From the Director’s Desk

Winter 2012

The Winter Solstice was a quiet time for us here in the mountains.  Thankfully this past December was blessedly free of the snows that plagued us last year.   Alpine is still hanging in with us, although she is having increasing difficulty getting up at times….she will be 14 soon.

I sincerely hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Holiday season, and that the New Year proves bright and prosperous.

While we can’t get too political in our opinions on a non-profit site, I’d like to remind everyone that the wolves in the Rockies are in grave peril thanks to politicians and their agendas.  Unless they put a block that says “NONE of the above assholes” on a ballot, my vote will surely not count.   I recently had some very nice correspondence with the sponsors of www.cannedlion.org, for their Campaign Against Canned Hunting,and promised to mention them on our web site.  Now, I get rather frustrated with the general opinion that if someone comes out in favor of the environment or against something like a canned hunt, they are blasted as a bunny hugger, tree hugger or any number of epithets.  Last time I looked, we all breath the same polluted air, get exposed to the same chemicals that are giving us all cancer, and a host of other environmental issues that threaten a healthy human existance.   My father, growing up in a rural area in the 1930′s,  put the meat on his family’s table, so I’m not anti-hunting.  Being an ex-cop, I probably have more guns than you do….and know how to use them, and think every woman out there ought to be armed and dangerous when it comes to protecting herself and her children.  And I have no intention of giving up meat, because Mother Nature made me omniverous.

But, I can see absolutely nothing remotely sportsman-like, or of food value, in shooting some lion or other exotic predator that’s confined on some game farm or preserve because some rich f–k wants to decorate his third home with animal heads.   Now, granted some of the animals on these preserves will be used for food, but when it comes to shooting some animal that has an endangered classification,  and you’re shooting it because it is “rare”,  you’re just some selfish pathetic prick.  You’re certainly not the “mighty hunter” when you’re shooting fish in a barrel….at animals that are baited, drugged, and confined and you’re escorted by a dozen guides and servants catering to your comfort.

The Exotic animal trade brings in billions of dollars.  Some one out there is going to say it’s good for the economy….and caters to the spoiled rich 1% that takes what they want without regard for anything else.  Sort of like the illegal drug trade.