Tag Archives: anti-wolf

Identifying and Dealing with the Anti-wolf Forces

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“Cartoon” from Save Western Wildlife’s Facebook page

In late December an “event page” on facebook was attacked.  The page was celebrating a prayer vigil for wolves that was to be held in Salem, Oregon.  And the attackers swooped down electronically the day after the event and filled the page with bloody pictures of wolf kills and fetal deer purported to have been “aborted” by wolves.  The action was disturbing and eerily like the protests held by the Westboro Baptist Church, where they show up where they are not wanted and act in the most offensive and inappropriate manner possible.
The Westboro mob is classified as a hate group and rightfully so.  They—like the anti-wolf folks—are generally overflowing with unbridled faith, strongly held opinions and self-righteousness and somewhat bereft of relevant education, understanding, or any form of tolerance or compassion.  Both groups are classic bigots in that they hold unfounded and yet deep beliefs and will not let facts or reason dissuade them from dishing out broadsides of vitriol towards the object of their scorn whether it be homosexuals, people of color, members of other religions or wolves.
Is Wolf Hatred Gateway Bigotry?
Do I go too far in linking bigotry against wolves with the same attitudes against individuals and sectors of the human population?  I don’t think so.  Studies have conclusively linked animal abuse to child abuse, domestic violence and even serial killing.  The experts assert that these acts are all parts of the same dangerous syndrome.  I strongly suspect that bigotry is a related syndrome and behaves the same way.  And I have seen enough human-directed bigotry—mainly racial, anti-Semitic and life-style directed—on the facebook pages of these anti-wolf actors and their compatriots to think that, once started, predator bigotry translates quite easily across the wildlife-to-human spectrum.

– See more at: http://www.cascwild.org/identifying-and-dealing-with-the-anti-wolf-forces-pg-13/#sthash.fhfrhp9Z.dpuf

Also see: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1052941

Wisconsin’s Wolf Kill Tally Now 181

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In Wisconsin, more wolves have been killed in 16 days than during the entire 2012 hunting and trapping season.

Yes, you read that correctly.

In just over two weeks, hunters and trappers in Wisconsin have killed off more than 181 wolves. This represents a horrible and disturbing trend of accelerated anti-wolf attitudes and killing.

How did this happen?

Reports suggest that the state Wolf Advisory Committee is now overrun by livestock and hunting and trapping interests – and the deck is now completely stacked against wolves.

We have to stop this before it’s too late. Please take action today and demand that balance be restored to the Wisconsin Wolf Advisory Committee!

This committee makes recommendations on quotas, policies and even population goals. But several scientific experts have been removed from the committee, and livestock and hunting and trapping interests have been added on in their place!

No outside scientists are on the committee, and only one pro-wolf group is represented. There are, however, seven livestock, hunting and trapping groups represented!

Demand that the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources stop this blatant anti-wolf bias!

We’ve come so far in our efforts to restore wolves to their historic range in the Great Lakes region. But with anti-wolf forces more aggressive than ever, we’re at a crossroads…

copyrighted Hayden wolf in lodgepoles

The War Against Wolves and Wildlife: Time to Stop the Killing

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[Note: The identities of these wolf-hating villains behind the masks are said to be, from left to right: Former Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, Int. Sec. Sally Jewell, Pres. Barack Obama, Former Pres. G.W. Bush, along with his squad of goons, and Dick Cheney, who tagged along hoping to chalk up another hunting accident.]

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Article by Camilla Fox, Project Coyote

By the time this blog goes live this photo will probably have been pulled from Facebook. The photo, titled “Wyoming is FED up,” is posted on the FB page, Sportsmen Against Wolves.

As of October 26th the photo had 563 likes and 307 shares, after being posted for less than three days. The posted public comments are disturbing:

“Love this!!!!! I fully understand the masks, yer not idiots like those daring you to show yer faces!!!! Keep on killing guys”

“Smoke a pack a day”

“Kill everyone you see boys!”

What is perhaps most disquieting about the photograph is the vigilante feel that echoes a lynch mob — dehumanize, vilify, and murder. Wolves are now reviled and persecuted in a land where they once roamed wild and free prior to European colonization.

While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to remove federal protections for gray wolves through most of their historic range in the lower 48 States, blatant hostility toward wolves, coyotes, bears and other native carnivores has intensified. Like the photo above, the vilification of predators has taken on a new hue: one associated with righteous patriotism. But all true Americans should be concerned about this tenor of violence and hatred toward other living beings. What lessons are we teaching young people when we show such blatant disrespect and denigration of wildlife?…when “we” proudly post photos of men with their bloodied victims on Facebook and Twitter? (see this video posted on Facebook of a reported wolf being shot in Idaho — warning: graphic) and when our own federal government condones this violence and wanton animal abuse in its lethal predator control programs?

Anti-wolf hatred fueled a 2011 Congressional rider that removed federal protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes thereby turning management over to the states in these regions. The result: In just seven days of this year’s wolf hunt in Wisconsin, 97 wolves were killed — about twice the pace at which wolves were killed last year, the state’s inaugural and very controversial wolf-hunt season. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources estimates the total state wolf population to be around 800 — and would like trappers and hunters to reduce the population to 350 — a number scientists say is not sustainable.

At least 1,321 wolves have been killed by trophy hunters and commercial and recreational trappers in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho alone. Montana sold over 6,000 wolf-hunting licenses this season; each license — $19 for state residents — allows a person to kill up to five wolves. The current wolf population in Montana is estimated at 625. Wolf watching generates approximately $30 million annually to the towns around Yellowstone; the cost to reintroduce and recover wolves into the Northern Rockies was estimated to be more than $150 million. What is the value of a wolf alive — over the course of his or her lifetime — compared to one-shot dead for a $19 wolf-hunting license? Ethics of recreational killing of wolves aside, economics does not justify this insanity.

Members of Congress, predator friendly ranchers, respected scientists have spoken out publicly against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to remove federal protections for wolves arguing that delisting is premature and is not scientifically sound. The Service has extended the public comment period regarding their proposal to delist wolves from the ESA and has rescheduled public hearings. If you want to see wolves in the wild please click here, take action, and make your voice heard. Then share this blog post with others. The Service will accept comments through December 17th. Check out Project Coyote’s homepage and Facebook page for more updates.

Follow Camilla Fox on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/projectcoyote

“Sportsmen” Against Wolves: “Wyoming is fed up”

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(Or did they mean to say, “overfed”?) Who do these people remind you of? (Hint: 3 letters, starting with K and ending with K.) Look at them hiding behind their Halloween masks. Sorry kids, we’re all out of candy; time to grow up. Note to wolf lovers: before you put a bead on the next childish bully wearing a white sheet over his face, you might want to wait until after the children’s holiday promoting that kind of thing is over. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=564330240283396

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‘Wolf’ shot by Lolo resident was a dog hybrid

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Wolf-dog hybrid shot

2013-10-24 missoulian.com

3 hours ago  •  By Rob Chaney

LOLO – What appeared to be a white wolf threatening a Lolo resident’s horses on Sunday was really something else.

“It turned out to be a wolf-dog hybrid,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wolf biologist Liz Bradley said on Wednesday. “It looked very wolfy, but it was neutered.”

The landowner shot and killed the dog after seeing it eyeing his horses Sunday morning. Bradley said she also got reports from a resident in Florence of a similar animal chasing her house cat up a tree.

“It’s a concern if somebody is releasing hybrids in the area,” she said. “Sometimes they can be more troublesome than wolves. They come a lot closer to people and can be dangerous.”

Bradley said she hadn’t had any other wolf incidents reported near homes in the Missoula or Bitterroot valleys this fall.

However, hunters have killed 12 wolves in FWP Region 2 since the 2013 season started on Sept. 15. The kills have been in the Bitterroot, lower Clark Fork River drainage and in the Blackfoot River drainage.

Statewide, hunters have taken 36 wolves this season. That number should grow rapidly when general big-game season opens Saturday.

In past seasons, most wolves have been shot by deer and elk hunters who encounter them by chance. Wolf hunting in Montana requires a $19, over-the-counter license.

FWP updates wolf hunting results online daily at fwp.mt.gov/hunting/planahunt/huntingGuides/wolf.

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[I don’t normally peruse the comments section in newspaper articles like this (my stomach is queasy enough already lately). This kind of comment is the reason why]:

onetwopunch – 4 hours ago As a hunter and an anti wolf advocate [hmm, he comes right out and admits it] I am pleased to see that even the hybrids are being shot here. I don’t own a ranch but my elk [what makes them “his” elk?] are suffering and it makes it really hard for us hunters to sell out of state hunters Montana elk when the dang wolfs [by “wolfs,” I assume he means “wolves”] are eating them up!! outfitting is one of the most important industries in Montana and we don’t need stupid wolfs killing off our children and our elk. Get with it Missoula and join us in eradicating these vermin! At $2000.00 per elf [by “elf;” I assume he meant “elk”;)] we cannot afford to lose any to predators.

Just Call Me a Cow Hugger

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People often ask if I get a lot of uninvited remarks from anti-wolf or pro-hunting trolls. The answer is, not as many as you might think. It seems the smart hunters (again, not so many as you might suppose) know better than to waste their time writing to this blog, since any pro-kill comments go straight to the cyber-round file never to reach the light of day. I usually know right away which comments are from hunters; they’re the ones that start off with, “You people are all a bunch of tree huggers…” (Guilty as charged.)

But there are others whose comments also deserve being jettisoned off the cyber-map. I’m talking about those single-minded “wolf people” who blame the cows themselves for the persecution of wolves, as though cows enjoy their lot in life and are part of a grand conspiracy against predators, in league with the very ranchers who brand, dehorn and ultimately slaughter them. These one-note wolf folks should know that not only am I a tree-hugger and a wolf-lover, I’m also a bunny, deer and cow hugger.

In an earlier post, entitled “Animal Industry = Animal Abuse,” I wrote of hearing the cows lowing for their calves. Tonight I’m hearing it again. To me, the sounds they make are every bit as mournful as the howling of wolves, and for good reason. Not only are cows raised just to be killed and eaten by humans, theirs is a lifetime of abuse at the hands of man. Forcibly impregnated, many cows see their calves snatched away just as they start to bond with them. Unlike their wild ancestors, they’re never allowed to freely migrate to wherever conditions are more favorable for them. There are always barbed wire fences, or some bully on horseback or four-wheeler bossing them around or telling them where to go.

Taking it out on the cows (as a psychiatrist in Arizona  did when he killed seven cows in his driveway) is like wishing ill on caged elephants because you disagree with zoos or on rabbits because you hate animal experimentation. Slave auctions were repugnant because people were “treated like cattle.” Well, why should any sentient being be bought and sold like chattel? But no abolitionist ever wished harm on the slaves themselves…

The cows didn’t choose to be born in wolf habitat; they’re there because some fourth generation rancher’s forefather killed off the original wolves, claimed the land and stuck cows on it. If you want to blame someone, blame today’s ranchers for continuing the practice.

In other words, pick on someone with your own brain size. Cows know all they need to know to be a cow. A cow will never be born the next Einstein, but by the same token, no cow will ever be the next Hitler, Ted Bundy or Ted Nugent.

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Yet Another Cascades wolf killed

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http://www.conservationnw.org/news/scat/cascades-wolf-killed
by Jasmine Minbashian at Sep 27, 2013

Yesterday we were disappointed to learn the disturbing news of yet another wolf killed in the North Cascades. Details are forthcoming, but action to stop the unnecessary loss of wolves in these areas–getting us that much closer to recovery–should not be.

Andy Walgamott of Northwest Sportsman reported the scant information that currently exists on the incident. Here’s what we do know, gleaned from a report from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife:

Pasayten Wolf Mortality: Biologist Fitkin and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Biologist Rohrer assisted Officers Christensen, McCormick and Treser with an investigation of a wolf killed by a hunter in the Pasayten Wilderness. The animal appeared to be a young, uncollared adult female in good condition. We have not previously verified wolf activity in this portion of the wilderness area and don’t know if the animal is part of an active pack or a solo wanderer. The circumstances of the animal’s death remain under investigation.

The Pasayten Wilderness is in the North Cascades recovery region, where only two known breeding pairs have been confirmed by state biologists. Wolves in this region are still protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and under the state’s wolf conservation and management plan. The North Cascades region has been sadly plagued with illegal wolf kills in the last five years, slowing recovery and making us ask: Why? And how do we change this unfortunate pattern? At this rate of loss, recovery will take much longer if we don’t step up.

For starters, we think more education and outreach is needed to hunters who hold permits within the territory of known wolf packs. The US Fish and Wildlife Service can assist the state and play a valuable role in providing resources and expertise to help with this effort, but instead they have announced they are looking to abandon wolf recovery in the Cascades in the coming year. Losing additional resources for wolf recovery will certainly not help this tenuous situation.

Conservation Northwest helped organize an Eyes in the Woods training in the Methow Valley this spring, and we are organizing another this October 23rd in Cle Elum – near Teanaway Pack territory. We’ve also partnered with WDFW wildlife enforcement to create a reward fund for any information leading to the conviction of anyone who had killed protected wildlife illegally.

But clearly more needs to be done. We call on USFWS, WDFW to join us in stepping up efforts to reduce human-caused death of wolves in the North Cascades.

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more details about this case.

copyrighted wolf in river