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News Stories
The Great Ape
Massacre
Primates
on the Brink
California
threatened by Global Warming
Family Planning &
conservation Polar Bears Staving Due to Climate Change
Keiko the Whale - Closer to freedom Is School Milk Safe to Drink?
from the
New York Times May 9, 1999
and
Bushmeat@Biosynergy.org
by Donald G. McNeil with photographs by Karl Ammann
 To market, to market: Freshly killed western lowland gorilla, soon to be sold for meat, fetish objects and tribal medicine. |
"I shot the big male as it charged me. The baby was on the mother's
back, and when she turned around to look at me the baby did, too." He does
an imitation of a tiny scrunched face peering at him.
"I shot her in the face, and the bullet went through it, too -- bouf!
One bullet, two gorillas!" he concludes triumphantly.
As a horrified listener clutches his chest, he laughs. "Why do you want
to protect gorillas? They're just animals."
Deep in Central Africa, the great humanlike apes -- gorillas and chimpanzees
-- are rapidly being wiped out by hunters. Bima Bima will make about $60 for
each adult gorilla, and would get nearly as much for a full-grown chimpanzee.
Chimps with their heads and hands removed are sold as gorilla meat.
Much as that distresses conservationists, the need to stop the hunting has
suddenly taken on more urgency in the West. In January, scientists announced
that H.I.V.-1, the most common AIDS virus, came from the subspecies of
chimpanzee found here, Pan troglodytes troglodytes. They believe it passed into
humans when hunters nicked themselves butchering their kill or ate raw meat.
Since the chimps don't seem to get sick from it, they may be the key to a cure.
It's crucial that they be kept alive and are studied -- but that's not the fate
they're headed for now.
But logging roads, shotguns and trucks are doing what the horse, Winchester
and railroad did to the buffalo. As loggers extend a spider web of roads into
the rain forest, hunters are moving down them, snaring or shooting anything that
moves. There may be fewer than 120,000 troglodytes chimpanzees left, and
thousands are killed each year. They reproduce more slowly than humans, one baby
every four years.
Dr. Beatrice H. Hahn led a team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham
that proved the link between AIDS and chimps.
Research has established that the pandemic form of H.I.V.-1 probably began to
spread in humans in the early 1940's. Hahn showed that it came from the simian
immunode-ficiency virus in troglodytes chimps.
What researchers most want to know is why the simian virus doesn't kill the
host apes. To that end, they need to know how widespread infection is in the
wild, which they might be able to determine from stool samples gathered from the
forest floor. And they need blood samples drawn from wild animals. "These
chimps are information we need," says Hahn, who has become an antihunting
campaigner. "Killing them for the pot is like burning a library full of
books you haven't read yet."
Environmentalists once thought most apes were killed in attempts to steal
their babies for the illegal pet trade. But that's wrong -- surviving babies are
just extra cash for hunters supplying the growing fad for "bush meat"
on the tables of the elite in Cameroon, Gabon, the Congo, the Central African
Republic and other countries.
Hunting endangered species is illegal, of course, but the law is rarely
enforced here. The bush-meat market in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, is no
secret. It's a 500-foot stretch of sidewalk only a few blocks from the
presidential offices and the $200-a-night Hilton Hotel. Vendors desultorily wave
whisks over tables piled high with smoked and fresh monkeys, duikers (tiny
antelopes), bush pigs and skinned snakes. Just behind them, watched over by
rough-looking men, are piles from which long arm bones protrude, obviously those
of chimpanzees and gorillas. At the fetish stalls, you can buy chimpanzee hands,
gorilla skulls, round slices of elephant trunk or the bright red tails of
endangered gray parrots.
"If your child is weak and you want to make him big and strong, you feed
him gorilla meat," says Elie Bayoi, a vendor. "Or you can scrape the
shoulder bone into water and bathe him in that. If you have a broken bone, you
heat a chimpanzee skull and press it against the break." Chimpanzee hands
cure stomach pains, he adds. Elephant skin repels garden pests.
The market isn't hidden, but the vendors are touchy. Even the chatty Bayoi
refuses to let his stall be photographed; other vendors have mobbed
photographers.
Karl Ammann is a Swiss hotelier who fell in love with the apes he
photographed while running luxury camps in Africa. He has since become the chief
nemesis of the bush- meat trade, and persona non grata to Governments whose
indifference he exposes. He has spent years photographing the trade, sometimes
with concealed cameras.
"The big conservation groups say only poor Pygmies eat bush meat, but
look at these customers," he says on a walk through the market. "Look
how they're dressed -- they're middle class. People don't want beef or chicken
anymore -- they call it 'white man's meat.' I know a woman who has to take
chimpanzee meat to her family whenever she goes home. You can order a gorilla
for Christmas the same way I'd order a turkey."
To prove the point to a German television crew, he recently bought two heads:
a chimp's and a pig's. The chimp was $8, the bigger, meatier pig only $5. Two
gorilla arms cost $10, an equal weight of beef less than $4.
Ammann has a teen-age chimp at his Kenya home, and even on a visit to the
tiny Yaounde zoo, it's clear that he is drawn to apes. He makes ooh-ooh noises
and puts his head in the hands they stretch through the bars to groom him.
"They have feelings and emotions," he says afterward, turning angry.
"A wounded chimp will beg for its life. They're like retarded children, and
we don't eat them. Where do we draw the line?"
The DNA of chimpanzees is 98.5 percent the same as that of humans, and Ammann
calls eating them "98.5 percent cannibalism."
More mainstream conservationists have asked him to temper his language,
saying it smacks of "cultural imperialism." One is Steve Gartlan, head
of the World Wide Fund for Nature's Cameroon office. Vivid photographs of dead
apes and reminders of their human qualities are "emotionally understandable
but biologically unsound" since whole ecosystems need protection, he argued
in a long critique of one of Ammann's articles. He also expressed sympathy for
the hunters, saying, "We share an even larger percentage of our genes --
100 percent -- with the rural poor."
At the urging of the fund, Cameroon has designated three new parks, though
Ammann dismisses them as mere "lines on paper." According to a report
provided on condition of anonymity by a scientist working in the
3,300-square-mile Dja Reserve in southwest Cameroon, about 100 hunters are
camped inside. "Despite the European conservation money poured into the
region," it says, "unique species are being wiped out at an alarming
rate."
Rather than pay to ship beef or pork to the jungle dormitory towns where
their workers live, the logging companies encourage hunting. The hundreds of log
trucks headed for the coast become a bush-meat caravan. Bleeding bags of meat
can be spotted behind the cabs; the drivers get a cut.
The political will to stop the hunting simply does not exist. Hunters rent
their guns from army and police officers; there are roadblocks everywhere where
police could seize the meat, but they let anyone through for a $2 bribe;
Government officials serve bush meat at banquets. Transparency International, a
not-for-profit corruption-fighting group, recently rated Cameroon the most
corrupt country of the 85 it surveyed. Next-door, Nigeria, famous for
corruption, was only No. 81.
Cameroonians say the problem is just getting worse. "When I came here in
1988, it was forbidden to kill animals," says Ndzana Ndzana, an
environmental official whose territory includes the Gabon camp. "But we had
guns then. We had vehicles. We had bullets. Now, with the economic crisis, the
central Government gives us nothing. We can't do our jobs."
Bima Bima, the hunter, has agreed to join a project that Ammann wants to
start. They hope to find a group of gorillas they can protect and habituate to
humans, so they can prove that "gorilla tourism," like that which
existed in Uganda until recently, is profitable.
Joseph Melloh, the first hunter Ammann converted to his cause, will be in
charge. For him, it's business. "A gorilla is still meat -- it has no
soul," he says. "But now I know that if you kill a gorilla, you use it
once. But if you keep it for 30 years, and bring people to see it, you get more
money. And you don't have to carry the firewood to smoke it."
Changing Africans' feelings about eating apes will be hard, Hahn says.
"But it can be done," she says confidently. "The Japanese like to
eat whales, but whales were being exterminated, so their behavior is changing.
And conserving chimpanzees might turn out to be even more important than
conserving whales or elephants or rhinos."
There's no guarantee that simian studies will reveal a cure or vaccine for
AIDS. But the extinction of vital chimpanzee species surely guarantees that they
won't Contact: Lani
Asato PRIMATES
ON THE BRINK New List
Spotlights World. s Top 25 Most Endangered Washington, DC .After
surviving a century with no extinctions, 25 species of apes, monkeys, lemurs
and other primates now risk disappearing forever, according to a report released
today by Conservation International and the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN--the
World Conservation Union. s Species Survival Commission. In other
news... In some
cases, only a few hundred individuals survive. Of the 25 species listed, 24 are
found exclusively in seven of the world. s 25 "biodiversity
hotspots," which claim the richest terrestrial species diversity as well as
some of the most extreme habitat destruction. "The
fact
that primates have not lost a single species over the past century is particularly
striking when you consider the deer, the cats, the rodents, the bats
and the many groups of birds with significant extinctions," said Russell
A. Mittermeier, CI President and Primate Specialist Group Chair. "However,
as we enter the new millennium, we risk losing our closest living relatives
in the Animal Kingdom, as well as many of the world. s highest
biodiversity areas that these animals have come to symbolize. " The
main causes for primates. decline are tropical forest habitat destruction and
local bushmeat hunting, according to the report. Live capture for the pet trade
and export for biomedical research also threaten some species. "Close
to
20 percent of the world. s primates stand a reasonable chance of
disappearing within the next 10 to 20 years unless we take decisive
action," said William Konstant, co-author of the report. The
list is not composed only of species with the fewest numbers, the report states.
Instead, it also includes primates recently discovered or rediscovered, whose
populations are most likely perilously small, but for which no estimates exist,
as well as species whose populations were stable only a few years ago but are
now under serious threat of extinction. The list also features primates that
have only recently been recognized as distinct, and therefore have not been the
specific focus of conservation measures. Biodiversity hotspots, where
96 percent of the most threatened primates live, are identified by Conservation
International as 25 places that cover only 1.4 percent of the Earth. s
land surface, but claim more than 60 percent of all plant and animal diversity.
Hotspots with the most endangered primates are Indo-Burma (especially Vietnam),
Madagascar, Brazil. s Atlantic Forest Region, the Guinean Forests of
West Africa and Sundaland. "The
plight of primates is a jarring wake-up call. Our planet is on the brink of a
major extinction crisis. The questions we face now are -- will we be the first
generation in a century to lose a primate species? Or will we be the generation
to find lasting solutions?" said Peter Seligmann, CI Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer. The
top 25 most endangered primates, and the hotspots where they are found, are: Madagascar
and Indian Ocean Islands Hotspot: Atlantic
Forest Region Hotspot: Tropical
Andes Hotspot: Guinean
Forests of West Africa Hotspot: Eastern
Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya Hotspot Indo-Burma
Hotspot: Sundaland
Hotspot: Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda (not among the hotspots): "The
Cross River gorilla is a good example of why we must be very careful not to
neglect possible diversity. In the nick of time we have realized these gorillas
are distinct, just before it is finally too late to save them from
oblivion," said Dr. John F. Oates, primatologist with Hunter College .
CUNY, and co-author with Esteban Sarmiento of the American Museum of Natural
History, of the re-description of the Cross River gorilla. ### Conservation International works
in 27 countries to protect global biodiversity and demonstrate that human
societies can live harmoniously with nature. CI develops scientific, policy, and
economic solutions to protect threatened natural ecosystems that are rich in
biodiversity. from Union of
concerned Scientists November 4, 1999 California's Environment Threatened by Global Warming November 4, 1999 "Many of the places we know and love in California are
vulnerable to a changing climate," said the lead author of the
report, Dr. Chris Field from the Carnegie Institution. "A variety
of changes are coming, and many will have profound ecological and
economic consequences. We should act now, incorporating science as we
plan for California's future."
Confronting Climate Change in California: Ecological Impacts on
the Golden State is a joint effort by the Ecological Society of
America and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Leading ecological
scientists at the Carnegie Institution, Stanford University, the
University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory produced the report. The research was overseen by a
seven-member steering committee of preeminent global-change scientists
from across the United States. The report represents the current state
of scientific knowledge about the impacts of climate change on
California's unique environments.
The best available climate models report that by 2030-2050 winters
are likely to warm by 5-6°F, and summers to warm by 1-2°F. Given the
higher temperatures, the report says an increase in winter precipitation
will fall mostly as rain rather than snow. Thus, less water will be
stored in the snow pack while more water will run off immediately,
adding to winter flooding and landslide problems. Flood controls and
levees in coastal areas would be increasingly challenged, requiring
additional management responses to protect valuable ecosystems and human
structures. The change in the water cycle will likely lead to water
shortages during the late spring and summer, thus worsening drought
conditions, irrigation needs, and water-use conflicts. Crops that
require large amounts of irrigation water (such as grapes, cotton, and
alfalfa) will be among the hardest hit.
"There will be too much water at the wrong time and too little
when we need it," said Dr. John Melack from the University of
California at Santa Barbara. "California could see more drenched
winters and parched summers."
Warmer summers will tend to intensify the summer drought, potentially
leading to hotter, harder-to-control wildfires, especially if Santa Ana
winds increase. Higher temperatures will warm the ocean and likely raise
the sea level 8 to 12 inches by 2100, amplifying current problems with
storm surge, beach erosion, and flooding during major winter storms. The
report also points to evidence that El Niņo may become more frequent
with climate change, with stronger La Niņa phases.
"Major floods and wildfires could become more frequent,"
said co-author Dr. Frank Davis from the University of California at
Santa Barbara.
The combination of water and temperature changes poses problems for
plants and animals, including threatened and endangered species.
Wildlife, forests, and grasslands will tend to shift north and upward to
more suitable habitats unless development or other obstacles hem them
in. The species with the least ability to colonize new habitats will
have the biggest problems. The study finds that there are already major
shifts in California's ocean life, including decreases in zooplankton,
sea bird populations, and northern, cold-water species, but increases in
southern, warm-water species. Shifts in the abundance of
disease-carrying animals, such as rodents with hantavirus, may pose
difficult challenges to the public health care system.
"We are putting our inheritance from nature in jeopardy,"
said co-author Dr. Gretchen Daily from Stanford University. "The
long-term health of California's most spectacular natural treasures,
from redwoods to giant kelp, is at risk."
The scientists note that a changing climate will exacerbate problems
in California caused by intensive development and rapid population
growth. Every step taken today to protect the diversity of California's
natural resources will also benefit public safety, recreation,
agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and the state's unique natural
heritage. Reducing emissions from automobiles and power plants is the
most important step to curbing global warming. Limiting the impacts of
development on the natural landscape is also critical, especially in
areas vulnerable to species and habitat loss.
"California's climate is at the heart of its quality of life and
economy," said steering committee member Dr. Peter Frumhoff,
Director of Global Resources at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"Californians can take action now that will make a difference for
the state and the world."
MEDIA CONTACTS from African Wildlife
Federation Fall 1999 http://www.awf.org/ We are near Elangata Wuas on the far western border of AWF's Amboseli?West
Kilimanjaro Heartland. Suddenly the pure soprano voices of children drift
through the windows. Startled, we stare at each other. Is this possible in the
middle of nowhere? We work our way through the brush to discover about 15
youngsters, 5 or 6 years of age, singing and clapping with an innocent beauty
and enthusiasm.
These are the children of Masai herders, who continue to make a living in
this dry and wild land as they have for centuries. The Oloo Lainyiamut preschool
is being held outside, because the school building was destroyed in a recent
storm. I admire the dedication of the young teacher and his charges, thirsting
for knowledge with nothing but a blackboard and one piece of chalk. The drive to
know, to understand, to learn is universal.
As we leave, however, I cannot help pondering the future. Can this remote and
inhospitable land sustain so many eager youngsters? Will there still be room for
wild dogs as each child grows old enough to tend a herd of goats and eventually
cattle? The experience raises the question I am so often asked here at home:
Won't the growing human population ultimately overwhelm all the wildlife living
outside of Africa's national parks?
Because AWF's mission is the long-term survival of wildlife, we recognize the
crucial link between conservation and the growth in human population. Without a
doubt, a lower birth rate is fundamental to both an improved quality of life for
the people of Africa and to the survival of its ecological systems. If wildlife
and other natural resources are to endure, we need to look beyond numbers and
technological fixes to the complex social dynamics driving population growth.
Birth rates have fallen in many parts of the world in response to changing
economic conditions and as population organizations have learned to address the
underlying reasons for why people have numerous children. A substantial portion
of Africa's still high rate stems from the unavailability of contraceptives,
particularly in rural areas where most of the population resides. But many
families still desire offspring to work the land and provide security for their
elders; the need is especially acute among women farmers who have few other
means of accumulating wealth in a world where they can neither own nor inherit
land.
Family planning organizations have identified several helpful measures.
Greater access to health care and family planning services is, of course, basic.
Increasing the spacing between children, already a traditional cultural practice
in much of Africa, can limit birth rates as well as curb infant mortality.
Perhaps the most important single step to slow population growth is improving
the education of women. A study in Kenya a few years ago indicated that
education of girls accounted for over 80 percent of the drop in infant mortality
during the last two decades. Significantly, easing fears about child survival
reduced the pressure to procreate. African women with 10 or more years of
education want 3.3 fewer children than women with no education. Over the long
term, greater economic opportunities and expanded legal rights for women are
expected to lead to further declines in birth rates.
From the preschool, we find our way to a dusty track. As
we head north, we pass slender Masai women laboring under jerry cans of water
strapped on their backs with a head thong. Improving these women's lives and
livelihood is the key to lower birth rates, and perhaps even to the survival of
the wild dogs that still elude us. Because the fate of these women and that of
the wildlife are so closely intertwined, AWF recently hired a conservation
intern in Tanzania to focus particularly on the role of women in managing
natural resources. By recognizing human concerns and their preeminent role in
conservation science, AWF will continue to make unique and effective
contributions in Africa. At the same time, I encourage AWF members to support a
family planning organization consistent with your personal beliefs. It can make
a difference.
from Greenpeace
April, 2000 http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/arctic/
Between the months of July and November, polar bears rarely eat. When the ice
returns during the winter months, the polar bears use the ice edge as their base
for hunting ringed seals, their main source of food.
But when the ice is late in coming -- now a regular problem, because of
global warming -- the polar bears, who have already undergone months of fasting,
run the serious risk of starving.
A study by the Canadian Wildlife Service concludes that ringed seals are
becoming less accessible to polar bears in the Hudson bay region because the ice
season is growing shorter. The result is that male and female polar bears are
losing weight, and the female polar bears appear to be having fewer cubs. If the
warming trend continues, polar bear populations will decline because they cannot
find enough food.
BP Amoco is making global warming even worse -- and right in the polar bears'
fragile Arctic habitat -- with its dangerous Northstar oil project. Help stop
Northstar! Go to the get
involved section of this Web site to find out what you can do.
For more information, read the Greenpeace press release Polar Bears Starving; Climate
Change to Blame.
from Yahoo News May,
2000
http://www.yahoo.com
ieu-Donne
Bima Bima is a nice young man with a gentle manner. With becoming modesty, he
describes how the chopped-up bodies of three gorillas have come to be smoking
over a fire outside his hut.
Donald G. McNeil Jr. is a correspondent for The Times
based in Johannesburg.
ntil
recently, the great rain forest stretching from Nigeria to Rwanda belonged
largely to Pygmies hunting with poisoned arrows. Nibbling at the forest's edges,
they posed no more threat to the species within than the plains Indians did to
the vast American bison herds.
A new frontier:
Logging (above) has opened up more of the rain forest to more hunters,
who make extra cash by supplying restaurants with delicacies like
monkey, duiker and gorilla (above). The offerings, for those who can
afford them, on the menu in a Kinshasa restaurant (below left).
'A wounded chimp will beg for its life,' says
Karl Ammann, a photographer who is trying to stop the killing. 'They're
like retarded children, and we don't eat them. Where do we draw
the line?'
he
explosion in bush-meat hunting is being propelled by two converging forces:
logging and corruption. As prices for coffee, cocoa and oil have fallen, timber
exports have soared. The roads bulldozed to reach the 800-year-old hardwoods are
wider and smoother than the dirt national highways.
The race for a cure:
Blood is drawn from an orphaned chimp (top) and a man (bottom) twice
bitten by a gorilla in hopes of finding the link between simian H.I.V.
and humans.
from
Conservation International, January, 2000 http://www.conservation.org/
Lisa Bowen
Tel: (202) 973-2204
E-mail: l.bowen@conservation.org
Tel: (202) 973-2250
E-mail: l.asato@conservation.org
Report:
The
World's Top 25 Most Endangered Primates
Downloadable
pictures
Water Problems, Wildfires to Increase; Impacts on Habitats, Quality
of Life
A new two-year study by California's leading ecological scientists
concludes that climate change poses a range of serious challenges for
the state's environment and economy. Drawing on the scientific consensus
that predicts California's future climate will be warmer and wetter in
winters and hotter in summers, the report finds that there will be less
water to go around in an already thirsty state. The scientists foresee a
range of likely impacts, from altered commercial fisheries to increased
difficulty protecting rare and endangered species. Dramatic impacts --
from floods, landslides and wildfires, to disease and pest outbreaks --
are very real possibilities.
Alison Gillespie, ESA, 202-833-8773
To set up interviews or get information:
PAUL FAIN
Assistant Press Secretary
202 332-0900
pfain@ucsusa.org
RICH HAYES
Press Secretary
202 332-0900
rhayes@ucsusa.org
MICHAEL PANCOOK
Transportation Media & Outreach Coordinator
510 843-1872
mpancook@ucsusa.org
EILEEN QUINN
Communications Director
202 332-0900
equinn@ucsusa.org
UNION
OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS
2 Brattle Square
Cambridge, MA 02238
617-547-5552
Contact us at ucs@ucsusa.org
FAMILY PLANNING AND
THE LINKS TO CONSERVATIONBy R. Michael Wright, President, AWF
Dust billows in through the open top of the battered Land Rover as we slowly
squeeze between two gnarled acacia thorn trees. We drive for hours through an
empty landscape, searching for signs of the pack of wild dogs that had
reportedly reappeared in Melepo Hills west of Namanga, the border crossing
between Kenya and Tanzania.
MICHAEL WRIGHT WITH CHILDREN AT THE
OLOO LAINYIAMUT PRESCHOOL.
Polar Bears Are Starving
Friday
March 3, 9:07 am Eastern Time
SOURCE: Ocean Futures
KLETTSVIK BAY, VESTMANNAEYJAR, Iceland, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Keiko, the killer whale star of the hit film Free Willy, made critical progress toward his potential reintroduction to the wild today when the gate between the floating bay pen, his home for the past 18 months, and the larger enclosed Klettsvik Bay in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland was opened. For the most famous whale in the world, this move marks a major milestone, allowing Keiko to fully experience the natural ocean environment for the first time since his capture in Icelandic waters more than 20 years ago.
``Keiko captured the hearts and minds of millions of children around the world when they learned that Free Willy's happy Hollywood ending was fiction. They truly wanted Keiko to be free,'' said Ocean Futures Society President Jean-Michel Cousteau. ``Thanks to their outcry, Keiko is being given the opportunity to be a wild whale again.''
Ocean Futures, a nonprofit marine conservation and education organization, is responsible for Keiko's care and has been supervising preparations for Keiko's potential reintroduction to the wild, a process that began in 1996. Keiko's access to the full bay marks another passage in this historic effort.
Starting this week, the public can track Keiko's progress through visuals, audio dispatches and email updates from Iceland, by logging on to Ocean Futures' web site at www.oceanfutures.org. In addition, people of all ages are invited to join Ocean Futures online -- membership in Ocean Futures is free and open to all.
Today, Keiko has access to Klettsvik Bay, a body of water roughly the size of 20 soccer fields and enclosed by a specially fabricated barrier net. 260 meters long and 33 feet deep, the net is anchored in place with more than 128,000 pounds of chain, several ten-ton anchors and rock bolts drilled into the bay's cliff walls.
Killer whales -- or Orcas as they are more correctly known -- are widely considered to be among the most intelligent marine mammals. This is the first attempt to reintroduce a captive orca to the wild. Reintroduction efforts for Keiko began following a massive outpouring of public support for the beleaguered Free Willy star after it was discovered that the real-life whale was languishing in poor health and inadequate conditions in a Mexico aquarium. More than 1.2 million individuals -- mostly children -- sent letters, emails, drawings and donations on Keiko's behalf.
``While Keiko's reintroduction is a labor of the heart, the process we are following is one of sound science,'' added Cousteau. ``Through our efforts with this project, we hope to increase our understanding of orca social behavior. Meanwhile, Keiko must continue to develop the stamina, foraging skills, and instincts of a wild whale.''
Keiko is also continuing to increase and approximate natural feeding patterns. Keiko has gone from being completely dependent on dead fish hand- fed at the surface, to retrieving up to 50% of his own food. While in the larger bay, Keiko's health, which has been excellent, will continue to be monitored by veterinary staff on a regular basis.
Should Keiko's progress continue as it has throughout his stay in Iceland and the needs of regulatory agencies be satisfied, our objectives are to further prepare him for access to the open ocean.
``Keiko's ultimate reintroduction to the wild depends on many unknowns,'' added Cousteau, ``but Keiko has successfully met every challenge that he has faced.''
Ocean Futures provides the global community with a forum for exploring issues affecting the ocean. Through research and education efforts, Ocean Futures addresses the following critical marine issues: Protecting and Understanding Marine Mammals, Protecting and Improving Water Quality, Protecting and Preserving Coral Reefs, Protecting and Restoring Coastal Habitats, and Fisheries Management. Ocean Futures is a non-profit organization that is the result of the merger of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation and the Jean-Michel Cousteau Institute. Ocean Futures is located at 325 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Phone: (805) 899-8899.
SOURCE: Ocean Futures
| Related News Categories: environmental |
from Bio Tech Working Group and the Green Party May, 2000
Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone is a genetically engineered drug, the first to be widely marketed through the food supply. Its manufacturer, Monsanto (who also manufactured the deadly Agent Orange), has been pushing it on dairy farmers while fighting against consumer demands that milk from rBGH-treated cows at least be labeled. We have a right to know what's in our milk!
Some farmers have been injecting rBGH into cows since 1993 - although many others continue to resist. Repeated injections of rBGH artificially stimulates cows to produce 10%-25% more milk than normal causing health problems for the cows and danger to consumers, especially kids, who drink rBGH milk or eat ice cream, butter, cheese and yogurt - none of which is labeled! Yet New York City public schools continue to contract with Tuscan and other milk companies who, for the most part, refuse to sign affidavits requiring that their milk come only from cows certified as rBGH-free.
No! rBGH is like "crack" for cows. It "revs" up their systems and forces them to produce a lot more milk for perhaps a few years, and then their milk production declines dramatically. It also makes them sick. The cows suffer from painful udder infections (mastitis), leaking pus, blood, and bacteria into the milk. They suffer from shortened lifespans, increased birth defects, high rates of metabolic disease, infertility and stress.
The use of rBGH intensifies the already unhealthy confinement of animals in industrial-scale dairy production. Factory farming of animals is immoral because it treats animals like machines instead of sentient creatures. It also has severe environmental, economic and health effects, including soil contamination and groundwater pollution.
Milk from cows injected with rBGH is banned in Europe and Canada. It is being tested on the American population without having undergone long-term studies on adverse health effects. rBGH milk shows a dramatic increase in IGF-1 (Insulin Growth Factor), a hormone linked to breast and colon cancer, hypertension, premature growth stimulation in infants, gynacomastea in young children, glucose intolerance and juvenile diabetes.
rBGH cows are treated with heavy doses of antibiotics to limit their udder infections. Children especially should not be subjected to additional antibiotics which could impair the development of the immune system, cause the growth of resistant strains of bacteria and viruses, and lead to serious health problems later in life.
In addition, approximately 40% of the beef used to make hamburgers is ground up from old dairy cows. Meat from rBGH treated cows may contain higher levels of hormones, drugs and harmful chemicals.
Since cattle treated with rBGH require more protein than normal there is added reason to fear that use of rBGH may speed up the rate of spongiform encephalopathy - "mad cow disease" - which is currently devastating England and is potentially linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
Just the opposite! And that's why farmers across the country are fighting against rBGH. There already is a milk surplus in the US and no need to artificially induce cows to produce more milk. Thousands of dairy farmers are being driven out of business by large factory farms using rBGH.
Studies done during the early stages of rBGH use have found it increases fat content and decreases casein proteins, which are crucial in manufacturing cheese. It also causes milk to sour more quickly, imposing speed-up on farmers, and shorter shelf-life at markets and at home.
Shockingly, some companies that produce rBGH also manufacture the antibiotics and tranquilizers which they sell to farmers to combat the side effects.
In 1993 the Food and Drug Administration approved rBGH (also known as BST) for use in milk cows without performing long-term health studies, because a few companies invested hundreds of millions of dollars developing a product that has absolutely no consumer benefit, and may pose a severe health risk. The FDA official who "fast-tracked" rBGH approval, Michael Taylor, had previously worked as a lawyer for Monsanto. He, in turn, appointed a number of others from Monsanto to positions in the FDA, with President Clinton's approval. Margaret Miller, Deputy Director of the FDA's Office of New Animal Drugs, is also a former Monsanto employee. While she was still publishing papers with Monsanto hirelings on rBGH, she wrote the FDA's opinion on why milk from rBGH treated cows should not have to be labeled.
The conflicts of interest between government and industry are appalling - and dangerous. In fact, the doctor who originally supervised the rBGH target animal safety studies, Richard Burroughs, maintains he was fired because he insisted on stringent animal health standards in rBGH research.
Genetic Engineering is the process of redesigning DNA molecules to create new forms of life. Scientists are recombining genes from plants, insects, bacteria, animals and humans to better serve the needs of mass production and commercial exploitation.
These foods were unlabeled and mostly untested. According to the USDA, only 2% of genetically engineered foods were developed to enhance taste or nutrition. 98% were designed to make food production and processing more profitable for big corporations.
Genetically engineered foods subject us to more toxins and allergens. Genes from peanuts implanted in other foods may cause severe allergic reactions. Genes from fish implanted into tomatoes raises all sorts of ethical problems for vegetarians. Genetic engineering could also cause viruses and other germs to mutate inside our bodies into more virulent strains for which we've developed no resistance, and which could also spread across species. Genetic engineering reduces diversity in crops - moncropping makes it easy for disease to spread quickly across an entire field - and, worst of all, may permanently disrupt the ecological balance of the planet.
With genetically engineered soybeans, corn and corn syrup (a sweetener used in almost everything we drink), potatoes, strawberries and cotton slated for market this year along with rBGH, we must act now to ban them all and save the planet.
There is a growing movement to fight the use of rBGH, and to force New York City public schools to buy milk only from companies that do not use rBGH-treated cows. Here's how you can help:
