Legal action against ocean fishing

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson on April 10 held for
the fourth time in 13 years that 1988 amendments to the 1972 Marine
Mammal Protection Act oblige the U.S. to exclude imports of tuna
netted “on dolphin,” a method often used by foreign fleets because
dolphins and tuna feed on the same fish species and often swim
together. Surrounding feeding dolphins with nets therefore usually
captures tuna–as well as dolphins who do not escape before the nets
close. Henderson in May 1990 banned imports of yellowfin tuna from
Mexico, Venezuela, and Vanuatu. After Congress reinforced the 1990
verdict by introducing “dolphin-safe” labeling, Henderson in January
1992 banned $266 million worth of tuna imports from 30 nations. A
General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs panel in 1995 ruled that the
U.S. “dolphin safe” law is an improper trade barrier. The law was
eased by the 1997 International Dolphin Conservation Program Act,
but Henderson and U.S. Court of International Trade judge Judith
Barzilay issued conflicting verdicts when then-Commerce Secretary
William Daley tried to admit non-“dolphin-safe” tuna to the U.S. In
December 2002 the Commerce Department moved to allow U.S. firms to
market tuna netted “on dolphin” as “dolphin-safe,” if no dolphins
are known to have been killed during the netting, but Henderson
ruled that the 1990 definition of “dolphin-safe” must stand unless
the law is changed.

Will new Kenya government lift hunting ban?

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

NAIROBI–Kenya has a new President, National Rainbow
Coalition candidate Mwai Kibaki, succeeding Daniel arap Moi,
President since 1978.
Kibaki, a longtime leading member of the parliamentary opposition to
the arap Moi regime, almost immediately replaced the entire Kenya
Wildlife Service board of directors, fueling concern that Kibaki may
next move to overturn the national ban on sport hunting enforced
throughout arap Moi’s tenure as–according to Ghosts of Tsavo author
Philip Caputo–a gesture of respect to Daphne Sheldrick, widow of
Tsavo National Park founder David Sheldrick and pioneer of successful
rehabilitation of orphaned elephants.
The removal of two-time KWS director Richard Leakey from the
KWS board is of particular concern, International Fund for Animal
Welfare regional director Amed Khan told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “We know for
sure that the sport hunting crowd couldn’t be happier, as they have
long felt that Leakey was the only person standing in their way”
post-Moi, Khan continued.
KWS chief Michael Wamithi, who previously headed the IFAW
office in Nairobi, “is going to need all the help he can get,” Khna
added.

Hong Kong & WHO seek SARS host

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

HONG KONG–Severe Acute Respirat-ory
Syndrome, the latest flu-like disease among many
to cross from animals to humans in southern
China, had been diagnosed in 3,947 people in
five months as the May edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE
went to press, killing 229 while 1,935 were
fully recovered, according to the latest daily
data summary from the World Health Organization.
As epidemics go, SARS was not especially
serious. The global toll from all forms of flu
ranges from 250,000 to 500,000 deaths per year.
Dengue fever afflicts 50 million people per year.
AIDS is diagnosed at the rate of five million new
cases per year, killing 3.1 million people in
2002.
But few diseases have ever terrified a
city as SARS has terrified Hong Kong–and as
cases turned up in other nations, almost
entirely among recent visitors to Hong Kong, the
panic spread.

BOOKS: America’s National Wildlife Refuges

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

America’s National Wildlife Refuges:
a complete guide
by Russell D. Butcher
Roberts Rinehart Publishers in cooperation with Ducks Unlimited
(c/o Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 4501 Forbes Blvd.,
Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706), 2003.
714 pages. $29.95.

Published in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding
of the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge system, America’s National
Wildlife Refuges: a complete guide exists, like the refuges
themselves, in part because of funding from Ducks Unlimited.
Hunter/conservationists help to finance the acquisition of
wildlife refuges through taxes on hunting and fishing gear, as well
as through grants by organizations such as Ducks Unlimited and The
Nature Conserv-ancy–and view this as entitling them to have extra
say in how the refuges are managed.
Though many of the rest of us view the hunter/conservationist
contribution as at best inadequate reparations for the harm hunters
do to wildlife, public officials largely agree with the
hook-and-bullet set. Thus 311 of the current 540 refuges allow
hunting and 280 allow trapping, contrary to the belief of 78% of
Americans that hunting on national refuges is illegal, according to
a 1999 survey by Decision Research Inc.

Elephant captures & rampages spotlight habitat encroachment

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

PRETORIA, NEW DELHI, NAIROBI, SAN DIEGO, BANGKOK,
COLOMBO–Pretoria Regional Court magistrate Adriaan Bekker on April 7
found African Game Services owner Riccardo Ghiazza of Brits, South
Africa, guilty of cruelty to 30 young elephants in 1998-1999. The
verdict reportedly took Bekker four hours to read.
Convicted with Ghiazza, but on just two cruelty counts, was
student elephant handler Henry Wayne Stockigt.
Charges were dismissed against another handler, Craig
Saunders, and another company, African Game Properties Inc.
Captured in the Tuli district of Botswana during July 1998,
the elephants were transported to Brits for training and sale to
overseas zoos.

People for Animals founds Delhi shelter for ex-laboratory monkeys

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

DELHI–Gautam Grover, president of the Delhi chapter of
People for Animals, has “started a shelter for monkeys called
Hanuman Vatika,” he recently wrote to ANIMAL PEOPLE.
“We get monkeys from research labs,” Grover explained.
“Most are old and deformed [from experimentation] and are incapable
of survival in the wild. We also have infants who have had a
terrible past,” Grover added. “For example an infant came to me
whose mother was killed by dogs. The infant was clinging to her,
crying. We called the infant Chiku. He now has a new mother, named
Basanti, and a new father, called Dharmender.”

Legal action against ocean fishing

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

The dogs of war & other animals in liberated Iraq

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

BAGHDAD; CAMP PATRIOT, Kuwait–Mine-detecting dolphins and
war dogs were the nonhuman heroes of the U.S. liberation of Iraq from
Saddam Hussein.
It was an evolutionary homecoming of sorts. Fossils found in
Pakistan indicate that the common ancestors of dogs and dolphins may
have first differentiated in this very region circa 70 million years
ago.

Will new Kenya government lift hunting ban?

May 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:
NAIROBI–Kenya has a new President, National Rainbow
Coalition candidate Mwai Kibaki, succeeding Daniel arap Moi,
President since 1978.
Kibaki, a longtime leading member of the parliamentary opposition to
the arap Moi regime, almost immediately replaced the entire Kenya
Wildlife Service board of directors, fueling concern that Kibaki may
next move to overturn the national ban on sport hunting enforced
throughout arap Moi’s tenure as–according to Ghosts of Tsavo author
Philip Caputo–a gesture of respect to Daphne Sheldrick, widow of
Tsavo National Park founder David Sheldrick and pioneer of successful
rehabilitation of orphaned elephants.

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