13 year old girl has to pack pistol to protect herself from wolves planted in yard
Following this article is a note from "Laura Schneberger," a young mother whose family
has been threatened by Wolves planted on their ranch in Gila Forest.
Laura's neighbor - 13 year old Micah Miller, has to pack a pistol just to protect herself while
doing chores on their ranch. How many 13 year olds do you know, who has to do this
just to survive another government paid for folly?
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Southern Bureau
LAS CRUCES- The suspicious disappearance of the three-member Durango wolf pack is the latest blow to the endangered Mexican gray wolf recovery program in southwestern New Mexico.
The pack, including two adults outfitted with radio collars that continue to transmit even if the wolf is dead, hasn't been detected since early this month.
"We couldn't find them," said Elizabeth Slown, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Now their fate is considered unknown. ... It's perplexing. You could see one collar malfunctioning, but this would have to be two collars malfunctioning."
Advocates of the program say it is suspicious for several wolves to suddenly go undetected after weeks of searches.
The Catron County commission on Nov. 7 warned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it planned to trap the Durango pack's alpha male, known as AM973, which the county considered a "dangerous wolf" because it had repeatedly gone near a home on the Adobe Ranch in northern Catron County.
"I would say it (the pack's disappearance) is both worrisome and unusual," said Dave Parsons, a conservation biologist with the Albuquerque-based Rewilding Institute and the former Fish and Wildlife Service coordinator for the program.
Laura Schneberger, president of the Gila Livestock Growers Association, agreed the disappearance is suspicious but added, "None of us had anything to do with it."
The association has been critical of the wolf reintroduction because of repeated livestock kills and concerns about human safety.
"Of course it's suspicious," Schneberger said. "That's what happens when you have a bunch of wolves running around people's houses and camps. They are going to get killed, because people can't put up with them. ... Is anyone surprised that the Durango pack has gone missing after they were allowed to become so habituated?"
The pack, including an adult male and female and an uncollared pup, was last seen Nov. 1 near the ranch house in the northeast section of the Gila National Forest.
The recovery program has tried to track the wolves in aerial and ground searches.
There were 59 wolves at the beginning of the year in the recovery area, which includes national forests in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico.
Since the endangered wolves were reintroduced to the recovery area in 1998, 26 have died from poaching, Slown said.
Slown said it is possible to disable a collar, but, she added: "A person could do that; a bear couldn't."
The killing of an endangered species is a federal offense.
While a solitary wolf is more likely to roam long distances, packs tend to remain in established territories, Parsons said, and the Durango pack was known to hang around one ranch. "It would be unusual for them to just go completely out of radar range," Parsons said.
The Durango pack's alpha female was ordered killed in July for repeated livestock depredations, weeks after she birthed a litter of four pups. Slown said it appeared only one of those pups survived to November.
Parsons said the loss of the Durango pack's alpha male is "a fairly serious blow" because it possessed the genetic make-up of three remaining Mexican wolf lineages and because, with a new mate, it was set to reproduce again next spring.
"From a cumulative perspective, that's a lot of growth potential down the drain," Parsons said.
Response to the "Wolves missing in Gila Forest.."
I like my quotes, taken out of context as usual but what the heck. Sorry if I sound like I didn't care what happened to the poor wolves. But wow come to think of it, I don't care. I am relieved!!! I am GLAD they are not allowed to threaten my daughter Micah - now13, and forced to pack a pistol on her hip all summer and fall, due to wolves lurking around her home - and mess up her freedom to roam around her own yard any longer. How long were FWS willing to let that go on? Obviously indefinitely From the sound of it Dave Parsons was probably glad that she was available as potential alternative prey for them. Not at all concerned that the Male was habituating other wild wolves and risking their success in the wild.
But this is what we have come to, the FWS doesn't care that the wolves are threatening people and people will tolerate it if they absolutely have to, just like everyone around here is doing, but they seemed to forget that there were probably 50-100 deer hunters around when the wolves went missing.
Our major concern at the time was that they had just killed a grown cow. Last signal I know of from them was on the 4th, they killed a cow between the 4 and 5 right next to the main road and several deer camps and the plane didn't pick up their signal on the 6th. Gee wonder what happened to them? Even I thought it was a collar malfunction but after a week with them not showing up at the Garcia Camp to threaten the family there, we knew they were gone.
_ Laura Schneberger - Please check out the photos on www.Wolfcrossing.org
The greenies should be required by law to raise their families in the exact area that they force the reintroduction of wolves. When the family kitty becomes a wolf pack snack while the 3 yr old is playing
nearby in the same yard, there will an alteration of their eco attitude.
M. S. Hollis
www.mshollis.com
The following is from Laura Schneberger, by request of Good Neighbor. Laura and her family reside in the Gila National Forest - where wolves were introduced. She's one of many across our country, who works hard - for NO PAY -to protect not only her family, her family's property - but yours too! We owe a great deal to hardy pioneers like Laura.
People, who are financed by our federal government and the 501 © 3's they work for, are well compensated for threatening, denigrating, ridiculing and bullying land and water owner users like Laura. Why? It's the tools our own federal government... with their NGO partners... uses, to seize control of privately owned land and water.
To find out more, go to: www.Wolfcrossing.org
http://wolfcrossing.org/2007/11/25/wolfcrossingorg-youtube-republican-debate-video/
Hi there,I am now a 41 year old ten year veteran of the wolf wars. it all began when I was elected to the Gila Livestock Growers assn in 1998 while pregnant with my third child Miles who is now nine. I have two older daughters Kristie 22 and Ivy 19 the oldest married in 05 the younger is still home and our cowboss. Both my girls have had several wolf experiences, when Ivy was 14 and a small 14 at that, she was bareback and on her morning ride when the sycamore pack accosted her and held her up for ten minutes, requiring her to blast her single shot 22 to get them to leave her alone. Thankfully they did, not sure any of the packs out there now would even be phased by a tiny girl with a single shot 22 and sycamore just put it off because they smelled calves up the canyon.
I stay involved although extremely burned out, because I hate the way this program and those who both manage and advocate for it, is defaming and destroying my neighbors and our rural community, these are all people who don't deserve to be treated this way.
Not one of them even the worse old crotchety rancher could be compared to Warren Jeffs or of the guys from Deliverance...it would have been funny if it weren't so revolting a lie. I sure don't stay involved because of the pay, there is none. Once in a while someone will donate a hundred bucks and we will apply it towards the overextended credit card that I use to go to meetings and pay for webspace. We are nearly bankrupt from my wolf habit but what the heck. I am trying to spend less time on it because it is too all consuming and so many folks need help that I have to prioritize to do what I need to do and still clean my house a little and handle family stuff. Anyway, I had a profile in NM woman magazine in September, they got a picture I could send you that one. I never saw what they wrote though. L S (Laura Schneberger)