Friday, February 22. 2008
Prey
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Friday Ark #179
We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....? Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon! You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page. Cats...
We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....? Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon! You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page. Cats...
Weblog: Modulator
Tracked: Feb 22, 19:13
Tracked: Feb 22, 19:13
What's the deal, you want to shoot wolves? Is that it?
Way I figure it, if they want the assorted critters for Yellowstone, then KEEP them in Yellowstone; anything smart enough to 'stay home' is going to reproduce while the 'dumb' ones should be allowed to get killed off.
I support Montana beef!
Society wants to tax me in order to run the country. No one asked my opinion. Government regulates the harvest and sale of timber on private property to meet environmental regulations, again not my choice. Health care takes a bite out of my earnings and I have near zero recourse. When Wall Street gets jumpy and investors lose billions, my revenue stream is likely to take a hit.
The point is that society makes choices all the time about the regulatory environment in which we operate. We are all entitled to our own opinions about that, we even have some levers available to try influence the system.
Ultimately I am here goading Sarpy on this cause he strikes me as a damn reasonable guy. And if his emotions are all caught up thinking predators are bad then I think someone oughtta challenge him.
Wolves are a valuable neighbor in a natural community. They have always been here and deserve to stay. They restore balance in systems that are overburdened by human influence. That is what society says about wolves. You can no more shoot them than you can shoot the tax man.
Am I realistic enough to know that I have to deal with wolves? Yes, but I don't have to like it and I can let my opinion be known.
Do I think the Federal Government has achieved their goal of 100 wolves in each state of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho? Yes, I know they have. The last estimates were over 1500 wolves, they have well met their goal.
Do I think since the goal has been reached that the wolves should be removed from the Endangered Species list? Yes.
Am I upset that wolf loving/rancher hating groups are going to oppose this move because they love seeing the wolves eat rancher's cattle? Yes.
Am I advocating that wolves should be removed from the list so we can destroy them all? No. The public would never allow it even if I might want it, let's live in reality.
Do I think that wolves "are a valuable neighbor in a natural community?" No. Nowhere in the lower 48 is there a "natural community" that is not overly influenced by man so they have no place in our state.
Do I take offense that you compare my love of my cattle and my duty as a moral human being to protect and care for them to "taxes, timber regulations, health care costs, sick days, market conditions, and a whole host of dynamics that are out of my control." Yes, you obviously have never cared for and protected animals and don't understand the dedication, love and commitment involved with it.
Am I extremely tired and stressed out calving heifers, feeding cows, fighting to keep calves alive, getting less than 4 hours a sleep a day and wondering if I am going to get another hired hand? Yes.
So maybe I am going a little overboard. It doesn't change the fact that any predator that attacks,or has the potential to attack my cattle is evil and I don't want them around and I get upset about it. I will never grant that wolves are doing any good because that would be turning against who I am and how I see myself. A man who loves and cares for his cattle and wants to protect them from harm.
I appreciate your point of view, but not the hyperbole. I am a third generation Montanan with cattle ranching and timber harvests paying my way through college and making up the lion's share of my studies.
I can say simply that you are wrong about your opponents and narrow minded about the role you play on the prairie.
The graveyard is full of people who thought they were indispensable.
B. "Narrow minded about the role you play on the prairie?" No where in this post did I discuss my place on the prairie. Please point out where I did, I would love to see it. I did discuss what one of my many myriad responsibilities to my cattle are, protecting them. What my responsibility to my cows are has nothing to do with my responsibility to the land. They are two mutually exclusive things that a responsible person has to trade off, one to the other to make a ranch work. You always want to run more cattle on the land but your responsibility doesn't allow it. There wouldn't be the grass for the cattle and all the wild critters if you did that. The cattle of course would like to breed to eat every bite of grass. You can't allow that either. It's a balancing act that changes every year. There is a lot more to the "role" I play on the prairie but that is a small sample of it. Nowhere in this post did I talk about any such thing.
C. Are you saying that the all the people opposing removing the wolf are not wolf lovers? I bet you quote a few of them are. Are all of them rancher hating? Of course not, but quite a few of them are. So, I am not "simply wrong" about my "opponents". I might be painting with a broad stroke and stereotyping them, but quite a few of them are wolf loving/rancher hating.
D. From what I infer here, you are saying I am not supposed to protect my cattle from predators? I am supposed to allow them to be abused? That seems to be the position you are taking but I am not sure.
E. Aren't we all allowed to lose our cool once in a while? Aren't we allowed to vent when we are stressed out? Sometimes hyperbole allows a person to make a point. We've all done it.