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Issue
184 - February 26, 2002
| Your Help Needed Urgently on Puppy
Mills |
| The Farm Bill is now in its final
stage—consideration by a House-Senate conference committee. It
is crucial that activists speak out to ensure the retention of
the bill's pro-animal amendments. Today, please help
save the Puppy Protection amendment, introduced by Senators
Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) to strengthen
the regulation of so-called "Puppy Mills." These commercial
dog-breeding facilities are notorious for squalid conditions,
inadequate veterinary care, relentless overbreeding of
females, and inadequate socialization of dogs. The Puppy
Protection amendment will target chronic violators of the
Animal Welfare Act (AWA), impose limits on the frequency of
breeding, and establish socialization requirements. We know
opponents are pulling out all the stops—we must also.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact the following key members of
the Senate-House conference committee and urge them to "keep
the Santorum-Durbin Puppy Protection amendment in the final
version of the Farm Bill." Ask them to strenuously oppose any
efforts to weaken or eliminate this important amendment.
- Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA): ph: 202-224-2035 / fax:
202-224-9287
- Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN): ph: 202- 224-2035 (same
number as Harkin's) / fax: 202-224-1725
- Representative Larry Combest (R-TX): ph: 202-225-2171 /
fax: 202-225-0917
- Representative Charles Stenholm (D-TX): ph: 202-225-0317
/ fax: 202-225-8510
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| Update: "Suarez Seven: May Be
Exported |
| The Suarez Brothers Circus has been the
subject of intense scrutiny by animal protectionists because
of its maltreatment of seven beleaguered polar bears (dubbed
the "Suarez Seven") whom it parades throughout Central and
South America as its main attraction. Because of its inhumane
treatment of the bears—including alleged beatings and
unrelenting exposure to sweltering tropical heat—the circus is
currently being tried in Puerto Rican court on animal cruelty
charges, after which it is hoped that the bears will be
confiscated and transferred to a more humane, approved
facility. However, the Suarez Bros. Circus, undoubtedly hoping
to evade this action, has applied for authorization from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to export the bears
from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, to the Caribbean island of
St. Martin. Once the bears are outside U.S. territory, the
chances of their rescue will be almost nil.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact the USFWS before March 15,
2002, and demand that the agency refuse to authorize re-export
of the Suarez polar bears. Aside from the obvious animal
cruelty issues, the USFWS has several other reasons to deny
the permit application: The Suarez Bros. Circus has apparently
supplied a fraudulent CITES permit for at least one polar
bear, and it has never complied with the educational component
that federal law requires of animal exhibitors who wish to
keep protected marine mammal species in captivity. Send your
letters to:
Chief, Permits Division
U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service
Division of Management Authority
4401 N. Fairfax
Drive, Suite 700
Arlington, VA 22203
Fax:
703-358-2281 |
| Action Needed to Stop Slaughter of
Orcas |
| Since early January 2002, approximately 100
orcas have been trapped in the waters of Greenland's Disko
Bay, after shifting ice floes cut off the whales' exit to
nearby ocean waters. Local hunters and fishermen in the area
are seizing this opportunity to kill the animals. To date they
are thought to have shot and killed at least 24 orcas, picking
them off one by one. Aside from being horrifically inhumane
and highly disruptive to the tight family groupings for which
orcas are known, the slaughter is being decried as a violation
of rules set forth by the International Whaling Commission
(IWC), which in 1986 established a global moratorium on
commercial whaling. The HSUS and other organizations believe
that orcas are covered by IWC rules. While the hunters claim
their current slaughter falls under the permissible,
"subsistence use" quotas set forth by the IWC, the fact that
the orcas' flesh is being marketed locally calls the hunters'
claims into question.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
The slaughter of the trapped orcas is
happening now, and an immediate, international outcry
is needed to save their lives. Please write to the following
officials and ask them to use their power to immediately put
an end to the slaughter:
- Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Prime Minister of
Denmark
Christiansborg, Prins Jørgens Gård 11
DK-1218
Copenhagen K.
DENMARK
E-mail: stm@stm.dk
- Mr Jonathan Motzfeldt
Greenland Home Rule
Premier
Greenland Home Rule
P.O. Box 1015
DK-3900
Nuuk GREENLAND
E-mail: govsec@gh.gl
For more information, e-mail: sfisher@wdcs.org or nentrup@wdcs.org | |
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