And We Wait…

This blog will be two years old next month. In two years,  wolves have been delisted, hunted, relisted, delisted and face brutal hunts once again. They’ve been loved, hated, worshiped and vilified.  I’ve written of their incredible beauty, their value to our ecosystem, their loving nature, their devotion to family, their restless spirits, their renowned endurance. I’ve written memorials to their name, lingering long into the night and early morning.  And yet here we stand perched on the precipice once again.  I allow my mind to wander and it takes me to a place I don’t want to go. To the brutal slaughter that awaits the gray wolf.  Only the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals can stop this now.

I look back and remember the elation we all felt when Judge Molloy relisted wolves in the Northern Rockies. It was a blissful day. A long-awaited day.  But evil wouldn’t rest. It picked itself up and went to work.  It went to work for the ranchers who want a predator free landscape.

“Today, ranchers have 26,000 permits to graze millions of livestock on pasture managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. They pay $1.35 per head of cattle per month — a price set by cattle prices, livestock production costs and, ostensibly, private grazing lease rates. But since 1980 that amount has decreased 40 percent to its statutory minimum, and it is typically one-10th of grazing fees on private property and state lands.

Taxpayers Foot Bill

The U.S. spends about $135 million per year managing public-lands grazing, according to the Government Accountability Office, but collects only $21 million in fees. Taxpayers also foot the bill for the Agriculture Department’s predator control program, whose hunters killed 81,684 coyotes and 478 wolves in 2009.“

It went to work for the hunting lobbies and their buddies in Congress, who helped push though a death sentence for wolves in the Northern Rockies via budget rider.

And now we wait. Wait for the Ninth Circuit. Wait for a reprieve for wolves. Will their howls be silenced once again in the Northern Rockies, sacrificed on the altar of hate and ignorance?  History repeating itself.

Video: Courtesy WildEarth Guardians YouTube

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Biodiversity

Tags: WildEarth Guardians, gray wolf, wolf persecution, ignorance, wolf hate groups, delisting, wolf hunts, animal cruelty

Published in: on August 25, 2011 at 3:19 am  Comments (6)  
Tags: , , , , , ,

The URI to TrackBack this entry is: https://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/and-we-wait/trackback/

RSS feed for comments on this post.

6 CommentsLeave a comment

  1. On August 25, 2011 at 4:29 am MARIA SONIA ESTRADA-SOLERO said:

    EL SER HUMANO ES TREMENDAMENTE INJUSTO , CRUEL , BRUTAL , INMORAL . YO NO CONFIO EN LA JUSTICIA DEL SER HUMANO . ES CRUEL Y MALTRATA A LOS ANIMALES , LOS ASESINA IMPUNEMENTE . NO ES JUSTO .

    THE HUMAN BEING is grossly unfair, CRUEL, BRUTAL, IMMORAL. I DO NOT TRUST IN THE JUSTICE OF THE HUMAN BEING. Animals are treated cruelly and murdered with impunity. NOT FAIR.

    Like

    Reply
  2. On August 25, 2011 at 9:25 am Gretchen Smith said:

    Nabeki,

    After reading your latest blog, the only thing I can remember are 2 numbers: 81,684 and 478. I see them over and over and I ask myself: What has become of our world where these two numbers are possible in this context? How does cruelty get this kind of hold over people? I think of Louise du Toit’s song ” For Every Fallen Wolf ” and know the line that says “I will raise my voice” is true. We must raise our voices against this cruelty. That’s what this blog does.

    Like

    Reply
  3. On August 25, 2011 at 11:32 am james william gibson said:

    I think it’s time we start to prepare for the worst case scenario, namely that the Ninth Circuit does not grant the injunction and wolves start to die. If that happens, we need to take photographs of dead wolves, noting where they were killed, naming their pack if its known, their weight, their coloring, etc.We also need to collect photographs taken by others.

    We can use these photographs to create memorials for the wolves, helping the public to understand–by looking at wolf faces–that these animals have individual characters. PETA did this for foxes in the 1990s, using montages of fox portraits in ads. in 1968, LIFE magazine published a portrait of every GI killed in Vietnam in one week, making the weekly news body count much more real. LIFE actually helped change public opinion.

    Like

    Reply
    • On August 25, 2011 at 1:09 pm Nabeki said:

      I completely agree william, basically turning ourselves into the wolf version of the Buffalo Field Campaign. This is a sad business but we have to get our message out and influence public opinion. We also need to continue to push the boycotts and rallies. This is just the beginning.

      For the wolves, For the wild ones,
      Nabeki

      Like

      Reply
    • On August 26, 2011 at 9:48 am Gretchen Smith said:

      Will do James. Thank you for the idea.

      Like

      Reply
  4. On August 25, 2011 at 8:58 pm Fernanda Klinger said:

    God is not happy with how we are treating his creation. We need to stand firm and fight for these animals and against evil leaders. It’s horrible to think what we are doing and allow to happen. It’s time to rise and speak out and show these people they can’t get away with their decisions…

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment