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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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Of Ironies and Iron
Determination
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How weird it is, to consider that
"environmentalists" are in large part responsible for a number of
preventable environmental disasters. Of course, they didn't mean to be. They
perhaps began their various campaigns with the best of intentions. But a brief
review of history from around the world during the last thirty years or less,
should convince even the most critical of skeptics that major environmentalist
campaigns have done a great deal of environmental harm, and have hindered
scientific wildlife management to the extent that animal populations and their
habitats need major adjustments. And this doesn't even begin to cover the human
costs, in ruined economies, culture loss, and obstructed law enforcement by
concerned governments.
The latest topic to illustrate this is once again, the European ban on
import of wild American furs, thanks to the groups that profit from campaigns
against the use of fur bearing animals. Beaver have over-run the northeastern
United States, thanks to the loss of the European market for furs, and due to
the fact that some states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts have banned the
foothold trap, a very useful and humane tool in wildlife management. Beaver
dams flood farmland, roads, and occasionally, cellars and wells. Highway
departments spend millions of dollars a year trying to undo just the damage to
roads. Towns and villages raise their taxes to combat the problem, which used
to be prevented by eager trappers pulling beaver from the land, at no cost to
state or local taxpayers. In Louisiana, untrapped nutria have now destroyed
thousands of acres of valuable wetland habitat, ruining life for fish,
migrating waterfowl, and native wildlife such as muskrats, herons, and ospreys.
Nutria have now spread to the Chesapeake Bay, where they are being eradicated
by federal trappers. No one profits from that situation. Louisiana is resorting
to paying a bounty on nutria, and trappers are hoping to sell the pelts and the
meat. A suggestion: Use the meat in canned pet food, in case enough of it can
not be sold for the human market.
In inland America, white tail deer are over-running many areas because
hunters are unable to convince their sons and daughters, (influenced by animal
rightists and "environmentalists") that deer management via sport
hunting is the right thing for them to do, to carry on a useful tradition. The
country needs many more deer hunters.
In eastern Canada, harp seals have grown from 1.8 to over 5 million animals
since the "environmentalists" persuaded the EU parliament to ban the
pelts of young animals. No one disputes that the Inuit people, the seals, the
fish, the sea birds, whales, and not least, the fishermen, are suffering from
the European legislative success that made protest leaders so very proud.
People all over the world need to use animals for food and clothing, for
maintenance of their bodies and their souls, their cultures and their
communities. Sometimes, they need to control animals such as elephants that
have been the focus of environmentalist campaigns.
IWMC will always support those who fight this distressing trend against
animal use. Iron determination to do the right thing will always overcome the
ironies of animal rights and environmentalist campaigns to prevent animal use.
Iron determination and sustainable use are a good combination for our future. 
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