Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Before Wolves May Be Hunted, Science, Faith and Politics Clash

May 5, 2012 by wolfpreservation


 

By
Published: March 12, 2012

“Once again, science, religion and politics have become entwined in a thorny public policy debate. This time, however, the discussion is not about abortion, birth control or health insurance mandates.

It’s about wolves.

Specifically, a bill in the Wisconsin Legislature to authorize a hunting season on wolves. The State Senate has approved it, and the Assembly is set to consider the bill on Tuesday.

Hunters approve of the season, and Republicans are all for it, as are some Democrats. Wildlife biologists have a number of criticisms and suggestions about the bill involving how, when and how many wolves should be killed.

But the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Game Commission, which represents 11 tribes of the Ojibwe (also known as the Chippewa, or Anishinaabe) in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, opposes the hunt on the basis of religious principle and tradition.

In written testimony presented to both legislative houses, James Zorn, the executive administrator of the commission, said, “In the Anishinaabe creation story we are taught that Ma’iingan (wolf) is a brother to Original man.” He continued, “The health and survival of the Anishinaabe people is tied to that of Ma’iingan.” For that reason the tribes are opposed to a public hunt.

Joe Rose Sr., a professor emeritus of Native American studies at Northland College in Ashland, Wis., and an elder of the Bad River Band, said in an interview that he saw a collision of world views. “We don’t have stories like Little Red Riding Hood, or the Three Little Pigs, or the werewolves of Transylvania,” he said. Wolf, or Ma’iingan, is a sacred creature, and so even keeping the population of wolves to minimum levels runs counter to traditional beliefs.

The opposition of the Ojibwe to the hunt may not swing a vote, but it is not a small matter. The Ojibwe have significant rights in lands that were once theirs, lands that, in Wisconsin, amount to about the northern third of the state. That, of course, is where most of Wisconsin’s wolves live.

Peter David, a conservation biologist with the Indian Fish and Game Commission, said that court settlements on treaty rights mean that the tribes must be consulted about decisions like the wolf hunt, and they were not. Also, he said, “the tribes can legally lay claim to half of the biological harvest.” What that could mean for a wolf hunt that the tribes oppose is not clear.

What is clear is that the opposition of the Ojibwe is more like objections to funding for abortions or birth control than it is the calculations of scientists, not in political tone, but in its essence.

All the other arguments center on numbers, practicality and consequences. How much damage do wolves do to livestock? How effective is this kind of hunt in reducing those depredations? How many wolves should be killed?

The original goal, set once it was clear that wolves were coming back in the state, on their own, was 350 wolves. With protection, the wolf population has grown to about 800. Adrian Treves, an associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that the carrying capacity of the state is probably about 1,000.

Dr. Treves has also testified about the bill. He would like to see fixes — for instance, ruling out hunting with dogs. But he sees the issue as one of wildlife management.

Mr. Zorn said in his testimony that for the Ojibwe, “wolf recovery does not hinge primarily upon some minimum number of animals comprising the current wolf population.” Rather, he said, the goal is “the healthiest and most abundant future for our brother and ourselves.”

Mr. Rose put it this way: “We see the wolf as a predictor of our future. And what happens to wolf happens to Anishinaabe.” And, he said, “whether other people see it or not, the same will happen to them.”

**Special thanks to The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/science/science-faith-and-politics-clash-over-wolves-in-wisconsin.html?src=tp&smid=fb-share for providing this information!

Posted in Wolf Current Events, Wolf Preservation Efforts | Leave a Comment »

Wyoming Plans to Kill Most Wolves Outside Yellowstone

May 1, 2012 by wolfpreservation


Posted on May 1, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Feds nearly ready to accept state management plan

By Summit Voice SUMMIT COUNTY

 “Wyoming officials are pressing ahead with their plan to kill most wolves living outside Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The state recently passed legislation and an amendment to its wolf management plan that’s close to gaining approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, triggering the final removal of Endangered Species Act protection for the predators. The new law and plan would take effect later this year when wolves are removed from the federal endangered species list. The state wants to increase the area where wolves would be designated as predators and could be killed without limit; they also keep in place a trophy game management area, where hunting will be allowed to dramatically reduce wolf populations. What federal officials are acquiescing to is to confine wolves to the northwest corner of the state … They’re presenting to the public the new plan as a fait accompli,” said wolf advocate Michael Robinson, with the Center for Biological Diversity. Robinson said Wyoming’s wolf-management plan is “a recipe for wolf slaughter that will only serve to incite more of the prejudice against wolves that led to their destruction in the first place.” He said the federal government is not living up to the Endangered Species Act requirements that call for species to be recovered across significant portions of their former range. Instead of piece-mealing the delisting and recovery effort, Robinson said the federal government should look at wolf populations holistically and develop a national recovery plan that lives up to the letter and spirit of the Endangered Species Act. “Removal of federal protections for wolves has been a disaster in Idaho and Montana and will be even worse in Wyoming,” he said. While wolves would remain fully protected within Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, elsewhere in Wyoming they would be subject to shooting, trapping and snaring. Wyoming proposes designating wolves as predators across 83 percent of the state, where there would no limits on their killing. The remaining portion of the state would be considered a “trophy game management area,” where killing wolves would be permitted, with the goal of reducing the population from approximately 29 packs to around 10. “Along with the killing of wolves in Idaho and Montana, which had their protection taken away last year through a back-door congressional rider, this planned persecution of wolves in Wyoming could be devastating to the beautiful animals’ survival in the northern Rocky Mountains,” said Robinson. “Killing most of Wyoming’s wolves will hurt wolves in Colorado, too, where they’re only starting to return by way of Wyoming.” Since wolf hunting and trapping seasons opened last fall, 378 wolves have been killed in Idaho, which has no cap on killing and several ongoing open seasons. An additional 166 wolves were killed in Montana, which has now closed its season. Contrary to promises, hunting and trapping have appeared to inflame anti-wolf sentiment, with comments and pictures appearing on the Internet that boast of wolf killing and call for more slaughter. The Fish and Wildlife Service has reopened a two-week comment period, during which feedback is sought from the public before the agency finalizes the delisting rule. Background In October 2011 the Obama administration announced finalization of an agreement between the Fish and Wildlife Service and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead whereby the agency would remove wolves in Wyoming from the federal endangered species list and the state would only be required to keep alive 100 wolves or 10 breeding pairs outside Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks (which together provide habitat for a few dozen wolves that would remain protected while in the parks). After pups are born within the next few weeks, it is likely that more than 500 wolves will live outside the national parks in Wyoming. The state plan will allow their unregulated killing throughout most of the state.”

**Special thanks to http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/05/01/wyoming-plans-to-kill-most-wolves-outside-yellowstone/ for providing this information!

Posted in Wolf Current Events | 2 Comments »

Wolves, no longer endangered in Wyoming, now labeled ‘predators’

April 8, 2012 by wolfpreservation


Special thanks to Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com, for proving the following information:

“The gray wolf, soon to be off the endangered species list in Wyoming, will have a new official title in 86 percent of the state: predator. That means anyone may shoot a wolf on sight, no permit required.

Safe havens do remain in the northwestern corner of the state — no hunting will be allowed in Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks — but now conservationists worry that sportsmen will be allowed to take aim at wolves traveling through the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, a 24,000-acre area that connects the two larger parks.

The state of Wyoming wants hunting; the National Park Service does not.

“We want to preserve wildlife for viewing and for conservation,” said Bert Frost, associate director for Natural Resource Stewardship and Science for the National Park Service. “We would prefer not to have them shooting wolves on the parkway.”

But here’s the catch: The parkway, managed by the National Park Service, has allowed elk hunts to reduce their population. Legislators in Wyoming say that means wolves are also fair game.

Most agree this is a somewhat symbolic argument, as only one or two wolf packs use the parkway. But for many, the gray wolf has come to embody the symbol of the federal government meddling in state affairs.

Poll: Should wolves be hunted on National Parks land in Wyoming?

Among the comments submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the Endangered Species Act, was one from Earl Crawford, a Cheyenne resident, who said, according to the Casper Star-Tribune, “wolves kill to just kill.”

Crawford continued: “Let the state game & fish control and manage the wolf population along with the other game animals of the state. Most bureaucrats back East haven’t the foggiest idea of how life is out west.”

1995: Wolves return to the Rockies
In the early 1900s, bounties were paid on more than 20,000 wolves, viewed then as killers of livestock. Twenty years later, the gray wolf became extinct in the Northern Rockies.

In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arranged for 66 gray wolves from Canada to be released in Yellowstone and Idaho. The wolves, to the delight of conservationists, repopulated as quickly as they disappeared. Now about 1,650 roam the Rockies.

“The big picture of the whole thing is that the recovery of the gray wolf is one of the most amazing success stories of the Endangered Species Act,” said Derek Goldman of the Endangered Species Coalition.

The plan was so successful that in 2009 the gray wolf was removed from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho. Wyoming, however, refused to produce a wolf-friendly plan.

“Basically, Wyoming flipped the middle finger to the federal government,” Goldman said.

Despite government promises to repay ranchers for livestock losses, pressure mounted.

Data show that domestic dogs kill more cattle than wolves; weather kills cattle at 25 times the rate of wolves. Mike Jimenez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that wolves were just one more variable eating at an already small profit margin.

“You have to understand that the ranchers are raising animals by the pound,” said Jimenez, the coordinator for wolf management for the Rocky Mountains. “If they run around, they abort, or they lose weight. The profit margin is not huge to begin with.”

Although wolves were delisted in Montana and Idaho without as much political wrangling, wolf hunting in those two states is as controversial.

In February, U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents killed 14 wolves from an aircraft in Idaho, heeding a request from that state, according to the Missoulian newspaper.

And the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an organization founded by hunters to promote elk habitat to “be hunted or otherwise enjoyed,” announced it would give $50,000 to help government agencies afford killing wolves that chase after livestock, the Missoulian reported. David Allen, the president of the foundation, said he wants fewer black bears, mountain lions and wolves.

“We can’t have all these predators with little aggressive management and expect to have ample game herds,” Allen told the Missoulian.

Wolves delisted
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead signed a new version of the wolf management plan into law last month. This one demands that Wyoming manage 10 breeding pairs outside of Yellowstone. An area in the northwestern part of the state would protect wolves from Oct. 15 to March 1, so they may breed with wolves from other states and avoid inbreeding.

Whether hunters will be able to take aim at wolves in the parkway is unclear. Hunting is allowed in Alaska national parks, and culling of elk has been allowed in the parkway and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

Back in Washington, D.C., Bert Frost said the National Parks Service has plans to work with the state of Wyoming. He hopes those conversations won’t become politicized.

“I hope nothing gets resolved in Washington,” Frost said. “There are the biologists on the ground, and they know the situation better than anyone else.”

Posted in Wolf Current Events | 3 Comments »

U.S. Forest Service Employee Under Fire for Photographing Wounded Gray Wolf Before Killing it

April 7, 2012 by wolfpreservation


  Nez Perce National Forest employee Josh Bransford poses with a wolf trapped in north Idaho

“Footloose Montana,” a grassroots, non-profit organization that promotes trap-free public lands for people, pets and wildlife, received death threats for releasing this photo.  Humans have the ability to show compassion towards animals, yet Josh Bransford chooses to inflict unnessesary amounts of pain on this animal.  Just look at the enormous amounts of blood in the snow and he appears very proud of it. 

“Less than a year after Congress took gray wolves off the endangered species list, a Forest Service employee has come under fire for trapping a wolf in Idaho and snapping a photo of the wounded animal before killing it.

Josh Bransford posted a photo on the website www.trapperman.com last month of himself smiling as the wolf he trapped — which was still alive — limped on the bloodied snow behind him. The photo has since been taken down (It can be viewed here, but warning, the images are graphic).

The incident, which came shortly before the end of Idaho’s first-ever wolf trapping season, drew protests from environmentalists. Gray wolves in the northern Rockies were taken off the endangered species list on April 2, 2009, a decision that was reversed in federal district court in August 2010. Congress took them off again as part of last year’s budget deal on April 14, 2011, and the Fish and Wildlife Service formally delisted the wolves on May 4.

Both the Forest Service and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game have described the incident as unfortunate, but not illegal.

“The Forest Service does not condone animal cruelty in any circumstance and holds employees to represent agency standards both on and off the job,” wrote Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers in an e-mail. “While the Forest Service continues to review the case, it has been determined that the employee in question was on his personal time on private land. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has jurisdiction on such cases.”

In an interview, Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Mike Keckler said the agency’s conservation officers determined that Bransford “had all of the necessary licenses and permissions to trap wolves,” and had undergone a trapper education course.

“According to the conservation officers he did nothing illegal, but we would have preferred that he had dispatched it himself before photographing himself with it,” Keckler said. “We ask that animals be dispatched humanely and immediately.”

Bransford could not be reached for comment.

Michael Robinson, conservation advocate with the group Center for Biological Diversity, said state officials had only done a cursory review and needed to examine the matter further.

“If this is what passes as compliance with the Department of Fish and Game’s rules, there’s a serious problem with the adequacy of state regulation,” Robinson said. “Idaho Department of Fish and Game or the state’s attorney general need to take a harder look. Trapping a wolf where it can be shot at by others, shooting at the wolf, and then letting the injured animal suffer while posing for pictures all constitute animal cruelty and reflect the free-for-all mentality on wolves prevailing in Idaho in the absence of Endangered Species Act protection.”

Wolf hunting and trapping season is almost over in Idaho. The trapping season began Nov. 15 and ended March 31, while the hunting season started Aug. 30, 2011 and ended in all but two areas by the Montana border on March 31.

The wolf population in Idaho was estimated at roughly 1000 before the hunting season began. The state fish and game department website showed 377 had been hunted, trapped or snared as of Thursday.

Keckler said the state had issued more than 40,000 “wolf tags” that allow wolves to be taken by hunters. The large number came because deer hunters and others obtained the tags in case they encountered wolves while hunting other game.

“Wolves are very difficult to hunt,” he said.”

**Special thanks to Juliet Eilperin for The Washington Post for providing this information.

Posted in Wolf Current Events | 8 Comments »

Welcome Wolf Park Puppies!

April 7, 2012 by wolfpreservation


“Wolf Park is pleased to announce that Dharma, of the park’s main pack, has given birth to puppies on April 6, 2012. (Dharma is blocking our view of them at the moment – we will know how many there are when Dharma leaves the den!) The pups’ lineage traces back to Wolf Park’s first female wolf, Cassie. With their birth the Wolf Park wolves’ bloodline has added a new generation. Like all our pups, these will be socialized to humans as well as to wolves; visitors will have opportunities to watch them grow up and become acquainted with their world this summer at Wolf Park. Puppies at Wolf Park are taken out of the den when they are around 10 days old to undergo the socialization process. In order to fully socialize the puppies to humans, the pups have contact with humans 24 hours a day for the first 5 months or so of their lives, for a total of over 2,000 contact hours. For this reason, we have Puppy Mothers that live onsite to help raise the puppies. They work in shifts to provide 24-hour a day human contact. The puppies will also get to spend time socializing with wolves once they about 6 weeks old, so they learn how to be part of a pack as well. Sponsor a Puppy! Click here to adopt one of our newest arrivals! [link sentence to gift shop puppy adoption page] Puppy sponsors will be able to visit their adopted puppy in person! When you schedule your appointment, we will let you know when the puppies tend to be most active, but we cannot guarantee that they will be awake. (Please note that we have very strict guidelines for puppy visits. We do not wake up sleeping puppies, so be aware that your visit may only include you watching your puppy sleep! Your visit may also have to be cut short based on the needs of the puppies or if we are conducting research.) Puppy Sponsors receive all of the benefits of wolf sponsorship, including a yearlong subscription to our newsletter and updates on your sponsored animal.

Puppy Photo Shoots!

Monty Sloan, our world-renowned staff photographer, leads all of our puppy photo shoots. Click here to see examples of his puppy shots. Photo shoots run from 6 pm until either dark or the puppies get tired. Typically shoots last around 2 hours. Please note that we may need to cancel a puppy photo shoot if the puppies are not feeling well. Digestive issues are very common, and are the most frequent reason for having to cancel a shoot.

Availability for these special photography sessions is very limited. The cost of these shoots is $150 per person, with a 2-3 person maximum. To sign up, please call our administrative office at (765)567-2265.

Donate to the Puppies!

Puppies need a lot of care. Help us raise the puppies by purchasing items that they need in our online gift shop or by making a general donation towards their care today!

Name the Puppies!

You can help Wolf Park name the puppies! Send an email with your suggestions (maximum of 5 names per person, please) to puppynames@wolfpark.org. The top names will be chosen by our staff. The final vote will be up to you! The names with the most votes will win and become the names of the new puppies. In May, the public will be invited to vote for the top names, so check back soon!”

**Special thanks to Wolf Park, http://www.wolfpark.org/index.html, for providing this information!

 

Posted in Wolf Current Events, Wolf Preservation Efforts | 1 Comment »

In the Hunt: Ridin’ wolf gravy train

April 7, 2012 by wolfpreservation


This article seemed appropriate and thanks to Diane Nelson for the idea : )

 Thursday, March 29, 2012

“If you want healthy elk populations, the key is more aggressive killing of predators, especially wolves.

At least that’s the message from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which announced last week that it will be putting up $50,000 to help fund efforts to kill more wolves. The money would go to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to help pay U.S. Wildlife Services, the agency contracted to kill wolves when they get into trouble with livestock.

The foundation also said it would ask for donations for the wolf killing, and the money wouldn’t pull from the group’s other conservation efforts. But it’s just the latest effort to blame wolves, which it turns out can be pretty lucrative as a fundraiser.

And the foundation isn’t limiting its ire to wolves.

David Allen, RMEF president, said his group wants fewer black bears, mountain lions, wolves and coyotes. And he said the state needs to look at killing grizzly bears — which remain on the federal Endangered Species List — because they prey on elk calves.

“We can’t have all these predators with little aggressive management and expect to have ample game herds and sell hunting tags and generate revenue that supports (the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks) nearly

100 percent,” Allen told the Missoulian newspaper.

What a sad statement from a once-proud conservation organization. But this isn’t Allen’s first time joining the predator-bashing chorus.

For several years now he’s used terms like “annihilation,” “decimation” and “wildlife disaster” when describing elk herds where wolves are found. It’s the same rhetoric I’ve grown accustomed to hearing from kooks on the Internet. The problem is it has no basis in fact — at least according to the elk foundation’s 2011 hunting forecast.

Based on state game agency data, it estimated there are nearly 1.2 million elk in North America. That same forecast blasted animal rights activists saying they had “cherry-picked, manipulated and misrepresented” the numbers in an effort to keep wolves on the ESA perpetually. It also said wolves had “decimated” some of the northern Rockies’ great herds and for hunters to expect “tough hunting” in those areas.

That contradicts statements the foundation made three years ago, when it issued a press release touting its role over 25 years in helping boost elk herds. Allen stated that “growth in elk populations is one measure of our success.” The number of elk in 2009

was 1.03 million across the continent.

I’d say it’s speaking out of both sides of your mouth to pat yourself on the back when elk reach 1 million continent-wide and turn around and blast predators for killing too many elk when we have

1.2 million. In Montana, the herd estimate held steady at 150,000 animals from 2009 to 2011.

I’m sure the foundation would say losses to wolves are localized and in some cases severe. Often, the wolf haters point to the elk herd in northern Yellowstone National Park that migrates into Montana near Gardiner as an example of one that’s suffered from wolves. It’s been reduced from 19,000 animals in 1992 to about 4,100 today.

But that herd was grossly overpopulated. And at more than 4,000 animals, it’s still healthy.

Maybe what the foundation wants are the good old days, when hundreds of elk poured out of the park’s northern boundary into a firing line of hunters. That wasn’t an elk hunt – it was a disgrace.

As anyone who gets out of his or her vehicle and actually hunts knows, Montana has abundant elk. The hunting is a little harder in areas where wolves are. But when isn’t elk hunting tough?

The foundation also left out a major source of predation on elk in Montana — the 2003 Legislature. It mandated that FWP reduce numbers and since then we’ve been pounding elk with second tags, extended seasons and liberal regulations. Where’s the outrage about that over predation?

Clearly, the elk foundation’s use of predator-hating rhetoric is good for the bottom line.

Last month the group boasted of its “record-high membership” and “strong fiscal performance.” The same news release talked about the upcoming predator campaign and said “wolf, bear, lion and coyote populations are well above science-based objectives in many areas.”

When asked, the foundation cited itself as a source. Yet I had no idea the group has the staff biologists to count predator populations and authority to set seasons.

And it’s not like these species aren’t already managed. We’ve been hunting mountain lions and black bears for years. Coyotes can be shot on sight. And grizzly bears, while doing well, remain under federal protection.

Then there’s the hated wolf. We’ve only hunted this predator two years since its reintroduction. It takes time for wildlife professionals to craft a hunt that meets objectives, especially with a new species. To decry this year’s hunt as a failure because we didn’t reach the 220 wolf total quota is ridiculous.

Instead of bashing wolves, the foundation should take pride in their recovery. After all, the only reason wolves can live in the northern Rockies is the abundance of prey – including elk – and the foundation has played an important role in those species larger numbers through habitat acquisition and improvement.

In fairness, the foundation isn’t the only group to get on the wolf gravy train. Who could forget 2009, when Defenders of Wildlife used images of cute wolf puppies while decrying the “slaughter” of wolves in Montana’s first-ever hunt.

But the argument that they did it first doesn’t justify exploiting wolves as a money maker.

I expect a higher standard from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.”

**Special thanks to Reporter Nick Gevock, for providing this information. He may be reached at nick.gevock@mtstandard.com

Posted in Facts and Figures | 3 Comments »

Governor Scott Walker: Stop wolf hunting in Wisconsin

April 1, 2012 by wolfpreservation


http://www.scottwalker.org/ 
Why This Is Important

“It hasn’t even been 2 months since Wolves in the Great Lake region were finally removed from the endangered species list and already Wisconsin wants to invite hunters to hunt and trap them. The state assembly didn’t consult with any of the groups that have been historically involved with making these kinds of decisions. One of the groups includes the Ojibwe tribes, and according to a treaty signed by our government with these tribes, they MUST be consulted before these kinds of decisions are made. The Wisconsin State Assembly’s approval of this wolf hunting bill is in direct violation of this treaty. We cannot allow this bill to go through, not only because it violates the rights of the Ojibwe tribes but because the wolves play a critical role in the ecology of the Great Lakes region. It is only recently that we have been able to restore their numbers to a status that is no longer endangered, and having an open hunting season will surely land them right back on the Federal Endangered Species list.

Details from the original New York Times article below as well as a link:

“Less than two months after wolves in the Great Lakes region were removed from the federal endangered species list, the Wisconsin State Assembly approved a bill on Wednesday that would open the way for a wolf hunting and trapping season.

The bill, supported by hunting groups, Republicans and some Democrats, passed by a 69-25 vote. It was opposed by environmental groups and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Game Commission, which represents Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The tribes have significant rights in wildlife management in much of the area where wolves are found and said they were not consulted on the hunting plans as required by a treaty. State wildlife biologists also criticized various elements of the bill.

The measure now goes to Gov. Scott Walker.

A number of Democrats spoke Wednesday against the bill and sought amendments, denouncing it as “very irresponsible and anti-science.” No Republicans spoke for the bill or against the amendments.”

Special thanks to: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/wisconsin-assembly-approves-wolf-hunting/?ref=science
Wisconsin Assembly Approves Wolf Hunting, By JAMES GORMAN, March 14, 2012, 5:39 PM for providing this information.

Posted in Wolf Preservation Efforts | 3 Comments »

Photos of hunted-down wolves stir tensions in West; Online exchanges include threatening email to wildlife group

April 1, 2012 by wolfpreservation


 

“Photos of dead and maimed wolves have pervaded the Internet in recent weeks, raising tensions in the Northern Rocky Mountains over renewed hunting and trapping of the once federally protected animals. Escalating rancor between hunters and animal rights activists on social media and websites centers on pictures of wolves killed or about to be killed.

Many have text celebrating the fact that Western states are allowing more killing of the predators. Commenting on a Facebook-posted image of two wolves strangled to death by cable snares, an individual who identified himself as Shane Miller wrote last month, “Very nice!! Don’t stop now, you’re just getting started!” A person going by the name Matthew Brown posted the message, “Nice, one down and a BUNCH to go!” in response to a Facebook image of a single wolf choked to death in a snare. Such pictures and commentary have intensified online arguments over the ethics of hunting and trapping wolves. The debate took a threatening turn this week with an anonymous email warning that animal rights advocates will “be the target next.”

In Idaho and Montana, hundreds of the animals have been killed — mostly through hunting — less than a year after being removed from the U.S. endangered species list.

Stripping the wolves of federal protection last spring opened the animals to state wildlife management, including newly licensed hunting and trapping designed to reduce their numbers from levels the states deemed too high.

 

Since the de-listing last May, Idaho has cut its wolf population by about 40 percent, from roughly 1,000 to about 600 or fewer. Some 260 wolves have been killed in Montana, more than a third of its population, leaving an estimated 650 remaining.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has also proposed lifting the protected status for another 350 wolves in Wyoming.

The threatening note received by an anti-trapping group based in Missoula, Mont., this week has drawn scrutiny from federal and local law enforcement.

The group says it was likely singled out because it had criticized and widely circulated a snapshot of a smiling trapper posed with a dying wolf whose leg was caught in the metal jaws of a foothold trap on a patch of blood-stained snow.were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1940s under a government-sponsored program.

Decades later, biologists recognized that wolves had an essential role as a predator in mountain ecosystems, leading to protection of the animal under the Endangered Species Act.

Wolves were reintroduced in the mid-1990s over the vehement objections of ranchers and sportsmen, who see the animals as a threat to livestock and big-game animals such as elk and deer.

Environmentalists say the impact of wolves on cattle herds and wildlife is overstated and that the recent removal of federal safeguards could push the wolf back to the brink.

Wolves have long been vilified in the region as a menace, symbolizing for some a distant federal bureaucracy imposing its rules on the West.

“They’re putting us and our way of life out of business,” said Ron Casperson, co-owner of Saddle Springs Trophy Outfitters in Salmon, Idaho. “It makes me sick every day I look at this country. These wolves … I mean, come on.”

State wildlife managers had predicted that such passions would ease once the wolves were de-listed and states gained control. But discourse on the Internet and social networks appears to have grown more hostile.

Some hunters have expressed discomfort at the apparent bloodlust unleashed on the Internet, which they see as tarnishing the reputation of a sport that attracts less than 15 percent of Americans.

 

“There are two groups — one supports fair chase and ethical hunting, and the other views the reintroduction of wolves and the recovery with venom,” said veteran sportsman Rod Bullis of Helena, Mont.

Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Gary Power said he was bombarded with letters and emails from people representing extremes on both sides of the debate.

“There are some folks out there stirring the pot: ‘Get rid of government, get rid of this, they shoved it down our throats, kill them all,’ and they are adding to the contentiousness,” he said.

Animal rights activists said they are sickened at the online flurry of pictures depicting wolf kills, and alarmed by comments suggesting a growing desire to shoot, trap and snare wolves.

“Roughly $40 million has been spent on wolf recovery, and now we are witnessing the second extermination of wolves in the West,” said Wendy Keefover, director of carnivore protection for WildEarth Guardians.

Idaho and Montana are required to maintain about 150 wolves per state each year to prevent federal protection from being imposed again.

But Idaho plans to more than double the number of wolves a hunter may take in some areas for the 2012-13 season, raising their bag limit to 10.

Montana is seeking to raise its wolf-hunt quotas, and state wildlife managers are discussing allowing trapping, which is currently illegal there. At least one Montana county is considering a bounty for wolves killed by licensed hunters.

This week’s email threat to the animal advocacy group Footloose Montana raised the acrimony to a new level.

The image posted on its Facebook page was taken from the Trapperman.com website, including text that joked about the wolf being shot and wounded by a passersby after it was caught — “lucky they were not real good shots.”

The photo went viral over the Internet last weekend, and on Monday Footloose Montana received the email threat.

The message said “I would like to donate a gun to your childs (sic) head to make sure you can watch it die slowly so I can have my picture taken with it’s (sic) bleeding dying screaming for mercy body.” Then the email, a copy of which Footloose gave to Reuters, said the recipients would be the next targets.

A Missoula Police Department detective, Sgt. Travis Welsh, confirmed this week that investigators were looking into a “report from a local institution about a malicious email.”

Footloose Executive Director Anja Heister said FBI agents had interviewed a member of her group about the threat, but an FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.

By Tuesday, Trapperman.com, a site whose mission statement declares, “Always keep in mind that we are the true protectors of wildlife and the wild places in which the animals live,” had removed pictures of dead or dying wolves and commentary.”

**Special thanks to By Laura Zuckerman, Reuters, for providing this information!

 

Posted in Wolf Current Events, Wolf Preservation Efforts | 2 Comments »

Wolf Torture and Execution Continues in the Northern Rockies

March 28, 2012 by wolfpreservation


 

by James William Gibson – March 28, 2012

“On March 16, a Friday, a US Forest Service employee from Grangeville, Idaho, laid out his wolf traps. The following Monday, using the name “Pinching,” he posted his story and pictures on http://www.Trapperman.com . “I got a call on Sunday morning from a FS [Forest Service] cop that I know. You got one up here as there was a crowd forming. Several guys had stopped and taken a shot at him already,” wrote Pinching. The big, black male wolf stood in the trap, some 300-350 yards from the road, wounded—the shots left him surrounded by blood-stained snow. Pinching concluded his first post, “Male that went right at 100 pounds. No rub spots on the hide, and he will make me a good wall hanger.” The Trapperman website went wild with comments. “That’s a dandy!! Keep at it,” wrote Watarrat. Otterman asked, “All the gray on that muzzle make a guy wonder how old he is or if it is just part of his black coloring.” Pinching’s picture of the wolf’s paw caught in the trap got special attention. “Is that the MB750 stamped ‘wolf’ on the pan?” asked one man. “Looks to be a perfect pad catch. Congratulations! Pinching confirmed the trap model and commented, “Oh an [sic] by the way, a wolf is a heck of a lot of work to put on a stretcher! Man those things hold on to their hide like no other!” By late March some 117 Idaho wolves had been killed in traps and snares, and another 251 shot. Montana saw 166 killed, for a total of 534 wolves out of an estimated 1150 in the two states. Although Montana’s season ended in February, Idaho is not quite done. Both states have announced plans for increased hunting in the 2012-2013, and discussions are underway among hunting groups and state officials to allow private donations to establish wolf bounties.

As recently as the spring of 2011, gray wolves in the Northern Rockies received protection from he Endangered Species Act. But in April, 2011 Congress passed a rider on a federal appropriations bill removing them. Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester, facing a 2012 challenge from Republican Congressman Danny Rehberg, wanted to show Democrats hated wolves just as much as Republicans. Conservation groups filed suit in Montana’s federal district court, claiming the delisting represented an unconstitutional infringement by Congress on the judicial branch while it deliberated an ongoing lawsuit over federal wolf protection.

Thus wolves, demonized by the far-right in the Rockies as disease-ridden monsters and icons of the federal government (see my Summer 2011 Journal story, “Cry Wolf”), now face a brutal campaign to radically reduce their numbers so far that extermination can not be ruled out. Idaho’s Governor Butch Otter declared in a March 25 news conference that his state faced a “disaster emergency” from wolves. “We don’t want them here.”

Skirmishing on the web escalates. Footloose Montana, an anti-trapping group, posted the trapped wolf’s pictures on its website, drawing over a 1,000 comments within days. Word spread. Nabeki, founder of Howling for Justice, opined that “This wolf will be the face of the cruelty and ugliness that is the Idaho hunt…Our forests are hiding acts of unspeakable horrors that are being perpetuated on innocent animals.” Protesters called Idaho and Montana tourist bureaus, demanding the hunts end. By Monday, March 26, Trapperman learned that its photos now circulated offsite. The group’s administrator demanded that Footloose Montana remove the photographs.

Footloose staff and board members also received an anonymous death threat in their email: “I would like to donate [sic] a gun to your childs [sic] head to make sure you can watch it die slowly so I can have my picture taken with it’s [sic] bleeding dying screaming for mercy body. YOU WILL BE THE TARGET NEXT BITCHES!” FBI agents and Missoula, Montana police received copies of the threat.

Wolf advocates hope that these pictures will go viral, shaming a nation into facing the torture people inflict on animals and the moral and political failures that promote and legitimize it.”

**Special thanks to “Earth Island Journal” for providing this information!

Posted in Wolf Current Events | 15 Comments »

Livestock Predation by Wolves

March 22, 2012 by wolfpreservation


The following information is provided by “The Wolf Almanac” by Robert Busch (1995 edition).

“According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “wolf predation of livestock–sheep, poultry, and cattle–does occur, but it is uncommon enough behavior in the species as a whole to be called aberrant.”

Many studies have shown that ninety-nine percent of all farmers and ranchers in wolf territory will not be bothered by wolves.  Of over 7,000 farmers in northern Minnesota, where over 1,700 wolves inhabit the area, only an average of twenty-five ranchers per year suffered verified predation from wolves between 1975 and 1989.  In Canada, only one percent of 1,608 wolf scats collected in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park contained remnants of livestock. 

In one study in Spain, half of all the “wolf kills” that were investigated were found to be caused by feral dogs.  According to William J. Paul of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where wolf predation on livestock does occur, “most losses occur in summer when livestock are released to graze in open and wooded pastures.”

In many cases, preventative farming practices would eliminate predation.  The Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division recommends the following animal husbandry practices in wolf habitat:

  • cattlemen should check their herds regularly.
  • only healthy and non-pregnant cows should be sent to pasture.
  • livestock should be removed from pasture as early as possible in the fall.
  • carrion should be buried or removed as soon as possible. (In one Minnesota study by the U.S. and Wildlife Service, 63 percent of 111 farmers surveyed either left dead livestock in place or just dragged it to the edge of the woods.)
  • grazing leases on remote public lands should be phased out.ranchers should keep animals out of remote pastures after dusk and pen them in corrals where they can be watched.

Other measures include the use of  battery-operated flashing highway lights in animals corrals and fladry.  Livestock guard dogs and electric fences have also some potential in reducing predation.  In Ontario, biologists are experimenting with painting sticky substances on the backs of sheep, which seems to deter predators.  The European practice of using shepherds to guard livestock is also worthy of consideration, as is diversionary feeding, or providing alternative food sources.

It is politically crucial that compensation be paid to farmers who do suffer wolf predation.  The existence of compensation schemes goes a long way toward improving ranchers’ attitudes toward wolves.  It is also crucial that payment be prompt;  Portugal, when payments were delayed, farmers took to setting poisoned carcasses on the edges of woods to register their complaint.”

Posted in Facts and Figures, Wolf Preservation Efforts | 4 Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »