tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410142.post-753756222002-04-13T19:31:00.000-07:002002-04-19T21:16:23.000-07:00URGENT: Legislative Alert Stop Massive Wildlife Slaughter by the EPA Wild animals in the U.S. need the government to protect them, not force toxic chemicals down their throats. Yet this is exactly what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to do as part of its "endocrine disruptor screening program." Last month, the EPA unveiled plans to kill as many as 20,000 birds, plus thousands of other animals, just to develop a new series of chemical-poisoning tests in wildlife. If these cruel tests are not abandoned, their use will spell hideous suffering and death for tens of millions of wild animals. When Congress told the EPA to develop a screening program to identify chemicals that may affect the endocrine (hormonal) system, it specifically called for chemicals to be screened for health effects in humans. The six wildlife-poisoning tests that the EPA is now proposing have nothing to do with studying human health effects. In addition, the EPA admits that it will never be able to establish the relevance of these tests to other wildlife species, even though the EPA is specifically required to use only "appropriate validated test methods" (which includes establishing their relevance to the species of interest) in its endocrine program. <a href="http://peta.org/alert/automation/AlertItem.asp?id=399">click here to read the full report</a>, then <a href="http://bennelson.senate.gov/email.html">click here to send a polite email to Senator Nelson</a> <a href="http://hagel.senate.gov/email/contact.html">click here to send a polite email to Senator Hagel</a> <a href="http://www.house.gov/bereuter/contact.htm">click here for contact information on Congressman Bereuter</a>knoreply@blogger.com