[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1757-E1758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO TONY BEILENSON

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. GERRY E. STUDDS

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 26, 1996

  Mr. STUDDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor our retiring 
colleague, Tony Beilenson of California. Congressman Beilenson is one 
of the most constructive and productive Members of this body. While his 
diligence has earned his colleagues' respect in a variety of 
substantive areas, his lifelong legislative passion has been in habitat 
protection, especially for the endangered African elephant, and the 
Asian tiger and rhinoceros.
  As I noted at a recent Resources Committee hearing on elephants, 
tigers, and rhinos, Jonathan Swift wrote, in 1793, ``Geographers 
mapping Africa over unhabitable downs placed elephants for want of 
towns.'' For better or worse, Europeans saw fit soon to rectify what 
they viewed as a shortage of towns with the colonization of the African 
Continent. And along with that colonization came big game hunters and a 
booming global trade in elephant ivory.
  Two hundred and fifty years after Swift penned that little poem, 
American consumers were indirectly responsible for the deaths of 
thousands of elephants each year, and the millions of elephants that 
had once stood on maps in the place of African towns were reduced to 
fewer than 700,000.
  This magnificent species was facing the possibility of extinction in 
the wild if the slaughter were not stopped. Fortunately, we were able 
to respond to the pending crisis and diminish, if not completely halt, 
the uncontrolled killing of African elephants for their dubious honor 
of emerging from the evolutionary process bearing a resource more 
precious than gold.
  Although habitat protection and the pressures of industrialization 
continue to pose a threat to African elephant populations, this species 
appears to be on the rebound, thanks in part to our colleague from 
California.

[[Page E1758]]

  I understand that elephants, like the whales found off the coast of 
Massachusetts, are able to communicate over long distances by making 
deep rumbling sounds that humans cannot hear. If we could hear them, I 
am sure the elephants would be thanking Mr. Beilenson for his 
extraordinary work on their behalf.
  I wish we could be as optimistic about the future of the other 
species these laws are designed to protect. Due to the continuing 
demand for rhino horns and tiger bones in traditional Asian medicines, 
and the deplorable illegal trade in tiger skins, these extraordinary 
creatures may be gone from the face of the Earth by the time the 
Democrats regain control of this Congress. There is some hope, however, 
for both the rhinos and tigers and the Democrats.
  The battle to save these species from extinction is far from over, 
but at least the battle is joined. We must continue to do all we can 
through international cooperation and environmental education to ensure 
that rhinos, tigers, and elephants still exist for future generations.
  We all know that extinction, like politics, is forever. It is a very 
special privilege to recognize Tony, whose loss will be immense to this 
institution and to the country, to say nothing of the heffalumps.

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