From: "Ed Glaze III" <eglaze@vsta.com>
To: "PPN Listserv" <PPN@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: Thinning the herd -- articles
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 19:10:26 -0600
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Several days ago I caused a stir on the list when I mentioned
that humans have no problem thinning herds of game animals
or cattle when they exceed their carrying capacity and yet we
refuse to recognize that humans are just another animal and
the same rules should apply.
Date: Saturday, November 21, 1998 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: overpopulation & Malthus

It would have been better to word it by saying that we need
to recognize that our overpopulaton is also putting similar
strains of the global environment as animal herds often do
on a more localized area. Below are a couple articles
which point out  how we deal with animal overpopulation.

I am not advocating culling humans. But I do say we must take
some drastic actions to insure that such methods do not
become more appealing as our environmental and social
problems worsen around us as our population continues to grow.


________   Ed Glaze   <eglaze@vsta.com>

"If they don't understand the severity of the problem,
they won't understand the severity of the solution.
Overpopulation must be dealt with."


November 27, 1998
<http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSPolitics/harder.html>
Conservation takes a holiday
by JEFF HARDER
CNEWS Columnist

                 Ontario Parks officials could learn a thing or two from the
Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. <http://www.ofah.org/>
                 It seems many of the people who run the provincial parks
have decided to put politics ahead of conservation. Take the white-tail deer
cull at the southwestern Ontario's Pinery Provincial Park, first reported
here two weeks ago, which saw about 260 animals shot in the last five days.
The deer cull is needed to reduce the park herd, previously pegged at about
900 head, to 200 in order to sustain the park's fragile ecosystem.
                 Simply put, overpopulation is killing the park's plant life
and threatening the well-being of the deer herd. The hunt was carried out
exclusively by aboriginal shooters, said ministry spokesman Brian Huis, most
of whom used .270 and .240 calibre rifles.
                 The parks officials think they're being clever by
recruiting native hunters. The strategy, documented or not, suggests that
critics will be muffled for fear of being labelled racist. So, it's not
about using the best marksmen, satisfying a variety of interested parties or
managing the natural resource. It's about ignoring the taxpaying,
licence-buying federation of hunters in order to duck the written bullet of
negative press coverage. It's also called gutless.
                 Huis and his colleagues spurned federation offers to help
with the cull, as outlined in a Nov. 18 letter to Natural Resources Minister
John Snobelen. The thoughtful correspondence, obtained by CANOE, recommends
annual hunts within park boundaries in order to avoid the random slaughter
that is currently taking place.
                 "Plans for initial and annual reduction of 30% for the herd
will not effectively reduce the herd quickly enough to satisfy the objective
of protecting the park ecosystem. It may only perpetuate the overpopulation
problem, especially because no selective harvest plan is included,"
federation executive vice-president R.G. Morgan wrote.
                 By standing by and watching the over-breeding and
subsequent over-grazing take place, conservation officers are abrogating the
very definition of their jobs. The federation has a solution.
                 "The OFAH recommends that, after an initial cull, Parks
Ontario use licences public hunters in annual controlled hunts to maintain
sustainable deer populations in the parks. The OFAH believes that the
(ministry) should use native and non-native hunters in any future cull. This
will shift the responsibility for carcass handling, processing and
distribution to hunters," Morgan said.
                 In other words, it's cost-effective.
                 Snobelen is listening, sources say. He hopes to schedule a
non-native hunt for January in order to complete the cull. The federation,
however, has not been notified. That's up to the parks officials, and their
hands are full right now - with political footballs.


NINE LIVES? NOT AT THE HUMANE SOCIETY
                 Provincial parks aren't the only place where over-breeding
is a problem.
                 An abundance of frisky cats is keeping the crematorium on
broil at St. Catharines' Lincoln County Humane Society. Society manager
Frank Hampson said the exploding cat population is affecting the entire
continent.
                 "When I started (30 years ago), there were more dogs
handled. Now, we see 1,000 more cats a year than dogs. Cats are on the
upswing. Throughout North America, it's an emerging problem," he explained.
                 "We spend $40,000 a year running our crematorium. Our gas
bill is $1,200 a month."
                 Wild cats are driving it, Hampson said. They breed,
unchecked, all over rural Ontario. Barn cats, for example, are largely
ignored until there are so many they become a menace to the farmer's daily
chores. That's when the drowning starts. Since cats don't like water, they
migrate.
                 Many of the strays find their way into cities and towns,
and eventually, a cage at the humane society. "It's usually because someone
was too stupid to (spay or neuter)," Hampson said.
                 Of course, death is the only way out of a cage at the
humane society The strays are commonly gassed with carbon dioxide or put
down with lethal injection. Until Wednesday night, the Lincoln County
shelter used nothing but carbon dioxide on the strays. But its board has
decided to fork over an extra $4,000 a year for a designer, two-injection
process. First, the cats will get a calming anasthetic, then they will be
hit with a lethal dose of poison. Just like hiring aboriginal hunters for
deer culls, this move satisfies a host of critics while achieving the same
goal: extermination.
                 "People think that the needle is the panacea," Hampson
said. "The truth is the government (agriculture ministry) still says the
quickest and most humane method is the bullet. But we can't have that, can
we?"