Posted on 08/29/2013 1:10:59 PM PDT by george76
It’s been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it as BLM closes Vegas rescue center.
LAS VEGAS — For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence. Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It’s been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. And wildlife officials have set the species up on a sprawling conservation reserve outside Las Vegas.
But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it. Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they’ve been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990.
“It’s the lesser of two evils, but it’s still evil,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy Averill-Murray during a visit to the soon-to-be-shuttered reserve at the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at inedc.com ...
Is there some reason they can’t be released back to the desert?
Why don’t they just dump the things into their own natural habitat?
Other animals gotta eat too...
Why don’t they adopt them out, like they do the wild horses?
Idiots.
I’m from the gov’ment and here to help!
The government killing another endangered species.
Worse than Green windmills killing endangered species like Eagles ?
ht : SierraWasp
They could also offer them to zoos around the world, so other countries citizens can see and learn about them.
here’s an idea, release them back into the desert.
because then the agency will lose its hostages? They came from the desert so they can go back and mother nature will do the rest.
“...As the housing boom swept through southern Nevada in the 2000s, the tortoise budget swelled. But when the recession hit, the housing market contracted, and the bureau and its local government partners began struggling to meet the center’s $1 million annual budget.”
An almost perfect metaphor for the democrat party. And we’re the turtles....
Well, seeing that the adoption-rate for wild horses probably approaches 1%, I suppose the government could shoot for an adoption-rate of 0.01% for tortoises.
Turtle soup anyone?
“Why don’t they adopt them out, like they do the wild horses?”
I tried to rescue some tortious eggs. I was informed by the local zoo where they take endangered animals that they couldn’t possibly be tortious eggs. If they were they’d have to report me and I’d be fined $10,000 and possibly spend (I think)five years in jail. I asked what to do with the eggs and he suggested an omelet. Finally, he told me to bring them at 3:00 and drop them off anonymously as the woman at the desk wouldn’t know a tortious egg from a Faberge egg.
To handle endangered species takes a special license and certification from the state and feds.
Those wacky Leftists....
Kind of like those ASPCA animal “shelters” that kill....
Just raise taxes, right? That will work. Frankly, I am stunned that Harry Reid hasn’t seen to it that the funding was continued through some pork paragraph attached to some useless legislation before now.
A hundred tortoises, a hundred times the penalty of one...
There’s a sudden Vegas demand for Tortoise soup? Is there some large liberal convention coming up?
I wonder how many hundreds of millions of dollars these desert tortoises they’re about to kill have cost businesses, taxpayers, the EPA and enviros in lawsuits over the years?
I don't know why the turtles can't be released but I suspect they have collected so many that most could not survive. The turtles would have been better off if the government hadn't meddled in the first place.
You betcha. Especially if Shelby Stanga finds out they’re gonna be kilt.
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