Well, our friends the wolves have been at it again. Just off the hill from Island Park wolves decimated the cattle herd of an Ashton, Idaho rancher by killing 5 calves and two cows outright, with others badly injured enough to be likely to need to be put down.
So, let’s see. Each of those animals at maturity is worth $1,200 – $1,500. Multiplied by 7 (and maybe more) dead animals, this rancher just got dinged over $10,000 for the privilege of having predators he didn’t vote for and didn’t want. As I see it, it’s basically a tax imposed on this rancher by liberal pine-cone-spitters from out of state who will never personally feel any consequence whatsoever for their desire to see the wolves re-introduced. So not only is it a tax, it’s basically taxation without representation.
Now don’t get me wrong. I think if the east-coast environmentalists want wolves, they should be able to have them. But I think what we need to do is keep track of who voted for the re-introduction. Then, when something like this happens, we can just send them an invoice for their pro-rata portion of the bill. That way, they can feel the joy that rancher Brown feels when the wolves wantonly slaughter 7 cows.
Isn’t it interesting that the people with no “skin in the game” are always the most vocal about what they want? And isn’t it interesting how they feel that their rights are somehow more important than the rights of those who have skin in the game? This problem would quickly resolve itself if we just give them the opportunity to put their wallet where their ballot is.
What am I saying? We certainly don’t want to do that. The environmentalists would just want to raise the taxes to cover those costs (thus deferring the cost of wolves right back to the rest of us.) Because by so doing, they could continue making far-reaching decisions with no possibility of ever feeling any personal consequence of those actions.
If you have a better way to solve this problem (short of gunpowder and lead) let me know. I’d love to hear.
