Last year, wolves in the Northern Rockies were removed from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and subsequently added to the hunted list. Despite efforts by environmentalists, wolves were hunted in numerous states and entire packs were removed. However, recent court decisions have declared that these previous decisions were incorrect and the wolves should be placed back on the Endangered Species listing.
Despite these recent declarations by the court, Wildlife Services, a branch of the United States’ Department of Agriculture, insists they will now need to kill larger numbers of wolves than they already were killing before the chaos that ensued the wolves’ removal from the ESA. The agency claims that since the public will no longer be able to kill the wolves, they need permission to increase their agency’s killings.
According to the Idaho director of Wildlife Services, Mark Collinge, “As the wolf populations increase, the depredations increase and the number of wolf removals will increase. It’s very logical. […] You just have to accept that part of having wolves is having to kill wolves.” This line of thinking is in stark contrast to environmental and animal right groups which are against the continued killings of the wolves, whether they be by the government or public.
Michael Robinson, from the Center for Biological Diversity, stated: “The draconian lengths they are poised to take really are a throwback, to when the same agency was gassing wolf pups in their dens almost a century ago and setting poisoned baits and trapping them.”
Such methods were used widely and nearly led to the eradication of wolves in the continental United States. Recent attempts to regenerate populations in the U.S. have proven successful, so successful that it appears to be leading to the wolves demise once more. However, according to statistics, there are only 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. An additional 1,700 wolves are found in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.
Wildlife Services wishes to expand their current shootings of wolves from both the air and ground. They would also like to use carbon monoxide to gas pups after closing off their dens. The agency also wants to have so-called research and conservation hunts in order to kill additional wolves. One of the less brutal methods, although not as highly sought, is the neutering of wolves.
In the end, the continued hunting of wolves seems to come down to one thing: livestock. Ranchers insist that wolves are a major threat to their livestock herds, despite government studies indicating that wolves are the cause of very few actual deaths. According to the U.S. government, wolves kill livestock less frequently than coyotes, dogs, mountain lions or bears. Despite this information, the wolf continues to be seen as the enemy of the West.
