Archive for the ‘USFWS’ Category

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Adopt-a-Ranger Program

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Currently, I’m getting all kinds of e-mail about slaughtering animals our country took careful issue to propagate not long ago. First wolves, now buffalo/bison. USFWS wants to kill off buffalo because of a bison disease that could spread to cattle. Here we have the cattle issue again. Except there are no cattle nearby. What is with all the slaughter lately?  I don’t recall such an unleashed fury to kill wildlife like we’re seeing lately. We’re moving so slowly on environmental issues relative to animals that we’re soon to kill them off anyway.

Then I saw this comment that is well worth printing here about wolves from Dr. Dr D. Vreugdenhil . He says: “Wolves most certainly are not dangerous and finally they are on the increase again worldwide, expanding their territories in Europe and in some countries in the middle east. However, to fully integrate them into society, we must deal with the most pressing issue in nature conservation:
The most limiting factor in conservation world wide is the shortage of rangers: estimated at over 100,000 in developing countries. Currently no government or conservation organization in the world addresses this problem. That is why the Adopt A Ranger Foundation has been created:  http://www.adopt-a-ranger.org/.

I didn’t know there was a shortage of rangers anywhere but Asia or Africa? Adopt-a-ranger website says there is a need for 140,000 rangers worldwide, but evidently not enough funding. You know this looks like one of those places where funding is also cut to the bone.  It is also a very good lead as to why all the slaughter of wildlife is taking place, at least in this country. With no one to watch over our parks, it’s economical to just get rid of the critters.

I’m looking into adopting a ranger. Now I know the reason the mountain gorillas are disappearing, there is a large bushmeat trade, and all types of illegal use of animals is happening. It’s due to this shortage. Even elephants are being shot out of their sanctuary over coffee plants because no one watches over them. 

If you like nature websites, Dr. Vreugdenhil offered this one with a very dire outlook that says with a good scenario only 40% of all species on earth will disappear in this century, worst scenario we will see 70% of all species DIE.   http://naturalplaces.blogspot.com/2007/02/earths-largest-upcoming-species.html#links.  Yet we’re aerial hunting wolves, killing bison, cyanide poisoning coyotes, and fox in this most civilized country. There’s something horribly wrong with this picture.

To quote from “Sunday Morning,” a poem by Wallace Stevens: “Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams.”  It means death enhances the beauty of life.  We’ll cherish it all when it’s gone.

Posted in Animals and Extinction, Animals in Peril, Bushmeat Trade, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environmentalism, Illegal Use of Animals, National Parks and Forests, Nature, USFWS, Wildlife | 1 Comment »

Hurry to Help Ban Sodium Cyanide and Deadly Compound 1080 Used by the EPA

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

I just received this e-mail by Defenders of Wildlife. Do you believe it? The government is planning on killing wolves, which control coyote populations. Instead the EPA, uses these deadly poisons out in the open in nature. What is wrong with this picture? The Environmental PROTECTION Agency should really get a new name. Their decisions for dealing with wildlife is outright archaic and dangerous, especially when:  According to government reports, Wildlife Services is unable to account for stockpiles of theses toxins, increasing the risk of theft and misuse that threatens homeland security and the safety of humans and animals. Please take action today to ban these deadly poisons.

Each year, more than 10,000 wild animals are poisoned to death with sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate, experiencing horrific deaths that can take hours. These deadly poisons are designed to kill coyotes but they also have killed swift foxes, wolves and other imperiled wildlife… as well as family dogs and people.

We have little more than 36 hours to convince the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban these poisons — two of the world’s deadliest. Please take action right now!

Sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate (commonly called Compound 1080) are considered by the EPA to be some of the deadliest toxins known to humanity. Yet, for decades, Wildlife Services, a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has routinely relied on these two poisons to kill coyotes and other carnivores.

But these poisons don’t just threaten their intended targets. They can also poison any threatened or endangered species, people and pets.

How bad are they?

Sodium cyanide is used in M-44s, spring-loaded devices topped with bait lures that can attract swift foxes, wolves and other endangered carnivores. When an animal tugs on the bait, a spring shoots a capsule of sodium cyanide powder into the animal’s mouth. A victim of an M-44 device may die after less than two minutes of exposure to the poison, but deaths have been documented to take eight hours.

Based on data from Wildlife Services, more than 10,000 animals are killed by M-44s each year, including domesticated dogs, and a whole host of other non-target species including rare kit foxes, ringtails, javelinas, and swift foxes. M-44s have also killed California condors and wolves.

Compound 1080 is classified as a chemical weapon in several countries. It can be deployed in poison collars placed on sheep and goats and is highly toxic to birds and mammals. It has been used to illegally to kill wolves, and carcasses with Compound 1080 must be handled as hazardous waste. If consumed, these carcasses can kill wolves and other animals.

There are effective alternatives to these poisons, including a wide range of proactive, nonlethal methods such as fencing, guard animals, fladry, non-lethal ammunition and improved animal husbandry. And yet, Wildlife Services continues to rely heavily on the use of sodium cyanide and Compound 1080 to address predation on livestock. I’m sick and tired of this excuse for using poison, or killing off wolves.  Most ranchers are reimbursed for losses to their livestock anyway. Wildlife organizations pay out thousands of dollars a year for loss of cattle, which the Dept. of Agriculture’s study about predator wolves shows is just not the case.  I’d like to know who we are supposed to believe.

Help end the use of these deadly poisons. Send your personalized message to the EPA now.

We only have a short time to make a big difference for swift foxes, wolves and other wildlife. The official comment period on the ban of these toxins officially ends this Wednesday (March 5th), so please take action before noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, so we have time to compile and deliver your messages to the EPA.
PLEASE RESPOND HERE IMMEDIATELY: http://action.defenders.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=30461.0&dlv_id=52121.

     
 
 

Posted in Animals in Peril, Defenders of Wildlife, EPA, Endangered Species, Environmentalism, Legislators, Morality, Nature, Organizations, Organizations/Programs, Politics, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, USFWS, Wildlife, Wolves | 1 Comment »

Your Dog is a Wolf, Even That Little Chihuahua

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

In honor of this being Wolf Moon month and that the fate of wolves in our national parks, in Idaho, and in Wyoming hangs in balance with a Secretary of Interior that is oblivious to thousands of voices to spare the wolf, I thought I’d do a piece on dogs and wolves. I ran into this interesting page along the way.

The website page is: http://www.idir.net/~wolf2dog/genetic1.htm. There is a list of References for Wolf-Dog Genetic History. I started to read the summaries of a variety of books written about the genealogy of the dog. Dogs are direct descendants of wolves, all dogs, little bitty pocket dogs, hairy dogs, smooth dogs, hunting dogs, even Pekinese dogs. The DNA of dog and wolf is almost identical. The dog is not the descendant of the combo wolf/jackal as many used to believe. Our dogs are tame wolves basically.

So I kept reading the short synopsis of each entry, there must be 15 of them on this page, and one after the other: “Scientists believe that wolves are the direct ancestors of today’s domestic dogs,” and “…on the basis of a large number of skull measurements and examinations of the size and structure of the brain, blood factors, and numbers of chromosomes that all dogs, whether Pekingese, bulldogs or Alsatians, were descended solely from the wolf…[t]he domesticated wolf is the dog,” and “Although the subject continues to be controversial, most authorities now agree that all dogs, from Chihuahuas to Dobermans are descended from wolves which were tamed in the Near East ten or twelve thousand years ago.” There were some summaries more genetically oriented, but all of them concurred the dog, man’s best friend is really a wolf in pedigree skin. That is except for one entry

That one entry is odd because it’s about proving whether the canine carries wolf blood. They have the same DNA for Pete’s sake. Trying to ascertain whether the dog carries actual wolf blood, when their DNA is identical, looks like a technical way around relating man’s best friend to the wolf. And look from whom and where the study comes. The Wyoming Game and Fish Dept. contracted a New York lab to do this study and look whose questioning the ties between wolf and dog, the Idaho Fish and Game Dept. back when the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan was instituted there. It was stated “There is not presently a valid test that will guarantee analysis of whether a particular canine carries wolf blood. Certain DNA studies have been conducted by a New York laboratory under contract by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, but a much larger population study of wolf and dog breeds would have to be done before conclusive results can be obtained.” Jerry M. Conley, Director, Idaho Fish and Game Dept. From letter to Gov. Cecil D. Andrus, March 19, 1992.

Idaho and Wyoming have been gunning for wolves for years. It’s coming close to a head now. And it’s not about control of an untamed, voracious animal. It’s certainly not about maintaining balance in our ecosystems of which the wolf plays an important role.  And it’s not about killing livestock.  It’s about exterminating an animal that is the grandfather of our pet dog, so that man can hunt for sport instead. And sport hunting is about money. It always gets back to money.
 

Posted in Alaska, Animals in Peril, Defenders of Wildlife, Dept. of the Interior, Endangered Species, Federal Government, Gov. Freudenthal, Governor Otter, Governor Palin, Humane Society Legislative Fund, Idaho, Illegal Hunting, Illegal Use of Animals, Legislators, Morality, NRDC, National Parks and Forests, Nature, Secy. Kempthorne, State Gov't., USFWS, Wildlife, Wolves, Wyoming | 1 Comment »

Viruses

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

So I threw open the door this fine warm morning and bounded outdoors, coffee in hand, immediately inhaled about 3 “midges” put my hand over my coffee mug really quick and came back inside. There is a bumper crop of those little mosquito looking insects this year. I went back out sans the coffee, kept my mouth shut and tried not to rustle into any bushes. In the recesses of my memory, midges mean fish will be biting but with that VHS disease in the fish it might not matter. I saw in the news recently, that it was a consideration to limit fishing this year if the disease keeps spreading.

And now those cute little Chickadees (small black and white birds) are threatened by the West Nile virus along with beautiful Bluebirds. No one thought much of it when it was only affecting crows but it’s stretched to other species of birds now. My bird feeders have been in place at least ten years and I get a lot of bird traffic, even escaped parakeets and canaries, and I saw exactly one Chickadee this spring. They are usually around all winter and are pretty friendly and sweet. I’ve actually had one peck at our glass door and stare in on us. Not long ago Michigan considered changing the state bird from Robins, which didn’t hang around all winter, to the Chickadee, which was plentiful. Now whole populations are being wiped out by West Nile. I wondered why I haven’t seen a lot of Chickadees for a couple of years. I miss them.

We’re getting all these viruses that start out as not so significant because masses of people aren’t dying from any of them or they only affect a certain species, so we don’t care much.  Well ecosystems are important. Everyone’s read somewhere about the honeybee and how it affects our food supply. Take pause to notice all the species of things that are in trouble:  fish, birds, bees, and just try to remember we are part of the animal chain. There might come a virus that affects humans in the future so have a little empathy for even the smallest things. To me it’s a warning sign.

Posted in Animals and Extinction, Animals in Peril, Birds, Conservation, Extreme Weather in U.S., Fishing, Global Warming, Great Lakes Water, Health, Industry, Michigan/Great Lakes, Morality, Nature, USFWS, Viruses, Weather, West Nile, Wildlife | 1 Comment »

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