Dear Editor:
DON’T DANCE WITH WOLVES. This sounds like a really fun party coming up on Feb. 22. There is going to be steak and fixings, live music, a great auction and much more but I’m not certain that all the folks in Rio Blanco County who read the Herald or check out posters at the Post Office really understand the importance of what this party is about.
As noted, all the proceeds are going to Coloradans Protecting Wildlife. What does that really mean to all of us? Not much more than banding together to raise funds for a consortium of groups who are going to work to save our way of life.
As a livestock producer (sheep), I know that non-native wolves being introduced into the western slope of Colorado will have an adverse impact on us, as well as the cattle industry. In fact it may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and puts some of us out of business. However, these wolves are going to impact every resident of our county.
Hunting is an economic driver for everyone, from guides and outfitters to local business, i.e. lodging, restaurants, grocery stores, fuel sales, auto repair, tire sales, warm clothes, orange vests and caps, and the list goes on and on.
These wolves are going to devastate our elk herd, could eliminate our mule deer and moose, and don’t forget about antelope and bighorn sheep.
Coloradans Protecting Wildlife’s effort will be a lion’s attempt to affect the Front-Range voter. We know those folks don’t care about calves or lambs, perhaps a few care about horses, but most of them do care about Colorado’s wildlife.
Today we know that most voters get their information from TV ads and social media and those two things take big dollars. The idea is to be able to cast doubt in the minds of front-range voters in the need to introduce a wolf who was never native to Colorado into our western slope landscape, especially when we know they are coming in from Wyoming on their own.
If you cannot join the fun at Don’t Dance With Wolves on Feb. 22, I encourage everyone to go to the website rethinkwolves.com and click on the donate spot and donate $5, $50, $500 or whatever you think you can afford, every penny counts in this fight for the livelihood of every resident or visitor to Rio Blanco County.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and hopefully do your part at whatever level you think appropriate.
Connie Theos
Meeker
My goodness this fearmongering is getting out of hand. The elk, moose, and mule deer will be fine, just like the elk, moose, and deer in Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington are fine. Wolves very rarely if ever take bighorn sheep, whereas bighorn herds across the West have been killed off by domestic sheep diseases.
If the wolves get some of your livestock, you’ll just collect your payout from CPW like you do for black bear kills, and add it to all the other subsidies livestock producers take from taxpayers and sports people. Ironic how the free market bootstrappin’ tough guy ranchers want a handout at every turn, including a sanitized landscape where all native predators have been wiped out. Give me a break.