[Here’s yet another friend’s testimony to the WDFW hearing]:
I am appalled that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) killed the alpha female of the Huckleberry Pack and plan to kill other wolves in the pack. In other countries, endangered species are lost due to habitat destruction, over-hunting, and poaching. Here, in addition to the above, we have wildlife agents killing and supporting the killing of endangered species.
The Eastern Washington wolves were removed from the federal Endangered Species List, but it was politics at its worst and not science that caused them to be removed. They are still endangered and at risk of extinction, especially with the all-out war on wolves going on.
Under Washington state code, the primary mandate for the Department of Fish and Wildlife is to “protect, preserve and perpetuate” our state’s wildlife. Gunning down wolves along with their pups to protect sheep and cattle grazing, especially on state and federal land, is abhorrent, a crime against nature, and goes against state code.
Why is the state killing wolves to protect sheep and cattle ranchers, especially when they are already being paid for animal losses and in many cases grazing their animals on state and federal lands for next to nothing? According to the USDA less than one quarter of one percent of cattle are lost to predators, which include dogs. It should be up to the ranchers to protect their animals by using fencing, guard dogs, etc. They should also buy insurance to protect themselves from losses just like every other business.
After slaughtering the Wedge Pack, WDFW Director Phil Anderson stated “Going out and killing wildlife is not what this agency is all about.” This comment is disingenuous or he does not have a clue as to what his department does. Unfortunately, killing is what WDFW is all about. They sell hunting and trapping licenses to kill wildlife. They try to recruit more people including women and children to kill wildlife. They raise animals for killing. They “manage” wildlife to increase the numbers of animals to be killed by hunters. Killing is their primary business. Apparently killing the Huckleberry pack is just continuing business as usual.
I also find it appalling that WDFW would not even accept calls about the wolf slaughter. This shows a closed mind. It is highly dismissive and disrespectful. It is in essence thumbing their nose at the citizens of the state.
I had hoped better of my state government.
Exposing the Big Game 
Sickened…the evil cockroaches will continue to operate as usual until the LIGHT is shone on them for what they do!
The sad fact that these agencies are paid by tax payers and it’s their job to protect wildlife, and they continue killing, means they need to be relinquished from their ‘Job’.
We are losing are wolves at an alarming rate and it just isn’t ok for these agencies and states to continue killing them.
Shared on our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/TheAnimalSpirits
Excellent commentary.
Fire the Wildlife Agencies (USFWS, Interior, state agencies, USDA Wildlife Services, BLM)
The US government has long been in the wildlife killing business. It offered bounties on predators, poisoned and gassed prairie dogs, allowed the near extinction of bison, prairie dogs, black footed ferret, the wolf (wolf bounties), wolverine, and marginalized the grizzly, lion, and many others. The war on coyotes has been unrelenting. Hunters and ranchers, bedfellows of the wildlife agencies nearly wiped out most wildlife. With the advent of wildlife agency hunting regulations, the hunter has been somewhat contained; and now even count themselves as “conservationists” because they have essentially farmed game sport (recreational killing opportunities) animals and marginalized predators on the erroneous rationale of less predators to share game with the more game (recreational killing opportunities). Instead of an emphasis on wilderness and wildlife ecology, USDA Wildlife Services kills nearly 4 million animals a year and state agencies millions more in recreational killing opportunities and “management”. State wildlife agencies use hunters to “manage” “sporting” game and predators. Ranchers may tolerate big bird and other sport game birds, elk, bison and deer and antelope; but are very hostile to predators. Ranchers and farmers destroy wildlife habitat with the plow and grazing not only on private land but ever more and more on public land facilitated by the US government in leased grazing, leased farming and leases to extraction industries avenues. Encroachers on public land often, in turn, adding insult added to injury, asks the federal government, such as Wildlife Service, to kill animals that are convincing their encroachment. Conservation efforts and new agencies such as ESA and EPA and private conservation agencies have and are battling for balanced ecologies, the predators, and many animals of no concern to sportsmen, ranchers and farmers, and extraction industries and development interests. Agencies, like the USFWS often cave into ranchers hunters, state wildlife agencies, conservative state legislatures, a government tradition of really prioritizing those interests. The arguments that threatens remaining wilderness and wildlife is as old as civilization, making a buck by the traditional enemies of wildlife. What is not appreciated enough is what little is left: In the US roughly 2.6 % in the lower 48 and another 2.5 % in Alaska; and this is under continuing and unremitting pressure from, guess what, the traditional enemies of wilderness and wildlife, still too often facilitated by the wildlife agencies. Private conservation agencies often find themselves in conflict with wildlife agencies who should be on their side and the side of preserving wilderness, balanced wildlife ecology, and the predators who are essential to the balanced wildlife ecology. The wildlife agencies, state and federal, need firing and revamping to emphasize wildlife preservation, wildlife viewing, and a heritage of wilderness and wildlife in what is left of the available habitat. There is something terribly wrong when we see wildlife agencies aligning with ranchers, farmers, “sportsmen”, conservative state legislatures. It is time for major upheavals of them, their agendas, their heads and replacing them with priorities on preserving, recovering, protecting what is left of wilderness and wildlife, not siding with the traditional enemies of wildlife and wilderness (ranching, hunters, conservative state legislatures and populace, extraction industries, and development and such parochial ilk that echoes their sentiments)
Wolves do not purchase hunting licenses, and most state wildlife managers draw their pay from revenue derived from sale of hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses. That, in brief, is what is wrong with wildlife management in America….Ted Williams, 1986
“To look into the eyes of a wolf is to see your own soul.” Aldo Leopold
“Whenever and wherever men have engaged in the mindless slaughter of animals (including other men), they have often attempted to justify their acts by attributing the most vicious or revolting qualities to those they would destroy; and the less reason there is for the slaughter, the greater the campaign for vilification.”
― Farley Mowat, naturalist, conservationist and autho
r of Never Cry Wolf
I agree, it’s time to stand up the the state game departments and USDA Wildlife Services, and not put them in charge of wolf protection. But I’m sorry to see you quote propaganda from people like Field and Stream columnist Ted Williams, who argue that hunters pay the salaries of employees of these agencies. I have seen too many comments from environmental lobbyists, including some on this blog, endorsing this system of bribery, and arguing that more people should participate in the corruption.
I have allready made my comment yu and Ohio are premeditated wolf hate hunt KILLERS!!!