208.21.180.224 writes:

       Do you know which politicans support these people? You should.

       Subject: Animal rights agenda

       What is commonly called the animal rights agenda is the 12 point plank
       that was offered by animal rights leaders for inclusion into the Green
       Party Platform in 1987. It was published in the Animals' Agenda
       magazine in Nov. 1987. In the early 90s several organizations including
       ALAN in Seattle, Responsible Dog Breeders' Association of Oregon and the
       National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA) discovered it and started
       distributing it. We published it in the Hijacking of the Humane
       Movement with a reference to its origins on page 152 in 1993. Since
       then it has been distributed in many forms including several very
       abbreviated ones.
 

       1.We are firmly committed to the eventual abolition by law of animal
       research, and call for an
       immediate prohibition of painful experiments and tests. The billions
       of dollars disbursed annually by the National Institutes of Health for
       animal experiments should be rechanneled into direct health care,
       preventive medicine, and biomedical research using non-animal tests and
       procedures. In addition, the government should fund projects to develop
       and promote
       non-animal technologies where they do not yet exist so
       that animal experiments
       may be rapidly phased out. In the meantime, procedural
       mechanisms must be
       established to allow for greater public scrutiny of all
       research using animals.

       2.The use of animals for cosmetics and household product
       testing, tobacco
       and alcohol testing, psychological testing, classroom
       demonstrations and
       dissection, and in weapons development or other warfare
       programs must
       be outlawed immediately.

       3.We encourage vegetarianism for ethical, ecological, and
       health reasons.
       As conversion of plant protein to animal flesh for
       human consumption is an
       energetically inefficient means of food production, a
       vegetarian diet allows for
       wiser use of the world's limited food resources.
       Livestock production is a major
       source of environmental degradation. Furthermore, a
       shift in human diet from
       animal foods to plant food would result in a lower
       incidence of heart diseases and
       cancer and better health generally. Vegetarian meals
       should be made available to
       all public institutions including primary and secondary
       schools. Nutritional
       education programs currently administered by the
       Department of Agriculture
       should be handled by an agency charged with promoting
       public health rather than
       promoting the interest of agribusiness.

       4.Steps should be taken to begin phasing out intensive
       confinement systems
       of livestock production, also called factory farming,
       which causes severe
       physical and psychological suffering for the animals
       kept in overcrowded
       and unnatural conditions.
       As animal agriculture depletes and pollutes water and
       soil resources, and destroys
       forests and other ecosystems, we call for the eventual
       elimination of animal
       agriculture. In the meantime, the exportation of live
       farm animals for overseas
       slaughter must be regulated to ensure humane treatment.
       Livestock grazing on
       US public lands should be immediately prohibited.
       Internationally, the US should
       assist poorer countries in the development of
       locally-based, self-reliant
       agricultural systems.

       5.The use of herbicides, pesticides, and other toxic
       agricultural chemicals
       should be phased out.
       Predator control on public lands should be immediately
       outlawed and steps should
       be taken to introduce native predators to areas from
       which they have been
       eradicated in order to restore the balance of nature.

       6.Responsibility for enforcement of animal welfare
       legislation must be
       transferred from the Department of Agriculture to an
       agency created for
       the purpose of protecting animals and the environment.

       7.Commercial trapping and fur ranching should be
       eliminated.
       We call for an end to the use of furs while recognizing
       Western society's
       responsibility to support alternative livelihood for
       native peoples who now rely on
       trapping because of the colonial European and North
       American fur industries.

       8.Hunting, trapping, and fishing for sport should be
       prohibited. State and
       federal agencies should focus on preserving and
       re-establishing habitat for wild
       animals instead of practicing game species management
       for maximum sustainable
       yield. Where possible, native species, including
       predators, should be reintroduced
       to areas from which they have been eradicated.
       Protection of native animals and
       plants in their natural surroundings must be given
       priority over economic
       development plans. Further, drainage of wetlands and
       development of shore
       areas must be stopped immediately.

       9.Internationally, steps should be taken by the US
       government to prevent
       further destruction of rain forests.
       Additionally, we call on the US government to act
       aggressively to end
       international trade in wildlife and goods produced from
       exotic an/or endangered
       fauna or flora.

       10.We strongly discourage any further breeding of companion
       animals,
       including pedigreed or purebred dogs and cats.
       Spay and neuter clinics should be subsidized by state
       and municipal governments.
       Commerce in domestic and exotic animals for the pet
       trade should be abolished.

       11.We call for an end to the use of animals in
       entertainment and sports such
       as dog racing, dog and c--- fighting, fox hunting, hare
       coursing, rodeos,
       circuses, and other spectacles and a critical
       reappraisal of the use of
       animals in quasi-educational institutions such as zoos
       and aquariums.
       These institutions, guided not by humane concerns but
       by market imperatives,
       often cruelly treat animals and act as agents of
       destruction for wild animals. In
       general, we believe that animals should be left in
       their appropriate environments
       in the wild, not showcased for entertainment purposes.
       Any animals held captive
       must have their psychological, behavioral, and social
       needs satisfied.

       12.Advances in biotechnology are posing a threat to the
       integrity of species,
       which may ultimately reduce all living beings to the
       level of patentable
       commodities. Genetic manipulation of species to produce
       transgenic animals
       must be prohibited.

       Patti Strand, President
       National Animal Interest Alliance
       PO Box 66579
       Portland, Oregon 97290-6579
       website address: www.naiaonline.org