This weekend only

🐺 We’re $345 Away. Let’s Smash It.

Friends, right now every gift from $100 up to $1,000 is matched. Your gift goes twice as far.

And if we hit our monthly goal, our grantor matches it. This is how we prove that Wisconsin has a real local base of people who stand up for wildlife.

$7,155 raised of $7,500 · $345 to go

💛 Meet Luna

Luna is our life-size wolf decoy. She helps bust poachers, and she’s also our best teacher. At the Madison Farmers Market, kids crowded in to touch her and dogs sniffed her, puzzled. For a lot of families, it was the first time they’d stood face to face with a wolf. That’s how fear turns into respect.

“Having Luna at a wolf talk, a library, a special event, or the farmers market gives people a tangible, touchable education moment. And she’s a poaching decoy whose head and tail move, so people can really see and feel what a wolf is.” — Lois

“We don’t just teach kids about wildlife. We teach kids how to advocate for wildlife, and we teach them their power.”
— Melissa Smith

⚠️ Do you know how hard we have to fight?

Look at Congressman Tom Tiffany’s record on animals:

🐺 Sponsored 2011 Act 169, the law that mandates a Wisconsin wolf hunt whenever wolves lose federal protection, regardless of science.
🚔 Co-sponsored a 2017 bill that would have barred police and game wardens from enforcing laws against killing wolves.
⚖️ Voted for H.R. 845 and H.R. 764 to strip wolves of federal protection, with H.R. 845 limiting judicial review so courts can’t check it.
💥 Voted to destroy the Endangered Species Act, including an amendment to exempt defense activities from it.
🐕 Voted for puppy mills and against releasing the Ridglan Farms beagles.
🐾 Pushed to expand hound hunting and trespassing, and to take authority away from conservation wardens.
🚫 Blocked bills on wildlife killing contests and roadside zoos.
🐄 Backed a bill exempting animals in CAFOs from animal cruelty laws.
🐴 Voted against the PAST Act (H.R. 5441) to end horse soring.
🐯 Voted against the Big Cat Public Safety Act twice, the bill cracking down on roadside zoos.
🐖 Voted for H.R. 7567, which would overturn state laws giving pregnant pigs minimum space on factory farms.
🌲 Supported literally dozens of anti-environmental bills.
📉 Voted against animal welfare on all six major animal protection floor votes this Congress, according to Animal Wellness Action.

His allies? Hunter Nation, a Kansas-based group that brags in its own fundraising mailer that it sued Wisconsin to force the 2021 wolf hunt, and credits Tiffany’s leadership for its delisting push. They work for timber, paper and Koch-backed interests, using hunting and wolves as cover to open up our wilderness, parks, national parks and refuges to hunting, trapping and extraction. It was never about wolves. It’s about access to resources.

Tiffany’s case for killing wolves rests on fairy tales about deer populations and depredation. And some Democrats seem to think backing delisting will buy votes. It won’t. People who want to kill wolves don’t vote that way, and 83% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats say the federal government should do more to strengthen the Endangered Species Act.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has also said he supports delisting. We hope he’ll change his mind and go with the science.

Here’s the truth: wolves in Wisconsin are endangered. Under the Endangered Species Act, the only ones who can decide otherwise are U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists, through a public process where all of us get to comment. Yet the DNR is already planning a hunt. That predetermination is B.S., and politicians like Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Amy Klobuchar who just repeat the agency’s line are listening to the wrong people.

Whoever holds office, we will hold them accountable to the science and the law.

📊 Your impact by the numbers

⚖️ Suing the state over the public trust. Wildlife and natural resources belong to everyone, so everyone has legal standing.
🔍 Exposing the Flambeau Nine. Our open records requests uncovered how nine wolves, pups included, were killed without the legally required tribal consultation.
🐺 Holding DNR accountable and pushing for transparency on wolves.
📜 Petitioned the state to put wolves on the state endangered species list.
🚫 Fighting an emergency rule that strips many other species off the state list.
🦇 Protecting bats and birds from large wind turbines.
🏛️ Fought state legislation on wolves, cranes, and hounding.
📂 Watchdog research. We file open records requests and expose what agencies won’t say.
💛 Education with Luna and coalition work across the region.
🦅 Federal fights for the ESA and our public lands.
🛑 Pushing back on corporate interests. We’re 100% grassroots funded, and we don’t do the agency’s PR.

We stay on accountability, democracy, transparency, and the media. This runs on you. 💛

For the wolves,

Melissa Smith
Executive Director and Founder
Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance
Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife