April 2001
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Action Alerts from Herbal Musings Environmental and animal welfare news and campaigns
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Contents ______________ Greenpeace International Founder Killed in Car Accident Dumping at World's Largest Landfill Ends Prevent Pentagon Use of Animals in Weapons Tests Ask New EPA Administrator to Re-examine Massive Animal-Testing Programs Protect the Yellowstone Grizzly Bears from De-listing University of Colorado Practices Ritual Dog Slaughter Stop Pointless Animal Tests by the American Petroleum Institute Petland and Petco Hold Doors Wide Open to Cruelty ______________
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Greenpeace International Founder Killed in Car Accident David McTaggart, the man who launched the first campaign to end whale hunting, who worked tirelessly to protect Antarctica's oil reserves and to halt French nuclear testing, and who founded Greenpeace International, died in a car crash near his home in Italy on March 23, 2001. McTaggart was 68 years old. The Canadian-born activist began his environmental career in the early 70's, when he and a small crew took his 12.6 meter sailing craft - renamed as Greenpeace III - to the waters surrounding Muroroa Atoll where the French planned to conduct atmospheric nuclear testing. The crew dropped anchor near the French vessel in protest, forcing the French to abandon the tests. Later, in a similar protest, McTaggart was beaten by French military personnel, an act which was recorded on film and instrumental in helping him to win a law suit against the French that ultimately ended the testing altogether. Between 1975 and 1991, McTaggart fought relentlessly to stop dumping of nuclear waste in the world's oceans and to preserve environmentally sensitive areas from mineral and oil exploitation. He was the recipient of the Onassis Award, The Kreisky Prize, and the United Nations Environmental Programme's Global 500 Award, as well as being the author of several books.
Dumping at World's Largest Landfill Ends Fresh Kills, the world's largest and the last of New York City's landfills, took its last load of garbage on March 22, 2001. The fill, located on New York's Staten Island has operated for 50 years and accepted more than 14,000 tons of garbage 24 hours a day. Fresh Kills was once composed of lush meadows, wetlands and marsh and was home to many ecosystems. The area received its name from Dutch settlers who appreciated the land's fresh network of streams. Fresh Kill Creek still runs nearby. Now the last of the unlined municipal
dumps in New York State, Fresh Kills is now defined as four giant
mountains of waste. Aside from the Great Wall of China, it is
the only other man-made object visible from space. Source: Environmental News Service
Prevent Pentagon Use of Animals in Weapons Tests The Pentagon has developed a "non-lethal weapon
that fires millimeter electromagnetic energy in a beam that quickly
heats the surface of a victim’s skin.” According to Rich Garcia, a
spokesperson for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air
Force Base, New Mexico, the weapon produces “the kind of pain you
would feel if you were being burned.”
Source: PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Ask New EPA Administrator to Re-examine Massive Animal-Testing Programs Please ask the new EPA administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, to reconsider the massive animal testing programs that her predecessor implemented. These plans include:
Tell her that after millions of animals’ lives are lost in painful experiments and millions of taxpayer dollars are spent, the EPA will be no closer to protecting human health and the environment. The EPA relies upon crude animal tests that have never been assessed for their reliability and relevance to human health. Because the test results are so subject to manipulation, industry can easily combat any attempt to regulate its products. Also, please ask Whitman to reconsider the EPA’s recent settlement agreement on the EDSP. In an attempt to force the EPA to begin that testing program, several environmental groups sued the EPA. The resulting settlement by Whitman's predecessor committed the EPA to begin testing pesticides and other chemicals on animals, even though the tests have not been validated for their relevance and therefore cannot be used as a basis for regulating the chemicals. Ask her to devote agency resources to the development of sophisticated non-animal test methods such as the “high-throughput pre-screen” and to incorporate non-animal tests as well as epidemiological and human biomonitoring studies into the EDSP. The endless animal tests in the EDSP will result in nothing but suffering and death for millions of animals and will delay by many years any effective regulation of pesticides and industrial chemicals. Please write polite letters to:
Protect the Yellowstone Grizzly Bears from De-listing In the past year, several government agencies have announced their intent to de-list the Yellowstone grizzly bear population from the list of threatened species. This politically driven effort would be devastating for the grizzly bear. Your postcard will help urge federal agencies to make the right decision.Send Your Comments: The Honorable Secretary Bruce Babbitt Ms. Jamie Clark To send a free e-postcard to Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt and Fish and Wildlife Service Director Jamie
Clark, please visit the Earthjustice
Legal Defense Fund site. If you would prefer to write
a letter, there's a free sample there to copy send to the mailing
addresses above.
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University of Colorado Practices Ritual Dog Slaughter On Friday, March 9, 2001, students at the University
of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine came together for the ritualized
slaughter of dozens of dogs in what the university euphemistically
calls “dog labs.”
Source: PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
31 Starving Petland Dogs Seized, Pet Store Now Closed Mary Ellen Morton, a Petland franchise owner, was cited with 39 counts of animal cruelty on February 10 after authorities responded to an employee’s complaint that the dogs at Petland’s Charleston, West Virginia store were not being fed. Authorities discovered sick dogs lying in feces in a backroom of the store. Thirty-one dogs were seized and taken to the Kanawha County Humane Society, where a veterinarian treated them. Eight remaining dogs are missing and are suspected to have been taken from Petland by a breeder. This action was taken after a warning issued to Morton in December for failing to provide animals with water or food did not improve conditions for the dogs. Morton posted bond and was released from jail. She is scheduled to appear in Kanawha County Court on April 11. Petland has now terminated their franchise agreement with Morton, and her pet store, called "Town Center Pets," has temporarily been closed down in the Charlestown Center Mall. Thank you for all of your phone calls, letters, and e-mails to the mall manager. Please also contact Petland’s president and ask him to prevent further, similar atrocities. Urge Petland to become part of the solution to companion animal overpopulation and other problems associated with puppy mills, rather than continuing to perpetuate them. Mention Petland’s Cheyenne, Wyoming, franchise, which has made the responsible decision to refuse to sell live animals. Ask Petland to close its doors to animal suffering by ensuring that all its franchises make the same decision. Contact Petland at:
Petco Supports Supplier of Animals to Laboratories: Marshall Farms' Dirty Secret Petco buys ferrets from Marshall Farms, a breeder of beagles and other animals sold to testing laboratories. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection reports reveal that Marshall Farms has consistently failed to meet the minimal standards of the federal Animal Welfare Act. Inspection reports disclose disturbing practices at Marshall Farms, including the spaying and castration of animals by technicians in an unsanitary environment. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has strongly condemned the perdormance of such invasive procedures by anyone other than a qualified veterinarian. A grisly example of Marshall Farms' failure to provide animals with even the most basic protections was a 1998 fire that claimed the lives of 151 pregnant beagles and 449 beagle puppies. The installation of alarms or sprinkler systems could have prevented this incredible suffering and loss of life. In 1992, Gary Marshall, the owner of Marshall Farms, was charged with 74 counts of cruelty, inhumane transport, and failure to provide proper care, food, and water for 74 dogs being shipped to Switzerland for toxicology experiments. Marshall avoided a $220,000 fine by agreeing to have his employees take a class on "safely" shipping dogs on airplanes. If Petco is unwilling to end its own sale of small animals such as ferrets, rats, and mice, then at the very least, it should not support a company that treats animals as nothing more than test tubes with whiskers. Write to:
*Check your local pet store
to see if it buys animals from Marshall Farms. Source: PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Source(s): Citizen's for Health: The Voice of the Natural Health Consumer PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Natural Resource Defense Council Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund
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