BOOKS: Raising The Peaceable Kingdom

October 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2005:

Raising The Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Ballantine Books (1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019), 2005. 170
pages, hardcover. $22.95.

As an experiment in animal sociology, former psychoanalyst
Jeffrey Masson acquired a variety of animals of differing species,
and then devoted time to observing their interaction. His book is a
charming and well-written inquiry about what animals can teach us
about the social origins of tolerance–and conflict.
To us, Masson found little in the way of novel revelation.
Most farmers and rural dwellers know how easily different species
live peacefully together, and it is scarcely surprising that a
motley collection of dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits and rats should
find friendship with each other across species lines. So although we
read the book with particular interest, because of our own
experience in the Kalahari doing wildlife rehabilitation among many
different species, we were a little disappointed not to learn
anything new.

Wildlife Services toll soars

October 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2005:

WASHINGTON D.C.–USDA Wildlife Services, the official hit
men for the Cabinet-directed Invasive Species Council, in 2004
killed one million more animals than in 2003, according to data
released on September 9, 2005.
“Wildlife Services killed more than five animals per minute,”
observed Wendy Keefover-Ring of the Colorado predator advocacy group
Sinapu to Associated Press Writer Libby Quaid.
The Wildlife Services toll came to 2.7 million lives,
including 2.3 million starlings, 10,735 Canada geese, and 3,263
double-crested cormorants.
Other targeted species were killed at rates that have been
more-or-less normal in recent years. Among them were 75,674 coyotes,
31,286 beavers, and 3,907 foxes, whose killing by paid government
trappers belied fur industry claims that wild pelt demand is strong.
Wildlife Services also klled 397 black bears, mostly suspected of
raiding homes or otherwise menacing humans, plus 359 pumas and 191
wolves, chiefly suspected of killing livestock.
Additional bird victims included 143 feral or free-ranging
chickens and 72 wild turkeys, apparently just for being alleged
neighborhood nuisances.

News from the Islamic world war zones

September 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

The World Wildlife Fund, which usually supports trophy
hunting as a conservation strategy, is opposing a scheme advanced by
Mumtaz Malik, chief conservator of Northwestern Frontier Province,
Pakistan, to introduce trophy hunting for leopards. Officially,
about 40 snow leopards survive in Pakistan, but hunters and herders
claim there are 150-250. Two were shot in June after one snow
leopard allegedly killed six women in two weeks by pouncing down on
them from trees as they gathered firewood near Abbottabad. Malik
claims to have saved markhor mountain goats, a prey species for snow
leopards, by introducing markhor trophy hunting.

Thirty-five small herds totaling 155 markor, a mountain goat
standing six feet tall at the shoulder, have recently been
rediscovered near the Line of Control dividing Kashmir, India, from
Pakistan. “As recently as 1970 there were 25,000 on the Indian
side,” reported Justin Huggler, Delhi correspondent for The
Independent, “but by 1997 they had been poached to near extinction,”
as troops and guerillas often turned their guns from fighting over
the boundary to profiteering on the sale of the markors’ spectacular
spiral horns.

How to protest the Taiji dolphin killing by Ric O’Barry, One Voice/France

September 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

In response to our call for October 8 to be an international
day of protest at Japanese consulates and embassies against the Taiji
dolphin slaughters, we have received much correspondence suggesting
that we should either hit Japan with an all-out boycott, or just
meet quietly with Japanese officials.
Both approaches have already been repeatedly attempted, and
both were big mistakes.
Having witnessed the dolphin slaughters myself, I can report
with absolute certainty that the Japanese people are not guilty of
these crimes against nature. I saw only 26 whalers in 13 boats drive
dolphins into a cove and slaughter them. The vast majority of the
people in Taiji and surrounding villages were exceptionally friendly
toward our small group of protesters, and should not be targeted and
punished for something they are not guilty of.
The Japanese people don’t need a boycott. They need the
information that we take for granted. If they knew the truth about
the dolphin slaughter, they would help us to stop it.

No justice for horses in court or Congress

September 1, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

WASHINGTON D.C., FORT WORTH, RENO–U.S. District Judge
Terry Means on August 25 ruled that the Beltex and Dallas Crown horse
slaughterhouses in Fort Worth and Kaufman may continue killing horses
despite a 1949 Texas law against selling horsemeat for human
consumption. Beltex and Dallas Crown are the two oldest and largest
horse slaughterhouses in the U.S.
Means found that federal law permitting horse slaughter supersedes
the state law, which has apparently never been enforced.
While the verdict was pending, the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice sold 53 horses to Dallas Crown, despite a 2002
opinion by former state attorney general John Cornyn that such
transactions would be illegal.
Cornyn, now a Republican U.S. Senator, has not been visibly
involved in Congressional efforts to save wild horses from slaughter.
Under an amendment to the 1971 Wild and Free Ranging Horse
and Burro Protection Act slipped through Congress as a last-minute
rider to the November 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act, the
Bureau of Land Management is now mandated to sell “without
limitation” any “excess” horse or burro who is more than 10 years of
age, or who has been offered for adoption three times without a
taker. “Excess” means any wild horse or burro who has been removed
from the range. The Bureau of Land Management has taken about 10,000
horses and burros from the range in nine western states in each of
the past three years, and plans to take 10,000 this year in 57
roundups.

BOOKS: Wild Dogs: past & present

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Wild Dogs: past & present
by Kelly Milner Halls
Darby Creek Publishing
(7858 Industrial Parkway, Plain City, OH 43064), 2005. 64 pages,
hardcover, illustrated. $18.95.

Addressing children, Kelly Milner Halls in Wild Dogs pleads
for appreciation and tolerance of coyotes, dingoes, dholes, foxes,
wolves, and other wild canines. Often persecuted as alleged
predators of livestock, each in truth preys much more heavily on
rodents and other so-called nuisance wildlife.
Wild Dogs is overall a unique and fascinating look at dogs
and dog relatives who predate humanity. Tracing the evolution of
dogs, Milner Halls points out that each variety of living wild dog
is a remnant of the evolution of current domestic pet dogs, and
observes that contrary to stereotype, not all primitive dogs are
ferocious carnivores. Many routinely consume some plant food. The
mild-mannered maned wolf of southern South America is especially fond
of fruit.
Much more could have been said about primitive dogs, humans,
and our influences on each other, had Milner Halls not been obliged
to work within a set length limit.

Japan still killing whales, but moratorium holds

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

SEOUL–Japan is still killing minke, sei, Bryde’s and sperm
whales in the name of research, and will kill humpbacks this year
as well, with a total self-set “scientific” quota for the year of
935.
Norway continues killing minke whales in coastal waters, and
Iceland has resumed whaling, but all still without world approval,
as the 57th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission
ended in Ulsan, South Korea on June 24 with no major successes for
the pro-whaling faction.
“We entered the week with a strong fear that the balance of
power within the IWC would shift to a pro-whaling majority,”
summarized Whalewatch Coalition leader Philip Lymbery. His
delegation represented the Royal SPCA, Earth Island Institute,
Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society, Whale Watch, and Humane
Society International.

Most wanted poachers busted in India & Nepal

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

DELHI, KASARA–The two most notorious living poachers on the
Asian subcontinent were arrested on June 30 and July 20,
respectively, as result of separate investigations.
The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation apprehended Sansar
Chand, 47, after tracing him to his Delhi home by identifying his
newspaper reading habits: a native of Rajasthan, Chand read
Rajasthani papers in a neighborhood where few others did.
First arrested for poaching and wildlife trafficking at age
16, in 1974, when he was found in possession of 676 animal pelts
including those of tigers and leopards, Chand worked with at least
five close relatives. He was reportedly convicted 15 times without
serving any significant sentence, even after he was caught with
28,486 contraband pelts in 1988. Fifty-seven cases are pending
against him in nine Indian states, wrote London Independent Delhi
correspondent Justin Huggler.
Apprehending Chand became an Indian government priority after
he was linked to the annihilation of the tiger population at Sariska
National Park. The loss of tigers, confirmed in November 2004 after
months of suspicion, destroyed the tourism appeal of one of India’s
former top visitor attractions.

Scoping elephants & rhinos on the web

June 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

MERU–The latest Kenyan venture in wildlife tracking could
either help to stop elephant and rhino poaching or accelerate it,
depending on the monitoring and interdiction capabilities of the
Kenya Wildlife Service.
“Elephants in some national parks are being fitted with SIM
card collars that send a text message telling wardens exactly where
the elephants are every hour. That information will soon be
available over the Internet, and accessible to people who choose to
sponsor an animal or make a donation to charity,” London
Independent correspondent Meera Selva reported on June 5, 2005.
Confirmed Meru National Park senior warden Mark Jenkins, who
is introducing the tracking technology, “People can go online and
see where ‘their’ elephant is at any time of day or night. It should
be a very useful tool for fundraising.”
“A similar technology is also being used to track rhinos,”
Selva added.

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