URGE AGRICULTURE SECRETARY TO STOP POISONING WILDLIFE
Every year, Wildlife Services, a little known federal agency within the Department of Agriculture, poisons wolves, bears, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and other predators. Wildlife Services prefers two toxins to kill predators: Compound 1080, a rat poison developed by the Nazis during World War II, and sodium cyanide distributed through M44 projectile devices an spring-loaded, baited mechanisms that release poison into the mouth of any animal who disturbs it. 1080 is a poison so lethal a single teaspoon can kill 100 people. Animals exposed to these poisons suffer painful deaths as they experience convulsions, central nervous system failure, cardiac arrest, and suffocation. Because both poisons are indiscriminate, any animal, including dogs and other domestic animals, are sometimes killed by the poisons.
(photo of M44 device that releases sodium cyanide into the mouth of any animal who disturbs it)
WHAT YOU CAN DO
*Urge Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, to stop the poisoning of wildlife. To contact the Secretary, use email or phone contact information below:
Email Agriculture Secretary at: AgSec@usda.gov Phone Agriculture Secretary at: 202-720-3631 Click here for more information. Click here for sample letter or to send an online message to Secretary Vilsack.
HELP STOP KILLING OF BLACK BEARS FOR THEIR ORGANS
There is a bounty on the head of every American black bear. Across America, bear carcasses have been found with their gallbladders removed and the carcass callously left to rot. Poachers and unscrupulous profiteers are commercializing bears to make a buck, selling bear organs illicitly throughout the world and putting bear species at risk. But there is hope. This week, US Representatives Rau'l Grijalva (D-AZ) and John Campbell (R-CA) introduced the Bear Protection Act of 2009 to deter bear poaching and facilitate prosecution of wildlife criminals. The new bill is identical to H.R. 3029 from the 110th Congress. This and similar legislation in prior Congresses has had wide bipartisan support.
WHY THE BEAR PROTECTON ACT IS NEEDED
The United States should have a simple, uniform policy against the killing of bears for their gallbladders. Demand for bear parts has already decimated Asian bear populations including the endangered Asiatic black bear. Recent research shows that bear gallbladders and bile are being sold on both legal and illegal markets in the U.S. Gallbladders from North American bears are being obtained illegally and either marketed here or exported, while gallbladders and prepared products containing bile from endangered Asian bears are brought into the U.S. illegally and sold, primarily for use in traditional Asian medicine.
There currently exists a patchwork of state laws regulating the bear parts trade: some states allow unfettered trade in these organs, most prohibit it, and still others allow the trade if the bears were killed in another state. But once the gallbladder is removed, it is practically impossible to prove where the bear was killed. Thus, the continued trade from a small minority of states thwarts the wildlife management laws of the majority of states by facilitating a black market in bear galls. By uniformly prohibiting the trade in bear parts, the Bear Protection Act will assist state law enforcement officers in their effort to protect their resident bear populations.
NOTE: According to the bill's sponsors, "The Bear Protection Act is crafted narrowly to address the harmful trade in bear gallbladders and bile without impacting a state's ability to make fundamental decisions regarding bear management." [emphasis added] While Big Wildlife supports the bill, believes it is a necessary first step to cracking down on the trade in bear parts, and praises Reps. Grijalva and Campbell for introducing this vital legislation, our organization is committed to ultimately ending outright bear "management" policies that promote trophy hunting of these animals and employ aggressive government lethal control of bears. We are currently working to halt these brutal, unethical, scientifically indefensible, and unnecessary policies.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
*Urge your representative in Congress to cosponsor the Bear Protection Act of 2009. To find your representative's phone number, you may use Congress' searchable online directory by clicking here. Or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your representative's office. |
