Day: January 13, 2003

PETA Protests Animal Research at Chiropractic University

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is complaining about animal research involving cats that is being conducted at Palmer Chiropractic University.

PCU is conducting spinal research on cats as part of a federally-funded study. In a prepared statement, Dr. William C. Meeker, vice president for research at PCU, said,

We are intensely focused on preventing suffering and distress in laboratory animals when animals are part of investigations. . . . The animals in both projects are thoroughly anesthetized using humane, standardized protocols. The mere fact of the federal government’s support, which involves a rigorous application process to attain, argues that the experiments are considered well worth doing.

PETA’s Peter Wood told The Daytona Beach News-Journal,

If it’s anything remotely related to what they do to the rats [in similar spinal research], we believe it’s cruel and inhumane. . . . I think there is going to be some protests in Palmer’s future. They are supposed to be about healing and doing no harm, and what they are about to do is harmful to animals.

Meeker described PETA’s claims as “typical of the emotional tactics they have used to attack scientific research in university settings for decades.”

Sources:

Animal rights group protests school’s plans to test on live cats. Cindi Brownfield and Andrew Lyons, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, January 9, 2003.

Hypocrisy Over Lebron James’ Ride

When it comes to exploiting top athletes, some high schools are no better than colleges. The nonsense over high school hoops sensation LeBron James’ expensive ride is a good example of that.

The idea that James should be punished for capitalizing on his fame is ludicrous — after all, everybody else in Ohio is getting a piece of the action, why shouldn’t James?

I assume, for example, that St. Vincent-St. Mary got a nice phat cut when ESPN decided to air a couple of James’ games. After all, the school was paying a sports marketing company to hawk the games to ESPN and other sports networks. Where was the Ohio State Athletic Association then with all of the hand wringing about somebody capitalizing on James’ fame and freak-like abilities?

As Jim Rome put it, “Everybody’s into the kid. Everybody’s making money off the kid except the kid himself.”

So please spare us the false outrage over this young man violating some Byzantine code about amateurism that the administrators at his school openly flouted (and cue up the commercials about how LeBron James helped fund terrorists who bomb nightclubs in Indonesia).

Dispute Over McDonald's Lawsuit Settlement Gains Momentum

The dispute over how to spend $6 million McDonald’s agreed to pay to non-profit vegetarian organizations gained steam and national coverage with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals weighing in against a proposed award to a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill researcher.

Those opposed to the current settlement have petitioned the court to reject the current disbursement plans. For its part, McDonald’s has filed briefs with the court overseeing the settlement that attacks the characterizes the animal rights groups leading the charge against the proposed settlement as “zealous radicals.”

Much of the national media coverage focused on opposition to UNC nutrition researcher Steve Zeisel. Here’s how Jeff Nelson of VegSource.Com sums up the case against Zeisel,

VRG [Vegetarian Resource Group] submitted the only declaration in support of the proposal, even endorsing the money earmarked to go to the anti-vegetarian animal researcher at University of North Carolina — a researcher who seeks to prove his personal hypothesis that the vegan diet is very unsafe for pregnant women who need to eat eggs when pregnant in order to get sufficient choline.

PETA’s Hannah Schein told the Associated Press that,

The money is supposed to be earmarked for vegetarian groups. He doesn’t represent a vegetarian gruop. If anything, he recommends that pregnant women not be vegetarian.

What exactly are Nelson and PETA afraid that Zeisel might find?

Zeisel wants to use the money he would receive to study whether or not pregnant vegetarian women receive enough choline.

Choline is a vitamin-like substance that is crucial in the body’s production of an important nerve messenger chemical. In 1998 the National Academy of Sciences? Institute of Medicine recommended choline be recognized as a crucial human nutrient.

Choline is found mainly in eggs, meat and milk, so it would hardly be surprising to find choline deficiency in pregnant vegetarian and vegan women. You’d think that VegSource.Com and PETA would want such a study (especially since adequate choline can probably be obtained from vegan sources). As Zeisel told the Associated Press,

Pregnancy is a time that women have to be careful about their diet and be sure they are well-balanced. This is not a time to be a careless vegetarian. If we’re going to learn something about the science of this, you need to go to the places that can do the science.

Of course neither PETA nor VegSource.Com have ever been particularly careful about vetting their statements to ensure scientific accuracy. Much better to simply push the ideology and hope nobody notices the man behind the curtain.

Sources:

McDonald’s Attacks Vegetarian Leaders. Jeff Nelson, VegSource.Com, January 6, 2003.

Grant for UNC researcher riles animal activists. Associated Press, January 10, 2003.

Lawyer hits McD on suit settlement process. Sandra Guy, Chicago Sun-Times, January 10, 2003.

Another SHAC Activists Receives Jail Time

A press release from the Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network reported that this month that Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty activist Joshua Schwartz, 20, was sentenced to a year in jail for his role at an April 2002 New York protest.

That protest targeted a director of Marsh Insurance. Schwartz was convicted of felony criminal mischief. He has already served two months in jail and could be released as early as 6 months into his sentence if he maintains good behavior.

Source:

Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network. Press Release, January 11, 2003.