fear mongering

Putting Out Brush Fires…

Wolf advocacy has been reduced to putting out brush fires. Every day there’s a new crisis or new campaign to persecute wolves. It goes on and on, draining energy, sending me into dark moods, constantly on the defensive.

I cut back on posting for the last several months for precisely this reason. It doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the bad stuff but I want to concentrate on solving this crisis, to come up with solutions.

I’m a passionate person, I guess I don’t have to tell you that. When I care about something, I throw myself into it wholeheartedly, as I did this blog, which has given me a forum to share my passion with you, to give wolf advocates a home where your beliefs aren’t called into question every second, a place where you don’t have to defend your positions and explain why wolves are worth caring about. I would love to bring you good news every day. To say wolves are doing just fine, that the persecution has stopped and the fairy tale ending has come true. That’s what I wish I could tell you. Unfortunately that’s not the case.

This year has been especially difficult because wolf advocates have had to watch the systematic slaughter of innocent wolves, while feeling powerless to stop it. That is not a good way to feel. It’s a bad way to feel. And it keeps us grounded in sorrow. The hunts took a toll on all of us. Gruesome picture after gruesome picture of dead wolves littered the Internet and still do. The worst is knowing wolves are suffering, the horrors of the past have come home to roost. Many wolves are tortured to death before they finally subcumb. Where’s the “code of ethics” hunters say they live by? Shame on all who torture and kill animals for blood lust.

I don’t want to see one more picture of a dead wolf, I don’t want to hear one more word about elk, I don’t want to hear one more word about cows. I’m sick of it. I’m so sick of it that it makes me sick.

I’m going to focus on what we can do, not what we can’t do. I want to feel energized again, as I did when I started this blog. Letting others dictate how I should feel about wolves or why this battle is lost or no matter what we do we can’t change things, that’s not going to be part of my thinking.

I can’t just hope things will change I want to be part of that change. Is there too much hoping going on and not enough doing? I know many people like to rely on hope but doesn’t that somehow free you from having to do anything about the situation? If you just hope things will change but don’t participate in ways to effect change, isn’t that a cop-out?

If you love and care about wolves then you’ll want to do something about it. No amount of bad news is going to stop you. I’m not going to give up because MT FWP received a $50,000 dollar donation from the RMEF to help kill wolves. I’m not going to stop standing up for wolves because the anti-wolf crowd was successful in removing their ESA protections.

We’re in a difficult battle that’s not going very well at the moment but it doesn’t mean we should give up and go hide somewhere, pretending it’s not happening. Let ostriches do that.

I guess what I’m trying to say is we all have a part to play. Things are bad for wolves right now but lamenting over every bit of bad news keeps us paralyzed. The best we can do with the bad news is to spread it around so the uninformed can become informed and join our fight. Those of us in the trenches already know the sad truth and that’s what gives us strength to keep moving forward in these dark times. I know the wolf hating crowd is hoping we’ll give up and accept that wolves will be killed by the hundreds every year until they are all gone or their population will be so small and beleaguered only their shadows will remain. Well that’s not going to happen!!

So I’m moving forward. I don’t want to keep begging people in power to give me something. Nobody gives up power willingly. Dealing with the states and their wolf hating mania seems futile to me. I believe the only way to save wolves is to bypass the states and go directly to the feds and demand they right the wrong of wolf delisting, which was rammed through riding on a budget bill.

But none of this will mean anything without the participation of everyday Americans, most of whom are unaware of the wolves’ plight because the MSM won’t cover it. They’re too in love with Obama to make him look bad, so they’ve chosen to ignore it. If it wasn’t for the Internet the story would have been completely buried.

We need to concentrate on the big picture and not get bogged down in the minutia of wolf hating policies the states are deluging us with. They’ve proved without any doubt they are incapable of caring for wolves and only want to see their numbers driven to absolute minimums based on an outdated, politically motivated, unscientific “wolf plan” that’s 17 years old.

So put down the fire hoses, we have work to do.

RELIST GRAY WOLVES!!

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Beyond Hope

by Derrick Jensen

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/170/

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Top Photo: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Bottom photo: Courtesy LA Times

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Activism, Howling for Justice

Tags: relist gray wolves, wolf persecution, scapegoating, fear mongering, America’s wolves

Published in:

on May 21, 2012 at 4:28 am Comments (70)
Tags: Derrick Jensen, ESA, fear mongering, relist gray wolves, scapegoating, wolf persecution

Wolves, political stupidity, and fear-mongering…by Mark Bekoff

Wolves, political stupidity, and fear-mongering: Wolves are a clear and present danger

Ignorant politicians ignore science and allow the continued slaughter of wolves

Published on April 21, 2011 by Marc Bekoff in Animal Emotions

Once again wolves are the target of irrational political and media sensationalism. To quote from this recent article: “Despite enactment of federal legislation turning wolf control over to state wildlife management and allowing licensed hunting of the animals, [Idaho Governor Butch] Otter welcomed his new authority to bring law enforcement to bear against any wolf threats to humans or livestock.

The gray wolf of the Northern Rockies is about to become the first creature ever taken off the U.S. endangered species list by act of Congress, rather than by scientific review, under a measure inserted into a sweeping budget bill.”

To quote from this bill: “The uncontrolled proliferation of imported wolves on private land has produced a clear and present danger to humans, their pets and livestock, and has altered and hindered historical uses of private and public land, dramatically inhibiting previously safe activities such as walking, picnicking, biking, berry picking, hunting and fishing … it is the intent of the legislature to regulate the presence of Canadian gray wolves in Idaho in order to safeguard the public, wildlife, economy and private property against additional devastation.”

A clear and present danger, safeguarding against additional devastation. Wow, how poetic and what a bunch of lies!

Of course, Governor Otter knows nothing about the biology of wolves nor does representative Lenore Barrett, R-Challis. But this doesn’t stop them from making misleading and stupid comments about these amazing animals. Ms. Barrett won’t let her grandchildren play outdoors because of the supposed presence of wolves. And, conveniently ignoring the fact that there haven’t been any wolf attacks on humans since they were reintroduced to Idaho in 1995, Ms. Barrett claimed: ”They’re killers, they do it for sport, and then they leave their victim still alive for a lingering death.” Ms. Barrett isn’t alone in promulgating fear-mongering lies. As I pointed out in an earlier essay on the plight of wolves, politicians, including Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, ignore science, and others who know nothing about the biology of wolves don’t hesitate to express stupid and misleading opinions.

Fear mongering (or scaremongering) is the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end. The feared object or subject is sometimes exaggerated, and the pattern of fear mongering is usually one of repetition, in order to continuously reinforce the intended effects of this tactic, sometimes in the form of a vicious circle. (Wiki)

The following article is a prime example of what Mark Bekoff is talking about

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Ravalli County commissioner claims wolves ruining quality of life

HAMILTON – Ravalli County residents no longer feel safe letting their children play outside because wolves are so prevalent in the Bitterroot Valley, County Commissioner Suzy Foss contends.

Foss recently listed her concerns in a letter to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks director Joe Maurier, the five-member FWP Commission and Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

“Ravalli County is under great duress due to the overpopulation of gray wolves within our borders,” Foss wrote. “Our citizens, and in turn our county government, are suffering direct negative impacts to our general welfare and most especially the safety of our citizens and our local economic vitality.”

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To suggest wolves are a threat to children or anyone else for that matter in Ravalli County, has no basis in fact. There has not been one single wolf caused death in the lower forty-eight in the last hundred years. Not one wolf caused death since wolves were reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in 1995. But people can and do say anything. Demonizing wolves has become a sport in the Northern Rockies. Does the Missoulian consider this nonsense to be news?

These are real dangers to children and adults in Ravalli county and across America. that have nothing to do with wolves.

Bee Stings

40 to 100 fatal bee stings in US per year

When One Bee Sting is Your Last

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AllergiesNews/story?id=8148229&page=1

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Dog Bites and Fatal Maulings

(We all love our dogs but facts are facts)

2005/2011 - 186 Fatal Dog Attacks

4.7 million dog bites per year

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DRUNK DRIVING ACCIDENTS

Montana 2008

81 fatal accidents in Montana where at least one driver had a BAC of 0.08% or above

91 people were killed in Montana in accidents where at least one driver had a BAC of 0.08% or above

12 people were killed in Montana in accidents where at least one driver had a BAC between 0.01% and 0.07%

103 total deaths caused in Montana where at least one driver had a BAC of 0.01% or above

http://www.dui-usa.drinkdriving.org/Montana_dui_drunkdriving_statistics.php

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Sex Offenders/Violent Offenders

Montana Department of Justice · Sexual or Violent Offender Registry

83 registered sex offenders in Ravalli County

83 registered violent offenders Ravalli County

(Hamilton, Darby, Pinesdale, Stevensville, Coravallis, Florence, Victor, Florence)

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Hunting Accidents

How Safe is Hunting by Young People?

From CASH website:

Of 333 documented hunting accidents in our database for the years 2004 and 2005, the percentages break down like this:

63 accidents (injuries and fatalities combined) of children aged 18 and younger (18.92% of all accidents)

34 accidents that resulted in injury to children aged 18 and younger (10.21% of all accidents)

29 accidents fatal to children aged 18 and younger (8.71% of all accidents)

27 injuries of children aged 11-18 (8.11% of all accidents)

7 injuries of children aged 10 and younger (2.10% of all accidents)

27 fatalities of children aged 11-18 (8.11% of all accidents)

2 fatalities of children 10 and younger (0.61% of all accidents)

Of 333 hunting accidents that I came across for 2004 & 2005, 135 of them resulted in fatalities (40.54% of all accidents)

Hunting Accidents 2010

http://www.all-creatures.org/cash/accident-archive-2010.html

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Deer Auto Accidents

“There are more than 1.5 million crashes involving deer each year which cause over one billion in damage, 150 of the deer collisions are fatal, and there are more than 10,000 people injured.”