Protected Gray Wolves Being Illegally Killed

Hunters in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin and the Rockies are still shooting down gray wolves despite the animal’s protected status. More than three dozen have been illegally killed in the U.P. within the past five years, and officials in other north central and Rocky Mountain states report many more wolf shootings. About 10 percent of Rockies wolves are killed illegally every year. The gray wolf was given legal protection after being nearly driven to extinction in many areas.

From MSNBC:

Some residents of the sprawling, rural Upper Peninsula deeply resent the wolf’s presence. Among them are hunters who believe the wily predators are decimating the whitetail deer herd and farmers who have lost livestock to wolf raids.

“They’re born killers,” said Al Clemens, a hunter from Ironwood who has lobbied state legislators to establish wolf hunting and trapping seasons. “… People are just fed up.”

Yes, wolves eat deer, but not enough to put a serious dent in the total, Roell said.

“Wolves are an easy scapegoat,” he added.

The wolf isn’t universally despised in the region. The DNR says a 2005 survey indicated most residents were willing to peacefully coexist. In fact, tips from citizens have been instrumental in nabbing poachers.

Still, most cases go unsolved, and many illegal kills undoubtedly never come to official attention. “Yoopers,” as Upper Peninsula residents call themselves, even have a catch phrase for dispatching a wolf and hiding the evidence: “Shoot, shovel and shut up.”

Gray wolves had disappeared from Michigan’s Lower Peninsula by the early 20th century and were nearly gone from the Upper Peninsula by 1960, when a state bounty program was repealed. But numbers have grown again and the U.P. population is now estimated at about 520. Wisconsin has about 540, while Minnesota (where the wolves are listed as ‘threatened’, not endangered) has approximately 3,000. In the Rockies, the population is about 1,500.

Due to this rebound in numbers, the government removed the animals from the endangered species list, but outraged conservationists believed the wolves were still vulnerable and a federal judge restored the wolves to the list in September.

Hunters and farmers who break the law and are caught by investigators often use the excuse that they “thought it was a coyote”. But wolves are twice as large as coyotes and make entirely different sounds.

It’s one thing to humanely kill wolves that are habitually stealing and killing livestock and pets, but it’s another entirely to decimate the population. People don’t seem to understand the fact that wolves exist in this region for a reason – they’re an essential part of the ecosystem. In fact, gray wolves are the only natural predators of coyotes in most of these areas and without them, coyote populations will swell. That’s nature, folks.
Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: PETA

Related Posts:

Canada Chooses to Kill Over 500 Narwhals Rather than Save Them
Russia Bans Baby Seal Massacre, Canada Continues Killing Spree
Under Pressure from Conservationists, eBay Set to Ban Sale of Ivory
Flying Frog, Tiny Deer among 350 New Species Discovered in Himalayas
Brought in for Sport, Gibraltar’s ‘Nuisance’ Barbary Apes now Set to be Killed