Rancher Bill Hoppe nails wire to his wooden fence. He wants to move his sheep closer to the house so he can keep an eye on them at night. He hopes the wire will keep wolves out, to avoid a what he awoke to Tuesday morning. "First thing I saw was a ewe standing there, bleeding from her neck. I could see a bunch of sheep were missing, so I walked to the riverbank and all I could see were dead sheep," recalls Hoppe. Hoppe says the final count is five ewes and 14 lambs -- his grandchildren's lambs. He says that's the worst part. "The grandkids, those were their sheep, their lambs. They had a lot of them named, could catch them," explains Hoppe. Hoppe tells me he's stayed up the past two nights, keeping watch, waiting for the wolves to return. Hoppe says he now has a permit to shoot the two wolves on sight if they return to his property and he tells NBC Montana he plans to shoot any wolves that come onto his land and threaten his livestock. Hoppe's a fifth-generation Montanan and has lived in the Paradise Valley his whole life. He says he's never had a problem with wolves attacking his livestock until now. Hoppe says times have changed in the last 25 years and blames mismanagement and special interest groups that get in the way of controlling the population...
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And so what do the enviros say?
"Anyone in the sheep business knows it's not a good place to raise sheep," says Alliance for the Wild Rockies' Steve Kelly. Kelly argues there are better ways and better places to manage his livestock.
The Hoppe family has been around for five generations, but this guy comes hippity skipping in with the the audacity to tell him how to run his business and doesn't give a twit about the grandkid's sheep. Somebody needs to tell Kelly the Paradise Valley is "not a good place to raise" little enviros. There are "better places", although I can't think of one right now.
Is this what Kelly would tell the people of Boston? Just clear out and let the radical Chechens have the run of the place?
2 comments:
Seems to me better ways to manage his livestock this guy is thinking of would not be met with approval of the animal right folks. Aren't these the same people that pay a premium for free range, locally produced foods. You just cant win.
Steve Kelly would not know the difference between a turnip and a sheep, or how to raise either one.
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