Friends of Animals Win: African Antelope Shielded From Safari Club and Trophy Tourists

June 23, 2009

For Immediate Release

Contacts:

Priscilla Feral, President, Friends of Animals, Darien, Connecticut
Current tel: (at Primarily Primates sanctuary): 830.755.4616, or mobile: 203.219.0428. E-mail

Lee Hall, Legal Director, Friends of Animals, Tel: 610.964.0090. Email

Mike Harris, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic,
University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Denver, Colorado
Tel: 303.871.6140, or mobile: 720.841.0400. Email

WASHINGTON DC — A decision has been issued in FRIENDS OF ANIMALS v. KEN SALAZAR (Civil Action 04-01660): The Interior Department’s US Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by issuing a blanket exemption allowing trophy hunting at U.S. ranches of endangered African antelopes.

Friends of Animals (“FoA”) and others sued the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of Interior on the grounds that the Service unlawfully exempted US-bred scimitar-horned oryx, addax, and dama gazelles from prohibitions against harming, harassing, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing, or collecting endangered species.

Section 10 of the ESA allows some uses for “scientific purposes or to enhance the propagation or survival of the affected species,” if the government publishes notice and allows for public comment for each “good faith” application for an exemption or permit at every stage of the proceeding. It does not provide a means to authorize the sport hunting of these animals.

The antelopes at issue are native to northern Africa. Today, addax and dama gazelles are nearly wiped out, due to hunting, war, desertification of habitat, human settlement and agribusiness. Scimitar-horned oryx are virtually extinct; most live on Texas hunting ranches, where they are bred. In 2005, following a Friends of Animals lawsuit, these antelopes were listed as endangered, but the government issued a rule creating a loophole for captive-bred antelope, claiming “captive breeding in the United States has contributed significantly to the conservation of these species.”

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Will Maryland's Latest Attack Mean Mute Swans Will Be Gone Forever? We must intervene now.

June 12, 2009

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) insists on wiping out the Mute swans, The Baltimore Sun now reports.

In what many believe will be the final word in a long fight, Secretary of Natural Resources John Griffin on Monday (8 June 2009) accepted the report of a hunter-dominated task force on the swans, saying that his staff is “unfortunately compelled” to continue population control efforts on the fewer than 500 birds still living on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

That means shooting adults or snapping their necks, and shaking eggs to kill the embryos.

The report claims mute swans “would be a constant and perpetual source of competition for scarce conservation resources,” but in fact mute swans compete with hunters who want to kill ducks and geese that eat the same underwater vegetation the swans do. To camouflage their hunting scheme, the task force, which includes bureaucrats and hunting groups such as Ducks Unlimited, assail mute swans erroneously as “feral” birds who are “an environmental hazard to the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.”

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Stop the Use of Horse-Drawn Vehicles

June 05, 2009

HORSES WITHOUT CARRIAGES INTERNATIONAL is an international coalition of organizations in cities all over the world with a common goal — to free carriage horses from bondage and ban the unjust and unsafe horse-drawn carriage trade.

June 6, 2009 is our second International Day of Protest.

Join in solidarity with activists in Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Victoria-British Columbia, Dublin, Rome, Florence, Vienna, Belgrade and Tel Aviv.

In New York City, join Friends of Animals, Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, and Heart for Animals for a rally.

WHEN: Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 12:00 noon until 2:30
WHERE: Meet at noon at Columbus Circle by the statue (this is equivalent to the north-east corner of Central Park South and Central Park West)

In Philadelpia, join Friends of Animals’ new Pennsylvania chapter for a vigil and protest.

WHEN: Saturday, June 6, 2009 from 11:00 AM to 12:30.
WHERE: The NE corner of 5th & Chestnut

Find a demonstration in your area.

Let’s show the world that we want to see an end to the horse-drawn carriage trade. Stand together with the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages and animal-rights groups throughout the world, creating a movement in which cities and towns say “no” to horse-drawn vehicles, because horses came into the world for their own reasons.

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News Alert

May 07, 2009

The sanctuary Primarily Primates continues to grow strong despite an attempt by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to destroy it.

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