Animal testing and experimentation

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

Four months after PETA began
a campaign to reduce animal use in connection
with the High Production Volume chemical
safety testing project undertaken by the
Environmental Protection Agency,
Chemical Manufacturers Association, and
Environmental Defense Fund, at urging of
U.S. vice president Albert Gore, PETA
declared on May 4 that “The EPA has conceded
that some of the planned animal tests
were not necessary. At a recent meeting in
Fairfax, Virginia,” PETA said, “EPA officials
announced their intention to remove a
requirement for genetic toxicity tests on animals,
allowing non-animal tests instead. The
EPA also announced at the meeting that it has
agreed to pull requirements for terrestrial toxicity
tests that would have meant intentionally
poisoning birds. A giant rabbit has followed
Gore to 22 cities,” the PETA statement finished,
“with a sign that says ‘Gore: burn
bunnies, lose votes.’”

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KIEV SPA FIGHTS CITY HALL

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

KIEV, Ukraine––The future of animal
control in Kiev might have hinged on the
May 30 city election, but the results––and
consequences for animals––were unknown as
ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press.
Three-year incumbent Oleksandr
Omelchenko reportedly trailed Dynamo Kiev
football club president and member of the
Ukrainian parliament Gregory Surkis by five
percentage points in the last polls before the
vote, with 40% of the electorate undecided.

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BULLFEATHERS & SUCH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

Told that as a shareholder
he would be given three minutes at
the May 5 annual PepsiCo shareholders’
meeting in Purchase, New York,
to tell fellow PepsiCo shareholders
about Pepsi advertising in bullrings,
SHARK founder Steve Hindi allowed
PepsiCo executives to read his speech
in advance, as required, and travelled
from Chicago to the meeting after getting
purported final approval––but on
arrival was told by PepsiCo associate
general counsel Lawrence Dickie that
he would not be allowed in because
PepsiCo had received an anonymous
call which included a bomb threat.
Recounted Hindi, “Dickie said PepsiCo
had ‘consulted the authorities,’ who
agreed I should not attend. I called the
FBI, the New York State Police, and
the White Plains and Harrison police
departments,” which have jurisdiction
in Purchase. “None of them knew anything
whatever about PepsiCo getting a
bomb threat. There was no report on
file. If PepsiCo feels it cannot defend
its relationship with bullfighting,”
Hindi added, “and I agree it cannot, it
should end that relationship. Meanwhile,
PepsiCo shareholders have a
right to know what PepsiCo is doing.
Barring me was just one indefensible
act concocted to cover up another.”

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EQUINES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

PMU mares & foals

Touring western Canada during 1998-1999 to assess recent changes in the pregnant mares’ urine industry, Enzo Giobe and Staci Wilson of the International Generic Horse Association/HorseAid reported on May 22 that the number of active accredited PMU farms has dropped from 553 to 439, and that the number of foals they sell to slaughter each year has fallen from 75,000 to between 37,000 and 43,000, depending on how many foals are used for other purposes.

PMU is the source stock for the Wyeth-Ayrst estrogen drug Premarin. As world demand for estrogen supplements is up, Giobe and Wilson link the decline of PMU production partly to the advent of rival products made from soy, yams, and other non-animal estrogen sources, and partly to growing awareness of how PMU-producing mares and their foals are treated. Premarin has been made since 1942, but the industry was first extensively exposed by A N I M A L PEOPLE in early 1993, based on research by Tom Hughes of the Canadian Farm Animal Concerns Trust in 1991-1992.

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Wildlife management

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

U.S. Representatives Peter
DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Charles Bass ( R –
New Hampshire) announced in late May that
they plan to offer an amendment to the $61 billion
USDA appropriations bill to cut $7 million
from USDA Wildlife Services– – about
what the agency spent in 1997 to kill 82,000
coyotes on behalf of ranchers. DeFazio and
Bass contend the coyote-killing unfairly subsidizes
ranchers who don’t adequately protect
their livestock. A similar DeFazio amendment
cutting $10 million from the Wildlife Services
budget won House approval on first reading in
1998, but was rescinded a day later. Leading
the opposition to the proposed amendment is
House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee
chair Joe Skeen (R-New Mexico), whose
15,000-acre ranch Wildlife Services visited 99
times between October 1991 and July 1996.

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Furriers whistle past the graveyard

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

BEVERLY HILLS, LONDON– –
Furriers rejoiced twice in three days in midMay.
Sixty-four percent of an unusually high
special election turnout in Beverly Hills,
California, on May 12 rejected a proposed
bylaw that fur garments priced at $50 or more
be labeled to tell how the animals whose pelts
they use were killed. Then, in London,
Conservative backbenchers on May 14 “talked
out” a bill which would have bought and
closed the last 11 mink farms in Britain.

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Celestial Seasonings apologizes for poisoning prairie dogs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

BOULDER, Colorado– – Caught
poisoning prairie dogs on its 35-acre plant
site in the Gunbarrel, Colorado, a suburb of
Boulder, the tea maker Celestial Seasonings
endured two weeks of intense e-mail protest
before doing an about-face on May 27.
Wrote Celestial Seasonings president
and CEO Steve Hughes, “The response
we have received from the community,
consumers, our neighbors, and wildlife
advocates has been both overwhelming and
justified. The extent of this response, however,
has paled in comparison to the disappointment
expressed by the passionate and
dedicated employees of Celestial
Seasonings. I am deeply sorry…This is an
act that Celestial Seasonings should not have
done, and will not be involved with from

this point forward.”

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Why I started the Animals Asia Foundation by Jill Robinson

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

It is offensive and incorrect to say
that Asian people don’t care about animals.
They do––which is why I started the Animals
Asia Foundation in August 1998, after working
for 12 years as a consultant in Asia for the
International Fund for Animal Welfare. The
growing number of Asian environmental and
animal welfare groups is a clear indication that
many Asians share the concerns of animal
lovers worldwide.
Asia lacks animal protection legislation
and realistic educational programs, but
what it needs to improve the situation is help
and encouragement rather than condemnation.
Asian governments are generally receptive to
animal welfare initiatives, and many people in
the local community would welcome the
chance to join with foreign organizations in
making a difference.

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LETTERS [June 1999]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

Traditions
On May 17 the Makah
killed an innocent, trusting whale. I
hate the savages who threw the harpoon,
and their slimy white lawyers
––the ones who will get all the
money, while ordinary Native
Americans remain in poverty. But
the studs in the boats and their oily
accomplices are not the only ones
whose hands are bloody.
Every airy-fairy, smugly
right liberal socialist is directly
responsible for 30 years of supporting
the “superior spirituality of
natives” scam. It was so trendy,
you know. And so un-trendy to tell
the truth: that natives are just
humans, warts and all. They never
were superior in any way, at any
time. As among us, a few are vastly
better than the rest, but most are
either ordinary or worse. The superior
ones are almost all women who
have had the courage to tell the truth
about their dangerous male-dominated
society.

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