Judging by the Ravalli County Commissioners’ predator policy, it is
obvious that irrationality trumps science again. We recently provided
the Commissioners with our published study, Observations of
Brachygnathia Superior in Wild Ruminants in Western Montana, USA. The
study is free on line. We found over half of the wild and domestic
grazing animals examined for the study had symptoms consistent with
disruption of the fetal thyroid hormones during development. Most
symptoms of fetal hypothyroidism cause the young to die prior to or
soon after birth. This, of course, decreases the number of young
available to replace the animals that die of natural causes or are
killed by humans or other predators. Finding what is causing the
hormone disruption and dealing with the actual culprit is the
intelligent, and the only, way to permanently solve the problem of
declining ruminant populations.
Doing this will also make you and your children healthier. There will
be far less children born with heart defects, brain malformations
(especially autism), a propensity to have asthma, high cholesterol,
obesity, diabetes, childhood cancers and the other debilitating health
problems the Pentagon has stated are a national security issue. All are
symptoms of the disruption of the thyroid hormones during fetal
development. Or you can follow the Ravalli County Commissioners
policies and your children can keep being born with those serious and
costly health problems.
Strangling, maiming, torturing, or poisoning all animals that happen to
be caught in the snares and traps or eat the poison spread around, or
shooting bears, mountain lions and wolves over bait will not protect
the young of wild grazing animals, or children, from the effects of
Congenital Fetal Hypothyroidism. Killing predator species using these
inhumane, unethical methods will only decrease the available hunting
opportunities, especially for outfitters to guide ethical hunters.
Judy Hoy
Stevensville