There were a whole lot less problems that were easily manageable.
Managed using strychnine.
"Managed using strychnine"
I wonder how much fun it is for the wolves to be run with a helo and shot? From what I have read shooting from the air isn't to accurate. Hunting these wolves as a big game animal will never control them. what do you think will be the end results in controlling wolves once they really start to cause problems in WA?
Wolf Recovery: The Exploitation of a Species
http://outside.away.com/news/specialreport/wolf/mader.htmlT.R. Mader, Abundant Wildlife Society
"All we learn from history is that we don't learn from history," so goes a well-known saying. How true!
It's claimed the wolf's history is one of exploitation, readily condemned by the self-acclaimed saviors of the wolf. Those greedy ranchers, thinking only of dollars and personal gain, trapped, shot and poisoned wolves until they were no more. Thoughts of wildness, wilderness, ecosystems and ecological balance never once entered their minds.
Yet, in reality, little has changed. Today the wolf is used for such selfish desires as job security (federal biologists, radio collars, kennels, studies), emotional satisfaction (wolves are the symbols of wildness, aren't they?), and, yes, personal gain -- $$$$$$$$$$$$.
Wolf recovery is big money for both government and private organizations. The government has spent millions on wolf-related studies. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has radio-collared more than 500 wolves in Minnesota alone and that project is still on-going.
We've all received those tear-jerker letters on wolves, how we can save them from extinction, etc., etc. Pick up your local wildlife catalog and you'll find all kinds of wolfie gifts. There are paintings--the kind to show wolves' "gentle qualities," or as "wilderness guardians;" Knives with wolves etched on the sides; wolf blankets, rugs and doormats; ties with wolves; wolf jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts, T-shirts; wolf belt buckles; wolf lapel/blouse pins; wolf stamps for your letters; wolf stationary and notes; wolf shopping and tote bags; wolf mugs; wolf door chimes; wolf key rings; wolf bookends; stuffed wolf pups; even wolf furniture--coffee and end tables with wolves etched in glass. The selection seems endless. This writer counted 28 such items in one catalog.
What does all this mean? Dollars! Wolves sell! They make money. And they guarantee job security for federal biologists and similar ilk. They mean big dollars in the coffers of wolf promoters.
But we're saving the wolf, aren't we? No, we're not! We're simply exploiting them in a new politically correct way.
Wolves are not biologically endangered. They never have been, nor will they be in the foreseeable future. They are politically defined as endangered in the Endangered Species Act. (Politically defined as endangered: The government sets artificial standards by which they can term a species endangered.) Yes, it's true we drastically reduced wolves' range, but they are not endangered. Biologists estimate wolves number over 50,000 in North America.
Now look what we did to them in the Yellowstone Recovery!
First, we aerial gunned them with tranquilizer darts (we even killed one doing this) and kidnapped them from their native habitat in Canada. Second, we imprisoned them in steel cages. Third, we drew blood, eartagged, radio collared and vaccinated these wolves. Fourth, we transported them to foreign soil and placed them in kennels. (Eyewitnesses state many cages were bloody from the wolves attempting escape by the time they reached Yellowstone.) Fifth, we turned them loose in this foreign place where more than 3 million people visit, drive, hike, camp and who knows what else. Do we have the wolf's best interest in mind here?
We must also note this area of release, i.e. Yellowstone National Park, is surrounded on all sides by people who have adamantly voiced their opposition to wolves so strongly that even state legislatures went on record repeatedly opposing this program, an area where the three S's--shoot, shovel, and shut-up--have become sort of unwritten law. An area where wolves have been naturally migrating for 15 years and only number about 85 now, concentrated in and near a national park.
Example: The nine-mile pack (also known as the Tragic Pack) in Montana. The mother was illegally shot, the father killed by a vehicle. FWS kept the pups alive by artificial feeding. These pups killed some cattle. They were then harassed by helicopter until captured, undoubtedly scared out of their wits during this ordeal. They're relocated to unfamiliar country. They disperse--one heads for livestock country, is re-captured and permanently locked up in a sanctuary in Washington State. Two are illegally killed and the third is simply missing--later found shot, too.
We have insisted all along that if the pro-wolf/pro-recovery people bullied this recovery on the western states, it wouldn't work and the wolf will be the loser. We've been prophetic.
So exploitation continues. The wolf loses, but that really doesn't matter anymore since it isn't the greedy ranchers who profit.
T.R. Mader, who grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, is research director of Abundant Wildlife Society of North America, an international wildlife organization opposed to the exploitation of wolves through recovery.
