[Closed] 'Blackfish' Backlash: Fan Pressure Leads Willie Nelson to Cancel SeaWorld Concert

Bill Honoring Cecil Would Protect Imperiled Species From Trophy Hunters

Alicia Graef
Aug 6, 2015

The tragic and illegal killing of Cecil the lion has sparked international outrage, but it’s also brought the problems with trophy hunting into the spotlight. It has inspired lawmakers in the U.S. to finally protect imperiled species being targeted by Americans who kill them for fun.

In response to the killing, Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Edward Markey (D-MA) have joined forces to introduce legislation that they hope will remove incentives for trophy hunters to keep killing imperiled species.

The Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies Act would amend the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to ban imports of bodies and parts from species proposed for listing under the act, but who aren’t yet protected.

“Let’s not be cowardly lions when it comes to trophy killings,” said Sen. Menendez in a statement. “Cecil’s death was a preventable tragedy that highlights the need to extend the protections of the Endangered Species Act. When we have enough concern about the future of a species to propose it for listing, we should not be killing it for sport. I’m proud to be joined by my colleagues in introducing this common-sense legislation to take a necessary and prudent step that creates a disincentive for these senseless trophy killings and advances our commitment in leading the fight to combat global wildlife trafficking.”

Over growing concerns about the future of African lions, a coalition of organizations petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to list them as endangered under the ESA. According to the petitioners, in the past three decades, the number of African lions in the wild has dropped by more than 50 percent, with potentially fewer than 32,000 remaining today.

In response to the petition, last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed listing African lions as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but has yet to finalize anything. At the time, the FWS said trophy hunting isn’t a major threat, but it did acknowledge that “U.S. hunters make up a disproportionately large share of foreign hunters who book trophy hunts in Africa.”

Conservationists argue that it’s certainly not helping their cause and that allowing trophy hunters to come in and kill animals who face a real threat of extinction, all while condemning poachers for doing the exact same thing, sends a mixed message about how we should be protecting wildlife.

Lawmakers and wildlife advocates hope that passing the Cecil Act will help curb trophy hunting not just of lions, but other equally deserving species targeted by trophy hunters and will be one of many other changes to come that will mean Cecil at least was not mercilessly slaughtered in vain.

TAKE ACTION
http://www.care2.com/causes/bill-honoring-cecil-would-protect-imperiled-species-from-trophy-hunters.html

Please sign and share the petition urging your rep to support and co-sponsor this important piece of legislation. Help protect Africa’s iconic wildlife from trophy hunters and ensure the U.S. doesn’t continue to play a role in their decline.

Legal Victory Forces Killing Program Into Spotlight

They can run but they can’t hide.

That’s the message a federal appeals court sent this week to the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding their rogue wildlife-killing program, euphemistically called Wildlife Services.

For decades, the agency has killed millions of animals every year. They gun down wolves from helicopters and airplanes. They bait coyotes with horrific poisons. They use inhumane kill traps on cougars, bobcats and other carnivores.

And in the face of increasing public outrage they’ve tried to continue to operate in the shadows, hiding behind arcane procedure, clouding the facts, and denying the public the opportunity to see their true nature.

On Monday that changed in a big way when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a ruling that is an important victory for wildlife, fairness and due process. The ruling comes in response to a WildEarth Guardians’ lawsuit that seeks to shine a national spotlight on the killing program and force the program to adopt and follow new science and ethics that underscore the importance and value of native carnivores.

The opinion stands for the ideal that citizens—you, I, and Guardians—have the right to challenge the killing program and that the program can’t hide behind the cynical argument that states, like Nevada, would step in and kill the animals if the feds didn’t. That means we have legal “standing” to challenge the program’s horribly outdated and largely disproved science from the 1970’s and 80’s.

The ruling is a significant victory not just in Nevada where we brought the case, but across the nation. We can now move forward with our Nevada case that challenges the program’s cruel killing activities, and our ongoing lawsuits in Idaho and Washington will move forward too.

As more and more people learn about the inhumane and biologically unsound practices of Wildlife Services, public outrage grows and the likelihood that the program can continue without oversight diminishes.

Our campaign and the work of this lawsuit are by no means complete. Together we must call on Wildlife Services to immediately conduct a nationwide environmental review of all of its barbaric killing programs. We need to win in the public arena as well as in the courts.

Today, we will celebrate the victory. Tomorrow, the work continues. We will not stop until the killing is stopped and our tax dollars no longer fund these cruel killing programs.

We started our campaign to end the war on wildlife over a decade ago and you can count on us to stay in the fight to realize our joint vision for compassion and coexistence with our nation’s native wildlife.

Thank you for making this victory possible, we could not do it without you.

For the Wild,

WildEarth Guardians' mission is to protect and restore thewildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and healthof the American West.

ARIZONA* CALIFORNIA * COLORADO * MONTANA* NEW MEXICO * OREGON * UTAH * WYOMING MAIN OFFICE: 516 Alto Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 p) 505.988.9126 f) 505.213.1895

As Awareness Spreads, SeaWorld’s Attendance Continues to Plummet

Alicia Graef
Aug 7, 2015

SeaWorld’s been having a whale of a time trying to keep our interest since the documentary Blackfish was released in 2013.

This week SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. reported an 84 percent decline in revenue in the second quarter ending in June. Despite discounts and promotions, 100,000 fewer people turned out to visit than they did at the same time last year.

In a statement, SeaWorld cited the “timing of Easter, record levels of rainfall in Texas and continued brand challenges in California” as reasons for poor turnout.

Joel Manby, the company’s President and CEO, said, “We realize we have much work ahead of us to recover more of our attendance base, increase revenue and improve our performance as returning to historical performance levels will take time and investment.”

Since Blackfish started making waves by highlighting the epic problems with keeping orcas in captivity and exposing the myths being used to prop this industry up in the name of conservation and education, SeaWorld’s been scrambling to win people back over, but the company still refuses to acknowledge the heart of the problem – orcas don’t belong in tanks.

The value of its stock continues to drop. It’s been hit with half a dozen lawsuits, while animals continue to die in its care. Then there’s the company’s ad campaign that keeps getting debunked and its #AskSeaWorld social media campaign that has totally backfired.
http://www.care2.com/causes/as-awareness-spreads-seaworlds-attendance-continues-to-plummet.html

Cruise Lines Shun Faroe Islands to Protest Whale Slaughter
Environmentalists applaud German companies’ decision to stop sending tourists to the site of an annual slaughter of pilot whales.

AUG 10, 2015
David Kirby

Meet the whales’ newest protector: the cruise industry.

Executives at two major German cruise lines—Hapag-Lloyd and AIDA—said Monday they would stop sending their tourist-packed ships to the Faroe Islands in protest of the annual slaughter of pilot whales in the remote North Atlantic archipelago known for its stark beauty and bloody traditional hunts. The move is a blow to the islands’ tourism-dependent economy.

“Hapag-Lloyd Cruises is committed to treating flora, fauna, and the marine ecosystem as well as all its creatures with respect,” Karl J. Pojer, the company’s chief executive, said in an email. “We protect what fascinates us—it is therefore high in the interests of the company that whaling on the Faroe Islands is stopped.”

The cruise lines also cited a new Faroe Islands law requiring anyone who spots whales to report the animals to local officials as a reason to take the destination off their ships’ itineraries.

Hapag-Lloyd had already reduced the number of ships scheduled to visit the Faroes, Pojer said, with only one cruise slated for next year. The company is trying to find an alternative destination for that trip.

Monika Griefahn, AIDA’s chief sustainability officer, said in an email that her company “expressly dissociates itself from whaling. Species conservation is an integral part of our sustainability strategy. Thus, AIDA Cruises has decided to cease approaching the Faroe Islands until further notice.”

Whale hunts are permitted in 22 Faroese bays, where up to 120 pilot whales can be killed at a time. According to Sea Shepherd, 1,200 pilot whales are killed during the hunt season.

The hunt is also used to draw tourists to the islands, according to the website Visit Faroe Islands.

“The pilot whale hunt in the Faroes is, by its very nature, a dramatic sight,” it states. “Entire schools of whales are killed on the shore and in the shallows of bays with knives which are used to sever the major blood supply to the brain.”

Visit Faroe Islands could not be reached for comment.

In the past two years, Hapag-Lloyd and AIDA wrote to the Faroese prime minister expressing their concerns about the whale hunt, or grindadráp.

A Hapag-Lloyd official, who asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak with the media, said the company never received a response.

The letters prompted Sea Shepherd, the environmental group that has been trying to halt the whale hunt since the early 1980s, to contact the companies, calling on them to suspend cruises to the islands. Sea Shepherd highlighted a recently passed law making it a crime not to report whale sightings to local authorities.

“Authorities are quoted as saying that these reports can be decisive in determining whether or not the spotted whales are subjected to traditional whaling,” said AIDA’s Griefahn.

A court last week convicted five Sea Shepherd volunteers of violating the Faroe Islands law by trying to stop the slaughter of 250 pilot whales on July 23. They face fines or up to two weeks in jail.

“We were very delighted to hear the news,” Rosie Kunneke, land crew leader for Sea Shepherd in the Faroes, said in a telephone interview from the islands. “This puts pressure on the cruise industry, who might want to reconsider what people are doing to the animals here.”

Several other cruise lines still operate in the islands, Kunneke said, including Princess, Royal Caribbean, Crystal, and Holland America.

“We’re hoping that the world gets to know about the hunt and that customers demand that these companies do not come here anymore,” Kunneke said.

Courtney Vail, campaigns and programs manager for Whale and Dolphin Conservation, said that “ethics-based corporate responsibility” is one way to help stop the killing.

The cruise industry has been much criticized by conservationists for polluting the world’s oceans. But recently it has made efforts to appear more attuned to ethical concerns. Carnival, for instance, announced in June that it would launch a cruise line that lets passengers perform community service in the countries they visit.

“We believe in the power of consumer choice to help guide and reform national and global environmental and animal welfare policies,” Vail said in an email. “It is a shame that such a beautiful destination continues to be marred by the shadow of these bloody hunts.”

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/08/10/cruise-ship-companies-protest-faroe-islands-whale-slaughter?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-08-10

Poachers Aren’t Going to ‘Like’ These Tech Companies Teaming Up to Fight the Ivory Trade

Facebook, Google, and eBay are joining Warren Buffett and environmental groups in a campaign to stop wildlife trafficking.

AUG 11, 2015
John R. Platt covers the environment, technology, philanthropy, and more for Scientific American, Conservation, Lion, and other publications.

Feeling lucky, poachers?

Google is joining Facebook, eBay, Warren Buffett, the United States government and environmental groups in a new effort to fight the illegal trade in elephant ivory, rhino horns, tiger bones, and other products driving wildlife toward extinction.

The goal of the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance is to raise awareness about wildlife trafficking and reduce Americans’ demand for products that promote poaching. The alliance also aims to give companies the tools they need to make sure they’re not selling, shipping, or otherwise enabling the sales of illegal wildlife-related products.

“I think many of us feel there is a moment in time here,” said Patrick Bergin, chief executive of the African Wildlife Foundation, one of the nonprofits that have teamed up to form the alliance. “We feel we are nearing a tipping point that would get wildlife numbers headed in the right direction again, but we need a surge in awareness and action to get definitively over that hump. We need to focus people now and get this done.”

Sally Jewell, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, praised the new alliance last week, saying in a statement, “There is no question that how we deal with wildlife trafficking activities here in the United States will have an enormous influence on our global success in dealing with the crisis.”

The alliance comes at a critical time for species such as lions, which conservationists fear could be extinct by the year 2050, and elephants, which are being poached at a rate of nearly 100 a day.

That means time is of the essence.

“The alliance is not meant to have long-term goals or even exist long-term,” Bergin said. “If this thing becomes too long-term, by definition we will have failed.”

He said the most immediate goal is to educate the American public about the problem and get them to take action. “We want to create a mass movement in American society, where the average person on the street is aware of the poaching and trafficking issue and stands up to say this is not acceptable and it must stop.”

The alliance’s first actions focus on getting the word out with the help of its corporate partners. Google built the alliance’s website, and the search engine’s marketing team (along with those of Facebook and eBay) is working on an anti-trafficking awareness campaign to engage the public.

Meanwhile, Tiffany & Co. and two other jewelry companies owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway have committed to keeping ivory out of their supply chains, something the alliance hopes will become an industry standard.

Bergin said that’s just the first step and the alliance will be reaching out to additional corporate partners. “For example, we want shipping and transportation companies to be more rigorous in ensuring that they are not transporting illegal wildlife products,” he said. “We will want fashion and media companies to help mobilize their customers and users not to consume wildlife products, and to support bans on the sale of ivory in their states.”

Beyond that, he said the alliance hopes to inspire other ideas for protecting wildlife. “I think it’s likely that companies and individuals will have ideas for things they can do that the NGOs and government departments would have never thought of.”

Other alliance members include the National Geographic Society, the World Wildlife Fund, the Humane Society of the United States, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, along with the Paul G. Allen Foundation. Additional collaborators are expected to be announced at a meeting at the White House this fall.

Bill Honoring Cecil Would Protect Imperiled Species From Trophy Hunters

Alicia Graef
Aug 6, 2015

The tragic and illegal killing of Cecil the lion has sparked international outrage, but it’s also brought the problems with trophy hunting into the spotlight. It has inspired lawmakers in the U.S. to finally protect imperiled species being targeted by Americans who kill them for fun.

In response to the killing, Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Edward Markey (D-MA) have joined forces to introduce legislation that they hope will remove incentives for trophy hunters to keep killing imperiled species.

The Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies Act would amend the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to ban imports of bodies and parts from species proposed for listing under the act, but who aren’t yet protected.

“Let’s not be cowardly lions when it comes to trophy killings,” said Sen. Menendez in a statement. “Cecil’s death was a preventable tragedy that highlights the need to extend the protections of the Endangered Species Act. When we have enough concern about the future of a species to propose it for listing, we should not be killing it for sport. I’m proud to be joined by my colleagues in introducing this common-sense legislation to take a necessary and prudent step that creates a disincentive for these senseless trophy killings and advances our commitment in leading the fight to combat global wildlife trafficking.”

Over growing concerns about the future of African lions, a coalition of organizations petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to list them as endangered under the ESA. According to the petitioners, in the past three decades, the number of African lions in the wild has dropped by more than 50 percent, with potentially fewer than 32,000 remaining today.

In response to the petition, last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed listing African lions as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but has yet to finalize anything. At the time, the FWS said trophy hunting isn’t a major threat, but it did acknowledge that “U.S. hunters make up a disproportionately large share of foreign hunters who book trophy hunts in Africa.”

Conservationists argue that it’s certainly not helping their cause and that allowing trophy hunters to come in and kill animals who face a real threat of extinction, all while condemning poachers for doing the exact same thing, sends a mixed message about how we should be protecting wildlife.

Lawmakers and wildlife advocates hope that passing the Cecil Act will help curb trophy hunting not just of lions, but other equally deserving species targeted by trophy hunters and will be one of many other changes to come that will mean Cecil at least was not mercilessly slaughtered in vain.

TAKE ACTION
http://www.care2.com/causes/bill-honoring-cecil-would-protect-imperiled-species-from-trophy-hunters.html

Please sign and share the petition urging your rep to support and co-sponsor this important piece of legislation. Help protect Africa’s iconic wildlife from trophy hunters and ensure the U.S. doesn’t continue to play a role in their decline.

'.....At the time, the FWS said trophy hunting isn’t a major threat, but it did acknowledge that “U.S. hunters make up a disproportionately large share of foreign hunters who book trophy hunts in Africa......”

It is the filthy rich, ugly American who engages in this criminal activity...
Swan

Big guns, small minds and something else small!

U.S. to World: You’d Better Protect Whales and Dolphins If You Want Us to Eat Your Seafood
New regulations could help save some of the 650,000 marine mammals caught in fishing gear every year.

AUG 12, 2015 John R. Platt covers the environment, technology, philanthropy, and more for Scientific American, Conservation, Lion, and other publications.

You’ve probably heard about dolphin-safe tuna. Well, how about dolphin-safe shrimp, whale-safe lobster, and porpoise-safe halibut?

Those don’t exist today, but they could soon become the norm thanks to new rules proposed this week by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The proposed rules would require nations whose seafood and related products are imported to the United States to follow the same rules American fishers must follow to protect whales and dolphins under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. To do so, they would need to demonstrate that they have established conservation or regulatory programs designed to protect marine mammals. That might mean using new kinds of fishing gear or even closing off certain areas to fishing to protect imperiled species.

The U.S. imports about 90 percent of its seafood, half of which is wild-caught.

An analysis published by the Natural Resources Defense Council in 2014 estimated that 650,000 whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals are injured or die as bycatch in fishing gear every year. That’s enough to put many species at risk and push some toward extinction.

The new rules—which cover fish, mollusks (such as scallops), and crustaceans (such as shrimp and lobster)—could help to dramatically reduce that bycatch. The fisheries service called this “one of the most significant steps in the global conservation of marine mammals in decades.” It also said it would level the playing field for U.S. fishers who follow strict existing regulations.

All of this codifies standards that have been in place since 1972 but not implemented—except in the case of tuna—until now, said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, which with other conservation organizations petitioned the fisheries agency in 2008 to protect swordfish under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The process kicked off by that initial petition and a subsequent lawsuit filed by the environmental group culminated in this week’s proposed rules.

Uhlemann said the new regulations could help save the world’s most endangered porpoise, Mexico’s vaquita. Only about 50 remain in the Gulf of California, down from about 200 in 2012. The main cause of the decline is shrimp gill nets, which too often catch vaquitas. (The nets are also used to catch another endangered species, a fish called the totoaba, whose bladder is sold for high prices in China as a delicacy.) With the new rules, “the U.S. could prohibit import of shrimp from this fishery,” she said.

Similarly, the lobster industry threatens the North Atlantic right whale, a species down to about 500 individuals. “Right whales are often entangled in lobster fishing gear off the U.S. East Coast,” Uhlemann said. “As a result, the U.S. requires its fishermen to meet tough regulations—gear modifications, closed areas, things like that. But Canada’s lobster fishery is subject to only voluntary measures. Under the regulations, the U.S. could sanction Canada for not having equally effective regulations.”

As with any proposed government regulations, the public and related industry may now submit comments on the rules. Comments are due by Nov. 6. A final regulation making the rules official is due Aug. 1, 2016.

(Hopefully this will help!)

Poachers Aren’t Going to ‘Like’ These Tech Companies Teaming Up to Fight the Ivory Trade

Facebook, Google, and eBay are joining Warren Buffett and environmental groups in a campaign to stop wildlife trafficking.

AUG 11, 2015John R. Platt covers the environment, technology, philanthropy, and more for Scientific American, Conservation, Lion, and other publications.

Feeling lucky, poachers?

Google is joining Facebook, eBay, Warren Buffett, the United States government and environmental groups in a new effort to fight the illegal trade in elephant ivory, rhino horns, tiger bones, and other products driving wildlife toward extinction.

The goal of the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance is to raise awareness about wildlife trafficking and reduce Americans’ demand for products that promote poaching. The alliance also aims to give companies the tools they need to make sure they’re not selling, shipping, or otherwise enabling the sales of illegal wildlife-related products.

“I think many of us feel there is a moment in time here,” said Patrick Bergin, chief executive of the African Wildlife Foundation, one of the nonprofits that have teamed up to form the alliance. “We feel we are nearing a tipping point that would get wildlife numbers headed in the right direction again, but we need a surge in awareness and action to get definitively over that hump. We need to focus people now and get this done.”

Sally Jewell, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, praised the new alliance last week, saying in a statement, “There is no question that how we deal with wildlife trafficking activities here in the United States will have an enormous influence on our global success in dealing with the crisis.”

The alliance comes at a critical time for species such as lions, which conservationists fear could be extinct by the year 2050, and elephants, which are being poached at a rate of nearly 100 a day.

That means time is of the essence.

“The alliance is not meant to have long-term goals or even exist long-term,” Bergin said. “If this thing becomes too long-term, by definition we will have failed.”

He said the most immediate goal is to educate the American public about the problem and get them to take action. “We want to create a mass movement in American society, where the average person on the street is aware of the poaching and trafficking issue and stands up to say this is not acceptable and it must stop.”

The alliance’s first actions focus on getting the word out with the help of its corporate partners. Google built the alliance’s website, and the search engine’s marketing team (along with those of Facebook and eBay) is working on an anti-trafficking awareness campaign to engage the public.

Meanwhile, Tiffany & Co. and two other jewelry companies owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway have committed to keeping ivory out of their supply chains, something the alliance hopes will become an industry standard.

Bergin said that’s just the first step and the alliance will be reaching out to additional corporate partners. “For example, we want shipping and transportation companies to be more rigorous in ensuring that they are not transporting illegal wildlife products,” he said. “We will want fashion and media companies to help mobilize their customers and users not to consume wildlife products, and to support bans on the sale of ivory in their states.”

Beyond that, he said the alliance hopes to inspire other ideas for protecting wildlife. “I think it’s likely that companies and individuals will have ideas for things they can do that the NGOs and government departments would have never thought of.”

Other alliance members include the National Geographic Society, the World Wildlife Fund, the Humane Society of the United States, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, along with the Paul G. Allen Foundation. Additional collaborators are expected to be announced at a meeting at the White House this fall.

Great article and photos:

Coming eye to eye with the world’s most mysterious whales

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/2015/Brydes-Whales.aspx?s_email_id=20150815_MEM_ENG_WLO_August_Edition|STAct

Miami Beach Mayor Takes a Stand to Free Lolita the Loneliest Orca

Tex Dworkin
Aug 17, 2015

http://www.care2.com/causes/miami-beach-mayor-takes-a-stand-to-free-lolita-the-loneliest-orca.html

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine publicly announced that Lolita the orca must be released from Miami Seaquarium, adding yet another voice to the hundreds of thousands calling for an end to her captivity.

Lolita is the orca who has been held against her will since 1970 at Miami Seaquarium after being stolen from the ocean along with six other orcas during the infamous Penn Cove round up in Puget Sound, Washington–the horrific, violent incident that left some of her fellow whales dead.

In 2003, Lolita was the subject of the documentary Lolita: Slave to Entertainment, which told the story of the barbaric hunt. Of the seven orcas ripped from their family that day and sold to marine parks across the world to live out their lives in slavery, three decades later, Lolita is the lone survivor.

She “lives” in captivity at the Miami Seaquarium, if you consider a 20 feet long, 7,000 pound whale confined to a ridiculously small tank living. Her tank is so small, it violates the Animal Welfare Act’s minimum size requirements, which explains why charges were filed against the USDA challenging its absurd decision to renew Seaquarium’s federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) license. The area she swims in is 80 feet wide with 35 feet between the outer wall and the island barrier in the middle.

Her history marred by tragedy, since Lolita’s capture from the wild there has been a steady stream of actions calling for her release from activists, animal specialists and celebrities.

But still she remains “Lolita the Loneliest Orca“ since her former orca tank mate Hugo died in 1980 after repeatedly smashing his head into the walls of the tank. Animal Legal Defense Fund says, “Hugo’s sudden death left Lolita moping at the bottom of her tank in a state not unlike bereavement.” She hasn’t had an orca companion since; that’s 35 years of loneliness, and counting.

People Continue Fighting for Lolita’s Release

Since Lolita’s capture in 1970, animal advocates have been calling for her release.

In January hundreds of protesters marched at Virginia Key Beach Park to demand the release of Lolita. Activists called their action “an anti-captivity movement.”

In 2013, the Orca Network, Animal Legal Defense Fund and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a petition seeking to have Lolita protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and earlier this year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the good news that she will be included.

Things seemed to be looking up for Lolita until the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that the whale’s inclusion in the endangered listing does not impact the animal’s stay at the Florida facility. And so she remains at Seaquarium.

PETA and other groups have sued in Miami federal court, saying that Lolita should be removed to a sea pen under a retirement plan that would more closely mimic her natural Pacific Ocean environment. But Seaquarium officials say Lolita is healthy and removing her would be “cruel and traumatic.”

That’s funny. Those two words could also be used to accurately describe Lolita’s capture back in 1970.

Just recently, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, developer Jorge Perez, the Miami Heat’s official DJ, TV host Daisy Fuentes, celebrity chef Ingrid Hoffman and others joined PETA in demanding freedom for Lolita, issuing statements of support for Lolita’s release.

Louis Aguirre, television anchor of The Insider, had to say about Lolita:

“She was violently kidnapped from her mother while she was still only a baby and has spent 45 years in captivity, living in one of the smallest whale enclosures in the world, without contact with another orca for 35 of those years. It’s time to have some compassion and do what’s right. She deserves to be free for the rest of her life, as nature intended. I pray that sanity and reason prevail here.”

There have been more actions too. Members of PETA and the local Animal Activists Network chose August 9 to protest at the entrance of Miami Seaquarium because the weekend marks 45 years since Lolita was captured. They attempted to persuade park guests not to buy a ticket, and PETA protester Ashley Byrne told Local 10 News, ”It’s time for the Seaquarium to do the right thing and let Lolita go to a sea pen, where she can reunite her family and finally have a life that’s natural for her.”

According to the Miami Herald, Mayor Levine publicly spoke about Lolita’s conditions but did not attend the August 9 protest. Levine said in a statement, “Miami should be known as the beautiful, modern city that it is — not as the home of the smallest orca tank in North America.” His call to action: “This endangered animal must be released as soon as possible from the appalling conditions at the Seaquarium and moved to a sanctuary in her home waters.”

So for the record — the mayor wants Lolita released, South Florida leaders want her released, and over a hundred thousand people signed this petition pleading for her release. And yet, Andrew Hertz, general manager of the Miami Seaquarium remains firm in his position, saying that “Lolita will continue to be an ambassador for her species from her home at Miami Seaquarium.” He issued this statement:

“There is no scientific evidence that the 49 year-old post-reproductive Lolita could survive if she were to be moved from her home at Miami Seaquarium to a sea pen or to the open waters of the Pacific northwest…It would be reckless and cruel to treat her life as an experiment and jeopardize her health and safety in order to appease a fringe group.”

I would hardly classify over 100,000 petition signers as belonging to a “fringe group.” And as for “reckless and cruel,” stealing a huge marine mammal from the open ocean and confining it to a tiny, lonely space for over four decades–now that’s reckless and cruel, as was her capture.

As for her well-being if she were to be released, there is a proposed retirement plan in place that aims to ensure Lolita’s transport and transition back to her native waters are accomplished as smoothly as possible.

Orca Conservancy reminds us that a captive whale has been successfully released back into the wild before, and assures, ”If given the opportunity of returning Lolita to her home waters, perhaps even back to her family, we will make it work.”

Still, Seaquarium curator Robert Rose told Local 10 News, “This animal is not for sale and she is not going to be released. This is her home and has been her home for 45 years.”

She was for sale 45 years ago when she was stolen from her family and Seaquarium paid $6,000 for her.

Animal Legal Defense Fund shares:

“In the wild, orcas spend their entire lives with their mothers. In 1996 (26 years after her capture), Lolita was played a recording of her family’s calls. Heartbreakingly, Lolita returned the distinct dialect of her family’s calls, recognizing familiar voices. And at more than 80 years old, Lolita’s mother (one of the endangered southern resident orcas off the coast of Washington) still thrives in a seaside sanctuary, waiting for Lolita to come home.”

What else can we do to make that happen?

Image Shows How Little Space Captive Orcas Really Have
Lindsay Patton
Aug 17, 2015

On August 2, Facebook user Andrew Lawes shared a photo that illustrates how cramped and isolated an animal’s life at SeaWorld really is.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1472583156369091&set=a.1389735264653881.1073741828.100008522627567&type=1&theater

The image is an aerial shot that was taken above SeaWorld in San Diego, California. But that’s not why the photo went viral. In it, the viewer’s attention is pulled toward a thick-lined red blob that encircles SeaWorld’s parking lot. There’s another small green line to the right of the lot. Two white arrows point toward the parking lot and the green line.

Lawes explained the photo in the following caption, which also referred to Cecil the lion’s recent death:

“Lot of talk about animal rights this week, thought I’d share this from twitter. The red line is the size of the Sea World car park. The green line is where the Orcas spend their entire lives. Shocking really.”

The size comparison isn’t the only shocking aspect of the photo, however. The viewer can also see that a third of the parking lot is completely empty. Space that could be used for the animals housed at the theme park.

The alarming photo quickly went viral, with 55,152 likes, 9,563 comments and 87,218 shares at the time of this writing.

“There is a lot of water behind SeaWorld,” commented Facebook user Lee Odorizzi, noting the coastline behind SeaWorld San Diego’s property and alluding to how close the animals really are to their natural habitats.

The photo also circulated on Twitter, too, when animal activists took advantage SeaWorld’s disastrous #AskSeaWorld campaign. Many people used the hashtag to ask why SeaWorld’s parking lots are bigger than its orca tanks.

The photo went viral right around the time news outlets reported that SeaWorld’s net income plunged 84 percent from April to June. The recent dip isn’t surprising, either. SeaWorld has struggled with attendance and financials since the 2013 release of “Blackfish.” The documentary focuses on the ill-fit environment SeaWorld provides to its orcas and digs deep into past trainer deaths and the root of them, specifically the three trainers killed by Tillikum, an orca who has been held captive at SeaWorld for 32 or his 34 years alive.

SeaWorld responded to the 84 percent loss by issuing a statement. In it, the company released data for its operations costs, financials and unaudited balance sheet data. The company blamed “the timing of Easter, record levels of rainfall in Texas and continued brand challenges in California” for the low attendance levels.

But this data isn’t that surprising for those who have followed SeaWorld’s steady downfall since Blackfish’s release two years ago. SeaWorld shares have fallen 37 percent in the past year. In December 2014, The Washington Post reported that SeaWorld stock price has dropped 60 percent since Blackfish’s release. Around that time, SeaWorld Entertainment’s chief executive Jim Atchison resigned after the company’s revenue fell by more than seven percent in 2014’s first nine months.

SeaWorld is showing desperate attempts at making a comeback. On August 13, the company announced it is pledging $1.5 million toward sea life conservation.
http://www.care2.com/causes/image-shows-how-little-space-captive-orcas-really-have.html

Women of the World vs Taji

http://www.wowvstaiji.com/index.html
http://www.wowvstaiji.com/videos.html

August 20, 2015

Since the killing of Cecil, 38 airlines have committed to halting the shipping of the Africa Big Five.

The reverberations from the early July slaying of Cecil the lion continue to be felt worldwide, with the news that authorities in Zimbabwe have charged the second of two men who guided Safari Club International member Walter Palmer’s illicit trophy kill just outside the borders of Hwange National Park. “Cecil was delivered to him like a pizza,” said the Hwange Lion Research Project’s Brent Stapelkamp, who took the last photo of Cecil alive, just a month before Palmer killed, skinned, and beheaded the lion with the assistance of hunting guide Theo Bronkhurst and game park owner Honest Ndlovu. We are still awaiting word on Zimbabwe’s request to extradite Walter Palmer, who was at the center of this scheme to kill Hwange National Park’s most famous lion, and if that happens, there will be some measure of justice for all three horsemen of the Hwange apocalypse.

We’re also urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finalize its proposed rule listing the African lion under the Endangered Species Act, as have dozens of members of Congress. We are hoping for final action from the agency soon, so that further imports of lion trophies will be restricted or banned from African nations.

Either way, the killers will have a hard time getting those trophies back home. Since the Cecil slaying, 38 airlines have committed to halting the shipping of the Africa Big Five. Delta, United, and American Airlines -- the big U.S.-based carriers with service to Africa -- are among the airlines to ban shipping lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo trophies. UPS this week announced a good, sound policy of not shipping shark fins, but we are still awaiting a declaration from that company on its policy concerning the hunting trophies, since four species of the Africa Big Five are listed, or about to be listed, as threatened with extinction under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, D-N.J., has introduced a bill to ban all imports of trophies and parts from African lions and other at-risk species into the United States. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-TX, and Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-TX, have announced their intention to sponsor a bill to amend the Endangered Species Act to ban “all acts of senseless and perilous trophy killings.” Lawmakers in New York and New Jersey have introduced bills to restrict imports into their states.

Right now, there are 41 trophy hunters who, just like Walter Palmer, paid a fortune to kill an animal about to get listed under the Endangered Species Act, and want a waiver from Congress to display the heads and hides of the slain animals in their homes. In the case of the 41, they killed polar bears in northern Canada. We’re fighting their import-waiver effort not just as a symbolic act to deny these trophy hunters their ill-gotten gains, but to prevent the bum rush of trophy hunters into a foreign land whenever our federal government announces that it’s going to upgrade federal protections for a declining species and restrict imports.

Finally, there is the battle we’re waging in the marketplace of ideas. We’ve answered the self-serving reasoning of the trophy-hunting clan about the value of their activity to conservation, and more than ever, people see through their pay-to-slay reasoning. People realize that trophy killing undermines wildlife conservation, is no boon to national or regional economies anywhere, and should not be countenanced or encouraged by anyone. How can anyone possibly think it’s helpful to animals to kill a dominant lion in a pride with an arrow, or to slay a large-tusked elephant, or a mature rhino with a beautiful horn? For them, I guess, it diminishes the utter selfishness of the activity by concocting some far-fetched scenario where killing a creature somehow helps the grieving, surviving family members or pride or herd mates. It’s really a travesty to think anyone could buy this drivel.

When it comes to The HSUS and Humane Society International, we’re going to devote more resources, in the near and the long term, to fight this enterprise of globe-trotting trophy hunting of the rarest, most remarkable animals in the world. If you’re willing to stand with us, and to support our worldwide campaigns against trophy killing, I’m willing to make you this promise: Cecil won’t have died in vain.

***

Here’s how you can help fight trophy hunting:

Tell Congress to stop trophy hunting >

Ask the USFWS to finalize listing African lions under the Endangered Species Act >

Ask airlines to end the transport of hunting trophies >

Ask South African Airways to recommit to a ban on hunting trophies >

Tell UPS to ban the shipment of hunting trophies >

The post Cecil Killing Offers Prospect of Sweeping Reforms appeared first on A Humane Nation.

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© 2015 The Humane Society of the United States | All rights reserved | 2100 L Street, NW | Washington, DC 20037 humanesociety@hsus.org | 202-452-1100 | humanesociety.org

Droves of Whales Are Dying Off the Alaska and British Columbia Coast

Lizabeth Paulat
Aug 24, 2015

An unusually large amount of whale deaths has been reported off the coast of both Alaska and Canadian British Columbia. The amount of dead whales, nearly unprecedented, has left scientists baffled as they scramble to discover the cause.

The first group of whales, from the fin whale family, were discovered near the Kodiak Archipelago in late May and early June. Fin whales are the second largest whales on earth, and are only susceptible to attack from killer whales or humans.

Kate Wynne, a professor and marine mammal specialist and the University of Alaska told reporters, “The evidence suggests that all of these whales that we’ve found died at about the same time, which is like the third week of May, around the 20th, in a short period of time in a fairly localized area.” Wynne went on to say they would be testing for toxins and algae blooms in the water because, “the fact that the carcass are intact, it rules out killer whale predation. But other than that, we’re at a loss.”

Yet the mystery deepened when water taken from the area showed no signs of bio-toxin and samples from one of the carcasses came back negative for algae bloom toxins. And as the months rolled by the death toll rose. By August, a mix of humpbacks and fin whales amassed a startling total of 30 deaths in Alaska. Scientists say this is over three times the normal rate.

And this frightening pattern is now extending south; last week the discovery of six dead humpbacks along the BC coastline had marine biologists and conservationists searching for answers. Two fairly fresh carcasses washed ashore and were immediately taken for a necropsy, which is an animal autopsy, however the results are unlikely to come back before the month is out.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada is now collaborating with the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A biotoxin is still being batted around as a possible cause despite earlier testing. However, some are raising concerns that the cause of these deaths could be far more nefarious.

Some are speculating that the Fukushima nuclear disaster that rocked Japan in 2011 could be to blame. Fukushima Watch, a website that has followed the disaster for years writes that, “Scientists predicted that radiation leaking from the power plant should hit North American coasts by early 2014…Some scientists have tried to annul these worries by claiming that the radiation from the Fukushima power plant has become so diluted in the Pacific Ocean that it does not pose a serious health threat to the coast. Yet the recent rise in whale deaths shows otherwise…Furthermore, the radiation from the Fukushima power plant has not stopped leaking into the Pacific Ocean.”

And although there hasn’t been any credible scientific proof that radiation played any role in the whale deaths, scientists do say they will be testing the newest carcasses washed up on the BC coastline for any form of radioactive poisoning.

It is likely that when the results of the necropsies are returned we will have more answers. However for now both the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the NOAA are asking citizens to be on the lookout and to contact them immediately if any dead whales are discovered in the waters or washed onto the coastline, as the sooner they can get to the site and test, the sooner this mystery can be unraveled.

http://www.care2.com/causes/droves-of-whales-are-dying-off-the-alaska-and-british-columbia-coast.html

Rescued Circus Animals Arrive at U.S. Sanctuary
by Alicia Graef

A dozen wild animals rescued from poor conditions in Mexico are settling in at their new home in Colorado after being airlifted there last week by the Mexican Navy.

In total, eight lions, two lynxes, a mountain lion and a coyote arrived at the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, which specializes in providing permanent homes for large carnivores.

The big cats arrived after being taken from circuses, zoos and private homes where they had been found in poor condition, while the poor coyote had been used in rituals related to Santeria. According to an update from the sanctuary, first they’ll get settled in at the sanctuary’s rehabilitation area, before moving into groups outdoors in more natural enclosures.

Video of The Day! Our recent rescue brought in 8 African Lions – Males “Zimba” and “Jupiter”; Lionesses “Sanshai”, “…

Posted by The Wild Animal Sanctuary on Thursday, August 27, 2015

In July, Mexico became the 29th nation to step up for wild animals by enacting a ban on their use in circuses. The move was a huge win, but also raised serious concerns about what would happen to the former performers who would no longer be bringing in money for their owners and pointed to the importance of supporting sanctuaries so the last generations of these captive animals have somewhere to go.

Now at least some rescue efforts have begun and a lucky few will be able to start new lives and live out their days in peace, free from their former lives of abuse, neglect and performances, while nine more tigers still remain and are waiting for their turn to be moved to Colorado.

As the world continues to turn against using wild animals in entertainment, more and more areas are banning them, or working towards a ban and a future where we no longer see them as commodities to be used for our amusement, but as living beings deserving of far more dignity and respect.

While a number of cities and states in the U.S. have already taken action, or are working towards passing laws prohibiting wild animals in circuses and other forms of entertainment, or have banned cruel training tools, supporters of these bans continue to argue the issue needs to be addressed on a federal level in the U.S. not only because it just needs to end, but because the mobile nature of circuses makes it difficult for law enforcement and inspectors to follow up on incidents and violations of the Animal Welfare Act, of which there have been many.

Please sign and share the petition urging Congress to make the U.S. one of the next nations to pass legislation that would ban their use in circuses.

For more info and updates on the rescued animals, and for ways to help, check out the Wild Animal Sanctuary’s Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/TheWildAnimalSanctuary

See link to sign petition:
http://www.care2.com/causes/rescued-circus-animals-arrive-at-u-s-sanctuary.html#ixzz3kU9o3cd2

http://www.care2.com/causes/victory-san-francisco-votes-to-ban-wild-animal-performances.html

California Lawmakers Pass Sweeping Ban on Ivory and Rhino Horns

Alicia Graef
Sep 4, 20155

In a another victory for imperiled wildlife, this week California lawmakers voted to ban the sale of elephant ivory and rhino horns in the state in an effort to protect these species from getting killed by poachers.

In 1989, international sales of ivory were banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but loopholes still allow people to own and sell ivory that was imported before that, which is known as ‘pre-ban’ ivory.

California created its own law regarding ivory in 1976, which currently makes it illegal to import or sell elephant parts, but a loophole in the state allows for the sale of ivory that was imported before 1977.

The problem with that is that no one can tell the difference and many continue to argue that allowing some legalized ivory sales offers a cover for the illegal trade and has made the law virtually impossible to enforce.

In an effort to crack down on the trade in the state, Assembly speaker Toni Atkins and Senator Ricardo Lara introduced AB 96 earlier this year– named for the 96 elephants killed each day for their tusks.

The bill closes the loophole and bans “buying, selling, offering for sale, possessing with intent to sell or importing with intent to sell elephant ivory or rhinoceros horn, except as specified under very limited educational and scientific circumstances, and would make this prohibition enforceable by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.”

Anyone with ivory who wants to sell it has until until July 1, 2016. After that date, selling will become be a misdemeanor, leaving anyone who gets caught facing fines of up to $50,000 and a year in jail.

“Ninety-six elephants are killed every day for their ivory – translating to 35,000 deaths each year,” said Speaker Atkins. “This species loss is unsustainable and African elephants are being poached at a higher rate than they are being born, which will result in their extinction. By passing AB 96, the Legislature can help strengthen enforcement against the illegal ivory trade in California, which will, in turn, help put an end to poaching.”

The change in California would be a big step towards protecting rhinos and elephants. According to a recent report published by the Natural Resources Defense Council, San Francisco and Los Angeles have been identified as two of the largest markets of potentially illegal ivory sales behind New York City.

While California’s legislation still needs a signature from Governor Jerry Brown to become a law, two more major efforts to protect elephants are in the works. In July, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) formally announced a proposed rule that would restrict imports and ban the sale of ivory across state lines, while the Center for Biological Diversity also petitioned the FWS to have African elephants declared as two separate species – forest elephants and savannah elephants – and upgraded from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act, which would add even more strength to laws intended to protect them.

TAKE ACTION!

The proposed rule to crack down on ivory is now open for public comment, if you would like to make one in support of tougher regulations for the ivory trade, you can submit one at the Federal Register.
http://www.regulations.gov/#!searchResults;rpp=25;po=0;s=FWS%25E2%2580%2593HQ%25E2%2580%2593IA%25E2%2580%25932013%25E2%2580%25930091;fp=true;ns=true

Whales Face a New Threat From the Melting Arctic
Disappearing sea ice is giving hunters a fast new route to get the meat of endangered fin whales to Japanese markets.

SEP 1, 2015Taylor Hill i
Climate change is hurting whales but not in the way you’d expect.

For the first time, an Icelandic whaling vessel traversed the Arctic’s Northeast Passage this week, carrying 1,800 tons of frozen endangered fin whale meat to be sold in Japanese markets.

The ship, called Winter Bay, made the trek through Arctic waters thanks to the near-record-low sea ice extent this summer. That’s opened up a passageway typically impassable for a vessel of Winter Bay’s size.

After leaving Tromso, Norway, on Aug. 1, the whaling vessel arrived in Osaka, Japan, Monday morning, according to the Japan Times, bringing nearly 40 percent of the whale meat the country consumes annually in just one shipment.

For conservationists, the successful passage is a defeat in more ways than one. Activist groups like Sea Shepherd—whose work involves confronting whaling ships at sea—often position their vessels in the Indian and Southern oceans and wait to intercept ships on their way to hunt whales in the Antarctic or transport whale meat to Japan.

Capt. Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd’s founder, said the potential of a clear northern passageway has his team concerned.

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“We are talking with the Russians to see if we can convince them to disallow future transports of whale meat through the Northeastern passage,” Watson said in an email.

If a northern route becomes more accessible, whaling vessels will have a shorter route to their main buyer—Japan.

Sea Shepherd reported in July that it had sent its anti-whaling vessel, Sam Simon, to monitor the Winter Bay in Tromso. It said the ship—originally a Norwegian vessel—was flying a Saint Kitts and Nevis flag and had tons of whale meat on board that it “harvested from endangered whales slaughtered in the North Atlantic by Icelandic whaling company Hvalur H/F.”

Iceland has ignored an international ban on killing endangered fin whales.

Now, a petition that has collected more than 1 million signatures is calling for Iceland to end the fin whale hunts and ban the sale of whale meat abroad, and for Saint Kitts and Nevis to order the Winter Bay to remove its flag, which would prevent the ship from leaving or entering ports.

While dockworkers in Osaka were receiving the shipment of fin whale meat, officials near Taiji—the site of the country’s infamous dolphin drives and hunts—were arresting Ric O’Barry, subject of the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, which focused international attention on the controversial hunt.

O’Barry, the founder of the Dolphin Project, was arrested for not presenting his passport to officials on Aug. 31, the day before the six-month hunting season opens.

Barry’s son, Lincoln O’Barry, said in a phone interview that Japanese journalists most likely alerted the police of his father's whereabouts after they saw the 75-year-old eating dinner at a restaurant near Taiji.

“The journalists most likely saw him, phoned the police, and told him he was drunk driving—trying to create a story,” Lincoln O’Barry said. “When they found him completely sober, they decided to detain him, since he couldn’t find his passport right away.”

A local police spokesperson in Shingu told Agence France-Presse that a report came in that O’Barry was drinking alcohol and driving, so officers were dispatched to find him and check his breath. “He smelled like alcohol, but the reading on the (breathalyzer) was not high,” the spokesperson said.

O’Barry’s passport was found in his glove box but not before the onetime trainer of Flipper the dolphin spent a night in jail.

“My dad wasn’t drunk,” Lincoln O’Barry said. “This was a circus from the get-go.”

The charges were dropped, and after his release, Ric O’Barry and the rest of the Dolphin Project team returned to Taiji to monitor the cove and continue raising awareness about the hunts they’ve been working for 13 years to shut down.

“Ric didn't miss any protests because the winds were too high for the killing boats to go out,” said Louie Psihoyos, director of The Cove and executive director of the Ocean Preservation Society.

Hundreds of dolphins every year are driven by boats into the cove, where they are either killed for their meat or sold to marine aquariums around the world for six-figure sums.

As many as half of the captive dolphins in Japanese aquarium facilities have been captured through Taiji dolphin drives—a practice the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums banned earlier this year.

“With the JAZA decision, the dolphin hunters have fewer avenues to sell these dolphins locally, and that’s a good thing,” Lincoln O'Barry said. “They are still selling them overseas to aquariums and facilities in China, so our next step is to pressure the airlines, who are transporting these animals.”
http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/09/01/whaling-ship-iceland-japan-new-arctic-route?cmpid=tpanimals-eml-2015-09-05-mammoth

Endangered Orcas Welcome Yet Another Baby!
Alicia Graef
Sep 10, 2015

In more good news for endangered orcas living in the Pacific Northwest, yet another calf has just been spotted marking the fifth birth in just nine months.

Despite years of endangered species protection in both the U.S. and Canada, the future of these orcas — otherwise known as the southern resident killer whales who live in three distinct pods (J,K and L) — has continued to hang in the balance.

They’ve experienced some major losses this year, including the tragic death of a pregnant female, but the latest additions and the most recent sighting have raised even more hope that they may still be able to make a comeback.

According to the Pacific Whale Watch Association, the latest newcomer, who has been named L122, was first spotted earlier this week among the L-pod with her first-time mother Muncher (L91) near Sooke, BC by Capt. Mark Malleson of Prince of Whales Whale Watching and Capt. Jim Maya and Naturalist Jeanne Hyde of Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching. The sighting was later confirmed by the Center for Whale Research, which keeps an official census of these orcas.

See link for pics:
http://www.care2.com/causes/endangered-orcas-welcome-yet-another-baby.html

It had been almost three years since the last successful birth for this population, but the recent baby boom has now added a total of five new calves since December, including J50 , J51, J52, L121 and now L122.

The latest birth brings the population up to 82, not counting Lolita, who is a member of the L-pod currently being held in isolation at the Miami Seaquarium. While Lolita’s advocates are working to get her back to her home waters and her family, efforts are also underway to ensure this unique population survives.

Unfortunately, while they continue to face a barrage of threats ranging from boat traffic and noise to toxic pollutants, many believe that the biggest problem they now face is a lack of Chinook salmon, which is their main food source.

Following the latest sighting, Monika Wieland, Executive Director of the Orca Behavior Institute, joined the excitement, but also brought up a sobering reminder about the seriousness of their situation, writing in a statement:

In May of 2015 NOAA featured the Southern Resident Killer Whales as one of eight “Species in the Spotlight,” a report to Congress that identifies listed species at the greatest risk for extinction in the near future. The reality is these little ones will only survive and thrive if the biggest issue facing the Southern Residents is addressed, and soon. Without an increase in abundance of their primary prey, Chinook salmon, it is unlikely this population of whales is going to recover.

Now their advocates are pushing for the removal of dams on the Snake River in Washington and Klamath River in Oregon and Northern California, which will hopefully help keep both of these endangered species from disappearing.

“One of the biggest actions that could be taken to recover Pacific Northwest salmon is to breach the four Lower Snake River dams. These dams are widely recognized as no longer serving their intended purpose and as being costly both in terms of taxpayer dollars and their negative impacts on wild salmon,” said Wieland.

For more info on how to help, check out the Orca Salmon Alliance, Southern Resident Killer Whale Chinook Salmon Initiative, Orca Network, Center for Whale Research and Whale and Dolphin Conservation’s Don’t Let Orcas Be Dammed campaign.

Cholita the Abused Circus Bear Enjoys Her First Steps to Freedom
Alicia Graef
May 8, 2015

Just a few weeks after we heard about the heartbreaking plight of Cholita, an abused circus bear in Peru who desperately needed a new home, her rescuers have successfully brought her to safety and are giving her the love and care she deserves.

Cholita, who was nicknamed the real-life Paddington bear, is an endangered Andean bear, but it’s hard to tell by looking at her.

Images and video of Cholita previously taken by Animal Defenders International (ADI), the organization behind the effort to bring her to safety, are heartbreaking and tell quite a story about her abusive past in entertainment.

Her fingers had been cut off to remove her claws and her teeth were smashed to leave her unable to defend herself, according to ADI. She should be covered in thick fur, but her body is bald as a result of alopecia, which her rescuers believe was caused by stress.

She had been confiscated by authorities and placed in a zoo until a permanent home could be found for her, but there was nowhere for her to go in Peru. ADI heard about her during a rescue it was participating in at a nearby circus and stepped in to save her.

They took custody of her from the zoo and after a two-day journey traveling in her former circus cage to ADI’s rescue center in Lima, Cholita is finally getting to enjoy some of the simple comforts that were denied to her for so long.

According to ADI, for the first time in her life she’s been able to make nests, enjoy good food and play in a bath.

“Cholita has taken her first steps to freedom and is clearly enjoying herself at the ADI rescue centre, making cosy deep straw nests and eating her favourite foods, especially grapes.” said ADI President Jan Creamer. “She is elderly and quite frail so we are keeping her under close observation to monitor her health. With the public’s continuing and heartfelt response we can give this sweet bear the brighter future she deserves.”

See video:
http://www.care2.com/causes/cholita-the-abused-circus-bear-enjoys-her-first-steps-to-freedom.html?TAP=1660

While she’s now safe, she’s only part of the way through her journey to her forever home at a sanctuary.

Following Peru’s ban on wild animals in circuses, ADI has rescued nearly 80 animals in a months-long mission dubbed Operation Spirit of Freedom. Last week, 39 monkeys, coati mundis and kinkajous saved during the operation were finally released into their new sanctuary home in the Amazon rainforest.

The next step of the operation involves transporting Cholita, along with 33 lions and a tiger, on a flight to their new home at the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado next month where they will all live out their days free from their past lives.

As we continue to oppose the use of wild animals in entertainment, more and more countries are taking a stand against their abuse by banning them from circuses. Help wild animals in the U.S. have a future like this by signing and sharing the petition urging Congress to take action on their behalf by banning them here too.

See link to sign petition.
http://www.care2.com/causes/cholita-the-abused-circus-bear-enjoys-her-first-steps-to-freedom.html?TAP=1660

For more info on Operation Spirit of Freedom, visit Animal Defenders International.
http://www.ad-international.org/adi_home/

After 17 Years in Captivity, Lab Chimp Finds Freedom and a New Baby Doll

Natalia Lima
Sep 10, 2015

http://www.care2.com/causes/after-17-years-in-captivity-lab-chimp-finds-freedom-and-a-new-baby-doll.html

If there was ever any doubt that chimpanzees are capable of love and affection, Henrietta is irrefutable evidence. After a life of suffering and abuse, this retired chimpanzee at Save The Chimps sanctuary found peace and companionship in an unlikely source: a doll she treats as her own child.

“We received a donation of toys, and among them was a very small human-like stuffed baby doll,” says the Save The Chimps website about the unusual connection. “Henrietta doesn’t often pay attention to stuffed animals; she prefers lots and lots of blankets to weave elaborate nests instead. But for Henri, this toy was different; since she first spotted it, she has not let it out of her sight.”

Perhaps Henri felt an urge to protect someone as she never was protected. The now 48-year-old chimp was taken from Africa still young to be used for medical research. She was imprisoned for 17 years in a small cage in a dark and damp hallway called ‘The Dungeon.” She only left to be experimented on and never got a chance to play, socialize or just be a chimp.

Still, her ability to love was intact. She never had a baby of her own but to her doll she acts like a mother.

“She grooms and kisses it, and even appears to try to nurse it,” explains Save The Chimps. “She also plays with her doll in the same way many chimp mothers play with their infants: lying on her back, lifting her baby up with her hands and feet, and bouncing or jiggling the doll.”

Playing house makes Henri happy and that is something she earned the right to be after so many years in captivity.

Today over 1,700 chimps like Henrietta remain in laboratories in the United States in the name of research that could be done without them. The tests done on them are cruel but they are perfectly legal.

Despite examples like Henri that show these animals have an exceptional ability to connect emotionally with others, once in a lab they’re not treated as individuals, they’re assigned a number. They’re kept mostly in solitary confinement, can’t see the sunlight and are subjected to painful and traumatizing tests.

“Animals are subjected to invasive procedures, which can include surgeries, traumatic injuries, burns, force-feeding, blood draws, biopsies, food, water, and social deprivation, dart gun sedation, prolonged restraint, behavioral and environmental manipulations, viral and bacterial infections, and exposure to toxic drugs and chemicals,” explains the website for the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS), an organization dedicated to ending the use of animals in research.

Ethical concerns aside, the use of animals in medical research has proven to be ineffective because shockingly we’re not animals. We don’t share the same DNA or biology and therefore our bodies respond differently to drugs or viruses than animals do. In AIDS research, for example, primates “don’t develop AIDS when infected with HIV” and an Alzheimer’s vaccine “was well-tolerated in monkeys, but caused strokes and inflammation of the central nervous system in humans.”

Animal testing becomes then not only cruel but a waste of resources and time.

Luckily science has come a long way and today there are much more effective alternatives to animal testing. Microchips that have human cell tissue in them and perfectly mimic a human body’s reaction to a substance or condition are already in use in labs across the country. At Vanderbilt University a “microbrain reactor” is used for tracking how certain drugs affect the brain in a completely cruelty-free manner. The technology is there but funders of medical research need to be urged to use them.

In July 2015 it seemed primates were very close to being freed from labs everywhere as the organization The Non Human Rights Project fought in court for two chimps, Hercules and Leo, to be recognized as ‘non-human persons’ and granted the right to freedom from Stony Brook University where they were used for medical research. The judge acknowledged that the animals are clearly smart and sentient beings but ruled against them. Shortly after the decision, the University announced it would retire the two chimps to a sanctuary.

Which brings us back to Henrietta and her doll. She may have found in her old age a sanctuary both literal and figurative and a channel for all the love she never got in her life. So did Hercules and Leo eventually. But if medical research hadn’t abused her (and many others like her), she could have had so much more than a happy ending, she could have had a happy life. Imagine that…

Fishing Line Puts Endangered Blue Whale’s Life in Danger
Laura Goldman
Sep 13, 2015

http://www.care2.com/causes/fishing-line-puts-endangered-blue-whales-life-in-danger.html

People on a whale-watching cruise off the coast of Palos Verdes, Calif., on Sept. 4 were probably thrilled when they spotted an 80-foot-long blue whale – the largest animal that has ever existed on earth.

But their excitement quickly turned into concern when they saw the whale was towing a 400-foot-long fishing line and a crab pot.

“The whale just wasn’t acting right,” Harbor Breeze Cruises Capt. Danny Salas told CBS News. “It looked like it was a little tired. Swimming extremely slow.”

The U.S. Coast Guard and other rescue teams were summoned, but by nightfall they were unable to disentangle the fishing line. While they had freed other types of whales before, it was the first time any of the rescuers had to deal with a blue whale.

“We would have loved to cut it all off and free the whale, but sometimes things are impossible and it endangers the rescuers as we’re doing it,” Peter Wallerstein, director of Marine Animal Rescue, told CBS News. “It could ram us, it could hit us with its tail, it could do some major damage. It’s a really, really dangerous situation.”

They attached a red buoy to the fishing line to make the blue whale easier to spot. They did not, however, attach a 50-pound tracking device since it would have only added to the extra weight the whale was already towing.

Boaters and pilots were asked to keep an eye out for the blue whale over Labor Day weekend, but it disappeared until Monday, when it was spotted in Mexico, more than 100 miles south of where it was first discovered three days before.

“Rescuers in Mexico say they are too far from the last sighting to head out,” the Associated Press reported Sept. 8.

Hopefully the elusive blue whale will be spotted again and freed from its burden soon. The weight of the fishing line could eventually exhaust it and cause it to drown.

Blue whales are an endangered species – there are believed to be only about 10,000 still in existence.

After they nearly became extinct, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned the hunting of blue whales in 1966 and gave them worldwide protection. They’re also protected in the U.S. by the Marine Animal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act, which both make it illegal for anyone to kill, hunt, injure or harass them. Two years ago, a new California law was enacted that moved shipping lanes to prevent whales from being struck by large container ships.

But what’s being done to prevent whales from becoming entangled in fishing lines? It’s a growing problem on the Pacific Coast, according to a National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) report published earlier this year.

Only five entanglements of humpback, gray and other whales were reported in 2005. In 2014, more than 30 were reported. At least 26 have already been reported this year, including the blue whale.

Most entanglements, like that of the blue whale, are caused by Dungeness crab fishing gear. Whales caught in lobster, spot prawn gear and gillnets have also been reported.

“The industry has shown a willingness to address and minimize these sorts of issues,” Rachelle Fisher, who administrates a California task force comprised of commercial fishermen, told Reuters in April. She said during the past few years the commercial fishing industry has been attempting to lessen the harm to whales by restricting the amount of gear in the water, among other measures.

Based on the troubling statistics, even stronger measures need to be taken. Five months ago, a coalition of three conservation groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and Oceana — sent a 14-page letter to California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife officials, urging the implementation of entanglement-prevention measures such as using sinking fishing lines instead of ones that float on the ocean’s surface; minimizing the line’s slack between the crab pot and the buoy; and retrieving lost fishing gear.

On Aug. 20 – just two weeks before the blue whale was spotted – a public meeting hosted by representatives from the Ocean Protection Council, California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and NOAA Fisheries was held in Oakland to discuss these measures and other ways to reduce the risk of entanglements.

A working group is in the process of being created “to further discuss and develop short-term strategies and begin exploring long-term options for reducing the risk of whale entanglements in California Dungeness crab fishing gear,” according to the meeting’s hosts.

This seems like a step in the right direction, although it’s already September and the Dungeness crab fishing season is about to begin. The sooner those short-term strategies can be implemented, the better.

In the meantime, should you happen to see the blue whale with a red buoy – or any other whale entangled in fishing line off the West Coast – call the Whale Entanglement Team (WET) hotline at 877-SOS-WHALE (877-767-9425).

Anguished Dolphin’s Heartbreaking Plea for Help Caught on Video

Jessica Ramos
Sep 15, 2015

The annual Taiji dolphin hunt has started, and activists are there to document the six-month ordeal. But a recent video captured by Ric O’Barry communicates what the facts and figures cannot — it’s one dolphin’s heartbreaking plea.

Ric O’Barry, who went from a renowned captivity dolphin trainer to the founder and director of the Dolphin Project, and his fellow activists watched as 12 Risso’s dolphins fought for their lives. They didn’t win this fight. Seven boats were working against the pod for three hours. Eventually the hunters, who O’Barry calls 50-100 of “the cruelest men in the world,” managed to seal them off from their ocean home. Still exhausted and panicked, the pod desperately searched for freedom by swimming under the nets and toward the beach.

While one got caught in the net, some of the dolphins swam toward O’Barry and his team of activists who were documenting the gut-wrenching ordeal from the shoreline. One dolphin did the unthinkable next. It was one of the hardest scenes for O’Barry to witness in his 13 years of documenting the cruel dolphin slaughter. In a state of shock, the poor dolphin began to bang his head and body against the rocks, cutting up his skin.

O’Barry described the scene as “extremely cruel,” and called the hunters over to help. Eventually the hunters brought him in the water, but it may have been too late. As O’Barry mentions, the dolphin had already “given up.”

In the video, O’Barry blames the captivity industry (because a captive dolphin is worth thousands more than a dead one), the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) for the death. He emphasizes that the Taiji dolphin slaughter isn’t Japanese tradition and the Japanese people aren’t to blame.

It’s clear that O’Barry himself was cut up inside. He says: “This was the closest I have ever come to jumping in the water.” You can hear his internal conflict throughout the video. He knows that interfering will surely lead to prison time, his equipment confiscated and deportation.

You can watch the video below, but please beware it’s graphic.

http://www.care2.com/causes/anguished-dolphins-heartbreaking-plea-for-help-caught-on-video.html

Source: Heartbreaking footage shows ‘hunted’ dolphin pleading for help by DolphinProject on Rumble

While each “red cove” feels like a stab in the heart, dolphin advocates are making a difference. The world is finally waking up to the barbarity of the dolphin hunts and who funds it — the captivity industry. In an earlier story, I wrote about the progress we’re already seeing according to this report:

– Season Totals, Year to Date (Sept. 1 through end of December 2014):

367 dolphins slaughtered (Risso’s dolphins, pilot whales, striped dolphins, bottlenose dolphins and one spotted dolphin). Compared to last season’s 406 slaughtered dolphins within the same time frame.
33 dolphins caught live for captivity (Spotted dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins and pilot whales). Compared to last season’s 68 caught for captivity within the same time frame.
Take Action!

We can’t forget this brave dolphin’s final plea, and we can’t forget that we’re making a difference. Keep signing and sharing petitions, spreading the word about the cetacean captivity industry that funds the slaughter and always think “blue cove.”

Success! U.S. Navy Makes Deal to Stop Using Sonar in Whale Waters

Kevin Mathews
Sep 15, 2015
http://www.care2.com/causes/success-u-s-navy-makes-deal-to-stop-using-sonar-in-whale-waters.html

While it’s understandable that the U.S. Navy makes protecting the American people its top priority, it would be nice if safeguarding the well-being of marine mammals was somewhere on its list of priorities as well. For years, the Navy has sacrificed the health and lives of beaked whales by conducting dangerous sonar experiments underwater. Now, with help from a popular Care2 petition, the Navy has agreed to halt sonar expeditions in common whale habitats and feeding areas.

When dozens of beaked whales washed ashore dead, over 230,000 concerned Care2 community members signed the petition Tell the Navy and NMFS to Save Whales from Sonar. This massive public pressure, including multiple lawsuits filed by environmental groups, has finally prompted the Navy to work out a deal that should protect the safety of vulnerable whales and dolphins alike.

Some whales are literally blown up by the Navy’s experimental explosions. Others’ suffering is prolonged since whales are essentially tortured by sonar noises, which causes anxiety and brain bleeding. Many whales go deaf due the loud noises, making life untenable since they rely on sound to navigate. Of the whales that don’t go deaf, frightening sonar noises cause them to flee their home waters or even beach themselves in an attempt to escape.

To fix these problems, the Navy’s main concession is to longer treat the entirety of the ocean as its own war-prep playground. Until recently, the Navy has unnecessarily tested its sonar technology in all corners of the ocean, leaving large marine animals with no place to escape. Per this new deal, however, the Navy will no longer conduct sonar tests in known whale habitats.

While that alone will not completely rule out the possibility of further marine mammal fatalities, future deaths will be monitored and promptly reviewed by the National Marine Fisheries Service to see whether further modifications ought to be made. Without this deal, by its own estimates, the Navy expected to conduct 10 million sonar experiments between 2013 and 2018 that would have damaging effects on the nearby whale and dolphin populations.

“Recognizing our environmental responsibilities, the Navy has been and will continue to be good environmental stewards as we prepare and conduct missions in support of our national security,” said Lieutenant Commander Matt Knight.

Congratulations to the Care2 community for lending your voices to this cause. By raising awareness of the damage the Navy was inconsiderately creating, you’ve helped to protect whales from torturous and sometimes fatal military experimentation.