Illustrated Daily; Should the Ass Range At Will

Who has let the wild-ass of Syria range at will, and given the wild-ass of Arabia its freedom, whose home I have made in the wilderness and its lair in the saltings. It sustains the noise of the city and is deaf to the driver's shouting. It roams the hills as its pasture, and searches for anything green. These odd toad furry-toughted creatures, known as burrows, are roaming the 32,000-acre Bandelier National Monument. This has National Park Service officials worried. They claim the burrows are responsible for damage to archaeological ruins, disruption of wildlife and soil erosion. Introduced by man in the 1930s, the burrows have reproduced rapidly. Estimates have it that 80 or so now forage the canyons of Bandelier National Monument.

The domesticated burrow has been a beast of burden for over 5,000 years. Legend has it the burrow was offered as a token of goodwill on peaceful journeys, in contrast with the horse, which an ancient times was a symbol of war. Today, however, the National Park Service has declared war on the wild out. Well we found that the most effective method that we have available to us is direct reduction by shooting. Several hundred have been shot since I've been here since 1974. The general instructions are as to shoot directly behind the shoulder so you can get a heart shot. We generally put the men down far enough away so the helicopter does not excite them or to run them and the rangers are then able to approach while the animal is still quiet

and not moving and do their job. What they did was over a period of many years it studied the migration patterns of the burrows where they live basically and how much they would expand from one area to another, determine their locations, went in and dropped in by helicopter. The sharpshooters were then on the ground with high powered rifles which shoot as many burrows as they could and left the carcasses there to rot. Six of last year's burrow reduction program had labeled it a sneaky attempt to kill the animals before anyone noticed. Also noted by the American Horse Protection Association is the fact that much of the damage attributed to burrows was actually caused by livestock over grazing years ago. The burrow range consisted of around 19,000 acres and studies have indicated that we're losing approximately 35 tons per acre per year and that's both through water and windy erosion as a result of the denuding of that range by the feral burrow.

The problem is that it's outside of its native habitat or outside of the barnyard and put in those contexts the burrow is a fine animal. The problem is that he is in bandlier or in our other national parks and that's where he should not be. Yeah, I don't think they should slaughter the burrows. Certainly I'd like to see artifacts saved. I'm sure you would most people would have my children like to see them. My children's children would like to see them if they're still there. If the burrows could be kept away from the artifacts, I am not in favor of destroying the burrows, okay? Initially. But I'm not in favor of destroying the artifacts either. And so if we can save the burrows and the artifacts both then that's the way I'd like to see it done. This and proponents alike of burrow reduction contend that their position is the most correct. This is a complex issue charged by emotion and complicated by legal maneuvering. All primary concern is to maintain the environment as nature gave it to us here and it has

been impacted by the feral burrow. It looks like a pet and it has big brown eyes and for years and it's cute frankly. It's very cute and it's very intelligent and we who have had to deal with the problem over the last 6 to 10 years have developed a very high respect for the animal.