A n i m a l W r i t
e s © sm
The official ANIMAL
RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue # 03/09/03
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ ParkStRanger@aol.com
~ MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Park Rangers Slaughter Yellowstone Bison by
Greg Lawson
2 ~ Week-Long Benefit for Henry County Friends of Animals
3 ~ National Animal Abuse Registry
4 ~ Marauding Wolves Killed
5 ~ Plan For Fluffy's Future
6 ~ Spanish Racers Hang Greyhounds at Season's End
7 ~ Job Opportunities
8 ~ Just One Voice
9 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Park Rangers Slaughter
Yellowstone Bison
By Greg Lawson - ParkStRanger@aol.com
For
the last twenty years I have been proud to be a ranger with the National Park
Service, proud and yet at the same time, ashamed that the Service has been
unable to protect the very animal which is it's symbol: the American Buffalo,
the bison of Yellowstone. In the two decades that I have been a ranger
close to 4000 bison have been killed by Montana state officials and the Park
Service.
I am deeply saddened by this week's news from Yellowstone. On Monday, March
3rd, over a hundred bison were captured by Yellowstone rangers at the Stephens
Creek bison capture facility at the north end of the Park. On March 4th,
47 of those bison were sent to slaughterhouses in Montana. As of Friday,
March 7, two hundred and thirty-one had been captured and most had been trucked
to slaughter. Park officials say the operation will continue and a
hundred more may be captured in the days ahead.
This is the first time since the winter of 1996-1997 that the National Park
Service has taken a leadership role in the capture and slaughter of the
Yellowstone bison. The Stephens Creek trap in north Yellowstone had not
been used since that winter when 1084 bison were killed. For the last
five years, the NPS has taken a support role, assisting the Montana Department
of Livestock to capture bison.
On March 4th, I talked on the phone with Jonas Ehudin, spokesman for the
Buffalo Field Campaign, an activist group that has been working to protect the
bison since 1997. Jonas told me that the BFC believes the Park Service is
acting under pressure from the state of Montana to "manage" (read
Kill) the bison. Under the agreement, reached in the year 2000 by the
state of Montana and the federal government, known as the Interagency Bison
Management Plan, there is an arbitrary cap placed on the herd size at 3000
bison. A study to determine the actual carrying capacity of the park has
never been done. According to a count in November, the bison herd is
approximately 3800 animals. Hundreds of bison could be killed this spring
before cattle are brought back into the area to graze on allotments in the
Gallatin National Forest just outside Yellowstone Park.
The excuse used for years has been that the bison might spread the disease
brucellosis to the cattle, but there has never been a case of bison passing
brucellosis to cattle in the wild. The bison sent to slaughter this last
week were not even tested for brucellosis since the herd size is above
3000. The elk of Yellowstone, which greatly outnumber the bison, also
carry brucellosis, and elk have passed brucellosis to cattle. Montana
allows the elk to freely leave the park and doesn't thin the elk population
because elk hunting brings in millions of dollars to the state's economy each
year.
Last Tuesday, I spoke on the phone with Marsha Karle, Public Affairs Officer
for Yellowstone National Park. “APHIS (the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) wants to eradicate
brucellosis,” she said. “Unless you destroy all the wildlife, that’s not
going to happen.” Actually, APHIS has stated in the past that Montana was
too aggressive in it’s actions against the bison, and that killing male bison
and calves was senseless because they can not possibly pass the disease to
cattle. Only an infected pregnant female bison presents a risk of
transmission, and a low risk at that. It is truly senseless to slaughter
male bison while ignoring the elk and other wildlife that carry the bacteria
that cause brucellosis.
“We truly hate to see this happen,” Marsha Karle said of the slaughter.
Then why is it happening? Our mandate is to protect park resources for future
generations, not to destroy them to appease a special interest group, the
cattle ranchers who graze their cattle on federal lands in the national forests
surrounding the park.
A couple of weeks ago, the state senate of Montana violated the terms of the
Interagency Bison Management Plan which forbids hunting as a method of bison
management. The Montana senate passed a bill allowing bison hunting by
permit. If this bill becomes law, Montana will be in violation of the
Interagency Bison Management Plan and could loose millions of federal taxpayer
dollars they receive each year to kill bison. That is, if the federal
government has any courage to face the cattle ranchers of Montana.
Somehow I doubt it after the capture/slaughter of this last week.
If the state of Montana doesn’t respect the Interagency Bison Management Plan,
then neither should the National Park Service. The Service shouldn’t
allow itself to be trapped by a plan which requires them to kill the
bison. The Service should abandon the plan and reopen their bison
management policy to public comment.
To learn more about this situation, please visit the homepage of the Buffalo
Field Campaign, an activist group that works year round to try to save the
bison.
www.wildrockies.org/buffalo
Ralph Maughan operates a page which lists the latest news stories about the
Yellowstone bison at www.forwolves.org/ralph/bisonrpt.html
To voice your opinion, contact Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Suzanne
Lewis at POB 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190-0168; (307) 344-2002.
By email: Suzanne_Lewis@nps.gov
Please remember that polite letters and calls help more than letting our anger
show.
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~2~
Week-Long Benefit for
Henry County Friends of Animals
From crice1969@juno.com
We're
pleased to announce that http://www.animalrightstuff.com is holding a week-long
benefit for us! From now until midnight March 12, 2003. They will donate
a FULL 20% of your order to us if you simply add "HCFA" anywhere on
the order form! For more information on our group contact crice1969@JUNO.COM.
http://www.animalrightstuff.com has the best shirts, hats,
baseball t's, hoodies, hats and so much more. They specialize in veg and animal
rights designs on all of the above. Have a look if you are willing to
help raise money for our small non-profit group. Order all you want so we can
get our FULL 20% donated to our group. Please forward this email to as may
people as you can and other animal friendly groups. Thanks for supporting
this animal friendly company and HCFA!
Henry County Friends of Animals is a small group dedicated to improving the
Henry County animal shelter which was found to be improperly euthanizing
animals by shooting them, throwing them in a pile, and leaving them to suffer
until they finally died. The shelter also had a severe rodent
infestation, backed up sewer lines, and improper sanitation.
Since August, this group has taken over running the shelter, providing vet
care,
providing food, fostering dogs and cats in private homes, has low cost
spay/neuter
clinics, adoption fairs and much more. Recently they had a spay/neuter clinic
and spayed and neutered over 100 dogs and cats. Since August they have
spayed/neutered over 500 hundred animals, all done at low cost or no cost to
people who cannot afford it. This week-long benefit will help them to
continue to make improvements for the animals.
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~3~
National Animal Abuse Registry
From Farmed Animal Watch - info@farmedanimal.net
Inhumane.org and Pet-Abuse.com have joined
efforts to produce a registry of animal abuse cases. The more than 800 cases
entered to date include information from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., New
Zealand, and Spain. (Information is also available in Spanish.) While the site
focuses on companion animals, it also includes farmed animal abuse cases. The
database is searchable by location, date, or type of abuse. Abusers names,
addresses and case information are available. The database can be accessed
on-line at: http://www.pet-abuse.com/database
(see also: http://www.pet-abuse.com
). The links have recently also been added to the Farmed Animal Watch
Legislation page at: http://www.farmedanimal.net/Legislation.htm
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~4~
Marauding Wolves Killed
By Brent Israelsen
The Sale Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Mar/03062003/utah/utah.asp
Federal
predator-control agents from Salt Lake City gunned down two wolves that preyed
on sheep near the Utah-Wyoming line. From a two-seat airplane, Mike
Bodenchuk, director of the Utah office of Wildlife Services, shot the wolves
just before dusk Tuesday about one mile into Wyoming and about 17 miles
southeast of Bear Lake. The carcasses were taken Wednesday to a U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) field office for examination.
Mike Jimenez, FWS wolf coordinator for Wyoming, said the wolves, both males,
were probably yearlings from a pack in Grand Teton National Park. Utah
conservationists uniformly condemned the decision to destroy the wolves, a
federally protected endangered species that, thanks to a federal recovery effort,
have made a remarkable comeback in the Northern Rocky Mountains.
"It's not putting a good face on wolf recovery if every time there's a
hint of trouble, the wolves are lethally controlled. Clearly, it's a
one-strike-you're-out policy," said Allison Jones, coordinator of the Utah
Wolf Forum, a coalition of environmental groups hoping to see the
once-extirpated critter recolonize the Beehive State.
Under a special exception to the Endangered Species Act and to help protect the
livestock industry, the FWS has authority to destroy wolves that cause trouble.
Since 1987, more than 150 depredating wolves have been killed by the
government. On Tuesday morning, shortly after the sheep were attacked, Ed
Bangs, the FWS's Northern Rockies wolf recovery leader, authorized Wildlife
Services to find and destroy the offenders, a job Bodenchuk's office dispatched
swiftly. Despite frequent snow squalls, Bodenchuk and his pilot were able
to fly to the area by about 4:45 p.m. while a team on snowmobiles tracked the
animals on the ground. By about 5:30 p.m., the airborne team spotted the wolves
and made about five passes, each time with Bodenchuk firing a half-dozen shots
from a 12-gauge shotgun. A veteran hunter, Bodenchuk said it was exciting
to see the wolves but "disturbing" to have to kill them.
"They really are a magnificent animal," he said.
The wolves were probably staking out new territory in southwestern Wyoming and
northern Utah, parts of which are scarce in big game but rich in livestock. On
Tuesday morning, the wolves intruded into a sheep pen on private lands about 10
miles east of Bear Lake. Upon hearing the commotion, the rancher scared the
wolves off but not before they had inflicted mortal wounds on two sheep, worth
about $200 each. "The fact we had a depredation in the morning and
it's resolved in the evening should give people confidence that we can deal
with these things," said Bangs. Dick Carter, coordinator of the High
Uintas Preservation Council, said his confidence has been shaken. The
summary execution of these two wolves, which Carter believes were in Ogden
Valley near Huntsville last week, does not bode well for the animal's future in
Utah. "If we look at every mistake a wolf makes as a fatal one, that is
not good wildlife management."
John Carter, Utah director of the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Council, was
equally angered. "My problem is that there is no room for wolves on
public lands due to livestock and there's no room for them on private lands
because of livestock. What are they supposed to do, levitate?"
The director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, which will manage the
wolf once it is removed from the federal endangered list, was circumspect about
Tuesday's killing of the wolves. "Depredating wolves probably need
to have lethal action taken against them," Kevin Conway said. "I
don't know if there are any other options." Jimenez said wolves that
kill sheep tend to be repeat offenders.
Destroying such offenders, he explained, is important to maintaining the
ranching public's tolerance of wolves.
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~5~
Plan For Fluffy's Future
From Legislative Legal Tracks
leginfo@ddal.org
The
Charitable Remainder Pet Trust Bill was introduced in the last Congress by
Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). This bill would require the
federal government to recognize the validity of pet trusts, a trust to provide
funds for the care of a companion animal in the event of the death of his/her
human guardian. The federal tax code does not currently recognize pets as
legitimate beneficiaries of a trust because pets are considered
"property." Passage of this bill will elevate the status of
companion animals so they are able to be named a beneficiary of a trust, and
allow persons to benefit from the federal tax break associated with the
creation of such a trust.
Action: Contact your Representative and Senators and encourage them to
support the Pet Trust Bill when it is reintroduced. Tell them you want to
see the Pet Trust Bill become law so that you can plan for the future of your
entire family, including your companion animals. Send an Action Letter here:
www.cw2k.capweb.net/ddal/letterstate.cfm
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~6~
Spanish Racers Hang Greyhounds
at Season's End
Story by Emma Ross-Thomas
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19778/story.htm
SPAIN:
February 11, 2003
MEDINA DEL CAMPO, Spain - A gory sight confronts walkers in a Spanish wood - a
dead greyhound hangs from a tree near the remnants of a noose. Bones,
including a dog's jaw, lie under a nearby tree, evidence of other animals that
have met the same fate.
The slain dogs are a violent by-product of rural Spain's fascination with hare
coursing, a sport in which owners often regard their animals as
disposable. Tens of thousands of greyhounds run hare coursing races in
rural Spain each year. At the end of the season many are hanged - slung from
trees with a piece of twine - and if their owners think they have run badly
they sometimes hang them with their back paws on the ground for a slower death.
Fermin Perez, head of a dog sanctuary at Medina del Campo in central Spain,
says he has been told of these methods by racing dog owners. The British-based
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) also describes them in a
report.
"I've seen dogs hanged at every angle you can imagine," Perez told
Reuters.
Owners have invented grim terms to describe the different execution
methods. Hanging dogs with their back feet on the ground is called
"the secretary" or "the piano player," referring to the
scrabbling of the dog's front legs as it tries to reach the ground, according
to WSPA and locals in Medina.
"If they're not running, they hang," said Angel, a 21-year-old former
hare courser from Medina del Campo. "Greyhounds are for racing. What
else are you going to do with one? You wouldn't exactly take it for walks
around the plaza," he said with a giggle. "For stupid people, it
gives them a kick," he said, referring to hanging, adding that some owners
also shot or abandoned their dogs.
The WSPA said in a recent report: "Hanging is an age-old tradition and the
most popular method of 'disposing' of these dogs." Other methods include
stoning and staking dogs in a pond to drown.
STARVED, NOSES DOCKED
The WSPA also says the greyhounds - slightly different from Italian greyhounds
and known in Spain as "galgos" - are typically treated badly during
their short life - fed on bread and sugar and neither vaccinated nor wormed.
A greyhound arrived at the end of January at Perez's shelter with a deformed
nose. Perez said the former owner had explained that in his village owners
always chopped off the end of their dogs' noses to make them run faster.
Traditionally, according to the WSPA, greyhounds were used by poor people for
hunting meat. Owners could not afford to keep the dogs once they had outlived
their usefulness and so they killed them in the cheapest possible way.
Now the greyhounds - docile and trusting - race, and the WSPA estimates that 50
percent of dogs die by the age of two, with owners reluctant to pay for their
upkeep after they have run one season. They run their first season at 12
months.
A Medina-based veterinary surgeon said putting down a dog cost around 30 euros
($32) - a price aficionados are unwilling to pay. "There'll be more
than one out there," said a local man when told of the dog hanging in the
wood. "It tends to happen, when the season ends, dead greyhounds start
turning up." Remains of hanged dogs which have been later burned
have also been spotted by the WSPA.
The season lasts from October 1 to January 31 and races are held from dawn
until dusk two days a week in the Medina area. The first dog to grab the hare
usually wins and prestige is the reward for the owner rather than prize money
or gambling winnings, locals say.
OLD LAW, NEW LAW
A local law was passed in 1997 in Old Castile and Leon setting a 15,000 euro
fine for dog-hanging but it has never been enforced, according to a local
government official.
"The police receive reports that the animals are there... but they never
find those guilty so there can't be a prosecution," the official said,
adding that prevention was impossible and no extra measures were being taken to
put an end to the tradition. Spain -
famous for bull-fighting - made cruelty to animals a crime earlier this year
but the question remains as to whether the new law will be enforced any more than
the local one.
The Castile-La Mancha Greyhound Federation says it opposes hanging and that the
practice is on the decline. Medina del Campo, a medieval town on the
Castilian plains, is the centre of Spanish galgo racing. Signs of the
craze - which Perez says has become even more popular over the last decade -
can be seen in photography shop windows and on car bumpers. The town
boasts a sculpture of two greyhounds about to chase a hare. Locals say nearly
everyone in the town races.
But Perez says hanging is not peculiar to Medina and with the shelter, dogs
that would probably otherwise be killed are saved, at no charge to the
owner. He reckons that in other parts of rural Spain, for example
Andalucia, hangings are much more common.
This year some 200 dogs have been handed over to Perez's shelter. Two men
turned up at the end of January with an injured dog and asked to swap it for
another one. Perez says people ask if there is a charge for handing
over dogs and suspects if the answer were "yes" he would not have an
overcrowded kennel.
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~7~
Job Opportunities
ANIMAL SHELTERING ADVISOR – People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA) seeks an animal sheltering advisor with
full-service, open admission shelter or humane association work experience to
assess various allegations of animal shelter abuse reported to PETA and to
intervene as necessary. This person will be responsible for working with
government officials to ameliorate conditions and implement proper policies and
procedures for shelters. This person will also represent PETA to the
media. Candidate must have proven strong writing, research, and
organizational skills as well as the ability to make independent decisions in
crisis situations needing authority intervention. Candidate must also be
able to handle cruelty complaints in a professional and confidential
manner. A degree in a related field is preferred. Animal
Friendly. Competitive salary and benefits. Please send résumé with
cover letter to PETA, Attn: Human Resources, 501 Front Street, Norfolk,
VA 23510; or fax to 757-628-0789.
PET TRADE SPECIALIST – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA) seeks a pet trade specialist with previous casework-related mediation or
intervention experience to coordinate all departmental efforts to campaign
against the pet trade industry. This person will be responsible for
keeping abreast of pertinent news and developments in the pet trade industry,
handling captive bird issues, and providing intervention and assistance in a
wide variety of animal abuse situations. This person will also represent
PETA to the media. Candidate must have proven proofreading,
organizational, and research skills as well as strong written and verbal communication
skills. Candidate must also have the ability to make independent
decisions in crisis situations needing authority intervention. A degree
in a related field is preferred. Animal Friendly. Competitive
salary and benefits. Please send résumé with cover letter to PETA, Attn:
Human Resources, 501 Front Street, Norfolk, VA 23510; or fax to
757-628-0789.
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~8~
Just One Voice
By Cyndi Ward - Cyndiob@aol.com
Each day I learn, research and read
About all the animals who are in need
The circus, the rodeo, the factory farm
The pain, the fear, the unbelievable harm
The research scientist who causes pain
The dog in the yard chained in the rain
The kitten drowned, the puppy burned
The horrible tragedies of which I’ve learned
The innocent ones they have no choice
The innocent ones they have no voice
The horrors inflicted upon those so dear
And so many people who do not want to hear
Each of us, we have a choice
Each of us, we have a voice
Use your voice to educate
Pass out leaflets, demonstrate
Write letters, boycott stores
Knock on all your neighbors’ doors
Use your voice as I have mine
You can help, it just takes time
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~9~
Memorable Quote
"The impact of countless hooves and mouths
over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of
the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and
subdivision developments combined."
~ Philip Fradkin in Audubon, National Audubon Society, NY
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online
P O Box 7053
Tampa, Fl 33673-7053
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal Rights Online=-
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