Lynx critical habitat increases

Funny how some people complain about “vermin” taking over there yard, but human encroachment of land is the worst thing that can happen to a species that can cause extinction. Who’s the worst vermin you know?

It’s like that lady complaining about the bears crossing her yard to get food, when her home is in the original path of the bears original habitat!

Lynx critical habitat increases

The amount of land designated as critical habitat for the Canada lynx, a cat federally classified as a threatened species, will increase more than 20-fold under a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision announced Tuesday.

The designation will apply to about 39,000 square miles in six states, up from a total of 1,841 square miles in three, the agency said. Lands in Maine, Idaho and Wyoming are being added to the critical-habitat map that was adopted in 2006 and consisted only of some national parklands in Minnesota, Montana and Washington. The amount of land designated in those states will expand.

The habitat reconsideration, influenced by a court ruling, followed allegations that Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald interfered with some decisions by the Fish and Wildlife Service. MacDonald resigned in 2007 after the Interior Department’s inspector general concluded she pressured federal scientists to alter findings on certain matters before the agency.

“This (lynx habitat) was one that we decided she may have inappropriately influenced,” Shawn Sartorius, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s lead lynx biologist, said Tuesday from his Helena office.

Sartorius, who said he knows of no terrestrial critical-habitat designation larger than the 39,000-square-mile plan, added that not all the same people were involved in the lynx decisions of 2006 and Tuesday. That two such widely different outcomes were reached may not be attributable entirely to MacDonald’s involvement or lack of it, he said.

Critical habitat identifies places with features essential for conservation of threatened or endangered species. For lynx, it includes forests with features such as woody debris for denning; habitat for the snowshoe hare, on which lynx prey; and extended periods of deep, fluffy snow, through which lynx move with relative ease.

The critical-habitat designation applies to about 10,000 square miles in northwestern Montana and a small portion of northeastern Idaho, and about 9,500 square miles in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas in Montana and Wyoming. The designated lands in Maine total about 9,500 square miles, followed by Minnesota with about 8,000 and Washington with roughly 1,800. Some of the land is public and some private. [read more]

Fish and Wildlife was forced to admit that Bush administration political appointees like disgraced former Interior official Julie MacDonald had tampered with the science behind the paltry lynx designation. The Center is currently challenging dozens of other unjust Bush administration species listings and critical habitat decisions stemming from improper influence by political appointees.

MORAL VALUES

"The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated." - Gandhi Cruelty is a the precursor to more evil deeds, so if a country treats it's animals inhumanly, it's evidence of other serious issues.

McDonald’s Cruelty to Animals

Interesting that an alleged “family” oriented food industry would commit such heinous acts of crime and abuse toward these creatures, who will be next?

McCruelty:  I’m Haten’ It

In the slaughterhouses of McDonald’s U.S. chicken suppliers, birds are dumped out of their transport crates and hung upside-down in metal shackles, which can result in broken bones, extreme bruising, and hemorrhaging. Workers have the opportunity to abuse live birds, and birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious. Many birds are immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still alive and able to feel pain.

In 2000, following the launch of PETA’s (original) McCruelty campaign, McDonald’s made some basic animal welfare improvements. Since that time, the company has refused to eliminate the worst abuses that its chickens suffer in the U.S., including abuses during slaughter. This cruelty would be illegal if dogs or cats—or even pigs or cows—were the victims. [read more]

"The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated." - Gandhi Cruelty is a the precursor to more evil deeds, so if a country treats it's animals inhumanly, it's evidence of other serious issues.

Ships collide in Antarctic whaling clash

Research? Bull!

They chop the animals up and package the flesh for shipment on the whaling vessel, that’s not research to me! The international community should be outraged by the slaughter of these majestic mammals. Research is studying their language, and family units and how they take care of each other as a family.

Ships collide in Antarctic whaling clash
A group of radical anti-whaling activists said they were pelted with bloody chunks of whale meat and blubber after their boat collided Friday with a Japanese whaling vessel in a dramatic Antarctic Ocean clash Japan condemned as “unforgivable.”

It was the second battle this week between the whalers and their foes. No one was injured, but the skirmishes mark the resumption of potentially life-threatening run-ins in a contentious fight that has become an annual fixture in the remote, icy and dangerous waters at the bottom of the world.

“The situation down here is getting very, very chaotic and very aggressive,” activist Paul Watson, captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s vessel, told The Associated Press on Friday by satellite phone.

The clashes come as diplomatic efforts to resolve the controversy surrounding Japan’s scientific whaling program appear to have stalled.

Japan – which has described the protesters as terrorists – plans to harvest up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season. Under International Whaling Commission rules, the mammals may be killed for research. Opponents say the Japanese research expeditions are simply a cover for commercial whaling, which was banned in 1986. [read on]

"The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated." - Gandhi Cruelty is a the precursor to more evil deeds, so if a country treats it's animals inhumanly, it's evidence of other serious issues.

First-Ever Felony Charges of Cruelty to Factory-Farmed Birds

What will the workers do after they leave Aviagen and not have access to abuse? Most people who abuse animals are known to grow into something more, most prisons are filled with criminals who started out abusing animals. So, this is all great news, but those employees should get some psychological counseling and should not be left without some kind of monitoring.

First-Ever Felony Charges of Cruelty to Factory-Farmed Birds
In a huge victory for animals, a grand jury has issued 19 indictments for cruelty to animals against three former employees of Aviagen Turkeys, Inc. And it gets better—11 of the indictments are on felony charges. This marks the first time in U.S. history that factory-farm employees have faced felony cruelty-to-animals charges for abusing birds.

These indictments are the result of PETA’s undercover investigation at Aviagen’s factory farms in West Virginia, which uncovered workers stomping, kicking, throwing, and killing turkeys in unimaginably cruel ways. Our investigator’s video footage was seen by the West Virginia State Police, whose investigator then conducted his own prompt and thorough investigation, leading to these indictments in Greenbrier County. Next stop: Monroe County, where we anticipate additional charges to be filed for similar acts committed there.

It’s great to see the authorities take this case seriously. But Aviagen itself? Not so much. [read more]

“The greatness of a nation and it’s moral progress can be judged by the way it’s animals are treated.” – Gandhi Cruelty is a the precursor to more evil deeds, so if a country treats it’s animals inhumanly, it’s evidence of other serious issues.