Wolves Gone Wild

By Mountain Mail staff
SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) — The Catron County Commission on Thursday issued a “24 Hour Notice of Intent to Remove Mexican wolf Durango AF924″ to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“This family and the County have tried to get FWS to remove that wolf for two months,” said Ed Wehrheim, chairman of the Catron County Commission.

The female wolf, AF924, has been stalking the ranch house of Mark and Debbie Miller in a remote area of the Gila National Forest since its release into the wild in late April. Catron County manager Bill Aymar said federal wolf biologists have documented two cattle kills by AF924. A third incident would require the agency to remove the wolf.

Mexican grey wolf, AF924, near the Adobe Ranch in Catron County

“Why would this group of people not be interested in removing her if she’s in proximity to this ranch, to calves and cows?” Aymar said. “Their own rules say three strikes and you’re out. This program isn’t even fair to the wolf. If she gets that third strike, we don’t even have to argue whether she’s hanging out. According to their rules, she’s done.”

The county has issued two letters of demand for removal of the wolf. The first cited the wolf’s past history of depredation and a report that the wolf had bitten a human. The second letter cited six incidents involving problem behavior over six weeks, all of which were reported to, investigated and confirmed by the agency, Aymar said.

“They’re not following their own rules about these habituated wolves hanging around homes and presenting a danger,” Aymar said.

The Mexican wolf recovery program guidelines provide for the removal of nuisance or problem Mexican wolves when hazing and other methods prove inadequate. In the county’s 24 Hour Notice, Aymar wrote that no action has been taken by any agency to “respond to the demand for removal, nor has any adequate action been taken by your agency or any other agency to reduce the risk to humans from AF924.”

When the family and the ranch owner each finally appealed in writing to the Catron County Commission to provide the protection they needed from the wolves, the County Commission sent the 24 Hour Notice to FWS and all the agencies involved in the wolf program.

The agency’s only response was to send law enforcement officers to observe the County’s Wolf Interaction Investigator Jess Carey, who is attempting to protect the family from any more incidents with this problem wolf.

“The Endangered Species Act supercedes county ordinances,” Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Victoria Fox said. “Any action violating the law would result in prosecution.”

She said law enforcement personnel are on the scene to make sure there’s no violation of federal law.

“We continue to work with the county, and the presence of a field team is to insure that the wolves are deterred from any other interaction with livestock,” Fox said. “We are there to take measures to move them away from human interaction or livestock. We’re trying to achieve that balance in Catron County.”

Fox also said the agency has offered a variety of tools to ranchers, including radio receivers, flag fences and radio activated guard boxes.

“All those options have been offered,” Fox said. “We’re doing everything we can and keep open communication.”

Aymar said the agency isn’t doing enough to protect ranchers and their livestock or to protect the wolves.

“They’re not being responsive to the needs of the citizens by any means,” Aymar said. “They’re just waiting to see what the county will do.”

Carey has set up camp outside the family’s house and intends to trap the wolf and turn it over to the agency. Aymar said the law enforcement officers are waiting for a court injunction for the County and the County’s investigator to cease and desist the trapping.

“Something semi-unique to this situation is that this family lives in a little cabin with an outhouse,” Aymar said. “If you have to walk between the house and the outhouse in the middle of the night with a wolf hanging around, it’s not a good thing. It’s easy for some in Santa Fe who walks down the hall to the bathroom to be critical.”

Aymar said he doesn’t expect Fish and Wildlife personnel to respond to the demand letter.

“If the Fish and Wildlife Service was to go out there and snatch up 924 and take her away, that would be tantamount to the feds saying that the Catron County ordinance is a valid legal issue,” he said. “I don’t think they’re going to do that.”

story from Small Town Papers

JUNE 26, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: BRIAN PHILLIPS
202.225.4759, brian.phillips@mail.house.gov

Related article:
Catron County takes on feds over wolf

WASHINGTON D.C. – Congressman Stevan Pearce will offer amendments to the Interior Appropriations bill that would either end or block the expansion of the “Mexican Wolf Recovery Program”.  Overall, the program has failed to establish goals or manage wolves in a responsible manner, he said, and in areas where they have been introduced, the wolves have become a threat to humans, livestock, and pets.

“Despite Congress spending millions of taxpayer dollars, this program has completely failed to produce the kind of results that were promised,” said Pearce.  “Worse, where the wolves have been released, they now threaten farmers and ranchers, their families, and the ability to make a living.” 

 “We have people in the Second District that can’t check their mail without taking a pistol to the mailbox for fear of being attacked,” he continued.  “Without a compensation program for our ranchers, they are forced to bear the cost of lost livestock.  They depend on the Fish and Wildlife Service to manage the wolves off their livestock and property.  Unfortunately, the Service has proven that they are incapable of protecting the ranchers of the Second District from the growing number of captive-bred habituated problem wolves in the recovery program.”

http://pearce.house.gov/newscenter/2007-06-26wolfrecovery.html

I am reposting this comment from Mary because it gets to the idea of how twisted many of the so called EnvironMental groups are today.  It really appears like they hate people and even hate the land.  If they loved the land and animals they would come up with a working solution not one where people have wolves in their back yards and children enjoying nature are ripped out of tents and slaughtered. 

The biologists depend on you considering them the experts.  They will dicitate to you and tell you how they will spend your money and if you are not safe in your own yard then that is your fault for being there and being human.

——

I’m seeing that the funding stream for these “scientists” is just too carefully effective as a rural cleansing device to be an arbitrary result of random circumstance. Yet another effective cultural genocide device for the self-deluded careerist “scientists” and “environmentalists” to be used as a title clearing tools for corporate access to the resources of the mountain west.

I think the words of the “environmental leader” while on tour observing the glaring differance between the incredible abundance and diversity of lands managed and used by humans to the progressive biological desertification occuring on lands restricted from human stewardship is very telling.

It shows a religion, “environmentalism”, that has completely divorced itself from all valid methods to achieve the salvation of “saving nature” it promulgates. This was necessary to those who control the power/money streams as their goal is the genocide that can be thereby somewhat surreptitiously be achieved to unfettered resource acquisition/extraction.

Here’s the astute and telling leader of “environmentalism’s comment, paraphrasing, “I don’t care if there are any species at all (even wolves?) and the landscape looks like a parking lot as long as there are no humans there.”

Of course the big corporate money stream controllers feel the same way and have that same exact top priority (about there being no humans, and their pesky land titles) as the resources thus accessed will enrich them enormously and they show a similar callous disregard for the effects of their actions on nature.
enrich them enormously

Bears are no longer just going through the trash, they are breaking and entering. And coyotes are no longer contained to the wily domain of Saturday morning cartoons, they are trotting through suburban neighborhoods in increasing numbers.

A recent spate of black bear home invasions and attacks by coyotes and foxes on adults and children in the state of New Jersey sheds light on the growing nationwide problem of human and wildlife encounters.

As humans continue to encroach and build homes and businesses in suburban and rural areas once solely inhabited by wildlife, experts warn that the problem may worsen.

In New Jersey, a coyote bit a 22-month-old boy in his grandparents’ backyard in April. In May, a coyote attacked a 5-year-old boy playing in a yard near his Middletown home.

And last week, Putnam County officials say a Patterson woman was attacked by a fox in her backyard.

Meanwhile, the state’s black bear population has skyrocketed after years of dwindling numbers. Last week, police in North Jersey shot and killed a bear in a tree that had broken into a house earlier in the day.

full story

“May 14, 2007, 11:25AM
230 scientists oppose wolf delisting
© 2007 The Associated Press
JACKSON, Wyo. — More than 230 scientists have signed a letter opposing plans to remove wolves in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho from Endangered Species Act protection.
The scientists said wolves in the three states still face threats because their numbers remain relatively small and because the wolf populations in the Yellowstone area, in central Idaho and in northwest Montana don’t intermingle.”

This “news item” recently crossed my desk accompanied by the following question, “are these so called scientists seeking to protect grants and other cash flows associated with having the animal on the list?”

Before I answer, think about tax-exempt Foundations and Trusts and Conservancies. Think about Forest Service land closures and restrictions. Think about Federal bills perking in Washington, DC like the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act that, while being more appropriate to Russia or Germany in the 1930’s, lie ticking in Congressional school desks during a period of national history that resembles the notorious late 1960’s to late 1970’s when unimaginably radical “environmental” and “animal” laws were also passed. Think about ideologue bureaucrats “networking” with radicals that share their ignorance of and disdain for the management and use of natural resources. Think about wolves and grizzlies that are killing and will increasingly kill rural inhabitants on paths, in sleeping bags, hunting, etc. as well as their dogs and livestock and formerly abundant big game animals. Think about the “science” underpinning and dictating all this like the Psychological pronouncement underpinning and formulating abortion.

Are the “230 scientists” in it for the Federal money flow “past, present, and future” to borrow from Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’”? Are the “230 scientists” all on one form or another of the “public mammary” like agencies or Universities or Foundations that contract and/or subcontract public funding? Are the “230 scientists” interested in the implications of wolves for tenure or retirement or public recognition? Do you think any of the “230 scientists” brought preconceived notions to the formulation of their recommendations like certain psychologists do to abortion? Is the “weight” of the words of “230 scientists” some sort of inarguable position that should cause everyone else to fold up their tents and go home?

Two books have just come on the market that should be mandatory reading for all Americans. (It occurs to me that if all of us who believe this about these two books gave our Federal politicians enough money, they could pass a law that would give more tax money to some Federal agency that could force all Americans to have copies of the two books and be familiar with them. That is no more un-American than forcing horse owners to keep unwanted horses or threatening cockfighters with a felony. But I digress.)

The first book is WOLVES IN RUSSIA by WILL GRAVES. This book describes (for the non-scientist patriot) 150 years of the recently-recorded history of wolves in Russia from Eastern Europe to the Pacific. No hidden agendas, no punches pulled: during war and during social upheavals; under the Czar and under Communism and under the current government; during cold winters and dry summers; human deaths; livestock losses; and game animal impacts in all their unvarnished and unembellished “glory”. Pay special attention to all the documented diseases that wolves carry and transmit (anthrax, foot-in-mouth, brucellosis, rabies, intestinal parasites) and consider those that they logically transmit in various ways like chronic wasting disease and mad cow disease. Wolves are mortal dangers to men and stock and pets and wildlife yet none of this is ever even mentioned in the reams of “scientific” data churned out by the “230 scientists” and their ilk for the past 30 years. For anyone interested in of affected by or threatened by the environmental and animal rights agendas I highly recommend this book. Read it not just for the history but compare it to what passes for “science” today and ask yourself, how we ever let groups like these “230 scientists” take over our society like witch doctors or medicine men in corrupt pagan societies? You can obtain Mr. Graves’ book by going to www.wolvesinrussia.com

The second book is Tom Bethell’s “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science” published by Regnery. Mr. William Rusher reports that the book describes how “science is forever used, like everything else, to reinforce political viewpoints”. In a telling assessment Mr. Rusher reports also that, “scientists are human like the rest of us, with their full complement of opinions and biases on all sorts of subjects not squarely in their field of expertise. And not surprisingly, a lot of them are happy to rely on their reputations as unbiased experts to promote political causes of one sort or another. In many cases they don’t even recognize what they are doing; they simply confuse what they know with what they want.”

“They simply confuse what they know with what they want”, couldn’t have said it better myself.

Should such information be the basis of law? Of society? Should it dictate Tax Exemptions for land conservation scams? Should it be a basis for societal accommodations toward the unborn, the elderly, the infirm, or the use of human cells? Should it be the justification for closing public land to the public? Should it be the reason we deny the rights of property owners. Should it be the rationale for preventing research on animals or hunting or fishing or logging or grazing or the proactive management of renewable natural resources? Can it justify turning public lands into tinderboxes that when they burn up nearby private property Federal firefighters have the audacity to tell us “shouldn’t be there” or that the government “must buy” in the future? Should it provide a rationale for erasing Constitutional provisions and turn this nation into a Socialist Democracy where one government and the currently powerful run everything and everybody? I don’t think so. It should never be the ONLY consideration nor should it stand-alone. Human decisions and political policies have moral and social dimensions that, to mention but two, outweigh science that, while it must be taken into account, must be considered and adapted to man and his informed needs: not the other way around.

What do you think? That is just as important and in many ways far more important than “easement salesmen”, “psychologists”, and “230 scientists”.

Jim Beers
19 May 2007
- If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others. Thanks.

- This article and other recent articles by Jim Beers can be found at
http://jimbeers.blogster.com (Jim Beers Common Sense)

- Jim Beers is available for consulting or to speak. Contact:
jimbeers7@verizon.net

- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Centreville, Virginia with his wife of many decades

Children now must pack pistols to stay safe from wolves in rural New Mexico.

While Bill Richardson is preaching about getting the troops out of Iraq and how our brave men and women are targets over there, Mr. Richardson has continued to let our children be targets here in Richardson’s home state of New Mexico.

Bill Richardson had many chances to protect citizens of New Mexico but when the leadership opportunity occurred, Bill Richardson did nothing! 

Bill Richardson could have stepped in when the Aspen Mexican wolf pack was released in New Mexico after being picked up in Arizona for multiple problems including these wolves stalking children at an elementary school. But Richardson did nothing.

When the Luna mexican wolf pack encircled a boy.  Bill Richardson did nothing.

Later a little girl was nearly attacked and a month later her beloved black quarter horse “Six” was slaughtered by the habituated Aspen wolves Richardson allowed to be released in his state of New Mexico.

Horse owner, and professed horseman, Bill Richardson could have done something to save this horse by preventing the release of these wolves.  This time he did something! 

Bill Richardson reaffirmed his support of the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Program.

Still we had hoped that a leader might show up to the ball game.

Next a citizen wrote a letter to the New Mexico Game and Fish requesting removal of wolves’ denning near a home. Again nothing from Bill Richardson or his appointed Director at New Mexico Game and Fish.

Then two children were stalked by wolves returning home from school.  Again nothing from Bill Richardson.

Now the Durango Mexican wolf pack is hanging around a home in New Mexico and a 13 year old girl has to pack a gun when she is in her yard. Bill Richardson could have prevented the illegal release of this human biting wolf in his state, but again nothing. 

He could have even supported a poor New Mexican County’s fight to get this habituated wolf removed.  Instead Bill Richardson was consistent and did nothing.

No leadership and no help for rural citizens.  Not even help for his counties.  How can people consider this “resume candidate” a leader, when Bill Richardson keeps playing ball with our lives?

Three Strikes and You are Out Bill Richardson

Many of us have heard that Bill Richardson use to play ball. He even had to back peddle on his baseball draft comment recently when hammered on Meet the Press.  So Bill Richardson should understand that when it comes to children and safety one strike is out, instead in the last year he has had three strikes where wolves have endangered childeren.

You see in March 2007 at the New Mexico Game Commission meeting the following comment from Bill Richardson was read.

“I am reaffirming my support for the effective recovery of Mexican wolves in the Southwest, done in a responsible and sensitive way. Toward that end, I have directed the State Game Commission and the Department of Game and Fish to redouble their efforts to work with all interests to promote healthy wolf populations living in reasonable compatibility with our communities and land stewards in New Mexico. This will take understanding, creativity, tolerance, and mutual respect among all involved. We need your cooperation to find ways for indigenous wildlife species and our ranching communities to coexist. Please work together today to advance those principles and to consider productive next steps.”

This was after one child was encircled by wolves while out walking in the New Mexican woods with his father.

Recently a little boy was encircled by mexican wolves, while out hunting with his dad. The press stated that members of the Luna Pack circled him for more than five minutes.

About a month later another eight year old child was nearly attacked and later her beautiful black horse was slaughtered.

One month later while an eight-year-old girl was heading out of her house to feed her horses a wolf attacked her dog, which was following her. Was the wolf heading for the girl when the dog intercepted it, thus protecting the child? Or was the dog the reason for the attack? Though our “wolf managers” cannot honestly answer this question they did nothing to assist this family. This wolf was not removed and no effective corrective action was taken.

One month later the little girl’s beautiful black quarter horse was trapped in his corral and brutally slaughtered by the same wolves who attacked her dog.

The Aspen Pack who nearly attacked this little girl and later slaughtered her horse were also stalking kids at the elementary school in Blue, Az.  They were removed from Arizona but Bill Richardson our governor allowed these dangerous wolves to be released in New Mexico. 

These two incidents of children being endangered by habituated wolves were very public and documented in the Albuquerque Journal along with many blogs just prior to the New Mexican Governors’ reaffirming his support of the Mexican Gray Wolf program statement.

Still this Presidential Candidate from New Mexico in an attempt to pander to the greens and environmental extreme decided the risk to rural children was acceptable in support of these captive raised habituated wolves.

Last week (May 27, 2007) two more children were stalked by wolves as they returned home from an early school release.

After seeing the wolf my son, who is 13 years old took my daughter, who is 11 and mildly retarded, across the short cut straight to the house. The wolf turned and finished walking across the road and headed in the same direction as our house and more importantly the same direction as my children needed to go. As many time as we have talked to them about how to react, they still not only ran (or as my son put it walked very fast), but also left the main road and cut across 150 yards of brush and wooded area. They got to the house and immediately called me. They were scared and in a panic.

The dangerous Durango killer wolf pack where the female is noted for biting a person was re-released in the state of New Mexico (she was picked up last year to protect her from the 3rd strike and having to be removed with no chance of rerelease). She was released pregnant but dumped her pups, killed more cattle, and ran back to Catron County were her and her mate are constantly harassing citizens and hanging out in the front yards of a local ranch with children howling.

Yet Bill Richardson has let all this go on like it is business as usual. Even a New Mexico County enacted their wolf ordinance to protect residents and children and now its the “feds” harassing this poor New Mexican county. Bill Richardson remains a supporter of this wolf program and the destruction to our rural communities.

Nothing has been done to protect our children in New Mexico and if Bill Richardson is president I am sure he will continue support coyotes attacking kids in New Jersey, alligators killing children in Florida, mountain lions stalking and attacking children Arizona, not to mention wolves stalking children in every state they are soon to be released in. The difference will be that in these other states corrective action was taken against the animals, in New Mexico these dangerous habituated wolves are still out threatening people and howling in people’s front yards and wolves denning near homes.

If Bill Richardson is elected president or even vice president I am sure he will work to make your neighborhood save for dangerous predators. His statements, appointments to New Mexico Game and Fish, and actions make it clear that as the safety of our children is not important to him; dangerous habituated wolves are.

Tell Bill Richardson that it is three strikes and you are out!