Odd Bodkin II

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

ANCHORAGE––Responding to “substantial new information”
pertaining to the application of National Biological
Service sea otter project leader James L. Bodkin to kill up to 20
endangered sea otters, reported on page 17 of the June edition of
ANIMAL PEOPLE, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has
announced intent to reopen the public comment period.
Documents obtained by ANIMAL PEOPLE indicate
that Bodkin, working out of the Alaska Science Center in
Anchorage, may be seeking a pretext to open sea otter hunting.
Heavily hunted for fur in the 19th century, sea otters
were believed to be extinct early this century, but remnants of two
subspecies were found off California and Alaska in the late 1930s.
Resenting competition from sea otters for lucrative and now depleted
abalone and sea urchins, fishers held a decade ago that the
otters had recovered enough to be removed from the federal endangered
species list. The campaign lost momentum when oiled sea
otters became the icon species of the clean-up effort after the 1989
Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Indonesian net isn’t drifting

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

As Indonesia prepared a successful
bid to host the 1999 meeting of the
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species, Bill Rossiter of
Cetacean Society International forwarded
reports from scuba diver Steve Morris and
marine mammologist Peter Rudolph,
indicating “military and governmental
authorities” had allowed Taiwanese fishers
to suspend two huge nylon nets from
pylons in the Lembeh Strait, just offshore
from the Tangkoko Nature Reserve.
Paraphrasing Morris, Rossiter
said the nets went up in March 1996, and
in their first year caught 1,424 manta rays,
18 whale sharks, 312 other sharks, four
minke whales, 326 dolphins, 577 pilot
whales, 789 marlin, 84 sea turtles, and
nine dugong.

Bombed birds can’t be found

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor
for ecological services Brooks Harper on May 16
issued a new Biological Opinion for Gunnery and
Aerial Bombardment Practice at Farallon de
Medinilla, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands. As Friends of Animals special investigator
Carroll Cox described on page 17 of the March edition
of ANIMAL PEOPLE, Farallon de Medinilla is a
tiny island north of Guam, uninhabited by humans but
heavily used by protected sea birds and sea turtles
––between U.S. Navy bombing and strafing.
The new Biological Opinion, issued preliminary
to more bombing and strafing, notes that the most
endangered bird on the island, the Micronesian
megapode [ovenbird] is “likely to remain underneath
brushy cover, and therefore, deaths or injury from
either direct strikes or indirectly from shrapnel would
be difficult to detect from aerial surveys,” as if finding
anything left of a bird the size of a robin who’s been
hit by a bomb might be likely anyway.

Paul and the pirate

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

BREMERHAVEN––A pirate whaler is at large in the central
Atlantic, Captain Paul Watson is out of jail, and the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society has a ship and crew at Bremerhaven, Germany, almost
ready to sail. “We don’t know if we’ll be able to find it,” Watson told ANIMAL
PEOPLE from Washington D.C., after addressing the Animal Rights
‘97 conference and attending a banquet in honor of Animal Rights
International founder Henry Spira, “but we’re going that way anyway to chase
some driftnetters, and we might as well have a look.”
The Portuguese Navy was reportedly already looking with a warship––but
the last time there were pirate whalers in the region, the Portuguese
Navy protected them. The most notorious was the S i e r r a, operating from
Lisbon with impunity. On July 16, 1979, Watson, Peter Woof, and Jerry
Doran overtook the Sierra with the original Sea Shepherd vessel, then rammed
her twice as she ran for the protection of a Portuguese destroyer. The destroyer
apprehended the Sea Shepherd after a high seas chase, but Watson, Woof,
and Doran all eventually escaped, while inspired Sea Shepherd sympathizers
sank the damaged Sierra and three other whalers. The rest left the Atlantic.

NO SURPRISES––ESA FIGHT RESUMES

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.––With CITES over, the
endangered species spotlight shifts back to the ongoing battle
over reauthorizing the Endangered Species Act.
An indicative early round had a promising outcome
on May 7, when the House of Representatives killed a measure
to give flood control projects precedence over protecting endangered
species. Since most endangered species occupy wetlands
or water, this might have effectively dismantled the ESA. The
final vote count showed 172 Democrats, 54 Republicans, and
one independent among the 227 opposing votes, of 423 cast.
House wise-users next tried to amend the Disaster
Relief Bill with a rider to expand right-of-way claims in roadless
areas. That too was defeated.
The Bill Clinton/Albert Gore administration might
have helped tip the balance on April 22, announcing a $125-
million-a-year scheme to both protect fish and wildlife and promote
the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest. The timber
industry praised the deal, but 37 environmental groups
demanded changes. “There is a heavy reliance on logging to
fix problems that logging caused,” objected Rick Taylor of the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

Scientists say Canada falsified data

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

NEWFOUNDLAND– – Memorial
University biologist Edward Miller, host of a
February 1997 workshop on how harp seals
affect the Atlantic Canada cod fisheries,
charged on June 24 that one of the four participants
from the Canadian Department of
Fisheries and Oceans had privately disclosed
data indicating that as many as 500,000 seals
were killed in the 1996 offshore hunt, nearly
double the official count of 262,402.
Twenty-nine scientists from seven nations
took part in the workshop.
“DFO personnel found several
sealing vessels carrying the same number of
male seal genitals as pelts,” Charles Enman
of the Ottawa Citizen reported. “But the
number of pelts should have been roughly
double the number of male genitals, since
male and female seals are impossible to distinguish
before they are shot. This suggested
that sealers were collecting genitals and pelts
from the males, but discarding entire female
carcasses, pelts and all,” as there is little
market for pelts and reporting kills of females
would just deplete the sealing quota faster.

A LAME DUCK SHALL LEAD THEM

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

MONTGOMERY, Texas––Not the
nail of Confucian proverb who sticks up, so is
hammered down, Yong Gwinn wasn’t thinking
about religious or cultural context when
she called minister Jean LeFevre recently
about an injured duck. She was just thinking
about the duck. A cake decorator at the
Woodlands Executive Conference Center and
Resort in Montgomery, Texas, Gwinn knew
LeFebvre and her husband Lawrence rehabilitate
birds at the nearby St. John’s Center, so
she picked up the telephone and became
involved.
As the duck later waddled free,
greeted by his surprised and delighted mate,
the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules
Committee moved to de-escalate a year-long
flap over the sale of live animals as food by
dropping two of the four members of the
Commission for Animal Control and Welfare
who unsuccessfully pushed to ban such sales.
Although the ban cleared the Commission last
November, the Supervisors never voted on it.

Sexually exploiting horses for fun, profit, and advancement of science

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

WAUPACA, EL CAJON––
The rare sentencing of two serial
sexual assailants of mares in less
than six weeks leaves horse people
less relieved than fearful.
Found not guilty by reason of
insanity or mental defect of sexually
assaulting a pregnant mare on June
1, 1996, Sterling Rachwal, 33, of
Weyauwega County, Wisconsin,
was on May 13 sent to a state mental
institution for up to 18 and a half
years––two thirds of the 28-year
maximum for conviction.

Letters [July/Aug 1997]

July 1, 1997 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

Disaster
On March 1, 1997, tornadoes
swept through Arkansas,
killing people and animals and leaving
horrible destruction. We were
responsible for Animal Disaster
Relief for the city of Arkadelphia,
one of two densely populated areas
which were flattened by the storms.
We would like to publicly thank the
four national organizations which
immediately offered help and stayed
in contact with us for the three weeks
we ran the temporary shelter.
We were first contacted by
Bill Dollinger of Friends of Animals.
Thanks to Dollinger and FoA president
Priscilla Feral, we had the
funds to buy a large number of tarpaulins
for what was left of the roof
and sides of the open hog barn we
were allowed to use to house animals
at the local fairgrounds. The tarps
were needed to keep constant rain
and cutting, freezing winds off the
animals and volunteers. Bill also put
our problems on the Internet, and as
a direct result, many people sent
bedding and donations.

Letters

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