Born Free USA Blog
Radioactive boars — moneymakers for German hunters
“Feel free to ask for extended stays if you would like to be more selective or plan on shooting extra animals.” That sentence, disturbing on several levels — from the breezy “feel free” to the pretentious “more selective” to the bacchanalian “shooting extra animals” — is part of a central European hunting tour service’s home Web page.
Death in the desert — there's more to be told
News coverage of the Aug. 14 off-road race crash that killed eight spectators and injured a dozen others in California’s Mojave Desert focused on a few questions. Why were people allowed to stand practically within arm’s reach of careening, dust-spewing trucks that attained speeds approaching 80 mph? Will the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land on which the California 200 was contested, continue to issue permits for such events? What are people who enjoy “off-roading” supposed to do with their expensive vehicles if further restrictions are imposed on where they can drive?
Zebras in our backyards
I nearly choked on my morning coffee a few Sundays ago when I turned on the local news to see footage of a zebra running down a street not very far from my house. As I quickly turned up the volume on my TV, I learned that two zebras had escaped from their private owners’ property and ran down the streets of Carmichael, being chased by police and filmed by dozens of onlookers.
Why the Inuit defend the seal hunt
To ban or not to ban — that is the question!
The breaking news late in the afternoon of August 19 was bewildering. It appeared, according to news quotes from Canadian fisheries minister Gail Shea, that the European Union (EU) ban on importing products from Canada’s east coast seal hunt had been overturned.
Presumably Shea, a passionate advocate for seniors, is a fine and decent person, but she is regarded by Ottawa insiders as an inexperienced political lightweight, and nothing in her biography (beyond coming from Prince Edward Island, home to diminishing fisheries) qualifies her as an expert on either her portfolio or the legalistic intricacies of EU procedures.
The real price of "cheap" food!
With the egg recall continuing to expand — some updated (Aug. 23) reports say 550 million eggs have been recalled in several states due to a salmonella threat — shocking facts about one of the main egg producers are now being brought to light. We’ve learned that Jack DeCoster, owner of Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, has had run-ins with regulators over poor or unsafe working conditions, environmental violations, harassment of workers, and the hiring of illegal immigrants.
Bull story from the Washington Post Writers Group
Breeding does not equal natural selection
Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a "senior fellow" of the Independent Institute, editor of Lessons from the Poor and a writer for The Washington Post Writers Group, recently wrote a strong defense of bullfighting, fearing that the fact that the region of Catalonia, in Spain, will proscribe bullfights after 2012 presages further bans.
A catastrophic conservation calamity
Well known or not, we are losing our cat species worldwide.
Recently I blogged about the decline in wild dog species worldwide. A report by several leading conservation organizations, The Fading Call of the Wild, documented a horrific decline of 25 percent of wild dog species. Most are ones the general public is unaware of, although even common species face serious declines in parts of their ranges.
Distant Relatives of Man's Best Friend in Decline
Killing Canines mostly unknown.
The Fading Call of the Wild is a new report outlining still more declines in the world’s ability to sustain life. It estimates that 24 percent of all wild members of the family Canidae are in decline. And when I cite that figure I do so knowing most (not all) readers will have a muddled sense of what that means. Some will know that “Caniade” is the name scientists use for the family of mammals that includes dogs, jackals, wolves, coyotes, foxes and dholes. Currently scientists recognize 35 or 36 species of wild dogs, depending on whether or not the dingo should be considered a species separate from the gray wolf.
