IDA Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Wildlife’

The California Dept. of Fish & Game (CDF&G) has submitted proposals to the Governor’s appointed Game Commission that allow more bears to be harassed, left to suffer for longer periods, and killed. While the CDF&G repeats in their proposed regulatory changes that their interest is to “maintain the State’s black bear population in a healthy and viable condition for the enjoyment and use of all Californians,” it is clear the state is catering to one interest group alone, and that is sports hunters.  Please read below for more background information.

What You Can Do TODAY Or No Later Than Tomorrow – Friday, March 13, before 5:00 pm, PST:

1) Contact the California Fish & Game Commission.  Urge the Commission to REJECT THE FISH & GAME PROPOSALS INVOLVING BLACK BEARS based on the background information below:

director@dfg.ca.gov, jcarlson@dfg.ca.gov, fgc@.ca.gov

- cc your email to the Commission to the CA Dept. of Fish & Game:

Dr. Eric Loft

Chief, Department of Fish and Game

Email: eloft@dfg.ca.gov

2) Please also attend the upcoming Fish & Game Commission meeting where the CDF&G proposals to kill more bears will be discussed.
When: Thursday, April 8th at 8:30 a.m.

Where: Beach Resort Monterey, 2600 Sand Dunes Dr., Monterey, Calif.

Background Information:

In 2009, the Commission allowed 1,700 black bears to be legally killed. When 1,700 bears are reported killed, the season closes. Or if the end of season arrives and 1,700 bears haven’t been killed, the season closes anyway. The CDF&G complains that it costs too much to notify hunters of an early closure and is pushing to allow an unlimited number of black bears to be killed up until the end of the season instead. While IDA does not support the lethal removal of black bears whatsoever, CDF&G proposing to kill more bears to save money instead of updating their notification system is simply a stone-age mentality.

The CDF&G has also proposed to allow the use of GPS equipment and tree switches (they notify the hunter when and where a bear has taken refuge in a tree). They state that use of these would allow for the increased care and monitoring of dogs. This is completely absurd because if a bear was in a tree, the dogs would be safely below. In actuality, the use of GPS equipment and tree switches would assure that more bears would be killed because so long as dogs were equipped with these tracking devices and trailing bears, bears wouldn’t have a chance to ever get away.

CDF&G also wants to expand training grounds where dogs can practice on live bears.  While the bears aren’t supposed to be shot by hunters during these exercises, they would still be placed under considerable stress by either running to get away or fighting a pack of dogs who don’t adhere to all the commands yet. Opening up greater area for dogs to train translates into more space for dogs to harass and molest black bear cubs and other non-target species.

Black bear poaching is also another major concern in California. CDF&G also wants to expand the land where black bears can be legally hunted. By doing so, this welcomes poachers to greater area in which to kill bears. The legalization of GPS equipment and tree switches would also help poachers claim more bears lives and fuel the black market for their gall bladders and paws.

The use of dogs to track bears is a losing situation for many dogs as well. This should be outlawed. It is common for bears to injure and/or kill entire packs of dogs. Sows with cubs are known to be extremely dangerous and are illegal to take, yet dogs continue to pursue them. In one case, a female with three cubs fought with dogs for over 10 minutes before the hunter called his dogs off because they were getting hurt. Two weeks later, the same sow was pursued again and fought with the dogs before that hunter called them off too.  Using dogs is cruel to both bears and dogs.

For more information, please contact Melissa@idausa.org

Congress has begun reviewing the President’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 which includes the budget for the Wild Horse and Burro program under the Department of Interior.

Congress’ appropriations (budgeting) process is long and complex. Numerous committees and subcommittees review and modify the President’s proposed budgets for the various departments before they are ultimately approved. We want to make sure all committees and subcommittees that hold hearings on the Interior Department’s budget hear from Americans who want the broken Wild Horse and Burro program completely reformed. As the appropriations process proceeds we will continue to keep you informed of actions you can take to be sure Congress knows what you think.

Three Congressional hearings took place over the past week.

This Monday IDA initiated a 1-Day Action Blitz for Wild Horses & Burros. IDA members and wild horse advocate made their voices heard – over 6,000 faxes were sent to members of the House and Senate Subcommittees. Thanks to you, the Subcommittee members know of the intense national concern about our magnificent wild horses and burros.

On Monday, March 9, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Bob Abbey testified before the House Appropriations Committee to justify BLM’s FY 2011 budget, which includes an additional $12 million for the controversial BLM Wild Horse and Burro program, as well as $42.5 million to purchase private land in the Midwest or East for long-term holding “preserves” for wild horses taken from Western public lands.

We are working to provide a recap of that meeting. Earlier on Monday, Secretary Salazar testified in the Senate Appropriations subcommittee – this meeting focused on renewable energy and other issues were not discussed.

Last Wednesday, March 3, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing (available online here) on the U.S. Department of Interior’s budget proposal. Thanks to all of you who took action last week opposing Salazar’s proposal for wild horses and burros, the senators heard you and both Senators Murkowski (R-AK) and Landrieu (D-LA) addressed the wild horse issue at the hearing. In opening comments Vice Chair Murkoski voiced her “concern” about the direction the agency and about moving more horses to the Midwest and East and not managing on them on their Western range.

Senator Landrieu highlighted her concerns of the program and specifically asked the Secretary what was being done to restore the millions of acres the wild horses have lost over the years. The Senator went on to express her deep concerns over the inhumane roundups during winter weather of ice and snow, and she pointed out that the “horses only have a measly 31 million acres” out of 500 million acres overseen by the Department of Interior. Salazar responded (looking at Landrieu and gesturing to other senators) that he’s aware of their concerns and that he is “not wedded” to his proposal , is open to better ideas and looks forward to working together.

This is a good first step, but we have a lot of work ahead. We’ll continue to provide updates and action alerts – so please stay tuned. The horses and burros need you to keep fighting for them … and please tell a friend about their plight. We need to grow this grassroots movement and that will happen one person at a time.

IDA congratulates The Cove filmmaking crew including Director Louis Psihoyos, Executive Producer Jim Clark, Producer Fisher Stevens, and the Oceanic Preservation Society for creating a winning documentary about the cruel capture, slaughter and consumption of dolphins in Japan.

This is an incredible opportunity to maximize the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition’s (SJDC) efforts to stop the slaughter and urge Ms. Mizuho Fukushima, Japan’s new Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety to make public the health risks associated with eating dolphin meat and institute a ban on it’s sale without delay.

With The Cove set to be released in Japan this year, the primary goal of the SJDC will be to use the film as a medium to convince the Japanese public to oppose the cruel hunt and sale of dolphin meat throughout their country. So far, only 600 out of 126,000 million people in Japan have seen the film and those who did were completely outraged.

Our aim is to prevent the Japanese government from issuing 23,000 permits this fall and with the likelihood that dolphins will continue to be tainted with mercury and other harmful chemicals in the future, an end to the dolphin hunt once and for all.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has reported the first sea lion trap and kill of the season on the Columbia River. Named “Lionel” by students from Redland Elementary School in Portland, but known to wildlife agencies by the brand “C653,” the sea lion was trapped and killed by lethal injection on Wednesday. Sixty-four California sea lions are listed on the government’s kill authority letter and are at risk of being trapped or shot by wildlife officials. IDA is skeptical about the Oregon and Washington state wildlife agencies’ ability to correctly identify and humanely handle targeted sea lions.

Yesterday protesters from IDA and the Sea Lion Defense Brigade confronted wildlife officials responsible for the lethal removal of the protected sea lions, to voice concerns and ask questions about a plan that is misguided, has not met the criteria set forth in Section 120 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, fails to accurately identify specific sea lions as required by law, and will do nothing to resolve issues that endanger salmon populations.

Fishing quotas for salmon on the Columbia River this year were raised to 16 percent from last year’s 13 percent, while sea lions at the Bonneville Dam are being killed for eating what will likely be only about one percent of the 2010 spring run. These wildlife agencies are not making sound, biology-based decisions regarding salmon recovery. And the agencies’ track record has been abysmal, with multiple incidents of malfunctioning traps and seven sea lions who have died unintentionally in state custody.

Yesterday and today, President Obama was greeted in Las Vegas by wild horse advocates calling for a halt to the roundups and reform of the Wild Horse & Burro program. With much hard work and determination, the wild horse advocates were able to get four up close encounters with President Obama in his motorcade. Each time, they were holding different versions of the awesome banners that organizer Arlene Gawne produced and they are certain that Obama and his aides saw them and registered the message.

Yesterday, Gina Griesen of Nevada Voters for Animals and her daughter held banners as the Obama motorcade entered a housing development where the President was attending a $35,000 a plate fundraising dinner. Gina and her daughter stayed late and also caught the motorcade on its way out.

Today a number of advocates tracked Obama around Las Vegas catching up with the motorcade twice. On at least one of these occasions, they were in close proximity to the President’s limo, which was traveling very slowly and they could see him look straight at them holding their mustang freedom banners.

Advocates have also done numerous media interviews over these past few days.

These folks have worked really hard this week to bring the plight of wild horses to the President’s attention – and their hard work has paid off. Special thanks and kudos to Arlene for organizing this spectacular effort and to everyone who took to the streets to help the horses!

On March 13, 2010, delegates from 175 countries will take part in the 15^th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Amongst dozens of proposals concerning imperiled species worldwide, they’ll be considering dangerous petitions from Tanzania and Zambia to sell more than one hundred thousand kilograms of elephant ivory and to decrease protections for elephants in those countries. Such “one-off” sales in the past have been disastrous for elephants and led to widespread poaching across Africa. Please read our action alert and send a letter today to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, your senators and representative, urging them to ensure the U.S. votes “no” on these lethal proposals.

As IDA gears up for 2 Nevada demonstrations this weekend, (Las Vegas on Thursday, Carson City on Saturday), the BLM announced on February 12 that beginning February 21^st, the wild horses rounded up from Nevada’s Calico Mountain complex can only be seen on guided tours of 10 people per week during a two-hour window on Sundays. So much for BLM’s promised transparency!

The BLM announced in a news release that the strict new visitation policy is necessary “due to horse preparation for adoption activities (freezemarking, vaccinations, blood tests, deworming, aging and recordation of animal descriptions).” IDA is dismayed that humane observers such as Craig Downer will be restricted from performing their legally-mandated duties. The humane observers are the only eyes on the ground for the horses, and now they’re being told they must close their eyes for most of the week. But we have confidence that they will keep their eyes open and continue to reveal to the world the BLM’s inhumane policies.

The BLM also released a report claiming that 18 horses who have died or been euthanized since being captured in the Calico roundup “came off the range in poor condition” and those euthanized received “acts of mercy.” But astute observers such as award-winning investigative reporter George Knapp dispute the BLM’s claims that the wild horses were in “poor condition” before they were chased by helicopters, stampeded for miles and held captive in holding pens. Such cruel helicopter stampedes constitute much of BLM’s so-called “management.” IDA has little doubt that the Calico death toll will continue to rise during their inhumane internment, which even BLM admits can cause stress, disease and injury in captured wild horses.

Wanted to share a terrific investigative news segment on the consequences of the Calico Mountain Complex. Kudos to George Knapp,  chief investigative reporter with KLAS I-Team (Las Vegas), for asking good questions and exposing this story. (note: in the piece you may some images of a downed mare which were taken by an IDA observer at the Fallon, NV holding facility)

I-Team: Wild Horses Forced into a Stampede of Death ( be sure and check out the video )
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=11979541#

A deer massacre took place over two nights, January 7th and 13th, at a 530-acre farm preserve owned by Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. White Buffalo, Inc., a company of “sharpshooters” hired by Vassar, slaughtered sixty-four deer.

In order to make it easier to lure the deer, they were conditioned with food over a period of several weeks. After gaining their trust, they were shot at night as they returned to the area looking for food. Use of lights, known as deer jacking, was also allowed. Deer jacking involves shining a spotlight on a deer at night, temporarily “freezing” him or her in place (think deer in the headlights), making them an easy target for hunters.

After the first night of killing when 44 deer were killed, Vassar College President Catharine Bond Hill was asked by a local grassroots organization to put an end to the slaughter. President Hill refused, and 20 more deer were killed. This was the first leg of the Vassar-lethal deer management program by which the college plans to kill a total of 85 deer, reducing the population on the preserve from 100 down to 15.

Vassar took its cue from the deer curtailment protocols of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), which advises that shooting deer is the best method for dealing with deer population control. Vassar was granted a permit by the NYSDEC to kill a maximum of 50 deer but it was revised to allow the college to take more. Vassar claims it investigated non-lethal deer management programs, such as fencing, fertility control, and relocation but opted instead to hire the sharpshooters.

The elite college claims the kill was “humane,” but White Buffalo was exposed in 2004 for placing plastic bags over the heads of deer who were shot but still alive during a cull in Akron, OH. Undercover video footage caught by the group SHARK shows deer flailing in distress for minutes after being shot.

Vassar’s intent was to finish the kill before students and faculty returned to campus from winter break, on January 20th, thereby avoiding public notice and eliminating the chance of any protest from taking place. The school claims it held public meetings informing students and the general public about the kill, but many citizens have complained that they were not notified and had no voice in the proceedings. The student newspaper, The Miscellany News, supposedly informed the students about the kill but was overwhelmingly biased in an article published on December 9th, the day classes ended. The study period started the next day and was followed by exams and the holiday season. Considering there was so little opposition to the deer kill on campus, it seems a near certainty that students were not aware of what it was all about.

Read the rest of this entry »

A representative from IDA made a statement before the California Fish and Game Commission Thursday in opposition to the expansion of the number of bears who can be hunted in the state of California for the 2010 season. Also in the proposal is an increase in the range of legal hunting territory in the state.

IDA and others opposed to the Commission’s proposal to expand the quota by almost double and the range of legal hunting territory testified that this is unnecessary and inhumane sport hunting. The proposal also allows the use of new technology, such as GPS and “tip switches,” for the hunting of black bears. The approval of such a regulation by the Commission would only compound the current inhumane policy of allowing dog-pack hunting of these bears.

Like millions of compassionate Californians, we at IDA are greatly concerned about the welfare of wild animals that make up this state’s cherished wildlife. We truly can’t imagine the terror these black bears must feel as they are chased up a tree and cornered by a pack of dogs and then — panicked and immobilized — are blasted out of the tree by high-powered rifles.
Managing our wildlife populations should be accomplished in ways that first-and-foremost provide for the humane treatment of the wild animals. We would like to see that the Fish and Game Commission resort to humane ways of dealing with bear overpopulation and resolving human-bear conflict. It should not be accomplished by brutal high tech killing masked as “sport hunting.”  Ultimately, it is not the bears’ fault that we have moved into their space and they should not have to pay the price by being killed with such brutality as by amateur hunters armed with packs of dogs fitted with GPS devices.
IDA will watch this proposal closely, keep our California members up to speed and speak out for the magnificent black bears.