Researchers have found that illegal hunting of protected species in Madagascar could cause an urgent threat to the country’s globally important biodiversity.
The scientists said that hunting of protected species in eastern Madagascar is increasing due to rapid social change.
“Our observations suggest that young men have more available cash and leisure time due to the transition from subsistence farming to panning for gold, and they spend more time in local bars, eating fried meat snacks with their drinks,” Julie Razafimanahaka from Madagasikara Voakajy, said in a press release.
Appetites for meats have increased, and traditional taboos protecting species like lemurs are becoming less powerful in the country.
“Lemur hunting appears to have increased to supply this new market. The power of the taboo is declining, under pressures of globalization and human mobility,” said Razafimanahaka.
Dr. Julia Jones of Bangor University, the study author, said that the country’s wildlife is an important asset to Madagascar’s future.
“They are worth much more to the economy alive than as meat. I sincerely hope Madagascar is able to tackle this problem,” Jones said in a press release.
The team found that people prefer to eat domestic meats like chicken and pork over bushmeat species like lemur, but in some cases they resort to eating wildlife because of the high cost of domestic alternatives.
“Improving access to alternatives would help,” Richard Jenkins of Bangor University, one of the authors of the study, said in a press release. “If domestic meats could be farmed more reliably and were therefore cheaper, the pressure on wild species may be reduced. More effort is needed to improve domestic animal husbandry methods and disease control in rainforest areas.”
Despite the country’s wildlife laws, they can be misunderstood and also go unenforced in many areas.
The researchers worked with the government of Madagascar on an education campaign to help people learn more about the law and to ensure they understand how vulnerable the lemurs are to hunting.
The research was published in the December 14 issue of PLoS ONE.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112441908/madagascar-wildlife-facing-threat-of-illegal-hunting
Showing posts with label illegal hunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illegal hunting. Show all posts
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Millions of birds migrating to Spain face painful deaths in glue-filled traps
Up to four million migrating birds will be killed by illegal Spanish hunters this year, with many dying a slow, sticky death in traps that literally glue the animals to the ground, according to campaigners.
Thrushes flying south for a warm Mediterranean winter this week will, as usual, run a gauntlet of illegal hunters who kill some two million birds in their peak hunting season: the six late autumn weeks in which Spanish skies fill with migrating birds.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of hunters in Castellón, eastern Spain, and neighbouring areas will have already set their so-called parany traps – copses filled with glue-covered twigs and spikes.
Most of the illegally trapped birds will end up as tapas in Spanish bars, fried tidbits that locals claim are part of a cultural heritage stretching back to Roman times. "There are pictures of parany traps in the mosaics of Pompeii," said Miguel Angel Bayarri of the trappers' Apaval association. "This is a tradition that has existed for centuries and that we will continue to fight for."
Hunting of song and mistle thrushes and their cousin the redwing is not illegal, but the methods used are, despite attempts by legislators to introduce exceptions.
Campaigners say the painful deaths suffered by the birds, whose wings are glued together before their necks are broken or their heads squashed, contravene European wildlife laws.
"There have been sentences against this in the courts in Madrid and at the European court in Luxembourg," said Mario Giménez, head of SEO/Birdlife in the eastern region of Valencia.
Up to two of every five birds that fall into the parany traps will not be thrushes. Hundreds of thousands of other migrating insectivores such as robins, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and black redstarts will die. Local birds, including warblers and owls, also fall prey to the parany trick.
"That only happens if the trap is badly operated," said Bayarri. "Our members only catch thrushes. This is just banning for banning's sake."
But Giménez said few parany operators went through the laborious process of cleaning glue off birds that may not be hunted.
"Even those cleaned up with dissolvent often don't survive," he said.
Campaigners say it is time politicians, whose attempts at legalising the traps in Valencia's regional parliament have been stymied by Spain's higher courts, publicly disavow a tradition that contravenes EU law. But protecting local traditions wins votes in rural areas where setting and emptying traps may also involve evenings or weekends of food, drink and partying.
Hunting continues, even though Apaval has this year asked its members not to set the traps, where recordings of birdsong are used to lure passing birds into thickets of trees. Unable to use their glued wings, the birds fall to the ground and are killed by hand.
Read on ...
Thrushes flying south for a warm Mediterranean winter this week will, as usual, run a gauntlet of illegal hunters who kill some two million birds in their peak hunting season: the six late autumn weeks in which Spanish skies fill with migrating birds.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of hunters in Castellón, eastern Spain, and neighbouring areas will have already set their so-called parany traps – copses filled with glue-covered twigs and spikes.
Most of the illegally trapped birds will end up as tapas in Spanish bars, fried tidbits that locals claim are part of a cultural heritage stretching back to Roman times. "There are pictures of parany traps in the mosaics of Pompeii," said Miguel Angel Bayarri of the trappers' Apaval association. "This is a tradition that has existed for centuries and that we will continue to fight for."
Hunting of song and mistle thrushes and their cousin the redwing is not illegal, but the methods used are, despite attempts by legislators to introduce exceptions.
Campaigners say the painful deaths suffered by the birds, whose wings are glued together before their necks are broken or their heads squashed, contravene European wildlife laws.
"There have been sentences against this in the courts in Madrid and at the European court in Luxembourg," said Mario Giménez, head of SEO/Birdlife in the eastern region of Valencia.
Up to two of every five birds that fall into the parany traps will not be thrushes. Hundreds of thousands of other migrating insectivores such as robins, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and black redstarts will die. Local birds, including warblers and owls, also fall prey to the parany trick.
"That only happens if the trap is badly operated," said Bayarri. "Our members only catch thrushes. This is just banning for banning's sake."
But Giménez said few parany operators went through the laborious process of cleaning glue off birds that may not be hunted.
"Even those cleaned up with dissolvent often don't survive," he said.
Campaigners say it is time politicians, whose attempts at legalising the traps in Valencia's regional parliament have been stymied by Spain's higher courts, publicly disavow a tradition that contravenes EU law. But protecting local traditions wins votes in rural areas where setting and emptying traps may also involve evenings or weekends of food, drink and partying.
Hunting continues, even though Apaval has this year asked its members not to set the traps, where recordings of birdsong are used to lure passing birds into thickets of trees. Unable to use their glued wings, the birds fall to the ground and are killed by hand.
Read on ...
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Iceland exports 131 tonnes whale meat, despite sanction threat
The Icelandic killing of Fin whales is illegal'
September 2011: More than 100 tonnes of whale products from Iceland's endangered Fin whales was exported in July - despite the pending threat of US trade sanctions.
America had warned Iceland it was considering the sanctions because it had violated a global ban on commercial whaling - but this has failed to prevent the export of a further 133 metric tonnes of whale meat.
The meat, worth more than $1.2million was exported to Japan in July.
Only US sanctions will stop this crime‘There is a line in the sand that Iceland has just crossed,' said Allan Thornton, president of America's Environmental Investigation Agency.
‘The Icelandic killing of Fin whales is illegal and its illegal export of whale meat will lead to further illegal killing of Fin whales. Only US sanctions against fish imports by the seafood company linked to Iceland's whaling company will stop this environmental crime.'
Since 2006, 280 endangered Fin whales, the second largest animal on the planet, have been killed by the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur, and earlier this year America confirmed that Iceland was undermining the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by permitting commercial whaling and international trade in endangered Fin whale meat.
Iceland has exported almost 1400 metric tonnes of Fin whale meat and blubber to Japan , worth around $18 million, since it began killing Fin whales.
Meat shipped to Japan, Norway and LatviaAs well as the shipments of whale meat and blubber to Japan, Iceland has exported whale products including whale oil to Norway, the Faroes Islands and Latvia, despite a ban on such international trade in products of great whale species by the Convention on International trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Conservationists are now pressing for action. Sue Fisher, policy director for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said: ‘Not only is Iceland abusing two international conservation agreements, it is setting Fin whale quotas that are three times higher than sustainable levels according to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the world's foremost authority on whale science.
‘American citizens overwhelmingly oppose commercial whaling, and nothing less than economic sanctions will fulfill President Obama's promise to strengthen the commercial ban on whale hunting.'
Susan Millward, executive director of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) said: ‘This recent export demonstrates the urgent need for President Obama to immediately impose economic measures including trade sanctions against Iceland.'
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/iceland-sanctions.html
September 2011: More than 100 tonnes of whale products from Iceland's endangered Fin whales was exported in July - despite the pending threat of US trade sanctions.
America had warned Iceland it was considering the sanctions because it had violated a global ban on commercial whaling - but this has failed to prevent the export of a further 133 metric tonnes of whale meat.
The meat, worth more than $1.2million was exported to Japan in July.
Only US sanctions will stop this crime‘There is a line in the sand that Iceland has just crossed,' said Allan Thornton, president of America's Environmental Investigation Agency.
‘The Icelandic killing of Fin whales is illegal and its illegal export of whale meat will lead to further illegal killing of Fin whales. Only US sanctions against fish imports by the seafood company linked to Iceland's whaling company will stop this environmental crime.'
Since 2006, 280 endangered Fin whales, the second largest animal on the planet, have been killed by the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur, and earlier this year America confirmed that Iceland was undermining the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by permitting commercial whaling and international trade in endangered Fin whale meat.
Iceland has exported almost 1400 metric tonnes of Fin whale meat and blubber to Japan , worth around $18 million, since it began killing Fin whales.
Meat shipped to Japan, Norway and LatviaAs well as the shipments of whale meat and blubber to Japan, Iceland has exported whale products including whale oil to Norway, the Faroes Islands and Latvia, despite a ban on such international trade in products of great whale species by the Convention on International trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Conservationists are now pressing for action. Sue Fisher, policy director for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said: ‘Not only is Iceland abusing two international conservation agreements, it is setting Fin whale quotas that are three times higher than sustainable levels according to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the world's foremost authority on whale science.
‘American citizens overwhelmingly oppose commercial whaling, and nothing less than economic sanctions will fulfill President Obama's promise to strengthen the commercial ban on whale hunting.'
Susan Millward, executive director of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) said: ‘This recent export demonstrates the urgent need for President Obama to immediately impose economic measures including trade sanctions against Iceland.'
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/iceland-sanctions.html
Friday, July 29, 2011
Illegal Animal Trade: Eskimo Hunters Plead Guilty
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Eskimo hunters on an island in the Bering Sea were offered not only cash but firearms, ammunition, marijuana, cigarettes and snow machines for walrus ivory tusks and polar bear hides that were illegally sold, according to federal prosecutors.
When investigators totaled the take, the marine mammal peddling ring was responsible for the illegal sale and transport of approximately 230 pounds of walrus tusks valued at about $22,000 and two polar bear hides for $2,700, not to mention the tusks, skulls, teeth, jaw bones and other animal parts found in the home of the couple charged in the case. They also sold machine guns.
"This case demonstrates that there is significant volume of illegally taken wildlife parts being transferred in violation of federal law," said Kevin Feldis, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage. "Unfortunately that world wildlife problem is an issue for Alaska."
Federal law allows Indian, Aleut or Eskimos who reside in coastal Alaska to hunt and kill walrus and polar bears without a permit for subsistence purposes. But, they can't turn around and sell the animal parts to non-Natives. They can make money by turning the parts into a Native handicraft to be sold.
In this case, the parts were sold to non-Natives in a "raw" or unaltered state.
Loretta Audrey Sternbach, a 52-year-old Eskimo with closely-cropped grey hair, pleaded guilty this week in U.S. District Court to violating several federal laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. The petite woman in prison garb with "prisoner" in large black letters on the back was asked by the judge if the facts of the case were true.
"Yes," Sternbach said.
Sternbach is the only Alaska Native of the three. Her two co-conspirators, Jesse Joseph LeBoeuf and Richard Blake Weshenfelder, have already acknowledged their guilt.
LeBoeuf reached a plea agreement calling for nine years in prison. Sternbach and Weshenfelder have no such agreements but are expected to get less time. Violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits the illegal sale of wildlife, can carry a $250,000 fine.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/24/illegal-animal-trade-eskimo_n_908076.html?ir=Weird News
When investigators totaled the take, the marine mammal peddling ring was responsible for the illegal sale and transport of approximately 230 pounds of walrus tusks valued at about $22,000 and two polar bear hides for $2,700, not to mention the tusks, skulls, teeth, jaw bones and other animal parts found in the home of the couple charged in the case. They also sold machine guns.
"This case demonstrates that there is significant volume of illegally taken wildlife parts being transferred in violation of federal law," said Kevin Feldis, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage. "Unfortunately that world wildlife problem is an issue for Alaska."
Federal law allows Indian, Aleut or Eskimos who reside in coastal Alaska to hunt and kill walrus and polar bears without a permit for subsistence purposes. But, they can't turn around and sell the animal parts to non-Natives. They can make money by turning the parts into a Native handicraft to be sold.
In this case, the parts were sold to non-Natives in a "raw" or unaltered state.
Loretta Audrey Sternbach, a 52-year-old Eskimo with closely-cropped grey hair, pleaded guilty this week in U.S. District Court to violating several federal laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. The petite woman in prison garb with "prisoner" in large black letters on the back was asked by the judge if the facts of the case were true.
"Yes," Sternbach said.
Sternbach is the only Alaska Native of the three. Her two co-conspirators, Jesse Joseph LeBoeuf and Richard Blake Weshenfelder, have already acknowledged their guilt.
LeBoeuf reached a plea agreement calling for nine years in prison. Sternbach and Weshenfelder have no such agreements but are expected to get less time. Violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits the illegal sale of wildlife, can carry a $250,000 fine.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/24/illegal-animal-trade-eskimo_n_908076.html?ir=Weird News
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monster-gator killers face charges of illegal hunting
Dallas attorney Levi McCathern II is likely not smiling so widely now.
McCathern, 42, a former Baptist minister whose website says he's represented Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in court, became something of a celebrity in his own right after claiming that he shot a 14-foot, 880-pound alligator on his first reptile hunt June 11.
Photos of him posing next to the beast along the Trinity River in Leon County were flashed on television, carried by newspapers and bounced around the Internet.
Turns out the alligator was actually 13 feet 1 inch and was no record as asserted.
Worse, arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for McCathern and his three guides for illegally hunting the big gator and an 8-footer on private property, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials said.
The four were expected to turn themselves in Wednesday at the Leon County Sheriff's Department in Centerville, about 145 miles southeast of Fort Worth, department spokesman Mike Cox said in a news release.
However, McCathern's attorney said that he was out of state on a scheduled family vacation and that the Leon County attorney has been informed. The attorney, George Milner III of Dallas, said his client will fight the charge, saying he understood that the guides had permission to be on the land to hunt.
"I can tell you he will be acquitted," Milner said.
Moreover, McCathern performed a public service, his lawyer asserted.
"As big as this alligator was, they should have given him a medal," Milner said.
One of the guides, Steve Barclay, insisted in a brief telephone interview that the landowner had given his OK.
"We did in fact have permission to kill alligators on that land," Barclay said.
Taking wildlife without a landowner's consent is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $4,000, a one-year jail sentence or both. The department will also seek more than $5,000 in restitution for the two alligators, the release said.
Both gators have been seized by authorities.
Game wardens in Leon and Houston counties began the investigation when an unidentified property owner reported that a large alligator had been killed without his permission on his land on the Trinity River. A smaller gator was taken on his property the day before.
McCathern said in at least one interview that his 14-year-old son had killed an alligator the day before he did. Cox said that earlier shooting is still under investigation.
The lawyer's guides were identified by Parks and Wildlife as Barclay, 47; Sam Lovell, 56; and Ryan Burton, 21. Barclay and Lovell operate a Kennard-based hunting-guide service called the Gar Guys.
It's not clear whether McCathern will represent himself on the misdemeanor charge.
His website boasts that he "has enjoyed unusual success in the historically more liberal courts of the northern and eastern parts of Texas. ... His strength is the same in and out of the courtroom -- relating to all people, from janitors to CEOs, on their level."
It's not the first time that Barclay, Lovell and a client faced an alligator-hunting misdemeanor in Leon County.
In 2007, a charge over the shooting of a 13-foot gator was dismissed "for lack of evidence," Leon County Attorney Jim Witt told Texas Fish & Game magazine. Witt is still the county attorney and handles such misdemeanor case.
By Barry Shlachter
bshlachter@star-telegram.com
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07/20/3235450/monster-gator-killers-face-charges.html
McCathern, 42, a former Baptist minister whose website says he's represented Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in court, became something of a celebrity in his own right after claiming that he shot a 14-foot, 880-pound alligator on his first reptile hunt June 11.
Photos of him posing next to the beast along the Trinity River in Leon County were flashed on television, carried by newspapers and bounced around the Internet.
Turns out the alligator was actually 13 feet 1 inch and was no record as asserted.
Worse, arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for McCathern and his three guides for illegally hunting the big gator and an 8-footer on private property, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials said.
The four were expected to turn themselves in Wednesday at the Leon County Sheriff's Department in Centerville, about 145 miles southeast of Fort Worth, department spokesman Mike Cox said in a news release.
However, McCathern's attorney said that he was out of state on a scheduled family vacation and that the Leon County attorney has been informed. The attorney, George Milner III of Dallas, said his client will fight the charge, saying he understood that the guides had permission to be on the land to hunt.
"I can tell you he will be acquitted," Milner said.
Moreover, McCathern performed a public service, his lawyer asserted.
"As big as this alligator was, they should have given him a medal," Milner said.
One of the guides, Steve Barclay, insisted in a brief telephone interview that the landowner had given his OK.
"We did in fact have permission to kill alligators on that land," Barclay said.
Taking wildlife without a landowner's consent is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $4,000, a one-year jail sentence or both. The department will also seek more than $5,000 in restitution for the two alligators, the release said.
Both gators have been seized by authorities.
Game wardens in Leon and Houston counties began the investigation when an unidentified property owner reported that a large alligator had been killed without his permission on his land on the Trinity River. A smaller gator was taken on his property the day before.
McCathern said in at least one interview that his 14-year-old son had killed an alligator the day before he did. Cox said that earlier shooting is still under investigation.
The lawyer's guides were identified by Parks and Wildlife as Barclay, 47; Sam Lovell, 56; and Ryan Burton, 21. Barclay and Lovell operate a Kennard-based hunting-guide service called the Gar Guys.
It's not clear whether McCathern will represent himself on the misdemeanor charge.
His website boasts that he "has enjoyed unusual success in the historically more liberal courts of the northern and eastern parts of Texas. ... His strength is the same in and out of the courtroom -- relating to all people, from janitors to CEOs, on their level."
It's not the first time that Barclay, Lovell and a client faced an alligator-hunting misdemeanor in Leon County.
In 2007, a charge over the shooting of a 13-foot gator was dismissed "for lack of evidence," Leon County Attorney Jim Witt told Texas Fish & Game magazine. Witt is still the county attorney and handles such misdemeanor case.
By Barry Shlachter
bshlachter@star-telegram.com
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07/20/3235450/monster-gator-killers-face-charges.html
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