AR-NEWS Digest 417

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Blowing up bunnies (Victoria,Australia)
     by bunny 
  2) [CA] Salmon war heating up
     by David J Knowles 
  3) [UK] Bailiffs try to oust airport tunnellers
     by David J Knowles 
  4) [UK] EU figures confirm 'fishing disgrace'
     by David J Knowles 
  5) [UK] Hospital hit by E coli outbreak
     by David J Knowles 
  6) [UK] Appeal to safeguard sharks in the Med
     by David J Knowles 
  7) [RU] Unique Russian Seals Dead from Pulp Mill Effluent
     by David J Knowles 
  8) (TH) Elephant poisoning case
     by Vadivu Govind 
  9) (SG) Bird lover beat cat to death for harassing his pet 
     by Vadivu Govind 
 10) (US) Yellowstone Wolves Prosper
     by allen schubert 
 11) Kansas Cracking Down on Poachers
     by SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US
 12) (US) Few Honeybees Means Poorer Produce 
     by allen schubert 
 13) (US) Oklahoma's Wild Hog Hunting Bill
     by JanaWilson@aol.com
 14) Fwd: Paul Watson Update 5-26-97
     by LMANHEIM@aol.com
 15) FoA and PDI file lawsuit
     by Friends of Animals 
 16) More Coulston Chimps Die
     by Suzanne Roy 
 17) (US) Weeds showing herbicide resistance           
     by allen schubert 
 18) (US) Water dealing; New spin like the old one?   
     by allen schubert 
 19) Humane Traps
     by "H. Morris" 
 20) Woman Helps Bird Duck Out Of Death Sentence
     by TARowley@aol.com
 21) [US] Chicago's Monkeygate
     by Debbie Leahy 
 22) (HK) Animal welfare in Hong Kong
     by Vadivu Govind 
 23) (KP) Ban on questionable cosmetic products
     by Vadivu Govind 
 24) (TH) Anthrax scare brings about changes to cattle movement
     by Vadivu Govind 
 25) Desertification in Ethiopia
     by Andrew Gach 
 26) Re: (HK) Animal Welfare in Hong Kong
     by Vadivu Govind 
 27) Wolves - Good News or Bad News?
     by Andrew Gach 
 28) Burzynski acquitted on remaining charge
     by Andrew Gach 
 29) Crows come to town
     by Andrew Gach 
 30) [CA] Cuts allowed in old-growth holding nests of rare birds
     by David J Knowles 
 31) [CA] Where the parties stand
     by David J Knowles 
 32) [CA] Eagle finds chicken too big to steal
     by David J Knowles 
 33) What's killing wild honeybees?
     by Andrew Gach 
 34) WWF backs hunting & capture of African elephants
     by Andrew Gach 
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 14:23:16 +0800
From: bunny 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Cc: mj.sherwood@nepean.uws.edu.au
Subject: Blowing up bunnies (Victoria,Australia)
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527141753.1baf184e@wantree.com.au>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Weekly Times (Victoria) 2nd April 1997

Burrow blasts a gas idea

By Joanne Collins

[Has large photo of two men carrying flame thrower-like equipment with caption
"Bunnie busters:Rid-A-Rabbit inventor George Douglas and John Maumill are
equipped to kill"]
Picture:Vince Calati

Blasting rabbit burrows is not in the spirit of Easter but farmers in the
Woady Yaloak catchment will do anything to combat their worst infestation in
40 years.

The Western District catchment-bounded by Linton and Cressy-is one of the
state's worst rabbit hot spots and the perfect site to test-drive a new
gassing device called Rid-A-Rabbit.

About 30 farmers and others keen to judge the merit of the $2450 device
including local MP Ian Smith,attended
the trial.

Inventor George Douglas operated the "blower", which released a spurt of LP
gas into the burrow, and his assistant John Maumill operated an electronic
probe that ignited the gas.

The demonstration was over in a matter of seconds, after a small tremor.

Farmers in the catchment are looking for another weapon in their rabbit
control arsenal and will probably purchase a unit between them.

The calicivirus failed in the area and Alcoa Woady Yaloak Project chairman
Kevin Knight said wool growers were losing grazing capacity of 2dse/ha.

Rid-A-Rabbit inventor George Douglas, a retired plumber and opal miner, has
tested his invention on 300 burrows
over the past eight months, non of which have been re-inhabited.

End
------------------------------------------------------------------------
          
Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa pounamu te moana, kia tere ai te karohirohi
i mua tonu i o koutou huarahi.
                              -Maori Prayer

(May the calm be widespread, may the sea be as the smooth surface of the
greenstone and may the rays of sunshine forever dance along your pathway)

  
  
                       ("\''/").___..--''"`-._  
                       `9_ 9  )   `-.  (     ).`-.__.`) 
                       (_Y_.)'  ._   )  `._ `. ``-..-' 
                     _..`--'_..-_/  /--'_.' .'          
                    (il).-''  ((i).'  ((!.-'     



Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 00:13:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Salmon war heating up
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001359.48179ac6@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

[Please note: the opinions expressed below are those of the people involved
and do not necessarily reflect my own]

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Following the failure of negotiations on a renewed Pacific
Salmon Treaty last week, the war of words between the Candian and U.S.
federal governments, plus plenty of shouting from the sidelines by the B.C.
provincial government - especially from B.C. premier Glen Clark, have now
turned to real action. Over the weekend, three U.S. fishing vessels have
been detained in Prince George, on northern Vancouver Island, pending their
skippers' appearance in court. Normally, U.S. vessels pass through Canadian
waters without any formalities, but the Canadian Coastguard have been
ordered to clamp down follwoing the treaty talks impasse.

All three skippers have been accused of failing to notify Candian
authorities that they were passing through Candian waters south of Alaska.

The action by the Canadians is expected to lead to retaliatory action from
the U.S. This could take the form of either refusing to allow permission for
B.C. Ferry Corporation vessels from sailing through U.S. waters on their way
out of the Tswassen ferry terminal - the main terminal for services between
Vancouver Island and the Mainland. An Alaskan senator has also suggested
that the U.S. impose a levy on all cruise ships leaving Vancouver en route
to Alaska. He also said that he believed that the seizure of the American
vessels on the Memorial Day weekend showed a great disrespect to the U.S. He
added that he was no big fan of the Canadians at the best of times.

The salmon treaty talks are due to resume later this week, but there is
little hope of success. 
At the heart of the stalemate is the fate of some 18 million chinook salmon,
which are due to return to the Fraser River, which flows through the Lower
Mainland of B.C.

Canadian fishermen, and the provincial governement are concerned that around
70 per cent of the chinook head through the Juan du Fucca Straight - where
the international border runs, and that the lack of a treaty would allow the
U.S. fishermen an opportunity to overfish the area.

Premier Clark is set to visit Washington State Governor Gary Locke tomorrow,
a meeting which Clark describes as "difficult".

David J Knowles
Animal Voices News

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 00:13:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Bailiffs try to oust airport tunnellers
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001402.08d78e14@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997

Bailiffs try to oust airport tunnellers
By Tom Leonard 

BAILIFFS evicting protesters from the site of Manchester Airport's planned
second runway are expected to step up their operation today after clearing
tunnellers and tree climbers from three of their six camps.

Protesters against the £172 million development near Styal, Cheshire,
boosted their numbers yesterday after dozens of supporters avoided security
guards surrounding the camps by paddling a dinghy down the River Bollin. The
last occupants of tunnels under Wild Garlic camp were led out on Sunday
night. Eight were charged with obstruction. 

Squads of balaclava-clad bailiffs have already cleared the Zion Tree and
Jimi Hendrix camps but protesters predict that they will face stiffer
opposition from the three remaining sites. Elaborate systems of tunnels and
treehouses have been built at all three camps, which are
populated by the most experienced tunnellers and climbers. 

At the Flywood camp, the tunnels are said to sink as much as 70 feet deep
and run up to 100 feet into a nearby hillside. Although activists claim to
have stocks of food to last up to two months, they are running low on water.

A spokesman for the contractors, AMEC/Tarmac, said they were pleased at the
progress of the operation. More than 60 protesters had been cleared from the
site since the eviction process began last Tuesday, he said.

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 00:13:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] EU figures confirm 'fishing disgrace'
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001404.4817d006@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997

EU figures confirm 'fishing disgrace'
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor 

THE Government's admission of "disgraceful" levels of illegal fishing by
British fishermen, disclosed in The Telegraph yesterday, was described by
the European Commission in Brussels last night as "an exact description of
the situation". 

The extent of "black" landings in Britain, which fisheries inspectors say
amounts to half of all landings of cod and saithe in Scottish ports where
most of Britain's fish is landed, was in line with the latest advice
provided by scientists. A commission spokesman stressed, however, that under
EU law it was the Government's responsibility, and not the responsibility of
Brussels, to take action.

The spokesman said: "This is very good news for us. Finally, we have started
to put the focus on where the problems are. The fishing sector has been a
political football for too many years without any political will to solve
problems. This is beginning to put the debate on the right level. This is
not a world of saints and martyrs. Each nation has its own speciality. If
the Spanish are good at things like hidden holds, the British fishermen are
good at manipulating logbooks and black landings."

Officials said that the commission had few means to ensure Britain cracked
down on the illegal fishing. It has 24 inspectors who monitor the
effectiveness of inspectors in member states. Many of these were
pre-occupied with disputes between tuna boats and with Canadian fishermen.

If significant abuses are suspected, the commission is entitled to take
legal action, but this can take years. Emma Bonino, the fisheries
commissioner, was more likely to put political pressure on errant nations to
sort out their own problems, said a source.

Options available to the Government include re-deploying the money it gets
from the EU on more enforcement. Some of this money requires matching funds
from the Treasury.

The commission is also inviting the Government to make its own proposals, by
next year, for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, particularly on
the replacement of the quota system that experts believe has utterly failed
to protect fish stocks.

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 00:13:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Hospital hit by E coli outbreak
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001406.4817f6aa@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997

Hospital hit by E coli outbreak
By Auslan Cramb, Scotland Correspondent 

A HOSPITAL that treated patients during the food poisoning epidemic that
killed 19 people last year is at the centre of a new E coli outbreak.

Health officials last night confirmed that 12 people, including two members
of staff, had become infected at Falkirk Royal Infirmary. The hospital
treated patients who became ill during the epidemic in November, which
affected more than 400 people and was linked to a
butcher's shop in Wishaw, Lanarkshire. 

The first signs of the latest outbreak were detected in three elderly
patients last week and their symptoms have since been confirmed as E coli
food poisoning.

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 00:13:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [UK] Appeal to safeguard sharks in the Med
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001408.48171890@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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>From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997

Appeal to safeguard sharks in the Med
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor 

CONSERVATIONISTS are to urge Mediterranean countries to overcome their
misgivings and protect the man-eating great white shark.

Campaigners will tell an international conference in Zimbabwe next month
that the number of sharks in the Mediterranean is dwindling and that species
are not subject to controls used in other parts of the world.

Monitoring by the European Shark Research Bureau of accidental catches in
commercial tuna nets and traps showed that numbers were declining rapidly.
Ian Fergusson, a biologist who has maintained a computer database on the
sharks since 1989, said it was not known
how many were left in the Mediterranean, but they had been declining fast in
the Sicilian Channel and the Adriatic where there was evidence of them
historically.

"The Croatian coast has all but lost white sharks as annual visitors,
despite their perennial appearance in the waters off Opatija and Cres Island
until a couple of decades ago," Mr Fergusson said. 

 "Sharks and rays are now on the verge of collapse in the Mediterranean.
There are absolutely no controls. The most difficult thing is to get across
that protecting sharks is the same thing as protecting dolphins and whales." 

The plight of sharks in all regions of the world will be discussed in Harare
at the conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species. A proposal for listing the Mediterranean sharks under one of the
convention's annexes, which would prevent
deliberate killing for export, has been prepared by experts including Mr
Fergusson.

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 00:13:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [RU] Unique Russian Seals Dead from Pulp Mill Effluent
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001411.48173b76@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

[The following has further info relating to what was posted earlier]

>From The Greenpeace Media Release Server

Many Baikal Seals Died in the Area where the Baikal Pulp & Paper Mill Dumps
its Waste Waters

Irkutsk, Moscow, May 26 1997. Many dead Baikal seals - a unique animal ,
which lives only in the waters of Baikal - were found by ecologists.
Representatives of Greenpeace Russia immediately arrived at the site and
made photo and video shooting, which testifies information about deaths of
several dozens of Baikal seals in the southern part of the lake. 
Animals which are dying or have already died were found near so called Murin
bank in 18
km from the Baikal Pulp & Paper Mill (BP&PM). During a quick survey of just
1.5 km of the coast, Greenpeace activists and experts from the Siberian
division of the Academy of Sciences of the RF found dead bodies each 50 m.

There may exist two causes for mass death of Baikal seal. 

The first one is contamination of the water by discharges from the BP&PM,
which uses a hazardous chlorine technology for bleaching paper, resulting in
presence of many toxic substances, dioxins - strongest poison - included, in
the mill's discharges. 

The infectious disease - plaque - is the other possible reason. However,
since the 1930s, there was registered only one case of such mass infection -
in 1987-88. Dead animals were found then along the whole coast of Baikal.
While at present dead bodies were discovered only in one area - in several
kilometres from the exhaust pipe of the BP&PM. The coastal stream, which
passes near the pipe, is also directed towards the place where most seals
were found. Even if seals died because of the infectious disease, the
disease could have been provoked by toxic releases of the mill, which had
considerably decreased resistance of animal organisms in the area of
discharges from the enterprise. 

The third version was that Baikal seals died because of poachers' actions,
but during the study of remains of the animals it was rejected.  According
to the findings of the first research, the Baikal seal has  been dying for
at least one and a half month, but the ice which was  melting slowly didn't
allow to find it out earlier.

For more information contact: Greenpeace Russia, tel. 251 90 73, Ivan
Blokov, Andrew Semenov. Irkutsk -3952 46 59 91 Roman Pukalov

Information for the editor:

Dioxins in the fat of the Baikal seal were found already ten years ago.
During the research of 1996, leading research officer of the Geological and
Chemical Institute of the Siberian
division of the Academy of Sciences of the RF Evgeniya Tarasova determined a
very high level of dioxins in the fat of animals - between 120-175 pg/kg.
These figures are comparable to and even exceed contents of this poison in
organisms of animal species, inhabiting the most polluted areas of the
Baltic sea.

Dutch scientists carried out a unique research on resistance of a seal's
organism to infectious diseases. They placed seals into two different
basins, the first group of animals was fed with usual fish from the Atlantic
ocean, while the second was given fish from the most dioxin polluted areas
of the Baltic sea. In a while both groups were plaque infected. The first
group survived it quite easily without any serious consequences, while the
animals of the second group died.

Greenpeace Russia has photo and video materials (including Betacam), which
show deaths of Baikal seals. All materials are available for journalists
from 5 p.m. May 26 1997.



Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 15:52:57 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (TH) Elephant poisoning case
Message-ID: <199705270752.PAA10979@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>Bangkok Post
27 may 97

Trackers race
              against time in
              elephant poisoning
              case

              Footprints indicate more are in danger

              A team of trackers yesterday began a search for elephants in a
              national park in Prachuab Khiri Khan to find out if any of the
              herd has been poisoned.

              Nikhom Phut-tha, programme director of Wildlife Fund
              Thailand, said yesterday he suspected that more elephants might
              have drunk water contaminated with poisonous chemicals.

              Footprints of more than two elephants were found near the pond
              and in the pineapple plantation where two elephants were found
              dead, suspected to have drunk contaminated water.

              Autopsies on the two animals showed the cause of death was
              pesticide poisoning. Mr Nikhom said park officials and villagers
              sympathetic to the elephants would clean up the pond to prevent
              a similar tragedy.

              Local police, he said were investigating who deliberately
              poisoned the pond.

              A seminar will be held on Thursday at Kasetsart University with
              the hope of finding a solution to help the elephants.

              The pineapple plantation in the national park was previously the
              feeding ground of a herd of elephants, numbering about 50, until
              some years ago when the land was encroached upon by
              villagers.

              The 20,000-rai area was leased by the tambon administrative
              organisation to local villagers who instead hired themselves out
              as contract farmers for pineapple canneries.

              Pressure is mounting for the provincial administration to
scrap the
              lease and to return the land to the elephants.

Article copyright Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd 1997
Reprinted for non-commercial use only.
Website: http://www.bangkokpost.net

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 15:54:58 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (SG) Bird lover beat cat to death for harassing his pet 
Message-ID: <199705270754.PAA11311@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"




>The Straits Times
27 may 97
Bird lover beat cat to death for harassing his pet 

     A MAN loved his pet bird, and had no qualms about beating a
     cat to death with a wooden stick, a district court heard yesterday.
     Tan Kok Hiong, 54, who admitted committing the cruel act on
     Dec 2 last year, will be sentenced this morning. He claimed that
     he beat the cat at his Hougang flat because it was harassing his pet
     bird inside its cage. 

The court heard that shortly after midnight that day, a resident of Hougang
Avenue 10 heard a cat's very loud cry. 

     Looking out of the window of his flat in a four-storey Housing Board
block, he saw a cat's paws sticking out of a balcony grille of a
ground-floor flat. He went down and saw Tan using a wooden stick to hit the
cat repeatedly, as it lay stuck in the grille. 

     He shouted to him, asking why he was doing that. Tan shouted something
back. The neighbour called the police. 

     Deputy Public Prosecutor Sunari Kateni said Tan had claimed that he was
beating the cat because it was disturbing his pet bird. 
He threw the cat's carcass into the rubbish chute behind another block of
flats. 

     The Central Veterinary Laboratory reported that the cat had died most
likely from
     severe pulmonary congestion and internal bleeding due to traumatic
assault. 

     Pleading for leniency, counsel Tan Cheng Kiong said two pet birds of
his client, an ardent bird-lover, had been killed by a stray cat. 

     He said Tan's third pet bird was left in such a state of shock that it
had refused to sing for a long time. 

     That night, when he returned home, he heard a commotion and saw the cat
harassing this last remaining pet of his, he added. On the spur of the
moment, he grabbed a stick to beat the stray, which turned violent. 
Counsel added that the cat was killed "in the struggle". He said his client
had exercised his right to protect his property and had not intended to kill
the stray. 

     Since the incident and the wide publicity given to the case, Tan had
been stigmatised by neighbours. 

     But the DPP pressed for a deterrent jail sentence from District Judge
Chay Yuen Fatt, saying that Tan's repeated hitting of the cat, a defenceless
creature, whose only mistake was to act according to its natural instincts,
was both vicious and cruel, as well as disproportionate to his attack. 

Mr Sunari then cited a recent case in which the Chief Justice jailed a
dog-beater for
one month after the prosecution appealed against the $500 maximum fine imposed. 

     "I submit that a strong message ought to be sent out to deter
similar-minded individuals who have no second thoughts about brutally
beating to death animals which may have caused aggravation in some form or
other to them," said the DPP. 


Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 08:03:46 -0400
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Yellowstone Wolves Prosper
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970527080344.006b536c@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from AP Wire page:
-----------------------------------
 05/27/1997 01:50 EST

 Yellowstone Wolves Prosper

 By TOM LACEKY
 Associated Press Writer

 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) -- To most of the world, it's
 Yellowstone National Park. To its transplanted Canadian wolves, it's Fat
 City.

 While Yellowstone's buffalo, elk and deer struggled to survive the
 winter, it was a different story for the wolves. To say they prospered
 would put it mildly; they have gone forth and multiplied -- like crazy.

 Eight of Yellowstone's nine wolf packs have produced 11 litters this
 spring. Yellowstone wolf biologist Douglas Smith said the number of pups
 this year may double the park's total wolf population of 47; not all have
 been counted yet.

 Two packs produced two litters each, and another had three litters. Such
 multiple litters are ``heartening'' indications of success in the effort
 to restore the predator to America's first national park, said David Mech
 of St. Paul, Minn., one of the nation's top wolf experts.

 ``It's an indication that a pack is doing well, getting plenty of food,''
 said Mech, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Interior Department.

 Thirty-one gray wolves were transplanted to Yellowstone from Canada in
 1995 and 1996 in a federal program to re-establish the big predators
 where they were wiped out some 70 years earlier.

 Eight packs remained inside the park. Only one has moved out, settling in
 a national forest northwest of Dubois, Wyo.

 ``That flabbergasts us,'' said Ed Bangs, head of the U.S. Fish and
 Wildlife Service program. ``We never thought that would happen, me
 especially. Wolves are extremely long-range animals.''

 The reintroduction program includes Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Canadian
 wolves were brought to Yellowstone and central Idaho, but they had been
 migrating naturally into Montana since the mid-1980s.

 The program was extraordinarily controversial, and it still has plenty of
 critics.

 Ranchers fear the growing wolf population may lead to the decimation of
 their cattle and sheep herds.

 Federal agents shot four wolves believed to have killed or maimed seven
 cattle at a southwest Montana ranch in 1995; the wolves had migrated into
 Montana from Canada. And one of the Yellowstone wolves was killed in
 January, shot several times and left in a river north of the park.

 Five Yellowstone wolves live alone, in addition to the 42 that live in
 nine packs. Packs can range from two to 20 animals but usually range from
 six to 12.

 Exactly how many pups have been born isn't known yet; the three litters
 that have been counted have 10, seven and five pups.

 ``There's a chance, a very good chance, we could have 40 or 50 pups in
 those 11 litters,'' Smith said. ``That would double the population.''

 ``A lot of what reproduction is based on is adequate food, and they
 definitely have adequate food here,'' he said.

 The wolves have been feeding on the area's abundant supply of elk and
 deer.

 In Idaho, it is estimated that a fully recovered wolf population would
 probably consume 1,600 head of deer and elk a year -- most of them dead
 or dying, while state studies indicate poachers illegally kill 10,000
 healthy deer and elk annually.

 Yellowstone's wolves are so comfy, in fact, that they're not splitting
 off to form new packs as early as usual. Oddly, that works against the
 program's objective of removing them from the endangered species list.

 When Montana, Idaho and Wyoming each have at least 10 breeding packs for
 three consecutive years, the species can be removed from the endangered
 list.

 Idaho has only three documented breeding pairs, but may have nine to 13,
 said Curt Mack, wolf recovery coordinator for the Nez Perce Indian tribe,
 which manages the Idaho program.

 ``The only time we can get visuals is wintertime, when those dark bodies
 show up against the white background,'' Mack said.

 Montana's voluntary immigrants appear to be outstripping even the
 spectacular success of those shanghaied to Yellowstone, at least in terms
 of packs. Montana may reach 10 breeding packs this summer, at least a
 year ahead of Idaho and Yellowstone, which is in Wyoming's northwest
 corner. Federal biologists will head into the Montana wilds in the next
 few days to begin counting.

 Public interest in the wolves has tapered off since the initial barrage
 of news coverage about the first releases in 1995. The wolf souvenirs
 that once inundated park stores -- T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, statues,
 paintings, postcards -- are almost gone now.

 ``That's a marketing thing,'' park spokeswoman Marsha Karle said Friday.
 Concessionaires ``told us wolves are passe. The big thing now is bison.''

Date: Tue, 27 May 97 07:09:25 UTC
From: SDURBIN@VM.TULSA.CC.OK.US
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Kansas Cracking Down on Poachers
Message-ID: <199705271212.IAA10421@envirolink.org>

(Tulsa World, "Outdoors Column," by Sam Powell, USA): Kansas is really
cracking down on poachers. In a case that may be precedent-setting in terms
of sentences for wildlife crime, a former Wichita, Kansas man has been
barred from all hunting in that state for 10 years. A man now living in
Lawrence, Kansas, after a long investigation, pleaded guilty to eight
counts of violation of wildlife laws. That included hunting with the aid
of a motor vehicle, hunting deer without a permit, hunting out of season,
failure to tag deer, criminal trespass, unlawful discharge of a firearm,
commercialization of wildlife, and illegal taking of game. He was ordered
to pay $2,217. in fines, court costs, and fees, and all hunting privileges
were revoked for 10 years. He was granted two years supervised probation in
lieu of jail time.

-- Sherrill
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 08:16:42 -0400
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Few Honeybees Means Poorer Produce 
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970527081640.0068f710@clark.net>
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05/27/1997 01:36 EST 

 Few Honeybees Means Poorer Produce 

 By KEVIN O'HANLON 
 Associated Press Writer 

 CINCINNATI (AP) -- The fruit may be bitter and vegetables smaller for
gardeners
 again this year because two types of tiny mites have wiped out most of the
wild
 honeybees in the United States. 

 Farmers and orchardists have been hit hard by the bee shortage, but are
finding
 ways -- expensive as they are -- to cope. However, says Hachiro Shimanuki,
head of
 the Agriculture Department's bee research laboratory in Beltsville, Md.,
``The home
 gardeners looking for bees to do their pollination have a problem.'' 

 About 95 percent of the nation's wild honeybees have died during the past
two or
 three years, by some estimates. The mites have been found in every state
except
 Hawaii. 

 And although bumblebees, butterflies and hummingbirds also pollinate,
honeybees
 are the nature's most prolific pollinators. 

 ``It was pretty pathetic,'' Richard Koenig of Cincinnati said of last
year's garden.
 ``Some years, I've had sacks of peppers to give away. Last year, I was
lucky to have
 enough for myself.'' 

 Many farmers and professional orchard owners are having to pay commercial
 beekeepers -- who treat their hives for mites -- to bring bees to their
farms to
 pollinate crops. That costs from $35 to $75 an acre, depending on the crop. 

 But all is not lost for the home gardener either. 

 ``It doesn't mean you're not going to have any cucumbers -- it means that
you're
 going to have fewer cucumbers and more misshapen or shrunken cucumbers,''
said
 Kim Flottum of A.I. Root Co. of Medina, Ohio, which publishes the
beekeeping trade
 journal Bee Culture. 

 But the fruits and vegetables that are produced could be bruised or even
bitter, he
 said. 

 Most affected will be apple, cherry, plum and pear trees, along with
cucumber,
 cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, squash, pepper and other plants in those
 families. 

 The mites arrived in the mid-1980s on bees imported from Europe. And many
bees
 not killed by mites have died from harsh winters in many areas the past
two years. 

 Before the mite epidemic, there were 5.2 million bee colonies in the
United States,
 half of which were wild, Flottum said. 

 Now there are only about 250,000 wild colonies. 

 The offending parasites are the Acarapis woodeye, also called the tracheal
mite, and
 the slightly larger Varroa mite. 

 The tracheal mite invades the bee's windpipe. The Varroa mite usually
attaches itself
 to the top of a bee's head and looks like a red splotch. 

 Both feed on the bees' blood, either killing them or making them
susceptible to
 disease. 

 Shimanuki said he thinks the worst of the mite problem is over. 

 ``We're making progress,'' he said. ``It all depends on who you talk to,
but I'm the
 eternal optimist.'' 

 Shimanuki said most commercial hives now are thriving because they are
treated for
 mites. That causes crowding, which in turn sends some of the treated bees
into the
 wild to make a new, less-crowded hive -- a process called swarming. 

 James Tew, a bee specialist at Ohio State University's honey bee
laboratory in
 Wooster, said, however, that bees that swarm eventually fall prey to the
mites in the
 wild. 

 Thus, the U.S. wild bee population likely never will grow on its own but
will have to be
 replenished by swarms from beekeepers' hives, he said. 

 ``The bees keep trying, but they keep dying out,'' Tew said. 
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 13:08:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: JanaWilson@aol.com
To: Ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Oklahoma's Wild Hog Hunting Bill
Message-ID: <970527130825_-263189704@emout04.mail.aol.com>


According to today's local Okla. City news, the Oklahoma
House has approved a plan to hunt wild hogs at night.  It
seems that some folks nearly got into serious trouble in the
past when they were using the headlights on their pickups to
track wild hogs and kill them because they say the animals
are a nuisance.
A bill which was approved by the Okla. state House Monday
night is an attempt to rectify the situation a/w Rep. Jim Glover
(D-Elgin).  A game warden got after some of those people who
nearly got arrested.
Ironically, the state House picked an evening to pass the bill
last night for a rare evening session.
Meanwhile, the measure allows the state Wildlife Dept. to issue 
permits to landowners, lessees or people who have permission
of the landowner.  The bill says those with permits are allowed
to go "headlighting...to take, catch, capture or kill feral animals."
"The animals live in the southeastern part of the state and also
the panhandle, and they're often seen in other parts of eastern
Oklahoma, especially along rivers."
"The wild hogs lay around all day, but they're out at night.
They can root up a field of Bermuda and ruin it," said Glover.
"They get in maize fields, hurt the milo."
Even hunting dogs don't like chasing down wild hogs, which
can weigh up to 600 lbs, in the daytime when it's too hot,
said Glover, so it's become a sport of sorts at night.
Often, lawmakers are accused of passing a lot of pork,
which means funding to aid special projects in their districts.
Although this was a "pork bill" it was a good kind of pork.
87 members voted for it.  The bill goes to the Senate this week.

                                            For the Animals,

                                            Jana, OKC
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 13:50:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: LMANHEIM@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Cc: nvoth@estreet.com
Subject: Fwd: Paul Watson Update 5-26-97
Message-ID: <970527135024_-1766170280@emout04.mail.aol.com>

In a message dated 97-05-27 05:53:00 EDT, nvoth@estreet.com (Nick Voth)
writes:

 << Subj:Paul Watson Update 5-26-97
  Date:97-05-27 05:53:00 EDT
  From:nvoth@estreet.com (Nick Voth)
  Reply-to:seashepherd@lists.estreet.com (Sea Shepherd Mailing List)
  To:seashepherd@lists.estreet.com (Sea Shepherd Mailing List)
 
 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           MAY 26th, 1997
 
 
 COURT RULING SEEN AS AN INITIAL VICTORY FOR PAUL WATSON
 
 
 Internationally Renowned Environmental Hero Not "Out of the Woods" Yet 
 
 Holland, May 26, 1997 -- Captain Paul Watson, Greenpeace Co-founder and
 President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, prevailed in the first
 stage of his court challenge against a Norwegian extradition request in
 Holland, when two of the more serious charges against Watson were dismissed
by
 presiding Judge van der Pijl.  
 
 "This means that Watson can not be extradited for his alleged 'reckless
 navigating' nor his alleged 'illegal entry into Norwegian waters'," says Sea
 Shepherd European Council Victor Koppe, who is representing Paul Watson
during
 the hearing.  "The Dutch court wants to take a short period of time now to
 reach a consensus on all the other arguments surrounding this case."
 
 Paul Watson, a vehement critic of illegal Norwegian whale hunting, was
 detained in Holland on April 2nd, 1997, because a Norwegian warrant was
issued
 for his arrest. "Apparently Norway feels it's a crime to be actively opposed
 to the illegal killing of whales," adds Bob Hunter, Canadian journalist and
 co-founder of Greenpeace, who is Interim Acting President of Sea Shepherd
 during this trial. "I guess that would make most citizens of the world
 criminals in the eyes of the Norwegian whaling interests".
 
 "The decision by the court today leaves only the minor allegation of
 'sending a false distress signal' open for debate," says Lisa
 Distefano,International Director of Operations for Sea Shepherd, "And even
if
 he's found guilty of that charge, the public will be reminded that Norwegian
 commandos dropped four depth charges, fired upon on our boat with 50mm
 cannons, and sheared the bow off our ship by ramming us during that
incident.
 The Dutch court will make a ruling on this last charge within 14 days -- and
 in that time, Captain Watson will have already served over 60 days in prison
 on predominantly false charges."  (In Holland, Canada, the United States and
 most other European nations, launching a false distress signal is only
 penalized by a moderate monetary fine, not with a jail sentence).
 
 "This initial verdict effectively means that the Norwegian government has
just
 been rebuffed for sending a trite and insignificant extradition order to
 Holland. We are relieved that the court has recognized the threats against
 Paul's life emanating from Norway. This is clearly a victory for Paul and
 everyone else opposed to the Norwegian whale slaughter, " adds Distefano.
 
 While praising the Dutch courts for their preliminary decision, Sea Shepherd
 is still concerned that the additional deliberation period may mean that the
 Norwegian government is busy lobbying the Dutch government with political
 incentives to extradite Watson.  "If Paul is sent to Norway even under these
 circumstances, it will be clear that this has become a political
decision,not
 one based on the fair judicial process," says Distefano.  "Just two weeks
ago
 Norway sent 37 whaling boats to engage in their annual illicit and illegal
 whale slaughter for commercial purposes.  It is time we put the spotlight
back
 on the real criminals." 
 
 For more information or to interview Paul Watson from prison, please
contact:
 
     Lisa Distefano at 310-301-7325
 
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
 Although denied bail, Captain Watson spirits remain high.  We are sure he
 could hear the 300-plus crowd who were chanting "Free Paul Watson" with
sounds
 of whales singing being broadcast over a loud speaker.  Sea Shepherd's
Interim
 Acting President Bob Hunter (who co-founded GreenPeace with Paul many years
 ago) held a press conference and did interviews with all of the major
European
 media that were present.
 
 Now more than ever Captain Watson needs your support! Please keep your
letters
 of support flowing to the Minister of Justice and please have your friends
do
 the same!  
 
 Please write or call both:
 Excellency W. Sorgdrager, The Minister of Justice
 and Mr. Ruyters,  International Bureau Rechtshulp
 P.O. Box 20301
 2500 EH The Haguex
 Tele: 011-31-70-370-7911
 Fax:  011-31-70-370-7900
 
 
 
 --
 
 *****************************
 Sent From Nick Voth
 System Administrator
 E Street Communications, Inc.
 
 *****************************
 
 
 
 ----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
 From seashepherd@lists.estreet.com  Tue May 27 05:52:13 1997
 Return-Path: 
 Received: from lists.estreet.com (lists.estreet.com [204.30.121.10])
       by mrin51.mail.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0)
       with SMTP id FAA25120;
       Tue, 27 May 1997 05:51:32 -0400 (EDT)
 Received: from estreet.com by lists.estreet.com with SMTP; Tue, 27 May 97
  03:51:27 -0600
 Date: Tue, 27 May 97 03:51:16 -0500
 From: nvoth@estreet.com (Nick Voth (admin))
 Organization: E Street Communications
 Subject: Paul Watson Update 5-26-97
 To: Sea Shepherd Mailing List 
 Message-ID: <9943176.ensmtp@estreet.com>
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---------------------
Forwarded message:
From:nvoth@estreet.com (Nick Voth)
 Reply-to:seashepherd@lists.estreet.com (Sea Shepherd Mailing List)
  To:seashepherd@lists.estreet.com (Sea Shepherd Mailing List)
Date: 97-05-27 05:53:00 EDT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           MAY 26th, 1997


COURT RULING SEEN AS AN INITIAL VICTORY FOR PAUL WATSON


Internationally Renowned Environmental Hero Not "Out of the Woods" Yet 

Holland, May 26, 1997 -- Captain Paul Watson, Greenpeace Co-founder and
President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, prevailed in the first
stage of his court challenge against a Norwegian extradition request in
Holland, when two of the more serious charges against Watson were dismissed
by
presiding Judge van der Pijl.  

"This means that Watson can not be extradited for his alleged 'reckless
navigating' nor his alleged 'illegal entry into Norwegian waters'," says Sea
Shepherd European Council Victor Koppe, who is representing Paul Watson
during
the hearing.  "The Dutch court wants to take a short period of time now to
reach a consensus on all the other arguments surrounding this case."

Paul Watson, a vehement critic of illegal Norwegian whale hunting, was
detained in Holland on April 2nd, 1997, because a Norwegian warrant was
issued
for his arrest. "Apparently Norway feels it's a crime to be actively opposed
to the illegal killing of whales," adds Bob Hunter, Canadian journalist and
co-founder of Greenpeace, who is Interim Acting President of Sea Shepherd
during this trial. "I guess that would make most citizens of the world
criminals in the eyes of the Norwegian whaling interests".

"The decision by the court today leaves only the minor allegation of
'sending a false distress signal' open for debate," says Lisa
Distefano,International Director of Operations for Sea Shepherd, "And even if
he's found guilty of that charge, the public will be reminded that Norwegian
commandos dropped four depth charges, fired upon on our boat with 50mm
cannons, and sheared the bow off our ship by ramming us during that incident.
The Dutch court will make a ruling on this last charge within 14 days -- and
in that time, Captain Watson will have already served over 60 days in prison
on predominantly false charges."  (In Holland, Canada, the United States and
most other European nations, launching a false distress signal is only
penalized by a moderate monetary fine, not with a jail sentence).

"This initial verdict effectively means that the Norwegian government has
just
been rebuffed for sending a trite and insignificant extradition order to
Holland. We are relieved that the court has recognized the threats against
Paul's life emanating from Norway. This is clearly a victory for Paul and
everyone else opposed to the Norwegian whale slaughter, " adds Distefano.

While praising the Dutch courts for their preliminary decision, Sea Shepherd
is still concerned that the additional deliberation period may mean that the
Norwegian government is busy lobbying the Dutch government with political
incentives to extradite Watson.  "If Paul is sent to Norway even under these
circumstances, it will be clear that this has become a political decision,not
one based on the fair judicial process," says Distefano.  "Just two weeks ago
Norway sent 37 whaling boats to engage in their annual illicit and illegal
whale slaughter for commercial purposes.  It is time we put the spotlight
back
on the real criminals." 

For more information or to interview Paul Watson from prison, please contact:

     Lisa Distefano at 310-301-7325

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Although denied bail, Captain Watson spirits remain high.  We are sure he
could hear the 300-plus crowd who were chanting "Free Paul Watson" with
sounds
of whales singing being broadcast over a loud speaker.  Sea Shepherd's
Interim
Acting President Bob Hunter (who co-founded GreenPeace with Paul many years
ago) held a press conference and did interviews with all of the major
European
media that were present.

Now more than ever Captain Watson needs your support! Please keep your
letters
of support flowing to the Minister of Justice and please have your friends do
the same!  

Please write or call both:
Excellency W. Sorgdrager, The Minister of Justice
and Mr. Ruyters,  International Bureau Rechtshulp
P.O. Box 20301
2500 EH The Haguex
Tele: 011-31-70-370-7911
Fax:  011-31-70-370-7900



--

*****************************
Sent From Nick Voth
System Administrator
E Street Communications, Inc.

*****************************


Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 11:32:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Friends of Animals 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: FoA and PDI file lawsuit
Message-ID: <2.2.16.19970527141959.5f27b608@pop.igc.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Friends of Animals  and Predator Defense Institute File Lawsuit 

Tacoma, Washington-May 27, 1997 --- Accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service of
mismanaging the endangered Columbia whitetailed deer to the verge of
extinction at the southern Washington refuge created for the species 
34 years ago, Friends of Animals and the Predator Defense Institute today
in Federal District Court sued Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit, the 
Interior Department and Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge 
manager James Hidy.

Friends of Animals, of Darien, Connecticut, has 200,000 members and
supporters nationwide, and partners withthe Interior Department in 
projects including wolf reintroduction and protection of African elephants
from poaching.  The Oregon-based Predator Defense Institute, involved
in wildlife policy review, is best known for exposing allegedly misrepresented
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reports of puma activity.

Hidy, claiming coyotes are keeping hte Julia Butler Hansen Refuge 
whitetailed deer herd from recovering to target numbers, in February 
hired a trapper from the Animal Damage Control program of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, who killed at least five coyotes at the refuge
this spring, and is to keep killing coyotes for three more years.

The hiring came days after U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division of
Refuges acting chief Stan Thompson issued a memo to refuge managers
indicating that they should find ways to emphasize the use of leghold
traps for species conservation, in support of government and fur industry
efforts to keep the European Community from enforcing a ban on the 
import of furs commonly taken with leghold traps, due to take effect 
in June.

Before the trapping could start, Hidy and staff produced an Environmental
Assessment -but FoA and PDI contend it violates the National 
Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the 
Administrative Procedures Act, because a formal Environmental Impact
Statement was not prepared; Hidy et al failed to consider alternatives to
killing coyotes; failed to consider that coyote predation was not the main
cause of falling deer numbers; failed to consider climatic impacts on the
deer; and failed to consider the effect of the deer of extensive cattle 
grazingand hay harvesting done at the refuge.

FoA and PDI cite numberous studies and reports done at the Julia
Butler Hansen Refuge over the years which establish that the deer 
herd is limited by persistent malnutrition and lack of cover, both
results of the cattle grazing and hay harvesting.  The land has been 
managed essentially as it was before the refuge was designated.
If those trends continued, the 1972 federal proposal to form the 
refuge warned, "This could eventually cause the extinction of the
Columbian whitetailed deer, which is dependent upon a large
amount of river-type cover."

Very little of such covere remains on the main land portion of the
refuge, where the herd has fallen to about 60, from a high of 
500 briefly reached 12 years ago, after Hidy had most of the resident
elk shot in 1983 to make more food available to the deer without 
substantially reducing the presence of cattle.  As the elk recovered,
the deer again declined.

The ranchers using the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge in effect get the 
grass for free.  On paper, they paid the refuge $23,356 in 1996 -but
the same contracts credited them for "mowing," chiefly by having 
cattle eat the grass short; fertilizing a mere 12 of the 1,632 acres 
used for haying and grazing; and transporting cattle to and from
several refuge islands.  The ranchers were then further credited for
fence repair to whatever extent necessary to insure that they would
pay no cash.  Fence repair credits for 41 hours and 50 hours of fence
repair, respectively, went with leases of 612 and 457 acres, yet fence
repair credits of 31 hours and 21 hours were issued with leases of just
47 and 44 acres.

Julia Butler Hansen Refuge manager James Hidy has repeatedly refused
to disclose the names of the leaseholders, requested by news media under 
the Freedom of Information Act.  His refusals are now under appeal, and
may also become subject of legal action.

For more information, contact FoA at (203) 656-1522

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 14:32:59 -0500 (CDT)
From: Suzanne Roy 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: More Coulston Chimps Die
Message-ID: <199705271932.OAA29312@dfw-ix14.ix.netcom.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

In Defense of Animals
131 Camino Alto, Suite E
Mill Valley, CA   94941
415/388-9641
idausa@ix.necom.com

PRESS RELEASE

  Date:  May 27, 1997 Contact: Eric Kleiman, 717-939-3231

     TWO MORE COULSTON CHIMPANZEES DEAD
     4 Deaths in 4 Months Prompt Calls for Stepped-Up Federal Action

 Alamogordo, NM -- Two more chimpanzees have died at the New Mexico-based
Coulston Foundation (TCF), In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced today.  In
complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National
Institutes of Health, IDA requested investigations of these latest
chimpanzee deaths -- the third and fourth to die at TCF in the last four
months.  IDA also called upon the federal government to act "quickly,
decisively, and punitively"  against TCF for its continued animal welfare
violations.

"Clearly, there are fundamental problems with TCF's animal care program,"
stated IDA Program Director Suzanne Roy.  "How many more chimpanzees and
monkeys must die before TCF is forced into compliance with federal law?"

According to whistleblowers, one of the two latest chimpanzees died from an
infectious disease, possibly bacterial meningitis.  If confirmed, that would
be the same cause that had previously killed four young, healthy chimpanzees
at TCF in less than two years.  After these July 1994 and February 1996
deaths, TCF claimed that three of the four chimpanzees displayed no clinical
signs of the illness.  However, primate veterinary experts consulted by IDA
stated that bacterial meningitis normally exhibits easily-observed clinical
symptoms.

The USDA is currently investigating the January 1997 death of a young,
healthy, 11-year-old male chimpanzee named Jello, and the March 1997 death
of a young, healthy female named Echo.  TCF settled formal USDA charges in
June 1996 by agreeing to pay a $40,000 fine -- the second-largest in USDA
history -- and promising to cease and desist from violating the Animal
Welfare Act.  According to IDA, the negligent circumstances surrounding the
deaths of both Echo and Jello, indicate that TCF has violated the terms of
the cease and desist order.  

Since 1993, 27 chimpanzees and other non-human primates have died
"unexpectedly" at TCF.   The departure of seven veterinarians from TCF in
three years has contributed to deteriorating animal care conditions at the
facility, IDA said.

"These latest tragedies make it four deaths in four months at TCF,"
concluded Roy.  "We urge the USDA to act swiftly in filing formal charges
against TCF.  The more the federal government delays, the more the
chimpanzees at TCF will pay for it with their lives."

In Defense of Animals is a national animal advocacy organization based in
    Mill Valley, Calif. 
- end -

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 15:40:55 -0400
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Weeds showing herbicide resistance           
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970527154052.006cfc9c@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

references to genetically altered crops
from Mercury Center web page:
-----------------------------------------------
Posted at 12:07 p.m. PDT Tuesday, May 27, 1997     

Weeds showing herbicide resistance                      

BY GEORGE ANTHAN
The Des Moines Register

WASHINGTON -- The hot, dusty, backbreaking job of
weeding farm fields with hoe or by hand pretty much
ended in American agriculture with the arrival of
chemical herbicides after World War II.

This technology and the machines that helped
implement it revolutionized food production in the
United States and elsewhere.

They led to the huge increases in agricultural
productivity that have kept a world whose
population has doubled in 50 years from
experiencing the widespread famines predicted by
English economist Thomas Malthus.

The technology also made millions of farmers
unnecessary.

Where a farm family once could work only about 160
acres, and then only with plenty of children to do
hand weeding, a single farmer now routinely can
handle 1,000 acres or more.

Yet, scientists -- and farmers -- are beginning to
ask: ``Are weeds staging a comeback?''

There are reports that more and more weed species
have developed resistance to many herbicides.

The Environmental Protection Agency last year
stated that 270 weed species were reported to have
developed pesticide resistance. This compared with
48 species identified as resistant in a 1986
National Academy of Sciences report.

Monsanto Co. is studying a report that a type of
rye grass in Australia has developed resistance to
its widely used Roundup herbicide. Company
officials have emphasized that up to now there have
been no proven cases of weed resistance to Roundup,
which uses the chemical compound glyphosate.
``Taken Off''
``Weed resistance to herbicides has taken off,''
said Charles Benbrook, a Washington consultant who
is a former official of the National Academy's
Board on Agriculture. Benbrook long has advanced
non-chemical pest-control methods.

In its report 11 years ago, the academy warned that
``literally hundreds of species of insects, plant
pathogens, rodents and weeds have become resistant
to chemical pesticides. Indeed, resistance to
pesticides is a global phenomenon. It is growing in
frequency and stands as a reminder of the
resiliency of nature.''

Douglas Buhler, research agronomist at the
Agriculture Department's National Soil Tilth
Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, agreed: ``The key point
is the resiliency of nature. We have thought that
by using pesticides we could outfox nature. And
we're not.''

Robert Gordon Harvey, professor of agronomy at the
University of Wisconsin, said, ``We're seeing
worldwide a greater number of instances of
herbicide-resistant weeds.''

Harvey said a major reason is the emphasis in
recent decades on growing the same crop in the same
fields year after year, referred to as
``monoculture.''

``As we've gone to monoculture, we've produced a
very inefficient ecosystem. If you have only corn
in a field, nature says there's room for other
plant species in that environment.''

Harvey said, ``There are a lot of opportunities to
manage weeds, but we have to be proactive.'' He
advises farmers to have a five-year weed management
plan that can include crop rotations, cultivation
and a rigorous schedule both for application of
chemicals and for the types of herbicides applied.

Adaptability
Harvey said weed resistance is a perfect example of
nature's persistence. Weeds, he said, for centuries
have been able to resist man's control measures.

He noted that in India, women are sent into the
fields periodically to pull a certain noxious weed,
which could be identified by its red stem. The
women methodically pulled all red-stemmed plants.

``But the weed adapted,'' said Harvey. ``It
developed a green stem. The key to weed control is
not to use the same process too many times in a
row.''

Ray McAllister, director of regulatory affairs for
the American Crop Protection Association, which
represents pesticide manufacturers, agrees that use
of different herbicides, crop rotations and
application of ``integrated pest management''
(often using non-chemical controls) is ``absolutely
essential.''

McAllister said resistance ``is inevitable, given
the way plants evolve.''

McAllister added that new, highly active, low-dose
herbicides can result in minor genetic changes in
weeds that can ``make plants resistant to those
herbicides.''

He said the overall situation is one the industry
has ``anticipated, planned for and worked around.
We do that with a weed-control strategy that uses a
variety of herbicides, watches for development of
resistance'' and emphasizes ``planning alternative
control strategies.''

Crop Rotation
McAllister said chemical companies ``are the first
to tell the farmer, `Don't use this product two or
three years in a row.' Crop rotations, which enable
you to break up the ... life cycle of weeds, and
integrated pest management are absolutely
essential.''

But Harvey, the University of Wisconsin scientist,
said, ``There's a continued reluctance among
growers and chemical manufacturers to engage in or
encourage practice of sound resistance
management.''

He contends, ``Short-term profits seem to take
precedence,'' although Harvey said he sympathizes
with a farmer ``faced with a note due at the
bank,'' who seeks to maximize his immediate output
instead of trying to prevent a future problem.

Lisa Drake, public affairs director for Monsanto,
emphasized that ``to this point, we have not
verified field resistance to Roundup. But, having
said that, we are a science-based company. We're
very interested in understanding the phenomenon of
resistance.''

Drake said: ``Two or three times a year, we get
calls of a particularly tough weed alleged to be
resistant. We always do the same thing. We get some
of the weed and we test it out.''

Altered Crops
Scientists also are concerned that crops
genetically engineered to resist herbicides or
plant viruses -- such as Monsanto's soybean and
Asgrow Seed Co.'s squash -- could promote weed
resistance if the crops's resistant genes escape to
weeds, creating an especially hardy variety of the
wild species.

Eric Johnson of Monsanto said the development of
soybeans that resist Roundup and thus allow farmers
to spray weeds without worrying about damaging
their crop ``actually provides a new tool for
managing weeds.''

Fourteen leading agricultural chemical companies
have formed the Herbicide Resistance Action
Committee to help develop ``effective, reliable,
practical and economical'' strategies to deal with
weed resistance.

At the same time, the committee says that while
many hundreds of cases of resistance have been
documented worldwide, ``only under exceptional
circumstances has resistance become a limiting
factor for crop production, and then only on a
local basis. ... ''

Robert Zimdahl, a professor of weed science at
Colorado State University, summed up the resistance
concerns in a 1992 essay for a USDA symposium on
pesticides:

``For most of the Western world's history, we have
gloried in our Promethean power -- the power of
science.''

In ancient Greek lore, Prometheus stole fire from
the heavens and gave its energy to man.

But, he continued, ``for all its wonders and
undeniable benefits, science and its associated
technology have a disquieting aura of fallibility.
Pandora may be a more important part of our
inheritance than Prometheus.''

Pandora, also a figure in Greek mythology, opened a
forbidden box and let out all the evils that have
since afflicted mankind.

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 15:41:11 -0400
From: allen schubert 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (US) Water dealing; New spin like the old one?   
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970527154108.006ce5dc@clark.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

from Mercury Center web page:
---------------------------------------------
Posted at 12:06 p.m. PDT Tuesday, May 27, 1997      

Water dealing; New spin like the old one?               

BY LARRY GERBER
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- Earth to Southern California: You
can't go on drinking this way.

The most populous section of the nation's most
populous state is getting notice that its long
happy hour -- a half-century of free-flowing water
from the Colorado River -- is almost over.

The Southwest now soaks up, on paper at least, more
water than the river carries most years. Told they
must stop ``borrowing'' other states' water,
Californians are eyeing each other's entitlements.

Farmers in California's Imperial Valley, who have
rights to more Colorado River water than most
Western states use -- are finding they control a
commodity more valuable than their alfalfa or
lettuce.

Thanks to full reservoirs, nobody will get thirsty
soon. But somebody will surely get upset.

``Right now the stakes are so large, and the game,
or winning the war, seems so important to one side
or another,'' said Timothy H. Quinn, deputy general
manager of the giant Southern California
Metropolitan Water District.

``There's just a heck of a lot going on right now
in the way of negotiations, decisions,'' said
Quinn, whose agency carries water to more than 16
million Southern Californians, 220,000 new ones
each year.

``The future of the next 25 or 30 years is being
determined within the next couple of years.''

California's classic water conflicts began with the
century, when Los Angeles tapped -- some say stole
-- the Owens River, 230 desert miles to the north.

The fights pitted North against South, farms
against cities, and later, environmentalists
against all. They inspired a classic movie,
``Chinatown.'' They caused a tragedy: the collapse
of St. Francis Dam in 1928 that killed nearly 500.

The drought of the late 1980s and early '90s forced
the combatants together to salvage the Sacramento
River drainage. Heart of the state's water system,
it remains the main source for Southern California.

``That consensus was not possible until we had gone
through a very ugly period of conflict,'' Quinn
said. ``Unfortunately, with some of the Colorado
questions, we are just entering that stage.''

Stage center is southeastern California, in the
man-made oasis of the Imperial Valley, population
140,000. Farmers there have senior rights to more
than three times the amount of Colorado water the
entire state of Utah now uses. Their harvest is
worth $1 billion a year.

If drought dries up all the pools in Beverly Hills,
farmers like John Grizzle can still soak their
crops. The Imperial Irrigation District controls
about 3.5 million of California's 4.4 million
acre-feet of Colorado water.

An acre-foot would fill a wading pool the size of a
football field. Experts say it is enough water for
two average families a year. It takes six acre-feet
to irrigate one of Grizzle's ``average'' acres.

``If we let it go, we want to make sure we get a
good price for it,'' said Grizzle, who has raised
hay, cattle and produce for 33 years. ``We're
talking about the lifeblood of the valley.''

The Metro district is entitled to 550,000 acre-feet
from the river, about a quarter of its needs. Metro
has been using up to 1.2 million out of other
states' shares.

Those shares now water new towns and suburbs from
Denver to Phoenix. The neighbors want to see
California's water plan, when it gets one.

California must begin bringing demand into balance
with supply. And that's going to be expensive.

``Yes, that's inevitable,'' Quinn said. ``The
question is how much are you going to have to pay,
and when are you going to have to start paying
it.''

At least city dwellers won't have to worry about
water bills like Grizzle's -- up to $15,000 a
month. Much of his cost is for equipment and
delivery. He pays only $13 an acre-foot for water
his district gets free.

Metro, a wholesaler with 27 member customers from
Los Angeles to San Diego, charges up to $349 an
acre-foot. The money maintains nearly 800 miles of
canals, pipelines and aqueducts across some of the
harshest desert on earth.

The agency is building more. A giant new reservoir
near Hemet in central Southern California will hold
an emergency earthquake supply for Los Angeles. The
way fault lines run, however, San Diego can't count
on the Eastside Reservoir.

San Diego, a Metro member, wants to buy water from
the Imperial Valley and use Metro pipe to carry it
100 miles or so west. The latest arguments erupted
over that proposition.

Metro's answer was ``wheeling,'' or carrying a
commodity to a buyer on behalf of an outside
seller, as do gas and electricity companies.

Since Metro members must maintain the system, the
agency wants a $262 per acre-foot wheeling maximum
to cover costs.

``I think Metro has viewed us as their own private
water source down here,'' Grizzle said. ``I think
they have to get real and stop playing games and
let this deal happen.''

Imperial's deal with San Diego would bring the farm
district nearly $300 million over 10 years. It
would start with a 1999 shipment of 20,000
acre-feet at $200 and go up from there, in quantity
and price.

Metro wants Imperial to say exactly how much
irrigation water it needs a year. The rest would
theoretically be available for people, power
generation or the river itself.

``When you start doing that kind of different
access ... you're asking for political warfare,''
Quinn said.

The battleground moved this spring to Sacramento,
where opposing legislators squared off.

``What we're working on now, with the rest of
California, is to live within the entitlement for
California,'' said Patricia Brock, spokeswoman for
the Imperial district.

The sold water, legally for agriculture rather than
cities, must be freed up by conservation measures
like recycling, lining or covering canals.

``We like to point out that farming is market
driven, and that water has value,'' Brock said. ``I
don't think people think about the water they eat
every day when they eat a plate of food, and what
it took to grow that.''

Also at odds with Imperial is the neighboring
Coachella Valley Water District, which has
subordinate rights.

Once watering just farms, it now supplies golf
courses, housing tracts and Indian casinos east of
Palm Springs, one of the fastest-growing areas of
the country.

``We need to look at the northern (California)
water,'' Grizzle said. ``Some of that water's going
to have to flow down into Southern California.

``A lot of it just goes into the ocean. ... I know
that environment and the fish and all are a
concern, but people come first, and people have to
eat.''

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 16:53:44 -0400
From: "H. Morris" 
To: veg-nyc@waste.org
Subject: Humane Traps
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970527165336.00720e54@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"

The Associated Press


      By DAVID CRARY

      VEGREVILLE, Alberta (AP) - Their mission sounds like an

oxymoron: devising traps to kill animals as humanely as possible.

      Using high-tech methods approved by a national council of

veterinarians, a research team in this small prairie town is

testing a variety of lethally named contraptions. For example,

there's the C-120 Magnum, a ``single-strike rotating jaw trap with

pitchfork trigger.''

      Animal-rights militants denounce the work as ghastly. They also

oppose it because it is a crucial part of the strategy employed by

Canada's government and fur industry in the global battle over the

fur trade.

      Canada is playing a pivotal role in a long-running dispute

between the European Union and the major trapping nations. The EU

has been threatening for years to ban fur imports from Canada,

Russia and the United States unless they outlaw all leg-hold traps,

which many animal-rights groups consider barbaric.

      Canada has negotiated a compromise it hopes will be ratified by

the EU in June. It has agreed to phase out steel leg-hold traps

over the next four years, but would allow trappers to continue

using padded leg-hold traps while international standards are

developed for improved trapping methods.

      Those standards would be based in large measure on the research

being done in Vegreville, 65 miles east of Edmonton, at a

government complex housing various agricultural, wildlife and

environmental programs.

      Since 1985, the Trap Effectiveness Project has spent more than

$8 million on developing ``humane trapping systems.''

      Larry Roy, the project director, said countering an EU ban is

one of the top priorities of his 11-member team.

      The team tests its traps in a five-acre compound where coyotes,

martens and other fur-bearing animals are kept in large pens that

try to simulate natural conditions. Human contact is kept to a

minimum, and infrared video monitoring is used to observe the

animals' interaction with the traps.

      ``There's nothing else like this in the world,'' Roy said.

``We've done more work than anybody.''

      The researchers try to minimize the number of live animals

killed in testing. One new technique is to use a simulated trap on

a computer. Roy showed a visitor a computer-generated animation in

which a marten's neck is broken when it nibbles at a baited trap

attached to a log leaned against a tree.

      Traps are tested for practicality and effectiveness. Those

designed to kill an animal must consistently hit vital spots - the

head, neck or chest - and should render 70 percent of animals

insensible to pain in less than five minutes. Current so-called

kill traps mostly wound animals, which can linger for hours or days

in great pain before dying.

      A different standard is being worked out for restraining traps,

which hold a live animal until the trapper returns. Researchers are

seeking to measure the trauma a trapped animal suffers, and develop

traps that can keep the trauma below an acceptable level.

      An animal-care council that includes veterinarians monitors the

methods used by the trap-testing team, but animal-rights activists

still criticize the Vegreville project.

      ``These are pretty ghoulish kinds of experiments,'' said Ainslie

Willock of the Animal Alliance of Canada.

      At the center of the dispute is the leg-hold trap, which in the

past clamped tight on an animal's leg with toothed metal jaws.

Canada has outlawed the toothed models for many years, but animal

rights groups still display them at rallies and in advertisements.

      Non-toothed leg-hold traps are still used in Canada for a few

larger species like lynx and fox. But a large majority of the 1

million animals trapped annually for fur in Canada are caught in

killing traps, said Alison Beal, executive director of the Fur

Institute of Canada.

      ``The animal welfare people have an emotional allergy to

leg-hold traps that's bred out of ignorance,'' she said.

      The tentative agreement between Canada and the EU would set

international standards for acceptable trapping methods, species by

species.

      The Vegreville team has approved traps for eight species,

including an underwater model that catches and drowns beavers. A

restraining trap has been developed for red foxes that has neoprene

padding on the metal jaws and a shock-absorbing spring in the

trap's chain to prevent ligament injury once a fox is caught.

      The research is part of an aggressive, well-financed campaign by

Canada's fur industry to head off an EU import ban. One of its best

weapons has been lobbying in Europe by Inuit and Indian leaders who

note that half of Canada's 80,000 trappers are indigenous peoples

and would be devastated by a ban.

      Native delegations, including one led by World War II veterans,

toured Europe to denounce the ban as a potential violation of a

U.N. covenant protecting the livelihoods of aboriginal peoples.

      ``We helped liberate the European countries when they were

really in need,'' said Gilbert MacLeod, an Indian from Saskatchewan

who fought in Belgium and France. ``Now we are in need, and we're

coming to them to ask them to consider our cause.''

      The Canadian government and fur industry believe they are making

headway in the battle for public opinion, depicting trapping as a

time-honored way of managing wildlife populations and using a

renewable resource.

      ``Trappers have to get a license,'' said Beal, the trade group

director. ``They are not people blundering about without a clue of

what they're doing, just sort of killing things,''

      Beal expressed appreciation for the government's efforts on

behalf of trappers, saying lessons had been learned after lobbying

by animal rights groups nearly crushed the Canadian sealing

industry in the 1980s.

      ``From the prime minister on down, Canadian officials are doing

a masterful job keeping our trade open,'' she said.

      Complicating the dispute is a division within the European

Union. EU environment ministers, who deal closely with

animal-rights groups, favor barring fur imports. But trade

ministers support the compromise that would allow continued use of

some leg-hold traps.

      Both Canada and the United States, which hasn't yet endorsed the

compromise, have threatened to lodge a complaint with the World

Trade Organization if a ban is imposed.

      Willock, of the Animal Alliance of Canada, is optimistic the

European Parliament will demand that the compromise be scrapped in

favor of a tougher line on leg-held traps.

      ``The fur industry is worried sick about Europe,'' she said.

``If the ban is put into place, it sends the message that all fur

is cruel.''

      Willock said the anti-fur movement is worried the fur market

might boom in Russia and China, but believes its heyday in the West

is over.

      ``This is an industry that doesn't have a future,'' she said.

``It has lost its market niche.''

      The fur industry says export figures show otherwise. After a

bleak period in the late 1980s and early '90s, exports have surged

back. Canada's exports of fur garments rose 45 percent last year to

$90 million, and exports of raw furs were up 36 percent to $100

million, the Canadian Fur Council says.

      Alan Herscovici, the council's director of strategic

development, attributed the upsurge to better global economic

conditions and innovation by fur designers.

      ``A ban would be a serious blow for everybody,'' Herscovici

said. ``If we're going to get into arbitrary trade bans based on

pseudo-science, then our whole world trading system is in

trouble.''

Vegan Standards and Certification Project, Inc.

91 Joralemon Street

Suite 4

Brooklyn, NY 11201

email: VeganStandards@ibm.net

www.veganstandards.org

718-246-0014

fax: 718-246-5912

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 18:14:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: TARowley@aol.com
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Woman Helps Bird Duck Out Of Death Sentence
Message-ID: <970527181022_485938742@emout20.mail.aol.com>

Here is the story of the Northern Virginia mallard -

WOMAN HELPS BIRD DUCK OUT OF DEATH SENTENCE
Woodbridge, Virginia
May 27, 1997

by Richard Hill of The Potomac News


Even with calls on her behalf from as far away as New York and Massachusetts
and as close as a Prince William County supervisor's office, Precious the
nearly doomed duck can never know just how memorable this holiday weekend was
for her.

At 7 pm Friday, the mallard, who is missing the top half of her beak from a
mysterious injury, was frolicking in a pond at Veterans Memorial Park in
Woodbridge as she always does, waiting for her nightly, hand-delivered meal
from self-appointed caretaker Teresa Rowley.

Twenty-four hours later, Precious was in the back of an Animal Control tuck,
mere hours from euthanasia - the only thing separating her from death being
the arrival of the worker whose daily responsibilities include putting
animals to sleep.

But by Sunday night she was free again, sitting in a Fairfax veterinarian's
office awaiting her eventual return to the wild, which is expected this
afternoon.

The saga of the last few days really began in March when Rowley started
feeding the mallard.  The wildlife lover unoficially adoped the bird and even
recruited a Fairfax veterinarian to build a prosthetic bill for it.

The life-death-life-again twist in the story occurred Saturday when the
Woodbridge resident came to the park with the duck's nightly chow.  Rowley
says Precious has an internal clock that leads her to be in the same place at
7 every evening wherea soupy mixture of crushed corn, duck feed and water
awaits her.  But on Saturday, Precious didn't show.

Being a few minutes early, Rowley didn't fret -- after all, she thought, it
wasn't the ducks timing that was off, it was hers.  The county Animal Control
truck parked beside the pond didn't register with her as trouble.

But after a wile a sinking feeling set in.  Whe she converred wit the park
ranger, her worst fears were realized:  the duck, perceived to be injured and
in danger, had been captured by an animal warden.

A quick call to the worker who handled the duc, Pauline Shatswell, revealed
the direness of the situation.  Precious, whom an independent wildlife
rehabilitator working on behalf of Shatswell deemed too lame to live, was in
line for pre-dawn euthanasia.

"I probably took 30 minutes and cried," Rowley said Monday.  "I thought there
was nothing I could do."

In reality, the only thing she could do was register the aid of as many
people as possible.  Through Internet contact, wildlife activists from as far
away as New Englad were on the case within minutes, lobbying for Precious'
life.  County supervisor Michele McQuigg, R-Occoquan, was apprised of the
situation and made a post-mid-night plea to game officials.  

When a shelter worker arrived at work about 7:00 Sunday morning, there were
calls from as far away as New York pleading for Precious.  The bird sentence
was commuted, mostly, Shatswell said, because of the educated appeals on her
behalf.

That afternoon, Rowley came to pick up Precious and take her to the
veterinarian who had agreed to rebuild the duck's beak.  By Monday, more good
news:  the animal doctor said the bill was showing signs of growing back
naturally and surgery would not be necessary.

Rowley is overwhelmed by the support she received, singling out McQuigg for
special praise.

"This bird doesn't have a clue what almost happened to her," Rowley said.
 "She doesn't have a clue how many people came together to save her.  But I
know, and I'm pretty damn happy."



Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 22:41:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Debbie Leahy 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [US] Chicago's Monkeygate
Message-ID: <01IJDPUXP2829EEQM0@delphi.com>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release - 1 page                    27 May 1997

             Angry "Monkeys" Storm City Hall
         ACTIVISTS EXPOSE "MONKEYGATE"

CHICAGO, IL - Members of Illinois Animal Action (IAA), wearing prison
suits and monkey masks, will protest at city hall, 121 N. LaSalle
(LaSalle & Washington) in Chicago, on Wednesday, 28 May 1997, from
1:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.  Activists are calling on Mayor Richard Daley
to retrieve a baboon who was recklessly given to monkey dealer Dana
Savorelli of Kansas City, Missouri, by Chicago Animal Control (CAC). 
The baboon was among 92 animals confiscated from the home of Hope
Shiluk on April 29.

CAC gave Savorelli the primate despite earlier offers from IAA and
other animal protection organizations to assist with placing the
confiscated animals into reputable sanctuaries.  CAC's careless
actions will perpetuate the cycle of abuse causing many more monkeys
to end up in the same deplorable conditions from which this baboon
was recovered.  IAA has rescued the sad and lonely victims of the
monkey slave-trade in past campaigns.

Savorelli operates a commercial breeding establishment that mass
produces monkeys for sale to the exotic animal trade.  The 7-year-old
baboon is to be used as a stud in the Savorelli monkey mill, which
has capacity for 100 primates.  The offspring of this primate factory
will likely end up neglected, traded from home to home, kept in tiny
cages at roadside zoos, abused for entertainment purposes, or used as
subjects in animal experiments.  No legitimate sanctuary engages in
the breeding, buying, and selling of animals.  

Savorelli is terrified of public exposure.  He deceived CAC and is
now attempting to deceive the public with false claims to Chicago and
Kansas City media that he doesn't plan to breed the baboon and hasn't
sold a monkey in 25 years.  Our undercover investigator learned that
he intends to have a breeder female baboon "shortly" and finances his
facility by "breeding and selling the babies."  IAA has also obtained
copies of Savorelli's shocking full-page "monkeys wanted"
advertisements where he boasts about his "breeding facility" and
offers an assortment of baby monkeys for sale, some just one-week
old!

Says IAA president Debbie Leahy, "Animal Control's casual placement
of this animal with a commercial breeder demonstrates an extreme lack
of concern for the severity of the crisis caused by the primate
industry."

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Please contact the mayor's office ASAP and urge that the City of
Chicago retrieve this baboon from a commercial breeder so he may be
placed in a legitimate sanctuary.

Mayor Richard Daley
Chicago City Mayor Office
121 N. LaSalle
Chicago, IL  60602
Phone 312/744-4000
Fax 312/744-2324

------------------------------------------
Illinois Animal Action
P.O. Box 507
Warrenville, IL  60555
630/393-2935
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 11:36:23 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (HK) Animal welfare in Hong Kong
Message-ID: <199705280336.LAA20615@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>Hong Kong Standard
28 May 97
Looking out for animals
By Pet Talk by Simon Safe 


ANIMAL welfare covers a broad range of legal and ethical issues. 

It is a sensitive issue especially in Hong Kong because animal welfare
standards are often changing throughout the world and on occasions, Hong
Kong, has been lagging.  Practices which were acceptable 10 to 20 years ago,
are no longer tolerated by many individuals and welfare groups. 

The principal objective of animal welfare is to prevent suffering and
install and sustain a state of well-being for animals. 

Unfortunately, a program of welfare and well-being involves a considerable
degree of subjectivity and can be difficult to assess quantitatively. 

What may be acceptable for one species of animals may be unacceptable for
another _ or should it? Should we have a set of standards which apply to
domesticated pet animals such as cats and dogs and another standard for food
animals which are slaughtered for human consumption? 

Who wouldn't argue that denying an animal water regardless of species is an
act of cruelty. 

Water is a fundamental requirement of any animal specThere are specified
standards for the farming, transportation and humane slaughtering of various
species of animals. 

But many people would argue in the case of, say, pigs and cattle slaughtered
in Hong Kong, that these standards are not adequate and that enforcement is
lax. 

In an ideal world we would certainly improve these standards and have more
stringent enforcement programs. 

But as any government in the world will tell you it all costs money, and
ultimately these costs need to be borne by consumers and the taxpayer. 

Are we as a community prepared to pay these costs? 

As we all know in Hong Kong, Chinese people have for many years consumed dog
meat at certain times of the year, albeit illegal. 

Most Europeans consider the practice abhorrent. But why? 

What is the difference between slaughtering a dog and a pig? 

Why do we consider it an acceptable practice in some species of animals and
not others? 

Provided the standards are the same, should we legalise this practice or
should we swing the other way and become vegetarian? 

I suspect that neither will occur. 

Animal welfare is an emotional subject which is attracting more public
attention, and rightfully so. 

But it all gets back to community attitudes and defining appropriate
standards for all species of animals. 

Most importantly, we need to install educational programs in the schools
which will cultivate an awareness in the community about these issues. 
ies and deprivation leads to suffering and, ultimately, death. 

Obviously the unnecessary physical abuse of any animal is again intolerable,
irrespective of species. 

Where we enter a grey area is when we address issues such as animal
husbandry and management providing for a physically comfortable environment
which is free of stress for various species of animals. 

Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 11:36:30 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (KP) Ban on questionable cosmetic products
Message-ID: <199705280336.LAA17052@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

>The Korea Herald
05-28-97 : Local News Briefs; Questionable Cosmetic Products to Be Banned 

     The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced yesterday that it will ban
in July imports of European Union (E.U.) cosmetics containing animal parts,
which could prove to be harmful if infected with Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy, commonly known as ``Mad Cow disease.''

     The deadly ailment has been found in some British and other E.U. farm
animals. 

     The E.U. recently imposed a ban, effective July, on its member
countries manufacturing cosmetics using potentially harmful animal parts.
The ministry said that it wanted to provide safeguards against possible E.U.
cosmetics entering Korea with animal parts, and decided on the ban. 

     Cow, sheep and goat brains, and marrow taken from brains, spinal cords
and eye balls, are regarded as high-risk substances. The ministry
acknowledged there have been no known cases of imported E.U. cosmetics
containing such parts. 


Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 11:36:34 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: (TH) Anthrax scare brings about changes to cattle movement
Message-ID: <199705280336.LAA22218@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



>Bangkok Post
28 May 97
Tougher steps on
              cross-border cattle
              movement

              Anthrax scare brings about changes

              Anjira Assavanonda

              The Public Health Ministry and the Livestock Department have
              stepped up measures to control the cross-border movement of
              cattle in order to prevent the transmission of communicable
              diseases from animals to humans.

              The measure will also apply to aliens crossing the border.

              Concerned about falling beef sales due to an anthrax scare a few
              months ago, government organisations have joined hands in an
              attempt to assure the public that the situation is now under
              control.

              Senior officials from concerned agencies on Monday went to
              Sangkhla Buri in Kanchanaburi to examine the border
              checkpoint and a quarantine unit for animals to see if enough
              measures were in place to prevent an outbreak of communicable
              diseases.

              Deputy Public Health Minister Sunthorn Vilavan disclosed that
              illegal immigration to Thailand via the 26 border provinces was
              one cause of epidemics.

              These communicable diseases are sometimes caused by insects
              carrying the viruses or parasites.

              The deputy minister explained that about 50,000 heads of cattle
              were being imported to Thailand each year but only a few were
              illegally smuggled. He insisted that measures were already stiff
              enough to prevent imports of infected animals from neighbouring
              countries.

              A recent Public Health Ministry report says that in all 34 anthrax
              victims were discovered in the country, nine in Tak, 12 in
              Bangkok, 6 in Sukhothai, and 7 in Uthai Thani.

              Mr Sunthorn said after the outbreak of the disease, the
              authorities worked hard to put the situation under control by
              educating beef traders and staff of slaughterhouses on how to
              screen cattle, taking beef sold in the market for examination, and
              tightening measures on cattle imports.

              He said cattle can be imported in Kanchanaburi via 16
              checkpoints in five districts; Sangkhla Buri, Thongphapoom, Sai
              Yoke, Makham Tia, and Muang District. Between 800-1,000
              heads of cattle were imported per month from each checkpoint
              and taxed 200 baht per head. However, imports are now down
              to only five per cent per month.

              Livestock Department director-general Suwit Pollarb explained
              that before importing the cattle, traders are required to submit a
              form to seek permission from the quarantine unit chief or the
              livestock provincial office so that the animals can be quarantined
              on arrival.

              He said cattle in quarantine are vaccinated, examined and
              undergo blood tests before being given the greenlight for release.
              After 10 days, the animals are sent back to owners with a mark
              on their right ear showing they are legally approved.

              To curb cattle smuggling, special checkpoints have been erected
              in many provinces including Thongphapoom district. A cattle
              without a mark of permission on its ear is returned to customs
              officials.

              Preecha Poonboon, a livestock district official, Region 7,
insisted
              that current measures were enough to effectively tackle with the
              problem of infections.

              Dr Nara Nakvattananukul, deputy director-general of the
              Communicable Disease Control Department, said anthrax was
              caused by bacteria which could be easily killed. It is not a
              dangerous disease and is completely curable.

              He said 98 percent of anthrax cases occur through skin contact.

              However, a source from the international Communicable Disease
              Control Division said he could not guarantee all the cattle
              imported to Thailand were free of anthrax bacteria.

              "I can guarantee that all cattle were already vaccinated just to
              prevent certain diseases, but not for anthrax of which the
              vaccines will be given only to animals in the outbreak zone," said
              the source, adding that there are still ways and means to smuggle
              cattle into the country.

              Some owners just pay 100-200 baht to have their cattle
              vaccinated and see the need for animal quarantine as a
              time-wasting process.

              He said the best way to prevent anthrax is to cook the meat
              thoroughly for at least 30 minutes so that the bacteria is killed.

              Meanwhile, Dr Surapong Tantanasrikul, a Kanchanaburi public
              health official said it was tough to deal with communicable
              diseases in the province because about 300 km of its border is
              connected to Burma.

              The exact number of immigrants is unknown because there were
              many passes along the border, while the only legal pass is at
              Chedi Sam Ong checkpoint.

              According to Dr Surapong, 81 percent of Kanchanaburi
              residents consisting of Mon, Karen, and Burmese are aliens.

              Other infectious diseases found in the province included malaria,
              elephantiasis, brucellosis, dysentery and tuberculosis.

              Medical treatment was hard to dispense because the aliens
              always moved from place to place.

              Dr Surapong said these problems would be hard to overcome
              since they were caused from political conflicts in neighbouring
              countries and labour demands in Thailand.

              Another problem is unclear border policies which are hard to be
              implemented, and the public health units had to shoulder a heavy
              burden to prevent diseases from being transmitted to Thais which
              needed the injection of large funds.

              Moreover, communication and transportation in the area is
              inconvenient. Some areas are too dangerous to approach in the
              rainy season. Language is also one major obstacle since there
              are different nationalities in the area and officials find it
hard to
              communicate with them.

              He said Kanchanaburi is now facing serious problems from
              illegal immigrants because those arrested in other provinces were
              usually sent back to Burma via Kanchanaburi in which there are
              many border passes which also allows them to return easily
              through the province.


Article copyright Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd 1997
Reprinted for non-commercial use only.
Website: http://www.bangkokpost.net

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:34:03 -0700
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Desertification in Ethiopia
Message-ID: <338BA7AB.70AA@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Ethiopian News Agency

Charcoal-burners devastate natural forest

May 20, 1997

NAZARETH (ENA) - Some 500 charcoal-burners in zone 3 of Afar are
devastating forestry resources, head of the zonal agricultural
department said.

The forests, located along the Addis-Asab road covering a distance of
300 kilometers will be completely depleted leaving the land barren in
three years time unless measures are taken to curb tree felling,
according to Ato Musa Ahmed.

The department due to financial constraints could not launch controlling
mechanisms he said, and urged the regional agriculture bureau to take
measures to stop the unlawful act.
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 11:43:03 +0800 (SST)
From: Vadivu Govind 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Re: (HK) Animal Welfare in Hong Kong
Message-ID: <199705280343.LAA23010@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Sorry. The article was cut off at one part in my previous post. 
This is the article in whole.

Vadivu
_________________________________________________________

>Hong Kong Standard
28 May 97
Looking out for animals
By Pet Talk by Simon Safe 

ANIMAL welfare covers a broad range of legal and ethical issues. 

It is a sensitive issue especially in Hong Kong because animal welfare
standards are often changing throughout the world and on occasions, Hong
Kong, has been lagging.  Practices which were acceptable 10 to 20 years ago,
are no longer tolerated by many individuals and welfare groups. 

The principal objective of animal welfare is to prevent suffering and
install and sustain a state of well-being for animals. 

Unfortunately, a program of welfare and well-being involves a considerable
degree of subjectivity and can be difficult to assess quantitatively. 

What may be acceptable for one species of animals may be unacceptable for
another _ or should it?

Should we have a set of standards which apply to domesticated pet animals
such as cats and dogs and another standard for food animals which are
slaughtered for human consumption? 

Who wouldn't argue that denying an animal water regardless of species is an
act of cruelty. 

Water is a fundamental requirement of any animal species and deprivation
leads to suffering and, ultimately, death. 

Obviously the unnecessary physical abuse of any animal is again intolerable,
irrespective of species. 

Where we enter a grey area is when we address issues such as animal
husbandry and management providing for a physically comfortable environment
which is free of stress for various species of animals. 

There are specified standards for the farming, transportation and humane
slaughtering of various species of animals. 

But many people would argue in the case of, say, pigs and cattle slaughtered
in Hong Kong, that these standards are not adequate and that enforcement is
lax. 

In an ideal world we would certainly improve these standards and have more
stringent enforcement programs.  But as any government in the world will
tell you it all costs money, and ultimately these costs need to be borne by
consumers and the taxpayer. 

Are we as a community prepared to pay these costs? 

As we all know in Hong Kong, Chinese people have for many years consumed dog
meat at certain times of the year, albeit illegal. 

Most Europeans consider the practice abhorrent. But why? 

What is the difference between slaughtering a dog and a pig? 

Why do we consider it an acceptable practice in some species of animals and
not others? 

Provided the standards are the same, should we legalise this practice or
should we swing the other way and become vegetarian? 

I suspect that neither will occur. 

Animal welfare is an emotional subject which is attracting more public
attention, and rightfully so. 

But it all gets back to community attitudes and defining appropriate
standards for all species of animals. 

Most importantly, we need to install educational programs in the schools
which will cultivate an awareness in the community about these issues. 


Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:35:43 -0700
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Wolves - Good News or Bad News?
Message-ID: <338BA80F.2E56@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Yellowstone wolves are prospering

Copyright © 1997 The Associated Press 

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (May 27, 1997 05:55 a.m. EDT) -- While
Yellowstone's buffalo, elk and deer struggled to survive the winter, it
was a different story for transplanted Canadian wolves. To say they
prospered would put it mildly; they have gone forth and multiplied --
like crazy.

Eight of Yellowstone's nine wolf packs have produced 11 litters this
spring. Yellowstone wolf biologist Douglas Smith said the number of pups
this year may double the park's total wolf population of 47; not all
have been counted yet.

Two packs produced two litters each, and another had three litters. Such
multiple litters are "heartening" indications of success in the effort
to restore the predator to America's first national park, said David
Mech of St. Paul, Minn., one of the nation's top wolf experts.

"It's an indication that a pack is doing well, getting plenty of food,"
said Mech, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Interior Department.

Thirty-one gray wolves were transplanted to Yellowstone from Canada in
1995 and 1996 in a federal program to re-establish the big predators
where they were wiped out some 70 years earlier.

Eight packs remained inside the park. Only one has moved out, settling
in a national forest northwest of Dubois, Wyo.

"That flabbergasts us," said Ed Bangs, head of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service program. "We never thought that would happen, me
especially. Wolves are extremely long-range animals."

The reintroduction program includes Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Canadian
wolves were brought to Yellowstone and central Idaho, but they had been
migrating naturally into Montana since the mid-1980s.

The program was extraordinarily controversial, and it still has plenty
of critics.

Ranchers fear the growing wolf population may lead to the decimation of
their cattle and sheep herds.

Federal agents shot four wolves believed to have killed or maimed seven
cattle at a southwest Montana ranch in 1995; the wolves had migrated
into Montana from Canada. And one of the Yellowstone wolves was killed
in January, shot several times and left in a river north of the park.

Five Yellowstone wolves live alone, in addition to the 42 that live in
nine packs. Packs can range from two to 20 animals but usually range
from six to 12.

Exactly how many pups have been born isn't known yet; the three litters
that have been counted have 10, seven and five pups.

"There's a chance, a very good chance, we could have 40 or 50 pups in
those 11 litters," Smith said. "That would double the population."

"A lot of what reproduction is based on is adequate food, and they
definitely have adequate food here," he said.

The wolves have been feeding on the area's abundant supply of elk and
deer.

In Idaho, it is estimated that a fully recovered wolf population would
probably consume 1,600 head of deer and elk a year -- most of them dead
or dying, while state studies indicate poachers illegally kill 10,000
healthy deer and elk annually.

Yellowstone's wolves are so comfy, in fact, that they're not splitting
off to form new packs as early as usual. Oddly, that works against the
program's objective of removing them from the endangered species list.

When Montana, Idaho and Wyoming each have at least 10 breeding packs for
three consecutive years, the species can be removed from the endangered
list.

Idaho has only three documented breeding pairs, but may have nine to 13,
said Curt Mack, wolf recovery coordinator for the Nez Perce Indian
tribe, which manages the Idaho program.

"The only time we can get visuals is wintertime, when those dark bodies
show up against the white background," Mack said.

Montana's voluntary immigrants appear to be outstripping even the
spectacular success of those shanghaied to Yellowstone, at least in
terms of packs. Montana may reach 10 breeding packs this summer, at
least a year ahead of Idaho and Yellowstone, which is in Wyoming's
northwest corner. Federal biologists will head into the Montana wilds in
the next few days to begin counting.

Public interest in the wolves has tapered off since the initial barrage
of news coverage about the first releases in 1995. The wolf souvenirs
that once inundated park stores -- T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, statues,
paintings, postcards -- are almost gone now.

"That's a marketing thing," park spokeswoman Marsha Karle said Friday.
Concessionaires "told us wolves are passe. The big thing now is bison."

By TOM LACEKY, The Associated Press

============================================

I'd like to rejoice that the transplanted Yellowstone wolves are doing
well, but their "success" will increase the pressure from ranchers and
hunters to introduce wolf control and brings closer the day when wolves
will be taken off the endangered species list and will be persecuted as
they were in Canada, their native land.

Incidentally, the forecasts are quite exagerated: even if there are
40-50 cubs in 11 litters as estimated, the mortality rate of wild-living
cubs is very high during their first year of life, - even without
poaching.

Andy
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:39:27 -0700
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Burzynski acquitted on remaining charge
Message-ID: <338BA8EF.33AA@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Cancer doctor acquitted of contempt charge

Copyright © 1997 The Associated Press 

HOUSTON (May 27, 1997 3:43 p.m. EDT) -- A doctor whose unproven cancer
treatment put him on a collision course with the Food and Drug
Administration was acquitted Tuesday of a single charge involving drug
shipments across state lines.

Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, 54, smiled upon hearing the verdict, and some
of his patients applauded in the courtroom and wiped away tears.

Burzynski faced a single count of contempt alleging he violated 1983 and
1984 court orders barring him from shipping his experimental
"antineoplastons" treatment outside Texas.

The federal jury deliberated three hours. It was his second trial; his
first ended in March with a hung jury on 75 counts.

The Polish-born physician has said that antineoplastons, which he
discovered in human urine and now makes synthetically, serve as
biochemical switches that "turn off" cancer genes. The treatment
has not been approved by the FDA.

Burzynski's terminally ill patients and their family members insist the
treatment is their only hope after the failure of conventional therapy.

A postal inspector testified that she caught one of Burzynski's
employees shipping the compound outside Texas in 1995.

Defense attorneys argued the worker was acting on his own and made a
mistake.

Burzynski and his Burzynski Research Institute were indicted in 1995 on
75 counts of mail fraud, contempt and violating FDA rules by introducing
the experimental treatment into interstate commerce.

After the first trial, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake dismissed 34 counts.
Last week, prosecutors dropped all but one of the 41 remaining charges.

By JOAN THOMPSON, The Associated Press

===============================================

A big setback for the FDA, a pillar of medical orthodoxy, well known for
its ruthless persecution of alternative therapy practitioners.

Andy
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:40:24 -0700
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Crows come to town
Message-ID: <338BA928.505B@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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May 27, 1997  New York Times Interactive Edition

    The Too-Common Crow Is Getting Too Close for Comfort
                     
          By JANE E. BRODY

Crows have never been popular. 

Farmers, viewing them as a threat to crops, have often greeted them with
shotguns. In 1940 the Illinois Department of Conservation killed 328,000
crows with a single blast of dynamite. "Most people dislike crows
because they are just like we are," said Dr. Carolee Caffrey, a crow
researcher. "They hang around in groups and make a lot of noise. They're
troublemakers who like to take the easy way out." 

Now, with huge migrations of crows into urban and suburban areas,
where they are flourishing on food scraps in trash bins, landfills and
garbage pails, more citified folks are getting on the birds' case --
with disparaging remarks if not shotguns. But even as some people find
new cause to view crows with disgust, these shiny black survivors of
urban and suburban sprawl are becoming more popular with scientists. 

Dr. Caffrey, for one, a behavioral ecologist at Oklahoma State
University in Stillwater, recently completed an eight-year study of
western crows living near a Los Angeles golf course. She and others who
have been engaged in a flurry of new research are finding that in some
ways crows are more like people than people, to paraphrase a popular
song. They are faithful to their mates and helpful to their parents, and
they maintain a lifelong attachment to their birth families. But they
are also wary, wily and opportunistic. 

Though scientists cannot document precisely the shifting of crow
populations (these commonplace look-alikes are not easy to count), it is
evident that in the last several decades millions of crows, once mainly
rural, are now breeding and feeding successfully in and around shopping
malls, city parks, golf courses and other heavily peopled metropolitan
sites. 

In most states, crows are protected, having been classified as game
birds for which no hunting season is established. But they are still
likely to be shot at in some rural areas, though scientists say this can
be a grave mistake. As one Midwestern farmer sadly discovered after
killing off the crows that he thought were eating his corn crop, crows
have an even heartier appetite for the European corn borer. Without
crows to attack this devastating pest, the farmer's crop failed. 

Now, shopping malls may be as attractive as corn fields. As many as
50,000 crows may roost near a single shopping center, attracted not only
by food but also by the all-night lights that help them spot predators.
In turn, scientists now have easy access to crows and are confirming
that the birds are playful, resourceful and fast to learn. They are also
discovering how communicative crows are, with a complex language that
researchers are only beginning to understand. 

Perhaps no one has done more to stimulate scientific interest in crows
than Dr. Lawrence Kilham, an 87-year-old professor emeritus of
microbiology at Dartmouth Medical School whose interest in crows dates
to 1918, when as an 8-year-old he took an injured crow to his family's
summer home in New Hampshire. There the crow healed and flourished,
and all summer long it followed the boy through fields and woods and
everywhere else until he had to return to school in Brookline, Mass. 

Kilham, a self-taught ornithologist, studied crows for more than 8,000
hours over a six-year period and produced a seminal work, "The
American Crow and the Common Raven" (1989, Texas A & M
University Press, College Station), that has helped to elevate the
status of crows among both professional and lay bird enthusiasts. 

Detailed observations by Kilham, who had learned to recognize individual
crows living on a cattle ranch in Florida without having to mark them,
revealed that the birds were cooperative breeders that lived in large
family groups. Teen-agers from last year's brood and even young adults
from the year before are likely to hang around the family compound and
help out. 

Dr. Kevin J. McGowan, a Cornell University ecologist who spends most
spring days up in trees that house crows' nests, has discovered that as
many as five years of offspring may stay near the parental nest to help
out during breeding season. In the last nine years he has marked more
than 600 nestlings with colored plastic wing tags in and around Ithaca,
N.Y.,an urban and suburban environment. 

McGowan, who says crows are "the least studied game animal in
America," has climbed trees to reach nests up to 120 feet high to
document this cooperative breeding, which he said is "highly unusual
among birds." He has shown that not only are young crows likely to help
their parents raise a new brood, but they will also help their brothers
raise families. 

"My population has a very high percentage of helpers," he said. "Eighty
percent of the nests are attended by helpers, and family size around one
nest may reach 15." 

Crow families like to stay together, McGowan has found. When older
siblings are ready to breed, they often establish territories in or near
those of their parents. 

Caffrey, in her study of the golf course crows, found the same
cooperative behavior. Older brothers and sisters brought food for the
mother and her nestlings, defended the territory and the nest against
intruders and predators and stood guard over other family members while
they foraged. 

In cities, Caffrey said, a cat on the ground near the nest tree is
likely to trigger a loud chorus of alarm calls. If the crows are
sufficiently alarmed, they may even mob the cat, as they do predatory
owls and hawks that invade their territory. People, too, can be viewed
as invaders. McGowan said he is often mobbed, with 20 or more crows in a
family group screaming and diving at him while he tags newborn crows for
future identification. 

Dr. Caffrey has seen the birds' lighter side, too. "Crows also play all
sorts of cool games," she said. She has watched young crows play tug of
war with grass and twigs, swing upside down on tree branches like
monkeys and play drop-the-stick and fly down to catch it. She even saw
one crow roll down a grassy hump on a plastic cup, followed by a sibling
who copied the log-rolling sport. 

Like human teens and young adults, some young crows leave the family
compound for weeks, months or even a year or more at a time. But, Dr.
Caffrey said, "from time to time, they come back to visit." One crow she
was studying left her family's core area at the golf course at age 2 to
nest with her mate three-fourths of a mile away. "But she came back to
the golf course every Friday afternoon to hang around with her parents
for an hour or so," Dr. Caffrey said. 

Dr. Caffrey's crows were unusually laid back, "living and breeding on
top of each other and never defending a thing," she said. 

"They all fed and roosted together and wandered unharassed into each
other's core area," Dr. Caffrey said. "They even let outsiders land in
their nest trees. Occasionally two pairs would nest in the same tree,
and sometimes they fed their neighbor's kids. In my eight years there I
saw no overt aggression, which is unheard of in crows." She speculates
that this laissez-faire attitude reflects the abundance of nest sites
and food in and around the golf course. 

Most crows, though, are highly territorial in their core nest area,
where only family members are permitted to alight and feed undisturbed.
But on many afternoons, crows that are not nesting are likely to leave
the family compound to join others at a huge communal roost, where they
feast on worms, insects or grain and -- more and more -- on human
leftovers before settling down together for the night. 

Dr. Donald Caccamise, an ornithologist and entomologist at Rutgers
University in New Brunswick, N.J., said that the combination of
cooperative breeding and communal roosting was highly unusual and, on
the surface, presented a conflict: "Cooperative breeders need to stay on
their territory, but those that roost need to leave their territory. I
wondered how crows resolve this conflict." 

By fitting crows with radio transmitters that allowed him to track their
comings and goings, Caccamise was able to show that individual crows
only occasionally leave home to visit the communal roost, where tens of
thousands of crows gather to supplement their territorial meals, in this
case by feeding on garbage in the landfills of Staten Island and New
Jersey. 

"It's just like people who from time to time leave the suburbs to spend
the night in Manhattan, where they have a great dinner and a great
breakfast and then go home again," he said. 

Crows, though, may be gone from their home base for the entire winter,
especially when their territorial food sources are covered with snow.
Like squirrels, crows store food when it is plentiful, and, researchers
say, they seem to remember their hiding places. In one incident in which
crows gathered food for future use, a film crew trying to attract hawks
released a horde of laboratory mice. Three crows immediately descended
and grabbed up 79 of the rodents before any hawk had a chance to cash in
on the bonanza. 

Crows are also clever thieves. Kilham watched a crow pull on the tail of
a river otter that was holding a fish in its mouth. When the agitated
otter dropped the fish, the crow's compatriots swooped down and grabbed
it. Crows have also been seen pulling up the unattended lines of ice
fishermen and stealing either the bait or the catch. 

The antics of crows are often easy for amateurs to observe. But even
unseen, their language tells much about their behavior. 

Dr. Cyndy Sims Parr, who just received her doctorate at the University
of Michigan based on a study of crow vocalizations, said the birds'
long-distance "caws" have different meanings determined by their form
and rhythm and how they are strung together. Various vocalizations can
mean "Stay out of my territory," "Watch out, someone's is after your
lunch" or "Help me get this predator out of here." For example, she
said,a string of "ko-ko ko-ko ko-ko" means "Neighbor, you're
trespassing." 

"The long-distance vocalizations, of which there are 15 or 20, function
like a standard bird song," Parr said. In addition, there are the many
soft sounds crows make when talking with family members, including
rattles, growls, gargles, coos, squawks, squeals and plaintive oo-oo's.
For example, young crows squeal when teasing one another, and the
oo-oo's are begging sounds uttered by hungry chicks and females on the
nest. 

Caffrey has noted that Eastern and Western crows have different accents.
There is a crow on just about every movie sound track, Parr said, and
Caffrey said she can tell whether the movie was shot in the East or the
West by how the crow sounds.
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:44:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Cuts allowed in old-growth holding nests of rare birds
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527204539.10df9b42@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From The Vancouver Sun - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997

By Larry Pynn
Sun Environment Reporter

VICTORIA - The B.C. forests ministry has allowed the logging of two trees on
the Sunshine Coast known to contain nests of the threatened marbled murrelet
and is allowing logging this summer in other known nesting areas.

The ministry's action, authorized under its small-business logging program,
has confounded biologists involved in a three-year marbled murrelet study
near Desolation Sound, North America's breeding centre for the rare seabird.

"It's a shame, " Fred Cooke, chair of the wildlife ecology program at SImon
Fraser University, said in an interview Monday. "This is the hot spot for
the birds."

Not only does the logging pose an added threat to the marbled murrelet, it
represents a blow to collaborative research efforts by SFU, the B.C.
environment and forest ministries, and Candain Wildlife Service.

Over the last three years, researchers have dicovered 32 marbled murrelets
in the area, 29 of them in the Bunster Range, near Theodosia Inlet.

"It seems at cross-purposes this who;e thing," Cooke said of the logging.
"We need some cooperation from the ministry to complete our studies."

A total of 14 cutblocks are planned for the area in 1997, he said, six of
which contain known nests; another three are believed to contain nests,
based on observed bird behavior. The other cutblocks have not been
adequately surveyed to determine whether they support murrelet nests.

Brian Hawrys, operations manager for the Sunshine Coast forest district,
said four cutblocks were sold to T & T Trucking of Sechelt in 1994, before
the current research program began. Logging on the first of those cutblocks
began only a few weeks ago.

"What's happened is the logging and research are happening concurrently," he
said. "It wasn't long ago there wasn't much information on marbled murrelets."

In response to concerns about logging plans, the environment ministry is
expected to send the forests ministry today a map outlining the known nests,
so timber crews can avoid them.

"We will be consulting with the company," Hawrys said. "We're prepared on
the basis of new information to work with the licencee. But we need to know
where are the nests and where are the concerns."

David Boyd, managing director of the the Sierra Legal Defense Fund, blamed
the tree-cutting on the government's failure after two years to implement
the "identified wildlife" provisions of the Forest Practices Code.

Without the provision, the forests ministry cannot act on an environment
ministry recommendation that the Bunster Range be declared a wildlfie area
to help ensure preservation of the nesting sites.

"Thirty-two nests is unprecedented on the coast of North AMerica," Boyd
said. "This has great conservation and scientific value."

He said the cutting is further evidence of the need for federal and
provincial legislation to ensure protection of endangered species.

Forests Minister Dave Zirnhelt said in Victoria he was unaware of the
cutting of marbled murrelet nests, but siad he would look into it. But he
did add: "How endangered are they if there are 32 nests [at one site]?"

Scientists have no hard numbers on the marbled murrelet population in B.C.,
but the species is believed to be declining and is considered threatened
because it is dependent on old-growth forests for nesting.

Nesting begins in April and continous to October. Reproductive rates are low
- just one egg per nest - with up to 70 per cent of the young killed by
predators.

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:44:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Where the parties stand
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527204532.3837514c@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From The Vancouver Sun - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997

By Nicholas Read

The current Liberal government broke its promise to pass a federal
endangered species act. It expanded the Atlantic seal hunt. It spent
thousands of taxpayer's dollars defending the use of leghold traps and it
failed to pass one piece of significant environmental legislation. It's hard
to remember a government that did less to protect Canada's landscape and
natural heritage.

With that in mind, I put five questions about the environment and animal
welfare to the Reform, Progressive Conservative, New Democratic Party and
Liberal parties to find out if any of the was prepared to do any better.
Here are the results:

1) Would your party prohibit trade in bear parts internally and would it
support an international  ban? (Quebec, Nova Scotia and the Northwest
Territories allow bear parts to be sold openly, helping to supply a
predominantly Asian demand for bear galls.)

Reform: No clear answer. Instead, it alluded to a private member's bill put
forward by MP Val Meredith calling for a ban on selling wildlife and killing
wildlife for the purposes of trade.

Progressive Conservatives: No clear answer. It said it would "continue with
aggressive policies" to halt the illegal trade of animals, but did not say
what those policies would be.

NDP:  It is opposed to the trade in bear parts, and believes the federal
government should take action to combat it, but did not say what kind of action.

Liberal: No clear answer. It ignored the question and instead cited a law
passed by the Brian Mulroney Tories prohibiting the trade in some exotic
species within Canada.

2) Would your party support legislation ensuring the humane transport of
animals? (More than three million animals die in transport every year
because there are no enforceable standards for their care.) 

Reform: No clear answer. Instead, it quoted the Criminal Code of Canada
which makes it an offence to cause by "wilful neglect" damage or injury to
animals "while they are being driven or conveyed." (The word "wilful" is
almost impossible to prove in court, so the code is useless when applied to
animals in industry.)

PC: A qualified yes. "A jean Charest government would ensure that the
necessary regulations are in place to ensure humane standards are observed."

NDP: Yes.

Liberal: No clear answer. It referred instead to the Health of Animals Act,
which states that animals must be transported "humanely" and cited
regulations for the provision of food, water and rest at specified
intervals. (The act does not define the word "humanely" and regulations
allow for animals to be transported [up to] 52 continuously without food,
water, or rest.)

3) Given that the Canadian Council on Animal Care no longer monitors private
institutions, would your party support legislation protecting all animals in
research? (The CCAC is a government-funded body that sets down a voluntary
code of standards for using animals in government-sponsored research.)

Reform: No clear answer. Again it referred to the Criminal Code.

PC: Another qualified yes."A Jean Charest government would ensure that the
necessary regulations are in place to ensure that humane standards are
observed."

NDP: Yes.

Liberals: No. It said the current system is adequate.

4) Would your party pass endangered species legislation that would protect
individual species and their critical habitats? Would it also require that
the listing of species be done by scientists, not politicians?

Reform: Yes.

PC: No clear answer. A PC government would "create a federal department of
sustainable development which would ensure that proper priority is placed on
the preservation of the environment and all species."

NDP: Yes.

Liberal: It is committed to endangered species legislation, but will not say
what form it will take.

5) Would your party ammend Section 442 of the Criminal Code to make it
easier to charge and punish paople who are cruel to animals? (The presence
of the words "wilful" and "unnecessary" in the code render it almost useless.)

Reform: No. However, Reform MP's would listen to their constituents should
they wish to make a case for strengthening the law.

PC: No clear answer. It "would work with those in law enforcement to ensure
that crimes against animals are fully prosecuted."

NDP: No, but existing provision should be "vigorously enforced."

Liberals: No.

   

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:44:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: David J Knowles 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: [CA] Eagle finds chicken too big to steal
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527204542.383730ac@dowco.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From The Vancouver Sun - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997

COBBLE HILL, B.C. - An eagle that wanted to add one of Phylis Graham's
chickens to its diet got more than it bargained for when it swooped down on
her Cobble Hill farm.

"He had stunned the chicken and he was trying to take off with her," Graham
said.

But the eagle had trouble getting airborne. Graham's 20 chickens are New
Hampshire Reds, a heavy-set breed, and each one weighs about 4.5 kilograms.

Graham ran up to within a half a metre of the eagle and tried to scare it
away by waving her arms.

Then a swarm of at least 15 smaller birds flew out of the woods and started
attacking the eagle.

"He got about 10 feet up and dropped the chicken and flew away," said
Graham. The chicken survived. "She laid an egg that night, " Graham said.

Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:41:56 -0700
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: What's killing wild honeybees?
Message-ID: <338BA984.7D2E@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Fewer wild honeybees will mean poorer fruit, vegetables this year

Copyright © 1997 The Associated Press 

CINCINNATI (May 27, 1997 09:37 a.m. EDT) -- The fruit may be bitter and
vegetables smaller for gardeners again this year because two types of
tiny mites have wiped out most of the wild honeybees in the United
States.

Farmers and orchardists have been hit hard by the bee shortage, but are
finding ways -- expensive as they are -- to cope. However, says Hachiro
Shimanuki, head of the Agriculture Department's bee research laboratory
in Beltsville, Md., "The home gardeners looking for bees to do their
pollination have a problem."

About 95 percent of the nation's wild honeybees have died during the
past two or three years, by some estimates. The mites have been found in
every state except Hawaii.

And although bumblebees, butterflies and hummingbirds also pollinate,
honeybees are nature's most prolific pollinators.

"It was pretty pathetic," Richard Koenig of Cincinnati said of last
year's garden. "Some years, I've had sacks of peppers to give away. Last
year, I was lucky to have enough for myself."

Many farmers and professional orchard owners are having to pay
commercial beekeepers -- who treat their hives for mites -- to bring
bees to their farms to pollinate crops. That costs from $35 to $75 an
acre, depending on the crop.

But all is not lost for the home gardener either.

"It doesn't mean you're not going to have any cucumbers -- it means that
you're going to have fewer cucumbers and more misshapen or shrunken
cucumbers," said Kim Flottum of A.I. Root Co. of Medina, Ohio, which
publishes the beekeeping trade journal Bee Culture.

But the fruits and vegetables that are produced could be bruised or even
bitter, he said.

Most affected will be apple, cherry, plum and pear trees, along with
cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, squash, pepper and other
plants in those families.

The mites arrived in the mid-1980s on bees imported from Europe. And
many bees not killed by mites have died from harsh winters in many areas
the past two years.

Before the mite epidemic, there were 5.2 million bee colonies in the
United States, half of which were wild, Flottum said.

Now there are only about 250,000 wild colonies.

The offending parasites are the Acarapis woodeye, also called the
tracheal mite, and the slightly larger Varroa mite.

The tracheal mite invades the bee's windpipe. The Varroa mite usually
attaches itself to the top of a bee's head and looks like a red splotch.

Both feed on the bees' blood, either killing them or making them
susceptible to disease.

Shimanuki said he thinks the worst of the mite problem is over.

"We're making progress," he said. "It all depends on who you talk to,
but I'm the eternal optimist."

Shimanuki said most commercial hives now are thriving because they are
treated for mites. That causes crowding, which in turn sends some of the
treated bees into the wild to make a new, less-crowded hive -- a process
called swarming.

James Tew, a bee specialist at Ohio State University's honey bee
laboratory in Wooster, said, however, that bees that swarm eventually
fall prey to the mites in the wild.

Thus, the U.S. wild bee population likely never will grow on its own but
will have to be replenished by swarms from beekeepers' hives, he said.

"The bees keep trying, but they keep dying out," Tew said.

By KEVIN O'HANLON, Associated Press Writer

================================================

Wonder if toxic chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, artificial
fertilizers) may account for the mite infestation by weakening the bees'
immune systems.

It shouldn't be too difficult to compare wild bee mortality in
organically cultivated areas to that in "conventional" (read toxic)
agriculture.

Andy
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 20:43:23 -0700
From: Andrew Gach 
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: WWF backs hunting & capture of African elephants
Message-ID: <338BA9DB.132F@worldnet.att.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

New twist in CITES battle

The Namibian, May 13, 1997

Windhoek - Namibia's bid to have its elephant population downgraded at
the upcoming CITES conference has received a significant boost with a
major wildlife organisation giving support to Namibia's proposals.

Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring programme of the WWF World Wide
Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Union, has announced its
qualified backing for the proposals of Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species summit takes
place in Harare, Zimbabwe, in June.

Hoping to end the seven-year international commercial trade ban in
elephants and elephant products, the three SADC countries have
petitioned CITES to move their elephant populations from Appendix
I to Appendix II.

"Traffic recommends that the 136-country strong Convention ... 
accept the three southern African proposals but impose a zero quota for
trade in ivory from each country, and for trade in elephant hides from
Zimbabwe," a statement from Traffic said.

The reputable conservation organisation said this would allow trade in
live animals and hunting trophies, "but not in elephant ivory or hides
for the time being". 

"Although it is premature for ivory to be traded now, it's clearly time
to reward good conservation," said Tom Milliken, the Director of
Traffic's programme for east and southern Africa said.

"In Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, the elephant is an abundant species
and clearly does not meet the criteria for the highest level of
protection under CITES."

Traffic's decision comes in the wake of a CITES- commissioned report by
a Panel of Experts which found that the three countries' elephant
populations did not meet the biological criteria for continued
listing on Appendix I, which prohibits international commercial trade in
endangered species.

"Limited trade in live animals and sport hunting trophies and other
products in the future would help Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe recoup
part of their considerable investment in conserving elephant
populations. 

All countries have undertaken to return revenues to local communities
living among elephants."

Traffic noted that the cost of elephant protection and management was
high, estimated at US$200 per square kilometre, "a burden most African
countries bear alone with great difficulty".

Namibia is highly commended by Traffic, which said the country had
passed all the precautionary requirements for its elephant populations
to be transferred to Appendix II, according to the CITES
report.

However, Traffic said, Botswana needed to improve its control over ivory
stocks, while Zimbabwe needed stricter implementation of domestic
controls on trade in ivory.

"Both countries have asked Traffic to help put corrective measures in
place."

On the importing side, the CITES panel found domestic ivory trade
controls in Japan to require improvements at the retail level in order
to prevent the infiltration of ivory products from illegal
sources.

Traffic, in a recently released report on domestic ivory trade controls
in Asia, confirmed this finding.

Once Botswana, Zimbabwe and Japan addressed the concerns noted in the
CITES report, Traffic said it believed trade in ivory could resume
subject to strict regulatory measures.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has come out
vehemently against the three countries' bid to have the elephant
downlisted and is mustering opposition to the move ahead of the CITES
meeting.

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