News Subsite
Since I still don’t find I have the time to return to blogging about animal rights, I’ve created a news subsite — http://www.animalrights.net/news — which is basically a Digg clone. I’ll be posting links to news stories related to AR and others are free to submit and discuss stories there as well.
There are some anti-spam filters in place there, so spam should be kept to a minimum.
The American College of Surgeon’s View of Animal Research
In a letter to the editor of the Tribune & Georgian, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s Aysha Akhtar responds to a previous letter published in that newspaper attacking PCRM.
Akhtar discusses the current state of animal use in medical schools and writes,
The America [sic] College of Surgeons no longer uses live animals in its clinical training programs and has endorsed the use of simulation technologies to replace live animal use in surgery training programs.
Since Akhtar is so fond of the American College of Surgeons, it might be useful to look at the entirety of their position statement on animals in education and research. The following is the full text of that statement, first adopted in 1991 and then altered slightly in 2002 to reflect changes in federal animal regulations,
The American College of Surgeons supports the responsible use and humane care and treatment of laboratory animals in research, education, teaching, and product safety testing in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal animal welfare laws. Further, the membership believes that only as many animals as necessary should be used; that any pain or distress animals may experience should be minimized or alleviated; and that, wherever feasible, alternatives to the use of live animals should be developed and employed.
The American College of Surgeons believes that now and in the foreseeable future it is not possible to completely replace the use of animals and that the study of whole living organisms, tissues, and cells is an indispensable element of biomedical research, education, and teaching.
Certainly the American College of Surgeons has recommended the use of non-animal alternatives for clinical teaching where the non-animal alternatives are equal to or better than traditional animal methods, but the ACS does not share Akhtar’s or PCRM’s view of “the need to move away from using animals in medical research and education.”
Sources:
Animals are not meant for medical research. Aysha Akhtar, Letter to the Editor, The Tribune & Georgian, March 6, 2007.
Statement on the Use of Animals in Research, Education, and Teaching. American College of Surgeons, 2002.
Tags: American College of Surgeons, Aysha Akhtar, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, United States
Three SHAC UK Animal Rights Extremists Jailed
Three UK animal rights extremists received jail sentences ranging from 15 months to four years their part in an illegal campaign against companies that had business relationships with Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Mark Taylor, 39; wife Suzanne, 35; and Teresa Portwine, 48, were the first to be charged under new UK laws designed to make it easier to crack down on animal rights extremists who skirted the law in their efforts to harass and intimidate animal research firms and nonprofits.
All three plead guilty to conspiracy to interfere with a contractual relationship. Portwine was sentenced to just 15 months, Suzanne Taylor received 2 1/2 years, and Mark Taylor was sentenced to four years in jail.
The judge in the case apparently took into account testimony from witnesses that Taylor had been a ring leader of the group’s activities in handing out the sentence. Taylor participated in numerous protests and drove others to said protests where groups of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty activists wearing masks would storm into the offices of the targeted companies.
Sources:
3 animal rights extremists
sentenced. D’arcy Doran, Associated Press, March 6, 2007.
Animal rights activists are jailed for ‘intimidation’. New Scotsman, March 6, 2007.
Animal rights activist jailed. Press Association, March 6, 2007.
Tags: Great Britain, Huntingdon Life Sciences, Mark Taylor, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, Suzanne Taylor, Teresa Portwine, Terrorism
Kansas State Students to Stop Throwing Chickens During Basketball Games (Seriously)
Apparently it is common for students at Kansas State to sneak live chickens into the auditorium when their team plays rival Kansas, whose mascot is the Jayhawk. The student(s) then throw the chicken out onto the floor as a way of mocking the Jayhaw mascot.
Yeah, it didn’t make any sense to me either.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals got wind of the practice, however, and sent a letter to Kansas State objecting to this mistreatment of animals.
The athletic department followed up with a statement asking fans to discontinue the tradition, saying,
These actions severely tarnish the image of our University, its athletics teams and the majority of our outstanding fans and supporters and while viewed by many as harmless pranks, these acts are likely illegal.
PETA’s Debbie Leahy told the Associated Press, “Any student who throws live birds on a basketball court should be thrown out of school.”
A bigger question might be how the chicken throwers managed to get in to Kansas State in the first place.
Sources:
N.C. vs. Duke: blood feud. Reggie Hayes, The News-Sentinel (Indiana), March 6, 2007.
Kansas State Athletic Department Condemns Chicken Toss. Associated Press, February 28, 2007.
Tags: Chickens, Debbie Leahy, Kansas, Kansas State University, Miscellaneous, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, United States
HSUS Activists Reportedly Not Happy at Being Caught on Film
Pro-seal hunt filmmaker Raoul Jomphe claims that representatives with the Humane Society of the United States were displeased that the caught them on film ignoring the suffering of a seal that the animal rights activists were using as a prop for a fund raising video.
According to the Ottawa Citizen,
In the documentary . . . the animal rights activists pulled the dying seal out of the water as it tried to escape, and continued filming their promotional video. It is not known how the seal was wounded.
According to Jomphe and his documentary, the HSUS activists filmed for over an hour while the seal lay suffering.
Interviewed in Jomphe’s film, HSUS activist Rebecca Aldworth says she only had the seal’s well-being in mind,
I asked somebody to pull the seal out, because at that point I was thinking there might be a chance of getting the seal back to land. If this seal could still crawl, an hour later, could still swim, maybe there was a chance we could bring the seal back to the Atlantic Veterinary College and save the seal.
Jomphe said that based on the condition of the seal, he would have humanely killed it rather than allow it to continue to suffer.
Source:
Activists Angry at being caught on tape. The Ottawa Citizen, March 5, 2007.
Tags: Canada, Humane Society of the United States, Hunting, Seals
Berosini Loses Final Appeal In Long-running Fight Against PETA
The Associated Press reported today that Bobby Berosini lost his final appeal in this long-running battle with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
According to the Associated Press, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling requiring Berosini to pay $250,000 in legal fees that PETA incurred in lawsuits related to a defamation lawsuit that Berosini filed against PETA in the late 1980s.
Berosini initially won the first round after a jury awarded him a $3.1 million judgment against PETA. That award, however, was overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court and Berosini was ordered to pay PETA’s legal fees.
According to PETA, Berosini actually paid the $250,000 amount in question in the latest round of lawsuits several years ago.
Source:
Former Las Vegas showman loses PETA legal fights fee. Associated Press, March 5, 2007.
Tags: Miscellaneous, Nevada, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
More Animal Dissections in Schools than Ever?
Washington Post writer Valerie Strauss has an interesting look at the current state of animal dissection in American schools. Among other things, the article suggests that animal dissections are more common now than ever, in part due to the popularity of animal dissection at lower grade levels.
The article claims that,
Across the country, more dissections are performed than ever before, according to the advocates and critics of dissection. The nonprofit Humane Society estimates that 6 million vertebrate animals are dissected in U.S. high schools alone; the number of dissections of invertebrate animals is probably comparable, it says.
Unfortunately, Strauss doesn’t include any information on estimates of animals dissected over time, so readers have to take her word for it. Moreover, the increase in animals dissected over a much earlier time could represent the large increase in population in the United States over the past few decades rather than any genuine increase in the popularity/prevalence of animal dissection.
One genuine change appears to be an increasing number of animal dissections at the middle and elementary school level (the first time I remember doing an animal dissection was in the 7th grade).
Of course animal rights activists argue for replacing animal dissections with computer models of the same, and 9 states require students who object to animal dissection to be given some sort of non-animal alternative. But Kenneth Roy, chair of the Science Safety Advisory Board of the National Science Teachers Association, defends animal dissection,
I would use the example of driving a real car versus a driving simulation on a computer or in a game room machine. The real-time dissection provides awareness to all of the senses — touch especially — texture, form, etc.
Source:
When cutting up in class is okay. Valerie Strauss, Washington Post, March 5, 2007.
Tags: Dissection, United States
Friends of Animals vs. The New York Theosophical Society
Friends of Animals sent out a press release on January 3 complaining about an a couple of events to be held at the New York Theosophical Society in January.
According to the press release, the first event on Jan. 5 would feature the New York Companion Bird Club and a raffle of prizes from Grey Feather Toy Creations, which apparently makes toys and accessories for birds. The worst part, however, is that,
The raffling of a “bird gym” will fund the transportation of a bigger cage for a nursing home-based cockatoo. . . .
Overall, the planned Bird Day event is a promotion of cages, not freedom. . . .
On January 14, the Society is featuring speaker Larry D.D. Clifford exhibiting a macaw. Friends of Animals is upset since in addition to holding captive birds, Clifford trains animals for Sea World and for other animal-related shows, including television work.
Friends of Animals’ legal director Lee Hall tries to appeal to the Theosophical Society’s history, saying in the press release,
The Theosophical Society’s mission is to cultivate the spiritual growth of humanity. A pioneer in its history was the acclaimed vegetarian doctor Anna Kingsford, who spoke of the inherent value of animals other than ourselves. To offer a venue for patently exploitive promotions is to flout the Society’s best traditions.
Now Hall could have cited Theosophical Society founder Madam Blavatsky, but Blavatsky was a meat eater, so best ignore her. But what about Kingsford?
Kingsford was a 19th century vegetarian and a prominent anti-vivisectionist as well. And she would certainly have been right at home in today’s animal rights movement. She claimed to have mystical visions in which she was visited by angels, traveled through time, and was given prophetic revelations such as this.
As for Kingsford’s vegetarianism, she had an interesting — but solidly Victorian England — defense of vegetarianism. To Kingsford, the problem with eating meat was that it debased human beings to the level of mere animals,
The modern advocates of flesh-eating and vivisection, on the contrary, would reverse the sentiment of the lines just quoted, and would have us
“Move down, returning to the beast,
And letting heart and conscience die”,making thereby the practice of the lowest in the scale of Nature the rule of the highest, and abasing the moral standard of mankind to the level of the habits of the most dangerous or noxious orders of brutes.
. . .
But the disciple of Buddha and of Pythagoras, the preacher of the Pure Life and of the Perfect Way, cries to humanity, “Be men, not in mere physical form only - for form is worth nothing - but in spirit, by virtue of those qualities which exalt you above tigers, swine or jackals!. . .”
Sources:
May Birds Know A World Without Cages. Press Release, Friends of Animals, January 3, 2006.
Tags: Anna Kingsford, Friends of Animals, Lee Hall
Newkirk: We Oppose All Violence Against Civilians, But Fashion Designers Are Fair Game
Ingrid Newkirk, of all people, gave a speech at a conference addressing violent conflict in the Middle East at which she said,
. . . we call all attacks on civilians, whether against Palestinians in Jenin or Israelis in Tel Aviv, what they are: War crimes.
If we want an end to violence, it means that we must first reject the slaughterhouse, the animal circus, and animal skins and remember that kindness to animals has been a cornerstone of every great religion in the history of the world.
Mohandas Gandhi, one of the icons of the nonviolence movement, taught that how we treat animals shows our ability to empathize with those who are ‘different’ from us, which is the first step toward living in peace with our human neighbors.
Leaving aside the accuracy of her claim about religion and animals, it is interesting that Newkirk declares violence against civilians “war crimes”, but as far as I know neither Newkirk or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has ever apologized for Dan Mathews remarks in admiration of serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Cunanan murdered fashion designer Gianni Versace, and in 1999 PETA’s Mathews, asked to name a 20th century man he loves, replied,
Andrew Cunanan, because he got Versace to stop doing fur.
Source:
Animal rights group addresses Mideast conflict. Ynetnews.Com, January 4, 2005.
Tags: Dan Mathews, Ingrid Newkirk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Another PETA Staffer With a Name Change Gimmick
Nineteen-year old People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals staffer Chris Garnett garnered a bit of press at the end of 2005 by legally changing his name to KentuckyFriedCruelty.Com.
This is, of course, simply a copy of an earlier stunt when Karin Robinson supposedly changed her name to GoVegan.Com. Of course, she only used it for about 15 minutes — when she sends letters or gives interviews to newspapers, she goes by Karin Robinson.
Presumably, Garnett will abandon his moniker the minute after media outlets stop writing about it.
Source:
Teen’s New Name: KentuckyFriedCruelty.Com. Associated Press, December 30, 2005.
Tags: Chris Garnett, Karin Robertson, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals