The name of the agency is enough to tell you what their policy is: Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board. These
extreme radicals have no regard for the survival of a wild creature simply trying to survive. They plan to hire private contractors to kill wolves by trapping, snaring, and gunning from aircraft. They took this decision without public input. A brutal scofflaw from Elko, NV named Trevor C. Watch stands to benefit the most from three contracts worth over $100,000. The Nevada chief game warden labeled his activities, "blatant illegal behavior".
He has left trapped animals to die slowly of dehydration and starvation The Board authorized unlimited removal of wolves in their core range despite successful efforts by the Wood River Project to teach ranchers and others to co-exist with wolves. The field season this year resulted in zero losses to predation among 24,000 sheep in the project area. The project regularly documents the lowest predation rates in the state. Yet Idaho legislature has voted to remove 90% of the states wolf population. A livestock operator from Blaine County said that the extermination efforts will likely result in more predation as pack relations are destroyed, and inexperienced juveniles disperse to kill livestock in order to survive. He also pointed out that the cost of these vindictive pogroms usually exceeds the value of livestock killed statewide in Idaho. These efforts to exterminate wolves also make a mockery of the considerable resources devoted to bringing back wolves from near extinction.
Non-lethal deterrents work, but that fact does not make any sense to
Idaho authorities who are operating on
a culture war agenda. The Control Board only funds lethal actions; no money is allocated for non-lethal programs. The Wood River wolf pack has lived alongside sheep and sheep hoarders for sixteen years peacefully. Do they deserve elimination by man? That question hardly needs to be asked in a sane world. Sixty percent of the land in Idaho is public land, and the public elsewhere in America has made their decision to protect wolves very clear.
US Person thinks the federal government needs to step in and prevent this irrational slaughter from occurring by extending emergency protection to Idaho wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Write to the US Secretary of Interior today!
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