William White turned out to be a serial poacher. He pleaded guilty not only to killing wolves, but to importing an illegally poached moose and deer from Alberta.
November 14, 2014 |
An alliance of wildlife groups, including the Woodland Park Zoo, are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons who killed a breeding female wolf in the state’s Teanaway wolf pack.
The dead wolf was discovered in the Salmon la Sac area, north of Cle Elum, on Oct. 28 and had been dead for about 10 days.
“It is our hope that this reward will help law enforcement bring the person responsible for the killing of this wolf to justice and defer future tragic killings,” said Shawn Cantrell of Defenders of Wildlife.
Poachers have posed a problem since the gray wolf began repopulating the Washington Cascades, and the Kettle and Selkirk mountains in Northeast Washington, early in the past decade.
One group was caught and punished. In 2012, three members of an Okanogan County family were each fined $73,000, and two sentenced to home confinement, for killing two wolves — including a breeding female — from the Lookout pack in the Methow Valley.
Senior U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen rejected a slap-on-the-wrist probation penalty negotiated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Spokane. Instead, he sentenced William White to six months’ home confinement, and his son Tom White to three months.
William White turned out to be a serial poacher. He pleaded guilty not only to killing wolves, but to importing an illegally poached moose and deer from Alberta.
The Whites were apprehended after the third person in the case, Erin White, apparently tried to ship a blood-dripping parcel to Canada from the Federal Express office in Okanogan. It contained a wolf pelt. She claimed it was a rug.
There were 52 wolves in Washington as of the end of last year. Canis lupus is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act through the entire Cascade Range. East of U.S. Route 97, which runs north-south in Central Washington, wolves enjoy state protection.
“The tragic, illegal killing of yet another alpha female clearly demonstrates why all our state’s gray wolves need protection,” said Dan Paul of the Humane Society of Washington.
The state Department of Wildlife has worked closely with Kittitas Valley ranchers and conservationists to minimize conflicts between the Teanaway Pack and commercial livestock operations. The pack’s habitat centers in a wild area at the border of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area.
Anybody with evidence on the latest wolf poaching is urged to call federal enforcement at 206-512-9329 or 509-727-8358, or state enforcement at 1-877-933-9847.
Exposing the Big Game 
Reward? I say “bounty”! Skip the (non existent) trial. Precious wolves are FAR more valuable than any twisted psychopathic serial-killing humans that murder wolves…or other (non-human) animals for that matter…I am SICK of the IMBALANCE of it all!! ☻
Glad to see this, go after the wildlife hate killers, the wolf and other predator hate killers, the poachers. Legal, “sports” killing, hunting seasons are horrendous enough.
Hunting is not “fair chase” in any circumstance, except when the game pulls a surprise attack and changes the equation of who is hunted. Man is using scoped powerful, far reaching rifles, ATV’s, high powered binoculars and other technology to get to and find and kill the game. The targeted “game” did not ask to play the “fair chase” game and there is not an equal chance of death on both sides of the game. One side views the other as recreational opportunities, the other side views the situation as an escape from horror, death and injury, or injury, pain and death. Subsistence hunting evolved into sports hunting and killers of wildlife are called sportsmen. We are long past subsistence hunting as a defensible argument. We rather rapidly turned away from that when humans turned to agriculture and animal farming and human population exploded and continues to do so. Animal farming (AKA ranching) is also unsustainable with 7 billion people going to 10-11 billion by end of the century. Wildlife is being hit hard on multiple sides: rancher, farmer, extraction industry, development encroachments and sports killing (AKA hunting), and wildlife agencies’ killing. So, hopefully, “if it does not feel right, don’t do it” spreads to more and more of the population. Sport killing, hunting, leads to a distortion of wildlife ecology with farming of target game species and a minimization and marginalization of predators and wildlife agencies’ killing and farming for hunters. It is animal slaughter in a horrendous scale with humans killing 27 million animals daily for food, and that is not counting the sea life and hunting. Half the world’s animals have disappeared in the last 40 years.
Hunting suggestion: If it feels wrong, don’t do it
Editorial board says hunters should follow fair chase approach to big-game hunting.
Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com: http://gftrib.com/1qLy5Pt
“Hunters”, “Sportsmen” ??
Did the hunters just want the meat or did they just like the killing or did they just enjoy being out in the wilderness ? How many Elmer Fudd Nimrods does it take to kill an elk? Are they conservationists? Are they sportsmen? Was it fair chase? Was it stand your ground? Did they do it just so the elk would not have to suffer the winter or starve? Did they do it to spare the elk from “predators”? There must be a sportsmen explanation (rationalization)?
“3 hunters cited after dozens shot into herd of elk”
Two were hunters from great falls Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com:http://gftrib.com/1u7ICcE”
Hunter describes controversial elk hunt
‘It sounded like a war going on.’
Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com: http://gftrib.com/1qBnkz8
“Fair Chase
“If the purpose of hunting is only to kill an
animal, then the process is moot; we contain the
technological ability to kill all animals.”
–Allen Morris Jones
The phrase “fair chase” has a very specific meaning in the hunting world. The Boone and Crockett Club defines it as “the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, native North American big-game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper advantage over such animals.” This means fair-chase hunters pursue their quarry on foot; hone their skills so they make quick, clean kills; and obey the law.”
The Whites were apprehended after the third person in the case, Erin White, apparently tried to ship a blood-dripping parcel to Canada from the Federal Express office in Okanogan. It contained a wolf pelt. She claimed it was a rug.
She never did seem like the sharpest tool in the shed. I’d love to pitch in some bucks to catch these, er, people.
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