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Thousands of feral pigs to be killed on Santa Cruz Island
DawnWatch: "Thousands of feral pigs will be killed" -- LA Times 4/9/05
There was a sad lead story in the Saturday, April 9, Los Angeles Times (Pg B1), headed, "Hunt Is on for Island's Troublesome Tenants;
Thousands of feral pigs will be killed to preserve native plants and a rare fox species." It should be read by any animal advocates who give money to the Nature Conservancy, a group that attempts to restore land to its natural setting by slaughtering members of disruptive species who have been introduced by humans.
We read:
"Beginning this week, MacDonald and his team of 10 hunters will spend 27 months shooting pigs until not one remains on Santa Cruz Island. They'll use traps, gunners from helicopters and tracking dogs in relentless porcine pursuit. The 96-square-mile Santa Cruz Island, 18 miles off the Ventura County coast, is one of the most ecologically rich and complex areas left in California. It is owned by the nonprofit Nature Conservancy and the federal National Parks Service."
"The history of its degradation, however, is as rich and complex as the island itself. From 1947 to 1971, DDT manufacturer Montrose Co. dumped large quantities of the chemical into the channel. That weakened the eggs of the bald eagle, which nested in the Channel Islands, resulting in its disappearance from the chain. Meanwhile, pigs were being raised on the ranches on the island from about the mid-1800s to the 1980s. Pigs that got loose became wild -- and began reproducing.
"The sins of the pigs are many. They root through island vegetation, causing erosion and providing fertile ground for nonnative plants, such as fennel. Fennel has spread uncontrollably, in thick pastures smelling of black licorice, and now endangers nine species of native plants.
Pigs eat acorns, preventing the native oak trees from reproducing. The pigs, moreover, dig up ancient Chumash Indian settlements and gravesites. And the young pigs are prey for nonnative golden eagles, which found the pickings especially good on Santa Cruz Island. Well-fed and aggressive, golden eagles forced out the bald eagles. The golden eagles came for the piglets, but they stayed for the island fox, an animal found nowhere in the world but the islands off Southern California. And because of the golden eagles, the island fox hovers near extinction. Last year, the animal, roughly the size of a small cat, was placed on the federal Endangered Species List."
"Fixing the man-made chain of events has required a complicated series of ecological surgeries, according to environmentalists and National Parks Service officials. And the last of these -- eradicating the feral pigs -- began this week with MacDonald's hunt.
Island foxes, meanwhile, are being bred and readied for release in the wild once the pigs meet their fate. The numbers of golden eagles have already been reduced, and bald eagles were reintroduced a few years ago."
The article tells us that "the pigs are not without friends' who advocate for "pig contraception and sterilization as ways of eradicating the population" rather than mass slaughter. Those friends are the Channel Island Animal Protection Association. You can learn more about the issue, and how you can get involved, at their website: http://www.chiapa.org/
Opposition from the public, printed in the Los Angeles Times, could help. You can read the whole article on line at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pighunt9apr09,1,1046360.story and respond to the Los Angeles at: letters [at] latimes.com.
The paper recommends "well-written individual letters only; no group e-mails. Do not send attachments. Letters should be brief, and may be edited. They become the property of The Times and may be republished in any format. Please include your full name, mailing address and daytime phone number (your number will not be published)."
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)
Thousands of feral pigs will be killed to preserve native plants and a rare fox species." It should be read by any animal advocates who give money to the Nature Conservancy, a group that attempts to restore land to its natural setting by slaughtering members of disruptive species who have been introduced by humans.
We read:
"Beginning this week, MacDonald and his team of 10 hunters will spend 27 months shooting pigs until not one remains on Santa Cruz Island. They'll use traps, gunners from helicopters and tracking dogs in relentless porcine pursuit. The 96-square-mile Santa Cruz Island, 18 miles off the Ventura County coast, is one of the most ecologically rich and complex areas left in California. It is owned by the nonprofit Nature Conservancy and the federal National Parks Service."
"The history of its degradation, however, is as rich and complex as the island itself. From 1947 to 1971, DDT manufacturer Montrose Co. dumped large quantities of the chemical into the channel. That weakened the eggs of the bald eagle, which nested in the Channel Islands, resulting in its disappearance from the chain. Meanwhile, pigs were being raised on the ranches on the island from about the mid-1800s to the 1980s. Pigs that got loose became wild -- and began reproducing.
"The sins of the pigs are many. They root through island vegetation, causing erosion and providing fertile ground for nonnative plants, such as fennel. Fennel has spread uncontrollably, in thick pastures smelling of black licorice, and now endangers nine species of native plants.
Pigs eat acorns, preventing the native oak trees from reproducing. The pigs, moreover, dig up ancient Chumash Indian settlements and gravesites. And the young pigs are prey for nonnative golden eagles, which found the pickings especially good on Santa Cruz Island. Well-fed and aggressive, golden eagles forced out the bald eagles. The golden eagles came for the piglets, but they stayed for the island fox, an animal found nowhere in the world but the islands off Southern California. And because of the golden eagles, the island fox hovers near extinction. Last year, the animal, roughly the size of a small cat, was placed on the federal Endangered Species List."
"Fixing the man-made chain of events has required a complicated series of ecological surgeries, according to environmentalists and National Parks Service officials. And the last of these -- eradicating the feral pigs -- began this week with MacDonald's hunt.
Island foxes, meanwhile, are being bred and readied for release in the wild once the pigs meet their fate. The numbers of golden eagles have already been reduced, and bald eagles were reintroduced a few years ago."
The article tells us that "the pigs are not without friends' who advocate for "pig contraception and sterilization as ways of eradicating the population" rather than mass slaughter. Those friends are the Channel Island Animal Protection Association. You can learn more about the issue, and how you can get involved, at their website: http://www.chiapa.org/
Opposition from the public, printed in the Los Angeles Times, could help. You can read the whole article on line at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pighunt9apr09,1,1046360.story and respond to the Los Angeles at: letters [at] latimes.com.
The paper recommends "well-written individual letters only; no group e-mails. Do not send attachments. Letters should be brief, and may be edited. They become the property of The Times and may be republished in any format. Please include your full name, mailing address and daytime phone number (your number will not be published)."
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)
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I, and I am sure most other "environmentalists" have no objection if the "animal welefare" folks want to step forward with the resources necessary to remove the pigs by humane means if that is possible. But we reject the idea that "it's too bad", that the pigs welfare comes ahead of attempting to save this local ecosystem. That doesn't mean I would have no regret about killing the pigs oif that's the only means practical, that I do not consider it a "respononsibility". The Earth comes first -- even above any "guilt" I might feel about doing what has to be done.