High-tech cameras help to put the Japanese spotlight on Taiji dolphin killing

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

TOKYO–Dolphin Project founder Ric
O’Barry thought the 2007 discovery that the
mercury content of meat from dolphins killed at
Taiji is 30 times higher than the Japanese
government-recommended limit might rouse enough
citizen outrage to end the annual “drive fishery”
massacres.
The main reason why Japanese whaling is
not stopped by the Japanese people, O’Barry has
believed since his first visit to Japan in 1976,
is that most Japanese people don’t know about it.
Neither coastal whaling as practiced at Taiji nor
so-called “research whaling” on the high seas has
ever drawn much Japanese media notice, so while
Japanese donors strongly support causes such as
saving koala bears, Japanese whaling opponents
remain isolated and underfunded.

Spared by court, sea lions are shot by night raiders

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
PORTLAND–The National Marine Fisheries Service is
investigating the early May 5 fatal shooting of six California sea
lions who were trapped in floating cages used by the Oregon
Department of Fish & Wildlife to capture sea lions who are believed
to be contributing to the depletion of endangered salmon runs.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 23, 2008
granted an injunction to the Humane Society of the U.S. and
coplaintiffs which allowed Oregon wildlife wardens to capture sea
lions who eat endangered salmon below the Bonneville Dam on the
Columbia River, but prohibited killing sea lions.
Eight of 61 sea lions targeted for removal were trapped on
April 24, of whom one died while awaiting transfer to Sea World.
Zoos and aquariums had agreed to accept about 20. No others were
impounded before the program was suspended. The National Marine
Fisheries Service had authorized Oregon officials to kill any for
whom homes could not be found.

Swinging Canadian elections keeps the sealers swinging clubs

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
Swinging Canadian elections keeps the sealers swinging clubs
Commentary by Merritt Clifton

Thirty years ago, when I first wrote
about the Atlantic Canadian seal hunt as a rural
Quebec newspaper reporter, both the hunt and
protests against it already seemed to have gone
on forever–but I had hopes that the efforts of
Brigitte Bardot and Paul Watson would soon end
it. Bardot brought global celebrity status to
the campaign; Watson had just introduced the
then new tactic of actually confronting the
sealers on the ice, as cameras rolled.
I had known about the hunt and the
protests for close to 10 years, first hearing
of it soon after Brian Davies moved his Save The
Seals Fund to the U.S. from New Brunswick and
retitled it the International Fund for Animal
Welfare.
When the U.S. Postal Service introduced
nonprofit bulk mail discounts in 1969, the seal
hunt was among the topics that built IFAW, the
Animal Protection Institute, Greenpeace, and
the Fund for Animals. The seal hunt was already
a cause celebré before Bardot gave up acting to
start the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, before
Watson formed the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society while Greenpeace retreated from the
sealing issue.

Wildlife Direct leaders express conflicting views of South African elephant policy

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

NAIROBI, JOHANNESBURG–Wildlife Direct chief executive
Emmanuel de Merode on May 1, 2008 partially blamed a new South
African elephant management policy for the poaching massacre of 14
elephants in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, just six
weeks after Wildlife Direct founding chair Richard Leakey endorsed
the policy.
“The upsurge in elephant killings in Virunga is part of a
widespread slaughter across the Congo Basin,” de Merode told Agence
France-Presse, “and is driven by developments on the international
scene: the liberalisation of the ivory trade, pushed by South
Africa, and the increased presence of Chinese operators who feed a
massive domestic demand for ivory in their home country.”
Reported Agence France-Presse, “The killings were announced
as South Africa lifted a 13-year moratorium on elephant culling,
raising concern about a return to the international trade in ivory
seen in the 1970s and 1980s, Wildlife Direct said.”‘

Efforts to restrain island nations’ bird massacres

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
LONDON–The Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds and the National Audubon
Society refocused attention on Greenland after
Malta on April 25, 2008 banned spring quail and
turtle dove hunting and trapping.
Malta acted in compliance with a
provisional ruling by the European Court of
Justice that the traditional Maltese spring bird
season violates the 1979 European Bird Directive,
adopted five years before Malta joined the
European Union. The European Court of Justice is
to review the Maltese response to the provisional
ruling in two or three years, reported Agence
France-Presse.

Columbia River sea lion removals are delayed by HSUS appeal

April 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:

PORTLAND, Oregon– The National Marine Fisheries Service and
the Oregon and Washington state governments on April 1, 2008 agreed
to postpone killing or capturing California sea lions downstream from
the Bonne-ville Dam on the Columbia River, pending a U.S. District
Court ruling on a motion for a preliminary injunction against the
proposed removals, filed on March 28 by the Humane Society of the
U.S.
“State officials have put out the message to zoos, aquariums
and theme parks that they need homes for sea lions,” reported
Michael Milstein of the Oregonian.

Four sealers drown at start of 2008 Atlantic Canada hunt

April 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:
ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE, Quebec; St. Pierre, Miquelon–
Treacherous ice conditions for the second consecutive year inhibited
the opening of the Atlantic Canadian seal hunt.
Sixteen vessels carrying approximately 100 sealers left
Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, on March 28, heading toward a large
seal rookery in the Cabot Strait. One of the smaller boats,
L’Acadien II, with six men aboard, lost rudder control, possibly
from the rudder striking ice, and was taken in tow by the Canadian
Coast Guard icebreaker Sir William Alexander.
L’Acadien II captain Bruno Bourque and crew members Gilles
Leblanc and Marc-Andre Deraspe were killed and crew member Carl
Aucoin was missing and presumed dead after the boat hit a truck-sized
chunk of ice early on March 29, and flipped over while still under
tow. The sealing vessel Madelinot War Lord, following the tow,
rescued sealers Claude Deraspe and captain Bourque’s son,
Bruno-Pierre Bourque.

Senior conservation official charged with ordering massacre of gorillas

April 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:
GOMA, DRC–Honore Mashagiro, formerly regional director of
the Congolese Wildlife Authority for Virunga National Park in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, was arrested at his home in Goma
on March 18, 2007 for allegedly orchestrating the killings of 10
gorillas whose remains were discovered in June and July 2007.
DRC environment minister Felicite Kalume announced the
arrest. Agence France-Presse reported that “Six foresters would also
be questioned on suspicion of having trapped and killed the animals
in the site on Mashagiro’s orders.”
“Mashagiro was in a position of great responsibility,”
Wildlife Direct spokesperson Dipesh Pabari told Claire Soares of The
Independent, “and allegedly used his authority to promote the
destruction of forest for charcoal to make money. This threatened
the gorilla habitat, so when the rangers tried to protect the
forest, he allegedly orchestrated the gorilla massacres to
discourage them.”

Tracking bear rescue & rehabilitation in India

April 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:

RAJGIR, AGRA–Ten years into a deep
disagreement over how best to rescue and
rehabilitate former dancing bears, and other
bears confiscated from poachers and smugglers,
the score is approximately 460 bears accommodated
by the three bear sanctuaries now operated by
Wildlife SOS, to two Asiatic black bears claimed
to have been successfully returned to the forest
by the Wildlife Trust of India, with five more
Asiatic black bears and five sloth bears in
various stages of preparation for release,
according to a WTI project summary issued on
April 4, 2008.
WTI in March 2005 announced the release
into the Pakke Reserve Forest in Arunchal Pradesh
of two Asiatic black bears named Lucky and Leela.
Their fate is unclear. The release of two more,
Seppa and Seppi, was announced in March 2008.
“Seppa and Seppi were monitored in the wild for
over seven months last year,” WTI said, “and
when monitoring through radio collaring was
stopped as planned, this was considered the
first successful release of bears in the project.”

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