Is a Monkey, Chimp, Lion or Tiger living next to you?

Readers, I just posted some information today about how you can tell whether a sanctuary is a good or bad one. it's worth reading, just a few posts down. This is NOT a sanctuary!!!!!!!! This is why people get confused about what is good and what is bad. The most important thing is that a Real Sanctuary DOES NOT interact with the animals!! That is not sanction for the animals. Anyone that thinks you can take the wild out of a wild animal is disillusioned! I know I worked with them for over 15 years. Once a wild animal always a wild animal. Look at the Travis/Sandra Herold/Charla Nash case. Travis was like a child to Sandra, she slept with him, lived with him in her home and he did all of the things that humans did but...... one day his wildness came out. Not only did he attack Charla but then tried to go after the person that loved him more than anything, the person that raised him from a baby. You just can't make them domestacted no matter what you do or how long you do it for. I had rescued a toothless monkey once and even with no teeth he broke a few bones in my hand by rapid biting me.

I hope when this movie comes out they don't put a spin on it that makes it look "cool" to own an exotic animal. I once met a tiger that was suppose to be put to death because he had pulled a woman with his paw to the edge of his cage and he ripped her apart through the cage!!!!!. Before the authroites could take the tiger the owners moved him to another facility and that's where I meet him. He was housed alone because he couldn't be trusted with any other tigers. People that own exotic animals should have in their wills to donate their organs because their death will surly come.

Story;
Just a few pages into a book given to him by a friend, Michael Webber couldn't believe what he was reading: Thousands of Americans keep exotic wildlife, from tigers to lethally poisonous snakes, in their homes and yards -- absolutely unregulated.

"It just seemed bizarre to me that there are some areas of the country that require you to get a dog license to own a poodle, but in that same area, you can get a tiger and raise it in your home," the Hollywood TV and film producer says by phone from Ohio. "Or you can get a venomous snake, a python, a chimpanzee, and there is absolutely no licensing requirement or oversight. Your neighbor can even stick an elephant in the back yard and there is nothing you can do about it."

The book, "Wildlife Warrior: More Tales Of Suburban Safaris" by former animal-control officer Tim Harrison, became the beginning of an odyssey for Webber, which led to the new documentary, "The Elephant in the Living Room," which opens at selected theaters in Denver next week.

The movie explores the strange and often shadowy world of "exotic" wildlife in the United States, from marketers and auctions to owners who have formed a deep attachment to their "pets." It focuses on Harrison, who has avidly crusaded against ownership and marketing of wildlife, and Terry Brumfield, an Ohio man who raised and kept two African lions, Lambert and Lacey, in his home.

Boulder native Pat Craig, founder of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesberg, appears in "The Elephant in the Living Room." Camera file photo ( JON HATCH)touching, even cute, but it's anything but. Lambert, the male lion, escapes onto a local highway, where he is reported for chasing down speeding cars (911 operators were understandably incredulous). After that, the authorities give their owner an ultimatum: give the lions away, or keep them penned up. Brumfield, who formed deep emotional attachment to the lions as cubs, when he was recovering from a severe accident, reluctantly keeps them in a cramped, filthy horse trailer, where they live for several months.

Boulder native Pat Craig, founder of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesberg, appears in "The Elephant in the Living Room." Camera file photo ( JON HATCH)touching, even cute, but it's anything but. Lambert, the male lion, escapes onto a local highway, where he is reported for chasing down speeding cars (911 operators were understandably incredulous). After that, the authorities give their owner an ultimatum: give the lions away, or keep them penned up. Brumfield, who formed deep emotional attachment to the lions as cubs, when he was recovering from a severe accident, reluctantly keeps them in a cramped, filthy horse trailer, where they live for several months.

The film mostly walks a carefully non-judgmental line, and Webber even confesses that he formed a bond with Brumfield, who comes off as well-meaning but clueless.

"These aren't evil people," Webber says. "They are people who love animals, arguably more than most people out there. They have a strong connection to their exotics, even stronger than some people have for their dogs or cats."

The story of Harrison's gentle attempts to persuade Brumfield to give up the lions is interwoven with harrowing tales of animals turning on their owners, hidden-camera footage of the people behind the exotic market and interviews with people on both sides of the debate.

But despite the sympathy he developed for Brumfield, Webber says he came down on the side of those who want to limit and regulate, if not ban, the ownership of most wildlife in the United States.

"I just experienced all the negative sides of this, for the animals and the owners," he says.

Pat Craig, a Boulder native who is founder and director of the Wild Animal Sanctuary near Keenesburg on the eastern plains of Colorado, appears in the film. He advised Webber and Harrison, and eventually took in some of the animals shown.

"For me the movie represents a great educational tool. Joe Public will see it and say, 'Wow, that is a huge problem.' I'm a real fan of the movie in that sense," Craig says.

But he is uncompromising in his refusal to "coddle" people who take in animals that they will deprive of a natural habitat and life, and for which almost all are unequipped to care for. He even criticizes Webber and Harrison for succumbing on camera to the lure of some lion cubs.

"All these people love their animals," Craig says. "But they either provide for them or don't provide. I don't doubt that (Brumfield) loved his lions. ... But we learned a long time ago that being sympathetic, having any hesitation initially (with owners) will end up costing the animals."

Craig points out that virtually all large exotic wildlife goes without any veterinary care simply because most vets won't -- or can't -- handle them. Most people have no exotic animal husbandry skills and almost none can provide a suitable habitat for say, a tiger, a bear, or even a large snake.

The Wild Animal Sanctuary permanently cares for almost 300 animals that have been abandoned by their previous owners, including about 70 tigers, 86 bears, 34 wolves and 40 African lions. The animals live on 320 acres and cost about $3 million a year to care for, Craig says. Animals are prevented from breeding through birth control. (The public may visit the sanctuary for a fee; for more information, go to wildanimalsanctuary.org.)

Terry Brumfield, an Ohio man who kept adult lions at his home, in "The Elephant in the Living Room." Courtesy photo. animals," Craig says. "But they either provide for them or don't provide. I don't doubt that (Brumfield) loved his lions. ... But we learned a long time ago that being sympathetic, having any hesitation initially (with owners) will end up costing the animals."

Craig points out that virtually all large exotic wildlife goes without any veterinary care simply because most vets won't -- or can't -- handle them. Most people have no exotic animal husbandry skills and almost none can provide a suitable habitat for say, a tiger, a bear, or even a large snake.

Since animals are considered property in most states and seizing them often results in lawsuits, Craig advocates laws requiring that owners pay for liability insurance.

"We should require a million dollars worth of insurance," he says. "It's amazing how so many owners who say they would never give up (an animal) find out they have to pay insurance premiums and suddenly say (screw) it."

Large carnivores get most of the film's attention, but it notes that Americans own everything from chimpanzees to poisonous snakes such as the deadly gabon viper. The non-profit, all-volunteer Colorado Reptile Humane Society in Longmont, which handles everything from small lizards to venomous snakes such as western diamondback rattlers, constantly battles the problem of people taking in animals they can't care for.

"Calling them exotics is funny to begin with," says associate director Jonathan Sculpin. "The only extraordinary thing is that we humans have taken them out of their natural setting. ... People put a 5-foot long snake an aquarium. But in the wild that animal has at least an acre of habitat over which it roams."

And as the film makes clear with breathless local TV stories, when wild animals behave like, well, wild animals, they tend to take the blame.

"In North America, we think the role of a tiger or a lion or a chimpanzee is to put clothes on them, to dress up a chimp in an Old Navy commercial with a spoon. But eventually, if (the chimp) tears your face, your genitalia, your hands and feet off, we say it went bad. But that is what a chimp is meant to do," Webber says, recalling a horrific 2009 incident in which a "pet" chimpanzee attacked a woman in Connecticut. News reports said neighbors were "shocked" by the animal's behavior.

An emergency room physician in the film, Dr. Roger Paholka of Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, shakes his head at the many cases he's seen of exotic pets harming people.

"We see them as safe and cuddly, as opposed to people in Africa, who see them as something that wants to eat your face," Paholka says onscreen.

But both Webber and Craig regret that public debate over the issue -- to the extent that there is any -- tends to be focused on public safety to the exclusion of the animals' welfare. The film ends with brief footage of animals rescued and released into the grasslands at the Wild Animal Sanctuary, a stark contrast to their earlier extreme confinement.
"These are non-domesticated, majestic animals," Webber says. "After the initial fascination, you become sad. Gosh, that tiger is never going to run, never hunt, and hopefully never breed. It is never going to be able to do things it was programmed and designed to do."
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Jack Hanna the Director at the Columbus Zoo has baby gorilla die

CAN YOU SAY EXPLOITATION? When entertainers as what I use to do do something like Jack Hanna does PETA and other animal welfare groups are all over us, though a director at a zoo can do it. CAN YOU SAY HYPOCRITE? I CAN BIG TIME!!!!!!!

Information;
John Bushnell "Jack" Hanna (born January 2, 1947) is an American zookeeper who is the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. He was Director of the zoo from 1978 to 1993, and is viewed as largely responsible for elevating its quality and reputation. His media appearances have made him one of the most notable animal experts in the United States. Hanna, nicknamed “Jungle Jack,” is known for his khaki safari outfit, deep tan, and Southern accent.

 Life and career Hanna was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He grew up on his father's farm outside Knoxville, and volunteered for a veterinarian when he was 11. He attended The Kiski School, an all-boys boarding school in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, for high school, graduating in 1965. He majored in business and political science at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, where he got in trouble for keeping ducks in his dorm room and a donkey in a shed behind his fraternity house (The M.A.C.E. Club).

His senior year, Hanna married Suzi, a cheerleader at Muskingum, and graduated in 1969. Though unable to secure zoning as a zoo for his father's farm, the two opened a pet shop and petting zoo. In 1973, a three-year-old boy was mauled by a lion at Hanna's farm and lost his arm. Hanna settled the subsequent lawsuit out of court, shut down the petting zoo, and moved his family to Florida[citation needed]. He then worked for a wildlife adventure company and directed the small Sanford Zoo and Central Florida Zoo from 1973 to 1975. When he was offered the position at the Columbus Zoo in 1978, one of the reasons he accepted was because he believed the Children's Hospital in Columbus had the best treatment available for his daughter Julie's leukemia. She recovered by the age of six, though she needed to have a brain tumor removed later in life.

At the time he became the zoo's director, the grounds of the zoo were unkempt and the facilities run down. Hanna initially struck many as a "zealous" zoo director, often traveling around the zoo grounds after closing to personally pick up trash. He also realized the importance of increasing the profile of the Columbus Zoo in central Ohio to get more public support and funding, and the "everyman"-seeming Hanna proved to be very well-suited to public relations for the zoo. From 1981 until 1983, Hanna hosted a television show called "Hanna's Ark" that aired on the local CBS affiliate in Columbus, WBNS. Hanna's live animal demonstrations on Good Morning America and both of David Letterman's talk show incarnations brought national attention to the Columbus Zoo as well as to Hanna himself. Over the course of Hanna's tenure as director, the zoo made the transition from cage-like enclosures to habitat environments, and the grounds were significantly expanded. The annual attendance of the Columbus Zoo increased by over 400% during this time.

Jack Hanna poses for a photo with Skulls Unlimited International's Michelle Hayer.Hanna has published an autobiography, Monkeys on the Interstate in 1989, as well as many other books for children. He has been the host of the syndicated television show "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures" since 1993. Hanna also occasionally contributes commentary as an animal expert on various local and national news programs, and has done guest spots on other shows such as Larry King Live, Nancy Grace, Maury, and Hollywood Squares. He was also named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People magazine in 1996 http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20122069,00.html. Hanna also appeared in Neal McCoy's 2005 music video for "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" with a Hyacinth Macaw, a sloth and an albino burmese python. Hanna, along with Emmy-award winning musician Mark Frye, released an album through Virgin Records in 1996 entitled Jack Hanna's World.

Hanna and his wife, Suzi, have three daughters: Kathaleen, Suzanne, and Julie. He spends much of his time at his home in Montana, where he expects to retire soon. Hanna has been granted honorary Ph.D.s from Muskingum College, Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.
Facts found here
Article about the baby Gorilla that died at his zoo

There are still uneducated people that think it's OK to own Monkeys

Well folks look at this..... This is a group of people that totally believe that people should be able to own monkeys, etc. They say they want animal welfare, not animal rights. Aren't they the same? If you can't have animal rights then that means that these people do not want anyone checking up on them so they can do as they please with these primates. They don't want to be dictated to as to what they own, how they treat them, how they house them, their vet care or anything else. If animals have rights, they have the right to be in habitats that are large enough for them, live as natural as possible, live with others of their own kind, and NOT be treated as a substitute for a child. This would mean no teeth pulling, no clothing, no human junk food, etc. If the animals could talk what would they tell us? I have an idea "LEAVE US ALONE!, LET US BE WHAT WE ARE"

This is their goals and beliefs.........

My goal is to inform the public the truth regarding pet primates in the United States, to provide current owners with enrichment ideas for their primates, and educate those who believe they want a monkey about the responsibilities that come with owning a monkey by providing objective information. I want to show the public that monkeys are not the violent, diseased animals that animal rights groups portray. They can be very loving, affectionate, and caring companions when raised under the right circumstances. I support 100% responsible ownership of all exotic pets, but I do believe that there should be FAIR regulations regarding exotic animal ownership, and domestic as well, to prevent the casual acquisition and suffering of animals who are placed in homes where owners do not have the knowledge and means to properly care for them.

same level of care and responsibility one would need to give a 2 year old human. The “Terrible Two’s” stage will last the ENTIRE duration of a monkeys life. Primates are very curious. They can and will get into everything and anything within reach (considering that they all climb, everything not under lock and key is within reach). Vet care is expensive, about 3-5 times more than dog vet care because an exotic animal vet is required. They are already illegal in many states/counties, with many more working on bans or other legislation.

Remember, it is not the animal that is the problem, but owners who are not educated in their care!

"If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys." Native American, Chief Dan George

The Threat of Animal Rights

Animal rights groups are pushing our legislators now more than ever to further their cause of total animal liberation. Animal rights groups such as People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Humane Society of the United States (HSUS, not to be confused with local human society shelters), Animal Liberation Front (ALF), and Animal Protection Institute of America use misleading and often false statements regarding both domestic and exotic animal ownership. All pet owners, not just those who own exotics, need to stick together to protect our rights to own our pets. Remember, animal rights wants to eliminate all animals from homes, zoos, and entertainment. If they continue to pass laws prohibiting ownership, the only result will be the extinction of many animals, such as lions and tigers. Many exotics have few left in the wild, and humans will continue to encroach on their natural habitats. If these exotics were left ONLY in the wild, in a matter of years they would be at or near extinction. Is up to responsible owners and zoological institutions to continue to breed these animals in captivity so that our children will be able to witness first hand the magnificence of these creatures, and not just see them through the pages of an encyclopedia. In the US, importation of endangered species is strictly monitored to prevent the capturing of wild populations. Most developed countries follow CITES guidelines. Exotics in the US are captive bred and are in fact contributing to the survival of many species of animals.

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE HARMFUL EFFECTS ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUPS ARE HAVING ON OUR ANIMALS.

WE WANT ANIMAL WELFARE NOT ANIMAL RIGHTS

Below are organizations that support responsible ownership of exotic animals and help preserve those rights. I encourage you to visit their sites and learn about other exotics and the issues that affect our rights.

Check these people out here  and to read their beliefs in full and the others they refer people to
If you go here, at the bottom of the page you can see how tiny the cages are where these poor pet monkeys live!

Our Cell Phones effect Primates and their habitats. Chimpanzees, Gorillas

Gorilla numbers in the Congo are declining. The number of mobile phones around the globe is on the rise. As unlikely as it may seem, there is a connection.

Forests of the region are cleared to enable further mining, leaving little habitat for the remaining mountain gorillas.
Baby chimps and gorillas are left orphaned when their parents are killed for bush meat.

Credit: Jane Goodall Institute

Each and every time your mobile phone rings, a mineral ore called coltan enables the call to be made. Coltan, which coats the tiny capacitor inside most mobile phones, is mined in central Africa with devastating flow-on effects: the deforestation of primate habitat and butchering of animals to the point of endangering species.

Eighty per cent of the world's reserves of coltan are found in the Congo. This same region is home to the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) and Grauer's gorilla (Gorilla beringei grauer - formerly known as the eastern lowland gorilla). As mining operations expand to meet escalating global demand for coltan, clearing the country's lush forest, the habitat of these gorillas and at least 10 other primate species is being destroyed, and with it their food sources. In addition to these threats to their survival, the increased human population in mining areas has led to these primates being hunted for bush meat.

The United Nations Environment Programme reported a 90 per cent decline in the number of Grauer's gorillas in eight Democratic Republic of Congo national parks between 1996 and 2001. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature classifies mountain and Grauer's gorillas as endangered and estimates their respective populations as being 680 and 16,900 individuals.

Andrea Edwards, formerly a primate keeper at Melbourne Zoo, has spent the last 18 months in the Congo as the co-manager of the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Centre. She and 29 local Congolese staff have over 100 chimpanzees and monkeys in their care. Some have been orphaned; many are injured. Every animal has reached the sanctuary because they have been caught up in the bush meat trade or the mining of coltan, gold and diamonds.

"Some of the mining is legal, but most is run by rebel armies where workers are rarely paid or paid a minimum wage in return for guns which they use for hunting," says Edwards. "They eat the meat themselves or sell to others. The amount of bush meat coming out of the area is on the increase. Babies, which don't have enough meat on them, are sold as pets."

Edwards reports animals that come to the rehabilitation centre are presenting with hepatitis, measles and common colds, which can be life-threatening, as their immune systems are not equipped to deal with human diseases.

And it is not only the animals that are suffering - communities are being plundered. UN Security Council reports have implicated illegal mining and smuggling of coltan in funding the military occupation of the Congo. Much of the ore is being smuggled over the eastern borders of the country by militias to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, fuelling conflict in the Congo, while prisoners-of-war and children are often forced to work in the illegal mines. The Democratic Republic of the Congo Permanent Mission to the United Nations (DRCPMUN) reported that the Rwandan army had made an estimated US$250 million over a period of 18 months from the sale of coltan, though no coltan is mined in Rwanda.

Testifying to being woken in the night by gunfire, Edwards says her staff members have a suitcase packed and stored at the sanctuary, ready to run into the fields in case there is a raid during the night by rebel armies. "Rape, murder and kidnapping are not uncommon. It is a very volatile environment," she says.

Miners working for legal operations are paid well in comparison with workers elsewhere in the Congo. According to the DRCPMUN, the average Congolese worker makes $10 a month, while a coltan miner can make anywhere from $10 to $50 a week.

If manufacturers of mobile phones and other electronics were to buy coltan only from legally mined sources it would stamp out illegal trade; however, this is easier said than done. Edwards explains that, while certified coltan can be sourced, most of it has originated in the Congo and been shipped to another country like Rwanda, where it is certified before being sold, making it very difficult to track its origins.

Recycling coltan is a proven way to reduce demand for the ore and reduce the destructive consequences of illegal mining. Melbourne Zoo, in conjunction with the Jane Goodall Institute, has launched the 'They're Calling You' campaign, encouraging Australians to donate their old phones. In the first four months 4,000 phones have been collected.

Melbourne Zoo's Community Conservation Manager, Rachel Lowry, says most people have not yet realised that their phone is related to primates and their habitat. The campaign corporate partner, Aussie Recycling Program (ARP), donates $2 from each phone received, before rebuilding and shipping them to countries where there is a demand for refurbished phones at reduced prices. So far the campaign has raised $50,000, with 50 per cent going to the Jane Goodall Institute and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. The balance goes to Australian zoos to be spent on captive breeding programs. "The first cheque from ARP provided food for two months for 300 rangers in the Congo whose daily duties were to patrol jungle areas to stamp out poaching," says Lowry.

CEO of the Jane Goodall Institute of Australia, Polly Cevallos, says the funding they've received for the rangers' salaries has resulted in confiscation of nearly 2,000 snares and weapons and has contributed to a significant decrease in the presence of bush meat in village market places.

So, how is the mobile phone industry responding to the plight of gorillas in the Eastern Congo? Chris Althaus, chief executive of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) says: "Our industry has complied with UN Security Council requests since we first became aware of the problem in 2001. The mobiles industry recognises that it is difficult to get a clear understanding of the origins of coltan and have asked our suppliers to verify in writing that they do not source it from the Democratic Republic of Congo."

"We have minimised our use of the capacitors containing coltan, or tantalum as it is called when used in mobiles," says Althaus. "In a handset, one or two capacitors out of more than 100 would contain coltan which equates to less than 0.4 g of tantalum or about 0.04 per cent of the phone's weight. Not all handsets use it. Tantalum is however used in mobile phone handsets that require superior voice qualities." This includes smartphones which are now hugely popular and in demand.

A statement issued by the AMTA points out that, according to the United States Geological Survey, in 2007 Australia produced more than half of the world's supply of coltan, while Brazil and Canada were also major suppliers of the mineral. Since then, Australian mining company Talison Minerals, which had previously supplied more than 30 per cent of global coltan demand, has mothballed its operation in Western Australia's Pilbara region because it was no longer considered viable. Certainly, the Congo's contribution to global coltan production is relatively small (a little less than one per cent), but the devastation caused by illegal mining is none the less disturbing for that.

Mobile phones are only one of many electronic devices containing coltan. According to the AMTA, tantalum

capacitors are critical components in computer motherboards, computer disc drives, video camcorders and engine control units and are used right across the electronics, chemical and defence industries. Product launches with huge consumer interest, such as that in 2000 of the Sony PlayStation 2, place huge demand on the coltan industry. This example was cited for an increase in price for the powdered mineral, from

$100/kg to $400/kg - resulting in a frenzied increase in coltan mining in Congo.

The electronic age and all the gadgets that go with it are undoubtedly here to stay, but with conservationists and industry experts working towards a common goal of gorilla-friendly electronic devices there is still hope that these remarkable primates can be saved from a future of permanent disconnection.
Story Credit here

Information on the mineral Coltan:
Coltan is the industrial name for columbite–tantalite, a dull black metallic mineral from which the elements niobium (formerly "columbium") and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral is columbite, hence the "col" half of the term. The mineral concentrates dominated by tantalum are referred to as tantalite.[1]

Tantalum from coltan is used to manufacture electronic capacitors, used in consumer electronics products such as cell phones, DVD players, video game systems and computers. Export of coltan from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to European and American markets has been cited by experts[2][3] as helping to finance the present-day conflict in the Congo, with the DanChurchAid agency asserting that “much of the finance sustaining the civil wars in Africa, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is directly connected to coltan profits.”[4] An estimated 6.9 million people have died since 1998 in the war in the Congo[citation needed].
Source of information

Ape Blood is not interchangeable between Ape species or humans

CHICAGO - In April 2005, an adolescent gorilla named Mumbali was dying of a mysterious infection at Lincoln Park Zoo.

In a last-ditch effort to save her life, veterinarians and keepers anesthetized both Mumbali and Kwan, a male gorilla, then laid them side by side to send Kwan's blood directly from his arm into hers.

It was a crude procedure, similar to the way transfusions were once done for humans.

There was little to go on in the veterinary literature, which had nothing about whether gorillas have A-B-O blood groups like humans or whether they needed to have blood matched to their own for a successful transfusion. "It's one of the most basic pieces of knowledge we need for the care of our animals, and it simply wasn't there," ape-keeper Jill Moyse said.

Mumbali died despite the emergency intervention. Afterward, Moyse told her colleagues that the gorilla's death "could only make sense if we can make something good come out of it." Five years later, Moyse and Kathryn Gamble, the zoo's chief veterinarian, have created a new body of literature on great-ape hematology and produced an international registry to record the blood types of captive apes on four continents.

The registry represents all four great-ape species: gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos. In North America, it encompasses nearly every healthy male and female adult of the species that could donate blood if another ape of its species needed a transfusion.

"These are small populations, so emergency calls for blood are pretty rare," said Gamble, who recently published the project's research in the journal Zoo Biology. "But when you need it, you really, desperately need it."

Gamble and Moyse sent out small, chemically coated cards to North American and European zoos and to African and Asian sanctuaries. A small smear of blood on the cards almost instantaneously reveals the ape's blood type. Eventually the cards returned to Chicago from around the world.

The project has verified that ape blood isn't interchangeable between species or humans, she said. It found that bonobos have only type A blood, while orangutans have all four types, A, B, AB and O.

"Gorillas so far are somewhat confusing and frustrating," said Gamble. "Although all of their cards came back as type O, it is clear from genetic evaluation from our collaborators at the University of Chicago that gorillas don't in fact have all the same blood type."

Because chimpanzees are frequently used as stand-ins for humans in medical research, their usual blood type, type A, was already known.

Thomas Meehan, who heads the gorilla species survival plan veterinary board for all North American zoo gorillas, said the project may result in new, lifesaving surgical procedures for apes because the registry allows for blood supplies that "will enable us to utilize more advanced procedures."

Story Credit Here

Ringling Bros. Go away with your cruel pratices with the animals!

Shame on you Dairy Queen. Get some real education on the behind the scenes at this circus!!! What are we teaching our children by bringing them to these circus's? We are teaching them that's it's ok to have animals perform unnatural things and travel from one place to another, never having a "real home". Perhaps the performers like doing this, however do the animals?

Story-
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will bring its sad show to Tampa next week. The circus is “presented locally” by Dairy Queen.
Life in the circus is inherently cruel for animals, who suffer from constant travel, abusive training, and social isolation. In the circus, virtually all of animal’s natural behaviors are thwarted. Ringling Bros. has a long history of abusive treatment of elephants and other animals.

Please contact Dairy Queen and express your disappointment that DQ franchise operators are sponsoring the circus in Tampa. Contact:
Dairy Queen Corporation

Online comment form Here
Phone: (952) 830-0200 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (952) 830-0200 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

ARFF will hold a protest against the circus outside of the St. Pete Times Forum on Wednesday, January 5 (opening night). Visit ARFF’s website for details.
Story Credit here

The laws for exotic animals need to change-Chimpanzees, Monkeys

An Indiana boy and his dog were injured recently by the family's pet monkey-who had been locked in a cage for years because of "aggression"-after he escaped and ran amok. You'd think that after a Connecticut woman's face was ripped off by her friend's pet chimpanzee last year-or after a toddler was strangled to death by her family's python or a Texas teenager was mauled to death by her stepfather's tiger-that lawmakers would step in to put an end to the carnage.

But there's still no federal law prohibiting people from breeding, selling, or acquiring exotic and dangerous animals to keep as pets. Why?

The journey for many of these animals begins in places such as Asia and Africa and in the jungles of Central and South America. Many are imported legally in the billion-dollar-a-year exotic-animal industry. Others are jammed into trunks or suitcases or not infrequently, strapped or taped to the smuggler's body. Such was the case with a Mexican man who was recently caught with 18 dead and dying monkeys stuffed into a girdle.

What few laws and penalties exist hardly dissuade dealers when compared to the kind of money to be made from smuggling: Prices on animals' heads can range from a few thousand dollars for a jungle snake to tens of thousands of dollars for a hyacinth macaw.

Closer to home, countless tigers, primates, and other exotic species are bred specifically to be sold as pets. Babies are removed from their frantic mothers (who sometimes have to be sedated) so that the infants can be acclimated to human contact. Traumatized and terrified, these young animals don't stand a chance of ever living as nature intended. Primates are diapered and often have their canine teeth yanked out. Within weeks, tiger cubs outgrow their ramshackle backyard pens and spend the rest of their lives pacing and yearning for something that they want and need but will never get: their freedom.

Buying an animal on a whim or because one wants to be "different" almost inevitably leads to buyer's remorse. Since dealers market these animals as little more trouble than stuffed toys, most people are inevitably shocked by the responsibility and expense of specialized food, space, and veterinary requirements of exotics. When the novelty wears off and reality sets in, some try to unload their high-maintenance pets at zoos, which are unlikely to accept such animals.

Jack Cover, a curator at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, says, "We'd have to have two or three warehouses to handle the [animals] we get calls on."

Others simply abandon animals in woods, swamps, or along rural roads-but since the animals' wild instincts have been irrevocably corrupted, many starve to death or fall victim to the elements or predators. Some species, such as pythons dumped in the Florida Everglades, thrive and wreck havoc on entire ecosystems.
Too many animals-and in far too many tragic cases, people-pay with their lives in this cruel cycle. The time is long overdue for federal lawmakers to put a stop to it once and for all.

This guest post was written by Lisa Wathne. Lisa is the senior captive exotic animal specialist for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
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How do you feel about animals?- domestic and exotic- Take the survey (chimp)

Hi Readers;
I received a comment this morning asking if I would participate in a survey. I did of course. If you would like your opinion to count please follow the link to the survey at the bottom. I think it's a great idea to have the students do this survey. It is educational in regards to the subject as well as being apart of something important.  They ask your opinions on zoos, experimental labs, circus's, exotics as pets, etc. Surveys are really the only way to see how the public thinks about our animals. Please join in, it only took me a few minutes.
"We are students at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, conducting a survey on attitudes towards animals. Please answer these questions according to your own opinion - there are no "wrong" or "correct" answers."

Your answers will be completely confidential and will only be used for the purposes of the survey.

To take the survey here

Looking for Information on someone?

To find particular information on a person, persons, or organization, type the name into the search box on the top left hand corner of this page.

Activist Group Linked General Mills To Destruction Of Rainforests

An activist group linked General Mills to destruction of rainforests in Southeast Asia in dramatic fashion on Tuesday, when it unfurled a giant banner, reading "Warning: General Mills Destroys Rainforests", outside the company's Minneapolis headquarters building.

The stunt was executed by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), an activist group campaigning to highlight the role that palm oil consumption has in deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Expansion of oil palm plantations over the past twenty years has emerged as one of the biggest threats to the Southeast Asia's rainforests, which house such endangered species as the orangutan, the pygmy elephant of Borneo, and the Sumatran rhino. Palm oil production has also become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, which result from deforestation, degradation and conversion of peatlands, and fires set for plantation establishment.

Photo: Mercury Miller / RAN Photo taken in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) in May 2009 by Rhett Butler. Wetlands International, an NGO, estimates that production of one metric ton of palm oil will result in an average emission of 20 tons of carbon dioxide from peat decomposition alone, not including emissions resulting from production or combustion.

RAN says that at least a hundred General Mills products, including goods sold under Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Stovetop Hamburger Helper and Toaster Strudel brands, contain palm oil or palm oil derivatives. RAN is calling for General Mills to commit to buying only responsibly-sourced palm oil.

"General Mills could do a lot to transform the palm oil supply in the food industry and to protect rainforests, communities and the climate," said Madeline Gardner, Minneapolis-based activist, in a statement. "As an industry leader and a trusted brand, General Mills could have a huge impact in changing the food industry for good."

Unilever, the world's largest corporate buyer of palm oil, has already committed to using only palm oil produced in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Last month the company severed ties with Sinar Mas after an investigation showed that the palm oil producer was clearing rainforests and draining peatlands.

In its campaign, dubbed The Problem with Palm Oil, RAN argues that General Mills and other companies face a risk of consumer backlash if they continues current sourcing policies.

"Palm oil is a leading cause of rainforest destruction in places like Indonesia," said Ashley Schaeffer of Rainforest Action Network. "As long as General Mills is using irresponsibly sourced palm oil, their customers will have to worry that they are contributing money to rainforest destruction."


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Monkey Jungle Closed Early Because Of Cold Weather

Congrat's to them for doing a good thing. I wish all of the Animal restraining facilities would do the same for the health and welfare of the animals.


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MIAMI -- Florida's unusually low temperatures have proven to be a challenge for the region's wildlife.
Large, green iguanas become catatonic in the cold and fall from trees. When the weather warms, they reanimate.
Pythons take refuge from the cold by slithering into dark, dry crevices when the cold becomes unbearable. Saturday's rains might have spoiled that strategy.

Monkey Jungle closed early Saturday. For the first time in at least 30 years, Miami Metrozoo shut its doors because it was too cold.
Farther north, more than 160 cold-stunned turtles were found floating in a lagoon near Titusville. And more than 200 manatees were swimming in heated water outside a Tampa Bay power plant.

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Bridge Development Will Damage Animal Habitats

Balikpapan Bay in East Kalimantan is home to an incredible variety of ecosystems: in the shallow bay waters endangered dugong feed on sea grasses and salt water crocodiles sleep; along the bay proboscis monkeys leap among mangroves thirty meters tall and Irrawaddy dolphins roam; beyond the mangroves lies the Sungai Wain Protection forest; here, the Sunda clouded leopard hunts, sun bears climb into the canopy searching for fruits and nuts, and a reintroduced population of orangutans makes their nests; but this wilderness, along with all of its myriad inhabitants, are threatened by a plan to build a bridge and road connecting the towns of Penajam and Balikpapan.

The bridge, known as Pulau Balang, would span the bay, splicing through Balang Island, cutting off the mangroves from the rainforest, and running the entire length of the western edge of the protected forest. While the direct impacts would be severe—deforestation for the road, splitting the mangrove from the rainforest, damage to the reef—researchers say that providing people easy access to the mangrove and forests will inevitably destroy them.

"The most serious threats are the indirect ones, notably opening an uncontrollable access to the whole area," Stanislav Lhota, a primatologist with the University of South Bohemia, told mongabay.com.

Map showing proposed road and bridge and shorter alternative (larger image at the end of the article). Image courtesy of Stanislav Lhota.

The project "will open access for settlements, farming, illegal logging, more land speculation, subsequent forest fires, poaching of wildlife, illegal logging. In effect it will cause the destruction of the mangrove area and all wildlife there, but also (slow but certain) destruction of the western side of the Sungai Wain forest," Dr. Gabriella Fredriksson says. Fredriksson, an expert on sun bears, has worked on managing and conserving the Sungai Wain Protection Forest for over a decade.

"The destruction of the mangroves will also impact the fragile marine wildlife in the [Balikpapan] bay and fisheries due to destruction of fish breeding areas," adds Dr. Danielle Kreb of the local NGO RASI, who has studied the marine mammals in Balikpapan Bay for several years and noticed that the Irrawaddy dolphins’ core habitat is in the vicinity of Pulau Balang.

Despite the clear environmental impact outlined by conservationists, the provincial and federal governments support the project. Local governments, however, have signalled over the past couple months that they oppose the project, especially since there is an alternative plan that would threaten none of the ecosystems, and in addition provide a far shorter route between Penajam to Balikpapan.

A lost wilderness?

Sungai Wain protected forest. Photo by: Marian Bartos.

If the Pulau Bridge project goes ahead, Balikpapan Bay will be forever changed. The already shallow bay will face erosion and sedimentation from construction work on the surrounding hills, making the bay less accessible for large boats and leading to more frequent flooding of the coastal villages. Species in the bay, such as dugongs, crocodiles, and green sea turtles—already affected by sedimentation—would likely face further impacts from pollution.

The mangroves—an ecosystem that has faced heavy losses worldwide—would be severely impacted as well. The green corridors allowing species to move between the mangrove ecosystem and the Sungai Wain protection forest will be altogether broken.

"Fauna such as proboscis monkeys and many other species cannot survive in long term in mangroves alone," Lhota explains. "They need regular access to the neighboring forest where they find numerous key resources. Mangroves alone are rather inhospitable environment with only limited food sources. If they are isolated from other forests, they may apparently survive but they will gradually turn into a lifeless stand of Rhizophora trees."

The eventual loss of the mangroves also threatens the local fishing trade since fish require the mangrove forest for breeding: the mangrove stand in question is the last place for fish in the bay to breed.

"East Kalimantan only has a small mangrove area left, because much of the mangrove area [has] already [been] converted to shrimp ponds and industry. And on Balikpapan, [this] is [the] last mangrove forest," says Ade Fadli of BEBSiC, a local conservation group.

The road connecting the bridge to Balikpapan would next pass along the western edge of the Sungai Wain forest reserve, the last major stand of dipterocarp trees along the south and central coast. While the direct impact of road building to the forest reserve would likely be minimal, the road would open the reserve to "illegal logging, land clearance, and above all, forest fires," according to Lhota.

A female proboscis monkey. It is estimated that 5 percent of the world's proboscis monkeys are in the mangroves around Balikpapan bay. Photo by: Petr Colas.

Fire is the most significant threat to the forest. While tropical forests rarely burn under natural conditions, human impacts in Indonesia has left a scar of burning across Kalimantan. Sungai Wain contains the last unburnt primary forest in the area; in 1998 devastating fires spilled across the region, but only burnt a part of Sungai Wain.

"The [Sungai Wain] forest, which was burned only once, regenerates well but becomes highly prone to subsequent fires due to the decrease in humidity and huge quantities of highly flammable dead wood," Lhota explains. "If it burns a second time, it can no longer regenerate easily. With the current tendency of governments to consider such forest as 'lost forever', it is likely to be doomed to further encroachment and conversion."

Home to over 100 mammal species and over 250 bird species, the loss of the forest would devastate tropical species, including a population of reintroduced orangutans.

In addition, the forest is as a catchment source of clean water for the state-owned oil company Pertamina, and the Kariangau Baru industrial area. The loss of the forest would endanger the water needs of these industries, which uses it for cooling in refineries and drinking for employees.

The Sungai Wain forest "is the last watershed covered with forest and hence supplying freshwater on an ongoing basis. The water from this reserve has been used for the oil industry and its workers/households (which make up almost 20 percent of the population in Balikpapan) since 1945," Fredriksson explains.

According to Lhota, Balikpapan Bay has huge ecotourism and education potential which has largely gone untapped.

Not much left

Mangroves of Balikpapan bay. Photo by: Petr Slavik.

Road-building causing forest destruction is hardly a new problem: already Kalimantan has several examples in the region. Roads have destroyed the Kutai National Park, the Bukit Soehato Conservation Forest, and the Manggar Protection Forest. These wildernesses have lost nearly all of their primary forest, and most of the parks have been entirely burnt at least once.

The process of slow destruction by human impacts has already begun in Sungai Wain forest, which is threatened by a road being constructed along its southern side.

"There is a lot of illegal logging going on freely along the road, land is being opened fast by felling and burning and first small houses started to appear on the both sides of the road. This is an uncontrollable process," says Lhota. Despite government promises of better monitoring, increased law enforcement, and protections of the forest, "in practice, no protected area along a provincial road in East Kalimantan was able to survive."

A number of species in the area are threatened with extinction worldwide. The bay cat, flat-headed cat, Bornean orangutan, storm's stork, Bornean gibbon, proboscis monkey, and Bornean peacock pheasant are all listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List.

The forest is also home to the white-fronted langur, an elusive primate who was only photographed for the first time in 2005. Most of the existing photographs are from the Sungai Wain forest.

White-fronted lanngur in the Sungai Wain forest. Photo by: Milan Janda.

For Fredriksson, who studies the sun bear, classified as Vulnerable, the project would severely impact the local population she has spent years studying.

"It will isolate even further an already fragile and small population of sun bears, ironically the mascot of the [Balikpapan] district since 2004. It will destroy the home-ranges of several bears, it will further increase poaching of bears (through snares) […]" Fredriksson says. "I would estimate that the population of sun bears will be halved due to this road and will make the population highly prone to much quicker extinction."

Alternative route

This doesn't have to happen. According to conservationists, a simple alternative route exists that would preserve the bay, mangroves, and forest. The alternative would also be a quicker route for the local people to drive between Balikpapan and Penajam. Under the current plan one will have to drive an additional 80 kilometers between Penajam and Balikpapan, which would take longer than simply taking the already-available ferry service. The alternative projects calls for bridge and road to be built at the very southern edge of the bay, completely bypassing the mangroves and the rainforest. Perhaps most important for the politicians, while the alternative plan would cost more upfront, it will prove cheaper in the long run.

Sungai Wain forest. Photo by: Marian Bartos.

"No one has yet attempted to calculate the enormous economical loss due to the environmental damage caused by the Pulau Balang variant and the huge investments which would have to be paid indefinitely by both local governments to fight the resulting environmental disaster," says Lhota.

In addition to environmental costs, the project ignores higher maintenance costs since the road will be built on land-slide prone hills and will be considerably longer than the alternative. The economic cost of local industries losing dependable water source has also not been calculated. While the alternative route is more expensive upfront, in the long-term it will likely prove considerably cheaper compared to the Pulau Balang bridge

A second alternative would be to skip new road building altogether and simply improve the ferry transport between Balikpapan and Penajam while enhancing existing roads.

While the Pulau Balang Bridge project has undergone an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Lhota says the EIA is hardly satisfactory.

"My assistants and I spent one month in the area by voluntarily collecting data to be included in EIA but nothing of it was used. Given the nature of the data, the EIA document overlooks many of the principal threats to the area, such as the threat of fires to the Sungai Wain Protection Forest, the threat of extinction of mangrove fauna due to its isolation from the other forests and many others. […] Furthermore, the EIA document is hardly available (it took me four years to get a copy of it and almost no other conservationists have ever accessed it) and it is practically never consulted […] It is clear that the only purpose for conducting EIA study was to fulfil the legal requirement of having an EIA document and not to evaluate the environmental impact assessment of the project."

Going forward: local versus provincial and federal

The Bornean gibbon is listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List. Photo by: Petr Colas.

Recently, local governments, perceiving the many negative aspects of the project, have stepped away from supporting the Pulau Balang Bridge. Instead they have put their support behind the alternative road that would cause far less environmental harm and be a better option for their communities.

As Ade Fadli explains: "local people only want to get [the] best transportation facilities."

Yet the provincial and federal governments remain staunch supporters, capable of pushing the Pulau Balang Bridge through despite local concerns. Already, funds for the bridge and road have been secured by investors from South Korea.

"The provincial government simply ignores the environmental issues. They claim that there is a need to improve transportation between East and South Kalimantan, which is right, but it does not explain why to select the Pulau Balang Bridge variant of the provincial road in favor of any of the several suggested alternatives," Fredriksson says.

Behind some of the government's support could be corruption: many individuals strand to gain hefty government payouts for land speculation.

Sunset over the mangroves. Photo by: Stanislav Lhota.

"The main reason I can see for wanting to build this specific road route is that it is the longest road (i.e. the biggest project expense) and the largest area available for land speculation, which has been ongoing since the early 1990s when the road was first planned/started to being built. A large number of influential people at both province and local government level have bought land and will see large profits when this road will gets built," Fredriksson says.

"I currently do not know who all bought the land along the proposed provincial road but these people are probably very influential, and, of course, highly motivated stakeholders. Corruption is an integral part of Indonesian culture and local rumors explain some of the government’s decisions in this light," an anonymous source said, adding that, "of course, these rumors cannot be proved."

In the end the building of the road would be another loss in a long list of losses for Indonesian biodiversity and forests. The island nation—which has one of the largest deforestation rates in the world, losing nearly 25 percent of its forest in 15 years—is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States almost entirely due to carbon emissions related to deforestation. In addition, the island of Borneo has lost nearly 50 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, despite increasing understanding of the importance of rainforests for ecological services like carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation, and freshwater catchments.

Despite Indonesia's disturbing history, conservationists hope that this time the provincial and federal governments will come around and see that ensuring the preservation of the forest reserve—not to mention the mangroves and the bay itself—is the best way forward both environmentally and economically.



A few notable species in the area:

Mammals:

Male proboscis monkey. Photo by: Petr Colas.

Endangered:
Bay cat (Pardofelis badia)
Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
Bornean gibbon (Hylobates muelleri)
Flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps)
Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus)


Vulnerable:
Bornean slow loris (Nycticebus menagensis)
Dugong ( Dugong dugon)
Irrawaddy Dolphin ( Orcaella brevirostris)
Marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata)
Pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina)
Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus)
Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi)
Western tarsius (Tarsius bancanus)
White-fronted langur (Presbytis frontata)


Least Concern:
Maroon langur (Presbytis rubicunda)
Leopard cat (Prionailurus benhalensis)
Long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis)
Silvered langur (Trachypithecus cristatus)


Birds:

The Dugong is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Photo by: Julien Willem.

Endangered:
Bornean Peacock Pheasant (Polyplectron schleiermacheri )
Storm's Stork (Ciconia stormi)


Vulnerable:
Blue-headed Pitta (pitta baudii)
Bornean Wren-babbler (Ptilocichla leucogrammica)


Near Threatened:
Bornean Bristlehead ( Pityriasis gymnocephala)
Bornean Ground Cukoo ( Carpococcyx radiceus)


Reptiles/Amphibians:

Endangered:
False gavials, reports of a few surviving individuals (Tomistoma schlegelii)
Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas)


Least Concern:
Saltwater Crocodile ( Crocodylus porosus)





Map of provincial road and bridge, as well as alternative. Image courtesy of Stanislav Lhota.

Source

At Least 45 Diseases Have Been Passed From Animals To Humans

REUTERS

Health workers culling poultry at Shoilpur village near the Indian city of Kolkata. The H5N1 bird flu pandemic spread across the world in 2003 causing widespread panic and has so far killed 260 people

The world is facing a growing threat from new diseases that are jumping the human-animal species barrier as a result of environmental disruption, global warming and the progressive urbanisation of the planet, scientists have warned.

At least 45 diseases that have passed from animals to humans have been reported to UN agencies in the last two decades, with the number expected to escalate in the coming years.

Dramatic changes to the environment are triggering major alterations to human disease patterns on a scale last seen during the industrial revolution. Montira Pongsiri, an environmental health scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, says that previous transitions in

human history have had a devastating impact in terms of the spread of disease.

"We appear to be undergoing a distinct change in global disease ecology. The recent emergence of infectious diseases appears to be driven by globalisation and ecological disruption," Dr Pongsiri said.

He and eight colleagues examined five emerging and re-emerging diseases – malaria, lyme disease (spread by ticks), Hantavirus (spread by mice and rats), West Nile disease (spread by mosquitoes), and schistosomiasis (spread by freshwater snails). They argue that changes in land use, farming practices and climate lie behind the increasing number of outbreaks.

The best known example of a disease that jumped the animal-human barrier and went on to cause a global pandemic is HIV, the virus that causes Aids. HIV is thought to have crossed from chimpanzees to humans in West Africa in the last century and more than 25 million people worldwide have since died from it.

The swine flu pandemic that emerged in Mexico last March also resulted from the mixing of viruses that infected pigs, birds and humans to create a new pandemic strain. Although it turned out to be milder than expected, future flu pandemics are expected in the coming decades that could have higher death rates and infect millions more people.

Dr Pongsiri and colleagues say that the number of people who succumbed to infectious diseases plummeted in the developed world during the industrial revolution, but the rise of manufacturing and pollution levels increased the incidence of chronic diseases including cancer, allergies and birth defects. Now, we are in the grip of another epidemiological transition driven by the destruction of plant and animal habitats, the loss of species and changes that have brought more humans into closer contact with animals than at any stage in human history, they say in the journal Bioscience.

David Murrell, lecturer in ecology at University College London, said: "Since 1940, over 300 new diseases have been identified, 60 per cent of which crossed to humans from animals and 70 per cent of these came from contact with wildlife. I would expect the emergence of new diseases from contact with animals to continue in this century."

A key factor has been increasing urbanisation, which has resulted in humans moving into previously untouched areas where they have come into closer contact with animals. At the same time, globalisation has meant newly emerged diseases have transmitted faster and more widely than in the past. "Before the world became so interconnected, deadly and newly emerged diseases were not capable of spreading widely," Dr Murrell said. "Now it is very possible that they will spread across countries and continents within days, thereby sustaining the outbreak.

"We don't know what's out there or how it might transmit. It is very difficult to predict. At least our government, with swine flu, is taking these things seriously now. The problem is if we deal with a threat successfully it leads to complacency. But these things are potentially serious. I would rather err on the side of caution."

Jan Slingenbergh, of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, said changes in animal farming have altered the circulation of viruses and bacteria including influenza capable of infecting humans. In countries like China, higher demand for poultry meat has led to a massive rise in populations of domestic wildfowl, he told the Emerging Health Threats Forum. In Southern China alone, there are now around 700 million domestic ducks.

In the case of flu, a growing number of viral subtypes have moved from wild animals into farmed and domestic waterfowl, which live in closer contact with humans. A similar expansion in the number of flu strains in pigs has also been seen over the past decade. "At the end of the 1990s, there was just one subtype of swine flu. Now there are three subtypes, each with multiple strains," Dr Slingenbergh added.

The behaviour of these new viruses is unpredictable – scientists don't know how likely they are to jump the species barrier into humans. But with more of them circulating, there is a higher chance of this happening, Dr Slingenbergh said. Flu viruses are getting closer to people and food, and agriculture practices are to blame.

He said: "There is no evidence to suggest this is going to end any time soon. Agriculture looks set to continue growing for another two decades, and we are only at the beginning of climate change."

Viral alert: Diseases that have spread from animals to humans

HIV

The emergence of HIV, the virus that causes Aids, is blamed on human incursion into the forests of West Africa, driven by pressure of population. Rising demand for food led to the growth of the bushmeat trade, and the slaughter of chimpanzees thought to be the animal reservoir for the HIV virus. People who ate chimpanzee meat, or whose blood got into cuts or wounds, were exposed to novel infectious agents providing the ideal breeding ground for the development of the new disease.

Aids is thought to have emerged during the latter half of the last century but was not identified in humans until young gay men began dying of a mysterious illness in San Francisco in the early 1980s. More than 25 million people have since succumbed to the disease.

The 30-year Aids pandemic is evidence of the catastrophic damage a virus can do when it jumps the species barrier from animals to humans. But HIV is not alone. There are many other viruses that have crossed the barrier or spread more widely as a result of changes in ecology and climate, causing death on a wide scale.

Hantavirus

In May 1993, a young, fit Native American in the South-west of the US developed a flu-like illness. He was rushed to hospital in New Mexico, but died very quickly. It was the first recognised case of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a disease marked by high fever, chills and breathing problems, spread by mice and rats. In addition to the pulmonary illness, which kills four out of five people infected, hantaviruses also cause haemorrhagic fever, resulting in widespread internal bleeding. There is no treatment. One estimate suggests there are between 60,000 and 150,000 cases worldwide a year.

Any big increase in mouse numbers, as occurs with urbanisation, increases the risks. The 1993 outbreak in the US followed years of drought, which ended with heavy rainfall. The number of mice multiplied tenfold in a year, increasing the likelihood of their coming into contact with humans. A less severe form of the illness is endemic in northern Sweden, where there are around 4,500 cases a year.

Research has also shown that a proliferation of mouse species, many of which are immune to Hantavirus, lowers the risk of the disease. They compete with the hantavirus-infected mice, reducing their numbers and the risk of infection. Biodiversity in the mouse population thus has a protective effect for humans.

Avian flu

Bird flu could become the 21st century plague. The virus, which has devastated flocks of chickens and ducks in the Far East, poses the greatest potential threat to the human race. Since 2004 it has infected 442 people and claimed 262 lives, a 60 per cent death rate.

Three times in the last century – in 1918, 1957 and 1968 – and again in 2009 influenza has jumped from birds or pigs to humans claiming – in past pandemics – millions of lives.

In the last decade there has been an enormous growth in human and poultry populations in China. Families traditionally occupy the same living space as their birds creating near perfect conditions for the mixing of viruses and their mutation into a strain capable of spreading widely among humans.

Rabies

Rabies is the most lethal disease known with a near 100 per cent fatality rate. It is associated with dogs, but has begun infecting other animals in recent decades thereby increasing the threat to humans. Rabies has been reported in racoons in the US and in Kudu, a species of antelope, in Namibia, southern Africa. In the last year human cases of rabies have been reported for the first time on the holiday island of Bali in Indonesia.

The UN has reported a "notable" increase in the number of countries seeking help to control rabies in dog populations in the last year. Humans can be infected when bitten, and preventing transmission between dogs reduces the risk to people.

Malaria

Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes and is confined largely to the tropical and sub-tropical areas of sub-Saharan Africa, India, Bangladesh, South-east Asia and central America. At least 14 people have caught malaria in Britain in the last 30 years as a result of being bitten by mosquitoes that have been brought in on aircraft.

Malaria causes at least one million deaths and 300 million cases of fever a year. Ninety per cent of deaths occur in Africa, mostly in young children. The most lethal strain, Plasmodium falciparum is spreading into new regions, and drug resistance is growing.

Global warming and changes in plant diversity are expected to extend the geographical presence of the disease to new regions.

West Nile virus

The disease, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, caused panic when it appeared in New York in 1999 and 2000, apparently carried by ships bringing exotic birds into the country for collectors. Central Park was closed and aggressive spraying was carried out to kill the mosquitoes.

More than 50 people were hospitalised in New York, and at least 10 died. In 2002, more than 3,700 cases were recorded across the US.

The disease is often accompanied by a high fever and headache. In the most extreme cases, the virus can cause encephalitis, which results in an irritation and swelling of the brain.

The virus originated in the West Nile district of Uganda in 1937. Outbreaks have since been recorded in Israel, Romania, France, Portugal, Italy, Russia and the US, while sporadic cases and outbreaks in humans and horses have occurred in Europe since the 1960s. Hot and dry weather creates the best breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry the virus and pass it along to people they bite, which is the main route of human infection.

Recent research has linked the disease with a decline in bird species that carry the disease but don't transmit it, becoming dead-end hosts. Changes in land use, through the creation of agricultural land and the loss of bird habitats are thought to increase the incidence of the disease.

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PETA Wants Grant Money for Experiments To Be Given Back

I totally agree with Kathy Guillermo.

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An animal rights group is demanding that the National Institutes of Health take back grant money from the University of Kansas Medical Center.

PETA said in a release Wednesday that it’s making the demand after revelations that the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited KU Med for deficiencies in its Lab Animal Research facilities.

KU Med said Monday that it had spent $700,000 on renovations to the facilities and recruited a Princeton University scientist for a newly created position as executive director of the lab, in response to the USDA inspection.

A KU Med spokeswoman could not comment immediately because she was unaware of the PETA demand.

PETA said in the release that KU Med had been cited for more than 160 violations of federal animal protection laws between August 2008 and June, and it wants the NIH to make KU Med return “thousands of dollars” in federal grant money that was used for the violating experiments. Guidelines for grants from the NIH don’t allow public funds to be used for animal experiments that breach federal regulations, the release said.

“According to USDA inspectors, animals at KUMC were regularly left to suffer from painful illnesses and invasive surgeries without adequate veterinary care, inadequately trained staff members were allowed to handle animals ... and experimenters repeatedly failed to consider modern alternatives to animal use as required by law,” the release said.

Kathy Guillermo, PETA’s director of laboratory investigations, said in the release that public money was being “squandered on crude and cruel experiments that have no relevance to human health.”

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Kudos To PETA For Rescuing 26,000 Animals

It's not often People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is praised. The organization, which advocates vegetarianism, recently helped shut down an exotic pet store in Texas where the animals were poorly handled.

PETA does not dissapoint when it launches a campaign. It appears that the organization specializes in raising controversy, as this summer's Save the Whales campaign demonstrates. PETA is also known for making dramatic statements to get its point across to the public. But this week, PETA is being feted for its diligence, which has resulted in a raid which has shut down an exotic pet import-export business based in Arlington, Texas. PETA has gone undercover before, most recently in November, where the organization exposed a company called Wild Creations and its Frog-O-Spheres, which are sold exclusively through Brookstone in the United States. However, after PETA filed a complaint with police, an investigation did not verify PETA's claims that the frogs were mistreated. The police finding has not deterred PETA from it's campaign against Frog-O-Spheres, which it claims are inhumane because the containers are too small and do not provide shelter for the frogs. But PETA doesn't always get things wrong. After one of its members worked undercover, arming authorities with solid documentation of abuse, the organization is being praised for saving over 26,000 exotic animals from an animal wholesaler delivery outfit. The raid and the rescue of the thousands of animals was largely due to the result of the work of an veterinary technician who worked for U.S. Global Exotics for seven months, documenting the treatment of the animals with photographs, video footage and notes. U.S. Global Exotics, based in Arlington, Texas, was raided on Tuesday. Investigators found starving rodents who were cannibalizing each other, at least 100 dead animals and found that the company had not provided appropriate housing for the thousands of animals it kept. It has been reported that thousands of the animals animals were dying, although this has not yet been verified by authorites. A wide range of animals were found at the Arlington premises. Arachnids, reptiles, crustaceans and mammals were found, from spiders to sloths. Documents and computers were also seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department. It is not known how many animals had to be euthenized. One New Zealand man was arrested in conjunction with the raid on U.S. Global Exotics. Jasen Shaw is the President and founder of U.S. Global Exotics. The company is co-owned by Vanessa Shaw, who is married to Jasen Shaw. U.S. Global Exotics bought and sold exotic animals, shipping the creatures all around the world. A number of businesses are established in North America buying and selling exotic animal species. U.S. Global Exotics shut down its website after the raid. The seizure is the largest in U.S. history. Three agencies are working together to care for the animals: SPCA of Texas, Arlington Animal Services and the Humane Society of North Texas. The seizure comes at a time when animal shelters have higher numbers of animals to care for. Peta advocates against purchasing exotic animals as pets, saying the practice is harmful to the animals.

Source, Video and Photograph

A List of Exotic Animal Owners Fighting To Keep Their Rights To Own Them

What about the rights of the animals as far as, but not limited to: The ability to live with their own kind The ability to act upon their own characteristics, and behaviour The ability to do the natural things they would do if not in captivity The ability to be free from harm, abuse, solitaire, disease, and sickness The ability to raise their own families Petition- Petition Against CDC, USDA and FDA Exotic Animal Ban

714 Signatures

Published by Ken Walker on Feb 02, 2004

Category: Animal Rights

Region: United States of America

Target: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Web site: http://shorttailedopossum.tripod.com

Background (Preamble):

We, the undersigned, petition the President of the United States George W. Bush, and the agencies of Food and Drug Administrations

, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We the people disagree and protest the Food and Drug Administration ruling, (21 CFR Parts 16 and 1240 [Docket No. 2003N-0400] RIN 0910-ZA21). Also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (42 CFR Part 71).

We feel that these two agencies are using their power to halt the trade of exotic animals, foreign and domestic, for personal biased reasons. They are destroying the rights of all pet owners as well as the market for pet food, pet products as well as the pet trade it self.

Neither agency has publicly announced or invited professionals from these trades to help in establishing guidelines, restrictions, and or quarantine possibilities.

No one disputes the importance of protecting the American people from possible epidemics. Neither agency has thought of the consequences of destroying a viable trade to the American people.

With our world growing smaller each and every day, it is of the utmost importance that not only we learn to co-exist with all animals, but invite these animals into our lives to preserve their existence.

We the under signers believe the FDA and CDC can accomplish their task with restrictions, not complete termination of a trade.

Monkeypox is terrible, as is the Flu, and it can be prevented through restrictions and monitoring. We request that these rules not be allowed into the Register and these agencies seek professional assistance from the trade they are out to destroy. Also that they advertise in publications that pertain to the business in which they seek to regulate. We proudly sign this petition with our name, address and phone numbers as to certify our signatures and for future contact pertaining to this matter:

Petition:
Source

Petition Against CDC, USDA and FDA Exotic Animal Ban

Published by Ken Walker on Feb 02, 2004

Public Signature List

Signatures 194 to 155 of 714

Petition Against CDC, USDA and FDA Exotic Animal Ban Published by Ken Walker on Feb 02, 2004 Public Signature List Signatures 194 to 155 of 714 # Title Name 194 Miss Karine MILLER 193 Miss Aude MILLET 192 Miss Cheyenne MARTIN 191 Ms Penni CAMPELL 190 N/G Lynette Joyce 189 N/G Natasha Euliss 188 N/G Ryan Mahler 187 N/G Terri O"Hara 186 N/G Terry Carlton 185 N/G Roger Curry 184 N/G catherine montgomery 183 N/G Fran Page 182 N/G Brenda Brenkel 181 MR. JESSE GENTRY 180 Mrs Wilma Smith 179 N/G Maria Wheems 178 MS. SUSAN CANNON 177 N/G Kristen White 176 N/G Brad Withenshaw 175 N/G Angela Romero 174 N/G Ann Powell 173 N/G Medina McKellar 172 N/G Gladyas Thoma 171 N/G Jan Callaway 170 Ms. Donna Shannon 169 N/G Michael O"Hara 168 N/G April Rhodes 167 MRS Renee McMullen 166 Mr. Ed Strommen 165 Mr. Joel Charbonneau 164 Ms Jessica Charbonneau 163 Mr. Dennis Charbonneau 162 N/G Anita Larsen 161 Mr. Tony Esposito 160 Mr. Jerry Schultz 159 Mr. David Matuszewski 158 Mrs. Christy Matuszewski 157 Ms Gini Valbuena 156 Ms Nicki Richter 155 mrs karen racca

Source and 13 more pages of signatures