Our thanks to Michael Markarian, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, for permission to republish his article on the federal government’s plan to send more than 200 victims of animal experimentation in its custody to a private laboratory for additional torture.

At a time when the federal government is criticized for fiscally wasteful programs, it’s shocking that the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health has come up with a new one: a plan to transfer 202 federally-owned chimpanzees from Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in Texas. These chimps have been warehoused for years in New Mexico at taxpayer expense, and once in Texas, they will be made readily available for invasive research. Fifteen of the chimpanzees have already been transferred—their names yet unknown.

There has been an outpouring of opposition to this transfer, including from policymakers and opinion leaders. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has called on the NIH to halt the transfer and to instead permanently retire the chimpanzees in New Mexico, including the 15 who have already been sent to Texas. The governor said, “There is a compassionate and prudent alternative to the National Center for Research Resources’ plan and I feel strongly that we must save the chimpanzees.” […]

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The manatee, that ancient sirenian, has lived in the waters of this planet for 25 million years. Its time may well be drawing to a close—the fate of its close relative, the Steller’s sea cow, extending to embrace the whole of this peaceful, blameless tribe of animals.

Gentle giants of tropical waters, the world’s three manatee species—the Florida manatee, Amazonian manatee, and West African manatee—have been poorly served by some of their characteristics. (The same is true for the fourth surviving sirenian species, the dugong, a cousin of the manatee.) For one thing, they reproduce slowly, meaning that they do not easily replace themselves, and there are not so many of them to begin with. Reliable figures are hard to come by, but in 2003 a synoptic survey recorded 3,113 Florida (more accurately, West Indian) manatees in Florida waters. […]

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Our thanks to David Cassuto of Animal Blawg (”Transcending Speciesism Since October 2008″) for permission to republish this piece. For background see Advocacy’s October 2009 article From Awe to Awesome and Back: Advocating for Canada Geese. A few days ago, agents of the U.S. Department of Agriculture descended on Prospect Park in Brooklyn where they rounded up 400 Canada geese and gassed them to death. The geese were molting and so could not fly. The reason for this mass killing was ostensibly airport safety. You see, Prospect Park lies 6.5 miles from La Guardia and Kennedy airports and the rules say that all geese within 7 miles of an airport must be killed.

The word “arbitrary” comes to mind. So does “inane” and a few others. The goose kills began as a reaction to the narrowly averted tragedy of US Air flight 1549 which made an emergency landing in the Hudson River last January after some geese apparently flew into its engines. However, the geese that flew into that plane were migratory birds. They were not year-round residents like those that lived in Prospect Park. There is no evidence to suggest that those non-migratory birds posed any threat to air travel. Nor for that matter is there any evidence to suggest that the 1,235 other geese so far rounded up and killed were dangerous either. […]

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Each week the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) sends to subscribers email alerts called “Take Action Thursday,” which tell them about actions they can take to help animals. NAVS is a national, not-for-profit educational organization incorporated in the State of Illinois. NAVS promotes greater compassion, respect and justice for animals through educational programs based on respected ethical and scientific theory and supported by extensive documentation of the cruelty and waste of vivisection. You can register to receive these action alerts and more at the NAVS Web site. This week’s “Take Action Thursday” follows the progress of a proposed federal crush video law and state debarking legislation and takes a look at a court ruling on the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. […]

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