Todays Earth Day! Please take a few minutes to act as well as reflect on the threat of climate change, and what you can do to lower the risks from nuclear weapons production at Hanford.
Your comments toady on Washington Department of Ecology's proposed permit for the US Department of Energy - Hanford's "Test Bed Initiative" can make a difference in REMOVING waste threatening the Columbia from Hanford for the first time! BUT we have to ensure that the waste is not trucked as a liquid through Spokane.
Hanford’s leaking High Level Nuclear Waste tanks cannot continue to be ignored.
The Test Bed Initiative (TBI) offers the opportunity to remove leakable liquids from tanks that are leaking today or are likely to start leaking soon.
Hanford’s groundwater and the Columbia River will be contaminated for thousands of years if all the waste that is currently planned to be removed from Hanford’s tanks is disposed in landfills onsite.
The “Test Bed Initiative” (TBI) offers the first hope for speeding up removal of leakable liquids from High Level Nuclear waste tanks decades ahead of current plans for vitrification (glassification) and for reducing how much waste is disposed in landfills along our Columbia River at Hanford.
TBI will test if 2,000 gallons can be removed from a High Level Waste Tank, solidified and treated to be disposed at sites where there is no drinkable groundwater that can ever be contaminated (the sites are in West Texas or Utah).
The US Department of Energy (USDOE) can solidify and treat the waste at a licensed facility next to Hanford so that there is no risk from spilling liquid waste in a truck accident on I-90.
Instead, USDOE wants to ship the waste as a liquid through Spokane for either 900 or 1,900 miles to be treated in Utah or Texas.
The Umatilla Indian Tribe (CTUIR) objects strongly to shipping the liquid wastes through their Reservation or through Spokane:
“The current plan to transport waste in liquid form poses for us an unacceptable risk of spills and harm to the environment, First Foods, and our citizens. The current proposal is especially disappointing given that shipping waste in a grouted, immobile, solid form is a viable and much safer option.
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“To be clear, the CTUIR requests the following:
1. Do NOT ship liquid Hanford tank waste across the Columbia Basin. Only ship this waste in GROUTED/SOLID form.
2. Move forward with large-scale grouting and out-of-state disposal as soon as reasonably allowable to decrease the risk of leaking Hanford tanks on the CTUIR's treaty-protected resources.”
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We agree with the Umatilla Tribe (CTUIR). The Tribe and we need your comments to help make this happen.
Heart of America Northwest has spent decades fighting USDOE’s plans to truck more waste to be dumped at Hanford, including successfully stopping shipments through Spokane. The TBI is our first hope to remove waste from Hanford, instead of adding more risk to the Columbia River.
But it has to be done safely by only trucking solid, treated waste with very low radioactivity – not trucking untreated liquids through Spokane and other vulnerable communities and Indian Reservations.
Use our sample comments from the section below to Washington’s Department of Ecology, but please add in your words why this is important to you. Perhaps you live near I-90 in Spokane. Or, you have hoped for years that we could remove waste from Hanford.
Use these sample comments - adding a few words on why removing waste from Hanford or not shipping liquid waste through Spokane are important to you.
(Comment period closes Thursday 4/25/2024.)
To Washington Ecology and Governor Inslee:
* Ecology should not permit the US Department of Energy (USDOE) to truck untreated liquid wastes from Hanford’s High Level Nuclear Waste tanks through Spokane or across Oregon and the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
* I strongly support moving forward with the test to remove and treat 2,000 gallons from Hanford’s tanks for disposal offsite in licensed facilities where the waste does not create any risk to groundwater, Ecology has a duty to consider and take "mitigation" action to prevent the risk from a truck accident in Spokane or anywhere on the 900-1,900 mile truck routes. This is an environmental justice issue as well as a risk to the Spokane River.
* I agree with the Umatilla Tribe whose Chair wrote to USDOE:
“The current plan to transport waste in liquid form poses for us an unacceptable risk of spills and harm to the environment, First Foods, and our citizens. The current proposal is especially disappointing given that shipping waste in a grouted, immobile, solid form is a viable and much safer option.
“To be clear, the CTUIR requests the following:
1. Do NOT ship liquid Hanford tank waste across the Columbia Basin. Only ship this waste in GROUTED/SOLID form.
2. Move forward with large-scale grouting and out-of-state disposal as soon as reasonably allowable to decrease the risk of leaking Hanford tanks on the CTUIR's treaty-protected resources.”
* USDOE agreed not to truck the waste through Oregon and the Umatilla Reservation. Unselfishly, the Umatilla Tribe has continued to advocate that liquid wastes should not be trucked at all when there is a licensed facility that can solidify and treat the waste next door to Hanford and avoid trucking wastes through Spokane on I-90 for 900 miles to Utah or 1,900 miles to Texas for disposal.
* I want the test for 2,000 gallons of waste to proceed. But if it succeeds there will be thousands of shipments. Ecology has a duty under SEPA and the HEAL Act to consider and mitigate the risks from truck shipments through low income “overburdened” communities in Spokane or on Indian Reservations by requiring that the waste is solidified and treated at the licensed facility adjacent to Hanford instead of trucking untreated liquid waste.
Any spill of liquids from Hanford will be an international news incident as well as putting residents and the environment at risk.
* USDOE did not even consider risks from the chemicals in the liquid wastes and acknowledges that there is a risk of one “accidental crash” for a truck with these wastes every 884 shipments from Hanford to Texas. That is too high a risk to go without Washington requiring that the waste be solidified before being trucked through Spokane or Oregon and the Umatilla Reservation.
Leading newspapers call us "the premier Hanford cleanup watchdog group," for our research, educating and organizing across the Northwest to protect the Columbia River and health of future generations from Hanford's contamination. Our mission includes fighting for environmental justice, climate change and training tomorrow's organizers, legal, public health professionals. We offer the workshops and Comment Guides that are the leading tools to help the public - you - be effective advocates.
We led the successful ballot initiatives and years-long organizing struggles:
* that stopped Hanford from being the nation's High-Level Nuclear Waste dump and
* brought and end to using massive unlined ditches to dump the nation's nuclear weapons and reactor wastes; t
* shut-down the FFTF nuclear reactor;
* required USDOE to have a program to cleanup the contaminated groundwater that flows into the Columbia River...
NOW, we are leading to protect our Columbia River and the health of generations to come from the leaking High Level Nuclear Waste tanks that the US Department of Energy refuses to empty. Federal and state laws require removal of leakable liquids from leaking hazardous waste tanks. In 2023, we filed a legal challenge to the secretly negotiated deal between USDOE and Washington Ecology to let tanks keep leaking. We secured a settlement requiring significant steps towards complying with the law. During 2024, the analyses required under our legal settlement should be part of public hearings on responding to tank leaks.
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DESCRIPTION
Hanford, in our backyard, is the most contaminated area and most dangerous industrial facility in the Western Hemisphere. As you read this, radioactive and chemical contamination flows into the Columbia River and numerous facilities could release vast amounts of radiation in a mild earthquake.
When High-Level Nuclear Waste tanks leak, we're the legal and organizing defense to protect the Columbia River, Treaty rights and health for thousands of years.
As you read this, another High-Level Nuclear Waste tank is leaking. And the US Department of Energy refuses to obey the law that requires leaking tanks to be emptied. Click here to learn more and quickly send an email to insist Washington State enforces the law to stop the tank from leaking.
Your contributions enabled us to document that the leak was known for two years without even being reported - a major legal violation.
But, Washington State signed an agreement with USDOE to just let the tank keep leaking for decades!
We filed the legal challenge to that backroom deal. We need your support for the research and in-house legal work to require that environmental laws are followed and High-Level Nuclear Waste tanks aren't allowed to just leak and contaminate groundwater flowing into the Columbia River.
Our research and advocacy protected the Columbia River from untreated liquid wastes dumped along the River, stopped illegal storage of explosive wastes, ended dumping in unlined ditches, protected hundreds of cleanup workers from deadly exposures. We are the only group or entity holding public workshops around the region and issuing Citizens' Guides, enabling the public to comment on cleanup plans (or delays). National and regional news media rely on us for expert, independent viewpoints.
We continue to present our members and the public with widely praised workshops on major Hanford decisions and comment periods along with our award winning "Citizens' Guides." Contributing at any level will add you to our list for Guides and invites!
As part of our environmental justice mission, we work closely with the Tribes whose health and Treaty rights to fish and live along the 50 miles of Columbia River running through Hanford are being violated. Your support also enables us to offer the only Tribal and Environmental Law student internship program in the region to inspire and train a new generation to protect Treaty rights and our environment.
Your support this year will help us fight the federal Energy Departments' schemes to rename and abandon High Level Nuclear Waste in leaking tanks, abandon waste sites along the River, and to leave huge quantities of deadly Plutonium just a few feet below the ground.
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RECOGNITION
A generous donor will match donations if we exceed 50 donors for Give Big, up to $3,000. Monthly or quarterly contribution pledges count! Help us get there! Please give generously.
High-Level Nuclear Waste is leaking from a massive tank at Hanford. The deadly radioactive chemical contamination is spreading down to the groundwater that will flow into and contaminate our Columbia River in as few as 20 years.
Heart of America Northwest has filed a legal challenge to the deal between Washington State and the US Department of Energy that would allow the tank to keep leaking for decades.
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You can help by contributing and using the link to write Governor Inslee and Ecology Director Watson.
On April 29, 2021, the US Department of Energy (USDOE) publicly admitted the tank was leaking. That was more than 2 years after evidence of a massive leak was known.
Federal and State laws require "immediate" reporting of a leak.
But, no enforcement action has been taken by Washington State.
Federal and state laws require "immediate" action to remove leakable liquids from any leaking hazardous waste tank to stop the leak.
Washington State signed an agreement to let the US Department of Energy continue to let the tank leak for decades!
On August 25, 2022, Washington State Ecology and the US Department of Energy signed an agreement that would let this tank keep leaking for years, possibly decades!
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Click here to watch KING5's Investigators' news coverage of the deal to let the tank keep leaking.
Your voice is needed to insist that Governor Inslee, Ecology Director Watson and Washington AG Ferguson enforce our environmental laws to protect our Columbia River by ordering the tank to be emptied.
Click here to help fund our legal challenge to the "let it keep leaking deal" made with no public comment and in violation of our environmental laws.
How deadly is the contamination heading to groundwater and our River?
If 100 people were exposed to the soil 60 feet under the tank for 3 months, 50 of the 100 would die of acute radiation sickness. Almost everyone who didn't die quickly would eventually get cancer.
So, how can the federal Energy Department, USDOE, say they are just going to let the leak go on?
Population control ...?
Low level genocide ...?
Mowing the lawn with a straight razor ...?
And, how can Washington State not take legal action to require the tank to be emptied as our environmental laws require?
Governor Inslee publicly proclaimed Washington State had a "Zero Tolerance" policy for leaking tanks at Hanford. But, years are going by with ZERO Action to stop the leak and protect our Columbia River!
Heart of America Northwest reviewed records proving that the USDOE knew the tank was leaking in March 2019!
When the leak was announced in 2021, contamination had already moved 60 feet below ground - a quarter of the way to the groundwater that flows into the Columbia River.
Every day of inaction spreads the deadly contamination closer to our Columbia River.
State and federal hazardous waste laws say that a leaking hazardous waste tank must have the leakable liquid removed immediately or as soon as feasible.
In public meetings, top Hanford officials from the US Department of Energy (USDOE) said they do not plan to empty the tank for many years or do anything to stop the spread of contamination. Washington State has the authority to order the leakable liquids to be emptied from the tank. Instead of acting Washington Ecology signed an agreement - with no public comment - to let the tank just keep leaking for years.
There is a proven method of removing the leakable liquid from the tank and treating this waste that is not only safe, but will also save hundreds of millions of dollars.
It's time for Washington Governor Inslee and Director of Ecology Laura Watson and Washington AG Ferguson to order Hanford officials to empty the tank and protect the Columbia River rather than allowing the High-Level Nuclear Waste tank to keep leaking into the soil and water. More info from Heart of America NW, "The Public's Voice for Hanford Clean-Up" at www.hanfordcleanup.org.
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Today, please click and send your email urging Governor Inslee, Ecology Director Watson to enforce the law and protect the Columbia River by ordering USDOE to empty the waste out of the leaking tank. You can cc your US Senators and US House Member. Please personalize the letter with why this is important to you, and use the tool to share this with friends and ask them to join in.
I strongly reccomend the book on climate change called Not Too Late, written by activists Rebecca Solnit and Roberta An energizing case for hope about the climate, from Rebecca Solnit, the voice of climate resistance and activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua. Like these two activists, I believe much is known and spoken of in relation to climate change. The hour is now. We're being called to action. What are you changing in your personal life style? What are you doing with and in relation to community action? What are you consuming? It's not about stopping it..but more about altering and shifting the tempo, the places, using what tools. Especially, in community. I'm reminded of Mao's quote.. the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. In relation to climate, it begins and then shifts when individual steps are taken. And even more important in community. An idea that is already in an active state. He asks 'what the economy is for', and offers alternative approaches. In actuality, the change starts with each one of us, then our neighborhoods. Neighborhood, ommunity action is vital! It may start with one person and then expand out to friends. Sure it's important to contact and push for change within cities and states. But instead of talking about the issue, moaning and critizing, gather a handful of friends and invest in alternative energy. Share knowledge about products that are taxing the system by email or meeing. once a week or month. We're fortunate that we can do that online! Put less time into 'moaning' and outrage talk and put more into actions that provide hope and attract others to your cause. Create an ad in a local giveaway about what you and your group are doing. Invite others to join you. Instead of writing to your congress person on your own, craft a letter of neighbors to that person who isn't properly representing your needs and hopes.
Create a 'storm' of written or in person responses to a local 'bad boy' energy group. Let them know what they're doing is not invisible. Write letters to the local news. Gather together and shine a spotlight on the actual outcomes locally. The great thing is you WILL attract others.. Get your teenagers, your Gen Zers involved.. even the littles to hand out pamphlets. They'll admire you for that. You'll become their heroes. And there's a chance you'll find energetic unity and even have fun together.
The technology we need most badly is the technology of community. The knowledge about how to cooperate to get things done. Bill McKibben
The last time CO2 was this high in the atmosphere, the oceans were 75 feet higher than they are now. According to two studies published in the National Academy of Sciences, by 2070, nineteen percent of the planet’s population will live in a place that hasn’t traditionally supported human life. That will cause enormous migration. For the US, it is expected that 30 million people will try to cross our southern border.
It is not too late to keep the worst outcomes of global warming from happening, but we must act now. The problem with taking action is that everyone must participate, which can mean a level of change that could include sacrifice. People will always do what is in their own personal best interests. That means they will resist change unless it is in their best interests. So, this is where the government is in the perfect position to incent changes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other behaviors that contribute to the climate change problem.
The government can incent changes by making driving a gasoline car more expensive by progressively increasing the tax on gasoline. This is working in Europe, and it can work here. In Europe, cars are smaller and more efficient than in the US because smaller cars are in the best interests of the common people. Similarly, the government can provide tax incentives to any process that slows climate change. There are literally hundreds of ways the government could impose changes that reduce the causes of climate change.
Of course, the first step for Congress is to accept the science and embrace the need for change. Ted Cruze, for example, has repeatedly quoted Fred Singer’s book, saying that global warming is a hoax. Fred Singer also wrote that tobacco smoking does not cause cancer, and UV exposure does not cause melanoma. This kind of climate denial, often funded by big oil, must stop. Of course, Ted Cruz is doing what is in his best interest, as Big Oil is one of his significant supporters. If Congress doesn’t get past this first step now and take action, they will have ruined the lives of our children.
Haaland is smart and tough! Americans MUST support the necessary changes to royalties and taxes and to follow Nixon's wake-up moment! This is our time to have a nation that "does the RIGHT things" for Earth.
Thank you Professor, for tilling the soils of this critical issue ... if I may, I need to take a few minutes to turn the compost - hoping people will take note - and action here, as difficult as it may be to see ... we ignore this dynamic at our peril:
From today's Letter:
"Republicans, especially those from states like Wyoming, which collects more than a billion dollars a year in royalties and taxes from the oil, gas, and coal produced on federal lands in the state, opposed Haaland’s focus on responsible management of natural resources for the future and warned that the Biden administration is “taking a sledgehammer to Western states’ economies.”"
"Western state leaders oppose the Biden administration’s efforts to change the Interior Department’s past practices, calling them “colonial forces of national environmental groups who are pushing an agenda” onto states like Wyoming."
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Reeeally? Is this the legacy of All-American free men in this free world?
So, Western states' colonial forces never 'pushed an agenda' on anyone - except maybe just those unincorporated folks not registered as "states?"
... Or maybe any living entity not recognized as hominoid, melatonin deficient, mostly hairless members of the local home team?
OH, BIDEN BE WARNED: TH0U SHALT NOT 'TAKE A SLEDGEHAMMER TO WESTERN STATES' ECONOMIES!'
We allow murder, rape, firearms, traps, toxic substances, snares, man-camps, helicopters, tanks and other vehicles (including snowmobiles) to vanquish any living entity that stands in the way of Western states' economic expansion - and the right of almighty man to be forever free ...,
BUT NO SLEDGEHAMMERS!!
Please find time to read this account of one "free man in America" exercising his right to assert dominance without conscience or integrity, and take a moment to hold him accountable for his actions ...:
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SIGN: JUSTICE FOR WOLF RUN DOWN BY SNOWMOBILE, TORTURED, AND KILLED AT WYOMING BAR
PETITION TARGET: Sublette County Sheriff and County Attorney
A wolf in Wyoming was allegedly horrifically disabled after being hit by a snowmobile. The animal’s pain was drawn-out when the man responsible allegedly taped the wolf’s snout shut, brought the injured wolf home, took pictures posing with the abused animal, took the terrified wolf to a bar, and later killed the wolf outside the business in Sublette County, as reported by Cowboy State Daily.
The wolf was kept alive and in pain — apparently so the man could take pictures of the wolf’s suffering and subject the frightened animal to an audience before killing the animal.
Wyoming law permits what it calls “humane destruction” of certain animals. What this wolf endured was not humane.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department cited a man — but only for possession of the live animal.
“Animal cruelty charges are not applicable to predatory animals,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department said in a statement about the incident.
The law which Wyoming Game and Fish Department cites – Title Six – does not prohibit the “hunting, capture, killing or destruction of any predatory animal, pest or other wildlife in any manner not otherwise prohibited by law.” However, tormenting animals is otherwise prohibited by law. Title Six goes on to describe felony cruelty to animals as “knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.”
Other hunters have reportedly agreed that the circumstances under which this wolf was captured and killed were inhumane, according to Wyoming Public Radio.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has come under question for their handling of this case and we are calling on prosecutors to treat it with the severity it deserves.
No animal deserves to be tortured and suffer prolonged pain before death. Wolves are sentient, intelligent animals. They deserve to be protected from merciless acts of cruelty.
This wolf was made to suffer tremendous pain and fear before being killed in a manner resembling a public execution. Animal cruelty charges must be filed against the person responsible for mercilessly tormenting this wolf to send the message that Wyoming does not condone animal cruelty and to prevent others from inflicting similarly inhumane violence against animals.
Sign our petition to urge Sublette County officials to investigate and pursue felony animal cruelty charges against the person responsible for torturing this wolf to set a precedent that animal cruelty will not be permitted in Wyoming.
"On February 28th of this year--just 26 days after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service denied gray wolves protections--Cody Roberts of Daniel Wyoming tortured and killed a female yearling gray wolf after running her down with a snowmobile and taping her mouth shut.
This abhorrent act of cruelty cannot become normal or acceptable. The wildlife that you and I fight for every day face enough threats from habitat loss, climate change, and over consumption by lawful hunters. Torture cannot be added to that already-grave list."
Share this story to build pressure on decision-makers to act.
"While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal. To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating her, taping her mouth shut, parading the still-live wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning her do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction."
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Wyoming resident fined $250 for torturing and killing a wild gray wolf
Just weeks after the Biden Administration announced it was denying conservation organization's petitions to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies from unsustainable killing, a Wyoming resident ran a wolf down with a snowmobile, taped its mouth shut, and tortured it--before killing it.
"While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal . To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating her, taping her mouth shut, parading the still-live wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning her do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction."
"Wyoming's Governor,1 the local sheriff,2 the Director of the state's fish and wildlife agency, and former U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe3 have issued statements condemning this brutal attack. But to date, the current Director of the USFWS, Martha Williams, and her boss, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, have had no comment.
"The USFWS could have prevented this. We worked for more than two years to organize support for the protection of gray wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana under the Endangered Species Act.4 Scientists, legal experts, activists, biologists, and Tribal representatives advocated to Secretary Haaland and Director Williams in support of protection.
And let’s be clear: Wyoming’s designated “predator zone,” 85 percent of the state where wolves can be shot on sight (without even a hunting license,) should never have been approved by the USFWS as an acceptable wolf management plan. Such a classification sends a message to the public that state wildlife officials consider wolves a pest and enables the type of horrific treatment of wolves that we witnessed last week.
"As I wrote above, their decision to deny those crucial safeguards preceded this act of cowardly torture by just 26 days. I do not know if Mr. Roberts felt empowered by the USFWS deciding that these wolves did not warrant protection--but I do know that the agency could have acted before it and it can surely act now.
"Today, I am asking you to share this story. The more people who know what happened to this wolf, the more the Administration will feel pressure to act. Please post to social media or share this story with a friend.
"We will be in touch soon with additional actions that we can all take to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies and Colorado from similar acts of torture."
"Thank you for your commitment to wildlife and wild places.
If Cody Roberts doesn't deserve a felony charge, we don't know who does.
Just a few weeks ago, the Daniel, Wyo., resident ran over a wolf with his snowmobile, taped the wounded creature's mouth shut, took her home for a private photo shoot, tortured her, and then paraded the injured animal in front of his buddies at a local dive bar before finally taking the forlorn and bleeding animal out back to shoot him.
It's a crime that shows animal cruelty at its worst. Senseless. Prolonged. Gleeful. Pain meted out with a smirk and a beer.
But instead of charging Roberts with a felony, local officials wrist-slapped him with a $250 fine for unlawful possession of living wildlife. It was a do-nothing penalty—essentially the equivalent of a speeding ticket—that sends a clear message to people like Roberts who find pleasure in tormenting and torturing animals: Go ahead and do it.
Roberts, who owns C. Roberts Trucking, LLC, paid the fine. The case now? Closed.
Not if we—and you—have our way.
Please help us tell the Sublette County Attorney that Roberts must be prosecuted under Wyoming's anti-cruelty law. He must be charged with a felony and go before a jury of his peers.
If ever a case—and if ever a person—deserved felony charges for animal cruelty, it is this one. It is Cody Roberts.
I want to assure you that we won’t rest until there’s some measure of accountability for Cody Roberts. He’s the remorseless, cruel man who ran over a wolf with a snowmobile and then did even more unthinkable things to the poor adolescent female once he took her captive.
She didn’t have a name. But she was a beautiful girl, with that thick coat and beautiful coloring. Her life mattered to her. But that marauder Roberts ran her down with a 700-pound vehicle and stole her from her social group, her pack. And then he delivered trauma. And he kept delivering it.
What she went through matters to me. And I know it matters to you.
She deserves an identity, even if it’s posthumously designated. She should be named Theia, who in Greek mythology is the goddess of light.
I want her terrible experience to spill a bright light on what’s happening with wolves. I want that light to serve as a disinfectant and clean up senseless, retrograde wolf-treatment policies in several states.
And I want politicians and commissioners and others to understand that Americans loathe what Roberts did. And the other implements of wolf torment in Wyoming—neck snares and the steel traps—aren’t any better. And most people intuitively understand that using packs of dogs to hunt wolves is a form of animal fighting.
Consider making a contribution to the Center for the Humane Economy to support our fight for against animals like Theia
The outpouring of indignation for Theia shows that so many millions of us care about wolves. They want accountability, but they also want this ugly era of exploiting them for no good reason to end.
I want badly to see Roberts charged with felony animal cruelty under Wyoming law. Thanks to our pressure—your pressure, in making this a global news story and social media outrage—the local authorities in Sublette County, where Roberts’ serial acts of cruelty occurred, have opened a case.
That’s a first step. Next, I want Theia’s story to shine a light on the unwarranted hatred toward wolves that too many people still exhibit.
In Wyoming, it is legal to run down a wolf with a snowmobile and ram and crush the animal. What heartless world do legislators inhabit where they reject a call to impose a prohibition against that under law? In Wyoming, there are no protections for wolves on 85 percent of the state’s massive land area. That means you can kill them in any number, for any reason, and without limit on methods. You can even pour acid on them.
I’m telling you, it’s unthinkable. Unimaginable. Theia’s story reminds us that the unimaginable is law in Wyoming.
Please, consider making a contribution to support the Center for the Humane Economy and help us fight against horrific cruelty.
Suing the Federal Government for Dereliction of Duty
I am so deeply disappointed that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected our petition to restore federal protections for wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. If a state doesn’t have the most elemental instincts to responsibly steward wolf populations—if it cannot even ban ramming and crushing wolves with a snowmobile—then how can that state be trusted to manage a species that is now on the federal list of endangered species in dozens of other states?
And using dogs to chase and attack wolves, setting up an open-air animal fighting situation?
If the states are going to allow massive killing of species that remain on the endangered list in the vast majority of our country—removed from the federally protected list in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho because of a Congressional rider and timid action from the USFWS—then it should not be permitted to allow lawless cruelty. The animals, precisely because of the failure of state management, must be protected under federal law.
We’re going to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not holding Wyoming and other states accountable and to maintain a necessary safety net for wolves. Our first tranche of evidence in making that case is the Roberts/Theia story. Roberts felt he could do anything, and that’s exactly what he did.
Theia’s torment—which included Roberts wrapping tape around a grievously wounded young girl’s mouth before he paraded her at a bar and abused her in front of patrons—won’t be forgotten. Her forlorn look of defeat, after the man maliciously hurt her with a machine and then disabled her and propped her up for a photo, will stay with me forever.
We’re turning that photo into light to drive policy change. A video now shows some of her last moments of life, and we will make sure the world sees that pitiable footage, too.
The Kinship of Wolves and Dogs
Wolves are the forebears of domesticated dogs in our homes and in our lives. They are made of the same sinew and bone and nerves. When you commit an act of cruelty against a wolf, it’s not morally different from doing the same thing to a German shepherd or a beagle. They are of the same kind. Every one of them matters.
We are going to start an advertising campaign in Wyoming to keep her story in the forefront of the minds of Wyoming residents. They will demand change. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has condemned Roberts’ barbaric acts. That’s a good start. But we need policy changes in the state. The governor should lead the charge.
Please donate to help us drive this campaign for prosecution and policy change for wolves.``
We cannot be bystanders when cases like this arise. We must not leave it to someone else to seek justice. And we must fight to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again.
TELL DEPT. OF INTERIOR SECRETARY DEB HAALAND TO PROTECT ALL WOLVES!
Please complete these fields and continue to generate a letter on your behalf to ask Dept. of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to restore federal protection for wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana—the only three states where they aren't protected.
We are not done in working to see Cody Roberts arrested.
Today, the Center for a Humane Economy, with Animal Wellness Action, issued an offer of a $15,000 reward to any individual who provides additional evidence to police and to prosecutors about Cody Roberts that results in his being sentenced to at least one year in prison for his appalling abuse of a young, female wolf. My thanks to our member John M. Barr for committing to help with this reward fund.
By now, you know exactly who and what I am talking about. Cody Roberts ran down an adolescent female wolf with a 700-pound vehicle and stole her from her pack—from her parents and from her siblings.
He grievously wounded her, and then bound her mouth, put a shock collar on her, transported her to his home for private photos, and then left her dying in a corner of a bar as he laughed and carried on with family and friends.
There was at least one person who saw all this and was sickened. That individual provided details to the press and to Wyoming authorities, delivering photos and videos of the serial acts of cruelty. But for that person’s disgust with Roberts’ conduct, the world would not have known what transpired in rural Sublette County in Wyoming.
I extend our thanks to the person who had the courage to tell this story.
Now it’s up to each one of us to do our part, too.
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The Plan to Address This Sickening Conduct
The first order of business is to prosecute and then incarcerate Cody Roberts. We provided a legal memorandum to authorities plainly determining that the law applies to a set of actions Roberts took against Theia. And now, thanks to our pressure—your pressure—in making this a global news story and social media outrage, the local authorities in Sublette County, where Roberts’ serial acts of cruelty occurred, have opened a case.
The second order of business is to change Wyoming’s anti-wolf policies, which abet the kind of hatred and zealotry and cruelty that Roberts meted out against an innocent animal.
In Wyoming, it is legal to run down a wolf with a snowmobile and ram and crush the animal. It is legal to unleash a pack of hounds to chase and maul wolves. It is legal to set out strangling neck snares. It is legal to kill them in unlimited numbers every day of the year.
Does this sound like madness to you? I know it sounds like madness to me.
The unimaginable is legal in Wyoming.
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Suing the Federal Government for Dereliction of Duty
The third order of business is to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for rejecting our petition to restore federal protections for wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. We told the federal government that some state policies, including Wyoming’s, were ruthless and that they should not be allowed to control the fate of wolves.
If a state doesn’t have the most elemental instincts to responsibly steward wolf populations—if it cannot even ban ramming and crushing wolves with a snowmobile—then how can that state be trusted to manage a species that is now on the federal list of endangered species in dozens of other states?
If the states are going to allow unremitting killing of species that remain on the endangered list in the vast majority of our country—removed from the federally protected list in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho because of a Congressional rider and timid action from the USFWS—then it should not be permitted to allow lawless cruelty. The animals, precisely because of the failure of state management, must be protected under federal law.
Our first tranche of evidence in making that case is the Roberts/Theia story. Roberts felt he could do anything, and that’s exactly what he did.
And today, I hope you’ll write to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and urge her to reverse her stance and to restore federal protections for wolves.
We’ve made it easy for you to write her and use this form.
As I’ve said, we cannot be bystanders when cases of cruelty like this arise.
This week, we paid out a $2,000 reward for canine cruelty in Oklahoma. A man beat a puppy to death on a street in Oklahoma City. That image was captured on a ring camera, and the homeowner turned it over to the media, broadcasting the footage and setting up a manhunt. We offered a reward and before the day was out a man was arrested.
The abuser’s girlfriend turned him in. She told us that he’d been harming her. That was no surprise to us.
She had the courage of her convictions. She decided not to be a bystander and to leave it up to someone else.
Every one of us has power to make change. Every one of us can do something—whether it is sharing information in a cruelty case, writing to lawmakers or agency heads about retrograde policies, or donating to a group like the Center for a Humane Economy so that we can drive outcomes like prosecutions and better public policies.
We must not leave it to someone else to seek justice. And we must fight to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again.
TELL DEPT. OF INTERIOR SECRETARY DEB HAALAND TO PROTECT ALL WOLVES!
Please complete these fields and continue to generate a letter on your behalf to ask Dept. of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to restore federal protection for wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana—the only three states where they aren't protected.
"[We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves." (Letter, Rachel Carson)
Pinedale, WY — Animal welfare groups expressed revulsion and outrage in the wake of news concerning a Wyoming man who ran over a wolf with his snowmobile, taped its mouth shut, tormented it, and paraded the injured animal around a local bar before finally taking it outback to kill it, according to news sources. The incident occurred on February 29th.
Two groups, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, sent a letter this morning to Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich and Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr, urging them to prosecute Cody Roberts of Daniel, Wyo., and seek felony-level penalties under the statute.
The letter cites Wyoming’s anti-animal cruelty law to encourage a more meaningful prosecution of Roberts, stating “Article 10, section 6-3-1005(a)(ii) makes it a felony to ‘knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.’”
Two groups, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, sent a letter this morning to Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich and Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr, urging them to prosecute Cody Roberts of Daniel, Wyo., and seek felony-level penalties under the statute.
In addition to submitting the letter, the two groups are creating an online petition to compel the county officials to consider the felony charge of animal cruelty against Mr. Roberts.
You can take action here by telling the Sublette County, WY Attorney to charge Roberts with a federal crime.
Wayne Pacelle and Scott Edwards are available for interview. Please contact Joseph Grove, senior director of communications for the Center for a Humane Economy, at 502-472-6225, or at joseph@centerforahumaneeconomy.org to arrange a time.
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Center for a Humane Economy
info@centerforahumaneeconomy
Animal Wellness Action
info@animalwellnessaction
Animal Wellness Action is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) whose mission is to help animals by promoting laws and regulations at federal, state and local levels that forbid cruelty to all animals. The group also works to enforce existing anti-cruelty and wildlife protection laws. Animal Wellness Action believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @AWAction_News
Center for a Humane Economy is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) whose mission is to help animals by helping forge a more humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both. The Center believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @TheHumaneCenter
Dear County Attorney Melinkovich and Sheriff Lehr,
We write this letter on behalf of Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy and our many thousands of supporters across the country, including in Wyoming, in response to the abhorrent actions of Daniel resident Cody Roberts. According to verified reports, Roberts ran down a wolf with a snowmobile, subdued the living animal by taping its mouth shut, and then tormented and tortured it in a local bar before taking it out back and killing it. No one with even a shred of human decency could possible condone such behavior.
Roberts’ actions clearly warrant a punishment more severe than the $250 ticket he received for possession of live wildlife – such an anemic response on the part of law enforcement will be seen by some as tacit approval of his crime and can only motivate other like-minded individuals driven by hatred of wolves to engage in similar, repugnant behavior.
We believe that Roberts clearly violated the state’s animal abuse laws contained in Title 6 of the state statutes. Specifically, Article 10, section 6-3-1005(a)(ii) makes it a felony to “knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.” WY Stat § 6-3-1005 (2022). While the term “torment” is not defined in the statute, dragging a wild animal into a bar with its mouth taped shut and subjecting it to the severe distress and anguish it must have suffered before being brought outside to be killed is a textbook example of torment. Violations of § 6-3-1005 are a felony offence subject to up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. Roberts deserves the maximum prison term and fine given the sheer depravity and wanton disregard for common decency displayed by his actions.
While section 6-3-1008(a)(vii) provides an exception to the animal cruelty laws with the “hunting, capture, killing or destruction of any predatory animal or other wildlife in any manner not otherwise prohibited by law,” here the tormenting of an animal is otherwise prohibited by law, as noted above, making the exemption inapplicable. Any broader reading of that carve out from the state animal cruelty laws would mean that those humane provisions would be completely inoperative for any wildlife; such a reading would allow wildlife in the state to be subject to any amount of depraved torment and torture, which is obviously not the intent of the law.
And let’s be clear that while using a snowmobile to run over an animal may not be illegal in Wyoming, it is not an acceptable hunting method and is a clear violation of the fair chase principles outlined in the North American model for Wildlife Conservation. Nor is it a method of taking of an animal that would be tolerable to any rational person, further underscoring the need to take enforcement actions to keep wildlife, and even other people, safe from someone like Roberts.
We know from published articles that you, Sheriff Lehr, share our deep repulsion with what has happened in your jurisdiction. You have stated that you “find [Roberts’] actions very disturbing and unethical.” We also know that responsible hunters in Wyoming and across the country, along with wildlife conservationists and others, denounce what Roberts did to that helpless and tormented wolf. But without further punishment under the law, mere vocal condemnation and a $250 slap on the wrist is not enough; there needs to be a clear message that Roberts actions are unquestionably unacceptable in a civilized society.
Wyoming has an anti-cruelty law for a good reason, and it must be put to use in this case. Please bring the charges warranted and let a jury of citizens decide his fate. We are confident the people of Wyoming will find Cody Roberts guilty of animal cruelty and apply a felony level penalty for this malice. This is not a man who should be freely roaming the state of Wyoming or any other jurisdiction in the nation with the ability to engage in this kind of cruel behavior again.
Sincerely,
Scott Edwards
General Counsel
Animal Wellness Action/Center for a Humane Economy
* I strongly support moving forward with the test to remove and treat 2,000 gallons from Hanford’s tanks for disposal offsite in licensed facilities where the waste does not create any risk to groundwater, Ecology has a duty to consider and take "mitigation" action to prevent the risk from a truck accident in Spokane or anywhere on the 900-1,900 mile truck routes. This is an environmental justice issue as well as a risk to the Spokane River.
*********
... well, ok - since it is EARTH DAY (why not every day?!) and this is an open page - unbroken ground ..., let's plant a seed and see what grows ...:
EARTH DAY: HANFORD ACTION
Your comments are needed this week on
Washington Department of Ecology's proposed
permit for USDOE - Hanford's "Test Bed Initiative"
Comment period closes Thursday 4/25/2024.
Comment today
* Remove leakable liquids from High Level Waste tanks
* Stop the US Department of Energy from trucking liquid radioactive chemical wastes through downtown Spokane
https://kathleenallen.substack.com/p/earth-day-hanford-action-your-comments
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One action for Earth Day:
Todays Earth Day! Please take a few minutes to act as well as reflect on the threat of climate change, and what you can do to lower the risks from nuclear weapons production at Hanford.
Your comments toady on Washington Department of Ecology's proposed permit for the US Department of Energy - Hanford's "Test Bed Initiative" can make a difference in REMOVING waste threatening the Columbia from Hanford for the first time! BUT we have to ensure that the waste is not trucked as a liquid through Spokane.
Hanford’s leaking High Level Nuclear Waste tanks cannot continue to be ignored.
The Test Bed Initiative (TBI) offers the opportunity to remove leakable liquids from tanks that are leaking today or are likely to start leaking soon.
Hanford’s groundwater and the Columbia River will be contaminated for thousands of years if all the waste that is currently planned to be removed from Hanford’s tanks is disposed in landfills onsite.
The “Test Bed Initiative” (TBI) offers the first hope for speeding up removal of leakable liquids from High Level Nuclear waste tanks decades ahead of current plans for vitrification (glassification) and for reducing how much waste is disposed in landfills along our Columbia River at Hanford.
TBI will test if 2,000 gallons can be removed from a High Level Waste Tank, solidified and treated to be disposed at sites where there is no drinkable groundwater that can ever be contaminated (the sites are in West Texas or Utah).
The US Department of Energy (USDOE) can solidify and treat the waste at a licensed facility next to Hanford so that there is no risk from spilling liquid waste in a truck accident on I-90.
Instead, USDOE wants to ship the waste as a liquid through Spokane for either 900 or 1,900 miles to be treated in Utah or Texas.
The Umatilla Indian Tribe (CTUIR) objects strongly to shipping the liquid wastes through their Reservation or through Spokane:
“The current plan to transport waste in liquid form poses for us an unacceptable risk of spills and harm to the environment, First Foods, and our citizens. The current proposal is especially disappointing given that shipping waste in a grouted, immobile, solid form is a viable and much safer option.
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“To be clear, the CTUIR requests the following:
1. Do NOT ship liquid Hanford tank waste across the Columbia Basin. Only ship this waste in GROUTED/SOLID form.
2. Move forward with large-scale grouting and out-of-state disposal as soon as reasonably allowable to decrease the risk of leaking Hanford tanks on the CTUIR's treaty-protected resources.”
*******
We agree with the Umatilla Tribe (CTUIR). The Tribe and we need your comments to help make this happen.
Heart of America Northwest has spent decades fighting USDOE’s plans to truck more waste to be dumped at Hanford, including successfully stopping shipments through Spokane. The TBI is our first hope to remove waste from Hanford, instead of adding more risk to the Columbia River.
But it has to be done safely by only trucking solid, treated waste with very low radioactivity – not trucking untreated liquids through Spokane and other vulnerable communities and Indian Reservations.
Use our sample comments from the section below to Washington’s Department of Ecology, but please add in your words why this is important to you. Perhaps you live near I-90 in Spokane. Or, you have hoped for years that we could remove waste from Hanford.
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Ecology comment form:
https://nw.ecology.commentinput.com/?id=tNePGUiA5
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Use these sample comments - adding a few words on why removing waste from Hanford or not shipping liquid waste through Spokane are important to you.
(Comment period closes Thursday 4/25/2024.)
To Washington Ecology and Governor Inslee:
* Ecology should not permit the US Department of Energy (USDOE) to truck untreated liquid wastes from Hanford’s High Level Nuclear Waste tanks through Spokane or across Oregon and the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
* I strongly support moving forward with the test to remove and treat 2,000 gallons from Hanford’s tanks for disposal offsite in licensed facilities where the waste does not create any risk to groundwater, Ecology has a duty to consider and take "mitigation" action to prevent the risk from a truck accident in Spokane or anywhere on the 900-1,900 mile truck routes. This is an environmental justice issue as well as a risk to the Spokane River.
* I agree with the Umatilla Tribe whose Chair wrote to USDOE:
“The current plan to transport waste in liquid form poses for us an unacceptable risk of spills and harm to the environment, First Foods, and our citizens. The current proposal is especially disappointing given that shipping waste in a grouted, immobile, solid form is a viable and much safer option.
“To be clear, the CTUIR requests the following:
1. Do NOT ship liquid Hanford tank waste across the Columbia Basin. Only ship this waste in GROUTED/SOLID form.
2. Move forward with large-scale grouting and out-of-state disposal as soon as reasonably allowable to decrease the risk of leaking Hanford tanks on the CTUIR's treaty-protected resources.”
* USDOE agreed not to truck the waste through Oregon and the Umatilla Reservation. Unselfishly, the Umatilla Tribe has continued to advocate that liquid wastes should not be trucked at all when there is a licensed facility that can solidify and treat the waste next door to Hanford and avoid trucking wastes through Spokane on I-90 for 900 miles to Utah or 1,900 miles to Texas for disposal.
* I want the test for 2,000 gallons of waste to proceed. But if it succeeds there will be thousands of shipments. Ecology has a duty under SEPA and the HEAL Act to consider and mitigate the risks from truck shipments through low income “overburdened” communities in Spokane or on Indian Reservations by requiring that the waste is solidified and treated at the licensed facility adjacent to Hanford instead of trucking untreated liquid waste.
Any spill of liquids from Hanford will be an international news incident as well as putting residents and the environment at risk.
* USDOE did not even consider risks from the chemicals in the liquid wastes and acknowledges that there is a risk of one “accidental crash” for a truck with these wastes every 884 shipments from Hanford to Texas. That is too high a risk to go without Washington requiring that the waste be solidified before being trucked through Spokane or Oregon and the Umatilla Reservation.
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Ecology comment form:
https://nw.ecology.commentinput.com/?id=tNePGUiA5
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Thank you,
Gerry Pollet
gerry@hoanw.ccsend.com
http://www.hanfordcleanup.org
Heart of America Northwest
10212 Fifth Ave NE Suite 255
Seattle, WA 98125 US
********^
DONATE ON EARTH DAY!!
Make a donation to Heart of America Northwest
https://www.wagives.org/donate/heartofamericanorthwest
******
MISSION
Heart of America Northwest is "The Public's Voice for Hanford and toxic site cleanup in the Northwest."
http://www.hanfordcleanup.org
Leading newspapers call us "the premier Hanford cleanup watchdog group," for our research, educating and organizing across the Northwest to protect the Columbia River and health of future generations from Hanford's contamination. Our mission includes fighting for environmental justice, climate change and training tomorrow's organizers, legal, public health professionals. We offer the workshops and Comment Guides that are the leading tools to help the public - you - be effective advocates.
We led the successful ballot initiatives and years-long organizing struggles:
* that stopped Hanford from being the nation's High-Level Nuclear Waste dump and
* brought and end to using massive unlined ditches to dump the nation's nuclear weapons and reactor wastes; t
* shut-down the FFTF nuclear reactor;
* required USDOE to have a program to cleanup the contaminated groundwater that flows into the Columbia River...
NOW, we are leading to protect our Columbia River and the health of generations to come from the leaking High Level Nuclear Waste tanks that the US Department of Energy refuses to empty. Federal and state laws require removal of leakable liquids from leaking hazardous waste tanks. In 2023, we filed a legal challenge to the secretly negotiated deal between USDOE and Washington Ecology to let tanks keep leaking. We secured a settlement requiring significant steps towards complying with the law. During 2024, the analyses required under our legal settlement should be part of public hearings on responding to tank leaks.
*****
DESCRIPTION
Hanford, in our backyard, is the most contaminated area and most dangerous industrial facility in the Western Hemisphere. As you read this, radioactive and chemical contamination flows into the Columbia River and numerous facilities could release vast amounts of radiation in a mild earthquake.
When High-Level Nuclear Waste tanks leak, we're the legal and organizing defense to protect the Columbia River, Treaty rights and health for thousands of years.
As you read this, another High-Level Nuclear Waste tank is leaking. And the US Department of Energy refuses to obey the law that requires leaking tanks to be emptied. Click here to learn more and quickly send an email to insist Washington State enforces the law to stop the tank from leaking.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-dir-of-ecology-watson-and-gov-inslee-to-support-the-safe-alternative
Your contributions enabled us to document that the leak was known for two years without even being reported - a major legal violation.
But, Washington State signed an agreement with USDOE to just let the tank keep leaking for decades!
We filed the legal challenge to that backroom deal. We need your support for the research and in-house legal work to require that environmental laws are followed and High-Level Nuclear Waste tanks aren't allowed to just leak and contaminate groundwater flowing into the Columbia River.
Our research and advocacy protected the Columbia River from untreated liquid wastes dumped along the River, stopped illegal storage of explosive wastes, ended dumping in unlined ditches, protected hundreds of cleanup workers from deadly exposures. We are the only group or entity holding public workshops around the region and issuing Citizens' Guides, enabling the public to comment on cleanup plans (or delays). National and regional news media rely on us for expert, independent viewpoints.
We continue to present our members and the public with widely praised workshops on major Hanford decisions and comment periods along with our award winning "Citizens' Guides." Contributing at any level will add you to our list for Guides and invites!
As part of our environmental justice mission, we work closely with the Tribes whose health and Treaty rights to fish and live along the 50 miles of Columbia River running through Hanford are being violated. Your support also enables us to offer the only Tribal and Environmental Law student internship program in the region to inspire and train a new generation to protect Treaty rights and our environment.
Your support this year will help us fight the federal Energy Departments' schemes to rename and abandon High Level Nuclear Waste in leaking tanks, abandon waste sites along the River, and to leave huge quantities of deadly Plutonium just a few feet below the ground.
*****
RECOGNITION
A generous donor will match donations if we exceed 50 donors for Give Big, up to $3,000. Monthly or quarterly contribution pledges count! Help us get there! Please give generously.
https://www.wagives.org/donate/heartofamericanorthwest
*******
Thank you,
Gerry Pollet
gerry@hoanw.ccsend.com
http://www.hanfordcleanup.org
Heart of America Northwest
10212 Fifth Ave NE Suite 255
Seattle, WA 98125 US
`
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*********
Protect Our Columbia River from Hanford's Leaking High-Level Nuclear Waste Tank
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-dir-of-ecology-watson-and-gov-inslee-to-support-the-safe-alternative
High-Level Nuclear Waste is leaking from a massive tank at Hanford. The deadly radioactive chemical contamination is spreading down to the groundwater that will flow into and contaminate our Columbia River in as few as 20 years.
Two years have gone by with ZERO Action.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/hanford/state-feds-hanford-nuclear-waste-tank-continue-leaking/281-eb53fceb-e987-4f5d-8b99-4686fe79098a
Heart of America Northwest has filed a legal challenge to the deal between Washington State and the US Department of Energy that would allow the tank to keep leaking for decades.
*****
You can help by contributing and using the link to write Governor Inslee and Ecology Director Watson.
https://www.wagives.org/organization/heartofamericanorthwest
*****
On April 29, 2021, the US Department of Energy (USDOE) publicly admitted the tank was leaking. That was more than 2 years after evidence of a massive leak was known.
Federal and State laws require "immediate" reporting of a leak.
But, no enforcement action has been taken by Washington State.
Federal and state laws require "immediate" action to remove leakable liquids from any leaking hazardous waste tank to stop the leak.
Washington State signed an agreement to let the US Department of Energy continue to let the tank leak for decades!
On August 25, 2022, Washington State Ecology and the US Department of Energy signed an agreement that would let this tank keep leaking for years, possibly decades!
*****
Click here to watch KING5's Investigators' news coverage of the deal to let the tank keep leaking.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/hanford/state-feds-hanford-nuclear-waste-tank-continue-leaking/281-eb53fceb-e987-4f5d-8b99-4686fe79098a
*****
Your voice is needed to insist that Governor Inslee, Ecology Director Watson and Washington AG Ferguson enforce our environmental laws to protect our Columbia River by ordering the tank to be emptied.
Click here to help fund our legal challenge to the "let it keep leaking deal" made with no public comment and in violation of our environmental laws.
https://www.wagives.org/organization/heartofamericanorthwest
*****
How deadly is the contamination heading to groundwater and our River?
If 100 people were exposed to the soil 60 feet under the tank for 3 months, 50 of the 100 would die of acute radiation sickness. Almost everyone who didn't die quickly would eventually get cancer.
So, how can the federal Energy Department, USDOE, say they are just going to let the leak go on?
Population control ...?
Low level genocide ...?
Mowing the lawn with a straight razor ...?
And, how can Washington State not take legal action to require the tank to be emptied as our environmental laws require?
Governor Inslee publicly proclaimed Washington State had a "Zero Tolerance" policy for leaking tanks at Hanford. But, years are going by with ZERO Action to stop the leak and protect our Columbia River!
Heart of America Northwest reviewed records proving that the USDOE knew the tank was leaking in March 2019!
When the leak was announced in 2021, contamination had already moved 60 feet below ground - a quarter of the way to the groundwater that flows into the Columbia River.
Every day of inaction spreads the deadly contamination closer to our Columbia River.
State and federal hazardous waste laws say that a leaking hazardous waste tank must have the leakable liquid removed immediately or as soon as feasible.
In public meetings, top Hanford officials from the US Department of Energy (USDOE) said they do not plan to empty the tank for many years or do anything to stop the spread of contamination. Washington State has the authority to order the leakable liquids to be emptied from the tank. Instead of acting Washington Ecology signed an agreement - with no public comment - to let the tank just keep leaking for years.
There is a proven method of removing the leakable liquid from the tank and treating this waste that is not only safe, but will also save hundreds of millions of dollars.
It's time for Washington Governor Inslee and Director of Ecology Laura Watson and Washington AG Ferguson to order Hanford officials to empty the tank and protect the Columbia River rather than allowing the High-Level Nuclear Waste tank to keep leaking into the soil and water. More info from Heart of America NW, "The Public's Voice for Hanford Clean-Up" at www.hanfordcleanup.org.
*****
Today, please click and send your email urging Governor Inslee, Ecology Director Watson to enforce the law and protect the Columbia River by ordering USDOE to empty the waste out of the leaking tank. You can cc your US Senators and US House Member. Please personalize the letter with why this is important to you, and use the tool to share this with friends and ask them to join in.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-dir-of-ecology-watson-and-gov-inslee-to-support-the-safe-alternative
*******
Thank you,
Gerry Pollet
gerry@hoanw.ccsend.com
http://www.hanfordcleanup.org
Heart of America Northwest
10212 Fifth Ave NE Suite 255
Seattle, WA 98125 US
*********
The one good thing Nixon ever did.
I strongly reccomend the book on climate change called Not Too Late, written by activists Rebecca Solnit and Roberta An energizing case for hope about the climate, from Rebecca Solnit, the voice of climate resistance and activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua. Like these two activists, I believe much is known and spoken of in relation to climate change. The hour is now. We're being called to action. What are you changing in your personal life style? What are you doing with and in relation to community action? What are you consuming? It's not about stopping it..but more about altering and shifting the tempo, the places, using what tools. Especially, in community. I'm reminded of Mao's quote.. the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. In relation to climate, it begins and then shifts when individual steps are taken. And even more important in community. An idea that is already in an active state. He asks 'what the economy is for', and offers alternative approaches. In actuality, the change starts with each one of us, then our neighborhoods. Neighborhood, ommunity action is vital! It may start with one person and then expand out to friends. Sure it's important to contact and push for change within cities and states. But instead of talking about the issue, moaning and critizing, gather a handful of friends and invest in alternative energy. Share knowledge about products that are taxing the system by email or meeing. once a week or month. We're fortunate that we can do that online! Put less time into 'moaning' and outrage talk and put more into actions that provide hope and attract others to your cause. Create an ad in a local giveaway about what you and your group are doing. Invite others to join you. Instead of writing to your congress person on your own, craft a letter of neighbors to that person who isn't properly representing your needs and hopes.
Create a 'storm' of written or in person responses to a local 'bad boy' energy group. Let them know what they're doing is not invisible. Write letters to the local news. Gather together and shine a spotlight on the actual outcomes locally. The great thing is you WILL attract others.. Get your teenagers, your Gen Zers involved.. even the littles to hand out pamphlets. They'll admire you for that. You'll become their heroes. And there's a chance you'll find energetic unity and even have fun together.
The technology we need most badly is the technology of community. The knowledge about how to cooperate to get things done. Bill McKibben
Ready, set, go!
Note to Congress:
I can’t stop climate change, but you can.
The last time CO2 was this high in the atmosphere, the oceans were 75 feet higher than they are now. According to two studies published in the National Academy of Sciences, by 2070, nineteen percent of the planet’s population will live in a place that hasn’t traditionally supported human life. That will cause enormous migration. For the US, it is expected that 30 million people will try to cross our southern border.
It is not too late to keep the worst outcomes of global warming from happening, but we must act now. The problem with taking action is that everyone must participate, which can mean a level of change that could include sacrifice. People will always do what is in their own personal best interests. That means they will resist change unless it is in their best interests. So, this is where the government is in the perfect position to incent changes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other behaviors that contribute to the climate change problem.
The government can incent changes by making driving a gasoline car more expensive by progressively increasing the tax on gasoline. This is working in Europe, and it can work here. In Europe, cars are smaller and more efficient than in the US because smaller cars are in the best interests of the common people. Similarly, the government can provide tax incentives to any process that slows climate change. There are literally hundreds of ways the government could impose changes that reduce the causes of climate change.
Of course, the first step for Congress is to accept the science and embrace the need for change. Ted Cruze, for example, has repeatedly quoted Fred Singer’s book, saying that global warming is a hoax. Fred Singer also wrote that tobacco smoking does not cause cancer, and UV exposure does not cause melanoma. This kind of climate denial, often funded by big oil, must stop. Of course, Ted Cruz is doing what is in his best interest, as Big Oil is one of his significant supporters. If Congress doesn’t get past this first step now and take action, they will have ruined the lives of our children.
Haaland is smart and tough! Americans MUST support the necessary changes to royalties and taxes and to follow Nixon's wake-up moment! This is our time to have a nation that "does the RIGHT things" for Earth.
4/21/24
Thank you Professor, for tilling the soils of this critical issue ... if I may, I need to take a few minutes to turn the compost - hoping people will take note - and action here, as difficult as it may be to see ... we ignore this dynamic at our peril:
From today's Letter:
"Republicans, especially those from states like Wyoming, which collects more than a billion dollars a year in royalties and taxes from the oil, gas, and coal produced on federal lands in the state, opposed Haaland’s focus on responsible management of natural resources for the future and warned that the Biden administration is “taking a sledgehammer to Western states’ economies.”"
"Western state leaders oppose the Biden administration’s efforts to change the Interior Department’s past practices, calling them “colonial forces of national environmental groups who are pushing an agenda” onto states like Wyoming."
*****
Reeeally? Is this the legacy of All-American free men in this free world?
So, Western states' colonial forces never 'pushed an agenda' on anyone - except maybe just those unincorporated folks not registered as "states?"
... Or maybe any living entity not recognized as hominoid, melatonin deficient, mostly hairless members of the local home team?
OH, BIDEN BE WARNED: TH0U SHALT NOT 'TAKE A SLEDGEHAMMER TO WESTERN STATES' ECONOMIES!'
We allow murder, rape, firearms, traps, toxic substances, snares, man-camps, helicopters, tanks and other vehicles (including snowmobiles) to vanquish any living entity that stands in the way of Western states' economic expansion - and the right of almighty man to be forever free ...,
BUT NO SLEDGEHAMMERS!!
Please find time to read this account of one "free man in America" exercising his right to assert dominance without conscience or integrity, and take a moment to hold him accountable for his actions ...:
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SIGN: JUSTICE FOR WOLF RUN DOWN BY SNOWMOBILE, TORTURED, AND KILLED AT WYOMING BAR
PETITION TARGET: Sublette County Sheriff and County Attorney
A wolf in Wyoming was allegedly horrifically disabled after being hit by a snowmobile. The animal’s pain was drawn-out when the man responsible allegedly taped the wolf’s snout shut, brought the injured wolf home, took pictures posing with the abused animal, took the terrified wolf to a bar, and later killed the wolf outside the business in Sublette County, as reported by Cowboy State Daily.
https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-justice-for-wolf-run-down-by-snowmobile-tortured-and-killed-at-wyoming-bar/
The wolf was kept alive and in pain — apparently so the man could take pictures of the wolf’s suffering and subject the frightened animal to an audience before killing the animal.
Wyoming law permits what it calls “humane destruction” of certain animals. What this wolf endured was not humane.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department cited a man — but only for possession of the live animal.
“Animal cruelty charges are not applicable to predatory animals,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department said in a statement about the incident.
The law which Wyoming Game and Fish Department cites – Title Six – does not prohibit the “hunting, capture, killing or destruction of any predatory animal, pest or other wildlife in any manner not otherwise prohibited by law.” However, tormenting animals is otherwise prohibited by law. Title Six goes on to describe felony cruelty to animals as “knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.”
Other hunters have reportedly agreed that the circumstances under which this wolf was captured and killed were inhumane, according to Wyoming Public Radio.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has come under question for their handling of this case and we are calling on prosecutors to treat it with the severity it deserves.
No animal deserves to be tortured and suffer prolonged pain before death. Wolves are sentient, intelligent animals. They deserve to be protected from merciless acts of cruelty.
This wolf was made to suffer tremendous pain and fear before being killed in a manner resembling a public execution. Animal cruelty charges must be filed against the person responsible for mercilessly tormenting this wolf to send the message that Wyoming does not condone animal cruelty and to prevent others from inflicting similarly inhumane violence against animals.
Sign our petition to urge Sublette County officials to investigate and pursue felony animal cruelty charges against the person responsible for torturing this wolf to set a precedent that animal cruelty will not be permitted in Wyoming.
https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-justice-for-wolf-run-down-by-snowmobile-tortured-and-killed-at-wyoming-bar/
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"On February 28th of this year--just 26 days after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service denied gray wolves protections--Cody Roberts of Daniel Wyoming tortured and killed a female yearling gray wolf after running her down with a snowmobile and taping her mouth shut.
This abhorrent act of cruelty cannot become normal or acceptable. The wildlife that you and I fight for every day face enough threats from habitat loss, climate change, and over consumption by lawful hunters. Torture cannot be added to that already-grave list."
Share this story to build pressure on decision-makers to act.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wolves-are-not-safe
"While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal. To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating her, taping her mouth shut, parading the still-live wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning her do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction."
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Wyoming resident fined $250 for torturing and killing a wild gray wolf
Just weeks after the Biden Administration announced it was denying conservation organization's petitions to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies from unsustainable killing, a Wyoming resident ran a wolf down with a snowmobile, taped its mouth shut, and tortured it--before killing it.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wolves-are-not-safe
"While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal . To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating her, taping her mouth shut, parading the still-live wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning her do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction."
"Wyoming's Governor,1 the local sheriff,2 the Director of the state's fish and wildlife agency, and former U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe3 have issued statements condemning this brutal attack. But to date, the current Director of the USFWS, Martha Williams, and her boss, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, have had no comment.
"The USFWS could have prevented this. We worked for more than two years to organize support for the protection of gray wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana under the Endangered Species Act.4 Scientists, legal experts, activists, biologists, and Tribal representatives advocated to Secretary Haaland and Director Williams in support of protection.
And let’s be clear: Wyoming’s designated “predator zone,” 85 percent of the state where wolves can be shot on sight (without even a hunting license,) should never have been approved by the USFWS as an acceptable wolf management plan. Such a classification sends a message to the public that state wildlife officials consider wolves a pest and enables the type of horrific treatment of wolves that we witnessed last week.
"As I wrote above, their decision to deny those crucial safeguards preceded this act of cowardly torture by just 26 days. I do not know if Mr. Roberts felt empowered by the USFWS deciding that these wolves did not warrant protection--but I do know that the agency could have acted before it and it can surely act now.
"Today, I am asking you to share this story. The more people who know what happened to this wolf, the more the Administration will feel pressure to act. Please post to social media or share this story with a friend.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wolves-are-not-safe
"We will be in touch soon with additional actions that we can all take to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies and Colorado from similar acts of torture."
"Thank you for your commitment to wildlife and wild places.
Sincerely,"
Susan Holmes
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition
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First prosecute wolf killer. Then, critically, change wolf policy in Wyoming and beyond
Don't let Cody's cruelty go unpunished!
https://centerforahumaneeconomy.org/
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CHARGE CODY ROBERTS WITH CRUELTY TO ANIMALS FOR CRUSHING, CAPTURING, AND TORTURING A WOLF!
https://secure.everyaction.com/RuPYUZ9nIk-3F9p6XCTulQ2
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This is the face of evil. Cody Roberts took a few moments to pose with the wolf and a beer before finally putting the animal out of its agony.
https://nvlupin.blob.core.windows.net/images/van/EA/EA003/1/72264/images/Cody%20Robers_Face%20of%20Evil.png
If Cody Roberts doesn't deserve a felony charge, we don't know who does.
Just a few weeks ago, the Daniel, Wyo., resident ran over a wolf with his snowmobile, taped the wounded creature's mouth shut, took her home for a private photo shoot, tortured her, and then paraded the injured animal in front of his buddies at a local dive bar before finally taking the forlorn and bleeding animal out back to shoot him.
It's a crime that shows animal cruelty at its worst. Senseless. Prolonged. Gleeful. Pain meted out with a smirk and a beer.
But instead of charging Roberts with a felony, local officials wrist-slapped him with a $250 fine for unlawful possession of living wildlife. It was a do-nothing penalty—essentially the equivalent of a speeding ticket—that sends a clear message to people like Roberts who find pleasure in tormenting and torturing animals: Go ahead and do it.
Roberts, who owns C. Roberts Trucking, LLC, paid the fine. The case now? Closed.
Not if we—and you—have our way.
Please help us tell the Sublette County Attorney that Roberts must be prosecuted under Wyoming's anti-cruelty law. He must be charged with a felony and go before a jury of his peers.
If ever a case—and if ever a person—deserved felony charges for animal cruelty, it is this one. It is Cody Roberts.
Please. Sign today.
https://secure.everyaction.com/RuPYUZ9nIk-3F9p6XCTulQ2
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I want to assure you that we won’t rest until there’s some measure of accountability for Cody Roberts. He’s the remorseless, cruel man who ran over a wolf with a snowmobile and then did even more unthinkable things to the poor adolescent female once he took her captive.
She didn’t have a name. But she was a beautiful girl, with that thick coat and beautiful coloring. Her life mattered to her. But that marauder Roberts ran her down with a 700-pound vehicle and stole her from her social group, her pack. And then he delivered trauma. And he kept delivering it.
What she went through matters to me. And I know it matters to you.
She deserves an identity, even if it’s posthumously designated. She should be named Theia, who in Greek mythology is the goddess of light.
I want her terrible experience to spill a bright light on what’s happening with wolves. I want that light to serve as a disinfectant and clean up senseless, retrograde wolf-treatment policies in several states.
And I want politicians and commissioners and others to understand that Americans loathe what Roberts did. And the other implements of wolf torment in Wyoming—neck snares and the steel traps—aren’t any better. And most people intuitively understand that using packs of dogs to hunt wolves is a form of animal fighting.
Consider making a contribution to the Center for the Humane Economy to support our fight for against animals like Theia
https://secure.everyaction.com/VtImtOCN6Uyk2f09KPvTWg2
The outpouring of indignation for Theia shows that so many millions of us care about wolves. They want accountability, but they also want this ugly era of exploiting them for no good reason to end.
I want badly to see Roberts charged with felony animal cruelty under Wyoming law. Thanks to our pressure—your pressure, in making this a global news story and social media outrage—the local authorities in Sublette County, where Roberts’ serial acts of cruelty occurred, have opened a case.
That’s a first step. Next, I want Theia’s story to shine a light on the unwarranted hatred toward wolves that too many people still exhibit.
In Wyoming, it is legal to run down a wolf with a snowmobile and ram and crush the animal. What heartless world do legislators inhabit where they reject a call to impose a prohibition against that under law? In Wyoming, there are no protections for wolves on 85 percent of the state’s massive land area. That means you can kill them in any number, for any reason, and without limit on methods. You can even pour acid on them.
I’m telling you, it’s unthinkable. Unimaginable. Theia’s story reminds us that the unimaginable is law in Wyoming.
Please, consider making a contribution to support the Center for the Humane Economy and help us fight against horrific cruelty.
https://secure.everyaction.com/VtImtOCN6Uyk2f09KPvTWg2
Suing the Federal Government for Dereliction of Duty
I am so deeply disappointed that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected our petition to restore federal protections for wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. If a state doesn’t have the most elemental instincts to responsibly steward wolf populations—if it cannot even ban ramming and crushing wolves with a snowmobile—then how can that state be trusted to manage a species that is now on the federal list of endangered species in dozens of other states?
And using dogs to chase and attack wolves, setting up an open-air animal fighting situation?
If the states are going to allow massive killing of species that remain on the endangered list in the vast majority of our country—removed from the federally protected list in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho because of a Congressional rider and timid action from the USFWS—then it should not be permitted to allow lawless cruelty. The animals, precisely because of the failure of state management, must be protected under federal law.
We’re going to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not holding Wyoming and other states accountable and to maintain a necessary safety net for wolves. Our first tranche of evidence in making that case is the Roberts/Theia story. Roberts felt he could do anything, and that’s exactly what he did.
Theia’s torment—which included Roberts wrapping tape around a grievously wounded young girl’s mouth before he paraded her at a bar and abused her in front of patrons—won’t be forgotten. Her forlorn look of defeat, after the man maliciously hurt her with a machine and then disabled her and propped her up for a photo, will stay with me forever.
We’re turning that photo into light to drive policy change. A video now shows some of her last moments of life, and we will make sure the world sees that pitiable footage, too.
The Kinship of Wolves and Dogs
Wolves are the forebears of domesticated dogs in our homes and in our lives. They are made of the same sinew and bone and nerves. When you commit an act of cruelty against a wolf, it’s not morally different from doing the same thing to a German shepherd or a beagle. They are of the same kind. Every one of them matters.
We are going to start an advertising campaign in Wyoming to keep her story in the forefront of the minds of Wyoming residents. They will demand change. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has condemned Roberts’ barbaric acts. That’s a good start. But we need policy changes in the state. The governor should lead the charge.
Please donate to help us drive this campaign for prosecution and policy change for wolves.``
https://secure.everyaction.com/VtImtOCN6Uyk2f09KPvTWg2
We cannot be bystanders when cases like this arise. We must not leave it to someone else to seek justice. And we must fight to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again.
Sincerely,
Wayne Pacelle
President
Center for a Humane Economy
https://centerforahumaneeconomy.org/
info@centerforahumaneeconomy
Animal Wellness Action
info@animalwellnessaction
Center for a Humane Economy
PO Box 30845
Bethesda, MD 208243
United States
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TELL DEPT. OF INTERIOR SECRETARY DEB HAALAND TO PROTECT ALL WOLVES!
Please complete these fields and continue to generate a letter on your behalf to ask Dept. of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to restore federal protection for wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana—the only three states where they aren't protected.
https://secure.everyaction.com/ttRzy6VjeUq1ZOYJepvOBg2
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We are not done in working to see Cody Roberts arrested.
Today, the Center for a Humane Economy, with Animal Wellness Action, issued an offer of a $15,000 reward to any individual who provides additional evidence to police and to prosecutors about Cody Roberts that results in his being sentenced to at least one year in prison for his appalling abuse of a young, female wolf. My thanks to our member John M. Barr for committing to help with this reward fund.
By now, you know exactly who and what I am talking about. Cody Roberts ran down an adolescent female wolf with a 700-pound vehicle and stole her from her pack—from her parents and from her siblings.
He grievously wounded her, and then bound her mouth, put a shock collar on her, transported her to his home for private photos, and then left her dying in a corner of a bar as he laughed and carried on with family and friends.
There was at least one person who saw all this and was sickened. That individual provided details to the press and to Wyoming authorities, delivering photos and videos of the serial acts of cruelty. But for that person’s disgust with Roberts’ conduct, the world would not have known what transpired in rural Sublette County in Wyoming.
I extend our thanks to the person who had the courage to tell this story.
Now it’s up to each one of us to do our part, too.
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The Plan to Address This Sickening Conduct
The first order of business is to prosecute and then incarcerate Cody Roberts. We provided a legal memorandum to authorities plainly determining that the law applies to a set of actions Roberts took against Theia. And now, thanks to our pressure—your pressure—in making this a global news story and social media outrage, the local authorities in Sublette County, where Roberts’ serial acts of cruelty occurred, have opened a case.
The second order of business is to change Wyoming’s anti-wolf policies, which abet the kind of hatred and zealotry and cruelty that Roberts meted out against an innocent animal.
In Wyoming, it is legal to run down a wolf with a snowmobile and ram and crush the animal. It is legal to unleash a pack of hounds to chase and maul wolves. It is legal to set out strangling neck snares. It is legal to kill them in unlimited numbers every day of the year.
Does this sound like madness to you? I know it sounds like madness to me.
The unimaginable is legal in Wyoming.
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Suing the Federal Government for Dereliction of Duty
The third order of business is to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for rejecting our petition to restore federal protections for wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. We told the federal government that some state policies, including Wyoming’s, were ruthless and that they should not be allowed to control the fate of wolves.
If a state doesn’t have the most elemental instincts to responsibly steward wolf populations—if it cannot even ban ramming and crushing wolves with a snowmobile—then how can that state be trusted to manage a species that is now on the federal list of endangered species in dozens of other states?
If the states are going to allow unremitting killing of species that remain on the endangered list in the vast majority of our country—removed from the federally protected list in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho because of a Congressional rider and timid action from the USFWS—then it should not be permitted to allow lawless cruelty. The animals, precisely because of the failure of state management, must be protected under federal law.
Our first tranche of evidence in making that case is the Roberts/Theia story. Roberts felt he could do anything, and that’s exactly what he did.
And today, I hope you’ll write to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and urge her to reverse her stance and to restore federal protections for wolves.
We’ve made it easy for you to write her and use this form.
https://secure.everyaction.com/ttRzy6VjeUq1ZOYJepvOBg2
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Rewarding Good Behavior, Punishing Evil
As I’ve said, we cannot be bystanders when cases of cruelty like this arise.
This week, we paid out a $2,000 reward for canine cruelty in Oklahoma. A man beat a puppy to death on a street in Oklahoma City. That image was captured on a ring camera, and the homeowner turned it over to the media, broadcasting the footage and setting up a manhunt. We offered a reward and before the day was out a man was arrested.
The abuser’s girlfriend turned him in. She told us that he’d been harming her. That was no surprise to us.
She had the courage of her convictions. She decided not to be a bystander and to leave it up to someone else.
Every one of us has power to make change. Every one of us can do something—whether it is sharing information in a cruelty case, writing to lawmakers or agency heads about retrograde policies, or donating to a group like the Center for a Humane Economy so that we can drive outcomes like prosecutions and better public policies.
We must not leave it to someone else to seek justice. And we must fight to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again.
https://secure.everyaction.com/ttRzy6VjeUq1ZOYJepvOBg2
Thank you for not allowing anyone to forget about Theia’s plight.
Sincerely,
Wayne Pacelle
President
Center for a Humane Economy
wayne@animalwellnessaction.org
https://centerforahumaneeconomy.org/
info@centerforahumaneeconomy
Animal Wellness Action
info@animalwellnessaction
Center for a Humane Economy
PO Box 30845
Bethesda, MD 208243
United States
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TELL DEPT. OF INTERIOR SECRETARY DEB HAALAND TO PROTECT ALL WOLVES!
Please complete these fields and continue to generate a letter on your behalf to ask Dept. of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to restore federal protection for wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana—the only three states where they aren't protected.
https://secure.everyaction.com/ttRzy6VjeUq1ZOYJepvOBg2
"[We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves." (Letter, Rachel Carson)
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Wyoming Resident Who Ran Over Wolf, Tormented Grievously Wounded Animal in Front of Audience at Bar Must be Prosecuted Under State Anti-Cruelty Law
Animal Wellness Action urges Sublette County Attorney and Sheriff to bring felony-level animal cruelty charges against perpetrator.
https://animalwellnessaction.org/wyoming-resident-tormented-wounded-animal-in-front-of-audience
Pinedale, WY — Animal welfare groups expressed revulsion and outrage in the wake of news concerning a Wyoming man who ran over a wolf with his snowmobile, taped its mouth shut, tormented it, and paraded the injured animal around a local bar before finally taking it outback to kill it, according to news sources. The incident occurred on February 29th.
Two groups, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, sent a letter this morning to Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich and Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr, urging them to prosecute Cody Roberts of Daniel, Wyo., and seek felony-level penalties under the statute.
The letter cites Wyoming’s anti-animal cruelty law to encourage a more meaningful prosecution of Roberts, stating “Article 10, section 6-3-1005(a)(ii) makes it a felony to ‘knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.’”
Two groups, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, sent a letter this morning to Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich and Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr, urging them to prosecute Cody Roberts of Daniel, Wyo., and seek felony-level penalties under the statute.
The complete letter may be viewed via this link.
https://animalwellnessaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wyoming-Wolf-Letter-Final.pdf
In addition to submitting the letter, the two groups are creating an online petition to compel the county officials to consider the felony charge of animal cruelty against Mr. Roberts.
You can take action here by telling the Sublette County, WY Attorney to charge Roberts with a federal crime.
https://secure.everyaction.com/RvZOTzzOEk-ZlJ2nJJ5h3g2
Wayne Pacelle and Scott Edwards are available for interview. Please contact Joseph Grove, senior director of communications for the Center for a Humane Economy, at 502-472-6225, or at joseph@centerforahumaneeconomy.org to arrange a time.
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Center for a Humane Economy
info@centerforahumaneeconomy
Animal Wellness Action
info@animalwellnessaction
Animal Wellness Action is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) whose mission is to help animals by promoting laws and regulations at federal, state and local levels that forbid cruelty to all animals. The group also works to enforce existing anti-cruelty and wildlife protection laws. Animal Wellness Action believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @AWAction_News
Center for a Humane Economy is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) whose mission is to help animals by helping forge a more humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both. The Center believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @TheHumaneCenter
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Wayne Pacelle
202-420-0446
wayne@animalwellnessaction.org
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LETTER TO SUBLETTE COUNTY OFFICIALS
Mr. Clayton Melinkovich Sublette County Attorney 43 East Pine Street
P.O. Box 1010
Pinedale, WY 82941
Sheriff K.C. Lehr Sublette County P.O. Box 701
35 1/2 S. Tyler Ave. Pinedale, WY 82941
March 5, 2024
Via email: clayton.melinkovich@sublettecountywy.gov ; kclehr@sublettecountywy.gov
Dear County Attorney Melinkovich and Sheriff Lehr,
We write this letter on behalf of Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy and our many thousands of supporters across the country, including in Wyoming, in response to the abhorrent actions of Daniel resident Cody Roberts. According to verified reports, Roberts ran down a wolf with a snowmobile, subdued the living animal by taping its mouth shut, and then tormented and tortured it in a local bar before taking it out back and killing it. No one with even a shred of human decency could possible condone such behavior.
Roberts’ actions clearly warrant a punishment more severe than the $250 ticket he received for possession of live wildlife – such an anemic response on the part of law enforcement will be seen by some as tacit approval of his crime and can only motivate other like-minded individuals driven by hatred of wolves to engage in similar, repugnant behavior.
We believe that Roberts clearly violated the state’s animal abuse laws contained in Title 6 of the state statutes. Specifically, Article 10, section 6-3-1005(a)(ii) makes it a felony to “knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.” WY Stat § 6-3-1005 (2022). While the term “torment” is not defined in the statute, dragging a wild animal into a bar with its mouth taped shut and subjecting it to the severe distress and anguish it must have suffered before being brought outside to be killed is a textbook example of torment. Violations of § 6-3-1005 are a felony offence subject to up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. Roberts deserves the maximum prison term and fine given the sheer depravity and wanton disregard for common decency displayed by his actions.
While section 6-3-1008(a)(vii) provides an exception to the animal cruelty laws with the “hunting, capture, killing or destruction of any predatory animal or other wildlife in any manner not otherwise prohibited by law,” here the tormenting of an animal is otherwise prohibited by law, as noted above, making the exemption inapplicable. Any broader reading of that carve out from the state animal cruelty laws would mean that those humane provisions would be completely inoperative for any wildlife; such a reading would allow wildlife in the state to be subject to any amount of depraved torment and torture, which is obviously not the intent of the law.
And let’s be clear that while using a snowmobile to run over an animal may not be illegal in Wyoming, it is not an acceptable hunting method and is a clear violation of the fair chase principles outlined in the North American model for Wildlife Conservation. Nor is it a method of taking of an animal that would be tolerable to any rational person, further underscoring the need to take enforcement actions to keep wildlife, and even other people, safe from someone like Roberts.
We know from published articles that you, Sheriff Lehr, share our deep repulsion with what has happened in your jurisdiction. You have stated that you “find [Roberts’] actions very disturbing and unethical.” We also know that responsible hunters in Wyoming and across the country, along with wildlife conservationists and others, denounce what Roberts did to that helpless and tormented wolf. But without further punishment under the law, mere vocal condemnation and a $250 slap on the wrist is not enough; there needs to be a clear message that Roberts actions are unquestionably unacceptable in a civilized society.
Wyoming has an anti-cruelty law for a good reason, and it must be put to use in this case. Please bring the charges warranted and let a jury of citizens decide his fate. We are confident the people of Wyoming will find Cody Roberts guilty of animal cruelty and apply a felony level penalty for this malice. This is not a man who should be freely roaming the state of Wyoming or any other jurisdiction in the nation with the ability to engage in this kind of cruel behavior again.
Sincerely,
Scott Edwards
General Counsel
Animal Wellness Action/Center for a Humane Economy
https://animalwellnessaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wyoming-Wolf-Letter-Final.pdf
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'til such a time
... we who wander
caught within
days passed
face saving
out of phase
must find
some incentive
even sense
to persevere
'til such a time
within closed minds
as tempests die
we lose our lies
and life's unholy
whirlwinds
unwind ....
https://tahomahome.weebly.com/til-such-a-time.html
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Thank you, Heather, for omitting the audio of the URL bibliographic links.
* I strongly support moving forward with the test to remove and treat 2,000 gallons from Hanford’s tanks for disposal offsite in licensed facilities where the waste does not create any risk to groundwater, Ecology has a duty to consider and take "mitigation" action to prevent the risk from a truck accident in Spokane or anywhere on the 900-1,900 mile truck routes. This is an environmental justice issue as well as a risk to the Spokane River.