It’s Ground Hog Day, Wolf Haters Plotting To Bypass Courts AGAIN!!!

Ground Hog Day For Wolves

February 12, 2015

Here we go again. The wolf hating trifecta of politicians, ranchers and hunters, are attempting to undermine the courts once again, by scheming to pass a bill through Congress that would overturn the Great Lakes and Wyoming wolf relisting. These people are relentless in their hatred of wolves.

“Several members of Congress are preparing legislation to take gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wyoming off the endangered list in an attempt to undo court decisions that have blocked the states from allowing wolf hunting and trapping for sport and predator control.

U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., is leading the effort, his office confirmed Tuesday. Co-sponsors include U.S. Reps. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., Dan Benishek, R-Mich., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.”…..AP

They’re unhappy with the court ruling that relisted Great Lakes wolves recently. This behavior mimics the egregious action taken against wolves in Montana, Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington, back in 2011, when the infamous wolf delisting rider was tacked onto a spending bill, trapping Montana and Idaho wolves in an endless cycle of wolf hunts, pain and suffering.  Just recently the Center For Biological Diversity announced Idaho was hovering just above the federal minimum of 15 breeding pairs. They stated:

“VICTOR, Idaho— Four years after Congress attached a rider to a spending bill to remove federal protections for wolves in Idaho, the state’s wolf population has dropped to levels where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said it would consider protection under the Endangered Species Act. As a result of aggressive hunting and trapping seasons, Idaho’s wildlife managers are estimating the wolf population may be as low as 550 individuals with 15 breeding pairs. Under the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2009 delisting rule, which Congress passed as law, Idaho is required to manage for at least 15 breeding pairs in mid-winter.”

Further:

 Idaho has held wolf hunting and trapping seasons since federal protection was removed in 2011. So far 1,164 wolves have been killed in Idaho, dropping the state’s estimated breeding population from an estimated 46 pairs to 15-25 pairs. These death tallies do not include the large number of wolves killed by agency staff for conflicts with livestock and wolves killed by illegal poaching. 

“Our top scientists and the American public overwhelmingly support continued protection of wolves,” said Santarsiere. “Today’s numbers show why management of wolves should never have been turned over to a state agency who has been openly opposed to supporting a healthy wolf population.”

So with the disastrous decline of wolf populations in Idaho since their delisting in 2009, nothing has been learned and the usual suspects are trying once again to subvert the courts to put wolves back under the control of  “state management” . Idaho should be a warning that “state management” of wolves is not a feasible option. Allowing state game agencies to “manage/kill” wolves is a recipe for disaster. They make money off wolf hunting tags and many if not most of their customers (hunters) view wolves as competition. Whose side do you think these agencies are on? Certainly not the wolf.

There are also the fanatics who want to hurt and kill wolves out of sheer hatred for them. Anti-wolf FB pages or YouTube videos, demonstrate this ugliness.  It’s public proof about what they want to do to wolves. What other animal is demonized in this way? Bill Gibson, a journalist for Earth Island Journal, wrote several excellent articles on the madness wolves face from these wolf hating extremists. He explains in great detail the thinking behind their twisted view of wolves.

So how did we get here? In 2009 the Obama admin. delisted wolves in the Northern Rockies, paving the way for the first organized wolf hunts in the lower 48. A lawsuit was filed by environmental groups, challenging the delisting but while the lawsuit was being adjudicated wolf hunts were held in Montana and Idaho, mere months after they lost their ESA protections. 500 wolves died in the Northern Rockies in 2009, all thanks to wolf hunts, wildlife services killings and poaching.

The environmental groups eventually prevailed in 2010, when Judge Donald Molloy relisted wolves in the Northern Rockies, effectively putting a screeching halt to planned  Montana and Idaho wolf hunts scheduled for the Fall and Spring of 2010/2011.  The wolf haters were furious, they knew they weren’t going to win in the courts, so they convinced the majority of Democrat Senators to do their dirty work for them and pass a wolf delisting rider, tacked onto a spending bill. We all said it back in 2011, once the flood gates are open this will continue to be used for any court ruling the haters don’t like. Why do we even have 3 branches of government if Congress can just pass a law wiping out a court decision? And don’t think this will stop with wolves, any endangered species that gets in the way will be facing the same treatment. Grizzly bears anyone? They’re next!

BTW, Cynthia Lummis R-WY, tried this same tactic back in 2011. She attempted to attach a wolf delisting rider to a budget bill, just as the Senate Democrats had successfully done earlier in the year. But apparently Congress felt they’d done enough damage to the ESA for one year and stripped her rider out of the bill. Lummus blamed radical environmentalists. I guess that’s us. So it looks like she’s back at it. Now Lummis is teaming up with the Great Lakes crowd to try and delist Wyoming wolves, along with Great Lakes wolves. These people will stop at nothing.

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Lummis Blames “Radical Environmentalists” For Rider Removal….

December 17, 2011

Apparently Cynthia Lummis isn’t happy her wolf/delisting rider was removed from the budget bill by Congress. She blames “radical environmentalists”.

“Lummis issued a statement on Friday claiming that radical environmentalists used what she called “their considerable sway in the White House” to remove the language. An attempt to reach her for comment on Friday was unsuccessful.”

Not really sure what political sway she’s talking about?  It was Obama who delisted  wolves in the Northern Rockies, mere months after he took office. It was the Senate Democrats, with help from Republicans, who voted to delist wolves via budget rider last Spring and the President signed the wolf rider/budget bill into law. We have two ongoing, brutal wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho because of that delisting and the Endangered Species Act has been weakened.

If there is any  “sway” it  has more to do with the upcoming 2012 elections AND the wolf and wildlife advocates who burned up the Capitol phone lines this week to send a message to their Representatives.  NO MORE WOLF DELISTING RIDERS!!

 https://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/lummis-blames-radical-environmentalists-for-rider-removal/

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In order to try to head Congress off at the pass, Conservation groups are proposing a compromise.

“Wolves are classified as endangered across most of the lower 48 states except the Northern Rockies. “Endangered” is a more protective listing than “threatened.”

Brett Hartl with the Center for Biological Diversity said Tuesday’s petition asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to downgrade the animals’ status is meant to preempt Congressional intervention.”

In 2011, environmental groups proposed a compromise to try to stop Congress from delisting wolves by Congressional rider. But it was unsuccessful and wolves were thrown under the bus by  Senate Democrats and President Obama. Now the same thing is happening. It remains to be seen whether downgrading wolves from endangered to threatened will stop the juggernaut that is threatening to place wolves back in the hands of their enemies, who want nothing more than to manage/kill them.

It’s ground-hog day once again.

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MFBF and MFU ask for Gray Wolves to be Delisted from Endangered Species Act

February 10, 2015

This week the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF) and the Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) joined together to ask the Minnesota Members of Congress to cosponsor legislation to reissue the December 2011 U.S. Department of Interior rule that would delist the Western Great Lakes Gray Wolves population in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and turn the management of the wolf back to state control.

MFBF and MFU encouraged members of the U.S. House of Representatives to sign onto Representative Ribble’s bill alongside Congressmen Peterson, Emmer and Walz. They asked Senators Klobuchar and Franken that action be taken in the Senate to establish legislation similar to that in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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http://www.minnesotafarmguide.com/news/regional/mfbf-and-mfu-ask-for-gray-wolves-to-be-delisted/article_220160e4-b173-11e4-b081-a76104ba6c24.html

Wisconsin Congressman Wants to Permanently Remove Gray Wolves from Region’s Endangered Species List

Endangered status of Great Lakes wolf could come up in Congress this week. Credit P McConnell

By SUSAN BENCE

February 10, 2015

Wisconsin’s divisive wolf story is taking on a new twist. A Congressman from Wisconsin is spearheading legislation to permanently delist wolves in the Great Lakes region.

Reid Ribble’s bill is expected to be introduced Thursday in Washington.

Wisconsin has held three wolf hunts, since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the species from endangered status, a few years back.

The last hunt ended in December. The quota was 150 wolves; hunters harvested four more.

Two weeks later, a federal judge put Great Lakes states’ wolves back on the endangered species list . She said Fish and Wildlife should never have delisted the predator.

Congressman Ribble is among those saying enough is enough.

“That was a determination that the judge made – the Fish and Wildlife Service believes what they did was in the best interest of the wolf population and that they’re monitoring a population in these states is in fact accurate and warranted the delisting,” he says.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act. Its decision to delist the Great Lakes wolf followed more than a decade of debate and flurry of court battles over the gray wolf.

Ribble says he’s introducing a bill to give the Fish and Wildlife Service final say. And his plan would put management and protection of the gray wolf in the hands of Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states.

http://wuwm.com/post/wisconsin-congressman-wants-permanently-remove-gray-wolves-regions-endangered-species-list

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Bill in Congress would remove protections for Great Lakes wolves

By Steve Karnowski
Associated Press

POSTED:   01/13/2015 12:01:00 AM CST

Several members of Congress are preparing legislation to take gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wyoming off the endangered list in an attempt to undo court decisions that have blocked the states from allowing wolf hunting and trapping for sport and predator control.

U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., is leading the effort, his office confirmed Tuesday. Co-sponsors include U.S. Reps. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., Dan Benishek, R-Mich., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

“I am pursuing a bipartisan legislative fix that will allow the Great Lakes states to continue the effective work they are doing in managing wolf populations without tying the hands of the Fish and Wildlife Service or undermining the Endangered Species Act,” Ribble said in a statement.

Ribble spokeswoman Katherine Mize said he hasn’t decided exactly when to introduce the bill, but the lawmakers are circulating a draft.

The legislation is in response to a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., last month that threw out an Obama administration decision to “delist” wolves in the western Great Lakes region, where the combined wolf population is estimated at around 3,700. That followed a similar decision by a different federal judge in September that stripped Wyoming of its wolf management authority and returned that state’s wolves to federal protections under the Endangered Species Act.

Ribble’s bill uses a strategy that succeeded in taking wolves in Idaho and Montana off the endangered list after court challenges by environmentalists blocked those efforts.

Congress took matters into its own hands in 2011 and lifted the federal protections for wolves in those two states, which then allowed hunting and trapping to resume.

“The language we are looking at would be narrow and would address the recent court decision. It would not seek to change the Endangered Species Act, but would be designed to meet the need in our region for responsible stewardship of the wolf population,” Benishek said in a statement.

Peterson, the most senior member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation, said he didn’t know what the prospects are for this legislation, but he said they’re probably better than they were in 2011 given that Republicans now control the Senate. He said he’s working to line up support from other lawmakers.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said in her 111-page ruling that the delisting, which took effect in 2012, was no more valid than the government’s three previous attempts over more than a decade. While wildlife managers in the three western Great Lakes states say their wolf populations are no longer endangered and can sustain limited hunting and trapping, Howell criticized the states’ regulatory plans as inadequate. She also said wolves still need federal protections because they haven’t repopulated all of their historic range.

Peterson said he has asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to appeal her decision and was confident it would be overturned.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_27312693/bill-would-remove-protections-wolves-4-states-including

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Bill would remove federal protections for wolves in 4 states, including Wyoming

By STEVE KARNOWSKI The Associated Press

First Published Jan 13 2015 02:48PM    •    Last Updated Jan 13 2015 02:48 pm

http://www.sltrib.com/news/2054424-155/bill-would-remove-federal-protections-for

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Advocates seek gray wolf status change to pre-empt Congress

by NBC25 Newsroom
Posted: 01.28.2015 at 9:02 AM

http://www.minbcnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=1155496#.VNEq2GjF-So

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Patricia Randolph’s Madravenspeak: Wolves’ reprieve short-lived if Ribble bill succeeds

http://host.madison.com/columnist/patricia-randolph-s-madravenspeak-wolves-reprieve-short-lived-if-ribble/article_3405f459-7f2a-5de4-a2ad-57e837baf774.html#ixzz3PKF9soUJ

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Contact your Representative and protest this repeat egregious attack on the ESA.  Let them know how you feel about Congress trying to overturn judicial rulings they don’t like by bypassing them with legislation.

We can’t let them thwart the court ruling a second time by further weakening the ESA so they can hunt and kill wolves.

SPEAK OUT FOR WOLVES IN THE GREAT LAKES AND WYOMING before it’s too late for them!

Let Congress know you want to keep wolves in the Great Lakes and Wyoming listed. Do we want to see Wisconsin wolves once again chased by up to six dogs per “hunter”, which in my mind is a legal form of dog fighting. Wolves are trapped, shot, snared and shown little mercy by trophy hunters. The states are not interested in the welfare of wolves or wolf families. They only see wolves as numbers. And we know wolves are not numbers but families. Families that are torn apart by hunting cruelty.

If returned to state management  Wyoming wolves could once again be subjected to the “predator zone”, which encompassed over 80% of the state.. Wolves in the “predator zone” could be shot on sight or killed by any method 365 days of the year. Are we going to allow a small group of wolf haters to dictate this madness?

Congress is once again attempting an end-round the courts because they don’t like the outcome of a judicial ruling. It’s time the American people speak out for wolves before it’s too late. Wolves in the Great Lakes and Wyoming will be trapped in a never-ending loop of killing, just like wolves in Montana and Idaho, who because of the 2011 budget bill wolf delisting rider, continue to die at the hands of “state management policies” that have very little if any concern over their welfare.

 Call your US Representatives and Senators. Let them know what you think about U.S. Rep. Reid Ribbles, R-Wis attempt to  delist wolves by Congressional fiat. If you don’t act now and ignore this threat we’ll be witnessing a repeat of the fate that befell wolves in the Northern Rockies. It’s going to take heating up the phone lines of your US Representatives and Senators. Remind them the Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon for a reason, the ESA was designed to protect a species like the wolf, who not only was extirpated from the lower 48 but was done so with malice. Wolves need protection from that malice so they can disperse and reclaim habitat lost to them. They that protection for their very survival.

We only have to look to Idaho in sorrow, as wolf numbers continue to plummet to dangerous levels. This is the legacy of “state wolf management”.

It’s up to you to make yourself heard and continue to do so until this legislation is defeated!

It’s now or never!!

“A congressional rider or bill that promotes legislative delisting of wolves is not just going to again place wolves in jeopardy, but it will fatally undermine the Endangered Species Act.” – Attorney Jodi Habush Sinykin

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Top Photo: Courtesy Wiki

Bottom Photo: Courtesy  P. McConnell

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Endangered Species Act, gray wolves

Tags: CALL YOUR US REPRESENTATIVES,  groundhog day, nullifying the courts, persecution of wolves, Congress meddling again, don’t return wolves to state management, leading the charge: U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., U.S. Reps. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., Dan Benishek, R-Mich., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo