About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

18 Info. Rep.: Animal Welfare Inst. 1 (1969)

handle is hein.animal/awiqu0018 and id is 1 raw text is: January, February, March, 1969 CONGRESSMAN DINGELL HOLDS HEARINGS ON ENDANGERED SPECIES BILLS On February 19th and 20th Congressman John Dingell (D., Mich.) conducted hearings on Idanered Spci res Bills before the Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation Sub- committee of the House Coniumttec on Merchant Marne and Fisheries, The first witness to appear before the Com- mittee was the Hon. Russell Train, Undersecretary of the Interior, who last year testified for this legislation as President of the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation, President of the Conservation Foundation, and Vice-Presi- dent of the World Wildlife Fund. A long-time supporter of international conservation measures, the new Interior Undersecretary made an excellent statement in favor of strong and effective legislation to protect endangered species of wildlife throughout the world. The legislation thus has the support of the Nixon Administration, and the continuous work of the Department of the Interior which has supported the legislation from its inception is being carried forward vigorously. However, this is the first hearing at which opponents of the legislation appeared. The spokesman for the pet trade, Mr. Frank E. Dittrich, had circulated letters in both sessions of Congress urging pet shop operators, animal dealers and suppliers to fight the bill. Your business is threatened were his opening words last summer. This year he took credit for helping to kill the bill, complained that it cost him $1,500 to get out his mailing, and boasted of one and a half to two billion dollar business in pets and supplies in this country, Confronted by Committee Couisel with untrue statemen4s in tie letter he had circu- lated to try to kill the new Endangere' Species Rills, Mr. Dittrich sought to gain sympathy by saying of the pet industry, Wr're In our infancy. Char';cd with incon- sistency betwveen his prepared statement and the letter he had circulated shortly before, Dittrich inuilec one excuse (Continued ,,i Page 2) TE PROGRESSIVE FARMER MOVES TO END CALF CASTRATION Hunanitarians Can Help, Too Ar excelent at in the February issue of The Pio- gressive Fnrmer is entided The Castration Knife Must Co! As it points out, . , . in a day when every producer is striving to prevent stress, why submit calves to the ex- trine stress of castration ? Documentation of agricultural rescaich in Florida, Iowa. Wioming, Nevada. Californa, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Oklahoma, Virginia, Tennessec. Colorado and Georgia as well as New /Zand, Ireland and other foreign countries shows that the calves not sub- jected to castration grow faster. The author of the article, Mr. C. G. Scruggs, Editor of The Progressive Farmer, states that in the 21 years he has been writing for it, I don't believe I have seen as over- whelming and indisputable evidence as there is in favor of abandoning the practice of castration. He indicates that 200 years ago there were some valid reasons, such as use of oxen as draft animals. Now, however, Test after test shows that young beef males have only about half the fat cover as steers do and that they have a much greater percent of lean meat. Why put it on animals and then cut it off and throw it away before the meat goes into retail counters? Why, indeed, we may ask, when castration causes suffering to millions of yong animals- suffering which is needless. Mr. Scruggs concludes: It's clearly time to stop the, wasteful and, today, unnecessary practice of castration. It's time for action. It's time to throw the knife away, (Continued on Page 4) ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE Box 3492, Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10017 Vol. 18, No. 1 EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS IN JAPAN In a recent report written in response to a request by the World Federation for the Protec tion o Animols, Anthony Carding, NfRCVS, icuded the following sc- tion on experimental animals in Japan, Dr. Carding served as Laboratory Animal Consultant for the Aninal Welfacre, Institute during li stay in the United States in 1965, and he has worked wiri the Greek Animal Welfare Fund in an attempt to remedy terrible conditions for laboratory animals there. He found repeatedly that training in the United States led Greek and Japanese research workers to imitate the worst practices found in some of our medical schools of perpetually caging dogs in basements. This is referred to in the following excerpt from Dr. Carding's report. It deserves particular note in view of the fact that the United States is a model-for good or ill-for many countries and our responsibility with respect to the treat- ment of captive animals is great. Experimental Animals by Anthony Carding, M.R.C.V.S. Postwar medical research in Japan has been greatly in- fluenced by American teaching and money (the U.S. Gov- ernment giving Japanese researchers over a million U.S. dollars annually). In rany fields Japanese scientists suc- cessfully contest with Western scientists for leadership. For this reason it comes as a shock to Western scientists to see the conditions under which some experimental ani- mals are kept. High standards exist in the animal quarters of the major pharmaceutical companies and of some private medical universities- Probably the worn conditioni any- where in the world ane to be found in the animal quarters of Japan's famous ftate unive, ites. There can be no excuse for the inbuiname and un- sueltc conditions under which the cream of the coun- try's young do oors is obliged to condct aucnimal exp-i- menits, alfhough 1hPre are two factors which help to ex- plain them In the hist place administra ion is in the hands of gov cinent officials. Academic lcaders insist that animal ex perinients are an essent al part of advanced med Kal N'r ing but the administrators are under no a gation to pro- vide the money necessary for their proper conducL There is nuitticaot money to maintan neg establishtd cm- nitirnents and siou, there In bee' no precedent for expenditure on aninial facilities it is easy for officials to justify refasals for cn'ncy. Invcstigators therefore continue to use anunials in the knowledge that most of their data has n.o scientific value, It is not entirely just to blame these young men who study for a registrable degree in a state univrsity since their only alternative is to abandon their ambitions and drop out. The second factor which helps to explain these con-. ditions is that the American style of research, calling for centralization and the pooling of resources, has been im- posed on a system of departmental autonomy, which ef- fectively precludes sharing or cooperation where this in- volves a loss of personal authority and convenience of professors. These two basic factors involve government and academic leaders at the highest level and must remain largely beyond the influence of a small animal welfare society. There are however other contibutory factors which such groups can help to mitigate. Two years ago large medical universities were found to lack any kind of coordination between the different departments using experimental animals. In one university, nine departments struggled to maintain separate stray dog colonies. Hospital kitchen wastes were not sufficient even (Continued on Page 2) T I W--% T I

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most