Tag Archives: abolish

Albania hunting ban takes aim at depopulation

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 http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/11/albania-hunting-ban-takes-aim-at-depopulation-2014111812148301986.html

Wildlife numbers falling rapidly, but a controversial new ban on hunting seeks to protect Albania’s animals.

and Last updated: 22 Nov 2014

Tirana, Albania – Bujar Hyka and his friends headed out in their jeep west of Albania’s capital on a recent Sunday morning. Dressed in camouflage, the men navigated the vehicle through rough terrain with three restless English Setters eagerly waiting to jump out.

A year ago, this would have been a hunting trip. But under Albania’s new anti-hunting law, Hyka and his friends have been forbidden to kill animals and now simply hike weaponless through the country’s pristine wilderness.

“The government doesn’t understand that hunting is a sport; they are1907320_10152809923380861_1562740061849294556_n ruining our sport,” said Hyka, 59, head of one of Albania’s hunters and fishermen’s organisations. “It’s like someone taking a football away from footballers.”

Earlier this year, the Albanian government imposed a two-year moratorium on all hunting to save its endangered animal population. Reports suggest 30-50 percent of Albania’s wildlife species have seen a steep decline in the past decade. Hunting is one of the main reasons for the loss.

Among the endangered species in the country are the Balkan lynx, the Egyptian vulture, the Dalmatian pelican, the European eel, and the Albanian water frog.

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Thanks to C.A.S.H.: The Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting 

 

The Way of the Dodo

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The past two centuries of U.S. history saw two seemingly cast in stone injustices abolished, setting the stage for the most magnanimous of human advancements—the recognition of rights for non-human animals.

Each of these advancements was met with staunch opposition, ridicule and fears that they would end a way of life as we know it. While that may have been true for some of the most egregious exploiters, most Americans learned to adapt to new forms of fairness.

Plantation owners, steeped in self-pity, bemoaned the potential loss of free labor that would be wrought by acknowledging rights for all humans. Only after their cessation from the Union and a bloody civil war were they forced to accept the concept of human equality.

Two of my great aunts were embroiled in the suffragette movement. Thanks to theirs and other women’s efforts, “superior” males finally resigned themselves to the concept of voting rights for women. The same arguments crop up when such efforts are made for each group of “others.”

The idea of non-human animals being entitled to even the most basic rights is still a long way off from universal acceptance. But, IF the human race continues to survive this century, and if positive advancement continues to trump status quo and beats out the urge to backslide, notions of human superiority over other species will go the way of the dodo.

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