The Sand to Snow National Monument near Palm Springs, Calif., is home to wildlife including 12 federally listed threatened and endangered animal species. It's also home to a herd of at least 150 feral bulls and cows that have been destroying the ecosystem and scaring away tourists.
"They are carving new trails and wiping out grasses that anchor soil against erosion," reports the Los Angeles Times. "They have knocked over willows that are home to birds, including federally endangered least Bell's vireos, and contaminated the watershed with their droppings."
The wild cattle have also been menacing to visitors. A tour guide was nearly gored in February when he was charged by one 2,000-pound bull.
To deal with the problem, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, which co-manage Sand to Snow, are dispatching a team that includes biologists, federal land managers and representatives from a local Indian reservation to come up with a plan.
Although a board member of a bighorn sheep conservation group said he's all for lethal removal of the feral cattle, the plan to remove them must comply with state and federal wildlife regulations.
Just because the feral cattle are in the wrong place at the wrong time, they should not be killed. Please sign and share this petition urging officials to relocate the wild herd to a safer and more appropriate location.
