Wild animals are being mismanaged and put at risk by conservation departments and law enforcement agencies. Increasingly, wild animals are being forced to be around people because of loss of habitat. Too often, displaced bears, deer and other wild animals end up in the back yards of fanatics who only want to kill them.
Conservation agencies are trying to bring back populations of black bears and other wild animals, but they are not providing a suitable habitat for these animals; as a result, a lot of conflicts are occurring between wild animals and people. There are too many trigger-happy people who will go out of their way to kill wild animals..
The statistics can attest to the growing crisis that wild animals are facing just by being around people:
- A “hysterical” woman in northern Idaho shot a grizzly bear for just being in her yard.
- In Colorado, two black bears were euthanized just because they were coming around people.
- Another fanatic in Colorado shot two black bear cubs with a shotgun, killing one and severely wounding the other.
- In Burlington, Connecticut the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) euthanized two black bears just because they thought the bears were aggressive.
- In Canada, law enforcement officials shot and killed five black bears just because they were trying to find out which one had attacked a human!
Wild animals are being persecuted, maimed and killed by too many people who don’t want them around and are afraid of them. The government and state conservation departments are inviting this trouble by not providing the wild animals with a place of their own away from people. A lot more wild animal preserves need to be established.
Aside from forcing wild animals and people to be together, the officials are making other major mistakes in dealing with wild animals. There is a “euthanasia” program where the authorities put down all wild animals that are involved in attacks on people.
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In Florida, officials have planned to use “jelly rolls” to trap a black bear so they can euthanize it just because they think the bear threatened a person. Wild animals should not be killed even if they attack people. These animals know nothing about man-made laws and are not guilty of committing crimes; they should be live trapped and relocated in refuges away from people.
Bears and alligators are the wild animals that are most often euthanized, and far too many of these animals have been put down. The excuse that the authorities use to justify their barbaric killings is that they think the animals will attack people again. This excuse is not good enough since the animals can be live trapped and relocated in wild animal preserves where people are in no danger.
On the morbid subject of euthanasia, the authorities have made the mistake of treating wild animals like domestic animals. Cats and dogs are man-made problems; they have become so over-populated that officials euthanize them because they don’t know what else to do with them! The cats and dogs problem has been caused strictly by man’s interference with nature.
Wild animals won’t become over-populated if natural predators are allowed and should not be euthanized. In fact, in a well-balanced ecosystem, the predators and prey among wild animals have their numbers kept under control by the natural laws of nature; it is only the human kind of hunters that interfere with this process.
It is obvious that the people who are in charge of wildlife management are not looking out for the welfare of wild animals. These officials are far more interested in promoting hunters and the sports industry than in providing protection for wild animals. They follow a protocol that is detrimental to wild animals everywhere.
There can be no justice for wild animals until the laws are changed. For too long, people have abused wild animals. Too many wild animals have become extinct just because fanatics with guns and other deadly weapons have killed them. It is past due time for a change. The unrestrained killing of innocent wild animals must be stopped!
--Marlin O. Wallace
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