Canoeing, camping and killing: Two out of three ain't bad. Now it's time to stop the slaughter of animals in America's wildlife "refuges."
Unfortunately, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the National Wildlife Refuge System, bows to the gun and tackle lobbyists. This year, the service announced plans to open nine new hunting programs in our national wildlife refuges.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the first official refuges in 1940, he envisioned sanctuaries where it would be "unlawful to hunt, trap, capture, willfully disturb, or kill any bird or wild animal." Yet today, these wildlife sanctuaries have become wildlife cemeteries, where millions of animals are maimed and killed by guns and fishing gear every year.
The Fish and Wildlife Service allows and encourages hunters to massacre animals in refuges with all manner of weapons, from semiautomatic rifles to high-powered bows and arrows. In addition to the more than 100 million animals reported killed each year, millions more are killed illegally or simply wounded and left to die slowly.
Hunting is a violent activity and not a civilized, kind or effective method of population control for people or animals. Studies show that herd populations actually rebound with an increase in size after a large number of deaths in hunting seasons. The Fish and Wildlife Service has ignored fertility control, such as Spay-Vac, a longterm immocontraception vaccine that has lasted for well over six years on gray seals and been successful on white-tailed deer, horses and every sheep it has been tested on.
Fishing is simply hunting in the water.
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Fish cannot always express their suffering in ways that humans can easily recognize, but common sense - and marine scientists - tell us that fish feel pain, as all animals do.
According to Dr. Donald Broom, professor of animal welfare at Cambridge University, "The scientific literature is quite clear. Anatomically, physiologically and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and mammals." Adds Dr. Austin Williams, a U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service zoologist, fish "are sentient organisms, so of course they feel pain."
And don't think that catch-and-release advocates are off the hook. Fisheries biologist Ralph Manns says fishing is "inherently harmful" to fish, "whether we release them or not. There is no doubt they would be better off if we left them totally alone."
No kidding - especially fish who have their guts pulled out before being "released," as fingers or pliers crudely extract deeply swallowed hooks.
Fishing has other victims, too. More than 85 percent of the pelicans treated at Florida's Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, for example, have injuries resulting from discarded fishing line and hooks. Even the Missouri Department of Natural Resources - hardly an animal-friendly institution - recognizes the problem. In an ad titled "Death Line," the agency reminds anglers that improperly discarded fishing line injures and kills "countless animals and birds" every year.
Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act permits "the use of refuges whenever it is determined that such a use is compatible with the purposes for which the area was established." Maiming and slaughtering animals is completely contrary to President Roosevelt's original vision of refuges where wildlife would not be threatened by bullets or baited hooks.
There is some hope. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the number of hunters plummeted 17 percent from 1990 to 1999. Gun companies' efforts to sell hunting to women and teen-agers have failed miserably. Today, less than 5 percent of Americans hunt. Fishing folk have begun recruiting kids to keep interest in fishing high. People are turning in droves to non-violent activities such as hiking, biking, rock-climbing and snorkeling.
As Americans seek ways to stem violence in our lives, let's start with the obvious: Stop killing for fun. Let's turn our national wildlife refuges back into the sanctuaries of nature they were intended to be, where the animals can live in peace and we all can find solace and renewal.
by Paula Moore and
Carla Bennett
Knight Ridder-Tribune
Paula Moore and Carla Bennett write for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and can be reached at 501 Front St., Norfolk, Va. 23510, or at www.PETA.org.
