Peta

Rockville-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in an attempt to force the agency to release records of tests conducted on animals in a head-injury study.PETA, in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, is requesting copies of documents from the study, being conducted at the University of Pennsylvania with a $523,185 grant from NIH.PETA says the documents will provide more information on the methods used to inflict the injuries.

It is irresponsible to claim, as the letter writer from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) does, that eating meat is equivalent to smoking cigarettes ("Unhealthful foods kill more Americans every year than tobacco," May 13). In moderation, eating meat is perfectly fine. Studies of the supposed link between meat and cancer regularly find statistically weak or no associations. That's nowhere approaching the level of risk from cigarettes on lung cancer, which range upward of 20-fold.

More than 200 rabbits were seized from a Calvert County rescue because of poor living conditions, police said Thursday. A veterinarian, accompanying the Calvert County Sheriff's Office, determined that 43 rabbits were healthy enough to stay at the Bunny Magic Rabbit Rescue and Wildlife Rehabilitation in the 1300 block of Tongue Cove Lane in Lusby, police said. The veterinarian examined the rabbits and determined that 222 needed further medical care. A woman who answered the phone at the rescue Thursday said she had no comment.

You know how they say it's a jungle out there? Well, its worse than you think. Zoo-chosis is an epidemic.What is zoochosis? As a certified PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Zoochecker, I feel that I am qualified to inform you. Zoochosis, apparently derived from psychosis, is mental illness in caged animals.My first field experience as a Zoo-checker occurred in August. I was in Washington, and decided to go check out the National Zoo. Naturally, I went to see the giant panda.

A few minutes after 1 o'clock yesterday, a small Chevrolet whipped around the side of the Baltimore Convention Center and came to a stop.Two white rabbits and their companion, a dusky-colored mouse, leaped out of the car with sledgehammers in hand and TC proceeded to bludgeon the car to bits during the next half-hour.The costumed performers were calling attention to the General Motors Corp.'s use of animals in the testing of its products. They were members of the Rockville-based animal rights group known as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, which staged the protest outside the annual International Auto Show to embarrass thecar manufacturer.

A day after Jada Pinkett Smith sent a heartfelt letter to Baltimore's mayor, pleading for her to stand up for circus elephants she believes are being abused, circus officials called the actress "completely misguided. " "She doesn't know the first thing about elephants or about how to take care of them," Stephen Payne, the spokesperson for Ringling Bros., told Baltimore Insider Wednesday. "She's completely misguided. " In a letter dated Tuesday, Jada Pinkett Smith wrote to the mayor, "as a mother and proud Baltimore native," asking her to stop the circus from using devices called bullhooks to prod the elephants into performing.

Eight people, including a woman who wore a giant white bunny suit and handcuffed herself to the Loews Annapolis Hotel, were arrested yesterday during a protest against the Gillette Co.'s use of animals in product testing.Gillette officials were in town for a safety and regulatory meeting, said People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which organized the protest.PETA says Gillette burns animals' skin and eyes when testing products ranging from liquid paper to shaving cream.The eight were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.

A female polar bear confiscated by federal authorities yesterday from a circus in Puerto Rico will be given a new home - in Baltimore. The bear, named Alaska, was expected to arrive at the Baltimore Zoo this morning after being seized from the Suarez Bros. Circus by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency took the bear after an investigation into improper permitting practices found that the Mexico-based circus had illegal permits when Alaska was brought into Puerto Rico. The circus allegedly submitted fraudulent birth documents to Puerto Rican government officials indicating Alaska was born at Zoo Atlanta - but that zoo had evidence the bear listed on the permits had died in 1994 at a zoo in Germany.

THOUGHTS for the day:"Inequality exists. So do discrimination and sexism. A true power feminism would urge women to stand their ground and fight against the individuals who commit these offenses. A truly new feminism would recognize an old truth: the man who does not take his female co-worker seriously because of her sex is a jerk, not a part of systematic oppression of women by the 'opposition.' "-- Karina Rollins in The Public Interest, Summer 1994.* * *FILM and TV superstar Mary Tyler Moore is so disgusted by fur that she shipped her sable coat and hat to PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals]

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith is appealing directly to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on behalf of elephants. In a letter dated Tuesday, the actress said she was appealing to the mayor "as a mother and proud Baltimore native. " Pinkett Smith wanted to make sure no elephants were jabbed with bullhooks during the upcoming performance of Ringling Bros. Circus' at 1st Mariner Arena. She reminded Rawlings-Blake of the city's law against any “mechanical, electrical, or manualdevice that is likely to cause physical injury or suffering” to a performing animal.