Sheepmen and Bush Forest Service threaten bighorn recovery in Sierra Nevada
LOS ANGELES TIMES -- June 8 05
SAN FRANCISCO — California Fish and Game officials are proposing to kill endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep when they come in contact with domestic sheep believed to transmit highly contagious fatal diseases to the wild herds.
"The ramifications of allowing potentially infected animals to travel back to native bighorn herds and spread disease could be far more disastrous to bighorn recovery than the loss of a single animal through lethal take," said a state Fish and Game notice of the proposed regulation published last month.
Several environmental groups who saw the notice mounted protests this week, calling for the removal of domestic sheep from federal grazing lands in the rocky Eastern Sierra habitat of the bighorns.
"The proposal to kill wild bighorns to 'protect' them from domestic sheep is unwise and unethical," said a letter Monday from the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Inyo. "What is necessary is to get domestic sheep away from bighorns now."
More on LA Times website...
I worked with the Times to break this story. DRP
"The ramifications of allowing potentially infected animals to travel back to native bighorn herds and spread disease could be far more disastrous to bighorn recovery than the loss of a single animal through lethal take," said a state Fish and Game notice of the proposed regulation published last month.
Several environmental groups who saw the notice mounted protests this week, calling for the removal of domestic sheep from federal grazing lands in the rocky Eastern Sierra habitat of the bighorns.
"The proposal to kill wild bighorns to 'protect' them from domestic sheep is unwise and unethical," said a letter Monday from the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Inyo. "What is necessary is to get domestic sheep away from bighorns now."
More on LA Times website...
I worked with the Times to break this story. DRP
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