Tree-Sit 6 Month Anniversary on May 7th

there was someone still up there. weird.

and the new mchenry extension is beautiful, you guys should come down and check it out!

Please supply documentation, not just a link to another website, of any research involving vivisection up at UCSC.

We've been through this before. Vivisection in not taking place on the UCSC campus.

Period.

http://vivarium.ucsc.edu/rates.html
http://carc.ucsc.edu/review.html
http://finaff.ucsc.edu/cc/ARH/HSanimal.htm

http://vivarium.ucsc.edu/polyclonal.html

The USDA has determined that PAYMENT FOR or OWNERSHIP of the rabbit used in antibody production confers responsibility for the humane care of the animal.

Should the antibody production contract not stipulate that the rabbit remains under the ownership of the antibody producer and/or that the university researcher gets invoiced for the rabbit, then the researcher and the university are responsible for the humane care of the rabbit.

An example of an acceptable contract follows:

Assurances and Declarations between Principal Investigator and Pocono Rabbit Farm and Laboratory, Inc.

I have provided an accurate description of the animal care and use to be followed in the proposed research activity. I give assurance that this protocol does not unnecessarily duplicate previous experiments. I also give assurance that no biohazardous or radioactive materials, toxic, carcinogenic, infectious, or transmissible agents have been given to Pocono Rabbit Farm and Laboratory, Inc. (PRF&L) for injection into animals. I understand that the antigen I supply to PRF&L will be used to produce custom antisera in an animal(s). THIS ANIMAL(S) WILL BE OWNED SOLELY BY PRF&L. THE ANIMAL WILL RESIDE ONLY AT PRF&L. THE ANIMAL(S) WILL NOT BE OWNED BY THE INVESTIGATOR, INVESTIGATOR'S INSTITUTION, AND/OR GRANTING AGENCY. However, all of the serum and other products obtained from the animal(s) will not be owned by PRF&L, but will be the property of the investigator. When I determine that it is time to terminate my project, PRF&L will euthanize the animal(s) according to Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approved methods. I have also read and understand the information as presented in this Protocol Review Form for the Production of Polyclonal Antibodies in Vertebrate Animals.

http://www.prfal.com/protocolforrabbits.php

The documents supplied say nothing about "vivisection". I would suggest you look up the definition of the word "vivarium" and the word "vivisection" to find out what the difference is. They are quite different and have nothing to do with each other.

I hate to say it, but where are all the comments about this?
Did anyone show up for the vigil on the 8th?

The comments are being deleted because they do not support this action. They don't like what's being said so they just delete it. Censorship at it's very worst! And no one showed up for the supposed 6 month support vigil. The only ones who haven't figured out this is a waste of time and has lost all support, are still in the trees. Guess they've been too busy making the trees look like a homeless camp and actually doing more harm to the trees that they claim to be trying to save. The pictures posted show this all too well.

Even if it's not vivisection, there is definitely a diversity of arguments against the LRDP; lots of people are unhappy (the county, the city, the Sierra Club, student social activists, communities potentially displaced by gentrification, biologists, undergraduates, faculty) for a lot of different reasons (ecological destruction, the loss of emphasis on undergraduate programs, gentrification, the lack of space for an ethnic studies department, the emphasis on expansion instead of living wages for workers, traffic impacts that the university has refused to mitigate, impacts on water resources that the university has refused to mitigate). It is unfortunate that the university was unwilling to engage in meaningful conversation with the people that its expansion affects.

And if you want to argue that those who oppose the expansion are anti-education, do a bit more research. There so many ways that the UC can expand to fit more students and most of those without the whole host of discontents.

The tree-sit did not pop out of a void; the tree-sit was a last desperate attempt to stop something that seemed otherwise inevitable.

Much love to the folks in the trees and those who support them!
Stay strong.

I understand one of the students charged with disciplinary proceedings went to a closed hearing at the University Inn last week. Any reports on that?

Those poor trees look like they are getting trashed. You can see where the bark has suffered damage. Some of the limbs are looking as if they have been broken as well. Breaks in the bark and on the limbs can invite parasitic hosts to start invading the interior of the tree and start wreaking havoc on the overall health of the plant. It is not unlikely that the trees could be irreparably damaged and need to be brought down for safety reasons.
These people should think about what they are doing. Why fight to save something if you might kill it in the process?

It was canceled on Monday. The kangaroo court disciplinary process continues, but the UCSC bureaucrats are treading carefully least some "violent protest" erupt.

The trees look pretty beat up, even the ones without sitters in them. Meanwhile UCSC just got $7 mil for a stem cell research in the biomedical science bldg,

It's possible that people are not showing up any longer due to the sign that was posted under the warning about falling debris. It states that if you assist the sitters you are breaking the law. With graduation here, are any of those graduating going to risk a last minute dismissal? Other students might not be wanting to show up because they want to return in the fall.
That second sign went up and people stopped showing up. Kind of shows you how passionate people are about this issue.

There is a question I have asked myself since this protest started and gained so much support from certain sections of the student population. After graduating from UCSC, how many of those supporting this protest will check out the track record of possible employers? Before accepting a well paying job will a student check to see that no trees were cut down in order to build the corporate headquarters? Will they check to make sure that all people involved with the construction of the headquarters were well paid and had insurance? Will they check to make sure that no employees are being paid less then a "living wage"? Will they check to see how much of the company profits are given to charities and non profits, and the quality of those organizations? Will they check to make sure that their future boss lives in an eco-friendly home where no trees or plant life were disturbed for them to live in luxury?
Or will they over look the other way in order to get a job and pay back their student loans?
It's a fair question.

That above comment is a good question. Will the passion for this cause follow the students into their career. Will the same quest for doing the right thing still come in to play once a paycheck needs to be made.

FYI - If you're OK with the arts getting corporate funding but not OK with science and engineering getting the same you should take a long hard look at yourselves (Bradley, Jennifer Charles, Owl, et al).