Free Republic

The Gunnison Stockgrowers’ Association filed a 22-page comment with the Colorado Wildlife Commission detailing the group members’ concerns about the Draft Wolf Plan process laid out by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Ken Spann, who has delivered public comment to the CPW Commission on behalf of the group, said the endorsement of the comments lies in every acre of agricultural land in Gunnison County. The basis of their concerns is the survival of the area’s long standing ranching operations as well as the existing big game and other wildlife in the Gunnison Valley. According to Spann, established in 1894, the Gunnison...

The Federal Government has announced a plan to begin shooting feral cattle from helicopters in order to protect the environment. ... Local ranchers, however, have criticized the plan as cruel and have warned about the unintended consequences ... They say it sets a dangerous precedent, as more and more ranching plots are left vacant across the West and fences become untended. They claim that this could result in privately owned cattle wandering off and getting caught up in the mix. ... ranchers are also worried that the wolves who eat the carcasses of the dead animals will become used to...

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials encourage safety precautions as lions remain in the area ... This story has been updated with information about the fate of the mountain lion involved in the second mountain lion attack in Grand Lake. A rash of recent mountain lion attacks have resulted in the deaths of at least one dog and 15 cats, and Grand County residents remain on edge because lions are still in this area. The first attacks on cats began in Kremmling, at the home of Sami and Shawn Lechman during the week of Jan. 15. On Jan. 19., a mountain...

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott responded Thursday to recent remarks from LeBron James about a new revelation that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was present during a racially charged, historic 1957 confrontation between white students and black high school students. James, the Los Angeles Lakers forward and NBA superstar, chided reporters at a press conference for quizzing him about a recent anti-Semitic scandal involving a former teammate, but not seeking his opinion on Jones. The Washington Post last week revealed that Jones, as a 14-year-old Arkansas schoolboy 65 years ago, was present when a throng of white students tried to block...

New wolf depredation incidents are being reported in northern Colorado. First, in Rio Blanco County, just south of Meeker, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has confirmed 18 head of 600-pound calves were attacked and killed by wolves ... on the LK Ranch, owned by Lenny and Jackie Klinglesmith. The cattle were up in their summer pasture, when the wolf depredation incidents were discovered. Travis Duncan with Colorado Parks and Wildlife says necropsies on each animal have been performed and it is an active investigation. ... A second Colorado wolf depredation incident was in the past few days in Jackson County, near...

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — Wildlife officers on Wednesday were tracking a mountain lion that attacked a 7-year-old boy and prompted the closure of a sprawling Southern California park, authorities said. The child and his father were walking up stairs at Pico Canyon Park near Santa Clarita around dusk on Monday when a cougar emerged from brush and bit the boy on the buttocks, said Capt. Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Foy said the father, who was walking behind, heard his son cry out and charged toward the big cat. “The lion let go and retreated...

Democrats know “virtually nothing” about the firearms they seek to ban, according to Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, who called out House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler for his ignorance on the subject earlier this week. On Tuesday, during a House Rules Committee hearing on Democrat-led legislation to restrict law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) asked Nadler what the “AR” in AR-15 stands for.

Under-counts may have cost Florida and Texas another House seat. Well, well. Remember how Democrats accused the Trump Administration of trying to rig the 2020 Census? Now a Census Bureau study reveals that Republican-leaning states may have been hurt by mistaken under-counts. On Thursday the bureau published the results of its post-enumeration analysis, which it does after every Census to identify errors in the count. Its study found that 14 states were over- or under-counted by statistically significant margins. Compare that to 2010 when the bureau’s post-hoc analysis found that all the state population counts were more or less accurate....

Back on Monday, April 11th, the Newton County Quorum Court in Arkansas voted unanimously to remove restrictions on the concealed carry of weapons by County employees who have a concealed carry permit. From ky3.com:JASPER, Ark. (KY3) – The Newton County Quorum Court, by unanimous vote, will allow county employees to carry their concealed firearms while on the job.The quorum court felt it is essential for each county employee to be able to defend themselves or others when the need arises. As long as the employee has a valid concealed carry permit, they can carry their gun.A now-famous drive-by shooting rattled...

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Being married for 82 years, Cleovis and Arwilda Whiteside were presented with a certificate from the governor. A silver platter with details of their marriage, a Bible, as well as other gifts to symbolize their long-lasting union. "Tried to live a life pleasing unto God and to our church and to our members. To everybody."

A federal judge this week denied a temporary restraining order sought by environmental groups that would block grazing in six eastern Oregon pastures. The Capital Press reports U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said the plaintiffs haven’t shown that turning cattle out on the pastures will cause irreparable harm to sage grouse or to rangeland research. He said continued grazing isn’t likely to irreparably harm the ability of environmental plaintiffs to enjoy undisturbed sagebrush grassland, since the pastures have long been grazed and are rested on a rotating basis. The case was filed against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management by...

WARNING: PICTURES ARE GRAPHIC. Wolves have killed another cow in Jackson County. Here’s Travis Duncan with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. ... Steamboat Radio was told of the most recent wolf depredation incident today by Adam VanValkenburg, President of the North Park Stockgrowers Association. He said the wolf kill happened sometime Monday night, as confirmed by CPW. He says another suspected kill from the pack was of six elk on another neighboring property in Jackson County. Here’s his opinion on the recent incident in Jackson County. ... “In my opinion and in consulting with other experts, they are teaching their pups...

A question must seriously be asked whether Jared Polis is interested in governing all of Colorado, or just the narrow strip that contains the vast majority of the state’s population. Polis has repeatedly angered the small band of hardy farmers and ranchers that make up Colorado’s second-largest industry by his insensitive slights and tone-deaf insults. It’s as if the governor pays lip service to agriculture one day and then slaps it in the face the next. Case in point: In February Polis ignored the recommendations of his own Department of Agriculture and appointed yet another animal welfare extremist to a...

The Bureau of Animal Protection has a new director, selected from a pool of candidates that included two animal rights attorneys and a wolf introduction and “humane food choice proponent.” The final choice to lead the bureau, announced today by Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Kate Greenberg, is Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Niemiec (pronounced “Knee-Mick”) an assistant professor in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University and the director of the Conservation Action Lab. ... The BAP falls under the umbrella of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, but open records requests by The Fence Post indicate governor Jared...

Animal rights activist Ellen Kessler, a gubernatorial appointee to the State Board of Veterinary Medicine, submitted her resignation from the board at 3:26 p.m. Monday. Kessler's letter, released by the governor's office, said her resignation would be effective at the close of business on Feb. 11. "I realize that some of my actions have caused anger and discomfort and that I was unprofessional in my judgment," Kessler wrote. "I apologize to you and the citizens of our great state and wish you the best of luck as you continue to make Colorado the best in the nation." Kessler, appointed to...

Attacks on cattle and dogs by wolves that migrated into northwest Colorado from Wyoming have stoked a rancher-wolf controversy sooner than expected. Don Gittleson woke up Wednesday morning to a sight that’s starting to feel common on his North Park ranch: a cow torn up by wolves, the third attack on his livestock since a few days before Christmas. If this were Montana, Wyoming or Idaho, Gittleson could pull out a gun and shoot the predator dead. But this is Colorado. Wolves in Colorado are protected under state law. Killing them – no matter how many cows or sheep or...

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...

A confirmed wolf kill was discovered near Walden, Colo., the home of one of Colorado’s wolf packs. An approximately 500 pound purebred replacement heifer was found dead after being attacked and eaten by this pack of wolves. This is the first confirmed wolf kill of livestock in Colorado in over 70 years. In early 2021, Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed the existence of this pack in north central Colorado; however, individual wolves have been sited in the area previous to the pack confirmation. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials are working closely with the livestock producer to learn as much from...

The man who shot and killed Zachary Brian Arnold on 15 May of 2021, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Wallace A. West, was justified in the shooting, according to Sebastian County Prosecutor Dan Shue. The incident was covered by AmmoLand previously. More facts about the incident have been revealed. Wallace fired two shots, not one, as previously assumed. He missed the first shot. It was revealed Arnold had fired 93 shots when he was shot and killed by West. From nwaonline.com:West, identified in the Police Department news release Wednesday as an off-duty employee of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, woke...

4029tv.com reports that hundreds of Arkansas laws have become effective on 28 July 2021. Among those laws are several incremental reforms of firearms and self-defense law, removing restrictions that were previously in place. The links below go directly to the Arkansas state legislative site, which has the exact wording of the new law. Here is a summation of the changes, with links. Act 1024 removes the prohibition on carrying in places owned, controlled, or operated by a local unit of government, if they have a carry permit, except for the following:(i) A courtroom or the location of an administrative hearing...