A n i m a l W r i t e s ©
sm
The official ANIMAL
RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Established 1997
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Issue # 02/22/04
Publisher ~ Susan
Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Journalists ~ Greg Lawson -
ParkStRanger@aol.com
~ Michelle Rivera - MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ Dr. Steve Best -
sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Piggly Wiggly by Greg Lawson
2 ~ Dr. Atkins Heart Disease Finally Makes Big News by
Karen Dawn
3 ~ MeatOut - March 20 / AR2004 Registration Discount
4 ~ One Voice Press Release
5 ~ Act Radio
6 ~ Kucinich For President
7 ~ Chiseled Sapien
8 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Piggly Wiggly
By Greg Lawson - ParkStRanger@aol.com
It's a strange name for a chain of supermarkets, Piggly Wiggly.
With only 700 stores across the southeast it's one of the smaller chains but it
has insured itself a place in the history books for introducing the concept of
self service. Prior to the founding of Piggly Wiggly in 1916, in Memphis,
Tennessee, people would hand the store clerk their grocery lists and he would
retrieve the items from his shelves. Piggly Wiggly introduced the idea of
customers shopping for themselves and taking their selections to a check out
point.
The psychological ramifications of this innovation cannot be overemphasized.
Human hunting and gathering behavior became satisfied by this new practice.
Before long, all grocery stores were operating in this manner. Piggly Wiggly
changed the way Americans shopped.
Piggly Wiggly was the first to provide checkout stands, price all the items in
the store, use refrigerated cases for produce and put employees in uniforms to
promote the image of hygiene. They introduced the interesting idea of a smiling
pig in a butcher's apron and hat as their logo. I have always loved images of
smiling cartoon animals selling their friends' body parts, call me twisted.
But why this bizarre name, Piggly Wiggly? Their website says that the store's
founder, Clarence Saunders, saw from a train window several little pigs
struggling to get under a fence, and the name came to him. Someone once asked
him why he had chosen such an unusual name for his organization, and Saunders'
reply was, "So people will ask that very question." He wanted and
found a name that would be talked about and remembered.
Well, here I am 88 years later talking about it. But the image I get when I
think of Wiggling Piggies is not of a friendly place to shop. I think of pigs
struggling to get away from slaughter, greased pig contests, the worms of
trichinosis.
Sometimes I think I am a visitor on a strange planet, living here in Texas.
While researching this article I came across this press release on the web...
"Texas A&M University's Rodeo Club will host "An Old Fashioned
Country Fair and Rodeo" at 3 p.m. Saturday to benefit the Brazos Christian
School's education scholarship fund. Children's rodeo events include a
goat-branding relay, goat roping, a calf scramble and a greased pig contest.
Adult rodeo events include "Minnie and Me" cow dress up contest,
greased pig contest and cow chip bingo. "We hold the rodeo to help defray
the costs of a quality Christian education," a spokesperson for Brazos
Christian School said.
Yee Haw.
You know, until now I had quite a different idea of a "quality Christian
education." Greased pigs, Piggly Wiggly.
One of my close friends told me recently of one of her early childhood
memories. Her mother was cooking pork chops and said "Linda, come here and
look." Worms were crawling up out of the chops to get away from the heat.
"This is why you have to cook pork really well." She continued to
cook and then serve the meat to her family. Linda is now a vegan. Piggly Wiggly.
I am happy to say that a coworker of mine just went vegan. He had grown up in
Massachusetts and had quit eating seafood because of the environmental damage
he saw done to Massachusetts Bay. He stopped eating beef in November due to the
mad cow outbreak in the United States. But it wasn't until his wife, a nurse at
a local hospital, told him about a patient she had just seen with trichinosis,
that he decided to go all the way. Now he and his wife are both vegans.
This patient had worms in his brain from eating undercooked pork. The doctors
could treat the symptoms of trichinosis but couldn't remove the worms in his
brain. The hospital in El Paso said he had probably gotten it from a pork taco
he had eaten in Mexico. Why is it that we in the US only get mad cows from
Canada and trichinosis from Mexico? Is it only alien invaders that affect us?
The animals we eat in our country are clean? Right? If I had brain worms from
trichinosis, I think I would also like to have mad cow disease so the worms
would have some little holes in my brain to live in. Piggly Wiggly.
One of our readers just sent us a news item from rural Clarke County, Alabama,
where they have been conducting dog/pig rodeos for years. In these events a
penned pig is wrestled down by a dog, usually a pit bull. People who attend
these events say they are good for the community. One was quoted as saying
"They got a lot of young people around in this part of the country that
don't have much to do around here and that gives them an outlet."
Dog fighting and cockfighting are against the law in Alabama. So what about
hog/dog fighting? Clarke County's District Attorney says he has done nothing to
stop them because he says the County Sheriff's Department has failed to arrest
anyone. The sheriff tells it differently. He says he tried to shut down the
fights a few years ago because of animal cruelty, but said that the district
attorney said they wouldn’t prosecute because it wasn’t unlawful.
Fortunately, the local NBC affiliate recently did an investigative video piece
about the fights that showed the brutality of the events to the public. I can
imagine penned Piggies Wiggling to get away from pit bulls. I can also imagine
responsible law enforcement Piggies Wiggling to get away from the lights of the
TV cameras.
The sheriff now says that he'll ask the Alabama Attorney General for his
opinion. The attorney general has refused to get involved in the past, saying
that it is a county matter.
Since NBC 15 ran the news story, the sheriff told the TV station that he has
discussed the matter again with the county district attorney and both agree the
hog/dog rodeos are against the law and that the sheriff plans to shut them
down. Thanks to NBC 15, and the pressure they have put on the officials who are
supposed to be enforcing the law, these barbaric “rodeos” may soon be a thing
of the past.
There are several rescue groups around the country which have done much to help
pigs, but most are struggling due to lack of personnel and funding. Pig Tales
Sanctuary in Bunnell, Florida, was recently broken into by wild boars,
resulting in several unplanned pregnancies. Repairing the fence that was broken
and adding additional fencing has put a strain on their finances.
I recently spoke on the phone with Charlene who operates the sanctuary with her
daughter Lory. Both seem like nice people who are doing a great job to help the
many pigs they care for. Please visit their website at Click here: Welcome to Pig Tales
http://www.zitaglio.com/pigtales/
and help if you can.
Many of us are focused on helping dogs, cats and wild animals. We all need to
try to do more for farmed animal sanctuaries.
Maybe then the tails of the Piggies will be more Wiggly.
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~2~
Dr Atkins's Heart Disease Finally Makes Big News
By Karen Dawn - DawnWatch@dawnwatch.com
When Dr Atkins died almost a year ago, I noted on DawnWatch that
the press virtually ignored the trouble that Atkins had been having with his
heart. How nice, after a week away from my computer, to come back and find that
his troubles are no longer being ignored. They have been in every paper, on the
front page of some, and are discussed in some national magazines.
A few months ago, at a physicians luncheon, a surgeon explained to me that
Atkins's heart issues were such that he would not have lived more than a year
if he had not "slipped" on the ice and hit his head. I thought it
unlikely that the cause of death had been falsified: Yes, he probably died from
a head injury from a fall. But it seemed obvious that either 'slipping' or
'collapsing' on the ice would lead to the same cause of death, but that a slip
for a dying man would be strangely convenient, whereas a collapse, due to heart
disease, would be devastating for a diet king's heirs and empire. One can
easily imagine not just the loss of sales but the potential lawsuits.
I wish Dr Atkins had lived a very long life, towards the end of which, he, like
the world's most famous pediatrician, Dr Spock, had come to embrace a vegan
diet and recommend it to all. Since sadly, that did not happen, I am relieved
for the sake of those that might follow him and for the billions of animals
being consumed by his millions of followers, that the myth of his good health
has finally been revealed.
The February 23 edition of Time Magazine has covered the story in an article by
Joel Stein, (Health, pg 37) headed "Paging Dr. Fatkins?" The amusing
title is a reference to Atkins having weighed 258 pounds at the time of his
death. But medical reports suggest that he arrived at the hospital under 200
pounds, so his treatment rather than his diet caused the excessive weight.
Whether or not the man was fat is really of minimal interest -- I think most
people agree that the Atkins diet can "work" -- you can lose weight
on it (though that may have much to do with a lower calorie intake due to
severe food restrictions, even though the foods allowed are high fat). The
issue is the man's health, since most people don't want to die young leaving a
slender beautiful corpse.
Stein writes:
"As for the health of his heart - which is the real question for many who
believe that the fat-rich Atkins diet may help shed pounds but could raise
cholesterol to dangerous levels - the medical report noted that Atkins had a
history of myocardial infarction (translation: heart attack), congestive heart
failure and high blood pressure."
The Time Magazine article notes that Atkins's medical records have been
distributed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The article
gives an address for a website PCRM has set up focusing exclusively on the
Atkins diet:
http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/ It
is packed with information and even has a place where those whose health has
been harmed by the diet are asked to register so that such information can be
passed along to government and health officials.
You can read "Paging Dr. Fatkins?" on line at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040223-591316,00.html
The February 23 edition of People Magazine is also carrying the Atkins story,
on page 71, headed, "Did the Atkins Diet Fail Dr. Atkins?;
A report suggests the famed doctor had weight and heart problems when he
died."
The Wednesday, February 11 New York Times had a particularly thorough article
on the issue you might want to read. You will find it at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/11/nyregion/11atkins.html.
It tells us that Atkins's wife had objected to an autopsy and that Atkins's
body was cremated.
Though nobody wants to gloat over anybody's misfortune, the headlines due to
the current controversy open up opportunities for letters to the editor in
which it is perfectly appropriate to discuss the impact a plant based diet has
had on your health and appearance, and perhaps mention that such diets can be
better for one's conscience as well, since they are clearly better for the
animals and the environment.
Time Magazine takes letters at: letters@time.com
People Magazine takes letters at: editor@people.com
And, as I mentioned, the story has been in pretty well every paper over the
last week and will continue to appear. When you see it again in yours, please
take the opportunity to whip off a quick (preferably sympathetic) veg-friendly
letter to the editor. If you have any trouble finding the right email address
for a letter to the editor, please ask me for help.
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a
letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.
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, leaving DawnWatch in the title and
including this tag line.)
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~3~
MeatOut - March 20
Be sure to check out this website and hurry to plan your MeatOut
event.
AR2004 Registration
Discount
Place an AR2004
banner on the home page of your national or regional website for two months
to receive a half-price registration discount and a reciprocal text link.
http://animalrights2003.org/webmaster.html
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~4~
One Voice Press Release
ONE VOICE, a leading French animal rights organization, exposes
the scandalous connection between the international dolphin captivity industry
and the Japanese dolphin slaughter:
The so-called drive fisheries take place in several Japanese coastal fishing
communities from October until April each year. The dolphin hunt -- a practice
that has been going on for 400 years with little opposition -- is extremely
brutal: Whalers take their boats out to deep water where the dolphins migrate.
When they locate a pod of dolphins, they lower stainless steel poles into the
water and beat the poles with hammers. The noise creates a wall of sound
underwater and sets the dolphins into a state of total panic, which enables the
whalers to drive the dolphins into a lagoon. Once trapped in the lagoon, the
dolphins are doomed: The whalers force them into shallow water and, driving
sharp fishermen's hooks into the dolphins' bodies and stabbing them with
butcher knives, they bleed the animals to death. The dolphins take several
minutes to die. As the water turns red with blood, they thrash about in pain,
emitting loud whistles and cries.
"This is the largest dolphin slaughter in the world, and the cruelest
thing that I have ever witnessed in my 40 years of working with dolphins"
says Richard O'Barry, ONE VOICE Marine Mammal Specialist and former trainer of
the TV-star Flipper. O'Barry and his Danish wife Helene, Field Correspondent
for ONE VOICE, were in Taiji Japan to document the dolphin slaughter. "The
public will be shocked to learn that the inhumane and brutal slaughter of
dolphins in Japan is supported by the dolphin captivity industry," says
Helene. The ONE VOICE team documented the capture of more than 200 bottlenose
dolphins in Taiji. Several of the dolphins were selected by dolphin trainers to
be sold alive to dolphinariums. Our team reports that about 50 dolphin trainers
gathered in Taiji to select the best looking of the captured dolphins, allowing
the rejects to be slaughtered by the whalers. The capture and selection process
was appallingly violent. Panic-stricken dolphins were dragged ashore with
ropes. Beached animals accidentally beat each other up in the frenzy as they
tried to get back into the water. Mothers and babies were separated by force.
The dolphin trainers simply stood by and watched as some of the dolphins, in an
effort to escape, got entangled in the capture nets and, unable to reach the
surface to breathe, suffocated. Some of these trainers are members of the
International Marine Animal Trainers Association (IMATA). ONE VOICE has video
footage showing two westerners at "Dolphin Base" in Taiji, the
company that brokers dolphins from the drives to various dolphinariums.
Historically, the capture of dolphins has been highly secretive and rarely
photographed, and for decades the multi-billion dollar dolphin captivity
industry has claimed that they are capturing and displaying dolphins so that
they can educate the public to the necessity of protecting dolphins in nature.
But, in reality, the Japanese dolphin slaughter and the use of dolphins for
public display are strongly connected. The whalers and dolphin trainers,
working side by side to exploit the dolphins in the most cruel manner
imaginable, have a symbiotic relationship. The evidence obtained by ONE VOICE
is compelling and irrefutable. "If the dolphin captivity industry was not
fueling the dolphin slaughter by buying dolphins from the Japanese dolphin
drives, the dolphin slaughter would have a very hard time surviving," says
Muriel Arnal, ONE VOICE Founder/Director.
ONE VOICE is hereby calling on captive dolphin facilities worldwide to change
their policy and stop supporting and participating in the inhumane practice of
the Japanese dolphin drives.
For more information and video documentation please contact:
Muriel Arnal ONE VOICE
23 rue Chanoine Poupard 44300 Nantes - France
Tél. 02 51 83 18 10
Fax 02 51 83 18 18
www.onevoice-ear.org
Email: muriel.arnal@worldonline.fr
Richard O'Barry
Marine Mammal Specialist
ONE VOICE (France)
7511 SW 59th Place
Miami, Florida 33143 USA
Phone/Fax: 305-668 1619
E-mail: ricobarry@bellsouth.net
www.onevoice-ear.org
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~5~
Act Radio
Be sure to listen to Act, Animal Concerns of Texas with cohosts
Greg Lawson, Steve Best and Elizabeth Walsh tonight, Feb. 22, at 7:30pm
Mountain time. We will be talking about the Bush Administration's plans to
drill for oil in one of the last wilderness grasslands in New Mexico with our
guest Jim Steitz of the Southwest Environmental Center.
Act can be heard on the web with Real Radio, which is a free download.
Click here to listen to Act.
http://www.ktep.org/program_detail.ssd?id=103
El Paso NPR - KTEP 88.5
: National Public Radio for the Southwest
Click here for information on how to get Real Radio and for a link to the
archive of our past shows.
http://utminers.utep.edu/vsep/actradio
ACT Radio
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~6~
Kucinich For President
As a necessary component of the living world, we must extend
compassion to one another and to every living thing. Our mission as human
beings can truly be to elevate this world from a condition of suffering and
cruelty to the planet's creatures, and towards a condition of compassion and
inherent respect. Through elevating the cause of every creature, we elevate our
own humanity.
We lift up the cause of humanity by reaching out and connecting with all things
living. It is our sense of interconnection with all living things that brings
us to respect the rights of animals, that we understand that animals are not to
be lower than, that animals should not have less of a claim to existence, less
of a claim to the possibility of survival, less of a claim to dignity.
Every one of us knows a story of animal cruelty; every one of us knows how in
one way or another official policies have sanctioned cruelty to animals. I will
work to put compassion into action in our policies with respect to animals in
this country and I will work to have America set a higher standard, not only
for this country, but for the world; to make sure that all of God's creatures,
that all animals are given a chance to have dignity in our society and are
given a chance to experience the appreciation they should have as living
beings.
Under my administration, I will include advocacy of animal rights in the
Department of Peace, which I have already proposed to Congress. This
cabinet-level department will work with, and offer an alternative to, the
Defense Department. There have been numerous studies that have suggested a link
between animal cruelty and domestic violence. The Department of Peace will not
only seek to resolve international conflicts in nonviolent means, but also seek
to instill a peaceful paradigm into the hearts of all the people of the world,
so that one day war will be an archaic relic of a time that has passed.
My farm policy will favor independent and family-owned farms. I will support a
national ban on packer ownership of livestock, and introduce numerous new
incentives for farmers to convert to sustainable and organic farming and
ranching techniques. The vision of the meat that we consume coming from happy
and healthy free-range animals will become more of a reality, as opposed to the
inhumane conditions that the often mutated chickens and cows and pigs are
forced to sustain in our current system.
As a member of Congress, I have cosponsored every piece of major animal
protection legislation. In addition, I hold the distinction of being the only
vegan in Congress. I made this lifestyle change many years ago, because I
consider all life on our Earth to be sacred. As a vegan, I choose not to eat
any animals or animal products. I strive to live my life in accordance with my
convictions, and any other choice of diet would defy my ideals, and in my
judgment be hypocritical.
Kucinich for President -
Animal Rights
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/rightsanimal.php
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~7~
Chiseled Sapien
fantast kinship effuses profound import
transcendent primordial foragers gather
when smokey, fired flames were enmist
bearing seeds from freshly torn earth
tall, blonde tornado blows briskly by
re-planting green hearts in soiled muds
reaching into moribund dairied cradles
shaking sleepers consciences awake
seminal strands of cow, pig, fish, bird
escape a carnivorously plagued culture
reclaiming their savory hidden Hesperides
shangrila and eden; Islands of the Blessed.
Written by diana morton 2004
for the wonderful Ingrid Newkirk.
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~8~
Memorable Quote
"Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get
better, it's not."
~ Dr. Seuss, 'The Lorax'
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal Rights
Online=-
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
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