We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.
FROM
Charles Fox (TrapFree New Mexico),
ABQJournal.com
November 25, 2018
New Mexico’s wildlife is a unique natural asset to be enjoyed by all
citizens forever. This is not some wolf-hugger’s fantasy; wildlife as a
public trust is deeply rooted in common law and the judicial record of the
United States. State wildlife managers are obligated to protect wildlife for
the benefit of all, not just those who exploit it. Unfortunately, our
governor-appointed game commissioners have failed in their public trust
duties. For nearly eight years, the commission has acted with disregard for
both public opinion and basic ecology. The commission has fostered a toxic
relationship with the people and wildlife of New Mexico by ignoring public
opinion, obstructing Mexican wolf recovery, expanding the slaughter of bears
and cougars, promoting cruel trapping and failing to stop the obscene
wildlife killing contests that continue across our state. The New Mexico
game commission has abandoned ethical stewardship and delivered wildlife
policy that is scientifically inept and morally bankrupt.
The Mexican wolf is a native species that plays a critical role in
maintaining ecological health. The species is near extinction due to
20th-century extermination programs and now struggles to recover under a
hostile game commission that continues to obstruct recovery efforts. Illegal
killings are the largest source of wolf mortality and the indifference of
the game commission adds insult to this injury. Mexican wolf recovery would
bring both ecological and economic benefits to New Mexico. We could now be
well on our way to creating the Yellowstone of the Southwest, but the game
commission sacrifices ecological and economic health for political ideology.
Despite a seven-year campaign by wildlife advocates to remove traps from
public lands, the game commission continues to promote the trapping and
killing of countless thousands of wild animals throughout the state. For
just $20, trappers can buy a license to set as many traps and kill as many
animals as they want in a manner so cruel it has been banned in over 100
countries. These traps are not marked, so anyone on public lands is at risk.
Current rules allow some 500 trappers to hold the entire state hostage for a
product we don’t need. Trappers kill our wildlife for personal profit,
privatizing and vandalizing a public asset. This massive, indiscriminate
killing is not management in any real sense and serves no constructive
purpose in modern society. It’s a sad fact that our game commission is
focused on continuing the exploitation of vulnerable wildlife.
Among other conspicuous failures, the game commission has taken no action to
stop the mass slaughter of wildlife killing contests in which contestants
compete with military-grade weapons to kill the most animals. Hundreds of
coyotes and thousands of prairie dogs can be killed in a single contest. One
New Mexico game commissioner, Robert Espinoza Sr., actually participates in
these thrill-kill contests, calling it a “great way” to “have some fun.”
Killing animals and posting pictures of their mutilated bodies on social
media damages ecosystems and our sensibilities. Coyotes, bears, cougars and
other carnivores are not ecologically optional. Without them, the land is
quickly overgrazed and damaged. Through its direct involvement and inaction,
the game commission has become an agent of destruction of the resource it
exists to protect.
Our wildlife and wild lands are in decline because they are abused. Wildlife
policy in New Mexico has been hijacked by narrow, consumptive interests.
Politically appointed, ideologically driven game commissioners have
delivered destructive policies that fail to respect biological reality and
basic ethics. We need qualified wildlife managers that protect wildlife
regardless of political affiliation. The conservationist Aldo Leopold summed
up wildlife management when he said: “A thing is right when it tends to
preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is
wrong when it tends otherwise.”
Political wildlife management tends otherwise.
TrapFree New Mexico is a statewide organization working to ban deadly traps,
snares and poisons on public lands.
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