Wildlife

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

New head of USFWS

faces fight to renew ESA

LAND USE CONFLICTS ERUPT ALL OVER

WASHINGTON D.C.– – Nominated

by President Bill Clinton to head the U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service, forester Mollie Beattie

of Grafton, Vermont is expected to be Interior

Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s chief mapmaker, as

the administration seeks to secure renewal of a

strong Endangered Species Act by reorienting

the law to protect critical habitat rather than

individual species.

Her main duty, she told Burlington

Free Press reporter Nancy Bazilchuk upon

receiving word of her nomination, will be to

“map and inventory the country’s ecosystems,

so we know which ones are scarcest and need

more protection.”

Habitat

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Over the past 28 years, the Land and Water

Conservation Fund financed by offshore oil and gas

drilling royalties has raised more than $9 billion, the

revenues from which––$900 million a year––were sup-

posed to have been spent on acquiring land for national

parks and wildlife refuges. However, the Ronald

Reagan and George Bush administrations gradually

diverted the money elsewhere. The current federal bud-

get, Bush’s last, allocated only $284 million for land

acquisition, and Bill Clinton’s proposed budget cuts that

24%, to just $208 million.

China has set aside 77,000 square miles in

northern Tibet as a wildlife sanctuary––an area the

size of South Dakota. More than 125,000 square miles

of the remote Himalayan nation had already been

reserved for wildlife. Nearly 40% of Tibet is now offi-

cially protected habitat for yaks, snow leopards, rare

high-altitude sheep, and a vareity of antelope species.

New York City has announced plans to sepa-

rate the Central Park Reservoir from the city water

system later this year. The reservoir, one of the critical

habitats for New York’s urban wildlife, may be added to

the park area intact––or may be drained, filled, and

converted into athletic fields.

Alaska revives plan to strafe wolves

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

JUNEAU, Alaska––Just six months after an

international tourism boycott forced the Alaska Board of

Game to rescind a plan to strafe radio-collared wolves,

the board is ready to ratify essentially the same

plan––unless it ratifies one even deadlier.

On the agenda for the June 26 meeting of the

Board of Game are 92 separate wolf management pro-

posals, including two from the state Department of Fish

and Game that differ from last winter’s proposal mainly

in that they would encourage killing as many wolves as

possible from the ground before the air strikes begin.

Hunters and trappers would be given the radio collar

frequencies, so that they could trace each wolf pack in

the Delta and Fortymile areas, south of Fairbanks, right

to their dens. The killing could start as early as July 1.

Birds

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Trying to find out why a pair of peregrine falcons have been

unable to produce eggs in five years of nesting atop Terminal Tower in

downtown Cleveland, raptor expert Harvey Webster of the Cleveland

Museum of Natural History captured the female on April 30––and learned

she was a sterile hybrid of a peregrine and a prairie falcon, illegally bred

by a falconer whose leather tethers remained on her legs. The falcon was

sent to the University of Minnesota aviary for live study. Her mate, who

in 1988 was the first captive-bred peregrine released in Ohio, is expected

to find another female soon, as several others have recently been seen in

the area.

Jaws

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

The National Marine Fisheries Service on

April 29 issued fishing quotas on 39 shark species

native along the U.S. coast from Maine to Texas, and

banned catching sharks just to cut off their fins, which

command high prices in China, Japan and Southeast

Asia. The action is intended to prevent the slow-breed –

ing and heavily hunted sharks from becoming endan –

gered. A total ban on commercial pursuit of the great

white shark, tiger shark, and black tip shark is under

consideration. West coast sharks were not protected

because, NMFS spokespersons said, they are already

covered by various state laws.

Whaling ban holds

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

TOKYO, Japan––The 47th annual meeting of

the International Whaling Commission concluded May 14

with the 1986 ban on commercial whaling still

intact––and Japan and Norway still threatening to follow

Iceland in quitting the treaty that holds the IWC together.

Norway has already announced that it will

resume commercial whaling this summer, risking trade

sanctions from the United States. Meanwhile, Norway

and Japan are already harpooning 100 and 300 minke

whales apiece per year for “research.” The rudimentary

research ends in each nation with the whale meat on

restaurant tables. Claiming that the Southern Hemisphere

minke whale population is up to 760,000 and out of dan-

ger, Japan wants to kill 2,000 a year. The Japanese gov-

ernment is also desperately worried that the IWC will

extend its authority from minkes, the smallest of the great

whales, to smaller cetaceans such as dolphins and porpois-

es. As with the great whales, some species of dolphins

and porpoises have been driven close to extinction by

aggressive huntiing, and public opinion in most of the

developed nations favors protecting them.

AAZPA ADOPTS GIANT PANDA CONSERVATION ACTION PLAN

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Stung by criticism of panda rental deals, which have enabled some U.S. zoos to rake in millions of dollars by

spending several hundred thousand dollars to borrow a giant panda from China, the American Association of Zoological

Parks and Aquariums adopted a comprehensive giant panda conservation action plan on April 23. Under the plan,

AAZPA will for the first time station a species survival coordinator in China, at cost of $100,000 a year, to make sure

money paid by U.S. zoos for panda and panda habitat protection is actually spent for the stated purpose. China is presently

receiving more than $1 million a year from AAZPA members in connection with panda rentals, but indications are that

much of the money is diverted, as was a considerable portion of the $2.5 million the World Wildlife Fund sent to China

for panda protection between 1961 and 1986. The budget for a WWF-funded panda breeding facility included building a

town-sized hydroelectric plant––and the breeding facility, for all the spending, had produced only one stillborn panda cub

as of 1990. Wildlife Conservation Society science director George Schaller, author of The Last Panda, praised the

AAZPA action as a step in the right direction. Meanwhile, concerned that money for pandas might stop coming if the last

thousand left in the wild and last 100 in captivity die without reproducing, China has over the past year announced the cre-

ation or expansion of 14 panda reserves, and the birth of 13 pandas in captivity, of whom 11 are still alive. Panda loans

continue: the San Diego Zoo has just agreed to pay China $1 million a year for each of the next three years to borrow a

breeding pair, and may renew the deal for up to 10 years.

Animal Control & Rescue

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

The North Shore Animal League

on May 13 became official sponsor of Spay

USA. NSAL sponsorship is expected to

result in a major expansion of the program,

a hotline to help pet owners locate afford-

able neutering (1-800-248-SPAY; 375-

6627 in Connecticut).

The New York State Humane

Association is supporting 13 bills to

strengthen state humane laws, including

measures to set up a state Animal

Population Control Fund similar to those in

New Jersey and Connecticut, and to give

judges the authority to take animals away

from convicted abusers. New York resi-

dents may get details from 914-255-7099.

Mountain lion mix-up

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Last October, Predator Project Newsletter extensively

quoted and paraphrased from a letter by Michael Horan of Eagle’s

Nest, New Mexico, protesting the relocation of 13 mountain lions

as part of a study of their population dynamics which has yielded

strong evidence that the species should not be hunted. Horan linked

the relocation to older and ongoing mountain lion killing projects

undertaken to protect livestock.

Various animal protection groups picked up and echoed

Horan’s claims, condensing his account each time, dropping source

identification, and eventually adding appeals for letters of protest to

be addressed to the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

Then someone, remembering that the original item had been pub-

lished on newsprint, wrongly cited ANIMAL PEOPLE as the

source, although the first issue of ANIMAL PEOPLE hadn’t even

gone to press yet when Horan wrote his letter.

« 1 … 163 164 165 166 167 … 173 »