Friday, September 19, 2008

Wildlife and the Killers



I would like to share with you a recent comment that was left by a very informative reader.

"What is now "Wildlife Services" (under the USDA) used to be called the Biological Survey. In the 1900's, W.S. went on an all out war to exterminate wolves and other predators to 'sanitize the West" for livestock owners! They hired people to do the killing who were generally low life kinds of people desperate for money.

These federal agents would kill wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, foxes, and many other animals deemed to be "a risk" to the livestock industry by any grisly means possible, poisoning, trapping, shooting....

Every year, Wildlife "Services" kills over 1.4 animals on behalf of the livestock industry (mostly). This includes the killing of about 10,000 MAMMALS per year -- foxes, coyotes, wolves, carnivore bears, beavers, mountain lions, and more. The worst part? They use OUR TAX MONEY TO DO IT! I am very sorry but that is NOT OK with me! Feel free to contact the agency in D.C. to get figures. They will refer you to their website which they have INTENTIONALLY made difficult to get that kind of information.

The Safari Club, (the most elite trophy hunting organization with millionaire members) helped Sarah Palin with her promotion of aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska, financially backing the state promotion of it. Palin used taxpayer dollars to promote it as well for a total of over $700,000! They've killed 800 wolves so far since the program began (5 years ago?) by aerial killing. They run the wolf to exhaustion and then shoot it. They often have to shoot it several times to kill it, so the animal writhes in pain and agony. It's brutal -- it's horrible -- and it should be illegal. In fact, twice -- voters in Alaska voted it down -- and both times, hunting interests pushed it through! Now how can that happen except in a corrupt government?

It's not "hunting" in the sense that they're "hunting" them for food, etec. But they are hunting them to "get rid" of them to increase the moose and caribou population as Alaska gets a lot of money in from both in and out of state hunting licenses. Palin wants to ensure her hunters will get the moose and caribou they want. The problem is - it's at the expense of the wolves! And the taxpayer's money!

Back to "Wildlife Services." They are funded by taxpayers with the primary intention to protect the livestock industry. That is how they started, that is still what they do at their heart. It's wrong to use taxpayer money in this way -- they will actually go out in airplanes and shoot coyotes from airplanes IN ADVANCE of "calving season!" They're killing coyotes before the coyote even went after an animal.

Wildlife Services has no shame what they do to our animals. It's interesting though because they have recently made it much more difficult to find out how many animals they kill per year as they know it's BAD PR."

More about this on Monday. Stay tuned.

5 comments:

alpha99wolf said...

It is strange that an organization calling themselves "Wildlife Services" actually does a disservice to animals. This is very informative re: the sanitizing areas by animal genocide. I don't want my TAX DOLLARS going to such killer programs. So, the Wildlife Service is actually protecting livestock only? So the rest of animal life is killed. How sane is that?

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am a guide dog raiser in Seattle, WA. The puppy I am currently raising is named Shep. I love your blog and I love reading about other people's pet experiences. I also have a website where I sell pet supplies and i have a blog on it also about guide dogs. I built the site to try and help raise money for guide dogs and other animal charities. I would love it if we could do some sort of exchange of guest blogging or links, stop by my blog and leave a comment, thanks.

Ailurophile said...

This is horrible. Trophy hunting, canned hunting - most forms of hunting are bad - totally deplorable. I hope they shut this evil organization down!

Anonymous said...

well organization have their own faces

CastoCreations said...

I am a very staunch animal lover and that includes wolves. HOWEVER, there are legitimate reasons for culling populations in areas like Alaska.

It bothers me when over zealous people try to stop practices like this out right ... when they succeed there are often consequences that are harmful to other animals and people.

I agree that the beginning stages of the service went too far in damaging healthy populations of wolves, foxes, etc. But today's services don't hunt these populations to extinction.

What about the Moose/Caribou and other animals in places like Alaska? Don't they deserve a chance to live? Not to mention the NATIVE people who rely on those animals for food.

I think it's naive to call for outright bans of this kind of wildlife management.

I don't agree with Trophy hunting but that is something entirely different.