Agriculture
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on August 9
announced plans to hike grazing fees on 280 million acres
of public lands, from the present $1.86 per animal unit per
day to $4.28––still below market value, and half the $8.70
fee the House passed in July 1991, later killed by the
Senate. An earlier attempt by Babbitt to up grazing fees
was delayed by President Clinton until his budget cleared
Congress.
The European Commission on July 13 proposed
that horses in transport should be watered and fed every six
hours; calves under four weeks old, every eight hours; and
adult cattle every 16 hours. Horses and pigs would get 10
hours of rest after traveling 12 hours. If adopted, the new
rules will protect all animals traveling between member
nations.
Wildlife experts expect eco-disaster in the
Pantanal wetlands of western Brazil, if and when Nile croc-
odiles escape from a leather ranch near Osorio, located just
200 yards from a major river. A judge lifted a ban on
allowing the crocodiles to mate last May, after hearing that
they might otherwise “exhibit unnatural and perverse
behavior.” Like African walking catfish and “killer bees,”
who escaped from similar Brazilian farming experiments,
the Nile crocs were imported with government encourage-
ment. The most aggressive of crocodile species, they can
grow to 20 feet long, and could quickly outcompete native
crocodilians in the Paraguay River system.
