To: United States Forest Service
Revoke grazing permit from rancher who beat wolf to death with a shovel
Everyone must be held accountable when they violate the Endangered Species Act. The actions of the New Mexico rancher as described in his guilty plea to trapping and killing a critically endangered Mexican gray wolf are egregious and must not be tolerated.
Mr. Thiessen has demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to be a good steward of the land and its wildlife and should not be given the continued privilege of a public lands grazing permit. His actions were shocking in their brutality and disregard for a critically endangered wolf. Allowing Mr. Thiessen continued access to public lands ranching would only encourage future criminal actions by other like-minded individuals.
Please cancel the grazing permit for Craig Thiessen, the rancher who killed a Mexican gray wolf.
Why is this important?
Craig Thiessen, a rancher from Datil, New Mexico, pleaded guilty last month to brutally massacring a highly endangered Mexican gray wolf. With only 114 Mexican wolves in the wild, the death of even one is a huge blow to the recovery of the species as a whole. In his guilty plea, Mr. Thiessen admitted to intentionally capturing a Mexican gray wolf in a trap on his grazing allotment in the Gila National Forest and hitting the wolf with a shovel. He also admitted to knowing that the wolf was a highly endangered Mexican gray wolf because it was wearing a tracking collar.
As a holder of a grazing permit on a Gila National Forest allotment, the rancher has received significant taxpayer money in livestock subsidies from the federal government. In pleading guilty to this criminal act of cruelty and disregard for a species on the brink of extinction, Mr. Thiessen has demonstrated his failure to meet the responsibilities that accompany the privilege of a public lands grazing permit.
Please join us in asking the United States Forest Service Gila National Forest District Ranger to immediately cancel his grazing permit.