A n i m a l
W r i t e s © sm
The
official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue #
05/19/02
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ Park StRanger@aol.com
~
MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE TEN ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Germany Votes For Animal Rights
2 ~ Missouri House Okays Ban On Barn Photos
3 ~ The DON'T SHOW ME State
4 ~ Websites of Note
5 ~ Safeway Victory
6 ~ Call For Soy Now
7 ~ Genesis Awards
8 ~ Job Opportunity
9 ~ Tarragona, Spain
10 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Germany Votes For Animal Rights
From Mark Bekoff - Marc.Bekoff@Colorado.EDU
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/05/17/germany.animals/index.html
BERLIN, Germany --Germany has become the first European nation to vote to
guarantee animal rights in its constitution.
A majority of lawmakers in the Bundestag voted on Friday to add "and
animals" to a clause that obliges the state to respect and protect the
dignity of humans.
The main impact of the measure will be to restrict the use of animals in
experiments.
In the end 543 lawmakers in Germany's lower house of parliament voted in favour
of giving animals constitutional rights. Nineteen voted against it and 15
abstained.
The vote is expected to be approved by the Bundesrat upper house this summer.
Article 20a of the German Basic Law will then read: "The state takes
responsibility for protecting the natural foundations of life and animals in
the interest of future generations."
The issue had been keenly debated among German politicians for almost 10 years.
Animals in Germany already are protected through legislation defining the
conditions in which they can be held in captivity, but activists claimed it did
not go far enough to control the use of animals in research.
With the new measure, the federal constitutional court will have to weigh
animals' rights against other entrenched rights, like those to conduct research
or practice religion. This could translate bring tighter restrictions on the
use of animals for testing cosmetics or nonprescription drugs.
Consumer Affairs Minister Renate Kunast, a member of the environmentalist
Greens party that has lobbied for many years to bring animal rights into the
constitution, welcomed the change as groundbreaking, but emphasized it would
not diminish human rights.
"People remain the most important," Kunast said.
Conservative parliament members had previously opposed the constitutional
changes, arguing that it could put the interests of animals before those of
humans and be particularly damaging to Germany's research industry.
Animal rights activists say they will use the constitutional changes to try and
end to what they say are unduly long transport routes for animals.
Lawmakers said the government will also look at targeting more research funding
to projects that seek alternatives to using animals for conducting experiments.
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~2~
Missouri House Okays Ban on
Barn Photos
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25338-2002May16.html
JEFFERSON
CITY, Mo. –– Taking aim at animal rights activists and undercover reporters,
the Missouri House has passed a measure that would make it a crime to take
pictures of animals in barns without an owner's permission.
The ban would apply to still or motion pictures of farm animals in barns or
other areas where they are housed. Photographers could be sentenced to up to
one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
The animal photography measure was added to a larger agriculture bill. It now
goes back to the Senate, which on Monday night had added a similar provision to
a House-passed bill.
Rep. Ken Legan [see next article], who sponsored the House amendment, said he
doesn't approve of photographers on a mission to expose the supposed evils of
farming. His amendment also would apply to animal-breeding facilities or any
place that houses animals for agricultural, business or research purposes.
"They'd like to come in and take pictures and say how bad it is when in
actuality (the animals) have never had it so good," Legan said.
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~3~
The DON'T SHOW ME State
By Robert Cohen -
notmilk@earthlink.net
Today's
column is about a Missouri state congressman named Ken Legan. This week, Ken's
unique bill flavored with conflicts of interest passed the Missouri House.
When you learn the nature of Legan's new law, you may laugh. You may cry. You
will certainly find great irony in the unethical acts that men with power and
connections often commit.
Ken is a cattle farmer. He is also a member of the Missouri Farm Bureau and
Missouri Cattlemen's Association. I learned these juicy tidbits after speaking
to one of Ken Legan's aides late Friday afternoon, May 17th, 2002,
(573-751-3819).
Missouri's aggressive nickname is traced to a speech made in 1899 by
Congressman William Vandiver:
"I come from a country that raises corn,
cotton, cockleburrs (a weed with 2 inch
long burrs), and Democrats. I'm from
Missouri, and you've got to show me."
Missouri may be known as the "Show Me" state, but the very last thing
the people of Missouri want to show you is what goes on behind the closed doors
of their dairy barns.
There are about 5 human Missourians who share their territory with 8 million
cattle and 8 million chickens.
This week, the Missouri House passed Ken's law making it illegal for anybody to
show me the dirty secrets of animal abuse in Missouri barns.
Take a photograph of filth and abuse, and you can now be sentenced to a year in
prison and receive a $1000 fine.
That Missouri justice is designed to "show me" that it is imprudent
to reveal the secrets of agricultural slavery.
Speaking of slavery, an influx of white settlers to Missouri drove out the
native Americans in the 1830s. They sure showed them Indians!
Speaking of slavery, Missouri entered the Union in 1821 as a slave state. They
sure showed those blacks a thing or two.
The "Don't Show Me" bill was sponsored by State Congressman Ken
Legan, who rationalized that he doesn't approve of photographers on a mission
to expose the supposed evils of what goes on in his own business. Legan said:
"They'd like to come in and take pictures and say
how bad it is when in actuality (the animals)
have never had it so good."
I would like to know at which point in their lives the animals have it so good.
Would the honorable Congressman be kind enough to show me the inside of the
Missouri slaughterhouses which his farm animals are sent to?
Missouri does not want to show you the filth that exists on their dairy farms.
During 2001, the average liter of Missouri cow milk contained 437 million pus
cells. At that rate, all of their milk would be banned in Europe and Canada.
Anybody care to wager whether or not congressman Legan knows how dirty
Missouri's milk is?
Would the Congressman allow me to see how many chickens can be crammed into a
cage, and how their feet curl around the wire so that they have to be painfully
chopped off before being taken to slaughter?
Would the Congressman show me how the sensitive beaks of laying hens are
unceremoniously cut off with a heat gun?
Perhaps he can show me the confinement crate of a veal calf, an animal who has
no room to turn or sit, an anemic creature who lives a very short life, crying
for his mother. A gentle child whose life ends with a stunned blow to the
head, and a throat slashed with a sharp knife.
Would the Congressman allow me to visit and photograph the pained faces of
three million pigs who live in a closed urea-filled building, the likes of
which creates a smell that brings grown men to their knees and results in a
majority of animals catching pneumonia, so that slaughter brings their only
relief.
I cannot take the picture and show you, for I would now go directly to jail in
the show me state.
You get the picture. I am told that one Missouri picture would tell a thousand
words. I have a blackboard and chalk for Congressman Legan. My challenge: Write
the words "Show Me" 500 times.
Missouri has a state motto:
"Salus Poluli Suprema Lex Esto."
The translation:
"The welfare of the people shall be the
supreme law."
It says nothing about animals. There are laws even more supreme than those
passed by men.
In 1821, Missouri sure showed those blacks.
In 1836, Missouri sure showed those Indians.
In 2002, Missouri sure showed those animals.
Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
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~4~
Websites of Note
Please bookmark this site and refer to it
often. It contains alerts from many of the major animal rights
organizations. You can easily cut and paste their write-ups into letter
form:
http://www.animalsvoice.com/PAGES/wycd/alerts.html
Another Wonderful Site For Teens!
GreenTeen (greenteen.com-1.net) has been started to provide a meeting place, a
place of contact and formulating ideas, and a place just for fun, for teens of
the world who are concerned about animal rights, vegetarianism, conservation
and the environment. Under no circumstances do you have to be a vegetarian to
be a part of GreenTeen, but we strongly recommend it. We are looking for
contributions of any type (writing, etc) so please email
webmaster@greenteen.zzn.com
http://www.greenteen.com-1.net/
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~5~
Safeway Victory
From Bruce Friedrich - Brucef@PETA.org
We are very pleased to announce that because of
all your amazing effort and hard work, we are able to declare a moratorium in
the Safeway Campaign! This is a significant step toward eliminating some of the
worst abuses that animals endure on factory farms as Safeway is the first
grocery store chain in U.S. history ever to do anything for farmed
animals.
Actually, Safeway is not just a major grocery chain. Safeway is among the 50
largest U.S. corporations, with three times McDonald’s U.S. revenues. Clearly,
this is a wonderful victory. It shows that society is changing because of
agitation and exposure to these issues and that it now recognizes that cruelty
to those animals it previously ignored is an important social issue. Our dream
of a vegan world is another step closer.
Safeway has pledged to immediately begin unannounced audits of
Seaboard Farms, the country’s fourth-largest pig-meat supplier. This plan
follows a PETA undercover investigation that ended with four felony animal
abuse charges leveled against Seaboard’s manager. Read about PETA’s
investigation here: http://www.peta.org/feat/invest/index.html.
In addition to the immediate plans to audit Seaboard, Safeway officials have
pledged to enforce the new Food Marketing Institute (FMI) guidelines when they
are released. PETA has been working with the FMI and its animal welfare panel
for more than a year on guidelines expected to be released in June. We are
hopeful that these guidelines will exceed those adopted by the fast-food
giants. Safeway has also pledged to conduct audits of all suppliers and to work
with any supplier that fails an audit to improve the conditions that led to the
failure and then to conduct another unannounced audit. If the supplier fails
again, Safeway will cut that supplier off. Safeway has pledged to implement all
guidelines within six to 18 months and to announce all of its animal welfare
plans publicly. Of course, the sooner, the better.
We have told Safeway that if the FMI guidelines are not out before the end of
June or if they are not at least as good as those adopted by the fast-food
chains, as we expect they will be, it will still have to meet or exceed the
fast-food guidelines. All indications are that Safeway officials are serious,
which is why we feel that we should direct our attention, over the next month,
to making sure that the standards that they’re pledging to uphold are up to
snuff and to soliciting promises from Safeway’s main competitors that they,
too, will adopt and enforce the animal welfare guidelines when they come out in
June.
What more can you do? Please check the Shameway.com and GoVeg.com
Web sites over the next week. We will have addresses for Safeway’s main
competitors in the U.S. and Canada, as well as talking points for letters that
should be written to them, encouraging them to follow Safeway’s lead. We will
also have contact information for the Food Marketing Institute and the National
Council of Chain Restaurants and will ask you to write to them, letting them
know that any standards lower than those adopted by McDonald’s, Burger King,
and Wendy’s will not be acceptable. We need to keep this momentum going!
We are so proud to know and work with so many outstanding activists. Over the
past few years, your efforts have truly changed the national debate. Just two
years ago, no corporation in the U.S. had required a thing of its suppliers of
farmed animals. Now, half a dozen of the biggest corporations in the world have
done so. What this means in decreased suffering and abuse can’t be overstated.
But maybe a bigger result is that the shift in national debate really begs the
question, “Where do we get off eating these feeling beings in the first place?”
Once corporations begin treating animals better, everyone is forced to consider
that animals are not automatons or widgets, that they have interests, needs,
desires, and more. As this consciousness grows, the vegan world we all want
draws nearer.
Thanks so much for all you’re doing. We will keep you apprised of the situation
as it develops. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
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~6~
Call For Soy Now
The
SPECIAL NUTRITION PROGRAM, part of the FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICE, under the
USDA, is now taking comments about adding soy and rice milk alternatives
to the public schools' food programs.
Once the SPECIAL NUTRITION PROGRAM hears from us (and unfortunately,
from others like the dairy industry too), they will draft a legislative
proposal for Congress asking Congress to amend the Child Nutrition Acts
to hopefully include milk alternates.
Please call and fax to support adding soy and rice milk to the food
programs in our public schools. (If we don't accomplish this now, it might be
another 3 or more years before we get another chance...we are currently so
close to reaching this goal that it would be a shame to let it slip through our
fingers! :-) )
Peter Murano, Associate Deputy Administrator
Special Nutrition Program
USDA Food and Nutrition Service
3101 Park Center Drive
Room 510
Alexandria, VA 22302
ph.: 703 305 2052
fax: 703 305 2782
Any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Best,
Mary Max
212 595 2532
mrsmmax@earthlink.net
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~7~
Genesis Awards
From Karen Dawn - KarenDawn@DawnWatch.com
People
new to this list may not be familiar with the Genesis Awards - I like to think
of them as our Oscars. Oscars with heart. The night is a celebrity
studded, glamorous, but deeply moving ceremony in which awards are given to
members of the major media who have helped shine the spotlight on animal
cruelty. Movie stars, television stars and pop stars present the awards. Their
function is to reward the media for animal friendly presentations and thus
encourage more.
This year the Sixteenth annual Genesis Awards were held at the Beverly Hilton
hotel on March 16. They will air on Animal Planet on:
Sunday, May 19 - Two-Hour Special
2:00pm - West Coast
(5:00pm - East Coast)
with an encore presentation of the two hour special on:
Saturday, May 25
9:00am - West Coast
(12:00 noon - East Coast)
One hour highlights will air on:
Saturday, May 18
7:00pm and 10pm - West Coast
(10:00pm and 1am - East Coast)
If you are not on the west or east coasts, please check your local listings.
I strongly recommend watching or taping the two hour special. I know that any
compassionate person will be moved by the show. Please don't forget to thank
Animal Planet for putting it on the air. Animal Planet takes comments at:
viewer_relations@discovery.com
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
www.DawnWatch.com
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the
media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You
can learn more about it at www.DawnWatch.com. To subscribe to DawnWatch, email
KarenDawn@DawnWatch.com and tell me you'd like to receive alerts. If at
any time you find DawnWatch is not for you, just let me know via email and I'll
take you off the subscriber list immediately. If you forward or reprint
DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited and include this tag line.)
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~8~
Job Opportunity
Seeking
a full-time Assistant Clinic Coordinator for The Fund for Animals' Have-A-Heart
Spay and Neuter Clinic located in midtown Manhattan, New York City. The
position requires heavy phone work and admitting and discharging of patients.
The position is Monday through Thursday, 7:30 am to 5:30 pm, and pays $10 per
hour. Knowledge of animal health a plus. Must be dedicated to the well-being of
all animals. Please fax cover letter and resume to: 212-977-6885.
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~9~
Tarragona, Spain
November 2nd, 2001
By Anthony Walker - anthonykarl@awalker28.freeserve.co.uk
On November 2nd 2001 near Tarragona in
Spain, a dogs` home was raided by thugs. They took twenty or so dogs and
chopped off their paws, leaving them to bleed to death. One of the victims was
a mother of newborn pups. She managed to crawl back to her pups to feed them
before she died. This poem is dedicated to her and the other dogs.
All was quiet till they broke
in,
The dogs` home was at peace.
She licked her pups, desiring
They take some milk before sleep.
The night exploded into mayhem
As the drunken rabble stormed in,
Breaking through the gates, and then
Seizing their canine victims.
The dogs` terrified barks raised none
To help them in their plight;
The men had planned what was to be done,
`twas useless for the dogs to fight.
She was tied like the rest, by the legs,
Her jaws held so she couldn`t bite;
With an axe they chopped off her paws
And, laughing, left her in the night.
Bleeding she crawled to her young
To feed them one last time.
They took the milk that was life-giving
Before she died, kissing them.
To the end she had only love
For her pups confused and afraid,
Yet greedy for the milk she gave,
As she asked herself why this deed
Was done to her and her kind
On that night in sultry Spain.
Who can fathom a man`s mind
Who would inflict such terrible pain?
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~10~
Memorable Quote
"A single voice may not be heard, but the voices of many
cannot be ignored. " ~ Author Unknown
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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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