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Monday, 19 July 2010 14:28 |
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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION By: View From The West / John Youngman
17/07/2010 1:00 AM |
The plan is to capture Manitoba polar bears from the wild, keep some of them for display at the Assiniboine Park Zoo and export the rest to zoos outside of Manitoba. The existing bear enclosure at the zoo is being converted into a "transition centre" for the wild bears destined for other zoos. It is at the "transition centre" that the bears will get their first taste of captivity -- and learn to get used to it, something animal welfare scientists say is impossible. Captivity is where they will spend the rest of their lives.
Polar bears targeted for captivity include orphaned cubs, and possibly "problem" bears, for whom life in captivity will be the newest - and as it turns out cruellest - punishment ever meted out to problem bears by the government of Manitoba.
The word "conservation" in the proposed International Polar Bear Conservation Centre is a misnomer. There is no "conservation" value in capturing wild polar bears and putting them in zoos. Nor is there any known program for successfully rehabilitating orphaned or captive-born polar bears back into the wild.
As for educational value, the only substantive thing a polar bear in captivity teaches kids is that it's okay to ruin an animal's life for our viewing pleasure.
History has proven over and over again that exporting polar bears outside of Manitoba can have tragic consequences for the bears. Yet the export of polar bears to zoos outside of Manitoba is the cornerstone of the proposed polar bear centre. As recently as the 1990s, it was common practice to export Manitoba polar bears to foreign zoos. Everything changed when accounts of Manitoba polar bears living in hellish conditions around the world began surfacing in the media.
At the time, three Manitoba bears were discovered in a Mexican circus - by a Winnipeg Free Press photographer who was on vacation at the time - that toured Mexico and Latin America in the sweltering heat, something a cold-weather species is not cut out for. The bears were originally exported from Manitoba to the Ruhr Zoo in Germany, a duly-accredited zoo, which then turned around and sold the bears to the Suarez Bros. Circus in Mexico a year later.
Read more:http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/fyi/free-our-polar-bears-98658014.html
John Youngman is a Winnipeg lawyer and past-president
of the Zoological Society of Manitoba. Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 17, 2010 H1
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Friday, 16 July 2010 00:24 |
JOSHUA WOLFSON Casper Star-Tribune | Posted: Friday, July 16, 2010 10:39 pm
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8749bcde-043c-5ac4-9d40-1d873f5f0748.html
CASPER — A cold, wet spring and a growing bear population have contributed to the recent spate of grizzly activity in Wyoming, wildlife experts say.
Heavy late-season snows in the mountains have forced grizzly bears to search for food at lower elevations. That’s probably led to more encounters with hikers, fishermen and other people enjoying the outdoors, said Wyoming Game and Fish Bear Management Officer Brain DeBolt.
“Bear conflicts are as much a function of weather as they are anything else,” he said.
At the same time, the grizzly population has continued to grow since the 1970s, when the animal received federal protections. Experts believe the population is increasing at a rate of 4 to 7 percent annually.
“Both black and grizzly bear populations are thriving,” DeBolt said. “Just due to the numbers game, if you’ve got more bears, you are going to have more conflicts.”
Since June, there have been several encounters between humans and bears in the western part of the state. Park rangers in the Bridger-Teton National Forest closed the Upper Green River area to camping for more than a week following multiple bear sightings by campers and hikers. Rangers lifted the ban on Friday.
Earlier this month, a bear in Yellowstone entered one tent, damaged another and bit a generator before being captured.
Not all of the encounters have been harmless. A grizzly killed an Illinois man last month near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. And last weekend, a bear attacked a Casper man hiking near Union Pass in the Bridger-Teton. The man, who asked officials not to identify him, survived the encounter.
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Wednesday, 14 July 2010 01:19 |
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By Jacques Clement (AFP)
BAGHDAD — Sabah Alazawi is doing a roaring trade these days at his Baghdad pet shop -- and not only because he has a lion for sale. Along with dogs, he also offers bears, wolves, monkeys and vultures.
While hundreds of people visit his menagerie daily, most are there because it offers a free alternative to an outing to the zoo, rather than to buy.
But Alazawi, an ex-soldier who has long harboured a passion for wild animals, doesn't mind in the least.
"Children and families are depressed in Iraq. I am proud to give some happiness to these people," he says, as crowds mill around his pet shop in Mashatel street, a leafy thoroughfare in northern Baghdad's Adhamiyah district.
Jutting out on to the pavement are three cages that serve as the homes respectively of two young bears, a lion cub and a pair of baboons.
Another monkey, chained at the leg, hops from one cage to another while two vultures are tied to their perch nearby, completing the strange scene that meets the bemused gaze of passersby and motorists queuing at a security checkpoint on the other side of the road.
More curiosities can be found inside the shop, which gets around 400 visitors a day.
According to Alazawi, the numbers increased dramatically once the sectarian violence which ravaged the Iraqi capital from 2006 to 2008 began to decline.
Wolves, peacocks, two young alligators, an ostrich, a badger and a porcupine are also in residence, and the next arrivals -- a pair of hyenas and two more baby lions -- are expected soon.
Read more at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g6WCoZGJXXBZDzC6c_vBUVNhqUwg
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
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