Deer roundup

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Urban deer problems spread to Manhattan for
the first time on June 1, when a two-year-old whitetailed
doe startled passengers exiting the 190th Street
subway station. The Center for Animal Care and
Control tranquilized her in nearby Port Tryon Park and
relocated her to the 150-acre Green Chimneys Farm
and Wildlife Center in suburban Brewster.
That approach wouldn’t be legal in
Cincinnati or Cleveland, according to an April directive
from the Ohio Department of Wildlife. Noting that
sport hunting is ineffective and impractical in populated
areas, the directive urges habitat modification to
discourage deer, and lethal culling when deer must be
removed. Any deer who is tranquilized must be killed.

The system sucks

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

DENVER––Gay Balfour, 54, and David
Honaker, 34, of Cortez, Colorado, are in their fifth
year on the road with Dog Gone, a device that vaccuums
unwanted prairie dogs out of their holes and
into a padded cage without harming them. Dog
Gone itself has been certified humane by all investigators
to date, including Animal Rights Mobilization
president Robin Duxbury.
But then there’s the question of what to do
with the prairie dogs, known to ecologists as the
most important species in maintaining nutritious
grasslands along the Rocky Mountain ridge, yet
widely considered a pest and even subject to bounties
by ranchers who don’t understand that a field full of
prairie dogs and biodiversity produces more calories
for cattle than a field of undisturbed grass.

Conflicts with wildlife

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

The fourth annual Dr. Splatt
roadkill survey, coordinated by
Brewster Bartlett of Pinkerton
Academy in Derry, New Hampshire,
found a marked decrease in roadkill
frequency, for the third year in a row,
but a sharp rise in roadkilled beavers
––especially in the Derry area. Forty
schools participated in the nine-week
roadkill count this year. The distribution
and participation level is sufficient
to produce credible roadkill estimates
for the northeast, with just
enough information from other
regions to make crude national projections
possible, which are nonetheless
the best supported by data of any
made to date. The northeast is
believed to have the greatest roadkill
frequency because it has the most
wildlife habitat in close proximity to
large human populations, with the
most heavily traveled roads and also
the most old, narrow, and winding
roads. The overall roadkill frequency
is probably down primarily because
the unusually long winter depressed
wildlife breeding populations, while
beaver kills were up, Bartlett
believes, in part because beavers had
a successful breeding season last year
in heavily surveyed parts of New
Hampshire where busy roads cut
through wetlands. Most of the dead
beavers in that area, Bartlett told
ANIMAL PEOPLE, appeared to be
young, apparently just setting out to
find their own territory.

Thirty British species near extinction

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

LONDON––The South West
Regional Biodiversity Audit, the first
attempt to monitor the status of wildlife over
an entire region of England, reports after
four years of research that at least 30 species
are near extinction and as many as 7,000 are
“of conservation concern.”
At most risk, the audit found, are
the white-clawed crayfish, the harbor porpoise,
aquatic warblers, and southern damselflies,
followed by river otters and large
blue butterflies. Both have been subject of
recent reintroductions, the large blue butterflies
after having once been believed to be
extinct. The most controversial recommended
protection measures may involve
closing five Devon river basins to crayfish
farming, to protect the white-clawed crayfish
from introduced competitors.

Jumping on kangaroo verdict

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

CANBERRA––Australian environment
minister Robert Hill’s April 29 ruling
that koalas don’t qualify for endangered
species protection is under fire from both Sue
Arnold of Australians for Animals and
Deborah Tabart of the Australian Koala
Foundation.
Hill’s verdict was in keeping with
the Australian Endangered Species Scientific
Subcommittee finding that koalas “should not
be listed on Schedule 1 of the Endangered
Species Protection Act 1992. However,” the
ESSS stated, “while the koala is still relatively
abundant and widespread on a national
basis, and does not meet the criteria for
endangered or vulnerable at this time, it is
clearly declining in parts of its range, and
there is much scientific and public concern
about its conservation. Therefore the finalization
and implementation of a National
Koala Conservation Strategy is urgent.”

Flaws in the laws

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

Calls to reform Massachusetts
child neglect law rose on May 23 when Essex
County authorities filed cruelty charges against
Heidi Dreher, 25, of Hyannis, and Kenneth
Reader, 25, of Windham, New Hampshire,
for leaving a border collie locked in a hot car,
but were unable to charge them for leaving two
small children in the same vehicle. Police officer
Albert Inostroza did arrest them for possession
of crack cocaine. Reader was also
charged with assaulting Inostroza; Dreher was
additionally charged with disorderly conduct.
The children were turned over to the state
Department of Social Services, while the dog
was taken to the Methuen shelter of the
Massachusetts SPCA. State senators Frederick
Berry and James Jajuga said on May 28 that
they were drafting appropriate legislation.

Animal control & rescue

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

The North Shore Animal League’s second annual May adoptathon
involved more than 700 U.S. shelters, which among them placed
20,000 animals––and all of the National Canine Defense League and Blue
Cross Animal Care shelters in England, which placed up to 60-75% of the
dogs in their care plus 40% of the cats.
The Calcasieu Parish Animal Control and Protection
Department uses local high school career days “to spread the word that
work in animal control makes a major contribution to the community,”
reports director Laura Lanza, who is willing to share a three-page set of
handouts on career opportunities in animal control with other agencies.
Her office address is 210 West Railroad Ave., Lake Charles, LA 70601;
telephone 318-439-8879; fax 318-437-3343.
Knox County Humane Society consulting veterinarian
Stephen Smith, 34, has filed as the only Democrat to oppose
Republican incumbent John J. Duncan Jr. in the race for the Second
District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The wild west

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

HERRO OF THE HOUR
LAS VEGAS––Believing the nonprofit Animal
Foundation International could adopt out more animals and euthanize
fewer than the for-profit Dewey Animal Control Center, AFI
president Mary Herro bid successfully on the Las Vegas animal
control sheltering contract, taking over the job in December.
After five months, AFI had received 3,409 dogs and
cats from animal control, only five fewer than Dewey, and had
returned 652 animals to their owners, 29 more than Dewey.
Adoptions were right at Herro’s target pace of 500 a month:
2,534, up from 686 under Dewey, and the euthanasia percentage
was down to 31%, from 46%, already low compared to the
national norm of about 65%, reflecting the impact of the 75,000
discount neutering surgeries done by AFI since 1989. But
euthanasias were also up, from 1,871 under Dewey to 2,041 under
AFI, because public turn-ins rose from 487 under Dewey to 1,463
under AFI, and owner surrenders jumped from 179 to 1,650.

GOP still gunning for ESA

July 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Endangered species protection
programs, already crippled by budget cuts, would
be deeply cut again under the proposed Interior Department
budget for fiscal 1997 approved on June 5 by the House
Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. Total Interior
spending would be $12 billion, down $500 million from
fiscal 1996, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service budget
was cut by $12.5 million, including a 39% cut in the
budget for researching endangered species listing proposals,
and a 50% cut in U.S. support of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species.
The proposed cuts were in line with a revised
strategy for dismantling the Endangered Species Act reportedly
favored by Louisiana Representative Billy Tauzin,
who struck as U.S. Fish and Wildlife chief Mollie Beattie,
49, fell ill again with brain cancer. Undergoing her first
surgery in December, Beattie returned to work in April
after a second operation, but three weeks into May was
forced to go back on sick leave, and resigned on June 5,
leaving administration of the ESA to deputy director John
Rogers––who inherited multiple political headaches.

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