2 thoughts on “”

1. Wolf Jihad, Wolf Persecution: Montana legislature has a bill to allow landowners to shoot a “threatening wolf”. I thought ranchers/landowners already had this protection? Now asking the right to shoot a wolf on the next mountain or on their ranch or land? It means that any wolf seen can be seen is threatening, so it is a bill to treat wolves as varmints across the state. It is hard for most bloggers on most sites to deal with facts: Wolves usually ignore mans’ domestic animals and stocks, killing only .0029 percent of cattle, 74 of 2,500,000 in MT 2011. Even mountain lions usually do the same. Of course most wolf haters have trouble with statistics, facts and science and will deal only with absolute numbers and anecdotal opinion rather than percentages and probabilities, more folklore. I had geese, chickens, sheep, horses, and often a litter of Dalmatian pups on my place, and I had a resident mountain lion and a pack of coyotes that left me alone. It is another yokel-rancher-wildlife hater myth that predators need to be killed on sight. So, is this more hysterical nonsense coming out of this right wing anti-wildlife legislature? This is more among mounting evidence that wolves need to be re-listed in hostile western, if not all states, especially MT, WY and ID with state legislature attitudes of treating them like varmints to be shot on sight, extended hunt seasons with an extended trapping seasons.

   Reply ↓

2. Surely we can find a place for the bison to roam, outside Yellowstone and elsewhere without hunting, like shooting a cow in a field, call it harvesting at least, no just call it killing, not hunting. This is one of the last best places, right? Tourists don’t come here to see cattle and fences. Both people living in Montana and visitors think of it as somewhat wild. A real heritage would be to preserve and restore the wildness of Montana. How much bad PR can Montana create for itself with regard to bison and wolves and other wild critters? Montana is giving itself terrible PR with regard to bison, wolves, wild horses, and soon maybe grizzlies. Why cannot bison wonder outside the Park to traditional winter grazing grounds? Manage the ranchers I say. Why cannot we find other public land? Ranchers and farmers are granted 772 permits on national forest lands in Montana, 3776 permits on BLM land in Montana, 26,000 permits in 16 western states. Who is encroaching? Man on wildlife? Let’s start retiring some of those permits or all them. Why are we so ruled by the oppositional opinions of ranchers and farmers and hunters (“sportsmen”} and misinformed yokels and rancher politicians and rancher legislators? You cannot confuse them with the facts. Per Lewis Carroll, “I have said it thrice, what I say three times is true.” It has been suggested and even planned that bison be designated for placement (by FWP Montana) in other parts of the state. They are brucellosis free, tested, repeatedly so. Yet public meetings about the issue were attended almost unanimously by rancher-farmer crowds yelling, “No way!” Bison wander out of Yellowstone into traditional winter grazing ground, and ranchers protest and stockmen corral them, haze them and slaughter them. Instead of managing the cattle and ranchers around Yellowstone, ranchers want to manage the bison and keep them from going into a traditional outlet for grazing near Gardiner. The reports on any brucellosis of the past 50 years passing from bison or elk to cattle are anecdotal, unproven, and none documented, only once in a Texas A&M lab setting closely confined with cattle. Brucellosis is more likely by elk who are more numerous and routinely come and go by the thousands, but even that does not seem to be the case, butt then elk are protected by sportsmen and FWP, farmed really, and ranchers probably do not want to step on that sacred set (sportsmen) of toes. Montana FWP, US Dept. of Agriculture Wildlife Services, and USFWS are agencies that serve ranchers, farmers and sportsmen more than wildlife.

   Reply ↓