VAL protests the Bash

During the Pitt Program Council?s Bigelow Bash on Saturday, attendees had the chance to… During the Pitt Program Council?s Bigelow Bash on Saturday, attendees had the chance to interact and take photos with exotic animals, including a snake, a chinchilla and a monkey.

But Voices for Animal Liberation, a Pitt-based group that includes both community members and Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University students, spoke out against the animal exhibit.

Animals in traveling acts and exhibits ?endure constant stress? by being ?confined to tiny cages and gawked at by crowds,? VAL wrote in a letter sent to Vice-Provost and Dean of Student Affairs Jack Daniel and Izabell Musial, who was then the Pitt Program Council?s special events director.

Musial?s term ended after Bigelow Bash, which is when the term usually ends, according to PPC Student Service Specialist Tom Misuraca.

Musial and Daniel did not reply to messages left by The Pitt News yesterday.

The VAL letter, which was dated April 1, two days before Bigelow Bash, urged PPC to cancel the exhibit, which was called a ?sad and pathetic display of exploitation and inhumane treatment of captive wildlife.?

?The animals often suffer from temperature extremes, irregular feeding and watering, loneliness, lack of veterinary care … and loss of their freedom and independence,? the letter stated.

But VAL didn?t receive any responses from either Musial or Daniel, Candice Zawoiski, the community liaison for VAL, said.

On the day of Bigelow Bash, about 10 VAL members held a demonstration on the William Pitt Union patio facing Bigelow Boulevard.

However, Misuraca asked the group to leave University property if they wanted to continue demonstrating.

?If you want to do something as a student group, you have to reserve space to do it,? Misuraca said in an interview yesterday.

The group was told that they could demonstrate on the sidewalks of Forbes and Fifth Avenues, he said.

?If they?re out on the sidewalks, that?s their right [to protest],? he added.

VAL demonstrators moved to the sidewalks and passed out leaflets to passers-by.

Zawoiski said that many of the people posing with the animals probably were not aware of the conditions the animals lived in.

VAL also sent Musial and Daniel copies of some 1998 and 1999 USDA inspection reports of specific Animal Rentals, Inc. sites.

An April 1998 report of a site only referred to as Site 001 detailed a black lamb that was in ?need of immediate veterinary care.? The lamb was unable to stand and had not eaten or drank for at least three days. In the same report, a primate was described as having ?bare patches on his arms and across his hips.?

Misuraca defended PPC?s decision to use Animal Rental, Inc. by pointing out that the report was six years old.

?People get some things wrong and they correct them,? he said.

The following USDA report of the same site, taken in February of 1999, stated that the primate had been examined and the lamb had seen a veterinarian and was euthanized the day after the April report had been taken.

The primate was found to be in a ?relatively healthy condition for his age [of 26 years],? a North Avenue Animal Hospital document stated.

?There is no evidence of loss of hair due to self-trauma or mutilation,? it continued.

Misuraca said he called the local USDA inspection office and asked them to call him back if there was any problem with Animal Rental, Inc., and he didn?t receive a call back.

He also made sure Animal Rental, Inc. was certified by the government to display animals, Misuraca said.

PPC also received a fax from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as well as an e-mail from a Pitt alumnus who urged them not to have the exhibit, Misuraca said.

The students and advisors of PPC discussed the issue, he said, but the students decided to go ahead with the exhibit.

But Michael Groland, a CMU junior who demonstrated with VAL on Saturday, said that he is optimistic that VAL will get their message across to the campus.

VAL is also urging the PPC to adopt a formal, written policy that would ban live animal exhibits at PPC events.

Groland said that he is prepared to start a ?call-a-day? campaign in which VAL members call the offices of Daniel and the new PPC special events director, who Misuraca said will be Emily Yosd.