"Nature's Legal Eagles" Lose Again

The Center for Biological Diversity got laughed out of the California Fish & Game Commission again Friday. Last year, its scientifically laughable petition to list the burrowing owl failed to garner a single vote. Two weeks ago, they were hit with a $600,000 penalty by an Arizona court for slandering a rancher.

Now two CBD proposals to ban copper bullets in California, austensibly to protect the California condor, were rejected. Says the OC Register:

On Friday, the commission voted 3-1 against both petitions, saying the data presented failed to prove that bullets are to blame and questioning why other birds that feed on carrion, such as red-tailed hawks, are thriving.

Another little problem with the "scientific" foundation of the CBD's action: Condor survival rates are higher than ever.

"We were losing a half-dozen to a dozen a year either to death or having to bring them in (to captivity) for bad behavior or something," said Fish and Game Department biologist Ron Jurek, a member of the California Condor Recovery Team. But none has died in 14 months. "We've never had such good survival. Things are looking up now."

As I've pointed out before, the Center for Biological Diversity is not about biology, it's about law. Its staff is attorneys, not biologists. Its undertakings are political, not scientific. Its motives are anti-human, not pro-animal.

One more note: You can't build with copper rain gutters or downspouts in much of California because whacko groups like the CBD have convinced the state to ban them because of barely discernable increases in copper in some streams that has been attributed to the copper piping. So step one is to ban lead bullets, forcing the use of copper ... is anyone fooled that step two won't be an attempt to ban copper bullets?