Charles W. Stenholm: “looking at this amendment, I know that the drafters of the amendment have been arguing against lethal control. But if we…”

“looking at this amendment, I know that the drafters of the amendment have been arguing against lethal control. But if we carefully examine their amendment, we will see that they are going to cut 53 percent, or a total of $21 million from the Animal, Plant, and Health Inspection Service for the wildlife services program. All of this talk about the lethal methods is really immaterial to what this amendment will do. They are going to destroy the opportunity of the Fish and Wildlife Service to control predatory animal problems in almost each of our 50 States if we allow this amendment to pass. We can make arguments about the different amount of control all day. But the fact is that there are various damages to the tune of estimated up to $3 billion annually that occur and this is going to continue to grow. We as a society will continue to encroach on wildlife. We as a society will continue to have to promote and support wildlife conservation and we will continue to have to learn to allow the wildlife to live with humans and vice versa. That costs money and it costs money from the Fish and Wildlife Service.”