Ways to Support Rod, Matt and Sabino
MOUNTAIN LION DEFENDERS NEED YOUR HELP
In March 2004, the Arizona Game & Fish Department defied public outrage and closed Sabino Canyon in order to hunt and cage 4-5 mountain lions that it claimed were showing “insufficient fear” of humans. The Tucson community demanded that the lions be left undisturbed in their canyon home, and Chuk’shon Earth First! (CEF!) was the only group willing to translate those demands into action. CEF! activists openly declared their plans to prevent the capture of any mountain lions by entering the canyon and putting their bodies between the hounds and the lions if necessary. Due to a combination of public pressure and Earth First!’s efforts in the canyon, the hunt was called off.
Game & Fish promptly targeted two outspoken and effective CEF! organizers, Rod Coronado and Matt Crozier, for federal prosecution. Coronado had been arrested in the canyon in March, while Crozier was pulled out of his bed by FBI agents 9 months later. On December 13, 2005, Rod and Matt were convicted of felony conspiracy for their nonviolent efforts to defend the Sabino Canyon lions. They face up to 7.5 years in prison.
In the course of the trial, it came out that in addition to trapping and imprisoning “Sabino” the lioness (after falsely claiming that the hunt had been cancelled), Game & Fish had overseen the murder of four other mountain lions in the Sabino Canyon area since March 2004.
CEF! has been the only group to consistently criticize Game & Fish’s predator eradication policies, and the agency has retaliated by pursuing this vindictive prosecution. Game & Fish’s response to anything they don’t like seems to involve shooting it or sticking it in a cage—and Sabino, Rod and Matt are paying the price for this short-sighted attitude.
With this conviction, Game & Fish will be hoping that the opposition to its mountain lion policies will just go away. Now is the time to make it clear that Arizonans find these policies unacceptable—and it is just as unacceptable for Game & Fish to single out its critics for over-the-top prosecutions.
Some of the reasons that Game & Fish needs to hear from you:
* Game & Fish officer John Romero admitted on the stand that he could not see what the defendants were doing when he spotted them in Sabino Canyon, but insisted that he somehow knew that they were digging up a mountain lion snare. When repeatedly questioned by defense attorneys about the details of what he had seen, he continually said words to the effect of, “I can’t say what I saw them doing, I just know they were digging.” Sounds like Game & Fish instructed him to say whatever it took to get a conviction….
* Game & Fish continues to have a shoot-to-kill policy for any human/mountain lion encounters that are reported to them. In April and November 2004, Game & Fish agents killed two lions in the Catalina Mountains because they failed to run away from humans. Yet with urban sprawl continually encroaching on traditional lion habitat, it’s a certainty that such encounters will become more frequent. Why should execution be Game & Fish’s only protocol for a mountain lion who is guilty of nothing but curiosity? And how can Game & Fish claim that such a policy will not put a strain on mountain lion populations, especially when combined with ongoing habitat loss?
* Game & Fish allows year-round hunting of mountain lions at the cost of $10 each. Two mountain lions were “legally” killed near Sabino Canyon by hunters in this fashion. Sport hunting of predators unnaturally lowers their numbers, taking them out of a carefully balanced natural system. In addition, there are no reliable population figures for Arizona mountain lions—Game & Fish is gambling with the future of our wildlife.
* Game & Fish manages Arizona’s wildlife for the benefit of sport hunters and ranchers rather than conservation. This is made clear by the fact that they allow recreational and trophy hunting of bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, black bears, coyotes and sandhill cranes. Their policies are entirely inconsistent with their slogan, “Managing Today for Wildlife Tomorrow.”
* Sabino the mountain lion is still imprisoned for no good reason, and should be immediately released back into the wild!
Since Rod and Matt’s conviction, CEF! has been flooded by offers of help. At this time, there are three ways that you can help the most: write a letter to the editor, phone the Game & Fish Department to complain, or join us at the next two Game & Fish commission hearings on January 20th and 21st in Phoenix (contact information below). Feel free to make any of the points above, and add any other reasons that you may be upset about Rod and Matt’s case or Game & Fish’s wildlife policies. Our goal is to have those phones ringing off the hook—no fewer than 500 phone calls to Game & Fish in the next couple of weeks—and pack the room at their meetings in January. As Rod and Matt’s sentencing approaches in March, there may be more ways for people to help.
For more information, email CEF! at sabthebastards (at) hotmail.com. Visit our website: www.azef.org.
GAME & FISH CONTACT INFO
Tucson: 520-628-5376 (Regional Director: Gerry Perry)
Phoenix (Main Office): 602-942-3000 (State Director: Duane Shroufe)
Mesa: 480-981-9400
Flagstaff: 928-774-5045
Pinetop: 928-367-4281
Kingman: 928-692-7700
Yuma: 928-342-0091
Game & Fish website: www.azgfd.com