POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE, Calif., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –
Friends of the White Deer reports that last Friday, hired killers from White
Buffalo Inc. stormed Muddy Hollow and began to shoot the fallow deer herding
in the area, according to local area residents. This week, perhaps as soon as
Monday at dawn, a major slaughter is scheduled. Helicopters will herd a
hundred or more Axis deer into a “hole” where they will be shot en masse. Park
officials have offered overtime to employees to quickly remove carcasses from
the shootings and reprimanded park employees for letting the public know about
its secret plans for the slaughter.
The roster of those opposed to the inhumane killing of white deer by White
Buffalo keeps growing. The Humane Society of the United States issued a
letter and called on Sen. Barbara Boxer to end the “futile, destructive, and
inhumane” extermination program.
Monday morning, Friends of the White Deer, a group of local community
opposition (www.fotwd.org) will formally offer to negotiate a payment to White
Buffalo, Inc. based on the sum of the remaining portion of its contract with
the National Park Service (currently undisclosed) to cease the killing and add
a 10% premium. They will also be protesting at the entrance to the site of the
slaughter.
California State Senator Carole Migden and U.S. Representative Lynn
Woolsey all have questioned the necessity of the killings until the non-lethal
and contraceptive options proposed by advocates are fully evaluated. Elected
officials are responding to the growing number of local residents, including
many ranchers and hunters, who are strongly opposed to the inhumane killing.
In addition, groups such as the Marin Humane Society, In Defense of Animals,
and Wildcare, object to the specious “science” and inadequate consideration of
alternatives as part of the National Park Service’s environmental impact
statement.
“The Humane Society of the United States has become very concerned with
the Park Service’s program apparently designed to exterminate non-native deer
at Point Reyes National Seashore,” writes John Grandy, Senior Vice President,
Wildlife and Habitat Program, HSUS. “We have contacted Senator Boxer’s office
… to expand on these concerns and offer humane non-lethal alternatives for
reducing vegetation changes caused by those species to acceptable levels,
where necessary.”
More info at: www.fotwd.org/
SOURCE Friends of the White Deer