Livestock and Wildlife and various orgs

[Tea]

When we started going to meetings with other conservation organizations I thought it would have the camaraderie of the wildlife rehabbers and frankly of the various livestock and sustainible farm meetings I've attended.

 

But I am troubled.

 

I tried to tell them of the work we are doing and they pooh pooh it.

(providing LGD and trained interns to watch herds. For free.)

 

I tried to tell them that the small producer cannot spend alot of money on large predator friendly production because they are not making enough money. They need help and common sense solutions.

 

They would not listen to me.

 

Why I wonder?

 

They talked about getting funding from the government.

 

They talked about educating the public.

 

The normal rancher in these areas knows alot about predators. First hand experience in most cases.

 

I am kind of sad about this.

 

The conversation was 4 people out of twenty talking and no one else allowed to tell what they are doing or could do.

 

Boy I don't get it?

[Candace]

I'm sorry, I am new to this board, what are you trying to say? You can't afford/don't want an LGD and want to handle predatation a different way? I'm just asking; trying to understand... I too cannot afford expensive things to handle predation, but I do run LGDs; but to me, this isn't expensive; the first 2 years, yes, as a pup they eat allot, but after that, not really...so what is it you were wanting to get across? Is it in previous posts that I haven't read?

[Tea]

Hum, we are a non-profit wildlife rehab org primarily. We all are volunteers.

 

But we ourselves raise sheep and have been helping producers that are grazing in public land with LGD and interns to watch stock when in grizzily or wolf country. Fun for our interns and nice for the producers who are not making much money.

(They can't hire someone to watch.)

Every little bit helps thats why we help with the dogs/interns. It also teahes our interns where food actually comes from. And we want to support the ranches because frankly most of them are good stewards of the land.

(BTW For wolves you need at least 5 really good dogs for every 200 head.)

 

My question is why all these meetings get so political? Amounst themselves?!

 

Why can't it be that everyone just tries to help and sees both sides of this situation?

 

I guess I am just complaining.

sorry.

But it gets so political with various big Orgs running everything and never listening to the little guys who are actually in the trenches doing the work?

 

We were the only Wildlife rehab at this meeting. Which I found kind of odd.

We see the wildlife that comes in and know the situation.

We were the only producer at this meeting?

The producers know the state of predation in their area.

 

It was about wolf and grizzily-

 

 

If you were grazing stock on public land wouldn't you want to come to a meeting like this to better understand the situation as seen by some of the big wildlife orgs?

And to share your ideas and situation?

 

 

But to be honest you would have been hard pressed to get a word in edgewise.

[Candace]

So you're mainly venting, I understand, yeah, I raise LGDs, sometimes it's hard dealing with people; most my female LGDs are spayed, but I keep about 4 intact females and 2 intact males. We have 11 working LGDs; drives me nuts when people say "oh you have so many dogs"...they don't get they aren't pets, they are part of the ranch, I love 'em and respect 'em, don't get me wrong, but I also have the "pets" that are over 11 years old and spoiled rotten that have no reason for being but to be spoiled...

 

I get the need, and see your frustration, I've even had one of my LGDs leave and go to a neighboring ranch, she'd bark at us from a mile away wanting us to come feed her, she was staying with the cows giving birth, she didn't leave until they moved the cows and DH had to drag her home...or she would have followed them to the other pasture...she went back to the goats....So I understand the frustration with all people want to do is shoot, rather than work in LGds, they pay for themselves over and over....why destroy what is natually there when you can prevent it from harming your stock? If it becomes a nusiance or goes after people, that's one thing, but if you're moving in easy targets, that's still different, you need to be proactive...Hope I made sense, but saying - I understand....

[Tea]

Thanks Candace, it does make sense.

 

My other problem is sometimes the groups don't realize you have to have specific types of dogs for specific predators, and situations. And wolves are tough, you need alot of dogs as you say.