Grey's Anatomy Inspires End to Animal Abuse Practice

Posted by nzvs 10-11-2008

Dear PCRM supporter,

Just seven days after PCRM launched its public effort to end the use of live dogs from a local animal shelter for Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training at Idaho State University (ISU), the school announced it would end the practice! We couldn’t have done it without your calls, e-mails, and letters to the school’s president.

Grey's Anatomy Stance on Stabbing Pigs

Posted by nzvs 10-11-2008

Last Thursday night’s episode (screened in America) of the television hit Grey’s Anatomy featured a subplot in which live pigs were stabbed, and then interns and residents were told to treat the injured animals as part of a trauma training exercise. (Note: No real pigs were used in the filming of the episode.)

Nancy Heigl, PCRM supporter and the mother of actress Katherine Heigl, who plays Dr. Izzie Stevens on the show, contacted us when the story line was being developed because the actress was disturbed by the subplot. PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., and PCRM senior medical and research adviser John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., both had extensive conversations with the producers of the show about the overwhelming trend in medical education to use simulators instead of animals in medical education.

Posted in Animal Action

NZ Open Rescue: Minister is failing farmed animals

Posted by nzvs 03-11-2008

New Zealand Open Rescue
Minister is failing farmed animals
13 October 2008

New Zealand Open Rescue has produced a five minute documentary reviewing intensive farming in New Zealand. The documentary is targeted to MP’s and calls for party policy on Animal Welfare.

The organisation is also calling for separate Ministry’s of Animal Welfare and Agriculture, as currently Welfare falls under Agriculture.

New Zealand Open Rescue spokesperson Deirdre Sims says, “The fact that the Minister of Agriculture, Jim Anderton, is also responsible for Animal Welfare, results in a severe conflict of interest on his part.

Agriculture is one of our primary industries, earning New Zealand billions each year. So it comes as no surprise that a Minister in charge of both Animal Welfare and Agriculture would put economics before the interests of farmed animals.

Vegetarianism against global hunger

Posted by nzvs 03-11-2008

World Food Day 2008: Press Release

Excerpt quote from article (Read full article below)

"Every child who dies of hunger in today's world has been murdered," accused
Jean Ziegler, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
Indeed, how can any society calling itself civilized accept that while
worldwide every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry,
around 1.5 billion cows and bulls and an astronomical number of other farm
animals are being fed with a huge share of available crops? Read more...

Veggie sausage sizzle hits a snag

Posted by nzvs 22-09-2008

By KIM THOMAS - The Press | Monday, 15 September 2008
A vegetarian sausage sizzle outside a Christchurch hardware store hit a snag at the weekend.

Christchurch's Vegetarian Centre booked the sought-after fundraising sausage-sizzle position outside the Bunnings Tower Junction hardware store several months ago.

It told management it would be selling non-meat bangers.

However, when the group arrived at the Bunnings store yesterday, it was told by a staff member that the public "needed meat" and it might have to pack in the sausage sizzle.

Hen Survey

Posted by nzvs 22-09-2008

Hi there,

I am a 3rd year Bachelor of Applied Science student majoring in Animal Welfare at Unitec, New Zealand.

I would like to invite you to participate in my 2008 Survey of Societal Awareness and Attitudes Towards Egg Laying Hens and Broiler Chickens in New Zealand. Your responses will be completely confidential and are very important to the understanding of the perception of these issues within New Zealand society. Your participation in this survey will be greatly appreciated!

Please respond by September 30, 2008.

To take this survey, click on the link below.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=UlRf9V3LMqxBqS0th5blYQ_3d_3d

(If you are unable to click on the link, copy and paste it into your Web browser.)

Large study links meat consumption to increased cancer risk

Posted by nzvs 22-09-2008

A new large-scale study has provided more strong evidence linking the consumption of red and processed meats to an increased risk of cancer. Researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute examined data on 494,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-AARP Diet and Health Study. Red meat was defined in the study as any meat originating from a mammal, including beef, pork and lamb. Researchers found that people who consumed the most red meat had a 25 per cent higher risk of developing colorectal cancer in the study period compared with those who ate the least, and a 20 per cent higher risk of developing lung cancer. The risk of esophageal and liver cancer was increased by between 20 and 60 percent. . . Prior studies have also linked meat consumption to increased cancer risk, particular ly the risk of colorectal and stomach cancer. Other studies have found associations between meat intake and the risk of bladder, breast, cervical, endometrial, esophageal, glioma, kidney, liver, lung, mouth, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancers.

Natural News - July 2

Controlling diabetes might be easier than you think with vegan diet

Posted by nzvs 22-09-2008

Do you want to lose weight and improve your blood glucose levels? Do you want to do it without having to weigh your portions and count your calories? Try a low-fat vegan diet. A vegan diet is one with no animal products: no fish, no eggs, no dairy, and, of course, no meat. Caroline Trapp is director of diabetes education and care at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, in Washington, D.C., a group that promotes vegan diets, among its other missions. She started her presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association of Diabetes Educators with [the positive] research findings on vegan diets and gave practical tips for switching to a vegan diet. The good news? You won't need to count calories or restrict portions. You may feel that you are eating a lot, but you'll probably be consuming fewer calories than you did when you were eating meat and sugary foods.

Diabetes Health - August 14

Mad cows (and livid lambs)

Posted by nzvs 01-09-2008

Telegraph, UK - August 10

Marauding elephants, aggressive sea lions, snap-happy crocodiles. . . As animal attacks on humans reach frightening levels, scientists are beginning to understand exactly what the beasts are thinking. And it's not good. This disquieting pattern has only recently been detected, in part because it is so disparate and weird. But it's now widely accepted that the relationship between humans and animals is changing. One of the world's leading ethologists (specialists in animal behaviour) believes that a critical point has been crossed and animals are beginning to snap back. After centuries of being eaten, evicted, subjected to vivisection, killed for fun, worn as hats and made to ride bicycles in circuses, something is causing them to turn on us. And it is being taken seriously enough by scientists that it has earned its own acronym: HAC - 'human-animal conflict.' Any sane person might decide that [the] theory, which posits that beasts are working in concert to take revenge on humans, is insane. But in the regions where the most research into HAC is being carried out, scientists have concluded that revenge for our myriad barbarities could indeed be a motive. [The article also talks about the observed altruism of animals.] Read more...

Crowded house for chickens: Greens Press Release

Posted by nzvs 11-08-2008

Chickens worldwide must be in a terrible condition, if New Zealand chickens have the best animal welfare standards in the world, Green MP Sue Kedgley says.

A NAWAC report released 27 May 2008 says the welfare of broiler chickens in New Zealand is on a par with best practice around the world.

While this is good public relations spin from the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, it is absurd to suggest that animal welfare is in no way compromised by high stocking densities as the report claims, Ms Kedgley says.

" NAWAC are trying to convince us that jamming up to 20,000 chickens into a windowless shed, where chickens have very little room to move and do nothing all day, and where every aspect of its environment is controlled to make it grow as fast as possible, does not interfere with the welfare of the birds. This is absurd. "

Read more...

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