Spring 2018

Spring 2018

ACTION LINE

SPECIAL REPORT: HUNTERS ARE ON BORROWED TIME

PRESSING FOR BELUGA PROTECTIONS THE IMPORTANCE OF OPEN SPACES CREATE A VEGANIC GARDEN

8 SPECIAL

SECTION: HUNTERS ARE ON BORROWED TIME

WHO WE ARE Friends of Animals is an international non-profit animal-advocacy organization, incorporated in the state of New York in 1957. FoA works to cultivate a respectful view of nonhuman animals, free-living and domestic. Our goal is to free animals from cruelty and institutionalized exploitation around the world.

• FoA exposes hunting as a crime against nature and the public is listening • Hunting industry ramps up marketing to youth to save itself • The Bear Facts: Hunting injuries far out weigh black bear attacks

Friends of Animals is proud to be a woman-founded and -led organization for more than 60 years.

6 VICTORY LAP 16 WILDLIFE WATCH Stepping up to protect beleaguered beluga whales

18 NEWS FoA’s Papa competes in the Dog Bowl 20 PEOPLE WHO INSPIRE A love of coffee and canines on tap at NYC's Boris & Horton Cafe 22 FEATURE FoA's Lyman Coleman Wildlife Sanctuary provides inspiration for people to be the change they want to see in their community 26 LEGAL MATTERS

FoA fights to get queen conch the protection it deserves 28 RESTAURANT REVIEW Be prepared for pleasant surprises at Bloodroot Restaurant 30 IN YOUR BACKYARD Gardeners lead charge for pesticide- free town in Connecticut 32 VEG NEWS Veganic gardener offers advice on how to get started 35 FOA ON THE ROAD FoA's advocacy on the road 37 CHEERS & JEERS COVER ILLUSTRATION

BY LEAH TINARI

CONTACT US NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 777 Post Road Darien, Connecticut 06820 (203) 656-1522 contact@friendsofanimals.org WESTERN OFFICE 7500 E. Arapahoe Rd., Ste 385 Centennial, CO 80112 (720) 949-7791 PRIMARILY PRIMATES SANCTUARY P.O. Box 207 San Antonio, TX 7891-02907 (830) 755-4616 office@primarilyprimates.org VISIT US www.friendsofanimals.org www.primarilyprimates.org FOLLOW US facebook.com /friendsofanimals.org /primarilyprimates.org Twitter @FoAorg Instagram/foaorg MEMBERSHIP Annual membership includes a year’s subscription to Action Line. Students/Senior membership, $15; Annual membership, $25; International member, $35; Sustaining membership, $50; Sponsor, $100; Patron, $1,000. All contributions, bequests and gifts are fully tax-deductible in accordance with current laws.

REPRODUCTION No prior permission for the reproduction of materials from Action Line is required provided the content is not altered and due credit is given as follows: “Reprinted from Action Line, the Friends of Animals’ magazine, 777 Post Road, Darien, CT 06820.”

Action Line is a quarterly publication. Issue CLXXVI Spring 2018 ISSN 1072-2068

OUR TEAM PRESIDENT Priscilla Feral [CT] www.twitter.com/pferal www.twitter.com/primate_refuge feral@friendsofanimals.org DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Robert Orabona [CT] admin@friendsofanimals.org DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Dustin Rhodes [NC] dustin@friendsofanimals.org COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Fran Silverman [CT] fsilverman@friendsofanimals.org CORRESPONDENT/EDITOR Nicole Rivard [CT] nrivard@friendsofanimals.org SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Meghan McIntire [MA] www.twitter.com/FoAorg mmcintire@friendsofanimals.org DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION Donna Berlanda [CT] dberlanda@friendsofanimals.org ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT Donna Thigpen [CT] SECRETARY TO THE PRESIDENT Shelly Scott [CT] SPAY/NEUTER PROJECT Paula Santo [CT] spayprogram@friendsofanimals.org DIRECTOR, WILDLIFE LAW PROGRAM Michael Harris [CO] michaelharris@friendsofanimals.org ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Jenni Best [CO] jennifer@friendsofanimals.org ATTORNEY'S Rachel Nussbaum[CO] rachel@friendsofanimals.org Elizabeth Rasheed [CO] elizabeth.rasheed@friendsofanimals.org Courtney McVean [CO] courtney.mcvean@friendsofanimals.org ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Marielle Grenade-Willis [CO] wlp_admin@friendsofanimals.org PRIMARILY PRIMATES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brooke Chavez [TX] brooke@primarilyprimates.org CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jane Seymour [NY] jane@friendsofanimals.org Printed on Recycled Paper

BY PRISCILLA FERAL, PRESIDENT

IN MY VIEW STANDING OUR GROUND AGAINST A HUNTING AGENDA

F

riends of Animals challenges the hunting culture at every opportunity, defending the rights of swans, deer, bears and other animals to be free from recreational violence.

We’re a nation already awash in gun proliferation and accompanying harm, yet the Trump administration works feverishly to increase hunting opportunities on public lands and to even allow the use of hazardous lead ammunition there.

On the first day as Trump’s secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke torpedoed a ban on the use of lead ammunition by hunters. After arriving at his D.C. job on horseback, he also insisted that agencies managing federal land identify where hunting could be expanded.

Before Zinke’s appointment, Time magazine named the Top 10 Worst Cabinet Members in modern history and two secretaries of interior made the list: Albert Fall, who served from 1921-23, and whose kickback schemes landed him in prison, and James Watt, Ronald Regan’s most controversial cabinet appointment. During Watt’s 1981-83 term, his anti-environmental views favored development over preservation.

Today, Zinke carries on that disastrous Sagebrush Rebellion sentiment by favoring

ranchers, miners and commercial developers—seeing public lands as purposeful only for someone’s economic advantage, or for feathering the National Rifle Association’s nest. Zinke tops FoA’s list of the worst interior secretaries because of these antics: Speaking to an oil industry group, he praised hydraulic fracturing, which has poisoned water and increased global warming saying, “Fracking is proof that God’s got a good sense of humor and he loves us.”

Seriously.

And then this egotistical dumbness: He requires his security staff to hoist a special secretarial flag on the Interior Department’s roof when he’s at the office, and to remove it when he leaves the building. Zinke is also pushing to open several national monuments for mining and drilling.

Finally, Zinke’s creating an International Wildlife Conservation Council to provide propaganda for him regarding the economic benefits from Americans traveling outside the U.S. for trophy hunting and he reversed the government’s policy prohibiting U.S. hunters from importing trophy-hunted elephant parts from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

If a disastrous, convoluted argument can be advanced for dismembering lovely animals to line someone’s pocketbook, Zinke is all for it.

Spring 2018 | 3

THE NRA SPENT MORE THAN $30 MILLION TO GET DONALD TRUMP ELECTED No need to ask why Trump followed his trophy-hunter son’s preference for picking Zinke. The NRA spent more than $30 million to get Donald Trump elected with its hard-right paranoia, and although his payback in return to them is to weaken gun laws, stock prices for major gun companies tanked after Trump was elected, and haven’t recovered. Still, with a glut of NRA enthusiasts, Trump expects to deliver radical changes to our nation’s gun law. Last April, before hundreds of NRA members at its annual meeting, Trump told them: "You are my friends, believe me.”

A year later, after military-style assault weapons have been used in every mass shooting, finally, there’s momentum among Democratic senators in Congress to stop him.

The Assault Ban of 2017 bill has been introduced and is widely co-sponsored.

Good ol' boys in Texas and elsewhere who strap guns on their hips don't give a hoot about the proliferation of guns—or the toll it takes on the nation each time gunfire breaks out at a school, shopping mall, church, outdoor concert or any other venue. These gun enthusiasts are not concerned that firearms are used by males accused of domestic abuse. Instead, they extol their right to shoot innocent creatures and that's an excuse for owning an average of 17 guns. As for the argument about background checks, if those don’t meet the NRA’s sniff test, they’re another uphill battle.

Interestingly, Trump’s salacious overtures to guys with guns hasn’t stopped the number of nationwide licensed hunters from yet another significant decline. In 2011, hunting propa-

4 | Friends of Animals

ganda had pumped up the number of hunters to 13.7 million, but they’ve been in a free-fall ever since. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s 2016 Survey, there’s a 16 percent decline in hunters to almost 11.5 million. Only 5 percent of U.S. residents now hunt, yet wildlife watchers continue to increase to at least 86 million. These wildlife watchers include bird watchers and outdoor photographers and they represent at least 35 percent of U.S. residents.

ONLY 5 PERCENT OF U.S. RESIDENTS NOW HUNT, YET WILDLIFE WATCHERS REPRESENT AT LEAST 35 PERCENT OF U.S. RESIDENTS So we’re a majority, and as the singer-songwriter Patti Smith croons, there’s power in the numbers. Stand your ground against the NRA and the violence its supporters make possible.

Spring 2018 | 5

VICTORY LAP

BY NICOLE RIVARD PHOTOGRAPH BY GENE DEVINE

NEVADA'S WILD HORSES TARGETED FOR ROUNDUPS, CASTRATION In January, Friends of Animals filed a lawsuit to halt the Bureau of Land Management’s Ten-Year Wild Horse Roundup Decision that authorizes rounding up and permanently removing approximately 9,525 wild horses from Antelope and Triple B wild horse complexes in Nevada. The plan also authorizes years of further roundups, forcibly drugging mares with fertility control and castrating stallions, some of whom will be returned to the range.

“This is the definition of animal cruelty,” said Priscilla Feral, president of FoA. “Not only could castration be a death sentence because of the risk of hemorrhaging and infection, for the horses who do survive, they will be robbed of their natural behaviors, putting them at a disadvantage on the range in terms of survival. These are native wild animals, not domesticated dogs and cats.”

with the fertility pesticide PZP. 185 to 253 horses to live in this vast The BLM tried to get away with area. Despite a recent count of only not allowing the public to provide 244 wild horses, BLM decided to recomment during the decision-mak- duce the population. ing process, which is a violation of the However, the BLM, which treats National Environmental Protection ranchers as clients, allows 2,239 cattle Act. to graze in nearby allotments.

“It seems it is becoming routine for BLM to seek to cut corners and Following a legal challenge from knowingly violate the law when it Friends of Animals, the Bureau of comes to protecting America’s wild Land Management withdrew its Oct. horses,”saidMichaelHarris,FoA'sWild26, 2017 decision to roundup approxi- life Law Program Director. “This atromately 150 wild horses from the Chal- cious behavior will not stand under Friends of Animals and the Zimbalis Herd Management Area in Custer the watchful eyes of FoA." bwe Conservation Task Force are The Challis HMA encompasses once again stepping up to safeguard County, Idaho. The BLM planned to permanently remove at least 50 of more than 154,000 acres of public elephants in Zimbabwe. In Novemthem and to forcibly drug the mares land, but BLM only allows a measly ber, the two groups filed a lawsuit

FOA WINS VICTORY FOR IDAHO’S WILD HORSES

6 | Friends of Animals

FOA AND ZCTF FILE LAWSUIT TO SAFEGUARD AFRICAN ELEPHANTS

THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT FOA’S ADVOCACY AND ACHIEVEMENTS

BISON GET A CHANCE AT ESA PROTECTIONS

in federal court in Washington, D.C. ephants in that country by American challenging U.S. Fish and Wildlife hunters,” said Harris. “These permits Service’s hurried, irrational decision were issued without any opportunity to reverse its three-year policy on pro- for non-agency scientists and other hibiting U.S. hunters from importing interested parties to provide infor- A federal judge ruled Feb. 1 in a case elephant trophies from Zimbabwe. mation regarding the impact the issu- argued by Friends of Animals that the “There is no indication that FWS’ ance of these permits would have on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally previous concerns about manage- African elephants in Zimbabwe, which denied Endangered Species Act protections for the Yellowstone Nationment, utilization of hunting revenues will be completely devastating.” or poaching levels and prevention Zimbabwe’s overall elephant al Park bison population. The ruling have been addressed or fixed by Zim- population has declined 11 percent overturns the U.S. Fish and Wildlife babwe’s new Elephant Management since 2005, and in some parts of the Service’s negative 90-day finding, which concluded that there was not Plan,” said Michael Harris, director country by 74 percent. of FoA's Wildlife Law Program. “Also, Last year, a federal judge upheld substantial information supporting FWS issued the 2017 decision despite the FWS' 2014 decision to ban imports the need to protect the bison under the political instability in Zimbabwe, of sport-hunted African elephant tro- the ESA. This moves bison back into unchanged hunting quotas in the phies from Zimbabwe—a case that queue for full and fair consideration country and mounting evidence on FoA and Zimbabwe Conservation Task under the ESA. “This is huge that the Court recogthe negative impacts of trophy hunt- Force intervened in—striking down a ing. Furthermore, FWS failed to give challenge brought by the Safari Club nized the importance of science,” says the public notice of, and an opportu- and the NRA. In December of 2017, a Michael Harris, an attorney with FoA nity to comment on, the new rule and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals com- who argued the case for Buffalo Field change in policy. pletely vindicated the need to ban Campaign and Western Watersheds “Zimbabwe is one of the worst American sport hunters from killing Project.

“It sends a signal to the Fish and wildlife managers on earth, and that Zimbabwe’s dwindling elephant popWildlife Service that they cannot mahasn’t changed.” ulation, however, it also found that in nipulate the science to serve political After filing the lawsuit, FoA dis- issuing the ban in 2014, FWS failed to covered through a Freedom of In- provide for sufficient opportunity for interests, like cattle ranchers.”

State and federal agencies have formation request that FWS actually public participation. been shooting bison, our national started issuing permits in January of “FoA will not tolerate a gift to the mammal, in and around Yellowstone 2017 before announcing to the pub- Safari Club International and the NRA, lic in November that it was lifting its which for decades have spent sub- National Park as part of the Interagenban. FWS quietly issued 16 individu- stantial money perpetuating the myth cy Bison Management Plan in an efal permits authorizing the import of that trophy hunting is the best way to fort to reduce the imperiled populasport-hunted elephant trophies from fund sustainable wildlife conservation tion and to cater to unfounded fears Zimbabwe. in Africa, blatantly ignoring the evi- of transmission risk to local livestock “It is outrageous that despite find- dence to the contrary that continues operations of brucellosis, a non-native ing that Zimbabwe has no effective to pile up. Studies show that increased disease brought to the region by liveprogram to conserve the African ele- opportunities to legally kill these ani- stock. phant population in that country that mals actually fuels poaching,” said PrisFWS would covertly issue this year 16 cilla Feral, president of FoA. permits authorizing the killing of el-

Spring 2018 | 7

HUNTER ARE ON BORROW TIME SPECIAL REPORT

RS N OWED Wildlife watching is gaining momentum as interest in hunting wanes, but when you are out in the wild, who should you really fear? Our special section reveals that you should still fear the hunters, not the hunted.

ILLUSTRATION BY LEAH TINARI

Spring 2018 | 9

SEPCIAL REPORT

I FOA EXPOSES HUNTING AS A CRIME AGAINST NATURE... and the public is listening

BY NICOLE RIVARD

10 | Friends of Animals

t doesn’t matter how often I see deer in my backyard, while hiking or simply in a meadow that I might be driving by, each time feels like the first time. I feel more alive when we lock eyes—my heart beats a little faster, and I hold my breath, not wanting to exhale the moment away.

I’ve always had a desire to be close to the wild—as a kid I was enchanted by run-ins with bull frogs, garter snakes, birds, chipmunks, rabbits, fireflies, daddy long-legs and bats in my backyard or on my way to the fort my sister and I made in the woods.

When I saw my first herd of wild horses as a correspondent for Friends of Animals, I felt it was a privilege.

Unfortunately, hunters think it is their right to take the lives of wild animals. But the good news is, hunting appears to be what’s dying.

A scant 5 percent of the U.S. population 16 years and older—11.5 million people—went hunting in 2016, according to the 2016 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife Associated Recreation published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The shameful industry has lost 2.2 million hunters since 2011.

However, what has increased substantially is wildlife watching— observing, feeding and photographing wildlife, according to this recent survey, which is the 13th in a series conducted nearly every five years since 1955. More than 86 million people 16 years old and older participated in these activities in 2016, a 21 percent increase from 2011.

The survey defines wildlife watching as participants either taking a special interest in wildlife around their home or taking a trip for the primary purpose of wildlife watch-

ing. Additionally, expenditures by wildlife watchers also rose sharply— 28 percent—between 2011 and 2016, from $59.1 billion to $75.9 billion.

Around-the-home wildlife watching increased 18 percent from 2011, from 68.6 million in 2011 to 81.1 million participants in 2016. More modest gains were made for awayfrom-home wildlife watchers: There was a 5 percent increase from 2011 to 2016, from 22.5 million to 23 million participants.

As one of the only anti-hunting groups in the U.S., FoA, which places wildlife and critical habitat protection at the core of our advocacy, is proud to see that our educational outreach is working.

This study fortifies us as we, in 2018, take on desperate wildlife agencies, which will increase their efforts to drum up more clients because they rake in revenue from hunting and trapping licenses.

We expect more bear, swan and other wildlife-hating propaganda to be ramped up and we are prepared to expose those lies (See The Bear Facts, pg 14). We will continue to encourage the anti-hunting majority to use their voices to take back forests and other places from the hunting minority.

We have our work cut out for us as Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is already using the study to justify giving hunters the run of more public lands across the country.

“This report absolutely underscores the need to increase public access to public lands across the United States,” said Zinke. “Hunting and fishing are a part of the American heritage. As a kid who grew up hunting and fishing on public lands who later took my own kids out on the same land, I know how import-

ant it is to expand access for future generations. Many folks east of the Mississippi River rely on friends with large acreages or pay high rates for hunting and fishing clubs. This makes access to wildlife refuges and other public lands more important.”

On his first day in office, Zinke reversed an order that would have banned lead ammo and fishing tackle on National Wildlife Refuge lands, and he began the process of expanding hunting and fishing opportunities on public lands managed by the Interior Department.

By August, the Secretary had announced a proposal to expand hunting and fishing opportunities at 10 national wildlife refuges. He also introduced a plan to acquire land to make the Bureau of Land Management Sabinoso Wilderness Area in New Mexico accessible for the first time ever to hunters and made recommendations on 27 national monuments that call for changes to some that would allow fishing and hunting.

Despite such assaults on wildlife and wild places, FoA will not stop fostering a love of nature and respect for wild creatures. We will continue to educate the public about why hunting is a crime against nature and to expose the sinister relationship between federal and state wildlife conservation agencies like the USFWS and the violent gun culture overall.

After all, federal agencies depend on revenues from the sales of guns and rifles. The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 uses the proceeds from a federal excise tax on guns and ammunition to fund grants to states and territories for projects to benefit wildlife resources

and to conduct programs for hunter education. The tax is applied whether the equipment is likely to be used for hunting or not. And, state environmental protection agencies count on revenues from hunting licenses.

“If bullets aren’t expended, the wildlife conservation economy would come to a screeching halt,” the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting said in its fall newsletter.

FoA is committed to making sure hunting never makes a comeback, and wildlife watching continues to flourish. We couldn’t be happier to learn that 11 million people maintain plantings or natural areas for the benefit of wildlife within a mile of their home.

Hunters would like to believe they are the backbone of all conservation everywhere. But the truth is, killing is not conservation, but protecting wildlife and habitat in your own backyard is.

FEDERAL AGENCIES DEPEND ON REVENUES FROM THE SALES OF GUNS AND RIFLES. STATE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCIES COUNT ON REVENUES FROM HUNTING LICENSES. Spring 2018 | 11

SEPCIAL REPORT

HUNTING INDUSTRY RAMPS UP MARKETING TO YOUTH TO SAVE ITSELF

BY MEG MCINTIRE

W

hen you’re a dying industry and lack the self-awareness to quietly fold into obscurity, you will stop at nothing to claw back to relevancy.

And when you’re the hunting industry, you’ll even push to put guns in the hands of children.

In a recent report, the CT-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade association, actually recommended that gun manufacturers market to children, saying: “To help hunting and target shooting get a head start over other activities, stakeholders such as managers and manufacturers should target programs toward youth 12 years old and younger. This is the time that youth are being targeted with competing activities.”

The industry is well aware that many marketing research firms and the financial industry in general have deemed it is on shaky ground.

In 2017, IBISWorld, a global market research firm, did a study of the state of the hunting industry and concluded, “...the hunting and trapping industry is in the declining stage of its life cycle, evidenced by a decrease in new hunting participation over the past two decades and sluggish increase in revenue in recent years.”

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that such an immoral, sleazy industry would prey on children to boost revenue as gun manufacturers like Colt, Savage, Remington and Federal Premium are laying off employees.

12 | Friends of Animals

A report released in 2016 by the Violence POLICY Center, a Washington-DC based gun violence injury prevention organization, called “Start Them Young” reveals a variety of firearms targeted at children.

For example it mentions the Crickett rifle, a gun made for children by Keystone Sporting Arms, one of the top gun manufacturers, which promotes the product as “My First Rifle.”

Keystone’s website and some of its merchandise bear the image of “Davey Crickett,” a gun-wielding cartoon insect.

But perhaps most disturbing of all, Keystone is even attempting to indoctrinate children deemed too young to own their own firearm by selling books featuring “Little Jake,” a boy who uses his gun to bring down a bear and save an African village from a “troublesome” elephant.

State wildlife agencies in the U.S., which make money off of hunting and trapping licenses, are equally as shameful, working overtime to entice adolescents into participating into the violent hunting culture. For example, in New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation, promoted its “Youth Trapping Camp” weekends for kids. Children between the ages of 12 and 14 were invited to attend the events to learn how to capture animals in inhumane

metal leghold traps, kill them and then skin them so they can earn a state Trapper Education certificate.

Wildlife agencies should be teaching respect for wildlife as the ever increasing human population squeezes it into tiny habitats—not how to torture and kill animals.

Plus, kids these days, already traumatized by school shootings, don’t need to be placed in emotional and psychological jeopardy by being taught to kill and treat living, sentient beings as unfeeling, inanimate objects.

TARGETING THE AIRWAVES The gun industry has also taken to television as a marketing strategy. Just this past summer, American billionaire, Stan Kroenke launched “My Outdoor TV” in the UK, a subscription cable channel that streams hunting and bloodsports 24/7. It has also been available in the U.S. for two years. The channel, which is owned by Outdoor Sportsman Group, features several programs chronicling trophy hunts and the gruesome murders of innocent threatened African species, such as lions and elephants.

The footage depicted on these programs is disturbingly violent and bloody, with trophy hunters making such callous remarks as: “It’s a good shot…Definitely, some liver and some lungs hit.” One program shows a presenter shooting a threatened African elephant before the bull turns and charges at him. Two more

shots are heard before the animal falls to the ground and dies.

The channel’s spokesperson claims to show “ethical, fair chase and legal” hunting, but Friends of Animals knows there is no such thing.

The creation of the channel in the UK elicited worldwide protests and hundreds of petitions to get it taken off the air, which has resulted in some of the programming being pulled off the channel.

We are bolstered that the programming may not be renewed.

In the meantime, another loathsome marketing scheme is Gun TV. Launched in 2016 with the tagline “Live Shopping. Fully loaded,” Gun TV was a home shopping channel dedicated to selling firearms, munitions, outdoor and shooting sports

products.

In a 2016 statement, the channel’s creator asked people to “Imagine the multifaceted platform of iTunes, the social interactivity of Facebook and best in class products combined to form a revolutionary shopping opportunity available to U.S. satellite and cable subscribers, smart device and active social media users.”

On the first episode, sales began with a blonde rodeo rider posing for the camera with a 9mm pistol. A price tag flashed at the bottom of the television screen: $249.99.

"Call 844-My-GunTV right now,” she said. “We can get this in your hands."

It turns out, the American public wasn’t interested. At all. And GunTV is off the air.

While this is good news, GUNTV

wasn't the only trigger happy television channel out there. The NRA owns an entire television network, NRATV, which hosts a variety of pro-gun programs including "Under Wild Skies" a big-game hunting series that showcases hunters traveling the world to hunt down threatened species. The NRA's network is facing pressure, however, from Apple, Amazon, and Roku customers who are demanding the network be dropped from streaming platforms.

FoA will not rest until the plug is pulled on the entire hunting industry. This year, we will continue to push for legislation that would end animal killing contests in the U.S. and the importation of trophy-hunted animals into the country.

Stay tuned!

Spring 2018 | 13

SEPCIAL REPORT

THE BEAR FACTS

DESPARATE HUNTING INDUSTRY MARKETS FEAR, YET HUNTING INJURIES FAR OUTWEIGH FATAL BLACK BEAR ATTACKS

BY FRAN SILVERMAN

More than half the states in the U.S. allow some form of black bear hunting and some estimates put the number of bears killed by hunters in the range of 40,000-50,000.

T

hat’s an astounding number considering that the amount of times a black bear has injured or killed a human being is a fraction of that amount. Another outlandish number? Hunting injuries compared to bear attacks.

Friends of Animals has gathered data through Freedom of Information requests and online research from six states in which bear hunting is allowed or is being considered.

Our number crunching revealed some startling figures.

While the marketing surrounding the sport hunting of bears as part of animal control measures would have residents believe that reducing their population keeps everyone safer, the bare facts about bears is that a far larger number of people are injured or killed in hunting accidents.

While there have been six fatal attacks in the U.S. by black bears between 2010 and 2017, the number of fatal hunting accidents is more than 10 times that amount and injuries number in the hundreds in just the six key states alone that FoA reviewed.

And it’s not just hunters injuring themselves or other hunters. State data is filled with sad narratives of hunters

14 | Friends of Animals

injuring or killing bystanders. Some examples: In Wisconsin, a 60-year-old man was shot in the abdomen and killed by a teenaged hunter in 2015 and an 88-year-old man was shot in his home by an unidentified hunter. A New Jersey man fishing in the Delaware River tributary was shot in the cheek by yet another identified hunter. And just a few months ago, a 43-year-old woman walking her dog near her western New York home was shot and killed by her neighbor who was hunting after sunset. In fact, there have been more than 100 hunting related injuries and 13 fatalities from 2011 to 2016 in New York. And while there have been no fatalities from bear attacks in the state during that same time, thousands of bears are killed by hunters in New York each year.

In New Jersey, where a three-decade moratorium on bear hunting was lifted in 2003, hunters have killed almost 4,000 bears. Yet the number of bear encounters in the past six years totals just 4. The number of fatalities due to bear attacks in all of New Jersey’s modern history: 1. But injuries related to hunting from 2011-2016 total 33, including two fatalities. FoA has called on New Jersey’s new governor, Phil Murphy, to keep his promise to halt the hunts.

Florida has put its hunt on hold for 2018 as it revises its bear management plan to address bear hunting as a tool for population control. But what commissioners there need to review is that there were 61 hunting accidents between 2011 and 2016 including 10 human deaths, yet zero fatalities from any bear attacks.

In Connecticut, where FoA is headquartered, another bill

HUNTING RELATED SHOOTING ACCIDENTS (2011-2016) Source: State data obtained through Freedom of Information requests

HA - HUNTING ACCIDENTS | HF - HUNTING FATALITIES | BF - BEAR ATTACK FATALTIIES

calling for a bear hunt has been introduced, with pro-hunting advocates pointing to what they say is an increasing number of bear encounters. Yet there have been zero fatal bear attacks in the state but from 2011-2016, one person was killed in a hunting accident and more than a dozen have been injured.

The numbers get worse in other states listed by sports hunters as top locations for bear hunting. In North Carolina there have been zero deaths from bear attacks but 24 fatalities and 166 injuries from hunting accidents from 2011-2016.

In Wisconsin, there have also been no deaths related to bear attacks between 2011-2016 in the past six years but 13 related to hunting, and 120 injuries.

The pattern is clear. If states are trying to protect residents from injury, the math isn’t adding up. By far, hunters are doing more of the killing than black bears are, even as participation in hunting has decreased 16 percent from 2011 to 2016.

In fact, a black bear study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management in 2011 found that there was a weak correlation between the estimated size of the black bear population within a given jurisdiction and the number of fatal black bear attacks. Some areas the study reviewed,

for example, had large black bear populations but no fatal bear attacks. The study found that people’s food or garbage were influencers in more than a third of incidents related to black bear attacks.

FoA will continue to oppose open season on black bears and instead advocate for some common-sense approaches to limiting human-bear encounters such as requiring the use of bear-resistant containers, dumpsters or food boxes in areas where black bears are prevalent, removing bird feeders and posting educational signs in forested areas informing visitors about what to do if they encounter a bear.

“The real proponents of bear hunting are the dwindling numbers of hunters who are backed by states that reap revenue from hunting licenses,’’ said FoA President Priscilla Feral. “But this data shows that the barbarism of hunting ends up leading to more injuries of humans than any bear attacks.”

Spring 2018 | 15

WILDLIFE WATCH

STEPPING UP TO PROTECT BELEAGUERED BELUGAS

BY FRAN SILVERMAN PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID MERRON

DESPITE BEING PLACED ON subsistence hunters killed half the belugas in the world who live near THE ENDANGERED SPECIES population, reducing them from urban centers.

One issue that is endangering LIST IN 2008, the Arctic’s beluga more than 650 to under 350. Despite whales of Cook Inlet have not bounced back as a species, an alarming fact that has Friends of Animals continuing to press for more protections.

The population of Cook Inlet belugas has declined from more than 1,000 in 1979 to about 300. While efforts to halt hunting of belugas were expected to help their population growth, the belugas population continues to decline about 1 percent yearly. The most recent count by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2016 estimated the population to be just 312 in the inlet, a tidal estuary on Alaska’s southern coast which stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage.

The most intense decline occurred between 1994-1998 when

16 | Friends of Animals

a full ban on hunting in 2007, federal officials have not been able to pinpoint what has kept the whales from thriving and the beluga population remains critically low.

FoA has been pushing federal officials to consider how multiple leasing and drilling projects in Cook Inlet are cumulatively affecting their health.

Beluga whales, known as white whales, live together in small groups.

They are part of a family of toothed whales related to narwhals. They are very social and are among the most vocal of aquatic mammals, using a sophisticated array of whistles and clicks to communicate with each other that earned them the name "sea canaries" from Arctic whalers.

The Cook Inlet belugas are the only

them, FoA asserted in comments to federal officials, is the constant harassment they are subject to from commercial interests, including oil leasing companies, that receive permits—known as incidental harassment authorizations—in the waterway. Joining with Sea Shepherd Legal, FoA told the National Marine Fisheries Service that before the agency grants permits for what is known as a “Level B take” it must consider the cumulative effects of such activity by multiple companies. A Level B take is defined as activity that has the potential to disturb a marine animal in the wild by causing disruption to behavioral patterns, including migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding and sheltering.

COOK INLET

CUMULATIVE EFFECTS While each specific activity by a company may be limited in the harassment of the whales, the overall effects of the activities allowed by all the companies must be evaluated when assessing the dangers to the belugas, FoA wrote. In recent years, for example, ExxonMobil, BlueCrest and SAExploration all submitted request for permits for oil leasing activity in the inlet that in totality pose dangers to the whales. In fact, about two dozen development projects were underway in the Cook Inlet beluga habitat and since the belugas were listed on Endangered Species Act, NMFS has authorized a combined total of 359 Level B takes.

Issuance of the permits continues the NMFS pattern and practice of granting incidental harassment authorizations that have barraged the Cook Inlet belugas with years of noise and other behavioral disturbances, FoA noted.

Vessel movements, testing, drilling, pile driving and dredging have the potential to harass, harm and permanently injure or even kill the belugas. The continued harassment of the whales from these activities can cause reproduction issues and other health issues related to displacement and disruption of habitat such as inhibited immune systems from stress.

Another major concern is the threat of hearing damage to the whales from oil exploration sounds that include platform and drilling noise, echosounders and boat activity.

“Cook Inlet belugas have the right to live in a habitat that is relatively wild,’’ FoA and Sea Shepard said in their comments.

While NMFS considers the whales habituated to noise, FoA maintains that habituation of the whales remains largely unstudied and that designating them as being accustomed to noise is like saying that there is no negative impact on a human whose neighbor uses power tools every day in the apartment next door.

Before leaving office, President Obama removed 118 million acres of the publicly-owned Arctic from a 5-year-leasing program, preventing drilling from 2017-2022. However, President Trump reversed those measures—despite a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration status update that found that the threat of Cook Inlet beluga extinction is still high and the cumulative stress is not only continuing but increasing. Trump is also calling for expanding annual lease sales there.

And NMFS issued a notice that it is continuing to take applications for 2018 incidental harassment authorizations.

“The new administration is going full steam ahead putting these whales at risk,’’ said Michael Harris, director of the FoA's Wildlife Law Program.

FoA’s Wildlife Law Program will continue to raise awareness and push for more focus on the cumulative effects of commercial activity in the inlet that disrupts and endangers belugas.

“Marine life has much to lose from continued aquatic and coastal development,’’ said Harris. “Cook Inlet beluga whales and their environment should not have to suffer for the sake of private, commercial pursuits.”

RECOVERY EFFORTS But there is support for the belugas taking shape, which is good news. The NOAA recovery plan issued in January 2017 included recommendations that focus on the exact concern raised by FoA. The plan identifies the cumulative effects of multiple stressors and noise as a threat that has to be managed and mitigated. The plan includes recommendations for limiting the number of allowable “takes” of belugas for development and research projects.

For info on belugas and why they are worthy of legal personhood status, you can view “By All Rights.” The film, sponsored by FoA, explores whale culture, intelligence and similarities to humans. Screen the movie at byallrights.org.

Spring 2018 | 17

NEWS

FoA's Papa

NOMINATED

MVP PLANET’S DOG OF ANIMAL

BOWL

BY NICOLE RIVARD

S

uper Bowls typically have more than 100 million viewers each year, but this year everyone in Friends of Animals’ offices was actually more excited to tune in the night before the big game to watch the premiere of Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl Presents: The Dog Bowl.”

That’s because FoA's very own office pooch, Papa the bulldog, competed. Not only did he compete, he also was nominated for the Most Valuable Player Award for Team Paws after scoring the team's first touchdown.

The “Dog Bowl” is Animal Planet’s newly added furry football competition created for adult dogs living in rescues and shelters who are frequently passed over for their younger counterparts. The one-hour special, hosted by award-winning animal advocate Jill Rappaport, featured dogs from 15 shelters in 11 states, ranging from 2 to 15 years old—all in need of their forever homes.

Since the taping of the show in October of 2017, FoA President Priscilla Feral and her spouse Bob

18 | Friends of Animals

adopted Papa from Long Island Bulldog Rescue as a companion for their black lab Harry, unaware of Papa's athletic prowess but enticed by his personality.

“When adopting a cat or dog from a shelter or rescue group people flock to kittens and puppies and often overlook older animals who became inconvenient due to illnesses, baby arrivals, expensive surgeries and care, temperament or other reasons,” said Feral, who brings Papa and Harry to work every day. “That’s a shame because adult and senior animals need someone to love them for the rest of their lives, and that’s something we can make possible with the right attitude, affection and care.”

Simon Morris, the executive producer of Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl,” explained to People magazine why the network felt compelled to create an additional event for older dogs after 14 years of hosting the competition for puppies.

“The shelters around the country that we work with for ‘Puppy Bowl’ were often talking to us about the great

need for adult and senior dogs to find homes, and how much harder it is for them to secure adopters for these dogs versus puppies,” he said. “We wanted to respond to this need and spread the adoption message wider.

We also wanted to highlight that older dogs are often easier pets to take care of than puppies, being already house trained, and having their temperaments already tried and tested.”

The Dog Bowl provided a full-scale matchup between two teams, Paws and Tails, with the adult dogs going nose to nose for touchdowns and furry fumbles.

“I knew Papa was going to be great at the ‘Dog Bowl’ because he is so playful,” said Laurette Richin, founder of Long Island Bulldog Rescue. “The dogs were put through some interesting tests before they were accepted into the game. This included entering a room full of various- sized dogs. Then they had several photo shoots, as well as their DNA tested.”

After the game of tail tugs and ear pulls was over, they all ended up winners as they found their forever

homes, like Papa did.

The “Puppy Bowl,” which aired the day of the Super Bowl, once again brought much needed attention to the plight of puppies in rescues and shelters.

By promoting animal adoption overall so as many animals as possible can find their forever homes, Animal Planet scored big in FoA's playbook.

Spring 2018 | 19

PEOPLE WHO INSPIRE

A love of coffee and canines on tap at NYC’s

BY NICOLE RIVARD PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEENAH MOON AND NICOLE RIVARD

A

s a mix of snow and rain blanketed New York City on Feb. 7, patrons inside the new Boris & Horton café in the East Village sipped on coffee to keep warm while discussing the proper footwear for the inclement weather.

“His feet used to freeze. These things help so much,” said Trey Wagoner, pointing to the four brown rubber boots his beloved family member was wearing.

Wagoner was talking about his Irish Setter rescue dog, Colin, who was standing right next to him. That’s because Boris & Horton is New York’s first Department of Health approved dog-friendly café, where customers are welcome to bring their pooches inside when the weather outside is frightful in the winter, stifling hot in the summer or any other time they want.

Jonathan Segal, a New York University student who was there with his rescue Clinton, a terrier who was also prepared for the weather with four red rubber boots, told Wagoner that the footwear also provided his pup with much needed protection from the salt and other chemicals on NYC streets, which can be brought indoors or dogs can ingest by licking.

20 | Friends of Animals

“This is a big day for Clinton, he peed outside for the first time,” Segal added with a laugh, explaining that he rescued Clinton just a week earlier. “It was kind of an impulsive decision to get a dog. I called my mom in Florida, and she didn’t think it was a good idea, but then she said ‘you do you.’ And I did.”

He is so thrilled with his new furry friend, he is thinking about rescuing a brother or sister for Clinton.

Perhaps Segal will find one at one of the adoption events that Boris & Horton will host. Because in addition to serving great coffee, beer, wine and vegetarian and vegan snacks, Boris & Horton, which opened on Feb. 2, will partner with rescue groups and also host adoption events and fundraisers.

The hope is that many dogs find their forever homes because people will get to see the dogs interacting with each other and humans in a cozy, comfortable atmosphere.

DOGGONE GOOD IDEA This amazing place is the brainchild of father /daughter duo Coppy Holzman and Logan Mikhly, who named the café after his rescue dog Boris and her rescue dog Horton.

café Holzman founded Charitybuzz, a leading online charity auction site that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in partnership with top celebrities and nonprofits all over the globe.

Prior to working at Charitybuzz, which Holzman sold in 2017, Mikhly lived in New Orleans and managed operations for Used Dogs, a no-kill dog rescue. During her time at Used Dogs, she doubled the yearly adoption rates and assisted with community surrender intervention programs.

She currently spends as much time as possible volunteering with Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue and hanging out in McCarren Park in Brooklyn with Horton.

The "Aha!" moment to open a dog café came during their visit to a coffee shop in the West Village together.

“We both have a love of coffee and dogs,” Mikhly said. “When we would walk our dogs in the city we would go to places and one person had to wait outside with the dogs while the other person went in the coffee shop, or we’d see people tie their dogs outside. We hated that and thought there might be a better way, especially since we saw a bunch of cat cafés opening in New York.”

The cat cafés that have popped up across the U.S. operate differently than Boris & Horton in that they provide a relaxed environment where people can meet and adopt felines on site—but patrons don’t actually bring their own pets there.

But Boris & Horton and cat cafés are similar in the way that the animals are never in an area where food is

bustling during my visit with people introducing their canine kids to each other and typing away on laptops—has a retail area with other merchandise for sale, including leashes, dog clothing, and even T-shirts and headwear for humans featuring Boris & Horton.

There’s even a photo booth where patrons can make a GIF with their pets and then share it on social media.

To make Boris & Hilton a reality and have dogs inside, Mikhly and her dad worked closely with the New York Health Department. She advises people who might want to bring a café like theirs to their city to start by reaching out to their local health department, which can provide necessary consultation and answers to questions.

“The hardest part for us was finding

Left: Dogs and patrons mingle at Boris & Horton. Right: Jonathan Segal and his rescue Clinton make a GIF in the photo booth.

prepared, which is required by the New York City Health Department.

Boris and Horton is divided into three separate areas: a sidewalk takeout window where patrons with dogs can order vegetarian and vegan bites and beverages; a regular café area separated by Plexiglas where dogs aren’t allowed and another indoor seating area, a.k.a a doggie den, where dogs can go and patrons are allowed to bring the food they ordered from the window or in the café. Some packaged and homemade dog treats are available for purchase in the doggie den.

The doggie den—which was

“This is such a nice place to work and play on a new level,” said Wagoner, who admits he likes to take Colin everywhere and is thrilled there’s an indoor dog-friendly café right in his neighborhood.

Mikhly said she and her dad would love to see a Boris & Horton in every neighborhood in New York.

Friends of Animals would too. We lobbied for the Dining with Dogs bill, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law in 2016. It allows people to bring their pups to dine with them in the outdoor dining areas of willing restaurants in New York.

a location that would allow us to meet the New York City Health Department guidelines. It took months to find a space,” she said.

But it was obviously worth the wait.

Mikhly’s face lights up when she talks about Boris & Horton’s soft opening adoption event in January. “A dog got adopted. Rescue work is a cause that’s super important to me and I thought Boris & Horton could be a really good place to do rescue events and to promote the cause. I think we’re off to a really good start,” she said.

Spring 2018 | 21

FEATURE

BY NICOLE RIVARD PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN KING

A

t his home in Owego, N.Y., Jerry Pierce chuckles as he reminisces about his former neighbor, Edith Coleman.

“My friends and I were like 14 years old, and we’d run like hell because Edie would come out with a broomstick and chase us off her property,” he recalls.

Living in an area with a long hunting heritage, Coleman suspected everyone was a hunter, so she was protective of the wildlife who shared

22 | Friends of Animals

her 110-acre property.

“Her property was all wooded.

She had 40 or 50 apple trees and the deer would come eat right off the apple trees,” Pierce said. “She would watch fawns being born.”

Ironically, now Pierce, a retired police officer, is the one making sure hunters don’t trespass on Coleman’s property. The land is now the Lyman Coleman Wildlife Sanctuary and is owned by Friends of Animals. The property officially

became a protected open space for wildlife back in 1979 when Coleman, who could no longer care for the property, donated it to FoA in honor of her late father, Lyman Coleman, from whom she inherited it.

Edith Coleman passed away in 1986 at the age of 92, and today FoA is proud to say the land remains entirely open space, free from development, hunting, trapping, fishing and ranching—a place where nature is in charge of nature and biodiver-

about the evils of hunting and she was also president of the Tioga Wildlife Club, whose members patrolled NO HUNTING posted lands in the area during hunting season.

When FoA’s own NO HUNTING poster signs deteriorated about 10 years ago, an invitation to out -of -towners to come in and poach, Pierce contacted FoA. He was concerned because he saw some activity on the property during New York’s rifle deer season and suspected hunters were treading on the area. Pierce offered to give the postings on the property a facelift so it would be obvious anyone trespassing would be prosecuted, and that’s what he did.

FOA’S LYMAN COLEMAN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY PROVIDES INSPIRATION FOR PEOPLE TO BE THE CHANGE THEY WANT TO SEE IN THEIR COMMUNITY

sity is celebrated. FoA once contemplated the addition of trails and other visitor facilities, but instead decided to leave the land completely fallow as Coleman intended.

“Edith was a school teacher so she probably did a lot of diligent research trying to find an organization that would respect the property after her death and who would take the best care of it,” Pierce added.

The sanctuary is comprised of five different habitat types: open fields, orchard, second growth woodland, old growth woodland and riverine. These habitats are ideal for bluebirds, several species of owls, rabbits, foxes, deer, bear, coyotes, woodchucks, mice and raccoons.

Coleman was outspoken in the local newspapers

THE BENEFITS OF OPEN SPACE Unfortunately, Coleman’s respect for wildlife and desire to conserve biodiversity is not ubiquitous these days as adults and children alike spend evermore time indoors, disconnected from nature. Compounding the problem are communities that are driven by development plans without the flip side—an open space plan.

The result is a direct loss of habitat through clearing, paving, draining and filling of wetlands, but also the fragmenting of natural areas into smaller, isolated patches.

And even organizations that do a good job of preserving open spaces from development unfortunately often allow hunting and even ranching.

Connectivity between undisturbed ecosystems can be key to the health of natural and human communities, according to Conserving Natural Areas and Wildlife in Your Community, a handbook created as part of the Hudson River Estuary Program in New York to help land-use officials make better decisions for natural areas and wildlife.

Species that use vernal pools and large wetland complexes are at risk when connections with surrounding uplands or nearby wetlands are broken. For example, the Eastern box turtle, a species of concern in New York, uses several habitats to complete its life cycle: forests, wetlands, streams and open areas.

Spring 2018 | 23

FEATURE

Clockwise: Edith Coleman was outspoken about the evils of hunting in her local newspapers.

Here she is depicted with one of her family's horses and at different stages in her life.

In addition biologically diverse habitats and ecosystems can prevent the spread of diseases, provide pollinator habitat, as well as rich soils for growing food. Wetlands absorb floodwaters. And natural vegetation stabilizes soil and limits erosion.

And experts say connectivity will be key as wildlife adapts to climate change.

“Another key concern is creating wildlife migration corridors so animals and plants can move in response to climate change and development pressures in order to maintain genetic diversity and healthy populations,” said Michael Reineme, deputy director, wildlands communications at The Wilderness Society. “This is important virtually everywhere but might be best understood in the Northwest around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Crown of the Continent region of Montana where species like wolves, wolverines and grizzly bears need vast areas of habitat to survive and maintain healthy populations.”

BE THE CHANGE IN YOUR COMMUNITY FoA is heartened when we hear of people preserving open space of any size in their community, as is the case in the newly formed six-acre Silvermine Fowler Preserve in our backyard in New Canaan, Connecticut, which curbs development in favor of natural areas for wildlife.

24 | Friends of Animals

When we attended the opening of the Silvermine Fowler preserve, where hunting is prohibited, we learned it not only protects acres of serene woodlands and a freshwater pond from the threat of development, but creates connectivity to the New Canaan Land Trust’s 41-acre Hicks Meadows-Kelley Uplands Audubon Sanctuary, also a hunting-free zone.

You may recognize the last name Fowler. The property is where Jim Fowler, former star of the long-running TV program, “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” and his wife Betsey, raised their family for more than 30 years.

“This could easily have been a couple of houses and instead it’s a wonderful preserve for the southeast corridor of New Canaan,” said Ben Weiland, project manager at the Trust for Public Land, a national organization founded in 1972 with the goal of protecting land in and around cities. “The Fowlers didn’t want to see the land that they had grown to love while they lived here changed.”

The land features a rolling landscape of wetlands, and mixed hardwood trees, primarily of oak, birch, beech, hickory and maple. It is home to owls, red-tailed hawks, heron, wood ducks, mallards, frogs, fox, wild turkeys, deer and migrating birds, among other animals.

“We have to start proving that we really care what happens to our planet. And this is a pretty good place to start,” said Fowler at the opening of the preserve in October. Fowler also remarked that he never cut down any trees and kept the property completely wild.

“American biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson pointed out that when we pave over half of this planet, it’s downhill from then on. It’s true folks. We have to be careful about what we do,” Fowler said. “There is a tremendous

need for us to connect humanity with nature. There’s no way we are going to survive if we don’t understand that.”

There is overwhelming evidence that the physical, psychological and social wellbeing of humans depends on contact with nature.

A majority of the adults surveyed in a national study, The Nature of Americans, released last April, noted that certain smells and sounds of nature bring to mind some of people’s happiest memories, and that being in nature provides a sense of peace and helps give meaning and purpose to their lives.

FoA is hopeful that there will be more Edith Colemans and Jim Fowlers wanting to leave a land conservation legacy. If this sounds appealing to you too, a good place to start is the Land Trust Alliance, which has 1,363 members nationwide and is chock full of info about how to protect your land, through such methods as land donations, conservation easements, etc.

Our advice to landowners is to be clear about prohibiting unwanted activities such as hunting in the language of their conservation easement in the same way such an agreement will prohibit development. Shop around until you find an organization that will take care of your land the way you want it to.

While we lost 3,031,700 acres to development in the U.S. from 2007 to 2012, according to the National Resources Inventory Report released in 2015, the good news is that 56,434,181 acres were protected by land trusts in the U.S. in 2015, up from 47,399,620 in 2010.

People and local communities and governments who have open space plans do have the power to make open space protection outpace land development in the years ahead.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK However, be aware that protecting wildlife is not always the main priority of conservation organizations or land trusts—their goal is stopping development, so they may allow different activities on different properties. FoA has discovered more land trust properties that allow hunting and/or trapping and ranching than those that don’t. Some land trusts are reluctant to ban hunting as part of their mission because they claim, in certain instances, it can help protect the balance of nature when invasive species and animals with serious diseases are cause for concern in a particular landscape.

For instance, rather than merely conserving nature for nature’s sake, The Nature Conservancy condones widespread hunting, inviting people to visit animals in their homes and kill them. They have also been involved in questionable financial deals that involve land swaps. Likewise, we would not recommend the HSUS Wildlife Trust.

While it says it prohibits recreational and commercial hunting and trapping on properties donated as conservation easements, HSUS touts itself as the leading advocate and innovator in “humane” wildlife-population control.

HSUS is actually the registrant of the fertility control pesticide PZP. Fortunately, there is no one size fits all when it comes to the way land trusts manage different landscapes— some actually don’t even allow any human activity when there is endangered flora or fauna.

Above: FoA's Action Line Editor Nicole Rivard congratulates Jim Fowler at the opening of the Silvermine Fowler Preserve in New Canaan, Connecticut, back in October.

Spring 2018 | 25

LEGAL MATTERS

BY NICOLE RIVARD

FoA fights to get the queen conch the protection it deserves Marine specie also shelled by hurricanes

S

ome researchers have compared seagrass beds to tropical rainforests based on their high productivity, structural complexity and biodiversity. And the imperiled queen conch, a distinctive large mollusk known for its flared spiral shell with blunt spikes and pearly pink interior, plays a vital role in shaping these communities in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

Because they consume dead and decomposing seagrass, the loss or substantial decrease of queen conch could cause significant, harmful changes to the ecosystem.

Unfortunately, we are losing these indispensable marine animals because they are prized for their meat and large shells, and are commercially harvested in 25 countries. They are also threatened by pollution and habitat degradation.

That’s why Friends of Animals and WildEarth Guardians have sued the National Marine Fisheries Service over the agency’s refusal to protect the queen conch under the Endangered Species Act. Listing species with global distributions can protect them from trade and help focus U.S. resources toward enforcement of international regulations and recovery of the species.

“Frankly, listing the queen conch

26 | Friends of Animals

as threatened or endangered under the ESA should be a no-brainer,” said Courtney McVean, attorney with Friends of Animals’ Wildlife Law Program. “The record is replete with evidence from the NMFS’ own team of experts and the scientific community indicating that the queen conch is indisputably in danger of extinction either now or in the foreseeable future. NMFS’ management ignored this information and chose instead to rely upon misleading data regarding queen conch landings (reported catch)—data provided by the Caribbean states that benefit from conch commercial exploitation—to make a ‘not warranted’ finding.”

HURRICANES WREAK HAVOC As FoA’s case progresses in court, the need to protect the queen conch has become even more urgent. As if the queen conch didn’t have it bad enough, 2017 was a catastrophic year for hurricanes. The force of hurricane winds, resultant tides and waves posed a devastating triple threat to marine environments.

Scientists point out that seagrass beds are sometimes ripped up or buried under sediments, leading to their suffocation. Suspended matter causing murky water blocks out needed sunlight, leading to an even

more widespread loss of seagrass, which was evident in the years that followed Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria were two of the strongest on record to hit the Caribbean, and areas hit hardest include—Florida, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the British Virgin Island—all house extensive seagrass meadow habitat for queen conch.

Professor Ken Dunton, a biologist from University of Texas at Austin’s Marine Science Institute, described the havoc hurricane Harvey wreaked along the seagrass communities of the Texas coast as “nothing like I’ve seen before. The damage is severe in many areas.”

This was just days after the storm, when he and other biologists launched a study to quantify the impact on seagrass beds. Early indications showed some areas that were stripped bare, leaving behind only the roots.

“The most recent hurricanes occurred after the negative 12-month finding so the effect of these hurricanes on queen conch was not part of the record,” said McVean.

“Therefore, we could not include, for instance, the high number of queen conch lost when the hurricanes swept through the Caribbean.

However, if we present an oral argument, we would bring up the devastating consequences the hurricanes had (and will have in the future) on queen conch throughout its habitat.”

WHY THIS CASE MATTERS FoA knows all too well there are plenty of species who need the organization’s help. The Wildlife Law Program pursued this particular case because there is such overwhelming evidence that NMFS is breaking the law by ignoring evidence of why the queen conch needs protections.

Though NMFS initially found the petition to list the conch under the ESA had merit, it ultimately decided not to.

“The decision is full of contradictions,” McVean pointed out.

And this situation represents a bigger issue—the U.S. largely fails to aggressively protect marine species

who are economically beneficial to large corporate entities. Of the more than 2,000 species protected under the Act, only about six percent are marine species. However, as far as ESA listing goes, economic impacts are not supposed to be considered.

The suit challenges the agency’s failure to follow the best available science as required by the ESA. For instance, 60 percent of measured queen conch populations are below the minimum required for successful reproduction. So these populations will most likely be extinguished over time.

In addition NMFS failed to consider the cumulative impacts of threats to determine the overall risk of extinction. In addition to the destruction of costal seagrass, pollution and

commercial harvesting negatively impacting the queen conch, the best available science shows that habitat destruction from recreational and commercial boat traffic, boat groundings, dredging and sedimentation, are also causing serious declines in queen conch.

“We cannot stand by while the government ignores evidence and continues to prevent the queen conch from getting the protections is deserves,” McVean said.

Spring 2018 | 27

RESTAURANT REVIEW

BE PREPARED FOR PLEASANT SURPRISES AT

Bloodroot Restaurant

BY PRISCILLA FERAL PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPH BY TARA RUBANO

I

consider myself a hobbyist when it comes to creating organic, vegan food. But the owners of Bloodroot Vegetarian Restaurant are master artists.

I haven’t been obsessed with sourdough since I lived in San Francisco— enticed by the city’s famous sourdough bread. That changed one recent Sunday morning with light, apple-filled sourdough pancakes during brunch at Bloodroot, which is located in a working-class neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I also found sourdough in their scrumptious chocolate devastation cake that had icing like silk.

Other noteworthy items on the brunch menu: sourdough potato rye bread and sourdough biscuits; amazingly rich, fruity scones that melt in your mouth and vegan shiitake or Swiss chard quiches. Each item alone is worth a trip. For dessert, freshly baked

28 | Friends of Animals

apple pie is irresistible and could also win a photo contest, and the bourbon vanilla ice cream sundae is unforgettable.

Even if you don’t live in Connecticut, owners Selma Miriam and Noel Furie share their culinary treasures in cookbooks available at www.bloodroot. com. A forthcoming vegan book, The Bloodroot Calendar Cookbook, is being released this spring, and a quick look at a preview included several favorites including Hungarian cauliflower soup, spicy Thai “chicken” with basmati rice, avocado and pineapple, and the bourbon vanilla ice cream sundae.

I met the owners in the early 1970s at Connecticut chapter meetings of the National Organization for Women.

One of the upshots was experiencing fresh, organic, seasonal and local food and exploring made-from-scratch, gourmet vegetarian dining.

As NOW members, we decried the exploitation of females, and one-by-one, most could see the reason for a social justice cause that took animals off the menu. As the authors write in the dedication of their 2007 book, The Best of Bloodroot, Volume Two Vegan Recipes, “Feminism is the politics that informed the creation and maintenance of Bloodroot and our lives.”

This unique 41-year-old feminist restaurant has a close-up view of Burr Creek, which empties into Long Island Sound, and from a table by a window one can savor New England. The restaurant’s friendly interior includes an overhead menu on chalkboard, vintage photographs and political inspirations, a bookstore, two gorgeous cats named Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug, and efficient self-service where diners pick up their food from the open kitchen, later returning their plates and

silverware.

Bloodroot’s cuisine is unlike the vegan food offered in most restaurants, because the women not only make breads, pastries, soups, appetizers, salads, entrées and desserts from scratch, they challenge themselves to prepare West and East African, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, Asian and European dishes that are stunningly delicious and healthful.

The staff members who work with Selma and Noel have immigrated from around the globe and each contributes to the menu’s international flavor. They offer heat to rice and bean dishes when the region’s custom calls for it, such as West African plantain and yam stew with rice and collard greens, or (my favorites) black bean tostadas with green rice, jicama-pineapple-mango salsa, and Jamaican Jerk “chicken,” tofu, Seitan with coconut rice and sweet potato.

They also dare to surprise you with a perfect mushroom-walnut pate’ that has layered flavors and has been a hit on their menu since 1984. Their homemade vegan cheese platter has the best

flavored cheddar I’ve had anywhere.

And, the restaurant’s mascarpone cheese was luxurious—not too sweet, with a slight tang and topped with quince.

Organic salads at the restaurant standout for their variety and freshness—no packaged greens on your plate. My favorite is shredded beets, carrots and turnip with avocado. Bloodroot also has a variety of sodas, bottled water, juices, coffee, tea, and beer and wine are also served.

As the restaurant suggests, the menus listed online may shift slightly from a changing seasonal menu in the restaurant. As they advise, “Be prepared for pleasant surprises.” Also be prepared to expand your horizons with such elegant hospitality.

Since that unforgettable brunch, I now enjoy a sourdough starter in my home kitchen. With instruction from Noel, I feed the starter each week and make pancakes, breads and Bloodroot’s chocolate devastation cake whenever inclined!

And just like that, I’ve created some masterpieces of my own!

Clockwise from top left: Bloodroot's friendly interior.

Pappardelle pasta with fennel, fava bean pesto and grilled artichoke hearts. Royal corona bean and asparagus salad. Yam and plantain peanut curry. Bloodroot's bulletin board. Owners Selma Miriam and Noel Furie.

BLOODROOT 85 Ferris Street Bridgeport, Conn. 06605 203-576-9168 www.bloodroot.com

IN YOUR BACKYARD

BEYOND PESTICIDES:

BY NICOLE RIVARD

GARDENERS LEAD THE CHARGE FOR PESTICIDEFREE TOWN IN CONNECTICUT

B

ack in the summer of 2012, Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, became alarmed when she noticed yellow pesticide application signs—the ones that are supposed to remain for 24 hours after a pesticide is applied— on the edge of Pinkney Park in her hometown of Rowayton, Connecticut, a 1.4-square-mile peninsula that hooks into Long Island Sound.

Pinkney Park is situated along the Five Mile River, which provides habitat for aquatic organisms, fish, songbirds, amphibians and small mammals. It is also the site of many community events, such as Shakespeare on the Sound, where families and children sit directly on the lawn.

She called the lawn care company to inquire what was applied and learned it was a product called Quinclorac, which is used for weed and crab grass control. She then reached out to the national organization Beyond Pesticides to get more information about the product.

Feral learned that the chemical is a potential groundwater contaminant, meaning it may be mobile in soil and have the possibility of running off or persisting in groundwater. Also,

30 | Friends of Animals

Quinclorac is considered slightly toxic to aquatic animals.

So Feral, capitalizing on her position as a member of the Rowayton Gardeners Club, sprang into action and approached the three elected district commissioners who run the town, also known as the Sixth Taxing District.

“The Garden Club asked the commissioners to consider making Pinkney Park an organic showpiece for the community in 2013, as it’s a staging sight for concerts, a farmer’s market and a series of events year-round,” Feral explained. “In turn, I was asked to start a discussion about what a pesticide-free o r g a n i c program would entail, including details about costs, timing to unfold as well as organic lawn care firms to consider.

“I think the commissioners felt

confronted initially when I pushed quickly for meetings. They likely imagined that my activist role at Friends of Animals could be potentially embarrassing since I pressed them on debating the risks of exposure to lawn pesticides in addition to their contribution to water pollution of Five Mile River.”

The timing couldn’t have been better. In May of 2012, a Five Mile River Watershed Plan had been released by

the South Western Regional Planning Agency that focused on the need to reduce non-point source (NPS) pollution, the diffuse sources of which are pet waste, lawn fertilizers and pesticides. The education and outreach portion of the plan focuses on helping watershed residents understand the connection between their actions and the health of the Five Mile River. It gives them an easy-to-implement, inexpensive list of actions that can result in reductions in NPS pollution.

In addition to pollution, Feral dug in and provided

the commissioners with data on the link between pesticides and cancer in humans and pets.

“Initially this likely frightened them, too,” she said. “But I always emphasized that we could focus on simple steps to convert town property to organic lawn care so they wouldn’t feel overwhelmed or ashamed of a past approach.”

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER Ignoring being labelled a “commando” at times, Feral rallied the Garden Club to approve a pesticide free lawn-care plan for Pinkney Park, something that the commissioners couldn’t refuse after realizing the benefits to humans, pets, pollinators and other wildlife. In November of 2012, the Garden Club hosted its first Pesticide-Free Lawn and Garden lecture to educate members and the community at large about the Garden Club’s overall goal to decrease the amount of pesticides and fertilizers that contaminate and reach waterways without increasing costs of maintaining Rowayton’s public parks and open spaces.

By 2013, the tide had turned and Feral was asked to develop an agreement between the Garden Club and town of Rowayton that officially transitioned Pinkney Park to pesticide-free lawn care, an agreement that continues today. The park’s transition started with a simple soil test, a crucial first step in any organic lawn care program to see if the soil was acidic.

The Garden Club then began to address other public land areas in town to be included such as the Community Center property, the Rowayton Dog Park and Bailey Beach. All are now pesticide free, and in 2018 Beyond Pesticide’s Pesticide-Free Signs will all be on display in the hopes of spreading the message so residents will be encouraged to adopt a pesticide-free approach in their own yards.

“I’ve identified several companies that private residents can hire for lawn care that use organics,” Feral said. “So far the signs we’re marketing seem to be a hit in town as people see that the public green spaces don’t look any different without using pesticides; in other words they are still aesthetically pleasing. They are seeing the town’s environmentally wise approach is a win-win for wildlife and humans.”

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT ORGANIC GARDENING? Visit our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/FriendsofAnimals, to watch our video "Going Green: The dangers of pesticides and why organic lawn care is taking root."

Learn how pesticides are harming everything from wildlife to our health and how to get started with your own organic lawn care routine.

Spring 2018 | 31

VEG NEWS

THINKING ABOUT A BACKYARD GARDEN? A Vegan Gardening Activist Offers Advice on Where to Start

BY DUSTIN RHODES PHOTOGRAPH BY MONIKA GRABKOWSKA

I

spent the entire year before taking the job at Friends of Animals a decade ago lobbying my neighborhood for a community vegetable garden; there was a halfacre plot of empty, flat, sunny land sitting right in the middle of our neighborhood. I prepared and made presentations, talked endlessly to neighbors and begged the powers that be, even though to be quite honest I knew next-to-nothing about gardening—despite the fact that I grew up in a family with an annual vegetable garden.

Of course, everyone in the neighborhood was excited about the idea (at least to my face), but those in positions of authority were skeptical. As it does, poetic justice prevailed, and the garden was eventually approved.

However, as fate would have it, I moved 400 miles away for my dream

32 | Friends of Animals

job about three weeks later, and the garden never happened.

A decade later, and now as homeowners, my partner and I are interested in growing our own food, making our landscape feature native trees and plants and filling our yard with plantings that attract bees, butterflies and birds. We’re already voracious composters, intent on creating rich soil. Which is to say, we’re big hippies with a big dream but only a modicum of know-how. I still don’t know that much about gardening— yet it’s always beckoning.

So I turned to my friend Caitlin Campbell—a community garden activist, the community outreach manager for Brother Wolf Animal Rescue in Asheville, N.C., and a mom to two amazing vegan kids (among many other things). Campbell has spent the last 10 years teaching

small-scale veganic gardening in the community. Here’s her advice: CAN YOU EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE TERM VEGANIC GARDENING? “Veganic gardening” is a term used for the method of growing edible food plants without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or animal inputs such as manure, blood or bone. This type of gardening employs methods and techniques that ensure fertility is created onsite. The veganic gardener aims to reduce reliance on outside sources as much as possible.

The term was coined more than 50 years ago, and its origins are largely unknown. It is clear, however, that the word is a merging of the words “vegan” and “organic,” as both characteristics are integral to the practice.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WITH VEGANIC GARDENING? I am a “hobby veganic gardener,” and I started in 2008. In all of the places I’ve lived since then, I’ve cultivated fruits, vegetables, flowers and green manures using veganic methods.

Green manure is created by leaving growing plants, often cover crops such as clover and other nitrogen-fixing plants, to wither and then plowing them under to enrich the soil.

I’ve learned that successful veganic gardening requires some planning, prep work and the engineering of simple garden systems to build soil fertility. Crop rotation, green manure, composting and mulching are the most important systems to implement to build fertility and have a healthy, fruitful garden.

I’ve enjoyed growing potatoes, kale, beans, Brussels sprouts, apples, zucchini, squash, chilies, lettuce, root veggies, a plethora of beneficial flowers and green manure.

WHAT ARE SOME REASONS YOU RECOMMEND STARTING A BACKYARD GARDEN, REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH SPACE OR TIME ONE MIGHT HAVE? Growing food is empowering. Eating freshly harvested food is one of the tastiest experiences you’ll ever have, not to mention it’s environmentally friendly, and it can even be political!

When you choose to grow your own food, you’re in control of the production methods, and you’re opting out of corporate-run food monopolies that often rely on the use of animal inputs, unjust employment practices and harmful pesticides to grow crops.

As vegans, growing food without animal inputs is educational, both within the vegan community and the larger communities we navigate.

Veganic gardens take many forms, so regardless of the space or time you may have to commit to growing your own veganic food, you can make

it work—even if your “garden” is a window ledge full of potted herbs!

You may have to rely on outside fertility if you’re growing a small, indoor garden, but you can certainly do so using plant-based, organic materials.

IF YOU HAVE ZERO GARDENING EXPERIENCE, WHERE SHOULD YOU BEGIN? If you’re creating a veganic garden outside, you’ll want to use the first year to prepare your soil and the compost heap.

You may want to start in the late autumn or winter. Designate and dig your beds by removing and composting turf, churning up topsoil, breaking down lumps, and removing sticks and stones from your growing areas.

If you don’t want to dig, you can also lay cardboard on the designated plots.

In this case, you’ll smother the grass beneath the cardboard.

After a few months, regardless of whether you opt for digging or “no-dig” techniques, the soil will break down into friable material.

It’s recommended to spend the first season growing green manures, so that you’ll enrich the soil. Green manures are typically chopped before flowering, and then reincorporated into the beds where they’ve grown.

As this bulky organic material breaks down, the soil is further enriched.

Homemade compost is a beneficial addition, and can be easily made. My favorite resource for starting your own veganic compost heap can be found at Veganic Agriculture Network (goveganic.net/article139.html).

After a season of preparing the land, you should be ready to plant your first edible plants!

If you’re growing indoors, you will need to purchase compost that doesn’t contain animal inputs. This can be tricky, but there are a few brands out there, depending on where you live.

You may also consider creating an indoor composting system using a

bacterium called bokashi. Learn more about indoor bokashi composting at Ecokarma (ecokarma.net/composting/bokashi-composting/).

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE “FRINGE BENEFITS” OF PLANTING A GARDEN? Creating a veganic garden is a great way to show people that we can consume healthy food and thrive without using animals’ bodies—even in the growing process. It yields incredibly tasty food, too.

Personally, I find fulfillment and peace in tending my veganic garden.

It’s a great form of exercise and feels meditative. Paying such close attention to the majesty of the plant world fills me with wonderment year after year!

WHY AVOID COMMON PESTICIDES…AND HOW YOU DETER PESTS WITHOUT THEM? Pesticides are toxic and potentially fatal chemicals. They negatively impact our ecosystems, wildlife and domesticated animals, including humans. They’re best avoided, though truthfully, they have infiltrated most natural groundwater systems, and are impossible to avoid entirely.

Do you have your own backyard garden you're dying to show the world? We want to see it! Take a pic of your backyard setup, your favorite plants, or even a vegan meal you made with your homegrown veggies and tag them on Twitter or Instagram with #FriendsofAnimals so we can share them with our followers.

Spring 2018 | 33

That said, veganic gardeners choose not to use pesticide chemicals in their growing techniques. The use of preventative measures and natural deterrents should keep most infestations at bay.

Companion planting is a powerful tool; there’s lots of information on how to attract beneficial predatory insects with flowers and other plants. You may need to invest in garden hoops and other infrastructure, so that animals and insects are prevented from consuming your crops with physical barriers. This is particularly helpful in the case of brassicas, which can be easily ravaged by cabbage butterflies. You can also make pungent teas from garlic, neem, tea tree oil, and other ingredients, and spray your crops with these teas to deter animals and insects.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD INSPIRE MORE PEOPLE TO PLANT GARDENS/GROW FOOD? As more and more vegans realize that animal products are used uniformly in the production of organic and non-organic vegetables, interest in veganic gardening increases.

Folks are generally inspired by the AMOUNT of food they can produce using relatively little space! A humble quarter acre of land can provide a ton of food for two people. And once a garden is established after a year or two, the labor involved decreases dramatically.

Growing your own food helps wildlife in your area, reduces your carbon and water footprints, and creates food autonomy! It can be intimidating to get started, but the rewards are manifold and incredibly delicious.

ANY MYTHS ABOUT VEGANIC GARDENING YOU’D LIKE TO DISPEL?

34 | Friends of Animals

Above: Campbell's composting bin. Homemade compost is beneficial to veganic gardens.

As vegans, we are often presented with a few widely accepted myths.

For example, it is quite common for vegans to be confronted by “the protein myth.” We know that protein is incredibly abundant in a vegan diet, and we often have to challenge the misconceptions about this particular macronutrient.

Similarly, non-vegan farmers often believe a myth that crops and gardens cannot thrive without manure-derived nitrogen. Veganic gardeners create nitrogen by growing nitrogen-fixing green manures, and by using nitrogen-rich composted materials such as comfrey leaves.

Veganic gardening is paradigm shifting! We are confronting these deeply entrenched myths head on when we grow our food and flowers using plant-based, organic materials.

FINALLY, OBVIOUSLY, YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO BECOME A MASTER GARDENER FROM A SHORT ARTICLE. WHAT BOOKS OR RESOURCES DO YOU RECOMMEND? There have been several books written about veganic agriculture, including Growing Green by Jenny Hall and

Iain Tolhurst, Growing Our Own: A Guide to Vegan Gardening by Kathleen Jannaway, and Veganic Gardening—The Alternative System for Healthier Crops

by Kenneth Dalziel O’Brien. Websites with educational resources include Vegan Organic Network (veganorganic.net) and Stockfree Organic Services (stockfreeorganic.net).

Above: Caitlin Campbell says growing her own food is empowering.

FOA ON THE ROAD FOA TO NEW YORKERS: SAVE AFRICA’S BIG 5 For the second year in a row, Friends of Animals participated in the Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting in New York City on Feb. 3 to raise awareness of our legislation, Save Africa’s Big Five, that would ban the importation, possession, sale or transportation in New York of the trophies of African elephants, lions, leopards and black and white rhinos. This year the event started outside Eric Trump’s apartment because he is a well-heeled trophy hunter who has killed an African leopard and elephant, among other innocent animals, and because of President Trump's meaningless tweets about trophy hunting.

“We cannot rely on fluid federal law to ensure that Africa’s big five do not go extinct. When it comes to trophy hunting, federal law is not protective at all,” said Nicole Rivard, editor of FoA’s Action Line, during the WRATH event. “FoA’s legislation – Big Five African Trophies Act, co-sponsored by N.Y. Sen. Tony Avella and Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda – would make a huge difference because it would stop trophies from entering New York, and New York is the busiest port of entry for African wildlife trophies in the U.S. Let’s shut it down.”

FoA and supporters chanted “Eric Trump has blood on his hands; ban trophy hunting,” while marching from the Eric’s apartment to his office at Trump Tower.

The Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting originated with CompassionWorks International as “Rally for

FOA BRINGS VOICE OF WILDLIFE TO ARC

Above: FoA's Action Line editor, Nicole Rivard, right, participates in the Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting outside Trump Tower Feb. 3.

Cecil” after Cecil the lion was killed by an American trophy hunter in Zimbabwe in 2015. It began as a protest outside the Safari Club International’s annual convention in Las Vegas and with sister protests on the same day in cities around the world. This year, WRATH events took place in 32 cities in several countries around the world, including Australia, Ireland, Canada and Brazil.

Though trophy hunters promulgate the notion that without them there would be no money for conservation in Africa, in truth, there is evidence piling up it is economically useless.

Friends of Animals joined nearly 2,000 animal rights activists outside of Washington, D.C. for the Animal Rights 2017 National Conference, organized by the Farm Animal Rights Movement. It was inspiring to be among 90 organizations from 12 countries addressing animal exploitation and abuse and advocacy.

FoA brought a much needed perspective about wildlife issues to the conference. FoA's Action Line editor Nicole Rivard provided an overview of recent victories for wildlife during the “State of our Movement” plenary and a summary of the facts about the wild horse controversy in the U.S. during the “Abuse of Animals in the Wild” session.

Above: During the conference, Vegan Evan, a member of Animal Hero Kids, visits with Meghan McIntire, FoA's social media coordinator.

TAKE ACTION If you live in New York, call your state senators and state representatives and tell them to support A4010-A and S1883-A. To find an online directory of assembly members, visit www.nyassembly.gov/mem/search. State senators can be found here: www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator.

LETTERS CRUELTY-FREE ALTERNATIVES TO CANADA GOOSE Thank you for your article Getting Away With Murder, Winter 2017-2018, Action Line about Canada Goose jackets and the cruel lengths they go to in producing these jackets. I would like to recommend two fantastic companies to your readers Save The Duck and Hood Lamb.

Save The Duck is a great alternative to down, and their coats are super warm! (I own two!) They use plum tech which is a padding that imitates down while preserving the advantages of technological thermal lining. Another plus they are also Bluesign certified!

Hood Lamb is a company from Amsterdam, and they use hemp and

LET’S HEAR FROM YOU!

recycled materials in their coats. They have a wonderful collection with Sea Shepard right now.

Stay warm my fellow vegans!

AMANDA SEITZ • VIA EMAIL

MAIL US: Editor, Action Line Friends of Animals 777 Post Road Darien, CT 06820 E-MAIL US: contact@friendsofanimals.org

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK I find your magazine very interesting.

As a senior, in looking back over my life, the event I recall most vividly is the herd of wild horses in the hills above The Dalles, in Oregon. We were renting a ranch house there for a year. I could hear their hooves and feel the vibration in the ground as they came swooping over the hill, down into the barn to feed on hay.

As a child of 10 or so from the city, it was an exciting and memorable event. My

heart goes out today to the wildlife being controlled and "managed" to extinction.

JOY GOHL • VIA EMAIL

Correction: An article in the winter 20172018 edition of Action Line about the South Korean dog meat industry misspelled the first name of the Indian activist who led the movement against British rule. He was Mahatma Gandhi, not Mhatma.

IN MEMORIAM Friends of Animals has received kind donations in memory of the following individuals: LINDA ALBERTIE

CHRIS “BMAN” BRIGHTMAN

BACI BOO

BASIL MANN

ELLEN WENDY WEISS

RUNNER

CLARA ADAMS

MORRIS L. RICHARDS

PUMPKIN

MAJORIE HOPE SAMS

FAITH JAMGOTCHIAN

SIDNEY

LARRY WARD

STACY

GANSET & MULLIGAN

ANDREW O’REILLY

SY BROCKWAY

ODEECEE

CAROL ROMAN

MATTHEW A. LAUDI

JORHDAN

CYNTHIA CARHARDT

ELWOOD L. EDWARDS.

CHAMP DOBER

MARGARET MITCHELL

CECIL THE LION

VIKKI

EBBY, MACY & TINA

LILLY BELLE

ANDREW JAMES O’REILLY

CHUBBY

MARBLES

36 | Friends of Animals

CHEERS

JEERS

MICHAEL KORS GOES FUR FREE

CHINA CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

Cheers to fashion designer Michael Kors who announced he will no longer be using animal fur in his products, with production being phased out by the end of 2018. The policy will apply companywide, including the Jimmy Choo brand, which Kors acquired in July.

This news shows pressure from animal right activists matters.

“This decision marks a new chapter as our company continues to evolve its use of innovative materials,” said John D. Idol, Michael Kors’ chairman and chief executive, in a statement. “Due to technological advances in fabrications, we now have the ability to create a luxe aesthetic using non-animal fur,” added Kors.

NEW BILL CRUSHES ANIMAL CRUELTY

Individuals who torture animals will face felony charges, fines and prison time if found guilty under a new act approved by the U.S. Senate We are cheering the bill, known as the PACT Act, and Senators Richard Blumenthal and Pat Toomey who introduced the measure. The bill would outlaw the vicious act of “crushing” in which animals are maimed or tortured. Sometimes the acts are videotaped.

“In Connecticut, where Friends of Animals is headquartered, we’re familiar with Senator Blumenthal’s sensibility and sensitivity toward animals and what constitutes depraved behavior. We applaud this measure sponsored by both Senator Blumenthal and Toomey, knowing it reflects basic decency that is becoming all too uncommon during the Trump administration,” said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals.

While Congress had taken steps to ban the sales of such videos, it didn’t make the act of crushing a federal crime. The PACT Act, which is SB 654, if signed into law would be the first ever federal anti-animal cruelty statute of a general nature.

A companion bill in the house, H.R.1494, has 275 cosponsors.

“This bipartisan measure finally prohibits a heinous, inhumane practice – stating emphatically once and for all that there is no place in a civilized society for the maiming and torturing of animals,’’ said Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.

Find out if your Congressional representatives have signed on as co-sponsors and if they haven’t, urge them to crush animal cruelty by making it a federal offense.

While it’s good news China, one of the biggest purveyors of ivory, has implemented its ban on ivory sales, we have a jeer because Hong Kong, which is a Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China, continues to be actively engaged in the industry and will do so for another five years.

The legal ivory trade and illegal poaching of elephants has led to an enormous drop in their population. At least one-third of elephants, or 144,000 were lost to the world between 2007-2014. While the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the ivory trade in 1989 it allowed for a one-time sale in 2008 of older ivory that unscrupulous merchants used to peddle ivory from elephants illegally slaughtered.

While China says that in addition to shuttering its retail and carving shops, it is initiating a public education “say no to ivory” campaign that will include videos, posters and social media posts to alert the public about the ban, elephants will continue to be endangered as Hong Kong, reportedly home to the world’s biggest ivory market, will act as a safe haven for the industry and buyers will continue to smuggle ivory into mainland China.

A new bill introduced in Hong Kong seeks to close the legality gap. But under the bill a ban on the import or export of raw and carved ivory and the possession of ivory obtained before 1990 wouldn’t take effect until 2021. Additionally, the trade continues to be legal in other countries such as Laos, Vietnam and Japan.

Michael Kors will phase out animal fur in his products by the end of 2018.

Spring 2018 | 37

FLIP OFF FUR T-SHIRT

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"Don't be comfortable in their skin."

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100% certified organic cotton available in white or black. Men’s and women’s sizes S, M, L, XL. Artwork by Nash Hogan at Hand of Glory Tattoo, Brooklyn, NY

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BE VEGAN T-SHIRT

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Dark gray heathered high quality ring-spun cotton/polyester T-shirt. Women’s sizes S, M, L, XL and Men’s sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL as available. Females should consider ordering up a size for great fit.

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Unisex triblend full-zip lightweight hoodie. Modern fit, hood, front zip, and kangaroo pockets. Designed with a soft refined ribbed triblend fabric. Available in XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL.

“There’s no right way to do the wrong thing” Navy 100% combed and ring-spun cotton T-shirt. Women’s sizes M, L, XL and Men’s sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL as available.Females should consider ordering up a size for great fit.

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