Letter: Coyotes aren’t the only beings slaughtered with our tax dollars
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) l-r Utah Division of Wildlife Resources predator management specialist, Jeff Cowlishaw, Tyler Peterson, 13, and his father Kelly Peterson watch as predator control program manager Xaela Walden documents coyote remains brought to her by the Petersons who shot the coyote in Box Elder County last week. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources predator-control program provides a $50 incentive for hunters to kill and properly document every coyote that they kill in Utah. Despite its success, the program is getting an overhaul to reign in criminal abuses and obtain better data to help officials assess what the program is accomplishing in terms of protecting mule deer and controlling predators.
INFORMATION-> We are meeting Xaela Walden, Wednesday, June 20, 2018
A letter to The Salt Lake Tribune was recently titled "End the Slaughter."
The author took issue with the use of tax dollars to support the bounty payment for hunting and killing thousands of coyotes across the state. A number of letters in the following days chimed in on the issue.
While I agree that the bounty hunting of coyotes is unscientific, cruel and unnecessary, the anger seems to me to be misplaced. If one takes time to consider the use of American tax dollars to incinerate Third World human beings, steal their resources and subject many of them to slavelike labor conditions to get the necessary metals for our iPhones, computers and laptops, the plight of the coyotes seems relatively mild in comparison.
Stopping the slaughter is a great idea! Ending the use of tax dollars to support the slaughter is an even better idea. There are many ways to do this. Vote! Agitate, educate and organize. Please look into it and act appropriately. As American consumers, asking yourself how much is enough is a good place to start.
Until that question is answered, the slaughter of all living things (including humans and coyotes) will continue. It will be paid for with your tax dollars.
Alan F. Snyder, Salt Lake City
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