A BWANA GUARDIAN

Take a minute and visualize a mountain lion hunt for me. Mountain lions are tracked for hours by hounds and chased into trees. The hounds keep the defenseless animal hugging onto the tree for dear life and the “fearless hunter” simply performs the execution.  For the cat, it is a long, frightening experience that ends with underserving death. For the hunter, it is a long, cowardly experience that ends with an inedible carcass and a photograph.

If you’re looking for such a Bwana, Dan Richards is your huckleberry. After completing a mountain lion hunt this winter, the NRA card carrying Fish and Game Commission [FGC] President said he’s “glad it’s legal in Idaho.” That is, because, it’s illegal in California. Which Richards well knows, considering his office is in charge of protecting the species.

Shortly after World War I, mountain lion trophy hunting exploded in California. For the following 50 years, California led the nation in mountain lion kills [nearly 12,500 total]. California had long ago lost its wolf and grizzly bear populations, and with the big cats on the ropes, Governor Reagan imposed a five-year moratorium on mountain lion hunting in 1972 [yes, that Reagan]. The State Legislature extended the moratorium twice, before it became law in 1990 with the passing Proposition 117. The FGC went up in arms over the new law; they joined forces with the NRA and invited California voters to rescind the ban in 1996. The voters declined the invitation, by a landslide.

And so the FGC grudgingly manages California’s mountain lion population. Although state law requires the FGC to electronically disseminate lion management strategies, they have yet to comply in 22 years. Permits to kill lions are available, and seemingly granted to any owner of livestock in the state. The FGC’s agents in the Department of Fish and Game [DFG] jump at the opportunity to kill a lion; when a cat wanders into an urban setting, a warden’s standard recourse is destruction rather than relocation. This is the FGC’s idea of guardianship.

So what’s the utility of hunting mountain lions? It certainly isn’t for their tasty meat. FGC officials cite public safety and livestock protection when permitting kills. The ban’s opposition claims mountain lion numbers should be slashed so as to preserve the other wildlife. They vilify the mountain lions and warn of imminent, irreversible damage to deer populations[1].

Mountain lions are not gluttonous villains. Statistics show that lions aren’t driving deer populations to the brink of extinction or bankrupting the livestock supply [see footnote 1]. As for the public safety argument? Lions might be apex predators, but they evade human interaction, regardless of how far we push into their turf. You see, mountain lions are elusive for a reason: We are the predators.

This past year, a whistleblower revealed that Tejon Ranch hunting guides are customarily killing mountain lions to ensure greater elk takes. The whistleblower was a hunting guide himself, and testified to personally witnessing 20 mountain lion poachings in the past five years. The DFG conducted a 10-month investigation and ultimately slapped Tejon Ranch on the wrist to the tune of $136,500[2]. In the near future, Tejon Ranch is set to begin an urbanization project, with plans to build over 26,000 homes. When a lion strays out of its habitat and into the new neighborhood, you can bet that an eager warden will be there with a high-powered rifle. What’s a moratorium anyway? Ask Dan Richards.

There’s a fundamental difference between Richards and myself, and it’s not just the Wranglers and Carharts in his wardrobe. Our current FGC President believes that you can protect one species simply by killing off another. I won’t kill an animal; the only thing I’d shoot one with is a camera. If we’re going to protect a species, we need to do so through broad preservation of resources and wildlife, not systematic executions.

Through statements, actions, and omissions, Dan Richards, the FGC, and the DFG have proven that they are unwilling to fully enforce the moratorium. I agree with Lt. Governor Newsome and the 40 members of our state Assembly who have called for Richards’ resignation. But that’s not enough. If the Commission and the DFG are unwilling to enforce the will of the voters, each agency should be gutted and realigned. They’re supposed to be wilderness advocates, not antagonists, you know.

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[1] This is all very ironic, of course. Mountain lions eat one large animal per week, at most. The common legal excuse to kill one is not preservation of deer populations, but retaliation for attacks on livestock. According to current DFG statistics, deer populations are stable and even increasing in many of the state’s regions. The regions experiencing decline are limited to traditional wilderness areas. The DFG has attributed this to the post-WWII opening of National Forests to logging, and the expansion of urbanization on the slopes of the Sierras. Such urban expanse, states the DFG, has nearly eliminated the potential to restore these habitats. So if we’re going to execute the culprits behind the deer population woes, we’re going to need a lot of coffins.

[2] This number is low. Since the approval of Prop 117, the punishment for killing a single mountain lion is one year in county jail, up to a $100,000 fine, or both. 

HOW TO ARGUE ABOUT THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE WITH A REPUBLICAN

It’s well known that the Republican Governor from Nebraska, Dave Heineman, was one of the first power brokers to publicly inject himself into Keystone XL debate. The surprise was that he was demanding President Obama deny TransCanada the right to construct its massive oil pipeline. It was a surprise because of the Governor’s political affiliation, but it should not have been.

TransCanada plans to build Keystone XL from Montana to Texas, through the Sandhills territory of Nebraska. The Sandhills territory is a delicate wetland ecosystem, distinct from other grasslands of the Midwest. Sandhills is home to wildlife preserves, riparian waterways, and protected vertebrate species. But that’s not why laying pipe is the problem. Subjacent to the Sandhills is the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest sources of potable groundwater in the United States.

The complexities of pipeline construction are great, and I don’t pretend to fully appreciate half of them. But it is undisputable that eventually, all pipelines leak. If Keystone XL passes through Ogallala, it will contaminate the aquifer. Once the aquifer is contaminated, it’s gone.

This is serious business for Nebraska. Think about it, what does Nebraska do? Statewide it has two distinct industries: beef and corn, both of which depend heavily on water availability. Indeed, it has been shown that, on average, it requires 5,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef.

The implications on the potential destruction of the corn crop are alarming. In order to import foreign oil we could wipe out one of our largest sources of biofuel. That doesn’t sound like energy independence to me.

And all along I thought Republicans were upset about our dependence on foreign energy. If that were the case, this would be a great time to prove it. Deny the import of foreign oil in favor of preserving our future in domestic biofuel production.

Update: Predictably, Governor Heineman has flip-flopped. He is working on a re-route for the project to bypass the Sandhills, which President Obama will likely permit. 

Meatless March

It’s been over 100 years since Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, but his protagonist wouldn’t know the difference if it was written today. The atrocities that we read about in our high school English classes continue, thanks in large to high public demand for meat and the industrial nature of US slaughterhouses.

Slaughterhouse employees strain to keep up with kill quotas, and as a result they make mistakes. Animals that are not rendered unconscious by “knocking” machines are routinely beaten to death on kill-floors as they fight for their lives. Animals that are rendered unconscious, but do not bleed out, are routinely disemboweled before they are killed. The industry custom in bovine slaughterhouses is to sever the spinal cords of cows that aren’t killed on the line. This is not to bestow a quick death, but to paralyze the animal so that it’s skin can be removed without a fight. The swine industry is no better; pigs that survive the line are stabbed and dunked into scalding baths, where their skin peels off as they drown.

Scalding baths are also employed in the poultry industry. Before the birds make it to the baths, they pass through a chopping machine. This machine is meant to decapitate the birds, but can miss and hit the torso instead. A bird with its torso split won’t die instantly; it drowns in the bath, but not until its wound has released gastric juices and fecal matter for the bird to drown in.

Can you imagine worse deaths? Anyone who has ever owned a pet should know that animals experience a vast array of emotions. Their life experiences are not much different from ours; indeed, we are animals, too. You, your dog, and the animals on feedlots all experience curiosity, joy, fear, and pain. Animals are just as capable of suffering as we are.

After The Jungle was published Congress enacted the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA). FMIA requires that an animal be inspected both before and after slaughter. FMIA also regulates sanitary requirements for slaughterhouses, and provides the USDA with the authority to monitor daily slaughterhouse operations. Unfortunately the US meat industry is so wealthy that it counters regulations with some of Washington DC’s strongest lobbyists. USDA inspectors have little power to enforce regulations, and even less incentive. When slaughterhouse operators are punished for violations, the punishments are slight and the gruesome killing continues.

As long as the public at large financially supports the US meat industry, the status quo will go on. The strongest message you can send is with your wallet. I humbly request that you do not reward the US meat industry with your hard earned money, but that you punish the industry for its unacceptable, inhumane practices, and join me in boycotting the business of meat for the entire month of March.