Monthly Archives: September 2003

Woman's Diseased Heart Rebuilt Using Human and Cow Tissue

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A 46-year-old woman suffering from a rare hereditary disorder successfully had her heart removed and parts of it rebuilt using tissue from cows.

Sandra Lanier of Ware, Mass., is one of only about 400 people known worldwide to suffer from “Carney Complex” — a hereditary disorder that causes recurring non-cancerous tumors. In Lanier’s case, it caused tumors to repeatedly grow in her left atrium, and she had endured three open heart surgeries before her most recent operation.

Dr. James Gammie and Dr. Bartley Griffith of the University of Maryland Medical Center removed her heart as part of a 12-hour operation and rebuilt the left and right atrium with human and cow tissue. According to the Associated Press,

During the operation, Gammie took out the remaining atrial tissue and used cow tissue to replace the back portion of the atria and line up the pulmonary veins so they could be reattached to the heart.

Meanwhile, Griffith rebuilt Lanier’s atria with a combination of animal and human tissue. Griffith said the animal and human tissue knitted together nicely with the remaining half of her own heart.

Griffith performed a similar surgery in 2000.

Source:

Surgeons use animal and human tissue on woman’s heart to remove tumor. Brian White, Associated Press, August 29, 2003.

Japanese Companies Win Protest Reprieve

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Seven Japanese firms with branches in the United Kingdom succeeded in August in having a judge create an injunction against animal rights protesters similar to the injunction that Huntingdon Life Sciences was granted in June.

The companies asked for the injunction after protesters associated with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, the Animal Liberation Front and the Animal Rights Militia staged protests at the offices and homes of employees of the companies due to their connections with Huntingdon Life Sciences. According to a BBC report,

. . . harassment took the form of threatening letters and phone calls, sending letters to neighbors alleging directors are pedophiles or sex offenders, painting slogans, smashing windows and assault.

The injunctions were issued under authority of Great Britain’s new anti-stalking law. Activists have challenged the stalking law itself, and that case will be taken up by British courts later this year.

Sources:

HLS boost after judge grants protest bans. Peterborough Now, August 29, 2003.

Stalker laws to block activists. The BBC, August 27, 2003.

Stalking Law Used To Protect Animal Rights’ Targets. Stephen Howard, Press Association, August 27, 2003.

Animal rights group targets win safe zone. The Times (London), August 28, 2003.

Terrorists Explode Bombs at Major California Biotech Company

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In the early morning hours of August 28, two bombs placed by animal rights extremists exploded at the headquarters of Chiron Corp., a biotechnology company, in Emeryville, California. A third device consisting of a five-gallon plastic jug of gasoline was discovered unexploded and was safely detonated by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department.

The bombs were detonated just days after Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty had named Chiron its target of the week. Chiron spokespersons said the company has no current contracts with HLS, but has used the testing firm in the past and will use them again in the future.

A group calling itself the Animal Liberation Brigade took credit for the bombings, issuing a communique through the extremist web site Bite Back!,

In the early hours of August 28th volunteers from the Revolutionary Cells descended on the animal killing scum Chiron. We left them with a small surprise of 2 pipe bombs filled with an ammonium nitrate slurry with redundant timers. This action came about because Chiron has continued their murderous connection with Huntingdon Life Sciences even though they have been exposed numerous times as some of the most egregious animal killers in the industry.

Chiron, you were asked to sever your ties with HLS, you were told, and yet you continued your relations with them. Now it is time for you face the consequences of your actions. If you choose to continue your relations with HLS you will no longer be subject only to the actions of the above ground animal rights movement, you will face us. This is the endgame for the animal killers and if you choose to stand with them you will be dealt with accordingly. There will be no quarter given, no more half measures taken.

You might be able to protect your buildings, but can you protect the homes of every employee?

From palestine to euskal herria, from the jungles of colombia to northern ireland, the struggle will continue until all of the oppressive institutions are destroyed!

for animal liberation through armed struggle, the Revolutionary Cells

–animal liberation brigade

SHAC spokespersons the media that it was not involved in the explosions but that this was the sort of action that SHAC supported. SHAC’s Andrea Lindsay told KGO-TV in San Francisco of the need to constantly pressure employees of firms like Chiron,

At 5:00 p.m., those people think they get to check out and go home and forget about what their company is doing to animals and we want to remind them that those animals are sitting in cages overnight. The animals don’t get to check out at 5:00 p.m. and neither do they. Until their company stops supporting this cruelty, they’re going to be a focus of this campaign 24-7.

Sources:

Was Emeryville Biotech Company Targeted?. KGO-TV, August 28, 2003.

Animal rights activists suspected in Chiron blasts. Reuters, August 29, 2003.

Animal rights group takes credit for Chiron bombs. KTVU.Com, August 29, 2003.

Hippo Population in Congo Crashes

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The World Wildlife Fund recently publicized a Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature survey of the hippopotamus population in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That survey estimates that the hippo population has declined from a high of 29,000 in the early 1970s to only about 1,300 specimens today.

Of course the Democratic Republic of Congo has been racked by war and corrupt governance during much of that period, so it is hardly surprising that poachers and others have been killing hippos with impunity. What is genuinely surprising is the perverse effect that the ban on the trade in ivory has had on hippo populations. According to New Scientist,

In recent years, hippo meat has become a delicacy in parts of central Africa. Furthermore, the present worldwide ban on the trade in elephant ivory has meant hippo teeth, which can grow to 60 centimeters or more long, have become a valuable substitute.

This switch is darkly ironic, because hippos are now much rarer than African elephants. The global hippo population is now estimated at about 150,000, but there are more than half a million African elephants.

African nations where elephants are plentiful have repeatedly petitioned for a resumption of the world ivory trade (limited lifting of the ban, usually to sell pre-ban ivory stocks, has taken place occasionally since 1989).

Sources:

Poaching causes hippo population crash. NewScientist.Com, August 29, 2003.

Poachers will wipe out hippos in Congo, WWF warns. Reuters, August 28, 2003.

Activists Fail to Stop Mourning Dove Hunt in Wisconsin

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Two years ago, Wisconsin Citizens for Cranes and Doves began won a lawsuit that delayed a mourning dove hunt in Wisconsin. Activists won that battle, but they lost the war on Sept. 1 when the 60-day mourning dove seasons began.

The Humane Society of the United States and The Fund for Animals tried a last ditch appeal to Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, but Doyle’s spokesperson said in response that “The courts and the Legislature have already spoken on this issue.”

Hunters in Wisconsin will shoot an estimated 120,000-150,000 doves from September 1 through October 30.

Sources:

Mourning Doves: Doyle won’t halt dove hunt despite protests. Associated Press, August 29, 2003.

Mourning dove hunt begins in Wisconsin. Minnesota Public Radio, September 2, 2003.

Woman’s Diseased Heart Rebuilt Using Human and Cow Tissue

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A 46-year-old woman suffering from a rare hereditary disorder successfully had her heart removed and parts of it rebuilt using tissue from cows.

Sandra Lanier of Ware, Mass., is one of only about 400 people known worldwide to suffer from “Carney Complex” — a hereditary disorder that causes recurring non-cancerous tumors. In Lanier’s case, it caused tumors to repeatedly grow in her left atrium, and she had endured three open heart surgeries before her most recent operation.

Dr. James Gammie and Dr. Bartley Griffith of the University of Maryland Medical Center removed her heart as part of a 12-hour operation and rebuilt the left and right atrium with human and cow tissue. According to the Associated Press,

During the operation, Gammie took out the remaining atrial tissue and used cow tissue to replace the back portion of the atria and line up the pulmonary veins so they could be reattached to the heart.

Meanwhile, Griffith rebuilt Lanier’s atria with a combination of animal and human tissue. Griffith said the animal and human tissue knitted together nicely with the remaining half of her own heart.

Griffith performed a similar surgery in 2000.

Source:

Surgeons use animal and human tissue on woman’s heart to remove tumor. Brian White, Associated Press, August 29, 2003.

Chinese Researchers Claim Human/Rabbit Hybrid

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Chinese researchers claimed in August to have created the first human/rabbit hybrid embryo.

The researcher was carried out at Shanghai Second Medical University and details about the research was published in Cell Research, a bimonthly peer reviewed journal of the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology.

The researchers claim they fused skin cells from a number of human source with rabbit cells that had most of their rabbit DNA removed. According to the researchers, 400 of the hybrids grew into early embryos and more than 100 survived to become blastocysts.

There are many good reasons, however, to be skeptical that the researchers actually managed to create hybrid embryos.

According to a United Press International story, the report on this research had been submitted and rejected by several more reputable journals over the past two years. The study has been rejected for publication because both the draft and the version published in Cell Research omit data that would make it possible to confirm that the researchers actually resulted in embryonic cells.

And, as UPI tactfully puts it, “researchers in China have gained a reputation for making bold claims about cloning and stem cells that, all too often, prove false.”

Sources:

Scientists Doubt Chinese Claim of Rabbit-Human Clone. United Press International, August 15, 2003.

Cloning yields human-rabbit hybrid embryo. Rick Weiss, Washington Post, August 14, 2003.

SHAC Activist Receives Suspended Sentence in Japan

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Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty activist Dawn Hurst was sentenced to a three-year prison sentence that the judge in the case then suspended for five years.

Hurst, 31, is a British citizen who was convicted of stealing a dog and dozens of videotapes from research laboratories in Japan between 2001 and 2002.

Unfortunately, Judge Satoshi Shibayama apparently fell hook, line and sinker for Hurst’s repentance routine, explaining he suspended her sentence because she had sincerely repented of her crimes.

Hurst, of course, was only arrested because she travelled to Japan in April with other SHAC activists to protest at a pharmaceutical trade show being held there.

It’s amazing that they were able to convict Hurst at all since, according to statements at the time of her arrest by SHAC spokeswoman Heather James, Hurst never actually committed any crime,

Hundreds of animals are poisoned to death every day at Huntingdon Life Sciences on behalf of their Japanese customers. Dawn’s only alleged ‘crime’ is to expose this animal abuse while the real criminals such as Daiichi, CBC, Yamanouchi and Sumitomo continue to profit from the torture of animals at HLS. We demand her immediate release.

Sources:

UK shock tactics repel animal-rights activists in Japan. DAVID CYRANOSKI, Nature, 424, 119, July 10, 2003.

UK animal rights activist sentenced in Japan. China Daily, August 25, 2003.

Cops doggedly pursue animal activist. June 30, 2003.

SHAC Campaigner Arrested In Japan! Press Release, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, April 17, 2003.

Harassment of Chiron Employees

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The Contra Costa Times ran an article in late August profiling the harassment that employees of Chiron Corp. have faced over the past few months as Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty has focused on that company which contracts with Huntingdon Life Sciences for animal testing.

According to the Contra Costa Times,

Protesters have left fake tombstones on executives’ lawns and awakened employees and their families at 3 a.m., police said. No permanent damage has been inflicted, but some employees have changed their phone number and called police several times.

SHAC claims that such actions are not part of its campaign against Chiron, but of course SHAC’s web site lists the names and addresses of numerous Chiron employees along with messages referring to them as “sick animal-killing sum” and “Until you do [sever ties with HLS], we will be watching you. We will invite ourselves over to your homes and into your private lives.”

And SHAC spokeswoman Danielle Matthews says that the group supports and encourages such acts, up to and including arson and other illegal acts. Matthews told the Contra Costa Times,

We support any action that aids the closure of Huntingdon. You are actually protesting the company by protesting the executives.

Source:

Protests target firm’s execs. Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times, August 23, 2003.

Center for Consumer Freedom: Treat PETA Like Other Charities Who Support Terrorism

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The Center for Consumer Freedom issued a press release on August 4 urging the government to treat People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals the same as other charities which have been accused of funneling money to terrorist organizations.

According to its press release,

As the frightening images of a massive August 2nd arson are seared into the minds of San Diego residents, many are left to wonder just who the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is and who pays its bills. As law enforcement begins to look for answers, members of the public should know that the shadowy ELF enjoys financial backing from at least one tax-exempt, above-ground group — the activists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

. . .

“Federal law enforcement has already shut down several American nonprofits because of their financial ties with overseas terrorists,” said David Martosko, Director of Research at the Center for Consumer Freedom. “Terrorism is terrorism, whether it’s international or domestic. PETA is funneling money to terrorists, and they shouldn’t be treated any differently.”

Source:

PETA Bankrolling Terrorist Group ELF. PRN Newsire, August 4, 2003.