AR-News: "News from Americans for Medical Progress"

Wed Feb 11 19:43:16 EST 2004

From:  Primfocus 
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 11:15 PM
Subject: primfocus: "News from Americans for Medical Progress"

AMP News Service Digest
Monday, February 9, 2004
  _____

In This Edition:

UK GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS SWEEPING NEW LAWS TO PROTECT RESEARCH

BIO INCLUDES COMMENT ON ANIMAL RIGHTS VIOLENCE IN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH

TUFTS VET SCHOOL DEALS WITH AFTERMATH OF CONTROVERSIAL EXPERIMENT

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH FUNDING WOULD NOT KEEP PACE WITH INFLATION

UNDER BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S FY 2005 BUDGET PROPOSAL

THE PETA-FILE

  _____

UK GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS SWEEPING NEW LAWS TO PROTECT RESEARCH

In the UK, The Observer reported last week that the Home Office was
preparing new legislation to make it an imprisonable offense to
intimidate scientists involved in animal research. Other laws would
prevent large groups from gathering outside research facilities and would
establish a national police united dedicated to tackling animal rights
terrorism.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1136439,00.html

This report comes in the wake of a decision by Cambridge University not to
go ahead with the construction of a state-of-the-art primate research
center devoted to neurological research, a decision in which the
rapidly-escalating costs of safeguarding the facility and its staff from
animal rights extremists was a key factor.

Most security experts believe only a few dozen hardcore activists are
responsible for the ongoing campaign of bombing and violent intimidation
that has plagued research in the UK for the past several years.
However, the Financial Times reports, a number of companies are moving to
secure sites such as the Atomic Energy Agency's headquarters in
Oxfordshire.  The FT quoted the BioIndustry Association as saying
important animal research might have to be moved to other high-security
locations, such as Porton Down, the government's biological defense center
in Wilshire.  "The inevitability of the type of extremist
activity we have seen leaves no option other than for people working in
this field to move to somewhere more secure," said Aisling Burnand, chief
executive of the BIA.
http://search.ft,com/s03/search/article.html?id=040128001143
(subscription required)

Today, UK-based employees of Chiron won a temporary injunction to
protect them from harassment by animal rights protesters. The order,
granted by a judge in London, covers around 900 employees of the Chiron
Corporation and places exclusion zones around their homes and company
premises. http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2510391

  _____

BIO INCLUDES COMMENT ON ANIMAL RIGHTS VIOLENCE IN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH

As part of a letter to President Bush outlining legislative and
regulatory priorities of the organization for 2004, Biotechnology
Industry Organization (BIO) president Carl Feldbaum included a paragraph
about animal and domestic terrorism.

Here is the text of the paragraph, found on page seven of the eleven page
letter:

"In support of your Administration's commitment to fight all forms of
terrorism, we strongly urge you
to provide federal law enforcement with the necessary legal tools and
financial support to stem the
growing wave of terrorist violence -- led by animal rights and
environmental activists -- against the U.S.
biotechnology industry.  Since spring of 2003, a number of biotechnology
and pharmaceutical companies
have come under attack from these eco-terrorists.  Their campaigns, aided
by the improved technology
of the Internet, have gone well beyond harassment of scientists and
corporate executives. Animal rights
terrorists have engaged in bombings of research facilities, harassment of
the children of biotech executives
in their schools, and vandalism of personal property. Their campaign
against biotechnology companies is
strategic, specific, unrelenting and directed toward delivering
economic, and sometimes physical, damage
to companies engaged in innovation for life-threatening diseases such as
cancer and cystic fibrosis.
BIO believes that it is imperative for the Administration and Congress to
take steps necessary to halt
these activities."

The letter did not propose any remedies. The communication, which was sent
to President Bush last month, was featured in a story on animal rights
violence this weekend and may be found on The Business Journals section of
the MSNBC website at  http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4201620/   The full BIO
letter may be read as a .pdf document on the BIO website at
http://www.bio.org/features/2004Letter_to_PresBush.pdf

  _____

TUFTS VET SCHOOL DEALS WITH AFTERMATH OF CONTROVERSIAL EXPERIMENT

Today's edition of Tufts University's newspaper carries an article by a
member of its editorial board reviewing what has happened in the weeks
since controversy gripped the campus of the Veterinary school over an
experiment in which the legs of six research dogs were purposely broken
and then allowed to heal using different treatments. The dogs were later
euthanized so that the effects of the treatments might be compared.

Four students in the Master of Science in Animals and Public Policy
program, working with New England Anti-Vivisection Society, complained in
the media about the experiment during the school's holiday break. The
resulting news coverage
mistakenly identified the four as veterinary students, and left the
impression that they represented the prevailing view on campus.

The masters program has ten students, while there are approximately 240
doctoral students.

"When we first returned to campus, the general feeling was that of anger,"
that the masters students had gone to the media, said second year class
co-president Alisha Weissman. She said that this feeling has since calmed,
but a sense of disharmony and betrayal amongst the
students has emerged.

"It would have been better if they had spoken to the second, third and
fourth year vet students," Weissman said.

201 doctoral students signed a letter supporting the actions of the
researchers which ran in The Boston Herald, a local tabloid which had
earlier featured the masters students' allegations. "We have no conflict
in support of our school, its staff, or our love for animals," the
doctoral students wrote in the letter. "Tufts continues to be a leader in
veterinary ethics in part because it is receptive to students'
ideas."
http://www.tuftsdaily.com/articleDisplay.jsp?a_id=3095

  _____

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH FUNDING WOULD NOT KEEP PACE WITH INFLATION

UNDER BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S FY 2005 BUDGET PROPOSAL

President Bush sent the details of his FY 2005 budget to Congress on
February 2.  The Administration's plan for FY 2005 includes $28.6
billion for the National Institutes of Health, an increase of $729
million, or 2.6%, above this year.  Unfortunately, the Biomedical
Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI), an indicator of economic
inflation calculated by the U.S. Department of Commerce, is likely to be
up 3.8% for this fiscal year and another 3.5% in FY 2005.

It is reported that the President's budget would fund an estimated 39,986
grants, including 10,393 new and competing awards.  This is an increase of
only 258 grants over the FY 2004 level.  At the same time the number of
grant applications received by NIH is growing at an
unprecedented rate.  The total number of applications in FY 2003 - more
than 68,000 -- jumped 24% over the previous year, and is up 15% so far in
FY 2004.

Advocacy groups, such as the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research Funding (
http://www.aamc.org/research/adhocgp ) and Research!America (
http://www.researchamerica.org/media/releases/05budget_final.PDF ) are
calling for an 8 to 10% increase for NIH in order to sustain the
nation's medical research and continue to provide preventive measure,
diagnostics and treatments in a timely manner.

  _____

THE PETA-FILE

NEW ADS are running on the Washington DC Metro transit system this month. 
Entitled "Lab Rats or Sick Kids?" they are sponsored by Center for
Consumer Freedom and draw attention to what CCF calls "PETA's
unethical hostility toward the use of animals for life-saving medical
research."  A copy of the ad may be found at
http://www.centerforconsumerfreedom.com/

SPEAKING OF ADS, it's no wonder PETA had the $2 million to invest in a
Superbowl commercial that was turned down by CBS. In its latest report to
the IRS - also posted to its own website - PETA reports that it raised
over $24 million, and spent about $21.5 million in the last fiscal year. 
Quite a jump over the previous year, in which they raised $17 million and
spent $13.5 million. Now, if some of that money could find its way to
animal care...

THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER  No sooner had San Francisco Chronicle writer Joe
Garofoli finished Sunday's softball profile of PETA staffer Lisa
Franzetta, noting that she "embodies the whimsical stunt side of PETA,
charged with selling shamelessly goofy gestures," than Franzetta issued a
media advisory to the New York City press showing a far less

whimsical side:  As part of "The Gloves Are Off" anti-fur campaign, she is
promising that PETA members will "confront fur-wearers on New York streets
and subways with skinned fox carcasses until the end of March." She writes
that on Tuesday, "the steps at Bryant Park will look more like the scene
of a massacre than the entrance to the runway shows when the bodies of
PETA 'fashion victims' - PETA staff and volunteers wearing bloodied fur
coats - litter the ground."  Two years ago, in the wake of the 9/11
tragedy, PETA vowed to step away from its violent imagery during its
fashion week protests in Manhattan. That promise of civility is apparently
one that PETA - and Franzetta - are unable to keep.

The Chronicle's profile of animal rights activists Franzetta, Lauren
Ornelas and Jeffrey Masson may be read at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/02/08/CMGOR4NLP
43.DTL

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