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Sep 2, 2009 02:00 PM | 33
This summer, hunters in Idaho have snapped up nearly 11,000 tags that confer permission to hunt the 850 or so gray wolves that now live in the state thanks to a reintroduction program in the region started in 1995. Idaho—whose governor "Butch" Otter once vowed to be first in line for the permits—will allow 220 wolves to be killed for the bargain basement price of just $11.75; neighboring Montana will permit 75 starting September 15.
Gray wolves (Canis lupus), a close relative of domestic dogs, were nearly hunted to extinction in the western U.S. in the early 20th century, though they continued to thrive in Alaska. But the reintroduction scheme, started in Yellowstone National Park, has seen wolves fan out across the mountain Northwest.
All told there are now some 1,650 gray wolves living in 110,000 square miles of the northwestern Rockies—up from zero just 14 years ago—and they've become targets again thanks to this population rise and their predilection for livestock. A federal judge had postponed previous years' hunts but is still considering whether the wolves need to be returned to the Endangered Species List. According to the Billings Gazette, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy speculates that a wolf hunt might provide wildlife managers with a better sense of the actual wolf population. So the hunt is on—and will last, barring judicial intervention, until the end of March next year.
Already the season's first wolf—a two-year-old female—has been killed near the Lochsa River by a 34-year-old real estate agent, according to the Associated Press. Whether such hunting helps manage the population—or eliminate it again—remains to be seen.
Image: Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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33 Comments
Add Commentwell regulated hunting has always improved quantity. As proof I give you deer hunting and the fact that many states are now overrun with deer and duck hunting which has given us the largest duck populations in a hundred years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThese people look at nature and it's magnificent animals that cannot be eaten and have an irresistible urge to go out and splatter their brains all over the place. It's the same mentality as a serial killer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey're degenerates. Every single one of them.
Twisted!....I'm a hunter and this just sickens me. I hunt for food, but have always had an aversion to shooting my competitors. When I tell other hunters I saw a bobcat, coyote, etc., they always ask my why I didn't shoot it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProfessional courtesy I guess.
At least we have the intelligence to allow other predators besides ourselves to co-exist.
but why do you think we have over population of species like deer? because we have eliminated their natural predators resulting in an overall weaker population (i.e. more sick deer, less fit deer, etc.). populations will reach a balance but we have to give them a chance to reach that equilibrium not immediately hunt a species as soon as its population numbers are actually viable again. with the number of permits out there we could totally eliminate the wolves again but accurate harvest counts are recorded.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDolmance...So it's OK too shoot an animal for food? There are a lot of people on this planet that would consider you a degenerate for eating any animal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you aren't killing an animal to eat it, then you're killing an animal simply to kill it. And killing predators is hardly a way to keep our wild areas wild.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am right here at ground zero in Montana. These bastards all around me go out and shoot anything that moves - lions, badgers, raccoons, wolves, coyotes... Anything that moves. They come from out of state and shoot horses from their cars. They all look like nervous little fellows and they've paid a lot of money to blow away creatures that make themselves look like insects in comparison. Their killers, and if they could get away with it they'd be shooting people.
Dolmance...you are right. They are not hunters, but killers, and that is repulsive to me as well, to kill an animal just to do it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTals13....In Texas, we have an abundance of both coyotes and white tail. Coyotes can kill small deer, but not mature healthy deer like a pack of wolves can. We have few cougars and virtually all the black bear were killed off years ago. (Feral hogs too, which according to wildlife biologist, take approximately one quarter of the fawn crop each year.) In some counties, such as Leon in E. Texas, there are counties with a relatively small number of white tails. In Webb County, in S. Texas, were it seems like there is a coyote under every bush, white tails must be hunted aggressively are they will do just as you mentioned and degrade the population. I agree, we need to accurate numbers to ensure healthy populations of both predator and prey.
SO SAD
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen does the ban on hunting hunters end?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh wait, there never was one...
Hunters who kills just for fun are stupid idiots who have complexes they cant handle with themselves
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand i think they have a small penis lol
The issue at hand is: Ranchers want to have the ability to raise easily culled food animals without the inconvenience of other predators, but they aren't willing to go to the work and expense of ensuring that the territory they do this in is sequestered from the other predators (the ranchers, of course, are viscous predators themselves.) So they lobby for hunters to remove the other predators entirely. Hunters, by and large, welcome this activity. Just one more failure of ethics and morals to supersede the filthy politics of expediency.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe've always been quick to imagine we have the right to do anything we want to animals. From imaginary sky fairies to monumentally dubious assertions that animals are somehow so unlike us that we have the (cough) "right" to do anything we want to them, people have made the most use of their intelligence by making up excuses for extremely bad behavior.
Hunters who kill animals just for fun are stupid idiots with compleses they cant handle with
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey have small a penis only BUM -BUM SHOOT
He didn't even eat it. He took the skin and left the rest to rot.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHe should be charged with wasting game.
We as Americans have long ago lost our sense of moral responsibility to the world in which we live and share with the animals and nature that we wll some day eradicate and ,with that, ourselves as well. Shame on you "Butch",Bubba", whatever your ignorant name is...shame on Idaho for electing you a leader, shame on you Montana for complicity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSounds like Gov. "Butch" is a livestock community supporter/supportee. time to put the burden of livestock protection on the communities that choose to raise livestock. Using hunting permits as a political protection racket for the livestock community is what is so unconscionable about this hunt. IF they are going to hunt, the fee should be $1500/per license and all proceeds go back to Wildlife Management to ensure the survival of the wolf population. Politics killed them once, and here we go again.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTake a hard look at who supports the "governor" that is allowing this travesty to take place- bet y'all it's the livestock industry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisquote from the article "—and they've become targets again thanks to this population rise and their predilection for livestock."
why do you think the wolves were hunted out in the first place? to protect the cattle and other livestock that were easy prey for wolves when they moved into the foothills with their need for more land, more cattle, more $$$. every head of livestock has a $$ sign on it. the livestock industry will not allow even 1 head to be "sacrificed" to these canine lowlife. Not even 1. When $$ and politics get involved, something always gets destroyed.
I'm betting none of you have had your way of life ruined by animals. Please donate half of your salary to the ranchers who are losing animals to these wolves. Not interested in doing that? Neither are the ranchers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost of you are content to sit in your suburban homes, and complain about the actions of others that are making your comfortable lives possible. Although I disagree with them vehemently, the only ones with a moral leg to stand on are vegans living in tents who share their food with the roaches. Most of the rest of us have decided that survival of the fittest is the way this world works. The goal is to do it softly which I think this hunting program to control their numbers is trying to accomplish.
"Although I disagree with them vehemently, the only ones with a moral leg to stand on are vegans living in tents who share their food with the roaches."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, Doidletp, you agree with me that he should have eaten it?
What a hero the hunter is! But never mind that. What I'd like to know is why nobody has brought up the issue of conservation genetics with the wolf reintroduction (which, by the way, cost plenty of taxpayers' dollars). Conservation genetics has come a long way and has valid input into this, specifically regarding minimum population size. The general rule in conservation genetics is that a minimum viable population is 250, in the absence of other factors. However, in most species very few individuals actually get to contribute their genes to the population, even moreso in reproductive systems like wolves where only a few males may contribute. The sub-population consisting of those which actually contribute genetically to the next generation is called Effective Population Size and written N(e). Ne is generally taken to be about 0.1 of the actual population, or 10%. So, in order to ensure a wolf population that will not go extinct due to stochastic factors, the actual population must be over 2,500. So, why, after spending so much money on reintroducing a species which belongs there anyway, would we allow a few people who have a perverse need to prove their manhood (or womanhood?) to endanger all the work that has been done. If there is no room left for the wolf, then it's time for people to pull our boundaries in and make room.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWolf populations are exploding and some stupid judge wants to put them back on the endangered species list?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd for all you idiots berating hunters. Get over your smug little self-righteous religiosity. Wolves are a competing predator. We take care of the problem by killing them. Welcome to reality. Nature is not "beautiful and noble" it's a bloodthirsty, vicious brutal world.
I swear, there's nothing worse than some stupid city dwelling idiot who thinks all animals are puppy dogs and kitty cats and all wilderness is a park.
And to the morons who talked about leaving the wolf to rot. Yet more ignorance born from insulation from the real world.
What do you think rotting is? It's feeding the lowest level of the food chain. The carcass was also food to all manner of wandering scavengers. Sheesh, you bleat all this kumbaya crap about the circle of life and don't even understand what it is. Nor do you care. You're simply a bunch of ignorant nature worshippers who would be dead inside a week actually living in it.
Hahaha Im surprised that there are so many commentators who are harboring such extreme emotions against the hunters. Not that I support the hunting of the wolf population at this time, but there are too many overreactions in this commentboard.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, no wolves are not a competing predator. I have lived in every norther state west of the Rockies plus the Dakotas and Canada. My family has 245 Acres back home, smack in the middle of the new wolf territories.
We've even seen a couple around but first off they do not insatiably hunt livestock nonstop, they do not kill mass droves of livestock, nor are they taking our food from us to the extent that it is an issue. It's the other way around. We hunt their deer and small game, as well as that of other predators, with superlative efficiency.
I also hunt for spiritual purposes, and I have so much disdain for a lot of hunters I won't even speak to them. That 'sit in a lawn chair and shoot something in the face at 6 meters' variety of hunting infuriates me and compels me to treat such men with no respect. It's also the image most anti-sport hunting populations get in their head and why they get to be extremist.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen I hunt I do it for two reasons: First and foremost to eat (It makes no sense to pay), usually avian,fish,or deer. A full sized deer will last me 3 months, elk can last much longer. Deer/ Elk I don't hunt on the regular.
The Second reason is spiritual. I grew up in the ghettos of Baltimore, but in my families culture (my father was Cherokee, mother is Iroquois and European) a person only becomes a man when he understands his responsibilities and fulfills them. As men we are superior to the world around us as it is helpless. When we take from the land it's our responsibility to keep the environment balanced. In many native cultures a person would have to complete a task to transition to manhood, again especially as 'warriors'. This is where hunting becomes spiritual. The hunt was a way of proving your aptitude to fill the role of a true man.
For the hunt to have any merit, it must be fairly equal competition. Bows, knives, spears, clubs are fair as gory as they can get. Bows are short ranged weapons but are equal as one shot doesn't always kill and may incite retaliation or pack aggression. A .30-06 rifle at 270 yards safe out of harms way or in a blind is hardly a testament to skill or aptitude.
From a spiritual point of view in hunting like that you get disconnected from your prey, one little peck of a bullet and all you see is a carcass to peel. You never have to experience the tenacity of your prey fighting for it's life or learn why the cleanest quick kill is respected. With bow or melee you earn your trophy.
Rifles kill quick usually but in the name of sport, are not testament to skill or experience. A bullet from a 35 year old is just as effective as one from a 5 year old.
Bottom line, the droves of hunters flocking to the north to shoot a wolf are not doing it because the poor ranchers need defending, or to manage overpopulation, or for food. They just enjoy the outdoors, the guns, the gear, the feeling of it all; and most importantly they just want the bragging rights/trophy of killing a wolf.
Killers must stop causing deaths of any animal that they do not need to eat for their personal survival! Hunters should be ashamed of owning all sorts of automatic WAR weapons to kill planet Earth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHelpless animals must be protected, no delays or reasons. RIGHT Now.
Just how evil can one weird, unintelligent woman be?? More importantly, how do the people who listen and support her, live in this real time of war and global financial depression?
Americans should weep, scream, take actions to bring charges while stopping, any and all types of cruelties to every animal.
We humans are and have killed animal populations by various by-products "we" generate. Our opinions are not stated and heard by all citizens and the "Paid Off" elected officials in our greedy "Want-To-Be" so called democracy!
Democratic Victory---No! No actions or results have occured. Congress...Stand up and VOTE...make the changes necessary.
Actions not discussions. Now, not later.
END WARS INSURANCE FOR ALL AMERICANS VOTE 2009
VOTE CREATE CHANGE FOR MIDDLE INCOME MORGORITY---NOW!
PROTESTOR
Killers must stop causing deaths of any animal that they do not need to eat for their personal survival! Hunters should be ashamed of owning all sorts of automatic WAR weapons to kill planet Earth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHelpless animals must be protected, no delays or reasons. RIGHT Now.
Just how evil can one weird, unintelligent woman be?? More importantly, how do the people who listen and support her, live in this real time of war and global financial depression?
Americans should weep, scream, take actions to bring charges while stopping, any and all types of cruelties to every animal.
We humans are and have killed animal populations by various by-products "we" generate. Our opinions are not stated and heard by all citizens and the "Paid Off" elected officials in our greedy "Want-To-Be" so called democracy!
Democratic Victory---No! No actions or results have occured. Congress...Stand up and VOTE...make the changes necessary.
Actions not discussions. Now, not later.
END WARS INSURANCE FOR ALL AMERICANS VOTE 2009
VOTE CREATE CHANGE FOR MIDDLE INCOME MORGORITY---NOW!
PROTESTOR
Killers must stop causing deaths of any animal that they do not need to eat for their personal survival! Hunters should be ashamed of owning all sorts of automatic WAR weapons to kill planet Earth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHelpless animals must be protected, no delays or reasons. RIGHT Now.
Just how evil can one weird, unintelligent woman be?? More importantly, how do the people who listen and support her, live in this real time of war and global financial depression?
Americans should weep, scream, take actions to bring charges while stopping, any and all types of cruelties to every animal.
We humans are and have killed animal populations by various by-products "we" generate. Our opinions are not stated and heard by all citizens and the "Paid Off" elected officials in our greedy "Want-To-Be" so called democracy!
Democratic Victory---No! No actions or results have occured. Congress...Stand up and VOTE...make the changes necessary.
Actions not discussions. Now, not later.
END WARS INSURANCE FOR ALL AMERICANS VOTE 2009
DEMAND VOTES CREATE CHANGES
FOR MIDDLE INCOME MORTGAGED MAJORITY NOW!
PROTESTOR
Howdy J IX, Nice to hear from you. Protester obviously needs to be locked up somewhere so she can first, learn english and grammar, and second, learn to appreciate the wild lands that she protests about. I have no doubt she is from the city because she has absolutely no knowledge of the wild. J IX, our people worship the wolf. We use his hunting methods and we appreciate her sense of family. The wolf is indeed a worthy opponent. White people feared the wolf and killed it for no reason but their fear. Now some of them feel guilty...reminds me of the jews in WWII. Ok, whiteass. You gave the jews a whole country and billions of dollars every year. I say we give Isreal to the wolves and let them feed off the jews. Now I am being like protester. The idea of sustainable populations is only relative to the number of humans in the same area.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is absurd. Animals should be hunted for food or as a method of population control. If it was truly for management, the total amount gained from "tag" sales would be more than ~ $13 000; peanuts for conservation programs. So why are wolves are being shot? It's simply barabaric policy makers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI simply do not agree with this. End of story.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI simply do not agree with this at all. End of story.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have lived in Idaho, ,Washington and now back in Alaska, and the lies and fairy tales about wolves slaughtering cattle and all animals is a dead issue that will never be believed. I have had wolves as my neighbor is all 3 states, and biggest killers of livestock was that of human nature, and not the wolves. so no amount of lying, stretching the truth to justify will ever make this right. I have wolves here as neighbors in Alaska, and never once have they even been a threat or any appearance of any threat to man or animal. Let us instead tell the truth of the Welfare Ranching that has done the most damage to the West int he lower 48, and tellthat truth instead? The destroyed land and water, and free grazing on the taxpayers dime?
Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West : http://www.publiclandsranching.org/book.htm
Ranching Myths
MYTH
Ranchers Are Good Stewards of the Land
TRUTH
More than 410 million acres of U.S. rangelands-public and private-are in unsatisfactory ecological condition, according to an estimate by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. This is an area four times the size of California, or 21 percent of the continental United States, and nearly all of it is in the West. These lands are severely damaged, with at least 50 percent of the desirable plant species eliminated, high erosion and weed invasion rates, and riparian areas unable to function normally.
Although public lands usually get more attention from the media, statistics compiled by the Natural Resources Conservation Service indicate that more total acres and a higher percentage of private lands in the West are in unsatisfactory condition as compared with public rangelands. This is particularly egregious in that private lands tend to be more productive and better watered than public lands-hence more resilient to livestock abuses.
In truth, ranchers are fighting an impossible battle against the natural limitations of the landscape. The West is not only an arid region but one in which annual precipitation varies widely. The amount of precipitation that falls in a year is directly reflected in the amount of grass production, meaning that forage quantity varies widely from year to year as well. This makes it very difficult for ranchers to maintain a stable business operation while also managing herds so as not to damage the land.
To be a good steward, ideally one not only must have a sense of responsibility and concern for the land-as many ranchers do-but also must treat the land in a way that conserves its productivity, diversity, and beauty for the future. Yet by raising domestic animals that demand large quantities of water and forage in a place that is dry, and by favoring slow-moving, heavy, and relatively defenseless livestock in terrain that is rugged, vast, and inhabited by native predators, ranchers have put themselves in a position of constant warfare with the land. They funnel most of the grass into their own animals, at the expense of the wild herbivores. They divert water from rivers to grow hay and other crops to feed cows, leaving fish and other aquatic life with hot, shallow trickles. They allow their cattle to graze and trample riparian areas-habitat on which 75 to 80 percent of all wild animal species in the West depend-polluting waterways with manure and adding excessive sediments to the water as they denude the land. And although "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," it's arguable whether most people would prefer a place where the grass is chewed down to stubs and the ground is littered with cow pies, over a grassland of tall and waving stems, dotted with wildflowers.
how could u just kill one of those beautiful animals without haveing a second guess if it has a family or if its just a slab of meat. I mean look at it, it looks so sad (even though it's dead) I can see why people kill deer for food but for just the sence of killing it thats just one of mans 'lowest common denominator.'
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeople are a bunch of idiots! People should leave wolves alone! I'd like to meet the person who killed the wolf, I'd tell him a thing or two!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHumans are stupid! Wolves are better than any human and if you kill one then you should die!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this