Utah Senator to Wolves….Do Not Enter Utah On Pain of Death (Alert Take Action)

Utah Senator Allen Christensen has introduced a bill, SB 36, that would allow any and all gray wolves that have the audacity to enter Utah’s borders, to be captured and removed or killed.  That’s right. He thinks wolves are not compatible with humans. Could a human being be more intolerant?  Does he realize how ridiculous this sounds?  Wolves don’t read signs, they don’t understand boundaries. Just when I thought wolf hysteria couldn’t get any worse, it does.

Even though this bill would likely be unconstitutional if passed, because federal law trumps state law, Christensen states they would fight it all the way to the Supreme Court.  

Sportsmen For Fish and Wildlife and the Cattlemen’s Association’s Utah chapter are supporters of the bill.  Big surprise. Apparently the “Sportsmen” and I use that term lightly, will bankroll the court battle, if the bill passes. Here’s a quote from The Salt Lake Tribune, showing the absolute arrogance of this man and the organizations that support this disgusting  bill.

“Wolves are out of control, says Utah Sen. Allen Christensen, and the state’s policy should be to kill them. Heck, he did. Went to Canada to bag one. It’s at the taxidermist.

And besides, Christensen says, passing a bill to declare Utah’s policy to destroy or remove all wolves is a simple case of states’ rights.

The North Ogden Republican’s goal is spelled out in SB36, which has caught the attention of legislative attorneys who attached a rare warning that the bill, if passed, probably would be found unconstitutional.

“Will it be a fight? Absolutely,” Christensen concedes. “We have enough money to take it all the way to the [U.S.] Supreme Court.”

The Utah chapters of the Cattlemen’s Association and Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife support the bill. The Sportsmen will contribute to litigation costs, says Byron Bateman, president of the Utah chapter.

“We’ve been in the fight from the get-go,” Bateman said, “and we’ll be in it to the end.”

SB36 is for people who enjoy wildlife, Christensen says, adding he knows wolves are wildlife, too. But they were exterminated in this region in the 19th century “for good reason,” he says. “They were simply not compatible with humans anymore.”

I have news for the Senator. Wolves are protected under ESA (Endangered Species Act) in much of Utah and it would be a federal crime to kill a wolf. 

An area in Utah east of Interstate 84 and Interstate 15 and north of I-80 is in the northern Rocky Mountain gray-wolf recovery area. This is the only area now where the state has any kind of management jurisdiction. Wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act in the rest of Utah.

Anyone who kills a wolf without proper cause in most of Utah still could land in big trouble — to the tune of a $100,000 fine, a year in prison and loss of the gun that killed the beast and the truck the hunter rode in.

BUT, this awful bill, if passed, would supersede Utah’s wolf plan, which is almost as bad as the bill, allowing only two breeding pairs to produce two pups for two consecutive years.  Is Utah enamored with the number two?  What the heck kind of wolf plan is that? 

If this “legislation” passes I will never even fly into the Salt Lake airport again, let alone vacation or buy anything that is remotely connected to the state.

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Here is an Alert from Ralph Maughin’s website, with information about this deplorable bill and what you can do.

Alert on Utah wolves

January 28, 2010 — Ralph Maughan

What you can do if you oppose Utah state senator Allen Christensen wolf killing bill-

Wolves urgently need your help.  Please send the following alert to as many people as you can.  Use your organization’s email list if you can!  Do it right away, then act on it yourself!

The organization Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has a bill before the Utah legislature that would require the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to prevent wolf packs from becoming established in the Utah portion of the Rocky Mountain gray wolf recovery area.  This part of the recovery area is where dispersing wolves from the Yellowstone country have been entering Utah, some of them traveling on to Colorado.  If this bill passes, any wolves entering Utah in this area will be subject to capture and return or death.

This egregious bill, identified as S.B. 36 first substitute, would supplant the Utah Wolf Management Plan – a plan which would at least tolerate up to two breeding pairs producing at least two surviving offspring for two consecutive years.  I know, this plan is really lame, but it is better than what the bill would require.  Furthermore, it was created through a public process that began with and ended with the Utah legislature – a process that involved 13 representatives of a diverse group of stakeholders, including ranchers and sportsmen, working for a year and a half.  Even then, the ranching and hunting interests on the working group violated the mutually agreed-upon protocols in order to ensure that the resulting plan is really weak.  Not satisfied with that, now they want to lord over the rest of us to ensure that there are never any wild wolves in Utah.  At bottom this is a moral issue: We must stand up for wolves and wild nature and for ourselves.  Here’s what you can do, but please do it quickly as this bill is on a fast track – do it NOW if you can: 

If you are a Utah resident, go to the following web-site and click on ‘Senate’ and ‘House’ to find your senator and your representative, then contact each and let him or her know in no ambiguous terms that you want this bill to fail.  This will be particularly important for those of you who live in the Republican-dominated rural parts of the state: http://www.le.state.ut.us/

If you live outside Utah and you want to exert influence on this, you might contact the Utah Office of Tourism and express your displeasure over this bill and tell them that, if it passes, it will make you less interested in vacationing and recreating in Utah: http://travel.utah.gov/contactus.html
 

If you would like to be added to the Utah Wolf Forum list serve to receive periodic updates on this and other wolf-related issues, contact lynx@xmission.com and state your request.  It is our policy that you also briefly state your reason.

Sincerely,
Kirk Robinson, PhD, Director of Western Wildlife Conservancy
Allison Jones, M.S., Conservation biologist with Wild Utah Project

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Please take action and stop the persecution of wolves!!  They have no voice, they need ours!!

For the wolves, For the wild ones,

Nabeki

Posted in: Wolf Wars, graywolf/canis lupus, howling for justice

Tags: Utah wolf killing bill, wolves in the crossfire, wolf intolerance, wolf myths