(Update: Farmers and Ranchers Win Battle for Safe Farms FCUSA commentary with reference to release of personal information on farmers, ranchers under Freedom of Information Act; Sept. 30, 2002)

Good Shepherds, Sheep, Predators and Seasons of Good Will

By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, FCUSA

Ah, the holidays. What a lovely, peaceful season. Menorahs and manger scenes appear everywhere. Christians repeat the story of re-creation, of how the Creator of All was born on Earth as a human baby. Born in a barn, laid in a manger, a livestock feed trough, no less! Surrounding this Child were the sheep, goats and cattle, domesticated animals on which we all depend. Since we were all once farmers, herders, hunters and fishermen, this same Child grew to be a man who spoke in the terms of his day. He told us how he cares for humanity by using the analogy of a good shepherd caring for his flock:

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me." [John 10: 11, 14]

Good Shepherds, Bad Policy

Locked in an ageless drama, the shepherd is legendary for protecting his flock from threats, including predators.(1) Innovative shepherds have bred dogs specifically for this chore. But predators are innovative too. Coyotes and wolves use pack strategies to lure guard animals away from sheep and kill them, then the sheep. Frustrated shepherds have tried fences, electricity, traps, noise devices and poisoned bait. In spite of these efforts, out of the 7.2 million sheep raised in the US, over half a million sheep and lambs are killed by predators annually, over 1,400 animals per day. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, coyotes are responsible for over 60% of total predator kills on domesticated sheep.(2)

Beyond coyotes and sheep, wildlife conflicts involve wolves, bears, lions, deer, rodents, birds, a host of critters. Incidents are varied and include impacts on endangered plants and animals by non-native species, water fouled by fecal matter, damage to habitat, crops, landscaping, buildings, vehicles and even aircraft. The International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies gives a low estimate of the cost of deer/auto collisions (70,000 in Michigan, 40,000 in Pennsylvania each year!) at $1 billion annually, without taking into consideration the loss of human and animal life.(3) Wildlife can and does kill humans, livestock and our pets, directly and indirectly. Diseases carried by common rodents (rats, mice, beavers, nutria, etc.) include hantavirus, salmonella, histoplasmosis, giardia, murine typhus fever, leptospirosis, trichinosis and the plague which devastated Europe in the 14th century, killing some 25 million individuals.(4) Clearly wildlife control is a matter of human, animal and habitat health.

While people rely on non-lethal tools as their first line of defense in all the above instances, these methods are not a cure-all for all situations. For example, billions of rats and mice are killed annually to protect people, our homes and foodstuffs. In the US, wildlife is publicly owned, therefore the public shares a responsibility in controlling wildlife. Wildlife Services, a nationwide predator-management program, is a joint private, state and federally funded program designed to reduce problems created when wildlife damage agricultural, urban and natural resources or threaten public health and safety.(5)

New Age/New West Predators

The new age conflict industry has chosen man's eternal struggle with wildlife conflicts as a high-profile issue.(6) We have seen examples of their interest in campaigns to ban hunting, trapping and other wildlife management tools and even proposed product labels that would list methods which may (or may not) have been used to kill the animal involved.(7)

Another twist on attacks on animal control programs has surfaced under the auspices of New West Research (NWR), a "non-profit public interest research project based in Santa Fe, New Mexico" and led by a woman appropriately named Pat Wolff. According to NWR's website, their "fiscal sponsor is the Zuni Mountain Coalition, a 501(c)(3) non-profit environmental education organization" which lists a Mary Lou Jones as President. Jones is editor of the Green Party News. The New Mexico Green Party's platform states, "Our Party's first priority is to 'value-based politics', in contrast to the politics of exploitation, consumption, and non-sustainable competition."(8) There is no definition of "value-based politics" on the site.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, NWR obtained the names and addresses of all New Mexicans who have asked Wildlife Services to control wildlife, both lethally and non-lethally, for whatever reason. NWR took these names and addresses, 25 pages of full contact information on anyone in New Mexico who has participated in the wildlife control program, and posted it to a website entitled "Hall of Shame." Topping the list is the quote, "The Earth is not dying - it is being killed. And the people killing it have names and addresses,"(9) implying that generational ranchers and sheepherders are somehow killing the Earth. More an indictment against where the "New" West is going, NWR's Hall of Shame is the world's very first hit list for shepherds.

Hit Lists of Resource Providers and Others

Fur farmers are familiar with this tactic. The Final Nail: Destroying the Fur Industry - A Guided Tour(10) has been posted for years on the Internet, introduced by the same quote: "The Earth is not dying - it is being killed. And the people killing it have names and addresses." The Final Nail lists farm addresses for fur farmers and, since fur farms are predominantly family-owned, those addresses are the home addresses of small family farmers.

The Final Nail includes chapters entitled "Maximum Destruction NOT Minimum Damage", "Smashing the Furriers" and three chapters on incendiary devices.

Extremists have used these addresses to coordinate midnight raids on farms, releasing, then abandoning, domesticated animals to become roadkill. These terrorists have mailed razor blades and death threats to farms where children routinely fetch the mail. They have used the information in The Final Nail to build incendiary devices and commit arson.

Fur farmers in one state recently discovered a list with detailed directions to their homes/farms circulating on the Internet. "I have spent a very long time compiling this list and hope that it will help," reads the introduction to the list. "Of course, I AM NOT ENCOURAGING ILLEGAL ACTIONS BY THE RECIPINET [sic] OF THIS EMAIL!! The location of many of these farms have not been published in the Final Nail. However, they can not hide! After releasing this information the security may increase at these farms, but the information must be published. So, without further do..."

Another group has published the names of Virginians working with the government to control Canada geese, which are so populous (increasing from 800,000 to over 5 million in 30 years) they are destroying their tundra habitat.(11) Also circulating out there are the famous hit lists published by various ecoterror groups, one of which is credited for some of the Unabomber's selection of targets, three of whom died. The Unabomber's final target had retired a year earlier, but the package bomb was opened by Gilbert Murray of the California Forestry Association. Murray was killed instantly.(12)

Giving new meaning to the phrase "compassion is the fashion", in 1998 in England the Animal Rights Militia published a hit list of 10 people who work with lab animals who would be executed if incarcerated animal rights bomber Barry Horne died during a hunger strike. Horne lived but gave an endless series of deathbed interviews to publicize his beliefs. Attacks on medical researchers continue.

Physicians providing abortions were targeted in 1997 when their photos and home addresses were posted on the Internet, with a graphic of dripping blood on the home page. Doctors who were injured were listed in gray text; those who died were crossed out. The site gained attention in October 1998 when a physician was slain in his New York home and his name was crossed out soon after.

Shortly after, the issue went to court. In February 1999, a Portland, Oregon jury "ruled that materials produced by the defendants constituted a 'true threat' against the lives and safety of abortion providers. The 'Wanted' posters and 'The Nuremburg Files' website publicize the names, home and work addresses, and other personal information of doctors who provide abortions - using terror and intimidation to stop individuals from providing safe, legal abortions for women who choose this procedure."(13)

Lois Backus, executive director of Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette (PPCW), commented on the ruling, "[T]his verdict means that these extremists cannot hide behind the First Amendment when they advocate the killing of abortion providers. PPCW has always been a strong supporter of freedom of speech. Anti-choice extremists have every right to believe how they do about abortion. But our court system has long held that 'true threats' are not constitutionally protected forms of speech. The jury rightfully decided that these terrorists crossed that line and truly endangered the plaintiffs' lives."

Farm Bureau Fights Back

In response to the posting of farmers' names and addresses by non-profit groups embracing menacing tactics, the American Farm Bureau Foundation (AFBF) has gone to court. AFBF president Dean Kleckner said any release by our government of private information about farmers and ranchers participating in federal predator control or grazing programs will not be tolerated.

"Clearly, this type of harassment violates the confidence we place in our government to properly administer its programs," he said. "Disclosure of personal information by USDA and other government agencies directly threatens the privacy and confidentiality of every producer in this country. We will use our resources to ensure a swift end to this trampling of our rights."

On Nov. 4, a federal judge agreed with AFBF and ordered the Agriculture Department to temporarily halt the release of private information about participants in the wildlife control program.(14)

Now, where is the Internal Revenue Service in all this? Shouldn't groups that threaten the safety of the public lose their non-profit status? Although eco-terrorists and thugs are generally considered out of the mainstream, groups operating with non-profit status are supposed to work for the public benefit, not circulate thinly veiled threats masquerading as information.(15)

Animals Around Us

As the winter temperature plummets, we choose warm fabrics made from animals: waterproof leathers and sheepskin boots, cozy wool sweaters and fur outerwear. The animals we depend on are all around us all year but during winter we can really feel their presence. Ever since humans, the hairless apes, arrived on Earth, we have used animal hair, wool, skins and pelts to protect us from the elements. For the people of the fur trade, a favorite passage from the Bible is:

"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them." [Genesis, 3:21]

In the year 2000, since we still require clothing and since animal-based products remain a solid choice, can we return to civil remedies to our disagreements and forego tactics that eventually escalate into hate and violence? Can we emulate the Good Shepherd?

Can we practice all year what we preach this season: Peace on Earth. Good will toward men.

NOTES:

(1) California 4-H Club members tell of their experiences raising sheep at www.ics.uci.edu/~pazzani/4H/Sheep.html

(2) American Sheep Industry Association; www.sheepusa.org. See FAST FACTS: On US Sheep Losses Due to Predators. Losses calculated by NASS at www.fedstats.gov/key_stats/NASSkey.html

(3) See the report Bears in the Backyard, Deer in the Driveway from the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. See also a commentary on this report by the Fur Institute of Canada.

(4) Diseases Carried by Commensal Rodents; www.netside.net/~jb/images/diseases.html and see Wildlife Diseases at www.wildlifedamagecontrol.com/animaldiseases.htm

(5) American Sheep Industry Association and USDA Wildlife Services' National Wildlife Research Center

(6) See Audubon Magazine's Management by Majority

(7) See Beverly Hills Labeling Initiative

(8) Oddly enough, the platform states, "We trust in NONVIOLENCE as a weapon of PEACE. We understand the right of self-defense yet believe we must move beyond behavior that perpetuates violence. We oppose structural and direct violence of all kinds - assaults against individuals, families, the environment and biosphere, nations and society."

(9) The quote is from U Utah Phillips, folk singer and self-described Wobblie, famous for riding the rails and the song, "Hallelujah I'm a Bum"; www.wco.com/~dragon22/uutah.html.

(10) The Final Nail, as distributed by Animal Liberation Frontline News Service; www.enviroweb.org/ALFIS/index2.html and www.enviroweb.org/ALFIS/finalnail/

(11) Washington Times, Nov. 12, 1999, "Clinton to OK slaughter of geese; Voracious birds are destroying their habitat in Canada" by Audrey Hudson.

(12) Earth First! hit list/Kazcinski links appeared in 1996 on ABC Evening News (Apr. 5), on "This Week With David Brinkley" (Apr. 7), in a NY Times story by Neil MacFarquahar (Apr. 8) and in a USA Today column by Linda Chavez (Apr. 10), among other places.

(13) For information on the Nuremburg Trial see www.ppcw.org/news/nuremberg.asp

(14) American Farm Bureau Foundation press release; www.fb.com/news/nr/nr99/nr1104

(15) Should Conflict Generation Be Rewarded by Non-Profit Benefits? FCUSA commentary, Aug. 13, 1998.

See also:

Livestock Predator FAQ

Teresa Platt, executive director of Fur Commission USA, represents 400 mink-farming families, and serves on the boards of the National Animal Interest Alliance and Alliance for America, groups working to restore people and common sense to the environmental equation. For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 575-5578/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com.

To take a cyber-tour of a fur farm, visit Fur Commission USA's Fur on Film at http://www.furcommission.com/video/index.htm

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