AR-News: (US AZ) Selling out a heritage

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Feb. 2, 2004 12:00 AM
They were traded for peanuts.

The grazing leases that put thousands of goats close enough to infect an 
indigenous herd of desert bighorn sheep were worth $9,000 annually to the state.

Compare that to the $100,000 that a permit to hunt a single bighorn sheep can 
bring at auction.

Compare that with the intrinsic value of an animal that, like all Arizona 
wildlife, faces steady urban encroachment and shrinking habitat.

The bighorn sheep in the Silverbell Mountains north of Tucson should have 
been safe. They were a jewel in the recently established Ironwood Forest National 
Monument. They had space. It looked like a good bet that they would be around 
for your grandkids.

These animals were under the protection of the Arizona Game and Fish 
Department, which knows that bighorns are vulnerable to diseases common among domestic 
sheep and goats. Bighorns lack immunity to barnyard ailments, says Gerry 
Perry, spokesman for the Tucson office of Game and Fish.




full story:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0202valdez02.html

 
"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing.",
Albert Einstein

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