ASI update

Bill Taliaferro
ASI Executive Board
MWGA Annual Meeting Information Session
Saturday, December 5, 2009

The American Sheep Industry has been facing considerable pressure from environmental organizations, according to Bill Taliaferro. Taliaferro serves on the ASI's executive board and was present to address the MWGA on Saturday. Wildlife Services has been under fire from the Humane Society and Wild Earth Guardians for their predator control practices. Both environmental organizations have been pressing for abolishing Wildlife Services, but currently their pressure has no leverage. Animal rights groups have also been working to ban M-44s. Fortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency sided with agriculture in rejecting their pleas. However, Taliaferro warned that the victories in February and March of 2009 would not mean that the subject was defeated. The USDA sheep experiment station in Idaho has also been under attack from anti-livestock groups for its reliance on forest service grazing allotments.

While the sheep industry has largely been reactive concerning public relations and interactions with environmental groups, Taliaferro described one area in which they are working to be proactive: the protection of guard dogs. At the 2009 Convention, the American Sheep Industry formed the ASI Guard Dog Working Group, to address the increasing contact between rural and urban land use. In several instances in the West, particularly in Colorado where the population density is higher, there has been interaction between guard dogs and recreationists, domestic animals, and wildlife on public and private lands. Guard dog owners are concerned that the negative attention drawn by guard dogs attacking what they view as threats to their herd will result in increased conflict over public lands and hard-to-resolve lawsuits.

Taliaferro touched briefly on other issues being addressed at the national scene. The ag appropriations bill granted Wildlife Services $77.8 million, with an additional $18.6 million allotted for WS research and development. ASI approved spending $50,000 in unrestricted funds for the lamb project headed by the Lamb Council. The lamb project is researching the impact of non-traditional lamb marketing on sales.

For more information from the American Sheep Industry, you can visit their website at http://www.sheepusa.org/.