Sea Shepherd: The Whalers Head Home!

Sea Shepherd :: The Whalers Head Home!

March 8, 2012

The Whalers Head Home!

The Bob Barker making its way through the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Photo: Sam SielenThe Japanese Whaling Fleet Leaves the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary

Operation Divine Wind is over! The Japanese whalers are going home!

The Japanese whaling fleet has left the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and they are heading home.  “Once Captain Peter Hammerstedt and his crew on the Bob Barker closed in on theNisshin Maru on March 5th, the whaling season was effectively over for the season,” said Captain Paul Watson on the Sea Shepherd flagship Steve Irwin recently returned and now berthed in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia.

Since March 1st, the Bob Barker has followed the Nisshin Maru as they headed steadily northwestward. The Japanese harpoon vessels have stopped tailing the Bob Barker. The fleet has left the waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, according to Captain Peter Hammarstedt. The Japanese government security vessel, Shonan Maru #2, has been spotted by fishing vessels at thirty degrees South, which is due east of Brisbane, Australia indicating that the vessel is well on its way back to Japan.

A Minke Whale swims freely, as it should, in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Photo: Billy DangerIt has been a long and difficult campaign and although handicapped by the temporary loss of the scout vessel theBrigitte Bardot, the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker were able to chase the Japanese whaling fleet for more than 17,000 miles, giving them little time to kill whales. In addition, two of the three harpoon vessels spent more time tailing the two Sea Shepherd ships than killing whales.

“The kill figures will not be released by Japan until April, but in my opinion they will not get over 50% for certain and my prediction is it will not be above 30%. Not as good as last season, but much better than all the previous years.”  Said Captain Paul Watson. “It has been a successful campaign. There are hundreds of whales swimming free in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary that would now be dead if we had not been down there for the last three months. That makes us very happy indeed."

The Bob Barker will return to Hobart, Tasmania, the Brigitte Bardot is completing repairs in Fremantle, and theSteve Irwin is now berthed in Williamstown.

In December 2012, if the Japanese whaling fleet returns to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will launch Operation Cetacean Justice with four ships, two helicopters, four UAV (drones), and 120 volunteers.

“If the Japanese whalers return, Sea Shepherd will return. We are committed to the defense of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.” Said Captain Paul Watson. “No matter how long it takes, no matter how risky or expensive. The word “sanctuary” actually means something to us and that something is worth fighting for.”

The frigid Antarctic waters begin to freeze as the Bob Barker heads home. Photo: Carolina A. Castro

Visit our  Operation Divine Wind site for information about our 2011-12 Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign All Contents Copyright © 2012 Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Wayne State University’s Inhumane Dog Experiments: Queenie’s Story PCRM obtained shelter and veterinary records through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act for Queenie, a Dalmatian mix who was used in one of the experiments conducted at Wayne State University. These records show that Queenie suffered immensely. Queenie was found stray in early 2009 by residents of Gratiot County, Mich., who kept her for weeks before surrendering her to the Gratiot County Animal Shelter on June 15, 2009. After 10 days at the shelter, she was transferred to R&R Research, a Class B “random source” animal dealer. Queenie was sold to Wayne State University, and veterinary staff noted that she was “curious, gentle, [and] friendly” when she arrived on Sept. 16, 2009. Lab personnel renamed her “Lafayette,” and she was assigned to the experiment “Integrative Cardiovascular Control During Exercise in Hypertension.” She began treadmill training on Sept. 23, when she was noted to be “distressed. Queenie remained “spooky” during her presurgery treadmill training, even jumping off the treadmill when one of the experimenters entered the room. She had to be given a bath on Oct. 15 because she had “fecal material all down [her] left side.” Her training continued until Dec. 1, when she had a left thoracotomy—a major surgery in which her chest was opened to implant devices in her heart. After surgery, Queenie had to wear a jacket, t-shirt, and cervical collar so she would not pull at her stitches or at the foreign objects now in her body. Her face and paws were swollen, she was “whining [and] vocalizing a bit,” and she vomited immediately after being placed in her cage. By Dec. 8, she was back on the treadmill. As Queenie healed from her first surgery, she experienced irritation, scabbing, leaking fluids, and other ill effects. She seemed “agitated,” “intent on cleaning feces from [her] rear,” and was “whining for attention.” On Dec. 15, she underwent another procedure—this time, experimenters placed catheters in Queenie’s neck and behind her abdomen. Queenie’s recovery was more difficult after the second experiment. The next morning, Queenie was found lying on her floor and “reluctant to get up out of [her] cage,” vocalizing when laboratory technicians tried to assist her out of the cage. Queenie did not want to move, and lab technicians placed a muzzle on her to stop her from making noise and attempting to nip. Queenie’s incisions constantly seeped large amounts of fluids. After relentless licking, sores appeared on her paws and right hip. She was forced to wear an even larger Elizabethan collar to stop her from further aggravating the sores. Queenie was forced to run on the treadmill again. Initially, the experimental devices were not turned on so she could serve as her own experimental control. When the devices were later turned on, constant problems with the devices’ electronic signals occurred, which prevented the experimenters from collecting data. Still, according to her veterinary records, Queenie was forced to run on the treadmill, and experimenters gathered data when they could, dodging bites from this once-friendly dog and frequently stopping the experiment to clean up feces. By March 2010, Queenie was hypertensive. In April, she was noted by one lab technician to be “acting very timid – like she can’t get [up]…shakes while getting up (back legs)… won’t get up for me.” That same day, she underwent treadmill experiments again. Two days later, Queenie’s leg became caught in the treadmill and she stumbled. For the next two weeks, Queenie was seen “tip-toeing” and limping, but she was still forced to run. Queenie was used until June 2010, when experimenters accidentally cracked one of the devices implanted in her while “packing up probes” after a treadmill training session. They attempted to fix the device, but it broke again, retracting into Queenie’s body. On June 29, 2010, more than one year after she arrived at the Gratiot County Animal Shelter and more than nine months after she arrived at the Wayne State laboratory, Queenie was killed. Queenie was just one of the hundreds of dogs used in experiments at Wayne State University. Please take action to end these experiments before even one more dog has to suffer:

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Ste.400, Washington DC, 20016
Phone: 202-686-2210     Email: pcrm@pcrm.org

The above article is © Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

What Happened to Queenie? Dog Experiments at Wayne State Queenie was described as curious, gentle, and friendly when she arrived at Wayne State University on Sept. 16, 2009. A young Dalmatian mix, Queenie had been a stray and was turned in to a Gratiot County, Mich., animal shelter. Rather than being adopted by a new family, Queenie was transferred to a Class B “random source” animal dealer, who, in turn, sold her to be used in heart experiments at Wayne State in Detroit. There, experimenters implanted devices into her heart and blood vessels to induce hypertension and forced her to run on a treadmill while recovering from surgery. In a complaint filed with the state of Michigan in December, PCRM argued that these experiments violate Michigan’s cruelty statute. In a separate action, PCRM filed a Petition for Enforcement with the federal government, arguing that the experiments are inhumane and violate at least four requirements of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The Pain Cascade Queenie’s veterinary records show the pain and distress she went through. As the experiments proceeded, her restlessness and pain turned to depression and eventually self-mutilation. “In my experience, no matter which pain-relieving agents were used, dogs undergoing these procedures would be in constant pain,” said Mel Richardson, D.V.M., a veterinarian with more than 40 years of experience, after reviewing the experimental protocol and Queenie’s medical records. “Queenie was living for almost seven months with catheters inside her arteries and veins, catheters which initiated the pain cascade with every bump inside the vessel wall.” PCRM has received medical records for three dogs used in Wayne State laboratories. Charlie, a brown-and-white hound and Labrador mix, was noticeably frightened when she began treadmill training. As the experiment continued, she showed more and more severe anxiety. After her first major surgery, Charlie’s temperature climbed to 106.6 F, and after hypertension was induced, Charlie showed signs of kidney damage, and eventually she became so sick that laboratory personnel decided to terminate her life. Jessie, a grey-and-brown husky mix with white paws and chest, was hesitant and tense when she was first forced onto the treadmill. After undergoing major surgery to implant devices into her heart, Jessie woke up lethargic and had fluids leaking from her body. Six days after her surgery, she was found dead. Her necropsy revealed a possible rupture of a coronary artery that may have caused a heart attack or sudden cardiac death. Wasted Money, Wasted Lives Queenie, Charlie, and Jessie are three of the hundreds of dogs used in Wayne State’s heart experiments funded with millions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health. R&R Research, the animal dealer that sold Queenie to Wayne State, has been cited 11 times since 2007 for Animal Welfare Act violations. A senior U.S. Department of Agriculture official has requested that R&R Research’s license be revoked, but the company remains in business while the USDA investigates. PCRM’s complaint urges Michigan prosecutors to charge Wayne State with felony animal cruelty for forcing hundreds of dogs to endure lengthy treadmill tests after multiple major surgeries. Help Dogs like Queenie, Charlie, and Jessie Please take action to end these experiments before even one more dog has to suffer. Take action at PCRM.org/WayneState. The above article is © Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Who did this to Queenie?  Wayne State University, while conducting "medical research" by  Donal O’Leary, Ph.D

Cruelty Exposed at Iowa Factory Farm

• by Alicia Graef
• February 25, 2012
• 11:32 am

 

Undercover video footage exposing animal abuse at Hawkeye Sow Centers (HSC), a pig breeding factory farm in Leland, IA, was released last week by the animal advocacy group Compassion Over Killing (COK).

The video was taken by a COK investigator who worked undercover to document the miserable lives that sows and piglets are forced to endure, ranging from immobilization in gestation crates that don’t allow sows enough room to even turn around to piglets who underwent castration and tail docking with no painkillers and sick and injured pigs being left with no veterinary care, among other atrocities.

“Piglets born at this Iowa factory farm will be slaughtered at around six months of age, and as our investigator was told, some of their meat will be marketed under the brand name Hormel. While Hormel recently issued a statement that its company-owned facilities will be phasing out gestation crates, it did not commit to extending this new policy to the hundreds of independently-run facilities that ultimately supply Hormel, like HSC, which comprise the majority of Hormel’s pork,” according to COK.

This isn’t the first time the pork industry has come under fire for abuse in Iowa, which is the largest pork producing state in the U.S. Last year a Mercy for Animals investigation showed even worse abuses, and now Iowa is once again pushing for Ag Gag legislation that would make investigations like this illegal and sweep abuse under the rug.

Undercover investigations have played an important role in educating the public about abuses that occur on farms and have also drawn attention to standard industry practices that are inhumane. In some cases, investigations have lead to criminal charges being filed and new laws being enacted.

TAKE ACTION!

Please sign the petition asking Iowa legislators to oppose Ag Gag legislation and to hold agribusiness accountable.

Related Stories: 

Utah Considering Ag Gag Legislation

Six Butterball Workers Arrested After Turkey Abuse Exposed

Undercover Investigation Shows the Horrors of the Pork Industry

Read more: ag gag, animal abuse, animal cruelty, compassion over killing, iowa, pork, undercover investigation

Photo credit: Thinkstock

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/cruelty-exposed-at-iowa-factory-farm.html#ixzz1sboWpWpK

Please Help Save Angel's Gate—Urgent Action Needed TODAY

Please Help Save Angel's Gate—Urgent Action Needed TODAY

Angel’s Gate, an animal hospice and rehabilitation center  in Delhi, New York that provides care for special needs animals, many of whom are terminally and/or critically ill, physically challenged, hard to adopt and unwanted, is in desperate need of donations today.   This type of animal shelter is  rare, critical, and we need more of them, not less. If not for PeTA's nefarious, desperate campaign to ruin Angel Gate's reputation, Angel's Gate would not be under siege, urgently needing financial help today. 

Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals recently visited Angel’s Gate and was impressed with the living conditions and level of care and love given to each animal.  

Your help is urgently needed so that the 275 cats and dogs (along with 3 horses and 10 parrots) at Angel’s Gate can continue to receive the medical care they need, and are able to live out their days in peace, dignity and love.

Friends of Animals is helping to defend this shelter from attack and financial distress, and we have committed to help Angel’s Gate raise $5,000 today in order to pay the electricity bill due now. 

Please contribute to Angel’s Gate today with an online donation at www.angelsgate.org   Please email me to let me know that you’ve donated, as we are keeping track of reaching the $5000 goal today.

Picture taken on 5/15/11 of staff members of AG.

Please also sign this petition to the Delaware County District Attorney to emphasize that charges against Angel’s Gate are nothing more than PeTA's propaganda and machinations:

http://www.change.org/petitions/delaware-county-district-attorney-stop-persecuting-angel-s-gate-animal-hospice-in-new-york-state

Edita Birnkrant

NY Director

Friends of Animals

1841 Broadway, Suite 350

New York, NY 10023

Phone: 212.247.8120

Fax: 212.582.4482

E-mail: edita@friendsofanimals.org

Web site: http://www.friendsofanimals.org 

On behalf of all of our employees and volunteeers at

Angel's Gate, we sincerely appreciate the overwhelming

support we have received from our friends over the last

several months as this challenging situation unfolds.   Rest

assured that the health and welfare of the animals is, and

remains, our top priority.   We look forward to the day

when the complete and unbiased narrative of our facility

can be told. Until then, we hope that no one will rush to

judgment and will keep in mind that cherished American

legal principle that everyone is innocent until proven

guilty.   Thank you again for your support. We will keep

you updated on this situation as events warrant.

Sincerely, Angel's Gate's Board of Directors  PS.  For more

information or to schedule a visit, please call Susan at (607) 746-9211.

Please, sign the Petition and stop PETA. I know many of you think PETA are great, but I wouldn't donate a cent to them. They're a huge organization, with people making huge salaries and people coving other people's asses when lies come out to the public. Yes, PETA does kill animals. The website created about it was made by a bunch of morons, but the facts are facts, PETS kills animals and PETA does lie.

Don't fall for PETA's BS. Please, sign the petition, and if you can, DONATE to help save Angel's Gate.
There are not many places like this, and we can't afford to lose this hospice for our special needs animals.  Too many people have been too quick to jump to judge, to believe PETA's crap. Don't be one of them.

Please help, in any way you are able to.

http://www.change.org/petitions/delaware-county-district-attorney-stop-persecuting-angel-s-gate-animal-hospice-in-new-york-state

Wayne State research triggers accusations of animal cruelty

Published: Sunday, January 08, 2012

By Dustin Blitchok
For The News-Herald

Click to enlarge

The veterinary records of Queenie, a Dalmatian mix used in medical research at Wayne State University, describe the dog’s grim final months and have sparked complaints to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Wayne County prosecutor.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a petition for enforcement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in October that accused the university and Donal O’Leary, Ph.D. , of Animal Welfare Act violations.

Five Michigan doctors, including two from Oakland County, signed the petition.

The Washington, D.C., group opposes the use of animals in research, and sent a letter Wednesday urging the Wayne County prosecutor’s office to investigate the university and charge it with violating a state felony animal cruelty law.


The protocol for the experiment Queenie was used in includes treadmill training, where dogs are exercised on treadmills and their responses measured after high-blood pressure or heart failure are induced.

When an implanted device receded into Queenie’s body, the dog was euthanized, as are all dogs used in O’Leary’s experiments.


The experiments date back to 1991 and have received public funding from the National Institutes of Health.


In a statement sent to The Oakland Press, WSU spokesman Matt Lockwood said the university denies the group’s allegations of abuse.


“Wayne State University is committed to ensuring that all research and teaching protocols using live animals are designed and carried out in a humane manner that complies with all laws, policies and guidelines,” the statement said. A request for an interview with O’Leary was denied.


In the letter to the prosecutor’s office, the animal rights group’s director of academic affairs, Dr. John Pippin, and its associate general counsel, Mark Kennedy, allege that the university has violated the state law by “cruelly working hundreds of dogs, by forcing them to endure lengthy treadmill tests after multiple major surgeries.”

In a phone interview, Kennedy said, “We tend to file this kind of complaint when something seems really outrageous.”


The letter reads that O’Leary is “conducting inhumane experiments by causing dogs ... unrelieved pain and distress without undergoing proper scrutiny required for such experiments.


“Dogs in these protocols undergo multiple major surgeries to have medical devices implanted in their bodies, and are then forced to run exhausting treadmill tests for months before they are finally killed. Up to 25 percent of the dogs die during the surgeries or the experiments.”


A publication of the university’s Division of Research titled “New Science” said that O’Leary is “investigating what causes the reduction of blood flow to muscles and the heart during exercise in patients who suffer from heart failure.”


O’Leary is quoted in the literature: “It is well known that exercise can have extreme responses to heart failure; however, how these responses occur remains unclear.


“Our objective is to shed new light on the mechanisms responsible for these responses, which is the first step in identifying treatment regimens.”


A USDA inspection of O’Leary’s laboratory, which occurred after the administrative complaint was filed, found no violations, Lockwood said.


The USDA confirmed that the inspection came up clean.


David Sacks, a USDA spokesman in Riverdale, Md., said: “We look into every complaint that comes in.”


Wayne State “has not been cited for anything the (group) is contending,” he said.

The inspection report, dated Nov. 2, said, “No non-compliant items (were) identified during this inspection,” and provides no further detail other than the titles of the people present during the inspection.


However, the animal welfare group’s Pippin points out: “What you get in a USDA inspection report is a picture of what you see (at the lab) on the day you show up. The incontrovertible truth is in (Wayne State’s) veterinary records.”


Pippin said he believes that if the USDA’s inspector had seen dogs with the surgery or instrumentation that Queenie had, the inspector would have found the lab in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.


Queenie was one of five dogs purchased on Sept. 16, 2009 from a Class B animal dealer, R&R Research of Howard City, Mich.


The animal dealer obtained Queenie from the Gratiot County Animal Shelter through a process known as pound seizure.


All of the dogs mentioned in the animal rights group’s complaints came to Wayne State via Class B animal dealers. The National Institutes of Health released a memo earlier this year detailing a plan to move away from using dogs bought from Class B dealers in federally-funded research.


The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain Wayne State’s daily progress reports for Queenie. There are 15 noted instances in the document of the dog defecating and/or having diarrhea on the treadmill during experimentation.


In the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s guide for the inspection of research facilities, “excessive (frequent and voluminous) diarrhea and/or vomiting” is listed as an example of direct noncompliance.


“Defecation on the treadmill shows an extreme fear response and (inability) to control the bowels,” said Dr. Melvyn Richardson, a California veterinarian who consults with advocacy groups and as an expert witness.


Richardson reviewed the records on Queenie, and said “the medication they were giving her was not adequate to control her pain.”

The group’s administrative complaint to the USDA contended that dogs used in O’Leary’s experiments show signs of unrelieved pain, and thus are wrongly classified with the USDA. The protocol for O’Leary’s experiments labels them as USDA Category D, which covers “animals used in research, experiments, or tests where appropriate anesthetic, analgesic or tranquilizing agents are required to avoid pain or distress.”


The animal rights advocates said in the petition for enforcement that the Wayne State experiments should instead fall under USDA Category E, which includes animals used in research where the investigator “is unable or unwilling to administer anesthetic, analgesic or tranquilizing agents.”


According to the protocol form for research that the university must file with its Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee,  experiments in USDA Category E must “identify the condition that places the animals in Category E and provide scientific justification for withholding alleviation of pain/distress.”


“I don’t know how anyone could look at (the daily progress report) and not see that this animal was in pain,” Richardson said.


 He also said that records indicate Queenie was given Rimadyl for pain relief, which Richardson said was once used as an over-the-counter pain medication for humans. “They didn’t want to give her anything that would change her ability to run on the treadmill,” such as a narcotic, he said.


In his written analysis of the veterinary records, Richardson said, “while the amount of pain control used pre- and post-operatively appears adequate, the use of Rimadyl for the level of pain and trauma Queenie was experiencing is not.”


Richardson said the chest cavity is a sensitive area, and that the surgeries in O’Leary’s experiments open the chest, in a procedure known as a thoracotomy, to clamp arteries and veins, and tunnel under the skin, leaving “eight to nine tubes hanging out of the dog.”


O’Leary’s research protocol shows that up to five surgeries might be performed on dogs in the course of an experiment. 


“Chest tubes are very painful,” Richardson said. “To maintain one for that long — I don’t know any other word but cruel.”


One local doctor who signed the complaint sent to the USDA said she fundamentally opposes animal testing. “I think we’ve reached a point in current Western medicine where the use of animals can’t teach us anymore about human physiology,” said Dr. Jennifer Giordano, a Farmington Hills psychiatrist.


Another Oakland County doctor, Joyce Feldman, Ph.D., of Rochester Hills, is also named on the petition for enforcement sent to the USDA, but did not respond to Oakland Press calls seeking comment.


Wayne State’s statement responding to the complaints against O’Leary said the professor has “been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health for more than 20 years, he has an international reputation as leader in cardiovascular research, and he serves on the editorial board of major scientific journals. Because his research involves animals, it is subject to surprise inspections, veterinary oversight, and intense scrutiny by the United States Department of Agriculture; his record is exemplary.”


But veterinarian Richardson disagreed.


“It seems like the only people benefiting from this are the researchers getting paid to do it,” he said.

 Follow Dustin Blitchok on Twitter @SincerelyDustin

For the Web:

Queenie vet records: http://bit.ly/vLNJT0

Research protocol: http://bit.ly/s1D7cK

WSU’s response: http://bit.ly/swAMtY

Complaint to Wayne County prosecutor’s office: http://bit.ly/rIJQKr

Complaint to USDA: http://bit.ly/tqcSKX

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