Montana FWP Commissioners, Say NO To Trapping Wolves!!

Don’t do it! Don’t become Idaho! Montana has two national treasures in the state where wolves roam, north Yellowstone (where most park wolves call home ) and Glacier National Park. Why would you be willing to put those fragile populations of wolves at risk? It’s bad enough wolves are being hunted in Montana in the first place but to add trapping as a weapon against such a small population of wolves, in the third largest state in the lower 48 , is madness!!

Don’t listen to the radical fringe who think the only good wolf is a dead wolf. You forget wildlife watchers in Montana and around the world who want to view wild wolves. You only have to look to Yellowstone, where wolves generate 35 million dollars annualy to the GYA. Wolves are the rock stars of Yellowstone, the animals most people want to see. By allowing trapping you will certainly put the wolves of Yellowstone and Glacier National park at terrible risk. Yellowstone wolves are habituated to humans. Remember the Cottonwood Pack disaster? Can you imagine the carnage when hunters start laying traps right outside the borders of Yellowstone, where wolves routinely cross over to hunt?

Don’t go the way of Idaho, whose reputation has taken a huge hit because of the state’s cruelty directed at wolves.

There is no wolf crisis!! Only one dreamed up in the heads of the wolf hating zealots. Elk numbers have been @ 150,000 in Montana since 2009. Livestock losses to wolves are miniscule. Ed Bangs (retired USFWS Wolf Recovery Coordinator) recently stated “To the livestock industry, wolf losses are so small, you can’t even measure them.”

So why the heavy hand? Why the persecution? You know the truth and you know trapping is barbaric, cruel and completely unnecessary. Do the right thing! DO NOT APPROVE the trapping of wolves in Montana.

The FWP Commission begins at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Helena at the Montana Wild Education Center, 2668 Broadwater Ave., west of Helena near Spring Meadow Lake State Park.

Be there to support wolves and say no to trapping them!!

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Wolf trapping: It’s like traditional stoning

I was reading the article this morning regarding the large number of comments about proposed changes to wolf hunting and trapping. I remembered a guy explaining to me awhile back about how the “old timers” go about trapping wolves.

“First ya take yerself a piece of cable and fray it so’s that the broken strands are a pointin up. Then you hang the other end a yer cable in a tree so’s that the frayed end is far enough off of the ground so’s a wolf gotta jump to git to it. Then you put yerself some bait on the frayed end of the cable and when the wolf jumps up to get it his mouth becomes hooked on the barbs and he hangs there til he’s dead.”

Yep, that’s just part of our good old Montana heritage. When can we expect the traditional stoning to begin?

Jim Rolando, Missoula

http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/wolf-trapping-it-s-like-traditional-stoning/article_f4f0c2da-cb5f-11e1-a7b0-0019bb2963f4.html

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I definitely don’t agree with the Missoulian that wolf hunting is necessary but I applaud the editorial staff for taking a stand against trapping wolves.

Wolf trapping is cruel and unnecessary

Missoulian Editorial

July 11, 2012

http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/editorial/wolf-trapping-is-cruel-and-unnecessary/article_febd699c-cb61-11e1-9e72-0019bb2963f4.html

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The Ugly Face Of Wolf Trapping and Snaring

Warning Graphic Videos

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Photo: Courtesy All Creatures

Videos: YouTube

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Trapping Cruelty, Trophy Hunting

Tags: Montana FWP, say no to trapping wolves, Helena Meeting July 12, stand up for wolves

Published in:

on July 11, 2012 at 11:51 pm Comments (34)
Tags: Helena Meeting July 12, Montana FWP Commissioners, say no to trapping wolves, stand up for wolves

Kalispell Hearing Today on Wolf Trapping Proposal and Other Bad Stuff….

A charade is playing out today in Kalispell, Montana, where the last of the hearings on the 2012/2013 wolf killing proposals will be held by Montana FWP. They want to trap wolves, abolish quotas in the state and well, kill lots of wolves.

From the Ravalli Repubic

Trapping wolves, allowing the taking of up to three wolves, using electronic calls, lengthening the hunt and eliminating quotas are among the proposals to be introduced at ~~Thursday’s~~ Wednesday’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission meeting.

Read the gory details here.

These are the “objectives” for decimating the wolf population, taken from the Montana FWP website. My comments are in blue.

MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES:

1. Maintain a viable and connected wolf population in Montana.

Translation: Kill more wolves.

2. Gain and maintain authority for State of Montana to manage wolves.

Translation: We can’t allow those wolves to live wild and free, now can we?

3. Maintain positive and effective working relationships with livestock producers, hunters, and

other stakeholders.

Translation: Cater to the hunters and ranchers, the non-consumptive user be damned.

4a. Reduce wolf impacts on livestock.

Fact: In 2011, 74,800 Montana cows were lost to non-predation, including Digestive problems, Respiratory problems, Metabolic problems, Mastitis, Lameness/injury, Other diseases, Weather, Calving problems, Poisoning, Theft, Other non-predator, Unknown non-predator while just 74 to wolves, out of a population of over 2 million cows.

4b. Reduce wolf impacts on big game populations.

Fact: Elk populations have remained stable in the state at 150,000 elk since 2009. That is a 66% increase since 1984, according to the RMEF 25th anniversary press release in 2009.

4c. Maintain sustainable hunter opportunity for wolves.

Translation: Now we are getting to the real truth.

4d. Maintain sustainable hunter opportunity for ungulates.

Translation: See 4c

5. Increase broad public acceptance of sustainable harvest and hunter opportunity as part of

wolf conservation.

Translation: Wolf hunters want to kill wolves. The license fees are an added bonus.

6. Enhance open and effective communication to better inform decisions

Translation: Uh-huh

7. Learn and improve as we go.

Translation: Kill more wolves.

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Montana continues to claim they know how many wolves actually reside in the state when Jay Mallonee, a Montana wolf biologist with over twenty years experience studying canis lupus, has repeatedly challenged them on this:

From Wolf and Wildlife Studies

“Management agencies have claimed that the recovery and public hunting of wolves is based in science. A review of their statistics demonstrated that data collection methods did not follow a scientific protocol which resulted in flawed and often incorrect data. Consequently, agencies do not know the total number of wolves in Montana, a major reference point used by wolf managers. Therefore, the quotas proposed for public wolf hunts are completely arbitrary, and management decisions in general have not been based on facts. This has produced a wolf management system that lacks scientific perspective and does not utilize what is known about the wolves’ role in sustaining healthy ecosystems. Instead, the absence of verifiable data suggests that management decisions are often based on opinion and politics rather than science.”

I’m sure the trapping and trophy hunting communities will be well represented, chomping at the bit to make sure Montana allows them to kill, kill and kill more wolves, especially using the medieval torture device, the leg-hold trap.

I can pretty much guarantee that no matter what happens in Kalispell today wolves will be trapped and killed in the coming Montana 2012/2013 wolf witch hunt.

The deadline for public comment on the proposed 2012 Wolf Season, Quotas and Boundaries

is 5:00 PM Monday, June 25, 2012. Final adoption on these items will be made at the July 12,

2012 FWP Commission meeting.

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Wolf Meeting Planned For Flathead

FLATHEAD COUNTY

By Scott Zoltan

POSTED: 10:10 pm MDT June 10, 2012

KALISPELL, Mont. — On Wednesday it’s the Flathead’s turn to host a meeting on a proposed trapping season for wolves, and an extended general hunting season. There would also be no statewide quota under the proposed rules.

FWP is considering a general season that would run from September 1 to February 28 in 2013. There would be quotas set up in two areas near Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.

Hunters would still have to report harvests within 24 hours, and the FWP would reserve the ability to shut down the season in certain areas to prevent overharvest.

FWP officials have already held meetings in Billings, Bozeman, Missoula and Great Falls, but they’re still hoping for a large turnout at Kalispell’s meeting.

“It’s really important that people do get their voices heard,” said FWP Spokesman John Fraley.

The open-house meeting will start at 7:00 pm on Wednesday at the Flathead Valley Community College Arts and Technology building.

http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/31178263/detail.html

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Photo: Courtesy WordPress blog 39,500 miles later

Photo: Courtesy Ann Sydow Wolf People Pup

Posted in: trapped wolves, Montana wolves, Wolf Wars

Tags: killing wolves, stop killing wolves, quit killing wolves, wolf killing

Wolf People Pup

Published in:

on June 13, 2012 at 3:45 am Comments (36)
Tags: Kalispell Montana, killing wolves, quit killing wolves, stop killing wolves, wolf killing

Trapped, Tortured Wolf Did Not Die In Vain….

A trapper posing for the camera with a wounded wolf in the background caught in a leghold trap (Photo Courtesy Earth Island Journal)

The picture has now become iconic. A beautiful, black wolf, caught in a leghold trap, wounded, STILL ALIVE, blood soaking the snow around him, holding his injured foot off the ground, with the face of a trapper mugging for the camera.

The situation had become something of an arena sport because the trapped wolf was shot at by “hunters” just having a little “fun”?? What a blast (pun intended) that must have been for them to fire on a trapped, defenseless animal? Right?? Whoever shot at that wolf should be charged with a crime, this was animal torture and cruelty at its worst. BUT, was what they did anymore cruel than trapping the wolf in the first place? Who knows how long he’d been tethered to that trap without food or water, frightened, shot and bleeding?

Initially the photo was downloaded from a trapping website and posted on Footloose Montana’s Facebook page, which received hundreds of comments. On Monday Footloose received a vile, threatening email which prompted them to contact the authorities.

As sad as this story is the picture exposed the cruelty and torture of the wolf for all to see, having the opposite effect of that which it was intended. His image has become the face of the repulsive, ugly practice of trapping. It’s not a sport, it’s medieval torment that belongs in the 5th century, NOT in a civilized society.

With his suffering exposed, will this animal’s tragic final moments on earth, caught on camera, finally be the wake up call for America to say NO MORE??

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Photos of live, trapped wolf prompt threats to Missoula-based group

March 29, 2012
Written By John S. Adams

HELENA — A Missoula-based anti-trapping organization said it received a threatening email this month after the group posted graphic photos on the Internet of a live Idaho wolf caught in a foot-hold trap.

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The Predator Persecution Complex

The Perverse Logic of Wolf Hunts

by GEORGE WUERTHNER

The hysteria that surrounds wolf management in the Rockies has clouded rational discussion. Wolves are hardly a threat to either hunting opportunity or the livestock industry.

ELK NUMBERS ABOVE OBJECTIVES

For instance, the Wyoming Fish and Game reports: “The Department continues to manage to reduce Wyoming’s elk numbers. The total population of the herds with estimates increased by 16 percent in 2009 and is now 29 percent above the statewide objective of 83,640 animals.”

Things are similar in Montana. Populations have grown from an estimated 89,000 animals in 1992 prior to wolf recovery to 140,000-150,000 animals in recent years.

In Idaho we find a similar trend. According to the IDFG 23 out of 29 elk units are at and/or above objective. Hunter success in 2011 was 20%: one in five hunters killed an elk.

Wolves are clearly not a threat to the future of hunting in any of these states.

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Wolf Torture and Execution Continues in the Northern Rockies

by James William Gibson – March 28, 2012

Montana Anti-Trapping Group Gets Death Threat for Releasing Photos

On March 16, a Friday, a US Forest Service employee from Grangeville, Idaho, laid out his wolf traps. The following Monday, using the name “Pinching,” he posted his story and pictures on www.Trapperman.com . “I got a call on Sunday morning from a FS [Forest Service] cop that I know. You got one up here as there was a crowd forming. Several guys had stopped and taken a shot at him already,” wrote Pinching. The big, black male wolf stood in the trap, some 300-350 yards from the road, wounded—the shots left him surrounded by blood-stained snow. Pinching concluded his first post, “Male that went right at 100 pounds. No rub spots on the hide, and he will make me a good wall hanger.”

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Photo: Courtesy Earth Island Journal

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Trapping Wolves, Animal Cruelty

Tags: Animal cruelty, animal torture, evils of trapping, suffering wolf, Footloose Montana, Earth Island Journal, Great Falls Tribunedotcom

Published in:

on March 30, 2012 at 4:05 pm Comments (59)
Tags: animal cruelty, animal torture, Earth Island Journal, evils of trapping, Footloose Montana, Great Falls Tribune, suffering wolf

EIJ: Wolf Torture and Execution Continues in the Northern Rockies by J. William Gibson

(From Earth Island Journal) A Hunter and his dead prey

Montana Anti-Trapping Group Gets Death Threat for Releasing Photos

On March 16, a Friday, a US Forest Service employee from Grangeville, Idaho, laid out his traps wolf. The following Monday, using the name “Pinching,” he posted his story and pictures on www.Trapperman.com . “I got a call on Sunday morning from a FS [Forest Service] cop that I know. You got one up here as there was a crowd forming. Several guys had stopped and taken a shot at him already,” wrote Pinching. The big, black male wolf stood in the trap, some 300-350 yards from the road, wounded—the shots left him surrounded by blood-stained snow. Pinching concluded his first post, “Male that went right at 100 pounds. No rub spots on the hide, and he will make me a good wall hanger.”

The Trapperman website went wild with comments. “That’s a dandy!! Keep at it,” wrote Watarrat. Otterman asked, “All the gray on that muzzle make a guy wonder how old he is or if it is just part of his black coloring.” Pinching’s picture of the wolf’s paw caught in the trap got special attention. “Is that the MB750 stamped ‘wolf’ on the pan?” asked one man. “Looks to be a perfect pad catch. Congratulations! Pinching confirmed the trap model and commented, “Oh an [sic] by the way, a wolf is a heck of a lot of work to put on a stretcher! Man those things hold on to their hide like no other!”

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Trapped Wolf Used for Target Practice

Wolf torture continues and is praised by some while critics are threatened.

Published on March 29, 2012

by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. in Animal Emotions

Wolves remain in the crosshairs and the teeth of leghold traps in the Northern Rockies (see and). Let me say upfront that I apologize for posting this brief alert, but it’s essential that people who don’t know about what’s happening learn about the barbaric treatment of wolves, and also for the skeptics to see it up close and personal if they can stand it.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201203/trapped-wolf-used-target-practice

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Photo: Courtesy Earth Island Journal

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Trapping wolves

Tags: trapping cruelty, war on wolves, wolves suffering, Earth Island Journal, J. William Gibson

Published in:

on March 28, 2012 at 4:33 pm Comments (53)
Tags: Earth Island Journal, J. William Gibson, Trapping cruelty, war on wolves, wolves suffering

Trapping And Killing Wolves With A Smile….

warning graphic videos

These two are having themselves a great time, snaring and trapping wolves, laughing their heads off. Killing animals is so much fun isn’t it? I mean what’s not to love about a wolf being strangled to death??

The videos were shot in Canada but there are pictures on the Internet showing extreme cruelty to wolves caught in traps and snares in Idaho. They’re hard to watch but necessary. This evil cannot be hidden anymore, it needs to be spread far and wide for people to see. Wildlife have no protection from this madness. This is legalized animal torture. What does this say about us as a culture? Can we sit silently by while these animals are brutally killed?

How many Idaho wolves are stuck in traps or snares right now, without food or water, scared to death, in excruciating pain waiting to die? Or choking slowly to death in snares. Is this what we brought wolves back for? Spent millions of taxpayer dollars, only to slaughter them back into extermination? Where is the outrage? Are we just going to sit by and watch this happen? Idaho has killed half of it’s wolves, 368 are dead in the state. 534 DEAD in the Northern Rockies and that’s not counting Wildlife Service killings, poaching, 10j and general wolf mortality. Pregnant alphas are being slaughtered. When is the media going to cover this story? Shame on your silence!

Traps and snares are indiscriminate killers. Wolf pups, dogs or any animal, wild or domestic, is at risk.

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds…Samuel Adams

Speak Out For Them!

CONTACT

Governor Butch Otter

Mailing Address:
Idaho.gov
999 Main St, Suite 910
Boise, ID 83702

Phone: 208-334-2100

Fax: (208) 334-3454

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Idaho Fish and Game Commissioners

http://fishandgam e.idaho.gov/cms/about/commission/members.cfm

Panhandle Region

Tony McDermott
mcmule@msn.com

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Clearwater Region

Fred Trevey
fred.trevey@idfg.idaho.gov

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Southwest Region

Bob Barowsky
bbarowsky@fmtc.com

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Magic Valley Region

Wayne Wright
2wrights@cableone.net

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Southeast Region

Randy Budge
rcb@racinelaw.net

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Upper Snake Region

Kenny Anderson
kenny.anderson@idfg.idaho.gov

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Salmon Region

Gary Power
gpower@centurytel.net

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Idaho Fish and Game

IDFG Director Virgil Moore:

(208) 334-3771

virgil.moore@idfg.idaho.gov

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Jon Rachael, IDFG Wildlife Dept.

(208) 334-2920

jon.rachael@idfg.idaho.gov

Idaho Fish and Game General Numbers Click Here

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Idaho tourism office

http://www.visitidaho.org/contact/

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Write the Potato Commission

http://contact.idahopotato.com/

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Video: YouTube

Photo: fish and game

Posted in: Animal Cruelty, Idaho wolves, Wolf Wars

Tags: wolf snaring, choking snares, wolf suffering, wolf hunts, where’s the outrage

Published in:

on March 25, 2012 at 4:47 am Comments (39)
Tags: animal cruelty, choking snares, where's the outrage?, wolf snaring, wolf suffering

“Cull of the Wild: The Truth behind Trapping”…..

97 Idaho wolves have died in traps or snares during the hunt. When are the American people going to stand up and say no to this barbarity? Will we continue to look the other way while our wildlife is tortured for the benefit of a tiny minority of the population? Will you continue to allow your tax dollars to be spent to help Wildlife Services trap, poison and kill our native wildlife? Will we turn our heads away from the cruelty? Why do trappers have the right to maim and kill our wildlife for pleasure or profit? We aren’t powerless but these animals are? We hold in our hands the ability to say no to this! You can make a difference! Use your voice! Activism, pass it on!

“Until a member of Congress hears from a hundred or two hundred or five hundred angry voters who are saying I don’t care what you’ve heard from that special interest group, I don’t care how much money they gave to your campaign, I personally am going to vote against you, unless you work to change this barbaric practice and end this, well then people are going to listen…..Pete DiFazio

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Ban Cruel Trapping in Wisconsin

http://www.causes.com/causes/642230-ban-cruel-trapping-in-wisconsin

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TrapFree Oregon

https://www.facebook.com/pages/TrapFree-Oregon/340748789289530

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Foot Loose Montana

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Footloose-Montana/148235025231597

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Video: Courtesy of 21paradigm

Posted in: Animal Cruelty, Trapping wolves

Tags: Trapping cruelty, activism, say no to traps and snares, wildlife watchers shut out, we are the majority

Published in:

on March 1, 2012 at 8:44 pm Comments (37)
Tags: activism, say no to traps and snares, Trapping cruelty, we are the majority, wildlife watchers, wildlife watchers shut out

Wolves Trapped To Death

Warning Graphic Photos

A wolf choked to death by a killing snare. This is the face of trapping, so hard to look at but in good conscience can we look away?

Every day I wrestle with what to post or not. The pictures are shocking and gruesome but necessary because they shine a bright light on trapping and snaring. I do it for the wolves who’s howls are being silenced by this brutality.

This post is dedicated to the first wolf trapped in Idaho. She was trapped or snared & killed on Nov 16 in the Dworshak-Elk City Zone in Unit 14, near the old ghost town of Florence. The small female wolf, killed on the second day of Idaho’s first ever wolf trapping season of modern times, weighed 80 lbs and was a subadult (1 1/2 years old). This area used to be the home range of the Florence Wolf Pack, but after heavy-handed control ordered by IDFG, that pack has ceased to exist. Florence is located in the mountains north of the Salmon River, some 15 miles form Riggins. Idaho trappers can kill up to ten wolves in the 2011-12 trapping season which goes from Nov. 15 to March 31.

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Trapped

by Tim Woody

Photo by Tim Woody

This is no way to see a beautiful animal.

We were rambling across the Portage flats in search of a decent trail on Saturday when my friend Mark stopped at the edge of a copse of alders. A few feet into the brush, a large, healthy wolf lowered itself back to the snow, exhausted and in pain, its right front leg crushed by a steel-jawed trap.

The wolf’s struggle was evident for yards around the wooden post to which the trap was anchored. Trampled snow was covered with splintered wood, chunks of ice, and blood spatters. But this once-powerful animal was done fighting. Its eyes watched us, but it was too tired to hold its head up and track our movements. Its breathing was shallow. We wondered how long it had been there facing its slow, painful death. There is no state law mandating how frequently trappers must check their traplines.

We wished we had a pistol, because the scene in front of us was one of dreadful suffering. A merciful bullet would have made everyone feel better. There was nothing we could do except spare the wolf further anxiety by continuing on our way.

READ MORE: http://www.alaskamagazine.com/blogs/trapped

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The Art of Trapping Idaho’s Wolves

http://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/2011/11/21/the-art-of-trapping-idahos-wolves/

This is an extremely one-sided story glorifying trapping and snaring, and how great it is to pass this cruel & inhumane “hobby” on to your children and grandchildren. Boise State Public Radio missed the boat on this one.

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Tread carefully with traps Fish & Game balances hunters, wolves, wildlife

http://www.cdapress.com/news/outdoors/article_0d3899c9-0ddf-5103-8c51-140c6bb5eed6.html

IDFG brought in an Alaskan trapper with plenty of killing experience to spread his knowledge to wolf haters signing up by the hundreds for the trapping course.

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I’ve asked a lot of you over the last several years but this is the gravest crisis wolves have faced since their reintroduction. The wolf hunts have taken an even darker turn with the introduction of snares and traps in Idaho. Speak out for them before it’s too late. They are dying at an alarming rate, 236 dead and climbing. That’s not counting the wolves killed by Wildlife Services in 2011.

CONTACT

Governor Butch Otter

Phone: 208-334-2100

Fax: (208) 334-3454

http://www.gov.idaho.gov/ourgov/contact.html

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Idaho Fish and Game Commissioners

http://fishandgam e.idaho.gov/cms/about/commission/members.cfm