BOOKS: The War Against The Greens

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

The War Against The Greens, by David Helvarg. Sierra Club
Books (100 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 94104), 1994. 502 pages,
hardback, $25.00.
David Helvarg brought to The War
Against The Greens a background as a war
correspondent in Northern Ireland and
Central America. It serves him well as he
explains how unwitting followers of Che
Guevarra organize in logged-out U.S.
forests, revering not Karl Marx but Ronald
Reagan. Their hatred of “greenies” and
“yuppies” is a paradigm of class struggle,
pitting themselves as workers against bour-
geois “preservationists,” yet they remain as
blind to their own manipulation by rich for-
eign interests as the Marxists of decades past
were to manipulation by Moscow.
The War Against The Greens lives
up to the cover promise that it will expose,
“The ‘wise use’ movement, the new right,
and anti-environmental violence,” docu-
menting a staggering number of attacks––far
more, for instance, than the mere 313 inci-
dents, more than half of them petty vandal-
ism, that the FBI attributes to animal rights
activists over the past 15 years. Many of the
anti-green attacks also go well beyond any
deed of “animal rights terrorists” in degree
of violence toward human beings. Yet
except for the apparent murder of Karen
Silkwood as she tried to expose radiation
hazards at the Kerr-McGree uranium pro-
cessing plant in Oklahoma, anti-green
attacks have rarely drawn media attention.
For example, though I interviewed Vermont
and New Hampshire Earth First!ers Jeff
Elliot, Jamie Sayen, and Michael Vernon
several times between mid-1989 and mid-
1991, following up on stories that made the
regional news wires, I was previously
unaware that all three were burnt out of their
homes by arson during the same interval.
Strangely, Helvarg ignores vio-
lence against animal rights activists––and
takes no note of the Fran Trutt case, perhaps
the best-documented example of an alleged
corporate act of false provocation in many
years. In November 1988, Trutt was arrest-
ed while placing a pipe bomb in the U.S.
Surgical Corporation parking lot. A long-
time target of protest over use of dogs in
demonstrations of surgical staples, U.S.
Surgical publicized the deed as an act of
“animal rights terrorism,” but Trutt turned
out to have only peripheral involvement with
animal rights; was given the money to buy
the bomb and driven to the site by Marc
Mead, an undercover agent for a private
security firm employed by U.S. Surgical;
and was actively encouraged in the plot
since the preceding April by Marylou
Sapone, another agent of the same firm.
Earlier, Sapone had tried unsuccessfully to
interest a variety of other animal lovers,
anarchists, Earth First!ers, and just plain
nuts in bombing U.S. Surgical.
Helvarg’s omission of this and
other animal-related cases is ultimately as
disturbing as his recitation of attacks on peo-
ple addressing land use conflicts and toxic
waste disposal. It seems to signify that the
wise-users have convinced mainstream envi-
ronmentalists to disassociate themselves
from animal people even when animal peo-
ple take the heat for environmentalist goals
and tactics, as in many conflicts involving
endangered species.
“To date the Wise Use / Property
Rights backlash has been a bracing if dan-
gerous reminder to environmentalists that
power concedes nothing without a demand,”
Helvarg concludes. “Only in the cynical
argot of Washington where ‘perception is
realtiy’ could a corporate-sponsored envi-
ronmental backlash successfully sell itself as
a populist movement. Despite an intimidat-
ing combination of local thugs and national
phone/fax guerillas, the anti-enviros lack
the broad middle, either ideologically or in
terms of real numbers.”
Yet since The War Against The
G r e e n s appeared, the anti-enviros at least
think they’ve captured Congress. Helvarg
may be right that the public will ultimately
reject Wise Use, but now it’s open season
on the Endangered Species Act. One hopes
the enviros won’t consider it as expendible
as they apparently consider the animal pro-
tection movement.

Predator control guised as rabies protection: EPA rejects Texas bid to bring back Compound 1080

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

AUSTIN––The Texas Department of Agriculture thought
it might sneak reauthorized Compound 1080 predator poisoning past
the Environmental Protection Agency and an unaware public in the
guise of rabies control. It nearly succeeded.
One of the deadliest chemicals ever deployed against
wildlife, with no known antidote, 1080 is actually a trade name for
sodium fluoroacetate, developed by the Nazis as a nerve gas during
World War II. It came to the attention of the U.S Animal Damage
Control program in 1946, after the now defunct American Journal of
Public Health published the results of LD50 testing done on human
prisoners. Impressed with the lethality and ease of use of 1080, the
ADC quickly adapted it for use against coyotes, killing
millions––along with greater millions of nontarget species, accord-
ing to ADC records, and an average of about one human being per
year. High-profile cases of misuse brought the deaths of three small
children and a firefighter, in separate incidents. Finally, in February
1972, then-U.S. president Richard Nixon banned 1080 by executive
order from both federal use and any application on federal land.

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Wildlife

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

Trafficking
At least six sao las died dur-
ing 1994 due to human contact, from a
population of under 200, reports David
Hulse, World Wildlife Fund representa-
tive in Vietnam. A goat-like bovine with
horns like those of an antelope, the sao la
was only discovered in 1992. The sao la
was quickly protected by law, but TV
crews offering bounties for the chance to
videotape one have inspired poor vil-
lagers to try to trap them. “It has become
very hard for us to protect our animals,”
Viet wildlife officer Le Du Thuan recent-
ly told New York Times c o r r e s p o n d e n t
Philip Shenon. “In the 1970s we had
3,000 tigers, and now maybe we have
200. We had 300 rhinos in 1975; now
we have between 10 and 25. There are
now so many smugglers. And the prob-
lem is getting worse, not better, because
the demand from mainland China is
growing, because China is getting rich.”
The demand isn’t only from the mainland,
however. Observed an anonymous mer-
chant, “The Taiwanese people like
Vietnam because they know there are still
many animals in the forest here.
Sometimes they buy these animals to eat
them, sometimes for medicine. This is a
very good business for us,” while it lasts.
Rebuffed in a bid to lift t h e
six-year-old global ban on ivory traffick-
ing at the November meeting of the
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species, Zimbabwean direc-
tor of national parks and wildlife Willie
Nduku told media on December 2 that his
government has declined offers of up to
$30 million U.S. for its 30-metric-ton
ivory stockpile. Some of the ivory has
been confiscated from smugglers; the rest
from government “culling.”
Partly due to the ban on ele-
phant ivory sales and partly because
elephants are now scarce, ivory poach-
ers have turned to hippos, whose tooth
vory––more brittle than elephant
tusks––goes for about $70 a kilo on the
black market, about a seventh the price of
tusk ivory. The hippo population of Zaire
is down from 23,000 in 1989 to about
11,000 today, says Newsweek.
Seizures of animals and ani-
mal products entering the U.S. illegally
from Mexico are up 40% since 1989,
says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The $2 billion traffic accounts for a third
of the global cash volume in wildlife traf-
ficking, according to Interpol. The
understaffed USFWS law enforcement
division has only nine agents along the
2,000-mile Mexican border; Mexico has
just three. Mexico hasn’t made an arrest
for illegal wildlife trafficking since join-
ing CITES in 1991. Said Agriculture
Secretariat spokesman Roberto Loeza
Gallardo, “The traffic in endangered and
exotic species does not exist here.” But
his office isn’t far from the Sonora
Market, where Homero Aridjis of El
Grupo de los Cien recently counted 106
animals of internationally recognized
endangered species offered for sale.
Biodiversity in Peru’s Bay of
Paracas National Reserve and Madre
de Dios rainforest is jeopardized by
poaching, fishing with explosives, unau-
thorized mining, and log piracy, S a n
Francisco Chronicle c o r r e s p o n d e n t
Lawrence J. Speer reported recently.
Environmental protection has been
ignored for a decade while the govern-
ment has focused on the now seemingly
ended Shining Path insurgency.
Endangered species
Australian biologists o n
December 7 said they’ve found five
Gilbert’s potoroos, a small marsupial
believed extinct since 1869, in a nature
reserve 255 miles south of Perth.
Canadian environment minis-
ter Sheila Copps has pledged to intro-
duce an omnibus endangered species act
next spring. Canada now protects endan-
gered species through subsections of 12
unrelated federal laws plus a hodgepodge
of provincial laws.
The newly formed European
Environmental Agency, an arm of the
European Union, reported on December
11 that from a third to half of all the fish,
reptiles, mammals, and amphibians
native to Europe are either threatened or
endangered, principally due to habitat
loss and pollution.
The Chinese river alligator,
or gharial, declared endangered by the
United Natons in 1973, is reportedly
thriving in captivity. Fewer than 500
remain in the wild, but there are now
6,000 at a breeding center in eastern
Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces.
The center is looking into marketing pos-
sibilities––and alligator birth control.
RESTORE:
The North
Woods has warned the Department of the
Interior that it may sue if the department
does not respond by the end of January to
a petition to protect the Atlantic salmon
under the Endangered Species Act. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
National Marine Fisheries Service ruled
in January 1993 that such protection may
be warranted. The petition is reputedly
the first ever filed which falls under the
jurisdiction of both agencies.
Habitat
Gorillas, chimpanzees, mon-
keys, and elephants are among the 210
mammal species and 766 bird species
imperiled by the invasion of Zaire’s
Virunga National Park by an estimated
200,000 Rwandan refugees––including
about 30,000 soldiers of the deposed for-
mer Rwandan government, who far out-
number the park wardens and are much
more heavily armed. About 10% of the
12,800-square-mile park, tree-covered
since before the Pleistocene epoch, has
already been deforested, partly for fire-
wood but mostly for sale by the soldiers,
who have found logging––and poach-
ing––to be quick sources of cash.
Established by Belgium in 1925, Virunga
had been closed to all human activity but
scientific study since the mid-1970s.
A Rwandan silverback gorilla
named Mkono was killed in November by
a land mine, the African Wildlife
Foundation said December 12. Fewer
than 30 silverbacks remain in Rwanda.
Heavy November rains r a i s e d
the Everglades water level to its highest
point since 1947, drowning at least 80 of
the 2,000 deer who were believed to live
in the vicinity of the Miccosukee Indian
Reservation, while countless other deer
became vulnerable to alligators. Though
hard on deer, the high water is expected
to benefit most other Everglades wildlife.
Bear Watch, a new anti-bear
hunting group, may be contacted at POB
1099, Ganges, British Columbia,
Canada V0S 1E0; 604-537-2404

Fish

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

Chemical weapons scuttled by the
British after World Wars I and II are blamed by
local residents for the recent deaths of hundreds of
birds and some seals along the coasts of Donegal
and Antrim, Ireland. At least 120,000 tons of
nerve gases and mustard gas were sunk in the area
between 1945 and 1957, where 18 ships full of
similar materials were sunk about 25 years earlier.
A panel of 26 researchers who volun-
teer their efforts on behalf of the Monterey Bay
National Marine Sanctuary is expected to recom-
mend a ban on “chumming” in the area, to take
effect in early 1995. Chumming––dumping blood
and offal into the water to attract sharks––is used
by entrepreneur Jon Cappella to draw rare great
white sharks toward submerged cages of thrill-
seeking divers, anchored near Point Ano Nuevo.
Ano Nuevo is home of one of the world’s biggest
elephant seal and sea lion breeding colonies and is
just a mile from a popular surfing beach.

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AGRICULTURE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Agriculture secretary Mike Espy
resigned on October 4, effective December 31,
amid allegations that while moving to more closely
regulate red meat sanitation, he improperly
accepted gifts and favors from Tyson Foods, of
Arkansas, the biggest U.S. poultry producer.
Grazing on public lands, reports the
National Wildlife Federation, has contributed to
the decline of at least 346 species of fish, birds,
and mammals that are either officially endangered
or have been nominated for endangered status.
USDA researcher Robert Wall predicts
that a way to make cows’ milk simulate the health
benefits of breastfeeding will be developed soon by
inserting human genes into cows. The first obsta-
cle will be finding a way to create a transgenic cow
for less than the present cost of $300,000 per head.

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Birds

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1994:

A study of more than 1,200
cormorant regurgitations conducted
by the National Biological Survey and
the New York Department of
Environmental Conservation has con-
cluded that lake trout and salmon make
up only 0.5% of the birds’ diet.
Further, cormorants eat only 5% of the
volume of smaller fish that the trout
and salmon eat. Thus the estimated
12,000 cormorants now living along
the eastern shore of Lake Ontario are
no threat to the sport fishing industry,
contrary to the claims of hunting and
fishing groups, which have been call-
ing for cormorant control––often in the
form of an open season on cormorants,
generally considered inedible.

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MARINE MAMMAL NOTES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The U.S. Navy plans to shut down
14 of its 18 Sound Surveillance System
(Sosus) underwater listening posts, perma-
nently disabling much of a $16 billion network
of more than 1,000 microphones linked by
30,000 miles of seabed cables. The Sosus
budget has been cut from $335 million in fis-
cal year 1991 to just $60 million for fiscal year
1995; staffing is to drop from 2,500 in 1993 to
750 in 1996. Set up 40 years ago to monitor
Soviet submarines, the system was used in
1992-1993 to track whale migrations––and
proved sensitive enough to follow one blue
whale for 1,700 miles. Hoping to keep using
Sosus to help check compliance with interna-
tional fishing and whaling treaties, Commerce
Secretary Ron Brown on May 17 asked the
Defense Department to keep what remains of
Sosus intact, pending completion of a joint
study into retaining it via interdepartmental
cost-sharing. However, The New York Times
reported on June 12, a National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration internal memo
indicates NOAA is not willing to contribute to
the upkeep costs.

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COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Activism
The U.S. Supreme Court on
June 13 upheld federal court and Court
of Appeals rulings that communities
cannot consititutionally ban the display
of political signs on citizens’ own prop-
erty. Issued on behalf of anti-Persian Gulf
War protester Margaret Gilleo, of Ladue,
Missouri, who is now a Congressional
candidate, the ruling applies as well to
people who have been ordered to cease
displaying signs on behalf of animals.
Friends of Animals in early
June won a judgement against the State
of Alaska for attorney’s fees incurred in
defending itself against governor Walter
Hickel’s failed attempt to sue FoA for libel.
The Hickel suit was filed in June 1993 in
an apparent attempt to prevent FoA from
further publicizing the Alaskan plan to kill
wolves in order to make more moose and
caribou available to hunters.

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Birds

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Bald eagle recovery in New
York and New Jersey reached milestones
this spring, as the former had 24 nesting
pairs and the latter five, up from one
apiece when DDT was banned in 1972.
Before the introduction of DDT, which
built up in the food chain and caused the
females to lay brittle eggs, New York had
75 pairs; New Jersey had 20 to 25. The
current population are descended from 198
eagles imported from Alaska between
1976 and 1988, plus 60 from Manitoba,
who were released between 1983 and
1988. Of the original 198, 32 are known
dead––half of them shot by vandals––and
another 32 are known to have reached
maturity and paired at least once. Eagles
from that group have now settled in seven
states. Curiously, half of the pairs who
have nested within New York state have
chosen trees that were documented nesting
sites around the end of the 19th century.

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