Members of Congress are trying to erase vital protections for wolves by sneaking more wolf hunting into a must-pass spending bill.
In just a couple of days in early 2021, hundreds of Wisconsin wolves were hunted and slaughtered.
This was the devastating result of the Trump administration erasing Endangered Species Act protections for wolves, before a federal court restored those protections in the Upper Midwest later that year.
Now members of Congress are trying to erase those protections again by sneaking more wolf hunting into a must-pass spending bill.
In the 1900s, wolves were hunted to the brink of extinction in the Lower 48 states. It was only thanks to the Endangered Species Act, and immense amounts of hard work by conservationists, that the gray wolf was brought back in the Northern Rockies and Upper Midwest.
Even today, there are only a few thousand wolves, roaming a tiny fraction of their historic range. That precarious population is already threatened by radically expanded hunting and trapping in states like Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
As the government faces the possibility of a shutdown at the end of September, Congress is debating must-pass spending bills to keep the lights on — and some U.S. House representatives are using this as an opportunity to erase Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across the rest of the Lower 48.
If they succeed, it will mean more hunts like what we saw in Wisconsin in 2021, when one out of every five of the state’s wolves was killed in just 60 hours.
Decisions about protecting endangered species should be made based on the best available science, by professionals — not turned into a political football and slipped into unrelated legislation.
Send a message to your U.S. House representative urging them not to erase protections for wolves.
There are only a few thousand wolves, roaming a tiny fraction of their historic range. That precarious population is already threatened by radically expanded hunting and trapping in states like Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
