Date: July 13th, 2006

St Louis's NBC affiliate aired, on July 12, a terrific story focusing on horse racing deaths. It shared some shocking statistics telling us that at the Fairmount racetrack up to mid-June this year there were 7 deaths, with just 47 racing dates. In 2005, 15 horses died with 102 racing dates.

Opening with a discussion of Barbaro (who is currently fairing badly) it makes it clear that the treatment he received after his injury was far from typical.

You can read or watch the story on line http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=100105.

The website offers links to related information, including a link to PETA's fact sheet, "The Horseracing Industry: Drugs, Deception and Death" on line at http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=65

Please take just a moment to thank reporter Mike Owens and KSDK for sharing the darker side of racing with their viewers. Positive feedback for animal friendly coverage encourages more of it. The station takes comments at: comments@ksdk.com

I thank Claire Watson for making sure we knew about the piece.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)



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Date: Thu Jul 13 09:19:07 2006

Date: September 8th, 2005

The Thursday, September 8, Los Angeles Times has a story on the front of the B section headed, "Animal Activists Toughen Tactics. Some have moved beyond protesting to vandalism and threats against city officials."

It discusses harassment tactics being used against "David Diliberto, a high-ranking official in the Los Angeles Animal Services Department, whom activists blame for failing to stop the city from euthanizing thousands of stray dogs it picks up each year."

We read,
"The number of dogs euthanized in city shelters has dropped from 39,086 in fiscal 2001-02 to 29,624 in fiscal 2003-04, according to city officials. The Animal Services Department says it has pursued an aggressive campaign to get more dogs adopted and to persuade owners to spay or neuter their pets. There are also privately run shelters in the county that have no-kill policies.

"Activists, however, are not satisfied with the changes. They picketed the home of the agency's former chief, Jerry Greenwalt, until he quit, and also protested in the street in front of the home of former Mayor James K. Hahn.

"Greenwalt was replaced by Guerdon Stuckey, who has also drawn the wrath of animal rights advocates. Ferdin (of Animal Defense League of Los Angeles) said that the only reason activists haven't protested at Stuckey's home is because they haven't yet figured out his address."

There is a quote from Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California:

"When protesters move beyond protesting and break windows or write graffiti that's breaking the law. But passing an ordinance that says you can't protest in a residential neighborhood violates the 1st Amendment."

The article ends with a quote from Charlie Hutchinson, president of the Larchmont Village Neighborhood Assn: "My concern is that they're not using what I consider a constructive way to get their message across."

Many in the animal protection movement would agree. However this article offers us a truly constructive way to get our message across as it provides a great opportunity for letters to the editor regarding California's pet overpopulation crisis, encouraging spay-neuter and adoption, and legislation that encourages or enforces them.

You can read the full Los Angeles Times article on line at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-animal8sep08,1,1399264.story

The Los Angeles Times takes letters at letters@latimes.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to www.DawnWatch.com/unsubscribe.php. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)




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Date: Thu Sep 8 21:29:36 2005

Date: April 29th, 2006

The May edition of Los Angeles Times magazine has a beautifully written and heartbreaking article on Los Angeles Animal Services, by Jesse Katz, headed, "What's a dog worth?" (p116.) It brought me to tears, many times, yet I encourage everybody to buy a copy -- at the very least so you can pass it on to anybody who has an unspayed animal or is considering getting an animal from anywhere besides a shelter or rescue group.

It focuses on the story of Roy, a friendly pitbull who is apparently put in an "unadoptable" category just before he is killed, the article suggesting that this might be a method shelters use to bring down the official number of "adoptable" animals they are killing.

The article questions the use of the term "no-kill" while any animals, even those deemed vicious, are being killed. Indeed using the term while killing animals seems like a cop-out. Hopefully the companion animal birthrate will one day largely match the homes available for them, animal cruelty will be taken seriously and prosecuted so that few animals will be mistreated to the point of being irrevocably dangerous, and those who cannot be rehabilitated will inhabit under-populated sanctuaries.

The article discusses what the shelters call euthanasia, acknowledging that shelters do euthanize many sick animals. But we read:
"More frequently though, L.A.'s shelters preside over another kind of death, one dictated by time and space. If nobody is coming for Roy, how long should the city hold him? What is its financial obligation, its moral obligation, to maintain a dog nobody cared for in the first place? These are called euthanasias too but it is harder to think of them as merciful. They are deaths of convenience, a way to rid the world of expendable pets."

The article also discusses the Animal Services department's misleading slogan, "Saving Animal's Lives," bitterly ironic for a department that kills the majority of animals who come through its doors. One can't help wondering if it is a slogan that should be put on hold until it is truthful.

The piece looks at the controversial efforts of militant activists such as Pam Ferdin to shake up our animal control agencies, which kill more animals than those in any other metropolitan area in America. And it discusses the efforts of the new general manager in Los Angeles, Ed Boks, to turn the department around.

It is a wonderful article. I urge you to buy the magazine, read the piece, pass it on, and importantly, let Los Angeles Magazine know how much we appreciate the focus on this issue. The magazine takes letters to the editor at letters@lamag.com.

My thanks to Mrs. Crockett for making sure we knew about this article.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)



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Date: Sat Apr 29 18:40:22 2006

Date: March 22nd, 2006

Floridians:
Here is a link to Jennifer Santiago's follow-up story on the seal hunt on CBS 4 in Miami. Check it out at
http: HREF="mailto://cbs4.com/video/?id=14957@wfor.dayport.com">//cbs4.com/video/?id=14957@wfor.dayport.com and please send your thanks at http://cbs4.com/contact

If you are in the Miami CBS 4 viewing area, please include your address.

I send a big thank you to all who wrote CBS 4 after the first piece.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)



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Date: Wed Mar 22 19:03:25 2006

Date: February 27th, 2006

Georgians,

PETA has a terrific traveling conference that serves as an introduction to animal activism, called "Helping Animals 101." It is coming to Atlanta this weekend, March 4-5. You can learn more at www.HelpingAnimals101.com

Karen Dawn


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Date: Mon Feb 27 15:12:47 2006

Date: April 30th, 2006

The following article in the Sunday, April 30, Chicago Sun Times, presents a good opportunity for letters to the editor. The Chicago Sun Times takes letters at http://www.suntimes.com/geninfo/feedback.html

Chicago Sun Times
April 30, 2006 Sunday
NEWS; Pg. 08

Ban foie gras in New York City restaurants? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Shamus Toomey, Special to The Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago aldermen may have endeared themselves to animal lovers by banning foie gras last week, but in New York, their counterparts are getting a good laugh.

"I thought we were out of our minds, so I thank Chicago for what they did because it makes our council look extra ordinary," said Brooklyn Councilman Simcha Felder, who heads the New York City Council's Consumer Affairs Committee, according to the New York Daily News. "If anyone tried to do it here, I would bring chopped liver in every day."

Chicago's City Council voted Wednesday to ban foie gras, a pricey delicacy made from the livers of geese and ducks.

Veterinarians and animal rights activists say the birds suffer while being force-fed to enlarge their livers.

Mayor Daley ridiculed the vote, grousing: "We have real issues here in this city. And we're dealing with foie gras? Let's get some priorities."

Members of the New York City Council, which has a history of passing offbeat bills, seemed to share Daley's take.

"I don't know how long this Council can duck this issue," said Queens Councilman Peter Vallone, according to the Daily News.
(END OF CHICAGO SUN TIMES PIECE)
---------------
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)


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Date: Sun Apr 30 14:04:30 2006

Date: April 28th, 2006

New Yorkers can respond to the following article in the Friday, April 28, Daily News. The New York Daily News takes letters at:
voicers@edit.nydailynews.com
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.

http://www.nydailynews.com/04-28-2006/front/story/412911p-349079c.html

Aw, foie gras just ducky by Council

BY FRANK LOMBARDI and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Foie gras is no longer on the menu in Chicago, but don't expect New York to follow the Windy City's lead and ban the pricey delicacy.

For now, the City Council is too busy laughing at Chicago's aldermen - much to the annoyance of animal right activists.

"I thought we were out of our minds, so I thank Chicago for what they did because it makes our Council look extra ordinary," said Brooklyn Councilman Simcha Felder, who heads the Consumer Affairs Committee. "If anyone tried to do it here, I would bring chopped liver in every day."

Still, the New York City Council has a reputation of sponsoring offbeat bills, like legitimizing ferrets and banning the return of tried-on underwear.

"I don't know how long this Council can duck this issue," joked Queens Councilman Peter Vallone, who heads the Public Safety Committee and said that as an animal lover he wouldn't touch foie gras with a 10-foot pole.

Bruce Friedrich of PETA said the Council would be crying if they knew how "hideously cruel" the geese and ducks are treated so humans can dine on their livers.

"These animals have pipes rammed down their throats and they're force fed to make their livers enlarge 10 times their normal size," he said.

"This would be a felony-level cruelty to animal charge in the state of New York if this was done to cats or dogs."

Chicago became the first U.S. city to ban foie gras earlier this week - over Mayor Daley's objections.

"We have real issues here in this city," Daley groused. "And we're dealing with foie gras? Let's get some priorities."

(END OF DAILY NEWS ARTICLE)
-------------
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)


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Date: Fri Apr 28 18:22:01 2006

Date: December 13th, 2005

The following article from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review provides a good opportunity for letters about the companion animal overpopulation crisis and the joys of getting your mixed breed from the pound. The Tribune Review takes letters at opinion@tribweb.com
Always include your full name, address and phone number when sending a letter to the editor.

Puggles:The mixed-breed pups are today's must-have pet
By Michael Agostino
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, December 13, 2005

What do you get when you put together a pug and a beagle?

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/style/family/s_403308.html

Only a trendy new mixed-breed dog -- the puggle -- which has nuzzled its way from a TV appearance on "Live With Regis and Kelly" into homes and pet stores such as Petland in Monroeville.

"If we have puggles here, they are bought almost right away," Jesse Pearce says, pet counselor at Petland in Monroeville. "Just this Tuesday, someone who previously called came in and bought our only one."

Puggles are good family dogs, Pearce says, and don't have the short respiratory tract of pugs, which can lead to breathing problems.

"They're adorable, and I wish I had one," Pearce says, "but I already have my own personal zoo at home. I just don't have the room."

But Lisa Peterson, spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club, and others aren't so crazy about the brown- or gold-colored pups.

"Why would you breed a beagle to a pug?" Peterson says. "It's a genetic crapshoot."

The puggle craze has consumers buying dogs whose traits cannot be guaranteed, and the fact that puggles are not a recognized breed means that breeders might not be responsible in accommodating customers who don't like the mix they ended up with, Peterson says. Peterson breeds Norwegian elkhounds, and says that an experienced breeder of purebred dogs would take a dog back if it didn't have the desired traits.

Stephanie Shain, director of outreach for the Humane Society of the United States, also is skeptical of the puggle trend, which she says contributes to an overpopulation problem at animal shelters.

"We need more people to spay and neuter their pets," Shain says. "Right now we're euthanizing millions of healthy animals that just don't have a home. Three years from now, these puggles will be in the same situation."

Shain says the surge in interest and soaring prices create a market for people to make a fast buck, giving rise to "backyard breeders" and puppy mills. Breeders are selling the dogs through some Web sites for $500 to $1,000 or more.

Pug breeder Judith Schmidt and beagle breeder Beverly Sheerer -- of Independence and Middlesex townships, respectively -- dislike the puggle craze, and don't understand the reasoning behind it.

The traits of the pug and beagle do not complement each other, the two breeders say. The beagle is a scent hound that hunts outdoors, while the pug is an indoor dog that has a wrinkled, pushed-in snout. Schmidt and Sheerer see the mixing of the breeds as not solving existing breed problems -- such as the pug's eye problems and genetic encephalitis, or the beagle's shedding and stubborness in being housebroken -- but possibly creating other complications.

"People are going to go and spend all this money on these puggles," Schmidt says, "and end up making the vet rich."

While KDKA-TV news anchor Jennifer Antkowiak, of Churchill, realizes the hybrid puggle breed is still young and unpredictable, she says the puggle that she bought from in October from Petland in Monroeville has been fantastic.

"She adapts to whatever happens around her, and lets my 3-year-old daughter carry her on her shoulder," says Antkowiak, a mother of five.

Antkowiak decided to get a puggle because she was told they have the spunky personality of a beagle and the loving, lap-dog qualities of a pug, and she didn't want a large dog bowling over her 2-year-old. With the puggle in the house, she says, there are very few accidents, and the small puppy and young children get along just fine.

Her puggle has been healthy and surprisingly easy to train.

"Some people buy puggles and other designer dogs because they are status symbols," Antkowiak says, "but you should get one because you love the dog. We got ours before they became really popular, and so far she's been great."

Michael Agostino can be reached at magostino@tribweb.com or 412-320-7837.
(END OF TRIBUNE-REVIEW ARTICLE)
----------------------
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to www.DawnWatch.com/unsubscribe.php. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)


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Date: Tue Dec 13 10:06:58 2005

Date: April 9th, 2006

The following Sydney Morning Herald article (on line at http://tinyurl.com/p4ou9) presents a good opportunity for letters against rodeo and all abuse of animals for human entertainment. The Sydney Morning Herald takes letters at letters@smh.com.au and advises, "All letters and email (no attachments) to the Herald must carry the sender's home address and day and evening telephone numbers for verification. Ideally, letters will be a maximum of 200 words."

I send thanks to Pam Ahern for making sure we saw this.

Here's the article:

Rough ride for show's rodeo
"Gone is the 'wild west' image of a bygone era" … talk of animal abuse plays badly with corporate sponsors.

April 8, 2006

A campaign by animal rights activists has put the Royal Easter Show's most extreme sport in doubt, writes Gwyn Topham.

FOR breeders, riders and fans this 75th year of rodeo at the Easter Show should be the best yet. It has top billing at the show, which has, it says, invited the cream of Americans to do battle with the best of the Australians; assembled the very best rough stock; and handpicked the cowboys. Not to mention doubling the prizemoney.

But this extravaganza may also mark the beginning of the end for the sport in Sydney as, under pressure from animal rights groups, organisers have pledged to review rodeo events.

Footage obtained by the Herald from last year's Easter Show shows acts described as "totally illegal" by the show management going on under the eyes of crowds. A stockman carrying an electric cattle prod partly concealed in a bag is shown administering a shock to a horse, presumably to make it buck.

Together with the death of a prize bull at last year's show, the images above sit uneasily at a family event. Reports of cruelty and animal deaths have led to corporate sponsors withdrawing from rodeos. A firm that would speak only on condition of anonymity said animal rights' concerns had been a large factor in withdrawing support. Telstra, once a backer of rodeos, stopped sponsoring them in 2002.

The show's general manager, John Aitken, said he had seen footage of a man using an electric prod on a horse, and disciplinary action had been taken. He said the man was from Queensland and said he did not understand the local regulations.

Animal welfare groups believe they have struck a deal with show management after meeting 10 days ago in which they highlighted abuses at rodeos. The executive director of Animal Liberation NSW, Mark Pearson, said: "We're in a very serious dialogue. So we're not going to protest this year." He said he applauded the show for not including calf roping in the program - the rodeo event considered the most inhumane by many.

But in return for not targeting the rodeo in such a high-profile year, Mr Pearson expects the show to review the program after this year's event closes. Activists hope to focus on steer wrestling, an event in which riders on horseback tackle cows to the ground.

"The Royal Agricultural Society has given an undertaking to review their concerns when provided in writing at our next meeting, which will be after the show," Mr Aitken said.

The show's own publicity says rodeo is "the most dangerous and extreme sport on Earth". Those in rodeo talk of an unequal contest - 1000 kilograms of stock against 65 kilograms of cowboy. Most likely to be injured, by far, they say, are the riders. But then, the critics say, they choose to be there. A reprieve for otherwise unusable animals, breeders say. Better a quick, humane death than distress and injury, welfare groups say.

Any talk of animal abuse plays badly on the ears of corporate sponsors, which may explain why the show talks up 75 years of tradition, yet emphasises: "Gone is the 'wild west' image of a bygone era." Today, rodeo is a sport with its own star circuit and prizemoney to match.

Scott Johnston, 32, is one of this new generation: an Australian champion who has won more than $1 million on the US circuit. "There's a lot more money and a bit more competition over there," he said. Johnston is a specialist in saddle bronc and bareback: the classic rodeo events in which a cowboy tries to stay on the back of a wildly bucking horse, with just one hand on a rein - and in bareback, not even that. Johnston grew up in a remote area of NSW. "We always rode horses, broke horses. I was riding horses before I could walk."

The best rodeo rides, he said, are on "a horse that really bucks or a bull that jumps a long way in the air - if the guy looks like he's in control". The horses were always unpredictable, he said, and you just had to react. "Your top guys are always in control - always riding the horse for what it does. But you need that horse to buck. Drawing a good horse is always half of it."

And a good horse is highly prized. Judges score competitors not only on their ability but on the beast below: if it does not buck hard, simply staying on will not win riders prizes. Horses get the same kind of theatrical names as a WWF wrestler: Akubra Crusher and Dynamite. Bulls bred to be mean, such as this year's Nitro, trace their lineage from previous stars. All this means, breeders say, that their wellbeing is paramount.

Scott Maynes, whose bucking bull Little Big Horn was a star of the circuit before dying in an accident at last year's show, said: "My whole life revolves around my animals; if they're not handled properly, that's it. All the cows get fed before my wife and I do. I just spent $40,000 on new pens, and you can sell each cow for $5000.

"If they're worth that kind of money we're not going to treat them bad. And the bulls I have here - if they weren't here, they'd be in a can being fed to a dog." Maynes, a veteran of 17 years' bull riding, with punctured lungs, 17 screws and five plates in his face, said: "I'd invite anyone out to my place. They can be a red-hot animal lib activist. If anyone was against it and came here for a week they'd change their minds."

Johnston agreed. "They think it's cruel, but most of the horses that get bucked were about to get their heads chopped off. To me, really it's one more chance to see if they're good for anything. If they buck they get looked after as well as any horse, and they only buck for 20 seconds a week, so it's a pretty good life. I think animal libbers have got nothing to worry about. Some [horses] get injured, but they can get injured out in the paddock. They look after them the best they can."

Show organisers point to the involvement of RSPCA monitors. But the RSPCA said: "We are utterly opposed to rodeo and want them shut down. The risk of injury and distress to the animals is unjustifiable in terms of entertainment." Even if animals are treated well, it said, rodeo was cruel. "Most of the time rodeos don't cause serious injury - but it always causes distress."

Proponents say that rodeo is just outback culture, a sport that showcases the skills that cattlemen needed to survive and prosper. Mr Aitken said: "It's been a key part of our heritage - and the RAS has been quite instrumental in the development of rodeo as a sport over the years. It's always been part and parcel of the show.

Others dispute this. "It's an import from cowboy America," Mr Pearson said. "I've been out west and I've not seen any Australian farmer ride a bull."

The RSPCA takes a middle line: "We understand that some practices such as calf roping have a place in the farm environment, but we don't believe they should be deliberately recreated for entertainment." Only barrel racing was acceptable, it said. The ladies-only event was fast, highly skilful and one of the show's most popular events, Mr Aitken said.

Supporters argue that few injuries occur to animals in any rodeo event, making it less dangerous than horseracing, and that many "broncs" - untamed horses that prefer to buck than accept a rider - are happier in rodeo than being broken for use elsewhere.

Yet campaigners such as No Rodeo's Jeanie Walker, a South Australian activist who has received death threats, said: "Animal abuse exists at all rodeos. We've got footage of people stabbing prods into bulls' genitals and faces to get them to buck. They don't try to hide it much in the outback."

So do animals buck because they want to or because they are made to? Asked where to find an independent opinion on this, the president of the Australian Veterinary Association, Dr Matthew Makin, laughed. "This is a problem that the Government needs to address: there are no accurate independent studies on the effects of rodeos on animals." His association "only supports rodeos when the welfare of the animals involved is safeguarded and underpinned by an effective and enforceable code of practice". Most important, he said, was that organisers are legally responsible for the welfare of the animals, even if prosecutions are rare. But, he said: "Accidents will happen. Animals will get injured. They need immediate attention. It's not acceptable to make one wait for an hour."

Breeders such as Scott Maynes - who buried his favourite bull in the paddock, describing it as the worst day of his life - said animal welfare was paramount and that any abuse was caused by a few bad apples. Rodeo had cleaned up. "The old Aussie style of getting drunk in the backyard saying, 'Get on her' - those days are gone." But as the video nasty from last year's show demonstrates, breaches can still occur at even the biggest events.
(END OF SYDNEY MORNING HERALD ARTICLE.)
------------
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)



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Date: Sun Apr 9 16:41:38 2006

Date: May 15th, 2006

The following article, in the Toronto Star Life section, presents a good opportunity for animal-friendly letters to the editor. The Toronto Star takes letters at lettertoed@thestar.ca and advises, "Letters must include full name, address and all phone numbers of sender (daytime, evening and cellphone). Street names and phone numbers will not be published." Also, at the end of the article readers are asked to email their comments to life@thestar.ca

The Toronto Star
May 15, 2006 Monday
LIFE; Pg. E07

Kids are bombarded with propaganda
Parents need to help filter the messages

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1147609688609&call_pageid=991479973472

CHICAGO—Frankie Trull is the kind of woman who never, ever, minces her words.

President of the National Association for Biomedical Research, she describes with barely concealed contempt the methods used by the animal rights movements to get their word across.

She tends to focus on spectacular events such as raids of animal testing laboratories, picketing and vandalism at the homes of executives and scientists whose companies engage in such testing, and phone calls to the homes of such people.

Her presentations, such as one last month at the BIO2006 conference, a gathering of 20,000 biotechnology executives and researchers, draw on 27 years of tracking the many groups involved in the animal rights movements in the U.S. and abroad.

"These are not nice people," she tells a workshop at the conference.

Speaking to an audience of biotechnology business people, she spends most of her allotted time talking about how groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) target businesses, and warns that such groups use websites, stickers and T-shirts to attract children to their cause.

"This really bothers me," she says, adding it is unethical for such groups to target impressionable children with watered down versions of their messages.

PETA, for instance, has a website dedicated to children, http://www.petakids.com, containing games such as Save the Chicks, Lobster Liberation (a lot like Frogger) and one in which players throw tomatoes at people wearing fur.

For Trull, such efforts are appalling, and something all parents should be concerned about because they could draw kids into an organization she equates with terrorists.

"These people are dangerous," she warned more than once during her presentation.

Two days earlier, however, the exact opposite argument was made at an alternative BioEthics2006 conference held across town from the industry's BIO2006 gathering.

Shiva Singh Khalsa, a minister of Sikh Dharma in Chicago, told his audience of activists it is important for them to reach out to young people.

Children see the world in simpler terms of right and wrong. They have not yet begun to compromise their ideals, as many adults have, and so can see the issues with a clarity that many adults no longer can, he said.

"Children are the ones who are going to see that these things are creepy," said Khalsa, an activist promoting organic foods and alternative agriculture.

Besides, he said, children are the future. If activist groups are going to try to change the way society operates, it makes sense to target the people who will one day be deciding such things.

Certainly, animal welfare groups have a receptive audience in children.

Kids love animals. Animals are cute, at least when they're young, and are often the smartest and funniest characters in children's stories.

In fact, animals and children often outsmart the dim-witted and immoral adults in the best kid's stories.

So it's little wonder that children latch on to animal welfare messages. If the books they read and the movies they watch are to be believed, children and animals are natural allies.

At the annual Vegetarian Fair at Harbourfront every September, the PETA booth's assortment of stickers, magnets and T-shirts prove an irresistible attraction for the boys and girls wandering about the grounds.

The draw may be the cartoon animals — piglets saying they don't have any spare ribs, chicks proclaiming that they are not nuggets — but the point is to get the PETA message across to an accepting audience.

In this setting, one would expect that few of the parents leading their children from booth to booth would object to their kids picking up PETA stickers. After all, they brought them to a vegetarian fair. The parents likely have some sympathy themselves for animal welfare causes.

And ultimately, it's the parents' responsibility to impart morals to their children.

How much parental wisdom children accept is, of course, a crapshoot. But it's still a parent's job to impart it.

Keep in mind, it's not just animal welfare groups bombarding children with ideas parents might not like.

Fast-food chains push meals many parents would rather their children didn't eat. Soft drink companies entice children to buy ever-larger bottles of products. Corner stores keep their candy at a child's eye-level.

The point is, children are the target of many opposing messages about the food they eat, the way it gets to them, and the rights and wrongs of how big companies and farmers treat animals.

The best parents can do is recognize this and help their children sort through it all.

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Stuart Laidlaw is the Star's faith and ethics reporter.
Email your comments to life@thestar.ca.

(END OF TORONTO STAR ARTICLE)
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(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)



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Date: Mon May 15 11:58:58 2006

Date: May 15th, 2006

This Independent article provides a good opportunity for letters to the editor. The Independent takes letters at letters@independent.co.uk and advises, "If you wish to submit a letter for publication in the newspaper, it must include the sender's name, postal address and daytime telephone number."

Independent on Sunday (London)
May 14, 2006 Sunday
NEWS; Pg. 8

Military lab tests on live animals double in five years

By Marie Woolf POLITICAL EDITOR

The number of animals used in British military experiments, including biological and chemical warfare tests, has doubled in the last five years, prompting protests from MPs who fear that the live animal tests are being conducted on behalf of foreign powers.

More than 21,000 animals, including monkeys, ferrets and pigs, were subjected to experiments at the secret biological and chemical research centre at Porton Down last year. The number of animals usedat the top-secret Wiltshire research centre has gone up by 76 per cent since 2000.

The dramatic increase in military animal testing has shocked animal welfare groups, which have questioned whether they involve the duplication of experiments already carried out.

Although details of the tests are secret, it is known that monkeys in the secret Wiltshire military labs have been exposed to anthrax. Pigs have had 40 per cent of their blood drained and been injected with E coli. Others have been exposed to poison gas and lethal nerve agents. Porton Down has in the past shot anaesthetised pigs to help develop body armour.

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection said the latest figures are "worse than we thought" and called for details of the tests to be published

"We're talking about chemical agent-induced burns left for days, poison gas experiments, applying fatal doses of nerve agent to animals' skins and monkeys given sarin and anthrax," said a spokesman.

"If these experiments were conducted with one eye on Iraq, it's bitterly ironic that the only victims of weapons of mass destruction in this conflict turn out to be animals."

Mike Hancock, a Liberal Democrat MP who obtained the figures, said he was "horrified" by the number of animals being used for military research when the Government said it was trying to find alternatives to live testing. He has tabled questions in Parliament asking if any tests have been conducted on behalf of foreign governments.

"I want an explanation of why these figures have risen so steeply," he said.

Last year, 54 "non-human primates" believed to be marmosets, rhesus monkeys and macaques, were subjected to military tests at Porton Down, up from 34 in 2000. Sixty ferrets were also used, and 20,000 mice, double the 2000 number.

The defence minister Adam Ingram said the animals had been used to develop burn protection, treatment of acute lung injury, "novel haemorrhage control" and "medical coun-termeasures." He said that Porton Down only undertakes research involving animals when other methods are unsuitable.

A spokesman for Porton Down declined to provide details of the tests, but said the animals were used because of their likeness to humans. "Pigs were used for development of coun-termeasures against haem-orrhaging, which is one of the main causes of death on the battlefield," he said.
(END OF INDEPENDENT ARTICLE)
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(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)



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Date: Mon May 15 11:39:56 2006

Date: November 28th, 2005

This lovely story on the front page of the South China Morning Post presents a great opportunity for letters to the editor in support of the action but perhaps pointing to the irony given some other societal treatment of cats and other animals. The South China Morning Post takes letters at scmplet@scmp.com
Always include your full name, address and daytime phone when sending a letter to the editor

South China Morning Post
November 28, 2005 Monday
NEWS; Pg. 1

That's no tiger in the tank, it's a kitten in the engine

Zhuang Pinghui

Twenty-four firefighters and police officers pulled out all the stops - and most of a car's engine - yesterday to rescue a trapped kitten.

They spent three hours removing the cat that had become lodged in the engine of a Mercedes convertible parked in Dragon Road, North Point.

The owner of the car had spotted the animal earlier under the vehicle but by the time the rescuers arrived, the kitten had managed to crawl under the bonnet.

"The kitten came from nowhere. It's very, very small," said Elaine Ha, a resident who witnessed the rescue operation.

At first two firefighters tried to free the kitten, but their number soon rose to seven, according to Ms Ha. The fire officers then told the car's owner there were two options: leave the kitten where it was and risk it being injured, or dismantle the car engine to free the kitten, Ms Ha said.

She said the owner agreed to the engine being dismantled without hesitation.

"It is a four-wheel-drive convertible Mercedes, a very expensive car, and he didn't have insurance for it yet, but he still decided to do it. That's the noblest thing I've ever heard," said Ms Ha.

The kitten was finally freed, uninjured, at 3pm.

The animal was then handed over to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which will try to find its owner.

The society warned it was common for cats seeking warmth to hide near or in car engines during the winter.

"There are at least a dozen similar cases every winter," Rebecca Ngan, a spokesman for the society said.

"I urge all drivers in Hong Kong to pat their vehicles a few times before switching on the engines. It can be a warning sign to the cats."
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Date: Mon Nov 28 12:41:53 2005