THE TWILIGHT ZONE: WOLVES, BIGHORN SHEEP AND MOUNTAIN LIONS

Full disclosure: I am not a tree-hugger by any stretch of the imagination, but I appreciate the many wonders of nature. My wife and I have visited nearly every major national park in the western U.S. It is a fine testimony to our nation that we as a people have taken steps to preserve so much of our national property so that we and the generations to come may appreciate the beauty and grandeur of these special places. But there are too many people among us who have taken our collective appreciation of nature into the Twilight Zone, such as the following folly.

Defenders of Wildlife, a true oxymoron, has managed to achieve, at a cost thus far estimated to be $25 million, the dubious distinction of supporting the MURDER of dozens of Mexican Gray Wolves through its staunch support of a program of introducing those wolves into eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. The program started in 1998 and 15 years later has thus far produced a grand total of 75 wolves, which translates into $333 thousand spent per extant wolf. Lost in those statistics are the dozens of wolves which have been found dead over the years by gunshot wounds.

Seems governments and environmental groups ignored the initial protests of cattle ranchers, who already have to deal with coyotes and objected to putting wolves near their ranch land. Gee, I wonder who’s killing those wolves? Defenders of Wildlife has personally paid tens of thousands of dollars to ranchers for cattle killed by wolves. The “bribes” aren’t working, and the tragic cycle of death continues. Dead wolf found. New wolf introduced. Dead wolf found. New wolf introduced.

PLEASE STOP “HELPING.” IT’S KILLING ME!!!!

The folly continues. Several months ago, the local Tucson media reported that there was a program being pushed by environmental and conservation groups and finally adopted by the Arizona Game and Fish Department to capture bighorn sheep in western Arizona and reintroduce the sheep into the Coronado National Forest in the Catalina Mountains, which form a spectacular backdrop to the city of Tucson. Cost of the program was reportedly $600,000 with no details provided. None. The media also reported that plans for the project had been underway for a year.

Two weeks ago, helicopters firing nets captured 31 bighorn sheep in the mountains near Yuma, 240 miles to the west. The bighorns were examined by vets and transported to the Catalinas, where they were released with satellite tracking collars. Two days ago, the local media announced that two of the bighorns have already been killed and eaten by mountain lions, which falls squarely in the “what did you expect” and “that didn’t take long” categories.

It gets worse. The two “guilty” mountain lions were tracked down and shot for killing the two sheep. A Forest Ranger killed one of the lions, and the hunter in the other case was a private citizen hired to kill the other lion. Both lions were found next to the bodies of their prey. Duh, that was difficult, wasn’t it? Just to make sure they had the right lions, an autopsy was performed, and sure enough, sheep parts were found in the digestive tracts of each one. Double duh. I breathed a sigh of relief when I read that because I would have been heartbroken had an “innocent” lion been killed.

It is difficult to wrap my mind around this insane (and that’s the correct word) program. No rational human being ANYWHERE could possibly support it, yet it happened. And will continue to happen, according to a spokesperson for Arizona Game and Fish, who said just yesterday, “We’re in this for the long run.”

Here’s the kicker. Bighorn sheep disappeared from the Catalinas in 1992, when the last one was seen there. Why? The mountain lions ate them, that’s why. The sheep were thriving in the nasty, barren mountains near Yuma because there are no lions in those mountains. But mountain lions THRIVE in the Catalinas because there is plenty of game, especially deer. Occasionally, one of the lions will wander down into the populated Catalina foothills, where I live and play golf (yes, lions have been spotted on the golf course), and partake of an easy, tasty snack which is usually someone’s pet.

So what does Arizona Game and Fish do when that happens? First, it will provide NO NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC OF SPECIFICALLY WHERE A MOUNTAIN LION IS SPOTTED (how thoughtful to all the people in the neighborhood where a mountain lion is known to be roaming). Second, the lion is tracked, darted, hauled right back into the mountain wilderness, and released (I have no problem with this part of the policy).

Now however, Game and Fish turns right around and introduces the lions FAVORITE PREY, bighorn sheep, into the lion’s natural territory and institutes a policy of killing the lions when they do what predators instinctively do. This may help you to understand why I consider most environmental and conservation groups and their fellow travelers in state and federal agencies to be a threat to our society. They not only throw up insideous blockades to human activity, they end up damaging the very creatures they claim they are protecting. The leaders of these irrational and nihilistic private and governmental organizations, and the dupes who join them, will do anything to further their radical agenda, however insane it may be. Here’s a picture of their latest victim …………… when it was alive.