biking for the animals

I am in the process of transitioning to a car-lite life.

Using a bike to commute, to run errands, to essentially do everything other than get myself to or from the sanctuaries. And maybe at some point I’ll figure out how to go car-free without giving up the sanctuary visits as well. My first step is to get in gear with bike commuting.

It is a mere 14 miles each way.

Entirely doable by bike. There’s a great local bike advocacy group, there are great published maps for finding bike routes, there are bike commuters online who can help with routes. Millions of people already do this, I’m just going to be one more.

I had heard about a book called “How to live well without owning a car.” I happened to see it at the library this weekend so I picked it up. A lot of the information didn’t apply that much to me. The guy writing the book went car-free by accident, in that his car sold a lot faster than he’d expected, and he went car free while looking for a new car. He saved $800/month by going car free.

Between gas and insurance I’d save under $300/month. Add another $100 monthly for projected yearly maintenance - repairs, tires, and oil changes. It is a fair amount, and more than I’d have necessarily expected. I have no car payments (I paid cash 11 years ago), I have very low insurance (it is a 14 year old beater), and I have no property taxes on it (it is a 14 year old beater). Still, it would be about $400/month, thanks to the gas costs.

And that’s not why I’m doing it. The environment, pure and simple, with an added bonus of the kind of independence that is really only possible when you’re getting around on your own steam.

Another reason the book listed for why to go car free (or at least car-lite) is “Animal Casualties”. It was its own header in this particular chapter. Of course it caught my eye. I couldn’t help but to think about the many deer I see on my travels, sometimes the turkeys, always the small sometimes unidentifiable animals. I can picture the lifeless turtles, raccoons, ground hogs, birds, cats and dogs I’ve seen.

It often makes me feel sick when I see them. The lost lives themselves, but also that I’m in one of those same machines that puts their lives in obvious risk. I find myself braking for butterflies.

“An estimated one million animals die on U.S. roadways every day.” (p. 39) That would be 365 million animals every year. I don’t think butterflies are included in those numbers.

That’s a lot of animals.

“According to the humane society, the most serious threat to wildlife in the U.S. is habitat fragmentation caused by road and highway construction. Fragmentation forces animals to live in areas too small to meet their basic needs for food, water, shelter, and finding a mate.” (p. 40)

Well, you know what’s coming next from me, the person who pointed out the problems inherent in palm oil, and thus products like Earth Balance. And ABC cookies. (I looked online - I used to get them sometimes, but obviously not anymore.)

Yes, indeed, I think that from an animal rights perspective, our transportation choices can’t be ignored without consideration to the costs to the animals. I haven’t even touched on the environmental costs to the animals from the extraction of material that goes into making the cars themselves. This is just the obvious and more immediate cost to the animals. Our sprawl is taking away what they require for life. Our cars are hitting and killing an incredible number of animals.

I just can’t deal with that anymore. I need to align this aspect of my life as well. If I can’t stop it, I at least will limit my contribution to it.

And I’d hope that between the incentives of the animals and the environment and your wallet, you might think about how you can lighten your car usage as well. It is estimated that the majority of car trips undertaken in America are 2 miles or less.

Food for thought, I hope.

I know some will argue that this type of thinking makes veganism less achievable than if we ignored these pesky issues with habitat destruction.

And so perhaps this is really a post for current vegans more than those in the process of transitioning, and a reminder that our consumption is more than the food we eat, and our impact is more than our consumption. I hope most see that veganism is a path, rather than a destination.

Or maybe that’s just me, too willing to see areas where I need to improve to better align the path I’m traveling with where my ethics point me.

Besides, biking is a hell of a lot of fun! In a similar way to veganism opening culinary doors for me, so will biking add to my life. Sacrifices they are not.

8th Carnival of Empty Cages posted at Deep Roots Sanctuary

Deep Roots Sanctuary has published the 8th “Carnival of Empty Cages”, for which they are now the permanent home.

For those who are not especially familiar with “Carnivals” (other than, perhaps, the one in Rio), they are based around specific themes, and are blog posts that compile many posts from many blogs from a given month (generally). The posts included are usually submitted to them by others. It is a neat way, in my opinion, for wider connections to be made in the blogosphere. We all have blogs that we read regularly, and those bloggers have blogs that they read regularly, and so on. The Carnival closes some of those loops.

I admit I usually have read all the posts that are mentioned in the Carnival of Empty Cages, but there are also always blogs and posts I have either been neglecting or have not run across in the past. I also find it interesting to see in one post the incredible variety and breadth of topics that we’re covering in the animal rights community. And that’s just a snapshot. Looking back at the Carnival archives gives yet another perspective. I need to remember to start submitting posts I stumble on for them to include in future Carnivals, because if I have any complaint, it has to be that the snapshot is a bit small. Not narrow, but definitely small. Since it is up to us to submit posts we read and think would be good to have included, and since I am the one voicing this complaint, I definitely need to remember to do something about it! I hope others do as well.

So, you can tell, I’m a fan of the Carnival, and I’m very grateful for Deep Roots Sanctuary for taking on the job. I bet it is a lot of work, and I bet they don’t get thanked enough for it!

Deep Roots Sanctuary is itself worth checking out. Here’s what their “about” page says:

The Deep Roots Animal Sanctuary is a non-hierarchical, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all animals. It is our goal to decrease violence against animals by establishing a safe space that will provide refuge for debilitated and displaced animals, on-going veterinary care, wildlife rehabilitation, community programs, and education. We will carry out our mission in as sustainable a manner as possible and without compromising our commitment to anti-oppressive relationships.

We believe that in order to create a more compassionate world, it is vital that we not only exhibit compassion towards rescued animals, but to embrace compassion in all aspects of our lives. The is why we act upon the belief that all forms of systematic violence and oppression are interconnected and must be approached and dismantled simultaneously.

They’re an extremely new sanctuary, still in the process of being created in many respects, but it is clear that they have put a lot of thought into the kind of sanctuary and the kind of place they want to build. We literally can never have enough sanctuaries, and I get a small taste of the effort and dedication required from my regular sanctuary volunteer work, yet I know that it is the kind of endeavor that can’t be fully comprehended until it is undertaken. Hats off to anyone who has it in them!

So keep an eye out for more Carnivals, as well as more developments at Deep Roots!

lola and chloe

Lola, the little three legged lamb, is growing so fast, I can see changes every week.

On Saturday at the sanctuary Terry was giving a tour to a couple and Lola followed them until they got down to the chicken barn. Where, of course, Lola hopped right inside, right where she shouldn’t be! Terry put the chicken food bowls where Lola couldn’t get to them (chicken food, and any grain, is extremely dangerous to goats and sheep - if they eat too much it can kill them), and picked up the squirming and not-so-light Lola to put her on the other side of the short fence.

Not that Lola (or the chickens, for that matter) can’t get right over the fence if she wants, but they do all seem to respect that boundary to a degree.

Lola stayed with Dave and I after Terry and the guests continued on the tour. I kept an eye on Lola as she spent some time happily laying near the chicken barn and munching on the grass and clover she found there. At one point she was grazing near the bunny barn section, and one of the bunnies, Chloe, was really curious. She stood right up on her back legs to say hello to Lola. It was a very cute moment.

Visual: Intersection of Animal Rights and the Environment

I don’t know what I can do for this bird. He (I think it is a he) can fly, but his ground hopping is definitely impaired. Balance, agility….if he couldn’t fly, I would be able to get this trash off his legs. As it is, there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do, other than remind people that when we don’t take care of the environment, we’re killing animals.

Ranger the box turtle

We welcomed an interesting new resident to Polar Spring on Saturday. Things often get a bit crazy towards noon with people showing up for tours. This past Saturday was like that, but one woman was there to drop someone off rather than go on a tour.

She told me parts of how she came to have Ranger, the cute little box turtle she was bringing to the sanctuary. A friend had found Ranger on the side of the road and (I believe) noticed that she was missing a foot. I’m not sure what prompted a removal type rescue - perhaps it was a new injury, or perhaps the rescuer wasn’t sure how best to rescue a turtle. Whatever the case, Ranger came to live with them for about a year.

And then for reasons I either didn’t hear or don’t remember, Ranger came to live with this other woman. I think she had Ranger for only a few months before she started feeling bad about having a box turtle in a cage. She would give her outside time and saw how happy she was. She knew of Poplar Spring because she comes every year to the Open House in the fall, and so she contacted Terry.

I feel pretty lucky that I got to witness Ranger being introduced to her new home. There is a quiet little stream, which isn’t much more than a trickle of water, but it is a perfect area in the woods for a box turtle. Other box turtles have been released there in the past, and Terry would periodically see them for years afterwards, so it is known to be a good spot.

She did a little exploring and while I don’t know turtles that well, I would swear that her personality was shining right through the leaves and dappled sunlight. She didn’t seem hampered at all by her three footedness - there was a little less traction from the footless stump, and you could see that there was some impact to her movements, but it certainly didn’t stop her.

The woman who had brought Ranger to live at Poplar Spring was so happy. Sad, in the sense that she’d miss Ranger in her life, but incredibly happy because she knew she was doing the right thing for Ranger. She was greatly cheered by the thought of coming to visit Ranger (or at least look for Ranger) on some other visits to the sanctuary.

Myself, I’ll be taking little breaks on Saturdays to see if I can spot Ranger. There’s just something about that little face, I hope I get to see her again.

I am never quite sure what to do when rescuing turtles. I mean, obviously, get them out of the road. But why did they go to the road, and do I know which side they were trying to get to, and if I don’t figure it out correctly, am I really helping them? I do my best, but they’re not always pointed in one direction or another. I don’t know much about turtles. I googled to do a bit of research for this post, and found some good stories and good information. If anyone has turtle rescuing hints, please pass them on!

• Satya: Turtle Rescue
• Box Turtle Observation Project

Lucy’s adventure

I made a new friend today, and her name is Lucy. Here’s the story of her adventure.

I was driving home from the sanctuary, on my way to a confident city cycling class, cruising along GW Parkway. This is a road that is 2 lanes mostly (sometimes 3) in each direction, bordered by a river (and sometimes a steep drop off) on one side, the woods on another, and usually separated by some grassy area or a wooded area. It is curvy, the posted speed limit is 50mph for most of it, but I think most of us drive more like 60-65mph.

In other words, it is a busy, fast road, with enough curves to be dangerous for anyone who is not going right along with traffic, and is also in a car.

Cruising along, the traffic suddenly slowed, and came to a halt. Construction? Accident? We were all, as it happens, in the right lane, and no one was in the left lane. I saw a dog dart from in front of the car in front of me, and realised that the traffic was stopping for the dog. I put on my hazzards, jammed the emergency brake home, and started getting out of my truck just as the giant SUV in back of me started to pull around me to get in the left lane and get around the stopped cars.

They stopped immediately, either seeing me or the dog or both, and once I was sure they weren’t going anywhere, I jogged forward. The dog saw me, and stopped. I could tell she was freaked out, and I was afraid she’d bolt.

I crouched down, making myself small and at her eye level, letting her know that I was a friend. She ran right to me, I grabbed her collar, she got right into the truck, and traffic started moving again.

All that took about 20 seconds.

I don’t know why I was the only one to get out of the car. Maybe it mattered more to me, or I was in the right position to do that quick evaluation - traffic stopped, dog in danger, safe for me to get out in the middle of the road since the entire road was blocked at that point - but whatever it was, I was so relieved that the pup was completely unhurt, that I was able to get her, that she came right to me.

And she was wearing a tag. I called the number. A man answered.

“Lucy is your dog?” I asked, sure that as soon as I mentioned the name on her tag he’d be completely relieved, sure that he was out right now looking for her.

“Yes…” he replied in confusion.

“I picked her up on GW Parkway.”

And then he freaked out. He wasn’t in town, his buddy was watching Lucy, and he was completely thrown that she’d been lost, and wandering on a horribly dangerous road, and he wasn’t even in town! And it is the kind of thing where you feel all the fear of the “oh my gods” and “what ifs” even though he didn’t find out about her danger until she was already safe.

I told him I’d drop her off at my house, and to have his friend call me around 4, after I was done with class.

And that’s what we did. Tempest wasn’t too pleased at having an invader, nor about being locked in the bedroom (just in case), and Lucy was a bundle of nervous energy. I came back from class, and she’d found the basket of cat toys, and I think she played with them all. She about tackled me when I came in the door, frantically happy to see someone. We entertained each other by playing fetch with a few of Tempest’s toys. She is a dog of perpetual motion! An hour later her daddy’s buddy showed up, and I was thanked about a million times. He’d spent 2 hours looking for her and calling for her (his cell phone was in the house, so Lucy’s daddy spent those same 2 hours calling him trying to figure out what was going on), and so his fear and worry had lasted quite a while before he’d found out that Lucy was actually safe.

The disconcerting part of our conversation was the way he continually referred to Lucy as “it.” He never used a different pronoun, even though he clearly had real affection for her, and kept telling me how “it” was a very smart dog.

The morals of Lucy’s adventure:

• Just because your dog has never bolted before doesn’t mean they never will.
• You might want to reconsider letting your dog off leash in an unfenced area, if you’re in the habit of it. You just never know, and it doesn’t need to be an especially dangerous road to be dangerous to a dog that darts into the road.
• Tags with a phone number (cell phone is best) are super important.
• Don’t be afraid to stop traffic to rescue an animal, but be safe about it. Make sure you’re visible, make sure the cars have stopped. Leave your door open if possible, since your hands (and maybe arms) could be full when you head back to your car if you successfully rescue the animal.
• Travel with an emergency kit that includes a collar and a leash. (I need to do this!)
• And as a reminder: in this type of situation, crouching (not bending) down to be at their eye level is one of the best ways to get them to come to you. They can run faster than you, so don’t chase them. They’re likely feeling nervous and freaked out, and if they’re a dog like Lucy, they might be just afraid enough to not recognize that you’re a friend if you’re standing straight. Crouching down is non-threatening, and it is a welcoming posture that most dogs will recognize as such. It is not foolproof, but it should be one of the first things you try.

There are probably other tips out there that are helpful for people to keep in mind. This list is just what Lucy’s adventure highlighted for me.

Bullfighting protest in Spain

I stumbled on information on bullfighting demonstrations in Spain. The most recent was June 22nd, but there was an earlier one that got international attention (and has english subtitles):

The english switches between saying “bullfighting” and “bullkilling”. I don’t know Spanish well enough to be certain of what the best english translation is, though I believe they’re actually calling for the abolition of bullfighting not just the killing of the bulls at the end. I seem to recall that the bulls aren’t killed in the ring in Portugal, so I would think that the Spanish activists know quite well to go for the abolition of the brutal sport in its entirety.

I have actually seen a bullfight. I look back and I wonder what the hell I was thinking, but at the time I was 20, I was traveling around, I was in Madrid, I was hanging out with people who were totally convinced that seeing a bullfight was part of seeing Spanish culture.

I couldn’t watch most of it. I hated it, I felt sick, and I was SO happy when a matador was kicked in the head by a bull and knocked out. (He was fine, just had a minor concussion. The bull, of course, did not survive the ring.) I don’t know what that says about me, but the brutality of the sport, the constant blood, the terror I felt for the horses who wearing armor or no were often knocked over by the bulls, it all made me feel sick to my stomach. I don’t worry much about the humans in these cases, because even if they get hurt, it is because they put themselves in that situation.

Same with the running of the bulls. Take a chance, do something stupid, and you know you might pay a price.

The bulls and the horses aren’t given any choice at all, and they always pay the price.

If that is something essential in Spanish culture, it is certainly not something that makes Spanish culture look good. There were so many fantastic aspects to Spanish culture, so much beauty in that country, and I didn’t find any of it watching that bullfight.

I, for one, will think that much more highly of the Spanish people when they finally abolish bullfighting.

Of course in the news clip from the youtube video, one of the protesters is quoted very nicely saying that they were a peaceful protest. One of the anti-animal people was quoted as saying “they should be arrested!” And then you see a shot of one of the protesters being dragged out of the ring in a chokehold.

This threat of arrest is a bullying tactic. “Don’t rock the boat, or we’ll arrest you! It doesn’t even matter if you have done anything illegal!”

Anyway, kudos to equanimal. I wish I could read more Spanish!

Earth Balance, palm oil, rainforests and RAN

In November of 2006, Eric wrote a post about the Orangutans in Malaysia, and the associated palm oil issues. There are some first hand accounts linked in that post of his, and they’re heart-wrenching.

I realized in horror that my beloved Earth Balance uses palm oil. I wrote them asking about the palm oil that they use, and this was their response:

100% of the palm oil used in Earth Balance originates in peninsular Malaysia and not Eastern Malaysia (i.e. Sarawak and Sabah on the Island of Borneo), the main home for orangutans. As the orangutan.com website points out, slash and burn clearing methods are illegal. We purchase our oil exclusively from reputable, law-abiding plantations which are registered with the Malaysian
government.

Palm oil and soybean oil are the major edible oils in the world, together they account for over 50% of all oil consumed worldwide. The alternative to palm oil in the world markets is hydrogenated soybean oil. If we reduce the world supply of palm, the markets will compensate by growing more soybeans.

Soybean cultivation is wasteful of natural resources. Palm plantations require only a fraction of the acreage to produce the same quantity of oil as soybean farms. An acre of palm trees will produce roughly 8,000-9,000 kgs of oil per year while an acre of soybeans produces roughly 1,000 kgs of oil
per year. Brazil is now the world’s largest and fastest growing producer of soybeans. For every acre of Malaysian palm oil converted back to jungle, several acres of Brazilian or Argentinean forest must be converted to farmland.

It is for these reason that we feel palm oil should be part of an environmentally friendly food supply chain. The following site has more information about the cultivation of palm oil in Malaysia.
http://www.mpopc.org.my/index1.htm.

This looked like good news. I checked out the website they had linked in, and it looked legit, with what looked to be some pretty solid information. I didn’t look into palm oil further, but there has always been a worry in the back of my mind. What will I find out if I do research it for real?

It has been a year and a half. Today RAN (Rainforest Action Network) posted about rainforests and palm oil. They are in the middle of an action campaign, where people act as supermarket sleuths and register products that use palm oil, and starting on July 1, RAN is going to start contacting these companies and basically demand that these companies give up their palm oil. And soy oil? I would think they would cover that as well.

I registered Earth Balance on RAN’s site. I also commented on RAN’s blog post to see what they could tell me about Earth Balance’s response to my question a year and a half ago. You can read the exchange by following the link above, but part of the response from Brihannala at RAN was this:

If killing orangutans were the only problem that existed with palm oil, then maybe Earth Balance could get off the hook. But it simply is not. Every where that palm is grown– very much including Peninsular Malaysia– involves clear cutting rainforest and planting massive monoculture plantations– with serious consequences for both endangered species (the tapir lives in Peninsular Malaysia.. does it deserve to go extinct?) and the climate. It also involves displacing communities off their traditionally owned land, which regularly occurs in Peninsular Malaysia. Particularly in Peninsular Malaysia, migrant workers from Indonesia and India are forced into modern day slavery, forced to work for minuscule wages while paying back the companies for their their transportation from their country of origin. It’s a wreck.

Well, I can’t argue with that.

I think this is always a danger when we focus too completely on one piece of an issue - the companies can find ways to address the small concern while ignoring the bigger picture. And if we don’t know the bigger picture, we’ll accept their “green animal friendly washing”. (Obviously I made that phrase up just now. And it is cumbersome. Greenwashing is a great and immediately understandable term; do we have one for the animal rights aspect?)

When I emailed Earth Balance, I had talked specifically about the orangutans and the clear cutting and burning. I didn’t even know about the tapir, I didn’t know about the workers, and I really was fairly ignorant about rain forest issues in general.

Every time I turn around, I’m reminded about how intertwined these issues are. Social justice, environmental protection, animal rights. Palm oil is a hat trick of issues, and it is something we all need to pay attention to.

Rainforests are important and delicate places. They are huge carbon sinks, which makes them incredibly important to the entire issue of global climate change. Their carbon is held above ground, however. Something I remember from college ecology classes is that there is virtually nothing contained in the soil of a rainforest, it is closer to a desert in terms of soil ecology than it is to anything else. All of the nutrients and minerals and everything needed for life is held in the plants themselves. Before they drop their leaves, they actually are able to pull the nutrients out of them first, making the reclamation of nutrients immediate, rather than having it be processed through decomposition and uptake through the soil.

This makes rainforests really bad areas to clear to use for farming, obviously. It also makes rainforests really bad areas to clear from a carbon stand point, because it is all held in the living matter. Cut those trees down, and you’re destroying direct carbon sinks.

Not to mention the fact that rainforests remain the most biodiverse areas of the planet. Biodiversity is important for all of us, for all of our survival, though you have to take the long term view of it to understand why it is important.

And you can’t talk about the destruction of the rainforests without talking about giant corporations and how they profit off of the social injustices perpetuated on the local people. Whether it is South America or Asia, the script is the same.

Now that I have more information, I’m sad to say that Earth Balance’s answers are far from satisfactory.

I’m hoping that someone has a vegan palm-oil free and soy-oil free replacement they can recommend. A recipe, a product, something…

Regardless, I’ll be going without Earth Balance from here on out, unless they change their product to eliminate the palm and soy oils. Pleasing my tastebuds with a buttery spread just isn’t worth what it costs the people, the environment, and of course the animals themselves.

My letter for the Kofa NWR Lion formal scoping period

My recommendation for the management of the Mountain Lions on Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is: no hunting of mountain lions on Kofa NWR by agencies or hunters. My reasons are as follows:

1. Bighorn Sheep herds on Kofa NWR have increased in size by a significant number (from 390 to 460), around 17%, from 2006-2007. This eliminates the main justification presented for killing the mountain lions. The herd increased in size while a minimum of four of the original five mountain lions were alive, to state it conservatively. The first lion was killed in June of 2007, and it is reasonable to make an assumption that the herd was increasing even in the first six months of 2007, while all five lions were alive. At the very least, the herd increased substantially while four lions were alive. There are now a maximum of three lions on the refuge, since a second mountain lion was killed in April of 2008, so the justification for killing more lions are further weakened.

2. There has been no research done to determine how much a mountain lion can be expected to eat. The limit of “2 sheep in a six month period” are arbitrary and ignorant, and thus unethical as a basis of life or death decisions being made for the animals within the protection of the refuge managers, the AGFD and the USGFD.

3. It is a basic fact of population biology that predator populations are self-limited by the prey population sizes. In other words, the mountain lions are not going to hunt the Sheep into a permanent decline - it is only humans who so completely disregard the natural laws of the world around them. Mountain Lions have strong territorial drives, and that further limits the total number of lions that would reside in any given area. The mountain lions are not endangering the sheep herds.

4. There has been no data gathered to support the theory that the Sheep population size can be expected to maintain a constant size even during decade long droughts. Kofa NWR is situated in an area that has been suffering a severe drought for over a decade. Again, the most basic population biology informs us that the herd size will naturally decrease in conjunction with the decreasing resources expected in a drought situation. Therefore it is is unreasonable both to expect the herd size to maintain pre-drought numbers, as well as to then blame the mountain lions for the decrease in sheep numbers.

5. Research Biologist Ted McKinney questioned statements that lion predation can have significant population level impacts, referring to the top experts on the subject when he said: “Note that Sawyer and Lindzey state that NO studies have clearly demonstrated population-level impacts.” Lindzey is well known to be an expert on Mountain Lion biology, and his research should have been studied exhaustively.

6. No data was gathered by Kofa biologists to determine the actual cause of the Bighorn Sheep decline. Sheep are known to be very sensitive to environmental stresses, which include droughts, habitat pressure, and disturbance of sensitive lambing areas. In the 1980’s, Kofa Sheep herds had a dramatic decline due to respiratory ailments, yet no necropsies were done in response to the current decline. That’s illogical. These types of questions need to be resolved in order for any logical plan to be worked out for recovery, if warranted. As it happens, there were at least two environmental stresses that the sheep had to deal with - the drought, as well as the disturbance of their lambing areas, which hunters were given access to.

7. There has been no research to determine the actual impact of hunters and hikers through the sensitive lambing areas. It is known that they do have access to these areas, and that hunters do disturb gravid ewes during hunting season, which causes some (as yet undetermined amount of) lamb mortality. Their impact should be quantified, since it might justify limiting their access to these areas.

8. We are in the middle of global climate change, a fact that is almost universally agreed upon by the world’s scientists by now. Refuge managers have to be prepared to update their expectations for various populations sizes as the climate changes. This is not a static world, it is illogical to acts as if it is.

9. Biodiversity is incredibly important to maintain the health of the global ecosystems as well as the local ecosystems. It has been understood for half a century or more that removing the predators leads to a decrease in the health of prey populations. Thus any further destruction of the Mountain Lion population could well have a detrimental impact on the Bighorn Sheep and Mule Deer populations. There is no definitive data to support the theory that Mountain Lions are newcomers to the Kofa NWR.

10. A Wildlife Refuge should have the wildlife as the primary concern. Considering that there was no decrease in hunting permits sold to hunters, let alone an elimination of hunting permits, during the panic over the sheep herd decrease, it highlights the fact that the decisions to kill the two mountain lions were absolutely unethical. Correspondence that is now part of the public records clearly shows that the hunting groups demanded the death of the mountain lions in return for their prior financial support, stating:

“Mr. Hovatter, Why haven’t you returned my email? Is this true this lion has made TWO kills now. On bighorn sheep! I need the dates and locations of these kills. Acording (sic) to the usf&w paper we supported ($138080) two strikes in 6 months and the lion goes to the bid (sic) kofa in the sky. When is his date he does have a collar!! Read the following after my info. I do out source for info.”

Jim Broschart ADBSS Treasurer

I’ll repeat - this email was obtained as part of the public records search, and clearly shows the lack of ethics in the decisions to kill the mountain lions.

11. There are some artificial water sources that have been added to the Kofa NWR to sustain potentially higher than normal populations of the Bighorn Sheep. An additional water source was added more recently (illegally, as it was done in secrecy, without an environmental assessment and public comment), which potentially had a detrimental impact to any young lambs or gravid ewes in the area. Furthermore, and this is just one reason an environmental assessment absolutely should have been done, increasing the water holes is likely to have a corresponding increase on mountain lion predation ranges.

In conclusion, I recommend a policy to be enacted of no hunting of mountain lions on Kofa NWR by agencies or hunters. The agency biologists should be conducting non-lethal observational research to learn more about the Kofa populations so that in the future any decisions made are informed by accurate science, rather than the biases of local hunting groups. Mountain Lion experts should be consulted to fill in the gaps of knowledge of the agency biologists.

I thought I’d post my letter, sent last night, in case it would help anyone else in their letter writing.

Comments can be sent to:

Email: KofaLionComments@fws.gov
SnailMail: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 356 W. 1st St., Yuma, AZ 85364

Comment deadline is Monday, June 23, 2008.

lions and horses and birds, and guns, oh my!

Having submitted comments (it takes only one) to the USGFD, I am now on the FWS mailing list. I receive alerts about things, often about issues that are open for comments. The trend, as far as I can tell, is to kill everything.

That is, they are excited about giving people the opportunity to kill things, and they themselves often want to exterminate entire populations from an area. Biodiversity has got to be a dirty word, if you work for the USGFD. At least, that is my conclusion based on the emails I get. I know that there are some conscientious government biologists out there, but the driving force behind the USGFD’s motivation appears to be various hunting groups, to the detriment of the environment, the refuges, biodiversity.

I find it disturbing. And now there is a chance that guns will be allowed in National Parks. I really do not want the random twitchy strangers to be allowed to carry guns in the National Parks. Some claim that they need it for protection, and that pretty much tells me that they spend little to no time out in the wide open spaces, and that they would therefore be likely to shoot at any rustling of leaves or even a sneeze. Fantastic.

“Mom, I’m going for a hike!”

“Take your bulletproof jacket, dear!”

No thanks.

But 51 senators don’t agree with me (though in my recollection they seem to mistake each other for ducks or something and oops! Shoot each other.), and they are supporting a move to open up national parks to people who are armed, and therefore dangerous. Believe me, I live in Virginia, and you only have to read the most superficial details about the Virginia Tech shooting from last year to realize how ridiculously easy it is for people to get their hands on guns, and lots of them.

Park rangers across the board don’t want to see guns allowed in the national parks - they have dealt with too many instances where a gun in someone’s hand would have escalated things, potentially fatally. That is always the issue with guns, isn’t it? The Huffington Post does a pretty good job of giving an overview of the issue with some of the comments that have already been submitted.

That’s just one issue that is open to public comment right now, comments due at the end of the month. (That’s just 2 weeks.) If you have an opinion and you’d like to share it, go to the regulations site, search in the “comment or submission” for “guns national park” and then click a link to “submit a comment.” You’ll get a form you can fill out and a text area for your comment.

If you’re in the mood to write letters and get your opinion recorded as part of the official record, now’s a good time to get your fingers limbered up.

The other issues that have come up are:

• opening more NWR (that is national wildlife “refuge”, grossly misnamed as it is) land to gratuitous killing of migratory birds and big game (July 11 deadline; follow links for instructions on how to submit a comment)
• gathering up wild horses and burros from the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. You can find a lot of really good information on these, and other wild horse and burrow issues on the Wild Horse Preservation site. I recommend reading it to gather yet more information on the many wild animals that are affected by the addiction to meat. The Sheldon issue specifically is addressed (info on where to send the letters) on IDA’s site but for general information on wild horses including some great points to make about why these round ups are not a good idea, you’ll do better at the Wild Horse Preservation site. (June 30 deadline)
• Kofa Mountain Lions (June 23 deadline)

You didn’t think I’d go much longer without nagging you about writing letters about the Kofa Lions, did you?

Please do write letters. I’d bribe you, if only I knew what it would take!