General News

Law regulating trade in endangered species to be enacted soon

Tuesday, September 7, 2004
The Peninsula

Doha: The law to regulate the overall trade in endangered species of flora and fauna in Qatar is expected to be enacted shortly, Ghanem Abdullah Mohammad, director of wildlife protection and development department at the Supreme Council for Environment and Natural Reserves, said here yesterday. Speaking to The Peninsula, Ghanem said, the draft of this law had been passed by the country's Advisory Council and had also been discussed by the Cabinet. "The Emir, H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has now to issue the decree to pass the law," he added.

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SAS Helps WildTrack Save Endangered Species

Tuesday, September 7, 8:04 am ET

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CITES Conference on Wildlife Trade to Consider New Rules for High-Value Species
From UNEP Geneva 

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

BANGKOK/GENEVA, 7 September 2004 -- The 166 member Governments of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will meet in Bangkok from 2 to 14 October to update the trade rules governing some of the world's most charismatic, exploited and economically valuable wildlife species.

The conference will decide on some 50 proposals for improving the conservation and sustainable use of the African elephant, the minke whale, the great white shark, the ramin timber tree, the Chinese yew and other medicinal plants, the yellow-crested cockatoo and the lilac-crowned parrot, five Asian turtles, the white rhinoceros, the Nile and American crocodiles, the European date mussel and many other species.

FULL STORY

 

WWF Announces '10 Most Wanted Species'; Photo Available,

Wednesday, September 8, 2004, 8:05 AM

To: National Desk, Environment Reporter
Contact: Sarah Janicke, 202-778-9685; or Jan Vertefeuille, 202-861-8362, both for World Wildlife Fund;

Web: http://www.worldwildlife.org

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The humphead wrasse and the pig-nosed turtle may not sound like the world's most desirable animals, but in fact they are among the most wanted species internationally. The Asian turtle and fish are so sought- after in some parts of the world that the two species have joined the ranks of wildlife at risk from international trade.

As delegates from 166 countries prepare to head to Bangkok next month for the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), World Wildlife Fund released its biennial list of 10 of the world's most in-demand species bought, sold, smuggled, killed or captured for the global marketplace.

"Our list this year reflects the varied nature of the modern wildlife trade," said Ginette Hemley, vice president for species conservation at World Wildlife Fund. "As well-known species have become overexploited for trade, more-obscure species are increasingly targeted. So lesser-known wildlife like the humphead wrasse -- a fascinating coral reef fish whose fleshy lips have spawned a dining trend -- join the magnificent tiger and Asian elephant on the list of most wanted species in trade."

This year's 10 most wanted species, based on threats from unsustainable trade and consumer demand, are:

1) Tiger (Panthera tigris): In the past century, the tiger's numbers have been reduced by an estimated 95 percent - with perhaps fewer than 5,000 left in the wild. Among their biggest threats are poaching for tiger parts for use in traditional Chinese medicines and poaching of the tiger's prey species. Tiger bone, used as a pain reliever in traditional medicine, is highly prized on the black market, as are tiger skins.

2) Humphead Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus): This bulbous-headed reef fish could be straight out of "Finding Nemo." It's usually bright blue, with large lips that are a delicacy fetching hundreds of dollars a plate in East Asia. The wrasse is caught and traded live to be displayed in restaurant tanks for diners to select from; demand has grown steadily in recent years. Because the species is naturally rare and slow to reproduce, its population suffers greatly from excessive capture.

3) Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias): The largest predator among sharks, it is caught for its jaws, teeth, leather and fins, which collect high prices and are in demand worldwide. Incidental capture in fishing gear poses a double threat to the great whites because the few animals that survive accidental netting or hooking are often killed anyway, for the amount of money made from selling their parts.

4) Ramin (Gonystylus spp.): This tropical hardwood from Indonesia and Malaysia is used to make mass-produced pool cues, moldings, doors and picture frames. Logging is often illegal, driven by significant global market demand. Ramin grows largely in peat swamp forests, which are increasingly targeted by illegal loggers in search of the valuable wood, putting at risk the endangered tigers, orang utans and other species that live there as well.

5) Pig-Nosed Turtle (Carettochelys insculpta): Even with its bizarre, protruding snout, this giant freshwater turtle - found in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Australia - is a popular collectors' item worldwide and its population is suffering from high demand for the pet trade. In addition to juvenile turtles being snatched for trade, the turtles' nests are robbed of their eggs, which are eaten.

6) Yellow-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea): This exotic- looking parrot, found in Indonesia, is very popular in the international pet trade. The birds are taken from the wild at unsustainable levels to supply the market and the population has been reduced to fewer than 10,000. Already listed on CITES as requiring carefully regulated trade, Indonesia has proposed banning all international commercial trade because the cockatoo is so threatened.

7) Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus): Poaching of elephants for ivory and meat remains a serious problem in many Asian countries, as does habitat loss. The population of Asian elephants stands at between 35,000 and 50,000 in the wild, perhaps a tenth of the population of African elephants.

8) Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris): The biggest threat to this extremely rare Asian dolphin is entanglement in fishing nets and injury from explosives used for dynamite fishing. There is also demand for the dolphin for display in zoos and aquariums, but the species is so endangered that even limited trade is detrimental to its survival.

9) Leaf-tailed Gecko (Uroplatus spp.): All 10 species of the leaf-tailed gecko are found only in Madagascar. Even though they can avoid predators by virtually disappearing into trees due to their bark-like appearance and leaf-shaped tails, these lizards have not been able to avoid being captured and sold at alarming rates for the international pet trade. Leaf-tailed gecko species are also threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation.

10) Asian Yew Trees (Taxus chinensis, T. cuspidata, T. fuana, T. sumatrana): Yew trees across Asia are unsustainably harvested for their bark and needles, which contain a chemical used in the cancer medication Taxol. If the harvest continues at its current rate, the species may no longer be available for widespread use as a helpful medicine.

Several of these species - the tiger and Asian elephant, for example - have remained on WWF's "most wanted" list over the past decade, indicating little progress in stopping illegal trade and other threats to their survival. Other species, such as ramin and great white shark, have moved onto the list because of a dramatic increase in demand for their products on global markets.
Considered the world's most important wildlife conservation agreement, CITES is the only global treaty regulating trade in threatened animals and plants. Delegates from the United States and other countries around the world will meet in Bangkok from Oct. 2 to 14.

"As the world's species face continued habitat loss and poaching, CITES is filling a key role in protecting wildlife in trade," said Simon Habel, director of TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network of WWF and IUCN-The World Conservation Union. "Since CITES went into effect in 1975, more than 30,000 plants and animals have been protected by the convention."

PHOTO AVAILABLE: High-resolution publication-ready photo supporting this story available for free editorial use at: http://www.wirepix.com/newsphotos

Wild Horses

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Celebrities, activists urge law to end killing of wild horses

WASHINGTON - A coalition of celebrities, race track leaders and others is pressing for action on legislation that would end or limit the slaughter of wild horses.

Lawmakers have tried for years to stop the killing of wild horses and burros at three U.S. slaughterhouses that send the meat for consumption overseas.

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Activists say laws have done little to protect wild horses

By Benjamin Grove - April 29, 2005
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

WASHINGTON - Animal activists say they suspect that a number of wild horses from public lands have gone to U.S. slaughterhouses for years, despite laws designed to protect them.

"It happens all the time," said Trina Bellak of the American Horse Defense Fund Inc.

The issue of wild horse slaughter is in the spotlight this week in Congress following reports that 41 wild horses sold by the Bureau of Land Management were re-sold and slaughtered at an Illinois plant.

Read More
 

Mustangs, burros available April 22nd in Martin

SPRINGFIELD, Va. More than a hundred wild horses and burros will be available for adoption Saturday at the University of Tennessee-Martin.

The livestock center at the university in West Tennessee is the eastern U-S adoption site for the Bureau of Land Management program that helps maintain an ecological balance of the animals on western ranges.

Some mustangs and burros are captured each year and made available to qualified people to adopt.

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Activists won't let horses end up on dinner plate
They buy 200 'excess' mustangs auctioned off by U.S. agency

Friday, March 18, 2005 The Associated Press RENO, Nev. - Although a new law lets the federal government sell certain wild mustangs for horsemeat, the first ones auctioned off have been spared from the slaughterhouse.The 200 animals from Nevada that Wild Horses Wyoming bought from the Bureau of Land Management are roaming free on thousands of acres near Laramie, Wyo. “We are in the business of saving horses,” said Sean Mater, one of five partners in the company. In December, Congress replaced a 34-year-old ban on slaughtering any mustang with a statute that allows the sale of older and unwanted horses for their meat. The animals up for sale are captured during periodic government roundups aimed at reducing the wild population.

Wild horses like this one on the Utah Range have thrived, but the U.S. Bureau of Land Management argues their numbers are now too large, and that some need to be sold off. Jerry Sintz / Bureau of Land Management

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The silence of the horses

Friday, March 18, 2005
By RYAN McELVEEN / Cavalier Daily Science Columnist

Four months ago, the wild horses of the American West were doomed to a deadly fate from which it is unlikely that they will be rescued. In December 2004, Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana) sneakily attached a rider to the 4,000-page Federal Consolidated Appropriations Bill, eviscerating years of federal protection for America's wild horses. Burns opened the backdoor for thousands of these horses to be sold for slaughter with the goal of freeing Western lands for uninhibited cattle grazing. An even greater cause for concern is that an appropriation bill could change, without debate and full public disclosure, the 33-year-old Wild Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act of 1971 that had protected against such killings.

By 1971, the population of wild horses had been severely diminished as a result of encroachment by humans. Public outcry led the Senate and House to unanimously pass the act in 1971, signed by President Richard Nixon. Laws allowing motorized vehicles to be used to manage the herds and to create an inventory of and improve the rangelands followed in 1976 and 1978.

While it's likely that few University students even have heard of Burns' rider, the fact that more citizens have written to Congress about the wild horse issue than any other issue in America's history, excluding the Vietnam War, proves the widespread concerns of Americans. Luckily, in the democratic spirit of our country, on Jan. 15, U.S. Representatives Nick J. Rahall (D-West Virginia) and Ed Whitfield (D-Kentucky) introduced legislation (H.R. 297) that would restore the prohibition of the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros, which are similar to donkeys.

If the legislation passes, the wild horses and burros cannot be sold for slaughter. Those animals that have unsuccessfully been offered adoption three times will still be granted protection under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Moreover, criminal penalties will be re-established for using wild horses and burros for commercial purposes.

In Northern Virginia, my home, we have an "overpopulation" problem, as well. For the past two years, the deer population has multiplied and many of them have devoured my mother's crop of roses. But who can blame them? The massive overdevelopment of the region has forced them into suburbia where they subsist at least partly on residential gardens. Humans simply have given them nowhere to go. The deer face a fate similar to that of the horses --organized killings. In the case of the horses, their meat is shipped overseas to fill the stomachs of hungry French, Belgians and Japanese, who view horse as a delicacy.

In 10 Western states, six million cattle and sheep graze the land, but the Bureau of Land Management claims that designated Herd Management Areas can support only 37,000 wild horses according to www.msnbc.com. However, there is a solution to the expense of long-term holding of older wild horses that the government is avoiding. Horses that cannot be adopted should not be removed but rather taken to their home range. Injecting the mares with the long-term immunocontraceptive vaccine PZP will prevent further reproduction, and it will prevent the horses from suffering a painful death according to www.wildhorsesanctuary.org. This type of contraceptive has proven successful on 10 Herd Management Areas of Nevada. The horse population will be controlled, and it would not deplete water and food sources from the precious cattle population.

In the words of British playwright John Heywood, "While the grasse groweth the horse starveth." The grass is growing in the West, and Washington does not see any reason to give these national treasures access to the lands they've inhabited for the past 500 years. These wild horses have endured the test of time, and they remain an integral component of America's history. If H.R. 297 fails to win passage, these magnificent creatures will meet an utterly tragic end. Congress should recall the day three decades ago when it called the wild horses the "living symbols of the pioneer spirit of the West."

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Groundbreaking ceremony for Wild Mustang Center
Ground broke on Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center

Thursday, March 17, 2005
By KARLA POMEROY / The Lovell Chronicle

Thirty-seven years ago the wild horses east of Lovell became part of the first ever federal wild horse range when the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range was designated, protecting the Spanish heritage horses. Saturday, another big step was taken for the horses with the breaking of ground for the first building in the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center.

About 20 people braved the cold, wind and snow for the groundbreaking on the Mustang Center property adjacent to the National Park Service Visitor Center east of Lovell. The groundbreaking was held at the east end of the property where a 24-foot by 36-foot log building will be constructed to house some displays and the temporary headquarters of the center until the main facility can be built.

Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center Board President John Nickle said, "This is a landmark day. This groundbreaking ceremony signifies the start of the first building." He said along with the log building a 70-foot by 200-foot parking lot will be constructed with a one-way entrance and exit so buses can pull into the parking lot.

Mayor Bruce Morrison said, "This all started when we were teens. We loved to chase those horses, and I always wanted to rope one. The horse range was designated and 40 years later we’re moving forward again."

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A home for horses

Saturday, March 12, 2004
By CANDY MOULTON / Star-Tribune correspondent

CENTENNIAL -- Ron Hawkins has been ranching in the Centennial Valley for 15 years, running cows, calves and yearlings on the 91 Ranch south of Wyoming Highway 130. Although he intends to continue running cattle on a portion of the 3,500-acre ranch he leases, Hawkins has now turned to a different type of operation: wild horses. He sees it as an opportunity to ranch and save a symbol of the American West. Under a new program of the Bureau of Land Management -- which allows for purchase of older, "unadoptable" wild horses for the rock-bottom price of $50 a head -- Hawkins and four partners have formed Wild Horses Wyoming, a limited partnership company. They have already bought 200 head of mares -- all of them at least 10 years old, and probably 70-80 percent of them expected to foal this spring and summer.

Ron Hawkins, ranch manager for Wild Horses Wyoming, unloads hay to feed wild horses, Wednesday, March 9, 2005, near Centennial, Wyo. Wild Horses Wyoming, a limited liability corporation, recently bought 200 wild horses from the Bureau of Land Management that were gathered off the Nevada range, to roam free for the rest of their lives on the Wyoming ranch. (AP Photo/The Boomerang, Michael Smith)

The horses came out of Nevada and California, with the last bunch trucked to the 91 Ranch on Friday from Utah, Hawkins said. The mares will be allowed to "live out their lives" on the high prairie pastures of the 3,500-acre ranch. The foals may be sold in the future.

Both Hawkins and partner Sean Mater, a real estate developer from Fort Collins, Colo., said they have no intention of selling these mares. However, their Web site clearly outlines a sponsorship program that will bring in revenue for the maintenance of the horse herd, and it runs the gamut from a $50 donation that will support a horse for one month to $5,000 for actual "ownership" of one of the mares, complete with a photograph and biography of the animal, the right to visit the property, see the horse herd, and in certain instances even take physical possession of an animal.

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Nevada wild horses headed to sanctuary

Friday, March 4, 2005
By SANDRA CHEREB / The Associated Press

RENO - Wild horses that once roamed Nevada's open range have found a home at a sanctuary in Wyoming under a new federal law that allows animals deemed too old or unfit for adoption to be sold and perhaps face slaughter.

The sale announced Tuesday is the first under a new law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in December as part of a spending bill that repealed a 34-year ban on selling wild horses.

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200 wild horses sold to Wyo. sanctuary

Wednesday, March 2, 2005
The Arizona Daily Star / The Associated Press

RENO, Nev. - Wild horses that once roamed Nevada's open range have found a home at a sanctuary in Wyoming under a new federal law that allows animals deemed too old or unfit for adoption to be sold and perhaps face slaughter.

The sale announced Tuesday is the first under a new law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in December as part of a spending bill that repealed a 34-year ban on selling wild horses.

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Law allows slaughter of wild horses for meat

Wednesday, March 2, 2005
By BRAD KNICKERBOCKER / The Christian Science Monitor

ASHLAND, Ore. — Wild horses have always symbolized freedom and the frontier. But ranchers see them as competitors for grazing cattle across millions of acres of arid range. And like the cougars and bears that have been showing up in residential areas, they're also competing with humans for habitat. Now, a law signed by President Bush will allow the slaughter and export of horse meat from thousands of wild horses. Horse lovers are urging reversal of the measure, which was slipped into a recent federal appropriations bill by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.        Read more

Wild horses graze in a Bureau of Land Management holding facility on Jan. 31 near Pawhuska, Okla. In December 2004, Congress repealed the ban on the wild horses' slaughter. STEVE GOOCH / AP

Animal rights group wants to give doomed horses to tribes
Idea latest in furor over controversial legislation

Wednesday, January 26, 2005
By SAM LEWIN / NativeTimes.com

An animal rights group hopes to muster support to defeat legislation that they say would result in thousands of wild horses being used as food for Europeans. Rather, the group would like to give those horses to Indian tribes.

The controversy started when Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., sponsored legislation that reversed a longstanding Bureau of Land Management law. For years the BLM required people adopting wild horses to prove over the course of a year that they could adequately care for them before the agency would grant legal ownership. Burns’ legislation allows the bureau to sell horses that are 10 or older, or that have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times, without the waiting period.

The law outraged many who worried that the horses could end up in countries like France and Belgium where horse steaks are considered a delicacy.

Burns has defended the measure, saying it is necessary to combat unchecked breeding.

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Top Democrat Wants New Wild Horse Law Repealed

Wednesday, January 26, 2005
KLASTV.com

A top Democrat in the House of Representatives wants to repeal a new law that changes what can be done with wild horses around the country. Nevada is home to hundreds of wild horses. The Democrat from West Virginia is opposed to the law that allows the federal government to sell the horses to people who want to slaughter them. Congress made the new law to cut down on the wild horse herds in 10 western states.

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New law on caring for wild horses met with kicks, snorts

Wednesday, January 26, 2005
By GARY GERHARDT / Associated Press

DENVER — Horse lovers are gearing up to stampede the new Congress with petitions to protect wild horses from being sold for slaughter.
For three decades, the Bureau of Land Management required people adopting wild horses to prove over the course of a year that they could adequately care for the animal before the agency would grant legal ownership.

A month-old law allows the bureau to sell horses that are 10 or older, or that have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times, without the waiting period. However, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., introduced legislation in Congress on Tuesday that would restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros.

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Wild and free horses have a right to freedom, too

Wednesday, January 26, 2005
By COLLEEN BRUN / Letter in the Kern Valley Sun

What is more beautiful and awe inspiring than wild horses? Is their freedom actually hurting us? What right does Sen. Burns have to sneak in a rider to amend a federal law that has been in effect since 1971 to protect wild horses and burros on federal land? This rider allows the sale of wild horses that have not been fortunate enough to be adopted; many to slaughter houses. How fair is this?

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The wild mustang - free no more

Once federally protected animal may again be harvested January 21, 2005 By JESSICA HAWLEY / Staff Writer, The Bandera Bulletin "Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West," states a congressional declaration dated Dec. 15, 1971. Yet, in a surprising and highly protested move, Congress recently passed a bill that allows for the slaughter of the American wild mustang reportedly effective Wednesday, Jan. 5. Republican Senator Conrad Burns of Montana introduced the one-page Rider #142 into the 3,000-page Federal Appropriations Bill HR 4848.

A mustang foal basks in the sunlight at the Wild Horse Foundation in Franklin while his mother, a former wild mustang, grazes nearby. Photo by Jessica Hawley

The rider changes the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, splitting the once federally protected wild horses and burros into two categories, those over 10 years old and those that have been to a minimum of three unsuccessful adoptions. In accordance with the rider's language, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is authorized to sell these animals to the highest bidder without regard for the buyer's intentions.

          FULL STORY

Wild-horse conference to protest slaughter sale

December 30, 2004
By ROBYN MOORMEISTER, rmoormeister@nevadaappeal.com

Wild-horse advocates will gather in Carson City next week to call for the reversal of a new law loosening federal limits on the sale of wild horses.

The new appropriations bill, signed by President George W. Bush earlier this month, allows the animals to be sold if they are more than 10 years old or, if younger, after they have been offered unsuccessfully for adoption three times.

The law requires any money from sales to go to the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management adoption program for wild horses and burros.

This is an amendment to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which provides for the necessary management, protection and control of wild horses and burros in the United States.

Wild-horse advocate Willis Lamm, who operates horse adoption agency Least Resistance Training Concepts Inc. in Stagecoach, said the horses sold under the new provision can potentially be used for meat in foreign markets, a major cash crop for American cattlemen.

"We need to stop the immediate sale and potential slaughter of thousands of these horses," Lamm said.

Lamm is putting on the conference for wild-horse advocates around the country, to brainstorm political methods for reversing the legislation and develop more reasonable solutions.

"This is an emotional issue and we're going to try to keep everyone objective," Lamm said. "We'll assess the facts, break into groups, and hopefully come up with appropriate strategies to bring about change."

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who sponsored the amendment, said he believes most horses would wind up being adopted, not slaughtered, but his intent was to spur the BLM to get serious about its adoption program.

"These animals live in poor conditions that often lead to their deaths, and without proper management, this will continue to happen," Burns said Dec. 9, after President Bush had signed the bill.

Lamm said Burns had campaign contributions from the beef industry on his mind, not the well-being of wild horses.

The amendment was a last-minute provision in a $388 billion spending bill, a document several hundred pages long.

"The only way Burns could get his way was to sneak it in the back door," Lamm said. "We would hope that people would be incensed by the sneaky way he brought this about without public scrutiny or debate. It's not appropriate in our society for a single individual to change a long-standing federal law like this."

The conference, "Save America's Wild Horses," will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 2-3 at Casino Fandango, 3800 S. Carson St.

For information or to sign up for the conference, contact Lamm at wills@kbrhorse.net or call Shirley Allen at 246-7636.

Contact reporter Robyn Moormeister at rmoormeister@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.

Save America's Wild Horses conference

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday

Where: Casino Fandango, 3800 S. Carson St.

Sign up: Contact Willis Lamm at wills@kbrhorse.net or call Shirley Allen at 246-7636

A heart for horses
Wild horses could be sold for slaughter under new law

December 27, 2004
Associated Press

Wild Horses of Turkmenistan Bounce Back

Ashgabat, 24 December 2004 (nCa) - Turkmen wild horses – kulans-onagers – once on the verge of extinction, have reportedly bounced back.

State reserve Badkhiz reports that a small herd of kulans-onagers has multiplied to 800 thriving individuals.

In 1930’s the known number of wild horses of Turkmenistan was less than 100 and it was feared that the species would disappear entirely.

A reserve was created between Murghab River and Tejen River to provide a sanctuary to kulans-onagers. Total area of the reserve park is 88000 hectares.

        FULL STORY


A local girl, 7, and her friends raise $519 for a Sams Valley ranch that cares for neglected horses

November 1, 2004
By KELSEY HOLDERNESS and MEG LANDERS / Mail Tribune

When Annika Faught thought about what she wanted for her seventh birthday, she decided in lieu of presents to ask the 35 friends attending her party to help neglected horses.

And on Friday she handed $519, in small bills and change, to the Res-Q Ranch.

"That's a big heart on a little girl," said Michele Register, who with her husband John-Paul Register, owns Res-Q Ranch in Sams Valley.

Annika, who is not intimidated petting the large animals and has taken to galloping around in circles, likes horses for the obvious reasons.

"Because they're cute and they're fun," she said.

Annika Faught, 7, feeds a carrot to her namesake, Annika Pumpkin, after she donated her birthday money to the Res-Q Ranch in Sams Valley. Owners John-Paul Register, left, and wife, Michele, renamed the rescued horse when they heard of her donation. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli

FULL STORY

Drilling to oust wild horses

BLM says 30,000-acre grazing area in N.W. Colo. can't sustain 120-mustang herd Conservationists call the federal plan "shameful" and say it does not bode well for some of the country's other estimated 27,000 free-roaming mustangs.

By Nancy Lofholm
Denver Post Staff Writer

One of Colorado's five remaining herds of wild horses is slated to be rounded up and removed from a rugged area in northwest Colorado to make way for more oil and gas development.

	Some of the wild mustangs that will be removed from northwestern Colorado roam through their rugged range, where about 900 oil and gas wells already are located.
Special / Department of the Interior

FULL STORY
 

'Extinct' horses back in the wild

The horses will help keep down the scrub within the forest.

Three rare horses classified as extinct in the wild have been set free to help protect an Iron Age settlement.

The Przewalski horses will roam around a 12-acre paddock in Clocaenog Forest near Ruthin in Denbighshire.
The horses once roamed Britain 4,000 years ago and visitors to the forest will now be able to see them in the 21st Century.

The animals were introduced by the Forestry Commission after they were bred at Colwyn Bay Mountain Zoo.
"Although they are known as the Mongolian wild horse, the Przewalski's horse roamed Britain 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, so this truly is a scene from the past," said the Forestry Commission's conservation manager Iolo Lloyd.

"Przewalski's horses appear on cave paintings, and now we've brought them back to the forest after all this time as part of a modern approach to the challenge of managing this significant site." The site in the Clocaenog Forest was designated by Cadw, the agency which protects historical Wales, because it was once an Iron Age settlement with livestock enclosures where animals were held overnight.

The re-introduction of the horses will help protect the site.
"There are many benefits from grazing," said Iolo Lloyd. "Because it's a scheduled ancient monument, we're not allowed to take vehicles on the site. "We also have problems of scrub control but because these horses are extremely hardy they will eat a lot of the scrub, thereby helping vegetation structure and biodiversity.
"It's more environmentally friendly than throwing chemicals all over the place and, of course, the horses are managing the site without us having to pay someone to come in and do it," he added.

Visitors to the forest can now view the horses at first hand after a viewing platform was erected.

Przewalski horses were a common sight 4,000 years ago

FULL STORY
 

They'll shoot horses, won't they?

September 8, 2004
By LISA MILLER / Regional reporter

Wild horses could be shot under an eco-tourism proposal.

SHOOTING wild animals under the banner of eco-tourism sounds like the ultimate contradiction. However, a report commissioned by the Federal Government says Australia should develop a safari hunting industry to encourage a potentially lucrative tourist market while controlling or eradicating feral pests.

FULL STORY
 

Tribe to receive 100 wild horses

EAGLE BUTTE - The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe will receive 100 wild horses from Nevada on Friday, Sept. 3, through the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros.

The organization will present the horses to the tribe in a ceremony at 1 p.m. at the Eagle Butte powwow grounds, according to a news release from group president Karen Sussman of Lantry.
The gift represents the historic return of wild horses to the Lakota people, Sussman said.

The wild horses will remain in a conservation program operated by the tribe and will become a focal point for tourism on the reservation, she said.

Sussman said the Virginia Range Herd horses were the first wild horses in the United States to receive legal protection, under a 1952 Storey County, Nev., ordinance. However, the horses did not receive federal protection under the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act.

The International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros manages two other wild horse herds on the Cheyenne River Reservation.

       FULL STORY
 

Wild horses caught in new twist on Old West

By DON THOMPSON / Associated Press

DEVILS GARDEN, Modoc National Forest, Calif. -- Two dozen wild horses rumbled from the shimmering heat-haze like a mirage, driven ahead of a low-flying helicopter toward a trap that would take them forever from the remote frontier separating California, Oregon and Nevada

FULL STORY
 

WILD-HORSE SANCTUARY

Where a mustang is not a car
Riding the range and roughing it while the stallions dare you to run by their sides

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WYOMING

August 31, 2004

Viewpoints over wild horses vary wildly
Associated Press
JACKSON (AP) - Opinions about how best to manage Wyoming's burgeoning population of wild horses vary widely depending on whom you ask.
Make sure the U.S. Bureau of Land Management does its job, says Andrea Lococo, with the Fund for Animals.

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Sea Horses

Seahorses just one of the sea's wonderful sightings
Unique creatures can be found in Southwest Florida waters

Saturday, April 2, 2005
By MARIA LIGHTNER / news-press.com
LOVERS KEY STATE PARK - PARK SERVICE SPECIALIST

From ancient Greek and Roman times, seahorses have always been thought of as magical and mythical creatures.

Poseidon was thought to have ridden these mythical creatures through the water and Neptune would travel through the water on a chariot drawn by horses who could breathe underwater. Now we know that these creatures are not horses at all, but a fish with some extremely unique attributes.

Depending on the species, seahorses range in size from one-quarter inch to a foot in length. There are 35 species known to exist. The seahorse's scientific name, Hippocampus, is a Greek word meaning "bent horse."

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Saving the seahorse from the pet shop and Viagra set

Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Inq7.net, Agence France-Presse

HANDUMON, Bohol, Philippines -- Nights spell danger for the tiny seahorse, the colorful but naive denizen of the Philippines' coral reefs.
Here on the southern edge of Danajon Bank, fishermen dragging tiny boats lit with gas-fed lamps wade through the mangrove-shrouded coast into the shallows hunting for the exotic fish whose camouflage is easily exposed by the light.

The lantern boats are the basic infrastructure of a multi-billion-dollar global trade in seahorses, which end up in curio shops or aquariums across Europe and North America.

But most are dried and powdered as an organic Viagra or impotence cure for the booming traditional Chinese medicine market.

While humans do not eat seahorse, its gradual disappearance has mirrored the degradation of the Danajon Bank, the only double-barrier coral reef in Southeast Asia and a key sanctuary of the species.

"Seahorses are indicator species," said Allen Mondido of Project Seahorse, an international marine conservation campaign that has adopted the uniquely shaped fish, genus Hippocampus, as its "flagship species."

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Britain's marine life in crisis

Tuesday, January 18, 2005
By JEREMY LOVELL /  Reuters UK

LONDON (Reuters) - The Common Skate has declined so much around Britain's shores that recent surveys have failed to find a single one, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says. Harbour porpoises are another species in decline while several sea-bed environments are in deep trouble, the WWF said in a report published on Tuesday. Only populations of Basking Sharks, Seahorses and Native Oysters are stable around the shores of Britain, it added. Thirteen of the 16 "flagship" marine species and habitats are in disastrous decline, the WWF said, proposing a UK Marine Act to enshrine conservation and biodiversity at the heart of government policy and ensure a coherent industrial policy.

"Our marine heritage is in a shameful state for a maritime nation" WWF expert Jan Brown

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Local group does its part to protect endangered species

Thursday, January 13, 2005
By STUART ROBERTS / The Royal Gazette

Bermuda is helping to preserve the world's endangered species through the work of its own Scientific Authority into the trade of endangered species.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
Bermuda is a member of CITES and the local authority of the organisation is chaired by Antoinette Butz.

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Fish farmer saves seahorse exhibit

December 14, 2004 / ABC News Online.au

A Tiwi Islands barramundi farmer has helped save a struggling seahorse project at a Top End wildlife park.

Staff from the Northern Territory Wildlife Park, near Berry Springs, and 10 Australian Navy divers recently joined forces to search for seahorses in the wild.

They searched for a number of days but had no luck.

The seahorse exhibit was officially opened today after the barramundi farmer sent a number of seahorses from Bathurst Island to Darwin by light plane.

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Aquarists discuss safe breeding of seahorses

Consumer demand puts strain on dwindling wild stocks

Thursday, December 09, 2004
By HANNAH HICKEY / Correspondent, Monterey Herald

In the wild, seahorses are ambush predators, using their tails to cling to coral and their long snouts to suddenly suck in unsuspecting prey. Their unique adaptations -- heads like horses, curled tails and body armor -- make them a favorite attraction for visitors to aquariums worldwide.

But in the aquarium, seahorses can be shy to mate and baby seahorses are finicky, fragile animals requiring specific conditions for survival.

The captive breeding of seahorses was a hot topic of discussion Wednesday at the International Aquarium Congress, a weeklong event for more than 500 aquarium experts at the Monterey Conference Center. Threatened populations are leading aquarists to develop innovative breeding techniques to keep from drawing on wild stock.

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Species ahoy
September 8, 2004

Oceanworld has released about 150 baby seahorses after a successful breeding program. Picture: Robert Pearce

New DNA sampling technology is saving animals facing extinction. But critics say it is merely a distraction from the real issues, writes Lisa Mitchell. In strands rather than pairs this time, species facing extinction are about to board a Frozen Ark to ensure their place in posterity. The international project will be the world's first DNA and tissue bank designed to preserve about 2000 endangered mammals, birds, insects and reptiles. As a temporary measure, however, it raises some sore points of conservation.

Hundreds of species become extinct every week and thousands more are expected to disappear over the next 30 years. While the Federal Government commits billions of dollars to defense and sugar packages, only about $10 million annually goes to the protection of endangered species, says Dr Ray Nias, director of conservation for WWF Australia.

On National Threatened Species Day yesterday Nias added tens of thousands of critters to Australia's endangered species list. "I worry a little bit about these Ark projects because they take the attention away from the big picture," he says.
As of August 2004, about 1600 animals and plants were on Australia's official list (many are stuck in an administration backlog), but on recent analysis of Government figures, Nias reckons the true number is more like 200,000. The Department of Environment and Heritage estimates Australia is home to more than 1 million species. The Government’s action plans, which monitor threats to specific flora and fauna, estimate as much as 20 per cent of some of those groups are at risk.

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Wild Camels

Australia plans to shoot wild camels:
Animals strain water supplies, but proposal to cull thousands upsets animal welfare groups.

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Australia plans to kill thousands of wild camels

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Wild camel population becoming a problem

Wednesday, April 13, 2005
By RACHEL CARBONELL / The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: State and Territory experts are meeting in Alice Springs today to discuss Australia's burgeoning feral camel problem. The population of wild camels in the Australian desert has now reached more than half a million, and it's doubling every eight to ten years.

Cattle stations and the environment are bearing the brunt of this population explosion and participants at today's meeting are attempting to find a solution to the problem.

Aerial culling, improving the live export trade in camels and camel abattoirs are all on the agenda, as Rachel Carbonell reports from the Northern Territory.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Australia is home to the largest population of wild camels in the world – the animals have become icons of the Australia desert. But they're not native, and their numbers are increasing at an alarming rate.

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SCOPE: Camels become pests as wait for abattoir and ships continue
Tuesday, December 21, 2004 / Yahoo Asia News
 

(Kyodo) _ The feral camel population in outback Australia could blow to a million in a few years while farmers wait for an abattoir to be built in Alice Springs and for the arrival of suitable ships to transport such large live stock.
The growth of the feral camel population in Australia is in urgent need of control and improvements need to be made to the camel meat market to utilize an over-abundance of available stock, many say.

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Feral camel explosion in outback
By KAREN MICHELMORE - December 01, 2004

The nation's feral camel population could blow out to a million in a few short years if actions is not taken soon to rid the centre of the unruly animals, experts believe.

Stakeholders, including farmers, Aborigines and camel industry representatives will meet in Alice Springs to discuss the problem in the first half of next year.

Australia has the world's largest herd of wild camels, with about 500,000 of the beasts wandering the desert regions of NT, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland.

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