Posted on 05/07/2008 10:14:21 AM PDT by jazusamo
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Humane Society of the United States has reached an agreement with state and federal governments that blocks killing or permanent removal of sea lions in the Columbia River until early 2009.
In return, the Humane Society will drop its appeal in federal court against the U.S. Commerce Department and the governments of Oregon and Washington, Sharon Young, the society's field director of marine issues, said Tuesday.
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was to hear a case Thursday that could have led to killing some sea lions at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. An appeals court panel authorized nonlethal trapping earlier but banned killings until it could hear arguments.
State and federal governments would be allowed to move sea lions temporarily, brand them for identification and return them to their original habitats.
HSUS has succedded in delaying the trapping and killing of the sea lions for another year, endangered salmon are the losers
Enviro nuts Ping!
she drank coffee /obscure
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
Liberal heads are exploding all over the Northwest. Which group to save??!!!
It is absolutely disasterous to let judges, and organizations like the HSUS manage wildlife.
You know - the HS has their head up their backside.
Now I MIGHT be able to understand their reasoning if sea lions were still endangered or threatened.
But they’re getting to the point that they’re like feral cats! Too damn many! And the fact that they’re up at the dam only proves that! They’ve made a tremendous comeback.
But the salmon are seriously, seriously in decline. And the last time I checked, the health of the PNW is way more related to the salmon than it is to some stupid overfed sea lions.
8^)
You’re exactly right on every point. More sea lions have been showing up each year at Bonneville Dam feasting on the salmon at the bottleneck of the ladders.
The states and feds agreeing to this stay is outrageous. So someone broke the law by killing six sea lions, it wouldn’t matter if it was sixty, the illegal killing should have nothing to do with stopping the program that’s been fought for for several years.
HSUS is another name for PETA. It has nothing to do with the Humane Society.
Exactly, and them using the United States in their title is despicable, they imply they’re connected to the government.
Man can control Nature.
(or so he thinks)
Te Tennessee Wildlife Agency reintroduced otters into the Buffalo River a few years ago. As a result, the fish population has gone down drastically and as the fish decline, the otters leave the river and get into farmers’ stocked ponds and eat or kill everything they can catch. Now farmers and fishermen carry rifles with them and shoot the damned things when they can.
A lot of pest and dangerous animals to man or livestock were eliminated or nearly elimated by our ancestors because we were populating in greater numbers.
It’s silly of the enviro and animal rights people to think they can bring back all those species and live in harmony with man.
Most of that type live in cities anyway and don’t have the slightest idea what it’s like to have to put up with them on a daily basis.
Gunshots may not have killed sea lions
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
By ERIK ROBINSON Columbian Staff Writer
The mystery is thickening in the deaths of six sea lions over the weekend near Bonneville Dam, with federal authorities reporting this morning that a preliminary examination of the bodies found no evidence of recent gunshot wounds.
Although authorities initially suspected the animals died due to gunshot wounds, the National Marine Fisheries Service reported today that the cause of death remains unknown.
We are assuming nothing at this point, said Brian Gorman, a NMFS spokesman in Seattle. We dont have a working hypothesis, but well come up with one and well pursue it and try to find a cause of these deaths. Its a mystery right now.
The examination identified numerous shallow puncture wounds in one of the six animals that are consistent with sea lion bite marks.
The agency reported that X-ray examinations late Tuesday conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., revealed that there was metal fragments in soft tissue around the neck area of two of the six dead animals. A metal slug was found in the blubber of one animal.
However, Gorman said, those fragments did not appear to cause the animals deaths.
Its not uncommon to find an animal with some indication from its previous history that its been shot, he said. These were old wounds.
Anyone with information that may assist in the investigation should call the NMFS enforcement hotline at 800-853-1964.
The animals died in floating docks set up by state authorities to trap and relocate sea lions that had been eating a growing proportion of Endangered Species Act-protected salmon below Bonneville Dam. A pair of trap doors had been triggered, raising the possibility that someone manually closed the doors as the animals lounged on a side-by-side pair of floating docks.
There are two big questions: How did the animals die, and how did the gates get closed? Gorman said today.
http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/05/05072008_Gunshots-may-not-have-killed-sea-lions.cfm
“Te Tennessee Wildlife Agency reintroduced otters into the Buffalo River a few years ago. As a result, the fish population has gone down drastically and as the fish decline, the otters leave the river and get into farmers’ stocked ponds and eat or kill everything they can catch. Now farmers and fishermen carry rifles with them and shoot the damned things when they can.”
I didn’t know that. Back before I moved out here to Colorado the Beavers and Otters had moved into a section of the Harpeth river near Nashville and the enviros were having orgasms.
This is awful news! There is no reason the trapping program should not continue immediately. The HS are full of BS. I bet the bank they will break there “promise” and continue with more lawsuits to thwart this program.
“Gunshots may not have killed sea lions”
Something stinks to high heaven about this whole thing.
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