Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is causing concerns about deer and elk carcass disposal.  Wisconsin, where officials are hoping to kill 25,000 deer to prevent the disease from spreading, are testing each dead animal to assure that those with the disease do not wind up in landfills from which the almost indestructible prion that causes the disease could still conceivably spread infection.  The disease has been found in two Canadian provinces (Alta. and  Sask.) and 10 states (CO, KS, MN, MT, NE, NM, OK, SD, WI, and WY).  The disease was first recognized in CO and blamed on penning too many deer in too small an area.  It is believed to be transmitted through saliva, urine and feces and is thus probably abetted by the unnaturally large deer populations that has been cultivated for the benefit of hunters.  The prion may always have been present but unnoticed until population density was artificially manipulated.

Contrived deer overpopulation.  Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People, presented some interesting  (though no longer current) statistics, in an article written "a few years ago" and reproduced  by People for Animal Rights, (Syracuse NY).  "Not killing deer to limit the population may sound like a paradox, but the whole philosophy of deer management as practiced today is ... a paradox: the more you kill, the more you get, so long as most of the dead are bucks...Fewer bucks competing for food means a better diet for does, translating into more multiple births, a higher birth weight, and better odds of fawn survival.
     "Where the whitetail sex ration is even, the average rate of reproduction is as low as 30 to 40 fawns per 100 does.  In NY state, however, it's currently (i.e. at time of writing) 130 fawns per 100 does, and there are a minimum of 600,000 does among the state population of about a million deer, also including 400,000 bucks.   NY hunters will kill c. 220,000 deer this fall.  That means next year's population could be 8% higher than this year's.
     "Deer population is even more out of hand in PA and MI.  The PA sex ratio was as lopsided as 28 does to one buck before the legislature mandated a 6.5% population cut.  Pushing doe hunting, the PA Game Commission actually got hunters to kill 198,065 does last year to 163,159 bucks, but the buck toll was estimated at 80% to 90% of the buck population.  PA now has about 975,000 deer in the state, and the sex ratio is 20 does to one buck.  By this time next year, at 1.3 fawns per doe, the PA deer population could be 1.4 million. 
     "The MI wildlife Division, meanwhile, boasted in a report to Michigan United Conservation Clubs in 1988 that although the natural carrying capacity for deer in the state is c. one million, it had 'managed' the population up to 1.3 million, creating a huntable surplus of 300,000.  By 1989, though, the distorted sex ratio had boosted deer numbers to 1.7 million and officials became openly anxious.  Similar effects are evident virtually everywhere else."

Hunters decline. bird watchers soar. According to A USFWS survey, the number of hunters fell from 13.7 million to 13 million (22%) between 1985 and 2001.  Between 1996 and 2001, the number of hunters fell by 7% while the number of wildlife watchers increased by 5%.  Hunters now make up 4.6% of the population compared to 31% who are wildlife watchers according to Mark Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals.  "The end of hunting is no more than a generation away,"  the Fund's national director, Heidi Prescott, predicted.  One wonders how so few have been and are still able to dictate a policy abhorred by so many.

Resident Canada goose births down to 0 in two Morristown, NJ parks.  Two volunteers addled (by shaking) 127 eggs in Burnham Park and 25 at Footes Pond.  When  eggs are removed or broken, the mother lays another clutch, but she continues to sit on addled eggs, not realizing they won't hatch.  The resident goose problem population was created by game management for the benefit of hunters.

Cape Cod pheasant release contested.  The Fund for Animals, The Humane Society of the United States, and several Cape Cod residents applied in September for a restraining order to prevent the National Park Service and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife from releasing hundreds of non-native pheasants on the ecologically fragile Cape Cod National Seashore in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Park Service's official policy re releasing non-native species.  Hunters desiring to kill them would disturb native wildlife and with their dogs trample fragile vegetation for a six-week season.  Pheasants who manage to escape the hunters are ill-equipped to survive with cropped beaks and peripheral vision restricted by blinders.

Makah whale kill thwarted  The 9th Circuit court of appeals has ruled that the Makah must appeal for an exemption to  the Marine Mammal Protection Act,  which involves going through Congress, before they can kill more whales.  It has also ruled  that National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)  must  do an Environmental Impact statement.

Right whales get right of way: Canada has received approval to re-route shipping lanes off the coast of Nova Scotia to protect right whales says BBC News 12/20. The Bay of Fundy is a "haven" for migrating North Atlantic right whales. The new shipping lanes are expected to reduce collisions with ships - the primary cause of whale mortality - "by up to 80%."

Buffalo Field Campaign sues Montana Department of Livestock. Their lawsuit, filed in conjunction with Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers and The Ecology Center, Inc., is directed at the use of helicopters for driving buffalo, their effect on  eagles, and other activities associated with the Horse Butte capture facility that violates the Endangered Species Act.  A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 7.

Previously unknown colony of orangutans discovered. Nature Conservancy scientists have found a previously unknown colony of between 1000 and 2500 orangutans living in a remote part of Borneo.  The estimate is based on the discovery of 1600 nests.  Elsewhere the species is threatened with loss of habitat due to logging

Bad news for elephants.; Delegates to the CITES meeting in Chile voted by a majority of three to let Botswana, Namibia and South Africa sell their stockpiled ivory.  This amounts to an invitation to poachers to kill more.  Sad to say, the United States was among those voting in favor of lifting the trade ban.

Wyoming wolf plan on hold:. The Wyoming state legislature has adjourned without approving the Game and Fish Commission's wolf management plan that the state's own Fish and Game Dept. says "won't pass muster with the USFWS .  The original plan categorized wolves as trophy animals in some state forests but allowed them to be killed as varmints in the rest of the state.

Bush undermines "dolphin safe" designation: The Bush administration has ruled that tuna caught by chasing and encircling schools of dolphins can be labeled "dolphin safe" provided that "it can be certified that no dolphins were killed or seriously injured during the catch"  (AP report 12/31). In view of a NMFS determination that "thousands of dolphins continue to be killed during tuna fishing," conservationists were highly critical of the administration action objecting that "international safeguards are insufficient to ensure that tuna was caught without harm to dolphins." Earth Island Institute deemed "fraudulent" the claim that tuna caught by chasing and netting dolphins was safe for dolphins.

Bush blamed for salmon die-off. "Scientists" are linking the "deaths of thousands of adult salmon" in California's lower Klamath River to the "Bush administration's decision to divert water from fish to farmers this year" says The Olympian 9/25. With salmon "losses in the thousands," the CA Dept. of Fish and Game stated, "There's no memory of a loss of adult salmon of this magnitude before." The administration's decision to give agribusiness priority in water deliveries and consequent die-off may open the door to a legal  challenge" as fisheries groups said they are "considering a suit against the federal agencies for allowing the death of coho salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act." -Greenlines
                                                                                                                      continued
back to previous page

Minnow water release appealed. New Mexico has appealed a federal judge's order to release reservoir water to keep the Rio Grande silvery minnow from going extinct