Groups Aim to Shut Down Captive Elk-Ranching Industry
Mail Tribune
04 Jan 2007
Mark Freeman
The unlikely bedfellows of animal-rights and hunting groups again are taking a collective run at closing Oregon's captive elk-ranching industry over fears the exotic herds threaten wild elk populations. But this time, the so-called MAD-elk Coalition has found fresh wind in its sails thanks to the misfortunes of an Idaho elk rancher whose animals escaped last summer, threatening the health and gene pool of Yellowstone's storied elk. Backers say they don't want an Oregon ranch to repeat the escape of more than 100 exotic elk in Idaho, where the state's governor has ordered the wayward animals shot before they can interbreed with native elk.
Now the coalition here has support from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in calling for the drafting of new rules that would increase fencing restrictions on the remaining 16 elk ranches in Oregon and ban any transfers of ranching licenses. That would mean current ranches would be further isolated from any contact with wild elk. Eventually, the practice of raising elk for meat and antler sales here would eventually disappear when current ranchers die or fold their businesses. "We'd like to see them out of business entirely because the threat to wildlife is so high," says Jan Wilson, a Eugene attorney and member of the coalition, which includes the Humane Society of the United States as well as the Oregon Hunters Association and several preservation groups.
Fight Against Devil Disease Needs Funding, Professor Says
ABC News Online
04 Jan 2007
The head of Tasmania's research effort into the tasmanian devil facial tumour disease says he would like to establish several disease-free populations of the animal. Professor Hamish McCallum recently started work as the senior scientist with the University of Tasmania's devil disease research program. He says the disease is the biggest problem facing Australia's wildlife and the effort to combat it will need ongoing funding from the state and federal governments.
Professor McCallum says establishing a disease-free population on the Tasman peninsula is a good start, but more could be done. "Really to do that sort of thing properly you need to be trying it in several different areas with appropriate controls, where you're not manipulating things," he said. "To do that you'd be looking at probably a couple of million dollars a year."
Hotspots of Mercury Contamination Identified in Eastern North America: Harmful Levels of Neurotoxin Are Detected in Fish and Birds
EurekAlert.org
03 Jan 2007
A US and Canadian research team surveying mercury contamination in fish and birds in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has identified five "hotspots" where concentrations of the element exceed those established for human or wildlife health. The team focused on levels of the potent neurotoxin in yellow perch and common loons, but it also took into account contamination in other fish, birds, and mammals. In addition to these hotspots in New England, New York, and Nova Scotia, the researchers found nine "areas of concern" in these regions and in Quebec and New Brunswick. Findings from the team's analysis are summarized in the January 2007 issue of BioScience.
The hotspots are believed to result from complex processes that move atmospherically released mercury through the environment, and from site-specific characteristics such as the high sensitivity of wetlands and forested areas to mercury inputs. Local sources of mercury are also significant. Although mercury is not directly harmful at ambient levels, it is concentrated up to a millionfold and chemically modified in aquatic food chains, resulting in dangerous levels of methylmercury in some wildlife species. Fish consumption advisories responding to mercury contamination exist in all the states and provinces included in the study, and loons are adversely affected by mercury levels they experience.
Japanese Grocery Chain Drops Dolphin Meat
Indybay.org
03 Jan 2007
Mat Thomas
Country's Largest Supermarket Corporation Says it May Be Unsafe to Eat
Every year from October through March in small towns along the Japanese coast, fishermen perpetrate the largest massacre of marine mammals in the world, killing more than 20,000 dolphins, porpoises and small whales in the most brutal way imaginable. They use loud noises to disorient and herd whole pods into shallow bays, then slaughter the helpless cetaceans with sharp spears and hooks. Most of them are butchered for meat that is sold in restaurants and supermarkets in Japan and other Asian countries. IDA has long been at the forefront of the international effort to end the Japanese drive fishery, teaming up with the Animal Protection Institute, One Voice, Earth Island Institute and the Elsa Nature Conservatory to conduct the Save the Taiji Dolphins campaign ( http://www.SaveJapanDolphins.org ).
On November 1st, 2006 the Japan Times ran a front-page story about the dangerous levels of mercury found in the dolphin meat sold in supermarkets. The article cited a three-year study by respected Japanese scientist Dr. Tetsuya Endo which found one sample contaminated with 26 micrograms of methyl mercury -- 87 times greater than the government's provisional permitted concentration of 0.3 micrograms per gram of flesh. Because overconsumption of methyl mercury is known to cause severe brain damage and birth defects, the researchers therefore concluded that dolphin meat is unsafe for anyone to eat. Famed dolphin advocates Richard O'Barry ( http://www.dolphinproject.org/?pageid=21299 ) and his wife Helene presented these facts recently to representatives of the Okuwa Supermarket Corporation, the largest grocery chain in Japan.
Salmonella Mississippi Infections in Tasmania: The role of Native Australian Animals and Untreated Drinking Water [online abstract only]
Epidemiology and infection. 2006 Dec;134(6):1257-65
R Ashbolt and M Kirk
What About the Ducks? An Alternative Vaccination Strategy [online abstract only]
The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 2005 Oct;78(05):301-308
D Fish
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