Written by Sue Beaulieu, Staff Writer for GFN I
read in the GameFowl News' article "The Albuquerque
Journal Sinks to a New Low" published on 1/10/07
with great interest, a bit of laughter and finally
dismay. Jim Ludwick of the Albuquerque Journal
managed to kick up a lot of dust over a euphemism he
apparently had never heard of before. Don't they
teach journalism students about the use of metaphors
anymore? We now have proof that they haven't the
time to do actual investigative research (i.e.
digging up dirt). Oh, they may look under the rug
from time to time, but you can't find much there
really.
During my research, I often look for buried bodies
(this is not literal, but it could be in certain
scenarios). Sometimes the skeletons are hidden in
closets. Many times, I have seen people dig their
own graves! A true journalist uncovers the bare
bones facts. This takes time consuming excavation.
Even then, the dust has to settle a bit first.
The dust can keep the truth covered up and hidden
from view.
In the case of New Mexico politics as a whole, we
need heavy equipment to mine the graveyard of buried
bodies and hidden treasures that are kept
underground and out of public view. The marriage
of New Mexico's fertile natural resources and the
generative power of its fathers and forefathers gave
birth to numerous governmental control and
regulatory agencies, both state and federal.
The New Mexico State Land Office owns 9 million
surface acres and 13 million mineral acres of trust
lands. While oil and gas prices rose, the land
office's oil and gas leases generated nearly $1
billion dollars for New Mexico' Land Grant
Permanent Fund (LGPF). Revenues earned on trust
lands and returns on investments made by the State
Investment Council play an important role in funding
public schools and universities in NM, including
their English and Journalism departments. Other
revenues from renewable resources, such as
alternative energy, agriculture and commercial
leases, oil, gas and mineral rentals and
rights-of-way are deposited into the state's
Maintenance Fund.
Minerals are the state's richest natural resource.
New Mexico is one of the U.S. leaders in output of
uranium and potassium salts, copper, gold, silver,
zinc, lead, and molybdenum.More than two-thirds
of New Mexico's farm income comes from livestock
products, especially sheep. Cotton, pecans, and
sorghum are the most important field crops.
Livestock and farming make water the most precious
natural resource in New Mexico, and its conservation
has been one of the state's chief projects.
Don't forget the vast forests of Ponderosa
pine, Douglas fir and Spruce that produce more than
200 million board feet of lumber each year, despite
the environmentalist's attempts to make them off
limits to all but the spotted owls.
The $tage is $et for Politic$Where
business opportunity and money are to be found, so
too are the politicians and lobbyists. Each actor
seeks a piece of the resources which are represented
on the economic pie chart. For those who do not
own, manage or work for oil and gas companies,
mining ventures, lumber companies, farms, ranches
and so forth, there is a new alternative way to make
money. Behold the birth of the non-profit network
of environmental and animal protection
organizations.
These organizations form an ever
tightening network across our nation - a net that
binds hardworking, tax paying citizens while their
rights are taken (i.e. stolen) on a daily basis. A
net that suffocates us and muffles our protests. We
are buried under an avalanche of media propaganda
filled with half truths and outright lies. Our
enemies hide behind smoke and mirrors and accuse us
of what they are guilty of.
This brings us back to the title of Jim
Ludwick's article, "Women Fighting for
Cockfighting Ban Targeted." Who is the real
target here??? It is people who own animals and
stand up for their right and privilege to continue
doing so. We are targeted each and every day by the
slings and barbs of these spin doctors.*
Three WomenThese are the names of the
three women who support banning cockfighting. It is
no secret - any investigative journalist should have
been able to find the references in the Free New
Mexican http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/54348.html
and in an Animal Protection Voters of NM action
alert http://www.apvnm.org/actionalerts/actionalert01.php
just by doing a simple search on the New
Mexico Cockfighting Ban.
Let's start with Elisabeth Jennings, Executive
Director of Animal Protection Voters, Inc. (EIN
52-2381610) for a salary of $10,068 in 2004;
Executive Director of Animal Protection of New
Mexico** (EIN 85-0283292) for a salary of $43,475 in
2004; Vice President and Secretary of Animal
Protection of New Mexico Foundation (EIN
26-0042048). Please note that the Animal
Protection Voters of New Mexico is, in reality, the
name of the New Mexico Chapter of the HSUS Humane
USA PAC. http://www.humaneusa.org/humaneusanm.htm
(*The New Mexico Animal Protection group was
originally called the Sangre de Cristo Animal
Protection, Inc.)
**See an issue of the APNM's newsletter, Making
Tracks. http://www.apnm.org/publications/making_tracks/MakingTracks05.pdf
Jennings takes every opportunity to campaign against
animal ownership while making land off limits to
people in order to "preserve the habitat" for wild
animals. In the process, the oil and gas business
is unable to operate, mining ventures are stopped,
hunting and fishing become a crime, and the lumber
industry grinds to a standstill. The state loses
revenue from legitimate business and people lose
their livelihoods.She wrote a chapter in Kim W.
Stallwood's http://animalliberationfront.com/Saints/Authors/Interviews/Kim%20Stallwood.htm
A Primer on Animal Rights : Leading experts write
about animal cruelty and exploitation. (AHA -
Jennings admits she is a leading expert on animal
cruelty and exploitation! But all kidding aside,
it IS indeed cruel to take animals from their owners
and it is exploitation to use "the cause of the day"
to rake in donations from well meaning, but deluded
people.)
For the sake of space, let me just list
the campaigns which the APVNM focuses upon (I could
easily write a paper about each topic): Companion
Animal Rescue Effort (CARE), Animal Control Officer
and Law Enforcement support, protecting beavers,
cougars, bears and rattlesnakes, trapping and
hunting, the Safe Passage Program (building
underground roads for wild animals so they don't
have to cross the highways), alternatives to
dissection in schools, animal overpopulation (pets),
vegetarianism, the "plight" of circus animals,
animal hoarding, Save the Chimps, the problems with
public land ranching and of course, cockfighting.
CARE sounds like a wonderful program -- that is
until people are charged with abandonment (animal
cruelty) for circumstances that are out of their
control such as fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados
etc. I have written about the biased training of
ACOs and how they are encouraged to create animal
cruelty cases from flimsy evidence. Beavers can be
a real pest, especially when they dam up New
Mexico's precious water resources! Cougars and
bears belong in the wild not on a person's property.
When they become a threat to humans, they need to
be dealt with. Same for rattlesnakes. What would
you do if you found a den on them on your property?
The HSUS endorsed Albuquerque HEART ordinance
thoroughly addressed alleged pet overpopulation.
Don't get me started on the term "animal hoarding."
We already know what the ARs think about cattle
ranching.See what the APVNM's did in 2005. http://www.apvnm.org/about/2005accomplishments.php
Mary
Jane Garcia D-36 is the majority whip of the NM
Senate. Her home phone number is under the name of
Estefana R. Garcia and her other contact phone is
listed under Victoria's Nightclub in Las Cruces, of
which she has been a general partner since 1980.
In 2006, Senator Garcia supported the interests of
the Animal Protection Voters 120%. Legislators who
sponsored one of APV's priority bills received a
twenty point bonus. She has had a consistently high
ranking from them for a number of years.However,
Garcia didn't do so well on the National Political
Awareness Test. She repeatedly refused to provide
any responses to citizens on various issues. She
also refused the same information when asked to do
so by major news organizations and key national
leaders of both parties including John McCain,
Republican Senator;
Geraldine Ferraro, Former Democratic Congresswoman;
Michael Dukakis, Former Democratic Governor;
Bill Frenzel, Former Republican Congressman and
Richard Kimball, Project Vote Smart President.
And last, but not least, is Danielle Bayes -
a HSUS Wildlife Issues Associate and active member
of the Animal Protection Voters of NM and APNM. Her
primary target in the past has been the fur
industry, with hunting as a close second. She
co-authored an article for the Animal's Agenda with
Lydia Nichols, the Executive Director of the
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade. She is a
partner along with Helga Schimkat for Animal Vision
Consulting LLC, a firm that works with non-profits
and government organizations on AR related
campaigns.
As part of the HSUS Fur Free
program, she ran a program that requested unwanted
fur garments from the public. These furs are used
by wildlife rehabbers across the country who cut the
garment into smaller pieces to be used as "a
surrogate parent for an orphaned wild animal, a warm
nest for a burrowing animal, or just a warm blanket
. . . Wildlife rehabilitators report that chipmunks,
raccoons, squirrels and opossums given a piece of
fur have shown reduced stress levels." No comment,
but you can imagine what I am thinking!!
The
Fast Track to the White House.
Governor Bill
Richardson is considering a bid for the Democratic
presidential nomination in 2008. He certainly has
powerful friends and supporters that can help him
achieve this goal.
In the same breath that he
pronounced a ban on cockfighting, Richardson added
that he will include $3.6 million in budget
recommendations to the Legislature to be spent for
animal welfare programs. He proposed $2 million for
animal shelter improvements statewide, $500,000 for
expanded programs to spay and neuter pets, $500,000
for facilities that care for neglected and unwanted
horses and $100,000 for a pilot program for public
schools to teach children how to care for and
respect animals (i.e. brainwash them with AR
propaganda) See HSUS NAHEE for more information) http://www.animalsheltering.org/programs_and_services/humane_education/.
The governor also proposed an Animal Welfare
Oversight Board with $150,000 for its startup and
administration.
Richardson's largest campaign
contributor is friend, Paul Blanchard. Blanchard is
president of the Albuquerque Downs, a casino and
horse-racing track, and the Zia park racetrack and
casino in Hobbs. Blanchard has been appointed by
Bill Richardson to the state Investment Council,
which is responsible for investments of New Mexico's
permanent funds.
Several Indian tribes that have gambling casinos and
racinos also donated to Richardson last October.
Add to the list, Ruidoso Downs and the state racing
commission vice-chairman, Arnold Rael. Out of state
horse racing interests also contributed. The Lost
Alamitos Race Course in California, the National
Thoroughbred Racing Association in Kentucky, Richard
Block - a California horse breeder and the wife of
Tracy Farmer, another successful horse
breeder.The MGM Mirage in Los Vegas donated to
Richardson as well as IGT, a Reno NV based gaming
machine company. Ted Turner, who owns a large ranch
in northern New Mexico and Chevy Chase were also
among the Richardson's supporters. Get ready to dig
deep!
The Indian Gaming Industry Report by
Alan Meister, an independent economist who studies
the gaming industry, lists New Mexico as having
Indian gaming revenues of $646 million in 2005. The
rankings do not include other commercial gaming
(New Mexico has none) or racinos, horse racing
tracks with casinos attached. According to the State
of New Mexico Gaming Control Board, Indian gaming's
slot machine revenues, after revenue sharing and
regulatory fees, increased from $484 million in 2004
to $574 million in 2005.
Larry Waldman, chief
economist at the Bureau of Business and Economic
Research at the University of New Mexico, explained
the increase in the state's gambling revenue was due
to the 2004 opening of the Zia Park Race Track and
Black Gold Casino in Hobbs. According to data
obtained by the BBER, the state's five most
profitable casinos are in the Albuquerque area, with
Sandia Casino leading the pack with around $137
million in annual slot machine
revenues.
Apparently as long as gambling and
horse racing are sanctioned and highly profitable to
the state, they are exempt from close scrutiny by
HSUS. I guess it is OK to use animals if they
profit the legislators that support your causes. I
noticed the same thing while reading through the
overly restrictive Louisville ordinance. See
Section 91.025 (F) "The requirements of Section
91.025 shall not apply to animals, sold, offered for
sale, or advertised for sale by, or in connection
with, any activity conducted by the Louisville Zoo
or Churchill Downs."
HSUS was active in the passage of this KY ordinance.
It is behind every animal protection/welfare
program that is main stream and well funded. Do you
suppose someone made someone an offer they couldn't
refuse?
