Readers of this blog won’t be the least bit surprised with the content of this op-ed by my colleague Cyndi Tuell, given the recent spate of pieces by me, here, here, and here, or this investigative article from last spring in the Arizona Daily Star. We keep writing because we keep discovering more unconvincing confirmation reports in the records, and so far, I haven’t gotten any real answers from anyone about why the facts don’t add up to Mexican wolves being responsible for all the livestock deaths they are blamed for. Hopefully someone in one the agencies will read The Albuquerque Journal opinion piece and realize they have a real problem on their hands.
Greta Anderson
Greta Anderson is a plant nerd, a desert rat, and a fan of wildness. She is the Deputy Director of Western Watersheds Project and lives on the land of the Tohono O'Odham and Yaqui people in what is now called Arizona. Greta's opinions and world views are not necessarily reflected in the posts of other authors on this blog.
US Fish and Wildlife need to be held accountable. It has become a hypocritical organization and not to be trusted.
Yes they do! And Wildlife Services needs to be reined in at the very least. They are responsible for far too many native & domestic animal killings. Doesnt sound like there is any non-lethal attempts by WS at all.
I still do not believe there should be livestock turned out in wolf habitat – to me? Thats just stupid. But I suppose if the idea is to remove wolves from the area – sure does seem to work!
USFWS has been “prostituted” for some time now. What a shame. The only agency that seems to act independently these days is the USGS. Here’s to courageous and truthful ecologists. May you live forever.
According to WildEarth Guardians: Governor Inslee is paying attention!!! How about that?
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife must now consider science and public input in the new rulemaking process
I would be very interested to examine the physical evidence, the analysis and the reports prepared by individuals who “determine” that a depredation has occurred. As a criminal investigator who during the last 30 years has worked hundreds and hundreds of crime scenes, and teaches a college class on crime scene investigation, I have doubts as to the skill, techniques and conclusions reached by personnel who are “investigating” these incidents. I get the feeling it’s done by the old wink and a nod method.
If you look at some of the earlier blog posts, linked within this one, you’ll see links to the documents/investigations.
Ok. I checked it them out. I have a few issues with the reports. One, there’s no reason the government workers’ names should be redacted. The livestock owner I understand, but not a govt employee for Wildlife Services or FWS. The public should be able to know the identity, education and training of the individuals conducting the investigation. Two, the gps coordinates of the location should be listed if it was on public property, not private. They are listed on one, but not the other. Three, I hate when investigators embed photos into a PDF file. PDFs compress and distort the images and you can’t really enlarge or manipulate them to view-analyze them properly. Plus, there should be more photos of the scene and of the carcasses.
Its quite uplifting to see there ARE people/families that actually care about wildlife enough to make the changes necessary to live with them:
https://grizzlybearcollective.com/living-with-bears/footprint_of_change/