Watson’s arrest, deep sea mining, Turkey’s strays, church dog shooting 7/31/24

Captain Paul Watson’s arrest and uncertain future are featured in the various August 1 editions of the Guardian. The Los Angeles Times ran an urgent lead story yesterday, July 30, on the fight against deep-sea mining. And numerous papers today, including the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe, are carrying reports on Turkey’s highly politicized decision to round up stray dogs. Meanwhile in Fort Worth Texas, we read about two beloved Labradors who were shot when they wandered onto church grounds.

Before I cover those stories, let me send thanks to all who wrote in response to the recent Boston Globe Magazine story about three cows who were “rescued” and taken care of by a “humane” farmer, and then slaughtered. My own letter was published on Sunday, which called the story “depressing” and ended with, “Is conscious eating and providing decent lives for animals before slaughter better than the horror of factory farming? Of course, immeasurably so. Is it the best we can do? Hardly.”

Thanks also to all who responded to the Los Angeles Times op-ed calling for an increase in bear kill numbers. The paper published four letters on the topic, under the heading “Paws off our Black Bears! Three of them, from JJ Flowers, Kayla Capper, and Kelli Nicholas are superb! I know many other folks wrote, making it easy for the editor to run that letters column.

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You may have heard on social media that Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd (though recently ousted from that organization) was arrested in Greenland with threats of extradition to Japan. The Guardian has covered the issue on online in detail today, (July 31 in the US) with the story appearing on page 24 of the August 1st edition in Australia, and highly likely to appear in the August 1st UK and US editions of The Guardian as well.

It opens:

“Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson could face up to 15 years in prison in Japan, after the founder of US-based group Sea Shepherd was arrested on an international warrant in Greenland earlier this month.

“According to the Japan Coast Guard, Watson, who is also a co-founder of Greenpeace, is facing charges including accomplice to assault and ship trespass, after he was arrested on an international warrant in Greenland.

“The charges stem from the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s alleged boarding of the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 in the Southern Ocean in February 2010.

“The statutory penalty for such crimes ranges from up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 100,000 yen (£503.10) for vessel trespassing to up to 15 years in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 yen (£2,515.50) for assault, according to Japan’s Ministry of Justice. A spokesperson for the ministry stressed these punishments are general information and do not refer to any specific case, adding they may apply to both principals and accomplices.

“The head of the French branch of Sea Shepherd, Lamya Essemlali, visited Watson in custody in Nuuk, Greenland, on Monday and said in a statement that Watson was ‘doing well’ and had ‘no regrets’”.

As Sea Shepherd France is mentioned there, I should note that in a complicated situation, Sea Shepherd France has stood by Captain Paul while the other arms of the organization cast him out. Captain Paul now heads up Neptune’s Pirates and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation where you can keep up to date on what is going on and what you can do to help.

Captain Paul, a great friend to DawnWatch, is fantastically media savvy and would certainly appreciate the use of his plight as a springboard for letters printed in the Guardian that speak for whales and/or Mother Earth. So please, on his behalf, send a quick note

to guardian.letters@theguardian.com .  The paper advises:

“Your letter should be no more than 300 words and in the body of the email, not an attachment.

Please include a reference – either the headline and date, or the web link to an online article that you are writing in response to.

Also, include your name and a full postal address, plus a contact telephone number. These details are for verification purposes; we will only publish your name and location. We do not publish letters where only an email address is supplied.

We particularly encourage people from underrepresented, marginalised and minority communities to write in.

We publish robust views, but not abuse or personal and derogatory comments.

We will get in touch if and when your letter is chosen for publication.”

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The Los Angeles Times story on the fight against deep sea mining, published yesterday and taking up most of page A2, is penned by Susanne Rust, who does so much on animals and environment, and was titled in print, “Fighting deep-sea mining of battery metals.” If you hit a paywall at that LA Times link you can also find the story on AOL.

The article includes:

“’Life down there just moves at a much, much slower pace,’ said Douglas McCauley, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara. ‘The oldest organism that we know on the planet lives in these ecosystems. That’s a black coral. Some of the specimens that scientists collected and dated were effectively born when people were building the pyramids.’…

“McCauley said he could not comment on these observations because the work hasn’t been published, but pointed to a variety of organisms that have been discovered at these depths — ‘crystalline sponges that look like something out of Tiffany’s brochure; ghost white ‘Casper’ octopus that have more hits on YouTube than I ever will, and gummy squirrels.’

“He also emphasized that there is still little known about how animals, such as beaked whales and squid, use this ecosystem.

” ‘The impacts that keep me up at night in ocean mining are those associated with the mining wastewater plumes that would be created in the middle of the sea,’ he said. ‘Gigantic, moving plumes that could smother the Pacific’s best tuna fishing grounds, the planet’s largest daily migration of life from the deep to the surface across the ocean’s twilight zone, a region that contains the most abundant vertebrate life on the planet, and is traversed by whales, sea turtles and giant squid.’

And he said, research shows deep-sea mining ‘may become the loudest activity ever in the ocean and a massive source of noise pollution.'”

Susanne Rust and the paper deserve appreciation for making sure people know what’s at stake, so I hope you’ll shoot off a quick note of thanks, sharing whatever your own thoughts might be.

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The Associated Press coverage under the headline, “Turkey OKS law to remove stray dogs from streets as critics vow to fight it” is on page 3 of the July 31 Boston Globe, while it’s and under “Turkish lawmakers approve stray dog roundup” on page A4 of the Los Angeles Times. It points to a wildly politicized situation and includes:

“The new legislation requires municipalities to collect stray dogs and house them in shelters to be vaccinated, neutered and spayed before making them available for adoption. Dogs that are in pain, terminally ill, or pose a health risk to humans will be euthanized.

“However, many question where cash-strapped municipalities would find the money to build the necessary extra shelters.

“The CHP, which won many of Turkey’s biggest municipalities in elections earlier this year, has said it will not implement the law. However, the newly passed bill introduces prison sentences of up to two years for mayors who do not carry out their duties to tackle strays, leading to suspicions that the law will be used to go after opposition mayors.”

Check out the story on the AP site. Then you can respond to the LA Times or to the Boston Globe at letter@globe.com , or, if you see the story in your paper, that is where you have the very best chance of being published.

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The July 31 Fort Worth Star-Telegram shares a shocking story to which I urge all Texans to respond, titled, “2 dogs that were ‘lost and needed help’ fatally shot on property of North Texas megachurch.” It tells us:

“Two dogs who wandered away from their North Texas home in early July were fatally shot on the property of a megachurch about 20 miles northwest of Fort Worth, according to family and friends. Hershey and Bella, two Labrador retrievers, were reported missing on July 8.

“After a frantic search by their owners, including posts on Nextdoor and a lost pet website, the couple learned their dogs were dead.

“According to Sylvia Clark, a family member of the owners, the dogs were shot by a security guard on the property of Eagle Mountain International Church. Both dogs were wearing their collars, and it should’ve been obvious they were pets, Clark said told the Star-Telegram in a July 18 phone interview.

“Eagle Mountain Church, founded in 1986 by evangelist Kenneth Copeland, sits on 33 acres in the Eagle Mountain Lake area. The church didn’t respond to the Star-Telegram’s request for comment via phone and email.

“….Fort Worth animal rights attorney Randy Turner said …Killing or causing serious bodily injury to a non-livestock animal, such as a dog, without the owner’s consent can be a third-degree felony in Texas. It’s punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The fact that the dogs were on church property when they were shot is irrelevant, according to Turner.”

A public outcry makes fitting punishment more likely, and as the paper’s coverage makes that outcry significantly more likely, the paper deserves some appreciation. So please consider sending a letter to the editor .

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In other recent major media animal news, posted to the DawnWatch Facebook page:

— Chris Packham headed a column in The Guardian, “I deeply regret riding an elephant on holiday. This year, we should all make the ethical choice.”

— The Associated Press covered pushback (only to be expected) in response to fabulous change, “Colombian bullfighters decry new ban on the centuries-old tradition and vow to keep it alive.”

—  National Public Radio brought us wonderful news about a bi-partisan bill in Congress to ban octopus farming in the United States.

— And Science Mag shares this great news:

“NIH loses latest round of free speech lawsuit filed by animal rights activists

“Agency breached First Amendment by blocking comments containing words like ‘animals’ and ‘cruel’ on its social media pages, appeals court finds.”

Activism works!

Yours and all animals’,
Karen Dawn of DawnWatch