Daily Quick Read - August 21, 2019

Dogs and Cats for Castro

Julian Castro may be a political genius.  His just released animal welfare plan is the first of its kind in a national political campaign.  It’s also about time that as a country we take a national approach to animal welfare.  Two things to keep in mind:  1.  Sixty-eight percent of US households own a pet.  2.  You know which US household does not own a pet?  The current resident of the White House.

His plan centers around making the U.S. a “no kill” nation and calls for ending euthanasia of all domestic dogs and cats in shelters.  It also calls for improving federal housing policy for people with pets, a subject that this former Housing and Urban development secretary is well familiar with. Also, very importantly, he wants to prohibit the testing of cosmetic products on animals, and will make animal cruelty a federal crime and establish minimum spaces for farm animals.

Such a courageous and expansive humane vision from a presidential candidate is mindboggling and inspiring, and it will be interesting to see what others, from both sides of the political spectrum, have to say about it. It should be noted that Delaware, Biden’s home state, recently announced that it will be the first state to become a no-kill state. So let’s hope that Castro shining a light on these important animal welfare issues and bringing it to the national stage will inspire others to give it the attention it deserves.

Read his plan here.

What an Ass

   Cleared for soybean farming          Australian Associated Press      

Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is giving Trump and his Republican cronies a run for their money in the race to destroy the world.  Bolsonaro’s ravaging of the rain forest has caused both Norway and Germany to freeze their contributions to a fund for the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. 

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed European leaders’ concerns about his government’s environmental policies after Norway followed Germany and froze millions of dollars in financial aid to an Amazon rainforest preservation fund.

Bolsonaro accused the global elite of indifference to Amazonian deforestation, in comments to reporters in Brasilia on Thursday, arguing their interest was motivated by the natural riches of the region. Norway is not in a position to lecture Brazil and Germany’s Angela Merkel should understand that the South American country is under new management, Bolsonaro said.

Ever the statesman, Bolsonaro suggested the following:

"I would like to give a message to the beloved Angela Merkel," Bolsonaro, who has a well-documented history of misogynist statements, told Brazilian media late Wednesday. "Take your dough and reforest Germany, OK? It's much more needed there than here."

Poaching Needs to be Worked at the Supply End

Can rhinos in Africa be saved by working with the end users of their poached horns to reduce demand? Apparently not. Efforts in Vietnam to educate the purchasers of rhino horns and powder haven’t broken through deeply held ideas.

Considerable efforts have been devoted to reducing the demand for rhino horn in Vietnam. In 2015, the Government of Vietnam increased sanctions on the illegal trade and use of rhino horns. And, through a variety of campaigns, conservation organizations have tried to educate Vietnamese consumers about Africa’s rhino poaching crisis and the uselessness of rhino horn in medications.

Our findings confirm that the idea that rhino horn has magical healing properties is deeply rooted in Vietnam.

Aside from being used as medicine, rhino horn is considered a status symbol. Consumers said that they shared it within social and professional networks to demonstrate their wealth and strengthen business relationships. Gifting whole rhino horns was also used as a way to get favors from those in power.

We found that the use of rhino horn doesn’t attract a stigma in Vietnam. The consumers we interviewed said they weren’t concerned about poaching or the plight of rhinos. The killing of rhinos in Africa was seen as a remote issue, something that happened far away, out of their influence because they didn’t kill the rhinos themselves.

And, thinking that authorities in Vietnam will enforce existing laws against the illegal trade and use of rhino horns, is a mistake.

The penal code of Vietnam prohibits illegal trade and use of rhino horn. However, all interviewed believed that the police would not pay attention to rhino horn use and that law enforcement efforts only focused on illegal trade in large quantities. And they’re not wrong. 

"Unfortunate Timing"

Wildlife authorities in Washington state have exterminated the last members of a once thriving wolf pack to allow a rancher to continue to use public lands for cattle grazing.  A court order to prevent the killing was imminent, but the wildlife officials went ahead before the hearing was convened.  Over the years, the rancher who filed the complaint has been responsible for 87% of wolf killings in the state of Washington. 

The last four members of an embattled wolf pack were killed in Washington State Friday, hours before the court order that could have saved them.

The wolves, members of the Old Profanity Territory pack in the Colville National Forest of Northeastern Washington, were killed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) after the pack killed or injured 14 cattle in a ten month period, KUOW reported.

The killings occurred early Friday morning, before a court hearing began at 9:30 a.m. in King County Superior Court. The judge ordered the state to temporarily halt its wolf killings until the case could go to trial, but the order came too late.

"It's unbelievably tragic that this wolf family has already been annihilated by the state," Sophia Ressler of wildlife advocacy group the Center for Biological Diversity told the Associated Press. "It seems like Washington's wildlife agency is bent on wiping out the state's wolves."

WDFW spokesperson Staci Lehman said the scheduling of the killings was just "unfortunate timing."

Oh, Canada!

The right has done a fine job making the climate crisis a matter of debate, despite the fact that there is no actual debate.  The crisis is upon us, but you can’t say that in a political ad in Canada. 

As environmentalists in the U.S. and around the world are urgently pressuring political leaders to make the existential threat of the climate crisis their top priority, Canadian election officials warned the nation’s green groups that running advertisements that so much as acknowledge the reality of the planetary emergency could be illegal.

Because right-wing politicians such as Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, deny the reality of the climate crisis, running ads on climate in the run-up to the October election could amount to unlawful partisan activity, officials reportedly said during a training session earlier this summer.