Wildlife in no-man’s-land: Are war zones safer than refuges?

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

When the Persian Gulf War erupted in February

1991, ecologists shuddered at the probable fate of the wet-

lands at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

The region, where Kuwait meets Iraq, is among the world’s

busiest corridors for migratory birds––both songbirds and

waterfowl, coming and going from Europe, Africa, Asia,

and the Indian subcontinent. The bird populations were

already in trouble. Intensive sheep-grazing had desertified

thousands of acres of vegetation. Oil-rich Kuwaiti

thrillseekers compounded the damage with reckless use of

offroad vehicles and contests to see who could shotgun the

most birds, without regard for either endangered species or

bag limits.

CHILDREN & ANIMALS

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

$40 million in public funds are

used to teach “hunter education” to

700,000 U.S. school children a year. The

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service puts up $32.2

million, while the balance comes from the

states; all 50 states participate. “They’re

teaching hunting as ‘gun safety,’ ‘physical

education,’ and any other excuse they cna

think of,” says Katherine Trimnal of

Columbia, South Carolina, who has been

investigating the program for some time.

This program is completely separate from

Project Wild, which also promotes a pro-

hunting message at cost of $23 million a

year.

Guest column: Stop the war on wild horses! by Anna Charlton

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

A modern-day range war is underway on the vast

prairies of Nevada. Unless there is drastic and immediate

action, the casualty of this war will be the wild horse,

whom ranchers and bureaucrats seem determined to exter-

minate.

The wild horse is an enduring symbol of the

American west. The sight of a herd of these magnificent,

proud animals thundering across the open range evokes the

image of freedom. Responding to public outrage over the

slaughter of wild horses, Congress in 1971 passed the Free

and Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act, which calls for

the protection, management, and control of all wild horses

and burros on public land. But despite this legislative pro-

tection, wild horses are still shot, poisoned, and rustled.

The greatest threat to their survival, however, comes from

the Bureau of Land Management––the agency Congress

entrusted as their guardian. The BLM appears intent upon

“managing” wild horses out of existence, to increase the

profits of cattle and sheep ranchers.

Reprieve for Alaskan wolves, But the Yukon opens fire; Tourist boycott of Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta underway

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

WHITEHORSE, Yukon, Canada –– Dispatched in near-secrecy circa

February 5 by the Yukon territorial government, a helicopter attack team will have killed

150 of the estimated 200 wolves in the Aishihik Lake region, and be heading home again

as ANIMAL PEOPLEgoes to press.

The scheduled 20-day mission was undertaken in direct defiance of international

appeals and threats of a tourism boycott. Protests held at various points in Canada and the

U.S. on February 8 were ignored by Yukon minister of renewable resources Bill Brewster.

BOOKS: Animal Rights & Human Rights: Ecology, Economy and Ideology in the Canadian Arctic

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

Animal Rights Human Rights: Ecology,

Economy and Ideology in the Canadian

Arctic, by George Wenzel. 1991. 206 pages,

paperback. University of Toronto Press.

Animal Rights Human Rights author George

Wenzel, says the back cover, “is an anthropologist and geo-

grapher,” who has been working among the Inuit (Eskimos)

of Baffin Island since 1972. His book “is both a careful aca-

demic study and a disturbing comment on how environmen-

tal activity may oppress a whole society.” To wit, Wenzel

supposedly shows how anti-seal hunt protesters’ “own cul-

tural prejudices and questionable ecological imperatives

brought hardship, distress, and instability to an ecologically

balanced traditional culture.”

Reindeer wasted

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

While Alaskan officials pretend-

ed wolves had to be massacred so that

there would be enough caribou to feed

natives, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service in December quietly massacred

790 reindeer on Hagemeister Island, a

wildlife refuge 300 miles south of

Anchorage. Introduced by an Eskimo

rancher in 1965, the reindeer were endan-

gering native lichen. Nome medical doc-

tor Donald Olson (also an Eskimo) hired a

team to fly another 120 reindeer to safety

at an abandoned dairy farm. Natives were

given 172 reindeer carcasses; the rest

were left to rot. “It’s the worst wanton

waste case since the buffalo,” said tribal

elder Moses Kritz. At deadline, another

193 reindeer were slated for killing.

HUNTING

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

The 1992-1993 hunting season

closed with a spate of killings by hunters

apparently desperate to shoot anything.

Victims included three rare trumpeter swans,

shotgunned January 1 on the Winterthur

Museum grounds in Wilmington, Delaware; a

tame deer slain at the St. Clair County

Humane Society in Port Huron, Michigan,

January 4; 13 cows killed in Clay County,

Missouri, between Christmas and New Year’s

Day; and three dairy cows killed near

Warsaw, Ohio, on January 16. Michael

Adamson, 20, of Barberton, Ohio, and a 17-

year-old companion face charges in the latter

case. Ronald Smith, 30, and his infant

daughter escaped injury December 30 when

hunters trying to jacklight rabbits––after mid-

night–– sprayed the baby’s bedroom with gun-

fire. Charles W. Tipton, 44, of Lorain,

Salvation Army denies link to Sportsmen Against Hunger

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia ––

Trying to boost the image of hunting,

Sportsmen Against Hunger again this winter

urged hunters to donate kills to soup kitchens,

prominently mentioning the Salvation Army.

But Salvation Army national com-

munications director Colonel Leon R. Ferraez

reiterated February 4 that “The Salvation

Army does not have an agreement with

Sportsmen Against Hunger. The organiza-

tion has misrepresented that fact a number of

times. “Sportsmen Against Hunger has

assured us they are not using the name of the

Salvation Army, but we continue to receive

reports that they do use our name, then deny

it later. We have tried to overcome this prob-

lem for a number of years,” he added,

“including with the threat of legal action.”

Marine Mammals

March 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:

“EAT WHALES,” SAYS JAPAN

TOKYO, Japan –– The Japan Fisheries Agency and

25 Japanese fishing organizations on January 29 launched an

aggressive media campaign urging Japanese citizens to eat more

whale meat. The goal is to generate pressure on the International

Whaling Commission to rescind the six-year-old global ban on

whaling at its annual meeting in May, to be held in Kyoto.

The blitz includes radio and television spots touting

whale meat as a cure for asthma and acne, and distribution of

100,000 comic books depicting the history of the Japanese whal-

ing industry. The history is likely to be inaccurate: contrary to

the industry claim that whaling is part of Japanese cultural tradi-

tion, historian Fujiwara Eiji documented in 1989 that Japanese

commercial whaling actually began in 1909, when a man named

Oka Juro brought the concept and techniques from Norway. His

activity was so detested by traditional fishers that some of them

burned his facilities in 1911.

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