Category: Wild Animals

WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

BROWNSVILLE , Texas– – T h e
U.S. Customs Service and Fish and Wildlife
Service on May 29 wrapped up Operation
Jungle Trade, a three-year undercover sting,
with the arrests of 37 alleged wildlife traffickers
in Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, and
Missouri, issuance of warrants against several
others, and simultaneous press conferences
at the Gladys Porter Zoo in
Brownsville and the San Antonio Zoo.
The sting apprehended 654 animals
in all, including 635 tropical birds, among
whom were macaws, yellow-headed Amazon
parrots, Mexican red-headed parrots,
conures, and toucans.
Among the mammals were 14 spider
monkeys, a kinkajou, a Mexican lynx,
and a puma.

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Wildlife management

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Accused of mismanagement resulting in a $17 million budgetary shortfall a n d
more than 100 layoffs from a staff of 1,600, Bert Shanks, 58, resigned on June 13 as director
of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, but will continue to collect his $96,000-ayear
salary until September 11. Shanks attributed the shortfall to erroneously expecting in July
1996 that fishing license sales would increase, even though a scarcity of fish had obliged cuts
in bag limits and fishing opportunities.
The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Committee on June 1 approved a 1999 fiscal
year state Wildlife Department budget of $25.4 million, $1 million less than in 1998 due to
declining hunting and fishing license sales revenue.

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9th circuit tells feds to obey ESA

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

SAN FRANCISCO––The 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 24
that the federal Bureau of Reclamation must
obey both the Endangered Species Act and
California state species protection laws in
allocating water to Central Valley farmers,
even though so doing may put the bureau in
violation of 40-year-old water use contracts.
If the ruling survives an expected
appeal to the Supreme Court by the defendants,
it may be invoked to help compel
other federal agencies to conform to the ESA,
a frequent point of contention in cases
involving everything from fencing along the
U.S./Mexican border to the failure of the
National Marine Fisheries Service to inspect
shipments of shark fins passing through
Hawaiian airports en route from foreign fishing
vessels to markets in Japan.

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USDA Wildlife Services almost gets culled

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Wiley Coyote almost won a
round on June 23, as the House of Representatives voted 229 to
193 in favor of a bill introduced by Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon)
and Charles Bass (R-New Hampshire) to cut $10 million, the
cost of predator killing programs, from the fiscal 1999 USDA
Wildlife Services budget of $28.8 million––a cut four times
deeper than President Bill Clinton proposed in January.
The funding was almost certain to have been restored
in the Senate, where the 17 western states whose ranchers most
use Wildlife Services have proportionally far more clout, but
taking no chances, Wildlife Services senior staff and livestock
industry representatives lobbied through the night.
Congressional allies then demanded a revote on June 24, which
rescinded the cut, 232-192.
Despite losing an apparent landmark victory, predator
advocates remained encouraged at retaining 53 more votes
against Wildlife Services than ever before were mustered. The
previous high of 139 votes came in 1996, when Wildlife
Services was still called Animal Damage Control.
“We’ll keep at it,” pledged Tom Skeele, executive
director of the Predator Project, an activist group headquartered
in Bozeman, Montana.

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Raising a crop of fire

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

DALLAS, MANILA, KUALA
LUMPUR––Martha Hovers, attending 300
dogs at the Animal Refuge Foundation sanctuary
in Sherman, Texas, saw the smoke from
the burning Las Chimalapas biosphere refuge
and environs on May 27 and knew it was no
ordinary fire: the clouds were too dark, too
thick, too high. advancing as one dark blanket.
She called ANIMAL PEOPLE to make
sure we were on the story.
Among the largest dog sanctuaries in
the U.S., ARF is about as far from Las
Chimalapas as it could be and yet remain in
Texas. Mexico is most of a day’s drive south.
Las Chimalapas is in Oaxaca, toward the
southern end of Mexico, 2,000 miles away,
while the also burning El Triunfo nature reserve
is in Chiapas, even farther south.
Guatemala, where other forest fires
contributed more smoke to the blanket, is more
southerly still.

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REVIEWS: Thunder of the Mustangs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

Thunder of the
Mustangs:
Legend and Lore
of the Wild Horses
Edited by Mark Sprag
Sierra Club Books
(85 2nd St., San Francisco, CA 94105),
1997. 120 pages, 75 color photos.
$30.00 hardbound.
Wild horse enthusiasts will be drawn
to this book by breathtaking color photographs
taken by some of the most prominent wildlife
photographers alive. The very essence of wild
horses––their autonomy, self-containment,
and fear––is made manifest by the talent of
John Running, Charles and Rita Summers,
Phil Schofield and others.

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1,001 tales of whales

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

MUSCAT, Oman––The 50th annual
meeting of the International Whaling
Commission opened on May 16 in Muscat,
Oman, but lasted just one Arabian night
before chairperson Michael Canny of Ireland
suspended proceedings from Sunday, May 17,
until at least Tuesday, May 19.
In the interim Canny hoped to
resolve an impasse resulting when Japan and
seven Caribbean nations led by Antigua
demanded that all votes be via secret ballot.
The U.S. and most European nations oppose
secret votes, which would allow nations to
take private positions contravening their public
stance. Nongovernmental organizations
opposed to whaling accused Japan of purchasing
votes by linking foreign aid to whaling.

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Wildlife management bites the bullet

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

OLYMPIA, SALEM, BOISE,
CASPER––Scrambling to cover a $17 million
deficit caused by plummeting sales of hunting
and fishing licenses, the Washington Fish and
Wildlife Commission on May 14 unanimously
approved $11.4 million worth of cuts to the
$250 million Department of Fish and Wildlife
budget, including the elimination of 84 jobs
and closure of two fish hatcheries, effective
July 1. Further cuts of about $3.1 million must
still be made, due to losses of matching funds
from federal taxes on hunting and fishing gear.
The Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, facing a $10.5 million deficit over
the next two fiscal years, earlier announced it
will cut 17 positions from its 1,000-member
staff, and increase hunting and fishing license
fees, for the first time since 1994.

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