BTW, Today is Endangered Species Day!
The following essay snippet was written by Doug Peacock, and is in support of returning Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections to Yellowstone Grizzly Bears.
Some 54 grizzly bears were known to have died in 2008, the highest mortality ever recorded; this number probably exceeds the extensive killings of forty years ago, when Yellowstone National Park closed down its garbage dumps and bears wandered into towns and campgrounds. The Yellowstone grizzly population sharply declined in the early 1970s and, consequently, the bear was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975.
In 2008, hunters and other humans shot bears in record numbers. People killed grizzlies because they could—sadly, a not uncommon human attitude in the American West—and since Yellowstone’s grizzlies had been removed from the protection of the Endangered Species Act, there were virtually no penalties for shooting them. Bear management had been turned over to the Fish and Game agencies of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana who tend to accept any hunter explanation of self-defense in grizzly country. In short, the grizzlies were easy to kill because their lives were made less valuable by delisting.
Continue reading – The Fate of the Yellowstone Girzzly on Counterpunch
Learn more about Endangered Species – Save Grey Wolves from Extermination – Stop Yellowstone Bison Hazing Operations