Posted on 09/13/2011 4:50:13 PM PDT by SJackson
U.S. prosecutors charge a man who said he was protecting his family. State residents and officials are outraged.
Reporting from Bonners Ferry, Idaho— To understand the deep rift over federal regulation of endangered species, one only had to sit in the stands of the annual 4-H auction at the Boundary County Fairgrounds here last month, when 14-year-old Jasmine Hill's handsome pig, Regina, went up for sale.
First, it's important to know the back story: Jasmine's father, Jeremy, had been charged by the U.S. Justice Department a few weeks earlier with shooting a grizzly bear — a federally designated threatened species — 40 yards from the back door of the family home at the base of the Selkirk Mountains.
Plenty of people have been charged with illegally killing endangered wolves, bears, caribou and other animals with tenuous footholds in the rugged country in places like northern Idaho.
But this was different. Hill, his neighbors said, was protecting his home and his family. He was doing what any of them might have done. And now a man trying to raise six children out in the woods on a backhoe operator's earnings was facing up to a year in prison and a $50,000 fine.
So when Jasmine started shyly prodding her prized pig around the arena, Sam Fodge, the owner of a wood-chip mill, quickly bought it at $4.50 a pound, or $1,143. Then Fodge said: "Give it back. Sell it again."
The pig sold next to North Idaho Energy Logs. Then Pluid Logging. Then Three Mile Cafe. In all, Regina was sold 15 times, raising a total of $19,588 for Hill's legal defense fund. Jasmine hung her head, dumbfounded, in the arena. Jeremy and his wife, Rachel, were in tears.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Pinging you on this one mom, this story is just too cool.
Careful reading IS our friend.
Check the article and you will find that the shot grizzly bear first limped off and then returned.
He shot a wounded grizzly that was moving towards him.
‘Nuff said.
Holy Jeez, my lips are sealed. My eyes are closed, and my brain is not running wild. Remaining comments self censored.
That sentiment remains. I ought to know, I live here. The federal prosecutor issued a mealy-mouthed, weasel-worded statement implying that she had better information than the locals, the local government, the state government, and the Governor; either that or she acted on worse information. Either way she looked as stupid as she is.
The border of the Grizzly "re-introduction" area is some five miles from Mr. Hill's home. It is very clear from this entire affair that the federal government's priorities subordinate the welfare of the individual citizen to the welfare of another species. At that point the federal government has betrayed its charge and called into question the justification for its very existence.
Definitely cool - though I should not have read it at work! Darned blurry monitor!! ;-)
Looks to be the quintessential lesbian liberal asshat.
Looks like one of those “metrosexual” guys to me! HAW
JC
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