Animal rights activist Ellen Kessler has resigned from the Colorado State Board of Veterinary Medicine after backlash from her comments calling ranchers “lazy” and “nasty.”
In a Facebook reply to a post on a collaboration program for ranchers to deal with grizzly attacks, Kessler wrote, “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? 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.”
Gov. Jared Polis (D) received pushback from two people at a virtual meeting of rural organizations about why Kessler should remain on the board, and Rep. Matthew Soper (R-54) sent a letter asking for her removal.
Kessler was appointed to the board by Polis in 2020. Her last day on the board is Feb. 11.
