Posted on 01/22/2022 5:25:38 PM PST by george76
Controversial appointee accuses ranchers of ‘scam’ in recent wolf kills..
For a day and a half, county officials, policy experts and politicians discussed the challenges unique to rural Colorado, but the most satisfying moment for most attendees came at the very end.
The annual Voices of Rural Colorado Conference returned after a one-year COVID-19 hiatus, hosted by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. The conference is a joint effort by Action 22, Pro 15 and Club 20, organizations that represent the interests of 59 of Colorado’s 64 counties.
The 2022 conference covered such things as affordable housing, higher education, energy trends in rural Colorado, economic development, water issues and agriculture. A common theme was the need to bridge the “urban-rural divide,” a code phrase that basically means urban Coloradans know nothing about rural Coloradans and probably don’t care.
While most of the presentations, panels and question-and-answer sessions were fairly sedate affairs, the penultimate agenda item – Gov. Jared Polis’ address via Zoom – created some fireworks when two different attendees grilled the governor about his appointment of Ellen Kessler to the Colorado Veterinary Board.
Kessler is an avid animal rights activist and is vehemently opposed to the livestock industry. Her public Facebook page is filled with messages to “Love animals, don’t eat them!” and similar anti-livestock posts. She managed to offend all of rural Colorado with one of her posts, which accused 4-H of teaching children how to abuse animals.
Kessler’s appointment has been decried by the agricultural community and even by the Colorado Veterinary Medicine Association since she was first appointed almost two years ago. It is a particularly delicate issue with Polis because she is friends with First Gentleman Marlon Reis, who also is an avowed pro-animal activist. Still, Reis’ activism is aimed primarily at wildlife, puppies and kittens, and the First Gentleman remains mum on any livestock issue that doesn’t involve outright abuse.
On Friday morning, during a Q&A session after Gov. Polis delivered his remarks to the rural conference, two attendees asked him how he could justify keeping Kessler on that board after she publicly accused ranchers in Colorado of using cattle as “wolf bait” to scam reimbursement from state coffers.
That post was actually a comment Kessler posted on a Jan. 19 thread started by Reis about ranchers launching a new program to help them co-exist with bears and using nature to minimize or eliminate losses to natural predators. The tone of Reis’ original post was positive and laudatory of the ranchers involved in the program.
It didn’t take long, however, for Kessler to sound off. Referencing a recent spate of cattle losses to wolves near Walden in north central Colorado, Kessler accused ranchers of faking wolf attacks to get reimbursement from the government for cattle that died.
“Would our lazy and nasty ranchers/cattlemen even raise a finger to make something like this work, or is using a cow to bait the wolves their solution?” Kessler posted in a now-deleted comment. “A living cow doesn’t make money for them. Only a dead cow does. If the slaughterhouse doesn’t pay them for the carcass, they’ll blame the predators so the State (sic) will pay them for livestock lost from predators. What a racket. What a scam.”
While Kessler later deleted her comment, a number of people preserved it and reproduced it in Facebook posts. And on Friday, Polis was challenged to defend Kessler’s continued appointment to the CVB.
To be fair, that board has little to do with looking after the welfare of livestock animals in Colorado. That’s the purview of the Colorado Department of Agriculture and its State Veterinarian, Dr. Maggie Baldwin. The CVB is under the Department of Regulatory Agencies and is primarily tasked with making sure veterinarians in Colorado are properly credentialed, trained and make the best decisions they can for the animals under their care.
Polis took pains to point out this subtle but significant distinction, to reiterate his commitment to having a wide variety of voices on state boards and commissions, and his reluctance to trample anyone’s freedom of speech.
The Voices of Rural Colorado weren’t having it. Again, the governor was told, someone who is so clearly hostile to one of Colorado’s largest industries shouldn’t be serving in a gubernatorial appointment. Polis replied that if anyone had a complaint about the way any of his appointees were failing to perform their duties in a professional manner, they should file a complaint with DORA.
“Well, consider this that complaint, and we’re filing it with the governor,” came a reply.
After Polis’ virtual appearance, Colorado Department of Transportation Executive Director Shoshana Lew delivered an update on CDOT projects in rural Colorado and the conference began to wrap up. Just before adjournment, however, Christian Reece, executive director for Club 20, announced she’d just been told that Kessler’s comment had been forwarded by the governor’s office to DORA for consideration.
The announcement was met with applause, and the conference was adjourned.
PETA enthusiast who believes slaughtering cattle is tantamount to murder and milking cows is equivalent to sexual abuse.
We wish we were kidding..
So the next time someone tries to tell you Polis is a moderate, just remember the governor thought appointing a meat-is-murder vegan to the state veterinary board was a great idea.
https://coloradopeakpolitics.com/2020/09/18/polis-appoints-vegan-who-says-meat-is-murder-to-regulate-livestock-on-vet-board/
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.) .
Ranchers in some states can shoot wolves that attack their livestock. But not in Colorado.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4031836/posts
fixed it
Just damn.
It will be difficult to defeat Polis this next election because he can dump another $22 million of his own money into the race.
40 of Colorado’s 64 counties reported registration rates that exceeded 100% of the eligible citizen voting- age population. . said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton..
Ellen Kessler is clearly a kook. A moonbat of the first degree.
stay on her, they’ll hound her outta there
Ironic, kinda like wolves at the door.
“The annual Voices of Rural Colorado Conference returned after a one-year COVID-19 hiatus......, hosted by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. “
I think I see the problem.
Anklegrabber is such a politically correct way of saying QUEER, HOMO, PERVERT, SODOMITE.
I just call them queers and perverts, GOD will take care of the Sodomite angle.
As HE did once before.
Anklegrabber is such a politically correct way of saying QUEER, HOMO, PERVERT, SODOMITE.
I just call them queers and perverts, GOD will take care of the Sodomite angle.
As HE did once before.
I love rural Colorado. You can drive the entire state with your windows wide open. Try that in New Jersey.
They also claim that ANY breeding of livestock is SEXUAL ABUSE.......
Yep, beautiful here. The only way to mess it up is to let Denver run it.
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