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lethal techniques.
The Wildlife Services and Department of Agriculture should be embarrassed, and should strive for balance especially in the classroom. Will they distribute worksheets explaining the role of predators in nature? Balancing rodent populations, removing the weak and sick from the gene pool and playing the role of keystone in many an ecosystem are roles that children need to recognize. Even species they term as "pests", such as beavers, restore riparian zones and create ponds that enhance natural systems. Will they explain how we can live with predators, know how to react in unlikely encounters and plan our development to include our predator species?
Not for a moment should a human death or even an attack by a predator on a human be trivialized. Yet, over two-dozen human deaths have been attributed to Compound 1080 (there is no known antidote for cases of human poisoning), and little has been publicized. Even landslides due to poor logging have killed humans and pesticides have killed humans and caused illness for untold thousands, yet they seem to draw little interest in a world where the image of the killer wolf still looms large: though there has never been a documented case of a wolf killing a human in the western states.
So, when the hot summer hours chill into the autumn winds of school time, will the Wildlife Services folks atone for bad educational materials? It is highly unlikely to see a change in those who slovenly feed at the nation's trough of grazing, mining, logging and now, predator control subsidies. As Tom McDonnell, head of the 90,000 member American Sheep Industry Association claims, "We are dealing with the public' s predators predating on private property. How can we interpret the Fifth Amendment (takings should be compensated)? We think the public has an obligation to pay."
Now there is an example of the bold western mantra, "Manifest Subsidy" he cries as he rides into the sunset. This fall when the Alliance for America sends their "Provider Pals" into urban schools, and they dress up as ranchers, farmers and loggers, will the rancher show those Boston and New York City kids how to poison, trap and shoot a bear? Predators do provide something too, other than something to shoot at.
Students need to hear a range of data on this issue, along with facts about the use of public lands to make ecological sound decisions. With all the facts presented and understood by children, the greatest fear for the friends of the Wildlife Services is that it will fall into its' own lethal trap: scientific truth.
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