For Immediate Release, February 8, 2013
Hunt Continues Despite Public Opposition, Concerns Over California’s Lone Wolf
SAN FRANCISCO— The Animal Welfare Institute, Project Coyote and Center for Biological Diversity are seeking an immediate investigation of Modoc County Sheriff Mike Poindexter for his decision to defy federal laws and advocate the violation of those laws during this weekend’s Coyote Drive 13, a coyote-killing contest in and near Modoc County.
A letter to the editor of the Modoc County Recorder on Feb. 7 by Sheriff Poindexter said he won’t “tolerate any restriction of legal hunting on our public lands” despite federal laws prohibiting or regulating coyote hunting on federal lands in and near Modoc County. He also recommended that any hunt participant who is questioned or detained by federal enforcement officials for illegally hunting on federal lands to “cooperate but stand their ground and call the Sheriff’s Office” and that sheriff deputies “absolutely will not tolerate any infringement upon your liberties pertaining to accessing or legally hunting on your public lands.”
“Despite claiming to uphold the U.S. Constitution, Sheriff Poindexter has decided he will not enforce and is encouraging others to flout those federal laws which he opposes,” said D.J. Schubert, wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute. “This is a blatant breach of his duty as a law enforcement officer and a violation of the Law Enforcement Code of ethics.”
The groups have contacted the district attorney for Modoc County, the California Attorney General’s office, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California and a number of state and federal agencies advising them of Sheriff Poindexter’s comments and asking for urgent intervention.
“These laws are on the books to protect our public lands and the wildlife that live there. Not only does this coyote hunt put OR-7 and other wolves at risk, but now it’s also shaping up to be some kind of Wild West misadventure where the sheriff is thumbing his nose at federal laws,” said Amaroq Weiss, West Coast wolf organizer at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Poindexter’s statement comes in the wake of public outcry that generated more than 20,000 letters, emails, and petition signatures into the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Fish and Game Commission calling for an end to Coyote Drive 2013 and a top-to-bottom evaluation of the state’s approach to managing predators in California.
“Given the serious potential for violations of state and federal laws barring predator hunting on public lands, the threat this hunt poses to OR-7 and any un-collared wolves in the area, and the public’s clear opposition to this killing contest, the state should take immediate action to call off Coyote Drive 2013 now,” said Camilla Fox, Project Coyote executive director and a wildlife consultant to the Animal Welfare Institute.
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Project Coyote promotes educated coexistence between people and coyotes by championing progressive management policies that reduce human-coyote conflict, supporting innovative scientific research, and by fostering respect for and understanding of America’s native wild “song dog.” http://www.projectcoyote.org/
The Animal Welfare Institute is dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people. AWI engages policymakers, scientists, industry and the public to achieve better treatment of animals everywhere — in the laboratory, on the farm, in commerce, at home, and in the wild. http://awionline.org
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 450,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
You can find the Stop the Coyote Contest Hunt Petition at Change.org:
http://www.change.org/petitions/ca-dept-of-fish-wildlife-f-g-commission-stop-coyote-killing-contest
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/coyote-contest-02-08-2013.html
Boulder White Clouds Council
Exposing The Big Game
Footloose Montana
Friends of the Clearwater
Lockwood Animal Rescue Center
Louise du Toit
LUPUSLAETUS
Mercy For Animals
Northern Idaho Wolf Alliance (NIWA)
Predator Friendly®- Because Wildlife Matters
Project Coyote
Project: Wolf
The Nature Conservancy
The Ravensong Group
WildEarth Guardians
Wisconsin Wildlife Ethic-Vote Our Wildlife
Wolf And Wildlife Studies: Jay Mallonee (Independent Wolf Biologist)
Wolf Song of Alaska
Wolves in english ! Les loups en anglais !
WWP's Gray Wolf Page
Yellowstone To Yukon Conservation Initiative
Howling For Justice 
Sounds like Mr. Poindexter has his panties in a major bunch.
I am proud to be one of the 20,000 petitioners, letter writers and promoters working to end this senseless killing. Also, as an Oregon resident, I have a personal passion to protect OR-7 along with all other wolves, collared and uncollared from ridiculous killing sprees such as these.
Thank you for your consistent provision of well written articles that also contain ways for those who read to take action. I know that your work has been instrumental in protecting the rapidly dwindling wolves in the wild that we have left. I feel as strongly that we should not be killing coyotes. Nature has a way of tending to a balanced environment. It is always the human species that destroys nature. . . our planet . . .it is never the animal species.
We can only hope that the unaware will become educated and that the indifferent will realize empathy and begin to act from a place of compassion in protecting the sentient, living beings that human’s refer to as “Our Wildlife.”
Will post a link to this article on our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/TheAnimalSpirits
Many Blessings!
~Gerean Pflug for “The Animal Spirits”
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Reblogged this on bearspawprint.
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He’s a criminal.
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it is amazing how some things did not change since the days of the wild west. by the way, did you see actor james cromwell interupting a board meeting in visconsin university – protesting experiments on cats?
http://www2.peta.org/site/R?i=vuEO1lr9HlwUIlovhLA02w
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I don’t think I have read anything as horrible in my life.
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This shows how stupid these people are – what part of “public land” does he not understand? He can’t have “their” public land and do what they want. I say bring in the National Guard to protect the animals from these very uneducated and sick, violent “people”.
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I guess they don’t understand the meaning of “public land” any better than the cattle ranchers who use it and the fish and wildlife departments who kill wolves for allegedly harming unprotected cattle grazing on that public land. The rounds of killing go on, from the wolf hunts in multiple states, the fun day of squirrel hunting (round up your family and have a good time shooting the little vermin!) in New York, to the coyote hunting. It doesn’t seem to matter what the majority of people want in this “democracy.” The legislators, law authorities, and fish and wildlife deparments go along with the NRA and the hunters.
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We have our very own Arizona sheriff – who in the fuck does this guiy think he is?
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The sheriff doesn’t realize his actions are helping to focus national and world attention on the senseless coyote killing contest. Most people had never heard of Modoc County before. Rage on – sheriff – the world is watching.
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Thank you Project Coyote, Animal Welfare Institute and Center for Biological Diversity for speaking up for coyotes. The next time you write a check to a environmental group, ask them what they do to help protect predators like coyotes and wolves. Most do nothing, they won’t touch the subject.
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Unfortunately, a lot of environmental groups are not against hunting, and some of their members blame predators if they think there are not enough deer, elk, or moose to kill.
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These are dark times on this dear planet for all our little brothers and sisters. And as with all periods of brutality and ignorance, there are those that stand for compassion, clarity and light who are persecuted along with the life forms that they are protecting.
Stand tall my friends for those that are depending on us.
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Don’t know why my two posts from yesterday were obliterated, but both mentioned that Gov. Bullock contact the Center for Biological Diversity before picking up his pen. Now this! The Center for Biological Diversity are caring people who have conservationists, biologists, scientist that are non political. I am glad I took it upon myself to email Gov. Bullock regarding the Center for Biological Diversity. This rogue moron, Pointdexter, who believes to be God himself, should be removed from office and severally penalized for breaking the law. It’s time that a strong message is sent to those who feel they have the God given right to slaughter animals. God gave life to these animals for a purpose and a purpose for being here. Killing was NOT one of them.
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It only takes one brave person to stand up to injustice – sometimes thats all it takes to encourage other brave individuals.
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I can’t understand what is going on in our country – well, I hope this guy is sanctioned up to and including losing his job.
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If this is against the law then why don’t the Feds arrest the sheriff, take his job away and prosecute him. I’d like to see this man in handcuffs and made an example of for ignoring the law of the land, and in an official position encouraging others to ignore the law.
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was supposed to being only held in private lands only? what happened? and so many media is putting out different postings with different views, mostly propoganda sent out by the wolf-haters and animal hunt advocates to get them murdered because the frack mining is getting pushed and keystone XL is more important to these oil barrens and the cattlemen then the wolves,bison,snakes,prairie dogs, what ever else might compete for the cheap land ..ooo the wild mustangs of course…bears, bobcats…can keep adding on…but you get the point… so time ti take back the animals…rescue them… stomp on our lands..pull the drills out and tell them to put the cows in thier own fences in their own yards..buck it up cowboys… act like a man for once…stop chasing the little girlie wolves around…becuase you have women issues…and mother earth is also a lady…see the point? they have WOMEN AND GIRL problems! BASH the females… well..big bad boys want to pick on girls with furry coats and goddess earth… go put your cows in a barn and start actually WORKING A FARM with sweat for once…stop sucking up the free government pay outs!
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Reblogged this on Time for Action.
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The Feds don’t care to get involved even though you have a Sheriff who is not upholding his sworn duty. A lot of Sheriffs in small towns think theyy will get brownie points with the locals and get re elected if they go along with the rednecks who want to make their own law. The sheriff of klamath county broke the lock on the irrigation canal to let the water flow to the farmerrs. That year 33,000 salmon died downstream. Nothing was done by the Feds. I am heartsick that America’s song dog is slaughtered, being slaughtered. And for what? They did that in Klamath County, too. And the next years were hell with an explosion in the mouse, rat and rodent population that nearly wiped out the farmers. They don’t give a think to what they are doing. I am so frustrated and you can’t write a letter to the editor of the paper down there. I can’t get a link. Hard to even read it without a subscription.
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As the unemployment level rises, the people get stupider. I say let them shoot themselves in the foot…and if they have an explosion of rodents, they deserve it.
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[…] laws during this weekend’s Coyote Drive 13, a coyote-killing contest in and near Modoc County. Read more… 550 more words Comments RSS […]
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This situation reminds me of an entry from The History of The Sea Shepherd,” which documents a time in February of 1984.
Captain Paul Watson and his crew were confined to land for a period of time, in which Captain Watson launched a land-based campaign on behalf of wolves. He founded the group “Friends of the Wolf” and organized a high profile intervention against the aerial shooting of wolves in Northern British Columbia.
In the hostile town of Fort Nelson, Captain Watson held a press conference and debated four hundred hunters and trappers in heated arguments that made the National News.
A trapper came into the press conference room and threw two dead wolves onto the floor. He said to Watson, “What ya think of this a**hole”? To which Paul Watson answered, “I think you just lost the war, you idiot.”
The history of the Sea Shepherd can be read by following this link:
http://us.seashepherd.org/who-we-are/our-history.html
Many Blessings on all who take action to protect our wildlife and lend voice to all sentient, living beings who cannot speak for themselves.
~Gerean Pflug for The Animal Spirits
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THESE KILLING- AND DESTROYING-HABITS ARE TO STOP – UNBEARABLY FOR CIVILIZED BRAINHAVING SOCIETIES AND NOT EXEMPLARY FOR CHILDREN.
MONSTERS SHOULD GET DISSOCIATED FROM OTHER HUMANBEINGS FOR DON´T DISTURB THEIR FEELINGS IN A NONHUMANE WAY !
AUTHORITIES AROUND OUR GLOBE HAVE TO PLACE IMMEDIATELY A BAN ON ATROCITIES, ON KILLINGS TO ALL LIVING CREATURES BY APPLY STRONGEST JUSTICE TO PERSONS RESPONSIBLE AND PLEDGE FOR SPECIES-APPROPRIATE HUSBANDRY !
IN WHICH CENTURY WE LIVE ALL TOGETHER ???
WHICH AUTHORITIES ARE ON THE RUN ???
HAVE YOU LOST YOUR HUMANITY or YOUR BRAIN, PERSONS RESPONSIBLE ?
YOU HAVE TO USE AN ETHICS OF RESPONSIBILITY BY LAW !
Normaltive ethic includes the claim on generally liability.
People need to vote unacting authorities and „BASTARDS“ acting irresponsibly out of their occupations!
HOW LONG UNACTING AUTHORITIES NEED FOR ETHICAL HUMANELY DESICIONS AND LAWS IS REALLY INFANTILE AROUND OUR GLOBE.
DEFORMED MONSTERS ACTING IRRESPONSIBLE SHOULD REALLY KICK THE BUCKET AS SOON AS EVER POSSIBLE TO STOP THIS INFANTILISM AND UNHUMANE WORLDWIDE DISASTERS – PEACE AND LIVINGRIGHT TO LIVING CREATURES AND FUTURE GENERATIONS !
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Reblogged this on Happy Tails and Tales Blog and commented:
So now law enforcement officers can murder innocent animals, shoot family pets, and completely ignore federal laws… WHAT THE HELL IS OUR COUNTRY COMING TO! Ugh I’m disgusted!
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I hope that that sheriff is prosecuted for advocating the violation of federal law! I’m no lawyer (despite everyone’s claim that I should be one), but I’m pretty sure that those laws exist for a reason!
By the way, does anybody know how many coyotes were killed in the Modoc County Coyote Drive? I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Are they keeping it a secret from the public, to prevent backlash from those who care about the little wolves?
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I find it strange the killing policies going on in the name of “our rights”… while their actions tread all over every living thing’s rights except their own- in their little bubble. I am so sick of that crutch! It is 2013, we know better than this, yet our wildlife and habitats are for sale for profit and buy offs?! INFURIATING!!!! What about the rights of those who want to COEXIST?
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I hope Modoc County Sheriff Mike Poindexter looses his job! These are the kind of backwards people the federal government needs to really keep an eye on!
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