S O U N D   O F F

December 21, 2007

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17419
 
The above link goes to a slick glossy article written by High Country News writer John Dougherty.  It begins with an attempt to divert the very real incidents of severe habituation that occurred at the home of Mike and Debbie Miller where they work as ranch hands on the adobe ranch in SW New Mexico, the incidences occurred throughout 2006 and 2007.  The author accuses Mike Miller of deliberately baiting the Durango pack wolves in order to let them kill cows. 

I know the Millers, They are friends and good neighbors.  Our kids have been pals for about 7 years they are nice people.  This is such a sickening portrayal of their family and them as individuals that I can't believe this rag and this pathetic excuse for a writer much less a reporter, can be allowed in a decent society to get away with this. 

Mike and Debbie and Micah not only do not deserve this treatment but neither do they deserve to have FWS coming down on them and investigating them due to this author's fraudulent interpretation of their management of the livestock on the ranch or their comments to him.
 
   If John Morgart has indeed swallowed this lie, and begun an investigation against them then he should be investigated as well for deliberately putting the children of this community in harms way by not allowing management of these animals.  What is he thinking?  How can he be allowed to do this?

Laura
 
The following are excerpts from the article and they aren't even the worst of the fraudulent accusations in it.      My comments are in bold below. 
 
'It's uncertain exactly how many cattle Mexican wolves kill each year, but scientists have a good understanding of what the wild wolves generally eat - and beef is far down the menu. A peer-reviewed study of wild Mexican gray wolf scat found that the wolves' diet consists of 73 percent elk, 16 percent other ungulates, 5 percent small mammals and 4 percent cattle, with the remainder coming from birds, insects and vegetation. The amount of beef in their diet includes meat scavenged from carcasses as well as livestock killed by wolves.' 
 
This so called peer reviewed study was conducted in 2002 and with wolf pack that was nowhere near a livestock operation and only on a region where no cows were present.  When offered scat from an area near this collection site that was from Mexican wolves with a cow herd, the student conducting the study refused it.  That scat, later analyzed showed mostly domestic cow in it.  This information was made available by FWS on their scoping posters as legitimate current information.  It is obvious to me that the USFWS is compliant in offering misinformation to this writer and has participated in deliberate liable against Mike and Debbie Miller in cooperation with HCN.   

'When told about Miller's comments, John Morgart, the Fish and Wildlife Service's Mexican gray wolf recovery program coordinator, said he had never before heard or seen evidence of such a thing. Morgart says he has asked federal criminal investigators to look into Miller's actions in the matter.'

OK now John Morgart is taking a slanted biased article written by an agenda driven and obviously deceptive writer and using it to open another investigation into the Miller family?  How is that legitimate?

'But ranchers, particularly in Catron County, have made it clear that they have no intention of giving up their grazing rights without a fight. Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service employees as well as environmentalists routinely face thinly veiled threats, and there is a palpable fear that violence could break out if the government tries to force the ranchers off the land. Armed ranchers on ATVs routinely patrol Forest Service roads in Catron County, tracking wolves with radio receivers provided by the Fish and Wildlife Service.'
 
This is just not even true how can HCN get away with that statement no one has threatened anyone out here.  Not once.  I have been threatened by one of the green horde and public ally maligned and intimidated but no one out here is running around with weapons and monitors this is completely fabricated. 

Laura Schneberger