Tag: wildlife

New documentary ‘proves’ building offshore wind farms does kill whales

The increase in whale, dolphin, and other cetacean deaths off the East Coast of the United States since 2016 is not due to the construction of large industrial wind turbines, U.S. government officials say.

Their scientists have done the research, they say, to prove that whatever is killing the whales is completely unrelated to the wind industry. 

But now, a new documentary, “Thrown To The Wind,” by director and producer Jonah Markowitz, which I executive produced, proves that the US government officials have been lying.

The film documents surprisingly loud, high-decibel sonar emitted by wind industry vessels when measured with state-of-the-art hydrophones. And it shows that the wind industry’s increased boat traffic is correlated directly with specific whale deaths

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Government kills hundreds of Minnesota wolves to protect ranchers’ profits

It’s not easy being a wolf in northern Minnesota.

Every year dozens of the animals die of starvation, disease, parasites, vehicle traffic and poaching.

But the No. 1 killer of Minnesota wolves may come as a surprise: agents of the federal government, acting with the full force of the law.

In 2022, there were 174 documented wolf deaths in Minnesota, according to the latest state Department of Natural Resources data. Of those, 142 were killed by a relatively obscure arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture called the Wildlife Services division.

Wildlife Services is tasked with mitigating conflicts between humans and wild animals. In Minnesota, the agency’s staffers answer complaints from ranchers who lose cattle and other livestock to wolf predation. The agency documents and verifies those complaints, and looks for non-lethal ways to protect threatened livestock, like wolf-proof fencing.

If those options don’t work, the agency traps and kills wolves deemed responsible for the loss. USDA officers kill more wolves in Minnesota than in all other states combined, according to the program’s annual reports.

That work is effectively a government handout to ranchers, who receive publicly funded protection for their privately held livestock. The ranchers also receive cash compensation from state taxpayers for their lost cattle, which in 2022 totaled $100,000 for 78 wolf predation claims, or an average of about $1,300 per claim.

While individual ranchers can experience significant losses if wolves repeatedly target their cows, the overall impact on the state’s cattle population is negligible. There are about 2.2 million cows in the state, according to USDA data. The five or six dozen documented and verified wolf kills in a given year amount to a few thousandths of 1 percent of the total population.

But the USDA’s actions in response inflict a steep toll upon Minnesota’s wolves. The 142 kills amount to fully 5% of the state’s estimated wolf population.

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SECRETIVE FEDERAL AGENCY’S DAYS OF KILLING PETS WITH POISON BOMBS MAY FINALLY BE ENDING

PATCHES OF SNOW dotted the ground when Canyon Mansfield stepped outside on March 16, 2017. The hill behind the 14-year-old’s home in Pocatello, Idaho, was not particularly large. At the summit, Mansfield would only be 300 yards from his house, and yet, he treasured the visits.

With its sweeping mountain view, the hill was Canyon’s refuge. His 3-year-old yellow lab, Kasey, was his constant companion there.

The two set off as usual that afternoon. Kasey was thrashing one of his toys when Canyon spotted a sprinkler-like object protruding from the ground. He ran a finger along the device. Suddenly, he heard a pop, and an orange cloud burst forth. Canyon lunged back as the front of his body was doused in chemicals. The burning began immediately.

As Canyon grasped for snow to irrigate his eyes, he heard Kasey grunting near the device. He called to him, but he didn’t come. He stopped what he was doing and ran to him. Dropping to his knees, Canyon watched as Kasey writhed in spasms. Frothing at the mouth, the dog’s eyes turned glossy. The boy didn’t want to leave, but he knew he needed help. He sprinted down the hill for his mother.

Canyon’s father, Mark Mansfield, a family doctor, was at work when the boy called for help. He raced home as fast as he could. Pulling into the property, Mansfield rushed to Kasey and positioned himself above the dog, prepared to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Canyon stopped him. It’s poison, Canyon said.

Kasey was dead, and Canyon’s head was pounding like never before. Toggling between his training as a physician and his horror as a parent, Mansfield struggled to sort out his son’s symptoms from the trauma he’d just experienced. He told Canyon to get into the shower immediately.

While his son cleaned up, Mansfield called the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office. A bomb and hazmat team were dispatched. Longtime Sheriff Lorin Nielsen was at a loss, trying to answer what felt like an absurd question: Who would plant a bomb in Pocatello?

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Study reveals that ravens were attracted to humans’ food more than 30,000 years ago

University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment team investigates human-raven relationships

Wild animals entered into diverse relationships with humans long before the first settlements were established in the Neolithic period around 10,000 years ago. An international study by researchers from the Universities of Tübingen, Helsinki and Aarhus presents new evidence that ravens helped themselves to people’s scraps and picked over mammoth carcasses left by human hunters during the Pavlovian culture more than 30,000 years ago in what is now Moravia in the Czech Republic.

The large number of raven bones found at the sites suggests that the birds in turn were a supplementary source of food, and may have become important in the culture and worldview of these people.

The study’s lead authors are Dr. Chris Baumann, who currently conducts research at the Universities of Tübingen and Helsinki, and Dr. Shumon T. Hussain from Aarhus University, an expert in the deep history of human-animal interaction, along with Professor Hervé Bocherens of the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment. The study has been published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

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Biden Regime Is Shooting Cows From Helicopters In New Mexico – Here’s What Ranchers Are Saying About the Move

The Biden regime will let a Chinese spy balloon traverse across the continental U.S. for a full week but does not hesitate to gun down helpless animals.

A judge last Wednesday gave the U.S. Forest Service a green light to gun down approximately 150 “unauthorized” cattle from helicopters over a rugged forest in southwestern New Mexico known as the Gila Wilderness.

The judge argued he did “not see a legal prohibition on the operation” and “it would be contrary to the public interest to stop the operation from proceeding.”

Officials closed a large swath of the forest Monday and began the cow slaughter on Thursday. The killing will continue thru Sunday.

Ranchers had sought a delay, pointing out that the culling violated federal regulations and amounted to animal cruelty. They also say the federal government is not telling the truth about the cattle in question.

Townhall.com has more on the ranchers’ astute arguments against this barbarism and the Regime’s deception.

But the U.S. Forest Service’s description of its chopper hunt taking place between Thursday and Sunday is questioned by some cattle growers, such as the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA), New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, Humane Farming Association, and Spur Lake Cattle Company.

After an application for a temporary restraining order to prevent what R-CALF USA calls an “aerial slaughter” was denied by a federal judge, its Property Rights Committee Chair Shad Sullivan says the federal government’s characterization of the situation doesn’t tell the full story.

According to Sullivan, the “cattle in question are descendants of herds that legally grazed on rancher-owned allotments decades ago,” and “estrays may have intermingled with adjacent allotment owners branded and tagged cattle, proving they are domestic livestock,” contrary to the Forest Service’s claim the cattle are “feral.” Sullivan also noted that a fire last year “destroyed over 30 miles of fencing near the aerial gunning operation area.”

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Zombie Drones Made from DEAD Birds Could Soon Fool Wildlife and Nature Enthusiasts

Up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane — it’s a dead zombie bird scientists are using as a drone? Researchers at New Mexico Tech are using the time-honored art of taxidermy to help them develop “zombie drones” out of the bodies of deceased birds.

The team found a way to use these body parts to create realistic avian imposters. They believe that the drones can aid in wildlife monitoring, by blending in better with natural environments. Assistant professor of mechanical engineering, Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian, emphasizes that the team does not kill birds to create the devices and they have no intention of using the drones to spy on others.

“I should mention that the main and only use for this project is wildlife monitoring, not spying. Drones are being used for wildlife monitoring; however, they create lots of noise which could scare the animals,” Dr. Hassanalian says, according to a statement from SWNS.

“No real birds were physically harmed in the making of the drones, and we do not intend to do this at all. We have only used the feathers and taxidermy birds that are available in the Market and have worked with local taxidermy artists.”

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Systemic Racism Makes Animals Abandon Black Neighborhoods, Researchers Say

White neighborhoods have greater abundance and diversity of animal life, and Canadian researchers say racism is to blame. 

“Systemic racism alters the demography of urban wildlife populations in ways that generally limit population sizes and negatively affect their chances of persistence,” write the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg’s Chloé Schmidt and Colin J. Garroway in a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  

In a study that examined 39 terrestrial vertebrate species in 268 urban locations across the United States, the researchers found “generally consistent patterns of reduced genetic diversity and decreased connectivity in neighborhoods with fewer White residents.” 

Schmidt and Garroway say racial segregation practices during the 1950s suburb boom played a major role, as they blocked racial and ethnic minorities from more desirable neighborhoods. This had the effect of sending white families in to the suburbs and concentrating blacks and other minorities in urban cores that grew increasingly dense. The effect was compounded by physical barriers, such as railroad tracks and highways.   

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Government Agents Killed 200 Animals an Hour in 2021

A government agency killed more than 1.75 million animals across the country in 2021, in what it claims were necessary actions. New data shows the Wildlife Services branch of the US Department of Agriculture, which acts to “resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist,” killed 200 creatures every hour on average in an effort to protect the environment, agricultural output, other economic activity, and public safety, the Guardian reports. Making up much of the tally: more than 1 million European starlings in addition to tens of thousands of other birds, nearly 144,000 feral pigs, almost 64,000 coyotes, almost 27,000 Canada geese, 25,000 beavers, 15,000 snakes, more than 10,000 prairie dogs, 9,000 deer, and 8,600 raccoons.

Nearly a quarter of the animals killed (404,538) were native to the US, including 433 black bears, 324 gray wolves and pups, and 200 mountain lions. Bears and mountain lions were also among the 2,746 animals killed by accident, along with foxes, muskrats, otters, deer, turtles, dogs—and one bald eagle. That’s due to the department’s extermination methods, which include leg hold traps, snares, poisons, and gas, including M-44 cyanide bombs. Though higher than 2020’s total, the 2021 total is actually among the lowest for the department in many years. (At least 5 million animals were killed in 2008 and 2010.) Still, “program insiders have revealed that Wildlife Services kills many more animals than it reports,” according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

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Helicopter to drop rabies vaccines for wildlife over Cape Cod

Don’t be alarmed by a low-flying helicopter over Cape Cod in the next month or so.

Starting Monday, a helicopter will drop oral rabies vaccine baits intended for raccoons and other wildlife over portions of Barnstable and Plymouth counties, the Cape Cod Times reports.

The distribution of the vaccine baits to the north and west of the Cape Cod Canal will continue through June 4, the Cape Cod and Southeast Massachusetts Rabies Task Force said in a statement.

About 68,000 oral rabies vaccine baits will be distributed.

Using a helicopter allows the state’s wildlife services to get baits into areas not accessible by vehicle.

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Covid Face Masks Killing Wildlife, Study Says

Researchers are blaming “corona waste,” including disposable face masks and latex gloves, for a recent increase in wildlife deaths.

The researchers in the Netherlands say wildlife across the world is getting entangled in discarded face masks and other safety gear.

“Researchers note incidents of foxes in the United Kingdom and birds in Canada all becoming entangled in discarded face masks,” according to studyfinds.org. “Hedgehogs, seagulls, crabs, and even bats are all encountering the disposable plastics in the environment.”

“In some cases, study authors say animals are eating this debris.”

Informed readers will see the irony in that the very people pushing face mask mandates also claim to be concerned with “global warming” and the environment in general.

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