Tell Secretary Norton the Price of Inaction Is Too High
More than 10,000 big cats—such as
tigers, lions and leopards—live in the United States, many kept in
private homes as exotic pets. Big cats may be cute and cuddly as cubs,
but the old adage still holds true: "You can take the tiger out of the
jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the tiger." These animals
are unpredictable and have complex needs that most individuals have
neither the finances nor the experience to meet. Tragedies like the
killing in late February of an escaped tiger in Ventura County,
California underscore the danger and damage caused when people keep big
cats as pets.On December 19,
2003, President Bush signed a bill into law that resolutely addressed
the issue of captive big cats, but nearly 15 months later, the federal
agency charged with writing the regulations that would put the law into
effect has yet to do its job. The "Captive Wildlife Safety Act" banned
interstate and foreign commerce in lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs,
jaguars, cougars or any hybrid big cats for the pet trade.
In the law, Congress gave the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service (USFWS), a division of the Department of Interior,
six months to develop regulations to implement the law—a deadline that
the USFWS has already blown by nearly nine months. Since the law was
passed, there have been at least a dozen incidents involving
privately-owned big cats in the U.S., according to the Captive Wild
Animal Protection Coalition. U.S. Reps. Buck McKeon (R-CA) and George
Miller (D-CA), the prime sponsors of the Captive Wildlife Safety Act in
the House, and Elton Gallegly (R-CA), who represents Ventura County
where last month's tiger incident took place, have all criticized the
Department for not yet implementing the law. "These regulations should
have been promulgated months ago," Gallegly wrote in a letter to
Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Please
contact Secretary Norton
and tell her it's time to put the Captive Wildlife Safety Act into
effect. Thank you for taking action!
Stand Up for Seals
The HSUS and our Protect Seals Network partners will hold the first
International Day of Action Against the Canadian Seal Hunt on
Tuesday, March 15. Add your voice and
attend a rally in your area. |
Join Us for Animal Care Expo
Animal Care Expo is a dynamic education conference designed for
anyone who works or volunteers at the local level with dogs, cats,
or other animals. Expo will be held April 6-9 at the Hyatt Regency
Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia.
Learn more... |
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Good News! |
Big
Win for Bears: The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled last
week that the state's environmental commissioner has the final
word over black bear hunts—a major win for bears and a major
loss for sport hunting groups and the hunter-dominated Fish and
Game Council.
Read more from
The Philadelphia Inquirer (free registration
required).
Cheers for Cougars: Thanks to New Mexico
citizen lobbyists who called, wrote and made visits to their
legislators, a bill that would have defined cougars as
"varmints" and allowed unlimited hunting
died in a House
committee. |
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 Wildlife
Funding is Needed for the Present, Not the Past
With
all the talk of tight federal budgets and fiscal responsibility, I
sometimes can't believe how the U.S. Congress spends our money. Many
legislators have their own pet programs - not the kind that help dogs
and cats, but rather those that bring federal tax dollars back home for
obscure projects within their districts.
One such federal
subsidy is an $8.5 million program geared toward America's history of
commercial whaling, providing grants to museums in three states formerly
associated with the U.S. whaling industry - Alaska, Hawaii, and
Massachusetts. While some of the museum exhibits acknowledge that
commercial whaling devastated whale populations, others promote the
killing of whales and encourage children to "learn about their shared
culture and tradition."
It's certainly a
misplacement of priorities to give $8.5 million to museums to preserve
the whales' past when you consider that our government may cut the
budget for agencies whose job is to preserve their future. The HSUS and
other organizations are urging Congress to spend $15.5 million in the
next fiscal year for the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, but
the Bush Administration calls for a cut in funding to this important
program.
Stronger funding is
needed to protect Asian and African elephants, great apes, marine
turtles, tigers, rhinos, and neotropical migratory birds around the
world. Instead of cutbacks, these funds need to be increased,
particularly in the aftermath of the tsunami when turtle nesting areas
must be restored and forest habitats must be protected.
Please
click here to learn more
about this important funding effort and to ask your
members of Congress to help.
Sincerely,
Mike Markarian,
President
HSUS Fund for Animals
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