do you want the bad news first?

[Guest guest]

Just last month, PETA launched an investigation into Crestview Farm, a large

turkey farm in Minnesota, uncovering shocking cruelty to approximately

12-week-old birds. On their video, the farm manager is caught carelessly

wringing the necks of birds and cruelly and ineffectively bludgeoning dozens of

others with what he calls his " killing stick " and a pair of pliers. Many of the

birds do not die immediately and suffer slow and agonizing deaths.

http://www.peta-online.org/nc/vid.html

 

 

On July 6, three hog farm workers were indicted on felony charges for animal

abuse by a North Carolina grand jury. The men, two of whom were in management

positions at Belcross Farm in northeastern North Carolina, were videotaped by an

undercover investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

performing graphic and shocking acts of animal cruelty, including beating downed

pigs with metal bars, bludgeoning pregnant sows with wrenches, and skinning pigs

alive. This first-ever felony judgment coincides with Congress' consideration of

adding millions of taxpayer dollars to aid pork producers.

http://www.meatstinks.com/pigcasevid.html

 

 

Rikki Rocket (Poison drummer, activist) has designed a new website.

http://www.animalcruelty.com/ It's all in Flash. Rikki rocks!

 

 

Harvard Law School will offer an elective class on the topic of animal rights

law and whether fundamental rights should be extended to nonhuman animals. The

class will discuss the mounting scientific realization that animals, such as

chimpanzees, have mental and emotional similarities to humans that entitle them

to humanlike rights. Attorney Steven Wise, who will teach the class next spring,

has taught similar courses at both John Marshall Law School and Vermont Law

School with positive results, and hopes that with Harvard's example, more

schools will follow. Associated Press, Courier Post

 

 

On May 20, the New England Journal of Medicine released a report by Minnesota

researchers that suggests that feeding antibiotics to “farm” animals makes the

medicinal use of the drugs ineffective in meat-eating humans. Dirk Smith of the

Minnesota Department of Health, who led the study, concluded that the

increasingly common practice of giving quinoline-type drugs to cattle, pigs, and

chickens “has created a reservoir” of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotic

medicines. Although most people can recover from antibiotic-resistant infections

quickly and without medical attention, the problem is more serious in Europe and

Asia where the drugs have a longer history of agricultural use, producing more

resistant strains. TIME reports that more than 19 million pounds of antibiotics

are annually fed to U.S. livestock to treat infections and stimulate growth. The

Food and Drug Administration is now crafting regulations requiring

pharmaceutical companies to test the possible effects of agricultural

antibiotics. REUTERS, THE WASHINGTON POST

(Here's something from the Canadian Medical Association Journal

http://www.cma.ca/cmaj/vol-159/issue-9/1129fig1.htm )

 

 

The United States Department of Agriculture denied a citizens petition by Farm

Sanctuary and Michael Baur, a consumer, seeking to prevent livestock too sick to

stand (downers) from entering the human food supply. In a letter to the

petitioners' attorneys, USDA official Daniel L. Engeljohn, Ph.D., wrote that

federal regulations and " past practices clearly provide for the slaughter and

processing of diseased animals for human food. " He maintained that prohibiting

all sick animals from entering the food chain would " have a serious economic

impact " since, for example, " a large percentage of the livers of livestock...are

condemned because of disease conditions. " However, Engeljohn's comments

contradict a 1991 USDA statement asserting that " The Federal Government (sic)

does not allow meat from diseased animals into the food chain. " The petitioners

are considering suing the government to stop downed animals from being

transported and slaughtered for food. FARM SANCTUARY, USDA

http://www.nodowners.org/gallery/index.htm

 

 

Following a meeting with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, officials

at theEnvironmental Protection Agency announced in late April that the EPA would

require fewer animals for the testing of 3,000 “high production volume”

chemicals, many of which have already been known for years to be harmful (see

“High-Production Horror,” Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 12-13). EPA officials agreed to

allow alternatives to animal-based genetic toxicity tests, thus sparing up to

95,000 animals, and to no longer require terrestrial toxicity studies that

involved poisoning birds. Since Vice President Al Gore announced the HPV testing

program last October, PETA has led the push for the use of alternatives in order

to spare the “millions of birds, fish, rabbits, and other animals” it claims

will otherwise be killed in painful and scientifically flawed tests. Although

pleased with the EPA’s stance on certain HPV chemical tests, PETA’s Mary Beth

Sweetland vowed, “We will continue to fight unnecessary animal use in this

program by both the EPA and the chemical companies doing the tests.” PETA

http://www.stophpv.com/

 

 

Thousands of British sheep were exported to France for a Muslim festival in late

March, despite the protests of Carla Lane and other animal advocates who made a

public plea to farmers and exporters " to stop this sick traffic. " During the

1,400-year-old festival, the head of the household sacrifices one animal,

recalling when Allah spared Ibrahim's son, killing a sheep in his place. In

France, Muslims gather by the thousands in open fields and slit the throats of

fully conscious sheep. Although the French government promised in 1997 to outlaw

the slaughter, undercover RSPCA inspectors filmed sheep with British eartags

being butchered at several locations. An estimated 40,000 sheep were killed this

year in the Paris region alone. PA NEWS, THE TIMES

 

 

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology has determined that there is

a growing concern in the United States about the welfare of animals raised for

food. In its report " The Well-Being of Agricultural Animals, " the council (an

association of animal agriculture scientists and professionals) pointed to

pro-animal developments in farming practices in the United Kingdom and the

European Union as a sign that ethics will increasingly influence animal

agriculture production methods in the United States. Apparently unable to

discern the obvious, the council also called for a scientific study to assess

animals' needs, including examinations of social, behavioral, and space

requirements; whether or how animals think or feel; and how the stress of

" production " affects them. Said Stanley E. Curtis, an animal science professor

and co-author of the report, " Obviously, without knowing what indicates animal

well-being, it's hard to make prudent change in husbandry procedures. "

FEEDSTUFFS

 

 

Evans, Inc., a 70-year-old, Chicago-based furrier, announced the closing of nine

Illinois stores in June. The beleaguered company has been in financial decline

for several years, and is downsizing its operation to its two outlets in Texas,

three in Washington, D.C., and its department store boutiques in Marshall

Field's, Bloomingdale's, and Filene's Basement. Sid Doolittle, a Chicago retail

consultant and partner of McMillan/Doolittle, expressed little hope for the

company, saying, " It's an old company with an old strategy, the world has passed

them by. " Saks Fifth Avenue in Santa Barbara, California, has also permanently

closed its in-store fur salon, as reported in a June corporate announcement,

thanks to persistent protests by groups including Animal Emancipation, Inc., and

Animal Defense League of Los Angeles. AE, Chicago Tribune

 

 

California activists made the difference for the live lobsters offered on Taka

Sushi's menu at the restaurant's Gaslamp Quarter location. The San Diego chapter

of Last Chance for Animals received the tip from a concerned local citizen and

contacted the Scripps Institute of Oceanography's crustacean experts and an

investigator at the San Diego Humane Society. Together they confirmed the

practice was not only painful but illegal. When notified, Taka Sushi immediately

withdrew the item from the menu. LCA

 

 

A bill to legalize the sale of dog meat was temporarily withheld by South Korean

lawmakers in May because of protests by animal protection groups, including

International Aid for Korean Animals. The proposed amendment to livestock laws

would subject the production and distribution of dog meat to government

sanitation standards, and allow for the construction of dog slaughterhouses. The

South Korean government banned the sale of dog meat in 1988 based on concerns

about its international image during the Seoul Summer Olympics. However, the ban

is not enforced and dog meat is openly sold and served in South Korea, where it

is considered a delicacy that enhances sexual energy. To urge that the existing

ban be preserved and vigorously enforced, contact President Kim Dae Jung, Blue

House, 1 Saejong-Ro, Chongro-Ku, Seoul, South Korea, 110-760. ASSOCIATED PRESS,

IAKA, KOREA HERALD DAILY NEWS

 

 

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine recently announced victory in

its campaign to end dog labs at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

Responding to an ad placed by the group in the school's newspaper in early 1998

promoting non-animal methods, two medical students obtained PCRM's literature

and video to persuade the physiology department faculty to forego using animal

teaching models. Several months later, the institution joined the ranks of other

enlightened medical schools (including Yale, Stanford, and Columbia) in opting

for humane, high-tech alternatives to live animal labs. GOOD MEDICINE

http://www.pcrm.org/

 

 

In one fell legal swoop, North Carolina outlawed both pigeon shooting contests

and greyhound racing, and upgraded animal cruelty to a felony offense. Working

with state legislators, the Humane Society of the United States, North Carolina

Network for Animals, the Fund for Animals, and local activists amended the

state's existing cruelty statute to include pigeons and to deem malicious animal

abuse a felony (making it the twenty-second state with felony cruelty laws). The

law also preemptively bans live dog races and their simulcasts from occurring in

the state, which the racing industry had long set it sights on. THE DAILY

DISPATCH, HSUS, NCNA

 

 

Did I mention http://www.animalcruelty.com/ ?

[Guest guest]

Hey Anji,

 

I can't say " thanks! " enough times for taking time to reprint stuff like

this and send it off to us. This is an amazing commitment on your behalf!

I was especially pleased with Rikki Rocket;s website ... just remember that

every rose has it's thorn, just like every night has it's dawwaawwn, just

like every cow . . .okay, enough jokes. I was reading a copy of Animal's

Agenda the week before and they had this story on Rikki Rocket! I was blown

away.

 

Anyway, take care, and thank you!

 

Vik