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Open Line Friday! (3/25/05)
Each Friday we post articles or comments that VVAW affiliate members wish to share with the rest the group. See below for a list of this week's items.
First some announcements:
- Please sign up to attend one of the meetings coming up! We have two meetings that will be held in the coming weeks:
Sun., 4/3/05 Charlottesville, 11 am to 1 pm
Sat., 4/9/05 Winchester, 11 am to 1 pm
To register for a meeting, just send an email to lsclancy@crosslink.net with your name, date and place of the meeting, and a rough idea of how many folks you are bringing with you
- Can you beat Tammy Javier? Tammy has signed up 17 (!) new VVAW affiliates in the last week! Download the affiliate form, print out as many as you like, and start handing them out to your friends, co-workers or any others you believe have a genuine interest in what VVAW is doing.
- A gallery of photos from past meetings is coming soon!
Open Line Friday for 3/25/05
Comments Regarding Pit Bulls - by Annie Pelfrey
Missy - submitted by Cindy Ingram
Designer Pets - submitted by Donna Pinnix
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Comments Regarding Pit Bulls - by Annie Pelfrey
The following comments appeared in the 3/25/05 "Your 2 cents" section of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
With all the recent news accounts of the Pit Bulls in Spotsylvania- let's not go down that slippery slope of banning a particular breed. The problem is solely the result of irresponsible owners. Has anyone ever heard of putting up a fence? And chaining your dog does not protect it from predators.
Many nice people successfully adopt a Pit Bull as a family member. It's the lowlifes who collect and breed these dogs to be vicious.
Annie Pelfrey
Henrico
Reprinted by permission of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The original article is here.
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Missy - submitted by Cindy Ingram
Casey’s House
161 Pine Grove Rd
Bluemont, VA 20135
540-955-6348 or Toll Free 800-291-7341
Email: cndyingram@cs.com
Missy
Missy is a very loving, indoor only cat that deserves a good home. If I didn't already have seven of my own I'd adopt her myself! She is 11 years old. She is healthy, her distemper and rabies are current, and she is spayed. Please consider giving this special feline a good home! Please call or email for an adoption application for Missy today! How can you say no to these eyes?
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Designer Pets - submitted by Donna Pinnix
3/20/05
Designer pet guarantee: animal suffering and consumer deception
by Crystal Miller-Spiegel
California has become the hotbed for companies trying to create markets in “designer pets” – cloned cats and dogs or so-called “hypoallergenic” cats.
The companies have seized emerging, yet inefficient, technologies and are already profiting from people who want to preserve their pets’ DNA for cloning or are interested in buying genetically modified cats.
Yet, curiously, only a handful of cloned cats have survived and no cloned dog or “hypoallergenic” cat exists anywhere in the world.
What consumers may not know is that cloning and genetically modifying animals can cause great harm to those animals involved.
Clone scientists consistently describe the common failures of animal cloning — miscarriage, deformities, diseases and premature death.
Even with supposed “new and improved” techniques, the CEO of one California pet-cloning company confessed that up to 45 percent of the cloned kittens born alive will die within one month.
There also is no guarantee that cloned or genetically modified animals will live average, healthy life spans or exhibit the desired traits (i.e., not causing allergic reactions in people).
Animals who are born but do not have the “right” profile –they are unhealthy, do not look like they are supposed to, or exhibit unwanted genetic traits – are likely to be considered nothing more than byproducts.
In addition, cloning one animal involves the invasive use of other animals behind laboratory doors.
People who want to clone their pets probably want animals that look and behave like the originals. But cloned animals are not actually “carbon copies” of the original animals. Every animal is unique.
Perhaps the most ironic aspect of this industry is that it targets animal lovers but actually does more harm to animals than good.
These potential consumers presumably would want to prevent, not promote, animal suffering.
And let us not forget the nearly one million cats and dogs that are euthanized each year – just in California – mostly from lack of homes.
State Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) has introduced Assembly Bill 1428 to ban the sale and transfer of cloned and genetically modified household pets in California.
Please urge your legislator to support this bill, which will prevent the welfare of animals from being compromised at the expense of those who love them.
(Crystal Miller-Spiegel, the senior policy analyst of the American Anti-Vivisection Society, is a founding member of Californians Against Pet Cloning. For more information, visit www.NoPetCloning.org. Opinions expressed in columns do not necessarily represent those of The Eureka Reporter.)
Reprinted by permission from the The Eureka Reporter: http://www.eurekareporter.com/