Extended Canadian seal hunt kills fewest seals since 1993

March 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland–Canadian Fisheries Minister Gail
Shea on May 11, 2010 announced that the close of the 2010 Atlantic
Canada seal hunt would be extended to the end of May.
The sealing season was lengthened to give sealers an
“extended period of time to take advantage of potential market
opportunities,” said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in a
prepared statement. Earlier, Shea increased the sealing quota to
330,000, from 280,000 in 2009, even though the European Union in
July 2009 banned imports of seal products.

Good winter for bison

March 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2010:

WEST YELLOWSTONE–Montana hunters killed only one bison who
roamed out of Yellowstone National Park during the winter of
2009-2010, after killing only one the previous winter. The state
issued 144 bison tags to members of the Nez Perce tribe, and 144 to
other Montana hunters.
During the harsh winters of 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 more than
1,000 bison were either shot or trucked to slaughter after testing
positive as potential carriers of brucellosis, feared by the Montana
cattle industry, but few bison left Yellowstone during the mild past
two winters.

Sea Shepherds trying to catch whalers

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

HOBART–The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society flagship Steve
Irwin returned to Antarctic waters on December 31, 2009, after a
60-hour resupply and refueling stop in Hobart, Tasmania.
Tailed and harried by the Japanese harpoon ship Shanan Maru
#2, the Steve Irwin and the high-speed trimaran Ady Gil failed to
locate the factory ship Nisshin Maru and the whale-catchers Yushin
Maru #2 and #3 during the first six weeks of the self-declared
five-month Japanese “research whaling” season. The whalers hope to
kill nearly 1,000 whales this winter, but have fallen far short of
their quota in each of the past three winters.
The Sea Shepherds were optimistic after the Shanan Maru #2
returned to the rest of the fleet to meet a refueling vessel and was
seen by yachters who reported its position.

Zimbabwe suspends hunting to save rhinos

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

Special to ANIMAL PEOPLE by Barnabas Thondlana
with additional research by Merritt Clifton

HARARE-Internationally criticized for
failing to stop rhinoceros poaching, the
Zimbabwe National Parks & Wildlife Author-ity on
November 30, 2009 temporarily suspended wildlife
hunting licences, interrupting trophy hunting by
foreign visitors near the peak of the season.
Trophy hunting has in recent years been
among the few reliable sources of foreign
exchange for the financially depleted Zimbabwean
government.
“National Parks & Wildlife Authority
would like to warn the public that all current
hunting permits have been suspended with
immediate effect to verify them,” said a notice
published in state-approved media. “All current
permit holders are advised to approach the Parks
Authority to verify validity of their permits,”
the notice added.

Boxing Day brings confrontation over U.K. Hunting Act enforcement

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

LONDON–The British ban on pack hunting is at risk if the
Conservative slate led by David Cameron wins a majority in the 2010
Parliamentary elections, but Labour environment secretary Hilary
Benn served notice in a Boxing Day op-ed column for The Independent
that the Hunting Act, passed in 2004, will not go down without a
fight fully backed by Labour leadership.
Along with Christmas, Benn wrote, “We should also celebrate
the fifth Boxing Day without the sight of foxes being torn to pieces.
In years to come I think we will look back with horror at a time when
hunting wild animals with dogs was viewed as respectable
entertainment. Like badger-baiting and cock-fighting, ripping
animals to shreds with dogs will become a relic of history.”

Editorial feature: 21st century began with 10 years of hard-won gains

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:
Most ANIMAL PEOPLE readers are probably buried lately in a
blizzard of appeals reviewing the deeds of animal charities during
the past year and decade. Recipients will be cheered by recaps of
“victories,” no matter how transient. Some may notice, though,
that “defeats” are seldom mentioned.
Comprehensive assessments of progress tend to be fewer–and
can be discouraging, in view of frequent contradictory indicators.
But the animal cause does not advance primarily through obvious
“victories,” or fail through the unmentioned defeats, which most
often result when legislation is proposed before sufficient
groundwork is done to pass it, or when resources are inadequate to
achieve an ambitious goal.
Fundraisers and campaigners like to evoke imagery suggesting
that at some point a cause will “triumph,” perhaps after someone
blows the right horn to bring all obstacles tumbling down. This is a
tried-and-true appeal format, but reality is that if any “war”
metaphor is appropriate to advancing the cause of animals, it is
that of trench warfare.

Shooters Party tries to force hunting in parks of NSW, Australia

October 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

SYDNEY–“We won’t be looking at hunting in national parks,”
New South Wales environment minister John Robertson told reporters on
October 28, 2009, but pledged to “do more to deal with feral
animals in our national parks.”
Robertson’s statement came a week after NSW prime minister
Nathan Rees suggested that the nominally governing Labor Party might
cut a deal with the two-seat Shooters Party to allow hunters to cull
“vermin and feral animals.”

Dealing with deer–and appreciating them

October 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

At this writing hunting seasons are open on Virginia
whitetailed deer in every state that has any. Whether the season is
“rifle” or “archery,” “buck” or “antlerless,” open or limited to a
specific locale, there is no state that has Virginia whitetailed
deer in which reducing and limiting the growth of the deer herd is
not a stated management goal, even where the management plan is
still likely to accelerate herd growth.
This happens whenever and wherever so many bucks are killed
that each adult doe has food enough over the winter to produce twin
fawns.

Film spotlights Taiji dolphin killing

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

TAIJI, Japan–The Cove has not stopped the annual Taiji
dolphin massacres– not yet, anyhow. But the award-winning film did
appear to slow down the killing at the start of the 2009 “drive
fishery” season, and–even before release in Japan–is bringing the
massacres to the attention of the often shocked Japanese public as
nothing before ever has.
“Moviegoers who have seen The Cove, directed by Louie
Psihoyos, said they were stunned by the cruelty of the killings,
captured by concealed cameras. Many newspapers have blasted the
traditional coastal whaling practice in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture,
which is not subject to the International Whaling Commission’s ban on
commercial whaling,” summarized Toshihiro Yamanaka for Asahi
Shimbun. The second largest newspaper in Japan, Asahi Shimbun
reaches about 8.2 million readers daily.
“When I found out, I cried,” Osaka resident Keiko Hirao
told John M. Glionna of the Los Angeles Times.
Director Louis Psihoyos, a former National Geographic
photographer, has pledged to keep the spotlight on Taiji by making
The Cove available in Japan as a free download, if he fails to
secure a commercial distributor. The Cove has won more than a dozen
awards, including the audience award at the 25th annual Sundance
Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and has aired widely in other
parts of the world, but despite much media notice in Japan, has not
yet been screened there.

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