ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: January/February 2007

Letters to the Editor

Alternatives to animal experiments

Animal experiments have long been the subject of controversy. Although many claims have been made either way about their value, until recently large-scale scientific studies of their efficacy in advancing human health have been rare. Since 2004, however, several such studies have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and presented at international scientific conferences, at which some have received awards.

The results have been remarkably consistent: the stress that laboratory animals experience is greater than commonly understood, and experiments on them contribute far less to advancing human medical progress than advocates often claim. The abstracts, and usually complete texts of these studies, are freely downloadable from <www.AnimalExperimentFacts.info>, along with published reviews of non-animal experimental models, and relevant government reports.

We have also just launched <www.HumaneLearning.info>. This provides over 250 published studies describing humane teaching methods, sorted by academic discipline, including a review of 28 studies conclusively demonstrating that students using well-designed humane alternatives achieve learning outcomes at least as good as those achieved via traditional harmful animal use; detailed submissions describing the alternatives available in certain academic disciplines, that have resulted in their introduction at some universities; a large photo gallery of humane alternatives and harmful animal use in education; links to free on-line alternatives; links to alternatives databases; links to alternatives libraries; links to humane education email lists; links to other humane education web sites; and resources to guide and assist students who wish to conscientiously object to harmful animal use in their education.

It is my hope that these resources may assist others to introduce humane alternatives to harmful animal use in their own universities and schools, as my colleagues and I have done at several universities worldwide. They complement my older web site <www.LearningWithoutKilling.info>, which provides encouragement and guidance for students who are unwilling to harm animals during their education.

--Andrew Knight
Veterinarian &
Animal Advocate
Animal Consultants Intl.
Phone: +44-7876436631
<www.AnimalConsultants.org>

Going veg helps more than driving fuel-efficient hybrid car

Kudos on your excellent longtime efforts to improve conditions for animals.

With the recent increased interest in global warming and other environmental threats, I believe that the animal rights movement can increase our effectiveness by making people aware of the very harmful effects of animal-based agriculture on most, if not all current environmental problems.

We were just given a very valuable tool for accomplishing this objective: a November 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report which indicates that animal-based agriculture has an even greater effect on global climate change and other environmental problems than motor vehicles. Hence, one can do more to reduce global climate change by switching to a plant-based diet than by switching to a fuel-efficient hybrid car.

The 400-page FAO report is summarized at <www.fao.org/ newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html>, and is downloadable at <www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/ key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.pdf>. It follows warnings from renowned climate scientists, such as James Hansen of NASA, that global climate change may spiral out of control within a decade, with disastrous consequences.

It is scandalous that at a time when the world faces so many environmental problems, over 50 billion animals are reared and slaughtered each year, 70% of the grain produced in the United States (and over a third produced worldwide) is inefficiently diverted to feed farmed animals, and we are using up to 14 times as much water than is required to produce vegan diets.

Even more frightening is that the FAO report projects that rising demand for meat and dairy products in the developing world will result in more than doubling global meat and dairy production by 2050 (using 1999-2001 as a baseline). The FAO report does not even address the impact of rising poultry, egg, fish and seafood consumption.

In view of the above and the very negative consequences that the widespread production and consumption of animal products are having on animals and on human health, we should increase our efforts to make people aware that it is essential that there be a major shift toward plant-based diets, in order to shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable path.

--Richard H. Schwartz
Staten Island, N.Y.
<RSchw12345@aol.com>

Pledges allegiance to higher law; mourns loss of INRA

I am responding to the letters printed in the November 2006 issue of Animal People regarding Tammy Grimes and her rescue of Doogie. I could not agree more with her actions. She is right in refusing to return Doogie to his "home," and in being willing to take whatever consequence this act results in for her.

Demonstrations which call attention to the issue are fine for other animals, but not for Doogie. Tammy did the only merciful thing that could be done for him: she rescued him and gave him sanctuary. To return him to his former situation would be a travesty. Imagine the terror and sense of abandonment this animal would feel. Nothing is worth allowing that.

Our country has not yet reached the point where our laws about animals reflect mercy and justice. In those cases, I always feel there is a higher law, and it is that law to which I pledge my allegiance.

On a separate topic, I am glad you and Joanna Harkin researched the disappearance of the International Network for Religion and Animals. I was a member of that organization for many years. Ginny Bee was right! This organization had the potential to help religious people see what tenets of their own faith foster compassion and kindness toward animals.

Because INRA meant so much to me personally, and I did so much within my own religious community as a result of its suggestions and celebrations, I am appalled, livid, and deeply saddened to know exactly what happened to it.

Shame! Shame! Shame!

--Caryl McIntire Edwards
South Paris, Maine

Kindness House

I endorse Dennis Erdman's suggestion that subscribers leave past copies of Animal People in public reading areas.

At Kindness House in Melbourne we have 150 young people, including environmentalists, human and animal rights activists, refugee groups, social program initiators, elite sportsmen, and newspaper publishers. We also have web designers, graphic designers, music promoters and architects in the building.

We leave past copies of Animal People in our foyer, kitchen, boardroom, meeting room and hot desk areas. I am always surprised when copies "go missing" and notice they emerge miraculously in the private office suites. I am ecstatic when I see big macho meat-eating elite athletes suddenly take an interest in vegetarianism, sneaking into the Vegetarian Network Victoria office to acquire a copy of the "Go Vegan" brochure.

We now have a clause in all our leases that reads "As a courtesy to Phil and Trix Wollen, please do not consume animals in this building." We have received no objections from the tenants to the insertion of this clause.

--Philip Wollen
The Winsome Constance Kindness Trust
Australia
Phone: 613-98221662
<phil@kindnesstrust.com>
<www.thewinsomeconstancekindnesstrust.com>

QuickSpay in Poland

We would like to thank you cordially for sending us your October 2005 edition with the CD QuickSpay: Early-Age & Adult Surgical Sterilization Techniques for Dogs & Cats, by Marvin Mackie, DVM, which shows the details of how to master this type of surgery. Please thank Dr. Mackie for us. We appreciate his kindness and that he shares his experience with other vets.

As you know, our foundation finances sterilizing pets in the villages of Poland. To encourage vets to cooperate with us, we would like to further distribute this excellent CD.

We would also like to thank you for publishing information about our foundation. Our actions were appreciated even in the U.S. We received $100 from your readers. We sterilized pets for this money.

--Jurek Duszynski
& Alina Kasprowicz
Fundacja Zwierzeta i my
Ul. Dabrowskiego 25/3
PL-60-840 Poznan, Poland
Phone: 48-61-814-28-19
<jwd@tlen.pl>

Correction
Nicole Paquette, Gil Lamont, and Camilla Fox of the Animal Protection Institute were mistakenly listed as employees of the Animal Welfare Institute in the Individual Compensation tables published in the December 2006 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE. Michelle Thew, listed as executive director of API, returned to Britain at the end of the 2006 API fiscal year, where she again heads the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, her position before joining API in 2004.

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