APNewsBreak: Mont. won't wait to kill wolves

[Derechos]

Source: Huffington Post

BILLINGS, Mont. — Defying federal authority over gray wolves in his state, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Wednesday encouraged livestock owners to kill wolves that attack their animals – even in areas where that is not currently allowed – and said the state will start killing off packs that hurt elk herds.

Schweitzer told The Associated Press he no longer is willing to wait for federal officials to resolve the tangle of lawsuits over wolves, which has kept the animals on the endangered species list for a decade since recovery goals were first met.

"We will take action in Montana on our own," he said. "We've had it with Washington, D.C., with Congress just yipping about it, with (the Department of) Interior just vacillating about it. What we see in Washington, D.C., is motion masquerading as action."

State wildlife agents and ranchers killing wolves already occurs regularly across much of the Northern Rockies, where 1,700 of the predators roam parts of five states. Rules against killing wolves have been relaxed by federal officials over the past decade.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20110216/us-endangered-wolves-montana/

[villager]

1. Presumably, if you eat "livestock," you're giving your assent to this. Additionally,

it shows how utterly useless both parties are when it comes to defending the Earth (and the species -- including ours -- that live on it).

Time to get rid of "both" parties...

[d_r]

2. law and order

until you don't like the law, then do whatever the hell you want.

[ZombieHorde]

8. You are describing almost everyone.

So many download illegal songs, drive over speed limit, smoke pot, etc.

[d_r]

10. Sure I've done those

well, I'll argue that the songs were legal because I used to have them on a cassette tape, but the thing is I don't run around bragging about being all about law and order, either. It's the hypocrisy I'm talking about.

[ZombieHorde]

11. Schweitzer has a reputation for breaking the law.

He is not known as a law and order guy.

[d_r]

12. oh

well, nevermind

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. He should be arrested. Now.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Wolves HELP elk herds.

Without the wolves, elk herds didn't roam. So they would strip the easy plant matter off the trees, and suffer boom/bust reproductive cycles, from almost 22,000 elk, to as low as 6,000 elk. Now with the wolves, the elk herds are stable at about 16,000 elk.

This is a good thing. The water table is rising because the elk aren't destroying the trees in one area, which means the beavers have come back, and on and on.

It's a complex system. Stop mucking with it. Wolves are a critical component.

[montanacowboy]

5. The transformation of Brian Schweitzer

turning into a class A prick

[ThingsGottaChange]

6. So, what it boils down to is this

Montana wants to kill the wolves so they can't kill the elk, so the hunters can kill the elk. Rather sickening that this is all about profits and entertainment for humans. Feel free to bash away......

[quakerboy]

7. I doubt that you are correct

It seems much more likely to me that this has more to do with the money behind the livestock business than it does with a few sport hunters. If you add in the general "anti washington" and the general disregard that a large portion of people seem to carry toward "environmentalists", plus the hunting crew(elk maybe, but I bet they are just as interested in wolf hunting), it seems like a winning issue for a governor of Montana.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. It's both.

Both are lobbies pulling in favor of no predators that will bother the elk, to increase hunting permit quotas, AND the livestock owners want the wolves gone for obvious reasons.

[ZombieHorde]

9. What other solution is there? Are we all going to go veggie?

Only eat factory meat?

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

13. I would like to see him eaten by wolves, but they don't normally attack humans (if ever) - damn

These people anger me to no end. The Feds will pay for livestock that they can prove was taken by wolves.

Wolves are just big bad boogie-men to these people and they'll never listen.

I had a very long and heated 'discussion' with a normally very nice older woman who was a cattle rancher by trade. She kept coming up with all these 'facts' that prove wolves were awful creatures and that they should be killed on sight. I was moments from going 'wolf' on her. I countered each and every point she had but she just wouldn't budge. She finally just brushed me off with 'You just don't know what it's like in the real world'.

I was going to counter with her being an old crone and all when I felt a good whack to my shin. The one that kicked me later said that she just had to stop me because the Old Hag wasn't going to change her opinion even if her Lord and Savior came down that minute and told her that I was right.

I detest these people with every fiber of my being and wish I could go live with my Wolf brethren.