HUNTING

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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

Fur

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

Eastern cougar lives!

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

Zoos & Aquariums

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.”

WILDLIFE

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Legislation In Support of

Animals has awarded the St. Tammany

Humane Society a “platinum” star for being

the top shelter in Lousiana three years in a

row. The Louisiana SPCA won LISA’s gold

star this year; Ouachita Animal Control of

West Monroe and the no-kill Morehouse

Humane Society each earned a silver star;

and Slidell Animal Control received a bronze

star. The award winners include both public

and private facilities, with some of the

biggest and smallest budgets in the state. A

golden heart award went to two anonymous

sheriff’s deputies who arrested a pair of men

they caught torturing a mouse by dunking her

repeatedly in a beer glass, and threw the

book at them. The black star for worst shel-

ter of the year went to the Leesville Animal

Shelter. “The shelter is actually clean and by

most appearances, well run,” LISA execu-

Religion & Animals

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The General Association of Davidian

Seventh Day Adventists, a 500-member vege-

tarian sect active in New York, California, and

South Carolina, wish to make known that they

have nothing whatever to do with the Branch

Davidians, who have been involved in an armed

standoff with police and the FBI since February

28 at their compound near Waco, Texas.

ANIMAL HEALTH

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Ohio Veterinary Medical Board member George Wenning, DVM, resigned March 11 under pressure

for having called filing horses’ teeth “nigger work” during a board meeting. The governor’s office ordered another

member, Tom Liggett, DVM, to take a one-day course on cultural diversity at his own expense––and made the

annual course mandatory for all 400 members of state boards and commissions. Liggett reportedly routinely

inquired as to whether applicants for veterinary licenses were “Americans.” The situation came to light when for-

mer board president Linda Randall, DVM, an Afro-American, told media that her private complaints to Governor

George Voinovich had gone unanswered for six months.

HORSES

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals is to rule soon on whether the

National Park Service can remove about 20

feral horses from the Ozark National Scenic

Riverways park, 150 miles southwest of St.

Louis, Missouri. The horses are feral

descendents of a herd released during the

Great Depression. A three-judge panel is to

decide whether they are protected by the

same laws as western mustangs––whose

own protection is currently in dispute.

More than 60,000 Americans

needed emergency treatment for head

injuries suffered while riding horses in

1991, reports the Johns Hopkins Injury

Prevention Center. Children under 15 were

the most frequent victims. The center rec-

ommends that riders wear helmets.

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