Fierce whale-hunting opponent Australia said on Friday it was expanding the use of satellite and DNA technology to track and research whales as it seeks to overturn the killing of whales for scientific purposes

Government scientists said the new methods, which use a crossbow and floating dart to tag whales and take a small skin sample, would allow scientists to study stock distribution, the biology and age of whales without killing them.

"Experience has shown that it is not necessary to kill whales to learn about them and this whale tagging programme is an important part of our non-lethal research programme," Environment Minister Ian Campbell said.

Divisions between pro- and anti-whaling countries over the issue of scientific research have deepened in recent years.

Countries are able to hunt whales for scientific purposes under a loophole in the founding constitution of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Australia led a narrow defeat at the IWC's annual meeting in June of Japanese-backed proposals to extend whaling limits, but the issue will again be high on the agenda at the commission's next meeting in the Caribbean in 2006.

Mr Yandle says the hunt does not condone violence.

Other blood sport fans, including parents with children, stood and watched as he was beaten up, ignoring his pleas for help.

One elderly man even laughed as blood poured from Mr Hill's gashed forehead after the beating.

The campaigner - who was with a Daily Mirror investigation team - said: "I pleaded with the attacker to stop but the blows kept on coming. I was punched in the head three times and then kicked in the face twice on the ground."

Their conviction is just the latest chapter in the couple's 41-year record of seizures, convictions and penalties.

In 1964, police removed 56 dogs from Ralph Misener. Details are sketchy, but Mr. Misener, then 41, was convicted of cruelty to animals and obstructing police.

Five years later, he was back in court; this time, sentenced to three months in jail for failing to provide adequate care to animals in breeding operations now known as puppy mills.

More animals were seized from Mr. Misener and his wife in 1976, 1977, 1989, 2001 and, most recently, April 2003.

The 2001 investigation involved 231 dogs. The outcome: short conditional sentences and three years probation.

DEVIOUS dog thieves are breaking pet owners' hearts around Melbourne.

About 30 dogs disappear without trace each week and animal welfare heads fear they have been stolen.
The much-loved mutts are never found, despite being microchipped.

"If they were lost they would eventually turn up in an animal pound or if they were run over, someone would report sighting the body," said Graeme Smith, Lost Dogs' Home head.

"I would say 95 per cent of the dogs that go missing every week without trace have been stolen."

"Pet shop prices for crossbred pups have skyrocketed in five years and a dog that would have cost $200 a few years ago now sells for up to $1000," Dr Smith said.

"I know there are people out there who will do this and sell dogs to laboratories," [Sandra Blavek] said. "I've heard about it before. I came from Virginia and once there was a rash like this there."

Utley said it could be someone just riding around looking for small dogs in yards. Some dogs are stolen for "bait" to train animals used in illegal dog fighting activities or they are taken out of the county and sold to dog breeders, [animal control director Carl] Utley said.

"We need to remind people who let out their animals to watch them because it doesn't take but a matter of minutes for someone to snatch up a dog and take off with it," he said.

...the city has entered another phase in animal rescue: The animals that wanted to be caught, the frightened abandoned pets, are caught. What are left are mostly packs of wary, feral, hungry and sick dogs.

"There is no food; there is no water," he said. "These animals are barely alive. Free-ranging dogs anywhere are a danger to the public. This is a public health issue."

Worse yet, the dogs threaten to disrupt the most grisly aspect of New Orleans' recovery — the hunt for the dead.

"They could potentially attack the cadaver search and rescue dogs," Johnson said.

He and his assistant, Gardiner wildlife biologist Linda Thurston, drove to New Orleans with 40 traps late last week. For the next week, they are staying in a borrowed R.V. parked with a host of others beside a rented, watermelon-green cinderblock warehouse in Algiers, across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans.

Algiers missed the toughest beatings from the storms. Nonetheless, you can see daylight through the roof of the warehouse that now serves as a temporary animal shelter for the animals.

The two brought 40 humane live traps: dog-sized cages baited with food. When a dog steps in for a bite, it depresses a lever that shuts a door behind it.

The feral dog roundup will concentrate on the Ninth Ward, the poor part of New Orleans destroyed by levee breaks. That's where crews continue to find dead; no residents are allowed in at night and there is still no running water, toilets, gas or electricity.

There are also almost no cats.

"A lot of that is because of the dogs," Johnson said.

He and Thurston specialize in the calm capture of wild or feral animals. It's very important, he said, to handle the animals quietly and calmly from the first moment they make contact with people.

These animals haven't been touched by people in more than a month. Since the hurricanes hit, the dogs have been on their own in a crippled city with a sometimes desperate human population for weeks.

"Most of their human encounters have been violent and unfriendly," he said. "We're asking them to work with us."

That first encounter, Johnson said, typically in a cage in an abandoned part of town, is a step toward trusting people again. Anything traumatic reinforces a dog's negative to nonexistent relationship with the people trying to save it.

Often, Thurston said, that first moment brings about "an instant switch."

"They feel safe again," she said. "The tail starts waging."

Dear NRDC Member,

At this moment, the polar bear's Arctic habitat is literally melting away
beneath it due to global warming. If we don't intervene now, these majestic
bears may not survive beyond the next few decades.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/takeaction.asp and send a message urging Interior Secretary Gale Norton to protect polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Global warming has already taken a serious toll on the large expanses of summer sea ice that polar bears depend on for survival. Since 1979, more than 20 percent of the polar ice cap has disappeared. Yet the Bush Administration
refuses to lift a finger to help the polar bear.

Leading scientists now warn that if current rates of global warming continue, the polar bear could face extinction by the end of this century.

To head off this unthinkable tragedy, NRDC is launching a campaign of intense public and courtroom pressure to compel the administration to act. We have just put the Interior Secretary on notice that we will be taking her agency to federal court on behalf of the polar bear.

Please join our effort to protect polar bears by speaking out right now. Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/takeaction.asp and call on the Interior Secretary to take the first step toward ensuring a future for the polar bear by listing it as a threatened species.

Thank you for taking action.

Sincerely,

John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

The St. Petersburg Veterinary Academy this week committed itself to bringing an end to vivisection for educational purposes, becoming the first university in Russia to do so.

“Imagine a rabbit with its head tightly fixed, with drops of new cosmetic products being tested on its eye — this is pure torture but it can be replaced perfectly adequately by a reliable non-animal technique,” she said.

“Students can use models, computer programs or simulators to practice,” said Nick Jukes, head of Interniche (the International Network for Human Education), a UK-based non-profit non-governmental organization represented in over forty countries.

Jukes said there are currently over 500 different techniques that can be used in teaching students that don’t involve killing animals, such as the use of models.

“Models help students to gain confidence when learning basic operations such as giving injections. It’s much more stressful to have to carry on sticking a needle into a live animal until it dies.”

Where real animals are essential, Interniche recommends the use of animals that have died of natural causes. “In every city it’s always possible to find enough animals which have died naturally or have been euthanised,” Jukes said. “As a final step in training, we suggest sending students to veterinary clinics to assist experienced specialists.”

The orangutan is seriously endangered by the dietary habits of his nearest cousin, environmental activists say, explaining that man needs vast quantities of palm oil to fry his greasy foods and has been steadily turning Southeast Asia's forests into palm plantations.

Unlike earlier campaigns, the focus this time is not on stopping deforestation and saving an endangered species but on directly blaming Western consumers for the decimation of orangutan populations.

The campaign argues that if you buy common household items such as crisps, ice cream, detergents, bread, lipstick and soap that contains palm oil, you are helping to drive orangutans to extinction. The campaigners say that as the demand for palm oil grows so does the felling of forests and in turn the destruction of orangutan habitats and exposure of the animal to poachers.

This is not a pro-vegetarian propaganda film, although the troubling revelations certainly inspire a meat-free lifestyle.

This documentary serves up a stockpile of disturbing information from sources on all sides of the cattle fence, including an agricultural research scientist, feedlot operators, an agricultural economist, organic farmers, veterinarians and Health Canada officials.

Among the revelations:

- The vast quantity of antibiotics fed to cattle comes with potential negative effects for humans (such as becoming resistant to antibiotics for human infections).

- Health Canada has OK'd the use of a cancer-causing growth hormone that has long been banned in Europe, and has refused to make public the reasons for this decision.

- Because of mad cow disease concerns, we no longer force cows to eat the remains of other cows, but we still feed them cow blood and other animal remains, which is, of course, an unnatural diet for the animal.

- Certain parts of cows are now considered bio-hazardous products, and food safety agencies warn us to treat ground beef as if it were a toxic product for fear of E. coli bacteria.

The low-budget, straightforward production avoids in-your-face pandering, choosing instead to lay out the details with a simple, no-frills approach. But be warned: much of it isn't pretty.

In the end, the makers of Frankensteer say certified organic beef is the way to go, even if you have to pay an extra few bucks for the cut (better yet, skip the burger altogether).

It's a dangerous game to start calling food gross. One person's dog meat is another's Rocky Mountain oysters, and yet another's haggis."

ABC's news program PRIMETIME will feature a story on the killing of dolphins in Japan and the impacts of the trafficking in live dolphins for aquariums. The segment will include efforts by Earth Island Institute, the Elsa Nature Conservancy (ENC) of Japan, and One Voice, a leading French animal protection organization, to protect the dolphins and stop the annual slaughter.

AIR DATE: October 27, 2005
10 p.m. -- East & West Coast
9 p.m. -- Central & Mountain

Japan's Fisheries Agency allows the slaughter of an estimated 20,000 dolphins annually off their shores. This brutal massacre -- the largest scale dolphin kill in the world -- goes on for six months of every year. Even more shocking, the captive dolphin industry is an accomplice to the kill. Many dolphins are caught in "drive fisheries"; conducted by the fishermen of Taiji and Futo, where whole schools are herded into shallow waters into enclosures. The international aquarium industry pays thousands of dollars for a few of the dolphins used in aquarium shows; the rest are slaughtered and sold on the Japanese market.

The Primetime program also exposes dolphin trafficking operations in the Solomon Islands, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

Earth Island Institute, the Elsa Nature Conservancy (ENC) of Japan, and One Voice -- France have joined together to end the dolphin slaughter.

Dramatic footage of the dolphin slaughter obtained by our coalition will be featured on the show, as well as interviews with activists from our organizations.

MEDIA ALERT: VIDEO FOOTAGE and PHOTOS of the dolphin drive fisheries of Japan is available from Earth Island Institute by calling (415) 788-3666 or faxing (415) 788-7324, or from Sakae Hemmi, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan (81)-298511637. For further information, visit:

www.saveTaijiDolphins.org or

enjoy.pial.jp/~animals/elsa

Copyright 2004, Earth Island Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Jerry Vlasak, a Southern California physician who is spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, also testified Wednesday. Vlasak dismissed the intimidation of Boruchin and others as "getting a little spray paint on the wall."

Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., questioned Vlasak about a statement Vlasak had made defending the assassination of medical researchers. Once again, Vlasak justified violence. For "people who are hurting animals and who will not stop when told to stop," he answered, one option would be murder, a "morally justifiable solution."

If anti-abortion fanatics were behind this vandalism, the Life Sciences saga -- not to mention Vlasak's support for killing medical researchers -- would be the stuff of countless editorials. But because the fanatics say they stand for beagles -- not Bibles -- the cognoscenti barely take notice. They're too busy complaining about how GOP limits to federal funding might crimp research to notice that some zealots advocate killing medical researchers.

If animal-rights nuts can get away with this brand of personal intimidation, extremists of all ideologies will take note. What began in the rat-hugging left will grow on the extreme right and the extreme left.

Bibi sees his company's plight as a "test case for a whole new brand of activism through personal intimidation." And it's winning: Life Sciences Research still remains off the New York Stock Exchange. Terrorism works.

Vlasak testified, "The animal-rights movement has been notoriously nonviolent up to this point."

It sounds as if the days of the friendly spray-painting, bomb-setting, child-porn accuser and club-vandalizing rat-hugger may be over. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

pot-bellied pigs are now legal in the county after a 4-3 vote by the County Commission to exempt the porkers from the county's definition of farm animals.

*snip*

Commission Chairman Ron Getman said the law could set a bad precedent and open the barn doors to other animals in neighborhoods.

"If we exclude pot-bellied pigs, what's next?" Getman asked. He warned that people will ask to have lambs, miniature horses and other animals that are now restricted to agricultural properties as domestic pets.

Although the event is frowned upon in many nations, the 'bucking bronco' displays are popular in America, Canada, Portugal, Poland and Germany where the term 'rodeo' is not clearly defined in the animal protection law.

Despite it seeming harmless, the cattle and horses are often cruelly coerced in to seeming wild through a variety of painful and torturous tricks.

But now, thanks to footage captured by FAACE at recent rodeo events in Germany, the sport could become illegal within a year.

Conservationists believe that some strandings may be caused by military sonar devices that emit sound waves, potentially shattering the ear drums of whales and disorienting them.

Japan hunts pilot whales but overall the species’ population is thought to be abundant and stable.

[Carrie Nahabedian] added, "We're going down a slippery slope. If we're going to look at foie gras, then we should look at a lot of other things. Maybe it moves on to hamburger and maybe it should. We have mad cow [disease] threatening us on every shore. We have the bird flu that is of major concern. Maybe we need to look at everything."

In July 2004, parliament passed a law setting big fines and jail terms for people who abandon pets and since then local governments have added their own animal welfare rules many of which will be difficult to police.

The new Rome by-law requires owners to regularly exercise their dogs, and bans them from docking their pets' tails for aesthetic reasons.

Animal rights groups estimate that around 150,000 pet dogs and 200,000 cats are abandoned in Italy every year.

"It's good to do whatever we can for our animals who in exchange for a little love fill our existence with their attention," said Monica Cirinna, the councilor behind the by-law.

"The civilization of a city can also be measured by this," she told Rome daily Il Messaggero.

France's agriculture ministry on Tuesday ordered farmers to keep poultry indoors in the coastal and eastern regions of France most at risk of catching bird flu through contact with migrating wild birds.

France is Europe's largest poultry producer and, although no case of bird flu has been detected in the country, concern is growing that the spread of the disease to Europe is already hitting sales of chicken, duck and turkey meat.

Fears of bird flu also threaten the foie gras market over the Christmas period, which accounts for 70 per cent of annual sales of the delicacy.

farms with no means to shelter birds indoors would be exempt from the ban and that poultry products could still be marketed as free range, even if affected by the ban.

Ralph Misener, 81, and his wife, Rose, 65, were to be sentenced last Monday after being found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering following a 2003 raid on their Vaughan puppy mill. According to reports, 43 dogs and puppies were found languishing in conditions so fetid that inspectors became physically ill.

But, on the eve of that sentencing, the notorious couple did an 11th-hour dodge -- through a voice message from Ralph Misener to Crown attorney Jason Gorda stating that Rose Misener had admitted herself to a Lindsay-area hospital after supposedly suffering a dizzy spell, and that they therefore had no ride to court.

Instead of ordering a warrant for their immediate arrest, Justice Simon Armstrong gave them a week's leave.

That reprieve ended yesterday.

Ralph Misener is going to jail for six months, and Rose Misener will return to the cottage-style bungalow west of here for 12 months of house arrest.

The law, as it exists today, has no punitive teeth.

"It's frustrating," said SPCA inspector Mike Draper. "And it was frustrating for the judge -- knowing that he was limited in how long he could prohibit them from owning animals.

"Two years is all the current law allows. Just two years."

It is Sunday evening -- 8:50 p.m. -- when the phone is finally answered at the Misener household, hard by the Head Lake Trailer Park, a family-run business west of here where co-owner Sue Nicholson found a Misener-owned dog running loose this summer, its coat filthy and matted.

The phone is answered on the second ring, and it is Rose Misener's voice that comes on the line, but she immediately hands the phone to her husband once she hears who's calling.

"Will the two of you be in court for your sentencing tomorrow?" Ralph Misener is asked.

'JUST WATCH ME'

"Who are you? You're not God," he says. "You're nothing but a two-bit reporter."

The question is repeated.

"It's none of your goddam business," Misener says. "Don't ever call here again. I'll find where you live. I can find you, you know."

"How?" he is asked.

"Just watch me," he replies.

'How can you discuss the Antarctic marine living system without discussing the biggest creature of the lot?'

Senator Brown said Prime Minister John Howard could be ignoring the whales' plight during negotiations for a free trade agreement with Japan.

'That's pretty low politics if that's what the problem for the Australian government is,' he said.

Donald Stiles beamed as his daughter, dressed in hunters' camouflage with a fluorescent orange vest, told how she skipped school to shoot the male bear.

After winning one of 200 bear-hunting permits granted by lottery this year -- and acing the required safety test with a score of 98 -- Sierra recalled being rousted out of bed by her mother at 4:58 a.m., wolfing down a bowl of cereal and heading outside, to a field on her granduncle's farm. They waited two hours in the bush under a steady, cold rain.

"I was dragging," Sierra said.

It got a bit brighter as the sun glowed sullenly through a thick blanket of clouds, she said. Sierra's granduncle, Robert Harvey, saw a dark shadow in the distance, but he didn't know what it was. Her father thought it was a bear.

"I froze up," she recalled. Regaining her composure, Sierra stood behind a tree, waiting until the bear was about 50 yards away, she said. Then she took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The bullet struck the bear behind the shoulder. Unfazed by the rifle's light recoil, she said, she ejected the casing, reloaded and fired another round.

It hit. The bear ran about 150 feet before collapsing.

"I was really, really, really happy," Sierra exclaimed.

ANIMAL rights activists who glorify militant acts against economic targets and laboratories are to face prosecution under terror laws aimed at al-Qaeda supporters.

The move, confirmed last night by Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, means that extremists convicted under the new legislation could be jailed for seven years and suspects held without charge for up to three months.

Mr Clarke was known to be concerned that previous legislation to combat animal rights extremists has so far resulted in only one prosecution.

In July, a new offence of economic sabotage was introduced under the Serious and Organised Crime Act, after pressure from companies involved in Britain’s £3 billion-a-year life sciences industry. However, lawyers had questioned how easy the offence would be to prove and Mr Clarke was thought to have had doubts about its effectiveness.

The new terrorism laws were designed primarily to target the so-called preachers of hate who glorify terrorist attacks. However, the Home Secretary told MPs and peers that animal rights supporters who celebrated militant attacks should also face prosecution.

Speaking to the joint Lords and Commons human rights committee, he said: “I certainly think that animal rights terrorism is something that has to be attacked. Those who argue that committing violent acts of terror to promote the cause of animal rights and who justify it by referring to it would be covered by this legislation.”

Mr Clarke made reference to an attack in July on an Oxford University boathouse which caused an estimated £500,000 worth of damage. The university was targeted because animal rights activists want to stop it from building a new animal research laboratory. Work was halted last year when the main contractor, Montpellier, pulled out after being threatened. It has yet to restart.

Brian Cass, the managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences — Britain’s largest animal research facility, which has suffered a relentless campaign of vandalism and harassment — welcomed the Government’s decision.

Mr Cass, who suffered head injuries when he was attacked by masked animal rights extremists armed with pickaxe handles in 2001, said: “Anything that provides greater opportunities for the police to track down and prosecute people who are carrying out the kind of harassment and intimidation and occasionally violent acts that we’ve seen is very welcome.”

...industry sources last night expressed surprise at the move.

One senior official who was involved in formulating new laws to prevent activists from targeting drug developers and their suppliers, suggested that the proposals would be distracting.

“This is completely at odds with what we were expecting. There is a genuine concern from within the industry that labelling animal extremists as terrorists could get in the way of enforcement. I suspect that the police don’t really want this. We already have appropriate measures to deal with some of the more serious offences that are now being committed in the name of animal rights activism.”

The source added: “Let’s keep this in perspective — I would still rather meet an animal rights campaigner in Oxford Street than a suicide bomber. That is the difference between extremism and terrorism.”

• Simon's Poetry Backwater (w/AR Links)


• AAFL: Farmers, SPCA build bridges at meeting


• AAFL: PETA is right about trophy hunting


• AAFL: Prevent the Horse Slaughter Ban from Being Stripped


• AAFL: High Court strips animal rights activists of assets


• AAFL: Make way for a national pet policy


• VegLA


• Vegan.com: Erik's Diner

According to his writings, possessed by the family of Owen P. Smith, the man who invented the mechanical lure, (which impelled the advent of track racing for greyhounds), said that one of the primary motivations for his invention was to spare the use of live rabbits, which were once coursed by greyhounds in competition.

His invention allowed athletic competition between and among greyhounds, without the need for live game, and on a specially prepared and maintained surface, which was considerably more forgiving than the often rocky or otherwise rugged terrain of the coursing field or hunting grounds.

So a new sport and new business sprung up around the Greyhound, beginning, in earnest, in the early 1930s. States became attracted to it, because of the windfall of taxes and fees they could levy on those who gambled on greyhound racing, those who owned the Racing Greyhounds, and those who owned the racing venues ---- i.e. the racetracks.

If the NRA knows what's best for it, it will come out against the safari hunting of lions, leopards, hippos, zebras, elephants, baboons, cape buffalo, giraffes, crocodiles, wildcats, etc.

All of these African animals have prices on their heads, ranging from a 10-day, $14,500 elephant hunt to a 21-day, $39,800 lion, leopard and buffalo hunt.

Allowing the hunts is the business of Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

But killing the animals for the sake of a trophy head to hang on the wall is the ethical business of U.S. hunters. They should boycott it.

It can be explained to our kids and grandkids why it's acceptable to catch a fish or shoot a deer or a game bird, or why there's nothing wrong with having a pup, kitten or goldfish for a pet.

What our kids don't understand is why a wealthy person wants to use the money to kill an elephant, lion or leopard just for something to brag about.

Nope, it can't be explained and PETA feeds on that.

Dear Eric,

With your help, both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to ban horse slaughter in the United States. All of your great work was essential to these dual victories in Congress.

But that work is in danger of being undone!

We fear that the horse slaughter ban is going to be stripped during final passage of the Agriculture Appropriations bill. We cannot allow this outrageous action -- which would violate the overwhelming majorities in both the House and the Senate. If the horse slaughter ban is dropped, nearly 100,000 horses will be slaughtered for human consumption overseas next year.  

We have only days left before this issue is decided.

Reach for your phone now and call your two U.S. Senators and Representative in Washington, D.C. and urge them to oppose the final Agriculture Appropriations conference report if it doesn't contain the horse slaughter ban.

[Ed. note: I live in Hollywood, CA, so the automated e-mail selected my representatives. You will want to contact your local reps, obviously: Congress / Senate]

Senator Dianne Feinstein
(202) 224-3841
Rep. Henry Waxman
(202) 225-3976
Senator Barbara Boxer
(202) 224-3553

Worried about making a phone call? It's simple! Your call will take no more than two minutes. You will speak to a staff assistant who will take your message and pass it along to your Representative or Senators. 

Unsure what to say? Just follow this script for your phone call:

"Hello, I'm calling from [your town and state] to let you know I've heard that the ban on horse slaughter in the Agriculture Appropriations bill is being stripped by the conference committee. After landslide votes in both House and Senate, that is an outrage. I want [your Representative or Senators' names] to oppose any Agriculture Appropriations conference report that doesn't include the ban on horse slaughter. Thank you."

We need a massive outcry in the halls of Congress immediately if we hope to save our horses. Thank you for your fast action on this critical issue.

Sincerely,
Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States

Copyright © The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
All Rights Reserved.
The Humane Society of the United States
2100 L Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
humanelines@hsus.org
202-452-1100
www.hsus.org

'If he made commitments when running, he has to listen to them,' said Councilman Dennis Zine. 'I think having a dialogue with them is good -- it's when you don't speak to people that it gets worse.'

Deborah Knaan, a city Animal Services commissioner, said she thought it was helpful for Villaraigosa to meet with the activists.

A deputy district attorney who has served on the Animal Services Commission for the last year, Knaan said the activists are a strident minority, but she said many Angelenos are deeply concerned about how the city handles its animal issues and she agreed that too many dogs are euthanized.

"We have a long, long way to go in improving how we do business as a Department of Animal Services in this city," she said.

COMPANIES under pressure from animal rights protesters won a landmark High Court victory yesterday which paves the way for the seizure of activists’ funds.

The unprecedented ruling gave Huntingdon Life Sciences permission to empty the bank account of London Animal Action, heralding the enforcement of a new tactic against the assets owned by protesters.

It is thought to be the first time that the finances of an animal rights organisation have been appropriated by one of its targets.

Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Britain’s largest research laboratory, has suffered relentless intimidation (italics mine).

The child shouldn't have been hunting because the age limit is 10, even with adult supervision, conservation officer Kelly Dahl said.

PORTLAND, ORE. – For years, I've been wondering when pets would enter the realm of policy discussion and political debates. The news media generally treats this subject as a business story because Americans now spend massive amounts of money on pet-related products and services.

Our furry friends are everywhere. Two dogs and a cat are lounging around my home right now. But while their emotional and economic impact on individual households is significant and ongoing, pets have not risen to the level of "hot button issue" on the national scene. No reporter has ever stood up during a presidential debate and said, "Senator, should leash laws be mandatory in every city?" Historically, candidates haven't considered pet owners as a voting bloc worthy of tailored slogans and other special attention.

Hurricane Katrina may have changed everything.

Twenty-five years after Anna Mumford got a job in a slaughterhouse, it's not the smell or the blood that she remembers. It's the fear. She's haunted by the look in the eyes of petrified cows being herded into sheds to be shot in the head.

It's an image that changed her life. Overnight she stopped eating meat, and soon after became a strict vegan, masticating nothing derived from animals and using no animal-based products.

Mumford's story is typical of many who choose to adopt a vegan or vegetarian life-style. It could be described as a "lightbulb" moment - a defining event from which there is no turning back.

Mumford grew up in a typical English farming community and was an unquestioning meat-eater when she made the change.

Like born-again Christians who want to spread the word after they've been "saved", there's a risk that Mumford and her peers could alienate the public they're trying to reach. It's a pitfall she's all too aware of, but insists that no holier-than-thou preaching or shock tactics are being employed in conveying the cruelty-free message.

"I'm not telling people what to do. We believe that the more information someone has, the better their ability to make a decision. They might think they'd like to stop eating meat, but they don't know what to eat, so they just go and buy the meat again.

"It seems we're really on the cusp of something at the moment," Blake says. "The news is appalling with bird flu and everything that's happening with global warming, and people are slowly starting to see the cost of the massive destruction we're causing to the earth.

"We don't have time to sit back and wonder what we're going to do about it. Heart disease, cancer and the obesity epidemic are all linked to a meat-based diet. As people get sicker and fatter, the information about a plant-based diet will gradually get out there."

"We're a middle of the road animal welfare agency," he said. "Animal rights people may say no-one should eat beef or wear leather shoes. We understand that animals are used for work on farms or raised to be eaten. We just ask that when they're slaughtered, it be done humanely, and that they be raised humanely."

The Eastern region is not aggressively pursuing those who violate the law, investigators said. Their audit found that the number of referrals for investigation dropped from 209 annually in 2002 and 2003 to just 82 in 2004.

During those years, the Eastern region issued 38 fines for $88,001, compared to the Western region's 143 fines for $187,060, auditors said.

It also said regional managers declined to act against 126 of 475 violators that were referred for investigation. In the western region, managers declined to act against 18 of 439 violators.

"You need to make the same precautions for your animals that you would be making for yourself," said Wright.

Some hotels are pet friendly, but you may have to drive north, maybe even out of state to find them.

If you can't travel with your pets, you may have to board it.

"The second option for your pet is to go ahead and board it, either a kennel or a vet," said Wright.

You just need to make reservations now, before they fill up.

Ten years ago, such a brazen display of animal cruelty in the name of fashion would have been unthinkable, but supermodels and designers alike now appear to have embraced what was the dirty secret of fashion with gusto.

However, for the masses, wearing fur will never be acceptable. Indeed a recent survey for Cosmopolitan magazine showed that 91 per cent of women will never wear pelts no matter how fashion conscious.

With the Dietitians of Canada reporting that approximately four per cent of adult Canadians are vegetarians, it’s safe to say that a meat-free diet is no longer a lifestyle led only by PETA fanatics. As more and more people grow concerned about nutrition and animal welfare, grocery stores have started to stock more meatless alternatives, and even carnivore havens such as McDonalds and Burger King have added veggie burgers to their menus. But does the inventory of your local pet store meet the demands of the veggie-revolution?

The findings of a recent survey performed by PETA suggest that it isn’t only vegetarians who should be concerned about what they’re feeding their pets. In an analysis of the health histories of 300 dogs that had been switched to a vegetarian diet, it was found that the longer the dog had been meat-free, the fewer health problems the animal experienced.

However, it isn’t necessarily the consumption of meat that’s the problem, but rather the quality. In addition to the same hormones and antibiotics found in meat sold at the grocery store, the meat that goes into the making of commercial pet foods often comes from diseased or dead animals that have been graded as unsuitable for human consumption. Animal by-products are a common ingredient in many brands of pet food and include organs, blood and bone. Even chicken feathers, once hydrolyzed to form an edible jelly, can be included in pet food and listed as “poultry by-products.” Bearing these in mind, feeding soy protein and cereal grains to your cat or dog doesn’t seem quite so unnatural.

While the survey done by PETA does not meet scientific research standards, the anecdotal evidence is promising. The owners of a dog named Bramble, a 27-year-old border collie from Britain that is considered to be the world’s oldest living dog, credit the animal’s longevity to a strict diet of rice, lentils and organic vegetables. While no conclusive studies exist, it is possible that, regardless of their owner’s ethics, pets may benefit from a meat-free diet.

Over the past three decades, [Britain's Ministry of Defense] has found artificial alternatives for army drummers' leopard-skin hats and for the beaver-fur caps worn by Royal Horse Artillery.

In an unusual twist, PETA has become a sort of politically correct fashion consultant to the army, hunting down some faux bearskin and handing over samples to the ministry. Col. Suchanek in March put two hats made from the material atop guards outside Buckingham Palace as part of a two-year trial.

"What's interesting is that the 'kill' shelters say that by not accepting these extra animals, the 'no-kill' shelters are forcing the 'kill' shelters to do the euthanasia for them," said Sarah Cornetto, who is currently studying for her master's of science in Animals and Public Policy at the Cummings Center.

'I think even in best case scenario, there are always going to be a certain number of animals that will find their way to a shelter,' [Annette Rauch] said.

'We just want to minimize that number and try to have people understand that it's a big commitment and it's a lifetime commitment to have a pet,' Rauch said. 'It's not okay to get a cat and two years later treat it like a sweater, where you can get rid of it if you don't like it anymore, and if you want another one you can get it.'

The Vegan Society and a member of the public approached the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about a claim made in an Nestle advertorial on AOL's website.

One paragraph in the advert was headed "Dairy Products" and stated "Essential for healthy bones ...".

Aimed at women and featuring Nestle's Sveltesse Optimise dairy drink complainants objected to the ad, claiming it was misleading because 'it is not necessary to eat dairy products to obtain healthy bones.'

The ASA ruled that the use of the word "essential" implied dairy products were the only source of calcium.

“We concluded that the advertorial was likely to mislead and advised Nestlé to amend the claim,” said the watchdog.

While the inclusion of occasional meat-eaters may rankle some purists, most health experts agree that any diet that emphasizes more vegetables, fruit and whole grains can only be a good thing.

"I figured why eat meat if I don't have to?" the 31-year-old mother of three said recently while shopping at the Newark Natural Foods Cooperative.

More people than ever are asking that same question. According to a 2003 survey from the Vegetarian Resource Group, nearly 3 percent of American adults don't eat meat, poultry or seafood. Other polls find that as many as 10 million Americans claim to be vegetarians -- which can include everything from following a no-meat diet to limiting meat intake to certain types.

Being a vegetarian used to mean enduring suspicious stares and questions, said John Cunningham, consumer research manager for the Vegetarian Resource Group, a Baltimore-based educational nonprofit organization.

But that's changed. Being a vegetarian has taken on a positive connotation, so much so that some meat-eaters go so far as to call themselves "semi-vegetarians." Other meat-eaters look on vegetarians with admiration.

Food companies are responding to customer demands with a wide array of products catering to newfound health consciousness. Sales of vegetarian food products have increased 64 percent since 2000 and now total an estimated $1.5 billion, according to market research by Mintel. From 1992 to 2003, sales of soy-based foods have risen from $300 million to $3.9 billion. Even Burger King has come out with a meatless burger.

There are two primary groups of vegetarians. One is motivated by health, the other by moral issues. Some also point to environmental concerns for a vegetarian diet: Raising meat uses more land and resources than planting crops. Others don't eat meat for religious reasons.

The longer people stick with vegetarianism the more likely they are to accept the moral argument for it, said Dr. Paul Rozin, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Coke and french fries are vegetarian, but that doesn't make them a healthy food choice

"My personal experience has been that this is never all or none," said Eleanor Pella, public health nutrition consultant for the Pennsylvania Department of Health and coordinator of the state's 5-a-Day fruit and vegetables program. "We need to think in a more holistic approach. A little bit of animal is not going to kill you."

This intermingling of the vegetarian and meat-eating worlds is becoming commonplace. Even food co-ops -- vegetarian sanctums that they are -- find themselves selling organic meat products.

"It's become a controversial issue over the years, but to me it's about giving the customers what they want," said Bill Zietlow, general manager of the Newark co-op. The way Zietlow sees it, selling meat is a way to bring more people into the fold and encourage them to eat more organic, healthy foods. As a result, some might make the leap to complete vegetarianism, he said.

Cotugna said vegetarianism is likely to grow. "It's a movement, more than a fad as it may have been at one time," she said.

Author of 'Eternal Treblinka' Returns His Graduate Degrees to Columbia University to Protest Its Horrific Experiments on Animals

This week Charles Patterson, author of 'Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust,' is returning his M.A. in English to Columbia University to protest his alma mater's ongoing mistreatment of animals in its labs. It's the second graduate degree he has returned in 2005. Last spring on the day before the Columbia Commencement Patterson returned his Ph.D. in Religion to the Office of University President Lee Bollinger for the same reason.

(PRWEB) October 18, 2005 -- This week Charles Patterson, author of "Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust," is returning his Master's degree to Columbia University to protest its ongoing mistreatment of animals in its labs.

His M.A. was in English (his concentration was 17th century literature and his advisor was Charles Van Doren). The title of his thesis was "Milton, Dryden and the Epic." It's the second one of his graduate degrees that Patterson is returning in 2005.

On Tuesday, May 17 at 11am--the day before the 251st Columbia Commencement--then Dr. Charles Patterson returned his doctoral degree to the Office of Columbia President Lee Bollinger in Low Library, Room 202, to protest the university's cruelty to animals in its horrific experiments.

Patterson wrote his 320-page doctoral dissertation on "Social Attitudes of Protestant Journals During the Depression of 1893-97" and received his Ph.D. with honors from the Department of Religion in 1970. Since then, he has been a teacher, adjunct professor, therapist, editor, and author of ten books.

His best known book is "Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust" (New York: Lantern Books, 2002), which has now been translated and published in Germany, Italy, Poland, Croatia, and the Czech Republic. The book has also been translated into Hebrew and will soon be published in Israel. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/5/prweb235481.htm

Patterson, who is a writer of Holocaust books and reviews, is upset by the cruelty practiced at Columbia by Professors Mehmet Oz, E. Sander Connolly, Michel Ferin, Raymond Stark, and the rest of the Columbia vivisectors.

"Dr. Josef Mengele, who conducted experiments on Jews and Gypsies at Auschwitz (he had two doctorates, by the way) would have fit in quite nicely at Columbia," says Patterson. "To paraphrase Theodor Adorno, the German Jewish philosopher who fled Nazi Germany, 'Auschwitz begins wherever somebody looks at a Columbia lab and thinks: they're only animals.'"

The title of Patterson's book comes from the Yiddish writer and Nobel Laureate, Isaac Bashevis Singer, to whom the book is dedicated. He was the first major modern author to describe the exploitation and killing of animals in terms of the Holocaust. "In relation to them, all people are Nazis," he wrote, "for animals it is an eternal Treblinka." (Treblinka was the Nazi death camp north of Warsaw.)

Patterson says his book, which examines the common roots of animal and human oppression and the similarities between how the Nazis treated their victims and how our society treats animals, is behind his decision to return his degrees. "I worked hard for my Master's and doctorate," he says, "but the lives of the innocent and helpless are more important than a couple of pieces of paper."

Columbia's attitude toward the exploitation of animals reminds Patterson of what the late AIDS and animal activist Steven Simmons described as the attitude of society as a whole: "Animals are innocent casualties of the world view that asserts that some lives are more valuable than others, that the powerful are entitled to exploit the powerless, and that the weak must be sacrificed for the greater good."

Here is just one very brief glimpse behind the curtain of secrecy at Columbia: "In Columbia's labs, animals are left in cages to die, without veterinary care, after having their eyes removed and clamps applied through their empty eye sockets to restrict the blood supply to their brains."

Patterson believes that one of the most important lessons of the Holocaust is that we must never again remain silent in the face of evil. In the words of Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

After Patterson returned his doctorate to Columbia last spring, he wrote to the members of the Columbia Board of Trustees, but so far neither the university nor its trustees has addressed his concerns.

"Unfortunately, the torture of animals in Columbia's labs seems to be 'eternal.' But perhaps if enough alumni/ae withhold their financial contributions and return their degrees, the university will wake up from its ethical slumber and take action. Had my B.A. been from Columbia College instead of Amherst College, I would return that degree too."

For more information about Columbia's animal experiments visit http://www.columbiacruelty.com

"It's a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done." --Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Below is a sampling of reactions from around the world to Patterson's book:

"The moral challenge posed by Eternal Treblinka turns it into a must for anyone who seeks to delve into the universal lesson of the Holocaust."
--Maariv (Israeli newspaper)

"You must read this carefully documented book."
--La Stampa (Italian national newspaper)

"Important and timely...written with great sensitivity and compassion...I hope that Eternal Treblinka will be widely read."
--Martyrdom and Resistance (Holocaust publication), New York

"Charles Patterson's book will go a long way towards righting the terrible wrongs that human beings, throughout history, have perpetrated on non-human animals. I urge you to read it and think deeply about its important message."
--Dr. Jane Goodall, United Kingdom

"Necessary reading matter...very thought-provoking."
--Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany

"Eternal Treblinka is an eye-opening, thought-provoking book that I highly recommend."
--The Gantseh Megillah, Montreal, Canada

"Patterson's book sheds light on the violence perpetuated every day against animals and humans alike so that we might one day put an end to it."
--Moment ("America's Premier Independent Jewish Magazine")

"A thorough and thought-provoking book"
--Ha'aretz (Israeli newspaper)

"Compelling, controversial, iconoclastic...strongly recommended...a unique contribution."
--Midwest Book Review, USA

"Eternal Treblinka disturbs us because (inevitably though tactfully) it holds up to us, its readers, a clear mirror to look at ourselves anew...Kafka would have applauded Eternal Treblinka. It grips like a thriller."
--The Freethinker, United Kingdom

"...promises to be one of the most influential books of the 21st century."
--Dr. Karen Davis, United Poultry Concerns

"The book that breaks all taboos. The book that fires up controversies all over the world."
--Prijatelji Zivotinja, Zagreb, Croatia

To visit the website featuring Charles Patterson's book, go to http://www.powerfulbook.com

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The Bill, a draft of which was published last year, introduces a duty on those responsible for animals to do all that is reasonable to ensure their welfare.

Many animal welfare groups believe the keeping of large wild animals, such as elephants, in circuses will be ended by the courts if that duty is enforced.

The form in which the Bill has emerged will allow ministers to set statutory codes of conduct, for example for game rearing, at a later date.

Mr Bradshaw said groups such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which have campaigned for a total ban on the keeping of large wild animals in circuses, "need not be too despondent".

He said: ''Much of what they want to achieve will be made possible by the Bill." A new code of conduct governing circuses might take another two or three years but "certain practices could be deemed inimical to good welfare" with immediate effect once the Bill was passed.

Livery yards, pet fairs, pet shops, cat and dog boarding establishments will all require a licence under the Bill, which seeks to modernise powers currently set out in 22 separate Acts of Parliament.

The Bill, which only applies in England and Wales, will ban all mutilation of animals, such as the cropping of dogs' ears, calves' tongues and horses' tails.

However, there will be an exemption for castrating and spaying cats and dogs or ear-tagging cattle.

A creature used to roaming, say, endless grasslands, isn't so happy left to roam somebody's basement.

Wild animals need conditions similar to those they would be accustomed to in the wild, Preiss said. In captivity, "it's no wonder they go a little crazy."

These bison have no fear of people and will stand and stare in curiosity as they are gunned down

What the activists failed (or refused) to understand is that chickens such as these, referred to as ”spent“ hens in the poultry industry, are normally part of the nation's food supply.

Nothing in the poultry science text books indicates that exercise, scratching and pecking for grubs, worms, insects and other tasty morsels enhances egg quality or egg laying ability or the attitude and psyche of the hens.

Normally, sporadic CJD only strikes about one person in a million each year, with an average of just 300 cases per year in the United States, or just over one case a year in Idaho. Over the past two decades, the most cases reported in Idaho in a single year has been three.

Until this year.

Of the nine suspected cases reported so far in 2005, three tested positive for an infectious disease of the nervous system, though more tests are pending to determine if the fatal illness was in fact sporadic CJD. Four apparent victims were buried without autopsies. Two suspected cases tested negative.

Still, federal and state health officials are stopping just short of calling the Idaho cases a "cluster," waiting for final test results from the victims who got autopsies.

The best tool of investigators to pin down the diagnosis -- the autopsy -- is sometimes hard to get, said Tom Shanahan with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Pathologists are often reluctant to perform the procedures, the cost of an autopsy can be high and some families are reluctant to give their consent, officials say.

Joan Kingsford wanted an autopsy done on her husband, but no mortician in the area would agree to handle Alvin's body after his brain cavity had been opened. They feared they would catch the rare disease, Kingsford said.

The killer was brutal, returning again and again with his car to mow down his victims. In a fit of apparent spite, he chased them by foot, then strangled them with his bare hands.

The victims were a flock of pet ducks, a popular attraction at a local car wash in this Silicon Valley town near San Jose, and the outrage has been deep and widespread.

A reward to catch the culprit has grown to $22,000, a hefty sum for an animal cruelty case, as authorities continue to plead for help in apprehending a man whose malice, police worry, could turn to harming people.

''Somebody was obviously very angry," said Campbell Police Captain Russ Patterson. ''This incident could be indicative of something more, perhaps some deep emotional disturbance, some deep, anger-related issues that could lead to something more. And that anger is something that our justice system needs to deal with."

The sentiment has long been echoed by rights groups that have been pressing authorities across the country to take animal cruelty cases more seriously.

''I firmly believe that people who hurt animals will harm people," said Paul Bruce, program coordinator for the West Coast regional office of the Humane Society of the United States, which offers thousands of dollars in reward money every year, including a $2,500 contribution to the Campbell case.

'Hunting has gotten a bad name from people who don't know anything about it. . . .This sounds like a cliche, but the thrill of the hunt is more the thrill of the hunt than it is to kill.'

"Two years ago, I can say, I was against anyone killing a deer. But the deer around here have gotten dangerously abundant. . . . I've almost had wrecks."

When animal-abusers are caught red-handed, there are two routes they take for damage control. First, they try to suppress the evidence. Then, if that doesn't work, they pretend the abuses are isolated incidents. But in this case the evidence is overwhelming, and neither tactic has worked for Covance so far.

Covance sought an injunction to prevent PETA Europe from showing the shocking video footage. The judge dismissed the request, calling the video "highly disturbing" and commenting on the "rough manner in which the animals [are] handled and the bleakness of the surroundings in which they are kept," as matters which "cry out for explanation."

Further, the judge held that since Covance "has fostered a misleading impression," PETA is "entitled to correct it publicly," and then ordered Covance to pay PETA for its legal costs. Covance appealed the judge's decision, but the appellate court described their case as an "uphill task," and Covance finally withdrew its appeal. Covance's censorship attempts in the U.S. also failed. The court decisions to date, unequivocally support PETA.

"We were always trying to make it work, but then we just realized the donations weren't coming in," Tracy said. "I think it is the state of our economy right now."

Tracy said some animals have already gone to a sanctuary in Montana. Others have been placed and are awaiting transportation to locations throughout the East Coast. Mell said only seven roosters have yet to be placed.

"We think we have a good lead on a sanctuary that may want to take them," Mell said.

With Honorary Chairperson James Cromwell, a host of stars for the animals, and other special guests, the GRAND OPENING is THE event for farm animals — and people who love them! The Grand Opening includes two exciting events: Animal Acres Festival and the 1st Annual Country Gala (please reserve your tickets by October 17). Bring your friends and family to this unique festival of food, fun and farmed animals! Join us for a memorable evening of dining and dancing under the stars in the beautiful sanctuary garden courtyard.

The sanctuary has a capacity for up to 250 animals and the event is the beginning of a capital campaign to put the property into the nonprofit group's name.

"We want this to be owned by the animals," she said.

As she led visitors on a tour of the grounds, two 4-month old Jersey bulls mooed from a distant field. As she got closer, accompanied by her sidekick and farm dog Duke, one bull she called "Baby" pushed past the dog to give Bauston a sloppy, wet kiss.

"We rescued them from a stockyard," she said as she stroked his amber fur. "They obviously hadn't had good experiences with people, so we're trying to change that." The second baby bull tried to hide, keeping her distance as Baby stood in the spotlight.

"Our goal in having this sanctuary is to lead by example. People aren't cruel by nature and I actually believe we can change minds by educating them."

A quarter-million dogs and cats were likely left behind in New Orleans as people evacuated during Hurricane Katrina. Only a fraction -- maybe 15,000 -- may have been saved. That's in large part because evacuating animals with their owners was not part of the government emergency response plan.

Some businesses say soon it will be impossible for almost all restaurants not to offer something meatless.

"In Austin, it's very important to have vegetarian items. They're such a huge part of the population. Otherwise, you'll probably fail. Unless, of course, you're a barbecue place," Kerbey Lane employee Joshua Kaplan said.

Kerbey Lane, answering to customer demand, has redone their menu. You can now find exactly which items are vegetarian, and there's no shortage.

"Hummus and tabouli. Our avocado tacos, veggie tacos and veggie lasagna. There's a new bruschetta and garlic break," Kaplan said.

You can even cap off your meal with tofu cheesecake so whether it's chili you love or pepperoni, you can find it meatless.

While most family farmers have been forced by economics to adopt factory farm practices, some farmers, like Harold Brown (aka Farmer Brown) and others in Marin County, are finding ways to make humane farming work.

Brown knows first-hand the effects of factory farming on animals and the environment - he was raised on a cattle farm in southern Michigan and spent half of his life in animal agriculture. Haunted by memories of sending animals to slaughter, Brown struggled with his work and the values he had been taught. "In retrospect it was a kind of death of my spirit, the ability to shut off the emotions and feelings I felt for the animals and replace them with a steely resolve to be a man."

Now, having metamorphosed from a beef farmer to a vegan farm animal advocate, Brown works to encourage farmers to adopt cruelty-free and sustainable farming practices - and to "put the family back in farming." He also appears in the acclaimed Tribe of Heart documentary, "Peaceable Kingdom," in which he shares the powerful story of his transformation.

Schorr said, about two weeks ago she started noticing blood throughout the house and realized it was coming from Spaz. The cat also wasn't eating.

She took the cat to East McKeesport Pet Hospital. The bill was more than she could afford, and the vet staff told Schorr they would hold Spaz until she paid the bill.

"Veterinarians have the right to keep the animal because it's considered property in Pennsylvania, and with it being considered property, it's the equivalent of a CD collection or a couch," Molly Gaussa, animal law attorney, said.

According to Gaussa, the vet can only hold the pet for a reasonable period of time. Ask your vet about their policies.

"I was shocked," Schorr said. "I didn't know pets were considered property, and I've never heard of holding a pet."

Having not heard back from the Interior Department on their initial request, three environmental groups on Wednesday filed a notice to sue the Bush administration in order to get polar bears listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The threat, the groups argued Wednesday and in their first petition last February, is global warming. Many scientists tie manmade emissions of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases to warmer global temperatures, and the United States is the largest emitter of C02.

*snip*

“The polar bears’ habitat is melting right out from under them as Arctic temperatures rise,” said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the three groups. “Their entire lifecycle, from finding food to finding mates, depends on these seas being frozen.”

Wegmans has been bearing the scorn of animal rights protestors in Ithaca, due to the illegal filming of the short documentary Wegmans Cruelty in Wolcott, N.Y., which claimed to expose conditions in Wegmans' laying houses.

Protestors are now gathering weekly at Ithaca's Wegmans. Beeby said she appreciates that Wegmans is selling vegetarian and vegan food, but worries it is more about "tapping into a market" than in treating animals more kindly. Actually, she thinks Wegmans is a "horrible offender of animal rights."

The film shows chickens crammed into battery cages where they can barely move; it also shows some birds trapped in wire, under feeder trays and even in manure pits, where they have no access to food or water.

Those who filmed the documentary broke into Wegmans' laying houses, and, after Wegmans discovered their break-in, the filmakers were arrested and indicted on charges of numerous counts for entering the facility and taking nine hens they believed to be dying (two of which later did die).

Jo Natale, Wegmans' director of Media Relations, said she has seen the documentary.

"Much of the information is inaccurate," she said, adding that in breaking into the laying houses, the protestors posed a biosecurity threat and violated the safety of the hens. "The mortality rate at our farm is less than 8 percent a year. Free range farms usually have a mortality rate of 20 to 40 percent."

When the documentary was released, Wegmans immediately issued a written response. There is a statement on its Web site that reads: "In the end, it was determined there was no evidence of animal abuse. The New York State Police and the Wayne County District Attorney's Office jointly conducted the investigation, and Wegmans fully cooperated."

Beeby does not believe most government institutions fairly assess animal rights, and she sees Wegmans' claim of a bioterrorism threat as a common excuse.

But with current threats such as the avian bird flu now spreading rapidly across Asia, Wegmans keeps increasing its security and limiting the number of people allowed in its laying houses.

Natale and other Wegmans officials state doubts that the entire documentary was even filmed in Wegmans' laying houses. When asked why Wegmans' officials doubt the film's authenticity, Natale simply answered, "Because we know our farms."

Upon further questioning, Natale said she had never personally been inside the laying houses, citing "safety concerns."

Sunday, Oct. 16, will mark the Fifth Annual National Feral Cat Day (NFCD), proclaimed by Alley Cat Allies, a national animal welfare agency.

A major goal of NFCD is to promote the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program as a non-lethal, humane, and cost-effective way to curb the problem of feral cat overpopulation.

BEIJING - A Chinese man who raised bears to tap them for their bile, prized as a traditional medicine in Asia, has been killed and eaten by his animals, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

Six black bears attacked keeper Han Shigen as he was cleaning their pen in the northeastern province of Jilin on Monday, Xinhua said.

"The ill-fated man died on the spot and was eaten up by the ferocious bears," it said, citing a report in the Beijing News.

In practices decried by animal rights groups, bile is extracted through surgically implanted catheters in the bear‘s gall bladders, or by a "free-dripping" technique by which bile drips out through holes opened in the animals‘ abdomens.

More than 200 farms in China keep about 7,000 bears to tap their bile, which traditional Chinese medicine holds can cure fever, liver illness and sore eyes.

Bear farming was far more widespread before the cruelty involved came to light and Beijing introduced regulations to control the industry in 1993.

Animal welfare groups have called on China to completely ban bear farming, arguing that traditional herbal medicines can serve the same purposes as bear bile.

Xinhua said police sent to the scene of Monday‘s killing injected one of the bears with tranquillisers "but failed to tame the mad animal".

Police then threw meat into the bears‘ pen to distract them so they could recover Han‘s remains, it said without elaborating.

Copyright © 2005 Williston Herald

At the heart of being vegan is a kind of compassionate awareness. We share this planet not only with billions of fellow human beings, but also with uncounted billions upon billions of other creatures, with lives, wants, enjoyment and suffering as real as our own. Humans have had and used the power to crowd them out, push them aside, sometimes driving them to extinction, and often, making them into tools for our use, servitors of our desires, food for our tables, clothes for our backs. As vegans, we look, we pay attention, we see the unnecessary suffering imposed on our fellow creatures. We respond in compassion, refusing to pretend that might makes right, refusing to turn away and ignore what we know. The vegan message is ultimately very simple:

Look. Pay attention. See the unnecessary death and suffering. We don’t have to contribute or help to keep it going. We can stop being a part of this. And so, that’s what we try to do.

Robert Bass, Ph.D, teaches in the Department of Philosophy at the University of North Florida. He specializes in ethics and game theory, and is especially interested in the moral questions relating to the environment and our treatment of animals.

All I ask is one thing: Transparency. Show the world what Covance is doing. When teenagers can have web-cams in their bedrooms with constant, real-time, feeds to the internet, it surely would not be difficult to arrange something comparable in all the facilities where Covance houses and tests animals. Let the world see that the company is indeed complying with their legal and moral obligations, and treating the animals with respect and compassion.

Or does Covance have something to hide?

For the Cleveland-based international Christian Vegetarian Association, one place to start is in the beginning, in the first chapter of Genesis. There God is said to speak of an ideal world where grains and fruits are plentiful, and humans are to care for -- rather than eat -- animals.

Fast forward to today, in an era of factory farming that can cause great suffering for animals slaughtered and housed en masse. Some can make a strong case that Jesus would leave meat out of his diet, Christian vegetarians say.

'Christian love should apply to animals as well as humans,' said Dr. Stephen Kaufman, a Northeast Ohio ophthalmologist who is co-chairman of the Christian Vegetarian Association. 'Whatever dominion means, it's not tyranny. It's not cruelty.'

Wintour, dressed in a fur-trimmed black jacket, was hit in the face with a tofu cream pie as she left the Chloe ready-to-wear show in central Paris, members of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said.
It was the second such attack this year on Wintour, a fur supporter decried by animal rights groups as a "pelt pusher".

"Wintour is fur-bearing animals' worst enemy because her magazine continues to feature dozens of pags of pro-fur editorials and advertising each year," PETA campaigner Yvonne Taylor said. "She takes big glossy advertisements for fur and she refuses to run any anti-fur ads, even paid ones, so she's a big fur supporter."

Labels: fashion, fur, tofu

Ms. Saunders also seems to imply that one can care for animals or care for humans. She does not seem to grasp that one can care for both.

A bear that had been caged for 20 years killed its owner and injured his servant in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh city, police said Saturday.

Tran Hoang Loc, 75, was killed instantly when the bear -- one of two he kept to extract and sell their bile -- attacked him on Friday, said a police officer who identified himself only as Truong. Bear bile is used as traditional medicine in parts of Asia.

Loc's servant was injured when he tried to rescue his employer, Truong said.

The female bear lashed out at Loc and threw him to the ground when he opened the cage to feed the animals, Truong said, adding that soldiers had been sent in to shoot both bears.

Loc had raised the bears for 20 years for their bile, which is used in traditional medicine in Vietnam and China and said to cure many ailments. Bear bile farms are illegal in Vietnam, but the government rarely cracks down on them.

An estimated 2,300 to 2,400 bears are held captive for bile in Vietnam.

...the Institute of Primate Research in Nairobi is opening its doors to an expected research exodus. The move angered animal welfare groups, which warn that western scientists must not be allowed to escape the ethical standards of their countries.

In one of these barns, about 2,000 4-day-old bright yellow ducklings are gathered along the far, long wall. The room is warm, the air thick and musky. One dead duckling lies near one of the several water stations. Another onestands apart from the group cheep-cheep-cheeping.

"He's probably blind," Delmas says. "He'll have to be euthanized."

Animal-rights activists who have sued, videotaped and lobbied against Sonoma Foie Gras cite dying ducks as evidence of cruelty, but Gonzalez contends that such deaths are typical of farm life and that Sonoma's mortality rate is less than your average poultry farm.

An adjacent barn holds about 4,000 18-day-old ducks that eat and drink at stations set up around the cavernous space. The air feels dense, buzzing with flies and scented with gaminess and the floor-covering wood shavings.

At this point each duck weighs about 1.65 pounds, Gonzalez says. You can tell the ones that have just eaten by the bulges in their necks.

"They just eat, sleep," Delmas says.

"Play," Gonzalez adds.

Still yellow and fuzzy, these ducks tend to sit and move en masse, like an avian variation on the computer-generated armies of movie epics. After five or six weeks during which they develop their feathers, the ducks are moved outside to roam until they're 12 weeks old. Then comes the force-feeding period known as gavage.

The final two to three weeks of their take place in two adjacent, long barns that are darker and danker than the others. The air is suffused with the pungent aroma of feathers and droppings. Single, hanging, exposed 40-watt bulbs offer dim light. At the barn's far end, large fans blow cool air through the building.

The pens are lined up in four rows, their slatted floors raised about 3 feet from the ground to let the manure fall through. The ducks have some room to maneuver, though they tend to cluster when anyone walks by.

Near the barn's entrance sits a large wheelbarrow filled with corn kernels, which are cleaned, cooked and mixed with corn oil to make the ducks' feed. These ducks are being raised to make Artisan Foie Gras, the business' premium line. The ducks in the second barn produce the standard Sonoma Foie Gras line, and their diet is a combination of ground and whole corn plus water and minerals.

The Sonoma ducks' food is harder to digest but cheaper to make, and the feedings are quicker: 1-2 seconds apiece compared with 5-8 seconds for the Artisan ducks. Hence the Sonoma Foie Gras is less expensive: $26-$31 per pound wholesale vs. $31-$34 per pound for the Artisan.

The two barns' feeding machines differ slightly as well, but the basic principle is the same: sticking a copper tube down a duck's esophagus and filling it to the brim with corn. The feedings take place twice a day, with three workers in each barn taking charge of the gavage.

On this late morning, Vargas is still working his way through the Artisan ducks. He steps from one pen into another and sits on his crate, the copper tube suspended like an oversize dentist's drill. The ducks huddle in a corner.

"They know what's going to happen, and they don't like to be grabbed," Delmas says.

Vargas takes the first one by the neck, points the beak straight up in the air and drops the copper tube down, down, down the duck's throat. The machine, driven by hydraulic pressure, whizzes and spits 400 to 450 grams of feed into the duck's esophagus.

Vargas hoists the copper tube and places the duck to his left, his body separating it from those still to be fed. This duck flaps its wings and looks around.

"You can feel the corn," Delmas says, placing his fingers at the base of the duck's bulging throat. "He is full here" -- he moves his fingers up to the chin -- "to here."

These ducks are about nine days into the gavage. Deeper into the barn reside ducks just a day or two from processing. A few have grown so unsteady that they fall over as they try to walk.

"He is weak, and he is going to go into processing tomorrow," Delmas says of one.

Some also are breathing heavily.

"They are panting," Delmas says. "They're like dogs."

"The panting is a thermal regulation mechanism," Gonzalez says. "They are so fat, so they are hot."

The ducks are processed -- i.e., slaughtered -- when they have reached their maximum weight, usually about 15 pounds. Gonzalez did himself some public-relations damage two years ago when a local TV interviewer asked him what would happen to the ducks if the force-feeding continued indefinitely.

He replied, "Obviously they will die."

Gonzalez complains that his comment was intercut with an animal-rights group's "horror" footage of distressed foie gras ducks. Still, the farmers do have to stop filling those esophagi. "At one time they are going to stop digesting," Delmas says, "so there is no point."

By the time the ducks are killed, their livers have ballooned to an average of 1 1/2 pounds -- or, Gonzalez says, between eight and 10 times their normal size. Last year Sonoma Foie Gras processed 80,000 ducks, and despite the controversy Gonzalez expects this year's total to rise to 90,000 thanks to the dish's increased popularity.

So after all of this, do the ducks suffer, and if so, how much?

They're not saying.

"The birds can't talk," says Elliot Katz, founder of the Mill Valley, Calif.-based In Defense of Animals. "All they can do is waddle and suffer. They don't scream like other animals."

Advocates on either side cite numerous studies, polls and bans (or rescinded bans) that support their positions. There's little clarity in the middle either. This summer the American Veterinary Medical Association rebuffed animal-rights activists' push for a condemnation of such force-feeding, announcing that its review of "science and current production practices" led the group to conclude that "it is not necessary . . . to take a position either for or against foie gras production at this time."

Even Tirath Sandhu, laboratory director for Cornell University's non-political Duck Research Laboratory, can't be definitive. "I don't know whether they are suffering or not," Sandhu says, noting that a French study shows that foie gras ducks don't demonstrate certain hormone-level increases normally associated with stress. But, he adds, "I would be stressed."

Gonzalez doesn't deny that his ducks experience stress -- it's just a matter of degree.

"When they are fat, when they are heavy, obviously the animal is not moving around like if it would be in the orchard when it weighs five less pounds," he says. "No, we are aware that we are demanding an effort from the animal. But that is not exclusive to us doing foie gras, and we are demanding of the animal only in the last three or four days of that two-week period."

Gonzalez has less than seven years to sway the public -- or at least the California legislature -- to his perspective

Plaintiffs said in an advance copy of the suit they unwittingly suffered lactose intolerance for an unspecified time period by buying and drinking milk from several local stores.

*snip*

Lactose intolerance, which affects about 25 percent of the U.S. adult population, is the inability to digest significant amounts of lactose, the main sugar in milk, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Common symptoms include nausea, cramps, bloating, gas and diarrhea, which begin about 30 minutes to two hours after eating or drinking foods containing lactose, NIH said.

Mark Taylor, 38, from Wakefield, West Yorks, is accused of interference with contractual relationships so as to harm an animal research organisation.

This comes under the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

Transporting farm animals for 28 or more hours without rest, food, or water is clearly inhumane, and the USDA's failure to place any time limit whatsoever on truck transport is indefensible. If the USDA doesn't understand the definition of 'truck,' we would be happy to send over a dictionary."

The group claims that each year, millions of animals are denied rest and food, and are injured on longhaul trucking routes. In a report, the group cites instances of "customary cruelties" on animals transported by truck, including:

Dead animals left onboard trucks for more than 30 hours among live animals; animals enduring temperatures exceeding 90 degree temperatures; animals denied food, drinking water and a chance to rest; and animals suffering numerous injuries, including, bruises and abrasions on their bodies.

“Over one million tons of tuna are caught and sold annually compared to only 50,000 tons 50 years ago,” she said.

That has fuelled fears among development experts and marine scientists that tuna — and other fish stocks — may disappear altogether.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday proposed allowing sea otters back into Southern California waters, saying that scrapping the current “no-otter zone” would boost recovery efforts for the threatened species.

The agency also recommended ending an 18-year-old program that sent more than 100 sea otters from the Central Coast to San Nicolas Island, one of the Channel Islands off the Southern California coast, in an unsuccessful attempt to establish a new population.

Asked earlier this year in a poll by the International Food Information Council whether they'd willingly buy meat, milk and eggs that come from clones if the FDA declared them to be safe, 63 percent of consumers said no.

PETA is just a vehicle for the animal rights movement, and the staff is fully aware of this, so there's no such thing as bad press, and there's absolute indifference to folks who don't like the group's tactics. Anything at all that gets PETA in the headlines is a win for the animals.

the truth is, this animal rights thing is a tarpit. The more people are exposed to it, the less comfortable they are with the concept of animal suffering. That's the premise, anyway, and I think it's true.

My first interviewee was Colleen O' Brien, PETA's communications manager.

As bluntly as possible, I asked her about PETA's sending vegetarian chefs to Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas during Bush's August vacation: Do you feel like you made a good return on that investment? After all, PETA is not Morgan Stanley; while it's a $25 million a year operation, it still has to pick its battles.

O' Brien started by spinning me, saying, "Vegetarianism is a cruel-free way of living." She said PETA went into Camp Casey with a non-partisan agenda -- "Those folks were out there, hungry" -- and gave them a vegetarian alternative to eating "decomposing corpses." After I let her go on with this for a while (and yes, putting her quotes in this article is a successful advancement of the animal rights agenda), I tried to bring her back to the issue of whether PETA had mercilessly seized on the fact that hundreds of bored reporters were in Camp Casey, looking to add color to their stories about a poor mother who lost her son in an awful war.

Then she said what I was looking for: "What sets PETA apart from a lot of other groups, is that we have a special relationship with the media. We don't have budgets for the placement of ads like, I suppose, some other groups. We have to do stunts to reach the greatest number of people."

So was the Casey stunt a success? "We had some write-ups," O' Brien said.

Honest Weight Food Co-op is mulling a plan to beef up meat and fish sales. Members will vote on the change later this month.

But last week, some vegetarians stationed themselves outside the Central Avenue store to express opposition and educate shoppers about animal cruelty.

"It is a values issue," said member Cia Bruno. "Organic meat does not translate into humane treatment of animals." She gave out pamphlets, then collected dozens of opposing signatures.

Interrupting an interview, she described a sheep castration to a shopper. Animals feel pain and are routinely mistreated, she said.

"We don't really want to have a corpse market," added Jo Blaine of Albany.

Few local merchants are as careful about what they sell as Honest Weight. Tobacco and alcohol are banned, as are artificial preservatives, food coloring and high fructose corn syrup. The grocery store manual emphasizes respect "for humanity and the earth."

Members, who stock shelves and run registers, also emphatically debate stock choices such as coffee. A store controversy over refined sugar yawned on for months before the sweetener was authorized in 2000.

Back in 1976, 50 like-minded individuals created a buying club that grew into a Quail Street store and moved, in 1995, to 484 Central Ave. with 3,000 members.

"It is a values-oriented business," board president Lynne Lekakis said. "At the co-op, we always talk about values." The goal? Consensus.

But agreement on meat, poultry and fish has proved elusive. Although many co-ops across America now carry meat and fish, two years of talks in Albany failed to reach an agreement.

This week, the board will issue a referendum by mail for working members. Results are expected later this month.

The controversy reveals a related fear that the rise in nonmember (often suburban) shoppers could detach the co-op from its core constituency. Nonmembers account for up to 60 percent of its $4 million annual sales.

Said Bruno: "Are we going to stick to our fundamental values? Or work on demand of the client."

Managers say they need to cultivate new members to stay in business.

Which brings them to: eating meat.

While many longtime customers don't want to shop in the presence of slaughtered animals, many more say they want to buy meat, Lekakis said.

And they don't want to travel to a second store to get it. Why not sell organic meats and eco-friendly fish at Honest Weight?

Despite efforts by animal rights groups who oppose its sale, revenues are up. The Fur Information Council of America reported that sales of fur, and fur-trimmed apparel and accessories, tallied $1.81 billion in 2004, an increase of 1.1 percent from the prior year.

Lucas expects the removal of the sales tax to help increase revenues. With the state sales tax at 6 percent, after all, someone now purchasing a $5,000 mink coat won't have to pay an additional $300 in sales tax.

"It's a lot of money,'' said Lucas, whose furs sell from about $1,000 to about $30,000.

"...people don't feel it's as politically incorrect to buy fur since a lot of designers are showing it on the runways. It gave people a green light to buy fur again.''

The US government on Tuesday said it would tighten its safeguards against the spread of mad cow disease by banning cattle brains and spinal cords from all animal feed instead of just from cattle feed.

Food and Drug Administration officials said the proposed rule would greatly reduce the risk of disease. Consumer groups jeered and found "loopholes big enough to drive a cow through."

The so-called feed rule, first imposed in 1997, already banned the use of cattle parts in making cattle feed. After the first US case of mad cow disease was discovered in December 2003, the FDA began work on revisions. It will accept comments for 75 days and issue a final rule in 2006.

In general, FDA would ban the use in animal feed of brains and spinal cords from older cattle and from uninspected cattle destined for food use.

As a result, FDA said, there was no need for other steps such as barring the use of cattle blood and blood products as feed supplements, the use of restaurant scraps and poultry litter, or requiring feed makers to restrict equipment, or even entire mills, to making feed for specific species.

"This is 90 percent of any infectivity that may be present in an animal," said Steven Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, in explaining why FDA decided to ban use of brains and spinal cords.

Consumer groups said FDA proposed incomplete safeguards. Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest said FDA failed to exclude cattle parts, such as nervous tissue, eyeballs and tonsils, that are banned from the food supply because they can carry mad cow disease.

Consumers Union said it would press for "a complete ban on feeding animals to food animals." A ban that was 90 percent effective "is absolutely not enough," said CU's Jean Halloran.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 5th, Last Chance for Animals and Best Friends will be showcased on the hit television news program A Current Affair.

Last week, the LCA rescue team joined the Best Friends team in Louisiana to aid in the rescue of lost and abandoned animals in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

This special broadcast will feature exclusive video from the rescue and an interview with LCA president and founder, Chris DeRose.

A Current Affair airs airs on Fox 11 at 11pm in Los Angeles and on Fox 5 at 6:30pm in New York.

Please visit A Current Affair's website to find the specific showtimes for your area!

In interviews yesterday, both sides claimed success.

"The program is intact, which for us is a great victory," said Mitch Head, spokesman for United Egg Producers. "The only thing that was in question was the words on the logo itself. That's why we decided, 'Let's change the words, because we don't want a cloud hanging over this.' "

Erica Meier, director of Compassion Over Killing, said the decision was a win for animals and consumers.

"Consumers will be able to make more informed buying choices and won't be duped or deceived into buying eggs that were produced by animal cruelty," she said. "They will more than likely opt for eggs labeled as cage-free or free-range."

Head responded: "We support cage-free eggs as a choice for consumers. We say, let consumers make their own choice. They are making their choice right now, and 98 percent of them are choosing conventional eggs," which are significantly cheaper than free-range eggs.

United Egg Producers has consistently disputed that hens are mistreated. Mr. Head said a national consumer survey done by the producers showed that consumers did not think the label was misleading.

The issue of the Animal Care Certified labeling began in 2002, when the United Egg Producers established a panel of independent scientists to study the conditions under which egg-laying hens were raised. The scientists looked at cage space, food, water and how the hens were transported, among other factors.

The panel, headed by Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of agriculture and natural resources at Michigan State University, came up that year with a set of guidelines. Producers who followed the guidelines could place the Animal Care Certified seal on their egg cartons. Producers submit monthly compliance reports and are audited annually, usually by staff members of the United States Agriculture Department.

Mr. Head said the animal welfare groups' battle against egg producers could cost consumers money. The groups are pushing for eggs to be produced in a cage-free or free-roaming environment. Eggs produced under those conditions cost about $3 a dozen, about three times what eggs produced by conventionally caged chickens cost. Some 98 percent of the eggs that are sold in the United States are cage-produced, Mr. Head said.

The Better Business Bureau agreed with animal-welfare activists that the "Animal Care Certified" seal would mislead shoppers into thinking the farming standards were higher than they were. Public concern about the treatment of livestock has been a nagging issue for farmers, especially in Iowa, the nation's largest producer of pork and eggs.

The "Animal Care Certified" logo first came under scrutiny in June 2003, when Compassion Over Killing filed petitions with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the FTC, as well as other federal agencies, asserting that the logo is misleading. Under the "Animal Care Certified" guidelines, egg producers are permitted to intensively confine hens in "battery cages" so small they can't even spread their wings, among other abuses.

In 2003, and again upon appeal in 2004, the BBB deemed the "Animal Care Certified" logo misleading because it implied a greater level of humane care than is actually the case. Despite these rulings and the BBB's subsequent referral of the matter to FTC for potential legal action against the UEP, the logo continued to appear on cartons across the country-and consumers continued to be deceived.

According to the FTC, by March 31, 2006, the "Animal Care Certified" logo will be gone from grocery store shelves, and consumers can expect to find it replaced with an alternative logo reading "United Egg Producers Certified."

"This victory is important for both animals and consumers," explains COK Executive Director Erica Meier. "While the egg industry's husbandry guidelines still permit routine animal cruelty, at least the new logo will no longer convey a false message of humane animal care. The industry's next step should be to amend its guidelines to prohibit battery cages."

Three animal-rights activists have been indicted and accused of breaking into Wegmans Egg Farm in western New York to film the chickens.

*snip*

The activists are accused of breaking into the grocery chain's hen facility in June 2004 to film the chickens' living conditions. The footage showed up in a short film called, quote, "Wegmans Cruelty."

*snip*

Wegmans has said conditions at the farm are well within the law.

Bussey saw workers dumping a mix of live and dead chickens
into a tractor trailer, and he videotaped them. Three workers and the company
have since been charged with criminal animal abuse.

*snip*

He didn't deny that live chickens were thrown away with dead ones. In the industry, hens that no longer produce eggs are called "spent hens." Moark guidelines call for spent hens to be euthanized in a 55-gallon drum with carbon monoxide. Workers are supposed to watch for chickens that survived the procedure and perform an approved "cervical dislocation." The job fell to a three-man crew hired by Moark, Hudgens said.

"On that particular evening, they just weren't being patient," he said.

Hudgens said the incident and resulting charges have been difficult for him. He said he's always been dedicated to doing things the right way. "Was there a failure that night? Absolutely," he said. "Was there animal abuse? I guess that depends on the definition of animal abuse."

When Joaquin Phoenix walks the line in a Johnny Cash biopic, it will be in plastic cowboy boots.

The moody actor is a staunch animal-rights supporter, and drove the wardrobe folks a little batty by insisting on wearing an entirely “cruelty-free” wardrobe, says a source.

“He refused to wear anything made of leather,” says a source. “So even Johnny Cash’s signature cowboy boots had to be approved by PETA.”

the animal-rights movement is so hate-filled that anonymous activists also harass civilians who are only loosely associated with the research. They don't just go after Wall Street execs, they also pick on paralegals. They don't just harass workers, they also harass their families. Like other terrorists, they apparently figure anyone who is not with them is guilty, and hence deserves punishment.

Letters sent by a group calling themselves the Animal Rights Militia (ARM) to the home addresses of directors said "your family is a target" and they would "suffer the consequences" if they did not comply with a two-week deadline to sever all links.

It emerged last week that directors of Leapfrog Day Nurseries had received similar letters. The company had offered childcare vouchers to staff at HLS - something they have now stopped. Now nine companies - more than half of those targeted - have severed links with HLS.

Many of the firms targeted did not even work directly for HLS - one had simply collected three lorry-loads of rubble from a construction site. Most of the companies are small-scale building contractors in the Peterborough, Huntingdon and Harrogate areas.

The letters, sent to the homes of directors at 17 companies, said: "The company you work for is working with Huntingdon Life Sciences. This is a disgusting and cowardly act. You have a choice. You can walk away from those sick monsters or you can personally face the consequences of your decision. Not only you but your family is a target. Sever your links with HLS within two weeks or get ready for your life and the lives of those you love to become a living hell."

Asked why he and his cohorts willingly risk their own health and safety, his answer was simple: 'Because animals are such an important part of our lives.'

Israel will put an end to the force-feeding of geese for culinary purposes following Agricultural Minister Yisrael Katz's withdrawal of a proposal to the cabinet Sunday that would have made the practice lawful.

In August 2003, the High Court agreed with a petition by Noah, an umbrella organization for animal rights organizations in Israel, that force-feeding geese for the production of foie gras causes unnecessary suffering.

The court ruled that foie gras production violated the Protection of Animals Law, 1994, which prohibits torture, cruelty or abuse to animals.

Pombo’s bill would:

• Eliminate critical habitat. That is area now required to be designated when a species is listed and is protected from adverse actions by federal agencies. Instead, “recovery plans” for species, including designation of habitat, would have to be developed within two years. The recovery plans would not have regulatory force and the habitat would not be protected from federal actions.


• Specify that landowners with development plans are due answers from the interior secretary within 180 days, with a 180-day extension possible, about whether the development would harm protected species. If the government fails to respond in time, the development could go forward. If the government blocks the development, the landowner would be paid the fair market value of the proposed development.


• Give the interior secretary the job of determining what constitutes appropriate scientific data for decision-making under the law.

Livestock. In Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi nearly 825,000 head of cattle and calves and over 33,000 hogs and pigs were located in counties that sustained hurricane force winds. High winds and flooding resulted in losses of building, equipment and some cattle and hogs. Of the 15,000 beef cattle left in St. Bernard Parish area, 10,000 are presumed dead. These lost animals are valued at an estimated at $8 million.

Katrina disrupted broiler production in the Gulf region, but is expected to have limited short- term negative impacts on U.S. broiler production. In Alabama, 60 percent of broiler production is in counties affected by tropical storm winds. In Mississippi, 95 percent of broiler production is in countries that sustained hurricane force winds and the remaining 5 percent is in counties that incurred tropical force winds. An estimated 200,000 chickens were lost in Alabama and over 6 million birds and 2,400 poultry barns were damaged in Mississippi. The 6.2 million broilers lost due to Katrina have an estimated market value of about $15 million. Although Hurricane Katrina has temporarily affected broiler exports, firms will shift exports to other ports, minimizing disorder. In addition, losses of eggs and poults will reduce future broiler production and producers that had their grow-out facilities destroyed will have lost production and incomes until they can be rebuilt.

Dairy. About 60,000 dairy cows were located in counties affected by hurricane force winds and 40,000 were located in counties subjected to tropical storm winds. In Louisiana and Mississippi, over two-thirds of dairy cows were in areas that experienced hurricane-force winds. Many producers suffered damage to buildings and equipment and loss of power, leaving them unable to milk their cows without generators. In addition, the absence of electricity and impassable roads prevented the processing and movement of milk to processing plants. In counties affected by hurricane force winds, lost producer sales of milk could amount to about $3 million per week. In addition, some dairy cows may have also been lost but no estimates are available. The average value of a dairy cow exceeds $1,800. There will also likely be an adverse effect on dairy cow productivity, which will reduce future milk production.