of its registrants are not even affected by the
federal law - which exempts those having less than four breeding females - yet
the AKC has disingenuously urged these "hobby breeders" to fight the
puppy amendment. AKC also fails to mention that it actually registers
puppy mills and profits from this relationship. We can't let their
disinformation attacks prevail.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact the following two key members of the Farm Bill conference committee and
tell them you hope they'll agree to the Senate's Puppy Protection amendment
without any weakening changes. Let them know that hobby breeders are
exempt from the law, and that the amendment's modest provisions dealing with socialization,
over-breeding, and license revocation for chronic violators are all urgently
needed.
1. Representative Larry Combest (R-TX) - ph: 202/225-2171 /
fax: 202/225-0917
2. Representative Charles Stenholm (R-TX) - ph: 202/225-0317 /
fax: 202/225-8510
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~3~
GOOD NEWS ADVISORY!
Pasco
County Hens Find Sanctuary at United Poultry Concerns
From United Poultry Concerns
http://www.UPC-online.org
[Information
from March 22, 2002 notice]
Machipongo, VA - A yellow truck with more than 200 white young hens bedded in
straw drove in here from Pasco County, Florida yesterday, after being rescued
from Cypress Foods, an egg company that declared bankruptcy in January.
Thirty-thousand caged hens out of 200,000 died of starvation within 12 days
because nobody fed them.
While most of the surviving hens were gassed to death in this horrible episode,
more than 300 hens were successfully rescued to live out their lives happily at
United Poultry Concerns (Va), the Eastern Shore Chicken Sanctuary (Md), Poplar
Spring Animal Sanctuary (Md), and Oohmahnee Farm (Pa). In addition, people in
Florida and North Carolina adopted some of the hens.
Those who arrived at United Poultry Concerns yesterday poured out of the truck
onto the ground. They dove under bushes and shrubs, perched in trees, and sat
on our six-foot fence. This morning we gathered up one hundred hens to continue
their journey north to Princess Anne, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Hunker
Pennsylvania.
"It's beautiful to see these hens testing out their new world, the green
world where they belong. Let nobody say these hens are 'bred for the cage.'
They are full of vibrant energy -- energy you feel just holding them in your
arms," says United Poultry Concerns President Karen Davis."
Meanwhile, investigators took photographs and rescued at least 60 of the
starving hens at the Cypress Foods complexes in Georgia, where more than one
million birds were abandoned. Activist Christina Meade and her team rescued 60
birds and took photographs of legs, wings, and other body parts clinging to the
bars as the birds were ripped from the cages to have their necks savagely
broken -- which doesn't kill them -- and thrown onto dead piles while alive.
Florida rescuer P.J. McKosky of the Fund for Animals, who with two fellow
rescuers drove the hens to United Poultry Concerns and supervised the Florida
rescue after receiving an emergency call from UPC two weeks ago, tried pulling
out hens from the manure pits, but after the manure reached his waist, he
couldn't proceed without being sucked down into the thick slime.
"The egg industry exhibits everything horrible you can do to a living
creature," McKosky told UPC. " That's why every rescue must be part
of our larger goal of getting the hens out of these hellholes for good and back
into the sunlight, like these amazing hens we're looking at now."
United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes the
compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. For more information,
visit www.UPC-online.org
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~4~
Animal Experimentation
The Facts that you Need to Know
From http://www.all-creatures.org/wlalw/index.html
World Animal Liberation Week
Animal
experimentation is one of the most controversial issues that confront the
animal rights movement. This issue is shrouded in secrecy produced by locked
doors and security systems. We cannot just walk into most laboratories
and start asking questions. We have to go somewhere else to get
information.
Every year the United States Department of Agriculture / Animal & Plant
Inspection Service (USDA/APHIS) publishes a document titled the Animal Welfare
enforcement Report (AWER). This document deals with many issues germane
to the animal rights movement. Animal exhibitors, dealers, transporters,
and experimenters are all covered in some way by this report.
The recently released report for the year 2000 is heavily laden with
statistics. The report tells us that 1,416,643 animals were experimented
on in fiscal year 2000.
This number is broken down by species: 69,516 dogs, 25,560 cats, 57,518
primates, 505,009 guinea pigs, 258,754 rabbits, 23,934 sheep, 66,651 pigs,
69126 "other" farm animals, and 166,429 "other"
animals. According to the report 104,202 (7.4%) of these animals
were used in painful or stressful experimentation without benefit of
anesthesia. (The report is Internet accessible at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/publications.html
in the annual reports section.)
How meaningful are these statistics? Do they give us an accurate picture
of animal experimentation, or are they misleading? It may be best to
characterize these statistics as limited. They are limited by the manner
in which the USDA/APHIS enforces the Animal Welfare Act, and they are limited
by the accuracy of the research facilities that file reports.
The first and most important limitation of these numbers is that they ignore
the majority of animals used in experimentation. Rats, mice, and many
other species (i.e. all non-mammals) are not required to be reported.
Therefore, if we want an accurate total of the number of animals used in
experimentation, we can only estimate. Rodents and the other unreported
species are estimated to make up 85 - 95% of all animals used in
experimentation. Therefore, the total of all animals experimented on
could exceed 20,000,000, but we really don't know an exact total.
Are the numbers that are reported accurate? Well, they are only as
accurate as the source providing the information. These statistics are
based on annual reports filed by each research facility. The labs are
required to report how many animals are experimented on (breaking the numbers
down into certain categories), as well as how many animals they are keeping on
hand for breeding/conditioning. However, no totals are ever given for the
animals kept by laboratories for breeding purposes. Only those animals
actually experimented on are dealt with in the statistics of the Animal Welfare
Enforcement Report.
One way to check the accuracy of the report is to compare it to the documents
from which it was prepared. In other words, do the individual facility
reports match up with what the larger report indicates? Also, how good
are those individual reports? Are they accurate, or are we being lied
to?
The fiscal 2000 reports are not yet accessible, but the fiscal 1998 reports are
Internet accessible. What do the 1998 reports tell us?
For 1998 laboratories in the state of Connecticut are listed as using
190 primates. And if we compare the reports posted on the USDA/APHIS
website for Connecticut the totals seem to agree. However, are the
reports themselves accurate? One of the largest research facilities in
the state of Connecticut is at Yale University in New Haven. It seems
that the folks at Yale are somewhat numerically challenged. The report
forms filed by Yale staff with the USDA for fiscal 1998 are very
confusing. The report lists 32 primates as experimented on and 71 as
being held for use in breeding, conditioning, etc. The exceptions to
standard care section of the report lists 22 different primates as being
deprived of water during experimentation. This section also lists 65
macaque monkeys as being deprived of food during experimentation. This
means that either the primates were being deprived of both food and water
during experimentation, or at least 87 primates were experimented on. Even if
only 62 primates were experimented on (which means that 22 of these 65 were
deprived of both food and water), that is still significantly different from
the 32 primates reported by Yale as being experimented on. Also, the
total primates listed on Yale's USDA report are 103 (32 + 71). This
number is further contradicted by a USDA inspection report for Yale dated 7/14
& 15/98, which lists 198 non-human primates as being on the premises of
Yale. What was done with those other 95 primates that are not accounted
for? How did Yale conveniently neglect to mention them?
Additionally, as was stated earlier, the numbers for animals held for breeding
or conditioning are not included in the experimentation total. The
Connecticut total for primates in this category is 182. 190 are listed as
being experimented on in Connecticut. So, the actual total for primates
in labs in Connecticut for 1998 is 372, not 190. But then, maybe we need
to add those other 95 primates that Yale conveniently forgot. That brings
our total for Connecticut to 467 primates actually in labs in 1998. The
true total is more than twice that listed by the USDA Animal Welfare
Enforcement Report for 1998.
Now, if we examine the numbers for the state of Louisiana a similar phenomenon
occurs. The numbers match for primates that are experimented on (7935), but
another 5763 are listed for breeding purposes. That makes the real total
for Louisiana 13,698. That is an omission of about 42%.
Are there any other examples of omission/inaccuracy? Unfortunately there
are many. During fiscal 1998 Harvard Medical School reported
experimenting on 293 primates and holding 43 on hand for breeding
purposes. This is a very interesting report in light of the fact that the
Harvard Medical School is the recipient of the NIH grant that funds the New
England Regional Primate Research Center (NERPRC). This facility
typically has well over 1000 primates on hand at any one time. The annual
progress report filed by the NERPRC with the NIH (for 1998 - the reporting
period differs from the USDA fiscal year by 1 month) lists a research colony of
887 and a breeding colony of 674 for a total of 1561. This is a
discrepancy of over 1200 primates.
In the three instances discussed above the USDA numbers omitted 7265 primates,
or over 46%. If this same level of error is applied to the total for
primate usage, a total is reached (for fiscal 2000) of 106,515 primates who are
currently imprisoned in labs across the United States.
Another problem exists with the AWER. The numbers can only be accurate on
a national basis if all the labs are reporting on time. This seldom
happens. For fiscal 2000 22 labs didn't report, or didn't report on
time. Totals for previous years have been much higher.
The most striking part of this entire scenario is how much we simply don't
know. While the USDA reports a total of over 57,000 primates in
experimentation, we know that tens of thousands more primates are confined in
labs for breeding purposes. We have also seen that at least some labs
report their animal use inaccurately. The only thing we can really be
certain of is that the death toll is unbearably high.
Our best estimates indicate that about 165 primates are experimented on every
day, or about 60,000 per year. And another 40,000 spend their entire
lives in the barren captivity of breeding colonies. Their lives are
litanies of stress, deprivation, confinement, and loss. Either they are
tortured in experimentation, or they have their priceless offspring ripped away
from them to be fodder for the vivisection machine.
Their lives are our collective responsibilities. If we know anything
right now it is that there is far too much we don't know. We must make it
our mission to expose the suffering that these animals endure.
[Editor's Note: Don't forget WWAIL - April 20-28]
World Week for
Animals in Laboratories
http://www.wwail.org/
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~5~
Dedicated to those that rescue
- a look from the other side....
Submitted by MichelleRivera1@aol.com
He woke with a start
could not figure out where he was.
Why am I warm, why am I safe,
why is the world suddenly soft?
Oh yes, the lady that talks so sweet
she rubs my ears and cooches my belly.
I like it here
wonder if she'll send me back?
It is quiet but I can hear life about me
it is a calm, safe feeling.
One I have never known
but have dreamt of.
I have only been here a day
wonder if they'll let me stay?
Maybe if I'm good and sweet
they won't put me on the street.
I'm so confused
the lady talks so nice all the time.
I got my own dinner last night
without a fight.
I hear some noise
wonder if she'll send me back?
She is calling my name
how sweet she sounds.
I am here, right here
waiting for my ear rub.
Better wag my tail
let her know I like her a lot.
There she is, she is so soft
wonder if she'll let me stay?
Time to go out she says
better not do it on the floor.
Out side with all the others
they seem happy here too.
I hope she lets me stay.
Wow food again
and all my own!
She just rubbed my head
and said 'what a good boy.'
Me a good boy
wow me a good boy!
Oh that smile of hers
hope she lets me stay.
Looks like play time
hey I can play too.
She is laughing
I remember that sound.
They used to do that when
I was little and they liked me.
You know the other people
then they just stopped laughing.
Please don't make me go back.
She is on the phone
thought I heard my name.
She is looking at me
she is smiling.
Better get over there and
get one of those ear rubs.
She is talking about me
Please don't make me go back.
Still talking about me
Wonder what she meant.
She said 'looks like a keeper to me.'
I hope she'll let me stay.
I was never allowed to give kisses
wonder what she would do?
Think I'll try.
Oh my, she's got tears in her eyes!
Oh what have I done?
A big hug, maybe she'll let me stay.
She said I'm home now
talks to me a lot, real nice.
Wow, what a day and
it's only just begun!
Imagine having many days
like this all together.
Oh, Please let me stay!
Thanks to all the rescues for all you do.
Donna Vozenilek
a friend for the cause,
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~6~
Memorable Quote
"Man has been endowed with reason, with the
power to create, so that he can add to what's been given. But up to now he
hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry
up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer
and uglier every day."
~~ Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), Uncle Vanya, 1897
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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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