The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-13
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN, Director.
washington. d. @.
UNCLE SANS HUNTERs.

within the borders of the United
| States. neither side asking nor grant
ing quarter. No armistice will be
signed, and there will be no peace
terms. The end of the battling will
be the extinction of one element in
between four and five hundred gov
eminent hunters professional killers
employed by the biological survey of
the department of agriculture. On
the other side are aligned all the pre-
datory beasts of the nation, from
/ ground squirrels and jack rabbits up
to fierce stock-killing mountain lions,
bears, and wolves.
| Hundreds of millions of dollars
damage is done annually by wild ami
mails. The big killers like the wolves
and bears take a tremendous toll in
on the western ranges, but the great
est damage is done by gophers and
other smaller animals who destroy
pasturage capable of supporting mill
lions of cows and sheep. The damage
done by the predatory beasts is esti-
| Unfortunately. it is not easy to
arouse interest and secure co-opera-
ton in destroying the smaller and
more numerous pests. The dramatic
appeal of hunting wolves and bears
makes it easy for the government
I
cess. These destroyers are diminish
ing fast.
, Money was first provided for Staying
predatory animals, big and little, in
1915. Since then there has been an
annual appropriation, and as a result
100000 beasts, big and little, have
| been dispatched to the happy hunting
ground by the rifles, traps, and poison
bats of the federal nimrods. For in
! stance, when the work started in New
r-Olx
cattle killers of the worst sort. Now
there are but a score, and soon there
will be none.
Three-quarters of the 100000 ami
mails slain have been coyotes, but the
| total includes some 1000 gray wolves,
each one of which destroyed livestock
in the course of a year valued at ST.
900. The total includes 240 mountain
lions, each capable of fearful destrue-
ton of cattle and sheep. But the
humble prairie dog still occupies some
1000, 900 acres of the best range
land in the Rocky mountain region.
Prairie dogs destroy from 10 to rs per
cent of the grass in the districts they
inhabit, which means that in New
Mexico alone, if the rodent was cleared
out, there would be saved pasturage1
enough to support 100000 additional
cattle, or 100000 sheep.
Victims of the Killer.
tracked to their doom by the govern
ment hunters have had long and
bloody records. One mountain lion
was bagged in Wyoming which was
known to have killed $1,000 worth of
livestock in a month. Another was
killed which had a record of Staying
seven colts in the spring of one year
A pair of wolves was shot in Wyoming
which had caused $4,000 damage in
single year. A ranch owner in Texas
reported that he lost nearly 800 sheep
in a year thru the depredations of six
COYOTES. Later the whole band was
accounted for by government hunters
Killing the larger beasts, particularly
the wolves, in some parts OF the west
is also a precaution for the protection
of human life and health, as they
often carry rabies. About 1900 per-
sons are known to have been bitten
by rabid wolves and half a hundred
deaths are officially vouched for.
Herds attacked by these crazed sani-
mails suffer terrific destruction.
beasts killed by the Uncle Sans rifles
and traps are stranger far than ami
NAL fiction. The most recent or the
well known animal criminals to fan
before these hunters was an enormous
black bear killed near Big Piney, Wyo-
ming Not only did this powerful and
crafty animal ravish the flocks of
sheep with great regularity, but took
delight in soaring the sheep so that
in their haste to escape the awful fate
threatening them they stampeded, the
fleeing animals behind piling up on
those in front of them, smothering
many to death. The worst trick OF
this outlaw. tho, was destroying
camps. Luckily, he never reached any
campers, but accounted for many out
fits, tearing up the tents smashing
camp furniture and raiding the
larders.
H. P. Williams and Del Dearth,
government hunters, were stringing
some traps in Wyoming not long ago
when a terrified sheep herder burst
out of the bushes white with fear,
and putting like locomotive. He
paused long enough to explain that
1.-The Bear" had chased him out of
camp, and went his way at high speed.
Williams and Dearth reached the camp
as quickly as possible, and found 1t
destroyed, but the bear had gone.
They traiied the beast, and ran across
a heap of forest debris, in which they
found a side OF bacon cached by The
Bear" the only title the beast had.
There were no other bears to the Big
Piney herders and campers, Just the
one big outlaw.
The hunters went along the trail a
little farther, and suddenly the big
killer charged them. Three bullets
were placed behind the bears ear by
one hunter, and the other sent shot
thru his spinal column. The beast
lacked but a few yards OF reaching
them when he collapsed. The animal
was extraordinarily large for his spe-
cies, weighing $50 pounds, was six
feet two inches long, and his hind foot
measured IL n by inches. He was
terribly torn by a recent fight, evil
IDENTIFY a conflict with grizzly seen
in the vicinity not long before
Another recent animal outlaw to
meet the same fate was "Old White"
notorious and ferocious leader of a
pack of wolves that for years caused
terrific damage to the flocks around
Bear Springs Mesa, Colorado. The
hunters accounted for "Old Whites"
mate early in the year, and another
wolf of the pack was shot. but the
crafty leader kept out of sight and
stepped lucky in avoiding traps. But
finally a blind set of four traps proved