WARFARE AND ANIMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

The Bureau of Land
Management has asked the U.S. Air
Force to redesign a plan to create a new
target bombing range 25 miles southeast
of the Saylor Creek Training Range in
Idaho. The BLM wants the Air Force to
restrict low level flights over the Owyhee
Canyonlands to avoid disturbing either
bighorn sheep during lambing season, or
recreational visitors during peak use
times. The Air Force earlier agreed to
avoid the most critical lambing areas and
to restrict flights over two other parts of
the proposed range during the times most
favored by rafters and kayakers. The
current plan is the fourth expansion proposal
from the Air Force since the
Persian Gulf War showed the need to
train pilots for desert combat. Previous
plans were halted by opposition from
Native Americans, environmentalists,
hunters, and ranchers.

The key evidence leading to
the winter-long U.S. confrontation
with Iraq over inspections of suspected
chemical weapons sites was a photo and
videotape showing such weapons being
tested on beagles and one human, found
by United Nations investigators during
an August 1995 search of a chicken
ranch owned by a son-in-law of Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein, Robert H. Reid of
Associated Press reported on January 15.
Despite the August 21 recommendation
of the Western Pacific
Fishery Management Council that target
bombing of Farallon de Medinilla
island off Guam be permanently halted to
protect coral reefs and endangered
species, the U.S. Navy reportedly
intends to continue the attacks. The
island, home of at least 16 protected bird
species, with 153 marine species inhabiting
the surrounding coral, is typically
bombed in four sets of maneuvers per
year. In 1997 it was bombed daily from
mid-October until mid-November.
Target drones for test attack
by a new anti-missile system u n d e r
development at Elgin Air Force Base in
the Florida Panhandle are now to be
launched from aircraft over the Gulf of
Mexico, not from a site near the edge of
the Great White Heron National Wildlife
Refuge. The original plan was withdrawn
in November 1997 after anxious
Florida Keys civic leaders were flown to
the White Sands Missile Range in New
Mexico to see just what was
planned––and a demonstration launch
crashed about 10 miles from where they
stood. The anti-missile system is
designed to protect military installations
from attack by SCUDS, a type of
Russian-built low-flying missile used by
Iraq during the Persian Gulf War.