Speak for Wildlife · Action Alert · June 2026

Bear Hounding Season Starts July 1.
We Need to Be Ready.

In nine days, hundreds of packs of hounds will be turned loose in Wisconsin’s wolf country. Here’s what’s at stake — and what we’re doing about it.

By Melissa Smith, Executive Director · Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance / Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife

July 1 is nine days away. Wisconsin’s bear hound training season opens, and hundreds of packs of dogs will be turned loose in wolf territory — with no cap on pursuit time, no independent monitoring, and a depredation compensation system that pays out regardless of what led to the conflict.

We’ve seen this before. We know what happens next.

Every summer, bear hound training runs from July 1 through the September hunt opener. Hunters run packs of dogs through public forests — legally, with minimal restriction — training them to chase and tree bears. Wolves live in those same forests. They are raising pups right now. Every year, when hounds cross into wolf territory during denning season, wolves do what wolves do: they defend their young.

Wisconsin’s bear baiting season produces 2–7 times greater wolf-on-hound depredation risk than Michigan’s — because of when and how we allow it. Bump et al., PLOS ONE 2013

When a hound dies, the state writes a check — approximately $2,500 per dog, no questions asked, no review of what the dog was doing or where it was running. The same compensation program has paid people with pending criminal charges. It has paid people with open poaching cases. As long as a wolf is confirmed as the cause of death, the check goes out.

This is the system. And this is who defends it:

Senator Rob Stafsholt. Hunter Nation. The same people who have fought every meaningful reform of bear hounding and baiting in this state — posing with the results of the policy they protect.

This is not a fringe. This is the mainstream of Wisconsin wildlife politics. And it’s why reform has to come from outside the system — through science, through litigation, through regulatory strategy, and through an informed public that refuses to stay silent.

What We’re Doing This Summer

We are not going to stop July 1 from coming. But we are going to be ready — and we need your help to do it. This summer, GLWA is running two tracks simultaneously:

• Monitoring and documenting the hound season as it unfolds — wolf conflict incidents, depredation claims, compensation payouts, and what the data actually shows about where and how conflicts occur.
• Building a comprehensive white paper on Wisconsin bear policy — hounding, baiting, trophy hunting, and the regulatory framework that enables all of it. Following the model of our wolf white paper, this document will integrate peer-reviewed science, statutory analysis, economic data, and documented evidence of regulatory capture. It will be the foundation for the next phase of this fight.

65% of Wisconsin wolf mortality is human-caused. 38% is illegal killing — the single leading cause of wolf death in the Great Lakes region. Michigan State University, 2026

We are also raising funds to produce and share videos showing exactly what legal bear hounding and baiting looks like in Wisconsin — content the hunting lobby doesn’t want the public to see. People deserve to make up their own minds about what “ethical hunting” means. We intend to give them that chance.

If You Hate Hounding and Baiting as Much as We Do — Donate Now

We are an all-volunteer organization. No salaries. No overhead. Every dollar goes directly to research, legal strategy, policy documentation, and advocacy. The bear cub at the top of this post is why we do this. The photo below it is why we have to.

The season opens July 1. Donate today.