The Benson signal., 1918-05-11
WAG|NG WAR ON.
FOOD DESTROYERS
Predatory Animals in Western
States Cause Immense Dam
age Each Year.
HUNTERS ARE NOW AT WORK
In Two and Half Years $4,000 Wolves,
Coyotes, Bobcats, Lions, Bears
and Other Beasts Killed by
Paid Hunters.

Thu city purchaser Of meat does not
always realize the really serious diff
cult1es to be overcome before a choice
cut of steak or a cheaper stewing piece
can be brought to market. He buys
what he wants or can afford, always
marveling at the increasing cost. If
the supply of food were increased by
$3O0,OO0OO0 worth, the cost would be
correspondingly less, and when the
purchaser is informed that this value
of meat and other foodstuffs is wan
tonly destroyed every year in the Unit
ed States he is likely to sit up and take
notice. More, he is likely to investi-
gate the cause of the waste and to
help stop it, if possible. Foodstuffs
worth these millions of dollars are de-
stroyed every year through the raw
ages of wild predatory animals and Of
small grain-eating and crOp-destroying
rodents.
Unlike the hordes of injurious in
sects which prey on the crops almost
unseen, these animals are large enough
to be coled with singly and at COM
parativeJy small cost.
Yearly Damage by Wolf.
Wolves, for instance, are caught one
at a title, either in the trap or by
poison OR with powder and shot. These
animals do not prowl the country over
night after night with only an occa-
sional meal once or twice a week, but
like other beasts must obtain their
food more or less regularly. AS live
stock are especially choice morsels for
them, the destruction each animal in
flictS on a herd is enormous. 1t does
not require any stretch of the imagi-
nation, therefore, to grasp the fact that
each wolf destroys annually an aver
age of $1,000 worth of live stock. The
growing boy could not be so voracious.
Therefore, every wolf destroyed means
g years supply of food for several boys
or grown men. Multiply this $1,000
destruction of good food by the total
number of wolves in the country and
we have large part of the $500, ,OOO,-
600 worth of food taken from domesti-
Gated focks and herds.
In the summer and early fall Of last
year hunters of the bureau of biologi-
cal survey of the department of agri-
culture killed nearly 200 wolves, more
than half of them in Texas, one of the
greatest meat-producing states of the
Union. Wyoming, Arizona and New
Mexico are the better off for having
lost in this campaign about 60 Of these
marauders.
Damage by Other cuIprits.
But wolves are not the only culprits
that~need to be dispatched if we are to
market all the meat actually produced
on our extensive ranges. It has been
estimated by officials of the department
of agriculture that mountain lions and
stock-killing grizzly bears each destroy
annually $500 worth Of live stock,
and that each coyote and bObcat con-
sumes tenth of this amount. Coyotes
and bobcats, however, are many times
more numerous than the mountain
lions and bears, judging from the
numbers destroyed by hunters of the
biological survey. During part Of the
last summer and fall eight mountain
lions and 81 bears paid the death pen |
atty for their marauding, while in the |
same time more than 1000 bobcats and |
more than 10000 coyotes were exter-
minated.
Had these animals been allowed to
go about their nefarious work unmo- |
Tested through the year, and through |
the rest of their natural lives, they |
would have taken the usual toll of our
meat supply accordingly. The pelt OF |