Sounds like the hunters out west are determined to eradicate all the wolves, by any means available, before they can be relisted as endangered.
A Defenders of Wildlife mailing today reports Idaho Wildlife Services, shooting from helicopters, slaughtered the Basin Butte wolf pack. Sharpshooters executed most of the pack, included several 7-8 month-old pups. So much for licensed, sportsmanlike hunts to thin the wolf population. This is wholesale slaughter, a no-holds-barred effort to eradicate the species while it’s legal to do so, before there’s an opportunity for our slow-moving bureaucrats to relist the wolves, if they ever do.
Idaho has also extended its hunting season into the wolves’ critical denning season. This means pregnant females, who may carry as many as six pups, can be killed, and that young pups may be left to starve without their mothers. But, hey, Idaho hunters wouldn’t want to miss out on a single one of those authorized 220 kills, would they?
I’m devastated to learn that authorized hunts to thin the wolf population have escalated into a wholesale slaughter by state wildlife officers from helicopters. It seems unlikely that with such an all-out effort, the killing will stop at precisely the 220-wolf limit. With a bunch of yahoos out there shooting from choppers all day, along with hunters on the ground zipping around on their snowmobiles, who knows what the count will be when they get around to compiling their numbers at the end of the day … or maybe the week … or whenever. And if a few extra wolves get shot and left in a thicket or down a ravine somewhere along the line, who’s going to know?
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More about wolves on Pied Type:
I have to wonder what kind of person would not only shoot a wolf, but shoot a wolf pup. Really. It’s despicable.
BTW, my blog is closed for a few days. I think the Wicked Witch of the West found me. I may just can the whole anonymous thing and just start over publicly, albeit more politely.
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Clearly these people believe the only good wolf is a dead wolf, regardless of its age. I could almost tolerate a public hunt with carefully enforced rules about fair pursuit, and only adult males can be shot, or something like that, with a closely watched total. But it sure sounds like in Idaho it’s just all-out war, shoot any lupine that moves from any vantage point you can get. Open season there really is wide open. Shameful. And I blame it all on Ken Salazar; he’s the one personally responsible for allowing this.
Yes, I noticed your blog was shut down again. Sorry about that. Hope to see you up again soon.