Lane County has called in the USDA’s controversial
Wildlife Services to trap a bear out of its Rattlesnake Road
waste disposal site. But Brooks Fahy of Predator Defense
questions why Lane County is spending the money to trap a
bear when it’s letting criminals out of its jail.
Oregon has an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 black bears
according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,
and bears showing up around human habitation is not
uncommon.
Bears are attracted to food, pet food, fruit and garbage,
according to ODFW, and that’s something dumps have in
abundance. Fahy says there have been reports of holes in the
fence around the dump and asks, rather than trap the bear,
“Why aren’t they fixing the fence line?” and adds, “This is a
dump. We all know we have to secure the facilities.”
Jeff Bishop, waste management superintendent, says that
breaches in site fences are repaired as they are reported,
“which at some sites is pretty frequently.”
Fahy says after Wildlife Services live traps a bear, it is
usually killed. Predator Defense has sought to end federal
funding of Wildlife Services. Fahy cites a recent investigation
by the Sacremento Bee that revealed that using traps, snares
and poison, Wildlife Services employees “have accidentally
killed more than 50,000 animals since 2000 that were not
problems, including federally protected golden and bald
eagles; more than 1,100 dogs, including family pets; and
several species considered rare or imperiled by wildlife
biologists.”
Congressman Peter DeFazio has called for cutting federal
funding to Wildlife Services.
Lane County voted not to renew its contract with Wildlife
Services in 2005, according to Predator Defense, but Bishop
says as a condition of the disposal sites’ operating permits
measures must be in place for issues such as “birds, rodents
and other vectors.” Bishop says waste management does
contract with Wildlife Services for things like bear activity.
The funding comes from the Solid Waste Fund, which is
generated by user fees, he says.
— Camilla Mortensen
50% O ff on selected b
PHOTO RBRR
WHO PAYS FOR
BEAR TRAPPING?
A child captures a bunny at the Cottage Grove animal scramble
CRUEL RABBIT
ROUNDUP
Bunnies being dumped out of a trailer, a rabbit being
flung through the air and rows of screaming children
bearing down on a cluster of bunnies paralyzed with fear:
Red Barn Rabbit Rescue documented this and more at
the “animal scramble” at the July 13-14 Cottage Grove
Rodeo (see our blog post July 16). Animal advocates are
seeking to put an end to this annual event that they say is
cruel and irresponsible.
Rabbits are hardy but fragile, Heather Crippen of
RBRR says. Crippen says that animal scrambles,
basically contests in which if a person can chase down
one of the animals, he keeps it, traditionally used farm
animals such as sheep, goats and pigs to give farmers a
way of starting herds and later as a way of giving 4-H
kids the opportunity to raise an animal. But at some point
Crippen says the Cottage Grove Rodeo event, which is
put on by the Cottage Grove Riding Club, became
focused on pet rabbits.
Crippen and her daughter Alex run the area’s only
strictly rabbit rescue out of their home in Creswell. It
currently houses about 50 or so rabbits, and Crippen says
events such as the animal scramble lead to more rabbits
in need of adoption as the kids come home with pets they
don’t know how to care for or their parents didn’t
approve. She says 81 percent of rabbits will be homeless
in their lifetime.
Scott Beckstead of the Oregon Humane Society says
that rabbits are the third most popular companion animal
in the U.S., “Yet this event teaches children that they
amount to little more than a throwaway prize.” Beckstead,
Crippen and others are looking into ways to end events
like the animal scramble in Lane County.
Crippen is delighted the video her teenage daughter
filmed, edited and posted on YouTube has created an
outcry about the animal scramble. She says she tried to
talk to the riding club about how cruel the event is to
rabbits, but didn’t get a reply. Crippen would like the
riding club to research rabbits and learn how events like
this affect the animals. “As an experienced rabbit person,
I’m telling you that it’s wrong,” she says. She says stress
is one of the leading causes of illness in rabbits.
Crippen points out that in the video the rabbits are in
“fear paralysis” — frozen with their ears pointed forward
— as they are dumped into the rodeo arena, where
normally in open spaces they would frolic, and finally
begin to flee when the children begin to grab them. She
says that in the melee a rabbit could get injured by being
grabbed by a leg, or the stress of the whole thing is enough
to eventually kill a bunny, especially one in the hands of
an inexperienced new owner.
Local animal advocates have started a petition against
the event at wkly.ws/1bu and video can be seen at wkly.
ws/1bv
For more on Red Barn Rabbit Rescue or to donate to
the nonprofit, go to redbarnrabbitrescue.org
— Camilla Mortensen
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