UTAH RESIDENTS ONLY!  Please voice your opposition to a line item in the Utah budget via a message that is sent no later than next Wednesday, March 6!

DETAILS:

Don Peay, founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, has worked tirelessly do have wolves delisted throughout the West.  On February 21 he asked the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environmental Quality committee of the Utah legislature for $300,000 from the state general fund (taxpayer money) to pay him to lobby in Washington D.C. to have wolves delisted nation-wide and to ensure that neither Mexican wolf nor Rocky Mountain wolves ever live in Utah, Colorado, Nevada or California.

This money is YOUR tax money, and it will be allocated to a private business – essentially to one individual, Don Peay – to engage in efforts to undermine the Endangered Species Act and to ensure that YOUR wild wolves on YOUR public lands are killed if they should stray beyond arbitrary boundaries.  The very idea is a moral affront to the citizens of Utah and to the citizens of the United States.  It is especially egregious to Utahans because Utah taxpayers will be required to pay for it at the expense not only of wolves and healthy ecosystems, but of public education and other worthy public goods that the money could otherwise be used for.  Killing wolves should not be given priority over educating our children!

ACTION

Please take a few minutes to email the members of the Executive Appropriations Committee listed in below.  Contact each one of them so that we have a chance of persuading a majority to strike this line item from the budget.  This is our only opportunity to do it.

• On the subject line of your message say in capital letters NO MONEY FOR DON PEAY’S PERSONAL VENDETTA AGAINST WOLVES!
• In the body of your message, say that you find this proposed allocation of your money morally reprehensible and economically irresponsible.  Please be respectful.

Executive Appropriations Committee:

Sen. Lyle Hillyard, Co-Chair (R)                                                                   lhillyard@le.utah.gov

Rep. Mel Brown, Co-Chair (R)                                                                   melbrown@le.utah.gov

Sen. Jerry Stevenson, Vice Chair (R)                                                    jwstevenson@le.utah.gov

Rep. Brad Wilson, Vice Chair (R)                                                            bradwilson@le.utah.gov

Sen. Stuart Adams (R)                                                                               jsadams@le.utah.gov

Rep. Brad Dee (R)                                                                                          bdee@le.utah.gov

Rep. Greg Hughes (R)                                                                          greghughes@le.utah.gov

Rep. Don Ipson (R)                                                                                     dipson@le.utah.gov

Sen. Pete Knudson (R)                                                                            pknudson@le.utah.gov

Rep. Becky Lockhart (R)                                                                          blockhart@le.utah.gov

Sen. Wayne Niederhauser (R)                                                            wniederhauser@le.utah.gov

Sen. Ralph Okerlund (R)                                                                           rokerlund@le.utah.gov

Rep. Joel Briscoe (D)                                                                                 jbriscoe@le.utah.gov

Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck (D)                                                                rchouck@le.utah.gov

Rep. Tim Cosgrove (D)                                                                           tcosgrove@le.utah.gov

Sen. Gene Davis (D)                                                                                    gdavis@le.utah.gov

Sen. Pat Jones (D)                                                                                   patjones@le.utah.gov

Sen. Luz Robles (D)                                                                                     lrobles@le.utah.gov

Rep. Jennifer Seelig (D)                                                                               jseelig@le.utah.gov

If enough people protest this allocation of public funds, it just might be enough to persuade a majority of legislators to vote against it.   Please forward this alert to friends of the wolf in Utah.