Month: June 2003

United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Deposed — Liberal Views on Women’s Rights Cited as Reason

The crown prince of one of the seven United Arab Emirates was deposed in June because of concerns that his views on women were too liberal.

Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr al-Qassimi, 63, had been the de facto ruler of the poorest of the seven emirates, Ras al-Khaimah, since 1999. Sheikh Khalid had taken over much of the head of state duties after his father, Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed al-Qassimi fell ill.

The Daily Telegraph (London) quoted an unidentified employee as blaming Sheikh Khalid’s liberal views of women’s rights as the main cause of his removal. According to the Telegraph, his wife, Shaikah Fawqai al-Qassami is a playwright and women’s rights activist. The Telegraph quoted the unidentified employee as saying,

Sheikh Khalid was told, at a meeting with his father and six of his brothers, that he had to banish his wife from the emirate and demolish the ladies’ club that helps women here if they have problems.

She has done a lot to bring the country forward, but Sheikh Saud does not feel there is a place for women in today’s Arab society. Sheikh Khalid said he would think about it, but they did not give him time to come back with his answer – they just issued the decree.

Albawaba.com reported that tanks had been called in to guard the palaces of the new crown prince, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qassimi, 48, who is Sheikh Khalid’s younger brother.

Sources:

Tanks sent to secure Ras al-Khaimah emirate succession change. Albawaba.Com, June 15, 2003.

Emirate prince ousted in women’s rights row. Susan Bisset, The Daily Telegraph, June 15, 2003.

Saud replaces Khalid – New ‘successor’ in Ras Al-Khaima. Associated Press, June 15, 2003.

Great Britain Proposes Outlawing Secret DNA Paternity Tests

In response to a handful of bizarre cases, the United Kingdom is proposing outlawing DNA tests without the consent of all parties involved, which could make it very difficult for men who are suspicious about the paternity of their children.

This seems like an extreme position to take and the Human Genetics Commission chair Baroness Kennedy QC completely dismissed the position of men who are concerned about establishing whether or not they are really the father of their children saying,

A person may say, ‘what is wrong with a man knowing whether he really is the father of a child?’, but there are real repercussions for a family when that is done.

That is an outrageously patronizing attitude that would never be uttered in this day and age about women’s rights to know (or if it were, this woman would have faced immense pressure to step down immediately).

The cases of people trying to take DNA of celebrities or public figures can be handled without a blanket ban on all such private tests. Besides which the cost of genetic testing is falling so rapidly that it is doubtful such a ban will really prevent someone determined to do DNA testing from going forward.

Source:

Secret testing on ‘stolen’ DNA to be outlawed. Colin Brown, The Daily Telegraph (London), June 16, 2003.

Another Bizarre Art Project Involving Killing Animals

In May, the director of Denmark’s Trapholt Art Museum in Kolding was acquitted of animal cruelty charges that stemmed from a bizarre installation at the museum.

Chilean-born Danish artist Marco Evaristti set up ten blenders that contained goldfish and gave visitors the “ethical choice” to turn the machines on or not (as depicted in the photo from Reuters).

Inevitably, somebody chose to turn on one of the blenders, police confiscated the exhibit and fined museum director Peter Meyer US$315 for animal cruelty.

But after a two-day trial in May, Judge Preben Bagger acquitted Meyer of the animal cruelty charge. Bagger ruled that since the goldfish were killed instantly by the blender, that their deaths were humane and not cruel.

Correction: When this story was reported in the media, the fish involved was repeatedly described as a goldfish. But the fish depicted in the Reuters picture above is clearly not a goldfish. Presumably either the artist or the media in Denmark did not look closely at the species of fish used in the installation.

Source:

Dane acquitted in goldfish blender case. The Associated Press, May 19, 2003.

Liquidising goldfish ‘not a crime’. The BBC, May 19, 2003.

Major Supermarkets in Netherlands to Stop Selling Eggs from Hens Raised in Battery Cages

NamNews reports that major supermarkets in the Netherlands have reached agreements with animal rights groups there to stop selling eggs produced by hens raised in battery cages,

Supermarkets in the Netherlands will stop selling eggs from laying hens, who live in battery cages, from 2004, Dutch animal rights foundation Wakker Dier has said. All large supermarkets in the country will sell eggs only from poultry farms raising birds in open barns or in other free-range systems, Wakker Dier said. The foundation has been protesting over the past 30 years against the selling of eggs from battery cages. Dutch supermarkets of the Schuitema and Laurus retailer concerns declared in the week starting June 2, 2003 they would ban sale of battery cages eggs as of 2004. Supermarket chains like Albert Heijn, Aldi, Dirk van den Broek, Lidl, Bas van der Heijden and Digros already had promised to sell only free-range eggs. Dutch consumers in general do not accept battery cage eggs and they are willing to pay more for free-range eggs, an official of Dutch supermarket organisation Centraal Bureau Levensmiddelen, M. Jansen, said.

Source:

Netherlands: Supermarkets To Ban Battery Eggs From 2004. NamNews, June 9, 2003.

Researchers Repair Rat's Spinal Cord

A team of researchers led by Dr. Geoffrey Raisman published a study in the June Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine describing how they repaired a rat’s damaged spinal cord by transplanting cells from its nose.

The researchers transplanted olfactory nerve cells into the scar tissue of the rat’s damaged spinal cord. The nerve cells bridged the damage and restored the functionality of the severed nerve fibers in the spinal cord.

Raisman was quoted in the Daily Mail (London) as saying,

This procedure allows spinal nerve fibres to regrow in a way which has not been thought possible. . . . I have been working in this direction all my life and I never expected we would get this far. We now believe that human trials would be worthwhile.

Similar studies in other animals will have to take place first, but Raisman hopes human trials of this technique could begin within three years. It is certainly the latest in a string of findings thanks to animal research that offers the hope of one day curing even serious spinal cord injuries.

Sources:

Rat healing raises hope for spinal cure. Corinne Amoo, Reuters, June 1, 2003.

Trials To Start On Repairing Damaged Spinal Cords. Paul Sims, The Daily Mail (London), June 2, 2003.

Rat Study Raises Spinal Cord Hopes For Humans. Stephen Cauchi, Sydney Morning Herald, June 3, 2003.

HLS Continues to Make Progress

Huntingdon Life Sciences released its first quarter 2003 results which were generally positive, although Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty was desperately trying to spin the results as showing the company in dire financial straits (remember, according to SHAC, HLS has been on the verge of failing for several years now).

This is how SHAC tried to spin HLS’ financial results,

HLS released its earnings and expenditures for the first three months of
the year, revealing again that it made a loss. Even more damaging for
Huntingdon was having to admit that this loss is direct result from the
loss of customers.

What is really damaging is SHAC’s inability to actually read for comprehension.

First, HLS did report a small net loss of $0.4 million on net revenues of $31.9 million. Should shareholders be worried that companies deserted SHAC in the first quarter leading to this loss? Hardly.

Revenues in the first quarter 2003 were up 22.2 percent over HLS’ first quarter 2002 revenues of $26.1 million. Similarly, the loss of $0.4 million this quarter compares nicely with HLS first quarter 2002 loss of $3.3 million. Hmmm . . . HLS did $5.8 million more business this quarter, and saw its losses shrink dramatically to last year but “this loss is direct result from the loss of customers”?

The loss, by the way, was not due to a loss of customers, but rather one time charges including a $0.5 million charge resulting from non-cash foreign exchange remeasurement loss, and $2.6 million in expenses related to its merger/offer and some additional foreign exchange remeasurements. As anyone with half a brain (i.e. not SHAC) could see right there in the HLS press release,

Excluding those Other Expenses, Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (“EBITDA”) was $3.7 million for the first quarter of 2003, or 11.7% of revenues, compared with $2.1 million, or 8.0% of revenues, for the same period in the prior year.

Yeah, SHAC activists are really killing the company, aren’t they? And what of the “lost customers” that SHAC refers to? They seem to be misunderstanding this paragraph which seems pretty clear and not open to a whole lot of misinterpretation (emphasis added),

Brian Cass, LSR’s President and Managing Director said “First quarter results continued the strong performance we?ve been building for the past year. The revenue trend has remained positive and we?re delighted with the growth exhibited over last year. New order signings for the quarter were some 10% ahead of revenues and roughly flat with last year. After an exceptionally strong market in 2002, we have built a considerable volume of booked on work. This will be of particular value as we, and our competitors, have seen some softening in demand recently with uncertainty in customers? development programs; such variations are a regular phenomenon and we remain confident of the long term potential of our market.“

HLS says its new orders for the first quarter are about what it had last year, but it suspects some softening might occur later in the year. After SHAC gets done with this, it becomes Huntingdon lost money this quarter because it lost customers. These idiots cannot even read straightforward financial reports correctly, but people actually consider them a credible source for information about animal research?

Source:

LSR Announces First Quarter 2003 Results Huntingdon Life Sciences, Press Release, May 12, 2003.