Klamath wolves case uc 041306

Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.

4/13/06

Hello (KBC), my name is J and I am a student at Case Western Reserve University. I am currently performing a research project analyzing how "place" helps determines one's identity and views on the restoration of wolves within the Northwest United States. I was wondering if your organization could provide any information regarding the whether your organization is mainly supported by urban versus rural residents, and where in the nation the organization receives the most support? I would greatly appreciate any help you could provide with my project.

Sincerely,

__________________

We represent farmers and ranchers which of course are rural. I suppose if you are a person raising calves and lambs and chickens and turkeys for the urban people who eat these commodities, you would not want wolves being introduced into your area. As you know, if you have wolves and livestock, you are not allowed to shoot the wolves unless you catch them in the act of killing livestock. Which means you lose the animals you are growing for your urban customers.

And if you are an urban person craving the "wild" and romantic sounds of howling wolves, you would not think about your dinner and how the wolves planted near ranches will effect your meat production. And you would not particularly think about the rancher and care whether he loses his livelihood while trying to produce American-grown food with way more health regulations than imported meat.

Since urban folks want wolves in rural areas, perhaps the urban folks should begin by planting them in their own back yards, parks and playgrounds first and let us know how it works. If they kill their kittens and puppies, it is ok unless they actually see the wolf kill their little pet. And if they kill their child, well, perhaps the wolves were there first and the urbanite should move. Those are the rules imposed on the rural Americans by urbanites.

When you asked about support, all but one of our supporters are from rural areas supporting American-grown agricultural products. The other is an educational organization supporting a variety of educational groups.

I hope this helps. Will you share with us your report when you are finished?

Thanks

KBC