Ethiopian zoo poisons lion cubs

December 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
ADDIS ABABA–“Rare Abyssin-ian lion cubs are being poisoned
and sold to taxidermists” at the Lion Zoo in Ethiopia, Associated
Press correspondent Les Neuhaus disclosed on November 22, 2006.
“These animals are the pride of our country, but our only
alternative right now is to send them to the taxidermist,” Neuhaus
quoted Lion Zoo director Muhedin Abdulaziz. Abdulaziz said the cubs’
remains fetch about $178 apiece, and that his staff had poisoned six
cubs in 2006.
Built in 1948 by the late emperor Haile Selassie, the Lion
Zoo housed 16 adult lions and five cubs when Neuhaus visited.
Both Abdulaziz and Lion Zoo assistant veterinarian
Yedenekachew Sahelu denied to Efrem Legese and Hana Kifle of the
Homeless Animals Protection Society of Ethiopia that any cubs were
poisoned in 2006.

Baboon Matters founder Jenni Trethowan recovers

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Baboon Matters founder Jenni Trethowan, 45, of Cape Town,
South Africa, has reportedly recovered from poisoning with the
banned pesticide dialdrin, suffered in mid-August 2006 while trying
to aid members of a poisoned baboon troop. Trethowan started Baboon
Matters in 2001, 10 years after she and baboon ethologist Wally
Peterson founded the Kommetjie Environ-mental Awareness Group. In
1998 they won the passage of legislation against poisoning baboons.

CITES suspends ivory trade permits

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
GENEVA–The Secretariat of the United Nations-administered
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species on October 5,
2006 suspended the permission granted in 2002 to allow South Africa,
Botswana, and Namibia to export elephant ivory.
South Africa was to have been permitted to sell 30 metric
tons of ivory, Botswana 20 metric tons, and Namibia 10 metric tons,
“on condition,” the U.N. News Service explained, “that the
Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) system establish
up-to-date and comprehensive baseline data on poaching and population
levels. Today’s meeting of the CITES Standing Committee determined
that this condition has not yet been satisfied.”
Requests from these and other African nations for annual
ivory quotes were rejected by the triennial CITES Conference of
Parties in 2004.

Report from the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Report from the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife
by Chris Mercer, www.cannedlion.com
In September 2006 I was invited by the Steering Committee of
the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife, appointed by the Kenyan
government, to attend the symposium and present the case against
hunting.
Hunting has been banned in Kenya since 1977, and dealing in
wildlife trophies since 1978.
Attended by about 160 people, the Symposium was held as an
indirect result of a campaign lavishly funded by Safari Club
International in 2004, which involved flying Kenyan
conservationists and officials to elite hunting farms in South Africa
and Zimbabwe in order to persuade the Kenyan government to resume
trophy hunting. No expense was spared. Industry experts regaled the
Kenyan representatives with statistics purporting to show how much
money Kenya could make out of trophy hunting, as opposed to
ecotourism.

Seeking to save “surplus” elephants

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:

As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, Animal Rights Africa was
attempting to translocate 12 “problem” elephants from the vicinity of
Weenan, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, to the SanWild Wildlife Trust sanctuary
in Limpopo province.
Orphaned by culling in Kruger National Park, the elder
elephants in the herd were previously translocated in 1993 to the
former Thukela Biosphere Reserve. Created toward the end of the
apartheid regime in South Africa, the Thukela reserve was recently
dissolved and turned over to the Lindauk-huhle Trust, in settlement
of a land claim by the tribal people who were evicted from their
homes when the reserve was declared.

Baboon rescuer fights for her life

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
CAPE TOWN–Baboon rescuer Jenni Trethowan, 45, was
hospitalized in Contantiberg under heavy sedation in early September,
suffering from central nervous system damage including “violent
spasms, balance problems while walking, and a slurring of speech,”
reported John Yeld of the Cape Town Argus on September 9.
“Trethowan is believed to have been affected by dieldrin,”
an insecticide banned more than 25 years ago, Yeld wrote, “after
handling three young baboons from the Slangkop troop who all died
after being poisoned with the same deadly substance–probably
deliberately,” in mid-August.
“Her husband Ian said she was hooked to an EEG mach-ine,
linked to a video camera, and was being constantly monitored,” Yeld
added.

Gunfire no aphrodisiac for African elephants

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force chair Johnny Rodrigues and
Presidential Elephant Conservation Project elephant fertility
researcher Sharon Pincott contend that the stress associated with
gunfire has actually suppressed elephant fecundity–a finding which,
if verified, would contradict other studies showing that wildlife
populations tend to increase their fecundity under hunting pressure.
Both coyotes and deer, for example, notoriously raise more
young successfully when hunting has thinned their populations,
making more food available to the survivors.
But different mechanisms are at work.
While coyotes are hunted year-round, intensive hunting
pressure on coyotes tends to be limited to the spring birthing season
for cattle and sheep, and the fall deer hunting season, when deer
hunters often shoot coyotes as well.

“Lawrence of the hyenas” talks Lord’s Resistance Army into sparing rhinos

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
“Lawrence Anthony, founder of the South African
environmental group The Earth Organisation, has persuaded the Lord’s
Resistance Army to join with scientists to protect the northern white
rhino, of which only four are thought to remain in the wild,” London
Guardian environment correspondent David Adam reported on September
13, 2006.
“As part of an ongoing peace process,” Adam continued, “the
rebels have pledged not to harm the animals and to tell wildlife
experts if they see one.”
The LRA in 2005 invaded Garamba national park, “a sprawling
and densely forested reserve close to the Ugandan border in the far
northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Adam explained.
“The LRA is notorious for use of child soldiers and has been accused
of atrocities including rapes, mutilations and the mass murder of
civilians. Conservation seemed far from its priorities,
particularly after members shot dead 12 game rangers and eight
Guatemalan UN soldiers sent to the region to keep order.”

Accra zoo to be rebuilt

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
ACCRA, Ghana–The Accra Zoo, serving about 120,000 visitors
per year, is to be relocated and rebuilt over the next five years,
Ghanian minister of lands, forestry, and mines Dominic Fobih
announced on August 1, 2006. The animals are to be moved to the
Kumasi Zoo, about 200 miles inland, by the end of September 2006 to
make room for a new presidential complex. The new zoo is to be built
with the help of the London Zoological Society, Fobih said.
Founded as first Ghanian president Kwame Nkrumah’s private
menagerie in the early 1960s, the Accra Zoo opened to the public
after his overthrow in 1966.

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