Tag Archives: poison

Two Bald Eagles Killed by Poisoned Meat Apparently Meant for Coyotes

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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/05/28/two-bald-eagles-killed-by-poisoned-meat-apparently-meant-for-coyotes/?utm_source

May. 28, 2015 8:41pm           

Image source:

The two bald eagles — along with four coyotes, one opossum and three black vultures — were found dead in a field in Plaquemine, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A pile of baited meat and bones with black granule spread across the top was also found in the field near the dead animals on April 9. Officials believe the poison was meant for coyotes, a press release about the incident said.

“Poison is an indiscriminate killer,” Sidney Charbonnet, Special Agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. “It is extremely poor practice for nuisance animal reduction, as it doesn’t just kill the target species, it can take out whole segments of the food chain with secondary poisonings, as well as potentially killing pet dogs or cats who may consume the bait or the poisoned wildlife.”

While the bald eagle is no longer considered an endangered species, it’s still federally protected.

Killing 890 Wolves to Learn About Them: Something’s Wrong

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By Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. on December, 02, 2014 in Animal Emotions

An “experimental” study performed under the guise of conservation involved killing 890 Canadian wolves (and other animals) using aerial gunning, trapping, and strychnine poisoning. This research and publication represents the moral failure of the Alberta government, participating universities, the Canadian Journal of Zoology, and the scientists, and it didn’t work.  Read More

First Known Litter Of Mexican Gray Wolves Born in The Wild

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http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/26065039/mexican-grey-wolves

Jul 20, 2014t;em class=”wnDate”>Sunday, July 20, 2014 9:33 PM EDT</em>

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Mexico- Officials in Mexico have released video of the first known litter of Mexican gray wolves to be born in the wild.

The births are part of a three-year program to reintroduce the subspecies to a habitat from which they disappeared three decades ago.

The country’s National Commission of Natural Protected Areas says the wolf pups were spotted last month by a team of researchers in the Western Sierra Madre Mountains in northern Mexico.

The above footage shows the wolf cubs playing.

Mexico began reintroducing the wolves three years ago. The parents of this litter were released in December with hopes they would breed.

Authorities seldom reveal the exact location of breeding pairs in recovery programs in order to protect endangered species.

The Mexican gray wolf was almost wiped out in the southwestern United States by the same factors that eliminated the animal in Mexico, such as hunting, trapping and poisoning.

The Mexican gray wolf is still an endangered species in the United States and Mexico.

Targeting Wildlife Services

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OUR CAMPAIGN TO SAVE SPECIES FROM A ROGUE FEDERAL AGENCY ACTING FOR PRIVATE INTERESTS

A little-known agency known as “Wildlife Services,” a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is secretive for a reason: Its actions are incredibly, unacceptably and illegally brutal and inhumane to animals, from familiar wildlife to endangered species — and even people’s pets.

This agency has been killing as many as 3 million native animals every year — including coyotes, bears, beavers, wolves, otters, foxes, prairie dogs, mountain lions, birds and other animals — without any oversight, accountability or requirement to disclose its activities to the public. The agency contributed to the decline of gray wolves, Mexican wolves, black-footed ferrets, black-tailed prairie dogs, and other imperiled species during the first half of the 1900s, and continues to impede their recovery today.

Many of these animals are carnivores at the top of the food chain and have a tremendous benefit to overall ecosystem health. They include endangered species and, largely, animals that agribusiness interests consider undesirable — as well as many animals that aren’t intended targets of the agency. The century-old Wildlife Services — which has reportedly killed 32 million native animals since 1996 — destroys these creatures on behalf of such interests without explaining to the public what it’s doing or where, the methods it’s using, on whose behalf it’s acting, or why. It frequently doesn’t even attempt to use nonlethal methods before shooting coyotes and wolves from airplanes, or laying out traps and exploding poison caps indiscriminately — including in public areas — without any rules. Stories about Wildlife Services consistently emerge describing an agency that routinely commits extreme cruelty against animals, leaving them to die in traps from exposure or starvation, attacking trapped coyotes, and brutalizing domestic dogs. Many people who know about the agency have criticized this dark, secretive entity as a subsidy for livestock interests.

We can’t stress enough that this agency’s practices have gone on for decades with little public oversight or rules requiring that it use the best available science or techniques to reduce the deaths of nontarget animals — or even the suffering of target animals.

The Center is working to end the secrecy and reform this rogue agency — or even suffering — for the good of wildlife, ecosystems and even domestic animals.

To protect defenseless wildlife from Wildlife Services and begin to restore the natural balance of ecosystems, in 2013 the Center filed a comprehensive petition for rulemaking with the Department of Agriculture, which is supposed to oversee the secretive agency’s actions. This legal petition demands the development of a regulatory code — something that every other agency maintains — to reform the agency and bring it in line with all of the nation’s laws, policies and values.

D-CON: the Poison that Keeps on Killing

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Text and Photography ©Jim Robertson

Text and Photography ©Jim Robertson

Earlier this month, my wife and I tried out a job as caretakers of a river front lodge in the heart of the Oregon Coast Range. It sounded idyllic, but on closer examination we found that the whole place was overrun by rats and mice. They had made themselves at home in the “trophy lodge’s” basement, attic, and furnace room and even throughout the heat ducting system (which—judging by the smell—they must have considered their own private out house).

Had the lodge owner even hinted at the “rodent situation” (as he later put it) ahead of time, we would never have moved our cats and dog in without first asking if there had been any poisons used around there. Well, it turns out there had—someone put fresh d-CON in all the heating vents, and who knows where else around the “estate.”

Among the sinister side effects of d-CON is that it kills slowly and stays in the victim’s body, allowing them to wander far from the source before a predator or scavenger consumes them, spreading the poison to an entire food chain. Needless to say, we gathered up our companion animals and got the hell out of there.

But about a week after we got back home, our worst fears were realized. One of our adopted cats, Caine, a gray tabby in the prime of his life with a black belt in the art of mousing, started showing the tell-tale symptoms of d-CON poisoning. He refused to eat or drink and slept round the clock. His lethargy grew more pronounced until he eventually tuned everyone else out, as though preparing to pass on. If we hadn’t rushed him to the vet, where he received IV fluids and an emergency injection of vitamin K to counter-act the lethal anti-coagulant agent in the poison, he would have died like so many other wild and domestic animals (including people) before him.

The problem is so extensive that the manufacturers of d-CON recently agreed to stop production of this particular rodenticide.  Though it’s now banned in California, stockpiles still exist in stores throughout the rest of the country. And this insidious gold-standard—this household name in “pest control”—has surely found its way to all corners of the globe by now and will keep doing its damage for years to come. How many cats, bobcats and cougars, dogs, coyotes, mink, ermine, opossum, raccoons, owls, hawks and eagles will suffer a drawn-out death from this pervasive poison before the sale of d-CON is completely discontinued?

In a way, Caine was one of the lucky few. Most rodent-eaters don’t have companion humans who care about them enough to nurse them back to health.

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Maker of powerful rat poison will cease production in July

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Good News From Project Coyote:

The maker of the household rodenticide d-CON, Reckitt Benckiser Group, has agreed to stop producing the toxic product for the consumer market. d-CON contains second generation anticoagulants responsible for killing countless non-target animals, including mountain lions, coyotes, endangered San Joaquin kit foxes, raptors, and companion animals. This action comes after the state of la-me-rat-poison-20140418

California took a crucial step toward protecting wildlife and banned the residential consumer purchase of rat poisons. While these are significant victories, the fight isn’t over until all deadly rodenticides are off the market, replaced with more humane alternatives. 

Stop the killing of 16,000 prairie dogs

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http://www.all-creatures.org/alert/alert-20140519-2.html

Tell U.S. Forest Service: DO NOT Poison 16,000 Prairie Dogs
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
May 2014

ACTION

The U.S. Forest Service is considering a plan to poison as many as 16,000 prairie dogs in Wyoming’s Thunder Basin National Grassland. Prairie dogs are a keystone species and vital to the survival of many other animals. Tell the Forest Service to reject this heartless plan.

prairie dogs prairie poison
Image by Jim Robertson / Animals in the Wild

Sign an online petition here

And/Or better yet, make direct contact:

Thomas Whitford
District Ranger, Douglas Ranger district
Thunder Basin National Grassland
c/o US Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Region
740 Simms Street
Golden, CO 80401
(303) 275-5350 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (303) 275-5350 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

In Wyoming, prairie dogs are slowly recovering from decades of hunting and disease, and Thunder Basin National Grassland contains some of their last protected habitat. But the U.S. Forest Service is considering a plan to poison any prairie dog colonies on the Grassland within a quarter-mile of private or state land. They could kill an estimated 16,000 prairie dogs, which are essential to the survival of many other species. Urge the Forest Service to reject this heartless and misguided plan.

SAMPLE LETTER:

I am outraged at the plan your agency is considering — to kill an estimated 16,000 prairie dogs in Thunder Basin National Grassland. This would be inhumane to the animals and environmentally disastrous for the Thunder Basin ecosystem.

In 2009, in an exemplary decision, you set aside 85,000 acres of grasslands to provide a safe haven for prairie dogs from being shot, poisoned or gassed. Today, the Thunder Basin National Grassland is part of the remaining two percent of America’s untouched prairie grasslands, and contains the best prairie dog habitat in the country. Prairie dogs are essential to the health of our grasslands but are victimized by misinformation and widely extirpated from their former range.

Furthermore, I understand the plan may call for anticoagulant poisons such as Rozol. Rozol, a barbaric poison, can take one to three weeks to kill prairie dogs. After being poisoned, they will bleed internally and externally, wandering more and more disoriented and vulnerable to predators. Animals that feed off of this keystone species — including golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, swift foxes, turkey vultures, badgers, raccoons and coyotes — will also fall victim to the poison and may die.

As a federal agency charged with protecting our nation’s unspoiled flora and fauna, the Forest Service must turn down this plan to poison prairie dogs in the Thunder Basin National Grassland. Please find alternative methods for managing this species and the wildlife which depend on them.

Sincerely….

or, send pre-written message here:

https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=D636E670A5DE23260DC829166A1266FA.app338a?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3461&s_src=EMOBGNPETNON0514PD&autologin=true&utm_source=nl&utm_medium=articalert&utm_campaign=maybgn

Thank you for everything you do for animals!

Urge School District to Ditch Massive Plastic Dump!

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An estimated 20 million tons of plastic litter enter the world’s oceans

Photo Copyright Jim Robertson

Photo Copyright Jim Robertson

annually, killing more than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles. Yet on February 8, Alvin Independent School District in Southeast Texas plans to release 10,000 plastic turtles into Mustang Bayou—a waterway that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Foraging birds and other wildlife find small brightly colored pieces of degraded plastic irresistible, and many ingest the plastic or feed it to their babies. Their digestive systems become blocked, ultimately resulting in starvation (see more here). Alvin school officials claim to make dedicated efforts to retrieve all 10,000 plastic turtles at the end of its “turtle race” fundraisers, but a single one missed could have devastating consequences. Your voice is needed!

Please urge Alvin Independent School District officials to replace this event with one that won’t pose a threat to animals or the environment. And please forward this alert far and wide!

Polite comments can be sent to:
•Fred Brent
Superintendent
Alvin Independent School District
fbrent@alvinisd.net
•Alvin Independent School District Board of Trustees
twennerstrom@alvinisd.net
rmetoyer@alvinisd.net
charris@alvinisd.net
sstringer@alvinisd.net
mike@insurancetexas.net
cmccauley@alvinisd.net
ntonini@alvinisd.net

Read more: http://www.peta.org/action/action-alerts/urge-school-district-ditch-massive-plastic-dump/#ixzz2s0h2HR9G

Thousands of Prairie Dogs in Danger of Being Poisoned

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Photo Copyright Jim Robertson

Photo Copyright Jim Robertson

http://www.care2.com/causes/thousands-of-prairie-dogs-in-danger-of-being-poisoned.html

by Alicia Graef
January 7, 2014

Animal advocates and conservationists are fighting to stop the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) from poisoning thousands of black-tailed prairie dogs who live on the Thunder Basin National Grassland in eastern Wyoming.

The prairie dog management plan was put in place years ago, setting aside 85,000 acres where prairie dogs would be protected from poisons and shooting, but complaints from ranchers have led the USFS to propose going backwards and amend the plan to allow prairie dogs to be poisoned within a quarter of a mile of private or state land.

The management strategy was originally intended to promote ecological diversity and ensure prairie dogs and other species had a safe space to live, but the new plan would in effect take away 22,000 acres of this protected land and end up killing an estimated 16,000 prairie dogs, according to a joint press release from the organizations opposing the agency’s proposal, including the Humane Society of the United States, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife and WildEarth Guardians.

Unfortunately, prairie dog numbers have already been reduced by habitat loss and disease and because they are often seen as pests who need to be destroyed. According to the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, these prairie dogs now only exist on an estimated two percent of their former range.

Living in colonies known as “towns,” prairie dogs are considered a keystone species who are vital to the health of prairie ecosystems. Their disappearance will affect numerous other species who rely on them as a food source and as habitat developers for species who take advantage of abandoned burrows, including burrowing owls, raptors, swift foxes and badgers, among others. According to the Prairie Dog Coalition, as many as 140 species are believed to be affected by the role of the black-tailed prairie dog in North America.

Prairie dog advocates are opposing the proposal, not only because prairie dogs are important, but because adding more poison to the government’s wildlife management toolbox is dangerous and unacceptable. Using poison is a sickeningly cruel method for dealing with wild animals that results in a horrific death and has no place on our public lands. The use of poison also poses a threat to other non-target species as it moves through the food chain.

“These dangerous poisons shouldn’t be used anywhere, much less in one of our last best grasslands,” said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians.

Killing prairie dogs and using poison will also impact the recovery plan for black-footed ferrets, who have been brought back from the brink of extinction through captive breeding programs. Thunder Basin National Grassland is believed to be one of the best places available for releasing more of them, and many believe one of the easiest ways to ensure the success of the recovery program is to work on prairie dog conservation efforts simultaneously.

The organizations fighting this proposal are calling on the USFS to adopt non-lethal management strategies that include building vegetative barriers to deter prairie dogs from expanding onto neighboring lands, relocating prairie dog colonies from boundary areas to protected areas away from private lands when necessary and offering incentives to private landowners to coexist with prairie dogs.

TAKE ACTION!

Please sign and share the petition supporting non-lethal alternatives to manage prairie dog colonies and send an email directly.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/thousands-of-prairie-dogs-in-danger-of-being-poisoned.html#ixzz2pwHjboBx

Now Rancher McIrvin Wants Washington Wolves Poisoned

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>McIrvin says killing the wolves is the only solution. He believes the copyrighted wolf in watercalf carcass should have been laced with poison to get the “culprits.”

“Until somebody gets serious about opening season on these wolves, I don’t know that there is any answer,” he said.

Just as he did last year, McIrvin plans to continue to refuse compensation from the state.<

 

Excerpted from:

Another calf found dead as ranchers question state wolf investigations

By MATTHEW WEAVER

Capital Press

A northeast Washington cattle rancher says wolves killed a three-day-old calf from his operation last week.

Len McIrvin is owner of the Diamond M Ranch in Laurier, Wash. That’s the ranch where Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife officials in September 2012 killed six wolves from the Wedge Pack. The wolves had killed at least 17 cattle from the ranch.

The killed calf was dragged from a barbed wire calving enclosure 200 yards from human presence, McIrvin said. There were fresh wolf tracks nearby in the river, he said.

“We know it was a wolf, but they can’t confirm it because the calf was 95 percent eaten up,” he said, noting coyote tracks were also found in the area.

Stephanie Simek, WDFW wildlife conflict section manager, said the case was unconfirmed as a wolf kill because there were signs of coyotes in the area. The six-strand barbed wire fence did not show signs of a larger carnivore entering the area, she said.

“The issue was the carcass was so far gone, you really couldn’t get a lot of those measurements,” said Dave Ware, WDFW game program manager. “You just couldn’t tell for sure what killed it.”

The department has been monitoring wolf activity, but didn’t find anything that would merit setting a trap to try to collar wolves.

“We’re certain there are wolves in the Wedge area again,” Ware said. “We’re seeing plenty of activity.”

McIrvin said his cattle are on the range, so he hasn’t found other kills or injuries.

“We know the wolves have been harassing them,” he said. “We know they’re there, we hear them howling, they’ve got the cows all chased off the range again. We put them back weekly, but the wolves are running them daily.”

The Stevens County Cattlemen’s Association believes the department’s unconfirmed ruling on the calf shows a “troubling trend” in which the department does not confirm wolf kills, a determination that could lead to killing the predators.

Association spokesperson Jamie Henneman said WDFW needs to clearly outline how they will deal with wolves.

“Right now we are seeing the department buckle under pressure from environmental groups who have absolutely no skin in the game,” she said. “There is no impact to their finances or livelihood if wolf management is done in a poor, watery or slipshod fashion. Band-aid payments of compensation will not solve this problem.”

Ware believes the department’s history proves it is willing to kill wolves, but said it will not always completely be on the same page as ranchers.

“Second-guessing what our field staff does seems to be a popular sport for both sides,” he said. “In their hearts, most (ranchers) feel, ‘Wolves are the things different from the landscape — it must be wolves that caused this.’ In some cases, we can verify that, in some cases, we just can’t.”

McIrvin says killing the wolves is the only solution. He believes the calf carcass should have been laced with poison to get the “culprits.”

“Until somebody gets serious about opening season on these wolves, I don’t know that there is any answer,” he said.

Just as he did last year, McIrvin plans to continue to refuse compensation from the state.

“We are not in the business of raising cattle to feed wolves. We’re in the business of raising cattle to be a cow ranch,” he said.

Information

Washington Department Fish and Wildlife:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/

Stevens County Cattlemen Association:

http://stevenscountycattlemen.wordpress.com