BOOKS: Pigeons

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:

Pigeons
by Andrew D. Blechman
Grove Press (841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003), 2006. 256 pages. $23.00

An enthralling study, this book covers the whole spectrum of
topics associated with pigeons, once revered and respected as
messengers, now often reviled as “rats with wings.” Author Andrew
Blechman explores both the methods and motives of pigeon fanciers,
who often devote their whole lives to breeding and racing their
birds; military messengers, some of whom still use pigeons in
places and situations where electronics are impractical; and
recreational pigeon shooters, to whom the birds are no more than
challenging targets. Read more

Nutria bounty increased

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries has upped
the bounty on nutria to $5.00 a tail, trying to keep trappers active
despite fur prices lagging far behind the rising cost of fueling
boats and off-road vehicles. Paid for by the federal Coastal
Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act, the bounty
program “has removed more than 1.1 million nutria,” reported
Associated Press.

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.

Did poachers really kill Lucy, the sign language chimp?

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
ANIMAL PEOPLE in June 2006 published a
review of Hurt Go Happy, a novel by Ginny Rorby,
said to be based on the true story of Lucy, a
chimp who was taught American sign language and
was later sent to the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation
Trust in Gambia. The review stated as fact that
“Lucy was killed by poachers in 1987.” The truth
is that we have no idea how she died. Illness,
a fall, snake bite, or even lightning strike are
all more likely causes of her death than being
killed by poachers.
Dale Peterson in Chimp Travels was almost
certainly paraphrasing Janis Carter, who was
greatly responsible for putting Lucy through her
rehabilitation ordeal, when he wrote of Lucy
that “Šher hands and feet [were] brutally severed
and her skin simply stripped offŠ” He certainly
quotes Carter in “ŠWe can only speculate that
Lucy was killed–probably shot–and skinned…”
Carol Jahme’s Beauty and the Beast states
as fact that Lucy “was killed and skinned by
fishermen.”

The king, the baron, a celebrity & hunting “sportsmanship”

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Russian business daily Kommersant on
October 19, 2006 published a written allegation
by Vologda region deputy hunting chief Sergei
Starostin that a “good-natured and joyful bear”
named Mitrofan was in August 2006 taken from his
home at a local holiday resort, “generously fed
vodka mixed with honey,” and “pushed into a
field” where “His Highness Juan Carlos of Spain
took him out with one shot.”
The king, 68, “neither hunted with
Russian President Vladimir Putin nor killed a
bear,” a palace spokesperson told Paul Haven of
Associated Press. Haven noted that the
Kommersant account never mentioned Putin.

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.

Marine mammal exhibitors join protest against Japanese coastal dolphin killing

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

More than 60 organizations demonstrated
outside Japanese embassies and consulates in 32
cities against “traditional” coastal whaling on
September 20, 2006, the second annual Japan
Dolphin Day declared and coordinated by Ric
O’Barry of One Voice. Most notoriously practiced
at Taiji, the coastal whaling method consists of
driving dolphins into shallow bays from which
they cannot escape and then hacking them to death
en massé, after some are selected for live
capture and sale to swim-with-dolphins
attractions and exhibition parks.
The so-called “drive fisheries” have been
protested for more than 30 years by marine mammal
advocates including Sakei Hemmi of the Elsa
Nature Conservancy/Japan, film maker Hardin
Jones, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder
Paul Watson, and Steve Sipman, who invented the
name “Animal Liberation Front” in connection with
releasing two dolphins from a Hawaiian laboratory
in 1976. The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks &
Aquariums and the American Zoo & Aquarium
Association finally issued statements of
objection to the “drive fisheries” in March 2004,
as did the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums
in June 2006.

Death of Keiko may coincide with rise of anti-whaling movement in Norway, Japan

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

TAKNES FJORD, Norway; TAIJI, Japan–Keiko, 27, the orca
star of the Free Willy! film trilogy, died suddenly on December 12,
2003 from apparent acute pneumonia.
His death concluded perhaps the most Quixotic, costly, and
popular episode in 138 years of documented efforts by some humans to
save whales from exploitation by others, beginning with the
post-U.S. Civil War anti-whaling crusade waged in the North Pacific
by Captain James Waddell and the crew of the ex-Confederate cruiser
Shenandoah. Waddell and his few dozen men destroyed 38 whaling ships
and took more than a thousand prisoners without killing anyone before
they were apprehended.
Their mission, recounted by Murray Morgan in Dixie Raider
(1948) inspired Paul Watson to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society in 1977.

Verdict against Makah whaling upheld; new rulings on Native hunting rights

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

SEATTLE–The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on
December 1, 2003 upheld a December 2002 ruling by a three-judge
panel from the same court that the National Marine Fisheries Service
failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act in
permitting the Makah Tribal Council of Neah Bay, Washington, to
exercise a claimed treaty right to hunt gray whales.
“The plaintiffs in the case–the Fund for Animals, the
Humane Society of the U.S., and other groups and individuals–argued
that the government failed to adequately study the ways in which the
Makah whale hunt could set a dangerous precedent and adversely affect
the environment,” explained Fund for Animals spokesperson Tracy
McIntire.

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