From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@sw-center.org]
Sent:
Thursday, October 28, 1999 11:10 PM
To: Recipient list
suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#210
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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
<www.sw-center.org>
10-28-99
#210
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MEXICAN WOLF UPDATE- GOOD NEWS AND BAD:
§ JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF MEXICAN
GRAY WOLVES-
DISMISSES LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY'S EXTINCTION
SUIT!
§ CAMPBELL BLUE FEMALE WOLF FOUND DEAD
§ STOP THE ROUNDUP OF
THE PIPESTEM WOLF PACK-
LETTERS NEEDED TO KEEP WOLVES IN THE
WILD
§ EDITORIAL: WASTEFUL, DANGEROUS PREDATOR CONTROL
ERADICATION PROGRAM MUST END
JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF MEXICAN GRAY
WOLVES-
DISMISSES LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY'S EXTINCTION SUIT!
Federal Judge
Edwin Mechem (NM) has ruled in favor of the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service
and a coalition of 12 environmental groups
including Defenders of Wildlife
and the Center for Biological Diversity
challenging an attempt by the New
Mexico Farm Bureau to halt the
Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program.
Mindlessly copying a
successful lawsuit resulting in a court order to remove
wolves from
Yellowstone, the Farm Bureau argued that naturally occurring
wild
wolves on the Arizona/New Mexico border are endangered by the
introduction of captive bred wolves, because protection for all wolves
in the area has been reduced due to the designation of the
reintroduced
wolves as "experimental, non-essential." Such wolves
can be recaptured, even
killed if they harm livestock or leave the
designated recovery area.The
copycat suit made no sense, however,
because there is no evidence whatsoever
that wild wolves occur in
the Gila Headwaters Ecosystem.
Even more
ridiculously, the Farm Bureau also argued that the
reintroduced wolves are
hybrid wolf-dogs. Originating in highly
controlled captive breeding
programs, however, the introduced wolves
have been genetically studied and
tracked for generations. There
is no evidence of
hybridization.
__________________
CAMPBELL BLUE FEMALE WOLF FOUND DEAD
The female of
the Campbell Blue Pack was recently found dead in a
heavily roaded section
of the Blue Primitive Area in the Gila
Headwaters Ecosystem. Cause of death
is unknown. She was found
about 100 yards from Highway 191.
She was
the second mate of the original alpha male from the
Campbell Blue Pack who
was shot and killed some time ago. She
and her current mate did not have
pups.
____________________
STOP THE
ROUNDUP OF THE PIPESTEM WOLF PACK!
LETTERS NEEDED TO KEEP WOLVES IN THE
WILD
Bowing to pressure from the livestock industry, the U.S. Fish
&
Wildlife Service has been systematically rounding up the
Pipestem
Wolf Pack because its members killed cattle on the Apache
National
Forest. These wolves were on public lands doing exactly
what
wolves are supposed to do- hunt live prey. In removing the
wolves,
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is affirming the hundred year
long
domination of public lands by private corporations. Native
wildlife
should not be punished for preying on corporate cattle.
The roundup has
proved disastrous thus far. Six wolves,
including the alpha male and three
pups, were captured and
returned to captivity in July. The three pups
subsequently died of
parvo. Though the Fish & Wildlife Service promised
to re-release
the wolves, they have been held in captivity for three months
now.
Meanwhile, the agency just jettisoned the popular head of
its
reintroduction program, leaving the penned wolves and the
entire
recovery program in a bureaucratic limbo.
Two members of the
original pack, a female and her pup, still
remain in the wild. Rather than
leave them alone, the Fish &
Wildlife Service intends to round them up as
well, potentially
exposing the one remaining wild-born pup to parvo as
well.
Fax and email the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service today,
tell
them to put the Pipestem Pack back in the wild and move
the cattle, not the
wolves if there is a conflict. Faxes are
much better than
emails:
Jamie Clark, Director, U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service
Jamie_Clark@fws.gov
202-208-6916
Nancy Kaufman, Regional Director
Nancy_Kaufman@fws.gov 505-248-6910
____________________
EDITORIAL: WASTEFUL, DANGEROUS PREDATOR
CONTROL
ERADICATION PROGRAM MUST END
In a 9-16-99 editorial in the Arizona
Republic, the Center for Biological
Diversity called for an end to the
federal government's $20 million dollar
a year wildlife slaughter program.
Each year 400,000 coyotes are
poisoned with cyanide, gassed in their dens,
caught in steel jaw traps,
and even shot from helicopters- all at taxpayer
expense as a subsidy to
the livestock industry. A vast number of these
coyotes, as well as mountain
lions, bobcats, foxes, and other predators are
killed on our public lands
because they interfere with the livestock
industry's profits.
The editorial explained that the human cost is not
just economic.
Predators control rodent populations and the infectious
diseases they
carry. Each year in the Southwest, hantaviruses are reported
and
sometimes even kill the people who contract them through contact
with
mice. The predators which keep the rodents in check, however, are
not
harmed by the viruses. Pet dogs playing on public lands are
caught each year
in traps set for predators, or are poisoned by
cyanide booby-trapped
bait.
_____________________________________________________________
Kierán
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.623.5252 phone
Center for Biological Diversity
520.623.9797 fax
<http://www.sw-center.org>
pob 710, tucson, az 85702-0710