AR-News: ! in Defense of Sabino Canyon Mt. Lions

Thu Mar 25 20:45:15 EST 2004

From:protectrwildlife at yahoogroups.com

Three cheers for Earth First! and Rod Coronado for 
being there in defense of the Sabino Canyon Mountain 
Lions. 

Here is the link to the story by KOLD-TV News 13 of 
Tucson: 

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=1733389 

You can send e-mails to reporter,  J.D.Wallace at: 
jwallace at kold.com 

or contact KOLD-TV station at: 

Phone: 
Business (520) 744-1313 
Fax (520) 744-5233 
News Desk (520) 744-NEWS 
News Fax (520) 744-5235 
Business hours between 8:30am and 5:30pm Monday 
through Friday 

Email: 
 Contact KOLD-TV

Mailing Address:
KOLD-TV
7831 North Business Park Drive
Tucson AZ 85743

Environmental Group Continues to Ignore Sabino Canyon
Closure

By J.D. Wallace, News 13 Reporter

posted 3/23/04

As the Arizona Game and Fish Department prepares to
begin tracking and removing mountain lions from Sabino
Canyon on Wednesday, environmental group Earth First
continues to produce amateur video from inside the
canyon. The group could be arrested for trespassing in
the area right now.

"We’ve been monitoring the situation, and we’ll
continue to do so because we feel the public has a
right to see what’s going on," said Rod Coronado with
Earth First. "We’re still 100-percent opposed to the
relocation(of mountain lions from Sabino Canyon to a
rehabilitation center)."

"(Sabino Canyon) is closed by a federal Forest Service
order and so those who are in there without
authorization would be guilty of a federal trespass
statute, but you’d need to talk to the Forest Service
about that," said Gerry Perry with the Arizona Game
and Fish Department.

The U.S. Forest Service has said it will prosecute
people who trespass in the canyon, but it’s not the
first time Earth First has been in the area. A week
and a half ago the group provided its first video from
inside the canyon, as Earth First members try to
interfere with Game and Fish’s efforts to remove
mountain lions from Sabino Canyon.

"We will remain in the area to keep an eye on things
and make sure no lions get caught without a fight,"
Coronado said.

But Game and Fish has become less descriptive of its
actions inside the canyon, as it responds to death
threats from others protesting the move.

"There have been a number of death threats, one of
them I can recall was specific to having someone in
the canyon with a high-power rifle, and taking
whatever action that they’re going to take, and again,
we’re not going to make it any easier for anyone to do
something like that," Perry said.

"And we will risk arrest if necessary because six
months imprisonment is nothing compared to life
imprisonment that these lions face," Coronado said.

Earth First said it has not threatened Game and Fish
personnel, but as environmental groups continue to
pressure Game and Fish to not send mountain lions to a
rehabilitation facility, the department refers to a
1996 bear mauling on Mount Lemmon as a big reason to
continue with the relocation and rehabilitation
effort.

"And I had to stand in the emergency room, and explain
to the father of a 16-year-old girl why she was malled
by a bear that we had the opportunity to move off the
mountain, and had only moved it a short distance
away," Perry said. "And I don’t want to do that
again."

Game and Fish said proposals by the Center for
Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife to move
the lions to areas above Sabino Canyon will not work,
and the department provided research from other
regions to support its plan. The groups say the
department is only looking for research that will
support its plan, and not at research done in Arizona.

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"The Earth And Her Threatened Animal Nations Deserve The Same Level Of Defense That We Support When Human Life Is Threatened. Otherwise We Are Just More Hypocrites Wanting Change Without The Risk And Sacrifice That Is Already Being Made By Others." 

I Believe It Is Far Better To Live For Animal Liberation Than To Die For It. 

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Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
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