NANFA-L-- White alligators

Moontanman-in-aol.com
Wed, 20 Jul 2005 00:24:44 EDT

Sorry to ring in so late on this topic but prosecuting the man who wanted to
save the white alligators is an example of environmental laws gone crazy.
There should be some wiggle room that doesn't require spending thousands of
dollars defending your self for wanting do something the law doesn't allow for.
Alligators are in no danger of going extinct hardly anywhere and if I had found
the white alligators I probably would have done the same thing. Not saving them
would have been more of a crime that catching them. Even if the guys goal
ultimately was to somehow profit from the alligators, leaving them in the wild
would be the same as killing them. It would be like if I was on the beach an
observing a nest of sea turtles hatching out, which I have done, and I saw an
albino turtle come out of the nest. Legally I should allow it to go to it's death
in the ocean. Why? What is the point? I would probably catch it and take to
the local Public Aquarium-in-Fort Fisher and end up in more trouble than a drug
dealer-in-a middle school. There should be some wiggle room in these laws. Why
is it so much more of a crime to want to release an endangered fish with no
habitat into another river to see if it can live there than it is to release a
foreign fish for sportsmen? Why can't a little bit of common sense be injected
into the law occasionally? Why are risks ok only when money is to be made in
some way? Sure problems might arise but no more likely that if the release was
for fishermen or in the case of the white alligators to save them so others
might be able to see them? Life is seldom black and white, gray is the
predominate color in most things, somehow we need to bring a little more gray into the
system. Yes, this would be meddling in nature but as humans that is what we
do every time we take a breath. I wouldn't mind an occasional mistake for the
right reasons even if the result was less than correct from the point of view
of what is right from the point of view of the people who suggest and make the
laws. Rabidly following a rule can be just as dangerous as always ignoring
them. As it stands now the only people who can get any wiggle room are the ones
with lots of money and lots of lawyers, everyone else is made an example of
every chance the law gets. I don't pretend to know the correct answers to every
question but I do know that inaction can be as bad as action and sometimes
risks do need to be taken. I don't mean that an individual should take things into
his own hands every time it suits him but to stomp on any ideas that that
don't tow the party line isn't right either.

Michael Hissom (AKA Moon)
Lower Cape Fear River, Waccamaw Lake and river system, and coastal salt water
and brackish water estuaries in the same location. (South Eastern North
Carolina)
I have access to the only natural Ocean Shore Rock out cropping in Coastal NC
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