Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Marine Mammals In Asian Societies; Trends In Consumption, Bait, And Traditional Use, Lindsay Porter, Hong Yu Lai

Anthropogenics and Population Decline Collection

In Asia many marine mammal species are consumed as food or for other purposes. The prevalence of this exploitation appears to increase from west to east. An escalating use of marine mammals and the emergence of commercialization of a trade in marine mammals is supported by:

• Regular documentation of both open and covert trade;
• A shift in focus in some diminishing traditional hunts to other marine mammal species;
• A possible revival in some targeted hunts, which had previously ceased;
• The recent implication of some cultures, which have little history of marine mammal consumption previously, in targeted hunts; and
• The growing …

The Utilization Of Aquatic Bushmeat From Small Cetaceans And Manatees In South America And West Africa, A. Mel Cosentino, Sue Fisher

Anthropogenics and Population Decline Collection

Aquatic bushmeat can be defined as the products derived from wild aquatic megafauna (e.g., marine mammals) that are used for human consumption and non-food purposes, including traditional medicine. It is obtained through illegal or unregulated hunts as well as from stranded (dead or alive) and bycaught animals. In most South American and West African countries aquatic mammals are or have been taken for bushmeat, including 33 small cetaceans and all three manatee species. Of these, two cetacean species are listed in the IUCN red list as “near threatened,” and one as “vulnerable,” as are all manatee species. Additionally, 22 cetacean …

The Science And Sociology Of Hunting: Shifting Practices And Perceptions In The United States And Great Britain, John W. Grandy, Elizabeth Stallman, David W. Macdonald

State of the Animals 2003

Between the late nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries, both the rationale for and perception of hunting shifted in the United States, coinciding with demographic changes in the U.S. population (Duda 1993). Similar changes in attitude, though largely undocumented, probably occurred in the United Kingdom. (For example, foxhunting did not emerge as a substantial sport until the second half of the eighteenth century; before that, foxes were widely perceived as pests and killed whenever the opportunity arose [Marvin 2000]). Our purpose in this chapter is to compare these two countries in order to reveal some of the science and the sociology …

The State Of Wild Animals In The Minds And Households Of A Neotropical Society: The Costa Rican Case Study, Carlos Drews

State of the Animals 2003

The study of attitudes in a society provides insight into variables that may be pertinent to people’s everyday decisions and practices involving animals. This essay addresses the relationship between attitudes, knowledge, and behavior in the context of the protection of wild animals in the Neotropics and ventures to draw some conclusions about the state of wild animals from this perspective. The Neotropics, a biogeographical region that extends from the Yucatan peninsula to the southern tip of South America, includes some of the most biodiverse countries of the world. Its nations share a common history of Iberian colonization but are nonetheless …

Social Attitudes And Animals, Harold Herzog, Andrew N. Rowan, Daniel Kossow

State of the Animals 2001

This chapter is an overview of the attitudes of Americans toward the treatment and moral status of nonhuman animals. We discuss problems of attitude assessment, the social psychology of attitudes toward animals, and the complex relationship between attitudes and behavior. We also review changes in attitudes toward animals over the past fifty years and current public opinion regarding a variety of issues related to animal welfare.

The Case For Hunting, William L. Robinson

Hunting Collection

My purpose at this symposium is to present the case for hunting. I am a wildlife ecologist by training and profession, and I am also a hunter. As a hunter, I am sensitive to criticisms of this pursuit, as any hunter should be. Some people question how, with knowledge of the nature and functioning of ecological systems, I can go out with a gun and kill grouse, ducks, and deer. I respond that, indeed, my understanding of ecology and the nature of man enhances my enjoyment of hunting.

The Case For Hunting On National Wildlife Refuges, Harvey K. Nelson

Hunting Collection

Public land management agencies are faced with greater challenges today than ever before in responding to the recreational needs of society. As Will Rogers so aptly stated, "Land, they make so little of it nowadays" (Steinhart 1986). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) also must face these challenges in management of national wildlife refuges (NWRs). There is a growing demand by the American people to utilize and enjoy NWRs in a variety of ways. Managers are faced with the dilemma of determining how much and what kind of management and utilization of natural resources is appropriate without compromising the …

The Hsus Petitions U.S. Government To Protect Fur Seals

Close Up Reports

Since the 1960s, The Humane Society of the United States has vigorously protested this brutal clubbing of the North Pacific fur seals. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, HSUS investigator Frank McMahon repeatedly documented this slaughter and worked with government officials and others to stop it. In 1980, HSUS chief investigator Frantz Dantzler returned to continue the work. Unhappily, these constant efforts, though successful in calling this brutal activity to the attention of the American public, failed to achieve our goal of bringing the Pribilof "harvest" to an end.

Now, we have undertaken a different strategy: on Thursday, January …

Federal Government Assaults Animals On Wildlife Refuges

Close Up Reports

The welfare of America's wildlife and refuges is being sold for economic gain and recreational pleasure to hunters, trappers, and commercial developers. To date, there are 414 refuges composed of over 86 million acres stretching from the Arctic to the Florida Keys and from Maine to American Samoa. Almost all of these refuges have been touched in some way by natural gas exploration, predator control, pesticides, and commercial farming, ranching, and lumber industries. Over one half of all refuges are open to either hunting or trapping...or both.

All laws and regulations concerning activities on wildlife refuges stipulate that there must …

The North American Black Duck (Anas Rubripes): A Case Study Of 28 Years Of Failure In American Wildlife Management, John W. Grandy

Conservation Collection

A scientific and technical analysis is presented of the factors which may have been primarily responsible for an estimated 60% decline in the black duck (Anas rubripes) population since 1955. The analyses presented show that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the management agency responsible for waterfowl management in the United States, has recognized the population decline, that the FWS's own experts have consistently recognized that hunting is the most likely cause of the population decline, and that hunting is the only mortality factor which wildlife managers can control in the practical sense. Using FWS information, the author shows, …

Whaling Ban Threatened

Close Up Reports

A handful of countries, serving only their own greedy self-interests at the expense of the world's few remaining great whales, are threatening to sabotage the only hope of survival left to these magnificent creatures. Japan, the U.S.S.R., Norway, and Peru have filed formal objections with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to that body's landmark decision to ban commercial whaling as of 1986. Iceland, Brazil, and South Korea, the world's other whaling nations, may join this infamous quartet and add their own objections before the filing deadline in 1983. Unless animal-welfare proponents act decisively now, years of negotiation and scientific inquiry--and …

The Canadian Harp Seal Hunt: A Moral Assessment, L. W. Sumner

Hunting Collection

The population of the harp seal, Pagophilus groenlandicus, is divided into three distinct breeding groups, which are centered on the White Sea, the Greenland Sea, and the northwest Atlantic. The last of these three populations, by far the largest, summers in the Arctic waters of Canada and west Greenland. In the autumn the animals in this group begin to migrate southward ahead of the advancing ice pack. By late February or early March, the females reach the breeding grounds off the coast of Newfoundland-Labrador (the Front) and near the Magdalen Islands (the Gulf). They then haul themselves out onto the …

Hsus Opposes Cruel Clubbing Of Harp Seal Pups

Close Up Reports

World opinion, including that of many Canadians, has long been against the annual so-called "seal harvest" on the ice floes off the coast of Newfoundland. Yet the Canadian bureaucrats refuse to budge.

As spring approaches, protests are being raised throughout the world to end this barbaric practice. At the same time the Canadian government is attempting to convince the world that the clubbing is both "humane" and necessary.

Special Report On Hunting

Special Reports

The Humane Society contends that the use of amateur hunters to reduce an overabundant deer herd does not conform with the principles of sound wildlife management. The Humane Society is strongly opposed to any method of culling herds of deer that does not deliver an instant and reasonably merciful death.

The Humane Movement And The Survival Of All Living Things, Roger Caras

Conservation Collection

Conservation and the humane movement are Siamese twins. They are inseparable. I beg you to keep this in mind, to think about this, because there is an explosion coming in the conservation movement. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, a great conservationist and humanitarian, is leading the fight now for a teach-in that is going to take place in colleges across this country early next year--early in 1970. Students and teachers are going to sit and talk about nothing but ecology and a crash program of awareness. We are heading for national and international catastrophe and it will soon be on …

Cruelty For Fun, Cleveland Armory

Animal Welfare Collection

No abstract provided.

Protection Of Wildlife, Leonard Hall

Conservation Collection

There seems to be, and I'm sure it is true with all of you, a feeling that the time has come when we must expand our area of concern to include wild birds and animals, as well as the domestic animals and pets which are part of our interest today.

On the basis of this assumption, I'd like to cover the following points in my discussion. First, all those sound and logical reasons to include a broad interest in wildlife in the program of the humane society. Second, some specific areas and problems that might engage our interest and action. …