19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

Sirs:
I have enjoyed SI for several years and am pleased with your stand on environmental pollution, especially Jack Olsen's article The Poisoning of the West. I have grown up as a part-time trapper in a livestock-oriented area of western Colorado. I am aware of ranchers scattering poisoned animal carcasses over their grazing areas, although these ranchers seem to prefer thallium, since the poison itself is not regurgitated and it kills the animal slowly, usually with most of the hair falling out before death. Amazingly, there are still a few coyotes left, but I think the major damage is being done to predatory bird populations. I realize many of the ranchers have predator problems, but there must be a better solution than using poisoned baits.

Another example of the power of livestock men in this area is reflected in the property taxes of my home county. Forty mils goes to the Predatory Animal Fund (sheep and goats). The water conservation districts, fire protection districts and junior college fund combined receive less than 40 mils. The school districts receive 43 to 73 mils.
PAUL LIMBACH
Silt, Colo.

Sirs:
I am not a conservationist nor am I too greatly concerned about the ecology problem, but your article on poisoning made me ill. How can a nation that has so much justify the killing of wild animals just to satisfy a specialty group like woolgrowers? I realize that wild animals do kill domestic livestock, but does that justify the use of a poison as potent as 1080, where only one ounce can kill 200 adult humans or 20,000 coyotes or dogs or 70,000 house cats? I would also like to ask the woolgrowers of the Western states what gives them the right to destroy animals of any kind on public lands?
ANDY S. WATSON
Buena Park, Calif.

Sirs:
To say the least, your article has left me with a deep feeling of revulsion toward yet another chapter in the book apparently entitled How To Destroy Yourself—and Look Stupid Doing It. Maybe a solution would be to handle the sheepherders like the cattlemen did in the old Western movies.

Some people may be described as "little old ladies in tennis shoes," but they may just be really concerned about our country.
WM. H. FRIDDLE JR.
Greenville, S.C.

Sirs:
I am ready, willing and able to stand up and be counted in favor of stockmen protecting their livelihood (their flocks and herds) by whatever means needed. Mr. Olsen is an able writer and researcher: the only trouble is he is just 100% wrong in defending the worthless, pesky, stinking coyote. As a sort of far-out comparison, let anyone drive across the Great Plains and observe some of the most fertile farmlands in the world. Not so long ago these lands were buffalo range. Untold wealth has been and is being produced here, supporting millions of people and businesses, industries, great institutions and universities, all founded and supported by agriculture. True, the bison are gone, forever exterminated by man, and many bleeding hearts are still moaning about that. Ecology hysteria is on the rise over common sense. I say: Up the wool-growing industry! Long may it prosper!

Once a railroad lawyer and a sheepman's lawyer were having a hot legal battle over the death of 300 sheep in a railway accident. As a clincher, the stockman's attorney quoted the Bible. Said he, citing chapter and verse, "It says right here, don't harm my sheep."
FRANK BUCKLER
Walla Walla, Wash.

Sirs:
I was fascinated by the first part of Jack Olsen's article. Mr. Olsen has again proved himself to be one of the most distinguished writers on the American scene.

In refutation of Mr. Marsh of the National Wool Growers Association: It was estimated (by Gerald A. Cole, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, December 1970) that the loss of livestock (including two horses) due to coyotes in Arizona during fiscal 1969 was about $42,225. At the same time, the reported pro-rated cost for killing 1,864 coyotes that year was $157,603. The Bulletin article also points out that 148 black-tailed jackrabbits consume the forage that would support one cow or five sheep. If we can assume, as Cole did, that five coyotes can kill 148 black-tailed jackrabbits per annum, the loss of 1,864 coyotes bagged during 1969 in Arizona was equivalent to a loss of range forage for 373 cattle or 1,864 sheep, worth about $53,000. Thus the net cost to the sheep industry and taxpayer for coyote control in Arizona during 1969 was approximately $168,378. Ironic!
ROBERT C. FRANCIS
Natural Resource Ecology
Laboratory
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colo.

Sirs:
As a practicing doctor of veterinary medicine I am familiar with the toxicology of the poisons mentioned by Jack Olsen. To believe that anyone could indiscriminately spew this material onto any part of our land is absolutely appalling.
O.L. SMITH, D.V.M.
Bloomfield Hills, Mich.