Hey thanks Bearpaw. Glad we could work it out.
Here’s how new I am to this debate:
In our exchanges thru pm and in this thread yesterday and today, you said you thought I might have been a “wolf advocate”. Not knowing the history or rhetoric used in this debate, I thought to myself, “Well…what’s wrong with being an advocate? I want to be a wolf advocate.” And I do. I think many of us really are advocates in the truest sense of the word. It pisses me off to no end that somehow, extremist ideologues have cornered the market on certain terms that really ought to be our terms.
As a wolf advocate, I want to see wolves thrive – when and where it makes sense for them to do so. I have a great respect for wolves, just as I do for most(all?) wild creatures. And, as a show of this respect, I would never endorse a policy that allows them to overshoot their carrying capacity, allows them to be mismanaged (or not managed at all), allows them to devaste local habitat/biotic community or introduces a foreign species into a new area without adequate prior study. These so-called wolf advocates have advocated for a dangerous situation not only for human and non-human critters, but for the actual wolves themselves – the wolves that they claim to care so much for.
And when if I have to destroy a wolf because of human error, I will feel sad for the waste of life, and angry at those who have been so arrogant. I do not hate the wolf. But I'd be pretty pissed off at those who have only encouraged this waste. The situation as it is now, creates feelings of resentment in the community so strong, that people have begun to hate the wolves themselves. I think this anger might be misdirected. The wolves are as god created them. They do wolf things. They behave as they were meant to. They are not to blame.
I am probably being naive to think that "wolf advocate" really should belong to outdoorsmen rather than to those who might actually be afraid to sleep outside......
Anyweys...heh. I can get fired up too... this has all been just my opinion. And admittedly, I have lots to learn on this topic.
I also did not consider that Toby Bridges is more of a boots on the ground grass roots type of activist, rather than a professional journalist. And while I still disagree with the 2 points I mentioned, as far as wolf activism goes, hell.... he's doing more than I am about it!
Thanks again.
