DAILY QUICK READ - JUNE 7, 2016

Big Cat Exploitation is Global

The “Tiger Temple”isn’t the only place in the world where tigers and other big cats are exploited.  Even the U.S. has its roadside and backyard “zoos” and “exhibits”.  All of them need to be shutdown, too.

Unfortunately, Thailand is not the only place that captive tigers are being exploited (consider, for example, China’s tiger farming and Mexico’s famous pseudo-sanctuary). In fact, the U.S. has its own captive big cats crisis. Thousands of tigers and other large felids are held in backyards, roadside attractions, and other unqualified facilities at which their dietary, medical, and intellectual needs go largely unmet.

Cub handling exhibits — often touted as being oriented toward “conservation” or “education” — draw unsuspecting customers to handle, take photos with, feed, or otherwise interact with juvenile big cats. What unscrupulous exhibitors hide is the mistreatment and incessant breeding required to satisfy this demand for infant animals. When these animals grow older and more dangerous, where do they go?

People who care about animals should only visit facilities that meet accreditation standards such as these.

South Africa Going to the Dogs

To help save rhinos.

An initiative of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, the operation puts together dogs and handlers to be trained using special forces techniques to try to stem the scourge of poaching that has resulted in thousands of rhino and other endangered animals being killed in South Africa and other African countries in the past decade.

Conservationists, the government and landowners are trying more military-oriented operations with dogs and their handlers to stem the illegal trade in wildlife.

Dogs and handlers are drilled to find firearms or contraband, track suspects in the undergrowth and abseil in harnesses from helicopters in pursuit of poachers.

The States Will Not Manage Wolf Populations.

Lawsuit filed to end wolf slaughter in Idaho.

More than 600 wolves have been strangled, shot from the air and trapped illegally in Idaho, five environmental groups say in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Western Watersheds Project and others say USDA Wildlife Services has been killing the wolves without legally required determination that the slaughter is justified to protect livestock and increase elk populations.

     

"The agency killed at least 72 wolves in Idaho last year, using methods including foothold traps, wire snares that strangle wolves, and aerial gunning from helicopters," the groups say in the June 1 federal lawsuit.

The program to hunt, trap and kill wolves is the product of a March 2011 Environmental Assessment (EA) and Decision/Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). The 2011 EA "claims to evaluate the environmental impact of killing wolves that may have predated upon domestic livestock, as well as expanded wolf-killing meant to boost elk herds," according to the complaint.

      

But Talasi Brooks, an attorney with Advocates for the West, said killing wolves may actually protect livestock or elk herds, and may be counterproductive.

"The killings don't actually work," Brooks said in an interview.  "The killings trigger compensatory breeding. [The wolves] have elevated levels of stress and reproductive hormones after such kills. There are new studies that say this, and they [Wildlife Services] haven't conducted analysis on this new information."

Norway's Cars All Electric by 2025?

Report from Norway says gas powered vehicles will be banned by 2025.  Maybe….

Norway’s four leading political parties have reportedly reached an agreement to ban the sale of all gasoline-powered cars by 2025, according to Norwegian Liberal Party MP Ola Elverstuen. “After 2025 new private cars, buses and light commercial vehicles will be zero-emission vehicles. By 2030, new heavier vans, 75 percent of new long-distance buses, 50 percent of new trucks will be zero emission vehicles,” he said.

Not so fast.  Seems that no definitive agreement has been reached.  Still, just to be having this conversation is important.  It only takes single flake to start and avalanche.

“We have not reached an agreement on how to reach the goals,” he said.

Although it seems Norway isn’t quite ready to ditch traditional cars by 2025, the country is still a leader when it comes to environmentally-friendly vehicles.

Last year, 17.1 percent of new car registrations were zero-emissions vehicles, giving Norway the highest market share for clean vehicles anywhere in the world. The country also has a small ownership of cars, accounting for less than 1 percent of all vehicles in Europe.