Exposing the Big Game

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Category Archives: Animal abuse

The Government Purged Animal Welfare Data. So This Guy Is Publishing It

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http://time.com/4673506/russ-kick-usda-animal-welfare-data/

Melissa Chan
Updated: Feb 17, 2017 6:27 AM Pacific | Originally published: Feb 16, 2017

An Arizona man who has published thousands of animal welfare documents on his website since the government purged the once-public information is pledging to keep digging up data until federal officials reverse course.

Russ Kick, a 47-year-old writer and anthologist, said he immediately sprang into action last week when the U.S. Department of Agriculture suddenly pulled from its website a slew of papers regarding animal welfare at thousands of facilities across the country. Since then, he has made public again more than 10,000 documents, and thousands more are set to hit the web soon.

“We have the right to know what’s going on,” Kick told TIME on Thursday. “The more we know about what’s going on, the better.”

For nearly a year, Kick has been running a website called thememoryhole2.org, where he has re-published information wiped from several agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. His only goal, he said, is to increase transparency and make important government documents more easily available.

Months before the Agriculture Department decided to no longer give the public access to its inspection reports and records of violations and enforcement, Kick said he had an inkling that information would soon disappear. His hunch led him to save nine years’ worth of data from the department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

“I’ve been bracing for the worst as far as transparency and secrecy because [President Donald Trump] definitely has shown that he’s not pro-transparency by any means,” Kick said. “I was just surprised that they were there because it’s sensitive stuff.”

APHIS’s website used to have a search tool that made inspection records and violations at animal facilities publicly accessible. It allowed anyone to check government regulation of how animals are treated at about 9,000 zoos, circuses, research laboratories, dog breeding operations and other facilities in the country. APHIS, which is part of the USDA, said the decision to remove that page was “based on our commitment to being transparent, remaining responsive to our stakeholders’ informational needs, and maintaining the privacy rights of individuals.”

Kick said he was “upset” by the change — a reaction echoed by many animal activists in the country. Several advocates and animal law experts who had also previously saved the APHIS documents have sent thousands of pages of data to Kirk to be published on his website. Kick said his collection is helpful when it comes to checking back on facilities that have previously come under fire for potential violations, including an Indiana wildlife refuge where tiger cubs were allegedly abused in 2015.

The public USDA reports served an important purpose, Kick said, which was shining a light on potentially deadly situations. “I can’t even read the documents I’m posting,” he said. “I tried reading them, and the things that are going on are just nightmare-stuff.”

Despite his efforts, Kick concedes his work can only go so far. Unless the government approves a Freedom of Information Act submission and hands over requested data, no new documents can come to light, only the ones he already has from previous years. “There is no easy way at this point to get access to those documents,” Kick said, adding that he will file as many FOIA requests as needed and keep up his fight until the end.

“As long as the database is offline, I’ll keep posting whatever people send me and I’ll keep trying to find more on my own,” he said.

Death Threats Prompt Move To Withhold Personal Information From Wolf Management Documents

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http://kuow.org/post/death-threats-prompt-move-withhold-personal-information-wolf-management-documents

By • FEB 2, 2017

A bill in a committee of the Washington House of Representatives would exempt some personal information relating to the state’s wolf management efforts from public disclosure.

Supporters say it will keep those who work directly with wolves safe. Opponents are concerned about the loss of transparency.

Whether you like wolves or not, the folks who come in contact with them aren’t necessarily threatened by the top carnivore, but recently, they have stopped feeling safe.

On one end of that are the people who work for the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Shortly after they started shooting wolves from the Profanity Peak pack in Northeastern Washington last summer, Donny Martorello said he decided to put his family up in a hotel.

“I’m a biologist, I’m a manager, a wolf manager,” Martorello said. “I don’t carry a gun, I’m not law enforcement, and I did sign up for the job but my family did not.”

Martorello is in charge of Washington’s wolf policy. During a hearing, he told members of the Committee on State Government, Elections and Information Technology that he and colleagues received death threats, harassing phone calls and messages.

And he said it doesn’t just happen to him and his colleagues. He said some ranchers–or “livestock producers” have reported having their photos taken and their homes stalked.

“There are producers out there that I have spoken with personally that believe that they are having interactions where wolves are attacking their livestock and they are fearful of coming to the department for reasons that we just talked about,” Martorello said.

By the 1930s there were no wolves left in Washington state. People got used to that. In 2005, the state started receiving reliable reports of their return. Under a new policy implemented last year, managers can lethally remove wolves after four confirmed reports of wolf-killed livestock or pets.

That’s exactly what happened last summer.

A news story about the efforts to lethally remove the wolves prompted state Rep. Joel Kretz, a Republican from Okanogan County, to co-sponsor House Bill 1465, which would amend state law to exempt personal information for anyone connected to a report of a wolf or a wolf-kill from public disclosure.

“The big problem that we’re trying to get out here is that the people, whose animals were attacked were named,” Kretz said. “They were on the front page of the Seattle Times with not only their address but their personal phone number, instantly getting hit with death threats nonstop.”

The newspaper did name a livestock producer and describe the general location of his ranch. News industry representatives said at the hearing that the story was linked to supporting documents at the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website. They said that’s where ranchers’ personal information could be found. They also said the link was later removed.

Roland Thompson is the executive director for the Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington. He agrees that anyone who files a report about a problem wolf should not be intimidated.

“It’s the rest of this information that we’re paying good money to have done – the identities of the people of the agency that are working on this, they are in essence law enforcement, they are armed and they are moving about the landscape and they are acting on policies that are set by the legislature and implemented by the Department of Fish and Wildlife and we need to know who those people are and what their actions are that they are taking,” Thompson said.

Democratic state Rep. Sherry Appleton of the Kitsap Peninsula argued the bill proposal might go about protecting sensitive information in the wrong way.

“if it’s the threat and the harassment that we are talking about with this bill, then I think we should do legislation to prohibit fish and wildlife from releasing the names and numbers and addresses,” Appleton said.

In other words, she said legislation should keep private phone numbers and addresses private, but it should not limit what we can know about what public employees do on public land.

The committee is now scheduled to decide whether to advance the bill to the House for consideration.

Copyright 2017 NWNews

Musher threatens legal action over Sled Dogs documentary

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Wolf Photos Copyright Jim Robertson

‘I have euthanized dogs of my own and I would again if I needed to,’ says one operator

By Yvette Brend, CBC News <http://www.cbc.ca/news/cbc-news-online-news-staff-list-1.1294364> Posted: Nov 27, 2016 7:00 AM PT Last Updated: Nov 27, 2016 10:53 AM PT

Hans Gatt’s lead dogs head into a turn just after leaving the official restart of the Iditarod dog sled race in Willow, Alaska, in March 2014. (Reuters)

B.C. and Alberta sled dog handlers say a soon-to-air film, billed as an exposé <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sled-dog-alaska-documenary-canada-whistler-film-festival-mushers-huskies-iditarod-1.3845732> of the northern dogsled industry, is misleading, and they want it pulled from a film festival.

Sled Dogs <http://festival.tsharp.xyz/en/whistlerfilmfestival/film/242/sled-dogs> has been touted as the Blackfish <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sled-dog-alaska-documenary-canada-whistler-film-festival-mushers-huskies-iditarod-1.3845732> — a documentary film that exposed the cruel treatment of an orca at San Diego’s SeaWorld — of the dogsled industry.

The film documents the lives of racing dogs behind the scenes on the 1,600-kilometre Iditarod. Over the years, at least 140 dogs have died in the race.

* A scathing indictment of industry <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sled-dog-alaska-documenary-canada-whistler-film-festival-mushers-huskies-iditarod-1.3845732>

But dog handlers say Sled Dogs paints an unfair picture of the industry. They want it pulled from the Whistler Film Festival lineup before the Dec. 3 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC0PxBfeas8> premiere.

“I threatened legal action because no one from the film had talked with me, seen my kennel or met my dogs,” said Megan Routley of Kingmik Dogled Tours, based near Banff National Park.

Routley was furious about the film’s trailers, which she said linked to an activist site calling for a “boycott of all things sled dog.”

She argues the film depicts the industry as cruel and inhumane, showing misleading scenes of dead dogs piled in an Alaskan kennel run by a hoarder, who mushers say actually sold pets and had no links to the dog racing world.

The film also shows dogs chained and isolated for months in the off-season.

But dog handlers defend some of the practices, arguing that chaining, or even euthanizing, a dog is not as cruel as it appears.

Chains aren’t torture, say mushers

There are very few statistics on the sled dog industry, but at least 100 kennels operate between Alaska, B.C, Alberta and northern U.S. states.

Tim Tedford operates a kennel and recreational dogsled touring business near Kelowna, B.C. He also speaks for the Professional Mushers Association of B.C., which represents about 10 kennels.

He agrees with Routley that the film is one-sided.

Director Fran Levitt’s documentary Sled Dogs premieres at the Whistler Film Festival Dec. 3. (Sled Dogs/Fran Levitt)

The association formed in 2011 after news of a sled dog cull in Whistler B.C <http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/british-columbia/sled-dog-slaughter-prompts-b-c-task-force-1.977101> . sparked widespread anger.

That cull inspired Toronto director Fern Levitt to make her film.

But Tedford said Levitt got it wrong.

He said B.C.’s sled dog care <http://www.gov.bc.ca/agri/down/sled_dog_standards_care.pdf> standards are the highest in the world, but the film ignored that.

Yukon musher Michelle Phillips with one of partner Ed Hopkins’ dogs at the 2016 Yukon Quest. (Julien Schroder/Yukon Quest)

“It’s in your best interest to have happy, well-socialized sled dogs that love you. They are not little machines,” he said.

Dogs must be released daily, but also chained up close enough to each other so they can interact, he said.

He said dog abuse horrifies him, but said he has found no scientific evidence to prove that chaining a dog causes harm.

A Cornell University study <http://www.naiaonline.org/uploads/WhitePapers/Cornell_study_on_tethering_and_pen.pdf> suggested that keeping dogs penned together is not necessarily better than tying them up solo.

‘You have to do right by them’

For her part, Levitt believes that many dog mushers, like Tedford, are devoted to their animals. But she argued some lose sight of the dogs’ true needs.

“I feel that the mushers are missing the point: is the commercial dog sledding industry humane?” she asked.

While Tedford has always decried the controversial cull of the 48 dogs later exhumed in Whistler in 2011, he said sometimes shooting an animal is the most humane thing to do.

Fort McMurray sled dogs train on a dog run in Alberta in April. (Mush McMurray)

“It’s not acceptable to shoot or kill healthy dogs in any way,” he said.

But if a dog gets sick, old or wounded and there is no veterinarian, he believes it’s an appropriate action.

“What if you don’t have a needle or a pill? What if you have a dog who has been healthy for 12 years and has never set foot inside a veterinary , a sterile, beeping, stainless steel and tile, sort of scary place. Is that really where you want to take him?” said Tedford.

“I have euthanized dogs of my own and I would again if I needed to.

“It’s a very difficult thing to do. You love those dogs. They’re your family. But you have to do right by them. They’ve given you their whole life. They’ve given you their whole being and they do it willingly,” he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sled-dogs-mushers-reaction-bc-culling-euthanizing-1.3867429

Sled Dogs Film

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An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

SledDogsFilm.com
November 2016

Sled Dogs is the first documentary to look at what happens at sled dog operations and the Iditarod once the tourists go home. This film weaves together various characters and narratives to explore a truth about the dog sledding industry while posing the question: “Is the abuse seen against “man’s best friend” disguised as entertainment?

sled dogs film

Watch the trailer and learn more at Sled Dogs Film

World Premiere at the Whistler Film Festival November 30 – December 4…

Picture yourself flying along a frozen, winding trail surrounded by wild boreal forests with only the whisper of sled runners beneath you and a howling pack of dogs to break the solitude. With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why year after year thousands of tourists flock to experience one of the most quintessentially Northern pastimes: dog sledding. This idyllic portrait has been promoted by both the tourism industry and the dog sledding world for decades in an attempt to maximize profits while concealing a sometimes gruesome reality.

Dogs in many commercial dog sled companies are continually tethered to a chain and euthanized when they’re deemed no longer useful. In 2011, the public finally learned the truth after an incident in Whistler, B.C. made international headlines: One hundred dogs were brutally murdered and thrown into a mass grave by a tourism company after an unprofitable season. Sled dog companies along with the B.C. government decried the practice, claiming it to be an isolated occurrence; but animal rights activists maintain that this practice is pervasive throughout the entire industry. As seen in the film, the trial of Dan MacEachen in Colorado will once again bring the sled dog industry into the public eye. Dan, who was the owner of one of the largest dog sledding companies in North America, was charged with eight counts of animal cruelty.

If he was found guilty, the case would spark a much-needed debate about animal rights laws in North America. This is not the first time concerns were raised against MacEachen. In 1988, he was charged with animal cruelty, but the charge was dropped and Dan continued to run his sledding operations until 2013.

“The Last Great Race”, Alaska’s Iditarod, is one of the largest financial pillars in the northern community and is a tradition well loved by mushers and spectators alike. Thousands of tourists flock each year to watch as teams of sled dogs run over a thousand miles across Mother Nature’s harshest landscape.

Some of the Iditarod supporters claim that sled dogs are “canine athletes” and love the challenge of the sport. They claim that sled dogs are born and bred to race and are “different” from other dogs. Animal rights critics along with some former mushers fervently disagree and claim that these statements are used to justify animal abuse and keep a misinformed public in the dark. Sled Dogs is the first documentary to explore both sides of the dog sledding industry. This film weaves together various characters and narratives to explore a truth about the dog sledding industry while posing the question: “Is the abuse seen against “man’s best friend” disguised as entertainment?

Sign to Tell Trump: Make Ending Animal Cruelty a Priority for America!

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https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-petition-trump-make-ending-animal-cruelty-priority-america/

BY ON NOVEMBER 10, 2016ANIMAL RIGHTS, 

The fate of not only people, but billions of animals will soon rest in the hands of President-Elect Donald Trump. NOW is the time that we MUST stand up for our values and urge him to fight animal abuse. No matter whom you voted for, you still have a say in the future of animal rights in America.

Sadly, the Trump family has notoriously slaughtered elephants, leopards and other cherished, exotic animals for pure sport in now-viral trophy hunts. And Trump’s promised deregulation of industry could result in even worse torture of animals on factory farms. For compassionate citizens, our work is clearly cut out for us.

But we, the people, are not helpless in shaping the future. Mr. Trump won on a platform of vowing to help those who feel they have no voice in the current political system. Animals are the truly voiceless. And Trump’s promised “law and order” can and must extend to cracking down on crimes against animals, too.

Mr. Trump will have an opportunity to pass crucial legislation to protect animals, like The Humane Cosmetics Act to end invasive animal testing for cosmetics. Like the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, which would create federal laws to stop horrific “animal crushing.” And like the Pet and Women’s Safety Act, which would protect both the human and animal victims of domestic violence.

Please join us in urging Mr. Trump to show compassion for the animals viciously abused every day. The dogs and cats beaten, neglected and murdered by human hands. The pigs, chickens and cows who suffer in disease and prison-like confinement for Big Agriculture. The elephants, lions, tigers and other wild species violently forced to entertain humans in traveling circuses and roadside zoos — and yes, those needlessly killed in canned trophy hunts.

Mr. Trump, the citizens have spoken: Please make animal rights a priority for the United States!

A Trump Administration and animal protection

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http://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2016/11/trump-administration-animal-protection.html

By on November 10, 2016

In the United States, we fight like cats and dogs during elections. But in their aftermath, we’re not nearly as forgiving as creatures who get into a scrape and then put the tussle behind them.

The nation has just gone through a tough battle, with half the country supporting one candidate and half backing the other.

Donald Trump is our president-elect. We congratulate him. To play politics at this level and to succeed requires real ability, and skill. I’ve long admired the prior winners – the Bushes, father and son, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama – and we admire Trump for amassing the votes needed for victory. He’s the second recent president to win in the electoral college but to lose the popular vote – an especially important reminder of responsibilities associated with governing in a divided nation.

When the nation is split as it is, a very capable political leader will gravitate to the issues that bind us together. There is no shortage of these issues, and animal protection is certainly one of them. That was on display this week, as voters overwhelmingly approved animal protection ballot measures to protect farm animals from extreme confinement in Massachusetts (passing Question 3 with 78 percent of the vote), and wildlife from poachers and traffickers (passing Measure 100 in Oregon with 70 percent of the vote). At the same time, they rejected an overreaching attempt to deregulate agriculture in Oklahoma (defeating Question 777 with more than 60 percent of the vote).

As those votes reinforce yet again, we have a mainstream agenda at The HSUS. And any good person – Democrat, Republican, or Independent – should support an agenda grounded on opposition to animal cruelty. Both Clinton and Trump voters lined up with us in these states on these issues. We invite President-elect Trump to embrace the core of our agenda because it’s good for the country. It also happens to unite so many of us, including our members and volunteer leaders who are devoted Republicans and conservatives. As a businessman, we hope Mr. Trump will embrace the principles of the humane economy – recognizing that an embrace of animal protection is good for business.

The table is set for him in Congress:

  • The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act has a majority of the House as cosponsors. The Senate bill – led by Pat Toomey, R-Penn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., both re-elected on Tuesday – has broad bipartisan support in Congress and has been endorsed by more than 200 law enforcement agencies across the country. It should be first on the list for action.
  • The Prevent All Soring Tactics Act has even more congressional support. It has more than 300 House and Senate cosponsors, and the practice of injuring horses’ feet to exaggerate their performance in competitions is disgraceful. Every legitimate horse industry organization and the equine veterinary community favors the bill.
  • The Humane Cosmetics Act not only has strong bipartisan support, but it has dozens of major corporations behind it. Here again, animal welfare groups and businesses are aligned.
  • The Pet and Women’s Safety Act is about stopping domestic violence to animals, children, and women. It provides federal help to equip women’s shelters with animal care facilities, so the women can get out of a dangerous relationship and take their animals with them. So many victims of domestic violence fear leaving their pets behind because they know the abuser will torment or kill the animal as an act of vengeance.
  • The Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act not only has The HSUS behind it, but also The Jockey Club, which consists of so many major horse owners, track owners, and other prominent leaders within the industry.

I must confess that we are alarmed by candidate Trump’s declared intentions to do away with Obama-era regulations. When it comes to regulations to stop cruelty, these are not onerous regulations for business. These are good for business and for the country, reflecting our values that cruelty to animals is never acceptable, as a personal matter or as a matter of business. Strip away the regulations, and you strip away our values.

It would be unthinkable to roll back important rules:

  • USDA banned the use of downer cows in the food supply. Animals unable to walk have been dragged into slaughter plants or pushed with bulldozers. It’s unsafe for the animals, for the workers, and for consumers who eat meat from sick animals dragged in manure and waste.
  • The Obama Administration banned the trade in ivory. Some of the poachers who kill elephants finance terrorist activities by selling ivory. These people are no friends to elephants or to the countries where the elephants live. They are no friends to the United States, either.
  • The National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted rules to stop aerial scouting and shooting of wolves and grizzly bears, trapping of grizzlies, and other inhumane and appalling hunting practices on federal lands. These lands were set aside to protect the animals, and Alaska generates hundreds of millions of dollars in tourist revenue because people come to these lands to view these animals in their native habitats.

A Trump Administration can also help advance important animal protection goals, with a proactive agenda, by:

  • Enacting a regulation to fortify humane standards of care for dogs in commercial breeding operations. Puppy mills are notorious for mistreating dogs, and Americans will continue to turn away from dog breeders as long as the standards allow dogs to be kept in small wire cages for their entire lives.
  • Expanding the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act to include poultry. Americans don’t realize that there are no federal protections at slaughterhouses for 95 percent of animals whose carcasses are certified by USDA for consumption. Our federal humane slaughter laws exclude poultry.
  • Reforming check-off programs that tax family farmers and amount to a political slush fund for commodity trade associations.

We welcome the opportunity to sit down with the president-elect and to elaborate on our agenda. And it’s our earnest hope he appoints to key positions within his administration people who represent the values of the nation. To select people from special interest groups who oppose mainstream animal welfare reforms and who would treat their appointment as an opportunity to serve narrow constituencies and do harm to animals, will get him off on the wrong foot on this set of issues. It will contradict a winning message of change that so many millions of voters embraced.

After Losing Half A Beak, Grecia The Toucan Becomes A Symbol Against Abuse

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src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/491372643/491613617" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Carrie Kahn

Enlarge this image

On display at ZooAve Animal Rescue in Alajuela, Costa Rica, Grecia, the chestnut-mandibled toucan, can now eat on its own and sing with the new beak. Grecia was in rehabilitation for months after receiving a 3-D-printed nylon prosthesis. Carrie Kahn/NPR 

On display at ZooAve Animal Rescue in Alajuela, Costa Rica, Grecia, the chestnut-mandibled toucan, can now eat on its own and sing with the new beak. Grecia was in rehabilitation for months after receiving a 3-D-printed nylon prosthesis.

Carrie Kahn/NPR

Remember the toucan in Costa Rica who had its upper beak hacked off by a perpetrator who was never found?

Well, here’s an update to a story we first told you about last year. And, spoiler alert — it has a happy ending.

Local residents brought the bird to a nearby animal rescue center. And thanks to its dedicated workers, amazing doctors and engineers, the toucan now has a prosthetic beak.

That new beak and Grecia, as the bird’s called, went on public display just this last week at ZooAve, a private animal rescue center about 30 minutes outside Costa Rica’s capitol.

Nine-year-old Leonardo Jimenez was thrilled to finally see the bird.

“This is the third time I’ve tried to see Grecia,” he says.

Jimenez started following Grecia’s plight ever since the bird was brought here in January, 2015. Nearly its entire top beak was cut off.

“She was really bad off,” says ZooAve caretaker Ronald Sibaja. “All that was left of the top beak was a jagged bloody stump”.

Sibaja refers to Grecia as “she,” although no one knows its gender. It would have to take a blood test to determine its sex, an added stress Sibaja says the injured bird didn’t need.

Enlarge this image

Visitors enter the front gate of ZooAve Animal Rescue, Grecia the toucan’s permanent home. Carrie Kahn/NPR hide caption

toggle caption Carrie Kahn/NPR

Visitors enter the front gate of ZooAve Animal Rescue, Grecia the toucan’s permanent home.

Carrie Kahn/NPR

“When the veterinarian did that first exam we all thought she would have to be euthanized,” says Sibaja.

Toucans need their beaks for everything from eating to regulating body temperature. But he says you could tell Grecia wanted to live. She sang as best she could and would try to eat.

Sibaja says he had read about eagles and ducks getting prosthetic beaks and suggested one for Grecia.

When the decision was made to get the bird a new beak, news of Grecia and her prosthesis campaign went viral. A 3-D printing company from the U.S. with partners in Costa Rica signed on to make the beak.

Filmmaker Paula Heredia documented Grecia’s year-long recovery for Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet.

More: http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/08/27/491372643/after-losing-half-a-beak-grecia-the-toucan-becomes-a-symbol-against-abuse

Storied Alaska wolf pack beloved for decades has vanished, thanks to hunting

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/storied-alaska-wolf-pack-beloved-for-decades-has-vanished-thanks-to-hunting/ar-BBvqgBq?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

A wolf photographed near the park road in Denali National Park, Alaska. Photo: Tim Rains of the National Park Service.© Provided by WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post A wolf photographed near the park road in Denali National Park, Alaska. Photo: Tim Rains of the National Park Service.

For decades, the wolves of the storied East Fork pack were beloved by researchers and tourists alike at Alaska’s Denali National Park. They frequented the park’s entrance and roads and became the stars of hundreds of thousands of family vacation photos.

Since the 1930s, scientists have documented every detail of the pack’s lives: their hunting ranges, mating rituals, even the content of their droppings. They traced family lineage through dozens of generations, giving individual wolves names like “The Dandy,” “Grandpa” and “Robber Mask.”

Now the researchers must record one final detail in the wolves’ long history: They may all be dead.

The last radio-collared male was found shot dead near a hunting camp in May. Now, park officials can’t find the last three pack members: a uncollared female and her two pups. It’s impossible to know for sure what happened to them, officials said, but it’s unlikely that the mother and her pups will survive without the support and protection of a pack. The family’s den is empty and overgrown with weeds. Porcupines have taken it over since June 28, when the group was last seen.

The wolf pack is the most recent fatality of a controversial Alaska policy that allows hunters to kill wolves and other large predators in the state’s national wildlife refuges, wildlife advocates say. Park officials estimated 49 wolves lived in Denali National Park this spring, only three more than the park’s all-time low of 46 in 1986 and a significant decline from the early 2000s when it was common to count more than 100. In 2015, only 5 percent of Denali visitors reported seeing a wolf — down from 45 percent in 2010.

The East Fork pack’s decline was fast and drastic. In 2013, the nine-member East Fork pack was one of the largest of the nine monitored groups. By the fall of 2014 the pack’s numbers had grown to 17, according to park service data. Then, the numbers steadily drop.

The causes of their deaths vary. Many are shot and killed (legally and illegally) by hunters. One died of blood loss after becoming trapped in a snare. Some become untraceable and others die of natural causes. But one pattern emerges: About 75 percent of deaths in the East Fork pack in the past year were caused by human trapping and hunting, park biologist Bridget Borg told Alaska Public Media.

By May, only the mother wolf and her two cubs remained. Now, they are gone as well.

In a July report that details pack numbers, park officials wrote “it is unfortunate to lose track of this long-tenured and well-followed pack,” though they do note that the pack’s lineage would continue in the members of other packs who have bred with the East Fork wolves. Two other park packs, the Savage Pack and the Headquarters Pack, were previously destroyed by hunting and trapping, according to Wolf Song of Alaska, a non profit dedicated to preserving wolves.

The more than 70 years of continuous study make the East Fork pack one of the longest-observed large mammal families, perhaps only rivaled only by Jane Goodall’s chimpanzees.

Observation of the pack began in 1939 when National Park Service biologist Adolph Murie began tracking the wolves, following them on foot for more than two years — through buggy summers and hair-freezing winters — as they traversed the park’s 3,000 square miles. In 1944, he published a book, “The Wolves of Mount McKinley,” detailing his observations.

Things were better for the wolves then, it seems. Murie wrote “but as yet man’s activities have probably not altered conditions sufficiently to seriously change the (wolves’) natural relationships.”

Original drawings by biologist Adolph Murie of some of the first East Fork wolves from his 1944 book.© Images courtesy of the National Park Service. Original drawings by biologist Adolph Murie of some of the first East Fork wolves from his 1944 book.

But there might be hope for the remaining Denali wolves.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned the hunting of predators in Alaska’s 16 wildlife refuges unless needed “in response to a conservation concern.” The change was a challenge to a continuous push by the Alaska Board of Game to loosen the regulation of predator hunting, which the board calls “intensive predator management.”

Over the past few years, the board has approved a variety of controversial hunting methods, including targeting bears and wolves from planes and shooting wolves and their pups in their dens. In 2010, it eliminated a “buffer zone” that banned wolf hunting just outside of Denali’s borders, near the East Fork’s historic range. The zone was an effort to protect park wolves who wander outside of its boundaries. The last East Fork male was found dead in an area that would have been protected by the buffer.

“There comes a time when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service must stand up for the authorities and principles that underpin our work and say ‘no,’” the wildlife service’s director, Dan Ashe, said about the new restrictions in a blog post published by The Huffington Post.

The state government “strongly opposes” the new rules, arguing that it is federal overreach into one of the state’s most lucrative industries and shrinks the moose and caribou populations that Native American groups rely on for food, The Guardian reports. Guided hunting generated a total of $78 million in economic activity and more than 2,210 jobs in 2012, according to a study commissioned by the Alaska Professional Hunters Association.

“These lands are your lands,” he wrote. “They are not game farms managed for a slice of their diversity for the benefit of a few people who would call themselves hunters.”

Tigers Are Being Drugged and Punched for Photos … How is This Allowed?!

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Tigers Are Being Drugged and Punched for Photos … How is This Allowed?!

by Kate Good

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We all grew up knowing tigers as the quintessential “King of the Jungle.” These awe-inspiring big cats captivated us with their gorgeous stripped coat, gorgeous eyes, and terrifyingly beautiful teeth. Sadly, despite our fascination and admiration, we are rapidly losing these animals. It is estimated that the world’s tiger population has declined 95 percent in the past century alone. Like many other species, these animals are endangered by dwindling habitat and human development, but tigers also face a host of other horrific problems. The illegal wildlife trade is the key driver of tiger extinction.

Tigers have gone from being viewed as a majestic and vital wild species to nothing more than a lucrative commodity. We’ve watched the rise of “tiger cub” selfie attractions in the U.S. and across the world and the fact that there are currently more captive tigers in U.S. backyards, kept as pets, than there are in the wild, speaks to how we’ve diminished these creatures. But it seems that this exploitation of tigers is not even the worst form that exists.

This photo from Paul Hilton features a captive tiger at Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village in China. At this facility, tiger are drugged and restrained so tourists can take photos “punching” the animals.

Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village is one example of a commercial tiger facility where animals are bred, put on display for tourists, and killed to make tiger bone wine – a product that is rumored to “increase sex drive.”

In China, there are as many as 200 operating tiger farms, some of which disguise themselves as “sanctuaries” for the tigers, but they’re really glorified safari parks where animals are forced to perform tricks. In many farms, when the animals are not being used for performances, they are “speed bred.” After a mother gives birth, her cub is immediately taken away – likely to be used as a selfie prop – so that she can breed again as soon as possible. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, tiger farms have a reproduction rate of 1,000.

Hilton explains in the photo caption that there are currently 2,000 tigers living at Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village and their tiger wine, which is primarily sold over the internet, is known as the “best in China.”

As the world’s wild tiger population goes extinct, these commercial facilities continue to churn out animals, born for the express purpose of making money. This is hardly the sort of existence owed to the tiger and we are frankly incredibly foolish to even think that this is permissible. Tigers play a vital role in our global ecosystem and as they are removed from the wild, their absence causes trophic cascades that eventually lead back to humans. We need to recognize that the tiger’s future is and always be intrinsically tied to our own. If we are content to let this species die out for the sake of aphrodisiac wine then we may as well go along with them.

But we do not have to accept this fate, instead, we can fight back and help this struggling species recover. There are countless individuals and organizations working to restore tiger habitat and shut down cruel facilities that exploit these big cats. You can help them by supporting the work of Panthera, WildAid, and WWF in partnership with the Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation.

One of the best ways you can help save the tiger species is to NEVER visit a facility that holds captive tigers and puts them on display for profit. Many attractions pose as “sanctuaries,” but if you see opportunities to take photos with captive cats or they have breeding programs, chances are they are nothing more than money-making scams. Share this article and encourage to speak up for tigers as well!

We can collectively cause the extinction of the tiger or work together to save them. We don’t know about you – but we’re all for the latter.

Image source: Paul Hilton/Instagram

HUNTING ACCIDENTS AND VIOLATIONS from C.A.S.H. Committee To Abolish Sport Hunting

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http://all-creatures.org/cash/accident-center.html

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