Co-authored by Jessica Johnson, chief legislative officer, Animal Protection of New Mexico; and Greta Anderson, deputy director, Western Watersheds Project

Wolf Killer Should Be Charged with Animal Cruelty

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Last year, the American public learned about the brutal killing of an endangered Mexican gray wolf—identified as Mexican wolf number #1385 of the Willow Springs pack, and named “Mia Tuk” by an Albuquerque schoolchild—by a grazing permittee on the Gila National Forest in New Mexico.

The news reported that Mr. Craig Thiessen pleaded guilty in federal court in May 2018, acknowledging that in 2015 he intentionally captured the young male wolf in a trap and hit the animal with a shovel, in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act.

What we have since learned through documents released under…