Transforming Phuket animal conditions post-tsunami

July 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:

PHUKET, Thailand––Urbanization

is hitting Phuket much harder than the tsunami

of December 26, 2004.

What that may mean for animals on

the 400-square-mile resort island near the

extreme south of Thailand is anyone’s guess.

The Soi Dog Foundation and Gibbon

Rehabilitation Project, among Phuket’s most

prominent pro-animal organizations, are guard-

edly optimistic.

More development may mean more

homes for dogs and cats, and more donors to

support animal charities.

BOOKS: Endangered Parrots

June 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Endangered Parrots

Revised edition, by Rosemary Low.

Blandford (distributed in the U.S. by Sterling Publishing Co.,

387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810), 1984 and 1994.

200 pages; 21 color and 77 black-and-white photos; $24.95 paperback.

Extinction in the wild is inevitable

for many species of parrot. In this revised

edition of her 1984 original, Rosemary Low

paints somber scenes of fading beauty. From

the last Spix macaw left in Brazil to the

unique flightless kakapo of New Zealand,

the beautiful parrots enjoy few safe havens.

Birds

June 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Psychologist Shigeru Watanabe of

Keio University in Tokyo reported in the

May edition of New Scientist that pigeons can

tell paintings by Pablo Picasso’s cubist period

from those of impressionist Claude Monet,

but cannot distinguish the works of Cezanne

from those of Renoir––which is to say they

have about the same ability to discern style as

the average art appreciation student.

The last male crested ibis in

Japan died suddenly on May 1 while carrying

grass to the nest occupied by his mate, bor-

rowed from China, and their cluster of five

eggs. The egg were to hatch circa May 10.

The dead ibis, age 21, was the next to last of

five who were taken from the wild for

attempted captive breeding in 1981. None so

far have bred successfully. The sole survivor

of Japan’s once plentiful crested ibises is a 28-

year-old female. China still has 28 of the big

birds, all in zoos and/other sanctuaries.

“He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother.”

June 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK–– National Park Service rangers have

killed 400 wild burros in Death Valley since 1987, but through the intervention of Wild

Burro Rescue, the 1995 quota is zero. It will stay zero for as many years as WBR is able to

rescue the number of burros the NPS would otherwise shoot to prevent ecological damage.

“I got shingles,” said WBR co-founder Gene Chontos, “but we did it,” raising

$23,000 between reaching a deal with the NPS last December and commencing the rescue

on March 18––and then rounding up 20 burros with the help of six mounted wranglers and a

rented helicopter. The team caught 19 burros the first day, with difficulty.

RELIGION & ANIMALS

June 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Islamic fundamentalists on April

19 capped two weeks of railing against the

appearance of scantily clad performers b y

torching the stage and tents of the New Opera

Circus, killing a boy and a bear, as it per-

formed outside the Cox’s Bazar resort near

Eidgaon village in Bangladesh. The mob also

stabbed a tiger, an elephant, and various other

animals before police arrived, arresting three

assailants. Officials of Cox’s Bazar said they

had been unable to persuade the circus, from

the Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh, to

pack up and leave.

RABIES UPDATE

June 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

A rabid raccoon bit Samantha

Sorochinski, age 2, on May 5 in West Milford,

New York, prompting New York, New Jersey,

and Connecticut authorities to remind the public that

the mid-Atlantic raccoon rabies pandemic, which

crested three to four years ago, has not gone away.

Peruvian Health Ministry staff on May

8 began a 40-day drive to poison an estimated

90,000 stray dogs in Lima, the national capitol, to

reduce the risk of rabies.

ALASKAN WAR ON WILDLIFE

June 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

JUNEAU––Alaska governor

Tony Knowles has pledged to veto a bill

setting a bounty on wolves, passed by

the legislature––but that’s about the only

good news for wolves in Alaska.

On May 3, wildlife biologist

Gordon Haber, monitoring Alaskan wolf

populations for Friends of Animals,

found the last of the Headwaters pack

dead in snares––”nearly three weeks after

he end of trapping season,” wrote

Alaskan freelance journalist Tim Moffatt.

“Along with the body of a pregnant

female,” Moffat said, “were four pups,

two of them skinned; a coyote snared by

its back legs; a yearling moose; the

remains of another moose; and a cari-

bou,” possibly killed as bait. Haber docu-

mented the site and called the Alaska

State Troopers, Moffatt added.

WILDLIFE

June 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

The National Parks Board of South

Africa announced May 10 that, “To maintain

for as long as possible the option of translocat-

ing family groups of elephants,” only 300 will

be killed this year instead of 600 as biologists rec-

ommended. “The breeding herds will mainly be

culled in areas where the greatest damage has been

done to trees,” the NPB added. “Of special con-

cern is the declining baobob population,” in

Kruger National Park, which has about 8,000 ele-

phants in an area the size of Israel. The elephants,

including 70 bulls, are to be shot from helicopters.

Tranquilizer darts will no longer be used before-

hand because this appears to increase rather than

decrease the stress to the elephants, who afterward

are immobile but fully conscious.

ESA update

June 1, 1995 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C. ––Senators

Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), with co-sponsors

Bennett Johnston (D-La.), and Richard Shelby

(R-Ala.), on May 9 introduced the first of three

expected Republican drafts of a revised

Endangered Species Act. Largely authored by

timber industry lobbyists, the Gorton bill would

end the federal obligation to try to save all

endangered species. Instead the Secretary of the

Interior would be allowed to rule that a species

should go extinct. The bill would also lump

together captive and wild animals in counting

populations, meaning for instance that hatchery-

bred salmon, with little ability to survive in the

ocean, would count toward meeting the conser-

vation goals of endangered runs. In addition, the

bill would virtually preclude the designation of

protected critical habitat, and require taxpayers

to cover costs of routine corporate compliance.

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