ZULU – Silver City Conditions Update!!!!

Let me first say that I am grateful that I was able to get Zulu on my trail camera, I think that it gave people hope that Zulu is still alive.  As you can see from the pictures she is tired and thin but I still think she has a lot of fight in her.  People have been calling ,Christine Steele at the Silver City Sun News, looking for ways that they can help and seeing if I would be willing to take them into the canyon were my trail camera is.  I have very mixed feelings about this, not because I don’t want Zulu to be found or I want people running around that part of the “wilderness” but because we don’t need anybody to get hurt.  As I type this there is more than a foot of snow on the trail leading into that canyon and under the best conditions that trail is steep and it can be dangerous, if you are not properly prepared for the trek.

Also, people have been asking me if I would be willing to help setup traps to catch Zulu.  While that might work in downtown El Paso that will not work in the Gila Wilderness.  There are a lot of predators in the wilderness that could also be trapped or even worse we could catch Zulu and then have a predator attack the dog trapped in the cage.

As we have seen Zulu is very shy and I think she has gone “Lone Wolf”.  Finding and bringing her back to civilization is going to take a concentrated, sustained effort.  If we have a lot people just going into this canyon it will do nothing more than push her further into the wilderness.  Unfortunately as of right now, I don’t know anybody that is leading a “concentrated, sustained effort”.  People have volunteered time and given resources but the bottom line is that it is going to take a lot of work.

What needs to happen is either the family members or one of the various animal rescue groups need to lead a focused effort to rescue this dog.   Coming up and wandering in the mountains calling for Zulu is not going to get the job done.  I know that it makes people feel good and they think that they are contributing to the rescue of the dog but it is actually doing more harm than good.  I don’t know who is going to “step-up” but hopefully someone that is reading this will be that person.

My hope is that the Sumrall’s will be Zulu’s champion and lead the effort.  I am not trying to be harsh but the Sumrall’s put Zulu in harms way and they need to see this to the end.