Madeleine Pickens buys 14,000 acres for her long-promised wild horse sanctuary

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
RENO–Madeleine Pickens, owner of the Del Mar Country Club
in Rancho Santa Fe, California, and wife of Texas oil billionaire
T. Boone Pickens, in early October 2010 purchased the 14,000-acre
Spruce Ranch, 70 miles east of Elko, Nevada, as proposed home for
many of the 36,000 wild horses presently kept in Bureau of Land
Management holding facilities. Pickens’ plan is reportedly to start
with 1,000 horses, adding more as the securely fenced portion of the
Spruce Ranch is expanded to keep horses inside, and as facilities
are built to accommodate visitors.
“Pickens purchased the ranch, which she plans to rename the
Mustang Monument preserve, for an undisclosed price. The property
comes with grazing rights on 540,000 acres of public land,” reported
Associated Press writer Martin Griffith. “Pickens also is
negotiating to buy an adjoining 4,000-acre ranch that has grazing
rights for 24,000 acres of public land,” Griffith added.

EU seal pelt ban upheld

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
LUXEMBOURG–European Court of Justice Judge Marc Jaeger on
October 28, 2010 rejected an appeal against the European Union ban
on the import of seal products, clearing the way for full
enforcement–at least pending the outcome of Canadian and Norwegian
government appeals to the World Trade Association.
The appeal was brought by Inuit sealer Tapirilt Kanatami and
15 co-plaintiffs, including the Canadian Seal Marketing Group, the
Fur Institute of Canada, NuTan Furs, the Inuit Circumpolar
Conference Greenland, and GC Reiber Skinn AS of Norway. Adopted in
July 2009, the EU ban on imports of seal products included an
exemption for seal pelts hunted and sold by Inuit. The appeal
contended that Inuit seal pelt sales would suffer as result of the
ban, despite the exemption. Justice Jaeger ruled that the
plaintiffs lacked evidence to document this claim.
The European Union ban officially took effect on August 20,
2010, but the European Court of Justice on August 19 stayed
enforcement against the plaintiffs.
The Inuit kill about 10,000 adult seals per year. The
Atlantic Canada commercial hunt kills about 325,000 juvenile seals
per year.

Rhino poachers hope to outlast South African & Zimbabwean will to stop them

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

PRETORIA–Poachers in Borakalalo National
Park, near Brits, South Africa, sent a message
found on October 17, 2010 that mass arrests and
rangers shooting to kill won’t stop them: they
killed and dehorned yet another white rhino,
just days or perhaps even hours after rangers
killed one poacher and wounded another in Kruger
National Park.
A third poacher was arrested within
Kruger National Park two days later, but two
others escaped. A rhino fleeing the poachers ran
over and injured two park rangers who were
involved in making the arrest.

Can “National Heritage” status save elephants in ever more crowded, faster moving India?

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

DELHI, GUWAHATI– The largest of land animals, but neither
faster than a poacher’s speeding bullet nor more powerful than a
locomotive, elephants are now officially protected with tigers as
“National Heritage Animals of India,” declared Indian environment
and animal welfare minister Jairam Ramesh on October 21, 2010.
Unclear is whether National Heritage status will help elephants any
more than it has helped tigers, who since gaining their National
Heritage designation in 1973 have been poached and illegally poisoned
for preying upon livestock to the verge of extinction across most of
India.
National Herit-age status helped to secure land and funding
for tiger conservation, and for about 30 years the tiger population
was believed to be recovering, but more recent findings have shown a
steep decline that was not previously noticed due to faulty research
and corrupt management in some tiger reserves.

BOOKS: It’s a Grand Life

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

It’s a Grand Life by Barry Tuddenham
Cats Anonymous Rescue & Adoption
(R.R. #3, Orton, Ontario L0N 1N0, Canada), 2008. Paperback, $12.00.

Published as a fundraiser for Cats Anonymous Rescue &
Adoption, It’s a Grand Life is a grand collection of photographs
and stories about animals who live on the banks of the Grand River in
Ontario, one of three Grand Rivers that drain into the Great Lakes.
Author/photographer Barry Tuddenham never actually specifies
which Grand River his work documents, but the wildlife of all three
Grand Rivers overlap.

Wildlife trafficking & alleged criminal genius

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

NEW DELHI–The Supreme Court of India on October 20, 2010
upheld the conviction of wildlife poacher and trafficker Sansar Chand
for possession of leopard skins.
Chand has been the most notorious poacher and trafficker in
India–and perhaps the world, rivaled only by international reptile
dealer Anson Wong, the so-called “Lizard King,” on trial in Malaysia
as the October 2010 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press. The
tabloid notoriety of both Chand and Wong has ascended since the
October 2004 death of Koose Munisamy Veerappan in a shootout with a
Tamil Nadu special task force sent to try to take him prisoner.

BOOKS: Astro: The Steller Sea Lion

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

Astro: The Steller Sea Lion by Jeanne Walker Harvey
Sylvan Dell Publishing (612 Johnnie Dodds, Suite A2
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464), 2010. * 32 pages, paperback. $8.95.

No one knows how the baby sea lion washed upon the shore in
Morrow Bay Harbor, near San Luis Obispo, California, in December
2008. A scientist who saw the abandoned pup took him to the Marine
Mammal Center in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge
from San Francisco. Staff and volunteers named the sea lion Astro.
At ten months of age, when Astro was healthy enough for
release into the Pacific, he was fitted with a satellite tag so that
the Marine Mammal Center could monitor his travels. Astro was
returned to the beach where he was found, but the sea did not
interest him. Neither did the other sea lions lingering on the sand.
Astro waited for two days for his human friends to return for him.

BOOKS: The Backyard Bird Lover’s How-to-guide

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

The backyard bird lover’s ultimate how-to-guide
by Sally Roth
(Rodale Press, 33 East Minor Street, Emmaus, PA 18098), 2010.
316 pages, paperback. $21.99.

I know very little about birds except that the feeder outside
my trailer needs refilling every few days and I hear lots of
chirping. After reviewing Sally Roth’s new book, The Backyard Bird
Lover’s Ultimate How-to-Guide, I know a lot more about my feathery
friends. Roth knows birds and shares her vast experience as a
naturalist, writer and gardener. Roth introduces species including
the scarlett tanager, indigo bunting, and gray catbird, describes
what they eat, and offers recipes for birdseed mixes. “Catbirds get
corny,” for example, is a blend of suet, peanut butter, cornmeal,
wheat flour, apples, and sunflower chips.

Volcano taxes Indonesian rescuers

October 1, 2010 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
YOGYAKARTA–“Animal conditions are really bad and sad,”
e-mailed Rosek Nurashid of ProFauna on October 31, 2010 from the
shadows of Mount Merapi, Indonesia, hours before it erupted for the
third of five times in a week. Each new blast made the already
catastrophic situation worse.
“Many cows are hungry and dying,” Nurashid wrote. “ProFauna
is trying to provide food and medicine. It’s hard to find grass,
because almost all the grass around Merapi is covered by dust, so
our team is looking for the grass from other regions.”

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