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Alaska resumes cruel aerial chasing and shooting of wolves.  Overriding the wishes of Alaskans who have twice voted to ban  land-and-shoot gunning of wolves, Governor Frank Murkowski and the Alaska Board of Game plan to use aircraft to chase down and kill every single wolf in an interior 1700 square mile and to kill 80% of the wolves in another area east of Anchorage.
Governor Frank Murkowski   PO box 110001 Juneau AK 99811  Phone 907 465 3500  Fax 907 465 3532

Wolf recovery lawsuit filed: A coalition of 17 conservation and animal protection groups are suing the Bush administration over "plans to change the endangered status of wolves in the U.S., lessening protections in most regions and sharply limiting the areas where wolves will be protected during recovery" says Defenders of Wildlife Oct. 1. According to Defenders, the plan's ultimate goal is to remove ESA protection and undo reintroduction efforts that have "made such a tremendous start toward, real, sustainable wolf recovery." The groups maintain that the ongoing effort to undermine wolf protection is premature and will turn wolf management over to states which intend to "initiate aggressive wolf killing programs" or, in the case of a resolution passed by the Idaho legislature, eliminate wolves from the state "by any means necessary."

Report belies drilling promises: Amid a renewed push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy development, a new GAO report finds that "the government's record of protecting wildlife refuges from environmentally damaging effects of oil and gas drilling has been spotty" says the Washington Post Sept. 24. According to the report a quarter of the 575 wildlife refuges have been opened to oil and gas production. While the impact on some has been "negligible," at others there have been
"large scale spills, disruption of wildlife habitat, abandoned infrastructure and equipment, soil and groundwater contamination, and other ecological damage." The USFWS, which manages the refuges, doesn't even know the number of oil spills that have occurred, has never assessed cumulative impacts and does not have the resources or technical expertise to "properly oversee oil and gas activities."

Bison hunt scheduled: The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission has given tentative approval for hunting bison that migrate out of Yellowstone N.P. says SFGate.com, AP Sept.12. The state legislature approved the hunt earlier this year and after formal rules are developed and approved by the Board of Livestock the hunt could begin in the fall of 2004. Currently, at the instigation of the cattle industry, bison that wander out of the park are hazed back in or killed.  This despite the fact that grazing permits in the Horse Butte area have not been renewed.

Addendum: The first bison this year has been killed, deliberately shot as he
was making his way back into park.  As bulls neither get nor carry brucellosis,
there was no reason for this.

Federal court nixes pheasant hunting on Cape Cod  On the eve of "National Hunting and  Fishing Day," the U.S.  District Court in Boston ruled in favor of wildlife  protection advocates  (who included The Fund for Animals, The HSUS,  Massachusetts SPCA, and  several Cape Cod residents) in their lawsuit  challenging the sport  hunting programs on the Cape Cod National Seashore.  In her ruling, Judge Patti B. Saris ordered the National Park Service  (NPS) to conduct an  environmental assessment on all of the seashore's  sport hunting  programs, including an annual pheasant hunt, for  which thousands of non-native pheasants are released in the area. The ruling halted the stocking of pheasants and the six-week pheasant hunting season, which had been slated to begin on October 18. The pheasants (who are native to Asia) are raised on intensive bird farms, where
farmers put "blinders" on the birds and cut off part of their beaks; releasing them contradicts the NPS' own policies prohibiting the intentional release of exotic wildlife.

Canada geese face slaughter: After bringing about a non-migratory population of Canada geese, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has decided that there are too many Canada geese in the U.S. Its solution: to kill up to 8.5  million of them so the population will be a third  smaller. The USFWS is moving ahead to implement its plan first outlined in  a "Draft  Environmental Impact Statement" released early last year.  Recently  proposed regulations will turn over management of  resident Canada geese  to overtaxed state wildlife agencies and encourage  as many as 480,000 to  852,000 geese to be killed each year for ten years.  Birds may be shot  outright, or, even worse, they may be rounded up and  gassed or sent to  slaughterhouses. This archaic mindset of killing ignores the humane  methods that many communities have adopted to deal with conflicts  between Canada geese and people. Programs integrating humane methods,  including for example a form of birth control via "egg oiling"-coating  the eggs of geese in corn oil to prevent them from  hatching and  frightening geese away with trained dogs, are solving goose conflicts.   These programs should be the model for USFWS instead of mass killing.

Swim with dolphins programs expanding in Mexico and the Caribbean:  The demand for dolphins for use in these programs, which typically charge $100 an hour, is causing in dolphins to be captured in violation of international agreements.  The industry is under suspicion for the murder of the highly regarded animal rights activist Jane Tipson.  Money is the root ...

USF&W has sanctioned killing of double crested cormorants under state wildlife authorities to prevent depredation of farmed and perceived depredation of wild fish in AL, AK, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KE, LA, MI, MN, MS, MO, NC, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, VT, WV VA and WI.

The Bush Administration is backing the Safari Club's position that permitting hunters to kill endangered species in other countries would give them a monetary value and thus help to preserve the survivors, but some African countries have demonstrated that living animals can generate tourist dollars on a perpetual basis.  Jane Goodall of chimpanzee fame has charged that this "onslaught against the ESA that could lead to more African animals being killed or captured for profit...and could undo decades of conservation efforts. "

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