Ok, now here is an example of government spending, when good school programs are being cut, along with benefits for elderly, etc....
I live in the desert and love it just as much as anyone else, but this is ridiculous. The Saguary State Park in southern Arizona has at least 1.3 million saguaros there- that was the count back in the year 2000.
The largest theft at the park was last year, when 17 (yes, not 1700, just 17) were dug up and stashed for someone to transport them out of the park to sell- they bring about $1000 each. Those people were caught and arrested. Keep in mind that these cactus can get 50 feet tall, and even a small one weighs TONS, so you are not going to just easily pick one up and run off with it on your own, and without special transportation to do so.
So, to avoid future possible thefts, officials at the 91,000 acre park are in the planning stage of a microchipping project. The purpose is to be able to pull over people hauling cactus (which is common here for landscapers, etc...) or go to local nurseries and wave a wand over them to see if they are stolen from the park.
They say the cost of the microchipping, which will be inserted with a syringe is 'only' about $4.50 each, but they dont list what the cost is for someone to manually insert a microchip into the 1.3 MILLION cactus that are in the park <let's see, did I do that one already?>
The cost of the wands to scan these chips are from $500.00 each to $2500.00 each.... Gee, I am greatly concerned about the millions left out in the deserts alone that will not have the opportunity to be chipped because they 'live in the wrong area' won't have that priviledge.
I didnt realize we needed Cactus Police now!!!
And how long this will take and how many 'police' will get to carry the wands in random search on the hiways to find a chipped saguaro. Who will write up the paperwork and who will track 'all these cases' in a government office somewhere... that person is going to be as busy as the Maytag repairman.....
I live in the desert and love it just as much as anyone else, but this is ridiculous. The Saguary State Park in southern Arizona has at least 1.3 million saguaros there- that was the count back in the year 2000.
The largest theft at the park was last year, when 17 (yes, not 1700, just 17) were dug up and stashed for someone to transport them out of the park to sell- they bring about $1000 each. Those people were caught and arrested. Keep in mind that these cactus can get 50 feet tall, and even a small one weighs TONS, so you are not going to just easily pick one up and run off with it on your own, and without special transportation to do so.
So, to avoid future possible thefts, officials at the 91,000 acre park are in the planning stage of a microchipping project. The purpose is to be able to pull over people hauling cactus (which is common here for landscapers, etc...) or go to local nurseries and wave a wand over them to see if they are stolen from the park.
They say the cost of the microchipping, which will be inserted with a syringe is 'only' about $4.50 each, but they dont list what the cost is for someone to manually insert a microchip into the 1.3 MILLION cactus that are in the park <let's see, did I do that one already?>
The cost of the wands to scan these chips are from $500.00 each to $2500.00 each.... Gee, I am greatly concerned about the millions left out in the deserts alone that will not have the opportunity to be chipped because they 'live in the wrong area' won't have that priviledge.
I didnt realize we needed Cactus Police now!!!
