AGRICULTURE

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

Famine driven by drought is devastating the

Tarahumara tribe, of Chihuahua state, Mexico––a shy people

known for vegetarianism, endurance running, and such usually

good health that their language reportedly lacks a word for malnu-

trition. Their plight became known when health officials reported

in late October that Tarahumara women––who hadn’t eaten in

days––were carrying starving and dehydrated babies out of the

mountains to find help, walking up to five hours to reach a clinic.

At least 34 Tarahumara babies died at clinics during September

and October. The toll in remote villages is believed to be far high-

er. The crisis was apparently aggravated by ranchers whose cattle

drained local water sources before more than 100,000 head suc-

cumbed. Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari finally

promised food aid on October 27, but refused the appeal of

Chihuahua governor Francisco Barrios Terrazas, a member of the

opposition, for disaster relief funds. While the politicos dithered,

photographer Ismael Villalobos, 60, trucked tons of rice and

beans to the Tarahumara, gifts from a Mexico City women’s group.

ANIMAL HEALTH

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

India on November 4 declared itself free of

plague, two months after a bubonic plague outbreak hit the

Beed district of Maharashtra state while pneumonic plague

broke out in the city of Surat. The last Beed case was

reported on October 2; the last Surat case was diagnosed

three weeks later. A bubonic plague outbreak possibly

related to the one in Beed raged on in Matabeleland

province, Zimbabwe, killing 21 people and afflicting more

than 200 by November 10. Dr. Lalit Dar and staff at the

India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi meanwhile

questioned whether the diseases in question really were

plague in a letter to The Lancet, a prestigious British med-

ical journal. They noted that while most of the victims had

plague-like symptoms, only 272 out of 6,000 reported cases

were unequivocally identified, and the death toll was unex-

pectedly low. “Even within families more than one case

was uncommon,” they wrote. “The diagnosis of plague

should definitely be confirmed by culture. Conditions that

need to be excluded are viral infections such as hantavirus

pulmonary syndrome, meliodisis and leptospirosis.” The

latter three diseases, like plague, are often spread by infect-

ed rodents and tend to follow flooding, which hit western

India just before the first plague cases occurred.

Feds probe possible widespread use: Vealers caught using illegal synthetic steroids on calves

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

SAN FRANCISCO, California––Search-and-seizure affidavits filed by federal inspectors after a series of raids on

veal industry feed formula suppliers hint at widespread use of illegal drugs, including several which have been identified as

carcinogens in laboratory animals and one, clenbuterol, which is considered “acutely poisonous” to human beings, according

to Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges executive director Lester Crawford, who was formerly head of meat

inspection for the USDA.

Animals in laboratories

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

A Call for Public Forums on the

Use of Animals in Research and Education,

issued by Jane Goodall and the Green World

Center, asks university students and faculty to

“learn about and discuss animal experimenta-

tion and its actual practice in your own com-

munity,” emphasizing exchange of perspec-

tives over confrontation. “One of the greatest

barriers to social change is the confrontational

approach,” Goodall concluded. “Many areas

of discussion do not resolve neatly into black

and white. Learning from and reasoning with

those who do not share our views is one way

we grow as people.” Mailed to university

newspapers across the U.S. circa November 1,

the call was ratified in a follow-up mailing by

the American Anti-Vivisection Society.

Research

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The National Institutes of Health Human

Embryo Research Panel, after eight months of

study, on September 29 endorsed federal funding for

biomedical research on human embryos outside the

womb during the first 14 days after conception. The

panel recommended against the creation of embryos

specifically for research, however, except to research

matters directly pertaining to fertilization.

The Environmental Protection Agency

and the National Institutes of Environmental

Health Sciences on September 22 hosted a gathering

of 60 scientists to discuss protocols for reducing the

number of animals used in testing the cancer-causing

potential of chemicals. The goal is to identify car-

cinogenicity from use of one sex and one species,

instead of the present minimum of two to achieve rec-

ognized findings.

ANIMAL HEALTH

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

British link veal and brain damage

Rejected by most veterinary authorities, the hypothesis

advanced by Cornell veterinary student Michael Greger via Farm

Sanctuary that there may be a link between bovine spongiform

encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease gained slightly

more weight on October 7 when the United Kingdom CJD

Surveillance Unit reported that, “A study of the eating habits of

people with CJD showed some statistical associations with the eat-

ing of various meat products, particularly veal.” Veal calves are

fed milk replacers which contain processed slaughterhouse offal,

and therefore could sometimes contain the remains of animals who

had either BSE or scrapie, a similar disease found in sheep. CJD

appears some years after infection, and like BSE, leads to paraly-

sis, blindness, dementia, and death. An ongoing BSE epidemic,

now waning, has hit more than 130,000 cattle in Britain since

1986. CJD is comparatively rare, killing 40-50 Britons a year.

Diet & Health

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Proponents of a vegetarian diet

are concerned that the public will be misled

by recent reports that 38 residents of

Limone, Italy, have a unique genetic resis-

tance to cholesterol buildup that medical

science hopes to eventually synthesize as a

treatment for clogged arteries. The treat-

ment, if and when perfected, will not be

cheap ––and as with other diseases, med-

ical authorities agree that an ounce of pre-

vention is still worth a pound of cure.

Dr. Harvey Risch of Yale

University reported in the September 21

issue of the Journal of the National Cancer

Institute that eating 10 grams of saturated

fat per day increases a woman’s risk of

ovarian cancer by 20%; eating two servings

of vegetables a day lowers the risk by an

equal factor. Ovarian cancer hits 20,000

American women per year, killing 12,500

of them.

Horses

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Premarin maker on defensive

BRANDON, Manitoba––Wyeth-Ayerst is

worried about consumer response to the disclosure by

the Farm Animal Concerns Trust and ANIMAL

PEOPLE in early 1993 that its top-selling drug, the

estrogen supplement Premarin, comes from pregnant

mares’ urine, or PMU; that the great majority of the

75,000-plus foals born to the mares each year are sold

to slaughter; and that vegetable-based alternatives are

readily available. Premarin is now under boycott by

most major animal protection groups.

Wyeth-Ayerst now answers letters of protest

with copies of a report entitled Care and Management

of Horses at PMU Production Facilities, by consul-

tant Shauna Spurlock, DVM, who argues that the

ranchers, “place their foals as they always have. The

type of foals produced run the gambit from purebred

thoroughbred foals intended for the race track, to

quarter horse foals destined for the show ring, to draft

foals that may be used for light recreational work.

AGRICULTURE

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Agriculture secretary Mike Espy

resigned on October 4, effective December 31,

amid allegations that while moving to more closely

regulate red meat sanitation, he improperly

accepted gifts and favors from Tyson Foods, of

Arkansas, the biggest U.S. poultry producer.

Grazing on public lands, reports the

National Wildlife Federation, has contributed to

the decline of at least 346 species of fish, birds,

and mammals that are either officially endangered

or have been nominated for endangered status.

USDA researcher Robert Wall predicts

that a way to make cows’ milk simulate the health

benefits of breastfeeding will be developed soon by

inserting human genes into cows. The first obsta-

cle will be finding a way to create a transgenic cow

for less than the present cost of $300,000 per head.

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