A n i m a l W r i t e s © sm

                                       The official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter


Established 1997

Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Issue # 04/04/04



   Publisher ~ Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Journalists ~ Greg Lawson - ParkStRanger@aol.com
                  ~ Michelle Rivera - MichelleRivera1@aol.com
                  ~
Dr. Steve Best - sbest1@elp.rr.com

THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:

1 ~ Easter Bunnies and Blue Chickens by Greg Lawson
2 ~
Wild Animals in Zoos and Sanctuaries? by Elliot M. Katz
3 ~
Free The CU 34
4 ~
Italian Animal Rights Law Puts Lobster Off the Menu
5 ~
Nation's Most Notorious Class B Dealer Charged
6 ~ Childhood Animal Abuse Linked More Strongly With Adult Criminal Behavior
7 ~ The Family Dog
8 ~
Memorable Quote



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~1~
Easter Bunnies and Blue Chickens
by Greg Lawson - ParkStranger@aol.com

I grew up in the fifties in East Tennessee. Back then even the suburbs of a city like Knoxville were rural areas, and it seems like rural folks associate holidays with animal abuse in so many different forms.

I remember Easters. I recall the Easter baskets my parents would prepare with candy and colored eggs and sometimes even live chicks and ducklings. The chicks and ducks would grow up and lose the blue or pink food coloring they had been dyed with and we would have to find them a new home.

There was a duck pond in a park just three blocks from where I lived. I can remember saying goodbye to a duck who had grown too large for our backyard. I turned him lose in that pond and cried.

I also remember the fate of some of the chicks. When they outgrew their chick cuteness (and blue and pink coloring) we gave them to a lady a few houses away who raised chickens for eggs and food.

One day is clearly imprinted in my mind from when I was five years old. My grandmother bought one of the chickens from this lady down the street. I watched as my grandmother held the chicken by it's head and twirled it around until the head was separated from the body. The body ran around the backyard for a minute before dropping. Then it was plucked, cut into pieces, breaded and deep fried. I always have wondered if that was one of those little blue chicks I had hand-fed corn. Fried chicken never tasted the same after that.

I remember an Easter where I got a baby rabbit. It had been dyed pink. Somehow, I don't remember the fate of that rabbit. It probably wasn't very good. All I remember is that we kept the poor creature in a small cage in the backyard. That is a terrible way for a child to learn about animals.

Now is the time to write your local newspapers and ask people not to give live animals as Easter treats. The practice still persists, and it must end.

Too many people hold the opinion that rabbits are easy to take care of and therefore make good pets for children. Unfortunately, this had led to rabbits being the third most euthanized animals in our nation's shelters after dogs and cats.

Margo DeMello is the president and executive director of House Rabbit Society, a nonprofit rabbit rescue organization, based in Richmond, California. I had the pleasure of meeting Margo at FARM's annual conference Animal Rights 2003. She will be guest speaker at the Vegetarian Society of El Paso's Compassionate Thanksgiving dinner next November.

Margo and Susan Davis have written a terrific book which explores all aspects of rabbits, from their behavior to the way our society views rabbits. Stories Rabbits Tell is the book to read to gain understanding about this complex animal.

It explains the history of the rabbit as a domestic pet, and the efforts by people to eradicate them as pests. There is an intriguing section on rabbits as cultural icons: their use in commercials, appearances in children's stories, myth and folklore. We are even given insight as to how and why Hugh Hefner picked the bunny logo for Playboy.

There are also several chapters that are difficult to read that deal with the rabbit meat industry, the rabbit fur industry and their use in vivisection labs. While these topics are disquieting, this is information we all need to know. Stories Rabbits Tell is a fascinating book that seems to cover everything about rabbits and the way we treat them.

For information about House Rabbit Society, visit their Web site at http://www.rabbit.org/

For more information about Stories Rabbits Tell visit this page...
http://www.rabbit.org/links/sections/stories-rabbits-tell.html

Have a happy and compassionate Easter.

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~2~
Wild Animals in Zoos or Sanctuaries?
Elephant's Death Should Not Be in Vain

by Elliot M. Katz - In Defense of Animals
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/01/EDGJK5TTBV8.DTL




Few people have visited a zoo without being intrigued by elephants, their impressive size, their curious behaviors and the familiar intelligence in their eyes. But the conditions under which we hold elephants are killing them, as Calle's death last month at the San Francisco Zoo should remind us.

Captured as a 1-year-old in India, Calle, an Asian elephant, spent more than three decades of her life in carnivals, circuses and zoos. In the wild, Calle, at 37, would have been in the prime of her life, a mother with perhaps two decades or more of life ahead of her. At the zoo, Calle was so riddled with degenerative joint disease and foot problems that she had difficulty even walking. For years, the zoo dosed her with painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. Treatments to remove dead and infected flesh from her feet, a result of chronic abscesses, left her virtually toeless. The infection had recently invaded her leg bone. On March 7, the zoo was forced to euthanize Calle.

The zoo has blamed Calle's joint and foot problems on the time she spent in the circus. But the zoo's surviving Asian elephant, Tinkerbelle, and two African elephants, Maybelle and Lulu, all suffer from joint and foot problems similar to those that afflicted Calle. These elephants have spent their entire lives in San Francisco, after being captured as babies from the wild in the 1960s. They, too, have been on a steady diet of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. These drugs mask signs of disease, leaving the public unaware of the elephants' declining health.

Nearly four decades ago, when wild elephants were brought to San Francisco, the harmful effects of zoo confinement were not yet documented. Now we know better: The problem of lack of space for elephants in zoos is irreconcilable. The space allocated to elephants at the San Francisco Zoo prevents normal exercise and forces them to stand on hard, dry, compacted surfaces, causing the arthritis and foot disease that have plagued Calle, Tinkerbelle, Maybelle and Lulu.

Zoo-industry experts admit as much. According to elephant consultant Alan Roocroft, who has worked with captive elephants for more than 30 years: "Long periods of inactivity can and will be detrimental to the health and longevity of an elephant. To an animal that is programmed to move 18 out of 24 hours, inactivity has a high price. ... Normally, the nail-and-foot tissue of an elephant is worn down during the long hours of walking over different substrates. Flexibility to wrist, knees and their joints is increased and maintained by the continuous movement of their daily activities."

Wild elephant experts concur. Daphne Sheldrick, a veterinarian and 1992 winner of the United Nations Environment Program Global 500 who has worked with elephants for 50 years in Africa, notes: "No captive situation, however attractive it may appear to a human, can possibly be adequate for the needs of an elephant in terms of space." She writes that one 10-year-old bull walked 84 miles in 14 hours, turned around and walked another 100 miles in search of a friend, and that elephants can traverse an area of 8,000 square miles in a matter of days.

At the San Francisco Zoo, the elephants live their entire lives in a space of less than half an acre. By contrast, elephant sanctuaries offer large, naturalistic environments for elephants that provide the freedom of movement on varied substrates that is vital to heal the types of foot and joint problems from which the zoo's surviving elephants suffer. Two U.S. elephant sanctuaries have offered to take the elephants immediately, at no cost to the zoo. Since we cannot return the elephants to the wild, the sanctuaries are the best we can offer.

If Tinkerbelle, Lulu and Maybelle remain in San Francisco, they will suffer the same fate as Calle. The zoo may claim that keeping these elephants is important to conservation. This is a smokescreen. The reality is that the San Francisco Zoo simply does not have the space required to provide quality of life and proper care for the three surviving elephants.

What kind of message is the zoo sending to the public by continuing to hold ailing elephants, whose only chance of recovery is to be transferred to sanctuaries with the space and expertise to heal their painful degenerative conditions?

Surely a city that is known for taking humanitarian stands can do right by these elephants. By transferring the surviving elephants to sanctuaries, San Francisco can once again demonstrate its leadership and humanity. The lesson of Calle's life and death must not be forgotten.

Elliot M. Katz is a veterinarian and founder of In Defense of Animals (www.idausa.org), an international animal rescue and advocacy organization based in Mill Valley.

Please email letters to the editor to: letters@sfchronicle.com and CC chronfeedback@sfchronicle.com. Letters under 200 words are more likely to be printed.

Please also send your letters to:
The Honorable Gavin Newsom, Mayor City Hall, Room 200 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415) 554-6141 Fax: (415) 554-6160 Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org

The Honorable Matt Gonzalez, President San Francisco Board of Supervisors City Hall 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244 San Francisco, CA 94102-4689 Telephone: (415) 554-7630 Fax: (415) 554-7634 Email: matt.gonzalez@sfgov.org

For background information and photos of Calle's injured paws, please visit: http://www.idausa.org/alert/currentalerts/elephant_alert.html

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~3~
Free The CU 34
Monkeys Being Held By the University of Colorado

March, 2004 - Many Colorado citizens and taxpayers are unaware that primates are being held at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. The Colorado-based Committee for Research Accountability (CRA), a project of In Defense of Animals, is asking that CU immediately release the 34 captives who, according to CU, are being used to attract research grant money.

Since 1986, CU’s Mark Laudenslager has used macaque monkeys in maternal separation experiments to analyze the effects of separating infants from their mothers. One can only imagine the terror and confusion of the mother when her baby is torn from her, even for a short time. After being taken from their mothers, the babies can experience severe depression, anxiety, loneliness and fear, and may suffer lifelong psychological consequences. Some of these monkeys were eventually sent to a facility in Washington to be injected with the monkey version of HIV. The infected monkeys were all killed at the end of the experiment.

Maternal separation experiments are widely known and condemned by many because they are considered to be archaic, unnecessary and of questionable applicability to human health. After many years of public scrutiny, Laudenslager’s project ended recently.

The subjects of these experiments comprise between one-third and two-thirds of the monkeys in the Health Sciences Center breeding colony. Of these, 31 have been at the facility since birth, the oldest being nearly 18 years old. Another monkey, a 36 year-old who was stolen from her home in the wild, is slated as a potential subject for a terminal experiment.

After repeated requests, citizens remain unable to view the primate prison. Why is no one allowed even a short visit to this public institution funded by taxpayer dollars? We can only imagine.

In 2003, CRA was told that CU officials would be willing to discuss the possibility of release and retirement of the monkeys if a sanctuary was found which would be willing to accept them. However, when told that such a sanctuary had been found, CRA was told they must pay $10,000 to $15,000 per monkey to the University of Colorado for their release. CRA refuses to pay a ransom. Money will be needed to pay for new enclosures and food at their new home at the sanctuary.

According to Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado Professor of Biology and co-author with Dr. Jane Goodall of The Ten Trusts, “The University ought to release the ‘CU 34' to the sanctuary and stop using these wonderful beings as pawns in some heartless self-serving economic ploy. It would be nice to see some compassion and respect rather than cold negotiation.”

In connection with World Week for Animals in Laboratories (April 17-24), we will be holding a peaceful VIGIL OF LIGHT at the Health Sciences Center at 8th and Colorado in Denver. Bring family, friends and flashlights at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 16, 2004 to join together in asking the University of Colorado for their release.

In the meantime, please contact CU President Elizabeth Hoffman at 303-492-6201 to ask for the immediate release of the CU 34. To learn of other ways of helping, visit our website at www.freethecu34.org (sign the online petition) or call the Committee for Research Accountability at 303-618-3227 or rita@idausa.org.

UPDATED 3/19/04

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~4~
Italian Animal Rights Law Puts Lobster Off The Menu
by Bruce Johnston in Rome
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wlob07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/07/ixworld.html

3/7/04 - Residents in the prosperous Italian town of Reggio Emilia were outraged yesterday after its council adopted an animal rights bylaw that bans boiling live lobster as "useless torture."

Supporters of the move said that it gave animals - both pets and those in the wild - equal rights to man, but local pet-owners criticised it as terrifying political correctness.

Under the bylaw, "sociable" birds such as budgerigars and parrots must be kept in pairs. Birdcages must be at least five times the bird's wingspan in width, and three times in height. It also makes it illegal to keep a goldfish in a round glass bowl. Anyone who breaks the law faces a fine of up to $495 (£325).

Davide Nitrosi, a resident, said: "I'd like someone on the council to explain how people are supposed to determine that a bird is 'sociable'. Also, how am I supposed to kill a lobster before cooking it? Hit it on the head?"

Hunting with dogs will be effectively prohibited because of a ban on the animals entering areas where meatballs laced with poison have been found. Another clause requires owners to ensure that each pet sharing a meal gets an equal portion.

A new council office devoted to the protection of "urban fauna" is to be established, with a full-time employee to look after stray cats.

The bylaw is thought to be the first of its kind in Italy, a country not renowned for its humane treatment of animals - but Reggio Emilia, a town of 120,000 people near Bolgna, has one of the highest standards of living in the country, and its administrators say that it can afford to take better care of its pets.

Olga Patacini, a veterinary surgeon, advised councillors to revise the law. "The last law concerning the matter in the city was passed in 1913 when the whole idea of keeping pets was very different," she said.

The law was passed on Friday night after a heated discussion in the town hall, with 22 councillors voting in favour, and only one against. The dissenter Marco Marziani, a councillor with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia Party, said: "The idea of comparing the rights of an animal to that of human beings completely casts into the shadows the sacred role of human life."

Critics say that the law has only been adopted as a sop to the powerful Green Party faction on the local council, and say that it will harm the local economy. They say that it will prevent amusement park owners from giving away goldfish, chicks and rabbits as prizes. Pet shops will be compelled to ensure that cages, coops and hutches have non-slip surfaces that are sheltered from the sun and wind, and that the animals are displayed in their windows for limited periods.

The law will have particular impact on Reggio Emilia because of its position as Italy's unofficial amateur bird-breeding capital and host of an international bird-breeding festival.

Ivan Gualerzi, a board member of the local chapter of the Italian Ornithologists Federation, complained yesterday that the council had not consulted breeders. He said that the standard size of birdcage used by breeders during the festival, when 12,000 birds were on show in the town, would be outlawed.

"This law is trying to impose standards for animals which fail to take into account their individuality," he said. "They're trying to impose a standard that won't work. The size of a cage depends on the type of bird, and on the individual bird itself. If some birds, such as parrots, are put in too large a space they get depressed."

He said the requirement to have rough floors in birdcages was absurd. "Birds don't slip," he said. Even residents sympathetic to the legislation are dismissive.

"The spirit of the law is good, but in practical terms it's exaggerated and a bit of a mess," said Tiziano Bassoli, a retired butcher and songbird breeder. "It looks like it's been cobbled together in an evening."

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~5~
Nation's Most Notorious Pet "B Dealer" Charged

Over 1,000 Federal Violations of the Animal Welfare Act
could amount in $4 million fine for Christian Minister, C.C. Baird
"The FBI of Animal Rights," Last Chance For Animal's investigation of Baird
prompts USDA's charges

April 2, 2004 Los Angeles, CA- This week, the “FBI of Animal Rights,” Last Chance for Animal’s (LCA) 15-year investigation on “B Dealer,” and Church of Christ Minister, C.C. Baird, resulted in the USDA’s 108-page list of over 1000 animal cruelty charges against, C.C. Baird, owner of Martin Creek Kennels in Williford, Arkansas. The charges, which include alleged violations of random source regulations and naming of more than 52 “bunchers” Baird employed to steal companion pets that he sold to research laboratories are graphic and disturbing. Details of the charges will be revealed by Last Chance for Animals founder, Chris DeRose in a press conference in Little Rock Arkansas on Saturday, April 17th at the Capital Hotel, 111 West Markham Street at 11 a.m. The charges against Baird are a monumental victory for LCA. Their 15-year investigation on the B Dealer prompted the US Attorney and 5 other federal organizations, including the USDA, to investigate Baird last Fall. On September 26, 2003, six Federal organizations and the Arkansas State Police descended upon Baird’s Sharp County Martin Creek Kennels property and confiscated 125 of his 750 Animals. The US Attorney’s criminal indictment of Baird and his connection to stealing thousands of pets in Arkansas and neighboring states is pending.

Some of the charges that the USDA inspectors listed include:

* “Dogs suffering from fresh puncture wounds and lacerations.”
* “Dog skeletons and carcasses, still bearing their id tags… on (Baird’s) property.”
* “Waste cover(ing) the floor of the (dog’s) enclosure, preventing the animals from walking without stepping in urine, feces and food debris.”
* “Among the dozens of live rats and mice in all areas of the room, one rat became stuck in a wall, and was killed and eaten on the spot (by the dogs) in pen number ---. Live, whole rats do not constitute wholesome, palatable food for dogs.”

Coincidentally, Senator Daniel Akaka’s (HI) re-introduction of the “Pet Safety and Protection Act” is scheduled to be brought to the senatorial floor in the coming week.

“These charges against Baird help to show the importance of creating laws that will protect companion pets from being sold to research laboratories,” said Chris Derose. “Our investigation showed that Baird has been stealing thousands of pets for many years. Not only could he be fined over $4 million dollars for the abominable manner in which he treated them while they awaited their fate on a researcher’s slab, but he also stands to lose his B Dealer license. Currently his B Dealer license legally allows him to collect random source animals to sell to research labs. If Senator Akaka’s bill passes, this will make B Dealer licenses extinct. “

The USDA’s charges against Baird are ironic, as the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (A.P.H.I.S.) is a part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). A.P.H.I.S. issues B Dealer licenses and self-governed themselves on this issue.
<><><><><>
Founded in 1984 by Chris DeRose, Last Chance for Animals (www.lcanimal.org) is the “FBI of Animal Rights,” a national, nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to ending animal exploitation and suffering.

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~6~
Childhood Animal Abuse
Linked More Strongly Than Ever Before To
Adult Criminal Behavior
AR-News@envirolink.org

The first study to provide detailed analyses of the relationship between childhood animal cruelty and adult violent behavior has been completed by a University of South Florida scientist and her associate.

Offenders of violent crimes are significantly more likely to have abused pets and stray animals in their childhood, according to the study by USF professor Kathleen Heide and animal welfare expert Linda Merz-Perez.

The study is the first to provide both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the correlation between childhood animal cruelty and adult violent behavior. The results are published in Heide's recently released third book, Animal Cruelty: Pathway to Violence Against People, co-authored by Merz-Perez.

"We're not just talking about kicking a dog," Heide said. "The violent offenders were far more likely as children to have committed extreme acts of abuse against a family pet or neighborhood animals -- acts that the average person would find abhorrent and somewhat gruesome."

Heide and Merz-Perez found that violent offenders also showed a tendency toward abuse of wild and farm animals.

"We noticed in some cases that the type of abuse violent offenders inflicted on an animal was similar to the type of act they later committed on people," Heide said. "Also, violent offenders rarely expressed any remorse for their actions or empathy for the animals."

The study underscores that early intervention following an act of animal cruelty is imperative to helping ensure that adolescents do not follow a path of violent behavior.

"In one instance, a non-violent offender related that he had received a rifle as a birthday gift from his grandfather when he was a boy. He wanted to see what the gun would do so he impulsively shot and killed a neighbor's pig. His grandfather broke the gun and made the boy work for a year on his neighbor's farm, feeding and caring for the pigs as punishment," Heide said. "As a result, the participant developed tender feelings and sincere remorse for these animals, and never did anything like this again."

The only instances in which non-violent offenders had a record of abusing domestic animals were in three cases where participants used their animals in competitive dog fighting. These individuals did not view the dogs as victims. Rather they saw their dogs as warriors, according to Merz-Perez.

"These men exhibited pride in their animals, providing them with food, shelter and medical care when necessary," Merz-Perez said. "Given their cultural background and experiences, they thought it would have been cruel not to let their dogs fight."

Heide is professor of criminology, a licensed mental health counselor, and interim dean of arts and sciences at USF. Merz-Perez, a USF alumna, is a certified animal control officer and former executive director of the Humane Society of Shelby County, Alabama.

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~7~
The Family Dog
Author Unknown

The family's dog was bought to guard,
Chained to a post in a chilly backyard,
Housed in a shed that was airless and dark,
And every few weeks had a run in the park.

When boredom set in with no fun and no work,
One day it broke loose and went quietly berserk.
Pa couldn't fathom just why it went wild,
As it flattened his wife and then bit his child.

The police were called in to sort out the mess,
And the whole sorry tale was revealed in the press.
The Rescue society was really annoyed,
So, the dog was re-homed, and the owners destroyed.

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~8~
Memorable Quote

"People need to be desensitized to the suffering of others gradually. A society that teaches that the suffering of animals doesn't matter is well on its way to raising future sadists. Virtually every serial killer in America will tell you tales of a childhood spent tormenting frogs, cats, and dogs. This is no coincidence. The scale from swatting flies to knowingly eating the results of farmers who treat animals inhumanely to cold-blooded murder is a continuum with a slippery slope. How much blood is on your hands?"
~ Melissa Silvestre, silvest@umslvma.umsl.edu



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Animal Rights Online
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