Endangered Species Act package includes wolves for Yellowstone

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The Fish-

eries and Wildlife subcommittee of the U.S.

Senate Environment and Public Works

Committee opened discussion of reauthorizing

the Endangered Species Act on June 15 amid

a flurry of actions by the Clinton administra-

tion designed to mitigate objections to the

ESA from landowners while convincing envi-

ronmentalists that the key goals of the act will

not be yielded for political advantage.

Most notably, Interior Secretary

Bruce Babbitt announced June 14 that effec-

tive upon publication of new ESA regulations

in the Federal Register, it will institute peer

review of species listing and recovery deci-

sions by panels of three independent scien-

tists; produce multispecies listings and recov-

ery plans for species sharing the same ecosys-

tem, to expedite the regulatory process; pub-

lish land use guidelines spelling out what is

and isn’t allowed in the habitat of each new

species listed; and most symbolically impor-

tant, add landowners and business representa-

tives to endangered species recovery planning

teams. The latter comes close to building into

the listing process the cost/benefit analysis

that the George Bush administration argued

should be part of endangered species decision-

making back when the ESA first came up for

renewal in 1992.

Fish wars erupt worldwide

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Fishing vessels don’t fly the Jolly Roger, but fish piracy is increasing from the

Grand Banks to the Bay of Bengal, where crackdowns are underway. Related violence is up

as well. Malaysian marine fisheries head Abdul Hamid Syukor on May 18 disclosed the

seizure of a rocket launcher, five assault rifles, and 600 rounds of ammo from two

Vietnamese trawlers allegedly caught in the act of fish-poaching. The Russian news service

Itar-Tass reported June 5 that a Russian patrol boat “was forced to open warning fire” just

after midnight on June 4 to drive six Japanese vessels out of the Kunashir straits.

Norwegian coast guard ships on June 15 cut the nets of four Icelandic trawlers they caught

fishing in Artic waters and fired a warning shot to keep three others away. One Icelandic

captain claimed the Norwegians tried to ram his boat. Norwegian newspapers predicted an

imminent cod war. On June 18, meanwhile, a French destroyer broke up a net-cutting fight

among several dozen French and Spanish trawlers off the Azores. Violence is also close to

the surface on the Caspian sea, where caviar poachers affiliated with organized crime fight

with the fishing fleets of five nations for the last of the once abundant beluga sturgeon.

Spectacles

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Bullfights and rodeos have been banned i n

Sao Paulo, Brazil, scene of more than 100 such events in

1993. The ban took effect in May.

Trying to slow the pace of the Iditarod dog

sled race from Anchorage to Nome, the Iditarod Trail

Committee has eliminated five food dropoff points, to

require mushers to pack heavier loads, and has cut the

maximum number of dogs in a team from 20 to 16. To

make up for sponsorship losses, the entry fee has been

increased from $500 to $1,750.

Laboratory animals: rodent and bird verdict reversed

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The U.S. Court of Appeals in late

May struck down a 1992 federal court ruling that

Congress meant the Animal Welfare Act to

apply to rats, mice, and birds, exempted by the

USDA since 1971. Declining to hear arguments,

the court held that the Humane Society of the

U.S. had no standing to bring the case because it

could not prove it is harmed by the USDA policy

in question. ““We intend to petition the Appeals

Court for a rehearing based on errors in the rul-

ing,” said Martin Stephens, Humane Society of

the U.S. vice president for laboratory animal

programs. Stephens dismissed the precedential

import of the verdict on standing, but Valerie

Stanley of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the

lead attorney in the case, told the Chronicle of

Higher Education that it means, in effect, that

no animal protection organization may sue to

protect laboratory animals.

Whales for missiles: SANCTUARY CREATED––BUT WHALING GETS THE GO-AHEAD TOO

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico, and WASH-

INGTON D.C.––As whale defenders cheered the May 26 cre-

ation of the Southern Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica, the

International Whaling Commission on May 27 unanimously

approved a U.S. motion to provisionally accept the Revised

Management Plan, a formula for setting renewed commercial

whaling quotas. Mexico, Ireland, and India voiced reserva-

tions but did not formally oppose the consensus.

The Southern Whale Sanctuary starts at the 40th par-

allel south latitude, dipping to the 55th parallel around the

lower tip of South America. It connects with the extant Indian

Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Although the IWC has no policing

power, the sanctuary designation means that whaling is per-

manently illegal in approximately half of the world’s waters,

protecting––on paper––about 80% of the surviving baleen

whales, an estimated 80% of the time.

GATT panel says U.S. can’t protect dolphins

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

On May 23, one week before the U.S.

Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibition on the

import of tuna netted “on dolphin” took full effect,

a General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs panel

ruled for the second time that the prohibition vio-

lates GATT because GATT does not allow trade

bans based on commodity production methods.

As in 1991, the U.S. ignored the GATT

ruling, bringing the ban on non-dolphin-safe tuna

into place as scheduled on June 1. The previous

ruling was brought on behalf of Mexico, which

did not seek enforcement to avoid jeopardizing the

North American Free Trade Agreement, then

before Congress for approval. The May 23 ruling

was brought on behalf of the European Union,

and was slightly more favorable than the 1991 rul-

ing in that it did recognize––in theory, if not in

practice––the legitimacy of national attempts to

mandate international environmental protection.

COURT CALENDAR

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Activism

The U.S. Supreme Court on

June 13 upheld federal court and Court

of Appeals rulings that communities

cannot consititutionally ban the display

of political signs on citizens’ own prop-

erty. Issued on behalf of anti-Persian Gulf

War protester Margaret Gilleo, of Ladue,

Missouri, who is now a Congressional

candidate, the ruling applies as well to

people who have been ordered to cease

displaying signs on behalf of animals.

Friends of Animals in early

June won a judgement against the State

of Alaska for attorney’s fees incurred in

defending itself against governor Walter

Hickel’s failed attempt to sue FoA for libel.

The Hickel suit was filed in June 1993 in

an apparent attempt to prevent FoA from

further publicizing the Alaskan plan to kill

wolves in order to make more moose and

caribou available to hunters.

Horses

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Responding to an appeal from Brigitte Bardot,

Belgian interior minister Louis Tobback on June 13 banned the

controversial Krombeke trap-horse race––as well as any demon-

strations that might be held to gloat over the victory. Held on

slippery cobblestone streets, the race resulted in frequent injuries

to horses and drivers. Tobback, who said he’d always dreamed

of getting a letter from Bardot, last year banned a similar race at

nearby Sint-Eloois-Winkel.

Six-time Canadian Olympic equestrian Ian Millar,

of Perth, Ontario, on May 30 announced the retirement of Big

Ben, the 18-year-old Belgian he rode in three Olympics. Ben,

whom Millar began jumping in 1983, was the first North

American show jumper to win more than $1.5 million, achieving

40 grand prix victories; led Canada to the 1987 Pan American

Games gold medal; and won back-to-back World Cups.

Captive wildlife

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The Audubon Institute in

Algiers, Louisiana, broke ground June 1 for

the $15 million Audubon Center for

Research of Endangered Species, a high-

tech laboratory intended to complement the

adjacent Freeport-McMoran Audubon

Species Survival Center. The next planned

Audubon facility, an insectarium to be built

in the French Quarter of New Orleans, is

getting a mixed reception from future neigh-

bors, but appears certain to be approved by

municipal authorities, in part because it is

expected to attract 600,000 visitors per year.

Singapore on May 23 opened

Night Safari, a $38 million state-of-the-

art zoo for nocturnal species. The facility

has already achieved successful breeding of

18 of the 43 resident species, including the

russet-coated Asian wild dog, the fishing

cat, the Malaysian tapir, and the striped

hyena. The zoo took seven years to build.

« 1 … 145 146 147 148 149 … 169 »