During the reign of Al Capone, when organized crime syndicates held Chicago in a stranglehold, a response team known as “The Untouchables” was formed to restore sanity to the war-torn city. With politicians and the cops in their back pockets, the crime bosses of yesteryear were able to act with impunity—to get away with murder, so to speak.

An analogous situation exists today, with anti-wolf fanatics in the role of the organized crime gangs and wolves as innocent victims. With corrupt state legislators and wildlife agencies in their pockets, organized wolf-haters are flexing their political muscles to push anti-wolf laws through everywhere the embattled canines can be found.

Some recent examples include: wolf hating troops to pressure the USFWS to delist wolves across the US., Big Game Forever, Don Peay and the Utah Legislature want to stop wolves from returning to Utah and, posted by Ralph Maughan on his website on March 26, Anti-wolf, anti-wilderness going after “pro-wolf” Washington state commissioners in hearing today…

Efforts by Washington state anti-wolf forces intercepted-

Below is an alert from anti-wolf folks in Washington State. This is an interesting example of the kind of email campaign that is being used by anti-wolf forces in a state where pro-wolf opinion is strong.

Those who support wilderness and wolves and other wildlife might want to do just the opposite of the recommendations below.
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Eliminate Pro-Wolf Wildlife Commissioners Now!

This is the most important thing that you can do to help hunting and the increasing wolf problem in our state. The Republicans are giving us this opportunity on a silver platter. Remember, all four guys up for confirmation on the Wildlife Commission have had a state senate hearing and they were not voted on. They can sit unconfirmed until their term expires without ever having another hearing. They don’t have to be voted on, but now they are being brought up for a vote. The Senate Natural Resources Committee Chair is bringing these guys up for hearings even though he doesn’t have to. The writing is so clear. The hunting community and ranchers are being thrown a political bone. This session Republicans were unified on gun issues. They only had two or three defecters at most on the anti-gun legislation. The GOP finally has some political clout and they are willing to do what the Democrats do – share the wealth with people that support them. I am a political realist whose passion is preserving our Second Amendment and right to hunt. Republicans in this state want to be our allies, now we have to do our part. We may never again have a chance to make a bigger splash than this. The Republicans on the committee need to hear from us and so does Hargrove. There are pro-hunting Democrats who support managing wolves 100%.

First we need to achieve our goal with each of these commissioner confirmations in committee, then the commissioners will face a vote by the full Senate. There’s a fair chance of influencing these confirmations because the full Senate did approve two of Senator Smith’s wolf bills which are now in the House. These wildlife commissioner confirmations only go before the Senate, so we do not have to worry about passing in the House. Therefore we only have two hurdles, getting the committee to vote as we would like and then getting the full Senate to vote as we would like. It’s a numbers game and it’s hard to know exactly how many messages we need to send to accomplish this goal, so we need as many messages sent as possible. Ask friends, family and any groups you belong, ask anyone you think you can convince to send email or call today.

As of Friday March 22 a Washington legislator informed us that nobody is contacting the Senate Committee regarding the confirmation of the four Wildlife Commissioners on March 26. This is the perfect chance for hunters, fishers, ranchers, and other concerned persons to have a direct impact on the Wildlife Commission. The hearing for confirmations is at 1:30 pm on March 26.

Please take 1 or 2 minutes and call or email: DO IT NOW IF YOU WANT A CHANGE!

CALL:
The committee assistant is Katharine Grimes (360) 786-7419 and ask her to forward a messages to each committee member to CONFIRM Wildlife Commissioners Mahnken and Carpenter and to OPPOSE Wildlife Commissioners Jennings and Kehne.

EMAIL: (copy and paste email list)
Kirk.Pearson@leg.wa.gov; John.Smith@leg.wa.gov; Christine.Rolfes@leg.wa.gov; Jim.Hargrove@leg.wa.gov; Mike.Hewitt@leg.wa.gov; Adam.Kline@leg.wa.gov; Linda.Parlette@leg.wa.gov;

(copy and paste subject)
Confirmation of WDFW Wildlife Commissioners

(copy and paste message or write your own)
Senate Natural Resources and Parks Committee

RE: Confirmation of WDFW Wildlife Commissioners