BOISE, Idaho (AP) — State wildlife officials have hired a hunter to eliminate two wolf packs in a federal wilderness area in central Idaho because officials say they are eating too many elk calves.
Fish and Game Bureau Chief Jeff Gould tells the Idaho Statesman that hunters are having a difficult time getting into the Frank Church-River of No Return wilderness, so the agency hired hunter-trapper Gus Thoreson of Salmon to kill the wolves in the Golden and Monumental packs.
The U.S. Forest Service allowed the state agency to use an airstrip and cabin in the Payette National Forest as a base.
Fish and Game paid $22,500 for aerial killing of 14 wolves in the Lolo area in 2012. Gould said Monday he didn’t know how much the agency would end up paying for Thoreson’s salary and expenses.
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Make no mistake, Idaho officials and their constituents aren’t concerned about elk for the elk’s sake. They want ’em all for themselves–especially the big-antlered, trophy ones. Here are headlines for a couple more articles on the subject, linked from the same page:
Hunters Bemoan Idaho Elk Numbers, Blame Wolves
Elk Hunters Face Tougher Test with Wolves in Woods
Exposing the Big Game 
In a federal “Wilderness” Area. Unbelievable!
And the US Forest Service is supplying the landing strip in the otherwise protected, roadless wilderness!!
Hunters have got to be the biggest crybabies around. “Waaaaaaaaaaa, the wolves are killing all the elk. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. There aren’t enough elk for us to kill anymore. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa. We’re all gonna starve to death now. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” And on and on ad nauseam. What a bunch of egotistical jackasses hunters are.
Yep, spoiled and self-centered
I really wish they would shoot/hunt one another.
Yeah Amen to that!
terrible. craziness.
So first is this coyote-wolf hunting “contest”, but first we have to kill more… because “They’re killing too many elk calves”… Why isn’t anyone picking up on this? That has the be the lamest most pathetic excuse I’ve ever heard. God, I wish we could load one (or all) of these C-130s up with daisy cutters and reduce that horrible state to a parking lot…
Now there’s an idea I could get behind!
On a totally unrelated topic and because you would likely know, what would be the effect of an armor-piercing round from a Barrett .50 caliber rifle on the engine of a small plane or helicopter carrying, let’s say, paid wolf-exterminators on a mission? Just wondering.
It’d probably go through the engine, anything in the cockpit, and out of the tail. Never know unless we try though…
How much proof does Interior, USFWS need to prove that wolves should not be delisted? WY has them classified as varmints in most of the state. Montana’s new rules allow ranchers to shoot any wolf they see as “threatening”, which means any wolf they see, and will have year around trapping. Idaho is having killing wolves contests for cash and has hired a hunter to kill a couple of packs arguing that it is in defense of elk herds. Wisconsin is using dogs. MT-WY-ID-WI are obviously marginalizing this apex predator which is good for ecology and flora and fauna trophic cascade of effects, which hunters and sports killing is not. We are rapidly getting back to the 1800’s in theses wolf massacring states. Wolf management–they do not generally need management, should be out of the states’ hands. They are too controlled by hunters, ranchers and their ilk in the state wildlife agencies and legislatures, with so far the only exception is OR and somewhat WA.
very well said, roger
If they’re using a plane I hope they get vaporlock,and if they’re using a chopper, I hope a stray bullet hits one of the rotary blades‼
How can they justify wiping out packs like this? This is what wolves do…. they eat elk. It is becoming blatantly obvious that these groups mean to wipe wolves out entirely – they think we haven’t cottoned on yet. We will never stop fighting for the wolf!
They are the “entitled” humans !
Get real they are f’ing up the entire place .. Really kill the wolves because they are eating elk???
Really ?
Excuse me but isn’t this what they are meant to do ? Part of the ecosystem bro!
This is annihilation 101 ! And we are headed to a dirty nasty end fooling around with Mother Nature !
Bad juju!
So, so, so utterly insane and self serving, STUPID and immoral.
Beam me up outta this place..
Idaho is cuckoo !!!!!
A THOUSAND CURSES UPON YOU, IDAHO!!!
MAY YOUR STATE GO DOWN IN FLAMES,
WHEN GOD RENDERS HIS FINAL JUDGMENT!!!!!
Redneck trophy hunters are the REAL vermin!!!
They’re panderers to Satan!!!
Destroy them, NOT our wolves!!!
Idaho shall be condemned as the “Anti-Christ State”.
Idaho’s officials and their SSS henchmen are panderers to Satan!!!
May they perish in the fiery Abyss of Eternal Death!!!
GO TO HELL, GOVERNOR OTTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ENTITLED WELFARE HUNTERS get their way. What a bunch of whining idiots!
Did they ever stop to think that THEY take down all the big bucks…? reducing the population and the breeders by huge amounts? killing 20 wolves will allay their own issue? they are truly Mad and without morals in Idaho…scapegoating the wolf will not make your hunting better foolish folks. UGLY LOGIC
To Massacre OUR WOLVES for their elk hunts is beyond comprehension!