Help Los Angeles Keep our Wildlife Residents Safe

Courtesy Google Images

Last week a bear was hit by a car and killed on the 101 Freeway. This is one of many incidents of wildlife encountering traffic while looking for food, water and the company of friends. Mountain lions and bears have turned up in residential yards, at school or, as in the case of a baby lion, in a Santa Monica office building. As we develop more cities and encroach into areas inhabited by wildlife, it is incumbent upon us to commit to doing our best to keep them safe and minimize the likelihood of chance encounters with people.

We know there is a proposal to create a wildlife corridor at Liberty Canyon under the 101 Freeway which would connect two areas of natural habitat on either side of the freeway thus increasing the lions' roaming area while keeping them and motorists safe from accidents.

Now, there is a motion before the Los Angeles City Council which would require the City Planning Department to consider wildlife corridors in any new building plans in the hillsides and provide scientific guidance to keep wildlife habitat linkages and corridors open. If you would like to join me and support this initiative, please email the Planning & Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee, sharon.gin@lacity.org, and express our desire to keep all our residents safe.

Stop the Cruel and Bullying "Sport"of Hounding California's Bears and Bobcats

Senate Bill 1221 will stop the cruel and bullying pastime of “hounding” bears and bobcats.

Courtesy Google Images

"Hounding" is a hunting practice where dogs are first sprayed with a bear attractant and fitted with high‐tech radio collars, that permit the hunters to hunt remotely. The dogs can chase the bear or bobcats for miles until they are treed or exhausted, at which time the tip-switch on the collars alerts the hunters, who, arrive and shoot a weary animal at point blank range. Essentially, the hounds take all the risks while the "sport" hunter lounges around in the park waiting for the signal to exert him or herself enough to shoot a trapped, immobilized animal.

Courtesy Google Images

Notwithstanding the terrifying ordeal suffered by the target animal, the hounds don't fare much better. They are not treated as pets but as working animals. They get injured running, hit by cars, and are often wounded or killed by the target animal or any other wildlife (such as deer) that they may encounter. There are reports of shelters receiving these dogs dehydrated, skinny and injured after they are no longer any use to the "sportsman".

I respectfully submit that this form of hunting is neither sport nor sportsman like. As comedian Paul Rodriguez said: "In a sport both sides should know they are in the game".

Not only do the animals not know they are playing - the bullies are cheating.

It is time to end this practice in California. Please contact your representatives http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html and urge them to pass SB 1221.

Thank you.

Loose Wild Animals Gunned Down in Ohio

Wild animals, including lions, tigers, bears, and wolves, were turned loose from a private collectors' property in Zanesville, Ohio. It is believed that the owner of the site, Terry Thompson, turned the animals loose before dying from a self-inflicted wound. Schools were closed, and the public was directed to stay inside as there were reports of wild animals running loose outside the property. Approximately 50 animals were believed to live at that site. 

Lion Shot in Ohio - Courtesy of Associated Press

Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz issued the order to shoot to kill the animals in the name of public safety. Most of the animals were killed pursuant to Lutz's directive while a few were still being sought.

According to Lutz, about 40 of the animals were killed while still inside the property. Lutz justified this by saying they were short on daylight, they had no sedatives and were concerned about safety. It is unclear why they could not, instead, shut the fence, secure the perimeter, gather experts, supplies and create a plan to contain the animals inside, alive, until daylight while focusing on capturing the animals outside the perimeter that could actually threaten the public. 

The real problem here is the ease with which permits for captive and exotic wildlife can be obtained. Whether one simply wants a pet primate or wishes to house lions for canned hunts, exhibitions or circuses, they need only pay a permit fee. Enforcement of permit requirements and compliance inspections are often infrequently conducted if at all. Whether a lion is kept as a pet or rented out for television commercials etc., he or she is still a dangerous wild animal living in close proximity to people, ostensibly for commercial entertainment. Veterinary care, food and security are expensive which can result in inhumane treatment, substandard husbandry and housing structures, and, in many cases, escape.

In this case, numerous complaints regarding the Thompson compound ranging from animal cruelty to loose animals were lodged with the authorities in Zanesville and, according to Lutz "has been a huge problem for us for a number of years". Gunning them down in the compound solved that problem.

In the end, the animal always suffers. Whether improperly cared for in captivity or killed by a panicked sheriff without a plan, the animal always loses. And in every case, a wild animal will behave true to his or her nature.

There must be an immediate halt to the issuing of such permits, a re-evaluation of the status of current permit holders, and an investigation of Lutzs' handling of this case.

Now there are even fewer Bengal tigers in our world, or as Lutz called him or her "this thing".


Article first published as Loose Wild Animals Gunned Down in Ohio on Technorati.

I Can't "Bear" This Anymore - Call to Action

This is as bad as it gets. The California Department of Fish and Game thinks that we, the taxpayers, and interested citizens, can't see through their smokescreens or tell fool's gold from the real deal.

The Department is again campaigning to expand the number of California bears that can be killed during the hunting season by approximately 20% despite the overwhelming objection to this by state residents. (See my prior call to action piece that describes this cruel and unsportsmanlike activity http://bit.ly/icDFsi ) While trying to allow more bears to be killed, this same department is simultaneously bragging about their efforts to rehabilitate a few bear cubs orphaned by - yes - hunters! Once the babies are of the appropriate age to be hunted they could be released to the wild to be such a target.

They are essentially fattening those baby bears for slaughter. Did they think that we would not notice? Did they think that we would be so blinded by the image of cuddly, carousing cubs to not see the manipulating, sinister hand behind their self congratulatory press releases? We are not so easily distracted by shiny objects.

I concur with my colleagues' piece in the San Francisco Chronicle http://bit.ly/exhOBs with one exception. I don't think we should come to praise Fish and Game for these acts but rather bury them with requests not to expand the hunting numbers and devote more resources to rehabilitating and protecting our native wildlife. I also believe every single resident of California should contact Jerry Brown, our new governor at                               http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php and ask for a top to bottom review of the entire Department of Fish and Game and its impotent Commission.