Posted on April 27, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Dear Mark,
I wanted to make sure that you didn’t miss last week’s email announcement (below) of two recent victories for wildlife that Project Coyote supporters helped make happen.
I am pleased to share even more great news for wildlife: Just yesterday Project Coyote, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and allies settled a lawsuit with Mendocino County in California that requires the county to immediately suspend its contract with the USDA Wildlife Services agency that administers its predator control program- pending a full environmental review as required under the California Environmental Quality Act. This federal agency kills hundreds of coyotes, bears, mountain lions, bobcats and other wildlife annually in Mendocino alone. This precedent-setting case made front page news in today’s San Francisco Chronicle which you can read here.
Please continue your support of Project Coyote by making a donation today.
Thanks for all you do,
Camilla H. Fox
Founder & Executive Director
I am thrilled to share with you two victories for bobcats!
Last week the California Fish and Game Commission denied a proposal by the California Trappers Association to repeal the bobcat trapping ban that you helped out in place last year. We are very pleased that the commissioners* stayed firm in their decision to support the hard-fought bobcat trapping ban.
I’m proud to report that 12 Project Coyote representatives and supporters, and 11 students from Manor Elementary School in Fairfax, testified before the Commission. They spoke on behalf of bobcats and in support of our two petitions (with the Center for Biological Diversity) that would ban night hunting and trapping in places where wolves are recovering. I hand delivered more than 3,000 letters from supporters to the Commission supporting the ban. Thank you for acting to protect California’s wildlife! Both petitions are moving forward with agency staff. We will keep you posted on their progress.
On April 13th the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department rejected a proposal that would have opened the first bobcat hunting and trapping season in the state since 1989. Project Coyote’s New Hampshire representative Chris Schadler has been deeply involved in this issue, along with a statewide coalition of conservation and animal protection organizations. Thousands of New Hampshire residents weighed in to express their support for bobcats remaining safe in the wild and not cruelly trapped or shot for sport and profit. Read more here and here.
It is so encouraging to see those who appreciate wildlife taking a stand to protect native carnivores from those who enjoy killing them. We are the majority and we are showing up in greater numbers. Through our Keeping It Wild youth program, young people are lending their impassioned voices to Project Coyote actions to protect wildlife. We applaud their energy and look forward to seeing them play a greater role.
Project Coyote is at the forefront in mobilizing grassroots support for bobcats, coyotes, wolves and other predators. We need your help to continue this important work. A one-time gift or a monthly donation–at any level–will help defend wildlife and promote co-existence.
Thanks to you and to our allies, bobcats are safe from traps in California and New Hampshire.
***
* California Fish & Game Commissioners Eric Sklar and Anthony Williams voted in support of maintaining the trapping ban while Commissioner Jacque Hostler-Carmesin voted in support of the California Trappers Association’s proposal to repeal the trapping ban.
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, HUNTING - Primarily UK and Germany | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 18, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Ten years ago, sealers killed about 350,000 seals, but last year, that number dropped to 35,000—the lowest in 20 years.
Fewer than 1,000 sealers have participated in the slaughter in recent years.
Because of a lack of markets for seal products, the slaughter is costing Canada millions more to support than it earns, and seal fur processors admit that they are stockpiling pelts because they can’t sell them.
Still, tens of thousands of seals are expected to be killed in the coming weeks.
Canada’s new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, supports many progressive social issues, and now we’re urging him to extend his compassion further and begin a new era of kindness and financial responsibility by ending federal subsidies of the commercial seal slaughter.
Let him know that the power to stop this atrocity is in his hands …
… and that the world is ready for Canada to stop slaughtering baby seals!
The U.S., the European Union, and Russia have all already banned seal-fur imports.
Boycott Canada and ALL Canadian Products.
All pictures – Peta.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, HUNTING - Primarily UK and Germany, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), VIDEOS | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 31, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
I am proud to have been a member of the LACS for what ?, some 25 years or more.
Hunting is nothing but very bad news for beautiful animals; and the ban on hunting introduced in the UK over 10 years ago was just the best thing ever. It is wonderful to see the latest news that membership has increased by a massive 30% in just the last year alone; again supporting and showing the wishes of the vast majority of the British public, that there is only one place for hunting to exist – and that is in the History books !
Above – the result of a Hunters Day Out in Kent – Pre the Ban.
Here below you will find several links to the LACS website showing all areas of their work:
Regards Mark.
Please watch the video featuring Dave Spikey – British comedian:
This is a few years old now, and has been included mainly to show what happened in the past. In spite of what Dave says in the video (correct at the time it was made), things are now looking good for the anti-hunt campaigners; with political opposition for a return to hunting increasing all the time; even from members of the Conservative Party, who have in the past always been known as a pro-hunt party..
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We know that the vast majority of the British public is against hunting, and we are delighted to have seen a huge surge in membership in the past year. The more members we have, the louder our voice and the stronger we stand!
We need as much support as possible – will you consider becoming a League member today?
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, HUNTING - Primarily UK and Germany, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 22, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Dear Mark,
Unless the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) drastically changes direction, the critically endangered red wolf will go extinct in the wild in a matter of years.
After more than two decades of work restoring a population of approximately 110 red wolves to the wild, FWS has recently undermined this success through mismanagement. Today only about 50 red wolves survive in the wild, all within five counties northeastern North Carolina.
Recently, Defenders announced our withdrawal from the FWS-sponsored Red Wolf Recovery Team. The team was supposed to be the catalyst to spur red wolf recovery. But in reality, the team was not organized in a way that would allow it to succeed.
Here’s just one illustration of the problem. Recently, a member of the recovery team trapped a red wolf on their land and held it hostage for at least a day, while demanding a permit allowing him to kill wolves on his property. Ultimately, FWS retrieved the wolf, and it’s now being held in captivity. This is in the middle of breeding season – a time when every wolf is needed in the wild.
How can this team succeed when it has team members who are actively opposed to red wolf conservation? This hostility undermines red wolf recovery efforts at every turn!
Since red wolves were reintroduced to the wild in 1987, Defenders has gone to court multiple times to protect them and ensure their recovery in the wild. What has changed recently is that it’s now FWS that is undermining red wolf recovery.
Thanks for all your help.
Sincerely,
Ben Prater Director,
Southeast Program
Defenders of Wildlife
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Dear Mark,
Government snipers gunned down 20 wolves from a helicopter in Idaho last month — and now they want to start mowing down wolves in Oregon.
The Center for Biological Diversity is going to court to stop the killing. Our intervention comes just as the situation for wolves in the Northwest turns dire. Last week Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a law ending state-level protections for wolves, stripping away one more layer of protection from these social, intelligent animals. And it’s not just Oregon’s 81 remaining wolves that are at stake, not by a long shot. Wildlife Services is the shadowy federal program that serves as the government’s contract killers of wildlife.
They show up when governors, powerful corporations and Big Ag call, slaughtering millions of animals a year, including wolves, bears, mountain lions, hawks and otters. They operate without accountability, behind a veil of secrecy — and we’re going to put a stop to it. To win this critical lawsuit we need your help with a donation to our Stop Wildlife Services Fund. Wildlife Services’ aerial snipers, neck traps and cyanide land mines are always ready to do the bidding of Oregon’s beef industry — despite new research that found killing wolves actually increases wolf-livestock conflicts. This indiscriminate killing makes no sense, and it has to end. It’s going to cost us dearly, but we’re committed. That’s why we need your contribution to our Stop Wildlife Services Fund. Our scientists, lawyers and activists will put your support straight to work.
I’m sickened by the tally from 2014 alone: Wildlife Services killed 322 gray wolves, 61,702 coyotes, 580 black bears, 305 mountain lions, 796 bobcats, 454 river otters, 2,930 foxes, 1,330 hawks and 22,496 beavers. Since 2001 they’ve spent more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money to kill animals.
Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio says: “Wildlife Services is one of the most opaque and least accountable agencies that I know of in the federal government. They are a world unto themselves. And that’s a world we are not allowed to see into.”
Kierán Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity @KieranSuckling
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, HUNTING - Primarily UK and Germany | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 29, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Is the USA becoming the new Serbia when it comes to animal cruelty and suffering ?
Read the following and then tell that wolves in the USA are doing ok
Target: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Commissioner, Tom Landwehr
Goal: Investigate illegal slaughter of three wolves and bring murderers to justice.
The bodies of three gray wolves were recently found dumped in a ditch along a road in Minnesota. These beautiful animals are protected under the Endangered Species Act, yet someone blatantly disregarded this protection by killing these three wolves and throwing their bodies unceremoniously into a ditch. The murder of these innocent animals is a heinous crime, and those responsible must be brought to justice.
Wolf populations in Minnesota have been extremely delicate for decades, and their continued survival needs to be protected. Many hunters and trappers want hunting of wolves to be reinstated, but recently the existing population of wolves was still low enough for a judge to determine that they needed to continue to be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
With this status, wolves are granted government protection from hunters and trappers, and killing them for sport is illegal. The three wolves that were found dumped by the side of the road had snare marks on their necks, suggesting that their deaths are likely due to illegal poaching. Not only are these innocent animals, but they are animals who we are supposed to be protecting so that their species can avoid permanent extinction.
Because killing gray wolves is an illegal offense, it is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $25,000 fine. Whoever committed the despicable act of murdering these three gray wolves needs to be found and held accountable for their actions.
Please sign the petition below to show your support for the protection of gray wolves by demanding these murderers be found and punished.
….. and …………………
On Friday, the House of Representatives passed a bill loaded with some of the worst anti-wildlife provisions I have ever seen.
If the billed passes the Senate and is signed into law, it will be a death sentence for wolves, elephants and other wildlife.
-Jamie
Our worst fears have come to pass on Capitol Hill. And lives are at stake.
Today, the full House of Representatives passed H.R. 2406, the so-called “Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act of 2015.” The bill is loaded with some of the worst anti-wildlife provisions I have seen.
If this bill passes the Senate and is signed into law, it will be a death sentence for wolves, elephants and other vulnerable wildlife.
If this bill becomes law:
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Wolves will die. Wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes will lose Endangered Species Act protection. The last time wolves were delisted in Wyoming, 80% of the state became a free-fire zone where anyone could shoot wolves at will.
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Elephants will die. America’s ability to crack down on the importation and sale of illegal ivory will be crippled. This gun lobby-backed provision will send a message to the armed criminals who are decimating Africa’s last herds that the American market is still open for business.
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Alaskan predators will die. The bill would strip the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service of the authority to bar the state of Alaska from launching a program to decimate wolves, grizzly bears and other large carnivores within national wildlife refuges and national preserves across Alaska.
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Toxic lead will continue to contaminate wildlife habitat. The bill would prohibit federal agencies from regulating lead in most forms of ammunition and fishing tackle. In the United States, an estimated 3,000 tons of lead are shot into the environment by hunting every year, leading to the death of many animals from toxic lead poisoning.
You and I Can Stop This Insanity
We are the voice in Washington, D.C. for species that have no voice of their own. And we’re your voice too.
With your help, we’ll make sure this bill never becomes law. Our legislative team is working together with other conservation organizations to make sure the grassroots pressure to protect wildlife is unrelenting.
Thank you for all you do!
Sincerely,
Jamie Rappaport Clark
President, Defenders of Wildlife
If Only – The World Would Be So Much Better !
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, HUNTING - Primarily UK and Germany | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 18, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Target: Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior
Goal: Prevent slaughter of rare mountain lions in the western U.S.
In the past decade, thousands of rare mountain lions have been killed by trophy hunters, according to a report by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona are listed as the states with the highest number of mountain lions slaughtered for sport in the past decade. In Arizona alone, nearly 2,900 of these big cats were killed. That number only increases in the other four states. According to HSUS, these states do a poor job of properly monitoring their mountain lion population, frequently allow multiple killings and do not have season limits.
Trophy hunters prize these big cats as mounted displays or rugs. They often use packs of dogs wearing radio collars to corner the big cats and make for an easy kill shot. The mountain lion is a rare and beautiful animal, making it a target for trophy hunters and in need of our protection.
Demand legal protections are implemented to prevent this slaughter.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Ms. Jewell,
Mountain lions in the western U.S. are being slaughtered by trophy hunters at an alarming rate. According to a Humane Society of the United States report that collected data for the past decade, nearly 2,900 of these magnificent animals were killed in Arizona alone. Ahead of Arizona in the top five are Utah, Colorado, Montana and Idaho, each with increasingly higher numbers of mountain lions killed for sport. According the HSUS report, these states do a poor job of properly monitoring the mountain lion population and do not impose hunting limits.
Trophy hunters seek mountain lions for decorative purposes, but these cats occupy a critical place in the food chain and must be preserved from extinction.
We demand legal measures are taken to protect these beautiful big cats from slaughter by trophy hunters.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, HUNTING - Primarily UK and Germany | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 4, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
The World’s Largest Hunting Club Is Auctioning the Chance to Kill Hundreds of Animals
More than 20,000 hunters are expected to attend Safari Club International’s convention in Las Vegas this week.
Taylor Hill is an associate editor at TakePart covering environment and wildlife.
Bio
The world’s largest trophy hunting organization, Safari Club International, is hosting its annual convention in Las Vegas this week, where more than 20,000 big game hunters are expected to bid on the chance to kill an animal.
It’s dubbed the “Ultimate Hunters’ Market,” and this year the club is auctioning off 300 hunts taking place in 32 countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North and South America. Bidders can sign up for the chance to kill African elephants, Australian water buffalo, and Alaskan bears.
It doesn’t help the club’s image that Cecil the lion’s killer, Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer, is a member. The club suspended Palmer after questions about the legality of the hunt—in which Zimbabwe’s most famous lion was lured out of a protected area and killed—arose. The club appears to have reinstated Palmer after Zimbabwe authorities only brought charges against his guide, according to the Humane Society.
“These conventions bring to light that most trophy hunters are in fact American,” said Teresa Telecky, director of the wildlife department for Humane Society International, during a press conference Wednesday.
More than 1.2 million animal trophies were imported into the U.S. between 2005 and 2014. That’s an average of 126,000 trophies a year, according to data the Humane Society obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Thirty-two thousand of those trophies came from Africa’s “Big Five” hunts; the five animals targeted are the African lion, the elephant, the cape buffalo, the rhino, and the leopard. Telecky said hunting clubs award special prizes for members who kill all five.
“It’s like a hit list, and the club honors those award winners at these conventions,” she said.
The trophy killings don’t stop with Africa. The Humane Society’s report, Cecil 2: Trophy Hunting America’s Lion, details the toll hunters take on American mountain lions, also known as cougars, pumas, or panthers.
Trophy hunters killed 29,000 mountain lions in the United States between 2005 and 2014.
The top five deadliest states for the big cats are Idaho (4,833 killed), Montana (4,047), Colorado (3,414), Utah (3,200), and Arizona (2,893).
Bradley Bergstrom, professor of biology at Valdosta State University in Georgia, said state and federal wildlife agencies claim that recreational hunting of mountain lions, wolves, and other predators is necessary to manage the species and protect livestock and elk herds.
“But those arguments don’t square with recent science on the issue,” Bergstrom said. “Carnivores, especially wolves, are self-regulating. Of course they’re going to affect overpopulated deer and elk pops when they are reestablished in an area, but once they are established, they control their own population growth by their own density; their population is limited by inter-pack aggression.”
Josphat Ngonyo Kisui, executive director for the African Network for Animal Welfare, said another argument clubs make is that trophy hunting funds conservation efforts through permit fees.
“But instead of relying on those trophy hunting profits, countries need to realize the income potential from wildlife ecotourism,” Kisui said. “In South Africa, $9.2 billion—approximately 2.6 percent of the country’s GDP—was generated by wildlife watching, almost 14 times more than trophy hunting. The best way to save a species is to ensure that the animals stay alive.”
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Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 