Birds

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

The January/February edition of World Watch, the journal of the

Worldwatch Institute, postulated that wild birds are the “canaries in the coal mine”

whose decline warns of forthcoming ecodisaster. The article cited studies finding that

1,000 of the 9,600 known bird species are endangered or threatened; 70% of known

species are decining in numbers; and 2,600 species are involved in international trade.

Under pressure to provide targets for hunters and faced with crashing

populations of most migratory waterfowl, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is consid-

ering lifting a ban on goose hunting along the Pacific Flyway. The ban was imposed to

protect the cackling Canada goose and the Pacific white-fronted goose, whose num-

bers dropped from 300,000 to 28,500 and from 500,000 to 93,900 during the 1980s,

but are now back up to 164,300 and 275,100, respectively.

Coyote-killing “like calling a girl”

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

GILLETTE, Wyoming––Coyote, fox,

and rabbit-killing contests and bounty programs

popped up around the west in midwinter––in

response, organizers said, to a year-old moratori-

um on coyote-killing by the federal Animal

Damage Control Program, won through a lawsuit

filed by the Humane Society of the U.S. Ranchers

argued that nonlethal coyote control hasn’t worked,

citing an American Sheep Industry Association

report that coyotes in Wyoming and Colorado have

learned to run sheep dogs to exhaustion, attack

them in packs, and split up so that some can divert

the dogs while others kill sheep. They claimed huge

livestock losses to an alleged overpopulation of coy-

otes and foxes, although killing contest participants

averaged only two dead coyotes and one dead fox

per 18 days of hunting. ASIA and other ranch lob-

bies are trying to lift the ADC moratorium––along

with a ban on the use of spring-fired traps called M-

44s that shoot poison into coyotes’ mouths. The

traps are banned to protect eagles, who likewise

may snatch the bait with fatal consequences.

ALASKAN WOLF MASSACRE: SIERRA CLUB BREAKS BOYCOTT

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

FAIRBANKS, Alaska––Alaska’s “ground-based” wolf-killing campaign in

Game Management Unit 20A, south of Fairbanks, was more than $50,000 over bud-

get in early February, with only 84 wolves killed out of a quota of 150––tending to

affirm the view of wolf expert Gordon Haber, Friends of Animals, and the Alaska

Wildlife Alliance that the state greatly overestimated the wolf population of the area

to begin with. Only $100,000 was to be spent on the wolf-killing, including $30,000

for personnel and $15,000 for helicopter rentals, but by mid-January personnel costs

were already over $60,000 and helicopter rentals were at $23,000, the AWA reported.

Finding the federal Airborne Hunting Act impossible to enforce when state

law allows “trappers” to spot wolves from the air, land, walk 300 feet, and shoot

them, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on December 22 proposed a ban on killing

any free-ranging wolves or wolverines on Alaskan National Wildlife Refuges the

same day a hunter is airborne. Killing trapped wolves would still be permitted.

SPECTACLES

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

A group of Ecuadoran school children

in late January donated their allowances, sold toys,

and performed on street corners to raise funds to

feed polar bears, elephants, seals, and horses aban-

doned in Quito by the Circus of Czars, from St.

Petersburg, Russia. The circus manager vanished

with the receipts from a successful tour, leaving the

human performers stranded, as creditors seized

their equipment. As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to

press, help was reportedly en route from business

leaders and environmental groups.

Good deeds

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Veterinarians Jeff Young and

Mark Chamberlain of Planned

Pethood Plus held their third annual

male cat neuter-a-thon in Boulder,

Colorado, on January 30––and donated

their $7 per cat fee to Mission Wolf, a

refuge for wolves and wolf hybrids in

Silver Cliff, Colorado.

Tucson veterinarians Reuben

Merideth and Barbara Page in early

January donated a $1,400 cataract

removal operation to give partial sight to

a bighorn lamb, who was apparently

abandoned by her mother after going

blind but was rescued by hikers who

turned her over to the Arizona Game

and Fish Department. The lamb will

probably be donated to a zoo or a cap-

tive breeding program.

Fur

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

While the ISO moved to accept

padded leghold traps as “humane,” a

Massachusetts judge ruled they are not on

December 27, 1993, overturning a 1989 rul-

ing by the state Division of Fisheries and

Wildlife that padded traps were not banned by

the state law that banned steel-jawed leghold

traps in 1974. “It is apparent from the opera-

tion of the Woodstream ‘soft-catch’ trap,”

Suffolk Superior Court judge Patrick King

wrote, “that it will cause injury to many ani-

mals.”

ANIMAL HEALTH

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Rabies update

New Hampshire state veterinarian

Clifford McGinniss warned January

15––after a rabid kitten was found in a

Merrimack College dormitory––that feral cats

must be exterminated to protect Hampton

Beach visitors. Disagreeing, Hampton Beach

is pursung a $24,000 cat control plan combin-

ing catch-and-kill with selective neuter/

release. The plan is also opposed by New

Hampshire SPCA executive director Bonnie

Roberts, who told the Boston Globe that the

feral cats “are going to tangle with rabid ani-

mals and spread the disease.” In fact, rabies

vaccination is a prerequisite of the Hampton

Beach plan, and of all properly managed

neuter/release programs. There are no reports

on record of any cat in any recognized

neuter/release program anywhere ever con-

tracting rabies, while several neuter/release

programs including one coordinated in 1991-

1992 by ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim

Bartlett have been credited by public safety

officials with creating an immunized barrier

between rabid wildlife and family pets.

L.A. earthquake aid

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

LOS ANGELES, Calif.––

The City of Los Angeles was among

the first animal control jurisdictions

to have its own disaster prepared-

ness manual, but not even manual

author Lt. Frederic Michael antici-

pated two major natural disasters

hitting the area within four months:

first the devastating brushfires of

late October and early November,

and then, January 17, a 6.6-

Richter-magnitude earthquake that

collapsed overpasses, ruptured

water mains, killed 43 people out-

right, and left more than 20,000 at

least temporarily homeless.

Animal Control & Rescue

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

The Canadian SPCA

was stunned February 3 when it

lost the Montreal pound contract

to a private bidder, Berger Blanc,

for at least a two-month trial period.

Berger Blanc handles animal control

for several Montreal suburbs, but

has been accused of selling animals

to biomedical research. The

Montreal contract forbids such sales.

The CSPCA was nearly bankrupted

under its previous two-year pound

contract, loosely modeled after the

contract New York City has long

had with the ASPCA, under which

it was expected to provide pound

service at a substantial loss––

$450,000 in 1993––in exchange for

the proceeds from all dog licenses

sold after the first 10,000.

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