03.04.05

Hi, All.

Happy Friday! Happy March!

Vote Today, Vote Often
If you haven’t yet voted for RMAD as best non-profit and Matt and Barb Bear as best activist, please visit www.coloradodaily.com/best_of_boulder/. The site makes it clear that a person can cast one ballot per day. So… please do! I believe animal advocates have won best activist in each of the past 3 years. Let’s keep the streak alive!

Updates
The wildlife crossing bill persists in the Colorado statehouse. We are seeking to amend it from its blanket coverage of all wildlife crossing zones to instead specifically cover 12 key areas in the state, as identified by the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project (see www.restoretherockies.org). In so modifying the bill, we believe it will be more acceptable to rural legislators, who have expressed concern that the original legislation is overly broad in its application. The bad news: Both the Farm Bureau and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association came out in opposition to the (original) bill this week. The good news: It appears that the senate sponsor, Brandon Shaffer, is having some success getting support from insurance industry lobbyists.

The Foothills Community Park (Boulder) situation persists. RMAD is working with The Wild Places to promote a plan to manage the prairie dogs in a non-lethal fashion. We have twice met with members of the North Boulder community in the past two weeks, and we again spoke up on the issue at this week’s Boulder City Council meeting. I had a good telephone exchange with City Manager Frank Bruno yesterday. Still, city open space staff used the “poison” word at a Thursday meeting on the future of the city’s prairie dog management plans. We remain hopeful that the city will do the right thing. As always, our vigilance will be a factor.

We received a Summerlee grant of $10,000 this week to relocate the prairie dogs at the Classic Homes site in Colorado Springs. Preliminary word is that Deb Jones of Prairie Dog Action is optimistic about finding a release site.

If you haven’t yet signed the petition to help Westminster’s prairie dogs, please visit www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/397862963.

With the recent discussion of whether to support various nonprofits, I guess it’s a pleasant coincidence (and perhaps no surprise) that the Boulder Creek Festival approached RMAD this week seeking our input on the appropriateness of a nonprofit displaying llamas at the event. We were successful in urging the BCF to stick by its stated position against the display of exotic animals.

Along those same lines, I spoke today with Denise Kelly of the Avian Welfare Coalition (www.avianwelfare.org) regarding RMAD’s recent joining of the group. Denise is involved with The Association of Sanctuaries (www.taosanctuaries.org), and she gave me the heads-up that TAOS will hold its annual meeting in Denver on September 22-24. Should be a great event, even for those not directly affiliated with sanctuary work.

I also spoke with a woman who recently moved to Trinidad. She will write a monthly column on animal issues for the local paper. She is looking to RMAD for fodder for her writing. Good stuff.

RMAD’s Mark Reinhardt spoke at a Peaceable Kingdom screening at the University of Denver this week. I’ve not yet heard from Mark on this, so I can’t say much about it other than I’m sure Mark charmed the crowd, as is his wont.

In addition to the above work, the RMAD staff responded to four inquiries on prairie wildlife, two inquiries on companion animals, and three general inquiries.

One Person Making a Difference
Special note of thanks to Brandon Owens for tending to our database needs this week. Brandon provides his normally high-dollar services to RMAD at no cost.

-Dave

PS To view the archived RMAD Week in Review, visit http://rmadblog.blogspot.com/