You would think it would take an imaginary evil cartoon character from some Disney movie in order to create hatred towards cute little creatures. How could anyone want to see butterflies, prairie dogs and hundreds of other critters die off for good and be passed by other than in a make-believe nightmare? Well that nightmare is coming true for many different species of plants and animals here in the United States and it is all thanks to George Bush and his Interior Department appointees like Dick Kempthorne.
From The Washington Post:
With little-noticed procedural and policy moves over several years, Bush administration officials have made it substantially more difficult to designate domestic animals and plants for protection under the Endangered Species Act.Controversies have occasionally flared over Interior Department officials who regularly overruled rank-and-file agency scientists' recommendations to list new species, but internal documents also suggest that pervasive bureaucratic obstacles were erected to limit the number of species protected under one of the nation's best-known environmental laws.
The documents show that personnel were barred from using information in agency files that might support new listings, and that senior officials repeatedly dismissed the views of scientific advisers as President Bush's appointees either rejected putting imperiled plants and animals on the list or sought to remove this federal protection.
Officials also changed the way species are evaluated under the 35-year-old law -- by considering only where they live now, as opposed to where they used to exist -- and put decisions on other species in limbo by blocking citizen petitions that create legal deadlines.
How could they do such a thing you ask? Why would they do this? Are they really that greedy to obtain land for stripping minerals and razing forests? Yes, they really are that greedy. They'll do whatever it takes to appease the industries that can benefit from killing off endangered life. They know what they are doing is wrong and that is why they are trying to cover up their trail.
"Lawsuits, starting in the early '90s, have really driven things," Hall said, adding that the administration has tried to keep species from declining to the point where they need to be listed. "I'm feeling pretty good we're back on track to do the job the way it's supposed to be done."
In court cases, however, a number of judges have rejected decisions made by Hall's agency and have criticized its slow pace. On March 5, a U.S. district judge in Phoenix ordered Interior to redesignate bald eagles in Arizona's Sonoran Desert as threatened after the agency delisted the entire species last summer.
Three weeks before Interior officials rejected a petition to keep the desert eagles listed, a scientific advisory panel it convened wrote that the population "appears to be less viable than populations in other parts of the country" because it had fewer than 50 nesting pairs. Survival usually requires 500 breeding pairs.
The Fish and Wildlife Service never released that report, along with internal agency documents showing "substantial" evidence that the Arizona eagles should be kept on the list: Both the report and the documents were unearthed under the Freedom of Information Act by the Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group.
Yep, thats right, they'll even sacrifice the bald eagle. So much for showing patriotism through a love of animals. I can hardly wait until this Administration is gone forever. I can only hope all of the criminals are prosecuted for their crimes against our country and nature itself.
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