Editorial feature: Getting wise to “invasive species” rhetoric

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:

In the name of eradicating non-native
“invasive” species, the Texas House of
Representatives on April 4, 2011 voted 137-9 in
favor of a bill to allow landowners to sell
hunters the chance to shoot feral pigs and
coyotes from helicopters.
Feral pigs have only been in Texas for
about 300 years, twice as long as ten-gallon
Stetson hats and Texas-style cowboy boots, but
coyotes have evolved in the vicinity from their
Miacias ancestors for 12 to 15 million years.
Indeed coyotes much resembling those of today had
already inhabited Texas for approximately nine
million years before the first creature even
dimly resembling a Texas legislator evolved
knuckle-walking in what is now Kenya and Ethiopia
and began to stand upright.

Wolves, wild horses, bison & budget cuts

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Removed from Endangered Species Act
protection by a policy rider, wolves in Montana and Idaho are among
the most prominent animal casualties of the Fiscal Year 2011
Continuing Resolution signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama
on April 15, 2011.
Wolves in Michigan and Wisconsin are beneficiaries of
Congressional budget-cutting, at least pending further legislation,
because the short-term funding act that preceded the FY 2011
Continuing Resolution axed the federal budget for killing “problem”
wolves in those states.

Bison get grazing space in Montana but settlement puts wolves in the crosshairs

April 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2011:

MISSOULA, Montana–Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on
March 17, 2011 authorized bison wandering out of Yellowstone
National Park to graze within the Gardiner Basin, flanking the
Yellowstone River on either side for about 13 miles north of
Yellowstone. Bison who wander farther, into the Paradise Valley
south of Livingston, will be shot, said Montana gubernatorial
natural resources advisor Mike Volesky.
The March 17 order was Schweitzer’s second attempt in 2010 to
resolve the annual winter conflict between the instinct of bison to
migrate out of Yellowstone to lower elevations in search of forage,
and the hostility of ranchers to the presence of bison from fear that
they may transmit brucellosis to domestic cattle–which has in fact
never happened.

Tsunami hit sea birds’ nests at Midway Atoll

April 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2011:

MIDWAY–The farthest reported animal impact of the March 11,
2011 Thoku Chih earthquake came at Midway Atoll, more than 2,000
nautical miles from the epicenter. More than three million sea birds
inhabit Midway Atoll, including about 2,220 Laysan albatross–two
thirds of the world population.
While the most devastating tsunami following the earthquake
surged west, hitting Japan, a tsunami racing eastward completely
submerged one of the smaller Midway islands, and covered 60% and
20%, respectively, of the two largest islands.

Are Serengeti highway proponents practicing “Shoot, shovel, & shut up”?

March 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
Dar es Salaam–“Shoot, shovel, and shut
up,” the creed of ranchers and land developers
opposed to the U.S. Endangered Species Act, may
have reached Tanzania. But nobody knows for sure.
What is known is that a confidential
government Environmental & Social Impact
Assessment Draft Report on a proposed highway
that would bisect Serengeti National Park in
October 2010 identified the May 2010
reintroduction of five black rhinos to Serengeti
as a potential obstacle.

Montana governor reprieves Yellowstone bison, signs death warrant for wolves

March 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
BOZEMAN–U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell on February
13, 2011 appeared to have doomed 525 bison who were to have been
trucked to slaughter after wandering outside Yellowstone National
Park, rejecting a Buffalo Field Campaign application for an
emergency injunction against the killing. A day later, however,
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer issued an executive order
prohibiting the transport of wild bison through Montana for 90 days.
The order means the bison and any others captured by the
National Park Service after leaving Yellowstone will have to be held
in corrals at Stephens Creek, northwest of Gardiner, until spring.

Why did BLM reject Madeline Pickens’ Nevada wild horse sanctuary proposal?

March 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:

PHOENIX–A two-day Bureau of Land Management consultation
meeting on wild horse and burro management strategy, to be held on
March 10-11, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona, is likely to focus on why
the BLM on January 21 rejected a proposal from philanthropist
Madeline Pickens to accommodate 1,000 wild horses on 18,000 acres of
Nevada ranch land she purchased in 2010–and then began removing
about 2,000 wild horses from nearby public land.
“The Elko County ranches, which Pickens renamed the Mustang
Monument preserve, come with grazing rights on roughly 564,000 acres
of public land,” noted Martin Griffith of Associated Press.

Japan suspends Antarctic whaling

March 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:

TOKYO–“It’s official. The Japanese whaling fleet has called
it quits in the Southern Ocean, at least for this season,” the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society cautiously acknowledged on February 17,
2011, a week after the whalers suspended operations in Antarctic
waters on February 10, and two days after global media declared the
Sea Shepherds the winners after seven winters of stalking the whalers
through the ice fields.

Ex-lab caretaker hopes to save what remains of Wild Animal Orphanage

January 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2011:

SAN ANTONIO–Wild Animal Orphanage is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but maybe, Primates Incorporated founder Amy Kerwin hopes, the million dollars worth of real estate, two million dollars worth of facilities, and 160 animals who remain at the 17-year-old sanctuary can be kept within the sanctuary community. Read more

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