Who knew that another long-standing government scandal could be so funny?
Not me. I am too busy wiping away tears from laughing so hard.
by Jim Beers
I was in 7th grade riding my bicycle one summer evening to a small country store about a half mile from my Illinois home. My mother needed some groceries and an old neighbor lady needed some pimentos and a newspaper, if any were left and priced down when I got there.
About half way there, as I passed a large hedge of lilacs, a neighbor’s chow dog tore out of the hedge and began chasing me. As I pedaled hard the smallish dog came along side and lunged at my leg and took a chunk out of my pants and cut my left leg just below the knee. There were no laws about such things then and neighbors had a way of working them out. Suffice it to say, that dog never again came at me.
When I worked in Utah on a bird refuge 50 years ago with farms on one side and the Great Salt Lake on the other, there was a problem with two mongrel dogs chasing cars on a gravel road. I heard one evening that they had chased a boy on his bike. Two days later I heard that one of the dogs was found dead on the road and the other was found dead in a field. One evening as I helped one of those farmers put up hay bales, I asked what had happened to those dogs. He smiled and said one had his neck broken as someone drove by with a burlap bag attached to his wheel/hubcap. It seems that dogs love to “chase” cars and bikes and to try and bite at them as they do so. The dog found on the road had tried to bite the whirling bag and was instantly twisted around and slammed onto the road. As to the other dog, the farmer told me it either ate the anti-freeze someone had put out for it or the bacon fat and ground sponge that reputedly another fellow had put out for the dog that was getting too close to biting some kid in the community.
I thought of these past dog/community conflicts as I read the news of late. December 2012: “Wolf Gashes Alaska Trapper Riding on a Snowmobile.” July 2013: “Bicyclist Chased and Attacked by Wolf on the Alaskan Highway 60 miles West of Watson Lake.”
Wolves, just like their domestic cousins known as “our” dogs, love to chase things. Don’t the wolf protectors all agree you should never “run from” a wolf or pack of wolves or a cougar for that matter? Whether you credit this behavior to some “automatic response” or some humanly understandable reasoned reaction is immaterial. Wolves, like dogs chase things. Whether they “enjoy” chasing bicycles, motorcycles, snowmobiles or cars; is immaterial. Whether they are trying to “catch” food; is immaterial as well. The point is that when wolves
“catch” “it”; like that chow that bit me on my bike 60 years ago; they bite and try to kill the rider just as happened to the schoolteacher/jogger on the Alaskan Peninsula a few short years ago.
So add one more common sense caution to rural Americans being forced to live with wolves foisted upon them by urban radicals, amoral bureaucrats and pandering politicians. Add one more belated caution like the other ones never mentioned and when mentioned laughed at by this Triumvirate of Evil such as:
- The destruction of big game herds and the hunting industry, recreation and traditional culture in rural America.
- The steady elimination of American Cattle and Sheep ranching in general and grazing management on “public” lands.
- The 30 + diseases and infections that wolves carry and spread from rabies, distemper, parvo and deadly tapeworms to brucellosis, anthrax, foot-and-mouth, smallpox, plague, Neospora caninum (an abortifacient), Mad Cow Disease and Chronic Wasting Disease.
- The growing death and injury to pet dogs, herding dogs, hunting dogs, watchdogs and show dogs.
- Wolves probing children at school bus stops and enroute to and from residences.
Add to all this, the very real danger of wolves from the part of the world federal thieves trapped the wolves let loose in The Upper Rockies 15 + years ago. Though it is not the “kind” of wolf or the “subspecies” of wolf or “population” of wolves or the “distinct population segment” of wolves or the size of wolf or the sex of wolf or the ager of the wolf: IT IS ANY WOLF! Any wolf will chase a bicyclist or jogger or a vehicle like a snowmobile or motorcycle. ALL WOLVES will do the same thing if they catch “it”.
As wolves get more habituated in the settled landscape of the Lower 48 States and as population densities go up and as wolf “control” is fought at every turn by that Triumvirate of Evil mentioned above; such incidents will be more likely and become more common. Who will be responsible? Not the radicals or their organizations. Not the amoral bureaucrats. Not the pandering politicians. It will be the parents that let the kids take his bike to the neighbors. It will be the kids that didn’t “behave” correctly. It will be be the fellow that didn’t use the proper garbage can lid. It will be the rancher that didn’t put in his livestock at night. It will be global warming or some “scientific” discovery that the bureaucrats will pay with tax money to blame it on.
How far we have deteriorated from our American predecessors that wisely removed and controlled the wolves; from the neighbors and farmers of yore that wisely treated problem dogs and wolves just as what they are – threats to communities that are best handled by those affected that are protected by the Local governments elected by them and charged with the welfare of the Local community. Failure to exert and protect that moral and legal authority has led us to this nightmare perpetrated by a Triumvirate of Evil that must be stood up to or much more than a Nation will be lost.
Jim Beers
16 July 2013
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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. You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to: jimbeers7@comcast.net