The inhumane and cruel act by three Mendocino supervisors will result in the murder of animal inhabitants of the county; bobcats, coyotes and mountain lions.
For what? For profit farmers and ranchers can raise their livestock to put meat on the table for carnivorous American diners.
It’s beyond disgusting that humans can act with such wanton cruelty.
San Francisco Chronicle 7.14.2020
Mendocino County supervisors voted Tuesday to renew the county’s contract with a federal agency that aids ranchers in killing predators that prey on their livestock.
The county had previously contracted with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, which has garnered criticism from animal advocates for killing predators such as coyotes, mountain lions and bobcats instead of considering nonlethal ways of curbing attacks on local livestock.
Supervisor Ted Williams told The Chronicle that the Board of Supervisors voted to renew the contract in a 3-2 vote.
Williams said he dissented because, “at a time we cannot afford adequate COVID-19 testing on our coast, I cannot support prioritizing a business handout.”
In a statement by wildlife conservation group Project Coyote, advocates said the majority of supervisors dismissed the “will of the public” and the that the vote authorizes federal officials to “use public dollars to kill thousands of wild animals in the cruelest ways imaginable at the behest of private ranchers.”
Camilla Fox, the executive director of Project Coyote, said the methods and devices that Wildlife Services employ as part of the program are “morally and ethically indefensible, as well as being completely unnecessary when more effective nonlethal methods and models exist.”
Representatives with Project Coyote and the Mendocino Nonlethal Wildlife Alliance “noted their gratitude” for Williams and Supervisors Williams and John Haschak for “their forward-thinking votes to terminate the contract.”
Carol Misseldine, a member of the Wildlife Alliance, said in a statement that despite receiving “peer-reviewed scientific research” that suggests nonlethal techniques of controlling predator attacks are more effective and less expensive, supervisors still “voted to continue the needless and horrific slaughter of Mendocino’s majestic wildlife.”
Lee's Perspective 