Marine Mammal Bills

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

WASHINGTON D.C. ––
Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and 19
co-sponsors have introduced a bill to
restrict dolphin exports, institute an
identification and tracking system,
limit lethal research on marine mam-
mals, and impose a moratorium on cap-
tures pending a review and revision of
care standards. If the bill, H.R. 656,
wins sufficient Congressional support,
language from it may be incorporated
into the Marine Mammal Protection
Act, which is up for renewal this year.

CHILDREN AND ANIMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

1,000 selected elementary
schools are now evaluating Best
Friends, a curriculum guide developed
by the American Kennel Club. The
guide “introduces elementary school
students to the world of purebred dogs
and teaches responsible dog owner-
ship,” according to a press release.
Included are lesson plans in the areas of
reading, writing, math, art, and oral
presentation. After the trial period, the
guide will be offered––free––to all
schools. For details, call 212-696-8336.

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Vivisection

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

A page one expose in The New York Times on March 23 reviewed the mounting evi-
dence that animal testing is not a valid means of measuring human risk from exposure to tox-
ins––especially carcinogens. The Clinton administration is believed likely to reduce governmen-
tal reliance on animal studies in assessing public health risks.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on March 24 lifted a 16-year-old ban on the
use of female volunteers in drug safety testing. Imposed to protect unborn children, the ban had
the effect of exposing women to greater risks from new drugs––and increased the number of
female animals used in developing some drugs.

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Humane Enforcement

Miami primate trafficker
Matthew Block abruptly withdrew his
guilty plea March 16 in connection with
arranging the 1990 Bangkok Six orang-
utan smuggling incident, in which three
orangutans of a shipment of six died en
route from Borneo to Yugoslavia. The
shipment was intercepted in Thailand.
Block pulled out, apparently, because of
the likelihood he would draw jail time.

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HUNTING

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The Federation of Ontario
Naturalists reports that 95% of spring bear
hunters in the province are Americans, from
states that ban spring bear hunting. In 1991,
Ontario spring bear hunters killed 6,760 bears,
9% of the estimated provincial population. A
third of the bears were females. Only 30% of
cubs who lose their mothers live to age one.
“All too many Alaska hunters are
lazy, ill-mannered, beer-guzzling, belly-
scratching fat boys, or girls,” Anchorage
Daily News outdoors editor Craig Medred
opined recently, “who want nothing more
than to ride around on their favorite piece of
high-powered machinery until they find some-
thing to shoot full of holes with their high-
powered rifle.” Medred also attacked the

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Fur

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Preliminary data indicates U.S.
trapping license sales fell to 147,000 dur-
ing the winter of 1992-1993, down from
191,000 in 1991-1992; 230,000 in 1990-
1991; and 338,000 in 1987-1988, when
U.S. trappers sold 19 million pelts. This
past winter they sold just 2.5 million.
Trapping was a $10 million a
year industry in Louisiana during the
early 1980s, but is now earning only $1
million a year. Trying to revive the boom,
state Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries biologist Greg Linscombe
recently told Newsweek that damage to
bayous caused by Hurricane Andrew was
actually the fault of allegedly overpopu-
lating nutria. Nutria are muskrat-like
South American aquatic mammals
brought to Louisiana by fur farmers about
70 years ago––and are a favorite food of
alligators. The Louisiana Department of
Wildlife and Fisheries, removes 75,000
alligator eggs a year from the bayous to
stock alligator farms.

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Eastern cougar lives!

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick––Natural Resources minister Alan Graham
announced March 1 that droppings and paw prints found near the village of Juniper are
those of an eastern cougar. The cougar was tracked by provincial biologists who had been
taught to recognize the elusive signs of a big cat’s presence by members of Friends of
Eastern Panther, led by Sue Morse of Jericho, Vermont.
The eastern cougar, or catamount, is closely related to the puma, the Texas
cougar, and the Florida panther, but may be either tawny or jet black. Once present
throughout the east, the cougar was officially extirpated from its last known habitat in
Quebec in 1863, from Vermont in 1881, and from Ontario in 1884––but then one last
specimen was shot in Vermont in 1907. After that, there were no more cougars until a
New Brunswick hunter shot one in 1938.

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Zoos & Aquariums

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The World Society for the Protection of Animals recently liberated Flipper, the
last captive dolphin in Brazil, near where he was captured in 1982. Before the release,
Flipper was reaquainted with life in the ocean under the supervision of Ric O’Barry of the
Dolphin Project––who also trained his namesake, the star of the Flipper TV program. Brazil
banned keeping marine mammals in captivity in 1991. The Brazilian Flipper spent the past
two years in solitude at an abandoned amusement park near Sao Paulo, and was kept alive
by the local fire department, who used their pumper truck to change his water after the filtra-
tion system in his tank deteriorated beyond repair.
Colorado’s Ocean Journey, the proposed aquarium to be built in Denver,
recently tried to head off protest by claiming it would include “only third generation captive-
born dolphins.” Pointed out David Brower, president of Earth Island Institute, “There are
no third-generation captive-born dolphins anywhere.” The Coors Brewing Company recent-
ly retreated from the dolphin controversy. According to a prepared statement issued
February 15, “Contrary to rumors and recent advertisements, Coors does not ‘want to bring
dolphins to Denver.’ Our support of this project is not focused on, nor dependent on,
cetaceans.”

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WILDLIFE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Babbitt moves on endangered species
Newly appointed Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt lost no time
demonstrating a new approach to endan-
gered species protection. As President Bill
Clinton scheduled a Forest Summit for
April 2, in hopes of resolving the long
impasse over northern spotted owl habitat
and old growth logging in the Pacific
Northwest, Babbitt on March 13 appointed
noted conservation biologists Thomas
Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution and
Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical
Garden to set up a national biological sur-
vey, which will map animal and plant habi-
tat much as the U.S. Geological Survey
maps topographical features. The habitat
map will be the first step toward reorienting
Endangered Species Act enforcement to
focus upon critical ecosystems, instead of
trying to save species on a slow, costly
case-by-case basis.

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