Re: the June 23 article "It's time to end wildlife killing contests in Arizona."
Not to diminish the point of this op-ed, but one claim it made is debatable, i.e., that no other animal [besides the coyote] has suffered the kind of deliberate, casual persecution we have rained down on coyotes. Oh? Where would the Passenger Pigeon fit in on this continuum?
Educated approximations have the Passenger Pigeon at several billion individuals as late as the early to mid-1800s, more numerous than any bird species today, or perhaps ever. Yet, not a single one exists anymore due to direct extirpation by humans. Simple shooting into the giant migrating flocks brought down 10s of birds at a time, but ingenious techniques were devised that killed 10s of thousands of birds at once and also disrupted nesting sites nearly completely. By the turn of the 19th century, Passenger Pigeons no longer existed in the wild, and the last captive Passenger died in 1914.
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What could top the Passenger Pigeon for the claim of worst deliberate persecution ever?
Paul Sheppard
Midtown
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
