}

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Javelina Homicide


Javelina, originally uploaded by Svadilfari.
A few months back, a new law passed allowing loaded guns in National Parks. The powers that be felt that appeasing the monomaniacal guntards was worth the risks.  What could go wrong? Well, this week two dead javelina were found in Saguaro National Park here in Tucson. One had been shot in the head, the other was too eaten by scavengers to determine the cause of death, but they were found together, so it seems likely that they were both shot. The Arizona Fish and Game Department is offering up to a $1000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the javelina killer. If you know anything about the killing, contact Arizona Game and Fish wildlife manager Diane Tilton at 310-7559 or  Operation Game Thief at 1-800-352-0700.

Javelina are peccaries, not pigs, and they are related to other species of South and Central American peccaries. They are also known as collared peccaries. They are fairly common in Arizona and they can be a nuisance. Though they rarely attack people, they sometimes like to eat garbage and dog food and most people know someone who has had javelina in their yard. Javelina are a unique native species, not destructive or feral like wild pigs. 

People do legally hunt javelina throughout the Southwest.  We non-hunters know that hunting is a tradition and, sometimes, a necessary means of population control, so it's not that the javelina were shot that is terrible; it's that they were shot in a National Park and just left there. The javelina are a part of Saguaro National Park, just like the trees, mountains, cacti, and rocks. We don't need armed people killing wildlife in our national parks. We don't need guns in our national parks. If Teddy Roosevelt could abstain from killing animals on his tour of Yellowstone, then what more precedent do we need? We need legislation to get the guns out of the parks. But first, let's hope the loser who shot these two animals gets caught.

1 comment:

criminal defense lawyer los angeles said...

It is just sad that some immature people still kill these animals for fun. Allowing a gun in that National Park is just for self-defense. This incident is just barbaric.