Which Is The Greater Criminal?
by Jim Beers
Wolves Attack Cattle, Kill Sheep In Central Montana
Flathead Beacon, 01-13-11 [here]
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - State and federal authorities have confirmed that gray wolves recently attacked and injured two calves on a Fergus County ranch while wolves killed more than two dozen sheep on two ranches south of Ulm.
USDA Wildlife Services state director John Steuber tells the Great Falls Tribune that the attack on the cattle was the first confirmed instance of wolf attacking livestock in Fergus County. Wildlife Services officials say ranch personnel witnessed the Dec. 31 attack.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks asked Wildlife Services to capture and radio collar one of the wolves, but the wolves haven’t been seen recently.
Wildlife Services is also investigating the killing of 27 sheep near Ulm.
Biologist Craig Glazier says two wolves were responsible. On Dec. 21, Wildlife Services shot a 3-year-old male wolf near one of the kill sites.
11 hunters convicted of illegally taking elk in Montana
Billings Gazette, January 4, 2011 [here]
GLASGOW, Mont. - A multi-year investigation into the illegal killing of elk in southern Phillips County, Mont., has resulted in criminal convictions for
11 hunters, including seven South Dakota residents.
A total of $37,300 in fines and restitution was collected in the case, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Criminal Investigator Lennie Buhmann.
Eight of the 11 defendants also lost a total 22 years of hunting, fishing and trapping privileges in the 36 states involved in the Interstate Wildlife Violators Compact. …
In all, 11 unlawfully killed bull elk were recovered. Two of the bulls were trophy class, which resulted in $8,000 in restitution being charged for each. Another animal, a cow elk, was also unlawfully killed but was not recovered. …
FERGUS COUNTY, Montana (where the livestock is starting to be killed by wolves spreading from western Montana) is just west of Phillips County, Montana where some South Dakotans unlawfully took a dozen elk recently.
Three months ago I was watching some elk in southern Phillips County on one of the two National Wildlife Refuges that comprise the ENTIRE southern boundary of that county along the Missouri River. The hills above me (on the Refuge) were alive with hunters while the Bottoms where I was is a Closed Area where watching elk bulls assemble “harems” makes for a pleasant roadside evening with a few others with binoculars, cameras, and some enjoyable conversation.
When I told one local guy that soon the wolves would reach this area and this would become but a dim memory, he laughed and said the “experts” said wolves wouldn’t come this far into central Montana and beside they would only take a “few” of the elk. I told them they would be here sooner than he thought and that they were probably already here, he laughed again.
I tried to point out that bugling elk and concentrations of 100’s of elk would attract wolves like a dinner bell he shook his head and smirked. When I said that first the elk would try to go back into the woodlands but soon enough would be fewer and fewer in number as they began keeping more quiet and breeding opportunistically and clandestinely like deer so as to be safe, he just smiled and walked away.
There are two kinds of “local” Montanans just like there are urban and rural Americans, Easterners and Westerners, and Republicans and Democrats. This “local” wasn’t of the rancher/hunter/ variety, he was of the environmental/animal rights variety.
So now that we know wolves are killing Fergus County livestock, is there ANYONE out there that will deny they will do unto the Fergus County elk, moose and deer as they have done to Yellowstone’s big game?
Is there ANYONE out there that will deny that the “Fergus County” wolves are not already in Phillips County or that they are moving up those Missouri River Bottoms as I wrote this?
Is there ANYONE out there that will refute that as Yellowstone big game have gone, so will southern Phillips County elk and other big game go? That is to say that whether you describe Yellowstone realistically as “DEAD” or you wax poetic about it being “healthier”, the results are rural devastation and rural countryside being cleansed of residents, jobs, uses, management, and American Liberties.
Is there ANYONE out there willing to say that the “Fergus County” wolves and the “Phillips County” wolves are being counted as state and federal bureaucrats implement urban/environmental/animal rights/rural “cleansing” agendas? Are they in the “quotas”, “targets”, and “scientific” claims being treated by courts and radicals as “gospel”?
As the wolves move into these areas, anyone with a modest amount of interest knows it will keep up like this until the “Contiguous 48″ wolves are denning from sea to shining sea. The speed is picking up as the numbers increase.
This is a “fact” that old-time wildlife managers, farmers, ranchers, foresters, and range managers have known since their medieval and ancient forbears learned these things and passed them along. Despite what the modern “tinker belles” that claim these government titles today say - time does not change truth.
So when the elk become memories in Phillips County, who are the dastardly crooks that made it happen? Was it the South Dakotans that took eleven elk or the federal bureaucrats; the state bureaucrats; the University “perfessors”; the urban contributors; the environmental/animal rights/ anti-gun coalitions that bought the media, the politicians, and school teachers that spread all the lies and passed the tyrannical laws that made it all possible?
The South Dakotans don’t look so bad anymore: not when the very people we created and sustain to protect our wildlife have not only abandoned the wildlife - they have tried to destroy the very rural America and rural Americans that enjoyed the envy of the world whether it was the safety of rural folks, productivity of rural animal husbandry, or the myriad benefits of well-managed and abundant wildlife.
In one very real sense it is the Tale of Robin Hood retold. The King that is supposed to protect the realm betrays it and the robbers in the Forest.
Well say what you will, 11 elk made into meals versus thousands slaughtered in the most cruel fashion and pushed to practical extinction — there is no question in my mind as to WHICH IS THE GREATER CRIMINAL!
Jim Beers
15 January 2011
Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.
He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.
Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting at jimbeers7(at)comcast.net
Addendum: Not a Makeup Artist
I just wrote (two hours ago) an article titled “Which Is The Greater Criminal?” about how wolves are spreading into central Montana killing livestock and imperiling with great certainty the future of elk and big game hunting. The article asked the question who are the greatest criminals; those that poach some elk before the elk are wiped out by wolves or those that introduced and protect the wolves that will surely make central Montana like Yellowstone Park — a vast biological desert devoid of game animals and more dangerous to humans due to unfettered wolves and grizzly bears.
A lady has written me a critique telling me that it is disgraceful that I glorify poachers and vilify the “professionals” responsible for our wildlife. She says I should be ashamed to “make-up” such things.
I leave it to “Anonymous” to reply from bygone centuries to this “New Age” lady of the 21st century. “Anonymous” was a medieval writer in England that noticed that the Kings and Lords were applying a different standard of justice to the common man than the one they applied to themselves and their supporters. “Anonymous” evidently was something of a poet and made the following observation about how poachers were mutilated and punished harshly while those responsible for the realm itself were allowed to do whatever benefited themselves with impunity. Reading it reminds us all that government abuses and unjust punishment of common folk not only never changes but that if not scrupulously and constantly eradicated, always stays the same.
Anonymous Poem:
The law arrests both man and woman
That steals the goose from off the common.
Yet turns the greater felon loose
That steals the commons from the goose.
Thank you, “Anonymous”.
