Clark County commissioners voted last week to stop picking up and caring for unwanted pet Mojave Desert tortoises as of the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The county has been funding the care of the cast-off tortoises at a 220-acre conservation center operated by state and federal agencies.<\/p>\n
About 98 percent of the 1,000 tortoises delivered yearly to the center are unwanted pets, county officials say, and all those extra tortoises have pushed the county\u2019s yearly tortoise maintenance costs to $700,000. The county also pays $104,000 a year to a private firm that drives around collecting the critters from owners who call a 24-hour hot line.<\/p>\n
Federal wildlife officials spoke against the county discontinuing the programs, arguing the county should do its part to ensure residents don\u2019t dump their pet desert tortoises in … well, the desert, where they\u2019re likely to survive, since that\u2019s where they come from.<\/p>\n
(Me, I\u2019d bet on them heading right home, just like Lassie, albeit a bit slower. They clearly prefer our suburban buffets.)<\/p>\n
The feds contend the tame tortoises might spread a respiratory infection to their wild brethren. In fact, old-timers say the condition, known as \u201cwhite-eye,\u201d has long been endemic among wild tortoises. Where\u2019s the control experiment to demonstrate desert releases exacerbate the problem? In fact, if some nutrient deficiency contributes, who\u2019s to say a few years of yard feeding might not help?<\/p>\n
County, state and federal officials agreed to meet and discuss how to deal with the growing volume of unwanted pets.<\/p>\n
County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani suggested outlawing new pet tortoises, with existing pets grandfathered in.<\/p>\n
That was essentially done two decades ago, when the desert tortoise became federally \u201cprotected,\u201d noted Janet Bair, regional field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But It didn\u2019t stop owners from unlawfully breeding their animals — the root of the current problem, she said.<\/p>\n
(I\u2019m breaking federal law if I allow two tortoises to … oh dear.)<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been no proven method for spaying or neutering tortoises until recently, when experiments showed some success in spaying a female tortoise, explained Roy Averill-Murray, who coordinates desert tortoise \u201crecovery\u201d for Fish and Wildlife.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a desert tortoise but it was still a tortoise, Averill-Murray said, adding that the method will need more research before it\u2019s applied.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have to test that,\u201d Bair said.<\/p>\n
OK, very slowly now, let\u2019s see if we can remain calm while pointing out: If the Mojave Desert Tortoise is threatened or endangered, everyone involved should be very happy that they\u2019re breeding, wherever, however. In fact — now that the number of tortoises living in private Las Vegas homes clearly exceeds the numbers of several of the rarer breeds of pet cats — could you tell us again precisely how many new little turtles we need to breed before we can stop pretending they\u2019re \u201cthreatened,\u201d let people go back to building houses wherever they want (since the spread of humankind clearly only BENEFITS the little tortoises, making them very HAPPY) and turn our efforts to \u201crecovering\u201d the California Spangled, the Kurilian Bobtail, the Lambkin, the Safari, the Serengeti, and the Skookum?<\/p>\n
Whereas, on the other hand, if they\u2019re worried that there are now tens of thousands of Mojave Desert Tortoises in shelters, in people\u2019s back yards, all over the place, breeding like crazy — to the point where the federal officials currently eating out our substance here in the West are searching for ways to SPAY the lady tortoises, then …<\/p>\n
THEY\u2019RE NOT THREATENED BY ANYONE BUT YOU, YOU LUNATICS!<\/p>\n
# # #<\/p>\n
In a recent column, I pointed out that when brilliant economist Murray Rothbard analyzed the failure of the Hoover-Roosevelt policies of the 1930s in his 1963 book \u201cAmerica\u2019s Great Depression,\u201d he unwittingly also predicted how the current Bush-Obama interventions would only lengthen and worsen our current recession\/depression.<\/p>\n
Several respondents thereupon dismissed Professor Rothbard as a \u201ckook.\u201d<\/p>\n
How much space is this worth?<\/p>\n