Sea Lions and Drops in Salmon Numbers

Biz Buz Blog 5

The National Marine fisheries Service is saying that the Sea Lions are endangering the salmon population at Bonneville Dam, their appeal at the 9^th circuit of court of appeals was over turned because they had not properly justified the killings, they stated that the salmon population is in a higher risk from overfishing and dam operations than by the native sea lions. Over the last 3 years it has been found that 2.5% of the salmon have been consumed by the sea lions, at the same time the fisheries on the Columbia River have harvested a record 17% of the population.

“The National Marine Fisheries Service’s decision to kill hundreds of native marine mammals to reduce salmon losses by a couple of percentage points, while simultaneously authorizing much larger man-made sources of endangered salmon mortality, is both outrageous and patently illegal.” -Jonathan R. Lovvorn

“Blaming sea lions is nothing but a distraction,” said Kurt Beardslee, executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “The National Marine Fisheries Service needs to look objectively at dam operation and over-harvest, hatchery practices and the stocking of non-native fish which together kill significantly more salmon and prevent them from reaching high-quality spawning habitat.”

The truth behind the loss of salmon shows how we destructive we are on the environment, studies have shown that, Columbia River power system kills 16.8 percent of steelhead and 59.9% of juveniles (sect 7). Wild life does also factor into the loss of salmon and other fish, an estimated 5-17% are consumed by birds, but when we factor in our damage from invading their territory, and out over fishing which accounts for an upwards of 17% onto of what dams do, we should not be looking at seals when we are the major factor in their loss in numbers (sect 7).

When we see a drop in salmon population we need not to find something to blame. I found that the Bible says it better than I can, “3 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5). We must remove the problem that lies within ourselves and see how we are contributing to the world rather than try to go looking for someone else to carry the burden that is rightfully ours.

Marine life, De-Finning Sharks

The endangerment of marine species is something that most people do not consider a relevant part of nature life. Most do not realize the catastrophic events that can occur if something is thrown out of order in the ecosystem. In recent news the finning of sharks has become a larger issue.

In local news, Washington gov. Chris Gregorie is sponsoring a bill that prohibits the selling, trading, and distribution of shark fins. Every year more than 73,000,000 sharks are killed primarily for their fins. Finning is the practice of slicing the fin off a shark, then throwing the de finned shark back into the water to drown/bleed to death. This unsustainable method of finishing has diminished the once flourishing population of sharks, by 99%.

This bill was passed in Washington, as well as Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and is currently being passed in Oregon and California. “The signing of SB 5688 sends a strong message that the Evergreen State will not tolerate the cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning,” said Dan Paul, state director for The HSUS in Washington. “We commend Washington’s lawmakers for standing up for the world’s top oceanic predators.” Humane Society. ‘

Even though the Shark fin is the most expensive item on the menu, it holds the least in nutritional value; the most common use is for stature purposes. The soup is the main driver behind the shark fin trade business, even though there already is a diminishing number of sharks, and in the horrific way that they are harvested.

Dog Fighting

Animal fighting has been a form of entertainment across the world, in Spain and Rome its bull fighting and cock fighting in Mexico and other Latin countries and. In more recent news other forms of fighting have come across the United States. Dog fighting (which originated in China), these brutal fights usually end in the death or sever injury of the dogs. Such barbaric activities seem to have infiltrated even the most prominent figures in society. NFL quarterback Michael Vick was arrested for dog fighting in 2008.

The work of the humane society is to increase to effectiveness of the laws that already in place, and to increase the penalties. In the United States, there is no legal refuge for organized animal fighting, and that’s as it should be. Dog fighting is a felony in every state now.

The humane society has a series of systems in place for the public to raise awareness to the situations. They have such things as rewards programs up to $5,000 for the help in arrest of dog/cock fighters and tip lines to call about information. So far they have just reached their 90-arrest tip off mark, proving that such programs really do make a difference.

The overall goal of such programs is to denote the negative image that pit bulls have around them because of these acts. They are beautiful fun loving dogs that they are. A dog must be trained extensively and forced to be of the fighting nature, it does not come natural to these or any other breed. Dogs get the short end of the stick, lets enlighten the public so they can continue to be mans best friend.

Seal Slaughters in Canada.

This week I decided to focus in on a whole different part of the Humane societies outreach programs, their focus on marine life specifically. I wanted to stay current with the events and debates that are going on in the world of animal science and found a very pertinent issue to today’s society, the slaughter of Seals for fur in Canada. More than 1,000,000 seals have been slaughtered in the last few years. The fur from seals is used in fashion garments and also a small section for oil and the meat is mostly unusable, the skinned bodies are left on the ice to rot and be eaten by predators walking by occasionally. The Canadian Government defines “the slaughter of seals as primarily a fur hunt”.

The hunters participate in this hunt during the off-season from fishing. This occupation does not bring in loads of income; it has been found that about 1/20^th of their earnings come from sealing. Most of these sealers are found to be on Canada’s east coast and in Newfoundland. There are fewer than 6,000 sealers in the population of near half a million people” accounts for less than 1 percent of the province's economy and less than 2 percent of the landed value of the fishery”. Showing that it is not a thriving huge economy and source of income in Canada.

The worst part of this the slaughter, is the level of barbarism that is used to kill them. The Canadian government allows these hunters to use wooden clubs, hakapiks (large ice-pick-like clubs) and guns. Guns seem to be much more humane, but these sealers are shooting from a moving swaying ship, when the seal is targeted, it usually suffers for many hours and only shot once due to the loss in value from bullets, left to suffer, then clubbed to death.

“Dr. Mary Richardson, a Canadian veterinary expert in humane slaughter methods, concluded that the commercial seal hunt is inherently inhumane because of the environment in which it operates and the speed at which the killing must be conducted.” Veterinarians also studied and found that 42 percent of the cases they studied, there was not enough evidence of cranial injury to even guarantee unconsciousness at the time of skinning. Meaning that half of the cases were skinned alive..

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One thing that the Canadian government could easily do, which is supported by animal protection groups and settlers, is a federal buyout of the commercial sealing industry. This would involve the federal government “buying back” sealing licenses from fishermen, while compensating them for the money they would make, and putting an end to the slaughter of seals.

The argument that seals are overpopulated is an incorrect argument to make. The number of Harp seals in the North Atlantic is supposed to somewhere in the many millions. Since 1950s over-hunting dramatically reduced the harp seal population two thirds. Senior Canadian government scientists in 1970 warned that the population could be lost altogether if commercial sealing was not suspended for at least a decade. Which also puts to rest the argument that these seals are endangering the fishing market, the real danger is the human element. Our over-fishing is what is diminishing the market.

I researched further to see what I could do for these seals and found that there are many boycotts against canadian seafood that the Humane Society and other organizations hold. You also can go to the humane societies webpage and donate if you feel strongly enough. I feel that this barbaric act has gone on long enough.

Animal Cruelty

http://video.humanesociety.org/video/856231271001

The over population of dogs has been around for years in California they even signed an act to have all stray dogs exterminated. Shortly after WWII when the sales of pure bred puppies was considered “a cash crop”. Farmers across the mid east to the east coast started sprouting up these puppy farms, which were sold to stores across the United States. These farms, which produced puppies for these stores, were later called puppy mills.

After just hearing about this you may think that certain puppy mills seem to be doing a good cause, bringing in animals for people to adopt, but in reality these animals that are being bought up are taking the spot of animals that are in need of rescuing. Since the animals in rescues are not finding homes they are being exterminated, and people will pay more and more for one of those “cute” little puppies that you see in the pet stores, rather than giving their home to animals that are in desperate need of homes.

I am not saying that these puppies do not need homes, they certainly do, but the reasons that they are being brought about are because of the demand for these puppies. It is the demand that causes these cute puppies to be bred in such horrific numbers and conditions. These puppies are crammed in over populated areas with sanitation that would cringe your stomach, and bred in such numbers that so many of them die and contract diseases that its impossible to keep track of everything. These puppies are bred into confinement with almost no human contact until they are chosen to go to pet stores across the nation.

The mothers are bred in such great quantities and such short periods between litters that the mothers are often damaged internally and are physically depleted and often die because of the extensive amounts of births she must endure. Most mothers and fathers of the cute puppies that you happen to see in the stores are never to leave the mills alive; along with many of the brother and sister puppies, any puppy with an abnormality will never see the inside of a pet store.

Puppy mills exploit the American dream of having a cute puppy, its these ideas that cause over population of dogs across the world, there are those who get a puppy and once it gets older they put it in a rescue home and get another puppy. The hard truth of the matter is the adoption centers and humane societies are over crowded, and the puppy farmers that think that they can make a quick buck by selling puppies to the pet stores. We can stop these inhumane acts towards these dogs by eliminating the demand for the pet store puppy. These puppy mills are the epitome of animal cruelty. They not allowed their basic needs any clean food or water, confinement in large number where many of them are forced to inbreed. We must protest to purchasing of puppies from puppy mills, adopt a dog in need and the demand for puppies will go down in pet stores, and maybe some day we can abolish puppy mills once and for all.

http://www.kiiitv.com/story/14486435/proposed-bill-would-regulate-puppy-mills-in-texas

http://www.puppymills.com