Keep New Mexico's Wildlife Free-Ranging: Register Your Opposition to SB 337

From the NM Wilderness Alliance:
NM Senate Bill 337, one of the worst bills of the 2005 New Mexico Legislative Session, would lead to the fencing-in and confiscation of New Mexico’s publicly owned wildlife. The tall fences would also block free-movement of New Mexico’s wildlife across the landscape, and would block access to food, water and cover.

To top it all off, the captive animals shipped into these game farms would bring with them the risk of exotic diseases such as Chronic Wasting Disease. CWD is devastating to wild herds of deer and elk and it is spread through game farms. The future of New Mexico’s wildlife depends on defeating Senate Bill 337.

Please take a moment out of your day to call the Chair and Vice-Chair of this committee, plus any representatives from your area. Call during business hours before Friday, March 11. Contact list and talking points:

Gail C. Beam, Chair (D), Albuquerque: 986-4844
Irvin Harrison, Vice Chair (D), Gallup: 986-4464
Thomas A. Anderson (R), Albuquerque: 986-4452
Keith J. Gardner (R), Roswell: 986-4211
Joni Marie Gutierrez (D), Las Cruces: 986-4234
Dianne Miller Hamilton (R), Silver City: 986-4221
Al Park (D), Albuquerque: 986-4234

Talking Points:
*SB 337 will increase the risk of Chronic Wasting Disease infecting our wild elk & deer herds. There is no cure for CWD and no test for live captive elk shipped into New Mexico. We should not risk infecting our valuable wild herds with this devastating disease.

*SB 337 is an economic loser. SB337 would benefit a few landowners, but is not worth the larger economic risk to our rural economies. Hunting and viewing of free-ranging wild animals pumps hundreds of millions of dollars each year into rural New Mexico economies—we should not risk devastating this far larger economy that is dependent on free-ranging wild game.

*SB337 privatizes wild animals, which are unavoidably enclosed in the tall fence. In America, wildlife belong to all people equally—which makes sense because wild animals move at will across the landscape of private and public properties and should not be owned by any one person. SB337—which is being promoted as a private property right—would confiscate and privatize property belonging to all of us (our wildlife).

*SB337 will block free movement of wildlife to valuable food, cover and water sources. Free-movement and public ownership of wildlife—as well as fair-chase hunting—are the foundations of our conservation heritage and should not be undermined by tall fences and privatization. Thank You!