http://www.care2.com/causes/wolf-hunter-gets-it-all-wrong-in-interview-but-hes-on-the-winning-side.html
- by Alicia Graef
- October 9, 2013
In a short video recently released, the Center for Biological Diversity asks if you would pay $19 to kill a wolf. You probably wouldn’t, but 6,000 people in Montana just did.
Montana has an estimated 625 wolves left. Sadly, new changes to the hunting season, which started in September, could prove to be a disaster for those remaining wolves. It was extended to run for six months during which time hunters will now be allowed to take five wolves each, and they’ll be able to use traps, bait and electronic calls. The extra long season could also put pregnant and nursing females in the crosshairs because they’ll be allowed to continue through the spring. As an added bonus for hunters, out of state hunting fees have been reduced from $350 to $50.
In an attempt to get the other side of the story, the Digital Journal’s Justin King interviewed Montana hunter Jason Maxwell, who runs a pro-wolf hunting Facebook page. According to him, no one wants wolves in the state, and they “should be hunted 24/7 just like the coyote.” He also believes they were never actually endangered because there are thousands in Canada and Alaska and that people who don’t live in wolf states shouldn’t get to have an opinion.
While he sounds almost reasonable in the interview, he spews vitriol in the comments section and elsewhere on the Internet, proving that, at least for some, wolf hunting is about nothing more than hate, arrogance, intolerance and sometimes petty revenge. While he cites numbers from the state, trying to get a straight answer from wildlife officials about where the science is and how they came up with them in the first place is apparently as easy as trying to herd cats.
Last year, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks reported that 225 wolves were killed – 128 by hunters, 97 by trappers – during the 2012-2013 season. This was an increase from the previous year, with more than half of the wolves being killed on public lands. Another 104 were killed by the state throughout the year.
Conservationists fear the consequences of such policies if hunting is allowed to continue at this rate under state management. This year, Wyoming wants to reduce numbers by 60 percent, which will leave only abut 100 wolves. Since they lost ESA protection in the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies, more than 1,700 have been brutally killed.
When asked whether the government or environmentalists have hunters’ interests at heart, Maxwell responded that the “pro wolf side is fighting for the preservation of one animal while hunters and sportsmen are fighting for the preservation of all wildlife. The introduction is not just about the wolf it is also about maintaining the wildlife the wolf preys on.”
If that were true, predators would have dibs on prey, and if anything still needed to be “managed” then maybe human interference could be justified. In Montana’s case, indiscriminate killing with the sole intent to reduce the number of wolves to appease special interest groups isn’t management; It’s just a bloodbath.
Also, for conservationists, fighting to protect an apex predator and keystone species has beneficial cascading effects on other species, including plants, in the environments they’re present in. For some areas, they’re also a popular tourist draw which helps support local economies.
When it comes to wolf management, the very agencies charged with keeping track of numbers and deciding their fate have a serious conflict of interest due to the facts that hunting licenses generate revenue and there are no consequences for poor management policies or ignoring science unless the wolf population drops below the number required by the federal government, at which point they would lose management authority.
The Feds Still Want Them Off the Endangered Species List
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is still defending its proposal to remove Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for all wolves in the lower 48, with the exception of Mexican gray wolves, despite how terrible state management has proven to be.
As of September, there were 18,000 public comments opposing the delisting. There were also three public hearings scheduled; While one hearing in Washington D.C. took place, the other two in California and New Mexico were canceled thanks to the shutdown. However, organizations are still calling for more public hearings in states where wolves live or may appear so the public can actually have an opportunity to weigh in.
An independent peer review is also required to remove a species from the ESA. However, at the end of the summer the process was put on hold when three scientists were kicked off the peer review because they had added their names to a letter that was sent to the Department of the Interior questioning the science behind the proposal to delist wolves.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, this is the first time the FWS has put restrictions on scientists who may have an “affiliation with an advocacy position.” In this case the scientists in question didn’t necessarily have a stance as wolf advocates, they just did exactly what they were supposed to do. They looked at the available data and formed an opinion. Their opinions just didn’t match the objectives of the FWS, so they got blacklisted.
The FWS should continue to do its job, which is to ensure wolves are not subjected to out of control hunting policies and intolerance or the special interests of very vocal hunting and ag groups who continue to call for more to die.
Keeping ESA protection for wolves in the lower 48 won’t impact decisions in the northern Rocky Mountains or western Great Lakes, where wolves are present, but it will keep protections for the rest who are venturing into their historic range in other parts of the U.S. where there is suitable habitat in Pacific Northwest, southern Rocky Mountains, Northeast and California. Their continued survival depends on their ability to expand, instead of being confined by arbitrary lines they’ll never understand.
TAKE ACTION!
There’s still time to speak up on behalf of wolves. Since the peer review debacle, the FWS has extended the comment period until October 28. Please submit a comment asking that wolves remain protected under the ESA.
As for Maxwell, yes there is a petition calling on Facebook to shut down his page for promoting violence towards animals if you care to sign it.
Exposing the Big Game 
people are so inane! when the wolf is extinct because of our stupidity and selfishness, then those same people will have the audacity to cry “What a pity!”. (sorry, Its an outrage)
No need to apologize, we share your outrage.
Very well done, thank you Jim! I reposted. Time is running out!
As for state Fish and Game bureaucrats… most are appointed by the powers that be, skillset optional. The best way to get rid of these idiots is to get rid of their bosses. Conflict of interest issues seem not to be a problem for these people, who have little or no knowledge of or care for, the will of the people.
It is time to start turning the law suit screw harder, faster and more often so that they learn the will of the people, even if it is the only way to teach them that we don’t live in a dictatorship and they don’t run the show, they are employees that work for the people of the state, ALL the people, not just the monied special interests.
Yes, everyone sign the petitions, go on record and be counted as pro nature as it was and is meant to be! Native Americans lived in harmony with wolves for 15,000 years. They raised them to the level of spiritual guides and wise keepers of the Earth.
The systemic failure of modern society to teach civics to children as the dumbing of America races out of control, leaves many of us elders wondering if our grandchildren will be the last generation to know the few beautiful places left on Earth and appreciate the purity of a perfectly balanced natural environment in those few wild places.
Lastly, I must remind you all of my trip to the Sanford, Maine library, where I found the USFWS ‘Wolves of Yellowstone’ children’s book in the discarded bin. This made me sad beyond words as it dawned on me that the Children’s Librarian feared so much for the innocent hearts and minds of the children that she discarded the book that would have taught them to love wolves in nature. I have that book now. I use it as a talking point.
Children are the future and the winds of change so sorely needed now! The last thing we should do is shelter them from the knowledge of the errors of ‘wildlife management’ and the dream of saving the wolves and our environment! We must spare them of the horrible acts of cruelty by humans until they are older and will understand mental illness and have the skills to process such evil acts done by the few to so many animals and people. I fear most for those lost children posing with a gun and a heap of once beautiful wild creatures, just reduced to ‘fur’. It is worse than Roman Civilization’s end times. These subhumans throw their own children to ‘the lions, wolves and bears’ for one stupid facebook photo op! Does it get any lower, any sicker than heaping your own child on a pile of dead bodies, handing them a gun and telling them to smile for the camera? Even the Nazi’s didn’t do that!
Excellent post. Thank you!
Thanks, Geoff! I love it when you pop up, hope your writing is going well? 🙂
Please feel free to use this as a speech, all you have to do is change the part about the Wolves of Yellowstone to “a friend went to the library… ” and it should work fine. It was written to be used that way. Go change hearts and minds! Win the Wolf Wars for the good of all creatures including man and wolves.
I took action and I will reblog.
Reblogged this on Girl for Animal Liberation.
I haven’t forgotten you, I’m just out straight trying to educate people before it is too late for the wolves to ever recover!
Not to worry. I locked myself out of my Gmail account. I’m going to create a new email account. When I do, I’ll let you know.
Keep up the fight.
🙂
Reblogged this on Wolf Is My Soul.
Reblogged this on Wolf Is My Soul and commented:
NO!! Makes no sense whatsoever!!
I don’t care what anyone says about that this slaughter of wolves or coyotes or any wild animal for that matter should be exterminated so they can get them from other states. They are ignorant. The are slowly exterminating a beautiful sources out of hate and being totally ignorant. Where should they go? If they don’t want them transport them where they will be loved, appreciated and respected but to kill them to exterminate them and in such a cruel manner? I understand if they are threatening someone like a child and there is no other option but the rest is cruel. What can they do? They don’t understand that man has taken away their territories and have no where to go but where they roamed before. So help them out by taking them elsewhere. Don’t slaughter them and for such a measly fee. It’s disgusting!
Victoria, you are correct. I have been preaching rescue the wild wolves! What is worse, a wolf pup growing up in a safe but natural enclosure or being gasses to death in their dens by wildlife services or nailed by the paws to a tree to draw out the whole pack just so the psycho can kill them all!
It has come time to rescue. The laws need to be bent now because there is no way that we can stop the slaughter legally, fast enough. No time to screw around, make connections for rescue to transport to sanctuary. The wild is no longer safe for the alpha female to give birth and raise her young. The alpha females are targets prised by psychos. They gut-shoot them, pull out the embrionic pups and photograph the torture to post on their sicko wolf hater sites! It’s a preferential serial killer profile. This is done to women, blessedly, not very often but often enough to have it’s own profile. I haven’t heard of humans posted online but the FBI certainly studies these especially brutal crimes. If the wolf haters did that to a human, they would get life in prison and probably be killed by other inmates? Some people just plain suck! Until animals have laws to protect them, we, with knowledge and kind hearts must open our homes to those critically endangered animals. Or if that is impossible, do transport and volunteer at the sanctuary. There are people working to change the laws, more people need to be rescuing packs used to being around people because they always end up dead eventually. I saw a wolf with a broken leg trying to cross an interstate highway, people doing 80mph, not even slowing down. My vehicle was crammed with people, I had no choice but to drive by slowly and pray for a vet to drive up and care for him. If I had room it would have been different. The poor wolf was thin as a rail. He was probably once a pet. People think setting pet wolves free is kind- it isn’t. It’s a death sentence.
Well I signed the petition to shut down the page on Facebook, along with many other petitions to help the wolves,along with other wildlife issues, but I look today and I was surprised that there is only a little over 2,300 people that signed. Amazing for people that really want things to stop, they don’t want to seem to put there names to a petition! Or are they that few of us that care ?
Sorry! I meant they don’t seems to want to put their names to a petition! What a joke!!!