Date: July 16th, 2006

The issue of lab-grown meat is in the Sunday, July 16, Chicago Sun Time presenting a great opportunity for veg-freindly letters to the editor on the way human society treats animals being raised for food. The Chicago Sun Times takes letters at http://www.suntimes.com/geninfo/feedback.html

Chicago Sun Times
July 16, 2006 Sunday
CONTROVERSY; Pg. B05

Would you eat lab-grown meat?: You may choke on the idea, but the animal rights crowd loves it

Traci Hukill, The Chicago Sun-Times

As I type these words, men and women of science are growing meat in a laboratory. That's meat grown independently of any animal. It isn't hatched or born. It doesn't graze, walk or breathe. But it is alive. It sits growing in a room where somebody has called it into existence with a pipette and syringe.

"Cultured meat," it's called, and it is supposed to save us from the execrable pollution and guilt of factory farms while still allowing all 6.5 billion of us to stuff our gullets with ham sandwiches whenever we want to. It already exists in ground or chipped form. What Dutch scientists are working on now is a product that costs a few dollars per pound instead of a few thousand. It could be as little as five years away.

The concept is as simple as it is horrifying. Take some stem cells, or myoblasts, which are the precursors to muscle cells. Set them on "scaffolding" that they can attach to, like a flat sheet of plastic that the cells can later be slid off of. Put them in a "growth medium" -- some kind of fluid supplying the nutrients that blood would ordinarily provide. "Exercise" them regularly by administering electric currents or stretching the sheets of cells mechanically. Wait. Harvest. Eat.

AN OLD IDEA

It seems like something out of a chilling sci-fi future, the very epitome of bloodless Matrix-style barbarism. But growing flesh in a petri dish is an old idea from the early 20th century that received a fresh infusion of, how you say, growth medium in 2002. As part of a NASA-funded experiment to find a portable source of animal protein for astronauts, Touro College biology professors Morris Benjaminson and James Gilchriest sliced a bit of muscle from the abdomen of a goldfish and set it in a saline solution enriched with fetal calf serum. Over several weeks, the muscle grew about 15 percent. Another muscle growing in a maitake mushroom solution did almost as well.

To determine whether the product was remotely appetizing or would be too repulsive even for space station humanoids to eat, Benjaminson and Gilchriest convened a panel of female employees, chosen for their gender's presumed pickiness and demonstrably superior sense of smell. Gilchriest, who used to be a professional chef ("He makes great calamari," said Benjaminson), breaded the tiny filet and sauteed it in extra virgin olive oil. He finished with a squeeze of lemon and a dash of pecorino cheese.

"And it smelled good to them," Benjaminson says. Understandably, the ladies were not asked to eat the "fish."

Whatever one's response to the idea of meat grown in a petri dish -- revulsion seems to be a common one -- there are also some compelling reasons in favor of it.

"It's cleaner, healthier, less polluting and more humane," said Jason Matheny, a doctoral student in agricultural policy at the University of Maryland who sits on the board of New Harvest, a research organization for in vitro meat.

Meat grown in the sterile environment of a laboratory wouldn't harbor zoonotic diseases like avian flu or contribute to antibiotic resistance, Matheny said. As for human health, artery-clogging beef fat could be swapped out in vitro for salmon fat, for example, with its salubrious omega-3 fatty acids. And the squalid misery of factory farms could be bypassed altogether. No river would be fouled with manure and no chicken's beak would be clipped in the making of dinner.

These are important considerations. All the problems associated with modern meat production -- like the 64 million tons of manure excreted each year by factory farmed animals in the United States alone -- are poised to worsen as the Earth's population heads toward 9 billion people by 2050. As up-and-coming nations like China and India develop large middle classes that adopt Western habits of consumption, that translates to an exponential rise in meat eaters and factory farms over the next 45 years.

A SPLENDID IDEA

Add it all up, and some people find cultured meat a splendid idea.

Bruce Friedrich, vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calls it "the best thing since sliced bread." Friedrich, who energetically denounces the eating of "animal corpses" every chance he gets, says that "anything that takes the cruelty out of meat-eating is good."

There are a couple of serious problems with cultured meat, though, starting with the fact that people seem to find the idea repellent. "Yeah," Matheny admits. "There's a 'yuck' factor involved with producing any novel food."

Presented with the argument that cultured meat just ain't natural, Matheny gamely counters that wine and cheese are engineered products, too.

"And I would say cultured meat is not inherently more unnatural than producing chicken meat from tens of thousands of animals raised intensively in their own feces and fed antibiotics," he said.

That is a very good point. But then Matheny, who is vegetarian, probably won't be eating much cultured meat, either. Nor will Friedrich, who said he had done just fine without eating animal flesh for 18 years and planned to stick with his program.

As for Benjaminson, when asked if he finds the idea of cultured meat appealing, he answered, "From an esthetic standpoint? No. It would have to taste palatable, and that would require a lot of tissue engineering."

What a lot of trouble to go to for a solution that is frankly nightmarish (especially the "exercising" of the disembodied muscle by means of electrical shocks). All cultivation is a form of enslavement, however benevolent or necessary, but harnessing the manic energy of stem cells takes that dynamic into a realm where the side effects -- the "equal and opposite reaction" promised by Newton -- play out perilously close to the life process itself. If synthetic fertilizer, which seemed like such a great way to boost plant fertility, can create a dead zone the size of Maryland at the Mississippi Delta, wiping out a totally different link in the food chain, who's to say what would come of overexploited RNA or mitochondria?

Fred Kirschenmann of Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture just hopes there will be plenty of testing. "I'm not saying some of these new ideas can't be done and they won't work at some level, but every time we mess around with our ecological heritage there are always unintended side effects that come from it," he said. "We have a long history of unintended consequences.

"We've got all these animals out there right now, and if we suddenly decide we don't want to raise them, what does that do to the larger ecology?"

RAISE ANIMALS MORE HUMANELY

Here's an idea: Instead of safeguarding our appetites and engineering our meat, let's safeguard our meat and engineer our appetites. What if real animals were raised humanely and in sustainable numbers, so that their meat cost more -- maybe even a lot more? What if people only ate it on special occasions? What if, instead of deciding that the most important thing was to be able to satisfy every idle hankering for a cheeseburger, humanity assessed the resources and made a rational decision about protein acquisition that did not involve divorcing its food source from the life cycle? What if we took the invisible hand of the market, which has all the self-discipline and foresight of a 14-year-old boy, off the job and put a grown-up in charge?

One of the many people who has already thought of this is Robert Lawrence, director of the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. Although Lawrence sits on New Harvest's board, he's skeptical about the possibilities for cultured meat.

"I think it's an interesting idea," he said. "I think in some situations it might have real value as an important bioavailable form of quality protein. But there are other more straightforward and readily available solutions."

The most obvious one is moderating intake, both frequency and portion size. The Center for a Livable Future sponsors a Meatless Mondays campaign that has attracted interest from public school systems in New York and Maryland. But as wild a suggestion as Meatless Monday is (Meatless Monday through Thursday would be a lot closer to the mark) it has provoked what Lawrence calls a "backlash" by the meat industry.

"They called me an environmental extremist," he said with a laugh.

That bit of hysteria reveals volumes. It could be a long time before people smell the legume blossoms and start eating lower on the food chain. Matheny thinks cultured meat can be "a stopgap measure" aiding that process, methadone for meat eaters to ease the transition out of the era of 72-ounce steaks and into the days of dollops of hummus.

Maybe he's right. Maybe in vitro meat can serve that purpose. Or maybe it will work in a different way -- by so thoroughly grossing people out that they'll gladly reduce their meat consumption just so they lessen the risk of accidentally eating a meatri burger.

That's how it's working on me.

AlterNet.com
(END OF CHICAGO SUN TIMES PIECE)
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Date: Sun Jul 16 17:07:39 2006

Date: February 16th, 2006

On Wednesday, February 15, the Indianapolis Star included a short positive article on vegetarian diets. I will paste it below. It presents a terrific opportunity for those on plant-based diets to send letters to the editor singer their praises. You might want to write about the horrors of factory farming. (See www.FactoryFarming.com for information and photos.) The Indianapolis Star takes letters at http://www2.indystar.com/help/contact/letters.html

The Indianapolis Star (Indiana)
February 15, 2006 Wednesday
FEATURES - FOOD & DRINK; Pg. 3E

Balanced vegetarian diet is possible

By Jolene Ketzenberger, Star Correspondent

Though parents may worry that a vegetarian diet isn't healthful, rest assured that kids can get plenty of protein and other nutrients without eating meat. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines state that "vegetarian diets can be consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and meet Recommended Dietary Allowances for nutrients."

According to the American Dietetic Association, "appropriately planned vegan, lacto-vegetarian and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets satisfy nutrient needs of infants, children and adolescents and promote normal growth."

Experts warn against dropping meat without finding other protein sources.

Margie Bryan, a registered dietitian with The Care Group, a statewide network of cardiologists and primary care physicians, says that teens going veg should strive for variety:

"Kids think they're eating healthy, but they're not reading the labels. The key to a healthy vegetarian diet is variety. You have to be concerned if you're only eating salad and potato chips."

She also notes that anyone going veg should be aware of the calorie content of foods that often accompany carbs, such as high-fat cheese, dips and toppings for baked potatoes.

"We can't hang the problem just on carbs," she says. "Portion distortion becomes more the focus than overloading on carbs. The risk of increasing calories would probably come from the accompaniments of carbohydrate foods."

But there's more to going veg than simply what's on your plate. Eighteen-year-old IUPUI freshman Jessica Collins, a vegetarian who has taught a class for teens considering the switch, offers some practical advice on how to go veg:

Bring your own dish to family gatherings so you won't have to go hungry if there are no veg options. Bring enough to share -- you never know who you might inspire with delicious food.

Never make anyone feel uncomfortable while they're eating -- don't say, for example, "You know you're eating the flesh of an animal who was brutally tortured before it was murdered just so you could eat its body, right?"

Be prepared to be criticized, but we all know how it feels, and doing it ourselves is not an effective way to shed a positive light on vegetarians.

Craft a polite, constructive response to criticisms and questions about your lifestyle. For example, "I'm doing this for my health and for the animals, and I feel great."

Don't think that you're going to last as a healthy vegetarian if you live on mashed potatoes, Fritos, Sour Patch Kids and Twizzlers. Just because you're eating food sans animal products doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy. Maintain a diet full of fresh vegetables, whole grains, fruit, beans and nuts (and low-fat yogurt, cheese and milk if you're not vegan).

(END OF INDIANAPOLIS 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: Thu Feb 16 10:06:17 2006

Date: February 6th, 2006

Good news for Des Moines! You are getting "Mutts" in your paper. As the article below makes clear, the creator often uses the strip to advocate for homeless animals. He has even done a series on the plight of farm animals and has published various cartoons protesting wild animal hunts, such as the seal and bison slaughters.

You might send an appreciative animal friendly letter to the editor at letters@dmreg.com

Or if you go to http://tinyurl.com/cduqy to send your letter you'll find a great page with "Tips for being published."

Here is the Des Moine Register article about Patrick McDonnell and "Mutts":

Animal lovers wagging over 'Mutts' comic

By Mary Challender
Register Staff Writer

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060206/LIFE/602060306/1039

February 6, 2006

It may be a dog-eat-dog world.

But in "Mutts," a strip that makes its debut on The Des Moines Register's comics page today, creator Patrick McDonnell focuses on the softer side of nature — both animal and human.

The 49-year-old New Jersey resident prides himself on his strip's heart, not its edge.

"I think humor in general nowadays is kind of sarcastic and mean-spirited," McDonnell said. "A big part of the strip is to celebrate the simpler things in life and have a joyful attitude."

"Mutts," which replaces "Judge Parker" seven days a week, stars Earl, a lovable pup who enjoys belly rubs; Mooch, the curious "schmilk"-and-cookies-devouring cat who lives next door, and a stable of other characters, both two- and four-legged.

McDonnell said he wanted to be a cartoonist since he was 3 or 4. He created "Mutts" 11 years ago after a decade as a magazine illustrator.

For inspiration for the strip, he turns to his Jack Russell terrier, Earl, who will turn 17 soon, and MeeMow, a stray adopted by his wife as a kitten.

Although he grew up with cats his entire life, McDonnell's long relationship with Earl means he's unwilling to claim to be either a cat or dog person.

"He's my first dog," he said of Earl. "He's everything you could want a dog to be."

In "Mutts," McDonnell said he strives to keep his animals "animal-like" — or as animal-like as dogs and cats who talk to each other can be. He hopes people will look at the antics of Earl and Mooch and be reminded of their own pets.

"I think people can relate to that special bond we have with our cats and dogs," he said.

A third character in "Mutts" is Shtinky Puddin, an adopted stray kitten whose obsession is saving endangered species. It's a devotion McDonnell, who uses his strip to advocate for homeless animals, shares.

Twice a year, he does a series of strips that focus on shelter animals and the people who work at the shelters. He's also on the board of directors of the Humane Society of the United States.

"It's a tough life for some animals on this planet nowadays," he said. "I try to focus more on what they have to deal with. I try to see the world through their eyes."
(END OF REGISTER ARTICLE)
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Date: Mon Feb 6 15:49:14 2006

Date: February 2nd, 2006

Kansas,
The following column from the front page of Wednesday's B section offers a great opportunity for supportive animal friendly letters to the editor. Please write. The Kansas City Star takes letters at letters@kcstar.com, asks for less than 150 words, and advises, "Please include name, address and daytime phone number."

February 1, 2006 Wednesday
SECTION: B; Pg. 1

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/13760079.htm

COMMENTARY

Get serious on animal cruelty law

MIKE HENDRICKS

Long before he started killing people, Dennis Rader bound dogs and cats with wire and suffocated them in a barn.

With that happy thought in mind, consider this question:

Will this be the year that Kansas lawmakers finally pass the tough animal cruelty law they should have passed long ago?

They never took the issue seriously when the focus was animals alone.

Not even the horrible death of Scruffy registered.

You remember Scruffy. He was that little Yorkshire terrier that was burned to death on camera nine years ago. The sickos involved ended up being charged with arson because the animal cruelty law was so weak.

This year, though, the nature of the debate has changed.

The BTK case reinforced the fact that animal cruelty is common in the background of serial killers.

Thus, no more do barks and meows greet state Sen. David Haley of Kansas City, Kan., when he argues for addressing the issue once more.

Now the question is not whether the law should be tougher, but how much tougher it should be.

Tomorrow in Topeka a hearing is set to discuss two bills. Both make it a felony under certain circumstances to intentionally kill or seriously injure animals.

Kansas is one of just nine states in the nation where animal cruelty is treated strictly as a misdemeanor, according to the American Humane Association.

Likewise, both bills would mandate psychological testing of the perpetrators. Call it the BTK clause.

Without a doubt, either proposal, if approved, would be a vast improvement over current law.

However, you wouldn’t know that, given some of the rhetoric that’s been floating around.

“Why should a person be allowed to BBQ a dog twice before they are charged with a felony offense?” one animal activist asked in an e-mail recently.

That same e-mail referred to one of the bills up for debate as “a hollow statement of concern that would be better served as lining for the bottom of a hamster cage!”

That’s baloney, but it does give you a sense of the argument and the passions involved.

Haley’s latest bill is the tougher of the two, making even first-offense animal cruelty a felony, punishable by a minimum of 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine.

Whereas the bill filed by Republican Sen. Phil Journey of Haysville would make first-offense animal cruelty a misdemeanor, then a felony on subsequent convictions.

Punishment for the misdemeanor would carry a minimum of 15 days in jail. Conviction of the felony would land someone in jail for at least 60 days, but no more than a year.

It’s Journey’s bill that some activists criticize for not being tough enough, as the “hamster cage” reference implies.

Then again, Kansas wouldn’t be the first state to reserve a felony charge for second and subsequent convictions. Missouri also treats first offenses as misdemeanors, as do several other states.

Plus, considering the legislature’s reluctance to press the issue in the past, it might be as good as we’re going to get this year.

Journey’s been joined by 16 other co-sponsors, Democrats and Republicans alike, which is nearly half the Senate.

And as long as the ag lobby can be assured that ranchers won’t be arrested for, say, branding cattle, it might just have a shot at becoming law.

Sure is about time.

(END OF KANSAS CITY STAR PIECE)
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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: Thu Feb 2 17:17:33 2006

Date: March 30th, 2006

Please send supportive letters to the editor regarding the terrific piece below. The paper takes letters at http://tinyurl.com/4dgag

The Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky)
March 30, 2006 Thursday
EDITORIAL; Pg. a12
Stop throwing mud at environmentalists

Dave Cooper, CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

Several years ago, Kentuckians were concerned about a proposal to truck nuclear waste through the commonwealth on Interstate 64 to Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

Lexington residents might be even more concerned to learn that radioactive materials are being transported through our city.

For years, I have seen flatbed trucks with huge cylindrical containers of uranium hexafluoride on Versailles Road near Keeneland. Recently, I saw two of these enormous trucks stopped at the traffic light at New Circle and Bryan Station roads.

No police escort. No flashing lights. Nothing to inform passing motorists or nearby shoppers of the danger, except a small yellow-and-black "Radioactive" sign on the side of the container.

When you live halfway between uranium enrichment plants in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, you have to expect some radioactive materials coming through the region, I guess. But New Circle Road? Who made that decision?

Maybe we're not really all that important. We're just little people undeserving of any real government protection. A police escort would cost money. But I'm sure that if one of these trucks wrecked on northwest New Circle and leaked radioactive material, Wal-Mart and Lexmark would be evacuated before you could say Hurricane Katrina.

A greater danger to Lexington residents may come from the railroad line that parallels Nicholasville Road and runs through the center of the city: 4,000 or more railroad cars carrying chemicals such as sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid.

A derailment involving one 90-ton freight car carrying chlorine could kill 100,000 people in a densely populated area within 30 minutes, according to a recent study by the Naval Research Laboratory.

The University of Kentucky and four of Lexington's hospitals are within 2 miles of the railroad crossing on Waller Avenue next to the Central Kentucky Blood Center. An accident or derailment there could cause a monumental human catastrophe.

It has happened elsewhere:

On Jan. 6, 2005, chlorine gas leaking from a derailed train in Graniteville, S.C., killed eight people; 200 were injured by the fumes.

On June 28, 2004, when two freight trains collided near San Antonio, Texas, the leaking chlorine gas killed a resident 1 mile away. Others suffered severely damaged lungs.

A horrific train accident and explosion in North Korea in April 2004 killed at least 154 people and leveled buildings.

But, hey, when it comes to public safety, we've got our priorities straight.

Radioactive tanker trucks on our busiest road during orange terror alerts: no problem. Four thousand rail cars daily through the heart of town: no worries. But animal-rights activists, well, they're something to worry about. According to the FBI, the single greatest domestic terrorism threat in America today comes from animal-rights and environmental activists.

I'm a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I've been a Sierra Club member for more than 20 years. And I participated in Mountain Justice Summer. Gosh, it's amazing that they still allow me to walk the streets of Lexington.

The claim that environmental or animal-rights groups are a threat to Kentuckians' public safety is absurd and insulting to some of the most caring and dedicated volunteers you will find anywhere.

The Sierra Club is trying to get poisons out of our air, food and water, but corporate leaders, law enforcement officials and politicians are lining up to solemnly proclaim the ever-present danger from tree- and bunny-huggers.

Lt. Col. Herb Lattimore of the West Virginia Department of Emergency Services warned that potential "eco-terrorists" are everywhere: "We all know of a few fruit loops -- he's walking around with his aluminum foil over his head to keep the messages out."

KFC President Gregg Dedrick of Louisville stated that animal-rights activists who videotaped animal abuse at the plant of a KFC chicken supplier had engaged in "corporate terrorism against our company."

Give me a break.

Sadly, the national media are fanning the flames of fear with breathless reports of eco-vandalism out West, while ignoring the real danger of the chemical tanker cars in our communities.

One thing I have learned from 20 years of activism is to think for myself. It's time that our leaders start to do the same.

Dave Cooper of Lexington is a community and environmental activist. Reach him at mtrroadshow@yahoo.com.
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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: Thu Mar 30 10:25:13 2006

Date: December 11th, 2005

This front page story on Oily Dog provides a great opportunity for letters to the editor in support of the PETS Act (see https://community.hsus.org/campaign/US_pets_act_house2) or in favor of adoption.

The Times-Picayune takes letters at http://www.nola.com/contactus/

Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
December 11, 2005 Sunday
RIVER PARISHES PICAYUNE; Pg. 1

Texas man adopts oily dog from Chalmette;
St. Rose woman has hand in 'Slick's' rescue

By Matt Scallan, River Parishes bureau

The photo of an oil-soaked dog in the ruins of a Chalmette neighborhood evoked a storm of outrage from readers of the Dallas Morning News when it was published Sept. 10.

Why hadn't the photographer rescued the slippery shih tzu, angry readers wanted to know.

Animal advocates launched a Web site devoted to "oily dog," not knowing that she had found her way to the home of Angie Robert, a St. Rose woman who works at the St. Charles Parish animal shelter.

"A friend on a rescue team told me that they had found this dog that had been soaked in the oil spill in St. Bernard," said Robert, who quickly agreed to take the dog and find it a new home.

She named her "Slick," and repeatedly washed her to get the oil out.

"She still smelled like oil for weeks," Robert said.

One potential adoption didn't work out, so Slick was back with Rogers.

Meanwhile, Don Rorschach, a retired lawyer who lives in Irving, Texas, had posters made of the Dallas Morning News photo and shipped them to Chalmette, where activists posted them on utility poles.

As complaints grew about Morning News photographer Tom Fox's failure to rescue the dog, Fox returned to the area along Judge Perez Drive where he had seen the dog, and turned over an animal believed to be "Oily Dog" to animal shelter workers in the area.

But activists quickly determined that the rescued canine was not the one that Fox photographed on Sept. 6, and outrage boiled up anew.

"It looked more like a lhasa (apso) than a shih tzu," Rorschach said.

The Morning News ran a Sept. 16 story with the headline: "ID of oily dog murky now," that included Fox' explanation of why he hadn't rescued the dog.

"The thought of helping the dog crossed our minds like it did several other times when we crossed paths with many stray dogs," Fox wrote. "Under the circumstances of having to cover this huge catastrophe, we couldn't do justice to aiding all of these dogs. Issues emerged: If we pick up this dog, what about the others? Where do we go with the dog to get him cleaned up and cared for? Who would we find that had a background in saving a polluted animal? "

By now, Robert, who had been keeping the dog at her home for more than a month, became aware that people were looking for the dog.

But she wanted to be sure that whoever got custody of the dog would take care of it.

"I wanted to know who I was dealing with," Robert said. "I wasn't going to give her to just anybody."

But Rorschach won her confidence, and he drove in from Irving to collect the dog.

"She's just an incredible dog. I spend about 23 hours a day with her," he said.

Rorschach and his wife wanted to give the dog a more dignified name, but one that gave homage to the circumstances that brought her into their home.

After searching the Internet, they settled on "Orli," which means "The light is mine" in Hebrew.

"We call her Orli Slick," he said.

When Rorschach arrived at the animal shelter, he wrote Robert a check for $2,000. She reluctantly accepted, then donated the money to the St. Charles Parish Humane Society's Building Fund.

"The money would have come in handy around Christmas," said Robert, who has two children. "But there were so many people involved in the rescue that I just couldn't keep it for myself," she said. "Rescuing animals is what I do."
. . . . . . .
More details and links to news stories about Slick can be found at www.oilydog.org
. . . . . .
Matt Scallan may be reached at mscallan@timespicayune.com or (985) 652-0953.

(END OF 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 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: Sun Dec 11 12:04:23 2005

Date: June 20th, 2006

The following article from the Tuesday, June 20, Baltimore Sun presents a nice opportunity for pro-veggie letters to editor.
The Baltimore Sun takes letters at http://www.baltimoresun.com/about/bal-feedback,0,6119824.htmlstory or letters@baltsun.com

A hunger for humane foods

By Stephen Kiehl and Rob Hiaasen
Sun reporters

June 20, 2006

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-te.to.food20jun20,0,7764285.story?coll=bal-features-headlines

News from the front in the food wars: Live lobsters are a dead issue at Whole Foods. Chicago and California have made foie gras non grata. And hundreds of restaurants are boycotting Canadian seafood to protest that country's annual baby seal hunt.

As consumers ask more questions about what they eat - where it comes from, how it lived, how it was killed - they are discovering that many meals come with ethical quandaries. Retailers and restaurants are responding, hoping that a concern for animal welfare also benefits the bottom line.

Last week, Whole Foods announced it was stopping the sale of live lobsters and live soft-shell crabs in its 184 stores nationwide because the upscale grocer could not guarantee the crustaceans are treated humanely on their journey from ship to supermarket aisle. But critics wonder whether the decision was as much about economics as morality.

"They have a particular market and group of customers they're interested in paying attention to, and this is likely to be a concern on the part of their customers," said Karen Brown, senior vice president for the Food Marketing Institute, a Washington-based group that represents food retailers and wholesalers. "But the facts would not bear out that it's an inhumane process."

At the Whole Foods in Baltimore's Inner Harbor yesterday, several shoppers applauded the decision while others wondered about the store's motive.

"If they are doing it for ethical and moral principles, then it is an admirable decision," said Christina O'Hearne, 39, a nursing student and regular Whole Foods shopper. "To me, it always felt cruel to see lobsters in the tank."

Said Kevin Kacin, 38, who works in finance in Baltimore: "It sounds like a ploy to generate the liberal consumer's favor. It's kind of silly. Either way, they are dying an unnatural death."

Some restaurateurs are finding it's good business to pay attention to animal welfare issues. Two Annapolis restaurants - Riordan's Saloon and Buddy's Crabs and Ribs - have joined a boycott of Canadian seafood.

The Humane Society of the United States, which organized the seals campaign, said Canadian snow crab exports are down $160 million this year, partly due to the boycott. More than 1,000 restaurants and distributors have signed on to the campaign.

"We obviously have a conscience as to what we serve and how it's served," said Mike Riordan, whose restaurant has operated on the Annapolis waterfront since 1977 and has not served Canadian seafood since April. "It's not a liberal or conservative issue. It's a human issue."

Riordan said he has heard only positive comments from customers about his decision.

"Whole Foods' strong stance on animal welfare is a winning formula in the marketplace," said Matt Prescott, manager of factory farming campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Whole Foods is living proof that ethics can coexist with profits."

Not all consumers care so fervently about how animals are treated, of course. But enough of them do that they constitute a sizable market, said Paul B. Thompson, a philosophy professor at Michigan State University who specializes in food, agricultural and community ethics.

"Many people who were not particularly aware of where their food came from have perhaps over the last five years become much more interested in that," he said. "In some respects, it starts with Darwin and people recognizing there's probably more continuity between the way animals experience the world and the way humans experience the world than they might have been inclined to think."

But they were not feeling the lobster's pain yesterday at Faidley Seafood in Baltimore's Lexington Market. Whole Foods' decision was met with incredulity and a few choice words.

"Listen," said Lou Fleming, a longtime oyster shucker at Faidley's, "we're not talking about something with a soul." He shook his head when given the lobster news. "Human beings put too much thought into things that don't make sense."

He doesn't care at all about the lobster?

"I care about how much butter to put on it," Fleming said.

Interrupted during a crab cake lunch, Northwest flight attendant Liz Delaney said everything has become politically correct.

"It's ridiculous. Why don't we cut out fishing altogether? Do you think it's nice to hook fish?" Delaney said. "This lobster thing has gone overboard."

It's not just lobsters, though. The City Council of Chicago has approved a ban, to take effect in August, on restaurants' serving foie gras. California already has such a ban because of the conditions under which the delicacy is produced: Ducks are force-fed corn, through a tube stuffed down their necks, until their livers are six times normal size.

In announcing its decision last week, Whole Foods cited a report issued in November by the European Food Safety Authority that said decapod crustaceans, including lobsters and crabs, appear to have some degree of awareness, can feel pain and can learn.

Baloney, say other scientists. They point out that lobsters have no brain - only a knot of neurons - and can react to stimuli but not experience pain in the same way as humans or other animals. Lobsters have about 100,000 neurons, compared with about 100 billion in humans.

"I don't believe it is capable of thinking," said Robert S. Steneck, professor of oceanography and marine biology at the University of Maine. "This argument has a lot less to do with science than with the human discomfort of bringing this living thing back home and putting it in boiling water."

And that EEEEeeeeee! sound the lobster makes when dropped into the pot? It's hot air escaping from the shell, experts say, not a scream of pain. Indeed, Steneck said lobsters are actually treated well compared with other animals we eat. They are not overfished, and their reproductive stock is increasing, Steneck said.

Most lobsters, he said, "have been living in nature for eight to 10 years before they are caught. By many standards in nature, that is a pretty good living."

Over the years, some have wondered why anyone would even want to eat lobsters. Humor writer Dave Barry wrote in a 1996 column: "My point is that lobsters have long been suspected, by me at least, of being closet insects. I believe Mother Nature gave us eyes because she did not want us to eat this type of food."

Beyond mere appearances, economics could have been a factor in Whole Foods' decision. Safeway will be phasing out the sale of live lobsters at its 1,700 stores over the next year because they weren't selling, said a spokesman.

Whole Foods representatives did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

Crabbers on Maryland's Eastern Shore said they could understand dropping lobsters or soft-shell crabs because they don't sell or are hard to keep alive. But they don't buy into the argument that their profession is any less humane than others that bring food to America's tables.

"I laugh at that," crabber Tony Rippons, 30, said of the live lobster ban. "Everything we eat is inhumane, if you want to follow that argument. Let's be realistic here. It's no more inhumane than the average person going to a creek and going fishing."

(END OF BALTIMORE SUN 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 You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)


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Date: Tue Jun 20 14:58:07 2006

Date: November 22nd, 2005

The Boston Globe also has, on November 22, a welcome article headed, "Dog racing ban again headed to voters." The website
http://www.grey2kusa.org/ is a great source of information on the greyhound industry. Please check it out if this area is new to you. And please send a letter to the editor in support of the ban to letter@globe .com

Here is the article from today's Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/11/22/dog_racing_ban_again_headed_to_voters/

Dog racing ban again headed to voters
Backers , defeated in '00, aim for '06

By Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff | November 22, 2005

Massachusetts voters will probably have a second chance next fall to decide the future of greyhound racing in the Bay State.

Backers of an initiative petition to ban greyhound racing told the Globe yesterday that they have collected nearly double the number of signatures necessary to put their measure on the November 2006 ballot. A similar proposal lost by a 51 percent to 49 percent margin in 2000.

To get a question on the ballot, committees must obtain the signatures of at least 65,825 registered voters and get them certified by municipal clerks where those voters live. The process began Sept. 21, and signatures are due at municipal clerks' offices tomorrow evening.

Christine Dorchak, chairwoman of the ballot committee, said that, as of yesterday, campaign workers had gathered more than 110,000 signatures to ban a sport they consider cruel and inhumane.

''For the pure joy of it, I am personally going to the Revere town clerk tomorrow," said Dorchak, noting that Revere is home to Wonderland Greyhound Park, one of two dog tracks in the state.

The initiative -- backed by the Humane Society of the United States, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the greyhound protection group GREY2K, and the Animal Rescue League of Boston -- would phase out greyhound racing altogether by Jan. 1, 2008. Supporters of the racing industry have been lobbying lawmakers to allow slot machine gambling at the tracks, which are suffering a dramatic decline in revenues. The slot machine measure passed overwhelmingly in the state Senate this fall, but House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi has refused to let the bill reach the House floor for a vote.

Gary Guccione, executive director of the Kansas-based National Greyhound Association, said opponents of dog racing were making ''ludicrous and exaggerated" claims about the well-being of the dogs.

''I don't know of any sport that has done as much as greyhound racing has to address welfare issues," Guccione said. ''We promote pet adoption, and there are now more than 300 adoption groups in the country adopting more than 20,000 dogs nationally. The industry wholeheartedly supports that and helps with funding."

In 2000, racing proponents outspent the ballot committee, 10 to 1, running advertisements that warned of thousands of lost jobs if the measure passed. GREY2K, meanwhile, accused track owners of maltreating racing dogs.

This time, backers of a ban are taking a different strategy to appeal to all dog lovers. In addition to outlawing greyhound racing, the proposal would strengthen laws against dog fighting and increase penalties for harming police and guide dogs.

''Last time, the Humane Society and MSPCA were only nominally involved," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. ''But this time, we are in on the ground floor and bringing the weight of organizations into this fight. It means money, membership, expertise, campaign experience."
(END OF GLOBE ARTICLE)
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Date: Tue Nov 22 10:32:24 2005

Date: November 8th, 2005

The following article from the Detroit Free Presents a great opportunity for letters to the editor against the use of wild animals in human entertainment. The Detroit Free Press takes letters at letters@freepress.com and advises, "Please put the letter in text of the E-mail, not as an attachment. All writers must provide full name, full home address and day and evening telephone numbers. Letters should be 200 words or less and are subject to editing. Anonymous letters, letters to third parties and letters to other publications will not be considered."

Please also consider writing to other Detroit papers, such as the Detroit News (letters@detnews.com) regarding the Ringling Bros. visit to Detroit.

www.Circuses.com is a good source of information on the issue.

Here is the Detroit Free Press piece:

Protest over pachyderm performers planned
BY HUGH McDIARMID JR.
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

November 8, 2005
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/elephants8e_20051108.htm

Rancor over elephant care ethics -- a debate that captivated metro Detroiters during a yearlong saga involving Detroit Zoo pachyderms -- could ignite again this week when the circus comes to town.

Nine elephants were scheduled to arrive Monday night for performances of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus that begins Wednesday in Auburn Hills.

Protesters -- banking in part on heightened public awareness in the wake of the controversial shipping of the zoo's elephants, Winky and Wanda, to a sanctuary -- will greet circus patrons with anti-circus literature and animal welfare information Wednesday night.

"This one is going to be a doozy," reads the Web site of Southeastern Michigan Animal Rights Team. As of Monday, about two dozen of the group's members are expected to protest at the Palace of Auburn Hills, according to Kelli Marshall, the group's director.

"I am hoping that the retirement of Winky and Wanda raised awareness about these majestic creatures, and that people will come to realize that if elephants cannot get the care they need and deserve at a zoo, they certainly can't get it from a circus," Marshall wrote in an e-mail to the Free Press on Monday.

Circus officials said protests are common in big cities but acknowledged that the publicity over Detroit's elephants during the past 18 months creates an unpredictable dynamic.

Metro Detroiters rallied behind Detroit Zoo Director Ron Kagan's 2004 decision to send Winky and Wanda to a California sanctuary despite initial opposition from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

The struggle generated international publicity after Kagan declared that zoos, especially in cold North American climates, could never adequately meet the animals' complex physical, social and psychological needs.

Kagan contends circuses are no better -- and probably worse -- at caring for elephants.

"Moving around in an artificial environment is not healthy and performing tricks does not contribute to animal welfare or a better understanding," he said.

The Detroit publicity could hurt attendance at the circus, or it could draw more visitors if folks realize it is their only chance to see -- or have their children see -- a live elephant in Michigan.

Historically, publicity has not been found to affect attendance, said Bruce Read, vice president of animal stewardship for Ringling Bros. "But Detroit certainly seems like as good an area as any to have this discussion right now," he said.

Read said Ringling's pachyderms are happy and healthy -- walking several miles a day, living in groups, being constantly stimulated with tasks to perform and problems to solve, and getting top-notch veterinary care.

The company also runs a breeding and retirement facility for its aging elephants in Florida.

"Part of our education program is to bring a unique set of animals to inner-city people," Read said. Protesters "deal with the issue from an emotional perspective. We deal with a knowledgeable and factual perspective."

But many elephant experts disagree, contending circus elephants are stressed from travel in railroad cars, are frequently chained to the ground, get little mental stimulation and suffer from arthritis and foot problems caused by constantly standing on hard surfaces.

Cynthia Moss, one of the world's most widely respected elephant researchers, concluded in a recent statement signed by nine other international elephant researchers that the use of elephants in circuses is "a travesty and to allow this practice to continue is unjustified and unethical."

Liesa McDonald said Monday she wouldn't hesitate to take her daughter, Hailey, 7, to the circus.

"We went last year, but I doubt we'll go this year," said McDonald, 38, of Grosse Pointe Park. "I think the problem with the zoo's elephants was the cold weather. With Ringling, they travel all around. So I don't agree with" protesters, she said.

Contact HUGH McDIARMID JR. at 248-351-3295 or mcdiarmid@freepress.com.
(END OF DETROIT FREE PRESS 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 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 Nov 8 15:08:15 2005