Month: April 2003

Dolly to Go on Display

Dolly, the world’s first cloned mammal, will go on display at the Royal Edinburgh this month as part of an exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA and return again in September as part of a permanent display at the museum.

Dolly was born on July 5, 1996 and euthanized 6 years later after it was discovered that she suffered from a progressive lung disease. National Museums of Scotland director Dr. Gordon Rintoul told the BBC,

Dolly is a striking reminder of Scotland’s record of scientific achievement and her contribution can now be recognized for many centuries to come.

. . .

She will prove an important focus for future new science displays in the Royal Museum.

Dr. Ian Wilmot, who lead the team that cloned Dolly, said,

She will go on reminding people of the fact that scientific progress was made in Edinburgh which is making people think very differently about this aspect of biology.

It’s stimulating people to do research which one day will help to provide cells needed to treat very unpleasant human diseases.

Source:

Dolly goes on display. The BBC, April 9, 2003.

PETA Continues Lies about Medical Research

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has taken out billboards denouncing the March of Dimes for supporting medical research with animals. The Shreveport Times described the billboards thusly,

This, the second billboard PETA has put up in the Shreveport area in the last six months, depicts a pregnant monkey with wires cemented into her back. The caption reads, “march of Dimes Helping or Hurting.” Similar billboards will go up, or have gone up, in several other cities nationwide.

PETA spokeswoman Brandi Valladolid told the Shreveport Times that they placed billboards in the cities that the March of Dimes claims have the highest rates of birth defects. But, surprise, the March of Dimes tells the Shreveport Times that it does not produce a list of birth defect incidence by city.

Imagine that — a PETA activists with inaccurate information.

But Valladolid doesn’t stop there. She repeats the nonsensical claim made repeatedly by PCRM and PETA that the diet drugs fen-phen show the dangers of animal testing,

. . . because animal testing cleared them as safe for human consumption when in fact they are not.

How do you know a PETA activist is lying? He or she is still talking.

First, fen-phen was an off-label prescription that was never tested in animals. Of course for PETA and PCRM to understand this, they’d have to leave their fantasy worlds to actually develop an understanding of how drugs are tested and prescribed.

Second, animal testing conducted prior to approval of both fenfluramine and phentermine revealed side effects that could cause the sorts of problems that the combinatory treatment was eventually linked to. Fenfluramine, for example, was only approved for use by patients for at most a few weeks, but doctors prescribed it to patients for months and years. Similarly, the FDA noted in approving phentermine that there was no safety data at all for its usage beyond 1 year.

But when the drugs were pulled off the market, the average length of time patients had been on the off-label combination was 9 months. The animal and human testing of both drugs worked fine — physicians simply chose to ignore that data and the warnings and cautions from the FDA based on that data.

But PETA has never let the facts get in the way of a good lie, so why start now?

Source:

PETA takes on animal testing in new billboard campaign. Sarah Pancoast, The Shreveport Times, April 4, 2003.

Treating Congestive Heart Failure by Transplanting Cow Tissue

The Associated Press ran a story in April highlighting how animal tissue is being implanted in human beings today to prolong the lives of people suffering from certain types of congestive heart failure.

Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood to supply the body with oxygen and other nutrients. The heart tries to compensate by enlarging which, however, makes it even less efficient. About 250,000 people die every year in the United States from congestive heart failure.

A new procedure called surgical ventricular restoration uses an implant made of cow heart muscle to repair the heart’s ventricles. As the heart expands, the ventricles go from a healthy football-like shape to a more rounded, basketball-like shape.

Implanting the cow heart tissue allows surgeons to reshape the ventricle into the correct shape and restore much of its functionality. The Associated Press and the surgeons at Oregon Health & Science University touted the story of Jerry Westling, 56, who was among the first people to benefit from the new procedure.

Thanks to his congestive heart failure, Westling used to have difficulty climbing up a flight of stairs, but after the implantation of the cow heart tissue, much of his heart function was restored. “I feel tremendously blessed and have a new lease on life,” Westling said in an OHSU press release.

(Of course we all know this can’t possibly be true, since animal-based medical science is nonsense and, besides, who does this guy think he is to put his life above the suffering of a cow?)

Sources:

Surgery gives cow muscle to humans. Associated Press, April 6, 2003.

New treatment available in northwest for patients with congestive heart failure. Oregon Health & Science University, Press Release, April 3, 2003.

Animal Rights Activists Target Bullfighting in Barcelona

The World Society for the Protection of Animals and Spain’s Animal Rights Defense Association are targeting Barcelona to convince the city to outlaw bullfight ahead of the 2004 Universal Forum of Culture which Barcelona will host.

The two groups commissioned a survey which found that 63 percent of respondents in Barcelona wanted an end to bullfighting. An earlier study commissioned by the two groups of attitudes about bullfighting in Catalonia as a whole found 94 percent of respondents favored outlawing bullfighting (neither survey is available online, however, so it’s not known exactly what questions the survey asked).

Manuel Cases of the Animal Rights Defense Association told Australian newspaper The Age,

At the end of the 19th century there were three bullrings in Barcelona, now there is just one left. That has bullfights on Sunday from May to October but mostly for people who come in tourist buses from the Costa Brava.

Philip Lymbery of the World Society for the Protection of Animals said in a press release,

Bullfighting is abhorrent to many people internationally. This new survey shows that the majority of people in Barcelona agree that bullfighting has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with cruelty. It is ironic then, that a city that allows over 100 bulls to be ritually tortured and killed as entertainment annually will next year host the Universal Forum of Culture. We therefore urge Barcelona to ban bullfighting and thereby avoid tainting the spirit of this international cultural event.

Catalonia’s animal welfare law forbids the fighting of animals but specifically exempts bullfights that take place on public holidays.

Bullfighting is popular in Spain in general, but not in the Catalonia region. According to the World Society for the Protection of Animals, for example, only about 100 bulls are killed annually in bullfights in Barcelona. This out of an estimated 20,000+ bulls killed annually in bullfights throughout the country.

Sources:

Survey reveals Spanish opposition to bullfighting in Barcelona. Press Release, World Society for the Protection of Animals, April 4, 2003.

Majority of people in Catalonia, Spain, opposed to bullfighting, according to a new survey released today. Press Release, World Society for the Protection of Animals, March 22, 2002.

Yourofsky Loses It In Tennessee

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ national lecturer Gary Yourofsky showed off the famed ability of animal rights activists to make their case by throwing a fit at East Tennessee State where he was scheduled to talk about vegetarianism.

Yourofsky became angered when he entered the hall where he was to speak and saw a display put up by East Tennessee State’s director of the Division of Laboratory Animal Resources, Dr. Brunhilde Toper-Meyer.

Toper-Meyer had placed a number of pamphlets from Americans for Medical Progress, the FOundation for Biomedical Research and other groups with a simple sign saying “Opposing Arguments.”

Yourofsky — who is on record as condoning both arson and murder in the name of animal rights — decided the presence of the pamphlets warranted throwing a tantrum. He became abusive toward Eastern Tennessee biology instructor Sharon Miller, who had invited Yourofsky to talk in the first place, and likened her to the Ku Klux Klan.

In the end Yourofsky grabbed the cart and gave it a hard push, causing the pamphlets to scatter throughout the hall outside the lecture room. Eastern Tennessee State police were called, and the lecture was cancelled.

The most bizarre part of this, is that it surprised Miller. According to the Johnson City Press,

Miller said she was sorry that Yourofsky did not speak, saying he is a powerful orator and the subject of the afternoon’s lecture — vegetarianism — was not supposed to be controversial.

What planet is this woman living on? What did she think she would be getting from someone who once said, “Do not be afraid to condone arsons at places of animal torture” and “I would unequivocally support” an arson that lead to the death of an “animal abuser” at a research lab.

And powerful orator? Does Miller agree with Yourofsky that human beings are herbivores? If she does, she’s certainly not much of a biologist, and if she doesn’t why the hell is she inviting someone to speak whose ideas are patently false?

Source:

ETSU event canceled due to confrontation. John Thompson, Johnson City Press (TN), April 5, 2003.

Missouri State Senator Introduces Amendment to Limit Initiatives Aimed at Fishing and Hunting

The Southeast Missourian recently reported that Missouri State Rep. Mike Dethrow has introduced a constitutional amendment into that state’s assembly that would make it more difficult to amend the state constitution with measures that affect fish and wildlife issues.

Under Dethrow’s proposed amendment, any initiative that deals with fish and wildlife issues that ends up on the ballot as a result of Missouri’s petition initiative system would require a supermajority of four-sevenths in order to pass. At the moment, all that is required for the passage of any such ballot initiative is a simple majority. Under Dethrow’s amendment, any initiative placed on the ballot by the state legislature would still require only a simple majority.

A similar amendment was introduced several years ago after a St. Louis-based animal rights group tried to pass an initiative to ban the trapping of river otters. That initiative, however, never garnered enough support to make it on the ballot.

If Missouri’s legislature approves the measure it could appear on the November 2004 ballot.

Source:

Supermajorities proposed for conversation measures. Marc Powers, Southeast Missourian, April 2003.