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Show C ' ; 7 - W. ;7uU-: -tti 3 F Vj ff'V.lf 0)5 4'&i$lHr' i TT TNCLE SAM Is killing off I the killers which Is to II I say that the federal gov-Ny"" gov-Ny"" H ernment is obliged to wage persistent and ag-pA ag-pA gressive war against the j - predatory animals In de-' de-' " fense of the wild animal life of national park and national - forest and of i the herds of the cattle- t ? I?L i man and sheepman. More than 150,000 wolves, coyotes, coy-otes, bobcats, lynxes, mountain Hons and "killer" bears have been killed In the six years since this warfare began. Yet the beasts of prey persist. In spite of the fact that the hand of every man Is against them night and day, year In and year out. The coyote Is even increasing in numbers and is widening his range. Nobody knows just why the coyote howls at night. As fcouu a guess as any is mat 11 is uia way of notifying civilized man that he is still on the job and Intends to stay, in spite of rifle, trap and poison. And everyone who has henrd the coyote give voice at night knows that a large part of the weird performance strikingly strik-ingly resembles mocking laughter. Government hunters in the last six years have killed with trap and gun 156,150 wild animals that roamed the Western ranges and preyed on live stock. The campaign against these animals ani-mals was begun by the government in 1915 and now all the states except Arkansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota, Da-kota, are co-operating. The list Includes 400 hears, 17.S42 bobcats and lynxes, 133,004 coyotes, 60S mountain lions and 3,030 wolves. The total shows the number of scaips taken ; it does not include the large number of animals kilied by poison. The figures would be greatly Increased if those animals, too, were in the list. Many poisoned animals are never found. Their Destructiveness. In the fiscal year 1021 tne total number num-ber of predatory animals killed was 27,037, classified as follows: 89 bears, 2,403 bobcats and lynxes, 24.25S coyotes, coy-otes, 128 mountain lions and 594 wolves. Tho nrprncrp rlpsrrllrHnn h tl,,, animals is estimated to have been for each wolf and mountain Hon, about $1,000 worth of live stock; 4"?li coyote and bobcat, $50 worth, nnd each stock-killing stock-killing bear, $500 worth. In view of these estimates an idea is obtained of the tremendous damage averted by the government's skilled hunters. These figures are averages; in some cases, notably that of the C'usler wolf (Custer, (Cus-ter, S. D'.), the depredations of IndivUI-. IndivUI-. mil predatory animals have reached much higher figures. The Custer wolf was estimated to have killed at least $25.00.) worth of cattle before it w;s disposed of not long ago. The figures given represent the government's gov-ernment's activities along this line in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Colora-do, Idaho, Montane, Nevada, New Mexico. Mex-ico. North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon Mouth Dakota, Texas, Utah. Washington Washing-ton and Wyoming. During the six-year campaign more predatory animals were killed in Nevada than In any oilier state, largely because that state was the first to conduct a co-operative cam-paigu cam-paigu with the government, starting in 1916. The total killed In Nevada, not including animals poisoned, Is put at 32,068. Utah comes second, with 21,-712; 21,-712; Texas, third, with 18,602; Idaho, fourth, with 16,018 ; Oregon, fifth, with 12,524, and Washington, sixth, with 10,015. Texas leads the sixteen states In number of wolves disposed of, the total to-tal being 1,566 during the six-year cam- palgn, or more than 40 per cent of tl-total tl-total number of wolves killed In t sixteen states. Wyoming ranks secon: in number of wolves killed, with 4S, New Mexico, third, with 441; Mot-tana, Mot-tana, fourth, with '339; Arizona, fitt, with 183, and Utah, sixth, with 170, In number of coyotes whose seal? have been taken by government hm:. ers and in co-operative campaigns, N vada leads with 27,173; Utah is s ond with 1S.767; Texas third wA 14.S30; Idaho fourth with 14,454; Ore-go'u Ore-go'u fifth with 10,351, and Washingioi sixth with 9,031. Arizona and New Mexico acconnt nearly two-thirds of the total nnmte of mountain lions killed, their totsi being 255 and 170, respectively, t Utah 71 mountain lions were kflfei in Oregon 43, Colorado 36, Callfori 29 and Nevada 24. |