Habitat protection measures for this woodpecker tempted landowners to employ the 3-S treatment.

Shooting, shoveling, and shutting up, also known as the 3-S treatment, refers to a method for dealing with unwanted or unwelcome animals in rural areas. There have been reports of the frequently-illegal triple-step procedure being used to dispatch mischievous pets, endangered species, and even sick livestock. Binomial name Picoides borealis Vieillot 1809 About the size of the Northern Cardinal, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) is approximately 20-22 cm long, with a wingspan of about 35 cm. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Bilateria Acoelomorpha Orthonectida Rhombozoa ?Myxozoa Superphylum Deuterostomia    Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... PET, see PET. A pet or companion animal is an animal that is kept by humans for companionship and enjoyment, rather than for economic reasons. ... An endangered species is a species whose population is so small that it is in danger of becoming extinct. ... Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ...

When applied to marauding dogs, the implication is that the offending canine will be liquidated quietly with firearms and, as far as the owner is concerned, disappear with no apparent clues, due to the reticence of the person employing the method. The word was used in this sense in Living Well on Practically Nothing by Edward H. Romney, who pointed out that while one might get away with using the 3-S treatment in rural areas, suburban neighborhoods have different norms. Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog is a canine carnivorous mammal that has been domesticated for thousands of years. ... A firearm is a kinetic energy weapon that fires either a single or multiple projectiles propelled at high velocity by the gases produced by action of the rapid confined burning of a propellant. ...

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist Ralph R. Reiland wrote an essay called Shoot, Shovel & Shut Up, describing landowners' reaction to finding Red-cockaded Woodpeckers on their property[1]  (http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/reiland3.html). Under the Endangered Species Act, landowners who have a population of such birds on their property may be subject to restrictions on building and other land uses that would interfere with the animals' habitat. Therefore, it was considered prudent to eliminate the birds before the Government noticed their presence. The Fall 2001 issue of the Sierra Citizen notes, "'Shoot, shovel and shut up' is the mantra of many in the so-called 'property rights' movement . . . It refers to the practice of killing and burying evidence of any plants or animals that might be threatened or endangered"[2]  (http://www.syrcl.org/sierra-citizen/sc-view_article.asp?id=16). The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is a newspaper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in the 1990s as an offshoot of the Greensburg Tribune-Review following a press strike at the two previously-dominant Pittsburgh dailies. ... Binomial name Picoides borealis Vieillot 1809 About the size of the Northern Cardinal, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) is approximately 20-22 cm long, with a wingspan of about 35 cm. ... The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was one of dozens of environmental laws passed in the 1970s in the United States. ... Orders Many - see section below. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Jim Robbins writes in Wolves Across the Border that Mon Teigen, director of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, "believes labyrinthine federal endangered species regulations may lead a few ranchers to control wolves with the three-S method"[3] (http://www.wolfology.com/id96.htm). In 2005, after a court ruled that ranchers could not shoot wolves caught attacking livestock, the Associated Press reported that "Sharon Beck, an Eastern Oregon rancher and former president of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, said the ruling leaves ranchers little recourse but to break the law -- known around the West as 'shoot, shovel and shut up' -- when wolves move into their areas" [4] (http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/2005/articles02/ruling_halts_downgraded_wolf_pro.htm). Binomial name Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758 The Wolf or Grey Wolf (Canis lupus) is a mammal of the Canidae family and the ancestor of the domestic dog. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Associated Press logo The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency that claims to be the worlds oldest and largest. ...

The phrase has also been used in reference to mad cow disease. More than 30 countries banned beef imports from Canada after one of Alberta farmer Marwyn Peaster's cattle tested positive for the illness. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, in frustration over the situation, said that any "self-respecting rancher would have shot, shovelled and shut up"[5]  (http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/09/17/195328-cp.html). Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or commonly mad cow disease) is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease of cattle, which infects by a mechanism that shocked biologists on its discovery in late 20th century and appears transmissible to humans. ... The Honourable Ralph Phillip Klein (born November 1, 1942), leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives, is current premier of the Canadian province of Alberta. ...

References

• Barnard, Jeff: Ruling halts downgraded wolf protections (http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/2005/articles02/ruling_halts_downgraded_wolf_pro.htm), Feb. 9, 2005.
• Garvey, Shawn: Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up (http://www.syrcl.org/sierra-citizen/sc-view_article.asp?id=16), Sierra Citizen, Fall 2001.
• Monchuk, Judy: Klein says 'shoot, shovel, shut-up' on mad-cow crisis wasn't meant literally (http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/09/17/195328-cp.html), Sep. 17, 2003.
• Reiland, Ralph R.: Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up (http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/reiland3.html), Apr. 6, 2004.
• Robbins, Jim: Wolves Across the Border (http://www.wolfology.com/id96.htm), 1986.
• Romney, Edward H.: Living Well on Practically Nothing (http://www.edromney.com/livwell/), 2001.