Killing predators barely noticed in U.S

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
LOS ANGELES–Killing protected predators makes headlines in
much of the world, but in the U.S. often barely rates a published
mention, perhaps because the offense is frequent and not all that
different from the routine practices of many public agencies.
USDA Wildlife Services, the Alaska Department of Fish &
Game, and many other state wildlife departments routinely target
predators including coyotes, wolves, bears, feral cats, and
cormorants. Some of these species are protected in some habitats but
not others.
Private citizens accused of killing predators, usually as a crime of
opportunity while hunting other species, often win lenient
sentencing by pleading confusion–such as mistaking a wolf for a
coyote, or a grizzly bear for a black bear.

Cat-killing bill may be stalled

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
WASHINGTON D.C.–HR 767, a bill that if passed would allow
the National Wildlife Refuge system to authorize hunters to shoot
feral cats, unanimously cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on
an October 23, 2007 voice vote, and entered the Senate without
organized opposition.
Then, after page one exposure in the October 2007 edition of
ANIMAL PEOPLE, HR 767 ran into Lee “The LocoMotive” Zucker, owner
of The LocoMotive vegetarian restaurant in Eugene, Oregon. Zucker
called many of the national animal advocacy groups and regional
humane societies whose first word was that HR 767 could not be
stopped.

Reintroducing red kites despite hunter opposition

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
DUBLIN, ULSTER– The Golden Eagle Trust, Welsh Kite Trust,
and Irish National Parks & Wildlife Service in July 2007 released 15
pairs of red kites in the Wicklow mountains, in an attempt to
rebuild the long extinct native kite population–but someone shot one
of the kites just six weeks later, during National Heritage Week.
The shooting followed a series of killings of birds of prey
in County Down, Northern Ireland, including a peregrine falcon who
was hatched in County Antrim in early 2006 and found dead near
Sprucefield in October, and a buzzard who was found poisoned in the
Drumbanagher area, near Newry.
“There was a case of alleged persecution of peregrines in the
Mourne Mountains earlier,” recalled Royal Society for the Protection
of Birds conservation officer Claire Ferry.

California bans lead shot to help condors –big loss for NRA

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

SACRAMENTO–California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on
October 13, 2007 signed into law a ban on hunting species classed as
“big game” and coyotes with lead ammunition in habitat used by
endangered California condors.
Schwarzenegger signed the bill a month after appeasing the
National Rifle Association by obtaining the resignation of former
California Fish & Game Commission member R. Judd Hanna, who had
urged the commission to ban lead ammunition.
The California Fish & Game Commission in February 2005
rejected two similar proposals presented by the Center for Biological
Diversity.
Schwarzenegger asked Hanna to resign one day after 34
Republican state legislators demanded that Hanna be fired.
Schwarzenegger had in February 2007 appointed Hanna to a term that
was to run until 2013. The NRA and Gun Owners of California
militantly objected to Hanna, himself a hunter, when Hanna
researched the effects of lead on wildlife and at an August 27, 2007
Fish & Game Commission meeting distributed 167 pages of his findings
to the other commissioners.

Pro-hunting Nature Conservancy president quits

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
ARLINGTON, Va.–Steven J. McCormick,
56, president of The Nature Conservancy since
December 2000, abruptly resigned on October 1,
2007, effective immediately. His successor has
not been selected.
A 30-year Nature Conservancy employee,
McCormick took over the national organization
after his predecessor, John Sawhill, died from
diabetes. While Nature Conservancy policies have
always favored hunting, fishing, and trapping,
McCormick –himself an avid hunter–moved TNC
into closer alignment with hunting, fishing,
and trapping advocacy organizations.
McCormick previously directed the Nature
Conservancy of California for 16 years,
presiding over the acquisition of Santa Cruz
Island to become a part of Channel Island
National Park and efforts to exterminate
non-native animals on the island.

“Future of Hunting” TV show and future of hunting itself in question

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

BENNINGTON, Vt.–Vermont Supreme Court Justice Brian Burgess
on October 5, 2007 amended the conditions of release for The Future
of Hunting cable television show host Kevin M. Hoyt, 37, who on
August 27, 2007 pleaded innocent to felony charges of lewd and
lascivious conduct.
The Future of Hunting features expenses-paid “dream hunts” by
children. Recent episodes were reportedly taped in Alabama, Ohio,
and Tennessee.
Hoyt, according to a September 2005 profile by Pam Belluck
of The New York Times, “quit a job as a structural steel draftsman a
few years ago and decided to dedicate himself to getting children
across the country interested in hunting. Hoyt, a father of five
children under age 13, says he is committed to recruiting younger
hunters.”

Five Makah arrested for killing whale without permit

September 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

NEAH BAY, Washington– Frustrated by eight years of failing
to obtain a new federal permit to kill gray whales, after killing
one in May 1999, Makah tribal whaler Wayne Johnson, 54, and four
other Makah– Theron Parker, Andy Noel, Billy Secor and Frank
Gonzales Jr.–on September 8, 2007 killed a whale without a permit
and without tribal authorization or awareness.
“Crew members plunged at least five stainless steel whaling
harpoons into the animal. Then they shot it,” wrote Seattle Times
staff reporter Lynda V. Mapes. “The Coast Guard, alerted to the
hunt by onlookers, was on the scene within hours. Johnson and the
others quickly found themselves in handcuffs,” recounted Mapes.
“The Coast Guard confiscated the gun and their boats, and cut the
whale, harpoons and all, loose to drift on the current. By evening,
the whale was dead, and sank out of sight.

Iceland halts commercial whaling

September 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

REYKJAVIK–Iceland fisheries minister Einar K Guofinnsson on
September 3, 2007 announced that Iceland will not issue new
commercial whaling quotas.
Iceland in 2006 joined Norway in unilaterally defying the
21-year-old Inter-national Whaling Commission moratorium on
commercial whaling by issuing itself permits to kill 30 minke whales
and nine endangered fin whales. Anticipating a market in Japan for
whale meat, Icelandic fishers killed seven minke whales and seven
fin whales, but were unable to get permission to export the meat.
“There is no reason to continue commercial whaling if there
is no demand for the product,” Guofinnsson said.
Iceland, like Japan, has sustained a remnant whaling
industry despite the IWC moratorium by authorizing whalers to hunt in
the name of research. Iceland issued “scientific whaling” permits to
kill 38 minke whales in 2003, 25 in 2004, 39 in 2005, and 60 in
2006–far below the Japanese toll of 6,795 whales killed in research
whaling since 1987.

Norwegian whaler scuttled at dock

September 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:
OSLO–Sabotage was suspected in the August 30, 2007 dockside
sinking of the whaling vessel Willassen Senior in the northern
Norwegian port city of Svolvaer. No injuries were reported.
“On the night of August 30th we decided to celebrate the end
of commercial whaling in Iceland by removing a large section of
cooling pipe in the engine room of the Norweigan whaler Willassen
Senior,” said an anonymous e-mail forwarded on September 11, 2007
from Norwegian activist Daniel Rolke to Dolphin Project founder Ric
O’Barry, who shared it with ANIMAL PEOPLE.
The e-mail was signed “Agenda 21,” the name of a United
Nations Environmental Program protocol.
“This is the fifth Norwegian whaler that has come under
attack for illegal whaling activities since 1992,” e-mailed Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson from Friday Harbor,
Washington. “The others were the Nybraena, scuttled at dockside in
December 1992; the Senet, scuttled at dockside in January 1994;
the Elin-Toril, severely damaged in 1997; and the Morild, sunk in
1998.”
All were refloated and repaired.

« 1 … 14 15 16 17 18 … 75 »