Wildlife and People

Getting the Message Out

Dear Mike,

I wish you could have listened to the KKOB [Albuquerque, New Mexico] yesterday morning. I think it went really well considering we had a total of about 10-15 minutes to talk about things relating to the NM wolf program.

Terry Q was really great, completely horrified about the situation with the kids and bus stop shelters. I was mainly only able to talk about the kids, the attack on Maggie the dog in the play yard, Brenda McCarty’s kids and the incident that initiated the bus stop shelters. The fact that there were people about every 10 to 20 miles in and around this area they expect wolves to be in and the wolves coming into people’s yards. The PTSD in the kids.

I was able to barely scratch the surface even though I wanted to hit on rabies, lost uncollared wolves and livestock depredation, but then we are going to be doing some other phone interviews in the future too and we all know the situation with our kids is the most important thing.

The talk show host was great, talking about her own experience with an overly aggressive coyote pack that had just killed her dog and were eyeing her. She is an animal loving person, though perhaps not fully informed, she was also completely reasonable about our issues. She was even reasonable about the need for humane slaughter of aged or diseased horses. So there is another opening for some gentle instruction on horse slaughter legislation discussion, which we did get a chance to talk about briefly early on. I was trying to figure out how to slip something in about that but thankfully someone called in early and asked to have it brought up.

Thanks whoever you were. I think we have an opening here to talk about Ag issues a couple times a month, even though some of the extremist greens appear on the show too.

Anyway, I am hoping that others will follow suit and make some effort to do this kind of talk show even when it is only a short interview, because it is easy access to the public, and if you get a host who’s manner is supportive when it comes to realistic management of animals and protecting property and people, you are miles ahead.

My feeling is that there are a lot of people in our various organizations who are much much better spokesmen than I am, especially after three days of convention and no sleep. But I think we need to work on getting our messages out. Ranching is a 2.1 billion dollar industry in New Mexico and best of all, we make the best kids who are productive members of the community. Most important, we are tied to and remain on the land even if the economy is floundering, and we continue to send livestock dollars into our communities, even if we don’t see much money ourselves and have to live off the proceeds of a town job.

Anybody out there, who wants to organize a team of radio spokespeople who can present some enlightening discussion on various stations, really should do it. think it is a good thing to do. Just because you don’t think you have anything in common with a person doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share certain viewpoints. Most people can be taught. The problem is, you can’t teach if you don’t get out there.

I recommended to the host that she should ask Caren to come on, because she is really good on different industry issues. But I also think that several other folks can make a real difference too. There are dozens of others out there and we don’t all have to be professional or perfect spokesmen (like Caren), just interested, informed, and willing to share.

Laura at Wolf Crossing