The controversial animal rights activist appointed by Gov. Polis to the state’s veterinarian board issued a nasty missive accusing Colorado ranchers of faking recent wolf attacks on their cattle to make money.
Ellen Kessler actually posted her dig onto a tweet last week from First Gentleman Marlon Reis.
Reis was praising ranchers for supporting new efforts to co-exist with bears, reports the Journal Advocate.
First Gentleman Marlon Reis with Ellen Kessler, Gov. Polis’s controversial appointment to the state’s veterinarian board.
Kessler careened wildly off course and crashed into the wolf issue, throwing insults at cattlemen and ranchers along the way.
“Would our lazy and nasty ranchers/cattlemen even raise a finger to make something like this work, or is using a cow to bait the wolves their solution?” Kessler posted in a now-deleted comment. “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.”
The Journal Advocate reports Polis was asked to defend her statement during the annual Voices of Rural Colorado Conference on Friday that includes Club 20, Action 22, and Pro 15, representing interests across nearly every county in the state.
Polis took pains to point out this subtle but significant distinction, to reiterate his commitment to having a wide variety of voices on state boards and commissions, and his reluctance to trample anyone’s freedom of speech.
The Voices of Rural Colorado weren’t having it. Again, the governor was told, someone who is so clearly hostile to one of Colorado’s largest industries shouldn’t be serving in a gubernatorial appointment. Polis replied that if anyone had a complaint about the way any of his appointees were failing to perform their duties in a professional manner, they should file a complaint with DORA.
“Well, consider this that complaint, and we’re filing it with the governor,” came a reply.
Nearly 23,000 people have signed a petition protesting Polis’s choice of a radical vegan and critic of the 4-H Club to sit on the board, but Polis ignored those pleas.
The agriculture and livestock community later demanded Polis fire her after police were called to an Arvada Costco, where she was protesting with fellow vegans in the meat section.
Once again, Polis did nothing.
Clearly he is aware that her extreme politics are at odds with the community she’s supposed to regulate.
Polis just doesn’t care about folks in those communities.