canned hunting, endangered species act, für, internet hunting, trophy hunting, wild horses, wildlife

1. This work byValerie LangWaldin, J.D., M.L.S., Associate Professor, Library, HVCC is licensed
under a Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International License.

2. This work was prepared in 2011 as part of a
college course in Animal Law and Advocacy.
Please feel free to notify me directly if you come
across broken links or outdated information.
Valerie Lang Waldin, J.D., M.L.S.
langval730@gmail.com

3. Wildlife are animals that have not been
domesticated by humans.

4. …human safety, property, etc.
Some threaten

5. Some that “endanger moving vehicles”

8.  Eat, wear or use

9.  Kill for sport

10.  Kill for sport
◦ Some imported for canned hunts

11.  Do labor or entertain people

12.  Ones humans enjoy watching

13.  Ones useful in scientific or medical
experiments

14.  Kept as pets

15. American Bison nearly extinct in 1800s – now thriving. Then, bison burgers.
Some issues in the debate:

16. Numerous studies refute this MYTH.
If deer weren’t hunted they would starve.

17. What do we learn from keeping wild animals in captivity?
Should wild animals be kept in captivity to
entertain or educate humans?

18. Official hunting seasons were set up in the early 1700s and over the next 100 years we
saw the emergence of state fish and game departments, license requirements and
hunting restrictions.
Colonists had to fight off animal predators –
1700s

19. Conservationists Animal Welfarists
 Conservationists help
wild animals by
preserving natural
habitat.
◦ Many are hunters.
◦ Ethical battle continues
today

20.  First federal wildlife law
◦ Lacey Act of 1900
 Many funded conservation efforts with
hunting fees.

21. …provide strong financial incentives to
increase the consumption of wildlife.

22. Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act
(1937)
Created a fund raised through taxes on the sale of
firearms and materials. To qualify for the money,
states must use hunting revenues only for state
fish and wildlife programs.
So if NY is to receive federal funding under this Act, NY
cannot use license fees for any other purpose than
administration of En Con’s Fish and Wildlife Division.

23. Minimum Hunting Age
Minors under the age of 12 may not obtain a
hunting license or hunt wildlife.

24. Under New York State Environmental Conservation Law
(section 11-0523), people are not required to obtain a
permit to trap on their own property, or on the property
someone of else who has given them written
permission to trap.
Trapping on public lands or other private property requires
a wildlife control permit, which is obtained from
the Department of Environmental Protection.

25.  State wildlife agencies are in competition with
each other for federal funds, and the only way
a state can raise the ceiling on its potential
federal funding is to increase the number of
people it licenses to hunt.
◦ This raises incentives to increase # of animals
available to hunt.

26. Federal

27. Manages
◦ Manages
 Millions of acres in national wildlife refuges and wetlands
 Migratory bird conservation
 National fish hatcheries, resource & field offices
 Enforces many federal wildlife laws
USFWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

28. USFWS works with U.S. Customs & Border
Protection and the USDA to monitor shipments
of protected plants and animals.

29.  Wildlife Services of the USDA
◦ Controls wildlife that can damage agriculture,
property, natural resources and threaten public
safety

30. (1) Protecting human interests
(2) Preserving endangered species

31.  Rabies
 West Nile virus
 Lyme disease
 Bovine tuberculosis
 Chlamydiosis (respiratory disease in tropical
birds)
 Histoplasmosis (lung disease)
 Salmonellosis (intestinal illness)

32.  CDC reports 7,258
cases of animal
rabies in U.S.
◦ Wild animals 93% of
this figure

33. Collision with Deer

35.  Relocation
 Poisons
 Sharpshooters
 Contraceptives
 Repellents
◦ Example North Carolina and Canadian Geese
◦ Techniques recommended by Wildlife Service of USDA:
 In choosing a control technique, WS specialists consider the
biological and legal status of the target species and potential
nontarget species, local environmental conditions and possible
environmental impacts, and the practicality of available control
options.

36. Birds poisoned to curb dairy threat.

38.  The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 (Public Law
92-195) required the protection, management, and control of
wild free-roaming horses and burros on public land. Congress
declared that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living
symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the west; they
contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and
enrich the lives of the American people; and these horses and
burros are fast disappearing from the American scene. It is the
policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros
shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death;
and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area
where they are presently found, as an integral part of the natural
system of the public lands.

39.  This law states; The Secretary of the Interior shall manage wild free-roaming
horses and burros in a manner that is designed to achieve and maintain a thriving
natural ecological balance on public lands. It also states, if an over population
exists on a given area of the public lands and action is necessary to remove
excess animals, he shall immediately remove excess animals from the range so as
to achieve appropriate management levels. … all excess animals … removed so as
to restore a thriving natural ecological balance to the range, and to protect the
range from the deterioration associated with over-population.

40. Since the passage of the act to 2007 approx. 235,00 wild horses and burros
have been adopted to private individuals. Even with this high number of
adoptions, it has been decided that public lands can only sustain 28,849 wild
horses and burros in total. At the end of 2003 the wild horse and burro
population on the open range was 37,186.
The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971

41.  For the year 2005, the Bureau of Land
Management's annual budget for the Wild
Horse and Burro Program was approximately
$40 million dollars. Half of this money was
allocated for the care and feeding of the
animals in captivity.
Save the Mustangs video

42. Equine Advocates
Best Summary of this Issue

43. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM)

44. Applied to wild horses and burros over ten years old
Not likely adoption candidates
Could be sold at auctions without limitation i.e., slaughter
2004 – Omnibus Appropriations Bill

45. Bought back 52 of the horses
Save the Mustangs
“Wild Horses Sold by U.S. Agency Sent to
Slaughter”

47. USFWS
National Marine
Fisheries Service
Prohibits any
person from
taking a listen
species. Taking
includes (p. 41)

48. ELEPHANTS – to be covered in Entertainment

49.  Penalties
 There are different degrees of violation with the law. The most
punishable offenses are trafficking, and any act of knowingly "taking"
(which includes harming, wounding, or killing) an endangered species.
 The penalties for these violations can be a maximum fine of up to
$50,000 or imprisonment for one year, or both, and civil penalties of up
to $25,000 per violation, may be assessed. Lists of violations and exact
fines are available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration web-site.
 One provision of this law is that no penalty may be imposed if, by a
preponderance of the evidence that the act was in self defense. The law
also eliminates criminal penalties for accidentally killing listed species
during farming and ranching activities.
 In addition to fines or imprisonment, a license, permit, or other
agreement issued by a Federal Agency that authorized an individual to
import or export fish, wildlife, or plants may be revoked, suspended or
modified. Any federal hunting or fishing permits that were issued to a
person who violates the ESA can be canceled or suspended for up to a
year.

50. 1990s – reintroduced to western U.S. – moved from Canada
2000 – population recovered
1967 – gray and red wolves endangered

51.  Endangered Species Act (ESA): wolves
throughout the Lower 48 United States are
listed as endangered except in Montana,
Idaho and portions of Oregon, Washington
and Utah where they have been delisted
through congressional action. Currently, the
delisting of wolves in Wyoming has been
approved in principle by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. In Minnesota wolves are
listed as threatened. In Alaska, wolves are not
listed under the ESA.
◦ Source: Defenders of Wildlife

52. The CITES appendices list thousands of animals from all over the world for which trade
is prohibited. Of major concern: Asian and African elephants and primates.
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES)

53. Valued for hides, bones, & penises in Asia. Federal law allows the possession of captive-bred tigers,
but only if this enhances the survival of the species. It is illegal to kill tigers for profit or sell their
parts, meat or hide in interstate commerce. It is not illegal to donate the animals.
GUILTY PLEA
Endangered

54.  With a rough estimate of 5,000
 tigers in captivity, the United States
 likely ranks second behind China as
 the country with the single largest
 tiger population.
 Although the United States has no
large scale, commercial captive
breeding operations, all of the tigers
in the U.S. are held in captivity.
 Unfortunately, U.S. laws and
regulations governing the keeping of
these tigers are not adequate to
foreclose the possibility that parts or
derivatives from these animals could
enter illegal trade.

55.  At the state level, laws and
 regulations governing the keeping of
 tigers in private possession vary
widely:
 • 28 states have laws banning
 the possession of tigers in private
 collections;
 • 17 states allow for the keeping of
 tigers by individuals but require
 a state permit or registration
 (Iowa, Oregon, and Washington have
 recently instituted bans on private
 possession of tigers, but also have
 systems in place to regulate the
tigers that were grandfathered in
prior to enactment of those bans.);
and
 • 8 states have no laws on the
 subject.

56.  The United States has a strong
 legal framework at the federal
level governing international
trade in tigers or their parts
through the Endangered
Species Act, the Lacey Act, and
the Criminal Code.
◦ The Lacey Act combats trafficking
in “illegal” wildlife, fish, and
plants.
 The Rhino and Tiger
 Conservation Act, as amended
in 1998,further prohibits any
domestic sale of tiger parts, as
well as the sale of any
products labeled or advertised
to contain tiger parts.

57.  Through the Animal Welfare
Act, the Captive Wildlife
Safety Act, and the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
 registration and permit
system for captive-bred
wildlife, the United States
 also has a federal legal
framework governing the
interstate movement of
captive tigers; rules for the
sale, trade, or exhibition of
live tigers; and conditions
 for their confinement.

58.  All of these laws and regulations,
 however, have exceptions or
exemptions that mean, in practical
terms, that the majority of private
owners of tigers in the United States
need only to keep records of tigers
held.
 While such records must be made
available upon request, federal agencies
charged with implementing these laws
and regulations do not have a mandate
to maintain a current inventory of how
many tigers may be in the country,
where they are, who possesses them,
when they die, or how they are disposed
of.

59. N.Y. ENVTL. CONSERV. §11-0512 - Envtl. Conserv. Possession, sale, barter,
transfer, exchange and import of wild animals as pets prohibited

60.  Hunting and fishing rates are important to
the USFWS and state agencies because fees
collected (licenses, tags, permits) fund
wildlife related programs.

61. Figure 3.9

62. Federal law allows hunting and fishing on
national wildlife refuges if it is determined that
protected wildlife will not be jeopardized.

63. Non-targeted species such as dogs and cats, rabbits, river otters, geese, ducks,
hawks, owls, eagles, bears are captured in these body-gripping traps at –
refuges.
Trapping is used as a control method on
federal lands.

64. "Conservationists need to be looking at what is the next step to
keep our conservation programs and places strong and healthy,"
says Mary Jean Huston, director of The Nature Conservancy in
Wisconsin. "Things need to evolve."

65. Captive hunts, also known as “canned hunts,” are the very opposite of fair
chase. Shooters at captive hunts pay to kill animals—even endangered species—
trapped behind fences.
Canned Hunts

66.  New York - Canned hunts of mammals are
legal except that "big game non-native
animals" cannot be tied, hobbled, staked or
attached to a stationary object or "confined in
a box, pen, cage or similar container of 10 or
less contiguous acres from which there is no
means for such mammal to escape". The
animal also cannot be released in front of the
person who will be shooting or spearing it.
N.Y. Envt. Con. Laws§11-1904(1)(A)(1)-(3).

67. A bill that would have banned canned hunts in New York was passed by the state legislature but was vetoed by then Gov.
George Pataki in 2003. Several subsequent attempts to ban canned hunts in New York have also failed including a bill that
would have amended the current law and make it illegal to hunt big game non-native animals that are "in a fenced or other
area" from where there is no means of escape. It would eliminate canned hunts of big game non-native mammals in New
York state.
New York

68. Illegal in NY
Started in Texas http://live-shot.com/

70.  The facts on fur labeling
 Congress enacted the Fur Products Labeling Act in 1951 in
response to rampant false advertising and false labeling of
animal fur garments.
 The Fur Products Labeling Act requires that animal fur
products be labeled with the name of the species used, the
manufacturer, country of origin, and other information and
prohibits the sale and advertising of fur products that have
been falsely or deceptively advertised.
 Violations of the Fur Products Labeling Act carry up to a
$5,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
 The Federal Trade Commission is tasked with enforcing
the Fur Products Labeling Act and protecting consumers
from deception.


71. 2010- Congress passed and President Obama signed the Truth in Fur Labeling Act to strengthen the
Fur Products Labeling Act and close a loophole that previously allowed some fur trimmed garments to
be sold without labels (IF VALUED AT $150 OR LESS). The new law will help prevent false advertising
by requiring retailers to affix clear labels to the garments themselves.
Truth in Fur Labeling Act

72. HSUS Files False Advertising Suit Against Retailers for Deceptive Labeling
Practices
November 2011

73. HSUS Fur Free Action Guide
What Can You Do?

74. Protect the Seals

75. Oil and blubber
1928 – U.S. banned commercial whaling
1946 International Whale Commission – kind of a self regulation
Northern Seas – 100s of years

76. But whaling was still allowed for “scientific purposes.”
Some internal battle within IWC as to what the role should be – pro-conservation or
pro-whaling
1986 – IWC banned commercial whaling

78. Born Free, USA
For More Information