Hunters seek to exempt lead ammunition & tackle from environmental safety regulation

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus co-chairs
Senators Jon Tester and John Thune and Representatives Jeff Miller
and Mike Ross, along with 40 co-sponsors, in mid-April 2011
introduced legislation to exempt lead-based ammunition and fishing
tackle from regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The bills were presented only days after two new studies by
researchers at the University of California in Davis confirmed the
detrimental effects of ingested lead shot on wildlife. Associate
professor of veterinary medicine Christine Johnson and epidemiology
doctoral student Terra Kelly, DVM, found that lead levels increase
in the blood of scavenging turkey vultures during deer hunts and in
areas where wild pigs are hunted. Johnson and Kelly also found that
a 2008 ban on lead ammunition ban within the range of endangered
California condors reduced blood lead levels in golden eagles and
turkey vultures within just one year.

Ecuador proposed ban on blood sports is narrowed

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
QUITO–Ecuadorans may vote to ban Spanish-style bullfighting on
May 7, 2011, as part of a 10-point set of constitutional amendments
proposed by President Rafael Correa, but the measure before them
appears to be narrower than the total ban on blood sports that Correa
promised before the ballot language was finalized.
“The question concerns spectacles in which the goal is to kill
the animal. Cockfights are not affected by this problem and will be
allowed,” Correa told Radio Huancavilca in Guayaquil. But Correa
muddled the matter in statements to the government news agency Andes.

Japanese nuclear reactor failure imperils hooved animals even more than pets

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
OSAKA–Difficult as was the plight of dogs and cats in the
no-go zone surrounding the Fukushima nuclear reactor complex, it was
worse for large animals, who are not easily moved, and in most
cases had nowhere to go.
“According to government figures about 3,400 cows, 31,000
pigs and 630,000 chickens were left in the zone, assumed to have died
by now,” reported Animal Refuge Kansai founder Elizabeth Oliver.
“There were around 370 horses in Minami Sohma,” Oliver continued,
“at least 100 of whom died in the disaster. Around 140 horses are
missing.”

Tsunami damage to Pacific atolls seen as harbinger of climate change

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
AIR STATION BARBERS POINT, Hawaii –“This is a problem that
we expect to have again, not because we’re expecting another tsunami
but because of changing climate,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
biologist Elizabeth Flint told Audrey McAvoy of Associated Press.
The March 11, 2011 tsunami that devasted northeastern Japan
did relatively little damage to U.S. territory, but “offered a
preview of what could happen to low-lying atolls,” McAvoy explained,
“as global warming lifts sea levels and causes storms to develop more
frequently. Flint said she expects the high water events such as
these to eat away at seabird habitats.”
The 60-year-old albatross Wisdom survived and returned to her
nesting area on Midway Atoll, Hawaiian & Pacific Islands National
Wildlife Refuge Complex project leader Barry Stieglitz reported.

Throwing ships aground, tsunami left Japanese coastal whaling high & dry

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
AYUKAWAHAMA–“There was Sea Shepherd, and now this,”
retired whaler Shinobu Ankai told Martin Fackler and Makiko Inoue of
The New York Times. “Whaling is finished,” Ankai assessed.
“This could be the final blow to whaling here,” agreed
fellow retired whaler Makoto Takeda.
‘”Whaling is impossible. Reviving it may take 20 to 30
years,” former whaling vessel stoker Yoshiya Endo told Japan Times
earlier.

Editorial feature: Getting wise to “invasive species” rhetoric

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:

In the name of eradicating non-native
“invasive” species, the Texas House of
Representatives on April 4, 2011 voted 137-9 in
favor of a bill to allow landowners to sell
hunters the chance to shoot feral pigs and
coyotes from helicopters.
Feral pigs have only been in Texas for
about 300 years, twice as long as ten-gallon
Stetson hats and Texas-style cowboy boots, but
coyotes have evolved in the vicinity from their
Miacias ancestors for 12 to 15 million years.
Indeed coyotes much resembling those of today had
already inhabited Texas for approximately nine
million years before the first creature even
dimly resembling a Texas legislator evolved
knuckle-walking in what is now Kenya and Ethiopia
and began to stand upright.

Letters [May 2011]

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:

Camel Rescue Centre

Thanks so much for publishing “Camel Rescue Centre in India
is world’s first,” such an interesting and well researched article.
One important point is that the idea for the Camel Rescue Centre
originated from Janine Vogler, president of Animaux Secours in
Arthaz, France. She has always been particularly concerned about
the condition of the camels in Rajasthan, and additionally about the
poverty of the camel owners. In 2008 it was Vogler who said that she
would find the money if Help In Suffering could buy the land and
build the Camel Rescue Centre.

Uncategorized

Ohio keeps deal on veal, but backs off on exotic pets

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
COLUMBUS–The Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board on April 5,
2011 voted 11-0 in favor of a standard requiring that veal calves be
kept in pens in which they have room to turn around. The vote
reversed a 6-5 vote on March 2, 2011 which would have allowed veal
crating to continue–and would have broken a June 2010 agreement
brokered by former Ohio governor Ted Strickland that kept off the
November 2010 ballot a proposal advanced by the Humane Society of the
U.S. to ban veal crates, sow gestation crates, and battery cages
for laying hens.

Dutch to get 500 “animal cops” — may ban kosher & halal slaughter

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
DEN HAAG, The Netherlands– The politics of assembling the
present Dutch coalition government are expected to put 100 new
“animal cops” on the beat in the Netherlands by the end of 2011, and
to eventually increase the Dutch animal police force to 500 officers.
Dutch coalition politics could also lead to the passage of a
proposed ban on slaughter without pre-stunning, which within the
European Union is done by electroshock for cattle and by carbon
dioxide gassing for pigs and poultry. The proposed Dutch law would
prohibit kosher and halal slaughter, practiced by Jews and Muslims.
Pre-stunning has traditionally been interpreted by most Judaic and
Islamic religious authorities– though some differ–as a violation
of the requirements of Mosaic and Islamic religious law that animals
be conscious when their throats are swiftly cut with a sharp blade.

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