Conservationists Support the Removal of the Goats

Gordon Grant’s article (Dec. 21) on the San Clemente Island goat situation is yet another example of The Times’ continuing unsatisfactory coverage of this issue.

Despite the fact that the opponents of the Navy’s plan to remove the goats from the island are identified as “conservation organizations,” their stand on this issue is in complete conflict with that of all mainstream conservation groups. Conservationists support the removal plan wholeheartedly, since they see no other way to save the fragile island ecosystem from the goats. Opposition to the plan has come entirely from animal rights groups, whose views are frequently, perhaps usually, at odds with those of traditional conservationists.

Even a cursory review of the Final Environmental Statement on this matter, which was made available to the public in September, 1981, would show that both the scientific and environmental communities unanimously support the immediate removal of all feral animals, including the goats, from San Clemente Island. Indeed, the document properly points out that failure by the Navy to act on this matter “would constitute a violation of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended.”

From the perspective of many of us in the scientific community, The Times’ treatment of this matter has been consistently superficial and too frequently sensationalized. Whereas your writers have not taken the time to talk to recognized authorities on the problem, they have brought us the pontifications of television stars, assorted lawyers, and the usual eco-media freaks on the matter. The fact that the goats threaten to reduce the island to bare rock (before their own starvation) has gone virtually unmentioned in the articles.

LLOYD KIFF Director Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology Los Angeles

The Navy urges that it is in the “public interest” to kill, with semiautomatic weapons, about 1,200 wild goats on San Clemente Island. The Animal Lovers Volunteer Assn. urges that it be permitted to continue to trap these animals and move them to a Texas ranch for distribution as pets. Would it be a reasonable resolution of this impasse to utilize these goats as food for starving human beings in Africa? Goat’s milk is recognized as nutritious food. Goat meat, while not delectable, would likewise be nutritious and probably welcome to a starving person.

H. WALTER STEINER Santa Ana

Hooray for Rep. Bobbi Fiedler (R-Northridge) for zooming in like an unguided missile to give the goats of San Clemente Island a last-minute reprieve.

Most people knowledgeable about the offshore islands are aware of the considerable environmental damage that goats cause. On San Clemente Island they have pushed to near-extinction many endemic plants and animals by denuding large areas with their vacuum-cleaner feeding habits. Seedlings of certain plants such as the island oak, tree poppy and ironwood are scarce because the goats eat them before they can become established.

In the future, if the Navy no longer needs the island, it can perhaps be made part of Channel Islands National Park, and what we do now will determine whether we inherit a lush, beautiful island or one made unnecessarily barren by our failure to remove the goats.

Why should Rep. Fiedler have this great concern for the goats, when every day essentially the same category of animal disappears into the packinghouses of Vernon never to be seen again? Don’t those steers deserve “representation” also? Actually, what the goats need is not representation but another home, and to that end perhaps Rep. Fiedler would like to take a few so that they might sample the cuisine in her backyard.

JACK RUSSELL Downey

Thirty thousand homeless are turned loose in the streets. The Russians are slaughtering the Afghans. Millions of Ethiopians are starving to death. The Vietnamese are murdering more Cambodians. The Japanese are wiping out the sperm whale.

Furthermore, thousands of cattle, sheep, hogs, lambs, turkeys, chickens etc. are slaughtered every day so we can have our hamburger and lamb chops.

But not to worry! Rep. Bobbi Fiedler has saved the 1,500 goats on San Clemente Island!

WALDO TAYLOR JR. Los Angeles