US friends, please take action, help horses, elephants, marine mammals, wolves

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1.  Please Click HERE to Stop Horse Roundups and Consider NAS Recommendations
2. Please Click HERE to Help Elephants Sophie and Babe at the Niabi Zoo
3. Please Click HERE to Protect Arctic Marine Mammals From Oil Exploration
4. Please Click HERE to Stop the Slaughter of Wolves
5. Click HERE to Help Take the Slaughter Off Wolves

1. Source IDA

The National Academy of Science (NAS) recently released a report on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro program and determined that the program can’t continue “business as usual.” The report provided numerous suggestions for improvement and found that the BLM has not used scientifically rigorous methods to estimate population, model effects of management actions, or to assess forage on rangelands. Further, the report found that the current practice of rounding up and removing wild horses actually leads to higher rates of population growth, rather than curbing it. Please use the form below to join IDA in asking Sec. Jewell to carefully consider NAS recommendations and immediately stop all roundups.

The National Academy of Science (NAS) report recommends the use of fertility control vaccines as an alternative form of population control. Unfortunately, roundups are still recommended in order to administer these vaccines in many areas. During roundups, horses are stampeded and chased until they’re too exhausted to run, resulting in many injuries and deaths. In the “business as usual” roundups, family bands are heartlessly torn apart, never to see each other again.

New Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who is tasked with heading up the BLM program, has stated she would consider the NAS report prior to implementing policy changes. We are also urging her to consider administering fertility control options in the wild, rather than subjecting horses to these traumatic roundups. The NAS also calls for greater transparency and more public participation, so this is our chance to insist our voices are heard.

2. Source IDA

After more than a decade of living in the grossly antiquated exhibit at the Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois, Sophie and Babe might finally have a chance for a better future.

Rock Island County officials recently hired zoo expert Alan Roocroft to review the zoo’s elephant program. Fortunately for Babe and Sophie, Mr. Roocroft recommended that the elephants be sent to a facility in a warmer climate that offers space for exercise and veterinary care for their existing and anticipated health problems. Mr. Roocroft also found the zoo’s elephant facility to be outdated, providing little to no stimulation for the elephants. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums pulled the Niabi Zoo’s accreditation in 2012 in large part due to the inadequate elephant exhibit.

Sophie and Babe are former Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performers. At ages 43 and 37, both Asian elephants have chronic health problems exacerbated by long, cold winters that keep them confined in their cramped barn, sometimes for 24 hours a day. Sophie’s health is especially bad—she suffers from arthritis, painful foot abscesses, and pressure sores that will only worsen if conditions for her remain unchanged.

It would cost the Niabi Zoo millions of dollars to bring the elephant exhibit up to modern standards—money the zoo does not have. Even with improvements, the elephants will still be forced inside for the majority of the bitterly cold winter. After serving the community for more than 10 years, Sophie and Babe deserve the opportunity to spend their remaining years in surroundings that can meet their needs.

A final decision on Sophie and Babe’s future will be made by the Rock Island County Forest Preserve Commission, which has authority over the Niabi Zoo—and they need to hear from you.

The Commission will hold a public meeting on June 17th to further discuss Mr. Roocroft’s report. Please take a moment to send a letter to the members of the Commission and urge them to make the compassionate decision to send Sophie and Babe together (this is imperative, since they are closely bonded) to a facility that will give them year round warmth, space, and the companionship of other elephants. If you are in the area, please attend the meeting and speak up in support of moving Sophie and Babe to a better place and a better life.

3. Source EarthJustice

4. Source Center for Biological Diversity

Wolves nationwide urgently need your help. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is poised to remove protections for these important and majestic animals in most of the lower 48 states, according to a new proposal from the Obama administration.

Since 1973 wolves have been protected under the Endangered Species Act. In 1978 those protections were expanded to include wolves across most of the lower 48 states. In the past two years, protections have been removed for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes. States in these regions have instituted aggressive hunting and trapping seasons resulting in more than 1,600 wolf deaths.

Despite the horror that state management has been, the Service has now proposed removing wolf protections in the remainder of the lower 48 states. The plan abandons wolf recovery in the Pacific Northwest, southern Rocky Mountains, Northeast, California and other areas where there is space for wolves — keeping protections only for the very small population of Mexican gray wolves that roams Arizona and New Mexico.

Please take action now to lend your voice to the fight to protect wolves.

5. Source Environmental Action

Federal wildlife officials have put the American gray wolf squarely in its crosshairs by proposing to remove them from the Endangered Species List nationwide. Already hundreds of wolves have been slaughtered in just the handful of states where hunting is already legal, and if the feds follow through with this plan, it’ll be a massacre.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is accepted comments on their plan for the next 90 days. Sign here and we’ll deliver your comments to them for you. Let them know that wolves need protection, not slaughter.

our animals brothers cry in need,
they need the help, from our
hearts,words and deeds.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson