TORTURE OF ANIMALS IN RESEARCH & BULL FLIPPING, TAIL BREAKING RODEO

50 YEARS OF TORTURE or "UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY"
Tatiana Gelfand. December 5, 2002.

Tatiana Gelfand. (An English version of the article accepted for publication at "Reklama I Zshisn"- N.J. and Philadelphia Russian newspaper, 12-11-02.)

On Sunday, December 1, about 300 people nationwide gathered on occasion of the 50-th anniversary of Huntingdon Life Sciences, one of the world's largest animal testing companies.

HLS is a British company with an additional facility in East Millstone, New Jersey. Every day an average of 500 animals die a horrible death after being slowly poisoned. The HLS specializes in testing toxicity of agrochemicals, food colorings, tanning lotions, adhesives, washing powders and various pharmaceutical products. HLS uses beagle puppies, primates, cats, rabbits, etc. The animals are forced to inhale and ingest the products for weeks or months; then they are killed and dissected.

Holding posters of beagle puppies and monkeys killed in the lab and banners "Huntingdon - Not Life, Not Science", "HLS - Animal Auschwitz" and chanting "HLS. Close them down" demonstrators wanted to give a birthday present HLS would never forget.

About two thirds of the Franklin Township police dressed in riot gear, some carrying automatic rifles, were standing on both sides of the previously blocked road leading to company's gates. Fifty people at a time were allowed to march closer to the lab where they were split again into groups of 15 and 35, each surrounded by police officers. Other protesters were awaiting their turn at Colonial Park while continuously chanting during the three hour protest.

Robin Webb, 60, from England was the only one arrested. He was charged with trespassing and was being held at the Somerset County Jail in lieu of bail set at $50,000.

After the protest in Colonial Park the demonstrators split into groups of 15 to deliver the "birthday wishes" to the homes of HLS management and scientists.

The event was covered by the local newspapers "Home News Tribune" and "Star Ledger", by UPN, NBC and Fox TV channels; it was also covered extensively on CNN and was included in hourly news update.

The next day, on December 2, the anniversary celebration for HLS continued in New York. About 150 people spread out along the Central Park side on Fifth Avenue in front of the apartment house where lives Andrew Baker, the HLS's CEO and Chairman of the Board. Protesters with colorful signs and banners conveying the message that Andrew Baker is responsible for the killing of 180,000 animals a year and for profiting from animal torture, attracted a lot of attention in this prestigeous part of New York city. Hundreds of flyers containing the facts about HLS and its chairman were given away to people.

What was so special that made the demonstrators travel across the country for the HLS anniversary?

Since 1981 HLS has been exposed in five undercover investigations showing horrific and illegal cases of animal cruelty. The video footage exposed workers throwing beagle puppies against walls, punching them into face. The beagles were used to test toxicity of pesticides, dental hygiene products and food wrapping plastic. An investigator working inside the lab in East Millstone filmed a necropsy (animal equivalent of autopsy) performed on a live monkey for a study sponsored by P&G (Proctor & Gamble).

Besides showing the extreme suffering of animals the undercover investigations showed the shocking evidence of sloppy science at HLS: drunkenness, drug taking on site, high levels of absenteeism, gross incompetence, misdosing and falsified records.

An investigator (Michelle Rokke) working in New Jersey HLS lab was sent to observe the animals. In her article "I've Seen HELL and It Is Called HLS" she wrote: "I was told not to worry about their [ animals'] subsequent health problems after dosing and not to record them. One day when I asked a co-worker what the point of tests were, I was told "Just because a drug has an effect on a dog it doesn't mean it's going to have that effect on a human." I was then told "the point of testing is not to protect people, but to get a sponsor to bring return business back to the lab. The way to guarantee return business is to get the sponsor's (the company paying for the tests) drug on the market".

Unfortunately, the saying of this employee was not a mistake. The increasing number of physicians, veterinarians and scientists all over the world agree more and more strongly that animal testing is not reliable to work for humans. Here are some facts:

Less than 2% of human illnesses are ever seen in animals.
At least 50 drugs on the market cause cancer in lab animals. They are allowed because it is admitted that animal tests are not relevant.
According to animal tests lemon juice is a deadly poison, aspirin, insulin are not safe but arsenic, hemlock and botulin are safe.
It was denied for decades that asbestos caused disease in humans because it didn't in animals.
Numerous experiments in which animals were forced to inhale tobacco smoke failed to produce lung cancer while the study of human population leaves no doubt that smokers have a much higher lung cancer risk.
Over 200,000 medicines have been released, most of which are now withdrawn. Thousands of drugs passed safe in animals have been withdrawn or banned due to their side effect on human health.

Is it not absurd that the "safe" household products have warning labels as "poisonous, harmful to animals and humans"?

There are numerous non-animal methods for testing and medical scientific research. These alternative methods are often cheaper, more efficient, and much more reliable. So why are they not used? The answer was already given above by an HLS employee.

Here is what physicians and scientists say:

"The animal research industry is sucking up precious funds that should be used to really help people get healthy" Michael Klaper, M.D.
"Animal experimentation is not necessary. It is expensive. It is
inaccurate. It is misleading. It consumes limited resources. And
further, it is detrimental to the very species it professes to be
working to help- humankind". Drs. Ray and Jean Greek, authors of "Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals".
"The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse... We have cured mice of cancer for decades- and it simply didn't work in humans." Dr. Richard Klausner, the Director of the National Cancer Institute.
"Vivisection does not protect human health and well being. It
endangers. It is merely license to harm and diminish us, all while its icons and perpetrators are reaping a constellation of benefits including the luxury and comfort of escaping punishment and confinement." Moneim A. Fadali, M.D., Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery (the quote taken from the book "Animal Experimentation. A Harvest of Shame."

It is believed by many people that the discoveries in medicine were made due to animal experimentation. Here is some history. It is well known that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin which has been saving lives of people. In 1929 Fleming observed penicillin as it killed bacteria in a Petri dish. He administered the compound to bacteria-infected rabbits hoping to cure them. Unfortunately, this was not effective at all. Disappointed he set the drug aside for a decade since the rabbits had "proved" its uselessness. Years later he administered the drug in desperation to a dying patient, for whom all other treatments did not work. The penicillin performed a miracle.

Another well-known discovery is a polio-vaccine. Not everyone knows though that the polio-vaccine was delayed for decades based on misleading experimental models of the disease in monkeys. It was finally developed by Nobel Prize winner John Enders by growing the virus in tissue cultures.

There is an abundant literature revealing the historical and other facts about vivisection, the danger of animal experimentation not only to animals but also to humans, and the related ethical aspects. A German activist Helmut Kaplan wrote: "Our grandchildren will ask us one day: Where were you during the Holocaust of the animals? What did you do against these horrifying crimes? We won't be able to offer the same excuse for the second time - that we didn't know."

The latest protests against HLS were not isolated episodes. The ideals behind this strengthening movement have long historical roots. At present time the movement is supported by many reputable people and numerous organizations all over the world, see for example:
www.pcrm.org
www.shacamerica.net
www.animalresearch.org
www.curedisease.com
www.iaapea.com
www.powerfulbook.com

Due to the efforts of concerned people HLS lost major investors, large customer contracts, every market maker and other companies lending their services to this failing laboratory. As mentioned in the materials of SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) HLS has currently more than $80 million in debt and remains open today only because its directors have begun pouring their own money into the company.

The growing number of companies all over the world are producing cosmetic and household products without the use of animals. They use old, known safe for decades ingredients usually derived from plants. About 68% of medical schools in the US switched to the alternative (without the use of animals) training programs for the future physicians. This shows that the truth about animal testing becomes known not only to individuals but also to the medical and other institutions. Indeed, as Aldous Huxley said: "The truth does not cease to exist because it is ignored".

Miami-Dade

Bringing down the bulls

Venezuela's popular sport 'Toros Coleados' is here . . . and not everyone is thrilled\ BY ANDREA ELLIOTT
aelliott@herald.com

RODEO DRIVE: A coleador grabs a bull by the tail during Sunday's championship attended by 1,541 people in Southwest Miami-Dade. PATRICK FARRELL/Herald Staff

The door opens and a startled white bull charges forward.Fate quickly follows: A Venezuelan cowboy, or llanero, reaches down from his horse and grabs the bull's tail, knocking it to the ground in a haze of dust.

toro se cayó! El toro se cayó!'' screams the emcee as the crowd roars. ``The bull is down! The bull is down!''

The Venezuelan sport Toros Coleados -- loosely translated as ''bull tailing'' -- has found its way to South Florida in tow with Venezuelan immigration, as evidenced by the 1,541 people who attended the Toros Coleados World Championship in rural Southwest Miami-Dade on Sunday.

''This is what we do every weekend. This is our baseball,'' said Carlos Barrios, a judge at the competition who lives in Weston. ``It's part of the Venezuelan cowboy.''

But what Barrios and others call the heart of rural Venezuelan life, some animal rights advocates say is an egregious display of cruelty -- as bad as or worse than American rodeos.

In Florida's version of bull tailing, two mounted cowboys chase a bull up and down an oblong arena, competing to flip the animal over as many times as possible within two minutes. In the Venezuelan version, the chase lasts three minutes and involves four cowboys, flipping a bull up to five times per run.

The helmet-clad rider closes in on the bull at a full gallop, grabs its tail and then leans in the opposite direction, sending the bull into a fishtail spin and tumble.

The roots of Toros Coleados go back to 18th-century Venezuelan cattle herding, when llaneros would chase bulls that strayed from the pack and flip them by the tail. The pastime morphed into the country's first national sport in 1959. It is so popular that 100 bulls are flipped daily in Venezuela.

After one or two falls, most of the nine Brahman bulls showcased Sunday either could not, or would not, get up.

''They become so terrified they go into shock,'' said Laura Bevan, regional director of the Southeast Regional office of the Humane Society, which videotaped a competition at the same Southwest Miami-Dade ranch on Dec. 15.

When the bulls refuse to stand again, out rides Cuban-American equestrian Juan Pérez Rodríguez, his white straw cowboy hat pitched low over his face, to shock them with an electrical rod.

At a Southwest Miami event last year, the coleadores broke the bulls' tails, according to reports made to the Humane Society, in keeping with an old Venezuelan tradition -- even though the action was officially banned by the sport's federation several years ago.

''If they don't break the tail, the bull takes longer to get up,'' said Teresa Molinos, the sport's female world champion and a Miami resident. In Sunday's competition, she fell and was buried under both a fallen horse and bull in one of several violent tumbles.

But Molinos -- who is the official world ambassador of bull tailing -- has lobbied against the sport's crueler aspects like tail breaking and ensured it did not occur in recent competitions.

The Humane Society is exploring whether the activity violates the state's law prohibiting animal cruelty. Enforcement is the responsibility of local police. Miami-Dade police said they thought the sport did not violate the statute.

''This is a national sport, a sport of tradition,'' said Molinos, 36. ``You never see blood. All they use is electricity to get the bulls up, which cattlemen use all over the world. They do not abuse the animals.

``In the American rodeo, when you lasso the head of the animal, that affects the [entire] vertebral column of the animal. In this sport, the animal falls by his own weight and gets up.''

But on Sunday, the tame American bulls -- a much smaller version of the wild bulls used in Venezuela -- were not keen to get up.

One young bull suffered a serious leg injury after he was toppled by a horse and rider. The injured rider limped out of the arena with a bloody knee. As no veterinarian was present, the bull's injury went undiagnosed, but the startled animal could not move. He dragged his leg and stumbled, refusing to
get up as the crowd jeered. Out rode Rodriguez, bearing his long electrical rod.

Then, across the dusty track came the intervening scream of 10-year-old Colombian Jaime Andrés Torres: ``Noooooooo!!!''

Baffled officials froze the competition for an uncharacteristic half-hour, finally strapping the bull onto a wooden plank and pulling it by tractor off the arena.

The event was a far cry from the way it's done in Venezuela, said Gilberto Silva, 29, a spectator in town on business.

''In my country, it's done with wild animals weighing 400 kilos. They're half as small here,'' said Silva, sipping a glass of whiskey as he sat on a wooden fence.

But to Silva, the crowd felt familiar: women in cowboy boots clutching Herms bags -- a country look framed by urban sophistication, underscoring the sport's high price.

The sport's cost is such because bulls can't be used more than once because they ''learn to sit down'' -- the coleador explanation for what animal rights activists say is evidence of trauma.

Reynaldo Rodríguez, the event coordinator, purchased the bulls for Sunday's event at an auction in Arcadia for $7,800. He will sell them at another auction, he said.

At $10 per ticket, the event generated more than $15,000. Sponsors included Presidente, the Dominican beer company; Panna, a Venezuelan bakery; and several Venezuelan newspapers. The next competition is planned for April.

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