A BILL THAT WOULD PROVIDE VETERANSand members of the Alaska National Guard with free trapping licenses has passed the Alaska Legislature.
Senate Bill 10, authored by Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl, passed the House of Representatives on a 39-0 vote Monday. Representative Tom McKay was excused from the call in the House.
Representative Mike Cronk of Tok, who had filed an identical companion bill in the House, carried the bill for Sen. Kiehl.
“This bill extends a free trapping license to service-disabled veterans and active-duty National Guard and Reserves,” Cronk said on the House floor Tuesday. “They currently receive a free hunting and fishing license, and I’m not sure why the trapping part was left out. I am always encouraging that we support our trapping.”
(Cheyenne, WY)–The 2023 Wyoming Legislature passed several bills that will make changes to Wyoming Game and Fish Department laws and regulations. The following is a summary of the notable Game and Fish-related bills that passed, how they will impact the public and the next steps for implementation. Game and Fish will continue to provide updates as these changes move through the regulation process.
Hunters will be allowed to hunt predatory animals on public or state land at night with the use of artificial light, including thermal and infrared imaging. The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission has been granted the authority to establish rules and regulations regarding the creation of zones, areas, seasons and methods for the taking of predatory animals with the use of artificial light on public or state land. Game and Fish will…
“TSC is continuing its brutal Chick Days program once again in 2023, with no improvements from last year after all my discussions with them about the rampant problems.” – Employee to UPC, March 8, 2023
Things We Can Do.
An employee at one of the Tractor Supply stores reports being told by the store manager that the company wants to stop “the crap about the chicks this year.” Intrepidly, this employee continues to document the response of TSC leadership and the suffering of the chicks and ducklings who often arrive dead and dying after their long transit by airmail to local post offices. This employee tells UPC that, 2 weeks ago, “our first shipment was sent to the wrong post office, over 25 miles away.” The next day the manager claimed that the “tanks” into which the chicks were supposedly placed once they reached the store were empty already because “they all sold within the first few hours.” Sounds hinky. In a following shipment, the employee wrote that “One duckling was dead and several chicks barely survived had I not nursed them back.”
In the past few years, UPC has received increased complaints and photos from customers and employees documenting, at TSC stores across the country, sick baby birds, vents impacted with encrusted feces, and filth in the tanks and trays including unwashed, often empty, fecal-filled food and water dishes.
We think that, in addition to documenting and protesting the inhumane treatment of these baby birds by Tractor Supply Company, the link between factory-farm hatchery birds and the rampant spread of Avian Influenza should be stressed. The online publication Sentient Media reported this month:
Public health officials are urging governments to prepare for possible avian flu spillover to humans. The disease is now spreading between mammals including foxes, otters, sea lions and bears. And while human cases remain extremely rare and the risk to the human population is low, health officials warn the situation — and risk level — could change at any moment.
The good news is that one of our members in New Jersey learned that two TSC stores in NJ will NOT be selling chicks or ducklings this year. This new practice is “at the request of the local town government asking them not to sell them.” She told UPC: “This gives me an idea that residents of towns where there is a Tractor Supply store could contact their local Mayor/Town Council/Board of Health asking that the town’s Tractor Supply store NOT sell chicks or ducklings.”
What Can I Do?
Contact your local government administrators where there are TSC stores. Talking points can be from a human health perspective – the spread of Avian Flu. The fragile birds arrive at the stores typically from out of state. They are often dumped in parks and ponds where they could be exposed to avian influenza through the droppings of infected wild birds, or they could spread the virus if they themselves were already infected. Avian influenza is known to jump species including humans, so this is a health concern as well as a humane issue.
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper(s).
Express your concern to store managers and to the head of Tractor Supply Company:
Hal Lawton, CEO Tractor Supply Company 5401 Virginia Way Brentwood, TN 37027 Phone: 615-440-4600 extension 4601 Website: www.tractorsupply.com
Published:Mar. 9, 2023 at 7:29 AM PST|Updated:6 hours ago
CASS COUNTY, Texas (KLTV) – A Longview man accused of being a part of a deer-poaching ring is believed to have sold the illegally obtained meat and also guided clients on illegal hunts, according to arrest documents.
Carson Don Bottoms, 22, of Longview, is charged with harvest white-tailed deer without landowner’s consent. Bottoms was one of three arrested who are accused in a three-year investigation into deer poaching across four states.
An affidavit for Bottoms was obtained by KLTV through an open records request to the Cass County District Clerk’s Office.
The report dated Thursday is a congressionally mandated independent assessment of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s needs, and calls for $15.3 billion in fiscal 2024, with another $71.8 billion spread out over the next four years.
The report follows a concerted push by the Pentagon in recent weeks to expand American military influence in the region. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right, recently traveled to Manila to announce an agreement with the Philippines giving the U.S. increased access to bases there. | Jam Sta Rosa/Pool via AP Photo
The Pentagon is asking Congress to significantly increase funding for the U.S. military’s presence in the Pacific, signaling the Biden administration’s increasing sense of urgency toward countering China’s aggressive behavior in the region.
Alongside President Joe Biden’s budget request for next year, the Pentagon will submit a new $15.3 billion plan to fund Pacific…
Axios on emailhttps://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5o2IV/1/Reproduced fromClimate Central. Map: Axios Visuals
Average winter temperatures across the United States have increased by 3.2°F since 1970, according to an analysis from Climate Central, a nonpartisan research and communications group.
Why it matters:Warm winters can exacerbate drought (because there’s less snowmelt in the spring), wreak havoc on crops and gardens, and spell disaster fortowns built around skiing, snowboarding, and similar pursuits.
The big picture:Winter is the fastest-warming season for much of the continental U.S.
About 80% of the country now has at least seven more winter days with above-normal temperatures compared to 1970, per Climate Central.
Seasonal snowfall is declining in many cities — although heavy snowstorms can still happen when…
A personnel from the National Forest and Wild Fauna Service (SERFOR) checks on a sea lion, amidst rising cases of bird flu infections, on Chepeconde beach, in Lima, Peru, February 22, 2023.Sebastian Castaneda/ReutersCNN—
Thousands of sea lions have died in Peru amid an outbreak ofbird flu, according to Peru’s National Service of Protected Areas by the State (SERNANP).
Avian flu, also known as H5N1, has spread across multiple species in the country. An initial outbreak among birds was first reported in late November 2022 along the Peruvian coast.
SERNANP has now reported at least 63,000 dead birds due to the virus, as well as a rising number of deaths in other species.
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At least 3,487 sea lions have been found dead due to the virus, according to the agency – over 3%…
A personnel from the National Forest and Wild Fauna Service (SERFOR) checks on a sea lion, amidst rising cases of bird flu infections, on Chepeconde beach, in Lima, Peru, February 22, 2023.Sebastian Castaneda/ReutersCNN —
Thousands of sea lions have died in Peru amid an outbreak of bird flu, according to Peru’s National Service of Protected Areas by the State (SERNANP).
Avian flu, also known as H5N1, has spread across multiple species in the country. An initial outbreak among birds was first reported in late November 2022 along the Peruvian coast.
SERNANP has now reported at least 63,000 dead birds due to the virus, as well as a rising number of deaths in other species.
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At least 3,487 sea lions have been found dead due to the virus, according to the agency – over 3% of Peru’s sea lion population. It has also recorded five fur seal deaths linked to the bird flu.
National Forest and Wild Fauna Service (SERFOR) personnel check on a sea lion, amidst rising cases bird flu infections in Peru, February 22, 2023Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters
“What we remember initially started with pelicans last year is now affecting these marine mammals,” Peruvian veterinarian Javier Jara told Reuters.
Peruvian authorities are urging citizens to avoid physical contact with wildlife, dead or alive.
Avian flu has also infected a record number of birds and some mammals across the United States.
Since late 2022, scientists have detected this virus in more than 100 species of wild birds like ducks, seagulls, geese, hawks and owls in the US, where cases have also been identified among bears, foxes, bobcats, racoons, bears, and dolphins.
There have also been a handful of human cases. World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last month that the risk to humans remains low but added, “we cannot assume that will remain the case.”
This digitally-colorized transmission electron microscopic image shows avian influenza A H5N1. (Courtesy of Cynthia Goldsmith; Jacqueline Katz; Sherif R. Zaki/CDC)
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Thebird flu outbreakis making a resurgence, and while experts agree there is not an immediate threat to humans, efforts are underway toproduce vaccines for H5N1or another potential pandemic virus.
Thebird flu symptoms in humanscan differ from those found in birds, though. They can also differ depending on the severity of the illness and the type of strain the person has come down with.
Bald eagle nest failures and deaths are piling up at an “alarming rate”as a result of the highly infectious avian influenza, University of Georgia researchers announced this week.
“Even just one year of losses of productivity like we’ve documented regionally is very concerning and could have effects for decades to come if representative of broader regions,” said Nicole Nemeth, an associate professor at UGA’s college of veterinary medicine, who led the study with 10 other researchers. “There were nights where I couldn’t sleep based on what we were hearing and seeing.”
