Thirty British species near extinction

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

LONDON––The South West
Regional Biodiversity Audit, the first
attempt to monitor the status of wildlife over
an entire region of England, reports after
four years of research that at least 30 species
are near extinction and as many as 7,000 are
“of conservation concern.”
At most risk, the audit found, are
the white-clawed crayfish, the harbor porpoise,
aquatic warblers, and southern damselflies,
followed by river otters and large
blue butterflies. Both have been subject of
recent reintroductions, the large blue butterflies
after having once been believed to be
extinct. The most controversial recommended
protection measures may involve
closing five Devon river basins to crayfish
farming, to protect the white-clawed crayfish
from introduced competitors.

Jumping on kangaroo verdict

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

CANBERRA––Australian environment
minister Robert Hill’s April 29 ruling
that koalas don’t qualify for endangered
species protection is under fire from both Sue
Arnold of Australians for Animals and
Deborah Tabart of the Australian Koala
Foundation.
Hill’s verdict was in keeping with
the Australian Endangered Species Scientific
Subcommittee finding that koalas “should not
be listed on Schedule 1 of the Endangered
Species Protection Act 1992. However,” the
ESSS stated, “while the koala is still relatively
abundant and widespread on a national
basis, and does not meet the criteria for
endangered or vulnerable at this time, it is
clearly declining in parts of its range, and
there is much scientific and public concern
about its conservation. Therefore the finalization
and implementation of a National
Koala Conservation Strategy is urgent.”

GOP still gunning for ESA

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Endangered species protection
programs, already crippled by budget cuts, would
be deeply cut again under the proposed Interior Department
budget for fiscal 1997 approved on June 5 by the House
Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. Total Interior
spending would be $12 billion, down $500 million from
fiscal 1996, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service budget
was cut by $12.5 million, including a 39% cut in the
budget for researching endangered species listing proposals,
and a 50% cut in U.S. support of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species.
The proposed cuts were in line with a revised
strategy for dismantling the Endangered Species Act reportedly
favored by Louisiana Representative Billy Tauzin,
who struck as U.S. Fish and Wildlife chief Mollie Beattie,
49, fell ill again with brain cancer. Undergoing her first
surgery in December, Beattie returned to work in April
after a second operation, but three weeks into May was
forced to go back on sick leave, and resigned on June 5,
leaving administration of the ESA to deputy director John
Rogers––who inherited multiple political headaches.

Meeting to beat bush meat

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

BERTOUA, Cameroon–– In
March ANIMAL PEOPLE shocked the
animal protection community with
Kenyan wildlife photographer Karl
Amman’s expose essay “The Great Ape
Project and the bush meat trade,”
describing the “overwhelming evidence
that the bush meat trade is one of the
biggest, if not the biggest, primate conservation
issues facing Africa today.”
Amman frustratedly described
how major conservation and animal protection
groups ignored his findings
through six years of field research. A
two-year association with the World
Society for the Protection of Animals
brought some exposure, but no substantive
action from other players.
“Is there any time left for theoretical
debates on great ape rights?”
Amman concluded. “Would the chimpanzees,
bonobos, and gorillas of Africa
not benefit more if the combined talent,
energy, and influence of the scientific
community now engaged in the Great
Ape Project took some time to devise a
strategy on how to keep these animals
out of the cooking pot?”

CHINESE PRIMATES

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Amid ongoing controversy
over how and whether to protect
the commercially valuable old
growth forest in Deqing county,
Yunnan province, home of about
200 of the last wild snubnosed golden
monkeys, China has at least two
other primate conservaton problems.
One is the recent rediscovery
of a mouse-sized marmoset in the
Wuyi mountains of eastern Fujian
province. The seven-ounce marmoset
was a prestigious pet circa
800 years ago, but was long
believed extinct. The other problem
is the rapid decline of black
gibbons, the most primitive of the
great apes, on Hainan island. Only
15 to 20 black gibbons remain,
down from a reported 2,000 some
40 years ago.

Law & order

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Law-and-order advocate Senator
Charles Williams (R-Fla) on October 13, 1995 hosted the Second Annual
Predators Dove Hunt in Dixie County, Florida. Eighty-eight hunters
reportedly slew more than 440 doves who were drawn to fields and nearby
roads littered with corn, millet, wheat, and milo. Three hours into the
event, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited all participants.
Thundered House Resources Committee chair Don Young (RAlaska),
as he opened a May 16 hearing into the incident, “While I do not
know whether this was a good or bad bust, a number of those cited strongly
believe that the only thing baited, trapped, tried, and fined on that hot
October day were law-abiding citizens. Among those cited were three
county sheriffs, a regional commissioner of the Florida Game and
Freshwater Fish Commission, mayors, clerks of the court, Florida prison
officials, and city and county commissioners.”

Wildlife serial-killing

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Legislation
California state senator
Milton Marks on May 22 introduced
SB 2171, to require that
trapped animals either be released or
be killed promptly and humanely.
Explains Camilla Fox, executive
director of The Fur-Bearer
Defenders, “Currently California
laws are silent on how a trapped animal
must be killed.” However,
according to the Department of Fish
and Game manual Get Set to Trap,
“Adequate tools are a heavy iron
pipe or an ax handle. Most furbearers
can be killed by first sharply
striking them on the skull. It is highly
recommended that the animal be
struck two times. To ensure death,
pin the head with one foot and stand
on the chest of the animal for several
minutes. Do not step off an unconscious
animal until it is dead.”

“They poop––kill them.” NEW TWIST TO SILENT SPRING

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

CHATHAM, Massachusetts– –
Three stories simultaneously moving on the
newswires at the beginning of June called to
mind the late Rachel Carson, author of Silent
Spring, the expose of chemical poisons and
their effect on birds that 35 years ago marked
the start of environmental militancy.
Carson would have applauded an
eight-state program of cooperation with state
government and private industry that the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service credited with cutting
the number of major illegal bird poisoning
cases in the central and northern Rockies
last year to just three, down from nine in
1994. As in Carson’s time, eagles who
allegedly prey on lambs remain the primary
targets, but the victims can now be counted
in the dozens, not the hundreds, and bald
eagles, then apparently headed toward
extinction, are now off the Endangered
Species List––which was created as part of
the Endangered Species Act, a measure
Carson advanced but which was not passed
until nine years after her 1964 death.

Give them liberty or give them fish

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

KEY WEST, Florida––It’s all over now but the blame-throwing. Bogie and
Bacall, the former Ocean Reef Club dolphins, are back at large in the Indian River Lagoon,
where they were captured in 1987, unidentifiable because someone on the night of May 17
cut the plastic fence forming their sea pen to release them just before they were to be freezebranded
to facilitate follow-up study of their progress.
Luther and Jake, two former Navy dolphins, are back in the Navy, and Buck, the
third of that group, will rejoin the Navy marine mammal program when and if he recovers
from an infected deep cut of unknown origin. Luther had a similar but less serious cut.

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