Puma panic

July 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Worthy of a film expose in the tradition of Reefer Madness,
the hyperbolic 1936 documentary that alerted the world to the perils of
marijuana, PUMA PANIC!!! could be coming soon to a suburb near you!
Causes include the possible presence of a puma within a few
dozen miles; public reminders that pumas eat pets and people; hunting
advocates blaming the problem on an alleged lack of people using
hounds and telemetry to track pumas, then blow them out of trees in
such a manner as to save intact heads for the wall; and wildlife officials
engaging in bizarre rituals to avert the threat, sometimes reminiscent of
animal sacrifice to appease an alleged dragon.
For instance, with the approval of Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife biologist John Thiebes, volunteer trapper Richard Stahl
circa May 13 live-trapped a purported feral cat, fed the cat for three
days, and then staked him out in a small cage as live bait for a puma
who purportedly stalked two boys near Medford on April 3, six weeks
earlier; killed several other cats; and killed a dachshund on April 29.

War on rabbits goes awry Down Under

January 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

ADELAIDE, S.A.––Australian
officials admitted November 27 that the premature
release of calicivirus into the outback
of New South Wales and South Australia
state in October was an accident.
Apparently carried to the mainland
by insects after deployment at a test site on
Wardong Island, the disease soon killed
850,000 rabbits––22 an acre––in Flinders
Ranges National Park alone. Ranger David
Peacock said that was counting only rabbits
who died in the open; experts predicted
most afflicted rabbits would die underground.
Farmers eager to get rid of rabbits
were reportedly paying $75 apiece for
infected rabbits to release on their property.
Australia has been trying to eradicate
rabbits for more than a century.

What to do about too many deer?

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The problem

Four aircraft––each carrying
more than 100 passengers––hit deer
during October and early November
while landing at the BaltimoreWashington
International Airport. The
Federal Aviation Administration recorded
2,287 collisions between aircraft and
wildlife in 1994, but only about 60
involved mammals of any kind. One
plane hit an alligator; the rest hit birds.
Still, airport brass aren’t taking chances.
While deer shooting hasn’t yet started at
Baltimore/Washington, a USDA Animal
Damage Control team on November 15
began killing the 50-odd deer believed to
inhabit the Philadelphia International
Airport. The ADC earlier shot deer at the
Chicago, New York, and Denver airports.

Sea Wolf seeks to spare foxes

November 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.––The Sea
Wolf Alliance is seeking final U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service approval for an experiment
in the nonlethal humane extirpation
of non-native blue foxes from Elma and
Inikla islands in the eastern Aleutians, to
be supervised by Alaska Maritime National
Wildlife Refuge senior biologist Ed Bailey.
“If the immuno-contraceptive
which is the subject of our study proves to
be permanent in blue foxes,” reports Sea
Wolf Alliance president Jeanne McVey, “it
will be used by the USFWS in place of
lethal methods of fox removal, such as
leghold traps and cyanide. On some of the
larger, more rugged islands, our immunocontraceptive
will, we hope, be used in
place of poisoned drop-baits.”

Fish stories

November 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

The House on October 18 approved a tougher
reauthorized edition of the Magnuson Fishery
Management and Conservation Act, 388-37. The new
version dropped a clause exempting Gulf of Mexico
shrimpers from having to immediately reduce bycatch and
sea turtle deaths. The Gulf bycatch averages four pounds of
wasted finfish for every pound of shrimp retrieved.
After three years of negotiation sponsored by
the United Nations, 99 countries agreed in August to a
treaty regulating commercial fishing in all waters, including
sovereign waters. The treaty will take effect when and if it
is ratified by at least 30 nations.

HSUS anti-hunting except…

October 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Animal Rights America board member Stuart
Chaifetz charged via the Internet on July 15 and August 20
that the Humane Society of the U.S. had retreated from
anti-hunting policy by endorsing deer culls at three New
Jersey state parks––Black River State Park in 1992; the
Watchung Reservation in 1993, where sharpshooters rather
than sport hunters did the killing; and Lewis Morris State
Park this year. Chaifetz said HSUS regional representative
Nina Austenberg had asked him to cancel a hunt sabotage at
Black River, and had ratified the Watchung and Lewis
Morris culling plans.

Wolves

October 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

The Denver-based Mountain States Legal
Foundation, a leading wise-use group, on September 7
sued the U.S. government for $500 on behalf of rancher
Eugene Hassey, 74, of Lemhi County, Idaho, who claims
the sum in compensation for a calf he says was killed in
January by a wolf released as part of the Yellowstone/central
Idaho wolf restoration project. An unknown party shot the
wolf as she ate the carcass. Defenders of Wildlife was initially
prepared to pay Hussey out of a fund that since 1987
has paid about 20 Michigan, Montana, and Minnesota
ranchers a total of circa $17,000 for alleged wolf predation
losses––but a federal autopsy found the calf died during
birth, and the wolf only scavenged her remains. Hassey
claimed at a March 29 Congressional hearing that he was
abused by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents Tom Riley,
Steve Magone, and Paul Weyland when they tried to execute
a warrant to search his property for evidence in the wolf
shooting. Idaho attorney general Alan Lance compared
them to “the secret police or the Keystone Kops.” But a transcript
of a tape recording the agents made during the incident,
released September 13, revealed that they remained
calm and professional while Hassey cursed them and threw
rocks at them until sheriff Brett Barsalou arrived and ordered
them to leave.

ANIMAL HEALTH

September 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

RABIES NOTES

Post-exposure shots for 665 people

who came into contact with a rabid kitten in a pet

store in Concord, New Hampshire, last October,

together with other essential follow-up, cost $1.5

million, says the CDCP.

The Pet Savers Foundation has pro-

posed establishing a National Rabies Awareness

D a y. “Letters to Congress supporting Rabies

Awareness Day would be very helpful,” Charlie

McGinley of Pet Savers told ANIMAL PEOPLE.

Get details c/o 14 Vanderventer Ave., Port

Washington, NY 11050; 516-944-5025.

Two residents of San Rafael,

California, were bitten by rabid bats in June,

including a 5-year-old boy playing near a backyard

pool and a woman who was swimming. The bats

in each case were apparently attracted by insects

hovering over the water.

A laborer from Anhui province,

China, bit four people including a pregnant

woman on July 19 in the city of Suzhou, a month

after he was bitten by two rabid dogs.

YELLOWSTONE: The steam isn’t all from geysers

September 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK––Filmed in Grand Teton National Park, just south of Yellowstone, the 1952 western classic Shane depicted stubborn men who thought them-selves reasonable in a tragic clash over limited range. Alan Ladd, in the title role, won the big showdown, then rode away pledging there would be no more guns in the valley.

But more than a century after the Shane era, the Yellowstone range wars not only smoulder on, but have heated up. To the north, in rural Montana, at least three times this year armed wise-users have holed up for months, standing off bored cordons of sheriff’s deputies, who wait beyond bullet range to arrest them for not paying taxes and taking the law into their own hands.

One of the besieged, Gordon Sellner, 57, was wounded in an alleged shootout and arrested on July 19 near Condon. Sellner, who said he hadn’t filed a tax return in 20 years, was wanted for attempted murder, having allegedly shot a sheriff’s deputy in 1992. A similar siege goes on at Roundup, where Rodney Skurdahl and four others are wanted for allegedly issuing a “citizen’s declaration of war” against the state and federal governments and posting boun-ties on public officials. At Darby, near the Bitterroot National Forest, elk rancher Calvin Greenup threatens to shoot anyone who tries to arrest him for allegedly plotting to “arrest,” “try,” and hang local authorities. Greenup is Montana coordinator of the North American Volunteer Militia.

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