Carnivores in the Crosshairs (H.J. Res. 69)

Posted on March 17, 2017 by GarryRogers

GR: This type of management (eliminate predators to please human hunters) is more than just a crime against nature; it’s a foolish plan that has failed many times before. Predator and prey populations go through natural cycles. When people interfere, we can’t predict what will happen. It would be better to hand all the hunters a camera and challenge them to get some unique photos.

The Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule is under siege, and the consequences could be dire for bears and wolves in the state.

“You may have heard about H.J. Res. 69, a dangerous bill that jeopardizes bears, wolves and other carnivores by tossing out the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule. This legislation is set to hit the Senate floor any day now, and its enactment could have drastic implications for wildlife in Alaska and public lands management nationwide.

The Low-Down on H.J. Res 69

“H.J. Res. 69 would overturn the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule, which the Obama administration issued last year to conserve native carnivores, including bears, wolves and their young, on as many as 76 million acres of national wildlife refuges in Alaska. The timing of when this rule was finalized matters significantly, as its fate is now subject to the Congressional Review Act (CRA)—you can read more about that here.

“Legislators and their special interest allies already jammed H.J. Res. 69 through the House of Representatives, despite strong bipartisan opposition that labeled it as “The Killing Baby Animals in Alaska Act.” The Senate is currently considering whether to bring this harmful bill up for a vote.

Threatening Wildlife in Their Home

“Without the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule in place, the state of Alaska could pursue its scientifically indefensible predator control program on these federal lands. This controversial program allows the killing of mother bears and their cubs, killing wolves and their pups in their dens, and trapping, baiting and using airplanes to scout and shoot bears. The state’s goal is to drive down carnivore numbers to artificially inflate populations of game species.” –Defenders of Wildlife (Continue reading: Carnivores in the Crosshairs – Defenders of Wildlife Blog.)

Bushmeat Demand Overwhelming “Supply” of 301 Mammal Species

Posted on October 24, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: We praise indigenous people for their reverence for nature. The study discussed here shows how population growth and evolving social values have erased the reverence.

“You might rejoice at having some habitat remaining, say a pristine forest, but if is hunted out to become an empty larder, it is a pyrrhic victory.”

“A team of authors recently published a new study in The Royal Society Open Science journal with the title, “Bushmeat hunting and extinction risk to the world’s mammals.” The work shows how bushmeat hunting (mostly for food and medicinal products) is driving a global crisis whereby 301 terrestrial mammal species are threatened with human-induced extinction.

“The abstract notes that nearly all of these threatened species occur in developing countries where major coexisting threats include deforestation, agricultural expansion, human encroachment and competition with livestock. You can click here to read the full study.

“At the beginning of their solution section, the authors write: “Growing human populations, increasing middle-class wealth, access to hunting technologies in developing nations and the modern ease of transporting goods around the planet are facilitating a global demand for wild animals as food and other products that simply cannot be met by current global wildlife populations.”—Joe Bish, Population Media Center.

The study: Bushmeat Demand Overwhelming “Supply” of 301 Mammal Species

A Camera Does Just as Well

Posted on June 6, 2015 by GarryRogers

The challenge and thrill of a great photograph leave a lasting pride that you can share with multitudes. Here’s my photography-bio: https://garryrogers.com/garryrogers-photography.

Exposing the Big Game

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Save Wildlife: Apply for a Hunting Permit

Posted on May 29, 2015 by GarryRogers

Arizona Wildlife Protection: Gambling for Big Game

Young Mule Deer

I am not a gambler, but as I watched five Mule Deer browsing in my yard this morning I decided to enter the Arizona Game and Fish Department drawing to win a deer hunting permit. If I win, I will have blocked a real killer. (The header image is from the Arizona Game and Fish Department website.)

You can enter drawings for Bighorn Sheep, Buffalo, Deer, Javelina, Pheasant, and Turkey. Click here to enter. Fees vary depending on your location and the species you are protecting. For Arizona residents, the hunting license and the drawing entry fee total $50. If you win, the toe tag will cost an extra $45.

The drawings for Elk and Pronghorn Antelope took place last month (25,932 killing permits issued). There are a few Elk tags left. If this is your special animal, click here to buy a chance to save one.

Arizona Wildlife Management

Some will argue that killing wild animals is necessary to prevent habitat-destroying population explosions. Others will say that restoring and protecting habitat, removing domestic livestock, and protecting large predators will achieve natural populations and increase overall biodiversity. Of course, selling licenses is big business; the Arizona Game and Fish Department, like many other governmental wildlife management agencies, depends on license sales for a substantial part of its annual budget. Search my website for “Hunting,” “Livestock,” and “Predators” to find discussions and reports related to these subjects.

Here’s a tweet suggestion (you should have room to add a photo):

Protect wildlife: Apply for a big-game permit and keep a killer out of the woods.

If you decide to take a chance, you can let us know in a comment. If you don’t want to publicize your gambling sins, send me a private email.

Game and Fish increases pronghorn population with killings of coyotes

Posted on February 22, 2015 by GarryRogers

More than 800 coyotes were killed at the direction of the Arizona Game and Fish Department from 2012 to 2014 for the purpose of protecting pronghorn fawns in five areas around the state, agency officials say. Source: azdailysun.com

GR: The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) lets people kill Pronghorn Antelope for the money. Antelope have declined drastically from their original range. However, AZGFD continues to sell Antelope hunting licenses for $103 ($565 non-residents).

“Annual harvests since 1990 have varied between 500 and 700 bucks, with archers taking a proportionally larger percent of the harvest in recent years. Plagued by encroaching subdivisions, increasing highway construction, and other land-use changes, maintaining even the present number of antelope is dependent on citizen involvement and an aggressive translocation program. Approximately 10 percent of the antelope harvest is in areas having reintroduced herds.”

The AZGFD can’t do much about construction and land-use, but they could stop selling hunting licenses. They might have to cut salaries and layoff a few of their wildlife-control staff. But then they wouldn’t have to kill the coyotes.

Even more appropriate in these times of rapidly disappearing wildlife, would be to stop all hunting and call on the people of Arizona to fund the 25% of the AZGFD budget that comes from hunting licenses.

Free UW wildlife course would please Aldo Leopold

Posted on January 31, 2015 by GarryRogers

Online class explores hunting and role in conservation. Source: www.greenbaypressgazette.com

GR: I’m thinking Leopold would be appalled. Like many of us, Leopold grew more protective of wildlife as he aged. He proposed the “land ethic” not long before his death. He concluded that Earth ecosystem stability requires that we treat animals as our equals, not our resources. This course description suggests the course content will focus on ideas that Leopold left behind as he saw nature succumbing to relentless pressure of the exploding human population. Please convince me it isn’t so.

Steven Rinella cooking wild animals. (Photo: Pat Durkin)

Pennsylvania pigeon shoots: An early push for their extinction

Posted on January 22, 2015 by GarryRogers

Politics Preys on Pennsylvania Pigeons

By Rahn Forney, rahnforney@ldnews.com 01/21/2015 08:23:49 PM EST

“Pennsylvania, in 2014, almost became the 50th state to ban live pigeon shoots. For the geographically challenged, that would be all of them, finally, pitching the anachronistic nonsport onto the trash heap.

“The votes looked good. The Senate passed the bill in mid-October on a 36-12 vote. It had to go to the House. It needed a vote in that chamber to reach the governor’s desk.

“But first, it had to get through the House Rules Committee, and that is where the bill that had taken flight better than it ever had in the decades that it’s been sought, hit with a splat and died.

“What killed it was a barrage of political donations from the Flyers Victory Fund, a political action committee that supports the shoots. The fund kicked out $20,000 for members of the House Rules Committee — a grand apiece plus $3,000 to its boss, Rep. Mike Turzai. So for $1,000 each, and a little extra gravy for the chief, the Flyers assured that those who still wish to take part in the practice will be able to legally do so in Pennsylvania for at least a while longer. Politics is worse to watch than even a live pigeon shoot.

“One positive: Four members of the Rules Committee returned the money. They were Reps. Bill Adolph Jr., Mark Mustio, Robert Godshell and Thomas Killion — all Republicans. It appears the other 14 Republicans and all 15 Democrats tucked the cash into their war chests and moved on. If I’m wrong, I’m sure I’ll hear it. My information came from campaign finance reports dated through late November” (read more).

Serow: Eaten to the Brink of Extinction

Posted on December 8, 2014 by GarryRogers

The little-known Sumatran serow is hunted and traded in Peninsular Malaysia, in violation of wildlife laws.

Source: www.thestar.com.my

GR: The ultimate selfish act: Eat a species to extinction–not in ignorance, and not to survive, just for potential health benefits for a few wealthy humans. Of course, eating wild animals to survive will also extinguish them.

Animals’ Week in Review

Posted on December 7, 2014 by GarryRogers

Animal Welfare Action

Remove Unethical Menu Options. Save Polar Bears from Shell Oil. Save Wolves from Cruel Predator-Killing Contest. Applaud TV Station for Promoting Pet Adoption. Ban Captive Hunting of Lions Success. More. . . .

Source: donlichterman.wordpress.com

A “to-do” list for the animals.

BLM Issues Deadly Permit for Wolf Derby

Posted on November 21, 2014 by GarryRogers

R.T. is right. We need the wolves, we don’t need hunters, and open-range grazing is obsolete. So, let’s end ranching and return the land to wildlife.

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Source: The Teton Valley News

“The BLM’s self-righteous propensity to play God over the native creatures of our public lands stretches far beyond the destruction of our wild horses and burros but all the way to the very predators that would naturally regulate the herds, IF they even needed to be regulated. Nature has been doing just fine for eons without the interference of human management but the rouge feds prefer to deal with special interest groups and the collusion of monetary gain instead of making sound decisions on scientific data and facts.” ~ R.T.

The BLM Idaho Falls District received 40,000 comments on the environmental assessment, many indicating concern over the proposed type of action occurring on public lands.

Last week the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a decision to approve Idaho for Wildlife’s special recreation permit for a competitive event to have a wolf…