1. WAN Exclusive With ‘Coalition To Abolish The Fur Trade USA’ On Oscar De La Renta Going Fur-Free!
Photos from Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade USA
Oscar de la Renta is the latest luxury brand to join a long list of high fashion designers to announce that it will be going fur-free by October 31st of this year.
WAN spoke with Tyler Lang, Campaign Director for Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade USA (CAFT USA), about the amazing news and how the organization was instrumental in Oscar de la Renta’s decision to announce its plans to eliminate fur completely from the brand’s collection.
“Oscar de la Renta’s commitment to going fur-free is more than a sign of shifting social trends. It is an example of what the grassroots animal rights movement can achieve when we work collaboratively with a well thought out strategy,” Lang told WAN. “The remaining designers that kill animals for fur should take note: CAFT USA won’t stop until the last fur farm closes its doors.”
2. Hong Kong Customs Seize HK$3.2 Million Worth Of Endangered Totoaba; Hunting Of This Fish Has Led To The Decline Of The Critically Endangered Vaquita Of Which Only 10 Remain
Hong Kong Customs seized about 14.4 kilograms of suspected dried totoaba fish maws at the Hong Kong International Airport with an estimated market value of $3.2 million. This equates to approximately $423,100 in the United States.
As previously reported by WAN, the totoaba is an endangered fish native to the waters of Mexico and protected under international law. Poachers, however, continue to catch totoabas for their swim bladders, which are falsely thought to have medicinal purposes in Asia.
Totoaba poaching is also the primary cause of the demise of the world’s most critically endangered marine mammal, the vaquitaporpoise. Existing only in a small region in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California, there are tragically only 10 vaquita remaining on earth.
3. The Last 74 Critically Endangered Southern Resident Orcas Receive New Federal Protection For 15,910 Square Miles Of West Coast Habitat
Responding to legal pressure from the Center for Biological Diversity, the federal government finalized a new rule late last week that expands critical habitat protection along the West Coast of the United States for critically endangeredSouthern Resident orcas. The population of orcas stands at only 74 individualsremaining in the wild.
The National Marine Fisheries Service designated 15,910 square miles of new critical habitat, expanding current protections in Washington’s Salish Sea along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, to Point Sur.
The final rule, which is more protective than the one suggested in September of 2019, follows an April of 2019 court-ordered agreement achieved after the Center sued the Trump administration in 2018 for failing to issue habitat protections required by the Endangered Species Act.
The conclusion to consider protecting Alexander Archipelago wolves was based on logging and road development, illegal and legal trapping and hunting, the effects of climate change, and loss of genetic diversity and inbreeding.
Legal trapping recently killed more than half the wolves in one key population on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. The Trump administration opened hundreds of thousands of acres of the wolves’ forest habitat to logging. Genetic evidence indicates the Prince of Wales population is in danger from high levels of inbreeding.
5. Biden Administration Aims To Remove Oil Rigs, Pipelines, And Wells Off Southern California’s Coast
The Biden Administrationannounced its intent to prepare a programmatic environmental analysis of the impacts of decommissioning oil and gas drilling platforms, pipelines, and wells off the coast of SouthernCalifornia.
The announcement starts the process of permanently ending all offshore oil and gas operations at eight platforms and removing these platforms and their associated pipelines from the ocean.
There are 23 oil and gas platforms and associated wells, pipelines, and other facilities in federal waters off the coast of Southern California. Oil companies installed the platforms between the late 1960s and early 1990s.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s announcement states that it expects to soon receive decommissioning applications for eight of those platforms that are currently shut down and located on terminated leases that no longer allow oil production. The announcement said it’s unknown when decommissioning may begin for the remaining 15 platforms.
6. New Bill ‘The Refuge From Cruel Trapping Act’ Would Protect Animals, Wild & Domestic, In National Wildlife Refuges In The United States
The Refuge From Cruel Trapping Act was introduced in the U.S. legislature last month.
This bill would prohibit the possession or use of body-gripping traps — which endanger wildlife, people, and pets — within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS). It includes a limited exemption allowing federal personnel to use traps for wildlife “management” purposes only after they have documented a lack of success using nonlethal methods.
A national public opinion poll showed that 79%of Americans believe trapping on national wildlife refuges should be prohibited, while 88% believe wildlife and habitat preservation should be the highest priority of the refuge system. However, cruel body-gripping traps are currently allowed on nearly half of the nation’s 566 refuges.
7. Berkeley Becomes The First U.S. City To Go 50% Plant-Based By 2024 With A Long Term Goal Of Going 100%
Berkeley City Council recently passed a resolution to switch 50% of city expenditures on meat, dairy, eggs and all other animal-based foods to plant-based by 2024, and commit to a long-term goal of going 100% plant-based.
The first-of-its-kind policy is the result of a 16-month advocacy effort by the Berkeley-based grassroots animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), which included community outreach, demonstrations, and assisting with research on implementation of the measure.
