Category: Politics

GOP finds Republicans favor ESA as much as Democrats

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C. – – Con-
gressional momentum toward dismantling
the Endangered Species Act markedly
slowed in November, after House
Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged to
media that the Republican majority
“messed up on the environment” by seriously
misreading the public mood.
Gingrich was particularly rattled
by a T i m e/CNN poll conducted on
September 27-28, which showed that
63% of self-described Republican voters
and 67% of independents oppose legislation
to “reduce protection for endangered
species”––putting support for the
ESA at the same level among Republicans
as among Democrats.

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Woofs & growls

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The House Ways and Means Committee has recommended
legislation, similar to a proposal from the Clinton
administration last summer, that would enable the IRS to
order charity officials to refund compensation judged excessive
to their respective charities or be fined; require charities
to furnish copies of IRS Form 990 to anyone requesting them,
for a “reasonable” photocopying fee; and enable the Treasury
Department to fine charities more heavily for failing to file
IRS Form 990 in a complete and timely manner.
“Previously, the public relations firm BursonMarsteller
in New York kept a list for the beef industry of
reporters who ate steak,” the Wall Street Journal reported
on November 10. “Two years ago, Carma International
joined the effort,” the Washington D.C. media-monitoring
firm whose efforts on behalf of the Department of Energy
were exposed in late October. “Now, each month, Carma
reviews piles of press clips of dozens of journalists and spits
out computerized reports on how favorably they portray beef,
using a scale from zero to 100. Highly ranked reporters may
get star treatment; laggards are targeted for sit-down talks on
being fair to beef.”

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Voting to kill Flipper

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C.––“The attempt to gut the Marine
Mammal Protection Act [by repealing dolphin-safe tuna import standards,
as reported on page one of the November 1995 ANIMAL PEOPLE],
backed by the Clinton/Gore Administration, the wise-use movement, and
a handful of conservation groups, is floundering on Capitol Hill,” Craig
Van Nolte of the Monitor conservation, environmental, and animal welfare
consortium told member organization lobbyists on November 14.
“Senator Ted Stevens and Don Young, the two Alaska
Republicans who are pushing the legislation, are finding virtually no
backers. As one key Congressional staffer observed, ‘Who wants to be
seen voting to kill Flipper?’ Sources report that major political and financial
supporters of the Administration are denouncing the dolphin sell-out
in written and face-to-face communications with both President Bill
Clinton and Vice President Albert Gore. White House political operatives
on the West Coast are warning that the scheme could poison political support
in next year’s election. The White House has opened a major backchannel
operation with Stevens and Young in recent months,” Van Nolte
continued, “in an effort to save the Commerce Department and to gut the
MMPA. The two powerful Alaskans are actively helping block the killCommerce
legislation being pushed by radical House Republicans;

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Setting the floor for horse haulers

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON, D.C.––Just days
ago S1283/HR2433, the Safe Commercial
Transportation of Horses for Slaughter Act of
1995, was rated the one humane bill with a
chance to clear the present Congress.
Introduced by Senator Mitch
McConnell (Kentucky) and Representative
Bill Goodling (Pennsylvania), both members
of the Republican majority, S1283/HR2433
was jointly endorsed by the leading horse
industry group, the American Horse Council;
the American Horse Protection Association;
the Humane Society of the United States; the
American Association of Equine
Practitioners; the American Humane
Association; and the American SPCA.

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ADC does damage control–– could be killed by Farm Bill

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Caught in a political trap, the
USDA Animal Damage Control program is battling for survival.
The ADC still has powerful friends, including western Senators of
both major parties, but the forthcoming Farm Bill debate could kill
it, after 65 years.
Conservative Republicans are queasy about the ADC
because it’s a federal subsidy for private enterprise: of the $19.6 million
1994 ADC budget, $10 million went to protect livestock.
Eastern politicians of both parties see the ADC as
expendible because it does little for their constituents: $9.7 million––97%––of
the livestock protection funds were spent in the 17
western states.
Environmentalists hate the ADC because it helps keep cattle
on federally owned land.

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Coloradans seek trap ban initiative

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

DENVER––Colorado People Allied With
Wildlife will on Febuary 1, 1996 begin seeking the
54,000 signatures needed to put an anti-trapping, snaring,
and wildlife poisoning initative on the 1996 state
ballot. A Colorado State University survey commissioned
by the Colorado Division of Wildlife found earlier
this year that 61% of the electorate would favor
such a ban, with 28% opposed and 11% undecided.
Addresss CPAW c/o Robert Angell, 702 S. Corona
St., Denver, CO 80209; 303-722-3966.
“The decision to try a ballot initiative was
made after all other avenues were exhausted,” said
Angell in an October 9 appeal. “In 1990 an anti-trapping
bill was shredded in the state senate natural
resources committee. Last year a bill to appoint
wildlife commissioners in a different manner and to
reorganize and reorient the activities of CDOW met a
similar fate in the state senate agriculture committee.

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European trapped fur import ban closer––maybe

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

DENVER – –The likelihood Europe
will finally implement a 1991 ban on the
import of U.S. and Canadian trapped fur––if
only as a gesture––increased October 2 when
International Standards Organization technical
committee on trap standards chair Neal
Jotham, of Canada, acknowledged that,
“There is no possibility of reaching a consensus”
on what constitutes a “humane” trap.
The ISO concession enables the
enforcement of European Council Regulation
32254/91, adopted five years ago as an ultimatim
to the fur industry to either end cruel
trapping or cease the import of trapped fur.
Under the regulation, use of leghold traps
will simultaneously be banned throughout the
EC nations, effective on January 1, 1996.
As much as 70% of all fur trapped
in the U.S. is exported to Europe. Thus the
import ban, if it sticks, could cripple the
already declining trapping industry.

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Hunting predators

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

California governor Pete Wilson on
October 17 signed a bill to put the state ban on
puma hunting back before the voters. The state
legislature halted puma hunting in 1972, when the
puma population was estimated at 2,400. An initiative
approved by voters in 1990 made the halt “permanent,”
except when pumas threaten people or
livestock. Hunting groups claim the puma population
is now up to 6,000, and have amplified reports
of puma sightings over the past few years, especially
since two women were killed in separate
attacks during 1994.

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U.S. subsidizing Makah whaling

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

SEATTLE––The U.S. government is spending
$7 million to underwrite the Washington-based Makah
Tribe in killing whales next summer, charges Captain Paul
Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Watson cites grants, subsidies, and interest-free
loans to help build a marina big enough to serve whaling
vessels, provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Forest Service, Department of Commerce, USDA, Office
of Native American Programs, and Washington State
Department of Parks and Recreation.
“The Corps of Engineers signed the Project
Cooperative Agreement with the Makah on May 2, 1995,”
Watson told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “On May 5, the
Makah informed the U.S. government that they would
resume whaling, for commercial reasons under the guise
of aboriginal whaling, without regulation under
International Whaling Commission rules. It is clear that
the Makah intend for the U.S. government to fund the
facilities for landing and processing whales. The federal
agencies are proceeding with no information on the
impending whaling operation other than the tribal
announcement of their intent and treaty right to kill grey
whales.”

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