Lynx to get ESA listing at last

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service on February 12 agreed to list
Canadian lynx as an endangered species in the continental
states, and to publish a lynx protection
plan by June 30, 1998.
USFWS, under pressure from loggers
and trappers, had repeatedly refused to list lynx,
despite the recommendations of staff biologists
who believe fewer than 100 remain south of the
Canadian border, in isolated pockets of Montana,
Idaho, Washington, and Maine. As lynx prefer to
den in old growth, the listing will probably mean
more restrictions on old growth logging. Trappers
may find their activity curtailed, as well. The
average auction price of lynx pelts is by far the
highest paid for the skin of any native American
species, due to scarcity. When located, however,
lynx––and bobcats, their close kin––are notoriously
easily enticed by dangling bait.

COYOTES

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

New Jersey Animal Rights
Alliance member Stuart Chaifetz o n
January 26 began a fast intended to last all 22
days of the state’s second-ever coyote season.
Just five coyotes were killed during the 1997
season, but 900 hunters bought permits this
year to pursue the estimated 1,500 coyotes
who inhabit New Jersey.
Colorado state senator Dorothy
R u p e r t has introduced a bill, SB 144, to
rescind a bounty on wolves and coyotes set by
the Colorado Territorial Legislature in 1869.
Utah trapper Shane Cornwall,
38, of Payson, a 13-year employee of the
state Wildlife Services division, was killed
and helicopter pilot Allen H. Carter, 57, was
injured on January 14 when they flew into a
canyon wall after a day of strafing coyotes.

Oryx

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

SAN ANGELO, Tex.– –
The Endangered Species Propagation,
Survival and Research Center, of San
Angelo, Texas, on February 10
exported 62 Arabian oryxes to the
United Arab Emirates. The oryxes––
16 bucks and 46 does––are to be reintroduced
to their native range.
The original wild Arabian
oryx population was hunted to extinction
by 1972, but Operation Oryx,
formed by the Flora and Fauna
Preservation Society in 1962, reintroduced
the species to Oman in 1982.

Worse out west

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

ALBUQUERQUE––At least
9,600 cattle and sheep died of cold and starvation
in deep snow that hit southeastern
New Mexico during late December and
early January, with the toll expected to soar
when spring enables ranchers to more accurately
count the victims.
The New Mexico Cattle Growers
Association predicted that 35,000 cattle and
60,000 sheep were at dire risk.
Some were saved when seven Air
National Guard C-130 cargo planes from
Texas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming airdropped
at least 465 tons of feed.
But the inability of drift-bound
livestock to find food and water was only
part of the problem. Western ranchers
aren’t used to having to round up animals in
mid-winter, nor do most have enough barn
space for more than a fraction of their stock.

LETTERS [March 1998]

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

House Jack built
Your November 1997 editorial,
“Living in the house that Jack built,” is a
masterpiece. I’ve circulated copies to a
variety of people. Your description of the
wildlife problems on Whidbey Island
made me laugh, something that never
happens when I read other animal protection
publications, and a welcome relief
from anger, frustration, and tears.
––Linn Pulis
Gardiner, Maine

Letters

Editorial: How they get your money

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

Each annual update of our December “Who gets the money?” feature brings a
blizzard of letters. Consisting mainly of statistics, with explanatory margin notes, “Who
gets the money?” could look rather dull––just a straightforward factual statement of the
budgets, assets, program versus overhead spending balance, and top salaries paid by the
100-odd most prominent animal and habitat protection charities.
Our readers, however, not only peruse the fine print, but beg for more.
“Percentages of money utilized for the stated goals is important,” wrote Delores
Hughes, of Santa Cruz, California, “but even more important is the question, ‘Are they
accomplishing anything worthwhile?’”
Elaborated Joan Winburn Hymas, of Cathedral City, California, “Is there any
way of determining how much good organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund and the
Humane Society of the U.S. are doing?”

FARMS ON THIN ICE

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

MONTREAL, MONTPELIER,
PORTLAND––First came the ice, and then
came the government.
A warming trend possibly resulting
from either the El Nino effect off the Pacific
coast or global warming in general ironically
froze much of the northeast in January,
killing thousands of animals. Between the
disaster and regulatory changes soon to take
effect, animal agriculture might never be the
same in southern Quebec, eastern Ontario,
upstate New York, and upper New England.
The crisis began early on January 7
when a heavy snow storm changed to rain.

Geneticists clone bull

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

BOSTON––Geneticists James Robl
of the University of Massachusetts and Steven
Stice of Advanced Cell Technology Inc. told
the International Embryo Transfer Society on
January 20 that they’d managed to clone some
prime Texas bull––the first bull ever cloned by
their method, believed to be the most efficient
of the three methods now experimentally tried.
Robl and Stice said the two offspring,
George and Charlie, represented in
Robl’s words, “a significant step” toward turning
genetically modified dairy cattle into walking
drug factories, who synthesize medicines in
their milk. But both cloned offspring are male.
Acknowledging that inconvenience, Robl and
Stice said they had several pregnant cows carrying
female cloned fetuses. The fetuses were
genetically altered to produce cows who eventually
should produce milk containing human
serum albumin, an important protein used in
maintaining hospital emergency blood supplies.

In America cruelty is “culture.” Kindness may be “crime.”

March 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

SAN FRANCISCO––Hidden cameras have
caught live animal vendors at Asian-style markets
countless times in atrocities––not just in San Francisco,
where the markets are a heated public issue, but in virtually
every U.S. and Canadian city with a Chinatown.
The alleged offenses only begin with selling
the animals alive to assure buyers that the meat is fresh.
Reported the San Francisco SPCA to the California Fish
and Game Commission on January 23, 1998, “Frogs
are typically piled in large containers or confined in
wire cages without food or water. We have seen containers
we estimated held over 100 frogs, piled several
layers deep. Injured, bloodied, and dead frogs, some
with their sides split open, were plainly visible. We
have also witnessed turtles having their shells sliced
from their bodies while fully alive and being hacked and
pounded repeatedly with dull knives before being
decapitated. At one market, our investigator found a
turtle still moving with its carapace cut open and its
internal organs displayed in full view of shoppers.”

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