Michigan Supreme Court upholds city hunting ban

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
LANSING–The Michigan Supreme Court on June 20, 2007 ruled 4-3
that cities have the right to ban the use of firearms and archery
equipment within their limits.
“While the Department of Natural Resources enjoys exclusive
authority to regulate taking game,” the majority held, “there is no
indication that the legislative grant of authority to regulate taking
game is superior to or supersedes the authority to regulate the
discharge of weapons.”
Saginaw resident Michael Czymbor brought the case, backed by
the Michigan United Conservation Clubs.

Who is killing the Virunga gorillas?

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

GOMA, DRC–Seeking the killers of endangered mountain
gorillas in Virunga National Park, near the eastern border of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNESCO and the World Conservation
Union on August 14, 2007 sent out a posse.
“The killings are inexplicable,” said a United Nations press
release. “They do not correspond to traditional poaching,” and
“have taken place despite increased guard patrols and the presence of
military forces.
“Seven mountain gorillas have been shot and killed this year,
four of them last month, more than during the conflict that wracked
Africa’s Great Lakes region in the late 1990s,” the release
continued. “Some 700 gorillas are estimated to still survive in the
area, about 370 of them in Virunga.”

Monkey-laundering?

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
HONG KONG–Is a small amount of monkey-eating in southern
China covering for a large amount of monkey trafficking from the wild
to U.S. labs?
Among the reasons for vigilance:
* Monkey-trapping and smuggling appear to be increasing
throughout Southeast Asia, allegedly for Chinese markets. Yet
reports from within China indicate no rise in monkey consumption,
amid increasing efforts to suppress eating contraband wildlife.
* U.S. lab use of nonhuman primates has more than doubled,
from 25,534 in 2002 and 25,834 in 2003, to 54,998 in 2004, and
57,531 in 2005, the latest year for which the USDA Animal & Plant
Inspection Service has complete data.

Quebec wardens bust a poaching legend

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
MONTREAL–For more than 30 years rumors
circulated among Quebec game wardens about trophy
hunting outfitters north of the St. Lawrence
River who would allegedly trap wolves and bears
with baited hooks, then fly rich clients out to
shoot them.
The perpetrators allegedly also chased
big moose and caribou to exhaustion with
helicopters, to give unscrupulous and
politically powerful customers easier shots.
But none of the suspects were ever caught
in any of the acts and arrested. Catching
ordinary deer poachers in relatively populated
southern Quebec was difficult. Catching
well-funded and well-equipped poachers hundreds
of miles from any accidental witnesses was deemed
almost impossible.

Islamicist factions in Bangladesh fund insurgencies via poaching in northeast India

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

GUWAHATI, India–The May 27, 2007 arrest of alleged Naga
poaching kingpin Lalkhang Go “revealed a nexus between the poachers
and the militants across the region,” reported Hindustan Times
correspondent Rahul Karmakar.
Forestry department wildlife officer Surajit Dutta told
Karmakar that a 12-member team tracked Go and two associates for
three days in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, 60 kilometers from
Guwahati.
“With the help of local people,” Karmakar wrote, “forest
guards caught Go while he was trying to shoot a rhino in the
sanctuary. His accomplices, however, managed to escape.”
Said Dutta, “Go confessed to killing rhinos and other
animals. He said he had received arms training from the National
Socialist Council of Nagaland,” a rebel force that has fougt the
Indian government for 27 years, at cost of about 10,000 human lives.
Go’s confession appeared to confirm the findings of Guardian
reporters Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark in a comprehensive
investigation of wildlife trafficking in Assam published on May 5,
2007.

Mitt Romney becomes first 2008 Presidential candidate to pander to hunters

May 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:
KEENE, N.H.– Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney on
April 3, 2007 became the first 2008 Presidential contender to
identify himself as a hunter, and the first to be embarrassed when
his claims about hunting could not be verified.
Questioned at a campaign event in Keene, New Hampshire,
about his position on gun control, Romney responded, “I support the
Second Amendment. I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I’ve
been a hunter pretty much all my life. I’ve never really shot
anything terribly big,” Romney confessed. “I used to hunt rabbits.
“Shooting a rabbit with a single-shot .22 is pretty hard,”
Romney added, so–according to his statements–he switched to using
a semiautomatic rifle.
Associated Press political reporter Glen Johnson investigated
Romney’s story.

Judge halts Alaska wolf bounties

May 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:

ANCHORAGE–Alaska Superior Court Judge William Morse on March
30, 2007 ruled on behalf of Friends of Animals, Defenders of
Wildlife, and coplaintiffs that the Alaska Department of Fish & Game
does not have the authority to pay bounties to aerial gunners for
killing wolves.
However, Morse added, the Alaska Board of Game can
authorize bounties. Morse held that the 1984 repeal of a state law
allowing bounties applied only to administrative actions of the
Department of Fish & Game, not to actions of the Board of Game.
Thus, while the Morse verdict suspended a bounty program introduced
on March 21, it left the possibility that the Board of Game may
reinstate it, or start a new bounty program.

Mother Nature fights the seal hunt

May 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:
ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland– Climatic
conditions appeared likely to do the annual
Atlantic Canadian seal hunt more economic damage
in 2007 than all the protests and boycotts
worldwide combined.
As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press on April
25, sealers were still assessing the combined
cost of a sealing season that was almost without
ice in much of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while
drifting sheet ice trapped and badly damaged
sealing vessels along the Labrador Front,
northeast of Newfoundland. A dozen crews had
abandoned their boats after ice cracked the hulls.
“Two Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers,
the Ann Harvey and the Sir Wilfred Grenfell, are
trapped in the ice along with the sealing
vessels. Helicopters are flying food and fuel to
the stranded crews on the ice,” reported Paul
Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
As many as 90 sealing boats were trapped
in ice, as of April 23, up from 60 ten days
earlier, according to the St. Johns Telegram.
The icebreakers had managed to free only about 10
boats in five days of effort, before becoming
stuck themelves.

Lancaster captive turkey shooters convicted–a first in Pennsylvania

April 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
LANCASTER, Pa.–The Elstonville Sportsmen’s Association on
March 9, 2007 pleaded “no contest” to eight cruelty counts brought
against the club for hosting a live turkey shoot in Rapho Township
on September 9, 2006.
The “no contest” plea acknowledged the facts of the case,
including an agreement to pay all fines, without admitting guilt.
Elstonville Sportsmen’s Association attorney Michael Winters
told Ad Crable of the Lancaster New Era that in response to the
charges the club had elected new leadership, and had adopted a new
rule that forbids “the use of any living entity for the sole purpose
of being a target,” even if the use is allowed by law.

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