Welcome to the latest edition of the ACE e-newsletter!

The e-newsletter is sent in addition to our snail-mail bulletin and features different campaigns, those which are predominantly e-based or are on a strict time limit. If you are interested in receiving our snail mail bulletin, let us have your name and address (UK only - sorry) and we'll add you to our mailing list.
 
Please note: The information reproduced in our e-newsletters is done so in good faith on the understanding that the originators have checked the validity of the content before posting. Nothing in this email newsletter is intended to encourage illegal action in whatever country you are reading it in.
 
We have included some telephone and fax numbers with some of the alerts, please remember to add international dialling codes where necessary.
Important: To make sure you continue to receive further emails from Animal Campaign Express, please add a.c.e@cooptel.net   and campaigns@loftmail.com to your email Address Book. If you use a spam filter program, please assign these addresses a status of “safe” or “trusted.” If you have an AOL, Hotmail, MSN or Yahoo email address, this is particularly important as we receive many “bounce backs” from these email addresses.
 
Many thanks to all those who continue to keep in touch and welcome to those who receive this for the first time.

Please support urgent animal protection political initiatives

EDM 1411 - TESTING OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS ON ANIMALS

One of our main ambitions with our PAD initiative is to campaign in harmony with other animal protection organisations to maximise our impact for animals. So we're working with the BUAV to promote EDM 1411, which calls on the Government to stop granting licences for harmful experiments on animals to investigate the effects of recreational drugs. This is the text of EDM 1411:

"That this House notes that since 1997 there have been nearly 200 published studies into the harmful effects on animals of recreational drugs, such as ecstasy (MDMA), cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines; is concerned that these studies included animals being subjected to lethal doses, electric shocks, loud noise, repeated abdominal injections and brain surgery; is further concerned that much of this animal research duplicates findings obtained from human studies; further notes that much of the animal research is funded through Government support for universities or Medical Research Council grants and centres; calls for the Government to stop granting licences for harmful experiments on animals to investigate the effects of recreational drugs; and urges the Government to reallocate funding to safe and ethical volunteer studies in humans, improving drug rehabilitation facilities and those individuals struggling with their addictions, providing information resources to prevent drug abuse and supporting facilities for families living with the consequences of drug abuse."

Click here to go to our unique Protecting Animals in Democracy website for more information about EDM 1411 and to easily lobby your MP to support this motion.

E-PETITIONS TO THE PRIME MINISTER

We're also really glad to help promote two of the current e-petitions on the 10 Downing Street website.

The most urgent one calls for 'the Prime Minister to Ban the sale of all battery farmed eggs', and thus follows up on one of the animal protection issues PAD thrust onto the 2005 General Election agenda. The deadline for this e-petition is 18 June 2007, so please make it a priority to go and sign this petition and forward details to your email contacts.

The other petition also progresses a fundamental aspect of the PAD political agenda by calling for: 'the Prime Minister to recognise, in law, rights, appropriate to the interests of non-human animals. Furthermore, to prohibit the rights of non-human animals being violated'. Click here to sign this petition.

Best wishes

Dr Dan Lyons
9 Bailey Lane, Sheffield, S1 4EG
<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = SKYPE /> 0114 2722220


CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE TORO DE CORIA

Every year between the 26th and 29th of June in Coria, Extremadura, arguably the most backwards region of Spain when it comes to animal issues, a hapless bull is horribly tortured to death by the rabble. He is made to walk for hours while being tortured with darts, directed especially to his eyes and other delicate parts, until he gets so tired from the stress, the pain and the blood loss that he lays down to rest and that is when the barbarians fall on him and cut his testicles while he is still alive. No-one that has a minimum of sensitivity or conscience can understand what moves humans to do things like this but they do, and it happens all over Spain and also in parts of Mexico, Brazil...while the authorities at best ignore it, at worst declare it of "cultural interest" and promote it! Most of these events are dedicated to saints from the Catholic church (Saint John for the Toros de Coria)


1) Please send your protest to:

informacion@coria.org; informacion@dip-caceres.es ; info@juntaex.es; jlrzapatero@presidencia.gob.es; edigitales@hoy.es

Sample message: No visitaremos su región mientras no cesen las barbaridades primitivas contra los animales como el Toro de Coria.  Extremadura y España en general deben entrar en el siglo XXI y en la UE de una vez.  (Sign and write your country's name)
Translation: We will not visit your region until the primitive barbaric fiestas stop. Extremadura and Spain in general must enter the XXI century and the EU once and for all.

Please also send protest letters to the following authorities. You can also send a postcard available at our website.
http://www.iwab.org/ongoingcampaigns.html

Tourism
Avd. Extremadura, 39
10800 Coria
Caceres
Spain
Email: turismo@coria.org

Diputacion Provincial de Caceres
Plaza de Santa Maria, s/n
10071 Caceres
Spain
Fax + 34 927255471
Email: presidencia@dip-caceres.es

2) Send the photos attached to the Spanish embassy in your country with your letter of protest against the blood "fiestas" (in your own language is OK) http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Spain

In memory of Vicky Moore from FAACE

WWW.BRIGHTEYES.DK

Stop Philip Morris from Building New Vivisection Facility - Please forward internationally

For more information see: http://www.smokinganimals.com/facts.html

Philip Morris has announced its plans to build a 450,000-square-foot research and development facility in Richmond, Virginia, that appears to include an expanded animal research centre.

According to undisclosed sources, the design plans for the facility contain rooms labelled "Primate Room 1" and "Primate Room 2." What makes this discovery even more dismaying is the fact that Philip Morris has been linked with Covance Laboratories, where a recent PETA undercover investigator videotaped employees abusing monkeys.

For decades, tobacco companies such as Philip Morris have used animal experiments to mislead people into believing that smoking was safe. This is particularly misguided because animals do not develop cancer in the same way that humans do. Now Philip Morris plans to expand its research into further attempts to fool the public into believing that smoking its cigarettes can be less harmful.

Dogs, rats, monkeys, and rabbits are hooked up to machines and forced to inhale cigarette smoke in vain attempts to prove that cigarettes are safe. Oftentimes researchers use pregnant animals to determine how smoking affects newborns - despite the abundance of evidence proving that it causes harm.

In one recent study, pregnant rhesus monkeys were hooked up to mechanized pumps and forced to ingest nicotine for more than three months. The monkeys' foetuses were then surgically removed before reaching full term and killed so that their lungs could be dissected and examined.

Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder (who signed the Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act while he was governor of Virginia) has revealed that the city gave Philip Morris several acres of city property assessed at $3.2 million, along with a 10-year abatement in property taxes, for the facility. PETA wrote a letter to Mayor Wilder urging him to withdraw the city's financial commitment to the project unless Philip Morris provides assurances that no animal experimentation will take place at the facility.

Until smoking really is history, Philip Morris will do anything it can to make sure that its bottom line is healthy - but it continues to do so at the expense of animals. There are numerous alternatives to animal research, including clinical trials and epidemiological studies using volunteers who smoke.

Please contact Michael Szymanczyk, chair and CEO of Philip Morris USA, and tell him that Philip Morris must stop conducting laboratory experiments on animals:

Michael Szymanczyk, Chair and CEO
Philip Morris USA
6601 W. Broad St.
Richmond, VA 23230
804-274-2000
1-800-343-0975

You can also send a comment online at:
http://pmusa.com/en/contact_us/contact_us_by_email.asp?action=init
web email, non-USA residents:
http://www.philipmorrisinternational.com/pmintl/pages/eng/default.asp

Sample Letter:
Dear Mr. Szymanczyk,

As someone who supports viable medical research, I respectfully ask Philip Morris to no longer fund or conduct misleading laboratory experiments on animals.

Please advocate more cost-effective, expedient non-animal systems. Options range from clinical trials and epidemiological studies with volunteer smokers...to in vitro cell and tissue culture analysis, human brain mapping technologies, autopsy/biopsy studies, videos and mathematical modelling, virtual organs and 3-D models, advanced MRI imaging...and a multitude of other non-animal tools.

I am disheartened to learn about construction plans for a 450,000-square-foot research/development facility in Richmond, Virginia that includes an expanded animal research centre. Apparently, design layouts contain rooms labelled "Primate Room 1" and "Primate Room 2." Why? Researchers have long known animals do not develop cancer in the same manner as humans. In fact, evidence shows far too many physiological, cellular, genetic and psychological variations between species for accurate and predictive extrapolation to humans.

I actually thought the old-fashioned method of encasing monkeys, dogs, rats or rabbits in smoke inhalation devices had been discarded. I was surprised to find out about a recent study that hooked pregnant rhesus monkeys to mechanized pumps and forced them to ingest nicotine over three or more months. Researchers surgically aborted and killed the monkeys' foetuses for further "analysis."

It is fundamentally futile and redundant to inject animals with nicotine or pollute their lungs in an attempt to extract data pertinent to human adults and newborns. We already know smoking triggers cancer of the lungs, larynx, tongue, salivary glands, mouth, pharynx, and oesophagus; promotes cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and strokes; harms foetuses; causes pulmonary illness and death; compromises the immune system; and is very addictive.

Moreover, animals don't naturally encounter tobacco or become addicted to it. Human epidemiological and clinical studies -- not animal experiments -- have revealed all applicable information about smoking-related diseases in people.

Tobacco product manufacturers are not required under U.S. federal law to perform animal tests and Britain has outlawed smoking experiments on animals since 1997. There is no justification for immobilizing animals in metal smoke "masks" and body containers for these indisputably cruel tests.

I strongly encourage Philip Morris to conduct its research without the animal component. Substance testing in animals does not advance science. It wastes time and resources better spent on education and addiction treatment programs.

Thank you for your attention to this vital matter,

US only

Support the Polar Bear Protection Act

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/FED_2007_polar_bear_trophy/einxus493wwmwx?
Humane Society of the United States, humanesociety@hsus.org

To identify your federal legislators and find contact info, try:
Congress.org - http://www.Congress.org
USA Senate - http://www.senate.gov
USA House of Representatives - http://www.house.gov
Congressional Switchboard - 202-224-3121

The Honourable Representative _________________________________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honourable Senators ____________________&_________________
The U.S. Senate, U.S. Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senators __________________&________________  and

Representative _______________________________:

As a registered voter in your district, I advocate passage of the Polar Bear Protection Act (S. 1406/H.R. 2327). If you have not yet co-sponsored this bill, please review its content and become a co-sponsor.

You are likely aware of the polar bear's uncertain fate, due to melting Arctic ice and loss of habitat. In addition, trophy hunters threaten polar bear numbers. Since 1994, prize hunters have ferried polar bear hides and heads from the Canadian Arctic into the U.S. That same year, polar bear imports were exempted from language in the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act that classified polar bears a protected species.

Now, more than ever, a ban on importation of polar bear goods needs to be reinstated. The Polar Bear Protection Act prohibits importation of heads and hides, further shielding these magnificent animals from American trophy hunters.

While solutions for climate change require long-term input from citizens and governments -- you can help endangered polar bears right now by supporting
S. 1406/H.R. 2327.

Thank you,

UK Only

We need as much evidence as possible to highlight the poor conditions pet shops are keeping tortoises in prior to their sale. If anyone has video evidence or photographs would they kindly e-mail these to us with details of the pet shops in question? Please help.

contactus@tortoise-protection-group.org.uk

Ministers are poised to lift a 10-year ban on badger culling and allow large-scale kills across the countryside.

David Miliband, the environment secretary, will endorse an independent study to be published next week that concludes large-scale culling would help stem the spread of tuberculosis in cattle.

A moratorium on cull licences has been in place since 1998, but ministers and government advisers feel that they can no longer ignore the rapid spread of the disease along the "cattle belt", which runs from Cornwall, up the west of the country, to Cheshire. There were almost 800 suspected outbreaks in the first two months of this year.

Miliband sent a letter to cabinet colleagues last week in which he admitted the policy will be highly controversial - a government consultation has shown that 95% of the public are against badger culling - and that he expects there to be a legal challenge from animal rights activists.

His letter comes as the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG), which has been conducting random trials on the effectiveness of local culls in stemming the spread of the disease, prepares to publish its final report on June 15.

It will suggest that large-scale culling, involving many farmers, "could be beneficial", although "organisationally challenging and [would] involve significant cost to the farming industry".

Miliband noted that bovine TB is a serious problem for the farming industry, although its impact is felt primarily in the southwest of England, the West Midlands and Wales. Each year it costs the taxpayer £100m, a large part of which goes in compensation payments to farmers.

"In areas where bovine TB is endemic, it is clear that badgers play a key role in transmitting disease," Miliband wrote.

Badgers have statutory protection but they are not endangered and evidence suggests there has been a large increase in numbers over the past 20 years.

The moratorium has been in place for almost 10 years while the ISG conducted "randomised" trials. Its final report will say that in areas where culling took place there was a 23% reduction in the number of herds with a confirmed new TB case. In a 2km (1¼mile) ring outside the culling area there was a 25% increase in herds contracting the disease.

"The results show that coordinated, efficient culling over areas larger [than 100 sq km] could be beneficial if sustained for a number of years,"

Support the campaigns to Save Our Badgers:

Care for the Wild International - Badger Campaign
http://www.careforthewild.org/appeals.asp?detail=true&I_ID=430&section=Badgers

Animal Aid - Badger Campaign
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/f/ACTIVE/petition/?id=6&campaign=wildlife

Black and White - Badger campaign
http://www.blackandwhite.info/

RSPCA - Badger campaign
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RSPCA/RSPCARedirect&pg=badgers

Please take action today and lobby your MP. You could write a letter, send an email, or speak to your MP to ask them to support our campaign by signing up to an Early Day Motion  EDM no. 1788

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=30247&SESSION=875

Find your MP
http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/

Further dolphin captures in the Solomon Islands

Marine Connection has been alerted to the capture of 20 dolphins in the Solomon Islands. Following another illegal dolphin capture in 2003 where several of the animals were exported to a captive facility Mexico, a ban was put in place by the Solomon Islands Government; however it appears this ban covers only the export of dolphins from the islands and does not include captures destined for the local market. The charity needs only five minutes of your time to help release the recently captured dolphins. Please click onto the below link and email the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands expressing your concern that these captures have been allowed to proceed despite the ban, and urge the Solomon Islands government to demand the immediate release of the captured dolphins.

http://www.marineconnection.org/news/general/captivity_SI_captures_June07.htm

Amazon.com is being targeted by activists for its continued sale of two cockfighting magazines, The Gamecock and The Feathered Warrior. According to The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which sued Amazon.com and the publishers of these magazines on February 8, 2007 for violating federal law, Amazon.com is the only outlet for cockfighters to buy and sell subscriptions over the Internet. The law being violated is the federal Animal Welfare Act which has a provision banning the interstate shipment of fighting birds. Amazon calls what it's doing free speech, but HSUS argues that the First Amendment does not protect a company's right to solicit illegal behaviour and peddle contraband. Amazon does not sell magazines that advertise the sale of narcotics, child pornography, or other illegal materials. The same standard should apply to all staged animal fighting publications including cockfighting
magazines.

What Can I Do?

Please tell Amazon you do not support the sale of cockfighting magazines and ask your friends and family to do the same. Tell Amazon you will not buy books or other merchandise from Amazon.com - and mean it! - until the company stops promoting cockfighting and violating federal law. (United Poultry Concerns has made this commitment to boycott Amazon.) Request a written response to your concerns.

Jeffrey P. Bezos, President & CEO
Amazon.com, Inc.
1200 12th Avenue South, Suite 1200
Seattle, WA 98144-2734
Jeffrey@amazon.com
Community_help@amazon.com

Phone: 800-201-7575 (press 7 when prompted. This number, though intended for transaction problems like shipping, is the only phone number available). You can also go to the Amazon.com website and try to outwit the website's obstacles to protest communications.

For more information about cockfighting visit:
www.upc-online.org/cockfighting/

The European REACH regulations on chemical substances came into force in early June. The fact that the authorities are at last concerning themselves with safeguarding human health and the environment is an excellent thing. But does REACH really give itself the means to fulfil this objective?

Industrialists are denouncing a system that is too costly and the lack of competent toxicologists. The danger to human health of toxicity tests whose reliability has not been proved, carried out on animals and liable therefore to allay the mistrust of users and allow the sale of products that are in reality very toxic for human beings, should also be denounced.

Yet an effective, modern and far less costly REACH is possible. Toxicogenomics, a method introduced by the European Parliament and quoted in the preamble to the regulations, would, if implemented, allow the principal objections to REACH to be overcome:
- it produces reliable predictions of the toxicity of substances for humans and can be a rapid screen for identifying the most dangerous substances;
- it produces results rapidly:  in two years, it would be possible for a properly equipped laboratory to test the 100,000 chemical substances identified by the European Commission, of which it is foreseen that REACH will test only 30,000;
- it is economical, which should allow the European Union to acquire a laboratory capable of carrying out the tests, thus sparing the small and medium-sized firms that fear for their very survival because of the financial cost of REACH;
- it would calm the anger of animal defence organisations (which have inundated members of the European Parliament with petitions during the REACH proceedings), since this method is not based on the use of animals, contrary to a number of tests currently required.

Why are the authorities delaying the implementation of truly scientific methods when a responsible scientist on the European Commission has declared that toxicological testing on animals was quite "simply bad science"? If toxicologists are to be trained, will it be to apply the modern methods already used in the United States and Japan, or those of the nineteenth century? The latter, currently used for pre-clinical testing of medicines, did not stop six people narrowly escaping death in March 2006, nor has it prevented thousands of human beings dying in France each year due to the secondary effects of medicines despite the fact that these had all been tested on animals. Toxicogenomic tests carried out by a public body, and unfalsifiable, would also put an end to a situation in which the manufacturer is judge in his own case, since at the present time it is he who supplies the results of tests on his own substances!

Antidote Europe is a non-profit-making association created by researchers from the CNRS and working for better prevention in the field of human health.

Contact : Claude Reiss ( 33 (0)1 60 12 14 54 ) ; Helen Sarraseca ( 33 (0)1 68 80 53 32 )
http://www.antidote-europe.org

Green Fair at York Racecourse

The following company is holding the "Goddess Show North" at York Racecourse on Sunday 2nd Sept from 10am - 5pm:

Boktalo Promotions, PO Box 171, Hailsham, BN27 9AA.
Tel: 01323 844 615
Email: crafts@boktalo.co.uk
Website: boktalo.co.uk


Please politely contact them and ask them why they are promoting the show has "the most gorgeous show of the year", green and fairtrade - when horse racing is a cruel sport.

Please contact Eva at SCOOBY  info@scoobymedina.com if you can offer emergency assistance.

I wish to bring to your attention the Scooby news page. "The dogs that nobody wants".  If you haven't seen it yet, please go and read the update and also watch the videos. The update is a very emotional update from Maria Jose regarding the males at Scooby. There are too many at the shelter and the time is coming for Maria Jose and Fermin to have to make the difficult decision about what to do with all of these dogs. Please spread the word about the situation at the shelter... these dogs are wonderful and no different than the females. The only difference is that some of them may be larger in size... but of course, we all known how wonderful the galgo is at curling up into a small ball and sitting on the smallest corner of the couch. They have wonderful personalities and they are so beautiful. I know you all know this... now we just have to tell everyone else!

In addition, we have many mix dogs that are still looking for homes.   If there are any groups that you know that can take some of these dogs, please tell us.

One dog that I want to bring to your immediate attention is Cruz, a galgo mix. He is on the website and he is a wonderful dog. He has been at Scooby for at least three years.  I know this for sure, because the first time I saw him was in 2004.  He is the most beautiful boy and the best is that he is cat friendly - I personally tested him and he didn't want anything to do with cats... I think he was actually more scared of them, than they were of him.

Please have a look at the news update and let me know if you can take any of our wonderful males and mix dogs.
New Graceland has already emailed me offering to take some males. So we are very thankful.
Please, if you have the room or the foster homes, consider the boys of Scooby.  They need us now more than ever.
Please click on this link, volume up-
http://www.scoobymedina.com/home_en.htm

Thanks,
Eva

Political activism
You can help Animals Count by writing to your MP or MEP on animal issues.
Below are the most recent EDMs and Written Declarations (EP equivalent of EDM).

http://www.animalscount.co.uk/elections.html

They include foie gras petitions, captive animals, animal experiments and many many more .
Please sign the online petitions and campaigns.

Veganen Sommerfest

Der Veganmania Tour 2007:
23.6. Linz / Taubenmarkt
30.6. Graz / Umweltfest Graz / Platz vor dem Eisernen Tor

Austrian Vegan Festivals, more information from:
http://www.vegan.at/newsundinfo/newsscript/NUs.php?pageNum_RSnews=0&id=48&View=Alle%20Newsbeitr%E4ge

The Doris Banham Trust is urgently looking for:
 
   -    Temporary foster homes for dogs rescued from local pounds
 
   -     Drivers willing to transport rescued dogs to sanctuaries and dogs' homes
 
   -     Permanent homes for rescue dogs
 
   -     Donations towards the work of the Trust,  which rescued 1049 dogs last year.
 
To help locally, please ring Annabel on 01347 - 888684
 
To make a donation please contact www.dogsos.co.uk

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "feed an animal in need" for free.  It's in a purple box in the middle of the page. This doesn't cost you a thing.  Their corporate sponsors/advertiser s use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in
exchange for advertising. Here's the web site!   Please pass it along to people you know!

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com

Marion & Mark from FRIEND animal rescue need a computer, since the police stole theirs at the beginning of May. If anyone can help, please contact them directly on: 01622 871617 . For more information about FRIEND Animal Rescue visit: http://wwwfriendsanimalrescue.org.uk
 

Many thanks for your continued support. Our e-newsletters can now also be viewed on-line at www.anthony-dacko.net, Anthony puts them in the 'Latest News' section of his excellent site.

Until next time...

For the animals.....ACE