OT--PITTSBURGH PA--LYnX: VFA's Weekly E-Newsletter! Foie Gras Ban Repealed

[Guest guest]

LYnX The weekly e-newsletter of Voices For Animals of Western PA In this week's edition: - Chicago Foie Gras Ban Repealed!- Finding Humane Solutions for Wildlife..What to Do If You Find an Injured Animal- URGENT: Lab Rats Desperately Need Homes! Save a Life! - Upcoming Action: South Side Park Wildlife Awareness Day- REMINDER: Please Donate Supplies for Tiger Ranch Cats - Animals in the News...Amazon.com Victory & Monkeys Being Developed with Huntington's Disease This issue of Lynx contains a lot of really important information, so please be sure to read down throughout the entire newsletter! Chicago Foie Gras Ban Repealed We unfortunately have some really bad news to share with you this week: the movement to end the

production of foie gras was dealt a significant setback last Wednesday when the ban on the sale of foie gras in Chicago was repealed. Chicago Alderman Thomas M. Tunney, who is a former Illinois Restaurant Association Chair, ramrodded through a motion to have the historic ordinance banning the sale of foie gras in the city repealed, surreptitiously bypassing committee debate and hearings. It is important to note that public input on this repeal was deliberately avoided and hindered, and the voices of opposition such as Alderman Joe Moore, who originally sponsored the ordinance, were purposely silenced. Therefore, this vote does not reflect the will of Chicago citizens, only that of some wealthy

Illinois restaurant owners and their supporters. Read the article in the Chicago Sun-Times for more details about the repeal: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/949483,foieupdate051408.article While this step backwards is disappointing, it is renewing determination to abolish the foie gras industry once and for all, including pushing efforts to introduce a statewide bill to ban the production and sale of foie gras throughout Illinois. News of the repeal only further strengthens VFA’s resolve to eliminate foie gras from the city of Pittsburgh until it cannot be found at a single local store or restaurant. You can help us in tracking all the foie gras-selling establishments down by notifying us whenever you find a Pittsburgh area restaurant or store that still continues to sell this gourmet cruelty. ================= "Hello... VFA...? Help, there's a skunk in my attic!"... Finding The Humane Solution to Wildlife Issues 1) To handle or not to handle? Found a baby cottontail by himself? A cardinal with a broken wing? Don't know what to do about an injured raccoon at the roadside...? It's that time of year when VFA is getting a lot of calls about wildlife, from injured adults to orphaned babies. Below are some useful resources to consult if you do find an animal in an apparently bad condition or situation: WEBSITES: http://www.hsus.org/wildlife/urban_wildlife_our_wild_neighbors/injured_orphaned_wildlife.html http://www.chicagowilderness.org/wildchi/livingwild/wildinjured/index.cfm http://www.wildlifeincrisis.com/faqs/index.htm (features some helpful wildlife "crisis scenarios") LOCAL REHABBERS: If you find an animal or bird who does seem to need treatment, always seek expert advice. VFA recommends two rehabbers in the area, one specialized in wild bird rehab and the other in wildlife in

general. Call the rehabber before you take the animal. Usually you will need to leave a message and will be called back promptly. If there is no apparent injury it may be better to leave the animal/bird, so try to talk to the rehabber before handling in such cases. Gretchen Weslager Windy Ridge Wildlife Refuge 724-455-7176 (mammals, raptors, passerines) Beth McMaster Wild Bird Recovery 724 898

1788 Tip: print these numbers out or store them on your cell phone... These rehabbers have always been there for VFA when we have brought them patients at the busiest times of year. Please consider making a donation to them, even if you don't have an animal to take. Gretchen and Beth work quietly behind the scenes all year round, with little publicity or public recognition, and they are dependent on donations. You can donate funds or supplies via the following web pages: http://www.wildbirdrecovery.org/donate http://www.wrwr.org ("donate" button) Also, VFA is always looking for people who would be willing to occasionally drive wildlife to a rehabber. If you would be willing to respond occasionally to a call (we would not put you in a dangerous situation or bother you three times a week!), please let us know. 2) You love 'em, but you just can't live with 'em... Got squirrels in the attic? Did someone make their home under your porch? Is the local raccoon family giving rave reviews of your neighbor's overflowing garbage can...? There are

always (yes always) ways of dealing with these situations that do not involve trapping and killing the animals concerned. Of course, it's better to take a preventive approach to start with. Seal your garbage can. Patch any holes in your attic. Don't leave cat or dog food outside at night... if you do come across a wildlife-in-house or similar problem though, we will try to help you work it out. Send us an email or leave a message on our voicemail and we will tell you the best way to peacefully resolve the situation with no harm to either party. 3) Let's kill trap-and-kill! VFA is still working on the issue of trapping-and-killing healthy wildlife in the City of Pittsburgh. As some of you know, Laura Simon from

HSUS gave an excellent presentation to City Council and Animal Control officers last Fall, clearly demonstrating how trap-and-kill is not only cruel, but counter-productive to effective rabies control. We are currently awaiting the appointment of a new Bureau Chief for animal-related matters, in the hope that the successful candidate will be one of the people sensitized to the trap-and-kill issue last year. Hopefully, we will then be able to work with the City on promoting an intelligent and humane approach. One way or another, trap-and-kill kills 2000 animals a year in Pittsburgh, and VFA has no intention of dropping the issue. We'll keep you posted. ================= URGENT: 70 Lab Rats Need Homes! The good folks at the Humane League down in Philadelphia have had the blessing/ burden of convincing a nearby University to allow the release/rescue of the rats used in repetitive, pointless classroom psychology experiments. Only this year, there are nearly double as many rats as they've had in previous years- 70 rats, and whoever they can't find homes for will be killed. The past two years they've been fortunate enough - thanks in significant part to your help and compassion - to find homes for all of them. This year, they are all but certain they will not be able to find homes for all 70. Emails to rescue lists and myspace bulletins have gotten them very few offers to

help. So, every home that we can find and every rat who we can adopt out is going to be a life saved. These rats are going to be gassed with carbon monoxide in late June if we have not found homes for them by that time. Again, any rat adopted is literally a life saved as we will not find homes for all of them. As in previous years the rats are all white albino males, very friendly and sociable. **if you live in the upstate NY area and can adopt or foster a rat, please email Amber ASAP at info **if you do not live in the upstate NY area but are still interested in helping in this situation, please email info **for more information in general, visit: http://www.thehumaneleague.com/campaigns/animalrescue.htm ================= South Side Park Wildlife Awareness DayIt's getting warmer outside and more people are flocking to local parks to spend their free time. Unfortunately, some of the free time being spent is harming the wildlife in the area, often unknown to those involved. This is why Voices for

Animals is planning a Wildlife Awareness Day at Southside Riverfront Park. Last year, RIDC (Regional Industrial Development Corporation, Manager of the Technology Drive Business Site on Second Avenue), paid the USDA to kill geese who resided in the park due to them occasionally frequenting the business's property. To our knowledge, this sort of mass killing in this area has not happened again since but it is important that the public do their part. Many people have

been seen feeding these geese and other birds large amounts of bread at the park. Not only does this encourage geese to stick to the area and be in future jeopardy of another "population control" killing, but it is also extremely unhealthy for the geese, whose diet does not naturally consist of processed human foods. Part of the awareness day will be to educate the public about what they can do to help the wildlife in the area and how not to disrupt their natural habitat and behaviors. Another important issue is the amount of fishing going on at the park. Fishing not only causes much needless pain, suffering, and death for fish but also brings harm to many of the other animals living in the area. Voices for Animals investigated the area and photographed multiple regions that were littered with fishing line and other debris left behind. Even more devastating was a seagull found dead in the water

who looks to have died due to the fishing line that was found wrapped around his neck. It is likely that this animal choked to death due to the negligence of those littering in the area. The awareness day will also be dedicated to educating people about littering and solutions to this problem in the area.We have scheduled the South Side Wildlife Awareness Day for June 14th at 1pm at South Side Riverfront Park. Be sure to mark your calendars and to pay attention for reminders and updates about this event. ================= Reminder: Donate Supplies for the Tiger Ranch Cats Don't forget that there is now a drop-off point in Pittsburgh for food and litter donations for the rescued Tiger Ranch cats. Sincere thanks to those of you who already dropped off supplies. We need to keep the momentum going though so keep it coming.... Details are below. Let us know if you have any questions. LOCATION: Construction Junction 214 North

Lexington Street Pittsburgh 15208 (One block down from Penn Avenue, right up the street from East End Food Co-Op) OPENING HOURS Monday through Friday: 8 am - 5 pm Saturday 9 am - 5 pm Sunday: 11 am - 4 pm WISH LIST Quality dry cat food (Iams*, Science Diet, Purina...), any size Canned cat food, any size (no generics please!) Cat litter, any size * One very loyal VFA member emailed

us concerned about seemingly countering the boycott of Iams products. We did debate that issue before sending out the alert, and here is our thinking on it: Firstly, we cannot honestly say that any of the other commonly found "quality" brands of cat food are definitely any "better" than Iams from an ethical standpoint. They all belong to big multinational companies and they are all suspected of engaging in some level of unacceptable animal testing of their products (animal food or human consumer goods). Secondly, we are appealing to the general public here and need to give them options that are readily available at supermarket outlets. Thirdly, the shelter is trying to secure a steady supply of quality foods of the same brands. Some of the cats have a lot of recovering to do and it is helpful to keep them on a stable diet of the same, high quality, protein-rich food. Frankly, however you look at it from an animal rights perspective, this is ethically

shaky ground. However, given all the above factors and the need for a constant supply of quality food over a long period, we opted to use the list provided by the shelter veterinarians "as is." We hope this answers the question. ================= Animals In The NewsIn the past week, animals have appeared in the news in both positive and negative ways. The two stories that will be discussed here show just that. The first is a small victory in terms of abolishing animal fighting and the second is a step in the wrong direction from the scientific community.Animal

Fighting Magazines to be Removed from Amazon.comIf you were one of many who wrote to Amazon.com about their sale of animal fighting paraphernalia, give yourself a pat on the back. The public outcry against this as well as a law suit from HSUS has pushed Amazon.com to stop selling animal fighting magazines. At one point, Amazon.com was claiming a right to sell, right to buy, and freedom of speech in its sale of these products. However, they advertised things like where to buy animals for the fighting ring and so forth- something that goes far beyond freedom of expression. There have been no updates on their sale of foie gras but please keep boycotting them until all animal fighting related items and foie gras items are removed from their site. Read the entire story here: http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/animal_fighting_magazine_to_be_removed_from_amazon_052008.html [amazon.com removes fighting mag] Monkeys Genetically Altered to Have Another Human-Specific DiseaseThis story truly accounts for a terrible "advancement" in animal research. Scientists have recently genetically altered monkeys to develop Huntington's Disease-a genetic disorder that is not found in monkeys. This is unethical and useless for multiple reasons. First off, Huntington's is genetic, so these experiments would not lead to a "cure" for the disease because it would be similar to finding a "cure" for having green eyes. The article even lists the disease as

"incurable and hereditary." It states that the scientists' reason for the research is to "gain a deeper understanding of the fatal ailment and uncover clues to possible new treatments." However, this reasoning is flawed. Because these animals do not normally get Huntington's disease, they are a poor model for gaining a greater understanding of it. Many of these animals will be genetically altered to develop a disease that they could not have developed if it had not been given to them by humans. They claim that the primate model is accurate but they also claimed that the rodent model was accurate [1]- a statement which doesn't seem to hold true with them today [2]. Many animals will suffer and die from this disease for faulty science. What is even more frightening is that the scientists involved are praising the "advancement" stating that it could pave the way for genetically infusing animals with other diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer’s. This is

extremely negative considering that previous animal research on Parkinson's yielded messy results because many of the species of animals used could not get the disease [3]. You will not find this in most reports of MPTP induced Parkinson's disease because it was a mistake on the researchers' part. However, it was induced in primates with the desired results and the animals suffered greatly [4].One would think that the idea of giving an animal a disease by such intensive and invasive means would yield results that were inaccurate. This is the reason why any human treatment "advances" arising from nonhuman animal research must go through multiple longitudinal human studies before reaching the market. But, there is no doubt that ethically, this research development is nothing short of torture. Read the entire article here: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=monkeys-genetically-modif [1] Transgenetic Rat as a Model for Human Huntigdon's. United States Patent 20070044162. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0044162.html [2] In the past, researchers have used transgenic mouse models to study the disease,' said lead researcher Dr. Anthony Chan. 'These models do not completely parallel

the brain changes and behavioral features observed in humans with HD, thus making the development of a transgenic (rhesus macaques) primate model critical to currently treating and ultimately preventing the disease."http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/05/19/huntingtons_disease_animal_model_created/6258/[3] Langston, J.W. & Palfremon, J. (1996). the Case of the Frozen Addicts:How the solution of an extraordinary medical mystery spawned a revolution in the understanding and treatment of Parkinson's. 309.[4] MPTP and Drug-Induced Parkinson's. http://www.parkinsonswa.org.au/documents/Sheet%201.7%20MPTP%20and%20Drug-Induced%20Parkinson's.pdf UPCOMING EVENTS: Saturday, June 14th, 1:00 PM: South Side Park Wildlife Awareness Day, South Side River Front Park (stay tuned for further details)Sunday, June 22nd, 12 PM-6 PM: VFA Tabling at PrideFest, Liberty Avenue between 7th & 10th Street, Downtown ------------------------- Voices for Animals of Western Pennsylvania Post Office Box 7181 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 1-877-321-4VFA voicesforanimals www.vfa-online.org www.pghfoiegras.com www.pefinder.com/shelters/PA360.html