
Add your name: Idaho’s wolves deserve protection
Wolves are critical in the maintenance of Idaho's natural splendor and should be celebrated, not eradicated.
Among the most recent victims of Idaho’s cruel anti-wolf policy: Three defenseless pups.
From the Kootenai River down the Bitterroot Mountains, all the way along to the Caribou Range, gray wolves once roamed free and undisturbed across Idaho by the thousands.
Now Idaho’s wolves aren’t even safe in their own dens.
Last April, an Idaho hunter shot three wolf pups — likely no more than a month after they were born.
There is no excuse for this behavior — these pups may have been so young that they never even opened their eyes.
The hunter who killed those three wolf pups was awarded $1500 by a taxpayer-funded program to reimburse hunters and trappers.
It’s hard to imagine any state government rewarding the act of crawling into a wolf den and killing the tiny puppies sleeping within, but in Idaho, this is policy.
The state government is trying to cut Idaho’s wolf population in half. Based on estimates from Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game, within the next five years, over 500 wolves will be killed.
The scale of this slaughter is already horrifying, and the methods through which hunters are killing Idaho’s wolves is equally gruesome.
Idaho Fish and Game regularly reports hunters bringing in the bodies of wolves with all their teeth broken after chewing at the traps in which they were ensnared. And hunters have every advantage imaginable, free to use night-vision equipment, helicopters and even ATVs in their quest to kill wolves.
This is unacceptable. Wolves are intrinsic to the wilds of Idaho, icons of the West that ought to be celebrated, not slaughtered. Tell the governor of Idaho that gray wolves are American treasures and must be treated as such.
Wolves are critical to the maintenance of Idaho’s natural splendor. We’ve witnessed firsthand the ecological devastation that occurs when wolves are removed from the environment. Wolves keep deer and elk populations in check, preventing overgrazing and promoting reforestation.
Despite their influence upon the health of entire ecosystems, wolves are defenseless against a hunter given every advantage available. This was made all too clear for three tiny wolf pups last April.
It may be too late for those pups, but within a few months, the next generation of Idaho’s wolves will be born. Let’s give them a fighting chance and tell Idaho Governor Brad Little to ban these barbaric wolf hunts. Add your name today.
Wolves are critical in the maintenance of Idaho's natural splendor and should be celebrated, not eradicated.
Add your name