Michael Markarian: Animals & Politics

Polar Bears Listed as Threatened, but Still on Thin Ice

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced yesterday that the polar bear would be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, ending months of speculation over the fate of this proposed listing. But the fate of the polar bear remains uncertain, as we don’t know whether the threatened status will have any impact on oil and gas drilling in the polar bear’s habitat, or what federal policies and action plans will be undertaken to help these beleaguered creatures recover.

We do know that the polar bear is the first species to be granted protection under the Endangered Species Act due to the effects of global warming, and this potential lifeline can’t come soon enough. Their habitat is shrinking and ice floes are vanishing. Scientists report that the bears’ body weights are declining and they are having trouble hunting for food. Anyone who saw the “Planet Earth” series on BBC or Discovery Channel, and watched a starving polar bear curl up to die because he couldn’t kill a walrus, knows exactly what these animals are facing.

One benefit for polar bears which will take place immediately, however, is that wealthy American trophy hunters will no longer be allowed to import sport-hunted polar bear trophies from Canada. The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 originally barred such imports—just as it still prohibits the import of parts from whales, dolphins, seals, and other marine mammals. But in 1994, trophy hunting groups led by Safari Club International punched a loophole through the law, opening the American border to more than 800 heads and hides of polar bears that have been imported since that time.

The United States does not allow sport hunting of polar bears in Alaska, so trophy hunters skirt the spirit of American conservation law by killing polar bears abroad. The Safari Club International gives out a “Bears of the World” hunting achievement award to individuals who shoot four of the eight species of bears in the world, and that awards program drives competitive killing of polar bears. Most of the trophy hunters who chase these animals in the Arctic in a head-hunting exercise are Americans, because they know they can bring the spoils of the hunt home with them for the purposes of self-aggrandizement and bragging rights.

Congress has been working to restore the longstanding ban on polar bear imports, and The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund have aggressively fought for passage of the Polar Bear Protection Act, H.R. 2327 and S. 1406, introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), and Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and Jack Reed (D-R.I.). Last year, thanks to Senator Reed’s leadership, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved legislation to stop the Department of Interior from issuing polar bear trophy import permits. Unfortunately, the House rejected a similar provision, and the language was not included in the final Omnibus Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2008.

The threatened listing for polar bears achieves the same policy goal we have been seeking on trophy imports, but this victory for bears may be temporary. If the species recovers, there will still be a gaping loophole in the Marine Mammal Protection Act that allows polar bear imports to resume. And the Safari Club has already fired a shot across the bow signaling its desire to “to reinstate the ability to import trophies” under federal law.

The trophy hunters may claim there is some conservation or economic value in killing polar bears, but their logic is Orwellian at best. You can’t save the polar bears by killing them. This is high-priced commercial hunting, and when an American trophy hunter spends $30,000 or more to shoot a polar bear, the hefty fees prompt over-exploitation of already vulnerable populations of bears. In 2005, the Nunavut territory of Canada increased hunting quotas by 29 percent, despite concerns expressed by polar bear researchers that the increase in take could be harmful to the population.

Moreover, we have seen no evidence that money charged for polar bear hunting permits is essential to local communities or wildlife conservation. An August 2005 article in the Nunatsiaq News, a Nunavut newspaper, concluded that “most of the spoils never reach Inuit hands, and when they do, those earnings vary substantially from community to community.” The funds are pocketed by commercial outfitters, and spent on transportation, hunting gear, and other incidentals—not spent on conservation.

The bears are in trouble. They are the 21st Century’s canaries in the mineshaft. Shooting them for a living room trophy mount as they struggle to survive in a rapidly changing environment is just selfish and wrong.  The excessive commercial killing of polar bears is only one cause of mortality in the larger constellation of threats they are facing, but it's one course correction we can make right now.

The threatened listing for polar bears makes it even more urgent that we do everything we can to ensure their survival.  While we wrestle with the larger problems of global warming and habitat protection, now is the time to tell your members of Congress to pass the Polar Bear Protection Act, and make sure the door to trophy imports does not swing open in the future.

Talk Back: Questions and Comments

Today I’d like to post a few comments that have come into the blog, and answer a couple questions as well.

In response to the problem of crippled cows at livestock auctions:

The pain and cruelty that these beautiful and sentient beings are forced to endure is so deeply disturbing that it has me in tears for hours. I make my donations, phone calls, letter writing, faxing, and emailing until my fingers are cramped! What else can we do to yield results and action right now? I reside in Connecticut and am so proud that Rep. Christopher Shays is a co-author of the Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act. But, we and most importantly, the victims/animals need our help and support ASAP!—Lisa K.

Lisa, thanks for all your work to protect farm animals. We need strong federal policies to protect these creatures from cruelty and abuse. As you said, the Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act is an important reform that would set humane standards for the National School Lunch Program and other federal nutrition and commodity programs. We also need the U.S. Department of Agriculture to close the loophole that allows the slaughter of downed animals, and we need Congress to pass the Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act. Keep contacting the USDA and your members of Congress on these important issues. And watch this blog and the HSLF website for updates and actions you can take.

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In response to Oprah’s show on puppy mills:

I believe that this should be against the law, no matter what pet stores are open or not. This is definitely a form of animal cruelty and it’s got to stop. These people should lose their licenses after the first offense of animal cruelty and neglect.—Jennifer R.

Please STOP this cruel behavior. Do something to stop not only the puppy mill activity, but also the core of the problem: the overwhelming desire of people to own these inbred animals. BEGIN advocacy of pound puppies. We have two! They need homes, and these puppy mills would be shut down if demand for them plummeted.—Tamara O.

What ever happened to PAWS, S.1139 and H.R. 2669?—Joanna F.

Joanna, the Pet Animal Welfare Statute (PAWS) legislation had been introduced in the 109th Congress.  It had a favorable subcommittee hearing but did not pass into law during that session, and has not been reintroduced in the 110th Congress.  Federal lawmakers have been taking action on other puppy mill legislation, and the final Farm Bill includes a provision strongly backed by HSLF which bars the import of young puppies from foreign puppy mills for sale in the United States. We expect new legislation to be introduced soon to further crack down on puppy mill abuses.

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In response to the introduction of the Great Ape Protection Act:

I've been fighting as best I could for the past 30+ years to save these laboratory animals. Can you imagine living in a cage for 40 years and the only time you’re out is when they’re performing god-awful experiments on you? As a nation, we are the worst when it comes to animal caring. It sickens me because no matter how hard you try, the animals still suffer.—Carole L.

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And a general inquiry:

Do you have to be a registered voter to participate in activities such as signing petitions and letters to representatives or senators regarding legislation?—Barb

Barb, you do not have to be a registered voter in order to communicate your views to your elected officials. You are a constituent who lives in their state or district, whether you are registered or not, and they need to hear your opinions. That said, it’s important for animal advocates to register to vote and to participate in candidate elections if we want to become a powerful political force and have more influence in the decision-making process. You can follow this link to register.

If you have a question about HSLF, offer a comment through the blog or email your query. I may post it in a future blog.

NRA is the Poacher's Best Friend

When the NRA walks the halls of the U.S. Congress these days, it may stand for “No Rational Argument.”

Last year, the group tried to use some of its political capital to block legislation toughening the federal penalties for illegal dogfighting and cockfighting. The NRA simply didn’t like the fact that The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund supported the bill, so it chose to align itself with Michael Vick rather than the law enforcement officials who arrested him for financing a dogfighting ring. The legislation it tried to stymie passed the House and Senate overwhelmingly, and was signed into law by President Bush.

Now, in an instant replay worthy of Michael Vick’s highlight reel, the NRA is trying to shoot down legislation that would stop the illegal poaching of bears. First dogfighters and cockfighters, and now poachers. We already know that group defends canned hunters and captive pigeon shooters. What other animal cruelty enthusiasts will the group defend next?

The Bear Protection Act, H.R. 5534, introduced by U.S. Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and John Campbell (R-Calif.), would bar the interstate commerce in bear bile and gall bladders. These internal organs are sought by poachers for sale on the lucrative black market for Asian medicines, and even non-medicinal items like aphrodisiacs and hemorrhoid creams.

Poaching is a cruel and wasteful epidemic. Game wardens report finding bear carcasses in the woods with nothing removed but the gall bladder. For every bear legally killed by a hunter in North America, some estimates indicate that at least one other bear is illegally poached by a criminal.

Thirty-four states already ban the sale of bear parts—including major bear hunting states like Alaska—because hunters and wildlife managers long ago decided that wildlife should be used as a public resource, not for private commercial gain. But the patchwork of state regulations makes the enforcement of anti-poaching laws difficult, as the organs from a bear poached in one state could be sold legally in another. And a gall bladder from a black bear looks identical to one from a polar bear or Asiatic bear. There’s no way to tell at the point of sale whether the bear was killed legally or illegally, or whether the bear’s population was endangered or thriving.

The Bear Protection Act would crack down on poaching by establishing a national policy on the sale of bear viscera. It doesn’t have any impact on lawful bear hunting—only bear poaching—but the NRA is actively fighting the legislation. The group has rattled its saber over the bill, and has already strong-armed a couple of its allies—Reps. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and Mary Fallin (R-Okla.)—into withdrawing their co-sponsorship.

Why would the NRA defend the interests of poachers, when it has so many other policy issues to worry about? It doesn’t make much sense, unless the group has some members who are not satisfied with conventional bear trophies and bearskin rugs, and instead want to mount a bear’s gall bladder over the mantle.

In an online poll of NRA members last week, 60 percent said the most important policy issue was expanding right-to-carry permits, 26 percent favored opposing semi-automatic bans, and only 14 percent wanted the organization to focus on hunting issues. My guess is that only a handful of NRA members would ask the organization to prioritize the protection of poachers.

Fortunately, there are more reasonable hunting groups that support law enforcement and oppose poaching. The American Hunters and Shooters Association, for example, has endorsed the Bear Protection Act, and the group’s president, Ray Schoenke, testified in Congress in favor of the anti-poaching legislation.

By defending the most abominable practices, the NRA might just shoot itself in the foot. When the group paves the way for poachers, it is certainly using its political capital and adding to a record of disrepute.  Maybe members of Congress will end up seeking alternative voices to defend their Second Amendment interests—not the interests of criminals.

Whether you are a hunter or an animal advocate, contact your members of Congress today and ask them to support the Bear Protection Act. Don’t let the NRA get away with protecting poachers.

Crippled Cows Need Protection at Every Step of their Journey

The Humane Society of the United States yesterday released the next wave of its groundbreaking investigation into rampant mistreatment of sick and crippled cows. Last time, the downed animals were tormented and processed at a California slaughter plant for the National School Lunch Program. But now, there is evidence that animals are too weak to stand up or walk at earlier points in the process: the livestock auctions and half-way stops between farm and slaughter. 

Since the Hallmark/Westland case broke in January, there have been eight congressional hearings on downed animals and food safety issues, more than 150 million pounds of meat recalled, and two new bills introduced to address the abuses. Now, congressional reaction once again has been swift in response to the problems found at livestock auctions in Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Texas. 

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer urging the agency to conduct an industry-wide investigation into the animal cruelty at auctions and stockyards. “This is further evidence that oversight to ensure the humane treatment of animals destined for our food supply is inadequate,” she said. “Food animals should never be subject to the kind of horrible acts as witnessed in these videos and reported by concerned citizens.” Sen. Feinstein previously introduced legislation to provide more meaningful penalties for facilities that slaughter downed animals.

The chairwoman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., also weighed in strongly. “Given the continued revelations about the abuse of downer cows—this time in our livestock auctions and stockyards—it is clear that this is a systemic problem. Unfortunately, preventing animal cruelty, and preventing animals at greater risk for food-borne illnesses from entering the food supply, does not appear to be a USDA priority.” Rep. DeLauro is the author of the Food Safety Recall Information Act, which would further address the problems highlighted by the downed animal investigation and beef recall.

And the co-author of the Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act, Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., called for further protections for farm animals. “The humane treatment of animals speaks to our nation’s core values, and this cruelty reflects poorly on our country as a whole,” he said. “Our government can have a tremendous impact in encouraging improved treatment of animals by requiring producers to meet basic federal animal welfare requirements.”

The Humane Society Legislative Fund is grateful to these legislative leaders for speaking out. In fact, it’s not the first time lawmakers have asked USDA to look into this very problem. In the 2002 Farm Bill, Congress directed the USDA to investigate the question of downed animals at livestock auctions and markets—including the scope of problems, the causes, and the resulting cruel treatment of animals—and to follow up with “regulations to provide for the humane treatment, handling, and disposition of nonambulatory livestock by stockyards, market agencies, and dealers.”

Now that Congress is wrapping up another Farm Bill six years later, further action is needed to address these cruelties that have come to light. While the USDA has a presence at slaughter plants, no one is watching or taking responsibility for the animals at auctions before they are sent to slaughter. These animals fall into regulatory limbo, and we need to do better as a country to protect animal welfare and food safety.

Hunting Industry Group Sets its Sights on Pets

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance takes aim at animals when they’re most vulnerable. Polar bears in the Arctic, as their ice floes are vanishing, body weights are declining, and populations are dwindling. Mourning doves in states where they’ve been protected for decades as backyard songbirds, still nursing their young during September target practice. Endangered antelope stocked in fenced pens for captive trophy hunts, where they have neither the opportunity nor the inclination to escape.

But now this Ohio-based trade association for weapons manufacturers has stooped to a new low.  By firing with its blunderbuss, the group is going to wind up with dogs and cats in its trophy case—just when these abandoned pets need our help the most.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance has declared that your community should not join hands to help hundreds, maybe thousands, of pets impacted by the foreclosure crisis. Moreover, a kind-hearted business that saw fit to try and assist has to be blackballed to drive home the point.

You think I’m kidding?

What we have here, friends, is a brand-new Boone and Crockett record in the department of loony thinking.

The facts are that The Humane Society of the United States, after hearing of the increasing needs from animal shelters and rescue group volunteers around the nation, started an emergency fund to help the animal victims of housing foreclosures. What do dogs and cats know about investment bubbles anyway?

Specifically, the fund is designed to help animal shelters and rescue groups from coast to coast that are feeling the worsening pressure of more abandoned pets. Understanding the nature of this tragedy, many businesses and kind-hearted individuals have reached into their wallets to assist. The HSUS is acting as a clearing house for these funds.

In the Midwest, the Meijer chain of regional stores agreed to chip in up to $5,000—$1 for each customer who entered the company’s pet photo contest on its website. Thank you, Meijer.

Then this fringe group claiming to represent hunters enters the picture. Because The HSUS and Humane Society Legislative Fund oppose such things as shooting captive, hand-fed animals in fenced enclosures for guaranteed trophies, the sportsmen’s alliance finds itself opposing anything that The HSUS and HSLF support. Even to the extreme. Even to the point of dooming dogs and cats to suffer.

How do these people sleep at night, you might wonder.

Sadly, Meijer succumbed to the extremism of this demand. No more will the company help shelters in this crisis.

As Wayne Pacelle wrote in his blog today, “Let’s not let them get away with this.” People of conscience can teach the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance a lesson, by donating to support The HSUS’s Foreclosure Pets Fund, and also donating to support HSLF's work to pass animal protection laws in Congress and in state legislatures.

Whether you are a hunter, or a wildlife watcher, or a pet lover, or a solid citizen down the block, you can join us in deploring the tunnel vision of an industry trade group that cannot lift its eyes high enough to see the real target. This is not a fight about hunting. This is a matter of kindness in a crisis, yes or no? The housing mess is claiming animal victims. Do you care?

The truth of the political landscape is that The HSUS and HSLF frequently partner with hunters, and sensible hunting groups, when our interests converge. And this occurs more often than some people recognize—on legislation to ban Internet hunting and captive hunts, to restore the prohibition on importing polar bear trophies, to protect habitat from development, to fight the effects of global warming that will threaten all wildlife, and to crack down on poaching by barring the commerce in bear bile and gall bladders.

Many hunters recognize that they are part of an evolving society. As their numbers diminish, their standing in our culture can only be jeopardized by the absurd, mindless radicalism expressed by the so-called sportsmen’s alliance.

This murky group claims, in its mission statement, to be seeking “public support” for “stewardship” in the name of “heritage.”

Those are big words. Too bad they are spoken by people with such small thoughts.

Next time the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance defends the worst abuses of the hunting industry—practices that many rank-and-file hunters agree are inhumane and unacceptable—remember that this is the group that wanted to abandon the dog and cat victims of foreclosure to suffer.

To them, let me recall the grand challenge posed by Winston Churchill long ago: You do your worst and we’ll do our best.

Play Misty for Me

The nationally syndicated comic strip MUTTS is read in more than 700 newspapers, and fans know that artist Patrick McDonnell turns his attention not only to humor, but also to the cruelties and challenges that face animals. He regularly features the stories of animals in shelters, and his new hardcover book, “Shelter Stories: Love. Guaranteed.,” celebrates these pets and the people who’ve rescued them.

The two cats who’ve shared my life for fourteen years, Georgia and Oliver, didn’t come from a shelter, but they were rescued from the mean streets of suburban Washington, D.C. When I was married years later, our blended family included two more cats, Mario and Misty, both of whom my wife, Grace, had adopted from a local animal shelter. I’m proud to say that Misty’s photo was chosen from among thousands of entries to appear in “Shelter Stories” with 70 candid photos of adopted cats, dogs, bunnies, guinea pigs, ferrets, birds, and other pets.

Every adopted animal has a story to tell, but Misty’s story, as told to me by Grace, is especially touching. In 1994, a woman drove down a busy road in Arlington, Va., and glanced at what she initially thought was a splash of black paint against the curb. Then she noticed the paint splash had two pointy ears. An animal lover, she pulled over, backtracked, and discovered a very small, terrified, black, female kitty cowering against the curb, trying to make herself as small as possible.

The Good Samaritan scooped up the cat and promptly took her to the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, which was just down the road. The whole way there, the kitty stayed balled up against the woman’s chest, shaking slightly. The folks at AWLA took the kitty in and gave her an initial exam. She was running a fever and was still terrified, but otherwise appeared to be healthy. She was slightly underweight, but the shorter fur around her neck indicated that she used to have a collar and was probably, until recently, someone’s pet and had not been outside for very long. It was hard to tell her age because of her small size, but they guessed she was around three years old. She was put up for adoption at the shelter.

Grace heard the story from Sara Amundson, now executive director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, who knew the cat’s rescuer. Her heart went out to the poor kitty, so scared and abandoned, trying to squeeze herself safely out of traffic, and she had to meet her. She visited the shelter that weekend, and the kitty did not initially put her best face forward, instead cowering and balling herself up. When Grace held her in the visiting room, the cat went limp and just looked so defeated. But gradually the kitty started to respond and purr, and Grace knew she had to take the black cat home.

She couldn’t leave the shelter, though, without visiting all the other cats, and she ended up adopting another one, too—an energetic, six-month-old, male, grey tabby (who was known as “Taz” at the shelter, short for Tasmanian Devil). Grace thought the extroverted grey kitty would help the introverted black kitty come out of her shell. A good plan, in theory, but it was not as simple as that. Cats are complex and have their own views of the world. But, eventually, they struck some kind of kitty peace treaty and embarked on a long journey of ignoring each other.

Taz was renamed Mario, and the black kitty was named Misty. Ironically, Misty’s appearance in “Shelter Stories” is not her first brush with comic strip fame. Her name is short for “Mister Peterson,” a stick-kitty character in a comic strip called “Jim’s Journal.” Misty is still pretty shy, and she hasn’t really warmed up to anyone except Grace. She tolerates me from time to time, when I am closest to the kitchen and can give her corn or green beans.

Misty is one of a kind, and she found her person—but there are millions like her waiting for love at animal shelters across the country. Pick up a copy of “Shelter Stories” and celebrate the lucky animals who’ve been given a second chance. And support your local animal shelter, where the caring workers, rescuers, and volunteers are saving all the Mistys of the world. One of them might just be waiting for you.