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Dear CASPIAN Members and Supporters,

I have big news! A lawsuit has been filed against pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. and implant maker Digital Angel over a cancerous tumor that formed around a HomeAgain pet ID microchip. The victim was a cat named Bulkin, who miraculously survived the ordeal after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.

We are breaking the news today on our brand new www.ChipMeNot.com website, featuring Bulkin’s story, along with a copy of the lawsuit. Our press release, which has already gone out to thousands of media outlets and personal press contacts, is posted below, and at
http://www.chipmenot.org/mercksued.htm.

The Boston Globe has already picked up our story:
http://www.boston.com/community/pets/articles/2010/10/13/suit_alleges_tracking_chip_caused_cancer_in_cat/

As has Bruce Sterling of Wired:
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/10/arphid-watch-rfid-implant-lawsuit-for-a-cat/

Steven Wise, the attorney who filed the suit, will be a guest on my radio show tomorrow (Thursday 10/14) at 5:00 PM Eastern to discuss the case. (See: www.KatherineAlbrecht.com for details on how to stream the show live online, or catch the archives afterwards.)

Our new website, ChipMeNot.com, is an adverse reaction registry where pet owners can report harm caused by implanted microchips. It features Bulkin’s story and the stories of other other cats, dogs, mice, rats, and small animals that have been injured — and even killed — by implanted chips.

Our inspiration for the website came from Seamus and Scotty, the two brave dogs that died from microchip-induced tumors earlier this year, Charlie Brown, the adorable chihuahua who bled to death in his owners’ arms last year, and Leon the bulldog whose owner first alerted us to the cancer problem. We pay tribute to their memory through this new website, and pray that by telling their stories we can help protect other pets from their fate.

As you can imagine, it has taken months of hard work to put the website together. I want to thank our unflappable graduate intern Lidiya Prorochuk, tenacious pet owners Howard Gillis and Linda Hawkins, our steadfast volunteer Brian Wiegand, our fountain of knowledge Jeanne, and our cheerful webmaster Robin Abbate for a job extraordinarily well done.

I also want to thank each of you — the CASPIAN members, supporters, and radio show listeners who regularly send prayers, encouragement, and financial support to keep us going. You guys are what makes it possible for us to work on important issues like this.

In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, Ed.D.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 13, 2010

MERCK SUED: HomeAgain® PET CHIP IMPLICATED IN CANCER
New website, ChipMeNot.com, features details on cancer case and other adverse reactions

Online at: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2100/01/prweb4643884.htm
and http://www.chipmenot.org/mercksued.htm.

Nashua, NH — Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. has been served with a lawsuit over claims its HomeAgain® pet microchip induced cancer in a cat. Animal rights attorney Steven Wise seeks “reasonable compensatory damages” for a malignant tumor “likely” induced by a HomeAgain® ID chip implanted in his client’s cat, Bulkin.

The complaint, “Andrea Rutherford v. Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. and Digital Angel, Inc.” (case # 1052CV1147) was filed last week in Cambridge (MA) District Court. The complaint named implant maker Digital Angel Corporation as a co-defendant.

“Based on the alarming number of microchip-linked cancers we’re discovering, I predict this lawsuit will be just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Katherine Albrecht, a consumer advocate and expert on adverse reactions associated with implantable microchips.

Bulkin’s case is featured at www.ChipMeNot.com, a new website launched by Albrecht’s consumer group CASPIAN to bring attention to the plight of animals who have developed cancer and other adverse reactions from ID microchips. Albrecht documents several of these cases in “Microchip-Induced Tumors in Laboratory Rodents and Dogs: A Review of the Literature 1990–2006,” a peer-reviewed academic paper she presented at a June conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers devoted to concerns about implantable microchips.

Albrecht’s paper and a copy of the complaint are also posted at www.ChipMeNot.com. The site, co-developed with graduate intern Lidiya Prorochuk, spotlights a growing number of adverse reactions to microchips, including the chip-related cancer deaths of two dogs within the past year. The site also features a form where pet owners can report adverse microchip reactions, since there is currently no official registry in the US to collect such data.

“Merck and organizations that advocate pet chipping should take this lawsuit seriously and start warning pet owners of the risk of microchip-induced cancer,” Albrecht advised. “As Andrea Rutherford and other pet owners can tell you, it’s not a statistic when it’s your pet.”

Highly aggressive tumors developed around the microchip implants of two American dogs, killing one of the pets and leaving the other terminally ill. Their owners — and pathology and autopsy reports — have suggested a link between the chips and the formation of the fast-growing cancers.

In the town of Paeonian Springs, Va., a five-year-old male Bullmastiff named Seamus died in February, nine months after developing a “hemangio-sarcoma” — a rare, malignant form of cancer that strikes connective tissues and can kill even humans in three to six months. The tumor appeared last May between the dog’s shoulder blades where a microchip had been implanted; by September, a “large mass” had grown with the potential to spread to the lungs, liver and spleen, according a pathology report from the Blue Ridge Veterinary Clinic in Purcellville, Va.

Originally scheduled to receive just a biopsy, Seamus underwent emergency surgery. A foot-long incision was opened to extract the 4-pound-3-ounce tumor, and four drains were needed to remove fluid where the tumor had developed.

When Howard Gillis, the dog’s owner, picked up his pet the following day, the attending veterinarian stunned him with this question: Did you know your dog had been microchipped twice, and that both chips were in or around the tumor?

“While we knew of one chip, which we had put in him at a free local county clinic, we knew nothing of a second chip,” Gillis said. “We believe one of them was put in Seamus by the breeder from whom we bought him when he was about nine months old.”

By December, the cancer was back — and the energetic, playful 150-pound dog was huffing and puffing, struggling to walk. Seamus “was 150 pounds of heart,” Gillis said in a recent interview. “He wanted to live.”

Gillis said he “got the microchip because I didn’t want him stolen. I thought I was doing right. There were never any warnings about what a microchip could do, but I saw it first-hand. That cancer was something I could see growing every day, and I could see it taking his life … It just ate him up.” To keep his beloved dog from suffering further, he had him put to sleep two months later.

In Memphis, a five-year-old Yorkshire Terrier named Scotty was diagnosed with cancer at the Cloverleaf Animal Clinic in December. A tumor between the dog’s shoulder blades — precisely where a microchip had been embedded — was described as malignant lymphoma. A tumor the size of a small balloon was removed; encased in it was a microchip.

Scotty was given no more than a year to live.

But the dog’s owner, Linda Hawkins, wasn’t satisfied with just a prognosis: She wanted to know whether the presence of the microchip had anything to do with Scotty’s illness. Initially, her veterinarian was skeptical that a chip implant could trigger cancer; research has shown that vaccine injections in dogs and cats can lead to tumors.

In a December pathology report on Scotty, Evan D. McGee wrote: “I was previously suspicious of a prior unrelated injection site reaction” beneath the tumor. “However, it is possible that this inflammation is associated with other foreign debris, possibly from the microchip.”

Observing the glass-encapsulated tag under a microscope, he noted it was partially coated with a translucent material, normally used to keep embedded microchips from moving around the body. “This coating could be the material inciting the inflammatory response,” McGee wrote.

Hawkins sent the pathology report to HomeAgain, the national pet recovery and identification network that endorses microchipping of pets. After having a vet review the document, the company said the chip did not cause Scotty’s tumor — then in January sent Hawkins a $300 check to cover her clinical expenses, no questions asked.

“I find it hard to believe that a company will just give away $300 to somebody who calls in, unless there is something bad going on,” Hawkins says.

Having spent $4,000 on medical treatment for Scotty since December, Hawkins accepted the money. But she says it hardly covers her $900 monthly outlays for chemotherapy and does little to ease her pet’s suffering.

“Scotty is just a baby. He won’t live the 15 years he’s supposed to …I did something I thought a responsible pet owner should — microchip your pet — and to think that it killed him … It just breaks your heart.”

Scotty and Seamus aren’t the only pets to have suffered adverse reactions from microchips. Published reports have detailed malignant tumors in two other chipped dogs; in one dog, the researchers said cancer appeared linked to the presence of the embedded chip; in the other, the cancer’s cause was uncertain.

Last year, a Chihuahua bled to death in the arms of his distraught owners in Agua Dulce, Calif., just hours after undergoing a chipping procedure. The veterinarian who performed the chipping confirmed that dog died from blood loss associated with the microchip.

In another case, a kitten died instantly when a microchip was accidentally injected into its brain stem. And in another, a cat was paralyzed when an implant entered its spinal column. The implants have been widely reported to migrate within animals’ bodies, and can cause abscesses and infection.

In 2007, The Associated Press reported on a series of veterinary and toxicology studies that found that microchip implants had “induced” malignant tumors in some lab animals. Published in veterinary and toxicology journals between 1996 and 2006, the studies found that between 1 and 10 percent of lab mice and rats injected with microchips developed malignant tumors, most of them encasing the implants.

For more information on the link between microchips and cancer, please read our report:
“Microchip-Induced Tumors in Laboratory Rodents and Dogs: A Review of the Literature 1990–2006″
by Katherine Albrecht, Ed.D.
http://www.antichips.com/cancer/index.html

To arrange an interview, please contact:
Katherine Albrecht, Ed.D.
Founder and Director, Antichips.com
kma@antichips.com

Bio:  Dr. Katherine Albrecht is a privacy expert who has writtern extensively on the topic of implanted microchips. She is an outspoken opponent of implantable microchips, RFID, and retail privacy invasion. Katherine has authored pro-privacy legislation, testified before lawmakers around the globe, written for numerous publications including Scientific American, and granted over 2,000 media interviews. Katherine is a syndicated radio host, bestselling author, and the U.S. spokesperson for www.Startpage.com, the world’s most private search engine. Katherine holds a doctorate in Education from Harvard University.

www.AntiChips.com // www.KatherineAlbrecht.com

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ABOUT CASPIAN

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes since 1999 and irresponsible RFID use since 2002. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their privacy and encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the retail spectrum.

http://www.spychips.com/
http://www.antichips.com/
http://www.nocards.org/

You’re welcome to duplicate and distribute this message to others who may find it of interest.

Big Brother has unfortunately been very busy this week. Here are some of the jaw-dropping news stories I covered on my radio show and have discussed on other programs across the country.

In freedom, K.A.

p.s. You can find my radio archives here:
http://www.katherinealbrecht.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=20&Itemid=129
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The CDC used shopper card data to track down food-borne illness I cut my teeth as an activist on shopper card privacy back in 1999, and I did my Harvard dissertation on the topic. So it’s no surprise the AP quoted me in this news story featured today on Drudge. This development bodes ill for the future of private food shopping.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100311/ap_on_sc/us_shopper_card_sleuths

The biometric worker ID card – Just two steps from a chip in your hand First a national ID card. Then RFID spychipped national IDs, like they now have in China. After that? The chip gets implanted in YOU.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/10/immigration-reform-effort-emerges-new-senate/

“Cancer-chips” claim two more doggie victims Our AntiChips organization (www.Antichips.com ) is about to issue a press release revealing about two MORE verified cases of cancer in dogs that appeared around implanted microchips. One dog sadly died last month, the other is undergoing intensive chemotherapy.

Mandatory chip implants for all dogs in England The British government wants all dogs in the UK numbered and implanted — or their owners will be punished.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/09/dangerous-dogs-microchips-insurance

Our bestselling documentary “Shadow Government” is now even easier to get!
Now available for phone orders at 1-800-End-Time, or signed copies available here:
http://www.katherinealbrecht.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3362&Itemid=94
(They are signed by me, since I was the film’s Supervising Producer

Deadline to comment on Electronic Health Records is Monday The rule-making comment period for this particular phase is set to expire on March 15, 2010 @ 17:00 ET.   Here is the link to submit public comments:
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a7c4a8

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This news update is brought to you by STARTPAGE, the world’s most private search engine
www.Startpage.com
Unlike Google, Yahoo, and Bing, Startpage does not store your IP address or make a record of your searches.
“Privacy is our business. Your searches aren’t. Start protecting your privacy with Startpage.”
www.Startpage.com
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Flashback: Google Dossiers on US Citizens Make KGB Files Look Like Kindergarten.  The Solution? Stop using Google, Yahoo, and Bing, and switch to Startpage.com, the private search engine alternative.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=123391
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ABOUT CASPIAN

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes since 1999 and irresponsible RFID use since 2002. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their privacy and encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the retail spectrum.

http://www.spychips.com/
http://www.antichips.com/
http://www.nocards.org/

You’re welcome to duplicate and distribute this message to others who may find it of interest.

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To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Caspian-newsletter-l mailing list, click the following link or copy and paste it into your browser:
http://mailman.nocards.org/mailman/listinfo/caspian-newsletter-l

If you have difficulty with the web-based interface, you may also subscribe or unsubscribe via email by writing to:
admin@nocards.org

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Dear friends and supporters:

The September issue of Scientific American magazine features an in-depth, illustrated article I wrote on RFID privacy and security threats. You can find it on newsstands and at bookstores everywhere, or read the article online here:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-rfid-tags-could-be-used

The entire issue is dedicated to Privacy, and the editors did a stellar job of identifying key issues on many fronts. I urge you to read the rest of the magazine here:

http://www.sciam.com/sciammag/

Scientific American is one of the oldest and most respected publications in America. It was an honor to be featured with so many of my colleagues and respected experts.

In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, Ed.D.

P.S. Note that the print version of the magazine has beautiful layout and photos that are not available in the online version. The Scientific American website offers a $4.95 downloadable PDF of the entire magazine if you can’t get a newsstand copy but would still like to see it in all its illustrated glory.

=====================================================================
ABOUT CASPIAN

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes since 1999 and irresponsible RFID use since 2002. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their privacy and encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the retail spectrum.

http://www.spychips.com/
http://www.antichips.com/
http://www.nocards.org/

You’re welcome to duplicate and distribute this message to others who may find it of interest.

=====================================================================

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Caspian-newsletter-l mailing list, click the following link or copy and paste it into your browser:
http://mailman.nocards.org/mailman/listinfo/caspian-newsletter-l

Þegar martraðir rætast gæti þessi stuttmynd líka heitið.  Hún fjallar um RFID, almennt og á Íslandi og hvaða leiðir íslendingar eru að fara.  Við höfum breytt neyslumunstri okkar svo mikið á undangengnum áratugum að við höfum galopnað leiðina að eftirlitsþjóðfélagi sem Orwell hefði gjarnan viljað rannsaka sem uppfyllingu spásýnar hans úr bókinni ´1984´.  

Núna í mai 2008 ganga í gildi lög í Bandaríkjunum sem kveða á um öll skilríki hafi RFID-flögu sem inniheldur öll gögn um einstaklinginn: social-security númerið, fingrafar ofl.  Án þessa korts fær ENGINN að stofna bankareikning, stíga um borð í flugvél eða milliríkjalest, honum verður meinaður aðgangur að ÖLLUM opinberum byggingum á vegum ríkisins.  Enginn mun geta keypt eða selt?

Möguleikarnir sem snúa að okkur neytendum eru verulega frábrugðnir hagsmunum markaðarins.  Við stöndum alltaf frammi fyrir því vali að velja okkur leið.  Mér rennur kalt vatn milli skinns og hörunds við tilhugsunina um stóra bróður hér í öllu sínu veldi.