Next week, in a scenario straight out of a Hollywood action flick, gunmen will board a helicopter and kill wild cows in the New Mexico desert.
The hunt is intended to conserve sections of the huge Gila Wilderness and was approved Thursday by the US Forest Service.
Environmental conservation groups protested to the Gila National Forest that approximately 150 cattle were destroying streams and rivers in the designated wilderness region with their hooves and mouths.
Authorities deemed the procedure essential, but a difficult decision.
“The feral cattle in the Gila Wilderness have been aggressive toward wilderness visitors, graze year-round, and cause erosion and sedimentation by trampling stream banks and springs,” said Forest Supervisor Camille Howes in a statement.
Nonetheless, ranchers have criticized the planned hunt, arguing that it is state-sponsored cruelty to animals. According to them, the scheme violates federal regulations.
Beginning on Monday, an area of the Gila Wilderness will be off-limits to the public as part of the kill operation. The authorities will then begin hunting the cows on Thursday.
In a 160-square-mile wilderness area, a helicopter with gunners aboard will spend four days searching for and gunning down feral cattle.
The New Mexico Cattle Producers’ Association stated that the proposal violates the US Forest Service’s own standards, which specify that shooting is a last choice and require for roundups to be conducted first.
“Simple does not deviate from their own rules. Tom Paterson, chair of the association’s wildlife committee, stated that frustration is not an exemption to the regulations. Our society ought to be superior to this. We can be more resourceful and more efficient so that no economic resource is wasted.”
Nonetheless, environmentalists supported the Forest Service’s decision to continue the helicopter search.
“We can expect immediate results — clean water, a healthy river, and restored wildlife habitat,” said Center for Biological Diversity co-founder Todd Schulke.
Throughout the years, environmental groups have filed dozens of cases claiming that cattle in the Western United States destroy the land and water by trampling stream banks.
The Center for Biological Diversity stated that if the cows are not cared for, the water quality issues in New Mexico will continue to worsen.
The group thinks that between fifty and one hundred and fifty cows graze in the Gila Wilderness, which is also home to endangered Mexican gray wolves, elk, and deer.
A contractor hired by the US Forest Service last year killed 65 cows in an airborne hunt similar to the one set to commence the following week.
»New Mexico shooters to kill feral cows to preserve wilderness«