Americans Kill Wolves

And The President Approves?

Forest service, fish and wild life service, bureau of land management, cattle ranchers, farmers, hunters, sportsman, serial killers, sickos and lobbyist subordinate politicians, have conspired to hunt the North American Wolf to near extinction…again. After speaking with experts at the [1] Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Sanctuary in Divide, CO. — it was clear how ill-informed the 30 or so people that gathered for a private tour really were about the crisis for survival the wold was undergoing. At this point, most people are comfortable with the job and economic crisis, but wolves? Many of the people, all of whom paid for this tour, thought wolves were sacred, astonishing, majestic, funny, and somewhat too familiar, perhaps due to their relationship with dogs. There was not one person who had heard the grim facts the tour guide and wolf expert was spouting off while feeding hungry Timber, Mexican Gray, and Artic wolves.

“Slaughtered for no reason at all even when people can look this up? That makes no sense”, said one of the attendees, shocked to hear how many and how calculated the wolf kills in America really were.

In fact, we are killing more wolves now than we did before we protected them, mostly for sport. The ecosystems where these animals have been for centuries have suffered each step of the way, since the majority of the predators and scavengers have been ruthlessly removed, leaving an ecosystem out of balance at the hands of greedy misinformed folks and their political targets. Besides that, how can someone kill these amazing animals for no reason other than to kill it? I admit, I care not to go get a quote from someone who can answer that, for fear that this piece would tangent in other directions that the wolves themselves, the ones who need our help.

The facts are simple, yet so many people are misinformed as to the real reasons wolves are being slaughtered by people who enjoy nothing more than to kill things with a firearm. Below are a few short excerpts, now aging in statistics even though the numbers continue to grow.

Peter and Maria Hoey
www.sierraclub.org

[1] When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed wolves in Wyoming from the endangered species list in August 2012, the state promptly put them on the hunting list. In Idaho, hunters have the option to kill wolves year-round. And when hunters in Montana failed to kill enough wolves in 2011, state wildlife commissioners allowed wolf trapping as well. These efforts are motivated, in large part, by the belief among ranchers that wild wolves are a major threat to livestock. But looking at 2010 data, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that wolves accounted for just 0.2 percent of “unintended [i.e., pre-slaughterhouse] cattle losses”—fewer than are lost to theft, domestic dogs, or vultures. —Paul Rauber

Sierra Club Editor’s Note: The USDA data on which this graphic was based covered the entire United States. Only five states have more than 200 wolves and experienced wolf predation on cattle. In these states, the percentages of wolf predation in 2010, compared with total losses from all causes, are as follows: Minnesota, 3.13%; Montana, 2.86%; Idaho, 1.96%; Wyoming, 1.76%; and Wisconsin, 0.97%.

[2] More than 460,000 Americans filed official comments calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to scrap its controversial proposal to remove federal protections from the gray wolf and instead work to advance wolf recovery in the United States. A scientific peer review released in early February 2014 unanimously concluded that a federal plan to drop protections for most gray wolves was not based on the best available science.

These new comments and the results of the scientific peer review follow on the heels of the submission of approximately one million comments in late 2013 requesting that FWS continue to protect gray wolves. These comments represent the highest number of submissions ever to FWS on an endangered species, showing America’s overwhelming support for the charismatic wolf.

[4] By the middle of the 20th Century, government-sponsored extermination had wiped out nearly all gray wolves in the Lower 48 states.

Pride of the Unevolved

It’s important to remember that managing any animal so closely with extermination tactics, often leads to extermination (accidental or otherwise). Here are just a few, small ways to you can help a wolf.

How To Help Save A Wolf From Being Needlessly Slaughtered

By Filling Out A Form in 3 Minutes

Millions of people have helped get wolves this far, and you can help in less than one day. It’s easy…and waiting for you to do as much as you want to.

1. Moveon.org: http://petitions.moveon.org/find/?q=wolves
2. Change.org: https://www.change.org/search?q=wolves
3. Thunderclap: https://www.thunderclap.it/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=wolves
4. Defender’s Of Wildlife: http://action.defenders.org/site/PageServer?pagename=savewolves_homepage

Sources:

[1] http://www.wolfeducation.org/
[2] http://vault.sierraclub.org/sierra/201301/grapple-wolves-endangered-species-306.aspx
[3] http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2014/nearly-500-000-more-americans-speak-out-against-federal-plan-to-strip-wolves-of-protections
[4] http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/the-wolf-that-changed-america/wolf-wars-americas-campaign-to-eradicate-the-wolf/4312

- http://archive.news10.net/news/politcs/265098/13/Obama-proposal-to-stop-protecting-gray-wolf-fuels-controversy
- http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/wyoming-wolves-removed-endangered-species-list