I have dedicated my life to protecting and advocating for the rights of our precious wildlife, as well as for you. This work is arduous, and I never want to belittle anyone for feeling that it is overwhelming. The recent news of the cruelty inflicted upon a beautiful young wolf in Wyoming a few weeks ago has brought me back to the harsh reality of what wolf hunting truly entails, and who the wolf hunters really are. The sounds of snowmobiles, the fury of men, the guns, the involvement of dogs, the blood – it is a reality that cuts deep and leaves wounds that have still not fully healed. To witness such barbarity evokes a profound sense of grief and outrage. “This can’t really be happening” is what I thought. The agencies, even famous biologists like Doug Smith aren’t making this about hunting, right? This isn’t a hunting story. But they did. And by doing so, they legitimized that cruelty in any form towards wildlife is acceptable. They aren’t out here telling reporters that we have to balance wolf hunters and Representatives like Boebart and Tiffany who don’t believe in anything but what the high paying gun violence lobby and trophy hunters tell them with decency? They don’t even care about school shootings. It is deeply unsettling to know that in 2024, the last of our dwindling wildlife is being subjected to unimaginable suffering for the sake of sport, violence, or, in this particular case, pure psychopathy. Harvested. Conserved. Managed. by being run over by a snowmobile and taken to a bar for sadist show and tell by a stakeholder. But your comments regarding gun helicopters don’t matter to the boards or agencies. The fact that such atrocities are still legal in 2024 is a testament to the failure of themselves and wildlife management overall. This is the gold standard of wildlife management. It’s outrageous that an entire agency of supposedly well-meaning biologists, researchers, and natural resource managers and alleged ethical hunters blatantly ignored public comments regarding our concerns of these very practices being legal and unenforceable. Nope. They went to private meetings to somehow shape a wildlife plan the way the agency intended it to be long before this “transparency”. The so-called “science” with “consideration” of all public comment is what shaped exactly what Cody Roberts did, and the next hundred in line will do. Now add the dismissal of our lawsuit, the passing of horrific wildlife-related bills, including congressional delisting. Enough is enough. All of these decision-makers and the wildlife agencies need to be held accountable for their actions and take immediate steps to protect the wildlife they are tasked with safeguarding. Can you blame us for thinking photo sessions and being beaten to death, gassing puppies or poaching without penalty might endanger the wolf? This Wyoming wolf case and the hundred like it aren’t about hunting, or science, anthropomorphizing or management… We all know damn well it’s about ethical responsibility and the values we tell ourselves we uphold as a society. We all know. Every single person, children, even other animals know that we all experience pain, suffering, and emotions., grief, hardships and triumphs, love, pleasure and trauma. It is my moral duty to protect wolves from anyone that doesn’t know that’s true. But that’s what makes predator hunters and the people who cater to them different than the majority of us.
They know, too.
