Advertising & the AV front

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

The British Advertising Standards Authority on December 6,
2005 upheld complaints against the Europeans for Medical Progress
anti-vivisection pamphlet Our Children’s Health. The Association of
Medical Research Charities and Research Defence Society argued that
Our Children’s Health includes five misleading claims, such as that
“Treatment of childhood leukemia has improved dramatically, thanks
entirely to ingenious research on cell and tissue cultures–not to
animal experiments.” Europeans for Medical Progress “supported its
claim with examples of research from the early 20th century,” wrote
Guardian science correspondent Alok Jha. “The Advertising Standards
Authority considered that ‘Readers are unlikely to regard research
conducted in the 1940s and 1950s to be recent improvements.'”

The American Association of Equine Practitioners and the
Foundation for Biomedical Research on December 6, 2005 announced at
the AAEP annual convention in Seattle that they will jointly mount a
web site to promote awareness of advances in equine and human health
care resulting from experiments on horses. Washington State
University veterinary clinical sciences chair Rick DeBowes told media
about degenerative conditions often shared by horses and humans. FBR
founder and thoroughbred breeder Frankie Trull said the joint
campaign will include “30-second television public service
announcements narrated by cowboy poet and veterinarian Baxter Black,”
along with “trading cards, bookmarks, and a barn poster,” reported
Kimberly S. Herbert, editor of the online magazine
<www.TheHorse.com>.

Gorilla Foundation settles two of three lawsuits

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

WOODSIDE, Calif.–Associated Press reported on December 1,
2005 that former Gorilla Foundation employees Nancy Alperin, 47,
and Kendra Keller, 48, have settled a lawsuit they jointly filed
in February 2005, claiming they were fired for refusing to expose
their breasts to Koko, the signing gorilla whose care is focus of
the foundation program. Alperin and Keller also contended that they
worked unpaid overtime and were obliged to work amid unsanitary
conditions.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Alperin had
asked for $719,830 and Keller for $366,192. A parallel suit filed by
a third ex-employee, Iris Rivera, 39, is still pending,
Associated Press said.
Alperin and Keller said they were fired one day after
California occupational health and safety inspectors fined the
Gorilla Foundation $300 for violations that were later corrected,
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Patricia Yollin reported.

Congressman calls for Fossey fund audit

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

KIGALI, DULUTH–Responding to concerns expressed in July
2005 by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Representative Jim Oberstar
(D-Minnesota) has asked the U.S. Agency for International Development
to audit the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.
The focal issue appears to be whether the organization has
fulfilled pledges to promote community economic development near the
Karisoke Research Center that the late Dian Fossey founded in Rwanda.
“My office has for two months been heavily investigating the
possible misdirection of federal funds by the Dian Fossey Gorilla
Fund International,” Oberstar in mid-November 2005 told Patrick
Bigabo of the Kigali New Times. Oberstar explained that the terms
of USAid grants to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International require
audits, which have not been presented.
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International president Clare
Richardson told Bigabo that she had presented audits to both Kagame
and USAid in March 2005.

Read more

Self-starters & special project updates

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

The Humane Research Council, recently formed by longtime
Seattle activist Che Green, has published an analytical overview of
more than 25 studies done between 1943 and 2005 on the vegetarianism,
veganism, and meat avoidance among U.S. adults. Studies done since
2000 indicate that from two to six million Americans are actual
vegans and vegetarians, eight to 13 million call themselves
vegetarians, 25 to 33 million eat meat with less than half of their
meals, 46 to 54 million are actively reducing their meat
consumption, and 73 to 105 million eat meatless meals by choice 2-3
times per week. The complete report is available from
<info@humaneresearch.org>.

Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide, formed
in 1990 by then-Secretary of State James A. Baker III and his wife
Susa, in December 2005 honored U.S. consular volunteer Robert
Blumberg of Colombo, Sri Lanka, for responding “to the needs of
lost dogs, cats, and other animals” after the December 26, 2004
Indian Ocean tsunami. “Robert recognized the danger of rabies that
unvaccinated pets posed to the general population,” the award
announcement summarized. He formed a coalition,” initially funded
by ANIMAL PEOPLE, “to vaccinate as many animals as they could.

Read more

Pakistan quake animal victims still need help

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

KARACHI–More than two months after the devastating
earthquake of October 5, 2005, the arrival of winter has made the
plight of animals and displaced humans more desperate than ever in
the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
Snowstorms have meanwhile made delivering aid to the isolated
region more difficult than ever. More than 87,000 humans are known
to have been killed in the earthquake itself. Others, now living in
tents, have died from malnutrition and exposure. As many as 3.5
million people lost their homes. No statistics exist for the toll on
animals. Pastured livestock mostly survived the earthquake, but
thousands lost their caretakers. Refugees released the birds from
the Jalalabad Zoo in Muzaffarabad and moved into the cages, reported
Munir Ahmad of Associated Press.
“I would recommend sending donations to both the World
Society for the Protection of Animals and the Brooke Fund for
Animals,” Pakistan Animal Welfare Society representative Mahera Omar
relayed to ANIMAL PEOPLE through Seattle activist Eileen Weintraub.
“After their initial emergency response,” described in the November
2005 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE, “both organizations have formulated
long term strategies and their veterinarians are in the field
providing veterinary care and arranging for shelter for the animal
victims.

Read more

Animal studies that can’t be exported

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

Some U.S. animal studies are considered too risky to send
abroad–like the biological defense studies to be done at the $167
million Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas
Medical Branch, scheduled to open in 2008.
Such facilities are designed to be ultra-secure, but have had lapses.
New York City attorney Michael C. Carroll argued in his 2004 book Lab
257 – The Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret Plum Island
Germ Laboratory that research accidents may have introduced Lyme
disease and West Nile fever to the U.S.
Whether or not that happened, three lab mice who were
infected with deadly strains of plague as part of a federal
biodefense project disappeared in early September from separate cages
at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey. The loss
was disclosed two weeks later by Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman of the
Newark Star-Ledger.
In January 2005 Boston University was embarrassed by the
disclosure that two researchers were infected by a potential lethal
form of the rabbit-borne disease tularemia in May 2004, and another
in September. Their illnesses were not identified until October.
Boston University reported the cases to city, state, and
federal health agencies, as required, but they were not revealed to
the public until after November 2004 hearings on university plans to
build a “Biosafety Level 4” high-security lab at its South End
medical campus, located amid a densely-populated urban neighborhood.

Latest U.S., U.K., & Down Under lab stats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

Current lab animal use statistics from the U.S., Britain,
Australia, and New Zealand show mixed trends. The total numbers of
animals involved in experiments are up over the past decade, yet
remain well below the reported peaks, and the numbers of animals
used per experiment are still trending down.
The most recent U.S. figures:

Animal Top yr Peak total 2004
Dogs 1979 211,104 64,932
Cats 1974 74,259 23,640
Monkeys & apes 1987 61,392 54,998
Guinea pigs 1985 598,903 244,104
Hamsters 1976 503,590 175,721
Rabbits 1987 554,385 261,573
Farm animals 1991 214,759 105,678
Other tracked 1992 529,308 171,312
All tracked 1985 2,153,787 1,101,958

Read more

Hurricane Katrina & Rita rescuers shift gears from rescue & reunion to rehoming

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

NEW ORLEANS–All animals rescued from the aftermath of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita became eligible for adoption on December
15, 2005, following the expiration of the last mandatory holding
periods prescribed by the Louisiana and Mississipi state
veterinarians.
“We’re setting up two new rescue centers, in New Orleans and
Gulfport,” Best Friends Animal Society president Michael Mountain
told supporters. “Rescue teams will be bringing animals there for an
official 5-day holding period in case the pets still have a local
family. After that, we’ll be driving or flying them to carefully
chosen shelters around the country to be placed in good new loving
homes.
“Best Friends is functioning as the lead agency in this
effort,” Mountain continued. “The Humane Society of the United
States, the American SPCA, and United Animal Nations are helping to
fund the rescue centers. UAN is also providing volunteer support.
The American Humane Association has offered their emergency rescue
truck to do sterilizations if needed. The Helen Woodward Animal
Center will be bringing many of the rescued pets into their
nationwide ‘Home for the Holidays’ adoption drive,” Mountain added.

Read more

British readers send a gift to bile farm bears

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

CHENGDU–An early Christmas present sent
to the Animals Asia Foundation in October 2005 by
the readers of the Western Daily Press in
Bristol, England, bought the December 6, 2005
delivery of a newly liberated bear family of four
to the China Bear Rescue Center near Chengdu.
“As of 6 p.m. today,” Animals Asia
Foundation founder Jill Robinson e-mailed, “we
have four bears settling down in our hospital,
munching on a fresh fruit supper and slurping
shakes made of condensed milk, sugar, blueberry
jam, apples, and pears. One poor love is
blind. Some have cage-bar and stereotypic
scarring.”
Robinson noted that all had wounds in
their stomachs indicative of having been used for
bile collection by the “free drip” method, in
which shunts are implanted to keep their gall
bladders constantly open. This is the most
common method of collecting bile from caged bears
now, superseding the older method of permanent
catheterization.

Read more

1 184 185 186 187 188 648