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/