AR-News: Bison slaughter and seal hunt in Christian Science Monitor 4/7/04

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Van: DawnWatch at dawnwatch.com
Onderwerp: DawnWatch: Bison slaughter and seal hunt in Christian Science Monitor 4/7/04

 

The Wednesday, April 7, Christian Science Monitor has two strong animal related articles.

"Yellowstone bison: To shoot or not to shoot?" by Todd Wilkonson, (page 3) discusses the battle between those who would ship Yellowstone bison to slaughter when they stray from the park, and activists working to save them.

We learn, "This winter, nearly 270 bison have been captured in Montana and sent to slaughter. Any day, hundreds more are expected to leave the park's snowy confines, searching for spring grass and a quiet place to birth their calves."


They are killed because they are known to carry brucellosis, "a disease that causes nearby cows and buffalo to abort their fetuses."  However, "there's never been a documented case of brucellosis passed from bison to cattle in the wild."


The activists, who call themselves the "Buffalo Field Campaign" have been called ecoterrorists by some in law enforcement, as it has blocked roads on which trucks of bison were being taken to slaughter. However the group condemns violence. We learn of its activities: 

"BFC offers a 24-hour service for residents to call for help in moving bison off their land and offers free labor to fix fences broken by bison. Volunteers along highways ask motorists to slow down when bison are present and have made signs for residents to post on their land telling the Livestock Department that animals are welcome."


You can read the whole article on line at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0407/p03s01-ussc.html


 You can learn more about the Buffalo Field Campaign at: http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo/

 

I send thanks to Mary Palisi- Schuelke for making sure we saw that article.


The same paper has an op-ed by Colman McCarthy, headed, "Extend Canadian decency to seals." (page 9). It opens:


"It's cruelty season in Canada - on the ice floes east of Newfoundland and Labrador, to be exact. The annual November-to-May clubbing, ice-picking, or shooting of harp and hooded seals will take a legal quota of up to 350,000 this year - 100,000 more than in recent years. Most of the seal-skin bounty is dispatched to international fashion industries, with side profits from meat, oil, and the sale of genitalia to Asian aphrodisiac markets. "


McCarthy tells us that while the story died out from the media the hunt has continued over the years. But the story is hot again due to the increased quotas. An animal friendly writer, McCarthy makes an interesting point:


"Compared with the massive killing of cattle and fowl in the US - which amounts to an estimated 500,000 deaths an hour for food production - Canada's cruelty to seals seems paltry."


But since it is so comparatively paltry, he ends with this suggestion:
"With the world's major environmental and animal advocacy groups calling for an end to the seal hunt, Canada, by phasing it out, could have another reason to promote itself as a country of decency."

You can read the whole piece on line at: http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0407/p09s03-coop.html

Either or both of these articles provide great opportunities for letters to the editor about the way we treat members of other species. Papers are encouraged to run stories on topic about which they receive a lot of feedback.

The Christian Science Monitor takes letters at: http://search.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=CFF0C5E4

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published. 

 

Yours and the animals',

Karen Dawn

www.DawnWatch.com 

 

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it at www.DawnWatch.com. To subscribe to DawnWatch, email KarenDawn at DawnWatch.com and tell me you'd like to receive alerts.  If at any time you find DawnWatch is not for you, just let me know via email and I'll take you off the subscriber list immediately. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited, leaving DawnWatch in the title and including this tag line.)


 
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