>His actions were not out of hatred or anger. Instead, they were out of the
>mis-guided principles of the day. He was simply doing his job! Up to the
>early 50's, predators were still recognized by many as competitors of
>man...as vermin...as wanton killers and consumers of things that rightfully
>were man's.

This has changed? This logic - predators consume prey rightfully belong
to man - underlies the recent large-scale wolf shooting and trapping
escapades of the State of Alaska. Despite the lack of any scientific basis
for believing that the effort will make more animals (caribou) available
for hunters.

With the retirement of Hickel, the program has stopped (again) (for awhile?)
after a wildlife biologist videotaped a wolf which had been snared, attempting
to chew off its foot. The tape caused a resurgance of the widespread
outrage (even in Alaska) which had greeted the program when originally
proposed two years ago.

And, illegal shooting by gamekeepers is, as I understand it, still a
major cause of raptor mortality in the UK. And, though wholesale
slaughter of golden eagles has ceased in the western sheepranching
states of the US, illegal killing has not disappeared and, as of 1992
at least, was still considered a significant problem by USFW types in
those states.


-Don Baccus-