As you may have noticed we’ve been running a lot of opinions and/or letter to the editor lately. That’s because our readers, especially farmers and ranchers from Colorado, are feeling like they aren’t being represented by the state legislature and their governor.

It started with the Colorado residents voting to bring more wolves into the state, then Ellen Kessler, an animal activist and friend to First Gentleman Marlon Reis, also an animal activist, appointed to the State Board of Veterinary Medicine and now another animal activist, Rebecca Niemiec has been hired as the program manager for the Colorado Bureau of Animal Protection.

Kind of makes you wonder who is running Colorado, Gov. Polis or First Gentleman Reis.

Kessler recently stepped down from her appointment after calling cattle ranchers lazy and nasty and accused them of using their cows to “bait” wolves to receive compensation for the loss of their animals.

Her exact words were, “These techniques could easily translate into activism in Colorado for soon-to-be-introduced wolves and other predators already living among us,” Kessler wrote. “Would our lazy and nasty ranchers/cattlemen even raise a finger to make something like this work or is (sic) using a cow to bait the wolves their solution? A living cow doesn’t make money for them. Only a dead cow does. If the slaughterhouse doesn’t pay them for the carcass, they’ll blame the predators so the state will pay them for livestock lost from predators. What a racket. What a scam.”

We have a letter from Kessler defending her appointment in this week’s issue that you will want to read on page ??.

Despite her rantings, the governor didn’t take her off the board despite complaints from farmers and ranchers and the members of the Colorado Veterinary Medicine Association, who wrote that they “Ms. Kessler will cause the state board to direct the veterinary profession in ways that are contrary to the needs of Colorado’s livestock industry.

“While CVMA respects the effort made to appoint diverse points of view to the state board, CVMA is disappointed in the appointment of a person whose online presence and personal activist activities are not consistent with the professional conduct expected of veterinarians by the board,” the group said.

Now we have Niemiec who is in a more direct position to harm the livestock industry in Colorado. And, according to some state representatives is not qualified for the position. For more information on that issue see the opinion piece on page ??.

And if the wolf reintroduction issue wasn’t already a threat to livestock producers, the federal government has now been allowed to delist the gray wolf from the endangered species list.

Is it any wonder Colorado farmers and ranchers are concerned about their livelihood? I would urge everyone who eats to support the agriculture industry and fight any attempt to destroy it no matter what state you live in. That means not only appealing to local, state, and federal government but also to the mainstream media. We will do what we can at The Fence Post magazine but we are preaching to the choir. Anything you send to us you should also be sending to all media.