And not most rabbits in laboratory use, either WASHINGTON D.C.––Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler, in one of his last actions before leaving office with the Donald Trump presidential administration, “issued a January 20, 2021 directive instructing the agency to plan for the retirement of the last remaining rabbits in the EPA’s taxpayer-funded […]
Ape learning experiments? When will humans ever learn?
Whether chimps can talk is much less perplexing than whether humans can care for them adequately after research use BLUE RIDGE, Georgia––Few people visit Blue Ridge, Georgia, population fewer than 1,500 humans, plus 78 chimpanzees retired from biomedical research use to the Project Chimps sanctuary. Quality of care issues have in 2020 emerged as a […]
Why is Trump EPA chief cutting animal testing while the NRDC defends it?
Natural Resources Defense Council has fought for 50 years to make EPA enforce chemical safety standards WASHINGTON D.C.––How has the Natural Resources Defense Council, whose emblem is a polar bear, become the front line of public defense of the animal testing industry? Why is Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler leading the most aggressive effort […]
Should giving shelter dogs & cats to university labs count as “live release”?
USDA says pound animal giveaways to vet schools are not covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act BATON ROUGE, Louisiana; TUSKEGEE, Alabama––Recent transfers of shelter animals to the Louisiana State University and Tuskegee University veterinary schools have allegedly been reported by shelter personnel as “adoptions” or transfers to “rescue.” The disputed transactions appear to […]
“Best science” won’t protect “clean meat” from foes, warns vet of biotech wars
Fear of science & change will be weapons for animal industries trying to save their rump roasts CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts––“Do not assume that doing the best science possible will insulate you from criticism,” AquaBounty Technologies chief executive Ronald L. Stotish warned the New Harvest 2018 conference on “cellular agriculture,” toward the end of two days […]
“Rigor mortis is our biggest problem,” meat scientist tells cell culturing conference
Animal agribiz is about dead meat; cellular ag isn’t CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts––Rigor mortis is the biggest technical problem the meat industry has, John R. White Company meat scientist Benjy Mikel, Ph.D., of Birmingham, Alabama, emphasized on July 20, 2018 to the New Harvest 2018 conference on cellular agriculture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media […]
Animals In The Third Reich: Pets, Scapegoats, and the Holocaust
by Boria Sax Continuum International Publishing Group Inc., (370 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017), 2000. 206 pages, paperback. $19.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Hitler was a vegetarian, probably in emulation of the composer Richard Wagner, Boria Sax asserts, but claims, as vegetarian historian Rynn Berry and others have documented, that “Hitler was probably […]
Four lionesses: women who made a difference for animals
Remembering Lynette Shanley, Tammy Sue Kirkpatrick, Coby Siegenthaler, and Lorraine Blake Roth Lynette Shanley, Tammy Sue Kirkpatrick, Coby Siegenthaler, and Lorraine Blake Roth, widely separated in geography, ages, life experience, and focus in activism, likely never met, nor even heard of each other, yet––like tens of thousands of other relatively anonymous women––lent strength to the ever-growing […]
Beyond sentience: will Brexit halt live animal exports from the U.K.?
Minister for Agriculture & Rural Affairs confirms her government is “considering options to control live animal exports” LONDON, U.K.––British cabinet ministers, after the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, called “Brexit” for short, “must have regard to the welfare needs of animals as sentient beings in formulating and implementing government policy,” according to draft […]
Are politicians sentient? British animal advocates wonder
Nothing yet on animal sentience in U.K. law LONDON, U.K.–– “Sentient,” a word seldom used by mass media and little recognized by the public before a much decried vote of the British Parliament on November 15, 2017, is overnight at the center of debate raging throughout the United Kingdom. Who is sentient? What is sentience? […]