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Category: Animal Rights

Arizona Game and Fish votes to take legal action to support federal officials’ new 10(j) rule for Mexican wolves

Studies clearly indicate a relatively sparse ungulate population in western Arizona that is inadequate for supporting wolves.

Groups critical of rule lack on-the-ground field perspective of what changes will lead to success

PHOENIX — The Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted recently to intervene in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups earlier this year against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The lawsuit is over the Service’s recently-revised 10(j) rule that governs the management of Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.

“The Game and Fish commission took this action to defend the Service’s new 10(j) rule for Mexican wolves. The rule relies on sound scientific principles and helps address critical stakeholder concerns that have long challenged the Mexican wolf reintroduction effort,” said Commission Chair Robert Mansell. “It’s important that this action is not confused with the department’s recent action meant to encourage the Service’s development of a new recovery plan. The 10(j) rule and the recovery plan are designed to address very different aspects of Mexican wolf recovery.” Read more

Animal Rights, Wildlife

The Practical Nature of Wolf Management

By Glen Wunderlich

Michigan and other states, as well, understand wild game management.  In fact, by virtue of how well wildlife is managed is demonstrated in one word:  sustainability.  Nowhere in the history of regulated hunting has game suffered at the hands of hunting to the point that any game species has been threatened with extinction.  Thoughtful leaders have adhered to the strict guidelines of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and dutifully brought back countless wild animals from the brink of being wiped out.  Such is the case with the Great Lakes wolves.wolf

 

Yet, federal judge Beryl Howell has ruled that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)  could not de-list wolves under its distinct population segment rule, in part, because Congress had never manifested an intent to approve the use of the distinct population segments for de-listing a species, though the rule could be used to list species. Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife

PETA Slew 2,324 Cats and Dogs Last Year

PETA MemorialsBetween 1998 and 2013, the radical animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), killed nearly 32,000 dogs and cats at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. Sadly, the recent release of PETA’s 2014 kill numbers show that this disturbing trend hasn’t changed. In fact, it’s actually gotten worse. According to information provided to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 30% more dogs and cats in 2014 than it did in 2013. More than 88% of the 2,631 dogs and cats taken in by PETA in 2014 were killed by the group—2,324 in total.

These numbers are certainly shocking—but not as shocking as new allegations made by a former PETA employee this week.

Former PETA field worker Heather Harper Troje wrote a blog post offering a scandalous in-depth look of what goes on behind the closed doors of PETA’s headquarters. In her post, Troje recounts numerous examples of Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s president, ordering her to kill adoptable animals and to falsify records in order to enable the organization to cover their tracks and euthanize ever more animals. As Troje explains, “if you say the animal is ten pounds heavier than he is, you’ve given yourself room to euthanize another ten-pound animal off the books.”

Troje highlights the story of Black Boy, a German Shepard mix she took from a yard one snowy evening and brought back to PETA headquarters. Upon Black Boy’s arrival at the group’s headquarters, he was immediately euthanized. The recent case of PETA employees allegedly stealing and killing a family’s Chihuahua indicates that Black Boy’s fate was perhaps not an aberration but rather the rule.

According to Troje, “more and more I was euthanizing all the animals I brought in, and I could never bring in enough animals, or work enough hours, to please Ingrid.” If PETA’s most recent kill numbers are any indication, PETA’s kill-‘em-all attitude hasn’t changed one bit.

Animal Rights

PETA Penchant for Killing

WATCH: Because PETA Killed Me

PETA_killed_meHumane Society of the United States isn’t the only deceptively named animal rights group. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (which has the same radical animal liberation goals as HSUS) killed more than 2,324 cats and dogs in 2014 alone – an average of more than 6 per day – and an increase of 30 percent from 2013. This represents 88 percent of all pets PETA took into its shelter throughout the year.

To draw attention to PETA’s appalling record of euthanization and the alarming fact that 33,514 animals have died at the hands of PETA since 1998, Center for Consumer Freedom released a parody of the controversial Nationwide Insurance advertisement that aired during the Super Bowl.

This delusional animal rights group is talking out of both sides of its mouth – on one side preaching animal rights, while on the other signing a death warrant for 88 percent of cats and dogs in its care. PETA should be called a slaughterhouse, not an animal shelter.

PETA’s kill numbers come from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), which requires such annual disclosures to be made. Most animals don’t even get a chance: A 2010 inspection conducted by a VDACS veterinarian of animal custody records discovered that 84% of the animals PETA took in were killed within 24 hours.

Despite its $47 million budget, PETA fails to find homes for the van loads of animals it kills. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk previously indicated to The Virginian-Pilot that the animal rights group could stop killing pets. Of course, it would mean cutting down on press stunts and celebrity photo shoots: “We could become a no-kill shelter immediately. It means we wouldn’t do as much work.”

 

For more information, visit www.PETAKillsAnimals.com.

Animal Rights

Boone & Crockett Supports Bill Restoring State Management for Wolves

GW: So, here we go in an effort to wrest control from Feds. Heck yeah!

MISSOULA, MT – A new bill introduced in Congress yesteday would once and for all transfer management of recovered gray wolf populations back to state wildlife agencies in Wyoming and the Great Lakes region.

H.R. 884 is cosponsored by members of Congress from the relevant states from both parties. The original sponsors include Representatives Ribble (R-WI), Lummis (R-WY), Benishek (R-MI), Peterson (D-MN), Duffy (R-WI), Emmer (R-MN), Grothman (R-WI), Huizenga (R-MI), Kind (D-WI), Kline (R-MN), Ryan (R-WI), Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Simpson (R-ID), Walberg (R-MI), and Walz (D-MN).

Several of the sponsors are members and past leaders of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. Rep. Tim Walz is currently a co-chair of the caucus.

Wolf management authority for years has been bouncing back and forth between state and federal agencies in these two regions as the wolf populations there have thrived and spread. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has repeatedly found the species to be recovered, sustainable and ready for science-based management by the states. Courts have repeatedly negated these findings based on lawsuits over procedural technicalities.

Congress previously acted on this same problem with bipartisan support to establish state management in Montana and Idaho in 2011. Today’s legislation renews that effort for Wyoming and the Lake States. Boone and Crockett helped develop the 2011 bill, which also appears in H.R. 884.

“It is a sign of our times that scientific decisions by the Fish and Wildlife Service can be repeatedly reversed in court by those who disapprove of the decision,” said Bob Model, co-chair of the Boone and Crockett Club’s Policy Committee. “Preferences should not trump science. It is past time for Congress to stand behind the science, reinstate the decisions, and cut off further lawsuits – and that’s what H.R. 884 does.”

In 2011, when Congress last acted to reinstate management authority to Idaho and Montana, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had not yet transferred management to other states. Since then, the additional transfers have occurred and, just as in the past, procedural litigation reversed them. It is time again to reinstate the scientific decision of the Fish and Wildlife Service and stop the legal gamesmanship.

Both Idaho and Montana have been successfully carrying out their management strategy of balancing the needs of wolves and people since 2011. Wolf populations in these states remain sizable, sustainable, and stabilized.

In reinstating state management in Wyoming, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, H.R. 884 also makes these reissued rulings no longer subject to judicial review by district courts. The bill does not modify the Endangered Species Act, nor does it prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service from deciding to re-impose federal protection for the gray wolf in the future if it determines that is necessary.

Model added, “At the end of the day, people who live with wolves want to do what’s right for wolves and people. This new bill will allow science-based state management to work for both.”

About the Boone and Crockett Club
North America’s first hunting and conservation organization, the Boone and Crockett Club was founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887. Its mission is to promote the conservation and management of wildlife, especially big game and its habitat, to preserve and encourage hunting and to maintain the highest ethical standards of fair chase and sportsmanship. Join us at www.boone-crockett.org.
Media Contact Steve Wagner, Blue Heron
Communications, 800-654-3766 or steve@blueheroncomm.com.

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife

Western Great Lakes Wolves Status

Western Great Lakes Wolf Delisting Challenge (HSUS v. Jewell) – Defense of delisting and hunting of WGL wolf population. Status: SCI, NRA, USSAF and several other organizations intervened. The district court recently issued a ruling vacating the delisting and placing the WGL wolves back on the endangered species list. All defendants and defendant-intervenors are considering potential legislative and litigation relief, including a proposed law, similar to the one adopted to delist Montana and Idaho’s wolves, as well as a possible appeal of the ruling.

Animal Rights, Wildlife

What Farmer would Join HSUS?

This from humanewatch.org…

amgoth_milesUndeterred after finding only two farmers out of 34,000 to join their state “agriculture council” in Oklahoma (a success rate of a measly 0.006%), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is at it again – this time in Wisconsin. In addition to a beauty salon owner, the extreme animal-liberation group found a mere three willing farmers out of more than 76,000 in America’s Dairyland to join the so-called “HSUS Wisconsin Agriculture Council.”

Why does HSUS have so much difficulty finding farmers to join their ranks? It could be because their food policy director designed a campaign comparing farms to Nazi concentration camps. Or because HSUS wants to “get rid of the entire [animal agriculture] industry.”

So what kind of farmers do join HSUS?

One of the council members is a self-described organic vegan activist. No “humane” cheese allowed. Another sells organic hot dogs for the low, low price of $9.50 per pound (and you thought wieners were pricey at the ballpark).

But the real star of the bunch is Mike Miles, who is more “Occupy Wall Street” than “American Gothic.”

Mike was recently arrested in Des Moines, Iowa while protesting the World Food Prize (see his mugshot above), an award that recognizes “the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.” His decision to “Occupy the World Food Prize” was based on claims that “only local, sustainable forms of agriculture” will be able to feed the world. What, with $9.50-per-pound hot dogs?

Read more

Animal Rights

HSUS Launches Lame Web Defense to Criticism

This from www.humanewatch.org…

SkepticalPupIt’s clear that our campaign to expose the deceptive “Humane Society” of the United States has been successful. We have one main message: Only 1 percent of the money given to HSUS winds up at local pet shelters. Most people—including HSUS donors—don’t know this, and it’s due to HSUS’s deceptive fundraising chock full of cats and dogs that funds other things—attacking farmers, pushing a PETA-like agenda, buying cheap direct-mail gifts, etc.

Our success is in the numbers: HSUS’s contributions declined by millions in 2013 as people learned the truth (and, hopefully, gave to their local pet shelters instead, helping needy dogs and cats).

Now, predictably feeling threatened by the truth, HSUS has launched a new website to answer some criticisms about the organization (as of this writing, though, it doesn’t address the Oklahoma Attorney General’s investigation of HSUS, Charity Navigator’s Donor Advisory against HSUS, or CharityWatch’s “C-minus” grade of HSUS, or a whole host of other things). With tens of millions of dollars on the line from a group whose income relies on people being deceived, it’s no surprise that HSUS is once again misleading the public. Let’s debunk each of HSUS’s attempts to defend itself.

Read more

Animal Rights

Nebraska Senator Back with Effort to Ban Mountain Lion Hunting

Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers is back with his anti-hunting crusade against scientific management of mountain lions. The senator led an identical charge in 2014 when the legislature passed a bill to ban mountain-lion hunting, which was ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Dave Heineman.

Chambers reintroduced his legislation (LB 127) on Friday, Jan. 9, along with a new effort to ban the management of prairie dogs, including on private property (LB 128).

“The Sportsmen’s community in Nebraska did a great job last year in rallying opposition to this ideological attack on wildlife management, and we’ll need a similar response this year,” said Adam Wright, USSA’s associate director of state services. “Sportsmen across Nebraska, and really across the country, must speak up and let their state senators know how misguided this effort is.” Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife

USSA Weighs Legal Options in Great Lakes Wolf Battle

On Dec. 20, a federal district court judge in Washington D.C. struck down the delisting of wolves in the western Great Lakes region, and returned them to federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. This move was not based upon the population of wolves—which have clearly recovered in the area—but instead, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that until wolves are re-established in their historical range (which would apparently include New York City, Washington D.C., Seattle, etc.) they cannot be considered recovered in Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin, no matter how large the wolf populations in those three states.

For nearly a decade, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and our partners have led the attempt to delist recovered populations of wolves from the Endangered Species List and to return them to management of individual states.

Judge Howell’s ruling leaves two realistic options for sportsmen, conservationists and those interested in the sound management of fish and wildlife:  legal and congressional action. Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife
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