Mr Hernandez,

I was born in "cattle country". I have lived in "cattle country" nearly all of my life. I have friends and family who farm and ranch.

I find your blanket characterization of my culture as "hostile to wildlife" distasteful.

- Roy Myers, Electric City, WA


Message: 13
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 04:22:30 +0000 (UTC)
From: Jason Hernandez <jason.hernandez74 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Hawk Owl's Demise
To: Tweet Ters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID:
<1931666306.2457173.1452486150716.JavaMail.yahoo at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

I will second Roger's thoughts. We must remember that wildlife does not exist for us to look at; it exists for itself, and a quite legal act may not be in the wildlife's best interest. It can be something as simple as where I walk: Evergreen Rotary Park is a public place, and walking dogs there is allowed as long as the dogs are leashed. But the wigeons can't tell if a dog is leashed or not. So as I approach the park with my dog, I look to see if the wigeons are on the water or on the lawn. If on the water, I go ahead; but if on the lawn, I go someplace else that will keep my dog and me away from them, because if they take alarm and fly to the water to get away from the dog, I have interrupted their grazing, and made it that much harder for them to balance their energy budget for the day. I gladly accept this slight inconvenience out of respect for the birds' needs.
Certainly, if I was anywhere with a local culture actively hostile to wildlife -- which will be pretty much anywhere in cattle country -- I would do my utmost to avoid drawing attention to the presence of wildlife near human habitations.
Jason Hernandez
Bremerton
jason.hernandez74 at yahoo.com