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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Showing posts with label Wildlife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wildlife. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Bureaucrats Against Bambi, Part VI

By Dan Mitchell August 18, 2025 @ International Liberty

"Public choice" usually is a good way of explaining short-sighted behavior by politicians and bureaucrats.

But it doesn't explain everything.

For instance, I have a five-part series (see here, here, here, here, and here) about the inexplicable anti-deer mentality of government officials.

Let's add a sixth edition to the series.

Here are some excerpts from a story in Reason by Sophia Mandt.

In 2018, a woman in Baton Rouge found a blind fawn that had been abandoned by its mother. The woman contacted Jen Sibley, who agreed to take care of the deer at her expansive property in Livingston Parish... The deer, which the family affectionately named "Little Buck," eventually regained its health and lived with the Sibleys... On December 22, 2024, officials from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries showed up at the Sibleys' door after receiving an anonymous tip that Little Buck was living on the property. Louisiana law only allows individuals to possess in captivity "certain sick, injured, or orphaned wildlife"—which does not include deer—for up to 90 days. ...agents "seized the animal and euthanized it"... The family was then fined over $1,600. Trevor, Jaci's husband, was criminally charged with possessing the deer.

Fortunately, prosecutors dropped the penalties.

But the mere fact that this happened is outrageous.

Prosecutors ultimately declined to move the case forward and dropped the fine and criminal charge. The incident has outraged many, including Louisiana state Rep. Lauren Ventrella (R–Greenwell Spring). ..."I think we can find a better use of government resources than kicking down someone's door for raising a deer," she says. ...Ventrella says she believes the incident is about more than just a deer; it represents freedom from an overreaching government. ...The Sibleys' experience with government overreach is unfortunately not uncommon. Peanut the squirrel was captured and murdered by New York wildlife officials last year, sparking a wave of backlash online. ...Earlier this summer, New York City officials tried to separate Lucy, an aging pygmy pig with numerous health issues, from her Staten Island family... Mass public outcry caused Democratic Mayor Eric Adams to pardon the pig, allowing Lucy to stay with her family if they left town.

I have three concluding thoughts.

  • First, if "Little Buck" had been ruining neighbors gardens or otherwise causing harm, there would be a legitimate issue. But there was no indication in the reports of damages.
  • Second, what sort of awful person called the cops?
  • Third, Representative Ventrella had the right perspective, which is that government is far too big if it has enough money and bureaucrats to kill a harmless deer.

P.S. My "Victims of Government" page only includes people. Maybe it needs to include animals as well.

P.P.S. On a separate topic, I wrote yesterday about the backlash against socialism in Bolivia. The good news is that none of the left-wing candidates made it to the runoff in yesterday's election. It remains to be seen, however, if either of the two remaining candidates is another Javier Milei.

Friday, March 7, 2025

Bureaucrats Against Bambi, Part V

March 3, 2025 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

I’ve written multi-column series on weighty issues such as capitalism, price controls, socialism, entitlement reform, class warfare, and the war on cash.

Those are all important topics, but nothing captures the essence of government better than columns about bureaucrats who don’t like deer. Especially fawns.

  1. Bureaucrats in Virginia filed three misdemeanor charges against a man for the horrible crime of rescuing a deer that was hit by a car.
  2. Bureaucrats in Maryland fined two men $90 each for not having life jackets when they had the gall to rescue a deer that fell through some ice.
  3. Bureaucrats in Indiana are threatening prison time for a family that rescued a baby deer from coyotes.
  4. Bureaucrats in Wisconsin, after engaging in aerial surveillance, conducted an armed raid to seize and kill a baby deer that was in a no-kill shelter.

Now we have a fifth edition in this grim series.

According to an article in People by Toria Sheffield, another innocent deer may face the death penalty. Here are some excerpts.

Tammy Shiery of Fayette County says that she and several members of her neighborhood have raised the 2-year-old deer — whom they named Baby — ever since they found him as a fawn…

However, Pennsylvania law states that deer can only be kept as domestic pets if they were born in captivity — which Baby was not. Shiery attempted to intervene when state authorities showed up to take Baby away and was subsequently arrested…

A recent news release…from the Pennsylvania Game Commission Southwest Region confirmed the office received a call about “the unlawful possession of a white-tailed deer taken from the wild.” The statement went on to note that.. “Possessing or taking animals from the wild as pets is prohibited under Pennsylvania law,” the statement continued. “The public is reminded that wildlife poses a safety risk and should not be handled or possessed.” …

The Pennsylvania Game Commission confirmed it has Baby in its custody, and he has not been euthanized at this point in time… The game commission…is currently deciding on next steps for the animal.

The good news is that the bureaucrats apparently didn’t go overboard with an armed raid. Though it is reprehensible that Ms. Shiery was arrested.  

Since I can see the rationale for laws that make it illegal to own dangerous animals such as tigers and poisonous snakes, I’m not going to make an ultra-libertarian argument. Instead, I’ll make the semi-libertarian common-sense argument that a pet deer does not pose a danger to anyone. So why are bureaucrats wasting taxpayer money doing deer raids?

Maybe local governments should concentrate on real issues such as crime and education?

P.S. In my list of multi-column series, I should have mentioned Texas vs. California and Florida vs. New York.


Monday, November 20, 2023

How Bureaucrats, Anarchists and Communists Use Wolves To Establish Tyranny

By Jim Beers 22 August 2015


This meeting was about the inevitable and currently happening spread of federal wolves into California from Oregon (that got them from Idaho that got them from Montana that got them from Yellowstone National Park that got them from Alberta and the Yukon where they were trapped and then transported and released without documentation in Yellowstone by US Fish and Wildlife Service bureaucrats using over $35 Million stolen by USFWS Managers from Excise Taxes on Arms and Ammunition intended only for state wildlife programs After Congress had refused to authorize or fund this wolf debacle.)

Note: NO federal bureaucrats were ever charged or disciplined for this criminal act, indeed the Director at the time is now a top executive of Defenders of Wildlife and her political lieutenant at the time in charge of the stolen funds is currently the Director of USFWS. The stolen funds were never replaced in the state wildlife funding budgets because the state wildlife agency directors and their Washington lobby group refused to request the replacement for fear of angering federal bureaucrats that increasingly fund and direct state wildlife programs. But I digress.

The subject meeting of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife was fairly (read the report) reported as:  
 
"California’s Draft Wolf Management Plan was finished last year. At the California Wolf Stakeholder group’s final meeting (Dec. 2014), much of the discussion focused on how to “limit information sharing” and what sorts of penalties and pressure can be put on ranchers who might share information about wolf locations with their neighbors. The remainder of the meeting was devoted to detailing the acceptable non-lethal “COEXISTENCE” measures ranchers will be allowed to employ as wolves begin eating their stock."

Please read that again, more slowly. Now ask yourself if this meeting is being held in the United States or is this a History Channel Documentary about Russian Bureaucracy Directives during the establishment of the Gulags in the 1920’s or the starvation of millions of Ukrainians to collectivize their farms in the 1930’s?

There are 4 phrases in this news item that would provide any still-living Russian communists (Russian communism was birthed in Anarchy) grounds to sue the California and US federal governments for stealing copyrighted communist bureaucratic procedures and material.

1.“Wolf Stakeholder group’s” are euphemisms like “Peoples Republic”, “Comrades Commission” and “Collective Managers”: that is to say it is a group of government toadies assembled to create the illusion of “public input” and “participation” as a fog for government mandate. In this case however, since there is still the illusion of the USA being a Constitutional Republic to be maintained for a short while, we have not only the gaggle of state and federal bureaucrats and an elected “Agriculture” politician plus the radical groups they answer to (Defenders, Sierra, NRDC, CBD, Wolf “Centers”, etc., etc.): we have those clandestine representatives paid by and employed by those comrades-to-be that will actually be hurt, damaged and even destroyed by their fellow-travelers in this meeting. I speak here of “The Woolgrowers”, “The Elk Hunters”, “The Mule Deer Hunters”, “The Farmers”, “The Cattlemen”, and “The Deer Hunters” whose paid lobbyists are dressed up as “Foundation”, “Association” and “Bureau” Representatives to lend their name and their Organization’s name and “gravitas” to this document.
 
That means that all you members of these ELK & DEER Foundations and Associations; all you members of these CATTLEMEN & WOOLGROWERS & FARM Bureaus and Associations are paying your organization not only to diminish and ultimately destroy your own livelihoods and communities but also to push this nation further into government tyranny that will burden your children and grandchildren and leave them with the choice faced by Our Founding Fathers that fought and died in the American Revolution against Britain over 220 years ago or of acquiescing to slavery as subjects of tyrants..

2. Consider “much of the discussion focused on how to “limit information sharing” as a topic “discussed” by bureaucrats, an elected official, a gaggle of radicals and a group of Benedict Arnolds “representing” those about to be further diminished and even destroyed. The key word here is “limit”. Just as “information” about purposeful starvation of Ukrainians was “limited” as a “famine”, and German “information” about concentration camps was “limited” as “work camps” so too are these ex-Americans plotting to control and “limit information” about a terrible action that will:

- Endanger, especially children and the elderly, rural residents and rural visitors by exposing them to death and injury from wolf attacks as is common in Russia and Asia and is increasingly common in North America.
- Eliminate big-game hunting (as Minnesota wolves have done to Minnesota Moose Hunting).
- Eliminate domestic livestock husbandry as we know it (as wolves are doing to cattle, sheep, and dogs of all stripes) currently from Washington State to New Mexico as well as all over western Canada, Alaska, Asia, and increasingly in Europe).
- Expose rural Americans to over 30 deadly and debilitating diseases and infections that wolves catch and transmit over the vast areas they roam including but not limited to:

- Rabies (H) (OA)
- Brucellosis (H) (OA)

Hydatid Disease (2):

- Echinococcus granulosis (H) (OA)
- Echinococcus multilocularis (H) (OA)
- Anthrax (H) (OA)
- Encephalitis (H) (OA)
- Great Lakes Fish Tapeworm (H) (OA)
- Smallpox (H) (OA)
- Mad Cow Disease(BSE) (OA) (H)
- Chronic Wasting Disease (OA)

From Ticks (10) Carried by wolves:
- Anemia (H)
- Dermatosis (H)
- Tick paralysis (H)
- Babesiosis (H)
- Anaplasmosis (H)
- Erlichia (H)
- E. Coast Fever (H)
- Relapsing Fever (H)
- Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever (H)
- Lyme Disease (H)

From Fleas (4) Carried by wolves:

- Plague (H)
- Bubonic Plague (H)
- Pneumonic Plague (H)
- Flea-Borne Typhus (H)
- Distemper (OA)
- Neospora caninum (OA)
- 2 Types of Mange (H) (OA)
- GID (a disease of wild and domestic sheep) (OA)
- Foot-and-Mouth (OA)
- Parvo (OA)

Of the 30 diseases and infections listed, 24 affect humans and many of these are deadly. Whether it is a child ingesting tapeworm eggs from a ranch house floor rug or a jogging soccer Mom encountering wolves as a schoolteacher did recently in Alaska that resulted in a horrible death, the fact that these human health hazards have been given short-shrift by wildlife agencies and their veterinarians is nothing short of scandalous. (James Beers’ Testimony before an Oregon State Legislative Committee 25 May 2010)

“Limit information?” “Who, me?”

3. As they “discuss, “what sorts of penalties and pressure can be put on ranchers who might share information about wolf locations with their neighbors” all Americans of every stripe should rise up and demand the firing of these bureaucrats and the recall of any elected officials involved in such a travesty of American Constitutional government. Radical environmental and animals rights organizations AND the so-called hunter/farmer/ranch organizations should be barred from any future participation in any federal or state work groups or advisory committees of any nature!

Oh, and by the way, those people that hire and support such organizations should be reminded that those that support bureaucrats and politicians subverting such Constitutional guarantees as required in their oath to “uphold the Constitution of the United States”; when the 9th Amendment guarantees “rights” “not denied or disparaged” in the Constitution; and when the 1st Amendment that specifically protects and guarantees our “FREEDOM OF SPEECH” – THEY ONLY PROVE HOW IGNORANCE AND LAZINESS allows freedom and liberty to be replaced by tyranny due to indifference on the part of the citizenry! Why all the way back to The Magna Carta (1215 AD), Item 45 stated “We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the realm and mean to observe it well.”

We are regressing into the mists of the terrifying world Thomas Hobbes described in his 1651 AD book Leviathan where “life was nasty, brutish and short” by permitting these evil people to dismantle our liberties and guaranteed rights that have existed nowhere else in the world!

Penalties and pressure”? You mean like, “Comrade Children, you will inform your teachers or the police if your parents or anyone in your family “share information about wolf locations” (???) What about “sharing information” about politicians, or bureaucrats, or the government, or the laws, or (fill-in-the-blank)”? Do they mean, “Penalties” like fines, jail, prison, loss of property, deportation to Gitmo to free a terrorist, or being locked in a room for a year listening to recordings of speeches of politicians like Hillary or Arlen Spector drone on 24/7? Do they mean, “Pressure” like mandatory re-education for all rural residents like sex and race propaganda movies mandated for government employees, or watching demeaning Public Service propaganda advertising clips on TV and the radio that belittle all those expressing any disagreement with government policies?

4. Finally we come to the “piece de resistance”, detailing the acceptable non-lethal “COEXISTENCE” measures ranchers will be allowed to employ as wolves begin eating their stock." Government dumps the wolves on rural Americans and despite all the evidence to the contrary allows NO lethal control for ranchers as “wolves begin eating their stock”. Even the ineffective and childish non-lethal (fladry, electric fences, collars, taste deterrents, noises, prison fencing, pits (like in the Tarzan movies), wolf puppy training, etc., etc., etc.) methods must be examined and government determination made as to what is allowable and what is prohibited to owners “when wolves begin eating their stock!

There is not even provision for protecting dogs, or whatever havoc is wreaked on game animals, or the presence of wolves in rural living spaces, or schoolyards, or at school bus stops, etc.

Also, there is the vaguely-concealed anti-2nd Amendment agenda so rampant in California political and political-correctness hysteria:

1. No one should have a gun.
2. No Concealed or Unconcealed Carry Permits (except for “Leaders, Commissars and other Exceptional and Favored Comrades as Determined by Government”) are necessary or allowed.
3. Cougars should reach and maintain densities where human attacks and human deaths are routine and no hunt or armed protection is needed or allowed.
4. All gun ammunition for any use should be regulated to assure that the least effective bullets and shot, and the most expensive ammunition are the only ammunition permitted to be sold. The only exceptions being for exceptions as noted under #2 and those that protect them or are on active duty with the armed forces while outside the State.

5. Government-introduced wolves are to be fed, protected and ignored by all “ranchers” (soon to include everyone except those exempted by government in writing). No lethal controls are hereby authorized for anyone not mentioned under #2 until after pleading to and receiving from government a specific permit. No permits are authorized until further notice.

It all reminds me of a college philosophy class I took many years ago. The (crooked) syllogism emerging from all this would look something like:

California is ruled by the Procedures of the Communist Manifesto.
California is a State in the United States of America.
Therefore, The USA is ruled by the Procedures of the Communist Manifesto.

This wolf model from California is but one of a succeeding progression of precedents that we continue to ignore at our own peril.

- Like US Fish and Wildlife Service increasingly evading responsibility for harms and costs they impose under the auspices of “saving X, Y & Z” leads to an EPA that is not responsible for or liable for the destruction of the Animas and San Juan Rivers or answerable to the residents of the States and Reservations they have affected.
- Or how the responsibility and liability for all the annual “catastrophic” forest fires, deaths and property losses throughout the West are evaded by the US Forest Service and the Sierra/Wilderness/NRDC/et al “Bunches” that cause them.
- Or how the National Park Service is not accountable, responsible or liable for the deaths of visitors gored by a mountain goat that for years had threatened visitors or all the hikers and campers killed by grizzly bears or gored by “free-roaming” buffalo.

So too have these despicable “Stakeholders composed a Wolf Manifesto that serves many other foul agendas and that others must live by or feel the harsh retribution of a government that no longer even gives lip service to the history and traditions of the US Constitutional Republic and has adopted disproven communist principles that give them short term returns and surely an inevitable pushback that, like King George and his servants, they will one day regret.

(PS Strong letter to follow and if you want to know how I REALLY feel about this, drop me a line.)

If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others. Thanks.

Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.

Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting. You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to: jimbeers7@comcast.net

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Desperate Wildlife Extinction Claims are Part of the Warming Hoax

By Alan Caruba

This appeared here and I wish to thank Alan for allowing me to publish his work.  RK

One thing that those of us who have been longtime observers and debunkers of the lies surrounding global warming and/or climate change have noticed is that the “Warmists” have gotten increasingly desperate after more than eighteen years in which there has been no warming.

As what they call “a pause” continues, they are coming up with some of the most absurd “research” to make their case. When you consider that not one single computer model produced by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or any of the other charlatans was accurate, one can imagine their sense of panic at this point.

The latest claims were made by the wildlife group, WWF, the Zoological Society of London, and other affiliated groups. On October 1st, it was reported that, based on “an analysis of thousands of vertebrate species,” populations had fallen 52% between 1970 and 2010. In 2012 the same group had claimed they had declined 28% over a similar period of time. So now we are expected to believe that within two years’ time a massive larger decline had been detected.

The claims are absurd. I won’t insult you by repeating them. Suffice to say they did not begin to cover the thousands of species that share planet Earth with humans, but you can be sure that it was humans that got blamed for the alleged declines, along with the usual recommendations that we give up the use of fossil fuels and other aspects of modern life to save some furry creature somewhere.

For years we have been hearing that polar bears have been in decline, but one of the leading authorities on this species, zoologist Dr. Susan Crockford, has a report, “Ten good reasons not to worry about polar bears”, posted on the website of the Global warming Policy Foundation, led by Dr. Benny Pieser, a longtime critic of those behind the global warming hoax.

Dr. Crockford called polar bears “a conservation success story. Their numbers have rebounded remarkably since 1973 and we can say for sure that there are more polar bears now than there were 40 years ago.

Over on CFACT’s Climate Depot.com website, similar claims about walruses were debunked by Dr. Crockford who noted that mass haulouts (areas where they congregate) of Pacific walrus and stampede deaths are not new, now due to low ice cover. “The attempts by WWF and others to link this event to global warming is self-serving nonsense,” said Dr. Crockford,, “that has nothing to do with science…this is blatant nonsense and those who support or encourage this interpretation are misinforming the public.”

“The Pacific walrus remains abundant, numbering at least 200,000 by some accounts, double the number in the 1950s.”

The same time I read the article about the wildlife extinction claims, an email arrived from the Sierra Club—the kind they send to thousands who support its agenda—saying “For a mother polar bear and her cubs, the ice is already melting around them. The last thing they need to contend with is an oil spill.” The claim about ice is another lie because Arctic ice has been expanding, not melting, in the same fashion as ice in the Antarctic. The real reason for the email was to protest “two massive drilling leases” and prevent access to Alaskan oil.

The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations have been on the front lines to get the Obama administration to keep the Keystone XL oil pipeline from being constructed. It has been senselessly delayed for six years despite the jobs and energy independence it will provide. One wonders if the top brass at the Sierra Club actually drive cars or do they all just bike to work?

In a similar fashion, in May the Union of Concerned Scientists announced that, thanks to climate change, our national landmarks such as Ellis Island, the Everglades, and Cape Canaveral will be endangered, claiming that face a serious and uncertain future in a world of rising sea levels, frequent wildfires, flooding and other natural events. Only the sea levels are rising in millimeters, not inches or feet. There have been fewer forest fires and far fewer hurricanes of late. In short, this is just one more desperate Green claim.

If the Greens are so concerned for wildlife, why don’t they protest the wind power turbines that slaughter thousands of birds and bats, and are exempted from prohibitions on the killing of eagles and condors? Because they are hypocrites, that’s why.

Species extinction, like climate change, is a normal, natural aspect of life on Earth. It has nothing to do with human activities. There were no humans around to blame for the Great Permian Extinction when 90% of all life on Earth was destroyed. Global warming periods and abundant carbon dioxide have never been causes of mass extinctions.

Craig Rucker, president of CFACT, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, says the Warmists “actually want us to believe that global warming is responsible for the Ebola virus, the rise of ISIS, and for tens of thousands of walruses getting together to ‘haul out’ on a beach in Alaska. Attributing such things to global warming is among the most shameless tactics in the warming campaign’s playbook.”

© Alan Caruba, 2014

 

Monday, October 8, 2012

Chicago Sees Increase in Coyote Population; Wolves and Bears Next?

An Ohio State University study finds there are approximately 2,000 coyotes living in the Chicago metropolitan area, some living just outside O’Hare International Airport.   Stan Gehrt, a wildlife ecologist and associate professor at Ohio State who has led coyote tracking efforts in Chicago, said he “couldn’t find an area in Chicago where there weren’t coyotes.”  He also said the estimate of 2,000 coyotes in the Chicago area is on the conservative side, and there could be many more…. To Read More….