DMN OP-ED opportunity to comment on animal cruelty

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This op-ed appeared in the December 23, 2008 DMN and is an excellent opportunity for a LTE on your views on how the current administration has treated animals. Remember to mention the title of the op-ed to maximize your opportunity to have your letter published. DMN LTE: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgiShare your opinion about how animals should be treated with President Elect Obama by going to: http://change.gov/page/s/yourvisionhttp://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-jackson_23edi.State.Edition1.270db18.htmlKeep guns out of the national parks

04:23 PM CST on Monday, December 22, 2008

 

 

Ending a 25-year-old ban,

the Department of the Interior announced this month that people who

have a concealed weapons permit in their state can bring a loaded

weapon into national parks, forests and refuges. A week later, Interior

Secretary Dirk Kempthorne confirmed what supporters of the Endangered

Species Act have dreaded all year by issuing a ruling that lets

individual federal agencies decide themselves whether their projects

harm the environment – without being forced to consult with wildlife

scientists. Also Online

This completes eight years of political cruelty to animals and a final

imposition of the National Rifle Association on what is left of public

serenity in America – our shared natural sanctuaries. Critters and

plants have less protection, and now humans have to wonder what is more

dangerous: an alligator along the trail in the Everglades or the loaded

camper carrying a loaded weapon. The lifting of the

loaded gun ban was opposed by nearly everyone who works or has worked

in a national park. The Association of National Park Rangers, the

Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, the National Parks

Conservation Association and the Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of

Police (which advocates for park rangers) expressed disappointment at

the action by the Interior Department. Under the expiring regulations,

you could bring an unloaded weapon into a park, as long as it remained

in a car trunk or other less-accessible location. Citing

concerns about a possible increase in poaching and a federal statistic

that only 1.65 violent crimes occur per 100,000 visitors in national

parks, the organizations wrote in a joint letter on Dec. 5, "National

parks are different from other public lands. The visitor population

expects, demands and gets a higher degree of protection, enforcement

and restriction in a national park. Furthermore, while national parks

are amongst the safest areas to be in, the toll on the U.S. Park Ranger

is high: US Park Rangers are the most assaulted federal officers in the

country. This vague, wide-open regulation will only increase the

danger." To put in perspective how nuts the lifting of

the ban is, it was enacted under President Reagan's Interior secretary,

James Watt. Mr. Watt was so criticized by environmentalists that the

great national park landscape photographer Ansel Adams called him "one

of the most dangerous government officials in history."

If that administration saw fit to ban loaded guns in the parks a

quarter-century ago, what does that say about the Bush administration?

The lifting of the gun ban and the lowering of the gate against

scientists cap an era in which wildlife refuge staffing has fallen 8.4

percent since 2004, according to a Government Accountability Office

report this fall. Real purchasing power for the refuges has fallen by

11 percent since 2003. Most ironically, the acts come in

the wake of an independent report last summer commissioned by the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service that found that the law enforcement staff at

our refuges needs to increase from 200 full-time officers to at least

400. "Low staffing levels are leading to a substantial and critical

lack of law enforcement coverage and capability at many refuges across

the system. At many refuges, law enforcement coverage is insufficient

to ensure the protection of resources and the safety of visitors and

refuge staff." Fixing all of this has to be a priority

for the Obama administration and a Democratic-led Congress to overturn.

We cannot allow our sacred places to become the Wild West. Boston Globe editorial columnist Derrick Jackson can be reached at Jackson.