AR-News: [Intl.] Bear Protection Network newsletter

[Sinikka Crosland]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: The Bear Protection Network 
To: alerts at bearprotectionnetwork.org 
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 12:29 PM
Subject: [Alerts] The BPN Bear Report




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ACTION ALERTS!

Maryland Bears
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has just published its final proposal for the state's first black bear trophy hunt in half a century. Your written comments opposing the bear hunt must be received by July 12, 2004. Please speak out for the bears and write today!  Details and talking points can be found on the BPN homepage at www.bearprotectionnetwork.org .

New Jersey Bears
On March 9, 2004, the Fish and Game Council met and proposed another NJ bear hunt for 2004. Right at this moment, plans are underway for bear hunting seminars.  Bills have been introduced, and details of how New Jersey residents and non-residents alike can take action can also be found on our homepage.

Bears in Japan:  Begging for Change
One of Japan's eight notorious bear parks has officially announced it will be closing to the public this year, in what is set to be a milestone in animal welfare. The decision to close by Jyozankei bear park follows a renewed campaign by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and Japanese group All Life in a Viable Environment (ALIVE).

WSPA's investigative report 'Begging for Change', released in December 2003, showed that hundreds of bears continue to be kept on public display in open concrete pits, in medieval conditions where they are encouraged to fight and beg for food thrown at them by tourists.

Jyozankei is one of Japan's worst bear parks, failing to meet the most basic animal husbandry requirements. WSPA will now be offering help and advice on how to improve the lives of the park's 35 bears for their remaining years.

In just 3 minutes you can make a difference and keep the pressure on to help the rest of the bears suffering these appalling conditions.  Click on http://www.wspa.org.uk/index.php?page=284 and send an email to the Japanese Minister of Environment now.  Thank you.


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NEWS

Animals Asia Has a Brand New Website
And it is fabulous!  Lots of new features and a terrific section for the kids.  Please visit it at http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?module=1&menupos=1&lg=en .

For those of you who are not yet familiar with Animals Asia, they are a Hong Kong-based government-registered animal welfare charity founded by Jill Robinson MBE in 1998. Their mission is to end bear bile farming through investigation, education and negotiation, and have already rescued and given sanctuary to some 500 bears.  Additionally, they are working to change the Chinese attitude towards dogs and cats so that it will no longer seems conceivable to see them as a food source.

Panda Bears
The rare giant panda, China's roly-poly ambassador, has lost habitat and numbers for decades. Living in just five mountain enclaves, eating only the choicest bamboo, gentle and impossibly adorable - the panda is a poster-child for endangered species of all kinds. 
But in the first major panda survey in 15 years the good news is that the panda appears to be holding its own in the wild, for now. Hopeful scientists feel that if a stout defense can be made of the panda habitat by Chinese authorities, the furry black and white creature known here as a "bear-cat" can escape extinction. The survey, carried out by the Chinese forest ministry and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and released in Beijing June 25th, is the most extensive ever. It shows about 1,590 wild pandas in central China, an increase from a 1988 estimate of 1,100.

Grizzly Bears May Be Taken Off Endangered Species List
For 23 years, Chris Servheen has devoted himself to saving the grizzly bear from dying out in the American West. Now, he's ready to declare victory. Servheen is the coordinator of grizzly bear recovery for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. And he, along with other federal officials, are making plans to take the bears off the endangered species list, where they have been listed as threatened since 1975.
By that year, the number of grizzlies in the lower 48 states had plummeted to between 200 and 250. As the bears were pressured by hunters and they lost their habitat to ranching and development, their numbers had dropped precipitously from the early 19th century, when as many as 50,000 roamed the West, ranging as far south as Mexico.

Since they came under strict federal protection, the number of grizzlies in the lower 48 states has bounced back to between 1,200 and 1,400, along with 35,000 in Alaska, where the grizzly has never been listed as threatened. The largest concentration -- 550 to 600 -- is in Yellowstone National Park, with the rest scattered across northern Montana, northern Idaho, and northern Washington.

Louisa Wilcox, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's wild bear project is worried. Wilcox, who has worked on grizzly conservation since 1985, said federal officials are ignoring the pressures the bears still face.



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UNTIL NEXT MONTH

Best wishes,

The Bear Protection Network
info at bearprotectionnetwork.org 


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It is our mission to keep you informed on one convenient site about the plight of bears not only in America but also around the world, and how you can help.  Please write us with any questions, comments or suggestions on what we can do to better serve you.

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