Michael Markarian: Animals & Politics

Protecting Predators of the Sky and Sea

Congress made advances this week on two major conservation bills to protect predators of the sky and the sea. The measures cleared important committees with bipartisan support, and if enacted into law will greatly enhance law enforcement efforts to crack down on cruelty to sharks and raptors.

A House committee approved H.R. 2062, the Migratory Bird
Treaty Penalty and Enforcement Act, to strengthen the
penalties for intentionally killing federally protected birds.

First, the House Natural Resources Committee yesterday unanimously approved H.R. 2062, the Migratory Bird Treaty Penalty and Enforcement Act, legislation by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) to strengthen the penalties for intentionally killing federally protected birds. I wrote in July about one of the most shocking and sickening scourges of bird-related crime in recent years, in which members of “roller pigeon clubs” deliberately killed peregrine falcons, Cooper’s hawks, and red-tailed hawks by shooting, trapping, poisoning, clubbing, baiting birds into glass panels, and even baiting birds with pigeons rigged with fishing hooks. The club members had no fear of meaningful penalties and even boasted of their crime spree on public web sites.

DeFazio’s legislation will give federal prosecutors and wildlife law enforcement agents the option to pursue hefty fines and prison sentences against serial bird killers. We are grateful to Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) for advancing this important conservation and anti-crime legislation to put teeth in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and we urge the full House to pass it swiftly. We also expect a Senate version of the bill to be introduced soon.

A Senate committee passed S. 850, the Shark Conservation
Act, to increase protection for sharks from the cruel and
wasteful practice of shark finning.

Second, the Senate Commerce Committee today passed S. 850, the Shark Conservation Act, legislation by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to increase protection for sharks from the cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning—cutting the fins off a shark and tossing the mutilated animal back into the ocean to die. Investigative reporter George Knapp at KLAS-TV just did an eye-opening exposé about the booming international trade in shark fins and the ready availability of shark fin soup at Las Vegas hotels and restaurants. Tens of millions of sharks are killed each year for their fins, and there has been a dramatic decline in some shark species worldwide.

Shark finning is already banned, but there is a loophole in the current law allowing a ship to transport fins that were obtained illegally as long as the sharks were not finned aboard that vessel. The Kerry bill—along with H.R. 81 by Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) which has already passed the full House—would require that sharks are landed with their fins still attached, the only sure way to prevent large-scale finning at sea.

There had been talk of amendments to exempt a certain species of shark, the smooth dogfish on the Atlantic coast, which would have complicated law enforcement efforts and potentially harmed imperiled species such as the sandbar shark which look similar to the smooth dogfish. We are grateful to Chairman John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and the full Commerce Committee for passing a strong shark protection bill without any weakening amendments, and we urge the full Senate to approve the measure.

Some reforms are so evident that there really is not a debate in society about the right course of action. Who could possibly think that poisoning or clubbing birds of prey to prevent any chance encounter with trained pigeons, or leaving sharks to suffocate and bleed to death without their fins for a little taste of soup, is an appropriate way to treat these creatures? Let’s hope Congress takes action soon and gets these critical measures over the finish line.

Talk Back: Wolves, Wags, and Warming

Today I’d like to share some of your comments in reaction to my recent blog entries. We received many comments in response to my post regarding the killing of Yellowstone’s most celebrated wolves:

I am so saddened by this. I have visited Yellowstone three times and was so happy when wolves were reintroduced. —Mary R.

This is so upsetting. Where is the common sense? This is what put them on the endangered species list in the first place, and now they will probably have to be put back on it, just to save them again. I'm so angry about this. What can we as American citizens do about this? —Karomy H.

How disgusting. Sarah Palin's slaughter of wolves from the air and on the ground was sickening and now our government killing innocent, helpless wolves in Yellowstone Park. Will we never learn that we have to co-exist with the rest of nature or simply wipe each away a step at a time? —Katherine N.

I enjoyed interviewing the winner of HSLF’s first-ever “There Oughta Be a Law” contest. Her concept will create a tax credit for spaying and neutering pets to help curb pet overpopulation and euthanasia:

This is awesome. I would be ecstatic if this bill passed! —Sandra D.

We also received feedback to the hostile maneuver by Congress giving another free pass to factory farms and putting a major roadblock in the way of efforts to combat global warming:

Agribiz cooked this highly deceptive strategy up because they know that the results of the simple reporting will be a revelation that would force every clear-headed citizen to drive "every American farmer out of business." —Louche

What discouraging news. Thank you for your work and for this exposé. —Alex

Thank you all for submitting these comments, and please keep the feedback coming. If you have a question or comment and would like to join the conversation, please send me an email. Thanks for all you do for animals.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Hunting ethics require sportsmen to do their best to assure a quick kill, and make every possible effort to find wounded animals to spare them prolonged suffering. HuntingNet.com says a true hunter will “search for an arrow hit or bullet hit animal that is wounded for as long as possible.” Those who follow the NRA Hunter’s Code of Ethics pledge to “do my best to acquire those marksmanship and hunting skills, which insure clean, sportsmanlike kills.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty apparently had neither the skill nor the time to be a true hunter. He badly wounded a buck on Saturday at the Minnesota Governor’s Deer Opener, but rather than follow the blood trail, he followed the money trail to Iowa where he was headlining a Republican Party fundraiser. The owner of the land where Pawlenty’s group was hunting described the animal as “bleeding profusely” and searched for the deer all weekend, but turned up nothing.

 
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty failed to abide by basic hunting
values during his hunt this past weekend.

It’s surely a sign of reckless and unsportsmanlike behavior to leave an animal severely injured and hope that others might take on the responsibility to end the animal’s suffering. If Pawlenty wants to hunt animals, he should at least have the decency to abide by basic, centuries-old values. Hunters talk a good game about ethics and humane treatment, and they should be held to their own professed standards.

Pawlenty was the same governor, of course, who enacted legislation in 2004 to allow Minnesota’s first mourning dove hunting season in 58 years. Mourning doves don’t cause nuisance problems, aren’t overpopulated, and don’t make a viable food source—that’s why they were protected as songbirds for more than a half-century in Minnesota and are still protected in many northern and Midwestern states. When they’re shot for target practice, the small birds are riddled with lead shot and are of little value to hunters, so about 30 percent of those hit are left wounded and unretrieved—a fact apparently untroubling to the state’s chief executive hunter. 

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was on the Republican ticket in the 2008 presidential campaign, she galvanized animal advocates against the aerial gunning of wolves and her retrograde wildlife management policies. If Pawlenty decides to launch a presidential bid for 2012, we’ll give his behavior the scrutiny it deserves.

Safeguarding Our Canine Heroes

On Veterans Day, we remember the dedicated men and women who have served our country. But we also shouldn’t forget man’s best friend, who serves faithfully alongside our troops, helping to safeguard military bases and activities, detect bombs and explosives before they inflict harm, and perform other lifesaving duties.

On Veterans Day, we should also honor our canine
heroes who serve faithfully alongside our troops.

The Humane Society of the United States and its global arm, Humane Society International, have just purchased special cooling vests and pads for military dogs serving in Afghanistan—where temperatures can reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Dogs don’t sweat like humans do, and the heat exhaustion has killed several dogs in Afghanistan this year. They also endure the problem of rancid pet food which spoils quickly in the heat.

Major Donna DeBonis, the 993rd Medical Detachment officer in charge of the veterinary treatment facility in Kandahar, reached out to HSUS and HSI to get much-needed help in combating heat exhaustion and making the working environment as safe as possible for military canines. The animal protection groups purchased the special vests and pads to cool down these hot dogs, and FedEx generously offered to ship them for free to Afghanistan.

The donated vests will help keep the dogs cool by absorbing excess heat from their bodies, allowing them to better regulate their own body temperature. The vests contain a place for inserts that, once charged in ice and water, can reach a temperature of 50 degrees, enabling the dogs to keep working safely for hours without the health risks associated from overheating. The pads will enable dog handlers to carry food with them and avoid spoilage, and will also serve as cool resting pads for dogs to lie on in the backs of vehicles during convoys and mounted patrols.

When I think of Lex, the German shepherd who was injured in a mortar attack in Fallujah, Iraq, and had to be pulled away whimpering from his slain human partner, Marine Corporal Dustin Jerome Lee, I know how important these dogs are to the military and to the men and women who work side-by-side with them. It’s only fitting that we can honor these canine heroes and celebrate the human-animal bond by doing better to safeguard them while they serve our country.

Return to Sender: Stamping Out Cockfighting Magazines

It’s been a year of one-two punches against the industry in our battle to knock out cockfighting. Two states—Arkansas and Kansas—passed laws to make cockfighting a felony, and other states enacted tougher penalties. HSUS and HSLF are on the march in the remaining states where cockfighting is still treated like a parking violation, and we have a bold agenda to pass felony laws in Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, and other states in the nation's “cockfighting corridor.”

South Carolina still has one of the weakest anti-cockfighting statutes, but this week, 21 people in the Palmetto State were indicted for violating the federal animal fighting law, which HSUS and HSLF have worked to upgrade repeatedly in recent years. The crackdown on the state’s cockfighting rings couldn’t come soon enough: At one fight, an undercover officer witnessed a 13-year-old boy checking to see if a rooster was still able to fight, and later the animal was killed by swinging it against a tree.

Until recently, Amazon.com and the U.S. Postal Service were 
supporting the sale of illegal cockfighting magazines, such as 
“The Feathered Warrior” and “Gamecock.”

There was another major milestone this week when HSUS settled longstanding litigation with the U.S. Postal Service and Amazon.com over their complicity in the distribution of illegal animal fighting paraphernalia. The case against Amazon started back in 2005, when HSUS informed the giant online retailer that its sale of the notorious cockfighting magazines “The Feathered Warrior” and “Gamecock” violated federal law.

These publications weren’t about cockfighting culture and commentary, but were published for the purpose of peddling cockfighting weapons, fighting birds, and other illegal contraband. Cockfighters could mail-order birds from special bloodlines, as well as the drugs pumped into birds to heighten aggression, and the razor-sharp knives strapped to the birds’ legs to cause the bloodletting. Even though more than 90 percent of the ads in 11 issues of the magazines essentially contained solicitations to commit a crime, Amazon refused to stop selling them. HSUS sued Amazon and included “The Feathered Warrior” and “Gamecock” as co-defendants.

Amazon, however, wasn’t alone in providing comfort to the cockfighting magazines, as the publications found an unlikely ally in the U.S. Postal Service. The Post Office was not only serving as the primary delivery service for these illegal publications, but was actually giving these criminals a special discount rate usually reserved for public interest organizations and nonprofit charities. As a result, HSUS also sued the Postal Service as a companion case to the action against Amazon.

When Congress passed the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act in 2007, it made interstate dogfighting and cockfighting activities a federal felony, but also added a newly upgraded provision that “prohibits the websites and the magazines where fighting animals are advertised for sale.” This provided a new tool to urge the Postal Service and Amazon to halt mailing what were essentially mail-order catalogs for illegal cockfighting weapons and fighting birds. At first they still refused to budge, but now, after two long years of litigation, the battle is finally over.

The first big break came last year, when HSUS settled with “Gamecock” and the publisher agreed to remove ads that explicitly promoted cockfighting from its pages and stopped selling the magazines on Amazon. One down, one to go.

Then this summer, the final issue of “The Feathered Warrior” rolled off the presses as the publisher shut down operations for good. It seems that the combined effect of the enhanced federal animal fighting law, stronger state penalties, and litigation against cockfighters had made the buying and selling of cockfighting paraphernalia untenable as a business model.

Next, a third magazine called “Grit & Steel” announced it was going out of business. “Grit & Steel” had not been included in the HSUS lawsuit because its publisher had removed the ads for fighting birds and cockfighting implements. Still, its demise signaled that the cockfighting industry has retreated far enough into its dark corner that it simply can no longer sustain these magazines.

Finally, and only after HSUS won a favorable decision in federal court, the Postal Service got on the bandwagon and announced it will stop delivering magazines containing ads for fighting birds or animal fighting implements. With the Postal Service and Amazon both reforming their ways, two cockfighting magazines closing up shop and a third changing its format, we have gone a long way toward shutting down the illicit trade in fighting birds and weapons.

The fight to stamp out animal fighting marches on, though, and with renewed vigor. Cockfighters will no longer get their contraband delivered through the mail, but the HSUS and HSLF will not rest until holdout cockfighters in every state are delivered nothing but long felony prison sentences.

Get Out the Vote for Animals on Election Day

Voters in two states—New Jersey and Virginia—tomorrow will decide on candidates for statewide elected office, and the Humane Society Legislative Fund is letting animal advocates know that the stakes are high for animals on election day. In the two gubernatorial races, HSLF strongly endorses one Democrat and one Republican who have each demonstrated a career-long commitment to public policies that protect animals from cruelty and abuse.

HSLF endorses Jon Corzine for Governor and Loretta
Weinberg for Lt. Governor in New Jersey.

In New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine (D) has been a leader for animal protection, and HSLF urges his reelection. During his first term, Corzine worked with the Department of Environmental Protection to stop the controversial trophy hunting season on the state’s small population of black bears, and instead implemented a comprehensive plan to solve bear problems using humane and non-lethal management strategies. Corzine’s opponent, Chris Christie (R), has indicated his support for bear hunting, demonstrating a clear contrast between the candidates on the state’s most high-profile animal protection issue.

Corzine signed numerous animal protection bills into law, including measures to ban Internet hunting, protect pets in disasters, tax fur clothing, suspend the harvest of horseshoe crabs, and support spaying and neutering of pets. State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, Corzine’s running mate for Lieutenant Governor, has been a leading champion for animals in the state legislature, introducing bills to ban bear hunting and end the inhumane confinement of veal calves in small crates. A Corzine-Weinberg administration is the best choice for voters who care about the humane treatment of animals.

Bob McDonnell is the strongest
candidate for Virginia Governor.

In Virginia, Attorney General Bob McDonnell (R) has demonstrated active leadership to stop animal cruelty and fighting, and HSLF recommends him as the strongest candidate for Virginia Governor. Cockfighting was essentially decriminalized in the commonwealth, until McDonnell made a crackdown on animal fighting part of his legislative agenda. The McDonnell-backed legislation passed in 2008, making cockfighting a felony and banning the possession of fighting animals, and at least five cockfighting rings have been broken up since the new law was enacted. He also joined 25 other Attorneys General in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate a 1999 federal law banning the sale of videos depicting animal cruelty, and when he previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates he supported numerous animal protection bills.

HSLF recommends Steve Shannon
for Virginia Attorney General.

The race to replace McDonnell as Attorney General also has strong implications for animals in the commonwealth. State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R) has one of the worst records on animal cruelty in the entire country, and has often stood nearly alone in opposing common-sense and mainstream animal welfare reforms. He was one of only two senators to oppose strong penalties for animal fighting, and one of only three to oppose a measure to protect dogs from abusive puppy mills. It would be a major setback for the commonwealth’s top law enforcement officer to be a person like Cuccinelli who opposed having animal protection laws on the books in the first place. HSLF strongly endorses Del. Steve Shannon (D), whose support for the humane treatment of animals stands in stark contrast to Cuccinelli’s obstinate and extreme views.

Voters in Ohio won’t be deciding on statewide candidates, but will be asked whether to support agribusiness-led Issue 2 on the ballot. Agribusiness interests are trying to change the Ohio constitution so they can continue cruel and inhumane practices on factory farms—confining animals in tiny cages and crates so small they can’t even turn around. While masquerading as an attempt to improve food safety and animal welfare, Issue 2 would give unchecked power to an industry-dominated Livestock Board that would maintain the status quo on how animals are treated. HSLF urges Ohio voters to say “No” to this power grab; other opponents of the measure include the Ohio Farmers Union, Ohio League of Women Voters, local humane societies, and newspapers across the state.

If you live in New Jersey, Virginia, or Ohio, please be sure to vote and stand up for animals in tomorrow’s election.

A Free Pass for Factory Farms?

Mark Twain noted that “No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” Apparently the efforts to combat global warming aren’t safe either, as an obscure procedural vote in the House of Representatives this week threw a major roadblock in the way of science-based solutions.

Worldwide animal agriculture accounts for nearly one-fifth of
all greenhouse gas emissions.

By a vote of 267-147, the House passed a motion by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), instructing the conference committee on the Interior Appropriations bill to keep an amendment by Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) that prevents the Environmental Protection Agency from being allowed to gather any data on the contribution that animal agriculture makes to climate change. The House bill had included this Latham provision, but the Senate had rejected a similar amendment by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), meaning the conferees from both chambers had to negotiate on whether it stayed in the final bill.

The Senate and House leaders of the Interior Appropriations subcommittees, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), fought hard to defeat these hostile maneuvers by lawmakers too closely aligned with agribusiness and to preserve the EPA’s authority to collect data on greenhouse gas emissions from the largest industrial factory farms. After the House vote, though, the bill was finalized with the Latham amendment included, and will soon be sent to the president for his signature.

The HSUS and a coalition of environmental and public health groups have petitioned the EPA to begin regulating air pollution from factory farms, and the agency recently announced that the largest animal factories (only those emitting more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases from manure) would have to report on their emissions. But now Congress will block the agency’s action.

The rhetoric on the House floor from Simpson and others would make one think that a simple reporting requirement would force every American farmer out of business, and all the agricultural jobs would move to Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. Simpson even opined: “If the EPA had existed in Biblical times, there is no question in my mind that it would have regulated gas emissions from Noah’s Ark. Poor Noah and his livestock; they could withstand a 40-day flood, but they would never have survived the EPA.”

But Noah wasn’t confining animals in industrial factories, dumping thousands of tons of manure into lagoons, polluting our air and water, jeopardizing public health, or harming rural communities. Chairman Dicks pointed out the narrow focus of the agency’s rule, noting “that thousands of small farmers would be exempted, and only the 90 largest manure management systems in the country would be required to report their emissions, those who annually emit as much in greenhouse gases as 58,000 barrels of oil.”

It’s a setback for science and transparency, and it ties the hands of the U.S. at a time when our federal officials are about to sit down with leaders of many other countries in Copenhagen to try to reach an agreement on how to meet this global challenge. How can we develop good public policy solutions based on sound science if we can’t even collect data? With worldwide animal agriculture accounting for nearly one-fifth (or perhaps more) of all greenhouse gas emissions, Congress must stop giving the livestock sector a free pass—every industry must come to the table and be part of the solution.

There Oughta Be a Law: Q&A with Cheryl Woodcock

I hosted a nationwide conference call with thousands of animal advocates this weekend to announce the winner of the Humane Society Legislative Fund’s first-ever “There Oughta Be a Law” contest. Animal rescuer Cheryl Woodcock of Baldwin, N.D., joined the call, and I gave her the news that her proposal was selected by our panel of judges—Reps. John Campbell (R-Calif.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.) and myself—out of more than 3,500 other entries from all 50 states.

The winner of HSLF’s 2009 “There Oughta Be a Law” contest,
Cheryl Woodcock, with her four foster kittens who were
found in a Dumpster.

Cheryl’s winning idea: a tax credit for spaying and neutering pets. It’s a timely and innovative proposal that incentivizes personal responsibility and encourages pet owners to do their part to help reduce pet overpopulation. “Cheryl’s Law” could become part of the solution toward ending the euthanasia of three million healthy and treatable dogs and cats each year in America’s animal shelters, and reducing the financial burden of animal care and control on local communities.

HSLF will bring Cheryl to Washington, D.C. to lobby for her bill. I had a chance to visit with her and want to share with blog readers a bit about her work and her winning entry.

Michael Markarian: Tell us about yourself and your animals.

Cheryl Woodcock: I am married with six kids. We live on 80 acres. We raise sheep, and Chesapeake Bay retrievers. We have three Scottie dogs, many farm cats, and a sheep herding dog, all of whom are spayed or neutered. Many of our cats and our sheep herding dog are rescues from the city pound. We have even rescued a few house birds. We also have horses, chickens, and calves. Currently, I work for two vet clinics and make homemade dog treats that I sell at some pet stores and at craft shows. Animals are my passion.

MM: What’s it like being an animal advocate and rescuer in rural North Dakota?

CW: Baldwin is a town of 736 people—a mostly rural population—although we have 18 families who live right in the town of Baldwin. We have a post office and a GREAT school. The school has grades K-8 with 15 students, two teachers, and a teacher’s aide. We fight a battle with the state legislature every two years—they try to close small rural schools and we fight to keep our schools open.

A few years ago, I was asked to help our local pound by raising an orphaned kitten. He needed to be bottle-fed. I took him home and he has been with me since. Right now, I have four kittens who were about two days old when they were tossed in a Dumpster at a gas station. A worker at the gas station found them and called the police. The police took them to the pound and I got a call from one of the animal wardens. I stopped at a store, bought formula and a bottle, and went to see my new friends. They were very frail and very, very cold. I really didn’t expect to see them all make it through the night. I had to feed them every two hours, day and night, for the first few weeks. My female Scottie dog, Maggie, helped care for them, by cleaning them for me. Luckily I was able to take them to work with me—I work for two vet clinics. They are growing and they just FINALLY started eating on their own. I will be looking for good homes for them in a week or so.

I am the person in the neighborhood who gets a call and takes the sickly animals from neighbors. I have gotten two sickly lambs and a calf and they have survived—for me. I love the challenge and the satisfaction of caring for them and watching them grow and flourish. I have even had baby lambs in my house when they were sick and too young to be outside. One lamb even walked around my house in a doggie diaper. I try to find homes for as many cats and dogs as I can. The city pound has a volunteer who is great at finding homes or rescue groups for the dogs who need homes. I am all about animals. I love animals.

MM: You have a pet treat business as well?

CW: Yes, the name is Farmer Tillie’s Homemade Dog Treats. I wanted to make quality wholesome dog treats for my Scottie dogs. I sell them in a few pet stores and at some craft shows. My dogs totally enjoy it when I make treats. They get to sample them. I have many satisfied returning customers.

MM: How did you hear about HSLF’s “There Oughta Be a Law” contest, and what made you enter?

CW: I was on Facebook one night, when I was up feeding kittens, and saw the ad for the contest. I thought I should enter. I was mad at what the abandoned kittens had to go through. I decided to enter because of the kittens and all the animals I see at the pound who look so lost and need homes. I hate it when animals have to be put down when there are no homes for them. It’s a better solution than them starving or freezing to death, but if there was an incentive for people to get their animals spayed or neutered, maybe this issue could become a thing of the past.

MM: Why is spaying and neutering dogs and cats so important to you, and how can a tax credit help?

CW: The reason I am so passionate about this issue is because of the tiny baby kittens I have taken care of. There are always abandoned animals at the city pound. Those who don’t get adopted or rescued get put to sleep. I hate seeing that as much as I hate seeing abandoned baby animals. I think if there was a tax credit for people to spay or neuter their animals, more of them would get spayed or neutered and there wouldn’t be so many abandoned animals. I think, in this day and age, with everyone looking for a way to save money, a tax credit would really make them think about it.

MM: Are you looking forward to your trip to Washington?

CW: I am TOTALLY excited about winning a trip to Washington, D.C. I have never been to that part of the U.S. I think it will be great to be able to see the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial Wall. It’s all so much a part of our history.

MM: Who are your federal legislators in Congress?

CW: Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, and Representative Earl Pomeroy. I would love to work with them in getting a bill passed!

Chimps on the Hill

The U.S. House of Representatives will host a special exhibit tomorrow featuring photographs and video footage that tell the powerful story of chimpanzees currently confined in U.S. laboratories—some for more than 50 years—and those living in sanctuaries. If you are in the Washington area, I hope you will be there.

While many Americans were experiencing the excitement of the first man walking on the moon, some of these chimps were growing up behind bars. Approximately 1,000 of these highly intelligent and social creatures are languishing in cages, while ironically are largely unused in active research. Five hundred of them are owned by the federal government at great cost to American taxpayers. This warehousing and research is expensive—to the tune of around $25 million per year. And it takes a major toll not only on taxpayers but also on the chimps themselves.

The Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326) will end the
use of chimps in invasive research and also stop the
fleecing of American taxpayers.

That’s why Congress needs to pass the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326), championed by U.S. Reps. Ed Towns (D-N.Y.), Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), and Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.). The legislation would require that the 500 federally-owned chimps be retired to sanctuary, that invasive research on all 1,000 chimpanzees be phased out, and that National Institutes of Health administrative ban on breeding chimps for research be codified.

Chimpanzees have proven to be ineffective for research purposes, despite their extraordinary similarity to people. The 2% difference between their DNA and that of humans accounts for significant differences in immunity and disease progression. Researchers discovered this when studying HIV—finding that chimpanzees do not develop AIDS from HIV like humans do.

Given the fact that chimp research has hardly been critical to research efforts, the high cost of caring for a chimp in a laboratory (ranging anywhere from $36 to $60 per day), and the serious ethical implications involved, it’s not surprising that there has been a significant decline in the use of chimps in invasive research over the past few decades. Retiring these animals to sanctuaries is not only the right thing to do, but would also be less expensive—saving taxpayers millions of dollars annually.

While chimpanzee research is expensive and rarely applied, Americans also find it simply unethical. A 2006 study found that 71% of respondents feel that chimpanzees housed in laboratories for more than ten years should be retired. In 2001, 54% of people surveyed were opposed to chimpanzee research that caused pain, even for human benefit. The United States is, after all, the only developed nation in the world where chimps are still used in invasive experiments.

One-fifth of all House members have already signed on as cosponsors of the Great Ape Protection Act. It’s time to pass this common-sense legislation to not only give these chimpanzees the reprieve that they deserve, but also to stop the fleecing of American taxpayers.

I invite you to join us from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, in the foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building, to learn more about this critical bill and the creatures whose lives are at stake.

Reckless Killing of Yellowstone’s Celebrated Wolves

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this year removed wolves from the protections of the Endangered Species Act, it paved the way for the same reckless sport hunting and persecution that put these animals on the endangered species list in the first place. And now we’ve learned that the first sport hunting season on wolves to occur in the lower 48 states since the 1980s has claimed the lives of some of Yellowstone National Park’s most celebrated wolves and has shattered years of critical research by wolf biologists.

The de-listing of wolves has claimed the lives of
Yellowstone’s most celebrated wolves.

Just weeks after Montana’s wolf hunt began, about half the members of Yellowstone’s famed Cottonwood wolf pack—including two radio-collared females known as Wolf 527 and her daughter, Wolf 716—were killed by hunters outside the park. Yellowstone’s wolves are famous to the world thanks to television documentaries on National Geographic, PBS, and the BBC. As one of the very few unexploited wolf populations in North America, their behavior, life history, travels, and genealogy have been carefully studied by scientists since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995.

But not anymore. Kim Murphy reported in the Los Angeles Times on the impact the wolf hunt has had on scientific research:

“Whether the pack exists anymore or not, to us the pack is gone,” said Doug Smith, the biologist in charge of the Yellowstone reintroduction program that helped bring wolves back from the brink of extinction in the Northern Rockies. Cottonwood “was a key pack on the northern range,” he said, giving researchers a window into the existence of animals that had little or no interaction with humans.

We knew the de-listing of wolves would have tragic consequences. But even Montana state officials were shocked by the ease with which wolves were gunned down by hunters, and they suspended the hunt along a section of Montana’s backcountry near the northern border of Yellowstone.

Wolf hunting advocates in Montana and Idaho argued that the hunts were needed to control predation on livestock, and they trotted out their usual bromides about scientific wildlife management. But what they’ve done instead is roll back years of science, and target wolves who weren’t any threat to livestock at all—wolves who were feeding on elk and were part of Yellowstone’s natural ecosystem. In fact, Montana’s wolf hunting season overlapped with its elk season, and it seems the Cottonwood wolves were attracted to the gut piles left by elk hunters just outside the park’s borders.

More than anything, it demonstrates that the decision to take wolves off the endangered species list was unscientific and premature. Federal courts have rejected the government’s de-listing proposals six times, but it wasn’t enough to save Wolf 527 or Wolf 716. While it’s open season in Montana and Idaho, a lawsuit by The Humane Society of the United States has provided a stay of execution for wolves in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Many environmentalists and animal advocates around the country voted for President Obama because they just couldn’t stomach Sarah Palin’s retrograde policies on wolves—now they’ve been saddened and let down by the Administration’s de-listing decision. It’s time to call off the wolf killing before it sets wolf conservation back any further and destroys more of their close-knit families.