Animal Rights Group Silent Over Genetically Modified Animals.

[Guest guest]

Genetically Modified Animals

 

 

 

 

The

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just moved a step closer to

allowing companies to create genetically engineered animals. The FDA is

proposing to allow the creation of animals that will be used to produce

medicine, organs for transplant, meat or genetically engineered pets;

and experiment subjects.

 

Canadian author Margaret Atwood wrote about many of these same

possibilities in her best-selling and starkly apocalyptic book – Oryx

and Crake. It seems that in 2003, Atwood’s book made more waves and

garnered more headlines than the recent FDA’s public forum requesting

input on their proposed Draft Guidance for Industry: Regulation of

genetically engineered animals containing heritable rDNA constructs.

 

Atwood wrote about pigoons (creatures engineered for organ harvest),

rakunks (animals bred to be good pets), and snats (an experimental

hybrid of a snake and rat). She also wrote about a genetically

engineered blob-like chicken that produced only breast meat. This

creature is the source for the popular take out food outlet ChickieNob

Nubbins in Oryx and Crake. One of the scientists in Atwood’s book

remarks that, “…create-an-animal was so much fun; it made you feel like

Godâ€.

 

Fast-forward to 2008 and the FDA is moving ahead with their intention

to allow the creation, use and sale of genetically modified animals.

The surprising, or maybe not so surprising, thing is that there has

been very little media coverage or protest. Although there were a few

headlines in major publications on genetically modified steak or

franken-animals, all in all there was little mainstream media coverage

and little outcry about the FDA’s proposed legislation.

 

I wonder about our apathy.

 

Is it because Americans are some of the largest consumers of meat per

capita in the world? Or, as the largest consumer of meat, Americans

also happen to practice some of the cruellest factory farming methods

in the world? Or maybe it is just that Americans also consume one of

the unhealthiest diets of any wealthy nation on the planet.

 

Michael Pollan, best-selling author of In Defense of Food and An

Omnivore’s Dilemma, writes that we are now facing an unfamiliar

situation in America, where we are the human beings who manage to be

both overfed and undernourished.

 

Aside for being world-renowned for their poor diet, America is also

infamous for their quick and clandestine approval of genetically

modified crops. Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception:

Exposing Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods

You’re Eating, paints a damning picture of how bribes, harassment,

threats, manipulation, junk science and indifference resulted in the

wide-scale use of genetically engineered soy, cotton and corn in North

America. Filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin explains in her film, The World

According to Monsanto, that 70% of the food in American stores contains

bio-engineered elements.

 

Genetically engineered food sources are not labelled in North America

even though consumers continue to agitate for clear labelling. Consumer

Reports National Research Center conducted a poll in October 2008 of

more than 1000 people on various food labelling issues and found that

95% of consumers polled agreed that, “food products made from

genetically engineered animals should be labelled as suchâ€.

 

If consumers so clearly want genetically engineered foods labelled, why the apathy on genetically engineered animals?

 

Maybe it is just a coincidence that this incredibly important and

life-changing legislation has been slipped by the public while much of

America (and the world) was preoccupied with the recent American

election drama. Add in the economic recession and there wasn’t much

space left on news’ networks, or in newspapers, for any other

headlines. The FDA’s Draft Guidance for Industry: Regulation of

genetically engineered animals containing heritable rDNA constructs

document was available for review from September 18th to November 18th

– right at the exact same time as the frenzy of the American election.

 

Coincidence? I think not.

 

I am a little surprised that there wasn’t a more concerted effort by

the animal rights’ groups to stop the legislation. When I think of the

collective advertising budgets of PETA, HSUS, Compassion in World

Farming and WWF, I believe if they had put their media expertise and

dollars together they could have done more to raise awareness and

perhaps even stop this legislation.

 

PETA, infamous for being press-sluts (PETA founder, Ingrid Newkirk’s

words not mine), does not seem to be tackling this issue aggressively

enough. They seem more preoccupied with stalking fur-wearing

celebrities of late. I dug around on their website and couldn’t find

anything on genetically modified animals, so I contacted them and asked

for an official statement on the FDA’s proposal.

 

Here is a portion of their official statement:

 

…Genetic engineering is unethical, always disastrous for animals, and

often dangerous for humans. PETA urges regulators and consumers to

reject genetic engineering and to demand better and more ethical

scientific practices. At least 90 percent of genetically engineered

animals are simply discarded as “failures†at early stages of the

process. The remaining animals are sentenced to lives burdened with

painful diseases and distressing conditions….

 

I can’t help but wonder why PETA didn’t use their considerable

resources and run a public campaign encouraging people to speak up

about the FDA’s proposal? Where were the billboards, the commercials,

the naked celebrities? They do it for the carriage horses, the fur

animals, the KFC chickens – why not the genetically engineered

animals-to-be?

 

And the Humane Society of the United States? They have a report on

their website – An HSUS Report: Welfare Issues with Genetic Engineering

and Cloning of Farm Animals. The report is very helpful for people who

want more information, but why was so much effort put into Proposition

2 and yet little effort was put into making people aware of the

possibility of genetically engineered animals?

 

Proposition 2 is an excellent effort towards reducing factory farm

animal suffering and, like most caring people, I am grateful it passed,

but what about the genetically engineered animals-to-be? Are we going

to wait until they are suffering in laboratories and petri dishes

before we work to get legislation to alleviate their suffering?

 

Both Farm Sanctuary and the Animal Liberation Front disapprove of the use of genetically modified animals.

 

We received no response for our request for a statement on the FDA’s

proposal on genetically modified animals from The Institute of

Responsible Technology.

 

It seems like now, right now, before the FDA has finalized approval for

the use of genetically modified animals, is the time to stop this

legislation.

 

I can’t help but wonder if the FDA’s proposal deliberately and

purposefully caught everyone off-guard and preoccupied with the

American election and the effort to pass Proposition 2 in California.

It seems like much more animal suffering and cruelty will be evidenced

through the approval of genetically engineered animals than anything

the world has previously seen. Much of the animal rights’ world has

been strangely silent or perhaps just preoccupied with other campaigns.

 

If, as in the past, the treatment of animals in factory farms was

compared to a holocaust, it is safe to say that animals, if the FDA

proposal passes, will experience an apocalypse of suffering as

genetically engineered suppliers of organs, meat and medicine.

 

I tell myself that in the future, when we are working to create

legislation to help these animals, I hope we will remember to look back

at 2008 when we had a chance to speak up, and wonder why we chose to

remain silent.

 

Valerie Williams is a writer living on Salt Spring Island, Canada.

 

Genetically Modified Animals

 

 

__________________ If they want money let them ask us directly. We are ready to give it to them.Why do they need to poke our children with these vaccines? Why did not they become robbers or politicians? They can earn money that way too. Why do they have to malign such a noble profession? - A non pediatrician doctor, mother of an autistic child, at Hyderabad, India.

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