(Au) Another Zoo? , Maccas, Free Willy, Germany , Animal Testing

[Guest guest]

Date 09:12 Aug 24

Subject LIBERATE: Another Zoo? / Maccas / Free Willy / Germany / Animal

Tests USA

 

An email to rs of the Animal Liberation NSW mailing list

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PROPOSED NEW ZOO AT DARLING HARBOUR

 

The Minister for Planning has asked Sydney City Council to comment on a new

zoo being proposed for Darling Harbour. The zoo will be an extension of the

existing aquarium and will house Australian native animals such as

kangaroos, wallabies, emus etc.

 

The issue of the new zoo will come before council this Monday 26/08/02.

This presents another opportunity to oppose the zoo by advising the City of

Sydney we do not want such a zoo in the area.

 

Issues of concern which you may like to include in your submission are:

- Darling Harbour is a noisy, polluted and over developed area. It is not a

suitable habitat for native animals

 

- The study of environmental factors submitted by the developer

(Australia's Animal World), to Planning NSW was totally inadequate. It

contained some

information regarding cage sizes, however failed to specify the number of

animals to be housed in each cage.

 

- Taronga Zoo is in easy travelling distance of Sydney's CBD. It provides

adequate opportunity for people to see native Australian animals. There is

no need for another zoo in such close proximity.

 

- The zoo will be totally devoid of genuine educational value as the

animals will be housed in such an unnatural environment that there will be

no

opportunity to observe their natural behaviour as would be exhibited in

their normal habitat.

 

Please send your letter of opposition to the following:

(International +61 2 then the number )

 

The Lord Mayor - Fax 9265 9328

Councillor Turnball - Fax 9265 9416

Councillor Coulton - Fax 9265 9416

Councillor Farr-Jones - Fax 9265 9204

Councillor Greiner - Fax 9265 9204

Councillor Ho - Fax 9265 9188

Councillor Marsden - Fax: 9265 9416

 

Also send a copy of your letter to the Minister for Planning The Hon. Dr.

Andrew Refshauge, Fax 9558 3653.

 

And a copy to the Department of Agriculture, Locked Bag 21, Orange, NSW

2800, asking that the Department refuse Australia's Animals World a licence

to display native Australian fauna.

 

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McDONALD's TRYING TO SNEAK INTO BLUE MOUNTAINS (NSW)

 

A letter has been leaked to MAM (Mountains Against McDonald's) detailing

plans to set up a drive-through McDonald's IN THE HEART OF KATOOMBA

(the heart of the beautiful Blue Mountains, west of Sydney). Currently the

developer is buying up shops surrounding the recently-closed Ampol Garage

site and has also approached the Baptist Church and Salvation Army for

their properties immediately behind as well. MAM will be meeting soon to

discuss

tactics, which will include local grassroots action involving the Arts

community and local residents, and in particular, " armchair activism " via

the internet, under the slogan: MACFREE ZONE - LEAVE US ALONE!! Watch this

space. As yet, there is no Development Application before Blue Mountains

City Council.

 

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FREE WILLY WHALE 'SWIMMING FREE'

 

Keiko the killer whale is swimming free off the Icelandic coast.

The 'star' of Free Willy has been tracked 250 miles out to sea by satellite

..

 

The orca's keepers are tracking him as he swims in the wild but say he's no

longer in their control.

 

But Keiko could still return to his pen off the Icelandic coast if it

appears he needs help.

 

Charles Vinick of the Ocean Futures Society in Iceland told The Oregonian:

 

" He's clearly free because he's not in our control. He's truly out with

whales. "

 

Keiko was brought to the Oregon Coast Aquarium from a Mexico City amusement

park in 1996, and was flown to Iceland in September of 1998 with hopes he

could return to the wild in the North Atlantic, where he was captured.

 

It is not yet certain whether Keiko has bonded with a pod of killer whales,

whether he is feeding himself adequately, or whether he can make it through

the winter without an occasional human handout.

 

He was escorted out to sea from his pen in Iceland's Westmann Islands on

July 8 and returned to the pen for one day in mid-July.

 

Vinick said Keiko has been swimming as far as 80 miles a day.

 

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GERMANY GUARANTEES ANIMAL RIGHTS

Animal rights will have to be weighed against researchers' rights

 

BERLIN, Germany -- Animal rights has been enshrined in the German

Constitution after a vote in the upper house of parliament.

 

Legislators voted with the necessary two-thirds majority to add the words

" and animals " to the constitutional clause obliging the state to respect

and protect the dignity of humans.

 

Germany becomes the first country in the European Union to enshrine animal

rights in its constitution. Germany already recognises animal rights with a

raft of legislation covering the conditions they can be held in captivity

and in homes.

 

But campaigners argued the laws did not do enough to prevent the use of

animals in research.

 

In future cases the federal constitutional court will have to weigh an

animal's rights against other entrenched rights, like those to conduct

research or practice religion.

 

It could result in tighter restrictions on the use of animals for testing

 

cosmetics or non-prescription drugs. The constitutional change follows a

decade of debate. Until this year, conservatives had argued it could put

the interests of animals before those of humans and damage Germany's

research

industry.

 

But they changed policy after Germany's highest court allowed Muslim

butchers to slaughter animals without first being stunned, according to

Islamic law.

 

Neighbouring Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, passed a similar

amendment in 1992, allowing animals to be recognised as beings and not

things.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/06/21/germany.animals/index.html

 

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USA DROPS REQUIREMENT FOR SOME ANIMAL TESTS

By Maggie Fox, Reuters

 

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is quietly advising that companies end

some controversial animal tests, saying laboratory alternatives exist that

are

quicker and just as good, officials said this week.

 

The tests look for corrosive chemicals and involve shaving an animal,

painting the compound onto its skin, and then waiting for up to two weeks

to see if damage results.

 

The recommendations, from a committee set up to find alternatives to animal

tests, go to federal agencies ranging from the Environmental Protection

Agency to the Department of Transportation, which can choose to change

their own regulations.

 

" They will consider these recommendations and, if applicable to the kind of

products that they regulate, then they will consider revising their

guidelines, " said Dr. William Stokes, head of the Interagency Coordinating

Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods.

 

ICCVAM, set up by the federal government to review animal tests, said four

alternative tests exist that do not require the use of live animals.

 

They are Episkin, based on human collagen; a human-skin-cell-based test

called Ep=EDerm; the Rat Skin TER assay, which uses discs of rat skin; and

Corrositex, which also uses layers of collagen, the material that holds the

skin together.

 

" ICCVAM looked at three in-vitro tests (tests in a lab dish) for dermal

skin corrosivity and concurred that positive results from these tests could

be

used to classify chemicals or products as corrosives, and you would not

need to use any animals for that determination, " Stokes said in a telephone

interview. " Nearly all chemicals that have corrosive properties are going

to be detected in these tests. "

 

FASTER THAN ANIMAL TESTING

 

Stokes did not know whether nonanimal tests would cost less. " I know they

will be a lot faster because, with animal tests, you have to wait for 14

days after applying the chemicals, " he said. " These tests can be conducted

in a day. "

 

Stokes said ICCVAM also accepted recommendations from the Organization for

Economic Cooperation and Development on replacing photoxocity tests using

animals do another toxic-response skin test involving exposure to light.

 

 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which opposes animal

tests, welcomed the new ruling, but with reservations. " This is something

we have been pushing for at an international level, " PETA spokesperson

Jessica

Sandler said.

 

But, she noted, if any of the four tests gets a negative result, meaning it

 

does not show a chemical is corrosive, the finding has to be confirmed

using an animal test.

 

She said the rulings did not affect the use of the Draize test, in which

chemicals are dripped into a rabbit's eye. " It is crazy that in 2002 we are

still dripping chemicals into animals' eyes, " Sandler said. " They need to

confine animal tests to the trashbin of history. "

 

http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08212002/reu_48210.asp

 

Copyright 2002, Reuters

 

 

 

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