Raleigh, NORTH CAROLINA (Enviro Snowflake Brief)— Gordon Myers, North Carolina’s Wildlife Resources Commissioner, began today floating a new plan he concocted for eliminating the remaining endangered red wolves in and around the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina.
Commissioner Myers has announced a deal in principal to partner with Carnival Cruise Line to refurbish one of their cruise liners into a floating wildlife habitat suitable, in Myers opinion, to relocate the remaining wild red wolves.
Ron Sutherland, a conservation scientist with the non-profit Wildlands Network says, “If you think of red wolves in the grand scheme of endangered species in the wild, there’s probably 5,000 snow leopards and 2,000 Bengal tigers. There are fewer than 30 red wolves.”
“Carnival Cruise Line, NC Tourism Board, USFWS, and North Carolina’s Wildlife Resources Commission will work together on making this plan a reality,” says Myers.
Gordon Myers gushed with excitement as he explained, “It’s time we do right for North Carolina hunters and our most powerful landowners by providing an offshore sanctuary for red wolves, and thereby, getting them off North Carolina land. The amount of space on the ship will be larger than the proposed USFWS new re-introduction zone- about an acre.”
There are many contentious issues with the USFWS submitted new red wolf plan currently under review- shrinking their protected zone to the size of a suburban backyard, and allowing unrestricted hunting of red wolves on private property outside of that zone, for starters.
“The USFWS proposed plan is a death sentence for red wolves in the wild,” says Ben Prater, Southeast program director for Defenders of Wildlife, “and this cruise ship idea by the civil engineer Commissioner Myers is just as logical as the USFWS plan.”
Commissioner Gordon Myers has been an outspoken critic of protecting the endangered red wolves remaining in eastern North Carolina for years. Myers ignores the overwhelming public opinion and the science community pleading for red wolf protections, and he claims hunters know best.
Last summer, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put out a call for public input about the red wolf program, 99.8% of all respondents favored the species’ preservation in the wild. Of the 55,000 comments received, only 10 opposed the program.
Commissioner Myers’ wildlife credentials, well, are impressive. He’s a civil engineer who likes to hunt, and appeared on Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures in 2008 holding a red wolf puppy upside down by the tail.
In a letter sent to Commissioner Gordon Friday, Gov. Roy Cooper asked the agency to get with the Tourism Board to run a financial analysis of projected tourism dollars between a red wolf cruise ship versus red wolf wildlife watchers in the five county area.
For perspective on Myers attitude toward red wolves, in the Commissioner’s office behind his desk hangs a faded sign from the now shuttered Red Wolf Education Center in Columbia that proclaims the program “A Howling Success,” and lists its many benefits: “controlling the exotic nutria that destroy crops and the raccoons that kill ground-breeding birds; promoting the health of the deer herd by preying on weak and sick animals; and drawing tourists eager to see endangered wolves.”
Gordon Myers wrote graffiti in red paint on the fading sign with the caption, “SHOOT A PACK A DAY.”
Kim Wheeler, executive director of the Red Wolf Coalition says, “I don’t know why the state of North Carolina is not saying, ‘Come see the only wild population of red wolves in the world!”
