You remember the guy I told you about a couple weeks ago, on the payroll of the USDA’s “Wildlife Services” division, who trapped coyotes, set his dogs on the immobilized coyotes to tear them to shreds, and then posted boastful pictures about it on Facebook and Twitter?
There’s a petition at Causes.com asking Congress to investigate the sadistic jerk, whose name is Jamie P. Olson, and they’re a few thousand signatures from their goal. Update: Some commenters have noted that the causes.com petition requires a Facebook account to sign. At change.org there’s a similar petition you can sign without a Facebook account.
Since I wrote the above-linked post here Olson has gotten some press attention. (No, I’m not claiming credit. A bunch of people have been flogging this.) Perhaps most notably, Olson got a thorough going-over by veteran environmental journalist Tom Knudsen at the Sacramento Bee, who added this observation by one of Olson’s putative colleagues:
Gary Strader, a former Wildlife Services trapper in Nevada, was not surprised to learn about the controversial photos. “That is very common,” Strader wrote in an email. “It always was and always will be controversial. It has never been addressed by the higher-ups. They know it happens on a regular basis.”
Read my old post if you missed it, check out Knudsen’s piece, and then — if you’re so inclined — sign the petition. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t go well past the number of signatures the organizers are hoping for.
I read some of the comments on Knudsen’s article.
Bad idea.
Bizarre design for a web form – I would like to sign the petition but it won’t let me. I obviously have not correctly guessed the content it requires for all those unlabelled fields.
Reached Wednesday, Olson said he hadn’t had a chance to examine the photos. “I don’t know if they are doctored. I don’t know if they are of me. I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
“I heard that someone had gotten into my Facebook account,” Olson said. “That’s all I know.”
Uh-huh.
So no big changes then. Just wait till the fuss dies down and then right back into it again.
`
What do they say about serial killers who started out as animal torturers?
Yeah, I can’t sign it, either. Requires Facebook.
PS, it’s not appropriate to set dogs on a trapped animal. Ever. It’s bad for the dogs, and it’s unethical.
Yeah, unethical people aren’t uncommon. But that’s a stupid argument.
Was going to sign it, was going to pass it along to friends, but it wants me log in to my fb account, which I have deactivated.
The third time facebook changed my privacy settings without telling me I was done. I don’t participate in anything via facebook. And, unwittingly or no, organizations and businesses that require me to use fb are enabling the virtual groping.
I’d sign, but it requires signing into FB.
If you don’t have or don’t want to use Facebook for this you can contact this gentleman directly:
Rep. Darrell Issa, Chair
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
U.S. House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
tel. 202/225-5074
fax 202/225-3974
As noted in the comments of the article.
Probably more effective anyway. That’s what I’m going to do.
I’m sorry, but for the life of me I can’t understand how Strader can suggest torturing immobilized animals “will always be controversial”. It makes it sound like there could be sound arguments in favor of continuing the practice.
I lived in Issa’s district for 11 years. If you think that heartless douche-licker gives a flying turd about anyone or anything other than his next election you’re kidding yourself. Unless there’s a political motivation, you can expect him to ignore this.
I’m not saying don’t try mind you, I’m still going to write him. I’m just saying don’t expect much out of him on this. Coincidentally, his district is very red and coyotes are considered a pest by most of the residents there. I’m guessing if anything, he’ll give the guy a pat on the back and his constituents will thank him for it.
Those dogs need to be ‘trained’…
That’s sick. I wonder why pz posts this torture but doesn’t post links to stories/petitions about the torture his colleagues regularly engage in – every day of the week?
BTW, my question is rhetorical. I already know the answer. All in the name of massive profits ….. er, I mean “science” of course.
harvardmba
Harvard grants MBAs?
To people who can’t read?
dude must of cut that class at Harvard graduate business school where they teach you the differences between your ass and a hole in the ground, shit and shinola, and biomedical research and siccing your vicious dogs on a wild animal that’s tied to a stake.
@11 Thanks for the additional info. It seems to me that even people that believe there is a need for more predator “culling” (I am not one of those people) would have qualms about blatant animal torture. I grew up on a farm and if my grandfather ever saw a feral dog on the place he killed it immediately (and it made me sad), but he never would have tortured any animal. Neither he nor I would understand taking pleasure in the suffering of a living creature (or killing it needlessly).
I’ve updated the post to reflect this, but there’s a parallel petition at change.org that you can sign without a Facebook account.
If someone could write a WordPress add-on that unleashes a Mr. Moose-style barrage of ping pong balls on commenters who misattribute posts, I would be much obliged.
hee hee hee
Chris
To be fair, harvardmba is kinda stupid.
Marcus @16
This is San Diego county we’re talking about, the same people who want to chase the seals out of the cove in La Jolla so their kids can swim there.
It makes me sad too, but there are good reasons for it; one of my neighbors growing up lost a foal to a pack of semi-feral dogs (I say semi-feral, they were domestic dogs whose owners let them run free at night, and they formed a pack that roamed the area.)
@22 Exactly, I love dogs and have had many but without guidance they can cause a lot of damage. It should be noted that much of the destruction attributed to wild canines is actually perpetrated by the “domesticated” type running out of control.