Join the Sierra Club, I did

In case you missed it yesterday, you might wonder “What in the world are you talking about, Trent?” Link to yesterday’s Loos Lips here. Gauging from your responses to this subject yesterday, no one thinks we are nuts and most are excited to help get this accomplished. Fur Commission has posted all the vital information you need in making this decision so act today. We must have this completed by Jan 31, 2004

Why join the Sierra Club? Click here. Choose the joint membership for two votes and I chose limited income. Following information available on Fur Commission website.
For as little as $32, a joint membership gives you TWO votes in what is a vital election. The Sierra Club is locked in a life and death battle for control of the Club's $100 million-dollar-a-year treasury.

The basic reason for this action is that Paul Watson is attempting to do the same thing. We can not afford to let Watson accomplish that. If you want to know why, check this out from ActivistCash.com.

"There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win. Then you write the history."
Paul Watson, at the Animal Rights 2002 convention

And he is from a family of terrorists. His wife was arrested last week.

Animal-rights activist arrested

Case shines light on FBI's efforts to dismantle liberation fronts (more)

Thursday, January 15, 2004

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

"There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win. Then you write the history."
An agent with the FBI's domestic terrorism squad arrested an animal rights activist yesterday for allegedly lying to a Seattle federal grand jury investigating an arson attack on an Olympia forest-product company.

The complaint against Allison Lance Watson provides a rare window into the FBI's efforts to dismantle the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, which the bureau considers to be among the greatest domestic terrorism threats facing the nation.

Paul Watson, a celebrated defender of marine mammals and founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, spoke proudly of how his wife had not long ago been released from a Japanese jail were she was imprisoned for a short time for freeing numerous dolphins from nets. Watson said Sea Shepherd paid an $8,000 fine for his wife and one other activist. "That came out to about $600 per dolphin. We thought it was a good deal."

The LA Times laid the ground work in an article last week.

Link here.
Animal-rights activists and anti-immigration advocates are teaming in a bid to control the board, to the dismay of traditionalists.

By Miguel Bustillo and Kenneth R. Weiss
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

January 18, 2004 An unusual alliance of anti-immigration advocates and animal-rights activists is attempting to take over the leadership of the Sierra Club, America's oldest national environmental group, in what is emerging as a bitter fight over the future of the 112-year-old organization founded by Scottish immigrant John Muir.

In response, 11 former Sierra Club presidents have written a letter expressing "extreme concern for the continuing viability of the club," protesting what they see as a concerted effort by outside organizations to hijack the mainstream conservationist group and its $95-million annual budget.

We need you to join the Sierra Club

Many of you are going to think this is nuts. I fully endorse Teresa Platt and her plea to take over the Sierra Club. Act today. You always want to know how you can help so forward this to everyone you know.

Please do link here to read and understand the whole thing, we need to get a seat on the board.

Why my family joined the Sierra Club - and why yours should too before January 31, 2004!By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA (link)

I work in the mink biz and my family's work resumé includes agriculture and commercial fishing. Most of my friends are professional farmers, ranchers, fishermen, hunters and trappers, loggers and miners, whalers and sealers, resource providers from all over the world. Such people are more often on the receiving end of Sierra Club campaigns, as opposed to members of Sierra Club.So why has my family joined the Sierra Club?

Since most Sierra Clubbers don't vote, it only takes about 30,000 votes for a candidate to win a seat on the board. That's only 15,000 families with joint membership. Executive Director Carl Pope noted that 18% of Sierra Club members fish and/or hunt (about 140,000 of the 780,000 Sierra Club members) and he worries that they will be driven out of the Club by the vegan/animal rights agenda pushed by Paul Watson.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Nails it again

Once again Joyce Morrison has drawn the picture in the Illinois Leader so well.

The powerful push to protect animals (whole story)

By Joyce Morrison (jmorrison@illinoisleader.com)

Recently a cougar (mountain lion) in Orange County, CA killed one bicyclist and would have killed the second one if her companions had not come to her rescue. Estimates are between 4,000 and 6,000 adult lions roaming California. State law prohibits hunting or killing them.

There are environmentalists and then there are extremists. It would be interesting to put some of these extremists out in the wild for about two weeks to fend for themselves without mosquito spray and all the luxuries they enjoy while making their "pristine regulations." With no weapon to defend themselves against the wolves, poisonous snakes, cougars and bears they believe should be introduced into the rural areas where people live, their controls would become much less extreme.

Why my family joined the Sierra Club - and why
yours should too before January 31, 2004!

By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA

I work in the mink biz and my family's work
resumé includes agriculture and commercial
fishing. Most of my friends are professional
farmers, ranchers, fishermen, hunters and
trappers, loggers and miners, whalers and
sealers, resource providers from all over the
world. Such people are more often on the
receiving end of Sierra Club campaigns, as
opposed to members of Sierra Club.
So why has my family joined the Sierra Club?
Because a joint membership purchased before
January 31, 2004 entitles our family to two votes
in the March 2004 Sierra Club board election. For
as little as $32, a joint membership gives you
TWO votes in what is a vital election. (1) The
Sierra Club is locked in a life and death battle
for control of the Club's $100
million-dollar-a-year treasury. (2)
The man leading the hostile takeover attempt is
Paul Watson, who claims to have invented tree
spiking and leads the eco-vigilantes of the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society. Among crewmembers
on his rag-tag fleet of vegan vessels, Watson has
mentored convicted felon/arsonist Rodney Coronado
and Alex Pacheco, co-founder of People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), plus dozens
of eco-anarchists with lengthy arrest records
earned via crimes committed globally. (3) 2004
started off with a bang for Sea Shepherd when
Watson's wife was arrested for lying to a grand
jury about use of a leased truck which appears to
have been used in the Pacific Northwest on an
eco-terrorist road trip. (4)
Watson claims he is now but three seats away from
controlling the 15-member Sierra Club board. (5)
Imagine the damage Watson, and the people he
supports, could do with access to hundreds of
millions of dollars!
Since most Sierra Clubbers don't vote, it only
takes about 30,000 votes for a candidate to win a
seat on the board. That's only 15,000 families
with joint membership. Executive Director Carl
Pope noted that 18% of Sierra Club members fish
and/or hunt (about 140,000 of the 780,000 Sierra
Club members) and he worries that they will be
driven out of the Club by the vegan/animal rights
agenda pushed by Watson.
"It's important to have hunters and fishermen in
the Sierra Club," Pope told the Los Angeles
Times. "We are a big-tent organization. We want
the Sierra Club to be a comfortable place for
Americans who want clean air, clean water, and to
protect America's open spaces."
Your joint membership must be in good standing by
January 31 to get your two votes in order to play
in this game!

SIDEBAR: To make this fray even more interesting,
the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has earned
respect for over twenty years of battling white
supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan, claims some of
the groups backing some of the Sierra Club board
and 2004 candidates have ties to racist groups.
The SPLC is so concerned by the turn of events,
its director, Morris Dees, is running for a seat
on the Sierra Club board, in order to "sound the
alarm." You must visit
www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=45

NOTES:
(1) https://ww2.sierraclub.org/membership
(2) www.groundswellsierra.org
(3) www.activistcash.com
(4) http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/156710_animalrights15.html
(5) www.maninnature.com/Breaking/Watson.html
(6) See also "Election Becomes a Fight Over
Sierra Club's Future: Animal-rights activists and
anti-immigration advocates are teaming in a bid
to control the board, to the dismay of
traditionalists," Los Angeles Times, January 18,
2004,
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sierra18jan18,1,7295202.story?coll=la-home-headlines

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Ron Phillips
Office: (202) 662-4130

Data Demonstrate Little to No Evidence That Antibiotic Use
in Food Animals Presents Any Significant Risk to Human Health

-- New publication finds antibiotic bans not based on risk assessment may be more harmful to
human and animal health -

Washington, D.C. (January 19, 2004) – A new peer-reviewed article raises concern that the banning of antibiotics in food animals may harm both human and animal health. The report, published this month in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, found there is little to no scientific evidence to suggest that the use of antibiotics in food animals negatively impacts human health.

"The scientific evidence shows that the actual risk of transfer of antibiotic resistant organisms from animals to humans caused by the use of antibiotics in food animals is extremely small and in some cases zero," said Ian Phillips, M.D., principal author and Emeritus Professor of Medical Microbiology at the medical school of Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals, University of London. “The European Union applied the ‘Precautionary Principle’ and set aside scientific evidence, and so made decisions about antibiotics that have in fact damaged animal health and not provided any benefits to human health. We need to advance science and risk assessments to help make sound, evidence-based and balanced decisions in the United States and around the world.”

The panel of experts, drawn from both human and animal health, found the debate over the potential of antibiotic resistance transfer from animal to humans has featured misinformation and a blurring of important distinctions. They critically reviewed more than 250 studies and available data in an attempt to draw distinctions between events that do happen, may happen, might happen and do not happen.

Surveillance data from Europe and the United States shows numerous disconnects in the patterns of resistant bacteria in animals and humans, making it unlikely that there is or has been widespread transference of resistant bacteria via the food supply. And, while a European ban on antibiotics to promote growth has not reduced antibiotic resistance levels in humans in Europe, U.S. data shows the incident of antibiotic resistant food borne pathogens is generally declining as has the number of cases caused by food-borne bacteria.

“After examining the extensive surveillance data available, no significant benefits to human health as a result of European ban are evident, while it is clear that resistance in food borne pathogens has decreased in the U.S.,” said Ronald N. Jones, M.D., co-author of the JAC report and Principal Investigator of the SENTRY Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance program, the world's largest database of antibiotic resistance.

A review of several risk assessments that have been conducted on specific antibiotics used in animals consistently showed extremely low levels of risk.

“We agree with the World Health Organization and the International Office of Epizootics that sound policy decisions must be based on scientific risk assessments that address the likely future human health consequences of proposed risk management actions. In practice, that means understanding and applying principles for prudent use of antibiotics and paying attention to surveillance and monitoring data for both antibiotic-susceptible and antibiotic-resistant illnesses caused by food-borne bacteria,” summarized Tony Cox, co-author and president of Cox Associates, an applied research company specializing in health risk analysis and operations research modeling. “Legislative and political efforts without sound science and quantitative assessment of their possible, adverse human health consequences are dangerous. If the United States follows the European ban then both animal and human health may be jeopardized.”

The report was developed by the independent advisory board to AHI, comprised of a group of human microbiologists, risk assessors, veterinarians and animal health experts, including Ian Phillips, M.D., FRCP, FRCPath, FFPHM, University of London; Ron Jones, M.D., The JONES Group/JMI Laboratories, North Liberty, IA; Mark Casewell, BSc, M.D., FRCP, FRCPath, University of London; Tony Cox, Ph.D., S.M., Cox Associates, an applied research company specializing in health risk analysis and operations research modeling, Denver, CO; Brad De Groot, M.S., D.V.M., Ph.D., Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, and Livestock Information Services, Callaway, NE; Christian Friis, D.V.M, Ph.D., Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark; Charles Nightingale, M.S., Ph.D., Hartford Hospital, University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT; Rodney Preston, Ph.D., Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; and John Waddell, D.V.M., M.B.A., Sutton Veterinary Clinic, Sutton, NE.

“Continued use of antibiotics in food animals is important to animal health and welfare and food safety,” said Dr. John Waddell, D.V.M., a Nebraska veterinarian who has toured several Danish pigs farms. “We will continue to follow the principles of prudent use and rely on surveillance and risk assessment to ensure safe use of antibiotics to keep animals healthy.”


# # #