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The Big Bend Sentinel

Questions raised after burros killed at Big Bend Ranch State Park

By STERRY BUTCHER

PRESIDIO COUNTY — A strategy to improve the habitat of native animal species has led to the killing of wild burros at Big Bend Ranch State Park and sparked two investigations on how the matter was handled.

At least 18 feral burros, and maybe more, were destroyed inside the park in recent months.

"Over the last seven months, state Parks and Wildlife personnel have periodically killed feral burros while conducting other business at the park," Parks and Wildlife Communications Director Lydia Saldana acknowledged on Wednesday, December 5. "Management actions have been utilized to control these populations. The methods include humanely killing the animal with a firearm by a properly trained employee."

Saldana's admission comes on the heels this week of allegations made public by Luis Armendariz, the former park manager for Big Bend Ranch who retired November 30. As manager, he officed in Presidio and oversaw the overall operation of the Sauceda unit of Big Bend Ranch, the Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center in Terlingua, the Fort Leaton State Historic Site, and Chinati Mountain State Natural Area. He first heard of the burro deaths in July and instructed a Parks and Wildlife peace officer to investigate.

"You do the investigation and take it where it needs to go," Armendariz said he told the peace officer. "I thought it could be anybody. I thought it might be hunters coming in through Fresno Canyon, which is why I told law enforcement to investigate. Once law enforcement takes care of it, it's off my hands."

The burros at Big Bend Ranch State Park are wild in the sense that they are wary of people, they move, graze and breed, at will, and they are not handled, nor doctored. Like the aoudad sheep or feral hog, they are also not a native species, and the burros compete with native desert bighorn, antelope and deer for the available water and forage. The settlement of the Big Bend and northern Chihuahua was made possible, to a significant extent, by the sweat of the burro and its ability to work and live in sometimes meager conditions. The population in Big Bend Ranch is descended from domesticated animals that escaped or were let loose over the years. They've thrived on their own, though the number of burros living in the park is not clear.

"They tend to stay near water," said Armendariz. "Some may be coming from Mexico; they come and go."

The in-house investigation continued over several months and, according to those involved in that process, what it revealed was disturbing. Armendariz is retired and feels free to speak about the burro issue; another source aware of the case will remain anonymous.

Eighteen burros, some found as recently as October and November, were discovered shot, according to this source.

"There are a whole lot more out there," the source said. "It was inhumane."

In one instance, said the source, "a female was shot and the baby was still trying to nurse on her — and she was dead."

Early in the course of the in-house investigation, the identities of the alleged shooters became known. Both are Parks and Wildlife officials with ranks higher than Armendariz. The former parks manager said he'd not been notified that the burro eradication was going to occur.

In November, investigators from the Parks and Wildlife's internal affairs office took over the case.

"There were allegations made and an internal affairs investigation," Saldana confirmed. "The report will be out in the next couple days; I can't release it until it is final."

Feral equines on federal lands are protected by the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. It mandates that these animals shall be prohibited from capture, branding, harassment or death. Their populations on federal lands are kept in check by a round-up and adoption system. Old, sick or lame animals are to be "destroyed in the most humane manner possible," the law states.

No such adoption system seems to be in place for feral animals on state lands.

Saldana emphasized that the management of burros, aoudad and feral hogs at the ecologically fragile Big Bend Ranch is necessary for native species to flourish.

"Our overriding concern is the negative impact on native plants and animals and water supplies, especially in West Texas," she said. "The removal of these depredating animals is a high priority."

Hunting is big business in Texas and is especially important to the perennially under-funded park system. Nearly 80,000 tickets were bought for chances at the agency's Big Time Texas Hunt, the grand prize of which includes a desert bighorn hunt. The raffle sales brought in $798,150 in gross revenue to support wildlife research, habitat management and public hunting, according to Parks and Wildlife. Very few desert bighorn hunts are permitted each year; raffles or auctions for a desert bighorn permit alone bring tens of thousands of dollars.

A restoration of desert bighorn to the park is in Big Bend Ranch's future.

"It's a long-term goal," said Saldana. "And part of the restoration plan is the removal and continued population control of feral and exotic animals that include burros, aoudad and feral hogs."

Armendariz is now gone from the office and moved from the state owned house his family occupied. A Presidio native and lifetime resident, Armendariz spent 35 years and six months with Parks and Wildlife. His exit from the job and the burro investigations are not coincidental, he claims. The former park manager alleges that the state director of parks Walt Dabney, in a conference call that included Parks and Wildlife legal counsel and a human resource director, informed Armendariz that he'd been reassigned as the assistant to the regional director in Fort Davis. The reassignment came in November, after the internal investigation had begun.

"He let me know on a Thursday and wanted me to report on Monday," said Armendariz. "It was a way to keep me away from the area."

Rather than start the job 90 miles away in Fort Davis, Armendariz put in for three weeks of vacation and retired. The killing of the burros, and the way he believes it was handled, nags at him.

"The shooting bothers me," he said. "The burro carried the mother of the king of kings on their back. We should respect them for that."