DawnWatch Georgia

DawnWatch Georgia -- AJC on Hog-dog events 7/30/06

2006-07-30T17:27:48Z

The following AJC article calls for letters against animal cruelty as human entertainment. The paper takes letters at http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 30, 2006 Sunday
METRO NEWS; Pg. 1C

Hog-dog events stir controversy;
Handlers: No animals mistreated

MARK DAVIS; Staff

Terry Lee wants you to understand: He is not a cruel man.

Take his word for it, or check with Woodrow, Sissy, Cottonmouth, Katie, Fat Dog, Larry, Alice, Spud, Sharlene, Goldie and Riley. With the exception of Sissy, who is an American bulldog, they're hounds, hog dogs to the bone.

They love to chase a hog through the forested flatlands near Folkston, cornering it until the humans arrive to bring it home alive.

The dogs are not mistreated, says Lee. Nor are his hogs, not even when he puts them in a pen with his dogs and invites the paying public to watch what happens.

Lee is the owner of Southern Heritage Bay Pen of Folkston, just a cry from the Florida state line. It's a modest place, an arena flanked by some homemade bleachers with room for a couple hundred people. Others can back their trucks to the fence and sit on tailgates, or unfold a chair, to have a good view.

What happens, he says, "is kind of like a sheep dog competition."

A wild hog, whose tusks have been cut to avoid goring a dog, is ushered through a gate into the arena. A moment later, a dog enters the ring. His job: hold the hog cornered, at bay, for two minutes. Three judges grade the dog, deleting points for mistakes --- whether the dog breaks eye contact with the hog, for example.

If the dog bites the hog? "Disqualified," Lee said without hesitation. Biting would make it a hog-dog rodeo, he said, and "you can't have that."

Or can you?

Georgia is the only Southern state whose laws do not specifically ban hog-dog rodeos; its laws generally forbid animal fighting.

In Georgia, you can pit dog vs.hog so long as you abide by certain rules --- chief among them a prohibition against biting. The state even issues permits for such encounters, called "baying pen events."

The two spectacles --- baying pen events and hog-dog rodeos --- have some traits in common. Both feature wild hogs held in pens and set upon by dogs.

But the dog of choice in hog-dog rodeos is a pit bull. Rodeo dogs are taught to bite and hold. In baying events, hounds or herding dogs are popular. Dogs in baying pens are trained to stay close to a hog, but not bite it. Fans of the bay-pen encounters say neither animal is injured if the match is staged correctly. The state's current animal-cruelty statutes, they say, are sufficient to look after the four-legged participants.

Opponents say that's nonsense --- that, by the very nature of the contests, an animal is running a good chance of injury whenever it's ushered into a pen. They want Georgia lawmakers to follow the lead of legislatures in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North and South Carolina, which in recent years have passed laws spelling out penalties for hog-dog rodeos.

"People aren't going to pay money to watch a dog corner a pig," said state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), who led a failed effort to revise the law in the Legislature's last session. "They want to see some action. They want to see some blood."

He's been building support for a bill banning hog-dog rodeos that he plans to introduce when lawmakers convene in Atlanta again.

That worries some hunting enthusiasts, who warn that if hog-dog encounters are regulated too closely, hunting with dogs could be legislated out of existence.

"It's kind of a poor area down here; you don't have all the big jobs here like you do in Atlanta," said Lee, 49, who has hunted hogs all his life. "It [hunting] puts meat on the table."

Baying permits

The state Department of Agriculture issues permits for baying pen competitions to watch for any outbreak of diseases that wild hogs might carry. Since January 2005, it has issued permits for 15 events.

Nearly all permit applicants live hours south of Atlanta, in spots such as Ludowici in Long County, southwest of Savannah. A place where two U.S. highways cross, Ludowici is a famed former speed trap, where, in the days before interstates, police targeted unwary travelers. These days, it's the home of the Wildhog Baying Contest, where proprietor Clifton Ray last December hosted a two-day, state-approved gathering of hogs, dogs and people.

It was a clean event, said Ray; no hogs got hurt. Instead, spectators witnessed one animal's finesse against another's defiance as dog bayed at hog.

The contest, he said, "takes all the blood and guts out of the rodeos."

Ray, 59, doesn't like the hog-dog rodeos, which he considers barbaric. "I don't know of anybody doing them, and if I did, I would turn (them) in," he said.

He also doesn't like the prospect of some law telling him what he can, and cannot do, with his dogs.

Hog hunting: a necessity

The North American wild hog is one tough animal --- smart, fast, capable of eating almost anything. Hunters say they're so cunning that hogs soon alter their habits when one in their herd is hunted and killed --- changing locations, for example, or switching to nighttime feedings.

Wild hogs are all over the state, from the Low Country to the mountains. They're a part of the political, as well as physical, landscape: Every year, lobbyists and lawmakers come together in South Georgia for the Wild Hog Supper that precedes the legislative session.

Hog hunting came about from necessity, says Parker Barrett of Jefferson.

Barrett has a wildlife biology degree from the University of Georgia and has been tracking and hunting hogs since moving here six years ago from Gurnee, Ill. He's learned some history in that time.

Serve up a slice of hog meat, said Barrett, and you're also serving up a slice of rural history.

Years ago, farmers would release their pigs in the spring, letting them forage in the woods until autumn. As cooler breezes moved across the land, the farmer would whistle up his dogs and head into the forest to corral his herd. Then he'd feed them corn for a couple of months until their meat was no longer gamy tasting. Then he'd slaughter them in cold weather.

But not all the hogs were caught, and they joined herds of other wild swine, adding to the population and its gene pool. Hogs, Barrett said, have flourished.

"This is a tradition that has gone on for years," said Barrett, whose favorite dog, Hooch, is a 78-pound American bulldog. "It's a tradition I'm glad to carry on."

But some say tradition has nothing to do with the hog-dog rodeos.

The competitions reached their popularity in the early part of this decade, then seemingly vanished about a year ago --- due, in no small part, to a series of regional and national undercover TV reports that captured the blood and mayhem of hog-dog rodeos at remote locations in the South.

"The catch competitions have gone very underground now," said John Goodwin, who is the deputy manager of animal-fighting issues for the Humane Society of the United States.

They no longer exist, said Mary Luther, president of the International Catch Dog Association of Fort Lawn, S.C. She blames the Humane Society, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other animal-rights organizations for killing the competitions.

"This was a way of life for us," said Luther. "They've totally destroyed us."

Lawyer: No contact?

Lawyer Claudine Wilkins has no sympathy for Luther. An Alpharetta resident, she's a lawyer and co-founder of the nonprofit Georgia Legal Professionals for Animals. Founded three years ago, the organization tracks animal-cruelty issues and their enforcement.

Wilkins, a former Cobb prosecutor, acknowledges that any animal-cruelty bill probably will have to allow baying contests if it wants to get through the Legislature.

She wonders about the people who sponsor the contests. "It is highly unlikely that you can trust people who are getting these permits not to let the dog contact the hog," she said.

Such talk offends Mark Banister of Hartwell. In January, he put on the Hickory Crossing Wild Boar Trials, charging $10 a head for two days' worth of hog and dog face-offs. Like other promoters, he feels that some critics of baying contests just don't understand: What gets country folks' blood racing may not be the same thing that city people like.

He recalled a contest last year, which People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protested. PETA is a frequent and ardent critic of the baying contests.

"When PETA protested, that was the best advertisement I ever had," Banister said. He chuckled at the memory. "I thought about sending them a thank-you card."

Lee, back at Southern Heritage Bay Pen in Folkston, said no one gets rich off the contests. In his last event, held more than a year ago, he charged $6 a head admission, and $40-per-dog entry fee. He pocketed a little over $3,000, Lee said.

"It helps pay the light bill," he said.

He may put on another contest but is planning to wait until another spectacle --- one taking place under a golden dome, featuring a pack of lawmakers --- is done.
(END OF AJC 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 do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)

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Date: Sun Jul 30 17:27:48 2006

DawnWatch Georgia: AJC "So you want to be a veg head? Here's help and inspiration" -- 7/5/06

2006-07-06T17:08:21Z

Georgians:
The following article from yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls for appreciative animal friendly letters to the editor. Please write.
The paper takes letters at http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 5, 2006
BETTER HEALTH; Pg. 6K
cover story;

Carnivore no more;

So you want to be a veg head? Here's help and inspiration

You've heard of veggie burgers and maybe even Tofurkey, but chicken-free chicken nuggets? Fib ribs? The vegetarian lifestyle just got a whole lot more appealing.

Actually, vegetarians would disagree; they say their lifestyle has always been appealing. "In spite of the name, we eat more than vegetables," said Charles Aloisio of Decatur, who has been a vegan for 20 years. "We often joke ... how people think being vegan is boring. There are a lot more vegetables and non-animal-product foods than there are animal-product foods."

Still, many people think being a vegetarian means eating nothing but salads and green vegetables. In other words, going hungry all the time. But vegetarian dishes can be flavorful and filling, and some of them mimic meat so well that even diehard meat eaters can't tell the difference.

Besides contributing to a less greasy kitchen, vegetarian cooking can benefit your health. Like anyone else, though, vegetarians should make sure to get the proper nutrients, especially calcium, protein and iron, which are plentiful in meats, eggs and dairy products but can be made up with green leafy vegetables, tofu, nuts and beans.

Getting started

Jill Howard, president of the Vegetarian Society of Georgia, says, "There are many more resources available for aspiring vegetarians than there used to be." Here are some tips to get you going:

Diversify. Look for fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, and other animal-free products that might be unfamiliar to you and try to incorporate them into your diet. They will introduce new flavors and textures that will keep your taste buds energized.

Brown is better. Choose whole grains, such as whole wheat bread (not enriched wheat), brown rice and whole wheat pasta. White bread and pasta will fill you up but provide fewer nutrients.

Read labels carefully. As with any food, vegetarian cuisine is also sold in cans, jars and boxes. Just because it is meatless doesn't mean it's healthy.

Go faux. If you still want the texture of meat, try veggie burgers, chicken patties, ribs, veggie turkey and more.

Already there. You may already eat some foods that are vegan. For a list of common supermarket brands that pass the test, go to www.peta.org/accidentallyvegan. You will notice some foods are healthier than others.

Types of vegetarians

Ovolactovegetarian: Diet can include eggs (ovo) and dairy products (lacto) but no beef, poultry, pork or seafood.

Lactovegetarian: A vegetarian who consumes dairy products but not eggs.

Vegan: Does not consume any animal product --- even things like honey, because it's made by bees, and gelatin, which is made from animal bones.

* Flexitarian or Pesceterian: Usually avoids eating meat and chicken but eats fish (pesce).

Bhairavi Bhatt

Why are you a vegetarian/vegan? How long?

"I'm a born-again vegetarian for 1 1/2 years now, mainly because of health benefits. But initially I was a vegetarian since birth."

How would you typically cook or eat your favorite vegetable/fruit?

"I love salads and add different ingredients to them to make the meal more interesting."

Advice for people considering becoming a vegetarian.

"There are so many places --- like farmers markets, Whole Foods, etc. --- that provide a vast variety of vegetables, fruits, grains that make it fun to be a vegetarian, rather than a task that seems impossible. Go to all the ethnic restaurants, try their food without being picky."

Charles Aloisio

Why are you a vegetarian/vegan? How long?

"Vegan for health and environmental reasons; 20 years."

How would you typically cook or eat your favorite vegetable/fruit?

"Artichoke, steamed with melted margarine dip."

Advice for people considering becoming a vegetarian.

"Amount guidance. I used to be 100 pounds heavier, and I thought I could eat without regard to amounts when I began eating vegan. [Now] I carefully measure the amounts of seeds and nuts I use for protein."

Lewis Regenstein

Why are you a vegetarian/vegan? How long?

"I have been a vegetarian since about 1970, and stopped eating meat because it was bad for my health and the health of the planet."

Why is garlic your favorite kind of produce?

"It has been known for centuries as a natural antibiotic, [it is] good for your heart, circulation and immune system."

Advice for people considering becoming a vegetarian.

"One can be a vegetarian and go to almost any restaurant and still have a choice of dozens of delicious dishes."

Teresa Eddings

Why are you a vegetarian/vegan? How long?

"Various animal conditions. It's been an evolving process since the mid-'80s."

How would you typically cook or eat your favorite fruit?

"Plain. Bananas are a self-contained, great food for a single girl on the go."

What's your advice for people considering vegetarianism?

"When planning a meal, most people pick their meat first, followed by which vegetables they want. So I guess it's easier to have a meat substitute such as a veggie burger, barbecued tofu or sweet-and-sour seitan, many of which are available at... natural foods stores around town."

Clip 'n' keep!

RESOURCES

Learn more about vegetarianism:

www.goveg.com, a Web site affiliated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

www.vegetarianbaby.com

Black Vegetarian Society of Georgia: www.bvsga.org, info@bvsga.org, 770-621-5056

Vegetarian Society of Georgia: www.vegsocietyofga.org or info@vegsocietyofga.org

TOFU-MUSHROOM SUPREME

4 tablespoons oil, such as sunflower, safflower or canola

1/2 pound firm tofu, drained, pressed and sliced into strips

1 cup sliced mushrooms such as white, shiitake and cremini

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 1/2 to 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce (if you can find soy sauce in a spray bottle, this will let you spritz the tofu easily)

You can adjust the amount of garlic and mushrooms to taste.

Add the oil to the skillet or wok and let it heat. Add the tofu strips and lightly brown, turning them. Add the mushrooms, garlic and soy sauce. Turn constantly, stir-frying for about 3 minutes, until the mushrooms soften.

Serve over bed of organic mixed spring greens or brown rice.

Recipe courtesy of Traci Thomas

For more recipes go to ajc.com/health.
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Date: Thu Jul 6 17:08:21 2006

DawnWatch Georgia: AJC on disaster planning with pets -- 6/3/06

2006-06-05T14:33:13Z

Saturday's Atlanta Journal Constitution had a lead story (pg 3a) on disaster planning with pets, presenting a great opportunity for letters to the editor. I will paste the article below. The paper takes letters at http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 3, 2006 Saturday
NEWS; Pg. 3A

Prepare to take your pet; Katrina's lessons: Animal rescuers, officials meet to discuss how to deal with family pets in evacuations; two Georgians demur on House bill.

BOB DART

Arlington, Va. --- Fetch Fido, too, when you flee the flood.

That was the message as nearly 700 pet advocates gathered in this Washington suburb for the National Conference on Animals in Disasters.

As another summer hurricane season opens, "take your pets with you" if ordered to evacuate, said Richard Rice, who manages the Humane Society's Southeast regional office in Atlanta.

The three-day conference, which concluded Friday, brought together animal rescuers from around the country and officials from the federal Homeland Security and Agriculture departments to build on the lessons learned from last summer's Hurricane Katrina.

That tragedy demonstrated that "emergency preparedness is important for all members of a household, including pets," said George Foresman, the Department of Homeland Security's undersecretary for preparedness.

Disaster planning must include pets because many people "are just not going to leave" unless they can take their animals, he told the conference.

Six of every 10 American households have at least one pet, according to the Humane Society of the United States, sponsor of the conference.

About 10,000 stranded pets were rescued along the Gulf Coast after Katrina, but no one knows how many thousands died in the storm and its aftermath, said Randy Covey, director of disaster services for the Humane Society.

Extrapolating from national averages, he said, 600,000 pets were affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Last week, the House overwhelmingly passed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, which requires consideration of people with pets in setting up disaster response plans.

Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) have introduced similar legislation on the other side of the Capitol.

"Losing a home in a disaster is traumatic, but losing a beloved family pet makes it even more devastating," Lautenberg said. "We saw many people in New Orleans who refused to leave without their pets, putting themselves in more danger. If there had been a plan to evacuate people with their pets, we might have saved some human lives as well as many animals."

Among the few dissenters in the House vote were Georgia Republicans Lynn Westmore-land and Charlie Norwood, who said they are animal lovers but complained the bill would impose unfunded federal mandates on states and divert funds needed for human rescues.

At the conference, the experts stressed that the best solution is for pet owners to plan ahead for possible disaster.

The Humane Society and the Department of Homeland Security have both prepared free pamphlets on disaster preparedness for pets. Both warn that most public emergency evacuation shelters don't admit animals, so preparation is vital.

"Consider family and friends willing to take you in and your pets in an emergency," says the Homeland Security pamphlet, available online at www.ready.gov. "Other options may include a hotel or motel that takes pets or a boarding facility, such as a kennel or veterinary hospital, that is near an evacuation facility."

In Georgia, the state agriculture department has certified 15 to 20 "pet-friendly" emergency shelters, said Rice.

As with their human neighbors on the Gulf Coast, many pets were evacuated to Georgia after Katrina, said Rice. Some flew into Marietta's Dobbins Air Reserve Base with their owners. Many more animals had been abandoned or separated and were taken to shelters for adoption, he said.

Joe Burkett, a volunteer pet protector from Austin, Texas, financed his own pet rescue trip to New Orleans after Katrina. One of the deserted, malnourished dogs he rescued is now among his own pets. Saving pets after the storm was "a soul-searching experience when you're called upon to go into a house to find an attack dog," he said.

But if another hurricane hits, he said, he will go back "in a heartbeat."
(END OF AJC article)
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Date: Mon Jun 5 14:33:13 2006

DawnWatch Georgia: Yerkes chimp lab protest in AJC 4/20/06

2006-04-20T12:30:19Z

The following article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cries out for letters to editor against the use of chimps in research. You can find out more about the NEAVS campaign and tonight's event at http://www.releasechimps.org/
And you can send a letter to the AJC editor at http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 20, 2006 Thursday
SECTION: METRO NEWS; Pg. 6D

Yerkes focus of chimp 'awareness campaign';
Primate center chief says group is uninformed

BILL HENDRICK

He's been the butt of criticism before, so Stuart Zola, director of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, plans to ignore a planned demonstration tonight by a Boston-based animal rights group claiming Emory University's chimpanzees are mistreated --- a claim he denies.

The New England Anti-Vivisection Society says it chose the Fernbank Museum of Natural History to kick off its national "awareness campaign" because Yerkes is one of the best-known research centers for non-human primates.

Zola said Yerkes' 109 chimps, which are used in experiments, are treated humanely.

"This is not really a protest, but an awareness campaign," said Theodora Capaldo, president of the group. "It is not a protest. There will be no placards or signs. We simply want to educate the public about what goes on at Yerkes and other centers where chimpanzees are studied, often cruelly."

She said about 170 people are expected at the 7 p.m. Fernbank event, where experts will discuss the treatment of about 1,300 chimps in U.S. research labs. Lectures by primate specialists, "rescuers," geneticists and former Yerkes chimp handlers are planned.

Museum spokeswoman Ma-rissa Greider said Fernbank has no position on the issue.

Yerkes has been the target of animal-rights groups for two decades. In 2001, about 20 people demonstrated peacefully for two hours in front of the World of Coke, protesting the Coca-Cola Co.'s financial interest in Emory and Yerkes. Numerous protests have been aimed at Yerkes since the late 1980s, all peaceful except for a 1997 clash with police in which 64 people were arrested.

"We believe that the time has come," Capaldo said, "to extend the circle of scientific morality to include our next of kin and essentially all great apes."

Zola, a neuroscientist who came to Emory in 2001 from the University of California at San Diego, received a rude reception when he arrived at his new neighborhood in Decatur. He and his neighbors were greeted by photos of a monkey in restraints, screeching as the image of a human hand peeled its scalp back.

He said his center's chimps are involved in research projects that do not harm them.

"Many are involved in social interaction experiments, others that look at developmental culture," he said. "We have a few involved in research on hepatitis C, and a large number now in research on cognitive decline and aging."

The goal, he said, is to learn something about human aging and possibly discover triggers for Alzheimer's disease by studying chimps, which don't develop the illness.

He said it's important for scientists to study the brains of chimps, not through surgery but with scans that take brain images for clues about how the animals think.

"We aren't just studying cognitive decline, but aspects of motor behavior," he said.

Though there was a time when chimps were intentionally infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, that no longer is done, Zola said, for "practical reasons. We've learned what we can from chimpanzees in terms of HIV research. We now have better models. They were once critically valuable and critically important, but we have moved on to other models because of what we've learned."

No chimp at Yerkes has died of AIDS, though some were infected with HIV and were later euthanized, he said. Yerkes spokeswoman Lisa Newbern said some had developed "an AIDS-like disease"

Zola said he was annoyed that the Boston group had chosen Yerkes to begin what it claims will be a national fight against chimp experiments.

"It's just a political movement, not a movement with humane purposes," he said. "This has a long history. These activists are profoundly ignorant about the facts of science. It is not a humane movement."
(END OF AJC ARTICLE)
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Date: Thu Apr 20 12:30:19 2006

DawnWatch Georgia: Helping Animals 101 coming to Atlanta this weekend 3/4-3/5/06

2006-02-27T15:12:47Z

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

Georgia DawnWatch: AJC front page on shark display and Athens Banner Herald on Howard Lyman lecture 10/18/05

2005-10-18T19:06:16Z

The Tuesday, October 18, Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a balanced front page piece on the Georgia Aquarium's "plan to publicly display the world's largest shark," -- two sharks, which the article describes as "gentle giants, which eat plankton, not people." The article's final quote is a nice jump-off line for a letter to the editor: "Global protection will then render obsolete the excuse of procuring whale sharks for aquariums in lieu of fishing, and leave these animals where they belong, in the open ocean."
I will paste the piece below. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution takes letters at http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html

Also, the Tuesday, October 18, Athens Banner Herald features a long story on the front page of the 'Living' section, about Howard Lyman, who will be speaking and presenting his new film at the Univesity of Georgia on Monday, October 24, sponsored by Speak Out for Species. Lyman, an ex-cattle rancher who became an expert on Mad Cow Disease and then Oprah's co-defendent when she was sued by the cattle ranchers, is a terrific speaker. If you haven't heard him before and find yourself near Athens on Monday you should check out the lecture. I will paste the story on Lyman below the AJC shark story, and encourage supportive letters to the Athens Banner Herald. That paper takes letters at: http://www.onlineathens.com/feedback.shtml
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 18, 2005 Tuesday
NEWS; Pg. 1A

Shark display ruffles feathers

JIM THARPE

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/atlanta/1005/18fishprotest.html

Many scientists consider it a tempest in a --- very large --- fish bowl. But some animal rights activists have criticized the soon-to-open Georgia Aquarium for its plan to publicly display the world's largest shark, a feat never attempted outside Asia.

The 500,000-square-foot aquarium, a mammoth ship-shaped building near Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, plans to open its doors Nov. 21. It will be the biggest aquarium in the world with more than 100,000 fish, including Ralph and Norton, two juvenile whale sharks --- the largest fish on Earth and one of the least understood.

The United Kingdom-based Captive Animals' Protection Society, the New Jersey-based Shark Research Institute and at least one scientist who has conducted whale shark research have raised varying degrees of concern about the aquarium's decision to display the gentle giants, which eat plankton, not people.

Others, including Robert Hueter --- one of the nation's leading shark experts --- have applauded the plan to bring the big fish to the public. Exposing huge numbers of people to the giant fish through the aquarium will, they contend, help protect the animal in the wild and increase our understanding of the creature.

"This kind of display can engage the public and help protect the ocean, and there are two ways to go about that," Hueter said. "One is to take people to whale sharks in the wild. The other is to bring whale sharks to people.

"You can only take so many people to the sharks without adversely impacting the sharks' behavior. And most people just can't afford to go on those kinds of trips."

But Craig Redmond of the Captive Animals' Protection Society, which lobbies on behalf of animals in circuses, zoos and the entertainment industry, has labeled the Georgia Aquarium's move as "dangerous." He has called for a shutdown of the aquarium industry.

"CAPS believes that Georgia Aquarium's capture and display of species like whale sharks . . . is increasing the pressure on other aquariums across the U.S., and the world, to capture thousands of animals from the wild and put them on display," Redmond said. "Many of these animals will not live long in captivity and will be replaced by yet more wild-caught animals."

Before they were purchased by the Georgia Aquarium, Ralph and Norton were headed for the dinner table in Taiwan, where whale sharks are legally slaughtered for food. The Taiwanese refer to the species as the "tofu shark" due to the color and texture of its flesh.

World-renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle, a National Geographic Explorer in Residence, has praised aquarium benefactor and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus for his decision to spend more than $200 million of his home-improvement fortune on an aquarium to display the big fish.

"Sharks that are at the aquarium in Georgia today would be dead if they hadn't been transported and lovingly cared for and given a home for the rest of their natural lives with people looking out for their every need," Earle said.

Hueter said most critics oppose any public display of wild animals. He said many simply want to shut down all aquariums and zoos.

"Those facilities have educated masses of people who have become biologists and conservationists and wildlife photographers. That has had tremendous benefits for species worldwide," said Hueter, who directs the Center for Shark Research for Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla. The Georgia Aquarium is funding Hueter's whale shark research in Mexico.

Marie Levine, of the Shark Research Institute, initially blasted the aquarium's decision to display whale sharks as "unconscionable," but has since mitigated her criticism.

"It's wonderful if they want to spend the money to expose people to whale sharks, but they must be responsible," Levine said. "When the animals show signs of stress, they should release them and preferably in U.S. waters since they are protected here. Historically, whale sharks have not survived in captivity."

Some critics contend there is a 30 percent mortality rate for whale sharks during their first year of captivity. Supporters point out that in recent years the Japanese, who pioneered putting whale sharks on public display, have been able to sustain the filter-feeding fish for more than a decade. Given that progress, they contend, Ralph and Norton should be able to live long and healthy lives in downtown Atlanta.

Hueter said critics often cite mortality figures from decades ago, when the Japanese first attempted to display the giant fish, which can grow to 60 feet long in the wild. Often the fish were put in tanks that were too small, and they were cared for by handlers who knew little about their requirements, he said. The Georgia Aquarium, he said, was designed specifically for the whale shark's needs, and their care is based on decades of accumulated knowledge.

"These sharks are, in fact, flourishing since they arrived in Atlanta," he said.

Rachel Graham, a scientist who has conducted extensive research on whale sharks in Belize, sent a mass e-mail to her colleagues in August criticizing the Georgia Aquarium's decision to display the fish. She noted that her research indicated that the fish in the wild undertakes a pattern of rhythmic dives that can reach hundreds of meters --- behavior impossible in a 30-foot-deep aquarium tank.

"Let us continue our push for global whale shark conservation so that populations may be protected and in some areas restored following overfishing," Graham wrote. "Global protection will then render obsolete the excuse of procuring whale sharks for aquariums in lieu of fishing and leave these animals where they belong, in the open ocean."
(END OF AJC ARTICLE)
----------------------------
Here is the story from the Athens Banner Herald on Howard Lyman.

What's not for dinner: The story of Howard Lyman's beef with the cattle
industry

By Julie Phillips
julie.phillips@onlineathens.com
Tuesday, October 18, 2005

What's maybe most striking about the latest big voice for vegetarianism is
that it doesn't come from some skinny, long-haired, peace-sign flinging hippie-
type, but from a man who's the very opposite. He wears a suit and tie or
sometimes cowboy attire and has a comfortable bulge in his belly.

Howard Lyman, who'll be in Athens on Monday to speak at the University of
Georgia, is a former fourth-generation farmer from Montana who spent most of
his life not only consuming beef but producing and selling it for consumption.
So it makes sense he doesn't fit the veggie-type. And it's this bit of the
unexpected that seems to make Lyman's words that much more powerful.

How powerful?

In 1996 they translated into multi-million dollar signs in a lawsuit resulting
from his now-famous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, during which he
revealed - in a discussion about mad cow disease - that cow parts are being
ground up and fed back to cattle (and other animals), essentially turning cows
not only into carnivores, but into cannibals (Oprah quipped that information
had "stopped me cold from eating another burger!").

The lawsuit, filed by some Texas cattlemen, called Lyman's statements false
(despite USDA statistics backing him up) and alleged the show was responsible
for the decline in beef futures.

After six years in a highly publicized case, the suit was dismissed.

But Lyman's sleeves have been rolled up for a long time. He still has work to
do.

In fact, a new FDA proposal to combat mad cow disease unveiled earlier this
month is plenty to keep him going. Touring the country, he lectures and shows
his newly released film, "Mad Cowboy: The Documentary," in which he retraces
his own history in the industry and reveals the conditions imposed on
livestock as well as the health risks of mad cow disease and its human
counterpart, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Mad cow and money

"They rolled over and played dead," Lyman said of the FDA, regarding its new
proposal to ban brains and spinal cords - tissues that can carry mad cow
disease - from livestock feed from cows older than 30 months (infection levels
are believed to rise as cattle age). Noting tests in Japan that have found the
disease in cows younger than 20 months (and Japan continues its ban on U.S.-
imported beef), Lyman said the FDA's proposal is about money.

"The big money people in the (beef) industry got to them and said (the
original, more restrictive FDA proposal that came out about a year ago) would
cost too much, which means they would rather see consumers end up with a 100-
percent fatal disease than lose money at the bottom line."

Reports of CJD in the U.S. have been documented, but only in the form of the
disease not associated with beef consumption (there are three forms of the
disease). But Lyman is hardly convinced there's no connection.

"The human form of mad cow has symptoms very similar to Alzheimer's disease,"
he said. "And in 1900, there were only a handful of people with Alzheimer's in
this country. Today, there are 4 1/2 million people diagnosed with
Alzheimer's."

Lyman cites various studies, including one at Yale, showing 13 percent of
misdiagnosed cases of Alzheimer's were in fact CJD.

"Our government policy is 'don't look, don't find,' " he said. "And it's going
to send a lot of people to an early grave."

Soul searching

Lyman's ultimate solution to avoiding CJD and myriad other health hazards is
to quit eating meat and dairy. It's what he did himself.

His epiphany came in 1979, when a tumor on his spinal cord paralyzed him from
the waist down.

Having long harbored the feeling that the farming practices he'd put into
effect after finishing college in 1961 were wrong, he considered his business.

Lyman essentially had turned the small organic farm his father ran into a
large-scale factory farm with more than 1,000 range cows, 5,000 cattle in a
factory feedlot, thousands of acres of crops and more.

The result, he said, was destruction of the land.

"The birds were dying, the trees were dying, the soil was dying," Lyman said,
noting the chemical-based agriculture he'd embraced. "And for 18 years, I was
unwilling to admit that I was the problem."

But the tumor changed that. With a very small chance he would be able to walk
again, Lyman did some soul searching. "Sometimes it takes that kind of thing
to really look at yourself. And that's what happened for me. I realized that
my actions had destroyed the things I loved. I had become a farmer because I
loved the birds and the trees and the soil. But this type of agriculture isn't
sustainable - it's totally destructive."

The winds of change

Of his touring with the film, Lyman said he feels it's his life's work to
educate the public.

And, he said, it's only a matter of time before our country abandons its meat-
based diet.

"I believe in my lifetime we're going to see the majority of Americans become
vegetarians," Lyman said. "But we're going to have a terrible wake-up call
before that happens."

Still, people are making changes. "The National Restaurant Association
recently said that 20 percent of meals in restaurants are dictated by
vegetarians. It used to be that when you told someone you were vegetarian,
they looked at you like you were from another planet," Lyman said. "But
because of public education, the number of people who are on a plant-based
diet has risen monumentally."

And, he added, with a seemingly rising concern for animal welfare, it makes
sense. "The animals we're killing are killing us," he said.

"If a person is concerned about heart disease or cancer, obesity, diabetes ...
or about the damage occurring to the environment and what's happening to
animals - it's all linked," he said. "And for people to come out and spend a
couple of hours taking in this information, it could be the greatest
investment of time in their lives - these couple of hours could add seven to
15 years to your life if you're willing to make a few changes."

'Mad Cowboy: The Documentary'

Howard Lyman, author of "Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who
Won't Eat Meat" (Scribner, 2001) and "No More Bull!: The Mad Cowboy Targets
America's Worst Enemy: Our Diet" (Scribner, 2005) will speak and present the
screening of his new film.

When: 8 p.m. Monday

Where: University of Georgia Student Learning Center, Room 171

Cost: Free

Contact: sos@uga.edu or http://www.uga.edu/sos

Additional information: Information about health, vegetarianism, mad cow
disease and CJD is posted on Howard Lyman's Web site, www.madcowboy. com. For
an extensive list of recent articles about mad cow disease, visit
www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm

(END OF ATHENS BANNER 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 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: Tue Oct 18 19:06:16 2005