New AVMA Fark Tag Debuts

Florida has one. Why not the AVMA? It’s not like they’re undeserving of the honor. Did you know, for example, according to the delegate from Vermont, taking a cat’s temperature is more distressing than producing foie gras?

If we may be so bold as to make a suggestion to the delegate, as well as a perfectly valid and science-based request for a self-funded research study using himself, TPP’s cat, and a duck as subjects:

You’re welcome. And don’t forget to tag!

Dewey Defeats Truman

Did you see it too?!? We fell out. For about 2 seconds. MySpace code leak—real. Recession coming—real. AVMA animal “welfare” policy-setters pull off a near perfect J-turn—not so much. Nice moment, though. Looked real good in the rear view mirror.

Weekend Film Festival

The Fourth Annual Pacific Palisades Film Festival starts Thursday, May 17th.

Beyond Closed Doors is screening at 2:00 PM, Saturday, May 19th, as part of the social justice film program. Location: Pacific Palisades Elementary School Auditorium, 800 Via de la Paz, Pacific Palisades. Writer/producer Hugh Dorigo, panelists Karen Dawn (moderator), Dr. Marc Bekoff, Gene Baur, and Dr. Armaiti May head up the post-screening Q&A session. Individual tickets are $5, $10 for a 2–or-more film pass.

Congratulations to Western University’s first graduating Class of 2007 DVMs. Somewhere among these faces is

• your new associate
• your practice owner
• your mentor
• your confidante
• your state’s delegate

One person, one practice, one state, one nation, one world, all in good time. In your lifetime.

Woo-hoo, it's new!

And coming this spring to a feedlot near you! We love to drone on about antibiotic (over)use in animal agribusiness, bacterial resistance, and the emerging threat to global public health.

Instead of doing it again, we’ll just give you some quick take-aways from today’s Washington Post article:

InterVet developed cefquinome to treat bovine respiratory disease, the most common disease in cattle. Recognizing the potential public health implications of using a close cousin of cefepime in animals, the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, which oversees animal drug approvals, convened its expert advisers in September.

And what did they discover about BRD and current treatments? Available and effective. But…

The panel also learned that the disease would be a relatively minor issue but for the stressful conditions under which U.S. cattle are raised, including high-density living spaces and routine shipment on crowded trains for hundreds or thousands of miles. Those "production dynamics" suppress the animals' immune systems, explained feedlot consultant Kelly Lechtenberg of Oakland, Neb., and virtually guarantee that bovine respiratory disease will be a major problem.

Why aren’t a dozen effective antibiotic therapies for BRD enough? According to the VP of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for the Animal Health Institute, it doesn’t matter how many there are.

Why are cows always and inevitably sick?

More to the point: why does the FDA have to wait for a person to be sickened by a resistant microbe in order to tell animal agribusiness to stop shoveling, dripping, and injecting antibiotics into their products?

Front Group Spotlight

Lawmakers Move Against Over-use of Antibiotics on Farms

As more and more scientific authorities conclude that feeding antibiotics to livestock is promoting drug resistance among bacteria that attack humans, Congress has begun to take notice.

So has the Coalition for Animal Health and the Animal Health Institute. They noticed that federal legislation to phase out the use of medically important antibiotics (for humans!) over a two-year period would put quite a damper on their non-therapeutic-use in animal agribusiness agenda. Huh?!

Antibiotics kill bacteria when they’re given at a dosage level that’s effective, or therapeutic, against a specific bacteria, and given for an effective period of time. Non-therapeutic levels of antibiotics, such as what’s added to CAFO livestock feeds, mask signs of disease, encourage resistant bacteria to reproduce, and make animals’ already fragile immune systems from overcrowding and filth even less capable of developing an effective response to disease and stress. Over hundreds of thousands of generations of animals and…we don’t even think there’s a numerical quantifier for the number of generations of bacteria.

So who are the Coalition for Animal Health and the Animal Health Institute, exactly? Are they even people? Ultimately, but outwardly they’re a floating consortium of animal agribusiness major players with a bottom-dollar interest in keeping as many “food” animals in as little physical space as possible, for as little financial input as possible, with as little regulatory oversight as possible, for as big a profit as possible. Who floats in and out depending on the need for, direction, and speed of spin?

American Association of Swine Veterinarians
American Farm Bureau Federation
American Feed Industry Association
American Sheep Industry Association
American Veterinary Medical Association
Animal Agriculture Alliance
Federation of Animal Science Societies
National Broiler Council
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
National Chicken Council
National Pork Board
National Pork Producers Council
National Turkey Federation
United Egg Association
United Egg Producers

C’mon, you know this bunch already! We keep tabs on them when and wherever possible.

Does anybody in your US government even know how much antibiotics go into livestock feed every year, year after year? You’d think somebody would, with the USDA and the FDA and all the other A-listers out there keeping the “food” animals healthy and happy and the grocery stores shelves clean and safe for you. Turns out they don’t have a clue. Surprised? Why?

It took the Union of Concerned Scientists to even attempt a rough estimate six years ago. The government’s own General Accounting Office tried to nail it down three years ago, with not much better results. But page 73 has a nice chart-type go at it.

So what’s the point of this lengthy rant with no pictures to speak of? Up top: know your front groups. Words are infinitely malleable, forgiving, disposable. But brands, like “Animal” and “Health” are Everything.

Surgery, spare-rib-style

Don't let the Far Eastern location or the translation throw you off. "Porking" is apparently the nearest Taiwanese approximation of "baby pig," and you could paste this clip into any US commercial farrowing operation footage without a visible seam. Except for maybe the part where you got within a mile of the place without a court order taped to your bullet-proof vest, or when you had to switch from the handheld cam to the one that looks just like the face of your watch. But we digress...



When you reach the point in your education where you're introduced to appropriate anesthesia and analgesia agents for surgical sedation and pain relief in animals, remember: it's only unacceptable for AWA-approved species in defined circumstantial roles to actually feel the pain of a knife slicing off their testicles. And in case you were wondering how baby pig came to be, here are a few seconds of agribusiness innovation that'll take you all the way back to the gleam in baby daddy's eye.



Now we could supply you with an embedded (no pun intended) hands-free, electric version of the above, as well. But being as we keep this joint mostly R-rated, you'll have to hit up PornoTube for those money shots. Once again, don't let the location, the $1.89 set decoration budget, or the fact that this time all the participants are consenting, human adults throw you. After all, where do you think they got the equipment?

And you think your case load is staggering?!

10News SanDiego

10News went to the biggest egg ranch in San Diego County. There are 1 million hens, and they are inspected every month by a vet to make sure they are healthy. Mark Brand is a poultry veterinarian and said he finds it difficult to mask his frustration with protesters.

Geez, Mark--even if you worked 16 hr. shifts 7 days a week you'd still have 171 cases an hour. Every hour. For a year. This is pretty much the point at which industrial animal production's wholly self-determined governance of "health and welfare" just becomes laughable. But far be it from us to conclude that Mark's frustrations are the ones that just don't fly.

AVAR
EggIndustry
Humane Society of the United States
United Poultry Concerns

Everyday Heroes

My classmates won’t understand or support me if I won’t harm or kill animals while I learn to heal them. It will be harder to master the critical skills I need for graduation. I worry about my job prospects if I choose an alternative instructional method or speak out about my convictions. I’m afraid sometimes. Well, here’s some pain medicine.

"Everyday Heroes – Veterinary Students Advocating the Use of Humane Teaching Methods" is a new DVD from AVAR that features interviews with students at four veterinary medical schools and their commitment to the use of ethically-sourced animal cadavers, surgical skills development through partnership with shelter spay/neuter programs and synthetic simulation models, and the reduction or elimination of terminal surgery lab mandates.

From the DVD release announcement: “This video presentation gave veterinary students an excellent forum to speak openly about how the use of humane teaching methods have positively affected their education and have provided the necessary training to make them skilled veterinarians. It was first presented at the Association of
American Veterinary Medical Colleges education symposium on alternatives earlier this year.”

Available for download from the AVAR website, (WMV format, running time 0:28:26, 17.2MB). We think you can also order a copy—or two or three—for a nominal shipping fee and make them compassionate gifts from people just like you to people just like you. Be encouraged, boo.

Inflation

It’s inevitable, there’s no other direction possible. Stand back. Way back.