features
Battalion/Page 2B
April 1,1982
Idaho farmers threatened
Crop-eating bunnies killed
United Press International
MUD LAKE, Idaho —To far
mers they are the scourge of the
desert — mangy, crop-gobbling
pests which descend on hays
tacks and standing grain.
To America’s urbanites, the
furry creatures with wide brown
eyes are mild-mannered cousins
of the soft animals cuddled by
children at Easter.
This disparity in how eastern
Idaho’s jackrabbit population is
seen has spawned death threats
against growers who clubbed
more than 100,000 animals to
death this winter.
As early as 1895, counties
ottered a nickel-a-head bounty
tor the rabbits. Some growers, it
is said, were able to pay off their
mortgages with money earned
from turning in rabbit ears to
local officials.
Since then, farmers have con
ducted drives in Idaho and
other western states where infes
tations threaten to reduce piles
of baled hay to scattered debris.
But none of those campaigns
against the long-eared jack have
received the attention which
accompanied the past winter’s
drives in the Mud Lake Valley
about 60 miles west of the Grand
Teton mountain range.
When the first drive was
announced, conservationists
and animal-protection groups
protested. Reporters and film
crews arrived.
Hundreds of growers and
their neighbors flushed an esti
mated 15,000 rabbits from
...Men, women and
children began a wild
assault on the animals
with tire irons, baseball
bats and sticks. Hun
dreds were killed before
they ever got to killing
pens set up for a syste
matic slaughter.
als with tire irons, baseball bats
and sticks. Hundreds were kil
led before they ever got to kill
ing pens set up for a systematic
slaughter.
“We just weren’t organized
right,” said Orvin Twitchell,
head of the Mud Lake Rabbit
Committee. “The whole thing
broke down, but we learned ab
out the right way to do these
things, and we showed the
media that we really do have a
rabbit problem up here.”
The National Humane Socie
ty officials called the slaughters
“abhorrent.”
fenceline and ditch on the Joe
Hartwell farm. A helicopter got
in front of the drive line, fright
ening thousands of rabbits back
toward the wall of clubwielding
herders.
Men, women and children
began a wild assault on the anim-
Gov. John Evans, fearful of
damage to Idaho’s image, set up
an ad hoc committee to explore
other means of rabbit control.
Outraged Americans sent a pile
of letters to Twitchell, some
threatening Mud Lake farmers
and their families.
But the farmers said they
dared not wait until research
was conducted on other possible
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means of control.
During the worst winter in 20
years in the state, the growers
said there would never be a bet
ter chance to curb the rabbit
population.
“The snow groups them up,
brings them into the haystacks
were we can round up a lot of
them in a short space,” Twitchell
said.
The Fund for Animals, a
New York-based wildlife organi
zation which has fought the
shooting of burros at China
Lake, Calif., and seal hunts in
Canada, demanded an immedi
ate halt to the roundups.
The farmers paid a price for
the easy roundups. Haystacks
representing an entire summer
of work toppled as starvingjacks
attacked their bottom layers.
Growers, who set losses in Jef
ferson County at more than $5
million, talked of forfeiting on
farm loans.
So the drives continued. In
snowstorms and gale-force
winds rabbits were driven into
killing pens and slaughtered.
Carcasses were weighed and
shipped to Iowa mink growers.
Farmers learned they should
have made their case with the
public on the need for the
drives, exercised better control
of them and barred children
from participating, Andy
Anderson of tne Idaho Farm
Bureau Federation, said.
Getting ahead
photo by William tangle;
Dr. Harry Shafer, associate
professor of anthropology, examines
this skull discovered in a Pueblo
ruin in New Mexico. The man is
believed to have been about 3(1
years old at the time of his death
and belonged to the the Mimbres
Mogollon Indians.
Border official accused
of civil rights violations
United Press International
DEL RIO—Jack Richardson
directed U.S. Border Patrol acti
vities in El Paso for only two
months, but that was long
enough to outrage members of
the Mexican-American com
munity and generate a lawsuit
accusing him of civil rights viola
tions.
Richardson, 52, recently re
turned to his regular duties in
Del Rio, and he said he had no
regrets about his temporary
assignment as acting chief agent
in El Paso or the admittedly
aggressive way he defended the
border.
“The first day I was there (El
Paso) I said the border was con
trollable,” he claimed. “They
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Mon.-Fri. 8-5 Sat. 8-1
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8008 Post Oak Mall.. 764-0010
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Texas State
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Since 1935.
didn’t believe me then, but they
do now.”
However, some Mexican-
Americans in El Paso believe
Richardson established border
control at the expense of their
civil rights.
Pascual Mendoza, an El Paso
fireman; Roberto Luna, a bar
employee; and bar owners Jesus
Hernandez and Feliz Castaneda
filed a lawsuit against the Im
migration and Naturalization
Service and the El Paso Police
Department for alleged civil
rights violations.
Richardson, whose raids on
industries and bars in Texas and
New Mexico resulted in the
arrests of about 20,000 sus-
pected illegal aliens, mostly
from Mexico, was named speci
fically named in the suit.
Luna claimed he was arrested
Jan. 29 and taken to a detention
center, despite showing proof of
his U.S. citizenship. Hernandez
and Castaneda claimed their
civil rights were violated by Bor
der Patrol agents who burst into
search of illegal
their bars in
aliens.
“As far as I know, we oper
ated within the law — within De
partment ol Justice guidelines,”
Richardson claimed in a tele
phone interview. And he said he
would request that the justice
department represent him in
the lawsuit, which he did not feel
was justified.
“I really went out there (El
Paso) with no special instruc
tions — to be a caretaker and
maintain the status quo,” he
said. “But when I saw the way it
was, it became impossible to stay
in that mode.”
Richardson said he did not
believe his aggressive policy of
raids, patrols and constant sur
veillance of the border violated
anyone’s civil rights, and that he
planned to continue those poli
cies in Del Rio, where they were
developed.
“ I he way I’ve felt all along is
that the border is controllable
with good management techni
ques; solid, sound intelligence
information; coordination with
all branches of the U.S.
Mexican governments; and
strong, visible, open policy,
, said.
I ell them (aliens and alien
smugglers) what you’re going to
and
a
he
do and then do it.”
In Richardson’s philosophy,
it is a mistake to think thaUtht
more aliens you catch, the belter
job you’re doing.”
‘T he opposite is true," he
claimed. The fewer aliens yon
catch, the better job you’re
doing because you’ve preventd
criminal violations. You do that
by making it (crossing the bor
der) hard to succeed and byfol
lowing with swift prosecution
and swift deportation (when
they do get across).
“When you remove the
(potential for) financial gaio|
you get control of the boraer.’
Back in Del Rio, Richardson
is the chief agent in charge ofW
Texas Counties which border
Mexico f or more than 200 miles
I n the first 15 days of March,
Del Rio-based agents arrester!
3,145 suspected illegal aliens
and 50 suspect alien smugglers
Richardson predicted that 6,M i
aliens would he arrested tryinj
to cross the border from Lang |
try south to the Webb County
line by the end of March.
“There’s no way I feellnj
being wasted here," he saidd
coming back to Del Rio. I li
fairly consistant. We arrest ab
out 50,000 illegal aliens and
1,300 alien smugglers a year.
David
freshman
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