Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
May 17, 2000, Wednesday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 26
LENGTH:
221 words
HEADLINE: ANIMAL SLAUGHTER;
Tax dollars
being wasted on inhumane predator control
SOURCE: Staff
BODY:
Every
year American taxpayers spend millions of dollars on an ineffective and inhumane
federal program that cruelly and indiscriminately kills thousands of wild
animals roaming our Western states.
Last year 90,000 coyotes, mountain
lions, bears, foxes, badgers and bobcats were slaughtered in the name of wiping
out predator animals that prey on livestock. But the program is more costly than
it is worth. Sheep and cattle killed by coyotes and other predators could be
replaced at one-third the cost the government spends in trying to control
predators.
Another downside is that domestic pets and nonpredatory
animals such as deer are killed.
Studies under Presidents Kennedy,
Johnson, Nixon and Carter strongly criticized the program for its reliance on
lethal methods to protect sheep and cattle, instead of greater use of nonlethal
protections such as fencing, lighting and guard dogs.
Now a bi-partisan
amendment being pushed by Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Charles Bass, R-N.H.,
seeks to cut $ 7 million from the Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services
program and prohibits other federal moneys from being spent on lethal predator
control.
Lethal predator control amounts to corporate welfare for
Western cattlemen. It doesn't work. It's cruel and inhumane.
It's time
that it was stopped.
TYPE: Editorial Opinion
LOAD-DATE: May 19, 2000 
