Posted on 02/17/2023 11:29:27 AM PST by Olog-hai
A helicopter with a shooter will fly over a portion of the vast Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico next week, searching for feral cows to kill.
U.S. Forest Service managers approved the plan Thursday to protect sensitive spots in the nation’s first designated wilderness area. The move sets the stage for legal challenges over how to handle unbranded livestock and other stray cows as drought deepens in the West.
The Gila National Forest issued the decision amid pressure from environmental groups who raised concerns about nearly 150 cattle whose hooves and mouths are damaging streams and rivers.
Ranchers, meanwhile, have criticized the plan to shoot cows from a helicopter as animal cruelty. They said the action violates federal regulations and will be problematic when carcasses are left to rot. …
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
“Feral cows to be shot dead from helicopter in U.S. national forest: “A difficult decision””
Not really - ANYTHING to drive up the cost of meat, particularly beef.
You dont hunt cows. You just walk up and shoot ‘em in the head.
Raised concerns about nearly 150 cattle whose hooves and mouths are damaging streams and rivers.
Sounds more like some cows are grazing on some weed farms.
A cow can’t do that much damage to National Forest if any thing help it cow chips make things grow.
Ground the helos. Tell them they must pack their food, tents, and ammo in, must track and hunt on foot and must pack the meat out. Anyone who doesn't quit is probably a keeper.
They should be fired just for having the idea. If the cows are a real problem, then open a special hunting season for the public just like they do with feral hogs.
They’re picking off Bison outside Yellowstone Park boundaries.
Who given a chance wouldn’t cook up a scam to go cowboying around with a helicopter on the taxpayer’s dime?
Wait, not the Onion?
Most cows don’t understand “sit” and “stay”.
I guess the experts have determined that beef is too cheap.
To bad the cattle don’t identify as feral horses, because then there would be a huge uproar to protect all of them.
The operative word is “wilderness:”
Thou shalt have nothing live or dead in a wilderness that is not natural.
On Google Earth, the Gila wilderness is desert mountains surrounded by various open pit mines. America can’t have an area where mines are prohibited destroyed by cattle. Although chain saws are prohibited in the wilderness, helicopters apparently aren’t
“Thinning the wrong herd.”
^^THIS!^^ :)
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