Tom Paterson*
We've been hearing recently from various quarters that certain federal and state agencies think there is no public safety issue with Mexican wolf recovery program in southwestern New Mexico, the program that costs American taxpayers more than $5 million each year.
If that's true, those agency personnel aren't listening. If they had been, they'd have heard from Catron, Socorro and Cibola County parents who are afraid to let their children play outside. Why? Because there have been wolf kills near their homes. They'd know about elementary and middle schoolers who have been followed by Mexican wolves, live in fear of Mexican wolves and don't understand why their safety is not more important than wolves. They'd know about an elderly resident who said there was a Mexican wolf staring at him from ten feet away when he opened his front door one day. They'd have heard about the wolf that charged a young mother as she was checking her cattle. They'd be aware of wolves snatching pets off the front porch of homes and killing them. They'd know about wolves killing kids' horses in their pens. They'd know about how wolves eat cows and calves alive and leave them mutilated.
No. Instead of the truth, what they hear from wolf NGOs headquartered in Santa Fe and Tucson is that the government should deliberately expand wolf territory so they can terrorize more of rural New Mexico and Arizona. They hear that we should keep our children and grandchildren locked inside rather than allow them to play out in the sunshine. We should keep our pets on a leash, which of course only allows wolves to attack and kill them because they can't even try to get away. Our elderly residents should use a camera to photograph the wolves when they are at the front door. Our livestock producers should hang strips of cloth on the fences around their pastures, which may be thousands of acres large. What they must be hearing and buying into from wolf advocates is the nonsense that wolves pose no threat to people, pets or livestock.
Does anyone really believe that there wouldn't be immediate action from these same federal and state agencies if wolves were prowling around neighborhoods in Santa Fe and Tucson, snatching pets off front porches and following children home from the bus stop? Wolf advocacy NGOs and their supporters live in an alternate reality that says we must keep our children, pets and livestock locked inside a building or within an electrified fence simply because wolves have decided that the hunting is easier in town or at ranch houses.
Our residents in the Mexican wolf country of southwestern New Mexico deserve better than we've been getting. For years, we have trudged to yet another U.S. Fish and Wildlife or New Mexico Game and Fish meeting to explain the worsening problem we have with Mexican wolves. We have implored our Congressional delegation for help. We have nothing to show for any of it. Now, Catron and Socorro Counties have not just a livestock crisis that costs our producers millions per year in losses and in annual wolf-related costs. Now we have a human safety disaster. The very federal and state government agencies and their NGO supporters that should be helping to protect our citizens refuse to admit that their policies and management actions have habituated wolves so they are no longer afraid of people. They are unwilling even to consider our pleas to adopt proven, meaningful management that lethally removes wolves when they become habituated. Nor have they been willing to give our livestock producers the tools they need, such as location information to protect their property and to know where to look for the carcasses wolves have killed.
The agencies aren't listening, but thankfully some of our county governments are. Catron and Socorro County Commissions listened and have now passed public safety disaster declarations over Mexican wolves. Cibola and Sierra Counties listened and have passed resolutions in support. We await the Governor's response. We need common-sense solutions before someone is hurt. Our residents' and guests' safety is worth infinitely more than Mexican wolves.
*Tom Paterson is a Catron County cattle rancher. He serves as President-Elect of the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association.
