U.S. Fish & Wildlife to Introduce Wolves into Gila, Navajo, Graham, and Coconino Counties

The following article was written by Donna Daly, a resident of Gila County.  If you live in Gila, Navajo, Graham, or Coconino county, or if you have a cabin in any of these areas, or if you have a business in these counties, you need to read every sentence of Ms. Daly’s article.  The deadline for comments to the U.S. Fish & Game is 10/28/2013.  No hearings have been scheduled in areas where these wolves are to be released!   All of the animal rights activists from across America know about it.  Not us!   These members of the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife don’t even live in Arizona where these animals will  be released.  I live within 30 feet of the Tonto National Forest.  I know what coyotes can do.  I love all wild animals.  I love wolves.  It is criminal to release them in these areas, where they will be shot and killed by people protecting their families and livelihood.  If the animal rights people want to preserve wolves, release them in remote areas, not near people, and especially not near children!  Don’t release them where they will kill pets and livestock and ruin the economy of the towns that thrive on the recreational trade.   

This is what Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and all the Democrats want!  They want to grind America into the ground. 

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EPA’s Secret Deals with Environmentalists: Sue and Settle

The EPA is under investigation for a practice called Sue and Settle. Environmentalists in government and private organizations have found ways to create new regulations by fashioning lawsuits tailored to have courts institute policy changes. Both parties involved in the lawsuits secretly decide in advance what the outcome will be and how much taxpayer money will be transferred to the environmental group in the settlement. In other words, they are exploiting the courts to change laws, and in the process, helping to fund radical environmental groups without legislative or taxpayer consent. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been given to these groups.

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Why the Mexican Wolf Should Not be Listed as “Endangered” in Arizona

There is a bill making its way through the Arizona Legislature, HB2699.   It should be strongly supported by every Arizonan.  Call or email all Senators and Representatives.  

While members of Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Rewilding Institute, and many other environmental groups are in favor of the federal government’s unfettered role in protecting endangered plants and animals, there is a cost that these members either haven’t considered or regard with indifference.  As stated by the Board of Supervisors of Catron County, New Mexico, “it is the local government’s responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens.  This includes protecting local citizens from the adverse societal and economic impacts of federal actions.”  (See Catron County Comments regarding Objections to Maintaining Protections for the Mexican Wolf by Listing it as Endangered.)

The Arizona Game and Fish Department also commented on this issue in a 10-page report calling on the failures of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to consider the many negative socio-economic impacts of the Wolf Reintroduction to Arizona.  

In 1998, the Mexican Gray Wolf was reintroduced to Catron County, New Mexico, and also Apache and Greenlee Counties in Arizona.  These wolves were also released adjacent to the San Carlos Apache Reservation (after the Tribe had refused 3 times over a period of a few years to let the federal government release the wolves on the reservation itself).  The San Carlos Apache are in Gila, Graham, and Pinal counties, and they heavily rely on cattle ranching for their livelihood.  “These citizens have been forced to bear the burden of the impacts of Mexican wolf reintroduction.  They are well aware of the reality of on-the-ground activities that affect their daily lives.”  

Here are some issues that are addressed in the first 9 pages of the Catron County Board of Supervisors document:

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Federal Land Managers’ Intimidation, Bullying Threaten Citizens Rights, Create a Hostile Environment

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 24, 2014 – Today, the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulations held an oversight hearing on “Threats, Intimidation and Bullying by Federal Land Managing Agencies.” This hearing continued Committee oversight into bullying by federal land management agencies and federal law enforcement agencies on private, state, and federal lands. 

State and local governments, ranchers, business owners, and private citizens have been subject to threats, lack of cooperation, and numerous unfair or heavy-handed tactics which threaten public safety, the environment, endangered species, and the livelihoods of communities. Congressional oversight is necessary to provide an effective check on federal officials who abuse their regulatory powers.

“Today we took a second look at threats, intimidation and bullying by Federal Land Managing Agencies. During a hearing the Committee held last year and again today, we heard first-hand accounts of mistreatment at the hands of federal officials seeking to extort the witnesses into relinquishing their property rights,” said Representative Doug LaMalfa (CA-01). “These firsthand accounts  give the victims of abusive conduct by a federal land managing official a chance to tell their story to Congress. Status quo agency oversight, policies and procedures are inadequate for addressing or deterring employee abuses and may instead embolden overreaching or malicious employee behavior with little risk of retribution for their actions.”

Witnesses highlighted examples of flagrant intimidation met by citizens who refuse to surrender their constitutional rights, land and water rights, grazing permits and other multiple-use benefits.

Sheriff James Perkins, Garfield County, UT, highlighted his perspective from 27 years of law enforcement and experience working with various federal law enforcement agencies.

“BLM’s attitude towards coordinating with local law enforcement is summed up best by a conversation I had with a BLM law enforcement officer while we were attending a drug task force meeting in Cedar City, Utah. He told me point blank that he didn’t care about any authority that I thought I had as the Garfield County Sheriff, and that he did not feel like he had to coordinate anything through my office… This refusal to coordinate, coupled with a lack of any meaningful oversight, has created a perfect environment where the abuse of federal law enforcement powers can occur.”

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Waco Style Shoot Out Brewing in Nevada Against Cattle Rancher?

Please keep an eye on this issue!  The federal government along with radical environmentalists are willing to destroy a multiple-generation operation and steal this rancher’s cattle over an "endangered" …………….desert tortoise.

YET, just 8 months ago the government and environmentalists planned to euthanize the desert tortoises, due to budget cuts in a refuge.  See Government Plans to Euthanize hundreds of desert tortoises after budget cuts to Refuge.

The very same scenario is unfolding in Arizona, compliments of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and radical environmentalsts who want to declare the Mexican wolf as endangered and release wolves across 15 Arizona counties. The gross economic output of the agricultural industry in the area is estimated to be $4.2 billion annually.      

Send an email to both Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie (Sheriff@lvmpd.com) and Governor Brian Sandoval and tell them to stand up against the BLM and order the federal government out of Clark County and out of Nevada.   To contact Gov Sandoval, click HERE

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HB2699 – April 14 – Senate COW – “endangered species program; rescission; reimbursement”

One of the reasons cited by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in removing Cliven Bundy’s cattle from public lands in Nevada was because the Desert Tortoise found on the land was "threatened/endangered." 

We have our own situation in Arizona relating to the Mexican wolf.  The United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) is poised to declare the Mexican wolf "endangered."  The USFWS is also poised to expand the Mexican wolf release area to cover a broad swath of Arzona, which will include 15 Arizona counties.  

It is time for all of us to email and call our Arizona Senators to strongly encourage them to vote YES to HB2699, and to stand up for all Arizona citizens’ right to protect ourselves, families, property, and livelihoods!     

Click HERE for the Fact Sheet on HB2699. 

Click HERE to find the email addresses and phone numbers of all Senators.   You are probably wasting your time to email Democrats.  Every Democrat in the House voted NO, and I would be surprised if the Democrats in the Senate would step out of line.  

If you would like to see the Vote Detail on how the Legislators have voted previously on HB2699, in various Committees and the House, click HERE.

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Gov. Brewer and Arizona Game & Fish kick Sand in the Faces of Arizona’s Rural Families

Governor Jan Brewer recently vetoed SB1211, which would have given Arizona ranchers and their families some protection against the maulings and killings by Mexican wolves of their livestock.  See "Arizona Governor Vetoes bill allowing ranchers to kill endangered wolves."  Not only is she disinterested in the social and economic adversity caused by Mexican wolves, but she has also conceded, without a whisper of objection, that 50% of Arizona is "federal land."  

Likewise, the chairman of Arizona Game and Fish, J. W. Harris, has thrown his own benefactors, the entire game and fish industry, to the wolves. See Arizona Game & Fish Expand Mexican Wolf Territory.  

Both Governor Brewer and J. W. Harris have plenty of staff and research assistance, so they know that their protections of Mexican wolves are hurting Arizona families.  Is the suffering of our fellow Arizonans no more than simply "taking one for the team"?  Apparently, it is.  It’s ok with Brewer.  It’s ok with Harris.  It’s also ok with every Democrat Arizona legislator, because every one of them voted against protecting their fellow Arizonans against the well documented predations of the Mexican wolf.  

They know everything I’m going to show you.  These pictures are gruesome.  If pictures make you uncomfortable, please understand that children and their parents and friends are forced to experience this against their will, not just see pictures of it.  Please note that psychologists have identified PTSD in these children in rural Arizona and New Mexico.

 

Please join me as we make our journey into the Arizona and New Mexico lands where the Mexican wolf is King.

Here’s a photo of one of 5 small calves lost to Mexican wolves over a period of 9 days in 2003 in New Mexico.  According to the family who owned the calves, the only reason this one was found was because of the tracking collar on the wolf.  Notice that, unlike most predators, wolves don’t kill, then eat.  They eat living animals.  Those animals scream until they finally die.  

Mexican wolves were reintroduced by the federal government (USFWS) via the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in Eastern Arizona/Western New Mexico in 1998.  Since that time, the wolves have gravitated to livestock and the yards of families living in that part of Arizona and NM.  There is a Facebook site that relates ongoing interactions with Mexican wolves called Wolves, Cattle, and the People Who Live Between Them.  If you go to this site, there is a video of Arizona Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai speaking at the 12/3/2013 showing of "Wolves in Government Clothing."  Many people who attended this event testified to the adverse social and economic effects, including Steve Titla who represented the San Carlos Apache Tribe.  The tribe has been devastated by the introduction of the Mexican wolves next to their reservation.  Everybody thought Rep. Peshlakai would be against the Mexican wolves that were hurting rural families.  We were wrong.  She voted AGAINST every anti-Mexican wolf bill:  HB2699, SB1211, SB1212, and SCR1006.     

The following accounts represent a small fraction of the harsh realities that these rural families experience.  

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HB2699 and HB2700: Good News and Bad News

Recently, Gilbert Watch asked you to email Arizona Senators asking them to support two important bills: HB2699 Endangered Species – Program Rescission – Reimbursement and HB2700 …"recover all state lands that have been acquired by the federal government.  The good news is that HB2699 passed.  The bad news is that HB2700 failed to pass.  

As a precinct committeeman, I visit with citizens.  Most are unaware that our country is swiftly being taken over by the federal government agencies made up of unelected bureaucrats who are paid by the taxpayers.  This lack of awareness stems from their source of news.  These citizens are also unaware that the newspapers they read and most of the television reporting they watch are part of what has truly become the Collectivist Media.   For example, the collectivist media did not report one of the most significant events in American history:  The Cliven Bundy vs the BLM stand-off.  Why?  Because the fact that over 2,000 patriotic Americans standing up for individual liberties does not fit the collectivist agenda.

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