D2 
TH EAU DSU BON BU DE ee aN 
Cyuest cod: bovigk ) 
The Interior Department’s forth ert and_ highly-principled 
Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Nathaniel P. 
Reed, gave a significant address before the October, LORz, 
meeting of the American Humane Association, on the provoca- 
tive subject of “Environmental Concern and Wildlife—a 
Humane Approach.” The Secretary placed in one context the 
question of the role of hunting in wildlife conservation: 
“In considering what 1s humane in treatment of animals, 
is it worse to cleanly kill a selected duck with a gun or to cover 
it with oil, drain its marshes so 1t can’t reproduce or eat, or 
subtly poison it with pesticides or other chemicals over a 
period of years? 
“The issue of antthunting 1s a false one because tt side- 
tracks people from attacking the real threats to -our native 
wildlife... 
“[t’s not the hunters, but the heads of the water develop- 
ment agencies, the mineral extractors, the energy producers, 
the ee cutters, the stream straighteners, the stockmen’s 
associations and the real estate developers who are destroying 
Amenca’s wild heritage. 
“What these people do will have. far more effect on the 
future of wildlife than I, or any of my successors, or all the 
hunter groups put together... 
“It’s the beavers—the dammers, the ditchers and the 
drainers—those who cut and dig our lands sometimes beyond 
their capacity to recover or to sustain life, whom you need 
to face eye to eye if you desire humane treatment for wild 
amvmals. And those land speculators who are determined to 
sell every square inch of America to some sucker. 
“Barnum was right. The real estate sucker has proved 
his point, multiplying at an astonishing rate. There are no 
slopes too steep, no soils so unstable, no ecosystem so fragile 
that those modern-day hucksters won't try to sell to some 
innocent sap. 
“The danger is that, while those interested in wildlife 
debate hunting, the “developers” continue merrily on their 
path of sending wild land and wildlife into oblivion.” 
