Maine lab bootlegged avian flu virus; ex-execs charged

March 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

BANGOR–The avian flu virus involved was H9N2, not the H5N1
strain now rampaging through Southeast Asia, nor one of the other
deadly H5 or H7 strains.
Still, an avian flu virus smuggling scheme recently exposed
in connection with the multi-count prosecution of three former Maine
Biological Laboratories executives has scared biological security
experts worldwide.
Former MBL chief financial officer Dennis H. Guerrette, 40,
of Brunswick, and former MBL vice president for production Thomas C.
Swieczkowski, 47, of Pittston, pleaded innocent on January 5 to
conspiracy, serving as accessories after the fact to biological
smuggling, and three counts each of mail fraud. Each mail fraud
count carries a penalty of as much as 20 years in prison and a fine
of up to $50,000.
The third ex-MBL executive, Marjorie Evans (whose age was
not stated) was charged with making false statements to investigators
and violating the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act.
Former MBL lab technicians Walter Gogan, 63, and Peggy
Lancaster, 47, in November 2003 pleaded guilty to related charges.
Gogan admitted being an accessory after the fact, which could carry
a sentence of up to 30 months in prison. Lancaster admitted to
ordering staff to falsely label vaccines, carrying a possible
penalty of one year in prison.

Heart jab illegal in New Mexico

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

ALBUQUERQUE–“You asked whether it is a violation of [New
Mexico] anti-cruelty laws to use intracardiac administration of
euthanasia on a conscious animal in an animal shelter or humane
society facility,” attorney general Patricia Madrid wrote to New
Mexico senate president pro tempore Richard M. Romero on December 8,
2003.
“In my judgement,” Mad-rid said, “this procedure–which
causes immediate trauma and death and which is not preceded by
medication that anesthetizes or puts the animal to sleep first–is
unlawful.”
Madrid quoted the applicable law to Romero, underlining the
phrase “tormenting an animal.”
“I am aware,” Madrid wrote, “that my legal opinion may
economically adversely impact the majority of animal shelters and
humane facilities in our state. It is not my intention to overly
burden these facilities or portray them as inhumane institutions.”
Madrid said she would be pleased to support a bill that
specifically bans the so-called “heart jab” method of killing animals.
“We believe a case could be made under the animal cruelty
statute,” clarified Samantha Thompson, spokesperson for Madrid,
speaking to Isabel Sanchez of the Albuquerque Journal. “However, it
is not explicit under the law, nor is there legal precedent.

Tufts veterinary school breaks dogs’ bones, kills the dogs, injures humane reputation

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

GRAFTON, Mass.– Philip C. Kosch, DVM,
dean of the Tufts University School of Veterinary
Medicine, announced by e-mail on January 2 that
researchers had killed the last five of six dogs
whose legs were deliberately broken as part of a
bone-healing study.
One dog had already been euthanized due to a post-surgical infection.
The killings were authorized by the Tufts
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
despite pleas for the dogs’ lives from the New
England Anti-Vivisection Society and
Massachusetts SPCA.
NEAVS and the MSPA learned of the
bone-breaking study only days earlier, after
Center for Animals & Public Policy masters’
degree candidates Tara Turner, Donna Zenko,
Diana Goodrich, and Michelle Johnson finally
realized after months of effort, supported by
more than two dozen classmates, that they would
not be able to save the dogs through internal
channels.

New killer diseases: nature strikes back against factory farming

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

GUANGZHOU, Guang-dong province, China–
Representing the unholy marriage of wildlife
consumption with factory farming, an estimated
10,000 masked palm civets, tanukis, (also
called raccoon dogs), and hog badgers were
sacrificed in the first 10 days of January 2004
for the sins of the meat industry.
Mostly cage-reared from wild-caught
ancestors, the civets, tanukis, and hog
badgers were either drowned in disinfectant or
electrocuted, still in their cages, as China
tried to prevent a recurrence of the Sudden Acute
Respiratory Syndrome outbreak that killed 774
people worldwide in 2003, after killing 142
people in 2002. The animals’ remains were burned.
More than three million chickens, ducks,
geese, and quail were killed elsewhere in
Southeast Asia to try to contain outbreaks of
H5N1, an avian flu virus that can spread
directly to humans. The first known
identification of the outbreak came after the
Taiwan Coast Guard intercepted six ducks after
they were thrown from a mainland Chinese fishing
boat into the water off Kinmen island. The crew
may have been disposing of sick ducks who were
taken to sea as food, but rumors have identified
the incident with everything from exotic animal
smuggling to germ warfare.

Australia pays Eritrea to take sheep–and has a new live transport incident

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

PORTLAND, Australia– The Australian live sheep export trade
had just begun to regroup after the three-month Cormo Express debacle
when economic disaster hit again– induced this time by Animal
Liberation South Australia campaigner Ralph Hahneuser.
The Cormo Express sailed Fremantle with 57,937 sheep on
August 5, bound for Kuwait, where they were to be unloaded and
trucked to Saudi Arabia. Arriving on August 22, the sheep were
refused entry to Kuwait, however, because some had developed scabby
mouth disease en route.
After no other nation would accept the sheep, the Australian
government repurchased the consignment from the Saudi buyer for $4.5
million U.S., halted all further sales of livestock to Saudi Arabia,
and investigated means of slaughtering and disposing of the sheep
short of returning them all to Australia, where the sheep industry
no more wanted them than the Saudis did.

Radio Ethiopia investigates dog-shooting at Bale Mountains National Park

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

ADDIS ABABA–The shooting of homeless
dogs at Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia,
and the history behind it, reported on page one
of the November 2003 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE,
reached the Ethiopian public for the first time
on December 15 via Radio Ethiopia.
“The journalist sent to report what was
going on reported the reality,” e-mailed Homeless
Animal Protection Society cofounder Efrem
Legesse, including “the interviews he got from
us, the local community living around the park,
the park warden, and Ethiopian Wolf Conservation
Program director Stuart Williams. It was
broadcast three times at noon, when most
Ethiopians listen to the news.”

Cat-eaters may get, spread SARS

November 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2003:

GUANGZHOU–Laboratory studies of Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome directed by virologist Albert D.M.E. Osterhaus of the
Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, published in the October 30
edition of the British journal Nature, demonstrate that cats and
ferrets could potentially carry the disease from filthy live markets
to humans.
Osterhaus said his experimental goal was simply to find out
if either cats or ferrets could be used as a laboratory model for
SARS. His findings imply, however, that cats raised for human
consumption may become a SARS vector–especially if the cats are
caged at live markets near whatever as yet unidentified wildlife
species is the primary SARS vector.

Badger culls spread bovine tuberculosis

November 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2003:

LONDON–Ben Bradshaw, Parliamentary under secretary for the
British Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on
November 4 halted five years of reactively killing badgers near
bovine tuberculosis outbreaks because culls at 20 locations produced
a consistent 27% rise in the number of bovine TB cases compared to
the numbers detected at outbreak sites where badgers are not culled.
The $40 million trial cost the lives of 8,000 badgers. Known
to become infected by bovine TB, badgers are blamed by farmers for
spreading it, but the data shows that they spread it less if they
are not hunted.
Two parallel tests continue. One, the control experiment,
involves taking no action against badgers. The other is “proactive
culling,” in which the badger population is eradicated as completely
as possible before bovine TB appears.
Beginning in 1998, each test method was applied uniformly
within a 38-square-mile area. The experiment was not due to end
until 2006, but trial steering group leader John Bourne told news
media that the results from reactive culling were so bad that
continuing to do it was no longer appropriate.

Cat-eaters may get, spread SARS

November 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2003:

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