Idaho is going to kill 90% of the state's wolves. That's a tragedy - and bad policy
Kim Heacox
Fed by myths, fairytales and Disney, America’s demonization of wolves has been going on for centuries, and continues full throttle
Wed 12 May 2021 06.14 EDT
Nothing embodies wildness like wolves, our four-legged shadow, the dogs that long ago refused our campfire and today prefer freedom and risk over the soft sofa and short leash. The dogs that howl more than bark, add music to the land, and – if left alone to work their magic – make entire ecosystems healthy and whole.
Witness Yellowstone, a national park reborn in the 1990s when wolves, absent for 70 years, were reintroduced. Everything changed for the better. Elk stopped standing around like feedlot cattle. They learned to run like the wind again. Streamside willows and other riparian vegetation, previously trampled by the elk, returned as well, and with it, a chorus of birds. All because of wolves.
Yet in the state of Idaho, new legislation signed days ago by Governor Brad Little will allow professional hunters and trappers to use helicopters, snowmobiles, ATVs, night vision equipment, snares and other means to kill roughly 90% of the state’s wolves, knocking them down from an estimated 1,500 to 150. A group of retired state, federal and tribal wildlife managers wrote to Little asking him to veto the wolf kill bill, saying statewide livestock losses to wolves have been under 1% for cattle and 3% for sheep. The group further noted that the overall elk population has actually increased since wolves were reintroduced into Idaho more than two decades ago. It made no difference.
Why exterminate the wolves? To make the country safe for cattle and sheep; more productive for deer, elk, caribou and moose. To better fill hunters’ freezers with winter meat. To sell the pelts.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/12/idaho-wolves-environment-animals-policy
Governor Brad Little with friend.
= new reply since forum marked as read
We are so stupid when it comes to wolves, and for that matter, coyotes.
You can have wolves or coyotes. Wolves avoid people, stay out of your trash can
and don’t eat your pets. Coyotes do all of the above and will also go after calves and lambs. Dumb asses.
Encouraged by The-Destructor-In-Chief.
Can't even give them enough time to be relocated. I'm wondering if the U.S. Interior Dept. would get involved in this, since no doubt, a lot of the slaughter would be done on our public lands.
Wolves don't hold a candle to the bloodlust of humans.
