Press Release May 2, 2003
 

Scottsdale, AZ - Prominent members of the Arizona community will be honored for their dedication to animal protection at In Defense of Animals' First Annual Arizona Gala on Friday May 9th. To the Beat of Flying Hooves, a fundraiser to establish an animal rescue fund for Arizona horses and other animals in need, will be held at WestWorld Equestrian Center in Scottsdale.

Hosted by Miss USA World 2000 Natasha Allas, the event will honor members of the Arizona community who have played important roles in rescuing animals. Award recipients include:

1. * Treva Slote, founder and president of the Arizona SPCA
2. * Members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, including Sheriff Joseph Arpaio
3. * Lieutenant Dave Williams
4. * Sergeant Polly White
5. * Thelda Williams
6. * Detective Michael Calles of the Phoenix Police Department
7. * Ed Boks, director, and staff of Maricopa County Animal Care and Control
8. * Miriam Carranza, director, and staff of Arizona SPCA
9. * Dr. Gerry Longworth
10. * Bari Mears
11. * Virginia and Bob Baxter
12. * Barbara Olear, director, and staff of Silver Creek Regional
13. Humane Society
14. * St. Johns' Police Officer Butch Gunnels
15. * Peggy Dyer Brock
16. * James Shea
17. * Liz Potof
18. * Noreen Hart, director, and volunteers with Maricopa County Horse and Pony Rescue 

In addition to recognizing the great work of these animal advocates, there will be musical entertainment, a delicious dinner, and a silent and live auction with items worth over $35,000, including jewelry, vacation packages, tickets to local events, memorabilia, and more.  For more information about To the Beat of Flying Hooves, please call  800-338-4451.

Catching up to XM's SkyFi boombox by Delphi, Sirius announced its "Plug & Play" portable satellite radios are expected to be available in early June.  The radios, to be offered by Kenwood and Audiovox, will let listeners enjoy their favorite Sirius music and content in the car, the home, the office, and even on a boat. Plug & Play radios can be moved from location to location using small, palm-sized cradles. Key features include a dot matrix multi-line display that shows artist name, song title, stream name and category name; 24 presets with preset search; and a category and stream search using the on-screen menus.

1. Forest Service Wants To Ignore Mass E-Mail Campaigns Used In Lobbying Efforts
2. PhD Assistantship in Blanding’s Turtle Population Ecology Available
3. Cane Toad May Be Dead (New Zealand)
4. Animal Rights Protest At Reptile Show, Regional Development Agency
5. Approved The Exhibition And Show Went On, 4/21/03 Bath, United Kingdom
6. Turtle Island May Try Consumer Boycott Of Foreign Shrimp
7. Graffiti: Turtle Mania -On Signs, Bridges, And Boxes Across Detroit, An
8. Underground Artist Spray-Paints An Odd Mascot
9. North Carolina Legislators Act To Protect Turtles:House, Senate Ban
10. Commercial Trapping Of Some Types; Final Bill Pending
11. A Breeding Ground? Markets In China That Sell Live Animals Could Be
12. Link To SARS
13. Australia Documents Unparalleled Species Loss
14. Herpetozoa – Bibliography, Volumes 14 & 15 2002-2002 Austria

SNAKES OF THE MANAUS REGION IN COLOR (SITE OF THIS YEAR’S SSEAR/HLS MEETING) In a recent issue, Herpetological Natural History published a 72-page article by Martins & Oliveira entitled "Natural history of snakes in forests of the Manaus Region, Central Amazonia, Brazil." This is the definite article on this diverse fauna. It includes a section on each species, complete with detailed identifications and natural history information, and 113 color plates. Whether or not you are intending to attend the herp meetings in Manaus in June, this volume will be an excellent addition to your library. Two additional articles on anacondas are also included. The cost of $25 per issue includes shipping. Order from Dr. Hinrich Kaiser, 18730 Otomian Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307, kaiserh@vvc.edu. Personal checks, VISA and MasterCard are accepted.

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1) Forest Service Wants To Ignore Mass E-Mail Campaigns Used In Lobbying Efforts: San Jose Mercury News reports that in a move that could dismantle an increasingly popular type of citizen activism, the Forest Service is proposing to ignore form letters sent by the public via e-mail that provide feedback on pending rules and regulations. Since the late 1990s, hundreds of advocacy groups including the Sierra Club, the National Rifle Association, the AARP, and the National Right to Life Committee have used bundled e-mail and their Web sites to lobby Congress and federal agencies. But Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth says his agency is bombarded by thousands of identical cyber-appeals that have little value in shaping policy on logging, wildlife, forest fires and other issues they oversee. Environmentalists threaten to sue to keep the practice going.

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2) PhD Assistantship in Blanding’s Turtle Population Ecology A PhD assistantship is available to study Blanding’s turtles, a state endangered species, and their population dynamics and movements with respect to roads. This is a joint project of the Endangered Species Program of the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Dept. of Wildlife Ecology, University of Maine with major funding from the Maine Dept. of Transportation.

Qualifications: strong analytical and field skills, an M.S. degree in a related field (very strong candidates with a BS degree might be  considered), excellent GPA (>3.3) and GRE scores. Experience with GIS, population modeling, and radiotelemetry are highly desirable. Support includes a stipend ($15,000), a tuition waiver, and sufficient funds for three seasons of field research (transportation, field assistants, equipment, and lodging). If position interests you please mail: 1) a letter elaborating on your interest in this topic (further background information is available by emailing phillip.demaynadier@maine.gov); 2) a resume; 3) photocopies of GRE scores and transcripts; and 4) names, phone numbers, and email addresses of three references ... all in hard copy please... to Phillip deMaynadier, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 650 State St., Bangor, Maine 04401. Review of materials will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

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3) Cane Toad May Be Dead.  Otago Daily Times, New Zealand, 4/16/03,

Auckland: The lack of any reported sightings of a warty, venomous cane toad feared to be on the loose could mean it is dead, an Auckland Regional Council (ARC) officer said yesterday.

The adolescent toad, about the size of a 50c piece, inadvertently arrived in the luggage of a west Auckland woman returning from Fiji a month ago.  The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Maf) and the ARC have since conducted a mail drop to residents within 500m of the point in Henderson where the toad was found and released.

ARC biosecurity manager Jack Craw said the council had four staff on 24-hour standby to field calls from the public. "But no-one has rung us and it has been like that for 10 days or more," he said. "The chances of the toad being alive are not that high. Either a dog or cat might have got it or it might have just died. We want to recover it, there's no doubt about that." Mr Craw said it was likely only one toad had been brought into the country. He said the chances of it being able to breed were slim because of its age. "Of greater concern would be the possibility of it spreading pathogens or diseases." - NZPA

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4) Animal Rights Protest At Reptile Show, Regional Development Agency Approved The Exhibition And Show Went On, 4/21/03 Western Daily Press, Bath, United Kingdom

Animal rights activists yesterday urged people to boycott a reptile exhibition in Gloucester claiming it poses a threat to public health.  Campaigners from Animal Aid say visitors to the Reptile Zoo at the city's docks say it is unacceptable to keep wild alligators, snakes and lizards in captivity.

And they believe that visitors could be at risk of contracting salmonella from the animals on show. But organisers strenuously denied the allegations and said they were considering making the zoo a permanent fixture in Gloucester.

Animal Aid spokeswoman Elaine Toland said the six-day exhibition posed a "significant health and safety risk to the public". She added: "No matter what the organisers' grandiose promises are about the educational value of the exhibition, confining reptiles for display purposes gives the false impression that it is acceptable to keep wild animals in captivity. "If a proposal for a permanent zoo were to be submitted, we would provide enough evidence to show that the zoo would cause stress to the animals." But zoo spokeswoman Claire Pitt hit back, insisting that the health risks were minute.

She said: "You are 2,500 times more likely to get salmonella from chickens and eggs than reptiles. Animal Aid is known to us and we thought we may get a few problems from them." Ms Pitt said the aim of the exhibition was to raise awareness that many species of reptiles were facing extinction and need international support to conserve them. "Take the Chinese alligator for example. Their population is now ailing because China is culling them to provide land for housing. There's 4,000 in captivity and only 150 left in the wild."

Gloucester Docks marketing manager Alison Shepherd said the Regional Development Agency approved the exhibition and did not feel the public's safety would be in jeopardy. "Obviously the zoo has all the necessary licences needed and the animals are kept in specialised containers."

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5) Turtle Island May Try Consumer Boycott Of Foreign Shrimp

Seafood.Com News By Ken Coons – 4/17/03

The Turtle Island Restoration Network lost its final appeal in the decade old Turtle Island Restoration Network vs. Department of State lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court last week. Having failed at the litigation route, the environmental organization is now indicating it may launch a consumer boycott of foreign shrimp or it may seek new legislation restricting shrimp imports. Shrimp is the most popular seafood consumed in the U.S. on a per capita basis and over 80% of it is imported. The chances of success of a consumer boycott seem questionable but such an effort could add to the consumer confusion created by other attempted seafood boycotts and sustainably fished species lists being promoted by some green groups and aquariums. The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) Shrimp Council, and its counsel, Eldon Greenberg, won a legal victory when the high court refused to take up the final appeal. According to NFI, its Shrimp Council had invested significant resources in the court case regarding the U.S. implementation of sea-turtle-safe shrimp import requirements. The State Department has allowed shrimp from nations certified as protecting sea turtles to enter the country. In essence, they have to demonstrate that they are using turtle protection measures equivalent to those imposed on U.S. shrimpers. Usually this involves towing turtle excluder devices (TEDs). Shrimp from non-certified nations must be validated by a government official of the exporting country as being turtle-safe on a shipment-by-shipment basis in order to enter the U.S. The World Trade Organization has upheld this arrangement, but the environmentalists challenged it. Monday's action by the Supreme Court brings this lawsuit to a close, as there are no further appeals available.

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6) Graffiti: Turtle Mania

On Signs, Bridges, And Boxes Across Detroit, An Underground Artist Spray-Paints An Odd Mascot April 18, 2003, By Patricia Montemurri, Free Press Staff Writer Big turtles. Little turtles. Black turtles. Green turtles. Multicolored turtles.

Stenciled turtles. Painted turtles. Fat turtles. Scrawny turtles. Snapping turtles. Dead turtles. Upside-down turtles. Even turtles in flagrante delicto.

A mysterious artist -- or maybe artists -- is roaming Detroit, painting the images of turtles on hundreds of surfaces. The work is signed TURTL, TRTL or TRDL.

This wave of graffiti has touched off a fierce debate within Detroit's artistic community and beyond. There's even a $1,000 reward out for the arrest and conviction of TURTL's creator/creators.

All graffiti "taggers" are, of course, breaking the law because their work is considered defacing property, which is a misdemeanor, or -- if it is extensive -- malicious destruction of property, a felony. 

But TURTL is also breaking the graffiti code of conduct, says Aaron Timlin, executive director of the Detroit Artists Market, where TURTL defaced a sculpture in front of its Woodward Avenue building over the winter. 

"He or she is disrespectful to other artists and their works. They're going over historic buildings, and works of art, and working businesses," Timlin said.

TURTL has appeared on freshly painted walls or buildings undergoing renovation -- another graffiti faux pas.

TURTL also defaced the Whitney Restaurant, says Timlin, who ponied up $200 for the reward before other businesses contributed the rest.

Mary Harrison, director of Detroit's CPOP gallery, said the word on the street is that as many as four people, including a woman, might be TURTL's many-fingered muse.  "It's obvious there are different styles in how they put the turtles on different areas," said Harrison, whose gallery is sponsoring a graffiti retrospective next month.

TURTL, says Johnny Northern, the Detroit city employee who oversees efforts to clean graffiti, "is a tagger waging some kind of war, or trying to establish territory, or establish recognition, or doing things in defiance."

Some TURTL shapes are hard-edged bony scrawls. Northern says those are known as "throw-ups" in graffiti parlance -- "just a marking on the wall, like a dog marks his territory."

In 2002, city-funded crews painted over many buildings with various types of graffiti on Woodward from downtown north to Warren Avenue, and along Jefferson eastward toward Belle Isle.

But the outlaw artwork has re-appeared, metastasizing into canvasses of multiple images, including numerous TURTLS.  "It's multiplied and it's much more dense than it was before. It's shameful," Northern said.

Turtles are ancient mythological symbols of longevity, often associated with the world's creation, and great wisdom. Some Native Americans envisioned the world resting on the back of a giant turtle.  Christian use of the turtle symbol through the centuries ranged from depictions of turtles as demonic dwellers in the world's mud to use of the turtle as a symbol of chastity.  "Turtles are something that moves slowly. I'm wondering whether it's a political message about how slow things are moving in Detroit," said CPOP's Harrison.

TURTL has sparked arguments in Internet chatrooms.

One posting in February asked: "Okay, those turtles that are all over town are driving me nuts. What does this mean?" The not-so-friendly reply, including an obscenity, said: "If you don't know who turtle is then you have no business trying to find out."

TURTLs have been appearing for about a year, mainly at eye-level along city streets. But they're also on the city's skyline, on the upper facade of the United Artists building visible from the Comerica Park stands. They've been spotted as far north as the Northland area, and on an abandoned party store at Ford Road and Wyoming, near Detroit's western border with Dearborn.

"Until you were aware of the turtl, you probably didn't see the turtle," said Northern. "Now that the turtl is becoming infamous, you're probably aware of the turtl."

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7) North Carolina Legislators Act To Protect Turtles:House, Senate Ban

Commercial Trapping Of Some Types; Final Bill Pending

By Wade Rawlins, Staff Writer

Lawmakers moved swiftly to pass legislation to protect North Carolina's freshwater turtles from over-collection.

The state House approved a bill Wednesday to stop commercial trapping of freshwater turtles and give the Wildlife Resources Commission authority to develop guidelines for their collection.

Commercial harvesting of turtles has increased from a few hundred turtles taken in 2000 to more than 23,000 harvested last year, according to wildlife collection reports. The turtles are sold abroad as pets, food and for use in folk medicines.

"We are trying to do what we can to protect our wildlife resources," said Rep. Larry Womble, a Democrat from Winston-Salem who sponsored the bill.

The House vote came a day after Senate leader Marc Basnight rammed a similar turtle protection measure through the Senate Agriculture Committee and passed it on the Senate floor in one day.

"We're a little quicker than the turtle," Basnight said. "There is not much reason to allow the taking of turtles at that rate."

The House and Senate bills would give the Wildlife Resources Commission authority to protect certain nonendangered reptiles and amphibians and set limits on their collection. North Carolina has no regulations on commercial harvesting of freshwater turtles.

Until limits are set, both bills would prohibit commercial trappers from taking the large basking and sliding turtles commonly seen on logs in ponds and rivers.

Sen. Charlie Albertson, a Beulaville Democrat and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he was amazed and alarmed when he saw a news report that trappers had taken more than 23,000 turtles from North Carolina last year.

"Sen. Basnight and myself, when we saw what was happening, we felt like it was something we needed to take immediate action on," Albertson said. "I had not heard about it. We thought we needed to do that to make sure this species is not being exploited." The Senate bill would stop trapping as of July 1 rather than Oct. 1, as the House proposes. Lawmakers will have to settle differences in the two bills before the legislature passes a final bill.

8) A Breeding Ground? Markets In China That Sell Live Animals Could Be Link To SARS

By Laurie Garrett, Newsday, 4/23/02

Guangzhou, China - Here, at the epicenter of the disease known as SARS, dinner can be bought live at a "wet market."

Just outside the banking and commercial center of the capital of Guangdong Province stretches a wide, congested boulevard lined with machine shops, auto parts vendors and industrial parts outlets. Delivery trucks, lumbering buses and darting taxis vie for position.

Nestled amid the enterprises is Chau Tau market. Here, restaurant chefs and home gourmets, even traditional medicine makers, shop for exotic live animals, the much-desired delicacies of Cantonese cuisine. Guangdong is known for its consumption of snakes, turtles, a range of birds, assorted rodents and wild mammals, even cats and dogs.

The emphasis is on delicacies and variety. But freshness is utmost. So animals are purchased live and either butchered on the spot or in the buyer's kitchen.

World Health Organization officials are trying to determine whether there have been unusual die-offs of the sorts of wild animals consumed at dinner tables here - whether it's possible that a species was harboring the virus now known to be potentially fatal to humans. Science has long recognized zoonosis - animal-to-human disease spread - and that possibility is under study in the SARS outbreak. But the range of animal possibilities is vast - beyond even those arrayed in markets such as Chau Tau.

"This is very different from the United States, where you buy meat frozen or prepared" and have a limited choice of meats, explained Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University. "In Chinese - Cantonese, really - this list is enormous. More than 40 species, at least.

And the markets are right there, with live animals. So zoonosis is quite common in this sort of area."

There is, of course, no way to know if this market, or others like it elsewhere in the province, could have been the source of the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus.

"I think at this moment we don't know," the WHO's Dr. Henk Bekedam said in a news briefing in Beijing last night. "It will be very important to understand where it came from. We have been invited by the Guangdong government to come there and hunt now for where it came from. ... We are getting a team together now."

The virus that causes SARS is novel. And that very novelty argues that the microbe is not normally found in animals that come in close contact with humans, such as pets and livestock.

Guangzhou doesn't seem a likely place to find people and wild animals living in close proximity. The most recent Chinese census puts the city's population at about 11 million, but experts say it could be closer to 13 million. The city is not unlike Los Angeles - sprawling, crisscrossed by freeways. Guangzhou's most constant sound is construction noise, and the favored commercial architectural style is the glass-concrete-and-steel high-rise. Aside from a few city parks, the city is a concrete center of commerce and manufacturing in southern Guangdong, a Cantonese area that borders Hong Kong.

The Chau Tau market is an open-air warehouse space roughly the size of a New York City block. Animal dealers lounge about, playing mah-jongg, while their merchandise wiggles, claws and writhes in stacked cages, red plastic tubs of water or large mesh bags set on the concrete floor. The air is almost intolerably redolent of the urine and feces of dozens of species, including that of the human vendors. When the stench can no longer be tolerated, a large power hose is used to wash the filth away, effectively aerosolizing much of the muck into breathable droplets.

The merchandise is arranged in sections: Rows of freshwater and sea turtles in the reptile section, from palm-sized creatures to 40-pound terrapins.  Close inspection reveals alligator snapping turtles from the United States, Burmese beak turtles, terrapins from Malaysia and Chinese box and softshell turtles.

An Indian cobra pops its hooded head from a cage as thousands of snakes writhe in mesh bags or cages. A vendor advises a visitor to step away from sacks of Asian pit vipers and Russell's vipers. Cages packed with wiggling black Asian rat snakes are stacked like crates of oranges. Larger serpents lie in compact coils.

The exotic bird section ranges in size from small songbirds to ostriches.  Guinea fowls, pigeons, doves, peacocks, swans, with a variety of ducks and chickens, cower in cages or bump furiously against one another in large pens.  There's a section for dogs, which languish in pens. And dozens of cages are filled with cats that, on close examination, appear sickly, their eyes glazed and paws worn bloody.

The largest section of the market, spanning four rows about 100 yards long, features mammals caught in the wild, those captured by trappers from the mountains, swamps, forests and plains of China and southeast Asia. Chinese giant flying squirrels try to stretch their webbed arms in cramped cages.  Masked palm civets hiss at passersby. Hog-nosed badgers squirm, waving their long claws as a salesman stuffs them in cages. Ferret badgers rub their noses raw and Chinese porcupines huddle in cage corners. Vietnamese pygmy pigs, red-striped pigs, wild boars and a host of other wild swine snort from behind bars. A range of wild rodents are packed into cages: Chinese bamboo rats, nutrias, moles, mango rats, guinea pigs. Over boxes of shiny black guinea pigs are signs proclaiming "Chinese Viagra," a reference to a belief that the animals cure male impotence. 

Many of the animals are obviously sick, and some had chewed off their limbs in apparent attempts to escape chains or traps. If the animals harbor bloodborne pathogens, there is plenty of opportunity for human exposure.

A number of species of small antelopes and deer are available. At one booth a dealer had placed a Sichuan barking deer on an intravenous drip. "It's running a fever," the dealer explained. "I'm saving it," because buyers will purchase only living animals.

Until two years ago, Chau Tau market was located outdoors, in Qingping Shichang park. But authorities cracked down on the vendors because tourists and world wildlife conservationists found the public market objectionable.

Chau Tau was moved to the busy industrial boulevard, initially in an enclosed building.

Chau Tau was indoors in November, when the first SARS case was reported: 46-year-old Pang Zuoyao. Pang's home is about 12 miles away in Foshan, and Chinese health authorities say he received treatment in both cities. The virus subsequently spread to his family and health care workers.

If such a wet market had a role in that initial illness, the possibility would have been magnified in such an indoor setting. Throngs of shoppers are known to frequent such markets at that time of year intent on buying furry mammals. For it is widely believed in the Cantonese area, particularly among the elderly, that eating furry animals warms a person up in the winter and wards off disease, particularly pneumonia.

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9) Australia Documents Unparalleled Species Loss “ Canberra, Australia, 4/23/03 (ENS) - The most comprehensive assessment to date of Australia's wildlife shows that some 3,000 whole bushland ecosystems are disappearing, taking more than 1,500 species with them. The Commonwealth Government's National Land and Water Resources Audit on the state of Australia's biodiversity was issued today, providing a national picture of the status and distribution of threatened species and ecological communities.

The report says such a record of species loss is "unparalleled" elsewhere in the world. There are 2,891 individual ecosystems identified as at risk.

Of the 85 identified bioregions across the nation, 94 percent include at least one threatened ecosystem, the government assessment shows. Land clearing is t

he greatest threat to Australia's biodiversity, according to the assessment, titled the "Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment 2002." Other threats include salinity, overgrazing, feral pests, poor fire regimes, and firewood collection.

Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Dr. David Kemp said the report shows the need for "urgent action on vegetation clearing." Since the states are responsible for regulating land clearing, Kemp called the report a "warning to the states which have the legislative power to act." The minister said he was "pleased and optimistic" about recent discussions between the Commonwealth and the Queensland, Tasmania and New South Wales governments on vegetation management.

The environment ministry highlighted the audited fact that 9.2 percent of Australia's landscape is protected under the National Reserve System as compared to seven percent in 1996, and this protected area has increased to 10.08 percent since the report was prepared last year.

But Australia's largest conservation organization warned that the island continent is facing an "extinction crisis." John Conner, the campaigns director for the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), said today, "Past generations may have sleepwalked through extinctions like that of the Tasmanian Tiger. We are about to do it with our eyes wide open. Unless we and our governments act now, future generations will rightly hold us responsible for the conscious loss of our natural heritage."

Twenty-two Australian mammals have become extinct in the last 200 years, a third of the world's recent extinctions, the audit shows, and a further eight species can now only be found on islands.

At least 1,595 native plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, including some types of gum trees and wattles. Whole bushland ecosystems are at risk, from the Coolibah woodlands of Queensland to Western Australia's heathlands.

Even Northern Australia, previously thought to be relatively untouched, is showing signs of severe degradation, the ACF points out, with native mammal species like bandicoots and wallabies crashing in the Kimberley region and the Top End of the Northern Territory.

The regions identified as threatened by ecosystem loss extend to the Cape York peninsula, to Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, and to the Kimberley area of Australia, its wild rivers populated by crocodiles, often called the last frontier. 

The report outlines recommendations to stop the losses of native species.

Halting land clearing should be a first priority, along with completing the national system of parks and protecting Northern Australia.  "Our governments need to decide right now to take this report seriously, and act on it," said Connor.

"We have been acting like gate crashers at a giant biological party," Connor said. "We've been reveling in the natural abundance of Australia and using it for our economic benefit. But now the hangover is kicking in, and it's time to clean up."

Kemp says the government is making an "unprecedented investment in the sustainable management of our environment and natural resources" through the A$2.7 billion Natural Heritage Trust and the A$1.4 billion National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAPSWQ). This joint program with the states and territories is delivering "real grassroots results and environmental benefits in partnership with local communities," the minister said today.

Under the Natural Heritage Trust, almost 400,000 Australian volunteers have so far participated in over 12,000 projects which have seen 546,900 hectares of native vegetation protected by fencing and/or legal covenant; 127,800 hectares of degraded remnants rehabilitated by fencing, weed control, and replanting; and 98,510 hectares of predominantly cleared land replanted with native vegetation species, the environment ministry says. 

But the Australian Conservation Foundation says that while the federal government has spent over one billion dollars on repairing the environment under the Natural Heritage Trust, for every tree planted with this money by community volunteers, 100 more are bulldozed. Australia needs national laws to control land clearing and protect bushlands for future generations to enjoy, urges the conservation organization.

Kemp said raising public awareness of threats to Australia's natural species is key to protecting them. "One of our key challenges is raising awareness of the need to incorporate biodiversity objectives into land and water management practices that protect native plants and animals while maintaining the sustainable productivity of the land," he said.

The new biodiversity assessment will be a valuable tool for regional bodies planning on the ground conservation actions through programs such as the Natural Heritage Trust and NAPSWQ.

The ACF is less optomistic. It is possible to control the biodiversity loss, the organization says, but only if nature conservation is placed high on the agenda of federal, state and territory governments and significant funding is put towards protecting intact bush lands and whole ecosystems.
In newly threatened northern Australia, governments must avoiding the mistakes made in southern Australia, the ACF cautions, by developing a new, ecologically and culturally appropriate approach to land use and regional development in partnership with local people and Traditional Owners.

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10) Herpetozoa – Bibliography Volumes 14 & 15 2002-2002 Austria
Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Herpetologie Naturhistorisches Museum Wien
Herpetologische Sammlung Burgring 7 - Postfach 417
A - 1014 Wein
Austria

Shocking Animal Abuse and Continued Legal Violations in UCSF Labs Exposed in Latest USDA Inspection

San Francisco, CA. . . . A new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report has cited the University of California San Francisco for continuing and uncorrected violations of the Animal Welfare Act in its laboratories, In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced today. At a press conference and protest in front of UCSF, IDA released the March 13, 2003 report, which the group obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. 

The report documents UCSF's continued non-compliance with federal animal welfare law and long-standing deficiencies stemming from a lack of adequate veterinary care, improper and inadequate training of animal care personnel, and lack of meaningful oversight of animal care and use.

It is the ninth time in five years that the USDA has cited UCSF for extremely serious violations that are central to the institution's ability, or inability, to provide adequate animal care and comply with federal laws.

"It is shocking that an institution as prominent as UCSF can continue to so flagrantly and willfully thumb its nose at federal laws enacted to protect animals," said IDA president Elliot Katz, DVM. 

Among the most egregious new abuses documented by the USDA is UCSF researcher Henry Ralston's failure to provide pain relief to a monkey whose skull he had cut open. USDA also cited UCSF for Ralston's failure to gain proper approval for a procedure in which he drilled four holes into a monkey's skull to gain access to his brain.

The USDA also cited UCSF for failing to monitor monkeys after surgery; failing to adequately monitor the conduct of research at the facility; failing to ensure personnel were properly trained; and failing to provide adequate veterinary care to animals. UCSF was cited as well for continued cleaning, sanitization, housekeeping violations, and for recording animal observations when in reality the animals were not checked. The USDA categorized all of the violations as repeat non-compliant items, meaning that UCSF has failed to correct these serious and long-standing deficiencies in its labs.

It was the second time in three years that the USDA has found a primate researcher to be in violation of the AWA. The USDA has fined and repeatedly cited UCSF for grave violations in the lab of Stephen Lisberger, who, like Ralston, conducts invasive brain experiments on monkeys. In Lisberger's experiments -- which involve multiple neurosurgeries and prolonged restraint -- monkeys are forced to live with metal plates bolted onto their heads, steel cylinders drilled into their skulls, metal eye coils sliced into their eyes and vision-distorting eyeglasses cemented onto their faces for months and years at a time.

"Ralston and Lisberger exemplify the culture of callousness and arrogance that permeates UCSF's research community," Katz observed. "They inflict extreme suffering on intelligent and complex primates, while they brazenly thumb their noses at federal animal welfare law. "  Ralston and Lisberger's research is funded by the National Institutes of

Health (NIH), which annually funnels more than $350 million in federal research money to UCSF. Although compliance with the Animal Welfare Act is a requirement for receipt of NIH money, the agency has taken no substantial action against UCSF for its almost continual violation of animal welfare law since February 1998.

Katz noted with irony that a month before the latest USDA report and its litany of documented violations, Dr. Margaret Snyder, Director of the NIH's Office of Scientific Affairs, claimed in writing that UCSF had corrected its animal welfare violations.

"The NIH has a long history of attempting to cover up egregious violations of animal welfare law at research labs it is supposed to regulate," said Katz. "Its lack of action against UCSF reveals yet more corruption and lack of respect for laws that were enacted to uphold the public's interesting in protecting animals."

Katz noted that the NIH's record of malfeasance prompted the House Committee on Energy and Commerce last month to initiate an investigation of the agency's management and oversight of research grants. 

Katz ended by reciting examples of the appalling animal cruelty witnessed by the USDA on its twice-yearly inspections of UCSF. These include a lamb frothing at the mouth and gasping for breath after being left alone and unmonitored after surgery, and another lamb who was left untreated and unmedicated for pain for at least ten days after the animal's surgical wound had opened and become infected.

Just six months ago, in a September 2002 report, the USDA cited UCSF for the tragic case of a mother marmoset monkey who was kept almost continually pregnant, forced to give birth seven times - to 14 offspring - in just three years, with only 8 surviving. During this time, the mother lost 29 per cent of her body weight - analogous to a 175-pound human losing over 50 pounds. The USDA inspector discovered the mother in a "thin and somewhat depressed" state, with her unfortunate infant clinging to her. Two days later, her baby was "not responsive" and no longer clinging to her. UCSF killed both mother and baby for "diagnostic necropsies."

During that same inspection, the USDA inspector cited UCSF for the case of another marmoset monkey who had lost 36 percent of his body weight (equivalent to a 175-pound human losing 63 pounds) before his egregious suffering was brought to the attention of the lab's veterinarian.

"If this extreme animal abuse happens under the under the eyes of the USDA inspector on his rare visits to the lab, what is going on at UCSF when outside oversight is not present?" Katz concluded. "The need for independent oversight and substantive enforcement action is clear. It is high time for UCSF and the NIH to be held accountable for their callous disregard for the welfare of animals and for federal law. UCSF must be forced to improve the plight of the more than 200,000 animals imprisoned within its walls."