If you have time to write more, here are talking points: THANKS for you help in stopping the zoos from getting more of our tax dollars which they will use to confine and breed/capture wild animals. Alyne Fortgang, Co-founder, Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, asks that we send this one subject line to our state legislators (find yours using your address).
We need to oppose HB 1323, which would exempt zoological facilities from having to pay their fair share of taxes. It has advanced to the Rules Committee. More tax dollars means more money to confine, breed and/or capture wild animals into a lifetime of suffering.
Please copy and paste these legislators’ addresses and choose a talking point from below or write your own. Please use this subject line or one that makes it clear that you are against HB1323.
Subject line: No on HB1323 – No exemption from B&O taxes for zoos
The PRIVATE Woodland Park Zoo has its hand out for more taxpayer welfare in the upcoming King County Parks Levy.
Please urge the King County Council to remove the zoo from getting more tax dollars in the parks levy – money that should go to our beloved PUBLIC parks.
Twitter: @kingcountywa
Email: https://blue.kingcounty.gov/about/contact/
Woodland Park Zoo has already received more than $51 million dollars from King County taxpayers since 2008. In addition, Seattle taxpayers (who are also King County taxpayers) have forked over $133 million dollars to the zoo since 2002. The zoo also benefits from rent-free use of the valuable land on which it sits, rent-free buildings, and free ownership of its inventory: the animals.
It’s time for the PRIVATE zoo to be self-sustaining. Woodland Park Zoo’s gate attendance has declined over the past decade. The public is not supporting the caging and suffering of wild animals as they once did so it’s time to STOP financially supporting the Zoo.
Sample email:
Dear County Council,
Woodland Park Zoo is a private zoo, but it already uses valuable land rent-free. The parks levy should be for our beloved city parks, not a private zoo. Let this private zoo fund itself privately.
Sincerely,
Your Name
It’s hard to believe that’s what’s being proposed by this bill from Rep. Joel Kretz (R-Wauconda), Rep. Tom Dent (R-Moses Lake) and Rep. Carolyn Eslick (R-Sultan), who start strong with mention of enthusiasm about wolves in Washington but quickly degrades into what appears to be sarcasm: “The ecological, economic, and spiritual benefits wolves have brought to eastern Washington needs to be shared with the rest of the state.”
Bainbridge Island “creates a natural border to keep the wolves isolated to an area where they can be protected, studied, and, most importantly, admired by the region’s animal lovers.
Therefore, the state should, “in an effort to perpetuate the species and minimize landowner conflicts, rely on the translocation of wolves as the primary tool for managing wolf-related wildlife interactions in the areas of the state where wolves are naturally occurring.”
Oh, and if they creat problems? “Lethal removal of wolves must be considered for every four confirmed wolf kills of domestic dogs; for every four confirmed wolf kills of domestic cats; and for every two confirmed wolf kills of children.”
Please contact your local rep to oppose Bill 1639. This legislation seems like a joke, but it’s not funny.
Seriously, what century is this? Aren’t enough animals being farmed for fur — so many that companies sometimes misrepresent whether clothing they sell uses animal or faux fur — that we don’t need competitions to kill more? People are the beasts in this scenario.
Idaho Fish and Game are part of this depraved situation, which appears to be at least tacitly condoned by U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials, according to The Smokey Wire website, which is administered by Sharon Friedman, Ph.D., forest geneticist, Forest Service retiree (2012) and former chair of both the Forest Policy Committee and Forest Science and Technology Board at the Society of American Foresters.
What’s Idaho Fish and Game upset about? Of the 2.6 million cattle and sheep in Idaho at any given time, about 77 cattle and 61 sheep have been killed each year there since 2009, according to a post on The Smokey Wire by Matthew Koehler. That compares to fewer than 1,000 wolves, last time Idaho counted. It’s worth reading his whole post to learn more about this subject.
If you’re in Boise, please visit Idaho Fish and Game in person to let them know what you think: 600 S. Walnut, Boise, ID. If you’re not, please call them at (208) 334-3700 and call or email Idaho Fish and Game Commission Members:
You also can call the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which funds the wolf hunt: 800-225-5355.
Robb Krehbiel of Defenders of Wildlife sent out a call in The Seattle Times just after Christmas for Washingtonians to tell their lawmakers they want the next Interior Secretary to finish the job that Ryan Zinke stalled.
Zinke visited the state in March and committed his agency to completing a plan to bring grizzlies bak to the North Cascades by the end of last summer.
He didn’t do it, despite more than 126,000 public comments during the 15-week-long public-comment period and 45-day extension requested by local governments. “With 80 percent of Washington voters in favor of grizzly recovery, there is strong public support for the Interior Department to complete this process,” Krehbiel writes.
“With Zinke out as Interior Secretary, we need our congressional delegation to insist that the next office holder work with Washington state to finish the job and bring grizzly bears home to the North Cascades.”
Please find your Washington legislators here and ask them to tell the Department of the Interior to restart this project.
Here’s a celebration of a lack of empathy: To reward people who’ve learned coyote calls well enough to lure them to their deaths, the United States Predator Challenge invites people from three parts of the country to kill coyotes and bring their carcasses to three locations for counting toward a depraved contest entry.
The website reads, “We want to stress the importance that to win one of these regional contests will be HUGE… and to win the overall Championship will truly set the bar in the predator calling world.”
In an action alert, Project Coyote asks that you:
A quick roundup of this week’s animal news — with a request that you call the governor.
First, the grim: Cinder the bear, who was rescued as a badly burned cub in eastern Washington several years ago, was treated successfully by the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Center and released successfully by Idaho Black Bear Rehabilitation. They found her in her den outside Leavenworth a couple years later, well fed and doing well. and found to be doing well when her radio collar was replaced in a den outside Leavenworth a couple years after her release. But this week, her skeleton was found: She was killed by a hunter last fall. It’s heartbreaking. As one commenter on the Idaho Black Bear Rehabilitation Facebook page put it, “She had a rough life.” As one of the rescuers said, wild animals including bears would prefer five days of freedom to a lifetime in captivity — so at least she had a couple good years. I’m trying to hold onto the latter thought. It’s more than some animals enjoy.
Now for the more hopeful: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is asking for $1.1 billion and a three-year ban on orca watching in an effort to save the southern resident orcas — the orcas who frequent Puget Sound. Please spread the word that whale watching is harmful. As Gov. Inslee called the temporary ban “a relatively small inconvenience to give them a break. … Someone who is starving should not be scrambling for that last morsel that can keep them alive.”
Finally, more good news: Amazon said it will stop selling illegal foie gras in California. That means they were selling it before. And a lawsuit pushed them to this. But at least they’re stopping.
The Center for Biological Diversity published a full-page ad in today’s Seattle Times calling on people to call Gov. Inslee and demand that he stop the senseless killing of Washington’s endangered wolves.
That makes tomorrow — Monday — a great time for us all to call at once, to send a message.
GOV. INSLEE: 360-902-4111
Please also sign the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition for Gov. Inslee.
The center’s ad reads: “Governor Inslee: STOP the SENSELESS KILLING of WASHINGTON’S ENDANGERED WOLVES. More than 20 wolves have already been gunned down by the state, including 18 to appease one rancher who refuses to take reasonable steps to protect his cattle, like removing them from known wolf den and rendezvous sites. It’s cruel, counter to science and a waste of taxpayer money
“Washington has more than 1 million cattle and approximately 120 wolves. Conflicts between cattle and wolves are rare, affecting only a handful of Washington’s cattle annually. In response the state has killed 20 percent of Washington’s endangered wolves, destroying wolf families and even killing pups.
Science shows that killing wolves is not effective at reducing conflicts and may actually create more. The only methods scientifically proven to work are nonlethal.
And yet: The state has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on helicopter snipers to gun down endangered wolves, and spent more than $1 million on a consultant for its wolf-killing program.
“HERE’S WHAT MUST CHANGE:
Thank you to the Center for Biological Diversity for paying for this ad!! For more information — or to donate — visit BiologicalDiversity.org.
Also see previous posts on this blog:
Does This Look Like a Cow Pasture? Then Stop Killing Wolves, Gov. Inslee
Fish & Wildlife Killed the Matriarch of the Profanity Pack: Time to Start Calling
Gratitude, Sorrow for Wolf Researcher Who’s Out at WSU
Please contact Gov. Inslee and Washington Fish & Wildlife to demand that the killing of wolves stop. The photo above and the words below are a repost from Predator Defense Executive Director Brooks Fahy of what’s going on and what you can do.
“The picture above was taken in the core territory of the Profanity Peak wolf pack, which Washington wildlife managers destroyed in 2016 after a rancher dumped his cows to graze near the wolves’ den and rendezvous sites. As you can see, the terrain is essentially indefensible. It is rugged, forested and remote. It is no place for cows.
Seventeen of the 22 wolves killed to date in Washington State were killed on behalf of this one rancher, Len McIrvin, who refuses to follow science-based, common sense measures to protect his cattle. Other ranchers have had great success in preventing losses. For starters, they are not dumping them in the heart of wolf territory.
But McIrvin, who has been overheard expressing his hatred for wolves, apparently doesn’t believe they deserve a place to live in peace, except perhaps in zoos? He does believe his cattle should be able to graze on and destroy our public lands, lands for which he pays a fraction of market rate. And he obviously doesn’t care about healthy ecosystems, which require the presence of wolves, or the fact that thousands of people want to be able to see wolves in the wild and could bring tourism dollars to struggling rural economies.
So instead of protecting and preserving wildlife, Washington wildlife managers are working to protect cows. It is insane. Wolves need places to live in peace.
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Sample Letter to Send Gov. Jay Inslee
Dear Governor Inslee,
I want you to know how grateful I am that you respect the science of climate change and have taken such positive action to protect our planet and our children’s future. But I also want you to know that I am deeply troubled you are ignoring the best-available science when it comes to wolves.
Science increasingly shows that killing wolves increases attacks on cattle because it fractures the pack’s social structure. So by killing wolves Washington wildlife managers are perpetuating the very problem they say they want to prevent. They are also doing this on behalf of one rancher who is refusing to take common sense, preventive measures that have worked for other ranchers.
Healthy, balanced ecosystems are necessary for our future prospects. They require wolves performing their vital roles as apex predators with their strong family units intact, as each member of a pack plays an essential role.
I am outraged that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were spent helping wolves recover, apparently just to be killed all over again…and all so ranchers can destructively graze their cattle on our public lands.
This is both a tragedy and a travesty. At the very least wolves should be able to live in peace in remote rugged, indefensible forest, like the area the (now former) Profanity Peak Pack lived.
Please stop Washington’s unnecessary and counter-productive wolf slaughter, put an end to livestock grazing in unsuitable territory , and allow wolves places to live in peace.
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For all that is wild and free,Brooks Fahy
The mission statement for the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife is: “To preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities.”
The truth is, it does a lot of killing — of geese every year, of more than 300 mountain goats on the Olympic Peninsula (despite catchy visuals of the luckier goats being transported elsewhere by helicopter) this year — and of wolves on behalf of people who ranch on public land every year lately.
Here’s how it killed another wolf from a helicopter on Friday, according to a Facebook post from the Western Wildlife Council — which rightly points out that on Monday, it’s time to start calling the governer and Fish & Wildlife (numbers below) about releasing this information at 5 p.m. on a Friday. The last wolf expert who stood up to ranchers is out. It’s time for the public to say something.
“Today at 4:57 pm I received an email from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife providing a link to a recent update regarding wolves in Washington State.
Imagine the sounds of helicopter blades cutting the air over these wolves and the crushing feeling of a blast of Buckshot Piercing their skin, breaking their bones incapacitating them until someone arrives to finish them off. This happened today.
In this update that the Department purposely waited until shortly before the close of business to circulate, it stated that they believed they have shot from a helicopter (not so unlike the one pictured below) the Breeding Female of the OPT pack in Northeast Washington in Ferry County.
This makes the current count on wolves killed by this ranching outfit to 18 Wolves for the mere reason that he and his group have refused to accept the best available science and, therefore paid the price by a significant number of cattle being injured.
The method commonly used to dispatch wolves from choppers are using large pelleted buck shot fired from a shot gun to disable the animal until it is later given a kill shot from someone on the ground.
It is appalling that WDFW uses tactics like this to kill our wildlife that reside on our public lands for the sake of cows that do nothing but damage these fragile ecosystems.
Since WDFW waited until nearly 5:00 pm to release the information in the hopes advocates will calm down a bit and not call in to their offices disrupting their phone services, I think it is time to organize a call in Monday through Wednesday of this next week to the Governors Office and to WDFW ( ALL OFFICES) and keep calling!!
You See, it’s not just the wolf activity they are monitoring. It’s your reaction!!
Governors Office Number 1-360-902-4111
WDFW 1-360-902-2200
Please also email director Susewind at director@dfw.wa.gov
Please also direct phone calls to Donny Moterello and WDFW’s Region 1 Office @ (509) 892-1001
It’s Time to truly roll up our sleeves!!
Picture of Profanity Wolf Below”
