Senators Fault Delay in Bear Protection

WASHINGTON - A decision on whether to protect Alaska's polar bears under the Endangered Species Act might not come before the government opens a major bear habitat to oil leases next week, although staff recommendations are completed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chief said Wednesday.

Dale Hall, the agency's director, faced sharp criticism at a Senate hearing from lawmakers who accused the Interior Department of stalling to make it easier for oil companies to obtain drilling leases in the Chukchi Sea, where a fifth of the Arctic's polar bears depend on sea ice in their hunt for food.

Another Interior Department agency, the Minerals Management Service, plans to open a large area of the Chukchi Sea to oil and gas leases on Feb. 6.

The Chukchi Sea is home to one of two U.S. polar bear populations, and scientists say global warming is causing serious melting of Arctic sea ice, the bear's primary habitat. The department proposed possibly listing the bear as threatened — triggering greater federal protection — more than a year ago.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, demanded "a commitment to take immediate action" to protect the bear before the leasing begins and asked Hall why his agency "is dragging its feet" while the department "is moving quickly ... to allow new oil activities in one of the biological hearts of the polar bear's habitat."

"There should be no further delay," said Boxer, noting that by law the agency was to have made a decision on whether to declare the bear threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act by Jan. 9.

Hall said he could not promise a decision before Feb. 6, only that a recommendation on the bear will be sent to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne "in the very near future."

Separately, Randall Luthi, director of the minerals management agency, said Wednesday that no matter when the ESA decision is made the Chukchi Sea lease sales — originally planned for last June — will proceed as scheduled. "We think there is strong interest," in the leases by a number of major oil companies, he said in an interview with several reporters.

Luthi said a delay in the lease sale, or a decision to list the bear as threatened, could prevent oil companies from beginning exploration activities this summer, meaning a year's delay since such activities have to be done before increases in ice flow in the fall.

He said his agency has advised potential lease buyers of the possible listing of the bear under the ESA and advised them to prepare oil spill response plans and plans to limit potential encoutered with bears on sea ice. A listing would require additional review of exploration and development plans by the Fish and Wildlife Service to assure bear protection.

Hall told the Senate committee the delay is not based on unresolved scientific issues, but — given the issue's high profile — a desire to assure that Congress and the public will understand the decision when it is made public.

Hall rejected suggestions of political involvement in the decision, which is the first time that a species has been considered for protection under the act because of the impact of global warming. Last September, a series of reports by the Interior Department's scientific arm concluded that as much as two-thirds of the polar bear population could disappear by mid-century because of the loss of sea ice attributed to climate change.

The recommendation will be based on "the science in front of us. That will be the basis for our decision," said Hall.

Pressed by Boxer, he acknowledged that a draft staff recommendation on the bear listing has been completed and sent to Washington in mid-December by agency scientists in Alaska — where the major scientific analysis and research has been focused.

The decision could have broad implications since protecting the bear's habitat could mean finding ways to reduce ice melting.

The threats to the polar bear "are a harbinger of what the future may look like" under climate change, said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who has argued for aggressive action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., a leading co-sponsor of legislation before the Senate to require reductions in greenhouse gases, said the bear "may be to global warming what the canary in a coal mine has been to mining."

But Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., an outspoken skeptic about climate change, called the polar bear "the pawn in a much larger game of chess." He maintained that environmentalists are using the bear to push for restrictions on greenhouse gases that could lead to higher energy prices. Inhofe argued that concern about the loss of sea ice was based on questionable computer modeling.

California Plant Accused of Torturing Unfit Cows

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Humane Society of the United States said on Wednesday a California slaughterhouse was using a range of torture including "waterboarding" to prod unfit animals into the slaughterhouse so they could be processed into food that may have ended up in school lunch programs.

The Humane Society displayed a video from its own undercover, six-week investigation that it said showed abuse by workers at the Hallmark Meat Packing Co of Chino, California. However, the name of the plant was not visible in the video.

The video showed workers kicking cows, ramming them with forklift blades, applying electric shocks and even using a hose to simulate the feeling of drowning so the animals would revive long enough to pass federal inspection.

"The attempt was to make them so distressed and to cause them so much suffering that these animals would get up and walk into the slaughterhouse," Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, told reporters,

"We've heard a lot about waterboarding in 2007 as a torture technique and we saw this applied to these animals where a high pressure hose was put in the mouth and through the nose," he said, referring to a controversial technique used in the past by the CIA in its terrorism interrogation program.

The company was not immediately available for comment but said in a statement that operations had been suspended at the plant and two workers fired.

Pacelle said the plant supplies meat to the Westland Meat Co, which is the second-largest supplier of beef to the USDA Commodity Procurement Program Branch.

This branch distributes beef to needy families, the elderly and to more than 100,000 schools and child-care facilities nationwide under the national school lunch program.

"So we are talking about downed, injured animals being tormented and tortured. And we are also talking about, probably, an adulterated product," Pacelle said, adding the practice was in violation of federal and state laws.

He said the plant's use of injured and sick cows was not an isolated incident in the United States and he called on the USDA to tighten regulations regarding the ban on processing of "downer" cows.

Westland said in a statement that it had received the video from the Humane Society that showed two of its employees, since fired, "acting in disregard" of the company's standards. The supervisor was also suspended.

"We are shocked, saddened and sickened by what we have seen today," the company said in a statement posted on its Web site.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said he was convinced there was no health risk involved but the matter was being investigated.

"First of all, this issue is taken very seriously by the USDA employees responsible for this area," he told reporters. "Obviously, there is a full investigation and inspection going on today."

Besides the issue of animal abuse, the Humane Society believes the practice of using downer animals poses a risk to the nation's food supply. A high percentage of mad cow cases have come from downer animals and such cattle could also be prone to on passing other pathogens, particularly if allowed to wallow in manure.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, on Wednesday called for an immediate federal investigation into the safety of ground beef used in the school lunch program.

"The treatment of animals in the video is appalling, but more than that it raises significant concerns about the safety of the food being served to our nation's children," Durbin said in a statement.

Police Remove 209 Cats and 3 Dogs from Home

BONHAM, Texas - Complaints from neighbors prompted Bonham police to remove 209 cats and three dogs from a home apparently overrun by the animals. The SPCA helped take custody of the animals Friday.

Officials found 40 cats in one bedroom.

Bonham Police Chief Mike Bankston said the situation apparently got well out of hand for the couple living in the house.

Owner David Wheeler told WFAA television that they started with just 13 cats, but the animals quickly bred. Wheeler said it's expensive to spay and neuter so many cats, plus feed them.

Information from Steve Stoler of WFAA-TV: http://www.wfaa.com/

This Beetle Really Rocks

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Mon Jan 28, 1:16 PM ET
A new species of beetle that appears as if wearing a tuxedo has been named in honor of the late rock 'n' roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara.

Entomologist Quentin Wheeler of Arizona State University announced the discovery and naming of the beetle, now dubbed Orectochilus orbisonorum, during a Roy Orbison Tribute Concert on Jan. 25.

The ending of the species name, "orum," denotes it was named after a couple. If the beetle were just named after Roy it would end in "i," and for just Barbara, the name would end in "ae."
Barbara Orbison, who attended the concert along with Orbison's sons Wesley and Roy Kelton Orbison Jr., remarked on her appreciation for the new species name. "I have never seen an honor like that," she said.

To mark the occasion, Wheeler presented Barbara with an original work of art titled “Whirligig." Completed by ASU scientist and artist Charles J. Kazilek, the painting included nine images of a whirligig beetle on cotton watercolor paper.

"The style of the print is [Andy] Warhol meets Carl Linnaeus," Wheeler said, referring to the pop art icon and the father of taxonomy (the method of classifying living things).
Less than a quarter-inch long (five millimeters), O. orbisonorum belongs to the Gyrinidae family, a group of beetles that typically live on the surface of the water.

Called whirligigs because they swim rapidly in circles when alarmed, the beetles have "divided" eyes that can see both above and below the water. A band of material separates the eyes so that on first glance you'd think the insect were four-eyed.

Unlike other members of the Indian Gyrinidae, however, this one has a white underbelly due to a clear cuticle through which the white internal tissues are easily visible. Its top surface is shiny black with dull patches covered with dense, tiny hairs. "The contrast between the two areas is visually very stunning," Wheeler said.

The beetle's elegant appearance is one reason for the naming. "It almost looks like it's wearing a tuxedo," Wheeler said.

In 2005, Wheeler, Kelly Miller of the University of New Mexico and taxonomist Paolo Mazzoldi of Brescia, Italy, discovered 65 new species of slime-mold beetle in the genus Agathidium. They named one of the beetles after Darth Vader and others for President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The new species will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Zootaxa.

WWF Calls for boycott!

PARIS (AFP) - The environmental group WWF on Monday called on supermarket chains around the world to take bluefin tuna off their shelves, saying overfishing, driven by the craze for sushi, threatened to wipe out the species.

Praising several retail chains that have taken the lead in refusing to sell bluefin, WWF said it was time for "retailers around the world to emulate their courageous decision... until this fish is out of danger."

Last November, European Union (EU) fisheries ministers agreed to restrict the fishing of bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean under a 15-year plan to revive dwindling stocks.

The French supermarket giant Auchan, as well as the Italian subsidiaries of Coop and Carrefour, have already stopped selling bluefin

Mysterious reptile deaths puzzle scientists

LUCKNOW, India (AP) -- Conservationists and scientists scrambled Tuesday to determine what has killed at least 50 critically endangered crocodile-like reptiles in recent weeks in a river sanctuary in central India.

Conservationists believe there are only about 1,500 gharials left in the wild.

Everything from parasites to pollution has been blamed for the deaths of the gharials -- massive reptiles that look like their crocodile relatives, but with long slender snouts.

The bodies, measuring between five and 10 feet long, have been found washed up on the banks of the Chambal River since early December, according to conservationists and officials.

The precise number of gharials that have died remains unclear, with the Gharial Conservation Alliance saying 81 bodies have been found since early December, but Chief Wildlife Warden D.N.S Suman put the number of dead animals at 50.

Conservationists believe there are only about 1,500 gharials left in the wild, many of them in a sanctuary based along the Chambal, one of the few unpolluted Indian rivers. The Chambal contains the largest of three breeding populations in the world.

In early December, officials found the bodies of at least 21 gharials over three days. The bodies have continued washing ashore in the weeks since.

The latest clue to what's killing the rare reptiles is an unknown parasite that scientists found in the dead gharials' liver and kidneys, according to Dr. A.K. Sharma of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute.

"We can say that liver and kidney of these gharials were badly damaged," said Sharma. "They were swollen and bigger than their usual size."

Others believe the gharials may have died after eating contaminated fish from the polluted Yamuna river, which joins the Chambal in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Pathological tests confirmed lead and cadmium in the bodies of the dead gharials, said Suman, the wildlife official.

"The Chambal river has clear water free from heavy metals. The only possibility seems that these gharials might have migrated from heavily polluted Yamuna river where they might have eaten fish," said Suman.

The gharial, also known as the Indian crocodile, was on the verge of extinction in the 1970s, but a government breeding program that has released several hundred into the wild has raised their numbers.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/01/22/rarereptile.deaths.ap/index.html

Pair accused of stealing, eating dog pet

Wed Jan 23, 8:30 PM ET
HONOLULU - Two former golf club employees have been charged with theft and cruelty to animals in the death of a pet dog the owners say was cooked and eaten.

An Oahu grand jury indicted Saturnino Palting, 58, and Nelson Domingo, 43, both of Kalihi, after the Moanalua Golf Club fired them as maintenance workers.

They are charged with stealing a dog owned by Frank Manuma and his wife, Debbie Weil-Manuma. The 8-month-old German shepherd-Labrador mix named Caddy had been tied up near a maintenance shed on Dec. 16 while Frank Manuma played a round of golf.

Manuma said police told him the two men butchered and ate his pet.

The charges are both felonies punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

"We're delighted that it's moving forward," Manuma said when told of the grand jury indictments.

He said the club had given him permission to bring the dog to the club.

Witnesses told golf club officials they saw the workers load the dog into a car and drive away at the end of their shift on Dec. 16. Both were fired after the incident.

Manuma said he and his wife considered the dog like a child they never had. When the arrest was first reported, they received expressions of sympathy and offers of new dogs from as far away as Colorado.

He said they now have a 3-month old mixed German shepherd-Golden retriever named Caddy 2.

SPCA 200 Animals Rescued from Home

Sat Jan 26, 12:49 AM ET
MARSHALL, Texas - An animal protection group on Friday rescued more than 200 animals, including 26 hissing cockroaches and two bearded dragons, from an eastern Texas home.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the animals were still being counted Friday night.

The group was acting under the authority of the Harrison County Sheriff's Department and had gone to the property on a warrant regarding medical neglect.

Besides the cockroaches and bearded dragons, the animals included 68 dogs, 16 rabbits, 15 guinea pigs, 13 gerbils, seven doves, two dwarf hamsters, two hedgehogs, an opossum and a pink toe tarantula.

The SPCA said some animals were found in outdoor pens while others were in sheds scattered around the property. Others were in a doublewide trailer living in filth.

The SPCA said many of the dogs were very thin and appeared to be suffering from eye and ear infections. One dead frog and a dead guinea pig were found. The saved animals were to be taken to an animal care center.

A sheriff's department spokesman said he had no information on the raid and didn't know if any arrests were made.

Dog Hospitalised for Being Over the Limit

Mon Jan 7, 7:29 AM ET
VIENNA (AFP) - A dog was admitted to a veterinary clinic in Austria at the weekend, barely able to stand on his own four paws and reeking "like a beer hall," a newspaper reported on Monday.

Dingo, a three-year-old labrador weighing 40 kilogrammes (88 pounds), was a pitiful sight when his owner, a hunter, brought him in to the surgery in the Salzkammergut region, the Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten quoted vet Karl Hofbauer as saying.

"The dog had dreadful wind and diarrhea, and was vomiting a lot," Hofbauer said.
"When I got him up on the table, it smelt like a distillery."

Tests indicated that the dog had a blood alcohol content of 1.6 milligrams per 100 millilitres.

But that was not the result of Dingo having one drink too many, the owner insisted.

The hungry pooch had stolen and secretly devoured half a kilogramme of fresh yeast dough from the kitchen. Alcohol had formed inside his stomach as a result of the fermentation process, leaving poor old Dingo stone drunk.

"Nasty-minded people said that we hunters are often drunk. With me, it's my dog," joked the owner.

Tyson Foods to Investigate Claims of Chicken Abuse

Thu Jan 17, 5:38 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc., the largest U.S. meat company, said it will investigate allegations by the animal-welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that chickens were abused and tortured at two of its chicken processing plants.

PETA said an undercover investigator for the group had video documentation of workers throwing live chickens, hitting them with fists, and urinating in an area where the live birds were shackled.

"We're committed to proper animal handling in all aspects of our operations and are conducting our own investigation into the claims by PETA, which is well known for its anti-meat agenda," Tyson said in a statement on Thursday.

Tyson said it also is cooperating with USDA's investigation of the matter.
"Some of the videotaped activities we've seen on-line do warrant investigation; however, others are being misrepresented and sensationalized by PETA," Tyson said.

Dog Tossed from MO Overpass.

By CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jan 18, 9:38 PM ET
ST. LOUIS - A pit bull terrier that suffered two broken legs and nerve damage when it was thrown 30 feet from an overpass has been euthanized, the Humane Society of Missouri said Friday.
Humane Society veterinarians made the decision Thursday night after consultation and examination, veterinarian Melinda Fleming said.

"This dog was in severe, nearly uncontrollable pain and it was questionable whether he would be able to walk again," she said. "That someone would allow a pet to be abused in this way is unthinkable and heartbreaking."

The organization got a call Wednesday evening from a witness who saw the pit bull terrier and a large golden retriever or Akita mix falling from the overpass in north St. Louis. Authorities believe the dogs were thrown.

The other dog ran away but may have been seriously injured, the Humane Society said. A team from the Humane Society along with city Animal Control and police are looking for the missing dog. So far, they have no confirmed sightings.

The Humane Society has offered $2,500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Witnesses were urged to call the Humane Society or police with information.