Category: Hunting

General News, Hunting

Canada: The Sealers of the Magdalen Islands of Quebec are Pressuring the Government To Allow Them To Hunt Grey Seals.

Kanada flagge

seal 4

 

August 30, 2018

Dear Mark,

The sealers of the Magdalen Islands of Quebec are pressuring the government of Quebec to allow them to kill grey seals who live on and around the nature reserve, Brion Island.

The government of Quebec is considering this proposal. The Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, Isabelle Melançon, has said that consultations on the matter will begin in September.

The sealers, in typical fashion, are blaming seals for fish population declines at the same time that they pillage the oceans. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada (DFO), which calls the Atlantic cod “endangered,” still allows thousands of tons of the fish to be killed by fishermen. In 2017, the DFO allowed fishermen to kill 13,000 metric tons of this endangered fish.

At the same time, the DFO allows over-fishing of capelin, thus depleting stocks of one of the main prey of cod.

Until the DFO and fishermen recognize that the marine ecosystem is a complex web and that human interference in the web is extremely destructive to this ecosystem, we will continue to see scapegoating of seals along with ever more population collapses, both of fish and marine mammals. The DFO and the fishing industry must change the way they operate, ending industrial-scale fishing and the use of destructive fishing methods like long lines, purse seines and bottom trawlers, and maintaining control of fishing gear so that unintended targets do not become victims of entanglement in their plastic pollution.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY and send an automated email to the Quebec government. If you are a resident of Quebec, please also participate formally in the public consultations on Brion Island seals. Note: the National Assembly of Quebec was recently dissolved, so if you are a voting citizen in Quebec, please keep this issue in mind in the coming elections.

Other Actions You Can Take for Seals

  • Hand out our leaflets. Email us with your mailing address and the number of leaflets you would like us to send.
  • Donate to our seal campaigns.
  • Be a walking billboard for seals by purchasing a Harpseals.org t-shirt from our e-store or our Variety Store, and help us raise funds by purchasing gifts from our stores.
  • Spread the word about the plight of the seals on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Volunteer in bigger ways: join Harpseals.org as a volunteer officer or outreach activist.

 

Thank you for caring and taking action.

For the seals,

Diana Marmorstein, Ph.D.
CEO
Harpseals.org

Visit our sister site, Furseals.org

Join us on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter

 

 

 

General News, Hunting

USA: Judge Puts Halt On Allowing Yellowstone Grizllies To Be Hunted.

USA

ygriz 1.png

Hi Mark,

Huge news out of Montana: A federal judge has temporarily halted plans allowing Yellowstone grizzlies to be hunted in Wyoming and Idaho.

This is an important victory for these bears — and for people like you who raised your voice against these cruel trophy hunts, which were scheduled to start on Saturday.

We filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order on Thursday while our case is heard about restoring protections for these bears. The judge granted our order, keeping these bears safe while our case plays out.

ygriz 2

We’re grateful for everyone who has gotten us this far. We couldn’t have done it without you. And it’s exactly why our Predator Defense Fund exists. When you give, we put your donation straight into the kind of work that led to this victory.

Here are the details from the dramatic ruling: The Center and allies were in federal court challenging the Trump administration’s decision last summer to strip Endangered Species Act protection from Yellowstone’s grizzlies. That decision paved the way for Wyoming and Idaho to plan trophy hunts for bears. More than 20 grizzlies that wandered out of Yellowstone National Park could’ve been killed, including a dozen or so females.

This ruling immediately halts the hunt while our court case continues.

We’re so relieved that Yellowstone’s famed grizzlies can rest easy for now and won’t face a hunter’s bullet this weekend.

I hope you’ll pause for a moment and enjoy this important victory. These are the kinds of moments the Center’s lawyers, scientists and activists live for, days when our actions save wildlife from certain death.

Thanks for supporting our work and standing with us in this fight.

For the bears,

ygriz 3

Kierán Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity

P.S. We’re fighting for wildlife day in, day out. The best way to support that fight is by joining Wild Uprising, a group of our most committed supporters. Do your part by starting an automatic monthly donation.

 

CBD Logo

 

P.S. We’re fighting for wildlife day in, day out. The best way to support that fight is by joining Wild Uprising, a group of our most committed supporters. Do your part by starting an automatic monthly donation.
Hunting

Switzerland: referendum on hunting!

 

Switzerland

 

In the canton of Zurich, a vote will be taken on 23.9.2018 on the initiative “Gamekeeper instead of hunters”!

Because killing should not be a hobby!

 

Jäger im Hochsitz

 

The initiative briefly explained:

“Today’s hunting is counterproductive!

Due to the intensive hunting of the wild animals their fertility increases, as the animals become sexually mature due to the hunting pressure. This leads to an inventory increase. Hunters cite this artificially generated increase in wildlife populations as a justification for killing wildlife.

Experience and studies have shown that wildlife is largely self-regulated even without hunting (Wild Sanctuary City of Zurich, Canton of Geneva, Luxembourg with ban on fox hunting). In the canton of Geneva, the hunt was replaced in 1974 by a plebiscite in a referendum that proved its worth. This model is to be introduced by the initiative in the canton of Zurich.

Continue reading “Switzerland: referendum on hunting!” →

Environmental, General News, Hunting

USA: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Trying To Open The Door To Mass Wildlife Killings – Take Action.
Dear Mark,

Suppose you’re a senior member of the Trump administration responsible for wildlife conservation.

Tell me, what on Earth would possess you to open National Park lands to brutal and vicious killing of wolves, bears and other predators?

That’s exactly what’s being considered.

And Mark, that’s just the beginning of the death and destruction this administration is unleashing.

Make a generous gift to Defenders of Wildlife today and your gift will be tripled, thanks to a match offer from our Board of Directors and President’s Circle. They will kick in $2 for every $1 you give, up to a total of $150,000.

But please hurry, the match offer ends Friday, August 31st.

This heinous proposal would open National Park Service lands in Alaska to a brutal array of killing efforts. In the crosshairs are bears, wolves and other predators. The proposal would allow for new, cruel hunting practices on national preserves, like baiting bears with doughnuts or bacon or shooting mother wolves and their pups in their dens to artificially boost moose and other game animal numbers.

I wish I could say that was the only appalling proposal we’re facing right now, but sadly it’s the tip of the iceberg.

Just consider:

Red wolves. Recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposals would confine these wolves to a tiny patch of habitat and permit landowners to shoot any wolf that happens to wander onto their property.

Mexican gray wolves. This smaller cousin of the gray wolf continues to hang by a thread, and FWS seems uninterested in mounting a serious recovery effort. A so-called ‘recovery plan’ submitted in 2017 is basically a recipe for extinction. It disregards the best available science, limits the species’ population, and cuts off access to vital recovery habitat.

Polar bears. Global warming’s effect on the Arctic is especially dramatic. With sea ice melting, polar bears in the U.S. are increasingly dependent on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But instead of protecting this critical habitat, the administration is opening the region to oil exploration. That’s really bad news if you happen to be a polar bear.

The list goes on and on. When you combine all of these cruel proposals, you can appreciate the scope of danger facing our precious wildlife.

That’s why your help is so important right now. And why your gift will be tripled if you give by August 31st.

When you support Defenders, you’re a part of our community of wildlife activists. You’re supporting wildlife lawyers who, right this minute, are in court fighting for the wildlife you love. You’re supporting organizers to engage every voice in America to protect wildlife. And you’re supporting a team of advocates who work every day in Washington, D.C. and in statehouses across the country to save wildlife from destructive policy proposals.

Mark, I continue to have hope because most Americans favor strong wildlife protections and because people like you refuse to give up the fight.

From the bottom of my heart, my deepest thanks for your commitment, compassion and generosity.

Sincerely,

Jamie Rappaport Clark
President, Defenders of Wildlife

 

P.S. These attacks are stretching our resources to the limit. Your gift, along with the matching dollars, will help keep us in the fight!

 

ADDITIONAL PETITION TO SUPPORT – NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS.

 

Save the Animals from Sacrifice in Religious Rituals

Petition created on Jun 22, 2016

 petition keyboard

Petition link – https://www.sosvox.org/en/petition/save-the-animals-from-sacrifice-in-religious-rituals.html?utm_source=highlight&utm_medium=title&utm_campaign=campaign-p230818&uid=fd376f375efd72ffbb9b53f8573be892

Animals are creatures of God and have the right to live. We cannot allow any kind of animals used for religious rituals of any religion.

We see dead cats, dogs, roosters, leave them lying in the streets, surrounded with flowers, candles. They cut their necks, pluck their heads, they torture to kill them.

The Government of Venezuela should prohibit this at all costs, with harsh Laws against animal abuse and investigating these cases to find the culprits.

SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION

 

 

 

 

 

 
Environmental, General News, Hunting

USA (Alaska): Guns and Wolves: How Hunting Culture Has Plundered America’s Last Wild Frontier.

USA

 

Guns and Wolves: How Hunting Culture Has Plundered America’s Last Wild Frontier.

 

guns and wolves

By Denise Boehler

Grey wolves. Grizzly bears, black bears, brown bears. All are living in ecosystems on more than 95 million acres of Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges (funded by American taxpayers) and Denali National Park, wandering, romping and bearing young on the last wild frontier.

It’s a magical place: the mere mention of Alaska evokes imagery of wild wolves and majestic bears. At one time, people visited and relocated there just to be in their midst. That’s been changing, however, since the early 1990s, when the Alaska Board of Game (Board) began implementing aggressive predator policies that blame predators for only doing what nature intended. By taking as many predators out of the ecosystem as is arguably sustainable through increasingly efficient and often unfair hunting practices, the Board aims to boost moose and caribou populations for indigenous and out-of-state trophy hunters, bringing millions of dollars into the state. These policies are much debated; conservationists see other explanations than over-predation for reduced prey populations. In the meantime, Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges are becoming game farms, in the words of Alaskan biologist Francis Mauer.

Alaska received statehood in 1958. At the time, the federal government created a mandate for conservation of wildlife as its highest priority through the passage of the Alaska National Interests Land Conservation Act (ANILCA). Alaskan governors, the Board and out-of-state trophy hunters have had a different priority: Economics. Disregard for the federal mandate and moves toward state control have given rise to not only the question of states’ rights versus federal authority, but a mentality of treating some of the last of this country’s apex predators as an inexhaustible resource. The adoption of these policies is an ongoing controversy, replete with politics and indigenous rights issues, legal arguments and conservation challenges. In the meantime, apex predators are in the literal crosshairs each time a governor appoints a Board member, a Board resolution is signed or a policy enacted.

It can be disheartening to realize that the Board itself is comprised of hunters and those with vested hunting interests. At least one of the members, Vice-Chair Nate Turner, is an owner of an outfitting company directly profiting each time a decision is made to increase bag limits, allow aerial hunting or look the other way when wolf pups are lethally removed from dens. While these specific practices may not bring in direct revenue for Mr. Turner’s company, they are part and parcel of the domination of economics over conservation.

Turner is joined by Chairman Ted Spraker, lifetime NRA member and member of Safari Club International, a proud sponsor of HJRes 69 (a measure stripping Alaska’s right to manage fish and wildlife on federal refuges). Many Alaskans feel that the consumptive makeup of the Board is directly responsible for the increasingly aggressive predator control policies. With none of its members coming from the ecotourism industry that reveres animals as sentient beings, this constitution treats Alaska’s apex predators as animals to be consumed, not conserved. All of its seven members appointed by the governor adhere to this philosophy.

Must Alaska resort to consuming its wildlife to survive? One need only point to the $2 billion annual income in the ecotourism industry, nearly twice the revenue generated from the trophy hunting industry, to answer in the negative. Why, then, do they not support the viewing of wolves and bears from tour buses and the revenue derived from tourism and honor the federal mandate of conservation?

Again, the answer for some Alaskans is simple: The Board consists of hunters. Their philosophies (and conflicts of interest) supersede the conservation priority. Grizzly bears, black bears, brown bears, grey wolves, are resources. Wealthy trophy hunters pay outfitters handsome sums to take the life of a grizzly (wolves are free, if they are trotting through a hunter’s crosshairs).

Vice-Chairman Turner’s company, Turners Alaskan Adventures, enjoys receiving $6,000 to $14,500 for the life of a grizzly bear, depending upon if it is alone or in the company of a moose. For the lives of three black bears, one can expect to pay $14,500. For the life of a brown bear, checks are written from $23,500 – $29,000, depending upon the days out in the bush.

All of the Board members’ terms remain active, which means that for now, Alaska’s apex predators will continue to be held in the crosshairs and in peril. While these aggressive predator control policies persist, it is not unsurprising to see individuals acting out this philosophy for all to witness. This past winter, in a malicious act of violence, a disturbing image made public of a clearly triumphant masked man with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle held high over his head, posing behind the carcasses of ten grey wolves gunned down just outside Denali National Park. It begs the question, was this man acting on his own volition, or was he supported by Alaska’s aggressive anti-predator culture at large?

 

Environmental, General News, Hunting

UK: British Forces To Malawi To Help Stop Rhino and Elephant Poaching.

uk

british forces protect rhino

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-45113932

Animal poaching: British soldiers’ Malawi mission to stop poachers

The Majete Wildlife Reserve sits in a large basin in the south of Malawi, and the roads that lead there are busy at 6am.

Not with vehicles, but with endless cyclists as Malawians make the most of the low light and cooler air to start their days.

The appearance of two British Army 4x4s turns heads as they leave the sights and smells of the villages, and head into the bush.

Lance Corporal Chad Spalding is one of those on board.

The 23-year-old is about to spend the next few days with local rangers Boston Phiri, who’s pretty new to the job, and Retief Chomali, with ten years’ experience.

“You don’t really have time to think,” explains Chad. “Most of the time you’re concentrating on the environment itself.

“You’re constantly looking, watching dangerous game, anything that might sneak up on you.”

Chad, who’s originally from Zimbabwe, is one of 14 British soldiers in Malawi trying to help stop poaching. Ministers announced the British Army’s involvement after a successful pilot last year.

Chad says the wildlife and the environment are important to him and he feels a sense of responsibility to make sure that others get to experience them.

“If we start chopping down trees and killing animals what will be left for future generations? Just a bunch of pictures in a book,” he reflects.

Chad remembers working with lions when he was growing up on a project in Gonarezhou, Zimbabwe.

“After I’d seen the wildlife and what it’s actually like out in the bush, I just really really bit into it. As soon as this came across the table, I took it straight away.

The illegal wildlife trade is a big business, thought to be worth £17bn a year worldwide. A rhino horn is more expensive than cocaine, heroin or gold.

In the last 50 years global black rhino numbers have dropped from 70,000 to 5,500, African Parks says. The organisation runs the Majete Reserve and two others in Malawi.

“Most jobs out here don’t pay well, whereas if they get a rhino horn it’s a pretty big pay day,” Chad says.

“I know in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania there’s quite a lot of heavy poaching.

“Most of the poaching that goes on is organised by higher syndicates which are funding these Chad knows what he would say to a poacher if he met one though.

“I would ask his reasons for doing it, and what he thinks the consequences will be if he does get caught.

“It’s not a matter of if he gets caught it’s a matter of when he gets caught. If he does carry on he is going to get caught, and he will go to jail.”

Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra – if you miss us you can listen back here.

“Which is making it a lot hard for the rangers to keep up with the funding they’ve got. For now the rangers seem to be winning, let’s hope it stays that way.”

The military-style approach, along with tougher sentences, seems to be working for now though.

No elephants or rhinos have been poached in Majete for 15 years.

General News, Hunting

India: Rhino Poacher Mortgages His Own Son to Weapons Dealers.

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Rhino Poacher Mortgages His Own Son to Weapons Dealers

A man in India offered his son as collateral in exchange for a gun and ammunition. His intention was to kill an Indian one-horned rhinoceros and sell its ivory horn.

Nurjamal Rahman expected to kill a rhino and then sell the horn for ₹50 lakh (about $73,000 USD). But to carry out his plan, he needed a firearm and ammunition. He connected with an arms trader and they set up a deal. The dealer required Nurjamal to pay ₹3 lakh (~$4,500 USD) up front to rent the firearm and ammunition, but then added an additional requirement that he also provide collateral to guarantee the return of the leftover ammunition and firearm. And that collateral had to be in “human form.”

So Nurjamal offered his 12-year-old son for a three-month mortgage period, in which he hoped to kill a rhino in Orang National Park. The area was designated as a sanctuary in 1985 and declared a national park in 1999.  It is home to many animals including great Indian one-horned rhinoceros, elephants, and tigers.

Police caught Nurjamal and two associates before they were able to kill an animal.

India’s northeastern state of Assam, where the park is located, has an estimated 2,610 Indian one horned rhinoceros. Orang National Park has an estimated 68 rhinos left. Also known as the greater one horned rhino, these are the biggest rhinoceros on the planet.

At the turn of the 20th century, there were only 200 greater one horned rhinos left alive. Poaching had decimated their population. The animal was on the brink of extinction. But thanks to strong oversight and law enforcement fighting poachers, their population has recovered (though according to the World Wildlife Fund they are still classified as vulnerable). Today populations have increased to about 3,500 from northeastern India to Nepal.

Rhinoceros are beautiful, playful creatures. Unfortunately, humans have decided their horns are worth a substantial amount of money. This story is encouraging in that it illustrates the strong work by the Indian government, but it is also sad as it shows the extreme choices some individuals make in seeking to kill an animal for profit.

General News, Hunting

August 12th Is World Elephant Day.

world elephant day 1

It’s World Elephant Day!

But…did you know that around 55 African elephants

are killed a day? 

Illegal wildlife trade is destroying some of the world’s

most iconic species including elephants, who are poached

for their tusks, driven by the demand for ivory.

Last year, over 60,000 of you signed our Stop Ivory

Trade petition, successfully calling for a strong ivory

trade ban in the UK. It’s now time to take this to the next level.

Today we’ve launched a new petition to call on global

leaders to stamp out wildlife crime at an important

conference on illegal wildlife trade in London this October.

Will you join our fight to end illegal wildlife trade?

world elephant day 2

Elephant skinning 

 

Did you know that as well as being killed

for ivory, elephants are also being poached

for their skin?

In Myanmar, Asian elephants of all ages are targeted

by poachers for their skin and other body parts.

The skin is used to make creams, consumed as medicine

and polished into jewellery.

But we’re taking action.

In response to the poaching crisis, WWF-Myanmar has

been working to tackle the poaching, including the

introduction of 220 rangers in 18 different base camps

that has helped to protect elephants.

 petition keyboard
world elephant day 3

The illegal wildlife trade is devastating elephants

worldwide. We need global leaders to take urgent action

to end this terrible illegal trade.

Will you help us?

https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/join-our-fight-end-illegal-wildlife-trade?pc=VDA002002&utm_source=News&utm_medium=email&utm_content=SignThePetition&utm_campaign=NEWS_IWTPETITION_VDA002002&_ccCt=zkpEp8mTXSlkIFlkm1Q2fiDRsdhXq1oXs6dE3HhrNF6hFm7ILto5RnrvZlcNWqqu

 

 
General News, Hunting

We fight back!!

 

deutsche flagge

 

It has been observed for some time now that hobby hunters in children’s gardens and schools run a sect-like image campaign with the aim of introducing our animal-loving children to the cruel hobby of hunting.

Hunters are aware of the fact that the sneaky and mendacious hunt, and the atrocities associated with it, are finding much greater rejection within society, the hunters are visiting educational facilities with the aim of gaining prospective hunters and violence for the future.

The manipulation of the children follows a playful method and is advertised as a nature conservation project, playing down the real backgrounds and outgrowths of hunting, falsifying or simply concealing them.

 

Nein-Danke-Jäger-in-den-Schulen
As a means of influencing ideology, hunters make use of prepared wild animals, which are used to stroke the children, who are usually interested in animals. Common games are popular, as well as the promotion of craft skills such as the construction of a high seat.

The hunting violence, the fact that millions of wild animals and pets are killed cruel, cowardly and sneaky remains unappreciated.
The construction hunt, motor hunts in which only every third to fourth animal is fatally hit while the other game with tattered limbs trying to escape, sometimes only after hours or days is tracked or goes unnoticed to his injuries, remain unmentioned, as well the terrorist genocide of hundreds of thousands of foxes and other species that stand in the way of the hunter as a prey – rival.

 

jaeger

Hunters, who belong to a small minority of society and who claim that the desire to hunt, to capture animals, to kill, is a fundamental human trait that one simply has to live out, which the hunting and killing impulse portrays as normal, take as Non – educators influence thousands of children.

 

Jäger im HochsitzHigh Seat = murder seat

Schools and out-of-school education offer uncritically a platform for hunters to introduce children and adolescents to the killing and “looting” of animals as a respectable pastime and to offer the use of firearms as an acceptable way of solving problems.

Hunters, for example, looked after children between the ages of 8 and 14 during an adventure week. One of the children, ten-year-old Marty enthused, “This was not a normal summer camp. We killed two roebucks together with hunters. For this we have already got up at 02:10 o’clock … ”
The militant amateur hunters also violate the charter of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: protecting children from violence.

 

Kind erschießt Waschbär_n

Based on this example, it becomes clear that the inhibition threshold of gun violence is deliberately exceeded if the inclusion of significant children in joint killing is practiced.

It cannot and should not be the aim of a society to glorify and depict the unilateral war that millions of wild animals suffer each year as a necessity to our children.

We fight back. We say NO to teaching our kids by hobby hunters.

** your signature ** (Please sign the petition, below is the link)

(Translation of the Petition-letter: Venus)

https://wildbeimwild.com/2018/01/25/wir-sagen-nein-zum-unterrichten-unserer-kinder-durch-jaeger/

 

First of all, one thing must be said: the hunting law in Germany is a law of empowerment in the sense of 1933 !!!
It authorizes hunters to assault foreign property.
When did hunters earn merits in nature conservation? They just do not want to be pushed to the margins of society.

But they have themselves gone there.

They only make themselves more ridiculous than they already are.
And because they can no longer find acceptance in society, they creep now (cunning as they are) in circles of children, so that they, with new murderers, improve the future of their psychopathic hobbies.

They are the heavily armed animal killers, who think they can do and leave in the woods what they want. And everyone who disagrees is intimidated by force of arms.

These times are finally over.
Hunter: Shoot yourself, and your stupid fellow-travelers in politics equal to.

Best regards to all, Venus

 

 

 

Hunting

Psychopaths Population

 

deutsche flagge

 

Cruel killing of a young she-wolf: 10.000 Euro reward for the capture of the offender exposed!

 

Wölfin ermordetjpg

The young she-wolf, who was shot first on June 10th and thrown into the lake of Mortka in Saxony with a rope around her body and a concrete weight, was only a year old.

A wolf child, at best a teenager measured by human standards. She had her whole life ahead of her. Maybe she even helped as a yearling she-wolf in rearing the new puppies?

During the salvage of the carcass, it was found that the womb had cavities and a rope was tied around the belly of the dead wolf. At the other end of the rope a concrete weight has been fastened, with which the carcass has been sunk in the open pit.

On suspicion of illegal killing, the police were called in to rescue them.

The reward of 10,000 euros was increased by a hunter again from 7,000 to 10,000.

Were offenders identified? No! a wall of silence spreads around all the wolf killings.

http://wolfsschutz-deutschland.de/2018/07/11/grausame-toetung-einer-jungwoelfin-10-000-euro-belohnung-fuer-die-ergreifung-des-taeters-ausgesetzt/

They run among us, they are among us.
The psychopaths with the murder urge.
In that case, I think it’s very likely that the psychopath (s) are hunters.
For such a well-prepared removal of the corpse can only make hunting psychopaths.
And so are the hunters.
Professional killer with psychopathic disposition.
It is high time that this society, by law abolishes a criminal minority of 0.50% psychopath hunter.

My best regards, Venus