Moving fast for turtles to stay ahead of Tauzin

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

NEW YORK, N.Y.––Manhattan is a long
way from Louisiana, but expert intervention by the
New York Turtle and Tortoise Society on March 21
brought 10,000 Louisiana box turtles their biggest break
since they hatched.
As a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memo put
it, “The Office of Scientific Authority is unable to find
that export of Gulf Coast box turtles and three-toed box
turtles collected in Louisiana will not be detrimental to
the survival of either subspecies. Therefore OSA advises
that an export quota of zero be set for 1996 for box
turtles,” who previously could be taken only from
Louisiana.

ESA revision bill unlikely to go to vote

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

WASHINGTON, D.C.––
The Biodiversity Legal Foundation
on April 1 led a coalition of grassroots
groups in filing suit against
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
for alleged violation of the
Endangered Species Act and
Administrative Procedures Act on
February 27, when in keeping with
the moratorium on listing new
endangered species agreed to by
President Bill Clinton and
Republican Congressional leaders,
about 4,000 species were dropped
from consideration as “formal candidates”
for protection.

International wildlife news

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

Africa
Rangers at Garamba
National Park in Zaire on March
28 reported the poaching kill of a
10-year-old pregnant female northern
white rhino, one of under 30 in
existence and the second to be
poached in 12 days. “This is a tragic
loss,” said World Wildlife Fund
director-general Claude Martin from
Geneva. As of February 14, when
WWF announced the vulnerability
of the rhinos to media, no endangered
animals of any kind had been
poached at Garamba since 1984,
despite heavy poaching of elephants
and hooved stock, blamed on
Sudanese rebels and refugees,
whose camps flank the park.

American SPCA honors American Airlines

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

NEW YORK, N.Y.––The
American SPCA on March 27 honored
American Airlines with a
Corporate Citizen Award, a year
after American Airlines received the
Animal Transportation Association’s
Animal Welfare Award.
Both awards recognize not
only safe routine handling of about
100,000 animals per year, but also
American Airlines’ donation of
transportation in connection with
numerous exotic animal rescues
facilitated by ASPCA wildlife programs
director Kathi Travers. In one
instance American Airlines put a
jumbo jet on a route normally handled
by smaller aircraft, to fly three
African lions to a sanctuary near Fort
Worth, Texas.

Sea Turtles

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

Earth Island Institute, The Fund for
Animals, and the Humane Society of the U.S. o n
April 19 announced the formation of a 30-organization
“consumer-powered campaign to end the slaughter” of
sea turtles in shrimping by seeking “turtle-safe shrimp
eco-labelling,” patterned after the dolphin-safe labeling
campaign of 1990.
Ecologist Paul Robertson, executive director
of Bat Conservation International 1988-1989 and
field director at the Center for Rainforest Studies in
Queensland, Australia, 1991-1995, is new executive
director of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation,
sponsor of the Sea Turtle Survival League, founded in
1959 by the late sea turtle advocate Archie Carr.

Oceanariums

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

Sea World took a high profile
in marine mammal rescue
efforts at opposite corners of the U.S.
in early April:
• In Florida, Sea World
Orlando biology staff led efforts to
discover the cause of 238 wild manatee
deaths––more than ever before
recorded even over a full year––during
the first third of 1996. The toll of 100
through the first 90 days of the year
was already considered alarming,
when 138 more died between March 5
and April 20. About 2,600 manatees
inhabited Florida waters when the
deaths began. Strangely, all of the
victims have been adults. The deaths
roughly coincide with a toxic red tide
that hit 150 miles of Florida’s South
Gulf Coast in April, and red tides can
be lethal to manatees: a red tide in
1982 killed 39 manatees. However,
forensic examination of remains hasn’t
found any direct link between the red
tide and the deaths.

Religion & animals

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

A Sarajevan mob for reasons
unknown assaulted a Hare Krishna street
procession on April 20, injuring two members
from Britain, one from Australia, and a
young Bosnian recruit. “The clash was unexpected,”
reported Reuter. “The Hare Krishna
movement was very active in Sarajevo
throughout the war, performing their dance
and songs in the city streets even during the
worst of the shelling and winning sympathy
for their courage from the beseiged residents.”
In Sarajevo, Grozny, and other
wartorn cities behind the former Iron Curtain,
Hare Krishnas are also known for their bakeries
and vegetarian soup kitchens. “There
may be places in the world where simply seeing
a bunch of Hare Krishna members would
make people turn tail and run. But Grozny
isn’t one of them,” New York Times correspondent
Michael Specter recently reported.

Exotics

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

Doll Stanley-Branscum of In
Defense of Animals on April 2 filed cruelty
charges against erstwhile exotic animal rescuers
Catherine Graham and Lawrence
Twiss of Philadelphia, Mississippi, for
allegedly keeping a menagerie including 46
lions, 21 tigers, six ligers, five bears, five
cougars, a camel, and a leopard in crowded
and filthy conditions, often without
water––and bid for custody of the animals at a
Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding. According
to Stanley-Branscum, Graham-Twiss “started
her personal collection from rescues and
allowed them to breed.” Stanley-Branscum
said many of the animals had lost their tails in
fights, while some cubs had been eaten.

News from abroad

May 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

The Royal SPCA is “reviewing our
opposition to experiments on primates,”
according to a spokesperson, after receiving a
warning from Richard Fries, Chief Charity
Commissioner for Great Britain, that it
would be acting in a manner “inconsistent with
its charitable status” if it argues that, as
Andrew Pierce of the London Times p a r aphrased
Fries’ argument, “the infliction of
pain on animals could not be justified if it was
for the good of man.” Fries’ warning, Pierce
said, apparently also enables fox hunters to
challenge RSPCA opposition to fox hunting,
since the hunters claim killing foxes is for the
good of farmers. The warning comes as the
28,000-member RSPCA is fighting an attempted
hostile takeover by the British Field
Sports Society, which in March asked its
80,000 members to join the RSPCA in time to
vote at the June annual meeting.

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