115 Groups Ask Obama's Ag Secretary to End Wildlife Killing

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-02-091.asp


A coalition of 115 conservation, animal protection, ranching, and faith-based organizations from across the United States today sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for agriculture secretary asking that he halt the government slaughter of millions of wild animals, including wolves, coyotes, bears, cougars, and prairie dogs.

The letter faxed to Tom Vilsack requests that he reform the Agriculture Department's wildlife "management" policies that the groups said "for too long have focused on exterminating, rather than protecting, wildlife."

Each year the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "secretive" Wildlife Services kills millions of wild animals, "primarily on behalf of agribusiness," the coalition wrote in its letter to Vilsack, a two-term Iowa governor.

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"Most Americans have no idea their tax dollars are used to brutalize countless bears, cougars, wolves, and coyotes," Vincent said.

"Animals are shot from airplanes and helicopters, poisoned, gassed in their dens, bludgeoned after capture in steel leghold traps, strangled in wire snares, and pursued with hounds or lured to bait stations and then shot," the groups told Vilsack in their letter.

In 2007, Wildlife Services killed 2.4 million animals, including 121,565 carnivores.
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I did not know our govt. did this! did you? killing for the Barons so they make more money.

hope Obama listens and acts

for corporations -- massacring "inconvenient" species -- like wolves! -- for the cattle barons, subsidizing grazing on public lands, "selling" timber on --also our public land -- at below market rates, etc.

None of this ever makes mainstream media discussions of environmental issues.

The question is whether Obama's picks for Ag and Interior can stand up to these entrenched interests. We'll see.

It might make Vick's conviction look less hypocritical.

Nice to see a couple friendly names on that list.

:grr:

I think this sanctioned killing of wildlife so Barons can make more money should be spread far and wide.

if most americans knew about it, they wouldn't like it.

I think all this stuff comes down to overpopulation. Humans, I mean.

(The Agriculture secretary Vilsack looks good. It is the secretary of the interior Ken Salazar, Colorado, who has a bad record regarding animals (republican).)

President-Elect Obama's Animal Welfare Team - HSUS
by Michael Markarian


1) Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, the next Secretary of Agriculture

Tom Vilsack has a solid record on animal protection, and he was the top choice of HSUS and HSLF to lead the USDA, the agency that oversees our federal laws on animal welfare, humane slaughter and transport, horse protection, animal fighting, and others.

As governor of Iowa, Vilsack advocated for bills to toughen the state’s penalties for animal fighting, and now he will lead the agency charged with enforcing the federal law to break up dogfighting and cockfighting rings. He stood up to the puppy mill industry and vetoed a bill in 2006 that would have weakened protections for pets by reclassifying dogs as "farm products." He also exhibited tremendous fortitude and adherence to principle when he vetoed legislation in 2001 that would have allowed the sport hunting of mourning doves for the first time in decades.



2) U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, the next Secretary of the Interior

Ken Salazar was a surprise choice for Interior, and wasn’t one of the names pushed by animal advocates. His record on animal issues in the U.S. Senate has been mixed, scoring 0 on the Humane Scorecard for the 109th Congress, and 50 percent in the 110th Congress. He voted against legislation to ban horse slaughter in 2005, but in the current session he co-sponsored legislation to strengthen the penalties for animal fighting and signed onto a letter requesting increased funds for the adequate enforcement of animal welfare laws. He has received relatively high marks on environmental issues from the League of Conservation Voters, scoring 78 percent in the 109th Congress and 85 percent in the 110th Congress. But, again, as with animal advocates, Salazar was not on the list of preferred candidates for the environmental community. The President-elect passed over more strongly recommended candidates such as Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Jay Inslee.

As Interior chief, Salazar will oversee the enforcement of wildlife protection laws such as the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and will have authority for wildlife management practices on millions of acres of federal lands in national parks, national wildlife refuges, and Bureau of Land Management properties. We look forward to working with him, too, and addressing the major wildlife policy issues such as protecting threatened polar bears and other species from the impacts of global warming, deploying immunocontraceptive technology to manage wild horses and burros humanely on the range, and addressing the animal welfare and public safety risks of the exotic pet trade.


3) Lisa Jackson, will head the Environmental Protection Agency.


Lisa Jackson led the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and was a leading animal advocate in the state. She rejected attempts by the NRA, Safari Club, and other trophy hunting groups to initiate a hunting season on New Jersey’s small population of black bears, and she instead implemented a comprehensive program to solve bear conflicts with humane methods such as trash management and public education. We are pleased to have such an innovative leader at the helm of EPA, and we hope to work with her on continued efforts to prioritize the use of alternatives to animals in toxicity testing, to ensure strong penalties for pollution from factory farms and dismantle the Bush Administration’s corporate giveaway that exempts them from having to report their massive toxic emissions.


full article

http://hslf.typepad.com /