Re: HELP: local Wildlife Deformities

["Jon Campbell" <jon@cqs.com>]

Tony,

       Someone should be talking to Theo Colborn (Sierra Club, I believe?)
about this. This is the kind of thing that led to the publication of Our
Stolen Future. Anyone in contact with Theo???

Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Tweedale <ttweed@wildrockies.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <dioxin-l@essential.org>
Date: Thursday, February 12, 1998 1:24 PM
Subject: HELP: local Wildlife Deformities


>12 Feb. 97
>
>I am searching for qualified ecotox (toxicologists, wildlife biologists,
>etc.) people interested in (and in helping out) in a very curious
>ecological mystery with ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION clues.
>
>In the beautiful and famed Bitterroot valley of SW Montana (Lewis & Clark's
>toughest traverse:  over the Bitterroots into Idaho's Salmon-Selway Rivers
>wilderness), longtime wildlife rehabilitator Judy Hoy has been carefully
>documenting a wide range / large number of congenital and existing physical
>abnormalities in wildlife since spring '96.
>
>Because of her careful work (besides the written & photographic
>documentation, she has saved whole animals and fetuses, excised genitals
>and other parts), Judy has gotten the MT-FWP Dpt. to investigate (autopsy
>based) the problem.  I have read MT-FWP's recent brief report and
>conclusions, and it simply does NOT correspond with reality, as documented
>by Judy.  Aside from glaring inconsistencies in the discussion &
>conclusion, it apparently contains critical errors in the gross
>pathological examinations, such as descriptions of contents of bags that do
>not correspond with what Judy mailed, and descriptions of tissues as normal
>that Judy says she cannot understand).
>
>The GOOD NEWS is, MT-FWP has banked (frozen) certain tissues, including
>livers, from Judy's animals, so it is still possible to do chemical and
>micro biological analysis on them.
>
>In brief (and only roughly accurate & complete, as I'm not intimately
>familiar with her results), Judy and her husband, who come across many
>road-killed and other mammals, amphibians and birds; began seeing mid-line
>and genital anomalies in deer, and developmental & other problems in birds.
>Inbreeding in deer has easily been ruled out, given the populations here.
>Many deer had (I've seen some of the pictures) rotated, misplaced and
>shrunken genitals.  In this regard, MT-FWP's explanations--caused by the
>physical impact with cars & trucks, or wrt to rotation of genitals, that it
>is natural--do not stand scrutiny.  Enlarged teats growing in front of a
>scrotum, or a scrotum sack that is way out of place are NOT caused when you
>are run over on a road!  Judy says the abnormal scrotum rotations she
>observed did not straighten when the legs were spread (normal).  Other
>cases involved shrunken and undescended genitals.  Some fetuses had
>apparently skull & skeletal malformations.
>
>In summer of '97, baby birds had overgrown (not deformed, by Xray) lower
>mandibles (one w/ crossed mandibles), and 8 had one foot twisted so that
>they walked on its side; some birds had unusual feather development.  At
>this time people were reporting dead babies in nests, reduced #'s of
>fledglings, and single nestings (in starlings).  Amphibians:  2 foot and
>one leg deformities were known to Judy.  Also at this time, people observed
>missing/severely depressed generations, and dead young, in various  small
>mammal and raptor species.
>
>All this naturally suggests a hypothesis of pesticide exposure.  Judy has
>documented recent patterns of pesticide use in the valley.  She has also
>gathered some reports of human birth defects in this period, and possible
>increased rates of domestic animal miscarriages and abnormal offspring,
>including some quite feminized (physically & behaviorally) goats.
>
>Judy has just contacted various professionals for help, but at this point
>anyway is still frustrated and wants more advice and input (Judy has no
>email).  If you are qualified and willing to help, please contact me. I
>would be happy to snail mail MT-FWP's report .  Anyone who wants her two
>summary reports ('96, '97), I will Email them to you, or send you the FWP
>report if you really want/need it.  Please pass this report on to anyone
>qualified to lend advice on how to proceed with this problem.  Regards,
>
>Tony Tweedale
>224  E. Pine (2)
>Missoula MT 59802-4541
>tel: 406-542-1709               fax: 406-728-0867       email:
>ttweed@wildrockies.org
>
>(Causality is a concept not subject to empirical demonstration.   -David
>Hume, 1711-1776)
>
>
>
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