SWEC Corrects Mistakes and Misperceptions. Much Appreciated by our readers.
I’d like to provide a few comments on the original article:
1) Our art and essay contests were always open to students in Catron, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Sierra, Dona Ana, and Otero Counties. For logistics sake, we are running two separate pairs of contests: one in the first 4 counties, and the other in the remainder. We sent out press releases targeted to one area or the other, which is why you might not have heard about all the counties, depending on where you live. We also contacted as many middle school principals and teachers as possible, and sent out word by email to ecoed.
2) We corrected the fact sheet with the incorrect information about the Miller incident as soon as we learned it was incorrect. I can provide an updated version if you’d like.
3) We invited USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services to provide a speaker for our El Lobo lecture series, to provide their perspective on livestock depredations by wolves, but the agency declined to participate. Forest Guardians and Defenders of Wildlife have been asked to provide their perspective on resolving livestock-wolf conflicts, not on livestock management.
4) Jean Ossorio is not currently affiliated with SWEC. She is a past board member.
5) We do not have any connections with Lt. Governor Diane Denish.
6) Our agenda is preserving the native wildlife and habitats of the Southwest. It is not anti-ranching.
Thank you.
Kevin Bixby
Executive Director, SWEC
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:45 am
Kevin,
Thank you very much for the corrections and clarifications. It is unfortunate that they had to occur at all. It would be best if groups like yours would work harder to gain and keep the trust of the rural people than to have constant strife all of the time.
We appreciate your note and have posted it to our main page and will link the previous story to it for further clarification for our readers.
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:08 pm
It is great that Kevin is trying to clean up SWEC act but intresting he did not post a retraction on their website.
Seams like he really does not want to check facts ahead of time and then when caught in a lie he wants to retract it here.
I would like to see them post a retraction on their site and post a story about how the horse was killed in the families yard and how a child was in close proximity when a wolf few in and either was heading for her or her dog.
The evidence and pictures are clear yet these people chose to put out a brochure which contained not only inacccuries but very misleading statements.
A few months ago at a meeting Jean Ossorio represented herself as attending for SWEC so I find that not currently affilated comment intresting.