History repeats itself...

[Craizie]

I think what he was trying to say was he is glad that people still have the guts to stand up against the goverment and not just roll over.

Like the people stood up to the government and bullied them into prosecuting Zimmerman?

[Cooter]

Who is right in this doesn't matter, what matters is the people are pushing back against government will.

who is right absolutely matters... if you study the history behind this, it's painfully obvious who is right and wrong

[Forever_frost]

http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/desert-tortoise-reserve-euthanized/2013/08/26/id/522264/

Image: Desert Tortoise Reserve Closing, Remaining Reptiles to Be Euthanized

Monday, 26 Aug 2013 02:34 PM

By Newsmax Wires

Hundreds of Desert Tortoises living in a sprawling conservation reserve near Las Vegas will soon be euthanized.

The vulnerable species, which for years lived a peaceful, sheltered existence at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, will be put down due a lack of federal funding for the facility, which is coming close to running out, The Associated Press reported.

Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It's been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it.

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Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they've been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990.

"It's the lesser of two evils, but it's still evil," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy Averill-Murray during a visit to the soon-to-be-shuttered reserve at the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley last week.

Biologists went about their work examining tortoises for signs of disease as Averill-Murray walked among the reptile pens. But the scrubby 220-acre refuge area will stop taking new animals in the coming months. Most that arrive in the fall will simply be put down, late-emerging victims of budget problems that came from the same housing bubble that put a neighborhood of McMansions at the edge of the once-remote site.

The Bureau of Land Management has paid for the holding and research facility with fees imposed on developers who disturb tortoise habitat on public land. As the housing boom swept through southern Nevada in the 2000s, the tortoise budget swelled. But when the recession hit, the housing market contracted, and the bureau and its local government partners began struggling to meet the center's $1 million annual budget.

Housing never fully recovered, and the federal mitigation fee that developers pay has brought in just $290,000 during the past 11 months. Local partners, which collect their own tortoise fees, have pulled out of the project.

"With the money going down and more and more tortoises coming in, it never would have added up," said BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton.

Back at the conservation center, a large refrigerator labeled "carcass freezer" hummed in the desert sun as scientists examined the facility's 1,400 inhabitants to find those hearty enough to release into the wild. Officials expect to euthanize more than half the animals in the coming months in preparation for closure at the end of 2014.

The desert tortoise is a survivor that has toddled around the Southwest for 200 million years. But ecologists say the loss of the conservation center represents a harmful blow in southern Nevada for an animal that has held onto some unfortunate evolutionary quirks that impede its coexistence with strip malls, new homes and solar plants.

Laws to protect the panicky plodders ban hikers from picking them up, since the animals are likely to dehydrate themselves by voiding a year's worth of stored water when handled. When they're moved, they nearly always attempt to trudge back to their burrows, foiling attempts to keep them out of harm's way. They're also beset by respiratory infections and other illnesses.

No more than 100,000 tortoises are thought to survive in the habitat where millions once burrowed across parts of Utah, California, Arizona and Nevada.

Averill-Murray says he wants to save at least the research function of the center and is looking for alternative funding sources.

"It's not the most desirable model to fund recovery — on the back of tortoise habitat," he said.

The animals were once so abundant that tourists would scoop them up as souvenirs. Many quickly realized the shy grass-eaters don't make ideal pets. For one thing, they can live for 100 years. And once the species was classified as threatened on the endangered species list, people rushed to give them back.

Former pets make up the majority of the tortoises at the conservation center, where they spend their days staring down jackrabbits and ducking out of the sun into protective PVC piping tucked into the rocky desert floor.

The majority of the Desert Tortoises at the conservation center are not suitable for release with many suffering from infections and diseases that if released in the wild, would prevent them being able to survive.

[TeeShock]

[Forever_frost]

Anyone who thinks the BLM gave up hasn't been paying attention. Illegal aliens entering the country? Racist, shut your head. Rancher ranching? Send in federal troops.

[Brandon-k]

Some good stuff about the BLM. There is a works cited on the topics discussed in the video info. Before passing judgement on what and who is truly "lawful" in this country I beseech you to consider the possibility that not all government entities are working within their authority, or have our best interest in mind.

[Forever_frost]

Some good stuff about the BLM. There is a works cited on the topics discussed in the video info. Before passing judgement on what and who is truly "lawful" in this country I beseech you to consider the possibility that not all government entities are working within their authority, or have our best interest in mind.

Just figuring this out?

[helosailor]

I'm reading that "sources on the ground" and "sources at the scene" say that a raid is imminent.
Our government is just stupid enough to think that anything OTHER than them backing down at this point is a good idea.

[lowthreeohz]

Fox just reported that all of those are rumors and the family says blm has left the area, no snipers, Nada.

[helosailor]

We shall see.

[IHaveAMustang]

This picture startles me the most. I was just thinking all of this was neckbeards walking around with the tacticool guns and not really thinking of using them. This guy apparently was:


A protester aims his weapon from a bridge next to the Bureau of Land Management's base camp. Photograph: Jim Urquhart/Reuters

[dee]

He's being all snipery with his taced out AK with open sights no less. I'm sure the fact it's resting the barrel on the concrete will help the already inherently accurate platform.

[Forever_frost]

This picture startles me the most. I was just thinking all of this was neckbeards walking around with the tacticool guns and not really thinking of using them. This guy apparently was:


A protester aims his weapon from a bridge next to the Bureau of Land Management's base camp. Photograph: Jim Urquhart/Reuters

Does it surprise you that some are willing to actually water that tree at the expense of their own lives?

[dee]

Does it surprise you that some are willing to actually water that tree at the expense of their own lives?

It's not about them laying down their life. It's about the way they are going about it. This guy is knowingly pointing a weapon at authorities which could easily incite a gun battle that isn't needed the presence is more than enough to get the point across.

[Forever_frost]

It's not about them laying down their life. It's about the way they are going about it. This guy is knowingly pointing a weapon at authorities which could easily incite a gun battle that isn't needed the presence is more than enough to get the point across.

Yes, because the 'authorities' were aiming rifles at them. Seems if someone doesn't want a weapon pointed at them, they probably shouldn't point at others don't you think?