Ranchers: the endangered species

Compare for just a moment the differences in the participants in the latest round of public meetings on wolf-reintroduction in New Mexico. A recent meeting in Reserve was attended by families with children. They were very much like everyday Albuquerque families, only they are out on the range. Ranchers are small-business men and women, who lose their livelihoods with every calf or cow killed by a wolf. They deal with death and disaster every day in their herds. They also deal with tremendous stress. The venomous hatred expressed towards them at some of the more-urban meetings on the wolf is a shock. Ranchers' herds are their restaurants, flower shops and construction companies, providing futures for their families and homes for their children. No one would expect a business to tolerate a robbery every night or police who do nothing to stop it. Businesses have the right to protect their interests and their property. Regarding wolf attacks, ranchers have to prove they are being harmed first, then beg and persuade a doubting and slow-acting agency to help them, when it is not in the agency's best interest. They must then deal with the environmental movement and what it means to make extremist wolf-supporters mad. No one would expect an Albuquerque businessman or family to tolerate this kind of political pressure....

A good one by Laura Schneberger

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