Action Line Summer 2016

SUMMER 2016

ACTION LINE

FEMINISM, VEGANISM AND ANIMAL RIGHTS IN AMERICA THROUGH THE EYES OF CAROL ADAMS PRIMATES AT PPI HAVE FULLER LIVES THANKS TO ENRICHMENT PROTECTING OUR NATIONAL PARKS SELFISH SELFIES

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FEATURE PROFILE Carol Adams discusses feminism and the vegan and animal rights movements and their significance in America in 2016.

4 NEWS Victory Lap: The latest news about FOA’s advocacy 6 S PONSOR AN ANIMAL Summer is party time at Primarily Primates 8 NEWS Travelers posing with exotic animals to get a lot of ‘likes’ are putting animals in harm’s way 10 SPECIAL SECTION: PROTECTING OUR NATIONAL PARKS.

The Centennial of the National Park Service reminds us that we are all stewards of these wild places and the animals who live there.

28 NEWS Tennessee is a role model for keeping animals out of the hands of abusers 30 NEWS

FoA to Legislators: ‘Tear down the walls to wildlife corridors’ 32 FEATURE

Primarily Primates goes above and beyond when it comes to giving residents fuller lives 36

LETTERS

37 CHEERS & JEERS 38 FOA MERCHANDISE

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.

CONTACT US NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 777 Post Road Darien, Connecticut 06820 (203) 656-1522 contact@friendsofanimals.org NEW YORK OFFICE 1841 Broadway, Suite 350 New York, NY 10023 (212) 247-8120 WESTERN OFFICE 7500 E. Arapahoe Rd., Ste 385 Cetennial, 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

OUR TEAM PRESIDENT Priscilla Feral [CT] www.twitter.com/pferal www.twitter.com/primate_refuge feral@friendsofanimals.org VICE PRESIDENT Dianne Forthman [CT] dianne@friendsofanimals.org DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Robert Orabona [CT] admin@friendsofanimals.org DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Dustin Rhodes [NC] dustin@friendsofanimals.org ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT Donna Thigpen [CT] SECRETARY TO THE PRESIDENT Shelly Scott [CT] SPAY/NEUTER PROJECT Paula Santo [CT] CAMPAIGNS DIRECTOR Edita Birnkrant [NY] www.twitter.com/EditaFoANYC edita@friendsofanimals.org CORRESPONDENT Nicole Rivard [CT] nrivard@friendsofanimals.org SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Meghan McIntire [MA] www.twitter.com/FoAorg mmcintire@friendsofanimals.org

FOLLOW US facebook.com /friendsofanimals.org facebook.com /primarilyprimates.org

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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.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Jenni Best [CO] jennifer@friendsofanimals.org

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 CLXX Summer 2016 ISSN 1072-2068

DIRECTOR, WILDLIFE LAW PROGRAM Michael Harris [CO] michaelharris@friendsofanimals.org

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PRIMARILY PRIMATES Brooke Chavez [TX] brooke@primarilyprimates.org CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jane Seymour [NY] jane@friendsofanimals.org

Printed on Recycled Paper

COVER ILLUSTRATION: Marcus Pierno

BY PRISCILLA FERAL, PRESIDENT

IN MY VIEW DANCING WITH THE CRABS Living alongside coastal marshes and the Connecticut shoreline, wildlife-watching kicks into high gear each summer. Topping my list of creatures to observe are shore birds, yellow-crowned night-herons, horseshoe crabs and fiddler crabs.

Yellow-crowned night-herons build stick-filled nests close to water on high tree branches. They search at all hours of the day and night for crabs and crayfish near shallow water, with a hunched, forward-leaning posture.

Since they bring crustaceans back to their nests, the street below becomes splattered with white fecal matter, so residents in our community are mindful not to park their cars under these nests to which herons return each year.

Gathering on the shore, female horseshoe crabs arrive by June, staying in very shallow water to dig holes in the sand while depositing thousands of eggs that male crabs, two-thirds the size of females, fertilize as they’re dragged over the nests by females. Lots of shorebirds feed on horseshoe crab eggs, making it even more paramount to protect horseshoe crabs from winding up as bait for fishermen who say there is no better lure for catching eels and whelk. There’s no need to compete with ocean mammals, fish or shore birds for food they require to simply survive. Remember, we don’t have to consume fish.

The most familiar species of fiddler crab on the East Coast—from Cape Cod to northern Florida—is the Atlantic marsh fiddler crab. These delightful small crabs measure about one inch across and live in the mud of salt marshes. They’re obsessed with mud. They dig in it and eat it—sifting through the mud in puddles of water for nourishing bits of decaying algae, fungus, plants and other organisms. Males also dig, arrange and defend their burrow, which they use for lounging, mating and winter hibernation. They also have the ability to roll up a ball of mud to plug their burrow hole at high tide.

Speaking of male fiddler crabs, they are easily identified by their one enlarged, 1½ - 2-inch claw—which isn’t used to fight predators, but to restrain rivals or attract females by waving it in the air. If a male loses its large claw, the remaining claw grows bigger, while a new, smaller one takes the place of the one that was lost.

The back-and-forth motion of both claws when a male feeds resembles a musician moving a bow across a fiddle and is why the crustacean got its name.

Fiddler crabs are especially active during the day and return to their burrows at night. All of their digging helps to aerate the marsh, which contributes to overall ecological health.

Their daytime antics are entertaining to observe to say the least—since fiddler crabs mate every two weeks in summer, males can be seen working overtime, waving their large claw, to pique a female’s interest in courtship. If engaged, she stares at the male for a short period of time, which triggers him to run toward her and then retreat back to his burrow. He repeats this courtship dance several times until the female crab ignores his routine or follows him to his burrow.

If she follows, the male (hilariously) drums the edge of the burrow with his large claw, then leads the female inside a dwelling that could be two feet deep, plugs the entrance and returns to her to mate. After two weeks of incubating eggs, female crabs return to the surface, releasing their eggs into the water so they’ll hatch and become the next generation.

Now that you’ve read about my favorite summertime wildlife watching activities, please consider sharing one of your favorite observations with us with a letter to the Action Line editor. And always be mindful to observe from a respectful distance.

A fiddler crab performs his courtship dance.

VICTORY LAP

BY NICOLE RIVARD

FoA bolsters spay/ neuter programs at four organizations

had been feeding a colony of feral ta-based, agency BREENSMITH, cats. took home Shorty Awards for “Best “The director of the women’s in Pets and Animals” and Silver for shelter didn’t know what to do, but “Best Hashtag.” she knew that they should have the The perils of pet homelessness cats fixed. Otherwise they would that can be nullified by spaying wind up with more mouths to feed and neutering are illustrated in than they bargained for,” explained the two-minute video featuring Haugan. “She contacted our Spay/ actor Danny Trejo—best known Neuter & Wellness Clinic who sent a for his tough-guy roles in hits like volunteer ‘trapper’ to the rescue. At “Machete” and “Breaking Bad”—as the end of the day, all 11 cats from a street dog that winds up behind the colony were trapped, spayed/ bars. From dumpster diving with his neutered by our clinic at a deep cat buddy to showing us the ropes of discount, and they returned to their dog gang life, his story underscores colony at the women’s shelter. The the unfortunate plight of homeless residents were so proud that they cats and dogs in America. had accomplished something good FoA’s interactive campaign— for these cats, and we could not #FlipOffFur—which included print be more pleased to have offered ads and a Times Square billboard, this support, thanks to Friends of used an image of a fox, a middle Animals’ funding.” finger gesture and a hashtag to create a social media trend.

Now in its eighth year, the Shorty Awards were the first awards to honor social media. By constantly evolving along with the medium it honors, The Shorty’s remains the most prominent award show of its kind, engaging an online audience of millions.

Recently Friends of Animals (FoA) awarded four organizations $5,000 each in grants and low-cost spay/ neuter certificates to bolster their spay/neuter programs.

Fix Nation’s goal is to reduce homeless cat overpopulation throughout Los Angeles County. The New York City Feral Cat Initiative is committed to solving NYC’s feral cat overpopulation crisis through the humane, non-lethal method of trap, neuter, return. The mission of Long Island Bulldog Rescue (LIBR) is to provide education and adoption services to ensure that all English Bulldogs enjoy long, healthy lives in loving, safe homes where they are provided the life-long care they require. Lastly Yavapai Humane Society promotes and protects the health, safety and welfare of pets in Prescott, Ariz.

“Yavapai Humane Society first received support from Friends of Animals in January 2015. Funds from Friends of Animals have made a big impact in our community,” said Elisabeth Haugan, development director.

The organization’s shelter runs spay and neuter programs to assist the public—specifically, the underFrom an initial gathering of just 15 served in the community. In addispeakers and 75 participants in tion its runs a trap/neuter/release program for feral cats in the commu- Friends of Animals’ latest spay/ 1983, the Public Interest Environnity called Feral Love and Education neuter video featuring actor Danny mental Law Conference has grown to Instead of X-termination (FELIX). Trejo, and its #FlipOffFur social become the world’s most important Through FELIX, it recently assisted media hashtag for its newest anti- environmental law conference. This a women’s shelter, where residents fur campaign, both created by Atlan- year FoA participated in two panels

Work for FoA garners Shorty Awards

4 | Friends of Animals

FoA’s Wildlife Law Program featured at PIELC

THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT FOA’S ADVOCACY AND ACHIEVEMENTS at the conference, which took place in Oregon in March.

FoA’s Wildlife Law Program Director Michael Harris presented against trophy hunting as a conservation tool and participated in a discussion about the legality of importing such trophies into the U.S. and other western countries.

Cecil’s Law, legislation drafted by FoA, which would ban the importation, possession, sale or transportation of the African elephant, lion, leopard, and black and white rhinos or their body parts—all threatened and endangered species, is making its way through New York legislature.

It also passed the Senate in April in Connecticut, but didn’t get voted on in the House because time ran out as legislators were consumed by the budget. FoA hopes to get it across the finish line in Connecticut next year.

As the effects of global climate change and increased development are being realized a shift in conservation methods is under way, from habitat conservation to the killing of species’ natural predators or competitors. In a panel titled, “The Taking of One Species to Protect Another: Ethical and Legal Implication,” Jenni Best, associate attorney of FoA’s Wildlife Law Program, provided an overview of FoA’s legal challenge to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s experimental plan to kill more than 3,000 barred owls in the Pacific Northwest as part of the recovery plan for the northern spotted owl, which is now in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The panel also focused on legal, ethical, and practical

problems with another plan by the USFWS to kill cormorants to save salmon, which FoA also filed a lawsuit against with other animal advocacy groups.

FoA stops forced drugging of Nevada’s wild horses (again)!

Because of pressure from FoA and the threat of legal action, in May the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) revoked its April 3, 2014 Decision Record for its misguided Fish Springs Wild Horses PZP Pilot Project. This decision had authorized a public-private partnership with the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates to forcibly drug mares of the beloved Pine Nut Herd with the fertility control pesticide PZP. When FoA learned the project was underway, it sprang into action because the project suffered the same legal deficiencies Judge Larry R. Hicks’ found last year with the agency’s 2014 removal and fertility control plan.

The decision to arm local landowners with long rifles and PZP-filled darts to go after Pine Nut mares who might wander from the designated Herd Management Area onto private lands near Fish Springs directly conflicts with a 2015 court decision aimed at limiting management actions directed at the Pine Nut wild horses until BLM complies with federal law.

That decision was issued in February 2015 in an action brought

by FoA challenging BLM’s Dec. 19, 2014 decision to round-up and

remove approximately 332 Pine Nut wild horses and to PZP all mares one-year of age and older.

In forbidding BLM’s implementation of this plan, Hicks found that BLM’s decision to permanently remove the horses and to implement fertility dosing was made without conducting an adequate analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. Shortly, after Judge Hick’s decision, BLM voluntarily withdrew its 2014 management plan.

There is growing scientific research that shows PZP can have long lasting negative physical, behavioral and social impacts to wild horses.

“It looks as if BLM’s withdrawing its 2014 management plan involving a roundup and PZP, was somewhat disingenuous,” Harris said.

“True, BLM has not implemented the roundup, or drugged any mares on public lands. Instead, they dusted off an even older plan—the Fish Springs PZP Pilot Program—in an attempt to drug the Pine Nut mares without complying with the court decision or NEPA.”

One of the horses in the Pine Nut herd

Summer 2016 | 5

SUMMER IS

PARTY TIME AT PPI

JUNIOR: For the strong and confident Junior weighs in at less than one pound. But don’t tell this cotton-top tamarin that. She thinks she is large and in charge—insisting on being fed first...before the other eight cotton-top tamarins at PPI. If that doesn’t happen she will let you know she’s upset with her loud chirping.

Junior was among several cotton-top tamarins who arrived at PPI from a biomedical research facility. Before 1974, when export from their native Colombia was banned, tamarins were often exported for the pet trade and zoos. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it is estimated that 20,00030,000 were exported to the United States for biomedical research. They were often used for colon cancer research, many selectively bred so they would have a higher likelihood to develop cancer so scientists could study the disease.

Today cotton-top tamarins are listed as Critically Endangered due to severe reduction in population due to destruction of habitat for agricultural activities.

THOMAS: For someone always on the go Thomas is Shu Shu’s son and was born at PPI in 1998 as the result of an accidental pregnancy. He is known for his never-ending abundance of energy.

Sometimes he uses that energy to get a rise out of care staff by pretending he’s going to throw food at them. Speaking of which, he also likes to try and start food fights with his neighbors, Rudy and Josie, so walking between their habitats is always an adventure.

6 | Friends of Animals

SHU SHU: For the kindhearted Shu Shu got her name from a veterinarian at the now defunct Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP), which housed some 300 chimpanzees and nearly 300 monkeys. Chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates were subjected to intensive biomedical research in areas including reproduction, blood transfusions, hepatitis B and HIV. Shu Shu means “my little cabbage,” a term of endearment that reflects the vet’s fondness for her because of her sweet disposition.

In 1997, LEMSIP chimpanzees were sent to the primate testing and breeding lab Coulston (also defunct), but not before the veterinarian managed to place 109 chimpanzees and 100 monkeys in sanctuaries around North America, including PPI. Shu Shu loves her squeaky toys, which she gets during enrichment activities. And after being housed singly in a small, steel lab cage that hung above the floor without any outdoor access, Shu Shu also loves living with Baxter. She recently received access to PPI’s Primadome, which offers a variety of climbing structures and hammocks, and a cupola where chimpanzees can climb 25 feet to view the tree tops.

Summer is full of reasons to throw a party—graduations, weddings, Fourth of July and Labor Day. Since our residents at Primarily Primates (PPI) love a good party—we are now offering supporters a chance to host a fruit party for them. All you have to do is visit the “Give Food and Fun” under the ‘Donate’ section of our website, primarilyprimates.org, to send a fruit-filled extravaganza our way. You can also continue to sponsor an individual animal for a loved one or yourself.

Just visit this link: primarilyprimates.org/support-an-animal-in-need, choose a species and then an individual animal; call 830.755.4616; or send a check to Primarily Primates, 26099 Dull Knife Trail, San Antonio, Texas, 78255.

KAYLA: For the person you can always count on Kayla arrived at PPI along with three other long-tailed macaques after being discovered in a Tennessee garage living in nothing more than a bird cage. The ammonia level was so high from the monkeys living in their own excrement that rescuers had to wear masks to enter the garage. The sanctuary has transformed Kayla’s life and now she’s paying it forward. Recently, her sweet habitat mate, Igor, lost his vision. Kayla can be seen guiding him around and making sure he doesn’t miss food enrichment activities.

AMBER: For the innovative

SUDIO: For your forever friend Sudio arrived at PPI as a baby on his mother’s back when they were released from a research lab in New York in 1996. Muriel has since passed away, but Sudio considers Thomas, who he shares his habitat with, his forever family. Recently when Sudio developed a minor respiratory virus, it melted our hearts to see tough guy Thomas hugging him throughout the illness and taking care of him until he recovered. Sudio loves to wrestle with Thomas and be his wingman when he tries to start food fights with the neighbors. Sudio’s favorite treats are graham crackers.

Amber is a Japanese snow macaque who arrived at the sanctuary in January.

She was dumped off at a vet office in Texas after being taken from her primate family in the wild and imprisoned as a pet.

Her red face and bottom, as well as her short tail, distinguish her from the other macaques at the sanctuary. In fact there is only one other snow macaque at Primarily Primates—2-year-old Louie, who arrived in February of 2015 after also being exploited as a pet.

The species, native to the islands of Japan, represents the northernmost wild populations of non-human primates in the world. They are called snow monkeys because they live in areas of Japan where snow covers the ground for months each year. They have been studied in the wild for more than 50 years, longer than most primate species.

Researchers have documented the first case of cultural innovation in nonhuman primates with this species.

A female they named Imo learned to wash sand off of provisioned sweet potatoes and then clean sand off of wheat.

Summer 2016 | 7

SELFISHSELFIES TRAVELERS POSING WITH EXOTIC ANIMALS TO GET A LOT OF ‘LIKES’ ARE PUTTING ANIMALS IN HARM’S WAY.

8 | Friends of Animals

BY MEG MCINTIRE. ILLUSTRATION BY MARCUS PIERNO

S

taging enviable self-portraits are a staple for any social media savvy traveler.

A shot of you at the top of the mountain range you just scaled?

Definitely. Another one on the beach with ocean waves crashing in the background? Sure. But one with you and the cuddly-looking tiger cub being used to promote a local safari park? Think again.

Selfies, photos or videos of exotic or endangered species can actually be deadly for these animals.

While there’s no denying that social media has a huge soft spot for adorable animal pics, it regularly fails to address the suffering and danger that lies behind some of the images.

After the world was shocked to see a video of selfie-taking tourists in Argentina plucking a baby dolphin from the water and passing it around, possibly resulting in its death, the news website Inquisitr published an article showing that more animals die from selfies each year than there are tourists who die from shark attacks.

The examples are plentiful—just this year there have been instances of two peacocks dying after they were swarmed by tourists in a Chinese zoo, a shark being passed around to death for photos and tiger cubs being used for photo ops before later being poached.

And last summer, Yellowstone National Park actually had to put up a notice prohibiting people from taking selfies with wild animals after a mother was gored by a bison while taking a selfie with her daughter.

Going back to the roots of this terrible trend, there is perhaps no

better illustration of the dangers exotic animals face when they find themselves in the spotlight of social media than the slow loris. An adorable, but venomous primate, slow lorises rose to Internet fame a few years ago after videos of them being tickled went viral on YouTube.

Native to East Asia and already a threatened species, their increasing popularity online made them a perfect photo “prop” for those looking to make money off of visiting tourists. Since slow loris are naturally nocturnal animals and prefer quiet and calm environments, this newfound fame resulted in immense suffering for this species and has almost decimated its population levels.

Despite the sad fate of the slow loris, many tourists are still selfishly seeking the opportunity to take a selfie with an exotic animal. Due to the high demand for such pictures, “sanctuaries” are popping up in Mexico, Europe and Morocco that allow tourists to take photos with wild animals. However, many travel agencies warn that no legitimate sanctuary would allow animals to be used as photographic props.

We know that selfies are not going away anytime soon, but there’s no reason for people to continue to put themselves and wildlife in danger with these risky pics. Before you hold up your phone to snap an Instagram pic with that wild animal, ask yourself, “Is this really worth it?”

It’s not, so stick to taking selfies with your domestic pets to take one with you instead. They may get a little annoyed, but at least you are not risking their life or your own.

Summer 2016 | 9

PROTECTING OUR

NATIONAL PARKS

THE CENTENNIAL OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE REMINDS US THAT WE ARE ALL STEWARDS OF THESE WILD PLACES AND THE ANIMALS WHO LIVE THERE. CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK, OREGON. PHOTOGRAPH BY NICOLE RIVARD

Summer 2016 | 11

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE SAFE

National Parks provide

gold standard THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM IS THE GOLD STANDARD FOR AMERICAN PROTECTED AREAS

in American protected areas STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLE RIVARD STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLE RIVARD Above: Great white egret hunts in Everglades National Park.

efore the Shark Valley tram began bouncing along the 15-mile loop in the “river of grass,” better known as the Florida Everglades, I looked over my shoulder and saw a great white egret hunting in the shallow waters, standing motionless with its long neck extended, searching for prey.

No fish, frog or crayfish came within striking distance of the egret’s long, sharp bill, which it uses to spear its next meal, before we rolled away. But I was so enthused to be on my first visit to a National Park, I found myself on the edge of my seat.

Just minutes into the two-hour tour I became mesmerized. Sawgrass prairie dotted with small tree islands stretched as far as the eye could see, a landscape both strange and breathtaking at the same time for this New Englander. The stillness and quiet provided a much needed haven from the crowds and construction of claustrophobic Miami Beach, where my hotel was just an hour away.

I was brought out of my trance when the driver slammed on the brakes so the ranger could point out

B

12 | Friends of Animals

an alligator sunbathing in the sawgrass. To my delight and everyone else’s, this happened several more times.

While it seemed chilly for a February morning in Florida, requiring everyone to wear sweatshirts and fleeces, it was actually the perfect day for wildlife watching as the animals were out soaking themselves in the sun to keep warm.

Experiencing the juxtaposition of the calmness of the landscape—the Everglades are actually a very slow moving river—and the life teeming within, including a plethora of flora and fauna, made me understand more fully why author and conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote in River of Grass in 1947, “There are no other Everglades in the world.”

What makes Everglades National Park—a 1.5 million-acre piece of the 11.5 million acre Everglades ecosystem—unlike the other 58 National Parks in the United States and the reason Friends of Animals (FoA) chose to showcase it during the centennial of the National Park Service, is that it was the first to be approved by Congress specifically for the protection of

wildlife. That’s music to our ears at FoA, as the mission of our Wildlife Law Program focuses on the defense of wildlife and their habitats throughout the world and ensures the right of all wildlife to live in an ecosystem free from human manipulation, exploitation or abuse.

“With the dedication of Everglades National Park in 1947, a new precedent was set in the growing conservation movement,” explains Linda Friar, chief of public affairs for Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Parks.

“For the first time in American history, a large tract of wilderness was permanently protected not for its scenic value, but for the benefit of the unique diversity of life it sustained. The mosaic of habitats found within the Greater Everglades ecosystem supports an assemblage of plant and animal species not found elsewhere on the planet. While nine distinct habitats have been identified, the landscape remains dynamic. Ecosystems remain in a constant state of flux, subject to the environmental factors of south Florida.”

Everglades National Park protects an unparalleled landscape that provides important habitat for numerous rare and endangered species. Friar pointed out that the park is home to more than 400 species of birds, 25 species of mammals, and 60 species of amphibians and reptiles.

In addition, 125 species of fish from 45 families have been identified. The park is also home to 13 federally listed endangered species: the American crocodile, hawksbill turtle, Florida panther, Atlantic Ridley turtle, snail (Everglades) kite, Key largo cotton mouse, Cape Sable seaside sparrow, green turtle, Leatherback turtle; Key Largo wood rat, Peregrine falcon, wood stork and West Indian manatee.

Below: Dwarf bald cypress trees stand in the sawgrass at Everglades National Park.

POWER OF PARKS The importance of National Parks like the Everglades, which can only be designated by Acts of Congress, cannot be overstated, according to Michael J. Kellett, who left his position at the Wilderness Society in 1992 to establish RESTORE: The North Woods, which has proposed a new 3.2 million-acre Maine Woods National Park. (see story on page 17) “The National Park System is the gold standard for American protected areas,” Kellett said. “The unique mandate of the 1916 National Park Service ‘Organic Act’ requires our parks to be managed ‘to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations,’” Kellett said. “Combined with the additional overlay of designation under the 1964 Wilderness Act, National Parks have the most robust safeguards of any lands and waters in America.”

Kellett explained that hunting and resource development activities (mineral extraction, fracking, timber harvesting, artificial habitat management) are prohibited in National Parks unless grandfathered or expressly permitted in the park’s authorizing legislation. There are more than 400 National Park Service units, but only 59 are National Parks.

So far, Congress has not authorized sport hunting in any National Parks, whereas this activity is authorized in some other types of units, including some national preserves and reserves, national historic parks, national rivers, national monuments and national seashores and lakeshores. (Some National Parks in Alaska allow subsistence hunting by local residents.)

Unfortunately, FoA learned an elk hunt took place under the guise of population control in North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park. FoA asserts it is not humans’ business how many wild animals inhabit our National Parks. FoA has also taken legal action to stop the roundup and slaughter of bison in the Stephens Creek area of Yellowstone National Park, a reckless decision that caters to the livestock industry and is not consistent with the legal mandates Congress has set.

“National Parks are unlike the wilderness of Bureau of Land Management lands out west and of National Forest lands—those places allow livestock grazing, hunting of predators and artificial fire control for example, but

Summer 2016 | 13

National Parks don’t allow any of that stuff. And that’s why I often say the most protected lands in the United States are National Parks with wilderness designation,” Kellett said.

THIS LAND IS OUR LAND Kellet is delighted 2016 marks the centennial of the National Park Service because it brings awareness to the National Park System and hopes it will be a catalyst for increasing the supply of parks throughout the country over the next century.

Everglades National Park welcomed 1,075,575 visitors in 2015. During the same time, America’s national parks welcomed more than 300 million visitors, a record likely to be broken this year as the park service celebrates its birthday with special programs and broader publicity. For Friar, that means more people fulfilling dreams of a wildlife encounter and leaving with a deeper connection to the natural world, a win-win for the parks and visitors.

“I always encourage my friends to go on a slough slog or canoe trip in Everglades National Park, to get out of the car, look carefully at the landscape and take a moment and take it all in; you’ll be surprised what you start to see,” Friar said.

“I think that visitors need to get off the main roads and venture into the wilderness to really experience the Everglades. I think when people experience nature they have a renewed sense of stewardship. And in today’s digital world, just sharing images of these beautiful places also helps to educate,” Friar said.

Friar points out that education is key for getting Americans on board with restoration efforts underway throughout the Greater Everglades ecosystem. Despite all the protections inside its boundaries, Everglades National Park has suffered from outside factors.

Historically 450 billion gallons of water per year flowed southward into Everglades National Park and today only 260 billion flow along the same path. Friar explained that the reconfiguration of the watershed in south Florida that took place after back-to-back hurricanes in 1947—which addressed public outcries by providing flood control and water supply—along with increased land used for housing, has chipped away at natural habitats for wildlife throughout the Greater Everglades ecosystem. In addition, agricultural practices that weren’t environmentally friendly have also impacted the health of the entire ecosystem, including the park.

“The more that visitors and our community understand the challenges of restoration the more likely we will move forward more quickly. The restoration effort is long-term, it took nearly 50 years to arrive at the place we are today and it may take that long to repair the damage,” Friar said. “This restoration is the largest ever undertaken in the history of the planet and has many moving parts – the park is one part of this much larger effort working to restore a damaged ecosystem.”

A Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was authorized in 2000. Of the 65 CERP project components, three are most important to Everglades National Park. The first includes filling canals and removing levees to restore natural sheet flow and ecological connectivity; the second is to reduce water loss along the eastern boundary of the park caused by keeping water levels artificially low outside the park to provide flood protection to adjacent urban and agricultural lands; and the third will restore natural flows to Florida Bay and rehydrate the southeastern coastal marshes.

TAKE ACTION THERE ARE LOTS OF WAYS TO BECOME STEWARDS OF NATIONAL PARKS.

BECOME A CITIZEN SCIENTIST

Many Research Learning Centers (RLCs) across the country provide opportunities for the public to actively participate in scientific data collection in an increasingly popular pastime known as citizen science. Citizen science engages volunteers of all ages, some with little or no prior scientific training, in collecting scientific data related to important issues faced by the parks. Visit nature.nps.gov/rlc/citizenscience.cfm

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VOLUNTEER

To learn about volunteer opportunities in the National Park Service, visit volunteer.gov.

BECOME AN INTERN

There are thousands of opportunities for high school, college and grad students to work with the National Park Service.

Above: On a chilly February morning, alligators like this one soaked themselves in the sun to stay warm in Everglades National Park.

IT TAKES ONE PERSON TO CREATE A NATIONAL PARK At the beginning of our tram tour, the ranger held up an illustration of the historic flow of fresh water into Everglades National Park versus the current flow and the planned flow.

I couldn’t help but think what would have happened to the 1.5 million acres of water and land that comprise Everglades National Park if it wasn’t for people like Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who was one of the Florida’s environment’s foremost spokespersons. As I relished in seeing more alligators and egrets, anhinga, hawks, turtles, ibises, and blue herons, I felt eternally grateful to her.

What I learned after returning home to FoA’s headquarters in Connecticut, is that it was another steward of the Everglades who persistently and almost single handedly pushed for the establishment of the national park—and, surprisingly, he was from Connecticut.

Ernest F. Coe was born in New Haven in 1866 and as a youngster loved exploring the outdoors. He and his wife moved to Miami in 1925 where he had a landscape business.

He nourished his love for the outdoors by exploring the Everglades and became shocked when he learned of rare birds

being killed and rare unusual orchids being snatched from their natural habitat. He feared that many animals would face extinction if something wasn’t done.

In 1928 he wrote Stephen T. Mather, first director of the National Park Service, outlining a proposal for a National Park to be located within the lower everglades of South Florida. A subsequent meeting took place and from this meeting legislation to create Everglades National Park was introduced by Senator Duncan B. Fletcher of Florida at the end of the year.

Despite considerable resistance by legislators who failed to see the merits of the proposed park, and by local landowners who feared lost profits, Coe prevailed. The legislation was approved May 25, 1934 and was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 30, 1934. It took another 13 years to acquire the land and define the park’s boundaries.

When Coe died on Jan. 1, 1951 then Secretary of the Interior Oscar Chapman said, “Ernest Coe’s many years of effective and unselfish efforts to save the Everglades earned him a place among the immortals of the National Park movement.”

It’s a movement that Friends of Animals hopes will thrive in the next 100 years.

Summer 2016 | 15

NATIONAL PARKS . . .

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, UTAH

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: NPS PHOTO / KEN CONGER. ADAM WILLOUGHBY-KNOX

THE NEXT CENTURY OF

BY NICOLE RIVARD PHOTOGRAPH BY TRACY ZHANG

AMERICA NEEDS MORE NATIONAL PARKS. PERIOD. So says Michael Kellett, who founded RESTORE: The North Woods, in 1992.

Kellett makes such a strong case that his essay on the topic was included in the 2014 book, Protecting the Wild: Parks and Wilderness, the Foundation of Conservation.

And Kellett’s actions over the last two decades speak as loud as his words. He has spent the last 24 years of his life, since he left his position at the Wilderness Society, advocating for a National Park in the north woods of Maine.

He proposed the park in 1994, because he believes in a restored landscape and the recovery of extirpated and imperiled wildlife, including the eastern timber wolf, Canada lynx and Atlantic salmon.

“I’ve been at it too long to give up now,” he said with a laugh during a recent interview.

But Kellett said he ran into a buzz saw of opposition by entrenched anti-wilderness and anti-public lands people.

“It’s some of the same kind of people we saw take over the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, who hate federal public lands and the government,” he said. “There was a lot of misinformation spewed that a new National Park would take away

people’s homes, and ruin the timber industry and all this other ridiculous stuff.

“The people who hate National Parks, preservation and public land want you to believe that it’s not possible to create a National Park. A lot of people hear that and get discouraged. They might think about a National Park and work on it for a little while and then give up because they aren’t going to win.”

But that’s not the case with Kellett. He’s in it for the long haul, buoyed by the fact that a lot of parks faced opposition before they were created. “If you read the history of National Parks, almost every single National Park, all the ones that people love now, they were vehemently opposed by the same people,” Kellett said.

“You can read the articles from 100 years ago and opponents were saying the same stupid, bogus stuff. It’s unbelievable. Grand Teton National Park, for example. Opponents said Jackson was going to become a ghost town because the heart of the economy was cattle grazing. And now Grand Teton is the entire economy. It’s the richest county in the entire state of Wyoming because of that park.”

Summer 2016 | 17

Since Kellett first proposed a National Park in the Maine woods, another narrative has developed. Roxanne Quimby, founder of skin-care company Burt’s Bees, met Kellett at a 1998 farm fair in Maine. She was so impressed with the proposal that she began buying land from timber companies as a core for the park, kicking hunters off the land. Since then she has put her son Lucas St. Clair in charge of pushing the park’s development forward, and he recently came up with the possibility of creating a 100,000-acre national monument in the area first as a more attainable short-term goal.

Unlike National Parks, which can only be created by an Act of Congress, national monuments can be created with the stroke of a president’s pen. Congress passed the Antiquities Act of

1906 to give the president the ability to quickly protect historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures and other objects of historic or scientific interest on federal owned land.

A national monument would be a step in the right direction, said Kellett. He pointed out that several National Parks started out as national monuments, including Acadia, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton and Zion.

While Kellett thinks there is a real chance of creating a national monument in Northern Maine before Obama leaves office, which is a step in the right direction, he will continue to push for the creation of a bigger National Park because that’s what will be needed to preserve an entire ecosystem, like with the 1.5 million-acre Everglades National Park.

“In the Maine woods for

example we need to restore wolves. If you did reintroduce them like they did in Yellowstone, but you only have 100,000-acre national monument and you have a 200,000-acre state park next door, that’s still a pretty small area. We would like to see the whole ecosystem patched back together,” Kellett said.

A National Park in the Maine woods, as well as Kellett’s overall vision of a far larger National Park System for the next 100 years— free from hunting and resource development activities—is something Friends of Animals champions.

Other new National Parks for imperiled wildlife Kellett suggests in his essay include: Georges Bank (Mass.) for blue, fin, North Atlantic right, and sei whales; Giant Sequoia (Calif.) for California condor, California

PHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGE WUERTHNER

Below: Campers connect with nature at Lobster Lake in Maine’s wilderness.

“THERE WAS A LOT OF MISINFORMATION SPEWED THAT A NEW NATIONAL PARK WOULD TAKE AWAY PEOPLE’S HOMES, AND RUIN THE TIMBER INDUSTRY AND ALL THIS OTHER RIDICULOUS STUFF.”

spotted owl, Little Kern golden trout, and Valley elderberry longhorn beetle; Gila-Apache (Ariz., N.M.) for jaguar, Mexican wolf, Mexican spotted owl, and Gila trout; High Allegheny (W.Va.) for West Virginia northern flying squirrel, Eastern small-footed, Indiana, and Virginia big-eared bats, and Cheat Mountain salamander; Northeast Ecological Corridor (Puerto Rico) for West Indian manatee, Puerto Rican plain pigeon, Puerto Rican boa, and leatherback turtle; and Thunder Basin (Wyo.) for blackfooted ferret, black-tailed prairie dog, greater sage-grouse, and blowout penstemon.

Kellet’s vision for current national park expansions include: Biscayne (Fla.) to prevent encroaching urban development; Theodore Roosevelt (N.D.) to terminate fracking for oil and gas; Crater Lake (OR) and North Cascades (Wash.) to stop logging and road building; Canyonlands (Utah) and Glen Canyon (Utah) to prohibit drilling, mining, and off-road motorized abuse; Glacier (Mont.) and Yellowstone (Idaho, Mont., Wyo.) to halt the killing of wolves, grizzly bears, and bison; and Mammoth Cave (Tenn.) to avert exploitation of integral watershed.

“The good thing is people love National Parks. More than 300 million people visited them last year,” Kellet said. “What cause has an automatic constituency of 300 million people? Say we got one percent of that constituency really fired up and activated, that would be three million people.”

Kellet says that if those people were informed and organized, they could exert massive pressure on Congress and the president to create new National Parks. The last time citizens mounted such a

nationwide new parks campaign, it resulted in the passage of the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Act, which doubled the size of the National Park system.

“My belief is people like positive bold ideas. They are tired of being told everything is horrible and we can’t do anything,” Kellett said. “If you have a good idea that really is possible, they are hungry for that now.”

TAKE ACTION WRITE TO THE MAINE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION AND TELL THEM YOU WOULD VISIT MAINE AND SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS IF A MAINE WOODS NATIONAL PARK WAS CREATED. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree https://pingree.house.gov/contact/email-me Congressman Bruce Poliquin https://poliquin.house.gov/email U.S. Sen. Susan Collins http://www.collins.senate.gov/contact U.S. Sen. Angus Kinghttps://www.king.senate.gov/contact

Summer 2016 | 19

CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK: A FEAST FOR THE EYES AND SOUL

BY NICOLE RIVARD

H

ave you ever taken a boat ride inside a volcano?

I haven’t, but the idea of seeing a place where someone can do that in the summer from June 24 to Aug. 14, intrigued me.

So when Friends of Animals’ wild horse advocacy work took us to Redmond, Oregon, to testify at a Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting back in April, before heading home I made it a point to visit Oregon’s only National Park, Crater Lake. Unlike Everglades National Park in Florida, which was approved largely for the protection of wildlife, Crater

20 | Friends of Animals

Lake National Park was established May 22, 1902, as a scenic wonder.

Indeed, I was awestruck by Crater Lake. The sweeping view provided by the still, clear, blue water, and the surrounding cliffs, almost 2,000 feet high, blanketed by undisturbed snow created this giant clean slate, bursting with a sense of hope and possibility.

It’s a stark contrast to its violent past. Crater Lake was not formed by a meteor like its name suggests. The crater from which the lake was formed, which is about six miles in diameter, is the remnant of Mount Mazama, a volcano

that rose to probably 12,000 feet, until an eruption about 7,700 years ago. During the eruption so much material was evacuated from the internal magma chamber that afterwards, there was not enough to the support the remaining mountain, and it collapsed, creating the caldera visitors see today filled with water. The lake is 1,943 feet deep, making it the deepest lake in the United States and the ninth deepest lake in the world.

Wizard Island, which pokes out from the glasslike surface of the lake, formed because of the buildup of hot cinders, which were ejected from the floor of the caldera sometime after Mt. Mazama collapsed.

The scenery moved me to tears—much like the splendor of the birds of the Everglades. But April in Crater Lake is not the best time for wildlife watching. Considered one of the snowiest places in America—storms from the Pacific Ocean dump an annual average of 43 feet of snow at headquarters. During winter, many animals including deer, Roosevelt elk, bears, coyotes, Bald eagles, hawks, spotted owls and grouse, are forced to leave the park to survive. But the thick blanket of snow, provides protection and warmth for a variety of subnivean mammals, such as shrews, voles and pikas.

Mother Nature had dumped 17 inches of snow on the park just prior to my arrival, but luckily the south entrance was open and the snow plow crew had created lookout points for visitors. (The northern entrance usually opens late May, but after a severe winter, it may take the snow plow crew until mid-June. East Rim drive, a 33-mile road encircling the lake, is usually open by the 4th of July.)

The snow kept wildlife away, but not visitors. Among them was a man who had recently quit his job, feeling the need to stop chasing money and seek a purposeful life.

He said places like Crater Lake are making him rethink his future—he is leaning towards work that involves helping animals and the planet.

And then there was the engaged couple who stopped at Crater Lake National Park as part of a four-month journey around the country that will include visits to all 50 states and all 59 National Parks before their wedding in July.

As they posed with an American flag against the backdrop of Wizard Island, someone asked them why they decided to take this trip, and I thought to myself, ‘Why not?’

For info about Crater Lake, visit nps.gov/crla/index.htm.

Summer 2016 | 21

o t s m Ada : s l o e t r a a C voc d a l a anim

‘WE HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO’ RR ET RH OD ES

BY DU ST IN GA

L

ibrary Journal wrote that The Sexual Politics of Meat—Carol Adams’ groundbreaking work on the intersections of feminism and animal rights—”is likely to both inspire and enrage readers across the political spectrum.” Published in 1990 and republished as a 25th anniversary edition in 2015, the book continues to inspire.

Adam’s has continued to explore veganism, feminist thought, healthy aging and more with books including Living Among Meat Eaters, The Pornography of Meat and Never Too Late to Go Vegan (co-authored with Ginny Messina and Patti Breitman).

With the possibility of the first female U.S. president around the corner, Friends of Animals caught up with Adams at her home in Dallas, Texas, to discuss feminism and the vegan and animal rights movements and their significance in America in 2016.

The 25th anniversary edition of your landmark book, The Sexual Politics of Meat, was published last year.

What has changed during the last quarter-century?

I think what we find is that the old truism ‘one step forward and two steps back’ is constantly at play. With a book like The Sexual Politics of Meat, it’s challenging so many presumptions of the consumer; it’s challenging the presumption that we have the right to eat animals and animal products; and it’s challenging the cultural preoccupation with women’s bodies. It’s challenging something that I think has been central to our Western tradition: the role of objectification in the creation of our own subjectivity. That might sound a little complicated but I will get back to that.

When you are challenging all of these aspects of an oppressive framework that we have grown up accepting—that, for many people, we’ve grown up believing in and thinking it’s Truth with a capital T—most reactions are not going to be very supportive [laughs]. When the book first came out, I would say 80 percent of the reviews expressed outrage—especially by the right wing, who saw it as an example of political correctness. The interesting thing at that time was that some right wing writers would spend whole pages debating it. I thought, ‘at least they have to deal with it.’

Now we’ve moved 25 years forward, veganism is sprouting up all over; now we have vegan restaurant chains, delicious vegan cheeses, incredible restaurants and cookbooks—veganism is flourishing! But it doesn’t mean we are defeating animal agriculture, which—sort of like water—will always find its level; now we’re exporting meat to other countries and creating advertising campaigns that are aimed at the whole world. As every success has been leveled, there’s always some regressive politic going on in response. The same with feminism, as everything moves forward, regressive politics are growing in the soil. I remember when the book came out, I wondered, ‘have I observed something that’s fading?’ I had such a wonderful sense of success with both veganism and feminism in the 1980s. But now when we look at the kind of political views that are being expressed during this presidential campaign year—especially about women—it’s not just cringe-worthy, it’s tragic. It’s as though the feminism of the 1970s never happened.

Summer 2016 | 23

On the subject of feminism, I have to ask about our current election, and the fact that we quite possibly will have our first female democratic candidate.

[Laughs] To answer the second question first: We still need feminism! It’s always been said that for a woman to succeed in politics, she had to move further right than anyone else. And that’s how we ended up with a Margaret Thatcher—the Iron Lady. Hillary Clinton is in the uncomfortable position of always having been a liberal, but to be a candidate I think she’s moved more to the center than she really is. Hillary Clinton didn’t even take her husband’s name at first. She only took the Clinton name when Bill started running for governor of Arkansas.

You’ve got someone who had feminism running in her blood, and she has achieved so much. But the standards for women are going to be greater and the hatred expressed toward women is going to be stronger. Every time Hillary Clinton speaks, she is reminding every misogynist that women have power. The misogynist depends upon the object status of women, and they don’t like this reminder. That’s what misogyny is. They don’t want strong, successful women around. They want women to fail. Bernie Sanders is benefitting from 20 years of misogyny against Hillary Clinton. That’s what’s been troubling to me during this primary season. Hillary Clinton is a very, very brave person.

Your work has put you right in the center of the animal rights advocacy field, and yet you are taking it to task for its means of achieving liberation for animals. Can you talk about that tension? I am going to assume you’ve been embraced and shunned simultaneously by various factions in the animal advocacy movement?

What I challenge is the methodology and assumptions about how we create change. I am challenging the use of women as objects in the animal movement. I am chal-

24 | Friends of Animals

lenging the appeal to men that you can still be a ‘real man’ and eat plants. I am also provoking the question, ‘What do we think real men are in this culture?’ I am also challenging the glass ceiling we’ve had in the animal rights movement—where its male philosophers, who debate each other and get read and cited; the men who hold most of the high ranking positions in the animal advocacy field, Friends of Animals being an exception here, even though women probably make up 75 percent of the grassroots activists in this field. We’ve got a glass ceiling here that is very problematic.

Here’s the thing: If we articulated why a majority of the people respond to animal suffering—because they care; and if we recognized the role of women in creating grassroots activism, who are doing much of the shelter and rescue work; if we allowed them to be the spokespeople, what it would show is that we are really a movement that’s influenced by caring and ethics of care—something that’s articulated from within a feminist perspective. We have got capable women around the world doing imaginative rescues and challenges to animal oppression, but trying to appeal the mainstream in the United States, it’s as though we have to ‘put on our suits,’ and say we’re going to fit in; ‘we’re just like you, but we don’t want you to use animals.’ I don’t know that we are just like whomever that them is. I think we radically disagree about what I mentioned earlier—that objectification should enable our subjectivity.

What does that mean? When we grow up, we learn in relationship to animals; our very basic viewpoints have not been shaped only by parents, peers and school, but also by these non-verbal interactions—in which we’ve learned to trust that communication happens across species.

We don’t see the Other as an object to be used. We see another being as someone. The entire campaign that says someone not something is saying don’t view another as an object. When do we view another as an object? It’s usually

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOANNE MCARTHUR/THE UNBOUND PROJECT

“I am challenging the use of women as objects in the animal movement. I am challenging the appeal to men that you can still be a ‘real man’ and eat plants. I am also provoking the question, ‘What do we think real men are in this culture?’”

when we want them to please something for us. A cow has to be an object if what we want is her veal calf, her milk or her body (as hamburger). A woman has to be an object if what we want from her is a visual consumption pleasure. Someone who abuses a woman in the context of rape or domestic violence, what they want is an object.

Our subjectivity in western culture is created by a dialectic in which we are denying the subjectivity of another.

It’s a very radical thing that intersectional advocates are doing by saying we don’t need to rely on objectification for our subjectivity. I don’t see the animal movement as having embraced that as a main message. We seem to circle around it. We also seem to fall into these potholes in which we reintegrate ourselves into a larger oppressive culture, so what we’re saying is ‘we’re not as threatening as you think! We’re not asking you to give up your status, we’re just asking you to not eat animals.’ I’ve had this problem trying to witness against our own tendency to be regressive.

It’s become bizarrely taboo for people to use the word feminist. Artists like Beyoncé—whose work centers

on female empowerment—will say they aren’t feminist. Likewise, the word vegan has become unfashionable, and many use euphemistic terms like plantbased. Yet “vegan” and “feminist” are powerful terms, and they mean something direct and radical. Why are they disavowed?

Because it’s scary to be seen as radical. There is so much pressure to fit in, to be accepted. If you’re a feminist, you’re spending a lot of time defending something. You go in and say you’re a vegan, then someone is going to pounce on you and ask you, ‘what about this cause and that cause?’ That’s actually why I wrote Living Among Meat Eaters, because this kind of thing happens with so much frequency. On one level, interpersonally, I can understand that it’s easier. That’s not to say it’s right.

I think there are two different things going on with feminism. A lot of people will say they aren’t a feminist, but then you ask them, ‘Do you believe in equal rights and equal pay for equal work?; Do you think people should be able to make choices about their own reproduction?—and yes, they do agree. Do you think a woman

Below: Carol in her study

Summer 2016 | 25

should have to stay married to someone who batters her?’

No? Well, then, you are a feminist.

Certain words carry a punishment because of the regressive reaction to them. Feminism came to be seen as an angry, unhappy, man-hating woman—all the ways the word has been twisted. Rather than take on the word to help break down the stereotype, young feminists have shied away. The second wave feminists were falsely criticized for being essentialist—that they believed women were superior to men; which is not true. We were questioning why people were so obsessed with identity and sexual identity. The idea that just 50 years ago, there were sex segregated work applications. If you asked anyone if that’s the way it should be today—other than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz—they’d say no, of course not. Well, people have adopted a feminist perspective whether they call it that or not.

With veganism, there is so much going on there.

First, veganism got associated with women, and once that happened, for men to be vegan, did it now mean they weren’t strong and masculine? There are so many myths about masculinity that are attached to meat eating that I talk about in my work. Now, we have ‘plant strong’ and ‘he-gan’—all these ways to move away from the association of veganism and women. If I am right in the Sexual Politics of Meat, and that masculinity has to recall itself through eating dead animals, then why are we propping up masculinity to begin with?

I think the move away from using the term vegan has a direct tie to the sexual politics of meat, and rather than stand up to it, expose it, and say ‘there is nothing inherent in a dead animal that makes one more masculine,’ what we’ve ended up doing by not challenging that notion is an attempt to reformulate what veganism is.

That is problematic. It really shows the instability of both meat eating and masculinity.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HILLARY COHEN DEPARDE

Below: Adams enjoys an outing at the Encore Park Community Garden in Dallas, Texas with Holly and Inky, the rescue dogs who live with her.

“What would I say to the person who wants to become a vegan? Don’t waste your time not changing. Not changing is as hard as changing—and maybe it’s even harder.”

One of my favorite books of yours is Living Among Meat Eaters. After all these years of living as a vegan, being a mother, being married, what advice do you give to people who are thinking about veganism. Here at Friends of Animals, we talk to and meet a lot of our supporters who are reluctant to make the plunge because of partners, family and friends—fearing they will be shunned or the change will be too hard.

People are changing all the time—what we wear, what we like to do, our hobbies, what we’re passionate about.

This change, for whatever reason, feels scarier for some people. But as long as you are at peace with the change, everyone else will go along. The problems happen when we become very literal, and we think we have to answer everyone’s questions and defend ourselves. When you enter a room full of meat eaters, and you’re the only vegan, everyone else is simply an “eater.” But when you enter a room, you have now named them as meat eaters once they know you are a vegan. That creates a consciousness of their part—that they have made a decision; and they don’t want to be held accountable. Even though you’ve gone in with your vegan meal and you have no intention of holding them accountable, they’ve done it to themselves and have to blame someone. That’s you. We fall into that trap all the time. I did it wrong for the first 20 years.

What would I say to the person who wants to become a vegan? Don’t waste your time not changing. Not changing is as hard as changing—and maybe it’s even harder.

You just haven’t realized that yet. Live according to your values and people will accept it. Why live a life in the past?

The most loving thing you can do for yourself, the planet, your family, the animals, is to act on the desire to become a vegan. To not act on the deepest desires of your heart is to allow something to die inside.

Our president at Friends of Animals, Priscilla Feral, calls herself an organic food activist because she thinks learning to cook and preparing great vegan food for others is an act of revolution—a radical act

of love. Judging from your social media, cooking and food activism is very important to you, too?

[Laughs] Yes! I l believe that a vegan meal is an extraordinary gift to non-vegans. When I am preparing a vegan meal, I want it to stimulate all the senses. I have beautiful pottery, plates and bowls; and I want things that are colorful. I want the pottery to lift up the food; I want the food to taste delicious and smell good. I love to have the aroma of food roasting as people arrive. I love to use fresh herbs. I want to stimulate all the senses to try to inspire the person who could be a vegan inside. I never talk about veganism while we’re eating, but everyone walks away knowing that they ate a vegan meal and then I let them process that. Veganism has made me a better cook; I have become an experimenter and I read vegan cookbooks for intellectual stimulation—seeing what someone has done with food. Buy some vegan cookbooks—allow yourself to experiment.

Where do you think we are headed in the vegan and animal advocacy movements? Are we on the right path?

I don’t want the vegan and animal advocacy movement to ever become only about consumption. There’s an interesting article by a French philosopher called “Eating Well”, and he talks about vegetarianism there; I don’t want us to ever sit back and say to ourselves, “I am eating well and I have done enough.” Derrida, the philosopher, says we’re never going to be “eating well”; that it’s not something you achieve. I would want us to know as vegans and animal advocates that we have a lot of work to do.

Veganism is important and it’s a baseline for social justice activism. It’s not the only thing. What kinds of exploitation are we still participating in? How do we make connections with other social justice movements?

Our successes should not make us think that this is the only success. I celebrate everything we’ve achieved, but again I don’t want us to think that we are eating well.

Veganism is transformative, but it’s not the only thing we are called to be a part of.

Summer 2016 | 27

BY NICOLE RIVARD

TENNESSEE IS A ROLE MODEL FOR KEEPING ANIMALS OUT OF THE HANDS OF ABUSERS

A

man who beat his dog to death with a shoe in October 2014 because he wouldn’t obey his command to come inside, and who was convicted of aggravated animal cruelty on Jan. 14, 2016, became the first person to appear on the Tennessee Animal Abuse Registry. It is the first statewide registry of its kind in the United States.

Having the registry become active garnered mixed emotions from state Rep. Darren Jernigan, who sponsored the Tennessee Animal Abuse Registration Act, which passed in the spring of 2015 and became effective in January. Of course he’s not happy that the animal abuser did the horrific things he did, but knowing the person won’t be able to legally get another animal gives him great satisfaction.

It took Jernigan three years to create this public record, which any shelter, rescue group or member of the public can look through before finalizing an adoption or rehoming a pet, but he says it was well worth the effort.

Other legislators had been trying for a decade to create an animal abuse registry in Tennessee before he arrived on the scene.

“I took a little of a different approach,” Jernigan explained. “In retrospect I probably wouldn’t even have called it a registry. Because when you say registry automatically what people think of is a sex offender’s registry, which costs money and requires manpower.

“I should have called it a database because really that’s all it is. The information that is provided when someone is convicted—you can technically just go down to the courthouse and get yourself. So really we are just moving it to a database to make it easy for people to find and see. So when someone is convicted they don’t have to register and go down to the sheriff’s office or anything like that. They just are on a statewide database for a couple years.”

It’s not mandatory for shelters or rescue organizations

28 | Friends of Animals

to check it, but Jernigan is confident most will. “Shelters responded to the legislation saying this was much needed and they were going to check it. I also had staff from PetSmart tell me they were going to check it,” he said.

A first-time abuser remains on the registry for two years; abusers with subsequent convictions stay on for five years. Inclusion on the registry is a penalty that is in addition to applicable criminal fines or imprisonment.

The Tennessee law requires court clerks to forward a copy of a judgment and date of birth to the Texas Bureau of Investigation, where the database is located, of any and all people convicted of animal-abuse offenses, within 21 calendar days of the judgment. The information on the list includes a photograph of the convicted abuser, the abuser’s full legal name and other identifying data deemed necessary by the TBI, but not any state or federal identification number, such as a Social Security or driver license number.

Jernigan said he had to fight with legislators who just don’t believe in registries of any kind.

“But when I got them to see there was no physical note on it, so it didn’t cost any money that was a big selling point. They realized that if you are just going to put a picture up with a description of the crime it’s very simple for an IT department.”

To get the Agricultural Committee to support the Tennessee Animal Abuse Registration Act, Jernigan had to narrow the legislation to companion animals as defined in the code and exempt livestock.

Jernigan said he also received some opposition from the Humane Society of the United States, but remained steadfast.

“The organization doesn’t like registries—it believes they are counterproductive because it claims they don’t help the person who has the problem with animals and instead makes them further go into anger mode. I said, ‘I’m not

interested in that. That’s not the motive behind the legislation. It’s so those people won’t get animals again.’ I am not trying to help these people, this is so other agencies and shelters do not give animals out to these people.”

And that is an outcome Friends of Animals stands firmly behind. And the good news is, we are not alone.

There seems to be a statewide animal abuse registry movement underway as other states are considering and trying to pass legislation as well. Jernigan said he has already taken calls from legislators in California, Massachusetts and Georgia who are interested in using Tennessee’s registry law as a model.

In January, Washington state Sen. Joe Fain introduced Senate Bill 6234, modeled after the Tennessee law, which would create an online registry by the state attorney general’s office that includes names, addresses and photos of people convicted of first or second degree animal cruelty, animal fighting or poisoning. Abusers would pay a $50 fee and would remain on the site for 10 years after conviction.

“I think it is an incredibly good thing to do,” Dr. Mark Shelton from the Lake Chelan Veterinary Hospital told the Washington news website Go Lake Chelan. “The animals have no say for themselves and in the United States they are property. I think [animals] are worth more than that— they are family.”

Connecticut will have to wait at least another year for an animal abuse registry though as efforts were derailed this year. The term of a task force created by the General Assembly to study the humane treatment of animals in municipal and regional shelters and chaired by North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda, expired in January.

The idea for a state-run online registry funded by annual fees charged to offenders came up as a byproduct of the group’s efforts.

Freda said the proposal caused some controversy because it raised concerns about hurting people who may really be innocent. However, Jernigan said people only go on the animal abuse registry in Tennessee once they are convicted, so it’s a moot point.

He added that going forward he is willing to assist states like Connecticut with getting legislation passed.

“It feels good,” Jernigan said. “As far as legislation that I passed down here, I don’t think anything else has ever been picked up to go nationwide. It’s pretty thrilling.

I almost named the legislation after a Dalmatian I had for 15 years who died in my arms. I loved that dog.”

The Tennessee registry was actually constituent driven, Jernigan pointed out. He said a constituent came to him after a Tennessee man was only put on probation after he beat a puppy to death with a tire iron. The heinous crime took place after he was passed up for a promotion at the National Weather Service. Then he admitted to killing another five or six dogs. The police report quotes the abuser as asking officers if they ever wanted to hurt animals or maybe children.

State Sen. Jeff Yarbro, who sponsored the Tennessee bill in the House, hopes other states will follow his state’s lead, not just for the sake of animals, but for states’ human residents too.

“Given the documented link between the between abuse of animals and violence against, people, I think states should consider registries and numerous other measures to put a stop to such cruelty,” he told the Huffington Post.

TAKE ACTION Reach out to your state senators and representatives and urge them to introduce animal abuse registry legislation to better protect animals and humans from cruelty as there is a documented link between animal abuse and human violence. Tell them you would feel safer having a registry like the one in Tennessee to check to see if you live near someone who could harm animals.

E-mail nrivard@friendsofanimals.org for a model bill to provide to your legislator.

Summer 2016 | 29

BY RACHEL NUSSBAUM

FOA TO LEGISLATORS:

‘TEAR DOWN THE WALLS TO WILDLIFE CORRIDORS’

T

he battle cry of some candidates during the 2016 presidential campaign is to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall. But what is absent from the conversation is what the environmental impact would be.

The candidates might not care, but Friends of Animals does.

In February, Newsweek reported that a line of 18-foot-tall steel posts placed four inches apart already “cuts like a scar across the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge near McAllen, Texas.

That stretch of a barrier extends intermittently across 650 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas, and some presidential candidates vow to enlarge it if elected.”

The article goes on to say that the barrier was intended to deter illegal immigration and smuggling, but whether or not it has remains unclear. What is clear is that in parts of Texas where sections of the barrier bisect and isolate public and private lands, wildlife habitats are being negatively impacted and communities on both sides of the border that rely on wildlife tourism are ceasing to flourish.

Despite biologists mapping out existing wildlife corridors before construction of the fence began in 2009, so that openings could be placed where animals needed them, then Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff waived environmental laws for construction of the fence, ignoring the maps.

And the damage has already been done. Jesse Lasky, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State,

30 | Friends of Animals

co-authored a 2011 study reporting that the barrier reduced the range for some species by as much as 75 percent. Small range size is associated with a higher risk of extinction, and, according to the study, the wall puts additional stress on Arroyo toads, California red-legged frogs, black-spotted newts and Pacific pond turtles—all listed as endangered or threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature— and the jaguarondi, a small wildcat endangered in the U.S. and threatened in Mexico.

Other research concluded that the barrier disrupts movements and distribution of the ferruginous pygmy-owl and bighorn sheep and could isolate small populations of large mammals in Arizona’s Sky Island region, including black bears and pumas. Such isolation reduces exchange of genetic material and makes the animals more vulnerable to disease.

While the jury may still be out on what exact factors lead to successful wildlife corridors, the lack of them is too detrimental to wildlife and habitats for them to ignored entirely. And a U.S.-Mexico border wall could mean the loss of entire species, including those that people have spent decades trying to protect.

THE SKINNY ON WILDLIFE CORRIDORS Wildlife corridors have become a popular idea in discussions concerning habitat and wildlife conservation. As described by Paul Beier and Andrew J. Gregory, they are “an intervention intended to promote demographic and genetic exchange at

levels sufficient to sustain plants and animals in the linked natural landscapes after the surrounding matrix has been converted for urban or agricultural use.”

In other words, wildlife corridors are an attempt to sustain the presence of wildlife, and particularly its genetic diversity, in the face of increasing human encroachment. Urbanization, roads and other factors have severely affected wildlife habitat and increased scientific interest in corridors. The hope is that by connecting discrete areas of wildlife habitat, corridors will be beneficial to demographic persistence and gene flow. Particularly in Western states, state governments have been very active in trying to identify “crucial habitats”, including corridors. The Western Governors’ Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT) is a cooperative effort of 16 Western states to identify crucial habitat. These efforts are intended to protect the environment as well as to encourage responsible development.

It is still not known what factors lead to successful wildlife corridors, and scientists are now conducting studies on what conditions are necessary to establish them. Some factors that must be considered include historically continuous habitat and a stable landscape. It is also important to consider the length of the corridors. Previous studies have been done only on relatively short ones, but we still do not know the impact of longer corridors, those greater than 0.5 kilometers long and 100 meters wide.

Those animals who benefit most tend to be larger animals who rely on roaming, such as big cats like the

Amur leopards and Florida panthers.

While one might assume that one single integrated habitat is best for these animals, proponents of corridors argue that this is not the case, and that breaking up habitat and reconnecting populations through “wildways” is more beneficial. Groups such as the Wildlands Network have been working with farmers and ranchers in affected areas in order to encourage them to voluntarily aid in wildlife conservation. These groups also emphasize that wildlife corridors will directly benefit private landowners by creating an ecosystem that can better preserve agriculture.

Corridors to be studied are generally those that arise in areas dominated by urban, agricultural or forestry uses. Whether or not housing should be allowed adjacent to a wildlife corridor is a controversial issue. In any case, land uses in these areas ought to be determined well ahead of time before attempting to construct a wildlife corridor. Issues such as road crossings similarly must be considered. Scientists have attempted to distinguish between “passage species” who will only inhabit the corridor for a relatively short amount of time, and “corridor species” who will live in the corridor for extended periods and perhaps for their entire lives. Therefore it must meet all their requirements for living.

Corridor species in particular have been understudied, and studying them may take place over a period of several generations.

By contrast, some experts argue that there is little evidence that wildlife corridors will work in the long run. While wild animals certainly

Above: From Washington state, an aerial view of a design concept of what the wildlife overcrossing on I-90 will look like once complete in 2019.

move through corridors, this does not necessarily mean that they will interbreed with genetically different populations. If interbreeding does not take place, the corridors will do little to create the desired whole habitat.

Again, we must examine this on a case-by-case basis. Some evidence of success has come from unusually wide spaces such as the Kielder Forest in Great Britain, where populations of ospreys and red squirrels have stabilized. Other studies in more traditional corridors showed that populations remained genetically distinct. More evidence of corridors and their effectiveness is needed because a number of national govern-

ments have devoted money and resources to such projects.

Wildlife at the “edges” of wild areas are more vulnerable to predators and disease. So, unless the benefits of wildlife corridors are greater than the threats, they are far from an ideal solution. More studies are needed to establish the viability of wildlife corridors and whether they are a good solution to habitat fragmentation.

But one thing is certain, anyone not concerned about free movement of wildlife within its natural habitat should not even be on the ticket in November.

Summer 2016 | 31

THE GIFT OF

PRIMARILY PRIMATES GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND WHEN IT COMES TO GIVING RESIDENTS FULLER LIVES

BY DUSTIN GARRET RHODES

Clockwise from top: Birthday parties incorporate taste, touch and visual enrichment. Amanda Love creates a frozen fruit cake for chimpanzee Deeter’s 17th birthday in May. On Memorial Day, Shu Shu showed how much she loves hats. Staff members dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day. Brooke Allen passes out mango sorbet to lemurs on Memorial Day. These frozen treats, enough for all the animals at PPI, were donated by Arctic Ape Wild Desserts.

I

f you were to drop by Primarily Primates randomly, you might be puzzled by the sight of care staff wearing wacky wigs or hats, surprised to see a volunteer jazz band serenading some chimpanzees or alarmed by the capuchins dropping bowling balls onto nuts and seeds. But don’t worry, we haven’t lost our proverbial marbles. It’s just our enrichment Above: Lucky, a Kinkajou, with program being implemented with an enrichment food device. creative gusto.

People often think the ultimate job of a sanctuary is to provide shelter and care—which is, of course, true.

But that’s only part of Primarily Primates’ responsibility: We must also strive to give the animals plenty of exercise and a psychologically stimulating environment. The aim of our enrichment program is to give the animals in our care the same thing most of us aspire to—a rich, happy, meaningful life.

“Those who follow our website or any of our social media pages know it’s not uncommon to see a chimpanzee with a musical keyboard or a macaque throwing a bright colored ball,” explained Brooke Chavez, the executive director at Primarily Primates—who started her career at the sanctuary as the enrichment coordinator.

Animals who reside in sanctuaries don’t have the same opportunities for a changing environment as animals in the wild. Primarily Primates provides the residents with daily changes to their environment with the goal of stimulating natural behaviors.

“Enrichment is just as important to an animal’s well-being as a well-balanced diet and veterinary care,” Chavez added.

The enrichment program is still directed by Chavez, but it’s a team effort, as care staff members get to know the likes, dislikes and needs of animals who they are responsible for. Staff meetings are held to discuss enrichment ideas, but nothing is implemented without taking into account the safety and health of the animals—and everything must meet the approval of our staff veterinarian.

There are countless types of enrichment, but generally Primarily Primates focuses on auditory, taste, touch and visual enrichment, with the goal of inspiring curiosity, play and well-being in myriad ways. Asked about the positive effects enrichment has on animals, Chavez is quick to chime in: “There are so many examples! We’ve found that music is very important, and there are a wide variety of preferences at the sanctuary.”

Chavez explained, too, that primates in the wild

would spend a majority of their time searching for food, so these types of behaviors are recreated for them by offering novel food in food puzzles, which serve to stimulate the animals cognitively. Blankets and other materials are offered so that primates have the opportunity to exercise their nesting instincts; sometimes they are offered crepe paper streamers to decorate their habitats, and care staff members regularly change the layout of habitat furniture.

Staff members even perform puppet shows, offer bubble blowing machines, laser shows and movies, like nature documentaries, which are popular among our residents. But our chimpanzees enjoy Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and 101 Dalmatians best—their pant-hoots reveal their delight in seeing Cruella DeVille make her grand entrance.

It turns out that primates share more with us than just DNA; a love of food is also at the top of the list: “That’s, hands down, the most popular type of enrichment,” Chavez said.

But she also pointed out that food does not keep them stimulated or interested for very long. Macaques, for instance, love to destroy things—so providing them with items to tear apart is a soothing balm. Capuchins love to crack nuts with heavy objects like bowling balls and “anoint” themselves with the juices of fragrant onions and citrus fruits (an insect repellent in the wild).

Chimpanzees also love to paint, thus canvases and Below: Chimpanzee Siri, painting.

Summer 2016 | 33

him susceptible to life-threatening disease. Since novel food items were a big motivator for Karibu to come out of his bedroom, an exercise program was created for him using naturally sweetened food—like fruit paste, oatmeal, and whole pieces of fruit, which were smeared and/or placed throughout his habitat at varying heights.

This encouraged Karibu to climb, and he ultimately lost 15 pounds after six months of this type of enrichment.

Today, he’s kept the weight off and enjoys abundant health, and Saffron and Olive—his roommates—think he’s swoon-worthy.

If you’re wondering where all of the enrichment items come from? Our amazing supporters and members generously donate funds to help purchase enrichment supplies. And nothing goes to waste, as the sanctuary has become adept at re-using and recycling. Our dedicated volunteers show up weekly to cook up new treats and try new things.

Above: Karibu, an olive baboon, loves fruit enrichment.

palettes of non-toxic paints are provided. The care-takers often marvel that the resident artists tend to have very specific preferences for paint colors and have very individualized painting techniques.

When asked about unusual types of enrichment they’ve tried at the sanctuary, Chavez says the staff and volunteers are endlessly creative. “We’ve had staff costume days, professional musicians who’ve come to perform for the animals; wacky wig days, crazy hat days (the chimps and gibbons love to put on hats). We even had a Japanese hibachi day where we grilled their fruits and veggies in front of their habitats and let them observe. They were over the moon excited for the grilled pineapple and peaches.”

Surely there’s been an enrichment disaster or two— something the residents despised? Chavez immediately recalled a kite incident: “There was the time that we thought a kite day would be fun for our chimpanzees— and it was! What we hadn’t considered, however, was that their next door neighbors are lemurs, and that they would perceive the colorful kites as aerial predators.

They all ran into their bedrooms. We felt horrible, but it was a good learning experience.”

Of course, enrichment also has the power to be truly transformative for some of the animals in our care, and Karibu, an olive baboon, is a poignant example. Karibu was released from a research facility that provided very little opportunity for physical activity. When he arrived at Primarily Primates he was morbidly obese, which made

34 | Friends of Animals

Animals that have been exploited by humans for entertainment, the exotic pet trade, vivisection—the very animals we care for at Primarily Primates—can’t be sent back to the wild. But what Primarily Primates does is the next best thing. It provides them with enriched, joyful lives and you can see it on all 350 of their faces.

You can see more photos of our enrichment program in action by “liking” the Primarily Primates’ page on Facebook. We have an Instagram account, too: @Primarily_Primates.

Below: Mandy forages for treats in an enrichment bag.

Friends of Animals has received kind donations in memory of the following individuals:

HELEN JANET SIMS CURTIS

OLIVER CHU-FELTER

BRANDI

CAROL E. FLEISCHMANN

GARY BORDEN

REX

CHANDLER MCKELLAR

EULA BENFIELD

MIRACLE & BURNIE

Z. SCOTT EVANS

JAMES WANG

MAE GOULET GRIFFIN

WILLIAM EYRICH

THOMAS ANTHONY MEDLIN

CAROL ROMAN

PATRICIA A. TOTH

LORI ANN THOMPSON

EVA TRUXAW

CYNTHIA CARHART

ROSEMARIE DELUCA

JOCELYN LUTTER

JOE SICLARI

CAROL PINELES CITRIN

LUCY

COLLEEN WORTHINGTON

ED TOMASZYCKI

KING

WINSTON MCAULEY

MARGARET KVIDAHL

CHLOE

ZAK & BOGEY CECIL THE LION GRACIE GINGER CASPER CALHOUN NICKI

SAMUEL OWEN

HUNTER

ARTHUR BUD BRINKLEY

RUSTY

FATHER BRENDAN CARR BARBARA BROWN

MAHUMBA

ROCKY CHARNECO

MARIA

Summer 2016 | 35

LETTERS

36 | Friends of Animals

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

I do not absolve DEEP, because killing the bears was not its only choice.

It certainly had at its disposal the tools of aversive conditioning, through which any so-called nuisance behavior on the part of wild living animals is turned into a negative experience for those animals. In the case of a black bear who is not shy in the presence of humans, this may come down to cageor culvert-trapping the bear, holding the animal a short while, and then “hard releasing” him or her. (A hard release is accompanied by loud noise and/or shooting a rubber slug at the animal’s rear end; a soft release is simply turning the animal loose). None of this is pleasant for the bear, of course, but that’s the point. Studies show that trapping-and-hard-release works only moderately well to keep bears away from human food sources but exceptionally well to keep bears away from humans along, say, a hiking trail.

Which brings us back to the Connecticut hiker. The video of the encounter shows clearly that the hiker encouraged the bear, a sub adult, to come up to her. She used ‘baby talk’ and she attempted to entice the bear with her water bottle. Whatever was in her heart, she deserved a legal penalty for her foolish behavior.

If DEEP, or any state agency, is really serious about preventing humanwildlife conflicts of this sort then it must attach legal penalties to the human behavior that brings them about. We humans should be brought to account for our bad acts not only because we’re the moral agents in this equation but also because accountability can lead to a change in our behavior. Aversive conditioning, then, directed at us, where it can do the most good.

BILL MANNETTI • SEYMOUR, CONN.

ACTION LINE IS A CONDUIT OF INFO FOR ANIMAL ADVOCATES

Because of Action Line I read the good news that Texas is shuttering its last dog racing park and sending the dogs to adoption programs. I wanted to share info I recently received in the mail about the Macau Canidrome Dog Track in China—the worst in the world, according to Grey2K USA Worldwide.

Every dog exported to the Canidrome is killed. There is no adoption program at all. According to the tracks own records, 30-40 greyhounds are brought in and the same number destroyed each month.

I’m 93 and don’t have a computer.

Through Action Line, I also learned how you helped save a NYC carriage horse from slaughter—sweet Bobby, who I sponsor and visit at Equine Advocates in Chatham, N.Y. FoA is the greatest, I thank you for all you do for animals so very much.

LORNA FINLAYSON • DURHAM, CONN.

PROUD DEFENDER OF WOLVES

I am a member of Friends of Animals, and admire your honorable and courageous defense of all animals – including wolves in Idaho and the Northern Rockies, which, as you know, are being cruelly decimated by ranching, hunting and corporate interests in control of the states in their region and throughout the West.

I have been an advocate for wolves and a defender of our national forests for many years, writing numerous letters and speaking in defense of both at public hearings.

FREDERICK BARDELLI • OSBURN, ID

PIPER: Photograph provided by airportk9.org

KILLING BEARS WAS NOT CT DEEP’S ONLY CHOICE

Those readers who, like me, winced when they read the spring, 2016 Action Line article “Adapting Human Behavior Through Education Is Key to Preventing Conflict when Entering the Homes of Wildlife,” may take heart in knowing their sentiments against the alleged necessity of killing wild-living animals who come into contact with humans are spot on.

The article cites recommendations offered by Connecticut master wildlife conservationist Felicia Ortner, who passed judgment on the killing of two bears (who had encountered a hiker and her companion, the latter having videoed the encounter) in Burlington, Conn., by agents of the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP): But then Ortner said killing the bear and its companion was really the only choice DEEP had after the video went viral. Oh? First of all, a bit of backstory may profitably inform our understanding of that woeful judgment. Ortner indeed bills herself as a master wildlife conservationist, a title that derives its legitimacy from the 40 hours of tutelage she received from Connecticut’s DEEP, through its “adult program… that trains participants in … wildlife management, natural history and interpretation.” The program’s purpose is to “develop a volunteer corps capable of providing education, outreach, and service for … environmental organizations, libraries, schools and the general public.” Called (no surprise) the Master Wildlife Conservation Course, it’s a mechanism for indoctrinating the public in the virtues of DEEP and its philosophy of wildlife management that perforce includes lethal “solutions” to wildlife problems, real or imagined.

Little wonder, then, that Ortner’s pronouncement on the bears’ deaths morally absolved DEEP.

LET’S HEAR FROM YOU!

CHEERS GOOD NEWS FOR AFRICAN ELEPHANTS Cheers to some much needed good news about African elephants. Recently The New York Times reported that an elephant from Kenya had crossed into wartorn Somalia and survived. Somalia used to be home to thousands of elephants, but they were wiped out during the 1980s and 90s as the country descended into chaos.

Researchers say the big bull, Morgan, who had been fitted with a GPS radio collar, travelled more than 130 miles, most likely looking for a mate. He spent a day and a half in Somalia before returning to Kenya. Morgan’s unusual migration provides anecdotal evidence that a small elephant population still exists in Somalia.

AIRPORT CHOOSES NON-LETHAL SOLUTION Cheers to Piper, a border collie who is skilled in the very important business of chasing birds and other wildlife from areas around airport runways—a nonlethal solution that we wish more airports would adopt.

Many times, airports resort to shooting wildlife, as was the case at JFK in New York where employees shot snowy owls who dared be in the area. In response to backlash from an investigative report by CBS New York featuring Friends of Animals in December 2013, New York Port Authority adopted a no-kill policy and instead catch and release snowy owls now.

Piper helps maintain wildlife control at Cherry Capital Airport in Michigan by “shooing away” ducks, geese, owls, foxes and other creatures but never actually harms them.

JEERS DUMP THE TRUMPS We have three jeers today for Donald Trump Sr. and avid hunter sons Eric and Don Trump Jr. While they don’t support selling federal lands to individual states, their ideas for the government agencies responsible for protecting federal public lands would be a nightmare for wildlife. When it comes to hunters’ rights, Donald Trump, Sr. didn’t waffle in an interview with Petersen’s Hunting, stating that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife director appointed by him would “ideally be a hunter.”

Don, Jr., said, “In a Trump administration, avid hunters and anglers, who are proven conservationists, will be in the leadership of the USFWS. That solves lots of problems. Federal biologists think they are smarter than state biologists and you end up with a mess.”

Hunting and habitat manipulation on federal public lands and wildlife refuges is a violation of public trust, and do not reflect the will of the majority. We agree that these state and federal agencies need to be revamped—but in such a way that their funds do not come from the sale of hunting permits and licenses and taxes on guns and ammo, which is a total conflict of interest.

Friends of Animals insists that our wildlife refuges be restored as inviolate sanctuaries, which allow every species there to undergo the test of nature to guarantee its survival over time, not the will of a hunting minority.

CANADA CONTINUES SEAL SLAUGHTER Jeers to Canada, which will to extend its horrifyingly cruel seal hunt this year despite the fact that the commercial seal industry is failing miserably.

This year marks the first installation of the fiveyear, $5.7 million Certification and Market Access Program for Seals. Despite efforts by protesters from around the globe, the current Prime Minister of Canada has not made any efforts to prevent the plan from going forward.

The seal-killing industry has been banned in Europe and the U.S. has forbidden importation and sale of seal skins since 1972, leaving Canada as the last large nation to continue this horrifying practice.

Summer 2016 | 37

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