Biomedical research

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:

A George Washington University
research team revealed October 25 in
Science that it recently cloned and
destroyed a number of human embryos,
which were available for experimental use
because they had genetic flaws. It was the
most advanced genetic engineering experi-
ment to date using human tissue. The
announcement came less than a month after
300 scientists gathered in England to discuss
xenography––animal-to-human organ trans-
plants–– made theoretically possible after a
century of failures by implanting human genes
into animals raised as donors, which would
give the organs a human configuration and
help to overcome tissue rejection.

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

Editor’s note: The people grouped under the heading “Animal Collectors,”
below, call themselves animal rescuers. The others, purportedly, sought to make
money. In each case, however, regardless of alleged motive, the pathology and cir
cumstances of the perpetrators seems to be the same. As humane investigator Lewis R.
Plumb of the Promotion of Animal Welfare Society in Paradise, California wrote about
a case he and his wife prosecuted, “When two people are living in a mobile home with
hundreds of dogs, with feces all over the floors and even on the bed, when in one small
container a mother poodle nurses two dead puppies who have been left in the cage,
when three dead puppies are in the freezer next to a frozen turkey and some ice cream,
then you get the idea that it just maybe is not so much criminality as insanity. How
should these people be humanely dealt with? As it is now, each felony cruelty count
under California law carries a maximum penalty of one year is prison, a maximum fine

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Animal Control & Rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

The National Cat Protection Society, a shelter in
Long Beach, California, has paid $26,500 in civil penalties
and costs for providing misleading information about euthana-
sia policies and adoption rates to donors and people who sur-
render cats. NCPS attorney Richard Tanzer denied the organi-
zation had done anything wrong and said the settlement was
reached to avoid the cost of defending itself against the charges,
brought by the Los Angeles County district attorney.
Chows are now responsible for the most dog bites
of any breed in St, Bernard Parish, Louisiana, according to
animal control officer Ceily Trog––10 of 89 total bites,
through the first half of this year. Other Louisiana animal con-
trol departments also report a rise in chow bites.

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BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:

Validation of non-animal tests gains momentum
Significant progress in validating non-animal toxicity tests was announced
during the summer by both the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to
Animal Testing and the Scandinavian Society of Cell Toxicology’s four-year-old
Multicenter Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity Tests program, headquartered in
Sweden. Validation is the process of establishing how test results relate to human health.
The Johns Hopkins team published a “Framework for the Validation and Implementation
of In Vitro Toxicity Tests” simultaneously in four leading scientific journals, hoping to
speed researcher interest, while the Swedish team, somewhat ahead of Johns Hopkins,
now has 90 European in vitro toxicologists working on a variety of tests of their own
design, measuring the toxicity of 50 chemicals with well-known effects on humans.
“Relevance remains the key problem,” John Frazier of the Johns Hopkins team
said. “It was clear from the beginning that the ill-defined nature of the ‘gold standard’ we
are trying to measure with an in vitro test––human toxicity––was going to be difficult.
It’s a moving target. Nobody has come up with a definitive solution.”

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Peggy Larson, DVM and Doctor -of-Law: Committed, compassionate, qualified to castrate or sue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

BURLINGTON, VERMONT––Among the
heroes and heroines of animal protection are ex-vivisectors
turned animal rights advocate, veterinarians who do low-
cost neutering, whistleblowers who challenge the meat
industry, articulate writers and speakers, and attorneys who
secure better humane enforcement.
Tough, skeptical, and able to debate any subject
she addresses, Peggy Larson is all the above and more. Her
37 years of professional research, activism, and advocacy
began with two years of neurophysiologic experiments on
cats at the University of Minnesota in 1956-1957, as one of
the first women to break into an overwhelmingly male-dom-
inated field. This work, she recalls, “was horrible. Succinyl
choline was commonly used at that time, which paralyzes
the cat but does not anesthetize him.”

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

Undercover probe nabs Wisconsin dog dealer; local judge lets him go
Circuit judge Donald Poppy, of
Calumet County, Wisconsin, on June 14
dismissed a felony cruelty charge against
USDA-licensed Class B animal dealer
Ervin Stebane, 72, for tying, shooting,
and disemboweling a dog he sold as meat.
Poppy claimed Wisconsin law allows peo-
ple to kill their own dogs in a humane man-
ner, called the slaughter humane, and
added, “If the legislature intended for peo-
ple not to kill dogs as food, the legislature
should pass such a law.”

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

The premise of the hit film Jurassic Park is that
scientists might some day clone dinosaurs from bits of their
DNA, containing their genetic codes, which may be found
in the bellies of blood-sucking insects whose remains are
preserved in amber. Considered far-fetched by many, that
scenario moved closer to reality in June when a team of
California-based researchers reported in Nature that they
had extracted recognizable DNA segments from a weevil
who became caught in tree resin 120 to 135 million years
ago. The resin harrdened into amber, and was eventually
excavated near Jezzine, Lebanon. Paleontologist Jack
Horner of Montana State University topped that June 30,
announcing that his graduate assistant Mary Schweitzer had
discovered apparent blood cells in the deep interior of a
tyrannosaur bone, where the thickness of the bone protected
them from fossilization and decay. Horner’s team is now
trying to extract DNA from the blood cells.

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WOOFS AND GROWLS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:

USDA-licensed Class B animal dealer Noel
Leach of Chase City, Virginia, facing disciplinary action
for 46 alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act, sued
Friends of Animals on May 24 for purportedly defaming
his character and interfering with his business relation-
ships in connection with bringing many of the alleged vio-
lations to the USDA’s attention. Leach claims FoA under-
cover investigators trespassed on his property while gath-
ering evidence. FoA attorney Herman Kaufman respond-
ed to the suit with a request for dismissal, pointing out
that the action is based on an alleged tort in 1990 for
which the statute of limitations is just two years, and that
the statute of limitations in defamation cases in Virginia,
where the suit was filed, is only one year. Well known to
USDA inspectors, Leach was rapped for six previous
AWA violations in 1983. His primary business is selling
dogs and cats to research labs and dissection supply firms.

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NEW DIRECTION FOR AMERICANS FOR MEDICAL PROGRESS ––OR MORE OF THE SAME?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Americans for Medical Progress has posted a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest
and conviction of whoever vandalized the homes and cars of five federally funded researchers on April 28. Although the names of the researchers were not officially disclosed, one is believed to be Sharon Juliano, whose experiments on cats have been subject of numerous protests held in front of her home and elsewhere in her neighborhood.
AMP was founded by three executives of U.S. Surgical Corporation, specifically to attack the animal
rights movement––and U.S. Surgical, whose laboratory use of dogs has been target of annual demonstrations by Friends of Animals for 13 years, donated $980,000 of the $985,000 AMP raised in 1991. (1992 financial data isn’t yet available.) However, AMP refrained from any mention of animal issues in a May 14 full-page ad in The New York Times, which depicted Marie Curie and suggested that the purpose of the organization is to “bring the story of medical science––and medical heroes––to young Americans.”

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