ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

All About Property Rights
IT IS NOT about the wolf. It is about private property rights. …

Livestock owners do not have a dislike of any predator based upon the animal itself. Livestock owners are trying to protect their property and livelihood from the same sort of loss that retailers face from shoplifters. …

If the government forced every store owner to keep free-roaming shoplifters in the store 24 hours a day, everyone would say “don’t be ridiculous.” However, that is exactly what is happening to the business of producing food and fiber from livestock where the wolf has been forced back into the pasture . …

Now that homeowners are faced with losing their property to some special interest economic development venture, maybe they will understand the real reason that the vast majority of rural people have fought the wolf.
And maybe the urban people who are disturbed by the potential loss of property will join the rural people in efforts to control the government and the courts in their misguided attempts to violate our Constitution.
JOHN WORTMAN
Executive vice president, N.M. Farm and Livestock Bureau, Las Cruces

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

The only real issues raised by the wolf haters are livestock predation and federal versus local control.
Maybe everyone should have a look at the red wolf reintroduction program in North Carolina, which has been more successful and less controversial than here. Minnesotans, Canadians and Alaskans might also offer tips on living with wolves, bears and other wildlife.
ANNE LEWIS
Tijeras