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tagged w/ trophy hunting
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Judge Rules That Polar Bears Are Still "Threatened"
Los Angeles Times...
Judge rules polar bears still 'threatened'
June 30, 2011 | 3:51 pm
Polar A U.S. District Court on Thursday upheld a Bush-era decision that polar bears are a threatened species, despite challenges by the state of Alaska and others seeking to strip the bear of its protection.
Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to protect the bear because of the melting of the Arctic sea ice was well supported and that opponents failed to demonstrate that the listing was irrational.
“Plaintiffs’ challenges amount to nothing more than competing views about policy and science,” Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote.
The polar bear was the first species added to the Endangered Species List solely because of the threat from global warming.
The status of polar bears became an issue in 2005 after the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace filed a petition arguing that shrinking ice impaired the bears' ability to catch prey and could lead to their extinction. In December 2006, then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne declared the bears "threatened," rather than endangered and in imminent danger of extinction. Endangered and threatened species receive the same protections, such as protection of critical habitats, population recovery assistance and prohibition of harm to the species or its habitat. For threatened species, however, the government can reduce protections or allow exemptions.
If the bears were listed as endangered, new power plants could be blocked, as well as other sources of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming. It also could make petroleum exploration more difficult.
As a result, Kempthorne created a "special rule" stating that the Act would not be used to set climate policy or limit greenhouse gas emissions, pesticides, mercury and other pollutants outside of the Arctic that harm the bear. The Obama administration upheld this policy.
The state of Alaska and hunting groups argued that the listing was unnecessary because the bear is protected by other laws.
“With the population of the species in decline, the needless hunting of them for sport must not be an option,” said Jeffrey Flocken, D.C. Office Director, International Fund for Animal Welfare. “As pro-trophy hunting organizations continue the fight to skirt existing laws and import polar bear trophies, today’s decision serves to reinforce the fact that the species is in jeopardy. The short-term special interests of hunting groups must never take precedence over long-term conservation efforts for the protection of polar bears.”
Currently, conservation groups are challenging Kempthorne's special rule in court.
“This decision is an important affirmation that the science demonstrating that global warming is pushing the polar bear toward extinction simply cannot be denied,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “While we are disappointed that the polar bear will not receive the more protective endangered status it deserves, maintaining Endangered Species Act listing for the polar bear is a critical part of giving this species back its future.”
Studies show that rising temperatures are quickly melting the Arctic sea ice, forcing polar bears inland. In September 2007, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey released a comprehensive nine-volume analysis of the science and reached a dire forecast: Two-thirds of the bear's habitat would disappear by 2050.
Polar bears are experts at hunting ringed seals and other prey on sea ice. But they are so unsuccessful on land that they spend their summers fasting, losing more than 2 pounds a day. Overall, scientists believe the global population of 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears remains robust. But virtually all polar bear experts predict rapid population declines in the Arctic, which is warming faster than anyplace else in the world, changing too rapidly for the bears to adapt and find another source of food.
.Los Angeles Times... Judge rules polar bears still 'threatened' June... more-
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Lion movie highlights trophy shooting in SAfrica
;_ylt=AkcLm5W.4n_zZaE9v2PwZT5g.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTRjaW1nNTB1BGFzc2V0Ay9zL2FwX3RyYXZlbC8yMDEwMTAxNC9hcF90cl9nZS9hZl90cmF2ZWxfc291dGhfYWZyaWNhX2xpb25fc2xhdWdodGVyBGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwM4BHBvcwM4BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDbGlvbm1vdmllaGln
BROEDERSTROOM, South Africa – Lions raised in captivity in South Africa are set loose in enclosed areas where hunters, many from the United States, gun them down. The toll: about 1,000 lions each year.
Kevin Richardson hopes a new movie "White Lion," which opens in a few U.S. cities on Friday, will give people second-thoughts about participating in such hunts.
"I just can't understand how anyone would want to shoot a lion that is clearly confined to a finite space with absolutely no hope in hell of ever escaping the so-called hunter," said Richardson, a self-taught "Lion Whisperer" and first-time film producer. "Canned lion hunting, in my opinion, is likened to fishing with dynamite in a pond and then calling yourself a fisherman."
"White Lion" is about a rare white lion, who as a cub is cast out of his pride because of his color. He is near starvation when he befriends an older lion who teaches him the ways of the wild. John Kani, a Tony Award-winning actor and playwright, is the storyteller. A young man helps the lion, whose name is Letsatsi, because his Shangaan tribal tradition says a white lion is God's messenger and must be protected. Tension builds as Gisani becomes a tracker on a game farm where he and a foreign hunter encounter Letsatsi.
Trophy hunting is big business in South Africa, worth $91.2 million a year, according to the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa. Foreign tourists pay up to $40,000 to shoot a lion.
The government promotes hunting as a revenue source and calls it a "sustainable utilization of natural resources." Provincial governments sell permits allowing hunters to kill rhinos, elephants — even giraffes. Hunters killed 1,050 lions in 2008, the last year for which figures are available, according to the South African Predator Breeders Association.
The hunters' association says 16,394 foreign hunters — more than half from the United States — killed more than 46,000 animals in the year ending September 2007.
Almost all lions hunted under permit in South Africa are bred in captivity. But a new report by Animal Rights Africa says animals that wander out of the huge Kruger National Park into neighboring private reserves have become fair game.
About 3,600 lions were kept in breeding facilities in 2009, to be sold to zoos, safari farms and for hunting on game farms, said Albi Modise, spokesman for South Africa's Department of Environment.
Animal Rights Africa says trophy hunting is incompatible with South Africa's push into ecotourism, noting that ad campaigns promoting tourism and game viewing showcase the same species that are offered up to be hunted. The government in 2007 introduced legislation that would reduce the financial incentive to breed lions for the hunt but the Predator Breeders Association challenged the laws and earlier this year won an appeal.
Richardson, the movie's producer, first befriended a pair of lion cubs at the Lion Park outside Johannesburg 12 years ago, when the cubs were 6 months and he was 23. He began shortening his hours as a therapist in postoperative rehabilitation to play with his new friends. Soon, park owner Rodney Fuhr offered him a part-time job which became full time.
Today, Richardson cares for 39 lions at his 800-hectare (2,000-acre) Kingdom of the White Lion in Broederstroom, an hour and a half drive from Johannesburg, where the film was shot to include tawny gold lions as well as those born white because of a recessive gene.
Lions are nocturnal and spend most of the day sleeping, so filming was limited to a couple of hours in the morning and perhaps another couple in the afternoon — if the cats were willing. Letsatsi was portrayed by several different lions over the four years it took to make the movie. A cuddly cub filmed in the summer of 2006 might be sprouting a mohawk-style tuft of hair the following year, the precursor to a mane.
Richardson said he breaks every rule in the book in handling lions. On a recent morning, the lions welcomed Richardson with rumbling purrs. One shut his eyes in ecstasy and rolled onto his back as Richardson scratched his chin. Another licked Richardson's hand, the tongue as rough as sandpaper. Too many licks can cause bleeding.
Two 400-pound (180-kilogram) lions wrestled him to the ground and a lioness jumped on his back, covering Richardson for a tense minute. He emerged from a tangle of furry blond limbs, face red. One lion threw a casual paw on Richardson's shoulder.
"Ugh, no claws you naughty boy!" he admonished, slapping away a paw larger than his face.
He's been attacked by his lions twice. Once during filming, a lion named Thor grabbed Richardson's arm and pinned him against the cage holding the camera crews, who looked on terrified and unable to help.
"I thought: There goes my arm, and it's my own fault. I was provoking him to get a fight sequence that we needed," Richardson said. The lion stared him in the eyes for what seemed five minutes but couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds, before releasing him, he recalled.
"Lions are 99 percent chill and 1 percent lethal," Richardson said.;_ylt=AkcLm5W.4n_zZaE9v2PwZT5g.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTRjaW1nNTB1BGFzc2V0Ay9zL2FwX3RyYXZlbC8yMDE... more -
Alaska Says “Sure, Kill Polar Bears!”
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A joint commission meeting in Alaska recommended lifting the ban on harvesting polar bears for traditional and cultural purposes in Russia.
The U.S.-Russia Polar Bear Commission met this week in Anchorage to determine the potential for a planned harvest by Native peoples in Alaska and Chukotka in Russia who subsist on the bears.
The harvest would be limited to up to 58 polar bears a year, with no more than 19 females.
The move would end a 50-year ban on the Russian side. It is expected to improve monitoring and decrease poaching in that country.
In Alaska, a team will develop a plan that will be presented at the next meeting of the commission in June 2011.
Alaska Natives harvested an average of 38 polar bears a year from 2004 to 2008.
http://www.animaljournal.org/2010/06/16/alaska-says-sure-kill-polar-bears/ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A joint commission meeting in Alaska recommended lifting the... more-
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Seal Hunt 2010: Bear Witness
A "Live from the Ice" dispatch from Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International/Canada
There are days like yesterday in every expedition to film the baby seal slaughter. Days when horrible weather conditions keep us from reaching the ice floes but do not prevent the sealers from killing the seals.
Yesterday, the ProtectSeals team attempted to observe the seal hunt from our rigid, inflatable boat. Sadly, after hours of battling high winds and waves, we had to make the decision to turn back. We were devastated—to know this slaughter would go on without witnesses was too much to bear.
But then we received news. Our helicopter, equipped with a high-powered camera, had managed to make it through the winds to the sealing area. As we were slowly making our way back to port, our helicopter hovered in the sky above the sealing boats, filming everything. And as usual, multiple violations of the law were caught on tape. Yet again, sealers failed to check to ensure the seals were unconscious before hooking, dragging and cutting them open.
One seal was shot in the chest. As blood poured out from under him, he slowly raised his head and tried to crawl. It took an eternity for sealers to arrive and club him. Another seal—still alive—was thrown onto a pile of bloody dead seals in a sealing boat. Realizing the seal was still moving, a sealer smashed his club down onto her skull, in the midst of the dead pile.
These baby seals are subjected to unimaginable suffering every day that this slaughter goes on. They are dying in the most horrible ways, at the hands of this awful industry.
We come out here to expose that suffering to the world. The sealing industry would like the brutality of this slaughter to remain a secret, for the killing to happen out of public view. But we can’t let that happen, and your support ensures it won’t. Because of you, the tragic deaths of these defenseless animals will ultimately bring down the sealing industry. As the images of this cruelty are broadcast around the world, global markets for seal products are closing, and consumers are taking action to stop the slaughter.
Because of the images we gather of this horrible hunt, those who would defend this atrocity simply have no defense.
Please support the end of the seal hunt in Canada: donate to save seals (your gift will be tripled!), or sign the pledge to boycott seafood from Canada»
Rebecca Aldworth is executive director of Humane Society International/Canada. For the past decade, she has been a firsthand observer of Canada's commercial seal hunt, escorting more than 100 scientists, parliamentarians and journalists to the ice floes to witness the slaughter.
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/dispatch/2010/04/lfti_bear_witness.htmlA "Live from the Ice" dispatch from Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane... more-
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Surge in Rhinoceros Poaching Has Devastated African Populations
Reporting from Limpopo Province, South Africa
The baby rhino, an orphan, had barely been weaned. Her horn was only a few inches long. But that didn't stop the poachers from hacking it off.
David Uys, 33, had helped raise the rhino after her mother was killed by lightning. He called her Weerkind -- "orphan" in Afrikaans. He won't forget the sight of the bodies of the baby and two other rhinos, shot dead, their horns removed.
"I'm not a one for talking about emotions," Uys said quietly. "But it was like seeing one of your family members dead, the brutality of it."
The slain bull rhino, dubbed Longhorn, was about 35 and had a magnificent horn more than 2 1/2 feet long. The third rhino, Sister, had adopted Weerkind after her mother was killed. The three died together in November on this Limpopo province game ranch that is for tourists, not hunters, north of Pretoria.
"You're angry. You're furious. You're sad. You're crying," said Uys, the ranch manager. "Just a bundle of emotions, bursting inside."
A sharp surge in poaching in South Africa and Zimbabwe by organized gangs has devastated Zimbabwe's rhino population and threatens to wipe out South Africa's critically endangered black rhinos within a decade. South African rancher Pelham Jones warns that the more common white rhino won't be far behind unless something is done.
A report last year by the World Wildlife Fund, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and wildlife-trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said poaching had reached a 15-year high, pushing the animals close to extinction. About 1,500 rhino horns were traded illegally in the last three years, despite a long-standing ban on international trade.
Last year, 122 rhinos were killed in South Africa. Jones predicted that at the current poaching rate, 180 to 200 will be killed this year. A provisional 2009 estimate shows only 800 rhinos remaining in Zimbabwe, and 18,553 white and 1,570 black rhinos in South Africa, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, which maintains the ban on the trade of rhino horn.
Rhino ranchers, some of whom keep the animals to attract tourists while others rely on limited trophy hunting, are so wary about the involvement of organized crime in rhino killings that few are willing to talk publicly for fear of endangering animals on their properties. Interviews are given on condition that properties, even nearby towns, are not identified.
The ranch where Weerkind was born and killed is a lush green in the summer rainy season, with rocky hills looming into the sky. Birds with impossibly long tails seem weighed down in flight as they flutter near a pond. A red track cuts uphill through the acacia trees. Rain clouds gather, thunder grumbles, and a sudden drenching rain pours down, stopping abruptly half an hour later.
Up close, the rhinos look benign, almost bovine, ambling in the Limpopo sunshine, plucking grass, shadowed by a group of guards in camouflage carrying semiautomatics. Their small, thick-lashed eyes look sleepily docile. But their sheer size is awesome -- a rhino is almost as big as a car, weighing from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds. From a few yards away, they are terrifying.
Not for Uys, even though he's been charged countless times and once was knocked over and walked on. Afterward, he recalled, the bull looked almost apologetic.
Uys has spent his life with rhinos. At 18, he was a rhino guard, sleeping in the bush with them through violent summer thunderstorms and harsh winter nights.
"I was close enough to scratch their ears. They took me as part of the group."
When he did get charged, it was usually his own fault for getting too close, he says.
"Running away is the worst thing you can do," he said. "You can't outrun a rhino." If there's a tree or boulder, you scramble up. If there's thick enough bush, you stand your ground.
Once, photographing a newborn baby, he and a colleague were suddenly approached by the calf. The two men froze. If the mother saw them and charged, there was no bush, no trees, no boulders.
"They react to movement so if you stand completely still, they won't see you," Uys said. "The guy who was with me, his nerves didn't hold out, and he started running. The cow saw us and she came for us."
There was no time to think.
"I threw down my backpack. She smelled me there and took her fury out on the backpack," he said. It was one of his closest calls.
If you called Uys a rhino whisperer, he'd be offended by the cliche. But he does have a gift with the creatures.
The other day, he crouched low about 20 yards away from a male rhino named Benni, trying to get a look at his slightly injured foot. Another rhino, Bettie, suddenly ambled right up to him. Any sharp move would be disastrous. When she got close enough to nuzzle, he raised his hand. He pressed a fist gently just under her horn. Surprised, she wandered off to graze.
Game rancher Jones, who leads an action group of rhino owners to combat poaching, said incidents are reported every other day.
His phone beeps constantly with text messages alerting him to poaching incidents and sightings of suspected poachers.
"There's another one," he said, grabbing his phone.
The police, he said, are little help. In one recent case, they arrived four days after a group of rhinos was killed. In another, a police officer picked up an ax abandoned by the poachers, destroying any fingerprints.
The South African government disbanded the police force's endangered-species unit in 2003. The government last year promised to bring back a special-investigations unit -- but critics believe it's not enough to make a difference.
"This is our cultural heritage," Jones said. "People come to South Africa to see the Big Five, not the Big Four," he added, a reference to South Africa's five biggest wildlife draws: rhinos, elephants, lions, leopards and cape buffalo.
China's recent thrust into Africa in a rush for resources is a major factor in the illegal rhino horn and ivory trade, analysts believe, because China remains the largest market. Rhino horn, made of keratin, the same substance that forms fingernails, hooves, feathers and hair, has long been used in Chinese medicinal tonics.
Zimbabwe's collapse added to the problem, with corrupt government, army and wildlife officials reportedly involved in poaching and smuggling rhino horn and ivory. The airport in that country's capital, Harare, is reportedly a key transit hub.
In South Africa, Vietnamese diplomatic officials have allegedly been involved in rhino horn buying and smuggling. Reports in Vietnam that a government official was "cured" of cancer by rhino horn appear to have spurred Asian demand.
Many fear that the Asian market is so ancient and entrenched, there's not much a small group of farmers can do to save the species. Some support the idea of rhino farming -- regularly pruning horns, which grow back -- to meet the demand and drive down prices. Others argue that legalizing the trade would only fuel demand, putting the creatures at even more risk. After the killings of the baby rhino and two adults, Uys put his energies into Benni and Bettie. Benni, more unpredictable than Longhorn, sometimes charges unexpectedly. Bettie is docile and sweet. Uys worries about their survival almost as if they were his children, just as he once worried about Weerkind and her family.
"Longhorn and Weerkind and Sister were my passion. But since they have been poached, I have devoted all my time to [Benni and Bettie]. And now I think I love them just as much as I loved the others."
robyn.dixon@latimes.com
How to help: The Endangered Wildlife Trust is working to improve the protection of rhinos in southern Africa.Reporting from Limpopo Province, South Africa The baby rhino, an orphan, had barely... more-
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League Against Cruel Sports
"We work to expose and bring to an end the cruelty inflicted on animals in the name of 'sport'""We work to expose and bring to an end the cruelty inflicted on animals in the... more-
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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Trophy Guide
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the blockbuster follow up to Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drakes Fortune features 48 trophies consisting of 36 bronze, 8 silver, 3 gold, and the Platinum trophy. Use our Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Trophy Guide to achieve the coveted Platinum trophy.Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the blockbuster follow up to Naughty Dog’s... more-
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Endangered African antelope win protection from American hunters
Until last week, U.S. trophy hunters had the legal right to hunt three species of endangered African game at American ranches, thanks to a “blanket exemption” to the Endangered Species Act issued during the Bush administration.Until last week, U.S. trophy hunters had the legal right to hunt three species of... more-
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Trophy hunting of bears in the Great Bear Rainforest
Protect the Bears of the Great Bear Rainforest - Stop the trophy hunting of bears in the Great Bear Rainforest ahead of the 2010 Olympics!
British Columbia, Canada, is the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is also home to the Great Bear Rainforest—one of the last tracts of temperate rainforest on earth.
You might think that here, bears could live in peace. But each year, trophy hunters slaughter black and grizzly bears with rifles and crossbows for entertainment.
Unless we act now, there may one day be a Great Bear Rainforest without bears.
With the 2010 Olympic Games fast approaching, the eyes of the international community are on the province of British Columbia.
The trophy hunting of bears in the Great Bear Rainforest is opposed by 78 percent of British Columbians—including the indigenous peoples of Coastal First Nations—and the government's refusal to stop the cruel kill is damaging Canada's international reputation.
Please stand with Humane Society International and First Nations to protect the bears.
Contact the government of British Columbia and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games—let them know that you will consider avoiding the Olympic Games as long as trophy bear hunting continues in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Please act now—your voice is vital to saving the bears.
https://community.hsus.org/campaign/hsi_bc_bears_olympicsProtect the Bears of the Great Bear Rainforest - Stop the trophy hunting of bears in... more-
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Bag a Polar Bear for $35,000: the New Threat to the Species
Boyd Warner TREASURES the memory of killing his 1st polar bear. It was 2003. For days he had stalked his prey on the frozen wastelands north of Pond Inlet, one of Canada's most isolated Inuit communities deep inside the Arctic Circle. His dog team picked up the scent of an 8ft adult male & they hurtled over the ice: the hunt was on.
"It was one of those beautiful Arctic days," recalled Mr Warner. "We'd had about 14 hrs of sunlight and were completely surrounded by nature. "The moment of death comes QUICKLY for the bear"... USUALLY with a shot to the heart just behind the bear's fore leg. "You might track one for days through the ice but a single shot to the heart kills IT instantly."
For WEALTHY modern-day TROPHY hunters, 'bagging' a polar bear is the ultimate kill.
14 days in harsh conditions, requiring dog-sleds, Inuit guides & a heated tent camp, does not come cheap: the minimum bill comes to $35,000 (£24,000).
Mr Warner is the man who helps them do it. Earlier this week, the 45-year-old Canadian, whose company Adventure Northwest is based in Yellowknife, sent this season's 1st group of hunters north to Pond Inlet, where they will track & kill up to 6 bears. "This is probably the toughest hunt you can ever do," he said. "The weather conditions are appalling & it takes a huge amount of patience. You're living in the Arctic where it can drop to -50C at night & everything is done with sled dogs. It's incredibly gruelling."
"This year we have a lot of Mexicans & Americans but you get hunters from Europe, mainly Norwegians & Poles. They are just GENUINE, ORDINARY folk with a LOT of cash. THEY RESPECT the ANIMALS ENORMOUSLY."
There are few animals more symbolic of the perils of climate change than the polar bear, which faces destruction as the Arctic sea ice melts away – the bears starve or drown because the distances they have to swim to find prey become too vast. Yet, every year scores of wealthy hunters from around the world pay tens of thousands of dollars to travel into the frozen Arctic and bag themselves a coveted polar bear hide.
Canada, home to about 60% of the world's 22,000 polar bears, is the only one of the 5 polar bear "range states" which allows outsiders to hunt them as a TROPHY SPORT. America, Greenland & Russia only allow their native Arctic populations to kill a quota each year whilst Norway has outlawed stalking altogether.
"I don't ENJOY killing animals but I enjoy the hunt," said Mr Warner. "People find that difficult to understand but for me there is no paradox."
The kill quotas – known as "tags" – are also allotted for Canada's Inuit communities, many of whom choose to legally sell them onto outsiders willing to part with enough cash.
"Those 20 bears are going to get killed one way or another because the Inuits depend on them for food during the winter," Mr Warner insisted. "So it shouldn't really matter whether it is the indigenous population that is shooting them or outsiders."
Most hunters are then allowed to take their polar bear hides back to their own country. Last year the US banned the importation of polar bear hides but most countries, including Britain, place no restrictions on the skins. Mr Warner reports that his business has been hit by the US restrictions. "The American ban on importing polar bear skins has definitely hit the Inuit communities hard. You're not going to part with 1000'S of dollars if you can't bring your trophy back."
The latest US-led scientific surveys suggest that up to 2/3 of ALL POLAR BEARS could be LOST by 2050 – bringing the sustainability of hunting into question.
PHOTOS: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/bag-a-polar-bear-for-35000-the-new-threat-to-the-species-1649547.Boyd Warner TREASURES the memory of killing his 1st polar bear. It was 2003. For days... more-
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Save America's Wolves
A 'Defenders of Wildlife' Campaign
Warning: Contains graphic footage of aerial gunning of wolves.
Easy targets against fallen snow, wolves can be gunned down from airplanes or chased to exhaustion, then shot at point blank range. Since 2003, nearly 900 wolves have been killed by aerial gunners. It's a brutal practice, captured here in this video.
Over the past 5 years, Alaska’s aerial hunting program has claimed the lives of more than 800 wolves. During these hunts, wolves are shot from the air or chased by airplanes to the point of exhaustion before the pilot lands the plane and a gunner shoots the animals point blank.
Despite strong scientific, ethical and public opposition to aerial hunting, Governor Sarah Palin has…
- Proposed paying a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf.
- Approved a $400,000 state-funded propaganda campaign to promote aerial hunting.
- Introduced legislation to make it even easier to use aircraft to hunt wolves.
Please Help Us End Aerial Hunting of Alaska’s Wolves!
If you would like this horrific cruelty to end, please visit:
https://secure.defenders.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=1329&s_einterest=C3C4A 'Defenders of Wildlife' Campaign Warning: Contains graphic footage of... more-
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Rare white deer shot
When Joe Furrer went bow hunting he snagged a rare prize: a white buck.-
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Wildlife Group Expands Reach of Anti-Palin Wolf Ad
The program began under her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, and continues with her support. Private citizens are permitted to shoot wolves from the air or conduct land-and-shoot hunting of wolves in five rural areas of the state. More than 700 wolves have been killed since the program began almost five years ago, state officials say.
Last year, Palin's office announced the state would offer cash to kill wolves. Incentives included offering volunteer pilots and aerial gunner teams $150 for turning in the forelegs of freshly killed wolves.
The state said the legs could help biologists determine a wolf's age, while the money helped hunters and aerial teams pay for gas and expenses. A Superior Court judge later blocked the payments after conservation groups argued the money amounted to an illegal bounty.
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president, is a nonprofit 501(c)4 corporation that can operate outside the strict limits governing political action committees. It can raise money in unlimited amounts from individual donors and can run ads that refer to political candidates as long as they don't specifically advocate their election or defeat.
The ad has received widespread notice on the Internet and has been an effective fundraising tool for Defenders of Wildlife. The group says it raised $600,000 in the six hours after it was released in mid-September and says it now has raised $1 million.
The group is aiming the ad at suburban women and moderate independent voters.
The ad follows closely on the heels of a McCain commercial that depicted Obama researchers and investigators combing through Palin's background as a pack of wolves.
Hunter or hunted, it all depends on the ad.
On the Net:
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund: http://www.defendersactionfund.org/
The program began under her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, and continues with her... more-
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Palin's barbaric record on killing America's 'protected' wildlife
We’re getting the word out to voters about Governor Sarah Palin’s barbaric record on killing America’s wildlife, especially her active promotion of the brutal aerial hunting of wolves and bears.
As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has proposed paying a $150 bounty for the foreleg of each dead wolf. The aerial hunting program she champions has already killed nearly 800 wolves. She’s opposed efforts to save America’s polar bears from extinction. She’s fought against efforts to save some of the world’s most endangered beluga whales.
At nearly every opportunity, Governor Palin has sided with Big Oil, mining companies, wealthy trophy hunters and other entrenched special interests in support of policies that would greatly harm the wild animals we treasure.
Warning: This television ad -- like the governor’s support for this brutal practice -- is disturbing.We’re getting the word out to voters about Governor Sarah Palin’s barbaric... more-
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"Canned Hunting" Preserve to Open in Grainger County
Exotic animals are trapped within a 65 ft enclosure in Grainger County, Tennessee, and being cruely hunted and killed for sport and profit, without hope of escape or a chance of survival. They live in this enclosed area for the reason of being shot at by people as 'sport'. There are even treestands inside the area. This is inhumane, and horrible, and should not be allowed to have ever been opened.
Please look at the animals on this website, and please forward and sign this petition:
http://www.clinchmountainhuntingadventures.net/SPECIES-INFO.html
Petition Link: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/animals-being-brutally-killed-in-canned-hunts-in-clinch-mountain-tennessee-with-no-chance-of
To view news video of actual footage, and animals walking right up to the camera, along with neighbor's protest go here: http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=61587&catid=2
News Release:
Along the quiet Dry Valley Road in Grainger County, a cow is about as exotic as you'll get.
That was before Robert Haun moved in and brought dozens of animals with him.
"You just can't go anywhere and get ONE," Haun said of the exotic animals. "Some people
have phobias of flying or not being able to afford the expense to go across sea and get ONE, so we're bringing IT to them."
"They're going TO HAVE TO go into the woods and sit down and hunt and walk and look and stalk for the animal that they choose, and it's not ALWAYS going to be a hundred percent success," Haun said.
He's responding to some criticism from some neighbors and animal rights supporters.
The Grainger County Humane Society opposes the hunting preserve, calling it a "canned hunt," but members make clear they do not oppose hunting.
"I was horrified," neighbor Betty Rich said. "I'm almost 80 years old, and I did not know that these facilities existed in this country."
Rich has written a letter to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, asking commissioners to consider changing their rules about the hunting preserves.
Right now, the preserves have to be a minimum of 20 acres. Rich says that's not nearly enough. She's pushing for 1,000 acres.
She and her daughter also are collecting signatures for a petition they plan to send to the state legislature.
"I'm against raising exotic animals domestically and putting them in a fence and shooting them for trophies. I'm against that. I think it's wrong," she said.
Meanwhile, Haun is defending his facility, saying the acreage and foliage make it MORE THAN A FAIR CHASE for the animals. Plus, he points out he will also CATER to young hunters and people whose DISABILITIES may prevent them from hunting elsewhere.
"They just don't understand, they don't understand," Haun said of his critics. "They think it's up here behind a big, high fence, the animals have NOWHERE to go. As you can see, there's PLENTY of places for animals to HIDE that we CANNOT access."
Clinch Mountain Hunting Adventures is set to open in September. The prices range between $600 and $10,000.
Exotic animals are trapped within a 65 ft enclosure in Grainger County, Tennessee, and... more-
- julesrs007
- added this
- 3 years ago
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- 7 comments
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Last Desert Elephants in Firing Line
SERIOUS alarm has been raised over official plans to shoot three of Namibia's rare desert-adapted elephant bulls in the Kunene Region as trophies for big-game hunters, which conservationists fear could cause a collapse in their dwindling numbers.
The permits for shooting what could be three of only five breeding-age elephant bulls left were issued in spite of warnings that this was unsustainable in a population that already showed alarming signs of high natural mortality and genetic problems due to in-breeding.
Documentation seen by The Namibian shows that the Ministry of Environment and Tourism had issued three hunting permits to six conservancies in the Kunene Region for shooting three elephant bulls in the current hunting season.
These conservancies, controlled by the local communities, typically sell their rights on to professional hunting companies, earning on average about N$60 000 per elephant.
The professional hunting firms however sell these on to wealthy hunters willing to pay up to US$60 000 for the privilege of bagging such a rare trophy.
The desert elephant, so called because of their smaller stature and physical adaptation to their arid environment, range in the dry riverbeds of southern Kunene where they feed primarily on Ana tree pods.
Regarded as a keystone species in the local eco-system, they are also a key attraction in Namibia's estimated N$6,2 billion tourism industry.
While the elephant largely keep to unpopulated areas, increasing encroachment from pastoral farmers have over the past years has brought them into conflict with local communities.
A man was killed in the Bergsig area late last year by a bull which a local NGO said had become aggressive after he had been previously shot at.
The Ministry has not, as far as could be established, conducted any recent census of the elephant population but apparently based its decisions on complaints from local communities about "problem animals."
According to research by Australian researcher Dr Keith Leggett, there are fewer than 240 of these elephant left in the southern Kunene Region, ranging from the Ugab to the Bergsig area further north.
Elephant-Human Relations Aid (EHRA), a NGO that constantly monitors these elephants and manage conflict between the elephants and local populations by constructing elephant-proof water points, however says there are fewer than 60 adult cows, and as of 2006, only five bulls of breeding age.
EHRA's Johannes Haasbroek believes their and Leggett's data overlap, as the elephant range up 70 kilometres in a single day, with the herds of about six to 10 animals moving between rivers in search of food and water.
Even more alarmingly, EHRA reported on their website that they have only spotted three breeding-age bulls over the past few months -the same number as the trophies now up for sale.
The three permits appear to have been issued by Director of Wildlife Management Ben Beytell, in spite of several recommendations by the Ministry's own staff to the contrary.
SERIOUS alarm has been raised over official plans to shoot three of Namibia's... more-
- julesrs007
- added this
- 3 years ago
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- 18 comments
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