New Executive Order Targets the Family Dog

On February 3, 1999, President Clinton signed an Executive Order to create a new federal bureaucracy called the “Interagency Invasive Species Council.” The new agency, under the direct control of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, will develop and enforce a master plan to remove “invasive species” from public lands. To quote the Executive Order, “‘alien species’ means, with respect to a particular ecosystem, any species including its seeds, eggs, spores, or other biological material capable of propagating that species that is not native to that ecosystem.”

Because the Executive Order fails to define domesticated species, most agricultural crop and animal species would clearly fall within the definition of alien. Domesticated pets, many houseplants and Kentucky bluegrass used in most lawns and golf courses would also be defined as alien species under this Executive Order. And, as Tom McDonnell of the American Sheep Industry Association says, “with this administration’s preoccupation with indigenous people, some races of man may also be considered alien.”

So now, according to the Clinton Administration, if a homeowner plants a fruit tree or flower garden in his yard, or takes the family dog for a walk, most likely, he’s guilty of launching an invasion of alien species on natural America.

Those living in the rural areas of the West are not surprised by such stupid edicts coming from the feds. They have lived through wetland regulations that call irrigation ditches natural waterways. And they have suffered through claims that spotted owls can only live in old growth forests (though they keep finding them nested in McDonald signs and under bridges). Facts have never mattered in the constant barrage of lies and injustices used by the greens to steal their private property.

The good news is that now the enviro-nuts are bringing their insanity closer and closer to the majority of Americans who have, till now, been shielded in the cities. Perhaps when the Eco- Nazis come for the family pet a majority of Americans will understand the extent of their threat and fight back. There are signs it’s already happening.

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Tom DeWeese
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Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education and American sovereignty and independence.