Humans aren't alone in indulging in politics - it's everywhere in the animal world

Voting, mutual back-scratching, coups and charismatic leaders are not just for humans, says Robert John Young

ROBERT JOHN YOUNG

Wednesday 06 May 2015

Lots of people find elections dull, but there's nothing boring about the political manoeuvres that take place in the animal kingdom. In the natural world, jockeying for advantage, whether this is conscious or merely mechanical, can be a matter of life or death.

Chimpanzees, our closest relatives, are highly political. They're smart enough to ealise that in the natural world, brute strength will only get you so far – getting to the top of a social group and remaining there requires political guile.

It's all about making friends and influencing others. Chimps make friends by grooming each other and forming alliances. This behaviour is especially prominent in males wishing to be group leader. In times of dispute, they call upon their friends for assistance, or when they sense a coup may be successful. And the ruling group either reaffirms its position or a new group grabs control – but having the weight of numbers is normally critical to success.

Continued ...

How to Scientifically Know where to Allocate Limited Resources to Save Species (Via Herp Digest)

How to Scientifically Know where to Allocate Limited Resources to Save Species - Also known, as Triage - How to Scientifically decide which species are worth saving which aren't. - New Study

Summary of Original Paper published in the Journal Nature Climate Change. by Allen Salzberg--9/30/11 More species could be saved from extinction under climate change thanks to a new model scientists have developed to guide allocation of conservation funding. The international team, led by Dr Brendan Wintle of the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, is the first to develop a pioneering decision-support model that incorporates both ecological and economic information to guide conservation investment in the face of climate change.

Although scientists knew that high extinction rates were predicted to increase under climate change, there was little advice to guide how money could be best spent to minimise extinctions.
Dr Wintle said "The best part about this model is that it can be applied to a range of environments, including many of Australia's native ecosystems, to suggest how to allocate funding. Our analysis supports the existing evidence that climate change will substantially accelerate extinction rates. So the first step is that we urgently need to limit global warming to avoid a mass extinction. Given that we are probably committed to a two degree warming by 2050, we need to develop effective strategies for minimizing the number of species that go extinct as a result.

"We only have a limited amount of money to spend on managing biodiversity, so the question becomes, how do we most effectively allocate these funds? We needed a systematic approach to guide conservation investment to minimize extinctions and avoid wasting money. An advantage of our approach is that it makes the costs of a plan explicit, reducing the opportunity for politicization of decisions."

The scientists combined ecological predictions with an economic decision framework to prioritize conservation activities, and tested the model on one of world's most biodiverse and highly threatened ecosystems; the South African fynbos.

"An interesting result of our analysis is that the optimal allocation of money depends strongly on the yearly conservation budget. For example if budgets were small then the whole budget would be dedicated to fire-fighting capacity. However, if more money were available, investment would be directed toward avoiding habitat loss due to clearing and weed invasion," Dr Wintle said.
The team included scientists from the University of Melbourne, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, CSIR South Africa, the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub, RMIT University, NSW Office of Environment & Heritage, University of NSW, the University of Queensland and a group of European researchers.

The work is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

MORE THAN 1,000 DEMAND TOY STORES STOP SELLING FROGS

Press Release 8/25/11----Campaign on Change.org calls on Learning Express toy stores to stop selling live frogs as toys, citing salmonella, environmental and animal welfare concerns.

WASHINGTON, DC - More than 1,000 people across the U.S. have joined a campaign on Change.org calling on Learning Express, the largest educational toy retailer in the U.S., to stop selling live frog "EcoAquariums."

Laura Goldman, an animal welfare blogger, launched the campaign on Change.org after learning that live African dwarf frogs were being sold in 4-square-inch plastic cubes.

"Not only was I surprised and appalled that living frogs were being sold as toys, but after reading about how the frogs were manhandled and abused by a distributor, I couldn't understand why a so-called 'educational' toy seller would carry and, in an email to Change.org members, actually defend these products," said petition creator Laura Goldman. "Other retail chains have already done the right thing by stopping the sale of these toys. Learning Express needs to learn to be equally compassionate about animals."

Learning Express has come under fire in the past for selling the EcoAquariums, which retail giant Target, Brookstone and several toy store chains have taken off their shelves. As families prepare for Back-to-School, Goldman hopes Learning Express will heed the concerns of activists, as well as parents, who are concerned about recent warnings linking African dwarf frogs to salmonella.

In July, the California Department of Public Health issued a warning that "certain pet aquatic frogs may carry bacteria that cause illness in people and should be withheld from sale to the public." On July 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of an outbreak of salmonella caused by African dwarf frogs.

"The concerns around these EcoAquariums range from preventing the spread of salmonella to teaching children compassion to protecting the environment," said Change.org Interim Director of Organizing, Stephanie Feldstein. "It has been remarkable to watch as this issue has attracted more than 1,000 people from across the country to take action on Change.org."

Live signature totals from the campaign:
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-learning-express-that-frogs-are-not-toys

Journalists interested in contacting Learning Express should try:
Sharon DiMinico, Founder and CEO, Learning Express, Inc.
info@learningexpress.com
(978) 889-1000

Laura Goldman, Petition Author, lgoldman@change.org
Stephanie Feldstein, Director of Organizing (interim), Change.org (734) 395-0770, sfeldstein@change.org

House Votes Down 'Extinction Rider' That Would Have Halted Spending to Protect New Species (Via Herp Digest)

House Votes Down 'Extinction Rider' That Would Have Halted Spending to Protect New Species Under the Endangered Species Act (Editor-Last count 38 more riders from Republican Party that sound like written by coal and gas industry to go.)

WASHINGTON 7/27/11- In a victory for imperiled species, the U.S. House of Representatives today voted not to include the "extinction rider" in an appropriations bill that would have stopped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from spending any money to protect new species under the Endangered Species Act or to designate "critical habitat" for their survival. The House voted 224-202 in favor of an amendment from Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) to strip the "extinction rider" from the Interior department's appropriation bill with at least 37 Republicans voting for the measure.

"The extinction rider would have been a disaster for hundreds of animals and plants across the country that desperately need the help of the Endangered Species Act to survive," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Today's vote is a promising sign for wolverines, walruses and species in all 50 states that, without help, face the very real prospect of extinction."

The vote comes as plants and animals across the country are at heightened risk of extinction due to habitat destruction, global climate change, extreme weather events and other factors. Earlier this month the Center and the Fish and Wildlife Service reached a landmark agreement to speed protection for 757 imperiled U.S. species, including the wolverine, Pacific walrus, Rio Grand cutthroat trout and Mexican gray wolf. The passage of today's bill would have delayed protection for those species and made their recovery more difficult.

"While the vote on the extinction rider shows that the Endangered Species Act still enjoys support from both sides of the aisle, the House is still threatening wide-spread environmental damage with other amendments to this spending bill," Greenwald said. "We can't allow these measures to move ahead that will pollute our air and water, threaten public health and destroy pristine landscapes."

Among the measures still under consideration in the House are those that would:

* Stop more than 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon from being protected from new uranium mines;
* Force the Environmental Protection Agency to stop all work limiting carbon dioxide pollution from power plants, refineries and other large pollution sources;
* Halt efforts under the Clean Water Act from protecting human health and endangered species from pesticides;
* Interfere with the Environmental Protect Agency's work to protect the public from toxic coal ash;
* Hinder the EPA's and U.S. Corps of Engineers' work to protect wetlands and other waters of the United States;
* Expedite air-pollution permits for offshore drilling in the Arctic

The full appropriations bill for the Interior department is expected to be voted on by the House in the coming days. If it passes, it moves to the Senate. Last week, the White House signaled plans to veto the spending bill because of amendments that threaten wildlife, the environment, and clean air and water.

Noah Greenwald M.S.
Endangered Species Program Director
Center for Biological Diversity
PO Box 11374
Portland, OR 97211
503-484-7495

Desperate desert tortoise endangered by Jerry Brown

Desperate desert tortoise endangered by Jerry Brown
July 27, 2011 by J.E. Dyer 


Q. When does destroying a creature's natural habitat with human power-generation activities not matter?

A. When Jerry Brown is governor of California, the creature is the desert tortoise, and the power-generation activity in question is the installation of a huge solar-power facility in the Mojave Desert.

It's the, um, selective prioritization that warrants calling out here. The issue of whether the desert tortoise will be fatally inconvenienced by the solar facility is no more clear-cut than it ever is in such cases. Some environmentalists can always be found who will make an impassioned and perhaps (or perhaps not) exaggerated case that Critter X is facing extinction because of Proposed Human Activity Y. In the matter of the desert tortoise, the federal government originally halted the solar facility's construction because of a study that suggested hundreds of baby tortoises would be killed, and the tortoise population would lose thousands of acres of habitat, if the project went forward. Later, the Fish and Wildlife Service decided the tortoises wouldn't be harmed - as long as the tortoises were transplanted elsewhere - and the project was allowed to continue.

But the environmentalists have filed suit in federal court, asking for an injunction against continuing construction. So last week, Brown filed a brief requesting that the injunction petition be dismissed. According to the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles, KABC:

At a conference in Los Angeles, Governor Jerry Brown vowed to crush efforts to block renewable energy projects in California, helping them overcome permitting and environmental challenges.
He signed a law earlier this year mandating the state get 33 percent of its energy from alternative sources by 2020, including solar energy.

"The sun in California is like the oil in Texas: It's fabulous wealth waiting to be developed," said Brown. "And those who would resist that have to offer a pretty darn good argument for me to give up on solar energy."

I swear, the things these Democrats get away with saying in public. The sun is wealth, so who cares what happens to the desert tortoise? Or, to put it precisely: when the proposed activity is something Jerry Brown isn't in favor of, it's fine for lawsuits to hold it up for years, regardless of the merits of the environmentalist argument. When the proposed activity is something Jerry Brown is in favor of, environmentalist lawsuits will be swept aside quickly, regardless of the merits of the environmentalist argument.

It's good to have that clarified - and worth making another point. Wherever solar power is making a desert bloom, the umbilical cord to the federal government is not hard to find. The company building the solar facility in the Mojave is BrightSource, an international corporation headquartered in Oakland. Here's the deal with BrightSource:Founded in 2004, the company has attracted more than $500 million in private funding and has become a renewables darling, with agreements to supply electricity to California utilities PG&E and Southern California Edison.

That's the good news. But the company's SEC filing in April [2011] for a $250 million IPO tells a more, er, interesting story.

The company has posted a string of net losses, totaling $177 million. Much of its $32 million in revenue over the past three years has come not from power generation, but from a contract with Chevron to use its technology to recover . . . not-so-renewable heavy oil. The filing advises investors that BrightSource has "generated substantial net losses and negative operating cash flows since our inception and expect[s] to continue to do so for the foreseeable future."

There's also trouble at its flagship venture, a 3,600-acre solar project in the Mojave desert. Fortunately for BrightSource, its efforts are sustained by an impressive array of federal, state and local subsidies, including a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, one of the largest solar guarantees on record. The company notes federal provisions providing solar projects with a 30% investment tax credit through 2016, as well as accelerated depreciations of capital costs for solar entities, among other goodies.

In this enterprise, the source of wealth isn't the sun, it's (a) the American taxpayer and (b) fossil fuels. By contrast, since 2004, the oil and gas industry has paid more than $217 billion to the federal government, just in corporate income tax and production fees. That doesn't include the revenues generated by the income taxes of those employed in the industry (or the sales they generate), or the taxes paid by the industries that exist because of the oil and gas industry. In the same period, the federal government has also collected more than $200 billion in federal fuel taxes.

The principle seems to be that if it turns a profit, attracts voluntary investment, make a net contribution to the public treasury, or protects our national borders, then the convenience of an endangered species takes precedence over it. But the Jerry Brown codicil is that if it can't operate without subsidies from the taxpayer, then it takes precedence over endangered species - and those who sue in court on behalf of the endangered species are to be "crushed." Good to know.

San Francisco considers banning the sale of all pets

Reporting from San Francisco — The first vision was simple and straightforward: To curtail puppy mills and kitten factories, the sale of cats and dogs should be banned in San Francisco, where the loving guardians of animal companions come to regular blows — politically — with the loving parents of children.The ban was put on hold last year after animal advocates broadened it to include anything with fur or feathers. Now it's back, with a new name and a new strategy: More is more. The Humane Pet Acquisition Proposal is on its way to the Board of Supervisors, and it hopes to protect everything from Great Danes to goldfish.

Read on...

RSPB wildlife warning over EU farmland funding

More than £400m worth of funding from Europe to promote wildlife on farmland in the UK could be about to be stopped, conservationists have warned.

The RSPB fears the money provided through the Common Agricultural Policy will be the victim of EU spending cuts.

The charity said such a move would be "savage" and could threaten the recovery of many wildlife species.

Read on...

Downing St cat makes first kills

http://news.uk.msn.com/politics/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=158199234


Larry the Downing Street cat has made his first kills since being brought in to deal with rats at Number 10, David Cameron has revealed.

But the tabby tomcat has not been catching rats, but mice, said the Prime Minister.

Mr Cameron revealed that his historic London townhouse is infested with mice, and that he has even spotted one in the flat he occupies with wife Samantha and their children above 11 Downing Street.

Read on...

Bill mandates 'fixing' of cats, dogs before sale

By Rob Shikina

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Apr 17, 2011

State lawmakers are looking at a bill that would require pet retailers in Hawaii to sterilize all cats and dogs before selling them.

Passing such a law would lessen the suffering of feral cats because of overpopulation and reduce the number of animals euthanized in shelters, said Inga Gibson, state director of the Humane Society of the United States. Many feral cats are the offspring of abandoned house cats that haven't been sterilized, she added.

House Bill 243 notes that an unsterilized female cat can give birth to two litters a year, which, extrapolated over seven years, could lead to 400,000 cats.

Feral cat colonies continue to grow despite various efforts to control the cat population, and the pressures of overpopulation lead to starvation of the weakest and the spread of disease and mange, a form of animal cruelty when uncontrolled, the bill says.

"It's a tremendous issue," Gibson said. "We have a large feral cat issue throughout the state. One of the contributing factors is the sale of unsterilized cats."

Feral cats are also a threat to Hawaii's endangered birds, according to the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

The bill is just one version of animal cruelty legislation that is heading to a conference committee to work out differences between House and Senate versions.

State laws mandating the spaying or neutering of dogs or cats appear to be rare. At least one state, Rhode Island, mandates it if the animals are released from a shelter. Some counties on the mainland, however, completely ban the sale of cats or dogs, while a Los Angeles ordinance from 2008 requires pet owners to sterilize their dogs or cats by the age of 4 months.

Despite the large feral cat population, the Humane Society opposes euthanasia and supports managed cat colonies for unsocialized cats, where a caretaker will get the animals sterilized, microchipped, vaccinated, fed and looked after.

"It's not an easy life for a cat that's not part of a managed colony," Gibson said.

Theresa Donnelly, who breeds boxers and is secretary of the Boxer Club of Hawaii, said the bill wouldn't affect purebred dogs because hobby breeders usually sell person to person, which is not regulated by the bill.

"Any reputable breeder would never sell to a pet store anyway," she said. Hobby breeders want to meet potential owners to make sure their dogs will have a safe home and possibly establish a relationship with the new owners to promote ethical breeding, she said. "People who want to breed animals should be mentored."

Tish Rothwell, owner of the Pet Depot in Ewa Beach, said her business has been fixing cats before adopting them out ever since hundreds of animals were rescued from a Waianae no-kill shelter when the owner died in July 2009.

After the rescue, shelters were full and couldn't take animals from people who were trying to give up their pets. Rather than see cats euthanized in shelters, Rothwell's store took the animals and sterilized them before adopting them out for a fee that covered medical costs.

"We want to be responsible and keep that out-of-control cat population down," Rothwell said.

However, she has concerns about mandating the fixing of dogs. They recover slower than cats after being spayed or neutered and require more care, raising the cost of the animals.

Brent Chung, manager of Kalihi Pet Center, said some customers may not mind if the bill becomes law, but pet stores may require breeders to have dogs fixed before selling them to the retailer, reducing the supply of dogs in stores. He said some veterinarians are backlogged and the dogs may be months old by the time an animal can be sterilized, frustrating customers that want dogs as young as 6 weeks old that are easier to train. He suspected the bill could also boost sales of unsterilized dogs outside of stores. "They'll beat the system, no matter what," he said.

The bill has an effective date of January.

Honolulu Star Advertiser: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20110417__Bill_mandates_fixing_of_cats_dogs_before_sale.html

New Protests in Egypt: Activists to Picket Cairo Zoo for Animal Rights

11 April 2011
By: Erin Skarda

The Egyptian uprising was enough to wrestle a dictator from his long-held post and bring shadows of democracy to a Middle Eastern nation. But can people power also be utilized to elicit support for an animal-rights movement?

A coalition of organizations and activists in Egypt have banded together to demand an overhaul of animal treatment within the country, and just as weeks of protests forced the resignation of former president Hosni Mubarak in February, they hope that a citizen demonstration will bring a renewed focus to the issues that have long plagued the country and seem to only get worse over time.

The Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals (ESMA), along with the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends (ESAF) and Animal Welfare Awareness Research (AWAR), announced over the weekend that a protest will take place outside the Giza Zoo on April 16 to bring to light matters ranging from the state of the zoo itself to illegal wildlife trades, unregulated pet breeding and the government's propensity for shooting or poisoning homeless animals in order to control their population.

(More on TIME.com: See the fate of Cairo's many cats)

Mona Khalil, ESMA co-founder, said in a press release announcing the protest that now is the time to seek rights for Egypt's animals, as the nation is currently focused on building a more humane society overall.

"The way Egypt treats animals is a shame. The Giza Zoo is a national disgrace, Egypt has become known as a hub of the international illegal trade in wildlife, and the municipal policy of controlling street animal populations by shooting and poisoning is deplorable," Khalil said in the release. "At the root of all this is a not only systemic corruption but also policy failure, as Egypt is lacking even the basic animal welfare legislation that would enable the prosecution of violators."

As a new, democratic government is being constructed within Egypt, these organizations and their supporters have outlined specific (and likely controversial) demands, including launching investigations into corruptions at the Ministry of Agriculture and enacting legislation that will provide legal standards on how animals should be treated within the country. But while Egypt has a history of respecting — and even revering – animals like cats and camels, the current environment is a far cry from ancient times.

Whether or not the demands of these demonstrators will be met remains in question, but NewsFeed agrees with the group's effort to piggyback on the country's newly-united spirit. After all, if you're going to reform a nation, why stop at its human citizens?


http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/04/11/new-protests-in-egypt-activists-to-picket-cairo-zoo-for-animal-rights/

Mo. lawmakers overhaul law aimed at puppy mills

Thursday, Apr. 14, 2011

By CHRIS BLANK - Associated Press

Missouri voters thought they scored a big win against some of the nation's most notorious puppy mills when they approved strict new dog breeding regulations last year. Now state lawmakers are changing the rules.

A state law aimed at cracking down on disreputable breeders and improving animal care has been overhauled by lawmakers who say the voter-approved version is too costly, and punished legitimate dog-breeders who generate an estimated $1 billion annually in the state. Animal advocates complain elected officials are overruling the will of the people and some are prepared to put the issue on the ballot again next year.

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said public confidence is undercut when about 100 lawmakers change a law backed by about 1 million voters.

"The effort in Jefferson City is a piece-by-piece dismantling of every core provision," Pacelle said. "It suggests to me that this is an industry that wants deregulation. They want to do things that they want and to heck with the people who care about dogs or consumers as long as there are enough dogs purchased."

Missouri Rep. Jerry Nolte, who represents part of a county that passed the ballot measure, said he voted for the bill because it will help protect dogs by increasing funding for enforcement.

"What I was trying to do was interpret what the voter intent was, and what they wanted to do was to lessen the suffering of these animals," said Nolte, a Republican. "And I believe that this, on balance, will reduce the suffering of these animals."

A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon said Thursday the bill would get a careful review and declined comment on whether he planned to sign it.

Missouri's law passed last November on the strength of residents from heavily populated Kansas City and St. Louis but failed in rural areas where many dog breeders operate. But swayed by breeders who argued the law would close them down and concerned about possible future regulation for other agricultural industries, a bipartisan group of mostly rural lawmakers voted to change most of the law's provisions. For example, a 50-dog cap is scrapped but breeders would pay more to boost state oversight of the industry.

The Humane Society of Missouri and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were among the animal advocates who pushed for ballot measure, pointing to emaciated and flea-infested dogs that lived in filthy conditions. Even breeders who followed the rules, proponents said, have been allowed to keep dogs in wire cages not much larger than their bodies and exposed to excess heat and cold.

Advocates say more than a dozen states have approved stiffer dog-breeding laws in recent years, and like Missouri, Oklahoma lawmakers are considering changes to that new law.

Many of Missouri's roughly 1,300 licensed breeders pushed back, warning lawmakers the voter-approved law could shutter the industry by limiting the number of the breeding dogs they can own and forcing costly housing upgrades. They said some requirements also could worsen care, including mandating solid floors in indoor enclosures that could slow the draining of fluids and lead to cold and sick dogs.

Critics of the law contend the industry's worst has tainted public perception and blame many problems on unlicensed breeders.

The voter-approved measure "is just going to put the law-abiding, licensed, legitimate, conscientious, caring breeders out of business, and the only ones remaining will be the illegal people already flying under the radar," said Mindy Patterson with the Missouri Federation of Animal Owners.

Over the past decade, several state audits have criticized Missouri's dog regulation efforts. But the state is working to do better, now employing 12 inspectors, who each on average cover a region with 225 licensees. The governor also has proposed adding $1.1 million to the budget to hire more personnel.

Supporters of the voter-approved law said insufficient regulations remained a problem. Last year, the Better Business Bureau in Missouri reported receiving 352 complaints and reports against dog breeders and sellers over three years - including many about ill dogs.

"It is interesting to hear some of the statements that are made now that somehow this industry has been wronged," said Barbara Schmitz, campaign manager for the measure. "This industry has had a very long time to voluntarily correct the problems that exist. They have not done so. Lawmakers have failed to act, and the voters stepped in."

Numerous Missouri breeders raise dogs on their farms, selling puppies through Internet ads and word-of-mouth, while others sell to pet stores and to brokers that buy dogs nationwide.

One of those breeders, Hubert Lavy, said people who wrote the law don't fully understand the business and shouldn't develop rules to regulate it. Lavy, 68, whose family raises Labrador retrievers, Maltese, Yorkshire terriers and French bulldogs, said dogs - like employees - are most productive when treated well.

Outdoor pens are cleaned daily and connected to a building with heaters at Lavy's Tenderheart Kennels in Silex about 70 miles northwest of St. Louis. Indoor cages connect through a doggy door to an elevated outdoor cage and have a coated mesh pattern that allows waste to drain.

The kennel donates some dogs and sells roughly 200 puppies per year to earn about $20,000, Lavy said. He estimates it would cost $50,000 to comply with the voter-approved law, which would include expanding indoor space and building solid floors. However, he said he's more likely to just go out of business if the voter-backed law stands.

"There is a place for what I do. There (are) people who want what I do, and I just don't think they should be able to take it away," Lavy said.

http://www.bradenton.com/2011/04/14/3115459_p2/mo-lawmakers-overhaul-law-aimed.html

Premier announces Canada's toughest animal cruelty laws

For Immediate Release

April 5, 2011

VANCOUVER - British Columbia is acting on all of the recommendations of the Sled Dog Task Force, including providing new funding for animal cruelty investigations and introducing the toughest animal cruelty laws anywhere in Canada, Premier Christy Clark announced today.

"British Columbians have said clearly that cruel or inhumane treatment of sled dogs or any other animal is simply not acceptable," said Premier Clark. "That's why we are acting on all of the recommendations of the Sled Dog Task Force and sending a strong message that those who engage in that type of behaviour will be punished under tough new laws."

The Province will immediately begin the process to make changes to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, including increasing penalties to up to $75,000 and 24 months imprisonment for the most serious offences, extending the current six-month limitation period for prosecuting offences, and requiring mandatory reporting of animal abuse by veterinarians. The BC SPCA has also received a $100,000 grant to enhance their capacity for animal cruelty investigations.

The task force, led by Kamloops-North Thompson MLA and Environment Minister Dr. Terry Lake, submitted its report to Agriculture Minister Don McRae after meeting with key industry stakeholders and listening to public feedback. The review included a thorough assessment of the sled dog industry; associated legislative regulatory and enforcement concerns; and standards of care and general welfare requirements of sled dogs.

"I would like to thank the task force members for their dedication to animal welfare in British Columbia," said McRae. "We are acting on the report's recommendations because we take animal protection very seriously in this province."

The report recommended 10 changes to enhance the health, welfare and protection of sled dogs in British Columbia, and strengthen animal protection legislation, including development of a mandatory code of practice for sled dog operators, and improve communication and awareness of animal abuse.

"I can confidently say the recommendations include what I believe, as a veterinarian and animal lover, will help animals be well cared for," said Lake. "Through our work the task force identified the need for the development of best practice guidelines for sled dog operations, and improved animal cruelty laws overall."

"The BC SPCA is grateful to the provincial government for taking such prompt action on this issue," said BC SPCA chief executive officer and task force member Craig Daniell. "We look forward to the swift implementation of recommendations set out by the task force, particularly the development of a mandatory code of practice for the sled dog industry and increased capacity for the BC SPCA to undertake cruelty investigations."

"I want to thank Minister Lake and Minister McRae for the process that has led to this report," said UBCM president Barbara Steele. "The task force findings will enhance animal protection in B.C., and I support the report's recommendations."

A backgrounder is attached listing the recommendations.

The full Sled Dog Task Force report is available at:

http://www.gov.bc.ca/agri/taskforce.html

Ohio Ban On Exotic Pet Sales To Expire This Week (Via HerpDigest)

Ohio Ban On Exotic Pet Sales To Expire This Week

April 2, 2011, COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An order that banned buying and selling bears, crocodiles and other exotic animals in Ohio is set to expire without intervention by state officials.

Former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland issued the 90-day emergency executive order Jan. 6 before leaving office. It banned new exotic pets and allowed existing pets to be kept only under tough new rules in one of the few states where wild pet ownership was largely unchecked. It was part of a deal that help keep pet and livestock restrictions proposed by the Humane Society of the United States off the ballot.

The Columbus Dispatch reports Republican Gov. John Kasich's administration has confirmed he won't renew the order. State natural resources officials are expected to release information this week about what happens when the order expires.

PETA honors Guayama mayor for saving monkeys

Bioculture can’t take primates away from home now

March 1, 2011
by Peggy Ann Bliss

When Glorimari Jaime Rodríguez, mayor of Guayama, approved two historic ordinances prohibiting the exportation, breeding and use of monkeys for experiments in her city she put an effective end to the plans of Bioculture Puerto Rico, Inc., to capture more than 4,000 monkeys from the island of Mauritius, confine them cruelly in cages, force them to reproduce in Guayama and sell their progeny to foreign laboratoris to use in painful and lethal experiments. For this effort Mayor Jaime will be honored with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Compassion Award.

"Mayor Jaime knows that Bioculture's plans would have been disastrous for her community and for the animals," said Kathy Guillermo, vice president of PETA's lab research division.

"Thanks to her, there apparently will be no legal road for Bioculture to take the monkeys away from their home in the jungle, raise them in Guayama and sell their offspring to laboratories for cruel experiments."

In addition to the Guayama legislation, last year the Puerto Rico Senate approved a resolution sponsored by Sen. Melinda Romero Donnelly,urging government agencies of the United States to "deny [to Bioculture] any request for a license to import monkeys to Puerto Rico."

The island legislature had simultaneously submitted bills to make it impossible for any other municipality to open its doors to doing business with Bioculture. However, the question could be moot if their importation could be blocked completely.

Animal advocates had complained that in Mauritius, babies were forcefully taken from their mothers before the natural weaning process, causing extreme anxiety and stress. They also point out that while the tests on the animals are not always painful or fatal, monkeys are social animals who cannot survive caging for years. It was also noted that when the testing is completed, the animals usually have nowhere to go and must be euthanized. For more information or to see the prize awarded to Guayama's mayor, visit the Web at PETA.org or the PETA blog.

http://www.prdailysun.com/news/PETA-honors-Guayama-mayor-for-saving-monkeys

The Theft of British Woodland

Press Release

The theft of British Woodland... Campaign to prevent the sale of the nation’s woodland through tax reform

A thousand year-old crime is being repeated today... and Sir Winston Churchill had the solution.

Today – Wednesday 2nd February, the British parliament will vote to perpetrate a crime against the nation that has been happening for a thousand years.

Wildwood Trust is joining the hundreds of thousands of people calling for the Coalition government not to sell our nation’s woodland.

Since our Norman Conquerors first landed on the Kent coast, the people of Britain have seen their land stolen from them. First the Barons, then the landed gentry stole the birth right of every Englishman, Scot and Welshman. British taxpayers have been paying for this land grab every year since.

The Coalition Government is continuing this crime, a crime we are committing against our children, stealing their birthright to enjoy the British countryside and its wildlife.

The sale of British woodlands sees public assets ‘privatised’, then rented back to us at huge rents.

We are condemning future generation to pay a rent for accessing the few remaining bits of woodland and be taxed more heavily to protect its wildlife.

Private ‘investors’ can buy the land, and then claim huge tax breaks, Government grants and assistance at the expense of taxpayers.

Already the taxpayer is forced to pay a hundreds of millions of pounds every year subsidy to the wealthiest landowners in the country and this scheme will further entrench the grip of private landowners on the nation’s assets.

The State should have no authority to sell land that citizens then have to effectively rent back. We have seen this happen to 100’s billions of pounds worth of public assets over the last 30 years.

Britain has seen its wild woodland’s systematically devastated, with over 50% of our ancient woodlands lost since the Second World War. The UK is one of Europe’s most poorly wooded counties, with only 15% of our land enjoying tree cover against a European average of over 40%.

Wildwood Trust’s Chief Executive has been working with leading economist, Fred Harrison, to come up with an economic plan that will not only restore wild woodlands but help revitalize the Britain’s economy. The coming months will see Mr Harrison publish a book out of the collaboration and a ground breaking documentary.

Wildwood Trust’s Chief Executive Peter Smith said:

“Land is the most crucial element to the protection of wildlife in this country. And it is the policy of Wildwood Trust to reverse the sale of the public’s land into private hands.

The privatisation of land over the last 1000 years has been a disaster for British wildlife. Further privatisations will continue this appalling history of loss. This country needs to create a network of commonly owned land that can remain wild.”

“Wildwood’s vison for the creation of national woodlands is inspired by the work pioneered by the country’s greatest statesmen, namely David Lloyd George and Sir Winston Churchill. This can be achieved at no cost to the taxpayer by a small change to our taxation system.”

This tax reform was championed by the world’s greatest economists such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Henry George and Milton Freedman. A solution that is supported by Business Secretary Vince Cable, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and members of all political persuasions, both right and left, who understand the role of land values in our economic system.

That solution could abolish income tax and VAT and help the UK revitalise its economy. The solution would be to levy a tax equal to the rental value of all land. In essence all landowners would have to pay an annual rent to the Government for the exclusive possession of that land.

This would be a replacement for other taxes, so that 95% of the British public would be much better off, freeing up the talented and hardworking people to keep more from their efforts. It would create jobs for the unemployed and put an end to property speculators and house price boom and busts.

Tax dodgers and large landowners would be very much worse off and many would be forced to sell their land to others who could make better use of it. Wildlife would recover, and landowners who put their land into a charitable trust with the objective of sustaining its wildlife would be exempt from the land value tax.

Wildwood Trust is calling on the Government to protect wildlife and stop the sale of one of the nation’s greatest assets.

******* End *********
For more information conact:
Peter Smith, Chief Executive of Wildwood Trust
Fred Harrison, Research Director of the Land Research Trust. Fred can be contacted through Wildwood Trust.

Tel: 01227 712111
Mobile: 07986 828229

Wisconsin moves to classify bats as threatened species

Associated Press
Posted: 09/21/2010 12:01:00 AM CDT

Wisconsin wildlife officials want to list four bat species as threatened as a strange fungal disease that has claimed hundreds of thousands of bats bears down on the state.

White-nose syndrome has killed more than a million bats across 14 states and two Canadian provinces since 2006. Earlier this month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to close caves and mines in national refuges to an effort to slow the disease's spread.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has proposed listing four cave bat species as threatened. The designation would prohibit transport, possession or handling of those species, and classifying white-nose syndrome as an invasive species.

The Natural Resources Board is expected to vote on emergency rules enacting the designations at a meeting Wednesday in Wisconsin Rapids.

http://www.twincities.com/outdoors/ci_16134316

RI calls for world action to stop trade of rare species

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, JAKARTA | Thu, 09/16/2010 9:13 AM | National

Indonesia called on parties to the UN biodiversity convention to stop receiving illegally traded endangered species, or loss of biodiversity would continue.

A senior official from the Forestry Ministry warned that Indonesia’s measures to protect endangered species, such as tigers and orangutans, by restoring their ailing habitats could be futile if foreign countries took no serious action to deal with illegal trade.

“It is similar to illegal logging. We could not rub it out if countries like Malaysia and China still accept illegal wood from Indonesia,” Darori, the ministry’s director general for forest protection and nature conservation, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The two countries could be entry points for transfer of illegal timber from Indonesia to other nations, he added.

Darori made the statement as negotiators from 193 countries to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are preparing for a two-week summit in Nagoya, Japan, to seek solutions on how to protect biodiversity.

The tenth conference of parties (COP) to the CBD would be held on Oct. 18 to Oct. 29, with the closing three days slated for ministerial meetings.

International demand for rare species is still high, Darori said.

“We recently seized three tiger skins being exported at prices between Rp 50 million [US$5,550] and Rp 100 million per pelt,” he said.

Indonesia once had Javanese and Balinese tigers, but they are now extinct. The ministry predicted there were only 500 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature named the Sumatran tiger as critically endangered, while the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora placed it in Appendix I, prohibiting its trade.

“We want the upcoming CBD summit to discuss illegal trade of endangered species to protect biodiversity,” Darori said.

The three big outcomes of the COP10 meeting in Nagoya would be global agreement on a new strategy, the mobilization of finance, and a new legally-binding protocol on access and benefit sharing, a statement by the secretariat of CBD said on Wednesday.

“The decisions we take now will affect biodiversity for the coming millennium. We can’t have one outcome without the others. The COP10 meeting is all or nothing,” the Convention on Biological Diversity executive secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf said.

The CBD statement specifically elaborated on biodiversity issues in Indonesia. Indonesia was labelled as one of seventeen “megadiverse” nations, and has more biodiversity than any country other than Brazil, and is home to 10 percent of the world’s flowering plant species and 12 percent of all mammals. Many of Indonesia’s species — and more than half of the archipelago’s endemic plant species — are found nowhere else on Earth.

This biodiversity provides many natural goods and services to people of Indonesia, but it faces direct threats from human activities.

Since 1997, the rate of deforestation has reached 2.4 million hectares per year, mostly due to logging, conversion for agriculture and forest fires, the statement said.

This has contributed to the increase of the items on Indonesia’s list of threatened species, which now includes 140 species of bird and 63 species of mammal.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/16/ri-calls-world-action-stop-trade-rare-species.html

Badger cull plans for England being unveiled

15 September 2010

The government has set out plans to license farmers in England to shoot badgers on their land, with tens of thousands of animals potentially targeted.

The government believes the badger cull is necessary to curb tuberculosis in cattle.

Cattle TB cost the UK more than £100m last year.

But campaigners who successfully mounted a legal challenge against plans for a cull in Wales say the scientific evidence for culling does not stack up.

The European badger (Meles meles) is a protected species under European and British law, but ministers can sanction killing in certain circumstances, including to tackle diseases.

It is believed the government will change the instructions it gives to Natural England, the statutory agency that issues licences, in order that farmers can gain permission to kill badgers on the basis that they carry the bovine TB bacterium.

The previous Labour government concluded culling did not make scientific or economic sense, and instructed the agency not to issue licences for TB control.

Ministers in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition, however, believe the latest scientific evidence changes the picture.

Agriculture Minister Jim Paice said before the election that the Conservatives favoured culling. Since coming into office he has several times pledged to make it happen, although his boss, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, has been more nuanced, promising only a strategy based on science.

Split vision

Whether science does back a cull or not is a hotly-disputed question.

Some of the scientists who performed the biggest ever investigation into culling - the UK's Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), also known as the "Krebs Trial" - maintain that it does not.

The Krebs Trial found that the incidence of TB fell in cattle herds inside the culling zone, but rose outside, probably because killing badgers disrupted the animals' social structures, making them range further and along less ordered trails in search of food and territory, bringing them into contact with more cattle.

The team concluded at that time that culling could not be an ingredient of an effective bovine TB control programme; and some of them, at least, say that is still the case.

However, other observers point out that in the four years since the Krebs trial concluded, the "perturbation effect" has fallen away while some benefit appears to persist inside the culled zone.

Two months ago, the Court of Appeal upheld an appeal by the Badger Trust against the Welsh Assembly Government's plans for a trial cull in Pembrokeshire.

One of the reasons for the judgement was that proponents expected the measure to produce only a 9% decline in TB in cattle, which the court ruled was not a "substantial reduction", as required by the Animal Health Act.

Defra is using different legislation, the Protection of Badgers Act. Even so, campaigners are expected to explore legal options if they do not think the law is being properly applied.

"The Badger Trust is monitoring things very closely and we hope [Defra] will take a considered view of the science that is overwhelmingly against culling," said Gwendolen Morgan of Bindmans solicitors, the organisation's legal advisor.

The government's consultation is expected to last for three months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11303939
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)

New Tool To Monitor Trade In Endangered Species

Thursday, 26 August 2010, 6:15 pm
Press Release: United Nations

UN-Backed Pact Launches New Tool To Monitor Trade In Endangered Species

New York, Aug 25 2010 12:10PM

The secretariat of a United Nations-backed conservation convention today announced the launch of a new web-based interactive tool that enables users to view trade data about wildlife and plants that was submitted by the 175 State parties to the international agreement.

The Trade Data Dashboards of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora ("http://www.cites.org/"CITES), which is administered by the UN Environment Programme ("http://www.unep.org/"UNEP), is designed to monitor the worldwide trade in wild fauna and flora as more terrestrial and aquatic species are used, and sometimes over-used, as part of human activities.

The tool was launched to mark the 35th anniversary of CITES, which was designed to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Users accessing the dashboards can, for example, learn with a few key strokes that reptile skins, specifically crocodile skins, are legally traded at a high volume, and that Colombia is one of the major exporters of spectacled caiman, the reptile most frequently traded for its skin.

The dashboard displays data on internationally-regulated species that are legally traded under CITES for purposes such as food, personal care, housing, clothing and scientific and medical research.

The global dashboard displays global trade trends, while the national dashboard shows information by country. Users can consult the dashboards on the CITES website to determine which species are traded, and in what volumes, both globally and by particular countries.

The trade data dashboards were developed by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre ("http://www.unep-wcmc.org/"UNEP-WCMC) under a contract with the CITES secretariat. They provide decision-makers access to important trade information to help them make the best decisions to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of species whose trade is regulated by CITES.

“The CITES trade dashboards make the trade datasets easier to use and accessible by a wider audience. They offer policymakers an additional tool for identifying patterns of trade in listed species and related issues that may require special attention,” said John Scanlon, the Secretary-General of CITES.

Jon Hutton, Director of UNEP-WCMC, said the tool “complements others such as the recently launched Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool ("https://www.ibatforbusiness.org/" IBAT), which provides general information on biodiversity and natural habitats worldwide.”

More than 10 million trade transactions in animal and plant species have been reported to CITES since the Convention was established.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1008/S00430/new-tool-to-monitor-trade-in-endangered-species.htm

Government cuts ‘threaten wildlife’

7:00pm Sunday 22nd August 2010

By Diana Henderson

DORSET’S largest voluntary conservation organisation has warned that the county’s unique wildlife is under threat from government cuts.

Dorset Wildlife Trust is urging the government to put long-term environmental security ahead of short-term number crunching when making decisions on spending cuts.

The warning reiterates that of the Wildlife and Countryside Link, an umbrella organisation of 33 bodies, which has painted a grim picture of a countryside starved of funds, putting habitat such as Dorset heathland at risk.

The coalition government’s pledge to be the “greenest ever” is at variance with funding cuts of up to 40 per cent announced for Defra, says the trust, which represents 25,000 members.

“Defra accounts for just 0.5 per cent of total government spending,” said Imogen Davenport, the trust’s director of conservation.

And the UK was already set to fall short of the UN target to halt the decline in biodiversity by the end of 2010.

“The government has a crucial role in protecting and enhancing our most precious wildlife sites and species, and it is essential that this is maintained,” she said.

Among Dorset habitats at risk are some of the few remaining wildflower meadows, now restricted to less than one per cent of the county.

The trust has been working with the owners of these sites for more than 15 years and helped them get government funding for wildlife-friendly management.

Cuts to the stewardship grant scheme, administered by Natural England, could reverse the progress that farmers and landowners have made in managing wildlife habitats, says the charity.

“The landscape acts as a life support system and can, when managed sensitively, give us clean water, enable crop pollination, absorb greenhouse gases and provide places where we can take exercise and refresh our minds,” said Ms Davenport.

“Recent economic studies show that the costs of not conserving biodiversity now will be multiplied many times over for future generations to pay.”

The Wildlife Trusts and other conservation charities have suggested alternative cost savings, and the public can have their say on Defra’s future plans at engage.defra.gov.uk/reform-plan Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, who set out the “greenest government ever”, has said: “At Defra, we help to strengthen the economy and tackle the deficit.

“The environment is a crucial component of economic growth, and we work to ensure it is managed sustainably.”

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/8345381.Government_cuts____threaten_wildlife___/
(Via The Natural Stuff)