1 a : a small opening through which small arms may be fired b : a similar opening to admit light and air or to permit observation
2 : a means of escape; especially : an ambiguity or omission in the text through which the intent of a statute, contract, or obligation may be evaded

1 a : unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power b : something that oppresses especially in being an unjust or excessive exercise of power
2 : a sense of being weighed down in body or mind : DEPRESSION

Florida: Stop Dogfighting and Cockfighting
Purpose: H.B. 1429 and S.B. 2350 close loopholes in Florida's animal fighting law, by prohibiting keeping and training animals for fighting, dealing in animal fighting equipment, and assisting in an animal fight. The bill also provides for the seizure of fighting animals, and allows the court to prohibit convicted animal fighters from owning animals in the future. Status: H.B. 1429 passed the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee unanimously on April 10. S.B. 2350 has been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday, April 22. Background: Animal fighting is one of the most egregious forms of cruelty, in which animals drugged and bred for aggression are set to fight to death or injury for the amusement and illegal gambling of spectators. Cockfighters strap razor-sharp knives and gaffs to birds' legs to make fights more violent. Even the "winners" in cockfights and dogfights often die from their grievous injuries. Animal fights are also notorious venues for drug trafficking, illegal gambling, weapons, and gang activity. Although animal fighting is a felony in Florida, the barbaric spectacles continue to thrive due to loopholes in the law that allow keeping and training animals for fighting. As a result, law enforcement has difficulty cracking down on known animal fighters. Since a new federal law bars transporting animals across state lines for fights, there is no legitimate reason for anyone in Florida to possess an animal for fighting. What You Can Do: Please contact all of the members of the Senate Agriculture Committee and urge them to vote "Yes" on Senate Bill 2350, the animal fighting bill. You may e-mail the members but phone calls are more effective. Many of the senators listed below have toll free statewide numbers. Senator Nancy Argenziano, Chair(Leon, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Suwanee, Columbia, Baker, Lafayette, Taylor, Dixie, Levy, Marion, & Citrus Counties) argenziano.nancy.web@flsenate.gov 850-487-5017 capitol office 352-860-5175 district office 1-866-538-2831 statewide number Senator Anthony "Tony" Hill, Sr., Vice Chair (Duval, St. Johns, Flagler, Volusia & Putnam Counties) hill.anthony.web@flsenate.gov 850-487-5024 capitol office 904-924-1648 district office 1-866-867-0289 statewide number Senator J.D. Alexander (Polk, Hardee, DeSoto, Highlands, Okeechobee, Glades & St. Lucie Counties) alexander.jd.web@flsenate.gov 850-487-5044 capitol office 863-298-7677 district office 1-800-444-9747 statewide number Senator Mike Bennett (Manatee, Sarasota, DeSoto, Charlotte & Lee Counties) bennett.mike.web@flsenate.gov 850-487-5078 capitol office 941-727-6349 district office 1-800-500-1239 statewide number Senator Larcenia Bullard (Palm Beach, Broward, Hendry, Miami-Dade, Monroe & Collier Counties) bullard.larcenia.web@flsenate.gov 850-487-5127 capitol office 305-668-7344 district office 1-866-234-3734 statewide number Senator Victor Crist (Hillsborough & Pasco Counties) crist.victor.web@flsenate.gov 850-487-5068 capitol office 813-975-6658 district office Senator Paula Dockery (Polk, Osceola, Lake, Sumter & Hernando Counties) dockery.paula.web@flsenate.gov 850-487-5040 capitol office 863-413-2900 district office 1-866-248-6487 statewide number Senator Gary Siplin (Orange & Osceola Counties) siplin.gary.web@flsenate.gov 850-487-5190 capitol office 407-297-2071 district office Please also contact your state representative and ask him or her to support the animal fighting bill, H.B. 1429. You can call the House clerk at 850-488-1157 to be transferred to your representative's office or write to your representative at the following address: Representative ___________ The Capitol Tallahassee, FL 32399 And if you have a moment more, contact your state senator and ask him or her to support S.B. 2350, the Senate animal fighting bill. You can write to your state senator at the following address: Senator ___________ The Capitol Tallahassee, FL 32399

Source: http://www.hsus.org/ace/18604

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The vets are considered key to government surveillance systems being built to detect unusual patterns of animal disease that could signal an outbreak, whether naturally occurring or intentional.

The vets are "on the front lines of detection of biological weapons of mass destruction," U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona recently told veterinarians at a bioterrorism training session in Florida.

The Agriculture Department has trained hundreds of veterinarians to diagnose animal diseases that are found in other parts of the world but are rare or unknown in the United States.

The vets are being asked to watch for diseases that can be passed from animals to humans, such as anthrax, plague and tularemia, as well as those that could be used by terrorists, including swine fever, avian flu and foot-and-mouth disease.

In February, veterinarians joined top Bush administration officials, representatives of the FBI and 15 members of Congress at Washington's National Defense University for "Silent Prairie," a simulated terrorist attack involving foot-and-mouth disease, the malady that led to the slaughter of millions of farm animals in Britain in 2001.

That epidemic served as a wake-up call to U.S. health officials, who realized "how unprepared we would be for something of that magnitude," said Dr. Gary Smith, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

The Sept. 11 attacks also raised fears that terrorists could easily sabotage the nation's food supply with biological agents.

Dr. John Maxwell, who practices at North Penn Animal Hospital outside Philadelphia and received training from the USDA in diagnosis of rare diseases, said veterinarians must be alert for anything out of the ordinary.

"We're not exactly out there looking for anthrax, but ... we're all medically trained and we can all be sentinel veterinarians by just doing our jobs," said Maxwell.

An unusually high number of cases of bovine anthrax could be a sign of bioterrorism, said Dr. Radford Davis, assistant director of Iowa State University's Center for Food Security and Public Health.

"Or a cat diagnosed with plague in Florida and the cat never left Florida. That's news because plague is limited to the Southwest," he said.

In Orlando, Fla., a January training session on zoonotic diseases -- those that can be passed from animals to humans -- attracted 125 veterinarians from 46 states and Puerto Rico. Those vets, in turn, went back home and began training colleagues.

The Agriculture Department has asked for an additional $47 million this year to strengthen a federal and state government network to respond to bioterrorism and animal disease outbreaks, and another $23 million for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The inspection service trains federal, state, military and private veterinarians how to respond to suspected cases of foreign animal disease. The goal is to prevent a catastrophic outbreak.

"The sooner we can detect a foreign animal disease, quarantine it and shut down the movement of livestock, the sooner we will be able to contain it," said Bobby Acord, administrator of the inspection service.

Source: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1327232,00.html

By Richard Berman

When the human race confronts its most harrowing experiences, one can reliably count on People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to think of the chickens. As the images of Iraq's torture chambers remind us of humans' capacity to brutalize their own kind, PETA loudly frets that pigeons and chickens used by U.S. troops to detect chemical weapons "never enlisted." PETA also complained to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that dolphins locating mines in the Persian Gulf "have not volunteered" for service.

That's PETA. Save the dolphins; forget the humans.

PETA has placed animal life above human tragedy before. Earlier this year, it unveiled a roving exhibit, "The Holocaust on Your Plate," that juxtaposes images of chickens with a photo of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel as a young man at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Declaring a roaster chicken's life to be as valuable as a person's should be unthinkable. But PETA's vulgar attempts to get attention are tame compared to those of animal extremists who are torching medical research labs, severing delivery truck brake lines and planting incendiary devices at fast-food restaurants just to get attention.

So serious have such crimes become that the FBI has issued an alert to law enforcement agencies to remain on the lookout for possible criminal activity by "animal rights extremists" during the World Week for Animals in Laboratories protest scheduled to begin Saturday.

Vinegar, not honey

The animal rights movement has gone from cute and cuddly — think baby seals — to callous and cutthroat. "Our non-violent tactics are not as effective," PETA's co-founder and president, Ingrid Newkirk, has said. "We ask nicely for years and get nothing. Someone makes a threat, and it works." She did not respond to a request for further comment.

Another group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), is running a intimidation campaign against those who do business with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a research lab that uses animal tests to help find new drugs for AIDS, cancer and other diseases.

"You don't need a four-year degree to call in a bomb hoax," SHAC leader Kevin Kjonaas says on a tape. At another event, he explains: "We're not your parents' Humane Society. ... We come with a new philosophy. We hold the radical line. We will not compromise! We will not apologize, and we will not relent!"

PETA ran the campaign against Huntingdon until a court order stopped it. PETA also funded the legal defense of a convicted arsonist and has served as the media representative for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a terrorist group. Think that's a misuse of the "T" word? The FBI doesn't. It calls ALF, along with its sister organization, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), "a serious terrorist threat" within the United States.

Detailing the terrorism

It is outrageous that the FBI must devote resources to the crimes of homegrown animal-rights zealots at the same time it faces overseas terrorist threats. Yet a few days into the Iraq war, ALF released a report of domestic terrorism committed by ALF and ELF in 2002, claiming "100 illegal direct actions" against businesses, government agencies and universities.

Militants have taken over the animal rights movement. But some mainstream institutions act as if they were still talking about shelters for stray dogs and cats. In February, California State University, Fresno invited ALF and ELF leaders to participate in a conference on "revolutionary environmentalism." State taxpayers can savor the irony of paying both for Fresno to host terrorists and for the FBI to track them down.

Some of these activists have declared themselves heir to Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy of protest. King engaged in civil disobedience, but he didn't use fire to make a point. Nor is there anything civil about those who value chickens over the lives of our troops.

Richard Berman is executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, a non-profit coalition supported by restaurant operators and food and beverage companies.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-04-15-berman_x.htm

H 3552 General Bill, By Lourie, J.E. Smith, Rivers, Hosey, Altman, Anthony, 
  Dantzler, J. Hines, McCraw, Moody-Lawrence, Richardson, Scarborough and 
  Umphlett
A BILL TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION
47-1-45 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES AND ADULT PROTECTIVE
SERVICES EMPLOYEES MUST REPORT KNOWN OR SUSPECTED INSTANCES OF ANIMAL CRUELTY,
FIGHTING, OR BAITING, TO PROVIDE FOR IMMUNITY FROM LIABILITY FOR REPORTING
PURSUANT TO THIS SECTION, TO PROVIDE THAT ANY VETERINARIAN OR OTHER PERSON MAY
REPORT SUSPECTED ANIMAL CRUELTY, FIGHTING, OR BAITING, AND TO PROVIDE FOR
IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR REPORTING PURSUANT TO THIS
SECTION; TO AMEND SECTION 20-7-510, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PERSONS REQUIRED OR
PERMITTED TO REPORT CHILD ABUSE OR NEGLECT, SO AS TO INCLUDE AN OFFICER OR AGENT
OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS OR OF A
SOCIETY INCORPORATED FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS AND AN ANIMAL
CONTROL OFFICER WITHIN THE SECTION AND MAKE A TECHNICAL CORRECTION; AND TO AMEND
SECTION 43-35-25, RELATING TO PERSONS REQUIRED TO REPORT ABUSE, NEGLECT, OR
EXPLOITATION OF VULNERABLE ADULTS, SO AS TO INCLUDE AN OFFICER OR AGENT OF THE
SOUTH CAROLINA SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS OR OF A SOCIETY
INCORPORATED FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS OR AN ANIMAL CONTROL
OFFICER WITHIN THE SECTION.

   02/11/03  House  Introduced and read first time HJ-7
   02/11/03  House  Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-8
   04/09/03  House  Committee report: Favorable Judiciary HJ-7
   04/10/03  House  Read second time HJ-17
   04/10/03  House  Unanimous consent for third reading on next
                     legislative day HJ-20
   04/11/03         Scrivener's error corrected
   04/11/03  House  Read third time and sent to Senate
   04/15/03  Senate Introduced and read first time
   04/15/03  Senate Referred to Committee on Agriculture and Natural
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