🚀 go-pugleaf

[this article was in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, 10-25-92.  They did not
give me permission to reprint it.]

Seymour pledges to block renewal of species protection
by Joan Radovitch

Moreno Valley -  U.S. Sen. John Seymour, campaigning yesterday at a fund-raiser
to lift protection of the Stephen's kangaroo rat, vowed to block 
reauthorization of the federal Endangered Species Act unless it revised to 
require a plan to address lost jobs.
	"Where are our values when we put plants and animals above people 
and jobs?" Seymour said. [are these the widely touted "Family Values"?]
	Local officials have been collecting $1950 per acre from developers
within the animal's range, which includes much of western Riverside County,
to help buy preserve land.  Developer fees generally are passed along 
to buyers.
	"There's something wrong with a society that will take that much money
away to protect a Stephens' kangaroo rat when we have homeless in the streets
and we have people in the unemployment lines," the Republican senator said.
	Seymour said that, if re-elected Nov. 3, he will push to require an
economic impact statement and a plan to mitigate for job losses before a 
species can be listed for protection.
	"I'll promise you this, if I can't stop it from being renewed (without
those changes), I will give them the longest goddamn filibuster they ever saw
in their lives," he said.
	Appointed to the Senate last year, Seymour must seek voter approval
to fill out the remaining two years of a term Pete Wilson gave up to be 
governor.  Seymour faces Democrat Dianne Feinstein, former mayor of San 
Francisco, in the election.
	Feinstein also favors requiring a cost-benefit analysis as part of the
decision to protect a species.
	Yesterday's event, dubbed the "1st (and last) Annual K-rat Barbeque,"
was presented by the Riverside County Farm Bureau to raise funds for its 
effort to remove the Stephens' kangaroo rat from the list of endangered species
covered by state and federal protections.
	About 400 people attended the fund-raiser, which raised about $10,000.
	Despite the name of the event, barbequed beef -- not kangaroo rat --
was on the menu.  A popular sale item was a bumper sticker, "Have you hugged
your k-rat today? $300 million for k-rat preserves!"
	A number of lawmakers and candidates attended the event and expressed
similar concern for protection of private property rights. [what about survival
rights of a species?]
	Rep. Al McCandless, a La Quinta Republican running for his sixth term 
in Congress, said the group should work to change the federal law, not just
remove the Stephens' kangaroo rat protection, because there are other species
to address. [don't they mean, obliterate]
	Assemblyman David Kelley, an Idyllwild Republican running for 
election to the state Senate, commended the farmers and property owners for 
their efforts. "With this kind of pressure and this kind of forethought and 
activity, your voices are going to be heard and there are going to be some
changes." 
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I'm just passing this on.

niles