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 # 08/31/03
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 ~ Omega Three by Greg Lawson
2 ~ Man And Other Animals by Jeremy Rifkin
3 ~ NRDC Wins Landmark Case Against Navy Sonar
4 ~ Boycott 2004 Athens Olympics
5 ~ World Farm Animals Day
6 ~ UCSD Halts Dog Labs
7 ~ Correction - Dog Collars & Dog Beds
8 ~ Fur Is Fur by WantNoMeat@aol.com
9 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Omega Three
By Greg Lawson - ParkStranger@aol.com
-"What is our position, Mr. Sulu?"
-"Approaching Omega Three, Captain.."
-"Establish planetary orbit."<
Lately I have been thinking that I needed a coffee grinder to grind flax seed.
I was convinced by Dr. Michael Greger, our last guest on ACT Radio, Animal
Concerns of Texas, that we vegans need more omega-three fatty acids in our
diets. I had been buying already ground flax for the last year, but not using
it every day. Pre-ground flax loses the omega-three oils rather rapidly unless
you keep it in the freezer. After meeting Dr. Greger, I have been doing flax
every day. I figured if I invested in a coffee grinder to grind my own flax
seeds, I would be even more committed and get into the habit.
So today I bought a coffee grinder for ten dollars. It is a simple device with
an electric plug and one button, "ON," and an eighteen page users
manual. Eighteen pages? I don't have much time to read anymore, I think I might
have internet induced Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. But I like to read the
tech manuals on equipment I buy, so I read it.
The first couple of lines warned of the risk of personal injury or death which
exists in all electrical appliances, a nice reminder which helped me recall my
own fragility. Ever since humans discovered how to use fire, and how to harness
the energy of the electron, we have risked personal injury for convenience. My
major criticism of the booklet is that it seemed a bit simplistic. It failed to
cover the philosophy, history or physics of grinding beans and seeds.
Instructions: 1. Remove all packaging materials before using. (Good idea. I
don't need anymore plastic in my diet.) 2. Caution: Blades are sharp, handle
carefully. (Ok, I'm glad the blades are sharp, my food processor blades weren't
sharp enough to grind flax seeds, which is why I purchased this item in the
first place.) 3,4,5, ah... 6, (the one I had been waiting for) To start grinder
depress the "ON" button.
Whew, after page five it switched to other languages and I didn't have to read
the whole book. Moulin a Cafe, Moledora de Cafe...let's hope French and Spanish
speaking people see that it's not a good idea to immerse the base in water,
especially when it's plugged in. Let me save you some reading, my foreign
friends who are considering buying this device. This is the main point of the
book- Appuyez sur le bouton "ON," Presione el boton "ON."
I was a guest on a radio show today, "Senior Junction" on KTEP,
hosted by a former vegetarian who started including fish in her diet to get
omega-three fatty acids. I told her that flax was a better source. With fish
you also get a dose of mercury, DDT, other pesticides and heavy metals. The US
Department of Agriculture warns pregnant women that eating fish can cause birth
defects. How safe can seafood be if the federal government warns against eating
it during pregnancy? The health reasons for avoiding fish are obvious.
It's also obvious that intensive commercial fishing is destroying the ecological
balance of the oceans. The UN FAO report on the State of World Fisheries and
Aquaculture 2000 reports that 72-78% of major fisheries are fully exploited,
over exploited or depleted. According to a recent 10-year study of the world's
fisheries published last spring in the science journal Nature, the amount of
large, predatory fish such as sharks, cod, tunas, and swordfish has plummeted
by 90 percent since 1950. We are causing a major extinction event because we
like the taste of fish, we think it's a healthy food and a good source of
omega-three. I wish people could sea the true flax of the matter.
Ok, here it comes, the Animal Rights Online Instruction booklet for vegans, an
Owners Manual for your vegan body....not 18 pages, just four simple steps.
1. Eat a plant based diet with a variety of fresh vegetables, fruits, whole
grains, beans and soyfoods.
2. Take two tablespoons of ground flax seed everyday. Mix it with oatmeal, mix
it into soy loaf, refried beans, casseroles, cornbread muffins or whatever.
3. Take a vitamin B-12 supplement.
4. Attention: Ne Jamias Immerger La Base De L'appareil Dans L'eau Ou Tout Autre
Liquide.
4. Precaucion: Nunca Coloque La Base Del Aparato En Agua U Otros Liquidos.
4. Caution: Don't immerse your base in water or other liquids, especially while
you are plugged in.
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~2~
Man And Other Animals
Our fellow creatures have feelings -
so we should give them rights too
By Jeremy Rifkin
The Guardian - Saturday August 16, 2003
www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1019899,00.html
While much of the talk in big science this past year has
centered on new breakthroughs in biotechnology, nanotechnology, computers and
more esoteric questions such as the age of our universe, a quieter story has
been unfolding behind the scenes in laboratories around the world - one whose
impact on human perception and our understanding of the world is likely to be
even more profound. And, strangely, the companies sponsoring the research are
McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and other fast food purveyors.
Pressured by animal rights activists and by growing public support for the
humane treatment of animals, these companies have financed research into, among
other things, the emotional, mental and behavioural states of our fellow
creatures. What the researchers are finding is unsettling. It appears that many
of our fellow creatures are more like us than we had ever imagined. They feel
pain, suffer, experience stress, affection, excitement - and even love.
Studies on pigs' social behaviour at Purdue University in the US, for example,
have found that they crave affection and are easily depressed if isolated or
denied playtime with each other. The lack of mental and physical stimuli can
result in deterioration of health and increased incidence of diseases. The EU
has taken such studies to heart and has outlawed the use of isolating pig
stalls by 2012, and mandated their replacement with open-air stalls. In
Germany, the government is encouraging pig farmers to give each pig 20 seconds
of human contact every day and to provide them with two or three toys to
prevent them fighting.
The pig study only scratches the surface of what is going on in the field of
research into animal emotions and cognitive abilities. Researchers were stunned
recently by the publication of an article in the prestigious journal Science
reporting on the conceptual abilities of New Caledonian crows. In controlled
experiments, scientists at Oxford University reported that two birds named
Betty and Abel were given a choice between using two tools, one a straight
wire, the other a hooked wire, to snag a piece of meat from inside a tube. Both
chose the hooked wire. But then, unexpectedly, Abel, the more dominant male,
stole Betty's hook, leaving her only with a straight wire. Unphased, Betty used
her beak to wedge the wire in a crack and then bent it with her beak to produce
a hook, like the one stolen from her. She then snagged the food from inside the
tube. Researchers repeated the experiment 10 more times giving her straight
wires, and she fashioned a hook out of the wire nine times, demonstrating a
sophisticated ability to create tools.
Then there is the story of Alex the African grey parrot, who was able to master
tasks previously thought to be the preserve of human beings. Alex can identify
more than 40 objects and seven colours, and can add and separate objects into
categories.
Equally impressive is Koko, a gorilla who was taught sign language, has
mastered more than 1,000 signs and understands several thousand English words.
On human IQ tests, she scores between 70 and 95, putting her in the slow
learner - but not retarded - category.
Tool-making and developing language skills are just two of the many attributes
we thought were exclusive to our species. Self-awareness is another.
Philosophers and animal behaviourists have long argued that other animals are
not capable of self-awareness because they lack a sense of individualism. Not
so, according to a spate of new studies. At the Washington National Zoo,
orangutans given mirrors explore parts of their bodies they can't see
otherwise, showing a sense of self. An orangutan
named Chantek at the Atlanta Zoo used a mirror to groom his teeth and adjust
his sunglasses, says his trainer.
When it comes to the ultimate test of what distinguishes humans from the other
creatures, scientists have long believed that mourning for the dead represents
the real divide. Other animals have no sense of their mortality and are unable
to comprehend the concept of their own death. But animals, it appears,
experience grief. Elephants will often stand next to their dead kin for days,
in silence, occasionally touching their bodies with their trunks. Kenyan
biologist Joyce Poole, who has studied African elephants for 25 years, says
that elephant behaviour towards their dead "leaves me with little doubt
that they experience deep emotion and have some understanding of death."
We also know that virtually all animals play, especially when young. Anyone who
has ever observed the antics of puppies, kittens or bear cubs cannot help but
notice the similarities in the way they play and our own children. Recent
studies in the brain chemistry of rats show that when they play, their brains
release large amounts of dopamine, a neurochemical associated with pleasure and
excitement in human beings.
Noting the striking similarities in brain anatomy and chemistry of humans and
other animals, Steven Siviy, a behavioural scientist at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania,
asks a question increasingly on the minds of other researchers: "If you
believe in evolution by natural selection, how can you believe that feelings
suddenly appeared, out of the blue, with human beings?"
The new findings of researchers are a far cry from the conceptions espoused by
orthodox science. Until very recently, scientists were still advancing the idea
that most creatures behaved by sheer instinct, and that what appeared to be
learned behaviour was merely genetically wired activity. Now we know that geese
have to teach their goslings their migration routes. In fact, we are finding
out that learning is passed on from parent to offspring far more often than not
and that most animals engage in learned experience brought on by continued experimentation
and trial-and-error problem-solving.
So what does all of this portend for the way we treat our fellow creatures?
What about the thousands of animals subjected each year to painful laboratory
experiments? Or the millions of domestic animals raised under inhumane
conditions and destined for slaughter and human consumption. Should we ban
leg-hold traps and discourage the sale and purchase of fur coats? And what
about killing animals for sport? Fox hunting in England, bull-fighting in
Spain, cock-fighting in Mexico? What about entertainment? Should lions be caged
in zoos, should elephants be made to perform in circuses?
These questions are beginning to be raised in courtrooms and in legislation
around the world. Today, Harvard and 25 other law schools in the US have
introduced law courses on animal rights, and an increasing number of cases
representing the rights of animals are entering the court system. Germany
recently became the first government in the world to guarantee animal rights in
its constitution.
The human journey is, at its core, about the extension of empathy to broader
and more inclusive domains. At first, the empathy extended only to kin and
tribe. Eventually it was extended to people of like-minded values - a common
religion, nationality or ideology. In the 19th century, the first humane
societies were established, extending the empathy to include our fellow
creatures. Today, millions of people, under the banner of the animal rights
movement, are continuing to deepen and to expand human concern for, and empathy
toward, our fellow creatures.
The current studies into animals' emotions, cognition and behaviour open up a
new phase in the human journey, allowing us to both expand and deepen our
empathy - this time, to include the broader community of creatures who live
alongside us.
** Jeremy Rifkin is the author of Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle
Culture (Plume, 1992), and The Biotech Century (Victor Gollancz, 1998). He is
also the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington DC
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~3~
NRDC Wins Landmark Case Against Navy Sonar!
From Stacy De-Lin -
stacy_de_lin@yahoo.com
A federal court has just handed down its decision in our case
against the U.S. Navy and I wanted you to be the first to hear the great news.
In a resounding victory for whales and other marine mammals, the court ruled
that it will bar the Navy from deploying its high-intensity LFA sonar system
across most of the world's oceans.
The LFA (Low Frequency Active) sonar system would have blasted hundreds of
thousands of square miles of ocean habitat with noise so intense it can maim,
deafen and even kill whales. In her historic ruling, Judge LaPorte agreed with NRDC
that the sonar's booming noise could "irreparably harm" the marine
environment and threaten the very survival of endangered populations of whales,
sea turtles and other marine species.
Judge LaPorte has ordered the Navy to begin negotiations with NRDC on a plan
for safely testing the sonar system in a limited area.
This is truly a banner day for the Earth's environment. The court has granted a
life-saving reprieve to dozens of species of magnificent marine mammals. But
its ruling also sends a message loud and clear to the White House that it is
not above our nation's environmental laws. The Bush administration trampled all
over those laws when it gave the Navy a blank check to operate the deadly LFA
sonar system virtually anywhere in the world.
It's also a banner day for hundreds of thousands of NRDC members and activists
like you. When we began this fight eight years ago, we were told that our
chances of stopping the military's classified LFA program were slim to none.
But that conventional wisdom seriously underestimated the collective power of a
determined citizenry.
Your financial contributions and online activism fueled an NRDC legal strategy
that prevailed, in the end, over the world's most powerful military
establishment. There is no finer example of democracy in action.
The fight to protect our oceans against high-intensity sonar is not over. The
Navy could appeal the court's ruling. And right now the Bush administration is
trying to get exemptions for the Navy from some of the very environmental laws
NRDC used to block deployment of the LFA system. With your help, NRDC will do
everything it can to ensure that these efforts do not succeed.
But all that lies ahead. For today, at least, we've won a significant victory,
one worth savoring and celebrating. On behalf of our entire legal team, I want
to thank you for coming to the defense of marine mammals around the world.
Sincerely,
John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
BioGems: Saving Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org
NRDC Press Release:
http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/030826.asp
Washington Post story:
http://www.nrdc.org/news/newsDetails.asp?nID=1075
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~4~
Boycott 2004 Athens Olympics
From Marijo Gillis -
TwinkiePerkyEbby@msn.com
Please add your animal rights name as a co-author to the Petition
to BOYCOTT Tourism to Greece and the 2004 Athens Olympics. So far, we have 26
global organizations as co-authors.
Marijo
New York City
2004 ATHENS OLYMPICS - GREEK ANIMALS RACE FOR THEIR LIVES
SUPPORT a continuing BOYCOTT of the 2004 ATHENS OLYMPIC GAMES
Marijo Anne Gillis - Founder
WAG-New York (Welfare for Animals in Greece - a Lobby Group)
www.canadianvoiceforanimals.org/WAG_NewYork.html
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~5~
World Farm Animals Day
The 20th anniversary of World Farm Animals Day is almost upon us,
and we are counting on your help to make this the most meaningful observance
ever! On October 2nd, we urge you to join thousands of caring folks in all 50
states and 20 other countries in addressing the tragedy of 50 billion farm
animals abused and slaughtered for food each year throughout the world.
Here's what you can do:
1) Register at www.wfad.org or 888-FARMUSA to
obtain a Free Action Kit.
2) Encourage your group to sponsor an event.
3) Place a WFAD banner on your website (we will reciprocate).
4) Place a WFAD ad in your newsletter.
This 20th anniversary observance is sponsored by FARM and co-sponsored by In
Defense of Animals and PeTA. Again, please contact us at www.wfad.org or 888-FARMUSA for
additional information. Thank you for your compassion and support!
WORLD FARM ANIMALS DAY (WFAD) was launched in 1983 to expose, mourn,
memorialize, and mitigate the suffering of billions of innocent, sentient
animals in the world's factory farms and slaughterhouses. The date of October 2
honors the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, foremost champion of humane farming.
WFAD marks the one day a year when every person of conscience is honor-bound to
help relieve the agony of farmed animals.
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~6~
UCSD Halts Dog Labs
http://pcrm.org/news/issues030829.html
DOCTORS ANNOUNCE VICTORY AS UCSD FINALLY STOPS KILLING DOGS
FOR MEDICAL TRAINING
High-Tech Teaching Methods Replace “Dog Labs”
WASHINGTON—For
the first time, students signing up this fall for basic physiology and
pharmacology courses at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), School
of Medicine will not be performing invasive procedures on live dogs. Until now,
dogs were used in six-hour teaching exercises and killed once the class was
over. The university has now decided, however, to give the dogs a break.“
UCSD now joins the nation’s best medical schools, all of which have done away
with crude, obsolete dog labs and replaced them with more exciting, clinically
relevant, and humane teaching methods,” says Larry A. Hansen, M.D., a professor
at UCSD. “Medical students are learning to preserve and prolong life, and the
lethal dog labs ran counter to that basic goal.”
A study authored by Dr. Hansen, published in Academic Medicine, found that a
majority of U.S. medical schools, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, no
longer use live animals in any of their pharmacology, physiology, or surgery
courses.
For several years, Dr. Hansen and other prominent members of the medical
community have been urging UCSD to replace the lethal dog labs with high-tech
alternatives. Now, UCSD joins the University of British Columbia, and other
medical schools that have recently abandoned live animal labs in favor of more
modern teaching methods.
For an interview with Dr. Hansen or another member of the Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), contact Jeanne S. McVey, 202-686-2210, ext.
316. This is the latest victory in PCRM’s long-running campaign to promote
humane alternatives to live animal labs. Currently, more than 75 percent of U.S.
medical schools do not use live animals in teaching exercises.
Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a
nonprofit health organization dedicated to promoting preventive medicine and
higher standards in medical research, education, and practice.
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~7~
Correction
Dog Collars & Dog Beds
Last week we told you about dog collars and dog beds that
are available online with proceeds going to start a no-kill shelter for dogs.
We regret to inform you that there was a communication misunderstanding, and
these products are NOT being sold to start a no-kill shelter for dogs, but
instead, GreenMountainDogCollars.com is a FOR PROFIT business.
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~8~
Fur Is Fur
By WantNoMeat@aol.com
Most know of the painful lethal traps
somehow fur farms get a better rap
Agony still agony just from a different source
both ways cause anguish by fur wearers force
Born in a cage - a simple wire mesh box
stacked up in rows, the life of hard knocks
Swaying and pacing and the neurotic stare
clearly they live in misery there
Cramped together each suffer in vain
humans caring only for the fur and not pain
Resulting diseases are our shame
a barren, listless existence is all to claim
Nightmarish days pass slowly by
at the height of beauty they are marked to die
According to the blackened hearts of some
restrained and helpless the time has come
How did vanity ever get this far?
your choices reflect who you are
Whether trapped or fur farmed, make no mistake
fur is fur and there are lives at stake
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~9~
Memorable Quote
The animal model is "an archaic paradigm whose scope peaked 100 years ago.
It must be replaced if we expect to improve the quality of human life."
~ R. Greek, Specious Science
Continuum Publishers, 2002
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online
P O Box 7053
Tampa, Fl 33673-7053
http://www.oocities.org/RainForest/1395/
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
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