Heal It With Kindness: February 2017

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UPDATE 4: SKELETAL SUN BEARS BEGGING FOR FOOD IN INDONESIAN ZOO

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Update: Stop Congress from harming Alaska's Wildlife

"What the U.S. House of Representatives did today – actually a very narrow majority of the House – was shameful. Cruel. Callous. Venal."

The H.J. Resolution 69, which was authored by Alaska’s Representative Don Young, was voted in Congress yesterday, and was in favor 225 to 193. A federal rule was overturned, that was years in the works, crafted by professional wildlife managers at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with the goal to stop some of the most appalling practices ever imagined in the contemporary era of wildlife management. Denning of wolf pups, killing hibernating bears, spotting grizzly bears from aircraft and then shooting them after landing, and trapping grizzly bears and black bears with steel-jawed leghold traps and snares.

"What’s the point of having a national wildlife refuge if the federal professional wildlife staff there automatically default to the management authority of the state? Congresswoman Niki Tsongas of Massachusetts, whose late husband, Sen. Paul Tsongas, helped write the Alaska National Interests Land Conservation Act (to create a good share of these refuges), specifically stated that Congress never intended to cede complete wildlife management authority to the states. In this case, Alaska has a bloodthirsty Board of Game, whose members enthusiastically implement a draconian policy called “Intensive Management.” That policy dictates that state managers drive down wolf, bear, and coyote numbers to boost caribou and moose numbers for hunters — turning Alaska’s wildlife refuges into what retired Arctic National Wildlife biologist Fran Mauer calls “game farms” — the very thing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted to stop."

The U.S. Senate and President Trump are the only ones who can now stop this.

Please contact your U.S. Senators and tell them to stop this from being implemented. You can find the contact information of your Federal Legislators here:You can find the contact information of your Federal Legislators here: http://action.humanesociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=electedOfficials_federal&s_src=blog_post_021717_idhome-page

The full article can be found here: U.S. House sanctions killing hibernating bears, wolf pups in their dens on federal refuges in Alaska

Don Young has an official Facebook page. You can voice your opinion there also.

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Stop Congress from harming Alaska's wildlife

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"Modernizing" of EPA

With the new administration under Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt was nominated for the EPA leader position . His plans for the future of the EPA is to repeal climate change rules, cut staffing levels, close regional offices and permanently weaken the agency’s regulatory authority. A surgeon, not a butcher, he will slowly operate throughout this administration "Mr. Pruitt knows the legal intricacies of environmental regulation — and deregulation. As Oklahoma’s attorney general for the last six years, he has led or taken part in 14 lawsuits against the E.P.A." - Carol Davenport, The New York Times

“Here’s my impression about Pruitt: I don’t think he’s going in there to blow up the agency, I think he’ll be very careful to make sure they’ve done everything legally to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s.” - Jeffrey Holmstead, a senior E.P.A. official during the George W. Bush administration.

The full article can be found here: Scott Pruitt Is Seen Cutting the E.P.A. With a Scalpel, Not a Cleaver

In a Wednesday hearing The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will start the process of "modernizing" environmental laws, "modernizing" the Endangered Species Act. The law was passed more than four decades ago and it's meant to protect animal and plant species that are at risk, along with their habitats. The GOP has for a long time complained that, especially under Democratic administrations, the species protections have been abused to help stop development.

So, what they call "modernizing" is basically destroying the EPA one step at a time, all in the name of development. No matter the cost, right? Be it animal lives or the effect on the environment and ultimately on people's lives.

This morning the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works voted to recommend confirmation of Scott Pruitt to be EPA administrator. Committee Democrats boycotted the meeting yesterday and also today, but the Republicans then voted to suspend the Committee's quorum rules requiring at least two members of the minority party present for a vote. The suspension makes it possible for the Committee to approve Pruitt without any Democrats present. This also happened in the Senate Finance Committee, where Democrats boycotted votes on Steven Mnuchin to be Treasury Secretary and for Tom Price to be the Secretary for Health and Human Services. The Treasury Committee then suspended its rules and voted to recommend both nominees without any Democrats present. It is not yet clear when the voting to confirm Scott Pruitt will happen, probably next week.

Source: Senate Committee Votes To Recommend Pruitt Confirmation

If you want to help, you can call your representative and senator at (202) 224-3121 and voice your opinion on this matter.

There is a petition opposing Scott Pruitt for the position of EPA administrator. More than million Americans have signed it. Here is the link: TELL YOUR SENATOR TO REJECT THE NOMINATION OF SCOTT PRUITT AS EPA ADMINISTRATOR

"The new administration puts off listing bumble bee as endangered. The previous administration announced Jan. 11 that the rusty patched bumble bee, whose numbers have declined 87 percent since the mid-1990s, was so imperiled that it should become the first bee species to be listed as endangered. But a day before the new protections were set to take effect, the Fish and Wildlife Service said they would not take effect until further notice because of new regulation conditions."

The official Facebook site for Alt US National Park Service is: https://www.facebook.com/AltUSNationalParkService. They are updating regularly.

Also, you can find up-to-date information on Trump's proposed policies, their projected impact and ways to resist, here: Resistance Manual Home

There is an app "5 Calls". You can make 5 calls in 5 minutes to your representatives about the issues that are important to you. Check it out: https://5calls.org/