(Au) APE Night / Perth No Circuses / Shut Down Monkey Farm / Hen Rescue

[Guest guest]

Subject LIBERATE: APE Night / Perth No Circuses / Shut Down Monkey Farm

/ Hen Rescue

 

An email to rs of the Animal Liberation NSW mailing list

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UPCOMING APE NIGHT

 

Celebrate the festive season in style at next week's " APE Night " , with a

special dinner at the Harvest Vegetarian Restaurant, 71 Evans Street,

Rozelle.

 

The evening kicks off at 7.00 pm on Wednesday 18 December, with garlic

and

herb bread for entre, and a choice of four dishes for mains.

A fixed price

of $25 per head includes a donation to AAHR. The good folk at Harvest

have

kindly waived corkage, so BYO alcohol; soft drinks and desserts can be

ordered and paid for separately.

 

Everyone is welcome, however bookings are essential for this dinner.

Please

RSVP by Monday, 16 December, either by email (humane) or

telephone (9360 1144).

 

" APE Nights " are organised by the Australian Association for Humane

Research

Inc, a specialist anti-vivisection society based in Darlinghurst, and

offer

a regular opportunity for members and supporters to get together for a

relaxed evening on the third Wednesday of each month. They alternate

between

an outing to a vegetarian restaurant - offering the chance to socialise

and

chat over dinner - and an evening in a hall to allow for a talk or

presentation on a topic that impacts somehow upon " Animals, People and

the

Environment " .

 

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[Perth is the capital city of Western Australia and Stardust circus

ships Arna the elephant and the other animals thousands

of miles across the Australian

continent to perform here. Stardust Circus was able to lease land just

on the edge of the Central Business District in the heart of Perth prior

to the decision to ban circuses from Perth. There are at least two other

local governments/shires here that still allow circuses to perform].

 

PERTH CITY COUNCIL VOTES AGAINST CIRCUSES

 

Perth City Council had a vote this week to approve the Stardust circus

land

for their performances. The alternative motion was put forward to refuse

 

the circus approval and in fact to revisit the policy SU62 and replace

it with

a ban which in effect denies any animal-based circus from coming to

Perth

City.

 

The vote went 8-1 in favour of the animals! A huge result. The review of

 

the policy will be in the new year, and the circus is bound to lobby to

get a

few minds changed. To combat this, please send letters of

congratulations

to Lord Mayor Dr Peter Nattrass telling him how wonderful the council

is, how

they will lead the cause, how the decision is progressive and shows

compassion, foresight, reflects the view of the wider community and how

enlightened they all are. Also write to the other councillors expressing

 

the same: Judy McEvoy, Bert Tudori, Vincent Tan, Michael Sutherland,

Janet

Davidson JP, Lisa Scaffidi and Jennifer MacGill.

 

Perth City Council

Level 11 Council House

St Georges Terrace

Perth 6000

 

Fax: (08) 9461 3053

 

E mail: cecilia_firth

 

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SHUT DOWN THE MONKEY FARM IN AUSTRALIA

 

Provided by Mary Alice and www.antivivisection.cjb.net

There is a dangerous push in Australia to breed more nonhuman primates

than

ever before for animal experimentation due to perceived 'successes' in

the

field of genetics in this country. Hundreds of monkeys will be bred in

the

near future for medical experiments at a farm in Churchill, Victoria.

These

monkeys will be bred to order and sold for research, which will include

testing an HIV vaccine, and studying Parkinson's disease, strokes and

Alzheimers disease.

 

What is not mentioned however is how vivisectors induce a stroke or

Alzheimers or " Parkinson's " into their hapless victims -- the monkeys.

This

is done through brain-damaging the individual. Take Alzheimer's disease

(AD) for example. This condition causes confusion, memory loss and

dementia in

millions of elderly people. The cause remains unknown and there is no

effective treatment. In the brains of AD patients an abnormal build-up

of

proteins occurs, in the form of plaques and tangles. No one knows if

these

protein deposits are a cause or a result of the disease. Eventually the

brain cells start to die, the brain shrinks and there is a loss of

mental

abilities with increasing age.

 

No animals suffer from AD in the way humans do, yet many animals have

been

consumed in a attempt to find that perfect laboratory " model " . Macaque

monkeys develop protein deposits in the brain as they age, but they do

not

suffer from the severe form of disease seen in humans. In any case,

monkeys

in the natural would live beyond 30 years of age, and that means to a

vivisector that it is generally too expensive to keep them in

laboratories

for that amount of time. " Blind Freddie " would know that to brain damage

a

monkey to study Alzheimer's disease is bogus. AD is an aging, slow,

chronic

degenerative disease. Brain damage is not.

 

There are so many more examples but due to lack of space I'll cite only

one

more. For over 20 years chimpanzees and monkeys have been used for AIDS

research and what has been yielded? Rich primate researchers and

dead-ends,

that's what! Never before in the history of disease research have in

vitro

methodologies and the tools of modern molecular biology played such

important roles in the case of the AIDS epidemic. It is irrefutable that

the overwhelming body of knowledge we have accumulated on AIDS has come

from

the cooperation utilising epidemiological, in vitro, and clinical

research

together. Nonhuman primates can't get fully blown AIDS. Only humans do.

Nonhuman primates get a monkey virus called Simian immunodeficiency

virus

 

(SIV) but as AIDS vaccine researcher Dani P. Bolognesi notes:

 

" No animal models faithfully reproduce human immunodeficency virus

type-1

(HIV-1) infection and disease in humans, and the studies of experimental

vaccines in animal models of disease caused by lentiviruses have yielded

disparate results, making it difficult to determine what is required for

a

successful HIV-1 vaccine. "

 

So Animal Defenders is an Australian AR group who are strenuously

opposing

plans by the National Health and Medical Research Council who gave this

$5

million dollar grant away to fund a breeding and research centre.

 

Professor Stephen Harrap, head of the committee that manages the

Melbourne

University macaque colony and will be on the committee that will oversee

this new centre is quoted as saying that research monkeys are treated

with

respect. " We treat them as very precious creatures, " he said. Not

precious

enough to spare their lives Prof. Harrap!!

 

The statement by chairwoman Elizabeth Grant from NHMRC that " there is a

lot

of traumatic stuff that animals are used for but they can only be used

for

one experiment " is sickening. The mentality which assumes that other

species are facilities placed here for our use and that their lives only

matter in

that context, is exactly the same thinking which through slavery

relegated

the black races for so long as an inferior status. Now we have come to

see

Racism for what it is - misguided prejudice, fuelled by self-interest

and

with no logical basis whatsoever. It's time to take a good hard look at

its

sister concept - Speciesism.

 

We are asking you to e-mail or write your protest today.

 

Professor Stephen Harrap

Head of the Department of Physiology

North Wing Medical Centre

University of Melbourne

Corner of Royal Parade and Grattan St

Parkville Victoria 3052

Ph: 03 8344 5837

Fax: 03 8344 5818

E.mail: s.harrap

 

Let the Professor know that we are opposed to quarkery in all its forms

and

to step out of the Dark Ages into the modern techno age where

alternatives

lie and a more enlightened attitude will prevail for those that share

the

earth with us.

 

Paste and copy to:

Senator Kay Patterson

Federal Minister for Health

270 Clayton Road

Clayton Victoria 3168

Tel: 03 9544 7411

Fax: 03 9544 5535

Email: senator.kcpatterson

 

Politicians are servants of the people. Don't be intimidated by them.

Tell

the Minister that you don't want your tax dollars being spent on

murdering

innocent monkeys.

 

And finally Mr Stephen Marshall will head this new centre. He's been

quoted

as saying " If we didn't have to use monkeys, we'd do away with animals

in

laboratories tomorrow. " Demand that Stephen Marshall does just this as

human-based scientifc research methods are available.

 

Mr Stephen Marshall

Animal Services

Monash University

PO Box 40

Monash University 3800

Tel: 03 9905 4872

Fax: 03 9905 5736

Email: Animal.Services

 

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SILVERBEET BOUQUETS FOR BATTERY HENS

From Animal Liberation Victoria

33 hens rescued from battery farm near Melbourne

 

Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV) rescued 33 battery hens from Pace Farm

Eggs in South Morang (north of Melbourne Australia) on Sunday December

8. The

eight member team brought bouquets of silverbeet and bags of lettuce and

grapes as a token Christmas gesture to the thousands of caged hens.

 

The team accessed the manure pit of one of the PACE FARM sheds late on

Sunday night and immediately found two very emaciated and dehydrated

hens

cowering in the corner, they were caked in excrement. Two feed hoppers

that

had obviously been placed in the noxious smelly pit by PACE FARM

(Australia's largest producer of battery eggs) after previous adverse

publicity following an ALV rescue, were found to be filled with dust and

draped in cobwebs. There was no food or water in the pit which was

filled

with low rows of excrement (almost two metres high) falling from the

rows

of battery caged hens above.

 

Pace Farms in South Morang produces battery, barn and free-range eggs in

numerous sheds on the property, with the majority being battery hens.

Pace

Farms is a business partner with the RSPCA who have failed to properly

investigate and prosecute this company for cruelty to animals. The RSPCA

endorse Pace Farms barn-laid eggs and make royalties from all sold. The

two

massive battery sheds next to the one ALV investigated had recently been

depopulated (hens taken to the slaughterhouse) and it is our belief that

 

the shed we were in was also soon to be cleared.

 

Laying hens are prematurely slaughtered at 18-24 months of age when

their

'economic productivity declines'. The hens we rescued were 'end of lay'

meaning they were approximately 18 months old. They were debilitated,

exhausted, frail and broken down. They more resembled 8-10 year old hens

near the end of their lives. In human terms it would be similiar to

findinga shed of confined young teenagers (aged 13-14 years old)

who were forced to work non-stop, being physically like people 90 years

old.

Such is thecollateral damage of constant caging in cramped unbearable

conditions

and being forced to pump out countless eggs.

 

Silverbeet Bouquets

The rescue team well understood the real meaning of Christmas giving

this

night. Though a token gesture, the team came armed with bouquets of

silverbeet and bags of lettuce and grapes (foods that hens normally love

to

eat). The lights were out in the shed as we placed the vibrant green

leaves

in their food trays. When our video lights woke some of the hens and

they

saw this favoured food that they had NEVER set eyes on before, their

eyes

popped out of their heads! Contrast this with our abundance of presents

under the Christmas tree and festive tables weighted down with so much

food

that we make ourselves sick. Yet the humble hen miserably toils away

while

tightly and permanently caged in a dismal, dim, stinking shed with

nothing!

Sadly one of the hens we rescued was found near death on the floor of

her

cage. We named this hen Lizzie and she was later euthanised by a vet as

her

condition was so poor. Lizzie weighed only one kilogram, less than half

normal body weight. At any time there would be thousands of 'Lizzies "

lying

prone on a battery cage floor somewhere in the world, sick and too weak

to

reach food and water, slowly dying while being trampled by other hens in

 

the cage who have no where else to go.

 

 

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