ThinkProgress Home
ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress Logo

Stories tagged with “Animals”

Alyssa

Regulating Animal Ownership After The Zanesville Disaster

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Feb 7, 2012 at 1:38 pm

When Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo came out last year, I was not particularly amused: it’s always seemed to me that treating the welfare of wild animals as all fun and games ignores the safety and needs of everyone involved. And now two stories about a huge private menagerie in Zanesville, Ohio where the owner let the animals lose, killed himself, and left the local authorities to try to contain a hugely dangerous situation (mostly, they had to kill the animals) have made clear precisely how un-cute this situation can be. As y’all know, I’m not particularly in favor of regulating entertainment. But when the thing that entertains you both has physical needs and can pose a danger to you, your neighbors, and itself, I find it stunning that wild animal ownership is unregulated as it is. In Esquire, Chris Jones points out that Terry Thompson’s animal ownership was less regulated than his gun poessession:

Lutz had tried for years to strip Thompson of his personal zoo, but the one animal-cruelty charge the department managed to make stick — concerning the fate of some starved cows and a buffalo — hadn’t had the desired effect. The truth was that Thompson was doing nothing illegal, at least not according to the laws of Ohio. So long as he wasn’t charging admission, he could have all the animals he wanted, virtually unregulated. But Thompson was less fortunate in his handling of another of his hoards, an arsenal of more than one hundred guns. With the assistance of the ATF, Lutz had seen Thompson charged with the possession of illegal firearms after a sting had found some with their serial numbers carefully filed off.

At GQ, Chris Heath goes into more detail on both the regulatory, cultural and ethical issues involved in what I think is a less action-movie-y but more comprehensive piece:

One of the surprising facts about owning animals like these in America right now is that while keeping them may not be cheap, buying them frequently is. Tom Stalf at the Columbus Zoo suggests to me that you can buy a lion for $300—cheaper than many pedigree dogs…Just as “good” private owners explain why they should exist and why “bad” private owners should not, sanctuaries may suggest that they should endure while private owners are phased out, and zoos can loftily assume there are clear reasons that they should be cherished while most kinds of non-zoo ownership should be frowned upon. I can see a logic in some kind of extreme libertarian position (people should be able to do what they want with animals unless they are clearly shown to be doing harm) and, conversely, in a hard-core animal-rights position (no animals should be used for any human purpose whatsoever), but the arguments for everything in between seem murky. Frequently these are based on a confident assessment of the animals’ happiness (a thorny notion), and on the pragmatic need to save animals from a place worse than where they are. (Everyone knows somewhere else worse.)

I’m not a wildlife expert, so I’m not the one to lay out a set of standards here. But I’m not clear what the argument should be for why the requirements for both animals’ and humans’ safety and well-being should be different depending on whether the animals’ owners are zoos or private individuals. In both cases, it seems like we should try to guarantee that the animals have adequate room to move around, a steady, healthy food source, and that the humans in proximity to them who are not their owners are guaranteed a level of safety. Such regulations seem like they’d end up imposing reasonable restrictions on the number of wild animals any one person could own and support. It’s one thing to say that someone has the right to take the risk that an animal who lives with them will rip them to pieces: it’s another entirely to say that their friends and neighbors have to accept being exposed to that risk.

Economy

GOP’s Pro-Python Policy Devastates Florida’s Everglades

By Pat Garofalo on Jan 31, 2012 at 11:45 am

Florida, the location of today’s presidential primary, is dealing with a host of problems, including a moribund housing market and long-term unemployment that is the worst in the nation. As if that wasn’t bad enough, according to a new study out today, Florida’s Everglades ecosystem is being devastated by Burmese pythons:

In areas where the pythons have established themselves, marsh rabbits and foxes can no longer be found. Sightings of raccoons are down 99 percent, opossums 98.9 percent and white-tailed deer 94 percent according to a paper out Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [...]

The first reports of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades began in the 1980s; a breeding population wasn’t confirmed there until 2000.

Since then, the numbers of pythons sighted and captured in the Everglades has risen dramatically. According to Linda Friar with Everglades National Park, park personnel have captured or killed 1,825 pythons since 2000.

Now researchers have shown that just as python populations established themselves, the native mammals of the regions began to decline — severely.

“What if the stock market had declined that much? Think of the adjectives you’d use for that,” said Gordon Rodda, an invasive-species specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Obama administration has actually moved on new regulations meant to limit the damage wrought by these snakes, finalizing a rule making it illegal to import or move Burmese pythons across state lines. “We must do all we can to battle its spread and to prevent further human contributions of invasive snakes that cause economic and environmental damage,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

House Republicans, notably, derided this regulation as damaging to small businesses and job creation, going so far as to bring a snake breeder to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who said the rule could “devastate a small but thriving sector of the economy.” A House Republican report even derided the regulation as “a solution in search of a problem.” But that problem is all too real in Florida, where Snakes on a Plane is closer to a horrifying reality show than it is to a job creation plan.

NEWS FLASH

FDA To Restrict Some Antibiotics Overuse In Livestock | The Food and Drug Administration is limiting the amount of certain antibiotics in livestock in an effort to slow growing antibiotic resistance in humans. For years, farmers have used antibiotics without restraint, even in healthy animals, to help them grow and prevent sickness. The FDA has made small steps to reduce the amount used in feed, the latest being new restrictions on cephalosporins. The order restricts use of the antibiotic commonly used in cattle, swine, chickens, and turkey before slaughter; one that’s also found in pneumonia, skin infections, and meningitis treatments for humans.

Politics

Kasich Failed To Extend Ohio Ban On Exotic Animals, Now Concedes ‘It’s A Problem’ After Police Kill 49 Escaped Animals

By Tanya Somanader on Oct 20, 2011 at 1:07 pm

Ohio leaped into the spotlight yesterday after 56 exotic animals — lions, rare Bengal tigers, bears, wolves, leopards, and a herpes-afflicted monkey — were let loose from a private zoo in Zanesville. Ohio police shot and killed 49 of the animals while only six were captured and taken to the Columbus Zoo. “It’s like Noah’s Ark wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio,” said Jack Hanna, TV personality and former director of the Columbus Zoo.

The tragedy exposes the dangers of wildlife trafficking, in which private collectors actively trade in exotic animals all over the states “in a vibrant and poorly regulated market.” According to the Humane Society, Ohio has long been “the center of the exotic-auction industry.” Ohio’s former Gov. Ted Strickland (D) attempted to “crack down” on the market by issuing an executive order that banned new private ownership of exotic animals. Issued on Jan. 6, 2011, it was one of his last acts as governor and lasted 90 days. His replacement, GOP Gov. John Kasich let it expire. Only now, after the bloodbath, does Kasich see it as “a problem”:

But when Kasich took office he failed to extend the ban. Kasich’s spokesman Rob Nichols called the order “unenforceable.”

A state task force, however, is expected to issue new recommendations in 30 days.

“For 200 years, we haven’t had anything,” Nichols told The Post, acknowledging a new law is needed. ‘It’s a problem.”

If Kasich had extended the emergency ban, “the state would have had the authority to remove [the owner's] animals” as the owner, 62-year old Tommy Thompson, had been convicted of animal cruelty. Thompson shot himself after releasing the animals yesterday.

Only eight states — Alabama, Idaho, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Ohio — do not have rules regarding exotic pet ownership. It is this “lack of laws and regulation” that “allowed this situation to happen,” said concerned Ohio citizen Liz Dumler. She launched a campaign on Change.org calling on Kasich to ban the sale and already thousands of people have signed on in less than 24 hours. “The deaths of these innocent animals shouldn’t be in vain,” she said.

Update

The Ohio sheriff in charge of hunting down the animals Matt Lutz said he hopes the incident “will spur more stringent legislation regarding ownership of exotic animals.” Kasich asked Lutz to join a task force create rules on ownership that will be put in place within six weeks. State Rep. Debbie Phillips (D) plans to introduce a bill mimicking Strickland’s executive order that will ban private ownership. “It is unfortunate that Governor Kasich chose to let this common sense provision expire earlier this year,” she said. “Had he chose to continue these regulations, we may not have seen [yesterday's] tragic events unfold”

Alyssa

The Dangers Of Amateur Zookeeping

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Sep 16, 2011 at 2:52 pm

So, animal rights are not one of my top voting issues, but isn’t it a little weird to say that you don’t need any special skills to take care of a tiger? Or 40-odd other animals who aren’t in their natural habitats? It seems less than awesome to have a bunch of zoo animals be the subject of wacky mishaps as a way for a distant dad to bond with his kids:

Economy

In Battle Over Job Creation Ideas, GOP Offers Deregulation Of Pythons

By Pat Garofalo on Sep 15, 2011 at 9:43 am

"I have had it with these mother f***ing regulations on these mother f***ing snakes!"

Yesterday, taking their anti-regulatory zeal to absurd new heights, House Republicans claimed that a proposed rule from the Interior Department that would “designate the Burmese python and eight other snake species as ‘injurious’” — therefore “make it illegal to import them or transport them across state lines” — is a threat to job creation. They even brought a snake breeder to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who said that the rule could “devastate a small but thriving sector of the economy.”

This is simply the latest salvo from the GOP against regulation, as it seeks to undo everything from labor protections to environmental safeguards (with several Republicans calling for the complete dismantling of the Environmental Protection Agency). Republicans have also been fighting the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, on the grounds that tighter regulation of the banking sector will kill jobs.

At the same time, Republicans are mounting growing opposition to the Obama administration jobs plan, which includes a payroll tax cut for workers, infrastructure funding, school modernization and aid to states to prevent more public sector layoffs. Here is a table outlining the GOP and Democratic priorities given the current debate in Washington:

Obviously, reality is a bit more complicated than this. But as ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser has explained, the GOP has put forth a plan that would “permanently shut down the federal government’s ability to regulate.” For all intents and purposes, their job creation plan can be summed up as this: lower taxes on the wealthy and corporations coupled with letting corporations do what they please.

Meanwhile, economists have found that the administration’s job creation plan will boost GDP growth and create millions of jobs next year. A poll from National Journal shows that Americans prefer Obama’s job creation ideas to the GOP’s.

Green

Oil Spill Could Put Gulf Sturgeon On Brink Of Extinction

By Brad Johnson on Aug 4, 2010 at 3:38 pm

1000-pound Gulf sturgeon

The vast quantities of oil and dispersants that have flooded the Gulf of Mexico are now disappearing into the water column, leading scientists to worry about the long-term toxic effects. One species of particular concern is the Gulf sturgeon, a remarkable “living dinosaur” of a fish that can reach 1000 pounds, and can cause serious injury with its armor-plated skin as it leaps through the air. However, these anadromous fish — which, like salmon, spawn in rivers but live as adults in the ocean — are no match for man’s destructive power. Once living throughout the eastern Gulf, the fish is now a threatened species because of river damming, pollution, and overfishing, with a range limited from the Suwannee River in Florida to the Pearl River in Mississippi and Louisiana. According to Frank Parauka, a fishery biologist with the the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, there are about 10,000 Gulf sturgeon left.

When the Bush administration made plans to open up more of the Gulf of Mexico to drilling — including the eventual site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster — the Minerals Management Service predicted that there would be “minimal” impacts on the Gulf sturgeon, even in the case of “accidental spills”:

Impacts on Gulf sturgeon associated with routine operations and accidental spills under the proposed action are expected to be minimal, because there is relatively little overlap between the locations that could be affected by activities and the distribution of Gulf sturgeon. [p. 57]

Gulf sturgeon in the Mississippi barrier islandsIn fact, nearly all of the estuarine regions that are key to Gulf sturgeon survival have been affected by the BP oil disaster. Ichthyologist Stephen Ross, who has been tracking Gulf sturgeon in the marine environment for years, has found that the adult fish live among the Mississippi barrier islands in the cold months of the year, and that juveniles probably live there all year long. In an email interview with the Wonk Room, Ross explained that the threat to the sturgeon from the subsurface (benthic) oiling of the barrier islands and gulf coast could be “devastating”:

First, subadult and adult Gulf Sturgeon accomplish their entire annual food intake during the time they are in coastal waters (October-March), so any impact that altered the benthic food base would be devastating to Gulf Sturgeon. Second, we are pretty sure that juvenile Gulf Sturgeon inhabit the coastal estuaries throughout the year. Consequently, penetration of oil into the inshore areas would also be a major problem– of course, not just for Gulf Sturgeon but for all aquatic and marsh organisms.

Gulf sturgeon do not forage when they are in the rivers. They enter the estuarine habitat after fasting for months and completely depend on resources obtained when they are in saline waters. Comparing the maps for the Gulf sturgeon critical habitat and the oil’s impact, only the far eastern reaches of the sturgeon’s feeding range appears to be untouched by BP’s toxic slick. Read more

Yglesias

Monkey Economics

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 22, 2009 at 11:31 am

200px-Capuchin_Costa_Rica

Via Brad DeLong you won’t want to miss Keith Chen, Laurie Santos, and Venkat Lakshminarayanan, “How Basic Are Behavioral Biases?: Evidence from Capuchin Monkey Trading Behavior.”

Basically they cooked up an ingenuous experiment to see if capuchin monkeys exhibited the same kind of irrational reference effects and loss aversion that Kahneman & Tversky have demonstrated in humans. The answer is, in short, yes. This suggests that these kind of behavioral biases are very deeply rooted since the last common ancestor between humans and monkeys was many millions of years ago. It’s not really a terribly surprising result once you think about it, but definitely a clever line of inquiry.

Yglesias

Canada Seeking WTO Punishment of EU for Baby Seal Bludgeoning Ban

By Matthew Yglesias on Jul 20, 2009 at 4:44 pm

Seals are typically hunted by bludgeoning the victims to death so as to preserve their skin intact. This strikes many as inhumane. And while some inhumane animal practices—like the standard way of raising cows and steers for beef and dairy purposes—lead to products that the majority of people enjoy, there aren’t that many of us that rely on seal products in our daily lives. Consequently, the European Parliament voted last week in favor of a ban on the import of seal products. It’s a move being hailed by animal rights groups, but Canada, the world’s largest seal exporter, is threatening WTO action against the EU.

babyseal

The merits of this particular case aside, I think Henry Farrell is right to say that a win for Canada would probably spell big trouble for WTO fans. When foes of trade liberalization are able to make adorable baby seals the face of their cause, it’s hard to oppose them. This makes me wonder why the seal issue is being handled as a trade policy matter in the first place. In other words, why ban the import of seal products rather than simply ban selling seal products? Clearly the EU’s concern here is with the existence of a commercial market for dead seals rather than with the transnational flow of seals per se.

Yglesias

Great Moments in Journalism

By Matthew Yglesias on Apr 5, 2009 at 2:38 pm

Internet access was spottier at the conference I’ve been attending this weekend than I’d anticipated, and soon I’ll be on a series of airplanes, so I hope nobody was too upset by a weekend of half-assed blogging. The good news is that at this particular conference center, giraffes are considerably more plentiful than you usually see at a conference:

img_0058_1.JPG

That’s The New Yorker‘s Rick Hertzberg, one of our very best columnists as well as the nation’s leading advocate of the National Popular Vote. NPV is an extremely good idea and especially if you live in a non-battleground state you ought to get in touch with your state legislators and ask them why they aren’t embracing an idea that could really enhance your state’s clout.

Older

Switch to Mobile