Near the Border of Insanities
For here now, lies only the rubble of history;
here now we wait as broken cities under a
grazing flock of stars, here and here now
our brilliant tears have dropped to
splash brave oil-pools that are lost
in a darkening world ...
The Animals' Voice Magazine
PO Box 341347
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(800) 82-VOICE
It was a well-planned military maneuver: They came in pickups, armed with short-wave radios, powerful engines, clinging snow tires ... each nervously fingering a high-powered rifle with telescopic sights.At the next section line 12 men awaited his approach. At 100 yards head-on, it began. His faltering speed spared him as bullets churned the snow ahead. As he reached the ditch he sank shoulder deep and floundered desperately. Astonished, ashamed or empty, no one fired. As he struggled across the road and into the next section he seemed to crawl. As if he were shielded, 30 or more rounds left him untouched. In a weedy draw he could run no further. In cover no more than 12 inches high, he disappeared.
The plane circled and then the men closed in afoot. Talk of letting this one go passed idly. Twenty-five armed men closed in on a terrified, exhausted animal. The enclosed area dwindled to the size of a football field and less. Still, no coyote. Some, relieved, hoped he had escaped.
Then he appeared, staggering, worn, mouth agape. He weaved pitifully up the hill as if defying death, or seeking it.
Then man, the rational animal, the pinnacle of evolution, the great humanitarian, gunned him down.
There was little back-slapping. Just a sickening, nauseating silence. The day ended. With it ended my coyote hunting.
-- John Farrar, Autobiography of a Hunter
I'm not talking about the DDT, parathion, mercury compounds, and other pesticides and fungicides and herbicides with which overzealous industrialists, agriculturists, exterminators, and ordinary citizens are poisoning the earth. I'm talking about poisons used specifically and purposefully to kill animals. These include the cyanide that is found in coyote getters, the arsenic that is put out in honey buckets, the thallium that is impregnated into bait carcasses, the strychnine that is encased in sugar-pill coatings and the miracle poison known chemically as sodium flouroacetate and commercially as "1080", a pinch of which is toxic enough to send several dozen adult humans into writhing, convulsive deaths.
Those who have helped draw this carapace of poison -- dropped from airplanes, trail bikes, and tough pickups onto every corner of the western range -- point out apologetically that the chemical extermination of wild animals, especially predators, is an American tradition. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, grizzlies and wolves and coyotes -- as well as dozens of smaller species -- have been poisoned by the hundreds of thousands. There is ample evidence that the combination of stockmen and federal poisoners has already succeeded in wiping out certain animal populations and endangering others ...
-- Jack Olsen
author of Slaughter the Animals, Poison the Earth
And these eleven western states contain over 90% of all federal lands outside Alaska.
On most rangelands, cattle eat most of the forage (grass and herbage cover) and a good amount of the browse. In fact, cattle alone eat a much greater percentage of the total amount of forage and browse on western rangelands than do all native grazing and browsing animals combined.
Once these lands have been "improved," they must be "managed." Unwanted vegetation (almost anything that isn't grass) is "treated" by burning, spraying with dangerous herbicides, bulldozing, plowing, disking, harrowing, mowing, grubbing, girdling, railing, and just plain cutting and hacking away with chainsaws, axes, machettes, brush hooks, hatchets, pruning shears, switchblades, pocket knives, and potato peelers. There are machines that crush, chop, mow, beat, shred, cut, and otherwise destroy "unwanted" vegetation. Even flame throwers are sanctioned weapons in these brutal battles of botanical extermination and manipulation -- to burn spines off prickly pear cacti so they may be eaten by the ever-hungry cattle.
At any rate, the offending plants must be eradicated by any means necessary. And the results of all this mayhem and devastation are entirely predictable: lost topsoil, destroyed wildlife habitat, dead animals, water-shed destruction, and pollution.
Though livestock may die from any number of causes, if the cause is unknown, stockmen usually blame predators. Very few predator kills are actually seen by people. Yet, when a rancher discovers a coyote, bear, or eagle feeding on a sheep carcass, he commonly assumes it was killed by the predator, though there is a good chance the sheep died from disease, infection, exposure, poisonous plants, or a gunshot wound from a disgruntled hunter. In one study, professional autopsies showed that only 10% of the dead livestock studied were actually killed by predators.
Most Western state government predator "control" agents have gunned down millions of large predators since the early 1900s, including many thousands of stray dogs. With the ban on many predator poisons in 1972, they have stepped up the shooting spree, often using helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft. Typically, aerial predator "control" agents and sportsmen chase coyotes until they drop from exhaustion or roll over and expose their vulnerable underparts in a canine plea for mercy. Or coyotes are lured into the open with helicopter or truck placements of "bait draws." Then they are shot with 12-gauge shotguns or high-powered rifles. These aerial killers are especially deadly in winter, when snow is deep and predators have few places to hide. Many wealthy public ranchers think it great sport to spend the weekend shooting coyotes from their own private aircraft. At least one third of animals shot do not die immediately. Many wounded animals live out their days in agony, dying slowly from infection or starvation. Others are crippled for life. Commonly seen on the Western range are coyotes and other predators with legs, jaws, and other body parts shot off.
When the trapper finally does come by, the animal may suffer more severe pain. Wild animals usually don't die easily, and many are stoned to death or succumb to multiple wounds from a gun, shovel, or club.
In livestock areas, traps are most commonly set for coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, and bears. But traps are indiscriminate. Any animal attracted to the bait or happening by may fall victim. In fact, most reliable studies and expert testimony have shown that between 2/3 and 3/4 of animals trapped are "non-target" species. Casualties include many deer, wolverines, martins, badgers, beaver, opossums, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, rabbits, ringtails, javelina, armadillos, groundhogs, humans, eagles, hawks, owls, vultures, crows, ravens, magpies, wild turkeys, quail, songbirds, kingfishers, tortoises, domestic dogs (frequently) and cats, domestic livestock (!), and others too numerous to list. The federal Animal Damage Control (ADC) Department reported "inadvertently" killing 555 badgers, 1,117 raccoons, and 764 javelina in 1988 (numbers of unreported victims are undoubtedly much higher). Says Dick Randall, a federal predator "control" agent for 10 years, now working to protect wildlife, "my trap victims included bald and golden eagles, a variety of hawks and other birds, rabbits, sage grouse, pet dogs, deer and antelope, badgers, porcupines, sheep and cows."
The 1940s ushered in a whole new era of predator eradication with the introduction of the extremely lethal toxicants thallium sulfate and sodium monofluoroacetate (Compound 1080, or "1080") -- developed in Germany during World War II. They replaced many of the older poisons and soon became widely popular.
Also introduced in the 1940s was a revolutionary, deadly new predator weapon. The "coyote getter" is a pistol cartridge-powered cyanide gun that shoots a puff of deadly sodium cyanide dust into the mouth of any carnivore, omnivore, or carrion-eater that tugs on its scented wick. On contact with the moisture in the animal's mouth (or eyes, or wherever it hits) gas is released and the animal is gassed to death (or blinded). A highly effective killer, the coyote getter quickly gained widespread use. Eventually it was usurped by a newer model, the spring loaded "M-44" coyote getter, which is still used today. Over the years coyote getters have killed countless thousands of predators, non-target animals, and even a few humans.
During the 1950s and 1960s, poisons became the rangeland rage. Contaminated livestock carcasses were routinely left on grazed land across the West. Meat baits tainted with 1080 were placed at six-mile intervals in huge grid patterns over vast areas. From trucks, horses, trail bikes, and airplanes, millions of strychnine-laced tallow pellets were scattered over the Western landscape, even where no livestock grazed. In 1970, the Division of Wildlife Services alone set out 10,800 Compound 1080 baits, 805,000 strychnine baits, and 32,933 coyote getters. According to government-calculated toxic kill patterns, just these 1080 baits alone were estimated to be sufficient to poison 248,832,000 acres for coyote "control" -- an area 2.5 times the size of California. Other federal agencies, states, counties, and ranchers waged their own, even more secretive poison wars.
These deadly poisons took their toll on much more than predators. Wildlife experts estimate that more than 2/3 of poison kills are non-target animals. Of course, to a large degree, results depend on the skill of the handler, and some poisons are more specific than others. But relatively speaking, most predator poisons are indiscriminate. And most were over-applied irresponsibly and often illegally.
Millions of non-target animals have been killed, including scavengers such as crows, ravens, jays, magpies, eagles, hawks, badgers, weasels, mink, raccoons, ground squirrels, bears, dogs (including sheep dogs) and cats, and any other animal attracted to dead meat. For example, poisons, traps, and degradation of habitat by livestock were chiefly responsible for extirpating the wolverine from more than 2/3 of its native range.
Opposition to range poisons grew during the 1960s and early 1970s, chiefly as part of the growing environmental movement. Thallium sulfate, nonspecific and slow to kill, was finally banned in 1967. Predator exterminators turned to 1080. But 1080 is little better. According to one source, "The symptoms of 1080 poisoning appear in from 30 minutes to two hours and are characterized by severe convulsions. Death ensues in two to three hours and there is no known antidote." Less than 1/500 of an ounce will kill a grown human. So potent is 1080 that, like DDT, it can kill as many as five animals in a bioaccumulative chain reaction. Finally in 1972, after the highly publicized 1080 deaths of many eagles in Wyoming, President Nixon signed an executive order halting the use of all poisons to kill predators on federal land. Unfortunately, rancher Ronald Reagan eagerly rescinded the order in 1982, reinstating the use of sodium cyanide and 1080 in sheep collars -- a "trial balloon" for 1080. The grazing industry is the main force behind the effort to bring 1080 back into general use, and under a sympathetic George Bush this may soon be the case.
Poison advocates argue that toxins are a humane alternative for killing predators. Yet often predators and, especially, non-target victims, don't eat enough poison to die "quickly" and instead suffer for hours, days, or weeks. They may wander the landscape in torment or writhe on the ground, wracked by pain, gradually dying. Even under the best of circumstances, most poisons cause agonizing pain before death.
Perhaps as important as any large herbivore to pre-livestock Western grassland and semi-grassland was the prairie dog. Belittled as a destructive "pest" by ranchmen, in reality, it is (was) one of the industry's foremost competitors. The rodents were a key food for countless millions of predators, including coyotes, wolves, foxes, eagles, hawks, owls, badgers, bobcats and snakes. Their burrows aerated the soil, helped water infiltrate to lower levels and conserve moisture, prepare seedbeds, spread seeds, and create a diversity of conditions, thereby increasing fire, biotic, and zoological diversity and thus, ecosystem stability. But all this ended with the livestock invasion.
After World War II, the prairie dog "control" program became a lustful, massive campaign of genocide against these peaceful creatures. Billions of gophers, squirrels, rabbits, mice, seed-eating birds, insects, and microbes died along with the billions of prairie dogs in widespread poisoning campaigns. The black-footed ferret was so dependent upon prairie dogs that it is now among the most endangered mammal species on Earth. Tens of billions of prairie dogs have been killed in the ranching industry's massive secret war, but the massacre continues. Because the industry controls nearly all prairie dog habitat, prairie dog numbers remain minuscule (from original populations of 5-10 billion), and the black-footed ferret faces extinction.
The wild horse is another victim of this industry gone amok. Since 1973, about 100,000 horses and burros have been taken from the range and "adopted." But, the adoption market is now saturated, and more than 10,000 animals are being held in federal corrals (some for four years) where, according to many sources, food, treatment and conditions in general are poor. Rather than reducing the number of cattle on public lands, the Bureau of Land Management (or the Bureau of "Livestock" Management), has proposed that these "unadoptable" thousands be killed or auctioned off en masse.
Thirty thousand stockmen are spread evenly across Western public lands, and the vast majority of them kill predators, competitors, and other animals they view as pests or no-goods -- with guns, traps, poisons, dogs, trucks, boots, and whatever means available. By now, you may wonder if there are any wild animals that stockmen don't consider enemies, or treat like enemies. Reportedly, there are: aardvarks and penguins.
-- Lynn Jacobs
author of Waste of the West: Public Lands Ranching
Fueled by easy and inaccurate rationalizations, the campaign against the coyote and other predators continues. Brigades of government trappers and divisions of private poisoners attack on every flank with poisons and guns and gas and traps, and in the process, numberless carcasses of innocent animals are left strewn about to destroy still other innocent animals. Few Americans even know that the war is going on, and most of those who know about it watch helplessly, or ask one another nonchalantly: Does it really matter if we kill all the coyotes, bears, lions, bobcats, wolves?
Perhaps the question may not be answered to everyone's satisfaction until the last wild beast is dead. All over the world, humans are busily annihilating animal species, but we have never learned how to create a single one. What then, if it turns out that men like the late Joseph Wood Krutch were right? Krutch said: "It is not a sentimental but a grimly literal fact that unless we share this terrestrial globe with creatures other than ourselves, we shall not be able to live on it for long." Being a practical people, we seem determined to test this thesis by practical means, to shoot and poison, club and gas our wild animals, toxify our environment, kill the pests and the fungi and the bugs, and reorder the planet in our own image.
Within a few decades, the last mountain lion will be gone. Bears and bobcats will hold out longer, because there are many more of them, and the wise and canny coyotes will outlast all the other large predators. But unless there are massive changes in the American West, unless the livestock lobbies and the federal poisoners release their myths and prejudices, the day will come when the last weak and sickened coyote will drag itself to its feet and lift its voice to the skies, and there will be no answer. Then the graceful animal that Paul Maxwell called "the smartest and best nature-balancer ever put on the face of this earth" will disappear into the silence of eternity.
We animals of the earth are a single family, and the death of one only hurries the others toward the final patch of darkness.
-- Jack Olsen
author of Slaughter the Animals, Poison the Earth
The following organizations work to eliminate or reform public lands ranching. They advocate more or less total abolition of federal lands grazing. The last organization addresses the Animal Damage Control program.
Free Our Public Lands!
Lynn Jacobs (contact)
PO Box 5784
Tucson, AZ 85703
(602) 578-3173
Public Lands Action Network
PO Box S631
Santa Fe, NM 87502
(505) 984-1428
Ranching Task Force
Linda Wells (contact)
PO Box 41652
Tucson, AZ 85717
(602) 327-9973
Rest the West
Bruce Apple (contact)
PO Box 68345
Portland, OR 97268
(503) 645-6293, 653-9781
Wildlife Damage Review
PO Box 2541
Tucson, AZ 85702
(602) 882-4218
"Our goal is the elimination of the Animal Damage
Control program as it currently operates."