I’ve heard the story told of a farmer who was using his tractor to harrow a field and ran over an endangered rat. The ever-vigilant Environmental Protection Agency heard about it, studied what was left of the rat’s carcass, and then proceeded to confiscate the farmer’s brand new tractor and harrower.
Is this just a UL, or could it really have happened? My grandfather told it to me before he died. Anyone heard it before? I’d hate to think I’ve been believing a UL for so long.
There are about a dozen individual species of kangaroo rat, and one silver rice rat listed as endangered by the U. S. Fish and Game Endangered Species classification. Unless the farmer was harrowing the desert, or one of the Florida Keys, it is pretty unlikely that he encountered any of them.
There are also a handful of mouse species listed, but you can’t run a tractor and harrow through swamp land, or barrier island beach, so that scenario seems just a tad bit unlikely as well. Rattus rattus is not listed, nor is any other species of common pest rat.
While it is true that EPA is entitled by law to obtain injunctions prohibiting specific use of private lands, simply confiscating private machinery is not part of that process. You hypothetical farmer would have to show some probable cause that he was going to continue plowing the marshland, or beach, or desert, or whatever. It would still require a court order, although emergency police authority might be requested under extraordinary threat. Shooting EPA investigators is illegal in most jurisdictions.
Don’t let simple facts and realities deter you from hating the EPA, though, we all know that that sort of liberal totalitarianism deserves to be demonized for the protection of the American Way.
“This institution will be based upon the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Tris wrote:
He very well may have been harrowing the desert–it was in a small rural eastern Utah town that the incident allegedly occurred.
And no, I’m not trying to demonize the EPA. I’m just wondering if it was a UL or not.