She’s still out there.
Yesterday, we
bought her time.
Right now, somewhere in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, a wolf mother is curled around her newborn pups. They’re blind. They can’t walk yet. They are completely dependent on her — on her warmth, her milk, her presence.
She has no idea what happened in Washington yesterday. She just knows her pups are hungry. She just knows she has to stay alive.
But yesterday, on Earth Day, people like you made something extraordinary happen. The most dangerous attack on the Endangered Species Act in a generation — H.R. 1897, the so-called “ESA Amendments Act” — was pulled from the House floor. No vote. The bill would have gutted listing protections, stripped citizens of the right to sue, and made the God Squad’s oil-and-gas exemption the new normal. And it was stopped by a wall of public pressure so loud that even the Speaker’s own party wouldn’t back him.
H.R. 1897 — the “Extinction Act” — pulled from the House floor.
House leadership yanked the vote without explanation after Republicans and Democrats alike refused to back it. Conservation groups called it one of the biggest wins in years. We called it what it is: proof that pressure works.
But Westerman has already said he’ll bring it back “in the next couple of weeks.” The fight isn’t over. It just moved.
Here’s what yesterday proved: when people refuse to let wildlife be quietly legislated out of existence, Congress listens. That’s the whole theory of our work. File the petitions. Show up at every hearing. Document every contest kill. Keep the pressure on until the pressure wins.
And that theory just got validated on the biggest possible stage.
But the mother wolf doesn’t know any of this. What she knows is that federal protections for her species are still gone. Our state endangered species petition is sitting on WDNR’s desk — 317 days past the statutory deadline — with no response. Since we filed, at least four Wisconsin wolves have been illegally killed in connection with wildlife killing contests. Four mothers, fathers, siblings — gone.
“Removing federal protections opens the door for antagonists to kill large numbers in short periods, legally and illegally.”
That’s not advocacy. That’s science. The same UW-Madison scientists who documented Wisconsin’s 2021 massacre — 218 wolves killed in 60 hours, 82% above quota — warned us it would happen again without protections. We listened. We filed. We sued. We won the court case that stopped that hunt from continuing.
Yesterday proved we can win at the federal level too. Now we need to finish the job in Wisconsin.
A longtime supporter will match the next $500 in donations to keep this fight going. Your $25 becomes $50. Your $100 becomes $200. No deadline — just the simple truth that every day we’re not pressing, wolves are dying.
We are entirely volunteer-run. No corporate money. No foundation strings that would silence us. Just people who refuse to let Wisconsin’s wolves disappear quietly — and your donations keeping us in the fight.
Yesterday we proved we can win. Help us keep winning.
Double your impact
for the pack.
Every dollar matched. Every dollar goes straight to the fight — legal filings, petitions, contest documentation, and the pressure that just stopped the Extinction Act in its tracks.
Yes — double my gift → Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit · All donations tax-deductible · No corporate funding, everFor the pack,
Melissa Smith Founder & Coordinator · Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance / Speak for WildlifeP.S. — Those pups were born in the last few weeks. They won’t open their eyes for another week or two. Yesterday, people like you stopped Congress from gutting the law that could one day protect them again. Please donate today — while your gift is doubled — and let’s finish what we started.
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