Trump Plans for Offshore Drilling a “Grave Danger” to Wildlife

The Trump Administration plans to expand offshore oil and gas drilling over the next five years from 2019-2024 to include areas off the Atlantic, Pacific and Alaska coasts as well as in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic. The proposed oil and gas development will cover more than 98% of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. Only the State of Florida has been granted an exemption for its coastal waters.

The Wildlife Conservation Society has warned such an expansion of oil and gas development in U.S. coastal waters presents a “grave danger” to marine animals such as whales and sea turtles. The North Atlantic right whale pictured here is an endangered species; there are only 500 of these whales left. They will suffer significant “stress caused by this expansion of oil and gas activity” that may push them to extinction.

Polar bears, narwhals, and walruses are some of the animals already endangered by warming temperatures and overfishing of their prey. Increased oil and gas development will mean further degradation of their habitat including their prey. It is not just the threat of a large oil spill. These animals face loss of habitat and injury from smaller oil and gas leaks that can occur simply from drilling or pipelines. Their habitat is also threatened by increased traffic of tankers and equipment and the use of seismic air gun blasts used to explore for oil and gas. These animals are not likely to survive with increased oil and gas development in the Arctic.

North Atlantic Cod and corals are other examples of animals whose habitat will be further degraded by increased oil and gas development. All of the oceans’ animal life is threatened.

Go here to send a letter to Interior Secretary Zinke to let him know you oppose the expansion of offshore drilling that threatens America’s marine wildlife.

Trump Administration Targets Alaska Wildlife

FWS photo
Last year on April 3, 2017 President Trump signed into law House Joint Resolution 69, H.J. Res. 69, that repealed 2016 Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) regulations making generally illegal some of the most egregious hunting practices on 76.8 million acres of land on Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. Except in cases of federally qualified subsistence users, the regulations prohibited:

a. Taking black or brown bear cubs or sows with cubs (exception allowed for resident hunters under customary and traditional use activities at a den site October 15-April 30 in specific game management units in accordance with State law);
b. Taking brown bears by luring them with bait for a point blank kill;
c. Taking of bears using cruel leghold or other traps or snares;
d. Taking wolves and coyotes during the denning season (May 1-August 9);
e. Taking bears from an aircraft or on the same day as air travel has occurred. (A similar regulation already applied to wolves or wolverines.)

In repealing the regulations by federal statute, the Congress and Trump Administration made it impossible for FWS to re-issue the regulations under a later administration. Instead, it will take another federal statute to make these activities illegal on Alaska National Refuges to the extent they are not prohibited by state law.

The Worst Zoo for Elephants

Elephants on Kasenyl Plains by Tobias Seiderer

In Defense of Animals has chosen the Oklahoma City Zoo as the worst zoo for elephants. Though there is no good zoo for any animal and certainly not elephants.

Yet this is where the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle decided to send its remaining elephants, Bamboo and Chai, when public pressure forced the zoo to close its elephant exhibition. This despite that the mayor, city council and citizens urged the zoo to place these elephants in an accredited sanctuary.

Chai died only eight months after arriving at OKC Zoo. According to Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, “She wasted away, rapidly losing 1,000 pounds, and suffered from an infection in her bloodstream likely caused by 25 puss-filled abscesses—all of which went untreated.

“Now Bamboo, languishes at OKC Zoo, an aggressor and victim. The other elephants at the zoo have repeatedly attacked Bamboo, injuring various parts of her body including her trunk and one of the bites amputated the end of her tail.” Alyne Fortgang, co-founder of Friends, adds, “Trapped within a cramped hot-wired yard there is no ability to flee from an attack causing an unhealthy and dangerous situation….

“It is not too late for OKC Zoo to do the right thing by allowing [Bamboo] to heal and live in peace at an accredited elephant sanctuary.”

Moving Forward: A Unified Statement on the Humane, Sustainable, and Cost-Effective On-Range Management of America’s Wild Horses and Burros

UNIFIED STATEMENT
The call for humane management was issued in the form of a Unified Statement — endorsed by 84 equine advocate, animal welfare, ecotourism, rescue, ranching and other citizen groups and experts. The Unified Statement was authored by The Cloud Foundation, In Defense of Animals, and the American Wild Horse Campaign. It was released a day after the Trump Administration issued its Fiscal Year 2019 budget, which again calls on Congress to lift the ban on killing and slaughtering mustangs.

“We speak for the vast majority of Americans who want solutions, not mass killing of our country’s wild horses and burros,” said Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “The fate of these beautiful animals is deeply connected to the protection of our nation’s public lands legacy and the living history of the American West.”

“Americans want our wild horses and burros protected, not brutally killed and slaughtered,” said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of the American Wild Horse Campaign. “This document demonstrates that a humane and scientific path forward for wild horse management not only exists, but also is broadly supported within the wild horse advocacy community.”

The “Unified Statement on the Humane, Sustainable, and Cost-Effective On-Range Management of America’s Wild Horses and Burros” which you can read at the link above, answers recent attacks on American’s heritage animals with facts and humane solutions.

Last year, Congress instructed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to develop a plan to “achieve long-term sustainable populations on the range in a humane manner” and to review “proposals from non-governmental organizations.” Instead, the BLM’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget sought legislative authority to reduce costs by exterminating tens of thousands of wild horses and burros. The Trump Administration’s FY 2019 budget request doubles down on this request.

The House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment to the FY 2018 Interior Appropriations bill introduced by Representative Chris Stewart (R-UT) that would allow the BLM to destroy healthy wild horses and burros, putting up to 90,000 of wild horses and burros on the range and in holding facilities in danger of being killed. In direct contrast, the Senate Appropriations Committee’s budget language prohibits using funds to destroy or sell them to slaughter.

The House and Senate are aiming to reach agreement on final spending bills for FY 2018 by March 23, when the current Continuing Resolution that is funding the government expires.

Meanwhile, the 2019 budget process begins and appropriators will again deal with the Trump Administration’s request for permission to slaughter America’s mustangs and burros.

The Unified Statement: 1) urges Congress to maintain long-standing federal protections for wild horses and burros and 2) sets forth principles and recommendations for the management of wild horses and burros intended to guide Congress toward a long-term plan that is safe and humane for wild herds as well as sustainable and cost-effective for taxpayers.

Its recommendations include developing a ten-year fertility control plan to reduce and stabilize wild horse populations as needed; returning wild equines from expensive short-term holding facilities to public lands; prohibiting sterilization of wild horses and burros; adjusting population targets to ensure genetically viable numbers; establishing equitable forage allocations; compensating ranchers for reduced use or non-use of grazing permits in wild horse habitat areas, and opening doors to more successful public-private partnerships for wild horse and range stewardship.

The Unified Statement is being presented to key Senate and House appropriators and other members of Congress.