Whale-meat and brain damage

September 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A comparison of the pilot whale

consumption of pregnant Faroese women

with amounts of methyl mercury found in

umbilical cords and maternal hair has

discovered that those who eat whale meat

often pass mercury to their fetuses at lev-

els which may cause brain damage.

Conducted by biochemists Christine

Dalgard, Philippe Grandjean, Poul

Jergensen, and Pal Weihe, of Odense

University, Denmark, the study was

published in the June/July 1994 issue of

Environmental Health Perspectives.

Ignoring the international ban on com-

mercial whaling, Faroe Islanders kill

circa 2,000 whales a year. The Faroes are

a Danish protectorate.

Diet & Health

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

A 10-month study published in the

June issue of Cancer Causes and Control, the

journal of the Harvard School of Public Health,

found that children who eat more than 12 hot dogs

a month whose fathers have a history of similar

consumption have nine times the normal risk of

leukemia. The study compared 232 leukemia

patients under age 10 with a similar group of

leukemia-free children. Wrote Dr. John Peters,

who led the University of Southern California

study team, “These findings, if correct, suggest

that reduced consumption of hot dogs could

reduce leukemia risks, especially in those con-

suming the most. Until further studies are com-

pleted and this issue becomes clearer, it may be

prudent for parents to consider reducing consump-

tion of hot dogs for themselves and their children

where consumption frequencies are high.” About

2,600 children a year get leukemia; 72% survive.

Laboratory animals: rodent and bird verdict reversed

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The U.S. Court of Appeals in late

May struck down a 1992 federal court ruling that

Congress meant the Animal Welfare Act to

apply to rats, mice, and birds, exempted by the

USDA since 1971. Declining to hear arguments,

the court held that the Humane Society of the

U.S. had no standing to bring the case because it

could not prove it is harmed by the USDA policy

in question. ““We intend to petition the Appeals

Court for a rehearing based on errors in the rul-

ing,” said Martin Stephens, Humane Society of

the U.S. vice president for laboratory animal

programs. Stephens dismissed the precedential

import of the verdict on standing, but Valerie

Stanley of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the

lead attorney in the case, told the Chronicle of

Higher Education that it means, in effect, that

no animal protection organization may sue to

protect laboratory animals.

Vets talk about low-cost neutering: PART TWO OF A NEW NATIONAL STUDY

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

PORT WASHINGTON, New York––The issue is money. Most veterinarians

want to be paid more for neutering cats and dogs, most pet keepers think they already pay too

much, and most animal control and rescue workers feel caught in the squeeze, trying to talk

veterinarians into neutering for less in order to convince the public to neuter as many animals

as is necessary to stop population control killing.

That’s no news to anyone who reads ANIMAL PEOPLE. The real news, emerg-

ing from a national survey done by ANIMAL PEOPLE for the Spay USA program of the

North Shore Animal League, is that much of the friction could be reduced or ended.

Horses

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Responding to an appeal from Brigitte Bardot,

Belgian interior minister Louis Tobback on June 13 banned the

controversial Krombeke trap-horse race––as well as any demon-

strations that might be held to gloat over the victory. Held on

slippery cobblestone streets, the race resulted in frequent injuries

to horses and drivers. Tobback, who said he’d always dreamed

of getting a letter from Bardot, last year banned a similar race at

nearby Sint-Eloois-Winkel.

Six-time Canadian Olympic equestrian Ian Millar,

of Perth, Ontario, on May 30 announced the retirement of Big

Ben, the 18-year-old Belgian he rode in three Olympics. Ben,

whom Millar began jumping in 1983, was the first North

American show jumper to win more than $1.5 million, achieving

40 grand prix victories; led Canada to the 1987 Pan American

Games gold medal; and won back-to-back World Cups.

Birds

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Bald eagle recovery in New

York and New Jersey reached milestones

this spring, as the former had 24 nesting

pairs and the latter five, up from one

apiece when DDT was banned in 1972.

Before the introduction of DDT, which

built up in the food chain and caused the

females to lay brittle eggs, New York had

75 pairs; New Jersey had 20 to 25. The

current population are descended from 198

eagles imported from Alaska between

1976 and 1988, plus 60 from Manitoba,

who were released between 1983 and

1988. Of the original 198, 32 are known

dead––half of them shot by vandals––and

another 32 are known to have reached

maturity and paired at least once. Eagles

from that group have now settled in seven

states. Curiously, half of the pairs who

have nested within New York state have

chosen trees that were documented nesting

sites around the end of the 19th century.

AGRICULTURE

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

At deadline Washington D.C. sources believed

a Justice Department probe of accusations that Agriculture

Secretary Mike Espy improperly accepted free travel, foot-

ball tickets, and other favors from the Tyson poultry empire

would end without charges being filed. However, Bob

Gottsch, a leading Nebraska cattle feeder, on June 14 sued

Espy for $22 million in damages, alleging Espy unfairly

favored poultry over beef in strengthening sanitary require-

ments for beef slaughterhouses without likewise regulating

poultry slaughterers. Ironically, Espy was editorially hit the

same week by The New York Times for purportedly favoring

beef by exempting hamburger from a requirement that meat

product labels must accurately describe fat content.

Despite recent improvements, the USDA meat

inspection system “is only marginally better today at pro-

tecting the public from harmful bacteria than it was a year

ago or even 87 years ago when it was first put in place,”

General Accounting Office food and agriculture chief John

Harmon told Congress on May 25.

Captive wildlife

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The Audubon Institute in

Algiers, Louisiana, broke ground June 1 for

the $15 million Audubon Center for

Research of Endangered Species, a high-

tech laboratory intended to complement the

adjacent Freeport-McMoran Audubon

Species Survival Center. The next planned

Audubon facility, an insectarium to be built

in the French Quarter of New Orleans, is

getting a mixed reception from future neigh-

bors, but appears certain to be approved by

municipal authorities, in part because it is

expected to attract 600,000 visitors per year.

Singapore on May 23 opened

Night Safari, a $38 million state-of-the-

art zoo for nocturnal species. The facility

has already achieved successful breeding of

18 of the 43 resident species, including the

russet-coated Asian wild dog, the fishing

cat, the Malaysian tapir, and the striped

hyena. The zoo took seven years to build.

ANIMAL HEALTH

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Zoonosis

Tests by the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit have

concluded that the only sure way to prevent allergic reactions

to cats is “to remove the cat from the home,” Dr. Charles

Klucka recently told the American Academy of Allergy and

Immunology. “The next best thing is keeping the cat out of

the bedroom,” while the cat owner takes allergy drugs or

shots. Bathing cats in distilled water, applying a topical

spray 60 times per week, and giving them low-dose tranquil-

izers, all touted as antiallergen treatments, did not reduce the

dander of the 24 cats included in the Ford Hospital study.

Ten thousand volunteers in Connecticut, New

Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin are field-

testing a Lyme disease vaccine developed by Connaught

Laboratories, following up on a 1992-1993 test that included

300 people. Preliminary data published in the June 8 edition

of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed

that levels of Lyme antibodies increased fourfold in 23 of 24

volunteers who participated in a limited test in Albuquerque,

none of whom suffered serious side effects. A rival firm,

SmithKline Beecham PLC, is reportedly also close to testing

a vaccine for Lyme disease, which afflicts about 10,000

Americans a year, and has been found in 44 of the 50 states.

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