Month: September 1997

LETTERS [Sept 1997]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1997:

The bear truth
Regarding the Florida “Habitat for
bears” license plate campaign that kicked off
in June, mentioned in your July/August edition,
it is essential to note that other specialty
plates in Florida, like the manatee plate,
are specifically designed to provide funds for
the conservation of particular endangered
species. The bear plate, as proposed, would
simply create a new funding source for the
Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish
Commission. If the petition drive in support
of the bear plate is successful, the
Commission will get $15 from every plate
sold, to use as needed, including to promote
blood sports.
Revenue from hunting and fishing
license sales in Florida is plummeting. Sales
of one-year freshwater fishing licenses to
Florida residents, for instance, have
dropped by more than 100,000 since 1986.

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Shipboard with the Sea Shepherds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1997:

News traveled chiefly by ship for thousands of years. The first newscasters were
literally anchormen, who shouted the latest word of current events to the crowds who gathered
at dockside whenever a ship came in. After printing was invented, early newspapers
published not the news itself but rather lists of ships arrived and departing, with their recent
and future ports of call, so that to find out what was happening in China, one could find
the crew of the latest arrived China clipper.
The news was still traveling by ship on August 3, a sunny Sunday we spent on
Puget Sound with Captain Paul Watson and the crew of the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society vessel The Sirenian. We met them at Eastsound, the main village on Orcas Island,
where they relaxed in the shade of an old church, and sailed with them to Friday Harbor,
on San Juan Island, where Watson had a Monday night speaking engagement.

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ADC GIVES POOR THE BIRDS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.–– Thousands
of Canada goose carcasses sent to soup
kitchens around the U.S. by the Animal
Damage Control unit of the USDA might be
full of lead, mercury, lawn chemicals, and
potentially lethal microorganisms––but the
recipients may never know it, Friends of
Animals special investigator Carroll Cox discovered
July 10, while probing such a carcass
giveaway in Virginia.
Contrary to common assumption,
the gift meat is not USDA-inspected.
“The USDA does not regulate or
inspect wild meat,” USDA deputy chief
inspector for the Virginia region Maher
Haque affirmed to Cox.

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Licensed to kill

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.––You probably
think the Endangered Species Act, Marine
Mammal Protection Act, and Migratory Bird
Treaty Act protect wildlife.
What they actually do is require special
permission to kill or harass wildlife––and
spot-checking recent requests for permits and
exemptions, ANIMAL PEOPLE and Friends
of Animals’ special investigator Carroll Cox
quickly confirmed that the permitting and
exempting procedures are easily and often
manipulated.
“Permitting and exemptions are the
Achilles heel of wildlife law enforcement,”
says Cox, a former special investigator for the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and game warden
for the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife. “With the right permit or an exemption,
you can do anything.”

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ESA rewrite looms

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.– – Seven
years of political battling over Endangered
Species Act reauthorization appear headed
toward quick resolution.
The White House in late July signaled
eagerness to lower the profile of ESA
issues before the 1998 presidential campaign,
when both vice president Albert Gore and
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt may seek to
succeed Bill Clinton by building a similar
coalition of moderate conservative and traditional
Democratic support.
As presiding officer over the Senate,
negotiating ratification of international treaties,
Gore has pleased conservatives by favoring
trade over strict species protection under the
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species, the International
Whaling Convention, and the Declaration of
Panama, recently implemented by repeal of
the “dolphin-safe” tuna import standard (see
page 2). Babbitt has curried conservative
favor, meanwhile, by rapidly increasing the
number of National Wildlife Refuges open to
hunting and fishing: half when he took office,
nearly two-thirds now.

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